(Goats milk) soap stars! Running a small business is fantastic. You are (within reason) your own boss, can pick and choose your hours, talk to people you want to, and ignore those you don’t! You are often doing something you love doing, and have a fabulous work/life balance. For instance, I am sat next to my log burner, with a glass of sherry, writing a blog about goat's milk soap!
There are also tasks that you don’t enjoy so much and those that are well out of your comfort zone. It turns out that talking into a microphone in a radio station studio, or with cameras pointing at you is DEFINITELY out of my comfort zone! Which is surprising, as I am not usually nervous about talking about my soaps, or the goats or anything really!
Cyril’s Soap Shed has been on the local BBC radio quite a few times. Whether going into the studio to chat about our goats milk soaps, or having them come out to the soap shed as part of a ‘treasure trail’ or even as the ‘mystery guest’ via a phone call. It is always incredibly nerve-wracking, but after the 2nd or 3rd time, I learnt to breathe and not rush my answers. Also taking a few bars of soap to look at and focus on really helps.
In 2017 I was approached by the production team for a BBC2 program called ‘Back to the Land’, with Kate Humble as the presenter. They wanted to come here and film everything from milking the goats to making the goat's milk soap. The day dawned, and 3 film crew arrived. That was the first shock! That they actually turned up! Surely there were better and more worthwhile businesses’ than my little goat's milk soap venture?! I was not prepared at all. It was a freezing cold, wet day in January 2018. The mud was knee-high in places, rain, hail and sleet was coming down all day and one of my horses, Hamish, was lame and had the vet coming out. Not a great way to highlight the business! But also a brilliant way at the same time, as that is the reality of life in the country over winter. The film crew told me to ignore the cameras, and act ‘normal’. They wanted to film me milking Tilly. Tilly dutifully did her thing, jumped up on the milking stand, and I began milking.
After milking, I had to walk away with the milk (they made me put some into a little churn to look rustic and authentic rather than my pail!). I had to repeat this so many times! This took the whole morning, and so after lunch, it was time to do the soap making. That went a bit smoother, as I explained, once I started, I couldn't stop. Then the ‘interview’ in which questions were asked to be used as the commentary. And I fell apart! I just could not answer any questions, remember any details of the soap-making process, or even why goat's milk soap was good for you! Eventually, they got everything they needed, and after nearly 9 hours of filming, they left. The program went out in May, and although I didn’t watch it (I was hiding in the goat paddock!), the response was phenomenal. I had over 1000 orders come in that night alone! The website crashed within minutes, but fantastic Rebecca from Purple Dog had it up and running in no time. For about 6 months after, we continued to see a positive response before things plateaued again. I was busier than ever!
The aftermath was fantastic, but the whole day filming for about 5 minutes worth of film was so stressful. I didn’t enjoy it at all and realised that I was not destined to be on TV! I vowed never to do it again! ....
November 2024… I received a phone call from the Countryfile production team. They were doing a special on the New Forest, and would I like to take part with my goat's milk soap? My brain was saying ‘absolutely no way’, yet "yes! I would love to" came out of my mouth instead! I knew for the sake of the business I had to do it, and if the results were the same, it would be worth it.
And so I prepared. We have done a lot of work around the smallholding since last time, and the goats have a lovely dry yard, a huge shelter full of hay and straw, and no mud around this time. This time I would answer all questions methodically, explain why my goat milk soap is so amazing, how I look after the goats, how I started and was one of the first goat's milk soap companies in the UK, and that you don’t need acres and acres of land to make a very good living from goats! All of the answers to their questions (which they sent over) I would know! I would dig out all the branded clothing (forgetting I am now about two stone lighter than when I last wore it, and so my coat looked like a massive tent on me!)
De ja vu… a very cold January day, but bright and sunny. The crew arrived at about 1.30 pm. I hoped it was more time-efficient than last time! We filmed pretty much the same as before, and true to form, I forget EVERYTHING again! I was a little more relaxed with the goats though, and they were the true superstars. Edna and Ethal performed admirably with their getting up on the milking stand and milking, Olive gave us some light entertainment by having bamboo rubbed between her horns and even Thomas, was remarkably well-behaved. Rosie and Polly were allowed to take part and were filmed in with goats, sweeping the yard and mucking out. Then feeding the goats and horses. Willow the horse almost had me over, as I had to walk through her paddock with the bamboo, (Visions of ‘It’ll be alright on the night’ outtakes!) and Rose wouldn’t move out of the way of the gate.
For the goats milk soap making, Gordon had to be involved as that is his domain now. The equipment we use is quite heavy and you need to be fairly tall to reach the ‘cauldron’. Gordon has mastered all of this. He was more nervous than me! The whole filming process is completely unnatural. Cameras pointing at you, and various people asking questions. Yet you can only look at certain spots, and answer in a certain way… You have to build a sentence out of every question asked eg “How many goats do you have here?” cant be answered as a simple “10” it needs to be answered as “We currently have ten goats on our smallholding” (Yes! I even forgot how many goats I had at the time!)
The crew said I was "really good" (in other words, don’t worry. We can heavily edit it and Adam Henson will do most of the voice-over)
The timing was more efficient and as terrible as I was, I quite enjoyed it in the end! The crew from both programmes were all lovely and very patient. I don’t know if this will yield the same results sales-wise as last time, but it doesn’t matter. I did have a great time and my dad is SO proud that I am going to be on one of his all-time favourite programmes, Countryfile. I am not sure where goat's milk soap stardom can go now….
Cyrils Soap Shed are scheduled to appear with their goats milk soap on Countryfile on Sunday 26th January 2025.
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