We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tressa Street a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tressa, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I found my purpose by merging my past passions with the dreams and needs of my growing family. I have always been an exceptionally crafty person and have an ever-growing list of hobbies; including, but definitely not limited to, drawing, sewing, knitting, cooking, and gardening. Fortunately, my husband is equally as crafty, has nearly as many hobbies, and just has many great ideas as I do! We both have the mentality that if we are capable, have the time, and the project is fairly cost effective, we would rather create something ourselves than buy new or pay someone else to do it. Together, we have completed a wide variety of crafts and home-improvements too numerous to count over our short nearly seven years of marriage.
As a former high school science teacher, I have always loved exploring the world through hands-on lessons and experiments. The wonders and workings of the world remain absolutely fascinating to me, and I was most overjoyed seeing that same captivation in my students. After having my firstborn in 2022, I knew I didn’t want to return to a normal 9-5 (or in the case of teaching and coaching, a 7-6:30 weekdays, as well as countless hours away on weekends). The thought of paying someone else nearly the entirety of my paycheck to spend far more time with my children than I ever would, essentially raising them, only to spend all of my time and energy with other people’s children broke my heart. Although my students and the science I taught were truly a great passion and I miss them dearly, my priorities had quickly shifted to our little bundle of joy. I couldn’t fathom intentionally choosing to miss out on the majority of his childhood. Luckily, my husband agreed, and although scary and difficult at the time, we were both relieved by that decision.
Our business, Wild Sage Creative, wasn’t fabricated out of financial pressures or necessity for additional income. It was born out of passion as an extension of my creativity and love of nature, learning, teaching and continuing to use my science degree to be a part of something meaningful for the betterment of others. At that time, we had already begun to explore a lifestyle of simplicity mixed with a true labor of love; raising and butchering animals, growing a garden, and using herbs and essential oils for healing mild ailments. Seeking a lifestyle that nourishes our bodies and souls, we found ourselves being more intentional reading product labels and searching for natural, limited ingredient, high quality products for our family. Without fail, this quest always ended with us making it ourselves, knowing we could create a superior product that fit our exact needs. Once we realized we could ditch the store-bought, chemical filled, big corporation brands entirely, we ran with that idea and replaced as much as we could in our own household. Initially, we were only making items for ourselves and occasionally gifting some to those close to us for holidays and special occasions. The items we crafted for our own household immediately became huge hits with our family and friends who were in awe of the exceptional quality and healing capabilities of what we had created. We were regularly encouraged to sell our items and people were shocked to know we weren’t already doing such a thing. It took some great consideration and planning, but now we are happy to offer those same products to everyone!
In embracing this lifestyle of becoming more self-sustaining, caring for our home, and starting our own business, I discovered that my purpose of helping others and my love of science wasn’t lost by quitting teaching. It has always been here in my everyday choices, and in the quiet satisfaction of making a better world for my children. My purpose is to nurture, craft, and to lead by example, showing that a life of learning, creativity, and natural living is not a distant dream. With a little passion and a lot of hard work, it is not only possible but incredibly rewarding and fulfilling to be using my degree in this new way for the betterment of myself and my family; and by extension of our business, the betterment of those around us as well.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I own Wild Sage Creative, which is a small business that makes goat milk and beef tallow bath and body products; including bath teas, body scrubs, whipped tallow cream, mud masks, and more! We are family owned and operated on our little 25 acre homestead in Montana. Most of my products were born out of necessity with family or friends having an ailment or requesting something for me to make. My first bath tea was created for my mother-in-law, who has cancer. She had horrible, itchy sores on her skin from the cancer treatments, so together we created a soothing blend to help her relax and heal after a long day. Mud masks were created for my Momma. We would always do them together growing up, and even today we have sleepovers when our husbands are out of town and make a spa night out of it.
I am always thinking up new ideas for products! I have probably half a dozen products in the chute that I am working on behind the scenes at all times. It is really important for me to be happy with and proud of a product before I launch it, so some have been in the testing process for upwards of 6 months now. Regardless, I am so excited for some new things to come out soon!
Here are some more fun facts about us!
– The first goats we bought were actually not milk goats. We got 3 bucklings to help us with weed control on our property before my business was centered around goat’s milk. We have 25 acres and well over half of it is hillside that cannot be mowed or maintained easily.
– When we bought our first goats, we came up with a naming system for them. Firstly, they are all named after plants. Secondly, we follow the alphabet when choosing their names. Our first goats were Alfalfa, Barley, and Clover. To follow that, we have also had Dill Weed, Elderflower, Flax, Ginger, Hops, Indigo, Juniper, Kohlrabi, and Larkspur. The goats we still currently have are Dill Weed, Indigo, Juniper, and Larkspur. I have no idea what we will do after we get through Z! Maybe we will start over, or maybe we will start a fun, new naming system entirely. My husband wants us to create an alphabet book for our children with pictures of all of the goats we’ve had over the years, and I love that idea.
– We milked one of our goats twice a day for 6 months in order to have enough milk to use in my products for a year. Her name is Dilly (short for Dill Weed). She’s not some fancy, papered goat and has average milk production, but we are so proud to have her nonetheless. She was our first milk goat and is as stubborn as a donkey. She has always, and still, refuses to jump up on the milking stand, so we have to lift her. Initially, I couldn’t do it myself, as she is a larger breed Nubian, so my husband always came up the hill to the milking stand with me to pick her up. Now I can do it myself, but my sweet husband still often helps me.
– I absolutely love that my kids get to experience raising and learning about our livestock and the lifestyle of animal husbandry. They love the goats dearly, just as we do. They learn all about proper animal nutrition while feeding, mucking the pen and the importance of cleanliness, food safety when milking (because we drink the milk too!), and how to generally love and care for our animals, as well as appreciate all they do for us. More often than not, my eldest (almost 3) is begging us to go see the goats and he wants to be the one to do the goat chores. It’s a great lifestyle and the reward of the hard work is truly priceless.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey are:
1. My knowledge of science. It may not seem like it, but a lot of research and science goes into creating bath and body products. I need to calculate the right ratios of ingredients to create the proper texture, melting point, or stability. I also have to know what ingredients will help me achieve the healing properties/relief from specific ailments.
2. The support of my family; my husband, especially. Without my husband believing in this dream and our process, our business wouldn’t be where it is at. He dedicates countless hours to helping me package items, set up my booth at markets, do research, and build anything and everything I may need for the betterment of my products and my creative process. If I am on the fence about purchasing or pursuing something for my business he is right there telling me to take the leap to see if it pays off.
3. Lastly, perseverance and determination. There will always be hardships, hurdles, or times the business doesn’t do so well. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t get me down sometimes. But I know what I have to offer is amazing, helps others, and I am truly passionate about it.
Advice for others who are early in their journey:
Don’t give up, but don’t be afraid to change your mind or pivot your business model either. The number of items I have created and sold over the years that have nothing to do with bath and body products is too numerous to count. Some of them weren’t cost effective to make and sell for what I needed to make it worthwhile, some of them just took too much time, some I only made and sold to pay for what I wanted to make for my own children, and some I honestly just got sick of creating over and over again – the joy was gone. I still craft some unrelated items and sell them on the side because I truly love to do those things on top of making my bath and body products. You have to find what works for you and what brings you joy, and it’s okay if you have to move away from your initial idea to find that.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
My biggest area of growth in the past 12 months has been securing a few local retail contracts. This has really grown the amount of people that know about my products, and it has also allowed me to spend more time with my family instead of having to spend so many weekends away from them attending markets to promote my business. It has been an amazing experience getting into the other retailers, and I am always looking for more ways to collaborate with other artists or businesses that would be interested in carrying my products.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wildsagecreative.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wild.sage.creative.mt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086228421601
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