From life as an army medic to raising two young children and farming alongside her husband on his family’s sheep and beef farm in Central Hawke’s Bay, Anastasia Tristram is a master juggler.
She and husband Hayden started Floating Peaks (so named because the farm often sits high above the clouds in the mornings, the peaks of the hills floating in the distance) when Anastasia was pregnant with their first child Ariella, as a side project.
Since its inception, the business has grown and now sells a range of innovative products from seed pots to weed matting and pole protectors, all proudly made with wool, of course. What’s more, every single item is handmade made by the couple in the front room of their home – jokingly referred to as ‘the sweatshop’. Unsurprisingly, she admits that this may not be feasible to continue forever, as demand increases, and they are looking at out-sourcing.
Anastasia has also been a tireless cheerleader for wool and its many virtues, even creating a free wool in school educational resource for students, The Wool Journey, tracing the wool from sheep’s back through the supply chain to become a Floating Peaks seed pot (did I mention she’s also a teacher, teaching at the local high school three days a week? I’m tired just thinking about it).
Describe yourself in 3 words: Motivated, adventurous, resourceful
Best advice you've ever received? When I first joined the Army, I remember being in the middle of Waiouru training area, it was pouring down with rain, everything was wet, and it was just not a good time. One of my section commanders said, “you can be wet, cold and miserable or you can just be wet and cold”. Not only was that quote very applicable to the situation, but I have carried it throughout life. You often can’t change your situation, but you can change your attitude towards it.
Why wool? Being an outsider of the farming industry, I absolutely fell in love with every aspect of sheep farming, but wool was an area that we were seeing falling returns. We started with no real plans, but just an attitude to give it a go. The worst thing that could happen is we would be left with no return on our wool, which was already a reality. Our focus has always been providing a value add to our ewe clip. Our gift range and wool pole protectors have, to date, utilised nearly 5 tonnes of our wool, allowing us a small premium for our wool. Although not a big amount to some, to us it’s a huge accomplishment. There really is something special about being able to sell your wool directly to consumers.
Biggest learning in business? There are two:
1. People are the most important part. Your relationships with clients, customers and how you interact is hugely important. A lot of our business is by word of mouth, connections and networks. If you aren’t open and honest with your communication, you will quickly be found out. This also goes hand in hand with, it’s okay to be wrong and not have all the answers, you just create another learning opportunity to grow from.
2. If you don’t believe in what you are selling you won’t sell much. For us, I’ll be the first to admit selling wool weed mat is not what excites us, it’s not made from our own wool and it is a competitive market. This is a market I don’t actively pursue (although shoutout to those that do use us). Our gift pack range and wool pole protectors are huge for us for two reasons. First, to connect people to the story and journey of our wool is something pretty special. My sales pitch at markets is always about making connections between our sheep, us as farmers and them. Secondly, it's about innovating to find new ways we can use wool. We are really excited by their potential (the pole protectors) and with over 30 trial sites around New Zealand we are going to get an amazing understanding of exactly how they are going to perform. We are also just putting the final bits together for a new trial/ product, which is very exciting.
What inspires you? As cliché as it is, it is certainly the kids. I want to show them that no matter who you are it’s okay to try something new, to go out on a limb and not be afraid of failure. The hard work and work ethic will get you to wherever you want to be in life, and to never stop learning.
Dream way to spend a day? No to do list… Hiking in native bush, sun shining, river swims, taking our time, eating good food and listening to birds chirping. Bliss.
What are you reading/watching/listening to? A lot of podcasts at the moment. Trying to decide if I should give paid ads a go myself or pay the experts. Social media is certainly a wild beast I have no idea how to tame.
These are a few podcasts I like:
- Girls that invest
- Coffees & content
- How I made it
- My business playbook
- Super Creative (although no new episodes at the moment)
Favourite books: Legacy by James Kerr and Atomic Habits by James Clear.
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