We had the good fortune of connecting with Shad & Kathleen Biffle and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Shad & Kathleen, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
We define work-life “Balance” as more than just balancing a span of time, it is what results from how you spend that time, what comes from it, and who you spend it with. Shad and I found each other later in life with each of us already having our own established, high stressed jobs in the corporate world and made the life-changing decision to blend our families resulting in a ready-made family of five children, five German Shepherds, and now 22 Koi! Both of us being lovers of history and the outdoors, it was only natural that we would find a way to use these outlets to our advantage to recharge our batteries and handle the stressors that everyday life gives you just raising a large family and making things work. Work-life balance evolved for us and provided our creative businesses which in-turn, sustained us with quality adventures and contentment we needed to fill our emotional bank accounts to raise our kids. What started off as a hobby collecting history memorabilia, pretty rocks, and gems led to taking adventures to mine for gold, hosting podcasts, and creating fun and informative videos to share. Our journey has crossed paths with such a diverse group of acquaintances and friends we would have never met just sitting behind a desk all week and watching sports on the television on the weekends.
Have we gained additional time? No, we are always busy, but we are “Balanced” and enriched and ready to jump into the next adventure. We continue to evolve and have started other businesses combining the things we love that provide that balance. Our latest project, “Ageless Apothecary”, has focused on our passion and love of Organic gardening and herbalism to create natural products with what nature provides.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
People are always asking why “Wandering Buffalos”? (and yes, we intentionally misspelled it) We became the “Wandering Buffalos” because of our last name “Biffle” which is the Americanized form of the German “Büffel” coming from late Middle High German ‘büffel’ which means ‘buffalo’. We always enjoyed traveling (wandering) so that is how we became “The Wandering Buffalos”. We faced a lot of challenges at first in the gold mining community when we first came onto the scene because no one took us seriously. What did these two corporate banker city slickers know about gold mining, right? We did have some comical moments learning along the way but we attributed our success to our backgrounds and drive to succeed. Things never came easy for either of us and we always had to work hard to reap rewards growing up. We both worked our way through college later in life and earned our degrees and MBAs on our own dime. (In fact, we even went on a cruise once and had finals to take online while on a cruise ship) Whatever we did, we did it together and still do it together. We make life an adventure! And that is our brand and what makes it work. “Make everyday an adventure!”
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The Wandering Buffalos would not be where they are today without the support of Tim Grimes the creator of Gold prospector’s Space Radio Podcast and the crew where we first came on to the scene on East Coast and met a great group of like minded gold enthusiasts. We are regular co-hosts every Wednesday night 9 P.M. EST/ 7 PM MT at goldpospectorspaceradio.com. We have had so many good adventures with that crew! That is where we met Jim Hamilton a dear mining friend who has shared his vast knowledge of the Arizona desert and introduced us to the Arizona mining scene where we became lifetime members of American Mining Rights Association (AMRA).
Website: https://www.wanderingbuffalos.com/
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/WanderingBuffalos