10/19/2025
Ranchers invest in yourselves!
I went back and forth on whether to post this or not. It's vulnerable and personal. It's also true. And if I think it might be able to help another family, I think it's worth it. So here goes....
Note: When I'm referring to the "conference", I'm referring to the Ranch Leadership & Dynamics: The People Part of Family Ranching Conference I'm hosting on Nov. 7 & 8, 2025 in Miles City, MT -- and no, that's not too far away....no matter where you live.
Dear Ranchers,
When my husband, Clay, and I moved back to the family ranch in 2017, my father had just died unexpectedly. We had no plan, no vision, and we were overwhelmed with grief and having just recently become new parents. Over the next few years, we would have to navigate that grief along with the stress of figuring out how to pick up where dad left off on our 100+ year old family ranch, a ranch buyout from my elderly grandparents, my mom remarrying and bringing her new husband back to the ranch, my sisters and their families deciding what roles they wanted on the ranch, transitioning management from my mom to Clay and I, as well as adding two more babies to our little family. It is not an exaggeration to say that we felt like we were drowning and had no idea how to help ourselves. There was a lot of tension and relationships were deteriorating, including Clay and I’s.
In 2021, my mom and I attended Ranching For Profit, where John Locke (one of the conference presenters) was the teacher. I can say with full conviction that this school, and the following consulting/facilitating we received from John saved our family and probably our ranch. He is one of the most intuitive people I have ever met, and was able to deeply understand the perspective of every single person involved. He helped us rebuild and create a mission and vision for our ranch that has guided us ever since. We later joined the graduate program of RFP, called Executive Link, where we continued to add people to our network who made us better, held us accountable, and wanted to see us succeed. (Side note: That is the true beauty of conferences like this one….there is a community of people who bring you up, which feels pretty good when most people you spend your time with are bringing you down.)
At Executive Link, we met John Haskell (another one of the conference presenters). John has more knowledge of accounting, finances, economics, and marketing in his left thumb than I will ever possess in my entire brain. He also has a pretty cool philosophy of life and the transitions we make as we navigate the years. We began consulting with John, and he has helped us substantially improve our marketing, economics, and bottom line through his company, Ranch Right LLC.
Through Ranch Right LLC, we also had the absolute privilege of meeting Emilie Hopson (another one of the conference presenters). Emilie is a human resources guru in all sense of the word. She knows management systems and strategies for every level of ranching operation, and has a way of connecting to every person she meets through her ranching human resources company, Agri-Culture.
Fast forward to where we are now in 2025. We are far from perfect, and we still make mistakes and have disagreements, but we know how to navigate them. And the best part, we all get along and like each other. That alone brings tears to my eyes, because had we not gotten lucky enough to go down this path, things might be very different for us today. We are so far beyond where we were back then. We now have systems in place for every person on the ranch team (Clay, my mom, and myself) to voice their concerns and frustrations. We have agenda lines in our ranch meetings for celebrations and acknowledgments. We talk about our wills, our succession plan, and our vision like we are talking about the weather, because it has become so familiar and transparent for us. We know exactly who is responsible for every single task on the ranch, so there are no “I thought you were handling that,” moments.
We still have the normal stresses of ranching, but the people part is not one of them. We owe that to the people and organizations mentioned above. We absolutely did NOT know how to get here on our own, it took help. I have conversations with friends and neighbors regularly about their own struggles and stresses with the people on their ranch, and I always think, if only they could get the help we got. But the problem is, so few people are actually willing to sign up, to invest in themselves, to do the work. It’s heartbreaking to watch when I know that it could be so much better for them. I know and respect that everyone makes their way on their own time.
This conference is a way for me to pay it forward to other ranching families. I know not everyone who needs this conference will sign up. But if you’ve read this far, maybe you’re one of the few who’s ready to do something different. This conference won’t fix all your challenges in a day and a half, but I can promise it’s a place to start.
Please join us. Sign you and your family up today! (Note: Bring the WHOLE family, even the off-ranch spouses, so everyone can hear the same information. Often, our spouses are our sounding boards, whether they are involved with the ranch operation or not, so sign them up, too, so they can be on the same page and be speaking the same language.)
I hope you’ll join us.
Tara
