Profitable Mindset

#292: How This Farmer Went from Laid-Off to Sold-Out in 9 Months

FREE Master Class: The Farm Marketing Fix Sign Up HERE [https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass] What does it actually take to turn a struggling farm into a profitable, joy-filled business? In this episode, we hear from Judith, a sheep and lamb farmer who joined the Farm Marketing Mastery program in April and sold out of her lamb entirely by the end of the year. She opens up about the mindset shifts that changed everything: moving from feeling like she was "throwing good time after bad" to waking up at 5am, excited to get to work. She talks about learning to see herself as the CEO of her farm, using the Sunday Start Strong planning method to stay focused and organized, and why she believes the confidence she gained is more valuable than any marketing tactic. Her story also touches on the guilt many farmers — especially women — feel about investing in themselves, the power of being surrounded by a community of like-minded farmers doing the mindset work, and her plan to double her sales while raising prices this year. If you're a farmer on the fence about getting help, questioning whether you're "worthy" enough to invest in your business, or wondering if a profitable farm is even possible — this episode was made for you. Key Takeaways: * Why mindset coaching is inseparable from farm marketing success * How the CEO mindset transforms the way you manage and grow your farm * The role community plays in sustaining motivation and momentum * How to scale incrementally while protecting profitability Click HERE and Let's Meet! [https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy] Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.

#291: The Final Numbers - Part 8: Building Your Farm From Scratch

FREE Guide: The month-by-month roadmap to build your farm business from scratch. Grab it HERE [https://charlottemsmith.com/start] A year ago, Hayden didn't even have a farm name. Now she's filing taxes on a profitable business and planning her exit from corporate. Here are the real numbers: roughly $7,000 in gross sales across subscriptions ($1,000), bulk buckets ($800-$1,000), individual bouquets ($1,000), U-pick events ($1,000), a 60-person corporate bouquet workshop ($800), and dried flowers and wreath workshops ($1,000). Expenses came in around $4,500-$5,000 not counting the $10,000+ she spent from grant money on the greenhouse, electric wheelbarrow, and infrastructure that'll last for years. Profit: about $2,000. Her first year. Most farms don't see profit for five. She's raising prices everywhere. Bulk buckets from $60 to $100. Build-your-own bouquets from $20 to $30-$50. Wreath workshops from $50 to $75+. Bouquet workshop events from roughly $50/person to $125-$175/person. She underpriced almost everything Year 1 and she knows it. The Year 2 goal is $30,000, broken into three seasonal buckets: $10,000 in spring flowers, $10,000 in summer bulk sales, and $10,000 in fall/winter dried flowers and workshops. She's hiring two people — one for harvesting and bouquets, one for manual labor. She's trying farmers markets for May and June only. She's secured drop-off locations in two nearby towns for subscription pickups. And she's already been asked to be the only flower vendor at a 1,000-person Mother's Day market. The biggest shift? She figured out what problem she actually solves. It's not "buy my pretty flowers." It's helping women feel unique, creative, and proud of what they put together — the baby shower that doesn't look like grocery store flowers, the dinner party centerpiece everyone asks about, the DIY wedding that saved thousands but still looked incredible. Once that clicked, her entire marketing strategy made sense. And the biggest news: she's quitting her corporate job by April. She's terrified. She's also never gotten a single grant or scholarship rejected — while getting rejected from dozens of job applications. The universe, as she puts it, keeps telling her she belongs here. This is what building a farm business from scratch actually looks like. No trust fund. No playbook. No one running it for her. Just a woman who decided a year ago that she'd regret it if she didn't try. Click HERE and Let's Meet! [https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy] Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.

#290: Season Wrap-Up – Part 7: Building Your Farm From Scratch

FREE Guide: The month-by-month roadmap to build your farm business from scratch. Grab it HERE [https://charlottemsmith.com/start] It's November. The flower field is cut down. And Hayden is sick for the first time all year — her body finally giving out now that the pressure is off. The last two months were a sprint. She partnered with Annie, a fellow local flower farmer and landscaping designer, to teach a bouquet-making workshop for a 60-person corporate healthcare leadership conference. They harvested over 1,200 stems, sourced wholesale flowers, priced out every vase and every stem — and still undercharged. They split $800 each after expenses on a $3,000 contract. Next time? They've already rebooked for May at $125-$175 per person. That's the real lesson: your first time doing anything is tuition. Price it right the second time or you won't want to do it again. She did two more bouquet bar events at local markets and venues, and a final casual Saturday morning U-pick that drew people who'd been following her all season but hadn't made it out yet. The connections keep compounding — one person from her free nature walk back in May led to the Mac Market connection, which led to a holiday market invitation, which led to a shop owner buying dried flowers for retail. One relationship at a time. The biggest wake-up call? People were leaving her events not knowing her name, her farm name, or how to find her again. No labels on bouquets. No brochures at U-picks. Friends brought friends who had no idea where they were. She's ordered labels with QR codes and is rethinking every touchpoint for next year. She got the Floret Workshop scholarship for 2026 — her first formal flower farming training ever. She's pivoting hard toward early spring flowers with the greenhouse her $15,000 grant is funding. She's selling dried wreaths and arrangements through winter to keep cash flowing. And she made the decision this week to not expand the U-pick field next year — and felt immediate relief. The season can't look like this again. She knows that now. But she also knows what works: relationships, events, community, and showing up even when you're exhausted and your wrist is in a brace and you want to quit. Next episode is the full year financial breakdown. Click HERE and Let's Meet! [https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy] Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.

#289: Depression, Dollars, and the $15,000 Surprise - Part 6: Building Your Farm From Scratch

FREE Guide: The month-by-month roadmap to build your farm business from scratch. Grab it HERE [https://charlottemsmith.com/start] This is the episode where it gets real. Not Instagram real. Actually real. Hayden's MRI confirmed a cartilage tear in her wrist. Recovery is months out, surgery is possible, and she can barely make bouquets one-handed. She's been in a depression. Her corporate job is doing layoffs and she doesn't know week to week if she still has one. She wanted to quit. And then she opened an email and found out she'd won a $15,000 grant from Ag West Farm Credit — the one she spent days applying for back in March and never thought she'd get. She was crying when she read it. That grant is going toward a greenhouse, season extension supplies, and, for the first time, hired help. On the sales side, the four-week CSA subscription is done. Pre-selling $1,200 back in spring funded her startup costs and meant she didn't have to market during the busiest harvest weeks. The flowers were already spoken for. But pickup logistics were a mess. Friends texted asking for exceptions. She ended up delivering some bouquets herself. Next year she wants a community drop point and stricter boundaries. The U-pick events were the biggest learning of the summer. Her practice run with 20 friends revealed that people were scared to pick the flowers, cut stems three inches long, and needed way more upfront education than she expected. The paid events went better until a bachelorette party of 10 bought tickets to her intimate sip-and-snip evening. They showed up 15 minutes late from a winery. Lesson learned: group bookings get a private event option with a minimum price. The two biggest fails? She didn't get succession planting done, which meant spending $200 at Wilco on plant starts right before the U-picks so the field didn't look empty. And she hasn't tracked a single harvest, expense hour, or bloom count all season. No system, no clipboard, no data. She knows it'll cost her in planning next year. The biggest strategic shift: she's moving away from summer bouquet sales entirely. Next year she wants to focus on early spring flowers with season extension, run the CSA from March through Mother's Day, and spend summer on higher-profit events instead of sweating through harvests in 90-degree heat while working 12-hour corporate shifts. Life is 50-50. This episode is proof. Click HERE and Let's Meet! [https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy] Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.

#288: Depression, Dollars, and the $15,000 Surprise - Part 6: Building Your Farm From Scratch

FREE Guide: The month-by-month roadmap to build your farm business from scratch. Grab it HERE [https://charlottemsmith.com/start] This is the episode where it gets real. Not Instagram real. Actually real. Hayden's MRI confirmed a cartilage tear in her wrist. Recovery is months out, surgery is possible, and she can barely make bouquets one-handed. She's been in a depression. Her corporate job is doing layoffs and she doesn't know week to week if she still has one. She wanted to quit. And then she opened an email and found out she'd won a $15,000 grant from Ag West Farm Credit — the one she spent days applying for back in March and never thought she'd get. She was crying when she read it. That grant is going toward a greenhouse, season extension supplies, and, for the first time, hired help. On the sales side, the four-week CSA subscription is done. Pre-selling $1,200 back in spring funded her startup costs and meant she didn't have to market during the busiest harvest weeks. The flowers were already spoken for. But pickup logistics were a mess. Friends texted asking for exceptions. She ended up delivering some bouquets herself. Next year she wants a community drop point and stricter boundaries. The U-pick events were the biggest learning of the summer. Her practice run with 20 friends revealed that people were scared to pick the flowers, cut stems three inches long, and needed way more upfront education than she expected. The paid events went better until a bachelorette party of 10 bought tickets to her intimate sip-and-snip evening. They showed up 15 minutes late from a winery. Lesson learned: group bookings get a private event option with a minimum price. The two biggest fails? She didn't get succession planting done, which meant spending $200 at Wilco on plant starts right before the U-picks so the field didn't look empty. And she hasn't tracked a single harvest, expense hour, or bloom count all season. No system, no clipboard, no data. She knows it'll cost her in planning next year. The biggest strategic shift: she's moving away from summer bouquet sales entirely. Next year she wants to focus on early spring flowers with season extension, run the CSA from March through Mother's Day, and spend summer on higher-profit events instead of sweating through harvests in 90-degree heat while working 12-hour corporate shifts. Life is 50-50. This episode is proof. Click HERE and Let's Meet! [https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy] Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.