FREE Event:
The Farm Marketing Fix – October 5th
Sign up HERE
How Ethan and Natalie Doubled Their Meat Prices, Grew Sales 75%, and Sold Out Their Beef in February
Episode Summary
Ethan and Natalie Brinegar own Haven Hills Farm in Webster, Minnesota, where they raise grass-fed beef, lamb, and pastured chicken. They both work full time off the farm and have a two-year-old daughter. They sell at one farmers market.
In under a year inside The Profitable Farmer, their farmers market sales rose 60% and their total direct sales rose 75%. They doubled their prices over two years, raised them 40% in the last twelve months alone, shut off shipping entirely, and sold out their whole beef season in February, months before the cattle ever went to the processor.
In this episode they walk through what actually changed: the time management shift that ended the nightly self-criticism, the pricing math that made the increase obvious, and the customer relationships that made the increase invisible.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why Ethan and Natalie pulled the plug on a paid e-commerce website they had already built and paid for, before it ever launched
- How they went from selling beef all season long to selling out every share in February, using a 5-Day Sales Launch
- Why shipping cost them money instead of making it, and what happened to sales when they shut it off
- How raising prices 40% in a single year produced almost no customer pushback
Key Takeaways:
- Relationships are your most valuable farm asset. They are worth more than the land, the equipment, and the livestock combined. Customers who know you do not price shop.
- You do not need more farmers markets or more customers. Ethan and Natalie grew 60% at the same single market by connecting with the customers they already had.
- Shipping is not the answer to a local demand problem. If you cannot be profitable locally, you will lose money shipping.
- Selling early changes everything. Bigger deposits collected months ahead of processing solve cash flow, remove risk, and free your attention for the next product.
Memorable Quotes
“The relationships we have are worth more than the land you farm.” – Charlotte
“It’s like everything’s clear now when I see other farmers starting. You should start with this program, and not just jumping in and getting a ton of animals to fill the pasture.” – Ethan
“I was definitely the most nervous about it. And then when we raised them, nobody blinked their eyes.” – Natalie
“We don’t feel like we’re there yet. We feel like we just scratched the surface.” – Ethan
FAQ
Q: Will I lose customers if I raise my farm prices?
Ethan and Natalie doubled their prices over two years and raised them 40% in the last year. Not one regular customer commented on it. The reason is relationship. When customers know you, price stops being the deciding factor.
Q: Should I ship my meat to grow sales?
Ethan and Natalie shipped to a single out-of-state customer and stopped when their packaging ran out. Between USDA processing, packaging, and dry ice, shipping consumed time and money they could not recover. They grew 75% after they stopped.
Q: How many farmers markets do I need?
One, if you market to it. Haven Hills Farm grew 60% at the same market by emailing customers the day before, which trained buyers to show up on the days they attended.
Q: Can I do this while working full time?
Yes. Both Ethan and Natalie work full time off the farm and have a toddler.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Farm Marketing Fix (Free Masterclass October 5th) – If you’re heading into another season unsure how to price or where to start, this is a full week of marketing help at no cost, and a real taste of what a year of coaching looks like. Save your seat at charlottemsmith.com/masterclass
- The Profitable Farmer Program – Doors open October 5th. We build your marketing for you + weekly coaching charlottemsmith.com/mastery
- The Profitable Mindset Podcast — subscribe for weekly farm marketing strategy
About the Host
Charlotte Smith is a fifth-generation farmer, marketing and mindset coach, and host of the Profitable Mindset podcast. When she started her farm in 2009, she knew if she was going to work that hard it had to be profitable. She sold out her farm’s first season before she had anything to sell – and has since taught thousands of farmers in 15 countries to build farms that actually pay them. Food Tank named her one of the Top 25 Most Influential Women in Food and Agriculture.
Connect with Charlotte
Subscribe and Review
Subscribe to The Profitable Mindset Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts Stitcher, or wherever you listen. And consider leaving a review. Your reviews help other farmers find this work.
Click HERE and Let’s Meet!
Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer Marketing Coaching Program can break you out of marketing misery.
Hi, everyone. I am so happy to welcome to the podcast today farmers who are in the Profitable
Farmer Marketing Program, Ethan and Natalie Brineger. And why don’t you two introduce yourselves?
Tell us who you are, where you are, what you farm, and your website so we can all look you up too.
Yeah. Hi, I’m Ethan. I’m Natalie. And we’re the owners of Haven Hills Farm in Webster,
Minnesota. We currently raise grass-fed beef,
lamb, and pasture chicken. And our website is www.havenhillsfarmllc.com.
Perfect. And are you on social media too? Yes. At Haven Hills Farm.
Yeah, just on Instagram. Perfect. At Haven Hills Farm. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for coming
on today and sharing the success we’ve had together. We’ve worked together for what?
Has it been a year? It’s coming up on a year next month. Okay. Coming up on a year next month.
And then take us back to before you joined the program, you’ve had great successes that we’re going
to share today. We’re going to get into all of that. But before you joined. What was going on on
your farm that made you look around for some help? Like what was happening?
And I know you said you signed up for some other things and they just weren’t helping with what you
needed to. So what were you struggling with that made you look around for some help?
Yeah, so we were on, well, maybe our second farmer’s market season. And we were just getting a lot
of logistics figured out on the operation side. Okay, this is how we raise this many chickens.
This is how we’re going to do the beef, right? The processing, just all the operational steps that
go along into it. And then we quickly got to a point where, okay, our freezers are pretty full.
We know how to raise the meat. Now, how do we sell more of it?
And so it was really just how do we increase sales? So that’s when we had signed up for another e
-commerce platform.
it was a lot of, you know, they built a website, you know, a beautiful looking website and kind of
promised a lot of, Hey, we’re going to, you’re going to increase sales. You’re going to do all
this. Well, a lot of it was like, okay, it’s on your own. Go talk to these other farmers that have
done it. And there was no like program. Right. And it was just,
they were really just selling the e-commerce side of it. Yeah. And I would say. just to jump in
there, that they had promised like there’s always someone to talk to. But even when we did talk to
those people, they didn’t always have the answers that we needed or wanted. And so that made it
difficult, too. It was kind of a lot of promise and not a lot of delivery on that.
Yeah. We felt kind of like we were alone almost. And they had promised us we weren’t going to feel
like that. Yeah. So then. Like as they were working on the website, as things were kind of
progressing, that’s where I found your podcast, your public podcast on listening to Ranchonomics
with John Haskell. And so I just started listening to that. I’ve got like a 45 minute commute one
way to work. So I would just listen to the podcast and a lot of it was clicking.
And finally, Natalie and I talked like, all right, let’s pull the plug on e-commerce.
I mean, we didn’t even. fully integrate the website it was like built for us we spent a bunch of
money um said no we’re pulling a plug um switched over and joined your program um and yeah right
off the bat that’s where it’s like okay there’s a plan right there’s a path you still have to do
the work um but it was nice to know that there was kind of a blueprint on how to how to chip away
at it right how to work through it yeah we had some direction that we were looking for finally and
then what What stood out the most? Like I, I usually have, I direct everyone to start with the time
management program. Is that where you started? And, but I, what I’m getting at is what did you find
most helpful? I know your marketing has just exploded. Did you do the time management? Was it
helpful? Okay. Tell, tell me about that. Yeah. So jumping to the time management,
um, and it was wild writing everything down at first that was hanging out there.
And I would say like, I got a lot done right away, just getting things organized.
But one of my biggest shifts was just the mindset piece of time management.
So I would go out, I would get like a Saturday or Sunday, and I would just,
I want to get 10 things done. And you just keep working through until things are complete.
And at the end of the day, I would have a ton done, but it wasn’t the full list that I started
with. And so I beat myself up. I’d feel behind all the time, which would then,
you know, roll into not feeling great about the week starting off. So I haven’t perfected the time
management, but I still do calendar. And I would say that the way I look at the time management has
changed to where it’s like, OK, realistically, I can do two things today and I go do them and I
don’t feel like I left something on the table. And I can move on. I can feel satisfied.
And so that’s been huge for me. Yeah. And what’s that mean to you to be able to not be beating
yourself up, you know, going into the night or the next day? Oh, yeah. It just lowers my stress
level.
I’ve got more fulfillment with it. It makes me not, you know, when you’re getting stressed and
overloaded, you start resenting the business. You know, because it’s taking your time and it
doesn’t feel like you’ve done anything productive. So being able to feel fulfilled with what I got
done has made it more enjoyable. Good. Good.
Good.
Anything for Natalie? Now, I know the other thing I want to mention is you both work full time off
the farm. And are you in your second year or third year in farming?
well this would be like the fourth fourth year okay the fourth year um but yeah we had really we’ve
been really ramped up yeah last couple years because we started off slow selling to friends and
family like that first year we did a couple years um at this farmer’s market with no marketing
program yeah and then we’ve gotten the full almost last year and that’s so and are you still at one
farmer’s market yep yeah okay So then we dive into the marketing next in the,
in the program after the time management, how did that help you? Like, what did you learn there?
I want to hear, we want to hear all the things. Yeah. So I think it was how to,
how to build that relationship with the customers.
I mean, we had a, like a decent list started, like we knew we needed an email list. And so we had
been like slowly building, but we weren’t doing. anything with it. Um, so then joining the program
and say, okay, what are the customers, what do they want? What do they need?
Um, and so we jumped in, did some, um, ideal customer interviews.
Great. Um, and all throughout there with your, um, with your coaching,
we had like the masterclass and using AI with Brian and that, that like really helped us out a ton.
with using AI to actually understand what the customer is telling us. you know,
transcribing it and going through all the motions there. But I mean, it seems like small,
but connecting with the customers and then, you know, with our full-time job and we have one
daughter, it’s like we weren’t doing farmer’s markets every single weekend because we still needed
to enjoy life outside of that. So it wasn’t consistently like every other week. It was every two to
three weeks we’d be at this farmer’s market.
And we just started connecting with people before the market. Hey, we’re going to be there. And it
was amazing to see, okay, all of our regular customers coming the same day, right? Actually
training, really conditioning our customers on how to buy from us at the market.
It used to be real hit or miss. We’d see some of our favorite customers, you know,
then it’d be a couple of weeks forward, see them.
So that was huge. And I think just getting our focus dialed in,
like we officially shut off our shipping in the last week. I mean, we thought we had to do it all
at the beginning. Yeah. Tell me more about that because a lot of farmers think,
oh, I’m not making enough money locally. Therefore, I need to ship. But shipping is so cost
prohibitive. And if you can’t build. demand locally, you certainly won’t be able to build demand to
ship. So tell us about your experience with that, with shipping and thinking you had to do it all.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we, cause like, okay, how are we going to sell? We’re talking to friends,
family, coworkers. Um, you know, I was looking up, how do you, how do you ship products out of
state? How do we have our, um, our meat USDA inspected so we can ship across state lines.
All the packaging. I mean, you said it right. It’s like a ton of time and money to build that up.
And so how are we connecting with those customers? We would get random people that would find us.
Actually, one of our steady customers out of state is in Oregon. Oh, really? There’s a few chickens
in between here and there. Well, that was kind of the deciding factor on it was he was really our
one customer. ship or like doing ship that we would ship for yeah so you know yeah like basically
so as soon as our packaging was running out we’re like we’re not gonna buy anymore yeah because
that was the packaging is expensive too oh my goodness the dry ice everything yes i’ve been through
that too yeah and and i mean using your program has helped us with our sales so much that we were
like we don’t need this That’s tell me more about that, because so many farmers feel that pressure
that thinking that, oh, if I start shipping, I will make more money. You will not. If you can’t
make a profit without shipping, you certainly won’t make you’ll lose money trying to ship.
So, yeah. Tell us tell us more about that, Natalie. Yeah, well,
just with the farmers market sales are. With doing since we started implementing the emails,
I mean, it’s been I mean, Ethan was talking about how the connections have really grown. We always
had good connections with the customers. And now I feel like it’s just like kind of exploded.
And it’s been great, like talking with the people about it. But yeah,
the numbers have just ballooned. I mean, yeah. So we’re up here. We have a range of the farmers
market. We’re up 60 percent sales and then overall 75 percent.
without wholesale yeah so just direct it was like a it’s like a pretty easy connection to make okay
if you don’t ship we live just outside the twin cities i mean um there’s so you know a couple
million people yeah not that far away from us so it’s pretty easy to think okay yeah you can sell
locally and be fine but i think um diving into like well we also don’t need to go to 10 farmers
markets to connect there, right? It was going to that next level of, well, connect with the
customers we already have at this farmer’s market. And that’s where Natalie said we’ve increased
sales. On average, market is up 60% from before we implemented the email marketing to afterwards.
Yeah. So that’s 11 months or so in the program. Yeah. And it’s just the last few,
because I mean, it took a little bit, you know, get going. We got through time management. We were
learning the skills, you know, getting the email list built. And so it’s just,
yeah, I mean, we’ve kind of felt like, okay, well, the first market of the season we had,
it was like, I don’t know, two to two and a half times what we’d normally sell at the market.
And we kind of said, well, it’s the first market of the season. The weather was great. The weather
was great. And then we were there the next week, which is kind of uncommon. We’re usually, you
know, more sporadic. And so, okay, everybody got their stuff. And then it was still up,
you know, over 60% that next, that next weekend. It’s like, okay, this is more than. And now it’s
been consistent to that. Yeah. Great. And do you do what I teach and send the email the day before?
Yeah. And they love that. We get all the feedback, you know, they order and it’s great.
So I want to just elaborate a little on what you’re saying about the connection, the relationship.
I’m just about to record another podcast episode on how relationships are your most important
asset. Relationships are more valuable than the land you farm.
No matter what your mortgage is on that, your relationships are worth more than that.
And they’re worth more than all your equipment. They’re worth more than all your cows put together
and added up. That is the relationships we have. And as farmers, We need to,
you know, I hear you getting that through the program. Like you’re learning to value that without a
relationship with people, you won’t have a profitable business. You’ll give up.
So tell me your thoughts on that. Like, you know, the relationships are everything.
Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s so for one, connecting with the customers,
like what do they value is. is a key piece and so understanding that you know we we are providing a
service right we are we are helping their needs so the mindset alone coming out of that with that
perspective i mean allows the relationship to build even stronger yeah instead of trying to sell
you know i need them to buy our stuff instead you’re reversing it like i’m here to help them solve
their problems reach their goals Or feeling guilty because, you know, you built the relationship
and it’s like, oh, we know him really well. And we’re charging this much, you know,
and you can’t come at it like that. And so, yeah, we’ve seen as we adjusted our mindset, as we
really focused in on what was important to them. I mean, they’re great relationships. Yeah.
They’re great. It’s like, we’re excited to see them. Or if, you know, I’m doing a loop or run away
from the booth for a second and somebody stops by, I’m like, oh shoot, I missed seeing so-and-so,
you know? And it’s just like even nice to catch up with them. And I think that just helps with even
just everything. Like they, they love our product, but even when we, you know,
we rose our prices and like they didn’t even.
do a double look at it, you know, and they just, so, yeah. I want to pause on that because that is
the number one biggest fear of people who first come into the program. They’re like, I know we’re
not charging enough. but I’m afraid to charge more, I’ll lose too many customers.
And the story I hear over and over again is what you just said, that you didn’t lose customers.
So did you go through my pricing worksheets and realize at what point did you become aware that,
wow, our prices need to go up significantly? Yeah, a lot of it’s when,
I think this is common, you get to the end of year, you’re totaling up your sales and the expenses.
And, you know, I like, I like to do spreadsheets and I was really focused on the direct costs.
Right. And so if you look at any of our enterprises from a direct cost standpoint, it’s like, wow,
this is profitable, right? This makes money. And you just, you lose sight of everything it takes.
All these other expenses that go into running a business. And so like seeing that was like,
okay, like we know we’re low on prices. And this is just emphasizing it.
And I know you have the saying around, you know, handing someone a chicken and a $20 bill.
Yeah, or a jar of milk or a bouquet and that $20 bill if you’re not priced right.
Oh, yeah. And Natalie and I were talking about like just the labor involved with this business.
You know, the sacrifices we make on spending time out in the field versus being inside with family.
you know, not taking more trips, et cetera. It’s like, okay, we’re sacrificing that,
that it’s gotta be worth it. Yeah. So then at the end of the day, I mean, that helps support the
mindset of like, yep, they’re high and they’re probably gonna keep going up, you know, to make sure
that it’s worth it for us to keep doing it. And I will say, like, I was definitely the most nervous
about it. You know, Ethan was very confident in it. And I was like, I know we should do it, but I’m
a little nervous about it. And then, yeah, when we raised them, nobody blinked their eyes.
So it was it was great. And that is because of the relationship. When when you focus on your
relationships with people are your most important asset and you. firm,
you know, keep them steady and strong. They don’t bat an eye. They are excited.
They are as excited to support you and help you keep going and pay your prices as you are to serve
them. So they see the mutual benefit of it when you have a relationship with them.
If you don’t, if you’re just advertising to the masses, they’re going to notice a price increase.
You become a commodity and they price shop and they get it on sale somewhere else.
Oh yeah. Well then again, like I can’t emphasize the mindset piece enough. Cause we had like two
weeks ago, we’re doing a market and a lady stopped in and a package of thighs for $17.
And she’s like, I really love the thighs, but they’re just kind of out of my price range right now.
And it’s like, that’s fine. You know, like that it’s not for everybody, but you know, it was fine.
And we started talking, her husband used to process chicken, his own chickens. And so.
we made a connection on yeah how much labor is involved like why we went to dropping off of the
processor um and just have like a really great conversation and they came back five minutes later
and bought two packs of thighs yeah that’s great yeah they needed that connection with you they
needed to know the little bigger picture and feel your care not your feeling resentment that they
wouldn’t pay it, but instead just your friendliness, like, yeah, they aren’t for everyone. And then
you went on to have the conversation because with mindset coaching, you don’t take things
personally like that anymore. So yeah, that’s great. And let’s get specific. You said your prices
are up by how much over last year? Over the last year.
I mean, they’re probably like 40% over the last year. I’d say over the last couple of years. We’ve
probably doubled our prices. Doubled in the last two years, up 40% from a year ago,
and finally making money, finally profitable.
That’s great. I also talk a lot about the power of one, like one focus.
Did that help you? That’s the thing we start off at the very start is you can’t get profitable
selling 10 things or three things if you can’t get one profitable. Did you guys go through that
class and decide on the focus? Yeah, I really struggled with it because we had a lot going already.
And so at the beginning, it’s like, okay, well, how do you do this? I’m not ready to just like stop
doing something. But as we worked through it, it became more apparent.
Like, okay, how many different ways is my focus being?
divide it up and what can we actually focus in on and so I’d say what we did is on a couple of the
enterprises they’re just coasting at the moment yeah good so I’m not so our our sheep our sheep
flock we have they run with the cows it’s not any more work for me moving those with the cattle but
I’m not worrying about marketing sheep and it’s actually they’re We can’t keep enough of them
actually in stock. So it’s, so I kind of let off on the focus there.
So it’ll be what it is. We sell eggs and it’s like, all right, if we run out of eggs, if we don’t
have them, I’m not putting any more energy into that. They’re there. If they sell, they sell. And
really dove into chickens we hit hard in the spring and then beef we hit hard in the fall.
The season you’ve created these natural seasons. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then and we’re still
working to, you know, help train our customers on on how to buy from us.
And so we did our first five day launch with you from your program back in February for our beef,
our bulk beef sales. And, you know, we had been selling kind of throughout the summer sporadically.
We get people. We’d fill up, you know, butcher date, keep going. It’s like,
no, we want to sell at the beginning because that’s what we purchase in. We finish.
And then. Sure. Yeah. All your money is going out right here before you sell your cow, your beef.
Yeah. Yeah. So we’re trying to. OK, let’s supplement. We raised our price for deposits and try to
get everybody locked in at the beginning. And we did. We sold out.
It wasn’t we didn’t sell everything in the five day launch. It was really good practice and it was
good to me. We started the training process with the customers of this is when you buy beef from
us. It’s February and there’s no or else there’s no guarantees you’re going to get anything.
And we did we we doubled the amount of beef that we purchased and we already sold out all of our
shares for the season. And when would it normally take,
how many, would you normally be selling like all year long to try to get the beef sold? Yeah.
Up until the last processing day into the fall. Yeah. Like until the last like week before.
Yeah. So what does that mean to, to know that you have all your beef sold now,
you did a good portion of it in February and you practice the skill and kept going and it’s at a
higher price. And then you wrapped up sales, like your beef sales are done. And they haven’t even
gone to the processor yet. What? What’s the benefit of that to you? Like,
how is that life changing? I mean, it just feels like comforting,
I feel like would be a word to say. And like, we’re not stressed about it. Like, how are we going
to sell this quarter or this half, you know? And yeah, that’s just how I feel like,
who, okay, that’s off our shoulders. Now we can worry about other stuff about you. Yeah. Just like
really simple. Yeah. well yeah and confidence yeah and it makes me more excited to to get more
names on our email list to start prepping for the next year like excited like okay can we increase
again um how many people can we add in to the list because we would love we would love a lot more
cattle and currently selling them is the constraint to get in there so as we as we um lower that
hurdle It’s fun to grow. Yeah. And it probably feels secure. It’s a nice secure feeling.
What did you take your deposit from and to? Because I’m always encouraging everyone, you know,
you’ve got to get bigger deposits because you’re putting out all the money up front anyway.
I’d say it’s still low, but we made a jump. We did 4X.
We went for $100 a quarter to $400 a quarter. Okay. That’s great. Awesome. That’s wonderful. Yeah.
And then work your way up to even more as time goes on. Yeah. And look at what’s that mean to get
$400 per quarter, $1,600 per cow to get that six to eight months in advance.
What’s the benefit? Yeah. What’s that mean to you? Well, it’s huge. I mean, especially with,
um, with the cattle market, it’s like, it makes it easier on cashflow.
Yeah. actually buy them, buy them in versus trying to go way into debt to buy a bunch.
And then you’re carrying the risk and if you haven’t sold them. So yeah, it’s been big.
That’s huge. Good. Good. And then also once you’re done selling beef,
did that truly allow you to just stop marketing beef and focus on your chicken sales? I would think
then. Yeah. Yep, it did. Yep. So we could go into our communications with our customers,
our email, sprinkling in about our chicken and really prepping it.
We had sold out of, you know, breasts and thighs over the winter. And so I think that was one of
the reasons, you know, our first market of the summer, you know, everybody was eager to come out
and buy. So we sold a lot of. The breasts and thighs, again, the favorite cuts.
Yeah, good. People know if you’re in high demand, even though your prices are higher than ever and
they’ve got to get in there and get it. Oh, yeah. I would love to know for everyone listening,
because you’re a husband-wife team and you’ve heard me coach husbands and wives.
How is that? How does that work for you? How do you make it work? What advice do you have?
What’s going on there? I’d love for you to share a little bit so others listening can be inspired.
I guess it’s really helped us like with our communication about the business for sure.
And I’ll say like, I feel like it’s just the time management has really helped because it’s even,
you know. Ethan can spend a lot of time doing chores and then he’ll schedule in like family time or
something like that. And just something that simple. And just it’s so it’s been so great. And
having the the customer base now that we do, that just helps us feel more confident to take family
time and be, you know, go to the cabin with our daughter or something and not feel guilty about
leaving the farm and stuff. And yeah, I think that’s been really. Really good.
Yep. Yeah. And then being like being on the same page with the marketing, you know,
it’s, you know, we’ll go back and forth. So we were both reviewing the emails before we send them
out. So it’s really good. It’s like, okay, we talked about we should focus on this or this is what,
you know, if we ran it through AI, this is what it’s kind of saying to make it a little bit
smoother, but still want to sound like us. It’s just been like we’re on the same page,
kind of partnering on the marketing. And so we both feel like we’re being represented with the
tone. That’s fabulous. How old is your daughter? She’s two.
Oh, okay. She’s little. Yeah. All right. Really busy. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Well.
And then how did you get into farming? Cause you both work full time, two year old, four years ago,
something inspired you. How’d you get started? Yeah. So I grew up in Southern Iowa on more of a
hobby farm, similar size property, but we did everything for HFFA and,
but everything was a hobby for sure. Right. Like we weren’t making any money and.
I always loved the lifestyle and wanted to get back. So after we were married, we lived in the
cities for a while and then had an opportunity to purchase the farm that we’re at now,
some old dairy farm and wanted to go in. But I think so my upbringing and combined with some more
my engineering mindset, like, OK, let’s do this. But it needs to pay for itself. Good for you.
I don’t want to have. It’s just another hobby that drains us. So that’s where we started trying to
be real methodical starting out. But even doing that,
you find, well, I wasn’t accounting for this, this, and this. So that’s where this program has
really helped get it to where we want it to be. We’re on the right path. You can probably see why
and how the farm you grew up on wasn’t profitable. Can you see now? Oh. Oh,
yeah. Yep. Yeah. And it’s funny. My mom still runs it. So so she comes up and we talk about things
we could do differently. And and she’s you know, she’s about to retire. So she’s not getting going
to be changing anything big. But I think she’s been impressed with where we’ve taken this.
That you guys are from giving her the tips on what she can do.
Right. That’s exciting. I’m sure you inspire her a little bit to maybe ship something or,
or even have hope that, oh, maybe I could make a little money in my retirement that would augment
our retirement benefits too. So, oh, that’s great. Yeah. Good. Well,
as we get to the end here, I always like to ask for the people listening, farmers who know they
need help or they can relate to parts of your story, but they aren’t like,
we aren’t used to investing in ourselves. We think if we have an extra few grand,
we need to go buy more chickens or beef or tractors or flowers or whatever.
What advice would you give to the person who would like help but is just afraid to spend the money
on themselves to invest in their learning?
I don’t know if I have anything super eloquent other than like, you should just do it. I mean,
it’s been so helpful for us. It’s incredible to see the difference. that it has made.
And it’s really exciting. Like it just, you know, I can see the light now,
like the dream of this could be, you know, we both love our full-time jobs,
but you know, maybe it could just be the farm one day and we can actually see that now.
And that’s really exciting to imagine that as being our life and our family.
And that’s what we do. So I don’t know. It’s just, It’s a good investment.
Yeah. I would add in that folks that are listening,
if they’re connecting, maybe they’re hitting a ceiling where they’re not profitable.
And so if you continue to invest in assets that can have a return, but if you’re not getting a
return, there’s no point. And so I know it looks like, oh, I can afford another.
one of these or i can you know get more livestock that can make me more money well if you’re not
making money um you’re gonna just lose it you’re throwing it away so yeah my my perspective and i
see this with like it’s like everything’s clear now when i see other farmers starting it’s like you
should start with um this program yeah and not just jumping in and getting a ton of animals uh to
fill the pasture it’s like invest in this and it’s gonna allow you to make a return on everything
going forward. Yeah. It’s this program is an asset. It’s an investment that pays itself back on
average within a few months when people implement it. And then you just keep making that money over
and over again. Well, I’m just excited. Every time we chat,
I’m so excited to hear the, the other thing is you, that makes a difference is you two have both
expressed in different ways. Like, You were scared to make some of the changes, but you trusted it.
You did it anyway. Why were you able to do that? Because some people, they come in and they’re
scared to make the changes and they don’t. But you were scared and you did it anyway. And you
figured out that, oh, people don’t leave when we almost double our price. And so what do you think
contributed to you both being able to just run with it?
For me, part of it was like, well, if we want to get to where we’re going, we got to jump. We got
to do it because, you know, continuing to give away at the at those prices wasn’t sustainable.
So I was coming at it from a very much like, well, if we don’t do this, I don’t know why we’re why
we should keep doing it. Right. If we can’t increase the sales. Especially with a two year old, why
give all that, dump that money into a farm losing money when it could be going in her college fund
or family trips, whatever. Yeah. And, you know, like I had said, I was more nervous and Ethan was
confident in it. And I think also just hearing other people’s stories from you,
you know, and them saying how it worked for them. I was like, all right, it can’t just be.
You know, a one time thing, you know, one person thing. It’s lots of people. So and it and it
worked. Well, I think starting you coach on this, it’s like you want to do a meaningful jump in
pricing.
But doing like, you know, we did like a couple of baby steps. I mean, it was still like 15,
20 percent increase. But, you know, we would do that and then we would still sell.
the same amount or more that next market so you kind of just build confidence over time like okay
we did that that wasn’t that painful right and so then okay run the numbers okay let’s jump to this
on this cut right and you get the feedback and it’s still positive so yeah well again i don’t think
any of our customers have ever even commented on it no just a couple people here and there who
don’t purchase it Or that one woman who came back and bought the two packs of eyes. Like all our
customers, they have not said a thing. Yeah. And I want to point out to everyone listening,
it’s not because you live in a special place where people want to spend 40% more on meat.
It’s because of the relationship. When you have a relationship with them, price is no object.
They don’t look at it. They’re happy to buy from you. They trust you.
it, it doesn’t become like we would raise our price and we would lose one out of a hundred
customers, maybe like every once in a while. Yeah. It was so rare. So you’re experiencing why I
teach relationship based marketing. Like it is what works. So. Oh yeah. One that gives us
confidence to it, the market, like there’s, there’s a beef vendor, like three, um,
three tents down from us. That is quite a bit cheaper. And at first, when we first joined the
market, it’s like, okay, they’re kind of our competition. We’d keep an eye on like pricing and that
type of thing. And then we built these relationships. It’s like, I rarely even look over there.
And it’s like, yeah. Cause like, they’re not us, you know, we’re, we’re selling us. We’re selling.
Our brand is completely different. And customer. And we, they have been at the market at this
market we go to. way, way longer than us. And our customers also have been going to this market for
a long time and they still buy from us and not them, you know, and that’s,
I think, I mean, it is because of us. That is so, thank you for articulating that because that’s
what I teach and preach on that when you build a relationship,
they will pass by, they will drive by all these cheaper farms and drive further.
more inconvenient to get to you and pay more money just because of that relationship.
It is the one thing that makes a difference. And you guys are just really underscoring that here.
So I really appreciate it.
Well, thank you for being here. Did I miss anything? Is there anything else you wanted to share
that we didn’t get to? I don’t think so. I think it covered it. I mean, we…
I guess one thing we’ll add is like, we don’t feel like we’re there yet. We’re still like sky’s the
limit. So what’s really exciting is like, we feel like we just scratched the surface.
You know, we’ve been implementing a lot of what you teach, but we haven’t, I mean, we haven’t got
everything yet. So we’re, we’re still growing, still building. So still excited for the future.
marketing is developmental, then you’ll, you know, it is infinite. It was really,
truly infinite what you can learn and do. So, well, I’m excited to have you both on here today
sharing. Everyone’s going to love being inspired by all this. So thank you from the bottom of my
heart. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here. It’s been wonderful. Yeah. Well, thank you
for having us. Of course. And everyone go look them up. Haven Hills farm LLC.com.
And it’s wonderful. All right. Take care of you guys. See ya. See ya.
