Faith Hamlin | Little Jennie Ranch - Raised Different - Entrepreneurship, Wyoming & Choosing an Uncommon Path

And they were like, okay, go down this draw and look for cattle and we'll see you in a couple hours. And I was like, to where? And they were like, just you'll figure it out. I spend a lot of time trying to convince people this may not be the right experience for them he's in the cattle industry as well, but really embodies the idea of growing a business from the ground up and doing what a lot of people will tell you is impossible, which is starting a ranch and being a rancher starting with no land Hey there and welcome to From the Ground Up Show, the show where we encourage and inspire the next generation of free thinking leaders by telling the stories of those that have been there, done that and are still getting it done, building a life that they love with their hearts, their hands and their hustle.

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com Today, I am really excited. I am joined by Ms. Faith Hamlin. She operates the Little Jennie Ranch in Bondurant, Wyoming.

Faith was born in Ohio, but raised in Wyoming, specifically Jackson, Wyoming. She pursued an education in political science, specifically Middle Eastern and Islamic studies before shifting her career trajectory to come help on the family ranch. She now operates the Little Jennie Ranch running multiple businesses, commercial cattle, outfitting, dude ranch, and direct to consumer beef supply. She plays an active role with the Green River Valley Cattlemen's and Wyoming Stockgrowers Associations, as well as being very involved with the Wyldlife Fund, the nonprofit arm of the Wyoming Game and Fish.

So Faith, you're a- into a little bit of everything. really appreciate you making the time to chat with us today. Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to our conversation.

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shop/fromthegroundupshow Awesome. Well, we will dive right in. We like to start every show just learning a little bit about you and where you came from. So could you tell us a little bit about your life growing up?

Yeah, definitely. um So as you said, born in Ohio, Akron, Ohio is where my family is from. thankfully, my parents had a planned midlife crisis where they said, instead of, you know, us actually having a midlife crisis, let's plan something crazy. And so their something crazy was let's take our youngest child, me.

out of school and let's move her to Jackson, Wyoming with us for six months. We're going to like go, you know, do something crazy and off of their normal beaten path and just make it work with their work and our family. And so in 2005, we moved to Jackson with the plan of like, this was just a kind of one time fun thing. And my dad would tell you that I cried nearly the whole drive out.

saying like my life was over and I would never like even though was headed back in six months, but I was never gonna see my friends and all these things. And he said about a couple weeks in he knew I was never going back to Ohio. And he knew this was where my heart was, which he was completely right. And I love Ohio, it is a very special place.

I'm very proud to say that I was born there and my brother is 11 years older than me and so he was raised really in Ohio. So we kind of he teases me. He's like, I don't know why you keep telling people you're from Wyoming and I'm like, well, I've been here 21 of 30 years. So it's been a while.

But I did a little back and forth growing up and then graduated from high school in Jackson and then went off to school in New York, upstate New York at Colgate University. childhood was a really fantastic one. I think I look back and I'm very grateful for the family that I have and how close we are. But my parents both were, my mom um stayed at home and cared for us and raised us to be the best kids she could make.

My parents wanted a really big family. My dad told my mother maybe two weeks into dating that he was going to have six boys and a ranch. And so I remind my mother that we are quality rather than quantity, just a little far apart with the 11 years, which is why I'm named Faith. And yeah, we just had such a great childhood where we were involved in our parents' lives.

They treated us kind of older than we were all the time. And my dad is an entrepreneur himself and worked in and still does work in steel and manufacturing, and plastic manufacturing. And he was never felt like we were too young to be part of a conversation. And I'm very lucky for that because he would challenge us and treat us like we were older than we were and...

you know, know that we had to work really hard. And that set me up for, I think, the success that I'm in today. between mom and dad and my brother being so much older, I feel he raised me too. It was a pretty amazing childhood and only was starting to take off when I moved to Wyoming and was like, wow, there are other girls who really like the outdoors like me and are, you know, focused on a little bit more, if you will, stereotypical Wyoming things and, you know, have like are interested in shooting guns and fishing and being outside and skiing and camping and going on a pack trip.

I was like, wow, there are other girls who exist like that. This is awesome. And those were my peers and my teachers and our community. So, yeah, great childhood.

And I think part of forming who I am today. that's fantastic. Well, you said you guys first came to Wyoming. It was kind of a six month, wild hair, a planned midlife crisis.

when, why, and how did you guys decide to stay? Yeah, so one of the big things was I was really happy here and I really enjoyed school and the school that I went to was able to push me in kind of as hard as I wanted because it was it was sort of a Montessori style school and my parents started me in that school because they were like what other school would put up with you changing schools midway through the year every six months a couple times and so it was like hey you're in fourth grade but you're taking sixth grade math, so you just go with the sixth graders to take math or if you're beyond, it's not a big deal.

It's just part of what we do. And yeah, I loved it. My parents were like, I think we could possibly make this work where we do spend still some of the year in Ohio. But my dad just he travels so much for work because his companies weren't all located in Ohio.

He managed them out of Ohio, but he was always flying around anyway. And he was like, well, if I'm near an airport, I can do a lot of the same work. And it took a lot of sacrifice on my parents' parts because they were apart a lot. My dad traveled a lot.

But I think they really were drawn to the community and the people and just people's heads were on the street. And they really enjoyed that. It was different, so, but they absolutely to their credit made the sacrifice for me because they knew there were opportunities here and I was really happy. So, and we're outdoorsy.

My dad loves the ski. Like that was a big piece of it. We moved to Jackson to ski and now my dad loves the snowmobile more than ski and would rather go out and feed our cattle or do things on the ranch. He's like, skiing, whatever.

Whereas we literally moved to Wyoming, kind of to ski at one point. awesome. That's it sounds like a family that I would fit in with. Those are some of my favorite things as well.

So um and I noticed you said uh you know you you grew up partially in Ohio. you've been in Wyoming 20 years and then college in upstate New York. Those seem like three almost very different cultures. Um what what was that like transitioning?

between those different cultures? Was there a little bit of culture shock or maybe some lessons you learned doing that? I think that my childhood moving to Wyoming and going back and forth so much, it really put me on a path that I was always the new kid and so I just had to figure out how to be the new kid in the best way and my mother would call it a hi how are you kid. Basically being outgoing and so I think I was a little bit more comfortable being in spaces that weren't my norm.

And so when I was graduating from school, one, I had an interest in foreign policy and kind of international relations and some of these things. And so looking at schools nowhere close by, like I was kind of one, I was looking at schools that had a focus on that, which a lot of them were on the East Coast. And then another piece of it was I didn't really want to get out of Wyoming because I wasn't happy but I was like, I'm gonna go give these other folks a run for their money.

Like show them that I can do it. And I'm not just like the Wyoming kid but I can hang. And so that was a piece of it for sure. And so yeah, fell on Colgate.

The funny thing is I looked at every school that was probably exactly like Colgate but I didn't really want to go to Colgate because My dad had gone there and my brother had gone there. And I was like, oh, I really cannot follow in. Like I have to be different, you know? And I, but I was looking at every school that was like the exact same concepts and things.

And I had this moment where I think I was talking to a mentor or something. I was like, I'm almost afraid to like admit that I love Colgate. and thankfully did end up going there and but I made it my own which was incredible. I was really happy that my family was supportive but it was my very own unique experience and have some of my closest friends today from Colgate but I also feel like it's this network of people who it's better for me to have a great community that isn't doing usually like what I'm doing today and doesn't always not everyone is doing what I'm doing or like what I'm like and it's better to have that diversity in my community both mentorship and friendship and so I feel really lucky to to have gone there.

That's great. Awesome. Well, I know, yeah, you mentioned it there as well. You had kind of a unique uh area of studies with political science and specifically studying the Middle East and uh Islamic cultures.

Was there something you had in mind for a career when you started studying that? When I started studying it, I was just taking some advice and I wish I could tell you who had told me this, but they said, don't pay attention to the class title all the time, pay attention to your professor. And if you find a good professor, follow them, follow who they enjoy teach, like their friends or whatever. And so at Colgate, I had one first professor, Professor Noor Khan, she was incredible.

She is the definition of dynamite comes in small packages. And she taught an intro to history of the Middle East. just like to be clear in high school, I had some fantastic classes that dealt with religion and specifically Islam and a lot of like social studies history of the Middle East, which just was already like fueling my fires of interest. And I was really big into Model UN and all of those things in high school.

And so coming into school, I knew I had an interest in sort of foreign relations. And I did take an interest in Islam. I'm Catholic, my family's Catholic. It's been a part of my whole life and how we were raised.

And so learning about other religions, actually, I felt like I had a leg up on Students who didn't get weren't raised in a religious household because I was like, yeah There's like a lot of similar this makes sense. Like these are I learned it a lot faster So it was a lot easier for me to kind of excel really well in the religious studies part of history So yeah, I got to school professor Nora Khan. She was amazing She gave you a hard time, but she also was incredibly passionate and one of the most important things right off the bat that I carried with me through today is she just said flat out, every single one of your professors, the books you read, everything you do has a bias.

And so recognize that you are in a class, I have a bias, the professor next door has a bias, the textbooks we're reading have a bias. And so you need to navigate what that is and make decisions for yourself. while recognizing it's impossible for people not to have a bias. And I really appreciated her honesty with that and also just loved the way she taught.

And so she was the head of the department, her husband was in the department. So she did this sneaky thing where she kind of signed me up for Arabic classes. And I was like, well, I'm already in and I guess she signed me up and I have no choice. So here I am.

And... She was awesome. And so I continued to follow professors through the department and absolutely loved it. Just really lucky at Colgate.

It was a very small school, but just a fantastic group of professors throughout my time there in the political science department, in the Middle Eastern studies department and throughout, throughout. So they were exciting and kept it. So I just kept following great professors. kind of...

you'd figure out who's good and then you'd ignore their title of their class in some ways. You'd be like, I just know that it's going to be a good one. And that kept me really passionate for school. Even when I was over the little things or social things or was ready to get out, I was really digging in because I wanted to work hard for the professors.

So Okay, interesting. That's some advice I've not heard before. uh thinking here, I wonder how my education would have looked if I had followed that same track. It probably would have been quite a bit different.

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How did your family end up there and then how did you end up there? Yeah. So it starts all from the beginning of my dad declaring he was going to have six boys in a ranch. So he had this lifelong romantic dream of a ranch.

And he said that while my mother was a computer programmer and he was uh a banker in Chicago. So there was no clear trajectory of how that was going to happen. And So my dad had carried this dream. When we moved to Wyoming, it sort of ignited where suddenly he was already, he was in a place where that would exist.

And so it was in the back of his head and slowly but surely he was traveling around with me for all of our sports in Wyoming, which means you're on the road every weekend driving across the whole state. And so as we were driving around, he would kind of pop in and out of properties and drive around and Mostly what he has done in his career as well is looking at properties that are in distress business-wise either You know, they're bankrupt or going through kind of big problems and transition and kind of need folks to come in and try to turn them around that's where his skill set is he's very optimistic which is you can't be a pessimist and do that.

ah that was sort of how he directed some of his looking at ranches, learned a I say a lot about ranches, but then I look back and I'm like, we've learned so much being actually on a ranch. But he did learn a lot in terms of seeing a lot of different places and their what works, what doesn't work, what's their positives, negatives, all those things. And so the little Jennie was purchased out of bankruptcy in typical thrifty fashion of our family. so we'd actually looked at the ranch for almost six years prior and essentially looked at it as a pipe dream, but it was fun to dream about.

And so we kept coming back and looking at it as the previous owners who were sort of real estate developers and had plans for it, I would assume. And so they, we were slowly kind of thinking about it, but also like, hey, we were looking at other ranches and thinking of packing up to move potentially to other places and things came together in our lives and there was a plan and this is where we ended up, which is, I am still so grateful that we could end up at the pipe dream, but we ended up here, purchased the ranch out of bankruptcy in 2017.

So I was still in school and but got to be really heavily part of the negotiating and the deal and figuring out how to buy the note from the bank and when the bank foreclosed and dealing with a lot of those intricate pieces and parts and I think goes back to the fact my dad was never like, you're a kid, you can't be involved. He would be like, yeah, we're gonna have a conference call. I'll phone you in and I'm between classes curious about how this all works and constantly asking questions and really involved, which was very cool.

And so I shared this dream with my dad, despite not having any background. didn't go to, I wasn't in FFA, I wasn't in 4-H, and yet here I was having this big dream of a ranch with my dad. And honestly, at that point, I didn't have an intention that I had any capability of running our operations. I just knew I wanted to be involved and knew this was something I wanted to do with my family.

yeah, so fast forward, I graduated from school. have a team here. We have advisors helping us kind of get started and keep everything rolling and growing to get our feet under us. And when I graduated from school, I had some other work lined up, just work in Jackson and town and then.

was coming and helping at the ranch where I could here and there. And, you know, what I could do. So set up charge accounts and, you know, make calls. Anything that happened on a piece of paper or an email, they were like, oh, the young kid.

I was like, yeah, I can do that. And so slowly kind of tagged along with people as much as possible. And you have enough people turn over, come, go, learn from them. And over time, I was starting to kind of get my feet under me to say I think I can lead the direction of what we're doing.

And probably in 20, I did go away to another ranch for a bit, came back, which was very valuable. And probably 20, 2019, 2020 is when I really started running the ranch myself and really directing it with a lot of extra heavy influence of like somebody, we were tag teaming or you know a mentor or consultant was in helping us. And it's hard to even describe because I'm like it just kind of happened overnight where and it happens when people leave like you know a night caver quit and it was like yeah so I guess I'm half the night caver and I'm gonna learn and I'm gonna work really hard and there was a lot of on the job training.

Yeah. man, yeah. Diving into the cattle business and the ranch business without any experience would be difficult enough, buying a bankrupt operation and trying to turn that around adds another level of difficulty. Yep, maybe you're getting an insight into the optimism amongst my family.

Yeah, I think that is probably true of all entrepreneurs. Even a realist doesn't look at a business idea or a plan and think, I can pull that off. It takes a real optimist to be an entrepreneur and think that you can turn around a failing business or start something from scratch and really make it go. For sure, yeah.

I remind my family or folks when, like, this girl, I think she's a little crazy to be thinking that we could do this, or, you know, I don't know how we're gonna pull through. And I usually say with a name like Faith, there's not really much room for quitting. That's good. That's good.

Well, what was the what is your most interesting experience of the on the job training? Was there something that just really knocked you off your feet or came as quite a surprise that you had to figure out on the go? Yeah, I mean everything. yeah, I would say, you know, it starts from I didn't know how to saddle a horse when I moved here.

I'd ridden a horse. And I had an older woman in the community who's sort of like my Wyoming grandmother, she was stopped riding and said, Hey, here's my here's my mayor taker. And I was like, Okay, I don't I don't know anything. There was just so many times where it was like, here, I'm going out with the crew.

I'm gonna tag along. And I wasn't out there saying, I know what I'm doing. I was just like, I'm gonna do my absolute best and that's all I can do. And people would, I remember there was a day and we were probably, I don't know, 15 miles from home headquarters, but we'd driven an hour to get somewhere and then had to navigate home.

And I'd never done that. And they were like, okay, go down this draw and look for cattle and we'll see you in a couple hours. And I was like, to where? And they were like, just you'll figure it out.

Like you'll go hit the creek, just keep following downstream and you'll eventually see someone. I don't think I saw someone for a couple hours. And I look, I think in the moment I was like, okay, I found cattle. I'm looking for cattle, bringing them home.

I have all the calves, calves, I've got a couple of yearlings. Like I think I know what's going on, kept everything together, but was totally alone. And I was like, I guess I'm supposed to see someone maybe. And eventually I end up in this amazing basin, which is one of my favorite waterways in the area.

But it was the first time I'd been there and I ran into another neighbor and was like, okay, I found them. I made it, but I was like, I have never seen any of this place I've ever been to. I don't even know how to get home. And home was actually just like one ridge away.

So thankfully I had run into the neighbors and we had to break through the ice of the creek to get the cattle moving through. And here he was with his two little kids. And here I was trying to help push everything across and yelling. And I remember he turned to the kids after we made it across the creek and was like, You guys remember the rule, right?

And they were like, yep, don't tell mom any of the words you just said while we were moving cattle. And I just look back and I'm like, that was the best way to learn to just be thrown in. And like, you'll figure it out. And someone saying like, and I think the match of like, I don't think I know everything, but you have to have a little bit of confidence that you can figure it out.

And that just happened over and over again, where it was like, hey, we need you covering. you know, a couple of night calving shifts alone. And I'd been with people enough and I was like, I think I can figure this out and do this on my own. you know, got cattle in that need to come in and, you know, hey, I'm noticing this or that and keeping an eye out and just gain confidence and then learn what to do when there's a problem like this.

We need to pull this calf out of this heifer and like what to do and then when to call for help. But yeah, the biggest learning on the job, would say, like there were these little pieces where it was like, you're sent off. In my career so far, one of the most stressful, difficult times was I had a manager here who I just in hindsight hadn't done a very good job of hiring and they weren't the right fit. unfortunately all of the team they hired below them were either family members or basically people who were like fully loyal to that person rather than the ranch and so we started to come to grips that we weren't going to be the right fit and he decided to leave and when he left he left with seven people in one day and And I, you know, had to take, I was, had to be really strong and say, I'd like invite people to stay and continue to work.

And I had one after the other between the family members and a couple of team members say, like I'm a, like they were afraid to stay. They were like, how is this ship not going to sink? And so they jumped ship and one after the other walked into my office and quit. And on the day, like no two weeks notice, no.

That was my entire cattle crew. I had one young man who ended up working with us for four plus years further and that was it. And I was like, okay, you've got to be really strong right now. And I buckled down and was, you know, made calls to get some help, some day work and really dug in to learn our U.

S. Forest Service leases. running cattle, doing a lot of the work myself, like, okay, we're gonna pack salt and like, well, that didn't, we didn't do that quite right. So we're gonna learn the next time, but there was a lot of you just have to do it yourself to get through that time.

And that has strengthened me as a leader today because one, I'm like, you know, things can be really bad, but we will figure it out. Cause that's all we've ever done and we'll continue to do. And also having the experience and knowledge of, for my now like leadership and people here to say, I've been in your shoes when things are not going right. And I've been in your shoes and I understand what has to go on on the ground and how difficult it is and that your job really does matter.

And I think sometimes being a leader of other people just saying like, yeah, I've been, I've done. And I don't know everything, but I know enough to understand what your work is that I'm asking you to help me with. And so, yeah, that was a really critical learning point for me. And we came out of it.

I hired a fantastic guy after that season who's here still with me building the ranch. And it was all meant to happen despite it feeling in the moment like everything was had completely fallen apart. And so yeah, I think those times not only teach you the skills on the job training, but also the mental fortitude that's required of being in business, you know, because things are not always positive. They're, you know, you're gonna, you know, go for broke.

And so Yeah, that would be the most dramatic of the on the ground, on the job training. Okay. All right. And it sounds like you kind of gradually slipped into this role in this business.

Your parents bought the ranch while you were still in school. You came back and we're working some other jobs while helping them and even went to work on another ranch for a while. At what point in time did you decide to go all in and, okay, this is where I'm at. This is what I'm doing.

Yeah, so spring 2019, I had just finished a season at another ranch. I had an offer to stay and it was a guest ranch and it was so much fun. You work with a ton of young people, like you're working really hard. I just spent a season snowmobiling, skiing, getting paid to teach people how to dance.

Like I was like, this is awesome. You know, this is fun. But in the back of my mind, I was thinking about the ranch the whole time. And I think there were a couple things that happened before that season or during that season when I was at the ranch in Colorado.

I had met some incredible people down in southern Wyoming and they were incredibly intelligent. think they were a lawyer had so had a JD, one had an MBA. incredibly capable people and were running their cattle business in a way that I hadn't exactly seen and or just had it flushed out in their thought process. And I was like, these are real business people running a really hard business enjoying what they do, but using their brains about it.

And so I switched that switched to flipped a switch in my understanding of the little Jennie in that we can run a really great livestock business here, not just how do we run the little Jennie, keep it going. No, how do we run businesses that work at the little Jennie? And so that flipped a switch in my thinking and what I could do and the people in the industry. And then, Another thing that happened was I had this job offer.

I came home. It was probably April, first week of April. And I pulled up that night from driving home and pulled up to one of the guys who was at the ranch and they said, go catch your horse. We're going to go start our night of calving and go check on some things.

And I said, awesome. And about a week later we had a night calver quit and I was like, game on. I'm here to stay. We had like just some turnover and I was like, I need to be here.

And I said no to everything else that I was thinking and planning and said, I think I'm ready to dig in. And it really started at that minute where it was like, go park the truck, catch your horse and we're off. And it was sort of like from that moment, I didn't look back. Okay.

That's cool. That's really neat that you have kind of that one moment where everything changed and made that decision for you. Yeah. That's great.

So you mentioned it there. You guys now run, like you said, of multiple businesses at the Little Jennie. So you do dude ranch, cattle operations, beef sales, tours, a little bit of everything. uh Which sector of your business or which business there on the ranch do you find most exciting or most rewarding?

Yeah, so um I guess to take a step back, yeah, at the ranch we are running commercial cattle. um I kind of group all of my guest operations into our outfitting business. So we don't take folks into cabins and have them stay for a week, but mostly all of our guest operations are backcountry excursions throughout the year. So in the winter snowmobiling and sleigh rides in the summer horseback based adventures.

And then our direct to consumer beef, is growing and moving. So what do I find most exciting? I actually just was in a manager's meeting yesterday where we, started the meeting asking everyone to talk about what they're most excited about within their own section of businesses at the ranch and then in another business at the ranch. so very, very timely and thinking about it.

But for me, I said there was something in every single. piece of course I was excited for. We've really developed our leadership team at the ranch and it's been a long journey and I know is a continuous journey. But this season will be one of the first ones where I have a full leadership team of very capable people where I am not the manager of the outfitting business and the direct to consumer beef.

And that is a huge relief to have much more capable people than me, allowing those businesses to flourish because they've been maintaining and growing and just waiting to kind of explode. And so I've started some new managers on the guest side of things last fall and they are kicking butt. And I have my first full-time employee dedicated to our direct to consumer beef starting here in a couple of weeks. So both of those things really excite me and yet Here we are in the cattle industry.

That's what fuels my fires. That's why I'm here and why I fell in love with the ranch. So, continuously building, but excited to have a leadership team so I can look more at the whole business and help everybody a little bit better. Yeah, six years in and you're finally fully staffed.

Yeah, for now. Well, I wouldn't say we're fully staffed, but we've got good leadership staff. We're still trying to get a tail of the oldest time. Yeah, the leadership is probably the most important part.

of those various businesses or various sectors, which one is most profitable? Yeah, so when you asked this question, was like, ooh, this is a great question because right now with our cattle markets where they are, which is super strong, I would say our cattle business is most profitable, which is awesome. It hasn't, because it's the base business of where we started, it probably has been the most profitable because we've... been growing it and working on it longest and it was already somewhat established when we moved to the ranch.

We continue to have a bit more overhead than maybe your average ranch for two reasons. One, it's my family ranch. So there are ways in which we have expenses that, you know, my mom and dad will say we'd kind of like some post and rail fence around headquarters instead of like the standard post and barbed wire that we'd run everywhere else. And so generally my family and I have it really well worked out where those expenses do get allocated towards the fact that, you know, it's also my family's home.

So that doesn't get charged necessarily against our businesses, but it is a piece of what we deal with. And then the other overhead item that we're dealing with is a lot of deferred maintenance. So prior to our ownership, The last two owners had just been transitioning and working through hard times or kind of at the end of their ownership. And so didn't do a lot of reinvestment in our infrastructure.

And so we've had to reinvest and slowly build back our infrastructure. And now with multiple businesses, we house everybody at the ranch. So that's a big piece that I'm trying to manage and strategize around. I do see like profitability like margin wise.

The direct to consumer beef business is quickly growing, but it's been difficult because cattle markets are so strong and beef prices are rising so quickly. I'm very dedicated to the fact I'm really trying not to price gouge all of my new customers over the last couple years and so I'm doing my best to keep those prices reasonable instead of like Well, yeah, all these things skyrocketed. So you're gonna see the exact cost. I'm eating a little bit of cost to try to do best by my customers, knowing that for the long haul, my goal would be that the direct to consumer beef is actually the majority of what we do.

That would be an incredible, like exciting thing for us to do. But. uh brand new. It's just been in the last few years that that was legalized here in Wyoming and you were able to open that wing.

Is that correct? Yeah, so um we have, there's been a lot of flexibility. I was kind of on the end, so I've always, I've never really struggled with the legality. But one of the things that we do is we have everything USDA butchered.

And so that allows us a lot of flexibility to sell to grocery stores, markets, restaurants, and the public really easily. And also across state lines and Things like that. yeah, it's been a big learning process. I was feeling somewhat confident on live animal and raising a really quality animal and bond ramp and what that takes and the genetics and all of the little things on the ground.

I'm not an expert, but like confident, more confident. And then we started the direct beef and I was like, wow, one, I'm probably a lot terrible. a lot more terrible of a cook than I thought. And two, now I have to understand how our animal is performing on the plate and how to talk to people about their meat and, you know, make a consumer confident in their meat.

so, yeah, that's been it's been fun, though. It's utilized a lot of our selling skills. All right. Well, you dove right into my next question here.

I know the cattle business and also, you know, kind of luxury service businesses like your outfitting business. Both of those are very different from probably more common businesses, the white collar businesses or your plumber, your roofer, electrician, things like that. What are some of the unique struggles or difficulties that you face in these unique businesses that other leaders may just not really understand or have any idea that you have to deal with? oh of struggles common to almost every business, but you guys probably have some that the average person just is clueless about because of the unique nature of your businesses.

Yeah, I think so this question is probably hard for me to fully process because even in the cattle industry and the outfitting industry, we have a lot of different unique pieces and parts where sometimes it is hard for us to relate to others in the industry. But I think just like when we're looking at ranching and outfitting and comparing that to kind of your other businesses in the business world, some of those things mostly are around your people and your team. And it's because what we do is not just your job, and I expect people to be professionals and be just like any other business.

And yet they, this is their lifestyle. They are doing this because they have a passion and a heart for it. And we work really hard to have great benefits and great pay, but at the end of the day, it really is far too much work not to be proud of what you're doing and how you're doing it. And that's something that we all carry, I think, on the team and something that we're all living to work in some way and have to be passionate about it.

And so that already limits a lot of the people who can come into this business and work and enjoy it and do it. and balancing that with expectations, I have pretty high expectations of how I expect our business to run. But at the end of the day, this is also someone's passion and it's also where our team lives. So probably also unique to a lot of businesses, most of our team is housed here at the ranch.

And so that is a huge challenge that we deal with. and continually changing because just when I think everybody we can house all of the people we need and like the young ranch hands in our amazing really nice new bunkhouse where they have individual rooms and all these nice things then I end up getting a couple folks who are older or have a child or are married and you're like okay how do we deal with this dynamic and how do I as someone who has a heart for the people who live here try to give them the most opportunity while still being dialed in as a business.

And so there's a lot of balance there to be had because, and we're living all around each other. So that's the other thing, you know, I can have my day off, but my team is all around. They know that my friends are coming over and I know that their friends are coming over and there's a lot of challenges with trying to build healthy boundaries at the ranch. And That's really hard because all of us are probably pretty terrible at building healthy boundaries because we want to be working all the time and give our heart.

We're not afraid of staying up all night to, you know, take care of an animal or solve a situation. That's just how I think a lot of us are built. so, but we all need that little bit of time and space to ourselves. And yet we all live around each other.

And, you know, I say I work from home every day. And so it's that everybody else does as well. And so those are some really unique challenges, but I feel more confident today than I probably have been in the past because one of the things that I'm working towards is building a network of other ranches and people in the industry to lean on and be like, you, how do you deal with this? How, because We're not the only people in the whole world trying to run a ranch as a, you know, really great business.

And, you know, how do you deal with these, setting these expectations and caring for the people at the ranch and on your team and knowing that what you're doing is part of their family and their home. And so, yeah, I feel more confident today and trying to gain more knowledge and experience from others all the time. man. Yeah, that's a great answer.

And something I hadn't really thought about it. Yeah. You, get to work from home every day, but, uh, all of your employees are in your home every day. Yes.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me so we are in we're we're growing all the time. Our office used to really be my parents home. And we continue to eat most of our team dinners when we have those, you know, depends on the season once a month, once a week, but we eat in my family's dining, like in their living room. And so but so was our office in the early days.

And so all of the things were going on and then my mom would say, we have people coming for dinner. You can't have all of your paperwork on the, you know, table. I'm like, why don't we? What else am going to work?

And then my mom would also say, I really don't appreciate when we have these like intense logistics or disciplinary meetings in my pantry. And I'm trying to be in my PJs, get coffee and go back to my room. And you all are in the midst of like a really stressful conversation. um And so we did eventually get an office that like one of these buildings that rolls off a semi and it's a one room office and it's been awesome.

It's helped us grow. It's where we host our guests when they arrive for their snowmobile tour. But today I laugh yesterday was a great example. There were two, three, there were like at least five of us in there doing various work.

And every single time you take a phone call, you either need to go into the bathroom and close the door. or go outside or go into your truck. And so now we're growing towards hopefully having a bigger office where we have some extra space. working around everybody and like it being in your home, we've been there and that's how that's how you grow.

Like you don't start off building the office of your dreams. It's like, yeah, it's at your kitchen table, you know, after dinner. That's great. So I know a growing part of your business and a big part of it is kind of the luxury services, the outfitting.

Specifically, what services do you offer and what can a guest expect? What is that experience like when someone comes to visit the little Jennie? Yeah, so our outfitting business is really catered towards folks looking for that sort of real connection to a working branch and looking for sort of an experience that is authentic and going to have those memories of a lifetime. Because we're smaller, we're a little bit more customized and we're a working cattle ranch.

So I usually say we don't have to have conversations about becoming authentic. I have to ask people to be a little less authentic. I'm like, yeah, so if the guest is sitting between the two cowboys, maybe don't both be chewing Copenhagen and spitting out the window like on the first car ride, maybe on the way home, you know? Anyway, so.

Anyways, we are an authentic experience, but we're also trying to create a memorable, safe, happy experience as well for people who have ridden a horse a zillion times. They've maybe ridden all over the world to someone who has never ridden before and is a little nervous. And so my ideal favorite clients are families who come and you have one family member who's Like this is the part of the trip for them and they could not be more excited. And then you have maybe like the little brother who's like, this is going to be the worst day ever.

And everybody leaves really excited about what they did. And so we, in the summer, and that's where my mind's at right now, we host everything horseback. And we take folks into the Bridger-Teton National Forest. And we're either taking them into the back country for a day out in the mountains.

or we're taking them into our hunting camp that we operate year round. And so we have a 130 year old cabin that we take folks to that's on the National Historic Registry, the Craig cabin. And so we're taking them there, talking about the history of the land and who's been there. We have wall tents and teepees where folks come and stay with us overnight.

It's a little bit of a glamping style thing. And then we'll Also, what I'm excited about this season is I have one of the folks in charge of the outfitting. She has an extensive background of being a chef and she is going to up our food and all of the culinary experience And so I think that's been an area where we're just waiting to flourish and provide that next level of service. And so yeah, in the summer it's that.

In the winter we're taking folks on snowmobile tours to the same cabin, the Craig cabin, and serving lunch, serving little Jennie Ranch beef as much as we can to talk about how it all comes full circle to the land that we're riding on is also the land that we graze cattle and that we're raising this beef off of. And then we also do a sleigh ride dinner, which has a special culinary experience where the entire menu, it's usually about five or six courses is all locally sourced.

And we have a conversation about what it means to a farmer and rancher in the area and bring them together for kind of this romantic sleigh ride, but make it ranchy and talk about the land and being a working ranch. So yeah, that's, I would say most folks come and are looking for that authentic experience and leave being like. I get to be part of the super special club that is the Little Jennie Ranch. I love all their guides.

I want to keep up with them. They want to stay in touch. They feel like they're part of our family. And I really do feel like they're part of our family.

You know, we have a group of we have lots of clients who return and, you know, guides who have come and gone or not even here anymore. They want to communicate back to talk to clients who are coming back and hearing what their stories are. So. Does that give you a good picture?

I did mention one of the horseback experiences that's really unique to the ranch is we do allow limited small groups, it's only three or less folks come out who are very experienced horseback. They can come cowboy with my team for the day. And I spend a lot of time trying to convince people this may not be the right experience for them because it's often quite humbling. And it's not meant to be like I don't plan it to really be humbling, but I do plan it to be real.

So we're doing all the same work that we would do any other day. We pack a big lunch and I'm like, it could be a normal day or it could be we're out there till dark because there was something that went wrong and the team has to stay out there to solve it and you're with them. And that is what it really means. And my team's really good.

They look out for the clients, but they also are not trying to sugarcoat what we're doing. And it's good when people walk a little sore at the end of the day, because that's how my team walks away every day. Yeah. man, that's awesome.

Is there uh one of those experiences that seems to be a number one or a guest favorite that people come back to again and again? Yeah, I think a lot of folks love coming to camp overnight. And that's because it's just such a magical place. It's actually where we host.

We've hosted the Inspire Kid Camp with the Wyldlife Fund for several years. And we're on pause at the moment, but it's just such a compelling place to talk about the land and what it means to be here. um So that would be probably something that people just feel it never gets old. And then about a third of my clients in the summer are international clients and they probably they're looking more for those big riding days often because they're seeking out specifically horseback high like a higher level of experience.

And so the cowboy day experience or some of our big adventure day rides are really popular with that crowd as well. Is there something that significantly delayed the growth of your businesses? And if so, how would you do it differently? I'm a big believer, as critical as I can be about myself, I'm a big believer that all of the mistakes leading up to now, that's how it was meant to be and you had to do that to be where you are.

So I don't really have any regrets in some ways. I know a lot of ranchers would be like, huh, bet you wish you studied ag instead of the Middle East. And I was like, not really. yeah, a big setback.

I think for me it really is just finding the right people, but it takes time. It doesn't happen overnight and sometimes I think the confidence to hire a very capable person. I've always known I need people who are much more capable than me, but sometimes I'm afraid to bring on folks with too much experience that they will come here and be overwhelmed by a business in its infancy. And you know, I think that would have sped up some of our work here, but I also think, you know, I'm so happy with my team right now and it had to happen in the timing.

They had to be doing what they were doing to line up the timing that they came here. I was without an outfitting manager. for almost a year and a half. And I was the person hiring the team, trying to like figure out guest stuff, just barely making it.

And I'm so grateful to the team I had making it happen. But I was determined to find the right people. And I think that's the biggest thing. probably myself, I'm constantly learning.

don't know what I don't know and trying to get there and... get better all the time for my team. That's one of my favorite lines is you don't know what you don't know. So, uh, anytime I'm trying to learn about things, I ask, are the questions I should be asking that I'm not asking?

So. Exactly, exactly. Is there something that you once had a strong opinion about but your experience has caused you to change your mind? Yeah, this was a difficult question for me to think on.

I think that there have been a lot. I would say, trying to think of changing my mind. I've had to learn a lot of things. There things changing my mind all the time.

I'll give you a really like recent example of changing my mind, but trying to keep an open mind and that's the most critical piece. We're in... part of a new technology and use of some virtual fencing this summer. And we're also using some geofencing tags as well.

So there will have a huge summer of new technology. And I would say most people in my community and in the industry who know me already think I'm sometimes crazy, but sometimes I like them to call me innovative rather than crazy. so I have kind of been anti- virtual fence or I just didn't think it was the right fit for us. I wasn't anti and but I kind of like, okay great.

That's not for us. We're moving forward not doing that and pretty confident in that but someone asked me for coffee over the winter and said, hey like I just want to have a conversation about this and you know there may be some funding that we could help you with and I was like, hey I'll have coffee. You know you're my neighbor. Of course I'll come to have a conversation and in that conversation I entered being like There's just no way, no how.

And I listened to where things had evolved and changed in the virtual fencing world and was like, this actually could be fantastic for us on so many different levels of how we interact conservation wise, wildlife wise, how we manage our cattle better. And suddenly I had this left the coffee talk and was like, I think I'm about to go into a contract. Um, overnight, cause I had to rush to try to get into this new technology. And here we are, we're going to be running virtual fence on a group of our animals this, um, coming summer.

And so I think. There I'm so new to the industry that yeah, sometimes I have ideas and thoughts and I do change my mind. but it's really easy cause I'm so new and I really am. I think my superpower has been that I do have an open mind and I'm not afraid to throw the bowl of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks, even if everyone thinks we're insane.

I'm like, yeah, I'm new. Of course you're gonna think I'm crazy. Like I am not in the industry. I'm not fifth generation.

I didn't come from this. So no matter what I do, people around are probably gonna say they're kind of. be like, they're insane. They're never gonna make this work.

You know, there's always going to be those doubters no matter what. And that's okay. Because I'm like, that relieves all the pressure that people think I know what I'm doing. So when we do things really well, I'm like, double thumbs up.

Like, everyone thinks that we did something smart. And that's happened a number of times at the ranch, which has been really, that's what motivates me. I love being underestimated. Like, Talk about what fuels my fires.

That's great. I was going to mention, yeah, I love the humility that you approach this with that. I don't know what I'm doing, but we're going to figure it out. And, uh, yeah, I think that probably speaks a lot to the success you found.

You guys are, are trying new and innovative waves to do anything and everything you can. And it seems like it's working for you. Yeah, working hard at it. Feel really lucky.

I think the humility also, it helps break down barriers between folks where I've had a lot of fantastic mentorship because I'm kind of go to folks hat in hand like I'm new and I need help and I'm wondering how to learn from you and folks in the cattle industry and ranching in general and across the outfitting industry too and the direct to consumer beef folks who are in that, it really is such a great community that if, as long as you don't walk in the door thinking you know everything, people are wanting to work and collaborate together.

And that is the highest level of sort of business environment that you wanna be in. And so I feel very lucky to be part of it, but never walk in the door thinking you know everything, because then nobody will share anything. Yeah, no, that's some great advice. And, uh, I guess I operate mainly here in Wyoming.

Maybe it's a Wyoming thing, but I find that true of a lot of industries. If you, uh, have some humility and ask questions, um, those that have found some success are willing to share and teach you what they've done. But, uh, when you know it all, why would somebody try to teach you something? So, yeah.

So if you could go back and do it all over again, uh, would you choose to. leave a more professional career track and and come back and run the ranch again. I would 100 % or 1000 % choose the ranch every single time. And that's probably because I'm really fulfilled by the work that I do.

And it's not just because I think a lot of people have in their mind that ranching is such a wholesome life. And sometimes people think it's simple and it is really fulfilling, but that's not because it's simple or, you know, perfect. I think that I'm very fulfilled by it because it's really hard work. I use my brain a ton.

And so I am constantly stimulated about what I can do. And for me, this is my professional sphere. I'm able to take what I do and bring it into professional environments. And that's what's allowed me to do well and get in front of a lot of different people.

And For me, this is like my professional environment. I just wear a lot different clothes and I office view looks a little different. So I would choose this over and over again. A lot of people will ask kind of what's your favorite part of the job?

And it's why I would choose this over and over again. I sell what I believe in with my whole heart. I get to raise cattle in a way that I believe in, which means we're raising beef that I believe in. We're taking folks from the public onto the landscape in a really responsible, thoughtful way, while also intertwining the importance of raising livestock on the Western landscape.

I mean, I just believe in it. And so, gee, that's like the easiest thing in the whole world to sell. And that's what we do at the end of the day with everything. We're constantly...

selling a product. And so yeah, that's probably why I would choose it over and over again. Awesome. Awesome.

That's fantastic. And yeah, I think that's something that's maybe misunderstood is a lot of people think of ranching as the business that hasn't changed in a few hundred years. And it's this simple life and growing up here in Wyoming and interacting with a lot of ranchers and ag folks. There's some real business professionals and it's business.

It's not just sitting on a horse and keeping a cow alive. There's complex. business involved with running a ranch. Yes.

And the best part is you get to sit on your horse and keep a cow alive. And then you go behind the scenes and are like, you know, that cow she requires a lot of labor, which means more overhead, which maybe we could consider like a different, you know, and that's where that is like where the fun of it all is. And so I love that we, we run everything still horseback. So we have a lot of really important traditions that we feel we're stewards of.

But we're also going to be as innovative as possible to do best by the land and the animals and the future of the ranch. Yeah. You guys get to mix running everything horseback with using a wireless fence and virtual fence technology. It's a man, technology that hasn't changed for a few hundred years mixed with cutting edge technology.

So, um, awesome. In progress. So what has been your biggest win as a leader? Um, my biggest win, I think it just comes back to a team of people who, you know, we are working to build a team.

It's not the same people for the last 10 years, but really, constantly changing. And yet we build a team that does feel like a family, which is a balance in a business. but I think folks understand and live by the values in which we. run the ranch and believe in it and feel like they're part of something bigger, which is the ultimate goal that folks have bought into the vision of what we're building here and don't think of themselves as just the individual of their day-to-day work, but the overall mission of the ranch and what we're trying to achieve here.

And so, yeah, I think my successes, I see a lot. in my team's successes and when they're doing really well, but it is absolutely a work in progress all the time. And yeah, I think that would be one of the bigger wins. think another win for me just so I'm thinking of the ranch in my work here is a win in my leadership.

But when you take a step back and look at kind of all of my work between the Wyldlife Fund and the stock growers and cattlemen's and Another organization I work a bunch with is the Jackson Hole Land Trust. I've gotten to be in these spaces where I'm the only person with the perspective that I have. And also I'm fairly young woman rancher to be in a lot of these spaces. So not everybody, even if they have another rancher, they don't always look like me.

and that's great. I'm honored to be in those spaces. but take it really seriously that I try to bring in a perspective and ideas and thoughts that aren't being spoken about. And sometimes it's uncomfortable bringing them up because I think it may be against the grain.

But I think I've tried to do that in a really responsible way where you're talking to a group, whether it's stock growers and it's like, yeah, I'm the new kid on the block. Like my family aren't ranchers and... So this is the perspective I'm bringing or when you're talking to some of these sort of conservation focus groups and you're like, let me kind of bring back in working lands as part of this conversation. Being responsible with how you listen and interact with folks, but not being afraid to step up to the plate and say something that may not be that popular while doing it in a very respectful way.

I'm not there to rock the boat. I'm there to try to build the vision or the work board with all of the solutions that we can throw at it from all the perspectives we can. So I think that has been a fulfilling piece of my leadership and hopefully a win. Okay, awesome.

Well, I know you've mentioned it a couple times. I know you're pretty heavily involved with the Wyldlife Fund. Can you tell me about your involvement there? How do you participate?

Yeah, so the Wyldlife Fund is the nonprofit arm of the Game and Fish created by the Game and Fish Commission and I am a board member of the Wyldlife Fund. I've been there, I should know my years, but I think I've been on the board just over four years and have absolutely loved it because it is very intersectional with working lands and how we interact with wildlife, being an outfitter, and also being a sportsman myself. And so been with them and gotten to do a lot of great projects.

The one I'm most proud of is the Inspire a Kid Camp, which has gone on the last three years. This year we're sort of in a building pause figure out stage as we work through some growing pains on the fun, but it has been a hugely successful project where we've gotten to impact, well, let's see, probably close to a hundred kids where they come to the ranch for a week and experience what it is to be an outdoorsman and be at a ranch and care for the land and how important that is with our wildlife and just as a resource.

And normally they're all students who may not otherwise get the opportunity to do a camp like this. And so that has been my baby with the wildlife fund and hope to see that we can impact students in Wyoming and make them the next generation who cares for the wildlife and their habitat. And so that's really what I've been doing, but I've also gotten to work on a lot of other cool projects like the pooled migration fund. getting money on the ground really quickly to help our Wyldlife navigate Wyoming.

We're one of the last places in the lower 48 where our wildlife are able to migrate naturally and so we want to keep working on that and there's a lot of exciting work there so Yeah, happy to be part of it and continue to be part of their next chapters Well, if one of our listeners wants to get involved with the Wyldlife Fund and help out with some of that or make a donation, what's the best way to get in touch or contribute to those resources? Yeah, so we've got a website, which is a great way to find some resources about us.

But to contribute, there's a bunch of different ways, whether it's volunteering with a day of work that we have or maybe with one of our student education programs. Like we'll have kids fishing day coming up this summer, which is really exciting. We get hundreds of kids out for their first time fishing and leave them with kind of this excitement for being an adores man. And then another way to contribute to the fund is just through donation.

We have a really great program across Wyoming, if you're not familiar, WYO Gives, where we're able to match funds with nonprofits across the whole state. And the Wyldlife Fund was the number one fundraiser last year for WYO Gives. It's a kind of a competitive event. There's a lot of dynamics involved.

so We work really hard to get folks involved in that day and so that happens at the start of July. So, WYO Gives is a great place to contribute to the Wyldlife Fund and you can actually contribute to specific projects and initiatives that we're working on there. that's cool. I've often suggested that maybe the IRS should work that way.

could have to contribute a specific amount, but we get to choose which funds it goes into. So there you go. That's awesome. And we'll make sure we link to the Wyldlife Fund website and the show notes so people can get in touch there.

Was there a major turning point in your career thus far where you felt like you kind of leveled up or made it, of were able to take a deep breath and like, we're there to some degree. Yeah, I would say once I got through that season where we were really short handed, that was a big transition for me. I think it's slow little things for me that tell me we're actually doing it. And that's as little as our team being asked to contribute in on projects and weigh in and be on panels and folks asking our opinion on how the heck do you do this thing that you guys tried?

That feels really good in terms of not only myself, but my team leveling up as well. And then I think, yeah, more and more as I'm going to mentors or folks to kind of ask advice, I am on the verge of feeling like I can offer something in return and knowledge in return and experience in return. And so I'm more valuable in these forums or communities where I can provide from my experience or perspective. And there's a little bit of, you know, time behind that and success.

And some of that is a lot of times the new thing that I tried that was crazy and now more people are thinking about it. But yeah, I think that it's little wins. My dad would tell me, kind of got to pat yourself on the back because nobody else will. I'm kind of bad at that, but I'm working on it.

And I'm taking those little wins where I can where I'm excited when folks are asking me to contribute to their learning. Yeah, that's great. think that's a great signal that you guys are doing some innovative and successful things that with only, you know, six years running a ranch and the relatively limited experience in the scope of families that have been on the same place for hundreds of years. When people are reaching out to you for your expertise, you know, you're doing something right.

Yeah, it's a blessing to work with your family and I'm lucky that my family has been in business together in their own realms and yeah, it is such a blessing but I'm particularly lucky because at my operation, even though my family's involved, they have given me a lot of freedom to make the decisions and empower me to do that and to lead the direction of the ranch, they are never here to say, oh, I really don't like the bulls you bought this year. They're like, yeah, I didn't know you bought bulls this year.

Great. Like, you know, it's, there's a lot of freedom in that. And so I am very lucky to have that family support. And yet they don't have all the bias of, well, granddad did it this way and we're gonna keep doing it that way.

And so are you. Like, they're like, nobody did this. So good luck. That's great.

Speaking of that, would you have some advice for somebody in a family business uh working multi-generational? I know that's often a difficult thing to pull off. Do you have some tips that has worked well for you and your family? Yeah, so just a little bit of context here.

My dad's been in a couple different family generational businesses from building to steel and plastic manufacturing. And today my brother manages that family business that's kind of involved with a little bit wider family. So I have a more perspective than just the ranch. And my brother and my mom and dad are always my mentor, so I'm learning from their experiences in family business as well.

But I think one, what's really amazing is family businesses are some of the most resilient over time. It can be very difficult. Anyone in a family business knows it is really hard. And yet they oftentimes are the businesses that are the hundred, 200 year old businesses.

that stand the test of time because family is involved. So there is a particular strength and difficulty there. One of the things that we feel as a family is it remaining close and practicing. We're not perfect, but we try to practice times where you don't talk about work.

We're not perfect about it, but we kind of like, okay, we're the car ride home. We're not going to talk about work or you know, which for us is about an hour. And then dinner time, we're gonna try. Mom's a really good referee on that.

And she is the glue of our family to understand that we're better together than apart. And that is always a great reminder. My dad is he it's kind of a joke, but it's very serious in practice. Being close with all of your in-laws, I have the most wonderful sister in law, she is like my sister, the only sister I've ever had and so remaining really close with your family personally is really important to success business-wise.

And yet like also really healthy boundaries. I'm not saying we have figured it out by any means. I'm very lucky to have the brother that I do. He's very understanding and thoughtful and I'm just like a tornado of loudness and he is so patient and wonderful and so it's good to have a brother who can hold on tight and hold the fort down for you.

But yeah, I think just remaining really close and knowing that, hey, I'm game on, bring on the storm. Like that's part of the game for sure. Well, this is my favorite question I ask every guest. I know you mentioned you grew up Catholic.

You studied uh Islam pretty in depth. Do you practice a particular faith tradition? And if so, how does that shape your leadership? Yes, I am Catholic and my faith is incredibly important to me.

I think that for me, if I didn't know there was something greater than myself, the challenges in life would be just impossibly difficult. And I am very, I'm just so lucky that my parents made sure that I had a very strong faith. And I feel very lucky that I studied other faiths. I felt like that strengthened my faith and just an understanding and a little bit of an outside perspective of that importance in your culture and community.

And yeah, I just, feel very comfortable with that. I don't share it. Like I don't think my... Community always knows where my head's at on certain things like my political feelings and my faith and yet it is really strong and important for me and how I conduct myself and it's just what I fall back on in every single challenge and uncertainty in life and so what a gift to have that.

But yeah, I think it's given me a set of values that's helped me lead the direction of my businesses. which I'm very grateful for. Great. Awesome.

So what is next for the little jennie ranch? What are you guys working on? What's the next step in building that business? Yeah, next steps.

Well, I think um building our direct-to-consumer beef is a very exciting path forward. we're continuing to grow all of our businesses, but we have to adapt. We're in a unprecedented time of cattle markets being really strong. My mind is thinking about all of the ways in which we will ride out the next fall of that and what that may look like or what may.

bring that. And so preparing, which I love about ranching because everybody's always they're like, it's great, but it's going to get bad. Like they are they are always preparing and they're a great group of folks. Like it's raining, but you're like, you may not rain next month.

I love it. They're thinking about can't be too optimistic, which I think is I think it's a good thing because they enjoy the moment. But for the ranch. What's next?

I think we're trying to get really locked down in how we do things and do them really well. So when opportunities come up, we can take advantage of them. Or when we want to do the next extra awesome thing, we're ready and we're dialed. We've been doing a lot of really cool events and things.

had a 200 person farmers market locally sourced dinner last summer. We've been putting on a ski drawer for three years. We've had kids camp for the three years. We've these lots of different events.

We've had two commercials, several music videos, all of these things that come up and are like these big production moments for us. And, but my team, I haven't gotten everybody locked in and our systems really dialed. And so I've kind of taken a little bit of a half step back to be like, I want to support everybody and get them and feel really good. about what we're doing so then the extra stuff isn't that big of a deal.

And we pull it off, I'm always so proud of us, like my crew, they just can do anything. They know they work for somebody who's never satisfied and always hungry, so it's their own fault. But I think getting that dialed in so we can say like, let's bring back doing the ski job. Let's take advantage when we can do this special event or the next thing or an opportunity comes where I don't even know what it could be, but if we're not dialed in on how we're doing things now, it makes it harder to jump in the pool.

So, but I'm a big believer, jump in the pool, you'll learn to swim. That's great. Yeah, I can hear that in your story. And I think that was a big part of what you said growing up that gave you the confidence to do what you're doing is being thrown in the deep end and having to figure it out.

And I can relate closely to that. My dad did that with me really well. And I struggle to find the best way to do that with my own kids, but it sounds like your parents did a fantastic job. Yes, I have very loving, supportive parents, but I feel very lucky that they pushed really hard and they had expectations and they made me tough.

you know, I had a very happy home life, lots of positive things. I was good at school, good at sports, and so they were like, yeah, you need some slush balls in the face, so we're going to throw them at you. Whether it's like at work. or whatever it is and so I do really appreciate it because it's made me stronger mentally in my faith and what I'm doing today.

That's great. That's fantastic to hear. So if our listeners want to take advantage of some of your services, if they want to purchase some of your beef or come and share an experience on the little jennie, what's the best way to do that or the best way to get in touch with you? Yeah, best way to get in touch with me is going to our website, thelittlejennieranch.

com and you can communicate with us right there through a portal or email us info@thelittlejennieranch.com You can also call us the old fashioned way. We love to talk on the phone 307-733-1044. And that's a great way to get in touch and get to the right.

person or what you're looking for at the ranch between coming to book an experience or a ride or an adventure to how do I get beef? Today we are selling beef just kind of in our local areas of Pinedale and Jackson. But we are at farmers markets in the summer three days a week in Jackson and so able to do that and the future hopefully holds some shipping of beef as well. And we great way to connect with us and stay connected and learn about the ranch and I love this so you know like and follow but mostly follow and talk to us is Instagram and Facebook.

We're on there trying to tell our story. I try to be positive, but I'm telling the real story of what's going on. I'm not sugarcoating and selling to you all the time. I'm like this is what the day was and things are goofy.

Things can be hard or sad and we're talking about it there and So follow along on that adventure and we really do enjoy connecting with you. That's one of the also the most impactful ways that we're able to build our business. Great. Well, we will make sure we link to all of those links in the show notes, so listeners can just click there.

And Erick, you can see this, I guess most of the listeners, unless they're watching, but Jennie has spelled J-E-N-N-I-E. I'm sure you would find this if you spelled it with a Y, but the right way is with an I-E, so that'll be a lot faster to find us. Okay, all right, Jennie IE, perfect. Is there anybody that you'd like to see on the show, somebody you know or know of that has a really interesting story and interesting business that would be fun to learn more about?

Yeah, so I have a friend acquaintance in the cattle world and his name is Sage Askin. And when I was, kept thinking like, who should I say? Who should I say? But I have really enjoyed hearing about Sage's story and he's in the cattle industry as well, but really embodies the idea of growing a business from the ground up and doing what a lot of people will tell you is impossible, which is starting a ranch and being a rancher starting with no land and he's doing it and he impresses me so much.

I he probably doesn't even know how much I um have like fangirled over his and his wife's story of what they're doing and how they're doing it. listened to some of like his talks or some podcast he's been on but I think he would be a great person to talk One, because I love the cattle industry and think it'd be great to see them on here, but also because Sage really is making it happen and I think would be really well aligned with your audience. I always try to kind of, I have feel like I retell his story a little bit because folks, I start from my ranch.

I'm nepotism at its finest. They have, like I already got to start there and I'm trying to earn my way to all the things that- I'm enjoying it and Sage is doing it and kicking butt from the ground up. Awesome. Awesome.

We'll all reach out. That would be fun. I'd love to dive into the ag industry a little bit more and uh learn a little bit more there. So well, our last question we ask of most of our guests, if you have a job to do and have to use a cordless tool, which brand do you prefer?

Um, I laugh. So, uh, we at the ranch are mostly using DeWalt. but we have a joke on the ranch. It's like, which everyone's charged.

Yeah. Perfect. think that's the best answer I've heard to that question yet. Yep.

Which whatever is charged we're using. That's my favorite. Awesome. Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, Faith. It's been a pleasure having you on. I am definitely going to follow on Facebook and Instagram, and I'm excited to watch your journey more and just watch as you grow this business. It seems like you have something really special there.

Thanks, Erick. I really appreciate it and appreciate your time and talking to you. And if you're ever in Western Wyoming, let me know. check it out.

I'm going to have to look into some of those adventures myself. So And thank you guys for joining us here on from the ground up show. Again, if you want to take a moment, pause the show, send it to a friend or someone, you know, that might benefit or learn something. Make sure you like share, follow, subscribe on whatever platform you're on.

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