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Show Notes
Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon Farm. Learn about how having a coach can change your perspective.
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00:00
You're listening to a tiny homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. Today I'm talking with Morgan at Cole Canyon farm in Montana for like the fifth time, I think. Good morning, Morgan. How are you? Good morning. Good morning. Yeah. What a journey this has been um from Groovy Grazers to Cole Canyon farm to more surprises. feel like
00:26
We have so many pivots you've had to cover, so I can understand why we've been on quite a bit. Well, you're also really listenable and you're really fun and I like you so much, so you make it a joy to talk with you. ah Morgan has been, I don't know how to say it, she found herself a coach. Yeah. And I wanted to talk with Morgan about how that is changing things for her because I feel like coaches give us perspective.
00:53
That we need that our friends give us so tell me about how that's going Yeah, so we talked a little bit about the last episode. I was like alright. I just did this crazy thing I signed up for a coach, I've never signed up for a coach. I've actually never spent I Would say probably more than two three hundred dollars on continued education for myself, and this is thousands of dollars But it's really important that you invest in yourself just as much as much as you invest in your property right so
01:23
um I do some silver and gold stuff with a friend and her name is Diane Graber. She has a homesteading thing that she just launched. So I'm going to have you talk to her about Mary because her and her husband have been doing this for well over a decade. Like, yeah. So she's coming out into her homesteading area as I was coming into my set, you know, my, golden silver era. Like I was just learning about it. Right. And she.
01:52
came into my life about a year ago and she was helping coach me and that was really great, but I just had a lot going on. We covered a lot of what was going on in 2025, know, just lots of pivots changes. And she asked me about, I don't know, two weeks before the class, she was like, hey, jump onto this class, just say yes. It'll change your, change your whole world. I've worked with this woman before in previous adventures that we've done.
02:21
And she's a great person I just reconnected with her after 15 years. So was like, all right, cool. Like I'm, I love meeting people. That's how Mary and I met. If people don't know, she just messaged me on Facebook. Like I love talking to people. So it was one of those things where I was like, fine, I'll jump on. I don't have a problem. It's free, right? Like for me, income is lower in the winter time. It's kind of a squeeze here in Montana. And
02:49
So being free was great. It was something I could commit to. I got on and a coach is a vibe. Let me tell you, like you will not vibe with every coach. You will not like what some coaches say. You will think that it doesn't fit your niche, whatever, be it right. Like coaches are, they attract their vibrational group is what I'm gonna say. Like, sorry. uh
03:18
the wind's bad here, you're going to attract the people that need to be around you. So somehow I landed up, landed in this class and I was listening to it and it was about being a millionaire. And I was like, well, don't, I'm not just try, I don't strive to be a millionaire. And it's not that I think that it's unhumble to be a millionaire. It's just like, for me, 250 K a year would be life-changing enough, let alone 500 K in a year, you know, so.
03:46
For me, was like, all right, I may not vibe with as much the millionaire side of this, but I can get through the whole breakthrough concept of it. So I think there's a lot of like shame around having coaches or being open about having coaches. But there's a reason why in corporate America there's bosses and those bosses have supervisors and supervisors have supervisors. It's a checks and balance because like you were saying, Mary, it's a perspective.
04:16
So I got on, Melanie talked, it was two days. I really liked what she said. I had some really big breakthroughs about throwing spaghetti on the wall. I've said that here on this show before. If you've heard me talk on here before, I've talked about how we love throwing spaghetti at walls. We don't anymore. And all throwing spaghetti at the wall does is it either gets butter on the wall or it gets spaghetti sauce on the wall and it makes a mess. Correct. Yeah. So like...
04:43
In the past, was like, I'm just, and I was real honest about it. Like I didn't try and tell anyone we had every, you know, my ducks were not in a pond and we all knew that they were like in everyone's property. Um, and so Melanie was like, girlfriend, like you got a lot of potential. You got to lead with your feminine side. I grew up in a home with a first generation American as a mother from Iraq. And my dad is a Marine.
05:13
So there was no sugarcoating involved in my household. And so I speak sometimes from the masculine side of life. And sometimes people don't vibrate with that. And she's not saying that you have to be, know, whatever weird version we think women and men should be. It's just to say, you know, she was just saying like, you got a lot to say, use a softer voice, you know, like use my good storytelling voice and I'll capture a lot of people. And like you said earlier, I have fun talking on these podcasts as much as I do.
05:42
um hearing what people think about my storytelling. My son loves when I tell stories. So, you know, it just naturally makes sense that this would be a calling for me. And, you know, she was like, just kind of pull yourself back in. And had I not done this coaching, to be honest with you, I wouldn't have written my mini gardening guide already. I wouldn't have completed also my full gardening course that I'll be selling this year.
06:12
I wouldn't be getting set up for a website so then I could actually get help because I was paying for Wix and I was paying for the $50 a month program. And that was great, but I had to do all the work. spent, Mary, I spent like four or five hours a night, some nights, for weeks on end trying to get Wix to operate the way I wanted it to. And it's still not operating correctly for Groovy Grazers.
06:39
Yeah, I'm working on the one for the other podcast right now, the Grit and Grace and the Heartland Agriculture podcast. And I'm trying to get the social media buttons to work on the theme that I chose and it's not working. I'm probably going to have to look at a different theme. I do it through WordPress. once you get your website built the way you want it to be, it's plug and play. It's easy. You just update it. But getting them built is a pain in the butt.
07:08
Yeah, which by the way, I'm just gonna blurb in if any of the listeners on this show have not listened to the new one. You gotta go. You should be like running to your search button right now getting that in. Hopefully Mary will link the link below for it. like, yes, you should. Absolutely. Because I yeah, my son even listened to it with me. Like he was like, Mom, this is great. And like he loves the fact that 2026 is the year of women's agriculture, like
07:37
you know, especially being first generation farmers. that, that was something that you also had completed. So you can understand we're kind of in the same process of like getting something up and going and people don't realize how many hours you put behind this. So all it took, and you're going to be just floored. It took Melanie a 30 minute session with me. That was it. That's all it takes. Like,
08:05
you don't have to pay for hours and hours and hours of coaching. I'm taking a course that is self-paced and there's like, you know, twice a month Zooms where we can all meet together. You can watch a replay and I jump on the Zooms because I think it's really important to be present and plugged into what I'm doing, especially if I'm spending a few thousand dollars on it, that it's got to be priority at that point. Or then I feel like I wasted, you know, my own money and
08:33
that came included with it. to, I am going to get more like one-on-one sessions with her because it was very minimal information that I gave Melanie, cause this is just like an introductory one-on-one, but she told me that my whole goal has been since doing Groovy Grazers was to teach because I find that that's my passion.
09:02
and what I love to do the most. being able to teach, but just not in my area, but all over and then creating a community, I've have probably been on the soapbox more times than I can count about community being so important and what we do. And so being able to create that was really kind of seamless for me after she explained that I needed to get a Facebook group going, which I did, Built From Dirt Facebook group.
09:29
We have over 400 members and as Melanie said on the master class a few days ago, like we have active members and it's because I'm not just blasting people with just like, I'm not just trying to sell them something. Like I want to build a community and that is my honest mission in doing built from dirt farm school is having a place that we can all bounce.
09:54
bounce off of each other, but then also help elevate each other's businesses because most people that are in the ag industry, like as we all know, you can't have every single type of livestock and excel in any of them. You've got to really kind of hone in on one. So most ag businesses were all kind of like just a few small streamlines that kind of play together income. So, I mean, I've, I,
10:21
personally also changed a huge mindset of like and I'm not biblical or uh Religious in any sort of normal sense. I'll just say it that way, right? like I just kind of believe what I believe and My mother just came from Texas who is from like the Bible Belt, right? And she is a I will love you so much as my neighbor type like I just absolutely adore my mom and her views and
10:50
She told me, and I can't remember what scripture it is, but there's a scripture about like what you say you create. And that theme kept coming up. First, it started with my mom saying it. Then Melanie brought up exactly the same thing. And that was during that masterclass. And then one of my good friends, Harley, she said the same thing too, right? Because I'm sure you saw Mary, but for the listeners, Bambi is having to be put to sleep. And I'm sorry if I get emotional. No, it's okay.
11:21
Our Philly is lame beyond being, man, I'm sorry. I was hoping I wasn't gonna cry. No, it's okay, honest, it's okay, because I do it all the time, Morgan. I don't think I'm gonna cry, and then I'm like, oh no, here we go again. Yeah, Bambi has some issues, and you can't fix her, and I'm sorry. Yeah, and it's okay, and that was our $100 gamble, right? But to
11:48
To tie it into what I'm talking about, about what you create, we're sitting there and we had just posted the really heavy news. And this was after I had signed up for my coaching with Melanie Greeninoff and a thousand dollars later, the vet was essentially like Tyria Heid also. And we're like, there's nothing we can do.
12:11
the hawk injury she sustained, like there's nothing we can do with that, even if we did surgery on the left leg, which it was up to $3,000. And we were considering it like Bambi, Bambi is a one of a kind horse. And so we get inside, I sit down and I'm like, everyone's going to start texting me because everyone knew that this was this big appointment. I just sometimes I'll just post on Facebook because it's easier to update the masses, right? Sure.
12:39
I get a message from ah Hannah. She's another farmer out here and she's someone you'll have to talk to too. They raise cattle dogs, but she had given us Pearl and she said, hey, I got a filly here for you. She's papered and she had a tendon surgery, but she's going to track sound. Montana equine did it. I said, oh yeah, she's super cute. I didn't understand Mary that she meant free. Oh, okay.
13:07
Yeah, so right like kind of like you you're like, oh that's cool. Like someone's offering you a horse right away. What a not good time, you know, and and I I don't know hannah very well actually i've I met her through getting the dog but um, she had uh Someone in her family passed away and so she's been dealing with that since i'm like bought since I went and got pearl our little uh, cauli dog, right? So hannah's like yeah, she you know explaining me
13:37
Yeah. Yeah. oh
14:07
So right, like I'm telling you this emotional story because these are all the things that led up to like where I am today and man has it been a rocky 30 days. But when Harley said that I had to remember that like I always said that even if Bambi couldn't be pasture or riding sound if she could be broodmare sound. And then when broodmare sound was really not looking great I was like if you can just be pasture pet sound right.
14:34
And then she wasn't past her pet sound, but I said, I told my husband, said, it's okay. I know it's really hard. We'll save up some money. Cause it's really expensive to get horses like that are paper. Oh Oh yeah, it is. Yeah. So I was like, it's okay. We, we took this hundred dollar gamble. We failed out on it. Well, I wouldn't say we failed out because literally the vet Dr. Campbell was like, you have some of the nicest babies I've gotten to handle with. Like
15:00
thanked me for how pleasurable my weanlings were to deal with, which is so cool because this is our first time having babies, right? So I have taken so much pride and I do take a lot of pride in the way my animals are up kept, their behavior, their mannerisms. And so it felt really good for her to say that, but she told me she was like, definitely let this one pass, but I mean, know that you...
15:26
that you've done a great job, this is nothing you did wrong, right? So I told my husband, I was like, the next one will be papered. She'll be papered because Betty is papered, my other mayor is papered. I mean, papers don't mean everything, but if we're trying to run a good program, like what is probably in the works right now with our friend Harley, then we need good mayors. So I sent Harley the paperwork on this mayor and she's like, yeah, absolutely.
15:56
Yeah, yes, that's really cool. And she's like, wow, like that is a nice mare. And it was all because Hannah said, um
16:06
you guys will do right by this mayor essentially. Like, we're not going to overwork a horse, we're going to do right by them. But like in another sense, like the vet being impressed, right? So, but I started speaking that into existence right away. Like as soon as we got the news before Hannah had messaged me, like we're going to have a papered horse. We're going to, we're going to recover from this. It's going to be okay. Maybe it wasn't great that we had three.
16:35
Three under three, right? But I had it horse style. I was like, it'll all be okay. And then we get the message from Hannah. So speaking positively and speaking the outcome you want is so, so important. And I think that's something that I've probably really failed at in the last few years of my life. And it's something that I had to come to terms with was sitting there and being like, man.
17:05
I have spoke like the most absolute negativity through this lawsuit over the land. I've spoken the worst about not being able to afford a house, which by the way, we're getting pre-qualified because we are actually moving. know, but that changed too. Yeah, it's a big change. don't want to, I'll be honest, Mary, with you, I can stay on this 20 acres and I can live around all these people that absolutely do not want me to farm.
17:33
And they're going to listen to this episode because that's on track with what they do to see what we're doing next. Or I can just say, I'm going to go farm somewhere else where there's water. Yep. Yep. I'm going to in just for a minute. There's a saying about when one door open or closes another or a window opens or something like that. I think that the Bambi situation is that.
18:00
And I listened to the free masterclass that Melanie, your coach had put on this week. I missed the first hour because I had other things that had going on. But I listened to the second part yesterday and she's big on the things that we worry about. We invite into our lives. Yes. And the one thing that I really got out of the 45 minutes I listened yesterday was that because I was like, you know, I used to know that.
18:29
I used to be like, I'm not going to think negatively. No, I'm not going to worry about not having enough money. I'm going to manifest money. I'm going to think it's going to be okay. The money will come or whatever it was that I needed. And in the last couple of years, things have been rough and I have not been thinking positively. And when I got done listening to her, her second half of her webinar that she did,
18:58
I was like, oh, that was the thing I was supposed to take away from it. And I woke up at three o'clock this morning thinking, okay, I have to get that website thing figured out and I'm going to make it work. And Morgan's going to talk to me today. That's exciting. And I didn't wake up worrying. I woke up excited. Yeah. It's different when you do that. Like even with Bambi and like, I don't think that there's such thing as like test, but I think that that was.
19:26
whatever you believe in's way of showing me that like, no, actually your mindset did change because like, instead of being down and feeling like I completely let down this Philly, which I didn't, I went above and beyond anything that I could do for her. ah I was like, it's okay, life's okay. Even if, you know, we end up not getting this free Philly, like that, that still wouldn't make me go back into a negative mindset because that's...
19:56
It is what it is. It was a gamble, right? And I think that in this day and age, we're all... Like news used to cycle, Andy and I were talking about this, news used to cycle like a week, right? Like they would be replaying the same stuff. I remember when I was little and I like swear that I called this an existence sometimes. I'd be like, why isn't there anything new on the news? Why hasn't anything new happened? It's not like that anymore.
20:26
That it cycles out between 12 hours, a whole new string of stories every day. Yeah. And it's getting really exhausting. I have had to actually turn the news off lately unless I see something really important come through on my phone, AP app. I'm like, no, I can't, I can't listen to this anymore because it's all negative. Yeah. See? So like that's exactly what I was getting to. So we're just all.
20:57
Trying to escape the negativeness in life so we think something shiny and new or great needs to happen every single day because everyone makes things look like an Instagram story and like that is the last of the dreams that I could ever show like is a false Morgan like I
21:17
If you ask people about me, they'll tell you like, I just am who I am. Like, you never have to guess. I'm just going to say the things that might upset you, but I'm the same person in every room. And that's something that I'm really big about. So I try to share even on my Facebook, the good and the bad, because if everything you see is just positive all the time, and it's fake positivity, like you can tell. You're like, there's no way that there's something new.
21:44
and great happening every single day in somebody's life. But if you can take from the fact that I can create a good mood every day, and that'll lead to the next big positive thing in my life, then that's, I mean, that's really ideally it. Like, yes, you should wake up and feel like a million bucks. Yes, you should wake up and think you're gonna get a lot done that day. Because if you don't, if you only get two things done, that's a lot.
22:12
Right? Like that's still two more things that you've completed in a day instead of being like, man, I wrote a list for 15 things, but I only did two. So now I'm going to get down on myself. So as a woman in agriculture, taking a coaching with a woman that who does have a background in farming, her family comes from farming. we like vibed on the first webinar because I was talking about sheep farming and, and Melanie, what I like about her is it's
22:41
It's not just network marketing. It's not MLM stuff. She's actually teaching you how to be the best that you can with offerings. like she, that's what that 30 minute was about was to figure out what offerings I could offer to help bring an income to offset while the sheep herd is growing. Cause eventually the sheep herd will kind of take care of itself. But it was how do we get from point A to point B on limited income?
23:11
And I can write my own courses. I've done that kind of stuff before. I've written my own Zooms, my own webinars, you know, on my own research and then the love for teaching that we have. um Now, Groovy Grazers, is it like dead? No. I mean, I'm going to find an employee this year. So, I mean, as much as I hate to tell all of my reoccurring clients, it may not be me this year coming in, but it's going to be somebody that I've trained.
23:41
you know, then I can still keep that portion alive. But being away from the farm is hard. And it even though it was bringing in money, it was as hard as having a nine to five job. Yeah, it's not harder. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like, because I'm tired after that, because I have health conditions, you know, and I want to spend all my time farming. But one thing I've really like, slacked on is gardening. Andy uh
24:09
My husband is an expert in organic living soil. So if anyone has questions about this regenerative farming word that's going on, you know, how to no till and all that stuff, we, that is something we specialize in and that is really our passion. So Andy just has a lot of knowledge. He's just a hermit. So he's always been called a hermit. He's just kind of more in the background.
24:34
When it comes to teaching but Melanie was like you need to get your husband out there like you and you guys doing it as a wife and husband duo is like That's so cool. Normally. It's like just the husband wants to do one portion of it The wife wants to do another or like they don't want to do it together And I'm like, well, I personally couldn't imagine farming with anyone other than my husband So it makes sense that we going on go in on the farm school together, but also knowing that
25:04
You can offer like there's something like Mary, I'm sure there's something you could probably talk about doing podcasts, right? Yeah. And help other people that are doing podcasts and just give them a formula essentially of what you've done. That's something you could offer. You know, um, the next farmer down the road, well, maybe they offer chicken eggs and that's the only thing they offer. Right. Melanie would be able to tell you how to do that or how to at least assess it to make sure it's, it's profitable or not. And so.
25:35
That's something that I think coming from a third party is a little easier. dreams sometimes, I don't know if you dream big, I dream for the moon sometimes. I used to until I got really negative with the lawsuit stuff and I felt like that was never ending because we're like year four into that and it's still going, you know, like still actively not even hit the first courtroom.
26:00
You're talking another three more years. That's seven years by the end of this. That's why we've decided to move because I'm not doing that at all. And I want water. We were already looking at a property that's 40 acres, by the way, with a well and flood, 38 acres of flooded pasture, all within my budget. So good things happen, right? I spoke that into existence. I want, I'm going to find a house that's going to fit all these and we're going to get pre-approved for it. And so.
26:27
That's one of the biggest things for me is creating though a positive mindset that you can have like in a space you can't. woke up this morning at 3 a.m. You knew that we were going to talk and I was going to light a fire underneath you. Well, you usually do somehow, yes. Yeah, which is that's I mean, we were destined by the universe to light a fire under each other. So I love it. That's why love coming and talking to you. uh
26:54
So you knew you were gonna do that. You knew that either you're gonna have to get these buttons to work or just change your theme. Not once did you say, man, if I have to change my theme, I'm really gonna be disappointed. You just said, well, that may be what I have to do. Oh yeah, I honestly don't care what the theme is as long as the background that I'm working with does the thing I need it to do. Yeah, but you didn't even go down that mindset. Do you know how many people would have like,
27:21
snowballed all the way into the worst computer program ever and they can't do this. Oh, yeah, that was me about 15 years ago when I first started screwing around with websites. I was like, oh, this is such a learning curve. Holy cow. But all learning curves are hard. And that actually leads me right back around to what I was going to say, because we're running out of time here. We're at 27 minutes already. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It flies. You don't have to...
27:51
Morgan loves Melanie as a coach and that is fabulous. I'm really glad that you found somebody that you vibe with. But there are coaches for everything. Every coach is different. Some of them are very soft and very sweet and they still get the point across. Some are very harsh and very direct and they get the point across. So you have to figure out what works for your style with their style. uh
28:18
Some coaches are really expensive. Some coaches are not really expensive and you've got to figure out how to handle that too. Yep. Yeah. So, um, I love that you went and listened to the new podcast and I want to talk about that just for a minute. Um, the new episode comes out on Monday and it's actually about how the immigration situation in the United States right now is impacting agriculture and women in agriculture. Yup.
28:48
I just, we were going to talk about it shortly after that lady got shot here in Minneapolis by the ICE agent. Yeah. And I couldn't talk about it without crying. And Leo was like, let's wait a week. And I really needed to talk with my dad about it because he's like my anchor when I'm spinning. Yeah. And talked to my dad about it. And he said, I don't want to make things harder, he said, but it's going to get worse before it gets better. Yep.
29:18
And once he said that, I took a big deep breath and I was like, okay. And then I started looking into how important people from other countries are to agriculture because they come here to work and they work hard and they're good people. And they're sending a lot of the income home to their families to support their families. They're no different than you and I.
29:41
Exactly. so Leah and I talked about that and so that one will be out on Monday and then the next Monday, I think the episode is about 4-H because Leah has been involved in 4-H since before she was born, she says, because her parents were involved in it. I love that. No, that's going to be a good episode. So I will definitely be tuning in and I'll share that also on Cole Canyon Farm because that'll be a good episode. That would be fabulous. Thank you.
30:09
The new podcast is called Rit and Grace in the Heartland, Women in Agriculture. uh tomorrow we're interviewing the head editor, chief editor, whatever, of the Old Farmers Almanac, Carol, I can't think of her last name. Carol, I interviewed her on A Tiny Homestead, but we're going to have her come and talk to us on the other podcast too, because she is, she is absolutely a woman in agriculture and she is
30:39
deciding factor in what gets published in the Old Farmer's Almanac. Wow, that's really cool. It's gonna be so fun. I'm so excited. So Morgan, I am so proud of you for investing in yourself and having to make all of these decisions from a place of positivity instead of negativity. That's amazing. People can find you at Cole Canyon Farm on Facebook and are you, you said you're working on building a website or getting your website? Yeah.
31:08
The website will be up and going we're coal Canyon MT as in Montana. Yep. As in Montana on Instagram. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with getting a coach because I'm not sure that I think that people think that coaches are woo woo. Like, like only weird people get themselves a coach and that is not true. Yeah, no, I'm glad we got to talk about this because there is a big
31:37
dark shadow around coaching. And honestly, it's just a third perspective and it can excel your business. So yeah. And in case it didn't come through and I'm afraid it didn't. Morgan is a coach. Yes. Yeah, I do coach. So if you need help with gardening or I don't know anything else that Morgan's doing and would like to teach about, you can contact her at her Facebook page and eventually the website and
32:06
She will be more than happy to help you get started on your next project. Yeah, absolutely. We're super excited. Thanks for having us on, Mary. You are so welcome.