#307: Your Mid-Year Farm Marketing Plan: 3 Moves to a Profitable Back Half (Part 1)

You bought the planner. You color-coded the calendar. And you're still lying awake with 40 things buzzing in your head. Here's the truth nobody taught you: overwhelm is not a calendar problem, it's a mindset problem. And no planner can fix the belief that you should be able to do more than is humanly possible. In this episode, I walk you through a real coaching call with a homeschooling farm mom who was completely overwhelmed and beating herself up for "failing." We did the math on what she was actually expecting of herself: 45 hours a week of farm work, plus keeping house, plus homeschooling. And everything shifted in about 20 minutes. No new planner required. You'll learn: Why overwhelm is not a calendar problem — and why a new planner will never fix it The "five gallons into a one-gallon container" picture that explains why you feel like you're failing (you're not) The one question to ask yourself before you touch another productivity tool If you recognized yourself anywhere in this episode, come to my free class on August 17th. I'm teaching the one foundational coaching skill that makes all the others work — the skill that saved my life 25 years ago. There will be a replay. Save your seat: charlottemsmith.com/class The Profitable Mindset Academy starts late August. I'll teach all 26 coaching skills the most successful women I know use in every area of their lives. If this episode helped you, follow the show and leave a review. It helps more farmers find this work. 🩷

Ready to stop saying yes when you mean no? Free masterclass August 17th: Sign up HERE The biggest asset on your farm is not your land, your herd, or your equipment — it's your customer relationships. One loyal customer can be worth $10,000–$20,000 or more over her lifetime, and the farmers who treat those relationships as their most valuable asset sell out faster, raise prices without losing anyone, and stop scrambling for the next customer. In this episode, I do the math with you — and it's going to change how you look at your farm on a random Wednesday morning. In this episode: Why the customer who's bought eggs from you for four years is worth more than your best tractor — with real 'customer lifetime value' math you can run on your own farm The three reasons most farmers neglect their most profitable asset (including the guilt that stops you from hitting "send") How Sarah sold $100,000 of beef in five days, Brooke sold out 90 flower shares, Valerie 10X'd her farm stand in six months, and Hannah raised prices 70% without losing a single customer The difference between nurturing relationships and people-pleasing — they sound similar, but they're opposite forces Three things to do this week, plus one hard thing I want you to stop doing Key moments: "The woman who's bought eggs from you every week for four years is worth more than your best tractor." The leaky-bucket problem: why chasing new customers keeps you broke Never burn a bridge — the rule my coach taught me that I've adopted completely One email that emptied a freezer of 12 hogs in a few hours Resources: 🩷 Free class, August 17: I'm teaching the single most important coaching skill I use in my own life and with all my clients — especially if you say yes when you want to say no. Sign up at charlottemsmith.com/class The Profitable Farmer — my program where farmers learn relationship-based marketing that sells out seasons: charlottemsmith.com/mastery If this episode helped you, follow the show and leave a review — it helps more farmers find this work.  

Learn the Coaching Skill That Saved My Life: Watch HERE This is Part 2 of your mid-year farm marketing reset — the halftime huddle that helps you finish 2026 profitable and finally pay yourself a farm-owner salary. To raise your prices without losing customers, audit your top three products, raise each by at least 20% so you're paying yourself a wage with 30% profit left over, and build real relationships through consistent marketing so customers prioritize your farm in their budget. Then Charlotte shows you how to get your next six months up on the wall and put your one day off a week back on the calendar — with the mindset skill underneath each move that actually makes it stick. In this episode: - The pricing audit almost no one wants to do — and the three-step version you can run on your top products today - Why raising prices is a self-worth issue before it's a math issue, and how to raise them "cleanly" (no apologizing, no over-explaining) - The "20% rule": why raising prices by a few cents at a time keeps you broke - How to get your back half of the year on one wall calendar so you stop reacting and start deciding — and how to honor your future self enough to follow it - Move six, the most important of all: putting your weekly day off back on the calendar, and why rested farmers make more money than farmers who work seven days a week - A quick three-number gut check to tell you exactly where to focus next You'll also hear how Hannah raised her chicken prices 70% without losing a single customer, how Annie raised her floral subscription 25% and made $30,000 more without growing another flower, and how one meat farmer sold ribeyes at $41.50 a pound to customers who didn't even question it. A few lines worth replaying: - "Pricing is not a math problem. If it were, you'd already have raised your prices." - "You're worthy of a day off just because you exist — not because you earned it." - "Your numbers aren't a report card. They're a flashlight." Resources & next steps: - Start with Part 1 (Episode 307) if you haven't done moves one through three. - Free: get Charlotte's masterclass on the foundational coaching skill she teaches — and join the Profitable Mindset Academy wait list — at charlottemsmith.com/coach - Learn more about The Profitable Farmer - Follow the show and leave a review — it helps more farmers build a profitable, sustainable farm

Learn the Coaching Skill That Saved My Life: Watch HERE We're exactly halfway through 2026 — the perfect time for a farm marketing reset. If the plan you made in January got buried under spring chores, a sick kid, or cows on the loose, this is your halftime huddle. To finish the year profitable, you'll do three things: choose one product to focus your marketing on, plan one focused five-day sales launch, and build your email list with a simple lead-magnet QR code — and underneath each one, Charlotte teaches the mindset skill that actually makes it happen. In this episode: Why being behind at the halfway mark isn't a verdict — and how to use July to reset on purpose The "rule of one": how to choose the single product that will make you the most money this season (and why seven products is really 50+ jobs run by one exhausted farmer) How to plan one focused five-day sales launch — the single biggest needle-mover Charlotte teaches Why your email-list window is wide open right now, and the simple QR-code + lead-magnet setup that turns summer foot traffic into customers for life The mindset coaching skills underneath each move: choosing and staying focused, feeling discomfort without distracting yourself, and asking without apologizing You'll also hear: how Sarah sold over $100,000 of beef in five days after years of selling one quarter at a time, and how flower farmer Brooke went from struggling to sell 20 shares a season to selling 90 in a single week. A few lines worth replaying: "Being behind at the halfway mark is not a verdict. It's just numbers." "Diluted focus gives you diluted results and no money, every single time." "The doubt is not data." Resources & next steps: 🎁 Free: get Charlotte's video on the first and most powerful coaching skill she teaches at charlottemsmith.com/coach 🌾 Learn more about The Profitable Farmer ⭐ Follow the show and leave a review — it helps more farmers find their way to a profitable, sustainable farm Part 1 of 2 — come back next week for moves four, five, and six, plus a pricing audit.

Cheaper farm down the road sinking your sales? It's not your prices. It's a skill gap, and it's fixable. In the final episode of our 4-part farm marketing foundation series, Charlotte breaks down exactly how to get customers to drive out of their way to a rural farm, keep them coming back season after season, and stop fearing the cheaper competition. You'll hear how one client, Valerie in Pennsylvania, 10x'd her farm stand sales in six months, with five other farm stands, six weekly farmers markets, and cheaper butcher shops all surrounding her, and a farm building you can't even see from the road. Inside this episode: Why relationship (not price) is what makes someone drive past five cheaper farms to get to yours The real reason customers don't come back after the first sale How to build your email list at community events, pop-ups, and partnerships Off-season email strategy that keeps customers loyal year after year How far in advance to market wedding flowers, CSAs, and seasonal products The 5-day launch framework that has farmers selling out in one week This is the long-game foundation that has farmers in the Profitable Farmer program selling out, charging their worth, and serving customers for an average of five years. If you're a farmer wondering why people aren't finding you, or why they're not coming back, this is the episode that ties the whole marketing foundation together.  

FREE Event: Farm Marketing Week - June 2026 Sign Up HERE You loaded the truck before sunrise. You stood on your feet for eight hours smiling at every customer. You sold almost everything you brought. Then you sat down in the cab, did the math, and somehow it still didn't add up. If that's where you are right now, this episode is for you. In this episode, Charlotte breaks down why so many farmers are selling out but still not paying themselves - and it's not what you've been told. It's not your prices. It's not your photos. It's not the platform you're on. It's branding. And not the kind with logos and fonts. What you'll learn: The real reason hard-working farmers still can't pay themselves Why describing your farm and your practices is killing your sales The shift that makes price stop being an argument How to attract loyal customers who stay season after season What changes (and what doesn't) once you figure out your brand Join Farm Marketing Week — FREE Starting Friday, June 12th, Charlotte is hosting a full week of free live trainings for farmers ready to finally pay themselves. Live website reviews, the Power of One exercise, Q&A with current students, and live coaching on the last day. Sign up free 👉 charlottemsmith.com/masterclass Can't make 10am Pacific? Days 1 and 2 are recorded. Days 3–5 are live only. About Charlotte Smith Charlotte works with about 300 farmers a year across all 50 states and 15 countries — flower growers, meat producers, dairies, cheese makers, vegetable farms, CSAs, agritourism operators, and more. She teaches farm marketing and, inside The Profitable Farmer, her team does the marketing for you. 🌐 charlottemsmith.com 🎓 charlottemsmith.com/masterclass If this episode hit home, share it with another farmer who needs to hear it. And follow the show so you don't miss what's next.

FREE Two Day Event: Farm Marketing Week - June 2026 Sign Up HERE Click HERE and Let's Meet! Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery. You sell out every market. Customers rave. So why can't you pay yourself? If you've built something real on your farm and the math still isn't adding up, this episode is for you. Farm marketing coach Charlotte Smith breaks down the single shift that separates farms that sell out and stay broke from farms that sell out and finally turn a profit. Spoiler: it's not your prices. It's not your photos. It's not "pasture-raised" or "organic" or your logo. It's branding — and not the kind you think. In this episode: The real reason hardworking farms can't pay the farmer Why labels and farm practices don't sell (and what does) What branding actually means (it's not visual identity) How to stop competing on price The "Power of One" focus shift that fast-tracks profitability 🌱 FREE TRAINING Farm Marketing Week (free live online event): charlottemsmith.com/masterclass 🎧 LISTEN ON YOUR FAVORITE APP Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere podcasts are streamed. 📩 STAY CONNECTED Website: charlottemsmith.com

FREE Two Day Event: Farm Marketing Week - June 2026 Sign Up HERE Click HERE and Let's Meet! Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery. Shari Kruyswijk lost half her dahlias to a virus in 2024. She and her husband stared down 600+ tubers on their one-third acre in Lynden, Washington — the dahlia capital of the U.S., surrounded by competing farms — wondering how they were ever going to sell them. She joined my program in October. Her first launch in January 7X'd her previous year's sales. In this episode, Shari shares exactly what shifted: • Why she stopped trying to do weddings, classes, subscriptions AND tubers — and how focusing on one thing finally made her profitable • The mindset and calendaring work she didn't think she needed (and now can't stop using) • How she rewired her thinking around "too much competition" in a saturated market • The email-writing approach that turned her launch around • What it's like to run a farm with a less-stressed wife (in her husband's words) Shari is proof that you don't need the perfect location, the perfect website, or an empty market to build a profitable flower farm. You need the right skills and the willingness to learn them. 🌸 Want to learn the marketing approach Shari used? Sign up for my free masterclass: charlottemsmith.com/masterclass  

FREE Two Day Event: Farm Marketing Week - June 2026 Sign Up HERE Does Email Marketing Actually Work for Farms — and Why Are My Emails Going to the Promotions Folder? Email marketing is the most powerful tool a farm has — when it's done right. This episode covers why email outperforms every other platform, why your emails might be sitting unread in the promotions folder, and exactly what to send your list once you have one. Why is email marketing more effective than social media for farms? Email marketing is estimated to be thousands of times more effective than other marketing platforms because subscribers have given explicit permission to be contacted, there's no algorithm filtering your message, and you own the list. Social media is where people scroll. Email is where people buy. When someone is ready to make a purchasing decision, they go to their inbox, because that's where trust lives. Why are my farm emails going to the promotions folder? Emails go to the promotions folder for two main reasons: deliverability problems (account setup, sending patterns, list hygiene) and weak subject lines that don't earn the open. Both are skill gaps, not signs that email marketing doesn't work. Subject lines are the single most fixable variable. They need to feel personal, specific, curious, or directly tied to a problem your reader has right now. Generic subject lines like "Farm Update" get ignored every time. How do you write farm email subject lines that actually get opened? Write subject lines that sound like a friend texting you, not a marketer broadcasting an announcement. Think about your own inbox: you open emails that feel personal, that hit on something you care about, or that promise to solve a real problem. Subject lines like "The 5:30 freezer moment" outperform "Farm Update" because they're specific to a real situation your customer experiences. How do you build a farm email list from scratch? Build your list through three channels: a lead magnet on your website, social media posts that funnel people to your list, and in-person opportunities like library workshops, garden clubs, and partnerships with local wellness businesses. A great example: Charlotte's student Cassie built "5 High-Protein Dinners to Simplify Your Life." Five recipes featuring her ground beef, with a meal plan and her phone number on the last page. Made in Canva in an afternoon. Other farmers asked her for the file before she finished showing it. What should farmers email their customers about? Email about things your customers actually care about: their lives, problems, and goals. Not just what's available this week. Pure transactional emails ("Eggs available, $6/dozen") feel like a stranger asking for money. Story-based emails build relationship. Charlotte once sold out of London broil she didn't know what to do with by sending one email with a recipe and the story of how she figured it out. Relationship comes first; the sale follows naturally. How often should farmers email their customers? More often than you think. At least weekly during selling seasons, and consistently year-round to stay top of mind. A cold list is hard to sell to. The goal is for customers to see your name in their inbox and feel something positive. Not every email is a pitch. Some are stories, some are tips, some are farm updates, and the rhythm matters more than the perfection. Can someone write farm marketing emails for me? Short answer: yes. For the June 2026 cohort of the Profitable Farmer Marketing program, full-pay students get a private 2.5-hour session with Charlotte's operations lead, Rebecca, who builds an entire year of marketing assets specifically for their farm. This includes the lead magnet, welcome sequence, weekly emails laid out across the year, seasonal launch emails, and matching social posts (all customized to your customer interview language). The first farmer who tested this cried when she saw it. This bonus is only available for full-pay June 2026 enrollment; the next opportunity is October. Resources mentioned in this episode: Free email marketing course for farmers  - charlottemsmith.com/free-email-course Profitable Farmer Marketing program — June 2026 cohort opens with 'The Power of One' welcome workshop on Tuesday, June 23rd. Full-pay enrollment includes the done-for-you year-of-marketing-assets bonus. Sign up at charlottemsmith.com/masterclass FAQ Q: What email platform should farmers use? Kit (formerly ConvertKit) and MailerLite both have free tiers under 1,000 subscribers and work well for farms. Pick one and learn it well rather than switching tools. Q: How long should a farm marketing email be? Long enough to tell the story, short enough that nothing extra survives. Most strong farm emails land between 200 and 500 words. Q: Will my customers unsubscribe if I email weekly? Some will, and that's fine — those weren't your customers anyway. The right people will look forward to your emails. Q: Do I need to write a year of emails before I start? No. Start with one email a week. The discipline matters more than the inventory. Q: How do I avoid sounding salesy in my emails? Read every email out loud before sending. If you wouldn't say it to a friend at your kitchen table, rewrite it.   Connect with Charlotte Sign up for Farm Marketing Week at charlottemsmith.com/masterclass.   Subscribe and Review Subscribe to The Profitable Mindset Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And consider leaving a review. Your reviews help other farmers find this work.   Click HERE and Let's Meet! Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.  

FREE Two Day Event: The Farm Marketing Fix - June 2026 Sign Up HERE Branding is the single most important thing you'll ever do for your farm business. And it's not what most farmers think it is. This episode breaks down what branding actually is, why it eliminates competition, and how to find your brand even if you have zero customers. What is farm branding, really? Farm branding is two things: who you help, and how you help them. It is not your logo, colors, packaging, or font. A weak version sounds like "We sell fresh eggs from happy chickens" - that's a product description. A real brand sounds like "We help busy families who want their kids to eat real food access the cleanest eggs outside of raising your own chickens." The difference is specificity about the customer and the problem. Why does branding eliminate competition for farmers? When your brand is clear, you attract a specific group of customers who are not price-shopping you against other farms — they're choosing you because of the relationship. Two farms can sell the same raw honey. One brand might connect with health-conscious urban professionals; another with traditional homesteaders. Same product, different audiences, no competition between them. Charlotte has hundreds of farmers in her program, and some are neighbors selling the same thing. But they don't compete with each other. How do farmers stop competing on price with cheaper farms? Stop competing on price by getting clearer about your brand. The customers who buy purely on price will never be loyal - they leave the moment someone undercuts you. Customers who choose you because of your brand will drive past cheaper options to get to you. Lowering prices to match competitors is the commodity trap, and it leads to burnout and bankruptcy. How do you find your farm's brand? Your customers tell you what your brand is, you don't decide it. Interview them about why they buy from you, what problem you solve, and what their life looked like before and after finding your farm. Inside the Profitable Farmer Marketing program, Charlotte gives students 35 customer interview questions. You ask each customer a few questions. Over time, the same words and phrases repeat, and that language is your brand. How do you brand a farm if you don't have customers yet? Interview people who already buy the type of product you sell, even if they're not your customer yet - friends, family, or neighbors who already buy fresh flowers or care about pasture-raised meat. Their answers tell you the same things actual customers would: why they buy, what matters to them, what they wish was different. As real customers come in, you keep interviewing and refining. You can absolutely start branding work from zero. Why is mindset part of farm branding? Branding requires you to charge prices that reflect your real value, and most farmers have beliefs ("people around here can't afford it," "who am I to charge that?") that block them from doing it. Charlotte's student Valerie 10X'd her sales - same farm, same products. The first thing that shifted wasn't tactics; it was belief. That's why mindset coaching runs alongside marketing work in the Profitable Farmer Marketing program. What changes when your farm brand is clear? Your website speaks directly to your dream customer, your emails get opened and acted on, your customers come back season after season, and price stops being the main conversation. Other nearby farms selling similar products stop registering as competition. You charge what you need to charge. Customers refer their friends. The whole experience of running the farm shifts from chasing sales to receiving them. Resources mentioned in this episode: Farm Marketing Week  - opens June 2026. Sign up at charlottemsmith.com/masterclass. Profitable Farmer Marketing program — This June, get a done-for-you year of marketing assets built privately by our team. Sign up at charlottemsmith.com/mastery FAQ Q: How many customer interviews do I need to do to find my brand? One is a huge success!!! Then, do a second one in a month or two if you'd like. They're so eye-opening. I still interview a new customer at least quarterly. Q: Should I have multiple brands if I sell multiple products? No. Pick one anchor product and brand around the customer who buys it. Trying to brand for everyone leaves you connecting with no one. Q: What if my farm products are basically a commodity (eggs, milk, vegetables)? The product isn't what's branded - the relationship and the customer transformation are. Two farms selling identical eggs can have completely different brands. Q: How long does it take to develop a clear brand? The customer interview phase usually takes a couple weeks to connect with and sit down with a customer. Refining your brand language across your website and emails can happen in a couple hour focus time. Connect with Charlotte Sign up for Farm Marketing Week at charlottemsmith.com/masterclass. Subscribe and Review Subscribe to The Profitable Mindset Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And consider leaving a review. Your reviews help other farmers find this work. Click HERE and Let's Meet! Chat with us to see if The Profitable Farmer can break you out of marketing misery.