Episode 26- Finding Your Compass

In this raw and honest episode, Christine shares why she's changing how she records - because the "polished" version wasn't the real her. You're getting the authentic Christine from now on.

She opens up about her scattered homesteading phase: the 15 versions of chicken tractors, learning to harness a draft horse with a picture book, and the annual W2 review wondering "where did all my money go?" Sound familiar?

After working with hundreds of land stewards, Christine has identified the #1 problem: we get so excited about being on the land that we just start with everything. We buy the chickens, the cows, the sheep - all sorts of projects going on at the same time. We go to conferences, come back with lists of cool things to do, and either try none of them or try to do them all.

The result? Scattered decisions, wasted money, burnout, and land that becomes a burden instead of the sanctuary we dreamed of.

Christine vulnerably shares how discovering the Holistic Goal framework changed everything - including the difficult realization that led to her divorce when she and her husband discovered they wanted completely different futures.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why most land stewards feel scattered and overwhelmed despite their passion
• The consequences of working without understanding what you want and where you're going
• How the Holistic Goal transforms decision-making from second-guessing to confident filtering
• Why your operation should be uniquely yours, reflecting your own gifts and preferences
• How to get your whole management team aligned toward a common destination

Ready to stop being scattered? Christine introduces her Find Your Compass program - 10 days to define your Holistic Goal so every decision moves you toward the life you actually want on your land.

Connect with Christine:

• Instagram: @ThrivingLandStewards (Comment "COMPASS" for program details)
• Email: info@thrivinglandsteward.com

The Find Your Compass program starts November 3rd. Your compass is calling - are you ready to follow it?

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the regenerative agriculture, thriving as a modern rancher, the podcast for ranchers and land stewards looking to build healthy land, profitable businesses, and a fulfilling life. Join us as we explore regenerative practices and holistic management to help you thrive in today's ranching world.

Christine Martin: 0:19

This is Christine and I wanted to share two things with you. First is that the month of October is my one year anniversary of having the podcast. I've learned a lot about podcasting, and I've learned what doesn't work, Secondly, I went back and reviewed my previous episodes, I determined that what you were hearing, what you were watching. Is not who Christine is. When I went back and reheard myself, doing my one year review, I determined that I didn't like hearing myself. I was too polished, too stiff, too constrained, and that's just not who I am. And I heard this piece of advice last week that we have to be in the podcast how we are naturally so going forward, you're gonna have the natural Christine, the real Christine, if you were to run into me at a workshop, if you were to hire me to work with you this is who I am. So I needed to be true to myself and to you too. So this episode and all episodes going forward, I will be talking to you like this. On a side note, I realized that one of my biggest constraint was, I was very scripted and my voice sounded differently. And so I am not scripted anymore. I do have my little agenda of what I would need to talk about, um. So hopefully you enjoy this better. All right, so the theme for today's episode is Finding Your Compass in my own personal experience as well as helping and talking and coaching and educating, hundreds of land steward already. I find that the biggest struggle I had and others have, is that they have a dream life. They have this vision of what their life on the land is gonna be like, but they're very scattered. With how they approach that. They're very, um, they're very spastic about it. Many of us, when we go on a vacation, when we, are going on a road trip or when we're taking flights, right? We know what our destination is, and then we arrange flights, we arrange rental cars, or we arrange, the route we're gonna drive. If it's a road trip, we arrange the type of clothes that we need. We might schedule some events at the destination to do so, there's quite a bit of planning because you have this desired goal of the experience that you wanna have at this destination. When we buy that piece of land, when we have this vision, you know, the reason why we bought the piece of land, we're very bad at saying, this is what I want our lives to look like and this is how I'm gonna get about it. Many of us, were so excited to be on the land. We just start with everything. We buy the chickens and we buy the Guinea hens to help with mosquitoes. And we buy the cows and we buy the sheep. And we have, all sorts of different projects going on all at the same time. And it can lead to frustration, it can lead to burnout. When we're making decisions, we're not confident about those decisions. We're always second guessing if those decisions were right or not. Many of us are coming to the land as a first time land steward, so our knowledge base is not sufficient. And we go to these workshops and we hear these neat presentations and we come back from these workshops from these conferences, with the list of things that we wanna do that sound really cool and. There's two routes that actually happen. We do none of them, or we try and do all of them. And both of them end up being, a disaster. So, I wanna share a little bit about my story of how I've come to be where I'm at, and I think some of you will resonate with some of my story and then what we can do going forward to keep that from happening so that when we make decisions, we know we're improving the environment, that we're also considering the financial aspect of it, and that we're moving towards that vision that we want for our life on the land. When I moved to Texas over 25 years ago, I knew that I didn't wanna live in suburbia, so I bought five acres and now looking back, I call that my homesteading phase. So I had the house built and then we built a chicken coop. And then, I put in a garden, I put in a raised bed. I didn't have a tiller, so I just decided on raised bed. And I had really sandy soil, so I knew it needed amendment anyway, and we did the raised bed. And then I learned about Joel Salatin. And determined that the chicken coop wasn't something I wanted to do, so I tore it all down and then I built a chicken tractor and I think I'm on version number 15 of my poultry tractors. Anyway, it's been an evolution. And then, I met some people that they were trying to be very sustainable with how they're working the land and they implemented a lot of Amish. Practices. One of them was to bring in horses instead of using a tractor, they brought in draft horses. So I decided, you know what, I want a draft horse because that would be cool. So I brought in a Haflinger, which is a pony sized draft horse, and I bought the equipment that I needed, the collars and the harnesses to use that. And then I bought some equipment. I bought a broadcast seeder that the horse could pull. I bought a little two seater cart and I forget what else I bought. I bought something else. Anyway, on a side note, I had no idea how. Harness the horse. So I did find a picture book to show the step by step for the harness, and my daughter was holding the book while I had the horse standing in front of me. I wish I had had a video because i'm sure it was super funny to watch. Try and put this collar on this horse while I'm looking at this picture book. And the horse just stood there, thankfully. She was very patient with us and she ended up teaching us a lot. Anyway, so I had the draft horse, and then I learned about A2A2 milk, and I wanted to. Have my own milk to make my own cheese because I love eating cheese. And so we brought in a Guernsey, but then I realized I don't have a barn for the cow. So my daughter and I built a barn, with my father's help. My father came in for the weekend and got a square and he did as much as he could and then went back Sunday and we continued on. Anyway, so did lots and lots of projects, and then I determined that many of our illnesses that we are experiencing was due to the food that we were eating. And so I decided that surely I've got five acres. Certainly I can grow my own food and. It was an absolute failure. I learned very quickly. It's a lot more complex than I thought. I also didn't have the time I needed to spend on it because I was a, a single parent with a full-time job that I had to commute an hour to get into the office and then kids activities. So I took on too much. Ended up getting frustrated because I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I spent a lot of money. I remember every year for too many years. Then I wished to share, uh, I would look at my W2 at the end of the year from my corporate job and think, where did all my money go?'cause it's not in the bank. Recognizing that it was going onto all these projects and I really wasn't getting the reward, the return on that investment. This continued until I discovered the holistic management framework and I had so many aha moments. It gave me the knowledge, it gave me the tools so that I could manage with confidence and effectively. And one of the first practices of that holistic management framework is. Finding your holistic goal, and I'll be honest with you, defining that holistic goal for me was extremely hard. I am a people pleaser. I have been a people pleaser for many, many years. And when we were given the assignment to determine what was important to Christine, what were the values that Christine had? I really struggled. I really struggled because I knew what was expected of me, but what I thought I felt was really important it was a difficult assignment, but I'm so thankful I went through that assignment because I got to know who Christine actually was, and it helped me start implementing some boundaries that I desperately needed anyway, so I did the assignment, and by this time I had remarried. And, I kept asking my husband to do the assignment with me recognizing that we both needed to be headed towards the same destination. Right? If we weren't on the same page, then we were gonna struggle. And he was not convinced this was important, so he kept procrastinating. And finally, because I was a good nagging wife. He sat down and he did it, and he did his assignment. And I had done mine, but I revamped mine. And we came back together to discuss what values were common between us and we had a hard time finding values that we had in common. Long story short. We determined that we both wanted different things out of life, and we decided after lots of contemplation, after lots of conversation, even talking to therapists, we decided that we were better off divorcing and pursuing our own path Separately. Uh, we're still friends. I still call him to help me with mechanical and electrical issues and maybe some physical stuff too, because I don't have the upper body strength that you guys have. And anyway, so the result of doing the holistic goal for me, was important in the fact that I was able to align my decisions and my path. Based on what was important to me and where I wanted to go. Yes, unfortunately I had to have a divorce in order to make that happen. I'm hoping that that's not the case for you guys, that you and your partner can find that common ground that you can use as a foundation to develop this life that you want going forward on the land. But as I work with more and more land stewards and, we're going into hundreds now. I find that this is the biggest struggle that we all have, is understanding what we want, what is important to us, and how we're going to get what we want, given what's important to us. Because you know what, we're all very unique, right? You go to any of these workshops, the Noble Research Institute, understanding Ag, HMI, there's gonna be all sorts of information that you're gonna learn from these workshops if you're in the regen ag movement. But that doesn't mean it works for you because of context, right? Context is one of the six principles of Regen ag. Context is very important. And by the way, holistic goal is also referred to as holistic context. So I'm gonna talk about holistic goal because that's how I was trained, but many refer to it as holistic context. And the reason why it's holistic, it's because it's not just about the environment. It also includes the financial aspect of land stewardship. And most importantly, it also includes the social aspect of land stewardship because you as a person, you as a family are very, very important. And if you're a generational operation, each generation is important for the operation. So it, encompasses those three different aspects. I've shared a few things of what happens when you don't have a compass, when you don't have that holistic goal, and the holistic goal does become your true north. This is where you're headed, and so every decision needs to head you towards that true north, and the minute you veer off, you need to readjust so that you can go to true North. Some of the consequences of not having your, true North defined, one I've already shared is your decisions are completely scattered. Your decisions aren't moving you towards your goal. Your decisions are taking you off all these different laterals, so you end up being kind of spastic, which results in burnout, which results in frustration, especially as a new land steward. If you've started too many enterprises, too many projects at the same time, and your level of knowledge is low. You're not being very efficient with your time. You're not being very efficient with your labor. You're probably not being efficient with your money. And it can lead to burnout. It can lead to frustration, despite the passion that we might have for this. It can happen. I felt it, it, it can happen. Um. One of the other aspects if you don't understand your true north, is that you can be in decision paralysis because the amount of information that's available is overwhelming. And so you have no way to sift all of this information to say, this works for me, this does not work for me. Okay, so. Having your true north helps you determine, you know what, that's beautiful and that's lovely that worked for him, but it's not gonna work for me because of these reasons. So it does help with decision paralysis. Second guessing your decision. How many times have you second guess your decision. When you have your true north defined, when you have your holistical defined, you know where you wanna go. So when you have to make a decision, you're gonna analyze, is this gonna take me to this vision that I want? The holistic goal is also extremely important, so that when you have to make a decision and your partner, your spouse, your family member does not agree to that decision, you have a way of saying, what is it we're all working towards? What is that final destination that we wanna get to? What do we need to do to get there? Given the situation that we experiencing right now, whether it's low cattle prices, whether it's a drought, whether you don't have enough customers for the product you're pursuing. If you and your spouse, you and your partner, you and your family member aren't. On the same page. If you have that destination in common, you can pretty reasonably quickly come up with a solution that's gonna address this problem and help you move towards that vision that you're working towards. Another aspect, and I felt this, and I've worked with a number of land stewards who have felt this, Your land now becomes a burden instead of the sanctuary you thought it was gonna be. If you are so tied to the land, because you have so many things that you're working on, you've got the sheep, you've got the cattle, you've got the bees, you've got, chickens, you've got. Eggs in the brooder and you're so tied to the land that you can't go off and take a vacation. That land ends up feeling like a burden, and that's not gonna serve any of our purposes at all. So making sure that you have that holistic goal, that you have that true north will help you determine that if you're at that time of life that you feel you should be able to travel and visit grandkids or, visit family or spend, a winter away, then design your operation so that it's permissible so that you don't look at the land as a burden and you look at it as a sanctuary that it's supposed to be. Then the holistic goal is also very important. For another reason, you are unique. You have your own set of experiences, you have your own set of gifts, and so your operation should reflect that, for example, I love red animals. I don't know why, but I like red animals. So when I was contemplating cattle, I wanted red animals. I ended up deciding on Dexter, but then recognizing that the meat yield was low for Dexter because I was selling direct to consumer. I've shifted to Red Angus. I have a friend of mine, a colleague that she likes black and white and, gray and red and spotted, and that's what she wants to see when she looks out on the pasture. That's absolutely okay. Right? Because we all have our. Different taste. Some of us are more visual than others. Some of us are more engineering minded than others. And so your infrastructure, your setup is gonna be completely different than somebody who's, um, who is very laid back and just cobbles things together with the scraps that they have. Everything is possible and your operation should be a direct reflection of who you are. As I mentioned before, the holistic goal. Make sure that you're addressing three very important components. Firstly, who you are and what you want out of life. Secondly, the quality of life that you need so that you can honor those values, what's important to you, right? What you need to have in place in order to honor those values. And finally, the third component is where is it you wanna get to, what do you want your obituary to read, like when you die? What is the legacy you're leaving behind with respect to the community? That social aspect, with respect to the financial, are you leaving an operation that your children want to come back to? Are you leaving an operation that your grandchildren want to come back to because there's revenue, because you're stewarding the land because you've created an environment the younger generation wants to come back to. And finally, what the landscape's gonna look like. What is the environment gonna look like? Are you gonna have healthy ecosystem functions? Are you gonna have, wildlife preserve? What is it you want to create out of this landscape that you own? So the holistic goal changes everything. It helps you focus so that decision making goes from second guessing to filtering. To see what is going to move you towards your desired outcomes. Instead of lying at wake at night worrying how you're gonna get there second guessing your decisions, you have much more confidence in that decision, knowing that it's gonna move you forward. And then you also have a protocol that when you make a decision. That you're gonna monitor that decision to make sure that it is giving you the results you expected. And if it's not, then you can very quickly stop that train wreck from happening and adjust accordingly. You go from. Analysis paralysis to confident decision making at the time that needs to be done so that you're moving forward. So you're taking that step and you're not stuck where you are. You're always asking yourself, is the decision I'm making gonna move me towards that holistic goal, or is it gonna move me away from that holistic goal? In order to support you and your land stewardship? This is exactly why. I created the Find Your Compass program. It's a 10 day program that will guide you on a daily basis so that you can complete your own holistic goal. A podcast episode will be dropped every day with some educational component in it, and then with a contemplative question for you to contemplate throughout the day. If you have a partner, if you have a spouse, if you have family members that are involved in the operation everybody will be able to listen to that. And then at the end of the day, you can share your contemplation and have you all work together towards putting together your holistic goal. Because I want you to be effective in your land stewardship. I don't want you to spend thousands of dollars on these projects that are not serving you. They're not moving you towards your holistic goal. Just because one of the prominent region ag people are doing it doesn't mean you need to be doing it exactly that way. You have your own uniqueness, you have your own creativities, your own skills that you can take a concept and say, that's pretty cool, but I'm going to adapt it and I'm gonna make it so it suits my values. So it suits my purposes. So it moves me towards my goal, and most importantly, that everybody in the management team, all the decision makers are all. Motivated to make decisions and to implement management practices that will move you towards this commonly defined holistic goal. This program, Find Your compass is gonna start November 3rd, and if you want more details. Will be available in the show notes. Uh, or you can go on Instagram at Thriving Land Stewards and comment or DN on any post the word compass. And I will send you the link to the details of the Find Your Compass Program. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you enjoyed hearing and seeing the natural me. If you have any questions, please reach me. I on the show notes, I have my email, contact me, and I look forward to talking to you next episode.

24:06

Thanks for listening to Regenerative Agriculture, thriving as a modern rancher. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, share with fellow ranchers and leave a review. Together we can regenerate our lands, our profits, and our lives. Until next time, keep thriving.