Profitable Mindset

Join Charlotte's free Farm Marketing Fix, November 9th through 13th, at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass.

If you sell directly to your customers and find no money left for you at the end of the year, this episode of the Profitable Mindset Podcast is for you. Charlotte Smith explains that growing a great product and selling it are two different skills, and nobody teaches farmers the second one. Marketing can be learned, whether you are brand new or 35 years into farming, and Charlotte tells you what she will fix live and free during the Farm Marketing Fix.

In this episode:

• Why farmers who work every day can still end the year with nothing left to pay themselves
• The fatal assumption Charlotte has seen after 13 years of coaching farmers
• What happens each day of the free Farm Marketing Fix, November 9th through 13th

Links:

• Farm Marketing Fix (November 9th through 13th) – A free week of live marketing help from Charlotte. Save your seat at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass
• The Profitable Farmer program – Charlotte's marketing coaching program for direct-to-consumer farmers who want to sell out with calm and balance. https://charlottemsmith.com/profit
• The Profitable Mindset Podcast library – Every episode, free: https://charlottemsmith.com/podcast

If this episode helped, follow the Profitable Mindset Podcast and leave a review so another farmer at her kitchen table can find it.

Charlotte Smith is a farm business coach who helps direct-to-consumer farms become profitable with calm and balance, through the Profitable Mindset Podcast and The Profitable Farmer.

The Profitable Farmer Scholarship Applications Open until November 2nd! Apply HERE

Charlotte Smith, host of the Profitable Mindset Podcast, is giving five farmers $1,500 off The Profitable Farmer, her year-long marketing coaching program, which brings tuition from $3,495 to $1,995. If you sell directly to your customers, or plan to within the next 12 months, you can apply. The application is two short questions in your own words, and it closes Monday, November 2, at midnight Eastern. Charlotte also tells the story of the $400 she once asked a wealthy neighbor for, and the $100 he gave her instead.

In this episode:

• The story of the $400 Charlotte asked for and the $100 she got
• Who the scholarship is for, and the four things Charlotte and her team look for
• What every applicant gets, chosen or not: a free 30-minute strategy session

Links from this episode:

• The Profitable Farmer Scholarship (applications close Monday, November 2) – Two short questions, in your own words, for a chance at $1,500 off tuition. Apply at https://charlottemsmith.com/scholarship
• Farm Marketing Fix (November 9th through 13th) – A free week of live marketing help from Charlotte. Save your seat at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass
• The Profitable Farmer program – Charlotte's marketing coaching program for direct-to-consumer farmers who want to sell out with calm and balance https://charlottemsmith.com/profit

If this episode helped, follow the Profitable Mindset Podcast and leave a review so another farmer at her kitchen table can find it.

Charlotte Smith is a farm business coach who helps direct-to-consumer farms become profitable with calm and balance, through the Profitable Mindset Podcast and The Profitable Farmer.

Free training: Join Charlotte's Farm Marketing Fix class on November 9th at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass.

A flower farmer brought her Black Friday email to a coaching call, warm and well written and built to sell nothing. Charlotte Smith, host of the Profitable Mindset Podcast, shows the one line that changed everything, then lays out the five emails farmers need to send between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday: the teaser, the launch, the story, the last chance, and the close.

In this episode:

• The one mistake that keeps a warm, well-written email from selling
• The five emails to send, Thursday through Monday, and the job each one does
• Where to find the specific customer details that make an email connect
• What to do about the people who unsubscribe

Links:

• Farm Marketing Fix (November 9th) – A free class where Charlotte reviews real farmers' emails and websites live. Save your seat at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass
• The Profitable Farmer program – Charlotte's marketing coaching program for farmers who want to sell out with calm and balance: https://charlottemsmith.com/profit
• Every episode of the Profitable Mindset Podcast – The full show library: https://charlottemsmith.com/podcast

If this episode helped, follow the Profitable Mindset Podcast and leave a review so another farmer at her kitchen table can find it.

Charlotte Smith is a farm business coach who helps direct-to-consumer farms become profitable with calm and balance, through the Profitable Mindset Podcast and The Profitable Farmer.

Free training: the Farm Marketing Fix, November 9. Save your seat at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass

If your farm's Black Friday sale got crickets, or you've never tried one because "I'm not Walmart," this episode is for you.

Charlotte Smith, farm business coach for direct-to-consumer farmers, shows why a Black Friday sale that fails is a calendar problem, not a marketing problem: pick one thing to sell, give it a real name, close orders Monday at midnight, and write to one real customer. Start six weeks out, not the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.

This is the first half of the plan. Next week: the five emails.

In this episode:

- Why Black Friday works for a farm, and how it pulls next spring's money into November

- The two ways "10% off everything" costs you money

- Three questions to pick your one thing to sell, plus the fourth that matters most

- How to name and package it (the Sunday Dinner Box, not 10% off all beef)

- The five questions about one real customer that become next week's emails

Links:

• Free Farm Marketing Fix, November 9: https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass
• The Profitable Farmer program: https://charlottemsmith.com/profit
• All episodes: https://charlottemsmith.com/podcast
• Instagram: @charlotte.m.smith

If this episode helped, follow the show and leave a review so another farmer can find it.

Charlotte Smith is a farm business coach who helps direct-to-consumer farms become profitable with calm and balance, through the Profitable Mindset Podcast and The Profitable Farmer.

Join us in the Profitable Farmer program: Sign up HERE

This week I walk you through The Profitable Farmer from the day you join: what you learn, what my team builds for you, and how your year unfolds. The foundation has stayed the same for over a decade: your ideal customer, a website and email list that sell, a lead magnet, and the 5-Day Sales Launch.

What's new is Your Farm Marketing Year, where we build your first year of marketing in your voice. These are the skills that took Vanessa from 80 email subscribers to $175,000 in sales in her first year in the program, let Sarah sell $100,000 of beef in one week, and helped Brooke sell out her flower shares in a week at double her old price. I also answer your biggest questions, from overwhelm and time to saturated markets and whether it's ever too late to start.

What You'll Learn In This Episode

• Why social media can't be your marketing foundation, and what is
• What's inside each module of Farm Marketing from the Heart
• What Your Farm Marketing Year includes and when you receive it
• My answers to overwhelm, no time, saturated markets, and rural low-income areas

Free strategy call with Hayden or Rebecca: https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy

The Profitable Farmer Program — Doors close on Friday, October 9th. Sign up at http://charlottemsmith.com/mastery

FREE Event: The Farm Marketing Fix – October 5th

Sign up HERE

Next week I'm going live for five days, October 5th through 9th, fixing real farmers' websites and marketing emails on camera. It's free, every session is recorded, and you can save your seat at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass. In this episode I show you why your website isn't selling: your customer is not wondering how many generations your farm is. She's standing in her kitchen at five o'clock with two kids to feed in twenty minutes and chicken in the fridge she doesn't trust. The farms with the most impressive practices lose to the farms that understand her. One client sent a single rewritten email and sold two whole hogs from a list that had never bought from her. This is the first skill taught inside The Profitable Farmer, and there's a homework assignment in here you can finish tonight.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• Why "I'll do it when things calm down" never arrives
• What your customer is actually worried about when she shops
• The difference between describing your farm and marketing it

FREE Event: Farm Marketing Week – October 5th Sign up HERE

Regina Rivers was teaching full time, hauling frozen beef to hot Georgia farmers markets, and posting on social media around the clock. A gazillion tabs open in her head. She even went into debt stocking her farm store with wholesale products nobody wanted.

Last year she sold almost 70 beeves and barely made money. Then she ran her real numbers.

In this episode, Regina shares:

• The pricing spreadsheet that changed everything, and how she raised prices 20% with zero customer pushback
• Why she cleaned all the "fluff" out of her farm store so customers only see beef
• The weekly email with no buy button that keeps her selling out
• How relationship marketing means customers come for HER, not the price
• Why she's no longer exhausted, in body or mind, after four years of farming

If you're selling out every month and still broke, this episode does the math with you.

Ready for results like Regina's? Learn about The Profitable Farmer here: charlottemsmith.com/mastery

FREE Event: The Farm Marketing Fix – October 5th

Sign up HERE

Ethan and Natalie Brinegar raise grass-fed beef, lamb, and pastured chicken at Haven Hills Farm in Webster, Minnesota. They both work full time. Their daughter is two. They sell at one farmers market.

Eleven months ago they joined The Profitable Farmer. Since then, farmers market sales climbed 60% and direct sales climbed 75%. Prices doubled over two years. They shut off shipping. And this February they used the 5-Day Sales Launch to sell an entire season of beef before the cattle ever reached the processor.

Inside: why they abandoned a paid e-commerce site before it launched, how time management changed the way Ethan ends his day, what happened the first time they raised prices 20%, and the customer conversation that turned a "too expensive" into two packages sold five minutes later.

If you know your prices are too low and are afraid to fix it, start here.

Farm Marketing Fix (Free Masterclass October 5th) - If you're heading into another season unsure how to price or where to start, this is a full week of marketing help at no cost, and a real taste of what a year of coaching looks like. Save your seat at https://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass

FREE Event: Farm Marketing Week – October 5th

Sign up HERE

Every farmer in the valley told Kate Gessford she could not make it. There are no frost-free days on record where she farms. The market season runs ten weeks.

Last year she hauled vegetables home and made $120 on a good day.

This year she sells out in 30 minutes, raised her chicken from $6 to $10 a pound with zero pushback, and sold out a five-day launch in three days.

We talk about the pricing math, the emails, the launch, and the part she did not see coming: her autoimmune symptoms cleared, her marriage shifted, and she finally let people help her.

If you are working harder than anyone you know and still packing product back into the truck, start here.

Farm Marketing Week starts October 5th: http://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass

FREE Event: Farm Marketing Week - October 5th Sign up HERE

My dad's farm went bankrupt in the 80s. We lived on hundreds of acres and still had food scarcity.

After 13 years of coaching farmers, here's what I've learned: your success isn't limited by your location, your competition, or your website. It's limited by what you think is possible.

Farmers in my program average a 200% increase in sales their first year, and most earn back their investment within 90 days. They get the same training as everyone else. What changes is their thinking.

In this episode:

• The simple thoughts that keep skilled farmers stuck
• Why "I can't raise my prices" is a belief, not a fact
• The one question that unlocks pricing confidence
• How to kill overwhelm in your busiest season

Works for flowers, meat, milk, eggs, produce, fiber, and every direct to consumer farm.

Farm Marketing Week starts October 5th, join us at: http://charlottemsmith.com/masterclass

FREE Event: Farm Marketing Week - October 5th. Sign up HERE

"I should be further along by now."

Notice what that sentence does to your shoulders. That reaction is your clue.

Charlotte Smith calls this success expectancy, and it is one of the most expensive thoughts her clients bring to coaching calls. It feels like an accurate description of your life. It is a mindset, and it is the thing standing between you and the result you want.

In this episode you will hear real coaching examples: the client who stopped marketing for weeks, and the client planning 18-hour days to hit a deadline she invented. You will learn the four expectations hiding underneath the thought and the three-step protocol to replace it.

Your only assignment this week is to notice whether that sentence is running in the background.

What You'll Learn

• Why "I should be further along" is a thought you can change, not a fact you have to live with
• How expecting success can actively prevent success
• The four hidden expectations underneath the thought: timeline, effort, skills, and investment
• The three-step thought protocol Charlotte uses with clients to build a mindset that holds up in month nine

Key Takeaways

• Feelings drive actions. Nobody has ever felt defeated and then taken big, strategic action. Defeat produces quitting or frantic busywork.
• The lens distorts everything. With that thought running, your business, body, home, and website all look broken. Most of them just needed more time.
• Check the source of the target. If you did not set the deadline from a plan and self-confidence, you are not behind.
• Awareness first. Catch the thought, label it, and stop rearranging your external life to fix an internal problem.

FAQ

Q: What is success expectancy? A: Expecting you should already have it. That expectation creates frustration, and frustration drives the actions that keep you stuck.

Q: Isn't expecting success the point? A: Believing you are capable opens you up. Being frustrated it has not happened yet shuts you down. Those are two different thoughts.

Q: Why does "I Should Be Further Along" feel like a fact? A: Repetition. You said it enough times that it stopped sounding like an opinion.

Q: What do I think instead? A: "I'm giving this all the time it takes."

Resources Mentioned

• Free masterclass, October 5th: How to Say No Without Losing the People You Love. Live coaching included. Last time this year. Sign up at: https://charlottemsmith.com/class
• Profitable Mindset Academy. Weekly coaching and the goal setting training from this episode. Registration opens once more before year end: charlottemsmith.com/coaching

Ready to stop saying yes when you mean no?

Free masterclass October 5th: Sign up HERE

What's the one thing you wish you'd said no to instead of yes?

I asked 1,500 women that question on a free masterclass. Hundreds answered. The volunteer role. The mom who calls daily. The invitation you dread.

Then I asked how it feels. Anxious. Guilty. Behind. Resentful.

We coached for 20 minutes using one skill. When I asked again, the chat filled up: lighter, relieved, hopeful.

Nothing in their lives had changed. Same people. Same problems. Same calendar.

In this episode I break down what actually shifted, share what happened to Jen and Julie, and answer the question I get more than any other: isn't spending time and money on myself selfish?

Then I do the thing I've waited 25 years to do and open the doors to the Profitable Mindset Academy.

I've taught marketing to farmers for decades. This is not that. The Academy is for every woman, every age, every background. I've coached women from 17 to their late 70s and the skills work the same for all of them.

• Doors close Friday, August 21st at midnight Eastern. Join the Academy: charlottemsmith.com/coaching
• Free strategy call: https://charlottemsmith.com/strategy

Ready to stop saying yes when you mean no?

Free masterclass August 17th: Sign up HERE

A doctor told me I would not live to raise my babies. I was a young mom with a newborn and a three year old, and my body was showing signs of a stroke from anxiety.

I tried everything. Churches, meditation, mantras, journaling. Each one helped for about a minute.

Then someone said one word to me: coaching.

In this episode:

• The wake up call that changed the direction of my life
• Why short term fixes stop working
• How my client Deidre Clifton (episode 312) stopped losing sleep and started saying no without guilt
• Why 250 to 300 women a year say the mindset work changed every area of their life
• What I am teaching live and free on Monday, August 17th

Open to every woman. No business required.

Save your seat: https://charlottemsmith.com/class

What if the secret to a profitable farm is doing less?

Deidre Clifton of Prairie Peak Farms was making cheese, bread, soap, selling milk, and selling registered goats — and barely making a dime. She was behind on homeschooling, running on stress, and freshly diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions. She thought it was just farm life.

In this episode, Deidre shares how focusing on ONE product, raising her prices, mastering her time, and doing the mindset work changed everything — her income, her marriage, her parenting, and her health. Her autoimmune symptoms? Gone. This summer? Two months off, guilt-free, for the first time in years.

If you're a farm woman who feels behind and convinced the answer is to hustle harder, this one's for you. 💛

Ready to stop saying yes when you mean no?

Free masterclass August 17th: Sign up HERE

A year ago, Julie ended her farmers market season calling it a total bomb — and she was sure the fix was lowering her lamb prices. Instead, she raised them significantly. Now, her product is flying out of the freezer, and the items she raised prices on the most sold out first.

Nothing about her product changed. Same animals, same quality, same markets. What changed was one sentence in her head. In this episode, I walk you through exactly how to catch the thought that's costing you sales, profit, and maybe the farm itself.

You'll learn:

• Why "my prices are too high" feels completely true when sales are slow — and why it's almost never a fact
• The three-step skill that separates what actually happened from the story your brain tells you about it
• The one rule to follow before making any pricing decision: never decide from a discouraged thought

If your thoughts might be holding you back, come to my free class on August 17th — The Mindset Fix. I'm teaching the single most foundational coaching skill, the one 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 — all 26 coaching skills, weekly coaching calls for a year, open to all women, everywhere.

If this episode helped you, follow the show and leave a review — it helps more farmers find this work. 🩷

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: https://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 https://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 https://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 https://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.