Last weekend I hopped on a plane and headed down to Palm Springs to join some of my fellow M5 Entrepreneurs for a reunion and mastermind with our mentor Mary Heffernan of Five Marys Farms.

Last year I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to grow our farming business to a position of being sustainable long term and to better serve our customers, I needed to start focusing on investing in myself as a business person and farmer so when I first heard that the rancher I had always looked up to most was starting a mentorship workshop I jumped at the opportunity.

To be honest, back in early 2019 when Mary announced applications were open for her inaugural workshop at her ranch in Fort Jones, CA I wasn’t really sure if I could swing it. You see with farming, there’s always something else to do or somewhere else to invest your money. There are fences to fix, equipment to buy, the list is never ending, but typically the last thing we feel like investing in is ourselves. Thankfully for me, Jay is always one to push me towards my goals and dreams and encouraged me to go.

Since a year had passed since that first workshop, and as all of us hustled behind the scenes on our farms, we were also fostering relationships amongst one another thanks to the community of women in agriculture that Mary had grown. So when that email popped into my inbox that Mary had planned a reunion in Palm Springs I think I’d responded ‘yes’ before I even had a chance to read to the bottom.

I got such value out of my time in Fort Jones and through the online community that followed, I knew I couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity. Sure we got to enjoy time by the pool and delicious food and some cocktails along the way but more importantly we also spent time working through our business struggles, teaching one another, and giving each other needed support.

Mary’s group motto for the weekend was, ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ and this group of women embodies that fully. There is no competition, simply a group of women committed to supporting agricultural in their communities and supporting one another fully as we navigate life as female farmers and business owners.

We come from all walks of life, we are first generation farmers and multigenerational ranchers, we live in big towns and small towns, and in some cases our businesses are vastly different but we are there for each other thanks to this community Mary built for us. I’m lucky to live in an area where I’m close to other farmers, I see them every weekend at farmers markets but because there are so many hurdles in the lower mainland for farmers who raise animals there are very few women I can lean on who raise animals. This has been something that until last year, I didn’t really realize I needed as much as I do.

And when it comes to our leader Mary, she truly wants us to succeed. She’s an open book sharing how she’s become successful and giving us the details of any mistakes they’ve made in the hopes that we can avoid them. Some of us ladies are up until the wee hours brainstorming our businesses.

My biggest take away from watching Mary in action is to strike while the iron is hot. If you have an idea, it’s important to research the risks but it’s also important to move fast, and get it done before you lose the excitement of a fresh idea. It really is incredible to watch her execute on a new idea.

If you’re interested in learning more about the 19 women who joined us for the reunion, check out this blog post by Ashley of Care and V Farms, she gives the low down on each lady and links to their farms.