Leaders Of The West

What happens when a rancher sees a hurdle in the cattle industry and decides to build the solution himself?

This week, I'm joined by Jake Nelson, rancher, Army veteran, and founder of CattleQuest. Jake shares how his background in ranching, military service, and entrepreneurship led him to create a tool that brings cattle market data from multiple stockyards into one place, helping producers make more informed decisions about when a...

This week we’re tackling an uncomfortable conversation in the job-seeking world: If you're applying for many positions and never hearing back, you simply might not be qualified for that job.

In this solo episode, I'm breaking down how to honestly evaluate whether you're a good fit for a role before you hit apply. We're talking about the "spray and pray" approach, why more applications don't necessarily equal better odds, and h...

This week, I'm joined by Catherine Neumayr of V8 Ranch, one of the most legendary Brahman operations in the world. Catherine grew up in the cattle industry, but she and her husband, Luke, also built a wildly successful wedding photography business, photographing more than 150 weddings around the world and building their first million-dollar business without spending a dime on traditional advertising.

Today, Catherine has brought tho...

If you work behind the scenes of an equine or Western event, whether you're managing a facility, producing a show, or just getting your foot in the door, this episode is for you. I'm joined by Dana Jensen, Managing Director of The League, an organization dedicated to advancing the equine and ag event industry through education, professional development, networking, and shared standards.

Dana shares her own journey from horse-crazy k...

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode with Sharon K. Beach. Listen to last week’s episode where Sharon shared the incredible story of surviving a kidnapping, a life-threatening medical battle, and a decades-long fight within the justice system. This week, we're continuing the conversation by digging into what carried her through it all: mental toughness.

Sharon shares her ABCs of surviving: attitude, belief, and choice. She als...

Some stories are too important not to tell.

This is Part 1 of a two-part episode where Sharon Beach joins me to share the remarkable story that changed her life forever. In 1989, Sharon was kidnapped and held captive for four days and five nights. What followed wasn't just a fight for survival, but years of overcoming life-threatening medical complications and navigating an incredibly difficult justice system.

In this episode, Sharon...

This week, I'm joined by Andrew Fraser, President of Halter, one of the fastest-growing ag tech companies in the world. We dive into the story behind Halter, how virtual fencing has evolved from an ambitious idea into technology that's transforming cattle operations, and why building products alongside ranchers has been the key to their success.

We also talk about labor shortages, succession planning, company culture, and why the fu...

In this week's episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on one of the bigger projects we've built at Of The West and sharing the real numbers behind its launch. I'm talking about why we created the Ag and Western Career Blueprint, the goal I set for its first launch, and what happened when we came up just short of hitting that number. More importantly, I'm sharing why missing a goal isn't the same thing as failing, and how having the ...

Building a great team doesn’t have to mean you’re competing for talent. This week, I'm sharing the story of how a simple conversation with a friend led Of the West to build a college internship program from the ground up for an agricultural business. What started as a solution to a seasonal hiring problem turned into a strategy that can help businesses attract top talent, develop future leaders, and strengthen their wor...

In this week's episode, I'm sharing a story that started with an unexpected flood of Instagram messages after Martin Luther King Jr. Day and led me to think more deeply about cancel culture, leadership, and the impossible standards we often place on one another. It made me realize how quick we can be to expect perfection from the people we admire, while forgetting that every person who has made a meaningful impact on the world has ...

In this week's episode, we're continuing the conversation on low-tox living with a look inside my kitchen and around my home. After so many of you reached out following the episode I did on beauty products, I wanted to share the swaps we've made when it comes to everyday items we use most for kitchen and household products. As always, I'm not an expert, just someone who's learning along the way and trying to make practical, sustain...

This week, we’re airing another popular episode we’ve aired in the past! In this episode, we’re doing some Q&A with our amazing Marketing Director, Sarah Wilson, putting me in the hot seat. I had you guys submit questions about Of The West; whether the questions were about ranch life, personal life, business, or entrepreneurship, nothing was off-limits. These questions are a bit more personal and will hopefull...

In this week’s episode, we’re taking a little break from our usual career and business conversations for a more personal discussion. After sharing on Instagram that I don’t use certain products in my own home, I received a flood of questions about the products we do use and how I’ve approached reducing our family’s overall toxic burden. I’m not a medical professional, and I certainly don’t ...

In this week’s episode, I’m sharing a lesson that came from a foggy drive across southern Idaho and the perspective it gave me about navigating uncertainty in life and business. We all go through seasons where we can’t clearly see what’s ahead, whether it’s a career transition, a business challenge, a relationship struggle, or simply feeling stuck. In those moments, our instinct is often to stop and wa...

I’m back with another episode for our solo summer series. Today, I’m sharing a lesson that started with hard-boiled eggs and ended with a $450 plumbing bill. What seemed like a harmless tip I found online turned out to be completely wrong, and it got me thinking about how often we accept information as fact simply because we saw it on the internet. From social media posts and viral headlines to AI-generated content and ...

Welcome to our very first summer episode of Leaders of the West! For June and July, we’re doing something a little different around here. Instead of guest interviews, I’m spending the summer diving into more solo episodes, talking about life, business, career growth, hiring, job seeking, and the heart behind why Of The West was created in the first place. And to kick things off, we’re re-airing the most downloaded...

In this week’s episode, I’m sitting down with Brent Turner, founder of Agri-Generational and author of Piece of Land, for a conversation that I honestly think every farm and ranch family needs to hear. We dive into the realities of succession planning, why so many families avoid these conversations, and what’s actually at stake when there’s no clear plan in place.

Brent shares how his background in financial...

I’m so excited for this week’s episode! I’m sitting down with my friend Rachel McGinn, who many of you probably know online as Rachel Joi. Rachel was truly one of the original creators sharing Western fashion online in the early days of Instagram, and in this conversation, we talk about how much life has changed since then.

From fashion and content creation to motherhood, ranch life, music, and silversmithing, Rach...

In this week’s episode, I’m sitting down with Sidney Schmidt, a Superior Livestock Auction representative, to talk about what it really looks like to build a career in cattle marketing from the ground up.

Sidney shares his journey from growing up around cattle to working in feedyards and eventually stepping into a role with Superior, where he built his book of business through relationships, trust, and years of industry...