First day back after Christmas holidays was today. What a day. I always feel mixed emotions after the holidays. I love working, however, holidays are Soul Food and I no longer feel guilty for taking them. I use to fall into that “I don’t need holidays trap” and wear my “workaholic tendencies like a badge of honor. Not no more and I haven’t been that way for a while. I am now wise enough, and been to enough rodeos, to know how essential holidays are for physical health, mental health, personal happiness and for quality family time. Especially when you are also married to a farmer. So all that being said, when holidays end I feel that remorse until I get in the door and right back at it. Then I am right back where I left off, however, there is no doubt that I am a happier and healthy version of myself.

2019 here we come…

Till tomorrow everyone,

Tracy

Happy New Year Everyone. It’s January 1st, 2019. Another year has gone by. I just finished up my post “Goodbye 2018” where I took the time to review, reflect and appreciate the year gone by. I will have a 2019 goals post coming soon, however, I wanted to make my first post of 2019 before I head outside for a cross-country ski to savor the last half of my final vacation day. Back to work tomorrow.

So first off, I wanted to share “The Rancher’s Blessing” for the New Year. I really enjoyed it and I hope you will as well.

A Rancher’s Blessing

May your life find true value and meaning
of things worth far more than mere coins,
of fresh air, green grass, happy critters,
and loved ones with whom your life joins.

May your work be an honest day’s challenge
that lets you sleep sound every night.
May the wind blowing free through your mind
lift you up every day to new height.

May your time not be always bound harshly
by somebody else’s time clock.
May your heart know the feeling of free,
as the high-soaring, whistling, night hawk.

May your dreams and goals be so precious
they’re worth risking your whole life and more.
And all the hard work you’ve put in them
will never become a dull chore.

May your hands show the fruits of your labor.
May you know yourself deep down inside,
so when you come to the end of your time,
you can say: ’twas a heck of a ride!

This blessing really stoke a cord with me so I had to share it. I hope you enjoy it.

The second thing that I wanted to share in today’s post is to announce my post a day for 365-days challenge. I have challenged myself to make a post a day for 2019. As always, I am intentional and have a plan. This is not just about posting daily. My five main goals for this activity are; reflection, gratitude, accountability, social activity and documentation.

I am confident that posting daily will cover goals #1 & #2 on my list by helping me to reflect and appreciate what I have. My futurist and achiever (Read Strength Finders 2.0 to find your top five strengths) tendencies create a very bad habit of living in the future and forgetting to appreciate the present. By posting daily, I would like to use this as my intentional pause in my day to reflect and appreciate.

The third goal is another big area of growth for 2019. More to come on that in another post. For now, though, it’s safe to say that I am challenging myself to live my best life in 2019 and onwards. Most importantly, in all areas of my life and not just hustle. I have always been very self-accountable, however, I think there is something to be said about empty website categories needing posts in them and pages needing content. When I first created this website it was only going to be the three main categories that you find on my homepage; Life, Farming and Hustle. They are still my main categories, however, I also immediately created categories for decor, food, fashion, and travel. By having these categories, it is my sneaking suspicion that I will feel the pressure to create content for the areas. Content needs subject material to write about..experiences. Experiences lead to a good life. Therefor, adding these categories should lead to me living my best life in 2019.

My fourth goal is to generate social media content with these posts. Will every day’s post make it social media. No, I don’t think so. Maybe down the line. For now, this challenge is pretty much 80% for me. I will share the good ones that are relevant especially on these days where I need additional social content.

My fifth goal is documentation. Gary Vaynerchuk says many brilliant things and one of them is that everyone should be blogging and documenting their life. He says imagine, maybe one day your great grandchildren will be reading your blog and watching videos of you. They likely will not have known you, however, with your blog they can completely get to know you. He wishes his great-grandfather had done this. What a cool concept. Whether or not I have great-grandchildren and whether or not this blog is still sitting somewhere accessible someday remains to be seen. In the meantime, I am blessed with a pretty amazing life and I want to document it even if it’s only for me. Kind of loops back to #1…gratitude.

Before I end this post, I absolutely must give a shout out to Nurse Loves Farmer who gave me the inspiration for this challenge. I have known about her for a long time and followed her for a long time as well, however, I rarely see her posts. One day over my holidays, I thankfully came across one of her posts. I read it, clicked on her profile and then realized that she was posting every day. The next part sounds creeper-like, it’s not that way I promise. I ended up scrolling through over half a year of her life. What a great gal with a neat life. Loved it. She posts about the farm, her kids, successes, and challenges and I am in love with her cut flower gardening. Not only has she inspired this challenge, however, I also plan to grow a cut flower garden this year. I had already had the idea for this long overdue blog, with divine timing, I came across her post and 365-day posting concept and it all came together just perfectly.  I hope that I one day get the opportunity to meet her and thank her.

So there you have it. New Years greetings, a blessing, my challenge, and the inspiration, and the first post of my 365-day post challenge. Day 1 check 🙂

Chat soon everyone!

Tracy

Goodbye 2018 it’s been…it’s been…well, I seem to be at a loss for words. I am really not quite sure how to sum up 2018 as a year. It’s been a hustle, it’s been liberating, it’s been full of creation and it’s been rewarding. What a year!

Let’s start with hustle. Very early in the year, January 12th to be exact, I stumbled upon an amazing thought leader in the digital and entrepreneurial space. My life was forever changed that fateful day that I was guided towards Gary Vaynerchuk’s first YouTube video. I ended up starting to consume his content and did not stop for months. He shared advice and knowledge with honest to goodness common sense in a way that no thought leader (that I have listened to) ever has. Mind blown. I started learning and taking insane amounts action. Before I go on, a disclaimer. For those of you don’t know me, Even before this period in my life I was no couch potato. Even before this tipping point, I can honestly say that I outworked 98% of people that I knew. I did not build one of the largest agriculture media publishing companies in Canada by surfing Netflix and living a life of fun and leisure. I have always been all about the hustle. So when I say that I implemented massive hustle, this disclaimer will give you some context for the extraordinary amount hustle that I implemented.

This year has been also been liberating. More than it being about hustle, it was more likely more about giving myself permission to be me and live the life I was meant to live. As I listened to Gary’s content, I completely divorced myself from the “9 to 5” way of thinking and I stopped listening to the crap about work-life balance. I was 80% there already on the subject. Gary’s words just pushed me another 10% and lifted 1000 lbs of weight off my shoulders. You may have noted that my math adds up to 90%, and yes, that was done intentionally. I don’t think we are 100% ever there on anything. Leaving 10% gives me Grace for those bad days in life when I fall a step or two backward on my journey.

See the “problem” is…I love working and I kept listening to mainstream crap about living a balanced life. Then I would feel bad and flawed because all I wanted to do was work. Again, I was 80% there already and accepted myself and my love for work, however, there were those bad days when I just questioned myself and asked: “Why can’t I just be like everyone else?” Every thought leader talks about balance. Gary came in and said a few things that resonated deeply. It was common sense and I like common sense. “A 1% life requires doing the 1% work.” Amen brother.

“A 1% life requires doing the 1% work.” Gary Vaynerchuk

Thank the lord above, I have been blessed with the will, the heart and the mind of an entrepreneur. Bottling it up and trying to act “normal” was killing me. When Gary shared his wisdom it was like the floodgates opened. It was like the reins were loosed on a track horse as it was approaching the finish line, or if you need yet another analogy, I was like a prisoner being released from prison. I think you get it. I was free!

This year has been creative. Yes, you heard me…I am creative!!! I am a very confident person, however, all my life I have never been interested in the arts, crafting or decorating. Because of that, I have always incorrectly believed that I was not a creative person. What a lie. I always have been and always will be. I just created differently. The way Tracy Brunet liked to create….creating businesses and new opportunities for myself, my team and our clients. This year, with the shackles removed, I started to create Mozart style. I actually used an app and created a practice podcast to learn the skills that would later enable me to create and launch “The Impact Farming Show.” I started a “play” social media account where I could test writing styles, memes, and posting techniques. This would help me learn, navigate and create a stronger social media strategy for my companies and my personal brand. By practicing behind the scenes, with an audience that didn’t know me, I was free to learn and make mistakes without my established audience witnessing my every move.

This year has been massively rewarding. Here are my major wins for 2018:

Main Lessons of 2018:
– I started thinking like a 1% er instead of a 10%
– I stopped guilting myself for my insane love of working. I removed the shackles and stopped thinking that I should be like “other” women. “You Do You” became my mantra!
– I rediscovered that I was massively creative.

Main Life & Farm Highlights of 2018:
– All the above of course plus:
– Having our bulls sell at Douglas Bull Test Station. Our bulls did really well.
– Saving my crazy kitten from near death this summer on the highway
– Spending more time at home this summer and enjoying my yard, planting flowers, the farm, and our animals.
– Discovering how much I love taking pictures of cattle, pastures, and sunsets. It’s kind of like my thing now 🙂
– Seeing another great calf crop from our herd sires

Main Work Highlights of 2018:
– Building an A+ Team at work
– Launching “The Impact Farming Show”
– Launching the show generated so much interest in our brand from farmers and potential advertisers alike. This was very nice to see.
– Getting myself and Farm Marketer out there in order to have a presence at the most important Canadian agriculture events across Canada.
– Creating the start of my own personal brand, online and offline.
– Being asked to be a guest on a digital advertising panel for a CAMA event
– Winning two awards at Best of CAMA in Montreal this year. One for our newsletter and one for best of Audio/Video 2018 for “The Impact Farming Show.”
– Navigated a year chock full of agency changes. There were some big mergers and account movements in 2018.
– Drove sales. I personally got National sales back on track and secured the business of a National Agriculture equipment brand that has eluded me until now. Our sales team has also acquired many new clients and strengthened our brand.