#299: How Julie Tripled Her Meat Sales While Raising 19 Kids and Grieving Her Husband

May 7, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Julie Hackman runs Belmont Springs Ranch in Lewistown, Montana, raising sheep for direct meat sales. After her husband's death following 30 years of marriage, she took over farm leadership while homeschooling seven children under 18. Through coaching in Charlotte Smith's Profitable Farmer Marketing and Mindset Mastery program, she tripled her meat sales in the first year—from $460 to about $1,380—while managing grief, family health issues, and farm demands.

Shifting from Follower to Leader

Hackman described her pre-widowhood role as the executor of her husband's vision, lacking direction without him. Joining the program after a free workshop, she adopted the "power of one" principle: focusing on single, manageable tasks instead of scattering efforts. This broke overwhelming challenges—like obtaining meat inspection permits—into chunks. Initially passive, waiting for responses from inspectors covering nine counties, she learned to persist: after coaching to "be the squeaky wheel," repeated calls and texts secured her retail license in two weeks and wholesale license the same day. She reframed officials as teammates, recognizing their overload rather than personalizing delays. This built credibility and initiative, enabling her to support her family independently.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Podcast Intro and Julie's Story Tease** - Host introduces episode, highlights Julie's challenges and triumphs post-husband's death
2 (04:23) **Julie's Farm Introduction** - Julie shares her sheep farm, direct meat sales, location, and website
3 (05:19) **Pre-Coaching Struggles** - Julie describes joining after husband's death, homeschooling 7 kids, lacking direction and confidence
4 (07:36) **Role Shift After Loss** - Transition from follower/doer to solo leader with 19 kids and farm responsibilities
5 (12:13) **Overcoming Sales Fear** - Initial terror of initiating sales, inspections, and customer interactions
6 (13:47) **Conference Booth Breakthrough** - Tripled email list at Modern Homesteaders Conference (14 to 44 day 1)
7 (15:19) **Customer Engagement Tactics** - Lessons on stopping shoppers, chatting like friends, asking for emails

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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The Farm Marketing Fix - June 2026

Episode Summary

Julie Hackman raises sheep on Belmont Springs Ranch in Lavina, Montana. She's a mother of 19 children, 8 still at home and homeschooled. And a few years ago, after 30 years of marriage, she lost her husband.

For three decades, her husband led the vision for their farm. Julie supported. Then suddenly, she was alone at her kitchen table with a farm to run, little hearts to soothe, and no idea where to begin.

In this conversation, Julie shares how joining The Profitable Farmer program helped her triple her meat sales in one year, build the confidence to lead her own business, and rediscover who she is as a farmer, a mother, and a woman.

This is one of the most meaningful conversations I've recorded; a story of grief, resilience, and what becomes possible when a woman finally invests in herself.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

How Julie went from $460 in meat sales to over $1,400 in her first year applying The Profitable Farmer marketing system
The specific strategy that helped her triple her email signups at a single homesteaders conference
Why "waiting for customers to come to you" is killing your farm sales, and what to do instead
How to shift your mindset from passive housewife to confident business leader
The exact phrase that helped Julie stop being intimidated by inspectors, vendors, and gatekeepers
Why pricing your products at the real cost is an act of service, not greed
How to build a family schedule that supports your business instead of derailing it
What changes when you start seeing marketing as serving your customers instead of selling to them

Key Moments from the Conversation

Sitting at the Kitchen Table, Lost

Julie shares what was happening in her life when she first encountered Charlotte's free farm marketing workshop — homeschooling her children, grieving the loss of her husband, and feeling completely lost about the direction of her business.

The Conference That Changed Everything

Julie describes walking into the Modern Homesteaders Conference and going from 14 email signups the previous year to 44 in a single day. Her kids looked at her and said, "Who are you, mom? You're acting like dad."

Becoming the Squeaky Wheel

The coaching call that changed everything. Julie shares how Charlotte helped her stop being passive with the meat inspector and become "the squeaky wheel" — leading to her wholesale meat license arriving in two weeks instead of months.

Tripling Sales in One Year

Julie breaks down the actual numbers: from $98 in total sales the year before joining the program to $15,600 in her first year, with meat sales tripling specifically.

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