Cate Havstad-Casad, Part 2 - Building Businesses for the Greater Good
Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson
Mountain & Prairie Media
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2023
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you've listened to Mountain & Prairie since the early days, then I'm sure you remember Cate Havstad-Casad. She first joined me on the podcast in early 2018 for a conversation about her life and career as a hatmaker and farmer. In late 2019, she was one of the four amazing women who joined me on stage for a live podcast at the Bozeman's Ellen Theatre. And today, more than 5 years after that first conversation, she joins me once again to talk about her continued personal and professional evolution.
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Over the past few years, Cate has been working at a dizzying pace, focusing on creating and building several purpose-driven businesses. She's the founder and CEO of Range Revolution, the world's first regenerative leather luggage company, as well as the co-founder of Agricultural Connections Co-Op, a regional food distribution business based in Bend, Oregon. Additionally, she and her husband, Chris, have continued to grow their organic farming business, and her hatmaking business, Havstad Hat Co., continues to grow and evolve in unexpected ways. And to top it all off, in 2021, Cate and Chris welcomed their first child into the world.
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So, we had a lot to discuss! We started by talking about how Cate thinks about her work today versus five years ago, and why she feels it is important to continue to take business risks even after taking on the new responsibilities that come with parenthood. We talk a lot about Range Revolution and the Agricultural Connections Co-op, and Cate shares a ton of lessons learned from the process of founding these vastly different businesses. We discuss leadership and management, and Cate offers up some excellent books and resources that have helped her to become a better leader. We talk about fundraising, the importance of self-awareness, thinking versus doing, mentors, Wendell Berry, and our mutual love of hard work.
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Cate obviously has a full schedule, so I appreciate her carving out time to chat with me. Check out the episode notes for links to her businesses and all of the resources we discuss. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoy.
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- Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/cate-havstad-2/
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TOPICS DISCUSSED
- 4:00 - Comparing 2017 Cate Havstad to Cate Havstad now
- 8:00 - Talking about starting businesses and incurring risk later in one's career
- 11:15 - Discussing Range Revolution
- 15:00 - Where the business of Range Revolution stands
- 18:00 - Cate's work ethic and how she got potential business partners to take her seriously
- 20:45 - Cate's relationships with hard work and rest
- 23:45 - How Cate learned to build and manage teams in her work
- 27:15 - Cate's business book recommendations
- 30:30 - Cate's red flags in a teammate
- 32:00 - Discussing Agricultural Connections Co-op
- 34:30 - Defining a "cooperative entity" or "co-op"
- 36:15 - How Cate raised the money to start her co-op
- 38:00 - Why Cate is so good at fundraising and how she networks to that end
- 43:30 - Mistakes Cate made that taught valuable lessons
- 49:15 - Where Cate finds balance between action and reflective self-awareness
- 51:15 - Cate's mentors
- 53:45 - Cate's suggestions for Wendell Berry reads
- 58:00 - Other book and podcast recommendations from Cate
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody is Ed before we start I've got some brand new Patreon supporters I want to thank |
| 0:05.0 | Lisa Hillerns Chris Kearney Darren Gambling Joe Fitzsimmons Raphaelez, and John Kinsey. All these folks signed up to support the |
| 0:16.4 | podcast via Patreon, which is monthly or annual support. I just redid the Patreon page so there are options to support on a |
| 0:25.0 | on a monthly basis or on a one-time basis. |
| 0:28.0 | But the bottom line is that Patreon is what makes this whole mountain and prairie thing work. |
| 0:33.0 | I launched the Patreon page a few years ago and really didn't have any expectation that |
| 0:37.1 | anybody would sign up or want to support the podcast financially, but here we are a few years |
| 0:42.0 | later and this podcast and mountain and Prairie and all of its associated projects are my full-time job and I really credit the Patreon supporters with being the foundation of the finances that allow this thing to operate |
| 0:56.1 | and allow it to be a job. You can sign up for Patreon at as little as $2 a month, but if for some reason you can't afford it or you don't |
| 1:03.9 | want to do it no problem at all the podcast is free it always will be free there are |
| 1:08.4 | some cool benefits that come with being a Patreon supporter but no pressure at all |
| 1:11.8 | but for those of you who do support the |
| 1:14.0 | podcast via Patreon I really really appreciate it. It is what makes this whole |
| 1:18.6 | thing work. So thank you, thank you. Thank you very much. This is the Mountain and Prairie Podcast. |
| 1:24.0 | I'm Ed Roberson. My guest today is Kate |
| 1:36.6 | Havstad Kasad. If you've been listening to the Mountain and Prairie |
| 1:40.0 | podcast since the early days, then I'm sure you remember Kate. She first joined me on the |
| 1:44.9 | podcast in early 2018 for a conversation about her life and career as a hatmaker and farmer. |
| 1:51.8 | In late 2019, she was one of four amazing women who joined me on stage for a live podcast at Bozeman's Ellen Theater. |
| 2:00.0 | And today, more than five years after that first conversation, she joins me once again to talk about her continued personal and professional evolution. |
| 2:09.0 | Over the past few years, Kate's been working at a dizzying pace, focusing on creating and building several purpose-driven |
| 2:15.4 | businesses. She's the founder and CEO of Range Revolution, the world's first regenerative |
... |
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