Work Smarter: Save Time and Increase Profitability by Identifying Your Weakest Link

Date: June 24, 2026
Time: 11:00-1PM MDT
Price: $40

Running a farm or ranch can feel like a never-ending list of chores. It’s easy to work hard every day without knowing whether your effort is actually moving your operation forward or building toward your goals.
In this interactive two-hour online workshop, you’ll map your chain of production to uncover the weakest link—the place in your business that’s holding everything else back. As Elizabeth Marks, Professional HMI Certified Educator, shares, “Pinpointing the weakest link in your chain of production is one of the most effective ways farmers and ranchers can save time and invest their dollars where they matter most.”
Through guided exercises and small-group discussion, you’ll identify the bottlenecks and challenges slowing your progress, and start figuring out how to tackle them. Together, we’ll explore practical strategies to strengthen these weak points, so your time, energy, and resources go toward the areas that will make the biggest difference.
What to bring: a notebook and your updated Holistic Goal. If you don’t have a holistic goal, contact Program Manager Marie von Ancken and she will send you some resources to create one!
Bio:
Elizabeth Marks
Elizabeth Marks is a certified Holistic Management (HM) educator since 2013 and works with landowners to improve soil health and biological diversity on their farm or forest. She retired from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in 2025 where she had served as a soil health specialist for the Northeast. Elizabeth received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mount Holyoke College. She lives in Chatham, NY in a net-zero, energy efficient home she designed herself.