SERVICES

Entrepreneurial & Leadership Development

Strategic Planning & Visioning

Business Planning advising

Curriculum Design & Program CURATION

Mediation and Facilitation

FARM Business, Financial, Strategy and Operations Education

Whole Animal/Meat Supply Chain TRAINING

Full suite of financial services and training available through our partnership with Bernoulli Finance

 

SELECT Clients

Featured Projects

Intertribal agriculture council →

Over the course of a four year engagement, and perhaps my largest project to date, I was honored to design and curate the Intertribal Agriculture Council’s Bringing Meat to Market program. M2M is an extensive online business training for Native livestock producers all across Indian Country, encouraging them to embrace the possibility of direct marketing their meat and providing skills to do so.  With an intimate engagement team from IAC, we designed a curriculum that resulted in 23 distinct online webinars, 13 in person workshops and seminars, and engaged hundreds of producers, service providers, and livestock business adjacent advocates throughout the course of 19 months of uninterrupted live programming. Courses span major topics of business learning, from entrepreneurial and leadership foundations to access to land and capital, processing, operations, sales and marketing, and financial basics taught by over 80 thought practitioners and guest producer speakers, over half of whom were Native.  Through personal storytelling and example-focused content, our goal was to invite both existing and emerging producers to lean into the beauty and potential of their entrepreneurial endeavors despite what scale they produce at.  All courses are recorded and available for free on IAC’s Mighty Networks platform and this body of resources will be used for ongoing training and onboarding for IAC, its constituents, and its partner organizations in perpetuity.

"I had the pleasure of working with Olivia, who served as our curriculum curator and learning series facilitator. Her thoughtful approach to incorporating a Native perspective into the design of our materials was truly remarkable. Olivia demonstrated a deep understanding of cultural nuances that were different from her own and ensured that every aspect of the curriculum was both respectful and authentic. Her dedication to creating an inclusive and meaningful learning experience made a significant impact, and her work has set a new standard for excellence in curriculum collaborative co-design and development for me personally."

  • Kelsey Scott, Chief Strategy Officer,  Intertribal Agriculture Council

“Working with Olivia via the Meat to Market program has been such a valuable experience. Her attention to detail and technical skills have been essential in helping us tackle some tricky challenges as we grow our business. Olivia’s strategic thinking and problem-solving make her an absolute asset. She’s easy to work with, always approachable, responsive, and dedicated. It’s been a productive and enjoyable partnership.”

  • Erin Thomas, Navajo Rancher, 4 Canyons Land & Cattle / Founder, White Shell Resource Consultants

CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN’S WINDY CITY HARVEST FARM INCUBATOR →

The Windy City Farm Business Incubator is an extensive farmer training program that ensures a pipeline from agriculturally curious youth, all the way through farm ownership and operation. Interwoven with its horticultural apprenticeship and CORPS workforce development program for formerly incarcerated individuals, the Incubator allows a safe and supportive pathway for folks to dive into small urban farm business entrepreneurship on Chicago’s South Side. Most participants are fiercely dedicated to community food security and design their farm businesses to provide missing access to local food in nearby neighborhoods. O&co has worked with Windy City since 2018 providing intimate individualized business coaching for its participants, and a full suite of virtual workshops that take place in the winter seasons of each year during the three-year cohort. I design the business, financial and operational training program from the ground up and trainings include a roster of collaborators including the principals of Farm Commons, Bernoulli Finance, and SupplyChange.

“For years, Olivia has put together an amazing business training course for our Farm Incubator Program. Our program participants are new farmers also running new businesses. Olivia’s business training webinars, along with her 1-on-1 technical assistance, are such an important part of our Farm Incubator Program that I cannot imagine the program without her involvement. Olivia weaves together a webinar syllabus that is well thought-out and customized specifically for our participants. She brings together other experts in the field, and also works one-on-one with our growers to help them organize their business and give them realistic goals to work towards. Every time I attend her webinars or TA sessions, I leave feeling inspired and motivated to continue working in this field.” 

  • Joe O’Meara, Senior Manager of Farm Operations, Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest

“Olivia's expertise and insight have been instrumental in the growth of our farm. She has a remarkable ability to transform ambitious ideas into actionable goals, all while being a supportive and attentive listener. Her guidance has been invaluable, and we couldn't have achieved our success without her. We plan to keep working with her for many years to come.”

  • Soraya Alem, Otter Oaks Farm

THE CONSERVATION FUND: FARMS FUND →

The Farms Fund supports a new and diverse generation of ambitious farmers who aim to expand food production while permanently protecting significant farmland in critical locations across the United States that produce the highest return of food for people. The program secures farmland on the edge of major metro areas (currently  operating in 4 diverse regions across the country with vulnerable peri-urban farmland at risk of development) and match that farmland to the ideal farmer, who leases and stewards the land until TCF protects it forever with an agricultural conservation easement. Permanently protecting the farm means the land is more affordable for new and growing farm businesses, while keeping it a farm forever. 

As real estate and conservation easement specialists, the Farms Fund got in touch with O&Co to provide  business and financial technical assistance to both guide farmers through the process of application, and support them in their expansion and transition on to new 20-acre+  properties and towards economic viability and eventual purchase. In a unique arrangement, the Farms Fund even offers pro bono business and financial advising with O&Co to its applicant farms in preparing their documentation for submission, looking to support farmers and ranchers at every stage in the process towards sound land ownership and business longevity. The Conservation Fund’s Farms Fund program is also a pipeline destination for graduates of the Chicago Windy City Harvest Incubator, with Incubator farmers being ushered towards a relationship with the organization in the larger metro Chicago region.

“Olivia's support for enterprise selection, business planning, financial planning, record keeping, marketing, scaling operations and her connections to a larger farm business viability community of practice have been critical for our next generation regenerative farmers who are on the patient pathway to farmland ownership. Olivia is a dedicated coach, ally, flexible and pragmatic to support farm businesses in achieving profitability aligned with their values. I started working with Olivia when employed as the Program Director for the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest land-based incubator. She conducted a farmer needs assessment to gauge pain points of local growers, and from there developed a farm business training series of workshops and webinars accompanied by 1:1 technical assistance to meet the farmers where they are at to improve their overall business viability. Olivia has been critical supporting farmers in The Conservation Fund's Working Farm program in Chicago Metro/Midwest, Georgia and Carolinas geographies, including multiple farms who successfully transitioned from the Incubator into our program.”

  • Kelly Larsen, Chicago Metro Working Farms Fund Manager, The Conservation Fund

GRAZING SCHOOL OF THE WEST →

The mission of the Grazing School of the West is to provide meaningful learning experiences that inspire a new generation of land stewards who understand ecology, animal husbandry, and community care to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis. Through the practice of prescribed grazing, we aim to effect positive change on vulnerable landscapes impacted by a changing climate, while also providing opportunities for regionalized food and fiber production. GSW provides a comprehensive and field-based experiential approach to education that uniquely combines highly technical training, with a depthful grounding in social values supporting personal empowerment and community care. Our specific focus on vocational preparation and job placement is filling a gap in what traditional academia offers by providing field training and practice alongside theory in collaboration with businesses and professionals. GSW is designed to train in the kaleidoscope of skills required of  modern-day prescribed grazing and adjacent fields in the areas of Prescribed Grazing Theory & Practice; LIvestock & Operations; and Leadership,  Entrepreneurship, & Management. 


In working alongside co-founder Cole Bush for over a decade, and ever inspired by her brilliance and energy, we have transitioned the Grazing School of the West from a long-time school of thought into a real-time non-profit organization. Our journey from idea to application has been warping and weaving  its way to lift off, and we now  offer a full supply of training programs and collaborations. The coming years include dynamic self-generated and partner programs, both virtual and in the field. Most  notably we are developing a program for incarcerated individuals in partnership with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, LA County’s Pitchess Detention Center, and Shepherdess Land & Livestock. After a successful pilot program in 2023, we are now building a prescribed grazing training program to integrate with the established Fire Program at Pitchess. Our program aims to address themes of mental wellness and healing, job and workforce readiness, anti recidivism, animal therapy, agricultural know-how, and preparation for societal reentry. Specifically, I am directing the discovery and design phases including a national competitive review and full program design and curriculum  development.

Rancho Llano SecO

Llano Seco Jake and Ribs.jpg

Founded in 1861, Rancho Llano Seco is an original intact Mexican land grant parcel on the banks of the Sacramento River operated by the same family for six generations. Land stewards first and foremost, the Thieriot Family’s purpose is to preserve the richness of their 18,000 acres of wild California, 17,000 of which is protected under conservation and agricultural easement. Llano Seco employs a holistic approach to farming and ranching, and for more than a decade was a leader in Northern California sustainable, responsible meat and livestock operations, selling via the Bay Area’s most lauded restaurant and wholesale markets, its own online shop, and 4 farmers markets. Its farming activities continue but in 2023 Rancho Llano Seco closed its branded product business to focus on land and water stewardship and Sacramento River conservation efforts.