About this episode
In this episode, Derek sits down with Toby Holsted to share a story that challenges one of agriculture's biggest assumptions: that there's only one path to building a successful ranching business. Toby reflects on growing up on his family's Oklahoma farm, helping build a large stocker cattle operation, and eventually reaching a point where drought, changing markets, and family dynamics forced him to rethink everything. Rather than walking away from ranching, he found a new way forward by questioning long-held paradigms, embracing Ranching for Profit principles, and building a business centered on solving problems for others.
The conversation explores the difficult reality of leaving a family operation, the role Toby's wife played in helping him challenge old assumptions, and how Executive Link and Ranching for Profit reshaped both his business and his relationships. Toby also shares how he transitioned from farming and owning equipment to managing custom cattle operations, why proposals and clear communication have become essential to his business, and how finding purpose beyond land ownership has given him the freedom to build a profitable ranching career on his own terms.
In this episode
- Toby's journey beyond the family ranch
- Lessons learned from Ranching for Profit and Executive Link
- Why challenging old paradigms creates new opportunities
- Building a grass-based, custom cattle business
- The value of mission, vision, and hard conversations
- Solving problems to create profitable opportunities
- Finding fulfillment without owning more land
Resources & links
Meet Toby
Toby Holsted and his wife Heidi, along with their two children, Eli and Landry Kate, operate a small ranch in southwest Oklahoma. They run a mix of owned and custom cattle of various classes, using sell/buy marketing and grazing plans to decide which class and how many — along with a strong focus on timing, so that the business works around the family rather than the family around the business.
Toby grew up on a large-scale family-owned stocker operation with a sizable farming enterprise. After taking RFP in 2014 and joining Executive Link shortly after, he branched out on his own in order to implement the RFP principles. Toby was an EL member for five years and has taken the RFP class numerous times. In that time, he learned the value of simplification and the need to find and fix the actual problem, not just the symptoms.
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