Using Storytelling to Grow Your Farm Business

Writing and storytelling built this farm—no money down. With a mailing list of CSA members who stuck around because I told them the truth every week, and a beginning-farmer loan that covered the rest. Because of this, I truly believe that storytelling might be the most powerful tool a farmer has to grow their business and expand their reach. That’s the thread David McIlroy and I pulled on this week on Talking Dirt.

David runs How to Write for a Living and taught the Substack Growth Sessions that changed how I write here. He’s also four books into a fiction career—two YA fantasy novels, two adult horror—and his shared how the novel, Humbug, is based on something that actually happened to him and his wife: walking out of a movie theater during the pandemic and finding the whole place empty. Nobody there. No staff. And that’s the opening scene.

We got into what storytelling actually does for someone trying to make a living off a farm—not the aesthetic version—the real one. David’s point: the stories that resonate aren’t the pretty ones. They’re the morning you can’t hear the sheep anymore. The crop that doesn’t come up. And right alongside those, the wins—the birth that goes right, the truck I crowdfunded because I had none and sold my sheep to help pay for.

David and I talked about why documenting the mess matters more now, with AI flooding every platform. We even touched on supplemental income, founding member perks, and whether you should name a chick after a paid subscriber. The answer is yes.

Rounding out our conversation, David and I lamented the passing of the iconic Sam Neill, swapped retro-movie favorites and agreed that Doctor Who’s Weeping Angels are legitimately terrifying.

Thank you to all those who tuned in to this session of Talking Dirt!
Join me for my next live video in the app.