Mike's Update "I'm Back"

hi I'm Mike and welcome back to Beyond The Ranch 15 years ago I left a career in corporate radio my wife and I Aon moved to near Gillette Wyoming to help out with her family ranch we learned as we went we took challenges headon sometimes we succeeded and sometimes we failed but we always learn something along the way in 2017 we started a YouTube channel called our Wyoming life and we invited hundreds of thousands of people to join us in our journey taking a family ranch above and beyond a traditional cow calf operation we began marketing our products off the ranch and away from the typical outlets for farmers and ranchers we embraced the farm to table movement and eventually got away from selling calves into a system of feed lots and grocery stores we actually offered beef jerky along with Frozen beef and pork directly to our friends and followers and it completely changed how the ranch moved forward and how it made money unfortunately now in 2024 the ranch is seeing another major change with the breakup of our family Aon and I are in the process of a divorce and while the r waling Life channel will continue my story will no longer be told on it that's where this channel Beyond The Ranch comes in this is my channel to allow you my friends that I've made over the last eight years to see where I land how important it is to keep moving forward and my largest hope is to help others who have faced adversity and to help them come out the other side together we can see how a we can take a bad situation for the better and along the way we can have a lot of fun first of all let me update you on what is going on in my life right now uh it's been almost 3 months since I knew that there was no fixing our marriage now I'll never say it wasn't partly my fault but there's nothing that be can be done to fix it one of my favorite movies uh the Sha Shank Redemption uh came out in 1994 the same year I graduated high school but one of my favorite pieces of advice actually comes from a scene in which Andy and red are talking in the prison yard it's down there and I'm in here I guess it comes down to a simple Choice really get busy living get busy dying [Music] get busy living or get busy [Music] dying I haven't actually watched that movie in years but those words especially now stick with me we're all given that choice and I choose to get busy living and I hope to bring you and a lot more along with me a week ago I announced to the r waling Life channel that I would no longer be making videos on there and I would be switching to this channel some of you might have had a feeling something was going on even before then but you couldn't quite put your finger on it of course I knew what was happening and I was trying to get busy living even then at the end of January I took a job off the ranch for the first time in 15 years now my biggest fear was that I would have to move to find a job that suited me and where my talents lie I applied for jobs far far away as Los Angeles and actually got a few offers that would have meant me moving far away from here but most importantly far away from the kids who throughout all this still mean the most to me I turned down those jobs and I kept looking now some people say that God looks down at us on in these points of our lives and I don't know if it was God or just luck but a job did turn up that was right in my wheelhouse it's a sales and marketing job with our local Farmers Cooperative a company that's been around since 1928 and has been helping farmers and ranchers continue to do what they've been doing for almost 100 years I took that job and I've been doing it for about a month now I manage social media for them I work on their website I take care of all their advertising and I manage community events with along with a whole lot more it's very different from what I have done but in some ways it's exactly the same unfortunately it's not really a Content generating machine like the ranch was so we're going to have to get a little creative now consider each one of you guys every single one of you my friends and while I may have an 8 to five job I'm still hoping to share with you the most interesting parts of that job helping other farmers and ranchers specifically but also helping myself the other portion of this adventure is going to be moving on with life uh the big thing right now is finding a house right now I'm actually living in the Airbnb on the ranch but come May 1st I'm I will be moving along as the Airbnb is an income property for Aaron and the ranch and I have been looking for a place rentals are pretty tough to find here in Gillette especially one big enough for me and three kids but I'm keeping my hopes up uh not really on finding a rental however uh hopefully I want to find someplace to buy but as you can imagine getting Finance for a house during divorce is hard but I'm not giving up quite yet my hope is that will find a place maybe a little fixer upper that we can work on together and making it what we want it to be and we can do that in videos and live streams and everything else and I want you guys to come along with me uh as we do that uh as just part of this adventure I've also had other YouTubers reach out to me um they are more than willing to do live streams with us talk about some of the adversity that they've gone through uh with being YouTubers and family and all that kind of good stuff as well my goal for this channel is to be a channel where I can invite you over for a project work on it together and complete something that makes Not only us feel better but makes life better it's also a channel where we can sit down and have a talk a drink maybe just talk about our day just like two friends hanging out in addition the community around here has been amazing as well reaching out to me and allowing me opportunity to take you along with me to other ranches and farms around here helping them and helping their on their ranches and farms and seeing how others are turning their businesses around doing new things and taking a chance much like we did with our wiing life I'm looking forward to this opportunity and as hard as as it is to go through all this crap I know that I'm not doing it alone I have you my friends my family to help me drive forward not to sound too tacky but I guess to get busy living thanks for coming along I'll continue to update you on what is happening here I'll bring you along for new adventures that face me in my life and most of all I'm going to count on you to be there because that's all we ever need somebody to be there for us that's my update for today until next time I hope you have a good well I hope you don't have a good week I hope you have a great week

Channel: Beyond the Ranch

Views: 94,443

Keywords:

Id: cRbYtudLmI0

Length: 8min 43sec (523 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2024