Today, we are diving deep into what it truly means to be fearless—whether you're launching a business, standing up to the local government, or just trying to live a sustainable life.

• Featured Event: Mark your calendars for the Dec 20 LFTN Christmas Reception—sign up now!

• Sponsors:

• Wealthsteading Podcast: InvestableWealth.com

• DiscountMylarBags.com

• Broccoli rip cord

• TSP left over saute

• Peppers from Rick

• Ready for whole cows

Frugality Tip

I was randomly looking at Etsy and saw someone selling something I was interested in that was local to me. I messaged them and asked about local pick up and cash price. They were very interested in cash money with pick up and I saved some money on my purchase. So ask, it will never kill you, and might save you a few dollars.

Operation Independence

3-Month Rental at Basecamp: $800/month, Event Rental Launch

Main Topic: Fearless Living – The Two Sides of "Go For It"

We are talking about two forms of courage today: Professional Courage (to launch and critique) and Personal Courage (to be vulnerable and stand up).

The Farm-to-Table Dinner was a huge "Go For It" moment. The real courage is in the fearless honesty of the After Action Review (AAR): Is this financially viable? $155 - 13/hour

We put the Dinner through our Homestead Revenue Stack to analyze where it sits and what it needs to succeed.

• The Dinner sits primarily in the Service Layer (Dinner/Class).

• Logistics Check: Reality vs. plan mismatch. Example: "Sunset on paper vs. Sunset in the holler (30 min BUBBLE)."

• Venue Needs: The oven/stove at BC needs an upgrade.

• Experience Flow: Need better arrival/mingling flow.

• Financial Fixes: We need to Price up, increase numbers at the dinner, and rely on Upsells.

• Opportunity: There is an opportunity for a premium cherry add-on for the dinner service.

• Action: Get the chef on the wild edible walk (to enhance the product layer).

• Action: If connected to a Farm-to-Table meal delivery service, that would be amazing.

Sometimes "Go For It" means stepping outside your established comfort zone for a cause greater than your business.

• The Event: Giving public testimony in front of county officials.

• The Experience: I got nervous! My voice sounded emotional instead of my usual assertive self.

• The Takeaway: The vulnerability made the testimony more powerful. Being involved in important local matters is one of the few ways we can truly make a difference for our communities, food freedom, and farmers.

Bringing it Home: Your Challenge to Go For It

Courage is action, not the absence of fear. Don't wait until you're "ready."

• 1. Fearlessly Audit a Project: Go For It and audit a side hustle or homestead project using a framework like the Revenue Stack. Be honest about where you need to price up, fix it, or drop it.

• 2. Go For the Hard Conversation: Go For It and speak up about a local issue or personal matter you know you should address. Your passion is more powerful than silence.

• 3. Take the First Small Step: What is the one small, specific step you can take today to move toward a big goal?

Sometimes, you just need to go for it.

Make it a great week.

Song:

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Follow me on Nostr: npub1u2vu695j5wfnxsxpwpth2jnzwxx5fat7vc63eth07dez9arnrezsdeafsv

• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn

• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup

• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

• Harvest Right Affiliate Link

Join us for our monthly conversation about the world, business, and whateer strikes yall's fancy!

Join the Tactical Redneck for an update from the Holler Homestead. While the cat's away the sheep will escape.

Today, we hear the session that I hosted at the Self Reliance Festival about developing your revenue on your homestead, including stories from the network.

Featured Event: November 15 Farm To Table Dinner: https://www.livingfreeintennessee.com/product/farm-to-table/

Sponsors: The Wealthsteading Podcast

Discount Mylar Bags: DiscountMylarBags.com

Agorist Tax Advice: AgoristTaxAdvice.com/lftn

• Farm-to-Table Dinner – Nov 15 LivingFreeinTennessee.com/product/farm-to-table
• North Spore Martha Tent (Affiliate): northspore.sjv.io/N9qEe2
• LFTN Christmas Stocking Exchange: Sign Up Here
• Holler Roast Coffee: HollerRoast.com

Sometimes the best thing you can do—whether it's growing food or running a business—is stop forcing it. This week I share what mushrooms taught me about systems, patience, and letting things grow on their own.

• Why I started cultivating mushrooms and how it ties to the Holler Roast coffee-grounds waste stream
• Early failures with DIY bins and Tennessee humidity
• The easy automated setup that finally worked
• First-round lessons (including a moldy pink oyster experiment)
• Cooking payoff: duck-fat blue oysters worth the wait
• And the big picture—how the "don't force it" mindset applies to business and life
• You don't make mushrooms grow, you make it easy for them to show up. Same goes for your business.
• The Takeaway
• Mushrooms—and systems—thrive when you build the right environment and step back. Stop forcing it, build your setup, and let the good stuff show up.

Make it a great week!

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Featured Event: Oct 24 50s Show: Mastersingersinc.com

Sponsors: The Wealthsteading Podcast

Today, we talk about how the Airbnb at the Holler Hub became a real revenue stream — what's working, what isn't, and what we've learned along the way. If you've ever thought about turning a space on your property into income, this one's for you. We'll also cover our usual Monday segments.

Farm to Table Dinner Friday, November 15 Basecamp Lodge, Lancaster, TN

Join us for an unforgettable evening featuring a full-course dinner sourced entirely from Tennessee farms. Real, local food, cooked from scratch, and shared in community.

Sponsors

• AgoristTaxAdvice.com/LFTN – Helping entrepreneurs, homesteaders, and freedom-minded folks handle taxes the smart way.

• StrongRootsResources.com – Homestead design, consulting, and high-quality plants to help you build resilient systems that last.

LFTN Stocking Exchange Time is running out to sign up! We'll assign your Secret Stocking Santa on November 1, so don't miss out on this fun community tradition. Sign Up Here

• Lambs came in, lambs went out! Processing and rotation are in full swing.
• Time to harvest the sweet potatoes.
• The restackening of the firewood has begun — getting ready for cold weather.
• Starting to tap into the canned goods, especially green beans.
• Made powdered sugar from regular sugar after realizing I forgot to buy it.

I like a little lemon juice in my water. Some of those bottles pour out like a waterfall, which is wasteful and makes something I do not want to drink. So this is a hack and a tip in one. The cap from Worcestershire sauce bottles fits on a lot of other things, including every lemon juice bottle I have purchased. So keep the lids that help you regulate the amount of "stuff" coming out of a bottle so you do not end up wasting product.

Happy savings y'all ~Margo

The Airbnb has been renting well since we got back from SRF! It's great to see the Basecamp space generate steady revenue while serving the broader Holler Hub vision.

Every property should have a purpose, not just be a payment.

• The Airbnb wasn't about renting space — it was about keeping the Basecamp Lodge working for the mission.

• Formerly a long-term rental ($1,600/month). Now a flexible, short-term system that:
  • Generates income when not used for training.

  • Brings new people into the Holler Hub community.

  • Connects us to potential partners and collaborators.

• Tools like Airbnb and VRBO open us to audiences beyond LFTN, expanding both reach and opportunity.

• Booked every available weekend in October by opening to tourists during fall travel season.

• Earned ~$650 in October while still hosting events — a deliberate tradeoff between revenue and flexibility.

• Low cleaning fee + clear expectations → relaxed guests and repeat visitors.

• Purposefully low nightly rate to earn initial 5-star reviews and build credibility.

• Making meaningful connections with guests — one couple with 10 glampers in California, another moving to Tennessee for homesteading.

• One guest left it a wreck → 8 hours of cleanup.
  • Result: added language about cleaning expectations.

  • Next step: keep a vacuum for pet-friendly stays.

• "Clean beats new every time."

• Set boundaries early: check-out policies, no parties, pet rules.

• Set nightly rate (~$100) based on $3,000/month gross goal if fully booked.

• Kept pricing low to reflect the space (one usable bedroom, not remodeled).

• Using Airbnb's automated pricing to test how it behaves during peak season.

• Cleaning service quote revealed current pricing barely covers costs — future plan to add modest cleaning fee.

• Focus remains on mission-aligned guests first, not just volume bookings.

• Reset takes 45–60 minutes; double linens to avoid bottlenecks.

• Pet stays add 1 hour for vacuuming and extra laundry.

• Critical practice: always start cleaning immediately after checkout to stay ready for last-minute bookings.

• Personal touch: greet guests, tell the Holler Hub story, collect feedback, and build relationships.

• Don't build the Taj-Ma-Rental — start minimum viable and test.

• Clean trumps new every time.

• The biggest mindset shift: being comfortable letting strangers on your land.

• Most people with bad intentions aren't paying hundreds to sleep in your barn.

• Short-term rentals aren't easy money there's always time involved:
  • Responding to messages, building a guidebook, handling maintenance.

  • Be available when problems arise — or you'll hate the process.

• The fast reset is key: handle the "yucky" stuff early so it never piles up.

• Goal: book events at Basecamp that aren't led by you — already in the works.

• Next expansion: a miner's cabin/tent rental to diversify the property's offerings.

• Each step builds toward the broader Holler Hub vision — systems that connect people, sustain the land, and generate reliable income.

Every property should have a purpose, not just a payment.

Make it a great week.

Make it a great week.

GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce.

Community

• Follow me on Nostr: npub1u2vu695j5wfnxsxpwpth2jnzwxx5fat7vc63eth07dez9arnrezsdeafsv
• Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn
• Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup
• Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b

Resources

• Membership Sign Up

• Holler Roast Coffee

• Harvest Right Affiliate Link

Today, we talk about what it takes to organize a real Farm to Table Dinner, as well as cover our usual Monday segments.

Chainsaw Milling Demo and PotluckSunday at 1 PMBasecamp Lodge, Lancaster, TN Join us for a hands-on chainsaw milling demonstration and community potluck! Bring a dish to share and see how we turn logs into lumber right here at the Holler. Event Details

• AgoristTaxAdvice.com/LFTN – Helping entrepreneurs, homesteaders, and freedom-minded folks handle taxes the smart way.
• HollerRoast.com – Fresh-roasted coffee for doers. Start your day with luxury and get to work.
• Farm To Table Dinner Tickets, Nov 15 | $125

LFTN Stocking Exchange Time is running out to sign up! We'll assign your Secret Stocking Santa on November 1, so don't miss out on this fun community tradition. Sign Up Here

• Convenience meals this week: crockpot lamb ribs.
• Drying the last round of fall herbs — mint, oregano, and holy basil.
• Getting ready to fill the freezers with meat now that it's almost cold enough to butcher.
• Hoping for a venison this year.
• Ground meat base for winter meals: beef, pork, and more pork.

• No shopping trip this week.

Did you know that if you put something in your online cart at Amazon (and some other online stores), when the price changes they notify you via email. So if you are looking to buy something but it is a little out of your budget, throw it in the cart and you just might be notified when it goes on sale.

Also, when looking around on eBay, go ahead and click that heart, a lot of sellers will send you a discounted offer just for liking an item.

So have a little patience and wait and see if you can save a few dollars on your next online purchase.

Happy savings y'all ~Margo

We opened up the Basecamp Airbnb — and one hour later it rented for four days! That single booking covered baseline expenses for the property (though not the mortgage). Still, a solid win toward independence.

1. Why We're Doing One We wanted to show what real farm-to-table actually means — not marketing, not a photo op. A community meal built from what local farmers are actually harvesting right now, cooked by people who understand those ingredients.
2. Why It's Harder Than a Typical Event This isn't catered convenience food.

• The chef has to process everything from raw ingredients, not pre-trimmed or par-cooked product.
• Every ingredient is sourced directly from farms, not distributors.
• Timing is critical — you plan the menu around what's in season, not what's available year-round from a big box store.

This is NOT your typical farm-to-table experience. We're not highlighting one or two local dishes and then filling the rest from Costco. Every ingredient — except the pepper and the coffee (which I roast) — comes from right here in Tennessee. No shortcuts.

1. What Other Farm to Table Events Get Wrong Most are "farm to table" in name only — a token nod to local producers while relying heavily on imported or processed foods. They miss the deeper connection between local abundance, timing, and community.
2. Steps to Organizing One

• Source the food: Build relationships with local growers and producers.
• Find a venue: Needs to be accessible, scenic, and functional for cooking and serving.
• Create a semi-flexible menu: Base it on what farmers actually have that week.
• Explore legalities: Health codes, insurance, and any required permits.
• Add extras: Things like a wild edible walk turn the dinner into an experience.
• Sell the tickets: Clear messaging — you're selling an authentic experience, not a restaurant meal.
• Handle logistics the day of: Setup, cooking flow, seating, lighting, cleanup.

Customer Experience

• How do you keep the night flowing smoothly and still make it feel personal?
• How do you balance talking about the farms with letting guests simply enjoy the meal?

Scaling the Concept

• Could this become a recurring or seasonal event?
• What lessons are you already learning for next time?

Make It A Great Week.