Elevate Ag: Changing the Game for Western and Rural Entrepreneurs

For this month’s western small business feature, I am excited to introduce two ladies who are changing the game for western, rural, and ag entrepreneurs. Elevate Ag is the brainchild of Natalie Kovarik and Tara Vander Dussen, two very accomplished women in the agriculture space. The platform they’ve created is multifaceted in many ways, and I’m excited to dig deeper for all of you tuning in.

What is Elevate Ag?

Elevate Ag is a multi-tiered platform that is elevating the voices of agriculture through online courses, community, a podcast, coaching, and now an in-person mastermind. Before Elevate Ag, there wasn’t a platform that was readily accessible for business owners and entrepreneurs in the western, ag, and rural spaces to get the tools they needed to grow their brand or business. Created by ag for ag, everything that Elevate offers is tailored specifically for the rural business owner. Let’s dive into the details.

Elevate the Podcast

Elevate the podcast was created for the sole purpose of deep-diving rural entrepreneurs’ stories and sharing the problems they encountered and opportunities they created as a way to educate, inspire and encourage the dreamer inside everyone. Their goal is to deliver tangible advice, useful tools, and bold strategies that entrepreneurs can implement to drive their businesses forward.

Elevate the Online Course

Having just had its official launch this year, Elevate the Online Course is for rural entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for the DIY tools to start sharing their stories online. With two paths to choose from, one option is for beginners to start from ground zero and the second path is for veterans looking to monetize their efforts or take their biz to the next level. The goal is to get you to the point of implementing your passions with action to create your brand/business, use your voice with confidence to share your brand/business, and grow and monetize your brand/business efficiently, all while elevating Agriculture. Learn more below!

Elevate the Summit

The newest offering from Elevate Ag is the Summit, which incorporates everything Tara and Natalie have released thus far WITH the inclusion of an in-person mastermind. This is a two-day mastermind that is intended to give rural women the tools & support they need to have high-level income & impact while living the lifestyle they love. Taking place August 29-31 in Justin, Texas, this is a mastermind you won’t want to miss. Here’s what’s included:

• 1:1 TIME WITH NATALIE & TARA
• 4 COACHING SESSIONS
• ACCESS TO ELEVATE AG THE ONLINE COURSE
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
• NETWORKING & COLLABORATION
• For more details about the mastermind and how to apply, click here.

The Ladies Behind Elevate Ag!

Tara Vander Dussen

If you’re in the ag industry, then you might also know Tara online as the New Mexico Milkmaid. Tara is a fifth-generation dairy farmer, living and farming with her family in New Mexico. In addition to being a dairy farmer, she also spent nine years as an environmental scientist, consulting on dairy farm projects throughout the southwest. It wasn’t long before Tara was sharing everything she knew about the dairy and sustainable ag industry online and then started growing a community that was hungry for learning the facts about dairy farming and agriculture. You can also find Tara speaking on stages across the country at different agriculture conferences. You can learn more about Tara here.

Natalie Kovarik

Natalie is on the other side ag, coming from a ranching background and still living on her family ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Natalie started sharing her story online and quickly found out that, like Tara, people were hungry for a real look at ranch life. Since sharing her story, she has launched her own apparel line called “Ag is Not the Problem” and started her Rural Rooted Retreats, which are marketing retreats for women in the western and agriculture industry.