Stay ConnectedWelcome to something new from Cowgirls Over Coffee founder, Thea Larsen. Subscribe so you ensure you don’t miss new episodes coming this November!
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Websites: www.thealarsen.com
Instagram: @thea.does.all.the.things
Copyright: © (c) Thea Larsen, Cowgirls Over Coffee
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
There's a difference between trying hard and training hard. One is an inevitable path to burn out while the other creates the capacity to sustain the life it feels like many people tell you to stop wanting. This week, it's just Thea on the other end of the line here to convince you that it's truly okay to want the high-effort life.
After speaking at the Boss Mares Lead the Herd Workshop in Fort Worth, Thea came home with a singular clarity about what rural women entrepreneurs actually need to hear: validation that wanting it all: the ranch, the business, the marriage, the community, the energy to show up fully in every role ... it isn't selfish. And the path to getting there isn't hustle culture power moves OR soft-girl simplification. It's a solid and strategic commitment to training for it.
This episode neutralizes the two narratives we've been sold as far as a solution to our overwhelm and exhaustion to either push harder or want less. Thea walks through her four-stage planning order of operations (Prime, Plan, Process, Preserve) and makes the case that planning itself is the training ground for the do-it-all life you're trying to create. You don't climb Everest on grit alone. You train for it. The same goes for juggling livestock, kids, a business, and your own sanity.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
There's a difference between knowing what you're capable of and having the guts to act like you know it. Between cataloging your receipts and speaking your truth without apology. Between being right and being heard. This week, we sit down with Janel Dreisbach (honorary COO of Cowgirls Over Coffee, systems strategist, and resident hermit) to dissect audacity: what it costs us when we lack it, what it demands when we claim it, and why 2026 might be the year to stop asking permission.
Janel operates in the shadows by design. As Thea's sister and the architect behind Cowgirls Over Coffee's operational backbone, she's the person who color-codes the receipts, hosts the office hours, and builds the SOPs that keep Cowgirls Over Coffee on the rails administratively. But beneath the spreadsheets and documentation lives a question she can't stop asking: what would happen if I just had the audacity?
This conversation is an honest excavation of the invisible tax women pay when they over-explain, over-validate, and over-accommodate their way through rooms life and business. Thea and Janel unpack the mechanics of self-trust, the seduction of people-pleasing, the exhaustion of carrying other people's balls across the finish line, and the radical act of letting your work speak louder than your disclaimers.
What emerges is a framework for reclaiming confidence without becoming insufferable, for speaking from authority without needing external validation, and for understanding that audacity isn't recklessness but the refusal to shrink.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
This week, Thea and Meg sit down for a raw, winding conversation about what it means to enter a new year not with optimization in mind, but with intentionality, margin, and the audacity to savor the actual living.
As Cowgirls Over Coffee returns for 2026, Thea Larsen reflects on five years of marination on building, learning, and finally understanding what it means to operate from a place of depth rather than velocity. Joined by her best friend and frequent collaborator Meg, this conversation doesn't traffic in resolutions or productivity hacks. Instead, it examines the quiet revolution that happens when you stop managing your life like a crisis and start treating yourself like a resource worth protecting.
What emerges is a candid meditation on the privilege and paradox of getting older: the stability that allows you to close doors, the self-awareness that clarifies what actually matters, and the hard-won wisdom that your twenties are, in fact, overrated. Thea and Meg discuss the shift from operating at the edge of capacity (always redlining it, always seeing how fast you can go) to choosing to drive at 75 instead of 95. Because you've finally figured out that sustainable speed gets you further.
Listen In For…
TL;DR (Minute by Minute)
Where to Go From Here
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
You can take the girl off of the ranch, but you can’t take the cow trails out of her metaphors. When Lindsay shared that the first time her son stepped onto a sidewalk he called it a “cow trail for people,” we knew we were in for a good one. This episode isn’t about slowing down or speeding up, but finding your footing when everything familiar shifts. From feed store counters to city sirens, we’re unpacking what happens when convenience meets capacity, and why your best practices still apply … even when your groceries can be delivered to your doorstep.
This week we welcome Lindsay Garber, formerly a top-tier ranch wedding photographer, and now the fourth-generation force inside her family’s western wear & feed store in Albuquerque. She’s traded gravel roads for Trader Joe’s, but what grounds her is the same: purpose, people, and a love for the culture that raised her.
Together we explore why leaving town won’t fix a life that’s running on fumes, and why the basics still matter whether groceries are a seven-hour round trip or seven minute away. We talk about context over tactics, conversation as a catalyst, and how retail has its own seasonality: chickens, rodeo, fairs, film crews, and yes, the surprise delight of French cowboys.
Through it all runs a throughline we live by at Cowgirls Over Coffee: when the landscape shifts, your practice (water, sleep, vegetables, reflection, and real connection!) keeps you steady.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
As September closes, forget lukewarm goals because this conversation is about striking the match yourself. Kelly of Western Workouts joins us for a conversation about the kind of fire fueled by self-belief, reckless confidence, and a refusal to waste energy on what doesn’t matter.
This episode began, as many of our best ones do, with a yap-and-cheer session that turned into a bonfire of ideas. We talk about why spite may get you moving, but it never leaves you satisfied, and why a process you love always beats an outcome that looks shiny but feels empty.
Kelly brings her perspective from training horses, bodies, and minds. We add our lens of capacity, discernment, and real-life integration. Together we unravel what it means to build a fire of our own; whether that means claiming your time back from distractions, letting go without fanfare, or saying yes to hard things without fearing how hard they’ll be.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
There’s the kind of work that looks good in a highlight reel, and then there’s the kind that smells like bleach in July, stretches four feet from tip to tip, and requires the audacity to keep going when it would be easier to quit. This week we sit down with Cassie Everson of Wanderlust Skulls to talk about the ditch, the mountaintop, and the discipline of making art that endures.
Artist and entrepreneur Cassie Everson has been shaping the modern Western aesthetic for nearly a decade through her work as Wanderlust Skulls. If you’ve ever saved an image of a painted longhorn skull to your Pinterest board, chances are you’ve already encountered her signature pieces: bold, abstract, distinctly Western, and always authentic.
But this conversation isn’t a how-to on creative business, it’s a rare look into the unglamorous, cyclical reality behind it. Cassie shares the unlikely origins of her work, from finding her first skull in a secondhand shop to teaching herself taxidermy with YouTube and grit. She talks candidly about debt, slow shows, and why art requires you to sell not just an object but a feeling. What emerges is not a formula but a paradox: the work isn’t easy, yet over time it generates a surprising sense of ease if you can resist both the panic of failure and the intoxication of quick wins.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
September invites fresh structure and, if we’re not careful, fresh burnout. In this conversation, licensed professional counselor and Enneagram coach Becky Lauridsen reframes self-care as protection (not pampering) and opens the door to brain health with neurofeedback. From postpartum anxiety and over-functioning to rodeo performance and concussion recovery, we explore how to build capacity on purpose, before the crash out.
Becky shares the origin story of IOWEME (“I owe me”), a preventative, accessible, guilt-free self-care model born from her own burnout and postpartum anxiety. We unpack the crucial difference between self-indulgence (instant relief, little ROI) and true self-care (sometimes uncomfortable, always compounding). We also trade the myth of work–life balance for work–life harmony: a “pleasing arrangement of parts” calibrated to your actual rhythms (hello, 5:30am clarity!).
Then Becky takes us into ROAM (Rodeo Optimization and Mindset) and explains low-energy neurofeedback as a practical path to brain health. Think “parking brake off” for your frontal lobe: better regulation, focus, and recovery after high-intensity performance (for athletes and their horses). If you’re craving capacity that’s truly sustainable, this one’s for you.
Listen in for …
TL;DR (Minute by Minute)
Where to Go From Here
Question for you: When the day feels heavy, which shows up first: self-indulgence or true self-care? Screenshot and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee with your answer so we can crowdsource smart strategies that actually stick.
The FREE Routine Playbook. Your step-by-step for routines that protect capacity (so consistency can finally kick in!). Get Yours Here
Join the Cowgirls Over Coffee Lifetime Membership. Where conversation, accountability, and routines become infrastructure. Learn More Here
Connect with Becky:
Follow along with Thea over at @thea.does.the.things
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
This week Thea is joined by longtime friend and former western wedding photographer Lyndsey Garber for a reflective conversation about capacity, season of life shifts, and the slow, steady work of staying faithful in the little things.
Together, they talk through the emotional complexity of leaving something that’s still working, what it feels like to carry a big vision when there’s no margin left, and how to navigate the tension between knowing you’re made for more and also being at your limit.
Topics explored include:
This conversation holds space for the in-between moments where you know you’re on the edge of something new, but it hasn’t fully taken shape yet. We chat about ambition, presence, exhaustion, time scarcity, and that sneaky poverty mentality that shows up in your calendar, your body, and your grocery store anxiety. And mostly, it’s about what it takes to stay steady and self-respecting in the middle of a capacity crisis without losing your fire or your footing.
There’s no 5-step framework here. Just two women and a conversation about what’s working, what’s shifting, and how we keep showing up for the lives we believe in.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
We talked about what no one sees: the ordinary, unglamorous work that builds something sustainable. If you’re in that part of the process, we’d love to hear about it. Tag @cowgirlsovercoffee and let us know what “faithful in the little things” looks like for you right now.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
Sure you can handle it all, but where is taking you? In this deeply personal, wildly validating summer conversation, Thea sits down with longtime friend and Cowgirls Over Coffee original Audrey Hall to unpack a question many of us are circling: What happens when your capability becomes your identity … and your margin disappears?
This is an episode for the woman who’s built a life she’s proud of and is left asking why it still feels so hard. For the one who gets it done, who performs under pressure, who’s known for delivering but lives in depletion.
Together, Thea and Audrey explore:
You’ll hear stories about rodeo royalty, sad girl eras, and gym floor epiphanies but underneath it all is a real-time conversation about rebuilding your relationship with ambition, restoration, and joy. If you’ve ever said, “I’m not afraid of the effort, but dang I’m tired of proving my worth through it.,” this one’s for you.
Mentioned in this episode:
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
Screenshot this episode and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee with your favorite takeaway. Tell us your flavor of patience, your version of presence, or what kind of soil you’re growing in this summer.
Cowgirls Over Coffee is now The Practice of Doing with Thea Larsen.
What if summer wasn’t something that just happened to you, but something you created on purpose? In this episode, I sit down with Cowgirls Over Coffee’s own Lana Wilkes for a real-deal conversation about what it actually takes to create a summer that feels restorative, anchored, and worth remembering. NOT another one that races by in a blur of chaos, laundry, and vague "maybe we'll do that someday" plans.
Overheard in this Episode:
We're not campaigning for a Pinterest-perfect summer schedule, but challenging you to claim your time, set anchor experiences, and take the administrative burden of daily life off the plate, so you can actually enjoy the season you’re in. Whether you’re road-tripping to Alaska with five kids or just trying to get to the dang lake more than twice this summer, this episode will give you the perspective shift (and tactical insight) to make it happen.
I also mention that you can use my Reset Ritual to help set the tone for summer. This is the exact framework I use anytime I need to reset. It’s genuinely not just for seasons of productivity or burnout, but for setting yourself up for presence at any time! Use it to set the tone this summer: download it here for FREE.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
Tell us what you’re planning on purpose this summer. Screenshot this episode, tag @cowgirlsovercoffee because we want to hear the real version: what works, what doesn’t, and what you’re learning along the way.
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