WIR-Let’s start at the beginning. How did the two of you meet and start working together?

Lacey:
We met in Texas at Women in Ranching’s Birdwell Clark Ranch Circle.

Caroline:
That was in 2023 — kind of my reward for surviving grad school. I had just finished my thesis, literally sending in the final edits from the living room at the ranch. I also got a job offer that same week, so it was like this amazing fresh start for me. The whole Women in Ranching circle was just… life-changing.

WIR-And then the two of you reconnected later?

Caroline:
Yes! In Yellowstone, that September. I'd just left my job and was feeling totally unmoored. At the Yellowstone Circle, we were in a barn doing a workshop with wooden blocks. I was asked what word my block represented, and I just burst into tears.

Lacey:
Those circles can be incredibly vulnerable.

Caroline:
Exactly. It’s the only community where I feel like I can truly be myself, not boxed into being just a "rancher" or "woman" or anything.

Caroline:
After that moment, Lacey was standing outside talking to her husband Casey on the phone, and I vividly remember her saying, “I’m going to ask my friend Caroline if she can help us.”

Lacey:
I hung up the phone, walked over and said, “What do you do?”

Caroline:
And I said, “I don’t know, what do you need?”

Lacey:
I had no formal training in bookkeeping. I’m actually a speech pathologist! But somehow, I was doing our ranch books — badly. Nothing reconciled, everything was a mess. I’d either delete entries or ignore them.

Caroline:
And you were so overwhelmed and felt guilty, but I just saw someone who deserved help. Women on ranches are always handed the books, even when that’s not their background. I knew I could help fix that.

Lacey:
We were also running into issues like late taxes, which messed with our loan renewals. It was becoming a very real problem.

Caroline:
And I remember saying: “Our goal is to make it easy enough that you have time to read.”

WIR-So, what did those first steps look like?

Lacey:
We went back a year and a half so we could run real analysis — one past year, one current. And for months, we met weekly.

Caroline:
Plus all the texts and emails. There was a lot of learning: me figuring out their business, them learning my style. But I think what saved us was grace. We were really open with each other. Letting someone into your business is huge, but letting them into your finances? That’s another level.

Lacey:
Casey and I are so grateful that Caroline walked this road with us. It’s been rewarding in ways I can’t even fully describe. The obvious change is that our books are up to date. All the time. Even this summer, when life was a little nuts, I was still able to keep things moving.

It’s like a whole chunk of my brain got freed up. I didn’t realize how much space was being.

It’s exactly what I dreamed it could be: manageable, doable, but I’m not alone. And when we sat down to catch up the other night, Caroline said, “Looks like we haven’t done August yet. Should we knock it out?” I wanted to say no — it was 5pm and I was tired. But she was there, and we just did it. Cranked it out in an hour.

Less dread. More joy. That’s what it has given me. I tried for years to do it alone. There was a pride thing in that. And a vulnerability in admitting I needed help. We’d looked into bookkeepers before and thought, “Too expensive. I can handle this.”

It’s kind of like lugging a heavy cooler full of drinks and snacks, dragging it along because you can, even though it’s exhausting. And then someone just picks up the other handle.

Suddenly, it’s not that heavy anymore. You’re still doing it. You’re still getting there. But now it’s doable. It feels like 100 pounds turned into 20. And for Caroline? It doesn’t seem like she’s carrying 80. Somehow the math doesn’t add up, but that’s the magic of working with someone who just gets it.

WIR-Caroline, Lacey was your first official client. Has that shaped what you're building now?

Caroline:
Oh, absolutely. Amber has always been a big dreamer, and she asked me, “What’s your big goal?”

At first, I thought it was teaching a class — something structured and formal. But through working with Lacey, I realized what women really need is not a course. It’s someone who says: “Let’s do this together.”

Most women I talk to don’t need full-blown finance degrees. They just need some guidance, and a way to sit down regularly and keep the books from becoming overwhelming.

That became the foundation for the virtual ranch sessions I’m leading now. We talk about financial terms, learn about statements, and prepare for real-life conversations with accountants and lenders. We knew we needed to bridge the gap between the inspiration of a conference and the reality of the day-to-day.