Cowgirls Over Coffee

Thea Larsen
  • 5.0 (15)
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Spoiler: there’s nothing you’re missing. There’s no hack, strategy, system or secret that you just haven’t figured out. There’s only the process of discovering what matters for you and what doesn’t, what works for you and what doesn’t. The Cowgirls Over Coffee podcast exists to invite women into deeper conversations that lead to stronger lives. Welcome to Cowgirls Over Coffee with Thea Larsen! The podcast where I take you along on my mission to encourage and equip women to finally quit winging it, and learn to savor life at the intersection of home and ambition. Tune in each week for conversations with not only myself, but also roundtable discussions with my friends, and even an expert or two, as we navigate the messy, mundane and magic of every day cultivating thriving homes and businesses from the ranch, farm, kitchen table or cab of the truck. This is an experiment in embracing the process, sampling systems, and nurturing self, all while simply refusing to settle for less than we know we can achieve - for ourselves, our families, our communities and our businesses. We’ll cover topics like planning, organization, rural lifestyle, motherhood, wellbeing, homemaking, dream chasing and entrepreneurship. Make sure to hit subscribe so you never miss a convo! Websites: www.cowgirlsovercoffee.com Facebook: @cowgirlsovercoffee Instagram: @thea.does.all.the.things

  1. 4D AGO

    Locking In Without Burning Out: The Messy Middle of Sustainable Goal-Setting

    This week, Thea sits down with Audrey for a mid-process check-in on what "locking in" actually looks like when you're committed to doing it differently this time. This is the unglamorous, honest conversation about what happens when high-achieving women try to expand their lives without repeating the patterns that led to burnout in the first place. We end up in the middle of a frank discussion with no concrete answers about the difference between producing and protecting the experience, the value of training foundational practices instead of relying on talent and tenacity, and why the finish line matters less than the discipline of showing up (even inconsistently!). If you've ever felt frustrated when rebuilding feels slower than the shortcuts you took before this conversation will feel like permission to do hard things at a more human pace. TL;DR ... Why the rhetoric around "locking in" rarely includes the messy, frustrating middle of the process.Training small muscles with lighter weights instead of relying on big movements and talent to power through.How comparing your current chapter to your own past production levels creates a different kind of pressure than external comparison.The critical distinction between producing outcomes and protecting the experience of your life.Why structure isn't the enemy of creativity, but the foundation that allows high performers to expand without breaking down.What it means to rebuild practices from the ground up when you've spent years skipping foundational steps, and why that process feels frustratingly slow.The role of friendship, wisdom, and delusion in equal measure when navigating the gap between where you were and where you're headed.How to navigate the tension between optimization and pace, especially when you feel the pressure of time. Where to Go From Here Your turn: What hit home? Are you caught between chapters, rebuilding practices, or navigating the messy middle of sustainable ambition? Tag Thea @thea.does.all.the.things and Audrey @audreyetta and let's keep this conversation going.Trade frustration for framework: Download the Cowgirls Over Coffee Playbook, your quick-win guide to building sustainable practices that support doing it all well without burnout.Looking for something more? Consider joining the Cowgirls Over Coffee Membership.You've entered the group chat: Subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with a friend who's done with toxic productivity culture, and keep coming back for conversations that honor both your ambition and your humanity.

    39 min

  2. FEB 9

    The High-Effort Life: Wanting It All Isn't Selfish but It Requires Training

    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. Listen In For…Why the "high-effort life" isn't a flaw to fix but an innate calling worth nurturing, and the permission you need to stop apologizing for wanting to do it all, and well.The two false solutions keeping women burned out: hustle-harder masculinity or simplify-everything softness.Planning as practice, not product: Why the process of planning itself, and not the perfect plan, is the strategic advantage that separates women who sustain momentum from those who white-knuckle it through every day.The four-stage planning order of operations (Prime, Plan, Process, Preserve) designed specifically for women whose lives include weather, livestock, broken tractors, and kids who get sick on meeting days.Why high achievers tend to skip the small steps and how that skipping catches up when you hit the end of your capacity (usually around motherhood, though it's not motherhood that breaks you).A case for Thursday as your optimal planning day: How to use recency bias and week-ahead visibility to audit, adjust, and iterate without decision fatigue.Muscle memory for decision-making: How consistent planning trains your brain to pivot quickly when plans inevitably go sideways (because they will).The Mount Everest principle: You don't just show up and climb. You train. And if you want the high-effort life without burning out, the training is non-negotiable.Why women under-resourced and exhausted can't solve the world's problems.Boss Mares grant opportunity: Applications open now for 2026 business funding designed by Western women for Western women entrepreneurs. TL;DR (Minute by Minute)00:00 – The undervalued relief of "me too" and why conversation matters more than tactics.span class="ql-ui"...

    32 min

  3. FEB 2

    The Audacity Gap: Why Women with Receipts Still Don't Speak Up

    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. Listen In For...The TikTok revelation that sparked months of conversation: the audacity gap between those who speak up and those who hesitate.Why having all the receipts doesn't automatically translate to speaking with authority.The difference between audacity and manipulation, and why women are conditioned to conflate the two.How being in the wrong room can erode your confidence faster than failure ever could.The exhausting pattern of teeing people up for success only to watch them drop the ball.Janel's framework for ruthless ownership and why it doesn't pair well with audacity (until it does).The hidden cost of over-explaining: how laying too much foundation causes people to disengage before you make your point.Why cultivating audacity is different from "being brave" and why sustained confidence matters more than moments of courage.The evolution of belief through conversation: how processing out loud changes what you thought you knew.Thea's plan for 2026: tending the garden instead of planting new seeds. TL;DR (Minute by Minute)03:00 Meet Janel: The yin to Thea's yang, the systems strategist behind the scenes, and the self-proclaimed hermit stepping into the light.09:00 The audacity origin story: A TikTok comedian, a simple observation, and the question that won't quit.11:00 The confidence crisis:...

    40 min

  4. JAN 26

    Stop Chasing Outcomes: Why Process-Obsessed Beats Goal-Obsessed

    There's a difference between running hard enough to stay afloat and actually creating sustainable progress. This week, we sit down with the incomparable Kelly Kline of Western Workouts to talk about the moment you stop outrunning your own life, the practice of active surrender, and why micromanaging your process might be the most liberating thing you'll do this year. Kelly returns to Cowgirls Over Coffee for a conversation that refuses to stay surface-level. What begins as a besties catching up for the new year quickly transforms into an honest excavation of what happens when striving stops working, when coping mechanisms reach their expiration date, and when you're finally ready to build the bridge instead of just skimming across the water. This conversation is just two women sharing what they've earned through failure, reflection, and the audacity to start again. The conversation moves through the cost of control, the paradox of surrender that requires action, and the particular kind of exhaustion that comes from trying to manage outcomes instead of mastering process. Kelly notes the concept of active surrender as something that isn't simple passive resignation but a deliberate practice of discernment, energy management, and trust. Meanwhile, Thea unpacks her pivot away from outcome-based goals toward process-obsessed discipline, revealing what it looks like to move from running on fumes to nurturing from the ground up all over again. But perhaps most importantly, this episode makes the case that conversation itself is leverage. That authentic friendship isn't a nice-to-have luxury but a strategic necessity for anyone in pursuit of a better-than-typical life. This conversation is community executed in real time proving that real connection dissolves comparison and creates space for the kind of growth that can only happen when someone sees you clearly and loves you anyway. Listen In For... Why authentic friendship functions as a competitive advantage.The distinction between having boundaries and accidentally constructing a life that doesn't require them.What it means to move from coping strategies to sustainable routines.Thea's 2026 shift: abandoning outcome-based goals in favor of process-obsessed discipline.Kelly's framework for active surrender: why letting go requires more action than holding on.The cost of being ten steps ahead at all times, and what opportunities control strangles before they can breathe.How to stop leaking energy into battles that don't serve you.The practice of micromanaging your process instead of your outcomes.Why discernment is the muscle that makes surrender active rather than passive.What happens when you choose to disengage instead of oppose. TL;DR (Minute by Minute) 00:00 Opening: Conversation as leverage and the January tradition.01:21 On curating genuine humans and the gift of authentic friendship.span class="ql-ui"...

    54 min

  5. JAN 19

    Stop Optimizing in 2026: Achieving More with Less Striving

    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… Why the arbitrary nature of the New Year doesn't make it meaningless, and how collective energy shifts the game.The brutal honesty of a come back and what it means to rebuild baseline capacity.The evolution from psychological safety concerns to higher-order needs as you stabilize your life.What it means to manage yourself as a resource instead of constantly operating at just above empty.The difference between slower, softer, and deeper.Why efficiency optimization can become its own trap, and what happens when you shift from external factors to internal anchors.The power of iteration in conversation, and why the membership side of Cowgirls Over Coffee has changed everything.What "savoring" looks like when applied to fitness, prayer practice, and life in general.The case for operating with a half-full tank instead of running on fumes in the name of productivity. TL;DR (Minute by Minute) 00:00 Why this year feels different.05:00 Meg's massage therapist drops wisdom about your twenties being overrated.09:30 Stability, self-awareness, and the gift of caring less.13:45 Fitness, injury recovery, and the cost of falling off baseline.18:20 The shift from optimization to savoring.20:20 Managing energy and priorities from an anchored place.21:00 The gas tank metaphor: operating at half full vs. running on empty.22:00 What it means to go...

    26 min

  6. JAN 12

    When Being "Too Much" Is Actually Your Superpower

    There's the version of yourself you've been told to be and then there's the one who shows up when the recording keeps going because the conversation is too good to stop. This week, Thea, Audrey, and Lana couldn't stop yapping, and what unfolds is a raw examination of the work that doesn't show up in your business plans: discernment, friendship dynamics, and the discipline of knowing which race you're actually running. This conversation is what happened when we realized we weren't done processing, and hit record again. Audrey shares her journey of being labeled "too much" and why she's finally done apologizing for taking up space. Lana dissects the difference between friends who project their bench onto your Olympic aspirations. And Thea reminds us that agility (not rigid planning!) is the only framework that serves the most demanding lives. What emerges a conversation about frameworks: how to schedule your life first, how to recognize when advice is actually projection, and why the most important work you'll do in 2026 will very likely be the discernment no one sees. LISTEN IN FOR...The "too much" narrative women inherit and why reclaiming it is an act of sovereignty.Audrey's "green broke" revelation: what happens when structure collapses and you have to rebuild from authenticity instead of achievement.The Olympic team metaphor: understanding friendship dynamics when some people want to jog around the track and others are training for gold.Why verbal processing is simply how some of us think.The projection problem: how to recognize when you're giving advice to yourself instead of trying on someone else's limitations.Agility as the antidote to rigid planning and why asking "what do I really want right now?" is the most strategic question you can ask in the new year.The work that moves the needle: discernment, rest, and friendship.Why scheduling your life first is the litmus test for whether you're creating the life of your dreams or just checking boxes.Eldest daughter energy, second child chaos, and birth order baggage we're all still unpacking.The courage to protect your time and energy without apology (because it's okay to let people find their own team). TL;DR (MINUTE BY MINUTE)00:00 The episode that wasn't supposed to happen: why conversation deserves more than a hard stop.02:30 The open seat invitation: this is a group chat, not a lecture series.03:50 "Green broke" and barely broke: Audrey's sweatshirt and the second child who learned to boss herself around.04:30 When structure collapses: the bro energy that got her far, and the authenticity that got her further.07:00 "You're too much": unpacking the narrative women are handed...

    53 min

  7. JAN 5

    Five Years, Zero Apologies: The Nutrient-Dense Life You've Been Postponing

    There's a particular exhaustion that comes from living half-invested in your own life, when you're saying yes to everyone else's timeline while your own dreams accumulate dust. This week, we're pulling up a chair to the table we've been setting for five years, laying out every strategic detail, hard-won insight, and unfiltered observation about what it actually takes to build a life that doesn't require you to choose between future goals and presence, checking boxes and your nervous system, momentum and moments. Thea, Meg, Audrey, and Lana convene to kick off 2026 with the kind of conversation that feels less like a podcast episode and more like the group chat you've been craving. No disclaimers. No hedging. No apologizing for wanting it all. Just four women who've spent half a decade living the methodology for sustainable achievement, discussing every single strategy, planning framework, and operational principle they've tested alongside 1,300+ women. Please note: this isn't a teaser for what's inside the membership. This is the full playbook with nearly 50 pages of distilled wisdom, and the core methodology that's transformed businesses, marriages, and the daily operations of women who refuse to settle for good enough. Because if five years has taught us anything, it's this: the answer isn't hustling harder or culling your dreams. You need better infrastructure, and you definitely need a village. We start again here. Listen In For…Why five years of experimentation has led to giving away the entire methodology for free and what that signals about the conversation we're ready to have in 2026.The antidote to "you can have everything, but not at the same time": compounding instead of choosing, cultivating practices instead of burning out.What actually changes when you stop treating your ambition like something to apologize for and start treating it like the data it is.Why isolation and withdrawal are the default response to exhaustion, and how intentional connection becomes the counterintuitive path forward.Why we're done with the shame narratives and ready for nuanced conversations that honor complexity when it comes to entrepreneurship, motherhood, family, and ambition.The art of finding your people, developing friendships that feel like infrastructure, and surrounding yourself with women who elevate rather than diminish.Why overcomplication is a defense mechanism and how embracing practices creates the ease that allows you to do more with less friction.The shift from performative planning to operational excellence.How to quit overthinking and start iterating: taking imperfect action to generate the information you need to refine your approach.What "nutrient-dense life" actually means: high quality, deeply satisfying, strategically designed to nourish. TL;DR (Minute by Minute)00:00 Five years of Cowgirls Over Coffee and 1,300+ women later, here's what we've learned.04:45 The full methodology drop: 40 pages of our methodology free.li...

    44 min

  8. 10/14/2025

    Cow Trails for People: What Happens When a Ranch Girl Moves to the City with Lyndsey Garber

    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. Listen In For …Why swapping ranch life for city life changes the scenery but not the work of caring for your capacity.How conversation functions like binoculars, giving you context so you can actually see what’s coming.A practical reminder that the “next level” still runs on the same basics: sleep, hydration, nourishment, and honest check-ins.The difference between exhaustion on the ranch and monotony in town, and how to break both with intentional moments of awe.What retail teaches about seasons (spring chicks to fall fairs to pilot season) and how to plan without losing presence.The store as tether: how tending a legacy space can anchor identity and community in the middle of a metro.Why mastering yourself outperforms mastering the hustle, especially when opportunities arrive faster because you planned well.A gentle reframe for over-capable women: you don’t need a 12-step overhaul; you need faithful follow-through on what already works. TL;DR (Minute by Minute)04:30 Lindsay’s move: from “most rural” New Mexico to the heart of Albuquerque; what changed and what didn’t.09:40 Context over geography: leaving town won’t solve capacity problems without deliberate practices.15:20 Conversation as a tool: the “binoculars” for seeing the ship; tactics make sense once you have context.21:35 City monotony vs. ranch exhaustion: different drains with the same antidote: intentional rest and wonder.27:10 Retail seasons 101: chickens, rodeo, fairs, film crews … and the unexpectedly punchy French cowboys.32:45 Legacy as anchor: keeping a 75-year family business human in a humming city.38:50 The faithful basics: water, sleep, vegetables, and how simple habits power real next-level growth.43:30 Wrap-up + invitation to carry the conversation forward. Where to Go From HereJoin the conversation: What did this conversation remind you to tend? Your routine, your rest, your roots? Screenshot and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee and keep the conversation going.a href="https://cowgirlsovercoffee.myflodesk.com/eiqv0n703k" rel="noopener...

    41 min
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Trailer

5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Spoiler: there’s nothing you’re missing. There’s no hack, strategy, system or secret that you just haven’t figured out. There’s only the process of discovering what matters for you and what doesn’t, what works for you and what doesn’t. The Cowgirls Over Coffee podcast exists to invite women into deeper conversations that lead to stronger lives. Welcome to Cowgirls Over Coffee with Thea Larsen! The podcast where I take you along on my mission to encourage and equip women to finally quit winging it, and learn to savor life at the intersection of home and ambition. Tune in each week for conversations with not only myself, but also roundtable discussions with my friends, and even an expert or two, as we navigate the messy, mundane and magic of every day cultivating thriving homes and businesses from the ranch, farm, kitchen table or cab of the truck. This is an experiment in embracing the process, sampling systems, and nurturing self, all while simply refusing to settle for less than we know we can achieve - for ourselves, our families, our communities and our businesses. We’ll cover topics like planning, organization, rural lifestyle, motherhood, wellbeing, homemaking, dream chasing and entrepreneurship. Make sure to hit subscribe so you never miss a convo! Websites: www.cowgirlsovercoffee.com Facebook: @cowgirlsovercoffee Instagram: @thea.does.all.the.things

Information

  • Creator
    Thea Larsen
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    93
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (c) Thea Larsen, Cowgirls Over Coffee
  • Show Website
    Cowgirls Over Coffee

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