Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Lynch.
Hi Leah, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Oh mercy, pull up a chair. Rabbits got in my blood at an early age. My mom got me a rabbit at the age of 5 years old and I was hooked. By the time I was 10 I got my first “herd” (a herd is just what we call a group of rabbits in the show world. Our rabbits do not live together in a group) of 5 Jersey Wooly rabbits which were perfect for my age because they didn’t get bigger than 3 pounds.
I don’t know what put the idea in my head but when I was about 11 years old, I can remember trying to put together a free website with my not-so-techy dad. This would have been early 2003 or so. It was ROUGH. I would sell a few here and there but nothing too crazy.
Fast forward about 6 years to the age of 17, I was graduating high school soon (I was homeschooled) I was feeling the transition of life starting to happen. I had sold all of my Jersey Wooly rabbits. Buuuuuut that only lasted about 6 months. I found out about French lops and somehow stumbled on a lady selling them on craigslist about 1hr 15min away from the small southwest Ohio town where we lived.
I brought home my first two Jr bucks (male rabbits under 6 months) and not long after bought my first doe. The internet had changed big time by this point. I created a new fresh website and Facebook page. Within a year I was getting contacted left and right the rabbitry was fully paying for itself. I grew the rabbitry to as large as my poor parents would tolerate in their small 1/4-acre lot on the edge of a small-town of 1900 people.
One of the things I noticed that brought more and more people to me was being willing to help people figure out something even if I knew they wouldn’t buy from me. I responded quickly to messages and had a website where people could learn more about me which built trust. All of those things helped word of mouth spread like wildfire and brought business to me over the bigger names in the show world.
After graduation in 2009, I worked part-time jobs and ran the rabbitry for a few years. I navigated the online world and tried to find unique things to do to stand out above all the other rabbit raisers. No one else had a nice up-to-date website so I was going to keep mine as fresh and as classy as it could be. Hardly anyone had a Facebook page for their rabbitry. So, you bet I made one.
I remember in those early days when I got snapped at in a Facebook group by this old-school rabbit raiser who said in response to my post said “I just don’t understand these people, I would never buy a rabbit I couldn’t put my hands of first.” What she meant was she wanted to see the confirmation and feel how the rabbit was put together, which I understood. But people like that lost out to people who were willing to shift to the way the world worked. Now people do it all the time.
As time went on, I started building up a waiting list for people who would reach out saying they wanted a French lop during the off-seasons. I don’t have litters born in the winter months and I wasn’t going to trust other people to remember to come back to me in 4 or 6 months when litters would be ready. So, I created a printout and would fill out their information and contact them when I had what they were looking for. Soon I had whole litters sold before they were even born. My parents would joke that the rabbitry was my college fund. But little did they know that would be the truth.
I paid my way through college and the rabbits were a huge factor in my graduating debt-free. Now 13 years after buying my first French lop my show-quality French lop rabbitry makes multiple four figures a year while only keeping 12-15 rabbits at a time. While it might make business sense to expand beyond those numbers, I never want to get larger than I can properly care for and manage. Feeding doesn’t take long but grooming and taking care of the litters is a full-time job. The workload doubles when we have litters.
Now the rabbitry helps fund the growth of my blog and online business. But more than that they bring me peace when life gets hard. Running a rabbitry is full of issues and even losses. But when you love it, you don’t see all the hard things. The struggles are all worth it. I definitely plan on keeping them as long as I am able.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I don’t think anything worth doing is easy. What people don’t realize is rabbits are not easy to breed and raise. They go down hard and fast. You have to become your own veterinarian. While the vets try their best they are guessing just as much as you are. Finding a vet that even takes rabbits is hard enough, but getting an appointment in time is even harder. You are better off learning how to help them yourself.
On top of that French lops are not the best mothers. It’s not for the lack of trying the breed itself is just sensitive.
I will avoid too many gruesome details, but it’s very common to lose 50% of a litter to the kits not getting fed enough or momma who is 13 pounds stepping on a little 1oz kit. It’s enough to crush the soul but you learn to put a wall up between your heart and the newborns until they are stable and less likely to be lost which is around 3 weeks old.
Learning to protect my heart was the first battle I had to win. Which took YEARS.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Alongside the animals I raise, my heart’s goal for the blog and online business as a whole is to show others that they can live the country lifestyle and not be broke or burnt out.
Somehow there is this idea that if you are growing your own vegetables, producing your own meat, or simply taking on all these animals that serve no purpose, it’s fine because you are doing something healthy or good. While that sounds fine to an extent. There is an end to the zeros in your bank account.
I hope to change that thought process by teaching people how to budget for their small farm, whatever that looks like. Or teach them to generate income to support the life they want.
Whether you live in an apartment and want to grow vegetables on your balcony, live in an urban town and do what you can, or live on your dream farm you can cultivate a country lifestyle that doesn’t empty your bank account.
On the blog, I create courses and eBooks to help people along their journey. As well as all kinds of free resources to help people plan well, manage their time and money, and generate an income from their small farm. Whatever that looks like.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Being in a unique business finding the right mentor has been HARD. Not many people understand raising animals or even the mindset of my ideal audience. Take what you can learn through podcasts, YouTube videos, and courses and apply it to your business.
BUT when it comes to the mindset and the people you are trying to reach trust your gut. I have lost a lot of time trying to trust the coaches who really didn’t know enough about what I was trying to do.
You have to be willing to stand on your own two feet and make your own decisions. Learn what you can from others, yes but they don’t run your business. You do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://leah-lynch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahlynchblog/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leahlynchblog
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeahLynch
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/leahlynchfrenchloprabbits
