Cynthia Mahoney

02/10/2026

Farmers and service providers - I’m heading to Cassilis and Paterson next week for two Farming Stronger workshops - and I realised after recording this video that I forgot to introduce myself!

I’m Cynthia Mahoney - an agricultural scientist, leadership facilitator and coach, and I’ve spent much of my career working with farmers, rural businesses and regional communities about how to get the best out of yourself to run a successful business.

Farming Stronger: Tools for Sustainable Performance is a practical workshop about how we think, make decisions, manage pressure and sustain our performance when there’s a lot going on.

Because you can’t run a great farm business if you’re not running well yourself.

We’ll explore practical, science-backed tools to help you:
• think more clearly under pressure
• manage stress, energy and overload
• make better decisions
• communicate and work better with others
• build sustainable performance for yourself and your farm business

This isn’t a mental health workshop - it’s about understanding what happens to our brains and performance under pressure, and having practical tools to work with that.

📍 Cassilis – Royal Hotel
📅 Wednesday 7 October
⏰ 9:30am–3:00pm
🎟️ Book here: https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-cassilis

📍 Paterson – Tocal Agricultural College
📅 Thursday 8 October
⏰ 9:30am–3:00pm
🎟️ Book here: https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-paterson

Both workshops are free, with morning tea and lunch provided.

If you know farmers, farm managers, farming families or agricultural service providers around Cassilis, Merriwa, Paterson, Maitland, Dungog, Singleton or the wider Hunter, please tag them or share this with them.

I’m really looking forward to the conversations and practical work we’ll do together.

30/09/2026

COOMA & MONARO FARMERS - FREE WORKSHOP 🌱

There’s a lot going on in farming at the moment - and when there’s a lot going on, it can be harder to think clearly, make good decisions and keep ourselves performing well.

That’s exactly what we’ll be exploring at Farming Stronger - Tools for Sustainable Performance in Cooma.

It’s practical, evidence-based and designed specifically for farmers, farm teams and the people who support them.

📅 Tuesday 13 October
⏰ 9.30am–3pm
📍 Alpine Hotel, Cooma
🎟️ FREE – including lunch

I’m delighted to be partnering with Bec Kading and Monaro Farming Systems for this workshop, funded by the NSW Farm Business Resilience Program

Watch the video for more about what we’ll be doing - and if you know someone around the Monaro who would benefit, please tag them or share this post.

👉 Book here: https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-cooma

24/09/2026

Farmers have a lot going on right now. They’re making decisions while managing seasonal uncertainty, rising costs, labour challenges, family responsibilities, changing markets - and often with a head full of 27 million other things needing energy and attention.

Pressure changes the way our brains work. It affects how we think, communicate, process information, make decisions and respond to the people around us.

The reality is, your business can only perform as well as the people running it. If you’re overloaded, depleted or not thinking clearly, that inevitably affects the decisions you make and how you lead the business.

That’s what the Farming Stronger – Tools for Sustainable Performance workshop is about: building your capacity to think clearly, manage your energy and perform well under pressure, so you can lift business performance without burning yourself out in the process.

We explore what happens to our brains under pressure and practical tools to manage mindset, energy and attention, so we can keep thinking well, making good decisions and running our businesses effectively.

I’m really looking forward to bringing Farming Stronger to the Hunter and Upper Hunter next month through the NSW Farm Business Resilience Program:

🌱 Wednesday 7 October - Cassilis
Royal Hotel Cassilis

🌱 Thursday 8 October - Paterson
Tocal College

🕤 9.30am–3.00pm

✅ Free for farmers and people working in agriculture

To book for Cassilis go to https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-cassilis

To book for Paterson go to https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-paterson

It’s highly interactive too - you’ll connect with others, share ideas and have great conversations. It’s definitely not me standing out the front lecturing you all day!

Following the recent Farming Stronger workshop at Whitton, every participant who completed the evaluation said they were likely or very likely to implement what they had learned. People talked about prioritising themselves, managing priorities better, offloading and outsourcing, and being more deliberate about where they put their energy.

It was great to hear that feedback because making these changes creates more capacity to think clearly, make better decisions and focus on what drives the farm business forward. When the person running the business is in a better headspace, managing pressure more effectively and using their attention well, the business benefits too.

If you’re anywhere around Cassilis, Merriwa, the Upper Hunter, Paterson, Maitland, Dungog, Singleton or the Hunter Valley, I’d love to see you there.

A huge thank you to the people and organisations who have been helping spread the word through their local farming and rural networks - including Local Land Services Michelle Smith Tocal College Jenna Vaughan, Kyah van den Berg, Charise Foulstone and Brayden Duignan Nikk Taylor

If someone in your network would benefit from this conversation, please share it with them.

22/09/2026

Last week I had the privilege of facilitating my Farming Stronger – Tools for Sustainable Performance workshop in Whitton, bringing together farmers and people working across agriculture and rural communities, including Rabobank Australia, Cotton Australia, Rural Financial Counselling Service NSW, Riverina Winegrape Growers, and Boyce Chartered Accountants.

Farming can be incredibly rewarding. It can also mean making complex decisions while dealing with uncertainty, financial and seasonal pressures, changing markets, family responsibilities and everything else life throws at us.

Understanding how our brains work under pressure is an incredibly useful skill for farmers, business owners and advisers. Pressure affects how we think, communicate, make decisions and respond to others.

That’s what Farming Stronger is about: understanding what happens to us under pressure and developing practical tools to manage our mindset, energy and attention so we can perform well - sustainably.

Each group I work with is special and this one was no exception - they were open, generous, honest, willing to share what was really going on and equally willing to help each other.

At the end of the day, I asked everyone to reflect on what they were taking away from the workshop and what they wanted to do differently from here. Their reflections included:
- “Be kind to myself, be in the moment, and be enough, just as I am.”
- “Enjoy life, not just survive it.”
- “Have time to do nothing. Just breathe.”
- “Prioritise me.”
- “I will delegate.”
- “I will prioritise more.”
- “I feel more empowered after today.”
- “I’m a product of my decisions.”
- “I learnt that things don’t just happen; you have to make them happen.”

And one person decided to bring back a simple family ritual they’d stopped doing - sharing gratitudes with their kids around the dinner table each day.

Improving mindset, energy and performance is often about the little things - as one of my mentors Matt Church says - "the little things aren't little".

It’s been great working with Jane Atkinson and the NSW DPIRD Farm Business Resilience Program team to bring these workshops to regional NSW.

And Whitton was just the beginning! I have six more Farming Stronger workshops coming up across NSW in October.
• Cassilis - 7 October
• Paterson - 8 October
• Cooma - 13 October
• Bega - 14 October
• Braidwood - 15 October
• Bomaderry - 16 October

I’d love to see farmers, farm business owners, advisers, agribusiness professionals and service providers there. The workshops are supported through the Farm Bussiness Resilience Program, jointly funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund and the NSW Government.

👉 Dates, details and bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/host/nswfbrp

Please share with anyone who might benefit.

21/09/2026

What a great day working with Ricegrowers' Association of Australia last week at the Malt House Pty Ltd. The workshop was for the rice extension network and was called Supporting Growers Under Pressure - Creating the Conditions for Better Thinking and Decisions, which I’ve now delivered with advisers working across vegetable production and the rice industry.

It was such a great group, from very experienced advisers through to younger agronomists building their careers, and I loved how open they were to learning from each other, sharing their experiences and trying some different approaches.

I'm finding growers everywhere are under so much pressure. They’re making complex decisions in an environment of uncertainty and change, and when our brains are overloaded, it affects how we think, communicate, process information and make decisions.

For advisers, that means the job isn’t only about having the right technical answer. It’s also about understanding what might be happening for the person sitting across from you and being able to manage your own state so you can have the most useful conversation possible.

We explored things like:
• what happens to the brain under pressure
• how pressure affects thinking, behaviour and decision-making
• recognising different threat responses
• how important it is to be mindful about what you focus your energy and attention on
• what to say more of and what to say less of
• emotional fitness alongside technical fitness
• managing yourself when the person you’re working with is stressed, frustrated or overwhelmed
• using peer coaching and the collective wisdom of an advisory network

One of the ideas I keep banging on about to people who value technical skills is that understanding your brain and how it works is a technical skill. And in today’s complex, fast-moving and uncertain environment, I think it’s a skill we all need to add to our toolkit.

Thank you so much to Janelle Ruggeri (McGufficke) and Matthew Pete for asking me to work with them on this project. And to all the fabulous participants including Neil Bull Janet Manzin Andrea Mitchell SunRice Group Mark Groat Siarne Deeves & Andrew Todd DPIRD Alex Schultz Josh Hart Rhianna Beacham Ag Mitch Salvestro Dean Armanini Ag Solutions Riley Hamilton Miranda Rose Adrian Hayes Rice Breeding Australia (Ltd) Kathryn Bechaz agronomics James McCaw Ag Chelsea Butler and Erin Munro

It was also absolutely wonderful to be working at the Whitton Malt House. The Malt House came from the vision of four farming families who got together, thought big and created something really special for their region. It's fantastic to see it being used as a place for people to come together, learn and connect.

A huge thank you to the Rice Growers Extension Network for being so open, engaged, and willing to experiment and learn together.

16/09/2026

Farming is demanding. Learn how to perform at your best when the pressure is on.

Join Cynthia Mahoney for Farming Stronger - a practical session designed to help you make better decisions, stay focused and lead with confidence, both on and off the farm.

You’ll take away practical tools to:

• Make better decisions under pressure
• Manage stress and stay focused
• Improve productivity
• Lead and support your team
• Build a stronger, more resilient business

Bega - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-bega
Braidwood - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-braidwood
Bomaderry - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-bomaderry

Build the skills to perform at your best.

The NSW Farm Business Resilience Program is jointly funded by the NSW Government and the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund. See less

10/09/2026

Cassilis & Paterson | October 7 & 8 | 9:30am - 3pm

Farming Stronger, delivered by Cynthia Mahoney, provides practical tools to help you perform at your best, on and off the farm.

You’ll learn practical ways to:

• Make better decisions under pressure
• Manage stress and stay focused
• Improve productivity
• Lead and support your team
• Build a stronger business

Cassilis - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-cassilis
Paterson - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-paterson

The NSW Farm Business Resilience Program is jointly funded by the NSW Government and the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund.

09/09/2026

Public Service Announcement - don’t keep working when your brain is fried!

04/09/2026

Very pleased to be working alongside this fabulous group of people on the LEAD Loddon Murray Board, supporting the development of strong, connected leaders and communities across the region. Excited about what’s ahead!

We are pleased to announce the new LEAD Loddon Murray Board, representing a good blend of governance expertise, regional insight and long-standing commitment to community leadership.

Melinda Mann (LMCLP 2010), Chair
Nathan Rogers (LMCLP 2020), Vice Chair
Ellen White (LMCLP 1998), Secretary
Julie Slater (LMCLP 2003), Treasurer
Beth Taylor (LMCLP 1999)
Amy Oman (LMCLP 2024)
Scott Bourne (LMCLP 2023)
Wade Dinning (LMCLP 2025)
Fiona Elgin, Independent
Cynthia Mahoney, Independent

With 8 LMCLP program years represented there is a fantastic cross‑section of program experience that will bring insight into how community leadership has evolved and where it needs to go next.

Over the coming months, a key focus will be listening and engaging with our members, alumni, partners and communities to understand current leadership needs and opportunities for the future.

We look forward to bringing our LEAD LM community together.

03/09/2026

Running a farm business means making decisions under pressure, leading people and managing uncertainty. Farming Stronger, delivered by Cynthia Mahoney, provides practical tools to help you perform at your best, on and off the farm.

You’ll learn practical ways to:

• Make better decisions under pressure
• Manage stress and stay focused
• Improve productivity
• Lead and support your team
• Build a stronger business

Whitton - Thursday 17 September
Tumut - Friday 18 October

Register today 👉
Whitton - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-whitton
Tumut - https://events.humanitix.com/farming-stronger-tumut

The NSW Farm Business Resilience Program is jointly funded by the NSW Government and the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund.