Pioneering Today Academy

A few things.

Consistency. With the Pioneering Today Academy you get one main teacher – Melissa – for your lessons and group mentorship calls. And you’ll get regular support from the admin team in the community. 

Depth of information. That’s not to say we make it complicated – we don’t – but Melissa’s courses go deep into the topics while still making all the information digestible and easy-to-follow. 

Our community. It’s so much more than just advice. It’s camaraderie. Our members form bonds that go deep. They support one another, they pick each other up, they cheer each other on. Some of them even meet up in person!

Faith. Our members requested a dedicated faith-based area within the community. All faiths are welcome. Members use this space to post faith-related messages, and ask for prayers. It’s a member-driven and member-supported area of the community. And they love it!

Experience. Between myself and my team we have 102 years of homesteading experience that we’re always happy to share. 

Our experience is hard-earned. We’ve learned from our mistakes so you’ll get the benefit of learning the methods that work – and why – and avoiding all the things that don’t. But this is so much more than a bunch of how-to videos. It’s guidance, mentorship, support, problem solving… Jump straight in with your questions, we’re here to help you grow + accomplish your goals.

Plus, it’s the only membership where you get regular ‘storytime with Melissa’ (and trust us, you’ll laugh).

This isn’t a one-to-one program, however, every month there are two live mentorship calls with Melissa where you can submit your questions. Plus you can post in the Community anytime and receive support from Melissa, her team, and the community — the community doesn't hesitate to support a member with a question!

• Course #1: Growing your own fruits and vegetable
• Course #2: Successful Seed Saving
• Course #3: Home Canning with Confidence 
• Course #4: Food Preservation Beyond Canning 
• Course #5: Cooking & Baking 
• Course #6: Raising Livestock 
• Course #7: Dairy & Cheese 
• Course #8: Medicinal Herb Garden from Seed to Harvest
• Course #9: Practical Home Herbalism
• Course #10: Bath & Body
• Course #11: Homestead Household Management
• Course #12: Homestead Preparedness
• A friendly, supportive Community
• Quarterly Challenges to kick start your homesteading in a particular focus area
• 2x Live Mentorship Calls with Melissa per month
• BONUS: Monthly Seasonal Harvest Guide + Monthly Harvest to Table Seasonal Recipes
• BONUS: Pioneering Today Academy BASIC, curated course
• BONUS: Custom Tea Towel

It depends on what you want to do in your homestead. If the course you already have gives you what you need, wonderful! However, if you’re on this page then I imagine you’re curious about how much more you could do with your homestead. That’s where the membership comes in – it gives you access to all the topics Melissa teaches, so it’s like renting a space in her brain for as long as you need it. Plus not all the courses we sell separately are the same versions inside the membership (see next question for more about that). 

In general, the courses inside the membership are longer and more comprehensive.

Our courses fall into three categories:

1. Courses that share some lessons with courses you can buy, but also contain some additional lessons not found in the stand-alone courses, and don’t include others that are in the stand-alone courses.
2. Courses that are the same as the ones you can buy separately on the website.
3. Courses exclusive to Academy members — these can’t be purchased separately. 

You can invest as much or as little time as you like in the Academy. However, we recommend you only join if you’re willing to take at least one lesson per week (or take part in a challenge or live call) so that you can be drip-feeding your homesteading knowledge and enjoy the difference it makes to your homesteading. 

….The more you put into it, the more you get out of it!
(In general, lLessons range from 3 minutes to 30 minutes.)

It’s true that there is a lot inside the membership. But we’re confident you’ll start to benefit as soon as you take your first lesson. (But the courses are all self-paced, so there’s no rush… however, don’t be surprised if you get so excited by your new knowledge that you suddenly start finding time you didn’t know you had!)

Start with our welcome videos and then orientate yourself with what’s available. After that, we recommend you start with whatever topic takes your interest. Let us know what that is and we’ll send you a direct link to a lesson that’ll get you started. Explore it as little or as much as you wish, and then move onto a different topic. 

Plus, my Content Director, Michelle (a.k.a. “the one who keeps this all hanging together”) will be hosting a monthly office hour to help with any questions related to your membership or the Academy platforms.

Let’s take bread as an example. You might go through all of the steps below, or you might stop at whichever step makes you content:

1. You decide you don’t want to buy bread from the store anymore. You’re going to bake your own.
2. You find my lesson that teaches you how to make the Perfect Sandwich Bread with All-purpose Flour. You love the results. Baking the sandwich loaf just becomes part of your routine.
3. You decide you don’t want to use store bought yeast anymore. You explore the lesson ‘How to Make Sourdough Starter’ and get going.
4. Then you try the lesson ‘How to Make Sourdough Sandwich Bread’ and love the loaf. Baking this loaf becomes part of your routine.
5. You are loving making bread so much you decide you don’t want to make it with store-bought flour anymore. You’re going to learn how to grind your own flour at home, so you look up the lesson ‘How to Grind Flour at Home and Choosing a Mill’ and set to it with grain you bought at the farmers market.
6. You had so much fun grinding flour from the farmers market, you decide to grow your own wheat to mill into flour, then bake into sourdough.
7. After watching a ‘master dough’ lesson, you start your weekly Sourdough ‘Master Dough’
8. Throughout your busy week, you’re able to use your sourdough master dough to bake sourdough artisan loaves, sourdough pizza, sourdough dinner rolls, sourdough tortillas, and more!

Alternatively, you might start making different types of bread or sourdough bread.

…With over 70 lessons on baking, you’ve no shortage of things to explore!

We recommend you start where you're at. No need to run out and buy a $3000 freeze dryer — phew! Find the things you can do now using supplies you’ve already got, and slowly build up from there. 

That depends on what you want to do. If you want to grow your own herbs / fruits / veggies, then you’ll need some space to do it. 

We always recommend using what you have to start with — be that a windowsill, a balcony, a backyard (or a willing friend with one 😉), a community garden, some rented land …or a ranch!

Most of our students are from the US (coast to coast). And we have some in Canada, Australia, England and Sweden too. Most of the lessons are applicable wherever you are. Melissa teaches you how to identify your growing zone so you’ll know what to do, and when. 

We think the Academy suits most learning styles and appeals more than school because our members are actively choosing to learn. The lessons are short and you can choose which you do and the order you do them. 

Melissa is a fifth generation homesteader leaning on the four generations of experience before her. She also has 25+ years of wisdom gained from her own trials, errors and successes, and does research into the science behind what she’s learned. Which she shares with her members in an easy-to-follow way.

Absolutely! It’ll save you years of trial, error, frustration and disappointment. You’ll have all the information you need at your fingertips within the Library, Challenges to get you making huge leaps, live Q&As for your questions, and a community of knowledgeable homesteaders on hand to support. It’s basically the best place to start — and to stay. 😊

Probably. We’ve got some very experienced homesteaders in our mix and often hear how much the lessons have benefitted them.

Take a look at what’s included and see if there’s some aspects to homesteading you’ve not tried yet. Got something specific in mind and want to know if it’s covered? Drop us an email at [email protected] and we’ll let you know. 

I usually open the doors twice a year — so if this isn't the right time, you'll have the opportunity to join again in the future. Be sure to join the waitlist (once doors close this time around) and we’ll email you to let you know when doors re-open.

If you’ve still got questions about whether the Pioneering Today Academy is right for you, pop us an email at [email protected] with your questions and we’ll get back to you.

You can get started right away! You’ll receive a couple of emails confirming your subscription, giving you the links to the Library and the Community, and your log in details. We have a special  welcome area in both – start there to orientate yourself, then go look at whatever takes your fancy! 

Until you cancel! This is an ongoing membership that starts the day you sign up. Monthly members will be charged on a monthly basis and can cancel anytime. Annual members will be charged on an annual basis, one year after their original sign up date. Lifetime members sign up once and have membership for life. 

For as long as you’re a member. If you bought a course prior to becoming a member, you’ll keep access to it even if you leave the Pioneering Today Academy.

We’re confident you’ll love the Pioneering Today Academy. But if for any reason you don’t, monthly memberships can be cancelled at any time. 

If you sign up to the annual or lifetime plans, we give you a 15 day happiness guarantee.

Simply log-in to your library, click billing, and hit cancel then save changes. If you used Paypal you’ll cancel inside your Paypal account. If you need any assistance just drop us a note at [email protected] and we'll get you sorted. (we don’t make it difficult, promise!)

The Community is hosted on a platform called Circle. It’s a private group managed by Melissa & team. We encourage members to post their questions, successes, and all their homesteading ponderings. You won’t find any ads, spam or junk here. 

The Library is hosted on Kajabi – an online course platform that makes it really easy to navigate the courses + lessons. You can also post questions or comments underneath videos.