Boldly Grounded

Join Kylie at the Farm Wives Club: https://kylieepperson.com/farmwivesclubtheevent/
 
Kylie Epperson interviews Faith Pierson, a seed seller and agronomy consultant farming in northeast Illinois with her husband and in-laws, about her path from seventh-generation dairy-farm roots in Wisconsin and college basketball to building a consulting business now working in five states. Faith shares why she started her own seed business to add service and value beyond the product, and discusses women in leadership within a historically male-dominated field, emphasizing intuition, relationship skills, and detail-oriented support. She reflects on early entrepreneurship challenges—high-achiever pressure, difficulty delegating, and losing a major customer before Christmas—while describing how setbacks created new opportunities. Faith explains her "crunchy agronomist" approach: using soil and farm-specific data to reduce unnecessary inputs, lower financial risk, and help farms stay viable, with a broader goal of strengthening rural prosperity.
 
00:00 Welcome to Boldly Grounded
00:41 Meet Faith Pearson
03:01 Farm Life and Illinois Move
04:52 Growing Up Dairy Farm
07:03 Basketball to Agriculture
09:16 Starting in Seed Sales
11:36 Women in Leadership
15:48 Entrepreneurship Challenges
18:23 Delegation And Growth
18:47 Losing A Major Client
20:29 Faith Through Setbacks
22:29 Identity Shifts And Alignment
23:56 Women Leading Agriculture
26:46 Rural Rising Community
28:15 What's Next For Faith
29:29 Crunchy Agronomist Approach
34:53 Changing Agriculture Vision
37:08 Where To Find Faith
39:09 Closing

Sign up for Farm Wifes Club here:  https://kylieepperson.com/farmwivesclubtheevent/
 
Kylie Epperson, a fourth-generation Midwestern farm wife and entrepreneur, shares how planting season pressures reveal real marriage dynamics in her 12-year marriage while raising three kids and juggling busy schedules. She explains that couples don't need equal effort but aligned expectations as seasonal demands shift who carries more at work or at home. She emphasizes that clear, respectful communication matters most when exhausted, helping partners respond rather than react. Kylie notes that support may look practical—handling responsibilities without adding pressure—rather than long talks or date nights. She encourages giving each other (and yourself) extra grace, remembering love remains even when both are running on low energy, and that hard seasons pass and can strengthen connection if both partners stay open, aligned, and present.
 
00:00 Farm Wives Club Invite
01:23 Podcast Intro
02:12 Planting Season Life
04:34 Marriage Under Pressure
08:01 Aligned Not Equal
11:19 Communication When Tired
15:11 Support Looks Different
17:05 Grace And Perspective
22:47 Hard Seasons Pass
25:02 Stay Present Closing

Join us at Farm Wives Club - https://kylieepperson.com/farmwivesclubtheevent/

Kylie Epperson hosts her husband Jordan for a candid catch-up during mid-April planting season, sharing how rain paused fieldwork and how pumping hog manure helps as a cheaper fertilizer option. They talk about their 10-year-old son suddenly becoming passionate about hunting and fishing, including a youth-season turkey success and a supply run to Bass Pro, plus Jordan's memorable past turkey hunt where he forgot his calls but still tagged a bird. The conversation shifts to gratitude for involved, local grandparents and how farming can offer kids the option to return to the family business if they choose, emphasizing the need for intentional couple communication amid busy family life. They also mention delays in moving to the farm, Jordan's growing construction work, and Kylie potentially helping more hands-on—possibly running a second planter. Kylie closes by inviting listeners to Farm Wives Club, highlighting a new venue near Boonville with outdoor space and a farm setting, and directs people to kylieepperson.com for tickets.
 
00:00 Welcome to Boldly Grounded
00:40 Catching Up in April
01:16 Planting Pause and Manure
02:53 Rhett's Turkey Season
03:34 Kylie's Hunting Husband Joke
06:07 Jordan's Kubota Turkey Story
09:48 Grandparents and Growing Up
11:54 Talking About the Future
13:30 Still Not Moved In Yet
15:49 Kylie Helps on the Farm
19:28 Farm Wives Club Tickets
22:22 Event Details and Wrap Up

Follow Kylie on Instagram @boldlygroundedpodcast or @kylieepperson_
Sign up for Farm Wives Club here:  https://kylieepperson.com/farmwivesclubtheevent/

Kylie Epperson talks about adult friendship and how lonely life can feel for women juggling caregiving, motherhood, work, and rural schedules. She shares her experience of friendships changing after high school and college, moving back to a rural area, and how divorce, drifting, and life transitions can disrupt friend groups. She emphasizes that connection is essential, citing studies that strong relationships increase survival rates by 50%, loneliness is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and relationships are the top predictor of happiness. Kylie suggests the issue is often misaligned friendships and encourages seeking friends with shared values, lifestyle understanding, and ambition. She explains this motivation behind Farm Wives Club and invites listeners to attend the two-day event August 28–29 in Boonville, Missouri to build community and meaningful friendships.
 
00:00 Welcome to Boldly Grounded
00:48 Why Adult Friendship Hurts
01:48 The Lonely Mental Load
05:03 Farm Wife Schedule Struggles
06:48 Friendships Change by Season
09:04 Why Connection Matters
10:29 Finding Aligned Friends
13:03 Why Farm Wives Club Exists
15:16 Event Details and Speakers
16:22 Your Nudge to Show Up
18:13 You Weren't Meant Alone
19:43 Final Invitation and Wrap

Follow Kylie on Instagram @boldlygroundedpodcast or @kylieepperson_
Or check out her website www.kylieepperson.com
You can find Kylie Gray Eilers on Instagram @graygirlfarms or head to her website to see all she has going on www.graygirlfarms.com
 
Host Kylie Epperson interviews Kylie Gray Eilers, owner of Gray Girl Farms and Nursery in Royal City, Washington, a fifth-generation row crop background turned first-generation dahlia tuber and flower root farmer. Gray Eilers describes farming in the irrigated Columbia Basin, taking major losses as a first-generation renter, and pivoting by applying potato-production methods to dahlia tubers. She explains scaling from about one acre and 2,000 tubers to roughly 10 acres, shifting from flower delivery to farm pickup bloom buckets, and making most income by digging, dividing, storing, and shipping tubers nationwide, alongside peonies and flower seeds. The conversation also covers postpartum depression, using daily time outdoors as a key support, setting non-negotiables for work and motherhood, social media boundaries, volunteering in local communities, and her recent purchase of a pot-in-pot tree and shrub nursery run as wholesale with pop-up events.
 
00:00 Welcome to Boldly Grounded
00:45 Meet Kylie Gray Eilers
02:30 From Row Crops to Dahlias
03:38 First Gen Farming Reality
06:36 Going All In on Growth
09:27 Selling Flowers and Tubers
10:21 Farm Visits and Expansion
13:15 Postpartum and Baby Steps
16:21 Motherhood and Perspective Shift
17:39 Burnout as a Young Mom
18:38 Chasing More vs Contentment
19:44 Social Media Exhaustion
22:41 Breaking the Phone Habit
24:32 Boundaries Create Not Consume
26:08 Volunteering and Local Impact
27:33 Ripple Effects and Civic Duty
29:14 Seasonal Posting and Limits
30:26 Buying a Wholesale Nursery
33:14 Building a Legacy and Wrap Up