When Sunshine Saved My Soul: Growing Dahlias Through Hard Seasons with Kylie Gray Eilers

Faith Pierson on Women in Agronomy, Intuition in Business, and Changing Agriculture from the Ground Up

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

What Planting Season Teaches You About Marriage: Alignment, Communication, Support, and Grace

Sign up for Farm Wifes Club here: https://kylieepperson.com/farmwivesclubtheevent/ [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

Shop Talk: Raising Kids, Chasing Turkeys, and Building Something Beautiful

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

Finding Connection: The Power of Adult Friendship as a Rural Woman

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

When Sunshine Saved My Soul: Growing Dahlias Through Hard Seasons with Kylie Gray Eilers

Follow Kylie on Instagram @boldlygroundedpodcast or @kylieepperson_ Or check out her website www.kylieepperson.com [https://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 [https://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