025 | How to Leave Your 9-5 Job to Homestead with Mandi Pickering of Wild Oak Farms
Listen to Business Building: How to Leave Your 9-5 Job to Homestead with Mandi Pickering of Wild Oak Farms on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
Today, we are excited to have a Business Building episode! In these episodes, we’ll cover topics that cover growing your business from the ground up, scaling, outsourcing, and more. In this episode of How to Leave Your 9-5 Job to Homestead with Mandi Pickering of Wild Oak Farms, we cover several important topics including:
How Mandi started as a first-generation farmer
How to leave your 9-5 job to pursue your dreams
Creating products to sell online and the pros and cons of selling on Etsy
What it means to create a life intentionally to be the best version of yourself
How to Leave Your 9-5 Job to Homestead with Mandi Pickering of Wild Oak Farms
Mandi’s love for the farm didn’t actually start on the farm. She grew up in the city and always had a love for animals, so naturally, as she got older, she was looking for ways to stay in the agriculture industry. After realizing that becoming a veterinarian was quite the investment, she started looking at other avenues in ag. While she did end up in a career within the ag industry, she still wasn’t feeling fulfilled. This is the point where Mandi took the leap and bought her farm.
Her journey didn’t end there. Up until a couple of months ago, Mandi was still at her full-time job, juggling that, her relationships, and the farm and it just became too much. She realized she was no longer serving the best version of herself and decided to quit her full-time job to go full-time at the farm. Within the first three months working full time on the farm, she made more than the entire previous year on the farm. This is what we like to call “cutting back on the good to make room for better”.
“I was spending all of my energy giving to something that’s not giving to me anymore.” - Mandi
Tara also asked Mandi about the creation and expansion of the Wild Oak Farms products. They started with selling goat’s milk soaps and quickly scaled to providing lotions, and apparel. Mandi went on to discuss the pros and cons of selling on Etsy, which is where the farm got its start selling products online. This was a great part of the conversation if you just starting your business journey and need some tips on where to start selling online.
Make sure to listen to the full episode for Mandi's full journey in starting her own farm, selling her farm products, and creating a life that serves the best version of herself.
About Wild Oak Farms
Wild Oak Farms is a small homesteading farm based in Northwest Missouri, owned and run by Mandi and Casey. The farm has a herd of Nubian goats, a flock of Sebastapol geese, Muscovy ducks, a Jersey cow named Margarine, chickens, and a couple of horses. The mission of the farm is to provide sustainably sourced and created farm products that people can believe in. The farm is thrilled to provide Goat’s milk products, local produce, apparel, and much more. Learn more about Mandi and Wild Oak Farms below by exploring her links.
Resources and links mentioned in this episode:
Visit the Wild Oak Farms Website
Connect with Wild Oaks on Instagram
Visit our website, Elevate Ag
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About Elevate Ag the Podcast
Where can I find tools and strategies to confidently and effectively share my story online? How do I monetize my brand? Where can I find community among women in agriculture and business? Can I cultivate my passion while also making money?
Welcome to Elevate the Podcast where we will answer ALL of these questions and so much more! Hosts Tara Vander Dussen and Natalie Kovarik, along with their guests, will bring you tangible advice, useful tools, and bold strategies that you can implement to drive your business forward and elevate the voice of agriculture. This business interview and storytelling podcast serves agriculture, western and rural entrepreneurs who want to excel in the social space and make their dreams a reality. Tune in every week to dig into entrepreneurs’ stories as they share the problems they encountered and opportunities they created as a way to educate, inspire and encourage the dreamer inside of all of us.
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