Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten

Welcome to  Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  My podcast guest is one powerhouse of leadership.  Kirk Driver spent 34 years in law enforcement, retiring as a Police Captain. As a former Marine and an MBA graduate, his perspective has been forged where split-second decisions have massive organizational consequences.

Throughout his career, he observed a universal truth: chaos doesn't break organizations. The gray area does.

When core standards are treated as suggestions, teams begin to rely on “rising to the occasion.” But the truth of extreme pressure is that you never rise to the...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  My guest is legendary clinician, Carl Bledsoe.  Carl Bledsoe and his wife, Tammy, reside in Talking Rock, Ga. where they train horses and teach horse owners. Although Carl works with all
breeds of horses, gaited horses are his passion. Carl grew up in the
Tennessee Walking Horse show world. For years, he trained and
showed the incredible breed – many of them champion and world
champion horses. Over time, he realized just how much the horses had
to sacrifice for these titles which prompted him to make a fu...

Welcome to Missouri's Best Podcast, Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  This episode's guest is Missouri State Senator Rick Brattin.  Rick has thrown his hat in the ring and is running for the new 5th District Congressional seat at the Federal level.  There are 435 members of Congress, with 8 of those seats representing Missouri.

Along with being a father of five children with his wife, Athena, Rick is also a US Marine who achieved the rank of Sergeant.  Rick is also an avid hunter and archer.  While he visited our century farm (Von Holten Ranch), I introduced him to th...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  Meet today's guest, Jenna Soto!  Former rodeo queen, former military intelligence, and Mrs. Oklahoma City 2026 and a candidate for Mrs. Oklahoma!  Jenna talks about her struggles with her identity as the next chapters in her life unfold.  Jenna has now found herself as a real estate investor.  She now speaks about the power of identity in overcoming setbacks.

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten podcast.  Today's guest is just what the doctor ordered....Dr. Bishop Foreman is a high energy pastor, an author, a speaker, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and success coach.  This is one cool cat AND he even lost over 100 pounds naturally.  In this interview, we talk about weight loss, our families, money, and passion.  This is a man I could listen to every day!  As if his resume isn't stacked full enough of accomplishments, he is also in the Colorado Gospel Music Hall of Fame!  He is on every form of social media and is ded...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Chris Harris, The Warrior Maker is a recognized authority on mindset and elite performance, helping leaders and sales teams in over 60 countries strengthen execution, discipline and results.  A bestselling author of 14 books, including The Book Of Mindset, he teaches identity-driven frameworks that connect performance to purpose, elevate clarity for leaders, and drive measurable improvement in competitive environments.  

For 25 years, Chris trained special forces as a private contractor, developing systems for operating under extreme pressure.  Founder of an elite combatlives methodology and inductee into the U.S. Marital Arts Hall of F...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  It is my pleasure to introduce Kurt Belding, the founder of Western Obsessions TV, a channel built around raw, unfiltered hunting adventures, the mishaps, misses, and hard-earned victories.  Kurt thrives on bringing the real grit of the outdoors to the screen, not just the highlight reels.  Be sure and check out Western Obsessions on YouTube, Instagram, and on his website.

#westernobsession #kurtbelding #brandyvonholten

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Let's talk about my signature all-inclusive event called SMART CHIX.  Three days, two instructors, hands-on homestead learning experience.  All camping, food, t-shirt, a massive swag bag, and learning is included.  There are twelve homesteading topics covered at each event, by myself and my Mennonite friend, Mrs. Mary Ella Zimmerman.  

If you have wanted to learning homesteading skills such as canning, bread making, tallow rendering, holistic medicine, detoxing, sewing, and so much more, this is the event for you!  Plus...to be in the kitchen with Mrs. Mary Ella (grandmother of 45...

Welcome to Episode 91 of Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Our guest is Anna Littrell from the Office of Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger.  Anna is the Director of Buy Missouri and Tourism Liaison.  The Buy Missouri program was started in 2017 and showcases Missouri-made products and businesses.  Not only is Buy Missouri a database for the Missouri-made products, but also a database of retail partners.  The retail partners make a commitment to sell a variety of Missouri-made items in their stores.  This program is at zero cost to the businesses.  

There are currently 680 businesses in the program and 21,000 employe...

Welcome to Episode 91 of Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Our guest is Anna Littrell from the Office of Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger.  Anna is the Director of Buy Missouri and Tourism Liaison.  The Buy Missouri program was started in 2017 and showcases Missouri-made products and businesses.  Not only is Buy Missouri a database for the Missouri-made products, but also a database of retail partners.  The retail partners make a commitment to sell a variety of Missouri-made items in their stores.  This program is at zero cost to the businesses.  

There are currently 680 businesses in the program and 21,000 employe...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  You will never believe where I met this guest....on a bus at the airport!  John Cantrell is Heavyweight Boxing Champion.  You would never know he is lethal when meeting him in person.   Nothing like "The Iron Man Cantrell" having a conversation with "Glamour with the Hammer".  I also love interviewing fighters, especially when they have a story full of grit and determination.  John was in prison, overcome addiction, and is a man of God.

Here is part of his bio from his website:

John Cantrell is a man...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  This is my first COWGIRL CONFESSION!  WooWhee...fear creeped back into my life and I had to address it ASAP.  It took two other cowgirls to help me battle my own inner demons.  Well....and we also battled a spunky pony named Zoom Zoom, the wind, a opossum, and my feral filly named Domino.  Hold on, buttercup, I'm about to share one heck of a COWGIRL CONFESSION.

#dealingwithfear #notimeforfake #realcowgirl #rememberwhoare #brandyvonholten

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  If you are into homesteading, you will love this interview with Melissa Sisk, co-founder of the Mid MO Homestead Expo.  

The Mid MO Homestead Expo is scheduled for April 3-4, 2026  on the Missouri State Fairgrounds located in the Lowell Mohler Building, 2503 W 16th St, Sedalia, MO, 65301  10AM-5PM both Friday and Saturday.

Here's a little bio about Melissa from the expo's website:

Melissa Sisk is a member of the homesteading and homeschooling community, with a special focus on foraging and gardening. Inspired by the back-to-the-land move...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  This episode I answer questions and read comments from CT2V competitors, Facebook followers, and new faces to CT2V.  

What is CT2V?  Country Tough Trail Versatility.  It is an equine competition that combines trail, obstacles without speed, and a pattern.  There are no points awarded for speed, the obstacles are natural, and the ranch horsemanship pattern has some patterns without cantering.  It is my personal goal to have CT2V events hosted in every state and to be the largest versatility organization in the nation!  

I would...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  I met my guest by standing up to email spammers.  I was contacted by who I thought was "Mike Long".  I did a little research and found the real Mike Long.  I shot my shot and reached out to him and forwarded the spammy email of someone impersonating him and invited Mike to be on my podcast.  And here we are!

Mike outclasses me no matter how you cut it!  I call him a word ninja.  His first book he co-authored titled "The Molecule of More" has sold over 1M copie...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  This was such a cool interview because DVM Travis Beasley with Beasley Equine Clinic in Eldorado, Illinois, interviewed me the day before at his facility, and then I remotely interviewed him the next day.  I am TEAM TRAVIS for life now!  

Beasley Equine Clinic is an equine veterinary clinic that is the REAL DEAL.  Clean, specialized, and UP-TO-DATE with technology!  

Travis is a second-generation vet.  Heck, even his brother is a vet.  What a gift to the equine that he sees.  I hope you enjoy this podcast as much...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten!  Let me introduce Heather Mincer with Yes Honey!  Yes, Honey, is a healthy soda pop sweetened with honey rather than sugar or high fructose corn syrup!!  She's originally from upstate New York, but now lives in Missouri.  Heather's pop is in 200 stores nationwide and has partnered with Azure.  There are caffeinated and non-caffeinated versions with B-vitamins, ashwagandha, and l-cysteine.  

Heather is cool as a fan and gave us a discount code for my followers!  If you go to yeshoneybrand.com and use the code [Smartchix15] to get 15...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Let me introduce Mark Henry from Midwest Windmill Company.  I met Mark at the 2025 Missouri State Fair.  His company caught my attention, because I want to install a working windmill on our century-old ranch.  

Have you ever met someone and just clicked?  This podcast is upbeat and high-energy!  He can restore old or damaged windmills or install a new one.  And I bet if you have one on your property that you needed to relocate for some ching-ching, I bet Mark would be able to hook you up.  

Please...

Welcome back to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Today's guest is Cheryl Dangerfield.  We met on Facebook.  Cheryl had liked and commented on one of my Facebook posts.  I clicked on her profile for her Facebook page called "Pushing Past the Quit" and here we are today.  It turns out that Cheryl and I do not live too far apart and share a goal of wanting to make an impact.  In this podcast, we discuss keeping promises to yourself, not talking down to yourself, and minimizing.  Cheryl also talked about a term that made me stop and think.  I am sur...

Welcome to the podcast "Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten"!  Today's guest is James King with King's Excavation & Land Management, LLC out of Foristell, MO, near St. Louis.  I have never met James in person.  I stopped scrolling one day when I allowed myself to blow off time with Facebook Reels.  King's Excavation went to the aid of strangers after Hurricane Helene.  That one video touched me, which started the mad hunt to do a podcast interview with them.  Good people need to be celebrated and supported.

My heart goes out to the people whose lives were devast...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Boy, do I have a story for you!  I met Lynne Knowles because I thought I was calling a hypnotist from Australia.  In the world of influencers, I am a mini-influencer.  With 110K followers, I was bombarded with people wanting me to sell their products.  Lynne was different, and luckily, I opened the door for her in my life, and there's no turning back now!  

Lynne introduced me to drinking bioidentical ketones.  I felt it literally in my head on day one.  I am not a product person at all; I'm...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Buster McLaury requires no introduction.  This is the real deal.  Colt starter, cattle driver, and American cowboy.  He's worked with the 6666 through changes of ownership.  Buster loves his daughters and their families, his wife, God, and the horse.  Slow work is the key to solid horses.  Buster says what needs to be said and sticks by it.  There's so much more to learn from him besides horses.  This man is a mentor's mentor.   

Buster and I met when we were both clinicians at the 2024 Midwest Horse Fair.  We booked him for 2025...

Welcome to Country Tough with Brandy Von Holten.  Meet Emily Liebi with Skeeters Farm Goods!  Emily sells and ships homemade salsa and creates one of kind western jewelry.  I'm talking sterling silver, "redneck pearls", copper wire, and of course, turquois.  Emily is as country as a chicken fried steak.  

We will carry Emily's jewelry at our ranch (Von Holten Ranch) in 2025.  I already know this will be a huge hit with our Chix in the Sticks events.

www.vonholtenranch.com

#horsecamping #trailriding #RVcamping #obstaclecourse #trail #mountedarchery #cabinweekend #horsecamp #tentcamping #horsebackrider #scavengerhunt #campingwithfriends #trailr...