A Road Less Traveled Podcast · Hilary Haron

Embracing Individuality with Erica Bebout | A Road Less Traveled Podcast

·32 min·2 clips

Erica says, "you don't have to settle for good enough" and that women can want more.

Erica Bebout starts with a winding path. She introduces herself from Ennis, Montana, where she owns EB Training for horse training and Bebout Braiding for rawhide work. Hillary asks about her background, her education, and where all of it led. The conversation moves through California, Montana, Iowa, Cal Poly, corporate America, teaching, and the back-and-forth that shaped Erica's work. It feels useful because Erica is not treated like someone who had one tidy plan from the start. Her degree was in ag systems management, with a minor in agribusiness. From there, the episode turns to teaching agriculture and what that meant in the classroom. Hanford comes into focus. Erica taught ag mechanics, intro agriculture, and animal science, with classes that mixed biology, woodshop, metal, and construction skills. She adjusted lessons around students, which says plenty about her style. She was not just checking off standards. She was asking what students cared about and nudging them to work from there. The best stretch is about students getting stuck when Erica gave them broad prompts and basic search terms. They wanted a rubric. Erica wanted them to use the tools in front of them, make a call, and explain why it made sense. Simple enough, but not easy. The story gets at confidence, independence, and how weird open-ended work can feel when people are used to exact instructions. The ending comes back to individuality. Erica's path makes that idea feel practical rather than polished: work can be messy and still point somewhere honest.

As heard by us

A practical career story about ag teaching, horse work, and making your own lane.

Erica Bebout's path reads as a series of real jobs rather than a polished career myth, moving from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a degree in ag systems management, plus a minor in agribusiness, into teaching ag mechanics, intro to agriculture, and animal science before turning to…

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Why you'd press play

If you like women building real work around horses and classrooms, press play.

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