218: Roots & Reinvention with Lexi Marek Beeler
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Release Date: 09/03/2025
233: One From the Heart: 4 Women Leading Community Change
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This episode is a little different — and honestly, it might be one of the most important ones I’ve ever shared. Instead of one long-form interview, you’re getting four mini-interviews with women who are quietly (and powerfully) making their communities better — through nonprofit work, community organizing, and the kind of “someone has to do something… so I will” leadership that changes everything. These women were listener-nominated, and every story proves the same thing: You don’t need a massive following or a fancy title to make a difference. You just need the willingness to...
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232: Nourish the Body, Feed the Soul: A Conversation with Whitney Sanger of Project Rooted
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Whitney Sanger isn’t just a nonprofit founder — she’s a mother of seven, a Dubuque native, a communications and storytelling pro, and the kind of woman who sees a gap and refuses to accept “that’s just how it is” as an answer. In this conversation, Whitney shares the very personal journey that shaped her relationship with food, and how that journey eventually turned into — a nonprofit built on the belief that nutrition isn’t only about what’s on the plate… it’s also about connection, dignity, community, and hope. We talk about the moment that sparked her curiosity (a...
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231: The Quiet Work of Changing Lives: How One Small-Town Teacher Serves New Families in Big Ways with Sarah Palmer
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week’s episode of The Found Podcast isn’t about a flashy brand or a viral business story. It’s about a woman you’ll probably never see on a billboard, but whose work is changing lives quietly, consistently, and deeply in rural Eastern Iowa. In this episode, Molly sits down with Sarah Palmer, an English Language Learning (ELL) teacher in the Western Dubuque Community School District. For the past 18 years, Sarah has been teaching language, yes—but also welcoming refugee and immigrant families, connecting them to food, furniture, transportation, and community support, and modeling...
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230: Small Acts, Big Impact: Rethinking What Community Service Looks Like in 2025
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
As we enter December and close out the final month of 2025, this episode brings our year-long exploration of restored, intentional female leadership full circle. We’ve spent the past twelve months talking about presence, friendship, boundaries, nervous system health, community spaces, and the internal work that helps women lead sustainably. This month, we’re turning our attention outward—to the communities we belong to. In this episode, Molly shares a deeply personal story of her own evolution as a community volunteer: from an enthusiastic, overcommitted “young mom with a mission” to...
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229: Things Are Just Better When They’re Fun: A Thanksgiving Giggle Fest with My Mom & Sister
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re trading strategy for stories and KPIs for giggle fits. To celebrate Thanksgiving and our November theme of family for the ambitious woman, I invited two of the biggest influences in my life and leadership to join me on the mic: my sister, Jessica Ryan, and my mom, Kathy McAllister. This episode is…unhinged in the best way. We swap stories about handmade Halloween costumes, soda cans secretly stashed in dresser drawers, hiding Dad’s favorite candy, President’s Day “mystery trips,” and the legendary Mother’s Day “Guilty Pleasure” road trip....
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228: Wildly Intentional Living with Mandy Webber: Motherhood, Homesteading & Choosing a Life That’s Yours
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Today’s episode feels extra special — because I finally got to sit down in person with someone I’ve admired online for months: Mandy Webber of the Wildly Intentional Podcast. She drove from West Branch, Iowa, to my home office in Cascade, and what started as a podcast interview turned into a three-hour, soul-filling conversation about motherhood, homesteading, family culture, learning (and unlearning), running a business from your values, and choosing a life that’s deeply rooted in intention. We recorded a double-pod, so you’ll hear the Found-side of our interview today, and you can...
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227: Motherhood & the Ambitious Woman: Holding Both Without Losing Yourself
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re continuing our November series on family — and we’re going right into the tender middle: motherhood. Because motherhood changes everything. Your time. Your nervous system. Your calendar. Your priorities. Your sense of self. And if you’re an ambitious woman on top of that? It changes the way you define success, too. In this solo episode, I talk honestly about what it looks like to be a mom who loves her kids deeply and a woman who has dreams, goals, clients, and callings. We’ll name the myths, talk about the invisible labor, and tell the truth...
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226: This is Not a "How-To Marriage" Podcast
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
Hey listener, welcome back to The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth. November’s theme is family — not just the cute-holiday-card kind, but the real, evolving, sometimes-stretchy relationships that ambitious women have to tend to while they’re also growing businesses, teams, and impact. Today, I’m pulling back the curtain on one of those relationships: my marriage. This is not a “5 steps to a perfect partnership” episode. It’s a real-time reflection from someone who’s been married 16 years, building a business for 9, raising 4 kids, and learning (over and over) how to love a person...
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225: Better Together: A Kitchen-Table Conversation on 20+ Years of Friendship
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re doing something a little different…and a lot more personal. I finally brought my real-life best friends to the mic — right here around my kitchen table — snacks, beers, belly laughs, squeals, and memories included. We’ve been friends for decades — from first kisses to first cars, from weddings to babies, from heartbreaks to hospital rooms. These women are my chosen family. And while this episode may not follow the usual structure… it might be the most heart-expanding one yet. Whether you’ve known your girls for 25 years or 25 days —...
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224: Tradition Keepers & Memory Makers: The Power of Friendship Rituals for Ambitious Women
The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth
This week on The Found Podcast, we’re diving into the heart of friendship — the kind that’s rooted in laughter, ritual, and showing up for each other year after year. As ambitious women, it’s easy to let work and responsibilities crowd out connection. But our friendships, the chosen families we build, are what keep us grounded, joyful, and human. In this episode, I’m sharing stories of the traditions that have kept my friendships alive through every season of life, from Christmas candy-making and cookie swaps to spontaneous “meet the baby” dinners and annual scavenger hunts....
info_outlineThis week on The Found Podcast, I’m joined by the incredible Lexi Marek Beeler—a marketer, community builder, and proud ag advocate who has turned her passion for storytelling and connection into a thriving business and a movement.
Lexi’s story is one of roots and reinvention. From growing up on a family farm in rural Iowa, to shaping digital marketing strategies for startups, government, and corporate organizations, to now leading her own consulting business and co-creating the Hey Sister! community—Lexi is the epitome of an ambitious, grounded woman making her own path in every season of life.
We talk about everything from the origins of her career (hint: pigs, perseverance, and a dad who refused social media) to her belief in the power of rural America, and her journey to align work and life in a season that finally feels “just right.”
✨ In this episode, you’ll hear about:
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How Lexi turned farm chores into her first marketing gig.
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Why moving back to the farm gave her the reset she didn’t know how much she needed.
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The role of community, sisterhood, and support in personal and professional growth.
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Finding alignment in seasons of change (and why imperfect perfection is worth striving for).
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Lexi’s advice for women who are ready to take the leap into their next big dream.
💡 “You don’t have to be biologically related to create a sisterhood. Community is what carries us.” – Lexi Marek Beeler
🔗 Listen now and get inspired by Lexi’s story of joy, grit, and growth.
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