Meet Valeria Pitoni

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Valeria Pitoni a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Valeria, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Confidence (and self-esteem) is something that was instilled in me early in life by my mother. She was a woman who had an underprivileged and unstable upbringing that fed self-doubt and low self-esteem, and she didn’t want my brother or me to suffer the same fate. She built in us what should have been built in her. My brother and I have had the conversation several times that we just don’t understand how a woman with so many strikes against her could raise two children who are so confident.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

For the past 19 years, I, along with my husband, have owned a small, 153 acre farm in West Tennessee. It is here that I have employed all my past jobs–in the accounting field, as a professor, and as a retail worker–to forge what has become an ever-expanding life work.

On Stillwaters Farm, we began with a guest house that we turned into a farmstay, helping, as founding members, to establish the US Farmstay Association and greet, host, and educate guests who come our way in the importance that agriculture plays in all of our lives. From there, we continued our agricultural journey establishing a small vineyard in 2018, and ultimately birthing Forty Cannons Winery–a craft-style winery that lives on-property.

As a life-long learner, these twists and bends in my road continue to challenge and stretch me, providing life lessons and growing points. I can see myself still being the driving force of our operations for years to come.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Mother/Wife. It is as a mother and wife that I have learned best how to nurture, care, and guide others.

2. Professor. As a professor of English to speakers of other languages, I learned how to educate and connect.

3. Farmer. It is as a farmer that I have learned how to play my part in the miraculous cycle of growth. A concept not restricted to dirt and plants.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

The very best things my parents did for me were to love me, grow my roots, and give me wings. Along with my husband and children, they have been my biggest fans and my best support system.

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Image Credits

Valeria Barton Pitoni

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