It seems nearly impossible not to know about or be aware of The Pioneer Woman,
Ree Drummond . New and long-time fans of The Pioneer Woman likely know she has come a long way
in her career. But lately, it seems Drummond is everywhere and that she has really made her mark,
whether you're talking about retail stores or her adopted hometown of Pawhuska , Oklahoma. Between
her show on the Food Network and her many branded products, Drummond is a force to be reckoned with.
The road to Drummond's many achievements arguably began with the story behind her brand and name,
which is pretty ironic. As she put it on her own website,
"I was literally THE last person anyone ever pictured moving to the country.
When I announced my engagement to a cowboy, my childhood friends couldn't believe it."
That's why they lovingly nicknamed her "The Pioneer Woman," which turned out to be truer
than they realized. She had to lug and boil water for four months when she and her cattle rancher
husband, Ladd, lost water pressure at their house a few years after they married. As Drummond wrote
on her website, a neighbor dubbed her The Pioneer Woman as a joke, which she learned to revel in.
"The reason my name is Pioneer Woman is because when I told my childhood
friends that I was moving to the country, they fell over laughing."
Fans likely know Drummond started out with a blog, but perhaps they're unaware of how
humble its beginnings were. According to Forbes, Drummond began her blog as a way to fill the
hours she had to herself after her husband began taking the kids to work with him out on the ranch.
Since she was no longer spending the same amount of hours homeschooling their four kids,
she thought she could stay in touch with her own mom, who lived in Tennessee, through the
blog. Little did she know that it would become much more than a tool for family connection.
In 2006, Drummond launched her now-signature "The Pioneer Woman" domain with the aid of
free software. Once she began writing post after post for what she originally named
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, the blog began to build a following through word of mouth.
Within three years, it had blossomed into something huge,
and in 2009, Time named Drummond's blog one of its top 25 blogs in the world.
It wasn't until 2007 that Drummond posted her first recipe,
which featured detailed photos for each step. Slowly but surely, she found the perfect
balance between posting recipes and sharing personal insights into life on the ranch.
By her third year of blogging, The Pioneer Woman was getting 13 million views per month.
Eventually, Drummond wrote her first book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental
Country Girl. Unlike the comparatively slow burn that her blog experienced,
the book immediately caught fire, and by 2011, the blog was getting 23.3 million page views per
month, according to Forbes. It was around this time that she was profiled in The New Yorker,
and the Food Network signed her on for her television show. Drummond had no professional
experience or instruction, which might be why she resonated with her audience of home cooks.
Now, Drummond's empire includes far more than a single book and her original blog.
Today, she and her family are still filming her successful television show — on top of
planning her daughter's wedding. She has her own magazine, which is befitting since she did
graduate college with a journalism degree, and she's also now written more than a dozen books.
Drummond has also opened physical businesses like The Pioneer Woman Boarding House,
which is her eight-room hotel in her family's own town of Pawhuska. The hotel is conveniently
located just down the street from The Mercantile , a combination of store,
bakery, and restaurant that showcases The Pioneer Woman aesthetic. For those
who can't get to Pawhuska as often as they'd like to indulge in Drummond's product lines,
there's always her expansive collection of cookware, small appliances,
kitchen tools, and even groceries at Walmart. Then there are her spices, and a coffee line.
All of that work and success over the years has added up,
and Drummond now has an estimated net worth of $50 million. It's likely only a matter
of time before we see what's next on The Pioneer Woman's professional to-do list.
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