"Half farmer, half X" is a concept that just clicked for me when I read about it. It describes a lifestyle where you spend some of your time - it doesn’t have to be 50% - on growing, harvesting, cooking, and preserving your own food. The rest of the time is spent on your vocation, something that gives you meaning and provides you with an income. I can’t claim I knew what I was doing when I started growing tomatoes and herbs on a very small, dark balcony 8 years ago. Even when it spiraled into an ever-growing garden in our suburban garden outside Copenhagen - a garden that came with a color-coded spreadsheet (obviously, I work in commercial operations) - I like to bring structure and templates to what I work to optimize, track and improve on the process, and as it turns out, this applies to gardening as well as my work in revenue operations. The spreadsheet keeps track of what I grow, when to sow, transplant and harvest, as well as how it "performed" and how much we enjoyed eating the end result.
Since starting our family, I’ve been feeling restless about how to organize my work-life balance. I love what I do; I get to work with great people, solve problems, nerd out on how to build the best solution, and then see the results slowly come together. It’s fun. What I enjoy less is the endless compromise between work and my family.
Working with a feverish toddler on your lap or playing with your kids while trying to answer a colleague who is outside of your timezone and stuck in their day-to-day work; neither is great. Not for yourself, not for your colleagues, and definitely not for your kids. So the question is, then what?
Do I change the type of organization I work for?
Do I completely abandon my profession and start selling the calendula flower-based salve I’ve been giving away to friends and family?
Even though the thought of becoming a full-time herbalist seemed incredibly romantic and purposeful, I quickly realized I did not want to become reliable on the Danish weather and attempts at organic pest control for my livelihood. Not in the least because I didn’t want to apply the usual pressure I put on myself onto my hobby and my ‘escape’ from daily responsibilities. My garden may have its own spreadsheet, but it shouldn’t become something I have to tend to and should indeed stay a hobby.
There have been endless articles written about "quiet quitting." Haven't heard about it before? It's an alternative to people resigning their jobs, they might deliver on their key responsibilities but other than that, they back away from other tasks and egagements.
That concept doesn’t feel right to me. Neither does finding a job that is "just a job" where I clock in and out without stretching my abilities and my skills. I’ve also seen people in my close network take brave steps, leaving a corporate job to start an actual farm (if you want to grow your flowers, they sell seeds and have great advice: https://lindelystfarm.dk/). But where does that leave me? I don’t want to turn my hobby into a job, and I need to find a way to balance my profession, hobby, and family. That’s when I stumbled onto the concept of "Half Farmer, Half X." This article in Japan Times and this Upstream podcast describe the concept better than I can:
‘Imagine this week you spent half your time growing, harvesting, preserving, and cooking food for yourself, your family, and perhaps your community — and the other half your time doing something else that you love, something that brings you joy — perhaps writing, podcasting, coaching, caring for others, or anything else. How would you feel? What would change about your relationship to food, to place, to work, and to the seasons? This is the lifestyle model championed by farmer and writer Naoki Shiomi. Since the 1990s, the idea of "Half Farmer, Half X" — combining sustainable farming with an income-generating “X” variable that represents one’s calling, has inspired people across Japan and other parts of Asia to abandon corporate-capitalist modes of mass production, mass consumption, overwork, and long commutes — and to instead realign their priorities and make dramatic life changes to empower food sovereignty, community sufficiency, and meaningful livelihoods.’
Jun Hoshikawa, a writer, translator, environmentalist and peace advocate, who described himself using the term “han-nō, han-cho” (“half-farmer, half-writer”) in his 1990 book “Our True Nature.” Hoshikawa has lived since 1982 on the island of Yakushima in Kagoshima Prefecture, where he farms organically and spearheads forest conservation initiatives.
What I like about this is that it's flexible. You can start small and find what works for you. You might live in an area where access to fresh produce isn't an issue, even in light of the inflation we've seen in the past year. Or maybe you haven't experienced an earthquake that damaged a nuclear reactor, which directly affected the supply of basic commodities to supermarkets in your city, like the people interviewed in the Upstream podcast. But the concept might still be right for you.
Maybe you struggle with balancing work and life because even though you enjoy what you do, you find it hard to find meaning in your corporate role. I know I did, which made keeping that balance even harder.
For me, in my current situation, it means leaving a great full-time job to see if I can leverage my skillset and contribute enough to my family's economy as a freelancer while leaving enough time to fully focus on my (small) kids, my own physical and mental health, and, you know, life!
I won't spend 50 percent of my time in my garden, but maybe 20 percent. I'm not exactly sure what what this will look like for me. I can also imagine that it looks very different from month to month. Since it's spring and I've been expanding my growing space with new beds and a greenhouse, it's been about 75 percent farming last week.
Right now, I'm inspired by conversations I've had with a number of businesses that need help getting their revenue operations in a row, and I will spend a lot more time on my 'X.' I have set a limit for myself on how much time I'll dedicate to my 'X' as I know I tend to get excited and get carried away with projects. Instead, this year I'll be focusing on maintaining balance.
So, what is my 'X'?
I'm getting set up as a freelance Marketing and Revenue Operations specialist. I'm speaking with startups, scaling businesses, as well as agencies about improving their commercial processes. They're critically reviewing their tech stack, locking down a Marketing to Sales handover process, or assessing their HubSpot marketing setup to see what aspect of a digital marketing playbook should be prioritized next.
Many businesses had to scale back their hiring plans or even let people go, many of those positions were in Marketing and Operations. The underlying problems are still there and the headcount for a fulltime hire isn't quite there either so this is where a business can scale its team with freelancers.
I like to get into a room with Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams to hash out their challenges and build the solution that works for them. This is what I'll be focusing on for the rest of 2023. Call it a wild experiment. I might have some dirt under my fingernails during our Zoom meeting, and I may show up with fresh tomatoes to our in-person meeting, but I'm fairly certain that taking time away from my desk is making my mind sharper and allowing me to put more energy into my 'X.'
Do you need an extra pair of hands and a spare brain to work through your projects? Let's have a cup of coffee and see how I can help!