July 18, 2025

# 171 - The Value Of Getting Away From Your Farm For Inspiration And Clarity – lessons from a recent FOA client conference

36 minutes

I really values the constructs that: ‘you cannot solve the problem you have created in the environment in which you created it’… and ‘many minds make for smarter work’.

What could you see more clearly if you took time with key decision-makers away from your farm?

How many more options and insights might you access if you more actively called on the collective wisdom of other high-performing farm owners? In this episode, Sam Johnsson speaks with FOA coaches Cassandra Kath, Elle Webb and Sam Pincott to unpack the powerful conversations and insights to come from our latest client conference, our ‘Organise Infrastructure’ Deep Dive. With more than 550 farm owners in the room, the focus was clear: how to optimise your investment in infrastructure, equipment and technologies in order to drive efficiency, productivity and farm performance. We all have a long-list of items we’d like to invest in to move our farm’s forward. At the same time there are a host of emerging technologies we need to be considering to help get it done. Getting the sequence for these investments, and structuring them in the right way is critical. Being cautious and under-investing can limit our progress. Being too bullish and over-investing can lock-up cashflow and capital and be the thing that brings us un-stuck.

Are we allocating capital to the highest pay-off items?

Are we making measured decisions based accurate due diligence?

Are we working to a well-designed strategic plan, or making emotive and reactive investment decisions?

For those who attended, breakthroughs came not from a spreadsheet, but from getting off-farm and into a room filled with open, like-minded growth-oriented peers. From sharing 250 tested infrastructure improvements to creating space for goal-setting, strategy and real connection, the impact was felt well beyond the conference content.

In this interview, we cover:

how a clear process helps avoid ‘wish-list’ investing;

the value of stepping off-farm to reflect, reset, and return with focus;

the impact of immersing yourself in a high-performing farm business community, with individuals open to sharing all of what underpins their success; and

how clarity can often come from one honest and open conversation, or one small and meaningful action.

You don’t need to have it all figured out. It’s about carving out time and space to slow-down, think, question, collaborate, reflect and reset your plan.

Sam J, thank you for stepping in for this discussion while I take some time to be with my family. Thank you Cass, Elle & Sam P for your reflections and insightful comments.

Keep winning!

Jeremy Hutchings and the Farm Owners Academy Team

P.S. Want to check the strength of your farm business model ?? Join us for the Future-Proof Workshop, a free and practical session designed to spot inefficiencies, set confident financial targets using your own numbers, and refocus on what matters most. 👉 Register here

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