What You’ll Learn from this Episode about Reinventing the Family Farm & Midlife Happiness: 
- Why it’s important to look to your childhood for clues about what really brings you joy in midlife.
- How a “midlife funk” can be the push you need to find more fulfillment in your career.
- How a family farm and farm experience can get in your blood and be hard to ignore.
- How taking a 10 year break to start your family can help you take a fresh look at your career options in midlife.
- How certain professional requirements can seem ridiculous and become a turning point when you’re a midlife gal.
- How working in a beautiful location can become inspirational when crafting a business plan.
- How the weather helped Andrea make a decision about the how the future of her business would include Lavender and Tourism.
- How “going back” to the family farm helped preserve a rich agricultural family history.
Welcome to another episode of the Women in the Middle podcast!
Going back to your family roots can be surprisingly rewarding. This week my guest did this quite literally. Today’s episode features another interview in the Getting Real with Women in the Middle Series.
I’m thrilled to welcome Andrea McFadden to the podcast. Andrea went from being a teach of special education to running a vertically integrated herb farm specializing in lavender.
Basically, she reinvented her family farm. Her family had a long history of farming in the Kelowna, British Columbia area, which is called the Okanagan region. It’s known for its rich history of fruit packing and growing. You may have enjoyed some delicious wine from this area of Canada.
Andrea grew up on her family’s apple orchard. She pursued a career in teaching, specifically, Special Education. However, after she took at 10 year break to raise her young family, she decided to make a big change.
She moved back to the farm and back to agricultural roots.
It took some time to settle on the focus of the farm. Eventually, she shifted her business to growing lavender and herbs and opened up The Okanagan Lavender Herb Farm.
One of the big changes was to make plans to grow her business, which included taking on some debt to realize her dream. Also notable was the shift from teaching, where you have summers off, to farming, where you need to embrace a vacation in November.
Andrea’s story is one of following your passion. She shares advice about the importance of always having an end goal in mind, which is really important as you take steps to regret-proof your life.
It’s fun to see how much the planting cycle influences everything in Andrea’s life and business, including developing strategies to overcome business obstacles. It’s easy to see how important it is to identify your strengths as you grow your business and live intentionally, exceptionally inline with your passion.
Join us as Andrea shares what it was like to make this a big, scary decision like this and live her new agricultural lifestyle.
Enjoy the interview!
Featured on the Show:
- The Okanakan Lavender Herb Farm: https://www.okanaganlavender.com/
- Workshop about the Safe Use of Essential Oils: Aromatherapy Basics 1: https://shop.okanaganlavender.com/collections/workshops/products/aromatherapy-basics
- The Secret Garden: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2998.The_Secret_Garden
- Episode 61: How to Find Joy when you Quit your Job without a Plan, Interview with Rose Schmidt: https://suzyrosenstein.com/podcast/ep-61-how-to-find-joy-when-you-quit-your-job-without-a-plan-interview-with-rose-schmidt/
- Episode 37: Interview with Jennifer Thornton, Clifton Strengths Coach – The Importance of Knowing your Strengths: https://suzyrosenstein.com/podcast/ep-37-interview-with-jennifer-thornton-clifton-strengths-coach-the-importance-of-knowing-your-strengths/
- Forest Bathing: http://time.com/5259602/japanese-forest-bathing/
- Shoebank Canada: http://shoebankcanada.org/
Connect with Suzy:
Connect with Suzy
The Women in the Middle Academy (WITMA): WITMA is a six-month, online coaching program and community for midlife women who know they’re meant for more and are ready to find what’s missing, create a life and career on their own terms and become the happiest, most free and fun version of themselves! This can be you! Don’t waste another second feeling stuck. Head over to www.womeninthemiddleacademy.com, apply and book your free, no-obligation “MOMENTUM” call and we’ll chat!
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