A Platinum Mastermind member sent me this recently and it really made me stop and think.

She thanked me for something I'd written in our member newsletter. But it wasn't the thankyou that stood out. It was what she'd been quietly believing all along.

She wrote...

"I have been struggling with the feeling that to be 'successful' with FOA, we need to be able to remove ourselves from our farm and have others running it for us."

Then she finished with this.

"Your message really emphasised to me that it isn't the case. It's about having the freedom to choose what we do. THANK YOU!"

Reading that made me realise she's probably not alone. There are likely plenty of farm owners who see the success stories we share and quietly think, "That must be what a Freedom Farm is supposed to look like."

It isn't.

Yes, we've helped members build businesses that run successfully while they travel Australia in a caravan, take extended holidays or spend months overseas. Those stories are real, and they're something to celebrate.

But they're only one version of a Freedom Farm.

Some of our members genuinely love being on the farm every day. They enjoy checking stock, jumping on a tractor and working alongside their team because that's what they love to do.

They simply don't want to be trapped by the business they've built.

That's the difference.

If this resonates with you, we're running a free live workshop on 12th and 13th August — "Trapped: While the Whole Farm Still Runs Through You" — where we unpack the 3 hidden forces that keep farm owners stuck at the centre of everything, even after they've built a team.

👉 Save your seat — it's free

At its core, a Freedom Farm is a profitable farm business that you work in at the level you choose.
You might want to work five days a week because you love farming. You might want to spend one day a week mentoring your team instead of fixing problems, take every Friday off or finally take that 3-month caravan trip around Australia with your family.

Or perhaps your biggest goal is simply knowing that if life threw your family a curveball tomorrow, the business would keep providing for them.

None of those goals are more right than the others.

Because a Freedom Farm isn't about getting away from farming.

It's about having the freedom to farm.

To farm because you love it.

Not because you're trapped by it.

This is where a lot of farm owners unknowingly build themselves a trap. They spend years building the business they think they're supposed to build, comparing themselves to neighbours, social media, industry benchmarks and even other FOA members, without ever stopping to ask what success actually looks like for them.

Before they know it, they're climbing a ladder that was leaning against the wrong wall.

Because if you don't define success for yourself, someone else will.

Our job has never been to tell you what your Freedom Farm should look like.

Our job is to help you discover your version of a Freedom Farm... then help you build it.
So here's a question I'd encourage you to spend some time thinking about this week.

If there were no expectations from anyone else, what would your Freedom Farm actually look like?

What would you spend most of your time doing?

How would it make you feel?

Once you're clear on that answer, every decision becomes easier, because you're no longer chasing someone else's definition of success.

You're building a business around your own.

And that's what gives you the freedom to farm.

Regards,
Sam Johnsson
CEO, Farm Owners Academy

P.S. If you're ready to get clear on what your version of a Freedom Farm looks like and build the business to support it, our final Platinum Mastermind intake for 2026 closes in September.
It starts with a conversation.

Book a Discovery Call with one of our coaches and together we'll explore where you are today, where you want to get to and whether Platinum Mastermind is the right fit to help you build your version of a Freedom Farm.

👉 Book your Discovery Call