Meet Tomm Becker

We recently connected with Tomm Becker and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tomm, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
“Make hay while the sun shines” is a saying from the early 1500’s, well before the advent of the 10-day weather forecast. It means “make the best of favorable circumstances”, but it also means “just do the best you can do”. Nobody likes rain on their drying hay the day after cutting it, but really the best we can do is cut it while the sun is shining, come what may. We need to take risks in order to succeed.

I spent 15 years earning my livelihood from farming diversified vegetables. We can stamp our feet and do any kind of rain dance imaginable, but the weather does what it does. Sometimes the rain doesn’t stop, and you miss a critical time window for weeding a crop or lose crops to fungal pathogens. Sometimes the rain never comes, the temperature keeps climbing, and there are crops that just can’t take it. Whatever it is, it doesn’t do any good to get upset at something out of your control. Farming is continual triage, and failures along the way are an absolute certainty. Learn to mitigate risk, focus, adapt as you go, and keep getting after it. That’s the best we can do.

Like my mother always says, “it is what it is.”

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I operate Nifty Hoops, a small company in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that manufactures and installs hoophouses. Hoophouses, or high tunnels, are unheated greenhouses designed for farmers that grow crops in the ground. They keep wind and rain off of crops, and extend the growing season clear through the winter months, even for growers in the far north. We’re creating year-round food systems.

Each structure we build, in the right hands, can have a big impact on a local community. There’s a lot of talk these days about sourcing food locally, but in many parts of the country, this is only feasible for six or seven months of the year because of winter weather. With these low-cost structures, the harvest window stays open and we can begin to create year-round relationships for our food supply. This is critical in establishing local food systems that are actually sustainable and durable

Not only are we building the infrastructure needed to create local food economies, we’re also making a big difference in people’s lives. Many transition into farming or homesteading from careers in which they are estranged from the results of their work — people yearn for purpose and tangible results! Farmers can see, touch, and taste the fruits of their labor, and for them and those of us they serve, a real connection begins to grow — a kinship with the place we live, the wildness of it, and those with whom we share our food.

It’s a great blessing to help these farmers achieve their vision.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Vision – If I don’t know where I’m going, I’m definitely not going to get there. From founding the farm to driving Nifty Hoops to the next level, I wouldn’t go anywhere except in circles without a focused vision of the future. It starts with what I want my life to look like, and what’s most important in my personal life. Once I make that clear, its a whole lot easier to take steps in the right direction.

Love – Whether it’s the beauty of the small things around me, the ache of fatherhood, or a passion for giving, love reminds me of who I am and anchors me in the time I have.

Conscientiousness – It feels great to learn hard tasks and do them with pride. Building a business that sees the challenges and needs of its customers and confronts them as part of its everyday operations gratifying. Good work done well is its own reward.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Now that we have created an excellent product, proven it over 1,000 times in the field, and developed an excellent support system for our growers, its time to reach a bigger audience. Our high tunnel structures are the best on the market, and we’d like to make them accessible to anyone who wants them, anywhere in the world, at whatever scale they demand.

In order to grow, we will to increase our visibility wherever people grow food. We will streamline and build further capacity and redundancy in our manufacturing line. We will further refine our packaging so shipping and receiving is a breeze.

Fun problems to have…

Contact Info:

 

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience is often the x-factor that differentiates between mild and wild success. The stories of

Productivity
Beating Burnout

Often the key to having massive impact is the ability to keep going when others

Leadership Development
Finding Your Why

Not knowing why you are going wherever it is that you are going sounds silly,