In 2022, Dylan Fema established Homegrown Valley Fresh as the greenhouse owner and operator after building the greenhouse from scratch. He manages all greenhouse activities, including seeding, transplanting, and harvesting vegetables. He also cleans greenhouse equipment and manages airflow, humidity, and light exposure for the plants. In addition to producing vegetables, Dylan Fema manages the production of fresh fish, which requires him to frequently feed, weigh, and sort fish.
Before building the greenhouse at Homegrown Valley Fresh, Dylan Fema spent six years as a construction laborer and carpenter for Castle Place. He previously gained experience in apartment maintenance and management during his seven-year tenure at WFP in La Crosse. Between 2012 and 2018, he worked as a farmhand at Genoa’s Hass and Proksch Family Farm, where he handled extensive animal care responsibilities.
Dylan Fema studied welding at Western Technical College in La Crosse. He continued his education at the school by completing a horticulture program. His personal interests include hiking, playing hockey and soccer, boating, and spending time with his family.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
I like to wake up and let my dog outside. Do my morning routine and have my clothes ready to go the night before. I don’t eat right way but have a light lunch and then later in the day, I eat a heavier supper. I break my days up into smaller parts to allocate for different tasks.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I first identify a problem, need, or thought. Do research to get an understanding of the topic, take notes, and make a design or plan. Do a trial or make a model to test.
What’s one trend that excites you?
AI will make it better for people to create media and technology a lot easier, cheaper, and faster. Run simulations, create alternative options to pick from and to do more mundane task. While people can work alongside AI to ensure quality and to have creativity flow faster, they can focus more on the direction of the project.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
I like to clean up, organize, and put things back after I’m done with a project. So it’s ready to go the next time it’s needed.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t keep postponing your dreams. Do whatever you want to do in life. Passion and purpose will lead the way. Be mature most of the time but never lose your childish nature.
Tell us something you believe that almost nobody agrees with you on.
Entertainment and pleasures are too easy to experience, and most people don’t appreciate them as much as they should. In this world of instant gratification, everything comes and goes so fast that people don’t actually value what they consume. Without the time to fully process, a lot of impression and value is forgotten and/or overlooked.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
When you do something, do it to the best of your ability. Make it so you’re not wasteful in the prosses. When I achieve goals, I like to do quality work, which makes for a longer-lasting solution.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
When I feel overwhelmed or unfocused, I usually take a break and clear my head. Go do something else in the meanwhile, and you’ll come back with new angles to approach the problem.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Think of different ways to achieve a goal and take into account the pros and cons of options. Do trials, learn from success and errors. Ask multiple other people their opinions and cross reference the ideals.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
When working with people, it’s better to be direct as soon as possible to get to an understanding before more time and resources are wasted. Spotting and addressing signs of conflict early increases the chance of identifying root causes.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
AI mode on Google has helped me by giving briefings on topics with organized notes and links on the side for more in-depth information.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I bought a heating/AC blower fan for my car that went out. It was a pain to get the car unfrosted without it. I’ll also enjoy it when summer comes around too.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I’ve rewatched the “Star Wars” movies recently because my nephews like to watch them. Along with watching the TV shows and playing the video games too. When you rewatch the movies at different stages in your life, the meanings have different impressions on you.
Key learnings
- Set goals, do trials, and learn from success and errors.
- Be direct and straightforward.
- Passion and purpose lead to happiness.
- AI will change the way we go about learning and creating.
- Try to do your best work.