Realizing Resilience Podcast
Realizing Resilience is a podcast about building strength across every layer of life: physical, psychological, financial, and ecological. The show is hosted by Nate Fournier, founder of Reimagined Roots - an ecological landscape design/build company transforming grass lawns into abundant ecosystems full of food, medicine, and native plants. Each episode explores practical ways to move beyond fragile systems and build ones that last. Grounded, actionable, and based on real experience. Sponsored by Reimagined Roots.
Episode 3: How Hobby Stacking Builds Resilience and Turns Skills into Income
Most people spend years consuming entertainment but never develop the skills that actually make them more resilient. In this episode, Nate explores the idea of “hobby stacking” and how the hobbies we choose shape our health, finances, relationships, confidence, and long-term independence.
Drawing from experiences in rugby, construction, real estate investing, gardening, and homesteading, this conversation explores how practical skills compound over time and why learning to build, grow, repair, and create can provide far more value than passive consumption. If you’re interested in resilience, self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, homesteading, or simply becoming a more capable and useful person, this episode offers a grounded perspective on how to spend your time more intentionally.
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Welcome to the Realizing Resilience podcast, brought to you by Reimagined Roots. I’m your host, Nate Fournier, and today we’re talking about hobbies.
One exercise I love is doing a time audit on yourself for a day or a week and getting honest about where your time actually goes. How many hours are spent working, cooking, cleaning, spending time with family, or just handling the necessities of life? And then what’s left over is usually your hobbies.
When I look back at my own life, hobbies have played a huge role in shaping who I became.
For years, rugby was one of the biggest ones. I played through college and into a semi-professional men’s league for over a decade. It brought me so much value. Physically, it kept me strong and active. Mentally, it gave me discipline. Socially, it gave me camaraderie and lifelong friendships.
But it also taught me something deeper:
The best hobbies stack functions.
A good hobby doesn’t just entertain you. It builds multiple forms of value at the same time.
Rugby gave me:
Physical fitness
Community
Accountability
Mental toughness
Purpose
And that idea of stacking functions has shaped how I think about almost everything now.
Learning Skills That Compound
At the same time I was playing rugby, I started renovating houses.
When I was 23 or 24, I bought a three-family property. I had no construction experience. I learned almost everything through YouTube, trial and error, and years of working nights and weekends after my engineering job.
My life for nearly a decade was basically:
Work
Renovations
Rugby
And while that balance wasn’t always healthy for relationships or rest, it completely changed the trajectory of my life.
That first property ended up being one of the best investments I ever made. My tenants paid my mortgage. The property appreciated significantly. More importantly, I developed skills that became the foundation for Reimagined Roots years later.
That’s the power of useful hobbies and practical skills.
Passive Consumption vs Skill Building
A lot of people spend their free time consuming.
Video games. Social media. Drinking. Endless entertainment.
And I’m not saying there’s no value in relaxation or fun. I enjoy video games too. But at a certain point, I made a conscious shift.
Instead of spending hours gaming, I started spending those hours learning:
Construction
Real estate investing
Design
Business
Homesteading skills
And over time, those skills compounded.
I renovated and sold multiple houses. I got my contractor’s license. I built a business. And perhaps most importantly, I gained confidence that no matter what happens, I can create value with my own hands.
That’s resilience.
The Most Resilient People Have Broad Skill Sets
I really believe this:
The most resilient people are the ones with the broadest range of useful skills.
Not necessarily masters of one thing, but capable across many areas.
To know how to:
Build
Grow food
Weld
Repair things
Raise animals
Communicate
Lead
Solve problems
Those things matter deeply.
Because if systems fail or life changes unexpectedly, practical skills create options.
And options create freedom.
Hobbies That Build a Better Life
These days, a lot of my hobbies revolve around the homestead.
Gardening. Chickens. Building things. Farming. Learning new trades.
And what I love about these hobbies is that they produce real outputs:
Food
Skills
Physical activity
Confidence
Community
Sometimes income
Even if a backyard garden doesn’t directly make money, it offsets expenses and teaches valuable lessons.
The same goes for construction, welding, or learning trades.
There’s a huge difference between hobbies that only consume resources and hobbies that help build capability.
Be Intentional With Your Time
Our time is incredibly valuable.
So it’s worth asking:
What hobbies are actually serving your future?What skills are you developing?
What kind of person are you becoming through the way you spend your time?
That doesn’t mean every hobby has to make money. Art, music, and creativity have enormous value. But I do think it’s important to think strategically and intentionally about how we invest our energy.
Because hobbies shape identity.
And over enough years, they shape your entire life.
Final Thought
In the spirit of resilience, my advice is simple:
Learn useful skills.
Stack functions.
Build capability.
Contribute to the world.
Become a more well-rounded and useful person.That’s how we create resilience in our lives.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time.