Depth of Field: Emily Han

Emily Han is a naturalist, writer, and educator and the author of two books, Wild Drinks & Cocktails and Wild Remedies

How did you start working independently?

I was working at The Getty Museum as a research librarian and editor and food blogging for The Kitchn on the side but I really just thought of it as a hobby. Then my entire department got eliminated during a restructuring and when that happened, in addition to my work on The Kitchn, I also picked up some other freelance jobs — copywriting and social media — just piecing together things here and there. And then I got a call from The Getty asking if I could come back. I managed to keep those few clients so I was kind of doing both things for several months. I wasn’t really that into the Getty job and I’d already a taste of working on my own and I saw that it could work. I ended up leaving the Getty completely and going fully freelance. So that was about 10 years ago now.

How would you describe what you do? 

It’s been an evolution. So I was food blogging and doing recipe development consulting for other businesses. Meanwhile my own interests were evolving into things like wild foods and foraging and food preservation and that led me into the world of herbalism. The things that I do now, whether I’m writing or consulting or editing or teaching, weave together elements of food and herbalism and nature awareness.

And how did the first book, Wild Drinks and Cocktails, come about?

The publisher contacted me because they were looking for someone to write a cookbook about interesting drinks, infusions, shrubs and liqueurs with an element of wild food foraging and health. They’d been looking online for people writing in that space and found me. So then I wrote a proposal and it got accepted. My second book, Wild Remedies, came out just around the time we went into lockdown in Los Angeles. It’s more focused on foraging food and medicine. I wrote with Rosalee de la Forêt whom I’ve been working with for a while. We’d met through Facebook when she needed some help with a photoshop file and we started having conversations and working together on projects. The book really grew out of that. It includes our experiences and the things that we felt were really important to connect people and nature.

Have you had that moment where you thought to yourself, “Oh I’ve made it” — or has that not happened yet?

It's funny thinking about books because they give you this legitimacy but actually far more people will see my work online than will ever read the book. The books were a lot of investment  of time and of money because, of course, any money you make on the book deal goes right back into your ingredients and hiring illustrators and things. So it's not really a money making proposition but it's definitely a really nice business card!  For some people that would be the pinnacle of their achievements — and don’t get me wrong, I’m really proud of having done them and it's wonderful to have them out — but I think for me and my personality, I like finishing a project and then I’m happy to move on to whatever the next thing is going to be. 

So tell me about your work space? (Han and her husband, freelance writer Gregory Han who writes in the technology and design space, live in Los Angeles’ bucolic Mt. Washington neighborhood)

My space is carved out of the laundry room just off the kitchen. I installed a curtain to hide the appliances and I’ve got my desk and my bookshelves. Sometimes I'm envious because Gregory has a big office downstairs. But then I have the better view of the backyard so I can look out and see the plants and the hummingbirds and the coyotes and whatever other wildlife comes through. Also since so much of my work is in the kitchen or the garden and it's right in between the two, it's perfectly situated.

You didn't want to commandeer the shed? [Han’s husband built a shed in their backyard that was featured on DesignMilk]

I’ll work there in the spring — our wifi stretches all the way out back — but in summer it's way too hot.  

Tell me about your day. Do you have a morning ritual that tells your brain it's time to go to work?

I usually get up around 6 unless the cats are hungry and wake me up earlier. When I'm really good I’ll go take a hour long walk. When I'm not good, I start reading the news first thing and get sucked into that for an hour. But I try not to berate myself when that happens. If I don’t walk, I'll go spend some time in the in the garden. And then, unless one or both of us is on deadline, we usually take the time to have breakfast together which is nice and then we'll be like “Okay dear, have a nice day at work” and I’ll go into my office and he’ll go downstairs. Sometimes, if we have time then we'll have lunch together too. 

And how does your day end? How do you know when you've gotten “enough” work done for the day?

That's a good question. In the beginning that was definitely a problem. It would be hard to turn off and I'd just be just be working all the time. Part of that was being new to working at home and being less secure — I’ve gotta make this work, I have to work all the time, I have to say yes to every project — and not knowing how to create balance. But over time I realized how important those boundaries are. My work's going to be better, my life's going to be better if I say “no” or “not now”. Probably in the last year or so, I realized that I’ve kind of being keeping a 9-5 schedule although that changes in the summer, when it gets hot in my office so I’ll take the afternoon off and go back to work after dinner when it’s cooler. But most of the time, around 5 I’m starting to get hungry and think about what we’re going to make for dinner and that’s a good incentive for me to stop. 

Do you have any favorite apps or office supplies that you rely on?

Gregory makes fun of me because I love writing things down but I feel more accountable if I do that. I have different colored pens for the different clients or projects I’m working on and every week I print out planner sheets from ProductiveFlourishing.com. I worked with Charlie Gilkey who’s a coach over there. He has this system called “heat mapping” where you analyze how your energy fluctuates throughout the day. What might be the best time of day for you to be writing or for doing more routine work that doesn’t demand as much brain power? I’m more creative in the morning so if I have to write or things like that, I'll do that earlier in the day. The afternoon is for the stuff where I don't have to be quite as sharp. So it’s been really helpful to learn to build the rhythm of my day around that.

Apart from your husband, who else do you turn to for support and advice?

Rosalee also works independently so we bounce a lot of things off of each other. And then there are people that I work with regularly that I can also talk to about stuff.

Beside walking, do you have other self-care rituals?

For me spending time in nature is probably my biggest thing. I’m lucky to live in a neighborhood that has a lot of natural areas. So walking in nature, spending time in the backyard, whether I’m actually gardening or just looking at the flowers and bugs, and then on the weekends Gregory and I will go exploring. And cooking too. If I'm in the midst of a cookbook or recipe development, I will get to that point where I just do not want to set foot in the kitchen but when I'm not in that phase then I find cooking to be a good stress reliever and something that makes me really happy. 

What the biggest piece of advice you could given your “just starting to freelance” self?

The thing that popped into my head is that when I started out I really wanted to define what I did. Maybe coming from a world where job titles were really important, I felt like I really needed to figure that out and there would be a security in that. And over time, I realized that my work was going to evolve with the people I meet and the different projects we work on. So the thing that was stressing me out turns out to be what I love most about it! It’s more about my interests and values and what I want to bring into the world. Who I am and what I’m curious about rather than what I do.

In tandem with that, what advice would you share with someone else who's considering making the leap into working independently?

I’d probably share that experience. Then I also think it’s important to have a good, regular work area. That’s something that helps with those boundaries. You’re thinking “I'm getting up from my desk now” rather than “I'm just going to sit on the couch all day and sometimes I'm going to work and sometimes I'm not”. 

What do you see as the biggest misconception that people have about the fact that you work from home?

I think mostly people will think that I don’t do a lot of work or that I'm totally free whenever. The reality is that I have deadlines and meetings and commitments and I'm working really hard. I’m not saying that there aren’t a lot of freedoms. It’s nice to go meet someone for lunch or take the afternoon off and go to a museum. But there’s definitely that perception about freelancers when actually we work hard. We're not goofing off.

Do you actually allow yourself to take advantage of those freedoms?

Recently I started taking every Wednesday to do something else that was not specifically work related and that I wasn’t getting paid for. I was volunteering to do native plant restoration or visiting Descanso Gardens or something like that and that’s been really helpful.

Do you have a guiding principle or a goal for your business or are you just letting it evolve?

Every year I'll come up with a theme for the year that might show up in different ways in my work or in my personal life. For example, in 2019 it was boundaries.

What are you working on now?

Rosalee and I are preparing a course that we’ll be releasing next year so we’re working on lesson plans and photos and things like that.

Thanks Emily! To keep up with Emily, sign up for her newsletter or follow her on Instagram.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.