Why My Green Thumb Makes Me A Better Marketer
I have a green thumb. I like to think I inherited it from my late grandfather who spent his summers in middle Tennessee tending to his larger than life garden filled with corn, tomatoes, beans, and a little bit of every vegetable and fruit you can imagine. I like to think I remember this garden, but mostly all I have our photos to look at and consider. See I was too young when he passed to study with him his ways in the dirt and learn the tricks of the trade, but in 2018 — something clicked and I found myself at Home Depot buying soil and a collection of my very first seeds and summer vegetables in hopes that I could find some solace and a new hobby.
As the saying goes, “the rest is history.” Since April 2018 — I have dedicated hundreds of hours to picking the perfect seeds, finding the best looking pre-planted veggies and fruits, measuring planters, reading directions about full sunlight, partial sunlight, indoor and outdoor plants, and harvest times. I even bought the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Getting my hands dirty with soil has become more than a pastime, it’s become an extension of who I am and a deep yet shareable part of my soul.
This summer alone, I grew tomatoes, cucumbers, red lunchbox snacking peppers, sweet baby watermelons, cantaloupe, strawberries, pineapple sage, cow peas, green beans, leeks, eggplants, radishes, echinacea, rosemary, basil, thyme, asparagus, lake bush beans, rainbow carrots, crookneck heirloom squash, mint, Bibb lettuce, and zucchini. As summer starts to fade, I’ve begun planting for autumn — gourds, beets, onions, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and of course pumpkins.
All of this though just accounts for my seedlings that have sprouted and thrived outside on my deck, a haven in humid Atlanta, Georgia. If I really wanted to do a deep dive, I’d tell you about my nearly 50 indoor house plants and my 7 foot Creeping Jenny that cascades down my porch rail next to my ever growing elephant ears.
Big whoop, Charlsie — you can grow things. Yeah, I can...but I believe this….with every sprout, every new vine, my garden has made me into a better client manager and a more curious and smarter marketer.
Research has become everything to me — I spend a lot of time researching climate needs for my plants. I research the best techniques, like how much sun they should get or how much water is needed to truly take a propagated clipping and turn it into a stand alone beauty. I research variations and the best types of soil, along with the techniques that will help my plants thrive because love and water can only go so far (especially in the South). Gardening has reminded me just how valuable it is to admit you don’t know everything and that research is necessary. I believe a lot of marketers, especially ten years into their career, can get so stuck in their ways that they forget research is required to see the bigger picture. Since becoming a garden lady, I have found myself spending more and more time researching tactics, thought leadership pieces, and current affairs for my clients. This has made me a much stronger critical thinker but also well versed in my client conversations. Gardening opened the door again for me to love research.
It’s worth taking a risk from time to time — Gardeners have two choices: play it safe or branch out. I like to branch out (this explains the crookneck heirloom squash and cowpeas on my deck right now, and probably the ungodly amount of purple heart I have which is the easiest thing to grow but boy will it take over everything). The point is that being willing to branch out in my garden has helped me branch out with new social media tactics and new marketing campaigns. If I can watch a plant take off overnight after planning its beginning and growth trajectory, why stick to the status quo in a marketing campaign? Trying something new is only a benefit to my clients and my ever growing bag of marketing tricks. I’m always encouraged to do better and be better and taking risks in the garden and through my marketing work has really paid off. Sticking to the same old evergreen content or easy to grow seedling can only get you so far. I want to go further.
Tending to a garden takes time and effort, results don’t happen overnight — Gardening requires focus and patience….just like any good marketing or social media strategy. Magic can’t happen overnight for a brand or business, it has to be built up from seedlings of ideas and bloom through tactics and hard work. Watching my garden grow at an individual pace for each plant has made me realize that all tactics cannot just grow and thrive overnight, they are not created equal (the same way eggplant seeds are nowhere close to cucumber seeds) — sometimes more work needs to be put into a content piece or marketing copywriting for idea to succeed. Patience is a virtue in the garden, and same with every marketing and social campaign if you want true, successful results you can boast about.
Maybe I’ve ingested too much soil, but the truth is — the more I tend to my garden, the more it inspires me to do the work I do for my clients and brands. With every leaf that unfurls itself and every seedling that pops up, I’m constantly inspired about what can happen when careful, curated focus comes into play. Smart marketers and savvy social media managers need constant inspiration and sometimes, we have to get our hands dirty to find it.
I’m just glad I found my well of inspiration, my fountain of strategic introspection on my deck that continues to grow and thrive — the same way I do every day with the work I produce and the work I dream of bringing to fruition one idea or seedling at a time.