This week guest host Ben Futa is joined by Katie Elzer-Peters, owner and founder of The Garden of Words, a digital marketing agency for the green industry. Katie is a lifelong plant lover, storyteller, communicator, and artist. An early love for museums and public gardens led Katie to discover what has today become her mission: empowering more plant-based businesses to thrive so that more people in more places can discover the power of gardening.
FROM BEN:
I first met Katie when she interviewed me for an article she was working on for Green Profit magazine, a trade publication for the green industry. Her article explored how local businesses like ours collaborated with their communities, and very quickly we were swept up in a lively conversation about Harry Styles and our own gardens – before remembering oh, yes, we’re also here to talk business.
The kinship and connection were instant and effortless. Over the next few years, we floated in our respective social media orbits, casually observing one another perhaps, until earlier this year I found myself connecting with Katie again, this time through her Open and Awkward podcast, co-hosted by Amanda Thomsen, my first guest on Cultivating Place back in October.
Open and Awkward has been a lifeline for me this year, and I’m so grateful this experience on Cultivating Place has brought me closer to knowing both Katie and Amanda better. In this spirit, I’m thrilled to share our conversation today.
I’m grateful to Katie for taking the time to share her story and wisdom with us.
Here in northern Indiana, we have fully moved out of the Autumn season – a
season of letting go to make way for what’s next. We’re now in the early days of
winter, a season to rest, regroup, unpack, and consider how we want to move
forward in the next season of growth and abundance.
I no longer think in the context of “New Year's resolutions” – instead, I’ve begun to approach life in this seasonal context. We aren’t meant to always be producing, always growing. As Katie mentioned, we’re basically plants with feelings, and as the plants are resting now, so are we.
As we collectively reach this moment together, I hope you’ll also be able to
intentionally make time to rest and consider the things you learned this past year, especially what and how you want to bring forward into 2025.
For me, I’m going to continue to prioritize reclaiming joy, and cultivating intentional community. These are some of the best things to come out of 2024 for me, and I’m so excited to see what the future holds and what we can grow together next year.
Jennifer and I have been chatting and we’ve been thinking about how we can continue to build intentional community around and through Cultivating Place. I know she’s already heard from a number of you on this topic, and that is so exciting to me. We’re still listening, and if you haven’t sounded in yet, we’d love to hear from you. As we continue to think about this community, we’re thinking about more intentional convening and dialogues between all of us. Sharing what’s working and what we’re learning, in real-time. I’d love to know what you think about this.
Thanks for listening - here's to 2025!
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All photos courtesy of The Garden of Words. All rights reserved.
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JOIN US again next week, when Jennifer is in conversation with Amy Stewart! Amy is a New York Times best selling author of multiple garden-and-plant related books we love, including Flower Confidential and The Drunken Botanist. She joins Cultivating Place to share more about her newest The Tree Collectors, 50 vignettes of remarkable people whose lives have been transformed by their love for trees. Listen in - That's right here, next week.
Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support from
supporting initiatives that empower women and help preserve the planet through the intersection of environmental advocacy, social justice, and creativity.
Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it’s Ben –
One of my favorite parts of Cultivating Place is the origin stories. I love how
Jennifer has set the precedent of asking our guests to go back to the beginning, to
unearth where and how all of us fell in love with plants.
Speaking at least for myself, back in my early 20s, I had a very specific idea of
where I hoped and wanted my life to go. Like Katie, I share a deep love and
passion for public gardens, and we both still do. As we grew older and dare I say a
bit wiser, we realized those institutions were no longer in alignment with who we
are as a person. If we were going to sustain our love for connecting people to
plants and one another, something had to change.
Independent of one another, we both found our way to entrepreneurship as an
answer to the question of “What’s next?” This was never part of our “grand plan” at
the start of our careers – yet, here we are. Plant people to our core, yet somehow in
a very different place than we expected to be ten years ago.
I’ve said this before and will likely say it again – falling in love with the process is
where the magic lies. Which, of course, is a lesson I learned in the garden, first. As we listen to our conversation with Katie, we continue exploring the lessons and superpowers of plants and gardening and how we infuse them into our lives and businesses.
I want to revisit something Katie said because I think it bears repeating and exploring further: this idea of reclaiming joy.
If there’s something you can just enjoy and get involved in the DOING of it, that
will save your life: and it’s not optional. Without that thing, you can’t move beyond survival, and survival is insufficient. Have something that makes you feel good about yourself. And you don’t have to be good at it.
The process of doing, creating, and cultivating is what matters. Fall in love with
the process.
I also love what Katie said earlier about a rebirth in garden media and a new wave
of communicators, folks who are showing and sharing what it actually looks and
feels like to be a gardener – the highs and lows, the lessons learned, and, most
importantly, the joy found along the way.
Just like unrealistic standards in fashion or fitness, we’ve been bombarded by
similar messages and images in gardening – the picture-perfect tomato or show-
quality garden. When we’re able to just let go of what we think our gardens should
look like, and we can begin to simply garden for the joy of it again – your garden,
and your life, will change dramatically as a result, and I’m speaking from personal
experience here, because that’s exactly what happened to me this year. It took 33
years to figure out, and I am so glad I did.
No matter where you are in your gardening journey – maybe you’re a veteran or
just starting out. Welcome. I’m glad you’re here, thinking about these ideas with
us, rediscovering your joy and your agency, and falling in love with the process.
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Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, a service of Cap Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating Place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.com.
The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, transcripts by Doulos Transcription, and regular guest hosting by Abra Lee and Ben Futa. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse, accompanied by Joe Craven and Sam Bevan.
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