We were lucky to catch up with Ashlie Thomas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ashlie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Thank you for the opportunity to be here! The mission behind my brand, The Mocha Gardener, is focused on empowering others to learn how to grow the foods they need in order to thrive. Food is personal and essential to survival, and the quality of food that we consume can impact the quality of our health and well-being. I believe that gardening not only provides a way to discover and cultivate a wide variety of nutritious foods, but it may also offer more wholistic benefits to our overall health and wellness. It is my mission to emphasize these elements through my work.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have always had a deep respect and connection to nature, and it’s always brought me a great sense of peace and purpose. Over the years, I used to watch my grandfather grow a few vegetable items each summer in his backyard garden, and I was so fascinated by how a small seed could grow to produce the foods that we enjoy eating. I remember how he used to maintain this small food garden up until his health declined. But it was in those moments of observing him that began to understand the power of what we eat and how it impacts our bodies. Believe it or not, watching my grandfather garden and watching him get sick was a defining moment for me, because I developed this passion for wellness and addressing food security through gardening and growing food. I figured I could also create greater access to healthier food options for myself and my family by learning to grow my own food. Good food is healing, and I wanted to see more of that for my family and my community.
So several years ago, my husband and I began our gardening journey on our one-acre North Carolina homestead. From there, I’ve leveraged my passion for gardening and health and wellness to bring awareness through practice to growing issues of food insecurity in vulnerable communities, while empowering and educating others on how to take control of their wellness through good food.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
This is a topic I like to reflect on quite frequently, because in hindsight I realize the culmination of all of my life experiences led to me being in this place that I am now. I started my career in academic research, biochemical and microbiological research to be exact. I was always interested in the health of people, but at the time I was following a path that seemed a bit more clear. So, for nearly seven years, I trained in the scientific research sector and managed healthcare innovation portfolios. During that time, I enjoyed learning how to translate ideas into relevant and impactful solutions for major global health challenges, and I wanted to apply these learnings to a problem that I was deeply passionate about— which was community wellness, food security, and gardening.
For several years, I was also very much involved in health and nutrition-based community work, and I engaged in these activities as mission work. From my own experience, I saw how food directly impacts our overall health, and I also saw how many of the noncommunicable diseases that are prevalent in the communities are influenced by diet. This frustrated me because I learned (and experienced) how nutritious food access is associated with chronic diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity). Therefore, if someone lacks access to nutritious food there is a higher likelihood that they could develop a diet-related chronic disease.
Gardening at the time was my hobby, but in doing this I learned how growing our own food could help to create greater access to nutritious foods on an individual and community level. So, I began seeking training and more formal education in the space of nutrition and health and wellness, and built a growing blog/brand called ‘The Mocha Gardener’ that focuses on educating others to leverage gardening as a means of growing the food you need for greater health and wellness.
The issue of food security started off as something personal, but the more I researched and the deeper I got involved, I realized this was a big and complex global issue as well— and this is when the fire ignited for me. My career pivot was not sudden, as it happened over the course of several years, but I’m glad it happened.
This path has been far from linear, but it has been one filled with incredible support and I am truly grateful. I am learning many life lessons and business insights from others along the way. Of course, I have a lot more to learn in this journey, but I am motivated to continue forward because each day I wake up immersed in purpose-driven work that creates tangible and intangible value.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Defining and focusing on a niche that is relatable to others and authentic to my values, mission, and identity. I think this is what resonates best with my audience.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.mocha.gardener/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/the.mocha.gardener
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Gardener-empowerment-creating/dp/0760374244 Website to newly released book.
Image Credits
Ashlie Thomas