On July 16, 2009, the AMA hosted speaker Shawna Coronado, who shared the story of her dramatic recovery from chronic illness and discussed the value of promoting health, green living, and community through our business practices and marketing.

As the author of Gardening Nude, Shawna Coronado’s approach to marketing is, as you might expect, down to earth and distinctly organic. Her recipe for personal and professional success is all about building and nurturing connections—between yourself and Nature, among your organization’s employees, and between your organization and the local community.

Coronado overcame chronic illness through greening her environment and nurturing personal connections in her life. In the process she also cultivated a highly successful landscaping business, and these days her enterprise has gone global thanks to social media.

She advised us to focus on bringing people together through community action and promoting a greener, healthier lifestyle within and outside of our organizations. Advertising a good message, practicing what you preach, and helping others, she asserted, is the kind of non-traditional marketing that builds your business while making a real difference.

Shawna’s 3 Key Ingredients to Energize Your Business and Your Life

1. Health. In the workplace, a wellness program can be a catalyst for profound change, not only teaching skills for improving health but also by demonstrating to employees that they are valued as individuals. When the organization sets the example of sharing information and empowering people to make positive changes, those people turn around and share the skills and knowledge they learned with others in their community.

2. Conservation. Greening your business makes financial sense, obviously. Send emails instead of snail mail and save on office supplies and postage. Xeriscape office property and lower your water bill. Other benefits are less tangible. Coronado noted that people exposed to an enhanced natural environment—even the sight of a single tree outside a window—are less prone to violence. Making positive changes, such as implementing a greening initiative, brings people together with a common sense of purpose, pride, and ownership.

3. Community. Coronado suggested that responding to the universal human need for community is a key component of business success. When people shop, for instance, they’re not just looking for a product.

• They crave a solution to a problem.
• They crave the meaning of life.
• They crave emotional gratification.
• They crave less isolation.

In short, customers are looking for personal satisfaction. All things being equal, you can stand out from the competition by recognizing and fulfilling that need (not just pushing a product at people). Use your company’s resources to educate and inspire others. Coronado, for instance, has shared her passion for gardening by partnering with a caterer to teach people how to prepare healthy and affordable meals.

The more people you touch in your community in a positive way, the more people you’ll be exposed to; hence, you’ll have more people to sell to. Doing good things for the community at large draws in people from outside your traditional customer base. You’ll also be contributing to the health of the local economy.

Coronado began her presentation by asking, “What if your business could make a difference?” So now I am asking you, Austin AMA members: How can your business make a difference in the community? What talents, passions, and resources can you share with others to get the word out while enriching our local community?

If you missed the presentation, I highly recommend you watch the video. Shawna Coronado is a fantastic presenter, and by the end of her talk the room was buzzing with energy, inspiration, and many questions about gardening!

Hungry for more green wisdom? Check out Coronado’s blogs, http://www.gardeningnude.com and http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com.

Amy Gelfand (Gelfand Design) is a Web developer and writer. She is also an avid cyclist, SCUBA diver, and Web standards advocate. Amy specializes in designing accessible Web sites and spoiling her clients rotten. Contact her at info@gelfanddesign.com.

There are many reasons to begin corporate marketing programs for both your employees and clients that focus on greening, well being, and community. By starting from the ground up and building community within a corporation, it improves employee’s mental and physical health. Businesses then ensure a more productive work output. More importantly, employees soon determine that it is much easier to come to work when they feel as if they are a part of a caring community within the work environment. As part of a corporate vision of responsibility to community, you also bring this incredible message of green lifestyle and better health to the public – your customers.

One of the frustrations of living in our modern culture is that it seems people are never satisfied and always want more. This applies both within our business lives and within our home lives. It seems that many are not happy with a simple life, because they feel that if they have more—more stuff, more technology, more stress—this will make them happy. Yet, it occurred to me several years ago that I knew very few people who could call themselves happy within the corporate or private sect.  This discovery of the “myth of happiness” was the beginning of my search to understand why I was able to find happiness and what it is that made me feel more satisfied. Determining this, then inspiring others to feel the same way triggered a larger understanding of the world.

Society by and large seems dissatisfied because media and popular culture have enticed us away from the basic pleasures of life. It is my opinion that it is within your power as influencers of the corporate market to take control and change negativity. As a result of living a greener lifestyle and changing my attitude to be more positive, I have discovered something ground breaking, jaw dropping, and earth shattering: I have discovered happy people. Everyday citizens who are satisfied with life—they do exist! There is hope that you and your family can have this feel-good experience too.

Have you ever noticed that members of your business and social world who are involved in helping their communities are more satisfied with their lives? Their goals are not focused on wanting more, and more, and more; instead, they put forth efforts to be a part of something larger. They participate in experiences where their hearts are warmed and their souls feel complete. Every person who comes to a volunteer event to help a community organization arrives with a smile. I have seen this happen every time without fail.

Yes, these people have their own families, their own hard-luck stories, and their own belief systems. But they arrive, ready to work, with a positive mindset and a unified goal. Everyone laughs and jokes and makes the experience a good one. Beyond building a garden or clearing weeds or selling fund-raising items, they are there because the experience enriches their lives and minds emotionally.

Contributing to employees’ health by encouraging a green lifestyle can become a catalyst for positive change within employees’ personal lives. It can set an example to all that the company holds high expectations for beneficial health practices. This concept can expand exponentially if the employees utilize the healthier greening and living ideas promoted by the company and then proceed to teach their clients, families and neighborhood communities these same ways of living.

Soon it becomes far more than a way to improve production for the business; it demonstrates and encourages “doing the right thing” mentality and begins to change lives in a positive way. Having a business which promotes goodwill and green living is the right thing to do for the world; not just our wallets.

Imagine if every business within the United States picked up this idea of supporting their employees—their corporate community—by marketing, and therefore, educating on better health practices, greening practices, and community building techniques? The concept seems revolutionary, yet the implications of building a better, greener world by utilizing corporate entities could change the world forever – for the better!

Let’s make it happen together!     

*Hear Shawna speak at our Lunch Event on July 16th - Register Now!  

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

 Shawna Lee Coronado is an author, locally syndicated newspaper columnist, energetic speaker, and environmental and health correspondent with over eighteen years of experience with sales, marketing, and public relations.
Being very active in local community is critical to Shawna’s inspirational message. She is heavily involved with many community greening and improvement organizations and is currently on the Board of Directors for Fermilab National Accelerators Natural Areas. She works closely with the America In Bloom organization and has participated in many groups such as environmental advisory commissions, parks and forestry associations, and educational institutions.
Shawna’s experience in business development, communication, sales management, and online marketing has helped her spread the positive health and greening message she is so passionate about. Shawna’s goal is to inspire and motivate people to get off the couch and get out into the environment and community to improve both their own physical and emotional health and make a difference for the world.