Donna Letier, CEO and Co-Founder of Gardenuity, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how gardening can improve your wellbeing, and why businesses are using this as a way to keep employees happy.

Cheddar Innovates

How This CEO is Bringing Gardening to the Forefront of Wellness

Welcome back to cheddar innovates brought to you by curiosity stream. There are so many benefits to gardening from helping the environment to using it as a relaxing hobby, but some of us aren't lucky enough to have green thumbs myself included to grow a garden of your own. That is why our next guest has created a company that plays matchmaker for people and plants creating garden kits for every type of garden joining us Now is Donald, Meteor Ceo and co founder of Guard Annuity, which stands for gardening and ingenuity. Donna so glad to have you on the show this morning. Um, some of your kids, I just asked you in the commercial break if this was real. Some of your kids are pizza gardens, cocktail gardens, even a taco topping garden, like some of them that we have right here, walk us through kind of this experience how it works. It's so fascinating to me. Absolutely. Well thank you so much for having me. You know, gardening has seen such a massive increase in the past few years and while we do sell direct consumer really our focus and where we've made the biggest impact is working with corporations bringing wellness to their employees and we make it to where there are lots of micro steps. So you really can't fail. We tie into food trends because food is medicine is such an important component, but we also tie into the overall holistic well being of gardening. So I was mentioning a moment ago, some of these are like the taco pizza toppings and so are they essentially the vegetables that we would put on a pizza for like a friday fun. Right? That's exactly right. So we've got um a cocktail garden which is seasonal herbs, taco toppings, pizza garden, and it's really a way to bring fresh flavors into your everyday. But the overall experience of gardening is where so many of the holistic benefits come in. So this not only makes for a great like pizza or taco night, but it really does help with kind of overall well being, right. Talk about that, it does help with overall well being. It's decades of research has really given us insights into the active gardening and how good it is for us, physically, mentally and socially, we just wanted to make that accessible to everyone and we've done that with our outdoor gardens, everything comes, but we've also done it with our desktop gardens because it's in the act of doing that. So many of the wellness benefits come in, I mean if you think about where, you know, 10 years ago, if somebody at a corporation had said we have meditation rooms and we want you to use them, they might not have been used because the burnout epidemic was not what it is today, but companies like calm and Headspace have really made it to where they're going to help us how to breathe. They brought meditation to the forefront, we're bringing gardening to the forefront of wellness, I love that you touch on that because I know the guard annuity was founded in 2016, but the pandemic happened and so much of our thought process around health and wellness shifted. How has that evolution kind of been through your eyes? You know what? It's been good because I think people have said okay, I'm gonna take a break and do something for me. We say that self care is is not selfish and there are things we can do to really deal with stress and anxiety, you know, where um stress is unavoidable but but accumulated stress is avoidable and gardening as a way and a tool to combat that. You know, a moment ago you were talking about kind of like meditation rooms in in at workplaces, we actually have one here as well and it's fascinating, you know, because 80% of your business, we understand is B two B right, it's you kind of helping businesses employ improve kind of employee wellness, how are you doing that exactly. You know what? We work with them, whether it's their gifting gardens to all of their employees seasonally or they're doing gardening workshops that we host and we really create community and then would they come back to us and we have an opportunity through digital greenhouse to help them communicate and enjoy the whole experience. So not only are you helping your employees probably around the country um and employers help their employees, but we know that you actually employ your company employees, adults um with special needs. Why is it so important to your company's mission? Well I think one of the best things about me is I'm the mother of a gold medal Olympian special olympics and she is the picture of perseverance and you know these kids are ushered through great school programs and then they graduate and they really don't have any place to go and garden. We garden annuity really feels like it's important to create a place for adults with special needs to work. And we love working with farm partners who do the same by the way. What sport she was in track and field. Oh congratulations regulations out there. Um So it seems like a lot of people become or have become plant parents during this pandemic. I know a lot of people got puppies and pets but plans have also kind of been a thing. What kind of growth has your company seen over the past few years? Even before the pandemic we're seeing double digit growth But certainly right now we're working with over 300 corporate partners coast to coast. Um we've enjoyed 85% retention rate and we've got a 95% success rate with the gardens, whether it's the desktop garden or the outdoor garden but we make sure to incorporate wellness ideas into every single one. For example the desktop garden we teach meditation and how to habits stack before you turn on your computer. Mr garden tend to your garden because when you nurture a garden, it nurtures you. Listen, I have I don't have a green thumb, but I've gotten a sea snake plant that I've been able to like not utilize as much. You have to water it as much and it's been a lifesaver. So those kind of tips. I know they're a big deal before I have to let you go here really quickly. What's next regarding nudity? Well, we're building out our digital platform really the corporate partners we have, they wanted a gathering place. The network effect is important. And so we're building out a digital greenhouse where people can talk, share recipes and really enjoy the experience of growing together. I might have to jump in on that one. Thank you so much, john legere ceo and co founder of Guard Annuity.