#48 Green Is The Word
A green dress in Cyprus and the greenest, sustainable SEO pro, Matt Tutt.
Woah, I never land in your inbox on a… Tuesday!?
Well, I’m trying something new. I noticed I’ve been feeling that end-of-the-week fatigue quite drastically lately, and I felt I didn’t do myself justice. I want to share interesting things with you, but I can’t be at my best if I’m too knackered (emotionally and physically) to string a sentence together, even if I’m talking about the things I genuinely love and enjoy.
So, let’s get right into it.
Last week, I shared we went to Cyprus for a friend’s wedding. It was the shortest trip to the furthest destination I’ve been to so far! Two days, that’s all. My other half showed me the sad numbers of how much time we actually spent in the country versus how much time we spent travelling. Hint: the numbers weren’t looking great. The flight alone was 4h30 one way.
But we made the most of the short time there.
We were whizzed to the wedding on a double-decker bus. The venue was stunning, and, of course, it had cats—in fact, three regulars. See if you can spot one of them in one of the photos below.
It was short, beautiful, and sweet. The only downside is that as I got back, I caught something really nasty—some sort of stomach bug that left me in bed for several days. However, I think I’m in that post-viral phase now and almost back to normal.
That means I get to share a story from a fellow marketing pro! Meet Matt Tutt. He’s an SEO consultant for sustainable businesses. You may wonder what his creative hobby is… Gardening! 🌿
I think it comes from my mum, as she's always been really into gardening and would always spend as much of her time outdoors as she could. I remember as a kid I would be planting all kinds of things I could find—pips from an apple core, peach stones, cherry stones, kiwi seeds (which actually started to grow!) and whatever else I could find. So I'm sure I developed it from her and have just continued in the same direction.
Even when I've lived in places where I've had no garden, like a tiny studio apartment, I'd still have plants on the go on the windowsill or somehow up against the window (I always seemed to find a way!).
I think I just enjoyed the pleasure of taking care of something and seeing it grow; I always find it really rewarding. And when you spend a lot of time looking at a screen on a computer, you really miss not being outdoors, so I think it's a subconscious way of mine to try and connect more with nature.
In his business, the work is process-driven and stays the same, more or less. You know what each client requires, especially as you’ve built your own processes over the years. Contrast it to gardening, which has more factors to take into account, and the process isn’t as linear. It comes with more flexibility and creativity, especially as there are always new techniques to learn.
For example, permaculture gardening is a topic I'm quite interested in, as well as organic gardening, and with permaculture (which stands for permanent culture - so thinking long term about planting things, etc.), you have to think about things fairly deeply.
If choosing to plant something out in the garden, you might have to start to think about where the sun will be at a certain time of the day, how the shade will be in the garden at that point, and then the same throughout each of the seasons, plus wind direction etc. So I think with gardening, things can get extremely complex - if, of course, you want them to be.
At the same time, I enjoy the idea of rewilding the garden to allow beneficial pollinators and insects more habitat. So, I enjoy trying to use my creative side (which can be tough!) to figure out where I want this to happen without the garden being overrun by nettles!
The one thing I often talk about here is balancing your responsibilities with your creative outlets, hobbies, and passions. I asked Matt how he manages to find time for gardening. For him, it’s important to strive for a lifestyle where a career or a job is secondary to the beautiful parts of our life: family, hobbies, and anything else that fulfils us.
I think too many people put too much emphasis on their jobs, but sadly, that's a bit of a sign of the times (everyone is desperate to have money to pay the bills at the end of the day).
So, for me, it's a fine line between taking on enough work and still being able to find time to escape to the garden, as there are always a hundred tasks to be sorted out (both in the garden and on the computer!).
But reading about how Matt’s business operates, you can soon see parallels: one day, you might work with sustainable, ethical businesses, and another day, you might enjoy getting your hands dirty growing plants. He brought up a couple of curious comparisons:
More literally, the parallel between using artificial fertilizers or chemicals in gardening for short-term gains but long-term losses and the practice of "buying links" in SEO for a temporary rankings boost could lead to Google penalization.
The importance of slowing down, looking at the long-term picture, and not obsessing over minor issues. In gardening, this means not fretting over small problems like dandelions in the lawn. In SEO, it means not getting blinded by apparent problems that are insignificant to the overall business goals.
Matt is also a man of his own words and actions: He implements sustainable gardening methods in his own green space. He avoids peat-based composts and single-use plastic trays, although the latter is a tricky one. He also says no to weed killers or fertilisers and tries to avoid mowing the lawn where he can, or at least lets things flower and grow for a while before he does. He also grows mainly native flower and tree species.
While gardening may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it’s something that’s helped Matt tremendously.
I find it really exciting and interesting—right now I'm learning about grafting trees and am trying to get an avocado stone I planted to bear fruit (so I grafted a different variety onto it!). I'm also trying to grow pineapples, watermelons, kiwis and other cool things.
So don't think gardening is just all about daisies and pansies; obviously, there's nothing wrong with growing flowers (I do, too), but there's more to it than meets the eye. Even if you think you don't have space, you'd be surprised what you can grow on windowsills or in pots.
For anyone working long hours from a computer, Matt recommends outdoor or creative-based hobbies. And I concur. He left me these great tips:
Drawing or painting, or another creative outlet could be one, otherwise, anything that gets you outdoors and ideally gets you moving. Gardening isn't the much energy intensive but it's great to be out in the fresh air and to feel connected to the seasons.
If you're stuck as to what to do, take time out to try and figure this out, as I think personal interests or areas of fulfilment are really important these days—it's too easy (and tempting) to sit on your phone scrolling on social media.
Find something that'll feel a bit more wholesome, I don't think you'll regret it!
Take a look at Matt’s website if you want to see what he’s working on or follow Matt on LinkedIn.
As for me, I’ll be working on some photo edits this week so I can take you on a virtual photo tour with me through Romanian streets next time!
But for now, if you want to leave any feedback or comments, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Share anything you’ve enjoyed in my newsletter (not just in this week’s edition), anything you want to see more of, or just say hi. I always respond to everyone who talks to me about it:
That’s all from me this week—if you enjoyed this newsletter issue and haven’t subscribed yet, you can click the button below. I’d love to have you here! Hopefully, catch you next week.✨
Thanks again for the opportunity to speak with you Anete! 💚
We call them zucchini.