Monique Allen – Edge Dwellers

Bio for Monique Allen 

Monique Allen is a Business Coach, Life-Scape & Regenerative Landscape Professional and CEO & Creative Director of The Garden Continuum, a landscape design/build and fine gardening company in Massachusetts. 

Episode highlight

As a bilingual Armenian-American, Monique Allen had a plethora of cultural influences in her childhood. Listen in on how she combined the many identities she holds to establish her own workplace culture in the landscaping industry.

Links

Email: Monique@TheGardenContinuum.com 

Website: www.TheGardenContinuum.com

Social media: @monique.allen, @thegardencontinuum

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquetgc/

Quotes

“When I felt the safest, it was when I was connected to the ground.”

“It’s hard to believe in nature and not believe in a force that's a little bit greater than your gas pedal.”

Takeaways

Childhood Incidents

As a child, Monique visited her maternal grandparents in the Allegheny Mountains in Maryland, where she felt a “cellular connection” to nature. She grew up with a “3rd culture mindset”, living in Paris and then in an Armenian community in the United States, speaking Armenian, French and English.

Influential Groups 

Even though Armenian cuisine is her comfort food, Monique has always felt like an “outsider Armenian”, because she isn’t as fluent in the language. Her Christian friend and her family took Monique under their wing, and she immersed herself in the religion. 

Temperament and Personality Influences

Monique has a naturally positive mood and outlook but can also be serious and demanding of herself and other people, which she attributes to her “abrasive upbringing”. She has had to unlearn any destructive behaviours from the past and reconnect to her easy temperament. 

Cultural Epiphanies

Monique once had an employee who had the vision, skills and abilities for the job, but she couldn’t find a cultural common ground with her. When another employee said she may not be a cultural fit, Monique began learning about culture in the workplace and how that fits in with her company.

Advice to an Employer 

Monique is a stickler for organization, clear communication and data - “Vagaries make me crazy”, she quips. However, she does not believe in micromanaging and even works in a separate space from her employees, so they can be autonomous in a “trust culture”. 

More Great Insights! 

Visit Monique’s website to buy her book, Stop Landscaping, Start Lifescaping, read her blog and access many resources to get started in this field. If you are a green industry professional, reach out to her for business coaching to scale your company to the next level.