Nicole's Quick Take: Aerin Peak runs Homegrown and Harvested, a garden consulting business in Northern Virginia, and by her third year she'd doubled her client base and turned a profit. She credits that growth to Garden Coach Academy, the online course and business system that taught her how to have a career as a garden consultant.

The Garden Coach Who Decided To Bet on Herself

I love a good gardening story, but this one is a business story.

Aerin Peak runs Homegrown and Harvested, a garden consulting business in Northern Virginia, and by her third year she was doing something a lot of small business owners never get to: she was turning a profit, and she'd just doubled her client list in a single quarter.

She told me she put off joining Garden Coach Academy for two years before she finally signed up. I'm glad she did, because her story is one every plant-loving coach with zero business background needs to hear.

Two Milestones Most New Businesses Never Hit

Here's how Aerin described her third year, in her own words:

"At the end of this third year in business, I am now in the black for the rest of the year. And that's a pretty cool stat to have for a small new business. And then also happening in the third quarter, I doubled the amount of clients."

Turning a profit by year three is already a win. Doubling your client list in one quarter on top of that is the kind of growth most solo consultants spend years chasing.

What I find most telling is what Aerin says got her there, and it isn't a new marketing trick or a lucky referral. It's systems.

What Built Client Trust For Aerin

The first thing Aerin points to is something a lot of new coaches overlook completely: credibility.

"Getting certified the Gardenary way actually has really helped with validation in my business, with having people not only go to my website, but see the certificate that Nicole gives out. That really helps to be a badge that they can see, that's valid, that they trust. So that's really helped to grow my business."

That tracks with what I've seen over and over with our coaches. A homeowner is trusting a stranger with their yard, their budget, and their weekends. A certification does real work in that moment. It's not decoration. It's proof.

The Real Shift Wasn't Horticulture. It Was Everything Behind It.

This is the part I want every coach reading this to sit with, because Aerin says it better than I ever could:

"I don't have a background in business. I have a dirt background. It really helped me develop my flows and work systems, and actually get a grip on what I was doing, so I could scale the way I needed to over the last couple of years. Because without that, I probably wouldn't be here today."

That line stops me every time. So many of us come to garden coaching because we love plants, not because we have an MBA. Aerin didn't need to become someone she wasn't. She needed a system built for the business she already had.

What Garden Coach Academy Walks You Through

Garden Coach Academy is built specifically to fill the gap between knowing your plants and knowing how to run a business around them.

It's self-paced, so you move through it on your own schedule with lifetime access, and it covers: setting up your business, pricing your services, building a realistic timeline for growth, and much more.

You also get the tools a lot of us wish we'd had starting out, like outreach scripts for your first client conversations and a straightforward guide to landing your first clients.

Most students book their first paying client before they've even finished the course.

If you want to learn more, you can apply here.

Her Advice to Anyone Still on the Fence

I asked Aerin what she'd tell someone who's thinking about it, and she didn't hesitate:

"That's what I would say to somebody who's considering it: do it. I put it off for two years. I did it anyway. I could have done it earlier. Just do it."

If you've got a dirt background (or even just a love for dirt), Garden Coach Academy has the business background to help you launch as a garden consultant. Aerin's numbers are proof of what can happen when you put the two together.