Introducing: Manouk van der Ben
From the Dutch television to Garden Connect: Manouk earned her stripes in the TV world and made the switch to Garden Connect in September 2020.
Manouk is 32 years old and lives in Amsterdam. She has worked at Garden Connect since September 2020, ‘but it feels like it’s been way longer and that’s a positive thing!’ she adds. Manouk has 18 different customers from the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. Her tasks vary for each customer, but part of it is making sure the website is up to date and optimizing websites and webshops. For one customer she might be more focused on writing content such as blogs and for another customer this may be more focused on switching the website layout for the new season.
Manouk's favourite plant is the Echinacea. For inside plants, it’s the Ficus Lyrata, even though they’re not a great match because her own Ficus didn’t stay with her for long.
It has been 10 years since Manouk graduated with a Master of Arts in Television Studies. She started with an internship at a Dutch tv show about interior and gardening, because she had a passion for interior, gardening and plants. This all came together with her study background in the television world. What started as a web editor internship, after 6 years, grew into a function as editorial coordinator. Manouk was responsible for the content of the program as she arranged the segments that the program did. Besides that, she was also responsible for the website. Later she did the same things for another tv programme in The Netherlands, called VTWonen. Now all these passions are combined in her job but in a different way. She still likes to see what’s happening around interior, gardening and plants, to translate this into great content.
Manouk likes writing blogs the most in her work at Garden Connect. She writes a few blogs a week for different customers. She gets the inspiration out of current affairs, and sometimes from personal situations as well. Writing about sustainable topics was very interesting for Manouk, but she also gets inspiration from things that happen in her personal life. When her own Ficus Lyrata died for example, she immediately wrote a blog about the right care for the Ficus to help others to prevent this tragic loss.
“My hobby is to watch horror movies, I even wrote my thesis about a horror movie! Besides that I like to catch up with friends, I walk a lot and I like to drink the cocktails that my boyfriend makes me.”
With her ambitions, Manouk is mainly focused on the now. “I find it important that my customers are happy with the things I do now and in the near future. I like to make sure that I am one step ahead of my customers, so they don’t need to ask me about anything.”
Manouk her first impression of Garden Connect was positive, even though her first months consisted of a lot of screen time and online meetings. “I immediately felt wanted and very welcome” she adds. She finds it very special to see how the employees are appreciated spoilt around the holidays. “And I’ve got a very nice team of course” she adds.
