EP 24: Marina Qutab on Being An EcoGoddess with a Zero Waste Lifestyle

Marina shares what it means to be an ecogoddess, and how she created a Save the World Journal when she was just 10 years old!

Her mission is to empower people to live more in alignment with the planet, as their highest, most vibrant selves and to tap into their remembrance of who they are and why they are here.

If you want to learn about how to be more of an earth lover and reduce your waste, this episode is for you.

“I am going to believe in myself. I’m the only driver of my dreams. You will get so far. You really will.” – Marina Qutab

“It’s not to say every day is easy, but having that commitment. And commitment to yourself and belief in love in yourself is as powerful as any being, whether an activist or someone who works in finance. How can we work in this world?”-Marina Qutab

“Where there are a lot of other voices just staying, staying true, returning home to your own love and belief in yourself.” -Marina Qutab

The Brave Woman Podcast Episode 24

Marina is the personality behind the sustainability and soulful wellness platform Eco Goddess. She creates content about low waste living, gardening/farm life, soulful wellness, sustainable fashion and more. She also from time to time will share her love for music through a video of her playing one of her beloved instruments… the harp, guitar, piano or violin. It is her hope that in sharing her journey to living a more vibrant, ecologically conscious lifestyle with others, they may feel inspired and supported to embark on their own journeys.

New things to come on the Eco Goddess platform, finding your unique voice as a social media content creator, how to start one’s sustainable living journey

Discovering about Eco Goddess, her journey to living a more vibrant, ecologically conscious lifestyle with you, you will feel inspired and supported to embark on your own journey.

“Millions of these plastic, disposable razors end up in the landfill and the ocean. So, making this simple switch, you not only are helping the environment, but you also are saving a lot of money because there’s so much money that goes into buying and re-buying those razors every single few months.” -Marina Qutab

Listen to Episode 24 as Marina uncovers:

[02:47] Be an Eco Goddess

The big mission and purpose on this planet: to empower people to live more in alignment with the planet to live more in alignment with their highest, most vibrant selves, their healthy selves that wake up daily and are remembered or are filled with remembrance of who they are and why they are here.
I was 10 years old and I really had a wake up call that led me to where I am today. So growing up as an earth lover, I grew up in the inner city.
Spent a lot of time outside hugging trees and spending time with insects and just being the nature girl and the earth lover.
The activist journey that I led off seeing symptoms of an unhealthy society, a linear economy, and then wanting to challenge them.
Life-changing saves the world journal at 10.

[09:04] The Razors

YouTube video with 1.9 million views all about razors.
Switched everything in my lifestyle to a compostable version or a more sustainable version.
The safety razor.
Want to become more visible, want to use their voice and are terrified of creating a video of themselves.
Turn on a camera and to just say, speak and the best place that you can start is literally today.
Putting the camera on, pressing play and just speaking.
We can work together to build this sustainable world.
My camera is just the simple vehicle, that device for putting me in front of eyes that I would have never been in front of, or in front of a potential new friend, a colleague, a co co-creator and worker.
To start today, even if it feels so hard and impossible, start with a minute, start then with two minutes and then see where it takes you.

[23:01] The Concept of Eco Goddess

My superhero: The goddess of the earth. A woman of the earth who holds it and protects it and holds that frequency of love and compassion even when there is darkness and anger and hate holding that frequency.
The eco goddess is like a Renaissance woman. I know where, of many things and unapologetically herself and she creates music. She sings to the birds. She lives in the forest and this deep green deep green ground.
To intimately connect with waste and to learn how to eliminate it as much as possible
Live in a linear economy. That’s where we stand right now, where items are made, not to last there’s planned obsolescence, so things will break.

[26:33] The Two Steps Method to Reducing Your Waste

The first step is to take a look in the mirror and you can even go to a mirror and do this and say: you look sexy, but there’s a way that you can look less trashy.
After you look in the mirror, go and look in your pantry go and look in your fridge in your car. Look at your house, look at your life and make a list of the top three ways that you’re creating the most waste.
The second step to this two steps method is to now start to make some moves, make the shift and start with just one of those three main ways that you create the most waste.
I do grow a lot of the food that I eat, which is an amazing way that you can begin reducing waste just to grow a few herbs if you want to start there.
Aluminum is actually indefinitely recyclable.
I like to pursue my grocery shopping with the 90 10 rules. 90% of what I bring in, I aim to have it completely sustainably packaged or not packaged. For the 10% I can allow myself that one bag of chips.

[30:02] A Gluten-Free Waffle Recipe

One cup of oatmeal ground up.
One banana
One cup of almond milk
One tablespoon of Apple, cider vinegar
One tablespoon of baking powder
A little bit of cinnamon and blend it up.

[31:08] Going Zero Waste at Walmart

Found the produce items that were unpackaged and tried to find them as local as possible. Organic, if possible.
Rather than choosing the salad package in a plastic bag, I chose the salad in a container. Something that you could reuse or you could easily recycle, whereas bags are much harder to recycle in our mainstream recycling system.
Find the most sustainable packaging
Should I get the one in this packaging or this packaging?
If you are in Walmart and you’re looking for chips, those are really great options. You just save the bag and you can send it to TerraCycle for them to upcycle and repurpose into something.

[39:13] Grow Your Circles

If you want to grow your circles, you want to grow your community. It’s about reaching out to the other leaders
Be genuine and authentic to myself.
Be vulnerable and share what’s from your heart.
If a call or something like that feels daunting to request or offer, you could just first send them messages, show them appreciation and be like: Oh, I love this post, like fan girl them for while which is what I’ve done for some of the Larger YouTubers just like to honor them and watch their stuff for a while. Show them that you’re there and that you’re watching and you’re listening. Then make your way into, would you be open to XYZ?
Respect the hierarchy, always respect your elders, the people who are higher, higher than you in your career, your chosen career path, because they didn’t just get there. They spent a lot of time and energy and hard work getting there.
Sacrificed to sleep sometimes to get there.
Have patience and gentleness with yourself as you’re striving for your goals and honor that whoever you’re looking at and inspired by in your career, that is maybe a little farther ahead. They did get there with some serious, hard work and elbow grease and it just takes time.

Power Quotes From the Show

Fight For The Planet

“I consider my presence online now, eco goddess, and extension of my childhood journal of wishing to fight for the planet to fight for people and to stand beside people and inspire them to realize that we are given this precious gift of the planet and not the earth and how can we live in symbiosis with it rather than against it to where we harm, not just the planet, but each other and our health. So that kind of ties into my whole mission.” Marina Qutab

The Trash Decorated Like An Inescapable Disease

“When I was 10, my father surprised our family with a trip to his Homeland of Pakistan to visit his family for the first time. […]. But what I was not expecting was to have this awakening of how privileged I was to wake up and live in a place that had an infrastructure for recycling and infrastructure for trash. When I visited there, I was just so surprised by how much trash there was and how the trash decorated each street, like an inescapable disease. On top of that, I had never witnessed extreme poverty like I did in Pakistan. I was so moved by this one particular person. It was a mother and she was holding children and she was so thin. I remember just sobbing in the car and feeling so much sorrow and grief for what I had been exposed to.” Marina Qutab

The Air Pollution and She Said It So Casually

“The real catalyst, it’s kind of a funny antidote, but it really was the most powerful thing on this journey to Bach Stein was I became ill and I had a lot of congestion and so I blew my nose into a tissue one night and in my tissue was black, it was black site. And I went up to my mom and I was like, what is this? She was like, Oh, that’s just the air pollution. I was so shocked that she said it so casually. So matter of factly, I even said that to her, like, how can you say that this is our planet? That tissue sitting in the Palm of my hand would be the catalyst for change in my life to be the change that I wish to see in the world. It was a simple realization that our actions impact our environment and they can be positive or negative actions.”Marina Qutab

Become Friends With The Creator

“…together, we are stronger and together we go farther. So when you’re going into an industry that you’re really passionate about and you want to grow in it, find the creators in that industry and become friends with them.

I reached out to people all around the world YouTubers that inspired me and I said, Hey, would you be open to getting on a call with me? I would just love to meet you. So I made friends with all these really awesome. Youtubers and now huge YouTube celebrities and having their support and just sharing who I am.” -Marina Qutab

Friendship Over Competition

“My vision for my own channel was instrumental in building a community. Yeah, always friendship over competition. That’s what I say is like, when you see someone’s channel that inspires you. Sometimes we feel like shrinking because we’re like, Oh, I couldn’t, I never could have that or they have this and that.

We go into that kind of scarcity, fear mode, try to transmute that into inspiration and honoring that they’ve worked so hard to build what they have, and they’ve worked so hard to get where they are today and honor them by starting a conversation by sending them light and being like, Hey, you inspire the crap out of me. Can we get on a call? I’m trying that it really was so helpful for me watching other people’s videos and seeing where they’d go with the same inability conversation, if it is in sustainability or the conversation in your industry and in your movement, follow the trends, follow the conversations, and then see where you can take those conversations and make them your own at where can you add your own experience and in your lifestyle.” -Marina Qutab

Believe in Yourself

“Believe in yourself. It sounds maybe cliche and like something that you’d read on a postcard, but yeah. There are so many things in life that will take away from your belief in yourself. That’s why it’s fundamental to have your own confidence and love and belief in yourself to work on finding the tools that will help reinvigorate that sense of self, like having a team practice or maybe yoga is your thing.

Find the thing that helps remind you of how brilliant you are. Because you’ll see it time and time again. Unfortunately, there will be people who have negative opinions or they’ll try to cut you down and they’ll try to take away your light and. To stop you from growing. When you really know it in yourself and even on those hard days, you’re like, no, this is my commitment.” -Marina Qutab

Links from Today’s Show

Harp Guided Meditation | Reflections of the Earth Spirit: Listen here

How to Use a Safety Razor » + SHAVING DEMO: Watch here

Other links:

www.ecogoddess.com

www.facebook.com/ecogoddess

Instagram: @ecogoddess

About Marina

Marina is the personality behind the sustainability and soulful wellness platform Eco Goddess. She creates content about low waste living, gardening/farm life, soulful wellness, sustainable fashion and more. She also from time to time will share her love for music through a video of her playing one of her beloved instruments… the harp, guitar, piano or violin. It is her hope that in sharing her journey to living a more vibrant, ecologically conscious lifestyle with others, they may feel inspired and supported to embark on their own journeys. She believes strongly in the power of both individual and collective action, and feels the power is in our hands to co-create a new world that is sustainable, just and thriving for all. You can connect with the Eco Goddess platform and her startup, {Zero} Waste Kit on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.