We recently connected with Nikki Rutledge and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nikki thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always been fascinated by the metaphysical world ever since I was a little girl, magickally fueled by many weekend adventures into Salem, MA. I had a very untraditional upbringing, and tapping into the witchy world became a source of comfort for me. This was especially true when my husband Tyler and I were planning our wedding a few years ago. Having a dysfunctional family system made the wedding process difficult for me. A lot of buried emotions were surfacing. So, I turned to my witchy/spiritual practice. It provided me with the tools I needed to begin processing and facing a lot of the childhood trauma I carried with me for so many years.

That’s why in early 2020, I began hosting moon circles in our apartment. It brought me so much joy to teach others about what I had been learning, as well as how to harness certain astrological events to better ourselves and grow. After that first circle, I quickly realized, this just felt right. As more circles were held, Tyler and I began chatting about creating products that folks could bring home with them after the circles concluded for extra support. Shortly after that, we developed an online store.

Then the pandemic hit. During this time, we built our online store, created all of our products, launched an Instagram, and really dove into becoming an official small business. At the time, I was the Assistant Director for Marketing at Boston University, and soon enough, I was faced with a very tough decision. Pursue Moonlight & Mindfulness full-time and say goodbye to a solid 9-5 job, or, shut down this side project and let go of all it was igniting within me. I could no longer do both, and the thing was, I never quite felt like a person who could live a truly fulfilling life with a regular 9-5 job. I had so many ideas and other things I wanted to share with the world.

Spoiler alert: I took that leap of faith and decided to pursue this full-time! It was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make, but I truly felt like I was being called to continue to teach and to use my creativity in our own business. I also felt like we really had something good here. Something that I viewed like a garden – the more we cared for and loved it, the more it could continue to grow and blossom.

From here, with an aim to create safer candles, Tyler began researching the best way to create candles that wouldn’t give me a headache, that were pet-friendly, and that were safer to breathe in overall. After much trial-and-error, we launched our 100% soy wax candle collection, which really allowed us to expand. Candles like these are so difficult to find at big-box stores, and I felt so good about finally being able to provide people with safer alternatives. A year later, as I am a huge horror fan, we released our horror movie candle collection. This really solidified (no candle-pun intended) that we had something real here as the collection took off and became really popular.

Now, over 10,000 Etsy sales and 41,000 followers on Instagram (and climbing!) later…here we are. Owning a small business is like riding a roller coaster – you have highs, lows, doubts, fears, joy – it is so uncertain. But one thing that is for certain is we love what we do. We love creating, evolving, helping people, teaching, sharing knowledge, and providing products that we can genuinely feel good about and know we’re putting so much love and care into everything we do.
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And now, in 2024, we opened up our very first BRICK-AND-MORTAR LOCATION! It’s a retail store with all of our products, plus an event space for our events like moon circles, yoga, candle-making, and more. I look back on this journey with pure gratitude in our hearts because it’s all led me here. Owning a small business is one of the most difficult things I have ever done. But, to be able to be a holistic wellness hub where people can come and shop, learn, get inspired, relax, and find tools to help them navigate through life’s challenges…that makes it all worth it in the end.

Nikki, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I think what sets my business apart from others is that my husband and I put so much love into everything we do. Everything is carefully crafted and well-thought out. Our goal is to help people, whether that’s through our healing services or in being able to provide cleaner, safe candlers and products. I’m proud of the products we create because I see them being developed from start to finish and because of the amount of research we’ve done to create candles that we can feel good about.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This story is from recently trying to get our storefront up and running before our grand opening date. There have been sleepless nights, more stress than I’ve ever endured trying to make sure we don’t run out of time and that things get done. The amount of pressure I felt was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. And to be honest, there were times were I wanted to give up. I questioned if this was going to be worth it. Coming from a pretty strained and untraditional family dynamic, I don’t have the typical support that most people do. The type of support that can help lift you up during those dark times. But, I held so much gratitude for my amazing husband, extended family, and the friends who have become family who have all been so supportive. I breathed through the chaos, allowed myself to take breaks no matter how small, and kept reminding myself of WHY I wanted to do this in the first place. Reminded myself of all the people I could help, all the amazing events we’ll be able to host, and people we’ll meet. It will be worth it, in spite of all the blood, sweat, and (lots of) tears it took to get there.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I was the Assistant Director for Marketing at Boston University before leaving to pursue my own small business full-time. I do have a background in marketing, so that definitely helped me a bit. I stared my Moonlight & Mindfulness Instagram in 2020 and I always smile when I recall the time my husband and I celebrated reaching 100 followers. I was so excited. Now we’re almost at 42,000. My best piece of advice is to trust your gut, know your audience, and don’t be afraid to try different things. In the early days, I would follow accounts similar to mine like witchy and holistic ones. I tried to really put myself out there and show the world who I was and why they should follow my account. This can be done through great content creation, and if you’re not a creator per se, you can re-share other folks work and tag them in a pinch. Another piece of advice is to find groups on Facebook that are in your line of work. Example, I’m a part of a few spiritual groups and a lot of times we’ll do a follow-for-follow train. Those are often helpful. I use social media to network, I love chatting with folks on there and I’ve actually met a few of my real life friends on there! Don’t be afraid to branch out and be yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://moonlightmindfulness.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/moonlightandmindfulness
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/moonlightandmindfulness
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/nikkirutledge/

Image Credits

Amber Leilani Photography