Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Deb Matlock. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Deb, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name Wild Rhythms came to me out of the blue on a hike nearly 20 years ago. It felt right and made sense with my work, focusing on the deep and sacred connections between people, animals, the earth, and the world of spirit. So, based purely on inspiration, I went to the Colorado state business office (this was before the ease of the internet) and secured the name Wild Rhythms, LLC. I walked out of the business office, official forms in hand, and thought to myself, “What on earth does wild rhythms mean?” Thus began a journey I am still taking today; a journey into the most profound meanings of wild and rhythm.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I grew up in Colorado and am deeply committed to nurturing the connection between people, animals, earth, and spirit. I have spent twenty-five years working as a professional environmental educator and naturalist and fifteen years working as a nature-based spiritual life coach.

I offer high-level nature connection practitioner training, workshops, and retreats through my business, Wild Rhythms. I am passionate about helping other professionals such as educators, life coaches, counselors, clergy, holistic healing practitioners, artists, and visionaries weave their own eco-spiritual journeys into their lives and work.

I created a body of work called Nature-based Spiritual Arts™ and offer professional training in this work for nature connection practitioners, spiritual companions, and community leaders. I am passionate about helping people find connection and deep spiritual meaning in their lives and in the places where they live.

I hold a Master of Arts in Environmental Education from Prescott College and a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies from Antioch University, New England. I am also pursuing my doctoral degree in environmental studies at Antioch University, New England. My research focuses on integrating the more-than-human voice into environmental education and nature connection programming. You can find out more about my work at www.wild-rhythms.com.

I have come to this work through my own amazing, challenging, inspiring, confusing, hopeful, painful, and surprising journey into a deeper connection with the world around me. My journey to a sense of empowered, nature-connected spirituality is a long and winding road…a road I still travel today. I have gone through difficult confusion and emptiness, times of deep grief and despair for the world around me, and times of incredible peace, groundedness, and inspiration.

I have a life-long interest in mystic and spiritual pathways. I was born with gifts that have been developed and refined over many years. My work is not about specific “techniques” but focuses on listening directly to the world of spirit and wild nature. My passion is to walk/guide/assist others on their unique journeys into their empowered spirituality and sense of deep and sacred connection with all life.

I grew up in Colorado and bring to my work a profound love and passion for Earth and every living being. Since childhood, I have experienced a deep, personal, and communicative connection with the earth, the world of spirit, and the animals I encounter. As a child, I spent endless days exploring the Rocky Mountains, and my first best friend was a dog named Jenny. Since then, my life has been formed and enriched by my relationship with all the life around me.

My work is based not only on my spiritual journey but also on my 25+ years as an environmental and humane educator and my passion for research and academia. My work has teeth as I take my own experiences and dig into them more deeply via conventional and non-conventional methods.

My environmental and humane education work includes teaching in the field, offering professional training and presentations, and researching the connections of spirituality, animism, and empathy to environmental education. My research has been presented nationally and internationally and continues to be a strong focus for my work. I have vast experience designing programming and evaluating curricula and was previously President of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education Board of Directors. Additionally, I regularly volunteer my educational and animal communication services with local animal rescues.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started Wild Rhythms 20 years ago this year. During the last two decades, this business has evolved, grown, shrunk, and essentially taken me for a wild ride. It was a side business for several years and was something I worked in around my day jobs in environmental education. It is now my full-time career. The journey to scale it up from a side business to full-time was a long road but also a very natural one.

My work, whether through Wild Rhythms or with other organizations, has always been focused on the deep and sacred connection between people and the wild, natural world. I love this work and will always do it in some form. That being said, I also really love working for myself, following my creative vision, and sharing work deeply from a very personal place. That is, of course, only sometimes possible when working for others.

Making Wild Rhythms my full-time work has been a marvelous labor of love and continues to be so daily. It demands that I continually commit and re-commit to this path. It requires that I take risks, such as creating new and innovative programs, and just put them out in the world and see if folks resonate with them. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. My job is to keep focusing on the larger vision and calling behind this work and avoid getting bogged down in moments that feel like successes or failures. I feel that “success” and “failure” are essentially irrelevant; everything is learning. Everything is an experiment. And living in that space is part of the thrill of entrepreneurship!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Over the years, my best source of new clients has been my current or previous clients. Without the generous referrals folks sent me, I could not have built this business. It is very important to me to forge real connections and relationships with the folks I work with, whether clients or vendors, or other collaborative partners. And I also send referrals to others all the time. It seems like a natural, collaborative way to do business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wild-rhythms.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildrhythms/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildRhythms/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debmatlock/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildRhythms
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wildrhythmsllc
• Other: Facebook Group: Sacred Connection: Earth, Animals, Spirit https://www.facebook.com/groups/SacredConnection

Image Credits
Deb Matlock, Doug Hill, Gabrial Reising