We were lucky to catch up with Nicole Hinde recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nicole, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have been on a holistic health journey for the past 7 years. While in the process of finding out I was celiac I stopped drinking coffee and turned solely to tea, specifically matcha. I fell in love with it, but quickly found out it was hard to find good tasting, high quality matcha. The most easily accessible matcha is often very low quality and grade, which is actually why most people say they don’t like the taste (or that it tastes like grass). It baffles me to find out how little people actually knew about matcha because there are SO many health benefits! You see, the word ‘matcha’ is not properly regulated by the FDA, so as long as it is a “ground up tea” they can put the word matcha on the box. Unfortunately, what you see is not always what you get and all matcha is NOT created equal. This put me on a mission to not only make good quality matcha more accessible to the common people, but also to educate and excite them about matcha and all it’s health benefits. This is how Holistically Well Matcha was born. I wanted to share my passion and excitement with everyone. I am on a mission to make people fall in love with this green tea as much as I am! I love when people who say they don’t like the taste of matcha, try mine and are pleasantly surprised! Because matcha DOES taste good, if you just know what to look for and purchase the right kind.

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’m Nicole Hinde. I am a certified fitness instructor with a passion for all things health and wellness. I also have a background in fashion merchandising where I have worked for over 15 years. As I mentioned before, I have been on a holistic health journey for the last 7 years. My whole life I had spent having digestive issues and had no idea an immune disorder was looming beneath. And while I had an aunt who had Crohn’s Disease and an uncle with Colon Cancer, no doctor had ever diagnosed me with Celiac Disease. I knew something bigger had to be wrong and I did not want to end up down the paths they had.

I began to take things into my own hands by recording my meals, doing restrictive diets and food eliminations. Although it was a tough process I learned so much about how different food affected me. In 2018 I was referred to a GI and was finally diagnosed with Celiac Disease. The funny thing is when you’re on a healing journey with your body, the mind and soul sort of have to follow suit. This is when I learned about holistic health. The more I learned about modern medicine, the more I wanted to keep leaning holistic. I didn’t want to just put medication into my body. I wanted to heal completely from the inside out which in turn changed my relationship with food, medicine, and my entire lifestyle really. I had always been an active and healthy person, but this journey pushed me deeper into the wellness space. With my new focus on holistic health and my passion for matcha, I knew I needed to do more.

When I decided to start my matcha brand I really wanted to encompass holistic health as a whole. Matcha, being a tea with lots of health benefits paired with the ritualistic process of making it, proves how holistic it is. And while I am still learning things about my immune disorder, matcha is the one thing I know I am an expert on! It only felt right to share my passion and knowledge while also stepping foot into the wellness space.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

It seems the last 4 years have been pivot after pivot. The Covid 19 pandemic was a huge pivotal time for me, as I’m sure it was everyone else. In 2020, I was let go from the fashion visual merchandising job I had been working for for almost 10 years. I planned to take the opportunity to really pivot into the health and wellness space, potentially starting my own business but I was lucky enough to find a new visual merchandising job shortly after and the idea of my business got put on the back burner. This last February, however, I was given a second chance. I truly think everything happens for a reason because the two and a half years that I had in between allowed me to really dive deeper into the health and wellness space. I became certified as a fitness instructor, learned so much much about holistic health and matcha, which in turn increased my knowledge and passion for all of it. By early January 2023, I actually knew I wanted to have my own matcha brand, but I had no idea how I would make that happen. When I lost my merchandising job yet again in February 2023, I knew this was my chance. Last spring every waking hour was spent on developing my brand and sourcing matcha from Japan. I created a business plan, developed a brand, put together a website, sourced a matcha I felt great about all on my own. By June 2023 I had a functioning business with product to sell. I’m proud of my resilience and ability to pivot, but mostly I am proud of the brand I have created and couldn’t be more grateful for the second chance.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The interesting thing about Holistically Well, and the part I love the most is connecting with people. You see, I don’t just sell matcha, I actually bring you an experience. Anyone can start a website and sell a product, but my product is the full experience. The reason I found matcha to be such an opportunity is because of the lack of knowledge people really have about it. So this is not just to sell you a tea product. Matcha is actually so good for us! I think this is also a metaphor for the entire food industry as a whole. The idea that food is not just simple anymore. People today have more health problems then ever, but when you look at the diet most of America consumes it’s no wonder. So the idea that something as simple as a green tea, which has more antioxidants than any food ever, it has amino acids that help your heart and brain, it has EGCG that is great for your gut and microbiome, it has L-theanine which makes it a calming stimulant and can help you lower stress and anxiety, but yet people have no clue what is it, or how to find and consume it. This is such a HUGE opportunity. The thing is, I have to be out there finding these people, speaking to these people, and have them willing to listen. The people who are most open to this are people who are all on their own health journeys. They want to learn about food and nutrition. They want to live healthier lifestyles. They want to be consuming better products. This is how I find the best new clients. I’ve partnered with several local health professionals and wellness centers. I have partnered with people in the fitness industry. I’ve attended and had booths at local fitness festivals and different markets. I’ve spread the word through social media and tried to give people as much knowledge as I can.

Contact Info:

• Website: beholisticallywell.com
• Instagram: @be.holistically.well and @happily_nicolehinde
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-hinde-81274742/

Image Credits
Photos by Andres Ortiz of The Studio Chicago team