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

Hi Nicole , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I’ve worked in Early Child Development most of my adult life. I noticed so many very young children with anxiety and the increase in behavior issues. It broke my heart that so many children were struggling with these.

I noticed while working with young children that the behavior situations decreased during outdoor play. I found that as children became comfortable in moving around outdoors, their anxiety went down.

I started to do research and discovered this phenomena was being studied quite heavily. While research continues, all these specialists were pointing at a few things. One is that the amount of time children were spending outdoors was very minimal. When children were outdoors they were under the watchful eye of grown ups constantly telling them, “no”, “be careful”, and “don’t”. By doing this the grown ups were taking away from a child’s ability to test their bodies, to trust themselves with problem solving.

Adults were asking small children to sit for too many hours a day. These little bodies were not designed to hold still. They are meant to play, explore and move A LOT. Educators are pushing children way too young to write, when their muscles aren’t properly developed yet.

All of these things I was reading about struck a chord in my heart. I was that child that couldn’t sit still. I was incredibly anxious, I didn’t trust myself or my body. The biggest of all was how can change this, even in the smallest way.

That’s when Little Sprouts Friends started. I wanted to have a space where children could be children. Where they can lead their learning. A special spot to get dirty, use their hands and learn to trust their bodies through climbing, jumping, and doing things adults have been telling them “no” to all their lives. If you want a child to learn to hold a pencil and write, give them sticks, rocks and let them build those fine motor muscles that way. The more I learned, the more passionate I became about this.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always wanted to work with children. I began babysitting as soon as anyone would let me. I connected with children in way many did not. I have huge patience for them and my brain just operates in a way that understands them on their level.

I started officially in early child development in college as a part time job at our local recreation center. After that I didn’t leave the industry except for a short time working in the finance world which I absolutely loathed.

My clients are under 5. We problem solve all the time. I think with any problem solving no matter what the industry is, you have to take into account the situation, the individual, and be open to learn new things for yourself. And never assume, ever.

I joke with “my kids” in class that my brain is 5 years old but my knees and back are not. When I’m planning activities for class, I think what would Nicole at age 5 love to do? What is something my adults didn’t let me do that I really wanted to explore? How do I show these children how loved and special they are? I can’t explain it but it all comes easily to me and I just have a connection with kids.

I’m most proud that I made it real. I showed my daughters how I took this idea and made it into a reality. They were with me step by step, watching me prep, advocate for myself and others, and they’ve been to class with me. I’m proud of the children I’ve served and loved. I want anyone that attends our program to know my whole heart is in it!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my daughters was taking marketing in college. I was very old school in the marketing I was taught. Flyers, paper ads and word of mouth. While those things still have a place, I was a dunce when it came to digital marketing. I felt so overwhelmed. She really took the time to walk me through it and teach me. It was a great bonding experience for me. She’s brilliant and I loved having that time with her.

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

I was a single mom for a long time. I remarried and moved across the country to an area where I knew no one and had no family. For years I went through a depression of sorts about feeling so disconnected. I moved from big family and framily (friends that turned into family) to zero, zip, nada. Then the pandemic and lock down really took the world by storm. What everyone was feeling during that time was similar to what I had felt for years. Isolation and loneliness ruled my life.

I kept pushing and put myself out there to start my program. It took me 18 months to convince a farm to let me hold classes on their property. I was so sure it wouldn’t work since I had no support from local friends or community. I’d run businesses in the past but nothing like this. Despite those feelings and my situation, I did it anyway.

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• Other: We are in the process of a rebrand and moving locations so our Facebook and Instagram pages will be changing soon.