We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nicole Mattingly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicole below.

Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Growing up, I lived in a mixed generational house. I grew up living in a duplex that was converted into one space with my parents and my great grandmother, Rose. All of my childhood, my Granny Rose was my greatest friend. We spent every waking moment together. Many of those moments including tending the garden alongside her. She taught me how to appreciate the outdoors and all it has to offer. Days spend indoors, consisted of playing, sewing, and making homemade remedies in her kitchen.

When I got older and moved out, I always thought fondly of those days spent in the garden, and wished that I could return. In 2010, that very thing started to happen. My husband and I had recently bought our own home, but didn’t have the perfect space for my dream garden. My parents still lived in my childhood home, and we asked if we could use the space my granny used to use for a garden of our own. As my love for gardening grew, so did my passion for herbalism and skincare. I started my business in 2014 and starting growing herbs for my products on the same piece of land my granny always grew on, my old stomping grounds. It was so natural for Stomping Ground Herbals to be the name.

In 2019, my father became ill, so we moved back to my childhood home to help care for him. I now reside in what was once my granny’s part of the house making everything come full circle, and permanently returned to my stomping ground.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My passion for tending the earth was born working alongside my great-grandmother, Rose, growing vegetables and herbs on land in the heart of Nashville. Today, guided by the knowledge passed down by Rose, I tend to the very same piece of land- land that now produces the herbs for the plant magic of Stomping Ground Herbals.

After many unsatisfying years of working an office job, I returned to my roots. In 2010, I began growing many plants on the same land as my great grandmother and using them to make herbal tinctures, elixirs, skincare, and teas. I embarked on a journey of studying herbalism to further my knowledge, and in 2015 I left my office job to follow my passion and pursue my farm and apothecary business full time.

Today, alongside my husband, Nick we raise chickens, ducks, bees, grow many medicinal and culinary herbs, veggies, fruit, mushrooms, and flowers with no chemicals or pesticides. These naturally grown plants are used with intention in Stomping Ground Herbals’ products.

My husband and I started building our dream tiny apothecary in 2019 on this same land. Working off-grid in our solar powered studio, and with the rhythms of the seasons, our mission to make our brand even more sustainable came to fruition.

Now, our main focus is creating luxury skincare that is also sustainable. We just introduced our ethical makeup line in 2022 and it has been such a passion of love and play for me. Playing with color is helping to heal my inner child. My hope is that people can find in Stomping Ground, a brand they can trust in and feel comfortable putting on their skin and feel empowered expressing themselves all while knowing they are doing good for the planet.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn is it is okay to pivot, it is okay to fail, and it is okay to take a break. As small business owners, we are consistently told to hustle harder and to always put our businesses first. For the first six years of my business, I did just that. I ate, slept, and breathed my business. I am definitely glad I put so much into it to build a solid foundation, but I was also wearing myself out. In 2019, my father was dying and my husband and I moved home to help care for him. We uprooted everything in our home and completely moved not only our home, but also my studio. My space was cut down to a third of it’s size, and the family demands were so important, and so very hard. I was trying to juggle everything and burning out faster than I ever could’ve imagined. After my father passed, I finally gave myself permission to take a step back and closed my business, so I could heal. I felt like such a failure. I took a full 6 months away from my business before I came back. I was so afraid of starting over because I was worried everyone would think I was a fool for my decision. What I learned instead was, if you build a strong foundation, customer trust, and loyalty, people will welcome you back with open arms. I am in a better place than I could’ve imagined now. I know if I had not taken the time away to breathe and heal, my business would not be a success today.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for building clientele for me has been building a strong community. I have always had my online shop and do tons of social media, but have made it a point to get out in my community for farmers markets and pop-ups. Meeting people face to face and allowing them to try my products in person, ask questions, and listen to my story has been so important to gaining customer trust and retention. I look forward to traveling to events outside of my community next to get to meet even more folks and tell them my story in person.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.stompinggroundherbals.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/stompinggroundherbals
• Facebook: facebook.com/stompinggroundherbals
• Other: pinterest.com/stompinggroundherbals

Image Credits
Kelly Lyons Jennifer Liepis