We recently connected with Shannon Mulligan-Mayernik and have shared our conversation below.

Shannon, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

Before starting Mayernik Kitchen, I worked for a higher-ed publishing company in their Customer Service department for 12 years. It was my first job out of college and while it was NOTHING I went to school for, it became a comfortable situation and it took me 12 years to realize that was NOT what I wanted for myself. One of the best things to come out that job though was the customer service skills I learned when dealing with clients. I was forced to go above and beyond on a daily basis and it is now instilled in me to always offer the best customer service I could provide.

Now that I own my own business, I see how important it really is. It’s not always about “the customer is always right”, but it’s about listening to the situation and deciding what works best for both sides. I see how well people respond to this. I also see that being a few steps ahead of the situation also helps diffuse any larger issues in the future.

We have full transparency with our customers and for that, they know, like, and respect us and our products. We offer solutions when they need one and will try to work with them, not against them.

I will forever be grateful for the 12 years of learning I had in that customer service position as it has made me the business owner I am today!

Shannon, 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?

My first job when I was 15 was at a local garden center and my job was in the greenhouse. I absolutely loved it. When I left there for college and to go into the corporate world years later, I always said I’d love to work in a greenhouse again. Well, in 2018, that dream came true.

I had been working the 9-5 grind for quiet a few years when a co-worker of mine invited me to a herbal class at a local apothecary in NY State. I had never worked with plant medicine before but a night out with a friend was something I’d never pass up. It was at that class, taught by my now friend and mentor, Robin Rose Bennett where I fell in love with plant medicine. Yes, it took just one class and I was hooked. I started reading books, taking classes and eventually starting a business based on the idea that plants can be medicine and I wanted to share that with everyone.

In 2015, Mayernik Kitchen LLC was started and I am proud to say, we just celebrated 7 years in business. It was a slow transition while my husband, Matt and I worked out exactly what we wanted to do with the business. We’ve had plenty of failures and many successes and in 2018, I left my corporate job and started a new, part time job at a local farm, working in the greenhouses, where I was then able to give a lot more time and energy to Mayernik Kitchen. Talk about full circle. Not only did I get myself back into the greenhouse, I was building my very own business.

Mayernik Kitchen is an herbal apothecary, located in Pompton Plains, NJ. We offer a wide range of plant medicines from herbs we grow on our herb farm located in Sussex County, NJ. We grow over 60+ medicinal herbs, forage for those we don’t grow and support other organic farms around the world for plants that don’t grow here in NJ.

A few of the plant medicines we create include, Elderberry Syrup, Fire Tonic, tinctures, salves, hydrosols, flower essences, teas, and much more. We also offer classes and workshops for those who want to learn about plant medicine.

Not only do we teach about plant medicine and the benefits of including herbalism into your everyday life, we also love to teach about growing, harvesting and preserving the herbs you may be growing. We offer a 10-month herbal apprenticeship which takes you from seed to harvest and then preparation. This 10-month program is for anyone interested in growing herbs, at any capacity. Our 2024 waitlist is now available to sign up for!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

When we first started Mayernik Kitchen in 2015, it was strictly online. We sold nationwide and that is how we started growing our business. We were working out of our home and then were bouncing from commercial kitchen to commercial kitchen when it all became way too much to handle. We knew we had to make a change.

In 2019, we started looking at commercial kitchen spaces to move our production to one, permanent spot. We found a place we LOVED in January 2020 and were about to sign a lease in March 2020 and then the world shut down. Surprise, surprise, we didn’t sign a lease!

After months of closed town municipalities and delays on building materials, we finally signed a lease in July 2020, and started construction on our very first commercial kitchen + retail spot. We opened our doors to our new shop in December 2020 and have been thriving every since.

Many folks start a business the opposite way, first a retail or brick and mortar and then get into the online space. Not us! Matt, my husband and business partner owns a digital agency so from day one, he build out a custom e-commerce site and we’ve been using it ever since. The ability to create whatever we want on our site is hands down one of the biggest advantages we have. It was a blessing to have our website during the pandemic as many other small businesses were struggling to get themselves online to provide for their customers. We are forever grateful on how we started our business back in 2015, no one knew how valuable it would be just 5 years later.

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

Ahhh social media. What a love/hate relationship we have!

Social Media has always been a huge part of our business. It’s a way to connect and share and get our information out into the world. But we all know, we don’t own our social media platforms. If I had to choose just one platform, it would have to be Instagram. I love the platform and the way we are able to connect via DM with folks all over the world. Instagram has been the best social media platform for us, and has grown significantly over the years.

We post consistently, share valuable information and connect with people. We chat and have conversations. We don’t post and ghost like I see some accounts do. I want to foster those relationships as much as I can so I can provide knowledge and wealth to someone else’s life.

Instagram has also introduced me so to many small business owners that I now consider friends, even if we may have not met in person. It’s a way to share business ideas, learn new tools and ideas and personally connect with others going through the same highs and lows as we are.

I will say though, the absolute one thing I will never dismiss is the importance of having your own email list. We have grown ours to over 4000 people (we’d love it if you joined our newsletter) and find it to be the absolute best way to share information with folks who are 100% infested in our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mayernikkitchen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayernikkitchen
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/mayernikkitchen

Image Credits
Laura Lee Photography Sara Fitz Co.