Hidden Gems: Meet Matt Terry of Leaping Goat Soap

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Terry.

Hi Matt, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As someone who grew up in a medium sized, working class market town in the UK – the thought of looking after goats and running a goat milk soap business would have been the most bizarre prospect, but I’m so happy to be here.

I moved to Thailand in 2014 and met my now wife Sam, who lived and grew up on the farm in Watkinsville where we run Leaping Goat Soap. Once we returned from Thailand and dating long distance, whenever I came to visit – I would help out as much as I could with the goats and the soap business, from learning to milk, caring for the kids and just wrapping bars of soap. Mandy, my mother in law, started making soap on a small scale in 2013 as a way to use up excess milk from her goats.

My wife and I moved again, this time spending 3 years in Vietnam and the business had been slowly growing.

The intention was always to return to the farm and take on the soap business, make it a sustainable income and continue its growth. .

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t always been smooth, but I don’t feel that there have necessarily been huge struggles. As a family business, everyone has an equal voice, everyone has an equal stake and its important to separate the business side from the family time.

As a business that generates a lot of revenue from farmers markets and festivals, we now seem to have found the one’s that work for us. This doesn’t happen overnight and can take years of slepping soap, tents and tables around for not much return.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Leaping Goat Soap?
We are an all natural, handmade cold process goat milk soap & shampoo company based from our family farm in Watkinsville, GA. The goat milk we put into our bars is from our herd of Nubian goats of which we milk daily on our farm and we only use local honey from the Northeast Georgia area. Additionally, our loofah soap bars are made with our farm grown loofahs. All of our base oils are ethically sourced and we use phthalate and paraben free fragrance and essential oils to scent our soaps. Each handcrafted bar cures for at least 28 days to ensure a longer lasting, more nourishing and luxurious bar. We use minimal to zero packaging for our soaps and shampoos.

Our brand is very much our family story. We love to tell it and we love for people to come out to the farm and see the whole operation for themselves.

We try and keep costs down as much as possible as we want our soap to be the people’s everyday soap bar.

How do you think about happiness?
My family, my friends, seeing other people happy, experiencing new cultures and foods. The sense of pride I get when people enjoy using something I have made for them.

Pricing:

• Goat Milk Soap Bar $6.00
• Goat Milk Soap Bar w/salt, charcoal or clay $7.00
• Goat Milk Shampoo Bar $8.50

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.leapinggoatsoap.us
• Instagram: @leapinggoatsoap
• Facebook: @LLAcres
• Other: @leapinggoatsoap (TikTok)