At times I wish when people asked me all the ways over my life I have used crystals I had a better answer. The truth is I wasn't the child carrying stones in my pocket, or having chakra alignments at a woo woo aunt's house. I wasn't even a teenager doing that. The one thing I did have was a belief in nature's healing abilities, vibrational healing & color therapy so I guess I was 1/10th of the way there... but by no means were my pockets filled with anything other than chocolate bar wrappers before my love for crystals developed.
Over the last years of establishing my reputation for quality sourcing, depth of knowledge & absolute hunger for responsible crystal sourcing I have has a sort of loud voice I guess you could say constantly in my ear, or be upfront asked!
"Who are you to think you can sell crystals"
I didn't have libraries full of crystal books, I wasn't a gemmologist or a geologist, and I had many other sellers in my dm's trying to second guess me in this industry and throw me off. I've often felt reminded of all that I didn't have and like I needed some lightbulb experience with crystals where they helped me win the lotto or kept away a scorned ex from my energy... but that's not my story.
I fell into this industry as the truth, the actual truth. I fell into an incredible, vast, challenging, opinionated, magical industry at a time I didn't even know I needed it. A time it made no sense in my life to do. I fell into it without a house full of the very crystals I sought to find and in hindsight, I think that made me more curious, more skeptical, and hungrier to learn from as many sources as I could than if I had gone in thinking I was already an expert.
I'm gonna be real, on top of not being a crystal expert I didn't even know how to run a business, let alone build one from the bottom of the world in a remote location and nothing but a cellphone.
So here I was about as vulnerable as you could get going blindly into an industry without experience or knowledge with $300 and a naivety that I can only laugh at now.
Here is the thing about crystals though, crystals find you, they find you at times you don't even know you need them. I didn't know that they would change my life back then but what I can say is that they brought out a curiosity and presence in me that I can't quite describe. I went from being a counselor who trusted energy, believed in intentions, worked with my intuition, and empowered clients to trust their inner knowing to holding the very physical version of everything I believed in provided by nature in a matter of a few short weeks of Mum stocking them in her flower shop.
I guess you could say my drive was having an urgency in a short space of time after getting my first crystals, the urgency was to ensure that the pieces I held had been sourced properly and with care and intention. I looked around and thought I don't know who I trust to bring these crystals to me. Then with each new curious question I had about crystals, I kept coming back to not knowing who to trust and feeling overwhelmed but curious, so I decided I needed to be the business I couldn't find and work as hard as I possibly could until I could come up for air knowing I gave it my all.
With that came what could only be described as thousands of hours starting from square one sourcing (a few key connections helped immensely), thousands of hours diving into learning as much as I could about these incredible pieces, and then what felt like tens of thousands of hours (exaggerations) making every mistake known to man and enjoying every win that came my way to grow my business from zero.
And with every crystal I discovered, my passion and love for them grew. I was dealing daily with pieces that were so incredible at a depth that I believe we all need to realize. Crystals aren't just about a piece of rose quartz for your heart Crystals are the clusters that grow on the highest mountain ranges in the world in the harshest conditions, they are the gemstones that cultures have used since the beginning of time, and the pieces that adorn religious ceremony, they are the science, the earth, the minerals, the stories and the physical representation of time. Crystals are energy, they are intention, they are symbolic gifts and treasures. They are people's livelihoods and works of art (they are even used in art!).
Maybe the biggest thing for me among all of this is that crystals are stories, and I LOVE stories (pretty soul stories!). Crystals are stories of history, creation, physical use, mining, polishing, developing the modern world, and above all the journeys they have been on. Crystals are stories of what they bring to someone's life and how they are used and of the moments in time they came into your life. It is their stories that humble me.
They are more than I ever would have realized had I only known them as something bouncing around in my pockets as a child.
So while I have built a business (of wonderful clients who trust me yay!) and pathed my way into an overwhelming industry from zero feeling like I wasn't worthy enough of being a crystal seller like I wasn't equipped enough or knowledgeable enough I realize now that had I not harnessed my curiosity, the passion for ethics, my desire for knowledge and become who I needed then I would never have connected thousands of amazing people with the pieces they now have, having the stories I was able to share with them about their pieces, I wouldn't have been able to help provide fair incomes to suppliers all over the world and I wouldn't have realized the power of curiosity, naivety and a fierce determination to never stay too long worrying about what you aren't in life
xx