We recently connected with Dr. Cristy Lopez and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Cristy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I have had a long successful career as a psychologist and high-performance coach. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs to help them thrive without the high cost of their physical or mental health, or relationships. My husband is a dinosaur paleontologist and shared that he had always thought about starting a dinosaur business. I encouraged him to do so. At that time, museums were closing for an extended period of time because of Covid. Since people were no longer able to physically go to the museum to see and learn about dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, we then decided to “bring the museum” home by selling museum-quality casts of dinosaur teeth, claws, skulls, and more to the public! Thus, Fossil Crates was born. Now, dinosaur fans of all ages are able to own the exact same items that are found in museums around the world. Customers can buy crates with sets of casts of the original material such as our Ultimate Tyrannosaurus rex Crate that contains casts of three different kinds of T. rex teeth along with a hand claw. Exclusive paleoart and up-to-date information sheets written by actual paleontologists on the featured creatures accompany the casts. Customers can also buy individual casts, scaled and life-size skulls, and a variety of dinosaur merchandise.

Fossil Crates also offers Paleo Portals, an online membership where my husband hosts two Zoom meetings a month with guests in the paleontology field. Members are able to learn about both the history of and current state of paleontology from actual paleontologists. Further, because they are able to interact live, members are able to ask questions and make connections with those in the field. Paleo Portals members can also access a library of over 50 videos on all things paleontology.

Now, that museums are back up and running and operating under even tougher conditions post-Covid, we are ramping up our Museum as a Service (MaaS) offerings which include small-sized exhibits with technological components such as augmented reality as well as professional services such as marketing to help museums better serve the community.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have had a long successful career as a psychologist and high-performance coach. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs to help them thrive without the high cost of their physical or mental health, or relationships. My husband is a dinosaur paleontologist and shared that he had always thought about starting a dinosaur business. I encouraged him to do so and we began Fossil Crates providing museum-quality casts of dinosaur teeth, claws, skulls, and more to the public! Now, dinosaur fans of all ages are able to own the exact same items that are found in museums around the world. Customers can buy crates with sets of casts of the original material such as our Ultimate Tyrannosaurus rex Crate that contains casts of three different kinds of T. rex teeth along with a hand claw. Exclusive paleoart and up-to-date information sheets written by actual paleontologists on the featured creatures accompany the casts. Customers can also buy individual casts, scaled and life-size skulls, and a variety of dinosaur merchandise.

Fossil Crates also offers Paleo Portals, an online membership where my husband hosts two Zoom meetings a month with guests in the paleontology field. Members are able to learn about both the history of and current state of paleontology from actual paleontologists. Further, because they are able to interact live, members are able to ask questions and make connections with those in the field. Paleo Portals members can also access a library of over 50 videos on all things paleontology.

I am proud to be able to help inspire youth to follow their dreams of pursuing a career in paleontology and/or science. We have already been able to help members of our Paleo Portals subscription service to secure volunteer and paid positions at museums, internships, and admission to programs to further their studies in paleontology.
We also have a line of business we call MaaS (Museum as a Service). Maas offerings include small-sized exhibits with technological components such as augmented reality as well as professional services such as marketing to help museums better serve the community.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In early 2020, my dinosaur paleontologist soon-to-be husband and I began to plan a business together called MaaS (Museum as a Service) just before we left for New Zealand to get married and travel in early 2020. Our travels were abruptly cut short when our return flight home was canceled and we were told to call the airline immediately. They answered right away and informed us that we had one day to make it from Tasmania back to Sydney to make the last flight out to the U.S. because of something called Covid.

In addition to returning home to a strange new reality where there were long lines to enter Costco and it was impossible to find toilet paper, we discovered that all the museums were closing for an extended period of time. Because people were no longer able to physically go to the museum to see and learn about dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, we then decided to “bring the museum home” by selling museum-quality casts of dinosaur teeth, claws, skulls, and more to the public! Thus, Fossil Crates was born. Now, dinosaur fans of all ages are able to own the exact same items that are found in museums around the world. Customers can buy crates with sets of casts of the original material such as our Ultimate Tyrannosaurus rex Crate that contains casts of three different kinds of T. rex teeth along with a hand claw. Exclusive paleoart and up-to-date information sheets written by actual paleontologists on the featured creatures accompany the casts. Customers can also buy individual casts, scaled and life-size skulls, and a variety of dinosaur merchandise.

Fossil Crates also offers Paleo Portals, an online membership where my husband hosts two Zoom meetings a month with guests in the paleontology field. Members are able to learn about both the history of and current state of paleontology from actual paleontologists. Further, because they are able to interact live, members are able to ask questions and make connections with those in the field. Paleo Portals members can also access a library of over 50 videos on all things paleontology.

Now, that museums are back up and running and operating under even tougher conditions post-Covid, we are ramping up our original MaaS offerings which include small-sized exhibits with technological components such as augmented reality as well as professional services such as marketing to help museums better serve the community.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I had experience with growing a social media following for my psychologist/ coaching business. My husband, however, had no experience with social media and was highly reluctant to engage in this part of the business. Once I convinced him that it would not only help our business, Fossil Crates, but that it also was a way for him to educate the mass public on dinosaurs and other paleontological topics which was quite a service given all the misinformation out there, we began posting daily on Instagram and Facebook. Thankfully, the two platforms are linked.

My husband made Instagram posts that maxed the character limit almost every time with the amount of scientifically accurate information he provided related to a compelling photo(s). He then would engage with our audience answering questions and providing even further information such as links to the scientific literature.

Within 1.5 years we amassed a pretty sizable following, surpassing many similar accounts that had been posting for years. I believe it was the quality of the content, photos, and engagement coupled with the daily consistency that led to our social media success.

We have dabbled a bit with the other social media platforms, but feel it is best to focus on a couple of platforms given the large amount of time needed to post consistent quality content.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.FossilCrates.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fossilcrates/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FossilCratesDrBC
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Fossilcrates
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/FossilCrates
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/FossilCrates

Image Credits
Brian Curtice, PhD