We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Scalzo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.
Elizabeth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
Chaotic Crystal Chick Co. actually has a really funny backstory. I originally started my business under the name of Snatched Sis Creations, which came from my personal branding I created in college as a communications major. I was know as the Snatched Sis on all fronts such as my radio show, blog, Etsy, YouTube channel, professional Instagram, etc. When I got accepted to start vending at Lunar Faire, which is a bi-monthly witchy market in New Jersey happening on every New moon and Full moon, I started having my vending neighbors and friends who went to help me call me a chaos entity. Setting up for a vending event in just over an hour is enough to make anyone chaotic. I embraced the chaos though and ended up meeting tons of new people and making lots of friends. When the end of 2021 came I no longer Identified with the Snatched Sis branding I had started as a freshman in college. I decided to rebrand and in this I designed my own website and moved my shop off Etsy. I was talking to my friends not knowing what exactly I wanted to call my business, but knew the word chaos had to be involved because that is what I was known for when vending. My one friend said to me you really are just a chaotic crystal loving chick and should embrace that. From there the name Chaotic Crystal Chick Co. was born. This honestly showed me it’s never too late to rebrand and find an image for your company that feels better and more authentic, the new era truly made my business thrive both at markets and online.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
When starting my business I knew a few things were important to me, the first being no matter what I do I wanted to be as friendly to the earth as possible. I originally started my business in 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was a 19-year-old college student with a dream of making the world a more sustainable place, so I originally started off as an upcycled clothing brand. While this didn’t last long as I found myself interested in spirituality, crystals, and all things witchy and weird, I wanted to find a way to sustainably source crystals and bring them to people. During that time I did about 8 months of research on the crystal industry, the ethical problems of workers pay rates and the restorative work done to the mines and I eventually found myself in a network of family owned mines who could show me that everyone in their working environment received fair pay and that they actively worked to restore the area that the crystals are mined from. During this time of research I was also tapping into my psychic abilities and doing lots of practice with tarot readings to be able to help spiritually guide others. My metaphysical started small with crystals sourced from just three countries, but now we source from 30+ countries working with all family owned mines. We like to keep business small and try to stay as sustainable as possible. In our store we now provide a large variety of crystals in different shapes and sizes, I personally do spiritual advisement through tarot and mediumship readings, I also offer services like aura paintings. I come from a line of Celtic Pagan witches and with this I have been able to cultivate a number of intention based products to add magic into peoples every day lives. We carry items like body oils, room sprays, perfumes, mug rugs (used for aromatherapy), candles, and we do have crystal jewelry on and off in our shop. We are continuously expanding our shop as we just introduced subscription boxes for 2023 that are monthly and you can choose to receive things such as crystals, jewelry, or witchy self-care products. I also teach a number of classes with things like guided meditation, beginner tarot, and beginner spell work classes. All classes are held via Zoom meetings and are tools for beginners to tap into their spiritual side.
One of the main things that sets Chaotic Crystal Chick Co, apart from the rest is that as the owner I am happy to share advice and lessons I have learned on my spiritual journey. My brand is extremely personal and I always try to respond to those who reach out to me with questions or looking for recommendations within 48 hours. My business also was started at a very young age, I’m currently 22-years-old and have made this my full-time job. I try to make my products simple to use and easy for anyone to understand. Spirituality can be daunting and I want my customers and clients to feel that there is help available every step of the way.
Our focus on sustainable and ethical practices is one of the biggest things for us as a brand. We package everything in recyclable or compostable material for the most part. All of our bubble wrap is reused from wholesale packages we receive and we even have a program that if you can’t recycle the bubble wrap yourself and send it back to us we will do the recycling for you.
We are most proud of the community we have built. In 2023 we will be opening up a brick and mortar store and could not be more excited. It is our community of followers and all of the people that we meet at markets that have allowed for this dream to come true. Without our community our business would be nothing.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media is such a powerful tool. If there is one thing I learned from my professors in college it is that if you have content that is all your own, the people will come to you. There is power in creating meaningful content and sharing it with people. Starting out on social media is hard, I will be the first to tell you that algorithms can be hard to figure out. I was lucky enough to have a lot of experience in running social media for several clubs and organizations in college and being able to go through the trial and error of making meaningful content. My biggest social media platform is by far tiktok. The way I built up to over 5k followers in a year is through consistency. When I would fall off from making videos regularly it would show in my growth on the platform. This isn’t to say you need to post content 7 times a day on tiktok or only ever use trending sounds or post at exact times. All of these things can help, but you have to find a content flow that works for you as a creator and for your audience as viewers. Of course we all want to blow up over night, and when it happens it feels really good, but you can’t solely focus on making content that you hope blows up. That is when you will start to feel resentment towards the content you are making. Social media is meant to be fun and making content should be fun, even though it is a lot of work. My best piece of advice is to start series on your tiktok account. Don’t only post videos showing your products, people like to see the process of your company. They like to feel the humanization of the person behind the brand. As far as other social media platforms go like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. You have to post content that initially catches the eye, but also keeps the person there because they want to know more. One of the things I share on Instagram is motivational quotes. This gives a reason for your followers to keep coming back and to want to share your content. Share the fun parts of your business, but don’t be afraid to share the hard parts of your business too. At the end of the day there is not right or wrong way to post on social media. The important things is to remember to make content that makes you proud, your people will find it as long as you stay consistent.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Owning a business is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing I have ever done. The hardest thing I had to unlearn is the feeling like you are falling behind compared to others. This lesson doesn’t just go for business, but all things in life. While social media is a wonderful place it can also be a saddening place. When you constantly see people who have their business blowing up you often ask why that isn’t you. I have had to rewire my brain on how I react to posts like this. Your business isn’t on a timeline, like anything in life, you will build and grow at the rate that is meant for you at the time. I am so thankful for the loyalty of my community that I have grown organically. When you start a business there is a pressure to make it big and to be getting 100s of orders. In my first year of business I only totaled 30 online orders. I felt like I was falling behind compared to others who started a business at the same time as me and were getting 30+ orders in a day. You have to remind yourself that you are your biggest critique. Nobody else is sitting around talking about the fact you only had 30 orders in your first year. The majority of people are going to say that it’s crazy you started the business all on your own and have already shipped to 15 different states. Its a beautiful place when you realize you don’t have to fit into any specific timeline because this is your life and your business and as long as you keep pushing things will grow, even if it is slow and steady.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chaoticcrystalchickco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaoticcrystalchickco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Chaotic-Crystal-Chick-Co/100087831880849/
- Linkedin: n/a
- Twitter: n/a
- Youtube: n/a
- Yelp: n/a
- Other: tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chaoticcrystalchick?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc