We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeffrey Mankin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeffrey below.

Jeffrey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’m an old rockhound and Deadhead who was stuck in corporate America. I had a nice career, but it had long outlived its natural lifetime. I was miserable in the corporate world, miserable enough to take crazy chances on my core beliefs.

I had been spiritual but not in a formal way. It was, however, calling to me in many ways. I was starting to understand that it could affect my life with certain holistic practices. At this time my 20-year career in technology sales was ending and very certainly manifesting in a more holistic approach to life and career.

Recently I rediscovered an old childhood passion, rocks, and crystals. Something my parents instilled in me at a young age and I was fascinated by their beauty. I had found some old geodes from my parents in their garden after their passing. In came rushing back in that old love of rocks and crystals.

I was watching people sell crystals on social media. I was in need of a career change so 3 months before my looming unknown layoff I started High Ho Gems and Crystals.

Here comes the layoff! A solid six figure job offer in hand with Microsoft I headed out to my first crystal vending opportunity. I put Microsoft off for the weekend and I went to vend for a few thousand hippies at a place that was truly heavenly in a forest 7 hours away in KY. My experience was so amazing I turned down that Microsoft offer.

Now 9 years later I am a Reiki teacher with over 100 students and a growing Reiki practice. We have a beautiful crystal store and the most amazing customers on the planet. High Ho Gems continues to aid in the healing for a community of likeminded humans.

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?

My name is Jeffrey Mankin, I am a rockhound, a Reiki Master Teacher and a small business owner. As a young boy my parents introduced me to the wonders of the rock and mineral world. Although moving away from this love for many years, finding old Geodes I had collected as a child brought this love back about 15 years ago.

I have owned companies previously, but they were work, my business High Ho Gems, Inc. has become more than just our business. Based around our holistic, hippy, crunchy, crazy lifestyle we have turned my love of rocks, crystals, and energy healing into a healing and educational center.

We sell crystals that are used for many purposes depending on the lifestyle and needs of our customers. We offer instruction on meditation, chakra management and healing, Reiki healing sessions as well as education and certification.

We have many healing events around our Reiki practice. We also hold drum circles, sound washes, gong sessions among other forms of holistic healing that provide healing at a very deep level. Healing is not just about your physical body. You need emotional, mental and spiritual healing as well. We show our customers how to best manage their Life Force Energy or their Qi so they can obtain good health in all areas of their lives.

Customers come to us to help in a non-medical setting. We offer recommendations, not diagnosis. Our customers understand best what issues they face, we help with tools to assist in their healing. Every person is different, each will have different needs as well as their personal path to their healing. We can assist our customers to tailor a plan for their greater good.

I love crystals, they help me in so many areas of my life. I will bring amazing, beautiful energetic healing crystals to my customers for the rest of my life, and I know this. Reiki is what brought me here though.

Our Reiki education practice is what I am most proud of. I started my Reiki Education in 2014, after several years of practice and education I received my master teacher in fall 2017. Teaching Reiki makes me whole. One of my greatest joys is to teach someone Reiki and offering them initiation. Reiki is not mine; Reiki is from the universe; I am only a tool that passes Reiki person to person. Watching someone change for the better, their personal vibration rising as they open their heart to a more beneficial lifestyle. Watching with joy as their life gets better and better as they learn to let go of what no longer serves them. I have over 100 students and teach monthly. It’s one of my greatest accomplishments.

I invite you to come heal with us, let’s raise our personal vibrations and manifest for our best life.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I would think every small business owner has a pivot story about the Covid Quarantine nightmare.

I got lucky, as I lived inside my small business. I lived in a separate area or back of my store. My commute was incredibly short lol.

March 29th, 2020, we went into quarantine, and I locked my doors as did most small businesses. I currently had no cash register, I wrote every sale in a receipt book, I felt this gave more dedicated individualized service to my customers. I was truly a small business, with one part time employee and my little dog Ruby. 

In a 24-hour period prior to lockdown I bought an iPad, moved my business to online to Shopify and started to process orders online. I would send electronic shopping carts to my customers via email where they would process their order for payment.

From March 30th through the lockdown, I helped customers by FaceTime where they would get a live video tour of inside so they could purchase what they needed. The customers did a porch pickup from my back door privately. They never saw me nor anyone else.

My customers felt my business was essential. They utilized our tools, classes and services in a holistic manner for their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and healing.

I received no federal assistance as I was a sole proprietor, not a corporation that would receive federal assistance. I survived by figuring out how to make sure my customers still had access to the tools they needed for their healing. 

Before we were even out of lockdown, I was doing live feeds from my crystal room, nightly Reiki Share (passing long distance healing to a large group or individual whether in person or from a distance) as well as teaching Reiki and crystal classes online including initiations.

Everything happens for a reason, by mid-2021 my business growth year over year was around 400%

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Yes, this was my side hustle. I opened this business while I was a technology salesperson full time.

I was laid off after 22 years in my industry, I had wanted out for years because of corruption and dishonest shady people. I was stuck working for and with companies that I didn’t feel good about how they operated.

I was laid off after my business was 3 months old. I then was offered a six-figure corporate position working in sales for Microsoft. As I told the recruiter who offered me the position one Friday afternoon.

I’ll let you know Tuesday; I’m going to KY to sell rocks to hippies. That weekend I had such a wonderful experience I realized I could never return to corporate America. I sold a thousand dollars in crystals, made amazing friends, enjoyed amazing music for three days, lived in a tent in a forest with 3000 other music lovers and felt at home.

Obviously, I didn’t take the Microsoft position. 9 years later and here we are. I’ve been located in 3 different retail locations, but this last location is by far the best and strongest. We have set up a booth to sell crystals at probably 50 festivals and have had well over 15000 customers in our 9 years. I have over 100 Reiki students in all levels, and we’ve been able to help so many with direction to their own healing.

Most important is our customers, they keep the fire in me to build High Ho Gems. It is my honor that High Ho Gems is their healing center!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.highhogems.com
• Instagram: Highhogems
• Facebook: Facebook.com/highho