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

Mandy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My main business, Drift Alchemy, began as a jewelry studio in the back of a camper. I was in love with metalsmithing and created a small brand while living on the road. When covid hit and traveling didn’t feel as safe, I moved my home on wheels to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A small local business, The Mustard Seed, encouraged me to use their loft as a small studio/shop space just as things were opening up again. I did this and Drift really began to evolve. Going from just jewelry, Drift began to become more of a wellness brand. From Journals and self care books, to tarot cards and crystals, we have something for anyone going through a healing journey. After Covid, that felt more important than ever, what a difficult time for us all.

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 was a huge skeptic to most things, except for a unusual moments I couldn’t explain when I was younger that I chose to forget about. As a child I was completely dreamy and lost in the magic of the world, but as I grew up I was taught that I needed to grow up, and that magic didn’t exist. I struggled with severe depression. Then I had my spiritual awakening that blasted me open. I was traveling a bit after my awakening which I was thankful for as I got used to opening myself up to my gifts and remembering how magical life is.

Wellness was something I fought tooth and nail against for most of my life. I ignored my emotions, I put them in a box to deal with another day. I was numb and empty, and had no idea who I was. As I was “waking up” and facing my emotions, I found some tools that helped me along the way. Those were the things I sold at Drift. Hoping some of the things that helped me, could help others heal. It gave me such a purpose to provide some tools to help others, more than I have experienced with anything else I have done in my life. Drift has expanded into a beautiful group of powerhouse women. I have 4 amazing women who work in Drift in some capacity, then I have 2 women who rent space from us to share their own business services.

Because I have such an incredible team at Drift I am able to pursue other side projects that really fuel me. I have a micro boutique inside another store called Moondance that I share with a few other amazing creatives. I am writing a couple books, working on an oracle deck, I also enjoy painting and have other fun creative outlets that come to me when the time is right. I am my best and most in my flow when I have multiple creative projects going.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This was something I was extremely mindful of as I opened Drift. I was doing something a bit different in our town which is a small market, and I was also a transplant. I wanted to be respectful of people and their beliefs while also encouraging them to think for themselves and find new ways to heal. Definitely a tricky place to be. I did all I could to show people who I was, that I was here to encourage healing and self love, nothing negative. There are many in our town who supported Drift and the healing journey, and they found us fairly early on. They are the reason we are still in business, SO SO grateful for our local regulars.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

When I found the new location for our shop, on the main street, the space had multiple rooms in the back. I knew this was to host other small businesses. As things moved and grew, a few incredible women approached me to share space with Drift. We rent one room to Sonic Moon Tattoos, Cas uses one of our rooms that just so happened to have a water hookup already in it. We love having a tattoo artist in our space. We also approached an incredible massage therapist who was doing massages out of her home, and asked her if she wanted to rent a space. So now we have the best massage therapist in town sharing space with us! Then we have an extra room that we house different healers that are locals or passing through. Lastly, we have a small space in our waiting room that we occasionally host pop-ups from other local artists and creatives.

Drift is a space of collaboration and community. We continue to evolve and grow, we are so in love with the journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.driftalchemy.shop
• Instagram: @driftalchemy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DriftAlchemy
• Other: TikTok
  https://www.tiktok.com/@driftalchemy

Image Credits

Mandy Fierens