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

Marlene , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

In my line of work, for those that may not know, we have a thing call entities, or spirits, these said things tend to inhabit ones’ home at times, and that’s where I come into the picture! My job as a beginner curandera is to not only heal the body, but also help heal the home. A couple of months back, I had a client who called me needing my services because she had recently moved into a new home and there had been some really weird things happening. The day came when it was time to do a house limpia, I gathered my things, knocked on the door and next thing I know its 3 hours later. I was able to help this mother and her children by clearing out there and protecting it from any future spiritual attacks of any kind. The children are able to sleep better, and not only did I cleanse the home and blessed it, but I equipped the mother with the necessary tools and instructions on how to cleanse her own home on the regular! She has been a repeat clients since last year and it’s one of those things that unless you’ve gone through it, or known someone that has gone through it, is very hard to believe at times but here I am! I followed up with her a couple months ago and she let me know everything was still going great, the children were sleeping well, she was sleeping well, their appetites came back and everything is back to normal!

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?

Hola! My name is Lene(Leh-Neh), owner and divination practitioner of BrujaTalks Botánica! I have officially been in business since 2019 and legalized my business in 2021. I own an indigenous spiritual store where I carry an array of different spiritual tools, candles, sprays, bath soaks, baños, crystals, herbs & more! Aside from the botánica products, I am a divination worker, which means I read tarot, oracles, can channel spirits and am therefore considered a medium as well. How I got here really was the work of the universe only.

The pandemic really pushed me to start my business on a bigger scale than what I was doing previously with the help of my fiancé and a good support system. When I first started, I wasn’t selling my products I was solely reading tarot for people on the internet and in person but as time went buy I kept being pulled to sell my candles, and other products I would make for myself or close friends.

My practice is heavily based on curanderismo and brujeria, and although these are still very much taboo in society, the pandemic really pushed a lot of people to look outside of themselves for hope in different ways. My practices are closed but I am always willing to share what I can within reason, I offer an array of different candle work and spell work, house limpias(cleanses & blessings), and I like to consider myself a more modern curandera and bruja than what a lot of people are used to. I mix a lot of the old school with my own twists and that is what makes me and my botánica what we are today!

What I do runs on both sides of my family, and its something i’m extremely proud of, because it literally runs in my family back to so many generations I can’t even count. Now in 2022, my business has grown and evolved in a beautiful way, I have clients and customers i’m able to help in many different parts of the world ranging from the west coast to people in Chile and Brazil, Spain and Canada.

I think more than anything what sets me apart from a lot of other people that are in my industry is that i’m able to curate a special authentic relationship with a lot of my clients regardless of where they are in the world all thanks to the internet which has played a huge part in my growth and success. People are always surprised when they see I am exactly the same in person as I am online, which means a lot in our industry today.

My clients can attest to the fact that, people come to me, not because of my aesthetics or my knowledge, but because I always speak the truth into their life, even if they don’t want to hear it. My job as a healer is to always lead you to the truth, which most of the times, is in you already.

I am only online right now for the time being, but I hope to open up a store front Winter 2022 if not for sure in 2023 if the universe allows it!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Many people don’t really know my story, but I am a childhood SA survivor, and on top of my PTSD and all the other problems that came from that, I am also neurodivergent and an indigenous woman of color. The odds have never really been on my side, my family grew up poor, we were migrant farmers for a portion of my childhood, lived on welfare, and relied on school lunches to eat 3 meals a day for the most part. I got my first job at 14 to help take care of myself and my necessities and to help my household. I haven’t really had an easy life since a young child but I never let that define who I would become as an adult. I believe that everyone can choose who and what they become, regardless of their upbringing, and that’s exactly what I have done my whole adulthood. I worked very hard, sometimes working 3/4 jobs at a time on top of being a full time student and all I knew, is once I was able to do what I really wanted to, it would all be worth it.

I have fought many odds in my life, being homeless for a couple months after college, dropping out of school a year before getting my BA, but everything has led me to today. I left my real estate job the week of my birthday in February 2022, and since then, I’ve been working on my botánica full time! I had no choice but to be resilient, and now I don’t have to anymore, I am no longer surviving, I am no thriving thanks to the universe, and my hardwork.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Well, to be completely honest, I have the bigger audience and following on twitter, than any of my other socials! I know many people are not on twitter but that is where I found the most success because it allowed me to just be me. I was able to share what I wanted, as little or as much as I wanted, but I found that people really loved my aesthetics and what I was doing with my botanica and they wanted more! I started my business on my personal accounts, but as my business grew I knew I had to separate the both and now I don’t even use my personal accounts! What has helped me is visuals, people love good pictures, videos, things that are informational but also look pretty to the eye.

Another tip, just be yourself, I promise, the right people for YOU, will always gravitate towards you, once you begin operating from a place of honoring who YOU really are. You choose how much or how little you share, the control is in your hand, find one thing to focus on for the month or the week and write about it, or make videos about it. For example, what helped my account grow a lot on twitter was two specific threads I had about egg cleanses and how to do them and interpret them. I got over 3.49 Million impressions, 70k engagements, and so many followers just from TWO threads. From then, I have had a lot of success when I post informational spiritual threads or do videos of limpias and some of my curanderismo practices.

My biggest advice is in the beginning try as many socials as you’d like, expand as much as possible, but when you find that one or two platforms that really get you some engagement, start pouring more into them. Schedule content when possible, and engage with those that respond and engage with you! Engagement, brings more engagement, shares, likes and follows. Be yourself, and let that shine more than anything, talk about your why, how to use your products and such, I also find this attracts a lot of new customers!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brujatalksbotanica.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/brujatalksbotanica
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrujaTalks
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrujaTalksTarot?s=21
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brujatalksbotanica

Image Credits
MatchMade Photography and BrujaTalks Botanica