We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maxine Bishko a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maxine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

It didn’t take me long to come up with the name Lattice Gems. Having an innate thirst for knowledge, I found myself wondering at the time, “How are crystals formed?” While there are many ways crystals are formed, I knew that it all came down to atoms and molecules. A crystal lattice is defined as the geometrical arrangement of the atoms, ions, or molecules of the crystalline solid as points in space. While I have always had a scientific fascination with crystals, I also believed in their spiritual healing energies.

I wanted my company’s name to reflect a timeless, classic representation of crystals. And a lattice is something in every single crystal – it is what makes it what it is. A crystal lattice is not only explained scientifically with atoms but metaphysically, a crystal’s healing energy can be amplified by growth, fractures, or inclusions within its lattice.

Hence, Lattice Gems was born.

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?

I moved halfway across the world from Singapore to Hawaii in the midst of the Covid pandemic back in 2020, building a community of women through the love of crystals, empowerment, and self-love. Currently, I am residing along the Crystal Coast (how apt!). I single-handedly nurtured and grew my community by personally curating and connecting crystals of the highest quality to women all around the world. In a time when the world has been shaken and mental health has been suffering, I have created quirky and fun stories for every single one of my crystals in the way I perceive them, to foster empowerment and positivity within my community.

I started on Instagram @latticegems, and it quickly grew. Then I built my own website by myself as I wanted to streamline certain manual processes. As a result, I am now able to grow a VIP community via the website with a mailing list, while also running feed sales and the occasional live sale on Instagram. My customers can shop anytime and checkout 24/7!

I am proud to say that my crystals are truly a reflection of me. I handpick each and every one of them myself, and if I would not buy it, I would not stock it. When you purchase a crystal from my store, a story would have been created for it, no matter how whimsical. Each crystal has a character, and you would inherit its “personality” as well.

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

I think at first, it was all the quirky and fun stories I would give to my crystals when I first started posting them on Instagram. People would DM me or comment on Lattice Gems’ Instagram that they were looking forward to reading my captions because it invoked a feeling within them. It could be happiness, humor, or something that they connected with. Some have likened my posts to “bedtime stories” or “a feed of little stories”.

I also put a lot of effort into communicating with my customers, many times one-to-one, especially if they are new to my store. I let them know about all my store policies – from holding multiple crystal purchases so they can accumulate free shipping, to payment plans and shipping times – so that they feel comfortable. I know how scary it can be for new purchases especially if it is online. I ship the next day as well so that customers can quickly get their happy mail!

These ways of communication, fast shipping and quick replies help foster trust, and in turn, I believe built my reputation in the market with many regulars.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Brand loyalty is something I feel is important, but is something a lot of businesses fail to foster. As a consumer myself, it is so easy to switch brands just like that. For me, I am in a market where there are new crystal stores going online every single day. However, my key is to be consistent. As I mentioned, I communicate with my customers on Instagram very frequently, and I am now building a mailing list for VIPs so they can enjoy exclusive offers and deals first.

I do feed sales on Instagram almost daily, so customers will always see one of my posts on Instagram. I go behind the scenes in my daily life to show things I am doing that are unrelated to what I am selling. Sometimes, personality goes a long way as well!

And of course, to consistently keep my quality of crystals and gemstones high, because essentially that is key.

Contact Info:

• Website: latticegems.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/latticegems
• Facebook: facebook.com/latticegemsatelier