Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mealyann Saing. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Mealyann , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
When I was 15 years old I was introduced to the ancient art of fortune telling that survived the Khmer Rouge Genocide. During this War, the Khmer Rouge killed doctors, teachers, political leaders, and anyone who was educated or tried to carry on the Cambodian traditions. Many people who were gifted or skilled had to hide their knowledge to survive.
I was lucky enough to learn this skill from my mother who passed away in 2016 who learned it from many skilled Fortune Tellers who survived this awful war.
Over the years, I’ve always read my friends and family for fun. I’ve practiced it and got better listening to my intuition, but I never really thought about making it a business. Whenever I went to see fortune tellers, they always asked for a donation instead of charging a fee because it was actually really taboo to create a business out of this psychic skill. I think it came from the fears of being found out during the war but many people also say it’s because God gave you a gift and you should serve out of kindness and grace instead of asking for money. In the past people also didn’t use money as a currency so they exchanged services with cattle or medicine or rice.
However, as this modern generation comes forward we don’t have this same belief anymore- that we can’t make money from our psychic services. It’s not as taboo as it use to be in western culture. Maybe in Asian culture it’s still a bit out of the ordinary but I see myself as a pioneer for the future. I break barriers so those after me can thrive.
God didn’t just give me this gift. Everyone has this gift. Everyone is intuitive. Everyone has the ability to listen to their “gut feeling” or intuition, which is really what fortune telling is all about.
I read playing cards as a form of tarot or divination or tool to communicate with my spirit guides, my ancestors or god. All I do is listen to the messages and relay them to my clients. I started charging instead of asking for donations when I got really good at my craft. I literally was able to predict things that happened within the month or even next few hours. I realized it’s okay to start a business doing this. I mean I really needed to make money at this point and this is something that I’m really good at, that I’m really passionate about, and I get to help so many people along the way. Plus many of my clients wanted to give money in exchange for my services because they really needed the help and guidance.
So, to change pace a little bit, during COVID, I started to buy and collect healing crystals to use during my readings and to use for chakra cleansing, energy healing, etc. I saw a significant change in my mental and spiritual health during this time & I got certified as a Reiki Master so I was able to do the services on other people. I started to offer more services in my business and I also ended up having WAY too many crystals. My husband was like, “babe you need to figure out what to do with them.”
This pushed me to start signing up for pop ups all over Atlanta. On my first day I made $500. For my first festival, I made $2000. I was like, “oh my god. This is amazing. I can actually make really good money from this.” Then, I started offering my fortune telling and reiki services at the pop ups and people LOVED it.
One day we were looking for a store to lease for my husband’s new sneaker buy sell trade business and there was a vacant spot in the same plaza that had soo much potential. My husband recommended me trying to open my crystal shop in there since packing, setting up, & hauling the crystals everywhere was a lot of work (& we had two toddlers at home that also needed a lot of attention). I thought that by opening a store, people can come to me and I can have an office set up in the back to watch the kids as well. Everything just made a lot of sense and when we put the numbers together we were able to get the lease for just under $1000 a month which is RARE in 2022!
So I did it. I took the chance and I signed the lease. We did the construction ourselves, painted and put in the floors, changed the lightbulbs, decorated, etc. We finished getting all the licenses, permits, inspections done and after a good 4-5 months- Moonstone Studios officially opened for business!
Mealyann , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Moonstone Studios focuses on exploration of the mind, body, and spirit. We are not just your local crystal shop. We dive deep into finding out new ways to help and heal our customers. Whether it be through life coaching, spiritual classes, or our unique products, our mission is to connect people with new ways to explore their own self-care and spiritual journey.
I started this business because I felt my own soul calling to master my craft in spirituality and my love for entrepreneurship… to somehow combine the two and make it my own. Through Moonstone, we have been able to help hundreds if not thousands of people take their own personal steps closer to explore their passions through spirituality. For many people, it’s through the metaphysical- like crystals, tarot, palm reading, etc that helps them find who they truly are at a soul level. Until they find that, they can finally take steps forward to living the life they want.
What I am proud of is that Moonstone takes it a step further. Not only do we offer the services to help you discover yourself or the crystals to elevate your life, but we offer that next step for you to master your own craft in spirituality through 1 on 1 classes or private coaching. Everything is also customized to fit your desires, needs, ad goals.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
This story is something really special to me and I hope it can encourage other entrepreneurs to listen to their heart.
Before I opened Moonstone, I owned a Bubble Tea shop called Oolong Bubble Teahouse. We were an anime inspired store that had all things anime- the decor was blasted with art pieces done by local artists, the drinks were named after characters, we played anime and kpop on TV. IT WAS A VIBE! I had this business for 2 years & during the second year unfortunately something changed inside me. I hated what I was doing. I hated everything about it. I woke up feeling uninspired, unhappy, & honestly like a total failure. My shop, although had so much potential to do better, was declining rapidly in sales. My employees were not getting along, equipment was continuously breaking and it was like problem after problem and no matter how many solutions I came up with, something else would happen.
I was sick, tired, burnt out, overworked and I felt like I wanted to give up. Some days it got so hard to continue that I just wanted to… you know… but i couldn’t. I had two kids, I had employees, I had people to take care of. I could not give up. I could not stop. My ego was shot. I built this business because my family had this expectation of me to do something big. I built it because I’ve said I wanted to own a business since I was 16. I was always an overachiever. I was always challenging myself to do better and better. But this time in my life was insanely difficult and draining. It was no joke. I felt like something was sucking all the life and love from my soul. I was literally drowning in debt. Drowning in problems. Drowning in unhappiness.
“I don’t want this business anymore. I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. I’m all alone. I can’t keep this up. I can’t keep going. I want to die. I need to sell. Sell? What am I crazy? What was going to happen if I let this business go? What would my family think? What will they say to me? What would my friends think? How would I think of myself? What would I do next? How would I make enough money to support my family? If we kept the business going, would I even make enough for my family? Would things get worse? What happens when I look back and wish I’ve done more? Have I hit that point yet? How much fight do I have left in me?”
All of these thoughts swarming my head. Trust me, I tried to dust myself off and go full throttle at least three more times that year. I tried to give it my all, push forward. Go, Go, Go. It didn’t work. I was still unhappy. Sales were still declining. I went into more debt. It got worse.
During this time I was going through major trauma healing and created a spiritual routine. Through this, I had my epiphany. This bubble tea shop was amazing and it served a purpose for my life at its time. But I am a new person, I have new goals. I am no longer aligned with that business and THAT’S OKAY. Who says you have to stick with one business, especially your first business, for the rest of your life? Who says that because your first business failed, you are a failure or your next one will fail? I had to heal and let go of so many limiting beliefs about myself through this entire process. I had to show myself so much love and kindness during this time. I thought it was the end of the world. I thought it was all over after I made the decision to sell. But I had to look at this situation from a wider and larger lense. I’m literally 26 years old. It is okay that I don’t want to do this business anymore. It’s okay that I want to do something else.
This entire experience was just a stepping stone into the next and new chapter of my life. I asked the universe to help me live in my highest and most abundant vibration. & HONEY, ask and you shall receive. After making the effort to find a broker and list my store, I was able to focus more on building the new life what I wanted for myself. I wanted to wake up everyday doing something that I loved. I wanted to start over. I wanted to embody my new self, my new beginning, my new found purpose in life. I wanted to create a new lifestyle for myself. One that includes things that are important to me like self care, healing, manifestation, crystals, yoga. A life that allowed me to spend time with my kids and create my own hours in a less demanding way.
I want other entrepreneurs to know that it’s okay if your first business or next business does not work out. You are not a failure. You are still talented. You are still skilled. You are still meant for something out there. What you need to next is search inward and find what the meaning of life is to you. Figure out what would you want to do everyday for the rest of your life if money was out of the picture.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Even now, having Moonstone Studios as the traditional brick and mortar style business for all my future spiritual business endeavours, I’ve realized there are so many ways to make money.
We can make money through our products or services, but we can also do subscriptions, classes, coaching. We can go to pop ups, art shows, festivals, events, trade shows, farmers markets. We can make money through our website or through the shopping sections of instagram and facebook. We can make money through content creation, making ads, sponsorships. The list goes on. There are SO many ways to make money, BUT I know going into this business and just coming out of a business where I overworked myself to burn out- I don’t NEED to do everything! I don’t need to sell through every avenue to be successful. I don’t need to offer all sorts of crystal products and tools. I don’t need to make a million dollars to be happy.
This is was my biggest pivot. I wanted to SIMPLIFY my life.
First, the biggest step was finding out what does success mean to me. What does that look like? What is the monetary number? How will it make me feel to achieve success? Success to me is to make double my expenses, in this case I estimated my costs to be around $5000 a month, therefore I want to make $10,000 a month. After I reach this goal I can make a new goal. What this means for me is financial freedom and security. It means being able to cover all my expenses, save, and spend freely.
Second, I needed to push myself NOT to do too much. Because I have all these ideas and goals I always end up overworking myself or taking on too much that I can’t handle. So I know that this time I only want to focus on simplicity. I know that I can make money from pop ups and selling in store, so I will stick to it. I know that I’m not so good at managing a website and email marketing, etc so that part of my business can wait. It’s important for me to excel at what I am already good at. Once I master this and create a flourishing system, I can move on to other things.
Third, I need to simplify my product and services. For Moonstone Studios, our crystal jewelry and unique statement pieces are what sells the best so becoming boutique style and being known for that is better then having all the generic tumbles, towers, and spheres you can think of and still not having as much as my competitors in the area.
It’s all about knowing what you want and cutting out everything else that’s unnecessary.
Contact Info:
- Website: moonstoneatl.square.site
- Instagram: instagram.com/@moonstone.atl
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mealyann-nita-saing-10b5077a?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6p8v1Vo9p_qI__TgaoyYQA
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/moonstone-studios-kennesaw-2?osq=moonstone+studios