Conversations with Elizabeth Scalzo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Scalzo.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Chaotic Crystal Chick Co. was started in 2020 when I was just 19 years old. The pandemic hit and I lost my job that was through my university. Because of health issues, getting a job that was considered essential work wasn’t an option for me. This gave being a broke college student a whole new meaning to me and I needed to find a way to make money, so I started my business. I sold only online for the first full year and started doing vendor events in September of 2021, while I was in my senior year of college.

Through social media and vending opportunities, I grew a large returning customer base quite quickly. When it came time for me to graduate from college in May of 2022 the job market was bleak and while I could’ve started working full-time in positions that weren’t really what I wanted to do, I decided to take a leap of faith and pursue my business full-time. This was the scariest yet most rewarding decision I ever made.

In October of 2022, I decided to start a renovation on an old house that my family owned but was abandoned. This became the future home of Chaotic Crystal Chick Co. A year to the day when we started the renovation I opened my physical storefront, at just 23 years old. I currently have 7 other small businesses I sell products for in my shop, along with my own. I still do a ton of vending events, mostly Renaissance fairs, and continue growing my customer base online. It has been a crazy adventure so far and I can’t wait to see what is next.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I’ll tell anyone that being a small business owner is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing you could ever do. The road hasn’t been easy. As I said in the first question I started my business in the middle of a pandemic, while in college. Being a college student during the pandemic was stressful enough, without having a business you were running. The start was rocky and full of ups and downs.

My biggest struggle though was renovating a building into a store. My family and I did a majority of the work ourselves and it truly tested my patience with the setbacks I encountered. The building didn’t even have a full back wall when I started because of fire damage from almost a decade ago.

Our only option was to gut the whole place and start fresh. Despite all of the surprises like fire damage, roof leaks, horse hair plaster, rotting floorboards, and a mouse infestation, I made it through, It was a big project with a lot of moving pieces which made it hard and seemingly impossible at times.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When I started my business I was just a crystal shop. Hence the name Chaotic Crystal Chick Co. However, as I began to grow I started making new products and really coming into what I had imagined my business could be. I am most well known for the crystals and crystal products I carry.

The biggest thing that sets me apart is the fact I am a practicing witch so all of my crystal-infused products and intention-based products are made on different moon cycles to truly capture the intention of the product. I also make stickers and shirts that I draw and print myself. I think something else that sets my store apart is my empowerment of other business owners through my vendor partnership program and having other vendors in my shop, rather than buying those products wholesale to sell.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
It’s hard to say where exactly the crystal industry will go in the future because new materials are being found a mined all the time. On the same note there, certain materials may run out and become collector’s items. It’s definitely an industry that is continuously changing because of this.

I think tiktok has given a big boost to our industry and the access we have to reaching people who are interested in our products. I think as social media platforms change and develop we’ll see changes in our reach to customer bases.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chaoticcrystalchickco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaoticcrystalchickco/