Crystal Seeley shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Crystal , we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
The best moments at The Honey Cottage are when customers come in and start using bee puns, and tell bee jokes. I have had several customers who say, “Oh no not again!” when their friend starts saying the puns. I can honestly say I get a kick out of them! My favorite ones are; mind your own beeswax, how are you honey? and we will buzz in again when we are out of honey. I also enjoy hearing the different bee jokes that customers come in saying such as what do bees use to brush their hair? A honeycomb. As I tell customers we are a honey shop it is meant to bee!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
The Honey Cottage has been open since 2001 in Colorado Springs. The Honey Cottage is a unique store that allows customers to shop for specialty, gourmet, and Colorado raw honeys. We also have a wide selection of whipped honeys, jams, mustards, soaps, lotions, honey sticks, and candy ALL made with honey! We love to offer products that are bee-yond special and make a great gift. We like to offer things that are user friendly and can be used for everything. At The Honey Cottage we are not just a retail shop…we are a family of beekeepers too! Our biggest goal is to give customers as much education on raw honey as we can.
We are so buzzed to announce that our hive has gotten a little bit bigger! We have moved to a bigger location at 4549 Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs. The big benefit of buzzing by is that we do honey tastings so you can try the honey bee-fore you buy it!
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a kid we have hopes of being a firefighter, an astronaut, or a doctor. We were taught that we could do and be anything we want to be. When I was in seventh grade I had an amazing English teacher, Mr. Spirio, and that is when I decided I wanted to be a teacher. From that point on it changed four times. I wanted to be a librarian, then a nurse, then a cleaner, and then got excited over being a hairdresser.
When I made it into high school I was blessed to go through the AVP program and went to culinary arts classes. I fell in love with food and how you could make it look. I was fascinated with soups, herbs, breads, and cakes. I loved being able to use my imagination and make things that had flavors that would explode in your mouth. I made it through my degree, started working, and then had to move on because of overusing my wrists.
I never once thought of owning my own business. Never thought of being my own boss. The cool part is my journey lead me here, to beekeeping and The Honey Cottage. My husband taught me and is now teaching our kids. The Honey Cottage is where we get to teach people about honey, beekeeping, and food! We get to teach people how to use honey for cooking and health. We get to teach people how bees are important, why we think beekeeping should change, and why we need more flowers for the bees!
I get so excited about bees and how they work in our ecosystem. I love talking about how they work in our gardens. I get so excited when I give samples of honeys and say now picture this on French toast. I am so passionate about bees and honey, and I love my job so much!
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would tell myself to learn to be flexible and not rely on any set thing. The reason I say this is because The Honey Cottage is unique to the Colorado Springs community. We are not about the sale. We are about educating and truly helping customers understand why they are getting the right honey. I have heard too many times where customers thought all honeys should be the same and that is not how honey works. There are times where I make orders thinking this is what we need and every time the sales come out differently. I would order without expectations on how the sales outcomes are going to be. You cannot predict everything in a small business. Sometimes you have to just keep buzzing and let the customers show you what their needs are.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Each and every one of my friends would say the same thing, bees and honey! Actually, most customers that come into The Honey Cottage would say the same thing too. I love talking about bees and I love using honey in everything! So, for me honey is more than just going to work and selling a product. I love to show customers how to use honey, what recipes to try with the honey, and things that they can use honey for that is not just food. I like to show customers what true honey tastes like, why honey is so different at The Honey Cottage and educate them on how they can use it. Over the years we have had many customers that had no idea what to do with honey so they could fight allergies. I also talk everyone’s ears off about how important bees are and how much we need them. I am obsessed with taking care of our bees and doing what is best for them. Not our pocketbook. Anyone who has met me would say that I am super passionate about bees and honey.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. When do you feel most at peace?
When we are beekeeping or I am watching bees going from flower to flower. It is almost like meditation for me. There is something so peaceful and magical about watching bees. I even had the chance to work with beekeepers in Texas this year and it was so amazing to just be with the bees. I find it fascinating to watch them going in and out of the hive. When looking at the frames it is so cool to just watch them go from cell to cell. As beekeepers, we can know the processes of bees, but we truly don’t know them unless we watch them. We can learn more about bees when we stop and listen to them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thehoneycottage.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beequeen60/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TheHoneyCottage
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHoneyCottage/
Image Credits
Our local photographer Courtney Bubick!
