I always dreamed of owning my own shop.....connecting with other practitioners, building community, finding new ways to help people...But it seemed like such a pipe dream. Since meeting Diana, it's become the reality of two people with a common goal, and the passion and perseverance to make it happen. This particular blog is our story, told through my eyes. It's completely my thoughts and opinions. Dive in with an open mind, because for us, Truth IS stranger than FICTION!
In case you don't know me......
I'm Nikki Jobin, co-owner of Golden Apple Metaphysical. Witch, mother, performer, sassy cocktail server.... I do a little bit of everything. I provide sarcasm and comic relief, and I'd like to think, a warm and welcoming environment. I don't know all the answers, but I probably know where to start looking.
Walking into this new Adventure
We'd talked about the shop for years, creating products, thinking about business plans and client bases.But one thing or another always seemed to take priority. And to be truthful, I wasn't always confident about how I could contribute in the beginning of this venture. I've run businesses for years, so no worries about once we were actually in business, but until then? What the hell did I bring to the table? I've been a practicing witch or over 30 years, but most of my spellwork followed the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple Stupid) I'd never actually created products before. So I completely get it when people say they don't feel like they know anything. We read the books, follow the rituals laid before us and keep it simple. Some of us find the have a gift for creating rituals. I am not in that category. I'm not even all that fond of ritual myself. I've never felt it necessary for me to be able to be in contact with other beings, be they spirit, on-corporeal entities, or deities. I was definitely worried the brunt of the work was going to be on Diana, and that made me feel like a jerk...
One day, I got a bug up my ass and decided I was going to try. If it sucked, it sucked, but I couldn't keep being afraid of failure. I went on the internet, did some research and came up with my first product: Black Elder Syrup. It took a few tries to get something I was happy with, but the results were good. I sat on that one for awhile, giving it to people to try, but still afraid to actually sell it. Convention season came around, and our plan was to see if the syrup and HellFire Cider got any good feedback. We made it to one Con with decent feedback.....then COVID-19 hit. My world turned upside down overnight.
With the pandemic, subsequent shelter in place orders and non-essential business closures, I now had nothing but time on my hands. The first few weeks of shelter in place I was occupied with helping my children navigate distance learning and dealing with all the state paperwork for unemployment insurance. After we settled into what has become our new routine, I had time on my hands again. What to do with myself? My thoughts started to recenter around the shop again. Diana and I had a conversation about how we now had to change our trajectory. I started thinking about the best way to get our products and services online. My first stop was trying out a Facebook shop, because we already had a Facebook page. Turns out I don't navigate their system well. I tried for three days to get items on the shop I'd created. No success. I gave up for almost a week so i wouldn't put my head through the desk. My next idea was to try and create a website. My only problem? I didn't know how to create a website. Thankfully I'm not afraid to ask. A friend steered me toward a user friendly site that could help me, Wix. I was super nervous to do this by myself, but it's coming along. Slowly at times, but I'm making progress. At the time of this particular writing, I am a few weeks into the creation of this site, and while it's not quite ready to publish, I'm pretty damn proud of myself for making it this far. By the time you, dear reader, lay eyes on this, I expect it will be a few more weeks from now. I hope you enjoy this blog, and the site contains whatever you may be searching for. Cheers!