Young businesswoman reveals how she sells $2.5 million a year in crystals

It came about when a mother, who sells more than 15 tons of crystal furniture and decorations every year, decided to go into the stone trade.

Ashley Bellino, 33, from Melbourne, always thought crystals, especially colored ones, were aesthetically pleasing, but she never really felt they had power.

Then in 2015, he entered a crystal cave in the middle of China’s famous crystal city market and finally stopped.

He now runs Stoned Crystals, a $2.5 million-a-year company specializing in large crystals.

“There’s definitely a feeling that comes over you when you walk into a crystal cave,” he told FEMAIL. “I’ve walked to the shops to get some energy from the smaller crystals but I can’t deny that when you walk into a cave.”

Her mother, a scientist and a strict crystal skeptic, even admitted that she “feels something” when the trio, including Ashley’s spiritual mentor, entered the cave.

Ashley toured the market to better understand the stones and find suppliers for her jewellery.

Ashley is pictured here with her “life and business partner” Jeremy Lebard, whom she believes has a forward-thinking entrepreneurial mind.

Ashley likes larger stones that can be used as decorations – like this piece – and believes the larger the crystal, the easier it will be to “feel” their power.

He believes the bigger the stone, the better, and sells tables and sinks as part of its product range.

But his attention soon shifted from small colored pebbles to large chunks full of energy.

Two years after the moment that changed her life in that cave, she officially launched Stoned Crystals, a set of five geometric pieces made from various and popular stones.

While Ashley believes that crystals are a gateway to better spiritual practices and that she has them in her home, she understands that not everyone does.

“I place the crystals where they have the greatest impact. If the crystal is for financial success, I place it where I will see it when I work to raise awareness for these goals.”

‘But they can also just be beautiful statement pieces.

Its purpose was to make crystals more accessible by removing the “hippies” or “witches and dragons” stigma.

“I initially only offered my products at luxury home improvement stores because I wanted my stones to appeal to people who wouldn’t go to other stores,” she says.

“I didn’t want my work to suffer crystal damage like so many others, so I even ignored all the chakra-related jargon,” he said.

“Anytime they approve of the idea, I wanted them to buy it because it’s a beautiful and thoughtful gift.”

And it worked, in the first 12 months Ashley had over 100 stores selling her own range of geometric crystals.

In 2019, Ashley’s business and life partner, Jeremy Lebard, asked where the company would be if her stores stopped placing orders.

This forced him to focus on the future and he started selling tracks on Instagram live.

The couple changed their business model in 2019 and focused on live auctions via social media rather than shipping their products to multiple stores.

Jeremy, Ashley and their son Vincent find themselves in a large crystal cave in Byron Bay.

“Life was just beginning then, so they were favorites in the algorithm,” he explained.

“If you went live, all your followers would see you.”

Ashley started by filling her table with stones and adding numbers so she could display it at auction.

“I went to the table four times that night, went up to my room to buy more crystals, and realized that this was a great way to sell crystals.

Ashley’s used to have three stores of her own, but now she’s moving it to a place that also offers holistic care, yoga, and workshops.

She likes onyx lamps more because the light filters through and highlights each layer of the stone.

“It’s a very personal purchase, people want to see them, now people are using social media to sell them, but we were the first,” he said.

That said, they were already well ahead of the curve as the pandemic hit it and the couple had fine-tuned their online and social marketing for fear of having stores left to sell.

“Sales were booming, so many people were buying crystals from their sofas, so we started creating lives every day.

“Suddenly, revenue streams have reversed and in-store sales are second to most important after live sales.

Does Ashley believe in the power of crystals?

Ashley studied the crystals and their power after entering the cave in China and raising her hands.

This was before its use was back into the mainstream, and all he could find on the internet were websites from the 1990s claiming that stones could cure cancer.

“It didn’t suit me, I couldn’t put my finger on how I felt, but I couldn’t believe the online theories either.

I think crystal therapy is about color therapy: we associate colors with different emotions, such as orange for happiness and red for anger.

I guess that’s why most of the pink stones are meant to help love and the black ground stones.

But of course, it is not always this easy because some green stones are also for love.

I believe that magic lives within us and we can use the stones as a tool, to remind us of our goals so that we can manifest ourselves more effectively.

When I started using crystals, I brought in more plants and unknowingly transformed my home into a truly peaceful and comfortable space.

But crystals also have very stable vibrations; this may be the energy that many people feel when they are around them. After all, that’s why they’re used in phones and wristwatches.

I have a hard time sensing smaller crystals but I definitely have connections with larger stones.

Always thinking of more, Jeremy developed an app that helps the company get its live sales from social media.

“Social media should not be used by companies to sell products, so we developed the app to circumvent that. First we let VIPs in, now all customers can look there.

“We hope to be able to live stream all of our sales from the app by the end of the year and be able to completely remove them from Instagram.”

The new mom is proud of her company, which last year was tagged as one of the fastest growing startups in Australia.

Before the pandemic, Stoned Crystals was spread across three Melbourne locations – now Ashley wants to use a large space.

Geometric shapes and spheres like this one are some of the most popular pieces of furniture in the business women’s range.

The couple met people from all levels of the supply chain by observing crystals and mines around the world.

This means that all their excellent staff, including shop assistants and gemologists, will be in one place.

“We don’t have a building yet, but I see a place where we can have a shop, a warehouse and offer holistic services.

“Hopefully we can do yoga classes and mindfulness sessions and dream of adding a pharmacy.

“We’ll also have the space and resources for custom pieces so people can come to us if they need a custom rose quartz ball.”

Ashley and Jeremy also revealed that the company allows them to travel the world while trying to get as close to their mines as possible.

“The closer you get to the mines, the better, because you can be sure that people are well paid, that the mine is good for society, and that it’s a safe place to work,” he said.

Ashley is committed to ethical mining and believes everyone in the supply chain should get a fair deal for the gems.

“We don’t want to import bad jujube crystals,” he said, noting that the negative energy would stick to the stone and demoralize himself.

The couple brings rocks from mineral-rich countries around the world, including Mexico, Brazil, China, the United States, and Madagascar.