Meet Azalea Lee | Crystal Healer & Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Azalea Lee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Azalea, how do you think about risk?
When I think of risk, I think about it in terms of its relationship to fear. Because when you risk something, you’re putting something on the table that you might lose– something that is likely very important to you– otherwise you wouldn’t feel like you’re making a risk at all. In entrepreneurship, the risk is often rooted in money. You’re putting your idea out in the market. If it doesn’t do well, the likely result is that you’ll lose money is some way– whether it is actually money itself, or in its subset forms like time and energy spent. One’s finances is one of the most triggering things that exist, so one’s willingness to take risk is directly related to how much one is willing to engage with the potential loss of it. For me, in both life and career, money has never been more important that happiness and fulfillment. And I would be unhappy and very unfulfilled if I didn’t go after my dreams. Of course, I don’t go into anything willy nilly. I do consider all aspects of what I am venturing into. But I don’t let the fear of losing money stop me. Because at the end of the day, I know how creative, intrepid, and resourceful I am– and I know that I am not someone who is easily discouraged. I also know that life is about adapting, and flexibility is often the best tool for managing risk.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am an entrepreneur, small business owner, and jewelry designer. But I am best known for my work as a crystal healer. The path to finding my purpose was a meandering one, with pit stops touching many other industries, and long stints separately in retail and film production. My career history does not look like anything that would lead to crystal healing. But in conjunction with my lifelong study and practice of metaphysics, what I learned in my work life was exactly the training I needed to become a crystal healer and be an entrepreneur. Unconventional paths are not easy because you are creating new territory. Any innovative business will have challenges because they are offering something new to the market. There might be a learning curve for the user understanding it, or there may simply not be any sort of established infrastructure or supplier for the business to build with. When you’re doing something new you’re always figuring out things as you go. It’s a lot of stumbling, dusting yourself off, and moving forward again. But the potential rewards of success are great when you can offer a product or service that no one else has. The best encouragement I have is knowing that I have great ideas, that I deeply understand my market, and that I am willing to persevere through thick and thin to manifest what I have been inspired to create. I have a vision, I am the only one who sees all of it, and it will die within me if I don’t birth it. And birthing isn’t always easy! I started Place 8 Healing with the intention of creating a very small and contained business doing crystal healings and developing a bespoke fine jewelry line. But long story short, the crystals I carried with the intention of providing exclusively to my crystal healing clients were a higher quality than those found at most metaphysical stores. People were expressing interest in buying the crystals I carried, so I made a deeper foray into selling crystals. But in the process of growing the business I realized that Place 8 Healing was meant to be much larger, much more comprehensive than a solo crystal healing practice. We needed to become a space that provided healing services and workshops from many different teachers and healers. Healing is work I take extremely seriously, and the people who are authentic healers, who have the sincerity and integrity to do this work are actually rare. This is because the metaphysical/New Age world is filled with a lot of people who don’t actually know what they are doing, or just outright charlatans whose work ultimately harms people. I saw that many of my clients did not yet know how to discern between the fake healers from the authentic ones, so I realized Place 8 Healing actually needed to be a space where clients would know their healers were carefully screened and vetted. This idea was bigger than I had ever planned, but there was no way I would have discovered it without getting into the business. I was trying to make the pieces work in my small studio space, but the truth was I needed to regroup physically, emotionally, and financially before starting this new chapter of the business. As I began the process of closing down my downtown space, I was offered to do a popup at Urban Oufitters in a space that was three times the size of my original studio. The expanded space gave me an opportunity to try out some ideas I hadn’t had the chance to do before. Then during the popup, I received a message that a book publisher wanted me to write a book. It was perfect timing! Without a space to manage, I had time to actually write the book. I spent a few years working on the book (The Crystal Workshop: A Journey into the Healing Power of Crystals, published by Artisan) http://www.place8healing.com/thecrystalworkshopbook which was published earlier this year. So now I’m finally back preparing to reopen my space and spend time on my jewelry line again. It’s taken more time than I expected to make the lap around, but there’s no way I could have predicted this course. All I know is that the Universe has a plan. It hasn’t been linear, but the timing has always been spot on. When the time is right all the pieces will come together and Place 8 Healing will reopen as a physical space again.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Depends on the friend. And it depends on if it’s during Covid! As a big foodie I would definitely suggest a taco run. There are so many shops and trucks with spectacular tacos to eat. You could easily spend a day learning about Los Angeles by driving around town and nibbling on great tacos along the way. I’d probably build the itinerary after consulting www.lataco.com. But Sonoratown would for sure one of those spots.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Eckhart Tolle I’ve learned much from his work about the illusion of time. My Achilles heel has always been my tendency toward impatience– which is not helped by the general urgency in this world to push time in an attempt to create more productivity. Tolle has provided me a perspective of time that is healing, teaching me to slow down and be more present with the now. And ironically, this has made me more productive than I was before!

Website: www.place8healing.com
Instagram: place8healing.com

Image Credits
Photography: Yudi Ela