CT Small Business with a Big Heart: Rx Crystals

Kristi Wright is the owner of RX Crystals and also runs Operation Opioid. We spoke with her about navigating the small business world in Connecticut while keeping her dad's legacy alive in Bristol!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Her communities. Thank you so muchfor listening as we welcome small business owner
Christie right on the line as wellas a huge community supporter, especially of
our canines. We're going to getall into that. She's from Bristol.
The store is our ex Crystals.You can find them at rixcrystals dot com.
Christy, thanks for being here today. Thank you so much for having
me all right, first and foremost, tell everybody about yourself, your commitment

(00:22):
to the community. You're dead,everything you're doing for the Bristol Police Department,
and then we'll get into the RXcrystals too. Okay, yeah,
sure. So I was born andraised in Bristol. I come from a
family of entrepreneurs. My family hada very well known toustedo shop here in
Bristol, self on formal wear.So most of the community already knows me
from being in a little play pen, you know, when I was supposed

(00:43):
to be. That's the way itis, you know, first first babing
an Italian family. So I grewup in you know, in the in
the entrepreneurship, and you know,after high school and college, I kind
of got into corporate America a littlebit, but I was never truly fulfilled
in what I was doing. AndI lost my dad in twenty nineteen,
very unexpectedly to lung cancer, andthat's just changed my perspective on things.

(01:06):
I was like, you know what, it's time to make a change.
It's time to you know, familyfirst, do what's best for me.
And I left the Corporate America space. I was looking at Charlotte, North
Carolina at the time. My sisterwas here in Bristol, Connecticut, and
she lost her job was COVID too, and I was like, Okay,
dad is gone. He's a rocketof family and it's just time to make
that jump. So we moved backhome. I got into crystals actually during

(01:29):
COVID. Funny story, but Iwas going through a lot of grief and
anxiety through the loss of my dadand then not being able to come home
because of you know, the pandemic, and you know, you go to
the doctors and all I want todo is give you prescriptions for everything.
And I didn't like the act.I didn't feel like me. So a
friend of mine said, hey,you should, you know, get into
crystals. They're a holistic healing andI was kind of like, I'm not

(01:51):
really sure how a rock is goingto help, you know, fix my
life. But let's give it ashot. And long story short, it
worked. I researched a lot ofthem and I've done a lot of you
know, files with I don't evenlike to use the word childs, but
I've tested a lot of the theoriesout with them and it really helped to
me, so I will never forget. I went to my husband and I
said, Hey, we're going tostart a crystals business and move back home.

(02:12):
And he was like, you're what, Lizzie, Like, what are
you talking about crystals and moving?What? What? Like? Wait,
so you're going to invest in rocks? Like I don't understand this, but
my husband knows that I always putthought and heart into everything I do.
And she was like, listen,you never fail, and even though I
know nothing about this, go forit. So then I called my sister

(02:36):
and I said, guess what,We're getting into the crystals business and she
was like what So here it's crazy, Christie, I you know, shipped
up like hundreds of pounds out ofPalette back up to Connecticut. We moved
back home in November of twenty twentyone and we started Orix Crystals. So
we did it as like e commerce. The first year a lot of Instagram,

(02:58):
We did a lot of little popup fairs, and then in twenty
twenty three we opened our doors toour first brick and mortar shop here in
Bristol, which makes us a nowsir generation business owner. That is so
cool, And your dad must beso proud of you, because, like
you said, he was an entrepreneurand he must be smiling down on you
girls. He must be so thrilledfor you. And of course, being

(03:20):
a small business here in the stateof Connecticut, it's not easy. Especially
you know, so many people changetheir lives through COVID. And how would
you say that experience helped you inyour lifetime and maybe share some of that
wisdom with people that are listening rightnow. Well, I will say that,
you know, I was fortunate togrow up in a family business and
actually in multiple family businesses, becauseI have a lot of family members who

(03:43):
are entrepreneurs. And I think thatthat in itself gives you a different outlook
on life when you go into thecorporate America space. And what really curved
it for me was, you know, I spent a lot of blood button
teers in this company that I workedwith, and when my dad died,
I learned was just a number.And I think until you lose a parent,

(04:04):
you can't imagine what that does toyour life and how it changes things.
And even though it was really scaryto make that move, you know,
at some point you have to decide, like what's more important to you,
like your life and being happy andhaving that work life balance, or
you know, giving yourself to acorporation every day. And not to say

(04:27):
that it's a bad thing. Somepeople like that more structured thing, but
for me it was you know,I had the time to heal as I
needed to. I didn't need tobe judged. It's definitely scary, like
listen, every day is bloods,button tears, because there won't becomes a
millionaire overnight. But it's given myfamily opportunity to be closer. You know,
my husband comes to help out nicein turn, I run together her

(04:49):
boys, you know, come andhelp us out at at events. So
it's been an experience that I can'tdescribe to people. But the only thing
that I can say is that ifyou are not truly happy where you are,
you need to take that chance andtake that leap of faiths because none
of us know what tomorrow I wasgoing to bring. None of us can
plan it as hard as we try. But I can tell you that I've

(05:11):
never been happier being in the spacethat I'm in. That's truly inspiring,
Christy, and I know you geta lot of that from your dad.
I do want people, if theyare interested, to go to Rxcrystals dot
com to get more information. Butmaybe now we can take this opportunity to
talk about your dad, because hewas a pretty big deal, not only
as an entrepreneur in Bristol, buthe played a big role within the city
itself. So here here's the timeto brag about dad. Yeah. So

(05:36):
my dad, you know, healso was born and raised in Bristol,
spent his whole life here. Alsogrew up in the family business with his
father who started the Tucuido shop.And when I when my grandfather started it
was actually Salvon Custon Taylor. Heused to, you know, make people's
clothes and tailor them. And thenas my dad, you know, grew
up in the business and brought hisideas, they became a toucuedo shop.

(06:00):
And so he always loved German shepherds, like grew up with them since he
was a little kid, and thatof course meant we grew up with them
too. And he also owned apartmentbuildings with his father, and they were
really big into helping people like youknow, unfortunately, in today's world,
finding the place to live and theway that some landlords are are not exactly
the best thing, right. There'sa lot of people that are struggling.

(06:23):
And the one thing that people willalways say is that even when I needed
a place to live, your dadand your grandfather were so caring. So
it's no surprise that he went onto find a bigger way to make an
impact in the community. He wasa police commissioner and the opioid crisis he
started to see was getting really bad, even before like we knew how bad
it was. If he used towalk his dogs behind the shop at the

(06:44):
end of the night, checking outhis tenants, make sure everybody was good,
you know, and then he wouldfind very alarming things in the parking
lot. So he went to thepolice. He spoke with Chi's schooled and
he was like, listen, thisis a problem that people are dying.
You know, people are in trouble. We have to fix this. So,
believe it or not, the narcoticsdogs or even the canines in general,

(07:06):
are not funded for the police departments. They're all gone through donations.
So he said, I want tostart a charity called Operation Opioid, and
the purpose with that was to raiseenough money to add two additional canines to
the Bristol Police Department for the narcoticdivision. So he started that vision in
twenty eighteen. He raised fifty thousanddollars in a year's time. That was

(07:30):
enough for him to buy canine Hunter, who was the first dog of Operation
Opioid, in addition to the cruiserthat they needed and some of the training.
So it made a huge impact andmy dad was so quiet and so
humble about it. I actually didn'tknow about it until hunters pers day and
the job was the day that ourdad was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
How did you navigate that day?You were happy and you were crushed

(07:51):
at the same time. Yeah,you know, I have to say with
such an experience because I had,like I said, I had no idea
about the charity. One of myaunts actually knew about it because see it
helped him, I guess with someof you know the logistics of it,
but when I found out, myfirst thought was like I don't even know,
Like honestly, I can't even say. My first thought was outside of
like, okay, I need toknow about the charity. I need to

(08:13):
know how I can help keep itgoing. What do I need to do?
And you know, it's no secretat Bristol Police is really really amazing
and with all the support from them, knowing that my dad, like they
were buyer aside the entire time thatour dad was sick up until he passed,
and actually Officer m Screen was kindenough to bring Hunter to the hospital

(08:33):
the day before. So they havebeen nothing short of amazing. Chief Schooled.
I've always told him, you know, his extended family, and he's
stuck with me now because I rememberwe sat down and I talked with him
and I said, listen, Idon't I don't have the shoes that my
dad has. I got big onesto fill, but I don't want to
let this charity go. So Iwas living in charlotte Ville and at that

(08:54):
time we were lucky to have youknow, go fund me and Facebook fundraisers,
so it's still able to like keepit going a little harder when you're
living in North Carolina. I'm tryingto raise money in Connecticut. But you
know, I just did it likeI'm his birthday or his anniversary or Father's
Day or Giving Tuesday, and wekept money going. So we kept raising
this money and raising this money becauseI knew we had to get that second

(09:16):
dog. So then we came backhome. Like I said, we opened
our store, and I knew thatin our store somewhere I wanted to have
the vision of like a corner forOperation Opioid or a wall or something.
But we were fortunate enough to actuallyhave a space that gives us an entire
lobby. So you know, oneHunter has this big badge on our wall.
People love to come and take picturesin front of it. We have

(09:39):
a lot of it's so cute.It's so cute. So we have a
lot of small businesses that make itemsthat are you know, charity related or
directly with Operation Opioid, and wesell their products in our shop. We
tried to do for charity events ayear for it, and I'm so happy
that. You know, the timingis so crazy how it works. But
last August on Dad's anniversary, wehad raised enough money to buy another canine.

(10:03):
I know Canine Hero, Yes you'vemet her. I love Canine Hero.
We did a segment with her forAmazing Canine duos and CHRISTI, people
can still support Operation Opioid too,Can they do that through OURX Crystals or
is another website we can lead peopleto Oh absolutely no, so stall through
OURX Crystals. If they go tothe website or even if they come in

(10:26):
the shop, they can support.But the website has like on the left
side, there's sort of like abar menu, and you'll see a section
that's an Operation Opioid and let wehave t shirts there and some other merchandise.
And actually very shortly we're going tobe running a new web shop through
our website that will have long sleeveshirts and hoodies and limited edition items that
you can buy for the charity.Because Hunter and Hero are forever going to

(10:50):
need care, we're hoping to expandand get more dogs and we just announced
a retirement program for them. Well, I couldn't be any happier to promote
this for you, Christy write,She's from RX Crystals, Operation Opioid and
you can get all the details.You can fundraise, you can buy,
you can support local, visit rxcrystalsdot com. It is always a pleasure

(11:11):
Christie to have you on the line. Thank you so much for I