Today we’d like to introduce you to Ceirra Myers.
Hi Ceirra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
First, it is an honor even to be considered for this interview. My name is Ceirra. I founded Curio’s Candleworks with my mother, Elizabeth. I ran it with our family friends Peggy and Angela, my fiancé Marcus, my brother Colin, my sister Lucinda, and her partner Shams. We are a family that joined forces to create a ‘Unicorn’ Austin small business with high hopes, big dreams, and a lot of heart. We opened the doors to Curios in September, but the inspiration began many years ago in a little South Austin kitchen off Stassney Lane.
Both of my parents inspired my journey into entrepreneurship. My late father, Max Myers, was a local blues musician, so in addition to going with him to countless shows at a large range of venues, the Austin music scene also happened to be in our living room most nights. My brothers and sisters and many close family friends were musicians, and I’ve been soaking in its community, collaboration, and rich culture since I was born. My dad delivered pizzas, painted houses, and drove a taxi late at night for additional income to support his dreams and passions. My mother, his all-time biggest fan, has made magic with all sorts of creative ways to earn a living. She has had a one-person pool cleaning & repair business for over 20 years in Austin, and we spent all our childhood summers going to work with her. I have always admired their entrepreneurial ways and the freedom they allowed them. My mom taught me so much about dedication and grit – and how it is essential to entrepreneurship. Hard labor under the Texas sun – all while managing the administrational duties and a family – she is the most hard-working person I have ever known. My dad imprinted on me so much about following your passions and dreams and the courage it takes to do so. I learned the value of a dollar when I was very young and that it must be earned through hard work and dedication. They taught me to hustle and how to do so while remaining true to myself.
These teachings and experiences are all tightly woven into our shop. My first little gig was mowing lawns. My first customer was our beloved family friend Peggy, who now manages all the services offered at Curio’s and hand-picks our incredibly talented Reiki masters, teachers, mediums, oracles, and psychics. The glass birdbaths for sale are the same and are made by my mom, Liz, who used to make and sell for additional income after my dad passed away. Our line of bath salts are the recipes my mom, sister, and I created and filled in pretty upcycled bottles when I was young. We handmade and successfully sold them on the side of Barton Springs Road to raise money in the summer to attend Camp Indigo and the Global Youth Peace Summit, year after year. These camps and all our work with the Amala Foundation were a massive shaper of my childhood and who I am today. I had many teachers in that organization who taught me deep, complex, & beautiful lessons about how to be of service and keep the peace through respect versus passiveness. They taught me so much about love and its many forms of magic. They are also an incredible inspiration for us. Working in many kitchens in Austin in my youth shaped so much of my work ethic as well and taught me so much about patience, communication, and teamwork. Working in after-school childcare programs has been invaluable to me as well. There is so much to be learned from children, but my biggest takeaway is to value your spirit in the same vein as your mind and heart no matter how old you grow and to do your best never to let it fade. My career as a Project Manager has seasoned my communication and leadership most of all. It has taught me many invaluable pearls of wisdom and methods I apply daily to our workload. My boss, mentor, & friend Alonso Perales has been a huge source of support & guidance, along with my previous boss, mentor, & friend, Muna Marawi. I have been incredibly blessed to have many amazing role models and teachers.
My path did veer off to a much narrower and more lonely one when I was 14, and my dad passed away. I became a hermit. It was a very dark & lonely time for me, and I had to start my first day of high school a week later. All my silly interests became very uninteresting. Suddenly, my early fascination with the esoteric became an obsession as I dove deep into metaphysical studies, this time, all on my own. I taught myself how to understand & create astrological charts – which is still a passion of mine. I learned the language of tarot and started communicating with the cards. I fell in love with candles and connected deeply with their fire. I began to want to learn about the herbs and crystals that surrounded me my whole life. I was obsessed. A bold dream of owning a metaphysical shop one day here in my hometown was born. Unfortunately, my dad was not the last tragedy my young self would face, and the years that followed were tough. My spiritual studies, as well as my growing connection to our creator, were the main attributes of my healing. I had many of my deepest learned lessons at this time of my life. Greif & suffering, and the independence I found in the worst of it, were some of my biggest teachers and shapers of who I am today. As dark as that does sounds, and as young as I was, I find it somehow beautiful now. This is where I found myself. I return to my spiritual studies again and again as my place of healing and growth. They are never-ending.
There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes development of Curio’s, specifically, the candle recipes. A fusion of herbalism, crystals, candle work, energy & healing work that I have learned my whole life from our mom, along with my spiritual studies, aromatherapy, color psychology, and astrology & my previous experiences of creating art have melted together into our main collection titled ‘Good Intentions.’ My fiancé Marcus and I began to work the recipes into pieces of free-standing candle art rather than filling them in our cute mason jars & antique teacups. My passion and need to create art married into my passion for creating intentional candle recipes. This was when we knew we had something special – it was fire! These exotic recipes in this collection took years and may be slightly ever-improving. Creating one-of-a-kind intentional candles became our niche, and we began filling small personal orders to large wedding & event orders. That spark of a dream of owning a metaphysical shop had grown into a healthy flame. It quickly flared into a passionate fire – this time with my candles on full display in my vision. It all came together then, and the stars just barely aligned for me to make the extremely ambitious decision to open a store in the heart of Austin! It has been the experience of a lifetime to see us start to spark up successfully in such a short time amid so much uncertainty. We have certainly been living on a candle prayer.
The community was the missing magic piece, and with it, Curio’s was born. We have successfully collaborated with many artists, teachers, healers, and a large assortment of unique and amazing small businesses. So many perfect alignments and bazaar but wonderful “must be meant to be” moments with so many amazing people who happened to come through our door in curiosity. Beautiful, mutually beneficial relationships filled with support and harmony. The cohesion of a broad range of unconventional ideas. Caryian, a chef, event planner, and small business owner whom we were so blessed to meet, is a great example. She runs the Bad Ass Bitches Market (a local woman-owned small business market) once a month in our backyard, along with some other projects we have cooking up. Collaborating with her has been an honor and a building block of Curio’s. Art by Hannah Hannah, The Glassclown, Divine x Copper, and Raven Soul Art are just some local artists we have had the pleasure of collaborating with on a few projects. You can find some of their art showcased in the shop as well. We have been honored to host teas, private parties, classes, and workshops with many amazing people! It is a place of strong collaboration, broadly working towards healing & community with different modalities.
We’ve been blessed to have had so much support from our friends, but what was surprising was the instant waves of support we received from our community. Our neighbors have been stellar! The returning customers we’ve accumulated have been the best customers we could ask for! So many amazing Austinites who are so invested in supporting local small businesses have found us in the five short months we have been open – some commuting from the other side of town. How very lucky and blessed are we?! It is one of the things I am most proud of about being from Austin. Most people here truly care about that local support, and we are so grateful for our fellow Austinites! This is an amazing city to create and share art. It is an amazing place to share and embrace magic and healing. It is a fantastic place to build, cherish, and strengthen our communities. It is the perfect place to honor all that is weird, unique, or curious about us and the world itself. This is what we are working hard every day to achieve at Curio’s. We have created a space where the above is honored and embraced. We look up to and back on our beloved Austin gems that made this city so special, some remain, and some are sadly gone. Many have broken our hearts. We metaphorically light a candle for these true inspirations and try to uphold all the qualities that make each one special.We believe that ‘old’ Austin is not dead yet, even with all the extreme changes we have encountered and continue to, and we are very passionate about keeping it alive and honoring all the things we love most about it.
We have a lot of big plans & dreams and often must pull in the reigns and focus on being tactical vs. strategic while we find our footing. We just launched floral, and we have a great book selection coming; we plan to have a library membership program next month and, hopefully, a book club! We are excited to focus on making more deliveries to brighten people’s days with candles, flowers, and other goodies from our shop! A lot in the mix as far as product expansion. We are looking forward to future events and have some pretty fun ideas. We love embracing the seasons and want to be the place to do so. Angela, who helps manage our merchandise, administration, and programs, is also a fantastic designer and shares my vision of transforming the space every season. Every time you come into the shop, take a mental picture. It may not look quite the same the next time you come. We are all about embracing the change of the seasonal product and vibe. You never know what may get moved around other than two of the walls that stay fixed and consistent. It is intentional and part of the magic. You will surely see something new every time you walk in the door! It is a place you have to see and experience for yourself. Maybe connect while shopping, have fun at an event, relax and heal your spirit with a Reiki session, or learn deep lessons in a workshop. I highly recommend booking a reading or tarot session with us. A lot of work has gone into ensuring the rooms are perfect, and the services are top-notch. It has surely been a ride so far – we have a lot more to learn and more to do – we are just getting started.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As amazing as this journey has been, it has been filled with challenges, obstacles, and, unfortunately, tragedy. Blood, sweat, and tears, for sure. Our primary obstacles have included financing a brick-and-mortar store with other normal business costs while juggling full-time jobs to pay our bills. Remodeling the shop was a huge challenge, especially in the heat of late Texas summer and using a bulk of our collective personal furnishings and supplies. I remember my mom, fiancé, and I lay on the cool floor in late July, soaked in sweat after another full day of laying tile on it and painting. So much physical heavy grunt work has gone into this shop and still does almost every day. I have missed out on many outings to follow this passion. Balancing my job, business, and relationships and raising our 15-month-old child simultaneously is not easy. I have sacrificed & risked quite a lot and feel challenged daily, but I refuse to have obstacles. Not permanent ones, anyway.
That is what I thought until this last month when tragedy struck my family again, and my brother Colin suddenly died. It is the biggest obstacle I can imagine and has temporarily stopped us. We are slowly getting back up. It is hard to return to ‘business as usual,’ especially since he was closely involved. He was there daily, and we had specific plans; we had our first event that he couldn’t attend. Our hearts are broken, and it has been hard. We’re hurt. It’s not the same without him. The huge ice storm that came through weeks later kicked us while we were down. We are learning to keep going like he would want us to and honoring his ideas so they can live on in the shop forever. I have retreated to my studies to cope and, hopefully, self-soothe or heal. I know we will be okay, even though it doesn’t feel like it right now. I still have hope.
Are any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
It’s a short list due to our time restraints of the last few years, but – Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, When by Daniel Pink, The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, and The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss.
Contact Info:
- Website: curiosatx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curioscandleworks/
