FRISCO - You might think running a natural
foods store would be a healthy lifestyle choice, but Kathy Jones,
owner of Alpine Natural Foods, was stressed to the maximum.
She didn't have a day off because when she tried to take one, employees
called her at home, often complaining they weren't getting along.
She dreaded vacations because she ultimately came back to disaster.
She knew she needed to do something to reach her goals of increasing
profit, improving employee morale and creating a better shopping experience
for customers. But rather than hire a traditional business consultant
or spend more advertising dollars, she decided to hire intuitives
Anne Salisbury and Greg Meyerhoff.
Sure, she felt a little tentative hiring business consultants who
also read energy. She knew them previously as clients who hired her
to cater their wedding. But now she was the client.
So in she went for her first meeting - arms crossed over body and
mind fearing what Salisbury and Meyerhoff would see. But after sitting
on their couch for three hours, which she says flew by, she felt like
a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
Physical clearing
After the trio outlined goals, Salisbury and Meyerhoff showed up
at Alpine Natural Foods wearing their grippable gloves, ready to not
only psychically assess the energy flow of the store, but also to
clear boxes and clutter.
The first determent involved posters that prevented customers from
looking in. Jones had been having problems with customers stealing
items, which Meyerhoff attributed to the dark environment that made
it easier to engage in shady behavior.
They removed displays that blocked aisles and transplanted the salad
bar to sit next to the soups. They suggested adorning tables with
flowers and windows with fabric to create a more welcoming café
area in order to increase deli sales.
But they didn't stop with simple feng shui principles. Once they
moved items physically, they began to shift things energetically.
Energetic clearing
Salisbury tuned in to her strong intuition, checking how energy
flowed through the store once they made changes.
While skeptics think energy work is flighty, Salisbury and Meyerhoff
present it in a down-to-earth manner. Salisbury earned a master's
degree in transpersonal psychology and a doctorate in psychology;
Meyerhoff worked in sales for 20 years, which helps him present information
in a logical, easy-to-follow manner.
Together, they blend decades of education and personal experience
in meditation, intuition, psychology, hypnotherapy and a gamut of
other therapeutic modalities into a healing approach for individuals,
animals and businesses based in hypnotherapy, clairvoyance and life
coaching.
For Jones, the payoff came the following day, when beauty and health
department sales doubled, which the trio had concentrated on the previous
night to boost sales, Jones said.
Salisbury and Meyerhoff also tuned into the employees to discover
their strengths and their biggest complaints. Jones gave them a name
only, and Salisbury did the rest. She saw, for example, that Courtney
Carter, who had worked at Alpine for eight years, loved dealing with
products more than she did people. Once they moved her into the position
of product manager, she felt happier.
"Now that we all know our set jobs, we can get what's expected
done," Carter said. "And customers comment on how much more
open it is. It's more comfortable now, and customers want to stay
longer and shop. Greg and Anne helped tremendously in improving the
flow of Alpine."
Others see the change
Shortly after the changes at Alpine, a supplement broker who had
traveled to health food stores nationwide told Jones her store had
the best energy she had ever felt, Jones said.
And Alpine isn't the only place to say it has seen changes thanks
to Salisbury and Meyerhoff.
Tanya Benyo, owner of Mountain Sanctuary Spa, hired them to remove
her blocks in relationships and financial matters. Since working with
their techniques, she has more clarity in her relationships and business,
which is growing, she said.
Salisbury and Meyerhoff have primarily worked in Denver, and they
intend to expand their business in Summit County.
A 10 percent increase in sales and satisfied employees were enough
proof for Jones that Salisbury and Meyerhoff's changes actually worked.
But perhaps the most compelling proof came just recently when Jones
returned from a two-week vacation and returned to happy employees
who didn't bombard her with the usual litany of complaints that previously
accompanied her return - even when the cooler broke down.
Kimberly Nicoletti can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 245, or
at knicoletti@summitdaily.com.