Like most establishments, the ongoing pandemic has forced changes to her business model, but Bauer believes that focusing intention in the right place can help weather most challenges. “After 14 full years in business, it’s been a challenging, yet enlightening, 2020,” she reflects. “In spite of COVID-19 and our two-month shutdown in spring, our healing arts community stepped up beautifully and helped us get through.”

In order to keep people engaged, Bauer and her staff implemented online formats for many of their classes, such as chakra balancing, ancestral healing, runes and mediumship. They added remote readings and personal shopping experiences, increased their social media presence, and updated the website to a more user-friendly shopping cart model. They also added intuitive gift boxes—which Bauer personally creates for each customer based solely on intuition—and curbside pickup. Mask policies and strict social distancing standards for walk-in customers were immediately implemented upon reopening in May.

As people search for ways to take care of themselves during the pandemic, Bauer notes that the summer to early fall of 2020 was one of the busiest times they’ve experienced. “Angel Light is not just a place to shop, it’s an experience,” she says. “I think people were so missing that sense of community and ability to talk to somebody who would get where they were coming from, and Angel Light offers that personal experience. That pent-up feeling of loneliness, and dealing with a pandemic, opened up a surge of people interested in coming to Angel Light.”

Bauer emphasizes that the classes are designed to be enlightening and informative, thus helping people move forward on their life journeys. Her popular crystal classes teach people how to use and purchase crystals, the many stages of crystal healing, the intricacies of clear quartz and crystal shapes, how they’re used for charka balancing, how to incorporate crystals into an intention grid and how to use them for a stone facial/self-massage.

Once society can safely return to some pre-pandemic ways of life, Bauer will resume Angel Light’s successful School of Sound and Healing. Held annually for one weekend per month for four months, the school offers an overview of sound, the fundamentals of using sound in healing, and the specific genres of sound. Students explore instruments such as Tibetan singing bowls, crystal bowls, drums, tuning forks, gongs and Peruvian whistling vessels. The classes are based on experiential learning and developed protocols.

The retail component of Angel Light supports the classes. They carry more than 80,000 crystals, which Bauer says are their bestselling items. In addition, they carry metaphysical accessories and decorations such as wall hangings; pottery; handmade crystal and stone jewelry; books that support Angel Light’s metaphysical teachings; natural healing candles; greeting cards; incense and smudge sticks; singing bowls, tingshas cymbals and handmade drums; tarot decks and oracle cards; and New Age CDs, as well as essential oils and chemical-free soaps and sprays.

Having worked in the corporate world for 25 years, Bauer’s business background—as well as her completion of classes offered through Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC)—prepared her to fully understand the “ins and outs” of business ownership. Her spiritual beliefs also helped, guiding her to set an intention for a business that was not focused on money as the bottom line.

“I wanted to create a different business model with a belief that places focus on the value of the human spirit and the worth of each individual when assisting people,” she concludes. “With the help of the community, we hope to be able to sustain and grow our businesses and come out of this challenge better than when we went into it. Our prayer is for the entire world; it’s not all about Angel Light, it’s about everybody. Everyone has been affected by what’s been going on this past year—some more profoundly than others—and it’s our hope and prayer that Angel Light will continue to serve as a beacon of light. It is a business where all are welcomed and served.”