Spotlight on Terre Thomas, owner of Fairy Godmother

What inspired you to open your store?
By the time I hit my mid-40’s I knew that I wanted my work to focus even more on creating fun and inspiration. I had been working as a marketing consultant and writer with a bit of Fairy Godmother counseling thrown in, which was fun and inspiring but not quite as focused as I wished it to be.

One day, five years ago, I realized that I wanted to write more and so I thought, “I have to get an assistant, and I need a bigger office space. Why don’t I get a space that not only would have room for an assistant, but room to meet clients, and heck why not a little retail area where I could carry all the inspirational things and books I always send people off to get when I’m doing my fairy godmother counseling.”

And then the “little retail area” took over, capturing my time, attention, and energy and the next thing I knew, I had a shop, a staff, and we were all greeting customers wearing ballgowns saying “Welcome to Fairy Godmother!”

What is your storeʼs mission?
Fairy Godmother’s mission is to offer things (gifts, cards, books) for inspiration, encouragement and fun. The shop really focuses on the themes of important stages and passages in a woman’s life.

We have a spirituality “department”, spiritual and developmental books for adolescent girls, gifts for families with new babies, a department of gifts, tokens, and books for illness comfort and sympathy-grief, and our famous “Tingle” department with romantic gifts and women’s erotica (The full line of “Restore the Tingle” products is currently available only at our online store, because “mall law” doesn’t allow the full selection in the Calhoun Square shop.) Sprinkled among all the “departments” are gifts and books that are fun and/or funny with a good selection of uniquely Minnesota products (which includes the Empoword products we sell).

What is your favorite part of your job?
Honestly, the favorite part of my job is the mix of the many things I get to do. I love to wear a ballgown and help people pick a gift that’s just perfect; I love going to the trade shows and choosing the products we’ll have in the store. I love working with the other fairy godmothers and I love writing the Fairy Godmother columns for the e-newsletter and the local paper. I love learning new things and there’s always a demand for that and mostly, I love that I get to do ALL those things in one job!

What are you doing to stay positive and upbeat in this downturn economy?
For Fairy Godmother, I’ve put extra effort into thinking of creative ways to stay connected with our long-term customers and to bring people into the shop. When I get discouraged, or sucked into the negativity of the recession mentality, I don’t make any judgments or decisions and allow myself a day (and a good night’s sleep) to restore my reserves with positive energy and then I go back to doing the things I can control. I also mostly stopped reading or watching the media’s coverage of all the bad economic news. (I just wish people would remember, and affirm, that over 90% of us DO have jobs.)

I’ve decided that I will ride at the front of the wave of “economic recovery” and either I’ll be one of the first to arrive or I’ll be smashed to smithereens getting there! Ha ha.

What attracted you to Empowordʼs products?
As a writer, I love words and the Empoword ones are, of course, my favorite. I also love the beauty of the design for each word; they are elegant and lovely. And who doesn’t want a mug of love full of coffee.

Tell us what your favorite Empoword word is and why?
My personal favorite Empoword word is “wonder”. It’s a word that captures how I feel when I know I’m seeing things through the eyes of god. It’s blessings, it’s grace, it’s awe. “Wonder” is my evidence of why I’m here, living this “wonder”-full life.