Katja & Kate - alchemical success

This is our first coffee here. Where “here” is Elolivar, a 30 mins drive from Palma de Mallorca & a 10 minute hike amidst olive groves and beautiful villas. And, where “our” is Katja and Kate: two women, two friends, two single moms with kids-not-so-kids-anymore, two work partners. 

I didn’t know them before that encounter on a very warm Saturday morning at the end of October, but something about the name of their business, Dos Alquemistas, called me to investigate closer. Not every self proclaimed alchemist is one, of course. But then alchemy has many ways of turning mud into gold. 

And so this is the story of an ancient olive latte (like matcha but Egyptian) and two women who brought it back to life. Above all: it’s the story of a synergic success.

⚡I’d like to say one final thing before letting you go on and read the story. This here is coming out at a pivotal moment for me personally. It’s not by chance that we met in person and Kate actually did a healing on me after our interview, because my own great grandma came in. Of course, I forgot about it and about our conversation on joy. Only this week, when I’m going through an inner transformation finally tapping into joy… writing this interview, I realise: I am that which my ancestors prayed for. I am joy and thanks to them I can be light and I can lean into the unnecessary. I am so safe, I can think of the frivolous. I have always known my grandmother had a playful side to her that she suppressed because well… war, hard times, famine, safety issues etc. Similar to the story that Katja shares with us all about her great grandmother. We are the great granddaughters of women who most likely were not free, and could rarely afford to think of trivial things because they had first and foremost think of putting food on the table. So I say THANK YOU. And I want to acknowledge this, may we all lay down backpacks that aren’t ours and collect our own stones, bones, flowers.

Tanya: What makes you an alchemist? How did this name come into your being?

Kate: I think it comes from our age. We’ve been through lots of situations in our lives. We both created businesses, we were used to changing things that were energetically really flat into something life-giving. And I think that when we work together we create a certain kind of energy. The products that we’re bringing from the land, which were waste products, we upcycle the leaves and we create something else, something healthy. So it has lots of different elements to it.

Katja: And I don’t remember how the name popped up, but it popped up in a conversation and I said that’s it. We were first thinking of “wild & wasted” because of the wild trees and the waste product from the pruning season, though it has a different connotation to it.

Yeah and it also would’ve given out a different energy. Instead, Dos Alquemistas has a nice lightness to it.

Katja: The other one is more punky.

And a little secretive.
How did you come together?

Katja: Well she was my Airbnb guest when I lived outside of Palma and had a little studio, which looked a little bit like a camping style studio. And she felt super attracted to it because she always lived in a camper van with her kids on their holidays. Kate…. Now you should tell her “that” story.

🤣 We laugh because pre-recording and during the hike to Elolivar, they already told me the story of how they met, and we wondered whether the details should or not be made public LOL But I mean, isn’t this the right way to introduce badass business owners?

Kate: So I’d come to the island - and I’ve been here a couple years before with my family - and when I saw Katja’s little house I thought I need to come and spend a couple of days, learn how to drive on the other side of the road and have a little tinder date - can add that one or not 👀.
When Katja and I met she made me a really good coffee, which is the way into my heart. And I gave her a healing, and you introduced me to some other people, didn’t you? Then I came a month later to do a retreat here.

Katja: And then she stayed 

Kate: Yeah they found me a place to live, though I wasn’t in a position to move here … but then when I got home, my girls were like, ‘Bye we’re going!’ So I was.

Katja: Yes because she was saying she’d maybe move in a couple years when her kids are out of the house… And I begged for them to be gone LOL The place was available now, who knew in a couple years time. And so it happened.

Kate: The apartment was amazing. I got in and was like, ‘NO NO NO’.. And they were like, ‘And there’s another balcony!’ … And I was like, ‘OMG NO NO NO’. Signed.

LOLS

So you stayed stayed? 

Kate: No, I was still coming and going. I have a practice in London so I had to keep going back to that. And my children… Even though one went to LA and the other one is still in London, I didn’t want to abandon them completely. So we were just friends really, weren’t we? We kept on, every time we went to a party, spending all the time talking about ideas that we could do together. And I said, we should work together because we have such a good time. 

Katja: So the initial idea was to travel the world doing retreats but we don’t wanna call them retreats because it’s such a prostituted word. And everybody understands something different, it’s wishy-washy, it’s not anymore what it’s supposed to be.
Because I love curating everything around a retreat, like all the off the beaten tracks experiences, I really love food, I love adventure. So this whole exploring partnership, she does the healing and I do the tours, and we travel the world around. 

Kate: One of our friends calls her the truffle-pig because she can find the best restaurant, the best walk, the best mountain pass, the best little house, you know?

Katja: I must have some guidance…

Kate: Totally!

Katja: I don’t think it’s me… yeah

… Whispering in your ear ‘this waaaaay’, ‘turn left’... 😂

Katja: ‘...talk to that person’ 😂

Kate: And you’re an amazing communicator as well. You know, she would talk to any person, just everyone and get the best out of them. 

Katja: I’m just fearless.

Kate: Yes you are fearless, and I’m the scared cat.

Katja: You should see her jump into the water, into the sea when there’s rocks 😂

Kate: But I’m fearless with my healings.

Katja: You know what, it pleases me a little bit because I felt I needed to have more things that made me feel like, ‘Ok I’m up to her level’. And if I can dive into the water from the rocks, I feel good about it if she can’t 🤣 🤣
Then we decided we need to have a product first, we need to launch something that we can monetise and use the money to create…

Kate: I looked at the business energetically. We looked at it financially and I looked at it energetically. And I said No, you need a grounding. And Katja needed the grounding as well. She needed a product that would keep her here, she has a daughter…

Katja: My daughter is 17. 

Wow so both of you have daughters. 

Katja: Yes, we’re single moms. … Girls rule the world! LOL

So, after she witnessed the pruning of the trees she called me up - at the time I was working as a secretary to a promoter, I was in a very unhappy place but I had to have a certain income - and planted a little seed. 

Kate: I was encouraging her to stay there, cuz she was so bored she was cleaning the office and driving everyone mad. She was like, ‘I wanna leave!’ and I would say ‘No, you have to stay’. Because I needed her to have that push, whatever the business was she needed to be going into it. She was desperate, weren’t you?

Katja: Yes I was, I had to get friendly with it first. It was a little bit abstract because my first business when I came here was the Flor De Sal D’Es Trenc, a hand harvested sea salt. I came here to Mallorca with 350 Euros and I created it basically from nothing. It was a very magical journey and that really grounded me as well. But when I sold the company I had no perspective on what I wanted to do afterwards. I think I had a slight burnout, too. I never called it that way because it was a very hip thing to say, so I said ‘No, I’m just tired’. I collapsed in a shop, ‘Nope, I’m just tired’. They had to carry me home, ‘Naah, I’m just tired’. Anyhow, I recently found out that after a huge burnout what follows is usually a huge depression phase… and that’s what I had. I was vibrating really really low. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I did a year of sabbatical with my daughter, we traveled, which was great.

After that a lot of people started coming to me proposing we start a business together, my heart wasn’t running for any of those except Maria Solivellas - because I really liked her idea of the project of the cocaria, she runs the Canatoneta restaurant and she’s also going to attend Parabere Forum, she is a power woman! -  She did everything for biodiversity that there’s to do on the island, by making sure that the local wheat be recuperated, old tomatoes’ and old figs’ varieties. She did an amazing job and was Slow Food Balearic Islands president for quite a while. She has a signature dish in her menu, the “coca”, which is a total reinterpretation of the traditional coca - a parallel of the Italian pizza but without cheese. She reinterpreted it and everyone encouraged her to open a cocaria. We started this cocaria together but it just wasn’t the right window of opportunity, people didn’t understand it back then the value of local and organic and cooked in the moment. Also we were in the wrong place and didn’t have the rotation we were hoping for. So I stopped after 9 months and thought, now what? After a really successful Flor De Sal, this next project was not working and you start questioning yourself… because when something from 350 Euros hits it off quickly, you naturally think that everything is going to be that easy. We had a bit of arrogance, maybe we weren’t humble enough in thinking I can do all of that because I did this business with just 350 Euros. But it wasn’t the case. Perhaps my heart wasn’t really in it, it was never really my project, I just got pushed into different scenarios because everybody wanted to have me in there. Honestly, it didn’t light me up. Well and this is the part where she came in from around the corner and saved me 😂

So you met in a time when you were …

Katja: … in a very bad place, yeah. Not knowing what to do with my life. I basically ran out of all my money that I had made with Flor De Sal. I just stood there waiting and spending it. Mmmm nothing is coming in, maybe I should start dishwashing 🤣
But for real, I was so lethargic, I was paralyzed. And Kate came along. I did a lot of spiritual work before but I just couldn’t get out of that loop of darkness I felt inside. Do you know molasses? … I felt like I was in the sticky molasses. I couldn’t get out of it on my own. And it took quite a bit of work from your side, huh? You’ve been…

Kate: Patient. Tolerant. 😂 

So what changed?

Katja: The vibrations. Feeling alive again. I felt dead in an alive body: no dreams, no aspirations, no direction, no joy…

Kate: And I think supported. You know, one of the things about the business is that it was created for Katja to have this business. I supported the business, so I would come in to do the healing, make sure it was going in the right direction. And then as healers we knew that something shit was coming so we’d done our work and then covid happened. And I was working super busy and Katja had to hold the fork really while that went on. 

Katja: Yeah we started two weeks before the lockdown: great timing!

Kate: But it gave you something to do. At least, something to focus on through that and knowing that we were in it together. And then we just got funding for it so now we could push forward with it. Also, now I can come into the business a bit more.

Katja: Actually now the idea comes together with these retreats and ceremonies because now the product is just an entrance, a teaser for the people to experience everything else. We're gonna do hydrolates and more stuff with the olive leaf, but it will always be a tease into another world really. 

Kate: Yes, the connection into the soil.

*****************

Katja: So we took a look, yesterday, at the incredible location we are probably going to take over - we can’t talk about it yet - and it’s a jewel of a place! There we're gonna be able to have a little cafe there, flagship store and elaboration center. It’s magic!

Kate: We needed something that would link everything together: we’ve got the products, we’ve got this for the ceremonies and we have somewhere where it rotates, where we can teach people how to make it because it’s such a unique product. 

Do you think the Olive Tree called you? Did you have a connection with it before?

Kate: Yes. So I had been really ill. I had chronic fatigue and I was taking olive leaf tincture, and have been for years. That’s why when I saw the waste product, we looked into making a tincture but it was just too expensive, and we had to go via medical routes. Too complicated. Then we found out they used teas in Egyptian time, it has always been a product but has only been known by country people. Or people who had olive trees they’d just put it in a pot and drink it to feel better. 

Katja: It reduces the blood pressure as well. They call it “heavenly power” in Ancient Egypt because it lowered fever, cured malaria, and it was a cure-it-all remedy. Then Greece and Italy used it as an aromatic herb for cooking in the 50’s. Since 1995, scientists started to look into it and found out it’s got two phenols inside, the hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein: they cure everything! They reduce cancer cells, blood sugar, cholesterol; they’re antiinflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial; they combat candida, are anti aging, antioxidant, diuretic. What else?

Kate: I had acne rosacea and it cured it. The doctor told me I would be on a drug for the rest of my life, I was like ‘No, I already cured myself of chronic fatigue, so I’m not going on there.’ And I took a big dose of it twice a day for three weeks: it was gone. I’m working with that and the emotional stuff. That’s why the healing comes in, it’s not just the olives, it’s all the things around it that we do: how Katja mixes it, she’s got an amazing palate. She mixes it to make it palatable, you know it’s an interesting taste cuz it’s bitter and as westerners we’re not used to having bitter things.

Katja: Thank you.

Medicine is meant to be bitter. 

Katja: Totally! And it’s really funny when you ask about the calling of the olive tree. I've always wanted to be on the West coast because I relate much more to the mountains than to the flat side of the island, and Juan Canaves, the guy who distills the essential oils of the wild plants here, told me that the olive tree chose me because I needed to learn from it. It’s a very feminine plant and I needed to connect with that feminine energy. I grew up with two brothers who were always in the light in the family, whereas I was the blacksheep. I tried to copy them to be seen and the olive tree helps me to reconnect with my feminine side as well. 

So it’s been two and a half, almost three years of your business, right?

Katja: We launched our packaging and our organic logo, two weeks before the lockdown. That was in March 2020. Long way to go, it’s a very exciting route.

When Katja told you “we gotta do something about these leaves”, how did you feel about it compared to other ideas that people proposed to you?

Katja: It felt rather abstract, for me. For example, with Flor De Sal I had this vision: I went to the salt marshes and felt I had to do something with the salt; I went to the salt marshes in Camargue, saw someone harvesting the salt and had this revelation, ‘That’s it!’. And this huge joy overcame me so I went down to Spain to knock at the doors of the salt marshes. With this it was neutral and abstract. And the more I dove into it, the more I liked the idea. But in the beginning it was rather neutral.

Kate: For me as a healer, that’s the energy you want because that's a sustainable energy. We can call it “zero point”, it’s here where you’re not high you’re not low. You hold this thing where it actually feel right and it’s a bit weird because most of us are so used to being hooked on adrenaline: where we’re going up and down and up and down. And when we connect to this point you sort of think ‘Oh really?’. So for Katja who is very much up and down - we both are - it’s good to hold that energy. It was tough for her at times because she was like ‘Well it was so easy with Flor De Sal, why isn’t it this?’ And I kept on saying, you’re building foundations. It’s a different thing, you’re building solid foundations for the rest of your life really.

Katja: It’s also different times, a different segment. There are few people who use olive tea or olive powder. 

Kate: Yes, you’re educating people on it. Salt is used by everyone.

Katja: Well no, wait… we had to educate people as well on the Flor De Sal d’Es Trenc. They had to understand why they’re spending 17/18 Euro instead of 50 cents per kilo: it’s hand harvested.

If I understand right, at first the dynamic between you two was that Kate supported and gave the idea to Katja…

Kate: Yes, it was very much Katja’s business. We created the business for Katja, because she had her business kind of taken out from under her. It was really important that she had this and she didn’t want to do it on her own so I came in as a support system. 

Whereas now it’s moving into a partnership…

Kate: Yes, because now I can bring in my work. Before it wasn’t really needed but now with the ceremonies I can bring in that side of it. 

Why do you think it works between you two?

Kate: Because we have a laugh. We’re all about joy. We’ve been through the shit more than once, we’ve had businesses, we’ve been burned. And now we’re at an age when we’re like, ‘Fuck it!’

Katja: We wanna play. 

Kate: You know, we’re past our menopause or nearly, hopefully. 

OMG I don’t wanna ask how young you are but the way you speak… I’m confused, you look incredible! Your energy is so vibrant!

Katja: We’re 55.

Kate: My kids are just about … well, they’re grown. This is the next stage of our lives, and I think finding this… all of this, you know the little house.. and I’ve done a lot of work on people… I say we have to be elders, we have to embrace being this age and getting older. And grounding in with this information we’ve got, instead of running around pretending we’re 20. So I think that joy in just being our age and having a laugh, and yeah we can have an extra glass of wine at lunch time because we are adults! Because we’re more than adults. You know, we’ve done our work and if we wanna indulge in a little bit …

Katja: We’re eager to do things right. We’re perfectionists as well, we want to do things really really right. But we don’t stress about it anymore. And I think the reason why we work really well - and there’s a third girl coming in - it’s because everybody has different talents and we don’t get into eachother’s ways. So we have Sonia who is Spanish and grew up next to an alembic, she slept next to an alembic, her parents have been distilling all their life. She got it in her veins, she’s like a fairy, when you see her walking around it’s like woah she is the tree, she is the plant, she’s so in her fifth element - it’s crazy! Therefore she’s gonna do the distillation and the harvest, Kate will be doing the ceremonies, and I  do the coordination.

Kate: It’s like a good relationship. You hold your own energy and then you work together, you’re not trying to do this onto each other. 

That’s the gift that comes from knowing yourself and knowing what you can offer, instead of wanting more more more, instead of wanting to take more space…

Katja: We wanna share. We wanna co-create as well, and we want to bring up anybody who wants to… if there’s a herbalist who wants to come plant a bit of  St. John’s wood, go ahead there’s space. 

Kate: We know a beautiful couple who do glamping here on the island and they’re always struggling for finding places, and we’re happy to share.

Kate, when did you get your calling to become a healer?

Kate: I worked as a makeup artist for a very long time, I was first in fashion and then in commercial. And as the makeup artist you’re the mother on set. Everyone comes to you for a haircut or a beard trim, or like period pains or whatever. Back in the day everyone used to smoke, so I’d be on set with my aroma-therapy sprays and we used to do long hours so I learned how to massage, and reflexology and eventually I became a reiki master. As a makeup artist you’re listening to people, listen to their stories, or you’re telling your story, you know. Within minutes - were you a model?

Yes.

Kate: Yeah, within minutes you’re touching someone and it’s a very intimate act. And someone might’ve had a terrible day and you have to be very… And I always felt I was a good makeup artist but I was better at getting them ready to go onto set so they felt the best. It was more about their energy that was really protected and held and cherished, so when they did their job they were the best that they could ever be. I think that is a quality in a healer, really. I was very ill for ten years, I couldn’t walk and talk by the end of it and so I had to find my own way of healing. When I got through that, I was in New York with my sister and she said that her sister-in-law had done a course and my whole brain went 🤯 this is what I need! I was looking for something that was much more emotionally connected, I’ve been doing reiki and it just wasn’t enough. I did the course and I started getting clients within days. It was just like something just opened the door. I did the parallel job for a while, actually I just did my last job because I’ve been working with photographers for like 15-20 years… that’s it, I just retired. I still love it, and I still got some clients and I still love doing a little bit of makeup.
But now, I’ve created my own type of healing. It’s really fast and so powerful.

Katja: So efficient.

Kate: Really efficient. Because I was like, we can’t wait around for 10-15 years … you need to get it. Then I started working with my clients and they spiraled back into whatever it was when they went back to work, so I started working with their businesses. And the business has a whole different energy path to it, we’re in it but it has its own pathway. So I started working with businesses and realized I was very good at it. I really loved it! That’s what I do mostly now, what it is is changing how business is. Dos Alquemistas is part of that, how to have a business that is successful, is joyful, is meaningful, does give something back and includes people, so that they don’t feel like they can’t be part of it. Even by having a cup of tea, you can be part of this. And if we can create that with everyone, you know… that they’re living in their joy, they’re bringing in money - which is just energy - and they’re creating something for the world. Everyone is getting on board with it, I can feel it. I’m not talking to people and they’re looking at me blankly anymore, they look at me and go ‘Yeah absolutely! We get it, let’s sign up!’ 

I never heard of anyone who works with the energy of a business, I know you can use feng-shui to change up the physical space of a business and thus influence it. But to actually work and communicate with the heart of a business and so communicate how the business actually wants to evolve… 

Kate: Yes and you may be blocking it because of something that happened in the past. We were working with a client yesterday and it was something that happened when he was 4 years old blocking his business, now. And he couldn’t get to that because he was 4. So you look at the way you as a person are blocking your own business energy.

You also say ‘stories’ and I’m like, novel? Where’s the novel? Where’s the novel? Why isn’t she saying novel? I work with a lot of writers and I think we’re on our fifth published book so far of my writers. 

Ah ah you know it’s funny, I’ve always wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl but then of course no one believed it could be a real job. So, not that I abandoned writing altogether… I just didn’t take it seriously, I’d write bits here and there and mostly daydream. But from September I gave myself a chance and quit all the “serious” jobs to just write. I even met an illustrator, probably because I am finally serious about writing! 

Kate: I can sense it’s not really for children what you write, it’s slightly “old stuff” right? Like Hansel & Gretel stuff, it’s that darkness. 

Yes! LOL I do polish them though because I think they’re too much … but I’ll defo try to do it less, or have a separate polished version. 

Kate: What I would visualise - and it’s what I do with my authors - is the finished book. The colors… mmm this paper smells really nice. 

So when we do that, now you can be joyful: it’s already done. We’re already done, it’s all there, so now we can play, we can just do what’s fun. Let’s have another coffee, because it had to be… it’s part of your journey. What you’re bringing into the world.

Also you can be playful now.

Yeeeeeah that is not my forte lol You know when you switch to a very creative and almost abstract “job” - it’s not a job but I make myself feel like I really have to do it or…

Kate: That’s not you, that’s your ancestors. That’s from your mother’s side. You can clear that, now you can clear that. That’s got you here, but now otherwise it won’t be joyous for you, it will be ‘ugh this is another thing I need to do’. And he’ll have to be kicking you in the back of the knee !

(He is Alex, who was with us during the interview) He does !! He is so good at making me laugh and freeing me from pressure…

Alex: For me it’s all about the creative journey so getting lost and inspiration, like that’s the job… and I know it’s difficult but I can see she can bring some stuff of her own. 

Kate: But it’s not hers. It’s her ancestors, they were very very driven and when there’s a lot of migrations through the family and people having to go from here to here… It makes that journey really tough, you know? You have to build barriers, you have to focus. … Katja, do you wanna tell them about your grandmother? The healing that we just did?

Katja: Ahh yeah, so my parents are German. During the II WW when Hitler invaded Poland, the people living in the West side were told they had to move to Poland and they would be given a farm and a restaurant. The families moved over and had to take on a restaurant with a farm and a bakery, and the Polish who were the original owners had to work for them. My mom was around 7 years old at the time, her grandmother was living with them too. Then when the Russians counter invaded Poland to push back the Germans, there were severe shortages and scarcity. My family had to escape to Denmark and live in a refugee camp. I have always had this irrational fear of lack of money, my mom too and she calls me up to ask if I have food in the fridge. It gets on my nerves but I understand, she had to steal bread from the soldiers to feed herself. We actually worked at that quite a bit but the last shift was this Hildegard coming in. I did a consultation half a year before and she came in, the guy with whom I did it asked ‘ Is her name Hildegard?’. I said I didn’t know, so I called my mom and asked the name of her grandma, she said Hildegard. When we released her she was scraping the flour from the floor to try to make another dough of bread, because there was so little food. She’s been with me all the time and she implanted that fear of scarcity of money.

Kate: So we released that for her. And that’s what I feel with yours and you have this joy. What happens when you bring it in - and this is why I think business is so important - with that attached to it, that’s what goes out energetically. So we have to clear all our stuff, so we’re clean: whatever we give out is clean!
It gets even more interesting and I’m off to Egypt to do some work, my daughter is like ‘please mummy don’t tell anyone what you’re doing, put on a straight jacket’.

That’s so funny! I know another woman, who’s also a teacher to me, and her daughter says similar things to her. I have the opposite, my mom is the one rolling her eyes at me and my room full of bones and altars. lol I remember she’d just ignore me whenever she saw me clean the animal bones I found in the forest.

Kate: I used to collect stones. We used to live in Brighton and my mom told me she used to throw them out of her pocket, cuz there were so many. 

My daughters were the same until I said we could only collect heart-shaped stones but we lived in Cornwall, where there’s loads of those fucking heart-shaped stones.

I only collect stones that I find with a hole. 

Kate: They’re witches’ stones in the Celtic tradition. You need to go to Wrabness because it was where they used to quarry the flints 30’000 years ago, so you walk on the beach and you can find the little things that they used to cut and I found an arrowhead there. I picked it up, my brother in law was an archeologist and he just died and I said ‘give me something’ - he was a specialist in teeth - I said ‘give me something’ and I looked down and there’s this arrowhead. I took it to my friend who’s an archeologist and they said it’s museum quality. It’s sooooo beautiful, they said it’s between 30 '000 to 40' 000 years old. So I understand, you gotta go to Wrabness. And you can visit Greyson Perry’s house, there’s a little cafe, too. 

Do you think you’re expressing more of your genius since you started this business together?

Kate: I think we’re stepping into it.

Katja: We’re at the gates, we wait and see next year lol 

Kate: I think when we found this we were just like pixies, weren’t we? 🤣

Katja: Totally!

Kate: And then the idea started to pour, if you sit and listen to us we’re like ‘and we can do this, and we can do that, and we gonna do this,…’ Talking to investors we sort of tone it down a little not to scare them away immediately lol

Find DOS ALQUEMISTAS here.