Funding with Heart

Eating has always been a nightmare. I was born in 1970, way before food allergy awareness became chic. Before anyone even knew the meaning of gluten. Before food dye was lethal. Growing up, before discovering my allergies, I was always sick, missing school, listening to friends play outside while I nursed a headache or my mother tended to my endless, itchy skin rashes.

If you would have told me that all the too-big hand-me-downs from my childhood would be the thing to lead me here…to achievement...I would have laughed in your face. But sometimes in life it’s not the things we try to do, but the things we just do naturally that lead us to success.

Sara and I started a small yoga studio in a quiet North-Eastern ski town, population 254. The rent was roughly $300.00 a month including gas and electric. We just had our first child and didn't want to travel an hour to get to class. After a year of teaching the locals, friends and family, we decided to move the studio to a more populated area. We found the perfect building on a busy street and created a budget. All we needed to do was: remove five walls, rip out the old carpet and replace it with new one made out of recycled plastic bottles, add bathrooms and showers along with changing rooms, create office space, purchase a new pellet stove to heat the room, add new walls, install full length mirrors, create a desk and benches and much more! We also needed first and last month’s security deposit, which was pretty much what we saved from the original studio.