By MaCayla Jablonski, Staff Reporter.
Young entrepreneurs are taking Old Town Saginaw by storm. Rachel LaDrig, worker at Counter Culture, paired with friend Janey Cascadden, co-owner of Rock Your Locks Salon, have come together to create Remedy Mind & Body Salon. The studio is planned to open on April 1, at 106 N. Michigan Ave. in Saginaw.
Remedy will feature five certified yoga instructors. “I have hand-selected these specific instructors because they have something that I enjoy,” LaDrig says. “They’re teachings are more focused on their Eastern foundation — which means they’re more spiritual and authentic instead of just cruising through a good workout. I’ve worked with these people and they’ve allowed me to really get into yoga.”
LaDrig noticed the recent rise of yoga and decided this was the right time to open their studio. “We want to shatter the expectations that people have developed about yoga,” shares LaDrig. “People think ‘I can’t go to that yoga studio because it’s pretentious, or only soccer moms go there, and I can’t do it I’m not flexible,’ but we want to be welcoming. There will be something for everyone here.”
Remedy Mind & Body Studio will offer classes including sessions for the elderly, kids ages five through 10, community yoga, mid-day yoga for those on-the-run and a Sunday donation-based class called Karma Yoga. The styles will vary from yen restorative flow yoga to urban bootcamp workouts. “We want to make it accessible to more people while also teaching them the traditional ways of yoga philosophy,” says LaDrig.
The inspiration behind Remedy Mind & Body comes from LaDrig’s path of recovery. She suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, and during that time, lost herself. LaDrig says when she found yoga she also found a new sense of self. “The biggest gift [yoga] has given me is the opportunity to develop a relationship with myself and my body,” she says. “It helps me slow down and tells me when I need to make time for myself and to be good to myself.”
LaDrig and Cascadden started talking business when Cascadden opened her salon. “I came to Janey saying like ‘Ya know we should just do it!’” says LaDrig. “I was already doing Wellness Wednesdays at Counter Culture so I figured we could build it from there.”
Cascadden adds, “I recognized an uprising of a healthier lifestyle based on meditation and yoga and being fit, rather than taking a pill. That’s when we landed on the Remedy idea.”
The co-owners chose to locate in Old Town Saginaw, not only because it’s next to Rock Your Locks Salon, but because they want to contribute to breathing new life back into the area. “I feel like I’m adding to the recovery of the city, and a recovery of my own,” says LaDrig. “We want to make this area safe again.”
Cascadden says she noticed that malls were starting to die out and downtown areas, especially Old Town Saginaw, were coming back to life.
“It’s really cool because Janey is a young entrepreneur and at Counter Culture we’re young entrepreneurs,” says LaDrig. Cascadden chimes in saying, “We have our neighbor, Garrett, next door who’s a young entrepreneur, there’s Chris Chapin, owner of the new Old Town Pizzeria, there’s a new brewery and distillery coming in . . . I mean, Old Town is resurging. We have tripled our numbers every month because more people are coming here. It’s beautiful to watch.”
“We want to set an example for young people and young entrepreneurs,” says LaDrig. “My dad used to say ‘There’s really nothing to it but to do it’ and I would brush it off, but it’s really true.” LaDrig and Cascadden recommend being frugal when it comes to trying to open a business and not being afraid of doing what you want.
For more information visit Remedy Mind & Body Yoga on Facebook.