In speaking to Bobbie I could see how she puts people at ease, because she is warm and friendly. Interesting connection is that Bobbie is married to Rob of Cadco Rentals who is also in the directory. She reached out to Airdrie Exchange because she made her video coaching series free and she wanted her community to have access to this resource. There are no strings attached, she genuinely wants all to have access to tools and resources, because it takes doing the work included not just watching videos. Bobbie has been counseling and coaching adults and teen since 2009, and recently has been working heavily with businesses for workplace coaching for executives and teams. There is no shame in needing help and Bobbie Cochrane Counseling and Coaching offers privacy and comfort within her home practice for you to receive professional care or she can come to you for workplace assessments or lunch and learns. Did we mention she is also a published author with her book “Why Does This Keep Happening?”, check her website out for links to purchase as well as the free video series . Bobbie is trained in EMDR, hypnotherapy to help people work through trauma, depression and anxiety. Please don’t suffer, if you need help reach out. If you are ready to take your life by the… horns, give Bobbie a call as well so with her coaching you don’t get sidelined by life, she can help you step into the most powerful version of yourself.
I’ve only spoke to Karen of this couple powerhouse and yet everyone I talk to has only met Mark. Karen is the behind the scenes, admin and marketing while Mark is who you see coming to your house as he is the physical aspect of their business. Although Mark and Karen reside in NW Calgary and their equipement is in NE Calgary, 50% of their business is conducted in Airdrie. Their focus on offering impeccable service and cleaning has resulted in a loyal word of mouth foundation here. Isn’t that what every business would love!? Yet so many business in their industry are not in their integrity with how they run their operation. This is my observation not Karen’s and as a true stand up entrepreneur her and Mark only focus on what they do and it shows.
Dang Good Carpet Cleaning does furnace, carpet and upholstery and coming soon this year 2019… window washing. They have been in operation since April 2016, so three years coming up real quick. They just came home with the HomeStars 2019 Best of awards for their business so they are doing a great job. There are 4 employees now and come summer with the addition of window washing they anticipate hiring two more. When I asked Karen about their community involvement she was almost apologetic as she seemed to think that their involvement with the local church was not enough? Based on the current economic landscape, their very valid focus has been to ensure their employees are taken care of. That is the sentiment of a true leader. Community involvement isn’t always about supporting events or non profits, its making sure your people are secure so their families are stable and cared for. Community involvement must always be within your means and should never threathen your sustainability. Saying no now so you can give a meaningful yes down the road is something I identify with and support for new businesses. I love that Dang Good Carpet Cleaning came on board with our directory because it challenges you to reconsider what support local means. It’s not about where you live, it’s about how much you care for those you serve. Their excellent reputation and growth through word of mouth is testimony to that.
You may know Kim from all his years of involvement in our community with his work on the Parades and Firework Committee as the volunteer coordinator as well as the DeMolay Youth group where Kim recently ensured were all well fed on their last weekend camping event. Or you may see him when the Wildrose Shrine Club puts on their Santa pics at Walmart to benefit the Children’s hospital. Kim and his wife also are involved with helping the city with their urban beekeeping project with tours to their personal hives, as they own Bee Wize(also found in the directory) selling bee products and equipment for beekeeping. Kim has been licensed in the financial industry just over two years and he describes the immense satisfaction he gets from seeing young families getting clarity though the education and awareness he provides on how money works. Helping families see a future with their finances is very fulfilling to Kim. If you want to learn about your own personal finances check Kim Greenizan’s WFG listing
I met Theresa last year at an AWBA meeting where she explained BOWEN technique. It’s relatively new to Canada, as it was brought here from Australia 15 years ago. Theresa has 20 years experience as an RMT(registered massage therapist) and added BOWEN to her repertoir 7 years ago. Her motivation to bring this therapy to everyone is a great story. Knowing what Theresa knows now and applying it to her life events, everything makes so much sense.
While Theresa was a young child in grade 2 she experienced being dropped by her good friend from the full height of the teeter-totter when the bell rang to notify them recess was over. She was sore for days but recovered without much incident, however within a month of this she experience the onset of a lifetime of pain and discomfort of debillitating migrains and sciatica. She manoevered her life with an almost constant 8 out of 10 for pain and saw some temperary relief from receiving massage therapy, which was her first reason to see others dealing with pain to get any relief she could provide them. Eight years ago she herself went through BOWEN therapy and for the first time ever she achieved a constant 1 out of 10. This was life altering and obviously why she obtained the training to provide relief for others. She not only does this through her home practice she also employs many others to bring this therapy into senior living centres in over 10 other cities and towns. As I write this I have just completed three sessions with Theresa last Friday and I highly recommend. This is a therapy you can claim through your insurance under massage, though the experience of the Bowen technique does not feel like a traditional massage.
So what is Bowen technique you ask? It is the repatterning of your targetted nerves, almost a reset if you will so you can allow the body to operate as it is designed. Theresa skillfully determines where the imbalances are based on the symptoms or ailments you experience, where she applies the techniques are not always obvious. I personally learnt about the nerve issues that can arise from tailbone injuries, pelvis trauma from giving birth and other nerve related issues you can trace back to an incorrect signal from the nerves due to trauma, or built up stresses on the body that can cause chronic issues. Theresa treats many for anxiety, gut issues, fertility, sciatica and hormonal imbalances through BOWEN with great outcomes. Since this is relatively new I would suggest contacting Theresa at Best of Health to see if the Bowen technique would help you. All this time I thought of muscles and bones and never once really considered the nerves, this was quite eye opening.
Samantha was introduced to me a couple years ago through a mutual friend at an event where she spoke to her radical journey of self love. With BeYOUtiful Box the business she launched May of 2016, she delivers a monthly subscription dose of self love treats to the doorstep for women that struggle to make self care happen regularly. The treats in the box are all Canadian and or locally sourced, from bathbombs, sweets, makeup, jewelry and handcrafted items which alway include the company info if you want to replenish or explore the company’s other products. I personally purchased the BeYOUtiful advent box for my mom this Christmas and the thought and care that went into the wrapping of the gifts was extrordinary. What I especially loved about it was my mom calling me almost every day to let me know what she got that day. I will definitely purchase this again next year just based on the connection it creates between the recipient and the donor throughout the month of December. Samantha explained that the testimonials and thanks you she has received from recipents haven’t been as much about the items in the box but more the effect of regular practice of self love and what that does for the woman’s sense of self-worth and general outlook on life. Samantha’s goal is to gently remind 100 women, monthly that they are beautiful and deserving of love through her BeYOUtiful Boxes and even more women through her public speaking engagements.
Samantha is very open and honest about the realities of being a woman, a mom, a human. The daily struggles of life and the past you must leave behind are all subjects of discussed in her Facebook group The Orenda Tribe, she successfully created a safe space for women to engage.
Fitting that we post about Samantha and BeYOUtiful Box now as she just launched BeYOUtiful Bundles for this Valentines. She wants to send 20 BeYOUtiful Bundles( box of 5 gifts) to Rowan House the woman’s shelter in High River so from this Valentines on, the women needing to be in the shelter will know they are worth of love. See her website though her listing to see how you can support this compassionate initiative.
I have used Jumble District over this last year as a means to get work done and let kids get active and have fun, balancing the mom guilt with business building. In those visits I was able to see the family coming together behind the scenes, I saw Jessica’s mom in the kitchen, I saw Daniel manning the floor and setting the standard for the engagement needed at the climbing walls, trampolines and so forth. Meanwhile Jessica comes out from the office after completing the administration for HR, payroll, accounts receivable and payable and other fun stuff that sounds overwhelming just writing it. As I work away on my laptop I witness exactly why I knew I had to have them in the directory. Malachi and Delaih come running up to their mom and dad, red faced and speaking a mile a minute and I see exactly why they poured themselves into this business. They want families to connect, to do things together and have fun! They are living what they made their purpose. Their kids play hockey and they both stressed outside of hockey they need to stay active and have fun or else they just resort to screen time. They were aware of this challenge and wanted to create a space to fill that need. Boy did they fill that need! The space is 24101 square feet, 11000 of that is trampoline park, 5 climbing wall, a four level play structure and a Toddler District. There are 5 private rooms to accomodate birthday parties and a 4 person air hockey game central to the tables by the food counter. My kids go hours and hours and I have to stop feeding them for them to be ready to finally go. In getting to know Jessica and Daniel I can see the commitment they have to the community as they see the need for more things to do in Airdrie for teens, and adults for that matter. Watch for their monthly regular after hours Teen’s Nights and my favorite, dodgeball night. I believe we have an untapped resource in our city as schools could be using Jumble District to fill some of the outings and reward events for our kids. Support local isn’t about location but about dedication to making Airdrie and area better and Jumble District is definitely a local gem.
I met Kent this fall when he and his crew cleaned our duct work, getting ready for winter. They arrived when scheduled, were polite, professional and I paid of much less than what I did the last time I got our ducts clean which was a couple years ago, based on the cost I was shy to revisit the service. I’m so glad I reached out to them, they did a fantastic job! Kent and I had a great conversation in my kitchen about the challenges of google and the hustle of local companies to show up on the first page of google searchs. SEO and P.O. boxes for companies to circumvent the actual city they are based in was just the tip of the iceberg. Naturally his participation in our directory comes from his understanding of what we are trying to accomplish for the business community. Kent is a smart business man. You can see this by the recent rebranding he did in July of 2017. Kent originally started his furnace cleaning business under Airdrie EnerClean and operated as such since 2009. This is a great collaboration story so pay attention. Both companies involved were providing such great work and service that they were referring business to each other with confidence. Based on this trusting relationship they decided to align more with name and branding. They are two seperate companies that trust each other and feel a responsibility to uphold their end of excellent service and work as its reflective of both of them. Kent had nothing but kind and glowing things to say about Jason Genovy of Airdrie Air and I admire two companies that can see their strength only grow from this collaboration.
Business is booming and Kent confirmed 500 Airdrie residential homes used their services in 2018 and are aiming for 750 next year, with that growth we see a growth in their team as well. Kent was very transparent and honest with his pricing structure. They use a flat rate based on square footage rather than by vent or such as they like streamlining the invoicing so that what they quote is exactly what you pay. He stated the only time there has ever been a variance is because the owner decided to replace a filter for furnace or a humidifier filter as well through them rather than going to purchase one themselves and install. They may have also decided to get their dryer vent done while they are there if they never have had it looked at before. My husband is a firefighter so he checks our dryer vent regularly since he is all too aware of the dangers if the vent does get blocked. PSA for you home owners, get it checked if you haven’t within the last year. Kent advised cleaning your duct work does not need to be a seasonal job, the more you avoid the busy season the greater the savings you will experience. Clean ducts in the spring and summer will be just as clean in the fall and winter when you turn furnace back on. I didn’t realize that. If you own a home and understand how duct cleanings will prolong the life of your furnace, consider Airdrie Furnace and Duct Cleaning. A little birdie may have mentioned a great sale for this service coming up real soon.
Katherine has an interesting niche that her business caters to, a papoose or Moses basket for dolls as well as clothing for dolls and most recently added branded vendor (human kind) solutions in the form of aprons as seen on Katherine in the above picture. When asked what she does she says she creates quality custom handcrafted items that stimulate imaginative play and support learning and communication between you and your kids. In this digital era, I can see the value of what she is doing, an alternative to screen time in needed. Katherine launched back in February 2011 almost 8 years ago, she had recently become a single, first time mom and created a part-time income through her business. Her connection within a doll community encouraged her to take on making doll clothing specifically for the Bamboletta doll because of the need and her talent, she caught the attention of Fig & Me doll producer and when they released the proprietary pattern, they gave Katherine permission to make the ever-popular papoose, as seen in the picture.
She recently attended many markets to get her face and brand out there, quite effectively I might add. Most of her business stems from her website and social media. If you have a doll lover (18” style like American Girl) that would appreciate some accessories and clothing, please see her listing in Airdrie Exchange to explore what From the Pear Tree can do for you.
It’s December 19th and I’m writting this blog but it’s also the point in time where we start to accept that the rest of the month is a write off as productivity during these holidays is almost futile. We interviewed two business owners to write about in our blog but based on timing for their promotions and such we pushed their write ups for the coming weeks. So you’re stuck with me. We further delayed publishing this post to sync up with the release of the Here’s the Scoop contribution printing. We’ve been in business 3 and a half months and we can confidently say, this is the hardest thing we’ve ever taken on. I personally was sick for a solid 3 weeks with a flu turned bronchitis and I’m currently sitting with a killer viral sinus infection. I don’t half ass anything. During this down time of not going to events, meetings or anything really, we put our heads down and did some major reality checks. Up to this point we were of the mindset that the business is slowly growing and will build momentum once the tipping point occurs. Now we’re seeing a need to do better. We’ve read books, taken courses and asked experts the questions and everything points to us not being clear in our message, our branding and our website. Kind of a hard pill to swallow but so is failure and that is not an option. We’ve decided to strip the website down to bare necessities in an effort to keep our message simple and clear. We have a vision of what we want Airdrie Exchange to be and we’ll use our blog to articulate that but as far as a stranger that jumps on our site knows, Airdrie Exchange is a business directory that looks at how the business serves the community rather that what they do. What do we mean by that? A great example of this would be Healthy Meals Made Easy, this company does healthy meal preps for you to buy. However we thought of all the times we would think to use the services would be when a new mom just gets home from the hospital with the baby, or for a recently widowed senior or when a child is sick and the family is rallying around them at the hospital. These are moments when we want to help them and we think we’ll just make them a meal. At this time we’re not afraid to admit we’re struggling to get meals on the table for our own families between activities and our new business, so taking on making another family meals isn’t really in the cards without putting ourselves into a tailspin. So a gift card for them at Healthy Meals Made Easy and they can pick what they like and fits their dietary needs. So when you look at postnatal care in our directory you will see doulas, physiotherapists and meal prep. We think when you start browsing a directory it’s for ideas and by seeing all the businesses that collectively serve in the area you’re looking you may find your answer.
We’re looking for the website to do all the heavy lifting so we can keep costs down as long as we can, as we are currently a business of one. We are rebranding site and really looking to capture all the information during the listing process. We want to have space rentals captured so we have a compiled list to use down the line. We want this site to be resource for families and businesses and non profits. At this point we are going to focus on making it the best local business directory and we will do everything we can to see the businesses that participate in it to see value and feel supported. We’re firm believers while Airdrie Exchange is young and running financially lean, we can create the value through out efforts, sweat equity in essense.
We feel very intune to the struggles of small businesses as we are one and we committed this business to helping the business community overcome those challenges based on our very own needs and financial realities. When we roll out ATown Syndicate you will see the most innovative way local companies can customize and budget their marketing plan for the year using any and all of the local advertising mediums. Airdrie Exchange’s ATown Syndicate is going to increase business for all, including all the advertising mediums of paper, radio, billboards, bus wraps and innovative cutting edge technologies not even used yet. Prepare for 2019, it’s setting up to be mindblowing!
I have met Kerrie numerous times over the last year at markets and events and finally at a recent event through Gypsiella I was able to connect with her and get to know more about what she does. I found what she does so intriguing I referred my mom, she now takes her great Pyrenees Milah to Kerrie for Magna wave treatments. Big dogs are famous for arthritis and joint issues and poor Milah has already had an ACL tear and reparative surgery 3 years ago and she is only 6 years old now. I jealously call Milah my little sister, as my mom makes all pets instant family, but this big fluffy polar bear sized sweetheart is a show stopper. The magna wave therapy that Kerrie offers is a chance to offer Milah pain relief, reduced inflammation so healing can occur. I recently tore my achilles and going through the healing process so this therapy as I learned would help me as well.
Kre8ing Waves started in June of this year and Kerrie Collingham the owner listed in our directory back in October, if you want to explore PEMF therapy for yourself or your four-legged family members. Kerrie works from home and is mobile with her PEMF device which essentially increases circulation at a cellular level using magnetic waves being aimed at pain affected joints (arthritis and ACL tears). This therapy is a drug free alternative for pain control and allows the natural healing process to occur when the inflammation is reduced.
In speaking to Kerrie her passion is for pets based on her experience with supporting her own dog’s recovery from a knee injury, she wished she knew about magna wave back then. The vision for her company is to someday open a pet rehabilitation pool, in conjunction with the current magna wave therapy, could provide a fun alternative to pain relief and healing. I’d love to see her successful in this vision, many owners would do anything to offer relief from pain for their loved fur babies.
So what is Bowen technique you ask? It is the repatterning of your targetted nerves, almost a reset if you will so you can allow the body to operate as it is designed. Theresa skillfully determines where the imbalances are based on the symptoms or ailments you experience, where she applies the techniques are not always obvious. I personally learnt about the nerve issues that can arise from tailbone injuries, pelvis trauma from giving birth and other nerve related issues you can trace back to an incorrect signal from the nerves due to trauma, or built up stresses on the body that can cause chronic issues. Theresa treats many for anxiety, gut issues, fertility, sciatica and hormonal imbalances through BOWEN with great outcomes. Since this is relatively new I would suggest contacting Theresa at 
I have used Jumble District over this last year as a means to get work done and let kids get active and have fun, balancing the mom guilt with business building. In those visits I was able to see the family coming together behind the scenes, I saw Jessica’s mom in the kitchen, I saw Daniel manning the floor and setting the standard for the engagement needed at the climbing walls, trampolines and so forth. Meanwhile Jessica comes out from the office after completing the administration for HR, payroll, accounts receivable and payable and other fun stuff that sounds overwhelming just writing it. As I work away on my laptop I witness exactly why I knew I had to have them in the directory. Malachi and Delaih come running up to their mom and dad, red faced and speaking a mile a minute and I see exactly why they poured themselves into this business. They want families to connect, to do things together and have fun! They are living what they made their purpose. Their kids play hockey and they both stressed outside of hockey they need to stay active and have fun or else they just resort to screen time. They were aware of this challenge and wanted to create a space to fill that need. Boy did they fill that need! The space is 24101 square feet, 11000 of that is trampoline park, 5 climbing wall, a four level play structure and a Toddler District. There are 5 private rooms to accomodate birthday parties and a 4 person air hockey game central to the tables by the food counter. My kids go hours and hours and I have to stop feeding them for them to be ready to finally go. In getting to know Jessica and Daniel I can see the commitment they have to the community as they see the need for more things to do in Airdrie for teens, and adults for that matter. Watch for their monthly regular after hours Teen’s Nights and my favorite, dodgeball night. I believe we have an untapped resource in our city as schools could be using Jumble District to fill some of the outings and reward events for our kids. Support local isn’t about location but about dedication to making Airdrie and area better and Jumble District is definitely a local gem.
I have met Kerrie numerous times over the last year at markets and events and finally at a recent event through 
supporting her own dog’s recovery from a knee injury, she wished she knew about magna wave back then. The vision for her company is to someday open a pet rehabilitation pool, in conjunction with the current magna wave therapy, could provide a fun alternative to pain relief and healing. I’d love to see her successful in this vision, many owners would do anything to offer relief from pain for their loved fur babies.