For Lisa Russell, the hardest part of having to close her old business, Slay Fitness, down due to COVID wasn't the loss of a "thriving" business, as she described it. Nor was it the financial impact of that on her family, although that was hard.
"I had 'Rock Steady Boxing' at the fitness studio, for people with Parkinson's," Russell said, referring to the non-contact exercise classes inspired by the workouts used in the sport of boxing, which have been shown to be helpful in living with Parkinson's Disease, or PD, when I sat down with her at her new health drinks shop, Slay Nutrition in downtown Eagle Grove, to talk about the new venture. "Letting that go was the hardest part," Russell said, because she saw the health of the participants decline afterward.
It had been remarkable what the Rock Steady classes did for them, Russell explained. "For instance, there was an exercise we did where they would walk while bouncing a tennis ball," she said, describing a technique boxing trainers use to help their fighters develop their footwork and timing. "One gentleman had been using a walker before he started the program, and then one day he came just walking in, with his hands in his pockets," Russell said, "I was like, 'whoah, what the heck!' Because not only was he walking just fine again, but he'd put his hands in his pockets. When you have Parkinson's you don't put your hands in your pockets! Because you may have to catch yourself if you fall, or steady yourself. But there he was."
Then COVID hit, and in-person sessions like the Rock Steady classes just weren't possible anymore. Especially for immunocompromised people such as those living with PD. Russell tried to take Slay Fitness online, with Zoom classes, and that, too, was thriving for a while. Until the novelty wore off, and people "settled into hunkering down". And not every program could be done over Zoom, the Rock Steady Boxing included.
Like everyone else, Russell was unsure how long the pandemic would drag on, but she was resolved that she would bring Slay back, better than ever, somehow. And when the opportunity came along to take the role of Director of the Eagle Grove fitness center, which is being restored, Russell jumped at it. And she plans to bring the fitness classes she once taught at Slay Fitness to the Fitness Center, when the restoration is complete.
But that restoration is a long process, and in the meantime Russell's entrepreneurial spirit was restless. And without really realizing it consciously, she was mentally on the lookout for some new way to help people, to get back in the groove. And then one day, she tried a "tea bomb" at another Herbalife franchise in a nearby town, and was blown away. She told the proprietor of that shop about her by then shuttered fitness studio, and she encouraged her to look into the business.
The pandemic was still raging, but Russell was undeterred. It was "scary," Russell said about starting a business in the middle of a pandemic that had already driven her old business, out of business. But this was not a fitness studio, and not subject to the same limitations. So she discussed it with her husband, and together they decided, "to heck with it!"
"I'm pretty much fearless," Russell said with a shrug, "I figured, I'm gonna go for it."
And go for it she did. "It really all happened within six months," Russell related, describing the mad dash from that first sip of a tea bomb, to teaching herself all about the herbalife program and products, to testing the waters by selling the smart drinks from home, with posts on Facebook. Finding a strong demand, the Russells decided to take the next step, and open a shop. Someplace where the public could drop in and get a healthy beverage that not only wasn't going to be loaded with sugar, and unhealthy sources of caffeine, but would instead be loaded with protein to support muscular health, vitamins and minerals, and caffeine delivered in a healthy way, in healthier amounts, and derived from healthier sources. And someplace that Russell could have friendly exchanges with people.
"It's a platform for me, more than anything," Russell said with a chuckle.
That comes through in the personality of the place, which closely mirrors Lisa's. An Eagle Grove native, she's loyal to her hometown, and it shows. The shop, at 213 West Broadway, is decorated and furnished with products bought at local businesses, including a few right on the same block. There's a comfy retro sofa from Gramma's Attic. Above it, a painting by local artist Sara Middleton, a friend since childhood who also runs the Chamber of Commerce. There's tables and chairs also bought locally, and a farmhouse style bedroom cabinet from Two Chicks and a Hick repurposed into a merchandise display.
However there's another town, as it was in a bygone era, whose spirit is infused in the atmosphere of the shop. And it's somewhere Russell, a big fan of 90's grunge music, had wanted to go at the time: Seattle, Washington. Speaking as someone who actually did move to Seattle for a few years in the 1990's to be part of the Grunge scene in its heyday, I can attest that she nailed it. And for this writer, the experience of going to Slay Nutrition is like going back in time, to one of the smart bar/coffee shop combos that dotted the city.
Outside of Seattle, the coffee culture of the Emerald City, the city where "it reigns and it pours" (as locals used to say in a play on words about the wet weather, the tagline of the local pro basketball franchise the Supersonics, and the popularity of espresso in the city) became part of the mystique of the place. And like the driving, angsty, anxious beats and hooks of the music that defined the era, that coffee culture was contagious. It was as if the drumbeat driving the slowed down hair metal, loosened up glam rock, punk infused music of bands like Nirvana and Soungarden, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains (honed in earlier incarnations like Mother Love Bone, and Temple of the Dog while the music industry was busy ignoring the Pacific Northwest in the 1980's) had become the national heartbeat. And the coffee flowed through America as if driven by that beat to course through our veins. Starbucks, once a single, quaint coffee shop in the oceanside shopping center the Pike's Place Market, had become an international fast food style cookie cutter franchise for coffee. And the coffee shop as we know it spread from coast to coast.
However there was another kind of coffee shop in Seattle that didn't rise to national prominence, but were wildly popular with locals. They weren't the ones where you'd get a coffee in the morning, on your way to work. They were the ones where you'd get a pick-me-up after a night in the clubs, to rehydrate and get the kind of non-alcoholic buzz you could ride through an after party, and then back home, still going in the twilight hours. They were called "smart drinks" and mimicked cocktails, but were more like kool-aid mixed with vitamins, minerals, protein powders, plant extracts, teas, and more. Every place you'd find them, they were experimental. Unique. A little bit quirky. With clever, pop-culture inspired names.
Slay's menu lives up to that tradition almost as if by instinct, and does so with names whose pop-culture references often point back to the intersection of classic rock and grunge. Which, by the way, was in the downtown regrade section of Seattle; in the small town within the big city known as Belltown. At the corner of Third and Blanchard streets. In the apartment building that was full of art students who called themselves the "Children of the Corn" after the name of the old, run down gold rush hotel that we all lived in, the Cornelius. Halfway between the Crocodile Bar and the Sit & Spin, two of the most iconic rock venues in the city. And across the street from the little brown building where Ann & Nancy Wilson of the iconic classic rock band Heart were guiding the bands of Gen X in those days. As they recorded the standards of the grunge era at the historic, now bulldozed Bad Animals studio. And as I watched the artists come and go (wearing halloween masks to deter the paparazzi) from my 6th floor apartment window across the street. Before going to my job ringing up their lunches as the cashier at the old Dan & Rey's market across the parking lot. So believe me when I tell you as someone who was there in the thick of it every day for years, when it comes to the spirit of that place and time, Slay is (as we would have said back then) "worthy".
And what Seattle had as mad science, percolating spontaneously in the heat and pressure of an historic time, Eagle Grove has as real science. Figured out in the ensuing decades by the nutritionists and scientists behind Herbalife. And the drinks on offer at Slay Nutrition are smarter than the experimental prototypes I used to guzzle hiking down from Capitol Hill or over from Pioneer Square, on my way back to Belltown in the early morning after a late night.
"They don't taste like tea," Russell said of the "tea bombs" that make up a big part of her menu. "Mega" 32 oz. tea bombs like the "Into The Mystic", the "Thunder Road", the "Walkin' on Sunshine". Or 24 ounce "Rockin' Tea Bombs" like the "Lloyd Dobbler", the "Vedder's Better", or "The Grohl". Or the 32 ounce "Jet Fuel" tea bombs like the "Maverick" and the "Goose". Rather, the name "tea bomb" comes from the source of the caffeine in them, and the effervescent tablets that are part of the recipe to add some sparkle. Unlike the synthesized caffeine you might find in a soda or one of those canned monstrosities sold as energy drinks, the energy boost in Slay's Tea Bombs comes from natural caffeine, derived from black and green tea, which are also chock full of antioxidants and vitamins, and even collagen and protein to be good for the muscles, hair, and skin of the body. Tea (caffeine) bombs (effervescence), exploding with stuff that's good for you. Get it?
With too much coffee, or canned soft drinks, or so called energy drinks "you're gonna have that crash," Russell explained, "plus possibly the shakes, or the jitters." Not so with all the drinks at Slay, where the boost is "completely natural" ingredients. Not from a bunch of chemicals, denatured extracts, and a whole lot of sugar.
And that, miraculously, goes for their shakes too. Yes, as in ice cream shakes. Except, there's no actual ice cream in them, and they're all around only 200 to 250 calories, depending on the flavor. Each flavor as cold and delicious, and with the same mouth watering visual presentation as a premium ice cream shake from a good old fashioned ice cream parlor. And with a very similar texture that comes from blending ice with their specialized shake mixes. But instead of thousands of calories and fat, Slay's shakes are packed with protein, vitamins, and nutrients, and will leave you feeling full. Which makes sense, since they're designed to be a delicious meal replacement.
And like those experimental coffee shops that I knew in my youth, Slay offers coffee, too. Both iced and hot. Except their coffee is cleverly laced with 15 grams of protein, and most flavors top out at around 100 calories. Compare that to a typical coffee drink that can pack a caloric wallop of 400 to 600 calories. Heck, even their shakes come in at half that.
You might think, given what I've told you so far, that Russell might have named her businesses Slay because she's slaying your waistline, or your boredom. But in fact, it was inspired by something her son said to her while she was trying to think of a good name for the fitness studio. "Mom," he said, "can you believe that it's been a year now since I was getting slayed at boot camp?" As a big supporter of the military, Russelll thought that was the perfect name for her business, which was going to be a kind of boot camp for civilians. And so the Slay series of businesses were born.
But if it wasn't for COVID shutting down the first "Slay", Russell never would have found her way to the second. And she wouldn't have ended up expanding from a single little fitness studio, to the vast fitness center that's in the works. And she plans to complete her triumph over the pandemic by bringing back the popular programs she'd done at Slay Fitness, and expanding even more.
"Slay Your Mind is coming back," Russell said, referring to the informal gathering for intellectual discussion that was also a kind of group intervention for daily life, and support group for people dealing with life's ups and downs. "But now you can get Tea Bombs." And she also has a weekly delivery going to Clarion's fitness center, and another going to the Iowa Specialty Hospital in Clarion. She hopes to expand that to the Belmond hospital as well, if all goes well. And to other fitness and health oriented businesses, clubs, and organizations, as well as more intellectual gatherings like book clubs, and support groups. Anything where people could use a physical, mental, and mood boost.
And they've just added online ordering through the Engage app (merchant code: M7Q8MB – you can download the app from either the Apple or Google app stores). So you can now order online and schedule a pickup, then stop in and grab a fresh made beverage of your choice, ready and waiting for you. Or you can stop in, order, and enjoy the music while you wait. Heck, you may just like the 'somewhere in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, circa 1994' flavored ambiance of the place so much, you'll decide to grab a seat and sip while the music spins.
Yes, for Lisa Russell and Slay it's been a long, dark pandemic. But the future is looking so bright, she'll have to wear shades.
Slay is open 6 days a week, 6 am to 1pm, Mondays through Fridays, 8 am to 12:30 pm Saturdays.
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