This is What's the Deal. Grosse Ile the podcast that explores the people places history and events that make Brasil unique. I'm your host, Ben fote. You know, it's a pain in my back. You may not. But Christine Crawford does. Christine opened her chiropractic clinic on Macomb street in 2020, and has jumped into being a vibrant part of our downtown business community. So let's jump right into. Well, my guest today is an integral part of any activity on Macomb street often you'll see Christine Crawford hosting events and celebrating other local businesses at Crawford chiropractic clinic. And that's overlooking just the services at the CORE Chiropractic care. Well, thanks for joining me, and What's the Deal? Grosse
Ile? Hi, Ben, thank you so much for having me on your show. I
really appreciate it. Yeah, I've been looking forward to talking to you for a while. Same so last year I talked with Emily Willman about Island goods and she gives you credit for the confidence to open her shop in what turned out to be fairly early in the pandemic. But you opened your clinic the same year so what what made you choose grow seal in Macomb Street?
Okay, so yeah, back in February, just two years ago, I just kind of hit a crossroad where I was at with the office I was working at and Kelly Chester actually a pop up platter had posted a post on Facebook with her keys saying, you know, I'm opening up my new business. I just saw that it just, it just hit me and I said, You know what, I need to do this, I need to open up an office. It's time you know, I've been, I'll be a chiropractor this fall will be 20 years. So I was just at that time, I was ready. And I reached out to one of my best friends Angela coca. So she was the DDA director at the time. And I just sent her a text said, Hey, what are your thoughts about a chiropractic office on the comb? And she said absolutely. And called me and we kind of got the ball rolling. She put me in touch with slats to there was a the house that I'm in now. So they were going to be working on flipping the property. So she put
me in touch with them. They have lots of rental properties on the street.
Yes, a lot. Yes. And actually, one of the owners, Sarah, I've known him our girls went to preschool together. So it was you know, I reached out to her and, and said, Hey, I'm thinking about doing this, they thought it was a fantastic idea. And they were really excited because like I said, they were getting into this building, and doing a lot of renovating to it before they were going to lease it. So. So that led to a conversation with Emily. So she's my neighbor and friends. And I said, you know, I'd like to have some other draw in the office other than just coming in for chiropractic. I liked the idea of having some spirit where and she, you know, had her business, you know, for her, her spirit where so we talked about maybe putting something in my office. And then she started opening up about the fact that she wanted to open up a store. Let's do it absolutely should I don't know, I'm not sure. And then I think the next day she sent me a taxes. I'm doing it. So that's kind of how that ripple effect literally went from Kelly Chester at the pop up platters. So myself to Emily. And, you know, I don't I don't know who else she's inspired. But you know, people are definitely watching and
did the floral business in that in that building with Emily open at about the same time to
a little Yeah, I think they were there a little bit before that. Yeah, I think so. So yeah, just awesome. You know, ripple effect and, and very exciting.
Excellent. Well, so you started the business, how did you build up your client base then?
Okay, so when I had decided to, you know, sign the lease and open up and work through the renovations, that was towards the end of February. And then of course, we know the world shut down just after that. My original plan was to open up on April 1 and April Fool's to me, that clearly did not happen. So it just kept getting pushed back and pushed back and then the township shut down. So you know, the building was ready, I was ready, but the certificate of occupancy couldn't occur until they got back into the office, and were able to grant that so I, you know, basically the end of, let's say, the end of May was the time that they got back in and I was able to get that and officially open June 1. So at that time, chiropractors were still open for a central business. Some many people did get to chiropractors, but I think just so many unknowns, a lot of people weren't going anywhere, and ever, you know, a lot of our patient based on the island worked from home. So once we opened, it was just me in a continuous amount of patients coming in new patients, people that had been working from home and obviously sitting a lot of the time, lots of low back pain, lots of sciatica. It started off kind of new patients coming in that way, as well as I had patients from the office I'd worked at before, as well as Dr. Berty, who had had a home office she ended up closing and reached out to me and we sat down and she handed over the patients that she had seen And so that kind of all came together at the same time. And just it's been fantastic ever since. So very, very grateful. Very fortunate.
Yeah, that's great. You probably didn't have too many worries once that happened.
No, absolutely. That's pretty, pretty incredible because in my mind, I said, I'm going to open this office and just go slowly start back up my patients from the other office and my friends and people I know here and it absolutely did not happen that way at all. I was just taken aback and and just went with it. Which led me to hiring Laurie who's my office manager. So she had reached out to me on Brazil now page seen that I was gonna be opening and, you know, she kind of said, I'd love to have the opportunity. I said, I'm gonna be okay. I'm just gonna open up and slowly do my thing. And I wasn't looking to hire anyone right away and new business, I want to cut down on costs. And with everything those first few weeks, I, I sent her a message I said, Would you like to come in for an interview? And her and I connected right away? And she's been with me on board since you know, those first couple of weeks, and I could not do it without her. She's amazing. So very, very lucky. Yeah.
Well, I think most people are familiar with at least the term chiropractic care, but just in case, it's new to some of us, what problems make someone turn to a chiropractor.
Okay, so how most people see us for something going on in the rise. pain related. Low back pain is obviously a very common factor. You know, neck pain, shoulder pain, headache,
a lot of people are probably starting to feel well, over the last couple of years, at least, people are sitting in chairs that weren't designed to be set in for officers.
And that's my son was like the having the little back clinic of Grazia we literally could have called it for a time there. And then it kind of shifted into the the neck and shoulder pain clinic of Grosse Ile because people work in at home and a computer, you know, from the dining room table. So that's, you know, the main amount of people that come in, I do specialize in maternity and pediatric care. So I do see a lot of pregnant patients and kids for all kinds of different issues. But basically, I always say that chiropractic can help with anything, as long as you have a spine. Everything's connected. So the spine controls and coordinates everything in your body. So that's why we don't when people ask me, Can chiropractic help with this or that something non traditional, say, like allergies or asthma or something along those lines, if it's tied into the spine, if it's related to the spine? And absolutely, and we don't know until we start adjusting and see if this can help or not. So
if you're allergic to back pain. You Yeah, I think I am, by the way.
Now that we've chatted, so
yeah, now I remember seeing, I think you shared this on Facebook, just recently, memory of treating a infant helped.
Yeah, so what happens on the birth process is pretty traumatic. And what happens a lot of times is misalignment will form out of just, you know, just a birth and babies don't know how to signal this bothers me this feels out of alignment, this feels bothersome, so they're naturally will cry. colic is very high with babies that have issues with their spine or something going on. So by evaluating that, and doing a very gentle adjustment, which is literally just like putting a little bit of pressure onto their spine. It will help with a lot of things in the colic usually is something that will go away. So I've helped a lot of babies with colic over the years and, and you know, that's why so yeah,
yeah, that's great. So, aside from that, which is which is really special, what else makes your clinic special for you.
So our office is just Lori and I, and we love it. So it's very personalized. When you walk in, it feels like you're walking into our family room, you know, her big smile on face to greet you. We've definitely become very connected with our patients. And that's, you know, almost like a family feel here. We take the time, we're not a very high volume office where you're in and out in a few minutes. We, the patients come in, they lay on the massage table for 10 minutes to relax after they come in. And then they do the adjustments. The adjustments are always tailored to whatever that person needs. So it's not just a one size fits all type of technique. So depending on what they need. The convenience of the island being here is very unique. So when we had the bridge shut down, we had a lot of people switch their chiropractors just because it's easy to pop in and get adjusted on their lunch hour or you know, when we didn't have buses last year, we had a lot of people stopped by after dropping the kids off at school or
picking. I imagine there was a lot of tightness from that. Yeah, so
yeah, absolutely. And then, of course the I see a lot of the high school kids so they Just walk over here right after school. A Lots of athletes work with them. So
the convenience of thought about how close you are to the high school? Yeah, yeah, no, it's
been pretty awesome. And of course, for me as a single mom having that opportunity to drive my kids to school, so I just dropped everybody off last year. And you know, my son, actually, when he had virtual, he sat in the back office, so I could keep tabs on his schoolwork. So it's been, it's been nice and convenient, like I said, to have the office here, you know, within reach of everything. So
no, I'd seen that drop table, the massage table, what does it do? How does it work?
So the massage table, patients lay on that for about 10 minutes. So it's called intersegmental traction. So it's rolling up and down the spine, it's helping open up the joints, it's helping to relax, it does some pressure points into the muscle stimulates blood flow. Basically get them you know, coming from work or wherever they're coming from hustling bustling, getting them in the office and relax. And then we go over to the adjustment room and do spinal adjustments.
Now, as I talked about earlier, you've been you've really been all in for these community events, you're a highlight of the ladies night out and paint the town red. And in the other parades we have for what, for the island fest. And for Halloween, I've seen often you've had a food truck in the parking lot or another business we'll set up inside for some of those things. And that isn't something many other businesses on Macomb have been doing. So what inspired you to do all that.
So when I decided to open up my office, I knew that I wanted to be very involved with bringing people together because that's just what I do outside of that socially. I remember when I first moved here getting every girl that I knew that I met through it everyone here on the island we do, ladies laid over at Lloyds and Wine Wednesday. And I've always had a lot of different groups of people all come together and hang out and be social. That's just who I am big extrovert. So I knew that that was important to me to have that. Along with the office and, and bringing people together and great opportunity here and amazing community that we're in. We're so lucky. So. So that was definitely a priority. Unfortunately, the plan was to have my grand opening ribbon cutting, I guess you could say for the the parade for I live fast. And then that clearly didn't happen. And then I had originally when I planned to open wanted to do my big party at the homecoming parade. And that didn't happen with COVID. It's just been crazy these last two years. And I just didn't feel right about having any big events for that until everyone was you know, there's a lot of fear and concern and I just wasn't going to host the big event until everyone felt comfortable. So I'm going to look at this September, I'll be my 20 years of practice. And I'm going to probably tie in an event of having you know that ribbon cutting grand opening here I am party. So stay tuned for that one. Yeah, so it's fun. I love it. It's been great. So
yeah, you know, we talked about that. And I, we really should talk about where you're located. You're obviously I'm a comb street, but it's a fairly long street. So yeah, so
this building was actually brought Okay, so let's see it started out and why not. And then it was moved out to Stoney. And then when they dropped the channel, it was brought to Brazil. So this building is well over 100 years old. It's right, we share the parking lot with tails. Right next to Richardson's Otto and across the street from the bakery
is a perfect place to be love it right now. So you've got that event. Are there any other events that happen on Macomb street or anything that the DDA might be planning that I'm missing?
So I'm not gonna go into too many details in the work we had. Some of us female business owners get together a couple of weeks ago and had, you know, kind of an idea sharing of some events that we'd like to start working on. Aside from DDA, this will be something that will, we'll draw in as business owners and we'll host these events and we're gonna meet again next week. So the ball is kind of getting rolling with that. So stay tuned, because it will be exciting once we get everything figured out and all the details of it, but I love being able to work with these like minded business owners were, you know, very, very new within the last couple of years starting businesses, and I feel like at this point, you know, moving past out of this COVID last couple of years, the community needs this. We definitely you know, enjoy getting together and I think back to the homecoming last year, and the trick or treat on Macomb. That was kind of the first event that people got out of the house and went to with large groups of unknown people. And it was just the vibe I really got tears in my eyes. I remember at the homecoming because it was a beautiful sunny day. I remember, across the street, Jeff Forrester, he had a bar set up, walked up or grabbing a drink. We're all talking. And it just felt so good to have that which we've always had when we get people together around here. It just pause for everything. So yeah,
and I think we started to forget about it a little bit. Yeah, I
feel like we're going into these months right now where everything can still be hosted outside, you know, people aren't at that comfort level yet. And that's, you know, okay, so
Well, I think there's another aspect to it is a lot of folks have moved to the island recently. I think in this last this last two, three years, even a lot of folks have have started moving, I think there's sort of a change in in generations and some properties. And so we're seeing a lot of newer folks that aren't aware of all this. It's a it's it's not as easy to publicize things and grow CLAS as a lot of other places. So right. Yes, absolutely. Great. And yeah, we talked about all the all the great business owners that are on Macomb Street and I'll tell you, I haven't met anybody with a business on Macomb street that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. So I can imagine those those meetings you guys have are just are just a lot of fun. So do you have any advice for anybody who might be thinking about starting or moving a business to grow, seal,
just make it happen. So I'm just, I feel that becoming a business owner myself has just been one of the most wonderful experiences. You know, being a single mom, the flexibility of my kids that it creates for myself has been amazing. Meeting so many people here, so many different people is just wonderful, absolutely love it. And yeah, just like I said, just make it happen. So you don't know until you try it and give it a go. And the community is very embracing. So Dr. Khaled over at the urgent care. And I remember when I was getting ready to open and I kind of reached out to him. And his advice was if you know the community embraces you, you know, you will be successful. And I have been embraced and I am forever grateful. So I just make it happen. That's that's my advice.
Absolutely. And I think the town should still have some space up or down at the airport. And, and so there's there's still lots of places available for people to move businesses to so yes. Now back to the clinic, though, what's the best way to get more information or schedule an appointment at the clinic? Sure. So
the website is pretty updated. And we have our scheduled link to that. So it is WWW dot Crawford, chiropractic clinic.com. And I'll have a link to that I like to look at the schedule, you know, our phone numbers there, my text numbers there, you'll be able to see, you know, what openings we have, if not, you know, call the office, we take several different insurances. And Laurie can always look, look up the insurance benefits and see if not, we have very competitive, affordable private pay rates as well as packages for families that you know everyone gets adjusted. So there's a rate we can do that. And you know, I offer free consultation. So if you want to see if chiropractic is right for you or not, come check out our office, meet myself meet Laurie, give us a call. And we'll make that a priority to get you in to have a talk and see if chiropractic is something you want to pursue.
So the last question I asked everyone is for wish. So what is a wish you'd love to be able to grant for gristle?
So the wish I'd like to create, I think trying to bring that camaraderie with the business owners and bring the community to Macomb street. So just have that booming downtown business feel. Events, you know, think about why not how they do the third Friday, but having you know, something structured, where we can all come together and meet each other, you know, and you know, have events for families are not a huge family oriented community. So that's when I would wish. Well, thanks
for taking time to talk with me, Christine. I really appreciate you. And I'm so happy to see anyone that's working to make our community healthier and happier. Thank you man. I appreciate it. Thanks again to Christine for sharing her healing talents with community. Our downtown district just keeps getting more and more products and services that make it easier to live your life entirely again. Sorry about the one delay in the middle of the season. A lot of things came up. I'll get a few more episodes in before the summer break. If you want to support What's the Deal Grosse Ile there are some options in the Episode Notes. What's the Deal? Grosse Ile is production of fote Media Productions LLC and is edited by me then look in the Episode Notes for ways to reach me with comments and suggestions. Thanks for listening to What's the Deal Grosse
