Jen Gage

MEET JEN GAGE, FOUNDER OF GIGI’S PLAYHOUSE PHOENIX AND OWNER OF MULTIPLE STRETCHLAB LOCATIONS IN ARIZONA, WHOSE PERSONAL JOURNEY EMPOWERED HER TO HELP OTHERS AND HOW SHE’S CREATING HER LEGACY.

Not everyone would have undertaken a huge task like opening a center for children and adults with Down Syndrome. Not everyone would have been vulnerable in sharing their personal journey and struggles, as a way to not only relate, but engage the community and inform those they serve, that their leadership knew firsthand what they were all going through — because she and her family had been through it themselves.

Meet the woman who has made and continues to make a lasting impact in Arizona — Jen Gage.

I spoke with Jen about her personal journey to fulfill a high need in the Phoenix Metro area for children and adults with Down Syndrome and supporting their families by bringing GiGi’s Playhouse to Arizona, which offers therapeutic-based and goal-oriented programs for children and adults. We also discussed how she’s come to own three (will be four in the next few months) StretchLab locations in Arizona. StretchLab is a unique wellness concept that offers customized assisted-stretch sessions.

At the end of our conversation, Jen shared with me that she considers herself a “Fly by the seat of my pants with my hair on fire,” type of woman, (which she said was okay to publish!) which paints a colorful picture of the giving and enthusiastic leader, entrepreneur and mother she is.

Stylish Storyteller: Can you give me some professional background about your journey and what led you to establish GiGi’s Playhouse in Phoenix and open StretchLabs in Arizona?

Jen Gage: “I’ve been in Phoenix for about 36 years now, I came to Arizona when I was in high school and I graduated from Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, so I’ve really grown up alongside the city of Scottsdale, which has been fun to watch its growth and sort of grow with it. I have gone to Pima Community College, Scottsdale Community College, Arizona State University, University of Arizona and finally got my Bachelor’s of Science degree a few years ago at Arizona State University, so I had done a lot of my schooling early and then I stopped when I got married and I had four kids. So my first child was born with Down Syndrome, and so that’s how Gigi’s came along.

When my daughter was about 17 or 18 years old in high school, I didn’t know what we were going to do after high school, so a friend of mine asked me if I had heard about GiGi’s Playhouse and I was intrigued. I said ‘No,’ and she said, ‘I think we should bring one to Arizona,’ and I said, ‘I’m so busy, I can’t,’ and then when I looked at their website and saw what they do and what their vision was for not only children with Down Syndrome, but adults with Down Syndrome, it was a no-brainer to bring one to Phoenix. So we got a startup committee together and raised money and I’ve been involved with that project for the last eight years.

“Being an entrepreneur is being able to bear risk and being patient. You take that risk and you rarely ever have immediate reward, and I think that being patient after you take that risk is hard and you second guess yourself all the time, but if you just stay with it and push forward and do the next thing that needs to be done, that’s where the growth really happens.”

“Three years ago, I was in California, we have a home there and I play a lot of tennis when I’m there, I have a club that I go to and I had a shoulder injury. I was going to a pilates class with a girlfriend of mine and the instructor asked if anyone had been to the StretchLab yet- and I was like, ‘What is the StretchLab?’ so I made an appointment at StretchLab and I loved it so much I asked if they had any open appointments for a longer time the next day, since it was the day before we were coming back Arizona, and I had the 50-minute stretch appointment the next day and my shoulder felt better.

After two stretches, I felt relief, so I told my husband at the time, ‘When we get back to Arizona, I have to find a StretchLab.’ So I got back and looked it up online and I didn’t see it, so I tried to find somebody to stretch me and there really wasn’t anybody. I told my husband and he said maybe it was a franchise, and within two weeks we had ascertained it was a franchise, went to Discovery Day and bought 10 licenses to open 10 StretchLabs here in the Valley, so it was very quick.

“It was something that sort of found me, but appealed to me immediately. I loved the fact that I could speak to it, that it was something that I would use personally that I felt other people would want to use it as well.

GiGi’s was really a startup, it was different in that it’s a nonprofit, but it’s almost harder in a way because all of your workers are volunteers, you have very limited resources, you’re constantly fundraising, so it felt like a lot of the things I did at GiGi’s really prepared me to own my own business. So it was a big leap, but I think at the time I was like, ‘Yeah, I got this, no problem,’ and I think it’s always been that kind of attitude that has pushed me into these areas I have no business in, but I seem to be able to figure it out.”

SS: How have you seen GiGi’s Playhouse evolve and grow since establishing the Phoenix location in 2015?

JG: “We started serving about 70 families in 2015 and we hosted our first fundraiser that raised about $35,000; and since then, we have raised a little over $2 million and we serve over 700 families; so numbers-wise, I think that points to how much need there was and how much growth we’ve had.

I think we started with 3 or 4 programs and now we offer more than 20 programs, so we expanded into the space next door and added GiGi University, which is an adult career development program. We’ve had an enormous amount of growth in a very short period of time and a lot of that is due to community support and community involvement. I think having lived here for 36 years and knowing a lot of people in this community, it was easy.”

SS: What skills or traits do you feel have contributed to your success thus far?

JG: “I think believing in doing something and that somebody will be interested in that thing. Being an entrepreneur, it’s being able to bear risk and being patient; you take that risk and you rarely ever have immediate reward, and I think that being patient after you take that risk is hard and you second guess yourself all the time, but if you just stay with it and push forward and do the next thing that needs to be done, that’s where the growth really happens.

And finding a good team of people is paramount. There’s now over 100 StretchLabs in the country and all of them have very different teams and leadership, and I think that you have to build that from the ground up with a really strong foundation if you want a strong company that grows really quickly. Because if your people don’t believe in you and they don’t follow you, you can’t move forward, so for me, that’s been probably one of the biggest things I’ve learned doing this business.”

SS: What are your future aspirations for GiGi’s Playhouse and StretchLabs?

JG: “As far as GiGi’s is concerned, we’re on such a growth trajectory serving families, my 5-year goal is to do a build for GiGi’s so we have a dedicated building that’s built to suit our needs exactly, so we’re not trying to figure out how to fit this program in the space, we’re going to create the space to fit the program.

With StretchLab, I want to build these 10 locations, once we have those, we will have a small company with over 150 employees and we’re already industry leaders in stretch, so I feel really good about the brand in that respect, but just continuing to grow the brand and grow awareness about what Stretch is and how assisted stretch can help you.”

SS: What are the most rewarding aspects of your two roles and why?

JG: “For me, being able to serve people, in whatever capacity it is, leaves a legacy behind. I’m not doing the health and wellness aspect personally with StretchLabs, but by providing the service and providing a place, it ties into GiGi’s because my ultimate goal is to just help people—that is the thread that ties everything together. I have a passion and a vision to help people.”