Meet Joanna Hakimi of INDIGO in Deerfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanna Hakimi.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Joanna. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After getting into Yoga several years ago I decided to do a 200 yoga teacher training. I wanted to deepen my spiritual practice. Wanting to live and give in my life with more intention and mindfulness, I recognized a lacking in our retail community for “gifts with intention”. I would ask some of my yogi friends where they bought gifts and spiritual items and they would always give me a website and not a place.

Also, I am a licensed marriage and family therapist. I felt there was a need in our community for a mindful place where people could come and be uplifted and feel calm.

I marinated in this for a while and decided I wanted to create this space and I knew just the person I wanted to do it with! My BFF, Liz Kerndt, was a yogi herself and has an education in psychology as well AND she was looking to change careers! I ran the idea by her and she loved it! An inspirational mindful goods boutique where we could run workshops and create an environment of joy and peace.

INDIGO opened September 1st, 2014! We are coming up on our 3rd anniversary of this hidden gem.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The concept and setting up of the shop was very serendipitous. We set an intention for positive flow and energy and we gratefully received just that! The perfect space presented itself to us and we grabbed it! We then spent the summer of 2014 with a table and two chairs in the space working daily to create the environment we envisioned! The rocky part of the road is staying financially stable. It is obviously not a good time for retail right now in our country or in our community, so keeping our budget intact is definitely our biggest struggle.

It is hard to do something you love and make a financial living. They say in retail it takes about 3 years to land on your feet, so we are just coming up on our 3rd anniversary….and we feel we are going strong!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with INDIGO – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are definitely most proud of staying true to our intention: To create a mindful goods space where our customers feel uplifted and spiritually connected while finding inspirational items. We also provide workshops for the community on a variety of topics including; meditation, mindful eating, intuition, the chakras etc.

Our goal is to serve more than one community. We want to be authentic to the yoga and spiritual community as well as be a local gift shop where you can find inspirational home goods and locally made jewelry.

I think what most sets us apart is the feeling you get when you walk in the shop. You can energetically sense that you are walking into a space that feels calm, peaceful and joyful….and you leave feeling you have gained something positive!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our future plans and goal for the store would be to expand so we can have a larger workshop space and treatment rooms for healing practitioners.

Pricing:

• Our gifts range in price from $10-$300, whether it be a sentimental dish with an inspirational quote to a semi-precious piece of handmade jewelry

Contact Info:

• Address: INDIGO
  1456 Waukegan Road
  Deerfield, IL 60015
  Our store hours are:
  Tue 10-5
  Wed 10-5
  Thur 10-7
  Friday 10-5
  Saturday 10-4
  Sun/Mon by appointment only
• Website: www.indigo-chicago.com
• Phone: 224-515-8117
• Email: joanna@Indigo-chicago.com
• Instagram: indigochicago
• Facebook: Indigo- Chicago

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.