Grace Garver

Grace Garver still remembers her first Lagree workout. "It was so challenging, in the very best way," she says. She kept coming back — not just for the burn, but for what it proved to her about herself. Eventually, it became a calling.

After years of teaching Lagree in Canada and Colorado, Grace relocated to California's Central Coast when her husband, a military service member, was stationed nearby. She loved the area. But something was missing. "There aren't really a lot of places to work out in general," she says. So she decided to do something about it. "You only have one life," she remembers thinking. "I might as well try."

In January 2026, Grace opened Haven Lagree in Buellton, offering small-group, 45-minute full-body classes on the Megaformer — a spring-resistance machine that builds strength, stability, and endurance in ways Grace describes as unmatched. Classes cap at 10 people, which is by design. "Since it's a small community, a lot of times people will come in and see other people they know," she says. "Every single person that walks through that door is important to me."

Getting there wasn't easy. Grace had done her homework — researching loans, attending small business seminars, bookmarking resources for later. But when she started applying, she ran into a wall. Traditional SBA lenders weren't interested in first-time business owners. Her equity didn't check the right boxes. The doors she knocked on stayed closed. Then DreamSpring opened one.

"A lot of lenders don't lend to first-time business owners," Grace says. "The fact that DreamSpring was willing to work with me was really helpful — I don't think I would have been able to open without them." Her California state-guaranteed loan covered startup essentials: equipment, marketing, payroll, working capital, and the day-to-day costs that tend to catch new owners off guard.

Grace is candid about the fear that shadowed her all the way to opening day. "There were so many times before I opened where I doubted myself," she says. "Am I actually doing this? Is it going to work out? Are people going to come?" It's a question nearly every first-time business owner knows by heart. The answer, it turned out, was yes.

"Once I did open and people did start coming, there was that validation — OK, yes, this is a service that's wanted and needed." Classes are filling up. Grace is hiring. And the community she imagined is taking shape one 45-minute session at a time. Every person who walks through that door is proof she was right.