ABOVE: Laura Spitzer is one of this year’s 4 Under 40 honorees.

FAIRMONT– Laura Spitzer has been named a recipient of this year’s 4 Under 40 award. The program, put on by Scouting America, recognizes up and coming leaders in Martin County.

Spitzer is from the area and graduated from Granada-Huntley-East Chain in 2005. Following graduation, she went to school for cosmetology at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis.

“I had wanted to do hair since I was 3 years old. My aunt Mary– she was a hair stylist– gave me a tube of lipstick and a comb one day and my mom said I never talked about anything besides that,” Spitzer said.

She had first visited Aveda when she was about 12 years old and knew then that that’s where she wanted to go to school someday.

While Spitzer always knew what she wanted to do, she can’t say that owning her own salon was something she ever really imagined herself doing.

After she finished up schooling, she got a job at Liv Aveda in Mankato where she worked at for about a year and a half before moving back to the area to be closer to her large family.

“There was a lady who had an Aveda salon here but she declared bankruptcy the week I started,” Spitzer explained. “But I had just enough hours to get my manager’s license.”

She opened a business in the Main Image Salon, where Blush Salon is now located, for a few years before she was offered to buy a different building. In 2008 she opened Indulge Salon and Spa at its original location of 203 Downtown Plaza. It was there for more than a dozen years and in 2022, Spitzer purchased a building at 83 Downtown Plaza with a desire to bring in more services to the community.

“After Emmalyne passed away, I got a wild hair to put in services that I was traveling for. It would add more wellness for Fairmont,” Spitzer said.

Her daughter Emmalyne passed away at seven months in 2019. Some of the services that Spitzer found benefitted her and could benefit others that she brought to Indulge & Co., include Halo (salt) therapy, infrared sauna and a variety of fitness classes.

“I love that we’re able to do things at a decent price point to make sure we can benefit as many as we can. I love that we’re able to give so many jobs and I appreciate my staff,” Spitzer said.

These services were in addition to the hair, nail and tanning services that Indulge was already offering. Over the past few years, many other services have been added including facials, permanent makeup, teeth whitening and other cosmetic procedures like botox, lip fillers and micro needling.

About two years ago, Indulge Salon and Spa officially moved into Indulge & Co. so that all services are housed under one roof. A lot of work has been done on the interior and exterior of the building and Spitzer enjoys offering a “pretty space” for her staff and the community.

The business also includes a boutique and coffee shop. All in all about 32 staff members are employed at Indulge. Many of them are independent contractors.

The business keeps growing, too. Spitzer said they recently added a tattoo artist and last summer Indulge & Co. started selling ice cream on weekend evenings.

“We’re kind of treating it as a service project for my kids. Some of their tip money and profit we donate to local charities. We’re hoping to get more kids included this year,” Spitzer said.

While managing her business keeps Spitzer busy enough, there is another project she’s passionate about and that’s the non-profit, Forever Emmalyne, that she and her husband, Thomas, started to financially support families of critically ill children.

Spitzer also find time to help at St. John Vianney Catholic Church and School which her family is a member of and her three children attend school at.

“I do as much as I can with any extra time that I have,” she said.

She enjoys serving as a mentor to others and would encourage anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit to be curious and ask questions.

“I think you have to take a chance. There is always going to be fear but you won’t know if you don’t try. You’re going to be told no a lot and that’s okay. I was told no many times and now here we are,” Spitzer said with a laugh.

She enjoys the saying, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’

Spitzer said she felt honored when she learned she had been chosen as one of 4 Under 40, but she also said the recognition wasn’t necessary.

“I just really love what I do and if I’m able to help in different ways then I feel that that’s what I’ve fulfilled in my life,” Spitzer said. “I just have one goal at the end of my day and that’s to do the best that I can and work my way to my daughter some day.”

Spitzer and the other honorees, Lakyn Sathoff, Anna Garbers and Kristy Olson, will be recognized at an event on March 11 at Best Western in Fairmont. Tickets for the events are on sale at scoutingtwinvalley.org/4under40.