Transcription of Old Port Adventuring #155
Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show #155, “Old Port Adventuring,” airing for the first time on Sunday, August 31st, 2014. It has been said that publishing is dead, but we at the Maine Media Collective know that publishing is merely transitioning and that we have the opportunity to make a good thing, even better than before. As a wellness editor, it has been my privilege to share the good news about health with Maine Magazine readers since January.
In June, we launched a new magazine called Old Port which focuses on the goings on around the Portland Peninsula. Today we speak with Jen DeRose, editor of Old Port and Kevin Thomas, publisher of Old Port Maine Magazine and Maine Home & Design. To get behind the scenes, look at this exciting edition to Maine publishing. We also speak with Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley of Portland Paddle who were featured in the September issue of Old Port Magazine. Thank you for joining us.
Most doctors do not have the opportunity to work in the publishing field and I do. I’m very fortunate with the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast to work closely with the Maine Media Collective and with the editors and publishers and staff of Maine Magazine, Maine Home & Design and now Old Port Magazine. Today we have with us two individuals who are very familiar with their newest publication which is Old Port Magazine.
This is Kevin Thomas, the publisher at Maine Media Collective which includes Maine Magazine, Maine Home & Design and now Old Port, and Jen De Rose is the Managing Editor of Old Port Magazine as well as the Editor at Large at Maine Home & Design. Old Port Magazine launched in June of this year and it covers everything you need to know about living, working and playing in Portland. Thanks so much for coming in and talking to me today.
Kevin: Happy to be here.
Jen: Thank you for having me.
Lisa: This is really an interesting time to be in publishing. I want to talk about this first a little bit because there are many people who’ve said publishing is dead, print magazines don’t work. Not only have you launched Maine Home & Design, I guess seven years ago now and Maine Magazine five years ago now. Correct me at any point Kevin but Old Port. You brought this on the scene and it’s been really well received.
Kevin: It certainly has been the common misperception that print publishing is dead. We have found quite the opposite. If we continue to focus on quality editorial, quality photography and writing and pay attention to what our readers want, there is a significant demand for print publications.
Lisa: You came into the publishing field in a little bit of a roundabout way. You’ve had a variety of different businesses that you’ve made quite successful. You decided you needed a publication to help you with the last business that you’re in.
Kevin: A lot of people don’t know that story but actually in 2003, I started a residential construction business in Kennebunkport and could not find a vehicle to properly market that business. That led me to Maine Home & Design as a vehicle frankly for me and my friends in the industry to market themselves.
Lisa: Jen, you have a lot of background in publishing yourself. You actually moved to Maine specifically to be part of this new publication. What were you doing before?
Jen: Previously, I was at Hearst Digital where I was the Digital Director for Elle Décor, House Beautiful and [Roriender 00:05:19] Magazines. Back to your earlier question, this was just such an amazing opportunity to help launch a magazine. People aren’t creating new magazines that frequently so to have an opportunity to help be part of a team right here; putting something together for the very first time is such incredible work opportunity.
Lisa: You also moved to an entirely different state in order to make this happen and you chose Maine. Why Maine?
Jen: My husband is from here originally and we would come up and visit him. Just fell in love with this city and we ended up getting married here. There were so many independent restaurants. Portland is just platter of things to do and people to meet. I was just so excited. We felt like it gave us access to the ocean and the mountains, and it’s not just the many places in the world that you get all of these things right in one place.
Kevin: We’ve been blessed having Jen on board with her publishing background but especially with her love of Maine and this freshness of spirit she came here wide-eyed and curious and that’s really helped and form Old Port as we launched it.
Lisa: Kevin, you are from Maine originally. You are from Presque Isle which is a distance from Old Port and from Portland. You left the state and you came back, and you really found again a love for the state that you were born in.
Kevin: It’s true. I think that my experience, my background really helped and form our efforts here, 75 Market Street with Maine Magazine, Maine Home & Design and Old Port. I grew up in West County in Presque Isle. I spent the first 18, 19 years of my life there. I spent a lot of time in Bangor in Maine, then a brief time in Portland before I left for Massachusetts when I was involved with a much different career in Massachusetts for 15 years, and really couldn’t wait to get back to the state.
I was attempting to get back to the State of Maine six months after I took my job in Massachusetts and from a career standpoint, I just couldn’t make that work. When I was finally able to do that in 2003, I was thrilled to be back in the State and now really happy to be able to cover Maine from a new perspective, both growing up here but also through the lens of somebody who’s been away and couldn’t wait to get back.
Lisa: Jen, you’re the Managing Editor of Old Port Magazine, but you are the Editor at Large for Maine Home & Design. From what I understand, this requires some scouting, some getting down to know the lay of the land, and really looking for resources that maybe people don’t necessarily have time to find on their own.
Jen: Yes. As we developed this position, I’ve been working on style room with Maine Home & Design which is a great way for me to interact with the different businesses and also to introduce rears to new products. Then currently, we’re working on the look back, which is the roundup of some of the best projects that Maine Home & Design has ever published. Going forward also and maybe helping to scout new projects and working with designers closely.
Kevin: The scouting aspect of what we do here at 75 Market Street is critical to our vision. A lot of our competitors rely very aggressively on pitches from PR firms or outside sources. We prefer to send people out on the road and have their own experiences, whether be through Jen De Rose’s experiences on the road finding shelter stories for Maine Home & Design or our 48 hours staff for Maine Magazine. I think that’s made a significant difference for our publications.
When Jen came on board, we wanted to very purposely make sure she was out travelling Maine and understanding the various characters and geography of the state.
Jen: My background has been with shelter publications along with Elle Décor and House Beautiful. I started off my career at Interior Design magazine as a market Editor. Interior design is just the passion of mine. I love decorating. I love design and so I’m really excited to help get more involved in that here.
Lisa: When you say shelter magazines, you mean magazines that are about homes and home building?
Jen: Right. Exactly.
Kevin: Shelter is the industry term for many magazine folks and home design, builders, architects.
Lisa: We’re going to talk about Old Port but I wanted to back up and mention that you’ve just released the second edition of “48 Hours Maine” “The 48 Hours Guide.” The one last year was very successful, the one this year is equally beautiful and I’m sure will be successful. What is it about “48 Hours” that you think gives people enough of a test of Maine. I know Jen you worked on this project yourself.
Jen: Yeah. The “48 Hours” I think it’s something that’s really special that this magazine does. I think there’s so much to do in a weekend and it can sometimes be overwhelming when you are new to a place. This gives you that introduction to the people and the places and a little bit of a taste of everything that there is to do in a city. It’s really like, I wouldn’t say it’s the best of the best, we are not pulling everything but it does give you a lot of a sampling of what you can you do.
Lisa: And that’s very similar to Old Port Magazine, you are trying to give people, you are not saying you have to do A, B, C, D. You saying these are the people of Portland, this is what we are doing. You’ve had everything from Yoga, to Kayaking. I know you are going have a blowing story coming up. You’ve talked to the people who are building hotels. Why Portland? Why did you think that Portland needed to have its own magazine?
Henry: We were convinced watching the market place that Portland was very under represented within the publishing business but also within our own publications. Maine Home & Design and Maine Magazine could not spend the amount of time on the Portland area that it deserved. We are making efforts to cover the entirety of the State from the county to the Coast.
Lisa: Old Port magazine is a little different from Maine Magazine, it feels a little faster pace somehow, it’s a very stylish, you have models who have gone to various parts of Portland and they are wearing very stylish clothes. Sometimes people don’t think of Maine as being as up to date as what Old Port shows but we really are. We’ve become a very metropolitan State in some aspects.
Jen: Yeah, Just every morning when I’m walking to work I can’t believe all the fashionable women that I can see in the City. It’s, I’m like, “Oh, I like her sunglasses or her shoes” and there’s so much going on here just on the street level. Old Port definitely tries to capture a little bit of that movement that’s going on here. That Portland is growing and we are excited to be there a long with it.
Henry: I think our experience in Maine obviously drives the content in the three publications and what we have found is that our experience has been different than the stereotype that Maine has. That we love and we have Lighthouses and lobsters but does not completely represent our experience. The stylish aspect that you referred to were the fine restaurant choices where the new craft cocktail bars are all part of the experience that we have in between the times when we are traveling to [Cataden 00:13:05] and Arcadia and doing all the fun things we are, the State is primarily known for.
Jen: I think two we have this a couple of new columns, one is Fines and one is the style column that you were talking about. It’s a roundup of the fashion and the products that are available right here at all the stores in Portland. It’s amazing what the resources are at our local.
Lisa: Well tell me about some of the other things that Old Port covers?
Jen: We have several new columns that really focus on the people of the city. There’s Love Letters column where we introduce, it’s generally three people, the last story was three couples that live and work in Portland, who they are and what they doing here. Like I said there’s the finds and style column and that’s really a little bit more of the shopping experience and all of the local independent stores. We have Dish and Drink which are a roundup of some of the signature dishes and signature cocktails that you can find. There’s really just, it’s all about Portland and everything that there is to do in the City.
Henry: We’ve really made an effort to pull in some characters that makeup Portland. People like Andrew Volk from Hunt and Alpine, David Turn from David’s restaurant, John Coleman from VIA, these are the people the characters that we run into weekly within our Portland Peninsula experience and we wanted to share that with our readers.
Lisa: It also seems that you are resenting really quite a broad age train issue. You are dealing with some of the younger entrepreneurs and some of the long term fixtures in the Portland scene.
Henry: That’s absolutely right. This publication out of the three has a larger wide range, wider demographic than any of our publications. We are really speaking to people from 25 to 70 years old.
Lisa: Here on the Dr. Lisa radio hour and podcast we’ve long recognized the link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom Shepard of Shepard financial.
Tom: Sometimes times I meet with married or partnered clients and when we get to talking about their financial lives a cultural divide bubbles to the surface. One person feels one way about their money and the other seems to be on their own financial island with a set of beliefs and rules that have created unnecessary borders and boundaries. It’s not an uncommon thing and when I hit those situations I do my best to help both people understand that neither is 100% right or wrong. That they simply have to take a step back and look at their own financial life in a new light. It is also true in politics and economics.
What we need to do is see money as a living thing that can be used to grow our lives together without disagreement or so called border issues. It’s a great feeling for me, it’s like I’m helping people negotiate peace treaties with their money. Be in touch if you want to know more tom@shephardfinacialmaine, we’ll help you evolve with your money.
Speaker 2: Securities offered through LPL Financial, member Fin Row SIPC, investment advice offered through flagship harbor advisors, a registered investment advisor. Flagship Harbor advisors and Shepherd Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
Speaker 3: The Dr. Lisa radio hour and Podcast is brought to you by Bangor Savings Bank. For 150 years Bangor Savings has believed that the innate ability of the people of Maine to achieve their goals and dreams. Whether it’s personal finance, business banking or wealth management assistance you are looking for at Bangor Savings bank you matter more, for more information visit www.Bangor.com.
Lisa: I want to talk a little bit about food because it’s been very interesting for me as someone who has been all around the State to see that even though Portland is known as a foody town. It’s almost as if we have little other foody townlets that are around up in the Camden mid-Coast area, we have the Kenny Bank area and even I’m thinking in the Mill Hill Restaurant in Bethel. Does it seem to you that there’s an infectiousness almost to this sense that we want to have the best food that the world has to offer.
Henry: I think Sam here where at Ford Street really started a trend with his early adoption of the Farmed Table Movement. I think people that people like Sam and other have really created a food destination here. I think you are right, I think that has no pan intend fed upon itself and has attracted other restaurant, tourists and chefs to the area and to Maine in general.
Jen: I would say to having gone to the Kenny Bank Port Festival in June it was just amazing. The amount of restaurants and the incredibly talented chefs that were involved with that and as well as National prost from VOG and Bon Appetit. Had a really amazing dinner with the Old Port sea grill at someone’s host and just the taunt that’s coming out of both the city and throughout the State as definitely impressive.
Lisa: You are also trying to make the City more accessible. You don’t have to go to a fancy restaurant, you don’t have to buy a fancy dress, you can also go for a run, you can also go for a walk. You are actually putting maps into your issues and you are really just saying, “Here are something’s you can do, choose whatever makes sense to you,” Which is really something that you’ve done with Maine magazine, Home & Design from the very beginning. It’s just an aspirational thing that you have to offer for people. You are not saying this is the right way you are saying here are some ways that we found that we think are fun and interesting and appealing.
Henry: Absolutely I think if Susan Grisanti was here who is our Editor in Chief and partner with the publications, she would say we curate the Maine experience based upon our personalities and our own experience. We certainly aren’t presenting this as the best of the experiences, we are saying this is our experience and you might want to share in that.
Lisa: And you are also employing people on at &5 Market Street and the word employing is really interesting to me because as part of this team it doesn’t even feel as much an employer employee relationship. As it does feel like a team. It feels like a group of individuals who really want to talk about Maine, and why we feel passionate about it, they’re just as likely to find somebody climbing a rock wall or hiking, Cataden or going to Greenville as you’re in your stilettos walking down the Commercial Street or towards Four Street.
The people in Maine are many things and in fact the same person can be interested in hiking, biking, kayaking, canoeing, and also dressing fashionable on a Saturday night.
Kevin: It was really fascinating for us to introduce the 48 hours concept to our staff and we opened up that opportunity to all our staff to participate in that. They could select a weekend and a town and go by themselves or with a spouse or someone like another. What we learned from that experience was more about their personality and to your point how people were hiking, kayaking, dancing, going out to find restaurants and I think that has been the brilliance of the 48 hours piece in general.
That we’re offering a glimpse into what our staffers prefer to do, whether be an art director, an editor or a sales person.
Lisa: We started this conversation by talking about the possibility that publishing was dead. What’s interesting to me and we said of course publishing isn’t dead. We know that’s not true, what‘s interesting to me Kevin, is that prior to this you worked in a building industry and you’re part of Thomason Lord which still exists as a construction company in the Kennebunk area.
Where you also had experience in the food service industry and it seems to me that what you’re saying and coming in here and doing this is just, this is a need that we see, this is something we want to do, we don’t have to do things the way that other theme been done before. If there’s something we want to do, we can find a way to do it and that’s what I’m understanding that Maine Home &Design, Maine magazine, that sort of an interesting approach.
You’re not saying, I’m coming from the publishing role I’m going to do like they do it, to saying I see something I want to create.
Kevin: Unfortunately, a lot of industries get caught in the trap of adhering to old traditional practices where there are legacy systems and I think that’s what has happened to the publishing world prior to five or 10 years ago. I think with new technologies we’re able to buy for example software off a shelf and an iMac from the Apple store. We aren’t using film photography, no longer we using digital photography, we really made the process more efficient and we’re able therefore to talk to a more specific niche.
We didn’t have to be everything to everyone. The old publishing model, you really needed to be everything to everyone, you needed to have a circulation of 200,000, 250,000. In the new publishing model we don’t need that, we can speak very specifically to improve both 30 to 60,000 people and get it right.
Lisa: And at the same time Jen, from the publishing industry we can bring forward the lessons that really make sense to us. We can use some of the things that worked very well as we’re working on magazines like Old Port or as we continuing to improving magazines like Maine magazine.
Jen: Yeah and I think the whole industry is evolving and there’s definitely sense of innovation here which is smart, and having been digital the last few years I think there’s a lot of lessons there to us, as the whole industry re-invents itself.
Kevin: To be clear. We don’t consider ourselves simply a print publisher, we consider ourselves a publisher in that includes print, radio, online whether be website, social media, we have a significance social media presence particularly the Facebook. I think we’ve over 75,000 fans on Maine magazine; we reach a quarter of a million people a week through our posts and we’re communicating with our audience in whatever way they want to receive hat information and that has made us more relevant.
Lisa: You’ve also made significant commitment to the next generation; you brought in quite a number of interns this summer to work with your publications both on the prints side. Also the digital and to really just get a sense that, there is this new and interesting business is something that’s going to be made better by young minds who are coming from a very different stand point educationally and digitally than the minds now in the work place.
Kevin: It’s been a fascinating experiences this year we’ve brought in over eight interns, that’s probably twice as many as we’ve brought in the past. It’s been fun to watch them, they’re high school students and college students’ fun to watch them interact with our regular staff as well as each and they do bring a new energy into the office space.
Lisa: I encourage people to pick up the latest Old Port magazine which is the September issue, also to go back and look at the June issue and of course all these is available online. We’ve been speaking with Kevin Thomas, a Publisher with Maine media collective which includes Maine magazine, Maine Home & Design and now Old Port magazine and Jen DeRose the managing editor of Old Port magazine as well the editor at large at Maine Home & Design and what website should we direct people to.
Jen: It’s oldportmag.com.
Lisa: and also Maine magazine.
Kevin: themainemag.com
Lisa: Very good. Well I appreciate you’re coming in and talking to us today. I know you’re very busy getting all these new publications out into the world, you’re doing a great job and it’s been really fun to be a part of your team as well so, thank you.
Jen: Thanks again.
Kevin: Thank you Lisa.
Lisa: As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marci Booth from Booth Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully; here are a few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: When asked, most of my clients say the same thing about what keeps them up at night, Money. Making certain cash flow is there to meet day to day operational needs. Is payroll going to be able to make it, when we dig deeper, we understand that those sleepless nights are symptoms of poor planning and forecasting and more often than not the reasons for not doing it are lack of time and lack of resources.
So, here is a suggestion, instead of living in fear of the numbers and losing sleep over them, make peace with them, by paying a closer attention to the financials and creating positive cash flow. I’m Marci Booth, let’s talk about the changes you need, boothmaine.com
Speaker 1: This segment of the Dr. Lisa radio hour is brought to you by the following generous sponsors Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage in Yarmouth Maine. Honesty and Integrity can take you home, with Remarks Heritage it’s your move, learn more at ourheritage.com
Lisa: When I think about canoeing and kayaking in Maine, we often associate it with our lakes and our rivers and being a little more inland, but today we’re speaking with two individuals who are bringing kayaking and canoeing right to Portland waterfront and we’re so glad to have them. This is Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley who together run Portland Paddles.
Zach Anchors is a Maine native who lives on Munjoy Hill, he spent 14 years as a guide leading countless kayaking and canoeing trips off the coast of Maine, and in Mexico, British Columbia, Ontario and Alaska. He’s licensed as a master Maine guide and is certified as an instructor by both the American Canoe Association and Paddle Canada.
He’s a Wilderness first responder and he has received certifications in Wilderness, water safety, and Swift water rescue outside of his work as a Kayaking guide and instructor. Zack is a journalist, Writer, and teacher. Thanks for coming in today.
Zack: Thanks for having me Lisa.
Lisa: We also have with us Erin Quigley. Who grew up exploring New Hampshire’s water ways by canoe and kayak, back packing trips in the White Mountains inspired her lifelong love of the outdoors and has a Masters in Science and natural resources and has spent many years working for environmental conservation and outdoor recreation non-profits. Including the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and the Maine Trail Association, to New England long distance water trails, she’s certified Wilderness First responder, registered Maine guide, and American and Canoe Association certified kayaking instructor. Thank you for being here.
Erin: You’re welcome, thank you Lisa.
Lisa: You’ve, both of you impressive qualifications to do the work you do with Portland Paddle, but also have impressive qualifications academically? This is when I had a conversation with you in writing the Old Port magazine article that people who are listening to can read in September.
This is what I was most struck by, is that you have quite a varied academic background between the two of you. Zack tell me about your background?
Zack: Sure. I, for the last several years I’ve been teaching at community colleges before we started this business. I’ve got a Master’s degree in literature in Vancouver and I taught literature and writing at community colleges down in New Jersey and here at the SMCC is South Portland. Now I’m doing a PhD program in history, American history at University of New Hampshire.
So, I’m in the middle of that right now.
Lisa: Erin. You went on a slightly different group of direction, you went more the environmental study as a Master’s and Science kind of direction, tell me about your back ground?
Erin: My academic background is really, varied actually buried, back when I was an undergraduate I studied Sociology and Anthropology, I thought I was going to be an Archeologist at some point actually. Then I got a job working for the Forest Service then I realized that the outdoors was more where I wanted to focus. I have a masters from UBM in natural Resource management. I made it half way through a PHD program about the University of Maine or I’ll call the sustainability solutions initiative which is all about inter disciplinary solutions to environmental problems.
Somewhere in there I decided the academic track wasn’t really for me and that’s part of the genesis of Port Land Paddle.
Lisa: Tell about that Portland Paddle is a little bit more than a year old. You are based off of the East end and this came about through conversations that you had as roommates on Vesper Street on Munjoy Hill.
Zack: Part of it is that we thought that somebody needed to be doing this because the Eastern Beach and just Portland in general is just such a great spot for, to launch a sea kayaking trip. There’s really not a lot of access to the water front and there’s not a lot of access to kayaks. A lot of people in Portland don’t have storage for a kayak or a paddle board and they just don’t have a way to get it down to the water even if they do have storage for it. We just thought that somebody needed to be doing this and it’s just we were living right there and we wanted to do something. We wanted to find some way to combine our passions and really do something to work in the community that was really active. It all came together with the right timing to make this happen.
Erin: The work we do when we are not doing Portland Paddle is much more nontangible, writing and outreach and the things that aren’t necessarily a solid, a physical work. We had a lot of discussions about if we could have a real thing to give to the community like a tangible thing what would it be? Having a business seemed alike a really good way to do that. A business that was needed and relevant.
Lisa: Boats, boats are pretty tangible. There is something where you can actually do something with in a very immediate way.
Erin: We really dedicated the idea that when people have experiences on Casco Bay then they make better decisions at home. Consider it in the future and they take better care if it. That is a pretty, it’s nontangible in some ways but in other ways it seems like one of the most tangible important things.
Lisa: I know that you have kayaks and you have paddle boards and those are available to rent in the short term and in the longer term. You also do instruction and you also do guided tours. Talk to me a little about that.
Zack: Sure, yes. The instruction, the lessons that we offer are becoming a bigger and bigger part of what we do. Really it’s a, you start off talking about how kayaking in Maine often takes place on lakes and rivers. It’s a different thing out here on the Casco Bay and on Maine’s coastal waters because it’s just, there’s a lot more hazards out there, a lot more things to think about in terms of the currents and boat traffic and the very cold water and exposed coast. We really want people to have skills and knowledge before they go out there in preparation. We are pretty selective on who we rent kayaks to and where we let them go.
We really want to encourage everybody to actually take one of our lessons and develop some skills and so they can come back and rent on their own once they’ve developed some skills and more familiar with the environment. Then they can go out and explore and we really hope that, ideally what happens and this is actually happening with a lot of our clients. They come to us and take a beginner lesson and then they come back for an intermediate lesson and then they take a few lessons and then finally they come back and start renting on their own. It works that for us from a business perspective of having repeat customers.
It also just works out because we get to see them develop and they get to really gain a lot from it and got out paddling and feel really confident.
Lisa: Erin, I know that tours are an important part of what you do. Fort Gorges is very popular because it’s quite close by but it’s a surprising destination. Most people don’t have the chance even having lived in the Portland area all my life I’ve never gone out there and actually been on the grounds there.
Erin: Yeah. It’s surprising and really gratifying when people who, we’ve had people come down have lived on Munjoy Hill their entire lives and they have looked at the Fort out there that entire time. They’ve never set foot on it before. One our tours is the way that they finally get out there and they get to explore it on their own. Fort Gorges in definitely our most popular tour destination. There’s lots of other great tour destinations as well. Getting out into the island, places to lands and explore a little bit. Lots of places to see wildlife like seals and ospreys and the tours are definitely the simplest way for people to come experience what we have to offer.
We have a whole staff of experienced registered Maine guides that are really knowledgeable about the history and the ecology of the area. You can really learn a lot about the Bay but being on one of our tours. It’s a great option also, I think that tourists definitely gravitate towards the tours most but also locals are starting to realize that it’s a really great way to learn more about where they are which is great.
Lisa: You also have longer tours that take you out to places like Carl Island where I understand there’s some yurts that can be I guess inhabited for a short period of time.
Erin: That’s a thing that’s new this year. That we are really excited about a partnership with Ripple Effect which is the nonprofit that owns that island and does summer programs and school programs for kids. They do really great work and so we’ve had a variety of partnerships with them. Now we are trying to use these resources that they have to help people get out and spend the night on an island which is a really cool thing. The yurks are really cool so you don’t have to pack your tent and some of the other stuff you’d have to jam into your kayak. Otherwise it’s a really accessible way for people to try a kayak overnight.
Lisa: I understand also that Jewell Island is in the rotation?
Zack: Yeah. Jewell Island is a little further out. It’s another really amazing destination that a lot of people who live in Portland, even people who’ve lived here all their lives have never been there before and it’s just, it’s amazing. You go out there and you feel like you are on a really wild coast far from any city. We like to go to the Southern side of the island where there’s this really nice beach with a campsite on it, with cliffs facing the open ocean. We’ll be doing at least two trips out there this year, overnight trips. Another organization we work with and rely on is the Maine Island Trail Association and they just have all these great Islands throughout the Coast of Maine that they provide access to. That’s a really great resource because there’s just so many beautiful islands to explore by sea kayaking in Maine.
Lisa: It’s been important to both of you and all of your staff really to keep these Islands in good shape. You’ve done some clean up days with Maine Island Trail Association just to make sure that these natural resources are maintained.
Erin: Yap. We have done twice now on our opening day of our first season and opening day of our second season. We’ve participated in the Maine Island Trail Association Casco Bay cleanup. Primarily by heading out to Fort Gorges actually because we get a lot from Fort Gorges so we want to make sure we help keep it clean and help maintain it as much as we can. Those have been really fun and really successful partnership opportunities and we hope to keep that going in the future. We have worked with several organizations in that capacity where maybe they even just want kayaks to help people get out to a cleanup that’s happening somewhere or an even on an island.
For instance we are working with main Coast heritage Trust later on in the summer to help them do a guided paddle to Lee Island one of their new acquisitions. We really enjoy helping out with those things.
Lisa: Both of you grew up on the water. Zack you grew up on the Penobscot River I believe and Erin you grew up right near the White Mountains and some rivers and streams …
Erin: On Great Bay and New Hampshire.
Lisa: Great Bay and New Hampshire, and you were very young when this whole process started. Does it feel as you’ve could have lived your lives any other way?
Zack: It’s hard to imagine for sure yeah because … I’ve just spent so much time in the water my whole life as a kid just swimming in the river every day and then got into kayaking when I was 11 years old. It’s just pretty much been a part of my life ever since. That’s really what’s probably kept me coming back to Maine and the reason why I live here now is just because the oceans and the lakes and the rivers and all that outdoors here is just difficult to find that anywhere else that I’d want to live.
Erin: Yeah. I’m not sure I can live anywhere else at this point. Portland especially strikes such a great balance between being a vibrant city where there is lots of interesting things going on and lots of ways to get involved, but also having the ocean and the mountains, and the rivers and the whole thing so accessible at the same time. There are probably a very few other places like this. I enjoy the fact that all of these things are here and I am only really an hour from where I grew up along the coast and it’s just a really fulfilling place to be.
Lisa: One of your partnerships has been with local musicians and I remember Zack telling a story about being in a tandem kayak and wrapping up a guitar to sitting in front of the kayak so that you can bring it out and have the musician play out on an island. That sounds pretty fun.
Zack: Yeah. We have a concert series at Fort Gorges that we call Acoustic Paddle. We paddle out with a local musicians and have a little concert in the Fort which … The Fort is just really incredible setting for live music, because there’re just wonderful acoustics and it’s just really beautiful and it’s always really quiet inside. We’ll be doing that again this year. We’ve just started planning … we got Joe, a local musician, Joe Walsh is going to be one of the artist featured this summer though we’re hoping to do at least a couple of those again.
Lisa: We’ve talked about the fact that each of you have a very different but strong academic background. Yeah, you’ve done work towards the PhD. You’re not doing it right now, a little bit on the high eighties I suppose. Zack, you’re currently pursuing a PhD in American History. How do you balance all of these things? Erin, how have you balanced these previously? Zack, how are you balancing it all now?
Erin: Well. The seasonal nature of Portland Paddle actually is lifesaver in terms of giving us more of an ability to pursue these different things that are really important to us. I think and there’s still plenty to do for Portland Paddle in the winter and it’s always juggling act that is more challenging than we expected to be. It really lends this nice variety where in the summer; we’re just out every day on the ocean doing things, doing physical work.
Then by the time you get to the winter season, it feels like a blessing to be able to sit on the computer for a day. It creates that balance. By the end of the winter, you’re tired of it and you just can’t wait to get outside again. The rhythm of it actually seems to work out I think.
Zack: Yeah. It’s difficult to juggle so many things but I think for me like a lot of Mainers just comes naturally to juggle at the different gigs at once. I think it works out really well this particular mix that we’ve got because we’ve spent part of our time writing, behind a computer indoors. After a while, you get pretty tired of that and so then we’re good to go, sit in the kayak on the water, be outdoors and part of the work is solitude by ourselves and then part of it is just really working with people out in the community.
It really actually provides a balance that if I was just a fulltime academic, or fulltime writer I wouldn’t get.
Erin: I feel like in Portland’s especially this seems to happen a lot where everyone you meet has so many things that they want to do and so many ways they want to be contributing different opportunities they want to pursue that very few people we know are doing just one thing. It seems like lots of people are finding ways to balance all of these different interests and passions in a really cool way.
Lisa: Access for you both is very important and not just access to kayaks and paddle boards on the East End but also financial access. What you’re trying to do is create a very affordable way for our people to explore the coast here. With your new Portland Paddle of the Presumpscot, your new business in Westbrook, you really are … You’re trying to make it easy.
Zack: Yeah definitely. We just opened this location in Westbrook in the Presumpscot. Yeah, the rentals there are much less expensive and so we’re just opens up paddling to people who might not be able to afford to rent a sea kayak or who might not have the skills to go out in Casco Bay. We don’t want to be offering services that are just not accessible to a large portion of Maine’s population because they’re too expensive. We try to make opportunities to have discounts, or have special deals or just have more affordable rentals on the Presumpscot so that everybody can get out in the water.
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Lisa: You also offer … I believe what you’ve called them Munjoy Hill discount and also punch cards that you can … There are ten punches, then rentals for certain amount of money on the punch card?
Erin: Yeah. The punch card is a great thing that we actually really would love people to take even more advantage although they already have. We have 10 kayak rentals on a card, 10 paddle rentals on a card or a combo of both. The idea is that if you wanted to go out after work 10 times over the course of the summer or something like, you could just walk down and our staff then keeps the record of who you are and what your boat preferences is. Hopefully, the punch card and holders can really feel like a part of our community and come out really regularly.
Lisa: You also on a pretty regular basis get people from out of State. You could just as easily have individuals who are coming in from New Jersey to travel out to as part of your acoustic paddle and listen to some tunes on Fort Gorges.
Zack: Yeah. Probably almost the majority of our customers are visitors or tourists which is really great because we just … We meet people from all over the world and it just makes our job really interesting. That’s pretty … To décor for other like kayak companies like us to have lots of tourists but we’ve really tried to focus on trying and local people to and so we have the next mix. We want to feel like we’re really like authentic paddling company that’s a neighborhood resource. It’s nice to have a little bit of both visitors and local people.
Erin: We found the outreach to each group is very different. Like for tourists are often looking for a snazzy website where it’s easy to make reservations and that kind of thing whereas locals seem to be looking for a lot more just word of mouth awareness and other connections in the community. It definitely takes some different strategies to reach out to both the groups.
Lisa: Opening this business yourself must have provided quite an education for you. Erin you’ve worked with various non-profits and Zack you have a background doing business journalism. Each of you have your own very unique take on businesses but to do something yourself as entrepreneurs, that must have taken some courage and some flexibility and wear with all I guess.
Erin: It’s definitely new. It was a new thing for both of us and the learning curve was really steep but we have a lot of great resources in the community. We worked with the small business development center, some resources for that and try to take advantage of entrepreneurs in Portland. The startup community in Portland is really big right now and it’s growing. We definitely took advantage of a lot the resources that are springing up around that which we appreciated very much. Is also nice to be able to start up small and locally focused and we grew incredibly first but our first idea for what we were going to do was just that it was going to be us with maybe one person helping us out sometimes.
It became apparent really quickly that we were going to have to take it up a notch I guess. We have been able to scale up. Starting from small to bigger and bigger, it provides a good platform from learning from.
Lisa: You’ve 10 people working with you now, is that right?
Erin: We do.
Lisa: working in your company?
Erin: Yep.
Lisa: In the course of a year, that’s pretty first growth.
Erin: It is, it is and we’re really excited about the community of staff and guys that we’ve created as well. They’re all just really interesting people who have diverse backgrounds and lives and they’ll just good people, and we feel thankful and lucky that we’ve managed to find them, because we couldn’t do it without them, what they do.
They work really hard and so we’re… that’s another thing that’s one of our favorite parts of this business is seeing our staff all work well together and be a part of this thing.
Lisa: I believe that both you had mentioned that it was your fathers that originally brought you out. I know that Zack, I definitely remember you saying that when you were 11 your dad brought you out, I could be wrong about this Erin, I don’t if it’s your dad or your mum or someone.
Erin: No. it was my dad actually.
Lisa: it’s your dad?
Erin: Canoeing.
Lisa: You’re also around the same age 11 or so?
Erin: Probably younger, it was very recreational; I mean we just busk out the canoe and float down the limp river, near where I lived in New Hampshire but it was a big part of his life.
Lisa: looking at what you’re doing now, how do they feel about this big adventure that you’re taking?
Zack: My dad actually works for us.
Erin: Which is great?
Zack: He teaches paddle boarding and kayaking for us, because he’s also been like a kayak guide for many years. He got into it after I did, he’s good as a guide, but he’s been a great resource for us, because he’s always happy to help out and so, every weekend he teaches our paddle boarding lessons.
Lisa: Has your dad come down to help too Erin?
Erin: My dad does not so excited about getting into sea kayak, he’s a pretty big guy and he likes his canoes and his open Craft so, I’m still working on him as far as getting him out on the ocean. He’s a forester by trade and he gravitates towards the lakes and rivers and being out in the woods, that’s his thing.
Lisa: Do you have any regrets about coming back to Maine, Zack and looking on the Portland paddle website, you’ve been all over the place, you’ve to Baja Mexico, and you’ve been to Alaska and, you’re an adventurer, you’re a man of the world. I assume there’s probably a similar thing that you’ve done Erin, just isn’t as quite as readily apparent on your website I guess, but you’re here you both here and you’ve chosen very much to live here.
Zack: Yeah. It seems like I meet a lot of people who have a similar experience to me, where they grew up in Maine, in a small town in Maine like me and they go out and kind of see the world and going to big cities and live in different regions. They realize Maine is pretty great it’s hard to beat, Maine so, that’s really what happened to me. I just I lived a lot of great beautiful places, exciting palaces but it’s just for me, especially Portland just right next to urban and we’re all access to outdoors and just great people and just really high quality of life and it’s affordable.
This is really where I want to be.
Erin: I guess I had a very similar experience; I did lots of other places for very short periods of time when I was younger and when I moved to Portland which is about 4 years ago now may a little more than that. I had a really distinct feeling of, I fit in here, I felt like I found a place in the city more quickly than in other places I’ve lived.
I think that was actually a sort of a revelation for me and personal life, friends. May be its time not to bounce around so much and maybe here is where I would like to be for a while, there’s start of this train of thought towards, how can I give back to this community that made me welcome from the beginning.
Lisa: I’m sure the people who’re listening whether they’re from away or whether they’re from Maine are going to be interested in exploring the coast with you, kayaking or paddle boarding, so how do people find out about Portland Paddle?
Erin: Well, they can visit our website portlandpaddle.net. You can always give us a call 207-370-9730 and we’ve our staff down there at the beach center really happy to talk about all our different offerings and places to paddle. You might get one of us on the line as well it depends what day it is or you can just stop by, plenty of people take their dogs down to East end beach, they go running and walking down there and we’ve our storage container and our boat rack and some signs that are pretty easy to see hopefully and just stop by and we both love to chat about what we do.
Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley who run Portland Paddle. I appreciate the work that you’re doing to introduce people to the coast of Maine and give them a chance to do kayaking and paddle boarding and go beyond the Portland waters and I appreciate you coming in and talking to me today.
Zack: It was really good to be here.
Erin: Thanks for the opportunity.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, show number 155, Old Port Adventuring. Our guests have included Kevin Thomas, Jen De Rose, Zack Anchors and Erin Quigley. Read our Portland Paddle article featuring Zack and Erin in the September issue of Old Port magazine. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit doctorlisa.org. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter, and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. Get Twitter updates by following me as @doctorlisa, and see my daily running photos as bountifulone on Instagram.
We’d love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Old Port adventuring show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors; Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of BOOTH Maine, Apothecary by Design, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of Re/Max Heritage, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Harding Lee Smith of The Rooms, and Bangor Savings Bank. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine.
Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in Maine Magazine. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Our executive producers are Kevin Thomas, Susan Grisanti, and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Our assistant producer is Leanne Ouimet. Audio production and original music by John C McCain. Our online producer is Kelly Clinton. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is available for download free on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.