• Play the Full Show: Coastal Creativity #235
• Full Show

Transcription of Coastal Creativity #235

Speaker 1:	You are listening to Love Maine Radio hosted by Dr. Lisa Belisle, and recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine in Portland. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a writer and physician who practices family medicine, and acupuncture in Brunswick, Maine. Show summaries are available at lovemaineradio.com. Here are some highlights from this week’s program.
Ben:	They run into some of the challenges that boat ownership has, and we try to just make that a smoother process.
Shana:	I call it Mainerize. I always think. I look at all this fashion stuff and I’m like, “Well, would that work in Maine? I don’t know.”
Lisa:	This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to Love Maine Radio, show number 235, Coastal Creativity, airing for the first time on Sunday March 20th 2016. Maine appeals to a broad range of people, in part because of its beautiful coast. More than simply coming here for recreation, many people find creative ways to make a living with the water as inspiration. Today we speak with entrepreneurs Ben Davis, founder of True Course Yachting, and Shana Ready, designer and founder of The Ropes. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:	Love Maine Radio is brought you by Apothecary By Design. There was a time when the Apothecary was a place where you get could safe, reliable medicines prepared by experienced professionals with the focus on you and your unique health concerns. Apothecary by Design is built around the forgotten notion that you don’t just need your prescriptions filled, you need attention, advice, and individual care. Visit their website apothecarybydesign.com or drop by the store at 84 Marginal Way in Portland, and experience pharmacy care the way that it’s meant to be.
	Experience chef and owner Harding Lee Smith’s newest hit restaurant Boone’s Fish House and Oyster Room. Maine’s seafood at its finest. Joining sister restaurants, The Front Room, The Grill Room, and the Corner Room, this newly renovated 2-story restaurant at 86 Commercial Street on Custom House Wharf, overlooks scenic Portland Harbor. Watch lobstermen bring in the daily catch as you enjoy baked stuffed lobster, raw bar, and wood fired flatbread. For more information visit www.theroomsportland.com.
Lisa:	Having recently brought a boat into my own family I am quite excited to talk to this next individual who apparently has had boats in his life his entire existence which I’m a little jealous of. This is Benjamin Davis. He founded True Course Yachting in 2012. A generational captain, Ben grew up working for his family’s charter sailing business. Immersed in the yachting world, Ben developed a strong affiliation and devout passion for the marine industry. His natural seamanship and leadership abilities have led to many opportunities to manage and captain boats all over the world, from the eastern seaboard to Hawaii and Central America. Headquartered in Yarmouth along the Royal River with a new branch office operating in Downtown Camden, True Course Yachting has experienced rapid growth since its founding in 2012. Thanks so much for coming in today.
Ben:	Thanks Lisa, thanks for having me.
Lisa:	So your new office is really new. It’s within the last month or so.
Ben:	It is last couple of weeks. We just had our big opening event with all of our industry partners up in Camden just a few weeks ago.
Lisa:	What that tells me is you guys must be doing okay.
Ben:	Yeah, we’re doing all right. We’ve got a growing team. We’ve got 10 people on our team right now and looking forward to starting the hiring program up in the mid coast and bringing some more captains and crew onto our roster.
Lisa:	True Cruise Yachting does what you call comprehensive management offering, which are port captain delivery and concierge services. For somebody who’s not in the yachting or boating world what does that mean?
Ben:	What that means is basically what we’re doing is providing concierge yacht management services for the people who own boats under 100 feet, primarily owner operated, they don’t want to rely fully on professional captains and crew. We provide the support for them to fall back on for all the things that they don’t necessarily want to deal with on the day to day. They’re typically busy folks who want to enjoy their boat but might not necessarily have the time to do all the other kind of fringe stuff that we focus on.
Lisa:	Last summer when we were trying to get our boat out of the water quickly we have a little pursuit. It’s by no means a yacht, not even close to 100 feet, but we knew there was possibly a hurricane coming and we called you up and we said, “Hey, can you help us out?” You absolutely did. You managed to get it up out of the water, taken care of. We didn’t have to worry about it. It sounds like you do everything from actually offering captains for people’s larger vessels to the types of services that we enjoyed.
Ben:	We do a lot of project management like that, a lot of support. We lean on the boat yards and the boat brokers and other professionals in our industry to do a lot of the hands on service stuff and we kind of act as a coordinator for all of that. Luckily that circumstance ended up pretty well. We got your boat out and safe.
Lisa:	I think this is important because although there are people who are like you and families that have been boating for many years, there are also people like me who may have lived in Maine for the entirety of her life and still never owned a boat.
Ben:	Sure. Yeah, exactly. We see that a lot and we see a lot of folks who may have done a lot of boating when they were younger and then they have moved away, away from the ocean, and they didn’t have that experience sort of in the middle of their life and now they’re having the opportunity later in life to come back and kind of rediscover boating, how it used to be. Typically, when that happens they run into some of the challenges that boat ownership has and we try to just make that a smoother process.
Lisa:	For you, you are involved with your family’s charter sailing business and you’ve been associated with the marine industry it sounds like your whole life. What was the path that you took to get to the place where you actually own your own business that now has a satellite office?
Ben:	Sure. Kahuna Catamarans was the name of my family’s business in Florida. Worked for the family business there and after that made a bit of a jump out to Hawaii where I worked for Trilogy Excursions, who I actually have come full circle and are working with again in a project management capacity which is really fun. Got some great experience there. Got called back to Maine about 4 years ago, 5 years ago when I started working for the Biddeford Pool Yacht Club. In my last full season there I started True Course, and that was almost 4 years ago now.
	That was the path that really helped me progress from charted captain to the private yacht world, and then following that into starting this business. It’s the business and building the team that I really have really found my niche I think and I’m really enjoying so far.
Lisa:	When you were working as a captain you must have also worked with individual teams on some of the larger vessels I would imagine.
Ben:	Absolutely. Yeah, whether it was private yacht stuff out of Newport, Rhode Island and yacht racing which I did there or some of the larger charter company stuff, which would be Trilogy in Maui, they did have pretty large teams and got an opportunity to manage 1-on-1 and kind of develop those skills.
Lisa:	Not everyone feels drawn to manage or lead or organize other people, because it’s one thing to manage yourself, it’s another thing to look at all the different moving pieces and people and try to get everything to work. What is it about that that appeals to you?
Ben:	I don’t even know if that really appeals. Just it’s what I feel like I should be doing. It’s very natural. I’m pretty confident with what my strengths are and I like to fill in those other holes with people that are better than I am. So building those teams and filling those gaps in the places that we need them in different parts of the business is something that I really enjoy and that I’m really drawn to.
Lisa:	One thing I’ve noticed about the marine world is that it seems that people know each other, it seems like you can talk to somebody and they’ll be like, “Oh, I knew this person when I was over in Italy,” or, “I was around the world.” It just seems like it kind of, it makes the world seem like a much smaller place.
Ben:	It sure is. It is. It is a very small community. Relationships are everything in our business, in our industry. That’s one of the things that I love about it. You can’t go anywhere in the world and run into an old friend or at least one degree of separation. That’s one of the big draws for sure.
Lisa:	What are some of your favorite stories about captaining or about some of the things that you’ve done since you stopped doing that?
Ben:	Well, I wouldn’t stay stopped because there’s always the opportunity. Just a few weeks ago, I got back from a trip bringing a boat from North Carolina to Florida for Bruckmann Yachts and I’m back down in Palm Beach this weekend working with Bruckmann again. So there’s definitely lots of opportunity there which leads to a pretty fun lifestyle at times. But some of the best stories definitely come from our customers where we’ve had opportunities to both teach and support folks to be able to do things with their boats that they necessarily wouldn’t have done before.
	I mentioned Trilogy Excursions before. We just started a project with them, partnering with Gold Coast Catamarans in St. Croix, which is great because I’ve been away from Trilogy for some time now, but because Gold Coast is an east coast based in the Caribbean, they’re calling on us to use some of our project management team to help them build a new sailing catamaran for Maui, Hawaii. That’s a pretty cool story of keeping those relationships and everything coming full circle again.
Lisa:	Is there a difference between yachting or sailing in places like Hawaii, the Caribbean, and places like Maine?
Ben:	Yeah, fundamentally it’s all the same, but their local knowledge is a big deal, and also the different sailing cultures are very, very different. New England is historically one of the best places to sail in the world. We definitely like to think that it also has some of the best boat builders and craftsmen here specifically in Maine. That’s why we’re here. That’s a big reason. It’s got a really deep sailing culture and then the environment is just fantastic. There are lots of places to go. In my experience being in the Pacific and then over here in the Atlantic it’s the best place to be hands down.
Lisa:	Why? Why is it the best place to sail?
Ben:	Well, one, you’ve got some of the best boat builders, so you have the opportunity to sail some of the nicest boats in the world, which is fantastic. But then it’s also the environment, the islands, and the season. We’re coming into the spring season now. It’s all very exciting. You can feel the energy of the boat yacht starting to get busy and the shrink wrap starting to come off the boats and all that. I think everyone, even if you’re not within the industry, I think people feel that. They drive down the road and they can see a little more action going on on the waterfront. It’s really a culture around here.
Lisa:	So for someone who is just wanting to either get back into boating or get into it for the first time what are some of the things that you talk about with them?
Ben:	Well, pairing the right boat with what they want to do and how they want to get back into boating is probably fundamentally the most important thing. For that we lean on some of our brokerage industry partners and people who sell the boats who are much better at finding that pair than we are. We work with East Coast Yacht Sales a lot here in Maine and in all over New England. Those guys are real professionals at finding that right pairing, because if you’re not matched with the proper boat it’s really tough to find that right blend. But then once they get put in the right boat, that’s where we come in. The experience of having the confidence on board and going to the right places and really being comfortable in and around the boat with their family is kind of what we excel at, building that confidence.
Lisa:	I’m thinking about when we first got our boat, and having not had a boat before, just actually getting the boat into the dock, just making sure that we didn’t crash into the dock, and it’s surprisingly more difficult than you might think.
Ben:	It sure is. Yeah, we do a lot of 1-on-1 coaching with folks when they build a new boat, because boats nowadays are pretty complex. There’s a lot of systems. There’s electronics. There’s a lot going on. We kind of start there so people are familiar with all the components and systems of the boat. Then we go onto the boat handling. I work with a lot of families about how you communicate on board, which is very important. It can be kind of a stressful thing every once in a while, so that’s a big deal. It’s really a pretty comprehensive how-to when we start working with the people on board.
Lisa:	Yeah, that’s actually an interesting point because I remember one situation. We have 6 kids in our family between the 2 of us, and 5 of them are in college, 1 of them is in high school, so they’re all fairly old. But having never had a family boat together, just knowing how to say, “Put that over there and put the bumper or pull this in.” That can get surprisingly challenging if you’re in a place where maybe the wind is high or the tide is strange. It’s hard.
Ben:	Yeah, the stress level goes up a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. For some reason everyone’s communication changes from being in the kitchen together to being on the boat. The blood pressure goes up a little bit. We try to minimize that and make everyone really comfortable so that they can have a good time when they’re boating, it’s not a stressful event.
Lisa:	What I really enjoy about getting out in the water is just the opportunity to see the world in a completely different way, to see islands that I’ve known, maybe like I’ve seen them out from the mainland or maybe I’ve driven over a bridge to them. But when you see them from the water, they just, there’s something really unique about them, and it really reminds you of just how vast this body of water that surrounds us is.
Ben:	That’s one of my favorite parts about being here, especially in Casco Bay because you can spend a lifetime exploring and you can rediscover it every season. It’s really another great reason to bring your boats here and to explore Maine.
Lisa:	What are some of your favorite places to go within Maine?
Ben:	Casco Bay again is fantastic, Penobscot Bay, really looking forward to the summer having the new location in Camden to be able to explore Penobscot Bay, again, because there are so many great little seaside towns and villages to bring the boats in, and the communities up there are so welcoming to transient boaters that I’m really looking forward to exploring Penobscot Bay more this season.
Lisa:	What about other parts of the world? What are some of your favorite places?
Ben:	Oh sure, well, the Bahamas is great. We’re in the Bahamas quite a bit in places like the Abacos Marsh Harbor. We’ve got some really great clients of ours that spend the winter in George Town. We’re fortunate enough to go there. I’ll be in St. Croix a bunch starting next month working with Gold Coast Yachts. I’ve never been there so looking forward to exploring there a little bit. Then of course there are lots of places to go in the Pacific.
Lisa:	For people who are like you interested in doing something within this industry but maybe haven’t … It doesn’t seem like there’s a particular map, like how to start an organization like True Course Yachting. It doesn’t seem like there’s a college course on how to do this or a business school course. It seems like there’s a lot of figuring it out. What advice would you give them?
Ben:	A lot of making mistakes, pivoting from those. I think if there’s anyone out there that wants to get into the marine industry and is young and is willing to work really hard, they should come talk to me. I hope my email is on this. They can shoot me an email and we’ll get together for coffee or something. But the biggest thing is start building relationships and get outside of your zone, of your boat yard and go meet people, because as you said before, it’s a small community, the more people you meet the better you’re going to do. I think that would probably be my best piece of advice, is just to get out and meet the characters, meet the personalities, and start making a little bit of a name for yourself.
Lisa:	What did your childhood look like? Why did you … Do you think when you were a kid, did you ever see yourself doing this at this age?
Ben:	I don’t think I would see myself doing this, but now looking back I can see how it all happened. My parents are a huge influence in what I’ve done. My dad’s probably got one of the best attitudes out there. He’s the most positive guy I know. My mom’s got this work ethic that’s pretty unbelievable. You combine those and that I guess makes for a halfway decent entrepreneur. That’s kind of how I ended up here.
Lisa:	Is there anything about being an entrepreneur that you found challenging or intimidating?
Ben:	Oh it’s challenging every day but that’s probably the best part, the not being afraid of not having a day off for a really long time or maybe ever. You’re always kind of on. Yeah, there’s lots of stuff intimidating, there’s lots of scary stuff, but I think that’s why we do it. That’s what I love about it, the challenge.
Lisa:	What are some things that you have found particularly intimidating?
Ben:	Well, it’s a lot of diving in headfirst when you’re not quite sure if it’s going to work out or not. A lot of the times it doesn’t, but those times that it does it makes it all sort of worth it. Then also the people factor is everything, so building those relationships and figuring out how you can bring the most value to folks the easiest way possible has been really challenging for me.
	That’s not just customers. That’s mainly my team. We’ve got an incredible group of people at True Course that I’m really fortunate to be able to work with every day. My journey and getting to know them and what gets them up in the morning and setting up a path for them that they want to go down is both hard and the most rewarding thing.
Lisa:	Where would you like to see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
Ben:	Hopefully we keep growing like this. We’d love to have True Course offices down the coast in Boston, and Naples, and Charleston, and all over the place. We’ve got pretty high goals but I think we’re on the path.
Lisa:	Is there anything else that you think that people would like to know about True Course Yachting as they’re possibly considering, “Hmm, maybe I’d like to hire Ben Davis?”
Ben:	Luckily we’ve got such a depth of knowledge with the people that we’re working with that we can really customize any program. Everyone has different needs when it comes to how they want to use their boat. I would just encourage anyone please reach out to me, reach out to me directly so we can talk about it. That’s the best first step. Whether it’s not getting enough time on your boat and how do we maximize that time that you do have or there’s some more challenges if you don’t feel like you’re using your boat well enough or maybe you don’t know what kind of boat you should have, let’s talk about it. I think that so far our track records show that we can adapt.
Lisa:	What is the website for True Course Yachting?
Ben:	It is www.truecourseyachting.com.
Lisa:	I’m assuming on that website they will have access to your phone number and your email address.
Ben:	The whole thing, yeah. Our Facebook page is pretty active. We’re working pretty hard on that. You can find us, absolutely.
Lisa:	Well, I must say that I’ve really enjoyed working with your sister Emily, who is the social media online editor for Maine Magazine, Love Maine Radio, and people at 75 Market Street. If this is a family work ethic that you’re describing, then I certainly also see it in her. If you are as hardworking and as intelligent and as intuitive as I’ve seen Emily to be, then I have no question that you will be just as successful as you are hoping to be in the next 5 or 10 years.
Ben:	Thank you very much. She coaches me along.
Lisa:	We’ve been speaking with Ben Davis, who is the founder of True Course Yachting, a company that he began in 2012 which now has offices Yarmouth and Camden. Please take the time to go find out more about his organization. Ben, it’s been really great to have you here and I wish you all the best in your endeavors.
Ben:	Thank you Lisa. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:	Love Maine Radio is brought to you by Berlin City Honda, where the car buying experience is all about easy. After all, life is complicated enough and buying a car shouldn’t be. That’s why the Berlin City Honda team goes the extra mile by pre-discounting all their vehicles and focus their efforts on being open, honest, and all about getting you on the road.
	In fact, Berlin City recently won the 2015 Women’s Choice Award, a strong testimony to their ability to deliver a different kind of car buying experience. Berlin City Honda in Portland, easy, it’s how buying a car should be. Go to berlincityhondame.com for more information.
	Love Maine Radio is brought to you by Macpage, an accounting and management consulting firm that believes the path to success is paved by their ability to build lasting, meaningful relationships with their clients. Macpage accessible, approachable, and accountable. For more information go to m-a-c-p-a-g-e.com.
Lisa:	It’s a lot of fun for me every day to get on my Instagram account and see what’s happening out in the world. One of the people that I have followed for a little while now is actually in the studio with me today. This is Shana Ready. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Shana’s career and apparel design took her to New York City and Boston. However, it was the natural beauty of her home state that drew her back and inspired the creation of The Ropes. Shana is interested in jewelry that tells a story and that hold a memory. Shana spends her free time on the water with her husband and 2 children, lobstering on the family boat and exploring the endless islands and surprises of the coast.
	You have a great story.
Shana:	Yeah.
Lisa:	You also have a great Instagram account. I mean, you have a lot of people who wake up every morning and want to know what Shana Ready is doing.
Shana:	Yeah. I know, it’s been interesting. I sort of have, I love giving people something to look forward to, even if it is just a thought of the day. My father in college always sent me these emails. It was the thought of the day. My friends would always laugh and chuckle, but it sort of made the outlook of the day a little brighter if you could sort of look at it that way. Social media has just been a really fun way for me to connect with people. I try to keep it very natural and not so staged because I do feel like there’s a lot of people that it’s very staged, but if I get a thought or think something is really cool then I try to like share it with people, “Hey, check this product out,” or, “Did you see how beautiful just the water is today.”
Lisa:	Your account for people who are interested in following you is?
Shana:	The Ropes Maine.
Lisa:	The Ropes is because you actually have bracelets that you create that are made out of rope?
Shana:	Rope, yeah.
Lisa:	So tell me about that.
Shana:	That all started one snowy winter. I was just sort of digging in the garage through my husband’s lobster gear, found some snap hooks and some great rope we had lying around and I started making bracelets for myself. I came up with several different ones, but I really kind of honed in on 2 that eventually became The Kennebunkport and The Portland.
	I started wearing them around. My friends just loved the bracelets and they’re like, “Oh, you’ve got to take these to local stores.” I was kind of like, “Oh, I don’t know.” It’s probably just one of those little things that I put together at home. I like to do sewing and knitting and all sorts of stuff, so I just figured it was something like that.
	But eventually my friend literally like held my hand and we went into Bliss and Angela Adams and all local stores and they began to really pick up on them and like them. It just seemed like the right time for an item like that, a rope bracelet that was fashionable. From there it just sort of took off to my surprise.
Lisa:	But you’ve always liked working with bracelets?
Shana:	Yes, yeah, definitely, since I’m a product of the 80s so I was making friendship bracelets and loved it. I had a wrist full of bracelets all the time making them for my friends. Now when I look back at things it’s a little ironic that I ended up being not only a jewelry designer but I do some sort of weaving with this bracelets wiping. It’s a specific type. Yeah, it is really interesting how life sort of turns like that.
Lisa:	Your parents came from California with you when you I think you were 4 or 5. And they became the owners of the Old Fort Inn in Kennebunkport. This is a big life change for them.
Shana:	Yes, it was huge. They ran in for I think it was 30 or 35, close to 35 years and they … My father always wanted his own business. The way the whole came about was my mom bumped into a pilot that … Sorry. My mother was a flight attendant and she bumped into a pilot and he was selling an inn in Kennebunkport, Maine. My dad wanted to run his own business. Our friends and family thought they were absolutely insane, like leaving these great jobs they had in San Francisco, California. They had stability, they had family, and they just up and were moving across the country to a whole new occupation that at the time inn keeping wasn’t so popular as it is now, so it was really risky.
	Luckily the risk worked out. But it was a great way for me to grow up. I met people from all over the world. That’s where I really began to enjoy and love the lifestyle in Maine. I really, I loved being on the water, being able to walk down to the beach. Just the sense of community in Maine, the people are really nice.
Lisa:	It’s also been important for you to make that available to your children. You have a 2-year-old and a 10-year-old and you spend a lot of time with them, and Maine has been important to you and your family.
Shana:	Yeah. I definitely because I studied fashion design at the Rhode Island School of Design I knew that I owed it to myself to sort of experience the cities, Boston, and New York, and see what fashion was all about. But I guess deep down I knew that wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted. I tried it for a little while and then I very consciously remember sitting in my cubicle in New York and looking around to all these young women working there. They were all really busy and loving their life in New York, but there was something missing for me there. New York is amazing from a cultural standpoint. There’s a lot that’s there, kind of in your face, and it can be really energizing and inspiring and fun and wonderful in that way.
	I guess it was at that point that I realized I preferred Maine and I preferred not a slower life but just a lifestyle where I think there’s so much creativity here in Maine but it’s not so in your face. You have to kind of seek it out. It’s like a hunt. It’s like you go down to the beach and you’re like what treasure am I going to find. Same thing when you go to these little flea markets and stuff, and, “Oh, what sort of piece of history am I going to find here and what is that going to inspire.” I really like that about Maine, is you never know what’s around the corner. Even just exploring the coastline. You go down a dirt road and you could find this beautiful beach that overlooks this island that you didn’t ever know was even there.
Lisa:	That’s interesting because the way you’re describing the find is the way that you described to me earlier how you got into making The Ropes. It’s really so what is in front of me that I can weave into something else.
Shana:	Yeah. I mean, I very much accidentally became a jewelry designer. I didn’t have a business plan. I didn’t seek out to have my own business even. I just was doing something out of my own joy and love and it just happened to turn into something that I can still do and love and work on every day. I do, I feel like I continue to work on it every day. There is no end all be all or right or wrong. You’re just continuing to explore and Maine allows me to do that.
Lisa:	Did it help that you had parents who were doing their own thing, they had their own business, and now you have a husband who also is an entrepreneur and he has his own business? Did it help to be surrounded by other people who were able to show you that it was possible if you believed in yourself to move forward?
Shana:	Yes, definitely. Although I would say my husband has a lobster business with his brother here in Maine, Ready Seafood. Then my parent’s Inn, the Old Fort Inn, those are very different than what I do. It was sort of inspiring to watch these people have their own business. Definitely you learn from things they’ve done. But my path was very different. I think that my experience in the cities in New York and in Boston really helped me focus on the fashion point of what I do. I don’t think that I just make a rope bracelet. I think I have created a style with the bracelet. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s so funny. It’s sort of a look that … I don’t know.
Lisa:	Well, I think that’s a really good point because it’s not … I like reading your quotes on Instagram. but I also equally like seeing what you do with the bracelets and seeing where the bracelets appear. Because you will pair a bracelet with a pair of jeans, but you also pair it with something more tropical. Your bracelets actually have been picked up by media outlets around the country. So other people are agreeing with you that these bracelets really are kind of the, I don’t know, a focal point.
Shana:	Yeah, I think it’s interesting. Somehow people can relate to them. It speaks to people. I think because the materials I use are so basic and people can just sort of relate. I think that there’s something really nice about the juxtaposition of putting this chunky rope bracelet on, but having a little black dress on and going to a cocktail party. It’s you’re dressed up but you’re not forgetting who you are, or you’re making a statement with this sort of chunky piece of jewelry that is nice I think.
Lisa:	Well, it’s very Maine. I mean, it’s kind of the whole … I’ve been astounded by how popular bean boots and flannel shirts have become over the last few years. I mean, because I grew up wearing these. I am also a child of the 80s. That’s just what we wore, but it wasn’t because the rest of the world wore it. There’s something that’s very grounding about Maine and how we choose to live our lives. It doesn’t mean we can’t be fancy. We’re just this kind of interesting combination. We can wear a little black dress and our bean boots and our rope bracelet.
Shana:	Yes. Yeah, it’s true. I think there’s something really nice and rugged about Maine and you have to sort of, I don’t know, I call it Mainerize. I always think, you know I look at all this fashion stuff and I’m like, “Well, would that work in Maine? I don’t know.” Definitely if I were still living in the city and going out to these fancy parties I could wear that, but it’s like you have to think about what I’m doing here in Maine and whether or not that’s going to work with your look.
Lisa:	Yeah, but your bracelets also have some really great colors. I think I bought the first ropes bracelets that I bought were actually in Kennebunkport, in a little store there. 2 of them had bright fluorescent colors because I was giving them to my teenage daughter and my younger daughter at the time. I mean, you’ve been able to make really interesting variations on a theme.
Shana:	Yeah. I love color. I get really inspired by color. I feel like it has endless possibilities. Any way you combine different color I think it’s really beautiful. I like to give the people that wear my bracelets like a reason to keep buying them. The only bracelet that I am like kind of committed to I feel like is my anniversary bracelet, my 5-year anniversary bracelet. I wanted a bracelet that would go with everything. That was why it was so neutral and it was just the 2 mixed metals and that worked. Then I feel like that will always be on the line, but then the other bracelets, the colors will change through the seasons, which I think keeps my customer entertained, but it also keeps me inspired and entertained, it keeps things interesting for me. I love putting collections together for different companies that I work with. It’s really fun.
Lisa:	Tell me about some of these experiences that you’ve had with these companies, because you are your own self and your own entrepreneur and you’re very Maine, but you also have been collaborating with some really interesting other people.
Shana:	Yeah. Let’s see. It’s funny. They just all have kind of … I guess I was very lucky from the get go. My first ever exposure was in elle.com and it was because a friend of mine was wearing my bracelet down in New York City and her friend worked at Elle and loved the bracelet. Then I got this notice that they were going to feature it on the website and I was like, “I don’t even have a website.” I had no website at the time. So I’m freaking out. I’m like, “Well, I got to have some place to direct people.” I literally called my friend up in New York. I’m like, “Can you like put a website up like this weekend? I need a place for people to go.” She did. I literally just took quick photos on my iPhone and sent them down to her because I was like, “Just put anything up. Anything is better than nothing.” She did that. Then it sort of just took off from there.
	I think that these different companies sort of came about. I guess I’ve been really lucky in my business where I’ve never had to like ask a company to work with me really. They’ve sort of come to me and I’ve just sort of let that happen organically naturally. It comes sometimes at a nice time in your life and sometimes not so nice. I mean, for instance J. Crew, I got their order and literally I was in the hospital having my daughter Reese and I’m sitting there getting this email and going, “Oh my god. What a great opportunity. But how am I going to make this work?” Here I am, I have this small business. I’m just having a child here. It was just a lot. I had to sort of make some sacrifices with her, with my daughter at first. I wouldn’t recommend it to everybody. But, yeah, it was interesting.
	I think going back a little bit to the social media aspect is things are not always as they seem. The J. Crew thing worked out. I had to plan everything. It was just me at the time working at The Ropes and I luckily had my intern that has now turned employee, was home from school for her Christmas break and we both just got through it all somehow. I don’t know. I mean I remember she was leaving me to go back to school and I just still had mountains of bracelets still to complete and she kind of felt guilty and I was like, “It’ll be okay.” At the time luckily my daughter was sleeping a lot because she was very little. So that was happening.
	Then a couple of months later I got the call from J. Crew and they wanted to feature me on their Discovered, which was a really exciting opportunity also. But again, I had never left my daughter who I just had. I was still nursing her. So there was a lot of stuff to sort of, obstacles to getting me down to New York to do this, this piece with them. But I did it. No, it wasn’t pretty. I was in the bathroom pumping milk. But that’s what I mean, like, it looks all glamorous, but behind the scenes there’s other stuff going on. But I got through it. That was a big accomplishment for me to do that big order for them. That was good.
	Then we just continue on with other companies we work with. Constantly we get asked to send samples out and stuff that can be used in photoshoots. Whether they’re used or not, I don’t know. Half the time they could be used, half the time they don’t. Yeah, it’s been an interesting journey.
Lisa:	You raise an interesting point which is that it’s almost impossible to compartmentalize one’s life when trying to parent and also be an entrepreneur or even just have a job. Especially I think for women. We spoke with Erin Fleet who does her own designs, and Roxy Sugar, and she’d done fashion. Both of them described really having to weave their children into their lives. I know my son who’s 22, when I was in medical school he was on my lap nursing and it was midterms. He was born during midterms. I literally got up out of giving birth to him, studied, and went and took those tests.
	I think that that it kind of shows us our strength. It shows us that it is possible to make it through. But it also shows our children how strong they can be, because if they grow up with a mother who’s able to also pay attention to them but do things that she loves, then it causes them to think I think I can do this as well.
Shana:	Definitely. Definitely. I mean my day to day is I would say I think I’m getting adult ADD because I’m just, I’m making bracelets and then I’m putting a lunch together, or I’m trying to figure out what soccer game my son needs to be at or Reese is hungry and I just got 2 orders that need to be done by the end of the week. I mean it’s just constant a juggling act and trying to fit everything in and make sure everybody is happy. Like I said, it’s not pretty, but at the end of the day if everybody is fed and bathed and in bed and homework’s done I’m happy.
Lisa:	So what do you do for your free time? I know that you like to lobster on the family boat. That’s kind of a summertime thing. Well, I suppose it could be more than a summertime thing, probably your 2-year-old isn’t quite as excited about going on the lobster boat in January.
Shana:	No, we don’t go out in the winter that often, no.
Lisa:	So what do you do for the rest of your family time?
Shana:	We love to travel. We can’t get away for very long, but we like those quick mini vacations that just revitalize you. Even if it’s for 2 or 3 days it’s just like, “Oh okay,” like, I can get through the winter or things like that. What else do I like to do? I like to read. Definitely I like to keep up with the fashion stuff, that looking through magazines and looking online, getting inspiration and ideas. I like to paddle board. I like to ski, but I haven’t been skiing much with my young daughter yet.
	But I do like to be outdoors and I try to get to the beach at least once a day, because again, I just feel like there’s always a treasure there to find and it’s fun. We were just out, maybe the day before yesterday we were out in our waders going through the water, taking my daughter and saying, “Oh look, there’s a sand dollar. Look, there’s a sea urchin.” It’s really fun to see what you can find in the shallow part of the water.
Lisa:	So where would you like to see your business go in the next 5 years?
Shana:	I would like to just honestly maintain my lifestyle. That’s what I feel like I’ve created something that I can still enjoy my family and work and do something that I love. I don’t see a ton of change. I just, I want to continue doing this as long as it makes me happy. I like that it’s small because I don’t think that bigger is necessarily better. I think bigger can bring on more headaches. I like that I still am a part of each and every piece that goes out of my workshop. That’s really important to me. I like seeing things from start to finish.
Lisa:	Are you surprised that a woman from Maine who was once a girl from Maine could actually be successful as a jewelry designer, as someone in the fashion world?
Shana:	Very surprised, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it still is unbelievable to me. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for almost 6 years now. Had you told me when I first started, no way, I would’ve been like, “I don’t think this is going to last that long.” I mean, I still remember when I was just starting and both my parents and my husband were like, “All right, this is really cool, but when are you going to start getting like a real job?” I was kind of like, “Well, it’s either this or a real job because this is becoming a real job.”
	Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s very surprising to me that I’m still doing this, but I’m so glad, I’m so thankful. I think it’s really fun, it’s great. I have so many of my friends, or I’ve had some friends that, “Don’t you get sick of making the bracelets or wearing them,” because somebody that’s in fashion I would say, you like a lot of change, like to change your outfit and stuff. But I feel like there’s a million different ways I can wear these bracelets. By throwing something else on with them or a different cuff. That all has personalities.
	I think also people’s hands, it has a lot of personality to it. You can look at people’s hands and see do they have nail polish or do they have no nail polish, like long or short nails, like how much jewelry do they have on. It says a lot about a person. It’s like a personality on a wrist. I feel like I could be wearing something really fancy, but if I have this rope bracelet on it says to someone that I’m down to earth.
Lisa:	For young men and women who are considering going into fashion or jewelry design what suggestions would you have?
Shana:	I would say that don’t compare your journey to anyone else, to go with your gut and what feels right to you because there is no right or wrong. I think that you’ll know as you go along what feels right and in the back of your mind always have your non-negotiables and stick to your guns with that stuff because only you know how you want your product to come across.
Lisa:	I like it. Shana, how can people find out about The Ropes?
Shana:	I have a website. It’s theropesmaine.com.
Lisa:	And they can also go to Instagram and they can follow you there.
Shana:	Yes.
Lisa:	We’ve been speaking with Shana Ready who is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and also the creator of The Ropes, a very successful jewelry business hailing from the southern part of our state. I have personally at least 2 of your designs and I love them. I will keep wearing them. I’ll keep buying them for my now teenage daughters. Actually now she’s 20, so I guess she’s deserving maybe of another one entirely. But I appreciate the time that you took to come in and talk with us today. It’s interesting to hear somebody say when I was told to get a real job I said this is my real job and I just kept on going.
Shana:	Yes.
Lisa:	I appreciate that. Thank you for coming in.
Shana:	Thank you.
Lisa:	You’ve been listening to Love Maine Radio, show number 235, Coastal Creativity. Our guests have included Ben Davis and Shana Ready. For more information on our guests and extended interviews visit lovemaineradio.com. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on iTunes. For our preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Love Maine Radio Facebook page.
	Follow me on Twitter as Dr. Lisa and see my running travel, food, and wellness photos as Bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. 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 Love Maine Radio to you each week.
	This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Coastal Creativity Show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Speaker 1:	Love Maine Radio is made possible with the support of Maine Magazine, Berlin City Honda, Macpage, Boone’s Fish House & Oyster Room, and Apothecary by Design. Audio production and original music have been provided by Spencer Albee. Our editorial producer is Kelly Chase. Our assistant producer is Emily Davis. Our community development manager is Casey Lovejoy, and our executive producers are Kevin Thomas, Susan Grisanti, and Dr. Lisa Berlisle.
	For more information on our host production team, Maine Magazine, or any of the guest featured here today, visit us at lovemaineradio.com. Here’s an excerpt from next week’s program.
Lisa:	Not so long ago I was driving down the road in Scarborough and I saw this new building. It said, Salt Pump Climbing. I said, “Huh, I’m really intrigued by this,” because I know that climbing has become much more popular. It’s not something that I do a lot of myself, but anybody who’s interested in bringing this sort of thing to the state of Maine is somebody I want talk to. So today we have with us Taki Miyamoto who is a partner and general manager at Salt Pump Climbing and Tino Fiumara who is the head route setter and assistant program director at Salt Pump Climbing. Thanks so much for coming in.
Taki:	Thanks for having us.
Tino:	Indeed.
Lisa:	Why is it called Salt Pump Climbing?
Taki:	What do you think of when you hear salt pump?
Lisa:	Oh my gosh, questions asked back. I don’t, I don’t know.
Taki:	Yeah. I think that’s part of the idea with it so that it sticks in people’s minds and gets people thinking about what salt pump means. From our perspective we wanted to tie it back to Maine somehow, a name that ties back to Maine, so we thought about the ocean and the salt. At one point, salt was one of the most valuable minerals in the world, so we like those connotations. It’s still an essential mineral so we like that connotation.
	The pump comes from a pond we have behind our building. Water pump is where the community used to gather, so we like that connotation. Pump itself has a use in climbing when you’ve climbed a lot or you’re feeling pretty good, people would say, “I’m pumped,” so it had a little bit of a tie to climbing. We combined those 2 words, it sounded nice, it stuck.
	Then one thing we did do with the name is that we didn’t include the word gym. That’s because we aspire to be more than a gym at some point. We want to be a home away from home for people. That’s why it’s Salt Pump Climbing company and not Salt Pump Climbing Gym.
Lisa:	Well, I will probably never forget Salt Pump Climbing so you have done your job effectively.
Taki:	Great.
Lisa:	Tino, what is a route setter?
Tino:	When you go into a climbing gym or any type of indoor climbing facility you see holes all over the walls. Many people think that they’re there just scattered about so that we can scale them. Really, they’re kind of intricately designed routes, courses in a way to follow that we actually set monochromatically so you follow a certain color up, and per the terrain that you’re climbing you can have different style, different difficultly, different feel, and you’re creating all these different experiences all on the wall. I kind of am an experienced creator.
Lisa:	How did you get to be experienced in this and what’s the skillset necessary?
Tino:	A lot of movement. It’s 20 years of climbing in different places across the world and lots of different types of stone. Then on the inside aspect thinking about your entire possible client population from 2-year-olds to 80-year-olds and body styles and morphologies, tall people, short people, how you can make something accessible to everybody, fun for everybody, yet also true to grade and true to a certain sense of as we understand climbing to be from outdoors.
Lisa:	Tino, I’m interested in your background because you’ve done a lot of different things. Actually both of you have done a lot of different things as I’m looking through your background information. But you’ve climbed kind of consistently in your life.
Tino:	Correct.
Lisa:	Is that a thing? Once people start climbing, do they just keep doing it because they can’t stop for some reason?
Tino:	Yeah, and it actually fits very well with why Salt Pump is not just a climbing gym. Climbing is a lifestyle. There’s from the kids that come into it to like I was mentioning the 80-year-olds who are there regularly, and you have these multigenerational populations interacting enthusiastically about the exact same thing. That’s one of the more beautiful things about climbing, is that cross generational approach. As well as you can do it indoors together, you can do it for fitness, you can do it for relaxation. Then you can travel the world because there’s really no place in the world that doesn’t have some form of climbable stone.
Lisa:	How about you Taki, you went to Bates. That’s I believe one of your initial connectors with Maine. But then you practice as an attorney both in New York and also in Tokyo?
Taki:	Yep, that’s right. Climbing has always been a constant since I started. At Salt Pump we like to say that climbing can enrich our lives and the culture can make the world a better place. I think once people start climbing they see a lot of parallels, usefulness in their daily lives, and they make climbing, they try to make climbing a central part of their everyday life, whether it’s just knowing people who climb a lot so they come together at Salt Pump or go outside on the weekends or whenever.
	Once you get hooked in sort of not just the act of climbing but in the culture of it and making yourself relationships your whole life starts to revolve around climbing. For me personally that’s always been the case, it’s been a constant part, whether it’s just sort of centering myself at the end or beginning of a day, thinking about things to look forward to.