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Alexis Teichmiller

3 days in the Beautiful State of Maine

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Maine: rocky coasts, lobster rolls, gorgeous views of the Atlantic, endless breweries, and incredible memories.

A few weeks ago, a few friends (Chelsea, Elana, and Sarah Belle) and I had the opportunity to travel to Maine with Visit Maine. I couldn’t have picked better women to travel with. Each of them are so creative and unique, it made experiencing a new place and capturing travel content so much fun.

We had a JAM PACKED weekend in Maine starting in Kennebunkport, then making our way to Portland, and ending up in Camden. Below I cover where we stayed, ate, and what we did! I hope that by the end of this post, you find yourself booking a much needed trip to Maine.

Day 1: Kickin’ it in Kennebunkport

For anyone flying in from the midwest/south/west coast, I suggest flying into Boston. It was much cheaper than flying into Portland, ME. Sarah and I flew up to Boston from Nashville to meet Chelsea and then we hit the road to Kennebunkport. It was just a short 1 hr 15 minute drive from Boston to Kennebunkport.

If you love small coastal towns with colorful charm, you must visit Kennebunkport. The downtown area is filled with cute shops and restaurants – I highly recommend riding bikes through town and along the water!

I felt so calm in this quaint ocean town. If you are looking for a relaxing environment and slower pace, check out Kennebunkport.

Where we stayed:

Yachtsman Marina and Hotel

The Yachtsman Marine and Hotel is hands down one of my favorite boutique hotels I’ve ever stayed at. The staff (especially Casey!) made our experience top notch and the rooms are exactly what you would expect from a New England hotel – fresh, bright, and thoughtful. You have a gorgeous view of the bay and get to see ships pass by throughout the day.

There’s fresh coffee in the morning (a must in the morning!) and a colorful patio to spend your evening (they have a happy hour you won’t want to miss). Plus they have complimentary bikes you can check out and use for however you long you want!

Where we ate:

The Boathouse

We were lucky enough to have this restaurant recommended to us by the Yachtsman staff and it did not disappoint! They had a diverse menu including all things seafood and plenty of options if seafood isn’t your thing.

The Boathouse has a gorgeous rooftop view of the bay and an incredible wine selection. I got the lobster roll and a half dozen oysters with a glass of Pino – I left full and happy 🙂

Salt & Honey

In need of a mimosa? Salt & Honey has an show-stopping brunch menu and all the brunchy drink options. I had the sweet potato hash and I highly recommend it! If you’re gluten or dairy free (like me), they have several options for you too!

What we did:

Biking – The best way to see Kennebunkport is biking! Grab your camera and bike down Ocean Avenue the best coastal views.

Shopping – If you’re looking for Maine digs or apparel, Kennebunkport is the place. Shops I recommend: Daytrip Society, Minka, and The Whimsey Shop

Relaxing – This part is KEY! If you stay at the Yachtsman, they have an incredible happy hour and “wine down hour.” We spent 2 hours before dinner just hanging out, sipping on rosĂ©, and relaxing.

Day 2: Postin’ up in Portland

I’ll start this by saying I wish we had more time in Portland! But what we did experience was incredible. It’s an old port city with cobble stone streets, big brick buildings, and endless amounts of breweries and foodie restaurants.

What I loved most? Everyone was outside enjoying the gorgeous summer weather. It had an energy that made you want to explore every little neighborhood.

Where we stayed:

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Portland-By The Bay. If you’re looking for an inexpensive place to stay, this is a great option.

Where we ate:

Solo Italiano

I am the worlds biggest fan of gnocchi and Solo Italiano has some of the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. It had an expansive menu, so it had a little something for everyone.

Bayside American Cafe

Brunch is the most important meal of any weekend – no joke! Bayside America Cafe is charming and makes a famous cinnamon roll pancake that’s not worth missing. I had their Crab Cake Egg Benedict with a mimosa and the girls and I split the cinnamon roll pancake – there’s no way I could eat that beaut alone!

Tandum Coffee

You know those hipster cafĂ©s where they turn an old gas station into a trendy coffee shop? That’s Tandum Coffee and it’s amazing. They have a wide variety of pastries and breakfast sandwiches along with every kind of cortado/cappuccino/latte/flat white you could think of.

We stopped by Tandum on our way out of town because you can’t have a proper road trip without good coffee!

What we did:

Lucky Catch Lobster Cruise

If you’re looking for a true Maine experience, look no further than a lobster cruise. We had the pleasure of heading into the bay with Lucky Catch Cruises to check their active lobster traps and learn more about an industry important to Maine’s economy.

Our crew was so helpful and educational. This fun experience doubled as a chance to really learn about the lobster industry including learning all the rules and regulations put in place to protect the red creatures of the sea. I highly recommend booking through Lucky Catch in you’re in Portland!

Maine Brew Bus

It’s no secret… I like beer. I like beer even more when I get to taste several beers from different breweries in one day. A great way to experience the micro-brewrey scene in Portland is the Maine Brew Bus.

We visited 3 different breweries in different parts of the city. I was pleasantly surprised by how many breweries there were in Portland! This is an inexpensive way to see different parts of the city and taste a lot of good beer 🙂

Portland Head Lighthouse

We woke up early Saturday morning and made it to Portland Head Lighthouse by 8am. There wasn’t a soul around and we were able to enjoy the scenery and snap a few pictures without hassling with crowds.

This is a must see in Portland.

Day 3: Cruisin’ into Camden

I’m a fan of road trips and taking the long way home.

The drive from Portland to Camden is gorgeous – I would definitely take a few detours down the fingers to see lighthouses and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

Camden is charming, quaint, and picturesque. Camden and Kennebunkport are tied for my two favorite places in Maine. Camden reminded me of the small mountains towns I love so much in Colorado, despite the fact that Camden is right on the ocean.

The sailboats and windjammers in the Camden Harbor were a sight to see! If you have the time to drive up the coast, add Camden to the top of your list.

Where we stayed:

16 Bay View

If you enjoy historic boutique hotels with a flare for detail and charm, stay at 16 Bay View. You have an incredible view of the harbor and you will not be disappointed by their eclectic rooms.

My favorite part is their rooftop bar. It has the best views of the bay complete with outdoor heaters when the nights get chilly. It’s the perfect hotel for a relaxing getaway.

Where we ate:

Long Grain

One of my favorite genres of food is thai and asian. Naturally we were attracted to the best thai place in Camden, Long Grain. I’m not just saying this… it was the best thai I’d ever had. It fills up quickly so I would recommend getting there early unless you’re okay with takeout. Either way, Long Grain is a must for dinner in Camden.

Sea Dog Brewing

Looking for something to do before or after dinner? Check out Sea Dog Brewing and sit on their back deck. It’s has a great view of the water and it’s covered, so even when it rains, you can enjoy the view without getting wet. Their main summer brew is their Blueberry Wheat Ale. Trust me, it’s just as good as it sounds. I had 2 (or three) of these.

Boynton-McKay

If you’re a fan of old-school diners with big menus and great service, Boynton-McKay’s is your place. We ate breakfast here before heading back to Boston to fly home and it was just what we needed – a filling breakfast before a long drive.

Thank you for taking the time to read my Maine Travel Guide! We packed quite a bit into a short time so we could experience as much as possible.

I couldn’t have asked for better women to experience Maine with. Sarah, Chelsea, and Elana – thank you for our sweet conversations and memories, I am so grateful for each of you.

And a big thank you to Visit Maine for coordinating our trip, we couldn’t have done it without you and your incredible team!

I hope you found this guide helpful and more than anything, I hope you’re thinking of planning your next trip to Maine! There’s nothing like it! I LOVE MAINE and I’m already planning my trip back their next summer.

Shine on!
Alexis

 

Episode 40: Finding Your Creative Freedom with founder of Dazey LA Dani Nagel

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Dani is a self taught illustrator, graphic designer, and photographer. She  graduated at age 19 with a degree in fashion design, but as lover of both art and fashion she combined these two passions to make a career in apparel graphics.
For the past 6 years she has been designing for many notable companies both freelance and full time. Some of these companies include Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Forever21, Truly Madly Deeply, Mate the Label, Amuse Society, Gypsy Warrior, Show me your Mumu, The Laundry Room, Top Knot Goods, Electric West, Midnight Rider, Not Another Label, Current/Elliott, Macy’s, Pac Sun, Hot Topic, and more.
While all that was great, her true goal was to have full creative freedom with a label of her own. After years of daydream and doubt, she took the leap and created Dazey LA. She draws every tee by hand and does all the photography you see throughout the website and instagram. Check out all her other work at www.daniroxanne.com, @graphicteegirl and @daniroxannephoto!
 


Show Highlights

  • Sometimes “dream jobs” aren’t actually the job you’ve been dreaming of.
  • It’s easy to get bored when you don’t feel challenged.
  • When your creativity is suppressed and micromanaged, it creates this urgency to want to start your own business.
  • Creating boundaries in your creative process can help you stay focused and get clear on what you want to create.
  • Think of what would you want to see as a struggling creator? That’s the kind of content you build to help serve your community.
  • Empowerment begins from within. You must first love yourself before you can truly love the world around you.
  • You don’t have to base your worth on what everyone else thinks. You can be proud of who you are and what you do, without the approval of others.

 

Episode 39: How Creating Every Day Built a Multi-Million Dollar Business, with Founder and CEO of ConvertKit Nathan Barry

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Who is Nathan Barry?

Nathan Barry is the Founder and CEO of ConvertKit, an email marketing tool for creators. Before ConvertKit’s growth took off, he worked on building iPhone apps, writing books, and coding websites. Nathan got his start as a web and software designer, but soon became obsessed with the world of audience building and book publishing. During that time he wrote 3 books (The App Design Handbook, Designing Web Applications, and Authority) and 2 courses (Photoshop for Web Design and Building Profitable Audiences).

In October 2014, Nathan made the decision to walk away from the book and training business and focus full-time on ConvertKit (at the time we had just $1,000/month in revenue and now we have $770,000/month). Since then we’ve grown 300x and have an amazing team, product, and customers. And I feel honored to be apart of the ConvertKit team!

Over the past year, I have learned so much from Nathan. And in this episode we really dive into some big topics like: the importance of asking why and questioning the “normal” ways of doing things, the true gift of a side hustle, the inside look of how Nathan wrote 3 books in 2 years, how working in public, creating every day, and teaching everything you know are a key parts of entrepreneurship, knowing when to shut down or double down, and how to tap into vulnerability and use it as a way to overcome fear and connect with others.

“Challenge yourself to ask “Why?” before you do something just because it’s what has always been done.” – @nathanbarry


Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • Look at goals/achievements like a set amount of work, instead of a set amount of time.
  • Challenge yourself to ask “Why?” before you do something just because it’s what has always been done.
  • Age is only a factor in your success if you let it be.
  • What daily habits can you build that will allow you to accomplish your goals?
  • First create the habits and then your accomplishments from those habits will be a natural byproduct.
  • One of the best ways to build an audience is to work in public and tell your community what you’re working on and why.
  • People trust you when you’re teaching them how to do something they care about.
  • In regards to experts — they don’t teach because they’re experts, they’re experts because they teach.
  • There are times when you should shut down your business or side hustle because it’s just not working.
  • When deciding whether or not to shut down or double down, ask yourself these two questions:
    • Do you still want this as much today as the day you started?
    • Have you given this every possible chance to succeed?
  • Does your effort and actions match your vision and ambition?
  • Use a side hustle to experiment and learn about things that you’re interested in. You don’t have to pressure it into something you don’t want it to be.
  • You can’t truly connect or trust someone unless they’re able to get vulnerable with you.
  • I wanted to be measured based on the quality and quantity of my work, not how much time I spent sitting in a chair at an office.
  • It’s hard to do the same level of meaningful work on the road compared to you in your office in a controlled environment.

W: ConvertKit.com + NathanBarry.com

T: @NathanBarry

YT: @NathanBarry

 

Episode 38: The Emotions of an Entrepreneur, with Business Coach Alisha Byrd

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Who is Alisha Byrd?

Alisha Byrd is a business coach dedicated to helping creative women live their life & create their business on purpose. She’s a self-published author of “The Blogpreneur” and is currently working on her second book, “Living Over Existing.” Alisha is also the creator behind several physical products created to help online business owners organize and build their brands. Through her work, Alisha empowers women to uncover their voice, ditch fear, gain clarity & begin making money doing what they love.

In this episode, you will learn the art of knowing when to quit something you love to grow to the next level, the importance of building a strong brand as a beginning entrepreneur, why it’s key to give up control in order to grow, how to view fear as just an emotion, and how to overcome negative thoughts and opinions of others.

“Fear is just an emotion. Just like sadness, happiness, and loneliness. It will come and it will fade away.” – @thealishanicole

 

Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • The more I shared about the vulnerable aspects of running a business, the more people began to engage with me.
  • As an entrepreneur, you feel everything. Every triumph, every failure, every dollar made and lost.
  • It got to the point where I had to choose between my sanity or a paycheck. So I chose myself. I chose my sanity.
  • Branding is more than just a logo and a website. It’s your story, it’s the reason why you do what you do, and it’s the people you serve.
  • When I gave up the need for control, the right choices for my business long term became much clearer.
  • Get strategic about the content you’re creating. Are you creating a hobby or a business?
  • How do you plan to monetize your side project?
  • I don’t want to be another internet coach regurgitating information I read online. I want to experiment, test, and live out different approaches before I ever teach any of it to others.
  • Your brand is your business’s identity to the rest of the world.
  • Once you zero in on your brand and who you want to serve, your website design, coloring, and messaging gets easier to create because you know who you’re creating for.
  • Fear is just an emotion. Just like sadness, happiness, and loneliness. It will come and it will fade away.
  • The people who are talking negatively about you are only doing it because they are too afraid to step out and do something they love for themselves.
  • I became an entrepreneur to have the freedom to chose my own hours and lifestyle. Not to be glued to my computer.

 

W: thealishanicole.com

IG: @thealishanicole

Episode 37: The Power of Vulnerability, with Founder of She Is Light, Elise Hodge

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Who is Elise Hodge?

Hailing from the sunny Gold Coast, Australia, Elise Hodge is the founder of She is Light and the Flourish on Instagram course.

Elise started She is Light on Instagram in late 2015 with a mission is to empower young women to understand their worth and pursue purpose-filled lives. With her background in Public Relations and Media, Elise harnessed the power of Instagram to rapidly grow the She is Light community, attracting young women from around the world. With her expertise in Instagram strategy, it was natural for her create an Instagram course, Flourish on Instagram, to help others use the platform to attract their unique audience too.

Elise believes life is too short not to pursue your passions – it’s this mantra that led her to quit her full-time job in turn for a part-time job and more flexibility, allowing her to work on what she loves! With a whole lot of tenacity and a bit of faith, Elise is working on developing She is Light to be the go-to online community for young women around the world.

In this episode, you will see the value of creating a community for people to feel safe and heard online, how to use tools like social media to really understand and connect with your audience, how to pursue a vulnerable lifestyle, how to use intentional thinking to make move in your careers and life, and the importance of separating the feelings of failure from comparison.

“There’s a movement of people who are striving to be more authentic on the internet. Will you be apart of it?” – @SheIsLight

Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • We were created to be a light to the world and to each other, to lift up, encourage, and make a difference in the world.
  • I had a concept and I ran with it. It wasn’t about figuring every aspect out before starting, it was just about starting.
  • Working with women and having successful relationships can be hard. That’s why female community is so important.
  • Millennials aren’t afraid of pursuing their dreams because they want to do fulfilling work.
  • Use social media to start conversations. Ask questions and leave the door open to hear their thoughts and opinions.
  • There’s a movement of people who are striving to be more authentic on the internet.
  • Thinking about and writing down your thoughts, worries, and dreams might be easy, but sharing them in an open forum online is much scarier.
  • You build trust by being real and honest. People need to know there’s a person behind the business.
  • People are searching for “me too” moments. That’s what it means to share and be authentic – creating “me too” moments.
  • It’s hard to serve people you don’t know and they don’t know you. You have to tear down the walls separating you from everyone else.
  • You don’t need to share everything. The internet is not our counselor, it’s a tool.
  • Dream jobs take years to build.
  • What do you want life to be like in 5 years? How do you want to feel?
  • Nothing is a waste. Every job, every college course, every mistake – they are building your story and your experience to lead you to where you’re suppose to be.
  • When’s the last time you set aside time to think? Just to think? To dream?
  • Nothing happens when you don’t make time for it.
  • What is something you’ve learned in the last year that people continually ask you about that you could teach them?
  • You only have to be a few steps ahead of other people in order to teach them something.
  • Your content isn’t for everyone. Focus on who it’s for and don’t pay attention to who it’s not for.

 

W: SheIsLight.com

IG: @SheIsLight

 

Episode 36: Living a Digital Nomad Lifestyle with Pro-Blogger and Entrepreneur Yaro Starak

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Yaro Starak is the author of the Blog Profits Blueprint and founder of the Entrepreneurs-Journey.com blog. He began blogging over ten years ago initially as a hobby, however as his income from blogging surpassed $10,000 a month, he decided his future lay in this new publishing medium. Since then Yaro has used his blog as a platform to sell over $2 million dollars in ebooks, online courses and membership sites.

Today Yaro is a mentor to thousands of experts, authors, coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers, teaching how to turn knowledge into a profitable online business. Yaro helps people set up their own “Blog Sales Funnel”, a system that combines blogging with email marketing to build a platform to sell digital training products on autopilot.

Yaro has a proven track record of results, with his “graduate bloggers” going on to make thousands of dollars – some even millions – in such diverse niches as book design, ADHD counseling, acne treatment, BMX bikes, skiing, cars, sports news, speed reading, real estate, television production and fat loss.

In this episode, you will learn  – how to view failures as experiments, the importance of knowing the why behind starting a business, the pros and cons of living a digital nomad lifestyle, how easy it is to travel and work at the same time, and how to say no to opportunities that don’t serve your long term goals.


Listen above – Direct Download – Subscribe on iTunes

  • Don’t think of them as failures, think of them as experiments.
  • It’s hard to grow an audience when you don’t already have an audience.
  • Fall in love with the process of building and creating – it’s easier to take action on your goals if you’re hooked on creating.
  • It’s important to prove to yourself that you can be financially independent from your own business.
  • Turn down opportunities that you think you “should” take to make space for better ones that align with your long term goals.
  • Two simple life giving questions: What do you want to do and why do you want to do it?
  • You choose the path of your business. You solely choose the direction it heads in.
  • If you do good work helping people, it can become the platform for a business.
  • There are two sides to every lifestyle. Before you pursue something, explore the good and bad behind that lifestyle.
  • Build a business around the kind of life you want to live.
  • When your business is sustaining itself, you don’t feel the need to say yes to every opportunities.
  • What do you do? Why do you do it? Who do you do it for? Do the answers to these questions align with who you want to be long term?
  • No one is an island, you need people to grow.

Blog Profits Blueprint – How to earn a living from your blog or online business

 

W: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

IG: @YaroStarak