"Surfing forces you to be patient. You just have to roll with the punches."
We're joined this week by textile designer and Salt Atlas founder Jess Miyuki! Jessica talks about working at Billabong, freelancing, and her journey to becoming a business owner. She shares her design process, how she had to pivot her business during a pandemic, and why she's drawn to surfing. This episode will have you yearning for the beach!
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Episode Transcript
Lisa: Iris. It's another episode of Outside by Design.
Iris: Heck yes it is.
Lisa: And what's going on this week at WHEELIE?
Iris: This week at WHEELIE, um, we just did our biannual - biannual, does that mean twice a year or once every two years? I don't know - Trail day. We do it twice a year. And we had ours on Monday and now I'm really, really sore.
Lisa: Yeah, we did. We maintain three miles of the Whitefish trail and we do that cliff section underneath, underneath Skyles because our crew has the agility to hike tools into there.
Iris: Yup. We hiked in, we raked and raked and raked and raked and raked, and then I was real dumb and I went on a bike right afterwards, so now I can pretty much only get up off my couch a few times a day. [laughs]
Lisa: That's my trick to making you couchbound so that you work a lot.
Iris: [laughs] Luckily it's like pouring rain the last two days now and thunderstorming so it's fine that I'm immobile.
Lisa: Good.
Iris: I have nothing else to do anyway, so I got it all out on Monday. Now I can be sedentary.
Lisa: And in the opposite of mountain town living, we have a really cool guest on the podcast.
Iris: Yeah.
Lisa: I've never met this guest in person, but I think we would be friends.
Iris: I think you would be friends. I think you are friends now.
Lisa: I think we are friends now, but she's awesome. Her name is Jess Miyuki. Um. If you're about to listen to this podcast, jumo on Instagram and check out her work on Instagram.
It's @salt.atlas as well as her handle, which is @Jessica, M-I-Y-U-K-I, so you can see who we're talking to and see how cool her life is.
Iris: Yeah. Sitting here in like 30, what is it, 40 degree weather? I'm pretty jealous.
Lisa: Yeah. Jess works in the surf industry. And she started a company called Salt Atlas, um, which is custom gifts for people who love the sea. And so it's a lot of tide posters and destination jewelry and adventure bags. And she used to be a textile designer at Billabong before she started her own company. So she has a lot of cool experience that's different than our mountain town vibes. Um, and then also, I'm just so obsessed with surfing lately that I just really was excited to talk to Jess.
Iris: Yeah. She talks about how surfing relates to entrepreneurship. She talks about having to pivot her business after starting a travel brand and then immediately going into the coronavirus pandemic.
Lisa: She paints really cool surf boards.
Iris: Yeah. She has incredible art. I'm following her now and I love having her pop up on my feed and I know our listeners will too.
Lisa: That's right. Let's get into it.
Iris: Let's get into it.
Lisa: Um, well, Jess, thank you so much for being here today.
Jess: Yeah, I'm excited to be here.
Lisa: And we've never had a textile designer on the podcast, so I'm really excited to talk to you about that. Uh, but the first, the first thing we ask everyone is where you are in the world and what you're looking at.
Jess: Right now, I am in Orange County, California, and I am looking at my computer screen and my dog, and I'm hoping she stays sleeping so she doesn't bark.
Lisa: Perfect. And so you are a textile designer, you started your own brand Salt Atlas, you're wildly creative. Um, what's a typical day look like for you these days?
Jess: Um, lately it's just been waking up, taking my dog out for a walk, um, and then going through emails, um, and checking my orders because I just recently rebranded my company to sell personalized artwork. So there's a lot of back and forth, um, for customer service for that. So I usually take care of that mornings and then go through all my analytics. So it's like Google analytics, that's Hotjar, It's, um, Shopify. So I go through all of that, make sure everything's in order, and then try to go through the day, try to look for a way to, um, look for ways to make things run a little bit smoother. So I'll do like a Shopify course on how to optimize my website or something productive if I don't have a big freelance project that I'm currently working on.
Lisa: Cool. And what, what's your story? Um, I read on your website that you grew up in Japan and spent a lot of time traveling around the States in childhood. So how did you end up in Orange County and what's, what's your, I guess what, it's a big question, but what's, what's your story?
Jess: It's a long one. I've done a lot of things [laughs] so I’ll to keep it short, but yeah, I was born and raised in Japan. Um. I grew up there. That was my first language, was my first everything. Um, and I went to Japanese school there too.
So I had a really interesting experience as a kid that was half white and it wasn't really common when I was growing up there. It is now, but it just wasn't when I was growing up. Then we moved to the United States when I was around… seven, and my brother was around 10. And then it was in Arizona because we moved in close to my dad's parents' place.
I spent a while there, and then my dad got a job in Minnesota, so we moved there. So that was a really big change from the desert to the snow. Um, and then spent about a year, year and a half there. And then my dad got a job in California and we've been in Orange County since then, really. Um, and I just started traveling.
Um, I had one modeling job in... Pike's peak? Um, yeah. In Colorado, right?
Lisa: Yeah.
Jess: I remember flying to that crazy airport, Denver - it looks like cirque du soleil. Yeah. So that was like my first experience traveling alone, really, for that modeling job. And after that I was kind of hooked, um, and I tried to look for opportunities where I could travel and then I did little trips here and there to Hawaii with family or whatnot.
Um, but yeah, I did a trip to Bali with my then boyfriend, um, a few years after that modeling trip. And I really felt more confident in being able to travel on my own. And then after that I started traveling quite a bit. I would just look for deals online, try to stock up my miles and points and whatnot. And, um, yeah, I started traveling a lot.
It's been fun. I really like, um, I really like the mindset you get after you come back from a trip.
Lisa: Oh, what do you mean?
Jess: I just feel more open to things. You know, you, you get so used to your environment, when you're in a place where you don't know anybody, you don't know anything. You don't know the language, you don't know the food, it just forces you to be so open to things. And you kind of have to have an optimistic mindset. It just forces you to do that. And sometimes, at least for me, I can get jaded from time to time because things are really good. And then I start looking for problems to fix. And when I travel, everything just seems so positive. And when I come back, I come back with that open mindedness and like accepting other cultures and differences, opinions, it just kind of opens you up to those things.
Lisa: Cool. How does, how does your artwork tie into the travel and your design style? Because your, your artwork is gorgeous and I believe you worked in-house at Billabong for a while. Um, but yeah. Well, how does that, how does that story infuse all your travel?
Jess: Yeah, so when I travel, I kind of notice - well I’m a visual person, so I noticed that each country kind of has a different color scheme. I don't know if you've really noticed it, but yeah, just anywhere you travel, even if it's a different state or a different County, it just has a different type of color scheme and like the plants are different. The sky color seems different. Um. And I'd like to bring that back into my artwork. So I have a really like Hawaiian-y tropical feel to my artwork, cause those are the places that I travel to the most, where I get most of my inspiration because the colors are good, just everything's bright, the flowers are beautiful and just, yeah, just, um, really inspirational.
Lisa: And how'd you actually break into textile design?
Jess: That's another long story cause I just feel like a cat with nine lives. [laughs] So I originally went to college as a graphic design major and switched out last minute to kinesiology and I graduated with the, yeah, I was going to go into physical therapy. Um, yeah. And then that turned into like a grad school program for physical therapy. And I just, yeah. It just didn't really work out.
Um, so then I went into engineering for a bit and wanted to become a civil engineer and I was taking a job as a drafter for a bit, and it was just so dry. I was not meant for something uncreative.
And I took a few graphic design courses online. Um, I've always liked art. And what was like doodling. But yeah, I found this internship online at Billabong and I just applied. It was like, I surf. I know the beach culture. I have taken a few graphics design courses. I'd love to intern, see what it's all about.
Um. Yeah. I ended up getting an internship, uh, and quitting my paying job for an unpaid internship, and I went 40 hours a week because I figured if I was the intern that was there the most, they'd start giving me real work instead of like, “Oh, can you like file this and help pack this?” Like I figured if I was there that often, they'd give me real work. And it worked, they gave me real textile design work and, um, yeah, my, I think I interned there for about three months and two my designs ended up being in the full catalog. I was like, this is amazing!
Um, yeah, so that's about three months. I didn't end up getting a job there at the end of my internship. Um, the timing didn't really work out. But I interned at PacSun. They had a 10 week program for interns there. So I did that. And it was a really good program. And after that I had to learn how to freelance for maybe eight months. Man, it was like throwing spaghetti at the wall. I did not know what I was doing, but I figured like, you know, I have two really good companies under my belt for my resume. I can... I can wing it [laughs] so I did for a while.
Um, and then after a while, I reapplied at Billabong. They had an opening, and then I worked there for almost three years. And then after I left Billabong I started traveling a lot and launched my company. So in the shortest way of saying all that, that's what happened.
Lisa: I love that. Um, okay, cool. So why, why surfing? Like what, um... What does, what draws you to surfing? What draws you to the ocean?
Jess: Surfing is meditative, it's just healing. I don't know, it just sounds so cheesy whenever I try to explain it, but I've just been addicted to it since I started. Um, yeah, I started in like a surf camp. I wasn't very good. I was actually awful. Um, and then I had back surgery so I couldn't surf for a long time. And then I got back into it ‘cause a guy I was dating surfed and I told him I was good. [laughs] Which was stupid. So I just went all the time so I could get better.
Um, but after that, after we broke it off, I just kept it... like surfing just became my just became my thing. Like I loved it so much. It just takes your mind off of things. It's really good exercise. You're in the sun, you're in the water, you're getting tan... like it's just, and it makes you really, um, it forces you to be patient. It kind of like how traveling force you to be open, cause you're not going to get the best wave every time. Like, there's going to be crowds, you're going to get burned. Like it's, you just have to roll with the punches. And it just keeps you humble, I think, especially on big days, man, I get humbled on big days.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. And... so I love this intersection. You're into action sports, which are pretty hard charging, but your designs are pretty mellow and organic. So like, how do you, uh, merge those worlds and, and bring that into your artwork?
Jess: That's a good question. I mean, if I was super into Zodiac, I'd say it's because I'm a Gemini, [laughs] but I don't know enough about Zodiacs. I mean, I feel like maybe I've told personalities, I guess in terms of, um, yeah, the action sports and the mellowness. But I think I let out my intense energy through sports and being outdoors. And that's why I walk my dogs so many times a day and then running around doing all these exercises and skateboarding around if I can't surf and whatnot. So that gets my like intense energy out. And then my, I guess thinking energy goes into artwork.
So I'm not the best public speaker. I can talk in circles, but in artwork for some reason, I'm able to communicate a lot better.
Lisa: Totally. That makes so much sense to me and probably most of our audience. Um, just having that, that creative brain and, um, communicating in ways other than words.
Jess: Yeah.
Lisa: Yeah, let's, okay, so let's talk textile design for a minute and then dive deep into Salt Atlas. But big picture, how do you, because, because you know, you're designing swimsuits or, um, luggage, things that people carry or they wear. How do you, how do you, when you sit down to design, what's that process like and like how do you figure out what people will like to wear on their body? Is it really trend based or intuition based? Like what's it look like for you?
Jess: I think maybe... looking back at all the random things that I've done, maybe kinesiology and engineering really did help me become fast at creating textiles. Um, because I don't have to think as much about different layouts because with kinesiology, I see body movement. So I kind of can tell where the body's going to move and not to put certain elements in certain places cause it looks like... I don't know, if you put two round things on your chest, it's got to look weird. You know what I mean?
Or like, the engineering part, it helps me figure out the layout and a repeat, because that's a really technical part of textile design is figuring out the repeat... making sure that it flows so that when you're looking at like a really long dress, um, and the pattern is repeating, it doesn't look almost jaggedy or pixelated or you could kind of tell where it's repeating. So I think the engineering part that I experienced kind of helped me on that.
But yeah, when I sit down to think about it, um, I like to do mock ups first. So like... maybe I'll look at different trends I see on Pinterest. Um, I really like Pinterest because it's so visual and once you click on a picture, it shows you pictures that are similar. So it like, really helps me brainstorm that way. So if I like a long flowing dress with like really big elements near the hips and like smaller elements near the feet or something like that, then I'll kind of go off of that and be like, okay, I want like a trickle down type of textile design and I'll kind of build off of that.
And then once I have my main, like, dramatic element, I'll start building the repeat and then I'll fill in the gaps in the repeat. Does that makes sense? I kind of go from big picture to small circle to all the details, and then I finish the repeat and check in whatnot.
Lisa: So what are challenges that people don't realize that come with printing on fabric?
Jess: Ooh, it's just, it just depends on what factory you use. I mean, when I worked at Billabong - and PacSun - um, some factories are so good at printing really fine lines, really delicate details and other factories, it just, everything bled out and it looked awful. So from that, I had to learn how to adjust my artwork for each factory, which… I don't think it's skill. Maybe you learn in design school, but it seems something you just kind of have to pick up on the job because every factory is so different. So you could work at Billabong and work at, you know, some other company. And they’ll use totally different factories that have totally different settings.
So that's something I had to kind of learn through experience seeing samples. Um, yeah. ‘Cause yeah, the printing quality is really inconsistent depending on the factories. Especially with color.
Lisa: Yeah. So do you, is that, is it kind of just like you shoot them your first design, get a sample back and just kind of guess and check from there?
Jess: Yeah, it's a lot of adjustment, unfortunately. Um, I think if they're like local companies or local factories, they could go in and check. It'd be a lot faster, but most of these factories are overseas and it's almost, you're constantly doing QC. It's really hard to see where the errors are coming from. And it could be that they have one person mixing paint by hand, which actually is a lot of the case. Or they have a machine. It's just - you just really don't know. But I have a Pantone fan and I just... give ‘em Pantone, hope for the best, and then adjust from there.
Lisa: Yeah. Wow. Wow. Um, how do you - and then apparel has a short shelf life because it's so directly linked to the fashion industry, even in action sports. So how do you stay on trend or like approach longevity of design?
Jess: Um, I had a creative director, art director at Billabong, that kind of dictated what type of design. So I didn't have as much creative freedom there as I do now. And with Salt Atlas. So for like a corporate setting, um, they do think a year ahead because it takes so much time for production and marketing, whatever.
So they go off of those, um, style guides. We have, um, I forgot the websites, but they have a lot of major style guides from fashion shows and textile shows. Um, I think it's like subscription-based or something, but the directors will look at that. They'll do their shopping trips. Um, they'll gather inspiration and then create seasonal directives on then we’ll go off of that and bounce ideas back and forth.
But for Salt Atlas, um, I try to think of designs that I think wouldn't really age. So like the, the banana leaf print that I have... I've seen it in the Beverly Hills hotel forever. It's just, it's just always been popular and it doesn't really look old or young or modern or classic. It just kind of is its own thing.
So that print is doing really well, um, for the bags. And then I introduced it into the posters that I started creating and it's selling really well there too.
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Iris: Well, first of all, Lisa, 12 year old me is very, very jealous of Jessica's internships at Billabong and PacSun.
Lisa: Seriously.
Iris: Can't imagine something I would have wanted to do more as a 12 year old living in Montana. That was like the dream.
Lisa: I could see that.
Iris: [laughs] So we haven't had a textile designer on the podcast before. And I find her... Jess’... well, I'm not a designer, but I find her design process really interesting starting with the big elements and then working down into the nitty gritty details. Is that really common in all types of design?
Lisa: I think so. Yeah. I mean, you’ve got to start big with your concept and your goal and then work down and down and down and down until it's perfect. Um. So yeah, it's similar. However, you know, if the use is digital, then you don't have to worry about how it's going to reproduce or repeat itself. So I love learning these nuances of textile design.
Iris: Yeah. And I love how she talked about her, um, previous lives as a kinesiology major and an engineer, um, and how she uses those every day in her textile design.
And I've always said that I chose marketing as a major because I wanted to major in everything. And so like design and art and business and marketing encompasses so much and you have to have so much diverse knowledge. Um, that I love that she's like, not only do I do design, I work with the body, so I'm taking in kinesiology and, um, I have to do this intricate design. So it's an engineering side. And this is what a few of our guests have talked about, like molding the left brain and right brain together because it's kind of bullshit. We don't have… they're always coming together and working with each other to create things.
Lisa: Absolutely. It's really beautiful.
Iris: Should we get back to Jess?
Lisa: Mhmm.
Lisa: Yeah. Let's talk about Salt Atlas. So what, uh, what has that journey been like? Um. From working in a big multimillion dollar corporate company to starting your own brand.
Jess: It was a big shift, and I think like many entrepreneurs or solopreneurs that we definitely underestimate how much work, but it's, it's kind of like surfing. It's addicting because you're learning so much every single day. Um, and there's so many days where it's so frustrating. But when you get the little bit of success, it's so addicting. Like you just want to keep going.
So, um, yeah, I've created a lot of things. I started freelancing towards the end of my time at Billabong, um, and I enjoyed how much creative freedom that I had when I was freelancing.
Um, and I really missed it and I wanted the opportunity to try different parts of a business and not just be pigeonholed to textile because, um, textile designing was so new to me and I loved it so much. I was kind of curious, like. If I didn't know about textile two years ago and I love it this much, like, what else? What else is out there? You know, like maybe I'd like something else more. So I figured, you know, boldly, that if I started my own company and how to do every single step of everything, then I would figure out what I really love doing.
Um, so yeah, I launched Salt Atlas. Um. A few months after I quit, I was still working on some final details after I left Billabong and I was still traveling. Then I launched as a travel bag company, um, and it did okay. I did a few markets. It wasn't wildly successful or anything, but it was doing fine. And then coronavirus happened, you know, having a traveling brand that, um, encourages seeing new countries and learning about new cultures, it just seemed that irresponsible to promote that, [laughs] not the time or place.
Um, and I just had to figure out, like, I need to pivot. You know, I read a lot of these like entrepreneurial blogs or Shopify blogs, and they're like, you need to learn how to pivot your business. And I was like, you know what? This is a perfect opportunity to do it. The bag business wasn't going in the direction that I thought I was going to.
Um, and I love creating artwork, and this might be the perfect opportunity to just kind of pivot that direction and make Salt Atlas fully remote instead of having inventory to take care of whatnot. So. Yeah. I started making these, I like test launched, um, these personalized posters that I made on Instagram and it did pretty well.
So I finally launched it on Salt Atlas. Um, so it's kinda like those star charts that you see on Etsy where you enter a day, like if it's your anniversary or birthday or whatever, and they generate a star map for you. And it's like this really cool personalized piece of art. And I saw all over Etsy and it's doing well.
But I love traveling and I love surfing. And I tried to think of a way to combine that. And I was like, well, everywhere around the world has tides, I mean with water. Um, and that’s something that all surfers and sea people, I guess, can kind of connect to the, we all check the tides, whether they're going for a cruise or, you know, going for a surf. We will have no one to know what the tides and the conditions are like, and I was like, that'd be a cool way to commemorate a special day, whether it's like a wedding or birthday or anniversary or something like that. Like what were the tides for that day? Like, will that bring back some cool memories? You know?
And the requests that I get for the titles of these maps are really cool. They're like “our first adventure”, uh, “first time in Bali” or “our anniversary” is pretty typical.
Lisa: Cute. And they're cool. They're really cool. They're very well designed, obviously.
Jess: Oh, thank you.
Lisa: Yeah. And your Instagram account for Salt Atlas is intoxicating. It is so beautiful.
Jess: Oh, thank you. Yeah. It's a lot of editing on Lightroom to make every- all the color look the same, because I don't have the budget to hire amazing photographers and fly them to some remote location and take beautiful ocean pictures. So I take, you know, stock images and edit them so they have the same feel for Salt Atlas. So that takes a lot of work, but I think it's worth it. I mean, if you think it looks cohesive and nice, I feel like I've done a good job.
Lisa: It looks amazing.
Jess: Thank you.
Lisa: It’s so beautiful. Yeah. And um, yeah, I love, I love the, the color palette in every single photo. So it looks like, yeah, very, very put together.
Jess: Thank you. Yeah. It's a lot of behind the scenes work. I think that's the part that I underestimated when I started a business is you really, you really don't know the under or the behind the scenes work. So until you do it, you're like, wow. And I respect business owners and soloentrepreneurs and small business. I respect them so much now, man. I try to buy from them as much as I can because it takes so much work.
Lisa: It seriously does. It’s always interesting. We work with, we work with tons of different brands across the country, and it's always fascinating to really sit down and explain what goes into a full content calendar and like how much intense work it is.
Jess: Yeah, yeah. It really is intense. And like before it was even in the fashion industry. I would look at, you know, ‘cause I used to shop Billabong or Roxy stuff all the time as a kid. And I’d just be like, Oh, that's an awesome Hawaiian print. And like, didn't think twice about it. I didn't think that somebody was out there drawing it and like perfecting it and getting samples. Like, you just don't think about those things.
Lisa: Yeah. What else is like an interesting discovery in entrepreneurship that you didn't expect?
Jess: Umm. I mean it's, I guess the people that I talk to kind of agree that it's just your business is really reflective of yourself, kind of like your mental state. Like when I feel cluttered or all over the place, like it kind of reflects in that business.
Um, and when I feel like I've had - like, my room's clean and like I have my things in order and like everything's checked off. Like it reflects my business as well. And it's really hard. Like that's a hard pill to swallow sometimes. ‘Cause... Like, you want to think that you're putting in all this effort, but you're like, was it really busy work that I was doing? You know?
So it makes you really self aware, like to a point where I went crazy at a certain point, like just questioning everything I was doing, and then you kind of bounce back from it. You're like, okay, that was too much, and then you relax too much. So there's a lot of ebb and flow in business, kind of like waves, I guess.
Lisa: Yeah. A lot of ebb and flow in surfing.
Jess: Yeah.
Lisa: What are some things that like you care about, that you've been able to infuse into your brand?
Jess: Um, I try and infuse as much like eco-friendly, like just being conscious of what you do for the planet. Um, and not everything I have is a hundred percent eco-friendly. So I feel a little bit hypocritical saying things like that. But if I can inspire somebody to just, like, pick up trash at the beach or like, just give a second thought, um, when using like, single use plastics or whatnot. Just if it gives them that little urge to be like, you know what, I'm going to bring my own bag this time, or, you know what, I'm not going to consume so much. I'm just going to send artwork or something like that. Like if it's just a little bit, then I feel like I've done my job. Because I do little things, like I would drive my surfing friends crazy, so every time we'd surf, I'd have to pick up three pieces of trash before I get in the water. It would take me a long time. So they're all out in the water, I'm still like running around the beach looking for trash, but it's just little things like that, like that kind of story, like inspires someone to pick up trash, then good. Like, I did it, I feel good.
Lisa: Yeah. That's cool. How, how did you come up with that rule for yourself?
Jess: Uh, it used to be just like, Oh, this is like a nice thing to do. And then it became like a superstition, so I can't not do it at this point. Yeah. It was like, this is a good thing, you know, as long. Like even if I don't get good waves, at least the ocean’s cleaner, like that kind of thing. And now it's become like, man, I might actually not get good waves if I don't do this.
But yeah, even if I do have like a super crappy session, I feel better than I'm like, you know what? The beach this cleaner. Every time I go to the beach, it would be just three pieces cleaner. Good.
Lisa: Yeah. That's awesome. That's, yeah. Everything makes a difference in the scheme of things.
Jess: Yeah I like to think so. I mean, three pieces doesn't sound like a lot, but if few people did it everywhere all the time. We could be surprised what a big difference it makes.
Lisa: Yeah.
Jess: I think that’s why Laguna is so clean. People really care about it. Certain parts of Laguna are so clean. I've never seen trash there. You can just see people, just random people picking up trash and like, this is awesome.
Lisa: That's a really positive thing to hear.
Jess: Yeah. I'm sure there's a lot of other beaches there that do the same thing, but I just know personally of certain areas of Laguna that are absolutely spotless.
Lisa: Yeah. I was on a surf trip in Mexico before COVID happened and I, that was the first time in my life I had really noticed how like people just throw trash in these huge piles, like in the jungle.
Jess: Yeah. Isn’t that weird?
Lisa: And you just never, I mean, I'm so glad I saw that, but I, yeah, it's, it was such a shock at first. I was like, Whoa.
Jess: Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, I can't really comment on how different countries deal with their trash. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of political reasons they do things. Um, but yeah, it's really like coming from, you know, being familiar with California, it's really disheartening to see piles of trash and like really beautiful places.
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. But cool. Um, is there anything else you want to tell our audience that we haven't touched on?
Jess: I'm trying to think… well, if you guys have, um, yeah, like anniversaries or birthdays coming up. Feel free to check out my site. Give me any feedback. I'm always trying to improve.
I think feedback’s really important. Um, even if you don't purchase something, like if you say like, Hey, that's really cool, or Oh, this looks kind of weird, or anything like that, I'm really open to it. I mean, a lot of business is about learning, I mean, you want to profit, you want to support for yourself, but you also have to realize that... it's like, ah, this sounds so cheesy and fortune cookie, but it's so much of the journey, like you learn so much along the way. It'd be a waste not to like pick as much as you can up along the way.
Lisa: Yeah. Um, where can people find you online?
Jess: Online it's www.saltatlas.co and then Instagram is @salt.atlas. And then Salt Atlas is actually a palindrome. So if you spelled it backwards, it's still Salt Atlas. Kind of like traveling.
You can go somewhere and come back type of deal. That's what I was going for. [laughs]
Lisa: Oh, I love that. I didn't notice that. That's awesome.
Jess: Thank you. Yeah.
Lisa: That’s a very cool little detail.
Jess: Yeah. I should probably make a little story on the on social or website cause I guess it's kind of easy to miss, huh?
Lisa: Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, I love your work and I am so happy you were on the podcast. We will put links to everything in the show notes and all them. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time today.
Jess: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, this was fun.
Iris: Thank you so much just for being on the show today. I'm so excited for our listeners to get to know you if they don't already.
Lisa: I'm excited to go surfing with you someday because that's my new path.
Iris: Yeah. Sitting here in a rainstorm that sounds really nice.
Lisa: [laughs] It’s true. Yeah. So follow Jess, again, check out Salt Atlas. On Instagram, that's salt.atlas and uh, check it out. It's really beautiful stuff.
Iris: Yeah, you can find us at wheeliecreative.com or at wheeliecreative on Instagram and we'd really appreciate it if you can leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you listen, because that really helps us get shown to more people.
And if you want, you can send it to a friend that you think might like this episode or any of our other episodes. We would really love that. It will make us very happy.
Lisa: Mhmm.
Iris: And with that, we're out of here until next week.
Lisa: Yeah. Next week we have the CEO and founder of Rumpl blankets on the podcast, so that's a good one.
Iris: Yeah, you're going to want to be there, so make sure you subscribe and we'll see you then.
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