We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katie Truax a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Our mission at SALTY is to create opportunities for our guests to take in the beauty of our beaches and the Gulf of Mexico while making memories sharing food, beverages, and experiences with those they love the most.

A psychotherapist by trade, I remember acutely sitting at a local restaurant bar one cold December night on a date with my husband. With tears of joy and awe in my eyes, I asked him why he thought SALTY had taken off the way it had, and why it captured my interest and my heart in such a powerful way after so many years helping individuals, couples and families in my therapy office.

I felt conflicted that night. I was feeling so invigorated by the work we were doing at SALTY and so excited to gear up for the coming season, but it also felt frivolous compared to a career as a mental health professional.

He looked at me and said, “Baby, look around.”

He went on to explain that food and drink, atmosphere and loved ones were what gave life joy and meaning, what punctuated the mundane and the monotonous, how we celebrate and mark the passing of time.

I had spent a career helping people get out of pain, and now I was helping them experience JOY.

It gives us great joy to see our clients laughing, to observe the memories they capture in photos, to see the themes they create for their events, and to watch them celebrating their family vacations, holidays, engagements, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and even memorials. After three years on the world’s most beautiful beaches, we are thrilled to see what the future holds for our company and our guests.

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a 42 year old wife, mama and entrepreneur.

I dropped out of my Junior year of Interior Design schooling at the Savannah College of Art and Design after the Twin Towers were struck in 2001. I moved to Atlanta to resume my education in Psychology so that I could devote my life to helping people rather than drafting on paper. I went on to complete a Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling, and have been practicing as a psychotherapist since 2007.

While in school, I worked as many do in the hospitality industry. I loved the challenge of restaurant management, training and serving- particularly a busy day or night on the restaurant floor challenging myself to say yes to more demands than I thought I could! The fast pace and the thrill of the food and beverage industry captured my heart.

Fast forward to late summer of 2020, when the world was crazy, and my body was slowly breaking down in response to an at that time undiagnosed auto-immune condition, SALTY was born.

Together with some friends, I helped create a beach picnic and bonfire for a 49th birthday celebration. So many people stopped to ask what it was we were doing and if we did it as a business. A seed was planted that night.

Formerly very active, the challenges I was experiencing in my body that year had me benched. I was bored with “Netflix and Chill,” and so we started a business.

Now, three years later, SALTY has undergone many changes and withstood many challenges, but is growing like never before. My body is healing, and I get to work with an amazing team of men and women on and off the beaches blending my passions for design, hospitality, being active, business and entrepreneurship, and helping people create joy. My husband is my right hand man, my daughter an amazing sidekick, and sometimes our little white pup even makes a sandy appearance on the beaches. This business truly has my heart!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

We started this business as a team of four.

Within the first year, the pressures of entrepreneurship and the hospitality industry had one of our partners step away, leaving three.

A few months later, another partner decided she couldn’t work with the third and so gave a “you or me” ultimatum.

Each of these challenges were heartbreaking, as I am a person who loves hard and like to hold on.

She and I rebranded and grew the business leaps and bounds over the subsequent year and a half until she ultimately decided, after a stressful weekend, to forgo our business to become a lifeguard. The decision was swift and came without notice or explanation. I felt like I had lost a limb.

At the time I was swamped with running this thriving business, my psychotherapy caseload, building a home for my family, caring for my husband and daughter, and working diligently to heal my body. I didn’t know how I could take on any more, particularly when the physical tasks of the business were beyond my capabilities at the time.

A friend suggested I let the business close.

I knew there was no way. I was sure that as painful as the season was, there was a divine plan at work here. Closing the business was not even a possibility. Instead I put my proverbial “big girl panties” on and decided to use this as the fuel to grow even more- physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. . . and I did.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Oh this is an interesting question!

As a seasoned veteran of the hospitality industry, I learned the adage, “the guest is always right.” I was trained that we were there to serve the guest and that “yes is the answer.”

Boy, have I had to unlearn that.

I DO indeed hope and try my absolutely hardest to make sure that our product is impeccable and that our service is prompt, kind, respectful and professional, and I work to hire others who value the same.

However, as the business owner, I often have to set boundaries with our clients over things like how they treat me and my staff, as well as extent of what we are able to provide for them at an event, and even what events I am willing to take. I have to say no sometimes to preserve our best energy and our best craft, and that’s not always popular.

I also have to stand up for our policies and procedures when guests have complaints that are about things outside of our control, or due to their own mistakes.

Similarly, I stopped using the word “serve” in reference to our work with our guests as well. I changed to the words “work with,” and have learned that we have created more of an atmosphere of mutual respect by doing so.

Boundaries, backbone, honesty, transparency and clear expectations combined with an impeccable product and professional demeanor are my goal for running SALTY. I find this helps strike the balance between my personal sanity, my staff feeling supported and encouraged, and our clients getting the experiences they dream of.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.saltygirlsbeachsetups.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saltygirlsbeachsetups/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaltyGirlsBeachSetups
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@saltygirlsbeachsetups
• Other: www.saltybeverages.com – Sister company – French rosé bottled in beach friendly unbreakable full size PET plastic bottles

Image Credits
Jen Deeb- Go With the Flow Photography Alyssa Forbes Photography