High-powered consultants and the self-employed bask and multiply on Peaks Island. First lured as summer visitors from that place we call “away,” they then purchased simple houses as second homes. Then, thanks to cell phone, fax, e-mail, laptops and a nearby airport, they made the grand decision to shed the frantic pace of their former lives, pack up their talents and their clients and became permanent island residents. Truth be told, however, they did not leave behind their amazing drive. What they gained instead, they say, is the freedom to be “brutally honest” in their work.
“I ran six miles this morning and thought all the time about my clients,” boasts Steve Schuit, who co-owns of The Greenshoe Group with his wife, founder Marsha Greenberg. Shuit neglects to mention the scenery or the sound of the surf, but one assumes that was his inspiration.
“There’s the romantic piece about getting away from it all – but you have to work to pay for living here,” laughs Greenberg. Greenberg and Shuit bought their house on Peaks 17 years ago, then decided to move there with their two sons in 1992. Greenberg hated her old life, where her children were in daycare from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. She is proud of her Peaks community: the boys grew up attending the island grade school, and riding their bikes freely in a place where neighbors keep an eye on everything, including other people’s children. Shuit, on the other hand, is sometimes taken aback when people catch him taking the 6:00 ferry and boldly ask him what he’s doing that night.
The Greenshoe Group is a business consulting firm with a mission to remain socially conscious and to “have a ton of integrity,” describes Greenberg.
“I believe our clients want to hear the truth, but then I offer them a positive solution,” asserts Shuit, who admits that these are all values cherished by born-again Mainers.
They still travel quite a bit, leaving the island most business days. Shuit spends about six weeks a year out of the country and they both spend about 30 percent of their workweek out of town. “But when we are on vacation, we leave a message telling our clients we are away,” says Greenberg, explaining that she wants her clients to adopt the lifestyle her family enjoys.
Scott Nash and Nancy Gibson Nash bought their Peaks house eight years ago and made the leap to full-time six years ago. Nash still travels to Boston once a week to do consulting for a company he founded in 1992, Big Blue Dot, a design studio focusing on “kids stuff.” As a children’s book illustrator of 18 books to date, he works in gouache. Gibson Nash, who favors mixed-media collage, is also an illustrator, for magazines such as The Smithsonian and The Atlantic Monthly. A winterized outbuilding serves as their workshop.
Nash sold out his interest in Big Blue Dot before making the move. “Now I can be brutally honest and not worry about supporting 20 people,” he explains. Also, time is spent way he likes it: he keeps regular hours in his studio from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and maintains a seasonal work ethic. “Winter is great for long nights, and in the summer I find the weather distracting, along with the noise and the house guests,” he explains.
Every three months Nash hops a plane to New York to meet with his editors. “I wanted to move to an area that was not too secluded, had great nearby restaurants and had a nearby airport,” Nash explains. He goes on to ruminate about how much great conversation he has on the ferry.
“There’s always drama in community life. When you’re in a city you are anonymous. When you are on an island you are part of a community whether you like it or not.”
The only technical issue in conducting business for both Nashes – the cell phone got tossed a while back – is their total dependency on Federal Express to deliver their original artwork. You can’t make a back-up copy of something created in gouache. Rather than send their illustrations from Peaks, they ferry their work to the Kinko’s on Congress Street. The lady there, they believe, puts some sort of blessing on their packages, assuring careful handling.
You don’t find that kind of relationship in New York.
Sally Noble