The latest episode of Plant Based On Fire features a special guest: Nava Atlas, the visionary behind The Vegan Atlas and a renowned vegan cookbook author. In an engaging conversation with Bryan, Nava shares her decades-long journey in plant-based cooking, the evolution of her business, and the art of combining creative passions with culinary advocacy.
From her first hand-drawn cookbooks to her latest digital resources, Nava continues to inspire the plant-based community with accessible recipes, insightful stories, and a deep commitment to promoting a sustainable lifestyle. In this blog, we’ll explore Nava's entrepreneurial journey and the wisdom she imparts for business-minded individuals pursuing their passion in the vegan space.
A Journey Rooted in Food and Art
Nava’s path into plant-based cooking was both organic and unexpected.
“I started as a graphic designer and illustrator, and I never imagined my career would pivot into food,” Nava recalls.
But after self-publishing her first cookbook in the 1980s, she realized that her culinary passion could intersect with her creative talents.
As her family transitioned to a vegan lifestyle in the early 2000s, so did her work, reflecting her commitment to sustainability and animal welfare. Today, Nava is recognized not only for her best-selling books—such as Vegan Holiday Kitchen—but also for The Vegan Atlas, a platform designed to make plant-based eating accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
Insights You'll Gain from This Episode
How to Start a Plant-Based Business: Nava explains the importance of authenticity and pursuing what resonates personally.
Content Creation Tips: Nava shares how she developed visually appealing content, from food photography to engaging storytelling.
The Power of Simplicity: She emphasizes that keeping recipes simple encourages people to embrace plant-based eating.
Navigating Publishing Challenges: From self-publishing to working with major publishers, Nava discusses the ups and downs of the industry.
A Recipe for Resilience: Nava’s advice on embracing failure—“You always learn what to do next by learning what not to do.”
The Art of Content Creation and Entrepreneurship
For plant-based entrepreneurs, Nava offers invaluable advice on balancing creativity with business strategies. “You don’t need to wear every hat,” she says, highlighting the importance of delegating tasks like photography. One of her key lessons is the significance of revisiting and refining work.
“Books are wonderful because you can fix regrets. I wish we could do that with life, but at least we get second chances with content.”
Nava also emphasizes the importance of leading with food when promoting plant-based living.
“You win people over when you start with delicious, easy meals. From there, they’ll naturally discover the deeper reasons—whether for health, animals, or the planet.”
A Simple Recipe for Success
Nava’s practical advice for aspiring vegan entrepreneurs is refreshingly simple:
Start with What You Love: Whether it’s pizza or pasta, convert your favorite dishes to plant-based versions.
Embrace Simplicity: “Shortcuts like simmer sauces and prepared vegan ingredients make cooking easy.”
Build Community: Engage with like-minded people and share your resources generously.
A Fun Fact about Nava’s Work
Nava’s Vegan Soups and Stews for All Seasons recently received a beautiful makeover with photography by Hannah Kaminsky and design contributions from her daughter, Alice Atlas.
"It’s the edition that finally looks the way I always wanted," Nava shares. "Now I can die happy—but I won’t, because soups will keep me alive!"
The Business Lesson: Fail Forward
Nava’s entrepreneurial journey teaches an essential lesson—embrace failure as part of the process. As she shares:
“You always learn more from your failures than your successes.” For new business owners, she recommends taking risks and not being discouraged by setbacks. “Pick yourself up, try the next thing, and learn what works.”
Nava Atlas’s inspiring story offers a blend of creativity, resilience, and practical advice. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting on your plant-based journey, this episode of Plant Based On Fire delivers invaluable insights on how to build a purposeful business that serves both people and the planet.
🔗 Useful Links:
Website: https://theveganatlas.com/
Website: https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/
Listen to the full conversation with Nava Atlas here: Turning Recipes into a Movement: Veganism, Creativity, and Resilience ft. Nava Atlas
Stay connected with Nava and discover her delicious recipes. Until next time, keep that fire burning!
Subscribe to the Plant-Based On Fire podcast on YouTube or your favorite streaming platform today and stay connected with our ongoing exploration of the complex plant-based business world.
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Episode’s Transcript
Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.
Bryan (00:01)
Welcome to Plant Based on Fire, where we talk about plant based businesses and their inspiring stories to thrive in our industry. I'm your host Bryan. And joining us today is Nava Atlas, a celebrated vegan cookbook author and founder of The Vegan Atlas, a resource dedicated to promoting a plant based lifestyle through delicious recipes, insightful guides, and so much more. Welcome to the show Nava. I got one of your books right here.
Nava Atlas (00:28)
Well, thank you. Thank you for having me today. That was my that was originally my first book many moons ago. And many editions have been made. Thank you.
Bryan (00:32)
I approve.
Yes, and I love it.
Very, very cool. Yeah. You, you have quite a few books out there and you know, gosh, my first question is really like what inspired you to get into this and start the vegan Atlas and your vision and how it's evolved. Like lay us the history out for us.
Nava Atlas (00:57)
Okay, using like five questions in one and I'll try to tap. So I actually started this quite young. I you know, I've been doing this for a very long time. I was probably the only you know, way back when when we didn't even know the word vegan yet. I was probably the only vegetarian in my high school. And came out with vegetarian in the 80s. And as you've seen, it's hand drawn. It was from that genre of hand drawn cookbooks like
Bryan (01:00)
That's right.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (01:27)
the Moosewood Cookbook and the Vegetarian Epicure. They came along with the decade before Oscar Wilde. So what really inspired me was I'm not a trained chef. I'm not, you know, I'm really just a home cook. I am a trained graphic designer and illustrator. So as I was trying to scratch out a living in New York City right out of college,
Bryan (01:35)
Right.
Yeah.
Nava Atlas (01:57)
I went to a lecture by some well-known design person. I don't remember who it was, but I remember what he said. He said, if you don't find something that's entirely your own, you're just going to be going from paycheck to paycheck to paycheck as a freelancer. Somehow resonated with me. So I had collected many recipes and I love literature also. Aside from the vegan Atlas, I also run a very large
women's literature website, I was been a you know, I love books. I'm a real nerd. I collected lots of recipes, I started to collect literary quotes and folklore to go with them. And that's how I put together vegetarian. I had no idea how the publishing industry worked in the 80s. I was really shy. Still kind of shy. But you know, back then, there was no internet, there was no email, it was all cold calling.
So I just, know, really long story short, I tried to get the book published on my own. That didn't work. I got an agent that worked very well. And that launched me and it was an unexpected direction. I was really never planning to go into anything food based, although I've always also loved to cook. So it really brought together a lot of my interests. So vegetariana really did very well from the get go. And it did sent me on this path of writing.
vegetarian cookbooks of which there were, you know, I've lost track, but six, eight, and then as my family went vegan, my cookbooks went vegan as well. And that would have been in the early 2000s.
Bryan (03:28)
Yeah.
I love it. Wow. Thank you for sharing that journey. And it is so true. you know, I think I, I'm the eighties kid kind of a thing. And it's just like the, you know, I'm the last generation to remember growing up without the cell phone and how much it's impacting us on so many levels. And the other
Nava Atlas (03:56)
you're going on vacation, and just setting up the answering machine. So you'd go on a real patient without people bothering you every minute, or getting texts. A button and you hear all these beeps and, you know, hopefully there was something really critical or important. But yeah, it was really different.
Bryan (04:00)
Right?
Can you imagine?
Great.
That's right. It sure has. And I know one of your other books, which is amazing, is Vegan Soups and Stews for All Seasons. And that was one, like, I think you were working with some major publishers and then you went back to self-publishing a little bit. Like, what influenced your decision as times changed and from doing it both different ways?
Nava Atlas (04:36)
Yes, so vegan soups and stews for all seasons just came out in its fifth edition earlier this year. When I first got the idea of doing a at the time vegetarian soups book, my agent couldn't sell it. This was in the early 90s. And publishers said it's too niche. And they said no, a lot of people said no. And
Then I decided I'll self publish it. And back then, again, it was hand drawn. It was small. It was not expensive to produce. And again, it did very well. So then a publisher became interested. So the first publisher who picked it up was Little Brown. And then as you know, if a book is in print for several years, that's a good track record. But eventually, new books come out to replace them. And it goes out of print. So I got the rights back. And I did another self-published edition.
Not a very good, know, actually, I should say, I don't think there has been any good looking edition of this books until this recent one, with all the beautiful photos by my regular photographer, Hannah Kaminsky, and a beautiful cover design and interior design by my daughter, Alice Atlas. It's a real cold collaborative effort. So after I self published it for the second time, then Random House picked it up.
And have a pretty good long run there too. But never really, it never really looked like I wanted it to look and I do I absolutely love soups. I mean, who doesn't? I think it's the number one type of comfort food in every, every kind of cuisine all over the world. So I'm finally happy with it. So feel like I'm happy with it. So now I can die happy. But I won't because soups are going to keep me alive, obviously.
Bryan (06:09)
Mm-hmm.
That's right, clearly. And that's like, that's really half our battle in this space, right? Like we're trying to showcase that you can live a healthier life that is less harmful to the animals and better for the planet on all fronts live longer. And so our job is to curate content and education and awareness, which I just love how you demonstrate that in the books. Like what was, what were some of your like,
Nava Atlas (06:52)
Thank you.
Bryan (06:54)
You had to create your own content. Like you just went through it. You got to create the pictures, create the backdrop, all that kind of stuff. What are some of the tricks that you'd say for creating amazing content all on your own? And maybe talk to us about a couple of the mistakes you've made and corrected in later additions.
Nava Atlas (07:11)
that's a fantastic question. And I'm really grateful to have this opportunity to go back and fix regrets. I mean, I wish we could do that with life, but you can really easily do it with books. With Vegetarianna, for example, with the first editions, the printing was terrible. And you have the copyright there and you see how delicate the drawings are. Well, the printing was very heavily inked. And when I saw the first copy, usually
Bryan (07:22)
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (07:40)
author wants to cry tears of happiness. Well, I cry tears of my gosh, this looks horrible. I was really very, very upset. So it's really nice to be able to go back while they were able to fix the printings. I just said, this was still with a major publisher, no, don't use as much ink, save some ink. Yeah, with a soups book. Also, I just feel like, first of all, the way we present food related content now is very different people.
Bryan (07:45)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Nava Atlas (08:08)
really demand those beautiful, luscious food photos. The hand drawn books are still really nice. I think it's a kind of a form of nostalgia. But when you're talking about on the internet, websites, food books, people want to see the food people want to kind of become hungry by looking at the pictures on the page and always be able to eat the food off the pages. So
Bryan (08:13)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (08:38)
I feel like that's really been a wonderful gift to be able to go back. And it's sort of as I've grown as the various forms of creative person I am whether it's as a cook, or as you know, I'm not a photographer, by the way, that's one thing I have not been able to improve on. And you know what, we can't wear all the hats. We got to know how to draw the line and delegate. But as a writer, as a food person, as a designer,
Bryan (08:57)
Great.
Nava Atlas (09:06)
And in some cases, as as a drafts person, like with vegetariana, I just came out with this fourth edition, just about three years ago. And so I called that my COVID project, because those drawings take a lot of patience to do. And since we couldn't go out or go anywhere, that's what I did. And I also felt like it was the first time in its long life, it was published as a hardcover.
Bryan (09:34)
Yeah.
Nava Atlas (09:35)
So I would be at food talks at libraries and stores, bookstores, and people are literally literally come with their falling apart paperbacks that they've, you I felt very flattered. It means they very loved and used for many years, but they were falling apart because the binding was so bad. And so I was really very grateful that I was able to make it into a really sturdy, beautiful, well printed edition. That's kind of a keepsake.
Bryan (09:46)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And the thing that I noticed, as I was looking through some of your other books was, the, variety of it, like my frustration, especially like with the vegan Indian cookbook that I have is that there's 500 ingredients. And it's just like, I love the fact that you do have a few complex recipes, but I loved how a lot of your recipes that had, you know, the right amount of ingredients, not to overwhelm me when I was looking at trying to make these.
Nava Atlas (10:22)
Right.
Bryan (10:35)
What do you find is the right balance for that as a cookbook author? Because you want to go crazy and say, here's the 27 ingredients you need. But at the same time, you want to make sure they make it a recipe that they use every single week. Right. So.
Nava Atlas (10:48)
Right. I've always been super aware of that because I'm not a food professional. I get into the kitchen sometimes at, you know, six or 630 or seven and you have to make dinner and it needs to be simple. And I'm so all for shortcuts. When you think about it. Well, one of my favorite new shortcuts, I'll give you an example, is the Indian simmer sauces, because those have the 27 ingredients right in them and they make anything you put them on taste really amazing.
Bryan (10:59)
That's right.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (11:17)
I'm never going to be a good Indian cook. So why not use that? You know, something like peanut sauce is not terribly complicated to make, but it literally has the same ingredients that you would use if you are putting together your own peanut sauce. Sometimes I have time and I want to and other times I just, you know, want to open that bottle of organic peanut sauce and put it on the noodles or the tempeh or whatever it is that I'm making. But I've always really wanted to keep it real for people.
Bryan (11:21)
That's right.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (11:46)
it's really important because if you want them to improve their diet or change their diet, you've got to show them that it's really doable. And I've done a lot of demos that stores and libraries and my emphasis is on how easy it is. I know I have the other things really in my heart, the animals and the planet, but I feel like you win people over when you lead with food.
Bryan (11:54)
Mm-hmm.
That's right. That's right. I agree completely. I mean, know that I came over for the health reasons and then, you know, I'm a foodie and I'm like, how am going to make really good food with, with only these vegetables? And, and, know, here I am 14 years later, loving it and doing it. so I agree, but then you fall in love with the animals and you realize all these other things, the deeper you go down the rabbit hole. So what like, and I want to tie it into that like bigger picture for us, right? Because like,
I guess my question is what role do you believe vegan cooking plays in the bigger movement towards sustainability and conservation and those things?
Nava Atlas (12:52)
sure it's huge. And I know a lot of people like myself who lead with food, but we have the animals and the planet at heart. And, you know, we have to be careful about how we convey that message. But I was listening in the car the other day to something about climate change. And the person was saying that animal agriculture contributes about a third 30 % of greenhouse gases. That's enormous, because
that's something that we have control over, not politicians. And I always say that in my talks, I said, this is something that each one of us can do and to contribute. And, you know, I want to continue conveying that message. I'm not a, you know, I'm not climate scientists, I don't know a whole lot about the logistics, but it's really it's not only the greenhouse gases, when you think of the amount of water and
soil resources that animal agriculture takes. Interestingly, I was thinking, my son and daughter both live nearby and very lucky. We're taking a walk the other day and neither of them have ever tasted meat or fish or anything of the sort. And so my son asked my daughter, you know, what about lab grown meat? Do think you would try it?
Bryan (14:04)
Wow.
Nava Atlas (14:10)
And my daughter said, Yeah, I think I would try it. I'd be curious. And I don't feel like I need to because I grew up with meat. I know what it tastes like. I don't really like it that much. But I thought that was a really interesting conversation. And I think there was just this past week, I forgot if it was in the New York Times or somewhere else about the advances being made with lab. And I thought, you know, have at it if it helps the planet. If it saves animals, if it saves water resources.
Bryan (14:18)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Nava Atlas (14:40)
You know gotta try it not me. I mean, you know people who want to try
Bryan (14:42)
That's right.
Right, right, And that's everybody's got to take their journey. I think those kinds of foods can be good transition foods to help you realize that the closer you can get to the garden, the better off you are to a degree.
Nava Atlas (14:48)
tonight.
Yeah, I wrote a book that I never thought I would write. I don't know if it was part of the stack of books I sent you, but it was it's called plant powered protein. And reason I thought I would never write a book like this was because I grew up I really did not like meat. But I felt it was really important to give people a bridge and to show them that you can make anything vegan. mean, literally, you can make anything vegan and you can make it taste really good.
Bryan (15:07)
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (15:27)
there's all these products that help people make that transition. So interestingly, I use this book a lot more than I thought I would. I have a few really favorite recipes in it, especially pad see you, it, you know, it's one of my favorite things to order when I go to a Thai restaurant, but I realize how easy it is to make at home. So I do
Bryan (15:27)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
That's, that's right. Yeah. I mean, people, you go out for the Thai food, the Indian food, whatever, and you don't realize how easy it is to make it at home and you can easily skip the chicken or beef that would normally go with it. I commend you on that for sure. And I think the more research that I see coming out just clearly showcases that protein myth that almost every plant vegetable that we're eating is just loaded with all the amino acids and stuff that we need to create whatever proteins we want. So as long as you eat.
well-balanced diet, you're well on your way and it can be all planned.
Nava Atlas (16:22)
Right. I mean, that's a question that never dies. Where do you get that? But you know, a lot of vegans are very annoyed with that question. But I feel like it's my chance to educate somebody. I take it like that. And people are usually not asking me that to provoke me they really want to know. So why be upset with them? So you know, I tell them I you know, could get like you said,
Bryan (16:25)
That's right. Yeah, I know.
Mm-hmm.
They're just generally curious. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Nava Atlas (16:50)
Almost every vegetable has some protein, but then it's all the legumes and grains and these meat swap ins are really very packed with protein. We make our own seitan here in our house. It's really hard to buy it, buy good seitan in the store for some reason, just plain seitan. So it's not that difficult to make. And in fact, if people want to make their own seitan, they can just go to the veganatlas.com and
Bryan (16:55)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Nava Atlas (17:17)
put plug in homemade Satan into the search bar. It's a really like I do really step by step.
Bryan (17:23)
We will make sure we pop that link in the show notes here for everybody listening. I agree completely. I feel like we need more nutrition education in schools growing up. We need more in college. it goes to that. That next question for me is like, what advice would you give to people looking to get into their passion for plant-based nutrition? How do they make it a career like you did?
Nava Atlas (17:49)
how did they make it a career? I thought you were going somewhere else with this question, but we can come back. I thought you're gonna ask me how when people say how do they get started with being vegetarian or vegan? How do they start? And that's also a good dress. my gosh, you know, I feel like everything has changed so much not forget about 40 years, even in the last 20 years. Everything is very, very competitive.
Bryan (17:53)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nava Atlas (18:16)
And it depends, there really so many ways to go in this cookbook writing. my gosh, it is so competitive. I don't even want to compete in that space anymore. And I've written, I don't know. I don't even know I have to add up with all the revised editions, it's probably up to 20. But I want to do it again, I would honestly, it would give me pause.
Bryan (18:26)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (18:39)
it gave me pause to do the soups book, but I felt so compelled because it's one of my favorites. And I wanted it, like I said before, to look the way I wanted it to look. It's an important to me. But I guess it's really what somebody wants to do with it. And there's many paths, I guess, there's sports nutrition, there's becoming a registered dietitian, and those really require college and maybe beyond college training.
Bryan (18:49)
Right.
Nava Atlas (19:06)
those are things I don't know that much about. So since I don't know that much about that aspect, can I answer the other question I thought you
Bryan (19:13)
Yeah, please. I don't know how many I'm curious to see if you're one of these meat eaters watching this podcast. Please tell us down below in the comments and tell us more about this. like, why aren't you eating plants and listening to this podcast? But this is this is the question that I ask a lot of people on some of the other podcasts I do. But I am very curious about your perspective on how you help convince people and demonstrate that.
Nava Atlas (19:41)
So what I was going where I thought you were going before I was in somebody asked, Well, how do I get started? And I always say, start with what you already like. And let's say you really love pizza, well, you can make pizza with, you know, your favorite crust, more vegetables, plant based cheeses, which have become so much better in the past 20 years, 10 years.
Bryan (19:46)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (20:06)
let's say you love Asian food, I mean, it's so easy to make a delicious stir fry with all kinds of colorful vegetables and your favorite plant based protein. What else? lot of people love Italian food that is so easy to convert. And now when you go out to eat, and it's so different from even 20 years ago, almost every type of restaurant has a vegan option, try their vegan option. It's usually really good.
Bryan (20:34)
Yeah.
Nava Atlas (20:34)
So that's gonna say just whatever you like already, you can convert into a plant based version. And chances are you'll like that too. It's a simple answer, but it's also it's really effective.
Bryan (20:47)
It is. And it's such a, an easy thing. saw Dr. Neil Bernard talk about this a couple of weeks ago and he said the same exact thing. Like just start with the plant based version of the foods that you love and see how your health changes. And then you'll wind up going deeper and deeper into it. So I think you are spot on with your assessment there. So find you already, you know, I grew up in an Italian household and we love our pasta and meatballs. And I have found some great, you know, Italian vegan recipes that.
that fill that gap for me, so.
Nava Atlas (21:20)
yes. Yeah, Italian cuisine is just amazing. And in fact, later, I'm going to make a it's not as typical but an escarole and potato soup, which is Italian based. I just love that it's just ultimate comfort.
Bryan (21:32)
Hmm. Yeah.
That's right. The vegan, vegan pasta visual. Exactly. But you, you're also involved in some other areas from what I was reading, with your advocacy for women's issues and social, social justice and things like that. How are you combining some of your, your plant-based work with some of these other avenues?
Nava Atlas (21:40)
yeah, I have one of those too.
that is really a great question. And sometimes when people say, you do all these really different things, I say, you know, for me, it's all under the same umbrella of social justice. And my love for the earth and animals has entered into my artwork. And the type of artwork I usually do is what is called book art, or it's called artists books. And basically,
to describe it very simply. It's art that takes the form of a book. And sometimes it's a an accordion book, or a book with some other unusual structure, things that fold out. These are collected by colleges and universities, special collections, and very often they are used in class curriculum. So I think to myself, is that what you're sending your son or daughter to learn for $60,000 a year?
Bryan (22:51)
Great.
Nava Atlas (22:51)
But it is is very gratifying to learn that younger people are looking at my artwork in the classroom. A couple of them are about animal agriculture. One of them is actually I took a very realistic head a photo of a head of a steer. And that's the cover of a book. And it's about
I call it a meat cookbook, what I showed in it was before the meat gets to the supermarket, what needs to go into it. My work has kind of touches of irony, sometimes humor, sometimes you can really reach people by being a little bit ironic or funny rather than gross or hitting them over the head. have. And I mentioned that I run a really large website.
Bryan (23:19)
Mmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Nava Atlas (23:42)
called literary ladies guide.com, which has become an archive of all kinds of things about women's classic literature. When I say classic, I don't mean, you know, going back to Greece and Rome, what I mean by that is that these authors are usually, you know, departed, and I want to continue to elevate their voices. So I have two books coming out in the future. They're not cookbooks. September 2025 will be book called inspired by cats.
famous writers and their feline muses, which is fun. And it was actually illustrated by somebody else, Bob Eckstein, who was a very well-known New Yorker cartoonist. following year, will be called tentatively titled Women Writing Dangerously. And it's history of banned and censored books by women writers and how it affected their lives and careers and what this whole banning and censorship
Bryan (24:16)
I love it.
Mmm.
Nava Atlas (24:40)
Madness going on today. What were the echoes of that? How did it start? Who were the banners of the past? What can we learn from that to apply today? So that's a pretty fascinating project.
Bryan (24:46)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I was. That was my next question really is what other initiatives you have coming out and both of those sound amazing. I think the second one sounds like it's something that's going to be made into a movie, honestly, like that is such a.
Nava Atlas (25:05)
wouldn't have somebody made it into a documentary.
Bryan (25:08)
Right. I agree. Because like, like that is such an important topic to address in today's day and age, I think.
Nava Atlas (25:14)
It's really getting worse. Last week was banned books week and I went to a few Zooms and the American Library Association, PEN America, they said it is really raging out of control, exponential.
Bryan (25:26)
Yeah, right. And it's even worse in certain states where people live.
Nava Atlas (25:34)
It's not only worse there, but they're enacting laws, you know, they're so it's scary.
Bryan (25:37)
I know.
Yeah. Well, I, I'm curious, like, what is your top piece of advice that you would give entrepreneurs just starting out in this plant based business sector that we're both in?
Nava Atlas (25:51)
again, I would say it depends on which way you want to go. But you know, to the piece of advice, and it's a really good piece of advice that I give to my interns, is that, as in entrepreneurs, we cannot be afraid to fail. And I think especially young women, and especially young women of college age, they just they don't want to fail. And I can't tell you, you see all the my books, I can, you know, pile them up and make a coffee table out of them. But people don't have to see my failures. And I've
had plenty. You have to try if it doesn't work, you pick yourself up and you try the next thing, because you always learn. And it's a cliche, probably, you learn more from your failures than from your successes. You learn what to next. And you learn what not to do.
Bryan (26:22)
Mm-hmm.
Hey.
That's right. I agree completely. I've had my failures along the way too, in many parts of life, on that front. And yeah, you, you just have to dust yourself off. And I do think it's like, you know, the, analogy I give to some of the females that I've had the chance to mentor is, is exactly that is like to push and take those risks. Cause the gentlemen on the opposite side of the table are taking those risks and
The women are a little bit more cautious. So I strongly encourage them to just to go out there and give it, give it a good crack and a good try. So thank you for sharing that.
Nava Atlas (27:12)
women. Yeah, no, I think women also are encouraged to kind of be quieter, be the perfect partner or daughter or whatever and not, you know, it isn't so much about risk taking for me, although that's certainly a big part of it. But just just not just not being afraid to just have something completely fail. Follow your face, but get up. Yeah.
Bryan (27:17)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Mm That's right. That's right. Well, Nava, this has been amazing to hang out with you and get to learn more about you and your story here. I am definitely going to check out your homemade seitan recipe and stuff, but how can we get in touch and what can the community that's watching this video and listening to it do to help you?
Nava Atlas (27:58)
Thank you. Well, visiting me on my websites is probably the best the veganatlas.com there's a contact form. Same thing with literary ladies guide.com. Once you're on those websites, you'll see what's called the spotlight subscribe thing pop up and those lead to subscribing to my sub stacks. I send out two sub stack newsletters for each venue every week.
Bryan (28:25)
I love it.
Nava Atlas (28:26)
Yeah, I'm like a content machine.
Bryan (28:28)
That's awesome. That's what you have to be in today's day and age. that is awesome. So everybody, please check out the vegan Atlas and learn more about Nava and all the other cool things she's got going on. But that is all the time we have for this episode of the Plant Based on Fire podcast. Thank you again, Nava, for being here, joining us and sharing your insights and experiences with our community until next time.
Nava Atlas (28:31)
Yeah.
Thank you for having me. really enjoyed getting to know you. Bye bye, Bryan.
Bryan (28:57)
Thank you. Until next time everybody, keep that fire burning.
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