The full backstory of Two Parents & A Podcast: our old lives, how we met & becoming parents

29:28and uh i don't know how much detail i can get into so you can tell me if i if i should pivot this or if it gets boring but and this may be one of the things you didn't know so i'm in hong kong phenomenal experience but i'd really come to the conclusion on two things the first was i wanted to go back to the states the states is where i wanted to settle down the second is i wanted to start a business okay and uh i told tom this he was incredibly supportive of it and i left my job over that period of time i got a call from a guy don't talk about who's another mentor because he's more uh yeah whatever and he was like i didn't tell him i was leaving and he's like you left and i was like what and he's like dude like come on how did you not tell me you were leaving and i was like it was just it was the decision i had to make and so um he's like here's what i and i told him what i was doing i'm like i'm so sorry i forgot a critical piece of information because I'm not as good of a storyteller as you.

30:42I left to go spend 12 months diligencing business. Okay, very important. I left to spend 12 months diligencing business opportunities.

30:52Jules:Okay, very Harrison-esque. Yes. So you were going to see what market do you want to go into? Exactly. And meeting with different entrepreneurs. And so I was in London at the time. Okay. And I got a call from this... Mentor? Mentor. and he was like i got a balanced email from you what's going on i said i left to diligence i want to start something he's like here's the deal i'll hire you in san francisco because this guy you know essentially ran ran the bank and i'll give you a title called head of venture capital coverage and you can sit in tech banking and meet companies and do a kick-ass job and you'll get inspired and when you find something that you want to do, go and do it.

31:39What? And if you don't want it, then just sit and work for us for as long as you want. So incredibly thankful for this guy.

31:47Jules:So then you moved to San Francisco. So I moved to San Francisco. He brought me to San Francisco. Wow. Yeah, on like the sickest job. Like my day was literally just meeting with VCs and entrepreneurs. So sick. Yeah, with like a business card that got me into every room in every room I ever wanted to be in. That's amazing. And so that was the time in that role which shaped, which was my time in that role which was the impetus behind starting the naked market. Okay. And so how did you land on the naked market being the right industry to go into? So there were three things I cared about. I wanted to be very passionate about the opportunity I was going after because in a startup, you're working endless amount of hours.

32:30I wanted to care about it. I wanted it to be a great opportunity. But a great opportunity just wasn't enough. Because if I go into cybersecurity, which at that time was the big thing, I'd hate my life. And then I wanted to do it with great people. So those were the three things I cared about. Food and beverage lined up. People's eating preferences changing. The old Garda brands aren't innovating. So huge opportunity for new brands, creating innovative, better for your products. Done. Naked market. How are you at this point?

33:092019 is when we launched.

33:12Jules:30? Don't do this to me. Sure. 30. 30. So I think a big takeaway is a big career switch at 30 is something that would scare a lot of people. But it's really cool that you did it. I think the most notable thing, though, is you had financial cushion because he gave you the job. And you had saved a lot from from investment banking. Yeah. So the financial cushion just came from seven plus years of saving. OK, so you were able to do this. Yeah. So one decision I made, and it was probably my third or fourth year in finance, was I knew I didn't want to do finance for the rest of my life. And I looked around me and I looked at a lot of people in finance and a lot of these guys are happy and they absolutely crush it.

34:05And that's what they want to do. And that's the best path for them. But a lot of them only worked in finance because like they created this life that had such a high cost base that they couldn't leave the industry.

34:20Jules:Right. And I was like, all right, I don't, you know, I guess if I really think back on it, Hong Kong is when it started. I was like, and well, I was saving before then, but Hong Kong got really serious about saving. So basically I, I drastically reduced my cost base. So that way, when I wanted to leave, it wasn't like, oh, no. Well, the cost of me leaving is how am I going to pay my apartment? How am I going to like I just wasn't living a lavish life, even though I could have been living a lavish life. Yeah. It's very like they say to NBA players and NFL players, too. Like you're going to make a lot of money right now, but that's not going to last forever.

35:01Jules:So you saved. And so when I quit, I had, you know, years of the ability to fund the business. number one and then number two uh and fun that completely independently that's awesome and then number two is like I had you know the ability to go and work on it for several years without support now did we go and raise money because that was opportunistically the best thing for the business yes and that's a whole conversation for another time but yeah and one thing that I loved about you very early on was your, it, it felt you had all, you didn't have a family yet. You were just taking care of yourself.

35:43Jules:Right. But you had the foresight to say, I don't want to be an investment banking forever. I need to save money. And then by the age of 30, you were able to fund a business and you were able to quit your job and completely change industries, which I think is something that I really admired because I was like, okay, if he can take care of himself in that capacity think about what he'll do for me and the family and like i see that in you every day thank you and it's no it's it's something i really admire like nobody gave you that money you woke up you worked for it and and with that comes a lot of life skills and i saw that so i thought that was really cool no i appreciate that and i think that that general value system you know ties back to to just what my parents instilled in me totally and it and it shows and And so I really respected that about you at that young age for you to be able to do that.

36:29Jules:So you said you want to do it with cool people. Alex Kost. We talk about him a lot. How does he become the Naked Market co-founder? We've been talking about - Also a college roommate? College roommate. We've been talking about starting business forever. And it was just about finding the right thing that we both, as I said, loved, that we thought was a great opportunity. and the naked market really, really aligned. And so when we, you know, let's say endless hours and hours and hours of calls brainstorming different ideas. So you went to him and you said, hey, let's start something. We don't know what it is, but it's going to be you and I and we're going to do it together.

37:10We had a business together in college. Right. We left college and that was a good business. We left college, went on our own paths. From the day we left, there was two-way dialogue about starting something again. okay the question was just what okay and like we went incredibly deep on uh on a real estate business it was like about fractional home ownership we came very very very close ultimately didn't pull the trigger i think when you look at why didn't we pull the trigger passion about it like we just got bored talking about it when and there's a third partner as well tim yep which we can't forget about um and tim was also tim became part of these conversations um he was part of the real estate conversation so he was in the in the convo loop for years okay as well uh so when the general idea for the naked market comes up which is create brands launch them if the data is good scale them if the data is bad shut them down create a holding company of different brands we meet in dc and we do like a week of diligence okay and the three of us got an airbnb um and just went deep on um went deep on the opportunity walked away from it feeling exponentially better than even as great as we felt about it um as as we booked the trip and um all of us wired our collective money very shortly after and so we all funded the business

38:49Jules:and started and started okay and then quit our jobs and started quit your jobs and started okay and so then you know kind of where i from my view like i think a lot of people don't understand your day-to-day and you don't have like an hq here in austin we're fully remote now we used to have a Meg HQ. So when we went to San Francisco, Harrison took me to their first office, which is this awesome, it looks like a red barn. It was a red barn. It's right in the middle of, it's right in the heart of San Francisco. And then there's just boom, this red barn. So like really sick first office. Then whenever Harrison and I met and we went out to LA for the first time, he took me to his office in Venice Beach on the water.

39:30Jules:Just like the, I was like, what on earth? Like you had the sickest setup out there and you had all these young, you still have all these young people that work for you, but the office was just like, I was like, sign me up. I'll work. I'll come every day. It was so fun. Happy hours. And it was like, it was a really, really good setup. People don't see pre-Dad Harrison, you know, in this. Yeah. Basically Snapchat had this like massive setup of offices on Venice Beach. And during COVID, they downsized a bunch of those offices. And so we took one of the old Snapchat offices. You had like a popcorn machine.

40:10Yes. It was like the carnival machines, three floors.

40:13Jules:It was awesome. Full glass and then literally right on the beach, a rooftop. It was awesome. So all of that to say like you come from, you created a very, very, very fun. And in terms of what the company is, should we clarify that? Yeah, let's clarify that. So some of the brands we own, we own a brand called Flock Chicken Snacks. Which we talk about a lot. That's the chicken skins, the chicken sticks. Turkey jerky? At this point, turkey jerky will be out in Target. At this point, I can very excitingly announce that we have launched a – we partnered with Target. We launched a turkey bacon jerky.

40:49It's awesome. So that's available nationwide at Target.

40:52Jules:That's your high-protein snack, ladies. Yeah. If you love turkey bacon, this is the snack for you. And we have some more really exciting innovation coming out. We have Rob's Backstage Popcorn, which is a brand that we started with the Jonas Brothers based off a recipe that they've been eating for a decade plus backstage. And then we bought a brand called House, which is relaunching through an exciting joint venture that hopefully will be in market either later this year or early next. Oh, I've been hearing you work on it, but I didn't know we actually had a time. we were launching and flock flock is doing a lot flock has some really fun things happening yeah flock is is um flock is is really a phenomenal brand and big opportunity big innovation protein protein protein protein everyone wants protein it's all the buzz okay so then you are living you move from san francisco down to la venice yep okay when harrison is living in venice and i am living in New York is when we meet.

42:03Jules:I think it is worth noting if you're okay with it, that you had a seven year relationship that ended. Yeah. Yeah. So you and I, I think funny enough, we separated from our partners at around the same time. So we were really following a similar trajectory. And while I wasn't married, it was a seven year plus minus very, very, very serious relationship where we lived together we moved from san francisco to la together um and very much thought that um we would spend our lives together yeah so all right then harrison and i are doing our own things you know going on a couple dates doing moving and shaking a little bit and then we get set up in a group text by a girl named Anna by a girl named Anna I love that she put it in a group text so she's like Harrison meet Alex did we find the group text one day we still have it I'm sure so she's like all right you two meet each other and I'll let you guys take it from here so I pull up your Instagram and I'm like all right let me just investigate here and I remember like you you you go to you went to f1 you're wearing like shorts on the track i remember this photo yeah where i saw oh and then i see then i know what i i know i let it salt so that photo i was not a content creator like i would upload you're just like a guy two to three instagrams a year yeah i i just what else do i have to go off of yeah so i'm looking at your instagram that's how i'm getting photos of you yeah then i remember seeing a lot of the business stuff you had posted like some ink articles or Forbes articles or something like that and I was like okay he's interesting and he's cute I think I thought he was tall and so you side text me and you set a date you're like I'm coming to New York on this day I'm like committed to the date okay it's a Saturday I don't go on the date um woke up just I think I had I got cold feet let's call it that.

44:03Jules:So I text you and I couldn't believe I texted you. Um, actually I couldn't even send the text message. Ams, who was my darling, the best person ever. She was like, my intern in New York city. Um, I was like, you got to press send on this. So she sends it. Cause I couldn't believe I was going to bail via text message. She sends it. You responded back. You were very nice. You do not reschedule the date. And I don't really hear from you again. And I loved that. I thought, okay, he handled it very cordially, but he's also not rescheduling. So that, as it always does, piqued my interest a bit. So then I see Harrison lives in Venice at this point, though, but he's back and forth a lot.

44:46I was pretty close to 50-50 at that point.

44:49Jules:Yeah, you're back and forth a lot. So two weeks later, you were back. And I knew the ball was in my court, so I DM'd you. also I DM'd you then I then I post I'm going to I want to go to Paris I DM'd you I texted you here's what happened I shadow tagged you in a photo yes yep that's what I did okay so you had you were hosting like some event that night yeah and I was getting a drink with Anna yes and I was like why doesn't he come and I said to Anna like absolutely not like ha She, like, I'm just not living in a world where she's going to bail on a date and then I'm going to show up to her thing.

45:34And I think I would have probably said to her, like, the ball is completely in her court. You know, I have things going, you have things going on in your life. I have things going on in my life. Timing doesn't work. Timing is not going to work. So then you shadow tagged me, which was the first thing you did. What did you shadow tag him in?

45:54Jules:It was a photo of me. Oh, do you know what it was? it was the mean girl live shows that's what we had that weekend and and so we were getting these like really pretty photos so i put one up and i shadow tagged him find out like from you like three months later you were like you accidentally tagged me in a photo i'm like i didn't accidentally tag you in a photo i thought it was a cute but because as a guy it was like dumb thinking back on it it was we'd never met so for her to shadow tag me was like i was like oh there's some weird flirtation thing or glitch yeah or a mistake and i like as when single harrison and i think my advice to single people is just don't overthink stuff don't over complicate stuff and it's meant to be it'll it'll work out you'll get there a hundred percent and then you texted me and after you texted me um and i'd love to i mean finding that text would be a nightmare I've tried to scroll up.

46:55Jules:We can't. We found at least the group text, I remember, on the podcast. But that's because that group text isn't active. Yeah. That's an easier find. Our first texting, I used to be able to find it. We're too far gone now. But you sent a text to your DM, and I was like, all right, you've now done enough that all reciprocate back. Yeah. And yes, you said - I had to get out of jail, and I did. Yeah. Yeah. and then you texted I'm deciding to go were you Instagram storied London or Paris and I said Paris and I'll fall on a sword and I said okay but you have to plan it and I sent you an itinerary and then my favorite part about this is what's the museum you told me to go to that was the best thing you've ever done I told her to go to the Pompidou so she tells me to go to the Pompidou and I go to Paris and Brittany Schmidt ends up meeting me in Paris and so but before she gets there I have like five hours to walk around I'm like you told me to go to this museum not so big on museums but like okay you know for the for the plot will I walk by the museum so I took a photo of it and I sent it to you and I was like phenomenal museum three months later Harrison's like and then you went to the Pompidou I'm like oh I didn't go inside so good I walked outside the Pompidou and sent you a photo just to keep the convo still going yeah I'm poor Brittany I'm like we got to go to happy hour at this place she's like why I'm like we just do so um following Harrison's itinerary so you were then very good and it's funny I was flying to Hawaii on a family trip it was your mom's birthday yeah so I had a bunch of time to kill like and and so like you caught me at the perfect time where I could actually sit there and like plan a great trip.

48:47Jules:So we still have not met at this point. Yeah. And you were so good about texting. Yeah. That. That what? I felt it was time to reschedule the date. Oh yeah. Okay. So then I get back to New York and you get back to LA and he calls me, phone call. He phone calls me and I'm like, oh boy. So I answer. Oh, you texted me. Anyways, we ended up talking on the phone and you said, hey, I'm going to be in New York this weekend. And it's last minute. But if you're free Saturday night, we can do a date. No, I'm going to get to the FaceTime. I text you. Are you saying I'm in New York this weekend? Yeah. Apparently, here's a Saturday night spot freed up.

49:31Okay.

49:32Jules:So I was like, you know what? And you pick up the phone and call. I pick up the phone call. I'm like, okay, this is enough with this. You know, yes, I can go on Saturday. And I was like, and I won't bail. Like, I will be there on Saturday for the date. and then I say let's FaceTime or you say let's FaceTime. Probably me. No way it was you. It had to have been me. 100 % it was you. Yeah, so I'm like, want to FaceTime? And he's like, sure. So I FaceTime him. This is on Thursday night. We FaceTime for three hours? Yeah, I think the whole collective call was four hours. But it's funny. As time, and I wanted to hit this at the top, I feel like we're going to kind of retell the story every one or two years.

50:14And I'm very interested to see, like, when you look back on memories, how your view of them changes over time. So I'm very curious, like, if you compare us describing the situation today versus a year ago versus what it will be in five years, like, how will it sit in our memories? Right.

50:34Jules:Will it be the same or not? It's good. It's actually really good to keep retelling it. Yeah, it's fun. Everyone I know is talking about GLP ones, and I totally get why people are curious. But then you read the fine print, the needles, the side effects that may cause nausea and vomiting and existential dread disclaimers. And a lot of people are like, there has to be a better way. And there is, you guys. Meet Veracity. Veracity's metabolism ignite is 100 % natural, drug-free, clinically proven GLP-1 alternative. And it's the number one doctor-recommended GLP-1 booster. Just two capsules with breakfast and people are reporting feeling energized and focused all day with cravings way down.

51:14Jules:No injections, no pharmacy runs, no scary warning labels. It's made from plant-based ingredients, lemon verbena, hibiscus, green coffee bean extract, and magnesium. And clinical trials show an 85 % reduction in hunger and an average of nine pounds lost in 90 days. and since it's 100 % natural and caffeine-free, there are zero negative side effects. It's created by Allie Egan, a certified hormonal health coach who experienced her own metabolic struggles and decided to build something better, a natural option that actually works. So before metabolism ignites sells out, again, make the switch to GLP-1s the natural way.

51:53Jules:Head to veracityhealth.co and use code 2PARENTS for up to 65 % off your order. Once again, that's V-E-R-A-C-I-T-Y health.co for up to 65 off and make sure you use our promo code to parents so they know i sent you so we facetimed for four hours this is thursday night okay we still have not met but we've been texting we've been texting and dming okay so thursday night we we facetimed for literally four hours friday harrison well actually i i just texted harrison i was like hey i have an events night you want to come and he's flying to from la to new york um and i just thought that maybe we could hang out the day before the date and Harrison was like no so also you sent me a song of some country song I still have it I'm not gonna be able to find it I think it's Dustin Lynch I think that okay anyways you sent me so anyways you fly from LA to New York on Friday but you actually don't tell me that you actually flew in on Saturday morning I thought he came in on Friday but he came in on Saturday morning his plans changed so Saturday night is our date I remember I was so excited.

53:00Jules:I was a little nervous. I still remember exactly what I wore. I remember AMS was over while I was getting ready. And yeah, we go on the date. And it was the most fun, best date ever. It was three parts. The first part, well, I love that you first asked me, do you want me to pick you up or I want to meet you there? I said, pick me up on the way. So he picks me up in his Uber. He gets out. He doesn't even mean to open the door for me, but he does. because you were standing outside the Uber anyways because you had ran down there. So also typical you now knowing you. I was getting drinks at Fouquet's.

53:36Jules:Yeah, so he was getting drinks near me. He called the Uber to the spot. He was probably running late, jogged down to the Uber. And by the time I get there, he's also outside the Uber. So he opens the door for me. And I was like, what a gentleman. I would have opened the door for you just so we're very clear. Yeah, but still I was like, wow, great. I mean, amazing. You meet Ams and then we get in the car. we go to overstory yep which is like it's rooftop downtown really cool we had tater tots now our daughter's name is tate and we chat we're just we can't shut us up we're talking talking talking we go outside we look at the skylight it was awesome then harrison's like okay we got to go we've got next things on the docket i'm like fun uber's outside waiting we get in the car logistically a plus plus plus which i was loving we go to the balloon museum very risky because in Austin, the balloon museum sucks.

54:26Jules:In New York, the balloon museum is unbelievable, but he knew it was unbelievable because you had a friend go. Yeah, Joe Jonas was like there the week beforehand. And he posted a photo. And he posted a photo, and I was like, is this good? And he said yes. Yeah, Harrison was like, this looks sick. So I was like, all right, done. Do I take her? Joe says yes. And so we go. And on a Saturday night, it's double as cool because there's no kids there. Yeah, we booked the last slots. truly the last thought that you could go in we had so much fun inside this museum it's mind-blowing in new york i cannot express to you how different it is in austin we can't even call them the same thing so anyways we do that and then we get outside the museum and harrison's like all right we've got one more stop left we're gonna go eat a real dinner now do you want breakfast for dinner or do you want a good burger because those are my two favorite things and typically i would want breakfast for dinner but it was all chaval and i had never been and the vibe sounded fun.

55:21Jules:So I was like, let's go get the burger. So we go, we get a burger and then we were having so much fun. We went on like a Tribeca West Village bar crawl afterwards and just kept hanging out. We had the best time and it was the date that never ended. The next day we went, we got up, we walked to get coffee. We walked to your hotel. We walked the, what's it called? High Line? No, but it's below. West Side Highway. High Line? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, adjacent. But yeah. Sorry. We walked to the West Side, and then we went to Lure Fish Bar. We went to some pizza place that you hated. And we just, like, we never stopped hanging.

56:05Jules:Long story short, we never stopped hanging out the first day that we met. Since that day, I don't think we've been apart for more than three days, for more than three nights. Yeah. yeah it was very much uh we met and our relationship started so then the question is all right fast forward like obviously we had a blast like we would go to miami we would go to la like we traveled all around we had so much fun uh vegas like we okay so we had just the best time but the question is obviously going to be when did you decide like you wanted to have kids together that happened is the timeline of this clear i guess you didn't say when it was november 4th we always celebrate it yeah so i think that that part of what we may have left out is like we were on such an accelerated timeline like we were out of our relationships for our respective six months plus minus like it's not like we got out of our relationships and like two or three years went by So we both got into this quite, quite quickly.

57:10Jules:Which, and I think for people on the outside, it was very quickly. Yeah. And they're like, wait, what? Yeah. And I just felt like that. Like, not that I'm, that that's. It's just, it's different. Yeah. I think it's important context, number one. And then, so yeah. So to put the timeline so it's very clear on everything moving forward. So yeah, November 4th, first date. And we celebrate that a lot. Like we celebrate it every year. You guys probably noticed that. That's our anniversary. Yeah. We call that our anniversary. So November 4th, we meet. Okay, so then we go to Miami, December 16th, right?

57:43You're missing a week, the trip beforehand.

57:46Jules:Vegas. Yeah. Yeah, in Vegas, we were, like, going to go to the chapel and get married. We didn't because our families weren't there. But, like, that's how – okay, looking back on it, like, I think about if Tate comes to me one day and she's like, I'm going to marry this boy that just met. I'd be like, what? Okay. Like, you got to just let him do it. but I think that we had our credentials like we had we were older we had so much older I mean I was 30 we had so much context of life we lived a lot of life yeah we had little lived a lot of life so I on the outside in I think people were like what on earth is she doing but I always knew in my gut I was like I know what I'm doing um so yeah we were gonna get married in Vegas but we didn't and then we were like we want to have a family together and we don't know how long it's going to take me to get pregnant but we want to do like this is the person I want to do it with and so we started trying and I got pregnant very quickly so I was pregnant in January so trying a month then yeah I started trying a month in and then and I think some added context and I'm not sure we've talked about this before but like I think that we thought okay let's get married at some point in the next year you know it takes call it 12 months on average plus month plus minus to have a kid start trying now maybe we'll do a fun wedding in the summer um or towards the end of the year and then hopefully the pregnancy all all comes together and then i think what happened was pregnancy hit me in the face like i felt so you get pregnant in January but we don't learn about it until like kind of February yeah yeah yeah and like when I tell you I was bedridden like I could hardly get up and that that's hard on a new relationship right because think about it we've been you've known me for three months we were like three so if you look at it November December January we had like three months of dating yeah yeah which was like really really fun high energy like what we love doing stuff go go go go go and then like one day I just can't stop throwing up and I get really depressed when I'm pregnant talk about I don't actually think we've we've recounted this part that was really humbling for me and it was scary for me but the way that I I knew like I just kept loving you more and more and more was you just took care of me right out of the gates like you were just like yeah I signed up for this with you I signed up early, you know, but I'm going to take care of you.

1:00:21Jules:And you just did. Like, I remember being in Nashville. We went to Nashville for you, I think. Yeah, it's something in Nashville. We had something in Nashville. And I just remember being so sick in Nashville. And I met with Lindsay, one of my friends from high school. And I was just like, I am so lucky because he's taking such good care of me. And I'm so sick. And we only dated for three months. But I know I'm going to spend the rest of my life with him. And I love Lindsay because she was like, that sounds great. And, like... As I flashback to that time, like it was just so clear, like how much you were struggling.

1:00:58And I just felt so bad. But I was always so optimistic that it would like that I would pass. Yeah. And and obviously it did.

1:01:15Jules:so the other thing but the other thing that happened was we so then we were like all right we're gonna we're gonna live in new york we're gonna pick new york as where we live and harrison moved to new york then we're like we're gonna move apartments we found this apartment we loved so we were gonna have the baby there we're fully committed to raising tate in manhattan manhattan tate yep yep tater in the concrete jungle we find this apartment we love in um soho we apply for it like it's the one apartment we love and we had toured so many love this apartment we apply for it and we don't get it they didn't want a content creator living in the building they actually called us back and they would take us but at this point we were already moving to austin well yeah i think some added colors like we probably spent two months looking and we found nothing nothing and this was the one thing we found we both fell in love with it and yeah they they shut us down we were rejected we like offered to pay the full 12 months like there was nothing we could do to to let them pay money to live in this apartment it was nuts yeah and then so we're like you know what i don't remember i don't know how this conversation started but we decided you know what maybe new york is a is an ex you know new york's expensive the schools are expensive and there's not a ton of young families there so we're like let's start looking somewhere else so we go to miami we go to nashville we come to austin and we go to orange county and we stay in the mall for like two weeks we were in a car we get an airbnb and we're like let's check the vibe of the city we end up we fall in love with austin we're like we are gonna move to austin this is like a blur for me actually we start coming back to austin find our house in austin i'm just gonna add some yeah get some out of detail so we were in austin for a weekend trip uh and i think that it was with alex wildeson that's actually like why we're here because you're doing some work with her at the time yes yes and we flew in and you were doing something i remember i was on a call with alex cost and on that call i was like i don't get this city i was like people love austin i don't get it and you got out of your meeting either with them or someone else and you call me and you're like i love it here like i think austin should be on our list and i was like okay interesting thinking to myself i just was saying i don't understand the city but i very much was like if she's seeing something and all these other people are seeing something in it like let me try and reframe things And so we booked an Airbnb to come back for, you know, a two week period to really check it out.

1:03:58And we got that Airbnb in Bolden Creek. Yep.

1:04:01Jules:And then we really started to love it. And we had mutual friends here. So we would like hang out with them and just like get their pulse on the city. And Austin just became like there's podcasters here, there's content creators here. And there's a lot of CPG people here, a lot of entrepreneurs here. It's very young. A lot of families. But I think where I'd kind of reframe one thing is like one of the biggest risks to Austin is we actually had no like friends here. We had mutual friends, but no friends. No best friends, but we knew people loosely. Yeah. There was no one that like we'd hung out with more than two times.

1:04:41On a one-on-one basis. Totally. Versus New York, like we had both had great friend setups. Yeah. So, you know, we'd heard all about what a great community Austin had and how nice people in Austin were. And we felt that on our visits. Like you'd message someone and you'd say, let's get a coffee and they would make time for you. And there was a lot of people like, and those people you'd meet a coffee with, they would set you up. And, you know, I remember I was here with I had spoken to him like once beforehand. I meet with him for a drink and then boom throws me on text with five people totally and like that's I think something very unique to Austin because it wasn't just him it was it was more and more and more and now we've come to have the community we have because people were open to it it's because

1:05:31Jules:there's a lot of transplants that live here yeah there's a lot of copy and paste Harrison and I that live here yeah you meet people they're from vancouver they're from florida new york la and they've moved here and a lot of people's families don't live here so then you have a more communal mindset and so it's it that's what it creates and there's a ton of entrepreneurs and what i'd say is like i think the best decision that you and i have ever made in our relationship was coming to Austin. Totally agree. I think that we're so happy. I feel very blessed right now. Life has been going so great. And I think we nailed it with the city.

1:06:19And I think if we're in New York or LA or Miami, I just don't think things would be in as good of a situation collectively as they are now.

1:06:34Jules:I totally agree. Our community here, we love coming home. We don't want to leave. Like, it's nice to love where you live. There's convenience. There's really good balance. You don't feel like you're part of a rat race. Not at all. Affordability is completely different than those other cities. It's child-friendly. It's school-friendly. But, okay, enough about Austin. I agree. Here's the last thing I want to say on Austin because I wish that someone had said this to me. Okay. if you are unsure about where you want to raise your family I would highly recommend getting an Airbnb in Austin for a week plain and simple yeah the people are awesome so we land so we start to look for a house to live in and I think our house is a big part of our family talk to us about the Diet Coke Index alright so this is from a friend named Jay and he's like when you're looking at a house you gotta you gotta a, I give it a scale of one to 10 on the Diet Coke index.

1:07:31And the Diet Coke index is how convenient is it to go and walk and get a Diet Coke? And New York, 10 out of 10 on the Diet Coke index. It takes you under three minutes to get to a Diet Coke, essentially wherever you are living. Um, in Austin, it is in the right neighborhoods. It is very good. I would say that our neighborhood is an eight and a half out of 10 on the Diet Coke index.

1:07:59Jules:Yeah, it's very good. I just stopped the other day on my way home from the office and got a Diet Coke. Probably nine as they reframe. Yeah, a nine. I mean, we're blocking half away from Diet Coke. Yeah, New York is - In multiple ways. New York would be the only one better because you literally just trip and fall into a Diet Coke. But here, our Diet Coke, San Francisco would be great, but ours is phenomenal. But no, not always. San Francisco, you can have pockets where it obviously is neighborhood dependent. Yeah. And Austin's the same way, but our specific neighborhood and the reason we fell in love with our house was we were walkable to everything.

1:08:29Jules:So we rented our house for nine months and then we ended up buying it. And a large part of why we bought it was the community around it and the walkability. Now, let's talk about the nanny share because we do something now with Tate and we're going to do it with Rocky, which is our nanny share, which I think a lot of young parents are interested in. Yeah. because I will tell you, it's one of the better things we've done as parents. Yeah, and we haven't recalled how this came back, so I'm excited to bring the story to life with you, but I think it all starts with meeting the neighbors. Yep. And so I move into the house in July, end of September.

1:09:09Jules:We've had Tate. We've had Tate, we're a week home from the hospital, sorry. And I remember I am...

1:09:20I'm with Tate walking back from Swedish Hill. Coffee shop. I think you're on the front porch. I feel like you've told this story before. No, no, no, no. Okay, so I was mixing up the first interaction and the second interaction. Okay, so you're right. Thank you. The first interaction, I'm glad I at least got the interactions right. The first interaction is I'm on the front porch and they're walking by because she's doing her curb walking, trying to accelerate her labor. Because Winnie's two weeks younger than Tate

1:09:53Jules:because we're, so we had him two weeks. Yeah. And so I have Bubber, they walk by and we go and we have a great like three to five minute conversation. At that point, I have never known a neighbor of mine's name. Okay. So the idea that these people are going to become like truly integral parts of our lives is so far off our radar. And I don't think much of it beyond that initial conversation. I think I maybe mentioned to Alex. You came in and you're like, they're pretty cool. But no more than a 10 second conversation. Yeah, I was like, okay. Then in the next week or so plus minus, I run into them on the way back from Swedish Hill.

1:10:36You're totally right, Jules, because I wouldn't have stopped on the sidewalk. And we have another good conversation. Uh, and, um, they had not had winning at that point. And then we go back and I, at that point I go, I think that these people like actually could be our friends. The another week ish goes by and Alex and I have the conversation of like, Hey, let's, let's make a sign. Like, let's go and make an effort to them. Let's do something proactive and intentional that signals we want to be friends with you. And so what we did is Alex made her a postpartum basket with like diapers and pads and all of her go-to things.

1:11:23And I think even with the carrier, the shelf. And I got him a case of Michelob Altres.

1:11:32Jules:Which looking back, nailed the gift. Nailed the gifts. And I think it was mutually very well received. and then our next conversation and then what really broke like the the barrier of friendship do you remember this or do you want me to keep going keep going because i forgot about the postpartum box okay is uh ohio's um texas is playing georgia so we can time stamp it if i'd actually love you to pull that up texas georgia 2024 because that's the weekend we have people over to pre-drink for the game. What do you call it? Pre-drink or pre-game? We call it pre-drinking in Canada. Just a little note.

1:12:16Please, listeners, tell us if you call it pre-drinking or pre-gaming. And they will all say pre-game. Pre-gaming. That's false. And our babysitter bails. So we have these tickets. On October 19th, 2024? So Winnie's three weeks. Tate's one month. Yep. Our babysitter bails. we have tickets it's we're committed to going with friends and we're like what do we do and i remember neighbor m comes up to us the girl and is like i don't know you know you may think we're crazy but we're going back to our house to watch the game with some friends we'd love to watch tape

1:12:59Jules:and we'd love you guys to go to the game we were like okay no way and then we were like yeah yeah, well, let's just like try this. They were like, we're on the same feeding program. We know exactly what to do. Like come right on over after. And we were like, okay. And I think it's, it's a situation. If you were to ask us, you know, 10 out of 10 times, like a month into a kid, would you do that? The answer would always be no. But like, there was just a day one connection with them and we trusted them. And it was like, that was, that was the like that was i think the minute or the moment that we just that we you know embraced building our community on our street well this is what i was going to say you would say i wouldn't do that but actually i think when you put yourself in the the position in the shoes of a two people that have one month olds for the first time you actually really want community you almost want what we have which is somebody to go eat dinner with like it can be a bit lonely so this was very communal feeling and like I remember being like I'm actually so glad she offered that because I would offer her that yeah it's almost like wow somebody's gonna do this with me because when you have a one it's very scary and it's just you and so to have somebody to do it with when your families don't live close it was awesome yeah it was amazing and then shortly after we they invited at us for dinner anybody asked for dinner and we put the babies on the table we haven't looked back since yeah and they just they think exactly like we do so anyways we we do that for three months and then one day i think it's one of the guys like should we just share a nanny we're like yeah what a great idea can you do that can you share a nanny and we're like i'm sure you can i don't remember this conversation but somebody says let's share a nanny i think it was neighbor tea sounds like something he would he would throw out first I would have thought it would be me but I'm happy to say it was him somebody says let's share it I really don't remember this and then I remember being like okay let's actually share the nanny and then we both go home and then we both start texting each other like yeah let's actually look to share the nanny and the way we'll do it is we'll bounce back and forth between houses we'll find the nanny and we'll just put them some days at our house some days at your house and we'll figure it out so a preschool was closing down the street from us and we get referred to maria and we had had calls with five six seven eight nine nannies none were like feeling correct we find maria we knew she had run a school out of a house we knew she could be a nanny we knew like she came very highly recommended so we have her over and all of the neighbors sit we meet her we loved her and she started february first on 2025 the only caveat and just i almost want to clarify these things just so when we look back at it so you and you and neighbor m did all the interviewing yeah me and the girl did and i think we went with the mindset of like we don't want too many cooks in the kitchen and we're going to trust the two of you on this one um like i don't even know if i met her i think that out of formality neighbor teen I met her but like you got you guys did all the meetings and all the screenings yeah and you guys were like this is our person and you were so right what a great call you deserve all the credit for uh well she's our family now yeah she's like she is she's just unbelievable she bought the girls purses yesterday literally they bought a purse like they went she's so cute to this she's so she could she made him a carrot beat some kind of juice she's like juice to them juice and they were and then she bought the mini stanley's because they're always trying to take her cup she's so sweet to them so so now they have stanley's mini stanley's have you guys seen the new stanley's though no that look like crayons oh no they're gonna love that uh um please send we'll work on it yeah they're so cute i i must No, I got to Google that.

1:17:08Jules:So I think a lot of people ask us, like, how did the nanny share come to be? We didn't have some like rule book we were following. We created it as we went. So we were like, we'll hire her and we'll just start bouncing between houses. Yeah, I planned on taking while you found her. I plan on taking the lead on like what things would look like from a day to day in development. But I haven't had to do any of that because she's just gone and done it. Yeah, Harrison wanted to be very involved in like, what are the girls learning? What are they doing? What's the curriculum like? And Maria was like, hold my beer.

1:17:42Yeah, she's like, I'm taking them to the thinkery today so they can, you know, do this like exhibit on water.

1:17:49Jules:Yeah, she's very developmentally savvy. Attuned. Yes, savvy. So we're in better hands there. Like we thought we were going to like push it along every three months and like have these meetings. No, Maria's got it. and I think her superpower has been her work on them sharing I totally agree I totally agree and these girls like they just think they're sisters like yesterday Tate saw goggles and she's like I got to get some for Wawa it's like you sure do you need to take Wawa a pair it's not fair if you have one and she doesn't um that is a fully true story that happened in the middle of swimming yeah Tate went over found goggles she's like for me and then she's like for Wawa I'm like Wawa's over there so she takes them shuffled all the way to Wawa and gave her the was like trying to get the attention it was 10 out of 10 so that's so now we still tell this day we do the nanny share um and when he has a little brother who has maria's mom who watches him and rocky is now starting to join so we'll have nanny share 2.0 we you know want we want to add more kids to tate and winnie's you know we're it's we're very fluid with it um we think about like Like they're in swim.

1:18:59Jules:They did dance. We joined things. And the girls, like they just, they live a very cute, happy, bopping around life. Yep. And so that's where we're at. That's, I think like that is where that comes, that brings us to present day life. A lot of people ask us how many kids do we want more kids. But right now we're just like very much so getting accustomed to two. And I know you don't like talking about hypotheticals too much. but I think a light segment on the future. Okay. Do you think we will stay in Austin for a long time or do you think at some point in the near future we will be looking for a new place to move to?

1:19:40Jules:I think we will live in Austin forever. I think our kids will go through high school here. We look at high schools. And I think once they graduate, I hope we bop to New York a lot, but I think Austin will always be our home base. I agree. But I do think that we will move to New York and spend a similar amount of time in Manhattan once they're all done high school. Yeah. I would love to do that. But for the next 17 years. Well, no, it'll be more. It'll be more. The next 20, 25 years. Yeah, Austin. We're Austin. It's far. It's home to us. We love our house, our pool. We're doing our pool right now.

1:20:20Jules:This is just our community. we it's also familiar to both of us in a sense of the people the way the people are it's more familiar to me probably being from Oklahoma feels the weirdest thing that I will say about Austin is it truly feels like if Vancouver and Oklahoma City had a kid it would produce Austin because it's very outdoory it reminds me of both cities it's weird in such a weird way um yeah i like which is the best part though it is so us and it's just we just love it like i just love it here and jules it's jules as well exactly exactly the conductor and so we're just like this yeah so we yeah we'll be here forever um how many kids do we want three or four we're gonna assess after three uh what else my updated prediction is three that is within like this like a the rocky tate timeline give or take yeah and then a like a multi-year gap for the fourth yeah a big gap for the fourth that's my prediction and then like the three of them are like the true big sibling for the fourth one interesting yeah kind of yeah kind of like louise there's a big age gap there yeah yeah yeah we'll see so it's just we're gonna literally assess after three on the way home from the hospital i think you'll ask me the same question you did with rocky which is like how you feeling and i'll say we're not done or you know what my heart is complete so i'm excited to know the answer to that um but i i don't want to think about it right now someone asked the funniest thing in the comments yesterday which was did alex drive home from the hospital they're like harrison is such a passenger princess thank you to that person the internet knows that what how Wait, that you're a passenger princess?

1:22:12Yeah. Because we talk about it?

1:22:14Jules:It's just like he's the most – I drove to and from Dallas. Like he's such a passenger princess. I'm just a far better driver. But I said Harrison drove home from the hospital. He did. All I hear when I drive is you just – it's chirpy, chirpy, chirpy. Because I'm a far superior driver. And so it's like I just don't want to hear it. Because I'm better at it. There are certain things that you're better at. I'd love to drive, but I want to drive with either conversation or in silence, not hearing about every single thing I'm doing wrong. It's the video that guy made of like, I don't know how I made it this far in life.

1:22:52Jules:It's that. Driving without my wife. How did I do it? It's so crazy. 30, however, or 20 plus years without a door ding. And now my life is avoiding door dings. like i spend my life you didn't notice you had something that's never happened you didn't know you had the door dings the the most true thing is like somehow i've never crashed into the back of a car and now my wife's like stop stop stop stop stop like okay one thing i'm realizing we didn't cover is like you guys have two kids you guys got married oh yeah yeah yeah okay so now bring us to today um so we have tate september 17th yep 2024 bubber has arrived um okay so we have tate we buy our house um shortly after that because we're like austin is our place we do the song and dance with tate for 11 months then we decide all right you know what we can try for number two i get pregnant um we have rocky bears and before we had rocky we decided okay we're gonna we we want to do a wedding at some point but you know when you're in the mix of two kids and work and we just we don't know it's probably going to be next year don't know tbd but we decided we would just all that all that mattered was we wanted to all have the same last name so because it we very much so are already operating as a family everything we do is intertwined and so we went to the courthouse and got married yeah right before rocky was born and yep what an amazing day it was and then rocky came and now we're a family of three that's our that brings us to here now family of four family four oh my gosh thank you family of four and yeah now we're moving and shaking and i think that's it like i think that's i don't i don't think there's anything else we can really no i i think that was that was everything that um i'm sure there'll be stuff that we forgot but it'll be great to address in the Q &A.

1:24:50Jules:Yeah. And so we'll do the Q &A on Friday and let's wrap her up. Happy birthday, Alex. Thanks. Happy birthday. Thanks, guys. Do you want to hear her birthday plans? Sure. Okay. So we're going to, we have a bunch of friends in Aspen. So we're doing five o 'clock at Casatua. Okay. Outdoor. Can't wait. Yeah. That's going to be drinks and light bites. Love it. And then 7 p.m. at St. Ambrose. I'm so excited. Thank you for planning it. Of course. I'm very excited too. All right, let's get to it. We love you guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. Thanks for listening to another episode of Two Parents in a Podcast powered by Just Media House.

1:25:28Jules:If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to like, subscribe, comment, rate, and review. Stay connected on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook at Two Parents in a Pod. Welcome to our home. Sorry it's so messy. New episodes Mondays and Thursdays.