243 - How we’re (currently) prepping/planning our parental leave

[0:00:06] Caroline: Welcome to Growing Steady, the show where we help online creators like you build a calm business, one that's predictable, profitable, and peaceful. We're your hosts, Jason and Caroline Zook, and we run Wandering Aimfully, an un-boring business coaching program, and Teachery, an online course platform for designers. Join us each week as we help you reach your business goals without sacrificing your well-being in the process. Slow and steady is the way we do things around here, baby.

[0:00:30] Jason: All right, cinnamon rollers, that's you. Let's get into the show.

[0:00:37] Caroline: Let's get artsy.

[0:00:38] Jason: Let's talk about babies. Let's talk about little babies. Let's talk about our plans with the babies, babies. There's just one baby. It's not babies.

[0:00:50] Caroline: Just to be clear, it's just one baby.

[0:00:51] Jason: Just one baby. All right. Let's do it. Let's talk about our prepping for parental leave. 

[0:00:58] Caroline: Parental leave.

[0:00:58] Jason: How often will we get that wrong? Because neither of us can say parental leave. We either say paternity leave or maternity leave.

[0:01:04] Caroline: Or maternity leave. But it's parental leave.

[0:01:06] Jason: But it's parental leave because it's both of us. That's the plan.

[0:01:08] Caroline: Both of us.

[0:01:10] Jason: Okay. Before we get into that, though, quick pramble. I just wanted to write down...

[0:01:13] Caroline: Please.

[0:01:14] Jason: I wanted to share two shows that I'm liking, we liked, and then two movies that we both watched together and liked that I wanted to share with everybody.

[0:01:22] Caroline: Okay.

[0:01:23] Jason: Starting with the shows. Obviously, the new season of White Lotus is over. Everybody has already experienced the tsunami of amazingness that was this season. And I just wanted to share if anybody maybe is hearing all the hype about White Lotus and like, ugh, is the show really that good? Should I watch it? Yes.

[0:01:42] Caroline: Yes.

[0:01:42] Jason: This show's fantastic.

[0:01:43] Caroline: It's fantastic.

[0:01:43] Jason: I went back and rewatched the first season before the third season came out, and it was just amazing the second time around.

[0:01:49] Caroline: There's nothing like it. And listen, is it effed up? Absolutely.

[0:01:52] Jason: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[0:01:53] Caroline: That's the point.

[0:01:54] Jason: Yeah. Yeah. It really opens up a lot of doors of different areas of life and things that are going on.

[0:01:59] Caroline: The character development, the little vignettes that the characters create, the ways that their stories overlap. And it's a slow burn.

[0:02:07] Jason: Yes.

[0:02:08] Caroline: It's always a slow burn. And so, people were getting pretty antsy this season. They were like, when is it all going to... And it's like, everyone, did we not watch the first two seasons?

[0:02:15] Jason: Yeah.

[0:02:16] Caroline: It's always a slow buildup of these characters and then stuff just hits the fan.

[0:02:20] Jason: It really does. Also, this was the first season I listened to The Companion Podcast, the official HBO Max White Lotus podcast. And I really enjoyed listening after every episode. The two people who are writers, and them talk about it, and then they had actors on from the show.

[0:02:36] Caroline: It's fun.

[0:02:36] Jason: But what's also hilarious is the show is filmed two years ago.

[0:02:38] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:02:39] Jason: So you're having all the actors come on. They're like, I had to keep this a secret for two years, and this was so difficult.

[0:02:44] Caroline: That's pretty intense.

[0:02:45] Jason: But it was really fun to listen to. So if you've been on the fence, White Lotus. Now, the other show that I have started...

[0:02:51] Caroline: We personal shows. I'm going to add my personal show because I'm not watching this with you.

[0:02:52] Jason: Okay. Okay. I'm on the cock now. So I just...

[0:02:57] Caroline: Buddy.

[0:02:58] Jason: It's Peacock. That's what they call it. If you're a subscriber, you're on the cock. That's what they call it. Like you know you're on the clock. Like, hey, you're on the clock. It's like you're on the cock when you're watching Peacock.

[0:03:07] Caroline: Buddy, you didn't even give anyone a warning.

[0:03:09] Jason: Well, no. I mean, it's just, I'm talking about the network.

[0:03:11] Caroline: Why won't you give a warning? It's just a phrase.

Jason: Exactly. It's the peacock. It's just...

[0:03:14] Caroline: Right. It's a Peacock...

[0:03:15] Jason: I'm watching the show, The Day of the Jackal.

[0:03:17] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:03:18] Jason: Just call it Jackal.

[0:03:19] Caroline: Just call it Jackal.

[0:03:20] Jason: But I am so impressed with this network TV show. I thought it was going to be terrible, but I kept hearing from people, and I think on IMDb it's like over 8 and a half stars rated.

[0:03:32] Caroline: So you go watch it.

[0:03:32] Jason: Which is like, when an IMDb show is over eight and a half, it usually really stands up. And I started watching it, and the first episode, I was like, this is filmed and feels like a Bond movie, like that's how good it felt.

[0:03:42] Caroline: I can't decide if I want you to tell me what it's about, because my favorite game that I played was when I saw him doing some type of like computer thing.

[0:03:47] Jason: Yeah, you were just guessing.

[0:03:49] Caroline: And I was like, is he hacking into the government?

[0:03:52] Jason: Yeah.

[0:03:52] Caroline: Is the money going to get transferred? Is he going to have the hostages for the... All the money that he wants?

[0:03:57] Jason: Yeah.

[0:03:58] Caroline: I went through 12 different scenarios. And you were like, no.

[0:04:01] Jason: I think you should just watch it without me telling you.

[0:04:03] Caroline: I was like, is it because he's a spy? Is it because he's a CIA agent? Is it because he doesn't know his identity? Is it because he's lost, and he needs... Has amnesia?

[0:04:09] Jason: Listen, I don't know if you all need another streaming service to sign up for because we have resisted signing up and being...

[0:04:13] Caroline: Yeah, you're supposed to be deinfluencing.

[0:04:15] Jason: ...and being on the cock for this long.

[0:04:17] Caroline: Buddy, I really don't like it.

[0:04:17] Jason: But for at least one month, we're going to be on the cock. And so, we're going to really take advantage of the cock, and we're going to really enjoy all that the cock has to offer in its bevy of shows and movies and other things.

[0:04:29] Caroline: You're such a 14-year-old sometimes.

[0:04:30] Jason: Yeah, absolutely. For sure.

[0:04:31] Caroline: Like you're having just the time of your life right now with you.

[0:04:32] Jason: I told you I've started listening to Armchair Expert again, and that's a bad influence on me because...

[0:04:36] Caroline: I know. You can't...

[0:04:36] Jason: ...Monica lets Dax cook sometimes and then sometimes, she doesn't. But it's like I've always felt like I wish I could be the Dax of this podcast because I am in real life, but people don't get that because there's a little bit of censorship here. But this episode...

[0:04:48] Caroline: I do have to reign you in just a tad. But I think I've loosened up a little bit and I'm letting your freak flag fly.

[0:04:54] Jason: I think we need more of that in the world, my freak flag flying. But anyway, just to wrap up, The Day of the Jackal, I am four episodes in, and I highly recommend the show. I don't even know what's going to happen. It's just, it's that good. I can't wait to watch the next episode.

[0:05:05] Caroline: Okay. Well, my pick of a show that I watch by myself that you don't watch...

[0:05:09] Jason: Uh-huh.

[0:05:10] Caroline: ...that has also had a lot of hype...

[0:05:11] Jason: Okay.

[0:05:12] Caroline: ...is The Pitt.

[0:05:13] Jason: The Pitt, yes, yes, yes.

[0:05:13] Caroline: And I'm deep in The Pitt, and the season just ended. I'm sad that it's over. This is one of the few shows that I was watching in real time because, I think it would come out on Thursday nights, but then we would get it here Friday. So I would eventually watch it Friday morning or Saturday morning, and it just sucked me right in. And so, the thing... Because since you don't know...

[0:05:33] Jason: No, I've heard a lot of people say that's like it's what The Bear did for the restaurant industry for hospital.

[0:05:39] Caroline: But different because it's like The Bear is very stylized, I would say. And The Pitt is not. It is very utilitarian. All the drama is from the stories of what is happening. But I just, I find all the actors really good. Noah Wyle is just like the center of the show, and he carries the show. And you really root for him as sort of the patriarch of this little ... Pitt. And yeah, you just find yourself really getting attached to these characters.

[0:06:06] Jason: Yeah. Yeah.

[0:06:07] Caroline: And so, I really enjoyed it. And I will be tuning in for season two.

[0:06:13] Jason: Fantastic. Two quick movies. These were our night movies with the last few weekend...

[0:06:17] Caroline: Wait. Can I say one more thing about The Pitt?

[0:06:19] Jason: Unfortunately...

[0:06:20] Caroline: No, no, no. I will say everyone has agreed that it's like the most...

[0:06:25] Jason: Like realistic?

[0:06:26] Caroline: Realistic medical drama. The one thing that was absolutely egregious is a woman comes in and basically gives birth. And the birth scene was just like, I saw from so many labor and delivery nurses, so many obstetricians. And they were like, this was egregiously bad.

[0:06:44] Jason: Oh.

[0:06:44] Caroline: And so, I just think that is such a commentary on like, okay, we can get every other part of the medical experience true to form, as accurate as possible. And then we're just going to sort of just like...

[0:06:57] Jason: Skate over birth.

[0:06:58] Caroline: And I just really think that there's a real lack of care.

[0:07:01] Jason: Maybe they just don't want to show how hard it really is. They're just like, hey...

[0:07:05] Caroline: We will not procreate as a species.

[0:07:06] Jason: ...everybody just needs to go in with like blinders on and see what's up.

[0:07:09] Caroline: But I do think because I'm pregnant right now, it obviously just hits different where I'm like, come on, we need this.

[0:07:14] Jason: Okay. Very quickly here, two movies we watched this past weekend that I picked out for us. One was called The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. This is actually a remake of a movie that was made in the 70s. That's the new version.

[0:07:24] Caroline: You said most people have heard of that movie.

[0:07:26] Jason: Okay. Maybe, but...

[0:07:27] Caroline: It's Denzel. Come on.

[0:07:28] Jason: I understand. But maybe not. And maybe you just passed it over because there were so many other great Denzel movies that came out, but Denzel and John Travolta...

[0:07:36] Caroline: Because it did kind of... Did it flop when it came out kind of? No. It made a good amount of money.

[0:07:40] Jason: Yeah, it just wasn't like crazy. But we rewatched this movie. We definitely had watched it together before, but many, many years ago, over 10 years ago. This movie is great. This movie holds up in so many ways. Very entertaining.

[0:07:51] Caroline: It's just because Denzel, oh, my gosh.

[0:07:52] Jason: And John Travolta being the bad guy was just really fun to watch.

[0:07:55] Caroline: Off his rocker.

[0:07:56] Jason: And there's just like some good couple of twists and turns in there. It was a good one. Now, the next movie I wanted to share because this one was a real fun find for me. I had been seeing this pop up as people were saying like, ooh, this is a good movie. 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. I always get nervous because I'm like, that's got to be a banger. And this was the movie, Companion.

[0:08:14] Caroline: Mm-hmm.

[0:08:15] Jason: And when you read the synopsis of the movie, it kind of gives away the whole movie. But then you...

[0:08:20] Caroline: Yeah. Don't read the synopsis, actually because it'll take it away from you. Like go into it. It's better if you go into it not knowing anything.

[0:08:25] Jason: Just go into it with like, hey, I trust the Zooks. They like movies a lot. I'm just going to watch this movie and I'm not going to read the logline.

[0:08:31] Caroline: Here's my logline. Friends go to a lake house for a friend's trip.

[0:08:38] Jason: Something bad happens.

[0:08:38] Caroline: Something awry happens.

[0:08:40] Jason: Yeah.

[0:08:41] Caroline: Yeah. People did say, I will say, and maybe... I don't think this gives anything away, but it gives you a genre or an idea of what to expect. I did see some of the commentary was like, wow, it was just like a movie that could have been a Black Mirror episode. Like it's very Black Mirror-esque, I would say. So that's all I'll say.

[0:08:59] Jason: All right. So those are the movies and the shows that we are currently like. And we used to talk about those all the time. And we stopped talking about them.

[0:09:05] Caroline: We're really trying to ramp up our entertainment consumption before we have this little being on our hands who's going to take up all of our attention.

[0:09:11] Jason: Yeah, we're going to have to get into Yellowstone soon. We've heard that's very good. But okay. Let's move from the pramble into the meatisode. The meat of the episode here. What do you want to talk about?

[0:09:23] Caroline: In this episode...

[0:09:23] Jason: You notice how I held off on making another joke about the cock? The streaming service, Peacock?

[0:09:27] Caroline: And yet here we are.

[0:09:28] Jason: When I was talking about meat, and that could have easily...

[0:09:29] Caroline: And yet here we are again.

[0:09:31] Jason: I was just letting you know that I didn't say it. I could have, but I absolutely didn't because I am an adult, and I don't have to make those jokes.

[0:09:37] Caroline: I'm amazed at yourself restraint.

[0:09:38] Jason: Okay.

[0:09:40] Caroline: In this episode, we just thought it would be interesting to take you behind the scenes on how we're thinking about parental leave. You might be wondering. We have been running businesses for a really long time. And when you are your own business owner, obviously there's no employer who's telling you, hey, you get this X amount of time off to have a baby. So how do you plan for that yourself? And I think everyone's situation is obviously different. It depends on where you are in your business journey. It depends on how much money you need to bring in, all of those different... It depends on whether both partners are working, all these things. For us, part of the reason that we waited so long, there were many reasons we could do an entire episode on why we waited so long to have kids. But one of those reasons was we wanted to be financially and business-wise in a place where we could take a generous amount of time to make the transition to parenthood. And so, that's what we are trying to do. And we'll tell you what that looks like. And again, we're not saying this is like the right way to plan your parental leave.

[0:10:44] Jason: No, this is just sharing our story. That's all we're doing.

[0:10:47] Caroline: It's just taking you behind the scenes of how we're thinking about things. Knowing that as you listen to this and your parents, you are in a world of knowledge that we are not there yet. So just let us be our naive little pre-parent selves. We're just feeling around in the dark.

[0:11:02] Jason: We're little pre-parent goldfish just swimming around in our bowl.

[0:11:04] Caroline: Yes. And we're going to have to learn.

[0:11:05] Jason: And every turn is a whole new life for us. Yeah.

[0:11:07] Caroline: Whole new life. And we're going to have to learn the hard way like everybody does. So just bear with us as we say things that we'll undoubtedly cringe at later on when we are on the other side.

[0:11:16] Jason: Yeah. So where we are on the journey here, timeline-wise is that we are four months out from baby arrival.

[0:11:22] Caroline: Is that right? We are recording this, I am 19 weeks.

[0:11:24] Jason: May, June, July, August. Yeah, four months.

[0:11:26] Caroline: Yeah, four months. Baby is probably arriving at the end of August.

[0:11:30] Jason: Yup.

[0:11:30] Caroline: And we actually probably two months ago we sat down, and we had a meeting. Not two months ago, maybe like six weeks ago. Because I remember I had just started feeling better. Remember the nausea had just gone away and you and I sat down once I could think again.

[0:11:46] Jason: Mm-hmm.

[0:11:46] Caroline: And we opened up our little master Canva Whiteboard document that we use to plan everything in our business. Shout out to wanderingaimfully.com/canva...

[0:11:57] Jason: Yeah, you can...

[0:11:57] Caroline: ...if you want to get a free, like basically...

[0:11:59] Jason: Business whiteboard.

[0:12:00] Caroline: Business whiteboard, we use a version of that. And it just works for my brain, the visualness of it. And we asked ourselves, okay, what's going to happen? Because we have this monthly coaching session commitment, we have a podcast, we have a newsletter, we were on YouTube at the time. Like how are all these pieces going to shift and change? And really it was just we needed space to make decisions. So that's what we're walk you through. Again, this is a very flexible plan. These are just decisions that we've made that feel right for us now. But we are very aware that depending on how birth goes, depending on what baby we get, depending on how it feels in the moment, I want to go back to work sooner. Oh, I need more time.

[0:12:43] Jason: Right.

[0:12:43] Caroline: We're allowing ourselves that flexibility, but this is how we're approaching all parenthood is like go in with a plan, keep that plan very flexible.

[0:12:51] Jason: Yeah. Yeah. I think, again, one of the things that you have the luxury of when you are older parents, let's just say, "older parents", is you have carved out more ability to take more space. You've carved out more ability to have financial resources. And also, that was a big plan for us, knowing we live in a foreign country to us where we don't have family and friends here. So you're going to hear us talk about some of our plans for help that there's literally no one here that could come once or twice a week that lives down the street and relieve us for five to six hours.

[0:13:24] Caroline: Exactly.

[0:13:25] Jason: That doesn't exist. So we are not going to go into this with the idea of like, okay, well, we just have to do it all ourselves and whatever it takes, we're going to get through it. And yes, we're two people and we can help each other, but also, we just know that it takes a village to bring a child into life and we want to make it as not easy, but least amount of overall pain and stress as possible.

[0:13:46] Caroline: Yeah. What you and I talk about a lot is let's not plan hard mode if we don't have to. So with a lot of the decisions, yeah, like Jason said, under no illusions that any part of this will be easy, but let's not make it harder on ourselves if...

[0:13:57] Jason: Yeah. If we have options to make it easier.

[0:14:00] Caroline: If we have options and it's within our capability. So that's a little bit of our perspective. I think also, important context is some of you might be newer to the podcast and may not know all of the backstory of the fact that I used to suffer with an anxiety disorder, a very serious anxiety disorder, went through a huge kind of what you might call a breakdown in 2019, early 20... No.

[0:14:22] Jason: Yeah, 2019.

[0:14:23] Caroline: In 2019.

[0:14:24] Jason: Yeah.

[0:14:24] Caroline: And just hit the bottom of the barrel. Built myself back up from not even being able to work for six months and...

[0:14:31] Jason: Not even not being able to work, not being able to get out of bed.

[0:14:33] Caroline: Yeah. Just really, really dire situation. And thankfully, I'm now at a place with my relationship to my anxiety where I'm not experiencing it at all. I was very worried even that that pregnancy was going to bring back up anxious feelings, I have not experienced that, even despite going through two of our chemical pregnancies. That has been surprising to me, happily, so. But I say all of that because my number one priority in making the transition to motherhood is to protect my mental health. Because I can't be a good mom if I allow myself to slide back to where I was. That's not saying I say allow myself. That's taking some responsibility, but I don't want to sound like I'm taking too much responsibility. Like sometimes our mental health is not always fully in our own hands. But I make choices every day for the things that I can control in order to keep my anxiety and my mental health in check. And so, Jason was alluding to some of the decisions we've made in terms of help and...

[0:15:38] Jason: Time.

[0:15:38] Caroline: Time that we're going to spend away and all of these things, trying to get used to the sleep deprivation that will probably accompany, all of this. All the decisions that we're making are to protect me as much as possible from potentially postpartum depression or postpartum anxiety. These things that are very natural that people do experience that we won't know if we're going to experience until we get there.

[0:16:00] Jason: Yeah, for sure. Okay. Do you want to jump into timeline and loose plan? Where do you want to start?

[0:16:06] Caroline: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[0:16:06] Jason: Okay. So yeah, I think just big picture here, as we mentioned kind of like late August. I think the actual due date is like very beginning of September, right?

[0:16:14] Caroline: A technical due date in case you're interested is September 7th, which is my dad's birthday and my best friend Emily's birthday, which is very cute. However, because of my high-risk conditions, two of which are blood disorders, there is a lot of risk of growth restriction in the later months and stages. And...

[0:16:36] Jason: We got to get that baby out a little early.

[0:16:37] Caroline: We got to get the baby out a little early. So they're trying to, as I understand it, the doctors, when delivering with this condition, they're really trying to balance. Let's give the baby enough time to bake as much as possible, but let's...

[0:16:51] Jason: Not wait so long of something, yeah.

[0:16:52] Caroline: Let's not wait so long because things like blood supply starts to become a really big issue. So my doctor has basically been like 38, 39 weeks is probably where we're going to induce you. I also have to wrap my head around like I'll probably be induced.

[0:17:06] Jason: Yeah.

[0:17:07] Caroline: And so, that's going to be end of August probably.

[0:17:10] Jason: Yeah. So I think what that looks like for us is like all of work winds down by the end of July and probably like mid-July, like everything is wound down. And what that means is like we're just not really doing anything work-wise. And I think that's really more so for you than it will be for me. Like I'll probably still be poking around and doing stuff because we don't have a baby yet, so there's going to be plenty of time to...

[0:17:30] Caroline: And I'm sure I'll still be like scheduling content if we're doing that or stuff like that. But as far as like we are giving ourselves permission that mid-July really is going to shift over. Because also keep in mind, we will be going to the doctor multiple times a week at that point for monitoring and all of this. They're going to be watching us really closely. So just our schedules are not going to allow it. But also, just like really get in the mindset of prepping for birth, prepping for bringing a baby home, like making sure...

[0:17:59] Jason: I've got to do daily swaddle practice.

[0:18:01] Caroline: Swaddle practice.

[0:18:01] Jason: Like I have a lot of swaddle practice I got to do.

[0:18:03] Caroline: Car seat practice. Like you got to time it just right. Like just allowing ourselves that little bit of prep window to like really get in a good mindset and a good headspace so that we're... And I think this is something that like not enough people... Unfortunately, I mean, we all know, especially coming from the United States, people do not get enough time period. But I think not enough people think about the pre-birth, maybe like little bit of leave.

[0:18:26] Jason: And listen, it is absolutely a privilege to be able to do that. And I think that in so many areas of life you can choose some of that privilege and some of it is given. And so, we're basically admitting that we have that privilege, but we're also taking advantage of it so we're not trying to make it harder on ourselves. So yeah, so kind of like winding things down in July, then August baby arrives towards the end of the month. Doctors on vacation until August 18th because everyone in Portugal takes vacation in August. And so, my job is to hold the baby in until after...

[0:18:57] Caroline: Yeah, August is actually the worst time to have a baby in Portugal because everyone's on holiday. But I'm also trying to allow myself the surrender to the fact that if the baby's going to come, when the baby's going to come.

[0:19:07] Jason: True.

[0:19:08] Caroline: Whatever doctor I get is the doctor I get.

[0:19:08] Jason: I'm going to hold in as much as I can.

[0:19:10] Caroline: But I really want my doctor because I love her a lot.

[0:19:12] Jason: Yeah.

[0:19:14] Caroline: So then, yeah, if all goes according to plan, which does it ever, late August, baby will arrive, then basically, from our plan... So originally, my plan, the number that I had just had in my head was three months.

[0:19:28] Jason: Yeah.

[0:19:30] Caroline: I don't know why I had that number. But I just, I also know myself and I know that for me personally, every single person has a different decision when it comes to negotiating working, not working, halftime working, like all of that stuff. And it's a complex discussion that I would just like to say I have no judgment around people have strong opinions. But I think whatever you choose to do with your work and your life and your baby, I'm happy for you. For me, I was like, I think I'm going to be the type of person who does want to come back to work in some capacity. Like not quickly, but after three months. That felt like a good amount of time.

[0:20:09] Jason: Yeah.

[0:20:10] Caroline: And then you actually were the one who, when we sat down and we looked at the calendar, we were like, okay, three months, so that's going to be September, October, November. Okay. Then it's December, then it's Christmas. We always typically take December off and light anyway. And he was like, why are you going to force yourself to just like come back to work for December? That seems silly.

[0:20:29] Jason: Yeah.

[0:20:30] Caroline: And so, you were the one who was like, why don't you just give yourself permission? And I think you were even the one who was like, let's bump it up to August. So you basically were like, let's basically take off August to December is what you said.

[0:20:43] Jason: Yeah, exactly. And I think that it's very different when we like, we don't have clients that we have to support. We don't have deadlines that we have to meet for our businesses. We're in control of everything. The only deadline we really have is a monthly coaching session which we have let all of our Wandering Aimfully members know they are going to be recorded sessions that are going to be done ahead of time that they will have access to that will go up monthly as those years go on or those months go on. And we'll prewrite the emails so people can get access to those and all that. And we're also trying to think through like is there some type of community chat element where we're not going to be there, but people can watch at the same time, like a release time.

[0:21:19] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:21:19] Jason: And it's like our own episodes of The Pitt are coming out and people can chat, and they can watch it together for two hours or however long it is.

[0:21:26] Caroline: Yeah. We're trying to continue to facilitate that live element of community despite us being away.

[0:21:32] Jason: Exactly. So having all that stuff ready, and then August, September, October, those are definitely going to be the hard, hard months.

[0:21:39] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:21:40] Jason: All of it's going to be hard. But you're assuming that, okay, maybe by that time, again, with two of us and with having help, which we'll talk about in a minute, there's going to be a couple hours in the day where we can do some work stuff. But my whole point was, listen, we're only going to have our first kid one time.

[0:21:53] Caroline: Exactly.

[0:21:54] Jason: We're only going to have our first kid with this amount of flexibility and freedom one time. Let's take as much advantage of it as possible in the planning. And then if it comes to it, and in November, we're like, hey, we got so lucky we have a good sleeper. Knock on wood. We hope we get one. We got so lucky we have help that's just like, really frees up some time for us. You're feeling really good in recovery. I'm feeling like I'm not super stressed out about all the baby stuff that's all around our house, and I can keep organized. And it does feel like, yeah, maybe we could get back into some stuff sooner. That gives us the option to do that. But I just wanted to set the plan as we were thinking about it of let's just not plan to come back to anything. No email newsletter consistently. No podcast consistently. Not really being available in Slack consistently. Having someone else to handle Teachery customer support and not doing a lot of new features for Teachery, which we'll talk more about that in a second. Just plan for that.

[0:22:43] Caroline: Yeah. Especially those first three months, really allow ourselves to dive into that newborn cocoon and bubble and emerge from it if we need to for our own mental health, like if we need some of that, that's fine. But planning for it, I think, is important just for bonding and for we're going to have to negotiate a whole different way of operating together and working together. And all those amazing outcomes that you just mentioned, yeah, we would love to keep our eye on the prize on that, knowing good and well that I could have a really hard birth and a really hard recovery. We could have a baby that's very fussy and has trouble sleeping. It could be hard to get into a rhythm with the support that we're hiring.

[0:23:27] Jason: There could be a second baby that's been hiding there the whole time that comes slides out afterwards.

[0:23:30] Caroline: Jason, you bite your tongue. You bite your tongue. We would know by now.

[0:23:35] Jason: Yeah.

[0:23:36] Caroline: So we know that just... And that's part of what's hard of this season of life is it's all so uncertain, but you just dive into the deep end, and you go, okay, let me create a plan and then let me just give it up to whatever the present moment has for me.

[0:23:50] Jason: Yeah.

[0:23:51] Caroline: And I think we do a pretty good job of that already.

[0:23:52] Jason: Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's our plan for right now is to take that time off. So do you want to chat about the adjustments that we're making?

[0:24:00] Caroline: Yeah. Before we move on, I did want to say that part of our notes when we wrote down, just as far as like the podcasts and newsletters, we definitely did say for sure, basically, mid-July, like August through October is like a no go. Like I said, that's going to be like the strict cocoon time.

[0:24:16] Jason: Right. There will be no new content from us coming out.

[0:24:18] Caroline: No new content.

[0:24:19] Jason: Yeah.

[0:24:20] Caroline: Yeah, we had talked about... We still don't know about...

[0:24:22] Jason: Yeah, there might be like a, hey, we're just checking in the... I could see this happening like early September or whatever. Like mid-September. We just literally take 20 minutes to hold our phones and record.

[0:24:33] Caroline: Yeah. What I was going to say is exactly, like potentially coming back in November, December could be a very one-off kind of catching you all up on...

[0:24:41] Jason: Yeah.

[0:24:42] Caroline: ...we're good.

[0:24:43] Jason: But I could see us doing like a very quick short newsletter or podcast episode that's like literally 10 minutes of holding a phone together. I mean, like, hey, the birth was what it was. The baby's doing great. This is the name we chose, blah, blah, blah, and just like letting everybody know so they're not waiting until November to find out.

[0:24:59] Caroline: Totally.

[0:25:01] Jason: And that's, again, it's just a little one-off drop of what we're doing. Yeah.

[0:25:04] Caroline: Exactly. So no structured content basically.

[0:25:07] Jason: Exactly. Content.

[0:25:09] Caroline: Content. Yeah. And then giving ourselves that December timeframe to hopefully have the brain space to be able to see what the new year is going to look like.

[0:25:20] Jason: Mm-hmm.

[0:25:21] Caroline: And that's going to be like our time to figure that out. But we are planning to basically be back on working in January.

[0:25:28] Jason: Yeah. Cool. All right. So it's just some of the business side of things and then we'll get into the personal side of things of how we're getting ready with everything. So as you've heard us talk about in previous episodes, we're going to do one final WAIM Unlimited launch and that's going to be in June. So we're essentially going to build up to that. We're going to be... We're back on Instagram now, but we're going to be trying to get more content ready and out for that to promote. We're going to obviously be recording some podcast episodes to promote. We're going to be sending email newsletters, like all the stuff we normally do. Maybe we'll throw in a couple YouTube videos, I don't know. We'll see if that fits the plan. Because this is the last ever WAIM Unlimited launch, we want to put as much into it as possible. Once that's done, WAIM Unlimited from there is just our monthly coaching, keeping up with Slack. And really in June and July we'll do live sessions both of those months.

[0:26:21] Caroline: Yup.

[0:26:21] Jason: And then after that it's all recorded sessions after. So I will be pretty much not in WAIM Slack at all. And we'll talk about bring on some help for that in a moment. But that's like how that's going to go for the rest of the year.

[0:26:35] Caroline: Yeah. The biggest question mark now is what happens with Instagram content. Because now that we've come back from our three-year hiatus and we're very fresh, like we're two weeks into creating content again, but...

[0:26:50] Jason: But now's the best time to release our course about how to have a bulletproof Instagram real schedule.

[0:26:55] Caroline: But I could see a world where maybe just having batched content, but then I'm like it feels weird because everyone's going to know that we're, like have a baby.

[0:27:04] Jason: Yeah. And also, what for? I think for us, with the WAIM...

[0:27:09] Caroline: Well, the answer of what for would be if we are trying to build more of an evergreen engine and we know that the engine relies on that content, that would be a reason to do it. But it will really, I think depend. I think that decision will really depend on how the June launch does, I think is probably what that comes down to.

[0:27:26] Jason: Yeah. Which maybe we'll do another episode leading up to what our goals are with that and what that looks like. And if we don't hit those goals, maybe we'll think about doing some Instagram content thing to try and sell evergreen throughout those months. But yeah, we'll figure that. That's one of those just hanging out there we don't know the answer to yet because we haven't gotten through that long...

[0:27:46] Caroline: We're experimenting with taking our best content that whatever pops, if anything pops in the next three months. Running ads with that. I don't know.

[0:27:52] Jason: Yeah. Yeah, that's true too.

[0:27:53] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:27:54] Jason: But again, the thing that we don't want, what I don't want, and we talked about this a little bit in that first meeting, was like I don't want to have to think like, oh, Meta ads are running.

[0:28:02] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:28:03] Jason: We're two weeks into a newborn and like I just happen to check my phone and like, a time when the baby's sleeping and like, oh, there's an error with the ads. And like, now I feel like I have this stress to go fix it.

[0:28:13] Caroline: Yeah, totally.

[0:28:13] Jason: I'm not interested in that for the potential making $1,000 that week through ads.

[0:28:19] Caroline: 100%.

[0:28:20] Jason: So again, that's all stuff, I think we'll maybe figure out a little bit more once that final launch goes through and if we hit our goals for that, because that'll give us the flexibility to just say like, hey, it's okay. We're just going to plan to not make much money during those months and Teachery will continue to make the revenue it makes because it runs a lot more on autopilot than anything else.

[0:28:38] Caroline: Yeah, we're diversified a bit and that... Excuse me, that was something else I was going to say is it's a big... And maybe this moves us into like the emotional prep of it all and...

[0:28:48] Jason: Well, I wanted to talk about Teachery before that because I don't think we have another...

[0:28:50] Caroline: Oh, talk about Teachery. Go. My keyword is money shift?

[0:28:57] Jason: Okay.

[0:28:58] Caroline: Okay.

[0:28:58] Jason: So yeah, with WAIM last launch, two coaching sessions, June and July, and then we'll basically be quiet from there, releasing the other coaching sessions in some way that the community can have access to them as a long release window. For Teachery, I'm working really hard right now to try and get a couple big features out the door. One of which I'm really trying to do before August 1st, basically, is to get a new course editor available that's going to be a beta editor. So my goal is that it exists and it's usable, but also in that time, I'm going to be trying to find a support person who's also an admin person that can do a lot of duties for us that are things that other people can do. So that person can keep an eye on WAIM Slack to make sure people have questions, they can drop link to things. They can keep the threads and channels cleaned up.

[0:29:47] Caroline: Handle the admin emails that we send out to sign up for things.

[0:29:50] Jason: Yeah. Handle those emails, make sure those things go through, setting up whatever, like the monthly pages are for those coaching sessions, but from the Teachery side of things, answering customer support. So every day there are a couple messages that come through. I'm going to need someone to help me do that. So that's the big shift for me for Teachery is get the course editor ready into like a beta mode for the rest of the year, which I would love people to be able to use and then have someone there who can support and answer questions that I don't have to answer. And then they'll also work with, I think barring any big changes, we'll probably still keep running either Google Ads or Med ads for Teachery, because we use an ads company for that. So they just run it completely and we just pay them for a fee. But that's how Teachery is then going to wind down, where it'll keep running fully and it'll be really cool if it had that new editor interface that people be able to use for the rest of the year. And then I can come back and see how this all has gone.

[0:30:42] Caroline: That would be great.

[0:30:43] Jason: Yeah. Okay. So that's the plan with Teachery. So money shift was your keyword.

[0:30:47] Caroline: Well, yes. Okay. So moving into how we kind of emotionally prepping for this and personally, all of that. But I was just going to say, I think a big part of this is you can probably hear in our voices that we're leaving so much room for flexibility, right? We're sort of like, I don't know, will we keep with Instagram? Will we not? I think there's this idea that you need for a parental leave plan. You need it all to be so set in stone. And what I'm learning with this season of trying to get pregnant, getting pregnant, et cetera, is like, all of it is so unknown. So it's like you do yourself a disservice, I think, by backing yourself into a corner a little bit. The one thing I do know is that I have had to shift my mindset into understanding that this little season of life where we are bringing this new person into our family, this is not going to be the most profitable, lucrative financial season of our life.

[0:31:42] Jason: Yeah.

[0:31:42] Caroline: If anything, we're going to have the most expenses ever where... You know what I mean? And so, as a business owner, you do have to do that mental work to be like, okay, I'm not going to set that expectation for myself that we need to be making like the same amount of money or more amount of money. Of course, we still want to be smart with our finances and we are debt free, and we'll continue to be debt free, and we have plenty of savings and all that stuff. We're still going to make smart financial decisions. But in terms of I'm not trying to hit any aggressive financial goals at this moment in time because I don't want to put that pressure on myself.

[0:32:20] Jason: Yeah.

[0:32:20] Caroline: Now, all of that said, the flip side of that is we are in a position where we're going to have more expenses with the new person in our family. My parents are aging, and we are now in the place where we... That is an expense for us of taking care of them and making sure they have the healthcare needs that they need.

[0:32:39] Jason: Also, I signed us up for Peacock. That's $14 every month.

[0:32:42] Caroline: Jayson's signing up for the cock left and right.

[0:32:46] Jason: Great job, babe.

[0:32:47] Caroline: Thanks. So yeah, it's a little bit of a delicate balance mentally. But I say that because I think it's an important piece of the puzzle to just, if you are someone who tends to be on the more ambitious side to kind of be like, yeah, it's okay to take a pause and take a step back because the business is not going to be the most important thing right now. The most important thing is going to be bringing this new life into the world and adjusting as a family of three and making sure you and I are good...

[0:33:15] Jason: Yeah.

[0:33:15] Caroline: ...through one of the hardest transitions we'll ever make.

[0:33:19] Jason: So one of the ways that we're doing that and one of the ways that that money shift is going to be interesting is we're going to be picking up a pretty sizable expense to help through the first couple months.

[0:33:28] Caroline: Correct.

[0:33:29] Jason: And even beyond. So we are going to use a night nanny or night nurse to start. And so, that's something we already found a service here in Portugal that helps you find people. We had a call with them. It was amazing. The call was so great. And it's been a really interesting decision for us to figure this out. But the deciding factor, I think is really easy in some ways is sleep is the most important thing for you.

[0:33:56] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:33:58] Jason: And it's not healthy, but I can exist on less sleep, and I don't feel like I'm going to necessarily have, and I'm just going to use this phrase because it's the easy way to describe it. Like a mental breakdown.

[0:34:06] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:34:07] Jason: If I don't get good sleep for like a while. Because back when we lived in California, I had my back problems after your anxiety struggles, and I was getting like three to four hours of sleep for like six months.

[0:34:19] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:34:19] Jason: It was awful. But I survived and I was able to continue to work and do all of these things. And it's not healthy. Again, I'm sure that took time off of my life, but...

[0:34:27] Caroline: But you could function.

[0:34:28] Jason: But I could function.

[0:34:29] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:34:29] Jason: The difference is that you cannot.

[0:34:31] Caroline: Yeah. Sleep for me is the domino...

[0:34:34] Jason: Yeah.

[0:34:35] Caroline: It's the most important domino. It's like the... What do they call with the Contagion? It's like the Patient Zero.

[0:34:41] Jason: Oh, you're Patient Zero. Yeah. Exactly.

[0:34:42] Caroline: Sleep is my Patient Zero.

[0:34:43] Jason: We just watched Contagion as well recently, so yeah.

[0:34:45] Caroline: And so again, like I was saying, a big fear of mine going into pregnancy and motherhood is this idea of postpartum anxiety or postpartum depression because my anxiety has affected me in such a deep way before, and I never want to go back to that place. Especially I don't want to go back to that place when now I have this little being that I want to be there for.

[0:35:07] Jason: Yeah.

[0:35:08] Caroline: And so, in trying to think through all of the options that are available to us to protect against that and to really put resources in place that I feel like I am in a really good place, we went through the options, and I know it's a... It shouldn't be controversial, but it is controversial because I know not everyone can and has the resources and people have strong opinions about different ways that people support or configure their parenthood journey. But again, for us, our driving belief is I cannot be the best mom to our kid if I am at my breaking point. And knowing that sleep is going to be disrupted quite a bit, just having that person there... Not only just a person to help throughout the nights, but a highly trained, skilled person.

[0:36:03] Jason: Yeah. This is like a baby expert.

[0:36:05] Caroline: Right. Who can also put my anxieties at ease to know they know these sounds that they're making and, oh, showing us the different ways to burp and showing us...

[0:36:17] Jason: Because we're on a little bit of a movie terror, sharing movies and whatnot. I'm right now, in my mind, I'm picturing this person as it's probably going to be a woman, but I'm picturing right now as Portuguese Liam Neeson who's coming in, and it's like...

[0:36:29] Caroline: A specific set of skills.

[0:36:30] Jason: It's like, I have a specific set of skills to take care of your baby. And it's like, here's how we burp the baby, here's how we swaddle the baby. It's not necessarily going to be like that at all, but this person is not going to be someone who just comes and hangs out at night. They're a person who's extremely well-versed in all things baby. And I think, like...

[0:36:47] Caroline: And they can teach us, right?

[0:36:48] Jason: Exactly.

[0:36:49] Caroline: Like people are always out there talking about how you bring your kid home from the hospital and there's no handbook. And I'm like, but what if you did have the resources to hire a person as a handbook?

[0:36:58] Jason: Yeah. And again...

[0:36:59] Caroline: Because I want that.

[0:37:00] Jason: Just to reiterate, we live in Portugal, and we have no friends or family who live here.

[0:37:04] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:37:04] Jason: We live in a neighborhood where we know people casually, but I wouldn't trust any of them to come and take care of our baby. Not because I don't like them as people, but because none of them have babies. And so, it's one of those things where it's like, there is not a single bit of extra help that we are going to be able to get for hours in a day. It just is like it's like a have to have for us. And I think for many of you listening to this, you have a mom or a really good friend or a sister or brother or whatever. And they've been through this, and they come, and they help you and you just get that immediate support. We don't have that. And I think it's very different, too. Yeah, of course you can get it from the internet. You can get it from calling a friend or a family member or whatever. Like your brother just recently had a kid. We could ask him all the questions. But at 3:00 AM in the morning when our baby just cannot fall back asleep and we are both at our wit's end, what would we rather be in the situation of? Not knowing what to do and frantically feeling like, oh, something's really wrong and whatever, or like we have a person who's there to help us through these first three months and we can get through some of these really difficult challenges feeling really empowered by having help.

[0:38:09] Caroline: Yeah. And again, I think those of you who are listening... Listen to this podcast because you know that we tend to really approach life as a means of designing the circumstances that you can control and designing your life in the way that you want. And part of us waiting to have kids was also we talked about it many years ago that we were like, we probably are going to be...

[0:38:32] Jason: Yeah, this is like the... Sorry, not to cut you off, but we waited long to travel full time because we saved up to be able to do it.

[0:38:39] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:38:39] Jason: We waited longer to have kids because we saved up to be able to potentially need to pay for these types of things, and to be able to see our business probably take a hit in revenue, but to have the savings set up so that we could hire someone to support through some of the toughest times.

[0:38:54] Caroline: Right. And that's not to say for some reason like, oh, if everyone wanted a nanny, they could. I know they can't, and I wish every person had that resource available to them. And those of you who have been in the newborn trenches and that was not an option for you, I can't even imagine.

[0:39:09] Jason: Yeah.

[0:39:10] Caroline: But again, like we said, if you have the power to control your journey and...

[0:39:16] Jason: Yeah.

[0:39:17] Caroline: ...and the way that it unfolds, use the resources that are available to you. So we are going to find out how it goes.

[0:39:23] Jason: Yeah. So the goal or the plan is three months of a night nurse/nanny. And then ama is what they call, amazonite, which is very cute.

[0:39:32] Caroline: I think it's the one who loves. It's like...

[0:39:33] Jason: Yeah, the one who loves. Yeah. Which is like such a great phrase. So that person will come for six days a week, three months, which is a while. That's...

[0:39:42] Caroline: A lot. Yeah.

[0:39:43] Jason: Yeah, that's available. And very well-trained, like we said, the Liam Neeson of baby Experts.

[0:39:49] Caroline: Yup.

[0:39:49] Jason: And after that, we will transition into a standard full-time nanny. And so, that'll be a different, fully different person.

[0:39:57] Caroline: Yeah. So that's only during the day. So the night nurse is only during the night. And then when we transition to more during the day, that will be...

[0:40:04] Jason: Liam Neeson will retire.

[0:40:06] Caroline: Liam Neeson will retire.

[0:40:06] Jason: We will go through taking one in the first month, taking two in the second month.

[0:40:09] Caroline: There is a transition period where they train there... All the knowledge is passed on.

[0:40:13] Jason: Yeah.

[0:40:14] Caroline: All of the baby whispering knowledge that has been acquired over three months is passed on and that will be so that we can then work.

[0:40:20] Jason: Yeah. I don't know why I feel this way, and I don't know if other people maybe have felt this way with nannies. I'm not actually thinking of this person as like a person who's helping. I'm thinking this is like, we're actually bringing on like another family member.

[0:40:32] Caroline: Yeah, I know. We're adding two family members.

[0:40:34] Jason: Yeah. We are so much in our conversations with the service that's helping us to find a nanny. We want the person to be fun. We want them to have a good sense of humor. We want them to be adventurous. We want them to be open to... She was telling us a lot of the nannies really love to create games and having another creative person in the house. Not that we aren't going to do those things ourselves, but in the fact that we still have two businesses that we want to run and want to have our own space and time to think and do things, having this extra person, I'm just so excited to be like, cool, we don't have to figure it all out. We get that help. And I'm just, I'm also really excited that there are going to be Portuguese speakers as well. And our baby is going to learn Portuguese fashionist. And now it is going to be a race over the course of the next three years. Can we learn Portuguese fluently enough...

[0:41:21] Caroline: Before they get into school.

[0:41:21] Jason: ...before our three-year-old speaks Portuguese fluently?

[0:41:24] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:41:25] Jason: Which is going to be wild.

[0:41:26] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:41:26] Jason: So that's fun. But yeah, I think we'll definitely be open to sharing more of what that process looks like once we're back recording episodes and sharing. And that comes with a lot of we're opening ourselves up to some criticism...

[0:41:40] Caroline: Sorry.

[0:41:40] Jason: ...and that's just something that you do. But I also think...

[0:41:43] Caroline: Yeah. I'm just going to be honest. It is a very vulnerable feeling because people come for you. I see the conversations that happen online, and I don't know what it is about... I mean, I know what it is, and it's because I think the idea of child rearing feels so personal to people, and so that if someone makes a different choice than you, that you feel like it's a condemnation of your choices. But I think the world would be a better place if we all practiced not judging other people's choices based on our own values for things that are not...

[0:42:16] Jason: Or own limitations, too. Yeah.

[0:42:18] Caroline: Or our own limitations. And so, I just, I'm saying that because I'm letting everyone know that I'm not a robot. It's very scary to share details about how we think about parenting and how we plan to parent our kids. And maybe I'll change my mind because maybe I'll just be in such a vulnerable place that I can't actually share those things because I don't have the emotional wherewithal to handle the criticism.

[0:42:38] Jason: But have you thought about how much money our baby can make us?

[0:42:41] Caroline: But on the other hand, there's this part of me that goes, yeah, but every time that you share something that works for you, and it does meet the right audience. And they feel empowered that they don't have to think that they can do it all and feel like they're a failure if they can't or feel guilty if they want to maintain some level of work with their business, I do think that's a positive thing, ultimately. I just want there to be all kinds of different stories out there of ways that parents are configuring their lives with kids in the way that makes everybody the most happy and thriving. So yes, it feels really scary and vulnerable to share these things, and I know that... And that there will be criticism as there is with anything online, but hopefully sharing it is overall worth it.

[0:43:36] Jason: Yeah. I think it's like...

[0:43:39] Caroline: What I didn't want to do... I'm sorry to cut you off, but what I didn't want to do was hide it and then feel like...

[0:43:43] Jason: Yeah. You were hiding a secret.

[0:43:46] Caroline: And I also didn't want to be like, oh, yeah, see, we can do it all. We can have a kid and still keep our businesses functioning at full tilt. Like...

[0:43:52] Jason: Yeah. Because you don't see the behind the scenes that we have a ton of help.

[0:43:55] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:43:55] Jason: Yeah. I give all credit in the world to the people who decide that they don't want help, they want to do it themselves. It's like their own personal journey in their families. And I don't judge them outwardly publicly in any way whatsoever. Behind the scenes, am I like, hey, your life would be so much easier if you just had a little bit of help. Yeah, maybe. But that's all for us to think in our own time. We don't have to put it out into the world. You can like go through life with your own thoughts and then outwardly you can say like, hey, I support whatever decisions you're making.

[0:44:23] Caroline: You're saying that for people who have the ability to hire a nanny but don't.

[0:44:27] Jason: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I just think that that's everyone's own journey to decide what you're going to do. And so, I think in sharing that like, again, we do open ourselves up to some type of criticism when you share things. But thankfully, I think we bring a lot of intentionality to a lot of these decisions. And I think everybody hears that.

[0:44:45] Caroline: Totally. And the flip side is something that I am learning on this pregnancy journey is you have to just stand on your choices because every single step of the way is about choices. And so, it's like we've shared a few things with certain people about whether it's induction or whether it's like, oh, names that we've thought of or whether it's whatever. And people have fucking opinions.

[0:45:09] Jason: Of course.

[0:45:11] Caroline:  It does ignite something, I think, in your motherly brain where you just go like, this is me and my kid and this is like, I wouldn't make these choices if I didn't think it was the best thing for our family, and you don't know the full story of our family.

[0:45:25] Jason: Yeah.

[0:45:25] Caroline: So I don't know. There is this like little bit of a mama bear thing that gets ignited in you where you just go like, yeah, I have no choice but to just own my choices. And it's not my business when people think about it.

[0:45:35] Jason: Yeah. And who knows? These are all well laid plans right now, and maybe the night nurse thing won't work out.

[0:45:41] Caroline: Maybe we regret it. Yeah.

[0:45:42] Jason: Yeah.

[0:45:42] Caroline: Maybe we're like, oh, my God, another person in our household like...

[0:45:44] Jason: Yeah. It's hard to sleep. You're just thinking someone's in another room with our baby, like what's going on? And obviously, there's so many unknowns here that we are treading into. But I just think with everything that we do in life, we try and think as thoughtfully as we can. And I always think back to this when I was doing the IWearYourShirt thing and the SponsorMyBook and the BuyMyLastName and all these crazy projects.

[0:46:07] Caroline: Yeah.

[0:46:07] Jason: And people were like, how do you know these crazy ideas are going to work out? And it's like, well, because I do a lot of calculation ahead of time that no one sees, and I think through a lot of the what happens if scenarios.

[0:46:18] Caroline: Right.

[0:46:18] Jason: And I think for us, that's the same way we're approaching having a kid is like, there's a lot of unknowns, and we're just going to see where the chips fall, but we're going to try and plan everything out as much as possible that we can possibly control.

[0:46:29] Caroline: Yeah. It's holding both things at one time. So that's the plan, and we'll see how it all pans out.

[0:46:35] Jason: Yeah. I mean, you better really soak in these podcast episodes these next couple weeks, our emails these next couple of weeks, Instagram posts, me being silly in the background of these reels that Caroline's filming. You better soak them in because come August, you're not going to see us for three or four months. And you're going to miss us. You're going to miss my stupid jokes. Am I taking things too far?

[0:46:54] Caroline: Nobody's going to miss the Peacock joke.

[0:46:57] Jason: You don't think so?

[0:46:57] Caroline: I don't think so.

[0:46:58] Jason: There's so much that I'm going to get from the cock this next couple of weeks. Gosh, I can't wait. That's Peacock, the streaming service brought to you by Peacock here.

[0:47:07] Caroline: Not sponsored.

[0:47:08] Jason: Not sponsored. Yeah, so that's our plan. If you have any other questions or thoughts or things you want us to explore, not your opinions, but your questions or your thoughts, feel free to send those along through the appropriate channels or contact form or just via email. And yeah, I think we'll probably record a couple more episodes around baby plans and things.

[0:47:27] Caroline: As we get closer, for sure.

[0:47:28] Jason: Yeah.

[0:47:30] Caroline: As long as, yeah, we feel comfortable.

[0:47:33] Jason: And if anybody's a rock star, like absolute lover of customer support and admin tasks, and you're listening to this, can you just like...

[0:47:39] Caroline: Oh, wow, you put fillers out.

[0:47:41] Jason: I'm letting you know right now...

[0:47:44] Caroline: You're looking for A plus players.

[0:47:45] Jason: I need you to wake up every day going, how can I blow someone's mind with helpful customer support today? And I'm not being facetious. I'm not kidding. When I open up the Teachery support inbox, I'm like, how can I make this person feel like this is the best support they've ever had?

[0:47:58] Caroline: You do think that. And you've been doing it for 10 years.

[0:47:59] Jason: You don't have to write like a novel back to someone. You just have to go you like...

[0:48:02] Caroline: You have to enjoy it. You have to like helping people.

[0:48:04] Jason: Yeah. To me, it's like, I like solving these problems every day. They're fun little things that I get to like, ooh, what's the little secret here that get...

[0:48:09] Caroline: Ooh. And also, you're like, this person is like, this is impairing their day. They're at a roadblock, and I have the ability.

[0:48:14] Jason: Yeah. If I put myself in their shoes, like this is frustrating. Like how do I make this better? But you also have to like, like logging things in Notion and keeping a Slack channel clean and being able to respond to people with happy emojis. And you got to be lighthearted. You can't just be like a robot who's like, yeah, you put this in the wrong place. You got to lead with a little bit of love and humor. That's all we're looking for. If that's you, you can reach out and we'll start to do that. But we are going to publicly, I think, look for a person here starting like the next month or so. So we'll see.

[0:48:43] Caroline: Yes. So if you're a podcast listener, you got the first dibs.

[0:48:46] Jason: The first dibs. All right. I think that's it for our parental leave. I almost said paternity leave.

[0:48:51] Caroline: Oh, my gosh. You're having a hard time.

[0:48:55] Jason: Try and say it just naturally.

[0:48:57] Caroline: Yeah, I almost said paternity leave. Parental leave. Okay. It's hard as a society to change, okay?

[0:49:03] Jason: Yeah. Yeah.

[0:49:03] Caroline: It's hard. It was always maternity leave. And then it's like we know the word paternity... Parental leave.

[0:49:08] Jason: Yeah. It's just different.

[0:49:10] Caroline: It's different.

[0:49:11] Jason: Okay. All right. That's it. We hope you enjoyed hearing our plans, and we don't want your opinions about them, but we love you so much and we'll talk to you soon.

[0:49:18] Caroline: Bye.