Cultivating Conscious Relationships: Julie Piatt On The Evolution Of Long-Term Love

How can you consciously evolve long-term relationships? Returning to answer this question and other spiritual, romantic, and philosophical inquiries is the high priestess herself, Julie Piatt. Longtime listeners are well-acquainted with my wife’s mystical ways with wisdom, but if this is your first introduction to the one who goes by SriMati, she is an accomplished yogi, musician, chef, and mom to our four children. She’s also the bestselling author of three vegan cookbooks, hosts the For The Life of Me Podcast, provides spiritual counsel via her Water Tiger community, and is the founder & CEO of SriMu, the best and only plant-based cheese you need to concern yourself with. Today’s conversation centers on intimacy in relationships. Through the lens of our twenty-three years together we discuss how to intentionally evolve a long-term relationship beyond calcified habits, routines, expectations, and projections—and summon the courage to truly see and allow yourself to be seen by and with your partner. We also discuss lessons learned from the front lines of start-up entrepreneurship through Julie’s SriMu adventures—plus thoughts on Wilco, Memphis, and more. But at its core, this exchange is about redefining how we relate to our loved ones so that we can experience the best of our relationships. Special SriMu Offer: In a gesture of gratitude for listening and watching, Julie is kindly offering a special discount on her SriMu plant-based cheese. Visit SriMu.com and enter code RRPFAM13 to receive your 13th box FREE when you sign up for an annual subscription to any of SriMu’s 8-box offerings. You can also receive 22% OFF the new Ceremony Box which includes two 8-ounce Maclay chocolate mousse cakes, SriMu’s newest and first dessert offering, with the code MACLAY22. Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Timeline Nutrition: TimelineNutrition.com/RICHROLL Indeed: Indeed.com/RICHROLL Birch: birchliving.com/RICHROLL Inside Tracker: InsideTracker.com/RICHROLL Whoop: whoop.com/RICHROLL Momentous: LiveMomentous.com/RICHROLL Roka: Roka.com/RICHROLL Plant Power Meal Planner: https://meals.richroll.com Peace + Plants, Rich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

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• 0:44Rich Roll?

  It's kind of an amazing thing. For listeners of the show, all you special people, we're offering an exclusive $20 off an annual subscription right now. To get it, go to meals.richroll.com, take your quick personalization quiz, and enter promo code RICHROLL20 at checkout.

• 1:04Julie Piatt?

  Everyone that I know is in a pivotal moment of transformation. It doesn't matter what stage of life you're in, but I think giving ourselves the permission to recommit and redefine what is the relationship is great freedom. It's not necessarily comfortable or easy, but isn't that, in fact, our mission, to know each other? Why else are we together? It has been profound, what we have experienced as a couple. In honoring that, our relationship deserves our presence, and to see what is waiting for us to rediscover and uncover. It's a whole new slate. It's a whole new canvas. I think the possibilities are endless.

• 1:51Rich Roll?

  Today is all about intimacy. We're gonna talk about intimacy in relationships. How to evolve a long-term relationship beyond calcified habits and routines, expectations and projections, and instead summon the courage to truly...

• 2:10Rich Roll?

  See your partner and allow yourself to be seen by your partner. Plus, we're going to talk about lessons learned from the front lines of startup entrepreneurship. And we're going to do this through the lens and through the experience of my wife and our 23 years together, the most recurring guest in the history of this podcast, Julie Poyet. Longtime listeners are well acquainted with Julie's mystical ways with wisdom, but if this happens to be your first introduction to the one who goes by Tremonti, what you need to know is that she is a truly multi-talented and multi-dimensional being. She's a yogi, musician, chef, designer, author, mom of four, and the founder and CEO of Shremu,

• 2:54Rich Roll?

  the best and only plant-based cheese you need concern yourselves with. Julie is graciously gifting all of you guys with a special deal on Shremu. When you sign up for an annual subscription to any of Shremu's eight-box offerings at srimu.com, she's kindly rewarding you with the 13th box free when you use the code RRPFAM13 at checkout, as well as 22% off the brand-new Ceremony Box, which includes two 8-ounce MacLay Chocolate Moose Cakes, Shremu's newest and first dessert offering, when you use

• 3:34Rich Roll?

  the code MACLAY22, M-A-C-L-A-Y-22, at checkout at srimu.com. All right, let's get into it.

• 3:46Rich Roll?

  Hi, Julie Poyet, first of all.

• 3:47Julie Piatt?

  Hello, Rich Roll. Thanks for... Can I just hold your hand across this table?

• 3:52Rich Roll?

  Yeah, both hands?

• 3:53Julie Piatt?

  It's just, yeah, I mean, I'm a little close on the mic, though. There you go.

• 3:59Julie Piatt?

  Now, it's been a long time that we've been 12 feet away.

• 4:02Rich Roll?

  Is this...

• 4:02Julie Piatt?

  Across a universe. No, I mean, the RRP table.

• 4:06Rich Roll?

  Oh, yes.

• 4:06Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 4:07Rich Roll?

  The last time you were here, the table was still long, right?

• 4:09Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, this is the first time.

• 4:11Rich Roll?

  Okay.

• 4:11Julie Piatt?

  I'm feeling...

• 4:12Rich Roll?

  You're happy.

• 4:12Julie Piatt?

  Very intimate.

• 4:15Rich Roll?

  Well, I always enjoy having you on, the most frequent guest in the history of the podcast. And while I was in Atlanta at this Running Man event, which I'll share about in a minute, lots of people... Coming up to say that their favorite episode, episodes are the ones with you, Seaman Memphis.

• 4:36Julie Piatt?

  Oh, that's sweet. I appreciate that.

• 4:39Rich Roll?

  And typically, we begin these conversations with a bunch of hand wringing around

• 4:46Rich Roll?

  the lead up to the conversation and me pestering you about finding time to sit down so we can hash out what we're going to talk about. But I didn't do that this time. So you should be proud of me. This is trust. This is intimacy, Julie.

• 5:00Julie Piatt?

  You didn't do it last time, but you really didn't do it this time.

• 5:03Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 5:04Julie Piatt?

  No, you really didn't.

• 5:05Rich Roll?

  I very intentionally let it go.

• 5:07Julie Piatt?

  It wasn't even like a look, like, have you thought about what you're going to talk about on my show?

• 5:13Rich Roll?

  Right now, I'm tempted to say have you, but I didn't. I'm not saying that, even though I kind of just did.

• 5:17Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, definitely. No, I have, but I'm just open to what the moment will present.

• 5:22Rich Roll?

  So how are we doing?

• 5:24Julie Piatt?

  I think we're doing pretty well, don't you?

• 5:26Rich Roll?

  I think so. We're at, we're at an interesting moment in our, in our marriage.

• 5:30Julie Piatt?

  How would you describe this moment?

• 5:32Rich Roll?

  I think it's a, a transitionary phase. We're in a semi

• 5:39Rich Roll?

  new space with two of our, our two youngest out of the house. The boys still live with us, but they're like roommates because they're older. And so now we're liberated from having to pick people up wherever or, you know, cook lots of food for lots of different people. It's quieter at the house. But suddenly it's like, oh, hey, who are you? We don't have to be the transportation department anymore.

• 6:10Julie Piatt?

  Exactly.

• 6:11Rich Roll?

  And so I think there's a

• 6:15Rich Roll?

  a process of trying to get to know each other in a new and different way that has presented itself, which is an opportunity, but also, you know, a little scary. We've been together for 23 years.

• 6:29Julie Piatt?

  Is that the number?

• 6:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah. I mean, we started dating in 99.

• 6:33Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, that's true. 23 years.

• 6:36Rich Roll?

  So.

• 6:37Julie Piatt?

  Pretty amazing.

• 6:37Rich Roll?

  How are you feeling about everything?

• 6:39Julie Piatt?

  I'm feeling great, actually, about it. I think it's a I think it's a moment of, and you know, listen, every parent, every couple that has kids that are listening to this, you know, you guys are all know the drill.

• 6:51Rich Roll?

  Yeah, the empty, well, what it's like when you have the kids and your relationship sort of becomes about, you know, the MTA, like who's picking up who and who's getting what and it becomes very, not necessarily transactional, but logistical in nature.

• 7:04Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, definitely. I mean, can, can.

• 7:07Rich Roll?

  It can, yes.

• 7:08Julie Piatt?

  But I think apart from that, I mean, apart from that, because that does not define our entire relationship. I mean, we're not really a couple that's been mired in who's picking who up so much.

• 7:20Rich Roll?

  No, but you know, it's, it is a, you know, complicated decision tree on days about like who's going where, when, and how are they going to get there and all that kind of stuff. Like that does, that can predominate at times and it has throughout, you know, the kids being younger. I mean, I think we've done a good job of making sure that our relationship isn't all about that. But obviously, we're both sympathetic to what that's like for parents who are raising kids and, you know, they have needs and places they need to go and all that kind of stuff. And so your relationship can become out of balance and overly kind of capitalized by those types of conversations at the cost of what brought you together in the first place.

• 8:04Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, definitely. I do. I feel like what we're experiencing is something much deeper than that. It's more an opportunity of recommitting in a new way and of understanding that we've experienced many, many things in 23 years that include children and creative projects and experiences of life and loss of life and, you know, all the things that are in a lifetime of 23 years. And I think that We are, for many different reasons, in a place of redefining what that commitment is.

• 8:46Julie Piatt?

  And I think that one of the exciting things is that we have come to a point of understanding that in order to move through, so that there is no way out, there is only through. And in order to move through, we have to be willing to basically burn or transmute that entire relationship of those unspoken agreements, or expectations, or projections of what each other have been, of what we've been to each other, in order to make room for something new. And so, you know, the Julie and Rich that, you know, has been chronicled on this podcast

• 9:30Julie Piatt?

  for all the years of the podcast, for 10-plus years, that relationship is complete. It's been fulfilled in that form. And so, one of the great things that I think that is really exciting is that we are going into deeper layers of our relationship, and where we might transcend, evolve, and become from this point forwards.

• 10:00Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:01Julie Piatt?

  And for me, that's not, oh, the kids have been in, and we've been taking them places. That's a very...

• 10:06Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I understand. But that is kind of like a benchmark, where you can plant a flag and easily see a demarcation line between what was before and what is to come.

• 10:16Julie Piatt?

  Definitely.

• 10:17Rich Roll?

  And it's a dynamic that is equal parts exciting, but also terrifying. Because it is forcing me to get out of my comfort zone, and the comfortable kind of ruts and routines that just make life go easy, and to, you know, offer up like a deeper level of honesty and sharing with you, which is scary, because, you know, I kind of like things the way they are, and it's easy, and, you know, it's fine. And you're like...

• 10:58Rich Roll?

  I want to know all of you. And I was like, do you really? I don't know if you really do. I don't know if I want to share, you know, like, what does that mean? So there is a, you know, I have a built in, you know, default setting that that makes me recoil when you present me with that.

• 11:17Julie Piatt?

  Yes.

• 11:18Rich Roll?

  But I also recognize the opportunity and I don't want to, and I'm, and I'm very aware that, you know, a relationship is never static, just like anything, like you're either moving towards each other or away from each other. And we're faced with a choice right now because we can't just stay the way that we've always been. If we do that, it is a, you know, it is a vote for decay. And I don't want to decay and I don't want to be divorced from you or separated from you. I do want to move toward you, but

• 11:48Julie Piatt?

  Just not that deeply.

• 11:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah, like maybe a little bit. We'll see. You know, we'll see how that goes. I'll dip my toe in that. Yeah, we laugh, but it is true. It's a little scary for me. And you're so good about creating ritual and, you know, kind of symbolism around that to really infuse that decision or this conversation with a deeper level of intentionality that makes it more three dimensional than just like, well, we talked about that and we'll see how it goes, right? Like we did a fire ceremony. So maybe you can walk through that. I mean, the importance of ritual and what ritual means to you is something we've talked about

• 12:34Rich Roll?

  in the past on the podcast. So I don't want to necessarily retread that, but I think there is something to be said for investing in the pause necessary so that a decision and a new way forward can plant its roots so that it becomes more capable of, of, of fruiting, I guess.

• 12:56Julie Piatt?

  Of fruiting?

• 12:56Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 12:57Julie Piatt?

  That's the first time I've heard that word in a very long time.

• 12:59Rich Roll?

  Well, if you're gonna, if you want fruit, you need roots, right?

• 13:02Julie Piatt?

  Of fruiting, people.

• 13:03Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 13:03Julie Piatt?

  Okay.

• 13:03Rich Roll?

  If your roots aren't good, the fruit is not gonna

• 13:06Julie Piatt?

  So

• 13:07Rich Roll?

  is not gonna rip them.

• 13:07Julie Piatt?

  But I mean, where this came from is, you know, first of all, you know, a point in evolution, but I was telling you that

• 13:15Julie Piatt?

  One of the most beautiful moments that I ever gazed upon you was after

• 13:22Rich Roll?

  Go on.

• 13:23Julie Piatt?

  What is it? Do you have like a more, do you have more, a more intellectual word for gazed upon you?

• 13:28Rich Roll?

  No, I'm like, continue. No, I'm saying like this is, my ego likes this, so please continue.

• 13:34Julie Piatt?

  Okay. Was when, after you had finished Ultraman, that famous race where I was your crew captain, you were just stripped bare of everything that burdens you, that chases you, chases you, that haunts you, that makes you run away from me, that makes you run away from life or people. And you were just raw. And in that state, you were just a sight of such beauty. And what I shared with you recently was that I want to know you at that level. And I want to be known at that level. And I told you, I'm coming for you.

• 14:18Julie Piatt?

  So it's not like, you know, it's not like, you know, you can just run away and hide. Because I'm, I'm asking for presence is what I'm asking. I'm asking to be courageous enough to sit with me and see me in my presence, even though it scares you, even though we may discover something that we don't know about each other, that we haven't shared yet. And it's hard to imagine that we, we could be together 23 years and there could still be aspects of ourself that we don't, that we haven't shared. But I think that that's true. I think that we all are hiding something or never felt comfortable revealing something.

• 15:00Julie Piatt?

  And it's really a focus because what you were really speaking to when you were talking about picking up and is it's losing the presence of your relationship to a routine. And it's easy to, it's easier to not be present, right? It can sometimes be a lot easier to distract yourself. And you know, it's, I'm busy, it's work, or there's Netflix, or there's training, or there's, you know, and it's not just you, it's just whatever it is in life. And, and for me, it's like, you know, if you think that we may be alive 20 more years, neither one of us.

• 15:41Julie Piatt?

  Took vows or got into this relationship so that we could sit on the couch and say we've arrived. Like, that hasn't been the theme of our relationship. And even in the way that we come to this table in stripes, you know, it's demonstrated in the jacket that you have on and the stripes that I have on. We're very different beings. We're from very, very different perspectives. And the beauty of that is when we can come together and that friction creates the alchemy. That's the beauty of this relationship. And so really, the question is, is what else is there for us to discover? And do we have

• 16:19Julie Piatt?

  the courage to go there even though it may reveal something new? You know, something different? And I feel like a lot of people right now in relationships are going through this very process. So I think it's very exciting. I mean, we definitely have been a lot more intimate and connected than we've been in years. And, you know, it's sort of like a whole new frontier. It's a whole new slate. It's a whole new canvas. And so I think the possibilities are endless. And I'm coming for you.

• 16:57Rich Roll?

  See, it's terrifying. What am I supposed to do with that? You're coming for me?

• 17:03Julie Piatt?

  No, I don't mean that.

• 17:04Rich Roll?

  Like, it's like a threat.

• 17:05Julie Piatt?

  No.

• 17:06Rich Roll?

  You know, I'm coming for you, and I'm gonna know you, and you're gonna know me. And I'm like, okay.

• 17:11Julie Piatt?

  What about that scares you?

• 17:13Rich Roll?

  Uh, I don't know. I just, I think, you know, I am...

• 17:17Julie Piatt?

  You like to be unknown.

• 17:20Rich Roll?

  It's not that I like to be unknown. There is a resistance to, or just like, sort of a zone of privacy that, you know, feels like...

• 17:33Rich Roll?

  A comfort zone that I'm reluctant to, to, you know, forsake.

• 17:39Julie Piatt?

  Well, you'll still have privacy.

• 17:41Rich Roll?

  But, you know, it doesn't have to be like I'm coming for you.

• 17:44Julie Piatt?

  No, I'm just.

• 17:45Rich Roll?

  Like I'm gunning for you.

• 17:46Julie Piatt?

  Well, no, I mean, the thing, I mean, that can be a beautiful thing. It can be a romantic thing. It's not like an annihilation thing, right?

• 17:55Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 17:55Julie Piatt?

  So, I mean, from your side, what is it that you want to know about me? Or what, what is it like, or do you, do you, do you have the same?

• 18:06Rich Roll?

  Now I'm really on the spot.

• 18:07Julie Piatt?

  Desire.

• 18:07Rich Roll?

  No, here's the thing, hold on, excuse me. Of course, like, I do think that we have been in, you know, kind of an extended period of habituation to a norm. And our relationship, no relationship can survive that, right? Like, if you don't change, then you will be changed. And that, you know, a relationship is not immune from that. So I'm very cognizant of the need to elevate, you know, the way that we interact with each other. And I'm deeply aware that I want to be with you. I don't want to be without you. I don't want to be away from you. I want to be with you.

• 18:51Julie Piatt?

  Would you even say you want to be close to me?

• 18:56Julie Piatt?

  Would you, would you say that you want to know me?

• 18:59Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 18:59Julie Piatt?

  At the deepest aspects of me?

• 19:01Rich Roll?

  As long as I get to like retreat to my corner occasionally and like, you know, charge my battery up.

• 19:06Julie Piatt?

  Dude, you sleep in a tent.

• 19:07Rich Roll?

  I know.

• 19:08Julie Piatt?

  I have my own private quarters.

• 19:09Rich Roll?

  Like it's a whole, you know, psychologist wet dream to try to figure out that whole thing, right? So we'll see how it goes. I'm game for it, you know, I'm looking forward to it. It's already, it's already paid dividends in terms of our connection, I think. We have a long, I feel good. I feel, I feel much closer to you. I feel aligned with you. I feel.

• 19:35Rich Roll?

  I mean, it feels really good to just celebrate you, like to just go to Memphis, and it's about you and Shrimu, and that's the only reason that I'm there. And I'm not trying to like sneak off and check my phone, or make it about me, or any of the, you know, kind of character defects that typically crop up, that involve my ego and insecurities. And it was beautiful to just be in reverence of you and in celebration of what you've achieved in this vision that you have. And I think, you know, I definitely want more of that. And I know that you are, like, in terms of like, what are our needs and are our needs being met, right?

• 20:18Rich Roll?

  And what are the wounds that we both bring into this equation that flare up when those needs aren't getting met? And understanding those and anticipating how to make sure that each other's needs are getting met so that we can relax into each other and that intimacy becomes a comfortable place as opposed to a scary place that I find myself throwing walls up against.

• 20:47Julie Piatt?

  So the intimacy is what's scary. And that's where the treasure is. That's where the treasure lies.

• 20:55Rich Roll?

  Uh huh. Until you, until you, until you-

• 20:58Julie Piatt?

  What do you think happens in there? Like, what do you think happens in there?

• 21:01Rich Roll?

  No, because that's the fear. The fear is, if you really know me, you will run in the other direction. Because I am fundamentally broken and unlovable. And so I front a certain way to be a certain person who can create the appearance of lovability. And to some level, you know, I can sustain that, but I have to retreat into my corner to charge the battery because that requires a lot of energy.

• 21:28Julie Piatt?

  It takes so much, takes so much energy.

• 21:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it takes a lot of energy, right? So when you drop all of that and you're like, well, this is who I am, that's terrifying because, you know, there is something-

• 21:39Rich Roll?

  Deep down, that feels like if you really knew me, like you would, you would, you would, you would find me, you know, repulsive.

• 21:49Julie Piatt?

  But in the knowing you is where the true intimacy is. And without shadow.

• 21:54Rich Roll?

  So you say.

• 21:55Julie Piatt?

  No, without shadow, there really isn't, there really isn't any love. And I mean, I can share this, I can share this one experience recently, which was quite enlightening for me. And that is that we had a date night, we went to the movies and we went to one of those places where it's like reclining and you can order food and the whole thing. And so when we get to our seats, I realize that you have bought two seats that are not together. It's like.

• 22:18Rich Roll?

  Over exaggerating.

• 22:19Julie Piatt?

  No, no, let me just say, let me just tell. He bought two seats, you know how when you go and you in the theater, you have two that are together. It's like there's, they're a pair, right? But what he did is he bought like the left side and the right side, right side of two pairs. And so I'm sitting there and there's this huge like hard space between us. And I'm like, dude, like, why did you buy this seat? Like, like, and you're like, no, I did this on purpose, because I need to sit in the middle of the theater, because this is where I want to sit.

• 22:49Rich Roll?

  I need to sit like ever so slightly to the left of center. Because I have, all right, go ahead.

• 22:56Julie Piatt?

  No, so I'm, so I, after a minute, I take a breath. I take a breath and then I'm thinking to myself, okay, wow, I can't believe he did this. And then I'm like, so I say, honey, I'm gonna go to the front and I'm gonna see if they can switch my seat, because I want to sit next to him. I don't want to hold hands with him across a table. So I go to the front and the woman moves the seat. And I come to him and I said, well, she moved us to the right. So you, it means he had to move into the pair to the right. And you were completely annoyed and you're like, now I'm not sitting in the middle and like this is a problem. And what I realized is that that has something to do with your lazy eye and your sight.

• 23:36Julie Piatt?

  And so you, you shared with me in that experience, that the world is skewed for you a little bit all the time and you have to correct for it. But literally, that was the first time I ever understood that after 23 years of being with you. And what it did was it made me love you more. It made me. Understand why you made that decision. And I was like, oh, my God, like, he's compensating for that instead of me feeling like, what is wrong with this dude? Like, why would he choose that?

• 24:06Rich Roll?

  Well, there's part of, there's, there's two parts to it. One is the crazy part, which is like, I have this weird OCD thing about like symmetry and like, I want to be in the center seat and have it like, everything has to be like a Wes Anderson movie where everything is perfectly aligned on each side. But because my left eye is so weak, I have to be a little bit to the left because of the way my eyes work. So even though I'm a little bit to the left of center, I, I perceive it as being in the center. And that's, that's the neurological piece that I had never shared with you, but kind of, you know, I carry with me.

• 24:41Julie Piatt?

  You had never even shared really the OCD part with me either.

• 24:45Rich Roll?

  So, so I was watching the David Beckham documentary, which I know you watched.

• 24:50Julie Piatt?

  Which I love.

• 24:51Rich Roll?

  And it's fantastic.

• 24:52Julie Piatt?

  Which I'm huge fans of them now.

• 24:53Rich Roll?

  Anybody who hasn't seen it on Netflix. So it's a, it's a beautifully rendered four part series. But the parts, particularly like in the later episodes, where he's showing, he's showing everybody his wardrobe and how he like, organizes all of his clothes and all of that. And I was like, see, that guy, that's how I think. Like, that's, I would, I do the exact same thing.

• 25:16Julie Piatt?

  You're like, see, I'm a champion.

• 25:18Rich Roll?

  Where he's sort of like embarrassed. Yeah. And I, I don't like, want to talk about that because it's, there's something wrong with me, you know?

• 25:24Julie Piatt?

  No, it's something amazing. I mean.

• 25:25Rich Roll?

  So, anyway.

• 25:26Julie Piatt?

  I mean, I think it's, I.

• 25:28Rich Roll?

  Is this bringing us together? Do you feel, do you feel?

• 25:31Julie Piatt?

  Oh, absolutely. I mean, this is, this is the definition of intimacy. It's like, because if you're hiding something and you're not, you know, I mean, it only brings more intimacy and connection. That's all, that's all there is in there. And that's what presence brings. So I really appreciate, and I, I really like that you shared that with me. And it doesn't make me think, oh, he's a, you know, he's crazy, or I don't think that at all.

• 25:58Rich Roll?

  There's a lot more, there's a lot more weirdness where that came from.

• 26:00Julie Piatt?

  Well, it's okay. We can go all the way. We can go down there. It might be a huge relief.

• 26:08Rich Roll?

  So, uh, what would you say or recommend to, you know, somebody who's watching or listening? Who is

• 26:16Julie Piatt?

  Finds themselves.

• 26:17Rich Roll?

  Who is sort of finding themselves in a relationship where, where it's, it's, it's somewhat stagnant? And there is that yearning for deeper intimacy? Like, how does one who hasn't, who isn't as practiced in this, you know, embark upon that? Or raise it with their partner?

• 26:33Julie Piatt?

  Well, I mean, I think it's, is having the desire, you know, is the most important thing. It's not like I'm an expert at it. I haven't digested it and been through it. I, I think when you agreed with me that you wanted to do this with me, I wrote the outline of a book and sent it to you, like, within six hours.

• 26:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah, there's not a lot of recommended books and

• 26:52Julie Piatt?

  No, no, not my own book.

• 26:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 26:57Julie Piatt?

  So then, um, and then also I'm, I'm exploring some sexuality books that I don't, I'm not going to share right now because I haven't digested them and I'm finding that they're a little off base, but they have, they have some core practices that I think will be useful. So like, we're designing, I'm designing a protocol. No, uh, designing a protocol for us and we'll see like how, how it, how it goes, you know, what works for us. I mean, we're very, very good actually in, in a room together. Like, we don't really need a facilitator, you know? We do pretty well together if we're both willing and if we're both

• 27:38Rich Roll?

  A facilitator, like, you mean like a therapist?

• 27:41Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, like a therapist.

• 27:42Rich Roll?

  Or are you talking about like?

• 27:42Julie Piatt?

  A sex therapist.

• 27:43Rich Roll?

  Like a, somebody standing there when we're trying to like have?

• 27:46Julie Piatt?

  No, I don't, just anything like

• 27:48Rich Roll?

  I'm trying to visualize what you mean.

• 27:49Julie Piatt?

  I just meant like a therapist. Like, we just, you know, we, we have really good communication skills and, um, we've, you know, we've done a pretty good job, you know, communicating in our relationship. And, and I mean, the thing, this thing that we went through is largely, um, connected to COVID. So it was also that polarization that we were, we were playing it out in our own marriage and, and luckily we were wise enough and loving enough that we stayed together through that because you're a, you're a wide stripe suit guy and I'm a poncho striped

• 28:28Julie Piatt?

  You know, tablecloth girl. So, you know, that was a very, that was the challenge. And, and I would say more so than driving kids around. I, I really think it was that moment on the planet where everything was being polarized. And so I just want to recognize us that we are here and that we found our way to stay together. So, um, uh, you know, I don't know, what I would say really to all of us, because, you know, everyone that I know is in a pivotal moment of transformation. It doesn't matter what stage of life you're in. But I think giving ourselves the permission to recommit,

• 29:10Julie Piatt?

  to recommit and like redefine what is the relationship is great freedom. And, you know, the only thing to fear is fear itself. Because there is no way out, there's only through. And, you know, I love you so deeply and I know you love me so deeply. There's no other way. You know, there's, there's not walking away. There's no walking away. We have to go deeply into each other and really see what's there. And create something new that will provide the next evolution for, let's say, the next 23 years. And it's not necessarily comfortable or easy. But isn't that in fact, our mission to know each other?

• 29:53Julie Piatt?

  If we're going to be in relationship, isn't that in fact, the true desire? To know you deeply and to be known deeply? I mean, why else are we together? Out of habit? Or out of an agreement? Or out of some social construct? I don't think that's why we're together. I don't think it's ever been why we're together. And the proof of that has been this podcast. And, you know, what has birthed out of our experience together? I mean, I told you during these discussions of recent. You know, I will never do what I did with you with anyone else. And you will never do what you did with me with anyone else.

• 30:36Julie Piatt?

  It has been profound, what we have experienced as a couple. And in honoring that, I think our relationship deserves our presence. And to see what is next, what is waiting for us to rediscover and uncover.

• 30:57Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that's beautiful. I'm with you for that whole thing.

• 31:03Julie Piatt?

  Awesome.

• 31:04Rich Roll?

  As scary as it may be for me. But I don't want to know what the alternative to that is.

• 31:14Julie Piatt?

  Oh, thank you. And also, thank you for your presence in that. And thank you for meeting me and saying yes. Because there's a lot of men that wouldn't. So, thank you for being willing and being there for me. And being able to say, no, I'm here. You know, I'm right here. It means a lot.

• 31:45Rich Roll?

  All right, well, what is the moment presenting for you?

• 31:47Julie Piatt?

  Just your cuteness and, you know, the Wilco T-shirt. Can we talk about Wilco?

• 31:52Rich Roll?

  Sure.

• 31:52Julie Piatt?

  I mean, I just saw, we took Trapper to the Ace Theater to see Wilco for his, it was his 27th birthday. And you are a hardcore Wilco fan.

• 32:05Rich Roll?

  For sure.

• 32:06Julie Piatt?

  I was familiar with some of the most popular songs. I have never been so ambushed by a musical act in my life in the way of the sort of unassuming way they slid onto the stage and they're singing. You know, what I would say is just a sort of maybe calm music. I don't know, just sort of very chill music.

• 32:35Rich Roll?

  No.

• 32:35Julie Piatt?

  No, just wait. But then, they...

• 32:39Julie Piatt?

  They ended up taking me on this journey that literally slayed me creatively. Like, I have never seen a band play at that level. And I, it was just so unassuming. It was, you know, there wasn't like explosions, not that I like explosions. But it was very subtle, you know, in the way that it, that it came about. And I just became a gigantic Wilco fan. I was absolutely slayed.

• 33:07Rich Roll?

  Better, better late than never.

• 33:08Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, better late than never. Yeah.

• 33:09Rich Roll?

  As I, as I told the boys that night, I think going to see Wilco live is one of the last vestiges of authentic Gen X, of an authentic Gen X experience. Like, the crowd was definitely, you know, like, of the older ilk. A lot of silver haired guys.

• 33:29Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 33:30Rich Roll?

  And I think Jeff Tweedy is exactly my age, but he's, you know, listen, singer songwriter of a generation, surrounded by some of the most masterful musicians on the planet, who just crush, you know, so. Yeah, it's quite, it's quite the experience. I definitely want to get Jeff Tweedy on the podcast. He has this, well, he has a book about to come out, but I think he passed through LA and I missed the moment while he was here in town.

• 33:55Julie Piatt?

  But there are solutions around that, that we said, and actually, interesting enough, one of my team members, June Kim, became friendly with the bassist's wife. And so I've already sent them Shreemoo, so I hope Shreemoo is finding them on tour.

• 34:08Rich Roll?

  So Wilco is consuming.

• 34:09Julie Piatt?

  Consuming Shreemoo. I hope so. I hope so. I mean, I'd be honored. It was just really such a beautiful, deep, creative, original. Everything about them was just extraordinary. So, anyway.

• 34:27Rich Roll?

  It's, it's heartwarming to hear you say that, because I didn't, I didn't know, I, as you said, I've been a fan for a long time, but I didn't know that it would connect with you.

• 34:36Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, it did. And then actually, when we got to Crosstown, I found out, so I went to Crosstown Concourse about 10 days ago to get my cafe ready for the grand opening launch. Somebody told me that Wilco had actually played at the radio station there. So one of the guitar players is good friends with the. Founder of the radio station in Crosstown Concourse, which is the vertical community in Memphis, Tennessee, where Shremu has just opened up her first flagship wine and cheese cafe. In addition, it's where all my production exists now. So it is our home in Memphis, Tennessee. And Crosstown is a vertical community.

• 35:16Julie Piatt?

  It's 1,500,000 square feet, the size of the Empire State Building on its side. And it is just at the forefront of all things beautiful in life, artisan residency, music, listening libraries, recording studios, performance theaters, a new thought high school, healthcare for 80,000 people, the working uninsured, and much, much more. Also, Global Cafe, run by refugee women. And Shremu, in my opinion, has one of the premier spots. It was spot 13, and it's just at the base of this beautiful spiral red, modern staircase. So when you walk up the staircase,

• 35:59Julie Piatt?

  you're in a gorgeous museum that's like a MoMA-level museum, also leading to the performance theater, and green room, and art bar. And then at the base of the stairs is where Shremu Wine and Cheese Cafe is now open and ready for a new life.

• 36:17Rich Roll?

  Yeah, congratulations.

• 36:18Julie Piatt?

  Thank you so much.

• 36:20Rich Roll?

  It was my first visit to Memphis. So I just got back from Memphis and then an event in Atlanta called Running Man that I'll talk about. But we were all in Memphis to celebrate the opening of your flagship there. And you had told me, like, you're not going to understand Crosstown Concourse until you visit it. You can look at the photos, you can go online, you can understand it. But until you're actually there, like, the scale of it is impossible to translate, you know, through the phone or whatever. And that was certainly the case. Like, it is a magnificent structure. But also, I think what struck me the most was...

• 37:01Rich Roll?

  The people behind the vision, the vision that they held for it and what they were able to manifest against all odds, because typically, a structure like that, I mean, this building was originally a Sears and Roebuck distribution facility. Sears had multiple of these across the country, something like, I don't know, six or 10 of them, where they would ship out all their products across the United States. And in the case of the facility in Memphis, there's a train track that runs right behind it, where they would load all this stuff onto the train, right out of the back. And this structure went fallow in the

• 37:42Rich Roll?

  wake of Sears going under in the 90s, and was decrepit and falling down, and was purchased by Staley Cates, who we met for, I don't know, what, like $2 million?

• 37:55Julie Piatt?

  No, I think it was 3.2 million.

• 37:58Rich Roll?

  And everybody told him he was crazy, "There's nothing you could do with this." And he ended up connecting with this guy, Todd Richardson, who is an art professor, has like a PhD or a graduate degree in, I think, Renaissance art. But that combination of those two individuals created something very unique, which was taking this property and translating it into a symbol for a future Memphis. Because Memphis, of course, has a very colorful and interesting history. When we think about Memphis, we think about music, we think about the civil rights movement, but all of that is looking in the rearview

• 38:43Rich Roll?

  mirror, and nobody was looking into the future and saying, "What could Memphis be?" Or, "What is the vision for the Memphis that we would like to, you know, sort of give to future generations?" And that's the vision that kind of infused

• 39:01Rich Roll?

  What went into creating this project? And the fact that it is a nonprofit that's really about the arts. Like, the arts is at the center of this. The Performing Arts Theater, it's all run by a nonprofit. Because typically, something like that, best-case scenario, it just gets turned into a massive mall. And it's about maximizing square feet for revenue. And this is not that in any way, shape, or form.

• 39:27Julie Piatt?

  No, it's incredible. And it's only like five years old, which is one of the reasons why I just feel really honored that they welcomed me in to take this really beautiful space. But the facility, or the community, is like 95% leased. And so, you know, they have residential, you know, on the upper floors. They have, you know, church health, which is 150,000 square feet. Church health has 28 dental chairs, and they can do a crown in an hour and a half.

• 39:58Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 39:59Julie Piatt?

  It's unbelievable. And...

• 40:01Rich Roll?

  And there's a YMCA that's massive.

• 40:03Julie Piatt?

  That's right. Church health has YMCA connected to it. They have a pool, they have a dog park.

• 40:08Rich Roll?

  They have a teaching kitchen also.

• 40:10Julie Piatt?

  Exactly, yeah. They have a teaching kitchen. So Shreem is looking forward to partnering with them. And also, we've been talking to Maggie Barrett from Support and Feed. And, you know, it'd just be really, really awesome to just feed the community out of those kitchens and, you know, just share life. So it's really super cool.

• 40:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's very cool. It is a place of, you know, creativity, for sure, right? And the fact that Shreem is right at the base of that extraordinary red circular staircase just is like chef's kiss. Like, what you did with the cafe, the design, everything about it is so elegant. And it was beautiful to have that reception and have so many people come out to celebrate this new thing. And listen, you know, it's hard to move your business to a state in a city where you don't really know anyone, and then throw a party and expect anybody to show up. Because you were like, I was like, I don't know who to call. I have nobody I can call.

• 41:09Julie Piatt?

  I was like, call someone.

• 41:10Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I don't know anybody here. But you've been so supported by business leaders in that community who really showed up for you. And the turnout was really something special.

• 41:22Julie Piatt?

  And I mean, one thing that I, I feel like this trip, I really sort of... Put down some of my roots. I mean, obviously, I did open the cafe, but also rented an amazing home that I actually fell in love with that took me back to my youth. It was an amazing home, and it reminded me of an architectural home that I grew up in, in Alaska, because my childhood friend, Terri Meyer, her family lived in a Lautner. And so I spent many of my adolescent years listening to Elton John, smoking pot, and like, you know, doing gymnastics in this amazing home that had an indoor atrium. It was on a lake, and it had, you know, the big stone floors and also built-ins. Everything

• 42:04Julie Piatt?

  was built-in, all the couches, all the upholstery. And it just has this vibe to it. You know, it's like the big Lebowski, you know, famous house that, you know, everybody knows from that movie. So this house definitely had some of that vibe in a big way. And when I picked you and Tyler up from the airport, you know, I was like, I'm in the most beautiful home I've ever seen in my life. And, you know, it's in Memphis, like, that just makes no sense whatsoever. So there was a lot of stuff that was sort of on a 60-year cycle. And also, my opening was on a solar eclipse.

• 42:35Rich Roll?

  The Ring of Fire.

• 42:36Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, a new moon solar eclipse. It was called the Ring of Fire. And when I arrived in Memphis, one of my teammates, Aaron, reminded me that the song "Ring of Fire" was recorded in Tennessee in 1961. So there was just a lot of magic, and so many people from the community in Memphis came up to me and thanked me for being there. It was really fun to see them freak out over Shrimu. They were just devouring it and completely loving the product. And, you know, Memphis is a very sacred place. The lands are very sacred, the aquifers, the trees, and, you know, the peoples. And so, you know, people go to Memphis

• 43:21Julie Piatt?

  to create something new, you know, and we've been welcomed to be a part of that. And I'm just very, very honored and excited about what that's going to be in my life and in our lives.

• 43:38Rich Roll?

  The other trip about Memphis is the parallel with Egypt because, you know, obviously, there's a Memphis in Egypt. And if you're paying attention and driving around Memphis, you will see statues of Ramses. And not only are there statues of Ramses, this sort of note or ode to the other Memphis, there's an actual pyramid in Memphis. There is like a giant mirrored pyramid that's bigger than you might think it is, right in the middle of the city, that I think at one point was, or it was originally like a music venue or a sports venue, but now it is the headquarters, it is like the flagship

• 44:23Rich Roll?

  store for Bass Pro Shops.

• 44:24Julie Piatt?

  Right.

• 44:25Rich Roll?

  When you go in there, the ceiling is like, I don't know, 300 feet high or whatever it is. And it's like, it's almost like an amusement park in there. Like, we had to go and visit because I was like, I have to see this place.

• 44:37Julie Piatt?

  It's a thing. It's definitely a thing. Yeah. And Ramses, the second statue, also at University of Memphis. And there's no accident, definitely, there is a mystical connection to Egypt. And Memphis, Egypt was the capital when it was at its height. So also not an accident that, you know, in the recent years, I've been traveling to Egypt. So I'm in, I'm connected in Memphis, Egypt, and Memphis, Tennessee. So we'll see what comes of it, but something is, something is afoot, for sure.

• 45:08Rich Roll?

  Yeah. The other cool thing about Crosstown that I experienced was that right above your space is, like, right upstairs from where you are is that art museum, but there's also creative offices. And I met this filmmaker, Craig Brewer, who houses his production office just above you, like, literally right above you. And he's the guy who wrote and directed a film called Hustle and Flow, which in many ways is sort of an archetypal film about Memphis. He's done other things. He created that TV show Terriers on FX and He worked, he's worked with Eddie Murphy quite a bit, I think. He did Coming to America

• 45:52Rich Roll?

  Two, the second Coming, Coming to America movie, Dolomite is My Name, Black Snake Moon, and just a filmmaker that I follow, I followed his career for a long time. Like, I remember when Hustle and Flow came out, that was a big deal. A big kind of like independent Sundance film that launched Terrence Howard's career. And I was thinking about that movie as I was traveling to Memphis, which was a city I'd never been to before, because that's sort of the cinematic, cinematic like footnote that I have in my mind about, about Memphis. And then it was so wild. It was like, oh, he's actually here. And we were up in his office, like, talking to him. It was crazy.

• 46:27Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's amazing. There's so much creativity oozing out of that community. And Crosstown is, yeah, everything that they're doing is at the highest level. So it's like, you know, it's, it's very, very well executed on every level. So.

• 46:44Rich Roll?

  So what are, what are some of the, I'm going to pin you down here a little bit. As an entrepreneur who moved their entire business from where we live to a city where you didn't really know anyone, what were some of the lessons that you learned or obstacles that you had to confront and overcome to accomplish that?

• 47:06Julie Piatt?

  Well, I would say that it was definitely harder than I imagined, which is probably a good thing, because it gives you sort of this naive, maybe luck that, you know, makes you make these decisions to do these things. I think the biggest thing that I learned is that early on in my company, I was leading more as a mother. You know, I, I have a lot of people around me and want my children to have everything, you know, not only my own children, but sort of everyone that I'm working with. And I think early on in a company's... You know, birth and inception, it's appropriate, like it, it actually works. It's sort of like everybody's doing everything and it's a little bit more like a family.

• 47:47Julie Piatt?

  And then when you move into a place where you really have to scale, it, it, I really can't lead that way. So I had, you know, the entrepreneurial, you know, hard school of knocks of learning how to, you know, step into really being the mother of Shreemun as my ultimate, you know, focus and understanding that, you know, you know, the business requires a certain level of responsibility that, you know, that is necessary to ensure her life. And so that was, you know, I had wished that some of my LA team would have gone to crosstown in Memphis and fallen in love and moved there. That's maybe a, you know, a big wish. It's a lot to ask someone. Yeah, it's a lot to ask.

• 48:31Julie Piatt?

  It's a lot to ask, but you know, and so that didn't really happen. And then it became very clear that the business is in Memphis. So even though during COVID, we were working remote, like a lot of people, you know, we are, you know, we are a kitchen facility, a production facility, and all of the opportunity is there in Memphis. So, um, you know, we're building a team. We have an amazing crew right now. The quality of the cheese is phenomenal. And one of the challenges that I had is that Tennessee Ag wanted us to prove our, um, our expiration. So we were stuck in a three-month holding pattern, um, just for wholesale, not for

• 49:15Julie Piatt?

  subscription, but, um, but it's also good because, you know, we hired a food scientist and we now have, you know, even more, um, I would say gold standards in place, uh, you know, batching so that we could recall should anything happen. But really what was proven is just the Amazing stability of Shremu and you know it's just a very, very stable product.

• 49:38Rich Roll?

  Right, which is why if you live in Los Angeles, it wasn't available at Arowan for a period of time.

• 49:44Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 49:44Rich Roll?

  But it's back, I've seen it everywhere.

• 49:46Julie Piatt?

  It's back, it's back. Yeah, and during that time also that I'm in Memphis, like we were waiting for for our organic certification because we had to get moved to Memphis to do that. So there were many things, like I have new products that are, you know, that we're going to be releasing. We have a butter that we're coming out with that's phenomenal. It's the best thing you've ever had. And we have our first dessert that we launched, um, Shremu and we hosted a dinner in Malibu last month um, to unveil our first dessert, which is called the McClay Cake. And um, and so we're shipping that right now and it's um, just extraordinary uh, cacao,

• 50:26Julie Piatt?

  but almost like a cacao mousse with hints of cayenne and um, cinnamon and uh, dates and it's, it's kind of amazing.

• 50:35Rich Roll?

  It's cool.

• 50:36Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 50:36Rich Roll?

  Um, how do you make those decisions around um, adding SKUs into the rotation? Because I know you have a million recipes and formulations and you could just blow it out like tomorrow, but you have to be very careful about protecting, you know, the core brand and the core set of products and you've seen a lot of companies who kind of too quickly start like ramping up all their SKUs and they lose focus and there's a sort of undermining of brand identity and it can easily spiral out of control. So it has to be a measured.

• 51:11Julie Piatt?

  It does. I mean, I'd say that, you know, I've been on a leash for the whole time we've been in LA. Um, and so, and that's because I understand from being a fashion designer, you know, I made that mistake. You know, I created a hundred-piece women's collection from sportswear to evening gowns.

• 51:30Julie Piatt?

  And you know, it took me a while to understand that I was, you know, that there was no way that I could be profitable with that much variety.

• 51:38Rich Roll?

  Mm hmm.

• 51:38Julie Piatt?

  So I've kept a very streamlined in Shrimu and, you know, of the eight flavors on our collection, they're all extraordinary. Like people say, pick your favorite. I can't really, I mean, they, they, they all stand on their own and they're all really, really strong. And I have other formulations that are extraordinary, equally as extraordinary. I have a mozzarella product that is the best that I've ever tasted. And so, you know, we're all so sort of ready to find the product, like the one, the thing that really, you know, sets us apart, or maybe would be the thing that we could scale really gigantically. So the wheels are just here to stay. They're gorgeous.

• 52:21Julie Piatt?

  Um, one of the best things about the opening was probably the most expensive thing in the, in the space is the cold case. And I got like this really gigantic, like six foot cold case. And with all the cheese stocked in it, when I slid the door open and smelled it, I mean, it just smells like Paris. Like it's so cheesy and so, so much hits all those notes that we love about dairy cheese. It's just extraordinary. I mean, it's, it was really, really amazing.

• 52:50Rich Roll?

  And what is it about, like from a business economic marketing perspective, like what is it about being in Memphis that makes it better than being in Los Angeles?

• 53:01Julie Piatt?

  Oh, well.

• 53:02Rich Roll?

  I think, I just imagine somebody saying, well, I still don't understand why you moved your, like, well, you moved your whole operation.

• 53:07Julie Piatt?

  But I mean, even just if you just look at just straight business, uh, which is not what Shrimu is at all, um, Memphis is in the top three cities to move your business to, simply for cost, simply cost of operations and ease of operation. Um, for me, really, crosstown concourse was the deciding factor. Um, because

• 53:28Julie Piatt?

  Community is at the core of Shrimu. Like, I don't, I don't really care so much of having my cheese in a box in a store. You know, that's great. But what I really care about is the conversations that it ignites in people as they gather around a box of cheese. As you buy the box and you create a board. And we're even coming out with a series of like, you know, inspirational questions or things to ponder. Because every box of Shrimu potentially activates, let's say, 13 people. It's all about community. Like, I care so much more about that, which is why I'm giving you guys a code. I don't mean, didn't mean to just segue right into that.

• 54:08Rich Roll?

  You're like, Arnold Schwarzenegger would be very proud. You know, his whole like, sell, sell, sell chapter, you know, in his book. Like, you're, you're living it right now.

• 54:16Julie Piatt?

  But I mean, the thing, but the thing is, is it's like, I really do want to foster subscriptions because subscription aligns us through this common thread and it is the community. And so, we are working on things like a secret menu only for subscribers or a subscription offering where you can pay a little more and get, you know, special recipes or healing techniques. The other thing that we're doing is we are integrating Water Tiger, which is my spiritual mentorship with Shrimu. So, we're not acting like, you know, we're not doing any of the things that food companies do, like, you know, get your cheese for the barbecue. Like, that's just not me.

• 54:56Julie Piatt?

  So, what is me is, you know, caring deeply about, you know, sending a loved one off who has passed away and having a prayer or knowing how to create an altar or how to bless your food or how to nurture your child through the difficult years of adolescence. These type of things are core and being integrated into Shrimu. And so, by fostering subscriptions, it allows us to join together around that messaging and around those initiatives that most of us, you know, care very much about, at least the people that are eating what we call vibrational nourishment. And that's what Shrimu is.

• 55:34Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's great. I mean, I know, we all, you know, like, we buy products online and when you're purchasing, it's like, click here to receive, you know, emails with discounts or whatever. And I, I never click those, but somehow I still end up getting all of those and I spend... You know, 20 minutes a day deleting all the, you know, kind of marketing emails that come in. But there's a few that I actually like because those emails are really not about trying to sell you anything. They're branded, of course, but they're more like magazines or they have information that is thematically relevant to whatever product they're selling, but they're providing value beyond that. And so I think the sense of encouraging people to subscribe to the newsletter because it's,

• 56:17Rich Roll?

  yeah, you'll hear about whenever there's a sale or whatever, but it's more about like exploring like the, you know, just the lifestyle aspects that are meaningful to you, that you care about, that kind of infuse the product and are why you created it to begin with.

• 56:33Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, definitely. And luckily, you know, I have my, you know, ally in life, Mel Nahas, the founder of Conscious City Guide, who is also the producer of our Plant Power Retreats. And I have the wonderful privilege of, you know, sharing a friendship and she's my brand lead and also my ops lead right now. And she just gets me. And so she's never trying to compartmentalize who I am and the food company. And, you know, some of the newsletters that we send out this month were just really exciting. Yeah, they were about, you know, 52, who is this loneliest whale who has a different song than other whales and, you know, scientists have been tracking this being. And, you know, just bringing awareness to the whales and to the care of these magnificent

• 57:18Julie Piatt?

  beings and, you know, sharing a documentary or sharing the soundbite. So these are the type of things. I mean, I have a dream, I'm going to say this now because I have a dream, so I want to just lay it out here, even though I'm way ahead of myself. But when I went to the Arctic Circle last year, one of my Water Tiger members, Santrish, she gifted me a trip there for my birthday. And she took me to this resort called Lo Foten. And I've never felt more alive or more on, just on fire in a good way, like lit up as I was in the Arctic Circle. I can't explain it. It was something, the coating coming off of the mountains, the way you see dragons everywhere you look.

• 58:01Julie Piatt?

  It was just like a magical kingdom and I was drinking living tea like by a running river, like Gandalf, just out there in the fairyland. And I went to a restaurant there and there were surprisingly three vegan options on the menu, but two whale options on the menu. And I, it just hit me so hard. And later, I was at this surf camp, which is in Lothothen, and all these beautiful young ones, you know, surfing in this freezing water. And they, you know, had some vegan options in their cafe. But shortly after that, I said to Sontrees and Malii, who was my other friend, the other water tiger man, member that came with us, I said, you know, I wanna, I wanna open a

• 58:43Julie Piatt?

  shrimu shack in Lothothen. And I want to align with some of these surfers and teach them how to make shrimu and make a documentary. Like, I wanna, I wanna go bring shrimu into the community and bring awareness to whales and sort of, I don't know, offer a plant-based alternative. Not, not in a, I mean, this is something that is of their lineage, right? So it's a very ancient. But the fact that these beings are still being slaughtered is just unimaginable. So it's a crazy dream that I have that I'll probably start on next year.

• 59:22Rich Roll?

  It sounds like a Chris Burkhart movie.

• 59:25Julie Piatt?

  Chris Burkhart, are you listening?

• 59:27Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 59:27Julie Piatt?

  Come to me.

• 59:28Rich Roll?

  He's the perfect person.

• 59:29Julie Piatt?

  Come to me, let's do this together. You're so, such a beautiful artist. Yeah, I mean, let's do it. And this is the type of thing that is exciting. The other thing that's really exciting is I met the man, and I'm forgetting his name, and I'm sorry. He created a mobile clam, like, performance clam on a truck. And it's 900 square feet. And he'll take this venue on wheels anywhere. So my next thing is Mel and I are planning a music, a shrimu music festival next year. And it's, it's this amazing venue on wheels.

• 1:00:06Rich Roll?

  So not like a clam, like a mollusk, like a clamshell, like a stage?

• 1:00:11Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, like Hollywood Bowl, or whatever.

• 1:00:13Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right. Yeah, from Bugs Bunny.

• 1:00:15Julie Piatt?

  Yeah. I mean, it's epic. And it's pretty new. He just finished it in the last couple of months.

• 1:00:20Rich Roll?

  So it just opens up and you have an immediate portable stage?

• 1:00:23Julie Piatt?

  Exactly. Wherever you wanna go. And there's this area called Shelby Farms in Shelby Forest, which is near Memphis. And, you know, it's a really beautiful area. And so, I don't know, I've got, I've got some... I've got a little inspiration going on, so those are the two things that I'm so excited about for 2024.

• 1:00:41Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's cool. I'm super proud of you. I mean, it's been a long road to get to this place.

• 1:00:46Julie Piatt?

  Thank you.

• 1:00:46Rich Roll?

  And it was nice to celebrate you and see the manifestation, you know, wrought into three dimensions.

• 1:00:54Julie Piatt?

  Thank you.

• 1:00:55Rich Roll?

  Yeah, and it's just the beginning. Like, now you can scale, you know? Now you have a home, now you have a foundation, you've got a team, and it's gonna be really cool to see what evolves from there.

• 1:01:05Julie Piatt?

  Thank you, babe.

• 1:01:06Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:07Julie Piatt?

  It was super sweet having you guys all there. And, yeah, I don't know, like I said, it was, we are having dinner, we had a small dinner the night before with Tom Shadieak and Todd and Lee Richardson and Kemp and Ann Conrad and some of our team, June and Hansa, who came in to help. And it just felt like, all of a sudden, we were kind of, I was kind of getting settled. Because, you know, it's been difficult going to Memphis and not knowing anyone. And, you know, I have, like, I would have a freak out sort of every time I went, thinking like, what did I do?

• 1:01:42Rich Roll?

  Why are you doing it?

• 1:01:43Julie Piatt?

  Like, why did I sign a five-year lease here?

• 1:01:45Rich Roll?

  But there is a really cool community of people. And for people that don't know, I mean, Tom Shadieak also was a big initial instigator of you being interested in this move because of what he's doing with Memphis Rocks. So for people that don't know, Tom is a legendary Hollywood filmmaker. He made the lion's share of the huge, big comedies of the 90s with Jim Carrey from, I don't know, Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, like, some of them. He produced some of the Ace Ventura, like, all the, he made all these huge movies. And then he had kind of an existential crisis when he reached the top of the mountain and went on this kind of search for meaning and purpose in his life that led him to kind

• 1:02:30Rich Roll?

  of divesting himself of all of his possessions, moving to Malibu, riding around on a bike, teaching at Pepperdine, and making a documentary about this experience called I Am, which, if you haven't seen it, we'll link it up in the show notes. It's like a must-see. It's an incredible documentary. But he ultimately ended up moving to Memphis. He left Los Angeles.

• 1:02:54Rich Roll?

  He has family roots in Memphis. And he opened this thing called Memphis Rocks, which is, is it a, it's a nonprofit.

• 1:03:03Julie Piatt?

  It's a nonprofit.

• 1:03:04Rich Roll?

  It's set up as a nonprofit, but it's basically an indoor, it's a massive indoor climbing facility that is oriented around bringing in and supporting at-risk and disadvantaged youth and teaching them outdoor and adventure skills and then taking them on expeditions. In fact, a bunch of the Memphis Rocks climbers just went out and climbed with Alex Honnold recently.

• 1:03:32Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:32Rich Roll?

  And I shared some photos of that as well.

• 1:03:34Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, I was at dinner with Christine, who's one of the individuals. He's a beautiful film director, an amazing human and dear friend now. And he runs Memphis Rocks in some capacity. But anyway, yeah, I was having dinner with him and then he said, I just got back from climbing with Alex, so he showed me a picture and then I texted it to you.

• 1:03:55Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:55Julie Piatt?

  So it's funny.

• 1:03:56Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's super cool. And then they're going, like, they do big expeditions on some of the big mountains, right?

• 1:04:02Julie Piatt?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:02Rich Roll?

  Like Kilimanjaro or, I don't know.

• 1:04:04Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, and my lead investor, Tom Lawrence, who is the person who invested in me and created my whole spiritual raise and in the way that I wanted, is why I'm in Memphis. Tom and his wife Ellie suggested I come check it out. And so Tom Lawrence is also on the board at Memphis Rocks. And also for anyone who's listening, this is just an amazing initiative. And it's not only a climbing gym, it's a community center. It offers these kids like a place to go, a place to be safe. And, you know, Tom has spent, you know, a lot of his heart and soul and blood and sweat and money, but he's a beautiful, beautiful human being.

• 1:04:44Julie Piatt?

  And, you know, they are looking for support for that because it's a, it's, it's a big initiative.

• 1:04:51Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:51Julie Piatt?

  And needs more love and more nourishment.

• 1:04:54Rich Roll?

  I have to get Tom on the podcast.

• 1:04:56Julie Piatt?

  You have to get Tom on the podcast.

• 1:04:57Rich Roll?

  I went back and searched through all my emails to see when we first got introduced. And it was 2014.

• 1:05:04Julie Piatt?

  Oh, my, that's so bad. I was waiting for Shreemu to open up.

• 1:05:08Rich Roll?

  Well, there was that, but also prior to that, the plan was.

• 1:05:15Rich Roll?

  To go to Memphis Rocks and like do it there and film it and like experience the kids and all of that, but then COVID happened and that all kind of went away. And so when we were in Memphis, that's the first time that I had seen him or spoke to him, you know, since those, those earlier conversations.

• 1:05:31Julie Piatt?

  Well, I think there's a lot of opportunity to do that. And also in Crosstown, you know, there's so much creativity and people that are on the cutting edge of their innovation, you know, also Matt Ross Spang or Spang Ross. I think it's Matt Ross Spang. He's a music producer there that has an amazing studio and they do 28 artists in residency a year. Also, we have Will McGowan, who is McLean's brother, my dear friend McLean. It's her brother and he has the woodworking shop there. So it's rad.

• 1:06:06Rich Roll?

  The woodworking shop is insane.

• 1:06:08Julie Piatt?

  It's insane.

• 1:06:09Rich Roll?

  Yeah, what they're doing with wood in there. I mean, it's full on. And they have this huge machine that's like the size of this room. I forget what it's called. It's called like a P and P or something like that. Like Mathis knew what it was. Basically, it's a industrial size like laser cutter for wood that typically would only be used by developers who are, you know, building houses and apartment complexes, et cetera, but not available to artists who want to do something different with it. And I think, so I think it's one of the very few that exists that's available for artisans and artists to do, you know, interesting things.

• 1:06:45Julie Piatt?

  It's very cool. And I might've give, I might've said Will's last name wrong. That might not be his name. So sorry if I got it wrong. Also, I just want to give a shout out to City Wood, who I got these poplar live edge shelves from. They're a group of guys that are farmers, but they have the most amazing reclaimed yard of just all kinds of different varieties. And they're in Memphis, Tennessee. It's called City Wood. And I just want to thank them for making me these beautiful poplar shelves, which is, it's local wood to Memphis. So anyway, thanks, guys.

• 1:07:20Rich Roll?

  In celebration of you and seeing you and being present with you.

• 1:07:28Rich Roll?

  I want you to know how proud I am of everything that you have created, this manifestation with your company, but also just the presence that you have grown and matured into, like this incredibly wise being who has a very unique and powerful lens on not just relationships, but how to be in the world. And I've watched as you've grown into that and all the people who are comforted by what

• 1:08:08Rich Roll?

  you share with them. And I think it's really a beautiful, unique expression, a certain frequency that you emit into the world that is entirely your own. So I just wanted to recognize you for that.

• 1:08:22Julie Piatt?

  Thank you for that. Thanks. I love you.

• 1:08:25Rich Roll?

  Me too. Before we go, I think you're offering up like a, some kind of deal on the Shrimoo situation.

• 1:08:35Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, definitely. Okay, so to get your Shrimoo, to get you some, we're gonna give 22% off on our new dessert offering. It's a two mousse cake box. It's called the MacLay. And so for that code, it's MacLay22, M-A-C-L-A-Y 22. And then we're gonna give a code RRPFAM, which is for the 13th box free of any annual subscription. You'll get the 13th box free.

• 1:09:09Rich Roll?

  And what is that? How much is that off what you would normally pay?

• 1:09:12Julie Piatt?

  It depends, because it depends on which subscription you buy. So it's just whichever subscription you buy, you'll get a free box. So, and you know, that's all in the spirit of building our family and community and keeping us close and aligned. And so, and thank you to everyone who's supported me so far. It's because of you guys that I was able to launch this company and create this beautiful food as art. And so I hope you'll continue with me along the journey.

• 1:09:41Rich Roll?

  Thanks. You can learn more about Shrimoo at shrimoo.com and you are at Shrimati.

• 1:09:48Julie Piatt?

  Yes, S-R-I-M-A-T-I or JuliePiyott.com.

• 1:09:52Julie Piatt?

  And yeah, for all the things.

• 1:09:54Rich Roll?

  Yeah. And if you are enjoying Julie's frequency, you might want to check out her Water Tiger Community, which you can find on your website as well, right?

• 1:10:05Julie Piatt?

  Yeah, so it's Water Tiger Spiritual Community Mentorship, monthly call for two hours, and then you have access to over 50 techniques to help put you in the gap. It's all self-created, so you decide where to enter and what to use. And it's a beautiful community.

• 1:10:26Rich Roll?

  All right. To be continued.

• 1:10:28Julie Piatt?

  To be continued.

• 1:10:29Rich Roll?

  Yeah. All right. Love you, babe. Thank you.

• 1:10:31Julie Piatt?

  I love you, sweetheart. Thank you.

• 1:10:32Rich Roll?

  Peace. Plants.

• 1:10:33Julie Piatt?

  Namaste.

• 1:10:37Rich Roll?

  That's it for today. Thank you for listening. I truly hope you enjoyed the conversation. To learn more about today's guest, including links and resources related to everything discussed today, visit the episode page at richroll.com, where you can find the entire podcast archive, as well as podcast merch, my books, Finding Ultra, Voicing Change, and The Plant Power Way, as well as The Plant Power Meal Planner at meals.richroll.com. If you'd like to support the podcast, the easiest and most impactful thing you can do is to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on YouTube, and leave a

• 1:11:19Rich Roll?

  review and/or comment. Supporting the sponsors who support the show is also important and appreciated. And sharing the show or your favorite episode with friends or on social media is, of course, awesome and very helpful. And finally, for podcast updates, special offers on books, the Meal Planner, and other subjects, please subscribe to our newsletter, which you can find on the footer of any page at richroll.com. Today's show was produced and engineered by Jason Camiolo, with additional audio engineering by Kale Curtis. The video edition of the podcast was created by Blake Curtis, with assistance by our creative director, Dan Drake. Portraits by Davy Greenberg. Graphic

• 1:12:01Rich Roll?

  and social media assets courtesy of Daniel Salis. Thank you, Georgia Whaley, for copywriting and website management. And of course, our theme music was created by Tyler Piatt, Tractor Piatt, and Harry Mathis. Appreciate the love, love the support. See you back here soon. Peace. Plants.

• 1:12:22Julie Piatt?

  Namaste.