You Matter Nashville

Three Strands Family Center with Erika Gorman

• Jason and Mindy Hoover • Episode 10

Share episode

Send us a text

In this episode of You Matter Nashville, we are excited to sit down with Erika Gorman, founder of the Three Strands Family Center in Columbia, Tennessee. Erika shares her incredible journey of moving from California to Columbia and her heart for creating a nonprofit that supports new and expectant families. The Three Strands Family Center offers classes, workshops, and resources that help families navigate pregnancy, birth, and early childhood while fostering a strong sense of community.

We talk with Erika about the challenges she faced as a new mom, her passion for building a supportive environment for families in Middle Tennessee, and how Three Strands is bridging gaps in local maternal and family care. Erika shares how her organization aims to make these services accessible to all families, regardless of income, through scholarships and partnerships with local businesses.

Join us as we dive into the importance of community, how Three Strands is already making an impact in Columbia, and what Erika envisions for its future. Plus, she offers a special discount code for our You Matter Nashville listeners to try a class for free!

If you’re looking for ways to support this amazing cause or want to learn more, visit threestandsfamily.org. And as always, remember, You Matter, Nashville!

Takeaways

  • Three Strands Family Center aims to support new and expectant families.
  • Community support is crucial during pregnancy and postpartum.
  • Accessible resources for families are lacking in Columbia, TN.
  • Erika's journey to Tennessee was driven by family values.
  • The nonprofit model focuses on collaboration with local businesses.
  • Classes offered include prenatal yoga, postpartum support, and parenting workshops.
  • The importance of a supportive community for new parents cannot be overstated.
  • Erika's personal experiences shaped her vision for the nonprofit.
  • The launch party was a way to engage the community and raise awareness.
  • Future plans include expanding services and creating a physical space for the nonprofit.


Three Strands Family
https://www.threestrandsfamily.org/

You Matter Nashville YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@YouMatterNashville

The Hoover Team
https://www.thehooverteam.com/

Jason & Mindy Hoover (00:00.098)
Hey, Nashvilleians, welcome to the You Matter Nashville podcast, the place where every story we share is a celebration of you, the heartbeat of our community. I'm Jason Hoover, delighted to be one half of your hosting duo. And I'm Mindy Hoover, joining you alongside Jason to bring the stories of inspiring individuals and unsung heroes making a positive impact right here in our hometown. Every episode is about passions, dreams and actions that stitch together the Middle Tennessee community. So if you're looking to get inspired by the good happening around us,

Or if you want to hear from the change makers who believe, just like us, that you matter, then hit that follow button on your favorite podcast platform. And if you are looking to make a move in the middle Tennessee area, and Dan and I are real estate professionals and would be honored to serve you with excellence. Now let's dive into another episode of You Matter Nashville.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (00:52.034)
Welcome to You Matter Nashville where we interview community heroes making a difference in others. I'm Jason Hoover. And I am Mindy Hoover. And I am so glad to have our next guest with us today. She is Erica Gorman and she has the Three Strands Family Center in Columbia, Tennessee. And thank you so much for coming on today. I cannot wait to hear everything that you plan to do for the community of Columbia. Thank you for having me. This is so great. Well, Erica.

I want to first start out and share or say that you are starting something new, right? You've got a brand new nonprofit. this is now, have you had a nonprofit before? I have not had a nonprofit before. I've with them. all new territory for you, right? is new territory. is. I love it. I love, I love people giving back and can't wait to dive into your story and what three strands

or three strands family does and how it's impacting people, not only in Columbia, but it's going to be like all of Middle Tennessee, is that correct? Yeah, we really wanted to bring some support to Columbia specifically, but the more that I've been talking and meeting with families, the more that I'm hearing people don't want to travel up to Nashville and Franklin for certain services. And so it sounds like it's maybe broadening to Middle Tennessee. Great. But we'll see where it goes. Great, great, great.

So I'll tell you what, how about we do this, how about you share kind of an overview of what your mission is with your organization? Yeah, absolutely. So Three Strands Family Center, our mission is to support any new and expectant family in Columbia. And we do that through offering classes and workshops and education for families, their caregivers, their siblings.

as they're navigating through pregnancy, birth, postpartum and into early childhood. Awesome. I have your website here. It's a nice website by the way. Yeah, it is. Did you do that? Thank you. I did. I have a wonderful friend who's offered to do our branding and because of timeline of getting the launch done and everything, I was like, hey, why don't I just get something up and running for now and then we can redo it after launch.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (03:10.207)
I spent many hours doing that. You can redo it, but it looks great to me. like it. Well, thank you. Yeah. And I see your little story here, which you moved to... So for our listeners, you moved to Columbia, Tennessee when? So my husband and I moved with our two month old and our dog in April, 2022.

and drove across the country with the truck and the trailer and had a few pitfalls along the way to get here. yeah, it was one of those like, couldn't get out of California situations, like flat tire on the first day and then flat tire exploded on the freeway second day. then it was just like one thing after another. So took us like eight days to get out here.

But we did it, we made it and we had a two month old, which they're not supposed to in the car seat for very long. So was a lot of pulling over, giving her a break and letting the dog out and letting the baby out. And my husband likes to stop for snacks. So all those things. See, I was the one, I was like, we're not stopping until we get there. So you better hold on. Yeah. And I'm nursing. that's happening.

I will say I definitely did some nursing on the go while we're driving, hopping the backseat. I mean, you just have to. I think that's everyone in that boat. Yeah. Or it's never ending thing. Yeah. We lived in South Texas and we would drive to Houston a lot. It was like an hour and a half. there's times. Two hours. Two hours. I like to make things look better. I would, yeah, I'd like to into the back of the suburban. I'm like, you just make it happen. You just make it happen. For sure.

Yeah, we actually had to evacuate because of Hurricane Ike at the time, 2008, something like that. so we had to drive up, all the hotels were booked except for one on the way home in Arkansas, which is what, a 12 hour trip. my goodness. You did not want to step on that floor. was so nasty. But anyway, that's a sad request. I mean, we got here and...

Jason & Mindy Hoover (05:31.265)
I signed the lease agreement for our place on the way out here because we were scrambling to try and find somewhere to live. We had had a conversation knowing that we were going to probably have to break our lease if we found the house we wanted to buy because of course the goal as every Californian is to move to Tennessee and build a farm and build a homestead and buy property. Then you realize you can't afford it yet. I was like, we're probably going to have to break our lease. The night that we showed up into this

rental, I heard sirens going off in the neighborhood, but they weren't moving. I was like, that first of all, ambulances typically don't do a siren if it's after a certain time, because you're in a neighborhood and it's not moving. It's stationary. was like, I think that's a tornado siren. And my husband and I looked at each other and we're like, we live in Tennessee now. Like we should probably download a storm app and know when tornadoes are coming. I thought they gave you that in your

Welcome to Tennessee packet. Yeah. It needs to be part of the onboarding to Tennessee, right? So what brought you here to Tennessee? Well, my husband and I, lived in California. He grew up in like Santa Cruz area in the mountains. And I was working in San Francisco at the time. He was working in Monterey for a naval base down there and COVID hit. And we had this

temporary plan of living with his dad for six months to figure out like where a good halfway point would be between the commutes. And then when COVID hit, was like, ooh, we probably shouldn't sign a lease somewhere in case we both lose our jobs. So of course, six months turned into like the never ending timeframe of COVID of when is things gonna get back to normal? And then we had this thought of maybe we'll buy a house because everyone's losing their jobs and there's foreclosures popping up.

So we thought, and that of course never happened because everyone was wanting to buy homes as well. And so we ended up buying rental properties out in Texas instead. And then decided with all the shutdowns and everything that it was just getting to be too crazy to try and stay in a small town in California. And I found out I was pregnant and we were like, okay, what type of value system do we want to build for our family and lifestyle? And unfortunately, California just wasn't it at the time. So

Jason & Mindy Hoover (07:54.509)
I had been wanting to move to Tennessee for a long time. I had visited in 2005 and fell in love with Franklin. Granted, it was very different town back then. It was. trying to convince my husband to leave California took a few years. growing up, you know, on a beach town and trying to get him to leave the ocean was a little more convincing. So, yeah. So then finally, when I got pregnant, I think the conversations of like, you now we're building a family just swayed the

the values there a little bit of what's a priority. And so that's when we decided to like start looking around and we had Virginia on the list. had Georgia on the list and South Carolina and a few different places. And I fell in love with Tennessee. So I won that battle. Yeah. And I like what you said, family value system. I like that. Yeah. Yeah, you do. I mean, it's a healthy thing to do, I think for everyone.

periodically with each season of your marriage and your family is, know, what is the value set that we want to follow in this season and having kids kind of did that for us. It does. It does put you in a totally different mindset for sure. And you landed in Columbia. And we landed in Columbia. And the reason we landed in Columbia was we came out here October, 2020, did a house hunting trip and, or I guess it was October, 2021. and

I had fallen in love with Franklin back in 2005 when Starbucks was the big spot in the square to be. When we came back out, was like, this is not the same town that I saw back then. That's when we actually toured for, I think it was like 10 days. We toured everywhere from Nashville to Pulaski all the way out to Knoxville.

Oak Ridge, like that whole area. saw like over a hundred neighborhoods. had like tedious notes of everything that we saw. And that's when my friend, she's basically like my second mom. She said, you know, if you're really looking for that field that Franklin had all those years ago, you guys should check out Columbia. We say the same thing. Yes. And it's so interesting. Yeah. it, yeah, we love it. We love going down to Columbia just to roam around the square and go out to eat and it's a neat place.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (10:18.263)
There's, they're like mirror towns, like sister cities, you know, they, I can't even call it a city yet. I feel like it's still town, they're like mirror towns that they've both got the square. The road is called Franklin highway, Nashville highway, Columbia highway, depending on where you are. So I love it. It's been great. It's funny how things come full circle because I grew up in a small farm town about an hour east of San Francisco.

swore I would never live in a small town, never live in a farm town. And all these years later I'm like, this is so lovely. Now you're in mule town. Now you're in mule town. Yes. Yes. So when you were pregnant with your first one, I know you had shared a little bit about you had found a support system where you were. And so I would love to hear about that, the support system that you had and your transition

to Columbia? Absolutely. Yeah. So I'll backtrack a little bit. I never wanted to have kids growing up. I just was not somebody who thought I would be a mom. And I grew up in the church and we'd go on missions trips and I fell in love with being overseas and like serving overseas. And so I always thought I'd be like the career woman who would start a nonprofit overseas or work on some business internationally and didn't have time for family and all of that.

And it's just funny how, you know, God kind of changed my heart over time. And I like to say, you know, that passage in James about making vows, like not making vows. Like my life has been a series of like resolutions that I've had in my heart and God's like, ha ha, let me just, you know, switch it up a little bit for you. Yeah. I never thought I'd get married. Love my husband, obviously. But you know, just all these things that your heart changes over time.

I never thought I'd live in a small town. When I was pregnant, a lot of my friends from home, because it's a small farm town, they all started having kids and getting married much earlier. Their kids were eight, 12 years old by the time I was getting pregnant with my first. My husband's social circle is on the other side of the spectrum where a lot of them were either dating or not dating yet, didn't really have marriage in the

Jason & Mindy Hoover (12:37.727)
on their minds and weren't having kids. had like a handful of people who already had kids in our social circle. And so being in a small town in Santa Cruz and not having anyone who's like really journeying in that same season as you, plus adding now the dynamic of COVID and just all that isolation that came with it, it felt very isolating to be pregnant.

you know, it was my first time I'm a huge researcher, but for some reason with this, just didn't feel the need to like read up on everything I could about having a baby. You know, I had a few go-to like pregnancy books that people had given me, but I didn't really dig into them very much. and so I was just kind of like, okay, we're just going to figure out how this works and how this goes. And, ended up finding, I was looking for like a yoga class cause I wanted to do something to get my body physically ready.

And part of that was because the regulations were changing with every appointment of, your husband be with you when you go into labor? Can he not? And I was like, I'm not going to have the flavor of the week be that husbands can't be there and I'm in labor and I'm going through this by myself. And so we had made the decision to not do a hospital birth. We made the decision to actually go to a birth center because I wasn't emotionally ready to do a home birth. I was still freaked out. But I was like, at least if I'm in a birth center, I

I'm in a facility where things are there and resources are there. but because of that, my mindset was like, I need to get my body like physically ready for this. And my husband's an athlete. He's like annoyingly good at everything. And, and like tri star athlete, like him and his brother have records that they hold in high school and all that. And I grew up like a singer and a dancer. And so for me, I was like,

I'm going to have a natural birth. Like this will be my athletic accomplishment. Yes, like I will prove to myself that I can do this. I can birth a child naturally. And that will be like my claim to fame of I'm an athlete.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (14:50.603)
I can do this. he can't top that. So you win. Yeah, exactly. I like, I got to show that I am tough too. And so I wanted to get my body like physically ready for this. And so I was going to a prenatal chiropractor every week and then I was looking for some type of like prenatal yoga class. And it is strangely hard to find that type of niche support in even a big city like San Francisco, Santa Cruz.

And so I happened to stumble across this family center that was newly launched. It's the Circle Family Center in Aptos. And they were offering like prenatal yoga. They had a Fit for Mom franchise nearby. And so the instructors were coming there. And I remember thinking like, this is so close to our house. Like, there's no excuse for me not to go. And I remember walking in and the experience when you came through the door, because I'm a

push it to the very minute that I can person. Like I try not to be late. My husband would say I'm always late. I try not to be late, but I will try and cram as many things as I can in the day. So I'm coming in frazzled, right? And you walk in and you're just immediately hit with this like sense of calm. And she had healthy snacks available and she comes to you like, hi, can I get you a cup of tea?

you know, everybody's kind of coming as they are with their kids or without their kids. There's like a special room to change diapers. There's a play room for toddlers to be in and all the equipment was there. So you didn't have to bring anything. And it was just like, wow, this is a game changer. and so in the timeframe of, know, going to those classes and the different workshops that they held and just seeing that consistent atmosphere of

We will be here for you. You come as you are. It doesn't matter what state or season you're in. Like you have a place here. It completely changed the way I felt about being pregnant and a lot of the fears that I had subsided and I felt like I had a team in my corner and it was really cool being able to go after I had rested for about 15 days. it was really cool to be able to go back to those like prenatal and postpartum yoga classes with my infant and see the way that they even

Jason & Mindy Hoover (17:08.567)
you know, they got to walk with me through my entire pregnancy. And now the yoga instructor who ended up being my doula is able to like, she's holding my baby and they're like taking turns, you know, soothing her so I can get a 30 minute workout in. And it was just, it was a completely different experience than I expected. And I want to bring that to Columbia. That's amazing. And like you were saying, you know, when your other friends

are not in the same place as you are. They're not having babies or they're already grown. It's hard to have some community. So finding a place like that is just paramount for moms, think. Absolutely. And there's lot of parallels. Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of parallels with like Santa Cruz and Columbia because, Santa Cruz is its own little pocket. You have to go up and over the hill, which I call it hill. It's a mountain.

to get to like San Francisco, San Jose, like a lot of the resources that you find over the hill. And Highway 17 is not a easy drive. It is like accidents all the time. You know, when I used to commute by bus, sometimes it would take like five hours in my commute to get to San Francisco because of a shutdown or weather or trains, you know, not getting there on time. So it's, it's similar in the sense that I feel like when, when I came to Columbia and I was then pregnant with my second kid,

And I was looking for something similar. was like, where can I find a prenatal yoga class? It was like, you can go to Franklin for that. you know, now I'm, my second is seven months old. And so we were dealing with like lactation consulting and, you know, myofunctional therapy and all these things. And it's like, you can go to Franklin for that. You can go to Nashville for that. When my first born was out here, we thought she potentially had galactosemia because there was like a false reading on her heel prick test that they do the day that they're born.

and the enzymes had started deteriorated and it just kind of gave a false reading. And so people were frantically calling me like, you've got to get this taken care of now because it's a very rare disease that they can't breastfeed and it worsens it if they have my breast milk and all this stuff. And so I was going to Vanderbilt up in Nashville and they didn't have any openings until that following October. this was in April. And so I'm sitting there like, you guys are telling me this is a life and death disease.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (19:33.837)
but you're not giving me an opening till October. So I drove up there every single day, three days in a row and just sat in the lobby and waited for a cancellation and said, I will, you know, I will sit here until you guys have an opening. And thankfully the receptionist on the third day was like, Hey, I think I can squeeze you in if you can stay another hour. So, I start feeling sorry for you. Like this lady's not leaving. Yes. Cause I'm the psycho who will come and sit in a waiting room three days straight. Cause you're telling me my child could die and

Meanwhile, I'm not nursing. so now my milk is, you know, my supply is all out of whack and I'm giving her soy. So now her digestion is all out of whack. And there's just, I didn't want other parents to have to go through a lot of those same experiences because the gap is widening between Columbia and Nashville, Columbia and Franklin, and now even Columbia and Spring Hill, you know, all the construction, just, never know how long it can take to get somewhere. And,

there's 17,000 families in Columbia. So there's a market here. Most definitely. mean, just this morning I was on one of my mom groups on Facebook and a lady in Spring Hill was like, I really would like to go to birthing classes. I really like to go to, you know, all these different consultation things. says, but I can't afford $150 a class at Williamson. And I was like, whoa, that was covered by insurance years ago. like,

I had no idea that was just this morning. That just blew my mind that people were going, I can't go to birthing classes because I can't afford it. That is just, that's not right. And it blows my mind. mean, so for one, if you buy a membership at a yoga studio or a fitness studio, you can only attend a very select limited number of classes that they offer, right? But you're still paying the overall yoga studio fee.

And eventually it'd be great to see them offer like a separate membership option for pregnant moms or postpartum moms because of the fact that they can really only attend one or two classes on their entire. And they all say that they can do modifications. And sure, of course they have a specialty in doing that. But at the same time, if I'm six months pregnant, eight months pregnant, I don't want you to have to spend your entire time telling me what I can and can't physically do. then I'm

Jason & Mindy Hoover (22:01.033)
going through all my pregnancy woes of things in front of everybody else who's not pregnant and potentially men in the room. So anyway, there's that whole piece. But then on top of that, who can afford to go to a yoga studio with this membership every month and then also go to see a myofunctional therapist that may or may not be covered by your insurance and then also see a nutritionist to make sure you're getting what you need. And then also, you know, and the list just goes on and on.

And then who knows what insurance covers, you the amount of medical bills that people are taking on to get preventative care or support for things like this. It's outrageous. My chiropractor, I get 10 visits covered pregnant, like through pregnancy and postpartum. So I'm like, cool, I can go to the chiropractor once a month and then maybe one month after, you know, after the baby's born.

which I fully believe the reason my labor, I had very fast labors and I fully believe the reason my labor was so quick was because I had been going to the chiropractor every single week for my second and third trimesters and was getting my body ready through breath work and yoga and just all the things that you're learning and training yourself to do to prepare for that type of sprint.

Yes. But it's not covered and I had to pay out of pocket for that and it's not cheap. So that's what I'm hoping is we can be that like one stop shop. I kind of hate using that term because it feels very like in genuine in my mind, but I want to be the one stop shop for people that you only pay one monthly membership or a drop in rate or whatever that looks like. And you can still access all of these different resources.

that you need to get through up until your kid is, you know, eight years old, seven years old, 10 years old. So. And I like that because it takes even more stress off of other mothers or to be mothers. And instead of trying to find different places to go, I like what you do. And again, I'm on your website right now, looking at your different classes and support groups. Share your website address for our listeners.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (24:24.277)
Yeah, so it's three strands family.org. And of course, then you have to say it's three spelled out strands is plural family, but you should be able to get there even if you use the number three and all that. But we right now, so the goal is that we want to offer a series of free classes and workshops as well as paid.

we're an equitable organization and so we don't want to have to turn away families for an inability to pay. And so we have a scholarship program that we're trying to get on the ground. And so that would be that, you know, families can either have a partial stipend towards their monthly membership or a full coverage of it. And everybody is invited when you, when you purchase a membership, covers both parents as well as all the siblings in the home.

And then we're looking at doing like an add-on for caregivers, because there's a lot of caregivers that are looking for ways that they can support both in the same town as well as from afar. So if you've got grandparents that live in another state, we want to provide some resources on things that you can do from afar as well. So everybody's included in that membership rate. And it's really the goal is to get parents to engage with their kids as they're navigating through these seasons. And so it's not a drop your kid off

here or find a caregiver or babysitter for them so that you can do this. We really want to find ways for them to connect together through this and depending on the age of the child, be able to like walk them through that season and support them as well. And so that's the plan. Some of the classes that we have available right now, we've got a prenatal and a postpartum bar class and it's really like

working on your pelvic floor and strengthening and preparing your body for pre through pregnancy for birth and then postpartum, like getting it back to normal. And I like to say postpartum is like a year, year and a half after the baby, because there's so much damage done to your body. the movie stars are ready in three months. Why can't I? Right. And, and a lot of states, you don't even get any leave. You have to go back to work after six weeks or less, you know? So, you know, so we have that class and then we've got a fit for mom.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (26:40.545)
like stroller strides class that we're doing where you can bring your kid any age and you kind of do like circuit training with them as if they're the weights or the stroller is the weight. Cause man, when I have it up these hills in my neighborhood, when we walk our dog every night and I've got both kids in the stroller, that's like an extra 60 pounds right there. So I feel it. Yes. So we have that. And then we have some other things that are like in the works right now. We've got like a

music class that we're looking at doing a few pop-ups and then a eight week series. So regardless of the age of the kid, your parents and kids together are doing music and there's like song books and you get the CDs and the Spotify playlist and all of that to be able to do it at home. So we have that coming up and then we're looking at doing like weekly support groups. So we'll have like a miscarriage and stillborn support group for families. We'll have a single parenting support group.

We're looking at doing how do you navigate, you know, bringing in a second kid or additional kids when you have siblings at home already. So yeah, so those are some of the things that are kind of in the works right now and we're going to hopefully have a full calendar of things as time goes on. where is your location at? So this is the fun part of, you know, being in nonprofit management back in the day. I don't have a physical location right now.

I didn't want to take on the overhead without proving out the business model first. No, that's so smart. I've seen too many businesses, especially in a town like Columbia, especially with a situation like COVID, where they just try to get off the ground and they can't. There's not, you know, nobody's willing to work. There's not labor is what I've heard or rent is just too expensive. And so for me, my thought was, okay.

We've got really great partners who offer services in Columbia. How do we connect with these partners so people know about them and whether that's using their space off hours and renting it from them or a lot of times they're donating it since we're not profit nonprofit. So using their space off hours to hold the classes and then also having them facilitate some of the sessions. And the goal is to eventually push these families to these businesses after they're done.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (29:02.357)
you know, they finished their time with three strands. I'd love for them to stay with us forever, but there's a season for our business and I get that. And so being able to give them those resources and build those connections with these facilitators and providers in Columbia so that they're also getting business from it. That's the goal and it's been really, really cool. And the businesses have been really receptive to it so far.

I was a little fearful that being like the outsider from California, people would be like, well, you're not from here. you we don't want, but that's not been the case at all. I've seen such an overwhelming response already and we just launched on Saturday. So I think that's all just so wise. mean, just the business approach, but even more so I'm a huge collaborator. so just having like businesses coming together and supporting one another.

it all comes to fruition for everyone. You know what saying? When you help another business or another nonprofit in these ways, it's good for everyone. And so I love that. I know we have a similar setup here in Franklin where a lot of the nonprofits kind of work together to help these families that are in need. So I'm excited to see you kind of get into that patchwork at Columbia and really start making a difference.

It's families and families, it's hard to pay the bills right now with groceries on the rise and insurance payments on the rise. mean, so many families in the Columbia area need that support. And like you were saying, so many of us are transplant. So many of us don't have like...

the grandparents or the aunt and uncles or people to kind of come beside you or those close friends. So having a nonprofit where you can go and you can ask questions and feel like it's a safe place for you. I think that's just really, really great. And I find a lot of flexibility in us not having a physical space. Eventually, I would love to have one. And the dream is to have treatment rooms for prenatal massage and chiropractors and

Jason & Mindy Hoover (31:10.209)
having lactation consulting and one-on-one counseling. I would love to have all of that at some point. And we do have a donation fund that people can contribute towards a building fund at some point. But there is flexibility in us not having that because I can pivot our business model based on what people in Columbia are needing. We did two events this last weekend for our launch. One was our own launch party and then one was a Worthy Cause, which is another nonprofit here in Tennessee, in Columbia.

and I got to have a table out there and I had a sensory bin kits. There's a woman based here who has a business and so she donated the kits for these parties and it was great because parents would be beelining it towards the kids zone of these events but then the kids would actually stop at our booth because they'd see the sensory bins and so I had camping chairs out and just told them, know, have a seat and relax while the kids are playing. So it gave me an opportunity to really talk with a lot of families.

and hearing their heart of what they wish they had because their kids are now older and they wish they had when they were going through that or they're in that in the thick of it and this is what they're looking for. And there were things on there that I hadn't like initially intended on doing at least in the beginning. And I'm like, yeah, this would be this would be huge. Postpartum meals was a big one. How do we get either

a resource for people to be able to have like a broader meal train within our membership community that they can pass along, you know, postpartum meals to families when they're having babies or how do you teach dads to create really simple but healthy nutritional meals for mom and baby? Obviously not for baby, but for mom. It becomes for baby. But you know, how do you, how do you do that?

in a way that it's super easy for dad to be able to help in that area. And I was like, yeah, this is great. I had the luxury of being outside of San Francisco when I had my first. And so I was on a, it was basically a meal prep. It was a chef who did like a meal planning program where the meals were super healthy. They were very affordable for being like a custom home chef created meal plan. I was paying like $6 a dish, I think.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (33:32.727)
for my husband and I. And so they would deliver it to my house. And that was how I got through my postpartum meals beyond what I had prepped before the baby came. But I don't have that luxury here. So how do we work with maybe some local chefs to kind of try and come up with a similar program? that. there's all kinds of ideas. a whole notebook of them. Don't underestimate us. Guys need help. Show us.

Yeah. I remember just struggling with my daughter when, when Mindy would go off on a, to your music functions. yeah. All state and all the stuff. I used to be a music teacher. I'd have to take care of the kids and my daughter at the time was young and I remember trying to put her hair in a pony ponytail and just something simple like that. She, she laughed at me and I thought it looked great, but apparently I did it wrong. So, it was more like a, pony down tail or something.

I don't know. It's all good. It's all good. My husband still gets the, she's wearing that when she dresses, when he dresses my toddler, which now my toddler of course wants to choose her own outfits. But there was a lot of like, what is she wearing? And you know, he thinks that different floral patterns match and it's just, it's funny. I may have gotten some of that too. It's like, you know, she'd tell me to make sure the kids are dressed and apparently I didn't do it correctly. Yes. I'm like, well, they're dressed.

And every time I would leave, you know, for if you're a music director, you have to go to, you know, regional districts, blah, blah, and all of this stuff. But every time I stepped out of that house, the kids got sick every time I'm talking about like super bad stress, have to go to the hospital, pneumonia. mean, and you're like, seriously, you haven't been sick in six months, but the second mommy leaves for the weekend, they're going to be great. Right.

Yeah, that happened to me. I actually still have a day job while I'm doing all of this and my kids both decided to get sick. They kind of have had like this running, I call it the like back to school virus because it seems to be the week that you start school. It's been like this running continuous cold but it decided to escalate into fevers and I was doing every like homeopathic remedy I could think of to drop her fever down and it wasn't working and

Jason & Mindy Hoover (35:57.825)
was like, I can't go on this trip. It's like our annual offsite that we do as a company. And it's so fun. And I was like, I got to stay home. And then of course, I got sick one day and got better. but yeah, so it happens. Kids. like the constant virus shift. then somebody's kid goes on vacation and they come back to school after Christmas break and you have a whole nother way. Yeah, I had pretty good immune system being a teacher. I have to say that. So yeah,

What I would like to know is, I'm always curious, we're always curious about how do you come up with the name? Yes. So, Three Strands, the verse in the Ecclesiastes, a chord of three strands is not easily broken. The goal behind it or the purpose behind it was, when you're going through pregnancy and postpartum, you often have your

partner with you and that's kind of like one strand of your support. And then you have your family, extended family, your social circle, your friends, your church, like that's kind of your second strand. But we really want to act as the third strand of support that kind of binds it and reinforces that bond. that way you feel like you're empowered to parent or to home birth or to have another kid and get through the season that you're in.

I thought it would be a little more intuitive, but my husband was like, you should probably explain to people what three strands means. But that's just the way that my like philosophical in depth brain goes. that was the purpose behind it. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I like that. And so you just had your launch kickoff party, right? We did. So how did it go? Well, I've been saying it was an expensive party for my friends.

No. It went, it went well. I did a lot of advertising beforehand. I didn't quite canvas the town early enough. I probably should have done it earlier because I had my flyers everywhere, but they were only there for like a week or two. So I did get families who had heard about us because of the classes that we were going to be putting on and

Jason & Mindy Hoover (38:17.367)
people had told me they saw my flyers. So I felt like it was a win, even though there was just like a handful of people outside of my friend's circle. But it was great because we were able to get like some of the dads involved and they probably wouldn't have otherwise done some of these classes. So we did a breath work class. And so it went well, it was great. The combination of the two together, having the two events back to back, I think is what really like pushed the momentum. Because then I was able to like,

talk about it all over again and some people had gone to both and were like, you're here too. So I think I just need to spend more time at a lot of these like community events in the fall season to really get the word out. So the giveaway that we did was amazing. I basically canvassed the entire square of Columbia, went around to every business. And it's funny because when you have a nonprofit, you have no shame in asking for support because it's not for yourself, right? It's for community and people around you.

Amazingly enough, businesses had no problem contributing, even though, you know, it's Columbia, it's a small town. These are all family businesses for the most part. And so they're struggling, or they're feeling the impacts of the economy right now. And so it was this, do I ask? Do I not ask? Kind of feeling. And I just did it. I just went around and said, Hey, we're a new nonprofit. We don't even have our 501c3 exemption approved yet, but we want to bring this support to families here. And I'm doing giveaways. That's a

staycation, baby moon, shopping spree on the square, theme and everybody contributed. mean, I've still, I'm getting emails even after the launch party from businesses that were like, Hey, we'd love to give how, know, how do we do so? so we basically had three big giveaways and then a bunch of door prizes. So the door prizes we released, you know, every half hour in between classes and that kind of thing. And then the three giveaways were.

one of them was a one night stay at a historic home in Columbia. And we paired that with a, date night, like fucking board had given a gift card and then, a day spa that's out here, Ilya and a, waxing salon. They had kind of contributed some like at home facial kits and at home care kits. And so we kind of combine those together to be like a date night overnight staycation. and then the other one was.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (40:43.287)
donated by the lovely two of you. And so that was a two night stay at your Airbnb. And we paired that with the shopping spree on the square. So all the gift cards that were given. So families can, who can't afford to go on vacation, you know, they can have like a cute staycation and then also have like a shopping spree kind of donated to them. And then the last one was a two night stay at another historic home in Columbia. So we're still running the promo. We,

we were doing it as like a launch month promo. so the end of the month is coming. So people can still be entered in to win. But basically if you sign up for a drop in class, if you purchase a class pack or if you purchase a monthly membership, you're automatically entered to win one of the three. And because there's three, the chances are pretty good of people winning. So I'm excited to see who wins for that and see what we can do for families in the future. Something similar to that as well.

Yes. So, know you said it was an expensive party for you and your friends, but you had some people come. Here's the thing, you at least started. How many people don't start. at least you started, so you've got that ball rolling. And it's going to be fun to see how it picks up speed and where this thing goes.

Yeah. mean, I started this with my fund money budget. My husband and I each have our own like fund money accounts that we put a certain amount in every month. And he has his online business that he does. And I have this and I had, I'd planned on launching my event planning business out here. But you know, after kids, it's just, like I said earlier, you know, your priorities shift and as much as I love doing events.

the thought of me being gone every weekend again and having to put that on my husband to now watch kids every weekend is like, I don't know if I want this anymore. That's true statement. It is. And I really want to be present in my kids' lives, especially since I still have a full-time job during the week. I want to be present in their lives. And so I thought,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (42:59.853)
it's socially acceptable for your kids to come with you to a family center. why don't we do that? I and respect you so much for that. And I know one of the biggest things was the last year I was teaching, I missed the opening night of my daughter being in a play. I missed a couple of concerts and I'm like, I am missing my own children events. So yeah, I could be holding my

own teaching events, my own choir concerts, my own musical rehearsals. And so it was, you know, I kind of just went to Jason and I'm like, I'm kind of miserable teaching because I'm raising other people's kids. And so that's so real. You know, I mean, I still like do voice lessons and stuff like once a week because I, I'm very passionate about it, but you know, it's, you know, it changes everything when you have kids and you have this short amount of time with them.

Absolutely. Especially in these younger years, right? They're so foundational to building their personality and their value system and their attitude. mean, even just the change of our, daughter, my first born, she, we started her in preschool when she was about 18 months old and the shift even being there three days a week, was like, my sweet little girl, we need to like correct some of this back, you know?

so yeah, it's, so true, like to be able to be there and to be there to see that and to guide that, you know, that is, can't protect them forever, but we can be that guide for them. And if you're not present, then other people are. Absolutely. And I saw it. that's really why the goal is that your entire family comes to all the events. You know, my husband, thankfully is an amazing partner and so gracious to be able to watch the kids.

as I've been staying up late at night trying to build this and get this ready and get this going. And I'm being really conscious about how I'm scheduling things and mindful of him. But the goal is that we want to be able to either have childcare there for older kids or have them involved in whatever the class is. So that way, I'm not just now all of a sudden giving him another job of, know, now he's babysitter every night or every weekend.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (45:27.253)
And the goal is really for like parents who are in that same situation. A lot of times the feedback that I'm getting at least is that if there is something for moms, it's for infants. And as soon as they get into toddler and teen ages, they're now excluded from it. And so how do we really engage them as well? And they're so capable. I mean, my two year old, granted, I think my two year old is slightly unique. Every mom probably says that, but

I think my two-year-old is slightly unique, but she's so helpful. Like if I really stop and look past the temper tantrum and kind of get to the heart of why she's having a moment, it's usually because she's hungry. But if you feed her and if you engage with her and give her some attention for five minutes because you're not, she is completely different demeanor and wants to be so helpful and wants to pick up things or wants to give you things for the baby or wants to help make sure the baby's not putting things in her mouth.

And I just feel like they're so capable and we just underestimate their ability. And so being able to really include them in that, is going to just shape their confidence even more. So having a moment. that's what it's called. We have lots of them. yes. I remember, I remember the first moments. We're now at, 15 and 21. So

We have different kinds of So your moments look a little different and a little more expensive. They're still there. Yes. They're still there. They're different. Yeah. But you know, our kids are actually pretty chill. They are. They're the best kids. They're really cool. Pretty chill kids. Yeah. We got it all out early. They say you get it either they're stinkers and they're little and then they start to chill out or you have this perfect kid and then it turns. So we're like, we gotta enjoy I a little bit of the latter.

I was a little on the latter side, you know, we come back around. most of us hopefully do. It's part of it. Lots of breathing. Those breathing techniques you were talking about, having those. Man, still like this last birth. I don't know how much time we have, but this last birth was a home birth because my firstborn was so short.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (47:45.729)
that our midwife, you know, as we're sitting there in like maternal bliss, postpartum, I'm like sitting in bed with my newborn and she looks at me and goes, okay, we need to have a serious conversation now. Your labor for being your first child was as fast as someone having their third child. And then she looks at my husband and says, you're going to need to learn how to deliver a baby.

And then she looks at both of us and says, you both are going to need to learn to get comfortable with home births because you will most likely not make it to a hospital on your next kid. So then I get pregnant. have my second child planning on doing a home birth, you know, in my mind, I've gotten through that jokes on us because the hospital is right down the street. So I probably could have made it, but you know, I'm in, in my mind wanting to do this home birth. And so I'm getting my toddler ready for preschool and

feel my first contraction at 645 and was like, surely today is not the day. Today is not going to be the day, you know, and I'm all in denial and getting her ready for school as I'm like seeing my contractions are 10 minutes apart from the get go. And was like, man, like this is, this can't be the day. And then about an hour later, they got to four minutes apart. And then they started getting a little more intense to where I would

breathe, I'd like stop and breathe through a contraction. And then I knew I had four minutes. So I'd quick get my kid dressed and then I'd stop and breathe through my next contraction. And then I'd quick go put the, you know, move the truck out of the way so that everyone can park in the driveway. And my neighbor, her daughter is in the same class. And so I had asked them if they could take Reagan to school because I'm envisioning, you know, my water breaking in line, or I now I have to figure out how to move cars and get the cars back and all that.

And in the timeframe that they showed up, put the car seat in the truck and came back in the house. I was on the ground moaning. And so she looks at me and goes, can I stay with you until someone gets here? And so I, you know, she helped move me into the bedroom and she got my bath ready. And I was like, yeah, I'm supposed to do a water birth. It's supposed to be a bath, you know.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (49:55.957)
And so she's making my bed for me because I had already pulled out all my sheets and everything and all my postpartum gear, knowing that like, okay, I've got mobility now, do it now before you can't. And my husband had already left for work. He leaves like 6 a.m. So he, you we're texting like, well, do think you can hold out? Let me know if it gets worse. And he's in his meeting to do his handoff with the team, knowing that post their paternity leave is starting soon.

And I get the text like, baby, you've got to come home now. And he looks at me and he looks at it. He reads it to his team and they're like, go, you got to go. So he walked in with the midwife assistant, not even the midwife. And the baby was born less than 10 minutes later. It was like seven minutes later or something like that from that text message to baby in hand. So he just made it. And then the midwife walks in about 25 minutes later while I'm sitting in the tub with the baby. And she's like,

we have a baby. You're like, thanks. Yeah. So it was very quick. So I called my first midwife from California and was like, Hey, you were right on. are right. my second baby came very fast. Well, ours, ours is totally different types of stories. Yeah. Most of them are. Yeah. Our, daughter, she's late to everything. She, I mean, in

She didn't watch this, so I can tell. But she's late to everything and drives us crazy sometimes when you're growing up trying to get her ready and get some giddy up under her. And we joked that the only time in her life that she wasn't in a hurry was when she was born. my gosh. Yeah. She came in full emergency. When they say screaming and kicking, that was true. Yeah. my gosh. Yeah.

I mean, I was a C-section baby. mom, was stuck in her, I guess my head was stuck in her chest cavity or something, the breach. you know, I was a C-section baby, yeah. See, got to see, Cohen do the C-section, son. So I got to watch the whole thing. I'm surprised I didn't faint. Yeah. Cause I watched them cut and everything.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (52:19.341)
I think if I ever had one, I would want to watch it. I know they say you can't do that because you'll like, even if you think you can make it, you'll pass out looking at yourself being cut open. But I think I would be so fast. me in Texas because in Texas, but I told them I was like, literally my first one was an emergency. There was no time for any of that. It was, they got me in there and they had a complete eruption. So it was like, had, yeah, miracle baby. you know, so with

you know, there was no curtains, there was nothing. It was me the doctors. And so the second one, they're like, no, I'm like, I've already seen one. know, I want see this one. I want to see the second one. It's not going to bother me. And they did. They let me watch. Both C-section babies. Yeah. See, I just think that's fascinating. That's like when my mom got Lasik surgery way back in the day. She was like one of the testing people for Lasik.

back in the nineties. And I remember watching the videos of them and I was just like, you know, it's like the close up of their eye and cutting open the cornea or the retina, whatever that eye part is peeling it away. Like, just think it's so fascinating. was a biology kid. love biology. So I guess it just doesn't bother me, but yeah, most people it does. And I totally understand why they say no, but yeah, he's kind of bringing like things to me. Hey, look at this.

He's like, I'm like, what's right in that club? It's amazing after having kids how much you become a biology person. I don't think I've ever talked about poop so much in my life. Poop happens. It's all about the kids. The things you used to get so embarrassed about, you are not embarrassed about anymore once you have kids because it's just part of its life.

I totally agree. mean, I learned that my letdown was fast because of my kids poop. There's this book that a friend of mine had given me that's like all about your breastfeeding journey. And I had no idea because I'm a first time mom, you know, I'm just like, that's weird. It's a weird color today. I must have eaten something funky. And it was like, no, like if it's frothy and green, it means you have a fast letdown and your kids like not getting the full fat at the end of your letdown. I was like,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (54:42.669)
This is great. And then it tells you what to do to change that. And all of a sudden my kids' digestion issues changed and I didn't have a fussy kid anymore. And I was like, that makes sense. So you learn a lot through it. do learn a lot between the first and the second. And I'm the weirdo that watches Midwife at the BBC show. I was watching that and I'm sure Jason has to hear.

the giving birth sounds every single night because I usually watch it when he goes to bed. But I love that they have a full week at the birthing center because birthing center is, you know, was a huge thing in, you know, in, like I say, in Britain for, I don't know, hundred years. And so the hospital kind of took them over. But it's just so interesting how they had a whole week to be with the nurses and have all that stuff explained to them. Totally.

My midwife, my first midwife for my first born, she had a five five five rule. So five days in the bed, topless with baby, you're not getting up for anything other than go to the bathroom and you're just establishing that nursing relationship. Everyone's bringing you food. Don't worry about showering. Don't worry about bathing the baby, like all that. Then five days on the bed, get up.

go to the couch, you know, do what you want. Still not leaving the house, make a meal for yourself, but people are still primarily doing things for you. You're not doing any heavy lifting again, prioritizing the nursing relationship and then five days near the bed. And so that gave you a total of 15 days before you actually left the house. Your body is getting back to normal and starting to heal. Your breastfeeding relationship is strengthened. Like it was amazing. It worked wonders. Now I didn't follow that with my second cause I had a toddler.

I felt it by not following that. My body didn't heal as quickly. there's something to be said for the way that do things over in Europe and back in the day. And there was a method to the madness. And the contrast to 36 hours at the hospital go home. Yeah. So having the support is so important. So well, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show and talking with us today.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (57:03.309)
I actually got educated and I've had two kids. So thank you for that. And thank you for seeing a need down in Columbia and wanting to make a change down there. I would love that as well. And two, before we wrap up. you both. Yeah. Absolutely. So what are some ways that people can help out and maybe get involved or what are some of those ways?

that's a great question. There's a couple of ways. the immediate need would be, you know, we're looking for physical spaces that we can utilize in Columbia for these workshops and sessions, and they each need to have a different atmosphere. So obviously a miscarriage support group can't be in a huge dance studio, even something that's a little cozier. so I'm, you know, scavenging around looking for space and, and with that looking for facilitators who are willing to

share their expertise. I don't have any certifications other than I'm a connector and an event planner and you know, can do some digital marketing and things like that. So I'm really trying to like bridge the gap there between these facilitators and providers. So if there's an expert in the area, I'd love to like add them to our repertoire of things that we're giving this community. Then there's like some more tangible ways.

You know, the scholarship fund, like I mentioned earlier, because there's so many like low income families in Columbia that we want to support and make sure they're not turned away from something like this. So you can donate on the website for the scholarship fund. You can also donate for the building fund as we eventually get our own space. And then to just come to class, be a registrant to come to one of our workshops. And, you know, if you want to buy a class pack because you're not quite sure or a drop in.

because you're not quite sure about doing the monthly rate. The class packs don't ever expire. You know, know parenting seasons are crazy. And so if you don't think you can come to once a week, but you know that you could probably do one or two a month, there's a class pack for that for a reason. Or if you need to be able to, you know, come in a couple months. I did actually create a discount code for all your listeners as well. anybody who uses the code you matter, you spelled out, you matter.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (59:24.791)
they'll get to try a class for free and that'll just be a running discount for you guys. because I love what you guys are doing as well. This is so great that you're willing to put time in for people like us who are trying to get things off the ground for communities. and that's amazing that you're doing this on the side of your business and running your own family. So, so yeah, that's something for your listeners to be able to do. If they want to try class, they can just sign up with that code and they'll get the class free. I love it.

I love it. Well, thank you so much. This has been a joy. It really has. And I truly hope to see your nonprofit grow and you can eventually focus all of your time on this. That's the goal. I'm sure you enjoy your other job, whatever that may be, but this is your heart. This is your passion. Yeah, it is. And we thank you for doing this because it's people like you.

that make the world a better place. And if there wasn't people like you out there, then it would be a lot, I guess, darker, a lot more tough. So I appreciate everything that you're doing and thank you for coming on here. Thank you for including us on your journey, the start of your journey. And so happy to see it flourish. And of course, we want to stay in touch. We'll be connecting again down the road. But anyway, until then,

Thank you so much, Erica, and hope everything goes your way. Maybe this time next year, you have a place, you've got the community involved in helping more families. Yeah, that's the dream. Well, thank you both for having me. I really do appreciate it. I'm excited to be able to give you the updates and tell you who won your staycation. I'll definitely keep you guys posted. All right. Well, that is all for this show.

Thank you so much for listening. Nashville, we love you and always remember that you matter.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (01:01:31.755)
And that brings us to the end of another episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope today's show has left you feeling as uplifted and inspired as we are. Remember, the spirit of Nashville lives in all of us, and every small act of kindness echoes throughout the community. A huge thank you for listening and even being a part of our You Matter community. If you love this episode, please share with friends and leave us a five-star review. It helps us reach more listeners and spread the love. And if you know anyone that is looking to make a move to Middle Tennessee area,

We are real estate professionals known as the Hoover Team, and we would be honored to serve them with excellence. Until next time, keep making a difference, Nashville. You matter more than you know.