In Chapter 7 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "What Steps Are You Taking to Do What is Best for Your Family an Your Future?" French talks about the importance of spending time with her husband to create strong bonds that will create security for the family they hope to create. This keeps her focus inward and challenges her to avoid going out and starting another company before that foundation is in place.
Audrey Parker French returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview after a one-year sabbatical from work and getting married. She co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm. In 2010, CLEAResult ranked #144 in the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies. In late 2010, CLEAResult was sold to General Catalyst Partners. She graduated from Wake Forest University.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: What steps are you taking to do what is best for your family and your future?
Audrey Parker French: Really right now, my husband and I are taking time to really solidify our marriage, and get to know each other, and build a very solid foundation so that when we have children, we feel like we have a very strong foundation with each other that our children are safe within and strong with and that we can be strong to help our children, guide our children, you know, it starts now for us. And we both see that.
And beyond children, the friends that we make, the communities that we are a part of, and that we continue to be a part of. Those are things that if we are not stable, we cannot give, we cannot help, we cannot support anyone else if our foundation has cracks in it. And so we both have felt some – I guess discomfort at the idea of not being more outwardly focused right now. I’m – definitely my old identity would say, “Why aren’t you working and having a completely packed schedule right now?” And yet, for me, the same part of me that said, “Well, I’m gonna go help start a company.” Even though that was kind of a crazy thing, seemed crazy at the time, it takes the same kind of courage, even though it sounds strange, it takes – I have found that it takes the same kind of courage to say, “I gonna sit still.”
And my husband – I’m gonna help solidify my marriage with my husband, so that whatever he or I or he and I choose to do in the future, and it really will be as together, that we’ll be strong. And that way any storms that come along, we feel more stable than we would if we weren’t spending this time together to really get strong, to be able to make it through and be okay.