On The Go with Justin Mcleod, Founder of Hinge

Um, I used to have morning habits. Poor kids. Yeah, so I get it. Poor kids. Uh my my ideal morning habit which I'm like I have a pretty low hit rate on right now is I feel like people talk about their morning habits and but they don't actually totally totally. Yeah. I meditate then I do yoga. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then I have drink water with do hot water. Yeah. Okay. So what I actually do, I really do try to wake up and and at least sit for 10 minutes in meditation just to like start my day quiet. And then I usually go make I have this morning drink I make with this ceremonial cacao. Only ceremonial grade cacao. And so I do a few tablespoons of that with some olive oil and like a little bit of honey. And um and then I sit and I journal. That's kind of my daily have to do thing like a morning pages thing and write at least like one or two pages because I wake up because I'm a morning person and so I wake up with like like bursting with like things just going out of my head and if I don't if I don't if I don't get them out on paper then they just like bounce around in my head. After that I cook my kids breakfast usually. Nice. Yeah. Make them pancakes, walk them to school and then often I'll like Yeah. Okay.

You know, I don't have I don't I don't have a schedule. You don't have a schedule? Like I'm a morning I just every morning I just that's not my thing. I don't know. I'm just not a depends. It really It really depends. And like how comfortable I feel, how much anxiety I'm in. Like are you one of those people that if you go to like a like when we went to when we went to the Serengeti it was like five or six days. I just did I just if I go if I'm in an unfamiliar place do you are you bedet or toilet paper? Bed scare me. I just never I just I want to do a be of the day person.

I I just the the sudden like being shot.

I mean, theoretically, I'm into it. I just haven't yet.

Let's see. Mostly silly things I do with my like the thing are things with the kids these days. My kids like love to play a monster game where one of you has to act like a psychotic monster that's kind of like a mix between the guy from the Goonies and the ring and you have to like kind of crawl on the floor and like make crazy noises and chase each other around the house. So I love that. Um we take turns doing that. I love it. And terrifying each other. That's great. Boys, you know. Yeah. Well, no. Margot gets really into it, too. Okay. Yeah. Margo. Good. Good. She loves to be the monster. Oh my god, she's so cute.

I think that it's it's energy. I think it's like the way that I think about it. It's like stored energy. It's not an end in itself, right? And I think some some of us can get like wrapped up into like making more and like watching a bank account go up or and I don't spend I don't spend almost any time on like the the market.

It took a little while for my system to like on both fronts in terms of um having Hinge become a like a quote unquote success I still don't is like is it a success I don't know you use Hinge you still you met your girlfriend oh wow okay uh it feels feels yeah you probably know this like going through the experience of entrepreneurship is like it just feels like failure and problem after failure and problem and it's just nonstop and then suddenly you after 10 years of that and you turn around you're like oh no but I've actually made pro I've actually made progress I've actually gotten somewhere but a dayto-day it can just feel like setback after setback and problem after problem

What is the key to happiness I think that it's um honestly I think It's being it's meaningful relationships of course which is why I'm like it's like having dip like deep rich meaningful intimate relationships with other people and it's honestly I think it's being of use like or being like feeling like you are um at least like I think happiness is almost the wrong word even happiness is like a fleeting feeling that comes and goes. Yeah. I don't really try to chase happiness, but like fulfillment. I think fulfillment is like this deeper like regardless of whether I'm like happy or sad today, I feel fulfilled.

Uh where do you want to begin? I have um uh I think like the biggest thing that I've learned throughout my journey of creating Hinge, Hinge 1.0, rebooting it, Hinge 2.0, you know, you know, being with the girl in college, then losing her, then getting her back, then the ups and downs of our journey of like calling off the wedding and putting it back on and all the parenting and this. Yeah. Uh it really is that you uh you don't find the one, you like create the one. And if you're always in search of like finding the perfect one, you're going to miss it because you want to find someone that you want to build with and create but like that oneness, right? Um, but it doesn't you don't just like find it. It's not like you're out searching and you're like, 'Oh, there it is.' And I think we have such a misconception cuz we're just brainwashed by culture and all the love stories and romcoms and everything else and it's just it's a total fabrication. It's like a total total fabrication. What I've learned about relationships is much more been my experience in relationship with Kate and my own personal journey of being in relationship much less than Hinge which is about that first step helping you get introduced to someone. But I think what I've learned over time is like that that first step which is what I thought was like the most important thing was like finding the right person right is not the most important thing in some sense. Um and um it's the cultivation. It's everything that comes after that. Like that's just the starting line. I think we overindex once again way too much on thinking like what is the right as if there's like a right thing. as if like life is a big test and you're going to die and then you're going to like you're going to read out your sheet and they're like should have stayed with the partner, you know, like it's like sliding doors and it and it traps us into such a like fear mentality, but life is this like beautiful my experience is like it's this creative process and like you're a co-creator of it and there's not a right there's not a right or wrong answer and there's is always a balance between between being true to myself and my own needs and also prioritizing the relationship and the partnership. And at some point you may realize based on who I'm evolving to be and who this other person's not there's like this this relationship which should feel supportive to us actually starting to feel limiting to us.

Sure. Yes. Yes.