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Meet the Couple: G and Joshua of Sycamore Tree Design

This week, Joshua and G from Sycamore Tree Design join the From Long Distance to Marriage podcast. A long distance couple, they use their creativity to create the most incredible and unique jewellery, and are offering a generous 50% discount to listeners with the code LDTM. 

Joshua and G explain how they met singing karaoke in an app, have suffered big disruptions through coronavirus, and how they started their own company making wooden jewellery for customers around the world.

View their website at SycamoreTreeDesign.com – and use code LDTM for 50% off your order.

And follow them on Instagram at _sycamoretree

From Long Distance to Marriage Podcast – Episode 78

Aindrea	Hi everybody and welcome to episode 78 from long distance to marriage. We have a really special episode for you guys this week that we are really excited about. We have a special couple, a long-distance couple that we interviewed, named josh and G. G has a much more beautiful and exciting name but we can’t pronounce it. But here is a really cool couple, they are based in the States. Josh is in the States and G is from Mexico and they have a really amazing story and project they do together to help them see each other and pay for tickets. And they also talked to us about something we think is really important and that’s some of the benefits of long distance relationships because that’s get overlooked come times.
Rich	And beyond that as well, they’re still apart so they are directly affected by coronavirus and that’s affecting their bigger situation. So for anyone who’s apart, trips have been cancelled or visa concerns. We know some of you guys are going through that too. They may have some helpful tips on how to deal with that.
Aindrea	You’ll also find more about, I mentioned little projects, they make some amazing products, beautiful craftmanship, jewellery.
Rich	And they have given us a very generous discount.
Aindrea	Yeah, so listeners from long distance to marriage can get a 50% discount of their products with the code LDTM, we will have that on our Instagram, and we will have it in the footnotes for you. We really hope you enjoy the episode; you’ll get some great tips and maybe some pretty jewellery. Enjoy.
Rich	Can you guys give a quick introduction about who you are, your relationship and about how you got started doing this jewellery?
Josh	Sure. I’m Josh and I’ll let you introduce yourself G.
G	You can call me G, as my name is really exotic, so everyone calls me G. We met almost 3 and a half years ago. So our story is very corny because I’m from Mexico and he’s from the US and we met on Tinder, just kidding. We met on a karaoke app called smule, so basically, we met from karaoke which is weird and every time we tell the story people look at us like whaaatt, but yeah that’s our story, pretty cool.
Josh	It’s an online karaoke app where you can sing songs, you can start your own karaoke song and then people can join you or you can join other’s songs. But it’s also integrating with a social media aspect where you can chat, comment on people’s videos and you can even create your own songs and have people join you. It’s quite interesting.
Aindrea	That sounds so fun, I’ve never heard of that.
Rich	Annoyingly we did an episode not that long ago about the different apps long distance people can use and that would have been a really good one to be included. So do you just choose your location? or is it everyone from around the world in just one place on the app?
Josh	Yeah everyone is pretty much on the same app, but you can join subgroups that people join and create friendships and you can have a group that’s basically somebody from all different countries, and you can out hashtags on your songs. There’s a lot of social.
Rich	What was the subgroup you met in?
Aindrea	Or the song that got your attention? How did this happen?
G	Well I think the first song that we sang together was either She will be loved, or I want it that way from the backstreet boys.
Aindrea	They are both great songs though.
Josh	Yeah, I think it was she will be loved.
Rich	Do you guys sing together now?
G	Yeah, every now and again. We do other stuff and we don’t really have the time like we did before to sing. Like back in the day we used to spend over 10 hours on that app, just singing with each other or other people, now we don’t do it that often.
Rich	So how did you guys stand out to each other in this app?
G	Well in this app you have the option of recording a song which is just audio or just video. Which is interesting as it makes you feel closer to the people when you’re looking at them on video, it’s more like you feel more real like that person actually exists. I remember when I saw his face and I was like oh boy this is trouble. I had a huge crush on him. And then we joined the same group, and in this app, it is very common for people to get together and have an online group, so people share their songs or make group songs and we all sing together. So Josh was in this group and I was like oh snap.
Josh	What was the group called? It was love bomb tribe we changed it to but what was the original name? I can’t remember. Falling stars, something like that?
G	I don’t know it was so long ago.
Aindrea	So when did you guys finally meet? How long were you talking on the app? I imagine it went to other platforms as well but how long till you finally met?
Josh	I think it was only between 6 months and a year that we finally met in person.
G	Yeah. We started talking on the app, we usually used line, that’s another chatting app, so we started having private conversations. We realised that we have a lot in common, it was crazy how perfect for each other we were. Like he’s obsessed with wood and is amazing with working with wood, he’s a great carpenter, and I am a designer, I usually design furniture , I love designing furniture with wood, so we were talking all the time about wood and different kinds of woods and projects. So it was just meant to be. It started off as a friendship, but it didn’t go that way. It was too perfect to stay as a friendship. So one day he was like hey let’s get you a plane ticket, I want you here. So I was like okay I’m in.
Rich	What is the distance?
Josh	In km it’s 4000.
Rich	So where are you guys?
Josh	I’m located about an hour north of Philadelphia, and she’s in the middle of Mexico.
Aindrea	That’s quite a distance.
G	It’s lucky that it’s just one plane, it’s a direct flight, only 6 hours. So it’s not bad but other people have it way worse. I have heard some stories about people that have to cross half the world to see their loved ones, so I think we are really lucky.
Aindrea	Yeah that’s not too bad, we had like 11 to 12 hours, and 10 hours going the opposite way.
Rich	Have you guys been affected by coronavirus? Were you supposed to be meeting up? Or was it not too bad for you?
Josh	Yeah absolutely.
G	It really screwed up our plans.
Josh	We had made some pretty big plans before all this all hit, and we were intending on moving forward. We agreed that we were going to do a K1 visa or try a different route, but we were 100% positive that we wanted it to start soon. Last time I was there was February, so when I left, we had planned on her being here this next month for my birthday. By then we were planning on having the ball rolling for the next stage, for now this is tough because even the embassy is closed. She can’t go through immigration and work towards the next steps so yeah, it’s very difficult for us.
Rich	Yeah that’s a good point because we’ve touched on this recently but we haven’t spoken to anyone on an episode who’s going through it, but yeah we’ve had listeners who have said that this has put their visa plans on hold or they’re not sure, with the embassy being closed. Is there anything you can actually do right now, or have you got no choice and just got to wait to talk to people?
G	I think what we can do right now, I have been doing a lot of research, for example in order to have a K1 visa we can start the process like they’re not giving any interviews or the embassy are closed but you can send the documents and start the process. The thing is we wanted me to be able to go to the US again before we started the process, because the process is really long and once you start the process I cannot visit the US so that’s why I wanted to come one last time to see all my friends there, his family, so I could have the strength to spend like 10 months/1 year without visiting the US.
Rich	Oh, is that how long it is?
G	Yeah, it’s really long. Before 2 years ago, it was like from 4 to 6 months but now it’s up to 10 or 14 months, until you can go to the US again.
Rich	Would you be able to go to Mexico in that time?
Josh	I think I would be able to visit her because I do have a passport and my visa. But one of the biggest things that made us really want us to come here again, is that I have 4 children and she really misses them so that’s a really important thing for her, she really wants to see them again. I have 4 boys which is a really interesting dynamic in our relationship.
Aindrea	Yeah, I’m sure.
Rich	So is there any advice that you would give to someone who is in a similar situation with visas and miss travel and things?
Aindrea	And how you’re coping I guess.
Josh	Yeah, I guess advice that we could give people is to try to stay patient really because it can get really difficult especially when you don’t know what the future hold and everybody’s different, we all have different chemical makeups, and to be a very positive. And G is somewhat different than I am, that she has always been more realistic and rational. But work together to try and understand how the other person is doing, how they’re feeling, as far as what they can do. We have a unique situation as well, there may be reasons why we wouldn’t go with the K1 visa, due to citizenship.
Aindrea	Can you explain what a K1 Visa is?
G	Yeah so a K1 visa is basically a fiancé visa. If you have a long distance relationship, and your loved ones or you live in the US and your plans are to move to the US and have your relationship in the US, you have to request a K1 Visa, and that visa allows you as a fiancé/American citizen to bring your fiancé to the US so you can get married in the US legally and then your loved one can stay in the US without having any trouble. We can request for a green card and citizenship. It’s a way to go for long distance relationships in the US.
Rich	Were you just going to stay something about your uniqueness about citizenship?
G	Oh yes. We recently found out that my grandmother was born in the US so in some cases that makes me able to get a citizenship without going through all the K1 visa process. So that would be way easier for us but we’re hoping right now, because the embassies are closed so we don’t really have a way to figure this out right now.
Aindrea	I guess right now is a good time, like you’ve said you’ve been doing your research, and I think that’s important for a lot of people right now who are in your position who are in limbo, you’re ready to start making things happen but you can’t because everything is shut down. And I think doing as much research as you can, obviously there’s information that you can’t get from the embassies, but that’s great because you are ready and makes you have some control and can do something right now, which I think really helps.
G	Yeah, we would definitely advise doing a bit of research, don’t get obsessed about it, but maybe just keep yourself informed and check your sources too, in order to be able to not freak out about the long thing.
Aindrea	Yeah that’s really good advice, and I think the emigration process is really long and I know the US is particularly difficult to get into no matter where you’re going, it’s a lot to take in. And I think you read something and so easily believe it but like you said it’s important to verify any facts and check against it the immigration website as it has lots of facts, FAQs and tonnes of documents that you can go through. But yeah, it’s a lot, I feel for you guys, it’s a crazy thing to be going through right now.
G	It’s just crazy. This coronavirus has to stop.
Rich	It has ruined everything.
Aindrea	It has. It’s crazy. The things it’s affected, of course it’s effected the economy, travel and things like that, but the ways it’s filtered down is crazy. The tiniest things it’s affecting, like a random example is that my brother got a puppy right before this started, and they’re having to send him to special training as he hasn’t got the socialisation that he needs because you can’t have people round and it’s a big breed dog. So you wouldn’t even think that Coronavirus would affect having a puppy but it has a way of seeping into everything unfortunately.
Rich	Yeah, I suppose on the topic of you guys meeting and everything, what we touched on at the beginning and the point you made about josh being a carpenter. Can you guys talk about what you do? and I think you started doing this in order to see each other.
Josh	Basically, when I was young, I will give a quick synopsis, when I was really young, people read comic books whereas I read books on different types of wood species. I used to be really into wood working and I asked my parents to send me to a public school because I really wanted to get hands on education and pursue this, but they were pretty strict about me staying at a Christian school, but I have always been obsessed with wood, but I used to try make wood rings when I was younger but I made them out of solid wood, I knew nothing about wood veneers but they would always break, so I gave up. But then eventually I learned about wood veneer and started making wood rings that were steam bent, jewellery that is steam bent and almost created plywood in different lengths which created strength. And so I started doing this before I met G, and I never really designed much, created new pieces because I was still trying to perfect my art, but it got to a point where I started being able to commission pieces for friends and charge next to nothing as I wanted people to like me. But then after we met and she came and visited, she learned the process and started helping me design and trying her stuff. She was naturally good at it and I was impressed as I wouldn’t let anybody make a ring as I was very picky. But she was really good at it. So I shared my knowledge with her. We started the company because she’s pretty good at branding, she went to school to learn that side of stuff. And together we made a great team and we started making products that were for people who don’t like rings and became a way for us to buy plane tickets to see each other, without a huge cost of tickets which in our case isn’t as bad as some peoples.
Rich	They are stunning.
Aindrea	They are beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it.
Rich	I’ve got so many questions. How did you find customers for it?
G	We just started with an Instagram at first, he didn’t really believe he could turn this into a business, into something that could make him a little money. But I saw the future and I was like ooo this is something. So I convinced him to make an Instagram and once we started that we just started inviting all of our friends and suddenly we didn’t even have to invite anyone, people just started liking our photos. At first, we only sold to our friends, but now we have people from all over the world, last week we sent an order to New Zealand.
Josh	Yeah and in the same day we sent on to Denmark as well.
G	Now it’s not only your friends, it’s a lot of people looking at the pieces we make and appreciating them. But yeah that’s how it started.
Aindrea	Yeah that’s really cool because you started incorporating other materials like a guitar strings and stuff as well.
Josh	Yeah that’s our unique part of the business, as there’s a few other companies that make wood rings, but we were the first one that started incorporating guitar strong, and the way that started was my brother. I took the guitar strings off his guitar after he passed away and I decided I wanted to do something with them that would last a long time and not be used up in wood piece. So I started thinking about my rings and wondered whether I could incorporate them. So I started figuring it out and made pieces for my family that incorporated the last pieces of guitar strings that he played. Then I thought that I could get guitar strings pretty cheap and I can put them in any ring and make it long pretty professional. As I started learning how to do it better, it started to look more professional and people are surprised at how well it turns out. So yeah, we use a lot of different stones and materials, and I have a sort of spiritual side of me that I really like to use materials that incorporate metaphysical type stuff, so we incorporate a lot of stuff like that which is quite fun.
Aindrea	I remember seeing that post come up about the ring for your brother. Because I think we were already talking trying to arrange something at the time. And yeah they’re beautiful and really different. We have seen wooden ring companies before, this is just really cool the stuff you do. And by the way it’s called Sycamore tree. And that’s my favourite type of tree. It’s beautiful. I grew up in southern California where there are a lot of sycamore trees.
Josh	I’m pretty sure they’re everywhere in the world which is pretty amazing. But the name started because that was my brother’s favourite tree, so it all comes back to the reason that we made and branding the company was to honour my brother.
Aindrea	Yeah there’s a lot of special meaning in that, so people who take the time to read your posts, like you guys say a lot of really nice and interesting things. And there’s a real craftmanship, which I really think people are starting to appreciate again. There’s a lot more artistic stuff being made, and for a long-time people wanted to buy cheap trendy quick consumables, and there’s more artistic people like yourself doing this. And we’re big fans of it.
Rich	So I’m hoping people who listen and then go have a look what you have. Do you take custom design orders? or do people just buy what you have?
G	We take custom designs. A lot of the designs we have is just Josh being creative one day and he just pictures a ring and he starts doing it and then it looks beautiful. But also, we have custom designs, for example we have a lot of customers that they also lost someone who was really important to them so now we have been doing a couple things that involve the ashes of the loved ones. So in this way they can have the ashes with them all the time. It’s really beautiful. I never thought about something like that and that idea came from a customer.
Rich	And no one will have anything like that. So personal.
Aindrea	That’s really cool. I have heard about necklaces and diamonds and stones being made from ashes. But it’s really cool that you can incorporate it in different ways, that’s really special for people to keep.
Rich	And the thing with a lot of custom work is it can be really expensive. I remember being quite surprised about how accessible your pricing is.
Josh	Yeah we started out very cheap, started making rings because the materials I started with were cheap for me, because I was used to buying wood that is thick and expensive. But when they cut it into thin strips, apparently, they can get a lot more out of a board. In theory the wood itself is expensive if you look at it from a package perspective but the amount, we use in each ring is very small so if you break it down that way it’s not very expensive to make the rings. But the time is really what we use the most of, and our time is pretty valuable. So we wanna keep it cheap especially in Gs case, we really don’t sell many rings in Mexico because it’s a very different cost of living type situation there. Everything is a lot cheaper and a whole different society really on how money is spent, so we find that people in the US are more likely to spend $35 on a ring, whereas people in Mexico would spend $10. But we use some precious materials, we use more expensive and rare woods then start to drag the price up a bit. Or whether we use different materials, such as metal and ceramic which we can’t use ourselves and we have to order from other companies, which costs more money, so we raise the price. But we really don’t want people to break their bank to get something meaningful to them. So we try to be conscious on our pricing. And for the custom orders we really don’t want to charge anything extra, other than an engraving. We really just want our customer satisfaction and we wanna keep our price point low.
Rich	And while we’re on about price for our listeners. You are generously offering a discount code for people who find you through this podcast.
Josh	That’s correct. 50% off any item.
Aindrea	And that’s with the code LDTM, which we will put you in our episode notes.
Rich	And we will be using that.
Aindrea	Yeah we’re making a list of the many many rings. We both love jewellery. And rich plays guitar so the guitar stuff is really interesting to him.
Rich	Yeah the ebony one, I am on your page right now.
Aindrea	I love how entrepreneurial this is, on how you were already doing this Josh, and it marries to a passion that you two share. Long distance is really hard, and I know we do it, it’s easy to be like how this is hard, it’s not fair. I am sure you guys feel like that at times and obviously you are in a tough time right now just waiting to get your life together, but you did something about it and found a way to take something that you loved that you can do together, enjoy and turn it into something. And I think a lot of people can take something away from that.
Rich	Yeah I’m really hoping it inspires people to use their talents. I also really love that you have managed to find a way to collaborate on this and become business partners, across borders.
Josh	Yeah it’s pretty neat, it’s been touch though because it’s been hard on her to not be to help make the rings and for me we do get a little overwhelmed sometimes with orders, when we have a sale we have a lot more orders. I also gave a full-time job and my work has picked up a lot, so it’s difficult for her, she wants to be able to help more, and yeah she does help with the designs and the posts. But she doesn’t feel like she’s able to get as involved as she would like, so that starts to cause issues, personally with us because I feel like I am doing too much or she could be doing more, but it’s a balancing act and it’s difficult to be in love with your business partner, but it’s also rewarding in a lot of ways too. Because we can talk about designing a ring where other people might not know what to talk about.
Rich	How do you go about that? Just looking through what you have on the website, and you have some really interesting materials. How do you even start designing that?
Aindrea	Can I just say something really quickly to ensure them, if you can make it through working together and being long distance and coronavirus then don’t worry. You guys are going to be fine, it is hard to do things, projects, podcasts together, but if you can make it through that and long distance which you are working really hard at, then you’re good. Sorry back to your question.
Rich	How’d you go about designing?
Josh	Well it started with a natural opal, that is incredibly expensive, and I started buying pieces and crushing them up myself, And I was finding that even as a whole opal itself it’s beautiful and incredible. But when you crush it up, you lose a lot of those properties. And it’s so expensive that I wasn’t making much money on the pieces, and there was also customer satisfaction problem because G is an excellent photographer, so she will take a really good picture and it’s hard for me to live up to the pictures sometimes. When people get an order, they say it doesn’t look like the picture.
Rich	Is it a bit like a MacDonald’s, when the picture looks incredible, and then you get a really flat burger. That’s why it’s cheap.
Josh	It’s similar. So we started to get some of the really expensive materials, and certain colours go with other woods. I can be pretty creative, my sense of style, matching abilities are pretty good, so I’m not bad at design. So I just started thinking of different combinations and getting a bit obsessed buying every wood I could buy. And possibly not making the money back but at least having wood to use for the rest of my life. So yeah, a lot of different options for woods, then buying rocks and minerals and seeing how they would work. So there’s just not enough time to make the pieces I have in my mind but yeah the possibilities are endless.
Aindrea	It’s been fun since we started talking to you guys, to see what designs you’re putting up on Instagram. It’s really good, so hopefully people can take inspiration from. Like everyone’s got some sort of talent they can use, and it can help and make things easier. There are challenges with it but at least it absorbs some of the financial burdens of being long distance.
G	We say this so many times. There have been times where we wanna see each other but we have a lot of bills to pay so I dunno if it’s gonna be possible. Then we do one sale, promotion then boom we have the money to buy the plane tickets. So it’s a wonderful thing to do.
Rich	Yeah. And so while we’re back on plane tickets and everything. We’ve obviously spoken about some difficulties about long distance. What benefits do you think there are? We know quite a lot of the tines when we hear from listeners, there’s a struggle they have got or a problem they are dealing with, we have said in one of our earlier episodes, that we often focus on the benefits. So we’d like to hear from our guests. So have you got anything on how it can be beneficial?
G	Before I met Josh, I didn’t really believe in long distance relationships. I thought people in them were really dumb. Now look at me, 3 years with this man and now I understand why. I think when you’re in a long-distance relationship, it’s really hard to connect to that person because you can’t touch them. You can connect by your soul. You have to open up and be honest and you have to really open up your emotions. It’s a different connection, this relationship is so different to any that I’ve had. And I think that’s really helped a lot for us. I don’t know, some people may think we’re crazy, but we are 110% honest with each other. That’s the way we believe has to be; we both have had relationships that turn out in cheating. We were cheated by our partners, and I really hate that. We think that’s so low. I think it was from the beginning that we just decided to just be 100% honest and open and don’t have anything, just be straight forward with things. I really love it.
Josh	Yeah it was since the beginning. And of course, our journey has changed a lot over the years. As we started off from being people that partake in drinking, to being completely sober. So that’s quite a transition for us personally. But it’s also helped a lot, being sober helps us to stay honest, and when you’re drunk you might do things that you don’t remember, or you wouldn’t do if you weren’t drunk. So we’ve chosen to abstain a lot from alcohol and drugs because it puts the mind at ease for the other person. It’s really not necessary in our lives.
Aindrea	I think that’s really interesting. It’s not something we have talked about before or anyone has mentioned. But I can completely see the value in that. I know when people are long distance and you know your partner is potentially at the other side of the world, and your partner is going out drinking with their friends. You can’t help but think, oh god what can happen, either safety first of all, something bad could happen. But also, you don’t always make the best decisions when you’re under the influence. So I think that’s really admirable. Other people shouldn’t feel like they have to do that.
Rich	But it’s nice that you’ve got that respect for each other.
Aindrea	Yeah that’s beautiful. Like I said, I’ve never heard anyone say that, but I can see how, especially long distance, you rely on trust more because you aren’t living in each other’s pockets. It’s not like you want to sneak on each other, but you don’t know what you’re up to. And that’s a really good way to show how dedicated you are to something, so that’s really cool.
Josh	Yeah thank you. Of course, it stems from me having an addictive personality, and needing to make that change for me personally. But it also doesn’t hurt at all, it certainly helps our situation, as far as the honesty concerns. When I was abusing alcohol or other things, I wasn’t honest with her so since the beginning we did want to be honest but there were times where I was staying up later and I was pretending when I was sleeping. Those are the kind of things that can tear a relationship apart. So it was a necessary thing for me to make that change personally, and she did it out of solidarity from me. So it’s been pretty amazing because the works I’ve been able to do on myself has allowed me to have the creative expression, and the ability to create. And that’s really what I was missing when I was using substances. I wasn’t able to focus and create. I was stuck worrying about other things. So that’s been helpful.
Aindrea	Well that’s something that’s important too, the act of you showing solidarity and support and G doing that with you. And that’s what we talk about a lot, whether you’re in long distance relationship or in a normal non-distance relationship, you do have to take care of yourself and try to improve yourself. Do the right things for your own body, spirit and mind. It also makes you a better partner, you can be there for your partner more and to makes you more valuable because you have more to give. So I think that’s very important on both sides too. Was there any other kind of benefits that you guys can see or makes it easier for when you’re not together that in the long run you benefit from?
Josh	One thing is that we don’t have to spend time with other online dating, like Tinder, that can take so much time away from your life. And money that you spend on silly dates. It’s great to have somebody that even if you’re far away, you know you have somebody you can always rely on, you don’t have to look elsewhere. It’s been great. That’s a positive.
G	Also, once you survive the distance, when you’re together, I don’t think there’s something strong enough to ruin your relationship. You have survived so much by not being together, making a relationship work over bond, then once you’re together you have to make it work. I think normal couples they take each other for granted a lot of the times. They fight over the most stupid things every and they just break up over everything. And it didn’t really work being in a relationship, trying to make it work with something, I think long distance relationships have taught us how to maintain a connection, how to not take each other for granted.
Aindrea	Definitely agree with that. We closed the distance about 9 years ago. I moved in June 2011. Even now all we went through, breakups and all kinds of stuff. You’re right when you’re with each other all day every day or can see each other how much you want. You do forget. We catch ourselves doing that, taking each other for granted. But it takes on minute to remember what the distance was like and what it took to get together, it really grounds you. You think why am I acting like this, it’s stupid, we are so lucky that we made this work. So it is a good reminder and if you don’t know how hard it can be, it’s easy to take it for granted. You said something earlier G, when you first started talking on Smule. Once you started talking just the two of you, it astounded you how much you had in common, how perfect it was and how easy it was to talk. And I think hats something people who haven’t started talking to someone from a great distance, they just wouldn’t get that because it really is just shocking. The world stops for a second when you realise that someone on the other side of the world, you’ve never met, you don’t really know who they are at that stage, and yet you’re still drawn to them, and so many things that have lined up that it almost makes it impossible to not to have to try and pursue that and see what it’s about. I know that before Rich and I met, I had that, things didn’t work out at one point, and I remember the first date I had after that sitting across this table from this guy, I was just thinking this guy is perfectly fine, he’s right here, but I don’t feel that connection that I felt with this guy from the other side of the world. There’s something there and it really pulls you in and makes that connection stronger once you open up.
G	Yeah it’s really weird. I remember when we first started talking, it was a huge shock for me because I thought long distance relationships for dumb people, so why am I feeling so attracted to this guy who doesn’t even live in the same country as I am. It was crazy but I could stop talking to him, it pulled me to him, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I remember when I woke up in the mornings, I would check my phone, and one text from him had already made my day. It was crazy and of course when I told my friends, I am going to the US with him and they were like what are you doing, you’re going to get murdered, you don’t know him. And I was like of course I know him, we’ve met on camera, I know he’s not a murderer or a woman. It is crazy because usually like Josh said, I am a very rational person so it’s not like me to go to another country to meet someone. That is something I would never do, but in this case it was like I don’t care, I’m doing it. Even though my friends were like you’re not going, I told them no I am going. I couldn’t stop it; I couldn’t fight it. It’s insane.
Aindrea	It’s powerful, and you don’t always get to choose who you love. There’s something about getting to know someone, you share your soul. And it doesn’t sound cheesy to anyone who has been through it before. To really get to know each other you have to be open and honest, which you guys have done, which I think is very important in this time of catfishing. We have been talking about the Catfish TV show, I am assuming you guys have seen it. We start talking when WhatsApp wasn’t really a thing, Facebook was barely a thing. We didn’t even know people could catfish. We knew that people could groom like children and get people in trouble, but we said when catfish came a seen, I am so glad that this wasn’t out when we met because it would have made me question things a lot more. But that honesty and openness, it does create something really special. I think we don’t wanna talk too much of your guys time, and time difference is a bit whacky for all of us but thank you so much. Is there anything else, finishing words or bit of advice?
Rich	Or anything you want to promote?
Aindrea	Shameless promo you wanna throw in there. On your website it says you love tacos, and I think that’s something we need to talk about. I like in England now, and their serious lack of good tacos.
G	I feel for you, that sounds so sad.
Josh	Let me just explain that, I used to always love Taco grill, and that was not real tacos but for me.
Aindrea	It’s amazing still.
Josh	It’s still really good but a lot of people in Mexico would look at that and think that’s trash junk food. When I first went to Mexico and had my first real Taco, it was a life changing experience for me. It was incredible, her whole family was there watching me, and I had to order the tacos myself in Spanish. So I learned how to order tacos so I ordered the ones I thought I would like. And when they came out, I couldn’t believe that I could keep eating as many as I wanted to. Tacos are one of the best things in my life.
Aindrea	I get it. Better than Taco Bell, but not as good as authentic Tacos from Mexico. But I grew up in Southern California, just right along the Mexico and Arizona border. So, there’s obviously lots of great Mexican food, authentic Mexican. And I married a guy that says quesadilla wrong, and taco wrong, and stuff like that. So it hurts.
Rich	I don’t speak much Spanish. When the whole world speaks your language, you can be arrogant. And they speak English in Spain.
Aindrea	Well part of the time I grew up in Una, Arizona, along the border and very year there is a Taco festival. And one year he was out in America spending time with us, with a bunch of my friends we went to the Taco festival, and there was all these taco trucks and stuff, it was amazing. And I made him order. My accent isn’t amazing, but it is better than an English man.
Rich	She finds it hilarious.
Aindrea	We went to a Spanish restaurant once, and I knew there was differences between the Spanish and Mexican language, but I assumed there was more similarities than English and Spanish. We went to a Tapas Spanish restaurant and everyone is ordering the Pollo, and I was like what are they ordering.
Rich	We’re uncultured. Before you go, can you inform every one of your website URL?
Josh	Sure it’s www.sycamoretreedesign.com.
Rich	Perfect. And there’s anything else you want to plug while you’re here.
Josh	I think we’re good.
G	I think we’ve covered all the topics we wanted to. Thank you so much for having us
Rich	Thank you for joining with us. It’s been an absolute pleasure and we’ll be on your website straight away. If you get a mass order, it’s probably us.
Aindrea	It’s gonna be him. Lots of questions and requests. He’s gonna be a pain.
Josh	That’s great, honestly, we love doing new designs, because doing the same ring 40 times becomes a bit of a madness. So, if you wanna throw something different in there then we’re all about it.
Aindrea	Thank you so much. And I really hope you get everything figured out and the world starts moving soon so you can start thinking stuff out.
Josh	Thank you, guys. It’s been a pleasure.
Aindrea	Take care. Have a good rest of your weekend.