Brad Parker shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Brad, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
My partner and I have a set routine that we genuinely enjoy. Given the 12 hour difference between Thailand and Texas, our alarm goes off around the same time most Texans are neck-deep in bumper-to-bumper 5 o’clock traffic. We were super fortunate with landing an amazing townhouse with a top-floor balcony overlooking the Bangkok skyline, so by the time 6am rolls around, we’re typically on our second cup of coffee as we listen to the morning birds and watch the Thai Tree Shrews scurry across the electrical wires connecting one townhouse to another. After that, we walk to our gym where I officially begin the day with about 30 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training and that pretty much sums up our first 90 minutes — It’s a consistent routine that sets a motivational precedent for the rest of the day along with a good, mental-clarifying kickstart!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Brad Parker, and I’m a creative technologist and Chief Experience Officer (CXO) now residing in Bangkok, Thailand, having partially moved here during the pandemic in 2021. I’m also the creator of DoubleParker.com, an online experience I’ve long-considered to be the world’s largest personal website and recreational project showcase. Although Houston has always been my home, Covid changed everything in regards to how I work, and the ability to travel abroad and experience the rising global remote-work opportunities fueled my desire to take advantage of the post-pandemic digital-nomadism landscape. As long as I had access to high-speed internet, cloud-computing and collaboration platforms (Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, etc), and with the help of cybersecurity tools like VPNs, I could perform whatever duty was necessary if I were strapped to an office chair in any state-side corporate environment. As soon as the borders opened, my partner and I made our way towards Thailand, and, now, four years later, we consider both Bangkok and Houston to be our Home. DoubleParker.com continues to thrive as an active website, and has even undergone a complete, recent overhaul, reflecting the Thailand aesthetic and the more global perspective of a world-traveling Houstonian.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
The world profoundly shapes our beliefs, perspectives, and experiences through a complex interplay of environmental, cultural, educational and personal factors, and those forces have pinballed me from one version of myself to another in surprising and often unexpected ways. It took a massive shoulder injury in college and a subsequent year-long rehabilitation period to move me into the coding arena of digital tech, which, paired with a Master’s Degree in Advertising, paved my way towards a career as a “creative engineer” on Park Avenue in New York City for nearly a decade. I loved what a did and I was good at it, but changing times and the desire to return closer to home (I missed Texas), as well as the offer of a lucrative job opportunity in Texas, motivated me to take the plunge, leave New York behind, and pursue a larger Director role at a company in Austin.
But after two years with the company, I felt unfulfilled. It wasn’t so much that I missed New York City as it was the cultural diversity, global influences and networking opportunities that a place like Manhattan offered. Austin was great but I needed something more. I wasn’t traveling as much as I wished, and I felt I was stagnating. I resigned my position and began a brief stint as a freelance contractor and consultant, becoming more and more comfortable with the work-from-home business model before Covid made it the forced-default for so many. By that point, as much of the U.S. was shifting operations online for survival and its employees adopted a more remote work model, I was thriving in it, having already adapted to the challenges and oftentimes surprisingly positive effects of remote collaboration and increased productivity.
Is there something you miss that no one else knows about?
If I could tell my younger self one kind thing, it would be to embrace every perceived flaw and imperfection as a unique strength waiting to be discovered. So often, we spend our youth striving for an unattainable ideal, believing that our quirks and differences are weaknesses to be hidden. In reality, these very things are what make us distinct, resilient, and ultimately, beautiful. Recognizing this sooner would have saved me years of self-doubt, allowing me to step into my true self with confidence and joy much earlier in life.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
It is. But the public version of me is still a private person, although I do love being in the spotlight when it’s offered. I love giving speeches and being in front of crowds and audiences, but very selective in regards to my personal social circle. I believe in quality over quantity, which has offered obvious challenges when travelling to new cities and countries, and it’s made Bangkok one of the more challenging cities to establish a close-knit community of like-minded people like myself.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days.
While I don’t tap-dance to work these days given that my office is a mere two floors below my bedroom, I am still excited to get up, start the day with a rousing exercise session, and get to work on the day’s goals. I do remember, though, in New York City, loving my job so much that I was easily working 15 hour days, oftentimes late into the night, often into the next morning, just to begrudgingly pack my things and head back home, knowing that sleep and food was necessary, but that as soon as I had properly rested, I could get right back into it again. The next morning, no matter how many few hours of sleep I’d given myself, I was pretty much tap dancing the 30 minute daily walk back to my office on Park Avenue. It was an incredible time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.doubleparker.com/
- Instagram: TheRealBradParker
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doubleparker
