Forget mixing business with pleasure, Jason Tartick and Kaitlyn Bristowe have mastered the art of using their time on The Bachelor to restart their careers—even if that wasn't exactly the plan for one of them.
While Kaitlyn always had the intention of using her time as the franchise's lead in 2015 as a launch pad for her ever-expanding empire, including a hit podcast, a hair accessory company, her own wine label and becoming co-host of The Bachelorette, Jason didn't foresee giving up his established career as a corporate banker for when he signed up for Becca Kufrin's season. But after Kaitlyn made a confession about their sex life in a 2019 episode of Off the Vine, it changed his professional trajectory.
Known for her brash honesty and sharing confessions, Kaitlyn shared an intimate story that ended up making headlines, "which ended up having your boss ask if you should google yourself," the 36-year-old former Bachelorette recalled.
Basically it's never a good day when you're forced to have a conversation with your boss that includes the term "dry humping."
"When that confession came out," Jason said, "I got put in this ultimate ultimatum—either restart your career here, no podcast, no media, no nothing, no side hustle at the bank, or go restart it outside of the bank."
After spending almost a decade in the industry, Jason chose to press the reset button, even after Kaitlyn pulled the episode despite her sponsorship deals.
"I am all about consistency of putting out podcasts and I made the decision to take it down because I felt so terrible," the Dancing With the Stars champion admitted. "And I was like, 'I don't care how much money I'm losing.' I felt really bad that your career was on the line."
Looking back on the experience, Jason admitted that while it was a "wild time," it ultimately gave him the push he needed. "I think that I had a plan in place as to when I was going leave," the Trading Secrets podcast host explained. "That accelerated it just a little bit, but it ended up working out."
Now, the 33-year-old life coach and motivational speaker is offering advice to others on how to take control of their happiness without having to go through, you know, a TMI moment like he did.
Ahead of the release of Jason's first book, The Restart Roadmap: Rewire and Reset Your Career, on April 5, the Bachelor Nation power couple, who got engaged last year, interviewed each other about their respective business ventures exclusively for E! News. Which, for the entrepreneurial pair, is basically their version of a date night, with Kaitlyn, 36, admitting, "I feel like we do this at the dinner table anyways! I should be having a glass of wine right now!"
Kaitlyn Bristowe: Let's talk about your book. What do you want others to take away from the book and the importance of taking charge of their career?
Jason Tartick: The idea of this book is if anyone is having the slightest bit of career confusion, just even small things like managing a relationship with your boss, negotiating for a raise on a performance review, branding yourself or a big material change. Like, you want to completely leave your industry, you're rethinking where you live in and why or you're just like, I want to kind of take control of my professional narrative because I feel like my story is being written for me—this is a good book for you. It's like an eight step roadmap and at the end of every chapter, there's takeaways of exactly what you could do to implement things.
KB: Well, there you go! I'm, like, really putting on my interview pants right now! What point were you in your career and your journey when you decided to quit corporate America? Were you planning on it?
JT: Well, here are my answers is going to be a question to you because this is what's in the book. When you left your job, how did you leave your job to go on The Bachelorette?
KB: I said, "see ya! Wouldn't want to be ya!"
JT: So you just quit your job?
KB: Well, I wasn't a real career woman at the time. I was serving at a restaurant and training other servers on how to work at a restaurant so…
JT: Well, this is why I asked you because this is a story I didn't know. And I think it's a story most people don't think about. Like, you have 31 people from all different walks of life and professions that are leaving for up to three months. So in the book, I have the full memo that got approved by the president of the bank to let me go on the show. So I went on the show and when I came back from the show, I knew that there were going to be next professional steps for me. And even when I made my last move from New York to Seattle, I knew I wasn't happy or satisfied with where I was. And I talk about some of my lowest lows in this book during that process. I have a few questions for you—you now have a scrunchie company, a podcast, a live show, [your wine line] Spade and Sparrows. When you went on The Bachelorette, did you ever imagine this would be the outcome for you?
KB: Yes. That was my whole plan of going on The Bachelor.
JT: You had this vision the whole way through?
KB: I, deep in my soul, was an entrepreneur and I wanted to have my own businesses and I wanted to have my own radio show. I had it all written out of all my goals in life. And I wanted to go on The Bachelor because I was like, I would love to find love on TV. How great would that be? That would be a bonus to me having a platform and starting my own career.
JT: I love that. So at what point did you realize that this vision you had was actually slowly becoming a reality? Was it before being named the Bachelorette?
KB: No. Way after being the Bachelorette.
JT: How far after?
KB: About three years? I felt like in order to build these businesses, I had to build serious trust with the audience. Because I was in a time of social media where that was very new for people to be doing brand deals or starting a career, and I think people were like, "Get a job or get a real job." They didn't think things that you could start on Instagram would be a real job. So I had to really build some trust with my audience and turn down a lot of other silly brand deals that didn't align with me to make sure I built trust with them.
JT: Good for you! Well, I'm glad that you manifested that. I did not have the vision that you did, but I commend you. Yeah, I think that with any brand that you're building, it doesn't happen overnight. The platform of going on the show of course, it accelerates everything. It is a huge, huge advantage. But it takes a lot of consistency, time, effort and like dropping in your authenticity to create a brand like that.
KB: You did nine years of working in corporate America. You went to school, you got your MBA, you were talking about how you kept wanting to get to the top of that job but you were never satisfied, and now how you want to rewire and restart and reset and roadmap it out to a new career. But when it was the end for you, did you feel like it was like a relief for you or did you have regrets?
JT: When I initially took the leap of faith to leave, even though I knew for so long a leave was a necessity for my physical and mental health, I was terrified at first. Because for so long I'd been living in this complacency of knowing when my check will come, knowing that I own health benefits, knowing that there's stable and reliable future income.
KB: Well, and that you spend so much time in that education.
JT: You spend so much time deploying toward something so it was absolutely terrifying. And fear again of complacency was so real because the fear of what was next was so terrifying. So I was put in this position, I was feeling scared terrified, almost like lonely. But then it was instant, okay, you got to hit restart. I literally was told they restart and then hit restart. And it was a lot of effort and a lot of confusion and a lot of back and forth. But if I look at where I am now, it's going to be three years this fall, I have never felt more excited and optimistic about what I'm doing. It's so relieving to know where I am now and so exciting and I wake up so energetic about what's next.
KB: But if you could go back before you went to college, spent all the money on college, got all that education and grinded through corporate America, would you do that all over again? Or would you restart it from the get go?
JT: I would have done so many things differently knowing what I know now. And that's what a lot of this book is about, what I'm doing, it's if you knew that and what you know now. And how many people go their whole entire life without ever being taught that or making the change and living with regrets.
KB: I didn't go to school, so…
JT: For me, I would have done it totally different. In this book though, I address the decisions behind going to college. It's wild at the age of 18, you have to be in a classroom to ask permission to go to the bathroom or get a note signed by your parents to leave, unless you skip class like Bristowe. But in that same year you get to decide what you're going to study, if you choose to study, and the biggest loan that you will take out that has 44 million Americans on average in debt of forty thousand dollars plus. Like those are big decisions at a young age that set up a lot of foundation for why people get stuck. Of course, we got to talk Bachelorette, so I've got to get your take on this: You've got Rachel [Recchia] and Gabby [Windey] as leads. This is the first time we've seen two Bachelorettes as leads since that was you. Crazy!
KB: Hashtag never forget.
JT: Never forget. What was your overall initial reaction the moment you heard that this will be the first time there is two Bachelorettes since 2016 when you were the Bachelorette?
KB: I was triggered.
JT: Why?
KB: Because I was like, Oh my gosh, can't a woman have her own season? It feels like it was Clare [Crawley] and then she was gone. And then it had to be Tayshia [Adams]. And then it was Katie [Thurston] and then, back-to-back, Michelle [Young]. And now it's the two Bachelorettes again. And I just want somebody to have their own season and I just don't want it to be them pitted against each other. I don't know how the format is going to work. I don't know what their little system is going to be, but I know how two Bachelorettes felt and it felt like we were being pitted against each other for the men to decide. And we could all get weird on what's acceptable and what's not in the Bachelor world because, really, that is always a gray area. I just wish I was there for it because I know how it feels!
To hear more from Kaitlyn and Jason about the ultimatum he received from his boss after her sex confession and the tattoo she has vowed to get if her wine label is picked up by Target, watch our interview with the couple above.