Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 116 the end of this channel as you know it

Episode Date: May 26, 2022

the end of his channel as you know it. IT'S FINALLY HERE! The episode where we fill you in about our latest (& biggest) project yet- FamilyMade Media. In this episode, we explain why we started FamilyMade, tell you what to expect from us and from this channel in the future, and even introduce you to our team (who had no idea they would each be interviewed on the spot). So tune in! And be sure to follow us so you can be up to date on all the fun that's about to come! This video was sponsored by Better Help. Our Couple Things listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com /EASTFAM FamilyMade website ▶ https://familymade.com/ Follow the Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/thefamilymade/ Follow the Linkedin page! ▶ https://www.linkedin.com/company/familymademedia/ Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/FamilyMade/ Shawn's Instagram ▶ http://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Shawn's Facebook page! ▶ http://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Andrew's Instagram ▶ http://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew's Facebook page! ▶ http://www.facebook.com/AndrewDEast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. We are going to spend this episode telling you about family made media, what it is, how it got started, and bringing on the current team of people. Yeah.

It's your first time getting to meet the people behind the camera. Look at these, why everyone is so nervous and also confused. They're like, why did we agree to be here? What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. with Sean and Andrew. Podcasts all about couples. And the things they go through.

I feel like three years ago we made an announcement that we were starting a podcast. And three years later, we're going to make an announcement that we are starting family made. That's right. I am freaking pumped for today. I feel prepared for this one. I was not prepared for the podcast. We have been stumbling through this whole process just kind of walking through the dark, blind, not really know what we're doing. But I feel like there's a clear vision and we're excited to share it with you all because you all are the reason.

that we're doing it. So today is super special and exciting because it is about the project that we have been working on and building in one degree or another for the past like two and a half years. Yeah, it's a dream we had a long time ago when we started social media and we started kind of documenting our lives

and kind of our whole mission with it and it's finally coming to light, which is really, really exciting. So we are going to spend this episode telling you about family made media, what it is, how it got started. And bringing on the current team of people. Yeah.

It's your first time getting to meet the people behind the camera. Look at these. Everyone's so nervous and also confused. They're like, why did we agree to be here? Oh, man. We did. Nobody agreed. Nobody knew.

Before we get started, if you're having it, please. Subscribe to the show and give it a rating on what I, platform you're listening on, we have some very exciting things coming and you won't want to miss it. So by doing that, you'll make sure not to miss it. Babe, let's just say, let's take it back to the beginning, shall we? And how we started creating content and how we're going to start creating more content, shall we? That'll be the rough overview there. How we started creating content. If you guys don't know this story, I worked in sports entertainment for many, many years, starting when I was 12 years old and all the way until I retired at 20.

Sean was an Olympic gold medal gymnast. You skipped over that part. You did. So I worked firsthand with some of the biggest companies in the world in their marketing campaigns, their advertising campaigns. I was an ambassador for them. I really learned the ins and outs of just kind of like that space. And for so long, I was kind of told how to act, what to say, what to wear in order to sell a product and to be the right ambassador. And when Andrew and I got married, I got really tired of doing that.

And he had this idea. He's like, why don't we start a YouTube channel and actually, like, show the world who we are, the unedited versions, and kind of control the things on our end. And that's kind of what started it. Andrew started a YouTube channel while he was bouncing around the NFL. Do you remember that first video that we made? It was horrific. It was brutal. We've come a long way.

That's what's fun to kind of reflect back on. But we started making YouTube videos documenting my time bouncing around from team to team in the NFL and then documenting our wedding planning process. And then I feel like the pivotal moment as we were finding ourselves and our voice online was in 2017, we went through a miscarriage and shared a video. Still, I mean, still, that's the video I think is the most impactful that we've ever created. and I look at the whole situation and how it panned out and how the video resonated with so many of you who have gone through similar things. And that really was the motivation, inspiration for Sean and I

to step back and realize that the content we're creating, the videos we're putting out, the podcast we create, really can connect with people in a special way and start these conversations that otherwise might not be had. and so that opened up really a whole new avenue for us to feel like what we're doing has purpose and to really double down on that and to put my football career in the rear of view mirror for you to put all your speaking engagements and appearances and all that in the rear of remire because we knew that what we were doing here mattered a lot and and we could make a difference

we have had the opportunity to learn firsthand we've kind of run through the gamut of content when it comes to social media we have tried posting videos doing like the trendy things making things look perfect and over the years we have found that um the more raw we can be the more real we can be the healthier it is we feel and the the bigger impact it makes I feel like there is a massive flaw within the social space that people only consume in our are given these perfect images of lives that they can't relate to and that's just very toxic and for us going through the miscarriage and our marriage and our lifestyle and posting very raw and real videos we've learned that it does connect a community together and help you grow and help us grow and help us heal and with family made media we had this idea of during the miscarriage we I would sit and I would read comments for hours on end of other families and other women and other people who had gone through the same thing and how they healed and how they were still trying to heal and what they were doing and I truly felt like I had this family of people

that I was connected to that were holding my hand kind of leading me through the process and with family made we had this idea of is bringing together all of those people and kind of sharing their lifestyles and sharing their content and sharing what they're going through and connecting the world in a really good way and celebrating the real side of life and celebrating how I don't know how cool family is so let me paint the picture for you of everything that we're trying to build here at Family Made and really cast the vision because we're so excited and we can only do this with your help and your buy-in as well so if you think about a media network a media property like barstool sports or Magnolia Network or ESPN you have one

overarching brand and it has a set of values that each of the shows that are on that network, share. So if you think of ESPN with First Take or ESPN Top 10, you have different shows underneath the ESPN network. And that's where we're building that family made, where you have this family lifestyle brand, this wholesome, endearing content that we're going to have multiple shows underneath. And we're so excited to welcome other talent to speak about topics

and about areas of life into a certain audience that Sean and I just aren't able to. and unlock our team to help tell the stories better to help edit it more in a polished fashion to produce it better and to really make it easier on the creators themselves because right now a lot of these families are producing all this content themselves it takes a ton of time and it's a little overwhelming and so we are introducing our team to that group of people so that we can collectively flood the internet with this with this content that we think can change the world and our goal with all of the content from top to bottom is to support and encourage families through

podcasts, YouTube video, short form. And sometimes that support and encouragement will come in the form of education. Sometimes that support and encouragement will come in the form of entertainment. But we are speaking to this group of people who want to do family right. And that includes marriage, that includes pregnancy and parenting, the whole gamut. And we can only do this with your help as the audience and the help of these other amazing creators that we're so excited to be bringing on to the network. And so the last couple months, we have just been building out this team trying to really iron out our systems and we're pumped. We're excited. We're pulling all our resources into this. We're nervous. But we have a vision to change the world because if you think

about the different aspects of society, you have like government, you have schools, you have businesses but families that's the one thing that leaves the greatest impact on an individual and so instead of instead of watching some of this other content that you can find online that's divisive or polarizing or raunchy or edgy we're trying to put out content that is cute and wholesome and makes you go awe or makes you double think how you're approaching your marriage and maybe you can do it better tomorrow than you did today. And so we're excited and we need your help. And this is our first time doing this.

So let us know if you have any input. But we're building out a media network and we're going to be producing podcasts, YouTube videos, short form content, all across the board with all different types of talent, all different types of shows. And we cannot wait to introduce some of these to you. So they're going to be rolling out of the next couple weeks and more. to come in the future but how it's going to work is this episode is brought to you by defender with its 626 horsepower twin turbo v8 engine the defender octa is taking on the decar

rally the ultimate off-road challenge learn more at land rover dot ca some of the podcast which is where we're starting with signing talent are going to be hosted on this very couple things YouTube channel the video format will so on Wednesdays you'll get a couple things on Thursdays you'll get another show on Friday I'll get another show so we're making easy on you and delivering the content right where you already are you also be able to find the family main network on Apple Podcasts in the in the channel section and you can be sure that every show that you find there is going to be this family friendly family oriented family centric content and there's going to be more to come so we're

going to be creating as much content as we can and taking it to you as soon as possible. Look, the internet's a weird and wild place. We realize that. And you could find anything you search for on the internet. Our goal with creating family made is to create a network and a brand where you can listen to any of our shows, watch any of our videos, and know that what you're watching is not raunchy. It's not vulgar. There's no profanity. it's safe for you to listen to with your kids and it's also not like cheesy so we wanted to create this this network they like really spoke to you the listener which probably uh if the stats are in the indication uh female probably like 20 to 35 year old um and i feel like that's i mean

that's who sean and i are except for the female part for me uh but like it's the people people who are just trying to go through this family journey and like get married, have kids and do things as best they can. That's what we're trying to speak to. And so Sean and I did the YouTube channel. Then we started creating all the short form content. Then we came up with the podcast. And at some point, Sean and I got so busy filming all these different shows that we realized in order to fully reach this audience, we needed to expand how many shows we had. And to do that, we had to take ourselves out of the picture, which has been such an exciting process,

also been extremely difficult. We've learned so much going through contract negotiations, putting together pitch decks, like shaping the vision for all this. But we have now traction, and it's getting serious around here. As far as shows are concerned and all the topics that we are covering

and all the incredible families who are signing on to share their journeys and their stories, we're going to cover everything. We're going to cover parenting, pregnancy, dating, potty training, sleep training, marriage, the best kids' books. There's a bunch of like comedy involved. There's healthy eating for families, family advice, engagement, so much more.

And I do want to emphasize that when we say celebrating families, that's family defined in every possible way you could imagine. So single parents, people who are trying to start a family, people who are looking for a spouse of any kind, adoption. those with different needs those who are widowed the whole spectrum we're trying to speak to you because I think that family is the one glue that can unite us as a country and as a world and so that's why we feel so passionate about this and look you have like all these different media outlets that honestly they make money by polarizing people and like inflaming

anger or like all these different emotions and putting one party against another and shot and i step back and we were trying to figure out is there a way that we can create media without having to villainize another party um and this is our solution to it so like family is the one thing that whether you're a politician or you're uh an athlete or whatever your role is if you're having a birth of a child everyone's going to understand and like give you like they get it like family is the most important thing and that's why this is such a special opportunity we have here yeah uh before we start bringing on the team which they're all cringing at this idea um if you guys would like to look up family made check us out follow us you guys can find us at family made dot com on instagram we are at the family

made linkin or family made facebook family made everywhere you can imagine we are family made We have a LinkedIn, babe. Can you believe that? I don't think I even have a LinkedIn. You do. Oh, thank you. You just published an article in there, actually. Great, great, great.

Okay. Also, make sure you give us a follow on Instagram for some really fun and adorable videos that we're posting daily and subscribe on our website to become a member of the family-made community. We have a forum to kind of like connect all the dots for you guys. Baby Formula Exchange is actually on Family Made Forum,

trying, again, to connect as many. many people in the world is possible under family content and reasons. Yes. Okay. So now about the team. It's been fun to see how things have unfolded the past couple years and how the team has grown. And you're going to meet the head honchos around here. Yeah.

But if you know anything about like Lexi, she's made some cameos on Instagram stories. Lexi's the OG. Lexi's the OG. If you've ever bought merch, then. Ben has been your guy, Benjamin. My bad, bro. My bad. If you've ever watched the video, then Caroline has been in charge of editing it.

AKA Roe. And if you've noticed that our storylines are making way more sense than Jenny is the genius behind that. But you also have seen, like we have the studio space where we have been filming podcasts and other families have been filming shows and content. And we also built an office. Yeah. If you guys would like to see that, it's actually on YouTube. We did like an office tour, but we actually sit around a conference table every day now

and talk as a team, which is wild. It's like a real business. I wish you could have seen what our lifestyle looked like before we hired Lexi. Actually, no, when we hired Lexi. I think Lexi was like, I don't, you guys don't know what you're doing. Should we, let's just start with Lexi. Lexi, your first stop. Come on.

Lexi was so kind to wear a hat big enough for all of us to wear all of our heads. Oh, I'm holding the fashion decisions here at Family Meets, especially in. Hello, Lexi. Welcome. Lexi, how long have you been with us? A little over three years, actually. That's crazy. Wow.

What do you do? What do I do? We're still trying to figure that out. Head of Operations is your title. Great. I feel like the title changes every day. We just figured that out right now. Follow me in Winston, Lexi.

Family made. I try to help and make your life easier. I think that that's the core of what I do. Lexi has shared every vision and dream. Wild idea we've had for the past three years. When she first came on, we were making slime videos on YouTube. And she's the reason why you single-handedly, like, encourage us to, like, do bigger and better things,

which is really fun and really cool. I think I was just there to help again. You guys thought of the vision. I supported it. I helped you get there. But yeah, it's been like two years thinking about family made. Yeah.

Truthfully. I'm curious from your perspective, how have things grown and changed? Oh my gosh. Since a little over three years ago. Well, my first day I sat at the kitchen table with Sean for like an hour and Andrew Face timed in. That was our office,

your kitchen and your dining room table. And then my second year, we graduated to the studio in the guest bed. bedroom upstairs and then in Drew's playroom was our office yeah yeah literally and then the thought of then the thought of an office came in 2020 of November 2020 when you guys are like hey I think we're gonna like get a house and renovate it and make it a content studio for us so and here we are here we are in this beautiful studio it's come a long way do you remember when we used to pay you on PayPal yeah literally PayPal like it may have been through like cash app or something also I don't think that's

So we probably shouldn't. It was really fun for taxing purposes. Now we have like health insurance plans. Now we're like actually a legit company. We have like a team of six. It's hilarious. We should talk about the first couple things episode. Oh God.

Holy smokes. No, that should never be really. They're literally not exaggerating when they said they did like that six times. I think it took us like three days in total. It was like three takes the first day and then it was like, yeah, we're just not going to do this. The reason why is because Drew was two weeks old and Andrew. was like, I started a podcast for us. And it's already charting because you made it like a big thing.

And he's like, we have to film the first episode. And I was like, you're out of your mind. Yeah. And so every time we sat down to film it, we just got in an argument. But in a lot of ways, that was the origin of a family made. Yeah. So we are starting in the podcast space and we're creating different shows that will all be hosted the video format on the couple things channel,

which we're going to convert here soon. But then on like the Apple Podcast app, you'll notice that there's a channel for a family made that you can click into and see all the different shows that we're putting out but Lexi if you ever receive an email from our team it's probably from Lexi

if you ever have like coordination questions really you want anything done Lexi's a person Lexi's it and we did just we're still working on the title but head of operations is the working we don't really have titles here yet although we do have health insurance

did I say that everybody's like I don't know what we do Lexi is like the I always call her. She's my boss. She's literally my boss. Yeah, she's pretty much the boss. She keeps the ship afloat. Lexi, can I just say this?

That's the thing. Well, this is your first podcast episode. I love it. You do a great job. You're great at what your job is. I did chat, you're great at your job, is what I meant to say. Thank you.

And it's been really cool to see you, like, you were going to start a pizza shop or something. Yes, actually it was. And now you're freaking. Should I still? Out here. Good time. Now you're out here making place.

I appreciate you guys. It's dope. None of this would be possible without you too, so thank you. You're giving us all a vision and a purpose. I give us 10%. I'd give you 90% of that. None of this would have happened without you. The conjuring last rites.

On September 5th. I come down here with you. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Oh, right! The Conjuring Last Rites. Only in theater September 5th.

The other cool thing is Lexi just got engaged, so we did a Who Knows Me Better video, if you remember that. Oh, yeah. And I did know her better. Please, that is up for debate. Go watch and tell her I knew her better. And you asked me to her by saying. I did, yeah. I was so cool.

Oh, I shouldn't have told that. entire video for you. Oh, take that out. Caroline. The fun thing, though, about us creating family-oriented content is a lot of people on the team are like at different phases of where they're, they're at in that journey. So Lexi just got engaged. Yes.

I will also say this. I think Sean and Andrew create an environment that is like a family. Like, it does feel like a family here. So thank you for doing that. Wow. For better or for worse. Unfortunately, you're stuck with me. I do treat them like brother and sister most of the time, though.

I will say. It's like, no. do your work why are you all right who's up next on stage who's up next let's bring on

Caroline was our second hire yeah come on row yeah I would describe Caroline as the sneaky cat that's what I always say

you like I can't wait for you to just really feel Caroline's awkwardness through the camera it's gonna come through stuff Caroline how do I follow Lexi we're going to do this really quick

Caroline is our head of content so our head our head editor I like me on that side better she is she is like she keeps a pulse on all the trends going on on YouTube on TikTok and all the things and we'll help our content ideation so like any short form video we film any podcast we film will like throw it on a board and then Caroline will kind of wean it down to be like no this is going to be the best version of it and then she'll also edit it and like lead the team of editors if you're following failing made on instagram or anywhere especially even our content and all the content you'll start seeing caroline is the genius behind editing it

in a way where we can get the message across and the mission across and make sure it's like wholesome good heart content i feel like i'm breathing really loudly you can you can lower your volume later I'm just cutting myself out of this I'm so happy I'm editing Wait didn't you make an appearance on a really famous TV show Okay Yes Put the mic not in the middle of your face

I'm so sorry This is good Someone needs to listen I was just as awkward on that So Which show? It was the tonight show Casual

But it was for my dog mostly Who is Tuesday? Yes And Tuesday has her own account on TikTok. Yes. Guide me. I need her.

Why do you love the social media content world? I don't know. I think it's a lot of fun. I feel like we can help a lot of people while also putting some good out in the world. I truly believe we all, our entire team agreed that like there's, For a lack of a better word, too much, like, clickbait and, like, poor influence being posted out there, whether it's, like, inappropriate or trashy or, like, thinking about our kids, we want all the content we can post out there to be something that I would want my daughter to watch. And we all kind of shared that thought. Tell the story about you coming to work with us.

You put us on your vision board that you wanted to work with that. or something. Full time. I did. I did like a, every year I do kind of like a New Year's vision board. And I gave myself one year to go from being like a contractor to being full time with you guys. Wow. And you did it.

And you're crushing. Now you're stuck with us forever. Now I'm sitting in this chair, stumbling over my words. If anybody out there is listening who watches New Girl, please close your eyes and picture Nick doing his awkward moonwalk. backwards that is Caroline it's the best you're the life of the party no Caroline actually it's been super clutch to have her because as we've been growing our family with two kids we have less time to like consume content and I'm a YouTube geek I freaking love it I live for it but I have had not I have not had as much time to like keep up with it

to know what's going on because it's always changing there's always something yeah so you're our like you're our person for that and you also So I love editing, and I had to pass that off. And you are a trustworthy person for that. You've done a great job, Ro. Well done. Thanks for giving me a shot. That's great.

I don't think anybody will ever be able to see your face because your microphone's been covering the entire time. I also want to say, and like, this isn't about you, but in the nicest way possible, it hasn't always been like our team. We've really been searching for, like, the perfect people. And every single person you're going to meet today, like want around my kids and I want like in our family forever because they're amazing human beings that are like pretty legit also on the family journey aspect Lexi's engaged

Caroline's dating shut up no no she's in the dating what oh I thought you said you're like dating someone I was like I don't know this that's where she's at yeah yeah that's where she's Are you actually, do you have a boyfriend? No, I do not have a boyfriend. Oh, she's, you're on the dating apps. I just add her tinder name here. How else can I say that? Flash here.

Here, free promotion. I'm 26 years old from Ridgewood, New Jersey. Don't give away all your freaking personal information. Social security numbers is great. I would that. Thanks, Roe. Thank you. Thank you, Roe is our boots on the ground here in Nashville.

We have like a lot of editors. yeah all over the place shout out to kim who we've been working with for such a long even longer than yes even longer than lexie yeah kim is the o g kim is the o g sorry lex kim i love kim yeah kim has been with us for seven years kim okampo that's what we're talking about seven years i don't know seven or eight years she lives in a different country like for privacy reasons we probably shouldn't say yeah um and she's a amazing. We've gone through, like, she did her dissertation. Yeah. She graduated graduate school. She had, like, she's gone through so many life changes. It's been awesome to me with her.

She's been so generous to us, too. So Kim was E-O-G. But she worked closely with Caroline. All right, next up, Ginny. Let's go. Ginny Rav. Yeah. Tim's new scrambled egg loaded croissant. Or is it croissant? No matter how you say it, start your day with Freshly cracked scrambled eggs loaded on a buttery, flaky croissant. Try it with maple brown butter today at Tim's at participating restaurants in Canada for limited time. Real quick, none of this would be possible without our generous supporters. And today's show is brought to you by BetterHelp. You know what I'm excited for, babe?

What, babe. I'm excited about the future of this podcast, of this network, and of families in general. I am too. It's been a dream we've had for a really long time, which is really exciting. I will say, though, I'm also thankful for resources like BetterHelp because stress can show up in so many different ways, whether you're talking about raising kids or building a business. And in a world that's telling you to do more and sleep less and grind all the time, here's a reminder to take care of yourself, do less, and maybe try some therapy. I could not agree more. I feel like going to therapy

used to have this negative connotation, but honestly, it's great to just talk with someone on a regular basis. And BetterHelp is customize online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat sessions with your therapist. So you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. And it's also much more affordable than in-person therapy. Give it a try and see if online therapy can help lower your stress. Our couple of things listeners will get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash Eastpham. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-H-E-L-P.com slash EastFam. We'll also link it down below. Let's get back to it. Jenny, welcome. Welcome to the team intro here.

Thank you. This is Jenny's, I guess, second week full time. Is that right? Yeah, it's like day six. Day six. Day six. Day seven. Yeah. Have you been on a show before that you've produced?

I have. Well, not as like a regular. I did play a couple games and I was an elf during Christmas time. She'd get a great elf. no that's like what this is you want to see i'd actually have a better cindy loo ready oh my god that's a pretty good cindy loo i'll sing yeah uh jenny keeps us in stitches around the office i literally might maybe the funniest yeah uh what's your background jenny like what kind like how i was raised you're i don't have any felonies like my i don't have any felonies like

My work background or like how I was raised. No. Work background, dude. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Okay, so I was raised in Florida. I went to Florida State. I didn't ask about that.

I didn't ask about that. But this, but this went to. And then I did, in college, I did an internship at the Rachel Ray show in New York. And I finished school online. And then from there, I got hired at the Ellen DeGeneres show. And then I was at the Ellen DeGeneres show for seven years. Started as a PA and it as a producer. And then the show just ended.

And then we snatched you up. She finally made a big time and made it with the family made. Congratulations. Jenny is our executive producer. Is that the highest level producer? Is that the biggest title it can give you? Whatever title you want, that is a large title. I also sometimes like executive producers do like finance.

Maybe. I don't know. I don't do finance. Would you like to? Probably not. I'm glad you said that because we need someone to take the finances over. Yeah, Caroline. She's great at math.

I'm not letting her touch the finances. No. chance not with a six foot pole i will say jenny is an absolute genius because we have all these ideas in our head of like words we want to tell you guys but we don't know how to make them coherent and like have a purpose and meaning and you can literally take any story and like make it come to life and it's really fun it's really cool thank you also you're a great researcher yeah you're hilarious yourself i i i predict in the future that jenny will have her own show she should on the network honestly i would just die laughing the whole time.

But Jenny, what is the role of a producer? Can you fill me in? So I think it's like today we want to talk about how to put yourself out there for dating. Yeah. Cool. If I wanted to put myself out there for dating, which I don't. What would I want to know?

And so then it's like, you know, doing some research on how many people are looking to date. you know what are the resources are they doing online dating are they going on dates and then how to help those people so it's kind of just putting together concise list and then you guys bring your fun personalities and then people are like wow Sean and Andrew told me to put myself out for a date I should do this and then they go and live happily ever after that's that was really well said Jenny thank you I guess you've been doing it for a long enough to be able to she's like the professional storyteller here's the thing though with all videos I feel like the heart of it needs be a story. And if you watch some of our earlier video, Sean and I, there was no story.

It was like a just random... How have you seen those? Random collection of clips. They were so bad. But Ginny will like form a storyline. So like even if it's a vlog, it'll be like, oh, hey, today this is the story arc. And we're going to start off with a goal of going to the water park. And then we're going to have this happens.

And it's less like, it's not like we're shaping a daily vlog. But as the video comes together, Ginny really helps give it shape and make it shape and make it make sense um but then also i was going to say and with family made because we are creating so many more shows with so many more families and people we really wanted the authenticity and like mission of family made to stay true and jenny does a phenomenal job at like making sure everybody fits the brand and is you know a good influence for all the content we're putting out there and kind of sharing the stories and in the way that should be told it's also like kind of the hardest role too because well our niche like the family creators it's tough because all of them have kids mostly

right or like a lot of other things going on and so jenny's role is to make the videos as easy to film as possible so like with the with the one sheet they'll just have to read through it and like go through the exercises that jinnies jennie's already done a hard work you know so you do a good job thanks guys yeah happy to be here really happy i did say really quick I when when my job ended I was like okay the next thing I do I want to make sure that it's like I love I love it I get to spend time with my family I get to spend time with my husband and I just am like pumped to go to work and truly this is the most fun job day seven day literally seven but ask me on day nine I change their mind no but but it's been so fun and like the people that work here I am with them during the day and then I go home and then I talk to them the entire day and I'm And then also Caroline lives in my neighborhood, which is also a whole other dynamic. So it's like, it's literally a family. We're just going to start a compound.

Yeah, we're all going to live. We all live together. Door to door. Yeah. Yes. Yes. This is literally my best. But yeah, it's really fun.

This is the best, this is the best job. Love it. Love everyone here. Talented, talented, talented, talented. Wow. Well, thank you, Jenny. Jenny is married pre-kids. She's married and has an awesome.

some husband. Yeah. Shout out Chris Rob. We have, we, shout out Chris Rav. We have a lot of mutual friends too, so that's funny how that pan out. But, Jen. Happy to be here. Let's do that one more time.

All right. Oh, my gosh. You just slammed her. Okay. It's right. I broke my arm. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Uh, man. We should hire an HR person. Yeah. Okay. And then our newest edition here, Benjamin Hayes, welcome to the show. Yes. No, your bridal scar is dope. Is it really?

Yes. Wow, look at it right there. Scars are like stories for life. That's so cool. Benjamin is our creative director. Actually hasn't officially started yet. Yeah, when this airs, I might have started. Is it?

Yes. I've been freelance for a year. You have been freelancing for a year. And you're getting ready to be full time. We're so excited. I met Sean when she was pregnant with Jet, which is crazy. I completely forgot that whole year. Yep.

Yeah. Also, funny story about Lexi. So, Lexi's been with us three years and gone through two pregnancies with Lexi. I think it was year, it was around like the two and a half year mark. I randomly asked Lexi one day. I was like, so have you like met any friends here or like completely pregnancy just like years disappear? And in my mind, I was like, she's been here for maybe three or four months. Like, have you met any friends?

She's like, Sean, I have friends. I've lived here almost three years. One of which is Benjamin. Yes. And here we are. So Lexi made the intro. Yep. Made it happen.

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Sean and I work in different ways very is we'll just throw something out there you throw something out there let's let's start a podcast network and then it's up to all these people to actually make it make it happen so benjamin is doing uh all like the the branding which i've grown an appreciation for how important that is yeah um and and like giving each show a personality if that makes sense and having that personality apparent and also showing the values of what they're about as well as a whole network um and then also you're in charge of like the merch and products as well yeah uh which yeah I went to fashion school and I knew I didn't really want to go into, yeah, casual. I knew I didn't want to go into like high-end couture.

I wanted to do like the everyday clothing for people and merch is like the blend of arts and clothing. What do you love about merch? Oh my gosh. It's a way for a creator or a band or an artist to express themselves through clothing. And I think that's like the perfect combination of me. Wow. Oh, deep, deep. Very poetic.

Yes. So if you join us on tour, all that merch was Benjamin Hayes design. Yes. And we also keep an eye out because we're excited to have merch. I guess this will be 3.0, really. So Sean and I did merch. It was horrendous. I apologize.

No, no, no, no. We got better. And it ended up being closer to a week. You and I created word art on Photoshop. And we're like, put it on a t-shirt. yeah that scares me Benjamin that actually happened we started off with back in the day

the YouTube community just wanted merch that had like the name of the creator on it so we just had East Fam and then like literally as soon as that came out we were like wait why the heck did we just do that why are we having people walk around with our names on there didn't like it but Benjamin we're really excited to have him

because he's going to help create kind of like a tangible version of what we're doing here and come out with products that help match the brand, whether that be merch or other things. And we'll probably have unique lines of merch for each show and each family and each mission and each kind of like theme and subject we're covering. We truly want to like, again, connect people by what they get to wear

and how they get to express themselves and what they're going through and the stage of life they're in. uh benjamin is also a youtube geek oh yeah big time tell us about your background there why do you love this oh my gosh i remember like the first time watching chocolate rain like 13 years ago and i was like so obsessed with the idea that people could just watch short form tv and then i got super into it during quarantine became obsessed with a bunch of different YouTube channels and then realized I kind of wanted to go into that world. Let's go, bro.

Lexi's a dear friend of mine. She got me in contact with you all and then she's in my wedding. What? Speaking of, you're engaged. I am engaged. Which is so fun. It took a long time. Only about 10 and a half years.

We made it though. Benjamin Rupont to have you. Very excited to be here. You have a really unique skill set. Also like Caroline and I don't even know if Jenny and Lexi like YouTube as a whole. but I watch it for hours a day okay

that's why I don't sleep at night but I remember to Benjamin's credit he showed up our first time meeting and we were trying to conceptualize that was like

the first family made meeting that we had and you came up branding family made that was crazy and he came so prepared which preparedness

is rare to find and family made and so we're happy to have you and your skill set here been excited to be here let's go bro thanks for the invite let's go thanks for the invite i wanted to if we could babe talk about what's on the horizon here how things are going to work what's going to look

different what's not going to look different and then we'll close out we're casual that's a lot um okay so how this is going to work let me start with how things are going to look different and how they're not going to look different so how they're not going to look different is our content is the same we still want to share our life with you guys. We still want to do YouTube. We still want to post everything the East fam that we do. Our Instagrams will stay the same. Our Facebook, our TikToks, all of it. We'll continue posting all the content that we love to create and share with you guys. How things will look different, though, is on top of our family, sharing our story across all the platforms, we're now going to be helping other families do the same exact thing

and sharing their unique stories and what they're going through in very creative ways. So there's so many incredible people out there who have so much to share with you that I feel like the world can relate to. And we just want to help them do what we do. I don't know that sounds maybe weird, but there's so many people who want to post TikToks and they want to have a YouTube show or a YouTube show and they want to have a podcast and they want to be able to share their mission in life with you all. So we're just going to kind of lift them up and help them kind of develop everything that they want to within their own branding and their own vibe. But it will be under the umbrella

of the family made. So if you go to Family Made, you can find all of the shows and all of the people that we are endorsing and loving and wanting the world to see as well. Yes. So the YouTube channel, a couple things, is going to convert to the Family Made. That's where all the

video shows will be hosted. And we're starting with podcasts initially to help produce these shows. We have the website, which will kind of be a go-to source for the shows that you can find, but also we put a forum on there, which we're really excited about, and it's already been exploding because of the baby formula shortage and how we're trying to attack a solution

for that. But the forum we view is a really interesting outlet in addition to what we're building because we spoke about the miscarriage video earlier. When that got published, there were like 20,000 plus comments that people wrote in and poured their heart out, right? and every day our DMs are filled with people pouring their heart out sharing their stories and that's what we want to encourage like and we read all of those the bummer is there's no way to share those stories in a meaningful way or um it's hard to respond to thousands of messages a day and also YouTube deleted all the comments uh because of their we're just not in control the platforms or all those 20,000 comments plus got deleted which is such a bummer. So the forum is a place that people can go and share their stories and connect with other people who have similar stories. And it's searchable. It's permanent. It's like organized in a way

better way. And we've integrated it into the website and all we're doing so that each topic has like this continued conversation and it's not just like isolated. So we're really excited about that. but we also have the Instagram and a lot more to come, including a newsletter, which you should keep an eye out for. There's already hundreds of thousands of people subscribe to that. So we're excited to kind of create a strategy around that and really deliver more content and more value through written media as well. We have been on the hunt to find families from every walk of life, every different race,

religion, belief, lifestyle, basically, you name it. We want to cover all of it. And we're really excited with all of the shows we're going to be launching with because these people are so special and they just have amazing stories. It's families with a lot of kids, families from families who talk about adoption, special needs, IVF, marriage, relationship, dating, loss, inner, abled relationship, interracial relationship, so many different categories, and they're all covered, which is really cool.

I feel so strongly about this. I feel like families shape individuals that shape communities that shape the world. And so we're excited to help contribute to that in some way. But we honestly just have felt so connected over the years to you, our audience, and are so grateful for everything that you have done for us, engagement, the interactions, the messages that you've poured out. That's why we do what we do.

And we're honored to hopefully continue doing this for a long time and doing it better with more people because we feel like we're generally friends and family with so many of you. And we view this as a way that we can connect deeper. So whether you're in a good phase of life or a hard season of life, we hope that we can reach you and serve. review in the best way possible so the reminders some fun merch is coming we're rebrand we are rebranding youtube we're going to be rebranding couple things we're going to be converting everything to family made and kind of showing you guys where to go make sure you follow us on instagram on youtube on everything under the family made check out the website check out the forum and follow along because

it's going to be a really fun year and i i feel like it's going to grow very fast so join us in the journey guys that's right and just so you know i'm going to say this because i didn't say this yet the values of what we're about we're always enforcing positivity and that goes from the videos that we're product they're creating to the comments of responding to uh we're always trying to uh kind of tap into authenticity and so share our stories and and allow them to be conversation starters in a way that doesn't undermine our immediate family, but in a way that can encourage you. And we're trying to educate where appropriate and entertain always.

And encourage kindness. Yes. Always. So that's what you can find here on Family Made. We're so excited for this next phase. Let us know your thoughts. Let us know if you have any shows. If you can help us out, we clearly need it.

We have so many generous people who are helping contribute to this mission. and we're excited to build this alongside you. So there you have it, babe. That's all we got. I'm excited for this. Me too. Ready to party? Oh, yes.

I'm Andrew. I'm Sean. And we're the East fam. Out.