Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 172 | Living purposely with Brian and Sonia Nhira

Episode Date: July 26, 2023

We’re so excited to introduce you to Brian and Sonia Nhira, the hosts of the podcast “Growing with the Nhiras” that you can find on our network, FamilyMade! We got to be the first guests on their third season and it was seriously one of our favorite interviews we’ve ever done. Seriously. In this episode, we shared the full interview with all of you and we hope you love it as much as we loved recording it! To find out more about the “Growing with the Nhiras” podcast, check out the links below. We’d like to thank the sponsor of today’s episode, Needed! Needed is the leading women’s health supplement brand recommended by nutritionally-trained practitioners. Check out thisisneeded.com and use code FAMILYMADE for 20% off! That's code FAMILYMADE for 20% off. Growing with the Nhiras on YouTube ▶ https://www.youtube.com/@soniabrian Apple Podcasts ▶ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/growing-with-the-nhiras/id1638448300 The Nhiras Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/thenhiras/?hl=en Follow Shawn’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Shawn’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/AndrewDEast Love you guys! Shawn and Andrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groom lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered. A cabana? That's a no. But a banana, that's a yes. A nice tan, sorry, nope. But a box fan, happily yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats.

Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by Regency app for details. The first time I saw her smile, I was like, that's an angel right there. Wow. And then she didn't talk to me. She ghosted me for nine months. That's what Queens did. And I was like, I was like, I was hustling on the phone. I was like, all right, what do I got to do to get her attention?

But then she finally gave me one other chance. I guess I. And I fell in love on the second date. And I remember calling my mom and I was like, I feel like this is the guy I could marry. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. What's Sean and Andrew. A podcast all about.

couples and the things they go through today we are sitting down with brian and sonia nira this is going to be a different episode in a lot of different ways do you want to tell them why we have said to date that this is our favorite interview we have ever done and i think it's because this is actually an interview where they are interviewing us yes we loved it so much we wanted to share it with you guys on our channel that's right and we love it because they challenged us so much with our questions because they took it a step further. It was always a little bit deeper. They would ask why, where did it come from?

And as a couple, it sparked a deeper conversation between you and I than we've had in a really long time. That's right. We talked about a lot of different things, including what we want our legacy to be. What was it that attracted us to each other during the dating process beyond just the high level things and a lot of different things? But this also serves as a bit of a teaser to Brian and Sonia's podcast that they have that this was a part of called Growing with the Nira's. And if you enjoyed this episode, then you'll enjoy the rest of their episodes because you're going to see in this episode big smiles, big laughs, interesting questions.

And I just think they're wonderful people. I want to spend time with them. They are so passionate about helping other couples connect and grow within their family by asking these deep questions and sparking really good conversations. but to give you like a little glimpse as to what some of their other episodes are about, they talk about unrealistic expectations on a marriage, which is amazing, how to resolve conflict, how to thrive in your season of singleness, which is not us, babe, and staying connected in busy seasons of life plus more. All of their episodes can be found on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts,

and on their YouTube channel, which you have to go check out because, like Andrew alluded to earlier, they probably have the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen. It's amazing. It's amazing. So thank you to Brian and Sonia for joining us on the show. Thank you for joining the network Family Made. We've enjoyed getting to know you. And if you want to find out more and learn more about Brian and Sonia and what they're up to,

then we'll include links down below. But let's roll into this with Brian and Sonia Nira. Welcome to Growing with the Nira's podcast, presented by Family Made Media. We are the Niras and we're on a journey to learn and grow with you in the areas of faith, purpose, and relationships. Oh, my goodness. I am so excited about this podcast. Yes. I'm a little nervous.

I am too. I'm a little nervous right now. No. My lips is sweating. We are clearly, clearly, clearly in the presence of greatness. Yes. Before I, before I say their names, I'm going to read their bio. Come on.

Well, their bio says their name, so let me honestly say. We have, we have Andrew and Sean Johnson East with us today. day. Andrew is a former professional football player turned entrepreneur and social media personality from Indianapolis, Indiana. That's correct, right? That's right. That's right. Sean Johnson East is an accomplished gymnast that's like a very, very, very, very understated way of putting it. Author and television personality as a couple, Andrew and Sean have documented their personal and professional lives on social media, allowing their fans to follow their journey as parents, entrepreneurs, and advocates for healthy living.

Their most recent venture, family-made media, which we are so blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of that family, is an online network created to help celebrate and connect families on their journey wherever they may be. They continue to inspire millions, literally millions of people through their individual achievements and their shared commitment to make a positive impact in the world. please welcome to the Growing with the Nearest podcast, Andrew and Sean Johnson. I know that that makes you feel wildly uncomfortable. But you know what?

We are so adamant about giving honor where honor is due. And so, you know, we just wanted to make sure that we honor you correctly on this podcast. How are you guys doing? Well, hold on. First of all, giving honor where honors do, we are in a church. So let's give honor where honor is doing. All right. Also, who wrote that up?

Was that a chat GPT? Just like, hey, give you the bio? I peruse the internet. Okay. It's great. It's great. Well, one of the things that was most important that wasn't in there, you guys are wife, husband, mom, dad.

I don't know how I've been. Beautiful children. Thank you. So cute. Yeah. And one of the things that I noticed about you guys when we first met is you're still connected. Yeah, you're so connected.

Like, even you. you guys sat down and held hands. I'm like, that's so special. I love being around couples that love each other and I've been doing marriage for a long time. Yeah. It's a big deal. So I'm so grateful to be around, obviously, just who you are in general, but just a great marriage. Thank you. It takes a lot of work. Yeah. A lot of work. I think marriage is the coolest thing ever invented, dude. Yeah. I'm a big fan. Why is that? All right. So, you know, we're on Instagram every now and then. You see people jumping in the ice baths. They're like, oh, you want to do something hard, jump in the ice bath for three minutes. You'll find

something out about yourself. Or like, you know, people are all about like self-development. And I don't think there's any better tool for it than marriage. And self-development is not the goal for marriage, but it's an awesome side effect. And I think, I think it's just the best at that. It's like, Sean and I will get in an argument and it's like, all right, we've had this conversation 90 times and it's ended in tears every time but this go around we're going to do something different and it like it forces you to say okay maybe I'm the problem you know wow we didn't interview with a couple who said it like more wisely than we've heard yet it was basically like if you trust your spouse enough to get married then you should trust that they're the most

realistic mirror of yourself so whenever whenever he with the way he explained he's like When my wife comes to me and says, I am acting like this, instead of being defensive, I have to trust that she's right. And that's really hard. Yeah. Yeah. Where do you, where do you, where did you get that grid for marriage? Like where did that come from for you guys?

I would say I started kind of learning that grid of marriage through my parents. My parents met, to summarize a very long love story. They met when they were 12 at a roller rink. They got married at 16 before they even graduated high school to kind of get each other out of very poor situations. They had a very hard marriage, but a beautiful one. And they didn't have me until they were in their 30s. And I'm an only child.

And they have just fought to connect and be in love and stay together through everything. And I loved watching that. There was nothing they couldn't get through, like nothing. Yeah. I have pretty awesome parents, too. Yeah. But I think when we started, you know, sharing our lives on YouTube and people were like, hey, you guys are a couple goals and how do you do what you do?

It was really a good challenge for us to say, well, we should learn as much as we can about marriage and learn all the lingo and the vocab. Wow. And so we're still in the process of learning, but it's been really fun to, like, say okay well people are looking to us for some sort of advice or inspiration and how do we what do we do with that how we manage that in a wise way you know well and not to make it like bring it back to like a church but i i my favorite thing about our marriage journey when people started saying your couple goals in the back of my mind i was like well if only you knew like what our relationship really looked like i feel like you have that same feeling in a church yeah and we just

kind of got so tired of reading all these tabloids saying and like you have a perfect marriage, it's going to end in a divorce. Yeah. And so we started just interviewing people and kind of going down this road of how can we make it work no matter what because no marriage is perfect nor will ever be. And how can we make it the most beautiful thing, which has been fun. I love that. That's amazing.

Oh, that's so beautiful. Okay, speaking of love stories, you know, one of the first questions we always love to ask. We always ask. It's like, you know, how did you fall in love? you meet what was that process like have you fallen in love yet you think it's taking Sean's moving a little slower now first time I met Sean Andrew I believe that you fell in love the first time you saw I really did that's so sweet that is so sweet the first time I saw her smile I was like that's an angel right there wow and then she she didn't talk to me she ghosted me for nine months that's what

queens do I tell you I did I was like I was hustling on the phone. I was like, all right, what do I got to do to get her attention? But then she finally gave me one other chance. I guess I... And I fell in love on the second date. And I remember calling my mom and I was like, I feel like this is the guy I could marry. Wow.

Yeah. But I made you work for it. I'm sorry. I want to hear some of that story. I want to hear like, I want to hear like the inception, like the ground works of that love story. So I had met Andrew's oldest brother at the Olympics. He was a USA

cyclist at the Olympics competing we met each other at an event we just got to talking all he wanted to talk about was Atlas Shrugged the book. You've never heard of that book? I've never heard of it. What is it? It's wild. It's wild. He said don't even. It's like, bro, it's this thick and I think

it's a one of the, anyway, go ahead. It's unlike the philosophy of life. It's wild. And it was one of those conversations I was like, we were, it was a good conversation, but at the end of it was like, okay, I don't know what to take away from this. And at the end of it, he's like, If you take away anything from our conversation, it's that I feel like you should meet my younger brother.

We should go to Vanderbilt University instead of Stanford. And you should, like, you should just meet him. Just meet him. And fast forward, we came back to the U.S. I was living in Los Angeles. He had a race there. Andrew flew out. We went on a first date,

and I just couldn't figure out how it would work. I'm such like a plan the future person, type A. and I couldn't see how it worked. Wow. She was doing dancing with the stars, all these TV shows. I was in college playing football. So I was like just way different lives. Yeah.

Completely polar opposite at the time. And you were the most endearing person I'd ever met. Like everything that I could have dreamt of. And I remember having that feeling of like you're way too good for me. Like I've lived this really, I don't want to say like rough life. So. But like I have lived this. life where he was like the image of perfection like prayed before dinner which i had lived in

los angeles for so long up until that point i had such a tainted image of of humans in the world but he's what i wanted as a little kid and i was like i i'm too far gone for this yeah and all right meanwhile that might have been going on under the surface but we're on this date it was like probably three hours we spent together that first time we met we went to like seven different restaurants I was crushing food like left I had an entree wait wait wait wait so we were like sampling it was my first time in LA yeah it was like I was eating entre so but I was cracking jokes dude I mean I was I was on a roll and she was nothing I literally got the one smile that I told you made me fall in love with her was like the end of the night I was like saying

goodbye and I said something dumb and I finally I finally got a smile to we've never even talked about that we should so I I don't want to, like, go on tangents for hours. Yeah. But now to get, like, dark here. Yeah. But I truly had such a tainted image. Yeah.

I didn't know. Like, I had, I was only 20 years old at the time. I had lived on my own for about three years. I'd been traveling the country since I was 12. I had observed so much of life. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of it was very hard. Yeah.

And I just sat there and watched you all night. Wow. trying to figure out what your motive was because in my mind everyone had it and I just kept coming back to is this kind of for real like is this a is this an act or is this like him and I do remember at the very end of the night you caught me off guard because I was like I actually think this is just him and it was it was so sweet but it also scared me to death because I was like there are actually like it gave me this glimmer of hope for the first time in a long time of like

are there actually these good people still out there? Wow. And then I ran very hard. I was like, no, I can't, I don't deserve this guy. That's what like actually came to my eyes. Literally, we've got

two family made media movies to make. One, your parent's story. I know. And then two you are next. Recreated the first day. That would be painful. to watch. That's amazing. Okay, so Wendy, you're sorry to stay on this for a little bit, but I know

the people want this. They love it. Yeah, yeah. We love it. What broke your wall down? Like, what was the moment that just shattered the veil? That's such a great question. That was like, what happened that? His text messages he texted me

relentlessly for nine months. And I was very harsh. I didn't text him back for a long time. And everything was just so kind and so endearing and so beautiful and you finally sent this one text that just went back to reinforcing this is actually just who he is

and it was the cheesiest kind of weirdest but like so sweet long message and it was like Miss Johnson if football has taught me anything it's how to persevere in life and like oh it was like it was long it's ridiculous this was his final go at it

he was like I will leave you alone all these things but let me give it another shot. Will you accompany me to the CMA Fest? Come to Nashville, meet my friends, like all these things. And I don't know what happened, but I was like, yeah. He did not expect that, by the way. He didn't have tickets to the CMA Fest. He didn't expect me to say, yeah.

So I blew up every contact in my phone. Because I'm a college. You don't have any money. And I'm blowing up everybody. I was like, anybody have free CMA tickets they could give me? Because I got, I promised Sean we'd be in a suite. And I was like, oh, geez. But we made it work, bro.

You made it work. Oh, goodness gracious. Remember we met up with a random guy on the... Yeah, which I didn't understand. The guy who gave us tickets was like, yeah, I'll give you my tickets, but I want to meet Sean. Which, he played it off really well that I never even caught on to it. That was their only thing that you probably did. And then not to go down this dark road again, but when I flew to Nashville,

again, this tainted image of people and intentions and motives, people, because of the Olympics, had, they would throw out all the stops to just like impress with money and material and things that really didn't matter. I remember Andrew picked me up and he showed me this paper towel that he had written a full itinerary on with a Sharpie. I crushed it though.

And the first stop was the Vanderbilt baseball game and I was like, okay, we're gonna go watch a game sitting like a VIP suite or something. And he took me to the top of a parking garage where all of his friends were waiting and they were tailgating and grilling out and he you single-handedly introduced me to all of your friends

and you just you treated me like a human like you actually cared about my heart and not anything of who I was and it just let me like let my guard down and I fell head over heels but it's interesting because with Sean's case she is in such an interesting

her whole story starting when she was 12 as a professional gymnast that's when she turned pro was 12 and she's just lived a way different life but i've thought about this in parallel with almost faith too where it's like sometimes we could let our insecurities be an obstacle for love where it's like you have this like oh i'm not good enough i don't deserve this and it's like it's just a really interesting um when i when i think about our dating story i feel like that plays in where she was like

oh whatever i'm not saying i'm a good guy but that's what she was thinking like he might be too good for me And I was like, dang, don't, don't do that. Like, let me love you. And like now we have kids. It's like the same thing. Like, I just want to love you. Yeah. Oh, it was amazing.

Anyway. That's so special. Oh, my gosh. That's honestly, I really don't like when people like hear a story and then share their own personal story. But I can relate with knowing that, okay, this is somebody for my life. When I have such a high standard. And then the moment, I'm like, oh, actually, my standard, you, pass it and I don't feel worthy, I was like, oh, wow, like this is, I know this is somebody

that the Lord has brought because there's no way my standards are so high, you know, and I just think that's so special and even just seeing your guys' connection and listening to you just look at him when you share it. It's like, wow, that's so special. That is so sweet. And Brian and I are just like, this is the bad thing. It's such a beautiful bird. It really is. We care about people's stories. There's so much thought. Obviously we're pastor. So it's like we look at life through this lens a lot. It's like there's so much intentionality of the great designer to like how he moves our lives around so meticulously. And it's a, it's a masterpiece. And it's like that needs to be appreciated when you hear obstacles that people overcome to be connected. And like you have two

beautiful children. And you guys start a family may meeting. And I'm sure there's so many other things that you guys do that we just don't know about but it's like that matters that is changing the world and I remember so when I was like preparing for me what am I going to ask you know am I going to ask this couple like what actually matters yeah and I was thinking about how when I was in high school you know they usually like your junior and senior you're just they're just pushing it down your throw like what school are you going to go to what degree you're going to blah blah and so I was like I just want to change the world. But like not for my namesake.

Like what can I do that will have the most impact on the world? I don't care if people know my name. Like literally think about Mother Teresa. For real. It's like obviously the Lord elevated her name, but she wasn't in it for that. She was doing the most unglamorous thing. And that usually can be some of the biggest ways to make impact. Because heroes don't usually ever feel like heroes.

But I just reflect on that thought. And I think about the choices that y'all have made together as a couple. Yes. I believe that Family Made Media has the potential to make a massive impact. Yeah. And I just respect that. And I lead into a question of it's like, how did you guys make that choice to, because you could be doing, I'm sure, a million other things.

Yes. You know, there's only so many hours in a day, hours in a week, years that we get to live so it's like why why choose this and use your influence for something of family yeah don't you think it's true that if you were just to objectively step back and say all right well which would be a more interesting life to live which which would create larger ripples is it trying to grow my bank account or buy another vacation house or upgrade my car like that's such a finite capped it's like okay sweet i did i did all this when i was when i was 40 and then i retired and it's like what do you do you just went golfing and it's like okay but let's just like

tim tibo i think has done this so well where it's like yes yes that dude is just he's not made it about himself yeah or his bank accounts or anything it's like oh no he's deflected that and it's actually the impact the the potential of it is so much higher than like me you know and the legacy if you if that's the if that's what you're trying to optimize for is legacy then it definitely is a better strategy to try to build something that's not just for you you know yeah um so yeah and and when we're talking at legacy church right it's like what what is a legacy that matters and it's it's uh it's pointing to you know god yes um so i'll let you answer the family made media but that's my that's my backdrop thought

would say Andrew and I kind of bounced around within like the career path trying to figure out what we wanted to do for a while. We married seven years now and I'd say for five of them it was NFL and then trying to figure out what we wanted to do next and what I wanted to do

and all these different things and the only way I can explain it is every time we found ourselves in a new career path we just kept feeling empty. Wow. It would be fun we'd get traction with it, be successful, whatever or not and at the end of the day we'd be like why are we doing this? Yeah.

Like what, there's no like why behind it other than it works. And Family Made was the first thing that we kind of created and came up with where it was, it was the first question or like, it was the first thing we came up with that we couldn't see how it would be successful, but we had an immediate why. Wow. Come on.

And I feel like up until then, everything we created was swapped. It was kind of like, we know this will work. And we'll figure out the why later. And I remember writing, it was basically family made on a whiteboard five years ago, six years ago. That's out to the anointing on whiteboards. Whiteboards, yeah. And we didn't know what it was, but it was this idea. And we just kept wanting to do something that was purposeful.

And now having babies and seeing how polarized the world is and how much negativity there is, like there is out there and how much negative influence. we said what's the one thing that's kind of given us a foundation and it's been our family and our faith and I think uplifting families is a way to unify a lot of people again and lead by example and if people get curious they'll find faith there yes that's exactly right absolutely yeah it's one of those things where like every day you're like this feels good yeah no matter how it's doing it's like it gets me so excited because if you think about political discussions. This starting point for those

is like Republicans and Democrats. Yeah. And then that's like the operating system that everyone approaches that conversation through. What I think is so cool about families is that it touches all the different you know, hey, how do you deal with technology

or how do you deal with a budget or you know which goes to the household budget all the way to the government budget, whatever. You could teach so many different things through this lens of family. but the foundation is something that everyone can empathize with whether you're a Republican or Democrat

like everyone has some family experience so it's like I think that just lends itself to such a more friendly dialogue and like a healthier conversation than like hey let's just butt heads perpetually to no end like we're seeing on the news or like in politics it's like oh wait

what have we just kind of related to each other on the one thing that we can all talk about and it's like oh you lost your dad or like, yeah, your son's, you know, ill, whatever it is. It's like, that's a, that just is a great starting point, you know? Yeah. There's so much empathy there. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside.

So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.ca. 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 landrover dot ca yeah that is so good i would really love to i want to get more into family made media

and just get into like like you know the intricate details of the vision of family made, but I want to back up and talk a little bit more about influence. And I've kind of had this enamorment with influence since I was in college. And I had like a moment where like the Lord spoke to my heart and he said, hey, in the days that are coming, influence will be the currency of the day. Influence will be the currency that's spent. You know, does that make sense? And obviously, it's become that. And I think that

as I think about influence, influence is meant to be a river that leads to like, proverbially refer to the ocean of impact. And so many people

get caught up with influence as almost like a reservoir that they don't use wisely. How? did you like where was the where was the moment where you were like hey I've been given this influence but I'm not going to spend it on myself I'm going to use this influence and spend it

for the world to for the world to be better does that question make sense yeah yeah do you have an answer for that mr. prime time I I for you I don't know no not for me for you yeah when was that reconciling moment for you I think for me um I mean, seeing the pain in the world, seeing, like, the pain and seeing people injustice, and not just on, like, what we usually see injustice, like, injustice of, like, people not being able to walk in freedom in their heart, freedom in their mind, to live in hope, to live in healing, to live in, you know, a restored life. that's really what, like, awakened my heart to being able to live a life where I spend my influence for impact. You should share the phrase that the Lord gave you in college, like the mission statement. Yes. Oh, for you.

To be an issue. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, well, I was in college. I mean, as I'm doing music, as I'm doing all these different things and just trying to figure out, again, like, why am I doing this? like why in the world have I been called to do this thing? And I felt like what the Lord put in my heart was, you know, to be an instrument of hope, healing, restoration, and inspiration.

And obviously there's mediums, you know, through the medium of music, media, and family. I think family is like coming to the equation more so lately. But I just think it's so important. I look at you guys, I look at you and I'm kind of baffled. I'm like, you all could easily, easily, be a reality star couple who is you know who everybody is you know there's that's not evil that's and that's not evil but it could stop there it could it could stop right there and everybody

just is enamored with you enamored with like the fact that you have a lot of influence and you could literally just bank on that for the rest of your life bank on the fact that you are an influential couple, a power couple in the United States. But it's like, no, you're like, we want to start a family media company. It's powerful. It's really powerful.

It's unbelievable. Could you imagine my mom if we did like a reality TV show? Oh my gosh. That's probably the answer right there is my mom. You got an answer. Well, I was just going to say, the thing that I keep coming back to you is I feel like I lived a wild, vast majority of my life. life at such young age.

And I've always just been by nature, the kind of person that has to learn everything the hard way. Yeah. And I think because I was a kid kind of thrown into such a limelight world, I was influenced by so much that caused depression and eating disorders and insecurities and a lot of pain that I had to learn from. Wow. And I think by the time I started dating Andrew and we got married and we ended up venturing into this world of like intentional influence with social media, I was so hurt by the way influence hurt me that we kind of made it an unintentional mission to make sure everything we put out was for good.

And I think we learned it the hardest way when we posted a video. about our miscarriage. Wow. And it was the first time I desperately needed influence from other people to help me. And when I saw the good that came from it, it kind of repositioned our path to just be like, how can we make sure that every single thing we do, whether it's a goofy video about our marriage or our kids, how can we make sure that every angle it could be viewed in is going to influence someone in a good way?

Wow. it's been it's been so fun to be front seat to Sean's fame you know to whatever degree she has it like to be front row to her walking into a room and and people will just break down in tears because they're like you're my idol I look up to yeah and so you know we started dating I start seeing this and I've always loved I guess like the philosophical discussions whenever they come around and my dad was like an awesome teacher and had this insatiable curiosity so I started thinking like okay well what is like fame is so interesting right it's like here you have this moment where this person who's

looked up to Sean meets her for the first time and there's this you know evocative moment created with tears yeah you know it's like powerful so then what do you do with that it's like okay you you see that 10 times and you're like well what's next like what like is there is there a what do you do with it how do you steward it yeah um thank goodness too by the way that it's been her that's been the big deal and not me otherwise i just i i feel like it could get ugly pretty quick like with the ego but she's been so humble through it all i really don't think so but i do think something that has blessed our career yeah is because i was a kid who went through it i was given a lot more grace as a child than i was as an adult so

my head got way too big for myself. I went through, I did everything wrong. I learned from it. I came back from it. And I think because of that now within our career, I actually think you would never deal with that because you're just too good. And I think there have been many opportunities

for that to happen to both of us. But it will trigger a memory where I'm like, I kind of went down that route when I was 15 or 16 and this is what happened. and so we get to like relive those memories together and we're like yeah I don't think that's worth it yeah yeah well I just want to say you know forget the fact that

like we have mics in front of us and it's being recorded exactly yeah I don't really care about that like thank you for being vulnerable and like it can make me cry because I know so many women that go through miscarriages and like really really scary ones really hard ones yeah and if that's like one

drop in the bucket of the issues that people deal with and to be to have impact is to make yourself vulnerable to the world exactly and that's just yeah that's just what it is and that's when I said earlier I really believe that that statement heroes don't usually feel like heroes people who feel like heroes usually aren't as impactful as I think that they are and I just think you know it's a big deal for you both to put your family on display of for the world in hopes that the world would learn and receive blessing and you know learn and grow and be transformed praise god but that comes at a cost at some point you know and if nobody says has said thank you like thank you yeah like thank you for spending your currency of influence

in this way it's a big deal and you know when we first met like i really meant it when we asked like how can we serve like this vision you know that you have have on your heart and that you built something around it and it's like I really hope that we can serve this vision because we believe in it and we believe in you guys like yeah I know that you're saying you're not humble but a humble person says like I'm not that humble you know it's great you can see the humility that's amongst you and and we're just honored even just to sit here and have a conversation It helps us learn, and that's, for us, our phrase is like learn and grow. Yeah.

Because that's why we're doing this is because we're not claiming we know everything. We just want to have real conversations and really try to learn because we're trying to figure it out. Because family's so important to us. Yeah. I think the world is like, the world is so in need of people who will be rivers. Like people who will live their lives unto something bigger. You know, I think we've just got so many reservations. divorce and so many people who are like just ponds thinking that everything and you know what's interesting

is that if you don't have water flowing out then it becomes a cesspool it becomes toxic yeah you know and so that's the cool thing about just looking at your guys's lives and everything that you guys have done and are doing is like it's always unto something bigger than yourself and did you have said say? I was going to say I'm just glad to know you too. But on on the note of I guess the perspective, I we live by a civil war historic site and there's a plaque there that says we've lost so many of our men, our brothers here on this hill and their names won't be remembered but may the leaves be the crown upon their heads and the shadows be their cloak. And like something about that just I we do this walk all the time and I read that and I think about it and if I think about

our family or our time here on this earth and you think about it in that perspective where it's like man our great grandkids won't know our names but our family we're stewarding our family you know for the next 60 years and our family is not something that like we just started it's been going on for thousands of years and it will continue for a long time after us and so that it's not I don't think the takeaway is to be nihilistic about it and be like well no one's going to remember us hands up and it doesn't matter what we do I think it's more this humbling perspective of okay well we have the next 60 years to steward it and how can we set up the next generation better how can we prepare them how can we equip them to put them in a better situation and I think

when you view it from like a society cultural standpoint too like I think that's a good way to view it where it's like hey our role ultimately like we can probably just be subbed in for somebody else but yeah I want to do the best job I can for the for the time that I have it so anyway yeah oh that's so good that is so good okay I want to talk more about family made media and just like the vision and you took you briefly touched it but I know there's some more layers to it you know why family made why the family what is your passion you know for the family and the future of the family there's a million different visions hey let's go to start with this like the first line that we wanted was I can't stand going on social media and being influenced by such negativity yeah so many things

whether it's promiscuous or vulgar or crude or polarizing it's just it drains you and we live in a world where so much of that consumed your time we said how can we flood social media with good content it can be funny it can be edgy it can be whatever but it can have a good foundation and we kind of said all this effort we're putting into like our platforms why don't we hire a team and do that with every good content creator out there who's got a good mission yeah and yeah i just want to drown out all the negativity especially honestly not even for myself because i've built up i feel like a strong enough armor to defend it but for our kids yes absolutely yeah flood the internet with good stuff i love that i love that yeah simple and good i mean we love for we

have a blast. Yeah. Yeah. That definitely plays into it. But I, I mean, Sean's had this experience of standing on top of the podium at the Olympics. Yeah. Having a gold medal draped over her shoulders, right? But correct me if I'm wrong, I think it's been more fulfilling to be a mom and parent kids. And so, like, the more we could deflect all the attention towards, hey, actually you know accolades are great trophies are nice and shiny but the most important meaningful thing in life are these little guys and it's it's so fun uh i think that would be mission accomplished right that that's that's what the goal is to say look everyone online that you see is trying to make a million dollars or use AI to build the next business or get a six pack and it's

like oh that stuff is fine sure do all that if you're interested in it but don't lose side of the main priority here you know yeah so and we also started reading all these statistics about how common divorces and how the next generation never wants to get married and how the next generation doesn't want to have kids or buy homes or like have any of that foundation that is just good yeah and i'm not saying buying a house is what you need yeah it's having that family whatever it looks like it doesn't need to be biological it doesn't like every family looks different But I feel like a lot of the brokenness in the world is because you don't have that. Yeah.

Agree. I, um, this may take as a tangent. But have you heard of N-D-E-Rs? It's near-death, it's like scientific research of near-death experiences. Yeah. I geek out. There's a book I'll recommend, I'll send you a league, um, where this pastor compiles all of this research from all over the world of people

from different religions, backgrounds. um ages languages of people who had you know medical near death experiences where they die come back and then they have an experience after they die there's various experiences right there's like really nice heavenly experiences and then obviously really dark experiences um what we obviously see described in scripture um and there's all these commonalities of all these different people from all these cultures who have these core experiences that are alike in both places. And there was a pastor in California who was a mega church, you know, had all these ministries, was impacting like the city, taking care of, you know, like single moms, like had all these

crazy ministries impacting their city. He dies is above the table watching him, watching him trying to be resuscitated by the doctors. and the Lord speaks to him and because so many of these people have like these life reviews like either with the Lord or like with an angel and the Lord is present and the Lord says one thing to him while he's looking at his body like on the table and he says do you know your son's best friend's name boom back into his body what was the Lord saying you have not prioritized the highest call. Are you connected to your child enough that you care about his friend's name? So at the end of his life, he has all these accolades and good accolades, right?

Like as a Christian, I'm like, yes, that's the goal, right? But even the Lord was like, but are you connected to your son enough to care about knowing his friend's name? and you know also in that book that I read which I also geek out in general there's so many interviews you can watch in these life experiences the Lord always skips over accolades and it's wild and people will literally be like but what about I won the noble peace prize what's going on we're not talking about that and the Lord will be like yeah but how did what you said to this person

And how did that make them feel? And it's all about loving our neighbor and caring for people. And it just puts into perspective. It's not that those things are bad. They can be really great and they're awesome. And I think the Lord, there is a special place to celebrate accolades. Yeah. But I think the Lord prioritizes, you know, very clearly, you know,

how important he believes, like, the family unit is. Oh, yeah. because before, biblically, before he created the church, he operated in a family. He operated in family lines before he, you know, the New Testament came and he operated in the church. So he's very clear, you know, about how important family is. And I just share that story to say it's like, it's just humbling to think about how important this thing is that FamilyMay Media is reaching to do, which is to uplift the family.

And I'm really honored to be a part of it. Yeah. What's your guys' mission or philosophy as you raise your kids? That's a great question. That's a great question. Make sure that they don't grow up and decide. I'm just kidding. Right now we're like in survival.

It's like survival right now. Make sure that they are alive in three years. A guy saved my son's life multiple times. A little one. You got these steps. Sorry. You need to feel the end break. Oh, yeah.

Go ahead. I feel like for me, man, raising, you know, I have two boys right now. And so, you know, raising two boys who first foremost, like, for me, they love the Lord. And then every outworking of their life being from that, then they love their parents. They love their wife. They love their, then they're able to love their kids and work hard. So I think that for me, like, as I am, and I'm really in the process of thinking about that a lot as my, especially my three-year-old is, is growing older and he's having more conversations

with me. You're like, how do you, first of all, how do you know that phrase? How do you, how can you articulate yourself in this way? Yeah. It's just insane. Yeah. So I think it's very, it's very, for me right now, for us right now, it's very basic in that way. Yeah. Yeah. We are in extended conversations about our family values, our mission. Like I need, I don't just want, I need our boys because they will be men one day. Yeah. Like I need the nearer men to be able to know their mission, be able to state it off, to be anchored in who they are because I need them to go into atmospheres and influence it because influence is not bad. Yeah. And know how to channel that river to glorify God, you know, uplift, protect all those things, right?

Yeah. So I would say we're on a journey and we're super excited because I want our, I want our family culture to be a generational thing. I don't, it may die with us. Yeah. But I really don't want it to. Yeah. You know, I don't want it to.

So I'm going to give my life to raising our family to the highest level of excellence. that I can and I pray that that life's work produces a generational fruit and not just like oh we had a great childhood you know it's like I want you to be set up for when I'm long gone yeah you know I'm hyped I want to I want to hear you talk about like family mission and value as well and I would also love to like you know as a second question like how do you in this season of your life where you guys are like really building a lot you know you're building and family made and then also you just have your lives and careers um how are you staying connected as a family yeah like how are you staying connected to your kids in this process of them growing

even as you're like you're busy let me take a stab at the the family mission yeah we've memorized yeah but we did it we did the mission and so and i told you my goal would be to I've started putting together like a booklet of how do you form a family mission personal values family values form tradition culture like one of the healthy routines to have as a family meetings we have like morning family devotions which sometimes is the only time that Sean and I get sorry we do morning couples devotions but I would say right now it's a work in progress, but members of the East family are comfortable with being uncomfortable

and they do so with exceedingly great joy, exceedingly great joy and with a peace that surpasses understanding. That's amazing. That's amazing. Four are the values. Was it four? Four values, yeah.

No, not off the top of my head. That's amazing. I just love, I love this conversation. Absolutely. Yeah. Come on. interesting that like because that's what we take with us is family traditions you know and it's like okay you have to work hard for that you know it's like gosh doing a family camping trip every year that's a lot of pushback and not everyone's like all on board about it and we're about to have kids that are going to have some opinions soon yeah yeah but like anyway

who's not on board me I don't want to name any names It's hilarious. Glamping is good. Glamping, yeah, I have to get a great RV. Yes. That's so funny. How do you think we stay connected, though? We've put in a lot of boundaries for work, which has, I mean, we're still working on every single day of what doesn't feel good, what does, what keeps us grounded and not.

But I don't know, I think we just make a really big effort when it comes to, like, the balance I don't know how better to describe it other than when things start getting out of balance our whole family is affected and you can feel it and whether it's like separation anxiety

with our kids they don't want you to ever leave you can't even go to work you can feel when your family dynamic is not good and so we just we try really hard to protect that yeah that's so good do you remember what Pastor John from, I don't know where his church is in Europe.

John Norman, yes. He described something that you're talking about, which changed my paradigm of understanding, like discerning when your family needs to recalibrate. And he was like, I can't remember how we, I can't remember exactly how I described it, because like our family, we kind of have a needle, and it's like, you know, work family.

He said, some seasons, you'll just naturally need to go more work. but you know that after the end of that season it has to swing back it can't go to the center it has to swing back yeah more to family and so I love that you just described being able to like discern that as a family and knowing when we need to swing both ways and it's a hard skill to learn and it takes discipline I mean we've even noticed it like planning travel because we'll start planning travel months in advance and they'll be like okay we have to be gone an entire week from the kids.

Yeah. So what's happening the weeks following? We can't like overload work. It has to be, it has to be us and the kids. Are we taking them on their own trip? Are we doing date nights with them?

Are we, like, how can we restore that balance that's too heavy on one side? Yeah. And that doesn't mean like every day is balanced. It's just, you have to kind of figure it. Yeah, absolutely. Do you have trouble with that at all? Or is it something that comes like easy for you?

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Life's the trip. Make the most of it at BestWestern. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Honestly, I feel super fortunate to, the fact that we talk about families on our podcast, really kind of forces us to like, all right, well, we got to make sure our house is in order. That's good.

That's really good. That's how I feel like you. It really is. And Sean is not the type to, like, if we're not viable, we're not doing an interview. Wow. That's good. I love it.

You might do some cancellations from us, and it's like, we got to take care of what needs to be taking care of. That's awesome. I will say. You've canceled before? Oh, yeah. That's awesome. What do you mean, bro?

Oh, yeah. We've canceled full trips before because the night before our kids will have a meltdown. It won't feel right, and I'll be like, we're not going. Wow. And I think for me, I we definitely like there's a lot of push and pull yeah um Andrew's more the adventress like it'll all work out I'm more of like the it's not going to yeah whatever but I think my biggest fear is we're both so ambitious yeah and we want to build so much my biggest fear is losing the

importance of or just period losing our family connection yeah and so almost to a fault I will put more stress on our family, making sure we stay within our boundaries because I never want to go too far. That's so special. And it can cause a lot of tension because I'd be like, we're canceling this interview. We're not doing it. But what's really cool is the team aspect of our marriage I'm super thankful for. And I was researching the term Eve in Hebrew means beneficial adversary.

Have you heard of us? So it's like, that's right. Here I am. It's taken me seven years. It all makes sense. I'm just kidding. But like, it took me seven years. I'm talking like just two months ago, I learned this.

The amount of times I heard beneficial adversaries in the past couple of months. It wrongs my world. And now I'm hyped about it. I used to get so frustrated at like the difference in perspective. I was like, Sean, why can't you just see things? Like, like, this is. what the obvious choice is right and she's like I don't see it like that yeah and I used to get frustrated but now I'm like oh things are way better when I have when I have your perspective added to it

that's good I'm a big fan of presidential biographies right so I just read through Abraham lincoln's and he's amazing since that his whole cabinet was purposely constructed to have people from different viewpoints and it's like if you think about the effect of like iron sharpens that should be a requirement in every yeah but it's like oh gosh you get such a fuller understanding, you just get a better picture of everything that's going on when you get more perspectives. And I think it's so powerful. But anyway, yeah, that's my new thing. It's like, oh, you're just my beneficial adversary right now. I get it. I hear this a lot. We were talking about that earlier because we were talking about the process of like

buying a house or building a house. And, you know, I was talking about how like early in our marriage, You were talking about a house. I was like, we ain't got no money, but she kept, she kept pushing me. I was like, we need a house. I need a house for my boys. And I was like, I would be mad. I'll be something. I was like, you know our financial position.

But it was like, no, I actually needed her to be that beneficial adversary to push me to be a man. Yeah. And to figure it out. Like to figure out how in the world are we going to get our boys a backyard so that they can run and play and do all the things. You know what I mean? And guess what? Yeah. You got to have. We got to have. Absolutely.

I love this like Let's go. By the way, I did go and see Hamilton on Saturday. Let's go! It was amazing. Did you see it? No, I didn't know. I was here with a New York just for a day and a half. It was unbelievable. Okay, we're kind of around. And he literally said, he said you wouldn't like.

I was like, no, you wouldn't like to be. But I was like, I'm going back to watch it in New York again. I'll probably take my son because he would love it. It was unbelievable. Yes, I would love to come with you, Brian. Oh my gosh, I would love that.

I would love that. And also, Disney. We got to go. I saw you guys read Disney. That wasn't the first time your family's been together. Yeah, it was. It was. Really?

Yeah. Kids love it. They loved it. Oh, my. And we did like a, I was really nervous about like how long are they going to last to Disney. We did like 9 to 5.

Let's go. They loved it. That's so sweet. They did so good. And it's so magical seeing it through their eyes. Oh, my gosh. It's the best. He's like, here, look at this because you just want to watch your kids experience it.

It's so special. Yeah. Absolutely. Man, we are so grateful that we are connected to you guys. Thank you for inviting us in to the family-made team family. And thank you again, again. I'm probably going to remind you every single time. But thank you.

Thank you just for. like using your influence to make the world and make the family a better place and a better unit. It's so important and it's so powerful. One of the things we do to end all of our podcast is we just ask our guests to pray. Andrew, would you feel comfortable just praying us out? I would love to. And also, before I do, thank you guys for having the same mission, the same vision. We're all on this journey together. Yeah, absolutely. It's really special. All right. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this conversation. Thank you for Brian and Sonia and this platform that they have used to glorify you.

I pray that you give them confidence and comfort as they continue to do this. May their smile shine bright as always. And may you be with them step by step no matter what the future holds. We're so thankful for you. And all the blessings that you give us, whether we're prepared for them or not, whether they look like a nice shiny object or there's a little bit of pain associated with it, we're thankful for it. And we pray that we maintain that perspective.

And pray that this conversation would maybe strike someone and point them to you. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Growing with the Nearest presented by Family Made Media. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure that you go and leave a review and subscribe on whatever platform you are listening to or watching on. Dang, that was good. I just want to spend more time with them. They're great. I want to be interviewed by them

on a weekly basis. What if we interviewed them? We could do that too. But I feel like they had better questions than we do. I agree. They definitely have better questions. I also just want to be best friends with them. Yeah.

But again, that was an episode of Growing with the Nira. So if you like that episode, go check out their podcast. It is part of the Family Made Network. And they just do a great job with everything they do. So they're on Instagram, YouTube. You've probably seen them before. Brian was actually on The Voice and Slade. That dude can sing.

Yes. But we love their show. Sean and I both do. And you need to check them out. Check out some other episode to see if it's for you. Subscribe to it. Like it on YouTube, comment, whatever you got to do. But thank you guys so much for having us, Brian and Sonia.

I hope to see you again soon. Thank you for listening. And that's all we have. I'm Andrew. I'm Sean. We're the East Fam. Out.