The Bossticks - #61: Weslie & Bronson Christensen on Parenting and Pushing Through the Struggle of life as young parents

Episode Date: May 2, 2017

Weslie & Bronson Christensen join Lauryn & Michael to chat about how they met, getting married & having kids at a very young age, why you should tune people out & do what feels right when it comes to parenting, not stopping the progression of your family when finances are rough, advice on handling your children when they act out, constantly evolving as a couple, and they discuss their new YouTube channel with their children "Itty Bitty Christensen Committee." We also hear Weslie talk about her blog "DoubleYouDot.com" and Bronson highlights his Design Studio & Venture Funding company "Ghostmouse." To connect with Lauryn click HERE To connect with Michael click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential Bombshell Body Guide and Meal plan.  tired of combating inflammation & bloat? Want to feel lighter and sexier? Check out lauryn's latest 7 day meal plan. In this simple & super effective plan you'll find: + tsc grocery list with every ingredient you need for the 7 days. + what the f*ck to do when you love carbs guide. + quick and delicious recipes: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and dessert. You will also find 28 weeks worth of fat burning, muscle toning, 27 minute long, effective workouts you can do at home with no equipment. USE PROMO CODE: HIMANDHER at Checkout for 20% Off

Thanks for downloading this show from PC1. Before we get rolling, here's a word from one of the folks who helped bring you this podcast. The following program is a podcast.1.com presentation. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cooking. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you alone for the ride.

Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. And I'm back again. Lauren never lets me do intros like that. But today, she's a little under the weather. So you and me and everyone out there can have a little fun, get a little energy into the intro. Lauren, when you listen to that back, just hear the difference. Here the power, hear the thunder.

That's Europe, the band you're up there, an 80s band that I enjoy. And I just thought that, you know, I'd come in with a little bit of fire today because I'm solo right now. So anyways, we're back, we're live, and we're here to bring you another show. And I guess when I say we, I mean Lauren as well, she is feeling under the weather right now and could not be here to do the intro. But we did record in the studio last week, and we have a really good show for you guys today. We have our friends Bronson and Wesley Christensen, and we're going to talk kids and family, everything in between, you know, Bronno, as we call them. over here, Bronson, and Wesley have three beautiful kids, and, you know, they're here giving us

advice what we're in for, what we can expect. They've done an amazing job, raising a great little family, and Lauren and I wanted to get the lowdown. But before we get into the interview, I want to tell you guys and let you guys know, if you don't already know, I know some of you do, that Lauren and I started a skinny confidential him and her Facebook podcast group. And in this group, you know, we want it to be a really productive place. We're primarily going to discuss the show and things discussed on the show, whether branding, relationships, life hacks, tips, advice. Anyone can ask, anyone can engage.

I want it to be a space where people can get value and be productive and help others. And, you know, you guys can request guests on the show. And maybe, you know, if it's one of those guests that's hard to get, maybe we can all band together and hit up their inbox or spam their social accounts and get them to come on the show. Yeah. So if you get a chance, go ahead over to Facebook and check out the Skinny Confidential, him and her podcast group. You know, Taylor and I are in there.

Lauren started a little Facebook group for the Skinny Confidential on her own and banned all men. So, you know, Taylor and I were not allowed in and any of the other men listening to this show. So this is a place where everyone is welcome. Everyone come in, contribute. If you guys have any hacks or tips or tricks, I want to learn about them. I know Lauren does too. Taylor, maybe even he could use a couple tips himself. I just wanted to be a place where everyone can come together and kind of share and get some value.

This weekend, I had a mean hangover, and I asked the group what I should do, and I got a lot of good advice. So go ahead and check that out. And with that, we'll jump right into the interview. This is Norman Lear with my great sidekick, Paul Hipp. Good to be here with you, Norman, on All of the Above. That's the Name of My Podcast, All of the Above. And it's called All of the Above, because we're going to talk about all of the above. There isn't anything sequester.

There's nothing too above us or below us. Well, certainly nothing to be below us. But we have had guests you cannot believe the guests. Julie Dewey Dreyfus, amazing. And America Farron. Jard Carmichael. Yes. Oh, Amy Poehra.

How did we overlook? We didn't overlook Amy Poehler. I was saving her for last. And Charles Barkley, I was saving him for first, actually, because I didn't declare up first. I get to hang out with this guy, and this is your chance to hang out with Norman Lear a little bit here and some of these great guests. God, I wish I was you hanging out with you.

We're hanging out with Norman Lear. Yeah. Son of a gun. That must be excited. It's the best. I'm telling you. Don't miss all of the above with Norman Lear. Download new episodes every week on the Podcast One app or subscribe at podcast1.com.

This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Today we have one of the most charming charismatic couples on social media, Bronson and Wesley Christensen. They have three kids who all have movie star looks and they're total hustlers. Wesley has a blog called W. dot.com and a new YouTube channel which I highly recommend you guys check out and Brano co-founded Ghost Mouse which is at Design

Studio. Welcome you guys. Hello, hello. We're so excited to have you guys on. We're excited and nervous. Welcome to the show. Oh, God. This is the shit I have to deal with. We had a little whiskey before. Yeah, I'm nervous. Just a touch. No, don't be nervous. Kevin, what happened, man? What is this? You gave me the cheap shit. Where's all the

good stuff. What is this? Doords? It's from 1934, man. Michael, don't be high maintenance. So, I really wanted to have you guys on because you have an amazing story about your kids. Like, the whole thing. You guys had kids at 19? Bronson

was 19. I was 20. I'm a touch older. And how do you guys do it? You have three kids now and you both have movie star looks and all the kids have movie star looks. Oh, gosh. Thank you. First of all. The kids are seriously beautiful. It's like we don't know how that happened. We try really hard. They just came out pretty and nice and funny. Yeah,

we're lucky. I've like zoomed in and showed Michael. I'm like, we have to have kids like this. No, they're so cute. Well, Lauren was like a few years ago, you know, before we actually physically met you guys, Lauren like really was like creeping me out. She's like, hey, look at this little girl. And she was zooming in. Sorry. Was it Zuri? Zuri. Zuri. Yeah. I could spot talent. And, you know, this is, Zuri is a very pretty young girl. But I was like, Lauren, what are you doing creeping on these two people and like zooming in on their kids? I'm like, this is like, this is not normal behavior. Well, we met on Instagram, which is really funny, but it's like very 2017, I feel like.

Yeah. Totally. And I think we met through a juice cleanse. I feel, I honestly don't remember, but I remember you reached out to me and I was high, I was excited about that. Oh, my. I remember being like, oh, because I knew of you. Okay, well, I knew of you and I reached out through. Instagram because I saw your beautiful family and I think

we did a juice cleanse together in like a group with Jeff. We had a group text. Yes. Yes. Or people water maybe. Yeah, because you guys did people water. Right? You did the design of the bottle. Yeah, I co-founded people water with a couple friends. And one of the guys was on The Bachelor.

Jeff, what's his last name? Jeff Holm. This is how it all happened. I remember now. It was through the Bachelor that we kind of connected somehow. Yes, and also the American, who's another guy on Instagram, we all did this juice cleanse with him. and I just immediately liked Wesley. You had, you had like a personality through the screen.

Oh, thanks. And then I met you, Brano, loved you too. And we met in person like years later. We went to dinner. Yeah. We randomly hooked up, went to dinner, and then we fell a little bit in love with you guys. Yeah, because you're so awesome. You know, it's funny.

And you, I'm your partner, Jeff, who I speak to pretty regularly, we like kind of talk through Snapchat, right? Was I talking to you or was I talking to him? And then we actually had like a dinner meeting. We've done a little bit of work together since then. It's just weird how social media works. It's crazy. And when we met, it was like we knew each other for years.

Because we had. I feel like social media is real. Yeah. Knews because we stopped your family and knew exactly what you were doing. I zoomed in on my children. I'm sorry. We were babysitting them when you guys were out of the house. You didn't know about it, but.

Oh, you guys do have the cutest kids in the whole in the world. Thank you. So you're 19. You guys met in high school. Yeah. Okay. Tell us about that. Okay.

We were, I moved to Utah, my senior year of, of high school. So we were 17 and I met him. He had a girlfriend and I had a boyfriend, like a long distance, like a four year relationship. He was with this girl for a while too. We were both pretty serious. We were just great friends for a whole year. He would always call me to hang out with him and his girlfriend. This is a funny fact. I have vivid memories of hanging out with Bronson with him holding his then girlfriend's hand, kissing her singing songs together and I'm just like hanging out in the back seat. And then... This is true. I don't know why she's She would hang with us?

What were you guys? He would call me. His girlfriend never called me, but he would be like, hey, we're doing this. Come hang out. And I would show up and it would just be him and his girlfriend. And I was like, okay. Whoa, what were you trying to do there? He was kind of a little cheety.

Now that I look back, such a cheater. They are a little cheetah. He was, but it was for me, so I can't be mad, right? Yeah, I guess so. You want to tell him the story? You guys get married at 19? 19. 19.

I was 20. I feel like in Utah, though, that's like a lot of people get married at 19. That's not like weird, right? It was the cultural norm. I mean, we were young even for Utah standard. I feel like 21, 22. So we were really, really young. I was pregnant.

So I was three months pregnant when we got married. And that... Is that so standard in Utah? That is so unstandard in Utah. We were the black sheep of that whole little... We were the talk of the town for a while there. I mean, our friends literally had bets. Like, oh, when is this thing going to fall apart?

And we, I think it honestly kind of fueled... our fire to be like, whatever. We were set up to fail. I mean, when we got married, we had $400 combined. We combined our big account that day. We were like, okay, we're going to combine. How much do we have? 400?

And we were like, woo. With a baby on the way. We were tripping. We were losing our shit. And were you guys living at your parents? Like what was? Totally. Yeah.

So we went from living with our parents to moving in together than to having a child. There was no this like exploration phase of let's figure out who we are as individuals. It was like, you are a child and your parents. home and now you are raising a child. It was like that. Kids raising kids. Kids raising kids. So you have a baby and do you know what to do? No. No. What were you doing at 19? Do you know

what I was doing at 19? I was swinging from a bar with my top off, I think. I know. What? Probably. That's what you should be doing at 19, but we had a baby. But the thing about us is we kind of I gave us grace. I knew I didn't expect

myself and him to be like these perfect, like, responsible parents at 19. Like, I wanted us to still be 19. So we were responsible and great with Surrey. And then we would have our time where we could let loose. And it was in a, like, contained situation where she wasn't around. But, like, we still gave ourselves those times because it's, like, imperative for growth. You have to figure it out.

We just had a baby doing it. It was crazy. And the first of our friends were, like, people that we were going to for advice was, like, our parents and their friends. And were your parents helpful? So helpful. But you know how parents, parents, like, they want, they wanted to help too much? So we found ourselves trying to pull ourselves away from parents just so we could figure out

who we were as a family, who we were as a couple, like, how we wanted to raise our daughter. And the way we raise our kids, I feel like is different. I feel like there's no, how do you even explain it? Yeah. You beat to the tune of your own drum. Yes. I can see that. I like that.

I love that about you guys. We just do what feels good. So people would come to moms all the time would be like, oh, you have to have to have to, they can't co-sleep with you, they can't. And by the way, there's no internet back then. Like, not like there is now. And if there was, I wasn't utilizing it like I would be now. But it was just like a hodgepodge of people flying at you with advice. And they're like, this is what you have to do if you want your baby to do this. And none of it worked for me. So the minute that I tuned every person out and stopped reading books and I just did what felt right, I started to be like, oh, like, I'm kind of a good mom. this is working. Like my daughter's happy. I'm happy. We're doing our own thing. And I remember being ashamed.

Like, okay, whatever I'm doing, since no one else is doing it, it's not right. So I'm just going to keep it to myself because I am a freak of nature and I'm the only one doing this way. And it's probably wrong, but it's working. And now the older that I've gotten, I'm like, okay, it's just do whatever you have to do to make it work for you. That's kind of the only advice I'll ever give to a new mom is that, like, shut everyone else out and just do what feels good. Totally. I totally agree with you. My sister will be walking.

her baby and she's young, she's 24, and moms will come up to her and say, you know, you need to do this or you need to put a sweater, like, back off. And when you're tired and when you're not sleeping, those little comments, they like hurt. You'd go home and cry. Like, it's a weird. And then all the people that come up to you and you're like, you better enjoy this. This is going to go so fast. And these were the best moments of your life. And you're sitting there and you're like, no part of this is fun. I love this little baby, but like, I hate this. I needed that. I needed What's harder? The pregnancy or the newborn? Like, what's the, where do you say when you say that sucks?

Like, give me an example of what you mean. Like, okay, so when you have the baby, it's so fun. Everyone wants to see the baby. The baby sleeps all day. You're, like, falling in love. You are drunk in love with this little tiny baby. You get it, like seeing your husband or whoever you're with have a baby. It's like, oh, you like them so much.

Like, you love each other now. Wait until there's a baby. You're going to, like, love that human more than you ever thought you could. But, yes. It's a whole other woman. She's already so up my ass. Oh, she's going to, it's going to be even deeper. You just wait.

Deeper. It's going to be deeper. So you think that like towards maybe like the middle, like when the, when the newness has worn off, but the baby's still not sleeping through the night, it's like when the baby's four months old and everyone's like, okay, he's back to work. No one cares about your new baby. You should figure this out by now. And you're sitting there and you're like, I haven't slept. I haven't eaten.

I haven't showered. And no one cares. And it's not. new anymore. What about the dynamic with Brano, like when all this is going on? Like, what's your dynamic with your husband? Oh, how do you think I am when I have a baby? You're great with babies. She's super fun. We'll go out, we'll do stuff. I feel like for the first few months, like, we don't have anything to offer the baby besides, like, holding them. Like, we don't have a boob. Like, tell me what I'm in for here, because I don't know what I'm going to do. And I'm trying to,

you know, we're getting a lot of advice. We're getting a lot of feedback here on what we should be doing for babies, you know, and I like what you said about, you know, doing what works for you. But what, I mean, at 19, you're probably just shitting yourself, obviously, not knowing what the hell is going to happen? What am I looking at as a 30-year-old man now? I feel like I've just figured out how to, like, somewhat take care of myself, but I'm not quite there. When a little kid comes along, what are you doing in this? Like, how are you, I don't want to say how are you being helpful, because that sounds like you're not, but what can you contribute? Like, as a 19-year-old kid, you're like, what the hell am I supposed to do? Like, because I'm putting myself.

I'm going back to when I'm 19, and Lauren's dancing on the bar, I'm picking myself up from under the bar. You know? Yeah. You were helpful. I think that you, I think the best part about Bronson was that when I asked for his help, he would help. But he also knew not to step on my toes. Like, I feel like it's a very, I feel like the mom's and the babies. There's something special for sure with the mom and the baby.

There's like a connection. Yeah. Like, obviously I'm there to help. Like if the baby's crying, like I'll go on a walk. Are you a diaper changer? Totally. Okay, son dads are. If he wouldn't.

I'm so good at it. There's a lot of men out there that won't change a diaper. Where I think I connect with you, like, you're similar to me in the sense that, like, you don't get caught up in all the, you know, like, you're a tough dude. I think you're a tough dude because you'll say something like that. Like when guys come in and say, I won't, I don't change diapers. I don't do that. I'm like, you, you know? Yeah.

You got to be. It's your kid. Yeah. I mean, what are you going to do? Like not, like you should leave them in shit? Will you nurse the baby? I mean, obviously not because I don't. You would know.

But Michael, the baby will try to nurse you. I will do whatever I got to do. Well, it really? You know that the baby, so you do skin to skin when you have a baby and the man is supposed to take off his shirt and do skin to skin. And the baby doesn't know what's a boob and what's not. It's natural. It's natural.

We'll always trick. Yeah, you trick the baby. The baby tries to suck on their boob. And it is the cutest thing ever. And I would brought, you liked it too in a weird way. You just allow it. You just let them try. It's kind of cute.

Yeah. And then they suck on your face. I mean, if I walked in on a baby sucking on Bronno's tit, I'd probably a little... You'd be nervous, but you just wait, Michael. I would be very nervous if I walked in on that. I don't know what I would do. Same. I would, too.

I just think it's so incredible that at 19, you guys have this huge undertaking. You have a brand new baby, and you kind of just have to figure it out. We have to figure it out. Like, when we were leaving the hospital, I was like, okay, where's the manual? Like, is there a manual for this? Like, we got to put this baby in the car seat. How do we do it? They kind of like show you how to do it.

But then you're on your own. Like, yeah, we can get advice and we can get it from our parents. But raising a kid nowadays is so different from when they were raising us, you know? Yeah, it is different. And also, I think it's now more acceptable to do you. Totally. That's what it seems like. I mean, I'm going to put my blinders on and I'm not.

That's just how I am. Oh, it's changed even in five years. Like the way I'm raising Ozzy, I would never share what I do with Ozzie that I did with Zer. And Zuri's eight, Ozzie's two. Like, it is more acceptable, so much more acceptable now to kind of be like, ah, whatever. Like, he's also a boy, too, I feel like it's maybe different with a boy or is it the same? Totally different.

Yeah. Like, it's crazy. I was kind of nervous when we found out we were having a boy. We actually didn't want a boy after two little girls. I'm like, I don't know how to do this. And it's really different. Oh, my gosh. So different.

He's just, he loves cars and trucks and motorcycles. And like when he falls, he like gets up embarrassed. Where the girls, it's like, when they. fall, you're like, we're both running to them. They're sobbing. It's like a huge deal. But like with Ozzy, he just falls and he's like, uh, you didn't see it doesn't happen. Yeah, it's weird. It's such a different dynamic. It's such a trip. Is he kind of a mommy's boy? It seems like a boy would be a little bit more attached to the mom. Yeah. He literally calls me honey. He'll say, oh, honey, mama, sweetie pie love. Like, that is how he talks to me and I die. Oh my God. You got to get that on like,

like you got to record that. It is the best thing that's ever happened. Like, he's the best boyfriend. I've ever had. And he's so sweet. And he's so sweet. My business partner, Jeff, and I will be like midday. And there was a point for a few months where he would say, oh, about everything. So we would call him on FaceTime and show him a photo of a dog, like a little puppy. And he would go, oh, and we'd just go through for like 10 minutes and then we'd hang out.

Everything. He'd just like, oh, oh, cute, oh, cute. It's the best. But he is so funny. What's easier, boys or girls? much easier. Really? I am out of my mind with Ozzie. Like, I'm running around chasing him and he is into everything. So that is a lot and my house is messier. But girls are so emotional and our girls especially are so like intuitive and they know if I'm off, they'll come to me and then I'll have

to explain myself. Like, I have to be on it with my girls. And Ozzy I can kind of just like keep him busy and he is happy as can be. So how do you decide after 19 that you're going to have another little girl? We were idiots. What do you mean? Did you make the decision? I made the decision because I wanted Zuri to have a sibling. I didn't want another baby, but I wanted Zuri to have a sibling.

And I knew it was stupid. We were on a wick. Like, we didn't have a pot to piss in. So you have no money. We had no money. And you decided we're going to have another baby. I have to have another baby. It's the stupidest decision I've ever made.

But the smartest at the same time. It's the smartest because I had a faith that we would figure our shit out. And I also knew that we were young. young. Like, that is what a young person does that we were doing internships and we were always trying to get our foot in the next door. But I didn't want to stop the progression of our family just because we weren't financially ready. It's smart. You know what? I actually think that's really smart. I was saying last night that the theme of my childhood was figuring it out. Like, I always had to be resourceful and just figure it out. That is exactly what we've done.

Yeah. And we've just, and continuously, it's been 10 years. We've been married 10 years. And we're still in that mindset. When do you ever figure it out there? I don't think you ever figuring it out. Totally. So I want to kind of go back now, knowing all this and like kind of hearing your story, there's obviously while this is going on, there's a lot of stress. I can imagine. Yeah.

Right? For both of you. Because you have a newborn. You have another one on the way. And like you said, you have to figure it out. And you don't have a lot of financial means to support you at the time. So when you're in that mindset and you're that stress, like what do you guys do as a couple? It's actually, you know, obviously you guys love each other.

and you've gotten stronger, but it's probably difficult for a relationship to be going through all that, have kids struggling financially. What do you do? What do you do? We, I think that we were so naive that it was to our benefit. Like, it was so bad, and we were too dumb and young to even realize how gnarly it was. So that was to our benefit. So you were ignorant, kind of a little bit. Totally ignorant. And we were optimistic. So being optimistic together, and we would dream together. Every night we would go to bed and we'd be like, okay, in a year we could be here. And then maybe you'll get this job or maybe I'll do something.

Like, we were always kind of dreaming for what was to come. The next big thing or something. Yeah, and always working towards it. If we got stagnant, then it would be like, oh, this is bad. Like, we don't have, I mean, it did. It got scary. There was multiple times where it got, like, gnarly. But we just kind of.

Like, she was on food stamps. We were. Like, she was, we lived, we were living in downtown L.A. We lived on Skid. Road, not like as a homeless person, but like on 7th and Maine. That's gnarly. And we lived in a 600 square foot studio apartment without one wall. There was not a wall.

Like the kitchen, bathroom, and your bedroom was all in the same, same room. And you're pregnant or you had? I was pregnant. I was pregnant and I had Zuri. And I remember I couldn't, I needed to work, but I couldn't afford daycare to put Zuri in. That's got to be really hard. Oh, it was so gnarly. So I decided to move from L.A. and leave him.

He was doing internships and you were starting people water, right? Yeah. That was the time. So I remember just leaving L.A. and working in Utah so I could have my mom. That's when family is a big help. Like when they can step in and take care of your kids, when you can't afford it yourself. And then we would sacrifice. Like, we didn't live together for seven months at one point.

You were in L.A. And I was in Utah. It was a long time. Like, I remember you came home right before I had. I think that's right when Instagram came. It was. Right. Right.

Right. Yeah. Okay. I remember him coming home from L.A. And he's like this thing called Instagram. And I'm like, you just think you're so cool. You, like, live in L.A. And now I was, like, bugged.

I was like, get off that. It's so dumb. I think I just remembered I found you through Meg Legg's Legging Line. Oh, my gosh. Yes. That was so old school. This is like you guys right when Instagram was starting. It was the beginning, like, in the early, early months.

Yep. And you started putting, I think you started, you, like, we were showing your family. And I think you were pregnant. I was. I was so pregnant. And I was like, oh, my God. She's so cute. Cuteest pregnant woman.

Yeah. This is before hashtags. Like, this. is before there was anything. Like, it's crazy. You found me. So how, so what, so what was, what, what came after that? So you guys are struggling and it's like, you're separated. How do you come back together? Is it people water takes off a little bit? Yeah, yeah. So we started people water, the bottled water company where we give back, um, every bottle purchase we gave, you know, fresh watered people in need. We'd go to Africa and all over to build wells. Um, but when we got

Funding to start that is when we moved to Utah and that kind of got us back afloat. Okay. And then you have the baby. And then we had the baby. And to be honest, we didn't reconnect. Like it was, there was so many times where I was like, this is crazy. Like we made a mistake. Like we were idiots.

We're too young to be married. Like we had lived apart for so long. I was like, ugh. Do you guys separated or were you just? No, we just financially had to live apart. So we never like to break. You guys were still a couple. Totally still a couple.

Talked every night. But I remember when he tried, I'm like a very, like, independent, like, almost loner type woman where I, like, I'm fine in my own space and my own time. I like having my own schedule. So after being separate that long and then him coming back, like, into my space and my routine, I remember being like, oh. Yes. Like, this is hard. Like, who are you? Like, feeling like, you know, when you're young, like, someone leaves for six months and they're in different person.

And hormones. You're pregnant. Oh, I was crazy. I also think this is like a good tip for, like, the audience, too, is that a lot. lot of the times people look on Instagram with these perfect relationships and they just, they just see perfection. I mean, for me, a relationship is work. Like, you're constantly working it.

It's not, like, I think that's what makes a good relationship. Totally. It's just constantly putting in the work and you said that you may be disconnected for a little. That happens. That's part of the game. You reconnect instead of just giving up. And you have to evolve.

I couldn't ever hold him to like, oh, this is who you were then. Like, we both were. you just change. You evolve and you force the relationship to evolve with you. So you have another baby. Yeah. And you're living in Utah together. Yep.

And how is that? Okay. So one was crazy. One was like the biggest lifestyle change you can imagine. Two was so fun. Like having two kids was, I feel like the best time in our lives. Like they, Zuri was so cute. She had like this little baby doll to take care of.

That's when people water was really fun. I would say that's one of our funest year. Those years in Utah when we had Remy and Zuri and we were doing People Water, it was really fun. Yeah. Two is fun. We each have one. And then you guys, is this when you guys started Rise, too? No.

No. So from People Water, we then went to San Francisco and I worked for an architect studio where we would do big corporate buildings like Googles of the world and fans and Adobe and all the. And you're so creative. And you're doing design at the time, architectural design. Interior design. And then we kind of, it was just an architect studio. And then me and my buddy Corey, we brought like all disciplines in. So we brought in, you know, designers and videographers and photographers and product designers.

So it's like this whole one-stop shop for these brands, right? So if like a Google wants this really great experience for their office, like why wouldn't everything be under the same roof. The brand messaging is way stronger that way. So we did that. And then from there, Wes and I actually, we were in SF at the time

and we took a trip to Thailand and went to the Lantern festivals. Tell them how I got to go on the trip. We lied a little bit. Oh yeah. We go, oh yeah, Wesley knows how to shoot video. We said that I was a photographer so I could go on a free trip. And you were pregnant, right?

Not at that point. Not at this point. So we go to Sydney to shoot this event, and Wesley crushed it. Like, I had a teacher, like, all the settings and everything, and then, like, let her go on her own. I was tripping out. But, like, the news, Sydney News, like, used all of her footage. They used my clips, and they did not use his. Yeah.

That is so funny. It was awesome. So from there, we then went to Thailand, and we went to the Rise Festival. And that thing was out of this world. The Lantern Festival. It wasn't the Raise Festival. Or the Lantern. Explain what that is for people that don't know, because it looks really incredible. Yeah.

So the Lantern Festival are these... What can they search? Like Thailand Lantern Festival? Yeah. Or Rise Festival. I mean, any lantern festival will bring up photos. But there are these rice balloons. Rice paper balloons that has this little fuel cell on the bottom and you light it.

And then they fill up with the air and then you release them. It's like real life. Tangled. So it's real life tangled, that Disney show. You might not know, but with kids, it's like... I know. We don't have to watch it. You're not tangled.

Okay. Huge Disney. It's like snow white level. Okay. Okay. I got to watch it this weekend. Yeah. So we went there and we, it was out of this world.

Like, I've never seen something so beautiful. And we're like, okay, we got to bring this to the U.S. And then we came back. I was still at Rapp at the time and I was kind of designing Rise on the side. And then finally we like got a permit to do an event right outside of Vegas. And then it was real at that point. And we crushed it. And we crushed it.

Yeah. So then from there. From RAPT, I moved back to Utah. Quit RAPT, started Rise full-time. It was like a really exciting. For us as a family, it was like, oh my gosh, it's happening. Like that was our whole lives up until that point. Like, he didn't have to have a 9-to-5 job.

It was so exciting. I didn't have to work for the first time in like, what, how long were we married? Seven years. You created your own like strategic destiny by doing this, it seems like. Yes. I love that. But he had to work. I mean, you were working two full-time jobs.

He had a full 40-hour week job during the week. And then he would come home and correspond with factories in China all night long. Like, you didn't sleep for a year. Like, I don't know how you even did it. He didn't sleep. He actually turned into a skeleton. Like his body, I swear to you, it almost killed him. But you didn't die.

You're here. I think that's a good message for the audience, too, is that, like, if you want to do something and do it right, like, all those hours, people probably didn't even understand how much. she put into it. No, no one. No one understood. You got to bust your ass and hustle and it's the late nights. And you have to have a partner that understands. If I would have put my foot down, it wouldn't have happened. Yeah, that's really important. Like I had to just be like, okay, this is going to be a very temporary year for us and it's going to suck and it did. But like out of it came something really, really cool. And it's like we had to put it all that time in to get a little bit more freedom. Yeah, you guys are, one thing I admire about you guys is that you're very teamlike. I

think that's so important in a relationship to be one unit. I see that in you guys. We really try. Like, I always want to make sure that we're constantly working. I mean, you work at it again, working to be that, like, team in that unit. It's so important. So, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be worth it. If I felt like he wasn't as into my life as I was into his, I'd be like, see you

later. Like, it's not, it would not work. Yeah, that's a good tip, too, I think, for anyone out there in a relationship is it's important to be a team. like a unit. So you launch RISE. Yeah. It kills it.

Kills it. And you have two kids under four. I had Ozzy five weeks before a rise festival. That's got to be stressful. I remember calling their secretaries and scheduling my labor and delivery with their secretaries. Like make sure you give Bronson a day so I can give birth. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Did you have to schedule the, like you have to schedule a birth?

That was the birth that I scheduled because. I knew if it wasn't scheduled, he would have missed it. What the hell are you guys eating to make you so fertile? Honestly. I was. What the hell's going on here? I was not eating. I could have a baby in a swimming pool.

Like, I could get pregnant. It's not okay. Like, I'm too fertile and it's a problem. I've been on birth control forever. Like, or like I've, I got pregnant with Zuri on birth control. Are you serious? Are you serious? I'm serious.

You were taking it? Like, I'm not the best. I had the Nouver ring. I had Nouver ring. So it's like, in you. And you leave it in, like it was in. Wow. I don't think I've ever heard that.

Nouver ring just like, well, we're never going to get an, it's an advertiser now. Newver ring, you fucking blew it, man. Come on, Nuba. I know. I was on birth control. It did not work. I was really going for that one, too. I was like, you know, now we're not going to get them.

No. Shit, you guys. God damn. We just ruined it. Dental dam. I can't believe you got pregnant on birth control. I got pregnant on birth control. I've been on birth control since I was in ninth grade.

and Michael's like, okay, it's time to get off. And I'm like, but I like what it does for my skin. I know, I miss that. I'm not on it, though. I won't take it anymore. Okay, but I actually have a tip right now. Like, let's do a little side note. Okay.

I just found out that the thing in birth control that makes your skin amazing, because it clears your skin. Yes. You can buy the thing in the birth control alone. Is it called the testosterone? I don't know what it's called. I don't know what it's called. I'll buy it.

You can go to your doctor and you can just have. have and prescribe you the one little chemical that's in the birth control. So what I'm thinking I'm going to do is get off of it soon. Michael is ready, maybe like in a year. Wait, off the record, you just pull and pray. It's the high school method. Pull and pray. Pull and pray.

That's the theme of your friend. Boy, do I ever. Pull that sucker out. You call that the old, you know. You guys, it's been working for, that works. It works. That's grandpa's old method. Yeah, it works.

Just hope. Hope. Hope. Hope and luck. Grandpa's old message. Just cross the fingers and go on in. Oh, my gosh. Call that aim. As long as I'm on my skin thing, selfishly.

I got off of it for a month once, and it was like pimples. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not doing this. You'll regulate. Okay. It just needs to mellow out. Okay, so you... I feel like Lauren and I need somebody else in this relationship at this point.

Here we go. I think that you strategically brought them on you. At this point, like, at this point, we know we known each other's a child, like, what the fuck else we got to talk about? You know what I mean? We got to get somebody else in on the conversation. You guys would be the best parents ever. And I'm not just saying that to blow smoke.

Like, I think you guys would be the best parents ever. Yeah, you guys would crush. Michael's going to do everything and I'm going to sit back and relax, right? I like babies, though. Just feed the baby. I like babies. That's good. I don't really like babies.

Really? Yeah. You like your own. You could have fooled us with how many you got. If they're my own, oh gosh, I love them. But, like, you know, the little kids, they'll have the little squeaky shoes. Maybe you haven't seen them. But there's these little shoes that literally squeak when they walk.

It's so annoying. But we got some for our kids because they're so cute and we loved it. That's funny. It's so weird how you, like, love your own kids. Oh, your narcissism will shine through when you have children. You're like, oh, my kids are so cute. I guess you're right. Like, I don't, now that I think about it.

You love your nephew. No, I like, like, not. Like, I would like your kids, and I think that's about, like, as far out the ring I can go. Like, if it's like my friend's kids and then, yeah, we love our nephew and then, like, the inner ring would be our kids. But after, like, a fourth ring of, like, somebody that I didn't really know is kids, like, I might not be that pumped up. Yeah. Then they're just dirty little people in your space. I actually have to be really honest.

I think a lot of kids can be really annoying. Oh. Yeah. They are. I mean, I'm sure your kids are amazing. No, even ours are annoying. But sometimes I'm just like, like when we get seated next to a kid and his crayon flies in my grilled fish taco. Oh, gosh, no.

Like the other day. Like, it's just a lot. What do the parents do? Or what did the kid do when that happened? Nothing. The parents didn't do it. Well, I had to discipline the kid. I bent him over my leg.

I was just kidding. I didn't. That's another question I have too. And we were having this conversation last night is your kids throwing a huge fit. What do you do? What I would do is I would ignore it and not entertain it. But then are you like, like, what do you do? Oh, my gosh.

The question of my life. I hate it. I hate so badly when we're in public and they act out. But they don't really, though. But when they do, it's like my biggest fear. And I get sweaty and hot. Yeah. And I lose my shit.

What do you do? Because I don't want to be like a psycho. Like I can be at home. Like at home, I can just be, I can turn on like my scary voice and yell. And I'm never mean. And I don't yell at them. But like, they know when I'm serious. And I'm like, whatever I see.

say to them, they know, like, oh, mom is pissed. Like, we better listen to her. In public, I have to be like, honey, please don't do that. And I feel like a psychotic, like, person trying to control my anger and it only makes it worse. It aggravates it. But, yeah, it's, I mean, at Disneyland, I've had to sit down in the middle of Disneyland with people walking everywhere and which kid was it? I don't even remember. One of my kids was acting out.

I had to sit them down in the middle of, like, the free way of walking people at Disneyland. And I made her sit there and sit in time out for two and a half minutes. minutes, screaming, kicking, thrashing, but she sat there and she did not go out. Can you smack the kids? Is that, or is that not allowed? Not allowed. It's not allowed. Can you smack the kids? Let me, let me, let me back it up here. Let me, let me bring it in. Because I know people are going to be like, whoa, what's this, you know, but you know, when I was a kid, looking back and knowing myself, I needed a good smack myself. You still need a good smack. Because, like, my parents would be like, listen, man, you sit down for two minutes and you sit down for five and I would sit down and I would sit down. And I would sit down. And I would sit down. And I would sit down. And I would sit down. And I would sit down. And I, I would be plotting and planning my next move when I got off that sit down. Nothing's changed.

And then I get out and I would just go even harder than I was before. And then like, you know, I'd get to school and I would, you know, I got in trouble. I flipped off the teacher and I got to go to school. I was really bad. Moond everyone. Mooned everyone. He got suspended. Oh, horrible kid.

All these things. That's why I liked him. He's the bad boy. Yeah. But like not like, I'm not like a bad boy where I'm like in the parking lot like doing drugs or like hurting people. No, he doesn't do drugs. Just like, you know, screwing around, you know.

You were a little wild. Yeah. But. He was a bit like Ozzy's face lotion moment. And I know you can't beat up a kid, right? Like, I'm not trying to beat up kids. Yeah. That's fucked up, right?

But I know you can't do that, but like, I needed like a good, like, wooden spoon on the ass. You know what I mean? Like, for me. And like, is that not, that's not appropriate anymore, right? A one spoon, no. I'd feel weird, like, hitting my kid. Yeah. Because I got beat.

I guess you have girls. Yeah, I don't know. Like, I know my sister's like, they never had any issues. But like, my dad, like, my dad to me is like, listen, you're going to get the spoon or the belt. And people now, they're probably like, oh, man, I can't believe we'd do that. But I'm telling you, as the one that was on the receiving end, I needed that shit. Yes. Because if I didn't, I was going to run that house.

I might have got a mouthful of soap a couple times, too. And hot sauce? Yeah. Yeah. So, but I guess, like, so what happens if you have, okay, so this is now we're transitioning? If you have a kid and he's getting out of control or she's getting out of control and you're in public and they're not responding to the two-minute timeout, what do you do? Like as a parent, like what can you do? I learned to match their behavior.

The more outrageous they go, you match it. So if they want to keep going and elevating it. So like it was the Disneyland thing. Like I remember, my kids listened to me. I have put the fear of God into them and the fear is, like they are scared of me. They are not scared of Bronson. Bronson is so sweet and so nice and they'll go to him and be like, Dad, they're not like that with me. Like I will, I am the wrath of mom.

So I remember, I feel like it was Zuri and she was just. mouthing off or whining or pouting, and it just escalated. It got further and further. She started ripping her hand away from me, walking backwards like she was going to run away. And I was like, you're in Disneyland, kid. Like, where are you going like, ugh? Like something outrageous. And I was like, okay, sit down.

She wouldn't sit down. So it's escalating more and more and more. So she would just get meaner and meaner, same as I. Like, I would just like freak out. And I remember her looking at me like, whoa, like you're really freaking out. I'm scared of what you're going to do next. And then she just stopped. Yeah, it makes sense.

Yeah. Because I was a kid one time, one time ago, many years ago, a long time. Okay, Michael. And I was throwing this fit. I think I was like six years old, and I was at the Delmar Fair. You guys had ridden the Delmar Fair? Yeah. And I was throwing a fit my mom, like, she probably could, poor, I'm sorry, Mom.

She'd be like, probably, poor woman probably spent like $300 on these stupid games, and I was losing every time. And I, but I knew I was close. Like, I was like, I'm going to get this ring on the bottle. I'm going to get the prize. And she wouldn't let me play anymore. I started throwing this huge tantrum and like I was slowly like doing what your daughter did and like creeping backwards to pretend like I'm going to get lost. And my mom said, you know what then?

Good luck. And she jetted ahead. And she thought that I was going to keep up, but I lost her. And I was bawling crying. Security came. They took me away. I was in the loss and found. I thought I was lost forever.

I'm like, well, I'm like one of these kids from Peter Pan. I'm going to Neverland. I'm done. You know. And so, yeah, I get it. Okay. So we can't hit the kids. You can't hit the kids.

Damn it. There's no one's food. If I have a son that doesn't respond, I might give him a little. Yeah, bring it back. With Ozzy, I am more physically aggressive because that's his language to me. He is all physical, so I respond very physically. That makes sense. You match their language.

Yeah, and we don't raise our kids the same way. The way that I'm raising Zuri is different than Remy and very different than Ozzy. It's like we have our same. It's not fair, for sure. Like, Remy will get away with things that Zuri can't. I notice a lot of kids now, like, that are grown up, that grew up in a family of three. I notice that each one of them plays kind of a different role. Yeah, it's very interesting.

And one, there's always one that wants everything fair. But nothing's going to be fair. Everyone's different. The middle child. Yes, it's remi. That's not nice to your sister. I only have a family. I have a family of four, so that doesn't count.

But if there's a three dynamic, there's always one that wants it fair and has their principles. And then each one of them gets attention in different ways. Yeah. Like one's maybe the more of a victim. They play the victim role. One's the overachiever and has to be so... This is us.

No, I've like, pick this up as I gotten older. I'm like, wait, are you a middle child? Yeah, you can call it. It is so true. It's so true. And, yeah, like, Remy responds to being the weirdo. Like, she is the weirdest little child. And Brons and I have just decided we have to go with it.

Yeah, let her be weird. And Remy has food allergies. She has food allergies. So she's like a little different soul. as it is. She's just like a little anomaly. But she, yeah, she's allergic to like soy, peanuts, tree nuts, everything. What are you guys doing? Oh, it was the hardest.

Out of all my mothering, I've been doing it nine years. That, the two years after that diagnosis was the hardest, bar none. Because they're at, like, school eating cupcakes for someone's birthday, and you're like, you can't have that. And then their kids don't invite them over because their mom's don't know what to feed them. And then you're like late at night bawling over it. Like, oh, how do I get my kid to have friends? because everyone's afraid that they're going to die at their birthday party because they eat a peanut. So, and then you have to also pack them probably all this stuff, which is a whole different dynamic.

And I'm like a lazy mom. Like, I'm like a minimalist mother. Like, I don't like that. I don't want to do that stuff. It really bugs me that I have to do that. Like, I have to go above and beyond every other mother, and it really bothers me. I don't want to, but I have to. And now it's just, it's like how I don't like to make a sandwich for Michael.

It's like, oh, I got to be that way. Like, make your own. I told Bronson the other day. Do you know that he's nice? never made dinner in nine years. Whoa. Have you made dinner? I've made dinner, but like, I mean...

Wait, blue apron doesn't count. I've made dinner. Oh, you have. I feel like you're cooking a lot, actually. I've been cooking up, but I'm not like... I'm not like, uh... I wouldn't call myself, you know, like, an expert, but I'll, I mean, for Lauren, she's like, hey, do you want some of this, like, seaweed, kelp, concrete, pasta?

I'm like, what? And she's like, yeah, I'm on a health kick, so you're going to eat this. And it's like, it basically just takes, like, a piece of drywall. pour some sauce on. I eat that and then I pretend I like it and I drive, you know, get some postmates and eat in the corner when she's not looking. So what do you do when you have to like do all this extra, you have three kids, that's really gnarly? I used to have a pity party.

I full on mourned my life as I knew it for two years and then I just got over it. So what do you do? You just pack her lunch every day? I just pack her food, her own little special food wherever we go. And does she know she's not allowed? Oh, she's so good about it because she's had to have the EpiPen twice and that's horrifying to her. So she is like, I honestly don't even have to worry about her because she is worrying enough for me. She's like, does that have penis in it? Does that have soy? Does that have,

she is double checking, triple checking everything. That is so gnarly. She can't have soy and nuts. I know. Soy is in everything. Soi isn't everything or gluten. Wow. That's like, that's, it's, it's all foods. What does she eat? Like, give us some examples of anyone out there. So there's, like, special bread that I buy from Sprout. So she'll eat that bread. Like toast with butter is her staple. Okay. And she can't even really eat eggs, so we can't do that. She loves cheese. So she eats a lot of cheese and toast and broccoli, and she loves parmesan cheese.

So if I give her a vegetable and just douse it with parmesan cheese, she'll eat it. Yeah. Gosh, that's got to be gnarly, though. It's gnarly. But at least you've learned to, like, adapt to it and evolve with it. Yeah. It's just now it's our normal. I like it, though.

It's forced all of us to eat healthy. It has forced us. That makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. It, like, steps it up all over the whole family. Yeah. Okay.

So I actually want to ask for my own selfish reasons because it was really funny. Ozzy's lotion moment. Which one? Okay, Ozzy is the youngest. Yes. How old is he? He's two. He's two.

And he seems like he beats to the tune of his own drum from what you guys have told me. And he's so cute. He's so cute. His name too. He fits his name. Oh, his name is so good. He is such an Ozzy. It's out of control.

That is like the cutest little name I've ever heard. Okay, so tell us about his lotion moment. I literally don't know which one you're talking about. You told me that there was one that he was sitting on the couch and you caught him eating. Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about now. So I'm an esthetician. So I have all of my nice, like, body lotions and face lotion. Like these are like jars, like a $100 jar of like nice facial lotion.

And somehow he snuck into my aesthetics room. And this was in a, he was super into chips and dip at this moment. And so he snuck into my aesthetics room. He grabbed this jar and he brought it. to the couch. And I walk into the room and it smelled amazing. I was looking all around. I'm like, what is that?

And I see him and I see that he's covered in white stuff. But I was like, what is that? Like, what is that? And he has a bag of chips and I can just see him dipping his chips and eating it. And I thought it was ranch. I was like, how the hell did he get ranch? So I walk over to him and he has my like most expensive lotion. It is in his ears.

It's in his mouth. It's in his eyes. It's all over in his hair. And he is then consuming it, eating it like salsa. Is he on the couch with the lotion on the couch? On the couch. The couch is white, too. I thought it was like a powdery, like, ranch.

I thought he literally got, like, a ranch packet and put it everywhere. The whole thing was white. Michael, what would I do? I mean, he's not allowed to sit on my couch. I'm not even allowed to go on the couch. No, he's not allowed to sit on the couch. Our living room, it should not be called a living room because nobody's living in there. No, I don't want to.

No, it's just for my living room. Everyone has that room. I can't wait. We don't have that room. I can't wait to, like, decorate our. house. We see your guys as home and we're like, oh, that's going to be us in 20 years. Wait, are you guys, why can't you like, there's nothing that you can, like, give me like the real deal. There is nothing you can do. You can't have any sexy time toys because they'll be used

as a chew toy. It will be found. There is no safe that our children can knock it into. There is no secret spot. They, everything that I have is theirs and they use it at their convenience. So like my white couch is like, I got to like, I got to put it on your thing. I wouldn't even bring the kids over. No. You wouldn't bring your kids over. You know what we should do. We should loan you our kids just for an afternoon. I would love that.

Do you want to? And we'll take your dogs. I would love that. Just do a trial run with our kids and you guys try to do your business with our kids. Do a podcast with them. We'll see how it goes. What would they do? You guys would probably love Zeray and Remy.

Why not? What about Ozzy? It would be a lot of stress. Michael would love Ozzie. No. I would love to. And I wouldn't hit him. You wouldn't?

Thank you. We might share a, we might share. a bag of chips and some facial cream. Who knows? You guys, Ozzy is the one he escaped. He was literally not walking. He was stumbling around like a teeter-totter. We don't

know how this happened. He snuck out of our house and a little old lady brought him. We didn't even know he was gone, first of all, so that should tell you something about our parenting. We had no idea he was gone. And all of a sudden I walk into the front room and I see a strange woman, an old lady, a scary looking old lady

holding Ozzy and he's butt naked. And she goes, is this your baby? And I was like, yeah, why are you in my house? And I like, go over to hold Ozzy. And she's like, oh, I found him in the road. And I was like, oh, he went outside. And she was like, no, he went down to the main road, a block and a half away. And I was like, he doesn't even walk.

Oh, my God. How? How did it happen? Hashtag me as a parent. Hashtag so me. It's so horrifying. I can't even tell you. She turned around.

I took Ozzie and she turned around and disgust. Like, I should have been caught. Like, CPS should have came over. I can't with those judges. Judy's though like listen like sometimes things happen. You don't know how it happened. But it's like you know what can you do? I think that's an amazing story too. And you'll tell it

until he's like 18 years old. I know. I have so much blackmail on that kid. I love it. I like dream of his future wife slash girlfriend. It's going to be so fun with her. That's going to be hard. I feel like if you have a son and you're a mom to see. I always say that like I'm always like it's probably hard as like a mom to see

their son get married and date another woman because like I never thought. I thought I was disgusted in those moms before but I'm totally, like, he loves me first and the most. I just know that. Okay, so are there more kids on the horizon? Do you think, or are you, oh, maybe? If I could guarantee another boy.

Okay, so you would if there's a boy? Yeah, I think so. Are you doing a Kardashian moment where you're going to have maybe six or is four? Like, I'm done at three. I mean, I feel like if you guys get a little bit closer, you'll probably get pregnant, like, just not even doing anything. I mean, it seems to happen very quickly. That's one. We can't swim in a swimming pool.

That's what I said. Like, we have to be separate. Yeah. So how Ozzy happened? No. No, no. We can take this out. But it was literally.

You can leave it in. Christmas Eve. And we did the dirty. And I go, Merry Christmas. You're pregnant. And then. By the way, we didn't talk about Ozzy. We didn't talk.

Remember, we told you we do the pole and pray? Ozzy was not a discussion. He just decided to do his own thing. And then Ozzy. As he was conceived. He knew. He told me Merry Christmas, you're pregnant. No.

And I got pregnant that night. Yeah, but you said that you wanted another kid. I was like, maybe we should talk about it. That was the conversation. Maybe we should talk about it. So I did it and said Merry Christmas and it turned out that that was a one shot. One time. Our story is similar.

I said Merry Christmas, but it didn't. It was in a different area. You what? I don't get it. I think that flew over her head. I mean, her face. We're going to let it. We're going to let it.

Oh, okay. It's over your head. Right over. Merry Christmas. Hit you in the face. Okay. Okay, so if anyone wants to find you guys, you're an amazing couple. We have to have you guys back on to talk kids.

Let's talk a little bit about before we go your businesses. Because first, Wesley, blogged you and Brano helped you do this blog. Mostly blog, too. Brano has an eye for aesthetic. And your blog is so cute. Like, I love it. It's very, it's beautiful. It is cute. It's cute now. You guys, it was called Lovechugs, and then we did a full-on rebrand with blog do, and now it's called w.com. And I'm not the best at updating it, just because mom life kind of has consumed.

I like that. I appreciate, though, because each post that you do is very like. It's thought out. I do it when I have something to say. There's not filler posts. It's very much like, okay, I have something to talk about, so I'm going to talk about it. I don't really, like, drag people through my nonsense. It's just like, okay, I have something important to say. I'm going to say it. And then our latest. venture. It was our kids' idea is the YouTube. It's called the Itty Bitty Christensen Committee. And it is 100% it's our kids. Like it is not us where they're helpers. They are creative directors. They film what they want to film. And Bronson and I just help.

And they love it. It's pretty fun, actually. The Itty Bitty Christian Committee. Christian Committee. Yeah. The Itty Bitty Christian Committee is a different thing. Yeah. Definitely not Christian. Christianson Committee. The Eddy Bitty Christianson Committee. Yeah. That is so cute. It's pretty fun.

I love it. I like it more than blogging, which I never thought I would say. That's cool. Because I never wanted to be in front of the, exactly. I didn't want to be in front of the camera. That scares me. But this is, this is pretty fun. Yeah, it's something you're doing as a family too. Yeah. Look out keeping up with the Kardashians. Oh, look out, Kim. You know, I will say really quick about Wesley's blog. Your blog is the only blog on the entire planet that I have gone back and read every post. And I'm not a mom. So that's really interesting because the way you write. Oh, thanks. I love the way you write. I think

it's like, it's just, really you feel your voice. You feel like you're having a happy hour with you. Oh, that is, that's a nice. I will take that compliment. Yeah, it's a great blog. Thanks. What were you going to say, sorry? No, no, I said, Brian with Ghost Mouse. Like, he's doing, you know, he's done some stuff for you that we haven't released yet, and he's doing some stuff

right now for Wesson and I. And then we've worked together a little bit, you know, I've kind of helped them a little bit of the marketing consulting side and them with some of their clients. So they do some, like, you guys do some, you particularly do some really awesome design work. So I think people should definitely utilize the services. Yeah.

Tell us about Ghost Mouse. So Ghost Mouse is a little studio that Jeff and I started, my business partner. We were both at agencies and we saw that there's no longevity. It's like it's just hustling, right? It's like get a client, finish it, and then you're on to another. And so Ghost Mouse is set up. We are a design store. studio. We don't really like to say that. And we act as a venture fund as well. So we'll either get

into deals with other people that we believe in the people and the story and the product. And we'll take some ownership in it in exchange for our skill sets. So if it's branding that they need or product or whatever. And then we help build this brand that we have a piece of ownership. So if it gets acquired down the road, we get paid out. And then we also come on as the studio or agency of record where they're paying us each month to do the work they need. But it's something that we own, right? Really cool.

And then so it's that. And then we'll launch our own products. Well, it's smart because a lot of agencies, like not to throw any agents under the list, but a lot of them operate in the realm where they really don't care about the client. They care about the retainer or the revenue that's generated. And so with this, not. that you wouldn't because I know you would care about your client, but at the same time, you have skin in the game where you're saying, listen, like, we're going to use our expertise to

actually push and help this brand grow, and we're going to do all this stuff that an agency would do. So it's, yeah, I'm just sick of making people money. Like, I want to make my money, right? And you should, because let me tell you something about your design. It's incredible. Thank you. If you guys have the skinny confidential cell phone cases, I basically told Bronno, like, my, like,

vision and he ran with it and I'm so happy with how it turned out. The boobs. The boobs. Yeah. It's just fun working with you guys. Yeah, we love it. Because you guys just have a good vision. So it's, I mean, it's someone that we'd love to work with. Yeah, you're easy. I have an idea, a product that's launching that I haven't kind of talked about yet. And you did the, the website and it looks fucking amazing. And I normally have eight million changes. And this time I only had like, like, like 50, which is like really different from my 8 million. It is like my favorite website. I'm so excited.

I love it. Yeah, it's very, very cute. I'm excited for everyone else to see it. Yeah, I'm really excited. I can't wait. So where can everyone find you guys? Like, pimp yourselves out. Oh, shameless plug-in.

Ready go, Brons. My Instagram is Brono. B-R-O-N-O. I love it. And our company is Ghost Mouse, G-M-O-U-S-E, underscore, underscore. Ghost mouse. No one gets that when you say it, but yeah, ghost mouse. My Instagram is Wesley, W-E-S-L-I-E-E underscore. We love those underscores, I guess. Yeah, they're good. You got to use them. And then my blog is w. Dot.com.

Oh, and Itty-Bitty, Christensen committee. Not to be confused with the other group, that small group of Christians. Don't confuse that. Christensen. And we will have you guys back on to even get more deeper with kids because I have like 6 million more questions before Michael does a pull and pray. Don't do it. Michael, talk to her before. Yeah, Michael. Don't marry Christmas me. Don't. Let's talk about it. Thank you guys for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having us. Thank you guys so much for listening.

If you get a chance, head over to iTunes and subscribe, let your friends know. Let's keep growing the show, keep growing the community. If you really want to show some love, go ahead and give us a review, give us a couple stars, let us know what you think. Lauren and I would both really, really appreciate it. And with that, we'll be back next week. Thanks for listening to the skinny confidential him and her with Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic. Download new episodes every Tuesday at podcast.1.com or subscribe now on the podcast one app. Back to the S. And this is Nina Parker.

Now, we are two pop culture veterans who love nothing more than talking about the latest trend in topics. Now, we're talking about everything, the relationships, music, celebrities. And maybe the banana picks I get in my DM. I don't know. We're talking about everything. All right, now you get to join us every week on our new podcast, Little Black Dress with Roxie and Nina. Check out new episodes on Podcast One.com, the Podcast One app, or subscribe on iTunes. Guys, it's the Little Black Dress, because every woman has one.

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