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Allow Us To Reintroduce Ourselves · Girls Gone Hallmark | Hallmark Movie Reviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is a Bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Homewark,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a Homewark review podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a longtime
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm a former Homemark hater. In
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Today's episode is a little bit different. Today is a
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: reintroduction episode. We recently received an email from listener Heather
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: who said, Hi, I've been a listener for some time
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and I was trying to find the very first episode
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of the show to listen to introductions. However, I can't
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: find it on Spotify or Apple podcast. Could you redo
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: an introduction of yourselves?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Please?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Well, hold on a second. Our very first episode is
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: somewhere out there, right, sure. Our very first episode is
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: jingle Bell Bride. That is its far back. That's when
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: we started. That was the first Countdown to Christmas movie
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty that we did. And I believe that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: was the first weekend of Countdown to Christmas. Oh really, yes,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm not sure I think it's a good point.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure there would be an introductory episode. You're right,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: because it was. It was a bonus episode on our
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: other podcast that we did. So let's start from the beginning.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Because Heather has a list of questions including how did
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you become friends? All right, do you want to tell
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that story? We've told this story, we have, but we're
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: going to pin this as the trailer of the podcast.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: If you ever want to come back to it hear
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: the origin story. We've definitely told it here before. But
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: if you're new or you just want to rehear the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Megan and Wendy origin story, here it is. We did
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: meet on Twitter in twenty eleven, back when Twitter was
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: not the place that it is today. That's pool that
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: exists on the internet now. And we were mommy bloggers
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: at the time, both of us, and we we're in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the Orange County blogging space. That was a thing in
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: the mommy blogging space. Yeah, and still so. A million
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: years ago. There was a group of Orange County bloggers
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and there were Orange County blogging events, and we actually
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: met in person at the blog Her conference in San
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Diego that same year in twenty eleven, yep, and then
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: kind of ran in the same blogging circles for a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: few years. I'm just trying to think, like, I don't
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: know what the progression look like for us. I honestly
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: don't remember. I don't remember either, except in twenty fourteen
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: we started a YouTube channel that was twenty fourteen, yes,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: because that would be it might have been twenty thirteen.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Your daughter was in preschool, yeah, time, and she would
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: have gone to preschool in twenty thirteen. I could dig
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: back into the YouTube arcaves. I'm not going to. But
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: we started a YouTube channel that was honestly largely driven
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: by me. Megan, Oh yeah, I didn't want to do
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: any of that. I talked you into it. Now. At
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the time, we had fully separate online presences. We both
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: had our own separate mommy blogs, and we said, let's
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: start this YouTube channel. We said, I said let's start
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: this YouTube channel, and dragged Monday along with me, and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: we did that for six years, a long freaking time.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: There are hundreds of YouTube videos. They still are out there.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: The channel has been rebranded as Girls con Hamewark because
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: our podcast episodes are over there. But all of our
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: old episodes were there, and that was called Long Story
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Shore and those were taste tests.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Which we fell into accidentally.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Beauty halls, tag videos, there's some vlogs up there.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: There are hundreds and hundreds of videos on that channel.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you want to see like what we look like,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I think that's like the best place. Sure, tis like,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: but again a million years ago, million years ago, I
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: look at it, like, my house doesn't look like that anymore.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Same house, same house, color has changed. Yeah, very different time.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: And then the joke, if you've ever heard, is that
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: you know, in January kind of have a State of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the Union meeting every year, and Wendy would show up
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: every for a couple of years and be like, I'm
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: ready to quit. I don't want to do this anymore.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I'm burned out.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Especially it was tough during the YouTube days because creating
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: YouTube content it was very time consuming. Yes, and you
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: know it was. This was also pre TikTok, pre reels.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: It was influencer video was just like on the cusp
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of like you.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Short form video didn't even exist exactly.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So here we are making these YouTube videos every week
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: like for years and years and years, trying to like
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: monetize it, trying to like make a name for ourselves,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and it just was like not happening. And in that
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: window of time, we created a combined internet space, like
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the YouTube channel grew into a website. Yeah, this is
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: all under the Long Story Short with Meg and Wendy branding,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and then and Wendy would have these epiphanies every January
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: like this is hard, I don't want to do it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And then when I say that, I feel like I
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: dragged her kicking and screaming. But I also feel like
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: the conversations were like, well, let's just see, let's just see.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And at the beginning of twenty twenty was when we
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: had both hit a wall and just decided that creating video.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Was no longer working for us.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we took a break.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: It wasn't fun anymore. We took a break.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: And I guess that timing was good because then the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: world would shut down, and so we kind of put
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a pause on content creation. It didn't we weren't really
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: in a creative space. It felt a little weird to
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: be creating content while we were locked down at home.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And cut to September of that year, we started to
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: feel like maybe we could start creating again. We're like,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: we missed this.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: We just needed a break.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: We needed a break, and then we also at that
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: point needed we needed to be doing something. We'd been
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: home for long enough, our kids were still home, we
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: were in a groove and we did something for ourselves,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and so we launched our very first podcast, the first
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: four podcasts we have launched since then, and that was
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Long Story Short with Me and Wendy, which was women's
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: lifestyle content, and it was it's about as vague as
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: you can get. It is super vague, but the podcast
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: itself encompassed so many things. It's kind of what our
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: patreon is now, right. But we would have an up
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: top segment where we would connect chat about recent and
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: then every episode had to focus everything from why I
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: hate Mother's Day to meals my family is eating to
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: pop Culture Club started over there, yep.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: And very early on.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Within the first month or so, Wendy had an idea.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: This freaking hater was like, Hey, I have an idea
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: about Hallmark movies and that story I've told it last
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: year when we had Danny Pellegrino on the podcast. I
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: am a big fan of Danny Pellegreno's podcast. He talks
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: about housewives and stuff like that. And one night I'm
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: laying in bed and he's talking about Hallmark movies and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I was like, that's funny. I've never watched a Hallmark movie.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: And I knew that Megan and her husband had seen
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: a bunch of them, and I was like, wouldn't that
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: be funny if we reviewed Hallmark movies from the perspective
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Wendy who's never seen one, and quite frankly like, that's
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not my jam like a romance the way I saw
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: them at the time, where like, oh, these are just
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: like romantic happily ever after happily ever after stories, And
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like, come on, like, I have lived a life
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: like and life does not look like that. I just
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: was not into it. Also, I think compounding that is
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: you're a little bit of a former Christmas hater too. Yeah,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: so in addition to not fully being into and not
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: fully necessarily getting the vibe of these movies, you didn't
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: necessarily want to.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Sit in the Christmas season for all these movies.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Correct. But we decided to do it. We said, let's
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: do one movie a week, Like I can commit to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the bit even though I don't love bits. If you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: listen to any of our podcasts. I thought it would
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: be funny. I thought I could come at it as like, oh,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: real hater, I could come at it with just like
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: a negative point of view. I thought that would be funny,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: but then learned real quickly that it's not very cool
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: to do that. Yeah, well, I think once we very quickly.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: The initial vibe was Yes, I had watched homework movies
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: for a long time, but prior to making a podcast
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: out of them, I was a very casual watcher. I
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: didn't know who any of these people were. I they
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: were like a comfort food at the end of the night.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: We could turn one on and fall asleep. But I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: knew the vibe. I didn't know any of the details.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I was not that kind of watcher at that point.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: We started making these podcasts, and we had committed to
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: let's do Countden to Christmas, Let's do one movie a
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: week for this countdown a Christmas season, And it was
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: a bonus episode on that long story short podcast. And
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I think what we learned was, Oh, these are real
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: people making these movies. It's not necessarily all that fun
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to show up and shot all over someone's job all
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: day long. Right, Although the different points of view can
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: be funny, and I think we often do have a
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: different point of view, our attitude now is not let
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: this be a takedown. Correct we try and approach it objectively.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of things we like, but when something
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: doesn't land, we talk about that too, rather than being
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a personal attack.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: And so for two years, you know.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: At the end of that season, people were like, hey,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: keep going, So we kept going. There was this audience
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: of people who wanted these Homewark reviews, and for two
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: years it existed as a bonus episode on that podcast.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I to this day, I don't know why we did that.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know why we did that. In twenty twenty two,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, this should be its own pot. We
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: were sitting here one day, this should be its own podcast.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: That It blows my mind that we didn't get their stay. No,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: I don't know why. So we made it its own podcast,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and we didn't even give it its own website until
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: two years after that. It's just it's wild to me
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: because Girls con Hamewark is the most successful thing we've
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: ever done. It's the most engaged project we've ever created
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: in twelve years of working together, and it just like
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: so long to get to that place of.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, make it its own thing. Yeah, so just you
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: just can't see it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: No. Yeah, So that's the Girl's Cone Hallmark origin story.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Our overall business is Megan and Wendy Media. We have
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Midlife Besties, which is a website under that umbrella as well,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and our Patreon also exists under that umbrella, which, if
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you're not a listener an you like this style episode
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: that you're getting right now, you might really like Patreon.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Patreon dot com, slash Megan and Wendy. It's a lot
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: looser over there, very loose. The Heather asks, what is
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: your favorite Hallmark movie?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, hands down, my favorite Hallmark movie all time is
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: a Bill Moore Christmas. It is the epitome it is.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: It really is the best of the best. Not just
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: because I love Chris Palaja. I'm like, guys, former Hallmark
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: hater here, like I didn't know anybody's name, I didn't
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: know anything, and now I'm telling you my favorite Hallmark
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: movie is a Christmas movie, a time travel movie. I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: don't like sci fi, Like, I know it's not sci fi,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: but time travel for me falls under that. Anyway, this
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: is the best movie ever made that I've ever seen
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: from Hallmark. And I've seen a what did you say,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: we had like five hundred episodes?
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Maybe do so. Yeah, we've seen a few few movies.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a I think that would be
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: my favorite Christmas movie too.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I love the Science Healed Delivered series. Oh my god,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: it's so good. It's really worth your time.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: We did not want to watch that, guys. No, and
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: when we announced it, several people came into our dms like,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: WHOA pump the brakes that you're gonna regret this. I
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: do not regret it.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: No, no, no.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: That's really worth your time. I loved the Mystery one
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: O one series. We just did a rewatch this past summer.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: The Way Home is one of my favorite television shows,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: not just Hallmark shows. I think it's the kind of
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: thing that I think non Hallmark watchers could get into. Yeah,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Finding Mister Christmas is right up.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: There with reality shows.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I love. Yes agree, So.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, longtime Homemark fans.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: We had talked off Mike mag I was like, what
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: are your favorite like Hallmark movies? And I'm like, you know,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I have a whole bunch of favorites outside of Christmas.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: If I may, can I just please through them? The
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Magic of Limon Drops. Loved Love Love just because it
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: was so different. Love that movie Savoring Paris. I'm telling you.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Summer twenty twenty four delivered Savoring Paris. Bethany joy Lynds
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: was so good. In fact, if you're looking for a Hallmark,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: watch a Bethany joy Lynn's movie, right She's real good.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: She's fantastic and I really enjoy her movies. In fact,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I just watched one that I had never seen before
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: as a Valentine movie. I can't remember the name of
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: it right now. A loved Me Christmas Waltz with Lacy
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Shabert and Will Kemp love that give me a dancing segment,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: loved it. I'm a big fan of Wowie Ssowie Webster.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Summer Villa is a great movie.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: That's a good movie.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I have a bunch. So I think that's where the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: former hallmarketer comes from. Is like, oh yeah, I don't
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: even recognize myself anymore, Like when I want to throw
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: on show, like I will turn on Hallmark Plus now
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: just to have something running, because like you said, comfort food,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: it does something to my brain, like it just feels good,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: like I see it. I get it now, I get it.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: That doesn't mean I still can be like critical, you know.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: I think the Hallmark hater came from not understanding or
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: appreciating Hallmark as its own genre.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: And I think that's really important if you're a Hallmark
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: watcher to acknowledge that Hallmark movies. And I feel like
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Hallmark movie is is a brand name like Kleenex. Like
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you would refer to a lot of made for TV
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: movies as Hallmark movies, not just those that air on
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the Hallmark way. But a Hallmark movie is a very
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: specific thing, produced in a very specific way, on a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: very specific budget, with a very specific format. And I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: think you have to evaluate it differently than you would
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a theatrical release, right than you would a Netflix movie.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: They're different entities to me. Yeah, So I think once
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you have that understanding, watching it with those eyes makes
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: it a very different experience. You're not trying to make
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: this the next Avengers movie. You're not trying to make
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: it the next Jennifer Anderson romcom Right.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: So those are my thoughts.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: If you have other questions, email them to us Girls
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Gone Hamemark at gmail dot com. We will include them
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: in an upcoming Listener mail bag episode.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: We hope you.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Enjoyed this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark. We'll be back
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: next time with more Hallmark reviews.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Goodbye, bye.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: All, right, friends, Before we go, just a quick heads up,
• 15:47
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• 15:49
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