Latest / The Scene Projects / Parenting, Podcasting, and Authenticity: Bubba Startz and Marisa Kiley Share Their Stories

Transcript

Parenting, Podcasting, and Authenticity: Bubba Startz and Marisa Kiley Share Their Stories · The Scene Projects

• 0:02
  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
• 0:04
  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Marissa Kiley from the podcast, Love Letters
• 0:09
  to Single Mamas.
• 0:10
  Marissa, welcome to the show.
• 0:12
  Thank you.
• 0:13
  This is a huge honor, and I was so looking forward to this conversation with you.
• 0:17
  Oh, thank you.
• 0:18
  I was looking forward to this.
• 0:20
  Obviously, just the title of your show and me being a father and someone who has done the
• 0:24
  single father thing as well, I have a a huge appreciation for the community that you're
• 0:30
  building.
• 0:31
  So before we get too far into our conversation, and we've actually been talking for twelve
• 0:35
  minutes off camera already, why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about you and
• 0:40
  the show, and we'll pick it up from there.
• 0:42
  Well, similar to your story, I have been and was a single parent for over two decades.
• 0:49
  And it was the most interesting weird time of everybody's life when you get thrust into a
• 0:55
  single parent role because there is no handbook.
• 0:58
  There is no guidance.
• 0:59
  And, unfortunately, it comes with a lot of guilt from the world and shame from within.
• 1:04
  And it's it's a battle of do we take care of our children versus heal ourselves, and when do
• 1:09
  you balance it all out?
• 1:11
  And the good news is as you become the older single parent, meaning that, you know, things
• 1:16
  have shifted in life and you're able to look at things through a different and a healthier
• 1:20
  perspective, looking backwards, there's a lot of times where I was seeing events happen, and
• 1:26
  it would pull me right back into that moment.
• 1:28
  I remember what it felt like and that there was nobody there to actually offer the words that
• 1:33
  you're going to be okay.
• 1:35
  You're gonna make it through this.
• 1:36
  Life will change.
• 1:37
  It will shift again.
• 1:38
  But that's the moment that we can use to really refine ourselves and really to find our true
• 1:42
  happiness.
• 1:43
  So instead of just talking about it anymore, I decided to jump in.
• 1:47
  I have background as public speaker as well.
• 1:50
  And so podcasting for me felt very organic and very natural.
• 1:54
  And when we started it, it was still that hesitation.
• 1:57
  Right?
• 1:57
  Is this gonna land well?
• 1:59
  Is this gonna go well?
• 2:00
  Getting into it, I realized every episode makes me tear tear up because I'm able to put myself
• 2:05
  back in that position of this is what I would have needed or I wish somebody would have said
• 2:10
  this to me.
• 2:11
  And in its essence, that's what podcasts are.
• 2:14
  That is exactly what I say it a lot on this show and on my other show, Get Better Together,
• 2:22
  that this is how God is speaking through us.
• 2:24
  Us sharing our story and getting this out here, like, this is how we not only heal ourselves,
• 2:30
  but this is how the world is healed.
• 2:32
  Because who knows how many people are out there going through that same that same thing that
• 2:37
  you are, and maybe not this exact same details, but the same situations and feeling like you're
• 2:43
  the only one out there, that's what crushes us.
• 2:46
  Feeling like you're going through this and you're the only person in the world that's
• 2:50
  dealing with this can be so isolating.
• 2:53
  So I absolutely love the premise of the show, and I love that you found early on that, oh,
• 3:00
  it's it's not necessarily about an audience, healing it.
• 3:03
  That's great, but it's about healing you first.
• 3:06
  Yes.
• 3:06
  And and the tears coming in every episode.
• 3:09
  Right?
• 3:09
  I I feel that in every single way.
• 3:12
  Thank you.
• 3:13
  Thank you.
• 3:13
  You know, there was there's a majority of the podcasts out there that are absolutely
• 3:18
  brilliant.
• 3:18
  I love them.
• 3:19
  I would not knock any single one of them because every single one is a labor of love.
• 3:25
  However, I was tired of the interviews and the off the cuff, let's just talk about the moment,
• 3:33
  and I wanted to really drive it into a new version of community, a new version of
• 3:38
  communication where there's a safe space for all single parents to say, you know what?
• 3:43
  I might be going through this, but now I feel like it's okay to talk about it because of the
• 3:48
  fact that those stories line up way more than we realize.
• 3:52
  And, for example, you and I might think of a single parent for yourself as a single dad, for
• 3:57
  myself as a single mom.
• 3:58
  But what about the people that were widowed that didn't have a choice?
• 4:02
  What about the ones that have stepped in and filled in for children when there is no natural
• 4:07
  love?
• 4:08
  The term of a single parent needs to actually expand as well.
• 4:12
  We need to talk to all of them and remember that all of them are included, all of them are
• 4:17
  safe to talk about their problems just as much as we need it as well.
• 4:22
  And accepting that we're all just parents.
• 4:24
  Yes.
• 4:25
  Like, it's, you know, single, married, divorced.
• 4:29
  You know, it's all we're all just trying to raise our kids not as screwed up as we are.
• 4:35
  Yes.
• 4:35
  You know?
• 4:36
  And because of the world and you are, you know, raised by a different generation than I am.
• 4:43
  You know?
• 4:44
  And for your parents, I am sure that even the thought of divorce was unheard of.
• 4:50
  Right?
• 4:50
  And I know that, you know, both of my grandparents stayed through some really hard
• 4:54
  times with each other, and not all the years are good.
• 4:58
  Right?
• 4:59
  And then they raised, you know, kids that I look at my aunts and uncles and my own parents
• 5:04
  are divorced, but, you know, they should have been divorced probably five or six years before
• 5:09
  they did.
• 5:10
  Because what they ended us dragging dragging us through as children screwed all of us up.
• 5:16
  And it was like but they didn't have the tools to know that it was the right decision, to know
• 5:23
  that it's okay to do this.
• 5:25
  Like Yes.
• 5:25
  You're actually screwing your kids up less by taking this path or that.
• 5:30
  And another one you hit on, the widowed.
• 5:32
  The the widowed single parent that is dealing with a whole different set of circumstances and
• 5:38
  trauma than and the children of that situation as well.
• 5:42
  Right?
• 5:42
  So amazing.
• 5:43
  I I left my my oldest son and my two younger ones.
• 5:47
  I did a two years in prison, Marissa, to share a little bit about me and to get a little deep
• 5:52
  on this episode.
• 5:54
  And, you know, I could have stayed in Mexico.
• 5:57
  I was in I was in Mexico for a year on the run with my son and a daughter that was on the way,
• 6:04
  but I had to make the personal choice that, like, you're not gonna do this to them.
• 6:07
  Just because your parents screwed you up and you didn't have a road map on how to do this,
• 6:11
  and I had another boy at home in Sturgis at the time, actually, of all places in South Dakota.
• 6:17
  And realizing what I was putting them through, and granted they were all pretty young at the
• 6:23
  time.
• 6:24
  My youngest two don't remember at all.
• 6:26
  They were three and two when I eventually got out of prison.
• 6:30
  But on the other side of what you talked about, I, very quickly, I, divorced my my current wife
• 6:36
  at the time.
• 6:37
  My ex wife and I got divorced, and I got physical custody of the two younger.
• 6:41
  And I met there who would they call mom now, my wife, my current wife, and she's been raising
• 6:49
  two children that are not her own.
• 6:51
  And whereas while she's not a single parent, her parenting journey is altogether different
• 6:58
  than what yours and I's would, but not wholly undifferent from many other step parents that
• 7:05
  are out there as well.
• 7:06
  Right?
• 7:06
  Absolutely.
• 7:07
  She doesn't treat my kids as a step like, I I don't even like the term step parent or step
• 7:12
  brother or half brother or half sister of which all of my all of my kids have different DNA.
• 7:18
  You know?
• 7:18
  They they are all different.
• 7:19
  My son, Mickey, is not biologically my son, but he has been my son since he was in the womb.
• 7:25
  So and and and my children understand that.
• 7:29
  Blood doesn't make us family.
• 7:30
  Our commitment to one another is what makes us family.
• 7:34
  Absolutely.
• 7:35
  And not only on that little bit, for me, I've always when I was on my my path as a single
• 7:40
  mom, completely alone, how do I do this kind of moment, I looked at it as we are entrusted with
• 7:47
  the next generation.
• 7:49
  And single parent homes make up almost 50% of the children that are born at this point.
• 7:55
  So it's not something that's gonna go away or quietly fix itself, and it doesn't need to be
• 8:00
  fixed.
• 8:02
  It needs to be supported.
• 8:04
  And if we don't start, you know, changing that direction, we have children that are our next
• 8:09
  leaders of the world.
• 8:11
  We have children that are the next Elon Musk or inventor or whatever status you wanna call him.
• 8:16
  Everything.
• 8:16
  Everything.
• 8:17
  These different categories of being able to find out new ways to do things are within our
• 8:23
  fingertips of what we're teaching our children.
• 8:25
  That also extends into our dating habits.
• 8:28
  It's an incredible pressure to be a parent dating in real time showing children what's
• 8:34
  acceptable to date.
• 8:35
  There's so many just different layers of ambassador and peacekeeper and provider and all
• 8:41
  of the roles that go into a single parent, and you're also trying to compensate for the
• 8:47
  balance of the other parent that is not there as well.
• 8:50
  So it's just it's so many different levels, and I don't think the topic will ever be exhausted
• 8:56
  at the end of the day.
• 8:56
  It never will be.
• 8:58
  No.
• 8:58
  And exactly why you need a podcast, you can't just go appear on someone else's podcast and
• 9:02
  have even even a three hour conversation like we were Joe Rogan wouldn't cover it all.
• 9:07
  Yes.
• 9:08
  Yes.
• 9:08
  And that's exactly how I fell into my life.
• 9:11
  I I I appeared on a few Friends podcast, and I was like, man, we talked for an hour, and I was
• 9:16
  like, I didn't even get into most of the stuff that really affected my life.
• 9:19
  You We talked to I'm a songwriter, and my podcasting journey started there.
• 9:23
  I was promoting my own stuff, and then, like, the South Dakota media tour was over in a day.
• 9:29
  You know?
• 9:29
  I was on the local news, the local radio, and the two podcasts in the state, and then it was
• 9:35
  over.
• 9:35
  And I was like, oh, we could probably use more of these.
• 9:38
  And, being in my friend's studio was like, hey.
• 9:41
  I have all of this at home.
• 9:43
  And now realizing that you don't need all the fancy equipment to get there.
• 9:47
  You need a Zoom and YouTube, which are, you know, pretty low cost at the end of the day,
• 9:53
  and you can be sharing your message.
• 9:55
  And that that's what this medium is, and that's how it's healing the world.
• 10:00
  Yes.
• 10:01
  Well and for us, the podcast is just a part of the system.
• 10:04
  And I'm one of those people that I did not take that stop into coaching, and there was a reason
• 10:11
  for it.
• 10:11
  I've been an entrepreneur for twenty years.
• 10:13
  And so for me, this was a part of our bigger push to build authority for the company that we
• 10:18
  are growing.
• 10:20
  For us, it's about how do we reform education for single parents?
• 10:24
  How do we reform the conversation and open up new dialogue that's healthier?
• 10:28
  You know, it's there's so many different nuances to every category.
• 10:32
  Again, like you said, a podcast doesn't cover all of it.
• 10:35
  That's why we are not stopping there.
• 10:37
  We have so many other ventures that we're working on.
• 10:40
  First and foremost is education.
• 10:42
  And so my heart is there.
• 10:45
  So it's it's almost like a guilty pleasure for me to be able to do the podcast part because
• 10:51
  it's again, as we talked about, healing for me, healing for others, and it's just being put out
• 10:57
  there in the world without the expectation of needing anything in return.
• 11:02
  And it feels so free and so beautiful that it's like, okay.
• 11:05
  Not only should everyone write a book, but everybody should force themselves to do a
• 11:09
  podcast somehow, someway, because the journey is incredible that we receive in return.
• 11:15
  Right.
• 11:15
  At the very least to to go be a guest on a podcast, right, and to share it.
• 11:21
  And even if it's your friend's podcast and and the topic isn't something that, like it doesn't
• 11:26
  matter.
• 11:26
  Just go and talk and put it and and what I've said is it's not just it's all those things.
• 11:31
  Right?
• 11:31
  It can be an an authority builder for a business, or it can just be an archive for your
• 11:37
  children.
• 11:37
  Yes.
• 11:38
  Right?
• 11:38
  I talk about a lot of stuff, you know, on Get Better Together that I wouldn't share with my
• 11:43
  eight, nine, and 12 year old.
• 11:45
  Right?
• 11:45
  But there's a lot of stuff that when they're 16, I don't necessarily have to be having the
• 11:51
  conversation one to one with them either.
• 11:53
  Honey, you can go on YouTube and go learn about daddy from him talking to other people, right,
• 11:59
  and seeing that in that world, and that's something that we did not have twenty years
• 12:04
  ago.
• 12:04
  Right?
• 12:05
  You know, you were raising your kids and going through your struggles in a completely
• 12:10
  different landscape than we are today.
• 12:13
  I love the heart that you have to help and to and the the recognition of it that no.
• 12:18
  No.
• 12:18
  No.
• 12:18
  This isn't isn't for me.
• 12:21
  Although it is helping me, it's for something much greater.
• 12:24
  And this is how we heal the seven generations after us, not just our own kids, because then
• 12:29
  our kids are going to raise their kids differently.
• 12:32
  And those kids are going to learn and and raise them differently.
• 12:35
  And being able to look at grandpa and grandma and go, wow.
• 12:38
  They were they were really smart and talking about stuff that for us in the world that we
• 12:44
  were raised in, probably more so you than I, that it was taboo to even talk about these
• 12:49
  things.
• 12:50
  Oh my god.
• 12:50
  You can't talk about that.
• 12:51
  Like, no.
• 12:53
  It's my story.
• 12:54
  I will I will tell my story to whoever I want to.
• 12:58
  You someone else gave me this story, and if you were uncomfortable with me sharing that, then
• 13:03
  you shouldn't have given it to me.
• 13:05
  Yes.
• 13:05
  Well and and those are the people that I just have taken my stance.
• 13:10
  I have a saying that is in the podcast, and I use it all the time for myself, that healthy
• 13:15
  boundaries are only healthy if we reinforce them.
• 13:18
  That means us as well.
• 13:20
  So once we're on our healing journey and we're doing these things and and for me, podcast is
• 13:25
  helping.
• 13:26
  Yay.
• 13:26
  But when we do these things, it's it's very interesting that it alarms others to see
• 13:33
  somebody moving beyond where they were at.
• 13:36
  You will get that too.
• 13:38
  Healing journeys are not for everyone.
• 13:40
  It's they're personal.
• 13:41
  So, again, those healthy boundaries have to be reinforced.
• 13:44
  But at the same time, it's interesting from the inside out seeing how people react to movement.
• 13:52
  It's disarming.
• 13:54
  Some people can't handle it.
• 13:55
  I actually had to tell somebody that was close to me in the most loving way, I will not hold
• 14:00
  up my healing journey, and I don't expect for you to.
• 14:03
  I'm here to support your healing.
• 14:04
  I expect the same in return.
• 14:06
  And it when you start to go on that healing journey and when you heal more and you see it,
• 14:12
  get the perspective start shifting just ever so slightly and the door opens and it's different,
• 14:17
  it's so disarming, but, also, it's like this peace and this calm that you receive in return.
• 14:24
  There's no amount of money that can be made in any company.
• 14:28
  I don't care if you built every piece of it brick by brick yourself, but that healing part
• 14:33
  is such a gift from the universe.
• 14:35
  It's just so beautiful.
• 14:36
  That's why, honestly, everybody should force themselves out of their comfort zone because
• 14:41
  that's what it takes.
• 14:43
  Get on the edge of your comfort zone and just close your eyes and say, okay.
• 14:46
  I'm gonna try.
• 14:47
  Because your message is so important.
• 14:50
  And, again, talking off camera, we grew up very similar, way more similar than probably most
• 14:56
  anybody else would realize.
• 14:57
  We have a lot of similarities of the places that we went to and our sayings and our
• 15:02
  lifestyles.
• 15:03
  However, you deviated and took a totally different path.
• 15:07
  I took a totally different path, and yet we're able to come together in conversation in a
• 15:12
  positive way and compare and say, yeah.
• 15:14
  I wouldn't yeah.
• 15:15
  That place, I would never go there again, or, yep, I did.
• 15:18
  Mhmm.
• 15:19
  We've got those stories.
• 15:20
  You know?
• 15:21
  We grew up that same similar.
• 15:23
  But at the same time, look at where we are now and being able to come back together, celebrate
• 15:28
  in this moment in 2025 and say, wow.
• 15:31
  Look at where we've gotten to.
• 15:32
  It's beautiful to me.
• 15:34
  Yeah.
• 15:35
  And I think that therapy is much better served in the open now than behind a closed door with
• 15:41
  with somebody who's collecting a paycheck.
• 15:43
  I I just don't think that it's the way, that p I I just don't think that it actually healed
• 15:49
  anyone.
• 15:49
  You to be perfectly honest, I don't know if the whole therapy and the psychologists and
• 15:54
  psychiatry fields, I'm sure they've helped a few, but on the greater good level, I don't
• 15:59
  know that it actually, suited the purpose to which it was supposed to.
• 16:03
  I think this is a much more effective way of doing it.
• 16:07
  And and only time will tell how many lives we heal, but we have a mission here.
• 16:12
  So I know you deviated from the coaching because your mission was different.
• 16:16
  I, in the last two, three weeks now, have dove headlong into coaching because I I have a
• 16:23
  mission to start a million podcasters on their journey.
• 16:27
  They don't know that they're going on a healing journey necessarily, but that's what it is.
• 16:32
  That's what podcasting is at its core.
• 16:36
  And while it, yes, can be a vehicle for revenue or for a message or this or that, it's really a
• 16:42
  message vessel for healing.
• 16:44
  And that's what, I intend to do is to keep coaching people to get off the sidelines and
• 16:49
  just get in the game.
• 16:50
  And like you said, just go do it.
• 16:52
  And you don't have to do it forever.
• 16:54
  Get your story out there.
• 16:56
  And no matter how long or short that story is, it's important.
• 16:59
  Yes.
• 17:00
  Well, for us, for example, I just actually spoke to the person that's going to do it this
• 17:06
  morning.
• 17:06
  We are not translating ours into other languages through AI.
• 17:11
  I made that decision because it loses a lot of the the velvet, the texture to our
• 17:16
  conversations.
• 17:18
  So, for example, in sixty days, we're launching the podcast in Spanish.
• 17:22
  It's going to be undertaken by another single mom that's a % fluent in Spanish and English.
• 17:30
  So then that way, it speaks to single moms in Spanish, the native language, with the right
• 17:35
  tones, the right verbiage to be able to relate on a different level.
• 17:40
  We're taking our time a little bit, and we are not taking the same path as everyone else.
• 17:45
  And I think that aligns a lot with what you're saying about coaching people to do it.
• 17:49
  If the boundaries of it has to look a certain way, it has to be done a certain way, and it
• 17:53
  has to have a certain message and so much bells and whistles.
• 17:57
  It doesn't.
• 17:59
  No.
• 17:59
  I would advise everyone, if you wanna start this journey, and that's, again, with you with
• 18:04
  coaching, I'm very, very, a huge fan of Eddie Panero.
• 18:11
  Love his podcast.
• 18:12
  It's spoken word like mine.
• 18:14
  The kicker?
• 18:15
  No.
• 18:15
  No.
• 18:16
  No.
• 18:16
  No.
• 18:16
  No.
• 18:17
  Sorry.
• 18:17
  Wrong one.
• 18:19
  Nope.
• 18:19
  We're not going to sports today.
• 18:20
  So well, I'll have to give it to you so you can link it.
• 18:24
  But his podcast, if you look him up on YouTube, on TikTok, or any of them, it is spoken in a
• 18:30
  way that it builds up in crescendos that I don't care if you're in the gym on a on a
• 18:35
  treadmill.
• 18:36
  You're gonna stop to take notes from every single episode because it's one thing after
• 18:41
  another after another after another that he says.
• 18:43
  And it's like, wow.
• 18:44
  I needed to hear that today.
• 18:45
  Oh my god.
• 18:46
  I needed to hear that too.
• 18:47
  Wow.
• 18:48
  I yeah.
• 18:48
  Sorry.
• 18:49
  I gotta sit down and enjoy this now.
• 18:50
  I can't even work out anymore.
• 18:51
  It's happened to me many times.
• 18:53
  I love the fact that the idea of podcasting really picks up where radio's gone away and
• 19:01
  where movies are so scripted and you can see the ending.
• 19:04
  No.
• 19:04
  I want somebody to give me something original.
• 19:07
  I don't get that in other vehicles besides a podcast, at least right now in this day and
• 19:12
  age.
• 19:13
  That's why I think podcasting is only at the tip of the iceberg of what it will be even in
• 19:18
  ten years.
• 19:19
  So this is a great time to jump in.
• 19:21
  Even if you think somebody's already done it or somebody's already saying it, they're not you.
• 19:25
  They do not have your story.
• 19:26
  No one else does.
• 19:27
  And even if 20 people say it, the twenty first person saying it might be the person that
• 19:33
  somebody needs to hear.
• 19:34
  So there's never a bad time to do it.
• 19:36
  No.
• 19:37
  And I know we're we're members of a couple of Facebook groups that that overlap, and some of
• 19:42
  the guys that have been doing it for, you know, ten years are so jaded.
• 19:45
  Like, oh, no.
• 19:46
  Joe Rogan was the wave, and and there's no money in this, and there's it's the bubbles
• 19:50
  burst.
• 19:51
  And I was like, you guys, you are out of touch with what's actually going on because it's just
• 19:56
  starting right now.
• 19:57
  I know you guys have been here for ten years and doing this, but people have just caught on.
• 20:02
  And and I think the last election cycle showed us how much it has caught on.
• 20:07
  Everyone is tuned out of the mainstream media.
• 20:10
  They they have no viewers.
• 20:11
  Right?
• 20:11
  Because we're tired of being lied to.
• 20:14
  And, you know, I was raised in the matrix my entire life.
• 20:17
  And now I and I always knew it was bullshit.
• 20:20
  And but there was no vessel for me to communicate.
• 20:23
  That's probably why I became a big Joe Rogan fan and listening, but also watching him and
• 20:27
  his buddy beer bong out of, you know, American Eagles.
• 20:30
  Right?
• 20:30
  Like, only goes so far with me because I have my story, and I want to get those out there.
• 20:37
  And and and they're all fine.
• 20:39
  Like you said, the entertainment podcast, nothing against them.
• 20:41
  We're all on our own journey because Joe has obviously changed the world with his, and I'm
• 20:46
  not going to, take away from any of that.
• 20:48
  It's just not what I care to do with mine.
• 20:51
  And I have total control of what my feed and my channel is, and and I think that's it's
• 20:57
  empowering.
• 20:57
  Right?
• 20:58
  It's so freeing to have that and go, no.
• 21:00
  This is the way I see the world, and I'm going to put this out there.
• 21:03
  And if it resonates with other people, great.
• 21:06
  And if it doesn't resonate with you, I'm not gonna notice.
• 21:09
  Exactly.
• 21:10
  You know, and I realized this so I've been creating content for a very long time, even
• 21:15
  with my former business before I started this one.
• 21:18
  I jumped into Instagram before it was a thing.
• 21:22
  It was rough, even rougher than it is now because there were no rules.
• 21:26
  There was no well, the algorithm we didn't even know what the algorithm was.
• 21:29
  We didn't even know what existed back then.
• 21:31
  It was just try.
• 21:32
  And I always reasoned that if there's 20 locations in a town all in the same industry
• 21:39
  trying to get noticed, if I'm the only one on Instagram, well, then maybe I'll catch a little
• 21:46
  more.
• 21:46
  I feel the same way about podcasts right now.
• 21:49
  You can look around and say there's so many people that are doing it.
• 21:51
  But I can tell you, for example, with my work, working with education, single moms, single
• 21:57
  parents, it's very hard for me to use the algorithm because there is no categories.
• 22:05
  Well, guess what?
• 22:06
  That also makes me an industry of one.
• 22:09
  I also do not have any competition.
• 22:11
  There is no one competing against our company doing what we do, and that feels pretty freeing
• 22:18
  as well.
• 22:19
  So I think that same conversation can be looked at both ways.
• 22:22
  Yeah.
• 22:23
  Okay.
• 22:23
  Great.
• 22:23
  If you're going into the one of the categories talking about football, for example, like we
• 22:27
  were talking about earlier, yes, there's plenty of options out there, and you're probably gonna
• 22:31
  be right down at the very bottom trying to fight for attention.
• 22:35
  Well, if it's based upon experience and healing and growth and all of those good feeling
• 22:41
  things, guess what?
• 22:43
  You just got rid of a lot of competition right there.
• 22:47
  Well, because most people aren't brave enough to talk about themselves and to share their
• 22:51
  shit.
• 22:51
  Yeah.
• 22:52
  You know?
• 22:52
  And that's where our show and, obviously, with what you're doing, we kinda set ourselves apart
• 22:57
  is that we are unafraid and unabashed in our approach to our own lives.
• 23:02
  So I will turn that mirror.
• 23:03
  I will share all of my dark secrets with you.
• 23:06
  Thank you.
• 23:06
  And that's why you have no leverage over me if you want to cancel me.
• 23:10
  I have okay.
• 23:10
  If I am not canceled yet, honey, then I'm uncancelable.
• 23:14
  Right?
• 23:14
  So
• 23:15
  I feel the exact same way.
• 23:16
  I just told my fiance that the other day.
• 23:18
  I'm like, one day when somebody said something about their views on my stuff first of all, I
• 23:25
  have an entire single mama community to back me, and I will back every single person in the
• 23:31
  single parent community as well.
• 23:32
  So go ahead.
• 23:33
  Try and pick me apart.
• 23:35
  And all the the skeletons and closets, it's in the book that's coming out.
• 23:39
  So tap at it.
• 23:41
  Look.
• 23:42
  Don't worry.
• 23:42
  Say to me I mean, as someone who's, you know, spent time in prison, I've had grown men that
• 23:46
  have been paid to watch me pee in a cup.
• 23:48
  What more shame can you bring on me?
• 23:51
  One of them was my brother-in-law now.
• 23:53
  Right?
• 23:53
  Like, I have to go and have Thanksgiving dinner with him.
• 23:56
  So what
• 23:57
  So get over it.
• 23:58
  Just let it go.
• 23:58
  Yeah.
• 23:59
  You know?
• 24:00
  So, before I let you get out of here, can you, tell us the name of your company, first of all,
• 24:07
  and share a little bit about that and give the nice shameless plug before I let you go?
• 24:10
  Sure.
• 24:11
  No problem.
• 24:12
  So I am the CEO of a company called Grit and King, which I am a cofounder of.
• 24:17
  My fiance was building a company.
• 24:19
  I was building a company.
• 24:20
  My company name had Grit in it, and his head king in it.
• 24:23
  And we decided because our foundation of everything we build is our relationship and our
• 24:29
  lives.
• 24:30
  We ourselves are a blended family of six.
• 24:33
  We have six kids.
• 24:34
  He had three.
• 24:35
  I have three.
• 24:36
  We are the modern Brady bunch in all sorts of ways, and we're cool with it.
• 24:40
  And so that was the foundation where we started.
• 24:43
  And so as we added things, we turned it into our umbrella and love letters to single mamas
• 24:49
  is our podcast, and it's also a book that's coming out in a couple months.
• 24:53
  And it's just dedicated to dialogue with single moms to tell them you're loved, you're seen,
• 24:59
  you're not alone, you have your entire community around you.
• 25:02
  Now it's time to be embraced by your community.
• 25:04
  So that's what we're doing.
• 25:06
  That is absolutely beautiful.
• 25:08
  Well, Marissa, thanks for joining me today.
• 25:10
  I'm gonna have to get you back on a longer form episode with our Get Better Together project,
• 25:15
  and, we can kinda go down the road of of your personal story a little bit more if you would
• 25:20
  love to do that with us.
• 25:22
  I'm an open book as well, so we can do this.
• 25:25
  Well, Marissa, thanks for being part of the scene.
• 25:28
  Thank you.