April 16, 2025 • 8 mins
Gia Casey and DJ Envy join Mendte in the Morning to talk about the release of their new book and the challenges of raising children to be empowered.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we're so proud to have dj Envy from our
sister station Power one to zero five down the hall
of the Breakfast Club. Thank you so much for being
in here today. Even better, you brought your wife in.
Gia Casey is also here because the two of them
have written a book together. How long have you two
been married.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We've been married twenty four years together, thirty one.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Wow, that's what your first book was.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
About, right, yes, yes, Real Life Real Love. It was
about our life together, the ups and the downs, of
trials and tribulations, the good, bad and the ugly of
being together for such a long time and being married.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
And congratulations on that a bestseller. It was a New
York Times bestseller. Yes. Wow. So they probably begged for
a second book. The publisher said, please write something else,
and they do have a new book out. The book
is called Real Life, Real Love, Life Lessons on Joy, Pain,
and the Magic that holds Us Together. That was the
first book. Excuse me, but that way you get another
(00:56):
plug in for the first book. This one is about
raising children. It's called Real Life, Real Family, A Guide
to Raising Empowered Children. I love that. Tell me what
it means when you write empowered children.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, the family structure is facing so many challenges, especially today.
When we were kids, there were challenges, but with the
antidote of social media and things of that nature, it's
a lot more difficult. So raising kids that are confident,
low stress and empowered can be especially difficult today. So
(01:35):
what we ventured to do is to provide a guide,
a tool, something that parents, potential parents, parents that already
have children, regardless of your age, that they can refer
back to to pretty much lead them and give them examples,
give them our experiences so that they can have children
(01:56):
that feel very confident no matter what kind of room
they walk into.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Because Rashaul and parenting is hard, very difficult. It's really difficult,
and you never think you're doing it right. Yeah, that's
the problem parenting, I said before, is about guilt. Yeah,
well a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know, I always say, you know, when we had
our kids, we didn't have the baby come out in
an instruction manual, right, yeah, so you have to figure
it out. And you know, we have six kids twenty three,
twenty one, eleven, ten, eight, and three, so things have changed.
You know, with my twenty three year old, there was
no social media, you know, now there's social media, so
now you have to make sure those kids are prepared
for what they're going to see on social media. You know,
(02:36):
social media in a lot of cases is not a
great place, right people look to put people down. So
we wanted to make sure our kids don't care about
what those comments say. You know that when they come
to our house or when they come home, I should say,
it's a safe place to land, right, It's a place
where they know, they get respect, they know we'd listen.
And for us, it was difficult. Like I tell everybody
(02:57):
all the time, my dad was a retired police officer
in NYPD. My dad is ex military, So it was
always no, well why because I said so and I
let it go. GI's way of actually parenting is well,
let's explain why, because we gain that trust. So no,
I'm going to explain why I don't want you to go.
It's not safe at night the teens come out and
(03:17):
you know, people could be drinking and driving, and she
explains it and breaks it down, which develops trust for
our kids. And now our kids come to us and say, well,
if mom and dad say no, there's a reason. It's
not just that they're tired. It's not that just he
had a stressful day, and that has worked so well
and opened things up so well with our kids.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I'll tell you what, I love what you just said
about social media too. That is the new evil. And
I guess it's important that you tell your kids you
depend on those who love you. There's going to be
outside forces in your life, with some of them you
have to ignore. Is that right? It is.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's about building a strong family identity and individual identities
for each of your children, because you don't want them
to seek validation outside of the home, because that leads
to children that are overlooked, that are taken advantage of,
and that rely on society to tell them who they
are or who they should be. And so many kids
fall susceptible to that because they don't have a nucleus.
(04:13):
They don't have a family or parents that they trust
that have instilled this validation within them.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's great. I'll tell you what the biggest problem I've had,
and I think this is the problem that a lot
of parents have, is getting their children to build the
trust so that your child will come to you, They
will come to you with what their problems are. Sometimes
they hide them from you. Yeah, how do you deal
with that? Well?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
See, the main thing, and this is crazy because I
had to learn from my wife was patience. See my
wife will sit down with each individual kid and talk
about their day, ask questions, be engaged. I mean, she's
talking to my eight year old about her Locker and
how she designed her locker and they're having a three
hour conversation and I'm sitting there watching the nixt game
like you're not tired yet. And then she'll finish with
(04:59):
that one and then a three years to talk about
her potty experience and what she did on the party,
and I'm like, the giants are on, you know. And
that patience developed, that trust where they come to mom
for everything, and I had to realize, well, that's what
they want. They want time. Kids don't care about anything else.
They don't care about what you buy them to close
the video games will they do care, But they care
more about the time that you put into them, the time,
(05:20):
the conversations. And that's what we talk about in the
book as well, is giving your kids that time. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
This takes us back to the first book, Real Life,
Real Love, Life, Lessons of Joy, Pain and the magic
that holds us together. I think part of that is
always giving your wife all the credit. It's the truth. No,
I understand you raise the kids and me.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You know, so it's you know, it's it's learning lessons.
And one thing about us as parenting styles is we
take a little bit from each other. You know, I
learned from her, she learns from me, and together we
raise these beautiful kids.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What is the most We've talked about the book a lot.
If people are to take away one thing, what is it?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
The most important thing to me about being a parent
is to show your kids that they're interesting. You have
to express interest in your children. When you think about life, man,
woman or child? You you, you me. What is the
most addictive drug in this world? Think about it? Attention.
(06:20):
It's attention. People yearn for attention. Now, imagine a child
whose brain is developing and who's trying to figure out
who they are in this world. If you give that
child attention, if you actively listen, you're actually interested. You
ask questions, You lean in verbal cues, nonverbal cues. You
bring things up later on, you ask more questions. They
(06:44):
come alive. You see a person's spirit change when they
feel paid attention to that resonates to them as love.
And I've watched it with each one of my kids
and it is worked. It has worked. And in our
mission statement, which we may or may not get to,
(07:04):
we want our kids to represent us at all times,
we represent each other at all times. And what the
biggest gift from that type of parenting style is that
when my kids leave the house, they show others that
they're well loved. The fruit of that it pours out
of them. And parents always come back to us teachers like,
what are you guys doing in that house with these kids?
(07:27):
And I believe that that's the secret sauce.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
That is amazing, that's wonderful. You you chose well, thank you.
You have a podcast or something we do.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's called The Casey Crew. You can find it on you.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, I would. I would listen to that. And then,
by the way, that's how you empower kids. That's the
title of the book. The new book is Real Life,
Real Family, a Guide to Raising Empowered Kids with DJ
Envy and Ga Casey. I should put your name first.
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Thank you for having us with the book.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But thank you any luck, Thank you so much. Wonderful.
It really does appreciate it taking the time to come in.
J Casey and DJ Nvy a new book, Real Life,
Real Family, A guide to raising empowered children. You heard
them here. That's every reason to buy the book.
Well, we're so proud to have dj Envy from our
sister station Power one to zero five down the hall
of the Breakfast Club. Thank you so much for being
in here today. Even better, you brought your wife in.
Gia Casey is also here because the two of them
have written a book together. How long have you two
been married.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
We've been married twenty four years together, thirty one.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Wow, that's what your first book was.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
About, right, yes, yes, Real Life Real Love. It was
about our life together, the ups and the downs, of
trials and tribulations, the good, bad and the ugly of
being together for such a long time and being married.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
And congratulations on that a bestseller. It was a New
York Times bestseller. Yes. Wow. So they probably begged for
a second book. The publisher said, please write something else,
and they do have a new book out. The book
is called Real Life, Real Love, Life Lessons on Joy, Pain,
and the Magic that holds Us Together. That was the
first book. Excuse me, but that way you get another
(00:56):
plug in for the first book. This one is about
raising children. It's called Real Life, Real Family, A Guide
to Raising Empowered Children. I love that. Tell me what
it means when you write empowered children.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, the family structure is facing so many challenges, especially today.
When we were kids, there were challenges, but with the
antidote of social media and things of that nature, it's
a lot more difficult. So raising kids that are confident,
low stress and empowered can be especially difficult today. So
(01:35):
what we ventured to do is to provide a guide,
a tool, something that parents, potential parents, parents that already
have children, regardless of your age, that they can refer
back to to pretty much lead them and give them examples,
give them our experiences so that they can have children
(01:56):
that feel very confident no matter what kind of room
they walk into.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Because Rashaul and parenting is hard, very difficult. It's really difficult,
and you never think you're doing it right. Yeah, that's
the problem parenting, I said before, is about guilt. Yeah,
well a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know, I always say, you know, when we had
our kids, we didn't have the baby come out in
an instruction manual, right, yeah, so you have to figure
it out. And you know, we have six kids twenty three,
twenty one, eleven, ten, eight, and three, so things have changed.
You know, with my twenty three year old, there was
no social media, you know, now there's social media, so
now you have to make sure those kids are prepared
for what they're going to see on social media. You know,
(02:36):
social media in a lot of cases is not a
great place, right people look to put people down. So
we wanted to make sure our kids don't care about
what those comments say. You know that when they come
to our house or when they come home, I should say,
it's a safe place to land, right, It's a place
where they know, they get respect, they know we'd listen.
And for us, it was difficult. Like I tell everybody
(02:57):
all the time, my dad was a retired police officer
in NYPD. My dad is ex military, So it was
always no, well why because I said so and I
let it go. GI's way of actually parenting is well,
let's explain why, because we gain that trust. So no,
I'm going to explain why I don't want you to go.
It's not safe at night the teens come out and
(03:17):
you know, people could be drinking and driving, and she
explains it and breaks it down, which develops trust for
our kids. And now our kids come to us and say, well,
if mom and dad say no, there's a reason. It's
not just that they're tired. It's not that just he
had a stressful day, and that has worked so well
and opened things up so well with our kids.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I'll tell you what, I love what you just said
about social media too. That is the new evil. And
I guess it's important that you tell your kids you
depend on those who love you. There's going to be
outside forces in your life, with some of them you
have to ignore. Is that right? It is.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
It's about building a strong family identity and individual identities
for each of your children, because you don't want them
to seek validation outside of the home, because that leads
to children that are overlooked, that are taken advantage of,
and that rely on society to tell them who they
are or who they should be. And so many kids
fall susceptible to that because they don't have a nucleus.
(04:13):
They don't have a family or parents that they trust
that have instilled this validation within them.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's great. I'll tell you what the biggest problem I've had,
and I think this is the problem that a lot
of parents have, is getting their children to build the
trust so that your child will come to you, They
will come to you with what their problems are. Sometimes
they hide them from you. Yeah, how do you deal
with that? Well?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
See, the main thing, and this is crazy because I
had to learn from my wife was patience. See my
wife will sit down with each individual kid and talk
about their day, ask questions, be engaged. I mean, she's
talking to my eight year old about her Locker and
how she designed her locker and they're having a three
hour conversation and I'm sitting there watching the nixt game
like you're not tired yet. And then she'll finish with
(04:59):
that one and then a three years to talk about
her potty experience and what she did on the party,
and I'm like, the giants are on, you know. And
that patience developed, that trust where they come to mom
for everything, and I had to realize, well, that's what
they want. They want time. Kids don't care about anything else.
They don't care about what you buy them to close
the video games will they do care, But they care
more about the time that you put into them, the time,
(05:20):
the conversations. And that's what we talk about in the
book as well, is giving your kids that time. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
This takes us back to the first book, Real Life,
Real Love, Life, Lessons of Joy, Pain and the magic
that holds us together. I think part of that is
always giving your wife all the credit. It's the truth. No,
I understand you raise the kids and me.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
You know, so it's you know, it's it's learning lessons.
And one thing about us as parenting styles is we
take a little bit from each other. You know, I
learned from her, she learns from me, and together we
raise these beautiful kids.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
What is the most We've talked about the book a lot.
If people are to take away one thing, what is it?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
The most important thing to me about being a parent
is to show your kids that they're interesting. You have
to express interest in your children. When you think about life, man,
woman or child? You you, you me. What is the
most addictive drug in this world? Think about it? Attention.
(06:20):
It's attention. People yearn for attention. Now, imagine a child
whose brain is developing and who's trying to figure out
who they are in this world. If you give that
child attention, if you actively listen, you're actually interested. You
ask questions, You lean in verbal cues, nonverbal cues. You
bring things up later on, you ask more questions. They
(06:44):
come alive. You see a person's spirit change when they
feel paid attention to that resonates to them as love.
And I've watched it with each one of my kids
and it is worked. It has worked. And in our
mission statement, which we may or may not get to,
(07:04):
we want our kids to represent us at all times,
we represent each other at all times. And what the
biggest gift from that type of parenting style is that
when my kids leave the house, they show others that
they're well loved. The fruit of that it pours out
of them. And parents always come back to us teachers like,
what are you guys doing in that house with these kids?
(07:27):
And I believe that that's the secret sauce.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
That is amazing, that's wonderful. You you chose well, thank you.
You have a podcast or something we do.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's called The Casey Crew. You can find it on you.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, I would. I would listen to that. And then,
by the way, that's how you empower kids. That's the
title of the book. The new book is Real Life,
Real Family, a Guide to Raising Empowered Kids with DJ
Envy and Ga Casey. I should put your name first.
Thank you so much for.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Thank you for having us with the book.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
But thank you any luck, Thank you so much. Wonderful.
It really does appreciate it taking the time to come in.
J Casey and DJ Nvy a new book, Real Life,
Real Family, A guide to raising empowered children. You heard
them here. That's every reason to buy the book.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.