September 9, 2024 • 33 mins
Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson East was 20 years old and a star gymnast when she decided to leave her sport in 2012. More than a decade later, she experienced the Olympics in Paris with kids and to her – it was better than any gold medal. Shawn joins the Bright Side to talk about what life has been like in her current chapter of marriage and motherhood and how retiring led her to see herself as someone who has value outside of gymnastics.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey y'all, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side, we're joined by Olympic gold medalist, author,
podcast host, and co founder of the company Family Maid. Yep,
we're talking to Sean Johnson East. She's revealing how she
overcame a paralyzing fear after the end of her gymnastics career,
the secret to winning Dancing with the Stars, and the
key to her loving marriage. It's Monday, September ninth on
(00:27):
Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together
to share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
On my Mind Monday is brought to you by missus
Myers Clean Day inspired by the goodness of the garden.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Happy on my Mind Monday, Danielle, one of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Days of the week.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's time to start the week off on the right
foot with some fresh perspective.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What you got all right on my mind today is
an article straight from the New York Times with the
headline a life review can be powerful at any age.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Okay, life review. I don't know that I've heard this
term before. Tell me more.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, So it's interesting. It's exactly what it sounds like.
It's a reflection of your past done through writing. So
it started in the sixties to help people at the
end of their lives make peace with their legacies.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But this article that you found it says a life
review can be powerful at any age. So what is
the argument for doing this, Let's say now in our thirties.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
This is why I call you smart, Simone. You read
into the details, you journalist. You're right, okay. So new
research suggests that people at all ages get value from
the process of reflecting on past experiences. The process can
actually reduce depression, anxiety, and increase life satisfaction. I know
it may not sound it because sometimes it's hard to
(01:52):
go back in time and think and assess.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
But take it from Jane Fonda. She spent the year before.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
She turned sixty doing life review and she said it
actually helped her cultivate confidence. So I heard about this
originally from Jane Fonda, but this article changed my perspective
about it because I didn't know you could do this
with a professional. So some people do it with a
therapist or a facilitator. I guess one of the most
popular forms is a guided autobiography. Here's the thing that's cool.
(02:21):
If you want to get a professional to do it,
I'm really into doing this on your own. And if
you want to, there's a few books that we can
recommend to start this. So one of them is The
Handbook of Structured Life, review by Barbara Khit and Writing
Your Legacy by doctors Fenson and Richard Campbell.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I haven't read those two. That's what comes recommended.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
The third book is one that I've personally read and
feel really connected to. It's called for You when I'm Gone.
Twelve Essential Questions to a life story. Rabbi Steve Leader
wrote it and he calls it an ethical will, something
that you leave behind for your children or your loved ones.
And he has twelve questions or prompts. Do you want
me to read you with you?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
What do you regret? When was the time you led
with your heart? What was your biggest failure? What is
a good person?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
What is love? How do you want to be remembered?
And what will your final blessing be?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I actually interviewed Rabbi Leader about this book, and
I thought these questions are sort of simple. Didn't you
want to make them a little bit more intricate, and
he said he made them really simple on purpose, which
changed my mind about things.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I actually agree with him.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
When you're writing an ethical will or a life review,
it's i think, more philosophical. You want people to share
stories more than you want like a precise perspective.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Also, an approach that I've used whenever I'm crafting questions
in my line of work is thinking about how kids
ask questions, because they ask questions in such a simple, pure,
straightforward way, and I see a lot of these questions
are so basic and so far fundamental that it sounds
like my four year old would ask it, like what
is a good person?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
What is this?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Using the language of children can really point us to
the truth. I really love this, this idea of doing
a life review. I'm so glad that you brought it up.
It's something that I've been thinking about, you know, with
our parents getting older, wanting to maximize the time that
we have with them and make sure that no stone
is left unturned and that we feel like we're just
(04:27):
having conversations that are filled with meaning. I know you
and I are really passionate about doing that in our
own lives. And I've seen all these ads for those
card games where it's questions for your parents, and I've
thought about, you know, what are the kinds of questions
that I should be asking my parents to have a
meaningful conversation with them about their legacy.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I sometimes think about asking those questions on camera so
that my future children can see my parents at this age.
I think there's something really special about it. And I know,
you know, there's so many things that were told to do,
so many.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Hacks or tricks or this or that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
This is one that I think is really doable and meaningful.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, and with the idea of a life review, it's
funny like that. A lot of the examples in here
are you know about writing your own autobiography or kind
of compiling your thoughts and your sentiments about your life
and putting it into an autobiography format.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I actually think of my life in movie scenes. I
think because I am, I'm a really visual learner, and
that also is a philosophy that's helped me center my
own desires in my life. You know, the term main
character energy is like so corny, but if you think
about what it means to like truly take on that
(05:46):
main character persona and center your own desire in life
and not suppress it like we've been conditioned to. That's
something that's helped me create memorable vignettes and scenes.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I think that's such beautiful advice.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, our guest today is someone who's already done all this.
She wrote about her life in her twenty twelve autobiography
called Winning Balance. What I've learned so far about love, faith,
and living your dreams. Shawn Johnson East is an Olympic
gold medal winning gymnast who competed at the two thousand
and eight Games in Beijing at just sixteen years old,
and then she retired from the sport in twenty twelve,
(06:25):
just before the Olympic trials. Now her life looks completely different.
She's the co founder of the company Family Made, which
she started with her husband and former athlete Andrew East,
and together they have three kids. They co host their
podcast Couple Things, and they share their life with their
nearly two million subscribers on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
There's so many things to talk about. All of it
is coming up after the break.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Thanks to our partners at missus Myers. You can learn
a lot about a person by their dish soap. Missus
Meyer's collection of household products are inspired by the garden
and pack up punch against dirt and grime.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Visit missus Myers dot com. We'll be right back, Sean,
Welcome to the right side.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay, So, we were so captivated by the Olympics. We
interviewed a ton of Olympians, a ton of commentators, and
we saw that you recently said that experiencing the Olympics
with your kids was better than any gold medal.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Did you mean that?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah? I did, I really did.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You have to tell me why?
Speaker 6 (07:38):
I feel like I feel like you get really deep,
really fast into that. But on a like a lighter
side of it, back when I was at the Olympics,
I felt like that was the most important thing in life,
Like who I was as a person was a gymnast,
and all the value I had in myself had to
do with performing.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Well.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
Yeah, and it was such an amazing accomplishment and something
I'm so proud of even to this day. But being
back at the Olympics, sitting there watching with my kids,
who mean so much more to me than any Olympical
medal ever, will was just really special and to be
able to like one, I feel so blessed to have
(08:18):
like a life where I could take them to the Olympics.
So it's almost like a paying tribute to how I'm
able to take my kids there. But it was a
very special moment to say, like that is cool watching,
but like this is so much better, Like sitting with
popcorn with my babies is the most special moment ever.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And you got to bring them into your world.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I did. I did.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I brought my daughter, my four year old, to the
all around competition in gymnastics, and we sat and watched
the entire thing, and she was actually really into it.
She kept referring to Simone as the best, like she
didn't know her name, and she saying, Mama, but where's
the best?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
And I was like.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
What she said, the blue leotard the best. I was like, Simone,
It's really funny.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
She already knows at four years old.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
I think she's also used to hearing me talk about
how Simone is the best.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Well, Sean, you were at the top of your game
when you decided to leave the sport. I mean you
were twenty years old and a star gymnast. You'd earned
one gold medal and three silvers at the two thousand
and eight Beijing Olympics. Who did you want to become
on the other side of that decision to retire.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Someone who had value outside of the sport.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
I truly felt like when I retired, where I was
either going to push myself to a breaking point in
gymnastics where it just wasn't worth it. I knew my
mind wasn't there and my body wasn't there. I knew
had I pushed through, it just wasn't going to end well.
And I was doing it for all the wrong reasons.
And I had this whole group of people around me saying,
(09:56):
just finish your gymnastics run, like, just finish, go to
the Olympics, try to make the team and keep going
because like you're almost.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
There type thing.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
And when I retired and tried to protect myself, I
was like, I know, this isn't my thing anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Do you remember the moment you realized it was? What?
When did you not was done?
Speaker 6 (10:17):
I think Olympic Trials in twenty twelve. I remember walking
into a practice one day and we like warmed up
and our first event was beam. I don't know why
I remember this so vividly, and I remember like getting
my assignments from my coach saying you have to do
this today, and I remember I got up on the
beam getting ready to do like my first assignment, and
(10:39):
I just stood there and it was truly like a
switch had flipped. I don't know how to explain it
other than I felt such peace. I felt a hundred
percent sure, and literally in that moment, I was.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Like I'm done. Wow, I'm done.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
And I literally got down off the beam and I
told my coach, which I was like, I'm going to
go home, which is like one not something you would
ever do in our gym. And I literally just grabbed
my bags and walked out and submitted like my letter
of retirement that day.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
And it was like, Nope, we're good, We're done here.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
I knew, Sean, the gymnast was done and that was
a chapter that was closing, and I needed to go
find what was next.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, you recently did an interview with l magazine reflecting
on that time in your life, and you said this,
I only knew how to do handstands. I was paralyzed
by this fear of not being good at something or
not living up to the Olympic standard that people expected
from me. I felt like I couldn't even try new
hobbies because if I wasn't automatically good at them, people
would be like, well, you're an Olympic gold medalist, you
(11:47):
should be. It's so interesting because as unique as your experiences,
I think that fear is a very universal feeling, especially
when you're making a big transition.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
How did you get over that fear?
Speaker 4 (11:59):
My husband one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
It wasn't until I met my husband that I don't
know what it was about him, and I think that's
truly why we connected so well.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
But he's just this guy who can.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Make anyone feel like they're on top of the world
because he cares so much about who you are as
a person. Every single person he meets on the street.
He could care less what your titles are, what you've
done in life, what your job is. He truly just
like wants to know your heart. And when we started dating,
(12:35):
he was one of the first people that actually invested
in me. He never talked about the Olympics, he never
talked about gymnastics, and he made me feel like I
had value outside of that. It was the first time
where like he would take me, I don't know, to
top golf, and I wouldn't feel this crippling anxiety of oh,
(12:58):
I need to be really good at this because everyone
thinks I'm an Olympic gold medalists and I should be
go to everything. He would have so much fun just
being miserably bad at things and he just didn't care,
and it just unlocked this thing in me where I
felt the freedom to start trying things again.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
And he would have to handhold me through it for
a long time before I felt like I could go
do it that on my own. But he truly allowed
me to rebuild who I was and just encouraged me
through every miserable failure that I had, which was great.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Okay, so I want to ask you about your man.
You guys were both elite athletes, so you were a
top gymnast for seventeen years, and then your husband, Andrew
East played in the NFL until twenty twenty two, and
you both were transitioning out of being professional athletes at
a really similar time. I'm so curious how you supported
(13:53):
each other and walked through this.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
So we did go through it in very like similar
times in life phases, but I will say we are
just far enough apart that we did feel like a
little up a little down. I was transitioning as we
started dating and he was still in college, and then
we had been together.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Probably three or four years before.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
He went into the NFL, and was in the NFL
for four or five years before he transitioned out, So
there was a good chunk of time for me to
kind of remove myself from the transition of elite athletics
and then be able to have gone through all the
hard stuff and then watch him have to go through
the hard stuff and be able to support him. And
(14:39):
I will say it was really really cool being able
to kind of ying and yang that together because when
we met and he was in his heyday of college athletics,
I was kind of at my low. He fell in
love with me at rock bottom, which I think is
really really cool. So then I just felt like I
was on top of the worlds from that moment forward
(15:00):
because he would just celebrate anything that I ever did.
And then seeing him transition, I was already in love
with him and got to kind of help pick him
back up and re gather his life together the elite athletics.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Having both gone through.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
It is hard because we're so competitive and we're so stubborn.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
With each other, oh.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
With everything, absolutely everything, But it also lets us relate
on a deeper level and understand each other on a
deeper level.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That helped us get kind of get through those times
in life.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
We have to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with Sean Johnson East. And we're back with
Sean Johnson East. So Danielle and I often talk about
friendship on our show. We even have a friendship advice
segment called Asking for a Friend where we bring in
experts to help us navigate tricky relational situations. And it
(15:57):
sounds like you're something of a friendship expert at this
point as well. Can you give us the backstory on
your friendship with fellow gymnasts Nastia Luken.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
Oh, I would say the secret to Nasty and I
getting past our breakup was ripping off a band aid.
And all of us women have been there where it's like, oh,
I just don't know how to say hi or no,
(16:24):
she needs to be the first one to say something,
or you get paralyzed by this fear of like who's
going to make the first move and the way Nasty
and I had like rekindled our friendship was both of
our boyfriends at the time got so tired of us
talking about each other and literally like stalking each other
(16:46):
that they were like, you guys need to stop, and
you guys need to talk to each other, Like I
don't want to hear you talk about each other anymore.
And I just kind of took a leap of faith
and I wrote a very long email letter just kind
of dishing out all my feelings and I sent it
to her and I literally wrote in the email, I
(17:09):
do not expect you to like say anything in return.
I just need you to know how I feel and
know that I'm here for you no matter what. If
a day comes in your life where you want to
come back to this friendship, I am here. And it
was so interesting to hear her response, and it was immediate,
(17:32):
it was like within minutes, and it was like, I
feel the exact same way. I have missed you, and
I've wanted this friendship more than anything for the past
eight years, but I haven't known how to say that.
And I think what I would tell people is that,
like Roman Empire that replays in your mind, you're probably
(17:52):
both feeling the same exact way, and you're both standing
in each other's.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Way to like fix it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
How long did you not talk?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
For?
Speaker 6 (18:01):
So very long story short, Nasty and I were like
inseparable best friends when we trained together for the Olympics.
We went to the Olympics, we roomed together. We were
best friends, but we were also each other's top competitors.
I was sixteen, she was eighteen, and there was this
immense pressure put on us from the public and from publicity.
(18:24):
They basically took the Olympic Games and pitted Nastia versus Sean.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
And then after the Olympics, the press just ran with it.
Every media opportunity, every endorsement deal. It was like her
or I, our agents didn't like each other, and at
sixteen and eighteen, we just really didn't know how to
navigate that. Wow, it was just it just got very toxic,
but not from us. It just the world made us
(18:53):
feel like we weren't supposed to like each other. It
was very odd and it was very hard to navigate
and emotional.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
When you're a young girl who's you know, maybe somewhat impressionable,
your first time in the spotlight there's no way that's
not going to have an impact on your friendship.
Speaker 6 (19:07):
Absolutely. So we actually went eight years starting from the
Olympics and not speaking. Oh but I don't know how
to explain this. Like we knew every single move each
other was made in life. I knew where she lived.
At one point we lived like down the road from
each other, and we knew that. Like we were literally
(19:29):
just doing life circles around each other, almost on purpose.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And so eight years by we send the email. I
was in New York City.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
We met up for lunch like a day after this
email was sent, and it was almost like not like
we hadn't skipped to be and it was just in time.
I was getting ready to be married. It was I
think it was like a two months before my wedding.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So was was she at your wedding? She was, Yeah,
that's so beautiful. Yeah, I'm so happy you guys came together.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I love this story. See it can happen, friendships can
come back. Oh my god. Okay, well this is a
little bit of a left turn.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
But you went from winning the Olympics to winning Dancing
with the Stars and that show. First of all, I
think it's one of the only shows that families can
watch together.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Still, I really like it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yes, you like really used the show so well to
launch this personal brand of yours. I'm so curious how
you went about that, and if you have any refinements
or tools that you used or how you thought of
it that would be helpful for people listening and us.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
I would love to tell you that it was strategic,
but it was not. I truly felt like in my
gymnastics career I was painted, not in a false way,
but I felt like they missed so much because my
(21:07):
gymnastics career was very different than like the stereotypical gymnastics career.
I went to public school, I went to prom, I
had boyfriends, I had a coach that would take me
to Dairy Queen after practice every day. I truly was
like a kid who loved what I did as an
extracurricular activity. And at the Olympics, they just wanted to
paint me as like this machine. Oh, she was just
(21:30):
born to do this. She's put in, you know, thousands
of hours and so on dancing with the stars. I
don't think I had a strategy or a refinement of
my brand. I just think they got to showcase how
much fun I was having, and so it made me
like maybe seem more relatable and not as like machine
(21:50):
like to people, because like they would catch me crying
or giggling or acting like a fool, which you aren't
used to seeing in such a mechanic sport like gymnastics,
And so then it just kind of opened the door
for me to be a fool in life and have fun,
which is good.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, I think the fun that you're talking about is
very evident on your podcast and your YouTube channel. Just
a little background, you met your husband during the Dancing
with the Star's time, so you guys fall in love.
I did you are fools in love? Shall we say?
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And then you start this YouTube channel and you have
your podcast called Couple Things, and you recently launch Family Made,
which is a platform for young parents. And I am
fascinated by family content because all my girlfriends say they
cannot even get their kids to pose for a Christmas photo.
So I'm so curious how you approach kids and social
(22:44):
media and how you're thinking about this.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
It's an ever changing process because our kids are growing
up and we don't ever ask them to be in
front of the camera. We don't tell them to pose.
We don't like try to include them, if that makes sense.
We started doing you too because my husband was on
the road with the NFL and I was on tour
after the twenty twelve Olympics, and we were doing like
(23:08):
family vlogs to almost just show each other what was
happening in life. And then we happened to like say, oh,
this would actually be interesting for people to see how
the NFL works and what we're doing. And then we
started a family and if you were to have met
my husband's father when he was here, this is what
(23:30):
he did. He videotaped every second of his child's life
and made family videos out of it, and it is
just something that was a.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Part of their family.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Never a YouTube channel, but like he just videoed life
and he always wanted to preserve that, and so that
was passed on to my husband and we have hundreds
and hundreds of videos that the world has never seen
that we just make for family, and the ones that
the world does get to see. It's kind of like
(24:02):
we're trying to showcase snippets of our life in a
way that honors our children, never exposes them or embarrasses them.
Or shows you know, weaknesses, but just shows kind of
our life through the lens of parenting. More than anything, Sean,
I have a task for you.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
I need you to I need you che You have
so many jobs. What task? Okay, she's a woman for
this job.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I need you to invent an app or some sort
of software company something that helps parents organize our videos
and photos of our kids. I know, because this is
the thing I want to be like your father in law.
I want to be that parent who films everything. But
I just am amassing, like thou, tens of thousands of
videos and I don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Same.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Also, nobody prints pictures anymore. In putting myself Yeah, and
I'm like, I desperately want like photo books.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
But how do you go back.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
Through fifty thousand pictures of my child from the past
five years?
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, and pick out fifty I don't.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Know, Sean.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I was listening to your podcast and hearing you and
your husband talk about how you have this weekly non
negotiable date night on Thursdays, and I just think this
is such an admirable thing that you both do and
adhere to, and it's such a great message and narrative
for other married folks to hear. How else do you
(25:29):
prioritize your marriage while raising kids, Because it's so easy
to just allow the focus to be on our offspring
and forget about each other.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
It takes a lot of work and it takes a
lot of commitment. It's I don't just mean commitment to
your husband, I mean just commitment in general. It takes
a lot of discipline. My husband and I do the
weekly date nights, and we have a mutual agreement and
we're on the same page in the understanding that if
we aren't each other's best friends and on the best
(26:02):
possible wavelength as husband and wife, then we cannot be
the best parents. And I think if anybody hears that,
you can agree with that, because if you are mad
at your husband, you are not the best parente.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
So my husband and I do a bunch of things.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
So we do weekly date nights what we call bevtime
every single night. So after we put the kids down,
we meet at the dining table for ten minutes. We
each have a glass of water or a glass of
wine or something. We have one drink and it's just
ten minutes to reconnect, debrief from the day, go over
(26:40):
the next day and just say hi, I missed you
today and reconnect as husband and wife. We also do
monthly checkups is what we call them, where we go
out to coffee and it's a safe space for us
to bring up anything that has been.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Bothering ooh with like each other.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Or yeah, be like it's you can bring up anything
and it has to be unemotional, unattached and truly just
like safe space.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I like that.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
We also do couples therapy. We do how often we
have been doing. Actually after we had our third kid,
we started this. It's like a sixteen week intensive. It's
like a couple's sixteen week course, but we meet once
a week for two hours individually with counselors.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
That then the counselors talk to each other. Uh so
it's like marriage therapy but separate.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
It has been life changing. Really, it is the greatest
thing I've ever done. So, yeah, we do a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
What is it called.
Speaker 6 (27:49):
It's called rock house. Very cool shout out. It has
changed our life.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Thanks for sharing that.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Yeah, but we do a lot.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
We take it very very seriously because we just think
that marriages are so vulnerable in today's society and culture
that if we don't work very hard every day, you
can see how easily they can fall apart. And we
don't ever want that to happen, so we put a
lot of effort into it.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Thank you so much for sharing all of that. That's
it's all so valuable, yeah to hear. I also want
to get your hot takes on a few parenting approaches
because I know how we run things in our household.
It all feels like very fluid and it's ever evolving,
and I'm so curious to hear how other parents handle
things so great, first up, gentle versus authoritative parenting both
(28:41):
good answer.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I mean why people who say they can only gentle parent.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I'm like, you either don't have a boy or your
children are just thank you, yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Thank you, yess looking around to see if anybody here, Caesar,
I just.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Feel so seen in this moment. Yes, yes, yes to that.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
I also think every child is just so different, so
some like my daughter gentle parenting, absolutely, yeah, my son
he's just he just lives wide open. He's so larger
than life that he needs like clear boundaries.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yep, I say, gentle parents say for gentle kids, that's absolutely,
it's not. It's not for everyone. Okay, what about screen time?
How do you approach this?
Speaker 4 (29:30):
I mean, I don't.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
I melted my children's face off with a screen on
an eleven hour flight. Yes, you can have it for
eleven hours straight. But then at home, I'm like, I
try to say, go outside. Yes, we don't need the
screen in the morning. We don't need the screen at night.
If I'm home by myself with the kids and I
need a cook dinner, cool, go watch a little show.
(29:56):
I try to make sure it's like a decent show.
But everything in moderation totally. We live in a world
of screens that you need to teach them boundaries around it,
that they can't have open access whenever they want, that
there are rules involved, and that it's not necessary for life.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
As well, whenever my son's behavior is getting a little
bit out of control, I do a check to see, okay,
how much TV has he been watching lately, and usually
there's a direct correlation. They get like over stimulated, So
easy we do. It's a drug for them. It's the
closest thing to a drug for them. That's how it
impacts their brains. But all that to say, like I'm
(30:37):
not villainizing screens. I use them when I need to,
but again, moderation. That's the message here. And then when
it comes to the role that sports play in your kids' lives,
what's your philosophy there.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
M I think sports are absolutely amazing for children, because
I think any child with too much for time, nothing
good happens.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Sean, my mom calls sports the anti drug.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I don't think I don't have any
pressure on my children to be good at sports.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I could care less.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
I don't have any pressure on my child to be
in certain sports or activities. But I think extracurriculars teach
kids discipline, responsibility, teamwork, so many life lessons that are
so beneficial, and they keep them out of trouble.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Sean, your memoir came out years ago, and in it
you wrote and sort of questioned could you find the
right kind of success in life? And this was right
after your gymnastic career had wrapped. I'm wondering if you
feel like you have.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
Oh, yeah, absolutely, because I became a mama and a wife.
And I'm not saying like that is what my definition
of successes for everyone, but for me, I feel very
content and I feel very happy, and I feel like
I have a purpose that has a lot of value
(32:11):
to myself.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
So yes, I do.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Sean, thank you so much for joining us on the
bright Side today.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Sean, You're the coolest. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Thank you, sir. Are you ladies, It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Sean Johnson East is an Olympic gold medalist, New York
Times bestselling author, winner of Dancing with the Stars, and
one of the founders of Family Maid.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Tomorrow, we're talking to musician, author, and TV personality Cheeky's
all about her new show Cheeky Sinfieldtrow and what it
was like to accept a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame for her mother, Jenny Rivera Klas. She even
gives us some big sister advice. Listen and follow the
bright side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(33:05):
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
You can find me at simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O
b A Y. See you tomorrow, folks.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Keep looking on the bright side
Hey y'all, Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Today on the bright Side, we're joined by Olympic gold medalist, author,
podcast host, and co founder of the company Family Maid. Yep,
we're talking to Sean Johnson East. She's revealing how she
overcame a paralyzing fear after the end of her gymnastics career,
the secret to winning Dancing with the Stars, and the
key to her loving marriage. It's Monday, September ninth on
(00:27):
Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine, a daily show where we come together
to share women's stories, laugh, learn and brighten your day.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
On my Mind Monday is brought to you by missus
Myers Clean Day inspired by the goodness of the garden.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Happy on my Mind Monday, Danielle, one of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Days of the week.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's time to start the week off on the right
foot with some fresh perspective.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What you got all right on my mind today is
an article straight from the New York Times with the
headline a life review can be powerful at any age.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Okay, life review. I don't know that I've heard this
term before. Tell me more.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Okay, So it's interesting. It's exactly what it sounds like.
It's a reflection of your past done through writing. So
it started in the sixties to help people at the
end of their lives make peace with their legacies.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But this article that you found it says a life
review can be powerful at any age. So what is
the argument for doing this, Let's say now in our thirties.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
This is why I call you smart, Simone. You read
into the details, you journalist. You're right, okay. So new
research suggests that people at all ages get value from
the process of reflecting on past experiences. The process can
actually reduce depression, anxiety, and increase life satisfaction. I know
it may not sound it because sometimes it's hard to
(01:52):
go back in time and think and assess.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
But take it from Jane Fonda. She spent the year before.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
She turned sixty doing life review and she said it
actually helped her cultivate confidence. So I heard about this
originally from Jane Fonda, but this article changed my perspective
about it because I didn't know you could do this
with a professional. So some people do it with a
therapist or a facilitator. I guess one of the most
popular forms is a guided autobiography. Here's the thing that's cool.
(02:21):
If you want to get a professional to do it,
I'm really into doing this on your own. And if
you want to, there's a few books that we can
recommend to start this. So one of them is The
Handbook of Structured Life, review by Barbara Khit and Writing
Your Legacy by doctors Fenson and Richard Campbell.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I haven't read those two. That's what comes recommended.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
The third book is one that I've personally read and
feel really connected to. It's called for You when I'm Gone.
Twelve Essential Questions to a life story. Rabbi Steve Leader
wrote it and he calls it an ethical will, something
that you leave behind for your children or your loved ones.
And he has twelve questions or prompts. Do you want
me to read you with you?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
What do you regret? When was the time you led
with your heart? What was your biggest failure? What is
a good person?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
What is love? How do you want to be remembered?
And what will your final blessing be?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
And I actually interviewed Rabbi Leader about this book, and
I thought these questions are sort of simple. Didn't you
want to make them a little bit more intricate, and
he said he made them really simple on purpose, which
changed my mind about things.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I actually agree with him.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
When you're writing an ethical will or a life review,
it's i think, more philosophical. You want people to share
stories more than you want like a precise perspective.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Also, an approach that I've used whenever I'm crafting questions
in my line of work is thinking about how kids
ask questions, because they ask questions in such a simple, pure,
straightforward way, and I see a lot of these questions
are so basic and so far fundamental that it sounds
like my four year old would ask it, like what
is a good person?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
What is this?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Using the language of children can really point us to
the truth. I really love this, this idea of doing
a life review. I'm so glad that you brought it up.
It's something that I've been thinking about, you know, with
our parents getting older, wanting to maximize the time that
we have with them and make sure that no stone
is left unturned and that we feel like we're just
(04:27):
having conversations that are filled with meaning. I know you
and I are really passionate about doing that in our
own lives. And I've seen all these ads for those
card games where it's questions for your parents, and I've
thought about, you know, what are the kinds of questions
that I should be asking my parents to have a
meaningful conversation with them about their legacy.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I sometimes think about asking those questions on camera so
that my future children can see my parents at this age.
I think there's something really special about it. And I know,
you know, there's so many things that were told to do,
so many.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Hacks or tricks or this or that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
This is one that I think is really doable and meaningful.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, and with the idea of a life review, it's
funny like that. A lot of the examples in here
are you know about writing your own autobiography or kind
of compiling your thoughts and your sentiments about your life
and putting it into an autobiography format.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I actually think of my life in movie scenes. I
think because I am, I'm a really visual learner, and
that also is a philosophy that's helped me center my
own desires in my life. You know, the term main
character energy is like so corny, but if you think
about what it means to like truly take on that
(05:46):
main character persona and center your own desire in life
and not suppress it like we've been conditioned to. That's
something that's helped me create memorable vignettes and scenes.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I think that's such beautiful advice.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, our guest today is someone who's already done all this.
She wrote about her life in her twenty twelve autobiography
called Winning Balance. What I've learned so far about love, faith,
and living your dreams. Shawn Johnson East is an Olympic
gold medal winning gymnast who competed at the two thousand
and eight Games in Beijing at just sixteen years old,
and then she retired from the sport in twenty twelve,
(06:25):
just before the Olympic trials. Now her life looks completely different.
She's the co founder of the company Family Made, which
she started with her husband and former athlete Andrew East,
and together they have three kids. They co host their
podcast Couple Things, and they share their life with their
nearly two million subscribers on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
There's so many things to talk about. All of it
is coming up after the break.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Thanks to our partners at missus Myers. You can learn
a lot about a person by their dish soap. Missus
Meyer's collection of household products are inspired by the garden
and pack up punch against dirt and grime.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Visit missus Myers dot com. We'll be right back, Sean,
Welcome to the right side.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay, So, we were so captivated by the Olympics. We
interviewed a ton of Olympians, a ton of commentators, and
we saw that you recently said that experiencing the Olympics
with your kids was better than any gold medal.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Did you mean that?
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Yeah? I did, I really did.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You have to tell me why?
Speaker 6 (07:38):
I feel like I feel like you get really deep,
really fast into that. But on a like a lighter
side of it, back when I was at the Olympics,
I felt like that was the most important thing in life,
Like who I was as a person was a gymnast,
and all the value I had in myself had to
do with performing.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Well.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
Yeah, and it was such an amazing accomplishment and something
I'm so proud of even to this day. But being
back at the Olympics, sitting there watching with my kids,
who mean so much more to me than any Olympical
medal ever, will was just really special and to be
able to like one, I feel so blessed to have
(08:18):
like a life where I could take them to the Olympics.
So it's almost like a paying tribute to how I'm
able to take my kids there. But it was a
very special moment to say, like that is cool watching,
but like this is so much better, Like sitting with
popcorn with my babies is the most special moment ever.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
And you got to bring them into your world.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I did. I did.
Speaker 6 (08:42):
I brought my daughter, my four year old, to the
all around competition in gymnastics, and we sat and watched
the entire thing, and she was actually really into it.
She kept referring to Simone as the best, like she
didn't know her name, and she saying, Mama, but where's
the best?
Speaker 4 (09:02):
And I was like.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
What she said, the blue leotard the best. I was like, Simone,
It's really funny.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
She already knows at four years old.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
I think she's also used to hearing me talk about
how Simone is the best.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Well, Sean, you were at the top of your game
when you decided to leave the sport. I mean you
were twenty years old and a star gymnast. You'd earned
one gold medal and three silvers at the two thousand
and eight Beijing Olympics. Who did you want to become
on the other side of that decision to retire.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Someone who had value outside of the sport.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
I truly felt like when I retired, where I was
either going to push myself to a breaking point in
gymnastics where it just wasn't worth it. I knew my
mind wasn't there and my body wasn't there. I knew
had I pushed through, it just wasn't going to end well.
And I was doing it for all the wrong reasons.
And I had this whole group of people around me saying,
(09:56):
just finish your gymnastics run, like, just finish, go to
the Olympics, try to make the team and keep going
because like you're almost.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
There type thing.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
And when I retired and tried to protect myself, I
was like, I know, this isn't my thing anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Do you remember the moment you realized it was? What?
When did you not was done?
Speaker 6 (10:17):
I think Olympic Trials in twenty twelve. I remember walking
into a practice one day and we like warmed up
and our first event was beam. I don't know why
I remember this so vividly, and I remember like getting
my assignments from my coach saying you have to do
this today, and I remember I got up on the
beam getting ready to do like my first assignment, and
(10:39):
I just stood there and it was truly like a
switch had flipped. I don't know how to explain it
other than I felt such peace. I felt a hundred
percent sure, and literally in that moment, I was.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Like I'm done. Wow, I'm done.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
And I literally got down off the beam and I
told my coach, which I was like, I'm going to
go home, which is like one not something you would
ever do in our gym. And I literally just grabbed
my bags and walked out and submitted like my letter
of retirement that day.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
And it was like, Nope, we're good, We're done here.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
I knew, Sean, the gymnast was done and that was
a chapter that was closing, and I needed to go
find what was next.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, you recently did an interview with l magazine reflecting
on that time in your life, and you said this,
I only knew how to do handstands. I was paralyzed
by this fear of not being good at something or
not living up to the Olympic standard that people expected
from me. I felt like I couldn't even try new
hobbies because if I wasn't automatically good at them, people
would be like, well, you're an Olympic gold medalist, you
(11:47):
should be. It's so interesting because as unique as your experiences,
I think that fear is a very universal feeling, especially
when you're making a big transition.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
How did you get over that fear?
Speaker 4 (11:59):
My husband one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
It wasn't until I met my husband that I don't
know what it was about him, and I think that's
truly why we connected so well.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
But he's just this guy who can.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Make anyone feel like they're on top of the world
because he cares so much about who you are as
a person. Every single person he meets on the street.
He could care less what your titles are, what you've
done in life, what your job is. He truly just
like wants to know your heart. And when we started dating,
(12:35):
he was one of the first people that actually invested
in me. He never talked about the Olympics, he never
talked about gymnastics, and he made me feel like I
had value outside of that. It was the first time
where like he would take me, I don't know, to
top golf, and I wouldn't feel this crippling anxiety of oh,
(12:58):
I need to be really good at this because everyone
thinks I'm an Olympic gold medalists and I should be
go to everything. He would have so much fun just
being miserably bad at things and he just didn't care,
and it just unlocked this thing in me where I
felt the freedom to start trying things again.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (13:17):
And he would have to handhold me through it for
a long time before I felt like I could go
do it that on my own. But he truly allowed
me to rebuild who I was and just encouraged me
through every miserable failure that I had, which was great.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Okay, so I want to ask you about your man.
You guys were both elite athletes, so you were a
top gymnast for seventeen years, and then your husband, Andrew
East played in the NFL until twenty twenty two, and
you both were transitioning out of being professional athletes at
a really similar time. I'm so curious how you supported
(13:53):
each other and walked through this.
Speaker 6 (13:55):
So we did go through it in very like similar
times in life phases, but I will say we are
just far enough apart that we did feel like a
little up a little down. I was transitioning as we
started dating and he was still in college, and then
we had been together.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Probably three or four years before.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
He went into the NFL, and was in the NFL
for four or five years before he transitioned out, So
there was a good chunk of time for me to
kind of remove myself from the transition of elite athletics
and then be able to have gone through all the
hard stuff and then watch him have to go through
the hard stuff and be able to support him. And
(14:39):
I will say it was really really cool being able
to kind of ying and yang that together because when
we met and he was in his heyday of college athletics,
I was kind of at my low. He fell in
love with me at rock bottom, which I think is
really really cool. So then I just felt like I
was on top of the worlds from that moment forward
(15:00):
because he would just celebrate anything that I ever did.
And then seeing him transition, I was already in love
with him and got to kind of help pick him
back up and re gather his life together the elite athletics.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Having both gone through.
Speaker 6 (15:14):
It is hard because we're so competitive and we're so stubborn.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
With each other, oh.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
With everything, absolutely everything, But it also lets us relate
on a deeper level and understand each other on a
deeper level.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
That helped us get kind of get through those times
in life.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
We have to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back with Sean Johnson East. And we're back with
Sean Johnson East. So Danielle and I often talk about
friendship on our show. We even have a friendship advice
segment called Asking for a Friend where we bring in
experts to help us navigate tricky relational situations. And it
(15:57):
sounds like you're something of a friendship expert at this
point as well. Can you give us the backstory on
your friendship with fellow gymnasts Nastia Luken.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
Oh, I would say the secret to Nasty and I
getting past our breakup was ripping off a band aid.
And all of us women have been there where it's like, oh,
I just don't know how to say hi or no,
(16:24):
she needs to be the first one to say something,
or you get paralyzed by this fear of like who's
going to make the first move and the way Nasty
and I had like rekindled our friendship was both of
our boyfriends at the time got so tired of us
talking about each other and literally like stalking each other
(16:46):
that they were like, you guys need to stop, and
you guys need to talk to each other, Like I
don't want to hear you talk about each other anymore.
And I just kind of took a leap of faith
and I wrote a very long email letter just kind
of dishing out all my feelings and I sent it
to her and I literally wrote in the email, I
(17:09):
do not expect you to like say anything in return.
I just need you to know how I feel and
know that I'm here for you no matter what. If
a day comes in your life where you want to
come back to this friendship, I am here. And it
was so interesting to hear her response, and it was immediate,
(17:32):
it was like within minutes, and it was like, I
feel the exact same way. I have missed you, and
I've wanted this friendship more than anything for the past
eight years, but I haven't known how to say that.
And I think what I would tell people is that,
like Roman Empire that replays in your mind, you're probably
(17:52):
both feeling the same exact way, and you're both standing
in each other's.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
Way to like fix it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
How long did you not talk?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
For?
Speaker 6 (18:01):
So very long story short, Nasty and I were like
inseparable best friends when we trained together for the Olympics.
We went to the Olympics, we roomed together. We were
best friends, but we were also each other's top competitors.
I was sixteen, she was eighteen, and there was this
immense pressure put on us from the public and from publicity.
(18:24):
They basically took the Olympic Games and pitted Nastia versus Sean.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Oh my god.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
And then after the Olympics, the press just ran with it.
Every media opportunity, every endorsement deal. It was like her
or I, our agents didn't like each other, and at
sixteen and eighteen, we just really didn't know how to
navigate that. Wow, it was just it just got very toxic,
but not from us. It just the world made us
(18:53):
feel like we weren't supposed to like each other. It
was very odd and it was very hard to navigate
and emotional.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
When you're a young girl who's you know, maybe somewhat impressionable,
your first time in the spotlight there's no way that's
not going to have an impact on your friendship.
Speaker 6 (19:07):
Absolutely. So we actually went eight years starting from the
Olympics and not speaking. Oh but I don't know how
to explain this. Like we knew every single move each
other was made in life. I knew where she lived.
At one point we lived like down the road from
each other, and we knew that. Like we were literally
(19:29):
just doing life circles around each other, almost on purpose.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
And so eight years by we send the email. I
was in New York City.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
We met up for lunch like a day after this
email was sent, and it was almost like not like
we hadn't skipped to be and it was just in time.
I was getting ready to be married. It was I
think it was like a two months before my wedding.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So was was she at your wedding? She was, Yeah,
that's so beautiful. Yeah, I'm so happy you guys came together.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I love this story. See it can happen, friendships can
come back. Oh my god. Okay, well this is a
little bit of a left turn.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
But you went from winning the Olympics to winning Dancing
with the Stars and that show. First of all, I
think it's one of the only shows that families can
watch together.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Still, I really like it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yes, you like really used the show so well to
launch this personal brand of yours. I'm so curious how
you went about that, and if you have any refinements
or tools that you used or how you thought of
it that would be helpful for people listening and us.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
I would love to tell you that it was strategic,
but it was not. I truly felt like in my
gymnastics career I was painted, not in a false way,
but I felt like they missed so much because my
(21:07):
gymnastics career was very different than like the stereotypical gymnastics career.
I went to public school, I went to prom, I
had boyfriends, I had a coach that would take me
to Dairy Queen after practice every day. I truly was
like a kid who loved what I did as an
extracurricular activity. And at the Olympics, they just wanted to
paint me as like this machine. Oh, she was just
(21:30):
born to do this. She's put in, you know, thousands
of hours and so on dancing with the stars. I
don't think I had a strategy or a refinement of
my brand. I just think they got to showcase how
much fun I was having, and so it made me
like maybe seem more relatable and not as like machine
(21:50):
like to people, because like they would catch me crying
or giggling or acting like a fool, which you aren't
used to seeing in such a mechanic sport like gymnastics,
And so then it just kind of opened the door
for me to be a fool in life and have fun,
which is good.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Well, I think the fun that you're talking about is
very evident on your podcast and your YouTube channel. Just
a little background, you met your husband during the Dancing
with the Star's time, so you guys fall in love.
I did you are fools in love? Shall we say?
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:24):
And then you start this YouTube channel and you have
your podcast called Couple Things, and you recently launch Family Made,
which is a platform for young parents. And I am
fascinated by family content because all my girlfriends say they
cannot even get their kids to pose for a Christmas photo.
So I'm so curious how you approach kids and social
(22:44):
media and how you're thinking about this.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
It's an ever changing process because our kids are growing
up and we don't ever ask them to be in
front of the camera. We don't tell them to pose.
We don't like try to include them, if that makes sense.
We started doing you too because my husband was on
the road with the NFL and I was on tour
after the twenty twelve Olympics, and we were doing like
(23:08):
family vlogs to almost just show each other what was
happening in life. And then we happened to like say, oh,
this would actually be interesting for people to see how
the NFL works and what we're doing. And then we
started a family and if you were to have met
my husband's father when he was here, this is what
(23:30):
he did. He videotaped every second of his child's life
and made family videos out of it, and it is
just something that was a.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Part of their family.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Never a YouTube channel, but like he just videoed life
and he always wanted to preserve that, and so that
was passed on to my husband and we have hundreds
and hundreds of videos that the world has never seen
that we just make for family, and the ones that
the world does get to see. It's kind of like
(24:02):
we're trying to showcase snippets of our life in a
way that honors our children, never exposes them or embarrasses them.
Or shows you know, weaknesses, but just shows kind of
our life through the lens of parenting. More than anything, Sean,
I have a task for you.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
I need you to I need you che You have
so many jobs. What task? Okay, she's a woman for
this job.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
I need you to invent an app or some sort
of software company something that helps parents organize our videos
and photos of our kids. I know, because this is
the thing I want to be like your father in law.
I want to be that parent who films everything. But
I just am amassing, like thou, tens of thousands of
videos and I don't know what to do with it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Same.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Also, nobody prints pictures anymore. In putting myself Yeah, and
I'm like, I desperately want like photo books.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
But how do you go back.
Speaker 6 (25:00):
Through fifty thousand pictures of my child from the past
five years?
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yeah, and pick out fifty I don't.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Know, Sean.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I was listening to your podcast and hearing you and
your husband talk about how you have this weekly non
negotiable date night on Thursdays, and I just think this
is such an admirable thing that you both do and
adhere to, and it's such a great message and narrative
for other married folks to hear. How else do you
(25:29):
prioritize your marriage while raising kids, Because it's so easy
to just allow the focus to be on our offspring
and forget about each other.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
It takes a lot of work and it takes a
lot of commitment. It's I don't just mean commitment to
your husband, I mean just commitment in general. It takes
a lot of discipline. My husband and I do the
weekly date nights, and we have a mutual agreement and
we're on the same page in the understanding that if
we aren't each other's best friends and on the best
(26:02):
possible wavelength as husband and wife, then we cannot be
the best parents. And I think if anybody hears that,
you can agree with that, because if you are mad
at your husband, you are not the best parente.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
So my husband and I do a bunch of things.
Speaker 6 (26:19):
So we do weekly date nights what we call bevtime
every single night. So after we put the kids down,
we meet at the dining table for ten minutes. We
each have a glass of water or a glass of
wine or something. We have one drink and it's just
ten minutes to reconnect, debrief from the day, go over
(26:40):
the next day and just say hi, I missed you
today and reconnect as husband and wife. We also do
monthly checkups is what we call them, where we go
out to coffee and it's a safe space for us
to bring up anything that has been.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Bothering ooh with like each other.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
Or yeah, be like it's you can bring up anything
and it has to be unemotional, unattached and truly just
like safe space.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I like that.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
We also do couples therapy. We do how often we
have been doing. Actually after we had our third kid,
we started this. It's like a sixteen week intensive. It's
like a couple's sixteen week course, but we meet once
a week for two hours individually with counselors.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
That then the counselors talk to each other. Uh so
it's like marriage therapy but separate.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Interesting.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
It has been life changing. Really, it is the greatest
thing I've ever done. So, yeah, we do a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
What is it called.
Speaker 6 (27:49):
It's called rock house. Very cool shout out. It has
changed our life.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Thanks for sharing that.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
Yeah, but we do a lot.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
We take it very very seriously because we just think
that marriages are so vulnerable in today's society and culture
that if we don't work very hard every day, you
can see how easily they can fall apart. And we
don't ever want that to happen, so we put a
lot of effort into it.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Thank you so much for sharing all of that. That's
it's all so valuable, yeah to hear. I also want
to get your hot takes on a few parenting approaches
because I know how we run things in our household.
It all feels like very fluid and it's ever evolving,
and I'm so curious to hear how other parents handle
things so great, first up, gentle versus authoritative parenting both
(28:41):
good answer.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
I mean why people who say they can only gentle parent.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I'm like, you either don't have a boy or your
children are just thank you, yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
Thank you, yess looking around to see if anybody here, Caesar,
I just.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Feel so seen in this moment. Yes, yes, yes to that.
Speaker 6 (29:02):
I also think every child is just so different, so
some like my daughter gentle parenting, absolutely, yeah, my son
he's just he just lives wide open. He's so larger
than life that he needs like clear boundaries.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yep, I say, gentle parents say for gentle kids, that's absolutely,
it's not. It's not for everyone. Okay, what about screen time?
How do you approach this?
Speaker 4 (29:30):
I mean, I don't.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
I melted my children's face off with a screen on
an eleven hour flight. Yes, you can have it for
eleven hours straight. But then at home, I'm like, I
try to say, go outside. Yes, we don't need the
screen in the morning. We don't need the screen at night.
If I'm home by myself with the kids and I
need a cook dinner, cool, go watch a little show.
(29:56):
I try to make sure it's like a decent show.
But everything in moderation totally. We live in a world
of screens that you need to teach them boundaries around it,
that they can't have open access whenever they want, that
there are rules involved, and that it's not necessary for life.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
As well, whenever my son's behavior is getting a little
bit out of control, I do a check to see, okay,
how much TV has he been watching lately, and usually
there's a direct correlation. They get like over stimulated, So
easy we do. It's a drug for them. It's the
closest thing to a drug for them. That's how it
impacts their brains. But all that to say, like I'm
(30:37):
not villainizing screens. I use them when I need to,
but again, moderation. That's the message here. And then when
it comes to the role that sports play in your kids' lives,
what's your philosophy there.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
M I think sports are absolutely amazing for children, because
I think any child with too much for time, nothing
good happens.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Sean, my mom calls sports the anti drug.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I don't think I don't have any
pressure on my children to be good at sports.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
I could care less.
Speaker 6 (31:15):
I don't have any pressure on my child to be
in certain sports or activities. But I think extracurriculars teach
kids discipline, responsibility, teamwork, so many life lessons that are
so beneficial, and they keep them out of trouble.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Sean, your memoir came out years ago, and in it
you wrote and sort of questioned could you find the
right kind of success in life? And this was right
after your gymnastic career had wrapped. I'm wondering if you
feel like you have.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
Oh, yeah, absolutely, because I became a mama and a wife.
And I'm not saying like that is what my definition
of successes for everyone, but for me, I feel very
content and I feel very happy, and I feel like
I have a purpose that has a lot of value
(32:11):
to myself.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
So yes, I do.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Sean, thank you so much for joining us on the
bright Side today.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Sean, You're the coolest. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Thank you, sir. Are you ladies, It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Sean Johnson East is an Olympic gold medalist, New York
Times bestselling author, winner of Dancing with the Stars, and
one of the founders of Family Maid.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Tomorrow, we're talking to musician, author, and TV personality Cheeky's
all about her new show Cheeky Sinfieldtrow and what it
was like to accept a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame for her mother, Jenny Rivera Klas. She even
gives us some big sister advice. Listen and follow the
bright side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(33:05):
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
You can find me at simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O
b A Y. See you tomorrow, folks.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Keep looking on the bright side
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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