203. Make 2025 Your Best Year Yet with Guests Wayne and Mae Wagner
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Release Date: 12/13/2024
226. Family Culture Upgrades for Summer: Simple Changes That Make a Big Impact
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Melissa here, and this week I’m sharing something I’ve been thinking about a lot—how summer gives us a unique opportunity to pause, reflect, and upgrade our family culture. Whether your kids are home more, you're traveling, or you’re just trying to juggle a different routine, summer naturally gives us space to reevaluate what’s working… and what’s not. In this episode, I walk you through a few changes we’re making as a family this season. They’re small on the surface—things like setting limits on video games, resetting kitchen expectations, and...
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225. Can using AI make You a More Intentional Family?!
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Melissa and Chris here, and today we’re diving into a topic we’ve never tackled before on the podcast—how families can use AI to live more intentionally. We’re not tech experts, but we’ve had some surprising (and honestly life-changing) experiences with tools like ChatGPT, and we think it’s time to pull back the curtain and share how we’re using AI in our everyday family life. This isn’t a conversation about robots taking over. It’s about how smart technology can save you time, help you communicate better, and create more space for connection—all...
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224. This One's For the Girls!
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand—it’s Melissa here, and this episode is just for the girls. Inspired by that old Martina McBride song (yes, I looked it up—2003!), I wanted to sit down and have a really honest chat about womanhood. From postpartum recovery to hormones, breast implants, Hashimoto’s, perimenopause, and trying to figure out what wellness even means in your 40s—this is the episode I wish I had heard years ago. And honestly? I hope it’s one Ivy listens to one day when she’s grown. Because we don’t talk about this stuff enough. I take you all the way back to my post-baby...
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223. Mastering the 9-5 with Sean Cook
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Chris and Melissa here, and today we are joined by one of our dear friends and someone who constantly inspires us—Dr. Sean Cook. Sean is a husband, a father of four, a dentist, and a proud Family Brand graduate. In this episode, we’re flipping the script on what it means to be “successful.” Instead of talking about the typical nine-to-five hustle, Sean shares what it looks like to master the five-to-nine—the hours after work that can so easily slip away from us but hold the most potential for connection, growth, and joy. Sean opens up about the moment that...
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222. The Secret to Memorable Family Vacations
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Chris and Melissa here, and this week we’re talking all about summer plans and how to create meaningful, memorable family vacations. If you're anything like us, summer can sneak up quickly, and planning can feel overwhelming. But what if the best family trips aren’t the most expensive or extravagant ones? What if they’re the simple, unstructured ones where everyone just gets to be together? Today, we’re sharing one of our favorite family exercises for figuring out what really matters when it comes to travel—and how it might just change the way you vacation. A...
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221. From Surviving to Leading – How Dee Taggart Found Her Voice and Helps Other Women Do the Same
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Melissa, and I’m so honored to introduce you to my guest today, Dee Taggart. After getting to know Dee at one of our recent couples retreats, I knew she had a story that needed to be shared with our community. Dee is the founder of Her Xpansion, a space where women can grow in confidence, connection, and self-leadership. She’s a mom, coach, spiritual mentor, and all-around powerhouse. This conversation is full of heart, hope, and honest truth—and I think every woman will hear something in Dee’s story that resonates with her own. Dee opens up about her...
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220. How to Transform Your Inner World with Joey Klein
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Melissa here, and today I’m thrilled to introduce you to someone whose work is all about personal mastery and lasting transformation—Joey Klein. Joey is a transformation expert, author, and founder of Inner Matrix Systems. He’s helped over 84,000 people across the globe—from Fortune 500 executives to everyday families—create real results by mastering their emotions, nervous system, and mindset. In this episode, Joey and I go deep on why the inner game matters most, how to change your reality from the inside out, and what it really takes to live the life you...
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219. Do Better, Get Better
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Chris here with a solo episode for you today while Melissa is out of town with one of our daughters. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a simple phrase I came across: “Do better, get better.” It hit me in a powerful way, and I’ve been sharing it with my team, our clients, my family—really anyone who will listen. Today, I want to share it with you, because it has the potential to shift everything in your life, just like it has for me. This all started when I read a story about a waiter who received a tip that wasn’t money at all. Instead, the customer had...
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218. Couple’s Retreat Recap – Why Your Marriage Deserves a Getaway
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Chris and Melissa here, and we’re finally sitting down to share the recap of our recent Couple’s Retreat in Hawaii. And wow—what an experience! Whether or not you were able to attend, this episode is for anyone who wants to grow in their marriage, reconnect with their spouse, and create intentional rhythms that bring joy and strength to your relationship. We’re pulling back the curtain on what we learned, what surprised us, and why this trip was such a full-circle moment for us personally. It had been over 14 years since the two of us visited Hawaii—just the...
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217. Who Are You Really Following? The Hidden Impact of Online Influence
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Hey Family Brand! It’s Chris and Melissa here, and today, we’re having an important conversation about something we don’t always stop to think about—who we allow to influence us. In a world where social media, thought leaders, and online personalities are more accessible than ever, it’s easy to get caught up in curated versions of success. But how do we know if the people we’re following are truly worth listening to? And what happens when we allow the wrong influences into our homes and families? This whole conversation started when Melissa watched a new documentary about Ruby...
info_outlineHey Family Brand! It’s Melissa here, and today, I’m so excited to welcome back two incredible guests, Wayne and Mae Wagner. If you’ve been feeling like you want to start 2025 with intention and purpose, this episode is for you. We dive deep into practical ways to close out this year strong, reflect on what worked (and what didn’t), and set up your family for success in the new year.
Wayne and Mae share how their family has evolved their year-end planning rituals over time. From reflection exercises to setting meaningful goals, they emphasize the importance of being intentional and involving the whole family. Mae highlights their tradition of evaluating relationships within the family, using a scale of 1 to 10 to foster honest conversations. While these moments can feel vulnerable, they’ve found that it strengthens their family bonds and builds resilience.
We also dive into the power of vision boards—one of our family’s favorite traditions. Whether you use it to reflect personal goals, family goals, or a mix of both, vision boarding can be a tactile and fun way to create a shared sense of purpose. Mae and Wayne shared how they’ve adapted this process over the years, even incorporating financial planning for their adult children to help them feel empowered and prepared.
One of the highlights of our conversation was discussing the value of creating a family narrative. As Mae beautifully explains, families thrive when they can reflect on their shared stories—the ups and downs, challenges, and victories. This narrative not only helps create identity but also instills confidence and grit in kids. It’s a reminder that as families, we’re all in this together.
Lastly, we shared some practical resources to help you start your own planning traditions. Whether you’re creating a family mission statement, planning a vision board night, or setting up year-end reflections, the most important thing is to start. And remember, you don’t have to do it perfectly—it’s the effort and intentionality that matter most.
Let us know how you plan to make 2025 your best year yet! And don’t forget to grab the free family planning resources mentioned in this episode at familybrand.com/best. We can’t wait to hear how these ideas help your family thrive!
LINKS:
All Links Family Brand!
Episode Minute By Minute:
- 0:00 – Welcome Wayne and Mae Wagner
- 3:00 – Evolving your family’s year-end planning
- 7:30 – Building resilience through family narratives
- 10:00 – Vision boards: Fun and purposeful tradition
- 15:00 – Family planning for adult kids and future goals
- 20:00 – How to start 2025 with intention and success