243. You Are What You Consume: How Media Shapes Your Family
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Release Date: 10/31/2025
262. Rituals, Family Stories & the Moments That Hold Us Together with Bruce Feiler
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Welcome back to the podcast! Today’s conversation is one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I’m sitting down with bestselling author Bruce Feiler to talk about families, transitions, rituals, and the stories that shape us. I first came across Bruce’s work years ago through his article The Stories That Bind Us, and it completely changed the way I thought about family culture and the role our stories play in our kids’ lives. One of the things Bruce shares in this conversation is that strong families aren’t strong because they avoid hardship—they’re strong because they...
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261. The Pursuit of More
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Welcome back to the podcast. Today we want to talk about something that we think almost every family can relate to—the pursuit of more. More money, more success, more stability, more opportunities, more experiences. And on the surface, none of those things are bad. But recently, we’ve both had some conversations and experiences that made us pause and ask a deeper question: what are we really pursuing—and why? For most of our lives, we both felt this constant pull toward “more.” And if we’re honest, a lot of it came from the belief that the next milestone would finally be the thing...
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260. Confidence Isn’t a Feeling, It’s an Identity! Here’s How to Build It For You and Your Kids
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Welcome back to the podcast! Today we’re talking about something that we truly believe impacts every area of your life—your confidence. This conversation came from a recent event Chris spoke at, where the theme was connection, and it led to a powerful realization: before you can truly connect with others, you have to have confidence in yourself. For a long time, Chris struggled with confidence in a way that might surprise people who see him today. There was a season where he didn’t like himself, constantly compared himself to others, lived in regret and fear, and didn’t keep...
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259. Why Parents Struggle to Stay Healthy (And What to Do About It) with Ben Brown
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Welcome back to the podcast. Chris here! Today I’m sitting down with someone who has become not just a client, but a coach and a friend—Ben Brown. And if there’s one thing I want you to take from this conversation, it’s this: your health isn’t just about how you look… it determines how you show up in your life. One of the first things we got into was why health is often the first thing to fall off for parents. And honestly, it makes sense. The moment you have kids, your priorities shift. You want to give everything to your family. But what we talked about is how that can actually...
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258. Slow Down and Follow the Light: How to Keep Your Family Connected During Busy Seasons
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
Welcome back to the podcast! Today we want to share a little bit about how we’re thinking about this upcoming season—heading into the busy summer months—and how we’re trying to bring more joy, connection, and intention into our daily family life. Like most families, this time of year can feel really full. Between sports, school events, work, and everything else, it’s easy to feel like you’re just moving from one thing to the next. And recently, we found ourselves pausing and asking a simple but really important question: Are we actually happy right now? Not just getting everything...
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257. How to Create Your Family Mission, Vision, and Values! Family Brand® Foundations
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
We’re really excited to be with you this week because this is something we’ve been working on for a long time—figuring out how to make this whole idea of creating a family brand as simple, practical, and meaningful as possible. We know what family life feels like. It’s busy. It’s full. There’s always something going on. And because of that, anything we create for families, we’re constantly asking ourselves: is this actually useful, or is it just one more thing to add to the list? Most families want to be more intentional. They want to define their values, create a shared vision,...
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256. LIVE Family Check-In with My 9-Year-Old (Family Brand Method)
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
In this episode of the Family Brand Podcast, Melissa sits down with a very special guest—her nine-year-old daughter, Indie—to do something the Smith family does every single week: a family check-in. Instead of just talking about the concept, they actually walk through a real check-in live on the podcast, giving listeners a behind-the-scenes look at how these simple conversations help their family stay connected and intentional. The Smith family has a weekly rhythm where they gather for a short family meeting and individual check-ins with each child. The goal isn’t to lecture or correct...
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255. Family Book Club: How to Win Friends and Influence People
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
One habit that has created some of the most meaningful conversations in our home is something surprisingly simple: family book club. It’s not formal or complicated. Sometimes it’s just reading a book over a few weeks and sitting down on a Sunday to talk about it for twenty minutes. But those conversations have opened the door to ideas and discussions that might never have happened otherwise. Recently, our family read the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and it sparked one of the most practical conversations we’ve had in a long time. At first glance, the...
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255. Consistency: The Real Divider Between Good and Great
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
What separates high performers from everyone else? It’s not talent. It’s not intelligence. It’s not even experience. It’s consistency. In this episode, Chris and Melissa unpack why consistency might be the single greatest differentiator in business, parenting, marriage, health — and life. Chris shares something he teaches in sales leadership: the highest performers are consistently coachable, consistently curious, and consistently willing to refine their craft. Ironically, it’s often lower performers who assume they’ve “already figured it out.” The best stay students. That...
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254. Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows: Take Back Your Focus
Family Brand: Take Back Your Family
This episode was sparked by one of Chris and Melissa’s classic “walk conversations” — the kind where something clicks, and you realize it needs to be shared… They begin with a powerful testimonial from a Family Brand family who realized they were spending more time talking about what they don’t like in the world — politics, division, noise — than they were talking about their own values. And that insight led to a bigger question: Where are we allowing our attention to go? Because wherever your attention goes, your energy follows. Chris shares how easy it is to get pulled...
info_outlineYou Are What You Consume: How Media Shapes Your Family
What we watch, listen to, and read matters more than we realize. In this episode, Chris and Melissa open a conversation that every family needs to have: how the media we consume — from music and books to shows and social media — shapes who we become.
It all started with a walk and a conversation about Taylor Swift’s latest album, but the discussion quickly turned into something much deeper: how to discern light from darkness in a world full of noise, artificial positivity, and subtle influence. Chris shares the idea of hidden darkness — how things that appear good on the surface can sometimes carry messages that slowly erode our values. Melissa adds practical examples from their own family, from karaoke songs that sounded fun until the lyrics popped up on the screen, to noticing mood and behavior shifts in their kids after certain music or books.
They discuss everything from letting kids read Harry Potter too early, to streaming algorithms that quietly shape what we watch, to the way humor and sarcasm in “innocent” family sitcoms can normalize disrespect and contention. Chris and Melissa don’t pretend to have it all figured out — in fact, they share openly how they’re still navigating this as parents. But they emphasize one thing: the goal isn’t perfection, it’s vigilance.
The takeaway? Be intentional and stay vigilant. Pay attention to what you — and your kids — are consuming. Ask whether it elevates and inspires, or subtly dulls your light. Because as Melissa reminds us, “That’s who we become.”
LINKS:
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Episode Minute By Minute:
- 00:00 – Family Brand Blitz retreat reminder
- 02:00 – The Taylor Swift album conversation that sparked this episode
- 04:00 – “Light or darkness?” — Chris on hidden darkness and artificial light
- 06:00 – How small influences add up: the justification trap
- 08:00 – The Pink Pony Club karaoke story (and what it revealed)
- 10:00 – Joy vs. artificial light — how to discern the difference
- 11:30 – What happens when your child falls asleep to the wrong playlist
- 13:00 – How books, music, and media can shift behavior
- 15:00 – The Harry Potter moment: knowing when your kids are ready
- 17:00 – Recognizing subtle influences in “family” shows
- 18:30 – Modeling behavior and what kids learn from on-screen families
- 20:00 – The danger of “it’s not that bad”
- 21:00 – The justification test: if you’re defending it, it’s worth questioning
- 22:00 – Artists who choose light over fame — Forest Frank’s example
- 23:30 – Using your family values as a filter for what you consume
- 24:00 – The Family Brand lens: “Does this elevate and inspire?”