[0:00] I’m Kevin. And I’m Steph. And during our marriage, we’ve dealt with an electrocution,

[0:05] a brain tumor, brain surgery. Then doctors telling us the children were not in our future, followed by miscarriage, and then Kevin’s cancer diagnosis. However, today we live a life completely healed, completely restored with three healthy children who doctors said were not possible. And we’re here to tell stories that inspire, give hope, and brighten your day. Welcome to Tell Us A Good Story.

[0:26] All right, Steph. Welcome to episode 261. 261. And you guys, this might be the most personal and raw podcast we have recorded with you guys. Well, I have not been looking forward to this. We have been dreading this podcast. I’ve delayed it. You have delayed it. I wanted to record it last week. And you’re like, one more week, one more week. That’s why we didn’t drop anything last week. No. Give us a few more days here. Just a few more days to see what’s going to pan out. So we started this stuff five and a half years ago. Yep. Just you and me. And it’s just us right now. It is.

[1:03] So let’s share kind of what’s going on behind the scenes, right? I mean, there’s two things we’re struggling with. Yeah.

[1:10] Time. Yep. And money. Yep. Do you want to talk about time? Yeah. So when we started this podcast, we had littles. and with the kids being little, they weren’t in as many sports. They weren’t in as many school activities. They weren’t even in school. And it was good and it was bad because what I struggled with me as a mom is Kevin would schedule these podcasts. Well, then I have to find somebody to watch the kids. And luckily, God bless my parents, they would watch the kids for us, but it would be, okay, Kevin setting up, you know, doing the final research, I’m dragging the kids out of the house, get to mom and dad’s, then I go back to the house, we record that I go back to get the kids, then I go back home, like it was a lot, but it was feasible at that point, right? Right. So now they’re older.

[2:08] It is busy. It’s busy with school. It’s busy with activities. It’s busy with sports. And maybe right now it is the craziest busy, right? Because May, the school tries to jam everything in the last three weeks of the year. And then you’ve got spring sports that are starting as well. We have school sports. We have spring sports for the girls. We have school sports for Emmy. It is constant. And Kevin and I’s careers that we have. We have jobs. We have careers going on so it is just busy the point where i felt bad because a week and a half ago two weeks ago stuff we recorded episode 260 with your sister katie and our buddy adam bennett and we couldn’t tell take l to our softball practice because that saturday morning is the only time that entire week that we could get together to record an episode to the point where we can’t take our daughter to softball practice, which absolutely made me feel horrible.

[3:06] So yes, life has gotten super busy. But the other thing is the resources.

[3:11] We’ve been self-funding this. And now that we’re going towards the TV route, it’s like, oh, okay, we need to press pause here to try to get some sponsorships. It’s not like we’re pastors of a church, right? And we have a church that can fund this in regards to television and media and video stuff and all the editing and everything. We don’t have that, right? It’s us. So we’re trying to figure this out with the TV, with the video, with having a regular YouTube channel and TV, all of that. I can’t do it. Well, I know this is the direction we’re supposed to go.

[3:49] But I also know we have kids that are active. They are growing. Kevin has reminded me repeatedly that we have five years left with Emmy in our home. Because she’s going into eighth grade.

[4:04] I was just like, okay, like we need to start doing things as a family more. Yes. Like we need to take them on trips and we need to take them. We have gone on trips, but when we’re on trip stuff, I’m working either a job or editing a podcast or posting videos or whatever. Right. There’s once this machine starts going, it doesn’t stop. Yeah. It doesn’t stop when you do a weekly. For sure. So we’ve got 260 episodes. We’ve got a nice library of episodes, folks. Please check it out. But we need to press pause here. Yeah. If this is the direction we’re supposed to go, then I truly believe God’s going to open the doors here for television and for us to continue this. Otherwise, I can’t keep doing this. Like, I’m burning out. Yeah. And what we need is we need help. So if you guys can be in prayer,

[4:57] we need financial support. We need help with media. media we need help what else do we need help with are you getting bored with me yes why why are you getting bored with me i am letting listeners know maybe what we need i’m not enjoying this conversation i’m not enjoying this topic i understand i understand but we gotta say it we gotta keep it real babe you know i keep it real with you oh so this is what we’re doing we’re keeping it real okay and i’m sure he’s gonna have a talk with me after we know it’s okay on the podcast. It’s okay.

[5:32] But I’m so proud of what we’ve done. Five and a half years, Steph. I am super proud of what we’ve done, what we’ve accomplished, and how God has just opened doors and the people we’ve met and all of this. And I truly pray this is not the end of it. Because again, I am burning out and I realized I can’t do this anymore or with a little bit of help. But let’s take a moment here, Steph, to reflect on what we’ve been part of. Yeah. Okay? So, we just won two awards. I was going to say, can we start off with saying that? Because five years ago… A, we were just hoping to make it to 10. Like, I remember everything in the episode. We were hoping to make it to 27 minutes in one conversation. Yeah, we didn’t think we were going to do that. Because I remember saying, like, we don’t talk that much in a row. In a row. Sometimes in a day, babe. Let’s keep it real. Because it’s just like back and forth, try to get in and out of the house, right? Why are you looking at me? Busy schedules. Busy schedules. Yes. Yes. So, we won two awards recently at the NRB conference. Which was amazing. Outstanding TV show. Yeah. Because we had put together Sizzle Reel and all of that and shared an episode of Tell Us a Good Story and a podcast video of the year award. Yeah. Which was incredible. I did not realize how big of a deal that was. Then, Steph, we’re right around the top 1% of all podcasts in the world.

[6:59] In March, the nationally syndicated radio show of Tell Us a Good Story. Yeah. So it’s broadcast on 17 different radio stations across the country. Okay. For the month of March, we reached over 1.9 million streams. It was broadcast 12 times, average of 160,000 streams per episode. That’s amazing. Per episode. Wait, how many?

[7:21] 160,000 streams per episode, which is wild, right? Which is also like… Mind-blowing. Yes. Yeah. I don’t understand. I wonder why people listen to us. I don’t get it. And the other thing is, I don’t understand the sponsorship and the advertising side of it as well to fund all of this. So that’s the confusion as well. And frustration. Yes. This is the confusion, guys. We’re getting listeners. We’re getting amazing guests. But then in terms of sponsorships, marketing, it’s like radio silent. Okay. So on the radio stuff. Yeah. Okay. I do want to give credit where credit is due. Yes. That has been sponsored by StorySide Church. That’s true. Which has been amazing. It’s been a blessing. That airtime has been sponsored by StorySide Church. And I love the tagline, right? For each radio show, it’s, this episode is being presented to you by StorySide Church, where your story matters. At StorySide Church, they believe God always writes a good story. And that’s like perfect, right? For our show and what we’re doing and tell us a good story. So that has been a blessing, right? But also stuff that the people that we’ve talked to, okay? So just the past year, we’ve been blessed to talk to, you ready? Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty.

[8:42] Ginger Duggarvolo. Bob Goff, who is a top New York Times bestselling author. Don Yeager. Don Yeager, yes. He was a Sports Illustrated journalist and bestselling author. John Gordon, top three leadership speaker.

[8:58] Johnny and Donnie Van Zandt from Leonard Skinner and 49 Special. Coach Scott Drew, who’s a national championship winning basketball coach from Baylor. Uh-huh alex kendrick the film producer and director of the forge and fireproof war room and on and on yeah victor marx yeah the real life rambo in our opinion josh baldwin who’s one of the worship leaders at bethel music judge adam levy who has his own show on prime video and is judge judy’s.

[9:32] And that’s only, Steph, that’s 10 of the 35 or 40 guests that we talked to this past year. That’s crazy when you go back. Like, every time we do that, we look back. It’s crazy to look back at the guests that we’ve talked to. Like, I remember watching the Duggars when, you know, you and I had just gotten

[9:49] married. And the fact that we were talking to Ginger blew my mind. It’s been really cool and so fun.

[9:56] And it’s crazy because I can’t turn, you know, how, like, I bring the ideas to you. Like it’s crazy when we’ve had to pause i’m like kevin this is who i want you to get this is who i want you to get and i’m like oh wait we’re pausing right now so it’s like my mind is still going in gear but i think it’s smart not only financially but mentally for us just to take a pause kind of like feel out like what our next steps are right and kind of just get some direction for it wait it’s hard yes it’s so hard okay one more stat here the retention rate that we had that one time stuff was 82 of listeners listen to at least 75 of the episode okay so that means on average the episode is 39 minutes that’s typically what it is so 82 of listeners listen to 30 minutes of each episode so i’m guessing the other 18 turn it off after the first minute probably but that’s a little time that’s depressing 82 percent of people are listening to at least a half hour of us well it’s the car right to work yes right and the other thing is i mean we we’ve gotten messages from people who are going on vacation right and have told us hey we just binged listened to five hours of tell us a good story you’re just like oh my gosh i don’t think I could do that.

[11:20] That’s a lot of listening to us. That’s a lot of us. That’s a lot of us.

[11:27] Like, what are your thoughts right now? I have gone. It’s been a roller coaster for me emotionally, probably in the last six weeks. And I was like, okay, we’re done. We’re done. We can’t do this anymore. We can’t do this. And then a few days later, like we’d release a podcast and I would listen to it. I’m like, oh my gosh, that was so much fun. I can’t wait to do the next one. Like it was just, it was literally up and down and up and down.

[11:50] And listeners, I don’t know if you know this, but Kevin, we would go to church on Sundays and then Kevin would edit the podcast the rest of the day. So we would truly only get a Saturday with Kevin as a family. Like we would have a Saturday. So the last couple of Sundays, like granted yesterday was Mother’s Day, so he was with us. But even typically on Mother’s Day, like he would be with us for like lunch and then that evening he would be editing a podcast. So the last few Sundays we’ve had him And we’ve had Kevin a Saturday and a Sunday. And I’m not going to lie. It’s been amazing for us as a family to be together. And I think mentally for you, it’s been good for you just to be able to have a whole weekend and be focused on your family. That has been nice. And of course, your sister, my sister-in-law made a point that Tate, who is seven, we’ve been doing this for five and a half years. He only knows his dad. Works a lot. He’s always busy working. And I’m, I’m trying to balance all of this, right? With the job and tell us a good story and all of this. And Well, not only Katie made a good point, but we talked to, we kind of opened up to our friends, Paul and Michelle and Paul just kind of, he’s so wise. Paul just kind of looked at us or looked at Kevin and he’s like, so you’re working more to work more.

[13:19] And it was such a profound statement. Because I’m working a lot to fund and pay for everything that we’ve tried and everything that goes with Tell Us a Good Story.

[13:31] And when he said that, I just kind of stopped and looked at him. I’m like, yeah, he’s right. Like, I thought about that. And then when they left,

[13:38] Kevin and I got in bed that night. And I was like, that was such a profound statement. Like, we are working more to work more. And again like if we had funding because of it then it would make sense but it doesn’t make sense anymore and and it’s been a very emotional pill to swallow because we have worked so hard for this podcast which turned into radio which you know started to turn into tv and we don’t understand why we are not getting help when we really need help with this. What are you thinking?

[14:18] Yeah, I’ve just always thought like, what would happen if we had Chick-fil-A or interstate batteries, just write us a check, right? Or give us their PR team or some help around that. Like, what could this lead to? Instead of just being us and me working nights and weekends and figuring this stuff out but i’m have loved the time that i’ve had with the family and on the weekends and stuff and even in the evenings right and not working as much last you know a couple weeks but i’m sad if this was it right i don’t think we’ve come this far just to come this far yeah i don’t think god’s opened all these doors for the people we’ve talked to to just this be it yeah so.

[15:03] I’m anxiously waiting what this next step could be, what may happen. But yeah, we do have to press pause on this for now. And I hope you guys like this might come across as like the most boring podcast that you guys are listening to. But we seriously are so raw about what is happening right now. We are sad. It’s just that, yeah. We’re discouraged. The time involved in the lack of resources to be able to do this, right? It’s very tough.

[15:32] Yeah. But I don’t know what else to do. We don’t know. Because at the end of the day, we need to put our family first.

[15:40] And there’s been times I feel like we haven’t. You mean like ignoring our daughter’s acting? Sorry, kid. Sorry, kid. We got to record this episode. And you all know how we feel about sports. So the fact that we chose a podcast over our daughter’s sports practice, I’m just like, oh. Oh, but I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but please pray for us because we don’t want this to end. We’ve come this far, but again, we don’t know what else to do right now because

[16:13] we can’t keep funding this because it’s been a lot for us. So when I don’t know what to do, I pray. So Steph, I feel like we need to pray. Right now? Yes. Okay.

[16:27] Heavenly Father, I thank you for telling us a good story. I thank you for everyone who has listened to this and who is listening right now. God, I pray that you would open the windows of heaven here. You would open doors that if this is to continue, that the help would be on the way from media people to social media people, to marketing and advertising, to administrative people to companies and organizations or individuals who can help fund this assignment or lead us to the right advertising. God, I pray you would just lead and guide us in order our next steps. We give this to you. Amen. And listeners, thank you so much for listening. Please keep us in prayer. Thanks, you guys.