Thriving through challenge, with Jenny Marrs

HGTV host Jenny Marrs shares how to be patient, and how to manage a complex life

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome and any advice

(00:23):
they have for the rest of us. So today I
am excited to welcome Jenny Mars to Before Breakfast. Jenny
is the co host of the show Fixed to Fabulous.
She is also the author of the brand new book
Trust God, Love People. Jenny, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, excited to have you here.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
So why don't you tell our listeners a little bit
about yourself?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Okay, I live in Bentonville, Arkansas, originally from Florida, but
I've been here for twenty years, so this is home.
I have five kids, ranging in age from fifteen to six.
I think you have five kids too, don't I do?
Eighteen to five? So we're sort of, you know, overlapping
a big shop. Yes, you have the same, the little

(01:08):
one that's like keeping us young. Yes, I love that, okay.
And we live on a farm. We have animals, we
have a nonprofit blueberry farm where families come and pick
blueberries in the summer and we donate the proceeds from
that blueberry farm. And we have a trade school for

(01:29):
orphaned and vulnerable teens in Zimbabwe. One of our daughters
is I was originally born in the Congo. She was
adopted and we through the you know, God connections, we
were working in the Congo, and then we had friends
in Zimbabwe and so this whole it's a long story,
but we're now working in Zimbabwe and the Congo actually

(01:50):
as well. Let's see, I have my husband and I
have been building and remodeling homes here in our area
and well, he started in two thousand and four. I
joined him full time in two thousand and eleven, twenty twelve,
and we had HDTV approach es in twenty and sixteen,

(02:14):
I think, and so we've been We reluctantly said yes.
We didn't really know about doing a show. We're like,
that's kind of crazy, we don't know if we want
to do that, but we felt like it was something
that God was asking us to do and he would
use in some way. We didn't really know why or how,
but we just trusted that he would, and now here
we are. We're now currently filming season seven. Our show

(02:37):
is called Fixer to Fabulous and we renovate homes in
our town. And yeah, it's been a wild journey and
we just are, you know, plugging along. We just do
life like everybody else. It's mass chaos right now, summer
break and it's complete chaos in our house, and we
sometimes have cameras following us around, but otherwise we're just

(02:59):
normally going to work and doing life.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Writing HGTV host wasn't on your list of things you
wanted to be when you were growing.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Up, No, not at all. I did actually want to always.
I always wanted to be a writer and an author,
and so I've always been and I've always been very creative.
I was in advertising, and that was my original path
that I thought advertising, public relations and along there because
I liked writing, have always loved photography, and design just

(03:32):
sort of happened because my husband, I didn't study it.
My husband was a builder. He grew up his dad
was a builder, and he went into corporate America because
he didn't want to do what his dad did. And
then that's actually when we met out right after college
and then he decided, no, I really don't like corporate America.
I need to be doing something with my hands and build,
and so we moved here. He started building homes and

(03:54):
I just helped him because he can build really, really
well and build pretty much anything. He's incredible. He's incredible craftsman.
But he doesn't really care about things like paint, colors
and countertops and you know, the pretty details that I
really care about, So I would just help them. On
the side. I had the full time job and then
eventually quit my job, and we did build the business together.

(04:17):
But no, never had that. I never even thought this
would be my job, much less have cameras following us either.
So yeah, definitely not on my radar.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, well we'll talk about the cameras in a minute,
for sure. But your new book I actually want to
talk with you about is trust, God, love people. A
lot of it is about waiting for various things. Yeah,
and this is obviously a show about time. Is a
time management show, and waiting is one of those awkward

(04:48):
topics in the field of time management, and particularly your
book is about, you know, waiting for things with uncertain timelines,
particularly about like growing your family.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Can you a little bit about that. Yes, I know,
it's it's it was fun to write about now, you know,
with it in the rear view mirror, but it's not
fun when you're living in that season of uncertainty at all. Yeah. So,
I mean went through a lot of uncertainty first trying
to have a family, trying to you know, start our family.

(05:23):
Then I had our twins, which that's a whole long story,
but then we started our adoption process and that was
another very tumultuous time. Basically what happened was we started
the process before I got pregnant with the twins, got
pregnant with the twins, restarted our process, and then we
had this little girl come to I mean, we just

(05:47):
got I got an email from a waiting child website
that I had been I'd been receiving these emails for
years at this point. And it wasn't that I was like, oh,
you know every wild oh that's my you know, that's
my child. But this one was we knew when we
saw her face, it was we knew something was you know,

(06:07):
we were stirred and thinking this could be our daughter.
And so it was very we had to switch everything,
We had to actually we were in the program for Ethiopia,
and we found out she was in the Congo with
a different agency, so we basically had to start over
once we decided to pursue her adoption. But when we

(06:28):
started that process again with her, we thought, okay, it'll
probably take based on timelines and based on how long
everything takes, because everything does take a long time and
there's a lot of work things and all of that.
We thought about nine months would be the full timeline
we would have her home, and everything just kept getting
delayed and getting delayed. But once we finally had her

(06:50):
adoption finalized, we had her US visa, we were officially
her adoptive pearance, and we visited her for the first
time in person after that because we didn't want to
meet her to meet us until we knew this was
legal and we were because it was all very uncertain
up until that point if it was even going to happen.

(07:12):
And when we left there that was in August, and
we thought we'd be back in about a month to
come back and then bring her home, and right after
we left, the country shut down adoption, letting adoptive kids
leave the country. Still to this day, I don't really
know all of the ins and outs. There's a lot
of political stuff happening that we didn't know about or why.

(07:37):
But it then took us another about year and a
half to get our home, and so that I think
was that period was probably the hardest because we had
seen where she was living and in the condition she
was living in, and she was sick a lot. She
wasn't being fed very often, and we got her moved

(08:01):
to a foster home. But it was still very hard
because we never knew Sorry, I think that's my dog,
Will you let Jack out? Sorry you heard a noise
in the background. I'm so sorry. Okay, So we never knew,
you know, if she was okay. Every day we would
I would wake up in the morning and check. I'm like,
did we get any news house Sylvie? And you know,

(08:23):
she was in and out of the hospital a lot,
and so just trying to just that weight was awful.
My husband ended up flying back and forth several times.
I ended I actually I was pregnant with our daughter,
our youngest daughter, Charlotte. I had no you know, that
was a total surprise. And so then I couldn't go

(08:44):
back because I couldn't travel because I had a high
risk pregnancy, and so Dave was going back and forth
and we facetimed her all the time. But we got
to a point where we really didn't know if she
was going to be able to come home ever, and
so we were starting to set up okay, continue plans.
Can she live full time with her foster parents and
we'll pay for her to go to school and all

(09:05):
those things. So yeah, in that period, I mean we
really just were It was very uncertain, and it was
very hard because again we didn't have an end time
and sight. It wasn't like we have this timeline and
this is what's going to happen. It was literally day
to day just praying and begging God and begging every
person we could and that I mean anybody that would

(09:27):
possibly have any connections that could help us. We were
just constantly advocating and trying to get her home just
because we wanted her to. I mean, we wanted her home.
There was an ache in our family because we were
waiting for her. But then also we didn't know if
she was safe, or eating or any of those things.
So it was that was probably Yeah, that was a

(09:48):
very difficult time. But at the same time God taught
us like I look back on that period and all
the things that happened in our lives and what He
was preparing us for and the way, you know, I
talked about a blueberry farm, but the way He orchestrated
relationships during that period so that we became very deeply
connected with so many people. We have deep friendships and

(10:11):
relationships with families in the Congo and in Zimbabwe and
in South Africa because of that waiting period. So there
was a lot of good that came out of it,
and I wouldn't have known that at the time. I
was just.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Absolutely waiting for something that is uncertain, and you have
to hold the end point in your mind that there
will be something an outcome of this. We just have
no idea of the tuneyline.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
So yeah, all right, We're going to take.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
A quick ad break and then I will be back
with more from Jenny Mars. Well, I am back talking
with Jenny mars who is the co host a Fixer
to Fabulous on HDTV. It is also the author of
the brand new book Trust God, Love People. I was

(11:00):
practicing before and I kept mixing that up Love God,
Trust People.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
I guess we can do both.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
So let's talk a little bit about though, you know,
your work with with HGTV here, because I know a
lot of listeners will be fascinated this, and I, Jenny,
I can tell you I recently renovated a historic home
that I'm living in now, and it was a sixteen
month process. Yes, each meeting with the Historic Commission is

(11:30):
longer than an episode of Fixer of Fabulous. So maybe
you can talk a little bit about the difference between
renovating for television and how renovating normally works.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yes, well, I will say there's on average, for each episode,
we film about one hundred and twenty hours worth of
footage and then they have to edit it down to
a forty two minute episode. So there is a lot
that happens that is not included. Because when you see
the you know, there's always a section where it's like
they're playing music and there's all we call you know,

(12:02):
the b roll of the work happening like that is
not happening in a day. That is happening over a
lot of long period of time. Even still, I think,
you know, when we're renovating a home, our own home
or for clients outside of the show. Yes, it typically
takes at least a year, and Historic Home is going

(12:24):
to take longer even you know, two years is very
reasonable for a big restoration project. But for the show,
we have to film you know, sixteen twelve to sixteen
episodes in we pretty much are filming year round. It
takes us about a year to film the whole season.

(12:47):
So there's twelve to sixteen houses depending on the season,
usually sixteen that we're renovating in that period of time.
So it's usually about ten to twelve weeks for a
house renovation. So it's definitely different. It's very different. Everything
has to and it took us a long time to
really figure it out. Honestly. The first season, well the

(13:10):
pilot episode was insane because we we renovated a historic
home in I think it was five weeks and we
just had the one and we were like, this is
this is the hardest thing we've ever done. Like it's insane.
And so when we started season one, we realized we've
got to We've got to figure this out. How can

(13:31):
we possibly do multiple houses? Like this is just crazy.
So now that we're doing this sistar seventh year, we
kind of have a better handle on it. But like
right now, we're run. We have eight houses going right now,
so and we're actually starting another one on Monday, so
we'll have but we're revealing another one on Tuesday, so

(13:52):
we'll go we'll start one close one, so we'll have
eight again. And so it's just kind of this like
rolling and so you have the house construction, but then
you have the production schedule, and so you have to
make sure when things are important things are happening, that
we have cameras there or else it's a problem, right,

(14:13):
Like wait, the cameras show back up and there was
no staircase, and then there's a staircase, and we never
showed the staircase being built. So we've learned. We've had
to learn like you have to wait on certain things.
And that was really hard for my husband as the contractor,
because he's like, I'm hiring these guys, I'm paying for
my guys to be here, I'm paying them by the hour,
and I have to tell them to just wait because

(14:34):
we need to film something, you know. So it was
a process to figure out how we finish the house
and actually how we make the show because the show
is more telling a story, which I love. I love
that part of it. It's the logistics that are really challenging.
And even from my perspective, I'm ordering and choosing all

(14:59):
them materials typically before we even start the house, before
we even begin demo, so everything has to be there
because we have to just it's it's so fast and
once it starts, it's like a fast moving train down
a mountain and you're just clinging on. So a lot
of times, you know, things will show up and they're broken,

(15:22):
or once we get into it, we change. You know,
as you know, you renovated a historic home, things never
go to plan, so you always have to pivot and
problem solve. And you know, we had this plan, but
then we got into it and this this everything changed
and so now all of the lights, for example, that
I ordered no longer work, you know, and you have

(15:44):
to just pivot and find something that you can Like
a lot of times we'll dig out things from our
barn of like, oh wait, I have this light, we
can use this. It's a lot of problem solving more so,
not even problem solving, I would say, it's a lot
of putting out fires more so than a traditional renovation
where you have the time to process and choose as

(16:05):
you go and make changes. And you know, it's from
my perspective, it's just constant putting out fires and constantly
just like okay, all right, well okay, that's not going
to work. Let's do this, and you just have to
sort of go with it. But from home owner perspective,
they get to literally walk away from the house. So

(16:26):
it works for certain personalities and for other people like
for me, I couldn't do it, definitely, but it works
great for people that don't want to have to make
all those decisions. They want to say, here, you guys,
figure it out, I'll be back in eight weeks. And
that's truly what happens. They sign a contract that says
they will not come back to the house, so it
really is a surprise, and they come back and it's done,

(16:48):
and they get a house renovated. Like you said, you know,
typically you're waiting a year and a half two years
for a house to be renovated. They get it done
in two months, so it's amazing. Yeah, so there's a
lot of benefits, but it's also they really do turn
over control. I mean, we have a lot of meetings
behind the scenes where I find out. Okay, what do

(17:10):
you like? What do you do you like? You know,
I get there's a lot of stuff that happens in
the pre planning, so that because it is their house,
we're not doing stuff that you know, we think is
just cool for TV that they wouldn't really like, you know,
so we have to make sure. But it is different
because typically when you're working with a client, you're walking
through the process together and you're choosing things together and

(17:31):
you're making choices. We're this it's like I just I
have to make all the choice. I get their information
and then I just make the choices. Fascinating. Yeah, it's different.
It's good. Yeah, but I know what lights you're going
to wind up with.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
But there will be lights, so that's good. So I
mean you've got this going on, you know, this this
business that is all sorts of moving parts. You also
have five kids, as we mentioned, How do you organize
your schedule? I mean, do you have like a planning
time where you sit down and do it? I mean,
what's how does that work?

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Oh? Gosh, it's cal I would say, Okay, are there's
some order to it?

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Because at the time pods.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
I survived day to day, I always say, but I
do sit down. So I sit down at the beginning
of the month, and I'm very much like I like
to write. I have my you know, my calendar on
my phone, but I have I have it right here,
I have it everywhere I go. My little is just
the most simple thing. But I have my written calendar

(18:29):
that I can see the whole month, and then I
put details. I have another planner where I put the details,
but I like to be able to see it. So
I sit down at the beginning of the month and
just sort of map out the month, and then backing
up when we get our production schedule, which is typically
in February for the year, I go through and mark

(18:49):
production like filming days, because that's important for all the
planning of all the other things. But then each Sunday,
you know, especially during the school year, because the kid's
schedule is a full time job managing that. So on Sunday,
excuse me, I sit down and map out, Okay, here's
where everyone has to be and just what the week

(19:10):
looks like in more detail. But there is definitely day
to day planning, monthly planning, yearly planning. But it's also
feels like because of production. Sometimes things get like there's
just a like my planner gets thrown into a fire
pit and blown up. Sometimes like I had a great

(19:30):
plan and now it's what is happening?

Speaker 1 (19:33):
So absolutely all right, Well we're going to take one
more quick ad break and then I'll be back with
more from Jenny Bars. So I am back talking with
Jenny Bars, who's co host of the show Fixer to Fabulous.
She's also the author of the brand new book Trust God,

(19:53):
Love People. So I know every day must be different
with your life, but I'm curious if you have any
routines that you rely on, either to stay sane or
to make you more productive.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Yeah. So when we're so we're filming, we usually do
a week, so like we're filming this coming week, but
last week we weren't. So on the non filming weeks
they look very different than the filming weeks. Non filming
weeks or the time that we actually get caught up
on all the work and the things. When I wrote
my book, so for example, when I was writing my book,

(20:25):
I had writing days that I put into my calendar
and communicated that with everyone that those are days that
I'm not available at least for the first half of
the day, I typically had like get the kids to school,
and then I would hap until about noon was just
dedicated writing time, and I turned my phone off. I
just everyone knew you cannot get in touch with me

(20:46):
unless it's an actual emergency, and that was I had
to do that, or else I never would have been
able to write this book. Ever, so certain things like that,
or on Fridays are typically my day to do these
kinds of things like podcasts and schedule calls. I have

(21:07):
another Zoom call right after this, and then it's also
my day to like try to catch up on emails
because my job is weird in that I'm never at
my desk or at my at my computer. So Fridays
I always have is kind of like an office day
catch up day. But again it looks different because we're
finishing a house next week, so this afternoon I'm heading

(21:29):
to the house to finish getting it ready, so I'm
not just sitting at my computer all day. Even though
I would love a day to just catch up, I
never really have that. But during the week when we're filming, especially,
it's just a lot of running around because we're checking
in on projects, so I have my phone on me,
but then there's always you know, those emails that come
through that you're like, oh, I need to sit down

(21:50):
and like actually respond to this. I can't just do
a quick one off, and so my inbox is typically
like overloaded, and then I try to catch up on
frit so I don't know it's it's not it's not great.
And I also am like, well, I guess if it's
really important and I miss it, they'll ask me again.
That's what I do.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
I'll get it the next Friday for sure.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, so Jenny, I always ask my guests the question
of what is something you have done recently to take
a day from great to awesome?

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Oh ah, that's interesting, hmm. I mean I think for
me anytime, no matter how crazy the day is, I
always I think the one thing that keeps me sane.
I don't know if this could help other working moms too,

(22:42):
is that when I am home, And again, I work
from home a lot, so sometimes I'm home but I'm
not really available, like right now my kids have to go.
I had this sitter come and get them because I'm like,
I have to record this. So I'm home, but i'm
not not working. But when I'm home and i'm not
working and I really have even if it's the middle
of the day and I do have an hour, I

(23:04):
shut it down and I just tried to be present
and I was. Just the other night, we got home
from a really long day of getting this house ready.
So when we're about to reveal a house, we have
typically two to three days to get everything ready, which
is if you think about moving into your home and
imagine having everything done in three days, it's a lot.

(23:25):
You've all the little details. So it was a long
day and I got home and it was a good
day though, because it's a fun, creative day. It's just hard.
It's exhausting. But I got home and the kids were
outside and I was like, let's go out in the pasture.
And we have animals. We have sheep. We just got
this new cow that is her name's Minnie, and she's

(23:45):
so cute. She's not a miniature cow, but she just
didn't grow. And so one of the cattle ranchers in
the area had called my husband because he knew we'd
just taken all the animals, and he's like, I can't
afford this. I can't keep the her because he's actually
that's his job as a cattle rancher, and he's like,
she's too little. So now we have this little miniature cow,

(24:06):
and she was really scared, and so it's become our
goal to make her like us and to be friendly.
And so the other day we went back out there
and we had treats, my kids and I and Minnie.
The cow walked up to us and ate from our
hands and it was like you would have thought we
had just like won the Olympics, because we were so

(24:27):
excited and we're like, oh my gosh, and we're making progress,
and it was just such a great, sweet, amazing moment
and accomplishment because we've been working with her every day
and I don't know, it was just like we were
so excited and it's silly because it's a cow, but
it felt like a huge win. And it really was
fun to watch my kids see, you know, feel that

(24:48):
sense of pride and accomplishment and also the way that
they are so compassionate towards animals, and so yeah, I
don't know that really was a long winded answer, but yeah,
spending time in the pastor with my kids just being
really intentional. Even if it's just, you know, one hour
together in the afternoon, it was really sweet. So yeah,
I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
I'm picturing this. Miniature cows not something I make sure
my kids do not listen to this because we will
not be getting miniature cows.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
But Tony, this has been great. Where can people find you? Okay?
So I really am only good at Instagram. I don't
I can't keep up with everything out So Jenny Mars
is my Instagram and that's where I'm pretty active. And
then Jenny Mars dot com is my website. So easy, awesome, wonderful.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Well, Tenny, thank you so much for joining us. Thank
you to everyone for listening. If you have feedback about
this or any other episode, you could always reach me
at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
And in the meantime, this is Laura.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If
you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me
at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is

(26:15):
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