March 29, 2023 • 10 mins
In this episode celebrating our 1st 1000 downloads we’ll share a common theme that many of the couples discussed. The inspiration or event that led to the start of their business. The theme of this episode is one you often see used in movies. It’s “Out of the worst comes the best.”
Many of us think about starting a business but we don’t want to give up the security we may have in a corporate job with a steady paycheck. So we welcome you to listen to this episode and hear these couples tell us what drove them to start their successful business. Their answers may surprise you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The risk takers, innovators, business owners, and their couple.
(00:14):
Welcome to A Couple of Entrepreneurs, a series about couples who start a business together
without ending their relationship.
Hear their unique stories, get tips, advice, and a secret to their success.
Did you work with your spouse?
Hosted by Mickey and Tony, a couple of entrepreneurs, co-founders of Branding Shorts.
(00:39):
Today we're excited to celebrate our first 1,000 downloads.
Thanks to our guests and listeners for helping us get to this milestone.
We've been talking about this idea of a couple of entrepreneurs for years and finally kicked
it off just a few weeks ago.
And as an entrepreneurial couple ourselves, we have actually learned a lot from our guests
about tenacity, courage, and partnership.
(01:01):
We've met wonderful couples who launched interesting businesses from banana desserts, reality shows,
theme park rides, knives, real estate, and pet food.
And there's so much more on the way.
And although these businesses may sound very different, there seems to be some common themes
that lead to entrepreneurial success, which is best at times summed up as, out of the
(01:22):
worst comes the best.
So what drove many of these couples to give up the security of a steady paycheck and venture
out on their own?
The answer might surprise you.
So let's first listen to Seth and Julie of Jared Creative, producers of Celebrity Ghost
Stories among others, and how they became a couple of entrepreneurs and the importance
(01:43):
of finding the right partner.
When we look back now, it feels like it sort of, it was meant to be.
We ended up at Lifetime, not because someone hired one of us and then hired the other.
We just happened to end up at Lifetime.
But we had been producing and doing all these things for other people.
(02:04):
And I think you just get to the point where you feel like, well, now it's time to reap
some of the rewards of working so hard in this creative business.
And again, we naturally had a partner.
I think a lot of people, when they start out, when they start a company, one of the hardest
(02:24):
things is, well, who's going to be my partner?
Who do I trust with the future of the business?
Who do I trust creatively?
Who do I trust financially?
Because there could be a lot of money at stake.
And so to already have that partner and to have those shared goals.
(02:46):
But it just felt so natural.
And it just felt like the right time to go out on our own.
And we felt like we had learned a lot.
Let's give it a try.
I mean, he posted us, you painted us such a prettier picture.
Are you going to talk about how you got fired from your job?
I got fired from my job.
(03:07):
I mean, yes, all of that is true.
Seth was a freelancer.
I was on staff at Oxygen.
I was a senior vice president.
I was doing really well, successful, making great money, all the things.
And he was the freelancer.
He was writing scripts and making movies and producing TV shows and show running and executive
(03:29):
producing.
And that was all great.
And I was like a little jealous because I was like, I got to go to the office every
day.
And then NBC Universal bought Oxygen because Oxygen was an independent television network.
And like in many mergers, I was let go.
I wasn't fired.
I was with thousands.
Yeah, yeah, I was let go.
(03:51):
And there was a little bit of like, what's the word?
I can't say, can you curse on a podcast?
Is that a problem?
Sure.
We can add it.
It depends on what the curse is.
So go ahead.
Right.
Okay, great.
So it was a little bit like a f**k you moment for me to like corporate America because I
had worked so many years.
I mean, at that point it was like 12, 15 years and worked really hard.
(04:12):
And it was like, wow, I'm so disposable.
Like you're, you'll just let me go.
And so we had always talked about that beautiful picture that he painted, like who's the best
partner for Seth if he launches his own company, it would be me, you know.
And so it's kind of like the universe.
You can't get fired if you're your own boss.
Exactly.
So Seth and Julie talked about how they got push.
(04:36):
Which led them to start an amazing business where they are incredibly successful today,
especially in today's environment, right?
Making it not uncommon.
We have so many friends who are getting quote unquote the push in a tough economic environment.
And we can see what one couple did to create an amazing business.
Now let's take a listen to this clip of Vito and Amanda, the creators of Blast 7D, the
(04:57):
world's first fully immersive and fully interactive ride at American Dream on what inspired them
to be an entrepreneurial couple.
It started a bunch of years ago.
You know, right now I'm 52 and at the age of 47, after a lifetime in advertising and
branding, I got laid off.
(05:19):
It is a it's a very traumatic experience, especially when you know, you really do kind
of put your blood, sweat and tears into it all.
But at the age of 47, I was looking down the barrel of mortgage and children and school
and all those other things.
You know, it's not an easy profession.
And in a lot of ways, it's kind of like the proverbial young man's game.
(05:41):
It took me a couple of weeks to kind of pull myself up from the ground.
And Amanda said to me, she's like, OK, well, what do you want to do for the second half
of your life?
I said, I didn't know.
Give me two weeks.
Give me two weeks and we'll have this conversation.
I'll let you know what I what I want to do.
So we're a family of great faith.
(06:02):
There was a lot of prayers.
There was a lot of introspection.
There was a lot of self evaluation.
I sat her down and said, I know what I want to do.
I want to bring fun to people's lives.
If you know Amanda, you know that she kind of speaks to me like this.
She's like, well, all right, dummy.
Well, how are you going to do that?
And and it was lovingly.
It was lovingly.
I always kind of knew that I wanted to be in the amusement sort of business, or I should
(06:25):
say I had an idea that that's where I wanted to go.
We came across this technology, which was really fantastic.
It's an amazing experience and it's amazing ride.
The fact that my background was branding and advertising thing.
What was interesting was creating something from scratch.
People don't go to Starbucks because of the coffee maker that Starbucks uses.
(06:46):
People go to Starbucks because the Starbucks brand.
We agreed on this on this technology.
Two weeks later, I said, you know, this is what this is what we want to do.
We agreed to it.
I went into a room and about an hour and a half later, I came out and I had the foundational
elements to what Blast 70 actually is.
Who would think getting fired from your advertising job would lead you to create a theme park
(07:10):
ride?
Advertising is a tough business.
I can totally relate being formally from advertising, but it's not always about losing a job that
leaves a couple to create a new business.
Sometimes it's something completely different like Lynn and Paul's story, founders of Paul's
custom pet food.
And this story is about how saving a dog's life launched their business.
(07:34):
Let's take a listen.
Our company, Paul's Custom Pet Food, we LLC'd in 2014.
The origination of our company or why we do what we do actually originated in 2010 with
our previous dog Hunter.
He was a golden retriever.
He was three at the time in 2010 and he was diagnosed with a type of cancer on his jaw.
(07:59):
We wound up taking our dog to Angel Animal Hospital in Boston.
And the thing that struck me about going there was the doors are 14 feet high and it's to
allow giraffes to come through into the Angel Animal Hospital.
So we brought our little dog in there and it was a serious thing.
They gave him six months to live.
They said six months if we didn't do the surgery and then the chemotherapy and everything to
(08:22):
follow up afterwards.
And so we drove home from Boston.
We were living in New Hampshire at the time.
We drove home from Boston in tears because it's the quality of life.
You know, like it's a three year old dog.
What do you do?
You know, he doesn't know that he has to go in for therapy and all that stuff.
So we knew another vet in New Hampshire and she practiced more of an Eastern medicine
that was food based.
(08:43):
We went and saw her and her first question to us was, will you cook for him?
And I said, yeah, sure, we'll cook for him.
She gave us a recipe.
She gave us some Chinese herbs, some Chinese medications.
And then she said, it's all about the food.
It's these medications, exercise, and then love.
(09:04):
And at that point in 2010, I was a smoker and a drinker.
And I gave up both and figured, well, both Lynn and I talked about this and said, if
I can spend $20 a day to kill myself on cigarettes and alcohol, I can put $20 a day into my dog
and see if this works.
I think he was almost 13 when he passed away a couple of years ago.
(09:27):
So it worked.
So it worked for us.
We wound up moving down to Connecticut.
And one day we just said, hey, let's start this little business.
You know, as a dog owner for a long time, right?
Yes, we love, we love animals.
We often actually do pet rescue videos to try and help save animals lives ourselves.
(09:47):
So hearing this story was, you know, it's incredibly inspirational.
Somebody could take a potential tragedy and turn it into almost a miracle and helping
other dogs.
And it really, truly was out of the worst came the best.
So thank you all for listening to our new podcast, a couple of entrepreneurs and these
amazing couples who many have taken very difficult, challenging situations that could have been
(10:12):
so bad for them and made something really good out of it.
Thanks so much.
There are more stories on the way, so stay tuned.
To hear more amazing couples share their entrepreneurial journey, subscribe to our podcast, a couple
of entrepreneurs on your favorite podcast platform or visit brandingshorts.com forward
slash podcast.
(10:33):
Thanks so much and stay tuned.
The risk takers, innovators, business owners, and their couple.
(00:14):
Welcome to A Couple of Entrepreneurs, a series about couples who start a business together
without ending their relationship.
Hear their unique stories, get tips, advice, and a secret to their success.
Did you work with your spouse?
Hosted by Mickey and Tony, a couple of entrepreneurs, co-founders of Branding Shorts.
(00:39):
Today we're excited to celebrate our first 1,000 downloads.
Thanks to our guests and listeners for helping us get to this milestone.
We've been talking about this idea of a couple of entrepreneurs for years and finally kicked
it off just a few weeks ago.
And as an entrepreneurial couple ourselves, we have actually learned a lot from our guests
about tenacity, courage, and partnership.
(01:01):
We've met wonderful couples who launched interesting businesses from banana desserts, reality shows,
theme park rides, knives, real estate, and pet food.
And there's so much more on the way.
And although these businesses may sound very different, there seems to be some common themes
that lead to entrepreneurial success, which is best at times summed up as, out of the
(01:22):
worst comes the best.
So what drove many of these couples to give up the security of a steady paycheck and venture
out on their own?
The answer might surprise you.
So let's first listen to Seth and Julie of Jared Creative, producers of Celebrity Ghost
Stories among others, and how they became a couple of entrepreneurs and the importance
(01:43):
of finding the right partner.
When we look back now, it feels like it sort of, it was meant to be.
We ended up at Lifetime, not because someone hired one of us and then hired the other.
We just happened to end up at Lifetime.
But we had been producing and doing all these things for other people.
(02:04):
And I think you just get to the point where you feel like, well, now it's time to reap
some of the rewards of working so hard in this creative business.
And again, we naturally had a partner.
I think a lot of people, when they start out, when they start a company, one of the hardest
(02:24):
things is, well, who's going to be my partner?
Who do I trust with the future of the business?
Who do I trust creatively?
Who do I trust financially?
Because there could be a lot of money at stake.
And so to already have that partner and to have those shared goals.
(02:46):
But it just felt so natural.
And it just felt like the right time to go out on our own.
And we felt like we had learned a lot.
Let's give it a try.
I mean, he posted us, you painted us such a prettier picture.
Are you going to talk about how you got fired from your job?
I got fired from my job.
(03:07):
I mean, yes, all of that is true.
Seth was a freelancer.
I was on staff at Oxygen.
I was a senior vice president.
I was doing really well, successful, making great money, all the things.
And he was the freelancer.
He was writing scripts and making movies and producing TV shows and show running and executive
(03:29):
producing.
And that was all great.
And I was like a little jealous because I was like, I got to go to the office every
day.
And then NBC Universal bought Oxygen because Oxygen was an independent television network.
And like in many mergers, I was let go.
I wasn't fired.
I was with thousands.
Yeah, yeah, I was let go.
(03:51):
And there was a little bit of like, what's the word?
I can't say, can you curse on a podcast?
Is that a problem?
Sure.
We can add it.
It depends on what the curse is.
So go ahead.
Right.
Okay, great.
So it was a little bit like a f**k you moment for me to like corporate America because I
had worked so many years.
I mean, at that point it was like 12, 15 years and worked really hard.
(04:12):
And it was like, wow, I'm so disposable.
Like you're, you'll just let me go.
And so we had always talked about that beautiful picture that he painted, like who's the best
partner for Seth if he launches his own company, it would be me, you know.
And so it's kind of like the universe.
You can't get fired if you're your own boss.
Exactly.
So Seth and Julie talked about how they got push.
(04:36):
Which led them to start an amazing business where they are incredibly successful today,
especially in today's environment, right?
Making it not uncommon.
We have so many friends who are getting quote unquote the push in a tough economic environment.
And we can see what one couple did to create an amazing business.
Now let's take a listen to this clip of Vito and Amanda, the creators of Blast 7D, the
(04:57):
world's first fully immersive and fully interactive ride at American Dream on what inspired them
to be an entrepreneurial couple.
It started a bunch of years ago.
You know, right now I'm 52 and at the age of 47, after a lifetime in advertising and
branding, I got laid off.
(05:19):
It is a it's a very traumatic experience, especially when you know, you really do kind
of put your blood, sweat and tears into it all.
But at the age of 47, I was looking down the barrel of mortgage and children and school
and all those other things.
You know, it's not an easy profession.
And in a lot of ways, it's kind of like the proverbial young man's game.
(05:41):
It took me a couple of weeks to kind of pull myself up from the ground.
And Amanda said to me, she's like, OK, well, what do you want to do for the second half
of your life?
I said, I didn't know.
Give me two weeks.
Give me two weeks and we'll have this conversation.
I'll let you know what I what I want to do.
So we're a family of great faith.
(06:02):
There was a lot of prayers.
There was a lot of introspection.
There was a lot of self evaluation.
I sat her down and said, I know what I want to do.
I want to bring fun to people's lives.
If you know Amanda, you know that she kind of speaks to me like this.
She's like, well, all right, dummy.
Well, how are you going to do that?
And and it was lovingly.
It was lovingly.
I always kind of knew that I wanted to be in the amusement sort of business, or I should
(06:25):
say I had an idea that that's where I wanted to go.
We came across this technology, which was really fantastic.
It's an amazing experience and it's amazing ride.
The fact that my background was branding and advertising thing.
What was interesting was creating something from scratch.
People don't go to Starbucks because of the coffee maker that Starbucks uses.
(06:46):
People go to Starbucks because the Starbucks brand.
We agreed on this on this technology.
Two weeks later, I said, you know, this is what this is what we want to do.
We agreed to it.
I went into a room and about an hour and a half later, I came out and I had the foundational
elements to what Blast 70 actually is.
Who would think getting fired from your advertising job would lead you to create a theme park
(07:10):
ride?
Advertising is a tough business.
I can totally relate being formally from advertising, but it's not always about losing a job that
leaves a couple to create a new business.
Sometimes it's something completely different like Lynn and Paul's story, founders of Paul's
custom pet food.
And this story is about how saving a dog's life launched their business.
(07:34):
Let's take a listen.
Our company, Paul's Custom Pet Food, we LLC'd in 2014.
The origination of our company or why we do what we do actually originated in 2010 with
our previous dog Hunter.
He was a golden retriever.
He was three at the time in 2010 and he was diagnosed with a type of cancer on his jaw.
(07:59):
We wound up taking our dog to Angel Animal Hospital in Boston.
And the thing that struck me about going there was the doors are 14 feet high and it's to
allow giraffes to come through into the Angel Animal Hospital.
So we brought our little dog in there and it was a serious thing.
They gave him six months to live.
They said six months if we didn't do the surgery and then the chemotherapy and everything to
(08:22):
follow up afterwards.
And so we drove home from Boston.
We were living in New Hampshire at the time.
We drove home from Boston in tears because it's the quality of life.
You know, like it's a three year old dog.
What do you do?
You know, he doesn't know that he has to go in for therapy and all that stuff.
So we knew another vet in New Hampshire and she practiced more of an Eastern medicine
that was food based.
(08:43):
We went and saw her and her first question to us was, will you cook for him?
And I said, yeah, sure, we'll cook for him.
She gave us a recipe.
She gave us some Chinese herbs, some Chinese medications.
And then she said, it's all about the food.
It's these medications, exercise, and then love.
(09:04):
And at that point in 2010, I was a smoker and a drinker.
And I gave up both and figured, well, both Lynn and I talked about this and said, if
I can spend $20 a day to kill myself on cigarettes and alcohol, I can put $20 a day into my dog
and see if this works.
I think he was almost 13 when he passed away a couple of years ago.
(09:27):
So it worked.
So it worked for us.
We wound up moving down to Connecticut.
And one day we just said, hey, let's start this little business.
You know, as a dog owner for a long time, right?
Yes, we love, we love animals.
We often actually do pet rescue videos to try and help save animals lives ourselves.
(09:47):
So hearing this story was, you know, it's incredibly inspirational.
Somebody could take a potential tragedy and turn it into almost a miracle and helping
other dogs.
And it really, truly was out of the worst came the best.
So thank you all for listening to our new podcast, a couple of entrepreneurs and these
amazing couples who many have taken very difficult, challenging situations that could have been
(10:12):
so bad for them and made something really good out of it.
Thanks so much.
There are more stories on the way, so stay tuned.
To hear more amazing couples share their entrepreneurial journey, subscribe to our podcast, a couple
of entrepreneurs on your favorite podcast platform or visit brandingshorts.com forward
slash podcast.
(10:33):
Thanks so much and stay tuned.
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