By Victoria Burns
As part of the Distinguished Speaker Series (DSS), a student-led initiative that brings leaders to campus to discuss business challenges and career experiences, in partnership with the Owen Partners Association (OPA), Vanderbilt Business recently welcomed married couple Andrew East (MBA’15) and Shawn Johnson East to share what they’ve learned in their professional journeys.
East and Johnson East sat down with Mario Avila, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Management at Vanderbilt Business and Faculty Director of the Center for Social Ventures, to share their insights about FamilyMade, their marketing and broadcasting production company. Both former athletes, they spoke in detail about their career paths—and their guiding principles for creating a business enterprise:
Establish your priorities
East and Johnson East repeatedly emphasize the importance of determining priorities for both family and business. In 2018, fueled by a sense of aimlessness, they mapped their lives into 12 categories, evaluating the inconsistencies between their professional trajectories and values. As East recalls, the experience was “really eye-opening for us because we were working really, really hard, but we were just headed in the wrong direction.” Identifying and correcting for their misdirected energy has allowed them to “liv[e] the exact life we want.” As Johnson East shares, “We have failed a million times. And we just kind of found our lanes and figured out what our priorities are”.
Reflect, reflect, reflect
As East observes, the stakes are high when business and family are intertwined. The couple is committed to personal and professional growth and “optimiz[ing] our life in a seamless way” while protecting their family. That intentionality translates into planned meetings with professionals—including consultants, family counselors, and mentors—and a consistent effort to optimize their business without sacrificing the quality of their family life. East notes that as a father with three young children, “These first five years are precious, and you never get them back. I think we balance [that sense of urgency and preciousness] by just constantly adjusting, reflecting, adjusting, and doing that time after time” to make sure their professional efforts are considered time well spent.
Communicate rather than serving content
East and Johnson East’s journey to FamilyMade was not straightforward by any means. When they first delved into content creation, they prioritized monetary gain and popular trends, but as Johnson East recalls, “We didn’t connect with people. It just didn’t work.” Feeling isolated following a traumatic miscarriage, Johnson East elected to share her loss publicly via social media. As her story spread and engagement skyrocketed, she quickly discovered that social media was “a two-way street” and “instead of serving content, we were actually communicating with people. And I sat there for days crying, communicating with strangers from all over the world who had gone through the same thing.” FamilyMade’s genesis was rooted in the realization that “family is family, and it binds you to people all over the world in so many different ways.”
There’s power in storytelling
In East’s eyes, everyone is “constantly telling stories, consciously or not, explicitly or not,” and despite its imperfections, social media has become an avenue for “those people who have told stories intentionally and thoughtfully.” In leveraging their personal brand, East explains that after recognizing that you’re telling a story, the next step is “figuring out how your story is unique, and what you want to accomplish with that.” FamilyMade merges East’s analytical skills, Johnson East’s decades-long marketing experience, and their shared personal brands as recognizable athletes. It also equips them to support others. Supported by their 12-person media network team, Johnson East shares that the company can directly and effectively “help people thoughtfully tell their stories” via meaningful content creation rooted in connection.
Balance innovation with realism
East’s reputation in their company is as the fast-paced innovator. From his attempts at endeavors such as spontaneously launching a subscription box in a quest for monthly recurring revenue to successful ones like spontaneously launching the couple’s now-celebrated podcast, Johnson East smiles as she describes her husband’s attitude as “You’d better buckle up. This thing is going to be launched in 24 hours, and it’s a running thing.” For East, part of their journey has involved recognizing when they’re simply “not [in] the phase” for innovation and to instead “just focus on the things we know work.” With nearly 1.7 million YouTube subscribers and 1.2 million and 4.3 million Instagram followers, respectively, East and Johnson East have certainly figured out what works.