What Time Is Noon (and Other Nonsense We Couldn’t Make Up If We Tried) with Chip Leighton

Jen: Hey everybody, welcome to the For the Love podcast with Jen and Amy.

Amy: Welcome. Hi. Hi.

Jen: You look cute today. I like your shoes. Did you get new boots?

Amy: No. Nope. Old standards, are they? Yeah, but it’s still kind of cold and wet outside. So. Shoes.

Jen: I know, I, I was noticing that on our last couple of episodes. You and I are both shoed.

Amy: Yes. Instead of barefoot.

Jen: Well, you know, we started this together last August.

Amy: Yeah.

Jen: We can’t be wearing shoes in Texas in August. Geez, we’re barefoot on, like, every single podcast, but. Right. We actually had a day of snow last week.

Amy: We did.

Jen: I mean, is, is that even real to say.

Amy: Oh that’s decent. Okay.

Jen: I mean, we had snow. We had some snow on the ground. Yeah, it was gone by noon.

Amy: It was 20 degrees.

Jen: You’re right. I mean, it was cold. So it was genuinely cold, but like, our grass was still like, all poking through the snow, right? Of course, we didn’t have school, but it still.

Amy: Counts for.

Jen: Us. Things it did. I would have loved her to stick around a little longer. Yeah, but it is what it is. It’s. This is a fun episode because it’s teen related, which we know about.

Amy: We do?

Jen: What’s going on with your teens?

Amy: Oh my goodness. So you’re pretty good right now.

Jen: Oh, I love to hear it.

Amy: Yeah. Yeah. In fact, we all live in the storage barn in my backyard right now.

Jen: I can’t remember if we’ve talked about this on a show, have we?

Amy: Probably not.

Jen: Go ahead and give an update on the situation.

Amy: We needed new floors. I mean, we really did. And so we planned really well for this. We moved the kitchen and all the closets into the garage. Like, not a full working kitchen, but almost. Yeah. It is so organized.

Jen: I know you showed it to me. I was impressed.

Amy: And then we moved living room and beds and dressers to the storage barn. We just transplanted our whole living room, rug included, like, everything. So it’s it does have, like, a good night, John boy quality to it, but no one’s complain.

Jen: Well, it’s it’s kind of like a little fun adventure, to be honest.

Amy: The kids have been champs about it, but it’s hard to know where everyone can put their dirty clothes. Like, we don’t have a system for that. I need to work on. Was just kind.

Jen: Of, like everywhere.

Amy: Yeah, in, like, half our clothes in the garage hanging and half of them in dressers. But. And you do have to walk. It’s 40 paces to the outdoor bathroom.

Jen: At 40 paces. That’s like a colonial word.

Amy: In 50 paces down to the house. But, Yeah.

Jen: And then what’s the bathroom sitch?

Amy: The tiny house has an outdoor bathroom.

Jen: And, how many paces to the tiny house?

Amy: What? I’m saying 50. Oh, okay. No, 40.

Jen: 40 paces. Okay. This is like the language of a dual. Like, I don’t even know what a pace is. I don’t even know what you’re saying, but. Okay, 50. That’s fine.

Amy: It’s time we leave the house in, like, staggered. Anyway. Just our natural schedule. So it’s fine. I feel like you’ve.

Jen: Been out there for a long time.

Amy: And I don’t know how much longer apply. Well, because we found out we had asbestos freaking everywhere. I really hate that. But it’s. We took care of it.

Jen: Is it already gone?

Amy: Yeah. It got removed. This past week.

Jen: Well that’s a real bummer because that’s the least favorite way to spend money is on asbestos removal. I know but also yikes. Do you think that has anything to do with anything about anybody’s health? Well, let’s not worry with it. We can’t we can’t.

Amy: Honestly, probably not. Because that’s like a long game. That’s like a 30, 40 year like long situation. But still it was everywhere. Like was it? Yeah. Like in the adhesives from the original floor and in the insulation of their like, electrical boxes. I mean, they, they just sprayed the whole house down, I guess.

Jen: Getting like a new.

Amy: House. Yeah, I know.

Jen: So. Okay. Asbestos slowed you down. Have are the floors being currently installed?

Amy: No. Because, related to, another segment we’ve done recently, another episode. My contractor is very skilled at travel points and went to Belize for a little bit.

Jen: But I don’t I just for free.

Amy: So when he gets back, we’re gonna like get the ball rolling again.

Jen: In the meantime, you’re just living in a barn with four sons.

Amy: But two of them are staying in the tiny house, so there’s only two in the barn with us. And honestly, they’ve been champs, so I feel like that’s one of those things. Like when your kids are really good in public or like in someone, it’s like. Like you’ve done a great job. I feel like this is like, if they can handle this well and cheerfully, we can.

Amy: Maybe we’ve done okay.

Jen: You raised them in tents. They can’t handle that.

Amy: Well, that’s why they keep saying it’s better than a tent. Yeah, I mean, we have a bathroom. Okay. It’s fine.

Jen: I’m excited to see you’re, like, new and improved house. Yeah, because also, now you had to do all that paint.

Amy: I know.

Jen: I’m sorry. You’re living in a barn, but, you know, just you’ve actually done worse and that’s not a lie.

Amy: It’s actually quite nice. Okay. All right. Very cozy.

Jen: Fine. You have a hot pad or whatever you’re making your food on. What is it that you have?

Amy: I still have my Instant Pot and my electric kettle. I have a griddle. Okay. All right.

Jen: What did you make for dinner, for example, for last night.

Amy: Okay, well, we left eight leftovers. From when I had dinner with your parents, but. Okay. I we like heat stuff up. We also have the microwave. We go in the kitchen, so it’s enough. It’s fine.

Jen: Many, many blessings on your barn journey. And I do hope that the next time that we’re recording, you are going to at least have a new floor. Let’s do a couple of quick segments before our awesome guests. Okay, again, as mentioned, we are in a teen related theme of which Amy and I are absolute experts. I mean, not that we’re good at it, it’s just that we’ve experienced it, right?

Jen: I mean, we have had and do have nine teens between us. So like come at us. So let’s do this. Let’s do a little bless and release.

But I don’t know what you’re going to say on this. I don’t and I look forward to hearing your answer. Let’s do a little bless and release the clothes that we made our kids wear when they were younger. And I’m trying to. I’ve been around your kids since they were little. I’ve been around your kid since they were babies.

Amy: Yeah, I don’t remember.

Jen: I don’t like it’s not. I’m not getting a clear visual on what they know.

Amy: I know because I dressed my kids in, children’s place uniform shorts, for their entire childhood. So they always had on navy blue shorts. Always. And then a heavy down t shirt.

Jen: This is new information for me.

Amy: I just I’ve.

Jen: Been around them their whole lives.

Amy: I know, just very nondescript clothing.

Jen: You’re like, I’ll just get navy shorts from this one vendor in every size. And then just that’s what they are.

Amy: Yes. But the uniform version, I.

Jen: I don’t know what that.

Amy: Means. Like school uniforms.

Jen: Oh no I see what you mean. Like with a button and zipper.

Amy: Yeah. Because they’re so sturdy. They make those uniform clothes way better.

Jen: Yeah. It’s like they’re practically made out of canvas.

Amy: Yes.

Jen: Now I see what you’re saying.

Amy: So, navy blue shorts, sometimes jeans. But it’s Texas. So they could wear shorts because jeans they grow. And then what? But shorts last a lot longer.

Jen: I wish maybe for the first time that you and I were doing the show, that your boys were in this room with us, because I would like to hear their thoughts on this. Do they? Now? I wouldn’t say maybe with one exception. I wouldn’t say style is their their North star. Like, this is not what your sons like care about the most.

They’re not like fashion there is.

Amy: There’s one who cares now and one who’s starting to care. Okay? But in general, no, that is not our thing. Obviously. Okay. And but also I didn’t ask their opinion. I didn’t really give them a choice. I didn’t make a big deal about like how other people looked. Sure. So it wasn’t really on their radar.

Jen: I just I guess they didn’t have any room for perspective. If they wore Navy uniform shorts every day of their childhood. Right? What do they know? That’s what they think clothes are.

Amy: It’s not suffering. And the ones that are interested in fashion and clothing, they found that out as teenagers and then they, like, took care of it themselves. That’s fine. They have a clothing budget, they go thrifting, they can do their own thing. Now. But when they were little and it was chaos and it was too much uniforms.

Jen: I’m not even mad about that. Yeah. When you have four little boys, which equates to mountains of laundry every week. Yeah. Just mountains because they’re so filthy to just to have the one thing like, just find a pair of the navy shorts that fit you, just pull them out of the bin. They’re all the same.

Amy: All the same.

Jen: I, I one thing that I did when my kids were little and they either like this in hindsight or absolutely don’t like it, and it depends on which kid you’re talking to. Is that I did not make a deal ever out of. What do you what do you want to wear today? So for me, I like more free spirited kids.

They would go to target. Absolutely. In an unhinged outfit. Halloween costume, two, two with cat ears. I just never cared. I’m like, I there’s so much to care about. This is just not going to be the thing that I care about. And so I let them like me in general, because it’s matchy matchy, like I let the boys wear red t shirt, red shorts, green t shirt, green shorts, slightly different shape.

Right? You know, I just like whatever. Just whatever. So it’s like Sydney looks back on that and goes, oh, I loved this, mom. You really let me be a free spirit and you let me, like, exercise my own, like, autonomy over what I was wearing. And I developed my own sense of style and the board, the boys are like, how dare you?

Like, we can’t look at a single picture of our childhood and have any anything but shame, so I just didn’t pick it. I just did not pick it. It wasn’t. Except for when I did. And then I picked it hard, you know, like family pictures. Oh, jeez. Family pictures, which are among mama traumatic memories of motherhood entirely. Yes.

Amy: Agree.

Jen: Church, I think maybe I was a little tight on that.

Amy: Yeah.

Jen: But I always laugh. You know, our mutual friend Jenny, she’s from Alabama, deep South, and I always will, like, look at her Christmas cards or whatever that she gets from all the Alabama people. Oh, the hell is going on?

Amy: I mean, no joke.

Jen: The little boys are wearing these socks when they are like seven. I’m like, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And the little sailor collars, like he is in second grade. No, I just everything is smocked. Everything is just it’s so precious. I can’t deal with it. And not in a good way. Precious bad.

Amy: I mean, it’s just it’s a culture.

Jen: Okay, well, I see you being, like, nice about it.

Amy: I’m nice about it. I actually don’t appreciate monogramming everything because I always dealt in hand-me-downs. So you put, like, a giant monogram on one kid stuff, the next kid can’t wear it. And also, like, then if you donate it to a kid who needs a shirt, can’t.

Jen: So it’s a great point.

Amy: Anyway, I’m not a huge fan, but that was only when I became a mother. Before that, I monogrammed everything you did. Yeah, I like yeah. I come from a monogramming people.

Jen: Oh, okay. Well, I’m not going to lie, I do like a little baby in a monogrammed outfit. It’s cute. It’s cute, it’s cute. But also same for me. Like with five kids, everybody was wearing whatever their older sibling wore. Let’s do one more. And then get excited for such a funny dad. Talk about teens. Okay. Let’s do a little John excellence.

Jen: Let’s discuss this gap between parenting in the Gen-X era, which we are, and this the young parents, the new parents, the Gen Z parents. Right. I’ve got a front row seat to this right now. You do? I sure do. Just the friend group is having babies that. No, no, no, the friend groups kids are having babies. Yes.

So I’m watching this in real time. Chips, we have such a fun guest coming up. Chip Layton’s coming up, as I mentioned, and he has a great book out. And it talks about this generational divide. And so so let’s talk about this. What’s one what’s something that we like is a big distinction between Gen X and Gen Z.

And maybe even, you know what? Because we’re nice people and we’re Christian. What’s something we’ve learned from that? We go, this is something that we like, that they’re doing better than we did, because there are some things.

Amy: There are some things they really are doing so much better, 100%, and their kids will benefit from it 100%. For one, like talking about feelings and boundaries and mental health and all of that.

Jen: Like we didn’t even have a language for that.

Amy: No, they that will do their kids and themselves like such an incredible service.

Jen: Cannot agree more.

Amy: It’ll help their parent child relationships. I think it’ll help their relationships with their own parents, because you realize so much when you have your own kids, like, oh yeah, this one, my parents did this and this, like drew.

Jen: So I do like that too.

Amy: They’re doing that great. They.

Jen: On the other hand, on.

Amy: The other hand, I do I’m nostalgic about like, their.

Feral children like going out riding your bike. Like, either way, you find out where your kids are is where all the bikes are in the front yard. You come home in the street like. Like all of those things that everyone always says. But it’s because those really were good. Like, good ways to raise your kids.

Jen: They were. And I stand by it.

Amy: Yeah.

Jen: I, 100% turned my kids out. And with all the neighborhood kids, it’s what everyone did. Yeah. Get on your bikes, I don’t know, go go frolic. And they did. And they made up games and they built forts, and they went into the woods and had all sorts of shenanigans, and I, I loved that for them. I can tell you that my kids who are Gen Z tell me now, they loved growing up like that.

Now, to be fair, at least my older ones, I have a generation gap amongst my own children. Yeah, because Remi grew up in a different world and Gavin did, even just six years apart, 6 or 7 years apart. My big kids didn’t have screens. We just didn’t have. We can afford that. That was before everyone did.

Like, by the time Remi hit this, you know, middle school, high school scene, everybody had a phone, but my big kids absolutely did not. Yeah, that was still a luxury. We were still shocked when one of their friends would have a phone in middle school. You know, that was just not happening. And so my big kids say, we feel like we were the last generation, the last bottom edge of the generation to get this kind of like childhood.

Childhood. The play childhood. Yeah. The imagination childhood. The go outside childhood the the the bicycle childhood. Because as many things as they are getting right also this generation is scared. Scared to let any their kids do anything or go anywhere or walk to the corner. It feels like a scared. Although we had scared Peirce our generation too.

Amy: Yeah for sure. But also our kids went in the woods. Oh my God.

Jen: So they tell me now things like, oh yeah, mom, like, we, we jumped the fence, back when we lived in Garlic Creek. I don’t know if you can think of this right there on 967, but there’s a big two story, like white colonial house that is adjacent to the neighborhood. Yeah, and they owned a bunch of acreage and they’re like, oh, yeah, we used to jump the fence and go onto that property, and they had a bunch of, like rusted out cars on their property.

And we would like, have whole games inside all of their cars. Like, that’s private property. Somebody owned all that. They’re like, well, I know, but like, that’s what we did.

Amy: Okay, okay. And you’re finding out now.

Jen: Yeah. They just tell me later. But sure, 100%. That’s how I was. My mom had no idea where I was. We were just a bike gang out. Somebody mom would feed us, whoever we’d just stumble in and somebody would give us, like, a grilled cheese sandwich or, like, baloney. Nice. And then out we would go. But I like that for our kids.

And I missed that.

Amy: Yeah.

Jen: I, I’m worried about all the what is childhood now.

Amy: Well I’m know what my future grandchildren is is playing the woods okay.

Jen: Well that’s a solution isn’t it. Yeah. When they come to grandma’s.

Amy: Yeah.

Jen: That’s a that’s good. One other thing. Since I just said they’re too scared to let their kids have any fun or, like, be a kid, I want to add one more plus in their plus column, the young parents and I am noticing as a person who’s an Enneagram three, so I’m paying attention to this. They do a better job of like building a life for themselves and their kids and their families.

That is a little bit more like work life balance, like the hustle culture that we were raised in because we were raised by what’s our parents.

Amy: A boomer.

Jen: Boomers, is diminishing a little. They’re they’re just it’s not that they’re not hard workers because they are. They are, but they are saying we’ve got to get this balance right. Like.

Amy: Yeah, right. I can’t see like a a young dad now 25 year old, like being a workaholic and staying at the office till ten and missing out on his kids life. Yeah, exactly. That’s just not how they’re wired.

Jen: I know it’s nice to watch, nor do the men let the women do all the heavy lifting for the babies and toddlers.

Amy: Right?

Jen: They’re just in it. They’re just in the mix. And it’s not even like, performative. Like I changed a diaper. Did you see? It’s just like egalitarian. Yeah. And that is not what’s not my experience.

Amy: No. And that is amazing.

Jen: It is. And I’m proud of them for like building more equality into the the parenting and the family system for sure. But also like let them go in the woods.

Amy: And I mean, yes, they’re fine. Best of both were.

Jen: Let them go in the woods. The world is not as scary as everyone keeps saying that it is. It just isn’t. I’ll stand by that. I understand that I am on the upper edge of that. But anyways, okay, that’s where we’re at on that. Now, with that, I want to talk to you about our guest today, and before I introduce him to you, I want to let you know that, because as previously mentioned, this interview fell on the snow day.

Amy: Yes.

Jen: It was on the snow day when we had a quarter of an inch of snow. Amy Harden was not able to get to the studio because, to be fair, the roads were genuinely icy. It was first thing in the morning.

Amy: It was first thing. I was so sad to miss.

Jen: It. I know they were genuinely icy and I said, I just don’t get in your car. We’re not built for it here. We don’t have the tires, we don’t have the cars, we don’t have the infrastructure. Nobody knows how to clear street.

Amy: So I’ve got a couple of big hills and a long bridge.

Jen: Yeah, it was a it was a no brainer. So. So this interview I, did solo and I, we just I told Amy it was so much fun because I’m just delighted to see his success. And you probably know who this is. He has turned the chaos of parenting teens, particularly teens and young adults, into comedy gold.

And I’m serious. I’ve been following him for probably a year. His name is Chip Layton, and he is the man behind the Layton Show League, in which is that his handle on socials. And so if this is still not ringing a bell, this is the guy that takes these hilarious texts from teens and turns them into reels.

Jen: And so it started out with just his own personal teens and the stuff they send you like, am I a notary? You know, am I on Medicare? Stuff that all of our teens send us and it’s just taken off because apparently we are all raising the same teens. Oh my gosh, I’m not joking. I got.

Amy: One today.

Jen: Oh, what is it? Oh, this is a great time to, like, give a real life example.

Amy: You are not going to believe it. You know.

Jen: I think I will.

Amy: I don’t know, this was a doozy was it? And I haven’t really answered it except with like, a skull emoji.

Jen: Oh, boy. You know, that’s my favorite. It’s my favorite emoji.

Amy: Okay, so this is kid number three in a public school. Sure. But, he just met, a new friend, and she invited him to a funeral for her bean bag at 4:00 tomorrow, and he wants to get Mr. Hooks his.

Jen: Class jersey for the bean bag funeral. What is happening?

Amy: He says I know you would normally say no to skipping class, but this is no ordinary bean bag. Funeral. And he already has a bride.

Jen: Amy.

Amy: Amy at me. The address. I can look it up.

Jen: I see your skull on your phone. And literally, that is all you need to say. Do not dignify that with one more response. But what are they doing?

Amy: I don’t know.

Jen: What is happening. I don’t.

Amy: Even understand.

Jen: What is happening.

Amy: But he I mean, I guess it’s nice that he’s not just going to skip class. Yeah. And like, his teacher is my friend. And when text me and say where’s your kid? Oh my God, man, I’d say it a bean bag.

Jen: No, you’re not going to say that because he does not get this pass. I’m sorry. I’m sorry he doesn’t. This reminds me of when Bean Hatmaker texted me and he was like, this was right around prom, like before prom. And he’s like, I have a question. Can we have an after prom party here? And I was like, you know, I want to be reasonable person.

The kids are already here. This is a hub home for every child I have and all their friends. So I’m like, okay, well, tell me more like, you know, how many kids, what do you have in mind? And he’s like like, prom party in the movies with the drinking and stuff. And I was like, let’s see.

I see that you’ve lost your damn mind. I see that’s what’s happened. I appreciate you just writing it out for me so that I could see with my eyes that you’ve lost your effing mind. Like in the movies. Like in the movies with drinking and stuff.

Amy: Risky business.

Jen: I’m like, you’re the dumbest. This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever said to me. He’s like, well, I thought I would just try. I was like, well, you know, props to you. I guess it’s that kind of stuff, which is why you’re good at love. Today’s episode.

Amy: Yeah.

Jen: Chip has taken all of that, like all this nonsense of parenting teenagers. They are so outrageous and so funny, and we’re all in this together. You guys. I don’t care where you live. We are. All of it is the same behavior. So he has a debut, debut book out called via a text he received. What time is noon?

Okay. It’s it’s laugh out loud. And it’s just he says this in the interview. It’s not even laughing at the kids. It’s literally laughing with them. It is just this is what it’s like to parent a teen in today’s modern world. And so it’s text and it’s feedbacks, feedback and helpful advice from teens on how to be a better adult, which I get plenty of that.

How to dress, oh, every how to drive, how to cook. Thank you. All of it. So anyway, we laughed and laughed laughed. One thing that cracked me up is that, Chip would either say something out of the book or read something out of a book, and then he would just burst out laughing like he made his own self laugh so many times.

And that made me laugh too. Anyway. Just delightful. If you’re parenting a teen, if you are about to parent a teen, or if you have survived parenting teens, this episode is hysterical and you’re going to love it. So welcome Chip Leighton to the For the Love podcast.

All right, Chip, welcome to the show. I’m so happy to meet you. I’ve been following you for like a year and we’re in similar life space. And so just like the amount of times I have thrown my head back and just how old, just how somehow we’re all living the same life.

Chip: Yeah. Yeah it’s crazy. I mean I so I started my stuff on social media just, you know, kind of sharing some stuff from my own house because I thought it was kind of funny. And it’s like you pretty quickly realize, oh, my God, some of stuff is universal, and it’s kind of developed into this community in the comment section where people are like, oh, Mike, did you steal my phone?

Like what’s apparently.

Jen: Deadly?

Chip: Yeah, yeah.

Jen: So we’re always trying teenagers, I guess, like they’re all identical. It doesn’t matter if they’re in Maine where you are, or in Texas. It just doesn’t matter. They all have this playbook, I guess. They’re at a meeting somewhere learning how to troll us and be ridiculous. Yeah.

Chip: So they’re going to turn out fine, though. That’s that’s, they’re can.

Jen: Turn out fine. How old are your kids?

Chip: So my kids are 17 and 21 now, so I’m down to, like, one teenager. I do a lot of teenage content, but I got so one in college and one in high school. So, yeah, great kids. And, Yeah, some good content too.

Jen: No, absolutely. They’re hysterical. Like, I don’t even think I would have a career if I didn’t have kids because it’s just like nonstop material. I have five, I have five kids.

Chip: Unbelievable.

Jen: No, I know, and I’m, I’m 19 to 26, so. Yeah, you are right. They they’re going to turn out fine.

Chip: Yeah. There’s people also people also tell me like, oh, you know, the crazy texts don’t stop when they’re, you know, when they stop being teenagers, like, you still get it through the 20s or whatever, I don’t you probably still get some funny stuff.

Jen: Of course. I mean, they’re just they’re just pretend adults. It’s fake. It’s they’re adults when it suits them. My young adults, my, like, early 20s kids are just when they want to. They’re like, I’m a grown man. And I’m like, I buy your toothpaste. Like, save it. Like you’re not a grown man, but whatever. It’s very Evenflo there for a while.

I’ve noticed with my big they do crest a hill and it’s like, oh my God, I think they’re, they’re I think they live now in adulthood. Yeah, but it takes just a minute for sure. Yeah.

Chip: Let’s tell on your phone plan that would be the key question I would have.

Jen: Great question. They have to graduate off the phone plan at the end of college.

Chip: Oh, okay. That’s good, that’s good. Yeah. I’ve heard of some stories. Yeah.

Jen: I mean, these kids are soft, okay?

Chip: They it’s it’s.

Jen: It’s a real easy life for them to live despite what they’ve told you. Okay? They are just gently drifting into young adulthood, thanks to their parents. But let’s talk about you. All right. Let’s talk about the late in show and I want to hear the the origin story of how all of this came to be, because we have all found you and you have you are providing such centralized, unified content for us to rally around so that none of us feel like crazy people anymore.

And it is just it is just lightning in a bottle. I mean, you are just it is just taken off. So much. So I’d love to hear the beginning of how this came to be and how it started growing.

Chip: Yeah. I mean, it’s, I didn’t really have a whole plan. I mean, I worked for 25 years in the corporate world. I wasn’t like a standup comedian or anything like that. And, I, early in the pandemic, like, my daughter and I, we were using TikTok because we thought it was just a fun platform. And sure, part of what I love about TikTok and reels is like, anybody with like, no following can post something.

And if it’s if it’s really funny, it’ll go to like thousands or even millions of people. And yeah, so I just started to try to post that to see if I could make people laugh. And I was not very good at the beginning. I mean, I, I was going for like weird, funny and, I mean, after six months, I had 17 followers.

So I’ll tell you, it wasn’t it wasn’t really clicking. That day.

Jen: So not an overnight success.

Chip: No, no, no. And then and then I posted something about marriage. It was just, you know, kind of like different images of marriage and, like, it went viral, like, I remember we were on vacation and, like, I posted it, and then my daughter was like, text me in the morning. She’s like, your post has gone viral. It’s been seen by like 100,000 people or whatever.

And, and, and then two weeks later, I did like my first teenager text message, one text from my teenage daughter. And that went viral. I just kind of what I figured out was like, okay, I should be posting stuff that’s like about my own life. Totally. Actually. That’s relatable. And that’s what people are interested in. Not like this weird stuff.

And so I just kept kind of building from there and it turned into like, I mean, the teenager stuff. It started out with obviously stories and texts for my kids, but then it quickly became everybody sharing their own in the comment section or messaging me. And now most of what I feature is other people’s stuff, and it’s developed in this awesome community where people are like commiserating and, you know, trading stories.

So, it’s just kind of, yeah, all happened organically. And I ended up leaving my corporate job like about a year and a half ago to spend more time on this book and other thing. So it’s yeah, I’m really lucky. It’s been a fun ride.

Jen: Isn’t that amazing? You left the office to post nonsense. I mean, what a time to be alive.

Chip: Right? Well, it was a little weird at first because when I started, I was. I was working, and I was, I was in kind of like a leadership position at work. And TikTok was not really mainstream then. So it’s like I didn’t really think people would see what I post. And but when I started to go viral, it’s like people are like, you showed up on my TikTok like, what’s what’s going on with you?

You okay? But but it’s all worked out.

Jen: It’s clearly worked out. Like, I want to give my listeners some examples if they don’t already follow you. And I know a lot of them do. But like, I’m trying to think of the ones that I have read, Chip, you guys posts essentially texts from teenagers and like just in a running scroll. And they are they’re hilarious because they’re true.

Like, I remember one of them that you posted was like, am I a notary? And I just could have fallen on the ground, like, am I on medication?

Chip: Right? Right. Yeah, yeah. They break, they break out into generally either like the dumb quote unquote dumb questions I don’t like called dumb questions like, you know, did grandma have kids? You know, that thing, or or there’s a whole, whole bunch that are like instructions on how not to embarrass them. So like.

Jen: Oh, of.

Chip: Course. Yeah, yeah. Like, my friends are almost here. Make sure dad stays in the basement. You know, that’s the things.

Jen: That’s right. When you pick me up, walk normal.

Chip: Yes. Yes, exactly.

Jen: Yes. Teenagers are. They are savvy age. I mean, they’re just absolutely savage. I mean, mine are they. They don’t let me get away with a single nothing. Just. Absolutely.

Chip: Yeah. Oh, no. If you embarrass yourself, they’ll remember it forever. Yeah, yeah.

Jen: But.

Chip: They’re funny, which is what makes it works.

Jen: That’s the problem. They make me laugh out loud. I can’t even be mad. I just cannot even be mad. This this has birthed, obviously, the title of your book, which is What Time is Noon? What is new? Yeah. Let’s talk about that because, I mean, I can’t imagine that you were working in corporate America and saw this coming.

I can’t imagine that you saw writing a book called What Time Is Noon in your immediate future? And yet here you are. So can you talk about how that came to be, what that process was like, what the readers should expect inside the pages of that book?

Chip: Yeah. So so the book is it’s a collection of hundreds of these funny teenager text messages, as well as like some stories from my family. And there’s a bunch of different features, like just silly charts and graphs and quizzes to kind of rank up. Rate yourself on how crazy you are or whatever. And so it’s, it’s a fun book.

The title is, I probably received some version of that question from like 10 or 12 parents that their kids asked that and I felt like it was the perfect title because I like to stress I’m not making fun of kids. And I’m not criticizing parents either, because I get a lot of that in the comment section, like, oh, you didn’t teach your kids, right?

Or these kids or whatever, but but the reality is, like, that’s such a basic thing. You would never think, oh, did I talk to my kid about what noone is? Yeah. What would ever occur to you? Yeah. And if you’re a kid, it know how to explain it. And you’re used to digital clocks or whatever. Like you would know what it is.

So it’s like there’s no fault anywhere. But it’s funny. And so it’s like, that’s what all this is. You.

Jen: It’s not mean. I mean, it’s so true. When my. Let’s see. What is it? My third son, was graduating from high school, and he got all this money and whatever for as gifts. And I’m like, okay, we got this send thank you notes. That’s just that’s how to be a respectable, reasonable person. So he comes downstairs and he’s the first of all the terrible.

Like he’s written one sentence. They’re just the work. I made him redo. All of them, like every one of them would just sound like a a robot wrote them. It was just disastrous. Just human language display. But then he he’d already put them in envelopes and just big across the whole envelope. He just would just put, you know, Mr. and Mrs. Barlow, that’s it.

And he’s like, I guess these are ready. And I’m like, honey, I go, yeah, how do you think it’s going to get to their house? And so I’m walking them through and I’m like, you don’t, you know, you got you got to put a stamp on it. And he goes, what’s a stamp? And I was like, jeez. Oh my gosh, I’m going to send him out into the world.

How is he going to make it? Like, what’s their future? But they don’t know. I never did the mail.

Chip: Right now I think I have a page or spread in the book on mail. There’s, like, crazy. I’ve heard crazy stories. I mean, you’re not. That is not atypical. I think probably my favorite one is, if I use multiple stamps, do I layer or put them side by side? It’s like, I put them side by side.

Jen: But it really is true that we’ve dropped these teenagers, like these modern age internet teenagers, and we expect them to know our, like, analog or fashion, old timey pioneer system. Yeah, yeah, they’ve no idea what we’re talking about.

Chip: No no, no, no need to. They’re not going to need to mail a lot of stuff in their life anyway. Probably. Right.

Jen: And so I could never written a check. Never in their life. Oh yeah. They wouldn’t even know what to do. They don’t have checkbooks that is so far beyond their capacity. It’s so fun. And then, of course, they love to make fun of us for our old timey ways.

Chip: Yes.

Jen: Which I take on the chin I because it’s so funny. It makes me laugh. So hard. What, sort of feedback, if you will. Have you gotten from your own kids? That has stuck in your craw as being either Hillary bias or ridiculous or outrageous or all three?

Chip: Yeah, yeah, usually all three. I, I mean, I get a lot of feedback about food. I will say I have a chart, the book about, the reviews of the different meals I’ve served.

Jen: And so how lovely.

Chip: Yeah. Like it made, like homemade vegetable, soup and bread one night and it was like, described as medieval peasant food, that kind of thing. Or, big, like chicken and egg noodles. One night was described as basic, you know. Sure. It’s.

Jen: Yeah, yeah, there’s a lot of that, but.

Chip: And then, there’s some ridiculous stuff too. I do this series of, like, things I’ve apologized to my teenagers for. And so I have some stuff in there, like, you know, one that one time they told me the smoothie I made was too cold. It’s feedback like that. You know what the. My daughter told me the bananas I bought were two curved, which is like, you know, I’m not usually looking for that.

Chip: So it’s, it’s they’re they can be a little tricky. Yeah. Right.

Jen: Cut. You just can’t make it up. That’s why it’s so easy to have teenagers. Because they just say things you couldn’t fathom.

Chip: Right. Well, I at one point, like, early on, this is before a lot of people were sending me stuff like my daughter, I was I thought of like, you haven’t sent me like, funny in a while. She was like, just start making it up. And I’m like, you don’t you don’t get it. I couldn’t possibly make this stuff up.

Chip: I’m not that funny. I’m not, like, funny enough to do that. And there’s something that’s, like, so authentic about it that you just couldn’t make it up.

Jen: It is so, so funny. And to your, to your earlier point, they do keep doing this until young adulthood. It does not end at age 19. My daughter is 24 and she, came home the other day. She lives downtown and I have on my wall what I think is the most darling, eclectic, whimsical on wall art.

Jen: And it is this big mousse. It’s like bronze and it has like a pipe and it’s wearing glasses and it’s funny. It’s, it’s whimsical. And she’s like, mom, that looks like it belongs in a storefront for Toms from like, 12 years ago. And it’s so specific a burn. It’s so precise. Yeah, that I just burst out laughing.

Jen: I’m like, well, you’re not wrong, but like, that’s mean, but also funny. So I’m going to give you credit for being like, so specifically critical in a way that I’m going to remember. Yeah, this belongs in a Tom store but dated, you know.

Chip: Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, if you appreciate good humor, it’s tough to it’s tough to be critical of stuff like of stuff.

Jen: Like 100%. Yeah. And there’s just you have to appreciate him. Or you should just give your teenagers away like, yeah, you don’t have another path through this season, of your parenting journey. For sure. And I love how you prepare the younger parents for what the children will start to call you.

Chip:

Jen: Like your name as a parent, which is clearly bruh.

Chip: Yeah, bro. Bro brah.

Jen: Dude, dude.

Chip: Latitudes gangster a lot of kids is like, here’s your kids today. Thanks, gangster.

Jen: God, I, I came home a few months ago and one of my sons was parked in my parking space. It’s mine. Everybody knows this. I own this house. I own that driveway. That’s where my car parks and his truck is and my space. So I’m out in the driveway and I send a picture of his car in my space.

And I’m like, why is your truck? And my space? And of course, his response is, my bad pimp. I’m like, okay, okay. I mean, like, I didn’t I didn’t know that was how I was going to get addressed when they were in kindergarten, you know?

Chip: Right. If you did. Yeah.

Jen: Yeah. My bad pimp. Talk to me about how your kids feel about being the stars of your content. How do you manage this? Because you know, they’re real opinionated about what we get to say about them.

Chip: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they’re not that impressed with me in general. Sure. My daughters get different things. She calls me. The current one is, the unemployed middle aged TikToker, which is accurate, I guess. But,

Jen: Kids are the worst.

Chip: Yeah. Yeah, right. I’m like, I can’t actually dispute any of that, but, right. But, they their biggest feedback right now is because it started with their stuff and now it’s mostly other people’s stuff. They’re like, you got to make it much clearer. This is not all our our content. Like my, my friends think I’m an idiot.

They think I’m sending every one of these tags up like that. Sorry. I think I make it clear enough.

Jen: I I’m so, so tickled. I have to ask permission to of, like, what I can say about that. Yeah. And they have this sense that everybody’s paying attention to their lives and they’re not. But, my friends, I’m like, your friends don’t follow me. I’m on. Oh, right. Yeah. Like, this is not they’re not interested. And also they’re not interested in me.

To your point, my kids are 0% impressed. And I have a whole job, a big job. I have a lot of job, I work hard, I have a lot of slivers of the pie chart. I do a lot of work. And to hear my kids talk about my career is devastating. She doesn’t really like she doesn’t really have a it’s not like a real job.

Jen: It’s right. I don’t really know. Like she just she writes and stuff on on Facebook. I’m like, okay, blogger okay. Got some blogger. Let’s talk about some of the chapters in your book. Because they’re just they’re just the best. What are your favorites? What’s your favorite stuff?

Chip: I mean, I have a whole section on driving, which I like, because some of the stuff that happens is less tech and more things spoken from behind the wheel. But there’s some great stuff there. It’s the college section I think is pretty good. There’s some crazy questions kids ask when they, when they when they go off.

Jen: Could you give us some examples?

Chip: Well, let’s see on the driving front, there’s basically they, they all boil down to like, you know, you know, you know, stop stop screaming every time we almost crash, that kind of stuff. It’s like because the whole dynamics, like the party is so stressed out, and then that stress makes the kid freaking out. So you’re supposed to, you know, it’s like, stop.

Stop holding onto your purse. When we turned, you know, there was one girl who. One girl who, she actually, like, ran a pedestrian, like, off the road who jumped into the bushes. She was like, so dramatic.

Chip: So there’s there’s a lot of stuff that.

Jen: Oh, my gosh, I, I, I can only laugh because we’ve all lived through it. Barely. I mean, like.

Chip: We the heart of it. I think that’s the hardest part of raising teenagers personally.

Jen: But, you have a hilarious chapter on clothes. Your clothes. Oh, yeah. And the children’s feelings about your clothes. And you said that your kids suggested that if you open a clothing store, it would. It should be. It should be called chips. Tall and drab.

Chip: Yeah. Yeah, it’s called six foot six, you know, from everywhere and like, gray or any sort of neutral colors, it’s just I get hammered and that’s. Yeah, that’s the that’s my storefront.

Jen: You take people through like various things that you’re wearing and the, the kids responses to it. And it’s just like, I mean, you’re wearing a striped rugby shirt. It’s it’s plain, it’s normal. And they’re like, it looks like something a baby would wear. There’s just no there’s no love. There’s just I’m.

Chip: Not I mean it’s fair does kind of I mean, if you think about it, that would be how you dress a baby. Probably.Yeah.

Jen: Yeah. I can’t get most of that right. And I don’t try, And nor can I understand their clothes. I oh, I yeah, I just decided long ago, this is not my battle. I have plenty of mountains to climb with these people. And that’s not the clothes is just simply not going to be one of them.

Chip: Yeah. Well, you I mean, we were talking earlier about before I got on here about where we lived. You’re in Texas. I’m in Maine. So, like, the whole thing in Maine is like, unless it’s like below zero, kids are going to school in shorts.

Jen: I know you’re going to say that.

Chip: It’s crazy. I mean, if it snows, they might put on like a hoodie, but it’s, you know, usually Crocs or whatever, the middle of winter. So it’s crazy.

Jen: Yeah. What in the world are these people doing? And, you know, that is universal. You know this because of your community. That’s all teens. It’s all teens. They don’t know how to dress. Right? Right. But for weather.

Chip: Yeah, but they know what we’re doing wrong. That’s that much with precision.

Jen: Yeah. I told you before we started recording it, very weirdly, is snowing here today. We have snow in Texas, which we never have. We are ill equipped. We are tiny diaper babies when it comes to this. So my son Ben was in the living room with me this morning. And, well, he doesn’t know what to do. Also, he’s Ethiopian.

He literally does not know about cold weather. Like so he’s like, how do you get snow off a car? I’m like, buddy, put your gloves on and just wipe it off. And so he’s like, I don’t want to touch it. So the next thing I see is he has two of my spatulas and now he goes in shorts in shorts.

And I’m like, you know what? This isn’t my problem. I just take your spatulas and your shorts and go sort out the snow. Like, yeah, you’ll figure it out. My dude. And they do.

Chip: Yeah.

Jen: And they do. Tell me, about your because you mentioned in here it’s in the, it’s in the section on clothes. You said, you know, my carefully planned outfit before my first big stand up show that your kids response was, it’s pretty basic, but whatever. That’s a that’s hype. That’s as good as you can get. To be.

Chip: Honest. I was like, yeah, that.

Jen: Was the nicest one in the whole list, right. But tell me about your stand up show and how that felt. I mean, you’re a corporate dude. Like, this is way, way outside the boundaries.

Chip: Yeah. Who do I think I am, right? Yeah. Yeah. No. It’s crazy. I mean, I always thought that, like, some of what I did online would translate well to live performance, but I probably would have never done it on my own. And then. Yes, one day, Caroline Raye, who’s an amazing stand up, reached out to me and she’s like, hey, I live in Maine in the summer.

I think you’re hilarious, which was on Instagram. And she’s like, do you do stand up? Do you want to do some shows together? And I was like, oh my God. I was like, I would love to. I don’t do it at all. But she’s like, oh, I’m a great teacher. I’ll coach you over zoom and then we’ll do it.

Be fun. And so we did that. And so it was a it was a perfect kind of, you know, push for me because it was like a built in audience and somebody to sort of help me, help me out with it. And, and it’s gone really well. I mean, I’ve gotten good feedback. I, I, I, it’s kind of evolved into it.

I don’t even call it standup. It’s more of like a live performance where I often use like a digital screen behind me. And I, I share some of the crowdsourced content that I have and use some different imagery, and some of it’s more standup, but but it’s been great. I did like a family weekend at a at a college, a couple months ago, which was like a perfect audience for me, you know, totally students.

And so, so I’ve been having fun. And now that I have the book out and doing sorts of book events that include some of that. And so, yeah, it’s great. I mean, it’s, Yeah. Right. It’s it’s, it’s definitely a different second chapter for me in my career, which is good fun. Yeah.

Jen: That’s so amazing. How did you find were you nervous? Like standing in front of a live audience and making them laugh is no joke. I think humor is harder than drama. It is really, really a skill. So.

Chip: Yeah, I mean, I yeah, definitely. I did a little theater like in high school. So I have a little bit of sort of, performance background that not a lot. And in my career I was sometimes on stage, but, but never like to make people laugh. Right. Which is a thought. Yeah. I always have like a little mini panic attack right before going on.

But then once I’m out there and doing it, I feel a lot more comfortable and, I mean, if you’re if if it’s the right venue where the audience knows who you are and they’re coming to see you and excited to see you, that it’s a friendly kind of, you know, environment that pretty well. But, but yeah, it’s definitely a different it’s a different muscle.

Jen: So the truth is, and you said this earlier in the show, is that parenting teenagers is so insane. It’s such a hilarious, insane endeavor that most people are just looking for someone to understand or tell the truth about it. Yeah. I mean, it is low hanging fruit for people to be like, oh my God, me do that, right?

I gotta give it as I do. So like you are providing this like central source of truth for honestly all of us like.

Chip: Well thank you. Yeah. It’s like it’s yeah. The comments that I really like I get are like, oh my gosh, I guess my kid’s like totally normal. And I guess I’m not the worst parent in the world. I guess it’s supposed to be like this. It’s like validation, you know, which is truly good. Yeah.

Jen: It’s really, I, I think this is so exciting. What? Because I, I really admire your just your moxie. You left a you left it as an office job, and you are building this whole space. And I’d love to know what you’re dreaming up next, because you’ve in pretty rapid fire, tackled a I mean, you have this really successful like social media space and, you’ve written a book, you’re doing stand up.

These are huge boulders in the river. Like, what else are you interested in?

Chip: Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I mean, all along I’ve tried to kind of take it one step at a time without, like, a fully planned out, you know, you know, path because you just don’t know what’s going to kind of come in front of you. And so, I don’t have, like, the full thing planned out, but, I mean, it’s been really, really well-received.

And so I’m excited about that. And I’m actually starting work on the second book now so that I’m excited about doing that. I’m definitely going to continue doing the social media stuff and, try to, you know, continue to build and evolve, that, and then I yeah, I am enjoying the live life stuff and I’m, that’s sort of a, yeah, journey.

I’ll see sort of where that goes and how much time I, you know, put into that. I’m not looking to be like a road warrior, you know, working the clubs every night or that. Sure. But, I mean, I’m basically just trying to, like, give people a little laugh or a smile during the course of the day. And, so to the extent I could figure out more and different ways to do that and ways to reach other people, I will, you know, there could be other mediums where this works well than podcasting or even television.

Yeah. But, you know, yeah, I’ll sort of see over time how that plays.

Jen: I love that. Can you talk at all about the second book? What’s it going to look like?

Chip: Yeah, I mean, it’s early I’m very early in it, but I’m doing it with the same publisher and it’s, it may very well have a theme about around dads. So I’ve been doing some, some of the recent content I’ve been doing is like these crazy dad stories of, you know, all these stories of like, oh, my dad ate, like a entire bowl of Thousand Island dressing because he thought it was soup, you know, all these, like, crazy things.

And so, I’m like, already like a ton of those types of stories. And so I think that could be fun. That would also incorporate kind of the the family’s reactions and their text to dad and stuff like that. So a little bit more of like the whole family dynamic. But but I’m kind of still working through that, but but but yeah, I, I yeah, the first book is, you know what time is new and is, is, you know, a lot of people are telling me like, oh, we’re like reading that out loud with our kids or family and people, and the kids are laughing, which is like, totally surprised me.

I, I didn’t really write it for teenagers or for really the parents, but, but, I heard of all kinds of stories of like, oh, I’m an Airbnb host, and I leave in my bathroom and all my guests love it.

Jen: That’s amazing.

Chip: Maybe an antibacterial cover on the next one.

Looks like it works, but.

Jen: I love that. I, I think that you’ve just. You’ve hit a nerve, obviously. Yeah. And you have discovered a secret sauce here that is really ubiquitous. I mean, it works across geography and across all sorts of, distinctions and preferences because there is this just universal through line of teenagers in modern America. And so I think in a world right now particularly, that feels so fractured.

And everything feels so hard. And there’s these dividing lines that once used to seem nebulous and even fuzzy, that feels so stark now and and and unbridgeable. So tons of us, I think, are looking for places where we belong, where we are understood, where we’re all in it together. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care where you live.

Jen: I don’t care what your deal is. And it doesn’t matter. All of our kids are like telling us how to pick them up from them all and how not to. Yeah. And so I it’s it’s actually like for me as I look in as an observer, the sum is greater than its parts. What you’re creating right now because it’s not just the hilarity, it’s not just the funny stories and the text and the it’s this, it’s a unifier.

You’re like building community in a way that I feel like we just have to have right now. Do you have that sense as the creator of this, solidarity amongst your community?

Chip: Yeah, yeah. No, I, I totally agree with you. I appreciate you, saying that because I, I take great pride in the fact that I know my followers are from all over the political spectrum and demographic spectrum and, and that’s kind of the point for me, is that we do spend so much time thinking about what divides us.

And so to be able to come together and have, you know, people who voted for different candidates, like in the comment section, that are like bonding over, you know.

Jen: Something completely.

Chip: Did that was a saying like, we need more of that. Right. And so we do. And so that’s, you know, it’s that’s all really all I’m trying to do. And and yeah, it makes me happy. That’s kind of sprung into this. I’m sort of just like, I don’t know, like the vessel for it or whatever, but, but, but it’s really the people who are part of that community that make this what it is.

So, yeah.

Jen: Did you grow up in a funny family? Why are you funny? Like, it’s not it’s not necessarily easy to be funny. Like it’s one thing to curate text from teens who are frankly, not even trying to be funny. But they are.

Chip: Right.

Jen: And it is another thing to stand on a stage and do stand up. Like, did you are you are your people funny?

Chip: I mean, you wouldn’t have, like, predicted it. No, I like it and I wasn’t I mean, yeah, my parents, you know. Yeah. Like we either of them were like performers, you know, exactly like that. And I wasn’t the class clown and, yes. Or anything. And so it’s, may have always had a dry sense of humor, and I’ve appreciated kind of, that type of comedy.

So I don’t know, I guess was keep it inside all these years, right, or whatever. But, you know, I, I do believe actually, that, probably everybody’s got, like, some strengths and interests and talents that are, like, not fully leveraged in, in the typical career or job that they have. And so, you know, these new platforms, I think, help bring it out in more people.

Jen: And they’re, they’re more creative people that are able to connect with an audience now than, than ever before. And so I think you’ll see more stories like mine where people, you know, at whatever point in their life or career, just kind of discover something and run with it. So it’s, you know, love it. Yeah. It’s fun.

I live for that story, I love it, I love people in the middle of life making a hard pivot. Even one that seems outrageous. Or, I mean, how how’d your wife do when you’re like, I’m. I quit my stable job with my benefits. I’m going to be a TikToker. Okay? Like everybody get excited, right?

Chip: Right. She was she always is very supportive. And I didn’t wait. I mean, we’ll say I was probably doing both for like two years, maybe like at night and on the weekends. Try to get it together and, and and I was I mean, the other thing is it’s pretty late in my career, right? I wasn’t like at retirement age, but like, we saved a lot.

And it’s not like I’m 23 years old and trying to figure out, can I make a living at this for the next, you know, several decades or whatever. So like there were several things that came together that kind of made it make sense and, and, and you can, you know, by putting more time in it, you can generate some, some income from it.

And my wife works as well. And so with that and savings, you know, it just it all added up to being, you know, a great, great thing to do at this point in my life. And so it’s yeah, yeah. Is that middle of your life, I guess that’s a oh yeah. Hopefully that’s where I, it’s just slightly past the midpoint.

Jen: It’s generous. I say that about myself too, all the time. I’m 50 and I’m like, you know, I’m right in the middle. And I just I guess I have a very optimistic life span. Right? Right. You know, I’m like, that’s fine. I’m going to say that for some time. How did you learn the technicalities of it? Because there’s a there’s technical stuff to what you do.

You make it look easy, but it’s not always easy.

Chip: Yeah. It’s, I have it’s a pretty simple approach. I take, like, I’ve had people ask me like, oh, do you work with an editor or whatever? Like, no, no, no.

Jen: I know you just do it on your phone.

Chip: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, early on actually, like my daughter did actually help me with, like, kind of do a certain type of format on TikTok early on. The editing tools are better now, but, but no, I mean, I, I, I’m not very tech savvy, but, I just figured out how to do a certain few certain things.

But, although sitting here today, like, we just went through the whole TikTok got banned and then it’s come back now, who knows what’ll happen in the future. But there are a lot of most of my content I actually create within TikTok. And then I use another platform. So if that goes away, you have to rethink the technical piece of it.

But it’s it’s quite it’s quite low tech and just kind of yeah, I learned it on my own and there’s I’m sure there’s better ways I could do it, but the, it is I mean, it will say those mediums are very like, it’s a visual medium and sound makes a big difference. So I do spend a lot of time sort of thinking about like, what’s the right use it for this and what’s the right background imagery.

That stuff’s evolved quite a bit over time. I my early stuff was much, yeah, probably less engaging. So. Yeah.

Jen: Yeah, it’s so great. Because it’s obviously thoughtful, but you’ve still kept it fairly low tech generally, which works if it was fancy and is like, it’s funny that you’re just scrolling through background scenes with these texts that pop up on every one of them. And like, I love that. I love that look. And it’s right for your content.

It’s right for you just being a dad like a lame dad, according to the kids. So you’ve really nailed it. Like you’ve absolutely nailed the tone, the look, the timing. It’s all just hysterical. Every time your stuff comes up in my feed, I’m delighted. Oh, I’m like. I’m like, here I sit for 60s. I’ll tell you that right now, like most people wait till the very end.

Chip: Yeah. It’s amazing. I do, I mean, I, I do go for quality over quantity, like, like a lot of social media experts be like, oh, you got to post every day or multiple times a day. And like, that’s never been it for me. I’ve always thought like, you know, one great post is does way more for you than like, you know, 15 good posts so.

Jen: Couldn’t.

Chip: Agree more. So I do and I do, even though it’s low tech, I do sweat the details quite a bit. I mean, you’d be shocked at how much time I spend, like, oh, that text is going to be one tenth of a second longer or shorter. Oh, not.

Jen: Shocked at all.

Chip: These two have to be swapped in order or it’s one less or one burn. So I remember that actually with the very first teenager text, one I did like my wife was there when I was editing. She’s like, what, are you still working on that thing? I was like, oh yeah, because I was like, reordering and then taking it back.

What’s the little I mean, it is it’s a medium where people are making a split second decision, whether it keep swiping or not. And right. So I do I do focus on the details quite a bit, I will say.

Jen: And the the result is that it just seems seamless, it seems effortless. And of course it is not. It is not like you’ll lose. You’ll lose three hours on one of those. Looks like you’re just clicking through images. But that is not at all how it is to build it. And it it’s perfect because the user experience is so, so, contagious and enticing.

And I’m like, I’ve never, ever, ever ended one of your posts ever. Wow. I’m just all the way to the end and I’m howling every time because it’s so damn relatable. So it’s it’s great. You’ve really hit on something and it’s so fun. And we need fun right now. We do. We need fun. We need funny. We need real life.

Yeah. And it is just a joy. I at this point. My feed is so curated and if it is not making me laugh or bringing some tiny moment of delight to me, it is not in there.

Chip: And so it’s good.

Jen: You have made the cut, sir.

Chip: You are.

Jen: You are in the feed. Wow. Thanks for doing what you do. I’m so excited for you. I’m excited for your second book.

Chip: Oh. Thank you.

Jen: Yeah, excited for your success. Yeah. You need to think about hitting the road. We have comedy in the rest of the United States.

Chip: I know, I love, I love art. I mean, Austin’s amazing place. I come on.

Jen: Cap City comedy. We got.

Chip: You. Yeah, I can tell you about Austin story. You can cut this out because.

Jen: Oh, it’s here.

Chip: It’s people related. But this was many years ago. I was I’ve been there a couple times, but one time I went to being on, maybe the green River chair, one of those rivers near there. And my, my wife and I were there. We were, like, renting the tubes, and it was like it was like $15 for a regular tube or like 16 for like a tube with like a strap thing under it.

I’m like, I’m not paying the extra dollars. I’m sure premium I got, I don’t even know what it’s for. Then we get the river and it’s like some for our float or whatever, like five minutes into it. Someone’s like, snake. Snake? Yeah. I’m like, oh my God, is that why they have those strap the Higgs? It turned out it turned out to be a turtle.

It wasn’t actually a snake, but in the future I would pay for the premium tube.

Jen: It’s worth it. It’s worth it. It’s worth the dollar. I’m gonna tell you that. You probably can fill out the four quarters. I feel like the bottom two to spare you from. Yeah, the snakes and the critters. And, do come back and give our state another try. We have other delightful things besides turtle infested rivers.

Chip: I don’t I’m there to ski. Maybe.

Jen: I mean, truly, truly. I mean, we are, we are in our winter era today. Yeah. I, I’m so happy that you came on the show today. I’m so excited for my listeners who haven’t known you yet. This is going to be such a fun day for them to be like, look what I have stumbled into.

This is delightful. Most of my listeners are our age. Yeah. So this is where we’re at. And, and ten content just works, man. Because at the end of the day, we’re just like, can you wear a jacket like, it’s 11? Can you just put one on for my well-being? They won’t, they will not, guys. So, pick your battles.

So just by way of being clear, can you just tell my listeners these are the best places? Because now TikTok is. I don’t even know when it’s weird. We’ll see what happens here. So where’s the best places to follow you?

Chip: Yeah, well, you can get me on on social media. It’s the latent show. Like on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. YouTube shorts. Or you can go to my website, The Latent Show. Com and I’ve got some videos there and links to everything else. And you can sign up for an email newsletter. And if you want to get a book, it’s called What Time is Noon.

So yeah, you can get just about anywhere.

Jen: You guys go around all that up for you so you can find that in one nice and tidy list, and you can follow all the places where he’s being hilarious. And we’d like to thank the teenagers for giving us so much to say.

Chip: Absolutely.

Jen: We tip our hats to them for just being outrageous. Thank you for being alive and being weird. Thank you for taking all of our cups up to your room and our forks and spoons. Yeah, and you’ve given us much to say. So, thanks for coming on. I’m so happy to have met you.

Chip: Yeah, likewise. Thank you. Was a really fun conversation. I really appreciate your support. And, Yeah. Thanks again.

Jen: Absolutely. If you’re ever in Austin, give me a call.

Chip: I will.

Jen: Okay. Thanks, Chip.

Chip: All right. Thanks, Jen.

Jen: All right, you guys, hysterical. Please do yourself a favor and follow Chip immediately. Like, talk about a bright spot in your feed. And it also helps, you know. Oh, okay. There’s really nothing wrong with me. There’s not even really something wrong with my kid. This is just what it is. This is just called parenting teens. And so you’ll feel like less alone in the journey, for sure.

And so his book is called What Time is Noon? It’s available anywhere books are sold. It is a must read. It is enjoyable. I feel like we need to laugh right now. Laughing feels so important. Laughing feels so imperative. And so take the gift that this is and enjoy it. Follow us you guys. Wherever you get your your podcast, make sure you’ve subscribed.

That will just take you a millisecond and you’ll never miss an episode. Also, thanks for reviewing and rating the show that is so good for podcast. It like matters to our little show every time you do that. So we absolutely appreciate it and we read every comment you leave. Because we’re always wanting to bring you content that you’re interested in.

All right, you guys, that’s it. See you next week.

 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

What Time is Noon?: Hilarious Texts, Ridiculous Feedback, and Not-So-Subtle Advice from Teenagers by Chip Leighton

Caroline Rhea