41: Be Nice, Try Hard and Have Fun

In this episode I sit down with Brynn Putnam and Kevin Thau for a conversation about ambition, reinvention, blended family life, and what it really means to build connection at home. Brynn is the entrepreneur behind Mirror - the interactive fitness company acquired by Lululemon - and now the creator of The Board, a new tool designed to help families stay connected in a tech-saturated world. A former professional ballerina and mom of two (and step-mom of three), Brynn brings a unique blend of creativity, discipline, and a deep belief in designing for presence. Her husband, Kevin Thau, is a longtime tech leader and investor known for helping scale companies like Twitter and Vine. As a dad to three daughters and partner in raising a blended family of five kids, he brings thoughtful perspective on technology, growth, identity, and parenting across every age and stage. We talk about: The inspiration behind The Board and using tech to bring families together, not pull them apart Parenting a blended family with kids ranging from toddler to college-aged Perfectionism, identity shifts, and what entrepreneurship teaches us about raising humans Reclaiming family quality time in a world that moves fast and pulls our attention everywhere Letting go of who we thought we had to be in order to show up to parenting - and life - more fully And in true WDTOOK fashion, we explore where Brynn and Kevin feel they “didn’t turn out ok,” how those patterns show up in parenting, and what they’re doing to rewrite them - including the family mantra: be nice, try hard, have fun. This is a conversation about building things - companies, families, and new ways of being - and remembering that the most meaningful things we build happen at home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices