Laugh Lines with Kim & Penn Holderness
Courage To Commit with Shawn Johnson East & Andrew East
09 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What insights do Shawn Johnson East and Andrew East share about commitment?
Sean is an Olympic level gymnast.
Yes, and I'm going to give you the space to talk about as many presidents as you want to here on Laugh Lines.
The amount of times we go back and I'm like, I don't even know why we're arguing, but you know what? I'm going to double down and I'm going to make a point of something.
That's how you approach our arguments? All the time. Yeah, we get older every day.
Got more wrinkles. And that's what we got left.
Hi, welcome to Laugh Lines. I'm Kim Holderness.
And I'm Ben Holderness. We're glad you're here. Hey, if you have ever sat in your driveway for an extra, I don't know, 30 minutes because you didn't want to go into your house and stroll on your phone.
Yeah, we're your people. You're home. Yes. And one time I was in the driveway for like a solid five minutes and I think everybody in the house knew I was home. And then I, like what you never want to see is like the garage door went up. Like I was busted.
Yeah. It's or, or like it's you're in the driveway and I pull up.
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Chapter 2: How does commitment bring peace and reduce anxiety?
You know, you're so right. Don't open. You can't alert. You're so right. The dog, the whatever. Like, you can't. You just have to sneak in. Quick housekeeping. Yeah. We have a new children's book available for pre-order, which is very exciting. It's called Get It Done and Have Fun, Awesome Hacks for ADHD Kids. You know what? I'm going to say it.
I think they're awesome hacks for any kid or adults. It's basically about how to make, like, the chores and the boring stuff you have to do around the house and, like, hygiene stuff, how to get it done.
Yeah, and so for people, particularly with ADHD brains... It is that we have a word that we've coined called borcher, right? It's boring torture. And sometimes it looks like disrespect or not caring about your parents or not wanting to be a team member. But there is something in the brain, which I experienced as a kid, I think you did too, that it just...
is awful having to do something so mundane as that. And so we explore that feeling and that thought with kids. It rhymes. It's meant for kids. And then we come up with some of the fun hacks that I remember doing as a kid and also encourage them to come up with their own sorts of hacks to get through a lot of the stuff, make the most of it, and actually have fun with it.
If you want a signed copy, we have those available for pre-sale. Go to getitdoneandhavefun.com. Also stay tuned for book tour dates coming later this summer. We're going to hit the road and it'll be fun to meet you guys. We have such an exciting interview for you today. Sean Johnson and Andrew East. Married couple. They're good at everything. They are like former NFL.
They're good at looking.
They're good at looking. They're very attractive people. Like Olympic medalist. And they've written a book. We've read it.
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Chapter 3: What experiences shaped their views on commitment in relationships?
It's great. And just like incredible human specimens. Like genetically they need to be studied.
Right, but in order to get to where they were, I think that people always ask, like anytime you're like multi-successful, what is it that you do? So their book is about committing, right? And they really, really drill into what that word means, including the science of it in some cases. So I agree, I thought it was a fantastic book.
I do have a ton of follow-up questions because they're just so damn perfect. Like how do they talk to, you know,
Regular people.
The normies. Like us. And there actually are some great tidbits that apply to everybody.
Yeah. Okay. Today's guest, Sean Johnson East and Andrew East. Sean is an Olympic gold medalist, a Dancing with the Stars champion, New York Times bestselling author. Andrew is a former NFL long snapper who played for the Seahawks, Redskins, Chiefs, and Raiders. In his college career, he played for Vanderbilt, Go Vandy. He also recently received his PhD in psychology.
Yeah.
This is, they are so impressive.
Did you know that? That he got his, I didn't know.
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Chapter 4: What lessons did they learn while writing their book together?
Before we welcome Sean and Andrew, I'm going to explain a parabolic jet to you guys.
No, we're going to do that after.
In our segment called Space Cadets. And we're going to do that after. Okay. Okay.
Please welcome Sean and Andrew. Thank you. So great to talk to you guys.
I love hanging with y'all. So thanks for having us on.
Okay. First question. Very important. Have you been to space? No.
I know.
I want to go to space.
We did the anti-gravity.
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Chapter 5: How can listeners apply commitment to their daily lives?
So I thought that was space for me. That sounds like space. It looks like space. Right. Okay. So before we get to your awesome book, okay, give us a life update. Three young kids. Tell us how old they are, what, what, what they're doing, how they're keeping you busy.
Oh, my gosh. These feel like the best days of our lives right now. We've got six, four, and two, and our two-year-old is having the best time right now. Summer just started. We're playing keepy-uppy with balloons.
He's playing in a pile of rocks right now outside with his grandma.
Yeah.
the four-year-old just we got him a motocross bike like a dirt bike which is a little bit stressful but he loves it he learned how to ride a bike when he was really terrified yeah yeah he could ride a pedal bike before he turned two yeah and he's always just been great with anything on wheels and so he wanted to start racing motocross so we got him like a racing motorcycle so he's loving that
I started crying. I actually started crying the first time we went to the big boy track. It was stressful. I started crying. I was like, this is it. So wait, he's four? Yeah. And he's racing like a motorized...
i think you can technically start racing at three which is even scarier so like we're not the most extreme but yep i got on this motorcycle and i weigh 225 pounds this thing goes 40 miles an hour with meat on it yeah i will say i will say so give background because we leave this out a lot so andrew's family is they were many of them were like professional cyclists the writing of the bike thing is genetic my father was a professional racer
motocross racer oh that's cool we weren't yeah yeah i know nothing about it skips a generation skips a generation okay so that like in your somewhere in your family that is something one has done so okay okay and then six-year-old how's she doing um she's monkey bar queen
She's like my little best friend. It's the best. She's type A, perfectionist. Oldest daughter.
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Chapter 6: What challenges do they face in parenting athletic children?
And I'm like, yes, you are. So by the way, like, let's put like, not good, still Olympic level. Yeah.
So like, let's just, but, but yeah, fair enough. But it's good for her to have that touch point. Okay. So before we get to the content of the book, it takes a lot of work to write a book. It's very impressive. It's even more impressive writing a book with all of the things that you guys are also doing. And I think it's even more impressive to do all of that with your husband or wife.
I want to know, what did each of you learn about each other that you didn't know before in writing this book?
Well, first of all, Penn, we've been friends for years and you told me we were in discussions when you were writing your book. If you loved me, you would have said, you would have, you would have given me a warning sign about how hard it is to do this book thing, bro.
It's hard.
Yeah. And it's, it's torment. Cause like on, on simultaneously, it's like a calling. Like you feel, we feel so strongly about what we wrote. We're like pumped about how it turned out and we're proud of that. And then also the, like the, the grind of talking about it all the time. And it's like, yeah, it's, uh, and then trying to get people to, to read it and get the word out there.
It's, it's, um, it's, it's work.
It took us four years to write. And I'm like, do you think anybody will read it?
I hope so. But we, we learned a lot about each other. I think it was actually a really good process. It was, it's funny, like kind of the way that the book shaped out was Sean told all the personal stories and I kind of plugged in all the studies and the research to like couple with it. And And, um, in a lot of ways it was like counseling.
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Chapter 7: How do they define success for their kids in sports?
Well, I think it is. I think when you, first of all, most people I know are like, oh, I'd love to write a book. And to which I say, you totally should. But it does take years. It is a slog. And then it is hard to get people to read things. Yep. Right? And that is the part that nobody really tells you is that, yeah, It is hard to get people to read things, but you're doing great. We did read it.
Thank you.
Well, my end goal is if we can make our audio book as fun as the audio book that y'all did, then mission accomplished. Because it was so fun to listen to your guys' book where you just pretty much laughed through it all. I loved every second of that. So well done.
The key is to just not be afraid to just go off book. Yeah. As much as like, no pun intended. Yeah. Okay. So, man. I learned some stuff about you guys. I learned that Andrew and I had a very different college experience.
Yeah.
And I should just tee you up right there. Describe that commitment and how that changed, rewired your brain.
So all I wanted to be was a college football player because my dad played football in college and we used to wear his football helmet around the house as little kids. And so I had the opportunity to play at Vanderbilt, and I showed up my freshman year, and it was so tough. Like, I don't know how y'all's freshman year was, but there I am. I'm taking four classes, literally failing three of them.
I tore my hamstring, so I'm injured. I can't even play football. Our team was terrible. I didn't know anybody, and I was pretty sure I was going to transfer out of school because I was like, I can't. I'm waking up every day, and it's ā
lonely and i'm not thriving and i don't know what to do and so thankfully i had a mentor who kind of took me under his wing and said hey stick with this another six months and see how this goes and then we can reevaluate after that and fortunately a lot of things changed we got a new football coach i was able to settle into school a little bit and um and then our team ended up you know being one of the most successful in in the school's history and what i learned from that was
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Chapter 8: What advice do they offer for overcoming indecision in life?
But really what needed to happen was I needed to change myself and be the type of person who could take a college class and not fail it and be the type of person who could show up and and contribute as a teammate and make a team that was struggling a little bit better day in and day out. And so fast forward. Fast forward a couple of years and I ended up getting two degrees.
I got my undergrad and graduate degree from Vandy. Our team was very successful. It was really fun to see the trajectory of growth of the Commodores in that era. And I ended up being two time team captain. And so it was just like a really good lesson for me that sticking with something and changing myself instead of myself wanting to change my context
was a huge lesson and that's something I've carried into marriage and business and beyond.
And real quick, the biggest difference he didn't even mention, what time did you wake up in the morning to go to practice?
Oh my gosh, yeah, it was tough. We had to wake up at 4 a.m. and we had to be on the field by 4.30. And we're talking February in Nashville. There's like ice on the field. People are still coming back from Broadway at 4 o'clock. Oh man.
Truly. Okay, you also had strict rules. There was like a no drinking policy. There was a lights out curfew. They ran a really tight ship, but it worked really well.
The name of the book is Courage to Commit. So courage, meaning it would take... guts. Like it is scary in some situations to actually commit to something, right?
It's countercultural right now. I feel like culture right now is preaching the opposite of commitment. They're telling you on all social medias and black holes of like, keep your options open and make sure you have impulsive, immediate satisfaction. And you find a dopamine hit every five minutes. And it's like, the world is telling you that commitment is not worth it.
And we try to give the argument that it actually is.
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