#292 Mina Starsiak Hawk is Transforming Spaces and Airwaves

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

All right, Marsha, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get this show going each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 292 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for what's sure to be a great episode. My guest today co founder of two chicks and a hammer star of HGTV has good bones and now taken the podcast world by storm with her podcast. Mina AF Mina starsiak Hawk is here. And that's coming up in just a few seconds and in these few seconds take a plunge with me. 1000 feet to the land of the loss was Lior was here last week. Don't miss that amazing episode. Tons of great stories by if you want great stories, you come to the right place. Mina has a lot of great stories. We're going behind the scenes of good bones. The Brady Bunch renovation show that Mina was a part of mean as new podcast, so much goodness coming up right now. All right, everyone, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest star of HGTV has good bones and now taking the podcast world by storm with her podcast. Mina AF, welcome to the show. Mina starsiak Hawk,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 1:50

thank you so much for having me. It's a little storm, but it's definitely a storm though.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:57

Ever. You got to start somewhere, everything starts

Mina Starsiak Hawk 1:59

somewhere. I'm definitely up ending some people's world. So something of a storm.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:04

I wanted to ask you. I know you've done the HGTV thing. So you've been on TV now for quite some time. So I'm sure people see you. And I'm sure you Google yourself. When was it like that? You thought, Okay, I'm pretty famous. Here's what I thought in doing my research. I'm like, oh, yeah, Mina has made it because there are articles out there called 15 things I didn't know about Nina.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 2:30

Probably seven of which are incorrect, probably. But

Jeff Dwoskin 2:33

it's like well, I feel that is a level of fame.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 2:38

It's so weird because it's Indiana famous like it's not like, I don't know, like I know I know. I am like I people recognize me. People watch the show in Brazil and like, you know, a dozen other countries. But my little bubble that I don't get out of a ton in Indianapolis. Like no one gives a shit about me. So it's fine. It's fine. It keeps me humble.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:58

I know you like to rap Indianapolis. I like my Detroit shirt on in the background. It's hard to get a little Detroit vibe going. Love our city vibes. Really

Mina Starsiak Hawk 3:08

quick. Funny story about Detroit is my production company makes the show that's out of Detroit, the HGTV show. And next time if you watch one of our season eight episodes, there's a beautiful city skyline and it's not Indianapolis. It's Detroit. Somehow footage cuts. So dropped into Indy show we've got some Detroit love to

Jeff Dwoskin 3:31

Okay, which way which show is that it's blocked?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 3:35

Yes. Bargain block, guys. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:37

Very cool. Yeah. You're everywhere. You're everywhere. I want. Yeah, I love if you don't mind me starting with the Brady Bunch renovation because I love I've had Christopher Knight on Susan Olsen. I've had on the show cousin Oliver. Robbie Reyes, I've got like, I love a Brady Bunch. That when I saw that you were part of the renovation. I'm like,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 3:57

it was so fun. It was so cool. And like a lot of people will say like, you know, don't ever meet your heroes, but they were all like the nicest. I mean, they would have every reason in the world to like be jaded and hate other humans and totally be over it. But they were also nice. It was really cool.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:15

Tell me about like, could you recreate it like the bathroom? The anthem his bathroom? And and like the kids rooms right?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 4:23

Yeah, yeah, we did the bathroom in the kids rooms. Well, the whole thing was tricky because the outside of the house exists in the real world. And it's a one story house and then everything else was on a soundstage. So this fourth wall that didn't exist you kind of had to like fill in the blanks on what we were because it was just it was like a flat space so even in the bathroom doing it in the real house. We had this like window that went outside but it was actually the near and then they had the camera like boomed up to that second story filming in from outside. So a lot of things where you had to kind of like bend what you thought was real and where everything went in the show to make it actually fit in a real house with rooms with four walls.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:04

I remember seeing some of that show so it was just was it just a matter of Here's what it looked like studying the videos and stuff and then just finding things to recreate they

Mina Starsiak Hawk 5:14

went back they were able to get a bunch out of that were actual pieces from the soundstage because they worked with I can't remember you know who made Brady Bunch when it was on but they were able to get a lot they also did some like massive searches it was part of the episodes where they would you know put on like, I don't know if it's Facebook marketplace but we're looking for like the refrigerator like who has the refrigerator and they drove somewhere in middle America and found like the exact replica of the refrigerator that was there. So it was this just like gigantic jigsaw puzzle between what they had left what they could source from people who had it at their homes. Like we went and saw a lady and that's we got her refrigerator and she had a bunch of old stuff so and then custom making some things reprinting the wallpaper. It was a lot of work by a lot of people. What I did was probably like one of the easiest parts.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:07

duds so cool. Did you have something to do with the dog house as well? Tigers dogs? Yes.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 6:11

Yeah, we look, I've had like a kid and a half. My kid was three months old when we started doing that. And I've had kids in COVID And I'm like, I know I did.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:20

What did I do? And I was like 100 years ago. Now we're like, roofed it.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 6:24

We did something with the dog house. I was actually like deathly ill one day we were supposed to film there. I think that was the day so I think my mom ended up doing the dog house solo. They all thought I was like faking it. I was like you guys I wouldn't fake getting I wouldn't be trying to get out of filming the Brady Bunch show like I was I went to a hospital in the middle of La it was like the definitely the wrong hospital. I just googled the closest one and I ended up like sleeping in a waiting room all night. It was it was terrible. They're like we can't do anything for you figure it out.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:53

Yeah. All right. Let's see if this article was right. Who's your favorite Brady?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 6:57

Oh, probably Maureen Marsha. Is that right? I have I have tons of pictures of her playing with Jack when he was a baby. Because he was there with me. And I was like, this is epic. Oh, think it's cool Sunday.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:08

Oh, yeah. That held up that? Yeah. So I think that was the last time they all got together. Wasn't it last Brady shortly? Yeah, there's always something they always find a way to bring it back. And then were you bummed when it didn't sell for what? I know you didn't have a vested interest in that part. But like, just in general, they're trying to sell it for $5.5 million, but I guess it didn't. It didn't get anyone and

Mina Starsiak Hawk 7:31

I don't know what they because its location whoever bought that should tear it down and build a new home like that's what that neighborhood merits like there's a giant like tick tock or house across the street and it gets a nice really fancy neighborhood and Studio City. And we just took it back a bit years and made it pretty nonfunctional. So you are going to have to find a very specific buyer or drop the price. So someone can renovate it, unfortunately,

Jeff Dwoskin 7:58

right? One of those stay over it whether they call it stay with the house or like the Airbnb or one of those areas and turn into a Brady Bunch Airbnb. Yeah, yeah,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 8:07

it would have been booked nonstop. But I I think the reason the network didn't do that is because they what I was explained is they just they don't hold properties because I mean, the amount that they had to pay just for security, even after we were done filming because people like the liability of someone walking into the yard and getting hurt and suing Warner Brothers would have been catastrophic,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:27

so they needed to dump that property quick. Yeah,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 8:29

yeah. Yeah. So it was an attractive nuisance

Jeff Dwoskin 8:33

guesstimate obviously, but i How many times did you guys joke about just not putting a toilet in that Jack and Jill bathroom? Oh, god.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 8:40

Yeah, I didn't. I didn't I didn't realize that. You never saw those. But yeah, no, we got it. We had it around the corner. It was good. And just you're not allowed to say Jack and Jill anymore. By the way. I am like trying really hard to be retrained because it might be jack and jack and it might be challenging. You know, there's a lot of options now. And

Jeff Dwoskin 9:00

you know, and I thought it was being fancy with terminology. I've never Yeah, my entire life. I read I read it in the article. And I'm like, I'm about to impress me, you know, with this terminology, things I know. And there you go. Now I just got the whole show canceled. It just got canceled. Anybody in any bathroom that connects to room space? Yeah, there we

Mina Starsiak Hawk 9:24

go. Diesel Power words to explain it now.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:27

All right, well, thanks for letting me get that out of the way. Of course. Alright, so good bone. So you were in to buy houses and renovating. Way before HGTV came a Colin? Yes. Yeah. You have no formal training. Is that correct? That

Mina Starsiak Hawk 9:44

is correct. I actually bought that you're the big yellow books that were blank for dummies. I bought construction for Dummies quite early on then referenced it a few times but I went to school I got a general studies degree in college Megabus. Just minor. I was teachable, which I think was the important thing, but the rest of it was just trial by fire.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:06

At what point you're like, Oh, I'm really good at this. Like how do you

Mina Starsiak Hawk 10:09

still like I still don't?

Jeff Dwoskin 10:14

Well, you hear that's let's say like the first house is before the first ones where you're buying and stuff. Yeah. Because on the on the show, it's kind of like, you know, you're recovering things from fires and stuff like that. Like it's like hardcore you and your mom bringing these back to life was a baby steps involved me like

Mina Starsiak Hawk 10:33

we oh, wait from the jump, we jumped in, like the deep end because it's all we could afford. Like they're really really shitty ones that were half burned. And everyone was like, This is too much trouble. I'm gonna move on. We were like, Okay, well, that's what we can afford. So we'll do that one. So it just kind of stuck early on, which really set me up for a tough life with the show because they really expected a lot from Jump Street. And there's really no like tearing down like can I just do what Nicole Curtis does and do like a bathroom and episode because we were always just the worst of the worst catastrophic foundations, toilets caving in, filled with poop, the whole nine yards. But yeah, one

Jeff Dwoskin 11:13

of the things you said I think is that 50% of these you buy sight unseen. How many of those 50% Or you're like, just tear it down. You're like now?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 11:23

Yeah, usually, if I'm doing it sight unseen, it's because I'm getting it for $10,000 And it's like, really all I'm banking on for that kind of investment is that I have the land and fingers crossed that I might have a sewer line that I can keep. There's only been one house in I think about 130 now where I bought it sight unseen Well, only one house that I was like, I don't want this. I don't Well, can I just can I sell it? Can I give it to someone else like no one wants it? I felt completely uninspired. I hated it. I didn't want to do it. And it was on season like three of the show and I probably say that in the episode but the restaurant mile kind of assume that it's a crapshoot. The second I put the offer in

Jeff Dwoskin 12:03

I rewatch the pilot to pick one.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 12:06

Find the pilot they air that still,

Jeff Dwoskin 12:09

it's you're all on HBO Max.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 12:11

Oh my god. I was hoping the pilot was like, buried somewhere not re airing. It's so bad that

Jeff Dwoskin 12:16

HBO Max has all the seasons and your spin off. Okay, Victoria,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 12:22

Victoria just didn't know it added the pilot on the front. The front end. It was

Jeff Dwoskin 12:27

everything. So yeah. Talk to me about your so you're doing this. You're doing it with your mom, you've got two chicks and a hammer. And HGTV calls. Yeah, how'd they figure out even get a pulse on you? How did they I

Mina Starsiak Hawk 12:40

had a Facebook page. So started renovating and oh seven got my real estate license in oh nine. And when I did that, I came up with the name and made a Facebook page because there was like nine other realtors that followed me and there weren't a lot of people doing what we were doing in our neighborhood. So a lot of our houses would sell well before they were done. Even though there was only five or 10 people paying attention to what we were doing. But the Facebook page had my cell phone number and my home address. And I thought about this later. But I got this I got a random call from a talent scout out a production company. And because she was looking for two contractors that the production company had worked with, like a decade prior, and it was to lesbian contractors. And whatever Google Search she was doing. She found my facebook page of two chicks and a hammer and went down that rabbit hole and was like, well, not what I was planning on finding but they look interesting enough. And so she reached out and they say the rest is history. I thought it was someone like trying to steal my identity at first because she was asking all kinds of like business questions, but did a little digging legit production company. Right? They

Jeff Dwoskin 13:51

had done a lot of other shows. Yes. Yeah. How long does it take to renovate one of these houses from the time you walk in and go? Whoa, yeah.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 13:59

I think at the time, it was probably around six months for us and about 180 $200,000. And when they said so we did our whole sizzle reel, they pitched it to HGTV HGTV said yes make a pilot but when they say yes make a pilot, they only have a budget. It's very little budget. So we had 11 film days and 32 days total to do the house. And I was like you get got it my you know, my stomach fell out my butthole and I was like alright, we'll figure it out. And we made the prettiest little dollhouse you've ever seen in 32 days. Nothing worked toward like it was the Brady Bunch. There was no toilets. You couldn't go to the bathroom. You couldn't wash your hands. The sink faucet wasn't attached. I think we were actually like, illegally hooked up to a generator because we didn't have like power yet from the city. But we did it and then after the cameras left we unstaged and actually did the house and put it together. I think it took like six more weeks. That sounds ridiculous.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:59

I'm sorry to interrupt my conversation with Mina have to take a quick break. But I do want to thank all of you for your support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to Mina, and more secrets behind the scenes of good bones. And we're back taking this 32, six, you know, whatever, you know, month long plus six, you know, to get it to 43 minutes. Oh, God, who's in charge of that?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 15:29

Now, me purposely not me, they're like, We do not want your opinion. You don't get to see it. So when everyone else sees the episodes is when I see them, which I think a lot of people don't realize. But yeah, I mean, I'd probably average takes six, eight months to do a house. So we do in a year, it was about 13 houses. So that's how many minutes of television is that? 13 times 42 546 minutes of TV ad of a year. And I don't know, I mean, it's interesting to me, I watched the episodes because I'm like, I want to see what they cut what they use what they didn't. So I can be more efficient with my time because we're obviously filming all day, every day. And so much gets cut and thrown out and never used. I don't know how they do it, the handful of people's jobs. So they're

Jeff Dwoskin 16:16

just pulling you aside, go all right. You know, your mom did this comment on that, you know, and then, Joan, I

Mina Starsiak Hawk 16:22

mean, not even that it's just them sure they wish they could script us. It's just whatever's happening. Usually, we'll make a plan for the day like or the week I'll say this is what's happening at you know, the 10 different houses we have going on. And if we have cabinets going in, and one they're like, yep, that's a big beat. We want to get that on camera. So we'll schedule that that day and then countertops and then tile over here. And then the week starts and everything goes to shit and the day the cabinets are supposed to come they are half damage. So that's not happening. And that's the new story beat the damage cabinets, and we can't do this and it's gonna put us behind eight weeks and this much money and it's takes on a life of its own. Like, I mean, I'm sure you've done Have you done any like home renovation at your house bathroom? Or like nothing goes as planned. Oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 17:06

correct. Yes, we were doing our kitchen and ended up having to do the entire giant wood floor over. And we're thankful that that was like the only thing right? Yeah, yeah. So

Mina Starsiak Hawk 17:19

it's yeah, 10 houses a time all going wrong. And just trying to chase it around with the camera pretty much

Jeff Dwoskin 17:26

so when you're working with the granite comes in the granite is wrong or the like you said the the counter, the whatever the kitchen stuff is broken or half broken? Do these folks not know that they're working with HGTV? Good, you

Mina Starsiak Hawk 17:40

know, you would think you would think they would like perform at an elevated standard due to the exposure. But it never ceases to amaze me that people do not they actually, if you want to see some super disappointing shit, watch the spin off like this whole construction company, we ended up having to blur their logo, because it was going to be probably a legal shenanigans, but just how crappy some of the work that people do is on international television. Because a lot of these people have like signed releases because they want their company shown they want to get a little bit more business. And then you're like, Yeah, well you really should the bad bro. going

Jeff Dwoskin 18:21

on. One of my fascinations with these type of shows is the fact that I have absolutely no ability whatsoever. I mean, it takes us eight months just to find a picture to put in one particular place, let alone if I'm supposed to hang something.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 18:41

Really there though, I hate hanging stuff. I hate it. I hate putting holes

Jeff Dwoskin 18:44

in the wall. Sometimes I can be like a one trick pony. Like if I did

Mina Starsiak Hawk 18:48

that well behind you take that. You got like a dozen things hanging back there. Oh,

Jeff Dwoskin 18:52

well, you know why? Because it was very specifically, my wife said, Okay, this room is yours. And I go alright, but I gotta do it right. If I make it haphazard, I'll lose. My, my wife will take away my privilege of being able to do whatever I want in this one particular room. So I got measuring tape, stuff. And so I like you know, but it's like, when you're in the middle of the room, and you're hanging this thing. It's expensive or whatever. It's like, yeah, it's just nerve racking. It's nerve racking. So it's crazy to me, like when you have a skill like yours, where you go, alright, the floor plan, we're gonna do this, we're gonna get rid of that wall. We're gonna do this. And we're gonna do this and then and then that'll open this up 400,000 more square feet.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 19:32

That's pretty much how it happens, which it's this weird place in my brain. I think it's kind of like a math equation. Like I was always really good at math. So I'll just like do pretty much exactly what you did. And it will make just as much sense to everyone else is what you just said that like absolutely no sense at all like, but I get it. So just stay with me. We'll figure it out.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:50

It's incredible. What are the worst things you can find when you buy one of these house and you walk in? Well, like you were talking about angry mold people.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 19:57

There are a lot of people We find people a lot squatting. A lot of times, I don't know how PG or not your podcast is. But a lot of times people have been using it for nefarious activities. So we frequently find a pretty significant undergarment collection that has been abandoned. A lot of a lot. A lot of pornography like an obscene amount. Lots of poop in a toilet or in a bucket or like just down the walls. There was one room of a particular house that was clearly like the pooping room. That's where the you all go to poop has been agreed upon dead animals in various states of decomposing. Yeah, creepy baby dolls. Lots of creepy baby dolls. Oh, yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:42

yeah. Oh, and for purposes of this interview, just consider this classic conversations, AF, just whatever you want. Okay. So what do you like you show up and you're like, hey, Tad will clean up the poop room?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 20:56

Well, yeah, it's usually done on Demo Day, that particular house that actually had the whole room we took down, we actually demolish the whole thing. So thank God we got we had a machine to do that one. Yeah, I mean, the whether it's the toilet or the whatever, it's usually usually some shenanigans, some kind of game to decide who has to do it between the boys, not me. Like I've earned my stripes. I don't need to do that.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:25

Oh, that is too funny. What's the worst thing would you say that ever happened where you're like, where the plan just went. So off the rails, we

Mina Starsiak Hawk 21:32

had a house fall down. That was bad. It was over a weekend. And we had done the demo. And a lot of the old houses that we do ones that are built mostly between like 19 119 20. And obviously code was different than and a lot of times, like the roof, like the actual shingles or the actual siding, are integral to the structural integrity of the house. Whereas today, that's not the house could stand without siding on it. And so we had taken this house down to the studs, so you could see through it from the sidewalk to the backyard, and I kept telling my contractors, like you need to brace it, you need to brace it, it's not gonna like you're not reframing tomorrow, put bracing, and he didn't. And over the weekend, it literally just fell down. And it was a huge problem not only because it fell down, and you know, that's a that's clearly a problem. But because we work downtown, the city lots are really small. And the amount of lot you're allowed to cover is much less than most of these houses that exist. So if the house already exists, and you're not changing the if you're not taking it down, you're allowed to keep the same footprint, you just you know, piecemeal it back together. But once it comes down, you are not allowed to put it back up unless you get a variance. So not only did it fall down, we then had to start the minimum six, six week process of a redoing the floor plans and then getting a variance to say, can we build back new construction? What was there even though it's more than what's allowed to current code, so it was just a shit show?

Jeff Dwoskin 23:04

That does sound shit show? Oh my god. Yeah. When you're like, Okay, we bought the house for $7,000. And we're gonna put $125,000 into it, and then we can sell it for $220,000 giving us a profit after blah, blah, blah $40,000. Uh huh. How much swag is in the upfront one knowing that even for the sake of the show, you need something to go wrong. Oh,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 23:28

well. And that's the thing. Super funny. early on. I think I don't know if you can hear my child screaming. I apologize if you can. Early on before the network, the production company knew how many things go wrong for us. Like it's just gonna happen. We were doing one house and again filled with lots of porn and no less than 12 mattresses even though it was only 1000 square feet. They had the production company had like, there was a rolled up rug and they had kind of propped it in a doorway. And there was a drop ceiling. So they took this you know, like the plastic light up snowmen that are kind of lightweight, like my grandma had, they popped one up into the drop ceiling and then propped the rug under it. So when we had to walk through the doorway, we'd have to push the rug out of the way the snowman would fall, no one would get hurt. But it'd be a good scare. It'd be a great commercial out. And it didn't fall when we move the rug. So I don't know that any of this has happened. And we were outside after the walkthrough, doing our little interviews when we like kind of go off to the side, the camera guy the second camera guy is inside just doing his like big nice pan shots and you just hear our crash and the snowman had been decided to fall out of the ceiling. I don't know if it was onto the camera guy or just near him but scared the bejesus out of him. And I was like, so they had to explain what they did and I was like never again. Enough things go wrong. I swear to you guys enough things will go wrong. And from that day, they're like you are right, where things go wrong. Then we can even make airtime for so No more shenanigans. It's

Jeff Dwoskin 25:02

funny. So over the eight years of your life on good bots, so 2016 up until just recently, actually, yeah. How was it living through the real because during this time, right you, you're getting fans, people are connecting with you on a different level, they're not in, you're living through, you're getting engaged, you're having kids, your sister in law passed away, you know, just all these things happen. Like how it's kind of like exacerbated doesn't make it so much harder. Like, it's just it

Mina Starsiak Hawk 25:32

is it's just like, it's everything's under a microscope. And while like the I have a huge majority of followers that are awesome and supportive, and say amazing things, but there are enough, Karen's out there, you know, trolls that just have an opinion about everything. Like my sister in law died raw like that, you can't do that, guys. And I've always been a very open person. And obviously deciding to make like a TV show, you kind of throw privacy out the window. So it's, it's just tricky. And even with my podcast, it's tricky, because I'm very, like, open and honest, while still trying to be respectful of all the other humans that exist. And it's upsetting a lot of people, they don't think I should be talking about any of the things I'm talking about. So just having like, think about how many people you have in your life, and you're like, God, their opinions are so annoying, I wish they would just keep to themselves. And that's just like real humans that you could actually see face to face. I have like 600,000 views, opinions are all up in my business. And I have no desire for them. So just thick skin, man. And I had to figure that out early on.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:41

So a lot of people are thinking they have a say, in how you do things. And yeah,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 26:45

it there's no barrier to entry with social media anymore. Like when I joined Facebook, you had to have a.edu email account, that's what you had to have. That was the barrier to entry. So you're like, Okay, we're all in this. We're all students, we're somewhat like minded, because we're students, and we're doing this together. And now it's like you can like I'm here being like my real self. And there's these hundreds of 1000s of fake profiles that have no barrier to entry. They don't have to even stand behind the crap. They're saying, because they're just fake accounts. And it's the they just think everyone cares about their opinion, and they share it and it's no one gives a shit, but it's very annoying to hear.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:25

Yeah, social media has made everyone an expert on every single thing. And worse, if you find something that someone says that you think is in line with what you you share it, and then everything gets even worse. It's Oh my

Mina Starsiak Hawk 27:38

gosh, very funny. You have to do like a background check when you start doing any of this and add another life. I had a Twitter account that I actually like, I funny, I followed an account called like, funny Jewish girl or something. And I had retweeted something. And I can Can I say it? Okay, I had retweeted this tweet that said something to the effect of like, I'm not saying she's easy, but her favorite shade of lipstick is Dick. And I thought it was absolutely hilarious. And that had to be scrubbed. Very early on, they were like, this isn't okay, you need to take that down. I was like, oh, okay, so yes, this is we're gonna do the HGTV version of me, not the whole of me. Because I curse like a sailor. I have an inappropriate sense of humor. And while HGTV is getting a little edgier for them, there's still a lot of me and AF portion of MENA that is not necessarily fit for general consumption.

Jeff Dwoskin 28:37

Yeah, Twitter can be dangerous for old stuff once especially once people figured out how to use this search, which I think for a long time people didn't know. Yeah, yeah. Then they take a screenshot and it lasts forever. Yeah, I remember when Twitter was, it got to a point where even now like, I'm like, I'm not even bothering like, it's like, you can't deal with the trolls who are like you said or like fake and it's like, you know, like I go to we go to Facebook. I was like, Guys, it's exhausting. I used to on Twitter would fight the good fight for everything. Yeah, it's like, it's like, you know, I take on Nazis. I do whatever you like. And now it's just like, it's exhausting, because they're not real. And you can't win, because now they don't care. And

Mina Starsiak Hawk 29:21

bless my husband's heart. He tries his darndest. Like, he bites his tongue a lot when there's certain things about me but he'll be like, I had to say something. I'm like, that's just feeding the fire. Don't do it. It makes them feel heard.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:32

This in here angry Henry 1346789

Mina Starsiak Hawk 29:37

pictures like a turtle, right? It's not even your face.

Jeff Dwoskin 29:41

I'm gonna explain to you why you shouldn't be racist right now. Exactly every problem there is. How does your husband does it work for him? The kids like you do certain things where like, just kind of keep them out of as much as you can at least now.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 29:57

They've just always been such a part of it from the beginning. ain't like they were on the show. They were on my social media and it just got big. So slowly. And I think also partially because I'm in Indiana, nothing's ever felt dangerous for them. No one's ever felt like they were like crossing boundaries or being inappropriate, or where I needed to, like, shelter them from it. And if you know if that were to change, I think we'd make some different decisions. It's never been a problem. They're kind of been part of the whole ride and they love being on camera. Like if you if you if I were to see you in the street, you're like, hey, can we take a picture together? They're like, pop right in the front. They're like, Okay, sure.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:34

They're jumping right to do and tic TOCs and Snapchatting. All right. So they Okay, so the day so they're fine with it, because they kind of eased into it. They didn't cut it. Yeah. And

Mina Starsiak Hawk 30:43

they're three and five. Like, they still don't really even get it like Jack will tell people. He's like, you know, my mom, my mom can come fix your house on her show. Like that's, that's his extent of understanding it.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:54

Do your friends call you all the time? Do you? Are you getting calls all the time? I used to a lot.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 30:58

They used to a lot, I think because I am pretty like inaccessible. Socially. They're like, she's got a lot going on. Well, maybe not bunker for free advice or free project management or any of the any of those things. But for a while, yeah. Because

Jeff Dwoskin 31:17

yeah, if you lived here, you'd be over all the time.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 31:21

My family actually started doing this thing. And they've adapted it from the Amish when they do a barn raising. So you know, when everyone comes together, I think they literally like raise the bar and in a day, I also found out yesterday that is also referred to as a frolic. So they have changed the terminology for what they're doing from barn raising to frolic. And every few weeks, they go from like they did my sister in law's yard. This past weekend. two weekends ago, they did. My brother had a basement project where they pulled out all the insulation. This upcoming weekend, they're going to my sister's house and doing like a big landscaping projects. The idea is there's more bodies, so you can knock it out and y'all help each other. My brother's like, are you gonna join in? I said, Absolutely not. Because I don't ask you guys to do on the weekends, what you do all day, every day for your job. And that's what that is for me. And I can barely get my own shit done. Like I have cracks in my drywall. I need to paint a room. I started taking wallpaper off my daughter's bedroom wall. And the Wall came off with it. The whole like the backing for the drywall. You know what I did? I moved out of the room. The room I left the room. I was like, I'm done. I don't I had time to take wallpaper down. I don't have time to read drywall a room. So I disassembled her bed and moved her out into a different

Jeff Dwoskin 32:42

bedroom. You're living in the hall now?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 32:45

Yes. So I will not be doing the frolics with them.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:47

So I have a question about the staging that you do at the end when you bring the families? Do they get to keep any of that? Or can they keep that because

Mina Starsiak Hawk 32:55

they can't I always say there's a Property Brothers love them. So this has nothing against them. But they've ruined it for everyone, because they have these amazing relationships with like Wayfair, where they do one of their houses on their show. And then Wayfair decks it out and everything gets to stay for free. But it's very, like it's pretty much just them that have that relationship. So when we're staging, it's stuff that we have that we buy to put in the house. So we always like you can buy anything in the house, usually at a discount, because I try to like you're gonna save me some money and energy by not having to try to return it or resell it or whatever that is. So it's an option. And we've had people that are like, Yep, I have a $15,000 in that could pretty much you know, literally buy everything down to like the soap dish in the bathroom. Or we have people that just want the dining table and chairs. So just depends.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:43

Yeah, because to me, that would be like, the worst part would be like, here's your house. Yeah, I love it. Oh, and then they're like, the next day. It's just like, Wait, man, it's just wood floor now. Yeah, yeah.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 33:54

I think a lot of people underestimate the value of the work. They like it all day, every day when we did my house for the show. I was like we're not putting anything in here that I can't afford to keep because the effort like the design, the physical moving of stuff, like I would pay twice for the furniture, if at all came with it, but we're also renovating transitional neighborhoods. So these aren't people with like, yeah, I have 50 grand for my downpayment plus another 15 for all the furniture. Alright, so

Jeff Dwoskin 34:23

the show ends what Whoa, kind of led to you deciding to I know your mom retired a bit ago right and then probably exhausted doing all yourself.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 34:33

Yeah, so I've been the sole owner of the company for the last five years. And so like I'm the only one holding liability insurance and trying to make payroll and having to manage contractors and you know, the rest of the posse on the show kinda gets to do the fun stuff. And it was just so much 13 houses a year I it was all moving too fast. asked I couldn't make good financial decisions, I couldn't take the time and say, Okay, well, this contractor is messing up. So I'm gonna go ahead and cut the cord now and I'm gonna take find, find a contractor that you're right, because I had to get the house done. So you just deal with the effed up contractor, which ultimately always ends up causing more problems in the long run. But things like that, like just not making not having the time to make like the best financial decisions. And then probably the only reason I've been doing that for a long time making bad financial decisions, but getting older, more tired, and having two kids then just really started to reflect on I should really stop making bad financial decisions and figure out a way to do something that's sustainable, because I am, like, burnt the eff out. So I mean, and, you know, good bones, as it was was done. But there will always be more like, I'll always be doing stuff on HGTV. And you know, we might come up with another model that is a little bit more sustainable, because it's weird on the production like TV side, too, because the only reason any show exists is because of ad dollars. And with like all the streaming and YouTube and they don't know where they can spend money. So like budgets are weird. And it's I think it's a good time for reset. Sorry

Jeff Dwoskin 36:12

to interrupt, you have to go get some budget ad dollars so we can finish the show. And we're back is the risky business kind of spin off thing that you did a bit ago or not too long ago, but

Mina Starsiak Hawk 36:23

oh, that that had almost killed me that rated almost twice as high as good bones. Because it was such a disaster, like more of a disaster than anything you've ever seen on good bones. But it was really fun. So it was a six episodes about this like one property. And it was, I think, interesting for the network to test because it was just me it wasn't any of the rest of like the good bones team. So it just kind of it was all on my shoulders there. And we got it done. But it wasn't pretty.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:52

Also available on HBO. Yes. I think it was labeled as a documentary. Really? Yeah. What's interesting, at least one of the sub things so okay,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 37:01

I guess you could call it that many

Jeff Dwoskin 37:02

series, one off, you know, whatever.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 37:05

I mean, it was pretty it was it was a different filming style. I always say it was much more like cops style than good bones was because there was always a camera guy at the house. So if I showed up and announced like they were getting what was there, and there was a scene where I was losing my shit wasn't a scene, I had showed up. Things were going wrong. I was losing my shit. I was about to start crying as that start yelling. And I was like, and I needed to leave they had they had cameras set up in my car because we were doing some driving scenes. And we were done. And so I get in the car and I'm like, hitting the cameras down and like turns things off. Like pull away. So my mic pack was out of range. And like parked a few blocks away had like a very angry crying yelling phone call, cried some more. Call them and I was like, sorry, I needed five minutes. I'm coming back now. And all of it was on camera because I didn't turn any of the cameras off that I thought I did. I think they use just like a snippet of it. But it got real definitely got real. Was

Jeff Dwoskin 38:03

that the most real thing that they captured? Or was there even anything worse? Where you completely melted? No,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 38:09

that that was probably it. I mean, they got a lot of good. I'm gonna walk away because there's no crying and construction moments but that one I just there was crying there was yelling, there was cursing.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:20

And now you're world famous. podcaster me? Me making news everything is gone. The show good bones is now over the air the final episode. That's got to be sad, right? I mean, I that's a chapter that's a long chapter of your life.

Mina Starsiak Hawk 38:40

It is it was like the finishing filming was like a really long drawn out divorce. Because, you know, you finish like the primary filming. And you're like, Okay, we're done. And these are people that like live in Indiana now that I've been in a relationship with for the last eight years of my life. And then all of a sudden, like everyone's gone, then you're like, Okay, well we'll try to make it work again because you come back together because you have to do like pickup shots and some, you know, some floorplan meetings or whatever, and then it's like, Okay, now it's actually done. And then I think there was like one more pickup day. And so the last day that it was done, done, it felt very, like uneventful because we've been been done technically for so long. And then you you go from seeing these people every day like they saw me get engaged, get married, have my son go through IVF I mean, my my husband's sister and both parents passing like they had life events. Our sound guys had two kids like my producers wife had a mastectomy like just all these things that we were all together for and now it's just like at separate ends of the earth it's it's probably more normal for them because they're that's their like job and their lifestyle. This was a really really long job, but you know, they move on to the next thing to the

Jeff Dwoskin 39:56

final episode aired October 23 ish when Did you finish recording? Only like

Mina Starsiak Hawk 40:02

record primary filming, I think was done in like August. And then we did some pickup stuff, probably, uh, sorry, August of last year. No, I'm so bad about my dates probably stopped filming about six months ago. And we had some hiccups probably like four months ago, something like that

Jeff Dwoskin 40:22

you're kind of having to live through this twice. Emotionally. Yeah, yeah. And

Mina Starsiak Hawk 40:26

then rewatching it is again, like, because again, I'm seeing it for the first time just like everyone else. So you know, the things that end up getting put in the episodes are like, there's scenes that I did, that I wasn't part of, so that I didn't see and that I'm seeing for the first time and, and all those things. So it's interesting.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:42

So now you're using up your free time to take over podcasting. Mina AF. So what, who convinced you to do a podcast? Or is this just something you wanted to do?

Mina Starsiak Hawk 40:52

A company had reached out. And that's not who I actually like ended up working with. But a company had reached out a while ago. And it just didn't seem like a like the right time, or like I had anything to say, or I had time to say anything. And then another company reached out. And I was like, okay, like, let's, let's, let's go through the motions, what would this look like, and at the time, pretty much it was, I can exist. And I can talk and I can talk for days, and I can talk about anything, I can't do anything else. I can't do the planning, the production, the editing anything, but that's when the show is still going on. But the whole idea behind it was like that group of people that are the truly Karen's that want more of like the holistic version of me, because I have a lot of like, fucked up stuff in my life that people like to relate to was just to be able to talk about it more because being on Instagram, you only get even if you get a lot of words, people read the first three. So I just wanted to create like a different space where there was like a barrier to entry, which is simply understanding how to listen to a podcast, which most trollee Karen's don't know how to do, which is great. So it's a lot of like, women my age, there's actually like a decent amount of men as well, that listen, and I just Just everything from like my plastic surgery to infertility to my husband's parents passing and like the grief process. We're doing an episode this week, because I mean, we've talked about like our mental health, but like I had been going through the process of adjusting, I got off Lexapro and then got on to something new, and that wasn't really working. And he's tweaking some things. And so like that roller coaster, and we just talk about, like things that are actually normal, but that a lot of people just don't talk about because they're embarrassed or ashamed, or whatever it is. And it's been really, really cool. I got a solid 6000 People might be up to 12 recently that follow and listen every week and just give amazing feedback and amazing voice messages. And even though it's making absolutely no money, make it worth like, we're still we're like, we're we're talking to people. I'm not just like screaming into a microphone. So it's cool.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:56

Now you're very open, I listened to the one where you talked about the mental health and fan grilling was a fun one that was your most recent or recent. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, you mentioned earlier people getting upset some of the I mean, if you don't mind me bringing up but you know, and just Googling, you know, it's come up about you and your mom not talking or getting along and I imagine that's one already hard on you as is because shows can be a strain, but then the connection that people have with you and that they have with you and your mom. Yeah, they're living through it too. And you almost have to you have to balance their feelings about your relationship. Well,

Mina Starsiak Hawk 43:32

it's so interesting. I mean, I think the reason our show was so successful is because so many people could relate whether it was someone my mom's age, someone my age, there's tad there's chord there's all these different people so you really felt like you knew us because it was like the show was very representative of who we all were even if it did wasn't like the whole view so getting thrown this like wrench of oh, that relationship is different than I thought it was. It's like other people are grieving it as well. And some of them not in a very nice way. You're like I'm working on it guys I it's obviously definitely not ideal for me, but I'm really sorry about your feelings surrounding it as

Jeff Dwoskin 44:15

well. It's hard you know, it's how you go create a connection right? I mean, you saw with Matthew Perry asking your way just like so you know people become invested that people Yeah, eight season or you know, however many seasons Yeah, you guys were in it together but like they want you to come to their Thanksgiving dinner. So it's like to figure out that that wouldn't happen. Yeah, yeah. Hey, your podcast is great. Thank you. So what's next just keep podcasting more HGTV shows you pitching them you're like oh, I can

Mina Starsiak Hawk 44:44

I actually I have a couple. I'm always thrown shit against a wall to see little sticks. So I had a couple pitches that I've sent them that are you know, like a version of good bones. I sent him one that was Reno under The influence like doing home renovations with like with influencers because they're all so unique and like so interesting and they're all making a bajillion dollars for however long this influencer world's gonna last so they're all doing really cool like home renovations and upgrades my husband and I are working on our lake house and that's being filmed there's a house hunters All Star Season that's going to be coming out so I get to do that so hopefully I put my name in the hat and like I'll judge Rock The Block again this year. I'm sure there'll be I don't see myself not being part of the HGTV family as a whole for forever I think it's just figuring out what's next

Jeff Dwoskin 45:37

now your cell phone to hang out with Thank you. No, thank

Mina Starsiak Hawk 45:39

you for having me. I

Jeff Dwoskin 45:40

appreciate it. Awesome. So what's your socials dollar on your socials? My

Mina Starsiak Hawk 45:44

personal one is Mina underscore starsiak underscore hawk and then my business one is two chicks and a hammer. And it's the same on Facebook. So check them out. Thank

Jeff Dwoskin 45:53

you. Thank you. All right, everyone. How amazing was Mina stars yak Hawk, definitely check out her podcast MiNA AF and head on over to Max formerly HBO whatever they used to call that app and watch good bones. eight seasons await you have good bone goodness, can't believe it. The interview just flew by didn't it? That means episode 292 is coming to a close one more huge thank you to MINA Starsiak Hawk and my friends at TINK. And of course, a huge thank you to all of you are coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

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