I took my five-year-old son with me for a morning news segment for Super Bowl Sunday in 2023. It was a 5:02 AM call time outside FOX 5 San Diego for some Cali BBQ tailgating.
My boy had been coming to these media visits since he was a baby, strapped to my chest or asleep in a car seat, but this time it was just the two of us and a truck full of BBQ.
Somewhere in the middle of our live segment, the crew brought out an inflatable field goal post on the lot and asked him to kick a ball through. I’ve seen grown adults, executives, and chefs who run million-dollar kitchens completely freeze on live television.
But my five-year-old just lined it up and put it right through the uprights in front of the whole city like he’d done it a hundred times.
Meanwhile, his little sister was watching the broadcast back at home.
She saw her brother kick the field goal, and she saw dad talking about brisket. But it was the segment immediately after ours that changed everything. The station ran a Puppy Bowl promo featuring a tiny turf field full of puppies in Chiefs and Eagles jerseys tumbling all over each other.
In her head, everything locked into place right then and there: Dad goes to the news, dad cooks BBQ, and puppies show up. That’s just how the world works.
From that day forward, she wanted to come to every back-lot segment she could. We were on FOX 5, CBS, KUSI.
Through early, cold mornings, standing next to Big Green Eggs, barbecue sides, and news anchors in bright dresses for Fourth of July, she always asked the exact same question:
Where are the puppies?
There were never any puppies. Not once. Most kids would have given up after the second trip. Most adults would have stopped asking after the first.
But she kept showing up anyway.
Fast forward to Sunday for our Labor Day 2026 appearance. We loaded up for another back-lot segment at KUSI. It was the same routine we’re used to, the same early call time, the same Cali BBQ Media shirts.
But this time, sitting under a pop-up tent at the edge of the lot, there was a pen full of tiny animals waiting for their own segment.
After almost four years of asking, and almost four years of empty back lots, she finally got to hold one of the puppies. Her persistence finally lined up with a little bit of luck because she was standing right there when it happened.
I couldn’t have planned that lesson if I tried.
People ask me why I bring my kids into this world—why I wake them up at 4:00 AM, why they’re in the background of live shots, or hanging around behind the camera when I go live on social media. It isn’t because I’m training them to take over the business. Honestly, I hope they do whatever is right for them.
I bring them along because of what they learn without even realizing they’re in a classroom.
They’re learning how to show up when they don’t feel like it. They’re learning how to tell a story in thirty seconds because that’s all the time a producer gives you. They watch how to make a stranger feel welcome, how to perform under pressure without worrying about who’s watching, and how to keep asking for the thing they want long after everyone else would have given up.
My son learned to perform under pressure at five years old.
My daughter learned the power of persistence over four years of empty back lots.
I’m incredibly proud of both of them because they are willing to do what most kids won’t, over and over again, until it pays off.
— Shawn
