Hello again. I am Mary and welcome to the Family Business Podcast with the Alesssies. And we just want to thank you for tuning in and listening and watching us on YouTube. We also want to let you know, please like, comment, and share our podcast because you never know who you might share it with that really needs something that we share on these podcasts. Yes. And today I am with my beautiful daughter, Stephanie Moya. Yes. And we're going to tell you guys today something really funny. We've been getting prepped for our Christmas at church. At church record. Album. Album. Whatever it is. Whatever it is. My generation says record. No, you're right. You're right. You're right. I can't name it though. Is it album, record, album, project, CD? All of them. All of them. All that stuff. Braid it all together. Just gets frustrating.
SPEAKER_02Um just you say Christmas, and I'm like, what, the album or the store, or the special, or the walkthrough, or the light fest.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so okay, whatever. Christmas is a big deal here. It's a huge
deal. It's a huge deal. We make it a big deal, which we love. But um I want to say this though about working together with us as a family. One of the things that we have had to adopt is a creative rule that is, and maybe this will help some people working with their kids, working with their families, even if you don't work together in business. This is a great rule for every family so that somebody in your family does not feel stepped on, trashed, or crushed if they have an idea. The yes and rule. So when somebody brings an idea, and there's a reason I'm telling this, we're gonna get to it in a minute. I disagree. Nope. There is a yes and rule. See what you just did there? You just crushed me. No, but nope. See, that's the opposite of the I see what you're doing. The opposite of the yes and rule is the no, but or I hate it. That's awful. Done, it's over. Stupid idea. Okay. Well, that shuts down creativity because it shuts down conversation. And usually somebody storms out of the roommate. I know. Okay. It's just what if I know that that idea is a terrible idea and it just won't work. Well, then you have a problem.
SPEAKER_02And think you're better than everybody else.
SPEAKER_01And I'm wrong usually 100% of the time. So well, the rule though that helps us get through that awkward moment is to say yes and and then pivot and give a better idea.
SPEAKER_02Except for that one time you considered doing the um Blink show, our very own Halloween scary show. You thought about it for 30 seconds. Do you remember that? I'm still thinking about it. And it's a no.
SPEAKER_01Well, no from that those are the moments where no is good. Because that is not our thing, but we know of a place that is, they do a great job of that show. And I thought, well, let's bring that here. And you guys were like, no. And I said, okay, fine. Well, but still back to um the yes and rule. Yes, I'll talk about that. That's good. So it's so important to keep the flow going and the positive energy to use a secular term, but kind of that good feeling vibe, because that's how ideas are born. Yeah. Through positivity, certainly not through negativity. Because the minute you go, nah, I don't like that, or nah, I'm not feeling that, or no, don't say that. It it stops the flow in its tracks. Sometimes it's full stop, and then you lose the day, you lose the creative momentum, and you don't want to do that. So the yes and rule is very important. However, there are times the yes and rule can be dangerous. Yeah. Because you don't want to surround yourself with yes people. Now that leads us to this project.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01This Christmas at church project and how the genesis of how it the genesis of it all. Like that. The genesis to the revelation.
SPEAKER_02We gotta give this some more creativity over here, mom. Yeah, so you want to talk about how this began?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Okay. Yes. Tell the story of the
moment the yes and rule was probably I don't know.
SPEAKER_02I'll explain we'll explain it. So um you were planning your light fest. Right. And you, this was in what? This was in August. It was August. And you came into the crying baby room because I had Gianna, she was crying and she's a baby. So I was feeding her, and you came in saying, hey, we want to meet with you about the Christmas light fest, which if you don't know what the Christmas light fest is, it is this beautiful um walkthrough that we're gonna do this year at Dayland. Like lit LED, yeah, polar bears, and candy canes, it's amazing. All outside, and you can walk through it with your family, and there's hot chocolate, and it's a big event that we're holding. And you came in to talk to me about that, about the music portion. And I was ready to get a stage, um, a few singers, a band, that would have been easy, and we'll sing a few Christmas songs, Christmas covers. And you came in with Desm, with Karina, and you said, Hey, we have an idea and please process this before you respond. Uh-oh. And you said, We want to do a concert. And I thought, okay, that's easy. Yeah. Let's do a concert. And you said, of songs. Okay. Did I do that? Yes. Okay. Yes, that of songs. From our very own Christmas record. I did say that. And I went that we did not have. That we did not have. Okay. With a team that we did not have, with ideas that we did not have, with songs that we did not have. We had nothing. We had nothing. We had nothing. But an idea. But an idea. Good one. And it had the sprinkling of a it's gonna happen anyways, whether you like it or not. And it might even be a really good idea. Because I will say, let's go back to working with families. Now that we've been working together for a long time, I'm starting to uh figure out when your ideas are kind of just silly ideas that won't work. And when it's like, wait a minute, hold on. She's on to something here.
SPEAKER_01And first I may just listeners out there, I do not have silly little ideas. You wanted to do a Halloween show.
SPEAKER_02For a half a second. I didn't do it. That half a second is so pivotal, though. Because that half a second can catch like wildfire to all the other staff members, and they're on your team doing it. And if no one's there. They know the yes and rule. You know what I'm talking about. They know, don't look at them. Don't look at them. Until somebody has to say, hey, that's probably not the best idea, and then it dies down. That's true. But this one I love your ideas best.
SPEAKER_01No, you don't. No, you don't. Oh my God. No, you don't. This is why this is a perfect example of working with family and how they veto your creativity. Yes. Think of the Halloween experience we could have had. Anyway, moving on to Christmas.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So that it did have this like smell of, okay, wait a minute. She's on to something. I may just not want to do this right now, but she's right. This makes sense. This makes sense. We've been wanting to do a Christmas album. She's on to something. Okay, yeah. How do we do this? And then you brought up the ideas of the Christmas staff party we had two years ago and how we pretty much had the songs, the idea of the songs done. Yeah. And that was really cool. So I thought, okay, you know what? Let's dive into this crazy last minute idea. It's August. And just for the listeners, some people start their their Christmas albums in June. So we were two months late. Right. And we had no team.
SPEAKER_01So we were really, really late. And and it has to be up to your um music PR person to get it up on TuneCore. A month out. A month out. Of the release was so it was August. Yes. We knew we had to release November 4th. Yes. And that meant we had 10 days to reach out to a producer. Yeah. To the right producer, one we wanted to work with. It was crazy. Have him catch the vision, produce the songs, create all the musicianship, get everything done, send it back to us, then set up the night, teach the singers, do the whole thing. It was a lot of crazy. But it miraculously happened. I can't believe it. I still can't believe we did it.
SPEAKER_02And can I tell the story about Christmas at church, the actual song? Yeah. Um, I thought this was such a confirmation from God that we were on the right track. Uh, some of you may know Linda Brewer. She comes into the church
twice a week to set up all of the little connect cards and offering envelopes behind the chairs. She comes into Dayland and Dural once a week. And you were out of town, I think. It was me and Alan sitting in, and he was also helping put together this project. We were sitting in the office and we thought, hey, let's talk about the Christmas at this project. It wasn't even called Christmas at Church. It was let's think about this Christmas album because Pastor Mary wants to do it and we have no idea where to even start this. Maybe we can put a plan together, and when she comes back into town, we can show her everything. So as we were talking about that, Linda Brewer walks into the office and she pulled us aside and she asked us, hey guys, how do you write a song? And we were blindsided because we were like, Linda, no no, I have no idea how to write a song. Why are you asking us this question?
SPEAKER_01We just write them all the time, but we don't know how to tell you how to do it. We don't know how to do this.
SPEAKER_02And she was so kind about it. And we thought, we don't know. And she goes, Okay, well, I have an idea that has been on my heart for a couple of years now. The heart, the idea came to me during COVID, and I wrote it on a napkin, and I just want to give it to you guys. Use it for whatever you want to use it for. Just take this idea. And it was Luke 14.2, I think it was. And um it was the Bible verse that said, go out into the highways, into the hedges, into the highways, and compel the people to come on in. Yes. And she, on her heart, it was it was an encouragement and a song idea for us to go out into the city and invite people to come on into the church. Well, the Bible verse literally says, Come on in. Yeah. And when I read that verse in front of Linda and in front of Alan, I went into my little vortex of like, like, you know, in that story, even when she has a vision and she goes like, that's literally what it sounds that's what it feels like when you have a song idea. And I heard, come on in, come on in, come on in, hear the songs, sing the stories, join the hymns. And then later on, I thought of, you don't even have to eat her. It's Christmas at church.
SPEAKER_01It was awesome.
SPEAKER_02And it hit me, and I was like, Linda, that's a song idea. And she's like, No, no, no, it's whatever you guys want. And I'm like, no, I'm serious. This is a song idea. This is a great idea. Oh my gosh. And then later that week, me and Chris, we got hot dogs, and we went to the park and literally were eating hot dogs, and I was hashing out the song idea as we were eating this hot dog, and I'm like, Chris, is this a good idea? And he's like, Yeah, it's pretty good. Which means it's really good. Yeah. So then I sent it to you. You were in the car driving somewhere, and you were like, Oh my gosh, I have a sec, I have a chorus. And we called on the phone. It was, oh my God, I love when this happens. And then we got on the phone, I got on the piano, and we wrote the song together through the phone. Yeah. You were driving, I was in front of the piano, and we finished the entire song within 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01No, it was, it was just one of those moments where you say, Okay, Lord, we said yes the right way to the right thing. And if we say yes to this, yeah, you'll provide everything that we're supposed to have and you'll make it quick and in the right frame of time. And he did. And then when we worked with William, yeah, who is like a brother, um, he jumped on it. Incredible, he jumped on it and in 10 days created the tracks for all eight songs. And what's cool about the project that I just find I learned from when we did the staff party at our house two years ago, we ended the fun night. It was just laid back. Hey, let's get around the piano. Alan's here, he's prolific on the piano. So let's just get around and sing. Not the singers, not the praise team, just our team, everybody, just our staff. Yeah. So we got around the piano, and Gabby's jumping up and down on the couch, and we're singing all the fun songs. And of course, Alan makes everything sound amazing. Amazing. So I said, Hey, Alan, play um have yourself, but play it like this. And I just kind of I just did like that, like what you're singing about. And he was like, bump, bum. Yeah. And I was like, what is happening? And even then, oh, so much fun. It was born. Yeah. It had it was born then, and I just videotaped all of it, and I kept those videos in my phone for two years. And so then it just kept stirring around, like, we can do this, we can do this. The hardest part is getting the inspiration for what you want to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can tell you for Christmas CDs, one of the things that frustrates me to no end is when every new project, the songs are slow and um oh whole dramatic and dramatic and where are the fun? One of the reasons that my Mariah Carey's CD is so has such longevity and is iconic, it's all fast and fun. Yes. And big and and triumphant, but it's fun. Yes. And I said, we are gonna make a record like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so I we sent Will those videos, and within minutes, he was like, I got the vision for it. Yeah. And what was really cool was we wrote Christmas at church. Yeah. You had This Is All I Know, which was an amazing Christmas song that you wrote with Ryan Shirley. Yep. And we had done it at one of our Christmas shows. Yep. So it would already was tried and true. I had a song called The Christmas Song from years ago. Yeah. That I pulled into this project. Then did we talk about Lift of Your Voice? Tell the story of Lift of Your Voice. It's so funny.
SPEAKER_02We wrote the song in the summertime, showed it to the church in the summertime. They did not like it. And they said this would be better if it was a Christmas song. What? So we added sleigh bells to it and changed the words a little. Changed the words, made it about Christmas, and they suddenly loved the song. One of the best songs on the record.
SPEAKER_01So we added that one too. And then we did something because we're in Miami. Uh, Mi Borito. And we wanted to make sure that all of the Hispanic families that grew up in church.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we went in. We didn't just do Feliz Navidad, we did the straight up Venezuelan Mi Borito.
SPEAKER_01I know. I found out that that is a Venezuelan song originated there. So that is a lot of fun. And we just created the same exact party atmosphere that we had at the house on the stage back in August. Yeah. And brought our worship team in and our staff. Yeah. And we just recorded it just like that, just kind of recapture that that original feeling we had, what started the whole thing. And when we were done, we looked at each other and we said, we have something special. This project is special.
SPEAKER_02I think that the one lesson that this project taught us was that you cannot underestimate
the people that are just right at your fingertips. Just use them. Use your worship team. That's right. Use your camera crew. Use your media team. Because we got on our stage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And in one week, we did all of the rehearsals with all worship team members. Yeah. All volunteers. All volunteers. To put an emphasis on that, volunteers. We all got together, we rehearsed the songs, and then on a Saturday, we came in and we recorded everything. We did. And our media crew did all of the camera work. Everything was volunteer. And it was, it's amazing what we put together.
SPEAKER_01They just abided by the yes and rule. They just showed up. They're like, what are we doing? Yeah. Okay. All right, let's do that. And then they did it. They just jumped in. And that that was the us was just the experience alone, it was so satisfying. It was just exhilarating because we realized this was our family. We were doing this with our church family. It was Christmas at church. Yep. You don't have to rehearse because we didn't rehearse that much. We probably should rehearse.
SPEAKER_02That's perfect. Literally.
SPEAKER_01You don't even have to read it. Well, good, because we didn't. Um, but we we pulled it off.
SPEAKER_02We did. We pulled it. We trusted each other and we ran with it. And I trusted you, I'll be honest. Yeah. That I don't want to take any credit for this because you really, this is your vision. This was your you led this entire thing. This was your dream. You've been wanting a Christmas album, and you got a Christmas album. I got a Christmas album. That it's it has you all over it. The joy, the the fun, the jam out sessions, it all comes from the heart of Mary Alessie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you got a little insight to what's going on on the inside of me at Christmas. That's the sound that's happening on the inside. And that's what the album has captured.
SPEAKER_02Maybe not like put it up like 30 BPM. That's really what it's like in your brain.
SPEAKER_01That's you, yep. You are so right. Yes. We don't do Christmas slow. No. We don't do it boring. We do it all or nothing. And and you know, it does give our family and our church family a great opportunity to really have to work together. Because you can't have a great team if you don't have projects to exercise your teammanship. Yes. Okay. So without these projects, you you could just say, oh, we're a team. Well, you're not a team. When have you exercised together? When have you practiced run skills together? Yeah. When are you doing those things that really show off your your ability to be a team? Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why even me, I'll push something that seems bigger than what we can pull off because I know we have a great team and we need to practice. Yeah, exactly. And we need to do this. We've got talent, we've got great people around us. We don't want their gifts to sit dormant. Yeah. We need to use our abilities, our skills. We've got people in our team that are smarter and more creative than we are.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I remember when we were uh listening back to the demos, we were listening with John in the studio and he said um something along the lines of, we're back to the old days of recording. Like we finally made it back.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Where you just used your team and you got on the stage and you put up some mics and you recorded it and you didn't do much overdubbing, you didn't do much perfecting, it but wasn't wasn't majorly produced. You just recorded your worship songs that's right and released that. That's right. And uh it kind of made my heart leap to think, oh yeah, that's the fun way of recording music because it's us, it's genuine to who we are, and it's not too perfect, but you listen to the album and you're not getting this perfect Christmas song, you're getting this curated, hand-tailored Christmas song that sounds just like Metro Life Worship.
SPEAKER_01And it sounds just like Metro Life Church. That's what was so cool about it. It was us because organically, yeah, it was us. It was used. And the way we are, when our hair's down, when we're relaxed, when everybody's over at our house, at a Christmas holiday party, and we're just having a great time. You really get a sense of this is us behind the scenes. This is who we are. Authentic us. We weren't faking it, we are not pretending. We didn't bring in singers, we didn't bring in people to to fill in the gaps, you know. We this this is us from what originated the idea to what we finished up with, which is why we had to bring our staff back in with our praise team to be able to be on some of these videos. Yeah. So it's just been so much fun. And we, it's a Christmas present from us to our church body. And um, also at the Lightfest, because one of the reasons I said we had to do it was when I realized I was gonna go to you for a playlist, would you please put a big playlist together for the Lightfest? I thought, why would we let people walk around our church for 70 nights and not hear us? Not hear our songs. It's true. So we jumped in it so that we could bless everybody with it.
And we know everybody's gonna be blessed by it. So Merry Christmas. It's on Spotify, on Spotify, Apple Music, what else, YouTube, everything. Multi-tracks for your churches. If you want to sing it at your church, make sure you do that. Get it, get it out there. So there you go. That's been another episode of our podcast. We hope that you again comment, like, and share. Have a great day.
SPEAKER_00You've just enjoyed another episode of the Family Business Podcast with the Alesssies, and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our podience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in the family business. First, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. Second, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and share it with them. You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about the family business. Third, go to AlesiFamily Business.com and tap the Ask the Alessies button. This is really cool. You can use it to record a voicemail comment or question, and we can add your voice to our conversations. Finally, while you're on our page, tap the reviews tab and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We love reading your reviews, and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time at the Family Business with the Alessis because family is everybody's business.