Best of B Team: Writing "The Book": Jenny Marrs’ 5-Year Journey

What turns a house into a story you can hold? In this recap episode, we look back at our episode with Jenny Marrs for a warm, funny, and honest look at how a five-year writing journey became a memoir stitched from rooms, rituals, and the small moments that define family. Instead of design rules and trends, Jenny frames each chapter around a lived memory; the living room on Christmas morning, the spaces that carry laughter, mess, and meaning, creating a keepsake her kids can open years from now.

Pulling back the curtain on the other half of her year: filming a six-episode renovation in Italy. The postcard image cracked under real pressure, snow in Tuscany, twelve-hour days, and back-and-forth flights that turned a dream into a test of endurance. We trade stories about logistics gone sideways, including a rental car ticket that landed on the wrong desk, and laugh through the kind of travel chaos that becomes legend among friends.

Threaded through the hustle is a reminder of why any of it matters. A bearded friend recognized at a gas station, a viewer’s daughter in a wheelchair who loves the show, and a quick decision to fly home early to surprise her. That small act reframes the entire season: work is the vehicle, people are the destination. If you’ve ever wondered how to capture your family’s history, balance ambition with presence, or turn everyday spaces into memory engines, this conversation will meet you where you live, literally.

If the story moves you, subscribe, share this episode with someone who loves their home, and leave a review with your favorite room memory so we can feature it next time.

And go back and watch the full episode: Ep. 4 - Heartbeats and Homecomings: Jenny Marrs on Weaving Memories into Design

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I am your host, Josh Saffron, with my co-host at Mars, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bettonville, bourbon, and business. The B Team Podcast. Be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

We got to get back to the book here. Like how did this come about? Like tell us how we got to this.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

To the book. So I started, I've always wanted to write. I always have loved writing. And I started this book. I mean, it's been in process for like five years, I would say, but I've had lots of ideas on my little notes on my phone of book ideas. And then actually started, did the proposal and all that.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Jenny didn't bring one of them. So I don't carry my book with me. I mean, Jenny, I would carry three or four just in case. Oh, you want to buy one? I actually have my penbo. You want to sign one? Matt, it's Jenny Mars's book. She doesn't have to do that. It's not Matt Mars's book. I have like a little card that I push around and a backpack with 19 books in him.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Hold on, you want them? I'll put a special approach.

Dave’s Cameos And Writing Process

SPEAKER_04 1:20

I do have them in the car, but I didn't I didn't want to assume. Yeah, no, I'm just gonna. Um anyway, so I did the proposal a couple years ago. It took about two years to write. And I let Dave have special appearances, as you can see. It really, it really gave him a moment. But Dave's right Dave's parts, he has, let me see if I can find one of his parts in here. His, he just is like he just would he would record a note on his phone and then I would just transcribe it and then edit it for him. So that he was you do it in like 15 minutes, and you're like, Well, I did my writing for today. And I'm like, okay, Dave.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

It's kind of like Josh, if if we ever need anything written, we have Emily do it. Right. Like we aren't allowed to write it.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Know your role, know your value. Right. We post something on Facebook, and these guys are like, none of us is literate enough to write something good. So they go Emily, you write it and we'll share it.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

So that's what she did with Dave.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Yeah. Dave was like, he doesn't like to write. He's like, I don't want to write, I'll talk. I'm like, okay, fine.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

So anyway, and then um launched this November. So it's basically um, I'm sure you've read it front to back. We do. Um so each chapter is about a space in your home, and I tell a story from our family. So it's kind of a memoir style. Um so a story about each of those spaces to kind of kick off the chapter. And I chose a story about each space that sometimes it's like like I talk about Christmas morning for the living room, right? So it's not necessarily it's not at all about the design of the space, it's just memories in those spaces. And part of the reason I did that too is so that I have, I mean, like the kids have something, you know, like I have all my I have tons and tons of journals, but I mean, someday when I'm gone, they'll probably read those. But it's nice to have like a a you know, a book about your your family. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

He Rob found the finest screw top that he can do. He did, good job. And I was running late, so I was like, Andy, go get him on online. She was like, I think we had one other night when they were. Oh, perfect. He's like, So it's old. So I got to go. Stay out of the, yeah. No, no, it wasn't open. Yeah, it wasn't open. He's like, stay out of the stay out of the good stuff. Uh don't go crazy.

Italy Show Production Challenges

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Don't go crazy. Um, but no, we have Italy's the Mr. Fabulous Italiano is airing right now when this airs. Um, well, it's six episodes. We filmed it over the course of a year. Matt Mars himself was there for the first demo.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

And it snowed. It snowed while we were in Tuscany.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

It was nuts.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

It was so crazy. And then it was so busy. Filming over there was awful. I mean, it was so busy. And it's also awful because you're in Italy and you're like, Well, you're on a tight timeline. It was a tight, like every day was so long, and you're just like, I want to enjoy being in Italy, and I can't. But we tried. We did.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

So we would do a 12-hour day, and then you'd be like, I can stay up another six hours. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

So we did. So that was the power.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

And after seven or ten days, it's hard to function.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Yeah. And then we escaped. You guys went to Pisa. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

You and Kim. I got a few tickets that Davey had to pay for.

SPEAKER_04 4:32

Yes, because it was our rental car in Dave's name.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

So it was good. Yeah. We're like, huh, that's interesting on the way to Pisa. Matt Marsh was driving.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

I was on the interstate and everyone's slowing down, and I was like, I wonder why they're all slowing down. And Dave's like, you know when they were all slowing down? That's when you got the ticket to get me. And I was like, Well, I didn't get a ticket, you did. And you expressed it back to the show. I don't know how that all sick me out. I I think I owe him. Yeah. Dave might not be able to get a real car next time again.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

I know I'm actually nervous about that. Yeah. Well, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

But I don't like the whole the logistics to that. I don't know how you guys. That was crazy. It was nuts.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

We went back and forth six times over a year.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

Um, and we revealed the house at the end of January, this past January. So that was crazy. And then we're in pre-production now. I don't know when the show. Wait, we'll probably be filming by the time the show airs.

unknown 5:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:33

Or in the next season. Yeah. Actually, Joe called me yesterday because he was at where was he? He went to the grocery store. I don't know. He was buying beer. The gas station, maybe? Do they sell beer at the gas station?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Yeah, he's usually at the get and go there.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

That's where he was. He said he was buying beer. And uh he goes, You wouldn't even recognize me. My beer I grew my beard out. And I was like, Oh, okay. See a new phase, Joe. And he's like, but this guy recognized me. And he said he had um loved the show and his daughter likes the show. And his daughter was there and she's in a wheelchair, and he didn't, you know, he didn't allow he's I had some special needs, of course. And then he was like, So Jenny, I think we're gonna if you you and Dave will come meet me, let's go surprise her, and we can all three show up and surprise her. And so we're gonna go on Friday to go surprise her. Yeah. I was like, Of course, Joe, let's go. So he was he was really excited, which is fun because Joe doesn't really like people. So I was like, Joe, you want to like go to see someone? Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Joe's got such a big heart.

A Year Of Flights And The Big Reveal

SPEAKER_04 6:29

He's such a big heart, such a big heart. And kids and animals, yeah, he will do anything. So you know, yeah, he doesn't ask for much, but yeah, I was like, But that's also again going back to who you guys are in your super busy time.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Make time like three days from now to go do that. That's super cool.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Yeah, we're actually out of town that day, so we're gonna come home early and go meet him. That'll be good.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

But yeah, be fun.