Jaime Primak Sullivan – #cawfeetawk

By starrymag | June 16, 2015

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I still run my public relations company and I recently took a job as the Editor-In-Chief of a new magazine in Alabama called Good Grit. This has been a completely new challenge for me because I produce television and digital content. Producing a book is the next phase of production, but it is so different than anything I’ve done. I’ve always been the writer and not the orchestrater. I’m usually the publicist booking the interviews or writing as a blogger for Yahoo! or whoever. The last six weeks have been some of the most professionally challenging, but stimulating projects I’ve ever worked on. Then, I signed a deal for a podcast. I can’t share too many details because they want to be the ones to announce it. It’s pretty big and it’s going to be exciting. It’s an expansion of the #cawfeetawk brand, which is awesome.  I’m also doing a new digital series called Pillow Talk, which (again) is an expansion of the #cawfeetawk brand and will be for the more mature audience. It will talk about things that women, couples and singles go through – our bodies, sex, love –  all of it. I’m writing my book, which is amazing and unbelievable. It’s a dream come true and it will be out in Spring 2016. It just blows my mind that it is happening to me!

Q) What is the status of your show “Jersey Belle?”

A) My show wasn’t cancelled. It was creative differences that caused a part of ways. You don’t want to stare at that too long. You want to focus on the good things like the magazine, the book and the podcast and the new deal with the new network. You want to celebrate those things. I really have been trying hard to do that. It’s like let your heart break, but don’t let it break you.

Q) How did your show “Jersey Belle” come about originally?

A) I was living in Alabama and doing my job and having my kids. People kept saying I should do a reality show with my job as a publicist and I knew that wasn’t going to be enough to make a show commercial. I came up with this idea for the show and put the idea together. Because I have been in the business a long time I sort of know how to package those things. I came up with a good title and knew my friends would be great. I found a production company that I really wanted to work with and I reached out to them and said, “Listen, I have this idea for a show. Here is who we are, here is what we do and here is the title. What do you think?” They said, ‘It’s amazing!” So, we shot a fifteen minute presentation of what we thought the show would be and pitched it to Bravo. It was completely different from anything they had ever done. It was the first comedy they had ever done and it was the first show they had cast with real friends and real women. Real women who look like real women and have real lives. We don’t wear skin tight dresses and look cookie cutter. It’s real women. It was a big risk for Bravo because that is not what their brand is built on, but they loved it. They bought it and that’s how it came to life.

Q) How have your relationships with your fellow “Jersey Belle” stars changed since being on the show?

A) The women are my absolute best friends. I had coffee with Luci and Danielle came by to see my new office. Scarlet works in my office. Hailey just emailed me about doing some online fitness stuff for the magazine. I speak to the girls daily, numerous times. They are my belles. I love them more than I could ever express.

Q) We’re watching you on #CawfeeTawk now. What have you taken away from meeting your fans and feedback from making your videos?

A) #cawfeetawk got started because people were sending me so many messages after “Jersey Belle” started saying that I might be the only real woman on reality television. Then, they started saying they wished they had a friend like me and that they loved what I was doing for Luci. They would say, “I’m going through a divorce and I don’t have anyone like that.” So, it was super interesting to me, but I couldn’t answer all the emails. I just decided to make a video and one morning I said, “Good morning and welcome to #cawfeetawk.” I made that first video and then after five weeks Keurig called and said, “We loved your message to people that they are enough just as they are. You don’t have to be anything else. If you want be, great, then let’s work on that. If you don’t, you are enough. Kindness is cool and social responsibility and the human connection are super important.” Keurig came on and said, “What can we do to help? Let’s work together.” So, they made me a brand ambassador and started doing these amazing events where I would get to meet fans of the show and of #cawfeetawk. I think #cawfeetawk became more important to fans than “Jersey Belle.” It’s grown from the first #cawfeetawk, which was watched by like eighteen people, and now it is watched by thousands from all over the world. It reaches almost ten million Facebook timelines a week. I think it is so significant that women just want a real connection. I shouldn’t say women anymore because I have 29% male viewership! I get messages every single day from girls who are eighteen years old in England and Australia saying they were looking for someone to look up to and they love how I am with my kids and my work. Now, I have this whole younger generation that never even heard of “Jersey Belle” contacting me. “Jersey Belle” was on in Australia and did very well, but it was never on in England or New Zealand. I have so many fans in the United Kingdom and it’s amazing!

Q) With the intense amount of fan reactions you have received, how does that make you feel?

A) Blessed is probably the best word. It reinforces the fact that I am going in the right direction. It reinforces that the changes I made in my life ten years ago were the right ones to make. It reminds me every day that I am serving something greater than myself and women, especially when they work together, can be amazing and awesome. I feel incredibly lucky, blessed and so grateful!

Q) Charlie has become quite famous for her nightly videos. What made you decide to make a series of videos featuring her?

A) I’ve always been “that mom” – the one who is in my kids’ faces with the camera asking them questions and talking to them because my mom was that mom. My mom was always like, “Get the camera! They’re doing something funny!” After my father died, I became painfully aware as to how important those videos are because the only time I get to hear my father’s voice after twenty-two years of him being gone is on home video. For me, when Olivia was born I made a thousand videos of her and then Max came and I made a thousand videos of him. Then, Charlie came and I made a thousand videos of her. I love to take videos of her at bedtime because it was just her and I and she was so open. One night I posted a video of her and thought, “You guys will love this because it’s super cute.” It’s sort of like #cawfeetawk because one hundred  people watched her and then the next night it was like five hundred people. A lot of times Charlie will get more views than #cawfeetawk will!

Q) Is she aware of her popularity?

A) No, she’s four years old. She has no idea. She doesn’t get it. That’s fine. People will come up to her and say, “I love your videos,” and she’ll laugh. She doesn’t really get it.

Q) People seem to appreciate her candor.

A) Olivia has that awareness. She knows to be embarrassed already. Charlie doesn’t get that at all, which is why Olivia doesn’t want to do the videos. Charlie is so funny because she’s innocent. So, when I say to her like Kim Kardashian is pregnant again she’ll say, “What’s a Kardashian?” She has no idea. People love her.

Q) You have a number of projects going on all at once from what you have shared. How are you able to balance it all?

A) I’m not! Honestly, I’m not. I mean, some days I’m a great publicist, but I forget to kiss my husband. Some days I send my husband dirty text messages all day and leave four hundred emails unopened. I do the best I can! But it all gets done. I just don’t do it all right every day.

Q) We learned not long ago that you have also been working on a horror film. What is the status?

A) It hasn’t been officially announced by the studio yet, but I can tell you that we are hoping to start shooting that film in January! I’ll be Executive Producing that and it will be my first feature film. Really my gift in life is creating original content, whether it is on television, the computer, the big screen at the movies or now in a book with Good Grit. My strongest skill is creating commercial original content. To be able to do that is a dream come true for me! It’s unbelievable that I get to do what I love every day. I just feel incredibly lucky that people care.

Q) You are very candid about your past and being a bully. What was it that changed your mind and set you on a better course?

A) There is a whole chapter in my book about why I decided to make changes in my life so I have to be a little bit careful of what I share in interviews. I can say this, hurt people hurt and people who bully or hurt other people are carrying shame or are in pain and they don’t know a healthy way to deal with it. I didn’t have the tools to deal with that and as I developed those tools and sought them out, I was able to manage my own pain so I didn’t have to make it about somebody else. All I do is share my truth with people and it inspires them to treat others better. Do you know what a gift that is? I am super flawed as a human being and I am completely transparent with people about how flawed I am. Instead of casting stones, they have loved me for it. In turn, they are able to love themselves in spite of all their flaws. For me, that is awesome. You can still be hip, cool and trendy… Not that I’m trendy. I’m not. But in life, you can be hip, cool and you can even be famous and still be kind and love other people and help them love themselves.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) Thank you for being here with me, truly. The best is yet to come for all of us.

 

 

Women Shaming: https://www.facebook.com/jaimeprimaksullivan/videos/944057575627094/?permPage=1

Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy: https://www.facebook.com/jaimeprimaksullivan/videos/954939071205611/?theate