Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right podcast.
Very pleased to have a complete rock star with us
today from the Conservator. It is CEO and founder of Conservator,
Jamie Franklin, who is a twenty twenty college grad from
UC Berkeley.
Speaker 2: Was not expecting that exact.
Speaker 1: Very active in political circles. You our audience might know
you best from various TV appearances, from the fantastic esthetic
on your Instagram page, and the fact that you are
on a mission to show young women that conservative is
the way to be. You remind us of us when
we first started sixteen years ago now trying to give
conservatism a makeover. And so tell us how you got started.
How did this get born?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I grew up in northern California, like right
outside of San Francisco, And honestly, it just goes to
show you how much the culture changed. Like my upbring.
Granted I went to Catholic school and I grew up
in like a more conservative household and stuff, but kind
of felt like, just like that insane culture war thing
wasn't really a part of my childhood at all. And
I went to Berkeley from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty
so that was Trump's first term in office obviously, So
that's when I really saw this like take into effect,
just this rampant left wing attack on like American ideals
in our culture. And I always wanted to go into fashion,
That's what I wanted to do. I spent like the
summer before I went to college at Coney nas College
of Fashion and Design. That was my goal in life.
And I just I was like that girl I grew
up with magazines next to her bed, like I just
I was on like every fashion blog and stuff, and
I just couldn't stand how left wing everything became. And
I just realized I don't have a place in this movement,
like within women's media. And so when I was, you know,
at Berkeley, obviously I had a lot of inspiration there,
which is how insane the left was the entire my
life was attending and just my education, like I was
an American history major, and it was just a completely
different history than I grew up in that I knew.
And so it was just a lot of inspiration that
came to place, and I finally was like, I'm going
to create my own thing for women who you know,
you don't even have to be like a hardcore maga
conservative like myself, but for women that just like don't
agree with like rampid feminism, the toxic you know, ideology
against men not wanting to have children, you know, hating America,
hating white people, just all the stuff we talk about
all the time. Just a place where they can go
and get really sound advice. And the thing that stood
out to me most at Cow was just how lost
women were with especially the dating culture, which is I
grew up very Catholic, and I grew up believing that
like sex is sacred and that that is for someone
you love, someone who you're married to. And I just
saw so many women lost in this toxic feminism and
they just didn't have I feel like a lot of
self esteem. So I wanted to give more empowering, you know,
message to young women as well, because right now we
have call her Daddy, which is so big, and I
just a message towards woman. So I wanted to be
the alternative to that. Anyway, today, I'm a mom, I'm married,
and I just want to talk about like how important
the family is and I want my daughter to have
a better country and a better culture to grow up in.
Speaker 4: That is so fantastic and it's resonating I think so much,
even more now. I think we're seeing sort of a
resurgence of all of that in the last couple of years,
and especially in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: But curious because like.
Speaker 4: Back when I was in my twenties, it's hard to
remember those times.
Speaker 3: Because of years. Bok.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh my gosh, you're so sweet.
Speaker 2: But like when I was.
Speaker 4: In my twenties, I remember I lived for September Vogue.
Speaker 3: Like exactly.
Speaker 2: I loved it. I loved it so much.
Speaker 4: I remember getting the giant, huge, big issue September Vogue,
and I would just eat it up and I thought
it was so great, and like, I loved all the fashion.
And then when I got into my thirties, it was
it was kind of like what you say, It was
a lot of the it was just trash, you know.
I started, and I think part of it was me,
but then part of it was them, you know. And
I'm just and Vogue is just one of many examples, right,
But I did love the physical, like the physical book,
like the physical magazine. And you guys, you're primarily you're digital, correct,
do you plan on or would you ever dream of
doing like a print version of The Conservator and then
having it like in grocery stores across the country because.
Speaker 2: I used to love that. I used to have.
Speaker 4: Subscriptions, I had the print. I mean, maybe it's because
I'm old school, I am old I get it, but
there is something there is something to be said for
that print, having it in your hands, having that old school.
I mean, I know everybody's so digital now, but god,
I love print.
Speaker 2: I love print.
Speaker 3: I completely agree that is something I definitely want to do.
You know, we've been able to accomplish a lot so far,
but we're a small I always have a small business,
and so people want us to do more and more,
and that is in our plans, Like we're you know,
I started this when I was twenty years old, so
my god, it's just been like growing and growing, and
I've been trying to figure out the business side as well.
But I think that's definitely I think people actually want
like a return to nostalgia. Like you know, a lot
of people in my generation and gen Z they really
love like eighties stuff because I think people think of
it as better in America. So I completely agree with
you I think that's something that we were thinking about
doing at least like a coffee table book. Yeah, we
have just we have a great photographer. We've had worked
in multiple photographers and just gotten so many great images
over the time of great conservative women. So anyway, that's
in the plan.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 1: So when you decided that you wanted to launch this,
I mean you're very well connected, Like what was your
stepping stone?
Speaker 2: How did you meet the right people? How did you.
Speaker 1: Actually because there's lots and lots of people who are like,
I'm going to start a website or I'm going to
start a podcast, and you know, there's millions of non
success stories. What do you think contributed to the fact
that you have grown so much? What was the turning
point for you?
Speaker 3: You know, I love that you asked this question because
it's something I'm very proud of. Growing up in northern
California and my parents are Canadians, so we had no
political connections whatsoever. Like I didn't grow up and now
I live in d C. But I did not grow
up in this world. I remember I wanted to work
so badly. I went and visited my girlfriend who now
runs the Conservatory with me out in DC because she
had started interning there and I was like, wow, I
love this. I want to move to DC and I
want to like work politics. And I remember the first
thing I did, I like emailed one hundred offices to
just try to get in like somewhere on the hill
for an internship. I think ninety nine were no and
I got one opportunity and I took it that summer
and I went to Senate and that's when I like,
really my girlfriend and I started developing the conservatour over
that summer. But it goes to show you, like I
think I always tell people that want to get involved
in politics, is you know, get your resume in order
email a million people call as when you as you can.
You don't need to have connections. And then when you
get here, be just a kind, outgoing person and work
really hard and be really flexible, and people want to
see you succeed. I mean not especially in the conservative movement.
I found that there's just people of a lot of
Christians with really great values that literally will do a
lot for you. And so that's how I built my
network over time. But I will also tell you this,
when I launched the Conservator. This is a really funny story.
It happened three days before George Floyd and I had
just graduated Berkeley, so I was like conservative at Berkeley,
but my parents like antif and now we see at
Charlie Kirk, it is very dangerous to be conservative on
these college.
Speaker 2: Campus right right.
Speaker 3: My parents were ahead of the curb with that, and
we're very you know, Jamie, we don't want you to
out spoken. They're like, you have to wait to release
the Conservator until you've graduated, because you know, Ben Shapiro
came and Coolzer came and spoke at Cal and there
was just so much violence and I mean with Charlie,
like it's just horrific. So I launched it and it
happened to be three days before George Floyd. I lost
all my friends because I refused to post the Black Square.
And I wasn't even mean or anything. I just said,
you know, this is horrible what happened to George Floyd.
But I don't think that this is an indictment on
like America or police officers in general. Like I support
I backed the Blue, I support you know, our brave
police officers, and I don't support the agenda that black lives.
You know that we've talked about that, we've been vindicated
on to be quite frankly so I and when I
posted the Conservator, we did a great thing about uniting
America under like American ideals and coming together, and we
received so much hate. I can't even begin to tell you.
Like everybody I knew was commenting the worst things on
my Instagram. They were posting me like unfriended her. I
had people texting me Jeamie, I can't even like follow
you on scram anymore because people will come after me.
And so when I started, no one supported me, and
it goes to show you if you stick through and
you're brave and courageous and you stick by what you believe,
you'll be right in the end. And that's when we
just after that, we just started building. More and more
women came to us, and I'm just so proud today
we have like almost I think with all of our
social media combined, we have like three hundred thousand like
real women across the country just that love what we do.
And so I think it's a good testament that just
don't let people ever bully you into like submission a men.
Speaker 4: We totally believe in that too. We've lived through a
lot of that, yes, we have over the year. So
when it comes to friends, because you touched on that
a little bit, friends so called friends and the Berkeley thing,
I'm just fascinated by the Berkeley thing because I mean,
you knew that Berkeley back even in twenty sixteen was
pretty freaking liberal. I mean, like we all we know that.
So like when you went there and you had friends
at Berkeley, did they know you were conservative? And was
that tough? And I mean, and then when all that
happened to you, when you started losing friends and they
started finding I mean, were you out like you talk
about you weren't really outwardly conservative or were you? Did
your friends know? Did your friends not know? How did
that work? And then did you lose a lot of friends?
And how did you handle that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So I went to Berkeley because you know, I
grew up in California obviously, and it's a great school.
So when I got in and I was like, in
state tuition, you're going to cal And I was, And
I grew up a Calberry's fan, so I was so
excited to go there. And I've kind of I love
that I went to CAL because I always say like
it made me a better conservative because I totally understand
the other side. And you know, I don't think a
lot of liberals really understand us, if I'm being honest,
I think that they're uneducated about what conservatives believe, which
is why they have like some caricatures of us. But
when I was at CAL, I became more and more
conservative over time there, and you know, I did lose
a few friends in fights, but I think it wasn't
super you know, with Trump there, like some of the
kind of the far lefties were very toxic, but I
think like your every day kind of modern liberal wasn't
as toxic until after BLM happened. When BLM happened, that
is just when people lost normal people lost their minds.
And so I legitimately lost basically every single friend I
had a call. They didn't want to be associated with me.
But thankfully I went and worked for this is crazy,
Like within I lost all my friends and I went
and worked in the on the Trump campaign, in the
win overs in the Trump White House and met my
best friends that I have such a great group of
conservative people around me and I met my husband doing
all of that. So it was a crazy year for me.
But like I said, I think God always has a plan,
and I think if you stand by and you, like
I said, just don't let people bully you if you
really And my parents I have to say, like my
dad especially, he just always believed in me and has
helped me with all of this, and so I'm really
thankful for that.
Speaker 1: So in light of everything that's happened over the last
couple of weeks with Charlie Kirk, who who's obviously I
mean he he was able to capture the hearts and
minds of gen Z men and and so you know,
we kind of look at you as as the person
that's trying to do the same for young women.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: When you think about trying to capture the most liberal
demographic in the country, which is young women, how how
do you do that?
Speaker 2: Like, what what do you do?
Speaker 1: You think the momentum behind what happened to Charlie is
going to continue and it'll continue to help. How do
you focus your message to capture those group of women
who are so crazy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's really crazy to see their reaction. It
was a lot of women actually, and I'm like, wow,
that was shocking to me. I have to give Charlie
Kirk just such props, like what he's done with young
men has been revolutionary and extraordinary and that's why we
for so many reasons, we're going to miss him so much.
But his mark has just been so left on, you know,
the younger generation, particularly men. And I'm really excited for
Erica Kirk because I think she embodies exactly what we
need to look up to as women. I think women
don't have a lot of great role models. Our role
motors are and I'm not looking to bash women, but
like Taylor Swift for example, or you know Olivia Rodriye
Go or a lot of these really far left actresses,
or Eric call her Daddy with Alex Cooper, like, I
just don't think that these I think we need more
role models on the conservative side. And so you know,
I think Erica Kirk is a perfect example of a
woman that we preach about at the Conservatory to be
a person who puts your husband and your kids first,
but you can still have a great career, you can
be passionate about stuff. That's what I do in my life.
I think you can do it all as an American woman.
And so I really want to carry on that message
that Charlie had for young men and really change the
culture of young women. And I think that starts with
having better role models. I think it starts with having
a message that's a little more palatable for women as
well as amazing as So I listened to like so
many conservative men speak and stuff, but I understand that
it's very tailored towards men, and so I think a
slightly different message needs to be towards women. Women like yourself,
that you guys are reaching out and like you guys
have done great for like your generation of women as well.
Like I think you guys have moved the needle in
such extraordinary ways. Gen X my parents. I think you
guys are gen X correct X. I love gen X.
I think they're such a great generation. They raise gen Z.
That's why we're both like the most conservative generation raised millennials,
how I say, But yeah, I think gen X is
like just phenomenal. And I'll give you a statistic too.
We unmarried woman voted for Kamala Harris plus forty points.
Married women voted for Trump plus two points, and so
I think a lot of these women that you know,
a lot of the conservative movement is centered around family policies,
and if you're a mom, a lot of the conservative
movement does appeal to you. And so it's not even
just about politics. For me, it's like, becoming a mom
has been the best decision of my entire life. I
absolutely love it. It's better than any career. Getting married
is better than any career. And so a reminding woman
just how beautiful this life can be, that's full of
actual fulfillment and happiness and not just becoming a corporate
girl boss and never having kids, which is unfortunately what
a lot of women are choosing nowadays, and it's a
civilization crisis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and being an American woman is pretty remarkable. It's awesome.
We talk about that all the time. It's just like
we all should be grateful. And you're right. I think
you know. I raised gen A gen Z, a fifteen
year old. I have a fifteen year old daughter, and
I always tell her it's the most extraordinary place to
live on the planet. Be grateful to God every day
that you are an American girl. Okay, So who is
the best person, most favorite person, your most fun interview. Ever,
like what do you what would you say that who
that would be.
Speaker 2: Obviously other than us? Yeah, obviously are.
Speaker 3: You talking about who I've interviewed for the Conservatis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like who you've or who you've met, somebody who
you've met who you wanted to meet or never thought
you would meet, and you're like, oh my gosh, and
they turned out to be like amazing.
Speaker 3: Or I mean this, I feel like I don't even
want to hurt anybody. I've actually like in the conservative movement.
I've like yet to have a bad experience. Like everyone
I meet is like really kind and like very I've
enjoyed my conversations. I will give two people who just
immediately come to mind. Laura Trump was our first big interview,
and she wore our Make America Hot Again hat, and
she's just been so gracious and amazing to us. And
she's truly that role model woman that does it all
and you can do it all. She's a great mom,
a devoted wife, but she also has such a strong
voice in herself and I love that. And my other
one is Caroline Lovett. I'm just so impressed by her,
and you know, she's just rising to the moon right
now with everything she's doing. But yet she's such a
humble person and like just whenever I've been in any
room of her, she always makes it like time to
come over, how are you doing ketchup on like my
wife or whatever, And I'm like, you don't need to
do that, Like you're very busy. I'm nobody can hear
to you. And I just really have enjoyed what she's
doing for the administration right now, but also just personal interactions.
But like I said, we've talked to so many great people.
I really, I'm just I'm very inspired by so many
women in her so many.
Speaker 4: Young accomplished women. And You're right, I mean a lot
of those women are role models for my fifteen year
old daughter, which is a wonderful thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, and I can think of a great example that
you guys just featured Riley Gaines. You just did a
feature on her, and I'm sure that that was amazing.
Speaker 2: Is that out and available?
Speaker 3: Yes, that just came out today. Like I said, I
actually I've only met Riley once really briefly because I'm
working on another project for the Conservatory. So we had
our great Bethany Miller. She does all the photography and
writing for us. So she did that shoot and she
said the best things about Riley, and wow, the photos
look amazing and so happy she's taking that journey into motherhood.
I mean, she's just great what she's been able to
do for young women and another great role mom. We
just have such a great bench in the conservative movement.
Like that's true, we do, and I'm really inspired by that.
Speaker 4: We do.
Speaker 2: So do you how many kids do you have, Jamie?
Speaker 3: Just one right now?
Speaker 4: Just one right now?
Speaker 3: More soon?
Speaker 4: Okay? Is it a daughter a son?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and her name's Vivian. She is and a half
years old. She is a wild one, so she really busy.
And you know, my husband and I got married at
twenty three, we had her at twenty four. We're the
same age. So I kind of like in this period
of time right now that I get to just enjoy
her for the moment. I think that's a really special time.
You know, a lot of people have kids a little
bit later now and so it's a little bit more
of a rush. But yeah, we're definitely thinking about another one, so.
Speaker 4: That is fantastic. Do you think that, you know, just
looking forward, she has a long way to go before
she goes to college. But would you send her to
Berkeley or would you, you know, maybe try to steer
her in a different direction.
Speaker 3: Well, one, she can never be a liberal because she
came into this earth because of President Trump. I always
say that already because my husband I met on the
Trump campaign. So I'm like, you're here because of President Trump.
So I joke. But she has such a little defiant personality.
I'm sure she'll go through a phase. There's like a
big movement, and I totally understand why people want to
pull out of these colleges, and I get that, Like
I'm not coming down super hard on this, but I
will say, for me, I really enjoyed going to Berkeley.
I think I don't I don't believe in pulling out
of these institutions just in general, Like I think we
need to go offer these institutions. And I think there's
been a real change on college campuses. I mean you
look at like everyone who came out for visuals across
the country. So I think more and more the younger
generation is moving more right, and so I would love
for her to like go to a great school like
cal and go and test your ideas and debate people.
I think that's a very important thing, and I think
you can learn a lot doing so. But I think
you need to be really strong in your values before
you go. And I think that's important for parents to
make sure that you've instilled your kids have a great
set of values heading in, because if you're not sure
about yourself yet, that's when the communist agenda can really.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love that answer. I love it.
Speaker 1: So when you think about the Conservator five years from now,
what is success going to look like for you?
Speaker 3: Well, I can't announce anything yet, but I think you'll
see very soon. We have some really great things in
the works. And you know what my goal is, Like
I said, like, as much as I've never been in
this to make money or whatever, I really mean that,
Like I haven't really made anything a boy being honest,
I'm in here really to like change hearts and minds
for young women. Like I really believe that we have
a better message. We have a positive message. I want
to build woman up. I want to bring them back
to church. I want to show them the beauty a mother,
marriage and pursuing your career and everything that this country offers.
And so I think my goal is to really change
the culture and see and so we can start see
a shift in that the voting demographics that I just
laid out. That's the most important to me at the
end of the day. I love this country and I
want this country to be great, and I think what
we've done with men has been just extraordinary. But you're
going to see there's gonna be problems into marriages if
when women are on opposite sides of the spectrum. So
that's really my goal at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: Okay, So how can people follow you, find you and
explore more of what you do?
Speaker 3: Yes, so you can go to our website, The conservator
dot com, follow us on Instagram at the Conservator. You
can follow me at Jamie Lee Franklin. And we have
another adventure coming up very soon that I hope you
follow as well, So just stay tuned.
Speaker 2: I love it, and you guys have the cutest swag.
By the way, I have to get SyES.
Speaker 3: Love it, Sen have your producer send me your addresses
and we will shift you some stuff.
Speaker 2: I love Yay. I love it so much.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: It was a lovely meeting you, Jamie, it really was.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. You guys
have done great things. I'm just so impressed.