After jokes and banter between two best friends at Austin City Limits in 2019, the idea for a podcast aimed to give back to its community through comedic relief was born.
Josh Welsh and Vance Hutchins, two finance seniors, thought of an idea to produce a comedy show surrounding their own inside stay-at-home dad jokes called “Stay At Home Dads.”
“I just like making people happy,” Hutchins said. “Especially with these times that we’ve been having; I want to give people a good laugh.”
The two roommates originally envisioned creating concepts for screenplays and making skits. However, Welsh and Hutchins wanted to stimulate a bigger following and filed a Limited Liability Company (LLC) May 19 for Stay At Home Dads Productions.
Launched during the hosts’ COVID-19 quarantine, the “SAHD” podcast centers around providing comedic relief to Texas State students and the people of San Marcos. SAHD Productions currently produces YouTube sketches, the “SAHD” podcast and other featured podcasts, including “The Trophy Wives.”
Anything from planning and managing to recording and producing is done out of Welsh and Hutchins’ San Marcos apartment. The “SAHD” podcast is shot in the corner of Welsh’s bedroom.
The podcast is a place for the two best friends to tell their stories about living in a college town, share their crazy adventures and talk about taboo yet relatable topics.
The co-hosts originally thought their audience would be majority male. But with a largely female demographic, Welsh says they have taken advantage of gearing discussions toward culture and the dating world from a male perspective. 
“The funny thing is our demographic is 80 females to 20 males,” Welsh said. “So we try to gear more toward females to see what they would want to listen to, what they want to hear guys talk about.”
SAHD Productions has not only focused on the male perspective but has branched out into making sure the female perspective is represented as well. About four weeks after the first episode of “SAHD”, SAHD Productions created “The Trophy Wives,” a podcast hosted by Clarissa Lachance and Anissa Fresquez.
Lachance, a Texas State alumna, says “The Trophy Wives” focuses on discussions people are not comfortable talking about. On the podcast, they take questions from women and men they know and give their best shot to relate their situations and ask for outside opinions, hoping listeners can take something from the podcast and apply it to their own lives.
“There have been several influences in our lives,” Lachance said. “We’ve felt like we were super alone in situations, and someone older than us told us a story about something similar. We just hope that people out there can relate to some of the things we talk about and hopefully get some advice from it.”
When the “SAHD” podcast first aired, it averaged five viewers per episode. Since then, views have ballooned to an average of 200 per episode. Only four months into the podcast, the co-hosts say they want to help their college town as much as they can.
“Texas State is deemed as a party school,” Welsh said. “There’s a lot of talent; there’s a lot of smart kids that I’ve met, and I hope we can be the pivot point of turning that culture.”
SAHD Productions continues to work toward bettering San Marcos, not only through comedic relief and offering advice to college students but also through the promotion of small businesses. The co-hosts wear their love for San Marcos on their sleeve, as conveyed through their admiration of the town.
“We’ve been here forever in San Marcos, going to college here, we kind of wanna promote the businesses around here,” Hutchins said. “We’re big fans of everywhere we go around here.”
Welsh says they have their sights set on helping bars in town, hoping to increase communication between the co-hosts and the establishments to drive more business to local bars.
“I think the main thing is, San Marcos businesses need to have more respect around here; they need to have more purpose,” Welsh said. “Maybe this is a chance to help the community.”
To learn more about Stay At Home Dads Productions visit its website. “Stay At Home Dads” and “The Trophy Wives” episodes are currently streaming on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music.