Dadup! Communicating With Your Kids; provide a safe space for your kids and communicate with ease, with Special Guest Bryan Ward

Welcome to the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Turn behavior problems into no problem with Jackie Fineman. Are you ready to become the confident leader your kids crave you to be? Do you want to learn how to make parenting easier and more fulfilling?

Whether you are at your wit's end or you want to have more fun as a parent, you're definitely in the right place. Now here's your host, Jackie Fineman. Well, welcome back parents to the No Problem Parenting podcast. And today, dads, listen up. I finally heard you. What is it with all these mom-based episodes? Jackie, we need some dad stuff here. So I brought a special guest on with me today. He's a dad and also has a Dad Up podcast.

So let me tell you a little bit about Brian and then we're going to say hello to him. Brian Ward is a husband and proud father of two sons. He is a Marine Corps veteran. Thank you, sir, for your service and is a retired championship basketball coach.

I want to hear all about that too. Brian is currently the creator and host of a top rated podcast called Dad Up Podcast. Over the past two and a half years, Brian has been focusing on helping dads become the best dad they can be for their families. He has coached countless fathers on learning tools and strategies in parenting, and he's also been featured on TV, on radio, and in the newspaper.

Brian's currently working on his first book called Dad Up and hopes that it's going to serve as a useful tool for any parent. Brian and his wife, Andrea, live in California with their two adult sons, Blake and Brett. So welcome to the show, Brian. Thank you very much for having me, Jackie. I've been looking forward to this. I really appreciate it.

I'm so glad that your team reached out. And I think we have some things in common. And, and so I'm super happy to have this conversation with you today. How did you go from being in the Marines? And then you left that career, had your family, right? Or is that in tandem of being in the Marines? After I was out? Yeah. Now you're doing this data podcast and really wanted to serve dad. So I want to hear about it all. How did that all get started? Well, it's, it's interesting.

everybody asks me, but it's, you know, it's, it's funny. My boys, as you said, said, my boys are both adults, 23 and 20. That's our ages. And my older son now has graduated out of college, working a sales job. My younger son is a sophomore in college, plays college basketball. And when, as, as they grew up, I was involved in everything that they did. I coached every single one of their sports all the way up through high school. I mean, I can count on one hand different things that I may have missed. Just one. I mean, literally, it's been like everything I've been there, sporting events, counseling sessions, parent teacher conferences, open houses, everything.

And really, because my parents weren't as involved in my life growing up. They had, you know, they were blue collar workers, and they had jobs they had to be at. And so they couldn't always be at the things that I participated in as a kid. And that affected me. And it still affects me to this day, the fact that my parents weren't around as much. Now, I grew up in a loving home. My parents both loved me, took care of me, provided everything that I needed. But the one thing that I was missing from them was their involvement. And it always seemed like whether it was a sporting event that I was going to as a child, or, you know, open house, things like that, I was riding with I was riding to these events with my other friends' parents, because my parents couldn't couldn't be there. And so that impacted me. And I always thought about it and knew that I wasn't going to be that way when I, when I had kids, when I grew up and had a, had a family. So at a very,

very young age, when I boys, my, they just kind of gravitated towards sports. When I got involved in sports, I got involved and, and now it's you know, fast forwarding all those years of just being involved, fast forwarding to where my older son at the time was in college. My younger son was a senior in high school and I started to feel this void. Honestly, I felt like my dad journey was coming to an end because both my boys were essentially functioning adults, could do things on their own, going to be independent of mom and dad. And I felt like it was over. Oh, I can relate.

I'm starting to feel that. Yeah. Yes. So as parents, as we know, our, our parenting journey never ends, but I felt like it was coming to an end. I felt like I had done my job.

The Lord had blessed me with these two boys. I raised them the best, my wife and I raised them the best that we could. Now they're going to be off on their own. Now what's next. And don't get me wrong. I was looking forward to that empty nester part of life, you know, spending more time with my wife and all that. But I just felt like there was something that I was going to be missing.

And I was talking to a family member because it was really bugging me. It really was, Jackie. I was talking to a family member about it. And my brother-in-law, and he said, he said, you know, maybe you should start a podcast. And I had listened to a few podcasts, didn't really know much about them. But he said, you know, you should start a podcast for dads, where you're just kind of interviewing dads about their experiences. And I kind of kicked it around a little bit, talked to my wife about it. She thought it would be a great idea. So I just jumped in. I had no idea what I was doing. No clue. And just jumped in.

I started interviewing, my very first guest was one of my closest friends, just to kind of get my feet wet in the whole podcasting world. And then it just kind of skyrocketed from there. I've interviewed celebrities, pro athletes, entrepreneurs, business, you know, business owners, pastors. I had my wife on, believe it or not, as my 50th episode, which was really cool. So it's just been a really neat journey and it's kind of helped me kind of give back. And if my goal of the show was that if I could really just help one dad out there become a better father for his family, for his kids, then I've done my job. And like I said, it just, it took off. I mean, I've been, I've been featured on CNN. I had a, I had a father's day special. They wanted me on CNN and it's just,

And you're like, how did that happen? Right. But that's how important it is and how needed it is. I think. Right. It's a testament to how how many dads out there are looking for, you know, mentors, role models, just another person that gets it and understands. So kudos to you for doing that, Brian.

Yeah, thank you. I'm about 130 episodes in now, and it's still going strong. I send out an episode a week, and it's just been kind of cool. It's just been a cool journey. I've met a lot of great people like you. I've met a lot of great people throughout this last two and a half years. And yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to the future of this thing.

And I don't know about you, but I think the pod, cause I just started podcasting a year ago, April, and I'm coming up on my one year anniversary and much like you, I just sort of started. And I was like, everybody tells you, you're going to, you know, the first few episodes are going to drive you crazy later on when you listen to them anyway. So just don't try to be perfect, just do it. And I'm still doing my own editing, not for long, but just kind of started it.

But the thing I found is the best out of all of this is all the connections I've made worldwide and the resources and the people I've been able to introduce to not just my clients and my followers, but friends and family and and even myself. I've gained a lot of resources just for our own our own life by by podcasting. And so it's been it's been it's been fun and it's been great. and so being able to meet you and have have this this new relationship with with a dad that can help some of the dads in my community I'm super excited about that let's talk about maybe what is one of the most common questions you get asked by dads or maybe the the biggest pain point for dads would you say in your last couple of years of of meeting these guys yeah for me the most common is communication. And it's one of the reasons why I brought that up to you in kind of the pre-interview segment. But yeah, communication has been hard because a lot of dads go, you know,

I just, I'm really struggling with the communication with my kids. So they, you know, whether they're teenagers or not, they're just, they feel that they feel like there's this disconnection. And I think for dads, we carry this weight on our shoulders of kind of being the financial provider for the family. We have to, we have, we have this ego that we got to provide for the family. So we always have to be away from the house to, to make the money for the family.

And, and, and that creates a disconnect with our kids because we're not as, you know, we're not there all the time. We're not as bonded with them. So I think that's the biggest, biggest question that I get asked is how do I, how do I build that communication, that level of communication with my kids to where they can trust to be around me and we can have a real open conversation and be genuine. So that's been the biggest question. And my response to that is that you have to start small. Obviously, you have to start with small steps and you got to make your kids feel that they can trust you. A home is a safe space. It's supposed to be a safe space for our kids to come and talk to us when things are on their hearts or on their minds.

It's stuff that they're maybe going through, especially teenagers in particular. But you have to create that safe space. And for dads, it can be hard because we want to, you know, our egos get in the way. Maybe we're a little bit more temper.

We have a little bit more of a temper than maybe the moms do. So we have to learn to kind of channel that and really open up our ears and listen more. I always talk about it on my show, you know, talk less, listen more, right? And so for our kids, that's what it comes down to. You really have to open up and listen to your kids because sometimes that's all they need you to do is just listen. And just doing that in itself will help create that bond and help improve the communication between you and your child.

yeah and I think sometimes what I hear from dads is that they kind of when they're honest about it they're like I feel like I need to pave the way I need to tell them what to do how to do it what what the repercussions are going to be if they don't follow my direction or the teacher's direction or the coach's direction or you know so we're there a lot of times they're forewarning the kids you know and they're and it's like they're talking at them and kind of telling them because dads are smart, right? And they've worked hard and they've created. So it's like, listen to me, listen to me is what the dads are saying. And that their kids are like going the other way. It's actually pushing them in the wrong direction. Like, no dad, listen to me. I I'm smarter than you think I am.

Yeah. I've, I've had, uh, I've had, as a matter of fact, I just had a dad on, uh, about a month ago and he was telling me a story of, uh, the time that he, his child had come to him, wanted to talk to, wanted to tell him something and started to tell him what was on his heart. and the dad started to try to fix it right away. Just came in with like, this is what you need to do. And the kid shut down. He said, you know what, dad, nevermind. Cause he didn't, he didn't need that input. He just needed the dad to listen. And I think for me, what I've learned over the years with my own kids is if you're going to tell me something, my son comes to me and says, dad, I need to talk to you about something. And I'll ask him, okay, do you, do you want my opinion or do you want me to just listen? No, just listen. I just need, I just need you to listen,

hear me out. Okay. Then I'll sit back and listen and I'll keep my mouth shut. I won't try to fix everything. I have to, I have to work on that with my, I still have to work on that with my wife.

You know, my, I want to fix it. You know, she comes home, she has a bad day at work. I want to fix it. I want to, what can I do? What can I, she doesn't need all that. She just needs me to listen. And I think dads need to, it's a, it's a, it's a skill that dads need to learn.

Yeah. What are some things that you found helpful in, in helping you not to just offer the advice right away, whether it's your kids or your wife, that you've been able to just be like, okay, I need, because it is ingrained in dads a lot of time in many people in general, but ingrained to want to fix or solve. Oftentimes you don't want to just sit and listen to whether it's venting or a sob story or a hardship or complaining.

That's, that's hard for anybody to listen to, but sometimes kids just need to complain for a bit. Right. Um, so what have you found helps you to not get into fix it mode and interject yourself in those conversations? Well, the first being the question up front, uh, do you want me, do you want me to listen or do you, are you looking for my input?

And, but even when you do that and they're like, I just want you to listen. How hard is that? When you're like, as they're talking, it's like, oh my gosh, I, I so have solutions for you right now. Yeah.

Yeah. And sometimes one of the things we have to learn as parents is sometimes our kids have to learn how to get through challenges on their own. They don't necessarily need you to give them the guide on how to get through it. Now, there may be those times whether it's, you know, you don't want your child to be put in danger.

So in those situations, yes, absolutely interject with what they need to do in order to course correct so they don't put themselves in danger or in harm's way. but just letting them traverse through this childhood experience, I guess, or this, this, we have to allow them to make mistakes and learn from them because as they get older and then they start to become adults, like my boys are now adults, life's going to hit them on the chin.

And if they're, if they don't know how to handle those difficult times on their own, because you tried to fix everything for them as they were growing up, it's going to be much harder for them as adults to function and get through those challenging moments that they are going to have. So just letting them kind of figure things out on their own. Sometimes I have to, you know, stop my wife. Sometimes she wants to fix things and I go, Hey, timeout, let's let him kind of manage his way through this. He'll be fine. And if it gets to a point where it's, yes, he could be getting himself into trouble or in harm's way, then yes, we'll interject, but let's let him kind of figure this out on his own and let him come to us if he needs our advice on how to get through it. So that's, it's super important. It's really hard to do, especially for dads. It's really hard to do. I don't like to see my kids. No parent likes to see their kid hurting or struggling with something, but just allowing them to figure it out and just let them know. And one of the things that I really did with my boys, even when they were very young, as I said, look, I don't care what you've done good or bad or about to do.

I'm always going to be on your team. I use that. I use that analogy because they've always played sports. I'm always going to be your teammate. I'm always going to be your support system. I'm always going to be on your team. So if it's something that you've done that we need to fix, I'm right there. I've got your back. And I always told them that. And I've, and I've kind of had this and they know I have an open door policy with them. If they need to come and talk to me about something that they've done or something that is really on their hearts, they can always talk to me. And I've told them that since they were probably one or two years old, I've always known this. So, yeah. And I think that's really important that we do the same thing with our son.

And, and we even take a step further by saying, you know, obviously we don't want our kids out as teenagers, out drinking, experimenting with drugs, doing all those kinds of things, or with friends that are doing those sorts of things. Right. Even if like, I, we like to say to our kiddo, you know, Hey, we hope when you're out and about, uh, hanging out with some of these kids that are more like mischief makers or, you know, uh, risk takers, big risk takers, uh, that sort of thing. We just hope that some of you rubs off on them while you're with them.

We don't, we don't want to put this boundary up. You can't hang out with those kids, but we let them know what our feelings are, our fears, our worries, our concerns are about certain kids or certain situations that they may be thinking of going to. And we say, we trust that you'll make these good decisions rather than trying to prevent them from even going because then they just get sneaky and they go behind our backs. And then when they do get in trouble, there's no way they're going to call us because they did something and went with somebody that they weren't supposed to be with. Right. Right. So eventually your kid kind of figures it out.

Like, I don't want to hang out with that kid because I don't want to hang out with that kid. Not because mom and dad don't want me to hang out with that kid. Right. So that's, that's one thing.

And then also letting them know, if you do make a mistake and it's a peer pressure thing, or it's on a whim, or you're frustrated when you're out or you're ticked off, and then you do something really stupid because of the mood you're in or whatever, even that's, those are the times we're saying, yes, even then you call, you call us and you say, even though, you know, we're going to be upset or concerned or, you know, panicked or whatever you say, I messed up, I need your help.

And, you know, we're there. So I think sometimes even having the conversation all the way through rather than it being just a general, we're always here for you. I'm always, you know, on your team. What does that really mean? Because sometimes kids don't think we actually will go that far, right? That will still be that forgiving.

I think it's also important for parents to understand that, you know, when my kids grew up and the friends that they hung out with, I knew who their friends were. And then the other side of that is I knew the friends' parents as well. I always wanted to know who are the parents that are raising these kids, because that'll tell you a lot about the kid. The parents will tell you a lot about who the kids are.

now the kid the kids may come over to your house and go hi how you doing they're nice and sweet and innocent but out outside when they're away from the adults they may be completely different but you meet the parents and the parents are train wrecks then you kind of know what kind of kids your son or daughter may be hanging out with so yeah it's it's it is a tough battle for parents to really go through but just having the communication the level of communication and trust within your home to let your kids come and talk to you whenever they're on whenever there's something going on with them can go a long ways. And not harping on them constantly to clean their room or do that, especially as they get into those teenage years. I know we're focusing a little bit more on the teenage years, but you know, if you're constantly just demanding and directing,

and that's all you're doing when you're around them. Yeah. You're laughing. So tell me about that.

Yeah. I mean, I was, we were the, we were the parents that were, you know, we tell our kids, say, your room's a mess, dude. You got to clean that thing up. But I never harped on my kids about it. You know what? They had to live in it. And if we had people coming over, I just made sure their door was closed. You know, that kind of thing. But I never harped on my kids about cleaning their room. Hey, you have to live in it. And if that's what you want to live in, then, you know what? I've asked you to clean it up. I don't harp on my kids. I just don't.

How about backtalking? And, you know, when they are ticked off, maybe your kids didn't do as much of that. But how do you, how do you handle those kinds of things when, when they're just digging their heels in and no matter what you say or do, even if you're being nice, you know, and trying to have a good time with them. Yeah. Sometimes it's, it comes down to changing their mindset.

If they're not in the right space, headspace, I tell them, Hey, you need to take a timeout. You need to, you need to just let's, let's table this conversation for another time. Cause it's not going anywhere right now. Let's you need a break. So we'll separate, you know, let them go do what they're going to need to do. And maybe later in the day when they're calm and they're back down to the child that, you know, they are who they are, then you can go and start to bring up the conversation again and then casually sit down and talk about it. But I think trying to interact with a child that may be throwing a temper tantrum or maybe in a really bad mood is not going to get you anywhere.

They're not going to listen to you. Everything that comes out of your mouth, whether it's good or bad, is not going to be heard. And you want to make sure that you are heard. So if you do need to talk to them and they're just not in the right headspace at that moment, take a break.

And that's not only with our kids, but that's with our spouses as well. If we're in a situation where my wife and I have to talk about something and it's just not going in the direction that it should go where we're both being civil about it or we're starting to get argumentative, then that's not the right time to talk about that. And you just need to kind of say, okay, timeout, let's take a break. Let's table this for another time.

Even if it's another day or two, let's table it for another time so we can just kind of get back in our own right frame of mind and then have the conversation. So I think for kids, younger kids may be a little bit more challenging because they don't quite have that maturity yet to understand that. but teaching them, helping them through it will help just say, Hey, you know what? You know, you're talking to your, you know, five-year-old or whatever, and they're throwing temper tantrum, you know what? Try it. So, you know what, let's, you know what, mom, we're not seeing on that.

We're not on the right page here. Why don't you go, you know, play on your Xbox or go, you know, let's take a break. Why don't you read a book or watch TV or something? I'll go watch TV.

We'll just kind of take a timeout and we'll talk about it a little later. Yeah. I love to say to the teenagers too, that, you know, I only argue on Saturday mornings at six o'clock. That's a love and logic from years ago. I love that. Still one of my favorites. I only argue because teenage, what teenager wants to get up at six o'clock, but you go at Saturday morning, six o'clock and then you say, okay, it's time to argue. I've got it on my calendar.

And then that usually lightens the mood a little bit. It's not to be sarcastic for me, but it's like, you know, come on guys, let's just not argue. We'll talk about it later. But if you want to argue, we're going to do that at 6am on Saturday morning. I do like the segue you're making here, as far as bringing up communication with your spouse, why is a healthy relationship with your partner so important when we're parenting our kids and building that trust with our kids?

Oh my gosh, it's super important because more things are caught than taught, right? I mean, our kids see everything that we do as parents. So when my wife and I are in a situation where we're having to talk about something that may be not necessarily be appropriate for our kids to hear, we'll go into another room so we can talk about it. Or if it's getting to a point where, like I said, it's elevated, we'll separate, we'll take a timeout and we'll not interact that way in front of our kids. Now, we're not perfect. My parents, my wife and I have made mistakes throughout our years of parenting, getting into these heated discussions in front of our kids. But at the end of the day, they're seeing everything that we do, regardless if they're one or 21, they're seeing everything that we do. And I think parents need to really understand that. Yes, our kids are being,

are catching those moments and thinking that's the, that's, that's how you're supposed to act. That's how you're supposed to behave. And that will teach them. So more is caught than taught.

I like to say, and so if you can remember that as parents know that, Hey, they're seeing everything that we're doing and how we're acting, how we're responding, how we're reacting to things. they'll learn those that way. And eventually it will lead them into things or situations that they will be in. Now for my wife and I, my boys see how a woman should be treated. So they're catching how I treat my wife and they're learning that behavior. So that way, when they become, have spouses, they'll treat their spouse typically the same way that I've treated my spouse.

And so I think it's the same, it can go the other way as well. If you have a daughter and the, and the spouse is treating her husband, the daughter will see, this is how I treat a man. And this is how a man should treat me. Um, so, uh, it's, it's, it's very important. My wife and I actually have a marriage coach that we see every other month and we meet with her, um, via zoom or in her office. And she's a licensed therapist, but we do that, um, not because we have problems.

we do that so we don't have problems. That is amazing. That's a really good, yeah. That's not too often you hear people do that. So that's really cool. Well, here's the thing. I mean, we want to, if we want to get into shape and we go to the gym, we don't know everything that we're doing. What do we do? We hire a trainer, right? We hired a coach that trains us in the gym.

If we want, if we want to lose weight, we hire a dietician. If we go to the doctor, we don't, we don't try to cure our own illnesses. We go to a doctor to coach us how to cure what's going on with our bodies, right? Professional athletes even have coaches that they work with. So as husband and wife, why not have a marriage coach that can help us through different things that we're going through? Now, I will say this, majority of the time, the conversation is very casual. We just talk about things that happened over the last month. But if there's things on our mind that we might be thinking about that we want to talk about, then we address it. And then our coach kind of helps us how to navigate through those situations. So our kids know that. Our kids know that we go to a marriage coach and they know that we don't have problems, but they know that we do it. So we don't. So, right. That's so cool. It's such a great idea. You don't think about that.

Even when I first became a parenting coach, a lot of people, I was even myself, it's like, what's a parenting coach. Cause often we're used to the therapy model, right? We go to therapy for things, but you're absolutely right. A coach, a therapist, a mentor, you know, whatever it is in any aspect of our life. Why not in marriage do it before you're starting to have problems and definitely do it if you're, if you're, if you are struggling, what if I want to segue a little bit into you were your kids basketball coach, you said for, for many years, right? Was it just basketball or no, they coached, I coached baseball, football, and basketball were the three main sports. My, my older son tried soccer for one year. I did not coach his team because I knew nothing about soccer,

but believe it or not, he was a really good goalie, but he hated it. He was just like, out is too boring. I don't want to play this sport. So he never played again. But my boys played baseball and then flag football is what they played and then really mainly basketball.

And as a coach, my whole theory was I wanted to be involved in their lives when they grew up. I wanted to be as involved as I could. And I knew that I was when they were younger, I knew that I was going to have to drive them to practices, drive to them to the games, be at the games with them. Why not get involved? And it's funny when my son, my older son was three years old, three and a half, four years old. I was signing him up for little league and they, and the guy at the table said, Hey, do you want to coach? And I go, no, I have, I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never coached before in my life. I don't want to coach. And I said, I'll help coach, but I don't want to be the head coach. And he goes, listen, he goes,

he's going to sit out in the field and he's going to pick grass and you just need to teach him how to throw, how to bat and how to run the bases. That's all you need to do. So don't worry about anything else. So I jumped in, started doing it and you know, it carried on through their high school years. And believe it or not, I just, I literally just retired last month. Both my boys were grown and out of high school. And I was still at the high school coaching because I wanted to be that role model for these, for these boys that I was coaching. I loved it. And I loved being involved in their lives. And I, and I have players that were on my teams of parents that I had never met because they couldn't be at their kids' games. They couldn't, they weren't coming to the practices, none of that stuff. So I wanted to be as much as I could. I wanted to be that role model for them and somebody that they could come talk to if they needed. So I just, just retired because I wanted more time with, with my wife and I wanted more time with my family and I wanted to devote more time to the podcast. So I actually just retired, but coaching was it was tough. It was hard, but it was rewarding just as parenting is, right? I compare it a lot to parenting because parenting is tough. It's hard, but it's rewarding. And for me as a coach, there were good times,

there were bad times, but I always tried to remember, I know there might be dads that might be listening to this. They go, how do I coach my son and be his coach, but have that, you know, level of respect that yes, I'm the coach, but he sees me as dad. How do I separate the two? And it was just something that I just was very, very aware of throughout the, throughout the years of them playing. I always, they always respected me as a coach on the field. They never referred to me as dad when we were on a field or on a court, they never referred to me as dad. It was always coach. But when we got in the car and we're on our way home, then the dad hat goes back on and I'm back to dad. But it is a tough thing to do because I met a lot of coaches that had kids,

their own kids on the team. And there was some favoritism and all that stuff. I never, I never wanted to be that kind of, that kind of coach. So there were many games that, you know, my kids didn't start, even though I was the coach, they didn't start because they weren't performing at the best or they started and maybe they weren't doing well. And I pulled them out of the game because they just weren't playing well. So I always, I always separated the two. I was always really good about that. And how did that go at home in those times where you'd have to pull them out or not, not, not play them or bench them or whatever. The conversations were tough at home or in the car on the way home. But you know, it's just as a, as a coach, I had to try to help them understand that. Listen, my job is not to be your dad when I'm on the court. My job is to help you and the team be successful. And if that means you're just maybe not having a great day or not having a great game, then, then you're not the guy that should be on the court. And I think that if you're in a team sport, you should respect that and understand that. Listen, I'm here,

I'm here for the team. It's not all about me. This is about our team. So those were tough conversations. And sometimes they were tough with my wife too, because my wife would be like, why'd you pull him out? You know? And it's like, listen, it's not about him. It's about the team.

So I had to be very, very aware of that. Right. Well, you have to be very intentional too with that, but also what a great lesson, extra lesson for your kids to, to learn. It really teaches them more about team, not so much about themselves and just their performance, but how it affects the greater team. So that's really cool. You do offer some coaching services to parents, right? As well as the podcast. Yeah, absolutely. The best place to reach out to me and it will either be me or someone from my team that will respond, but they will make sure that I get the message if they respond, but it's on Instagram. That's the best place at DatUp Podcast. You can message me on DatUp Podcast and I will reach out to you or I'll get back to you. The other spot is obviously on my website, DatUp Tribe. That's my website. They can go and see everything about me and about the show. My episodes are there. My podcast is available anywhere you can get podcasts and I'm also on YouTube as well. So, and then obviously I have a Facebook group. DatUp Tribe is my Facebook group. But yeah, those are all the places I'm on every social media, man. Facebook,

LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter. Oh, you're even doing TikTok. Wow. You're cool. I'm not there yet.

I told my boy, he's going to have to help me figure that out. Cause I just, I haven't done that one. The one, the one that I have not figured out yet that I just, I just don't even go down that road is the whole Snapchat thing. I don't, I don't get that. I don't even. Yeah. That's not for us old people. You know, we, you know, you, you, you chat something that goes away right away.

That would never work for us. Right. We have to be able to go back and remember we need the proof. So anyway, yeah, your podcast has everything on it. I was able to listen to a few different episodes, but anything from co-parenting to single dads, to dads of kids that are adopted, like the whole works, you have every kind of show on there. So I highly encourage the dads of, uh, my no problem parenting dads and followers and all that to go check you out.

It's been a real pleasure to interview you, Brian, and to get to know you. And I'm hoping that we'll have some other collaborative, you know, efforts in the works in the future. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate everything that you're doing.

Keep up the good work and it's needed. And people look at us and go, well, you guys are kind of competitors. You know, you're, why are you guys kind of, no, we're not, we're all in that. We're all like, we have one mission and it's to help families be better and help parents be better with their kids. And the more that we have, the more people that we have people like Jackie doing this, um, just, just magnifies the level of, uh, you know, um, growth for this whole movement to really, to really, uh, be where it should be. So keep doing what you're doing. I appreciate you having me on. I really do. Well, thank you so much. And I appreciate you saying that. And it is true. A lot of times people will say that to the, you have other parenting coaches on? Why do you have other parenting? Because I've said for 20 years, I play well with others in the sandbox. I am not a one-stop shop. I love to help parents and bring them resources and connect them with people that are going to improve their lives. And it's not always about me. So I appreciate that you have that same mindset, Brian, and takes a village. And so thanks again for being on the show and sharing all of your message with us today. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Thank you for tuning in to the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Join Jackie next time for more tips, tools, and resources that will help you become the confident leader your kids crave you to be. Who do you know that we could support on their parenting journey? Like this podcast, subscribe, share, or leave a review of the show.

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