The Dad Edge Podcast

So many men are married and miserable. The worst part about this is we accept it. We think that's the way marriage is supposed to be. We can blame it on our spouse. We might say its because of our work, the kids, or the society we live in, but rarely do we look at ourselves. Whether your marriage is in a rut, a rough patch, or a full-blown crisis, today's episode will change everything you thought you knew about being married. Marriage Coach Larry Bilotta is our guest. He is going to shift your perspectives about the core problems between husbands and wives using the movie The Matrix as an analogy. You will be shown the hidden dynamics of relationships and how you alone can save your marriage by changing your programming. Will you take the blue pill or the red pill? For the show notes and links mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/175.

Life is full of challenges. We all will go through times of adversity. If we're going through them alone, we might feel hopeless and cope in negative ways. How can we get away from a fearful victim mentality, and instead, use problems as opportunities? Thursday Throwdown is our short show where we feature regular dads. Today we have Jason Palmer as our guest. He has faced adversity and loss, including the death of a child. At first, he reached for alcohol to ease the pain, often drinking a whole bottle of whiskey just to be able to sleep at night. But deep down inside, he knew that he was meant for more. Life didn't have to be this way. Then Jason discovered our episode about giving up alcohol. It inspired him to give up drinking and join the Dad Edge Alliance. He tells us how he took ownership of his life and trained himself to look at his problems as opportunities and to move from fear-based to solution-based thinking. For the show notes and links mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/thursday117.

Getting children to obey can be a challenge that wears our patience down to zero. Today's guest is going to show us how to apply FBI hostage negotiation skills to discussions with our kids in ways that not only get them to do what we want them to do, but also help them become more resourceful and confident. Chris Voss is the author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. He was the lead kidnapping negotiator for the FBI and is the founder of the Black Swan group, whose mission is to help achieve exceptional results in business and personal negotiations using hostage negotiation skills. He shares simple, clever tactics that we can use every day to have productive discussions with our kids while training our own brains to react constructively instead of with frustration. This episode will totally shift your approach to everyday family squabbles. Get ready to take some notes! For the show notes, links, and sponsor offers mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/174.

Are you afraid to go first? We usually like to sit back and watch someone else go first, whether it's being the first to raise our hand, the first to try something we've never done before, or the first to speak up and say what everyone else is afraid to say. But when we become dads, what happens if we continue to let others go first? What does that show our kids? One of the lessons we want to teach our kids is leadership. We are the leaders of the family and it is our duty to go first, even if we fail. Today we have Kyle Ferris on the show. He's one of our members from the Dad Edge Alliance and attended our Dad Edge Summit last month. He shares his insights on how to be a leader to your kids by going first. For the show notes and links mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/thursday116.

Traver Boehm has a story unlike anything you've ever heard. He put himself through an experience most of us would find absolutely terrifying. This interview will inspire you to dig deep inside yourself and look at life in a completely new way. Traver Boehm is an author, speaker, and founder of the Man Uncivilized Movement, which aims to inspire millions of men to balance their primal and divine masculine traits. He is not a dad or a husband at the moment. He was previously married with a child on the way, but everything came to a crushing end. This sent Traver on a wild and painful physical, mental, and spiritual journey to discover who he truly was inside and what it means to be the masculine, the man, and the mountain. For the show notes, links, and sponsor offers mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/173.

Why is it that men tend to shut down and hide instead of asking for help? As the founder of The Dad Edge Alliance, I have talked to thousands of men, and I can tell you we all struggle with the same issues. We suffer physical, mental, and emotional problems. We deal with affairs, addiction, fear, anger, identity crises, and major life changes. We are not alone in life's challenges. So why do we insist on pretending we've got it all under control? Today I'm going to share 7 reasons why men don't ask for help, and I will tell you right now that they are all lies. For the show notes and links mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/thursday115.

Most of us say that our marriage is a priority, and usually it starts off well, but then the kids come. Time alone with our spouses becomes rare. Our children's needs must constantly be met. Life gets hectic and patience runs thin. The happily ever after we imagined can turn into a nightmare. This is an episode all dads and moms need to hear. Today we have our first couple on The Dad Edge podcast. Lance and Brandy are the creators of Legendary Couples. Their marriage deteriorated after the birth of their two daughters, very nearly ending in divorce. But they took action to save their marriage and now teach other couples how to cultivate that legendary love again. For the show notes, links, and special offers from Legendary Couples go to gooddadproject.com/172.

Integrity means being a whole person and making sure that our words, actions, and vision are all on the same trajectory toward a meaningful life. As we get older, we tend to lose the innate integrity and curiosity that we were born with. We forget about the dreams that inspired us. We often fall completely out of alignment with that spark in our lives. Thursday Throwdowns are our short episodes about the everyday dad who is doing heroic things to optimize his life. Today we have one of our Dad Edge Alliance members on to talk about tapping into integrity and curiosity. You will walk away from this show knowing exactly what it means to be whole and how to stay true to yourself through life's ups and downs. For the show notes and links in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/thursday114.

Do you wince when you hear the word budget? It's about as painful as the words diet or jail, but if you don't budget for your goals now, you will never be able to enjoy life to the fullest and neither will your family. The majority of families are living paycheck to paycheck. Minor emergencies quickly send most people into debt. It's no wonder that money issues are the number one cause of divorce. Jesse Mecham is our guest today. He is the founder of YNAB (You Need a Budget) and is here to share his no-nonsense takeaways that will help you effortlessly budget money for everything you need and want in life. This show will outline the easy and effective way to budget for your goals so that you can live with less stress and make the most of the money your work so hard for. For the show notes, links, and exclusive offers mentioned in this episode, go to gooddadproject.com/171.

How should you approach your wife when you're in crisis? When we men go into crisis, we have a tendency to shut down. We don't want to appear like we don't have it all under control. We don't want our spouses to worry. Some might think that sharing all of our feelings of anxiety, stress, anger, or overwhelm with our spouse is the logical alternative, but this isn't the answer either. There's a fine line between what and how we as husbands should share bad news with our wives. Today, we have Alliance Member Alex Vanhouten on the show. He is the creator of Defining Dadbod, which aims to create a legacy of health and fitness for our kids. But he wasn't always an entrepreneur. A few months ago, Alex was a successful employee who terminated from his job without any warning. Alex's wife is a stay-at-home mom and he didn't know what to do as the sole support for a single-income household. He tells us what he did before explaining his crisis to his wife to make sure that they both could cope with it in best way possible. For the show notes and links mentioned in this episode go to gooddadproject.com/thursday113