Day 4 of being on tour—From May 2020–Found and Published July 2021

So I’m going through files and found this blog piece I wrote long ago. I still liked it so I made it happen!

We are finally actually launching 100% Dad by kicking off our nationwide tour.  Building brand awareness and meeting and interviewing as many dads as possible.  Are original launch was on April 17^th. But coronavirus delayed us…..not that we couldn’t leave….it was just that wherever we did go we would have nothing to do. No one to see. I would rather have nothing to do in my hometown on our neighborhood with friends and family.

We have been experimenting with what exactly 100% Dad is and how we will put out content. Are we telling Dads how they should act? What they should and should not do? That seemed rather pompous and narcissistic. Are we going to be a resource of facts and stats to convince Dads of their role in the family? Are we just going to become a reality tv family and provide dumb entertainment……because after all that is what gets the most clicks and views. Are we going to be RV specific content based around a full-time family. Are we going to sell merchandise? Are we going to sell ads? We I give speeches? Will I write a book? Will we become a subscription service with Dad wisdom and content built around a membership base? Will we spin off 100% mom?Kids? Family? Grandparents? Step-parents?

Truth be told there is a thought and logic to all the above. It really comes down to the realistic ability to execute on all those. Give it some thought and in order to do each one of those requires a significant amount of time commitment to make happen. Even a simple good quality meme takes effort and time. For your 3 tenth of a second view took a solid hour or two of effort. Videos require significantly more effort. Carrying the equipment. Setting it up. Recording in a way that captures good content and allows us to still have fun as a family. That in itself is hours. Then removing all the SD cards and downloading footage. Rewatching the footage (Hours and hours and hours) Just to decide what to cut and what is good to use. Then to create an order to interest viewers. Add in graphics, transitions, texts, and other visual and audio. All for your viewing pleasure of maybe a few minutes.

The cost of that is time. Hiring it out is costly. I’m well off but I would also like to stay that way. And 100% Dad is 100% not creating revenue. (on purpose by the way) Time away from spending time with my wife and boys. Me saying “not now”, “later”, “I have to do this first”. Now I realize this is every Dads issue. I faced the same thing in my previous businesses and career. The difference is now I’m supposed to be the face of Dads. The example. “America’s Dad”. I am telling everyone to watch me. Look at me. Which means as this grows I’m under a microscope.

Dads need to work. Especially Dads like me where its just in my DNA. Dads also need to spend time with their wives cultivating that relationship. They also need to spend time with their kids building those bonds. And lets not forget working out, improving our relationship with God, Continuing to learn and improve ourselves, be social with friends, be smart with our money, take time to ourselves, relax……….
Its impossible to try and get it done all in one day. That’s why I’ve always taken long term views on creating that “balance”.

Creating balance in life can’t be done in a day or even a week. We need to take longer views on balance. The term seasons fits very well. There are times I needed to focus more on my career than my family and it would sometimes last a couple months. Then I could dial it back and give my family a lot more time than my career. I just wrote a speech for an NFL team that said this very thing. During the season you have to focus on your career. Its okay. You have a short window in an ultra-competitive and lucrative career. So 4-5 months of the year you get to prioritize your body, your career. Then you get 7-8 months to be super husband and super dad. Communication is really the key. Wife and kids understanding this is our life. This is what has to be done right now. Its not forever. And then really being great when it comes time to honor your focus on family in the off season. Mom, Dad, and kids all being on the same page is the important thing.

Back to me because I want it to be. I’m going to do as much as possible. Luckily, we live in a 5^th wheel. We are always together. Breakfast lunch and dinner. I’m not going out seeing friends. We are together all day everyday whether we like it or not. I’ve got time. Still a couple things are going to happen. 100% Dad won’t grow as fast as it could. Because I’m not sacrificing my family to build a company or a brand. I’m also not sacrificing our financial future just to grow faster. I’m sticking true to the principles that made me a great Dad and a great businessman. Give family my priority when the business and our future is stable. Give the business priority when the business is unstable and our future is not stable.  I will do a combination of slowing down growth, rejecting opportunities, spending a little extra money, sacrificing tv , sleep, and personal time. And in the end, this will be successful. It will be a brand that puts out great content for Dads. It’s a place for struggling dads to get support and tips. It’s a place for dads to get encouragement. It’s a place for Dads to get wisdom that will make them better dads. And in the end, we know Good dads make mom happier and a better mom. We know a good dad makes the family unit stronger and more successful. We know a good dad results in kids that stay out of trouble and grow up to be fully functional competent adults. We know good dads lead to stronger healthier communities ( less poverty, less crime, less trash).

Starting off we are putting out my writing on the blog. It will be a combination of life on the road and whatever wisdom I feel called to disperse at the time. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and TikTok we will continue to put out bite size wisdom and encouragement for dads. The Podcast will continue to find and interview Dads of all types. IF there’s something we have not covered reach out and tell me. Ask me. Most importantly we need Dads for the podcast. So if you are a dad and don’t mind talking about it than sign up. Email or DM me. And we will set up a time and press record. Also if you know someone encourage them to be on the podcast because we want all sorts of Dads on the podcast. I want to hear all the perspectives and cultures.

We are on day 4 of the tour. In general coffee state park. Heading to west Georgia in a few days. If you are or know a Georgia dad lets connect and get this going. IF you don’t want to be public we can talk and I can create a mystery dad persona that will give you a voice and at the same time keep your identity private.

Campground started off really busy on the weekend. Lots of happy families enjoying the outdoors. Come Sunday and everyone left. So we have a beautiful serene park and campground all to ourselves. It’s fantastic. No neighbors. Lots of wildlife and woods. There is one small issue……..No to quote uncle eddy but black tank number 1 is full. That’s mom and dads bathroom. Not sure why its full. After all its only been 4 days. But we have no sewer hook-up. Which means we all have to use the boy’s bathroom. Or the bathhouse in the campground. Typically, we would be hooked up to a sewer so I would just open the tank and empty it, but this wonderful campground supplies electric and water. We have to drive to a dump station to empty our black tank.  If we fill black tank #2 we might have to pack up our 5^th wheel —-reconnect the truck. Navigate the trees. Turn around with 60+ ft of rig. Re park and re-setup our site.  Or possibly find another camper that has a sewer wagon…convince them to rent it to us…..figure out how to fill it without overfilling it…..pull it to the dump station…. And finally figure out how to take the content of the wagon and put them into the hole at the dump station….oh wait. Then I would have to humbly return the poop wagon to the owner and thank them for allowing us to transport out filth with their wagon……

Oh the joys of RV life.

END

Added 7-20-21

So I just found this blog I wrote and forgot to post! We can now last 14 days without being hooked up to sewer. I never did borrow a neighbor’s wagon and we are so so far from Georgia.