Front Row Dads with Jon Vroman

Epizódy

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  Most Couples Fix Their Marriage Backwards 15.09.2026 10min

  Most of us don't have a plan for our marriage. We have a repair schedule. Something breaks, we patch it, things are fine for a while, and then we sit there quietly waiting for it to break again. Lance Salazar lived in that loop. He describes a defeatist stretch where even when things were okay, he was just wondering when it was going to go bad. So he and his wife stopped fixing and started designing, borrowing the thing they already knew how to do in business: decide what you want, build a plan, commit to it, track it. What came out of that is a framework they call the four legendary relationship elements. You. The partnership. The friendship. The lovers. And Lance is insistent about the order, because a great partnership needs a great partner first, and it is very hard to feel like friends with someone you are arguing with about the garbage.   IN THIS EPISODE The cycle of patch, coast, break, repeat, and why it ends in mediocrity Designing a marriage instead of repairing it Applying goals, milestones, and actions to a marriage the way you would to a company Why you can't run a marathon you never trained for The four legendary relationship elements, and why the order is the point The partnership loop: finances, kids, the trash, and why couples get trapped there after kids Tracking it: ten minutes of talking a day, a planner, an actual checkbox "If you haven't been kissing your wife every day, then you need a reminder" Why it sounds unromantic and why he does it anyway How friendship becomes the foundation for intimacy   FULL EPISODE Legendary Couples with Kids: https://frontrowdads.com/39  
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  Why Your Kid's Anxiety Might Be Yours 15.09.2026 10min

  Jon's eleven-year-old had been more anxious than usual, and his wife told him why. You have been more stressed at work. He is a reflector. He picks up on your energy.  Bryan Post takes that and does something more useful than reassurance. Your son has his own part, formed long before this week. You have yours. And the moment you take his behavior personally, you lose the ability to be present for him, because you have made his stuff your stuff. He gives the actual words to use, and the reason they work: all behavior arises from stress; a stressed child regresses to a younger age, and between the stress and the behavior there is only ever love or fear. Then the part most parents get backward. When your kid's fear frightens you, what you do next is control, suppress, and correct, and you tell yourself that is good parenting. It isn't. He finishes with the child who goes quiet instead of acting out, what happens when you try to pry that child open, and the one thing that works instead.   IN THIS EPISODE What Jon's wife told him about his own energy Your part and their part, and why the difference matters "Every communication is energy" Why personalizing your kid's behavior costs you the ability to be present The script: "Dad's been really stressed lately, and I've noticed you have been too" All behavior arises from stress, and why a stressed eleven-year-old acts like a five-year-old Love or fear: what actually sits between the stress and the behavior "You're doing that because you're scared" Turtle children, and why you cannot dig them out with a stick The linchpin, the neuroscience behind it, and the Bruce Lee line that sums it up   FULL EPISODE This is a short cut from one of the best conversations on this feed. The whole thing is worth your time: Love-Based Parenting Is Firm, Honest, and Harder Than Yelling Ever Was — https://frontrowdads.com/531   Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is all about? The Brotherhood Experience is a free, one-hour online session where you meet other like-minded men who are committed to being family men with businesses, not businessmen with families. You will hear the core ethos and values behind the community, and why this brotherhood is a strategy for connecting with your kids, building a thriving marriage, and winning in business. It runs every month. Pick a time that works for you at https://frontrowdads.com/experience
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  Stop Working on Your Marriage. Switch to This. 08.09.2026 11min

  Nobody got married hoping to work on it. That is where Ted Lowe starts. After a long day of working hard, the last thing anybody wants is to work some more, so telling a man his marriage needs more work tends to land like a chore. His alternative is a habit he calls serious fun, built on simple accounting: you cannot make withdrawals from a relational account you never deposited into. And the hard times come, and they require withdrawals. Then he asks the question that gives this episode its name. Jon takes the second half and gets honest about a six-month stretch where his own marriage went into a storm, and the realization that came out of it: he had become boring. Too routine, too practical. So he ran a thought experiment about what he would do if they split up, realized he would immediately become fun and kind and generous for someone else, and asked himself why he wasn't doing that for the person he loves most.   IN THIS EPISODE Why "work on your marriage" is the wrong pitch to a tired man The relational bank account: deposits before withdrawals "Would you want to be married to you? Are you funny? Are you fun?" "We don't date each other. We date each other's PR department" Your best self, and why chasing the perfect couple is a trap Scheduling it, and why the anticipation is half of it Jon on becoming the boring one, and what he did about it Planning to win: your calendar fills with whatever has a who, what, when, where, and how, including root canals Looking at the days around the day, and marriage in seasons "Do you want me to fix it or feel it," and the minivan on the side of the road The scuba diving skins   FULL EPISODE How to Not Make Marriage Complicated with Ted Lowe: https://frontrowdads.com/17
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  What Does Your Marriage Look Like Twenty Years From Now? 07.09.2026 12min

  Geoff Woods set a goal of thirty-six date nights with his wife, tracked it all year, and then had to admit it wasn't working. What he found instead was the idea he spent years teaching at The ONE Thing: find the one domino that makes everything else easier or unnecessary, and knock that one over first. In his marriage it wasn't the date nights. It was a cup of coffee at 5:30 in the morning, before the kids were awake, on the couch, looking each other in the eye and asking How are you doing. This is from a training Geoff ran for the Front Row Dads brotherhood. He walks through how he goal-sets backward from twenty years out, why being the accountability guy with his wife on money backfired, and what he says to a spouse who has no interest in planning anything.   IN THIS EPISODE Why the purpose of a goal is not the result Writing down what an extraordinary marriage looks like twenty years out, then reverse engineering to this week The 411: year, month, week on one page "Me being the accountability man with my wife on money, surprisingly, did not make her love me more" The aha: getting a babysitter and going to a restaurant does not equal connection Why the coffee date turned out to be the lead domino What to say to a partner who resists planning, and why Geoff decided it was his own fault The Sunday rhythm: kids in the kids club, both 411s open, dating your goals Daphne, the private school, and why vacuuming the carpet does not matter   WANT MORE FROM GEOFF WOODS Goal Setting for Couples: https://frontrowdads.com/107 How Leaders Can Leverage AI for Strategic Thinking: https://frontrowdads.com/458
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  Do You Have a Board of Directors for Your Life? 04.09.2026 9min

  Nobody claws their way out of rock bottom alone. Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign-up at frontrowdads.com/experience Matt Aitchison was expelled from high school, arrested in college, and facing real jail time. He is quick to say that might not be your story, but that every man has his own version of the bottom: the moment you realize the way you are living is not who you are, and you are not going to let it become who you are. What rebuilt it was not dramatic. One small decision at a time, over and over, for a long stretch, which only looks like a fork in the road looking backward. He also makes the case for why the men around you matter this much: the board of directors, the people who would not let him stay down. Short, practical, and worth a listen on a hard day.   IN THIS EPISODE Expelled, arrested, and facing jail time Why your rock bottom doesn't have to look like his to count The one-small-decision-at-a-time mechanism, and why it only makes sense later Broke, living at home, borrowing money, unable to make rent The board of directors: why you need real men around you Being rich in more than money
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  The Five Versions of You (And the Sixth One You Need) w/ Dr. Kelly Flanagan 03.09.2026 15min

  Five versions of you are already running your marriage. The work is building the sixth. Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign-up at frontrowdads.com/experience   Dr. Kelly Flanagan says we each carry five versions of ourselves: the lover, the loner, the hider, the fighter, and the ruler. They formed early, they never go away, and they surface uninvited in exactly the moments that matter most. You cannot uncreate them. What you can do is build a sixth version, the one he calls the welcomer, that greets those parts and guides them instead of being run by them. Recorded live at one of our online summits, this one moves from framework into three real stories, and the last one is the reason to stay to the end.   IN THIS EPISODE The five versions: the lover, the loner, the hider, the fighter, the ruler Why the lover is the original self, the one you arrived with Why you can't uncreate the selves you've created, and what to do instead The sixth version, the welcomer, and how you actually build it Will Smith, Chris Rock, and the twelve-year-old boy who finally got his chance The pastor who invited his six-year-old self up to preach, and gave the best sermon of his life The car charger fight, and the moment he realized the shaken little girl wasn't his daughter   WANT MORE? This was a members-only online summit, so there is no public episode to link. Learn more about the room where these happen at frontrowdads.com
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  The 5 Levels of Every Marriage (And How to Move Up) 02.09.2026 28min

  Every marriage is sitting on one of five levels right now. Here is how to find yours and how to climb. Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign-up at frontrowdads.com/experience Recorded live at one of our online summits, Jayson Gaddis walks through the five levels of partnership, from survival at level one to the spiritual union at level five that most couples never reach. He is upfront that the model is his own, built from almost thirty years of sitting in circle with couples. Most long marriages, he says, stall at level three: stable, functional, and quietly unable to talk about the hard things. Then he gets practical about the one thing that actually moves a marriage up: repair. The conflict repair cycle, the two skills of speaking first and listening first, why a man's urge to fix his wife's pain backfires, and what to do when you feel you cannot bring your own feelings into your own marriage.   IN THIS EPISODE The five levels, and how to tell which one you are on Level one: mating and survival, and why people stay where they are hurt Why most long marriages stall at level three The conflict repair cycle, and what skipping repair hollows out The two repair skills almost nobody is taught Why fixing your wife's pain isn't love, and what to do instead How to work with a partner who won't own their part   WANT MORE This was a members-only online summit, so there is no public episode to link. It is the kind of room we build for dads who want to win at home the same way they win at work. Learn more at frontrowdads.com
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  The 3 Rules That Make Date Night Actually Happen 01.09.2026 7min

  Most date nights quietly die for the same reason, and it isn't love. Nobody scheduled it.   Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign-up at frontrowdads.com/experience   Jim Sheils wrote The Family Board Meeting, and he and his wife have run a date-night system every week for years. It takes about five minutes to learn. Same day and time every week, locked on the calendar. No phones. And one or two real questions you don't already know the answer to. He is blunt about why it fails. It fails for the same reason the family board meeting fails: that which we schedule gets done. He tells the story of a nine-figure entrepreneur who could not make it stick until Sheils got his assistant on the phone and had her block every week for a year. It has run ever since.   IN THIS EPISODE Why date night fails for the same reason the family board meeting fails The nine-figure entrepreneur whose assistant had to block a full year Same day, same time, every week, and why "we'll find a night" never works Why the phone doesn't come along The difference between "how was your day" and a question that opens someone up What happens after a year of one real question a week Why couples married thirty and forty years still learn something new   FULL EPISODE How Family Board Meetings Can Level Up Your Family Life: https://frontrowdads.com/389  
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  Stop Telling Your Kids to Stop. Then Let Them Teach You 31.08.2026 8min

  The thing you keep telling your kid to stop doing might be exactly what they're built for. (Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign-up at frontrowdads.com/experience) Giovanni Marsico has spent his career helping people find and use their gifts, and in this Quick Cut from 2024, he turns that lens on parenting. He starts somewhere uncomfortable: under stress, parents fall back on how they were raised, and the fastest word to come out is stop. Stop with the questions. Stop being so loud. Stop being so much. He knows it from the other side. At sixteen, he was producing events, a thousand people at his first party, and what he heard at home was don't do that party thing. The trait underneath the annoyance was the career. Then he catches himself in the same trap in real time, mid-story, with his own endlessly questioning kid. It closes with his eleven-year-old's soccer lesson becoming the family's mantra for the year, get open, which is proof that the learning in a family runs both directions.   IN THIS EPISODE Why stressed parents default to how they were raised The thousand-person party, and being told to stop doing it "Stop with the questions," and the moment Gio caught himself The reframe: the annoying trait is usually the gift, undeveloped How "get open" went from a soccer field to the family's phrase for the year Kids co-creating the family culture, and why it makes them feel powerful   FULL EPISODE Manufacturing Serendipity, Sharing Your Superhero Powers: https://frontrowdads.com/423
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  How Four Men Deal With the Hard Stuff 28.08.2026 10min

  Four men. Same question. Two completely different answers: is it powering through strength, or is it avoidance? Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Sign up at frontrowdads.com/experience.   We pulled four opposing takes from across ten years of the archive and let them collide. Brian Johnson opens with the case for hardship: it is supposed to be hard, and the only way to build real trust in yourself is doing what you said you would do, especially when you don't feel like it. Stefanos Sifandos complicates it. The thing you are avoiding is usually the thing you most need to do, and if your drive is sourced from an old wound, it will not hold. His buffalo runs into the storm rather than away from it, together, because that is how you get through faster. Nik Hulewsky takes the other side. After losing his son, man up stopped working, and it was his wife telling him to go see somebody that changed everything. Then Josh Trent turns the question over: we call a 150-hour week courage, and we do not count facing what you feel as hard at all.   IN THIS EPISODE: "It's supposed to be hard": antifragile confidence and doing what you say you'll do Why the thing you're avoiding is usually the thing you most need to do Where your drive is sourced from, and why one built on an old wound won't hold The buffalo that runs into the storm rather than away from it, together, to get through faster "The solution isn't always power through it or be a man": when help is the strong move The courage nobody celebrates: facing what you actually feel   WANT THE BOOKS? The book list we mention in this episode: over 100 books Front Row Dads recommends, the ones that changed how these guys operate at home and at work. Free at frontrowdads.com/books   WANT THE FULL STORY? All four come from full episodes worth your time: - Brian Johnson on heroism and training for the 21st century: frontrowdads.com/412 - Stefanos Sifandos on facing fears and letting go of the past: frontrowdads.com/344 - Nik Hulewsky on the four advantages for entrepreneurs: frontrowdads.com/453 - Josh Trent on the H.A.L.T. framework (hungry, angry, lonely, tired): frontrowdads.com/327  
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  The Three Emotions That Sink Good Men 27.08.2026 21min

  Quick test: how do you deal with your neediness? If you just cringed, you found your enemy emotion. (Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share, and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign up at frontrowdads.com/experience)   Psychiatrist Dr. Laura Dabney has spent her career working with successful men who buried three feelings so deep they stopped recognizing them: neediness, anger, and sadness. In this Deep Cut from the vault (recorded in 2019), she maps what each one turns into when it goes underground: neediness becomes compulsive giving, sadness becomes relentless positivity and joking, and anger becomes the blowup you swore you'd never have. Jon goes first: the punched wall, the need for validation he'd been dressing up as contribution, the positivity that was really sadness-avoidance. Then Dabney lays out the way back: accept the feeling, catch yourself invalidating it, journal with a purpose, and start with you before you manage everyone else's reaction. It ends with the story of a patient who couldn't ask a woman on a date and now sends her postcards of his four kids.   IN THIS EPISODE: The cringe test for finding your enemy emotion What buried neediness, anger, and sadness each turn into "Winning, but you don't realize the price you're paying on the flip side" Why being sad in front of people isn't selfish, and why that word is a trap Journaling with a purpose: practicing the right thing instead of rehearsing the wrong one The turnaround story: from suicidal and stuck at home to married with four kids WANT THE BOOKS? The book list we mention in this episode: over 100 books Front Row Dads recommends, the ones that changed how these guys operate at home and at work. Free at frontrowdads.com/books   WANT THE FULL STORY? The full conversation also covers stopping anger before it becomes a blow-up, why men funnel every emotion into sex, and the boundary conversation that saved a military man's marriage. Hear the whole thing: "How Men Deal With Neediness, Anger and Sadness with Dr. Laura Dabney" : frontrowdads.com/74  
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  You're the Bow, Not the Arrow: How He Sees His Job as a Dad 25.08.2026 6min

  Ask young fathers how to raise great kids and you get 72 steps. Ask the old guys and you get two words: just love them. (Want a taste of what Front Row Dads is actually like? Come sit in on a live Brotherhood Experience. It's 60 minutes on Zoom with Jon and a few other dads, free, and it's the easiest way to find out whether a room like this is for you. You don't have to share and you don't have to prepare. Dates and sign-up at frontrowdads.com/experience) David Osborn has built companies, written books, and taken his kids around the world. Ask him what a father is actually for and he goes to Rumi: you're the bow, your kids are the arrows. Your job is to be steady, and let them go. In this quick clip he walks through what that looks like on a normal day — loving his wife hard enough that the kids see it, keeping their world wide, and holding a clear picture of the grandfather he wants to be. And when his 15-year-old walks in and looks at him like he's annoying, he hugs her anyway and tells her the truth: I don't understand you right now, and you probably don't understand me, but I love you.   IN THIS EPISODE: - Rumi's bow and arrow: what a dad is actually for - "Keep exposing them" — why he keeps widening their world - Loving his wife hard, where the kids can see it - The vision he's working backward from, right down to the grandkids - What he says to a teenager who finds him annoying   WANT THE BOOKS? The book list we mention in this episode: over 100 books Front Row Dads recommend, the ones that changed how these guys operate at home and at work. Free at frontrowdads.com/books   WANT THE FULL STORY? The full conversation goes into Osborn's Nepal orphanage trip with his son, raising wealthy kids without entitlement, and letting teenagers graduate to autonomy. Hear the whole thing: "Unlocking Adventure, Fatherhood, and a Life of Purpose with David Osborn" -> frontrowdads.com/476  
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  Stop Waiting for Your Son to Grow Up (here's your role) 24.08.2026 23min

  "If we do not initiate our sons, they will burn down the village just to feel the heat." That African proverb is where this one starts, and Chris Bruno, counsellor, author of The Man Maker Project, and a dad who built a year-long rite of passage for his own son, spends the next twenty minutes showing what it demands of a father. This is a Deep Cut from a 2024 members-only session: what a rite of passage actually is (they are happening around your son constantly, whether you design one or not), why the passage from boy to man does not happen by accident, what ancient cultures knew that we dropped, and the difference between raising boys and raising girls: dad leads the charge for the boy, and stands under the charge for the girl.   IN THIS EPISODE: The proverb: uninitiated boys burn down the village to feel the heat Rites of passage are already happening around your son, unsupervised The Man Maker Project: the year-long process Bruno built for his own son Why a boy must be called out, tested, and welcomed back by men Boys need your heat, girls need your warmth: the difference in dad's role  "I cannot lead my daughter into womanhood, but I can support it"   WANT MORE? This session was a members-only deep dive into the brotherhood, the kind of conversation that doesn't happen at a backyard barbecue. If you want to be in the room where these happen, join our next brotherhood experience and find out more. Frontrowdads.com/experience  
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  Why You Keep Learning the Same Lesson Over and Over | Walk With Jon 22.08.2026 9min

  Having the same realization five times doesn't mean you failed the first four.   Episode 3 of Walk With Jon. No studio, no script, no guest, no editing. Jon Vroman on a walking trail near his house, thinking out loud. The audio is rough on purpose. He even fumbles an old saying mid-walk and leaves it in: "Like I said, these are unscripted mistakes and all." Jon walked this one listening to his own voice notes from the last five to eight years. A week earlier he'd pulled out a bin holding 30 to 50 journals, most of them a quarter filled and abandoned. Going back through all of it, he noticed he keeps having the same realizations, over and over, each time a little deeper. His take on why: "It's not about learning something new. It's about remembering something true." Self-reflection is a workout, not a graduation. You don't go to the gym once and stay strong. He's honest about the other side of reviewing decades of your own notes: the shame of feeling like you should be further ahead, and the sheer number of things a man is supposed to master. But the point of this walk is the honoring. Front Row Dads turns ten in October 2026, back in Philadelphia where it started, and Jon has watched men keep showing up for that entire run. His ask this morning is simple: put your hand on your heart and thank yourself for showing up and doing the work.   IN THIS WALK: Listening back to five to eight years of his own voice notes The bin of 30 to 50 journals, most of them mostly blank "It's not always about learning something new, it's about remembering what's true" The shame of "I should be further ahead," and the comparison game Ten years of Front Row Dads, October 2026, back to Philadelphia Hand on your heart: thank yourself for showing up The homework: a friend found one recurring pattern across 25 years of journals. What are yours?   Jon reads every reply. Send your thoughts to [email protected]. And if this one hit home, share it with another brother and start the conversation. Front Row Dads is a brotherhood of family men with businesses, not businessmen with families. To learn more, go to frontrowdads.com.  
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  How I'd Do Early Fatherhood (If I Could Start Over) 21.08.2026 19min

  "I would say to my wife, I need to get to the coffee shop by seven, because I couldn't be hassled by the kids in the morning." For ten years, Jon Vroman has asked the questions on this show. To close the first week of Good Questions, he answers them. This is Jon in the hot seat: how the man who founded Front Row Dads would have introduced himself before it existed (speaker, charity founder, ultramarathoner... and, toward the end of the list, a husband and dad), what he believed fatherhood was in the early years, and what he would do differently if he could start over. He is honest about the survival seasons, six figures in the bank to six figures in debt, and about the beliefs underneath his choices. Then he lays out what changed: a calendar that puts his kids first, the shift from providing for his boys to nurturing them, the rite of passage he is building through their 10-to-20 decade, and the one invitation he would give every father listening.   IN THIS EPISODE: "What do you do?" answered by the old Jon and the new one What he valued before: achievement, progress, significance, and a calendar that proved it The coffee-shop-by-seven confession, and the belief about fatherhood hiding underneath it Six figures in the bank to six figures in debt: the survival season nobody romanticizes The 7-to-9am block on his calendar that just says "kids" Nurturing the spirit of the child in front of you, and the 10-to-20 rite of passage decade The invitation: find your crew and lean in all the way   📘 These aren't just business books. They're about building a legacy—at home and in your work. Curated by successful, family-first entrepreneurs. 👉 Get the full list: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast-books   WANT THE FULL STORY? This conversation comes from "Fatherhood Before and After FRD: Jon Vroman." Hear the whole thing. And if his invitation landed, that is what the brotherhood is. Learn more at frontrowdads.com
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  How Three Men Deal With Their Anger 20.08.2026 11min

  "Do you ever lose your cool? Do you ever just yell?" It gets asked point-blank in this one, and the three answers could not be more different. Ryan Deiss, founder of DigitalMarketer, says he is not a yeller, then tells you exactly where his line is and what happened the one time somebody made his wife feel unsafe in her own home. Connor Beaton, who leads men's work through ManTalks, traces the charge underneath a man's anger back to what it is actually made of, and lays out his move from a medicated way of being to a meditative one. And then the question turns raw: one of the questions in this episode is not for a guest at all. It is a dad admitting he goes from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye and asking breathwork coach Charles Clay, can you fix me? Clay's answer, catching where anger shows up in your body and naming what you need out loud, is a tool you can use tonight.   IN THIS EPISODE: "I'm not a yeller": Deiss on living at a three and what it takes to hit his eleven Why no yelling, no slammed doors, and no thrown things is a household rule, not a temperament Beaton on the internal charge under a man's anger, and where it comes from Moving from medicating the intensity to working with it: breath, cold, stillness "Zero to a hundred in a blink": the honest confession at the center of the episode Clay's toolkit: the 4-8 breath, finding the anger in your body, and saying what you need   💼 These books helped us integrate purpose at work and peace at home. They've transformed how we show up—for our clients, our kids, and ourselves. 📖 Get the list: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast-books   WANT THE FULL STORY? All three of these came from full episodes worth your time: - Ryan Deiss on avoiding the regrets of success as an entrepreneur father: frontrowdads.com/495 - Connor Beaton on shattering the mask of masculinity: frontrowdads.com/378 - Charles Clay on the advantages of feeling more, not just better: frontrowdads.com/317  
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  How Three Dads Deal With Apologies, Wounds, and Forgiveness 19.08.2026 25min

  "Every decision I've ever made in my life, good and bad, has been in an effort to get my father to tell me he loved me." This one moves in three parts: the apology you owe your kids, the dance you are still in with your own dad, and the forgiveness that sets you free. It starts at a kitchen table, where a dad raising his voice over math homework suddenly recognizes the scene, because he lived it at his son's age, on the other side of the table. Psychologist Dr. Kelly Flanagan takes the question everyone asks after a moment like that, "Did I repair it okay?", and reframes the whole thing: your kids don't need you to be perfect, and an apology is a gift, because it teaches them they don't have to be perfect either. Then Ryland Englehart of Cafe Gratitude gets asked for a painful memory of his father and lands somewhere more honest: gratitude first, and a dance with his dad's expectations that is still alive today, because a son spends his life trying to prove his father wrong or make his father proud. And then Michael Chernow, who built The Meatball Shop and Seamore's, answers the hardest version of the question: have you forgiven him? What follows- a father lost during Chernow's addiction, and the moment years later when he finally heard the words he had been chasing- is one of the most powerful stretches of tape in our archive.   IN THIS EPISODE: The kitchen-table moment: recognizing your own childhood wound mid-yell "We worry from our wounds": why your reaction is about you before it is about them Flanagan on why apologizing to your kids is a gift, not a failure The empathy-vs-boundaries pendulum our generation of parents swings on Englehart on the expectations dance with his dad, still running today "Prove his father wrong or make his father proud": the paradigm most men live inside Chernow on hating his father, losing him, and the breathwork session where he finally heard "I love you" What forgiveness actually freed him to build at home   🚀 You're building a business—but are you building your family with the same intention? These books helped us do both. 📘 Grab the list here: frontrowdads.com/books   WANT THE FULL STORY? All three of these came from full episodes worth your time: Dr. Kelly Flanagan on the two things every parent must hold in balance: frontrowdads.com/85 Ryland Englehart on growing up wild, and the rooftop in San Francisco where he made amends with his dad: frontrowdads.com/488 Michael Chernow on building a legacy at home, not just in business: frontrowdads.com/477  
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  How Successful Dads Deal With the Spoiled-Kid Problem 18.08.2026 15min

  Give your kids enough that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing. That Warren Buffett line is where this one starts. You worked hard so your family could have a good life. So how do you keep the life you built from softening the kids you love? This is the first episode of Good Questions, where we pull the best questions dads have asked across ten years of podcasts and member-only conversations, and stack the answers worth keeping. Four dads take this one on: Mike McCarthy on being honest with your kids about your wealth and what the trust will and will not do, Chad Willardson on raising abundance-minded kids instead of scarcity-minded ones, Scott Donnell on why you should let them waste some of their own money, and Dan Miller on how early kids should start working (his answer involves a rebuilt motorcycle and a 10-year-old).   IN THIS EPISODE: The Buffett rule: enough to do anything, not so much they do nothing What to actually tell your kids about your money, and what the trust should gate Overpaying your kids on purpose: $50 book reports and a 12-year-old's dog-walking business "Let them buy the Mountain Dew": why a wasted $30 now beats a wasted $3,000 later The $410 motorcycle rebuild that taught a 10-year-old to earn what he rides Why kids learn economics from life experiences, not from sitting in seats   📚 Want to win at home and in business? These are the books that helped high-performing dads create deeper relationships and stronger lives—without sacrificing success. 👉 Get the list: frontrowdads.com/books   WANT THE FULL STORY? Dan Miller's full conversation covers raising kids who love what they do, chores vs. paid work, and natural learning. Hear the whole thing: "Raising Kids Who Love What They Do with Dan Miller" -> frontrowdads.com/15 The McCarthy, Willardson, and Donnell answers come from member-exclusive sessions inside the brotherhood, the kind of conversations that don't happen at a backyard barbecue. If you want in the room, learn more at frontrowdads.com  
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  You Can't Force Your Kid to Follow You: Why Correcting Costs Influence 17.08.2026 9min

  You can't force a child to make you their mentor. They choose. And most of us are quietly spending that choice on being right. That's the argument in Hold On to Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate, and it's the book two dads in this community keep coming back to. In this Bookshelf, they take it from both ends. John Berardi makes the case that a child is always looking for someone to guide them through life, and that they get to pick who. You can make a kid put on clothes. You can take things away. But you cannot make them choose you as the one they learn from, which is why the attachment has to come before the discipline. And if they don't pick you, they'll pick their peers, sometimes as early as nine. His warning about the book is worth hearing too: it's long, and the practical payoff is in the last few chapters. Hal Elrod brings the one line he pulled straight out of the book and taped to his fridge, where it's stayed for two years: prioritize the relationship with your child above correcting their behavior. Most of us correct constantly, and we do it at the expense of the bond. Yelling doesn't build influence, it spends it. So he bites his tongue and asks what matters more right now: the relationship or catching them doing something wrong. Nine times out of ten, it's the relationship. He also names the trap on the other side: you threaten, they comply, you feel like you won, and that short-term victory quietly costs you the long game.   IN THIS EPISODE: Why a child chooses who leads them, and why you can't force it Attachment before discipline: the book's core argument What happens if they don't pick you (peers, sometimes by nine years old) Leadership by example instead of authority, and why "good kids who follow every rule" isn't the goal The paragraph on Hal's fridge: relationship above correction Why yelling diminishes your influence instead of building it The short-term compliance trap, and what it costs you later Berardi's honest warning about reading the book   📘 These aren't just business books. They're about building a legacy—at home and in your work. Curated by successful, family-first entrepreneurs. 👉 Get the full list: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast-books   WANT THE FULL STORY? Both of these came from full episodes worth your time: John Berardi's conversation goes into raising kids around wealth, leadership vs. bullying, and asking your kids how to be a better dad. Hear the whole thing: "The 3-Year Old Ninja Warrior with John Berardi" -> frontrowdads.com/122 Hal Elrod's episode covers the parenting blind spots, protecting family time, and screens. Hear the whole thing: "Marriage, Parenting & Work: A Family Leader's Guide to Success with Hal Elrod" -> frontrowdads.com/338  
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  Take Away Dad, Husband, Business Owner. Who's Left? | Walk With Jon 15.08.2026 13min

  The greatest gift you can give your kids has nothing to do with them. Episode 2 of Walk With Jon. No studio, no script, no guest, no editing. Jon Vroman on a walking trail near his house, thinking out loud, this time with his dog Davy along for the walk. The audio is rough on purpose: wind, footsteps, and a dog on a leash are part of the deal. Jon has been doing interviews for the Front Row Dads book, due out late 2026 or early 2027, and two of those conversations ended up in the same place. The first was about the tagline, family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, and where it came from. In Jon's words, it was born out of failure: first he needed the $5,000 speech to take care of his family, then how could he say no to $10,000, then $30,000, because he was doing it for his family. The question he asks now: do our kids need that extra income, or do they need dad at home? The second was with a member whose daughter is about to leave home. Her advice to her dad: figure out who you are, and go do those things. That line is the seed of the whole walk, and where it lands is where Jon suspects the book lands too: "The greatest gift that you can give is self-love and self-respect." Not something you tell your kids. Something you model.   IN THIS WALK:   The Front Row Dads book: interviews underway, out late 2026 or early 2027 The $5,000 to $30,000 speaking fee trap, and hiding behind "I'm doing it for my family" A member's daughter with the best advice on the walk: figure out who you are, and go do those things James Van Der Beek, and the identity that survives when illness strips the others away Who is Jon without Tatiana? Why every unenforced boundary traces back to the same root: self-respect   Jon reads every reply. Send your thoughts to [email protected]. And if this one hit home, share it with another brother and start the conversation. Front Row Dads is a brotherhood of family men with businesses, not businessmen with families. To learn more, go to frontrowdads.com.