EP135: How To Become A More Devoted Dad

Interview with Kevin Goodnight / Founder of Dadvoted Fatherhood Coaching

HOSTED BY PAUL SULLIVAN

Being a devoted dad is a challenge we often feel we fall short on. But what if we’re closer than we think? Kevin Goodnight - author, fatherhood coach, and founder of Dadvoted - helps dads meet their goals, understand their generational impact, and realize it’s all within reach. His insights are invaluable.

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Transcript

00;00;00;03 - 00;00;25;02
Kevin Goodnight
It's complete intentionality. It's, it's a lot of things of, knowing your child's heart. Every child's different. Knowing your child's personality. Because we all have an example of what we want kids to be. But every kid's different. Their personality is different. We can change their character, but we can't change their personality. That's the biggest thing. And then really, it's just there's intentional steps, real conversations.

00;00;25;02 - 00;00;33;12
Kevin Goodnight
How are we having real conversation?

00;00;33;15 - 00;00;57;13
Paul Sullivan
Welcome to the Company of Dads podcast. After 120 plus episodes, we've started to do something different this season. I'm still your host, Paul Sullivan, and we're still focused on working dads working moms and how small changes at home or work can have a big impact on their lives. What's new is each episode now promises to deliver actionable advice on some area of concern at home or at work.

00;00;57;16 - 00;01;22;22
Paul Sullivan
Short. Direct. Again. Actionable. Five questions. Five answers. This week, our guest is Kevin Goodnight, Author of Dadvoted Developing devoted Dads. Father of two. The man is on a mission. He came to this after nearly a two decade career in sales. He's living in Houston, and he's here to help dads be more devoted fathers. Welcome, Kevin, to the company of dads podcast.

00;01;22;25 - 00;01;36;07
Kevin Goodnight
I love it, I love it. Beautiful morning here in Houston, Texas. And like I think I said the coffee's flowing, so I'm amped up and ready to, challenge and charge the men and dads, of the company of dad. So glad to be here, my man.

00;01;36;09 - 00;01;46;27
Paul Sullivan
Love it. So, two decades, in sales. What brought you to to dad work. And you know, what can other dads learn from from your journey?

00;01;46;29 - 00;02;02;22
Kevin Goodnight
Wow, that's a great question. And look, even five years ago, three years ago, if you would ask me this question. It was about building my own kingdom. I was that corporate guy. I was climbing the ladder. I was doing what you're supposed supposed to do, right? In quotations, making money and air quotes.

00;02;02;22 - 00;02;05;10
Paul Sullivan
Air. Yeah. Just listening to it. Yeah.

00;02;05;17 - 00;02;29;22
Kevin Goodnight
I'm making all the money. I've got the title, I've got the wife. I've got the beautiful kids. I got the white picket fence. I mean, the American dream is is it's being lived and it's. And I'm doing it right, doing it well and dominating for lack of a better word. Right. That's what you're supposed to do is as men and literally it was just kind of a it was a little bit of a burnout mixed with, kind of a divine kick in the face.

00;02;29;22 - 00;02;54;09
Kevin Goodnight
And, I found myself just kind of really in depth, drinking a lot. Right? There was always a good day. There's always a good day to celebrate. There's always a good day to drown your sorrows. Commuting two hours a day. And for me, kind of just woke up one day and it had to stop. And I love to say I just here and here, it was another year and a half journey and, I didn't even consider myself a writer, Paul.

00;02;54;09 - 00;03;11;28
Kevin Goodnight
It was just one of those things that I was journaling. And I told my wife, I said, look, I think this could become a book and that's it. And six months later at a wedding, a lady I'd never met before said, you're going to write a book one day, and it's going to impact men and dads. And I looked at it, looked at my wife, and I said, excuse me.

00;03;11;28 - 00;03;30;18
Kevin Goodnight
And I've been talking about this, and and I come from a background of faith and, and, but you would think it started overnight. It was still this just drag and push of trying to figure it out, including a sobriety journey. So to answer your question, there was no linear path. It was I was here then a transition phase.

00;03;30;21 - 00;03;40;06
Kevin Goodnight
And now I guess I'm having my half time moment of just complete living for significance. And it's beautiful. So I hope that answers kind of the the genesis of it all.

00;03;40;08 - 00;03;51;21
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. And when you tell that story about your own journey, what what do you hope you know, other dads can, can get from, you know, the changes that you made in your life for yourself or for your family.

00;03;51;24 - 00;04;09;14
Kevin Goodnight
Yeah. It's it's never too late. I do too I talked to a lot of dads that have that older teenager kids. I kind of I press hard into dads and say, look, from 5 to 11 is your biggest years of impact. And I always get the dad who raises his hand is like, yeah, my kids are 13 and 15 and 17 and I screwed up.

00;04;09;21 - 00;04;27;05
Kevin Goodnight
What do I do? Right? And so that's where I say, look, it's never too late to start. You may have to eat some humble pie. If you're in that later stage, you may have to start over and refresh and build that trust. But my whole point is that men, it's never. It's never too late. You were made to be more.

00;04;27;05 - 00;04;48;10
Kevin Goodnight
You were made to, to impact the next generation and not just the next generation. We're talking the next and the next and the next. So my whole thing is, how do we get men in that mindset? It's not about just raising kids to be contributing members to society. It's how are you doing it so their kids and their kids and in such a way that we throw the word legacy around.

00;04;48;10 - 00;04;52;27
Kevin Goodnight
But it's just that, how are you living a legacy versus just leaving a legacy?

00;04;52;29 - 00;05;09;12
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. That's excellent. Question two you talk about levels of of fatherhood in the book. What are the five levels of fatherhood and sort of walk the listeners through how you sort of rise up that that ladder?

00;05;09;15 - 00;05;29;26
Kevin Goodnight
Yeah, absolutely. Unfortunately, we we know about the deserted dad, the dad who's not there, who's not physically present in the house. And I think and the stats show what, you know, 45% of homes don't have a father in them. But then there's the percentage of dads that are in the home that aren't active or present. And I think that's kind of where the next level kind of starts to go down.

00;05;29;26 - 00;05;47;02
Kevin Goodnight
Dominant dad. Dominant dad is that he's a my way or the highway kind of honestly probably how a lot of us were raised. Nothing wrong against our fathers, but it wasn't a lot of love. It was more about performance. It was more about driving, those types of things. So you got deserted, dad. Dominant dad. You got the desire.

00;05;47;02 - 00;06;04;24
Kevin Goodnight
Dad. This is a desired dad. He wants to be a good dad. But again, this is where I was. I was building my own kingdom. It was all about me. Me, me. More of a friend to their kids, which that's good later in life, but not not early on. And then so after the dominant, the deserted, the dominant desire.

00;06;04;24 - 00;06;24;17
Kevin Goodnight
Dad, we have a determined dad. This is the good dad. This is the dad that's coaching the football games. He's coaching the soccer teams. He's there on Saturdays. He's showing up to the events. But he thinks he has to do more. And it's not about doing more. It's about being more. And so there's that fine line. And where I'm seeing is there's a ton of determined dads.

00;06;24;20 - 00;06;35;04
Kevin Goodnight
And to become a devoted dad. Yeah. Or dad voted, as I've termed it, it. There's just such it's just a small level of intentionality on certain things. It's not. It's some habits of some rhythms.

00;06;35;04 - 00;06;48;04
Paul Sullivan
It's some give it, some might give it some it. Yeah. Some examples like that. That fourth level. They're determined. Dad. That sounds pretty good for, for for most you it's a how do you get, you know, to crank it a little bit more to get to that fifth level devoted or dad voted dad. Yeah.

00;06;48;05 - 00;07;10;03
Kevin Goodnight
It's it's it's complete intentionality. It's, it's a lot of things of, knowing your child's heart. Every child's different knowing your child's personality. Because we all have a an example of what we want kids to be. But every kid's different. Their personality is different. We can change their character, but we can't change their personality. That's the biggest thing.

00;07;10;06 - 00;07;31;28
Kevin Goodnight
And then really, it's just there's intentional steps, real conversations. How are we having real conversations? Are we having dinner three times or, a meal three times a week? That's a step. But 21 meals, if we eat three day, we just need three meals together with our kids. And the stats show that they're going to be better, contributors to society, they're going to be smarter.

00;07;31;28 - 00;07;50;20
Kevin Goodnight
They're going to all these crazy stats that just all back into three, three meals a week. So I think that's the the kicker of, sometimes though, it's hard things like it's if an event or an activity isn't feeding your family, a kid's doing travel sports and it splits the family, maybe you have to make that tough decision and not do that.

00;07;50;20 - 00;08;08;09
Kevin Goodnight
Travel, sport. We did it. We quit year round swimming because we were two hours a day, twice going left. I'm going right. Yeah. And we never saw each other. So that's really that, that kicker. And there's some other things we'll talk about some specific tangible habits, that I think are not habits, just a rhythm that we have to have.

00;08;08;11 - 00;08;15;23
Kevin Goodnight
But yeah, that's really where the draw the line in the sand. And most men are so close, they just got to get over that little hump.

00;08;15;25 - 00;08;23;26
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. This is awesome. You know, question three. You know what's holding fathers back from from getting better.

00;08;23;29 - 00;08;50;13
Kevin Goodnight
Oh, wow. I think the biggest thing that right now is, busyness. Right. Busyness is holds most men back the perception of busyness. Right. There's, there's that's probably the number one thing. And then there's just some fear. I think, a lot of men just, they are so close, but there's something holding them back.

00;08;50;13 - 00;09;09;21
Kevin Goodnight
And again, this is not a shot at, men. It's like, look, man, I want to. I want to help six men, whatever that means. But at the end of the day, I want them to change their mindset about the next generation. What are you doing to lead the next generation? Teaching, training, inspiring your kids just to be a little bit, a little bit better.

00;09;09;21 - 00;09;27;28
Kevin Goodnight
That's that's probably the biggest thing that I see that's holding them back is they just don't know where to start. They're scared about technology. They're scared about having tough conversations. All of a sudden the kids become teenagers and peer influence takes over and you're going, Holy crap, what happened? And they just they just white knuckle through life and they're good at work.

00;09;28;00 - 00;09;32;16
Kevin Goodnight
They're accepted at work, they're good at work. They're making the money. So they go where they're accepted. Yeah.

00;09;32;16 - 00;09;35;04
Paul Sullivan
And and the things that we're good at. Yeah, yeah, we.

00;09;35;04 - 00;09;53;22
Kevin Goodnight
Do things that we're good at and then if a spouse depending on the spouse, in the picture, out of the picture, whatever, if she's not supportive or she takes over that as you call that lead role. Right. And we love our brides. We love our wives there. So mothers are so beautiful in the process. But sometimes she has to let us lead as well.

00;09;53;22 - 00;09;57;10
Kevin Goodnight
So there's, that's a, that's a whole that's a whole podcast or book probably. There.

00;09;57;12 - 00;10;11;03
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. You talked about that. Yeah. They're like you know, dads getting, you know, stock instead of reverting to things where they're having success. And you know, it's like if if you're good at basketball as a kid, you play more basketball. You if you stink at baseball, you when you get a basketball, you you play more basketball and baseball.

00;10;11;04 - 00;10;33;02
Paul Sullivan
But you know, when you this is more important than that because this is your children. This is being a father. This is, you know, really, you know, helping them, you know, not just physically but but psychologically to get through life. So how do you help fathers get unstuck and how do you help them if they're at, you know, level to get to, you know, level four.

00;10;33;05 - 00;10;50;04
Kevin Goodnight
Yeah. Wow. Beautiful question. And and again, you also have to think back before I answered that of where most dads are. You're 30 low 30s. You're on this part of the ladder. So you're trying to build yourself up and all of a sudden you have a five and six year old and you're now you've reached a VP or director's status.

00;10;50;04 - 00;11;08;02
Kevin Goodnight
And it's just it's it's hard and it's it's kind of the Western way of, of doing it. So you have to be completely different. You have to be so intentional. You have to have that mission minded of, of what are we doing to impact the family, and what are we doing to raise these amazing gifts and these amazing kids?

00;11;08;04 - 00;11;31;19
Kevin Goodnight
That first thing it really starts with, it's identity and purpose. I mean, look at those are big words. Everybody uses those words. But if you don't, you can't lead. If you don't know who you are. So, and that's a whole other I take it from more of a spiritual, endeavor of of who you are as an identity, as that as a dearly loved child and then you move into what is your specific calling in life.

00;11;31;22 - 00;11;51;10
Kevin Goodnight
So if men know that they're they delegate better at work, they show up better at home. They love people better. It's just this whole crazy, thing, but I, I usually start with the basics. Where are your boundaries? Okay. What are your non-negotiables? What is your identity? What are your expectations at work? We have a ton of expectations.

00;11;51;13 - 00;12;11;19
Kevin Goodnight
At home, let's have no expectations. And and like, now let me rephrase that because you're I love it. I see your face. Yeah. Yes. We have high expectations on our kids future. We want them to do well. We want them to try hard, but we should eliminate our expectations. Because the higher our expectations, the more irritations come.

00;12;11;21 - 00;12;28;12
Kevin Goodnight
And so if I come home already expecting dinner to be on the table and dinner is not on the table, I'm irritated. But if I come in with a no expectations mindset, my wife come, I come in and she's flustered and the kids are going left and right and I have no expectations. I go, okay, I got this.

00;12;28;12 - 00;12;32;02
Kevin Goodnight
Boom. I read the room and I take it so that's a that's a hard one to get.

00;12;32;03 - 00;12;35;07
Paul Sullivan
I like the way you. Yeah explained it. Once you explain the word it makes a lot more.

00;12;35;07 - 00;12;58;03
Kevin Goodnight
So you got to have expectations in life, right? You gotta have somebody and some things. We got to eliminate expectations and, and, and that's, that's where I really start to talk about, you know, men and dads, I sometimes I dive in deeper into their childhood. I'm seeing most of the same patterns. A lot of performance based parenting, a lot of performance based childhoods where my dad didn't show up until I was this.

00;12;58;03 - 00;13;16;29
Kevin Goodnight
This. And so you're seeing a lot of those people call it wounds. There's lots of things. So really, it's just diving into men to be a little bit better. How can you leave your words behind? What? Like what if, what if a tree fell on our house right now, today, during this whole conversation? Very morbid, but do my kids have my words left behind?

00;13;17;02 - 00;13;34;24
Kevin Goodnight
Do they have it in. Have I written letters to my your writer? So you can attest? I've written letters to my kids. They know how much I love them. They know my words. Sometimes it's as basic, simple, stupid as how do you told your kids you love them and do they know it in a written format? Basically. So anyways, I went a lot of writers there.

00;13;34;24 - 00;13;52;28
Paul Sullivan
Now is awesome is all right, question for you know, and a lot of what the company does as we try to sort of connect the home and work and understanding that for many people, not everyone, but for many people, you know, Covid really change that dynamic that there's, you know, more work at home or more home at work.

00;13;52;28 - 00;14;18;14
Paul Sullivan
And, you know, you talk, at one point about, you know, you say some and you hear about it having a mission and values at work. Yeah, but not at home. Yeah. And I want you to really kind of drill down on that. You know what? Why is that? Why is that? You know, the case. And how do you create, a mission and values at home the way, you know, you have one it at work and you know why you're there?

00;14;18;14 - 00;14;20;25
Paul Sullivan
You you know what you're supposed to do. So how do you create that at home?

00;14;20;27 - 00;14;37;21
Kevin Goodnight
Yeah, it's beautiful. And it's just that I said this light bulb went off and I'm a part of another nonprofit that that speaks a lot on this. But really, I was at a meeting, I spoke to 50 dads, and I said, okay, raise your hands if you at corporate have a mission, vision and values. 50 hands went up.

00;14;37;23 - 00;15;00;19
Kevin Goodnight
I said, how many of you have that at home? One hand. One hand stayed up. I go, why do we not do that? Like it's the whole like, if you don't know, it goes back to that agenda. If you don't know who you are, values, right? Your values are who you are. So when my kids, when I need to discipline my kids, I can then go back to, hey, you know, our values statement that we're leaders, that wasn't you being a really good leader, right?

00;15;00;23 - 00;15;15;05
Kevin Goodnight
So I can then use that in there. Or if we're we're reading Scripture or something in the word, one of our values pops up, my kids know it and I'm able to they know who they are. So that's kind of your your values. Same with a company. A company needs to know what their values are. Mission statement.

00;15;15;05 - 00;15;33;23
Kevin Goodnight
What do you do every day to accomplish the vision? Vision is big picture. What is our 150 year goal? Is it or what is our our ultimate existence for this company? Well, what's your ultimate existence as a parent? Is it just to raise the next generation, or is it to raise the Sullivans for 5 to 7 generations down the road?

00;15;33;26 - 00;15;38;17
Paul Sullivan
So I'm having trouble with the three right now. I mean that let's not get ahead of ourselves here, dude.

00;15;38;18 - 00;15;55;27
Kevin Goodnight
I got a teenager and so. And I got a pre-teen, so I feel you're. We had the first breakup girlfriend breakup last week, so, dude, I'm in the throes of it. I don't until your listeners, as they can hear, I'm not some PhD. I'm not. I'm just a good old dude from Texas who's just trying to be a little bit better.

00;15;55;29 - 00;16;17;01
Kevin Goodnight
And, But. Yeah. So, now you got me out of mission vision values. What what do you do every day to accomplish the vision? And it doesn't have to be this astronomical. Paragraph. I'm talking 5 to 7 words, a statement, and then you post it in your house, and everybody sees it every day, and then you can refer back to who you are.

00;16;17;01 - 00;16;32;29
Kevin Goodnight
And, and just the same as I see so many companies that I consult with, do they have the mission, vision and values right posted on the wall, but are you actually deliver them? Right. And that's and my kids, it's a level of accountability. They keep my kids keep me more accountable at times and I keep them accountable.

00;16;33;02 - 00;16;35;21
Kevin Goodnight
Which is a good thing. That's a good thing.

00;16;35;23 - 00;16;41;01
Paul Sullivan
This is awesome. We're coming to question five two soon, but it has been thoroughly enjoyable. So question.

00;16;41;01 - 00;17;01;16
Kevin Goodnight
Five. Well, we can let's let's back up to I got a tangible floor I got a okay, I got something that here's what I'm seeing for dads right. Here's I pulled LinkedIn a couple months ago because I'm trying to find out what's the biggest problem fathers are facing. Right. Where are we at. And again, I've shifted into that pre-teen teenager year.

00;17;01;19 - 00;17;27;08
Kevin Goodnight
And maybe I position the question as such. But all three things came in at about a 33%, all three topics. So they're very three big topics. Peer influence number one. Yeah, having tough conversations was number 2 or 3 I can't remember. And then technology we all know the technology piece. There's lots of ways we need to be working around technology but tough conversations technology and peer influence.

00;17;27;10 - 00;17;44;08
Kevin Goodnight
So I started looking at my boys and I have two boys. One boy is he's doing all the right things that you check on the box. You mean he's got these in the faith based acting program that his friends have? Good for parents. They're good kids. They're going to make mistakes, but they're good kids. My second son is hanging around the athletes, and there is a little bit.

00;17;44;11 - 00;18;01;09
Kevin Goodnight
I was an athlete, so I know the crowd, they're a little more rambunctious in nature, and some of the parents are a little bit rougher, around the edges. And, nothing against them. I was a I'm still a mess. But I've been a mess most of my life. And so I started thinking, how do we reach the next generation?

00;18;01;09 - 00;18;25;20
Kevin Goodnight
And sometimes it's just as simple as opening up your house. And so I've got two things for my older, for my teenager, I created something I haven't copyrighted yet. So if somebody steals it, whatever, take it and run. I'm calling it baby Q&A. So we're in Texas, baby Q&A and it's literally a fire suit, and we just have a conversation and they're eighth and ninth graders.

00;18;25;20 - 00;18;43;21
Kevin Goodnight
Sometimes it's epic. Sometimes it's about smarts and stupid stuff. I mean, it's they're 14 year old boys. But the other day I asked a question, tell me what a good friend is. And all of a sudden we started getting answers around the fire pit. What is a good friend? And then we started hearing, hey, did you hear that this guy is stealing alcohol from the gas station?

00;18;43;21 - 00;19;07;10
Kevin Goodnight
So you start hearing things, you're like, Okay, so that's being real intentional with my kids. And I picture this barbecue barbecue. And for being something when they're seniors, they still come over, right? That's the goal. My house is a safe place for them to come hang out. For my youngest, a little rougher kids group. We're doing a backyard Bible study, and it's just that it's a it's a ministry called Practice Ministries.

00;19;07;13 - 00;19;24;22
Kevin Goodnight
And we just get them, and I'm bringing in the boys. But when the boys, the dads follow. So I'm able to help. And speaking to the boys and the dads are coming and, the biggest some of the. And I'm having dads tell me, hey, man, just that eight minute drive from your my house to your house to do this.

00;19;24;22 - 00;19;42;01
Kevin Goodnight
We had a real conversation, right? It's just it's how do we create space to have those conversations? So that's, I know I won't cut you off there, but that's just too important for men to dance to know. It's like sometimes it's a fire and some really good. Yeah. And we and we're I think most dads are pretty good at that.

00;19;42;01 - 00;19;56;23
Kevin Goodnight
Right. And and then bring your kids in and daughters. The same do with your daughters and their girlfriends, dads, dads and daughters. Man, they play such a pivotal, especially in identity. Oh my gosh. Especially in identity. So anyways, I don't know.

00;19;56;23 - 00;20;16;22
Paul Sullivan
It's a great it's a great takeaway BBQ and I love it. It's a great great takeaway. So question five you know dads make dozens of small decisions each day everywhere. They make them at home, they make them at work. They make them with their friends. Some of them turn out great, some of them not so great. You know, if you're at work and you're in sales and you order, I don't know, a thousand gray shirts.

00;20;16;23 - 00;20;34;12
Paul Sullivan
Turns out nobody likes gray shirts. You don't order a thousand gray shirts again and you move on. But at home, we often think that they're small decisions. Maybe they're having a, a bigger impact. Maybe they're not. Maybe, you know, it's sort of a sum total of all the small decisions. How do you help, though, you know, how do you help fathers who want to be dad voted?

00;20;34;12 - 00;20;45;18
Paul Sullivan
How do you help them make those small decisions, make those, you know, big decisions. So it ultimately fulfills the the mission of of that family man.

00;20;45;18 - 00;21;04;05
Kevin Goodnight
A lot of it, you know, the small it's a it's a mindset. When you drive in and you've had a, you've had a day, you've gotten kicked in the face, right? Bad sales day. You've got kicked in the face. Your kids don't care when that door opens. They want their dad and I. So I think it's a it's a reset.

00;21;04;05 - 00;21;17;29
Kevin Goodnight
Every day is a reset. And so when I, when I pull up in the driveway when I was commuting two hours, it was a little like, take a deep breath, say a prayer. Okay, here we go. We're going into the fun part of your day. And it's set really that shift. And then it's up. Put the phone up.

00;21;18;01 - 00;21;36;26
Kevin Goodnight
They don't care. Turn it off unless you're saving lives. Get away. And so it's and it's hard. It's because every day. And then make that same decision the next day. Yeah. And then make that decision the next day. And then you start to see fruit. You start to see things like I went spoke at Dallas a couple months ago, and my kids had the day off from school.

00;21;36;26 - 00;21;53;02
Kevin Goodnight
And I said, I asked a 13 year old and an 11 year old, hey, I'm driving to Dallas and back tomorrow. So seven hours in the car, one hour. Speak, engage. Engagement. Do you want to come their day off the average? You would think the average teenager's like, nope, I'm out. They both were like, where do we sign up?

00;21;53;02 - 00;22;02;23
Kevin Goodnight
Yes. And I'm like, it made me sit back and go, I'm maybe I'm doing something right. My kids want to be with me. So, it's you're going to swing and miss.

00;22;02;25 - 00;22;06;18
Paul Sullivan
Are you driving them to Dallas in a Lamborghini? I mean, like a really cool car.

00;22;06;24 - 00;22;09;28
Kevin Goodnight
So be honest. It is the minivan. We're just. Okay. There you go.

00;22;10;01 - 00;22;16;00
Paul Sullivan
You got him in the minivan, then the dad's the. There's no street crap. No. No event. But, like, if you had the Lamborghini, then I get it, but not.

00;22;16;00 - 00;22;32;26
Kevin Goodnight
Yeah, and the boys are back there slinging books. They're selling books. And so there's an entrepreneurial bug kind of growing there. And I'm like, okay, this is really freaking cool. We're going to miss up. We're going to yell accidentally. We're going to get feisty. But I also think the bookends of a man's day are the most important.

00;22;33;03 - 00;22;45;29
Kevin Goodnight
How do you start your day? How do you end your day? Also, with yourself and your kids? Your bookends with your kids are somewhere in here. What's the first thing they see when they come in and see you in the morning or don't? How do how do you hear from your kids? And then the last how do you put them to bed at night?

00;22;45;29 - 00;23;06;05
Kevin Goodnight
Is it a beautiful time of storytelling, of encouragement? For us it's also prayer. And and I'm just, like, speaking life into my kids. Like you are leaders, right? Like a lot of that's just I did when when we're leaving, we're speaking truth and identity into our kids. You are different. You're a leader. You're not like other kids, you know, like there's there's all these things so bookends.

00;23;06;11 - 00;23;20;07
Kevin Goodnight
So how you, you know, just. It's all about the bookends. If we had to back it in, how do you start your day and in your day, how do you start your kid's day and, and your kid's day is probably the biggest thing. All the rest is just a lot of sludge. I guess in the middle of the day.

00;23;20;10 - 00;23;30;00
Paul Sullivan
Kevin. Good night. Author of Dad devoted, developing, devoted dad, thank you so much for being my guest today. And a company dad podcast.

00;23;30;03 - 00;23;33;17
Kevin Goodnight
Absolutely. My pleasure. Bill.

00;23;33;19 - 00;23;51;13
Paul Sullivan
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Company of Dads podcast. I really appreciate you tuning in week after week to really use this moment here, to thank the people who make it possible. Number one of course held are mirror, who is our podcast editor. We also have Skip Terry home to many of you know from Lead Diaries.

00;23;51;13 - 00;24;14;19
Paul Sullivan
He's taken over our social media. Terry Brennan is helping us with our audience development. And Emily Servant is there, each and every day helping with the web development and can't do any of this without, an amazing board, of advisors. So I just want to say thank you to all of you who help. And I want to say thank you to everyone who listens.

00;24;14;19 - 00;24;18;03
Paul Sullivan
And, hopefully you'll tune in again next week. Thanks so much.