Good Neighbor Podcast: Cobb County

E71: Men, Connection, and Growth Logan Kafer's Mission to Help Men Connect With Themselves and Others

• Milli M. & Logan Kafer • Episode 71

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Logan Kafer is changing how men approach mental health and connection through his counseling practice, Bedrock and Branch. With warmth and clarity, Logan shares his mission of helping men become more deeply connected to themselves and others around them.

The name "Bedrock and Branch" beautifully captures Logan's philosophy - establishing solid foundations of identity that withstand life's challenges, then extending outward to positively impact relationships. As he explains, when careers collapse or circumstances shift, men need unshakable self-understanding to avoid identity crises.

Logan's target demographic - typically men in their late twenties to early forties - often struggle with two common challenges: achieving goals only to find emptiness, or feeling they haven't progressed far enough in life. Both lead to the devastating "not enough" cycle that drives disconnection and sometimes addiction. Instead of viewing these as isolated personal problems, Logan recognizes them as widespread issues requiring both therapeutic intervention and community solutions.

What truly distinguishes Bedrock and Branch is its holistic approach. Beyond traditional counseling, Logan hosts monthly hangouts where men build friendships and practice authentic connection. "Guys need counseling," he notes, "but even more than honestly, guys need friends." This community-based element addresses the epidemic of male isolation in a practical, accessible way. His YouTube channel with bite-sized mental health content further extends his reach, making wellness concepts digestible for busy lives.

Drawing from his own experience with business failure and the shame that followed, Logan brings genuine empathy and hard-won wisdom to his practice. His journey taught him the difference between seeking shortcuts and embracing persistence - lessons that now benefit countless men struggling with similar challenges.

Ready to connect more deeply with yourself and others? Visit bedrockandbranchcom or find Bedrock and Branch on YouTube to discover how Logan's approach might be exactly what you've been searching for.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Millie.

Speaker 2:

M. Hello everybody and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, millie M. Are you in need of connection through counseling services? Well, I have just the person that you need to speak with. It is my pleasure to introduce your good neighbor, logan Kafer of Bedrock and Branch. How are you, logan?

Speaker 3:

I'm doing wonderful. I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. We are so excited to learn more about you and your business. Tell us more about Bedrock and Branch.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so at Baseline we exist to help men become more connected to themselves and to others. That's kind of how I would put it. The main way we do that, I would say primarily, is through counseling. So provide counseling services to men that really help them, one kind of navigate, just kind of whatever life is going they're going through in life but then to kind of helps them begin to even kind of understand how they can begin to connect to others in their life right, whether it's their spouse or friends, or maybe because, again, a lot of guys that I see, often part of what they're struggling with is connection, right, feeling disconnected to themselves in their own lives but also disconnected others.

Speaker 3:

And so I would say, primarily, one of the big pillars I provide is counseling. But in addition to that, I've created monthly hangouts for guys because I've seen this need for for connection, and so coming to these hangouts build friendship, have more intentional conversation is a way that guys can kind of begin to find that, because to me, guys need counseling, but even more than honestly, guys need friends. Guys need people that can be honest with and connect with, and so that's kind of kind of two main ways that people interact with their orphan branch in person, in addition to some online kind of youtube stuff I can talk about later I love that you added the hangouts, because we always think about traditional therapy, but just being able to, like you said, connect with other people, our peers, and things like that can be very therapeutic.

Speaker 2:

So how did you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

So I've been in counseling or been a counselor for about six years. Prior to that, part of what I thought I wanted to do was was pastor, and the thought of pastoring to me was a sense of not even sitting on a stage and preaching. Like that didn't really appeal to me as much, but really more appeal to me as I decided, like how do I help people more understand who they are, their identity, how they walk in confidence and encourage and? Um, yeah, just life throws a lot at us and sometimes it's easy to kind of not remember who we are and kind of begin to just struggle with some core beliefs. And so that was kind of like the impetus and then I kind of began to realize actually what I really want to do then is more counseling. I'd rather just sit with people and talk with them and walk through a life and help navigate their story and how their story is unfolded and how it's impacted, how they perceive themselves and what about their story. They kind of want to shed and what about?

Speaker 3:

their story do they want to kind of begin to solidify and so um. So it kind of began to lead me down this path with me, and I actually think the way I want to do this is through counseling specifically. Obviously, being a guy, I know the experience of being in man's capacity. Um, I was like specifically within men and really helping men know their worth and their value in order to to help their families or communities or neighbors um, neighbors in that way.

Speaker 2:

Makes perfect sense because we do live in a society that I don't think is always open to men expressing their emotions. You know from childhood little boys don't cry and things like that. So to be able to focus on that demographic I think is great. Tell us a little bit about this name, bedrock and Branch. I can't let you in without telling me where that came from.

Speaker 3:

Honestly, I worked with a really great agency called Summit House, based here in Atlanta, but part of what we kind of talked about in working with them is the sense of one, this foundational piece of what I work with with men in terms of identity and kind of base, in terms of where is your foundation, what is the bedrock, what are the principles in your life and the things that you are grounded upon. So, when things shake right, when things move around you because, again, so much in life we can't control right, you may have a great job, you love the job, but all sudden there's layoffs, right, you may, I don't know, have a career in singing and all of a sudden your voice goes out and you can't see. There's like these things happen. And when they happen, when you met with adversity, like where do you come back to? Where's your actual identity? And kind of you know a baseline app because again, for those things are shaken and that's fully where our identity is.

Speaker 3:

These things happen and boom, all of a sudden we have no idea who we are. We kind of begin to grasp and for straws, and so the baseline, that bedrock place, and then branching, is kind of from there, like how do we in some ways um branch out and actually kind of begin to impact our neighbors, impact our families, impact the kind of more connection pieces around us, um from our place of um identity and rest right, so we kind of know who we are? From there we can kind of begin to branch out and impact um those, those that we kind of do life around, and begin to help them in ways that are helpful and meaningful?

Speaker 2:

Makes so much sense Perfect name. So what are some of the myths and misconceptions about your industry or what you do in particular?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean I think working with men one of the biggest things obviously is that this, this myth that to need help means you're weak, when I would say, mostly to me, to need help means you're human Right, and say mostly to need help means you're human right. And so how do men be okay with needing help? And when I say needing help, I don't even mean coming to counseling. I mean sure, come to counseling if you want, if that feels helpful for you. But I even mean like asking your spouse for help, right, even like asking your friends for help being at work. I mean I don't know what the heck I'm doing on this computer software. I need to ask them.

Speaker 3:

Like there's just oftentimes, just since like I don't want to ask for help, because if I ask for help is I kind of I ruin this facade that I know what I'm doing, I ruin this image. That man, that guy's got it together, he's in top of the world, he's smart, blah, blah. And so if I can't begin to be honest about that, some of that stuff begins maybe unravel publicly just in people's perception of me. And so I just want to avoid this perception that I need help. And so I think part of the myth, then is is again this, this, this belief that needing help means you're weak, and I think that's just a bunch of baloney.

Speaker 2:

So I'm not a man and I suffer from that. I'm totally related. So I noticed that your target client are men. Is there a certain age group or type of man, and how do you find them?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, I would say majority of my clients are the guys I typically attract Probably late 20s, early 40s, probably even married for I don't know a handful of 10 years, probably a couple of young kids and they often get to the spot of like either either one of two things, either a they achieved what they wanted to achieve in life to realize, oh, I've actually was sold like a empty bill of goods, like I got here to realize this isn't actually what I thought it would be and so how do? What do I do with that? Now that I'm here and all of a sudden, this is just actually not what I intended or thought it would be and the other kind of half would be more. So these people that, hey, again, I'm 35 and I just thought I'd be further on along in life by the time I worked than I am now. I thought I'd be more successful, have more money, be up more, you know status, whatever it may be. And I just I'm struggling with this feeling of not being enough. I'm just not blank enough because often, often, like kind of how I describe it and talking different men is just kind of fill in the blank. I I feel not blank enough and oftentimes most guys can put something there right that they connect with and so, um, I would say that's the majority of the men that I see kind of fall in that that camp. Then that obviously leads out to different things. Hey, I don't feel enough. I begin to use whatever type of addiction that you want to choose from, whether it's substance or process addiction, whatever it may be. So a lot of that thing kind of comes into the office because obviously guys will go to those things in order to not feel right, kind of those feelings not being enough.

Speaker 3:

Um, in terms of how I find those clients, oftentimes they come honestly via other female therapists who are seeing their wives and they're not necessarily willing to come to me directly. So the wife kind of encourages them and then the female therapist reaches out and I see them that way A lot of times too, word of mouth. I think there's a moral willingness to go to something. If you have a friend who's like, oh, yeah, I like, oh, you do that's cool, like it's and it's not weird, like it's normal, again, it's normal, and so there's a, there's a willingness to come that part and then, um, I think it and again mentioned earlier, but I think trying to kind of begin to grow my, my presence more so in on youtube, which I think is hope. It's kind of beginning to build a little bit more of a um, a pipeline or just more of an awareness of kind of what I'm doing.

Speaker 2:

I guess YouTube is a great resource, have you? We know that marketing is the heart of every business. Have you thought about doing your own podcast, since you have such a wealth of information and can connect people?

Speaker 3:

I have. My current consensus is this thought that I start on YouTube and right now I create shorts. It's kind of more so what I lean into and really try to create. Man, how can I create this soundbite, 30-second to 60-second shorts five days a week that guys can quickly hear, kind of think about throughout the day? Right, the sense that I don't, I think, know a ton of information can get overwhelming. And man, what I even think about in this day and like this I just heard 10 points, which one do I kind of hold to, and so making things more bite-sized to kind of think about them throughout the day, things that are relatable, things they can kind of reflect on. And to me, uh, once that happens for a while and it begins to be a bit more of a trust, like, oh look, I actually can trust Logan for 30 seconds. I can trust him for these 60 seconds. Then maybe down the road I look into some longer form stuff, but right now I'm going to sit in this lane.

Speaker 2:

Perfect, perfect, perfect. So one more quick question Can you describe a hardship or life challenge you overcame and how it made you stronger?

Speaker 3:

Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge you overcame and how it made you stronger? Yeah, I would say I guess in 20, I said Better Rock and Branch is not the first thing I've tried to start. I started a augmented reality tech company back in 20, I think it's 2016, 2017. And it failed probably two-ish years later. And I raised friends and family money, I put in a lot of money myself and there's just a lot of like trust that people put into me in terms of this working and it did not work.

Speaker 3:

Um, and to me there's a lot of shame there and there's a lot of just, um, even just negative belief of self like man. Maybe I'm just not capable of of starting anything, or people should not trust me, I shouldn't trust myself, my own ideas, my own thoughts, like it's just, it's not worth it. And I think one that just taught me a lot about um, um, obviously one kind of just a negative spiralals that we can go into when life struggles and how do we kind of begin to distinguish the lies from what is true. But then two, I think, even the sense of the willingness to continue to show up each day and knock on the door and be present and engage and, I think, some sense of um off. Sometimes.

Speaker 3:

I know, in my own life, one of my biggest struggles is this desire for a shortcut. Right man, if I can find the shortcut to life, hey, there we go, let's go, let's do it, let's just let's, let's just make it quick and easy and not have to suffer or struggle or whatever. Let's just find the shortcut. And so I, I think, having that experience and it has me even some subsequent experiences there's just been persistence of what it looks like to actually not have a shortcut, but the willingness to actually show up day in, day out, and the willingness to I wouldn't call this like necessarily long suffering, but there's just sense of like, but we're being willing to kind of like-.

Speaker 2:

Persistence yeah.

Speaker 3:

Be persistent, something that's not like an overnight success, and so yeah.

Speaker 2:

Ye, the winner, you learn.

Speaker 3:

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2:

So, logan, please tell our listeners one thing that you want them to always remember about Bedrock, and Branch.

Speaker 3:

I would say one thing I would want them to remember about bedrock and branch is that, uh, we are for really all. I mean all men who who are seeking connection, not just in a counseling front, but just if you are male and you're looking for a place to to grow, to connect, bedrock branch has something for you right. So, right now. So we have counseling but also we have hangouts again. We have this kind of this community I'm growing on on YouTube. I have retreats that are probably coming late next year sometime To me. I desire Bedrock and Branch to kind of be for lack of better terms kind of one-stop shop for men to come and have some resource for them to grow and in health in some capacity.

Speaker 2:

I love that they don't have to be in isolation. So if they're ready for that connection and those hangouts and be a part of your community, how can we find you?

Speaker 3:

Exactly Two ways. You can go to my website, bedrockandbranchcom. All the information will be there. You can also go to my YouTube channel, and Bedrock and Branch is the YouTube channel as well, and there's links in there as well. That, uh, in addition to the content, to find the hangouts, to find the website and all that kind of stuff sounds good.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much. We really appreciate you being here wishing you all the best, bedrock and branch as well, moving forward thank you so much.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for having me have a great day.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpcobbcountycom. That's gnpcobbcountycom, or call 470-470-4506.