Dad Spotlight - Helping You Be The Best Dad, Father and Parent You Can!

Over the next month we are partnering with Kidde Fire Safety to help you and your family to be prepared for a fire. Today in the Dads Toolbox we are pleased to have Neal Zipser with us. Neal Zipser works with Kidde as a liason between Kidde Fire Safety and the fire safety industry. If you are not aware Kidde Fire Safety makes smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms, fire extinguishers and other home safety equipment all geared to making your home safer. 

Working with Kidde Fire Safety is important to us and hits close to home for Chris who had a home fire in 2013,where he ended up with 3rd degree burns on his arm. This really opened his eyes to what was needed to safeguard his home and he thanks Kidde Fire Safety products for helping with the event in his life.

While people like Chris may have home fires, having equipment to warn a family is important, as it can help save lives. Thus, having working equipment is one of the first steps to moving toward a fire safe home.

Kidde Fire Safety has partnered with Home Depot on numerous projects including the Operation Save a Life Program, where they donate smoke alarms to local fire departments so that people in the community have working smoke alarms within their homes. Also, Kidde is offering Save A Life Saturdays with local Home Depot stores. The next Save A Life Saturday is being offered on October 1, 2016.

Neal Zipser says that creating a escape plan within your home is very important. You also want to make sure that your smoke alarms are working.

As your smoke alarms are getting updated, make sure that your kids know what they sound like and where they are located. They also need to know the escape routes out of a room (and there should be at least two).

If you do have a fire, Neal says that what your kids should do first is touch the door with the back of their hand. After checking the bottom of the door too, if it is still cool, open it and try to exit.

One of the other things that many do not realize is that smoke is black and not white in color. Get below the smoke and crawl towards the exit.

If you have dogs you can train your dogs to also practice the escape plan too. By using treats and conditioning the dog to come to you during the alarm setting, you may be able to save them too. So make sure to practice. Neal Zipser of Kidde Fire Safety mentioned that on average you have three minutes to get out of the house when a smoke alarm is going off in your home.

After you are out of your home, DO NOT go back inside for any reason. Even if you think that a family member has not made it out. Many people sacrifice more lives by going back into a fire after they initially escaped.

Neal Zipser of Kidde Fire Safety shared some great resources that you can visit to help you to create a safer home including:

* http://...

This week on the Dads Spotlight podcast we are bringing you Justin Bechtold, Australian father of two, comedian and writer of the 40 year old dad website.

Justin Bechtold started being a comedian when he was in high school and as he said, when you start getting people laughing you just want more of it. After high school he did stand up for a few years before stepping out of the stand up limelight for about 10 years. When he was doing stand up he moved to Melbourne, away form the small town that he grew up in. He found some success in his stand up. Unfortunately he had a closed head injury that caused him short term memory loss and it made him have to step away from stand up for about 10 years as mentioned before. As Justin Bechtold stated during this time he lost his courage to get up on stage and perform. A friend of Justin’s wanted to get into comedy so they decided to do a comedy duo routine. As he started doing this he submitted to be a part of a comedy competition and as a part of this was asked to work with the tour to actually tour with them and to liven up the audience but this made him ineligible to win the competition. When he got to the area around his home town he found that he would have won the competition based on the audience response but because he was working with the company he was not eligible to win. Participating in this competition and on this tour gave him the courage to do stand up again.

In 2005 he came to the USA and did a stand up class with Gerry Katzman ( StandUpComedyClass.com ) . Justin Bechtold wanted to take this class because he wanted to take his stand-up to the USA but he knew that there had not been many Australians that had been successful with comedy in the USA. For the first 5.5 weeks he struggled because as he said, people did not understand his humor or sarcasm and it was not until he figured out that in the USA audiences expect you to not only speak humor but show you humor too that he was able to turn a corner and people started to enjoy his comedy. Due to his success during the week he was asked to open for Chris Rock and Andrew Dice Clay at the comics lounge at the end of the week which was a huge honor and not something that he ever expected to be able to do.

After this he moved back to Australia and he and his wife settled into life. They attempted to have kids for many years without success. It was not until they moved to Bali for about 6 months and they stopped trying to have kids that they got pregnant naturally with their first child. As a part of becoming a father for the first time he started to talk to his own parents about his own childhood, and he was surprised at how much his parents did not remember about his childhood. At the same time his wife told him about the growing number of Daddy Bloggers that were out there, and he felt that this was a great combination of wanting to capture his experiences to share with his kids as they got older. This allowed him to combine his comedy with his experiences in fatherhood on his blog 40 year old dad.

Chris asked him about his experiences in going through nine rounds of IVF. Justin Bechtold said that going through this process is hard but that they found that having a sense of humor about the situation really helped them get through this. Justin also said that finding a help group can help you through this too. In the end sometimes by just letting go and de-stressing can help to make your dreams of becoming a parent a reality.

Seeing that Justin Bechtold is a comedian, Chris asked him about the most humorous experiences as a father. He stated that the most humorous experience was the birth of his son. It was funny because of the comedy of errors that led up to the actual birth and he shares this experience with us in the interview today.

This week in the Dads Toolbox we are bringing you Jamie Lieberman of Hashtag Legal, LLC , a law firm that focuses on working with influencers, influencer networks, PR Firms and brands. 

We wanted to have Jamie Lieberman on because so many people today are blogging. If you are blogging Jamie says that you should:

* Start an LLC – to separate your personal and business assets.

* Anytime that you have a business agreement with a brand make sure that you have a written contract that specifies the deliverables from both the brand and from you as an influencer.

* Look out for certain terms in a contract. Make sure the deliverables are clearly defined.

* Make sure that timing is defined.

* Identify if there is any exclusivity clause listed in the contract and what they are.

* What are the intellectual property rights for the piece that is written and who owns the final piece?

* If you are doing sponsored content make sure there are proper FTC disclosures.

* Each sponsored content that is produced must be accompanied by a disclosure.

They are launching a course called Businessese that will help people to determine what to charge and how to negotiate the best price for the items that you are providing.

 

As mentioned, We have a new SONG that we are very excited about. We hope that you enjoyed it. It was created by Todd Marriott and his wife of the band Battle Victorious and of the company Gifty Song. If you have never heard of Gifty Song, it is a company that creates a custom made song that is tailored to your needs and let us tell you, the process is painless and they make it so much fun to create a song that will be unique and one that will be memorable. Check them out and create a song for yourself or someone that you love!

 

We Want Your Opinion

We are coming up on our 100th episode and for this we need your help! We would like for you to answer 2 questions and we will share some of your answers on upcoming podcast episodes:

*

Share a story that solidified for you that you were a dad

*

Share your proudest dad moment with us!

To leave your responses dial 877-Dad-Dadz or rather 877-323-3239. When you get there go ahead and leave your message!

Thanks to our friends at LifeonRecord.com we have a new way for you to share with us your comments and answers to our questions.

Never heard of this company? Well… Imagine giving a loved one a unique gift of recorded voices from their friends and family. Voices that talk about the recipient’s favorite qualities, shared experiences, and memories. Friends and family of the recipient will receive a toll-free number to call, and as the recordings come in you’ll listen to them online and gain a new appreciation for your loved one.  The recordings can be presented in a variety of ways including podcasting them onto a phone or tablet, or receiving a keepsake CD or speaker with the recordings in the mail. You can learn more by visiting LifeOnRecord.com

If you have not yet gotten your free guide: 15 Low Cost Ways To Engage With Your Kids – Pick it up today

As always,

 

In this episode of the Dad Spotlight we interview Dr. Mildred Peyton about bullying and what parents can do to advocate and support their kids through bullying experiences.

Dr. Mildred Peyton is a native of West Africa, Sierra Leone. She resides in Maryland with her husband and two daughters. She earned her doctorate (Doctor of Philosophy [Ph.D.]) in Human and Social Services, with a concentration in Social Policy Analysis & Planning from Walden University, in August 2015. Dr. Peyton worked at the Department of Health and Human Services for Montgomery County Government for ten years, where she provided public assistance to residents of Montgomery County, under the Children, Youth, and Family Services (CYFS) Division. Now, inspired by her doctoral research (“Exploring the Meaning of School Bullying Among Parents of Victimized Children’’) findings on school bullying, Dr. Peyton has turned her attention to the issue of bullying, which is prevalent in today’s society. Hoping to help eliminate this problem, Dr. Peyton wrote and published her very first children’s book entitled, “[amazon text=A Bully on the School Bus&asin=1517406242]” and it was approved by Montgomery County Public School System (MCPS) for school library purchases in November 2015. Dr. Peyton takes great pride in her recent works on the topic of school bullying and wishes that all children will one day be free from this problem. Dr. Peyton wants to be a source of inspiration for children who are victims of bullying, as well as their parents.

In speaking with Dr. Mildred Peyton she said that parents need to continue to empower their kids and not make their kids accept the bullying. Teach your kids to be strong and to tell a trusted adult about the bullying. Also, make sure to teach solid social skills about how to treat other people and how to not be a bully to others. Finally Dr. Peyton says that you should partner with the school and be involved as an advocate for your own child but for all kids.

Dr. Peyton says that schools need to be open to listening to parents. In her research she found that many parents felt that they were not being heard by school administrators. Also, it is important that a school follows through with the policies and procedures that they have in the as

Dr. Peyton also mentioned that parents need to educate themselves about what bullying is and what it looks like. To be able to talk to your kids you have to understand the overt and covert bullying that can occur. As you understand this and you understand the red flags within your own kids you will be able to detect the signs of bullying that are occurring.

We asked Dr. Peyton is sometimes parents are the problem when it comes to the bully. We may see one aspect of our child at home but you may not see how they act with their peers. Sometimes parents are not aware of the bullying that their child may be doing. If you are the parent of the bully, you need to be open to hearing feedback and open to understanding that your child could do this. If you are the parent of the bully, you need to have a conversation with your child to help them understand that it is not ok to treat other people in that way. You need to help their child see how they would feel if they  were treated in the same way.

If you are a person that wants to know more about Dr. Mildred Peyton you can find out more:

* Website

* Find her book, A Bully on the School Bus on

This week in the Dads Toolbox we are bringing you the first of two interviews that we had with Matt DeLorenzo who is a  senior editor with Kelley Blue Book. For almost 90 years Kelley Blue Book has been bringing you great information to help you become new car smart.

Matt DeLorenzo said that Kelley Blue Book started as a way to coordinate valuations for cars until the 1990’s when they also transitioned into a car buying site too.

Matt DeLorenzo said that since 1977 when he started covering cars there has been a large change in the amount of resources that are now available to you. Before the internet people would have to find a ton of books to pull together the information that they can now find online.

While Kelley Blue Book has been a desktop based application in the past and the site is mainly focused on this. They do have iPad and mobile friendly sites, but these are more for use while you are at the dealer and the desktop is for all of the pre-research that you will want to do before you go and buy your vehicle.

A lot of the quality issues are gone with vehicles and the testing of cars is now here to talk about all of the extras and add-ons that vehicles have as the choices have become more complex and the customer needs to come away from reading a Kelley Blue Book article with no questions and to understand the complex features of a vehicle.

Matt DeLorenze said that the most scared that he ever was was in a Ferrari that he was driving on a test track. He discovered that it was not as important about hos fast the car was, but instead how good the brakes were and he has taken this learning into his job at Kelley Blue Book too.

A lot of times Matt DeLorenzo says that most people come to Kelley Blue Book to see how much their own car is worth. However, there are a number of other things that Kelley Blue Book offers such as their Expert Reviews as well as their top 10 lists and their KBB Award winning vehicles.

On top of this Matt DeLorenzo also shared that they offer great resources for people trying to sell their vehicles such as an instant cash offer that you can get and then bring into the dealer, cutting down any haggling that might have occurred. 

Kelley Blue Book feels that having a dial that allows you to get an idea of where you may be falling on the spectrum of buying a car will help you to make a smarter car buying decision.

Kelley Blue Book also offers buying guides by segments so you can cross-shop and again be smarter in your decision making!

With the advent of social media you are seeing more and more dealers that are using texts and social media to speak directly to the customer. Many dealers are also trying to limit the amount of negotiation that happens. Also, many dealers are trying to cut down the amount of time that it can take to buy a car and social media is helping to do this.

When you come to Kelley Blue Book you are getting the latest, best information available. They are consistently working to bring you authoritative reviews and the highest quality information and values. 

When it comes to the values that you see on Kelley Blue Book you need to know that the st...

This week on the Dad Spotlight podcast we are bringing you Kelby Carr,  the founder of the Type A Conference.

The Type A Conference was founded in 2007, Type-A Parent is a conference and an influencer network and community for mom bloggers, dad bloggers and the marketers who want to connect with them. They have a number of conferences including Type-A West in Santa Fe, Type-A East at Walt Disney World, and the Type-A New York City Blogger to Marketer Mastermind Summit, as well as some invitation-only small group summits.

These conferences, while initially geared toward mom and dad bloggers, this allows parents to better connect with others and allows people to up their game on better influencing society. The Type A Conference, started focused as a targeted conference that dealt with many issues that mom bloggers deal with, but now they are trying to balance this including both genders.

Don mentioned as a speaker, Kelby Carr and her team did a wonderful job in making all of the speakers and attendees feel comfortable and if you attend in the future you will experience this too!

The Type-A NYC Brand to Influencer Mastermind Bootcamp is coming up on July 30 and if you are looking to up your game on affiliate marketing or on becoming a stronger influencer and want small group/mastermind experiences, this is the conference for you. Also the Make More Virtual Conference is also available!

If you would like to go to one of these conferences in the future Kelby Carr is giving you all a chance to save 20% on your registration. Use Dad Spotlight as the code!

We Want Your Opinion

We are coming up on our 100th episode and for this we need your help! We would like for you to answer 2 questions and we will share some of your answers on upcoming podcast episodes:

*

Share a story that solidified for you that you were a dad

*

Share your proudest dad moment with us!

To leave your responses dial 877-Dad-Dadz or rather 877-323-3239. When you get there go ahead and leave your message!

Thanks to our friends at LifeonRecord.com we have a new way for you to share with us your comments and answers to our questions.

Never heard of this company? Well… Imagine giving a loved one a unique gift of recorded voices from their friends and family. Voices that talk about the recipient’s favorite qualities, shared experiences, and memories. Friends and family of the recipient will receive a toll-free number to call, and as the recordings come in you’ll listen to them online and gain a new appreciation for your loved one.  The recordings can be presented in a variety of ways including podcasting them onto a phone or tablet, or receiving a keepsake CD or speaker with the recordings in the mail. You can learn more by visiting LifeOnRecord.com

If you have not yet gotten your free guide: 15 Low Cost Ways To Engage With Your Kids – Pick it up today

As always, please swing by to visit us on iTunes and Stitcher to stay connected to the most up-to-date happenin...

Dai Manuel (Coach Moose) re-joins the Dads Toolbox again this week with his entire family to talk to us about family fitness. This was a fun interview to talk about how as a family you can work engage everyone in the family fitness journey. ‘4erzh9dv’ 4erzh9dv

Christy, Chardonae (13) and Brielyn (11) , Dai’s family join us and talks to us about family fitness as a family. In regards to family fitness they shared that they liked to get outside, walking, hiking and more to explore the world outside of them on a daily basis. While Dai has exercises that he shares with them, they try to be purposeful  in the activities that they do daily. This might including gymnastics, swimming and more.

Brielyn mentioned that she really likes to exercise. Chardonae, said that as a teenager she likes her technology, but that she does still enjoy to get outdoors. Christy mentioned that though the kids do like it, sometimes as parents it still can be a push and pull from their end to keep the kids motivated.

When it comes to family fitness, to keep the kids motivated, the Manuel family tries to cascade or overlap commitments. Doing things like going to the park, exploring a new neighborhood by walking allows you to reconnect as a family.

As the Manuel family travels the kids have a say in where they stay and pools are on the top of the list.

Chardonae mentioned that having friends that are active helps too. Brielyn said that her favorite thing to do is to write or to do gymnastics. She is always looking things up online to learn how to do new gymnastics.

Christy mentioned that sometimes as a family they incentives activities to allow the kids to achieve and earn things that they want. So by doing a long hike, they could earn a stuffed animal or toy that they wanted.

We talked a bit about [amazon text=Pokemon Go&asin=B01H482N6E] and how this is getting people outdoors. Dai mentioned that it is exciting how companies are gamifying movement.

You have to put the fun in functional. Brielyn said that a few years ago she saw her dad do a handstand and now she can hold her handstand longer than he can! Go Brielyn!!

Chardonae writes as fairytailfantic on Wattpad and has written a fan fiction novel entitled

* Forbidden Love With a Dragon Prince

But she also has a few other things too such as a roleplay entitled:

* Eternal winter flames of love ROLEPLAY

Find out more about Dai Manuel and his family at any of the below links!

* DaiManuel.com

* TheLifeEnhancers.com

* The Adventures of CBS (The girls’ youtube channel)

Instagram:

* https://www.instagram.com/thelifeenhancers/

* https://www.instagram.

In this episode of the Dad Spotlight we interview Dan and Joanne Miller about Joanne’s new book [amazon text=Creating a Haven of Peace: When You’re Feeling Down Finances are Flat and Tempers are Rising&asin=1630477710] and about themselves as parents. 

Dan Miller, author of [amazon text=48 Days to the Work You Love&asin=1433685922] (among others) and of the 48 Days podcast and 48 Days community always works to help individuals redirect careers, evaluate new income sources, and achieve balanced living.

Joanne Fairchild Miller, his wife has written numerous books in the past including:

* [amazon text=What If It Were All Possible&asin=1630476382]

* [amazon text=I Wanna’ Be ME&asin=0965907279]

* [amazon text=When I Am Quiet&asin=0965907287]

* [amazon text=Pretty In Pink&asin=0965907295]

* [amazon text=I Know Who I Am&asin=0988255804]

We both read [amazon text=Creating a Haven of Peace: When You’re Feeling Down Finances are Flat and Tempers are Rising&asin=1630477710] and found it to be a very quick read and had a ton of gems within it that will help you transform your own family quickly!

Joanne said that Creating a Haven of Peace is a “real” book that shows that no family is perfect but that there are steps that you can take to start moving your family toward finding peace and happiness everyday just by doing some simple things.

We found that Joanne is very honest about her own experiences as a parent and you get to see behind the veil of what she and Dan went through as parents and as a couple to be able to be good parents.

Joanne Fairchild Miller mentioned that Creating a Haven of Peace came from people asking she and Dan about how they have been able to create a sense of peace within their homes even through the hard times that they had throughout their marriage.

One of the messages within the book is about the importance of respect within the home. Joanne mentioned that respect can be attained in any home but to do this, first the couple has to be in harmony with one another. The couple must support and respect one another. Too often the mantra is you do what I say instead of one of mutual respect. You need to not criticize each other in front of your kids or place your kids in a situation where they are saying that “we hear what you are saying but it is not what I see you doing.”

Also, as parents you need to give respect to your kids and not just expect that they show respect to you. Respect is a two way street. For the Miller family the word sanctuary was something that their home became and this meant to give immunity to their own kids and that no matter what their kids would do they would be safe and be given immunity regardless of the situation.

A great example of this respect was provided by Dan as he says that he still opens the door for Joanne no matter where he goes and his sons observed this and do this for their wives. Dan said that he never belittles Joanne to anyone. Dan Miller said that it comes naturally. Their kids grew up knowing that Dad and Mom would be in concert with one another. They also showed their kids that their relationship was as important as the relationship with their kids. Dan Miller also said that they always had margin in their lives where there was time to do things together as a family.

Joanne mentioned in the book that “A peaceful and loving home is not controlled by the children.” This is not easy, but Joanne said that in their family they set up a family mission statement that the entire family agreed upon.

In this episode of the Dads Toolbox we had the chance to bring back Drew Bennett of Benspark.com to talk about toys to life interactive gaming!

The biggest news in toys to life interactive gaming recently was the fact that Disney announced that they would be discontinuing the [amazon text=Disney Infinity&asin=B00AXI9X20] line of games. This was a surprise to Drew Bennett and to us, as the Disney Infinity gaming system was very popular. While we do not know why Disney made the decision to discontinue this system, they say that the results were not as expected. 

Disney is releasing the rights for some of their characters to be used by other gaming companies and this might continue in the future too.

There are still a few playsets that are still coming out prior to the discontinuation of Disney Infinity including:

* [amazon text=Alice Through the Looking Glass Playset&asin=B01CVRYRVW]

* [amazon text=Finding Dory Playset&asin=B01GW9MZJG]

Also [amazon text=Skylanders &asin=B00YI79BVU] , another toys to life interactive gaming company is having a new series called [amazon text=Skylanders &asin=B01GF9L1JI] where you can create your own Skylander character within the game. Also in the game you will have 31 different Sensei’s  within the game that are other characters. All of the characters that have been previously released can be played in the new system too.

Finally on the toys to life interactive gaming front we talk a bit about [amazon text=LEGO Dimensions&asin=B00VMB5V96] and how one of the benefits of this system is that it incorporates LEGO sets and building into the gaming too.

With Disney Infinity being discontinued, prices are coming down, so watch for deals both online and in stores for this system, but you also can find some great deals on some of the other systems too!

We talked about the great dads that are raising money for Camp Kesem, which is the only national organization providing support to children touched by a parent’s cancer. Their flagship program, FREE summer camps in over 80 locations, will serve over 6,000 children from coast-to-coast in 2016. We highly encourage you to help these great dads complete their goal of raising $40,000 for a great cause. You can go this by donating here.

 

We also talked about Podcast Movement, the conference that Chris attended recently. Next year Podcast Movement is in Anaheim, California and you have a chance to win two tickets to go by clicking on the this link!

If you have not yet gotten your free guide: 15 Low Cost Ways To Engage With Your Kids – Pick it up today

As always, please swing by to visit us on iTunes and Stitcher to stay connected to the most up-to-date happenings with the podcast. Also, if you are on iTunes  and you are a listener, please leave us a review as this helps other people find us too!

Finding the Right Definition of Success For Your Life With Tom Ziglar – EP83

In this episode of the Dad Spotlight we interview Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar and CEO of the Zig Ziglar corporation about being a father as well as the importance of finding the right definition of success for your life. 

Tom Ziglar grew up surrounded by the love and words of affirmation that his father Zig Ziglas and his wife provided him throughout his life. As he has continued  in his life and career as he has worked with more and more people he has found that there is a seemingly never ending battle that most parents have today with kids and they are more stressed then ever.

Tom told us that on one of his recent trips he made a comment that “The Fastest Way to Success is to Replace Bad Habits with Good Habits.”

Now, you might think that replacing habits like this would be difficult, but Tom Ziglar stated that you can make the choice to start simply by changing one thing and seeing what happens.

So what would you change if you could? What bad habit would you give up?

We also spent quite a bit of time talking to Tom Ziglar about the importance of time to kids today.

Every child is different, you have to get to know the child and what triggers them to be open and when they become open you have to be 100% present.

Tom Ziglar wanted to make sure that everyone understands that regardless of your family tree that you grew up with that you have the ability to change your family tree for the better.

Zig Ziglar chose to do this and to learn what he needed to be the best spouse, dad and business that he could, and you could too.

We can all be ourselves with our kids as long as we are transparent 100% of the time.

The challenge is that many people sacrifice their life for a wrong definition of success which hurts the emotional availability of a parent with their child.

As Andy Andrews stated “Our job as parents is not to raise good kids but to raise good adults.”

In all of this, Tom Ziglar has been working hard to help others to find their right definition of success. Much of this work has been through the Ziglar Live to Win program.

 

We talked about the great dads that are raising money for Camp Kesem, which is the only national organization providing support to children touched by a parent’s cancer. Their flagship program, FREE summer camps in over 80 locations, will serve over 6,000 children from coast-to-coast in 2016. We highly encourage you to help these great dads complete their goal of raising $40,000 for a great cause. You can go this by donating here.

 

We also talked about Podcast Movement, the conference that Chris attended recently. Next year Podcast Movement is in Anaheim, California and you have a chance to win two tickets to go by clicking on the this link!

 

If you have not yet gotten your free guide: 15 Low Cost Ways To Engage With Your Kids – Pick it up today

As always, please swing by to visit us on iTunes and Stitcher to stay connected to the most up-to-date happen...