DADICATED.COM - empowering Dads

As we do this session I am in lockdown with four three year olds and two four and a half year olds, so times are interesting.

Dave Bacon is an amazing man and Dad. Dave’s thoughts about Being a Dad are remarkable and his own story is remarkable as well - for instance each his dad, himself and his son were all born in a different century.

Dave and his wife Heather have 3 children who are 11 and 7 - he also has twins. Dave is the Founder & CEO of Better With Bacon, recognised as ‘Best Places to Work’, ‘Top 50 Colorado Companies to Watch’ and he has been on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies three times. He is an avid skier and very active and holds numerous board positions in altruistic and charity causes.

Dave’s father, Ernst Bacon, was a famous composer who had 6 children, 11 grandchildren, 1 great grandchild. Dave was born in 1973. At that time his dad was 45 years his mom’s senior. He was born a great uncle because his sister was already a grandma and of course his niece was older than him.

The session is really fun and beautiful. Dave opens up on his own upbringing and all the different perspectives and viewpoints he grew up with in such a unique family setting - think about a 85 trying to parent a ten year old. The overarching theme of his upbringing was always the arts and the beauty of all things.

We cover the amazing gift Covid has given us - which is having more time together as families and we talk about how we each handle COVID as families.

Dave shares some amazing tips on how he manages to improve his relationship with his children and I have to say he seems like an extraordinary human. For instance the one time his 8 year old had the idea of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro for a fundraiser for a local school, two years later they did just that - and raised USD 103.000. A simple idea became something amazing.

Dave also shares how his kids and the family deal with death, how he tried to solidify his kids' impact on himself and how the arts and music impacts their lives on a daily basis.

The most powerful takeaways for me as a dad where:

Not only is Richard a successful serial entrepreneur and dad of 4 kids - three girls and one boy. I could tell immediately that Richard has done some deep introspection about being a father, family and values in his life.

Richard is a man who follows his heart and therefore seems to make really good decisions in his life when it counts. At one stage in his life Richard decided to move to the jungle in Costa Rica - at a time when his first baby was 7 months and his wife pregnant with their second child - they were going to stay six months and ended up living there for 8 years.

The result of this was that Richard was able to literally spend and live the first 8 years of his childrens lives together with them.

In this episode, Richard and myself speak about some of the challenges we face as an entrepreneurs and dads. We chat about education, travelling and how - within a mere 4 years - Richard built a company with over 120 employees growing at insane rates all because he watched his son playing soccer on his own through the kitchen window. And of course the ups and downs of that journey.

Enjoy!