Front Row Dads with Jon Vroman

Most men have no idea they're still trying to father a wounded boy inside themselves.

In this episode, Dr. Bob Beare, PhD — licensed therapist, recovery leader, and founder of Deep Waters Recovery — returns to unpack what reparenting really means, and why so many high-performing men avoid the one thing that could finally bring peace.

This isn't theory. It's raw truth.

Bob walks us through the core practices that help men connect with the younger parts of themselves — the inner child who still carries unmet needs, suppressed grief, and the shame we were told to bury long ago. And he explains why ignoring this relationship keeps us stuck in cycles of reactivity, overwork, and emotional shutdown.

We explore:

• What it actually means to reparent yourself — and how to start

• Why most men resist healing (even when they say they want it)

• How inner child work unlocks real emotional freedom — not just insight

• How unhealed men unconsciously raise kids to fix their own wounds

• Why grief and joy live in the same place — and how to access both

• How to stop creating chaos just to feel something

• What happens when we stop fighting and finally let peace in

If you've ever wondered why you "know better" but still overreact… Or why you keep striving even though you've already achieved so much… This episode will give you language, tools, and a path forward.

Because the best thing you can do for your kids… Is heal the kid still living inside you.

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👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads?

We are in the business of building better families.

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them. We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with :

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/

Over the past 9 years, we've sat down with hundreds of men—entrepreneurs, leaders, husbands, and fathers—to talk about what really matters.

And after 500 raw, unfiltered conversations, one truth keeps rising to the top:

Success means nothing if it costs you your family.

In this special 500th episode, I sat down with two of the men who've been there since day one—Hal Elrod (The Miracle Morning) and Justin Donald (The Lifestyle Investor). They've helped shape this brotherhood from the very beginning.

We didn't talk about hacks or highlight reels. We talked about what this community has taught us after nearly a decade of doing the work:

• What happens when your wife looks you in the eye and tells you the truth you've been avoiding.

• What cancer, addiction, and burnout reveal about the life you say you want vs. the one you're actually living.

• What it really looks like to lead your family with integrity, presence, and love.

This isn't a greatest-hits recap. It's a look under the hood.

This is what we've learned from 9 years of showing up, failing forward, and fighting to become the men our families need.

If you've ever felt the gap between the man you are and the man you're trying to be… This conversation will meet you there.

🎧 Listen to the 500th episode now.

"I'm a great dad… so why am I still losing it with my son?"

In this powerful conversation, we unpack a question every high-performing man quietly wrestles with: Why do we keep repeating patterns we know aren't serving us — as husbands, fathers, or leaders?

This week I sat down with Dr. Bob Beare, PhD — licensed therapist, recovery leader, and founder of Deep Waters Recovery and The Creative Life Institute. Bob has spent over two decades helping men confront the emotional wounds they've spent a lifetime avoiding — trauma, shame, addiction, grief — and guiding them toward healing that actually lasts.

Together we explore:

• Why your biggest parenting blowups have nothing to do with your kid

• How "doing the right thing" as a child can create a lifetime of pressure

• The dark side of positivity (and how it blocks real healing)

• How spiritual bypassing shows up in fatherhood and leadership

• Why healing your nervous system is the best thing you can do for your child

• How men can access deep emotional release without abandoning strength

This isn't theory. It's two men telling the truth. About childhood wounds. Emotional reactivity. Shame. And what it looks like to repair with the people you love most

What if the key to becoming a better man… was understanding women?

In this powerful conversation, grief and transformation expert Joshua Wenner shares what years of men's work couldn't teach him — and what he only discovered after stepping into a space he never expected to lead: women's healing.

Joshua spent a decade helping men process grief, reclaim their power, and reconnect with purpose. But it was through coaching women, witnessing their wounds, and helping them heal their relationships with men that he gained a deeper understanding of what it means to be truly integrated as a man.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The difference between men's and women's work — and why both matter

• How unhealed father wounds shape how women see men (and how men see themselves)

• The "Nice Guy vs Savage" trap and what real masculine power looks like

• How trust between men is broken — and how to rebuild it

• Why many successful men still feel alone, guarded, and disconnected

• What healthy partnership actually requires — and how we change the family system from the inside out

Whether you're deep in your own work or just beginning to ask the big questions, this episode will expand your view of what healing looks like — and remind you that real power starts with presence.

Most men don't realize they're grieving.

They just know they feel stuck… disconnected… angry… numb… exhausted. They're overworking, avoiding, blowing up—or shutting down. But underneath the addiction, the burnout, the conflict… is unprocessed grief.

In this raw and powerful conversation, grief expert Joshua Wenner unpacks the hidden losses that men carry—losses from childhood, unmet expectations, relationship ruptures, business failures, and the identity shifts that come with fatherhood and marriage.

Joshua has spent over a decade studying grief, interviewing the top experts, and making a feature-length documentary on the subject. In this episode, he shares what he's learned, including the tools that help men regulate their nervous systems, reconnect with their hearts, and finally move forward.

If you've ever felt like something was off—but couldn't name it—this episode is for you.

You'll walk away with practical tools to stabilize, feel, heal, and become more present for yourself and those you love.

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👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads?

We are in the business of building better families.

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them.

We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/  Apple: http://bit.ly/3XLSRWj

This might be the best business interview I've done all year. It's one every business owner should hear.

In this episode, I sit down with Ryan Deiss—entrepreneur, investor, and founder of DigitalMarketer—who's launched, scaled, and sold 17+ companies.

He's not speaking from theory. He's speaking from experience—and sometimes, scar tissue.

This isn't just another systems conversation. It's a full-on playbook for building a business that works without you. For founders who feel trapped in their own company… this one hits hard.

Here's what you'll take away:

• Why growth can trap you—and how scale sets you free

• The "sticky note" method to exit roles without burning the business down

• How founders become bottlenecks—and why doing less is a leadership skill

• The scorecard and constraint system Ryan uses to spot bottlenecks before they break your team

• Why hiring great people won't fix broken systems—and what to do instead

• How to integrate AI to elevate your team's performance (without replacing them)

• Why the role you're in now may not be the role your business actually needs

• The question every founder should ask before they scale—or sell: What's my next job?

Freedom doesn't come from more hustle. It comes from better systems, clearer roles, and honest leadership.

🎧 Listen to Part 2 with Ryan Deiss now »

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👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads?

We are in the business of building better families.

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them.

We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/  Apple: http://bit.ly/3XLSRWj

You can build the house, pay the bills, protect and provide—but if your wife doesn't feel seen, and your kids don't feel known, what are you really building?

In this episode, Ryan Deiss opens up about the moment his marriage hit a wall… and the quiet heartbreak of realizing he had drifted from the people he loved most.

It wasn't burnout. It wasn't failure. It was success without alignment—and the cost of being emotionally absent, even while physically present.

You'll take away:

• What his wife said that shattered the illusion he was "doing it for the family"
• How disconnection with his kids crept in while he was busy being "responsible"
• The family-first calendar ritual that rebuilt trust and rhythm at home
• Why saying "yes" to golf with his son—and missing a deadline—was a turning point
• The question he asked his son before college—and the answer that brought him to tears
• Why presence—not perfection—is what restores closeness in marriage and fatherhood

If you're trying to be more than just the guy who gets stuff done…If you want to be the man your wife trusts and your kids remember—

👉 Listen to the full episode now

You don't need to do more. You need to show up better—for her, for them, for you.

______________________________________________________

👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads?

We are in the business of building better families.

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them.

We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/  Apple: http://bit.ly/3XLSRWj

You've built momentum before. You've held it all—business, family, vision. And you've probably felt that moment when the weight of it all starts pressing back.

For Jenna and Brad Ballard, that moment wasn't collapse. It was clarity—the kind that only comes when life demands something deeper than drive.

As founders of ALA—Ascension Leadership Academy, they were guiding others through profound transformation, even as they navigated their own. Business growth, parenting two young boys, and a health crisis that shook their foundation—all at once. The mission never changed. The love never left. But the way they were holding it had to.

This episode is about what happens when leaders choose evolution over endurance. When nervous system work becomes strategy. When joy, creativity, and emotional safety aren't rewards for making it—they're the reason you keep going.

Brad built Fastlane Drive. Jenna answered the call to music. And together, they didn't walk away from anything—they found a new way to carry all of it, with presence, softness, and strength. They didn't quit the work. They became it.

🔹 What You'll Get From This Conversation:

- The health crisis that became a wake-up call—not just for their bodies, but for how they were carrying everything they'd built - The nervous system work, rituals, and inner rewiring that helped them lead with clarity instead of pressure - Why Fastlane Drive and Jenna's music weren't escapes—they were healing, alignment, and powerful extensions of who they really are - How they held the business and the marriage through it all—and found a new way forward without letting go of either

This isn't a story about pushing harder. It's about choosing presence over performance—and building what actually lasts.

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👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads?

We are in the business of building better families.

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them.

We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/  Apple: http://bit.ly/3XLSRWj

Different childhoods. Different wounds. One shared commitment: to raise boys who feel seen, safe, and strong.

Some of us were raised on discipline. Others in silence. Some were praised only when we performed—others not at all.

But no matter what we inherited, we all face the same question when we become fathers: Will I repeat what I came from, or will I build something new?

In today's episode, I sit down with Jenna and Brad Ballard—two parents building something they didn't fully have growing up: a family grounded in presence, emotional safety, and truth.

Brad and Jenna are the co-founders of Ascension Leadership Academy (ALA), where they help people break through limiting beliefs and lead with emotional intelligence and purpose.

Their upbringings were different—one shaped by performance and pressure, the other by steadiness and structure. But what unites them now is a shared commitment to raising sons who feel seen, celebrated, and secure.

This isn't a conversation about parenting hacks or surface-level advice. It's about the quiet patterns we carry from childhood. The ones we repeat without realizing. The ones we choose to break. And the ones we intentionally rebuild—through rituals, reflection, and relentless love.

🔹 What You'll Get From This Conversation:

🔥 Why presence matters more than perfection—and how the smallest moments can leave the biggest mark. 🧠 How your childhood shapes your parenting (even when you don't realize it)—and what it takes to break that cycle. ❤️ The power of rituals, mantras, and intentional language to create emotional safety at home. 🎯 What it really means to lead by example—not just at work, but where it counts most: with your kids. 💡 How to raise children who feel seen, strong, and safe—without passing down what you never meant to carry

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👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads? We are in the business of building better families.

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them.

We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/

 Apple: http://bit.ly/3XLSRWj

As a father and entrepreneur, you know what it feels like to carry the weight of providing, leading, and doing what's right—even when it's hard. But what happens when doing what's right means walking away from money, approval, and comfort? In this powerful episode, I sit down with Mikki Willis—filmmaker, author, and creator of one of the most controversial and widely viewed independent films of our time. At the peak of his career, Mikki was faced with a choice: stay silent and keep everything... or speak his truth and risk it all. He chose soul over strategy. And it changed everything. In this episode, you'll learn:

• What real strength looks like when everything's on the line
• How to stay grounded when the world pulls at your center
• Why trusting your inner voice beats chasing outside approval
• The power of standing firm—even when you're standing alone
• A model for soul-led decision-making in moments of pressure

If you've ever felt the cost of staying true to yourself as a man, a father, or a leader...

This conversation is your reminder: you're not alone—and you're not crazy. You're just building something the world can't take from you.

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👋 Want to learn more about Front Row Dads? We are in the business of building better families.

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

While most dads would say that family matters most, the challenge is they feel guilty knowing their careers get the best of them, and their family seems to get the rest of them.

We help Dads become family men with businesses, not businessmen with families, so they can thrive personally AND professionally.

Subscribe to the Front Row Dad podcast to learn about fatherhood, marriage, and how to level up your game at home, or if you're ready for the best coaching and true brothers to grow with

👉 Join The Brotherhood: https://frontrowdads.com/brotherhood

🎤 Listen to Front Row Dads podcast here:

🌐 Website: https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/

 Apple: http://bit.ly/3XLSRWj