Startup Dad Revolution Podcast: Father | Entrepreneur | Family | Leader | Coach

Wayne Renbjor (Wren) is the owner and founder of Wren’s BBQ. Wayne grew up in Austin, Tx and loved BBQ growing up but he never paid attention to how it was cooked. When he moved to New Jersey in 1996 he found his self stuck with subpar BBQ and he regretted that he never learned the right way to BBQ himself. 10 years later Wayne and his wife purchased their first home and a Charbroil Silver Smoker and Wayne was on a mission to learn how to make the same flavorful BBQ he had growing up. 

Wayne started bring his BBQ to his friends parties and eventually people started specifically requesting his food, his rub and his sauce. This is where Wayne’s Journey starts. Fast forward to 2014 after being inspired by a number of entrepreneur type podcast Wayne begins a blog to give people access to some of the BBQ skills that he had developed. 

Wayne’s ultimate goal is to get into the BBQ competition world, here in the North East, and with some hard work, patience and determination he hopes to leave his mark…

Greg Barth was feeling lethargic, uninspired and lacked a zest for life.  He made a decision and took control of his life starting in 2009.   He started a home fitness workout program, transformed his body and lost 25 pounds.  Those changes turned into a complete mindset shift for Greg.  When many others kept coming to him for help, he recognized the opportunity and began coaching them to create their own success. 

From that point, he has continued to help others in numerous other ways.  He has built a team of other coaches across the country who all help people believe in themselves and start to live a more fulfilling lifestyle.  

To take his message to more people, he started creating YouTube videos and created a blog (F).  Realizing how fitness represents a much larger picture than losing weight, he created another brand called The Life Of Now (www.thelifeofnow.com) and launched a podcast in May of 2014.  He interviews authors, motivational speakers, entrepreneurs and many others who simply have an inspiring story of overcoming struggle to create triumph.  The message of the show is to help inspire others to get past their fears and find their true purpose.  Are you ready to become a better version of you?

I have a very special guest for the show. If you recall in episode 5 or 6 I gave a few shouts to individuals that left me reviews in iTunes and individuals that reached out to me via SM. 

Well one of those individuals I connected with over the phone and after talking to him I knew I had to get him on the show to share his Startup Dad Journey. 

So our guest today is Emmanuel Gayot. Emmanuel is a father of 4 and is a serial entrepreneur, which he didn’t mention when we first spoke over the phone. He was very modest, but than he sent me his bio and I was blown away by the number of business Emmanuel has started and with his 17 years of business knowledge. 

Currently Emmanuel owns a  Barbershop academy and a cosmetology school in Virgina. 

Guy is a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of trauma and early psychosis. 

Inspired by his brother who returned home with PTSD after his tour of duty as a Navy Seal. Guy created the West Coast Trauma Project which is on a mission to raise awareness of trauma, by providing information to trauma therapists, helping trauma therapists thrive and helping trauma clinicians engage more effectively with their clients.

"Fear is a reason to get prepared, not a reason to stop!"

Efton (aka Ean) is A Navy Veteran, Born in Fort Hood Texas, but eventually moved to Los Angeles where he worked in the Entertainment Industry for over 20 years in various capacities such as Assistant to the Producer on film projects that range from Dickie Roberts:  Child Star (Starring David Spade and Robert Reiner and produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison) and Friday After Next (starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps).  

He currently lives in San Antonio with his wife and kids  and is the host of Love and Sensibility Podcast, where he gives advice to help people build strong love relationships. 

Efton, has a very unique story from a family perspective and has a wealth of knowledge as an entrepreneur. So I’m excited to have him on the show. So let’s get into it. 

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, productivity specialist, and the founder of Productivityist. 

He has served as the Managing Editor at Lifehack, and contributed articles on productivity to 99u, Lifehacker, The Next Web, SUCCESS Magazine, and The Huffington Post. 

Mike is also the author of several books, including The Front Nine: How To Start The Year You Want Anytime You Want, and has delivered talks on the topic of task and time management at events like New Media Expo, TEDx Victoria, SXSW Interactive, and creativeLIVE. 

He lives in Victoria, BC, Canada with his incredible wife, daughter, and son.

Eugene is a Husband, father and founder of the new cultural initiative 'Men and Marriage', which has a mission to see more men sharing real life experiences, leading by example and building each other to become better fathers, husbands, brothers and leaders.

EuGene recognizes that the true depth and value of men are rarely explored within the media, which has been the inspiration behind the intuitive 'fatherhood' series.

Startup Dads I would say this… This episode that you are about to listen to is every bit what Startup Dad Headquarters is all about. If you can not relate or connect with this episode on multiple levels then I must say this show, this podcast, is most likely not for you and I know that is a very bold statement to make. But here is the thing and I want to be completely honest because I don’t want to waste your valuable time.  If you’ve listened to any of my other episodes I’m a huge believer in knowing your avatar. Knowing your target audience, speak directly to your target audience and solve their unique problems. And I must say In this conversation with Eugene that is exactly who we are talking to.

Show Notes

“I would rather be the reason I am struggling professionally because of something I have more control over, then being in a corporate environment where a merger or someone else’s decision can cause me my job.” Denny Krahe

Denny has been married for 8 years but he has only been a Father for 3 months. If you don’t include the 7 years of raising his dog :) So Denny is by far the youngest dad we’ve had on the show. So you know this will be interesting. 

After being dissatisfied with his corporate job he Launched DK FitSolutions with the mission of bring workplace wellness programs to small/medium sized businesses. After a year of seeing little to no traction Denny Pivoted to providing personal training services, and in 6 months he had enough clients to replace his day job income and take the full leap.

All the while Denny was keeping a personal blog at dizruns.com. Where combines his passion for personal training with his sports medicine background to help train individuals for specific race distance or events.

"The closer you are to that breaking point, the more challenging things get" by Julien Marion. 

Julien Marion is husband, dad of 3, speaker, teacher, and coach in the areas of entrepreneurship, business growth, fitness and personal development.

He is also the founder and owner of Move Dance and Fitness (a Dance and Fitness Center in Houston, TX) and he is the host of The Path to Unlimited (a Weekly podcast with a mission to empower and inspire millions to live without any limits). The Podcast is launching November 1st, 2014.

Julien is passionate about using all that God gave him to lift the lid off people’s life by adding value and serving others.

"Going from a job I didn't really like and shifting over to my hobby full-time -- it’s a bit of shift that took some adjusting, but it’s been a great move and I am super glad I did it." by Shawn Leslie

Welcome, to Startup Dad Headquarters where we’re exploring the intersection between Fatherhood, Entrepreneurship & Life. On this episode I’m chatting with Shawn Leslie. UX developer at Digital Telepathy. This story is a bit unique but I believe many of you will connect with it. Let me set the stage: 

Shawn is 33 years old, raised in southern California. Shawn was always drawing growing up, but didn’t pursue any creative arts professionally. *** That tie bit of information is going to be key as we discuss Shawn’s journey. *** So Shawn went to college for Finance and worked in the Brokerage industry for nearly 7 years as a stockbroker, then Branch Manager for the online trading company, Scott-trade. In 2007 after reading the Four Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferries he decided to start learning HTML/CSS and he was convinced he could make enough money drop-shipping fancy “Rabbit” wine openers when the wine bar craze was taking off. That didn’t pan out, but he kept learning HTML/CSS and took his first freelance client in late 2007 (6 months from the point of starting).

Shawn continued working on websites on the side and started spending most of his free time working on design and development. 

So at this point Shawn had a good, respectable, well paying job in finance and was steadily climbing his way up the corporate ladder but that didn’t interest him any longer and he was craving something more enjoyable, more meaningful. With a wife and a 3 month old baby girl he decided to take the leap… 

Shawn will share with us what that leap looked like, the personal sacrifices he had to make and the financial challenges this presented.