The Dad I Want To Be with Mike Forrester

This week I am joined by Mark Marino. He's a leading orthopedic manual physical therapist who's been practicing his craft for over 25 years. Mark is now leading people to achieve wellness in their lives. Which began from working through his own journey of managing chronic pain to experiencing the freedom from a positive and proactive mindset.

Join Mark as he shares with you and me how as he was about to graduate as a physical therapist, a drastic turn caused him to require extensive surgery and physical therapy. Through years of living with daily chronic pain, he then set out to learn why the pain remained even after the doctors cleared him as successfully recovered. The dramatic transformation from finding himself unable to move one day to now living the majority of his life in his sweet spot – find out how he's made this trek.

Connect with Mark Marino

Website:

https://www.awakenyourwellnessnow.com/blog

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Awaken-Your-Wellness-Now-108948901276334

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/markmarinopt/

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

At the age of 10, he was told "can't" would be a regular part of his vocabulary and that he would "never" succeed. My guest this week is Chris Tice, who dramatically transformed his life. From limiting beliefs that were instilled within him to now being a leadership coach who's impacting and freeing others from their own limitations. Chris dreamt of becoming a firefighter at a young age, as he began the journey of addressing his deep-seated believes he found he was able to achieve things he'd been told were for him, unobtainable.

Join us as Chris guides us through childhood messages, reconciliation, changing long-held beliefs, achieving his dreams, making the hard decision to retire and how he now thrives from his gifting of helping others as a leadership coach.

(The movie reference for "Be Prepared" was 'Hoodwinked!'...my children will probably harass me for having forgotten the title)

Connect with Chris Tice

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/chris.tice.1884/

https://www.facebook.com/EagleFireLeadership/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ticeinspires/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-tice-49168997/

Connect with Micaeh Tice

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/shepursues/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/micaeh.tice/

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/micaeh-tice-a83ba4146/

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

The fear of repeating your father’s mistakes can keep a man at arm’s length from the wife and kids he loves most. My guest Jeff Jennings knows that fear from the inside. His father left when he was six, and he never saw him again. His mom was divorced three times. His older brother and sister were both divorced before he finished high school. When his mom and stepdad split during his college years, Jeff says it felt like a slap in the face. He realized he didn’t have a father. Through his twenties, his relationships lasted a year or so before he ran or sabotaged them. After the last one ended, he fell into a deep depression because he could finally see the problem was inside him. Today Jeff is a licensed clinical psychologist, married 16 years, and a dad to an 11-year-old daughter. In this conversation with Mike Forrester, he shares how he got there.

Attachment styles give that pattern a name. Jeff walks through the four of them: secure, anxious preoccupied, fearful avoidant, and dismissive avoidant. His own was fearful avoidant, which means longing for closeness and fearing it at the same time. He explains how every man builds self-protective strategies as a kid. Some men hide or shut down when they feel rejected, and others attack. Those strategies show up most in marriage, where a man expects his deepest needs to be met. Jeff chose his mentors on purpose. He looked for men with strong marriages and strong values because he wanted what they had. He also uses the picture of a circular staircase. The old wound is the pillar in the center, and a man keeps circling it from higher up as he grows. To keep from sliding back, Jeff practices meditation, prayer, and affirmation. He watches for the HALT triggers of hungry, angry, lonely, and tired, and for stress most of all. The doubts came back at work, too, each time he started something new, from his PhD to his own business.

The turn came when Jeff stopped looking for a woman to fill the hole in his life. He stopped dating and went to work on himself first. When he met his future wife, Jessica, in graduate school, the fear came right back. The first time she told him she loved him, he said thank you. It took him more than another year to say it back. He leaned on his counselor and the men he trusted, and he learned that only he could walk through the fear. Mike Forrester lives and teaches that healing the man first makes him whole. Mike shares how, as he healed, he watched his own wife and kids flourish. This one is for the dad with kids still at home who keeps his wife at arm’s length. He might go quiet or snap when he feels rejected. He wants his kids to grow up in a home where love feels safe.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

• Recognize the self-protective habits, like shutting down or attacking, that you built as a kid and still use with your wife.
• Learn the four attachment styles and spot the one that shapes how you show up in your marriage.
• Understand why the fear of becoming your father can resurface, even after real healing.
• Spot the stress and HALT triggers (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) that pull you back into old patterns.
• Use mentors with strong marriages and values to guide big decisions at home and at work.
• See how healing yourself first can ripple out to your wife and kids.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:01:15 - moving from self-protection to real connection in your marriage

00:05:28 - how healing yourself changes your marriage and your kids

00:06:39 - growing up in a broken home and fearing marriage

00:07:24 - what fearful avoidant attachment looks like in men

00:09:25 - the four attachment styles explained

00:12:09 - the fear of repeating your father’s mistakes

00:14:03 - working on yourself before you’re ready for a healthy relationship

00:22:58 - how to choose mentors with strong marriages

00:31:12 - why old wounds keep resurfacing even after healing

00:34:06 - how men can be vulnerable with their wives

00:36:59 - daily habits that keep your mindset from sliding back

00:41:28 - how stress and HALT triggers bring old patterns back

Connect with Dr. Jeff Jennings

Website:

https://www.greatestmarriageever.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/greatestmarriage.ever/

Email:

[email protected]

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

I'm joined by Chad Harrigan for this week's episode. Chad is a life coach who draws you in through his open and engaging stories about life, both the highs and the challenging times. He tells about two surgeries that came in the nick of time. Chad reveals how he and his wife, Lexi, traversed the sudden and unexpected loss of their son. From the silence of working through this, they then learned healthy ways of communicating deeper with one another.

Listen in as Chad guides us through the challenging life events he's worked through and what wisdom he's gleaned from them, which is now the foundation for the passion that drives him.

Connect with Chad Harrigan

Website:

https://www.theyclnco.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/heychadharrigan/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/heychadharrigan/

Clubhouse:

https://www.joinclubhouse.com/@heychadharrigan

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

I’m joined this week by Mike Kim. Mike is a personal branding coaching and is currently launching his book “You Are the Brand.” He shares about his journey of being a worship leader, Chief Marketing Officer, copywriter and becoming the coach he is now.

Mike’s insights and questions he has asked himself and his clients provide a great foundation for our own reflection and growth.

Connect with Mike Kim

Website:

https://mikekim.com

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mikekimtv

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekimtv

Brand You Podcast

https://mikekim.com/show

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

This week Grant Donnelly is joining us. Grant is a father of three, who along with his wife, lives in Canada. He is a performance coach and host of The Unbeatable Life podcast. Come partake of the stories and lessons Grant shares of his journey from Scotland with an alcoholic father, to the military, into the tech industry as an engineer and then through his migration to Canada - the fulfillment of a dream.

Join me as Grant brings us along on his trek into self-discovery and improvement, and into his current vision of being intentional in raising his children.

Connect with Grant Donnelly

Website:

https://www.grantdonnelly.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/the_sheepdog_dad/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/theSheepdogDad

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

Vulnerability takes more strength than staying tough, and a man who learns to share his fears can change his marriage. My guest Anthony Garcia grew up incredibly poor and carried what he calls a Hispanic machismo mentality. In his mid-twenties, his first business closed because of bad money habits. His first marriage ended in his late twenties, and he felt ashamed, like he was failing at life. He went back to work and poured years into corporate sales leadership. Reps he coached grew from $60,000 a year to over $350,000. That showed him his value came from how he treats people. Today he's a regional sales director and the author of Catapult Commissions. Early on, his wife Carla told him she was a mom first. She wouldn't date casually in front of her kids. Anthony thought about his own young daughter and the example he was setting. He told Carla he was scared of another divorce and of breaking up a family again. She told him she was scared too.

Anthony borrows from his business brain to run his marriage. Carla once told him he's fully coachable at work and asked if he could be that coachable as a husband and father. It took him a few days to stop defending himself and answer her. Now he runs choices at home through a risk and reward check. What would he gain by changing, and what would he lose by staying the same? He and Carla have seen a marriage counselor through good seasons and hard ones. They also get away regularly, sometimes for one night and sometimes for a longer trip. That habit grew out of reading The Five Love Languages and learning that Carla's language is quality time. Anthony believes the most important decision in business and life is who you spend your time with. For him, that starts with his spouse.

The fruit shows up in his kids. His stepson's grades collapsed during his first year away at college, and he spent months at home embarrassed. After watching his parents get back up from setbacks, he returned to school at Arizona State. Anthony's daughter froze and lost her last taekwondo tournament before earning her black belt. Now she spars older girls and gets back in her stance after taking a kick. She told her dad she hates when he misses training because he's her motivator. Anthony says a family believes it can beat adversity when its leaders believe it first. Mike Forrester lives and teaches that a man should quit trying to fix himself by himself. Anthony's change came through a wife who challenged him and a counselor they kept seeing. Husbands and fathers who'd rather stay tough than open up will hear themselves in Anthony. They'll also hear what it took for him to change.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• Recognize why showing your fears to your wife takes more strength than staying tough and closed off.
• Use a simple risk and reward question to decide whether to change at home: what will I gain, and what will I lose?
• Learn how regular time away as a couple, even one night, keeps your marriage and your whole house in sync.
• See how a failed business or a divorce can shape who you become without defining your worth.
• Understand why your spouse is the most important person you'll ever choose to spend your time with.
• Spot how your kids learn to get back up after setbacks by watching how you handle yours.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:02:46 - how bad money habits closed his first business

00:05:02 - why a divorce doesn't make you a failure

00:06:44 - how to bounce back when your identity is tied to work

00:11:36 - thinking about the example you set for your daughter

00:13:04 - admitting you're scared of another divorce

00:13:49 - why couples counseling helps even when things are good

00:15:14 - how machismo keeps men from opening up

00:18:01 - why vulnerability takes more strength than being tough

00:20:47 - using risk versus reward to make decisions in your marriage

00:26:38 - helping a teen get back up after failing out of college

00:32:20 - choosing generational legacy over generational wealth

00:38:43 - why regular getaways keep a marriage in sync

Connect with Anthony Garcia

Website:

https://anthonypgarcia.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/anthonypgarcia99

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/anthonypgarcia99

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

Sit back and enjoy this episode as we hear from Marshall Seese Jr, you’ll more likely know him as TheTin Man. He shares about having been a lawyer, which many would describe as having achieved success, yet looking for more in life. Marshall brings us along for his two-week hike on the breathtaking Camino de Santiago, truly a front-row experience.

Marshall is an amazing storyteller, Billboard-charts musician, and award-winning independent filmmaker. What carries Marshall to the top is his desire to create amazing art, whatever medium he’s using to tell a story and evoke emotions.

Join me as Marshall brings us in close for his discovery that the pain, we often run from doesn’t go away, and how we can learn to see the beauty all around us, despite the pain.

Connect with Marshall Seese Jr.

Website:

https://www.thisisthetinman.com

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/thisisthetinman

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/thisisthetinman

Connect with Mike Forrester

https://linktr.ee/hicoachmike

In this episode, we will talk to Andrew Biggs. Andrew is an international sales coach for top-performers at Google, Salesforce, SAP, Bloomberg, and Microsoft, helping 6 and 7 figure earners achieve their highest potential. As an industry-leading expert in leadership and the psychology of performance Andrew helps any sales leader looking to grow to connect to the meaning and purpose necessary to achieve both top-performance and true fulfillment in their lives through his Better Than Rich (@betterthan_rich) system.

Andrew shares how he's been able to travel the world with his family and how he's overcome hurdles along his journey. We talk about how he has come to experience deep, meaningful connections, unveil and live his purpose, create a powerful vision and to develop the skills required to live an impactful life.

Join us as Andrew shares the secrets of how he coaches his clients on living and experiencing the life you've been desiring.

Connect with Andrew Biggs

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/andrewmbiggs

Website:

https://www.betterthanrich.com

Connect with Mike Forrester

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/hicoachmike

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/hicoachmike

Let's discuss some of the takeaways from the interview with David Mike.

• Sometimes you just have to go and get what you want and not take no for an answer.
• Are you willing to persevere?
• Are you looking for alternative ways to get to yes?
• Am I able to change your behavior and habits which are hurting you and those around you?
• Are you willing to make the necessary changes?
• Remember you are not alone in the situation your experiencing.