For many working dads, the challenge isn’t a lack of ambition. It’s the feeling that no matter how hard they work, there’s always another responsibility competing for their time, attention, and energy.

After decades in leadership roles, including serving as a Global VP of Talent and Leadership, Carol Enneking noticed a pattern: many of the most successful people she worked with were also some of the most exhausted.

Carol shares how to:

• Recognize the difference between a demanding season and a misaligned life
• Create margin for the unexpected instead of operating at full capacity
• Think about sequencing goals instead of stacking everything at once
• Build stronger relationships through presence and attention

Carol offers practical wisdom for working dads trying to navigate fatherhood, meaningful work, and the tension between professional ambition and personal priorities.

Dig Deeper

Stephen Covey Sharpen the Saw

Insperity

The Brady Bunch

Barney

My Best Friend’s Girl

Follow Carol

On her website: https://carolenneking.com/

In her community: https://carolenneking.com/join-community/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolenneking

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carol.enneking

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarolEnnekingSpeaker

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroltenneking/

Get her book, The Rebalancing Act: https://carolenneking.com/book/

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What would your life look like if fear stopped making your decisions?

Chris Woods spent decades building a successful career, including leadership roles at Google. From the outside, everything looked like it was working. But underneath the success was a constant fear of failure, loss, and not measuring up.

Everything changed when Chris flatlined in a hospital bed at age 40. The experience forced him to take a hard look at what was driving his choices and whether the life he was building was actually connected to what mattered most.

Chris shares how to:

• Recognize when fear is driving your decisions at work and at home
• Stop catastrophizing worst-case scenarios
• Build confidence by bringing fears into the open instead of avoiding them
• Use gratitude to become more present in everyday life

Chris offers a practical perspective for working dads trying to balance fatherhood, career growth and the pressure that comes with providing for a family. You don’t need a life-altering event to start asking better questions about your work, your priorities, and the life you want to build.

Dig Deeper

Cardiac Lyme disease

Enneagram

Peter Crone

Clifton StrengthFinders

The Brady Bunch

Follow Chris

On his website: https://chriswoodscoach.com

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswoodsleadership

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@chriswoodscoach

On TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chriswoodsleadership

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswoods

His book, Balls & Brains: https://amzn.to/4x7kzhD

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What happens when the conversations working dads avoid at home start affecting every other part of their lives?

Mylena Sutton believes leadership is not something you turn on at work and leave behind at home. The way you handle conflict, stress, shame, communication, and emotional pressure follows you everywhere. For working dads trying to balance career demands, parenting, relationships, and personal identity, that truth can be uncomfortable, but necessary.

This conversation explores how emotional avoidance, resentment, shame, and overwork quietly shape fatherhood, parenting, relationships, and work life balance.

Mylena shares how to:

• Handle difficult conversations before they explode into conflict
• Build healthier communication patterns inside relationships and parenting
• Create alignment between career, family, and personal values
• Stop using work as an escape from unresolved problems at home
• Address shame honestly instead of carrying it silently
• Create healthier boundaries that support long term work life balance
• Stay grounded in your values during stressful seasons of fatherhood and work

Mylena’s perspective is direct, thoughtful, and deeply practical. She challenges the idea that dads should simply carry everything silently and instead encourages more honesty, more intentionality, and more alignment between the life you want and the life you are actively building.

This conversation offers meaningful insight for working dads navigating parenting, leadership, relationships, and the emotional realities that often go unspoken.

Dig Deeper

Uno

Pink Panther

Federal Aviation Administration

Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin

Follow Mylena

On her website: mylenasutton.com/invitations

On Instagram: instagram.com/mylenasutton

On LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mylenasutton

On her podcast, The Leadership Drives: theleadershipdrives.com/

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On LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/themichaeljacobs/

What if success is not about building generational wealth, but building generational habits?

Jason VanDevere walked away from a future most people would never leave behind. Instead of taking over his family’s successful auto dealership business, he chose to build his own path through entrepreneurship, real estate investing, and coaching.

Becoming a father changed how he thinks about ambition, work life balance, and what success is actually supposed to lead to.

Jason shares how to:

• Define success based on lifestyle and values instead of status or income
• Build work life balance by creating intentional constraints and boundaries
• Stop letting work expand endlessly into family time
• Create businesses that support your life instead of consuming it
• Build generational habits that shape your family long after money is gone

For dads trying to balance fatherhood, entrepreneurship, and the desire to build a meaningful life for the next generation, this conversation offers both clarity and actionable perspective.

Dig Deeper

Ice Bath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria_

Barney

The Lion King

Stacy’s Mom

Follow Jason

On his website: https://goalcrazy.com/

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goal.crazy

Goal Crazy on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4v8Lo3w

Read his book, Dream Driven: https://amzn.to/4dK7lPj

Grab the Idea to Profit Blueprint: https://www.goalcrazy.com/blueprint

Check out his podcast

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How do you stay calm, present, and emotionally available when life keeps pulling you in every direction at once?

Colin C. Thompson believes the answer starts with mental fitness. As a coach, speaker, and certified Positive Intelligence practitioner, Colin works with people who feel stuck between pressure, responsibility, and the constant demands of work and family life. His approach focuses on helping dads recognize the thought patterns, habits, and emotional reactions that quietly shape how they show up every day.

This conversation explores how working dads can build mental fitness instead of constantly operating in survival mode. Colin breaks down the mental habits that create more presence, patience, emotional control, and healthier work life balance at home and at work.

Colin shares how to:

• Create healthier boundaries between work mode and family mode
• Transition intentionally from work stress into parenting time
• Recognize self-sabotaging thoughts before they spiral
• Stop carrying workplace pressure into family interactions
• Respond to stressful parenting moments with more calm and less reactivity
• Model emotional openness and healthy behavior for your kids
• Reduce comparison and external pressure as a working dad

For working dads trying to balance fatherhood, meaningful work, and the emotional pressure that comes with both, this conversation offers practical ways to build stronger mental fitness, healthier boundaries, and more intentional relationships at home.

Dig Deeper

Kung Fu Theater

Rally’s

24K Magic by Bruno Mars

Elmo the President

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On his websites: https://www.oligye.com and https://www.colincthompson.com

On Facebook: https://facebook.com/colin.c.thompson

On LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/colincthompson/

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Why do so many working dads feel exhausted even when they’re doing everything "right"?

Dr. Matt Campbell believes the problem is not that most people are broken. It’s that they’re depleted.

Matt is a clinical psychologist and creator of the Primal Five Framework, which focuses on five foundational areas that shape how we show up every day: sleep, sunlight, movement, connection, and consumption. His work explores how modern life quietly pulls us away from the things our minds and bodies were built for and how that depletion affects everything from patience and anxiety to parenting and meaningful work.

Matt shares how to:

• Recognize when exhaustion is really a capacity problem instead of a time problem
• Improve work life balance without trying to overhaul your entire life overnight
• Build routines that reduce decision fatigue and make healthy habits easier
• Find practical ways to incorporate movement into an already busy schedule
• Create meaningful connection instead of surface-level social interaction
• Break cycles of depletion, irritability, anxiety, and overwhelm

Matt brings a thoughtful and deeply practical perspective to fatherhood, parenting, and the reality of trying to stay healthy while balancing work, family, and daily responsibilities.

Dig Deeper

Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation

Scooby-Doo Theme Song

Thunder Road

You Never Even Called Me by My Name

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On his website: https://www.ourprimal5.com/

On his newsletter: https://our-primal-5.kit.com/9b41ee5325

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On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-campbell-a5b22910/

Get the Our Primal 5 Workbook: https://amzn.to/48Qoe9h

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What happens when your life changes faster than you can process it?

For Mike Weyandt, the shift into fatherhood came all at once. A long, uncertain adoption process suddenly turned into bringing home a newborn in a matter of weeks. At the same time, his career path was in flux, and shortly after, the world shut down.

What followed was a season filled with constant change, new responsibilities, and very little time to step back and make sense of it all.

Mike brings a rare combination of perspectives. As a former opera performer, he understands what it means to be fully present when it matters most. As a talent leader and executive coach, he has helped others navigate uncertainty in their careers. And as a dad, he has lived through the reality of balancing meaningful work, identity shifts, and the everyday demands of parenting.

Mike shares how to:

• Recognize and interrupt reactive patterns in both work and parenting
• Build awareness around the thoughts that drive stress and overwhelm
• Stay present when everything around you feels uncertain
• Balance ambition with the realities of fatherhood and daily life
• Move from constant reaction to more intentional decision-making
• Let go of “should” thinking and challenge inherited assumptions
• Handle career uncertainty without defaulting to ineffective busy work
• Accept that growth as a parent and professional is an ongoing practice

Mike’s perspective is thoughtful, honest, and deeply practical. Especially for working dads trying to figure out work life balance while navigating change, pressure, and the desire to be more present at home.

It’s a reminder that not every season needs to be solved immediately. Sometimes the real work is learning how to stay grounded while everything is still unfolding.

Dig Deeper

ADHD

Never Eat Alone

Bluey

Crazy by Patsy Cline

Follow Mike

On his website: analogpractice.work

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mweyandt/

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What does it actually look like to rebuild your life after everything falls apart?

Rob Capili has lived through it. Divorce, career pivots, identity shifts, and the long process of starting over while still showing up as a father. His path has never been linear. From tech to filmmaking to music to entrepreneurship, he has followed curiosity, taken risks, and learned the hard way what matters and what doesn’t.

But some of his most important lessons didn't come from success. They came from failure, from relationships that didn't work, and from the responsibility of raising kids through difficult transitions.

This conversation is raw, honest, and grounded in real experience. Especially for working dads trying to navigate fatherhood, work life balance, and the pressure to get it right while figuring it out in real time.

Rob shares how to:

• Rebuild your identity and direction after divorce
• Balance honesty with protecting your children during difficult seasons
• Let go of perfection and focus on being present as a parent
• Give kids the space to make their own decisions while still guiding them
• Shift from outcome-based thinking to focusing on effort and process
• Recognize what you will and will not tolerate in relationships moving forward
• Use failure, setbacks, and painful experiences as fuel for growth
• Follow curiosity and creativity while still carrying real responsibility

Rob’s perspective is direct, thoughtful, and often unexpectedly funny. A reminder that even in the hardest seasons, there is a path forward.

Dig Deeper

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Barney

Back That Azz Up by Juvenile

Follow Rob

On his website: robcapili.com

Lovers Quarrel: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robcapili/lovers-quarrel-a-graphic-novel

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On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themichaeljacobs/