DadAwesome

SUMMARY
When Jeff's sister lost her engagement ring in a five acre pasture hours before her wedding rehearsal, a rope, a grid, and a prayer turned an impossible search into a three minute miracle. In part four of the DadAwesome Multipliers series, that story becomes a blueprint for intentional fatherhood built on three things: a system that works, partners in the search, and faith in what you cannot yet see. Chad Johnson joins with a segment unpacking his Giant Five framework and why putting career first costs a man everything that matters.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Intentional dads need a system. Without one, you chase whatever is loudest instead of the people you love most.
The Giant Five framework orders your priorities: faith, marriage, children, health, and work. Most men have that list upside down.
You were never meant to search alone. Partners spot what you miss and call you higher when you drift.
Love sometimes looks like challenge instead of comfort, especially when your kids are settling into ease.
You don't have to search the whole field today. Move the rope a few feet and walk the line again.
QUOTES
"I really am okay with stirring the pot." (Chad Johnson)
"Live like a movie you'd want to watch with your children and grandchildren." (Chad Johnson)
"I call it turning success upside down." (Chad Johnson)
"Any fruit that anybody ever sees in my life is in spite of me." (Chad Johnson)
"Don't get overwhelmed with the entire field. One pass at a time." (Jeff Zaugg)
ABOUT CHAD JOHNSON
Chad Johnson is a father of eleven, an entrepreneur, and the creator of the Giant Five framework, a simple system for keeping faith, marriage, children, health, and calling in their right order. He is known for pushing his family toward character over comfort, including relocating them to Los Angeles for five months so his kids could work in his business facility. Chad previously joined DadAwesome for episodes 216 and 217.
ACTION STEPS
REFLECTION
Map your fields. Get a piece of paper and map your current life as a dad. Where does connection feel distant? Is there a child where things feel cold? Where could you raise your game in pursuing your wife or your time with God?
Be honest about the gap. Name what you are hoping for in each area. Without naming the hope, you cannot see the distance between where you are and where you want to be.
Run the Giant Five. Faith, marriage, children, health, work. Pray through which one is currently getting your leftovers. For many men it is work that needs to be turned upside down. For others it is the opposite, and career needs more drive because provision is the real need.
Celebrate one win. Look back and name one victory. Do not skip this part.
MULTIPLICATION
Name your partners. Who are the other dads in this adventure with you? Is there a rhythm of meeting? Is there a text thread already going? The field search never would have worked alone.
Get the free small group curriculum. Send a voice message with your name, where you are located, and your idea for a fall small group. You will get the three page PDF back.
Send a few texts. Invite two or three dads to listen to episode 446 so you are all working from the same framework.
Use the side door. Extend a tangible invitation: the Spartan race in Dallas on October 17, or the fall 100 mile running challenge.
ACTIVATION
Block the time. Put a block on your calendar this week for deeper work on the Giant Five. Do not just listen and move on.
Open Luke 15:3 through 7 with your family. Read the parable of the shepherd who leaves the 99, then tell your kids directly: this is how I feel about you. I will always come looking for you.
Pause and pray first. Before stepping into any of these areas, stop and pray, the same way Jeff and his sister did before they started the search.
Move the rope. Ask God for one area where you can move the rope seven or eight feet tomorrow. One pass at a time.
Keep celebrating. Look at what God has done and mark it.
Go deeper. DadAwesome Labs for Chapter 11 is linked below with additional activations and discussion questions.
LINKS MENTIONED
Spartan Team DadAwesome, Dallas, Texas, October 17 https://givebutter.com/DallasSpartan

DadAwesome 100 Mile Fall Running Challenge - https://givebutter.com/dadawesome100

Leave a VOICEMAIL: https://www.speakpipe.com/DadAwesome

Join Team Awesomeness (monthly support team) at any level from $7/month to $1000/month... We have 41 families committed to fueling the ministry DadAwesome as we head toward celebrating 9 years of AWESOMENESS this coming winter: https://www.dadawesome.org/give

Join the DadAwesome Prayer Team: Text "pray" to (651) 370-8618

Send a Voice Message to DadAwesome

Apply to join the next DadAwesome Accelerator Cohort

Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text the word "Dad" to (651) 370-8618

7-Day Video Series: dadawesome.org/book

DadAwesome Podcast: dadawesome.org/podcast

Free Chapter + Intro Video Series: dadawesome.org/book

Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text "Dad" to (651) 370-8618

DADAWESOME book: dadawesome.org/book

DadAwesome Labs, Chapter 11: 
Episode 216 with Chad Johnson: https://www.dadawesome.org/blog/216
Episode 217 with Chad Johnson: https://www.dadawesome.org/blog/217

Join the TEAM DADAWESOME prayer team and pray for 20-minutes this Saturtday morning:
 
Episode Summary::

One ordinary Tuesday in the summer of 2001, Jeff sold a $200 television to a couple in a minivan — and only found out afterward that they were worth $5.5 billion and ranked 57th on the Forbes list. His unawareness didn't change their wealth by a dollar. It only changed how he treated them. In this chapter from the DadAwesome book, Jeff makes the case that most dads are doing the same thing with their own identity: parenting from poverty while holding access to infinite resources, working to earn what's already been freely given.

TAKEAWAYS
Your unawareness doesn't change your position. Not knowing who those customers were didn't subtract a dollar from their net worth — and forgetting you're God's son doesn't change that you are one. It only changes how you show up.
The clipboard teaches conditional love. When affection gets tracked point by point, kids learn love is something they earn.
Most of us carry that invisible scoreboard straight into adulthood and into our relationship with God.
God set the scoreboard to infinity. Not a clipboard with changing numbers — a gymnasium scoreboard with the infinity symbol permanently displayed.
You can't add to it with your wins or subtract from it with your failures. (It's why the DA logo looks the way it does.)
Employee mindset and son mindset produce two different fathers. One strives, fears mistakes, measures worth by performance, and competes for attention. The other rests, lives from security, measures worth by belonging, and celebrates other people's wins.
Position changes the daily stuff. Instead of managing behavior, you cultivate hearts. Instead of panicking about finances, you remember your Father owns everything. Instead of shame spirals, you experience conviction that leads to growth.

TEAM DADAWESOME SPONSORS:
 
Aleph Ventures — Twin Cities based, partnering with and supporting painting companies across the country to calibrate, deepen impact, and go further than they could alone. https://www.aleph-ventures.com/
 
TRACK CPA — Minnesota-based, nationwide tax, accounting, bookkeeping, and financial services. https://trackcpa.com/
 
QUOTES

"My ignorance of their position didn't change their actual wealth. It only affected how I interacted with them."
"Over time, that clipboard became a symbol of conditional love. I learned that affection was something I earned — point by point, performance by performance."
"My heavenly Father has set the scoreboard to infinity. It can't increase with my successes or decrease with my failures. I can't add to infinity. I can't subtract from it."
"We parent from poverty when we have access to infinite resources — striving for acceptance we already possess and working for approval that's already been given."
"You're not God's employee, you're His son. And sonship is where fatherhood begins."
Bonus — Jamie Winship: "Parenting is very much about the identity of the dad. The greatest gift you can give to your kids is the truth of who you are."

ACTION STEPS


1. Reflection

Name your clipboard. Every one of us has an area — points, grades, obedience, success, output — where we experienced conditional love. Name it, and name what pushed you toward living like an employee instead of an heir.
Do the two-column audit. Am I living like an employee, or like a loved son and heir? Scarcity or abundance? (Downloadable PDF in the show notes.)
Ask the two questions. Borrowed from Jamie Winship: sit alone with God, settle down, and ask, "What are the things I believe about myself that hurt me?" Name the disappointments, the failures, the places you feel like you're not enough. Then ask the follow-up: "Jesus, what do you say about me?"

2. Multiplication

Send a couple of texts. Invite other dads into episode 445 and grow a circle of men who are growing alongside you.
Join the prayer team. Team DadAwesome — 55 men — rides this Saturday to fuel fatherhood ministry. Give 20 minutes of prayer sometime Saturday morning, August 1st. Let's multiply in prayer.

3. Activation

Start tomorrow with a declaration. Before you check your phone, before your to-do list starts talking, answer whose you are — and say it out loud, don't just think it: "I am a loved son of God."
Remind your kids the scoreboard is set to infinity. Tell them, "I love you because you're mine," not because of what they accomplished. Try, "I'm so glad I get to be your dad. I'm so thankful you're my son."
Take the holy pause. When you feel a critique or a scorecard-based thought forming, catch it before it comes out. Notice the moments you'd communicate more love if they performed.
Ask your spouse. "Are there ways or times I communicate a lack of love because of a performance or a mistake?"

SUMMARY
 
The current chapter of dad life is not the whole story. In part two of the DadAwesome Multipliers summer series, Jeff reads Chapter 2 of the DadAwesome book, The Tale of Two Thieves, and unpacks what a three dozen cookie dough heist taught him about choosing curiosity instead of reactivity. Then Phil Comer joins with a powerful clip on giving a blessing instead of returning evil for evil, and how one choice in a tense room trickles down for generations. This episode closes with clear reflection, multiplication, and activation steps you can take this week.
 
Key Takeaways
You are living into a multigenerational story, and this chapter is only a tiny slice of it.
Curiosity opens doors. Reactivity closes them.
You cannot eliminate chaos, but you can shape how it unfolds.
Stones of remembrance are about keeping the stories alive, not preserving the reminders.
Giving a blessing when you have received a criticism changes the atmosphere of a room.
Action Steps
REFLECTION
Look back at the chaos. When curveballs hit recently, were you reacting or responding? Were you making assumptions or staying curious and asking God what He wanted to teach you in that moment?
Open your phone and look back at the last month. Scroll your photos, scroll your calendar. Where has God shown up that you have not paused long enough to call to mind?
Ask the honest question. If your kids described the atmosphere you carry into the room right now, would tenderness make the list? Would softness? Would kindness?
MULTIPLICATION
Send the text. Reach out to seven or eight dads and invite them to journey with you through the end of August. If two or three say yes, you have moved from addition to multiplication.
Pick your gathering. A text thread, a campfire, a boat, a camping trip with your kids. Make one specific invite this week.
Carry a copy. Keep an extra DadAwesome book in your vehicle or your laptop bag and look for the moment to hand it to a dad and tell him you see him being awesome.
ACTIVATION
Start a family remembrance list. Sit down together, scroll photos and your calendar, and capture the answered prayers, the provision, the goodness, the moments God showed up. Let every kid contribute.
Tell the stories out loud. At the dinner table or at bedtime, tell your kids one story of God's faithfulness in your family.
Flip the switch this week. The next time a curveball comes, choose curiosity first. Laugh at the moment. Show your kids that dad is anchored and steady, not thrown off.
 
Timestamps
03:00 This week's theme is story
04:00 Chapter 2, The Tale of Two Thieves
06:24 React or respond, curiosity or reactivity
08:49 The Dad Detective's approach, five practices
11:11 Crafting your family's story
12:45 Stones of remembrance
14:30 Building your family's remembrance list
18:21 Remember this
19:20 Setting up the Phil Comer clip
20:20 Phil Comer on tenderness, blessing, and the choices we pass down
26:45 Action steps: reflection, multiplication, activation
Guest
Phil Comer is a husband, father, and grandfather with 40 years of pastoral and counseling experience. After planting a church in 2004, Phil and his wife, Diane, went on to launch Intentional Parents International, a ministry equipping young parents and providing focused teaching in the spiritual training of children. This clip comes from episode 317.
Links Mentioned
Listen to the full conversation with Phil Comer: DadAwesome Episode 317

Intentional Parents: intentionalparents.org

Spartan Team DadAwesome, Dallas, Texas, October 17 https://givebutter.com/DallasSpartan

DadAwesome 100 Mile Fall Running Challenge - https://givebutter.com/dadawesome100

Leave a VOICEMAIL: https://www.speakpipe.com/DadAwesome

Join Team Awesomeness (monthly support team) at any level from $7/month to $1000/month... We have 41 families committed to fueling the ministry DadAwesome as we head toward celebrating 9 years of AWESOMENESS this coming winter: https://www.dadawesome.org/give

Join the DadAwesome Prayer Team: Text "pray" to (651) 370-8618

Send a Voice Message to DadAwesome

Apply to join the next DadAwesome Accelerator Cohort

Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text the word "Dad" to (651) 370-8618

7-Day Video Series: dadawesome.org/book

DadAwesome Podcast: dadawesome.org/podcast

Free Chapter + Intro Video Series: dadawesome.org/book

Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text "Dad" to (651) 370-8618

DADAWESOME book: dadawesome.org/book

Top Five Quotes
"The current chapter of dad life is not the whole story."
"You can't eliminate chaos, but you can shape how it unfolds."
"Your kids are watching how you handle the unexpected. What story are you writing?"
"It's not about preserving the physical reminders. It's about keeping the stories alive."
Phil Comer: "If you, with God's help, can give a blessing when you've received a criticism or a curse, it brings peace and it honors God."
Tags
DadAwesome, Jeff Zaugg, Phil Comer, DadAwesome Multipliers, fatherhood, christian dad, dad life, parenting, dad podcast, intentional parenting, story, legacy, generational blessing, stones of remembrance, God's faithfulness, curiosity, marriage, tenderness, scripture, Intentional Parents

Welcome to Episode 443 and the kickoff of a brand new seven part summer series: the DADAWESOME MULTIPLIERS. It's a lightweight, campfire ready series built to help you spread the mission of Dad Awesome through the end of August. Each week you'll get a slice of the forthcoming Dad Awesome audiobook, a featured guest voice from the vault, real time multiplication coaching, three practical lab activation steps, and a giveaway.
https://www.dadawesome.org/blog/443
In Part 1, Jeff Zaugg sets the flyover. He reads the book's dedication and preface, tracing how one casual patio question from his cousin in Arizona, "How do you stay intentional as a dad?", exposed that he was pouring growth into every area of life except fatherhood. That single unanswered question sparked a ten week experiment with twenty friends, a first episode filmed at the base of a snowy sledding hill, a name change from DadVentures to DadAwesome, and eventually a movement built on hundreds of small yeses. The episode closes with a two minute clip from Jeff's first ever interview with Mark Batterson, who wrote the forward for the book.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Intentional fatherhood starts with a question, not a program. Staying awake to "How do you stay intentional as a dad?" changed everything.
The mission runs on two turnings from Malachi 4:6, hearts toward heaven and hearts toward home.
Read to lead. You don't need 250 books, but read a dozen so you can lead on the home front.
Your mistakes are one of your greatest teaching tools. Kids learn to apologize by watching you do it.
Prioritize your children, don't idolize them. Batterson names that as a big difference.
Batterson learned more about the heart of the Heavenly Father from parenting his three kids than from all his degrees and seminary trips combined.
Movements are built on small yeses, not one grand gesture.
THIS WEEK'S LABS
Reflection: Do an intentionality audit. Open your notes app or a journal and honestly assess how you're staying intentional, heart toward heaven and heart toward home. What are you reading and listening to? Does your calendar show fatherhood is an area of real pursuit?
Multiplication: Be an inviter. Copy paste one text to ten dads inviting them into the seven week challenge through the end of August. Listen each week, then get together to talk about it over coffee, wings, a campfire, a run, a bike ride, or a boat. Get two or more to say yes and you've moved from addition to multiplication.
Activation: Name your small yes. What yes have you been putting off that God is nudging you toward this week? A dad daughter date, a date with your wife, a follow through you keep intending but haven't done. Pick it and act on it.
GIVEAWAY
Send Jeff a voice message up to 90 seconds using the link in the show notes. Introduce yourself and share what this first episode stirred up, your action step, or a question. Each week one message gets randomly picked to win DadAwesome summer gear.

Send DadAwesome a VOICEMAIL (and we will send you the SMALL GROUP guide)
 
Jenga blocks, jiu jitsu mats, and a decade vision for your family. 👊

SUMMARY
What if your family values were something your kids could actually touch? In Part 2 of this paddleboard conversation, Tyler Van Eps shares how he turned a Jenga set into a discipleship tool, why physical discomfort opens the door to spiritual growth, and what it takes to build a legacy of courage in your kids. Plus, he unpacks the question God placed on his heart: what is required to be a founding father?

TAKEAWAYS
You can only control the outcomes so much as a dad, but you can control the inputs. Zoom out to a 90 day view to realign your family direction.
Purpose, vision, and value language is abstract for kids. Make your family values tangible with tools like Jenga blocks and card decks so your kids can see, touch, and speak them.
Your family values will stay the same, but the language needs to match the season your kids are in.
Men grow through moments of physical and spiritual discomfort. Gatherings like Manmaker sneak spiritual vulnerability in the side door.
Think in decades, not just weeks. Ask yourself what you need to be doing today to have a strong relationship with your kids as adults.
Your kids will face fear, but you can build a reservoir of courage into their heritage that they can tap into for the rest of their lives.
GUEST

Tyler Van Eps is a husband, father, and intentional family leader passionate about making spiritual formation tangible. He and his wife, Shelly, practice quarterly whole life stewardship reviews and have built family values their kids can see and touch. Tyler is also the creator of Manmaker, a series of high intensity gatherings that challenge men toward biblical manhood through physical and spiritual growth. He and his family live in Minnesota.

#DadAwesome #christiandad #dadlife #parenting #dadpodcast #fatherhood #intentionalfatherhood #familyvalues
 
LINKS
Send a Voice Message to DadAwesome
Join Team Awesomeness (monthly support team) at any level from $7/month to $1000/month... We have 41 families committed to fueling the ministry DadAwesome as we head toward celebrating 9 years of AWESOMENESS this coming winter: https://www.dadawesome.org/give

Join the DadAwesome Prayer Team: Text "pray" to (651) 370-8618

Send a Voice Message to DadAwesome

Apply to join the next DadAwesome Accelerator Cohort

Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text the word "Dad" to (651) 370-8618

7-Day Video Series: dadawesome.org/book

DadAwesome Podcast: dadawesome.org/podcast

Free Chapter + Intro Video Series: dadawesome.org/book

Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text "Dad" to (651) 370-8618

DADAWESOME book: dadawesome.org/book

Vince Miller (on DadAwesome)

https://wildatheart.org/




QUOTES
"I wanna be remembered as a good husband, a good father, a follower of Jesus... I wanna be remembered as a courageous person... I can't control whether my kids are afraid or scared of something, but I always want them to feel that they've got somewhere in them, somewhere in their heritage, somewhere in their spirit, a reservoir of courage that they can tap into."
 "I'm so dialed into what success looks like in my career... I can tell you if I'm on track, off track on anything, but I have no idea how it's all feels as a dad... you can only control the outcomes so much, but there's so much that you can control as far as the inputs." 
"I want these moments where we ramp up the intensity a little bit... it's immediately putting you in a space of both physical and spiritual discomfort and a little bit of vulnerability. But for men, the physical discomfort almost overrides your awareness of how spiritually uncomfortable you might be." 
"I was challenged for the first time to think in like a decade thing... when I think about wanting to have a strong relationship with my kids as adults, what are the things that I need to be doing today to set the tone for that?" 
"Personally I wanted an environment where it felt like I don't know what's gonna come out of this. I don't know when a guy's gonna step up to this blocking sled. I don't know what he's gonna say right before he pushes this thing down ten yards downfield."