The Dad Edge Podcast

For the second time, Marc Hildebrand flips the format and puts Larry in the interview seat, this time to unpack the five things men consistently say changed everything after joining the Dad Edge Business Boardroom Brotherhood: clarity, challenge, strategy, accountability, and brotherhood. Using real, anonymized member stories, Larry walks through how the group helps a business owner named Taylor rebuild connection with his wife using the four pillars of marriage and three levels of listening, why "rusty relationships" built on enabling friends keep 78% of men stuck, and why vague goals like "more communication" aren't actually strategies.
Larry also shares the origin story of the group's gamified accountability system, born on a cruise ship when he realized he hated holding people accountable the traditional way, and closes with a blunt challenge: most men wait for a crisis before they get help, and by then it's often too late. If you're a business owner who feels like your family gets the leftovers of your time and energy, this conversation is a direct look at what actually changes that.
 
Timeline Summary
[1:02] Larry opens on the tension every entrepreneur feels: building an empire without sacrificing family
[4:21] Introducing Marc Hildebrand as this week's interviewer, flipping the usual format
[6:42] The first pillar: clarity, and the story of onboarding a new member named Taylor
[7:45] Introducing the Brave Man system: bond, raise, amplify, vitality, enjoy, movement, action, network
[9:47] The comparison trap and the real divorce and disconnection statistics behind most marriages
[10:28] The four pillars of an extraordinary marriage: individual, partnership, friendship, and lovers
[13:20] Giving Taylor the 50 Intimate Conversation Starters and a simple daily walk-and-talk challenge
[15:13] The three levels of listening: to respond, to understand, and to hear the emotion underneath
[20:43] Larry announces a rare open preview of the Dad Edge Business Boardroom Brotherhood
[22:29] Why the same relational skills that fix a marriage also apply to clients and employees
[26:35] The second pillar: challenge, and the difference between friends and objective advisors
[27:22] Introducing "rusty relationships" and the 78% statistic from Mansfield's Book of Manly Men
[30:08] The story of a member named Tim who left his gym to stop being the smartest guy in the room
[33:38] The third pillar: strategy, and why "more" or "better" communication isn't actually a strategy
[35:25] The Casey 1.0 and 2.0 example: moving from scarcity and fear to strategic thinking
[38:20] The story of a member named Blake, whose time management problem was really about protecting family time
[40:03] Larry announces the first-ever Dad Edge Day with the Arizona Cardinals, November 15th
[42:49] The fourth pillar: accountability, and the cruise ship story behind gamifying it
[45:29] Introducing "the tent," the virtual system where members plan and track weekly missions
[47:20] The story of a member named Jayden whose recurring unfinished mission revealed a deeper marriage issue
[48:51] The fifth pillar: brotherhood, and why shame dies in safe conversations
[54:30] Larry's closing challenge: most men wait for a crisis, and by then it's often too late
 
Five Key Takeaways
Real clarity often comes from realizing your problem isn't what you think it is. A man convinced his issue is "not enough communication" usually discovers, through the right questions, that the real issue is which questions he's asking and how he's listening.

The four pillars of an extraordinary marriage, individual, partnership, friendship, and lovers, break down when couples get stuck managing logistics (partnership) and skip friendship entirely, which makes physical connection feel confusing or absent.

A friend who only agrees with your complaints isn't helping you, he's enabling you. An objective advisor without emotional stake in your friendship will challenge you in ways a lifelong buddy often won't.

Vague goals like "more communication" or "better connection" aren't strategies, they're wishes. Real change comes from identifying specific, concrete actions, the same way a health goal requires a specific plan, not just an instruction to "get healthier."

Accountability works best when it's gamified rather than shame-based. Publicly tracked weekly goals, done with humor and healthy competition, produce more consistent follow-through than accountability rooted in guilt.

 
Links & Resources
The Dad Edge Business Boardroom Brotherhood Preview: https://thedadedge.com/guest
Roommates to Soulmates: http://thedadedge.com/soulmates
The Pursuit of Legendary Fatherhood by Larry Hagner: https://thedadedge.com
The Dad Edge Podcast: http://thedadedge.com/1531 
Mansfield's Book of Manly Men by Stephen Mansfield
The Miracle Morning for Couples by Hal Elrod, Lance Salazar, and Brandy Salazar
 
Closing
If there's one thing Larry wants every business owner dad to hear from this episode, it's this: don't wait for a crisis. He read an email that same day from a man who waited seven years to address a marriage on the brink of collapse, and now he's scrambling. Clarity, challenge, strategy, accountability, and brotherhood aren't things you need once things fall apart, they're things you build before they do. Go out and live legendary.

Abbey Sharp has built an audience of over 2.5 million people calling out nutrition misinformation as a registered dietitian, and in this conversation she and Larry cut through some of the biggest confusion facing dads right now: the seed oil panic, the rise of "looks maxing" and muscularity-focused disordered eating in men, and how to feed a house full of picky kids without turning dinner into a nightly battle. Larry gets unusually candid about his own relationship with fitness and body image, and Abbey offers a grounded, non-restrictive framework for approaching food that she built out of her own recovery from an eating disorder.
The conversation also covers modeling healthy body image for kids, a practical division-of-responsibility approach to family meals, and Abbey's honest take on GLP-1 medications. If you've ever felt confused by conflicting nutrition advice online, or wondered whether your own relationship with fitness has quietly become more about fear than health, this episode offers real, evidence-based clarity.
 
Timeline Summary
[1:02] The seed oil debate: what the actual research says versus the online panic
[6:15] Ranking cooking oils by nutrient profile, and why canola oil gets undeserved hate
[16:09] Introducing Abbey Sharp: registered dietitian, author, and "the internet's no BS dietitian"
[17:45] Diet culture's impact on men, reframed as "optimization" and "looks maxing"
[19:02] How male-focused disordered eating often centers on muscularity rather than thinness
[21:42] Explaining "looks maxing" and its darker corners online
[23:23] Larry shares his own history: childhood bullying, a significant weight loss at 17, and fear of regaining it
[27:23] Finding balance: caring for your body without making it a referendum on your worth
[29:31] Why kids absorb body image messaging from watching their parents, long before anyone tells them directly
[34:00] Abbey shares her own teenage experience with orthorexia and how it shaped her career
[36:07] Introducing the Hunger Crushing Combo: protein, fiber, and healthy fats instead of restriction
[42:44] Abbey's take on GLP-1 medications: real benefits, real risks, and real social side effects
[47:07] Building a high protein, high fiber breakfast for kids without restricting carbs
[53:32] The Division of Responsibility approach to feeding picky kids without nightly battles
[58:24] Larry shares a childhood memory of being forced to eat spinach, and why pressure backfires
[59:40] Where to find Abbey: her podcast, YouTube channel, and family nutrition webinar
 
Five Key Takeaways
Not all cooking oils are created equal, and the sweeping "seed oils are toxic" narrative doesn't hold up under real research. The bigger issue is the ultra-processed foods most seed oils show up in, not the oil itself.

Disordered eating in men is often disguised as discipline. Framed as "optimization" or "looks maxing," compulsive protein tracking, fear of fat, and obsessive exercise get praised rather than questioned, which makes it harder to recognize as a real problem.

A helpful litmus test for a healthy relationship with fitness is whether it still lets you live your life: can you skip a workout, eat at a birthday party, or go out with friends without guilt? If self-care starts shrinking your life instead of adding to it, that's worth examining.

Kids absorb body image messaging by watching their parents, not just from what's said directly to them. Comments about needing to "earn" food through exercise or fearing weight gain teach kids that their body is a project long before anyone tells them so outright.

The Division of Responsibility approach to feeding kids means parents decide what, when, and where meals happen, while kids decide how much they eat. Keeping one safe, familiar food on the table for picky eaters reduces mealtime battles far more effectively than pressure or bribery.

 
Links & Resources
Bite Back with Abbey Sharp: https://www.abbeyskitchen.com
The Hunger Crushing Combo Method by Abbey Sharp, RD: https://www.abbeyskitchen.com/hunger-crushing-combo
The Board Room Mastermind: Guest Session: http://thedadedge.com/guest 
Roommates to Soulmates: http://thedadedge.com/soulmates 
Episode shownotes: http://thedadedge.com/1527
 
Closing

If any part of this conversation, especially the parts about food noise, fear of weight gain, or the pressure to always be optimizing, hit closer to home than you expected, you're not alone, and it's worth talking to someone. If you or someone you know is struggling with disordered eating, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline is available for support and can help you find the right next step. Beyond that, the whole spirit of this conversation is permission: permission to eat the pizza, permission to miss a workout, permission to let your kids grow up without inheriting a fear of their own bodies. Go out and live legendary.

I've had a lot of impressive guests on this show, but Khalil Zahar's story genuinely stood out to me. He's the founder and CEO of FightCamp, a company he built from a simple idea, wanting to actually measure his own progress as a boxer, into one of the biggest names in connected fitness, with over $100 million raised and backing from legends like Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, and Georges St-Pierre. He's also not married and doesn't have kids, but the lessons he's built his entire career around, discipline, discomfort, and identity, translate directly to fatherhood and marriage.
We started with the pivotal moment in his early 20s, a late night watching Sportscenter, that made him realize he didn't have unlimited time to become who he wanted to be. From there we got into his philosophy around seeking discomfort intentionally, why he believes identity has to come before outcome, and what it actually means to become the person who does the things you want to be known for, rather than chasing the result directly. He shared a personal story about training around a serious injury by controlling everything he could, his nutrition and mindset, when he couldn't control his body, and I shared a nearly identical story from my own torn patella tendon recovery.
We closed the conversation on what Khalil calls the mindset of a fighter, discipline, craftsmanship, accepting what you can't control, and learning to be genuinely thankful for your losses instead of resentful of them. If you've ever felt too comfortable, stuck in a rut, or unsure how to push yourself toward the version of you that you know is possible, this conversation gives you a real, practical way to start.
 
Timeline Summary
[1:04] Khalil's early 20s awakening: a late night realization that time wasn't unlimited
[3:36] His teenage dream of becoming a professional B-Boy and the intimidating scene around it
[7:00] The first concrete steps he took once he decided to stop just "trying a little"
[9:25] How Khalil's relationship with failure changed once he actually started taking risks
[12:20] Larry announces a rare, small-group preview of the Dad Edge Business Boardroom Brotherhood
[12:37] Why embracing failure sooner would have changed everything, and Thomas Edison's light bulb story
[14:31] Taking the first, smallest possible step instead of trying to see ten miles ahead
[16:34] A full introduction to Khalil: FightCamp's founder, backed by Tyson, Mayweather, and Saint-Pierre
[18:11] Khalil's controversial philosophy: why seeking discomfort matters more than self-acceptance alone
[21:39] Practical advice for a man who feels too comfortable and stuck in a "dad bod" mindset
[22:01] The core idea: identity comes first, and outcomes follow from who you decide to become
[25:21] Larry announces Roommates to Soulmates cohort three, starting September 16th
[27:16] Diving deeper into identity versus tactics, using Khalil's 13 bodybuilding competitions as an example
[32:18] Why seeking discomfort is fundamentally about removing fear, not chasing a specific outcome
[35:51] Confidence built through keeping your word to yourself, even when you don't feel like it
[36:43] What the mindset of a fighter actually looks like, broken into four core principles
[38:18] The first principle: discipline as doing what you don't want to do
[39:48] The second principle: craftsmanship, applying full care and attention to everything you touch
[40:31] The third principle: you can't control your opponent, only how you prepare and react
[42:17] The fourth principle: losses and failure are praised in martial arts, not resented
[44:10] Larry's own story of controlling what he could control during a torn patella tendon recovery
[45:32] Khalil shares a strikingly similar story recovering from a severe hand injury
[49:17] Where to find Khalil and FightCamp
 
Five Key Takeaways
Time is not unlimited, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you stop just "trying a little" and start actually pursuing the version of yourself you want to become.

Identity comes before outcome. Instead of fixating on the result you want, define who that person would be and start living like them today, and the outcome tends to follow naturally.

Confidence isn't built by achieving a goal once, it's built by consistently keeping your word to yourself, especially in the small moments when you don't feel like following through.

You cannot control your circumstances, your opponent, or the environment around you. The only thing you control is how you prepare for and respond to what happens, and real peace comes from focusing there instead.

Losses and failure should be treated as lessons to be thankful for, not outcomes to resent. A fighter's mindset toward getting knocked down and getting back up applies directly to marriage, parenting, and business.

 
Links & Resources
FightCamp (Khalil's at-home connected boxing and kickboxing fitness platform) — https://joinfightcamp.com
FightCamp on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok — @fightcamp
Khalil Zahar on Instagram — @khalilzahar
Shownotes for this episode: http://thedadedge.com/1526
Roommates to Soulmates (Larry's 8-week marriage coaching cohort; next cohort starts September 16th, with free preview calls): http://thedadedge.com/soulmates
Join the boardroom: http://thedadedge.com/guest
 
Closing
What's staying with me from this conversation is Khalil's point that losses are meant to be praised, not resented, because that's exactly the mindset a marriage and a family need too. You're not going to get every season right, and neither is your wife or your kids, but treating a setback as a lesson instead of a verdict on who you are changes everything about how you recover from it. Whatever discomfort you've been avoiding lately, in your body, your business, or your relationships, let this be the nudge to take the smallest next step toward it.

This week's Wednesday Q&A is a little different, I'm running it solo since my usual co-host Joe couldn't make it, and honestly, it turned into one of the harder, more important conversations we've had. A man in our Alliance named Rich called in with a genuinely difficult situation: his 17-year-old stepdaughter recently went through a breakup, was hospitalized shortly after making statements about wanting to end her life, and Rich is trying to figure out how to support her while also being honest that he's not sure whether what he's seeing is a real crisis or a manipulation tactic she's learned to use.
I want to be upfront that I am not a licensed therapist, and neither is anyone else on this call. We have someone in our community who specializes in this exact area, and when a situation is acute, that's who we point men toward. What I can offer is real, lived experience, because one of my own boys went through a genuinely frightening season with depression and anxiety years ago, and I've been in the position of feeling completely out of my depth as a father.
If you're a father watching a child struggle right now and feeling like you have no idea what you're doing, or you're not even sure if what you're seeing is a real crisis, this conversation won't give you all the answers, because there often aren't easy ones. But it might help you feel less alone in it.
 
Timeline Summary
[1:02] Opening the Wednesday Q&A solo, and introducing today's difficult topic
[1:48] Introducing Rich, a leader in the Alliance's teen-parenting group, and his situation
[3:13] Rich shares that his 17-year-old bonus daughter has recently expressed suicidal thoughts
[4:33] Understanding the timeline: a difficult personal season followed by a breakup two weeks ago
[5:43] Larry announces Roommates to Soulmates cohort three, starting September 16th
[7:25] Larry's disclaimer: not a licensed therapist, and where the community sends acute cases
[8:37] Asking Rich what he'd want to see in his stepdaughter's life a few months from now
[9:49] The tension between wanting to support her and wanting to hold her accountable to her own goals
[10:47] Assessing her circle of friends and the instability there
[12:30] First piece of advice: don't go through this alone, and find a therapist she connects with
[13:20] The breakfast and games advice from a mentor, and why simple connection mattered more than conversation
[15:27] The medication journey: an initial diagnosis, a worsening condition, and a specialized brain scan clinic
[17:07] How a corrected diagnosis and a supplement-based approach turned things around over about a year
[17:32] Larry shares his own 2017 hospitalization following extreme physical training and severe insomnia
[19:29] Reiterating connection over correction as the throughline of the advice
[19:51] Larry announces a rare, small-group preview of the Dad Edge Business Boardroom Brotherhood
[24:19] Closing advice: don't go through it alone, connect first, and remember that without connection there is no influence
 
Five Key Takeaways
You don't have to be a mental health expert to support a struggling child, but you do have to know when to bring in someone who is. Recognizing the limits of your own expertise and connecting your family with the right specialist is itself an act of good fathering.

Connection has to come before correction. A struggling teenager often needs low-pressure time with a parent, free of goal-setting or serious conversation, far more than another conversation about fixing the problem.

Finding the right therapist matters as much as finding a therapist at all. A mismatch in chemistry or approach can make a child more resistant to help they genuinely need.

A diagnosis can be wrong, and it's worth getting a second opinion when treatment isn't working. A corrected diagnosis and a different treatment approach turned around a genuinely difficult, months-long decline.

You are not required to be blood related to be the father figure a child needs most. Consistent presence during a hard season is what a child remembers and trusts long after the season ends.

 
Links & Resources
Get the full show notes and every link from this episode: https://thedadedge.com/1525
Ready to stop feeling like roommates and start leading your marriage? Join the next Roommates to Soulmates cohort: https://thedadedge.com/soulmates
Know a dad with a story worth sharing, or want to be on the show yourself? Apply to be a guest: https://thedadedge.com/guest
 
Closing
If you're a father in the middle of a season like the one Rich is walking through right now, please hear this: you don't have to have it figured out, and you don't have to do it alone. Get connected with people who know more than you do, keep showing up for the small, ordinary moments of connection, and trust that the fruit of your presence will show up even if you can't see it yet. Without connection, we have no influence, so lead with connection first, every time. Go out and live legendary.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988.

Gentlemen, welcome to the fourth and final episode of this month's series with my wife Jessica, and I want to start by saying thank you for showing up for this one, since August actually had five Fridays this year, which means she recorded a full bonus episode she didn't have to do. Today we're tackling something that trips up more marriages than almost anything else: roles and expectations, and specifically, all the unspoken assumptions about who does what that quietly cause resentment when they're never actually talked about.
Jessica and I get into the finances first, how I took over bill paying for our first five years of marriage and, driven by my own anxiety around debt, paid things down so aggressively it actually put us in a bind more than once. We talk through why swapping our roles, me handling investing and her handling the day to day bills, ended up being the right fit for both of us, and why neither of us wants to trade back. From there we get into dinner, probably the single area that's caused us the most quiet frustration over the years, from Jessica's years of resentment doing all the cooking to the practical shift we finally made once we actually talked about it out loud instead of just enduring it.
We also open up about how we split the harder parenting conversations, why the sex talk with our boys has always fallen to me, and why Jessica has become the one I lean on for basically every other hard conversation in our house. I share what I've learned watching her approach conflict, calm, strategic, and incredibly well timed, compared to my own instinct to just react in the moment. We close out by talking through how we split up kids' sports and activities, and what boundaries actually held up over 22 years of marriage.
If your marriage has ever hit friction over who's supposed to be doing what, and you've never actually sat down and talked about it, this conversation is a real look at how two people figured that out over two decades together, including the parts that took way too long to fix.
 
Timeline Summary
[1:02] Introducing the fourth and final episode of the August series with Jessica
[12:56] Reflecting on last week's lower-energy episode and setting up today's topic: roles and expectations
[14:12] Larry announces Roommates to Soulmates cohort three, starting September 16th
[16:33] Why unspoken and unknown expectations are what actually trip couples up the most
[19:00] The early years of bill paying: Larry's aggressive debt payoff and the strain it caused
[21:52] Why paying bills stressed Larry out so deeply, no matter how much money was in the bank
[24:36] Checking in on whether Jessica still feels good about handling the bills 17 years later
[25:39] Introducing the second financial role: why Larry handles all the investing
[27:05] Larry's own journey from investing overwhelm to genuinely loving it today
[30:45] Confirming neither of them wants to trade financial roles, and why that alignment matters
[31:27] Introducing the dinner problem: why family meals can become a major source of strife
[32:52] The moment, about a year ago, Jessica finally said out loud that she hated cooking
[33:32] The fix: splitting cooking nights and having the non-cooking spouse handle cleanup
[37:55] Larry announces the first-ever Dad Edge Day with the Arizona Cardinals, November 15th
[42:22] Checking in on what Jessica would still change about how dinner works today
[43:24] Jessica's regret: never requiring the kids to eat what was served instead of making separate meals
[46:34] Why the sex talk role has always fallen to Larry, and how he approaches it with their boys
[52:36] Breaking down Jessica's calm, strategic approach to conflict versus Larry's reactive instinct
[57:14] A callback to an earlier, lighter moment in the series about Larry's past drinking
[1:00:49] How they split kids' sports and activities, and the assumptions each of them still carries
[1:03:22] What comes next: Jessica joining monthly, and how to submit topic ideas
[1:04:51] Introducing two free resources: 25 Intimate Conversation Starters and 21 Days to an Extraordinary Marriage
 
Five Key Takeaways
Roles that feel natural today were often built through real trial and error, not instinct. Larry and Jessica swapped financial responsibilities after outside mentors pointed out they'd assigned them backward, and it took years to get right.

Resentment builds fastest around unspoken expectations. Nearly every friction point in their marriage, from bills to dinner, traces back to one person assuming a role the other person quietly grew to dread.

Sometimes the fix is simple once you finally say the hard thing out loud. Jessica's years of resentment around cooking dissolved almost immediately once she told Larry directly that she hated it, leading to a workable rotation within one conversation.

Timing matters as much as the message when addressing conflict. Jessica's approach of waiting for a calm moment, rather than confronting an issue in the heat of frustration, consistently produces a better outcome than reacting immediately.

Roles don't have to be permanent or symmetrical to work. Twenty-two years in, the goal isn't a perfectly even split of every responsibility, it's each person operating in the role that actually fits them, while staying willing to revisit it when it's not working.

 
Links & Resources
Shownotes for this episode: http://thedadedge.com/1524
Roommates to Soulmates (Larry's 8-week marriage coaching cohort; next cohort starts September 16th, with free preview calls): http://thedadedge.com/soulmates
The Dad Edge Day at State Farm Stadium (Arizona Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Rams, November 15): https://thedadedge.com/nfl
 Closing
Wrapping up this series, what stands out most is that Jessica and I don't have this figured out because we never struggled, we have it figured out because we finally stopped avoiding the hard conversations about who does what and why. Every role we've settled into came from a real conversation, sometimes an overdue one, not from assuming the other person would just handle it or just deal with it forever. If something in your own marriage has quietly been building resentment because nobody's actually said it out loud, let this be the nudge to finally have that conversation. Go out and live legendary.