Show notes (time stamps approximate)
6 year old boy, 3 year old daughter.
8:00 It was super hard in the beginning and he was always working, he had quite a few heated conversations with his wife over his tendency to be thinking about the business non-stop
9:00 Created boundaries for his business so that he could be mentally present with either his family or his business
9:45 Physical boundaries are important to tell himself what the space is for, an office for working. It is a continual struggle even with the boundaries.
11:00 It is impossible for him to work when the kids are around and wanting his attention so he didn’t even try and do it, he set boundaries of space or time (working when the kids are asleep)
11:15 mental switching when he gets interrupted in his work is huge so intentional work time is a necessity
15:00 very intentionally works with his son on how to deal with failure through asking him questions constantly. He want to teach how to deal with things and figure them out on
16:00 Complaining and getting yourself down does NOTHING and he is trying to point his children toward action to solve the problem and not stay in a state of complaining
16:40 Gamify with his kids; complaint jar that his kids have to put money in if they complain but get money out if they seek a solution prior to a complaint. Him and is wife also have to play in the game.
5 minute journals
the miracle morning
19:10 Journaling is the most underutilized things that we can all do
19:30 everyday write down 3 things you’re grateful for, 3 things you want to accomplish that day (what would make today awesome), 3 things that were great that happened that day, 1 thing you could do better
20:45 biggest lessons from his parents was that hard work pays off, serving others, patience
22:00 negative from his parent: focusing on the failure obsessively to strive for perfection all the time
23:10 “embrace your weird” is a mantra he teaches his audience as well as his son, what makes your weird makes you who you are
24:30 consistently talking wisdom into your kids is essential
26:00 His kids attend a STEM school
28:30 “Smart Money Smart Kids” by Dave Ramsey was a great parenting resource for him.
29:30 guidance and a diverse opinion is good but ultimately is comes from experience and you need to figure it out
30:00 stays up on what his kids are into, for example he started playing Minecraft because his son got into it so he could talk with him about it
Quotes
Transcription below (typos may be present…) [00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] Welcome to the 2 cent dad podcast, where we interview dads to discuss their journeys of intentional fatherhood while doing work they care about and living a life of purpose. I’m your host, Mike Soodek. Pat: [00:00:19] We want to get it out of that complaint mode. We want to get him into okay. If there’s something wrong. Let’s see what’s going on so we could fix it and not have it happen again. And it’s just been a very good thing. and so whenever we see him try to solve a problem first before complaining, then we actually give him a quarterback. So it’s just in and out. And it’s not yet a hundred percent solving problems versus complaining and he complains all the time. But again, it’s just one of those systems that we’ve put into place that we have seen progress now. And it’s great. Mike: [00:00:53] Today. I’m very lucky to have Pat Flynn on the podcast. Pat is founder of [00:01:00] a website called smart passive income, which he started in 2008 after being laid off from his architecture job and has since grown into a site that generates about $150,000 a month. he is a very dynamic guy, very vocal in the passive income space. helping people, develop side businesses. But what he does in this episode is just give some very practical advice to fathers, especially young fathers, and just share some Pat: [00:01:26] things that he does with his children Mike: [00:01:28] to teach themselves the values and just make sure that he is mentally present when he’s with his kids. Pat’s a great guy and this episode does not disappoint. So let’s jump Pat: [00:01:37] in. Mike: [00:01:39] Hey, I’m here with Pat Flynn, who, those of you that don’t know, he runs a very successful blog called smart, passive income. He’s also an author. He is a, company builder. he is a very successful podcasts are much more successful than myself. he has like a hundred thousand Twitter followers. So you will say he’s very successful guy, businesses doing $150,000 a month. [00:02:00] so I am just very excited to have you on Pat. I thank you for your time. so I just wanted to, I, one of the things I was asking I wanted to ask you was that if you meet someone that you don’t know, you’re halfway across the country and someone asks you what you do, what do you typically say to them? Pat: [00:02:15] first of all, Mike, thanks for having meetings for the County words. and that’s an interesting question because the answer changes depending on who I know who I’m speaking to or what the situation is. And, a lot of times people ask me that question at conferences that I go to, who I’m meeting people for the first time. And so it depends, but often I’ll say something like serial entrepreneur, I build online businesses. And then of course that. Leads into, Oh, talk about your online businesses. And I always start off by telling my business about delete exam. It’s an exam in the architecture world that I used to be an architect. I got laid off in Oh eight, but I built my first online business, helping people pass an exam, the lead exam. And that’s the first one. I always tell people because then that sort of shows people that, Had experienced building businesses first before teaching other people how to build businesses. And then I get into smart, passive income and the [00:03:00] podcast with 20, some odd million downloads and ask Pat my five day, week show, SPI TV, and a public speaker author. And then I get into that whole thing too. But yeah, it’s funny. even when people ask my wife what I do, she often stumbles, cause she doesn’t know exactly how to put it. it’s funny, but yeah, that’s kinda who I am and what I do. Mike: [00:03:18] Does your wife ever say either an entrepreneur and then people say, Oh yeah, Pat: [00:03:23] it’s interesting. Cause they go, Oh, I don’t know if they it’s because they don’t know spend that or what, my, a lot of things, no, my wife and she’s a stay at home mom, so of course they always ask, what is the husband, do they want to know? Okay, how are you making money in this family? And then it goes into entrepreneurship. But then my wife gets into the shame, spiel, getting into the, helping people pass the architecture exam and all this stuff I just talked about. But, yeah, entrepreneurs is really what I would save more than anything. Okay. Mike: [00:03:48] Cool. So why, why don’t you give a little bit of background, maybe then give the two minute overview of how you got into this. And we skipped over that with that question. Pat: [00:03:56] Yeah, no, that’s good. like I said, it started with the green exam stuff. [00:04:00] greeting exam Academy is the name of the website. And that all happened after I got laid off in architecture in Oh eight. And I took some knowledge. I had about an exam to create a website. That to help people pass it exam. And that came with an ebook and courses and practice exams that people could download very much inspired and built and framed in a way that was learned by Tim Ferriss in the four hour workweek. His thing is automation and building processes and using software to help automate these processes, to take yourself out of the business. So I had built that business in that way, in a sense where. When people come to the website, for example, they could buy the book or get access to practice exams without me actually having to be there to make that transaction happen. That’s what I consider passive income. Being able to generate income in that way without actually having to be there real time. You’re not trading your time for money anymore. You’re setting things up. You’re investing your time up front to set up these systems to continually deliver value and they get paid in return. And so people can buy one of those things. And then. Money goes into my PayPal account. They get that thing automatically delivered to them through the service that I use or services that are used. and it’s all great. And that’s what allows me to [00:05:00] continue to work on other projects and just try it a bunch of different things while all these other things are automated and in place. Now I will say nothing is 100% automated. I continue to go back and tweak and update those things. But the fact that I don’t have to be there and I can. Literally wake up with more money in my bank account because my websites are they’re working for me and not the other way around it’s a great thing. And it was definitely a struggle though. It didn’t happen, but overnight, and, there were a lot of moments where I wanted to give up. I had gone into architecture, wanting to do it for the rest of my life, actually loved my job in Oh eight and got, let go, which is unlike a lot of other stories that you hear where people weren’t really wanting to get out and they try their own thing. So I was forced out. And the interesting thing about that is. No. I feel like if I had to get, let go, I would still be in architecture. And I’m so grateful that I got Oh, even though at the time it was like the worst thing that ever happened been in and just gut wrenching, back. And it was definitely a blessing in disguise. And because now I’ve been able to discover this world of online business and automation and passive income and. it’s allowed me to, like I said, build new businesses, but more than that, it [00:06:00] just made my life more flexible and they made time more flexible. And two kids here at home in San Diego, I have a six year old boy, three year old daughter, and I’ve been here at home with them throughout all their lives and being here, it’s just, it’s really weird. Cause my son is now in kindergarten and I feel weird that he’s not here anymore. Whereas usually it’s the other way around where it’s okay. when the kid goes off to school, it’s kinda. I ma I be at work and I wouldn’t see much of them, but, the teachers and the other parents at the school, they see my wife and I both bring our son and pick up our son from school every day. what do you do? Like, how are you able to do this? No, I get into the, to the spiel. but it’s, again, the flexibility that this and the freedom that this kind of lifestyle, and business gives is really what matters to me most. Mike: [00:06:41] Yeah, that’s amazing. No, I think that’s, as one of the reasons I wanted to have you on was just to talk about that, and I know that you’re a relatively new dad and just, I’m curious about, you built this business, it was back in 2008 and you were just about getting married at that time. So you didn’t have kids. So I imagine that was a strong motivator. You’re [00:07:00] saying, Hey, I got laid off and now I have to provide for my wife and then eventually your kids. Do you still struggle with, the balance for lack of a better word between building your business to create sustainability. So it’s going to be around for years to come and spending time with your kids. do you feel the pull to, Oh, I, I really want to, I’m really excited about this launch. you just did your website and the projects you have. Do you still feel that pull and is that more intense or less intense than it used to be? Pat: [00:07:27] it’s funny you say it that way because you assume that it was definitely hard in the beginning and you’re absolutely right. It was really hard at the beginning. I was not balanced at all. when I started my business, it was just my wife and I, but I always felt like there was more work to be done. And that’s one of the things that. Most entrepreneurs struggle with, especially when you work from home. your computer’s always there. Now. We all have our phones with us and we could do work on our phones and, we can’t stop. And that’s one of the cool things about entrepreneurship is that you do have that flexibility to do work whenever, but that’s also the uncool thing about it is that you can’t do it whenever. And most people do it whenever. And so [00:08:00] my wife and I actually had a lot of heated conversations about that. And one time she actually, she and I were having a conversation and, and her mouth was moving. but I wasn’t really paying attention because I was thinking about. You know that next email I wanted to send with a new product I wanted to create or whatever. I don’t remember exactly what it was I was thinking about, but I wasn’t with her. and mentally at the time when I was talking to her and she called me out, she saw that I wasn’t listening or could read it, like all or most women can do. And, we had a heated conversation and really what came out of that was that we created some boundaries. So even though we always think here, break away from the diamond fives, screw the nine to five job I had to create. A schedule and have specific hours of the day when I and her, she knew I was working. And that was great because it really fo it really honed into my focus and allowed me to really start to break down those moments during the day when out what I was supposed to be doing and when I’m creating those barriers and those boundaries. those schedules have changed over time, especially since having skids, but. Since having kids, but I continued to have certain hours of the day [00:09:00] that I do get work done and that I don’t do work. And I’m fully present with my family too. Another thing that helped was creating physical space to do work. And when I’m in that space, I’m in work mode and I’m doing that. That’s what I’m focusing on. And people around me and my wife and everybody, they know that when I’m in my office, for example, that I’m working. But when I’m out of it, More than just them knowing that I’m not working anymore. I know I’m not working anymore. And that’s the beauty of a 95 job where you have to go to work everyday. You come home and you’re not working for me. Having worked in the home. I need still needed to have some sort of physical boundary to say no, Pat, you’re not working. You’re not supposed to think about that right now. Cause you have kids and they’re there in the rest of the house. Gotta pay attention to them at that time. I still struggle with it though. I can’t, I will be honest. Most people know that you can never break away from that one wanting to always continue to do things, but I’ve just made it more of a priority to really just. Oh, and the fact that I can, I only should be doing work during those times and in those physical space. and it’s still a [00:10:00] struggle and I do crossover every once in a while, but I’m much better now than I was before with getting back into the groove with where I’m supposed to be and be there mentally hundred percent when I’m at work, be there a hundred percent with my family when I’m with them. And, and yes, so that’s really helped too. one thing that I will say is that now that the kids are older, Or even when the kids first started, I realized that I, it was impossible for me to get work done whenever they were there. And so I stopped trying to work during the day because that’s when they were up. That’s when they wanted my attention. And I like, one of the things I learned also is that okay? When I get interrupted, it takes me like 20 minutes to get back into that focused work mode. And that’s a lot of time. And I think this is common for most people that transition time between kind of getting interrupted and trying to refocus that refocusing time. It takes up a lot of time. And a lot of us, I think can, if you consciously think about it, you might. See that you spend half your day in that transition time where you’re not really getting much done, you’re just trying to get stuff done. [00:11:00] And so I realized that I’m not going to try and even work. I’m not even gonna try and fight it. I’m not going to work when my kids are up. So now I only do work when the kids are not awake really in, and I can get way more done in the day. The three hours I do either in the morning or at night. And sometimes it’s four, two in the morning, two at night after or before they wake up or after they go to bed. it’s a little bit different now that my son’s in school, it’s starting to change the schedule. And that’s another thing you just, you have to keep adapting to the situation and being conscious about what it’s working for you and learn with whatever you have to work with. But I can do a lot more in two to three hours at night. Then I can in eight hours during the day, because it’s just uninterrupted, it’s completely focused. And so I don’t even try to fight it anymore. And that’s how I’ve been able to really hack my way through my schedule and get things done now. Mike: [00:11:50] Yeah, I think that’s very wise advice. Just the creating the space, creating the time. so many times people think, Oh, I’ll just work from home and it’ll be like glorious. And [00:12:00] I wanted to go to this nine to five. You probably, probably experienced that with people that, Interact with your content and then actually, apply it and they realize that it’s not that way. Pat: [00:12:08] Yeah. it’s not all, it’s not all unicorns and Ray bones. I also miss having people around me, and you know of my family of course, but my wife could only take so much business talk. And if I want to talk about, I miss water cooler talk and just seeing my buddy on the other end of the cubicle, that can just. Tell a joke to her or whatever. Like I don’t get that anymore. And that’s a struggle. So that’s why I, even though I love to stay at home and I want to be with my kids all the time, as much as possible. I still make some time to go out and meet others. I go to coffee with people on Wednesdays who come through San Diego. If you ever through San Diego and want to have coffee, like message me, we’ll try to make it happen. I always, once or twice, every other month, I go to a conference for example, and just. Get in that world and get purely focused on building relationships there and just getting that talk in your one on one interaction with him, which I need. And I think it’s just a human need to want that, related to whatever [00:13:00] we’re doing. So I still make the time to do that, but I always try to just really always focus on being here in present, fully present with wherever I am at. Mike: [00:13:07] No, I don’t think that’s. That’s awesome. So tell me about, you, you intentionally designed your work life so that you are very much spending time with your kids whenever they’re awake, as you say. tell me about that time that you’re with them and what things are you intentionally doing with them that you maybe are unique or, how do you invest that time with them? That you feel is going to impact them in the most way, because of your unique situation, you Pat: [00:13:31] know, do whatever I can to lead by example. so I always know that, especially with these kids at this young age, they’re always looking up to my wife and I, and they’re, what, if we tell them to do something. Because you’re, they’re not supposed to do it. we can’t do it too. just being very conscious about that. the other things, I think I have a unique sort of position because I’m an entrepreneur because I’m doing things in the way that I am online, is that I’m able to take these entrepreneurial principles and instill them on my kids, especially my son, who’s six. Who’s very much [00:14:00] influenced by, like I said, what I do and what my wife and I do. so one of the things we are working on. and I say that because it’s always something that’s coming up is working with my son Keoni through his failures. we get them to experiment and try new things. And, a lot of times he gets his head gets in the way and he’s afraid to do something or he does something and fails the first time and just wants to give up. And so we really work hard on not commanding him what to do, but yeah. Working through him with, by asking a bunch of questions, really questions are our number one thing, to get our kids to actually understand what’s going on. you know how kids are. That’s an ask a bunch of questions. I asked him a ton of questions, cause I want him to start to begin. I’m Guiding him to the way that I want him to go, but not telling him I’m having him figure it out. Cause that’s what I, when I became an entrepreneur, I had to figure it out on my own. And even though I asked a bunch of other people questions, it was when other people ask me, why are you arguing? You’re doing it that way? Or how do you want your business to be structured? Or what do you have to offer these other people [00:15:00] is when other people ask me questions that I discovered those things on my own and were making kids do that too, through asking a lot of questions. The other thing that we do is, we’re trying to really hone in on the fact that complaining does not. To anything. Great. one of the things that I’ve learned that where it was when I made mistakes in my business, when I fail, the more, I just am upset about it and get myself down on it, or just try to blame others about it. the more time goes by a word, nothing good happens. that nothing’s going to change when I complain it’s, whenever something comes up and there’s a problem, work on solving it. That’s what we’re teaching our kids to do. So we have this thing called the complaint jar. This is something that we’ve put together. our kids get, money from friends, family, wherever we ought. We often, we also do the Dave Ramsey model and we give our kids it’s a commission. So if they do work and chores around the house, they get a commission. They don’t get, they don’t get money unless they do something, useful in a value. so my kids get commission, [00:16:00] but they get a quarter taken away every time they complain. If they don’t try to solve it at the same time. And it starts, it’s still my is we’ve been doing this for a couple of years and it’s still, we still hear the complaints. And I think that’s just a natural thing kids have, but we want to get an out of that complaint mode. We want to get him into, okay. If there’s something wrong, let’s see what’s going on so we can fix it and not have it happen again. And it’s just been a very good thing. and so whenever we see him try to solve a problem first before complaining. Then we actually give them a quarterback. So it’s just in and out and, it’s not yet a hundred percent solving problems versus complaining him. He complains all the time. But again, it’s just one of those systems that we’ve put into place that we have seen progress now. And it’s great. So that’s another thing that we’ve tried to implement in kind of gamify, I guess you could say. Yeah, no, I Mike: [00:16:52] think that’s, I think that’s great. That’s like you said though, it starts with modeling it yourself, you can do any of those things. Like you want a complaint jar, but if you’re still complaining all [00:17:00] the time, Pat: [00:17:00] it’s not really, I think if we can play, we have to put quarters into, Oh, it’s great. we’re participating too. And we catch ourselves doing it, but I think when our kids see that we catch ourselves doing it. Yeah. It’s that model that we want to present to them. that’s, that’s the right thing. Mike: [00:17:16] That’s great. That’s Pat: [00:17:17] awesome. It also shows we’re not perfect either. I think that’s another thing, like I’m not afraid. I think a lot of people who follow me online, no, I’m not afraid to admit my mistakes. I think a lot of people know that because I’m very open about my mistakes. I am open about my failures and I think a lot of people actually enjoy watching me fail more than I do succeed, but yeah. Either way, it’s a lesson for people and that’s why I’m here. but with my it’s, if I try to do something and it doesn’t work out, I don’t complain or try not to. And I talk with my son mostly because he’s the one that’s at that age. but even my daughter now, too, now that she’s three, I talked to them about what I had tried to do. The fact that I failed. Honest about them, about the fact that I’m not happy with it, but also to talk with them. what I could do better next time. one of the things that is similar to that is my son has been [00:18:00] noticing that every morning I write in this thing called the five minute journal and it’s this way it’s a really cool journal. I think journaling is one of the most underutilized things that we could all do. and I’ve been doing it since I’ve been reading this book called. The miracle morning by Hal Elrod and journaling is one of the part of that process of self development. and this journal is not just a blank journal and you just, it’s not like a teenage journal where you write down like who your crushes or whatever. This is like a journal that has a specific structure. So every day I wake up, you put in the date. And you write down three things that you’re grateful for. Three things that you’re just completely thankful for. And you write down three things that you want to accomplish during that day or things that would make today. Awesome. And then when you go to bed at night, you write down three things that were great, that happened that day. And also one thing you could do better. And I’ve started to implement this with my son. And so when we wake up in the morning, we don’t necessarily write it down all the time. I wrote it down, but I just have him talk about what’s one thing he’s really thankful to have in his life. And I think instilling the sense of just being grateful for what we have, is another good practice that I think is going to benefit him. [00:19:00] And when he and my daughter, when they grow older. Mike: [00:19:02] Yeah, that’s awesome. that’s awesome. That’s I think, something that any age person could benefit from just gratitude in general, Pat: [00:19:09] totally. Mike: [00:19:10] what do you think your parents did right? To get you, to have that mindset with your kids? do you, did you do that same thing when you’re growing up or is it something you just learned Pat: [00:19:19] or is it the Mike: [00:19:20] complete opposite? Pat: [00:19:21] And then you just did that. It’s the complete opposite. I don’t, my parents were amazing and they were, the thing I learned about them is that hard work pays off. and serving others is great. my mom more than anybody has put her, serving others first before herself. And that’s one thing that I truly modeled after her. she. Is always the person trying to figure out ways to help others before she saw it before she helps herself because she, and she taught me that when you help others, they’re going to want to help you back. And that’s what I teach online. the more you serve your audience, the more you’re going to get. so that’s what I learned from them. Yeah. just the hard work and just patients also with my dad, I think he, that’s what he taught me. It was just the fact that, things don’t happen overnight and you have to be patient. Yeah. With, when you put in the hard work, you’re not [00:20:00] always going to see those results right away. And in this world where we often see results right away, or we want to see results right away, we put in Google search and it literally tells you’ve seen what you’ve gotten results in 0.0000471 seconds. that’s how fast we want things. These days, there’s Amazon prime now, or you can get an order delivered to your house in two hours. it’s still important to know that you have to wait for things sometimes. And that’s what my dad taught me, but, some stuff that I wish was different or, I, it’s hard to say wish was different. Cause I’m very thankful for where I ended up and I learned some great lessons along the way, one of the things that my dad did with me, that I didn’t like, and that I don’t teach my kids is that, I would come home from school with a test score of a 96%, which is great. But then the first thing my dad would say would be like, what happened to the other 4%? And then we work through all of those problems. One by one that I got wrong and I understand what he was doing, but the way he framed it was that I had to be a hundred percent perfect all the time. And that’s absolutely not true. that’s something we’re not that we’re teaching our kids too, is that you don’t have to be perfect, but you [00:21:00] should also learn what mistakes you made. So you don’t make those mistakes again. And the next time around. So that’s what was different. I also grew up not necessarily. from my parents and trying to be the cool kid or perfect, or, cool, I think is really what influenced me a lot to really be just the self conscious kid about who, who is worried about what other people thought about me, that wasn’t from my parents. It was just a natural thing going to school. a lot of kids are worried about. Self-image and whatnot. and with my son, he’s starting to express things that like what other kids are saying about him or what he wears or whatever. and we’re telling him that one day my son came home preschool and he was like, dad. So and so called me weird. And he was really upset about it. But to spin that around, I told him a dude, you are weird. Yeah. It’s like what dad? Whoa. And I’m like, I’m not being mean, like you’re weird, dude. We’re all weird. I’m weird. Your mom’s weird. And that’s why I love her. what makes you weird is what makes you awesome? That’s what makes you unique? That’s what makes you different. And if a call you were that they know [00:22:00] you’re unique and that don’t, you don’t want to be like everybody else. You want to be weird. And so keep being weird is what I taught. What I tell him in embrace your weird as is a message I share, online, and, a lot of people who know me and my brand, they know I’m weird too. Like I’m this marching band geek who used to play magic, the gathering. Who’s just definitely in love with back to the future. Anything back to the future related. And even though that stuff might not on the surface, seem like they have to do with building an online business, they have everything to do with just. Me being me and that’s my vibe and your vibe attracts your tribe. I tell Keoni, even though people call you weird or whatever, just keep being you, your friends who enjoy you for you will find you and you will know them. You’ll love them. They’ll love you. Don’t try to force yourself into anything that doesn’t seem like. Who it is that you are. And again, these are messages that we continue to say to them because they don’t just sit the first time we tell him and that’s a struggle for me. And I’m still working over that. The fact that, I can tell these things to my kids and they will continue to make those same mistakes or continue to [00:23:00] think in the way that I know is not the right way to, to think or the way that I want them to think or that the, and it’s just, it’s going to take time and I’m just trying to be patient with the, with them because, it’s an everyday occurrence sometimes. Mike: [00:23:10] Do you think that’s like an uphill battle you’re going to face like throughout schooling and stuff that they go. And is there anything you guys would do to he goes to school, it’s not like he’s homeschooled or anything like Pat: [00:23:19] that, but it’s yeah. Mike: [00:23:20] it’s something, that’s something you’re always going to face because the path you’ve taken Pat has been. Outside of the norm, you have, like you said, you’ve embraced your weirdness. So with your kids, they’re right now on a path to normalcy in how there don’t take offense to that. they’re going to school where they’re gonna be surrounded by people that are maybe not getting that same thing at home. So they’re going with the status. Whoa. that’s something, obviously you’re going to have to face ongoing. Is there, did you guys thought about that or saying, Oh, an alternative way of it She’ll win against that. I don’t know. Pat: [00:23:51] Yeah. I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be a helicopter parent. I don’t want to be a shield and I want to let them experience things. I want them to learn. I feel like the hard work we put in and the facility that our [00:24:00] life has given us in the business that it has given me to be there with the kids. we’re putting in, we’re putting in the hard work now, too. Hopefully set them off on their own so that they can make those decisions where we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Even though they’re in that environment where that can happen. We’re trying to. Train them, I guess you could say in a way where, where we know that we’re doing our best and that’s the best we can do. And when we know there’s nothing that can stop that from happening, from them having, being in that environment. we’re also doing what we can, the he’s in a different. School. He’s not in a traditional school, he’s in a STEM school, which is very much, I love this, his school. I love his school because they teach in a very entrepreneurial kind of way where it’s solving real life problems. They work on something for all quite a while and build up tumor exhibition. Were they then present there? And again, he’s in kindergarten, but it’s awesome how they teach. And it’s really making me want to do more with disrupting education because I’ve seen what this kind of teaching has done to him and his students are not, his Jens [00:25:00] has his classmates, everything from the fact that every Thursday he read, he reads to the preschoolers and he remembers when he was in preschool or the kindergarten is reading to him. But he also works with first graders who are teaching him how to use things like eye, movie, and. And keynote on their iPads. Like it’s crazy. but also the fact that, like I said earlier, they work on these projects for quite a long time and they present them to not only other students, but parents who come in for exhibitions. And it was really cool. Cause the other day before spring break, he had an exhibition, they were working on something for a long time and all the students had their own project. They were working on and all the parents were outside. All the kids were in the auditorium. And before we are let loose to go and see our kids’ projects, the teachers were like, okay, parents. Before you go and check out your own son or daughter’s stuff, please go to other kids first and ask them what they’re up to because we’re working on having these kids be comfortable with presenting to other people first. And when you go to your kids first, they’re going to be worried about I’m going to be focused on that. Let’s all go around and find other kids [00:26:00] first, ask them how they’re doing it. Let’s get them comfortable presenting. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, this is Mike: [00:26:04] This is Pat: [00:26:05] no, they’re not messing around. I’m like, I learned that in architecture school, it’s definitely afraid of doing it. And here they are at kindergarten, getting comfortable with these real life skills that are going to take them so far. I think we’re doing our best to put them in, to set them up for success. And, we’re hoping that Mike: [00:26:20] that’s awesome. No, that’s really cool. Hey, I, just a couple things. I think it’s been awesome. It’s an amazing value of given thank you so much, Pat. and it just for pure value, but I was just curious, like what books have you read on parenting that you would recommend to new parents or the things that have shaped your thinking Pat: [00:26:39] in parenting? there’s, the, probably the one that has, had the most impact was the. Financial book that I read with, with my wife on how to just teach finance to kids is Dave Ramsey and his daughter. Who published a book on, kids’ finances, let me see if I can get the name of that, smart money, smart kids. Okay. that was a great [00:27:00] one. other things that have really helped us, I haven’t really read too many parenting books, but I have, talked to a lot of parents and just just wanted to gauge where things were going, talk to a lot of parents. Cause I have a lot of access to a lot of other entrepreneurs who have kids that are a lot older and I just talk about, what I could look forward to. And it’s funny because everybody. Has similar things to say, and they all have different ways of handling it. And I think it’s, it just shows me that, as much as we want to get answers from other places, it’s good to get guidance. But I think a lot of it just comes with experience and just being conscious about what we’re doing in the homes for ourselves. I’m also really into games, for teaching kids. Lessons. my son is he’s really into Minecraft right now, which I didn’t even understand and I felt super old, but now I’m actually playing Minecraft because I want to be able to play with him. Yeah. Actually talk to him at that same level and speak the same language. Now I know what a creeper isn’t an Enderman and the underworld is and the Netherlands and all that stuff. And, he thinks I’m like a cool dad now, because I’m actually understanding [00:28:00] what he’s doing. And I think, if my dad had started playing super Mario brothers with me, we would have a much deeper connection. I, as weird as that might sound is, I think, it would be true, speaking that same language. And I’m always trying to stay up on beat with what my kids are into and what they’re doing. And just try to be there with them as a friend too, at the same time. Mike: [00:28:17] Yeah. That’s awesome. thank you so much, Pat. Yeah, this will be, I’ll put all that on the show notes. And so there’s going to be, it’s gonna be quite the show notes with lots of resources. Pat: [00:28:26] You so much. Mike: [00:28:38] Thanks for listening to the show. You can find out more about us and sign up to receive updates at dot com. If you liked what you heard or just want to say hi, you can shoot me an email at Mike at dot com. Please leave a review on iTunes. If you like the show, it helps us to get the word out to the most people possible. And the show is made possible through the support of ECE group international [00:29:00] building software teams since 1999.Embrace your weird
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