Brad Johnson: Well, gentlemen, welcome back. Derek, Adam, good to see you guys again, both former guests. Derek, you went all the way back to the old show, the Elite Advisor Blueprint. And then, I think, I also guested on your old show a little while, Rethink. Financial Advice, which has gone on hiatus for a bit, because we’re going to talk about a really cool project today you guys have both been doing behind the scenes. But it’s Friday. Excited for this conversation. And where do we want to dive in? Do we just go right into the book, or do we want to do a quick little life update with all you guys have had going on here?
Adam Holt: Well, I think what’s interesting, and thanks for having us, Brad. You actually mentioned this book when you were on a podcast, too, and you were asked basically what was a book that you were interested in or curious about coming out. And you’d mentioned that this book that we were working on about fatherhood and entrepreneurship. So, first of all, we wanted to thank you, and so we figured we need to share with your audience because you’re part of this book that maybe not a lot of people know you. We interviewed you as part of our REBL Dads process. But we’re really excited to share what’s going on. I think it’s going to be very impactful to many, many lives, and it’s been a real pleasure to share with you first.
Brad Johnson: Awesome. Well, as our audience knows now, whether they’re watching this on YouTube or listening on audio kind of the first show, which some I still don’t think know about because I’m kind of getting old now. But The Elite Advisor Blueprint was kind of a challenge that I took from a mentor of mine that said, “Hey, you’re doing these kind of private masterminds on Zoom,” which at the time wasn’t a thing because this was pre-COVID. So, it was kind of like, if you nerded out and knew about it, you were on Zoom. And, yeah, weird. I couldn’t get a bunch of successful advisors to show up all at the same place at the same time. So, I was 50%, 60% of my clients at the time were showing up.
And I had a mentor challenge me, said, “Why don’t you just record it and turn it into a podcast? And that became the Elite Advisor Blueprint, which, crazy enough, as big as Kitces’s show is, it was before he even had a podcast, and he was always the front nerdy guy on technology. So, it was very early before podcasts were really a big thing, and that like grew me personally, expanded the network. And so, I want to just commend you guys because I want to get into the story behind the book. So, it’s called REBL Dad, and REBL’s an acronym before for all of you that go out and search for it. So, REBL, we’ll get into what that means, but you all had a really cool kind of experience. You actually invited me to it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend.
And so, a trip to Necker Island, let’s talk about how that came to be, how that then turned into a challenge from a guy that I think most people will know his name, and yeah, what’s come since then. So, I’m not sure who wants to dive in. Derek, Adam? Who wants to take the lead here?
Derek Notman: I’m happy to jump in and give you a, see if I can, my bigger older brother, Adam, here will clean up any mess I create in a couple of minutes. So, yeah, REBL Dads just started as an idea. So, a little bit of backstory. I grew up in a broken home. And then fast forward after college, and kind of getting into the world of becoming a financial advisor, I find myself in this position where I’m building a business. I have no idea what I’m doing. And then I have my son, and all at the same time, like all of this stuff is coming together. And then at that same time, my father decides no longer to be part of my life. I’m like, “Man, this kind of sucks. I don’t have the one person I need more than anything to go to for support.”
And so, for a while, as a father, as an advisor, as an entrepreneur, I was just hacking through life. It was unhealthy. I wasn’t really happy. You know, being an advisor is tough. I didn’t start off with gray hair, you know? And so, fast forward a while, I was like, “I’m tired of this. There’s got to be a better way. And I need some brothers. I need some guys that understand what it’s like to go through what I’m going through.” And there’s a lot of great organizations out there, but I couldn’t find one that really blended fatherhood with entrepreneurship and really balancing and focusing on those two core areas. So, being an entrepreneur I am, I’m like, “Alright, well, why don’t we try to start something? Let’s see if we can, you know?”
Initially, it was just like a bucket list item, like, wouldn’t it be cool to get a group of guys together? We can share best practices, challenges, successes, how do we get through all this stuff? But I’m like, “No one knows who the hell Derek is. There’s got to be a better way to do this.” So, I’m like, “Well, I know this guy, Sir Richard Branson. He’s done okay for himself. Wouldn’t it be cool to do an event on his island with him? Great idea.” And I’m a quick start, which I think drives Adam mad. So, I’m like, “Yeah, this is a great idea. We should just do this.” But I don’t know like who Richard is. Richard definitely does not know me. I only know him through books and whatever you see on TV or whatever.
Long story short, I put together this really loose business plan and found people that used to work for him, and then followed that path, kept pitching, kept getting like, “Hey, we’ll go talk to this team now.” And eventually got in front of Richard and his team, pitched them the idea to come to Necker, and already had the name REBL Dads picked out. They said, “Yeah, we’d like you to come.” I’m like, oh shit, here we go. And then I had to sign on the bottom line, like I’m committing financially to this. I didn’t have the money. And that’s very shortly…
Brad Johnson: So, I’m curious because I’m assuming that was not a cheap financial commitment. Was that like a pretty big check just to say we’re reserving the spot?
Derek Notman: Huge.
Brad Johnson: Like six figures?
Derek Notman: Yeah. Almost seven.
Brad Johnson: Oh, almost seven.
Derek Notman: Yeah. I mean, for a full commitment. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Wow. Okay.
Derek Notman: And there was another person that was kind of loosely involved in the very beginning who bailed. And so, Adam was the first guy, first dad to say yes to going to Necker. And I still kind of remember that conversation. Adam, you’re kind of like, “What the hell kind of ideas Derek got up to now?” But he committed. And then I called him when all this shit was breaking loose and I’m freaking out and I’m like, “Dude, here’s what’s going on.” And he stopped me, and he is like, “Brother, I got you.” And that’s why Adam’s a true co-founder of REBL Dads. And so, we pulled it together, we found the dads, we made it happen. And next thing we know, we’re on Necker Island with a group of amazing fathers spending time with Richard. Absolutely amazing. So, that’s kind of like the genesis. That’s how it all kind of came to be up until that first year.
Brad Johnson: And to just time check this, this was around January of ‘24, was the actual trip, correct?
Derek Notman: Yep. I started reaching out to Richard in 2022. 2023, we started really getting some, like we got the yes. And then it was like, “Oh crap.” We said, “Yes. Now what?” So, it took some time initially because he’s not the easiest guy to get a hold of, and everybody and their brother is pitching him on something.
Brad Johnson: Now, was this all going through a team? Like, here’s his assistant, here’s the people that run all of his events at Necker Island. Because I think there’s a really cool lesson here. It’s you had an idea. And so, I mean, ideas are not unique. I mean, we all know plenty of people that have an idea a day and then do nothing with it. So, you had an idea, but you manifested it into reality, and it sounds like it took like two years of work to even get the yes, or at least a year or two, right?
So, is this like, basically, is Necker Island from a business model run like Richard Branson’s exclusive hotel that you’ve got to find a way in and then get an okay, and then you have to pay for it once the okay’s there? Or what were you getting a yes to in the first place, I guess?
Derek Notman: It’s a bit of a process. And so, just for context, I initially found one of his old personal assistants and pitched the idea to her, and thank goodness she said she liked it because she had contacts, right? And that’s how I started to edge into the whole system. But yeah, like Adam and I had to send our passports and utility bills and all of this stuff to prove who we were so they could do full background checks. Because they don’t just let anybody there. And then they have to obviously, like him and his team, they all approve everything that is allowed to come on island. It’s highly sought after. And so, yeah, it was definitely hard to do, and it took some time.
Brad Johnson: And everything goes to charity, right, on his side, like all the proceeds?
Derek Notman: A hundred percent.
Brad Johnson: And where is Necker Island? Where’s it located?
Derek Notman: British Virgin Islands. So, I don’t know, Adam, what is it, like a 45-minute flight, 50-minute flight from Puerto Rico?
Adam Holt: Yeah.
Derek Notman: It’s kind of more West, or I’m sorry, East British Virgin Islands.
Adam Holt: Yeah. So, it’s basically a smaller 80, what, 82-some acre island just north of Tortola, in the BVI. But Derek’s missing something, though, that he did something that was really important, especially for all entrepreneurs listening. He did test the market first. So, to Derek, as you can kind of see, he just goes for it, which is a lesson that we can all learn from, I think, an interesting thing. He doesn’t give himself credit for it, but he comes up with these ideas and just does it. And I think the one thing that he did do is he tested the market because he wrote on Richard’s Ask Me Anything LinkedIn. He asked him, “How did you handle being a dadpreneur?”
And Richard chose it to respond to it. When he posted that, he tagged Derek. And it got, well, not a small number of views. It was a great test to show that Richard was interested in the topic of this juxtaposition of both fatherhood, leadership, and also entrepreneurial balance. This kind of what you talked about in your interview is this idea of work-life integration, and there’s a common term of balance, part of even our mantra from that. So, I think there was really good leverage by the time we got to making the pitch that Richard had an opinion about this stuff, and that’s included in the pivot.
Brad Johnson: He had warmed up, the guy that needed to say yes. So, did that LinkedIn post happen before you even got connected with him on the trip?
Derek Notman: It did. I mean, it all kind of came together close to the same time, but once that went live. And I didn’t know, I just opened up LinkedIn one morning. I’m like, “Oh shit. Richard just tagged me in this post. Like, oh my gosh, here we go.”
Brad Johnson: I’ve officially made it.
Derek Notman: Yeah, right? Like this is cool. So, I copied that, the link to that post article in my pitch when I was going to his team, like, “Hey, by the way, he’s already talking about this.”
Brad Johnson: By the way, he’s basically already approved. So, he approved it on LinkedIn.
Derek Notman: Just means yeah, right?
Adam Holt: Yeah. My buddy, Derek, just posted about this great question. Let me tell you the answer. He tagged his kids and everything, so it was pretty funny.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Okay. So, let’s get to the actual trip. So, you get the okay. It’s an expensive ticket that you’re signing off on. Now, you get a group, I think mostly your finance connections. Obviously, you both have grown up in finance, the advisor side, the FinTech side. So, you get to the island. Now, what happens?
Adam Holt: Well, lots of things. So, I think that the key for the experience as Derek originally designed it was, “Let’s have a bucket list trip with people that we want to build a community around.” A lot of these guys didn’t know each other. Some of them did. Even though they’re in finance, they’re networked through the two of us and through friends or friends. So, they may not have actually had engagement with each other. But I think what was really interesting is we organized our days around morning masterminds, which you’d be very familiar with. So, morning masterminds, we came up with a topic, for example. In the last year, we talked about the challenge of digital versus analog as fathers.
Are we making a distinction around how kids are going to use and/or abuse digital versus kind of analog experiences? And we just spent the whole morning talking about it in small groups on these beautiful places. And then we come together, and then we debrief each other and say, “This is what I learned, this is what I learned, and here I heard this great story.” And so, we shared those anecdotes and recorded it for everybody’s prosperity. And I think the real key is for us to combine life hacks around a hundred-year legacy. And what are some other topics, Derek, that we talked about?
Derek Notman: Personal mental health.
Adam Holt: Relationships.
Derek Notman: Relationships with your spouse, your kids, dealing with past traumas. What’s interesting, Brad, is that as Adam and I are facilitating this first event, and we had like a loose agenda of things we wanted to cover and format and so forth. Like, dad started crying and laughing and sharing openly things that they’d never shared with others. And some of us definitely were strangers. Like, there’s folks from our industry, but there were people that had no ties to our industry that I literally cold called and came. And before our very eyes, I still remember, Adam, that last day, we’re standing up in what’s called the Temple, very special place, you can google it, and like dads are kind of like teary-eyed and happy all at the same time.
They’re like, “There’s more, right? We’re coming back. We’re doing this again. What else are you doing?” And like, “Oh man, here we go. This is the bucket list. Not anymore.”
Brad Johnson: You’re like, “That sounds amazing. And I’m going to have to write another big check.” You’re like, “I’ll take a deposit.”
Adam Holt: Yeah. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, takeaway there, sounds like you facilitated conversations that immediately went deep and they weren’t surface level. And it’s interesting. You said that, and one of the guys that I introduced you guys to for the book, Jon Vroman. Front Row Dads is a group he ran. And my late good friend, John Ruhlin, was the one that first took me out to the very first one. And this, I was probably, it’s probably a decade ago now. Yeah. because I had a four or 5-year-old, and now I have an almost 16-year-old. And I remember immediately it got deep, and there were tears shed, there was, you know, I’ve found in life you either had, typically, it’s like these outliers.
You either had a really good dad or a really not-so-good dad. And you learn from both sides of that equation. There’s very few that are like, “Oh, my dad was kind of in the middle.” And so, it was cool because there were some trauma stories shared of like, “I never knew my dad, or he never showed up to anything, or he was an alcoholic and abusive,” or, “I had the best example of a dad that showed up at every sporting event and prioritized me.” And so, I don’t want to skip to the book stories yet because I know there was a cool challenge that came out of that trip to Necker Island.
So, before we get to the cool stories in the book, there was a challenge made. I don’t know which of you wants to hit this. I think it was a group conversation with the two of you and Richard Branson. So, can we hear your version of that story?
Derek Notman: Adam, you want to share that?
Adam Holt: Yeah, sure. Look, I think we got the blessing of Richard. It’s, as Derek said, Necker Island is his home. He has a home. His wife, at the time, she just recently passed, they lived on the island there. That’s their home, and the 180 staff that are on Necker that run a basically luxury resort for 24 villas, if you will, is an unbelievable place. And to understand, there’s lemurs running around. Now, there’s kangaroos. There’s 150 year old tortoises the size of small cars, like walking around, and you just interact with them because, you know, and these fantastic people. People were just amazing, right? And they’re used to a certain caliber of experience, but they were real down-to-earth people.
And I say that to you because Richard basically ate every meal with us. I mean, he just joined us at the table and just hung out and talked like everybody else, like one of the dads.
Brad Johnson: So, Necker Island’s like his version of a bed and breakfast, basically, coming down to work with you.
Adam Holt: It’s a bed and breakfast. That’s a great point. It’s a bed and breakfast.
Derek Notman: Yeah. That’s a good way to do it. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Interesting. Okay.
Adam Holt: Except they have papa bowls and acai bowls and like everything you can imagine just like bacon in the pancakes. Yeah. So, I think he felt really connected to our group because our group wasn’t a commercial agenda that basically had it like, “Oh, let me try to pitch you something,” which we were very distinct about. Like, no one can bring their pitch book, no business cards. You’re coming to be a human and a dad first. And I think that resonated. He actually just told Derek and I on our third trip that, well, we can claim it. He said that we were his favorite group because we bring our families now, and we just come and hang out, and he just hangs out like a fig family reunion.
But he contributes, and we interviewed him as well in front of everybody and asked him about his own journey. He shared some other stuff. And, by the end of it, when he walked us to the dock, because he kind of takes you to the dock himself, actually carries your bags and stuff, just like any person.
Brad Johnson: Wow. That’s wild. There’s a business lesson. Carries your bag.
Adam Holt: Right? For sure, very humble man, says goodbye, gives everybody high fives and hugs, and invites you back, saying like, “I hope you come visit me again.” He understands hospitality, right? But he said to you, he said, I joke that he says, “This was really cute. This is really a cool thing to do.” He is like, “How are you going to help more dads that need this?” And of course, we’re thinking, “Well, you only have 48 beds, and so we’re limited.” You can lower your price.
Brad Johnson: Hey, he’s also a good businessman. He is like, “I’m going to book the next trip right now.”
Adam Holt: Yeah, he totally is. He’s smart. Yeah. So, that was the thing. So, we knew we had to come back, but Derek and I had been thinking over the last year, of course, we run businesses that are pretty important to us and our families. How are we going to sneak in another project? And that’s when the whole book decision started coming up.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, January 24 was the first trip. Was the challenge on the very first trip, like, how are you going to help more dads? I think that’s true. And what was the exact question? Like, I want to picture the Sir Richard Branson, like English accent. Like, how was it phrased to you guys?
Derek Notman: I can’t do an English accent, but Adam, correct me if I’m wrong, but I literally think he said, “How are you going to help more dads with this?”
Adam Holt: That’s what he said.
Derek Notman: That being REBL Dads.
Adam Holt: Yeah. And we interpret that as a million people, by the way. Because when Richard talks about like how you’re going to like change the world, because that temple that Derek talked about is where he had Mandela and presidents and kings come together and decide, Bishop Tutu. And like he told us, like how he brought them together and said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Just like the mastermind we brought together, he is like, we’re going to talk about the real-world issue. I think they still actually get together in that space.
Brad Johnson: They have a group called the Elders.
Adam Holt: That’s what it is, it’s the Elders. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, we’re in that same. So, he brings world leaders there and just every year he masterminds with them.
Derek Notman: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Wow. Okay.
Adam Holt: Yeah, influential people. There were pictures all over the place of people that you would all know, and signed pictures and notes, just like framed letters from people that are very famous. Obviously, rock stars. He has a huge musical history. But yeah, it was quite a, I think, he threw the gauntlet down, right? It’s like, “Okay, this is cool. I challenge you to think bigger.” But he does it in a way that doesn’t seem like if you didn’t do it, he’s not going to like lose sleep over it. But I think the fact that we came back, you want to talk about the fact that when we asked him to be part of the book, that was a nerve-racking experience, I think, for both of us.
Derek Notman: It’s nerve-racking. So, we didn’t know it was going to be a book initially, Brad. Adam and I are like, “Oh crap, okay, we got to think about this.” Because initially, we were like, “Man, how are we going to get people to come back here, year two?” Like that was the first priority. And then very quickly we started talking like, “Well, Richard said this. How are we going to, like, how are we going to help more dads? And maybe there’s something bigger here.” Through lots of conversations, it ended up being like, alright, writing a book is a great way to get the lessons, the support, the help, the ideas, whatever that we have from our kind of mastermind sessions, but get it out to the world. But then again, no one knows who Derek and Adam are.
Adam Holt: Well, no one knows who Derek is.
Derek Notman: This is what… Yeah. No one knows who I am.
Brad Johnson: I was waiting for the roast to start. Good. It’s on. Perfect. Yeah. Let’s go.
Adam Holt: Meet Derek.
Derek Notman: So, we decide, because no one knows Derek, that it’s a good idea to write a book to extend the lessons from our stuff on Necker, because this is the way we can help many. But we’re like, okay, let’s go pitch Richard this idea. So, like the whole trip, I’m sweating bullets because like I know we have to go pitch them, and we’ve told everyone, “Don’t go pitch Richard.” But we position it as a way like there’s so much we can share. It’s kind of fun, actually.
Adam Holt: Yeah, we haven’t told anybody this story, you know that.
Brad Johnson: That’s why we save them for this podcast, guys.
Adam Holt: Thanks, Brad.
Brad Johnson: Please openly share.
Derek Notman: We did some fun back channeling, through his wife, actually. So, Adam and I were nervous. We didn’t know because if it’s a no, that changes, do we even do the book or not? Because it’s really hard to do something without someone of Richard’s caliber when you’re an unknown author. And so, we’re pretty good with a lot of the staff on Necker. And so, we started asking like, “Hey, like here’s the idea. What do you think? Can we pitch him directly?” And they’re like, “Well, why don’t we go talk to his wife?” And so, they actually pitched the idea. They’re like, “Send us your pitch.”
Brad Johnson: The real decision maker.
Derek Notman: Yeah. Right? Yeah, that’s it. And so, we actually emailed the staff our book pitch, and they gave it to his wife, Joan. Bless her. And that kind of primed the system a little bit, if you will. And so, eventually, anyways, Adam and I like, and Adam did this because I was so nervous. We had just had lunch down by the water sports area. I’m like Richard’s sitting here. No one’s talking to him right now. I’m like, “Adam, go get him. Tell him we want to go talk to him about something.” And he did. And he is like, “Okay, let’s go for a walk,” and we’re going on this walk. I mean, maybe, Adam, you could do a better job of like how I did it because I was so nervous.
Adam Holt: Well, I think we both recognized that we had gotten there was a blessing. Like for both of us, we generally tend to be pretty laid-back, humble guys. We don’t really like to flaunt it. And we also recognize that he’s super laid back, but clearly influential. And we knew the marketing value of it. We didn’t want to be ignorant to the fact that if he decided to put any kind of stamp on it, it would be an accelerator that we probably have never experienced before. So, we needed to approach it in a way that still felt genuine and authentic. And so, that’s what we did.
We asked him, I said, “Listen, Richard, would you mind taking a walk with us?” And I think that was an important thing. Because in my kind of own coaching experiences, it’s hard to deny someone saying, “Hey, take a walk,” And it’s in his own backyard. I mean, let’s go for a walk. He’ll tell us which way to walk, and he can make it a short walk if he wants. He can make it a long walk if he wants because he knows which turn to take. And so, he was like, “Okay, sure, sure, I’ll go.” But it’s funny because Richard doesn’t give away much, so you can’t really read him.
Brad Johnson: Cards are close to the chest.
Adam Holt: Yes,
Brad Johnson: Definitely.
Adam Holt: He plays. I think that’s more of the British thing. So, Derek and I are just playing it cool and we decided to go on this walk around the kind of interior of the island. And we started talking about, we heard the challenge that he left us, whether he remembered it or not. And the challenge that we heard when we last left is that there is an opportunity to help fathers around the world with a resource that can elevate their experience, but doesn’t have to feel like a pulpit book, like kind of, this is what you should do as a father. But rather, in the interim, we had done a bunch of research that indicated that fatherless homes had a higher rate of depression, had a higher rate of drug use, teen pregnancy, incarceration, and a whole bunch of things. Not surprising, right?
So, there’s, right now, I think something like 18 million homes in the United States that don’t have a father figure or role. And I grew up in one of those, too, ironically. I was raised by a single mother, so I kind of understood that. Thankfully, I didn’t wind up in prison. But I understand you can kind of see how these things happen. Lack of leadership at home, right? Especially from parents that are trying to support the family and working and doing it all on their own. So, we’ve seen that. So, here you have really kind of societal statistics that support that there’s a problem to solve. This is not just like, let’s all feel a little bit better about the word DAD, but rather, let’s see if we can actually make an impact in society.
And I think that that really, I like to believe that resonated with him as a world changer, and said, “We want to put a book together. We want to interview a bunch of dads. Make it accessible, make it honest, but may make it not preaching, and be agnostic to kind of lifestyle and so forth that anybody could pick up around the world and learn from it. Do you want to be part of this with us?” And so, we invited him. And he thought about it, and we were like, I thought it was going to go either way, Derek.
Derek Notman: He got real quiet, right?
Adam Holt: He got quiet.
Brad Johnson: How long into the walk was this? Was this a five-minute walk? And then he thought about it, a 10-minute walk?
Adam Holt: No, we didn’t mess around. We didn’t know how long we were going to have, Brad, if it was going to be three minutes or 20 minutes. It wound up being 15 minutes.
Derek Notman: Yeah.
Adam Holt: Probably felt like an hour, but I…
Derek Notman: It felt like forever. Yeah.
Adam Holt: Every step was like, oh my gosh. Because in a way, it’s hallowed ground for us, because we had this huge respect for him and his place. We didn’t want to also be the weird guest that just asked him, and then he said no, and be like, “Okay. Like, hey, pass the salt.”
Brad Johnson: Well, I don’t want to take you guys off this story, but I just always try to absorb lessons in every conversation I have. And here’s a lesson. From just straight-up sales, I love the idea, “Would you take a walk?” I mean, it’s hard to decline. I mean, it’s like you said, it’s his backyard. Would you go on a walk with us? There’s no expectation of like what that could be. But the other thing is you took the challenge he gave you. And you said, we heard you and you reminded him, because I’m sure he meets a lot of people, and maybe didn’t even remember the conversation. “Hey, we took that seriously. We heard you. And we want to take you up on that offer.”
So, if I look at sales, it was less of a pitch. It was more you took his invitation and you did something with it. And then you invited him back to that challenge to be a part of it. And I think that’s really cool when you just look at sales. You took his invitation, then you invited him back to the stuff that you took to deliver on that.
Adam Holt: Yeah. And I think you’re exactly right, and we thought about it a lot. I mean, of course, Richard, if you’re watching this, don’t want you to think that we like cornered you or something, but we wanted to be intentional, as one of the things we’ve picked up from this whole book is how much intentionality matters. And we say that, throw that word around as you guys know all the time, but then if you’re actually going to spend the time thinking about how you’re going to approach it, and we did, even though we thought we were going to flub it the entire time, like we’re both like looking at each other like, who says what?
You say this. And we’re not really scripty people. We’re more kind of like, let’s just be authentic. And that was a big part of it, Brad. I think it was smart to pick that up. And I think a mentor wants to hear that you listened, by the way.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. No doubt. And to Derek saying how nervous he was, I just told my kid, I told my eighth grader this yesterday, so he ran his first 400 in a track meet, which is it’s a scary race, for anybody that’s ever run one. And I was like, we have this thing, “Johnson’s do hard things. We get uncomfortable. That’s where we grow.” And I said, “Hey, if you’re not getting nervous, you’re doing stuff that doesn’t matter.” And so, you were doing real stuff. No wonder you’re nervous. You should be. It matters. So, I love that.
Adam Holt: Absolutely. Good point.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, he took the invitation. I want to get to the book. We’re like, “No expense here.” So, he said, “Yes, I’ll be…” Like, he wrote the foreword, right, to the book.
Derek Notman: Yeah, he did.
Brad Johnson: So, was that like he said, “I’ll write the foreword,” or “Hey, I’ll support the project,” or where did it go from there?
Derek Notman: I think we kind of went down the path of like we’d really love you to write the foreword. Actually, no. Initially, I think it was co-author. And he initially like just in general said yes after he got really quiet. And then he is like, “Well, I got to just run this by my team. They hate when I say yes, and I don’t run it by them, blah, blah, blah. You know, give me a couple of days. I’ll get back to you.” He comes back after a couple of days. Yes, we’re in. I’m committed to writing the foreword for you.
Brad Johnson: Cool.
Derek Notman: And so, that’s how all that transpired. It’s still kind of surreal to think about it, honestly.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, how long ago was this? When did that happen? And here we are recording what, April, what is today? 17th, 2026.
Derek Notman: He said yes. I give you the day. I can give you the day.
Brad Johnson: So, just over a year ago.
Derek Notman: It was January. Yeah.
Adam Holt: Wait, is that right? January 2025. Yeah, that’s right.
Derek Notman: It was January of ‘25 and it was the last day we were there. So, one was the, like we, it is like the 23rd or so of January.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. You guys did some work in a year. I mean, it’s writing a book is not, especially this many interviews as you guys did.
Derek Notman: Oh my gosh.
Adam Holt: Yes. Well, this is the one thing you learn when somebody you have, an entrepreneur, like true Derek entrepreneur in the room. He’s just like, “Yeah, let’s just write a book.”
Derek Notman: I think I gave Adam, like, I added 50 years to Adam’s life this last year.
Adam Holt: You gave me 50 more years, but maybe you gave me, great, 50 more years of knowledge from having to do, I lost maybe 10.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. You came out net positive.
Adam Holt: Net positive. Yeah. I now know what not to do.
Brad Johnson: So, conceptually, a hundred interviews in the book.
Derek Notman: It’s actually 103, I think now.
Brad Johnson: 103. And so, you get the yes end of January. Here we are, April of 2026. That was to not only do the interviews, but to condense them into a book. That was a lot of work. So, was part of it? Another thing, you declare something publicly, you kind of put the pressure on yourself, and you have Richard Branson already committed to write the foreword. I’m assuming that kind of helped push this project a little faster. Is that fair?
Derek Notman: Oh, it totally didn’t. And so, his global head of PR for all of Virgin was involved, and they even said, they’re like, “Listen, Richard only does two forewords a year.
Brad Johnson: What?
Adam Holt: Yeah.
Derek Notman: We like this project so much that we’re prioritizing it over others.
Brad Johnson: No pressure, guys.
Adam Holt: Yeah, right. And it has to be done. Wait, remember? And we need a manuscript before the end of the calendar year 2025.
Brad Johnson: Oh. So, literally he’s like, “I only do two a year. Your year is 2025. If you miss the deadline, you might not get the yes in 2026.”
Adam Holt: Oh my gosh.
Derek Notman: Correct.
Adam Holt: Yeah. So, he would finish all the interviews or finish a good number of them before the end of 2025 and have a manuscript. And so, they could judge what, so we could sit down with him, Derek, remember this, in January of ‘26, and have him review it before he meets with us, his team, and get feedback.
Derek Notman: Yep.
Adam Holt: And yeah, it was insane, Brad. This is why we had to stop our podcast because we couldn’t just do double duty. We were interviewing like crazy and Derek was a, I don’t know, Derek, you kept expanding the project. Like, what if we do this and what if we do this? So, the project, it became, look, it’s one of those things, I think you said it right, like if you’re not nervous, it was such an overcommitment that it was almost ridiculous. But we have a book, Brad, it’s 400 and what, 40 some pages?
Derek Notman: 450-ish right now. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: That’s a book.
Adam Holt: It’s a book. And we’re going to be rolling out an app that supports it.
Brad Johnson: If only you guys had somebody that knew like technology on here, right?
Adam Holt: We choose wisely.
Brad Johnson: So, you’ve got an app to go with the book. That’s cool.
Adam Holt: Yes.
Derek Notman: Yep. That’ll be launching about the same time. Actually, it’s live today with beta testers right now.
Brad Johnson: Well, by the way, quick update, because I want to get into some of the stories of the book that you guys kind of shared with me. So, the plan is so we’re recording April 17th of 2026 as you listen or watch this. Sounds like plan is to have the book live for purchase around Father’s Day is the plan.
Adam Holt: For Father’s Day. Yeah. We’ll have as family, yeah, because we know…
Brad Johnson: No pressure again, guys, or on your team building the app, right?
Adam Holt: I know we needed a deadline.
Brad Johnson: And is the app planned to be live by book launch time?
Derek Notman: Yes.
Adam Holt: I would think so. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: And so, really cool. By the way, we’re going to support this project at, I mean, it’s Do Business. Do Life. I mean, we’re on brand here. That’s what we’re about. So, we’re going to buy a box, and we’re going to give a bunch away.
Derek Notman: There’s a thousand books per box, by the way.
Brad Johnson: That’s it? I was trying to buy way more than that.
Adam Holt: It’s this book, it’s 400 pages, but it’s only two inches wide.
Brad Johnson: That’s a big box. That’s a very large box. It’s the back of a UPS truck, apparently.
Cool. So, let’s get into some of the stories because I love that we took the time to get into the why behind the project and how it came to be. So many business lessons there, but now let’s get into one of the things, and I’ll go slightly off track. The reason Triad exists today, the reason the podcast, Do Business, Do Life, it’s really become our mantra, it’s because what I’ve seen a lot, and I know you guys have experienced this in finance as well, and I’ve lived it, I’m sure you guys have lived it, is that tug of war between trying to run a business that never turns off, service space, people always need things, and actually showing up at home where it matters. Family dinners, ball games, present, not stressed out, where things are just circling in your mind.
And we’ve really focused a ton on how you build a business that scales that’s bigger than you, so you can actually have freedom while still serving your clients at the highest level. So much of this project aligns with everything we’re about here. What were the lessons that you all started to learn as you have 103 interviews with you said 49 of them were people that were in finance and connections in different areas. So, about half the book’s finance base, a lot of what I’ve seen, and then another half of some really cool people outside of finance. But what were the themes or lessons you started to see as you had all of these conversations?
Derek Notman: We’re not going to give them all away. Got to get the book. But what’s interesting is, like, so Adam and I, we had this idea that there’s probably going to be some similarities or some commonalities between dads from around the world, lessons that we can now give to as many of dads as possible. We didn’t know what they were going to be. And there are seven that came out through the book. I think one of them that really, and you just mentioned it, but one of them that really resonated, and was, I think it’s our first one, Adam, is intentional presence. Not just presence, but actually being intentional about that presence with yourself, your kids, your spouse, your employees, your clients, whatever it is.
So many dads brought that up in their stories and how that they had struggled with it and didn’t do it. And even myself, man, I look back to my early days as an advisor when I still was running around with a BlackBerry. And I was the guy with the Blackberry that had the holster. I was such a nerd.
Brad Johnson: You were so cool, buddy.
Adam Holt: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Cool.
Derek Notman: Good thing I didn’t have a kid then because I really would’ve been, you know. Anyways, I remember like the phone being on my nightstand, and always thinking about work and always looking for that dopamine hit from the red, blinking light. And never really being present,1 like having dinner with my wife, but I’m on my phone or whatever. And it’s like, “This sucks.” So, I lived it. And so, when dad started talking about it, it was a common struggle for so many of us. And there are ways to overcome it, which we talk about in the book, which it was so refreshing, I think, to get that from so many around the world.
Adam Holt: It’s interesting when you interview somebody, and as we interviewed you, Brad, you kind of took the leap of faith and showed up because the topic was of interest to you, and you’ve done some work on it. You’ve done some intentional work on being a father, not just a great business leader and a mentor to so many people. When we chose the people that we interviewed, we didn’t really know what we were going to get, as Derek said. And whether somebody shared their massive failures or their look back at their own parental experience and said, “I don’t want to replicate that,” or, “I absolutely want to replicate that,” and the conditions of their life might have not been the same, right?
Resources, partner or not, lost the spouse, had a second spouse, like there’s all kinds of conditions that we didn’t know we were walking into. But it was really refreshing because, despite the fact that so many were from finance, we didn’t interview them about their job. We interviewed them about their approach to parenting and what they learned from it. So, whether it was the hacks to how to be specifically intentional, whether it’s about the phone, locking the phone in a drawer. Or basically, and there’s one gentleman who told us, he says, “When I come home, I recognize the same problem Derek had.” So, what I did is I actually put my phone in a drawer when I come home at a specific bit of time.
The only way I can get my phone out is if I ask my 5-year-old daughter’s permission. And I’m not allowed to touch it. She has to go get it for me. But if I’m going to get it, I’m asking her permission, and it creates these barriers. Like, I don’t want to ask because I’m trying to set a precedent. Now, those are little, small hacks. But when you think about that, one of the really cool things that’s come out of this book that we didn’t expect coming into it is we knew that we needed to find a way to help dads around the world meet the obligation we made to Richard, which was we’re going to help everybody. Just, if you could do one thing better from this book, the purchase would’ve been worth it. The read would’ve been worth it.
But we also know that half of us got ADD and are probably not going to read 300 or 100 interviews. So, how do you make it valuable? You could read one interview, like for example, Brad, you’re page 126, I think right now. I read Brad’s interview. I could read two pages about that interview. We spent an hour together. And then here’s three challenges that I would basically call on you, three gauntlets that you could do. Take Brad’s mindset and just apply this in the next 24 hours. Just do something small. And we have three for every interview times a hundred. So, we have over 300 micro challenges that any dad could just say, “You know what, I’m going to do Brad’s number too. I’m just going to try it today. 24 hours.” And I’m just going to have this mindset or an action. Mindset or action.
Derek Notman: Do you want to share one of Brad’s challenges? The question he asked the…
Brad Johnson: Well, this is fun because I don’t even know what they are. So, this is an unveil right here.
Adam Holt: I think this is good. Like, this is a little nugget.
Derek Notman: And we also connect these back to the app, by the way. So, there’s a way to actually track them and put in your own responses.
Adam Holt: All right. So, I’m going to read number one, Derek. Do you have access to Brad’s, by the way?
Derek Notman: I do.
Adam Holt: I have them so I can give them to you, but I’ll remind you because we talked about this actually coming into this, so we prepared, right? We weren’t going to just leave you hanging there.
Brad Johnson: You guys are podcast, I mean, seasoned vets here.
Adam Holt: Let me share. This is REBL Dad’s challenge from Brad Johnson number one. Calendar what matters first. Brad realized that if he crushed it in business but failed at home, he couldn’t buy the time back. He adopted the mantra, “What gets calendared gets done.” Okay, so here’s the challenge. Open up your calendar for the next quarter, the next 90 days. Before filling it with work, block out your family’s big rocks, vacations, school events, child board meetings, or date nights. Treat them as immovable. And then there’s a checkbox next to it.
Brad Johnson: That has served me very well, and that was actually advice I got from a mentor.
Adam Holt: That’s right.
Brad Johnson: So, it’s really cool to see the chain of events there. I’m glad that one made it. That’s served me very well in life. And it’s tough to do. It’s impossible to do if you don’t put it on the calendar. I can pretty much guarantee that.
Derek Notman: That’s it. You know, this book and all the challenges, it’s not meant to be like, this is how Brad lives his life, so you have to do this, or you’re not going to be successful or happy. It’s examples of like here are what other dads have done to overcome challenges, obstacles to get better at whatever. Try this. See if it works for you.
Brad Johnson: Can I expand the how, real quick?
Adam Holt: Please do.
Brad Johnson: By the way, I don’t want to make this about me, but.
Adam Holt: No, no, no. You’re helping.
Brad Johnson: It would be impossible for me to execute on that without an EA. So, Brooke is my EA. She’s an absolute rock star.
Adam Holt: Totally.
Brad Johnson: Actually, I hired a company, BELAY, that does virtual assistants.
Adam Holt: Oh yeah, sure. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: And so, she started out at like 20 hours a week in the early days of Triad. And very quickly it was 40 hours, then it was buy her out of her contract. And I look at her, and this is doing her such a disservice, but just the analogy I use is air traffic control for my business and my life. So, our system quickly, and I did a whole episode on this, so we won’t spend too much time. She’s air traffic control. If a kid has a ball game or a track meet, like yesterday, my wife, Sarah, runs the family calendar that goes to Brooke. Brooke make sure it’s on my business calendar, the big rocks. And now it’s funny, we’ve got a prospective Triad member in office today. There was a dinner last night. Well, I wasn’t at the dinner because track meet took precedent, right?
So, what Brooke will do is she’ll basically, if there’s a business input, check. Oh no, that would go over a big rock. So, either go look for a different date. So, it’s that air traffic control between both sides that actually makes it possible. It took a good probably year to really dial that in, but once it’s working, it’s just, oh my gosh, that tug of war that we all play, it’s just so refreshing. I can be where I need to be, and I can be present, versus the guilt that we’ve all faced when we overcommit ourselves or double-book ourselves. So, that’s been really, really key to that.
Derek Notman: I’m glad you expanded on that. That was actually a really large conversation at our event on Necker just a couple of months ago. And it’s one of the things I’m trying to implement this year is bring someone on like that for the family and business. So, I’m really glad that it’s worked for you.
Brad Johnson: Well, one final tip on that, Derek, and once again, advice from a mentor. When I interviewed Brooke, it wasn’t Brad interviewing her. It was Sarah and I both interviewing her. So, I look at her as she is that intersection between business and life, and if I just hire somebody and then Sarah’s like, “Who’s this person I’ve never met before?” So, it was a joint decision to where Sarah was able to speak into it as well.
Derek Notman: That’s great.
Brad Johnson: So, that was helpful for that. Alright, back to you guys. I don’t want to make it about me, but.
Derek Notman: No, no, no. You’re a good example.
Brad Johnson: Let’s get to some, so I’ve got some really cool friends, which by the way, I’ll just shout out, Jim Sheils, who the Family Board Meeting idea actually came from him at Jon Vroman’s Front Row Dads event, where I met Jim the first time. Chris Smith, I know was interviewed in there, Mike McCarthy, who I met through Front Row Dads. By the way, read their four chapters if you’re listening to this. But give me a story or two that just, when you guys did that interview, you’re like, “Oh my gosh, that was powerful,” and that changed me. Whether the lesson, the bad lesson, like we talked about, of something somebody went through and decided that’s not going to be me, or just a really cool lesson that inspired you guys to be better dads.
Derek Notman: Man, there’s…
Adam Holt: I think, you know what, Aaron was one of your first people that you interviewed.
Derek Notman: Yeah, he was earlier on. Aaron, I won’t go into full detail. They’ll see that in the story. And also, by the way, we recorded all of these interviews, so that’s going to be something that’s available in the app too, so you can check it out.
Brad Johnson: Oh, there’s the actual video of the interviews in the app?
Derek Notman: Yes.
Adam Holt: Only in the exclusive community. Yeah, that’s true.
Brad Johnson: That is cool.
Derek Notman: Yeah. So, you can watch, listen all of that good stuff.
Brad Johnson: Hear your own words.
Adam Holt: Edited.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. You’re like, “Brad had so many verbal tics. Let’s cut those out real quick.”
Adam Holt: Easy.
Brad Johnson: Thanks for cleaning it up, guys. Appreciate it.
Derek Notman: Aaron, he started life off, he said one of his first memories of his was his dad getting arrested and put into a police car. Grew up with a very, very bad family situation. And it actually wasn’t his dad’s fault. It was his mother’s. Ultimately led to him becoming a raging alcoholic. And what was so powerful, because he was really at like his wit’s end, and he shares a story. I won’t give all the details because this is a story that’s been picked up nationally, actually. It’s worth getting into, but he shares a story about how he was about to end his life, and he was out on a beach in the morning with a bottle of alcohol and met a kid who was just playing by themselves. The mom was kind of off behind, and the kid was, I don’t know, maybe 10 or something like that.
And he started talking to the kid, “What are you doing?” It turns out the kid was there for, what do they call it, the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And the kid only had like, I don’t know, six months to live or something like that. And it just slapped him in the face, like, what are you doing? Like, you have an opportunity to be such a better person here and get healthy and raise a family and break all of the cycles from your own childhood and struggles. And it is just such a powerful story that really brings you to tears when you actually hear the full thing and hear them articulate it. And just like, no matter how hard, like this is what struck, because like I didn’t have, like, I came through some of my own fire as a younger man. No matter how hard one’s life is and how bad it can get, someone does have it worse than you.
And it is a choice and you can make changes, and you can get better. And he now is extremely successful. He’s an advisor, turns out. I didn’t know that at the time. He’s an extremely successful advisor, has a wonderful, loving family, multiple kids. And like you’d never know it that where he is today, what he went through. It was just a great example of resilience and overcoming and making a choice, and being like, one of his things is being present and choosing to live a healthy life and all of that. So, that one definitely sticks with me. There are plenty of other ones. They all have their own, I could go on and on and on, but I think, Adam, if you have anything you want to share, please do. But that one definitely was worth reading and listening to.
Brad Johnson: It’s such a good lesson there.
Adam Holt: Yeah. Sorry, Brad. I think even in my own journey, we got the benefit of actually hosting these interviews. So, in some selfish way, I think we got the benefit of plain talk and also got to share our own experiences with these people and get feedback. And I think that no matter what, we won the most out of this whole experience, because we got to hear it from the horse’s mouth and share those experiences. And our hope was, really, they all become a big blur to me. I mean, after writing so much and writing all these challenges one by one, I feel like we have a calendar for the next five years that we could just keep investing in ourselves. And we hope that people see it that way, too.
We do know that some of the stories are going to resonate with people and some are not. And that’s why we designed it, actually, very much kind of like what I would share around a fireplace. Like, if I had five minutes around the campfire, like what would I share about my experience? And, yeah, you don’t remember that story? Don’t. But like Aaron’s story, like Derek remembers it like this because we’re an auditory storytelling culture, and we can now tell that story to our kids. And maybe that is, in fact, the contribution we make to their growth is just telling them stories that they can use to find some insight or empowerment around, or, “Maybe I’m not going to be influenced by the drug dealer on the corner because I heard that story my dad told me about a guy I read in a book.”
And so, we kind of see this as the way for us to create a modern, I don’t know, testament to fatherhood is to basically just build a bunch of stories that we can all retell and find insights and value. And that’ll be generational, you know? I know that’s kind of the way that we approach this and why it was so urgent to get it done, Brad, because we knew if we could also get the distribution and awareness from somebody who’s influential, but also put something out there that’s going to be a legacy that we can all look back and be proud of is how much of a blessing could you have in your life, right? So, it made sense to get it done.
Brad Johnson: Guys, I want to share an observation with you. You said you put the podcast on hiatus, Rethink. Financial Advice. I think what you did was you upgraded the podcast you were doing to something that was more meaningful and impactful to you both. I’m not taking anything away from finance. You guys know I love finance and business, but you basically did 103 podcasts about how to show up where it matters most. And you know what? I resonated as you were saying that, Adam and Derek, to pile on a little bit. What I’ve learned from my podcast, this is my 10th year podcasting now.
Derek Notman: Wow.
Brad Johnson: It has changed me. Because if you’re curious and you want to learn and you’re fortunate enough to have people show up that are passionate about their topics, and you just sit there like a student, curious and ask questions, I’ve taken so many lessons from the podcast. And I told somebody once, I would do it if nobody listened, because selfishly, I love it, and I learned so much. And that’s what I heard from you guys. Like, whether you ended up writing a book or not, this process changed you. Such a cool lesson there. So, kudos to you guys. I mean, I’m trying to think. I think it was when we did the interview, Adam, when I had you on the podcast, I think you had mentioned, “Hey, we’re doing this project.”
And so, I heard about it kind of underground before it happened, but I’m really excited for this, guys, and you’ve done some really cool stuff in finance, but I’m going to venture to say this will be more impactful work that you’ve done, societally.
Adam Holt: Thanks, man.
Derek Notman: That’s the hope, right? Like, it goes back to Richard’s circle analogy. You start with your own circle, and you build out and out and out, and Adam and I are trying to expand the circle to help more people here.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, Jim Sheils, since he’s featured in the book, so he’s who I got the family board meeting idea from. I think his book is actually Family Board Meeting, so go check that out. It’s skinny. I’ve gifted that one a lot to dads, but he actually has this concept of the fun uncle. And I’ve seen it play out. Basically, my oldest who’s 16, he’s now entered the stage where dad is not cool. There’s nothing he can learn from me. I don’t know if that sounds familiar to anybody out there. But, yeah, I was cool until he was 12, and now we’re in a season of not cool and don’t know what I’m talking about. But guess what?
Adam Holt: We think you’re cool, by the way.
Brad Johnson: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I needed the affirmations today. But one of the things, and when Jim and I were talking about this, he’s like, the reason I get these groups of guys together and he brings his kids into this, it’s because I will say something and it’s like, “Yeah, yeah, dad, I’ve heard you say that a hundred times.” But the cool surfer buddy comes in and says the same thing, and all of a sudden they’re like, “Oh yeah. You know, he said that. That was awesome.” And so, you actually can parent and coach through surrounding your kids with the right environment, and they hear it from different angles, and they actually absorb it differently.
And I probably haven’t done that enough, but I got that concept from Jim, and I was like, “Yeah, that makes all the sense in the world.” So, you’ve got 103 fun uncles you just created, where you’ve got all these lessons that can be poured in.
Adam Holt: That’s really fun.
Brad Johnson: Maybe you need to do a little book alumni event, or something.
Adam Holt: Totally. On Necker, we do.
Brad Johnson: If they only had enough rooms, that’s the problem. We can afford the island.
Derek Notman: We can get them on the neighboring island. Richard’s got a spot over there, too, so we could slam them all in there one way.
Brad Johnson: So, the best 48 dads go on actual Necker Island. Is that how it works?
Adam Holt: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Okay. Cool.
Adam Holt: We have actually one coming up. We’re going on January, what, 17th.
Derek Notman: January 17th. Yeah. What is that?
Adam Holt: Number four.
Derek Notman: That’s eight months from right now.
Brad Johnson: So, it’s become an annual January experience for you, guys.
Adam Holt: Yeah, we commit every time, and we burn the boat first, and we just say, “Okay, we’re committing, and then who’s coming?” And we figure it out, because we know it’s just been so impactful. I mean, we’ve made so many new friends, and we’ve had other people make friends. It’s a classic thing. You’ve been part of it. You’ve been a great supporter of that yourself. The relationships that you make, you didn’t expect to make going in, you didn’t know how to value in the front end, become invaluable to you. I know that for even just myself, people that I didn’t expect to become friends with have now become mentors, have now opened up doors in ways that I didn’t even imagine, like even on the business side that I wasn’t expecting.
Because you build relationship, you have currency with each other, trust, and so forth, and you help each other out. We still have a WhatsApp group. We’re actually moving it to our app. We’re continuously chatting about celebrations going on in each other’s lives, and so forth. And Derek had the vision enough to bring his son the first time. I mean, he was the only kid that came with us, him, his wife, and his son at the time. Well, he was, what, 12? And now, last year we had 13 kids at Necker.
Derek Notman: He was 11 when we went. Yeah. We had 12 or 13 kids this last trip.
Adam Holt: So, you’re right, Brad. I mean, bringing your…
Brad Johnson: You’ve created the fun uncle effect in reality.
Adam Holt: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Yeah.
Adam Holt: We’re trying to.
Derek Notman: Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if it’s fun uncle or Lord of the Flies, or a combination of the two.
Brad Johnson: You know what’s funny about that? I literally just finished Lord of the Flies last week.
Derek Notman: Really? Oh, right on. Okay.
Brad Johnson: I mean, it was on my classic list in high school, and I never finished it. I’m like, I have failed at life. I’ve never read that book. That is a wild, intense book.
Adam Holt: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Wow.
Derek Notman: I got to read that again, now that you’re saying that.
Brad Johnson: There’s a Netflix series coming out, The Lord of the Flies. So, I saw it. It popped up, so I was like, “I’m reading the book before I dive in.”
Derek Notman: Awesome. Okay, cool. All right.
Brad Johnson: So, yeah, I hope it was less Lord of the Flies, more fun uncle.
Adam Holt: Yeah. They know how to behave themselves. There was no Lord of the Flies.
Derek Notman: They just go.
Adam Holt: They’re windsurfing like they’re not finding conchs and beating each other.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. That’s good. Well, gentlemen, any closing thoughts? Number one, honored to have you guys on. Super proud of this work. I mean, what little bit I contributed, I’m honored that you asked me. So, I am so excited about how much this is going to impact the world for the better, dads for the better. I bet some moms might read it, too.
Adam Holt: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Oh, for sure. The app is such a cool idea. I love that. So, once that thing’s live, let me know. We’ll figure out how we can support it in the show notes and everything we do here. So, any closing thoughts on your side before we wrap this up?
Adam Holt: Look, I would say to any kind of dad or person who supports a dad in their life, I think one of the things to remember is that we invest so much in our kids’ education. We invest so much in our homes, and maybe in our retirement accounts, when are we investing in probably the most important role we’re going to have for our own legacy? And I think the reality is that it doesn’t have to be massive, like a Necker kind of concept. It just has to be something, not nothing. And I think that’s what we learned pretty consistently through this book is there are little things that we can all do just to be incrementally better, without getting intimidated or saying that I wouldn’t know how to do it or where to start.
And I think we encourage you to be part of what we’re doing. We welcome you. It’s an open invitation to be part of this and grow this as a community because we only get better because of the community. So, that’s what I would want to leave this community with. Thank you.
Brad Johnson: Awesome.
Derek Notman: Yeah. I guess, I’ll add. Much like our events on Necker, the book, the community, it’s not like do it this way, or you’re a bad person. It’s, “Hey, man, we’re all struggling with our own demons, our own things at different stages of life. And if you can come together with a brotherhood that has had similar experiences and learn from them and be open and share, that’s where true growth can happen. And we can learn those little things that can be so impactful, but also just that sense of like, “Hey, I’m not as lonely as I thought I am, or I need to be. Like, there are other guys out there that I can talk to about whatever it is whenever.” And I think that’s just so important.
So, whether it’s the event, the book, the app, just whatever, like it’s there for all of us. And just know that. So, wherever you are in life, there’s probably someone in there that you can talk to, and it’ll be helpful. So, as Adam said, it’s an open invitation. We want people to be a part of it. It’s how we get better. It’s how we impact a million-plus lives.
Brad Johnson: One of my mentors once said after somebody would share something and they’d feel like isolated or like they were the only one dealing with that, he’d be like, “Congratulations, you’re normal.” Because, I mean, that’s what we all deal with it. It’s the voice inside our head. It’s the doubt. It’s the imposter syndrome.
Derek Notman: Yep.
Brad Johnson: And the cool thing is you create a community where you normalize like growth and struggles and helping each other because somebody’s been there before. Somebody’s figured out a way out. And it’s really cool you’re creating a community that makes that path easier to navigate. So, well, guys, I always enjoy our conversation. So, if you ever need like a third co-host, once you fire the podcast back up, like when one of you is sick or not feeling it, let me know. I’ll tap in. So, I always learn something from you and get inspired. So, I really appreciate your time today.
Adam Holt: Thanks, Brad. We appreciate you.
Derek Notman: Well, thank you, Brad. We’re grateful. Thank you very much.
Adam Holt: Absolutely.
Brad Johnson: Alright. Until next time, gentlemen.
Derek Notman: Cheers, buddy.
Brad Johnson: See you.
