ALL IN on Fatherhood | Alex Mont-ros

Episode Topics:

• Learn how to create non-negotiable boundaries between your business and your marriage.
• Discover the structure of family meetings that actually work (and don’t feel like boring corporate meetings).
• Understand why intentionality is a muscle that needs consistent exercise in your family life.
• Get insights from someone who successfully sold their business without sacrificing their marriage.
• Find out how to lead your family with the same precision you lead your business.

 

Rick Jordan  

What’s shakin? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan today. We’re going all in. I’ve got an amazing guest for you today, and I’m gonna do a throwback to like, one of our first two dozen episodes, because he came on and crushed it when he talked about working with your spouse, right? And that was something that I never, ever mastered my life. It was amazing. It was amazing episode. I suggest you go back to look at it, but today we’re going to talk about what he’s doing next. Alex Montrose, what’s up Brother?

 

Alex Mont-ros  

How you doing, Brother? Thank you for having me on again. I appreciate it. I know it’s been quite some time, at least, since the podcast, but we’ve had some some run ins at some events and stuff, and we have, I know that one Funnel Hacking live coming up here in the next few weeks, which I’m ecstatic about. Both Lisa and I are really excited to get together again and hang out and just kind of, you know, kind of soak it all in. And it’s always a great event at Funnel Hacking live. So we’re excited about that.

 

Rick Jordan  

It sure is, and that’s where we keep educating ourselves too, right, as entrepreneurs and getting around like minds. I love it, but that’s where we reconnected last year. Yeah, was it Funnel Hacking, live?

 

Alex Mont-ros  

No man, I remember seeing you, and I’m like, is that right? And I was like, I don’t know if I should go up to him. And sure enough, man, I was because for a minute there, I was like, I know, I know that face, and I think the black shirt in the I think the just kind of the branding that you kind of built for yourself, man, I’ve actually now I’m wearing a black shirt that’s all for this podcast. For you.

 

Rick Jordan  

Thank you. I appreciate that. That’s input, you know, that’s something that my team moved me into, because I there was a reason for my the way that I used to dress, and then there’s a reason for the way that I dress now, you know, a lot of it’s been intentional before, because I used to wear a lot of Robert Graham shirts, like, really bright, colorful, all over the place, right? But that was a lot of, like, I used to be really fat, you know, years back, and I don’t think we ever got into that. But then it’s like, I dropped all the weight I could wear this stuff. I dropped like, 90 pounds, right? And then I put another 20 on in muscle. But I wore those clothes because it’s like, that’s really who I was inside, but I can never get out, because I couldn’t wear the clothes that I ever thought could make me look good, though I use those. And now, because, I mean, that was so complex and packing and everything. And now with taking a tech company public, it’s like, this is the brand. It’s so easier because time is not on my side ever. Now, you know it’s like wasting thought. It’s like, you look at Steve Jobs, you know the black turtleneck all the time. You know the way all these execs dress. I mean, even like John ledger from T Mobile, right? We know him from up in Bellevue when we were up there, yeah, he was always, was always in magenta and black. But it’s like there’s a lot less mental bandwidth that you have to put forward something that doesn’t really matter, that you can look really good, and it becomes part of your brand. It’s beautiful. And then you packing is a lot easier, too, man. You just throw some crap in your suitcase and you’re good to go. But dude, go ahead.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

You can never, you can never own too much black. That’s the Lisa and I have that literally in our bathroom, on a, on a. It’s a kind of like a little picture frame deal, because Lisa and I, we’ve kind of transitioned over the last couple years of, yeah, going down that route of minimizing decisions, especially when it comes to getting pressed in the mornings, and just get to work and get productive, you know? So we, I feel you on that it’s been actually a huge shift in getting things done, and you don’t think of it as being a big deal, of like, well, you know, it’s just getting pressed, but it’s just one less decision you have to make in that in the morning just to get going. So we’re following suit, man. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s good stuff.

 

Rick Jordan  

Dude. I hope everybody is listening picks up on that, right? Because that, that’s like gold right there, that we’re talking about for real, because, but you phrased it so eloquently as minimizing those decisions, and I’ll say those decisions because of the ones that really don’t matter much to what you said that take away from your productivity. I mean, who cares? As long as you look like you take care of yourself, you’re fit, you go after stuff and you’re fine. Just do it right, and it becomes part of your brand. I’ve had a it’s a little different these days, right? Because when you first came on with the with the show, three and a half years ago, something like that, no. I mean, within the first two dozen episodes, now we’re pushing 300 episodes, and it’s just insane, because we’ve gone from when you were here, it was like we we launched and we hit like seven countries, right? And now we’re in over 50 countries, and we’re top 2% in the world, which I’m so grateful for. But part of that brand transition was what you were saying, too. And this is, this is not me pumping my this is just fact, like you were able to notice me and what I wear, just because it’s a decision that I was able to minimize and then something that’s recognizable, too. I had someone, this is this part was funny. I had one person at an event that I was speaking at. This was last year, in October, like I was coming. Him down an escalator and looks up. He’s like, Grant Cardone. It’s like, no, no, no, no. That’s you’re, you’re, you’re Rick Jordan, you’re the guy with the podcast.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

It might be a common all depends on who you ask. It could be a compliment or not, but exactly,

 

Rick Jordan  

it’s like, I need to get a selfie and send this to my son. I’m like, go for it, bro. That’s all good. That’s awesome. But they’re recognizable factor, no matter how big you want to play or how boutique you want to stay. Whoa, did you hear that? All right, well, sometimes I make myself, yeah, how big you want to play or how boutique you want to stay, either way, you still need a brand. You still need to copyright that. I’m going to .

 

Rick Jordan  

Oh man, no, speaking about going big, right? And then go transitioning and all that. A few years ago, you know, I think you’re still with them a little bit in, like a part of an exit with moncord, right? And you sold, and you were crushing it back then. I’m sure you’re still crushing it now, before we go into the stuff you’re doing currently, which stick around, because we’re going to talk about dads and intentional fathering, right? Is that a good way to put it.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

 

Rick Jordan  

So this is something that you were able to do, obviously, you know, have a good working relationship with your spouse, but you exited. Why? Why did you choose to exit? And what? Why did you choose the moment that timing when you exited?

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Yeah, it’s man. It was. It was definitely not. It wasn’t easy for a lot of reasons, but the I you know, when we started our company, back in 2016 some of the the genesis of why we did it, this is the back story was, was just to make enough money to to remodel our house, and what turned into a remodel project became a company, right with employees and All, at least. And I look back, we’re like, This is crazy. Like, a year in two years in, we’re like, what this was just to take care of the remodel. We were just gonna make a couple extra dollars on the side. And then we realized, Oh, we actually landed on something here that’s pretty significant. There’s a market need, and let’s just keep pushing. So we always had, we always had an exit and plan in as part of the plan. We did have a five year window. I think there was a there was a few moments where we were like, well, could we keep going, make it, you know, maybe another additional 510, years, keep building up. And I think when you know, when the pandemic hit real estate, it was a real estate services company, real estate went crazy, and it was just, we were out, really on the uptick of things, right? So we had hit our five year mark, and we were just considering, you know, is this, we’re, like, hitting literally on it was almost to the date. And when we started kind of negotiations on that, we were thinking, wow, I can’t believe how everything had just lined up to be, to just happen around this time frame. And it all kind of fell into place. I think it was the opportunity, it was the player we’re happy with, you know, the the acquisition and the partnership that you know now that we have established with them, and kind of in also catching their vision, too, for what they wanted to create that I think at scale, they were already, they had, you know, they were already kind of nationwide. We were in, like a regional market. So it just made sense to join kind of forces and really kind of expand this bigger, this bigger business. So it all, I think everything just lined up for the opportunity and and the good news is that, gosh, I heard this the other day, like, you know you should sell when you don’t have to sell and buy when others are desperate and they need to sell. And we were in this opportunity. We’re like, we didn’t have to sell. We were in a perfect position. Revenue was going up, profitability all that. And looking back, we we all regret it. We felt like we made the right decision and and so here we are now. We’re almost, almost two years in, give or take, I think, yeah, about a year and a half. So we’re working with the firm that acquired us, and helping, helping that, that business scale, and being part of their team. And it’s been good. It’s been a good ride. And we’re, we’re excited that we made that decision.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome, man, I appreciate you saying that you, you know, you’re still with them at this point, because that’s something that, as I’m acquiring. You know, it’s interesting for those who want to completely exit some sellers, and this is important when you build it to sell, which I’ve said this before, regardless of whether you actually want to sell or not, you should still build it as if you are going to sell. You. But it’ll help you maintain your profitability numbers that you need to actually have a good lifestyle, and, even more so, ensure that you’re taking out of the business as an owner what you’re supposed to rather than sacrificing your own income for the betterment of whatever other stupid crap you could think of. Because the reason why you build the company to begin with is to take care, first and foremost, of yourself. Of course, you’re other people that work for you and all of that, but absolutely, you shouldn’t sacrifice your own lifestyle, your own needs, your own expenses, just because you’re trying to make something work long term and settle right? Yeah, but then afterwards, when you do that, you’re building it to sell. But there is an integration period that’s so important, and you have to understand that you will be there as the seller. You will be there. You have to be there for that integration period. You know, unless you’re being picked up by some large private equity firm or something like that, and you are completely replaceable as an owner. But typically, you’ve got those relationships with the clients, with the vendors, everything else that has to be shifted over to the new ownership. Yeah, it’s important. 

 

Alex Mont-ros  

That’s the that’s that was, that’s probably the most challenging, is integration, just because you know you’re trying to maintain relationships with your clients, customers that you’re bringing over. You know they’ve, you know for years, have come to trust your organization, your business, your personal relationships, and all sudden you show up when they are like, Hey, by the way, we sold and we’re still here. Yeah, however, there’s a new process, there’s new systems, and, you know, there’s this, you got to kind of calculate, there’s going to be some churn. There’s going to be clients that are, you know, they only wanted to work with you. They’re not, you know, they’re not really going to be happy about this transition. So the integration period is definitely challenging. I think we did pretty well, though. You know, when we look back at like even our turn of clients, our ability to really get them on board, move them forward into this new world with this new organization, knowing that we were there to hold their hand along the way, Lisa and I think we did along with our team. I really, I really want to thank all of our team members that were part of that process. We, I think we made it really seamless. And within, gosh, I think it was within five, six months, we were, we were there, so, you know, so that actually, but I’ve heard other stories where integration is, you know, it can go really bad and and not work out. Well, getting on a good game plan in places is key at the very beginning for that.

 

Rick Jordan  

Right on, there’s a few key things as we and this segment today with the show is on selling, right? And ended up ending up exiting your business, one you made intention to do so, right? As we talked about, I love that you said that you know your five year mark, it almost ended up to the exact day, right? Because there’s something, there is this, something like some law, some unwritten law that I know of that when you actually like choose a date. It just stays in your head. And regardless of if you’re actually consciously keeping that on top of your mind or not, it’s still subconsciously pushing you towards that. It’s something that everybody should do. I’ve heard it called, you know, just goal setting, a date setting, somebody called a quantum date setting, whatever it is, you know. But it’s just putting something out there saying, by this date, I will do this. And if you write it down somewhere, it’s almost like you etch it in stone, right? You can’t change. And then you just push towards that. It’s phenomenal. The other thing is that integration is essential. Make sure that you’re sticking you will be sticking around for that. And third, I love how you were talking about the timing on all these things, you know, on how you constantly evaluated whether it was the right time or not throughout the course that five years, just phenomenal, man. You know, it’s something that you actively put intention into, sweet brother. I mean, as exciting as that stuff is, what you’re moving to now is even more exciting, right? I can say, I mean, you’re just smiling huge, because this is, you can tell, this is your heart, brother. This is why I’m like, you gotta come back on. You gotta come back on and talk about this intentional fathering. I don’t know if that’s what you called it, but that’s what I picked it up as, tell me about this project, man.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Yeah, you know, I’m, uh, right now, you know the the idea is really coming from a place of, really, of a servant’s heart towards, towards just men and fathers. You know, over the last probably decade, when I was back in my corporate world days, and I, you know, I would, you know, deal with colleagues that were, you know, working 80 hours a week, you know, flying, you know, from, you know, staying in God knows, where it’s city and state and and just doing the work and really missing out on their their family and their kids, all chasing, all the chase another dog, you know, and then through that process, and then even at mom court, where our. Were really our culture was really established around family. We wanted everybody you know to really understand that, look, we have a family. We had a family of five kids. We’re here to, first and foremost, make sure that the health of the family is is a priority number one, and then everything else follows. And so we really kind of ingrained that into the DNA of our culture with all of our employees. You know, there was never any issues around, you know, somebody really needed to take that time or or, you know, focus on their family. We always promoted that. And then now, you know, kind of, you know, you know, still kind of get some of that, those engagements from a work perspective, but even externally, my neighbors, church, different kind of groups that I’m part of, the content I’ve been pushing out is really there to just, you know, provide some guidance on look When we what we did, Lisa and I was very hard to build a company and not go through a divorce. Okay, so just really, I mean, plain is simple. I mean, I think the stats are high. I don’t have the numbers right now for me, but couples that go into, you know, that relationship at the very you know, are 10, tend to have a higher divorce rate. So we knew what we were getting ourselves into and what we focused on. At the very beginning, we put some non negotiables in place. When we said, okay, when we when we build this company, here’s a non negotiables one. If we ever felt that the business was encroaching on our marriage to the point of a divorce, we were going to cut the business literally, it didn’t matter how much money it was making, we’re done and and so that non negotiable became concrete. And it really guided us on a lot of our decisions, where we would check in, we would validate where we are right now. Are we, you know, are we on the brink? Are we? Because it was, it was, there was long nights of, you know, you know, blood, sweat and tears for the you know, and as the saying goes, right so. But through that process, I also realized I had to also step up as a father to be more intentional with the time that I did have and and not take for granted my the time that my kids, you know, the time that they had, you know, whether it was extracurricular activities at home, engaging with them at home, doing family meetings, which, right now I’m really pushing the idea of, like having a family meeting. And so through those years, it was kind of building up that muscle of intentionality, because I do believe it’s a muscle. You know, a lot of us can be intentional for a day, maybe two, maybe a week, and before you know it, life hits, and then you’re back to being zoned in on, it’s important, work stuff, whatever else is, like priority, it’s it’s important, but there’s collateral damage that that comes in, and that’s the family. So minimizing that collateral damage with intentionality is what I’m trying to help fathers right now with. And I started off helping, really the blended family kind of community, just through, again, just this pre content stuff out there, just pushing the message of, yeah, how to how to engage within a blended family. And then now I’m kind of transitioning into more of a leadership father, intentional way of kind of living, so that you can not only thrive at home, but also thrive in business.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome, man. That’s I like how you put boundaries around things when it came to your relationship, because it clearly that was intentional, very clearly that you were ready to cut anything else, right? And that’s what you went into it at is saying that this is the priority for us, and money is money, man, I say it all the time is that money is really just a tool, and there’s so much of it that’s available out there. I mean, even in the midst of a capital raise right now, it seems like there’s so many places that you can just like Unturned stones. And there it is, and it’s it’s not, it’s always going to be abundant, because there’s so much of it that exists as long as you’re looking for it, and as long as you place it in the right priority slot in your life, right? And when I say that, it’s not like you said works a priority, you dive into that stuff. But still, money as a whole, for me, is very much a support mechanism, rather than a priority of itself, like money can support building a strong family, money can support building a huge business money can support building a good relationship, and it comes in a place to kind of surround those things and just lift it up, rather than something that becomes something that squishes it down. I really appreciate that, especially from a father perspective, right? Because if we go back to geez, if you like traditional. Which is not really the case anymore in society, right? Because every, almost every home, is a dual income home in middle America, even in upper class America, almost every home is a dual income home when you’ve got the traditional family structure. And it becomes interesting to see what people go after, and it becomes even more interesting to see what they’re willing to sacrifice to go after that one thing that they think is going to fulfill them. How do you shift that mindset, man? Because there’s got to be a moment to where, like you realize, well, all that stuff isn’t nearly as worth it as my kids or whatever.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

For me and for Lisa it. Unfortunately, it took the pain of going through a divorce, you know, we so this is we’re both on our second marriage. We’ve been we’ll be married 10 years come next March, and that pain we never wanted to create again for any of our kids, because I went through the pain of walking through that with my kids, with my family, and it was not, it was just not, not good. So we, when we got married again, both of us married again, but when we, when Lisa and I got married for the first time, we made a commitment like we didn’t want to have to go through that again. And what did that take? Well, it took being intentional. Now, you know, I got married in my early 20s. Kind of went through this process of, kind of figuring myself out. And what do you know I, you know, I got married at 21 what do i What did I know I was still a kid, you know, raising kids, trying to be, you know, the best father I could be, but I didn’t know myself yet. And so it took a little bit of, you know, it took a lot to kind of really do some self reflection on the second round. And same thing with Lisa too, because she went to that process as well. And so when we committed to that, we said, okay, one pain was like the driver. We don’t want to create more pain for our kids, nor for ourselves. And then two, it’s like, well, how do we do that? Well, we got to be intentional. Okay, what does that mean? Boundaries, values, principles that we’re going to live by and how we’re going to also raise our kids by. And that foundation started to kind of establish something really strong that, now, you know, it’s it. You know, I feel like all of our kids are thriving. We’ve been able to really speak into them in a way that they get it. They see us living it by example. We’re not just talking about it, but we’re actually living it. And that’s been, that’s been a huge that’s something I want to really, I want fathers to really, to really understand is that if you’re not living it, your kids will see it. You have to be living it out 100% yes, we’re imperfect. We’re gonna make mistakes. It’s obvious. However, your actions every day, your kids are watching, and if you’re going to build a legacy, you got to set the tone and the example of what that’s going to look like, so that they have shoulders that they can then climb upon and keep building upon that foundation, generation over generation, really build a legacy. Yeah, so.

 

Rick Jordan  

Once you have that awareness to where you’re like, wow, I’m really not putting a lot of intentionality into things, what’s the first step? Because, I mean, there’s, there’s a lot that are probably listening, that are not at the point of a divorce yet, right, but they could be seeing that in their future, right, just because of working if they’re really real with themselves, right? Yeah, yeah. And almost, I would think almost any entrepreneur could look themselves in the mirror and be real, real, really real with themselves. And think that that could be a possibility, unless there’s intentionality that you’re talking about here, once they have that awareness right and actually accept that that’s truth, what’s the first step that they need to take?

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Man, I think actually, they need to sit down and have an honest conversation with their spouse about where they’re at from that from that perspective of the awareness that’s been now. And you know that enlightenment, whatever that is, what? Because if it stays within, you’re both still on two different pages as a marriage, right? As a husband, that’s huge, yep, still having, you got to have that open communication. And it’s sometimes it’s uncomfortable and it’s scary, you know, as a, as a sometimes you like, you think, like, oh, things are good at the surface, these are not good. Yeah,

 

Rick Jordan  

you got to face your own fault, right? Because almost the stuff that you get upset about with the person you’re in your relationship with, or really, like a projection of the things you’re upset with yourself about, yes, so that conversation is tough, man, for sure, it is tough. 

 

Alex Mont-ros  

It’s tough and so you gotta, you gotta face yourself. You gotta be honest with yourself. But that’s the start, I think, is having that. Honest, open conversation about I’ve not been living up to the the man that I need to be for my family, the husband I need to be for you. And therefore, these are the things that I’m you now, you know what the the journey that I’m about to take us on, as well as the work that I’m going to do on myself, because then that’s when the work begins, you know, and that’s where I talked about, like, earlier, you know, intentionality. It’s easy to do it for. It’s like working out, you know, you work out for a day, easy workout for do that for a year, and do it for two years, 510, it’s, a habit, right? So understanding that it’s going to be a journey, and sticking and being consistent, then you start to see, I think, a thriving life start to unfold little by little, because your wife and your kids are now being led by action, not just by some empty words, because you felt bad or you had some worldly remorse for something you know, that you got upset about, or whatever the case is, but you didn’t really want to change. 

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s gold man. I’m going to end it with this question here today, because it transitioning into something that people can actually take action on. You mentioned this briefly a family meeting, right? And I’ve even seen your content, right? And I’ve seen you guys all sitting around the table in the midst of one of, one of your family meetings. I think you call them a family huddle, right in your in your content. Yeah. 

 

Alex Mont-ros  

I’ve been vacillating terms, yeah. But you know, I want you to I love where we’re going right now. So I’ll let you finish, because I really want to dive into.

 

Rick Jordan  

Please do tell me the structure that you follow, what the benefits are all of that, man, you know, just an overview that people can maybe take some action on today.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Yeah. So it’s interesting. It’s interesting. So the family meeting, we’ve been doing it for for years, within our within our home, we haven’t always been consistent. We struggled with challenges of, like, you know, an agenda. How do you do an agenda for a family meeting? When you got little toddlers and you got kids and they’re running around, like, how do you keep them in cage? How do you make sure that you have a focus time to where you’re going to get things done that matter to the family? And how do you stay consistent? And through the years, we’ve had ups and downs of this, of of, you know, really hitting it, you know, really good and doing all the right things and and really seeing progress. And then we let things Wait, waiver and lack of consistency, and it all established. It all kind of stem from a lack of structure, a lack of, like, having having something that is going to be, you know, scheduled, concrete, and really just getting started at the end of day. So through the through the years, I’ve had this idea, my gosh, there’s a lot of planners out there. There’s a lot of planners out there that talk about productivity planners, you know, you name it. I mean, there’s all sorts of planners, but I haven’t found one that’s dedicated to, like a family meeting. So Lisa and I were like, All right, let’s, let’s do this to help families out and try to help them kind of get some structure, give them some instruction on how to how to do a family meeting, and then launch right? So over the last few months, we’ve been working on a family planner. We have, you know, I’m not gonna promote it here, but we got, I’m not promoting it, just kind of showing it to the to the to the group here. But the whole idea around this is this, how many meetings are you having on the corporate and any corporate week, right?

 

Rick Jordan  

I have a hate relationship with Zoom.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

And so the I feel like the enemy of a family meeting is this idea that you’re going to compartmentalize it as if it was a corporate meeting. Who wants to do another corporate meeting? Nobody, right? You know, a lot of them are unproductive. A lot of them waste, waste time. They could be done probably in a three cents email, you know, and you and it just, it’s inefficient. A lot of times, not, not always, but a lot of them are. So the moment, the word that’s like vacillating between huddle and meeting was because I didn’t want to stick with a word that might give somebody that that wrong idea of like, Hey, this is just another meeting. Gosh, yeah, I actually had, I actually had a father come up to me and say I was doing like, these five day challenges, just pretty challenges I was doing just to help some dads out, get them get them going. I’m just doing a family meeting. And the wife said to him, she goes, gosh, this feels like just another corporate meeting. And that found on me. I hit, I said, oh, good feedback. One, two, I realized, okay, this is, this is what the paradigm shift has to change if you’re going to be intentional. How many of us have meetings with our friends, colleagues? Whatever we sit down, we have coffee. It’s intense. Know, we schedule it, and we get a lot of value. There’s a lot of discussion, there’s a lot of back and forth. And we leave feeling like, we help somebody, we serve somebody. Yeah, when we get home, we walk in the door, we have no intention. We might, yeah, obviously, we love our family. We love our kids, wives and all that and and then we think of like, okay, we got family matters to talk about. We got schedules, we got we got chores. We got, like, trips. We got, you know, hey, poor values, like, what does that even mean to our family? All these things? I mean, you get a million things you can talk about, but yet we neglect it. The one place that you should never neglect, the time to gather and talk about what really matters is at home, yet we do it all day long. We never neglect it when it comes to work, when it comes to friends, colleagues and so on. So the idea is like, how did, from a leadership perspective, how to get fathers to really kind of own it, step up. Take take action. Get your family together, build better communicators. By the way, our kids sit around the table. They’ve been doing it some of our kids now, they’re teenagers, but they were doing it when they were young, when we would go around the horn like that. I like to call it around the kind of we say, Hey, what’s your give us an update of what’s going on. Day to three. They were saying, I had a good day today. I played with my friend, perfect. That’s all I need. We don’t need it to be extensive. We go around the table. Over the years, the question becomes, now more. I think there’s a lot more now to discuss, because they’ve been there’s a habit form of like, how to communicate what matters to them, right? And bring to the surface at that time things that we can talk about to help them if they’re struggling with an issue or just even celebrate a win, right? And then that sets the tone for the meeting. And then from there, we talk about agenda top you know, we have like, a top five agenda items that we talk about. We take open action items, things are going to move, you know, the needle over the week, and then we adjourn, and then we’re done. It’s usually 30 minutes to an hour, and depending on, you know, how many kids are there and so on. We got even college kids that will pop in every now and then through FaceTime with us. You know, I have my daughter. She’s in Washington State University, so she’ll pop in if she has time. And I know she’s busy, but we we open it up to her too. So she’s it’s not like just because she’s not here, she’s not part of the meeting, you know? So anyhow, the goal is to to be intentional with that time, get engagement with your family and let them share what’s going on, while at the same time, kind of discussing things that really matter to the family, so you can move the family forward.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s beautiful man. And this sounds like it’s a course that you’re working on right now, too, and you’re going to launch a planner to everyone.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

So right now, we know you’re not promoting it.

 

Rick Jordan  

I’m going to promote you, because I think it’s brilliant.

 

Alex Mont-ros  

No, right now we have a prototype of a planner that we’re pretty much given away, and our goal is to really just get feedback on, how does it work? You know, what do you think we need to change that would make your time more intentional when you do have your family meeting? Yeah, so right now we’re in this prototype type of phase of just understanding it’s not, you know, this is not a this is like a passion project for us right now, just to understand what are the real challenges for families, having a committed time together, and then getting that feedback loop in, and then over time, we’ll figure out if there’ll be a course or not. Right now, what I’ve learned is, I’m just taking one step at a time, you know, right now, everything’s just been, you know, pretty much a passion project, just to help dads being given these away to a bunch of fathers here. Use it. Let me know what you think, and I just want to get the feedback so then I can, I can better serve them later on down the road. 

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s awesome. Man, working. Anybody get in on this? Or are you accepting applications to be in the beta? 

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Yeah, I would say just follow me on on Instagram. At dad’s, Dad step up is the my username, if I may, Alex Montrose, but at dad’s, step up and just DM me, you know, it’s a simple DM, and I can then, you know, talk through it, send you a copy and, you know, and then just use it. All I ask is that if I give it to you, just use it. I don’t. I’m not making money on this. There’s nothing. I just need people using it. And then I just want to hear how it’s changing the dynamic of how they’re engaging with their family consistently with intention. That’s beautiful week over week, because it can’t be like you do it one week and then you take three weeks off, like this thing has to be consistently done to where you’re communicating on a consistent basis with your family on things that really matter.

 

Rick Jordan  

That’s Fantastic offer. Everyone. I hope you’re listening, because this is a golden opportunity that really has the potential to change your family dynamic and change your life. I’ve known Alex for a long time. He’s an amazing dude. And when it comes to your family, dude, you you are all in, dude, thanks for coming on today. 

 

Alex Mont-ros  

Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks, Rick.