Daddy Saturday with Justin Batt

2 Cent Dad Podcast

As a father of four children with an entrepreneurial wife who worked almost every Saturday, Justin quickly found himself alone, overwhelmed and outnumbered on Saturdays. He woke up one Saturday ready to make a change and armed with a game plan to engage my children in an intentional way. A trampoline, a GoPro, and 500 water balloons resulted in an incredible day with my children and he knew he was on to something special. His kids began asking on Wednesday, “Hey Dad, what’s the plan for Saturday?”. That has morphed into a book, a worldwide movement, and multiple non-profit efforts.

Where can you find Justin:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/justinbatt
• Blog Link: https://justinbatt.com
• Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinbatt/
• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/justin.batt.14
• Book: https://justinbatt.com/the-book/
• HisTEDx Talk

Transcription below (Typo's may be present...):

[00:00:00] Justin: [00:00:00] this individual or independent drive that we've been given to, to be the man and to be the driver and to operate in that business capacity, which is easy for most guys.

And then, you know, we'd rather go be a workaholic and work more. Cause we know what that looks like. We know what the end result is. You don't always get that with your kids. And frankly, kids are also probably some of the most invalidating people that have ever existed.

Mike: [00:00:23] Have you ever experienced the daddy hangover on a Saturday? that's a term coined by Justin batt, who was a guest on the podcast today. He is the founder of daddy Saturday, which is a foundation and it's a platform and it's a book and it's all around how to get dads more engaged, specifically devoting time on Saturday.

To be a more engaged dad and to avoid the dad hangover. Which he would say is being physically present but not mentally present and being checked out so [00:01:00] he had some great wisdom to share on the podcast so let's jump into the interview with justin

Today on the podcast, we have Justin batt, who is the founder of daddy Saturday, which is a foundation that has been around since 2007, with the goal of impacting 10 million fathers in the next 10 years.

And I'm Hey Justin, thanks for being on the show.

Justin: [00:01:22] Mike. I'm so glad to be here. Thanks for having me. And, um, I got to say a bit of a clarifying statement. Yeah. So I've been a dad since 2007. The foundation started about a year and a half ago, but I always backdated to that because that's the date that I officially became a dad and entered this journey of fatherhood.

Mike: [00:01:41] That's awesome, man. No, I think that's, that's a, that's an appropriate backdating. I mean, that's when that's, when you actually started the true foundation, which is, is it your kids? Right.

Justin: [00:01:50] They're founded as a right.

Mike: [00:01:53] Yeah. So tell, tell us a little bit about, um, the whole foundation and what you got going on.

I just love, um, [00:02:00] the content you put out and I know that you you're also the author of a book. Um, so tell me a little about the foundation, how it came. He came to be.

Justin: [00:02:07] Yeah, I'll give you the, the Genesis of daddy Saturday. So essentially about 13 years ago, my wife decided to leave teaching and go into being an entrepreneur.

I supported her a hundred percent of the journey. I was a young corporate executive at the time in the pharma industry. And so we decided to embark and then entrepreneur journey. At the same time we had our daughter, our first child. And so my wife found herself being a entrepreneur, owning a couture bridal boutique.

And that meant she worked, you know, most weekends every Saturday, all day. So I was at home with our daughter at the time, and then we added three more boys to the mix one every two years. So very quickly, I'm a setting that corporate ladder I'm home with all four kids all day on Saturday, eight to 10 hours, just dad and the kids and quickly found myself overwhelmed, overcome often feeling very inadequate and having what I call the dad [00:03:00] hangover on a lot of those Saturdays.

I mean, I was there with my kids physically. Um, but I wasn't always emotionally present. I wasn't giving my all in those days. And I realized that I'd been given it gift of spending that Saturday with my kids. So I started to just change everything and, and became intentional and engaged and was planning our days ahead of time.

And I saw this dramatic transition in my kids, in our relationship and in those Epic moments we were having in those Saturdays together. And they became a real blessing for me and for our family and for even my wife and I, and our relationship. And I'll never forget the Saturday or the Wednesday. My kids would often ask midweek, dad, what are we doing for dad on Saturday?

And my middle son, Mason goes one set one Wednesday, dad, what are we doing for daddy Saturday? And I was like, Oh my gosh, son, you just named it. That's what we're calling this thing. And fast forward a couple of years later, I was asked to give a TEDx on the fatherlessness epidemic. And I learned all about the epidemic that's in our country.

I mean, I knew a little bit about it. I recognize it in my own experience in my own life. [00:04:00] And realized that man, there's a lot of kids out there that don't have a biological dad in the home, but also many more kids that have a dad who is physically present, but he's emotionally absent. Like I was for a period of time.

So I decided to write the book, launch the plan form and embrace this calling that I've been given to take what I learned in my own family. And to help other dads do the same thing. And so it's gone from my backyard, with my four kids on those Saturdays to now becoming an international platform. We have a for profit and a nonprofit, the nonprofits designed to really hit that goal of 10 million dad's impacted in 10 years.

And then fatherlessness. And we do that through, um, four populations that we primarily serve the national guard, the incarcerated opportunities zones, and first responders. And then we have an international component to it and we've got daddy Saturday, Kenya established, and we've got a home office over there and a radio program that goes all over Kenya, helping dads be better dads and connecting them to the father.

Uh, all over Kenya. So that's the thing where we are. And on the, for profit side, I know we got some cool things that we [00:05:00] can talk about here for your audience around the texts, the ways that we're engaging dads through some unique platforms and programs.

Mike: [00:05:08] That's cool, man. No, that's, that's an awesome story.

The, the term, uh, dad hangover that, that, that's, that's an interesting one. I'm sure you, you face a lot of, you know, dads that you're talking with through the foundation and that interact with your content. I'm sure they're there at that state, right? Whenever they. That they either they seek you out or they come to a talk or something.

Um, unpack that a little bit because I'm sure people listening probably are dealing with that on some level or have dealt with it recently....