Looking Forward At 2023 – S5E1

On this episode of the Dudes and Dads podcast, we talk about looking forward for things in 2023. You're listening to the Dudes and Dads podcast, a show dedicated to helping men be better dudes and dads by building community through meaningful conversation and storytelling. Now, here are your hosts, Joel Damana and Andy Layman. Andy. Andy. Joel. Joel. It's 2023. You know what that means. I don't tell me, tell me, tell me. Season five of the Dudes and Dads podcast.

Season five. Oh, yeah. You know what? This is going to be the year. This is going to be the year where we turn it all around. Turn that ship around. I said ship. Yeah. This is going to be the year where we, where we really make things happen. We're going to. We've been playing, we've been playing easy this whole time with the kid gloves on, but no. Oh, no. Oh, no. We're real this year. It's, it's all, it's all for real.

More magic, more smoke, more, I don't know. More of the things that you demand on us and this show. We've heard you loud and clear and there's, it's going to be a couple cage fights, some occasional, occasional. I'm going to bring on Eli. He's on to you. Hi, Eli. Thanks for, thanks for hanging out with us. So this is officially season five of the Dudes and Dads podcast. We are, it's been, it's been, we've been off for a little bit when we did that

fun time where we did the, we did the two, it attended 10 days of Dudes. Dudes miss. I can't even get it out. Dudes miss. Dudes miss. But yeah, we did that fun 10 days of Dudes miss and we were at, oh, hey, look at that Joel. Who? What? My mom is watching. Your mom's watching? And she said, hi, Eli. Oh, hi. Hi, grandma. There we go. There we go. Hi. Yes. Yeah. So we did some, we did some holiday things and it give us a recap. Give us a recap

on your holiday experience. What was it like and what family member were you most disappointed in this year? Go. No, you can't say that. Uh, no, for real. I, um, I would say my recap was good. We went to both, well, we had first like actual Christmas with Julie's family. Actual Christmas is actual Christmas happened on actual Christmas day. Yes, we did that. And so that was always good. And then a week later over not actual Christmas day, we went

and hung out with my family. So my sister came up and her husband and we were all over at my parents' place and we had a lot of fun. That's so great. What about you? Give me a quick recap of you and your Christmas. The holiday season. Well, here's the deal. I, uh, I started off my holiday season. Well, it was a pre holiday season with, uh, decided to take a two day trip down to Nashville because I have not seen this yet. You haven't seen it. I'll, I'll, well, I'll show you.

So, uh, uh, let's see here. Um, me and my buddy, uh, me and my buddy Tyler, Tyler Hartford, who, you know, we, we've not had Tyler on the show yet. We need to get him on here. He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He shares an office wall with the studio here. It's about time we

get him in. Um, but anyway, Tyler, uh, Tyler graciously helped me. It's a long story. If you check out my Facebook post from a little while ago, but basically, uh, there was a particular tattoo artist that, uh, does a particular kind of tattoo that I wanted that is of a very like historical nature. And so, uh, that tattoo artist is located, uh, our good friend, Rachel down at

true Eden tattoo studio, um, in Franklin, Tennessee. So south of Tennessee, south of Nashville, Tyler and I went down there one evening next morning, got up, went ahead our sessions, everything went great. And we quickly got in the truck and started heading north because a blizzard was coming. Uh, and, uh, we, we made it mostly back up with any weather, but we hit the south side of Indianapolis and then it started, but quite honestly, um, I had thrown the snow tires

on the, uh, on the truck and we went 55 instead of 75 and we, we made it just fine. Good. It was, it was fine, but that was the like worst case scenario. It was going to be like, oh, you're two days before Christmas or whatever and you're going to get, I don't know, stranded and stuck in Indianapolis, which, which for depending on whether or not you like Indianapolis, man, I could go either way. However, you feel about being trapped there, but we, uh, came back.

Uh, this year we hosted at our house. Um, we, well, the plan was, this was the plan. Uh, Christmas Eve was going to be with my parents and we were going to go to church with them and all of that. My parents both got the flu. Oh, bummer. So had to cancel that. Uh, we just delayed that, uh, like a week, I guess about a little bit less than a week to get together with them. Then the next day, um, Christmas day had at our house, uh, Jackie's side of the family,

my wife's side of the family. So had kiddos from kiddos. I forgot to hit record, but that's all right. We get it. We'll get it off of the stream. Okay. Perfect. Again. Hey, welcome. Welcome back. Welcome back to season five. Oh yeah. So Christmas was Christmas day was, uh, Jackie's

family. Uh, I was hanging out with them. Um, so that meant Jackie's youngest sister, uh, Kate is, lives in state college, Pennsylvania, uh, where she coaches the Penn State women's rugby team and has recently come off of a trip in, uh, New Zealand, helping coach the women's U S team out there sweet. So that they were there for like three weeks. That was pretty incredible. So she came in from Pennsylvania. Uh, then let's see Tiff came in from Cleveland. Other sister came in

my brother in law, um, Jen and Preston came in from San Diego. Uh, so they get to see snow. So that was, they, that was fortunate for them and, and blistering cold. Um, so yeah. And then Jackie's parents were in our house. So everybody was there and it was a good time, really great Christmas. And, uh, everyone behaved themselves by everybody. I mean, my children specifically, that's always good to hear it all. That went well and just had a very, like a very full holiday

season, but really full of like family, like good stuff. Good deal. So good deal. Yeah. So Joel,

before we get started tonight, though, we are, we do have two sponsors for this particular episode. And the first one is going to be listeners like you. We really could not do this show without you guys. It, uh, it's something that we, we love doing, but we could not pay for all the, the, the stuff that happens for this show. We've gotten real fancy. I don't know if you've noticed this stuff doesn't pay for itself. Right. So we, no, we, so we do appreciate you guys. You helped

helped us a lot. And, um, so we want to say thank you to all of our patrons sponsors, all of the people who played PayPal, uh, given us PayPal donations this past year. And we would appreciate the more of those because we really like doing what we're doing. And for those of you that have tried to pay in Bitcoin, I mean, shame on you. Uh, we're, we're on to you. We're on to you.

You could do it too. Uh, but anyway, yeah. So if you head over to dudes and dads podcast.com slash support and that'll get you either to Patreon or PayPal, depending how you like to yeah, whatever your donate, your flavor of donation. And the cool thing about Patreon is you get extra stuff like bonus episodes and early releases and ad free episodes and all that good jazz and a, um, and, uh, autograph glossy five by seven.

You said that, but we've not sent you. No, no, we didn't. We haven't done that yet. No, not yet. I apologize. Joel, false advertising. You want to tell us about our second sponsor? Oh, I would love to. Hey, we're also, uh, supported by one of our partners, uh, at Formational Coaching Services. You can head over to formationalcoaching.com or look it up on the Facebook, Formational Coaching Services. Uh, by the way,

Formational Coaching, it's my side hustle, Andy. You've got your side hustle with all your, your, your podcast, all the podcasty things and all the technology stuff. And, uh, I just, I, you know, I said to myself, uh, I'm not that smart. So what am I gonna do? Stick with what you know, stick with what you know. Uh, so Formational Coaching Services. Yeah. You can head over there. Uh, that's, uh, let's just a side gig on top of the new gig that I have,

Andy, the new, right? Tell us about that because, oh yeah, I should probably mention. So, um, over the holiday season, I have a bad habit of starting new jobs during the Christmas, the Christmas holiday season, uh, which is always a little bit, it's just a weird time to start because people are like vacationing and whatever. So, but, uh, yeah, I am the, uh, I'm really, really glad to, uh, just say I am the new CEO of big brothers, big sisters,

Southern Lake Michigan region. Well, congratulations. Thank you. Excited for this coming year. Um, and, uh, we'll get a little bit into like, cause we're talking about some proof. Yo, wow. I told you we're getting fancy around here. Gally, Andy, production excellence. Yeah. Um, we're bringing on. So yeah, uh, new job. Um, and, uh, some doing that, uh, some coaching on the side for people that, uh, coaching and counseling for people that just, uh,

need a little bit of help or whatever. So just trying to keep on doing the things, uh, increase my leadership, get better at doing what I'm doing. And, um, but very excited about 2023. A lot of good things ahead, Andy. I think so. And, you know, uh, which I'm glad to say that because it has felt like, uh, just, you know, in recent, in recent times, we're talking a lot

of economic uncertainty, a lot of things, especially in our area. Um, you know, some definitely challenges for people, but, uh, I remain optimistic about what is ahead. As you should. All right. So speaking about the things that are ahead tonight, we are going to be talking a little bit about a look ahead at looking forward at 2023. Because we don't do New Year's resolutions, Andy. No, we do not do resolutions.

They're crap. They're absolute crap. Don't do them. So we don't do resolutions. So we're talking a little bit tonight about what we're looking forward to both, you know, all of personally, professionally, and also with our family. Yes. Yes. Um, Joel, do I get to go first? You go first. Thank you so much. So kind. Um, okay. So Andy, here's the deal. Um, I know many people can probably relate to this. Uh, COVID, the COVID years,

um, have they've not been good to my body at all. Me neither. So the, and this is like full, I know this is like full disclosure. So I am, I currently weigh the most I have ever weighed in my life. Me too. And it's really bugging me. It really bugging me. Um, and I was in a, I was like in a really good spot, like, like early, yeah, toward the end of 2019, beginning of 2020, I was exercising three times a week. Uh, like my, my eating patterns and things like that

were healthier. I was sleeping better, like the whole physical thing. I had a rhythm. It was all better. And then obviously my gym closed down when, when COVID hit. And because I lack the ability to like, like, I didn't have a plan beyond that, whatever it really, except me on the course, uh, was just not, was not getting the physical exercise that I need. Number one and number two, I think just my, uh, as so many of us probably did, got through those COVID years by eating our

feelings. So just, you know, like, uh, you know, just the comfort eating, whatever it is. And so I looked today, um, even recently had, uh, a doctor's appointment. Nope. Okay. I'm not going to tell you who my doctor is cause I don't want people to get the wrong idea, but so I go in and go in for my recent appointment and I'm like, I know what the scale is going to say, right? And I know

there's probably going to be a conversation about that, whatever. But so the nurse weighs me. Then I go to the waiting room to see my doctor, just for a standard checkup and, uh, to look at some lab, some blood noon, like review some blood work, right? Um, cause we're older now and apparently we get, we get blood work done. So, uh, so he comes in and he goes, Hey, he's like, uh, how you doing? I'm like, oh, pretty good. And he looks at it and when it opens my chart, opens my chart and

goes apparently a little too good. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I start, I go, I kind of chuckle and he goes, he goes, I, I just, I'm noticing your, I'm noticing your weight gain since the last, you're like me too, since the last, since the last time and me too. And with that, with the weight gain was also like my good cholesterol is not high enough. Oh, right. So you need to, so, and how do you deal with, with that to get that number up? Uh, apparently you, you, uh,

ingest, uh, 3000 daily milligrams of fish oil. That's one thing and you exercise. Cool. So you got to start exercising. So I got to get after it so that next time I see the doctor in six months, uh, and do my next labs and there as they're checking all of this, which it's like, this is how old we are, Andy. Like the word cholesterol is like, it means something that means something. We have to pay attention to it. Ironically, though, that's similar to my

actual one too. Uh, my looking forward to 2023 is I'd like to do a little more healthy eating. Like I catch myself like, Hey, let's go get some ice cream. It's nine o'clock at night. Oh, and, uh, or let's have, you know, crap for dinner. And so, and not for dinner, but like it's just after dinner. Eli, have you ever heard your father say, let's get crap for dinner?

I cannot say that I have. So that's what's actually going on in here. Now you know, that's what's going on in your dad's brain after the fact, but well, I mean, yeah, or maybe when I'm like, Oh yeah, your dad is sneaking out at night. Wow. Okay. Now you know. I think I've noticed that though. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so that's, that's mine to you. I'd like

to get, I'm, I'm like usual. I'm a little bit, I think I'm the heaviest that I've ever been. And so I would like to just get a little bit more on the healthy eating scale, but I'm not going to call a resolution. No, we don't do that because resolutions fail. This is why, like, I don't know if I've told the story on the favorite Christian author of mine, speaker, thinker, whatever, John A. Cuff. He has this bit where he goes, he goes, so, so I'm checking out the grocery store.

I'm checking out at the grocery store and I see he goes, I strike up a conversation with, you know, with the guy that's, you know, the clerk that's checking me out. And he goes, you know, and it's like, it's just after New Year's when he's having this conversation, he goes, I wonder, um, like on average, like, how long do you think people like keep their New Year's resolutions? Sure. And the clerk goes, Oh, that's easy until the first week of February.

And a cuff goes like wild like, man, it's like, that's awfully specific. Like you, like you knew, he's like, where do you get that from? He's like, that's easy. That's when people stop buying kale. And it's like, well, there might be, there's like something to that though. The whole idea with the New Year's, with the New Year's resolution is that there's just not the

structures or disciplines in place to actually like make effective change. Like great idea and I'll let you want to do it, but like changing something like this thing that you and I are talking about like a fundamental element of our health. Yeah. Like you're going to have to disrupt your life in a pretty significant way, do it on a regular basis and like retrain, retrain the behaviors we've been reinforcing in ourselves for the past two years or however long.

All right. So hold on. As we're talking here, Clark says, he's a new to the community. Y'all look so much different than I expected, not in a bad way though. And then like crying emoji. So I love it. Clark, thank you. Love it. So thanks. Thanks for joining in. Yeah, we look. Oh, Clark, that's, you know what? That's the kind of honest dialogue that we're looking for. We love it. We love it. Yeah. So thanks. Thanks for bringing that on. Joel.

That's so great. Hit me with your second one. Okay. Number two. This would be the professional right? Yeah. This is the professional one. So like I said, I'm the CEO for the region. It's three counties in the lower southwest portion of Michigan and then upper northwest Indiana for big brothers, big sisters, big brothers, big sisters everywhere. Yeah. It's a national

organization. I love what they do. They hook kids up with adult mentors to, yeah, to absolutely, many of the kids are at risk kids and like can greatly affect the trajectory of their life. Like really, really good, powerful stuff. It's very simple and straightforward in that way. So professionally though, like following the COVID years, you know, like fundraising events and things like that, they couldn't do them as, as normal. And so that has the organization is not

functioning as, as it once did to the, to the level. We're not, we're not meeting the need that is there, which the need is considerable. So I just, I want to like make sure more kids have mentors and I want to make sure that we have the funds and the support to do that. So like that's professionally what I'm going to go after partnering with a community that is otherwise

very, very generous and is behind those sort of things. So like, I just want to see, yeah, like it is my job like to secure those kind of things in those relationships and get donors and get mentors. But ultimately, I want to see more kids just looking forward to a really promising future. So that's, that's the goal for this. We're, as we're kind of like out of like, like we can start having like the big events again, and we can do all that stuff for like

fundraising and things like that. I'm just really, really hopeful and excited for this year. Yeah, absolutely. That's it. Great. So my professional goal, I guess you could say, as I would like to not only continue to learn more at my, my day job, but also to kind of develop, develop more on the side hustle, if you will, the podcasting side hustle and economy. Right. And then, you know, be producing content and helping people do that too. So if you want to learn how

to podcast, hit me up. But I like the tutorial. If you can call it a tutorial, the, the, the webinars that you've been doing. So if you, if you've not caught it, I decided to join a challenge this year over Christmas. It was called Vlogmas, which is basically like 21 or 21, all of 31, actually, days of December and going live. So I went live every day in December. And I kind of did that because, you know, I'm great at doing this. Like we can have conversations just fine.

Yep. But for me, I, doing it solo is really hard. And so it's a whole different animal. Yeah. And so I decided, I'm going to try that. I'm going to go live every day in December. And I'm going to talk about something I know. So I talked about podcasting and it was, it was a lot of fun. And I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about being able to just present myself and my thoughts.

Yeah. You know, it was solo and it was, it was great. So, which is a, I think that's a whole thing on for, for any of us, just for professional development in general, to be able to, like, I had this experience recently, like Andy, if you saw that video that I had to record for big brothers, big sisters, just to like introduce myself and, and all of that. The feeling of standing, like this is one thing what you're doing when you stand in front of a

camera, right? And you have a teleprompter in front of you. And you're, and you're really trying to be like, you're talking about something that you're familiar with and you're passionate about, but like it's not a dialogue, right? Oh yeah. It's completely different. You know, it's, it is completely different. So I get that, like to develop that skills important. And I would say, I just want, I was, I haven't had a chance to say, I applaud you for the work that you have

done. Thanks. Good stuff. I actually, you know, I was going to actually, since Eli, my son, Eli, is actually here. I wanted to ask him personally, what is your goal for 2023? Yes, Eli, let's have a goal more of just what I'm looking forward to. Okay. The next legend of Zelda comes out in May. I love it. Now that you've said that, I know I'm going to hear from my boys now too. They're like, Oh, Zelda. I look, by the way, Andy, that's, that's also how old we're getting that.

Zelda is the thing, man, because that was awesome. That was the thing in our day. It was. Wow. Wow. All right. So that brings us to family. Joel, tell me about your family and what you plan professionally and so first of all, I'm really, really excited about. So I have this and we're going to be able to pick this back up with the younger kids. I think I'm pretty sure I've talked about this in the previous show a while ago.

The goal is with each one of my kids, when they turn 10, is to do like a little small trip with them, which that would have been Erin and Josiah so far and then COVID hit and ruined all of our plans. And I tried to like redo that and it just, it just did not work. But Matthew will be 10 this, this June. And so he'll, yeah, that's, he's up next. But Erin, as we've discussed, just turned 13 in November. And so Erin and I

have a trip planned for the beginning of March. We're going to go to Arizona together. Nice. And we're going to do what we both love to do and that's watch spring training baseball games. And we're going to do some hiking while we're up there. And we're going to have some very intentional meaningful conversations about what Erin, some, just some goal setting that he wants to do for

his life. And kind of, I think also having the discussion about, and we've been kind of leading up to this, like now that he is a teenager, like there are more responsibilities and expectations. There's also greater freedoms, but really this kind of transition into manhood and him kind of taking ownership of that. And then I think that my goal would be this summer that he would have, we would, you know, us guys, as we, as we have another situations get together, but really

have some sort of like kind of official ceremony with him. Yeah, that'd be great. You know, and so that's, that's one goal for him specifically. And then this kind of keeps on going with all the kids moving forward. That is, that is the goal. And I think the other, the other one is, is to make some significant investments in my marriage specifically, the one investment that, and this has been something, and I don't know, I've really thought about this, like why I have drug my feet

or just not been proactive in it. But I think one of the investments in my marriage that's like a pretty big deal is just us, like us trying to be better about setting a budget that we're agreeing to just for on the financial front, like being, having more conversation about our financial plans and things like that. And I'm just trying to like follow through on that. And I think also, I really think there's, well, I mean, obviously, I know there's value in this and it's not something

that we've done. Getting some sort of older mentor couple, I think that could, I think that, yeah, that could definitely, yeah, like come alongside, come alongside of us. Now, and I would say one thing we've been really, really blessed with is, you know, you, like you and Julie, Matt and Courtney, Brian and Kim, like we have three other couples that are like,

we're the, we're the young, we're the young ones of all that. But having other couples that are at various stages in their marriages, you know, a little bit, you know, they've been married a little bit longer than us a little bit further on. But I think, yeah, I think there's having, having another couple that maybe doesn't, I don't know, like doesn't know us so much as they just can like sit down with us kind of as a blank slate and kind of speak into our marriage and

things like that. That's my, that's my goal to summit to some extent. So Well, before I get into mine, Clark did actually respond back and he said, I just wanted to share that he's starting, he just started listening from the beginning of the podcast. Who does that? He's only 17. Oh, and, but preparing for the future to see what a Christian dude and a dad looks like. Nice. Clark, hey, welcome man. Yeah. And I felt, I feel like there's like a disclaimer. The show has come a long way.

Yeah. And, and so anybody that's starting off in our original seasons, I feel like you, you're dedicated. You're so dedicated and hopefully very gracious as we've built the show. But thank you. That's awesome. So for me, family, I would say spend more quality time with my family, be intentional, and also put the phone down and do things with them. So I find myself a lot lately, especially in the evening. It's like, my older three kids have phones. My wife has a phone. I

have a phone. We're just like after the youngest goes to bed, it's we're sitting there and it's like, no, I want to do something different. Like let's play a game. Let's get outside. Well, maybe not right now because it's cold. But yeah, you know, let's do things as opposed to, you know, be intentional. Maybe, you know, I have before put the phone down in my room and just leave it there for the night. And I really like doing that. It's kind of freeing,

like not having to have the phone on you at all times. And so that's what I'd say where I would like to invest in my family. Yeah. Yeah, I think so Aaron just got an Aaron just got a phone. And there's a few reasons. Number one, the phone was free because Jackie was getting upgraded to hers. So he got free. It was the iPhone 12. So free. And then we're, which just goes back to an old episode. So we're running a canopy on all the devices and all of that. We're figuring that out.

But really, we had the talk, the phone talk with Aaron. The reason we've been getting him a phone is because Aaron is now in winter percussion with the high school. And I almost left him there with no one else there the other night. And this, well, here's what the situation would be. And this kind of was like, okay, we see the legitimacy of this. He, the seventh, so he thinks he's supposed to, it's a regular night, whatever, unbeknownst to him,

it had been canceled. He had either not, the email had not been sent to the seventh graders, that he is a part of the percussion group, whatever. But I drop him off as normal. Now, what I usually do when I drop him off, and this is a, this is a two, three, this is three hours, a three hour rehearsal. Okay. So I drop him off like I normally do at six o'clock in the evening. And normally what I do, and thank goodness I did it this time too, is I usually just hang out for a few minutes,

like while I'm there in the parking lot, check my email, whatever. But I drop him off and I'm waiting. And all of a sudden, like, and then I start, I'm pulling away, like after I've been waiting, pulling away. And all of a sudden I see, I see Aaron on a dead spread across the parking lot, clearly a little bit distraught. And he's like, he's like, there's no one here. They must have, they must have canceled because I looked everywhere and like,

nobody's here, whatever. Now, here's what would have happened. There was essentially nobody there at the high school. They don't have like pay phones or anything. Everything's closed. Everything's closed down. He doesn't know anybody else there. He would have been there for three hours apart from like deciding to walk several miles home. And by those reasons, it's cool. Right. And it was kind of like a, oh, now we're entering into situations where

if he would have had a phone, they would have just addressed the issue right away. And so that's, that's how we ended up getting him one. But now I hear you loud and clear where it's like, we have to do something about that. Yeah. Yeah. And how we're going to model, model for him, be proactive, model for him. He's been real great about it because we had the whole talk of like, this is our phone that you get to use. And we can look at it whenever you want.

100%. All those, all those things, all the things that we have talked about in here, we, I was really like actually really proud of Jackie and I like going, honestly, I was like, we like set the boundary early, follow through, have a system in place. He understands what's expected of him. And I've been really proud of him has been following through on that. Like, you know, as far as where the phone can go, can't go, how it's to be used.

You're no fly zones in the house. Exactly. All of that stuff. Yeah. So yeah. So that's been, that's been good. But now it's like, okay, how are we, how are we modeling our, our phone use with him and all of that? So yeah, I'm, I'm with you. I hear you. All right. So I'm going to put Eli on the spot again. Eli, family goals. Any family goals this year? Not really. I haven't thought of anything. Oh, Eli, here's the chance, man. Put your phone

down. Here's the chance down. Love your, love your siblings more. Serve them more. Serve your siblings more. Show kindness to them more. How about that? Add a boy. See, there we go. You're welcome. You're welcome. Layman kids. I just brokered that deal for you. Good deal. Good deal. So Joel, anything else that you want to put out for this 2023?

Yeah. You know, I know, yeah, we kind of went through our, you know, family, personal and, and professional things, but what else, what else can we be looking forward to? What else are you looking forward to this year? Well, here's the thing. For this show, Andy,

I want to reach more people. I want to encourage more people. I want to have more dudes and dads have a sense of community and, and know that there are people in their corner, people like you and I and others in their corner to see them live a good full life and life of purpose and meaning. That's what we're about. Like it, and we've been so fortunate. And this gift is, this podcast is really a gift to us because we get to hear a lot of really cool and encouraging stories when we,

when we have interviews and we have our discussions. So I just, I just want to, I want to do more good in the world, Andy and extend the community. And I think we've got all the things necessary to do that. So. All right. So my wife, Julie's on and she says, Eli, Disney, Disney, Eli, that's what you have for family for this year. Believe forgot. Oh boy. No. How do you, how do you forget about Disney? Gosh, it's the most magical place on earth. We are going this year. So exciting.

Yeah. We're looking forward to it. Yeah. It, I really, previously I was real poo poo on the whole Disney thing, but I will say, I will say now I've just done Disney, I've done Disneyland and did a Disney cruise and both were amazing and magical and even the adults enjoy it. So I'm looking forward

to it. It's going to be good, man. Absolutely. It's going to be good. Yeah. So I go back and, and kind of say, you know, retouch, I'd say on what you kind of said there, Joel, you know, for this podcast, I'm looking forward to just meeting more people, you know, over the last four episodes, four episodes, four seasons. There we go. Over the last four seasons, we've had a lot of really cool, amazing guests on people that we knew, people that I didn't know, people that you knew

that, you know, and it's just been fun to get to know those people. I have so many more people on my Facebook now that I didn't know one before we started this, but I'm now friends with. Yeah. And so I'm looking forward to that for this season to, but also just, I mean, yeah, just having a building the community better, you know, I know Clark had in, on this show here in the comments,

it said, you know, he's new to the community. And that's one of the things I wanted to push this year is so good is more of the community, more of us hanging out, people hanging out and just kind of getting to know people and just kind of challenging and encouraging people to be better men and be better dudes. Cause I think that's, and dads, cause that's where, you know, that's where we're all about. And I think that I want to help people do that this year.

Yeah. I think there, maybe another goal, cause we've been talking about this is some live, is some live recordings, live, live broadcast, actual live, but like on location and do some things. I think that could be a good time. And just, we're just trying to ask the question, like how can we actually, how can we invest in our local community here with, with what, with what we do? So yeah, I think there's, there's so many things that we could, we can tap into

and continue to build. So we're excited dudes and dads listeners. Again, we say it. Thank you for all the stuff that you do, all the ways that you invest in us, the feedback, all of that. You can always, as always get in touch with us, Andy, the website. Oh yes. The website is new. So one of the things that I did over the winter break with all the time that you had just twiddling your thumbs. Right. Uh, was, uh, update our website. So if you go to dudesanddadspodcast.com,

it looks completely different. It looks different. And we've, and we're gonna, we got a little bit of, a little bit of editing work to do on it, but it's, it's classy as, as always. Uh, Andy just hit it out of the park, hit it out of the park. Um, um, but yeah, we're, uh, we're gonna, we're looking to freshen up, uh, freshen up some several things, uh, working on some new branding, gotta get that, gotta get that taken care of.

And also, uh, you know, maybe some new merch too. Maybe, uh, maybe that five by seven glossy. We'll, we'll really, we'll really come through on that. But, uh, yeah, friends, uh, thanks for tuning in. Um, as always, you can shoot us an email over at dudesanddadspodcast at

gmail.com dudesanddadspodcast.com on the website, as we said, Instagram, follow us over on Instagram. Yeah. Would you follow us? Would you like, uh, if you haven't subscribed to wherever it is, you get your podcast, subscribe to us, follow us, uh, give us a good rating too. Like, so it can help people find it, right? That's how that works. Sure. That's what they say. Anyways, plug into the algorithm people. I don't know.

Um, but hey, uh, guys, it's gonna be exciting 2023. We hope you will join us for the ride. Thanks for hanging out. And until next time, wish you grace and peace.