Durable Dad with Tommy Geary - podcast cover

Durable Dad with Tommy Geary

The Durable Dad podcast gives men the skills and tools they need to be rock solid for their family, their work and their community.

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Episodes

099: Productivity is an Inner Game

Feeling behind leads to reactive days, scattered focus, and that constant low-level stress that won’t let up. This episode breaks down a real-world strategy to reset that cycle and get back in control. Inside, you’ll hear how one executive went from spiraling through stress to calmly attacking his day—by shifting his mindset and using a simple 4-step planning process. This isn’t about hustle or hacks. It’s about getting grounded, clear, and intentional when life is full. What you’ll learn: How y...

Jun 24, 202515 min

098: Positivity Isn’t Helping Your Marriage

Most high-performing men pride themselves on staying calm, staying positive, and getting through hard stuff fast. But when your wife is upset, that instinct to cheer her up or look on the bright side is doing more harm than good. In this episode, we talk about why emotional reflexes—though well-intended—can actually push your partner away. We’ll cover: Why men shut down or push past emotions—and how that breaks connection How the habit of fixing or reframing keeps you from being present What emo...

Jun 10, 202515 min

097: Doing the Hard Thing

Lots of guys are wired to push—at work, in training, and for your family. But the real challenge isn’t pushing harder… it’s knowing when to pause. In this episode, we unpack what it actually means to do the hard thing as a high-performing man. It’s not just finishing a Spartan race. It’s staying calm with your kids. It’s being present at a family event you’d rather skip. It’s learning how to quiet the part of you that always wants to go. Highlights: Why the “grind” mindset stops working at home ...

May 27, 202514 min

096: A Tool to Prioritize Your Day

The real reason most high-achieving men feel behind: they’re busy, but not productive. In this episode, we share how to use the Eisenhower Matrix to stop the overwhelm and start making real progress—in business, relationships, and training. This quick mindset and strategy shift will help you get clear on what actually matters. Highlights: Why “busy” doesn’t mean productive Four types of tasks and how to categorize them The easiest way to clean up your to-do list Where real growth happens (hint: ...

May 14, 202516 min

095: 5 Things a Kid Should See Their Dad Do

Our kids are watching. In this ep we cover five essential things our kids should witness their dad doing. Apologize and admit you're wrong. Let them catch you reading instead of scrolling on your phone. Speak kindly about people. Don't gossip or talk low of someone behind their back. (Or to their face.) Respect your wife – Don't talk condescendingly to her or about her. Ask for help. To learn about upcoming outdoor adventure trips with Tommy, go to tommygcoaching.com and join the email list for ...

Apr 29, 202520 min

094: 3G Model – Control Your Response When Your Wife is Stressed

Ever been ready to relax after a long day at work, but your wife is stressed and so there’s tension in the house for everyone? It’s tempting to tell her to calm down. Chill out. Explain that mud on the carpet isn’t a big deal. But usually this ends up in a full-blown argument. In today's episode, you'll dive into the 3G Model to help you respond in a way that actually strengthens your relationship. Here's what you'll learn: 1️⃣ Grrrr Mode – You snap back when she snaps at you. Not pretty. 2️⃣ Gu...

Apr 15, 202517 min

093: How to Think Ahead for Your Wife

Have you ever asked your wife, "What can I do to help?" during chaos in the home? There's a good chance the question increased her stress level rather than reduced it. Our wife needs us to think, not just do. When men don't absorb some of the mental load that comes with leading a family, resentment builds up. Today's episode will leave you with two main actions that'll help remove pressure from your wife's plate: 1. Step into the CEO role so you can be strategic and proactive. 2. Initiate the "F...

Apr 01, 202526 min

092: The Key to Stop Overanalyzing – Make Peace With Your Past Decisions

We all have past decisions that make us cringe. Things we'd do differently the second time around, given the chance. But if we don't make peace with those decisions, they'll cause us to procrastinate and overanalyze our decisions today. They'll make a dent in our confidence and lead us to subconsciously question ourselves when we have a big decision on our plate. You'll leave this ep with three steps that'll help you make peace with your past decisions so you can be a confident decision-maker to...

Mar 18, 202516 min

091: Cabin Fever No More: A Dad's Guide to Winter Survival

Short days, long nights, viruses, and temps in the teens. A lot of guys are feeling weighed down or trapped at this stage in winter. It's an I-gotta-get-out-of-here feeling and it doesn't jive well with our spouse and kids. Today's episode will leave you with four actionable takeaways that'll zap the cabin fever feeling: 1. Put on the proper gear and get outdoors. 2. Declutter or tackle a project. 3. Change your language because your language defines your experience in the world. 4. Work with yo...

Mar 04, 202513 min

90: A System to Set You Up for Your Wife's Birthday

At some point, in the next 365 days, your wife will have a birthday. And for men, this day can weigh on us. What will you get her? What will you do together? How will you make it a great day for her? Thoughtful decisions to be made that we don't have time for. Today's episode will take the pressure off so the birthday planning doesn't wear you down and your wife knows you care. You'll walk away with 3 new strategies that make birthdays seamless: - Keep an ongoing gifts list. - Use your calendar ...

Feb 04, 202515 min

089: Top 4 Strategies to Navigate Career Change

Why would a successful man shift careers? Maybe you want more freedom, flexibility, autonomy. Maybe you want to feel like you're making a difference – that what you're doing matters. Or maybe it's all of the above. Whatever your motivation, you're not alone in wanting to make career changes despite having reached certain milestones in your life. When men feel the nudge, 4 main excuses tend to stop guys in their tracks until retirement: 1. Time. 2. Financial success. 3. Their wife may not be on b...

Jan 21, 202521 min

088: What You Want is Already In You

We’re ready to hit new goals in 2025. The journey we're embarking on is an inward journey. Not so much a pursuit as it is an uncovering. Shedding some of our programing, habits and lines of thinking, in order to uncover a truer version of you. Personal growth is a process of peeling back protective layers. In this episode we dive into • Exploring how goal setting can help reveal our inner selves • Emphasizing the difference between discovery and pursuit in personal growth • Identifying common fe...

Jan 07, 202514 min

087: Don't Discount the Small Talk

Small talk can be draining – surface-level conversations that leave you bored or tired. But this episode will give you a new and valuable take on small talk. Because if we’re only living for the big events, we’re missing out on 98% of life. The same goes with interactions with people. Those small, seemingly meaningless conversations are actually the glue that holds us together. This goes for our immediate family as well as strangers and aquaintances. The small stuff happens to be the building bl...

Dec 24, 202411 min

086: 3 Stoic Principles to Navigate Family Tension

This week, we cover three Stoic practices to navigate family tension and not let it get in the way of enjoying the holidays. You will: - Plan for potential difficulties so you’re not blindsided. - Reframe challenges as opportunities. - Accept people for who they are and love them anyway. Listen so you can relieve tension and soak in the holidays with your fam. Stop Losing Your Temper Road Map This roadmap will teach you how to have more patience. To give your kids more time and attention. Anger ...

Dec 10, 202414 min

085: It's All About Your 1:1 Time

I send a weekly reflection form to my guys the day before each session – just four quick questions so they can get some insight on what's working, what's not, and what to change. And I've noticed a pattern. Looking back at all the answers, a lot of guys celebrate one-on-one time. Individual time with their wife. With their kid. With their dad or anyone they care about. That one-on-one time tends to stand out as a highlight, and something they want more of. This podcast talks about why one-on-one...

Dec 03, 202414 min

084: 3 Easy Tactics to Get Off Your Phone

How’s your phone usage? One guy I was working with knew he was on it too much at bedtime and that it was interfering with his sleep. We pulled three principles from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits and honed in on: 1. Habit stacking 2. Environment support 3. Identity shift Whether you’re trying use your phone less, go for a run more consistently, or drink less alcohol, this episode will help you create a plan that you can stick to. You’ll also avoid the obstacles that are easiest to overlook so...

Nov 12, 202416 min

083: Finding Balance in Stressful Moments

Why do we overreact? Even when we know better. We know it’s gonna piss someone off or upset the person in front of us, but our mouth takes a mind of it’s own and say the thing anyway. The truth is, our brains have evolved to overestimate danger, loss, or rejection. We’re a lot safer and more loved than our brain lets on. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk breaks the brain down into three parts: The cook - takes in all the ingredients and cooks up a narrative. The smoke detector - decides very quickly if th...

Oct 29, 202412 min

082: How to Get Out of a Rut

We don't want to make decisions from a rut. And by rut, I mean anxious, bummed out, down – When things feel stagnant or even in a downward spiral. Here are three steps to get out a rut so you can make better decisions: Step 1: What's the worst-case scenario? Let your brain run. Speak it out loud. Write it down. What's your brain worried might happen? Step 2: What's the best-case scenario? Let your brain dream. It would be incredible if... Step 3: What's the most likely scenario? This is where yo...

Oct 15, 202414 min

081: Is Your Life Harder than it Needs to be?

Are you making things more difficult for yourself? Whether life feels pretty normal, or if you’re going through a rough patch, here’s an equation that’ll make things easier for you: Suffering = Pain x Resistance In other words, the more you resist the hard, the more you suffer. Conversely, the more you embrace the “suck,” the easier things will flow for you. Listen to today’s episode to learn exactly how to open up to the pain and stop making life harder than it needs to be. Stop Losing Your Tem...

Oct 01, 202413 min

080: How to Stay in the Driver’s Seat

We all have a default mode of operating – Our general disposition. Maybe it’s intense go-go mode, or more of a slow, steady, calm mode. The important thing to remember is that we get to control our mode. It’s not hardwired. You’re in the driver seat and your hand is on the gear shifter. Being self-led means shifting down or up for the appropriate situations. 4th gear isn’t helpful while parenting or during an argument. 1st gear isn’t helpful when it’s time to work out or close a deal. And someti...

Sep 17, 202413 min

079: How to Stop Nagging Your Kids

I was talking to a buddy the other day about his son’s cleanliness (or lack of), and he said something that I think every dad can relate to. He said he just wants his kids to be decent humans. When our kids go off into the world, we wanna know that we’ve raised a decent person. And this desire can lead us to correct our kids at every opportunity. If we let something slide, we’re not doing our job as a dad to guide them. But actually the opposite is true. The more we nag our kids, the less impact...

Sep 10, 202414 min

078: Get Ahead of the Blow-Up

When we snap, it seems to happen suddenly. Like it's the last straw, and there's no stopping the volcano eruption. But there are ways to stop it. Today's episode will do a quick review of the thinking cycle – the triad of the only aspects you can control in your life: your thoughts, emotions, and actions. This thinking cycle is the key element in getting in front of the blow-ups and choosing a better way to communicate when you're mad. This is how we slow down time and see the world as Neo saw i...

Sep 03, 202414 min

077: Unwind with a Net Positive Impact

Can watching Netflix or scrolling through social media really help you unwind? Today's episode will look at common strategies men use to unplug at the end of the day, and you'll walk away with better options. Imagine you're an archer, and you have a quiver of arrows on your back. Each of these arrows is a strategy to unplug for a moment. Some of these arrows leave you with a net negative impact (aka less energy), and some leave you with a net positive impact (aka more energy. The struggle is, mo...

Aug 27, 202416 min

076: Gain the Courage to Screw Up

Are you screwing up enough? We’ve seen all the memes about “failing forward” and “using failure as a stepping stone.” But STILL, subconsciously, we let the fear of failure hold us back. That fear is hardwired into us, and until we put ourselves out there and fail over and over, that fear will lock us down. Because deep down, we believe failure is a problem. But failure is not the problem. What we make failure mean is where we’ll find our problem. Today’s episode gives three real life examples of...

Aug 20, 202413 min

075: Influence vs Control

While we can’t control other people, we CAN influence them. In fact, we’re influencing others at all times, whether we want to or not – Especially our kids. Our influence happens because of a function in our brain called neuroception. Neuroception is constantly reading the room – assessing the people and surroundings to evaluate: safe? Or not safe? Neuroception takes in another person’s body language, tone of voice, eye movement, every micro-expression. And it all happens subconsciously, without...

Aug 13, 202412 min

074: Empower Your Team

We have impact (not control) over our employees. And as their leader, THE most IMPACTFUL thing we can do, is clean up our thoughts about them – especially if it’s an employee that can get under our skin. Here’s why: When we’re mildly annoyed by an employee, they feel it. Humans can tell if they’re wanted in the room, or not. And if they’re not wanted, they aren’t able to open up to their best, most authentic self. And they’re not set up to do their best, most inspired work. The way to fix this i...

Aug 06, 202412 min

073: Dismantle Your Playbooks

A playbook is a set of expectations we have for another person. If you were the coach of a football team, you’d have a set of playbooks, and you’d expect your team members to play the game accordingly. We do the same thing in life with ordinary people, except they rarely play according to our expectations. And that’s why our kids’ can be friggen frustrating. Or our wife, employees, or parents… The helpful thing to do is to take a look at your playbooks. For example, if you’re holding a playbook ...

Jul 30, 202415 min

072: Master the Worry Matrix

Men have a list of things to worry about. Take your pick: - Are you saving enough money? - Will your kids turn out okay? - Will your kids have fond memories of you? - Are you failing in your career? If you really pay attention and listen to the voice in your head, it’s probably worrying. A lot. Yet, worrying is the most useless action we can take. Today’s episode will teach you how to use the worry matrix – a series of three questions that’ll snap you out of worry and into action. Stop Losing Yo...

Jul 23, 202414 min

071: Control your Anger like a Stoic

School probably taught you how to read and write, but skipped over how to handle bad news, failure, or disappointment. This is where stoicism comes in. Stoicism teaches us how to handle the difficult things in life. One of THE hardest skills to develop is to focus on what’s in our control rather than what’s out of our control. It’s a core principle of stoicism, and discerning and focussing on what you control will free you of the bulk of your difficulties. Listen to today’s episode for stoic ins...

Jul 16, 202418 min

070: Confront your Exhaustion

One dad told me, “I wake up at 4:57 each morning, put on my pants, and go nonstop until 9pm when I watch 30 minutes of Netflix and crash. Then I wake up and do it again.” And I think 99% of dads can relate. The list of todos is exhausting. At least some days. That feeling’s not going to go away unless we make a few changes. The first is to take ownership of our situation. There is no “have to,” or “I got dragged into it.” We’re there by choice. The second is to learn why we say yes to too many t...

Jul 09, 202413 min
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