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Showing Up Where Your Kids Are

Inside this issue

• Why Preparation Matters at Home
• The Voice You’re Leaving Behind
• Time to Sprint: Pick One Door and Open It
• What’s one small, repeatable moment your kids can count on from you this week?
• Connect with Brad
• Check Out This Week’s Episode
• The Last Laugh: Playground Design Edition
• But before we get to all that, here’s what’s been on my mind…

On My Mind

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Kids don’t remember your calendar. They remember how it felt to be with you.

That idea stayed with me after this week’s conversation with Brad Leeman. Brad is a retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel, combat aviator, F-35 test pilot, and the founder of SwingSesh. He spent years leading in environments where preparation and execution weren’t optional, and now he applies those same principles at home.

What stood out wasn’t his background. It was how clearly he thinks about fatherhood.

At one point, Brad said, “Kids want to be wherever you are.” Not where you’re supposed to be. Not where you wish you were. Where you actually are.

That idea runs through everything he practices as a dad. Presence isn’t a mindset. It’s a choice you make over and over again, often in small, ordinary moments.

This conversation isn’t about doing more. It’s about showing up where it counts.

Lead With Preparation, Not Perfection

Why it Matters

At work, preparation earns trust. At home, it creates safety.

Brad learned early in the Marines that leadership wasn’t about intent. “It’s not about what you could have done or should have done,” he said. “It’s about what you did.”

That lesson carries into family life. Kids don’t need flawless dads. They need dependable ones.

Why it Works

Preparation removes decision fatigue.

When your kids know when you’ll be there: breakfast, after school, evenings outside, they don’t have to guess. And neither do you.

How to Do It

• Decide when you will show up
• Treat that window like a commitment, not a suggestion
• Protect it from work creep and distractions

Pro Tip

Consistency beats intensity. Ten minutes, stacked daily, becomes something your kids can trust.

Audit the Voice You’re Leaving Behind

Why it Matters

Your kids are listening long after the moment passes. Brad talked about how parents build their children’s inner monologue every day. Not just through instruction, but through reactions. Especially under stress.

Why it Works

Awareness creates restraint. When you notice your default language, particularly when things are hard or inconvenient, you get the chance to interrupt patterns before they stick.

How to Do It

• Notice what you say when plans change or things feel uncomfortable
• Pay attention to how you talk about effort and limits
• Replace commentary with action when possible

Brad shared a simple rule in his house. Avoid saying “can’t” unless it’s truly final. Not because struggle isn’t real, but because possibility matters.

Pro Tip

If you wouldn’t want your kids repeating it to themselves later in life, don’t repeat it out loud now.

Time to Sprint: Pick One Door and Open It

Why it Matters

Vague goals don’t create movement. Named goals do.

You can’t shrink a goal you haven’t chosen.

Why it Works

Motion follows specificity. Brad’s approach isn’t about forcing motivation. It’s about finding the smallest action that turns hesitation into movement.

How to Do It

First, choose one area to focus on this week.

• Presence: spending intentional time with your kids
• Health: moving your body
• Work: making progress on one meaningful task

Then pair it with the smallest possible action in that same area.

• Sit at the table with your kids
• Put on your shoes
• Open the document or send the first message

Once that door is open, decide whether to keep going.

Pro Tip

Your sprint isn’t about finishing. It’s about starting in a way that makes the next step easier.

Your Move

What’s one small, repeatable moment your kids can count on from you this week? Hit reply and let me know. I read every response.

Connect with Brad

Brad Leeman is a retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel, combat aviator, and F-35 test pilot who now applies elite performance thinking to family life.

He’s the founder of SwingSesh, a company built on the belief that parents shouldn’t sit on the sidelines while their kids play. Brad shares real, unfiltered looks at fitness, family, and presence, not highlight reels or perfection.

You can follow him at @TeamSwingSesh on Instagram or learn more at SwingSesh.com.

On the Show This Week

Continue the Conversation

This week’s Gap to Gig episode explores what leadership looks like when the stakes are personal.

Brad Leeman shares how preparation, presence, and play show up in everyday family life, and why small, repeatable moments often matter more than big gestures.

If you’ve felt the pull between ambition and availability, this conversation will resonate.

Check it Out

🎧 Brad Leeman on Leading at Home Through Presence, Play, and Preparation

​Watch on YouTube​

​Listen on your favorite podcast platform​

The Last Laugh

How they design playgrounds. Probably.

ownit.dad

I swear these are the conversations they have when designing and building parks! “It’s unsafe, but it’s bright and colourful so I’m sure it will be fine” #parentinghumor #dadlife #parenting

♬ original sound - ownit.dad

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