3 Tiny Habits That Make You an Elite Dad (Even If You’re a Crazy Busy Entrepreneur)

What’s the point of building an empire if you can’t be present at the dinner table?

Apr 22, 2025

You’re stealing from your kids.

Profits might put food on the table. But your empty seat is bankrupting them. The quiet conversations that shape their future. The dad jokes they don’t get to roll their eyes at. The accidental fart that nobody wants to take accountability for.

You’re missing their lives.

If you don’t build a system that protects your role as a father, your business might win—
but you’ll lose your family.

Here are 3 habits every successful dadpreneur must master to protect what matters most.

1. If it’s not on the calendar, it doesn’t happen

“Sorry, sweetheart. I’m busy right now.”

How many times have those words come out of your mouth this week? Be honest.

Your calendar is a fortress. You couldn’t function as an entrepreneur without it. You already time-block your day like a Navy SEAL—strategic planning, team calls, investor meetings. But your kids are completely missing.

That sends a message, to you and to them:

Everything else matters more.

Start treating time with your kids like your biggest client call—mission critical.

This isn’t about hours. It’s about intention.

Twenty minutes per day of non-negotiable dad-time is an investment in your most important client relationship. Your kids. Do this and they won’t have to wonder if you love them.

Because you’ll be there to show them.

Action Step: Block out a recurring time in your calendar for non-negotiable dad-time. Just 20 minutes per day. Name it like a strategy session. Make it real.

2. If you don’t shut down, you won’t show up

You love your office more than your kids.

What else are they supposed to think? You devote more time to a glowing laptop screen than your tiny humans. Every question they ask gets the same reply:

“Daddy’s working.”

The message they’re hearing: Daddy’s somewhere else.

You don’t need to work less, just switch off better.

A shutdown ritual closes the loop. It means your kids don’t have to compete with your work. It opens the door to real connection.

Here’s the one I built with my client Devon. Steal it. Tweak it. Make it yours:

Celebrate meaningful wins
Write down 1-3 focus areas for the next day
Silence your phone
Set autoreply on your email
Physically shut the laptop

Devon worried it would cost him deals.

Instead, it made him sharper, more focused, and more present. He started closing better deals. And reconnected with the client who mattered most.

His daughter.

Action Step: Create your own 5-step shutdown ritual. Make it repeatable. Make it sacred.

3. Rituals are the real legacy

If Obama could make it home for dinner, so can you.

Unless there was a national emergency, Barack Obama insisted on being at the dinner table with his girls by 6.30pm.

“I could be in a meeting with a four-star general, and I’d say, ‘I’ve got to go home for dinner.’”

Not even being the leader of the free world outranked his daughters. Be like Obama. Be the dad that’s always there for dinner.

Create rituals that anchor your presence in their lives.

Sunday pancakes.
Friday night movie.
Takeaway Thursdays.

These aren’t just nice moments. They’re links in the chain that connects you to your kids. They give everyone something to look forward to—including you.

And these rituals aren’t a barrier to your success.

They are the reason you can sustain it.

Action step: Embed a new weekly ritual—something simple, repeatable, and fun. Put it in your calendar, name it, and treat it like a board meeting with your favorite people.

**If you want to work with me as a coach, please click the link here.**

You already have the skills…

Now point them at the people who matter.

You don’t need a parenting manual. You’ve built a business from the ground up. You already know how to:

- Plan with precision

- Stick to productive habits

- Build systems for success

Now aim that at your family.

I’m building an email course to help ambitious dads build simple, repeatable habits that make you feel less overwhelmed, more alive, and deeply connected to your family. You built a system for work. I’ll help you build one for home.

Join the waitlist.

You juggle multiple projects without dropping the ball.

Your kids deserve to be one of them.