Matt Campbell had it all figured out. High school sweetheart. Division one baseball player. Business Development Director at a growing company. Father of two. And then his two-and-a-half-year-old son looked up at him and said: "Dad, can you put your phone away?" That stung. In this episode Matt — BDD at Advertise Purple and co-creator of the Dadgood community — gets honest about what it took to finally put the phone down, why he left his California life behind to raise his family in the Midwest, and what a restructuring at work almost cost him at home. No highlight reels. Just a working dad telling the truth.
Three things you'll learn:
What we cover:
00:00 — Introduction
Matt Campbell, Business Development Director at Advertise Purple, co-creator of Dadgood, husband, and father of two
00:00 — Finding out he was going to be a dad
The honeymoon. The surprise. The pressure of providing that hit before the baby even arrived.
00:00 — The first three months
Taking shifts. High anxiety. And the moment life finally started to feel normal again around month six
00:00 — From one kid to two
Why going from one to two took a full six to twelve months to find a rhythm — and why two years in he's finally hitting his stride
00:00 — The 5:30 to 7:30 rule
Phones away. TV off. Fully present. How Matt built the habit and why it took four years to actually get there
00:00 — The wake up call
When his two-and-a-half-year-old asked him to put his phone away — and the look from his wife that followed
00:00 — Staying organized with ADHD
The paper notebook. The daily priority list. Why if it's not written down it doesn't get done
00:00 — High school sweethearts
Meeting at seventeen. Going to the same college. Growing up together. And why communication was the thing they had to unlearn and rebuild
00:00 — Moving from California to the Midwest
Leaving his best friends behind. Building community from scratch. And what it did for his mental health to finally let new people in
00:00 — The Dadgood community
Why Matt helped build a space for dads to show up authentically — and what winning at home actually means
00:00 — Letting go of relationships that don't serve you
The groomsmen he doesn't talk to anymore. The bar invites that stopped coming. And why thirty hit different
About Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell is the Business Development Director at Advertise Purple, co-creator of the Dadgood community, Division One baseball alum, husband to his high school sweetheart, and father of a four-and-a-half-year-old son and two-year-old daughter. He lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
About Working Dads
Working Dads is the podcast for fathers figuring out work, family, and everything in between. Every week host Johnathan Grzybowski sits down with working dads — founders, executives, investors, and everyday fathers — for honest conversations about the guilt, the grind, the marriage, the money, and what it actually takes to build a career and a family without dropping the ball on either.
No gurus. No highlight reels. Just real talk.
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