Work-Life Balance is a Myth | Jonathan Jamil (Dad of 2, Springboard)

[00:00:00] Jonathan Jamil: there literally is no such thing as balance.
[00:00:02] Jonathan Jamil: It's just being the best that you can be every single day. Your team will understand your boss will understand your kids will understand. It's just whenever you're with your kids, be present.
[00:00:11] Adam Fishman: Welcome to Startup Dad, the podcast where we dive deep in the lives of dads who are also leaders in the world of startups and business. I'm your host, Adam Fishman. In today's episode, I'm joined by Jonathan Jamil. He's the founder and CEO of Springboard, a company that provides fractional customer service teams and is powered by stay at home moms.
[00:00:35] Adam Fishman: He's a husband and the father of two daughters. We talked about why work-life balance doesn't exist despite so much talk about it. His philosophy that nice guys don't finish last, and how growing up in a two bedroom apartment with six family members helped him redefine what success means as an entrepreneur and a dad.
[00:00:55] Adam Fishman: We also had an in-depth discussion about how you can break generational patterns with intentional love. Lots of hugging and some family vacations. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to Startup Dad on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple. Welcome, Jonathan
[00:01:13] Jonathan Jamil: Jamil to Startup Dad,
[00:01:15] Jonathan Jamil: Jonathan,
[00:01:16] Jonathan Jamil: such a pleasure having you here with me today. Thanks so much for joining. Likewise, Adam. Thanks so much for even asking me to be a gas man. I will tell you, I've been asked so many times to be on podcasts, and this was the first one where I'm like, you know what?
[00:01:30] Jonathan Jamil: I need to be on this. Okay. Well, a lot of people tell me it is. Most fun they've ever had
[00:01:35] Adam Fishman: of Las Vegas. So here, here we
[00:01:37] Adam Fishman: are.
[00:01:38] Jonathan Jamil: that's awesome.
[00:01:40] Adam Fishman: I wanted to start by asking you about life, your life growing up. because I think,
[00:01:45] Adam Fishman: this is gonna provide a lot of context for this discussion. I think it's helped you develop some of your perspectives on,
[00:01:51] Adam Fishman: on
[00:01:51] Adam Fishman: life.
[00:01:51] Adam Fishman: So.
[00:01:52] Adam Fishman: you
[00:01:52] Adam Fishman: grew up without a whole lot.
[00:01:55] Jonathan Jamil: tell me about lifeguard.
[00:01:57] Jonathan Jamil: For sure, man. So long story short, my parents escaped the Civil War in Lebanon. It was probably the mid eighties, I would say. They, my dad, fortunately, was a Canadian citizen as well. Brought my mom over, came to Canada and. It just was hard for them to adjust.
[00:02:15] Jonathan Jamil: English was obviously tough for them to learn. Getting a job when you're an immigrant is not always the easiest, and so my parents did what they could. my mom ended up being a Costco sample lady. That's where she first started, and my dad was a gas station clerk and then a grocery clerk and stuff like that.
[00:02:33] Jonathan Jamil: But for them it was just. Wanting to put food on the table. it was never about like, ambition and growing from there. we needed to just be able to provide. So when I say like the basics, my parents literally gave us the basics. We're a family of six, in a two bedroom apartment. But again, when you grow up and you quickly realize like, what's happening, it.
[00:02:53] Jonathan Jamil: It could either go one way or the other. You either get this fire that just never burns inside of you or you just kind of follow that path and you're just like, ah, whatever I can get, I can get. And so for me, I was fortunate to where, you know, it took me the other way and, and I just have this desire to just keep growing and stuff.
[00:03:10] Adam Fishman: Yeah. And you
[00:03:11] Adam Fishman: Lived in that two bedroom apartment. With six total people.
[00:03:15] Jonathan Jamil: Correct.
[00:03:15] Jonathan Jamil: Um, for
[00:03:16] Jonathan Jamil: like 13 years or so. Yeah.
[00:03:18] Adam Fishman: and
[00:03:19] Jonathan Jamil: then,
[00:03:19] Jonathan Jamil: so you shared a bed with one of your siblings? All my siblings. So all your siblings? Yep. So I have an older brother and two younger sisters, and we shared a bed for a long time and.
[00:03:29] Jonathan Jamil: After 13 years, my, my mom obviously grew in her position. She ended up working at, uh, Toronto Pearson Airport. We grew up in Canada. And, she was able to save enough to where she was able to buy her first home. They're still there today, but now it's just, you know, my parents and, and my brother's still there.
[00:03:46] Jonathan Jamil: He's just more of like a caretaker. Now my dad's obviously, we can obviously talk about it, but my dad's been handicapped since I was 18 years old.
[00:03:54] Adam Fishman: Wow. Okay.
[00:03:55] Adam Fishman: Obviously you've done quite a bit, you
[00:03:58] Adam Fishman: have a business that you run now Which is quite literally powered by stay at home parents.
[00:04:04] Adam Fishman: which I find fascinating. And that's primarily moms. You know, dads, dads can be stay at stay-at-home parents
[00:04:09] Adam Fishman: too. But in your case, it's mostly moms. So tell me about the company that you founded.
[00:04:13] Jonathan Jamil: this completely happened organically. It wasn't like intentional to be powered by stay at home moms. What happened was the pandemic had started, I had a marketing company previously.
[00:04:23] Jonathan Jamil: We were just helping brands grow on Instagram and Facebook and stuff, and a random request came in and was like, Hey, can you guys help me with my inbox? It's just not something I can do. So we took it on just completely like not thinking anything about it, but. More requests started coming in and I was just like, man, I have something here.
[00:04:40] Jonathan Jamil: So moved on from the marketing company. Spun off Springboard in October of 2020 and we just started growing naturally. Like we niched down. We were, I was very hell bent on just being in the consumer space. So CPG, industry, beauty, apparel, food and beverage. just 'cause it seemed like it was a really fun industry to be in.
[00:04:59] Jonathan Jamil: I was working with brands prior to Springboard in that space. and one thing just led to another. We hired a mom and she was a part of a mommy network and all of a sudden. She just started sharing our job posting. So when I literally say we've never posted a job or an opportunity on Indeed or LinkedIn or whatever, we've never done it because our team is just so amazing.
[00:05:23] Jonathan Jamil: They just, every time we, we have an opportunity, they just go to work. And one day we went to the drawing board and we were like, holy smokes. We have so many moms on our team, and. We were talking to a brand at the time and they were based out of Toronto. We have a lot of moms in Canada, and he was like, do you want to know why we signed up?
[00:05:41] Jonathan Jamil: And I was like, why? And he said, because we get to actually like make a difference. These moms that work for our account are in literally in our backyard. They're in Toronto. And your website doesn't talk about that. Like why? And for me, I'm the type of person where I'm just like. I don't ever want people to feel like I'm taking advantage of them or I'm trying to manipulate something.
[00:06:03] Jonathan Jamil: it just was never on the site. But more brands were just demanding it. They're like, that's your story. That's your thing. And you need to tell people that. And I mean, here we are.
[00:06:13] Adam Fishman: That's amazing. And of course, you and I met because we both have
[00:06:17] Adam Fishman: EAs who work
[00:06:19] Adam Fishman: For another company that
[00:06:21] Adam Fishman: is powered by stay at home.
[00:06:23] Adam Fishman: parents. and it's, um, squared away. Which is,
[00:06:26] Adam Fishman: military
[00:06:26] Adam Fishman: parents. It's all
[00:06:27] Adam Fishman: all about military spouses,who can't normally hold down a regular nine to five because they're moving all the time. They like
[00:06:35] Adam Fishman: moving from base to Base and things like that.
[00:06:37] Adam Fishman: So I
[00:06:37] Adam Fishman: think that's pretty fascinating and like that is the reason that I signed up for that service.
[00:06:41] Adam Fishman:
[00:06:41] Jonathan Jamil: I, love Squared away. Michelle She's the co-founder of Squared Away, And she was someone that I looked up to, like I feel like I found them back in 2022. I followed her on social media. I connected with her on LinkedIn and I just loved what she was building.
[00:06:55] Jonathan Jamil: And I always tell people like, if, God willing Springboard is to ever. Get acquired or merge with anybody. I'd want it to be with Squared Away, just 'cause
[00:07:05] Jonathan Jamil: I just feel like their missions it's so identical to what we do here and so I'm just putting it out there. But shout out to, to, to Caitlyn and, and Michelle.
[00:07:15] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah.
[00:07:15] Jonathan Jamil: Awesome.
[00:07:16] Jonathan Jamil: And Maggie too. Who is Maggie too? Sorry. Maggie two.
[00:07:20] Jonathan Jamil: so let's talk about your, uh, co-founder and life.
[00:07:23] Adam Fishman: uh,
[00:07:24] Adam Fishman: Your wife, Stephanie? she's a stay-at-home mom.
[00:07:26] Adam Fishman: does she do, uh, work at Springboard or does
[00:07:30] Adam Fishman: she have her hands full with the six and 3-year-old?
[00:07:31] Jonathan Jamil: she does. So, so she recently became a stay at home mom, uh, literally in June.
[00:07:37] Jonathan Jamil: it's. The promise that I made her from the, from the get go, she, you know, invested in me. She allowed me to take money from our savings account. She allowed me to build the business the way that I needed to in order to get to the point. And obviously, fast forward for almost five years later, she was able to quit her job.
[00:07:55] Jonathan Jamil: She does help me with a lot of the backend stuff. It's easy because she's my wife, She loves it because she loves the people that are here and some of the brands that we work with now, she's a customer of, of those brands. So for her it's like, it's more of a, connection 'cause it's like, Hey, I'm a customer so I, I wanna work with these brands, I wanna help them out and stuff.
[00:08:15] Jonathan Jamil: So yeah, she is super mom and she's super wife 'cause she does help us on the backend for sure.
[00:08:21] Jonathan Jamil: Oh, awesome. And then you also have a 6-year-old? Yes.
[00:08:25] Jonathan Jamil: So you've been building this company
[00:08:27] Jonathan Jamil: since,
[00:08:28] Jonathan Jamil: You know, your oldest, your oldest daughter was
[00:08:31] Jonathan Jamil: like
[00:08:31] Jonathan Jamil: a year. Yep. Even a little less.
[00:08:33] Adam Fishman: what has that been like,
[00:08:35] Adam Fishman: to
[00:08:35] Adam Fishman: build a company and have your kids sort of grow up?
[00:08:38] Adam Fishman: watching you do that
[00:08:40] Jonathan Jamil: my oldest is Chantal She was a year. And honestly, man, it, it sucks in the beginning because I was a new dad. She was a year old, and you always see those videos and, and you always want to be that dad that's like.
[00:08:55] Jonathan Jamil: Picture perfect, like you're always present and stuff, but Springboard just took so much of my attention I'll say that part sucked because I, I wanted to just be with her all the time, but she was my, she was the reason why I got up every morning. So it was like, I just wanna give her the life that obviously I didn't get to have my parents tried their best.
[00:09:14] Jonathan Jamil: but as a dad, I was like, I, I don't ever want my kids to feel what I felt growing up. I don't want them to see what I saw growing up and, and stuff like that. So for me it was like they were my why I didn't get to be the perfect dad. Sometimes I'm not the perfect CEO, but it's been awesome.
[00:09:29] Jonathan Jamil: I get to take them on vacation now. I get to spend a lot more time with them, and they see that, you know, daddy's on a call, don't come into the office. Daddy's, you know, doing something. you know, I'm seeing it in, at school. So my daughter is very ambitious. She's very, she loves trying new things.
[00:09:43] Jonathan Jamil: She's not scared. And I think that's probably what she saw in me is that I, no matter what type of day I was having. she saw me just plugging away. And I think that's probably the best thing that I've seen yet is, is she's fearless.
[00:09:56] Jonathan Jamil: Wow. Okay.
[00:09:57] Jonathan Jamil: the most
[00:09:58] Jonathan Jamil: popular
[00:09:59] Jonathan Jamil: episode of Startup Dad that I've ever recorded,
[00:10:01] Jonathan Jamil: a guy named Siski Chen.
[00:10:03] Jonathan Jamil: and the title of that episode
[00:10:05] Jonathan Jamil: called Work Life Balance is Overrated. and I think this is really interesting because you share a very similar. And some would say these days, like a somewhat contrarian opinion
[00:10:15] Adam Fishman: on this, Uh, which is that there's no such thing as work-life balance.
[00:10:19] Adam Fishman: tell me about that.
[00:10:21] Jonathan Jamil: that's the thing, man. Like I, I started the business, I was a new dad,my wife and I had only been married for not even three years at the time.
[00:10:29] Jonathan Jamil: And I was always searching for balance. Like, okay, I'm gonna work nine to five and then I'm gonna be a dad early mornings and after 5:00 PM
[00:10:36] Jonathan Jamil: That just never, it never existed. It never happened because I was working 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM or sometimes on weekends and it would actually eat at me. 'cause I'm like, no, like there has to be a balance. This, this exists. People talk about it. And you know, after so many years of building. I've realized that
[00:10:55] Jonathan Jamil: There's no such thing as balance. It's just managing the day to day. Like today, I have, you know, this podcast and my kids know that I'm not gonna be available for the next X amount of time, but that shouldn't take a toll on me. And it used to 'cause I was like, no, I, I gotta find that middle ground.
[00:11:11] Jonathan Jamil: And for me, I always just tell people like, on Monday you might be the best, CEO, the best boss, the best employee, whatever that might be. But on Tuesday you might be the best mom or you might be the best dad. there literally is no such thing as balance.
[00:11:23] Jonathan Jamil: It's just being the best that you can be every single day. Your team will understand your, your boss will understand your kids will understand. It's just whenever you're with your kids. Be present, in that moment. Don't look at your phone, don't think about work. And I'm still learning. I've been at this since I was 18 years old.
[00:11:40] Jonathan Jamil: not Springboard, but like this entrepreneurship journey. But, it's just being mindful of what you're doing at the time. So, and right now I'm recording a podcast. That's all I'm thinking about. And then maybe at once this podcast is done, I'll go play with my kids outside and, and just be more present in that moment.
[00:11:55] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah.
[00:11:56] Jonathan Jamil: no,
[00:11:56] Adam Fishman: I think that's a really good point. It, it's like, you know,
[00:11:58] Jonathan Jamil: Nothing's ever perfectly balanced. It's like a seesaw, right? Yep. Maybe leaning into being a dad and then you lean into being a CEO. And
[00:12:06] Jonathan Jamil: I
[00:12:06] Jonathan Jamil: once had a conversation, not even on this podcast, well before this podcast, with a pretty successful
[00:12:11] Jonathan Jamil: CEO who
[00:12:11] Jonathan Jamil: had three kids, and I asked him I was just starting
[00:12:15] Jonathan Jamil: becoming
[00:12:15] Jonathan Jamil: a dad myself.
[00:12:16] Jonathan Jamil: I'm like, how do you do it? How do you be a CEO and a founder? And he's like, ah. I do it, I'm about 80% good at being a CEO. Yep.
[00:12:23] Jonathan Jamil: I'm
[00:12:23] Jonathan Jamil: about 80% good at being a dad. And like those tend to fluctuate Exactly.
[00:12:27] Adam Fishman: it goes Up to a hundred and down to 60 or, like whatever,
[00:12:30] Jonathan Jamil: it's literally that every single day.
[00:12:32] Jonathan Jamil: I actually posted about it on LinkedIn the other day that it's, you're only best at one thing every single day. So again, you might be the best dad, you might be the best husband on Wednesday and whatever that case may be.
[00:12:42] Adam Fishman: Yeah.
[00:12:43] Jonathan Jamil: Now, you told me you spent some time.
[00:12:45] Adam Fishman: in your
[00:12:46] Jonathan Jamil: life really redefining what success looks like as a dad For sure.
[00:12:49] Jonathan Jamil: Success owner is
[00:12:50] Adam Fishman: part of that? definition of success
[00:12:52] Jonathan Jamil: Absolutely. Like, you know, fortunately for me growing up, one of my cousins became very successful at a young age It was the nice cars and the nice houses and all that stuff. And he had a similar upbringing to me.
[00:13:07] Jonathan Jamil: And he actually dropped out at 15 and just went to work. And for me, that used to define success, like being able to have the nice cars and the nice houses and stuff. And then when I became a dad and I was growing Springboard, for me it was like, it's not even about that anymore. It's just about living in comfort.
[00:13:27] Jonathan Jamil: Never struggling for something, or never, never being hungry for something. that's what success is, is like if you can get up every morning, there's food in your fridge, you slept on a bed with the roof over your head, your family's healthy, most importantly, you know, and everything else is a cherry on top.
[00:13:42] Adam Fishman: Oh, I
[00:13:43] Adam Fishman: Love that. what
[00:13:44] Adam Fishman: are some of the more surprising things?
[00:13:46] Adam Fishman: that you've discovered as a dad?
[00:13:49] Jonathan Jamil: The second child is always the toughest. That's probably been the, the most surprising. 'cause my 6-year-old, she was an angel. I always call her an enigma because everybody around us that had kids, they're crying, they're, they're complaining.
[00:14:04] Jonathan Jamil: They're this, they're that. My 6-year-old, she was sleeping through the night. She barely cried. She ate. She did everything and we're like, oh my God, this is so easy. Let's go for the second. And then my second year old came. She was colic, she was a terror. And even till now, she's super needy. But, I always thought like your kids would turn out the same.
[00:14:24] Jonathan Jamil: It's easy to manage. another surprising thing is that, like if you don't have a village around you, it actually makes parenting very, very hard, especially if you're working. so being around family was something that. I probably took for granted. 'cause I was like, no, like
[00:14:40] Jonathan Jamil: I'm an entrepreneur alone. I'm doing this alone. Like, and stuff like that. But when you have like your in-laws and your, your sister-in-laws and your brother and your parents around you, it makes having kids a lot easier. 'cause there's days where you're just, you just wanna rip your hair outta your head and you're like, man, I just, I need a break.
[00:14:58] Jonathan Jamil: And you know, fortunately for us, we're able to just. You know, have those breaks. So
[00:15:03] Jonathan Jamil: that's the one thing that, that probably surprised me the most was that you actually can't do it alone.
[00:15:07] Adam Fishman: Yeah.
[00:15:08] Jonathan Jamil: Have you?
[00:15:09] Adam Fishman: lived in some proximity to family or extended family or
[00:15:13] Jonathan Jamil: Yep. Yeah.
[00:15:14] Jonathan Jamil: So, obviously I, I grew up in Toronto, stayed in my parents' house up until I got married. I got married at 26. and my wife was from Buffalo, New York, and so I moved here. But she has a massive family, like, I think she has like 51st cousins here.
[00:15:30] Jonathan Jamil: and her parents are here, her siblings are here.
[00:15:32] Jonathan Jamil: Everyone's here. So it's like, you're just surrounded by this massive community, which is awesome.
[00:15:37] Adam Fishman: So
[00:15:38] Jonathan Jamil: if you could rewind the clock to the time right before you had your,
[00:15:43] Adam Fishman: oldest daughter,
[00:15:44] Jonathan Jamil: So, you know, maybe six months be
[00:15:47] Jonathan Jamil: You
[00:15:47] Jonathan Jamil: know, you're getting probably
[00:15:49] Jonathan Jamil: pummeled
[00:15:49] Jonathan Jamil: with advice, right? Yep. You've got all this family, she's got family like advice coming in, left and right.
[00:15:55] Jonathan Jamil: So let's say you bump into younger, uh, Jonathan, after kind of what you know now Yeah. With a six and a 3-year-old, like what advice would you give the younger version of
[00:16:04] Adam Fishman: right before you're about to have a kid?
[00:16:06] Jonathan Jamil: just having a lot more patience probably. a lot of the times you expect things to happen very quickly, even as, as a dad.
[00:16:14] Jonathan Jamil: You have your moments where you're like, oh, she's, she's crying, she's having a fit. I can't wait till she's older, where this kind of stops. I think just telling myself like, it's all gonna work out. It's gonna be fine. Be more present. You know, these moments are never gonna happen again.
[00:16:29] Jonathan Jamil: Just have more patience and take it for what it is. If she's screaming her head off, just, you know, just go with it. I think my younger self, I, I was always. Hungry for speed, if that makes sense. Where I just wanted things to happen a lot faster my daughter is six now going into the first grade and I just look at her and I'm just, you know, sometimes I wish we could just go back to those days.
[00:16:52] Adam Fishman: Yeah.
[00:16:53] Jonathan Jamil: What,
[00:16:53] Jonathan Jamil: would you tell yourself maybe to any advice that you got where you're like, ah, I'm just gonna throw that right at honestly. Advice that I would probably ignore is that the wife is responsible for 80% of the child upbringing.obviously growing up in like more of like a Middle Eastern traditional family.
[00:17:13] Jonathan Jamil: You see your mom is the one that's the caretaker. She's. One that cooks and cleans and takes care of the kids and the man is like, you know, supposed to provide, I think that advice where people think it's still like that. I ignored that from the get go because, you know, growing up with a handicap father, we had to step up and like.
[00:17:31] Jonathan Jamil: Help my mom with chores and stuff like that. So, I was always helpful to my wife and I, I never allowed her to take on the entire workload, so I was as present as I could be. I helped with the chores around the house. If I saw her having a bad day, I stepped up when I could. and she knows everything is 50 50.
[00:17:48] Jonathan Jamil: So if she comes to me and she's like, Hey, I'm at a 30. I know I have to be at 70 in order to, to make up for that. So that's definitely advice I, I would ignore is that it's not just the mom's job. Dads plays such a big role, obviously sometimes dads are a lot busier in some scenarios. and not most scenarios obviously, but, dads are important.
[00:18:08] Adam Fishman: Yeah,
[00:18:09] Jonathan Jamil: That's why I have this podcast. Exactly,
[00:18:11] Jonathan Jamil: so
[00:18:11] Adam Fishman: speaking of your wife, you have this belief that you should never stop dating or pursuing. your wife. I've
[00:18:17] Adam Fishman: heard a few people talk about this
[00:18:19] Adam Fishman: just in general. So where did you learn that and what does that mean for you?
[00:18:23] Jonathan Jamil: man, funny enough, I learned it on Instagram. it wasn't like something that someone taught me or told me. again, growing up in, in more of like a Middle Eastern affection was, was never really a thing,
[00:18:37] Jonathan Jamil: especially between my parents. It was more like, hi, hi, bye bye. Do you need anything?
[00:18:42] Jonathan Jamil: That type of stuff. But for me, I, I grew up affectionate. Like if you ask my siblings and, and my mom, I was always the one hugging and kissing everybody I learned it on Instagram. Obviously, you, you always want to be the best version of yourself, whether it's a husband, a person, a, a human, a dad, whatever it is.
[00:18:59] Jonathan Jamil: And I saw like an Instagram video and it was like, never stop pursuing your wife. And, we had our first daughter at the time and, and it happens. It, it happens to so many people where you neglect each other. It's okay. But I think making up like flowers on her birthday, flowers on her on Valentine's Day, having those date nights is so important.
[00:19:21] Jonathan Jamil: Taking vacation at least twice a year, whether it's with her or with your entire family. I mean, my wife and I take vacations with our kids all the time, it was such an important thing to learn because I think a lot of. Husband and wife or spouses in general, they, they tend to neglect each other because they think it's better for the kids.
[00:19:40] Jonathan Jamil: But I think when the kids grow up and they see mom and dad loving each other and going out on dates and holding hands, and I think the kids, I don't know, I just feel like they tend to do better because they're like, Hey man, my parents really love each other. You kind of set the tone of like, Hey, this is what love looks like.
[00:19:57] Jonathan Jamil: you know, I hope to God that my daughters, when they grow up, they're like. I want a guy like dad because dad, you know, whatever mom needed, he was there. He loves her so much and stuff. So, I feel like that is, is such an important thing.
[00:20:11] Adam Fishman: Oh,
[00:20:12] Jonathan Jamil: awesome.
[00:20:13] Jonathan Jamil: Thank you, man. So, I, I wanted to stick on that vacation topic.
[00:20:16] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah. This is something that you mentioned to
[00:20:17] Adam Fishman: to me.
[00:20:18] Adam Fishman: We acknowledge work-life balance doesn't really exist. However,
[00:20:22] Adam Fishman: you
[00:20:22] Adam Fishman: believe pretty strongly that it's important to take vacation? and Take time off
[00:20:26] Adam Fishman: throughout the year. So You mentioned two, but like what's your ideal number and why do you find it so important?
[00:20:32] Adam Fishman: to just like Take a beat
[00:20:34] Adam Fishman: and take that vacation time?
[00:20:35] Jonathan Jamil: for sure. So I'll kind of give a little history on that, Adam. So. Well, my wife and I got married. My, one of my aunts, her marriage advice was take at least two vacations a year. Now, as a newlywed, it doesn't really make sense 'cause you're like, oh, I mean, I can go vacation every month. You don't really understand,
[00:20:54] Jonathan Jamil: but.
[00:20:54] Jonathan Jamil: When we had kids and I started the business, people don't believe me, but I was working like 15, 16 hours a day, eight to 10 hours on weekends,
[00:21:03] Jonathan Jamil: like I was literally killing myself. I hit burnout so many times. I can't even count. And one day my wife was like, you just can't do this to yourself anymore.
[00:21:12] Jonathan Jamil: You, you need to stop. And even if it means cutting your hours. So I ended up slashing my hours till like four or five on weekends, and I went down to like 10 to 12 hours on weekdays. But I took a vacation. I took my wife and my daughters on a two week vacation. and I just came back recharged. I came back a brand new person, and that specific vacation taught me.
[00:21:36] Jonathan Jamil: if you don't recharge, you have nothing to give the ideal number. For me, I probably need like 10 vacations a year based on, how much energy and effort I exert on a daily basis. But I think if you can go on two vacations a year, once every six months, it just does the mind, body, and soul so much.
[00:21:55] Jonathan Jamil: I mean, I just came back from vacation two weeks ago and. You're just a whole new person. if you have a job that takes a lot of energy from you, plus you're a parent or you're a business owner, or whatever the case may be, if you're not giving yourself that time to recharge, you are going to hit that wall.
[00:22:09] Jonathan Jamil: And sometimes people never recover from that.
[00:22:12] Adam Fishman: Yeah,
[00:22:13] Jonathan Jamil: what
[00:22:13] Jonathan Jamil: are your, like top one or two vacations that you've.
[00:22:16] Adam Fishman: on as a family?
[00:22:17] Jonathan Jamil: So we just went to Cape May, New Jersey. We, we did that for a week and we stayed like right on the beach and it was just absolutely amazing. We've been to a bunch of like beach towns, ocean city Rehoboth in Delaware, and we were kind of expecting like the same vibe, same thing, but.
[00:22:34] Jonathan Jamil: Cape May blew our expectations. Like out of the water. The people were amazing. The food was incredible. not something that's common in beach towns, but I'm a big Disney guy. We went to Disney World, uh, end of April, and we were like hooked. We like wanna go again like soon or next year, but it's a lot of walking.
[00:22:54] Jonathan Jamil: if you can take your family to Disney World even once in your lifetime. It just does something like 7-year-old, Jonathan was like so giddy. He was just like, on cloud nine, you get to Yeah. You know, there's people like wearing the Mickey suit and all that stuff, but it just, it struck a chord and I can understand why people literally say Disney's like the most magical place in the world just because of that.
[00:23:16] Adam Fishman: I'm, personally terrified of going to Disney. as a, as a family because. It just sounds like I've read people's like report of how they organized their trip.
[00:23:25] Adam Fishman: and I'm like, man, that sounds
[00:23:27] Adam Fishman: Exhausting. but I
[00:23:28] Adam Fishman: think my kids are old enough where like
[00:23:30] Adam Fishman: we
[00:23:30] Adam Fishman: would be just fine. But yeah, I've always had this like, mental block against going to Disney because of how much work? It
[00:23:36] Jonathan Jamil: like, Adam, I'm telling you, we worked with a travel agent. you gotta do it man. I, you're going to hear the horror stories, but when I say I don't have a single complaint, like our trip. Went perfect.nothing's perfect. And that's what I was expecting. Like, something's gonna go wrong, something's gonna go wrong, nothing went wrong, absolutely nothing.
[00:23:55] Jonathan Jamil: And so I tell people like, you're gonna hear the horror stories all the time, but take it from me. we had the most perfect trip. I, I tell everybody. Okay, well I'm gonna have to add it to the list. There you go. we talk about
[00:24:07] Adam Fishman: a lot on this show. and You have, what
[00:24:09] Adam Fishman: I would say is a very simple
[00:24:11] Adam Fishman: and straightforward framework for being a dad.
[00:24:14] Adam Fishman: it's rooted in just like a couple of, of pillars. uh, and that is show up, listen,
[00:24:21] Adam Fishman: and tell them you love them, any chance you can. How did you figure that out? Is that another Instagram inspiration or just like natural to
[00:24:30] Adam Fishman: Jonathan?
[00:24:31] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah, so the affection part is naturally me. I, I feel it's not to like toot my own horn, but A lot of people, if you talk to them about me, they'll probably tell you that I'm the nicest guy they've ever talked to. And then that's not, that's not by accident. I always grew up wanting to be someone's friend. 'cause I, I was going through a lot and, I had amazing people around me. I just wanted to be that guy for a lot of people.
[00:24:57] Jonathan Jamil: So a lot of my friends would call me and vent and cry. till this day I have a lot of people that call me and they're like, Hey Johnny, like this is what's going on, or this is happening. Like, people just looking for me to calm them down and that's just naturally been me.
[00:25:10] Jonathan Jamil: I've, I've been that way since day one. And, I'm like that with my kids. you know, being a parent, just being a person in general. I, I think if there was more kindness in this world, there'd be a lot less issues.
[00:25:22] Adam Fishman: Yeah. All right. So
[00:25:23] Jonathan Jamil: Show up, listen and tell them you love them as often as you can.
[00:25:26] Jonathan Jamil: the love part is the most important part because, again, I always go back to the, my upbringing.
[00:25:32] Jonathan Jamil: I love my parents to death, but affection just doesn't really exist in some, a lot of immigrant homes and stuff. every second I see my kids, I, I grab them, I squeeze them, I kiss them, I love you, whatever. My own sisters. My sister is like 33 years old. I still just grab her and squeeze her every time I see her and just kiss her and just, you know, God forbid if something happened to me today.
[00:25:55] Jonathan Jamil: I don't ever want anybody to question whether Johnny loved them or not. So that's kind of, that's how I always think.
[00:26:01] Jonathan Jamil: I'd say. It sounds like you're a big hugger and then you went there and, and, uh,
[00:26:05] Jonathan Jamil: Yep. Big one. Okay, so I wanna change the, change the channel for a second.
[00:26:11] Jonathan Jamil: this is a really.
[00:26:12] Jonathan Jamil: funny
[00:26:12] Jonathan Jamil: story that you have,
[00:26:14] Jonathan Jamil: maybe not funny, I dunno. you had a run in with the law when your, your youngest daughter was a baby. Yep. a
[00:26:21] Jonathan Jamil: colicy baby.
[00:26:22] Jonathan Jamil: tell,
[00:26:22] Jonathan Jamil: me this story. Yeah, so obviously my daughter's colic. My wife was actually postpartum as well. So we were dealing with that and Chantelle was a toddler.
[00:26:32] Jonathan Jamil: Obviously toddlers. When a new sibling comes into the household, they don't know how to react. So Chantel, we were kind of surprised that she was very jealous. She was. Seeking attention. She was lashing out and stuff. And when you have a colic baby, people know this. they cry nonstop and they barely sleep.
[00:26:50] Jonathan Jamil: So my second daughter, Cece, she would cry literally for six days in a row. Like she, she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't nap, she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't eat nothing.
[00:27:00] Jonathan Jamil: And so my wife and I are just running on fumes. We're we're running on coffee. and so I drove to the coffee shop. And I was literally on, I think I was on like 30 minutes of sleep.
[00:27:11] Jonathan Jamil: I had like six shots of espresso at the time needed more. So I was driving back and I didn't realize I was going like 15 or 20 over the limit. And I got pulled over. And you know, luckily for me, I just told the cop what happened. Like, He kind of let me off, but I was like, wow, can things really get this worse?
[00:27:30] Jonathan Jamil: Like, I have this, you know, colic baby and I'm worried about my wife and I'm just trying to fuel up just so I can make it till 9:00 PM and yeah, got pulled over.
[00:27:40] Adam Fishman: Oh wow.
[00:27:41] Jonathan Jamil: what was the police officer's first reaction to that?
[00:27:43] Adam Fishman: they like, oh, I'm so sorry.
[00:27:44] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah, he is like, he is like, oh.
[00:27:47] Jonathan Jamil: I totally understand what you're going through, man. He was like, listen, just please be more mindful of how fast you're driving just, you know, go and have a good day, I guess. And then that was it. So I was like, luckily for me, I was like, I got out of that ticket. 'cause I already know 15 to 20 over is,
[00:28:04] Jonathan Jamil: it's pretty up there.
[00:28:05] Jonathan Jamil: He
[00:28:06] Jonathan Jamil: probably looked at you with, uh, like bloodshot eyes. Exactly. Pajamas. And he's just like, what is this guy on? I told my wife. I was like, if it wasn't for the bags under my eyes, I think I would've got that ticket.
[00:28:17] Adam Fishman: All
[00:28:18] Adam Fishman: right.
[00:28:19] Jonathan Jamil: Well, I'm glad that you survived your, your
[00:28:20] Adam Fishman: in with the law. with the, uh, With the newborn. You'll probably tell that story at her wedding at
[00:28:25] Jonathan Jamil: some point. I'm going to, I'm definitely going to save that one
[00:28:28] Jonathan Jamil: so
[00:28:29] Jonathan Jamil: you talked about this a bit, but I, you know, I, I hear also
[00:28:32] Jonathan Jamil: on the show a ton, that partnership with
[00:28:34] Adam Fishman: important when you have
[00:28:35] Jonathan Jamil: kids. you know, you and your wife kind of had this
[00:28:39] Adam Fishman: for her to, be a full-time mom and, and
[00:28:41] Adam Fishman: that
[00:28:42] Adam Fishman: was a big decision and discussion, and something you had to come.
[00:28:45] Adam Fishman: into agreement on. But
[00:28:46] Adam Fishman: I'm
[00:28:47] Adam Fishman: curious,
[00:28:47] Adam Fishman: I love to ask people this, where, where's an area that you and Stephanie don't
[00:28:52] Adam Fishman: agree on when it comes to,
[00:28:54] Adam Fishman: when it comes to parenting?
[00:28:56] Jonathan Jamil: Honestly, it's probably the screen time and I would say probably like. Sugar intake, listen, like when I say sugar, we're not feeding our kids like bags of Skittle every day, bags of Skittles every day.
[00:29:09] Jonathan Jamil: But
[00:29:10] Jonathan Jamil: it's like, obviously their kids, like if they eat their breakfast or whatever, but my wife is just a gentle soul that she just can't say no. For me, it's like, I look at my daughter, I'm like, another snack, like, damn. And my wife's just like, leave them alone, Johnny. They're just a kid, like, you know, blah, blah, blah.
[00:29:30] Jonathan Jamil: And the screen time is another one. 'cause obviously you wanna entertain your kids as much as you can. For me, I, I always grew up like riding my bike and playing outside and stuff like that. My daughter does do that. She's very artistic, so she loves coloring and drawing and all that stuff. But I think the screen time is where, for me it's like two hours is more than enough, but for my wife, it's like she just feels for them more where it's just like, you know, if, if she feels like watching a little bit of YouTube, just let her, those are definitely two areas we, we most definitely disagree on.
[00:30:00] Jonathan Jamil: I.
[00:30:00] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah.
[00:30:00] Jonathan Jamil: Well, I think that's probably
[00:30:02] Jonathan Jamil: of
[00:30:02] Jonathan Jamil: all the things in life to district,
[00:30:05] Jonathan Jamil: probably two, relatively,
[00:30:06] Jonathan Jamil: not a hundred percent. That's what I mean. I mean, if that's the issue for me, it's like, okay. But when it comes to disagreement that's low, low, low on the scale.
[00:30:15] Adam Fishman: That's
[00:30:15] Jonathan Jamil: Great.
[00:30:16] Jonathan Jamil: Who
[00:30:16] Jonathan Jamil: tends to win out in those battles?
[00:30:17] Jonathan Jamil: Sounds like maybe your wife wins out
[00:30:19] Jonathan Jamil: I'm gonna tell you, Adam, my wife wins a hundred percent. Of the battles, I'm very passive, especially when it comes to my family. So sometimes, even though I know I'm right, I'll just let her win just because, just to end the discussion.
[00:30:34] Adam Fishman: Yeah.
[00:30:35] Jonathan Jamil: Uh, okay. So on the topic of screen you're building a company that uses a
[00:30:41] Adam Fishman: of technology.
[00:30:42] Adam Fishman: You're, You know, employing, stay at home, folks, parents who are.
[00:30:47] Adam Fishman: remote
[00:30:48] Adam Fishman: and doing, doing things with technology on behalf of companies.
[00:30:51] Adam Fishman: Have
[00:30:51] Adam Fishman: you thought about the relationship that you want your kids to have with technology as
[00:30:55] Adam Fishman: they start to,
[00:30:56] Adam Fishman: get older?
[00:30:56] Adam Fishman: especially given that there's a lot of discussion about girls on the internet.
[00:31:01] Adam Fishman: and, and you have two daughters. so I'm just curious,
[00:31:04] Jonathan Jamil: what
[00:31:04] Jonathan Jamil: you thought about that. For sure. Honestly, it's been a battle. technology's important because I want people to realize that people growing up. Like in their twenties right now, they're more tech enabled.
[00:31:16] Jonathan Jamil: They're smarter. than my generation because we grew up in the the flip phone era where, you know, we were riding our bikes and then once the streetlights came off, we had to go, we knew we had to go home.
[00:31:27] Jonathan Jamil: So I understand that when my daughters get older, the technology is just gonna be unbelievable.
[00:31:31] Jonathan Jamil: So there has to be some level of knowledge. 'cause I feel like you'd be doing a disservice to your kids if you, if you didn't. they're gonna be working in a career where technology is gonna be required, AI is gonna be required. the exposure is what scares me. when you allow your kids on YouTube or Google in general, they're going to be exposed to things.
[00:31:51] Jonathan Jamil: So for me, it's like limiting social media. I think Instagram and, not necessarily Facebook, but more like Twitter, Instagram, maybe TikTok and Snapchat. Those platforms tend to scare me a little bit more because you don't really, you can't monitor what they're looking at. their algorithms are more prone to.
[00:32:08] Jonathan Jamil: Showing people things that maybe they don't want to see. obviously if you're viewing it, they're gonna show you more of it. But there's been a correlation between like mental health and, and what you see on social media. So for me it's, I also wanna protect my girls. there's that fine line in the middle that is, is setting them up for the future, but not necessarily, exposing them too much to where, I feel like I can't control what they're seeing or what they're doing.
[00:32:33] Jonathan Jamil:
[00:32:33] Adam Fishman: and we have another segment on this show called AI Corner. Uh, where I like to ask parents what's the most interesting way that they are leveraging AI and their. parenting. And it sounds like you've started using it to plan family vacations. So
[00:32:48] Adam Fishman: tell
[00:32:48] Adam Fishman: me about like, what, what's your workflow look like for, for family vacation
[00:32:52] Adam Fishman: planning
[00:32:53] Adam Fishman: and do you have a winning prompt?
[00:32:55] Jonathan Jamil: Yes. So,
[00:32:56] Jonathan Jamil: Chad GT is my go-to, so I'll tell Chad Gt and I'll just say, Hey, like I. I have a family of four. My, these are my, it already knows, obviously,
[00:33:04] Jonathan Jamil: and we wanna do a road trip. And the maximum amount of time we're willing to drive is like, let's just say eight and a half hours or nine hours.
[00:33:10] Jonathan Jamil: What are the closest beach towns or cities that have beaches that we can go to, blah, blah, blah, has to have good food. I just tell it like, this is what is required
[00:33:17] Jonathan Jamil: spit out some options and. that's literally how we landed on Cape May. And I talked to my wife and it turns out my wife had gone to Wildwood, which is next to Cape May.
[00:33:27] Jonathan Jamil: As a kid. She remembers it being amazing. And then that's kind of, okay, we're going to Cape May chat like. tell me where should we eat? This is what we're craving. And then it tells me like, oh, you know, Cape May has amazing seafood, so these are some places that you wanna hit up. So that's literally what I use it for on the day to day.
[00:33:44] Jonathan Jamil: Obviously if I write up an email and I need it to like refine it, it'll do it. But I mostly use it for like travel 'cause. What's better than going into a city that you've never, or a town that you've never been into and just already knowing where to eat, what to do, what your kids would enjoy, you know, stuff like that.
[00:34:00] Jonathan Jamil: So that's kind of how I've been using it.
[00:34:02] Adam Fishman: Oh yeah. I love that. It's like your AI powered travel
[00:34:05] Jonathan Jamil: Exactly. Yeah.
[00:34:06] Adam Fishman: That you can
[00:34:07] Adam Fishman: refine Over time.
[00:34:08] Adam Fishman: Uh, we didn't Like that so much. What's
[00:34:10] Adam Fishman: gimme more of this?
[00:34:11] Adam Fishman: like Very cool.
[00:34:12] Adam Fishman: I also have used it for very similar.
[00:34:15] Adam Fishman: um, things and It's super helpful. Super helpful for planning even like an
[00:34:19] Jonathan Jamil: It really is.
[00:34:21] Jonathan Jamil: It really is.
[00:34:22] Jonathan Jamil: Okay.
[00:34:22] Adam Fishman: I want to end on an optimistic note. not that this show uh, entire show hasn't been relatively optimistic, but I love ending on like a really high note.
[00:34:30] Adam Fishman: there's a phrase that everyone has heard,
[00:34:32] Adam Fishman: which
[00:34:32] Adam Fishman: is nice. Guys, finish last. you
[00:34:35] Adam Fishman: don't believe this? And so I want you to tell me about why don't you
[00:34:38] Adam Fishman: believe, this?
[00:34:39] Jonathan Jamil: believe, okay. So honestly, again, going back to just growing up being that nice guy that people knew me as You always heard that phrase.
[00:34:49] Jonathan Jamil: You can't be like that, Johnny. People are gonna take advantage of you. Nice. Guys. Finish last, like it was something that I heard all the time. And then, I started following Gary v. Gary Vaynerchuk. I'm not sure if you're familiar with him, but he always preached about kindness and I was like, man, I love this guy because he's in my industry.
[00:35:05] Jonathan Jamil: He talks about the things that I like, love his missions, his posts, like all that stuff just really resonated with me. So I was like, you know what? I need to be me and if I'm that nice guy, I'm gonna succeed one way or another, because being Kind or being mean. It doesn't determine your success, but kindness is like the most underrated skill in business because it actually helped me scale my business because people remembered me.
[00:35:29] Jonathan Jamil: Like even people that were like, Hey, we're not interested right now. But even my kind response to them, they remembered it or, I would send leads to my competitors and then in turn they started sending leads to me. So for me it was like, no, this is really working out. I'm supporting other people.
[00:35:45] Jonathan Jamil: Like if you go on LinkedIn, people will tell you like Jonathan's my number one fan, even though I've never met him, but it's because I know the journey of entrepreneurship and sometimes people don't have cheerleaders. So if I can be that guy on LinkedIn where you put up a post and I'm like, good for you.
[00:35:59] Jonathan Jamil: That's amazing. Keep going. People remember that and it literally, when I say it helped me scale my business, it did. I've doubled down. I'm like, I am gonna just keep being me. And every time people tell me kindness, no. Like, you can't be kind to business. It's cutthroat. It's this, it's like, no, it really isn't.
[00:36:19] Jonathan Jamil: It's relationship building and people, brands specifically, if you're a kind person, they already know that you're gonna take care of their company. you're going to take care of their customers. And that's why kindness and empathy is the number one pillar at Springboard. I don't care how skilled you are.
[00:36:34] Jonathan Jamil: If you are not a kind person, there's no place for you here.
[00:36:37] Adam Fishman: Wow.
[00:36:38] Adam Fishman: what a good note to end on. kindness as a dad, kindness and business wins out. So Thank you for sharing that. uh, with my audience. Jonathan. Um, Okay, to end, how can people follow along or be helpful to you?
[00:36:54] Jonathan Jamil: Man, follow me on LinkedIn. You can follow me on Instagram, you can follow the company. Obviously. Springboard CX is the company page on LinkedIn. if you're a business that needs to outsource support, feel free to reach out to us. Springboardhq.com, link
[00:37:09] Adam Fishman: We will link
[00:37:10] Jonathan Jamil: to all of those places in the show notes, and
[00:37:13] Adam Fishman: hope to blow up your Instagram.
[00:37:14] Adam Fishman: Okay. Do you have a few minutes for
[00:37:16] Adam Fishman: lightning
[00:37:16] Jonathan Jamil: Absolutely. My favorite part of the show.
[00:37:19] Jonathan Jamil: here we go. What is the most
[00:37:22] Jonathan Jamil: indispensable parenting product you've ever? Honestly, I'm gonna keep it simple. Definitely the upper baby stroller. it's a little expensive, but it was worth every penny.
[00:37:32] Jonathan Jamil: Okay. What is the most
[00:37:34] Jonathan Jamil: parenting
[00:37:34] Jonathan Jamil: product?
[00:37:34] Adam Fishman: ever purchased?
[00:37:35] Jonathan Jamil: I always tell people the Boppy. I think it's still in the package downstairs in the basement. I don't think I ever used it. And wait,
[00:37:43] Jonathan Jamil: I feel like I maybe had one of these. Remember,
[00:37:45] Jonathan Jamil: what is the Boppy it's meant to keep the baby up in an upright position and we used it once and it just, didn't work.
[00:37:52] Jonathan Jamil: So my wife was like, what do we do with it? I'm like, just throw it out or something.
[00:37:56] Jonathan Jamil: back in
[00:37:57] Jonathan Jamil: the package and it's just chilling, collecting dust.
[00:38:00] Adam Fishman: Okay.
[00:38:00] Jonathan Jamil: True or false, there's only one correct way to load the dishwasher. You wanna laugh? My wife and I wash everything by hand. Wow.
[00:38:09] Jonathan Jamil: So, so we don't, we have a dishwasher.
[00:38:13] Jonathan Jamil: We've never used one. Uh, I would imagine there's multiple ways to load it. So I'm gonna go there. There's definitely multiple ways.
[00:38:20] Adam Fishman: that's
[00:38:21] Jonathan Jamil: That's amazing. Yeah. I don't think I could survive without
[00:38:23] Jonathan Jamil: my dishwasher, even though when I was younger I didn't have it.
[00:38:26] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah. There you go. Amazing. Okay. What is your signature?
[00:38:30] Jonathan Jamil: Dad's superpower? Dad's superpower, man. I would say just maybe getting the girls to listen. they get away with anything with mommy, and then if dad steps in and says no, then it, it means no.
[00:38:43] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah. Okay.
[00:38:44] Adam Fishman: Okay.
[00:38:45] Jonathan Jamil: What is the crazier block of time in your house? 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM or 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
[00:38:50] Jonathan Jamil: 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM for sure. My daughter's, they're not even awake before 8:00 AM so we're, we're lucky. That's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. But just complete chaos in the evening. Oh my God. It's, there's no such thing as a bedtime. It's just they go to bed whenever they feel like it. Whenever they follow.
[00:39:06] Jonathan Jamil: Uh,
[00:39:07] Adam Fishman: Uh,
[00:39:08] Jonathan Jamil: okay. The ideal day with your kids involves what? One activity? Probably just riding bikes. Just just chasing each other at the park or something. Just a simple, simple day.
[00:39:17] Adam Fishman: Yeah.
[00:39:18] Jonathan Jamil: If your kids had to describe you in one word
[00:39:20] Adam Fishman: would it be?
[00:39:22] Jonathan Jamil: for sure. Loving without a doubt.
[00:39:24] Adam Fishman: Alright.
[00:39:25] Jonathan Jamil: What is the most frustrating thing that has happened to you?
[00:39:29] Adam Fishman: as a dad?
[00:39:30] Jonathan Jamil: honestly, I just think just not having control. When Cece was co like, and my wife was postpartum, you, you tend to feel like, nothing you do is going to change the situation. So
[00:39:40] Jonathan Jamil: just feeling helpless in the, in that moment. For sure.
[00:39:44] Jonathan Jamil: What is your go-to dad wardrobe? Okay, so I'm gonna plug a company in and I hope that's okay, but it's jambys. jambys.com, the most comfortable pajama.
[00:39:56] Jonathan Jamil: Just Loungewear in general. That's my go-to. I think I have like 10 pairs and one of my favorite sayings, it's not to insult anybody, but it was always the people in suits work for the guys in pajamas, so, I've always been in pajamas, not to knock people in suits. My family members go to work in suits, but jambys.com.
[00:40:15] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah,
[00:40:16] Jonathan Jamil: I have a couple of sweatshirts from you
[00:40:18] Jonathan Jamil: bought my wife
[00:40:19] Jonathan Jamil: one Very soft. There you go.
[00:40:21] Jonathan Jamil: very
[00:40:21] Jonathan Jamil: comfortable. There you go. Don't have pajamas from there though.
[00:40:25] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah, I have to do that now. You got to.
[00:40:27] Jonathan Jamil: Okay.
[00:40:27] Jonathan Jamil: How many parenting books do you have in your house? None. Okay. And then if someone gave you a parenting book, how likely would you
[00:40:37] Jonathan Jamil: cover to cover?
[00:40:38] Jonathan Jamil: Probably 0% chance. Honestly, I would just 'cause, listen, one thing I learned is like there might be some good tidbits in certain books, but you don't know what your kid is gonna look like. So sometimes those things don't really apply.
[00:40:50] Adam Fishman: Yeah.
[00:40:51] Jonathan Jamil: What is your go-to?
[00:40:53] Jonathan Jamil: Behavior.
[00:40:53] Adam Fishman: behavior.
[00:40:55] Jonathan Jamil: unfortunately it's toys. my kids, every time we go to Target or whatever store they have to walk out with something.
[00:41:01] Jonathan Jamil: So if they behaved throughout the day, throughout the week, you know, Chantal did good at school. She got came home with a good grade. Uh, it's definitely toys. Your
[00:41:10] Adam Fishman: Okay. Do your
[00:41:10] Jonathan Jamil: daughters have a part.
[00:41:12] Adam Fishman: toy theme
[00:41:13] Jonathan Jamil: That they're going for right now. It's always Disney Dis Disney, anything. Disney purse. Disney this, Disney that.
[00:41:21] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah.
[00:41:21] Adam Fishman: Alright.
[00:41:22] Jonathan Jamil: what is the most absurd thing?
[00:41:25] Adam Fishman: that one of your daughters has ever asked you to buy for them?
[00:41:28] Jonathan Jamil: Uh, lime Green Bedsheets, She was three at the time. Chantal and. she's the type of kid where she's like, no, like I'm taking this home with me. And we were walking through the bedsheet section at Target and we walked out with Lime Green bedsheets.
[00:41:44] Jonathan Jamil: Okay.
[00:41:44] Jonathan Jamil: Alright. Well
[00:41:45] Jonathan Jamil: she's
[00:41:45] Jonathan Jamil: got
[00:41:45] Adam Fishman: some lime green bet sheets then.
[00:41:47] Jonathan Jamil: what
[00:41:47] Jonathan Jamil: is the most difficult kids TV show that you.
[00:41:50] Adam Fishman: had to sit through?
[00:41:52] Jonathan Jamil: I would say Coco Melon. Coco Melon takes the prize of this show.
[00:41:57] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah, it keeps the kids entertained, but man, when you're laying in bed singing those songs, there's an issue there.
[00:42:04] Jonathan Jamil: Wow. Co melon will never advertise.
[00:42:06] Adam Fishman: this show.
[00:42:07] Jonathan Jamil: I'm sorry. Not your fault.
[00:42:11] Jonathan Jamil: Uh,
[00:42:11] Jonathan Jamil: it's their fault.
[00:42:12] Jonathan Jamil: what is your favorite kid movie? probably, anything Disney like Wreck it Ralph, Ratatouille. That's, I mean, I would say Home alone, but I don't know if that's considered a full on kids movie. Uh, close. Yeah. maybe that's the answer to this next question. What nostalgic movie?
[00:42:30] Jonathan Jamil: Not wait to
[00:42:31] Jonathan Jamil: first watch it.
[00:42:32] Jonathan Jamil: Okay. So I've never had to force, the minute September 1st hits the household. It's, it's nonstop. Home alone and Santa Claus. But home Alone for sure. Home Alone takes the cake.
[00:42:44] Jonathan Jamil: Great film. what is the worst experience
[00:42:46] Jonathan Jamil: had assembling a.
[00:42:47] Adam Fishman: kid's toy or a piece of furniture?
[00:42:50] Jonathan Jamil: All of them. So I'm not an assembler, uh, if I have the option to pay for assembly when it arrives. my daughter for Christmas, she bought like this massive Play-Doh thing.
[00:43:03] Jonathan Jamil: It was like a million pieces. I attempted, screwed up of course, and just threw it out the next day.
[00:43:12] Adam Fishman: Oh my
[00:43:12] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah.
[00:43:13] Adam Fishman: That's
[00:43:13] Jonathan Jamil: amazing.
[00:43:14] Adam Fishman: Okay,
[00:43:14] Jonathan Jamil: finally,
[00:43:15] Adam Fishman: is your take on minivans?
[00:43:18] Jonathan Jamil: Had them my whole life. My dad was a minivan guy. I am definitely not a minivan person. if I had to have one, I probably would, but you'll never catch me driving one voluntarily.
[00:43:30] Adam Fishman: But it's
[00:43:31] Jonathan Jamil: Almost a necessity when you were
[00:43:33] Jonathan Jamil: Oh my God, other siblings?
[00:43:34] Jonathan Jamil: Yeah. Yeah. it definitely was. We actually, we were actually five kids. Uh, my youngest sister passed away when, when she was younger, so it was definitely a necessity to lug us all around. Yeah.
[00:43:45] Jonathan Jamil: but
[00:43:45] Jonathan Jamil: not for now. No.
[00:43:47] Jonathan Jamil: Only two. No. Unless somehow I end up with two more daughters, or two more kids in general.
[00:43:52] Jonathan Jamil: Then we're gonna have to start looking at those Toyota Siennas. What are, what is your wife's take on.
[00:43:57] Adam Fishman: on minivans.
[00:43:58] Jonathan Jamil: same thing. She, she hates them.
[00:44:00] Adam Fishman: Got it.
[00:44:01] Jonathan Jamil: Alright. Well Jonathan, thank you so much for joining me today. No problem. That sounds like a good place to wrap up.
[00:44:07] Jonathan Jamil: Really
[00:44:07] Jonathan Jamil: appreciate all the time that you spent and best of luck to you, your business, and your family for the rest of this year.
[00:44:13] Jonathan Jamil: Thank you so much for having me, Adam. Again. This is my first podcast and, and bro, if I'm gonna be on another podcast, they gotta beat this 'cause. This was super fun.
[00:44:22] Jonathan Jamil: Thank you for listening to today's episode with Jonathan Jamil. You can subscribe and watch the show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:44:31] Adam Fishman: Visit www.startupdadpod.com to learn more and browse over 100 past episodes. Thanks for listening and see you next week.