Well, I prepared for this episode more than I ever prepared for any other episode. I read his book. I prepped a new app to record video and audio. I planned things about a month out with his publicist…and it all came crashing down hahaha. We adapted and overcame. Rob was awesome and the interview was a blast. Enjoy and thanks for listening!!
The Written Word
Brendan Roy 0:00
We are just so excited for you to hear this episode. We invited Rob Kenny from Dad, how do I YouTube channel on? And he was just great. I mean, it was awesome. He was nice kind, you know, all the adjectives that describe some of that will put up would put up with our Bs and technical difficulties. So yeah, but truly just a great human being. And I just can’t wait for you to hear it. We go over his videos, you know, the dad questions. And then he’s got a book coming out and it is coming out. If you’re listening to this on 517. It’s coming out tomorrow. For people that are listening to this in the future. It’s the books already out. Go get it. And I did hijack the interview. I’m sorry, Jim. Very sorry. But I had a great time. So I hope you have a great time listening to this and share with a friend. Thanks for listening.
Intro 1:02
Dads worldwide. The first word is family management’s family budgeting. Insurance, bills, food, vacations, research and development, homework, emails, phone calls. Last week, we tried to do an oil change and ended up with a new car security. Doors a lot. Windows shut. House alarm is set. fingerless gloves. Dads worldwide loyal listeners. Possibly you.
Brendan Roy 1:39
Welcome to another episode of dads worldwide. I’m Brendan. I’m Jim and with us today, we’re I’ve been humbled. I can’t thank him enough for coming on today. A father a YouTuber. Did you think you were ever going to be called a YouTuber? Nope. Nope. But he is it’s a it’s Rob Kenny from dad. How do I thank you for coming on today.
Rob 2:08
Yeah, thanks for having me on brand. And I said to an influencer, people are calling me that. And like, yeah. What is that even, you know, just trying to help some people was all and still trying to navigate it all.
Brendan Roy 2:21
Absolutely. That was actually one of the things I was going to talk to you about your book. I like this could be a parenting book. I was I was I’m reading it. I’m just like, I was floored. So let’s get into that later. But, uh, yeah. Why don’t you start by? I think most people are going to listen to this. They’re going to know but you’re a dad. How many kids?
Rob 2:44
Yeah, yeah. So I have two adult kids. My daughter. I was just talking to her on the phone. She’ll be 29 this year. And she was already saying, Oh, my mom was 30. I said, Please don’t do that. You know, when I was Don’t rush it. Yeah. When I was almost 50. I was almost 50. You know, for a whole year I was almost 50. And then I’m 50. You know, it’s okay. Slow it down. You know, you’re not even 29 yet, so you’re good. So and then my son is he’ll be 26. This year, our birthdays are coming up. So her birthday is in June. My wife’s birthday is actually this coming week. And then my birthday is in May my son’s birthdays in May. So we got a lot going on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. You know, it all happens in the next couple months. Oh, wow.
Brendan Roy 3:21
Yeah. Yeah. Did you did you tell them the story about the silver ball with the gold strength? rushing? Don’t rush it. Yeah. That’s, that’s great. All right. So what why don’t we start with the dad questions. Jim. Would you like to go first?
Jim 3:39
Yeah, you know, Rob again, thanks for coming on. You know, we always like to start our show with some questions about parenthood and Brendan has a set I usually tend to have the harder hitting questions things that uh, you know really make you think what is one childish thing you still enjoy doing?
Rob 4:05
Oh, boy, put me on the spot. Can I get the questions ahead of time? Yeah. Let’s put pause I you know, I still don’t feel my age I’ll be 57 this year and so I like to think I’m still young and so I get out and you know, play any kind of sport with my kids. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever really grown up in some some areas. I’d like to do anything and everything or like like to think I I know how to we’ll jump off cliffs together. You know, when we go over to Eastern Washington and go swimming. Well, you know, I’ll do all of the above. Awesome. That’s great.
Jim 4:44
Yeah, we’ve had that discussion before Brandon and I kind of I was just gonna mirror what you’re saying like we don’t not feel our age right now. And let’s at sometimes I you know, and Brenda and I get together. It feels like we’re still in high school hanging out. Right? Yeah, yeah. There’s definitely a mindset
Rob 5:02
back to, you know, little Robby running around, you know, so I suddenly fall right in line. So I’m number seven out of eight kids. And so, yeah, it’s the whole birth order. thing falls right. I fall right in line. I’m little Robbie. Again, taking orders from my older sister. Yeah.
Brendan Roy 5:20
Yeah. The same way. I have three brothers and when I’m around them when I’m around, Jim, I been, you know, my mom. And yeah, I guess I just, I don’t know. I just feel like a kid all the time. No, definitely not. You know, I sleep wrong in my back hurts for a week, you know? So? Definitely, definitely not. I sneezed the other day, and I’m like, Oh, here we go. That’s it. Yeah. I’m sore for a week. Yeah, three days ago by back I swear. I don’t know what it was. I could I couldn’t even look to the right. Like, the whole muscle from like, my neck all the way to the my lower back. I’m just like, so I’m walking around. Like, people can’t see this, but I’m just moving my upper body back. Yeah, it doesn’t take much doesn’t take much. Alright, so that might Yeah, the funny question is Jim, right. I’ve got him. Yeah. What’s your proudest dad moment? I always tell people what, what’s the first thing that that pops into your head? When when that question comes in? What’s the first thing?
Rob 6:33
Oh, yeah. I mean, my main goal for my kids was to raise good adults. And so to see them go off and be functioning adults, you know, I’ve joked about this before, you know, people talk about I don’t want to have my kids living in my basement. But you know, It’s bittersweet when, you know, send them off. My son’s off in Virginia now. And my daughter moved away to Knoxville when she first graduated from college, and Oh, wow. It’s a proud moment. But it’s also heart wrenching. It’s like, oh, you’re leaving, but I know what’s best for you. Yeah, but
Brendan Roy 7:08
they’re not even leaving. They’re going across the country. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, that’s tough.
Rob 7:14
But I encouraged it for both of them. I you know, my daughter got graduated, met a great guy got married. And so I was like, you know, go make your own life together, get out of here and go do something somewhere else. And so they’re able to grow together without, you know, interference from either the in laws, right? Kind of, you’re off doing your own. Yeah. And then with my son, too, is like, I love having him around. But, you know, this is, you know, you’ll grow up. But it both of them came with lots of tears. You know, it wasn’t easy, but it was it was healthy.
Jim 7:48
Right? Yeah, absolutely. All right, Jim. Okay. I guess I guess because the nature of your YouTube channel and everything. In in this is going to be a little challenging. But if you can in one sentence, how would you sum up social media?
Rob 8:13
Oh, yeah. One sentence, Jim. Yeah, no, I will. I don’t know if this is a question or a hot seat like we it to be honest with you. We’ve never had a social media influencer on our show. Down the street. When’s he getting here?
Jim 8:38
Or I guess we can rephrase the question, Rob. We can say what what is, you know, what is your What are your thoughts on social media?
Rob 8:48
Uh, yeah, in one sense, I don’t know that. I’m going to punt on that. But I will say, you know, you know, the internet can be pretty bad place for a lot of things, but also, you know, hoping to try to redeem it a little bit, you know, to try to bring, you know, have some wholesomeness where you can feel safe, calm, and I’m not gonna start all sudden, swearing, I’m not going to come in, I’m not going to, you know, preach at you. But I am a man of faith. And so I, you know, I want to be true to myself with that. So I’m not, you know, people early on, say, Oh, don’t say God bless you. Well, you know, that’s your opinion. Sorry. I’m going to continue to do it. If you know if it offends you, you know, then you’re too easily offended. Because there’s been worse things that have been said to you. I’m sure you know, um, so. Yeah, that’s the worst thing you say. Yeah, I mean, come on. So, anyway, I think, you know, there’s a lot of bad on the internet. And so if we can somehow redeem redeem it, you know, I don’t know. I am hoping that we can set a little bit better standard for people, you know, so that people yeah, to try to build each other up and be kind to each other. That was the whole my first one My daughter and I first started this with it was to be, you know, let’s try to be kind try to pour some kindness into the world. And, you know, I love switchfoot the Christian band, they got to know Yeah, good. Yeah. And one of the ones is, you know, is this the world you want, while you’re making it every day you’re alive. And I think that’s so powerful, because it is true, you know, well, we can’t point the finger. Well, you got to start somewhere, start with yourself, and let’s try to pour some good back into the world so, so that we can Yeah, make it a better place. Awesome.
Brendan Roy 10:31
I think some platforms are worse than others. I think as adults, we are able to segregate ourselves from you know, whatever we don’t want to be a part of, however, I do worry about it for my, my children. And as I get older, and that type of thing. So it’s, it’s tough. This is tough.
Rob 10:48
Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, I’ve shared that. And I did a video on integrity and just talked about, you know, be careful what you let your eyes see. And it’s so easy. It’s one click away, you know, when we enter. I’m older than you guys. I think so. Sorry, a little bit. Yep. Yep.
Brendan Roy 11:04
We were we still we still remember when, you know, the first computer came into the house and the dial up internet, that type of thing. So yeah,
Rob 11:12
I’m just saying I mean, like back, you know, if you wanted to see some magazines or whatever, you’d go to the bookstore or whatever, and have to kind of sneak around or whatever. But now, again, it’s everywhere, everywhere. And it’s so it’s a concern, I hope. And one of the things that concerns me too, with the fatherlessness in our society, you know, as you can see from my channel, you know, I get all these comments, my dad left, my dad left, my dad left or whatever my dad died. You know, who’s protecting these young minds? from seeing some of the the garbage that’s out there? That it’s a concern? I think, you know, I think we all we all need to be concerned about it.
Brendan Roy 11:51
It’s okay, from what I’ve heard they ask you how old you are before you enter the website. So it’s completely protected. Protected? All right. What is one thing you hope your children learn from you? Ah, he has a whole channel full of them. Yeah. Sure, Jim. Yeah. Oh, sorry.
Rob 12:17
A big thing is thinking long term about your life and the decisions that you make. And you know, how, you know, if you get caught up in everything that’s going on here, you know, you really got to be thinking long term about your, the decisions you make. And then also, you know, I feel like we’ve kind of lost sight of the fact that you are going to die, you know, we’re gonna die. We’re we’re all you know, I hate to be morbid, but the reality is, you will die at some point, it might be next week, it might be 30 years, you know, you just don’t know. And so how you spend your time here, you know, what kind of legacy and you want to want to leave? It’s interesting, because it’s one of those taboo subjects that, Oh, you don’t talk about it, cuz it might happen? Well, but it’s still gonna happen. You know, we should we should.
Brendan Roy 13:07
I think it scares the snot out of people to think about it. Because it scares us not at me. It does. It really does. And yeah, cuz I want to spend as much time with my family and my children as possible. And, and yeah, I don’t want to say no, right. But but it’s true. It’s true. Often, sort of, well,
Rob 13:25
you know, we should, you know, shouldn’t we, we should be able to have dialogue about it. I’ve shared this a lot recently, we should be able to have dialogue about it so that, you know, we should be we’re humans. We’re all going through the human experience. Shouldn’t we be able to have a dialogue and then, you know, and then you got to live with the decisions that you make, after we talk, talk about it, we compare notes, and then you decide what you think is, you know, you’re willing to put your faith in?
Jim 13:51
Absolutely. All right, Jim. All right. I got one more question for you. Let’s see. What is the most interesting piece of trivia you know that you always like to get out there in a conversation?
Rob 14:12
What do you have like this list over here of how you’re going to stump me? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s funny. That’s that was the title of it. stump Rob. The smart guy that was that was my Word document. Yeah. NSA he’s like he’s a trivia, boy. I don’t know. I know a lot of football trivia cuz when I was a kid, I used to collect football cards and I was a big football fan. So I know a lot of obscure trivia about about football, the Steelers. I love the Steelers. And so I think I might even for the most part, I can name their starting lineup from the from the 70s when they had their heyday. Yep. Wouldn’t impress anybody but It’s useless information I have with
Brendan Roy 15:01
other Steelers fans would be. Yeah. We’re in New England. So you know. Oh, yeah. All right. But I finish up with this. I can tell from behind you. You seem like a reader. Yeah. So what would be the one book that you would recommend? Whatever to a father, a mother parent, just another person like, hey, just this this book changed me read it?
Rob 15:38
Well, you know, it sounds like you’ve read my book. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. the tough part. The big words kind of know.
Brendan Roy 15:50
Well, that was actually this is how I came up with the, with the question, because I got to a point. And I think it was about the third or fourth book that you quoted in, in your book, and I was like, I’m gonna ask him, I’m gonna ask him. So you seem like a reader. So yeah, I wanted I was curious as to what, what book you would recommend?
Rob 16:09
Well, I honestly, probably the book that changed my life as because I, you know, I was a an agnostic, like I share in the book and the holiness of God by RC sprawl, to be honest with you, if we’re talking about life changing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was because it just helped me to understand who I was in comparison to a holy God. And yeah, so it kind of helped me put things in perspective, as far as understanding who Jesus was, and, and I kind of thrown the baby out with the bathwater. And then so it’s like, well, maybe I need to take a second look at this. I
Brendan Roy 16:44
yeah, I can’t say I don’t blame you on that one. But yeah, you had a tough, tough beginning, there are middle or middle of the Yeah, childhood. So I think I would, I would have done the same, like, yeah.
Rob 16:57
Yeah. I’ve shared that with people too. You know, as far as you know, when you’re raising your own kids, you can get away with just do it. Because I said, so. You know, and that works for a time. And then you get to a point where, you know, that doesn’t work. I need reasons, I need to understand what I believe I need to understand these things. And so and I’ve always told my kids, you know, I want to know the truth. I, you know, I, you know, I’m not stuck on this is it, I want to know the truth. So if you find something out, let’s talk about it, you know, we should be able to talk about it. I just I don’t want to be deceived. You know, I want to know the truth. And so I’ve, I’ve landed where I’ve landed based on a lot of reading and trying to understand it to the best ability. And I you know, not anybody’s judge, I just been trying to understand it understand it for myself, because, you know, it’s absolutely variance to to know as much as I possibly can know.
Brendan Roy 17:53
Awesome. Great. Thank you. Thank you that fantastic answers. Yep. Even though you got stumped a little bit fancy. Yeah, it was kind of, could you tell I was turning a little red? No, you’re perfect. It’s perfect. I, you know, it’s one of those things that I love to get that organic answer from people because it you know, a lot of times a lot of times you’re answering the first thing that pops in your head is really it. That’s the right answer. Right. I mean, that’s usually, you know,
Rob 18:20
a book on parenting, I would say there the discipline was is a great book by James Dobson if you haven’t read it, but there’s just a few things about it, that he really states in really basic terms that I could get my head around, one of the things was, you know, putting, you know, putting guardrails on, like, if you picture a High Bridge, you’re driving across the bridge, you don’t plan on hitting those rails. You’re glad they’re there. I wouldn’t drive across if there was no guardrails, but you never hit them, right? I mean, for the most part, somebody does, but you’re kind of going right down the middle. And just having those is a security thing for your kids. You give them some security because you set boundaries for them.
Brendan Roy 19:00
So excellent. No, dare to discipline. I think. Personally, I believe that’s one huge thing that’s missing from a lot of parenting today is discipline. It’s I, I’m shocked at like, what, when you start having little kids, you start hanging around with other parents at that time, it’s just one of those things. And you just, I just see the kids running all over the mom or the dad and it’s a I don’t know, for me, I just died. I would never dream of one I would never some of the stuff kids say to their parents, I would never dream of saying that to my parents. And then on the other hand, there’s things that they say that I wouldn’t accept that for my own children. You know, and so yeah, I think it’s just easier to let them just do what they want sometimes. Yeah, kids
Rob 19:47
thrive in that from my experience, like babysitting or whatever, or even a teacher you go into a teacher and the teacher sets clear boundaries, then you know what, you know, instead, it’s a free for all and you know, and the teacher thinks they’re being nice when really They’ve set themselves up for this chaotic classroom. Yeah. No, this is how it is you got to lay down the law early. And then you know,
Brendan Roy 20:08
and if you don’t set those boundaries in the beginning, good luck trying to do it later. Exactly. Right. So yeah.
I feel like we didn’t give you a proper introduction. So for for those of you who do not know who Rob is, he’s got three and a half about three and a half million subscribers on YouTube. And he gives dad How do I videos, basically, how to jumpstart your your car battery, how to hang a shelf, how to unclog a sink, everything that you you need to know. Rob’s covering it. And you do quite well. Honestly, I love I really enjoy your videos.
Rob 20:46
Well, thank you, I you know, one of the things I you know, I’m sure we’ve all experienced this where you, you know, you need to know how to do something and somebody comes in, and oh, he didn’t just do this. And you did that you did this. And there you go. Well, I didn’t have you show me how to do it. So you could show me how smart you’re I you know, I wanted you to come in and show me how to do it. So I know how to do it, you know. And so that’s I tried to take it into baby steps and keep it slow and make it to work to kind of build the confidence to empower people, you know, here you go. Now you can take this and hopefully, it gives you the confidence to do something else that you might have been afraid of or something else if you again, take it in on the small baby steps.
Jim 21:26
Thank you. So Rob, you have three point to 4 million YouTube subscribers, you have over 116,000 people on Facebook, another 79,000 on Instagram, what what was going through your head when you started to see those numbers go up and up and up and up? Yeah, did you expect this?
Rob 21:50
No, no, yeah, I was terrified. I was I was in a fetal position in my bed crying.
You know, I didn’t plan on it. I wish I wasn’t, you know, my wife and I planned Well, we’re closing in on retirement. We’re not quite there yet. But, um, you know, I wasn’t doing this as a career or anything, but we weren’t going, oh, let’s be YouTube famous, you know, just, if I could download some of the information out of my head that might help somebody like I could have used when I was younger, when my dad chose to chose to leave, I was 14 and I went to the with my brother. And so you know, it was a resource that I thought might help somebody in that type of situation where and try to put it all in one place, you know, and try to get to the point, you know, some YouTube videos, you got to watch 20 minutes to get a nugget that you need is around you know, I just want to know what how to do this. So I that was the original intent. So but you know, there’s certain things that take a little longer so some of my videos have gotten a little bit long, but it’s because I want to cover it you know, I want to as I get into hang a shelf actually had to change that to how to put up a shelf because people said Oh, I thought it said how to hang yourself. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, somebody put that so I changed it to how to put up like shelves. Oh my god.
So, you know, when you get into it, it’s like, okay, there’s certain little things you got to learn how to do and so trying to navigate that because I want it to be valuable information because I don’t want people to spend their whole day on YouTube. You know, I want them to learn something and get out. You know, do it. Yeah, we can. Yeah, spend too much time on we all do it. You know, spend too much time watching videos.
Brendan Roy 23:39
Yeah, I recently I have a huge appreciation for it. I recently had to I pretty much replaced everything in my washing machine at this point. So I, I pretty much had to I was living on YouTube for some of it. Some of it they just the the people on there were just like you said, they talked for 10 minutes, and they finally got to it. And then I’m like, Okay, that’s it. I just need to know how to take the top off. And he’s like, you know it like it was just like, like five minutes. And he finally like throws a putty knife out there and pops it off. And I’m like, Are you serious? I waited for 10 minutes just Yeah, no, I appreciate. I definitely appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, there’s huge value in what you’re doing. And obviously people know it. And people appreciate it. The
Jim 24:27
Does your wife ever give you slack when she on Saturday morning when you get the honey do list? And she’s like, well, you’re probably just gonna take this and go get famous. The list is getting bigger. Yeah.
Rob 24:42
Over at her family’s house for Easter, and they needed to put together a little fire pit that a fire pit in the box and there’s like let’s put it together. Oh, because one of my brother in law’s dealing with a little bit of cancer. I’m sorry. cants to deal with it. Yeah, it’s this little tiny bit that he has up behind kind of behind his eye and he’s going through chemo and so anyway, nothing. They hadn’t put it together. And so I told them let’s get it out. Let’s put it together. Oh, we need to be you know then there was this big joke. Oh, I need a videotape. attention to myself. What do I do in that situation? Yeah, I’m just starting out.
Brendan Roy 25:25
Look at what can you do? Yeah, you probably shouldn’t have brought the video crew. Yes. Are they gonna eat here? What? I actually I forgot. Congrats is in order. You. You’re one year old. Yeah. Your one year anniversary of that. How do I which is which is great. And, and now you’re getting official sponsors, which is that’s huge. And some of them are big. Oh, yeah. No, I’ve
Rob 25:57
got some great names that kind of just want to get behind it too. Yeah, really appreciate that. And yeah, I’m actually talking to Firestone too. That’s awesome. And they’ve been wonderful. As far as I said, Can we just slow this down for all of us so that we do this properly? You know, because I want you guys to look good. And I want I don’t want to look like I’m a billboard. But if it’s something that you just want to get behind, and have your name associated with it, I think it makes everybody win. You know?
Brendan Roy 26:29
So have you walk out walk out in a NASCAR suit with all your
Firestone
plastered with?
Rob 26:40
Right or wearing the hat? Yeah. Yeah. So I got a few like that. And then I mentioned in my recent video about the American Standard, and then yeah, Hunter fan. I’m going to do something with them. So yeah, I get a lot of great opportunities. It’s it’s a blessing just trying to navigate it, you know, so that I stay on on brand. I hate to even say that, because it’s, you know, sounds like I calculating this. I
Unknown Speaker 27:05
just, yeah, you lose the dad jokes in the beginning and I’m out. I need to start putting the dad jokes at the end then. So you watch the whole thing. You can watch the video. See? Yeah.
Brendan Roy 27:18
You need to put several in there just so that the Yeah, American Standard. So yeah, you’re gonna What? replace the toilet. I am gonna replace the toilet. They all they do faucets as well. Right.
Rob 27:30
So they do they Yeah, they said they’d be willing to do something there. And then they also talked about there’s a day toilet seat. Oh, Yep. Yep. They want me to show that too. So yeah. type of thing. I think it’s great. And I had a sponsorship from Lowe’s last year too. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that on your channel. Yeah.
Brendan Roy 27:50
I’m a plumber. Rob. I’m gonna be watching. Yeah, I’m not even making sure you’re doing it. Right. All right. No, no, watch those comments, Rob. Yeah.
Rob 28:05
Honestly, Brendan, I tried to. And I actually had another interview earlier today. And I said the same thing. I’m not trying to replace an electrician or a plumber, or Oh, yeah, they all have their place for sure. I just want people to understand, and I’ve even had plumbers reach out to me and say, Thanks for doing this. A lot of times I have people call me just, you know, and it’s the flapper. You know, or it’s something something simple.
Brendan Roy 28:28
And I always I always encourage people to do their own to do their own work. I it. And they asked me like, Can I do this? I said, Well, I don’t know your limitations. I said, but this is but this is how you do it. This is it’s it’s, it’s for me, it’s not hard. I do it a lot. So, like this morning, I literally this morning, a customer said do you think I could handle this? And um, you know, just replacing a faucet, it’s not difficult. In my eyes, it’s not difficult. So I just explained it to her. I said, you just do this, this and this. And she’s like, I think I can handle that. I’m like, Alright, you know, if you can’t give me a call, you know, it’s one of those things that I don’t I don’t mind. I there’s plenty of work out there. There’s plenty of people that do that do not want to pick up a wrench. So yeah, no, I think it honestly if if you’re willing to do a video that’s gonna teach people how to do it the right way, then that’s fantastic. It’s a great, it’s a it is a great asset. It’s very valuable. So yeah,
Rob 29:29
well, good for you. I think that goes a long way. I think it’s, you know, I share this in my book about having an open hand too. You know, I think if we get greedy and it’s like, oh, you know, I don’t want to let that money pass by but if you’re honest, I think it goes a long way because word gets around and that you can be trusted, you know? Yeah, I have I had we did a remodel on our bathroom. I did the tile work and I did some of the other work. I brought in a plumber. I’m not going to do that myself. There’s no way. Let a plumber that knows what he’s doing. Run the water lines and run you know all the
Brendan Roy 29:59
answers. And then there comes a time to like, how much is your time worth and a plumber is going to do it significantly quicker than someone that’s, you know, I wouldn’t even attempt it.
Rob 30:09
I think that when you’re dealing with water and where water needs to go and the venting to like I said all that stuff like, you know, and I’ve had people reach out and say, Dad can you do like, rewire your whole house? Yeah, let me let me get on that. You know, I’m not I’m not here for lowdown. How an electrician changing
Brendan Roy 30:29
oil? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Someone asked me when someone asked me like, oh, propane, this or natural gas that and I go call a professional. Yeah. Yeah, I don’t want to be associated with you blowing yourself up or your family? Absolutely. No, no, no, no,
Rob 30:43
I did a video on how to change a light and then I was like, I don’t want anybody getting hurt. You know, I so. So I didn’t ever end up posting it. But I’m not going to do one on how to put up a fan. I think if I just walk through the steps and show you in reemphasize, I even did this with my Christmas light video is like and somebody said, Man, I felt like I just watched an OSHA. And I was like, you know, the ladder is please, you know, make sure it’s careful. Yeah. Careful, but I mentioned Be careful.
Brendan Roy 31:17
getting hurt. Now, the beginning of your videos is Hey, kids now was was that planned? Or is that something that just kind of boom happened and it just stuck to you stuck to it?
Rob 31:29
Yeah, it just kind of happened. I you know, I when my channel went viral. So I’m a man of my word I or at least I tried to be and so I originally when I started the video and started the channel, I was gonna put up two videos a week. And when my channel went viral, I was interviewing and, you know, is crazy trying to accommodate everybody. And it’s like, I just don’t have time to do a regular how to video. So I kind of went on and shared my heart a little bit and said, Thank you. And then I also did one on I’m proud of you. And I yeah, and I just happened to start out with hate kids and and then people really liked that. And now Yeah, I can’t I have to continue continue it because I think people like the dad feels you know? Absolutely. Yeah. Good to hear. Hear that. especially ones that me I have an eight year old woman recently say, Hey, I, I watch all your videos. And because she misses her dad. Know this, it’s it. Anyway, it’s interesting. I had no idea. I thought I was gonna do these short videos to help people. And it resonated on such a different on such a different level. People watching me tie a tie and sobbing just because it brings back memories or they’d never had those memories or, or what have you. Yeah, it’s kind of all over the place with that.
Brendan Roy 32:50
Yeah, and and then the book What, what? What precipitated the book?
Rob 32:56
Yeah, so I had a few publishers reach out to me. And I really, really liked him. His name’s Morrow, Morrow. depressa, I think is how you pronounce his last name. with William Morrow. His name is Mauro with William Morrow. But he was just so great. You know, I had another a few others. And the one came on with a whole team of people all the things they wanted to do. And I really like Yeah. You know, I appreciate you know, the the idea behind it. But I really liked the fact that I had one guy telling me this is what you can do. And I said, Well, can I talk about my faith a little bit or yet, Rob, it’s your book. So if you if this is what you want to do, then I’ll stand behind it. And so No, he’s been nothing but great. You know, he’s been been super than so encouraging. And, yeah, so so I ended up going with William Morrow their division of HarperCollins. And it’s been a great experience. And then I had a ghostwriter, because I’m not a writer. I was just gonna ask you that. I had to. Yeah. Then he he’s been great. Marcus Brotherton is his name. Awesome. Yeah, he’s written some other books on his own. He’s done some stuff with Banda brothers. So you’re very well qualified. Yeah, he was great. And we became good friends over over that time. And yeah, and then now, here we go. That’s, I’m pretty proud of it. Because at first, I was so busy to that, as I was writing it and going with my ghostwriter. I was just kind of trusting that he was going to turn it into my book, you know, and other times, right. Like, he’d interview me and talk about different things and, and then I’d like, and then he’d say, Okay, this is what I came up with for this chapter based on what we talked about. And then I was like, I really wish he would have put that in. It’s like, Wait a second. This is my book. I just got to tell him. Yeah, I really wanted that and leave this out, you know, his fault. It’s my fault. You know? Cuz I talked to my own brother, the one that I lived with, when my dad left and talked him about it and had him kind of read it. And he was a great sounding board, as far as you know, trying to do justice to my siblings, because the first as you know, the first part of the book is a quality trait I learned from each of my siblings, and I was trying to honor it. And I didn’t want to get into stuff that maybe wouldn’t honor them. And I think I did a little bit at first and then now I think I feel good about it. And then then the back part is 50 how tos and I put in a bonus how tos because I feel like you know, you might if you read it and you go, look kind of how to is that that’s kind of lame. Okay, well, here’s the eight more than the ones that you thought were lame. Yeah. Yeah, cuz I did it again, you since you’ve looked at the book, at least you can see that it kind of bounced. I tried to cover a little bit of this and a little bit of that there’s so much you know, where do you Where do you begin? And where do you leave off? Ah, but if I do that, I should do this. And so it’s like, I had to, we had to kind of pare it down to what we I
Brendan Roy 36:08
actually skipped the how tos I because I wanted to I really wanted to read that first part. And it was how did you put it? I don’t. I didn’t want to put it down. I was I it was great. It was really good. I I just Okay, so let’s go over the first, the first where your your dad basically tells you? Well, one, I was blown away what the therapist told your mother. We don’t have to tell. I want people to read that. I wouldn’t be really people to read that and be blown away by it. But that just shows you how far mental health professionals have come. Since since the 70s. Correct? Yeah, right. Yeah. So my god, I can’t believe that that’s that was their answer. But then I, I try to put myself in your shoes. listening to your father tell you like, yeah, I’m done. And then and then trying to put myself in your father shoes and looking at my children. Like I’m tearing up just thinking about like, I couldn’t even imagine saying that to them. Just like I’m done. So I can’t imagine how you felt and you were a bigger man than I for forgiving him because I’m, I’m not sure. I’m not sure I could.
Rob 37:36
Well, yeah, I mean, not. I had to Brendan, I had to and I might get teary eyed here to my audio. I read my book. You know what? I’m so glad you read it.
Brendan Roy 37:48
I’m so glad you did. There’s nothing worse than get it like you, you. You know you listen to a personality. You watch their videos that you get to their audio book. And it’s like some strangers really
Rob 37:59
hold on when they are that when they asked me if I would I said even though I don’t know what I’m doing. Yeah. Because it’s my story. Yeah, it would feel weird having somebody else read my story. Absolutely. And as I was reading it, you know, I had a couple of great guys. It was a local studio here. His name is wil he was awesome. And then Lewis was kind of monitoring and it’s a little bit stressful because as you’re reading, you know, you they want every word is supposed to be word for word and make it sound natural and read every word. And if, if you don’t, we’re gonna stop you and make you read it again. Right? So they were very good about it. But still, it was a little stressful. And then my stomach was, I shared this. I did, I had this big, big below, on my lap to muffle my stomach noises. But anyway, the point I was getting out was, as I’m reading it, you know, there’s a couple point points where I had to just say, hey, I need a break. And I had started tearing up and I could tell I was starting to lose it. And I’m like, uh, and then I just and I sat and cried for like, five minutes and then Okay, I I’m good again. And then. Yeah, again, the forgiveness of my dad, I you know, that goes back to and I’ve said this a lot of times on interviews is it was hurting me it was killing me, you know, drinking poison and hoping somehow it hurt him. And he kind of had somehow the whole guilt mechanism. He had numbed his conscience. And so it was he seemed like he’s running off and having a good time. And I’m killing myself. And so I had to, I had to let go because it was it was hurting me. You know? So it’s not easy to look at it that way. And people have been through worse stuff than me. And so I’ve tried to encourage people to forgive, forgive people. But you know, everybody’s got to do what they think what they it’s definitely difficult.
Brendan Roy 39:53
It’s definitely difficult to whatever wrong It is, however small it is. It’s it. It Difficult to let you know just let things go.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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