Eric Collins is a California entrepreneur, tax strategist, and business owner who has built and sold companies while navigating major physical adversity, including breaking his neck in five places and surviving multiple spinal fusions.

In this episode, he and Ned go deep into discipline, certainty, emotional stability, fatherhood, business ownership, marriage, and the kind of intentional leadership most men want but rarely see modeled clearly. Eric shares practical systems he’s built into his home life — from making breakfast for his sons every morning for nearly a decade to helping lead an 80-man “Dad’s Club” at his sons’ school that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for families and students.

This is one of those conversations that quietly sneaks up on you. It starts with stories about fishing trips, school fundraisers, and parenting struggles, but underneath it is a serious conversation about becoming the kind of man your family can trust.

Eric talks openly about growing up around abuse, wrestling through ego and unhealthy habits, learning to control his reactions, and realizing that discipline without emotional connection was damaging his relationship with his son. Rather than doubling down in pride, he humbled himself, sought wisdom, and changed course.

Fathers will walk away from this episode challenged to think differently about leadership in the home. Eric’s idea that a father should be “the oak tree, not the thundercloud” is one of the strongest themes in the conversation. He explains why certainty and consistency matter so deeply to children, how routines create emotional safety, and why many men unintentionally sabotage the very outcomes they want most. There’s also a powerful discussion around mentorship, growth-mindedness, replacing destructive habits with healthier pursuits, and learning to accept feedback from your wife without defensiveness.

A few standout takeaways from the episode:

• Your children need certainty more than perfection.
• Discipline without relationship eventually creates distance.
• Men need community and purposeful involvement outside of work.
• Most growth comes through pain, humility, and repeated course correction.
• You become a better father by intentionally becoming a better man.

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Check Out the Program Talked About: Genesis by Rise Up Kings

• This episode is sponsored by Genesis - a Rite of Passage by Rise Up Kings
• Order The Adventure of Fatherhood children's book here
• Check out the TEDx

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• Want to learn more about The Adventure of Fatherhood?
• www.adventureoffatherhood.com
• www.rebelandcreate.com

Each week Ned sits down with a dad and asks him to open up his field notes and share with other men who find themselves on the Adventure of Fatherhood. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!

Follow us:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fatherhoodfieldnotes
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/@Fatherhoodfieldnotes
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rebelandcreate

Mentioned in this episode:

Rise Up Kings Genesis

In this Friday Craft of Fatherhood episode, Ned processes through the realization that he's been transactional at home with his family like he is at work. What does it take to be present instead?

Best takeaway:

Check yourself and see if you're showing up responsive to your family, rather than expecting them to just do what you say, like a boss.

---------

Check Out the Program Talked About: Genesis by Rise Up Kings

• This episode is sponsored by Genesis - a Rite of Passage by Rise Up Kings
• Order The Adventure of Fatherhood children's book here
• Check out the TEDx

----------

• Want to learn more about The Adventure of Fatherhood?
• www.adventureoffatherhood.com
• www.rebelandcreate.com

Each week Ned sits down with a dad and asks him to open up his field notes and share with other men who find themselves on the Adventure of Fatherhood. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!

Follow us:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fatherhoodfieldnotes
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/@Fatherhoodfieldnotes
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rebelandcreate

Mentioned in this episode:

Rise Up Kings Genesis

Jason Vallotton is a pastor on staff at Bethel Church in Redding, California as well as a founder of BraveCo, a ministry dedicated to the healing and development of men as a means to healing and developing the world.

Jason joins Ned Schaut for a deeply honest conversation about masculinity, healing, discipleship, and the kind of fatherhood that changes generations.

This episode goes far beyond surface-level parenting advice. Jason shares openly about growing up with a father who created a home where confession was safe, truth mattered, and failure did not equal rejection. He talks candidly about struggling with pornography as a teenager, walking through divorce and betrayal, seasons of depression, and learning how to process pain instead of avoiding it.

At the center of the conversation is one powerful idea:

Jason and Ned unpack why men often pour themselves into work, business, hobbies, or achievement while quietly feeling lost in marriage and family life. Business has clear targets. Family often doesn’t. Most men were never discipled into emotional health, intentional fatherhood, or biblical masculinity.

The conversation explores:

1. why men need mentors and spiritual fathers, * how unresolved pain becomes bondage,
2. why vulnerability and strength are not opposites,
3. how fathers shape a child’s understanding of God,
4. and why no young man should have to stumble blindly into manhood.

One of the standout moments comes when Jason describes his father in a way that we all strive to have our kids say about us:

“My dad’s not perfect. He’s just the best man that I know.”

This episode is for fathers, husbands, leaders and men who are tired of isolation, tired of pretending, and ready to intentionally become the kind of man their family can depend on.

Mentioned in this episode:

Rise Up Kings Genesis