Hey guys, as you know I’ve committed to restart the Fathers Eve blog on a monthly basis. I’ll try and share something intelligent and useful for those who are interested. I welcome your feedback comments and suggestions, be nice. If you would like to share this information feel free, if you’d like to get involved with us, let’s talk!
For this month it occurred to me that since this is a restart I should start with the basics. Take a look at this and understand who I am, what I’m trying to do, and why.
Who Am I?
My name is John Francis. I am a 57-year-old entrepreneur and married father of two. I am the youngest son of Joe and Flo Francis and I grew up in Minnesota during the late 60s and 70s. I attended high school and college in the 80s. I have two daughters, aged 21 and 17, and I cherish the time I spend with them. Being a dad is the most important role in my life. I work from home in the franchise industry and I also enjoy spending time outdoors and at our family cabin.
Why do I do what I do?
When I was 26 years old my father passed away from cancer. Then, three years later my brother died in a car accident. When I got married in my early 30s I realized that my father and brother were not there to guide me as I took on the roles of husband and father. I leaned on my friends, family, in-laws, and school friends for support, as well as other people with whom I had strong friendships. I was fortunate to have a wide network of guys who I could connect with to seek advice and learn from their experiences with their own families. This support helped me become a better father and husband.
I strongly believe that everyone needs help at times, and sometimes men struggle to ask for it. Fathers Eve provides a non-judgmental space where men can come together to connect, share, and celebrate fatherhood.
In 2012, I had a newly built garage and wanted to show it off to my friends. I invited them over for a christening event that coincidentally took place the night before Father’s Day. We had a great time and we jokingly called it “Fathers Eve”. We decided to do it again and it quickly grew beyond the garage. It evolved into a fundraiser, we trademarked the brand, and now we are aiming to share the opportunity with dads everywhere. If you’re interested in hearing more details, you can listen to podcasts and interviews and see the media page (https://fatherseve.com/stories/media/).
I believe Fathers Eve truly has value to help guys, dads, and families. The ripple effect I’ve seen from the things we’ve been able to do so far is inspiring and gratifying. I know we’re making a difference for guys and their roles, and intentional fatherhood is a powerful mindset shift. I’m excited and grateful to have the ability and the opportunity to help make an impact on my family, my friends, my community, and beyond. I like to work as a collaborator, I love to see other people succeed, and I’m glad to share what I have created. I’m optimistic!
Why did I decide to do this?
It was a way for me to help give back to those guys who already gave to me, the friends and family, and people around me who were helpful and I wanted to do something fun to bring them all together. I was the common connection, some of them knew each other but most of them didn’t know each other. so I thought by throwing a garage party I could bring them all together and have some fun. it turned into a great thing and we noticed immediately that there’s value in connecting just guys on purpose.
The experience that made me want to do it all over again was seeing my various friends connect and become friends directly. Being that connector, super-connector, making those introductions and creating the environment where it just happened naturally. I noticed how cool and easy and fun that was, and thought it would be an opportunity to share with others.
After just a few years we outgrew the garage and someone challenged me with the idea of what can you do with this thing? So, we moved it to a bar (O’Gara’s), made it a fundraiser and scaled up quite a bit in 2015. We raised $10,000 for charity, sold t-shirts, and saw quite a local TV and newspaper media presence. We knew we were on to something when all those people showed up and engaged with us at that level.
After that success in 2015, we filed the trademark and created a licensing program, I went to the Dad 2.0 conference in Washington DC and met a lot of other fatherhood-related groups and organizations. I met the City Dad’s Group, met the National At-Home Dad Network, and lots of other influencers in the fatherhood movement. Technology and social media are not my strengths or focus, but it didn’t take me long to make some friends and develop the opportunity into something that could become really collaborative where everybody can win. Fathers Eve was launched in 12 cities in 2016 and we grew from there.
FE helped me address the things that I was struggling with which really was how to stay connected and reinforce the friendships and connections that I already had in place. I recognized that it’s not easy and as I get older, kids and the family get busier, and things changed. Those guy-friendships became even more valuable and difficult to start. So I thought it was a good idea to do something interesting and collaborative to build up and maintain important relationships with other guys from the various aspects of my life; personal life, work life, outdoor sports, and other dads of my kids’ friends and their school where I was already volunteering.
The idea was I saw Fathers Eve as a way for me to facilitate and maintain important friendships that I already had. And, create an environment where other people could do the same thing at the same time. Kind of an exponential connecting point for all kinds of guys focused around fatherhood and being a better parent and a better dad and just meeting other interesting dudes.
Why you should connect with us
Come to Fathers Eve to connect, share and celebrate fatherhood. Meet some interesting guys, bring your friends, and make new friends at the same time. It’s an open and easy environment for guys to hang out, tell some stories, share some ideas, and have some fun. The 8:00 p.m. toast is the engagement moment that makes it memorable, so let’s do that and make it a lot of fun!
Listen in on the Fathers Eve Connection, our video interview podcast.
Interested in hosting your own event? Learn how.