Jeff Zaugg founded DadAwesome after one question grabbed his heart: "How do you stay intentional as a dad?" That question sparked 400+ podcast conversations and a mission to help fathers move from autopilot to prayerfully intentional.

Over 550 nights in an RV, countless campfire conversations, ten fatherhood coaching cohorts, and thirty activation events across the country, Jeff is building a community of dads who live from the love of their Heavenly Father and pour that love into their families.

Jeff and Michelle are raising four daughters near the beach in Florida. Together they love catching waves, building forts, riding bikes, and training for obstacle course races.

https://www.dadawesome.org/

book: https://www.dadawesome.org/store

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Good morning, Jeff.

Praise God for you.

How are you doing today?

Good morning, I'm doing wonderful.

I've been looking forward to this conversation.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

So I'm in Northeast Florida in the United States on the Atlantic Ocean there.

All right, all right.

Born and raised or did you move there recently?

Yeah, moved here two years ago after a chapter of three years of living in an RV as a family of six and then before that the Midwest in Wisconsin, Minnesota area.

Wow, so up north then center then down south.

So is it that you're hunting the warm weather?

Is it that you're hunting the warm weather?

Yeah, I love the beach, love surfing, but I lived, you know, nowhere near an ocean and we traveled for ministry, for the mission of Dad Awesome and we found something very special.

God warmed our hearts quickly to this is an area, the spot that we moved.

Flagler Beach, Florida is where we're at and so we're here not for the warm weather but for God drew us here.

Were you always such of a magnetic personality when you were growing up?

I'm a pretty tall dude.

I'm six foot seven inches tall and yeah, I get passionate.

As a small kid, I found leadership was easy for me.

People would follow whether it's building a tree fort or let's let's build a floating raft to take on this lake or river.

I do think, yeah, that's something God gave me is this magnetic.

Pull people in.

And then the God factor, like was that always part of who you were?

It has been, yeah.

So my mom, deeply passionate faith following Jesus.

My dad, a quiet faith and I grew up in a household where we opened the Bible together as a family.

We sought the Lord but the deeper passion was probably in kind of junior high, seventh grade, eighth grade, just before high school.

I started really growing that passion.

Is that when you met Jesus?

No, I met him as a four or five-year-old.

Early, a family funeral led me to asking questions and following Jesus but it was when I started living for him was kind of in that junior high and part of that was leadership.

I was invited in to help lead worship, leadership in my youth group that I was a part of and so leadership got me more desperate for I need God here.

I need him.

Of the two aspects, the emotional and then the intellectual side of what Christianity brings to the table, which do you think you've eventually evolved into from the other?

Yes, I saw miracles.

I saw the wonder and beauty of God in creation, in the sunset, in the stars and so I feel like emotional came first and I've grown through reading, through study.

The intellectual is kind of the second side for me.

Are you seeing in your children one of one type, which is the emotional and one of the physical or the intellectual side when you look at them?

Is there a variation or is it similar?

Great question.

So we describe our four daughters, they are Bible bandits.

So they love God's Word and even my little four-year-old, it's picture Bibles at that age and then my seven-year-old, actually she's listening to the Action Bible.

It's her third lap through so it's still a children's Bible but she's listening to it.

Some of the scripture is word for word so they love God's Word but I just asked a question yesterday of my seven-year-old.

I said, how do you feel dry, completely dry?

And we use this the dry to wet as just a metaphor because we have a we have a pool here.

You can do a cannonball and you know you're soaking wet.

So I said, are you soaking wet with God's love?

Do you feel his love?

Do you sense that he's close to you or do you feel pretty dry?

And it's just that question.

She's like, no I actually, I feel like he's really close and I know that he loves me.

So yes, I would say both the intellectual and the presence, feeling, the awareness that God is near.

What's responsible for you having a full cup in the midst of this?

Being the person who has to be the resource or the oasis for your family.

Yeah, so I take 100% responsibility for my cup being full.

So the drift is to wake up wanting to blame, play the victim role.

Every day I pray declaration prayers.

I'm like, this is, I am a son of God.

I am a leader.

I create change.

I don't wait for things.

I step in boldly.

So I I pray scripture around declarations around this is who I am and I take complete responsibility for having a full cup because God is limitless.

But I have to step into receiving his love so that I can overflow to my family.

Which Bible character do you think you identify with the most when you're looking at where you are today?

Oh man, so the Bible character, King Saul's son Jonathan, David's best friend.

I want this all in courage and there's a story of him and his armor bearer where Jonathan is just like, man I'm gonna climb that hill.

I don't care that the top of that cliff is full of Philistine warriors.

I want to and I have.

My story is a lot of just taking courageous leaps and that's part of my mission.

God said take courageous leaps towards the dreams I've given you and bring others along with you.

So I see myself as as a bridge builder.

I'm building bridges.

I'm trying to lead by come follow me, join me, let's build this together.

So Jonathan's probably the character.

Yeah again from just knowing you the last seven minutes here it fits because I think one of the thing I'm getting from listening to you is the ability to give and when you know that you're heir to the kingdom but you don't need to be the king, life gets a lot easier when it comes to giving.

Is that accurate?

It's so accurate.

The inheritance is mine because of who I am and who my dad is versus the striving.

I dance more today.

I sing more.

I laugh more.

I wrestle more.

I tell more jokes.

Like all of this happens more because I'm more sure of my identity today than I was 10 years ago.

Like I've learned about I have an inheritance.

I don't have to prove and earn and posture.

So it makes me and it makes me a better dad and husband to like have that identity.

Fellow traveler of the United States of America, you have been through the States twice.

The second time with with my family versus the first with just my wife and myself.

What got you into that?

Yeah that was all mission.

So our ministry had events all over the country.

It was a campaign called Fathers for the Fatherless and we had these events and I didn't want to fly away from my family to go put on events.

We had 30 events across the country over six years.

So grateful for that campaign and all of our partners but my family came with.

So we got an RV so we could do it together as a family versus fly away from my little girls and we took three laps around the country.

550 nights of living in the RV as a family.

Would you do it again?

No.

I believe you.

We are a community.

We love our neighbors, local church, local community.

So it was it was stretching season for us to be away from friends because we are always moving and we moved the RV every three to four days.

Wow.

Tell me about Dad Awesome.

What's going on there?

Yeah so it's a mission that is now over eight years.

This it started as a little experiment to learn how can I show up as an awesome dad for my family and the answer is I can't under my own strength.

I have to take a hike to the waterfall of God's love like we've been talking about.

Get soaking wet with God's love and then turn my heart and pursue the hearts of my kids.

So this journey I've been interviewing a guest every week for 424 straight weeks.

I like just going after it.

Learning these discoveries.

We talk about dad discoveries.

We release them through a podcast.

We do activation events, hundred mile bike rides, triathlons, Spartan races and then we do coaching cohorts.

Ten dads at a time.

We coach dads and then the Dad Awesome book is launching in March here.

A book of collecting the core discoveries.

We're bringing those to to dads all over the world.

The book's called Dad Awesome.

We're just releasing that.

At this junction doing everything that you've done and accomplished and completed.

Do you think that there's a fine line between burnout and sacrificially showing up for God the way we should?

Yeah so I want to steward, bring my full heart, give my all.

But my goodness so many leaders do that at the expense of the burnout.

At the expense of their own physical body or their most precious relationships.

So I do think there is a always seeking God's voice.

This is the biggest.

If I can hear the voice of my father then I won't step into burnout because I won't be striving.

I'll be actually operating at his pace.

But I give my girls the eject button.

There's a little switch they can flip up and hit the button and I will walk away from Dad Awesome, fatherhood ministry to be the dad that they need me to be.

But there's also a provision side and they get the dad is on a mission to reach other dads and the mission provides for.

I do it full-time now.

So after the first three years I've now been full-time for about four years.

So that balance is that always God I need your guidance here so I don't burn out.

Someone's listening.

They believe, wow I would do anything to have the energy that this guy is exerting.

What would you suggest to them as a great first step?

Build friendships because what you carry, your presence, your strength, your joy is connected to the friendships that you've built.

So build friendships and then value those closest to you.

Do they have the best things to say about you?

So my little girls and my wife, have I built relationships with them?

Have they seen my heart turn towards them in a way that they know that they are treasured and prized?

When those closest to you, when they experience your best, the most of your heart and your strength and when you've built friendships and we already talked about this, waterfall of God's love.

Get to the love of the Father.

If those three things are happening, friends, closest relationships are experiencing your joy and your heart and you're getting the Father's love, you're gonna carry more joy.

It's been a great pleasure, my friend.

In closing, is there anything else you'd like to share?

Just this, decide to stay awesome, to be awesome.

You don't have to shy away from it.

Be awesome.

God is glorified by you being awesome and it takes action, not intent.

Intent never glorifies God.

Action does.

So take action, hear his voice and go be awesome.

Jeff Zogg, a pleasure.

I treasure.

Thank you for being on What is Inspired by 12 Minute Converse.