Fostering interests in your children, maintaining friendships and pandemic tradeoffs | Ryan Johnson (father of 2, CPO at CallRail)

Startup Dad

Ryan Johson is the Chief Product Officer at CallRail a marketing and AI technology company. He was an early pioneer in the AI industry doing fascinating work on computer vision for anomaly detection in videos and images. Ryan is a husband and father of two kids and a fellow Midwesterner.

In this episode we discuss:

• His Midwestern upbringing and the work ethic that instilled in him
• The challenges of maintaining friendships with parents who have kids at different ages than yours
• The worst parenting advice he's ever received
• How to foster interests in his kids without coming on too strong
• How he and his wife navigated the decision for one of them to step back from the workforce during the pandemic
• Muckle-Wells Syndrome - his daughter's rare autoinflammatory disease and the process for figuring it out and getting her treatment
• Mistakes he's made as a dad and lessons learned

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Where to find Ryan Johnson

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandjohnson/

- Twitter (aka X): https://twitter.com/rydavidjohnson

Where to find Adam Fishman

- Newsletter: https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/

- Twitter (aka X): https://twitter.com/fishmanaf

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupdadpod/

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In this episode, we cover:

[1:47] Ryan's professional background

[5:56] Ryan's Midwestern childhood

[8:54] His family's influence on his career

[10:30] How he met wife and an introduction to his kids

[11:45] Maintaining friendships with parents of different aged kids

[14:20] Worst parenting advice he's ever received

[16:05] About Becky, his wife

[18:00] Why his wife stepped back from work during the pandemic and the conversation around that decision

[23:00] Their decision to start a family

[24:08] His earliest memory of being a dad

[26:04] The most surprising parts of being a dad

[27:46] Which of his kids are like him or his wife

[28:23] Fostering kid’s interests in art, sports and other creative pursuits

[32:08] His daughter’s auto inflammatory disease

[41:44] Where he and his wife don’t align sometimes

[43:44] Sacrifices he's made as a parent

[46:12] His version of work/life balance

[48:50] Mistakes made and lessons learned as a dad

[51:00] Rapid fire round

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Show references:

Oracle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation

ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com

General Motors: https://www.gm.com/

University of Michigan: https://umich.edu/

Albion College: https://www.albion.edu/

Muckle-Wells Syndrom: https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/muckle-wells-syndrome/

Mario Kart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Kart

CallRail: https://www.callrail.com/

The NoseFrida: https://frida.com/products/nosefrida

Saginaw, Michigan: https://www.saginaw-mi.com/

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Production support for Startup Dad is provided by Tommy Harron at http://www.armaziproductions.com/

Episode art designed by Matt Sutherland at https://www.mspnw.com/