Alexis Ohanian Launches Podcast, Business Dad, Discussing Work-Life Balance with Successful Dads (Exclusive)

• Alexis Ohanian starts a podcast dedicated to how successful fathers manage work-life balance
• Business dad will feature guests including Rainn Wilson, Roy Wood Jr., Guy Raz, Nate Blecharzyk, Paul Scheer and more
• Alexis shares daughters Adira, 9 months, and Olympia, 6½, with his wife Serena Williams

Alexis Ohanian takes a closer look at what it means to be successful as both a father and an entrepreneur.

The CTO and father of two, 41, asks fathers tough questions in his new podcast, Business dad.

Featured by Realm, Ohanian asks, “How do you balance being a dad with a successful career?” to some of the most influential people in business, sports, entertainment and other busy industries.

Speaking to PEOPLE about starting the podcast, Ohanian — father of Adira, 9 months, and Olympia, 6½, who he shares with wife Serena Williams — shares the concept behind the podcast, which has been in the works since 2019.

“It was only a few years after Olympia was born. I started having so many more conversations when I became a dad with other successful dads, from different industries, who had so many things to share about their struggles. And there was something in those conversations which just seemed fantastic to me, because it was like I just joined this club that I didn’t know existed,” he shares.

“I found that the people I knew through work, who were at the top of their field, cared just as much, if not more, about the moves they made as fathers.”

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Alexis Ohanian is watching TV with Olympia and Adira.

Courtesy of Alexis Ohanian

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian Treat Daughter Olympia to Island Treasure Hunt: ‘Doing the Unexpected’

Ohanian hopes these conversations are “normalized and popularized” the way similar conversations among women are.

“People should be able to hear these very successful men talk about how they really care. They really care about showing up for their families. I felt that voice was missing and I started recording those conversations.”

Although the pandemic disrupted the original plans, Ohanian knew he wanted to get back to it as soon as possible.

“This has been an amazing collaboration with Realm. At some point, we’ll be relaunching the original episodes from that time, but for now, the timing couldn’t be better. You can see in the zeitgeist more and more really, really successful dads talking about how much they family is important.”

Ohanian says he appreciates that the conversation is changing and that talking about family life “makes us better in our careers.”

“Ask any working mother and they’ve had to learn to deal with this balance and thrive within it for a very long time,” she says, nodding to the outdated idea that parenting is a woman’s job.

“I really feel like there’s an opportunity here to normalize a different kind of masculinity, honestly. It’s been seven years since I became a dad and I really didn’t think the moment could be better. The bar was so incredibly low for men, especially respectable men. Even if you were looking for your child, it was considered as such they work something. In reality, I think we should be talking about guys stepping up and working for their legacy.”

Serena Williams, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. and Alexis Ohanian Attend AFI Fest 2021 – Warner Bros.’s “King Richard” Premieres Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Ohanian notes that in conversations with older business people who are at the end of their careers and have children and grandchildren, “they all come back to the same thing.”

“Why not get a cheat sheet from men that I really respect and admire, who have done everything? And live what they say, which is, ‘Take that time now, don’t waste it.’ They grow fast.’ The joy I find in being a father is a joy I literally didn’t know existed, and I think the normalization of that is good for everyone.”

Ohanian is also excited to talk to fathers about “all the new opportunities that exist today” in balancing family and career.

“Even the very nature of the job, for so many people, offers more autonomy. Whether it’s freedom of movement or freedom of time, as well as the normalization of things like paternity leave. Those are things my dad didn’t have when I was born in ’83. He took a day off because that was what was expected to take more time than that.”

Alexis Ohanian hands over her newborn daughter Adira to her older sister Olympia.

Courtesy of Alexis Ohanian

He also hopes to inspire men who may not yet be fathers, but are looking for role models for their lives in the future.

“For young men, right now, it feels like there’s a bit of a vacuum. You see a bunch of young men trying to figure out who they are, what they want to be. And that weird vacuum is being filled by some pretty random voice on the Internet,” Ohanian notes.

“One of the things that I hope makes something like this worthwhile is that there are people who are objectively excellent at what they do professionally. The idea is always that you have to earn your living, build wealth, build a career, and those messages have been pushed for so long when you hear from people who have done these things and are at the top of their game and talk about how important this thing called fatherhood is, I really hope that it starts to reshape what success looks like,” he continues.

“What if we can start balancing both goals, neither of which are easy? It’s not easy, but then again, working moms have been doing this for a minute. So we’re going to try to figure out ways to deal with the trade-offs, the struggles.”

Ohanian believes that having this information at an early age would benefit today’s young men.

“I actually think a lot of the good practices I’ve picked up since becoming a dad that you’ll hear other dads have are applicable at any stage of your life. There are some big themes there. You need the same kind of discipline that having a child really forces you when you’re doing any exceptional work. Showing up for your family in a big way requires discipline and schedule management, and those are skills, really muscles, that you should exercise all the time,” he. explains.

“If I were 21 again and started Reddit again, those are the skills I’d want to start practicing because I know they would help me do a better job. You have a lot more time at that early stage in life and think about how empowering that is, what a superpower that you can channel into more efficiency, not just at work, but honestly, it becomes how much time you have for other things that are important to your development. It’s even more unlocking because you have a lot more of this thing called time.”

When it comes to the conversations that struck a chord with Ohanian, he cited his conversation with La Colombe Coffee Roasters CEO Todd Carmichael.

“I was interested in getting inside the head of someone who had built a billion-dollar empire with a very physical business. He had to travel the world, and Todd traveled so much of his life and lived a very adventurous lifestyle. Then when he decided to start a family, he knew that it was something important to him and he explained all the dynamics of it, so I was so thrilled to hear him talk about it the way he did and why he was behind it,” he shares.

“Obviously, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about things like maternal health and, specifically, the black maternal health crisis in America. A lot of families grow the old-fashioned way, but adoption is another great way to build a family. It’s great to see a guy who has already built an empire, who has traveled to some of the most harrowing places around the world, and the excitement he feels today is taking his kids to training sessions and spending time with them as teenagers,” says Ohanian.

“He could have invested in their childhood, and this is what I mean: ‘We can start to see a culture change.’ Todd is just a great example of one of those fathers.”

Alexis Ohanian. James D. Morgan/Getty

Ohanian believes the podcast will have something to offer anyone who is “in any way interested in learning from people you can admire about how they cope and all the struggles.”

“We’re entering this age, whether you’re in tech or not, where there seems to be some kind of limitless change going on. I think it’s even more imperative to stay adaptable, to stay fluid in the midst of this change, to be hungry, to kind of rely on that, to learn and develop,” he says.

“It’s like a little Pokémon, a little kid — they evolve and change. And one day it’s, ‘Woah, you started out as a Charmander, but now you’re a Charizard, and that’s really cool.'”

“You start with a little person and you end up with a very different little person. And you have to adapt because — there are some basic principles that don’t change about love and patience and those things, but you definitely have to adjust your tactics as they develop and age.”

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Source: HIS Education