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The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Brad Powell
By Renee Roberson
Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a father who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a man and a father. Above all, the Dad of the Month is dedicated to his children. Rich or poor, famous or not, he shines as an example of what fathering is all about.
Most job descriptions don't require you to be a parent as part of the qualifications. But for Brad Powell, chief operating officer for DadLabs, the Internet channel targeted specifically at dads, it's a necessity.
DadLabs is a series of daily and weekly short-form Web videos about modern fatherhood. DadLabs captures the growing and underserved niche of co-parenting dads through professionally produced but humorous video segments. DadLabs aired their first video online in October 2006.
Prior to that, Powell, who lives in Austin, Texas, worked as a business manager at a private boarding school, and also taught geometry and economics. For fun, he and two other colleagues, Troy Lanier and Clay Nichols, decided to put together a DVD called Due Dads: The Man's Survival Guide to Pregnancy, which was released in 2006. In the DVD, the three partners took the opportunity to share and discuss the pearls of wisdom they learned during their respective wives' pregnancies.
"Basically, you need to take care of the expecting mom, because she's the boss during the process," Powell says. "Don't be your slovenly self. Go to all the doctor's visits and pre-arrange your schedule."
Due Dads, which is an iParenting Media Award winner, offers helpful tips through each trimester of the pregnancy. "We talk about how to 'babyproof' your finances, necessities for the nursery, things you should and shouldn't say," Powell says. "It's humorous but we want to impart some really good information, things we wish we had known."
The three men, who have seven children among them, were inspired to make the DVD because they felt that most of the books available about preparing for fatherhood were pretty dry and clinical. Articles on the Internet were mostly geared toward expectant mothers, and not the fathers.
"A dad's perspective is completely different," says Powell, who also recognizes that today's fathers are involved with their children's day-to-day lives now more than ever. "Guys want to be entertained; they don't really want to be all touchy feely."
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He says the DVD took about two years to make and produce from start to finish. Of the three men, there were at least two wives pregnant during the process. In 2007, they released a Due Dads guide to labor and delivery.
The men decided to release a video online using some of the footage from Due Dads, and Powell said it brought an enormous amount of interest to what they were doing.
The project gave Powell a chance to embrace his artistic side and eventually ended up as a dream business venture. "I felt like a poet trapped in spreadsheets, and it was a great opportunity to be creative," says Powell, who is also an avid harmonica player and has played in music venues and recording studios in Austin.
Nichols is an accomplished author and playwright, and Lanier is also a documentary film producer, so between the three men, they had the skill set needed to bring their online video wisdom to the masses of today's busy and committed fathers. Working together, they turned the idea of their video into an Internet television production company that broadcasts four short videos each week. In one of their funniest experiments, host Owen Egerton dressed up in a 30-pound pregnancy simulator and shopped for maternity wear.
DadLabs recently received the honor of "Best New Uploader" at the 2008 Yahoo! Video Awards. They've also been featured in the "Your Business" segment of MSNBC and had a write up in Advertising Age.
What sets DadLabs apart from a lot of the parenting advice targeted to dads is the humor the three men incorporate with their suggestions. For example, Powell often warns expectant dads that it's probably not a good idea to cook onions and kielbasa in the house, and he remembers when Nichols had to make coffee out in his garage because his pregnant wife couldn't take the smell.
Powell says that although he's working harder than he ever has in his life, the men realize they can't have a dad-focused company and be away from home all the time. "Everyone here is very devoted to the fact that we're going to be good dads," says Powell, who, along with wife, Liz, has a 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son.
"Our wives are the breadwinners in the family; they have the benefits," Powell says. "I get the kids dressed and make their lunches, then take them to school. We leave the office around 4:30 p.m. and are with our kids until at least 9 p.m."
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