Guild of Dads was started by me – Joe Horton back in 2020 as a podcast and online mens community but from around 2022 onwards I had to put it on the back burner for a while and take a break from it, as my family went through a few challenging years.
Taking a break was actually a blessing in disguise because it meant I took a break from information overwhelm, the hamster wheel of social media and concentrated on what was important to me. I also learned a few valuable lessons along the way which I will write about on this blog.
During that break I also started the Guild of Dads Hike which is a monthly in person event which has taught me a great deal about the value of in person, offline brotherhood and solidified my belief that offline face to face male friendships are KING.
When I first started Guild of Dads the conventional wisdom at the time was to plaster oneself all over social media and leverage it to build a following.
However, I’ve come to realise that the men and dads space on social media is rapidly becoming overrun by charlatans, snake oil salesmen and men regurgitating a very prescriptive and rigid “one size fits all” view of masculinity that isn’t realistic or achievable for the majority of men.
Many male “influencers” are in actual fact social media, validation seeking dopamine addicts themselves, spending hours a day glued to their smartphones. They fail to live up to the lofty expectations of “being a man” they preach to their followers. They are hyper distracted from their partners and children, and present a split personality on and offline. It’s very much a case of ‘do as I say not what I do’.
Sadly men following their examples rapidly fall down the same rabbit hole themselves jumping from one quick fix in their lives to another, and wondering whether they do in fact want to get up at 4 a.m. every morning!!
So as I write this in August 2024 – after a few years in the wilderness my hope is that Guild of Dads becomes the antidote for men looking to ditch the distraction of social media bollocks once and for all and live meaningful, congruent, present and lives that are connected with who they are and what they want to become.
If you are reading this and what I say resonates, then I invite you to join me on this journey.
Joe
P.S. If you think I am a tech phobe then that couldn’t be further from the truth, however I am rapidly becoming a distraction & bullshitter phobe.