The pop culture landscape is dominated by multi-hyphenates, and Tom Riles is no exception. He’s not only a husband, father, entrepreneur, speaker, and long time warm-up act for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, but he’s the founder of Life of Dad, one of the most influential parenting sites in the world.

In advance of this year’s PromaxBDA Conference at LA Live from June 5-8, where Riles will serve as emcee, Daily Brief had a chance to speak with Riles about Life of Dad’s journey, The Brady Bunch and the story behind the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) award-winning #CheerioChallenge.

Daily Brief: Having children to begin with is a whirlwind, but Life of Dad seems to be mimicking that journey.

RILES: Everything we do from the groups we form, the content we produce and in person events to our series of podcasts, is celebrating the adventure of fatherhood. We thought there was a place out there for every dad in the world and that’s what led to what it’s become.

DB: What’s the most surprising adventure that’s come out of Life of Dad?

RILES: My oldest daughter, who’s 7 now, was born with a heart defect. She had open heart surgery at 3 days old and Life of Dad was born in that same moment. I started writing posts for my friends and family who wanted updates as we were going through these hard times. It was my story for the first year or so. Once I brought on business partners, I realized it could be so much more. This could be the story of every dad in the world.

I have an entertainment background, so when I started, I thought it’d be entertainment-based, which it is, but I’m happily surprised it’s having such a positive effect on other dads around the world. There are single dads that reach out to us and are so thankful because they don’t know where else to turn. On the sad sad side of it, there’s a grieving dads group, dads that have lost a kid, or their wife or somebody close to them, so they have other guys to turn to and lean on while going through something that most people in their life can’t really relate to.

I’m happily surprised that it’s having deep impacts on individuals.

DB: What have you learned about parenting through Life of Dad?

RILES: We get great guests on our podcasts. We’ll get an athlete dad or a celebrity dad and I always learn something from them. A good example recently was comedian Josh Blue, who said it’s important to put the cell phone down and get on the ground with your kid at least once a day. If you have a 5 year old or a 10 year old and you sit down on the ground and say alright, what are we doing, you’re going to create this little world with them. Even if you just do it for 5 or 10 minutes, that’s so important. We go through so many things with them: brush your teeth, eat, stand up straight, go to school, but it’s important to have those fun moments with your kid every day. Not that I didn’t know that, but it was a nice reminder.

DB: Who’s the best sitcom dad of all-time?

RILES: Mike Brady, for sure, because my whole family loved The Brady Bunch growing up.

DB: What’s the best family show on TV right now?

RILES: As far as family shows, what’s the one on NBC? There was Parenthood, now it’s…

DB: This Is Us?

RILES: Yes. That’s an incredible family show. But not for my 7 year old.

My kids are locked in on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. However, they love Moana and Trolls. Those are the two movies they’re hot on now. They’ll watch each one maybe once a week, and they’ll listen to the soundtrack every day, running around the house, singing and dancing.

DB: I’m with them on Moana. Are there any movies or shows or books you’re excited to share with your kids when they’re older?

RILES: Most guys would say Star Wars, but I’m not a Star Wars guy. I don’t know if I have a movie I’m crazy passionate about that I’ve thought I can’t wait for my kids to see this. My favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption, but you don’t really think, I need to get my kids in to see that one.

DB: Having worked for so many shows, obviously audiences for each are different. Were there any least favorites, or shows that were impossible to warm up?

RILES: Ellen fans love her so much and travel from all around the world and we have crazy guests, so there’s incredible energy in the room every day. On the other side, you might work on a game show where you have the same audience for 12 hours. What do you do with them? You use up your material and games in the first half hour, then you still have 11 and a half hours to go.

My philosophy is you have to become friends with the audience. They have to look at you as one of them. Be friendly with them. Play fun games with them. Give them knowledge about the show so they understand what they have to do. Not every show is as simple as applaud when something nice happens.

DB: Are you a morning person?

RILES: Yes. Even last night, after the wrap party at Ellen, I was home by 10:30 or so and up at 4 this morning. With young kids, that’s the me time when I figure out the two or three biggest things that have to be done for Life of Dad that day and do my best to knock one or two of them out. I’m not productive until 4:30. The first half hour is meditating, having tea or whatever, but once I’m able to lock in, if you can get some of your biggest goals of the day accomplished before everyone else in the house wakes up, it’s an amazing feeling of productivity and everything after is gravy.

Luckily enough, I have business partners as crazy as me. Every Saturday morning at 4:30am, we do our Life of Dad founder’s call. We’ve been doing that for six years or so. We’re pretty disciplined. If you want to make it happen, you gotta put the work in.

DB: Were you always a morning person, or did that happen after you had kids?

RILES: I was always a morning person, but that meant 6 AM. With kids I want to do my best to be present and involved when I’m with them, I put all the work aside from 7 to 8:30 when we’re getting them ready for school, and when I get home from work.

DB: What is Life of Dad planning for Father’s Day?

RILES: The biggest thing we’ve ever done was last year’s Cheerios Challenge. That started simple, with one of my co-founders, who’s also my brother-in-law. He had a one month old asleep on him so he couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. So he grabbed some Cheerios left by his son. He started stacking Cheerios on her and posted it on Life of Dad and called out: this is the Cheerios stack challenge. How many can you stack?

Within a few hours, about a hundred people had sent in a photo. We had to figure out a hashtag, and made it the #CheerioChallenge because we weren’t technically working with the Cheerios brand. This year it’s the #CheeriosChallenge, because we are.

We posted across all social platforms and within a day, we were trending on Facebook and Twitter and Cheerios was calling us to partner with them. It had gone viral, and was everywhere from Buzzfeed, CNN, to The Today Show to Colbert, which is crazy. It was the four or five days leading up to Father’s Day, so the entire weekend we were trending. There were a lot of bad things going on in the news, as there are now, and it was one of the only lighthearted things out there. When we thought it was over, President Obama was stacking cheerios in a get out to vote video he was doing with Buzzfeed. It was ridiculous.

It started a great partnership with Cheerios, and we’re working with them again this year, with big prizes attached. Anyone who enters has a chance to win an all-expenses paid trip for Father’s Day weekend to the Mall of America.

Father’s Day is our Super Bowl. Beyond Cheerios, there are a lot of brands that want to work with us. We’re creating fun and ridiculous campaigns for a bunch of brands.

Our new app is going to be released several weeks before Father’s Day. All the dads from around the world can connect and join groups and take photos with customized filters and frames all related to fatherhood. It’s really exciting.

DB: I was going to ask now that you’ve had Obama stack Cheerios, where do you go from there? Sounds like the app is the answer.

RiLES: It’s another way to celebrate the adventure of fatherhood. Life of Dad started about me, but now it’s not about me at all. It’s about them. What does Life of Dad mean to every dad in the world, and connecting with fathers everywhere.

If you want more Tom in your life, register for this June’s PromaxBDA Conference 2017, or check out Life of Dad.

[All images courtesy of Tom Riles & Life of Dad]

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