Episode 007 · Personal Development

Ruthless Transparency: Real Vulnerability, Accountability, and Showing Up as a Dad

Guest: Josh TurnerThe SkilledDad Podcast

About This Episode

Josh Turner — married 17 years, dad to an 18-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter with severe special needs — joins Zach to talk about what real vulnerability looks like for men. Josh co-founded the 10/10 Project, which runs year-long adventure trips (snowmobiling, UTVs, fly fishing) to help Christian business leaders and ministry men stay healthy and build the kind of trust that makes honest conversation possible. He shares the raw story of texting three close friends and his wife a list of three things he was struggling with, and unpacks the difference between social-media "vulnerability" that only collects encouragement and the kind that invites real accountability. On the dad side, he gets honest about codependency, apologizing to his kids, building rites of passage, surrounding his son with good men, and being intentional with a daughter who may always live at home.

What You'll Take Away

01

Vulnerability without accountability is just performance.

The point isn't posting your struggles for applause — it's giving a small circle of trusted men (and your spouse) permission to ask hard questions and call you out.

02

The thing you most want to hide is usually the thing you most need to share.

— with the right people, in the right space, not with everyone.

03

Shared experience builds trust faster than shared content.

Watching a guy face-plant off a snowmobile levels the playing field; conferences and stages don't foster transparency the way doing something together does.

04

Codependency in parenting is real:.

being hard on your kid because their outcome reflects on you puts your expectations on them. Naming it and owning it repairs the relationship.

05

Learn to apologize to your kids and explain why you discipline them.

— distinguish a "sin nature" mistake from blatant rebellion, and teach before you correct.

06

Build rites of passage and surround your kids with good men.

Your child becomes a reflection of the men you intentionally put in their life.

You need someone that loves you enough to punch you in the mouth.
— Josh Turner

Put It Into Practice

Identify your "Peter, James, and John" — the 1-3 men who already know you — and give them explicit permission to ask you hard questions.

Write down the one thing you most want to hide right now and share it with that small circle (and your spouse if appropriate), asking specifically for accountability, not just encouragement.

Plan one shared-experience outing with a friend this month (fly fishing, a ballgame, a back-patio hang) instead of waiting for a conference to "build relationships."

If you overreacted with your kid recently, go back and apologize specifically — name what you did and how it may have made them feel.

Pick up "Raising a Modern-Day Knight" and sketch one rite-of-passage trip or milestone for your son or daughter.

One Email a Week. Worth Your Time.

Practical skills, real stories, and one thing to actually do this week with your family. Written by a dad in the trenches, not a marketing department.

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