Welcome to Season 3 of The Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show! In this premiere episode, Jeffery Ross teams up with tech wizard and systems strategist Dave Miller to officially launch the HeroMakers series — a season dedicated to creating leaders who raise other leaders. Together, they share powerful reflections on burnout, breakthroughs, and building brands that actually matter. This isn't about chasing trends or fancy tools — it's about discovering your true voice, telling your story, and stepping into your assignment. If you’ve ever wrestled with perfectionism, tech overwhelm, or feeling like you’ve outgrown your old mission — this episode is for you.
“AI isn’t the hero. You’re the hero. AI just helps you scale your story.” — Jeffery Ross
“Clarity doesn’t always come before you start — sometimes it comes because you start.” — Dave Miller
“The goal of HeroMakers isn’t to build followers… It’s to create leaders who build other leaders.” — Jeffery Ross
💬 Comment “HERO” on Facebook or YouTube if this episode resonated — and Jeff will send you the free HERO Framework Mini Guide 🦸♂️
🎧 Subscribe and listen on: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.
Jeff Ross (02:49) All right, g'day legends. Welcome back to the Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show. I know we took a little break there as we transitioned from season two into season three. Hey, my name's Jeff Ross. I'm your host today. And today is going to be a big one because we're kicking off season three with a bang. And this season's all about the hero makers. Now, what is a hero maker? Well, it's quite simple. A hero maker is someone who doesn't just lead for themselves. They create leaders.
who create leaders. And that's exactly what this season is all about. Learning from expert leaders from around the world, change makers alike, who are out there multiplying their impact, scaling influence and leading a legacy. Hey, I'm not flying solo with this one. Every now and then I'm gonna bring my mate Dave Miller up here to help me co-host and he's here today to help me to kick this one off. Dave and I will be tag teaming throughout this season.
Sometimes I'll be leading the interviews. Sometimes Dave will jump in and co-host with me. And sometimes we'll just be both here grilling our guests together. Not actually on the barbecue, but you know, actually having a really awesome conversation. It's going to be a fun. It's going to be raw. It's going to be a packed field season with loads of wisdom. So Dave, welcome to the show Legend. Excited to be kicking this one off with you. Let's get into it, shall we?
do it. The background noise and all. Why not? This is raw. is unfiltered. This is the laptop lifestyle dad show, right? And so this is all about two dads, know, two Aussie dads at that showing up and doing life and business together. So Dave, you've been jamming together with me now for a few years, but those who don't know you yet, can you give our audience a bit of a quick snapshot of who Dave Miller is?
and the kind of work that you're doing.
Well, I'm a 57 year old male, obviously, from Australia. I'm currently residing in central Queensland, Australia. A father of five kids, three of my own and two ring ins, I guess, as we'd say here in Australia, but love them all equally. And, you know,
I specialize really in, I guess, teaching people, getting people to leverage AI and helping them use AI to amplify their voice, I guess, as we did in our training not so long ago. And basically helping them to humanize it, not be scared of it. And, you know, as I said, work with it and don't be afraid that it's going to overtake the world, I guess. It's probably the biggest thing. I guess in this community,
I just love being able to serve and do what we're doing together and what we're building together. The Heromakers community is just amazing. yeah, just love the, guess, pressure that I've been put under over the last month or so for that forced growth. So it's been amazing. it's good for me, good for my heart, good for my soul. And hopefully it'll be good for...
our community as well as they gain more benefits from life and serve them. Well, they say pressure creates diamonds are created under pressure, right? And you are definitely a diamond. And, you know, I love doing life and business with you in this space. And for those who don't know, Dave essentially is my right hand man in this space. we've got a bit of a nickname that we've started calling him. Dave, we started calling you the executioner. Is that right?
Yeah, I believe so. was going to throw it in, but I thought I'd just leave it out. I didn't want to scare everyone away. No, we're not here to anybody's head off. We're here to execute and implement. And that's what Dave does. Like I'm the strategy guy. I'm the storyteller guy. I'm the one who will help you to find your voice and amplify it. But Dave is the guy behind the scenes that helps me to, with our clients to implement and execute and take action in that space.
I just love the partnership that we've created together and we really do support and pull off each other and push on each other. we, know, together, we run the race well together. It's brilliant to have you here, Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm just glad I got the opportunity to serve in this community. ⁓ What a place to be. somebody else wants to be. Younger brother, I love it. Yeah, got the older one, tell them the little one, the shush.
Well, the hero maker right now being a dad, right? So I think being a dad is one of the sacred responsibilities there to help especially young men in today's world, to help them to grow up and be leaders of the next generation. And this is what this season's all about. It's all about hero makers, leaders who create other leaders. So what does that idea mean to you personally, Dave? And why do you think it matters right now in today's world?
Wow, good question. I think that what it means to me is getting the opportunity ⁓ to, I guess, force myself to grow and become a better person so that I can teach, hopefully, my children to become better people. And I don't mean, know, Richard or, know, Clam Boyant or whatever. mean, better people in that they're wanting to help others, they're willing to serve others, they're willing to do what it takes, you know.
pop the old lady across the road and use their manners. I don't know they're doing a bit of that right now, but use their manners appropriately in life and just be good Samaritans, so to speak, I suppose. But I think why that's important is because children these days have got so much of an advantage to what we had. When I was a child, you either had a push bike if you were lucky or you'd walk and every afternoon you'd
or you walk home from school and then you go and walk to the beach or play soccer with your mates or whatever it was. Nowadays, they come in and they're straight, usually on technology a lot of the time, and they've just got so much of what's happening in the world, good, bad, and otherwise it's been they've been exposed to. And I think we really need to ⁓ step up and be better leaders to try and help them.
you know, deal with that and how they, you know, how they can react and respond to that. I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but they really need to learn how to process that and what to do with it because it can be a really bad thing, but it doesn't happen. Yeah, yeah. And so I love that you're you're you're helping to really support your family in this space. That's what it's all about for you in that end of the day. So how has being a father in today's world help you to step up and be a leader who focuses on the crowd?
I think just the challenge has been a few years. I've got a variety of age of children. I sort of had them late to start with. My first one was about 44, I think she was. My daughter, who's now 18 or nearly 19. And then I had son five years after that. And then it was about a nine, eight or nine year gap again.
between the two of them, the four year olds, actually nearly nine years because the other one's 13. So nearly nine year gap. So I guess having to, well, I guess probably a better story is losing my job just bit over a year ago, I guess really forced me into having to work out ways I could provide. And for the first six months, I've been really doing very good.
job of that honestly. And got myself, I guess, in my head, not in here. And it took a lot of help from obviously you guys, the community as well, ⁓ to get me from here out of here and obviously help with showing me how to deal with that and bring me in with the right people. And I guess from that experience ⁓ and then to, I guess, where we are now.
has sort of, I guess, taught me the importance of spending that time with the kids, not that I sometimes still don't do that very well, but I'm here and I can interact with them. It's balance, right? It's the balance. But I want to come back here to that point that you said that you've just gone through, you like you've lost your job in the traditional workforce sense. And so now you're figuring out that messy transitional phase. And the big thing that has supported you through that is community.
I want to talk that hard at that. Like, do you think you would have got through the season that you've gone through lately without community? No, I would end up getting a job or worse. You know, there was stages that I sat outside crying, you know, one o'clock in the morning by myself and, really had to deep dive and ask myself whether, you know, I deserve to be here, whether my kids or family would be better off without me. Honestly, it was that it got to that sort of stage and.
I guess without having faith and community then I probably wouldn't be here to be honest, because even having community and faith there was many times it was very close call and I'm not trying to be dramatic about it, it's just the way it was. it's reality and I think a lot of, especially a lot of Australian blokes, I actually just had an amazing conversation with a fellow in the Sunshine Coast by the name of Patrick Eugen and he started this whole community that's fathers for change.
And it's fascinating, especially in this Australian society where blokes, know, blokey blokes, right, we feel like it's almost portrayed to be weak, you know, to that space, to not share your feelings, to be vulnerable in that space. But there are so many blokes, especially, who are going through life and don't ever give that space to be seen, valued, essentially loved ⁓ in that space.
I know that you went through a journey like that and you've come out the other side and you're still coming out the other side of it. But the thing that has helped to build you up and be the person you are today, well, there's several things. What would you say they were? One of them is definitely community. What else would you say? You and faith. yeah, obviously being a pastor and being my pastor, you know, I've had to lean on you a lot. ⁓
and during the process and then, yeah, obviously keep my faith. But I guess the children, you know, even the two that I don't see very often or haven't seen for over a year now, I suppose, which I only just recently was able to start talking to the boy again over the last few months. And I can understand why he started that group because, you know, it's very tough, you know, I've that deal with six years or so, you know.
been able to see my kids and them getting ripped away and blah, blah. I don't know the story, you know, being a man, you don't want to show those emotions, but what happens is you actually become angry. ⁓ Is what I think was, you I became angry about it. You I wanted to get in the car and drive seven hours and sort it out like a bloke, you know, but luckily I had a new partner and well, new wife and ⁓
you know, she could sort of, I guess, help me reason with what, you know, with the demons that I was fighting, I guess, in the initial stages there. You know, I guess then having a second chance with, you know, the four-year-old in that respect, they get me wrong. I the other two kids are still there and cared for deeply. I just don't have the access to them. By him, I do. And I just don't want to make the same mistakes I did.
previously with this one. you know, trying to have that interactive lifestyle or, you know, being forced into that has been, you know, a blessing, but a tough one at the same time. Yeah, but you, you know, going through what you're going through right now, and I've heard this said, you know, that most people wouldn't give up their trials and tribulations for anything because it's helped them to be the person that they are today. You know, like you normally wouldn't wish there's something on your worst enemy, but
Are you like, you coming to that space now where you're grateful for everything that you've gone through? yeah. Definitely grateful for everything that I've gone through. Um, because, um, I guess the biggest thing was learning how to process it, I suppose. and yeah, I guess, yeah. Uh, instead of being angry and hurt, just be grateful that, you know, I wake up every day and be grateful that I have access to my four year old every day. well, you know, the moment, he sleeps in the bed next to me.
night time too but anyway that's another story. Yeah, I am yeah definitely. I feel sorry for him you know, but he gets to sleep before I do otherwise he wouldn't get to sleep with me so. But you know and just yeah grateful that I'm able to come on and do things like this, grateful for you know a relationship that you and I have forged together and you know the opportunities that that's presenting to me. And yeah just I've just learnt I guess
to appreciate everything that you have, good, bad or otherwise, as opposed to, know, only appreciating the good things. Well, everything's an opportunity for growth, right? Everything's an opportunity for growth ⁓ and to help us, to challenge us, to help us to step up, to help us to essentially be the person that, you know, the leader that we wish that we had in our corner and to be that for others. But more importantly, to be that for our family.
You know, I've got three young boys. know you've got kids and, and that's the biggest driving force to show them a way that, that helps leaders, credit the leaders. And it's such an amazing conversation to be a part of. But yeah, let's, let's keep it real here for a second. You know, I know that you've been in positions of leadership in your past job, like as a project manager in the construction space. And I'm sure that you've made many mistakes as a leader that turned out to be your best leadership lesson. What was that?
What was one of that mistake that helped to really sharpen you and help you to step up? Actually, I guess I don't really. Well, actually, I probably do. I was probably a bit angry because of the stuff that was going on in ⁓ my personal life and that was coming out in my job. Then I got moved from Glaston down the Sunshine Coast into a different department. And I thought, this is great. I'll be closer to my kids, blah, blah. But I guess the way that I was being a leader,
was coming through ⁓ as angry and me being me as the make-up artist, they were all too soft and they couldn't handle it. anyway, it didn't work out too well for me. what actually I was hardened up by the cup. anyway, because I'd gone from the out in the field, I guess into an office environment, the office environment was little more precious than that. So, know, and I let them know it. you know, coming out.
that from the construction but anyhow as it turned out I guess I sort of got an automated I had to go and do a 360 course or mentoring or not have a job I guess so yeah so that I guess that was the mistake but it actually turned out brilliantly because well I think I'm not saying that for about 12 months I was actually enjoying it
And just how... you had to swallow some pride here and take some tough luck. Yeah, pretty much. And pivot and adjust. But in that, you found growth because you, leant into it rather than shied away from it, right? Yeah. Well, at first I thought, you know, what's all this BS? What's this dude trying to do to me? Basically, I don't need this crap, you know, blah, blah, blah. But in reality I did. And when I actually, you know, I guess, opened my mind and allowed it.
allowed to happen what needed to happen and absorb the information and actually use it as a positive force rather than a negative one, then everything changed. then when I got, I got moved out of the office, not because of that. I actually need to be to come back to Gladstone and take over my previous position. But I think everybody sort of got a whole different attitude towards me.
⁓ At first they sort of thought, ⁓ here it comes again. This is going to be fun. But then when I actually started speaking to them and they realized I'd sort of calmed and had a different approach, things were a lot better all around. And actually enabled me then to communicate better with them and give them opportunities they previously hadn't had. That's such a powerful story on the power of communication.
And yeah, learning to to be the thermostat, not the thermometer in the room for starters. But what I love about that story, Dave, is the fact that you had to take a step back and get out of your ego pride space and get out of that closed minded space and come into it from a different angle, from from open heart, from an open mind and come into it from a space of essentially service. Right. And
you know, getting rid of the arrogance space. I've been there. I've done that, you know, especially in my twenties and my youth. I thought I'd everything in my youth. Well, you know, guess the construction industry when I first started in it was a lot different to work how it has been for the last probably 15 years. But either way, like when I started in it, like when I was doing some labouring work initially as a younger fellow, I did some brickies labouring if I wasn't going fast enough to go up the bricky and throw a trail at me.
You know, can that these days. You're playing these days. And neither should you too, because that was probably kind of confused. Yeah, I realize that. you know, so coming up from that mindset, I guess it was hard to, you know, change like initially anyway. It seems to me like the pendulum swing has gone too far to the left, too far to the right. And what we really need to do is find the middle ground in this conversation. But I think we're getting there. I think we are getting there.
And this is why we're doing this, right, is to facilitate this platform to help leaders step up and essentially leaders to step up and show up and grow up as part of that conversation. learning to grow up, I know I had to, and I you've had to. still am, but I'm 57. So, we never want to lose the inner child part of it, but we do want to. And this is what it comes down to is, is we want to learn to love ourselves. We want to learn to love something bigger than ourselves. And we want to learn to love.
each other and in that learning to love yourself part is learning your strengths and your weaknesses and but if you if you just love yourself then then you just love yourself right without loving somebody else but learning to love yourself so you can be of service to love others it's a whole different conversation right and i guess i was sort of really lucky um i'll probably give my life more credit than i probably want to but anyway
She's been the rock, guess, since she got here and we met. ⁓ And she flew halfway around the world, I guess, to come here. And then we didn't know each other other than the conversations we had online. But from the difference from the previous relationship to this one, just in the fact of how she portrayed that a husband should be
as opposed to what the Australian culture, I guess you could say, ⁓ seeing the husband as, were two completely different things. And it was just, I guess enlightening and challenging, I guess at first, because I'd been brought up in a specific way. with her encouragement and all those sort of things, and that guidance from her, who's younger than me, but probably smarter.
⁓ She's the one who made me realise, I guess, and pushed the duck to step up and be a proper father and step up and be a proper husband. And a bit the husband that your wife needs you to be and your boys need you to be and your kids need you be, right? So, mate, I absolutely love the conversation. I'm going to love this journey that we're on. You know, we're looking ahead into this season at the Hero Makers. We're going to be interviewing incredible leaders, incredible hero makers as they join us.
And so here's what you can come to expect with this season. Each week, we're going to sit down with, you know, hero makers who are experts in their own fields, coaches, authors, podcasters, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are just out there multiplying their influence. You're going to hear their stories. You're going to hear their struggles, just like we've heard today with Dave. You're going to hear their wisdom so you can all take it in, run with it, and become a hero maker yourself.
Because this isn't about hustling harder. This is about building smarter, leading well, and raising up the next wave of leaders. That's what HeroMakers is all about. So if you're new here, welcome to our community. know, make sure you go hit subscribe, share this with a mate who's building their own leadership journey, and lean in on this season. And if you're ready to step closer into the fire, come join us inside the HeroMakers community, which is our Facebook group.
where the real conversations happen and you don't have to do leadership alone. You know, we're building leaders who created the leaders here and we would love to have you on the journey with us. So Dave, what are you most excited about with this season to come up here in season three? The background noise is in the videos at the moment, but other than that, I'm just excited because I know some of the people who will be coming on the
podcast, et cetera. I know how much wisdom they're going to share and how it's going to be really a place not to want to miss any episodes of it because it's going to enable people to get a real different perspective on leadership, I think. ⁓ yeah, mean, just listening to some of these people I've been associated with lately, which I know will speak ⁓ on this podcast, it's just incredible.
the knowledge and wisdom that they've shared. And the thing is, it's all from experience. There's nobody that fakes it till they make it. They've all been in the trenches. They've got a story to tell and to share. And some of those stories are just amazing. So I'm It's real authentic leadership for sure. So, hey, if you're listening to this and you want to subscribe, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
And this episode and our actual whole season has been brought to you in partnership with the Los Angeles Tribune Podcast Network. So thank you very much for your time today, legends. Let's buckle up for season three. It's going to be an absolute ripper. We'll see you on the next episode.