I'm Alec lace. Welcome to First Class fatherhood. Welcome everybody to bestow 299 of the podcast. I am happy as always to be here with you. Thank you for stopping by if this is your first time listening to the podcast. Please get over there and bang that subscribe button. You do not want to miss all the action that's coming your way right here on First Class fatherhood. All right, dad's I have got an incredible guest for you guys today Bill Klein is a first-class father who along with his wife Jennifer Arnold star in the Smash Hit reality TV series The Little Couple Bill and Jen. Have been doing this show for over a decade now which focuses on them and their two children. My wife is a huge fan of the show and have to watching the show. I understand why Bill Klein will be here with me in just a few minutes. So please stick around for the interview and I just returned from my trip to Miami for Super Bowl 50 for media day. I posted up a few Clips on Instagram and Facebook. I recorded some excellent sound bites for the podcast. I will be publishing a special edition episode on Friday. Make sure you check it out. I was able to get some great clips from both head coaches. Has Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan as well as Richard Sherman Patrick Mahomes Jimmy Garoppolo and all the rest. Make sure you lock it in for Friday's episode which will be my Super Bowl 50 for media Day special. And as you can imagine there were a ton of questions being asked to the players about Kobe Bryant more on that coming in. Friday's episode was speaking of Kobe Bryant if you happen to see the image of Kobe posted on Time magazine or the one tweeted out by President Trump, the famous photo was taken by Michael Muller who was my guest here on episode 2 The eighth if you missed my interview with the famous photographer, I highly suggest you flip it back one episode and take a listen and make sure you are following me on my Instagram account at Alec on the school lace. I will be announcing the guests from my 300th episode of first class fatherhood. If you recall back on episode 100, I had the honor of interviewing Ed my let who went from being broke to being worked over 300 million dollars on episode 200. I had the honor of interviewing Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, and I have got another great guest planned for number 300 All right, and today's podcast interview with Bill Klein was recorded on video. So if you would like to watch today's episode, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel first class fatherhood. The link is in the description of today's podcast episode. And as always guys, please help me spread the word about this podcast every father in your neighborhood or in your contact list. Let them know about the show that celebrates fatherhood and family life fatherhood rocks Family Values Rule and every day is Father's Day right here with me and I'm going to be right back with the star of The Little Couple Bill Klein. I'm out of place and you're listening to First Class followed. Nothing beats an American flag made in the USA. Right? Well, how about an American flag made in the USA by veterans out of Duty worn for Tiegs from all branches of the military. That is exactly what you get with combat Flags combat flags are handcrafted from Duty wore fatigues and offer a tangible piece of freedoms of the American people. Each flag is accompanied by a professionally designed and printed card that tells the story of service of a soldier Marine. One Airman sailor or coastie who wore the fatigues used to make the flag. They are the real deal dad. So what are you waiting for? Visit combat flags.com and use the promo code father and first last fatherhood listeners will save 10% off their purchase veteran owned American made combat Flags.com promo code father. All right joining me now first-class Father Bill Klein and welcome to First Class fatherhood. Thank you very much. Good to be here. All right, let's start right here. How many kids do you have? And how old are they? Let's see here. I have two kids. My son. William is nine about to be 10. And my daughter Zoe is 8 years old and about to be 18. Yeah, very cool. What type of sports or activities that he into let's hear Zoe's into She's doing Bollywood dancing stuff like that. And my son will is into football much to the Chagrin of his pediatric trained mother. Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah, do you get involved with coaching at all? You like to enjoy it more from the sidelines, you know, I probably be a bad coach because I don't want my team to win almost at all costs. So I'm guessing I'd be carted off the field and that wouldn't be good. Okay, that's not a perfect father. That's for sure. Our bill if you could please just take a minute here to hit my listeners with a little bit about your background and what you do. Yeah, so I'm so I'm 45 years old my family and I live in st. Petersburg, Florida. I graduated from NYU back in know God long time ago with a degree in biology and did nothing with it. I went into medical device sales and then I started opening up a couple of companies. I do Consulting work. I own a pet store in Houston, and we do a pet product manufacturing now and then we We also participate in a reality television show called The Little Couple. It's been on the TLC for almost 11 years now. Yeah, you've had some incredible success and an awesome Journey here what what led to the decision for you and Jen to decide to adopt and how did the how to becoming a father kind of change your perspective on life, you know, I probably better off answering it reverse. So, you know, it changed everything having kids and I'm grateful that that we made the decision. That were made and that the path that we wound up going down was the one that that we had in front of us. I don't think I could have planned it better if I had, you know, every choice in front of me when we first started off Jennifer and I got engaged and we were immediately interested in adoption. But before we were married, we submitted our information to LPA a community that supports people with skeletal dysplasia little people and We put our names on a list and kind of forgot about it for a while. We knew that it would be a while before I name was halt we weren't even married at the time which we thought was a criteria but turns out it wasn't and it moot point but at the end of the day we went through the process of surrogacy knowing that Jennifer's petite stature might cause additional problems that we want to endure and and so we went through that process of surrogacy. We had a couple of miscarriages. We had one that went a little bit. It further than the other and the other ones. I think they call it a chemical pregnancy note notnot quite a full-blown miscarriage there and and and then you know, I guess Destiny, you know, God put us in the right spot to to receive William. We received a profile from Rainbow Kids. It had Williams info on it when we fell in love immediately. We pursued him aggressively and did the paperwork and all that fun stuff and lo and behold we were you know, Locked and loaded and ready to go to China. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah in the children are incredibly blessed to have you guys as parents and you know what I know a difficult decision for a lot of parents that choose to adopt as whether or not or when to tell their children that they are adopted. Did you guys have that discussion going into this? And when did you eventually or decide to let them know Well, I you know, of course, I think that's a decision for every family to decide for themselves. I don't know if our decisions right for anyone else. I hope that it's right. Good for us. I'll tell you in 20 years, you know, I think that for our part we wanted to be as straightforward as we could with our kids so that our stories didn't you know get convoluted. It's much easier to tell the truth and to try and give give the kids in a way that that's palatable for them that they can understand it that it doesn't seem confusing or unreasonable or that they feel that any less loved and as long as Going to accomplish those goals I Jennifer and I didn't see any reason to take to keep anything from them. That being said, of course. We try to use a measure of Common Sense and not try and in datum with with too much info. So we take it a little at a time and we talk about it as they grow as they become more Curious and the more Curious they are the more information. We try to glean but of course because of where they're from and the adoption process internationally, there isn't much information we can convey Outside of the fact that their folks love them enough to make sure that they're taken care of. Yeah. Yeah, very cool. And what about as far as discipline goes Bill what type of disciplinary know who's the bigger disciplinarian in the family and does your discipline style different from the way you were brought up with your parents? Yeah, Jennifer punishes me all the time. I would say, you know, I've gotten a bad rap, you know people think that I'm the what they call the fun dad, but but I Overall, I'm probably more of the disciplinarian as well. I think Jennifer sets the ground rules for all of us to follow kind of our moral compass, but I think the reality is is that you know, I get spend a little bit more time with the kids between the time that I get off work and the time that Jennifer gets off work. I have that Gap and that's every day the week. So so it's kind of nice I get that exposure, but I also get to lay down the law so so I'd say I'm probably the Disciplinary. Yeah, and and Bill what kind of what was the Genesis of The Little Couple? How did that all come about and where you on board with it right from the start. So, you know, I guess the the abbreviated version is Jennifer was caught the eye of some of the folks in Good Morning America. They did a little piece on a Saturday morning about little people that were women that were having success in their career and they showed a you know Bit of a dichotomy between people that went into mostly entertainment and people that went into other careers and Jennifer's obviously a good example of someone that you know, since she doesn't have the physical prowess use your head to get ahead in life. And and so they did that and it went well people seem to I guess like the little piece and and then TLC and production company is called us a 2008 and asked if they would follow us to our wedding. Am I good morning America covered both of us at the very end of their piece and mentioned that I was that I'd propose Jennifer not too long ago. And now we're getting married the next next spring. And so that's that the Genesis of it. They asked us if they could follow us to the wedding and we turned them down now to answer your question. No, we weren't completely on board right away. I think Jennifer and I have worked hard to get to where we are even then and Didn't want to diminish our efforts, you know with any anything that might be misconstrued as sensational. Why is first class fatherhood climbing to the top of the Pod casting charts? Listen to it? Dad's like UFC president Dana White legendary New York City radio host Greg tea and Navy SEAL David Rutherford have to say about the podcast. What a cool podcast is one of the coolest ones I've ever did and congrats. Seriously. I mean it what a cool podcast concept and I love it good for you man continued success dude. I love this podcast plan. Your questions are phenomenal growth, but a nominal I am We happy and I can tell you honestly, I'm proud to be a part of it. Thanks for having me on thank you Alec and God bless you and what you're doing keep it up. I think the compiling that this many fathers and this much great information is going to be invaluable in so many ways. So I wish you all the best brother. So let's go dad's we are not babysitters. We are fathers and we're not just father's we are first class father's subscribe to First Class fatherhood today. All right, guys, many of you have hit me up saying that you would like to start your own podcast and I am telling you right now anchor is the easiest way to get this done. Number one. It's free. I have never paid a dime to publish any of my podcasts and their creation tools allow you to record and edit right from your phone or your computer anchored those all the distribution as well. So it can be heard on Spotify Apple podcast and many more also you can make money with no minimum. Listen to Ship its everything you need to make a podcast in one place. What are you waiting for download the free anchor app today or go to Anchored on FM to get started? Yeah and built it just having the cameramen in the producers around as much as they are or have to be to do a show like like yours. Does that make it sometimes difficult for you as a dad and do the kids feel like as though they can get away with more stuff when the cameras are rolling it all that sort of thing. Well, you know, that's an adjustment for the parents not for the kids. I think, you know the kids will find and I'm sure you've figured this out as well. I believe you have four kids, right? Yeah, so, you know, they figure out ways to To manipulate they see ins and opportunities and they take advantage whatever they can and when we were first parents and our kids first came home. We had not a clue not that we have much more of a clue now, by the way, but when we're absolutely clueless, they knew more about how to get away with something that we knew about how to prevent them. So, you know, we didn't know how to punish. We didn't know how to say no. We didn't know how to, you know, stop down from cameras. You know if cameras are rolling and the kids wanted a piece of candy or they throw a tantrum, you know, it was more difficult to say no. I mean we would but then we'd have to stop down because crying kids aren't really fun on camera. And that was all they were doing was, you know, trying to manipulate the situation. So, you know, you have to become a parent. Yeah. Have you ever have you ever looked back at an episode or watch something and saw something in yourself? Is it that where you were like ooh, yeah. I don't really like that necessarily and maybe made a change from it. Yeah. It'd be great if I had a time machine I could go back and look at everything. I did fall in and fix it. You know, I'm sure every dad would love to have that opportunity. Yeah, certainly not perfect. There are plenty of things that you know, I'm sure I could have been more Stern or less Stern or you know not joking around as much or maybe it was slightly above their you know age some of the jokes that I throw out there. Sometimes I forget my audience and that's dangerous. But but yeah. Yeah, you know, I think that you know, as you look back you of course can be very critical of some of the things you do, I think and I hope that you know that we use our common sense to guide us and and you know a little bit of a measure reservation instead of just leaving before we look and normally things work out. Yeah. What do you said earlier earlier on their bills saying that you had a degree in biology that you never use and one thing that I speak about I drive over on the weekends a lot and I drive a lot of college kids or After graduating college kids that aren't using the degrees but they're buried in debt and I bring out a lot of entrepreneurs you're a successful entrepreneur yourself. So do you feel as though college is necessary for the kids to succeed in today's world, you know, of course my opinion is just mine, but I'd say yeah, I think some sort of Education, you know after high school is valuable. You know, that being said there are plenty of people that enjoy and are proficient at Trades that don't require to you know, four years of school and do better learn more have a happier life and you know and love what they do when they wake up in the morning. So I think for me it made sense to go to college. I think that for most people it's good to have some exposure to the world before you're actually accountable in it, but I don't know that college necessarily is a roadmap to a successful career unless you have a fantastic guy. Yeah, very well said and and how about as far as technology bill? It's a challenge for all of us parents. We're all competing with the technology the iPhones and the video games and stuff like that. How do you kind of handle or monitor? All that stuff with your kids? Well, we have we have rules about screen time. We have rules about a whole bunch of stuff. You know, I think structure is something that kids crave and they work well within that framework. So I think moderation is key, you know kids are using iPads and And Max and computers at school. I think it's unreasonable to think that they're going to disconnect completely when they come home. But at the same time it's a matter of what the content is and how long they're exposed to it. And you know, then you get into the you know, the medical side fortunately. I live with our physician so she gives us good advice and and it has a lot to do with the time of day that you using the screen. So, you know to not watch television or be playing with video games, you know the hour before bed. Helps your mind relax that you can get some restful sleep. And so we try to put all that together and come up with a plan that works for everybody. Yeah, very cool. And how about as far as the future of the show here? You guys got more seasons planned coming on what's coming up next for you guys? That's all secret sauce. I couldn't tell you if I knew well what about yourself? You got any kind of plans for the for the year coming up here any kind of books or anything like that? We could be looking forward to well, we got a lot of stuff that were working on. You know, we have some stuff professionally that And I are working on and then personally, you know where he's messing around with the idea of you know, what should we do next as far as but we're enjoying all the stuff that we've been dabbling in between, you know speaking and you know writing things for for either for advocacy. We do a lot of that sort of work for for folks with disabilities. Jennifer's always on the road for Stuff related to Children's Health Care. So we have a lot of those types of projects that we keep involved in and then of course, you know got TV The nine to fiver and and a couple of kids so not to mention the two dogs two goldfish and recently passed away hamster. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry to hear that. Yeah, we buried a parakeet and hamster ourself here. One thing that I struggle with is sorting out all the pictures. I guess dad's, you know, we love to take pictures of all of our you know, our family is stuff, but it's like it's so hard now for me. I find it to categorize everything you have the old school camera like you're saying you're aware or do you use the phone for? Of your day-to-day pictures. No. No, I also have I have a t1i that tells you how old and how I like to keep Antiquated equipment. But yeah, I haven't t1i that I use as well. You know, what something I took to India over the summer. That is absolutely awesome. It's the osmo. It's a little handheld camera with its got a gimbal on it. So it helps people that are poor photographers like myself to look much better not saying it's professional quality, but it's a heck of a lot of fun and it gets Of looks when you're playing with it too, you know, I use the the iPhone 4, you know my Quick Picks. And of course the osmo is great for the video because it's a pretty interesting handheld that you can do all of the operation from for you from your thumb and then you know most of the time I just I'm lucky because you know, the things that we do that I wouldn't say all of the things that we do have been on television that are you know fun times but for most of the fun In times that we've had over the past six or seven years we have had cameras around for for a bunch of them and so not only do I get to get good video, but I'm actually in it which is look dad. So yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, you have a great treasure Trove of video to go back through for sure. And what about let last thing here Bill. What about for the parents out there that are considering adoption or just at the onset of adoption? What kind of advice would you give to those parents adoption is? It's the exact same thing. It's Everything that you would hope for in a child and experience of becoming a parent and more. It's a of course, it's got its challenges. And if anybody tells you that raising a child no matter what way they come into the world is easy. They're lying to you and nothing is predictable. But but they are amazing. They will brighten your world and I implore you to do it and do it more often. Yeah, very well said I love the message. This has been an honor for me. I got to say Bill Klein, you're a first-class father all the way and thank you so much for give me a few minutes of your time on First Class fatherhood. And next week sir. Thank you having Back to wrap things up here on First Class fatherhood. I got to give a special. Thank you. Once again to Bill Klein for giving me a few minutes of his time here. It was so cool. Please hit me up on Twitter guys or drop me that DM on Instagram. Let me know what you thought about today's episode. I always love to read the feedback. Make sure you lock it in at the first last fatherhood for Friday's special edition Super Bowl 50 for media Day special. I will be playing all of the Clips in the highlights from my trip down to Miami right at the viewed the players and the coaches about fatherhood and family life. Life is some great content there. Be sure you check it out. Make sure you follow me on Instagram at Alec on the school lace where I will be announcing guests for next week's 300th episode of the podcast. That's all I got for you guys today. I'm Alec lace. Thank you for listening to first place 500. Please remember guys, we are not babysitters. We are fathers and we're not just father's we are first class fathers.
Episode 299 Bill Klein is a First Class Father, Entrepreneur and Star of the hit reality show The Little Couple. Bill and his wife, Dr. Jennifer Arnold have been featured on the popular TLC show for over a decade along with their two children. In this Episode, Bill shares his Fatherhood journey, he talks about how the show began, he discusses the challenges of parenting while doing reality tv, he talks about adoption and why he and his wife choose to adopt, he tells us his plans for the future he offers some great advice for new or about to be Dads and more! Subscribe on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCD6cjYptutjJWYlM0Kk6cQ    VOTE For First Class Fatherhood - http://awards.family.is/    More Ways To Listen - https://linktr.ee/alec_lace    First Class Fatherhood Merch - https://shop.spreadshirt.com/first-class-fatherhood-/we+are+not+babysitters-A5d09ea872051763ad613ec8e?productType=812&sellable=3017x1aBoNI8jJe83pw5-812-7&appearance=1     Follow me on instagram - https://instagram.com/alec_lace?igshid=ebfecg0yvbap    For information about becoming a Sponsor of First Class Fatherhood please hit me with an email: FirstClassFatherhood@gmail.com    ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 