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The Dad Edge Podcast

The Missing Training That Builds Strong Marriages and Families featuring January Donovan

The Dad Edge Podcast

Larry Hagner

Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Most men and women enter marriage wildly untrained—and then wonder why connection, intimacy, and trust slowly erode over time. In this powerful and deeply thought-provoking conversation, I sit down with January Donovan, founder of the Woman School and Wholeness Coaching School, to explore why information alone will never change a marriage—and why training is the missing ingredient for lasting connection.

 

January shares her personal story of trauma, mentorship, and formation, and explains how emotional command, discipline, tonality, and boundaries shape the way men and women show up in relationships. We talk about why modern culture resists discipline, how "freedom" without formation leads to loneliness, and why both men and women must train intentionally if they want marriages that actually get better over time. This episode will challenge the way you think about growth, leadership, and what it really means to live fully alive.

 

 

Timeline Summary

[0:00] Why most people feel unprepared for marriage and parenting

[2:06] Introducing January Donovan and her work training women globally

[3:02] Why information alone never leads to real change

[4:10] January's origin story and the wounds that led her to this work

[6:12] The power of mentorship and intentional formation

[8:33] Growing up with deep insecurity and identity wounds

[10:17] Unprocessed trauma, abortion, and living in quiet desperation

[11:52] How disciplined training reshaped January's life

[13:18] Why women resist the word "discipline"

[14:50] Formation vs. freedom and the danger of untrained choice

[16:07] Emotional command and generational anxiety

[17:37] Why marriage requires the same training as any profession

[19:35] Decision-making, tonality, and communication gaps

[21:12] Why motherhood feels overwhelming without training

[22:02] Studying your spouse as a form of love

[23:12] Larry reflects on minimal marriage prep vs. decades of marriage

[25:10] Why people resist investing in growth

[27:06] Distraction, shallow desires, and information overload

[28:35] Re-educating sexuality and restoring healthy masculinity and femininity

[32:30] Dad Edge Alliance preview call invitation

[36:14] Why training together is the future for men and women

[40:18] Micro-skills that shape daily life and marriage

[43:07] Tonality and how women can build or break men emotionally

[47:02] Proactivity, masculinity, and relational safety

[49:25] Gossip, integrity, and protecting your spouse's reputation

[53:20] Excellence, interior freedom, and choosing your highest good

[59:02] Casting a long-term vision for marriage and legacy

 

 

Five Key Takeaways

  1. Marriage doesn't fail because people don't care—it fails because they were never trained.
  2. Information without formation leads to frustration, not transformation.
  3. Discipline and emotional command create freedom, not restriction.
  4. Tonality, presence, and self-regulation shape attraction and safety in marriage.
  5. Men and women must train together if they want relationships that thrive long-term.

 

 

Links & Resources

 

 

Closing Remark

If this episode challenged how you think about marriage, growth, or leadership, please rate, review, follow, and share the podcast. Beautiful lives don't happen by accident—they're trained for. From my heart to yours, go out and live legendary.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Dad Edge podcast. The Dad Edge movement creates leaders of men, leaders of families, and leaders of communities. We will not only impact this generation of fathers, but the next generation as well. The kids we are raising will have better chances and odds stacked in their favor because of the amazing example

0:21.2

that their fathers emulated for them. We are here to change the world. We are here to change

0:27.6

relationships. We are here to positively disrupt this generation of fathers so no man goes to their

0:33.6

grave with regret. We disrupt the drift of busyness and replace it with razor-focused intention,

0:40.3

passion, purpose, and direction.

0:43.7

We are the Dad Edge,

0:45.7

and we're here to change the game.

0:47.8

We're here to change the game.

1:07.1

I don't know. Do you guys ever feel that you are, you were wildly unprepared for marriage?

1:09.5

Not just you, but your wife.

1:30.0

I mean, if you really, really think about this, marriage is like one area of our entire existence where it's like, oh yeah, just go do that and you'll figure it out along the way. Actually, scratch that. We do the same thing with kids, like being a parent. They send you home with this bundle of joy, this baby, and they're like, oh, don't worry, you'll figure it out, best time of your life. There's some books, maybe some YouTube videos or whatever. But man, like we are literally left to figure this out on our own. Like,

1:35.8

this is the way society sets us up. It's kind of crazy. However, we can rewrite that story.

1:41.8

We can do something different. And now we have the resources at our fingertips for education.

1:48.2

So gentlemen, what's going on?

1:49.2

My name is Larry Hagner.

1:50.2

I'm the host and founder of this podcast, this show, and movement.

1:53.0

If this is your first time here, welcome here.

1:55.8

I'm glad you're here.

1:56.8

We have 11 years of content for you over 1,400 episodes with amazing human beings, just like today.

2:04.0

We talk marriage.

2:05.2

We talk parenting.

2:06.0

We talk health, finances, leadership, the whole gamut.

...

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