A standout basketball player in college, Craig Coupe understands the importance of being a team player. It served him well on the court and in his career as a commercial real estate broker in Chicago.
That team mindset helped him see a play many men miss: his skills could be better utilized if he helped his wife Erin build her business, which was already thriving, and become the Lead Dad to their two boys, 9 and 11.
Her executive leadership business – Authentically EC – was doing great but it could do even better if someone – Craig in this case – could relieve her mental load around parenting and remember to do all the things he didn’t do when he was commuting into Chicago.
“To do what I was doing for the next 20 years, I could certainly do it,” Craig said. “But what she was building was so unique and it was going to help working parents, while I was in something so transactional.”
“And while that’s going on I’ve got these two boys,” he said. “I was so good playing sports with them and cooking dinner. But all the details, the things you don’t get credit for, my wife was still doing.”
So last year he made the move – leaving commercial real estate and becoming a Lead Dad and the chief growth officer at Authentically EC. It seemed like an easy decision.
“In the moment, my head was in the right spot – I was going to support my wife and do all the things with my kids and everything is going to be great,” he said. “But two to three months into it, the ego comes in. ‘Craig you’re an EVP at a Fortune 200 company and a subject matter expert’. Then all of these work contacts just disappear. When you’re in a very transactional business, people say I’m going to move on. I left my identity of so many people relying on me and going downtown every day, to sitting in the backseat and asking my wife, ‘What do you need?’”
But Craig powered through. He had scored 1,000 points in college. He began to think of himself as Scottie Pippen to his wife’s Michael Jordan.
Still he gets digs from men who can’t grasp what he’s doing – “What’s it like working for your wife?” or “I could never do that, man” – but he’s learned to let that roll off his back. Those comments say more about the man saying them.
Craig has two tips for other men taking up a similar type of Lead Dad role: start by being more present in your family’s life and be patient.
“The key to being a Lead Dad is to own it and not dance around it,” Craig said. “It lands much better if you own it. There are some people who are doing this role but they’re trying to justify it.
I say this is my role and I love doing it. Embrace the good and the bad.”
Wise words, Craig. Welcome to The Company of Dads!
