Greatful Dad LLC

I inspire using kindness as a daily way of life. People will feel better about themselves and have a desire to be closer to their family.

John Trayser Bio
Who knew that a third grade teacher’s conference could change my life’s direction in such a rewarding manner? On a chilly February morning in 1996, my son’s third grade teacher asked my wife, son and I to be her first conference for a 2 day schedule of meetings with parents. As we sat down in the small chairs to start, she thanked us for being the first conference because she said she appreciated how helpful we were to her efforts. I loved field trips, reading to the kids or playing my guitar and making up funny songs when she was exhausted on a Friday afternoon. She then said that in 22 years of teaching she had never had a student like our Jared in her classroom. She described how amazing it was to observe him watching over every other student in her classroom with a spirit that said “Shouldn’t we all be watching over each other?” She said our first grade son’s teacher said the same thing about Austin in her class. She then said these life changing words to me…”If you could ever write down what you said or did to make your children act that way…you’d be the teacher’s best friend forever, because it’s getting harder every year to control the classroom.”
That’s where my new journey started. I took off a week’s work and wrote my first book…The Parenting Instruction Book. I wrote down everything that I could think of that influenced my childhood and what I had passed on to my 3 sons. Someone at NPR got a copy of it and had me doing call in shows for about 8 years as The Greatful Dad. With 3 albums of recorded songs about family as well, I was invited to move to Nashville for a PBS TV show…Musicians Behaving Dadly! Sadly, the funding fell through as we arrived. So I decided to drive for Uber and give away 250 books. Somehow, connections were made with the ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) board in Nashville and attended meetings and started speaking about ACEs around the country. I have done full day programs, speeches to schools about ACEs and was recently asked to be on the board for the new effort here in Tennessee…Resilience TN.
Like Oprah discovered, helping others understand the paradigm shift in trauma informed care from, What’s going on with you?…as opposed to…What’s wrong with you?…can change the entire culture of a school. It makes you want to shout to the world the pragmatic connection between emotional childhood issues and physical well-being, on the rest of your life. These days I am trying to spend less time talking about ACEs and more time talking about ACEs prevention. I have tied together a few tools to help kids find a way to make school a warm and caring community where the goal is to teach them how to watch over others…just like my third grade teacher asked me to write. I like to involve teachers, staff and students to realize they can create a warm caring community that makes all students feel like they matter. It seems to be more important all the time because of how few students feel that connection at home these days. That’s why I am a speaker you should hire. I was blessed with the sincerity and enthusiasm to help others see how rewarding watching over others can feel. People will stand in line for an hour to get a hug or share a short story after I speak. I feel blessed to give away my heart…