Dad Of The Month!

Jon Ochs

Where do you live?
In a rural suburb of Oregon City, Oregon.

What is your profession?
I own and operate a nationwide credit repair and debt counseling company. We provide straight answers to people who find themselves in financial distress and don't know where to turn, as well as provide credit report repair to those who are working to improve their credit scores for a new home purchase or refinance.

What are your hobbies/interests?
I have many interests. In the good weather months, I enjoy taking my family on hiking trips where we can get away from everyone and take in the scenery of the beautiful Northwest mountains. In the winter, we head up to Mt. Hood for snowboarding and skiing. I also enjoy working through new business and investment ideas with my wife (and business partner).

What do you drive?
Our everyday vehicle is a 2005 Volvo XC-90. We absolutely love it. This winter we got a chance to see how well it handled in over 25 inches of snow. We never even had to chain up. We also have a Mercedez CLK-55 AMG convertible for fun in the summer months.

What are you reading?
Currently I am reading "Journey of Souls" by Michael Newton. It is a very enlightening, and well researched book about the afterlife. Most of the books that I read are technical training manuals for software programming languages, so this one has been a nice detour.

What music are you listening to?
About the only time I listen to music is in the car on my way somewhere. It is usually whatever pop station we have tuned in. Since most of my work day I am focused on writing code for web applications relating to our businesses, I find music distracting. I have my iphone loaded up with about 100 of my favorite artists and enjoy listening to them when I am on a plane, or laying on the beach in Mexico.

What's the last movie you saw?
I just watched "Meet the Robinsons" last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am a huge fan of action movies, but don't get a chance to watch them much anymore since my 2-yr old son is always with us.

Over the past year, we have watched more than our fair share of Disney Pixar films (most of them multiple times). Disney has done a great job of embedding adult humor into children's movies, and the underlying lessons in their movies are very well done.

How long have you been married?
I have been married just over 8 years now.

Kids names and ages?
Our son Connor is now 27 months.

Describe your favorite family vacation?
We travel to Mazatlan Mexico at least once each year for 1-2 weeks of total relaxation. When Connor is a little older, we plan to take additional trips to show him the world, but we will continue to go the Mexico as well. Sometimes it is nice to have a place to go that remains somewhat the same. We know our way around, we know what to expect, and we can completely unwind.

Your thoughts on being a Dad?
To say it is a challenge is an understatement. I was told my many that becoming a parent would be hard, but did not know exactly what would be hard about it. As I have now found out, the hardest thing for me is time management; spending a great deal of my time with my wife and son while still moving our business forward. I have had to give up my "pre-child" levels of productivity and be ok with getting less done over time, and that has been a huge challenge for me personally. However, all the sacrifices that have been made are absolutely worth it, and I would not go back for anything.

How do you juggle family and work?
Since I work from home, it is incredibly easy to spend a lot of time with my son. That has also been a problem at times in finding chunks of quiet time to get work completed. Nothing with respect to work happens as quickly as it used to. Fortunately, we have great family support on both sides which has allowed our son to spend time with grandparents at least 2 days each week. This gives my wife and I a chance to catch up on things. It takes a lot more discipline to stay focused on work these days. It seems I am always tempted to go play legos.

What's your favorite thing to do with your kids?
We love taking Connor to the zoo. We have a fantastic zoo here in Portland, and Connor absolutely loves animals. Around the house, we play chase games and hide and seek. Connor has a lot of toys, but the most fun is had just interacting with him.

What advice would you give to new or soon-to-be dads?
If you have a list of things to get done, do it before your child is born. You will find little time after. Don't be so hard on yourself when you are not able to be as productive as you were before your child, there will be plenty of time later on when they begin going to school.

What lessons have you learned from your own dad?
My parents are also business owners and I believe that my business owner foundation and drive has come from that exposure. They would discuss their business all the time and often include us in the conversations. While growing up, I would often resent the fact that they talked business all the time, but I now realize that I learned more about business from them than any college could teach. My wife and I now do the same with our son.

What is your website address?
www.ncaCreditRepair.com


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