Today we have Daniel Champion of Dad Notes on The Mag. Read more about Daniel below!

Introduce yourself and your brand.

My name is Daniel Champion. I am 33 years old and have lived most of my life in the state of Utah. I am a father of two boys (soon to be three! Due in August!) and my wife and I are coming up on our 12-year anniversary.

What inspired you to start this brand?

Dad Notes started about a year and a half ago when my 8-year-old was starting 1st grade. He has anxiety and the transition from a couple hours of kindergarten to all-day 1st grade was hard for him - especially lunch, with all the smells, noises, large groups of kids, and not really having any friends to sit by. He would get overwhelmed and ask his teacher in tears if he could stay in the classroom during lunch. But then he wouldn't eat his lunch because he wasn't hungry from being anxious, and would come home with a full lunchbox. As parents we got involved and helped the best we could, but knew it would need to come down to him being brave and going through something tough. So my wife began writing a note to put in his lunch box with a few simple words of encouragement to remind him of how awesome he is. After a couple days, my wife was busy one morning and asked if I could do the note for that day and I happily obliged. I wanted something that would not just encourage him, but try to make him smile or laugh. So I drew a simple illustration with a silly message below that he could relate to. When he got home from school that day he let my wife know how much he liked it and requested that I do all the notes from then on. I got promoted. I have been writing and drawing those notes just about every school day for him since then.

He is now in 2nd grade, handles the all-day school like a champ, sits with his friends at lunch, and sometimes he will even eat it (we are still working on that one). So while now his notes aren't focused as much on words of encouragement, I still try to make them educational, fun, uplifting, and silly while trying to lightly teach an important life lesson. I started sharing these notes on my personal Instagram account and got a lot of responses from friends and family that I should create an account with just these and that other people would enjoy them. I kept telling them they were crazy and that nobody would want to see these, but eventually caved and decided to start posting them on their own account - with the mindset that only a dozen people would actually follow me. I have been happily surprised to see the account grow and get to know people who are in similar situations with their own kids. I realized then that it isn't necessarily about showing the note that I had created to people, but that the note allows people to relate and get ideas on how they can create a bond with their own children. So that became the driving factor on why I post.

Share three of your favorite 'dad notes’ .

Three of my favorite Dad Notes are the lionfish, the flamingo, and the chameleon. The message of the flamingo Dad Note says "This is a flamingo. It is pink because of the type of shrimp it eats. If that were true for you, you'd be a nice shade of orange from all of the goldfish crackers. Love, Dad." I did this one to lightly tease him about the amount of snacks (goldfish crackers included) that he eats. He loves to constantly be eating snacks and doesn't eat meals, so I had him picture what he would be like if he was like a flamingo and changed color based on what he ate. He got a kick out of that one.

Does your son appreciate what you do?

I know my son appreciates the notes. Well, at least most of them. If there is a drawing that isn't "cool" enough or a note that isn't as funny, he will be sure to let me know. But there have been times on the weekends where he says "Dad, you forgot to do a Dad Note for my lunch today!" and I'll remind him that it is a Saturday. So I'll take that as a sign that he still looks forward to them.

Name other small businesses in the parenting space that you love.

Three other Instagram accounts that inspire me are @fatherly - posts of fathers being great examples, @anxioiusmoms- having a son with anxiety makes me relate to the posts and are very helpful, and @simonchaolland - to help ignite the humorous side of things.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I'm currently in the process of creating booklets of these Dad Notes with tear-out pages so parents can share them and put them in their own kids' lunchboxes. The corona virus has set this back a little bit, but I am hoping to get it up and running before school starts back up in the fall. A website will be coming soon for people to purchase them there.