I'm not an expert.
I'm someone who almost lost everything — and chose to do something with it.
My name is Travis Cisneros. I live in Portland, Oregon with my wife Grace and our daughter.
Grace is a real estate agent. I'm building Rookie Dad. We're in a full season of work right now — the kind where you're building something real and you feel it every day.
But we stay active, eat well, and protect our family time fiercely. Grace and our daughter are horse girls through and through, and we have a dream of a big farm someday — sun, land, horses, family, space to breathe.
When we do slow down you'll find us at the beach, on a trail, or I'm sneaking in a round of golf. We're a family that runs toward connection and adventure — and we're working hard to build a life that makes room for both.
That life didn't come easy. It was built through one of the hardest seasons we've ever faced.
Getting here wasn't simple.
When our daughter was born, Grace and I were in one of the hardest seasons of our relationship. I was hiding things. Avoiding hard conversations. Trying to keep everyone around me comfortable while she carried the weight of everything alone. I thought I was showing up. She felt abandoned.
She almost left me. And she would have been right to.
What followed was months of real work. Couples therapy. Individual therapy. Hard conversations where we had to take everything apart and learn how to put it back together. Learning to communicate from scratch. Learning what it actually means to put your partner first — not just say it.
We're still doing that work. And we're stronger for it than we've ever been.
I built Rookie Dad because I kept thinking about all the men walking into fatherhood the way I did — with love and good intentions and absolutely no roadmap for what was coming. Not the relationship pressure. Not the family dynamics. Not the fear underneath all the excitement.
Nobody was talking to them. So I decided to.
Why I do this work
This isn't a pivot. It isn't a business idea I stumbled onto.
It came out of the most painful season of my life — and the decision Grace and I made to fight for each other and for our family instead of walking away.
Connection and adventure are at the core of who we are. We don't want to just survive parenthood. We want to live it — fully, together, with intention. That's what I guide other dads toward. Not perfection. A real, connected family life that's worth showing up for every single day.
I guide dads through the season I almost didn't survive. Not from a place of having it all figured out. From a place of knowing exactly what it costs when you don't.
For the midwives and birth professionals reading this
I was the dad sitting next to his partner at almost every appointment — engaged, asking questions, showing up. And I still wasn't ready for what came after birth. That's exactly why I built this, and why I believe the work you do and the work I do belong together. If you'd like to connect, I'd love to talk.
Travis Cisneros
Founder, Rookie Dad
Portland, OR