ABOUT
Why Oak & Iron
Every family is reaching for the same few things:
To be rooted in something that holds,
To grow through the seasons instead of around them,
To bear fruit that blesses those around them, and
To leave shade for the generations who will outlast them.
We couldn't find a truer picture of that than a tree, and so our name begins there, with the oak.
Oak is your family's natural strength: your story, your people, your roots. The grove of interconnected, growing trees that is your family system. A tree doesn't hurry. It flourishes because of where it's planted: near water, in good soil, tended over years. Its growth is slow, and almost everything good about it happens beneath the surface first. That's the life we hope to help families build. Not a faster one. A more rooted one.
We're far from the first to notice how much the natural world has to teach us, and we count ourselves among its students as part of the created order ourselves.
"The plants and animals with whom we live teach us about birth, growth, maturation, and death, about the need for gentle care, and especially about the importance of patience and hope." — Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Formation
But strength that's only natural still needs guidance, pruning and support, especially when facing the challenges of our modern world where it’s obvious our families are under great stress. That's where the iron comes in.
Iron is the intentional work: the rhythms you build, the conversations you have, the decisions you make deliberately, rather than by default leading to increased vulnerability. It's the forethought that spares a family of needless hardship, and the deliberate care that shapes a strong thing into a good one.
So, we say oak is what your family already is, and iron is what you choose to do with it.
Every family has oak, but not every family fortifies with iron. And that’s how we aim to help. We’re here to help you build on the natural strength of your unique family.
We do so humbly and respectively in honor of your families guiding values, yet always with our guiding hope established in faith in mind, and we look forward to unfolding the beauty and richness of this metaphor together, stretching it as far as it will take us. :)
How this Began
Every family is building something, whether they mean to or not. Ours started taking shape in 2017, a month before our first daughter arrived and Erin left another law firm to start her own practice. She wanted to work on her own terms, serving the clients she wanted the way she wanted.
While Erin supported families navigating some of life's hardest realities, Dan quit his job to be a stay-at-home dad. In time he picked up part-time work as a corporate wellness coach, supporting clients internationally, while helping run the operations of Erin's practice. That developed two things in us.
We discovered the joy of working together as a family team.
We each gained a window into other people's lives, and came to the same conclusion from different angles: what people struggle with, underneath all their differences, is more often the same.
As we continued our separate work, Erin's legal work giving families a foundation and Dan's coaching giving individuals space to think, and we caught a vision. We imagined a place families could come, as individuals or together, in any season of life, to find honest guidance, trusted people, and perhaps even a community on the same journey: all seeking to build something beautiful and lasting at home.
That's the heart of Oak & Iron Family. We don't have it all figured out; we're on the same journey as you. But we've seen how tragically wrong things can go for good people and good families. And we've grown convinced of two things: that beauty can come from even the most tragic circumstances, and much hardship can be avoided with the right forethought and support.
None of it is finished: not our family, not this work, not yours. But that's rather the point. You build something beautiful and lasting the same way anyone always has: a little at a time, and not alone.
More About Us
Dan Johnson is an ICF Professional Certified Coach with years of experience walking alongside people navigating career burnout, marriage strain, identity, purpose, and loss. He has coached local high school students on to global executives and found the core questions and stressors we’re all facing are more-so the same. He’s cultivated a desire to help people put the same kind of intentional planning we give to being successful at work to being successful at home. Dan serves as the primary guide and convener of Oak & Iron Family.
Erin Johnson is an estate planning attorney and owner of Erin Johnson Legal. Calm, compassionate, and deeply committed to helping families plan well and navigate loss with clarity, Erin brings both legal expertise and genuine care to every family she serves. She’s been practicing law since graduating from IU Maurer School of Law in 2014. Erin loves supporting families as well as other local businesses and causes, and she’s stewarding that passion toward Oak & Iron Family.
Together, Dan and Erin live in Carmel with their two young daughters and dog. You'll find them walking local trails, reading at the library, cheering on the Colts, and active in their church. We do very little social media, so here’s some snapshots of the journey.
What We Believe
We believe every family has natural strength: roots, story, people, love. Even the scars can be a source of unique strength.
We also believe that strength alone isn't enough. It has to be tended, intentionally forged over time through the rhythms, conversations, and decisions that shape who a family is becoming.
We believe suffering is part of every family's story. But suffering alone doesn't have to be.
We believe the most important work most of us will ever do happens at home and that it deserves the same care, investment, and intentionality we give to our careers, our finances, and our health. Families today are navigating more complexity and isolation than any previous generation and to be simply well-adjusted to the status-quo, or better than the Jones’s isn’t the right kind of standard for a flourishing family.
We believe community matters. That the best things happen around a table, not a screen. That families grow stronger when they're not trying to figure everything out in isolation. It’s time for the pendulum to swing away from individualism back to the family.
We believe in the God of the Bible. We come to this work shaped by our worldview informed by our faith in Jesus Christ, and that conviction quietly informs everything we do. It would be dishonest for it not to. Our beliefs inform how we listen, what we value, and why we believe that genuine flourishing is possible in a broken world. We share that openly not to draw a boundary around who we serve, but to be honest about who we are. Oak & Iron is for every family who wants to grow with intention regardless of background, belief, or where they are on their own journey. Much of what we offer will resonate across many different worldviews, because the deepest questions of family life tend to. We simply want to be honest about the source of our faith, hope and love for family.
A Note on How We Work
We've learned how much of a joy it is to work together as a family serving families. As we journey with others, we learn and grow together. Oak & Iron Family is how we seek to more holistically support families, and not just after the ink dries on a will, but through every season of life that follows. And thankfully for all, we realize we can’t do this alone. So, you’re welcome to contact us directly below, but first consider visiting our Guides Directory and Resources Library.