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The Revolutionary Man Podcast
The Revolutionary Man Podcast is for high-performing husbands and fathers ready to lead with purpose. Hosted by Alain Dumonceaux, this show equips men with the tools to reclaim their masculine identity, master work-life balance, and strengthen mental health. Featuring expert interviews and raw solo episodes, each week brings insights to help men lead their families, grow their businesses, and build a lasting legacy. It’s time to stop settling and start rising.
The Revolutionary Man Podcast
The Power of Acceptance: Integrating Every Part of You with Anthony Asbury
Let me know your thoughts on the show and what topic you would like me to discuss next.
What if the secret to fulfillment isn't in constantly striving for more, but in embracing and integrating all facets of who you are? Venture with us in this transformative conversation as Anthony Asbury and I redefine what it means to be a 'whole man'. We unravel the complex weave of our true selves, even those parts we'd rather keep hidden, and Anthony brings to light his work with the Whole Man Academy and its mission to empower men to lead epic lives through holistic mentoring and coaching.
Transitioning careers, though daunting, can often be a path to personal growth and enlightenment. I reveal my personal journey from financial services to podcasting, championing the power of planning and the creation of a minimum viable product to ensure financial stability. We celebrate the influence of podcasting in broadening our networks and the profound impact of mentorship. We also delve into how the Whole Man Academy has adapted and innovated to the challenges of 2020 by creating engaging and thought-provoking content.
In this era of constant connectivity, we discuss the threats facing men today and how to navigate them. We challenge the narratives that we've been taught and delve into understanding the larger and smaller economies that impact us. We also discuss the importance of physical and mental wellness and strategies for achieving a work-life balance.
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Expand your personal growth targeting the unique needs of modern men.
- Thrive amidst career changes and successfully build a minimum viable product.
- Tap into the transformative power of podcasts for individual progress and networking.
- Acquire the knack of acknowledging and fusing all aspects of your character for a balanced life.
- Assess the implications of government policies and corporate dominance on everyday life.
- Unpack the confusion around sexual identity with calmness and clarity.
To reach Anthony:
Web: https://www.wholemanacademy.com/mission
FB: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.astbury
IG: https://www.instagram.com/anthonyastbury
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wholemanacademy
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WholeManAcademy
Thanks for listening to the Revolutionary Man Podcast. If you want more information about our programs, use the links below to check us out. It could be the step that changes your life.
👉To join our movement:
⚙️Resource Hub (Free Stuff)
IG - /the.revolutionary.man
FB - /theawakenedman.net
And to bring that back to threats to men, you know I've watched some really great stuff on.
Speaker 1:You know, like let's call it mass hypnosis, and when you look at things like Darren Brown in this country, he would create a scene to see how far someone would go if they'd killed someone because they thought they'd done something they shouldn't and of course everybody but that person would be an actor and in the end that person would call the trigger or just about to. And you realize how easy some people are being hypnotized and unfortunately, a lot of people are sleepwalking through life like questioning everything. So questioning like where you are in life and then questioning things around you, because I think there's a lack of that at the moment. You know, what am I putting in my body? What am I letting people inject me with? What's being sprayed in the air? What am I watching on TV? What clothes am I putting my back? You know, as the sooner you start kind of questioning, why am I being told this? What's some sort of theory of motive that can open up a real kind of a pathway for you to become more awake.
Speaker 2:Basically, Let me ask you a question. Who are you? You know, depending on how you answer, that reveals a lot about how we measure ourselves, and if you're like me, any times the first thing out of my mouth will be something about a profession or a career, but then, if I take time to think about it, things like fatherhood, husband and mentor might come to mind. Notice how I've yet, though, to mention the parts of me that I don't care to reveal. You know, those parts, like where I met judge and jury, where I'm anxious and I'm fearful. You see, these are also parts of who I am, and yet, for me to be a whole man, I must be prepared to accept and integrate all of me, and even the parts that I don't like. You know, and today my guest shares with us how he is guiding men to be whole and complete. But before we get into all that, I just want to remind you if you're interested in raising your standards of father, a husband and entrepreneur, then I encourage you to start your hero's quest. You know, in this program you will discover more about yourself, accomplish more and develop more than you have in the next 90 days, and you have all of last year, and you can get all this information at the Awakened man Training Academy at membersdawthewakenmannet. And with that, let's get on with today's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary man podcast. I'm the founder of the Awakened man movement and your host, alan Devonzo, so let me ask you a couple of questions. Who are you and what are you leading out about who you are? You know, getting to know our true selves is both an inside job along with an ascension process and a de-session journey, and today my guest and I dive into what it means to be that whole man. Allow me to introduce my guest.
Speaker 2:Anthony Asbury has spoken to companies like Spotify, barclays Bank, daily Mail Group, credit Suisse, domestic in general, boids Bank and plenty, plenty more. He's also the founder of the Whole man Academy, an organization that started in 2018 that has helped men live epic lives through powerful events, physical mentoring and coaching. He also has over 120 plus podcast episodes that helps guide this message. He also has developed a three-day retreat to help men find more about themselves. He's also created a one-day reset morning routine and the energy protocol online course for professional men who want to recharge their biological batteries. Welcome to the show, anthony. How are things today, my brother?
Speaker 1:Thank you, it's a great intro and, as a fellow podcaster, I'm always interested to see how podcasts start, because some people just roar off. Others give a good kind of like yourself, and you know I've done it sometimes where I get halfway through and then I cock it up and I'm like shit. So I had soft deal already for that. That was impressive. But how am I? Well, you know your listeners won't know, but we had our third baby last week or I didn't, because men can't have babies, but my partner, emma, did. And so this last week of you know, having a newborn is kind of, you know, it's beautiful, because you just got to spend a lot of time watching them basically sleep on your chest and do stuff like that, which is nice, and excited to be speaking to you about men's stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh, outstanding, absolutely. So looking forward to that, I can remember my. Both my boys are into their 30s now, and so it's been a long time since I've had that feeling I should, and I said that, but now I should back up a bit. My grandson's coming over tomorrow and he's four, so maybe I haven't had as much of the of that, but it's nice to see the little pitter patter of feet around the home again. You know, as I was saying in the beginning in the intro there, anthony, in our work here at the Wakin man, all of us are on our own heroes quest, our own heroes journey. So my first question for you is to tell us about a time in your life when you knew things had to change. What did you do about it? How did that experience shape you into the man you are today and the work that you're doing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I've got two kind of you know often on on the podcast. It's good to have kind of like a timeline and I'll share two. Very I cut them short so I can share two instead of one. But first one was when I was in my 20s. I was not super fit, but I was fit, I played a lot of football and was always good at running and stuff like that, and basically I had a collapsed lung so and I wasn't through an accident.
Speaker 1:It was called a spontaneous pneumothorax, which means that basically, for whatever reason, your lung collapses and and that kind of sent me on a bit of a journey because it happened a couple of times and I basically wasn't allowed to do any exercise or get out of breath or anything for probably in total about six months. And as a young man who I also was single, so you you couldn't do an exercise of that kind either. But you know it was. It was a tough time because I was basically stuck at home recovering. But what that did was give you two things. One, when I got back to full fitness, it gave me new appreciation for football or just sport, but for me it was running back on that pitch and you know I got told at one point I might not play to a high standard again and you know that that season I went back. I mean I won player of the year, manages, player of the year. I was top of all the you know the tests because suddenly I I appreciated running out on that, on that kind of turf and what that did, because I lost a lot of weight and I wasn't big anyway. But you know I kind of wasted away for six months of not doing anything. It set me on that journey of learning about men and their health and a more body than mind. To start with I probably wasn't, didn't give a toss about the mind, I just wanted to look like a cover model, if that makes sense, and be strong and fit. So that got me interested in that side of things.
Speaker 1:And then fast forward pretty much 20 years from that I worked in the city for you know A long period as a trader for a short amount of time, then as a broker, loved it for a while and you know things were good. You weren't good money and you know you surrounded by hundreds of guys and you had lots of fun. You took clients out to expensive restaurants and went skiing into Ibiza and blah, blah, blah or that stuff. But at some point you started looking around, thinking is this, it is this what I'm gonna carry on doing, getting up at half five, you know, 200 hours a month at your desk and basically earning money for other people. You were still doing it for yourself, but you just felt unfulfilled. And that led me into and I always joke my partner said to me Emma, who I've now been with for 10 years, said you start, you should start listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1:And I was like I'm not listening to podcasts, I'm busy, I'm busy, be busy. You know, I've got stuff to do. Like, don't be ridiculous. And it turns out she was right because you know the first two podcasts I listened to that's the first time I heard the words Tony Robbins and and personal development, pretty much. And that started me off on the path of realizing I could leave my you know, let's call it six figure salary and you know desk job to go off and do something more fulfilling. And now I'll pass it back to you. So that's my two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that, I love that. And a couple of notes here. I'll be taking lots of notes, as I normally do, so don't don't mind my looking down here, but I was just a couple of notes I just made. There was just the Appreciation that we, that we get when something happens in our life. That's why I always like to start off this, the podcast, with Having guys share this part of their story, because I think we we tend to forget the Appreciation and the gratitude for the things that we have until something tells us that maybe we can't have that, you know, and for you, as a medical condition, and then when we realize that, just how much stronger we come back because now we can Actually start to work with that, with that energy and the other piece I you know I made a note is just, you know, I was the same way a few years back and you know my wife would say what you know, you should listen to a podcast.
Speaker 2:Or I talked to my buddies and listen to podcast. I'm not spending any time listening to podcasts. Yeah, I gotta tell you that's. I have a 45 minute Compute every day and that's what I listen to. There's a dozen or so podcasts.
Speaker 2:I just rotate through my, through my phone, and what a great way to learn about Lots of different topics and while we're talking about men's work today, you know there's lots of things for us to learn. There's and learn everything from health and wealth, financial building, you know parenting you name it. It's out there. If we're willing and prepared to take you, make use of that time that we think we don't have in our day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've no got an excuse anymore. You know we're not sure of resources and most of them are free. So you know people, you've just got to put in the hours. I would say you know your personal training can't do your press-ups for you, much as no one can do your personal development for you. You've got to put in the hours to listen to stuff and and hopefully kind of apply some of it. You know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and then that's all it takes is to put something into action. It doesn't necessarily mean to to do all of it, but to put something in action, let me let me ask you about that. So you had what would be, what was your biggest challenge and you had to overcome transitioning from this 20-year career. You're in that, on the trading floor, you're doing trading. It's intense work and lots, of, lots of energy. But what was that like for you to transition from focusing on that kind of work to then building the whole man Academy?
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, two things. One of the big things was was kind of fear and and that could could be all encompassing because fear? Because when you earn, I mean you know Some people, you know, I know people that you know are billionaires and I know people that are on the minimum wage. So I don't always say I don't care what you drive, where you live, what you wear, what you do, it's about who you are, you know. That's that for me is like do I want to hang around with you? I don't give a shit about what else someone's got.
Speaker 1:But when you earn, let's say, a six-figure salary and and you're used to the trappings of success of you know I had a nice BMW Z4 convertible that was brand new and you know I had a nice townhouse and expensive watches and we'd fly to Miami on holiday and spend 10 grand in a week and not Bother about it too much. But then the fear of like what if I can't do that stuff again? Was was one of the things to me, because it's not about what if I can't do that, it's like what would people think of me if I'm not the person that I was? You know, and that's where I look back at. You know soldiers that leave the forces and you know for them they might be called a hero and then when you leave, you're just back to you and you're not that person anymore. You know you're not what your, your role is. So fear of that was one for me and I think the the way overcame that I actually got myself a coach. So you can't.
Speaker 1:You know I do coaching and mentoring and, quite frankly, it's quite simple when you know how, because people don't need high-level strategies, people need accountability, focus and some support. You know to sometimes just bounce ideas off, but I paid, you know, a good amount of money and had, I think, about 24 coaching sessions from two different women who sometimes would just say, right, what's going on? And I'd be like I'm thinking to leave in by me. You know it's scary, and they'd future kind of how can put it? You know they'd say to me listen, you can carry on doing what you're doing. But how do you, how do you feel if you're still here in a month or a year or five years, and and a month wouldn't seem that painful, but a year you'd be like, oh, I can't do this for another year. Well, you better do something about it and that and that.
Speaker 1:For me, you know, the that's how I overcame the fear. So fear was the thing, but overcoming it was, you know, was priceless, to be honest. And to be honest, the other thing was I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. So it's easy if you say I'm leaving to be a plumber or I'm leaving to be a Something, but when you leave and you know you kind of want to do something, you know I'd studied, I'd done a personal performance diploma, like for coaching, and spent like nearly a year doing that and I'd went and got all my Like fitness and sport kind of accreditation so I could officially help.
Speaker 1:You know, I could talk about it and not just be like, oh, I read it in a magazine. But it took me, you know, maybe a year from when I left the city. That was 2000s, end of 2016, and it wasn't till mid 2018 that the whole man Academy thing was born. So it was an interesting time in between because I was helping people with health and fitness. But I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing, if that makes sense. But one day the idea of the whole matter came, or home out Academy came to mind, and then and then, kind of that's the next chapter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was standing and I did. What I really appreciated about that story is you're talking about, you know, the fear of us and having that trappings of success and whatever level that looks like for us right, and that the idea of can I maintain and sustain the lifestyle I currently live, and how much?
Speaker 2:how often does that affect our decision-making right? And? And it sounds like it wasn't necessarily a complete changeover, like the I'm gonna quit today because I'm gonna start this thing tomorrow, because you weren't even clear on exactly what you wanted to do. And, and that's another thing I see so much with, even in you know, in my story and talking with other men, that we think we have to have all the steps lined up and if we don't have them all lined up, well then I can't take any action. But that's not true. We may not really know the end result, and even if we have a goal, it may not be the ultimate Destination anyways. And so you know taking that step right.
Speaker 1:It's a really important point because I get asked a lot guys that are not just not just guys, but primarily it's guys that I deal with you, the whole man Academy but you'll get asked about people. I know a lot of people or dealt with who are basically bored of their job and you know they they've got something else. They either want to do what they're doing on the side and should they quit, and you know you get different advice saying you know, tell the boss to stick it and just leave and yeah, you can do it and you like, yeah, that's great, but when, if and when it goes wrong, you're in all sorts of trouble. Especially if you're a lad in his 20s, you can keep on your mate sofa or go back to mum and dad's or, do you know? I mean you can go to Bali for another six months, or. But if you've got kids and Mal's to feed and bills to pay in a mortgage and partner, you know, and maybe car payments or kids at preschool, you're fucked. If you do that, and very quickly, you're gonna then become desperate and that is not a good place to be.
Speaker 1:So for me, I always say if you, there's always two parts to it. If you hate your job, say much. You think you know I'm suicidal, you need to just walk out and leave. You know, speak to someone first but ultimately you need to make the break. But if you're like I really don't like my job, or it's a bit me, then stay at it until you've built a minimum viable product. You know, if you're obviously you need to make money and if you can see that you know ascending as that's, you know you can let the, let the basic salary or the guaranteed, I should say, salary, go at some point, knowing you're going to have something coming in because it's. You know it's great to get pumped up and be like, yeah, I'm leaving, I'm doing my stuff, but on Tuesday morning after two months where you've got you know not much, the bank accounts going down like an egg timer, the sand in the egg timer, and you're scrabbling around, that is not a good place to be. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And it just harkens back to in the when I was getting my sort coaching certification and I had a chat with my mentor, abe, and he and his story is similar to what you're saying as well Like he spent five years transitioning from his day job building a minimum viable product to the point where he could now leave that that profession he was doing to take on the work full time. And then he was sent from there. He became the president of the Canadian Coaching Federation. He just started his own, his, his own brand of flourishing coaching coaches now here, and it's just, I'm sure if I was asked Abe today, where is this where he thought his life would end up, he'd be saying not really. He just knew he liked to do something of service, to be of service, and chose this path Right, and I think as long as we have an inkling about where it's coming from, then I think we have, we're on the right path.
Speaker 1:Well, because you can never know who you. You know, like you and I speaking today, we've never spoken before, but who's to know that something in the future means that you end up either connecting each other with someone else or you end up in a partnership of some description. You know doing something and that's the thing you can and I love planning, I love that. But you can't, you can't navigate life without surprises, and some surprises are good and some surprises are bad, but sometimes you just meet someone or something happens or you get an opportunity at the right time and you're like you can't, you can't plan for that. Basically.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. And what we? But what we can do is be open and open and ready to receive that right. And I, you know, I call it, call that being, you know, conscious of my intuition, when that little voice that says whoa, maybe I should do something right and or pick a certain that. And you know just how we we met was through a different interviewer. I added somebody else on my podcast and and this gentleman said you know, you should have ever heard of this Anthony guy. He said Nope, what is it, what's he all about? And sent me a link to your information. I just thought, whoa, well, this is outstanding. You know, it just leads from that. But the intuition was started with the other interview that resonated with me. Had I not had that interview then, the then could we have met today? Hard to say. I would like, I would suggest that, probably not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, that, that that links into and I'm guessing your next question would be about the whole man Academy. But one of the big things there is that's what podcasting gives you is. Let's say you interview, let's have into 125 guys for argument's sake. If each of those guys I then said, can you introduce me to two people in your network that you think were great, suddenly you've exploded your network without having to spend any money, go anywhere. You know do much, you know create much effort or you know kind of momentum towards it. And suddenly those 300 men, if you ask those 300 for one more, you go to another. You know, suddenly you've got 600 men. So yeah, we'll get onto the whole man Academy. But that's the great power of podcasting as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I found that so much to be so true in this, and and I'm so grateful that to have come from the point of what is a podcast, listening to it, to now actually hosting one and getting opportunity to meet some amazing people, and it's always a learning experience for me. I don't know if that's the same experience for you when you're doing your podcast, but I always find there's something I get out of it. I get a ton of notes as I look at and listen to what my, what my guests are saying is. I think it's such an opportunity for us to learn because, as the mentors, we need to get our tank filled as well, and one way we can do that is doing this kind of work, and so we're doing we're doing some pretty good stuff here. My friend, yeah, let's get into the whole man Academy. Tell me a little bit about you know the idea of it and how that it came to be, what its purpose is and how does that is changing men's lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll take you back to. You know I'll call it a little big idea, because sometimes you know you can have a little idea and you have no idea that it's going to become something big. To kind of break that down for you. And you know, 2018, it was like you know what I? I've learned a lot about personal development. I've been to events and seen the power of and you know it sounds a bit corny to say transformation, but you know, sometimes, guys, you need to get out in, you know, out of your comfort zone and get into places and listen to new people. So, basically, myself and another chap who started the whole man Academy, we hosted our first event in London back in, say, september 2018. And I always say, even though I'd invited, you know, about 15 mates and we had about 15 others worried, none of them would turn up because you know that's what people do Say, yeah, I'll come along, but then don't bother. But thankfully, 25 men ish, or 24, 25 men, you know came in through the door, had a couple of speakers. Really good day. Important part is really cool venue. So not some crappy hotel room. That's a bit soulless, that's a bit cold and you feel like you need a hoodie with sticky carpet. It was a cool. You feel like it was a Soho house group, one of their places, so it. You know very Chesterfield sofas, you know bit of paneling here and some interesting kind of stuff around, and just just it was an experience, not just a event, if that makes sense. Anyway, that was the first one. Very soon after guys saying when's the next one?
Speaker 1:So in 2019, hosted I can't forget about eight or nine events in London some evening events, some full day events, and we'd go usually, for maybe at some you go for a burger and a beer afterwards as well, which was good fun. You bring some speakers in, you do some exercises bit like a wheel of life or something like that and you know no pressure on anybody to do anything, but often just, you know, connect with others and often some good stuff happened in the breaks because guys would start chatting and etc. And we had guys there from, I mean, I don't know if you're into Formula One, don't worry, it doesn't matter if you're not, but you know Max Vistappen, who is the current Formula One World Champion. It was his performance coach who we had come along and speak to us, so he dealt with Max, I think from when he was about 16 to 18. So he would sit there and I was really interested, let alone everybody else there, and we'd have guys come in from coaching and media and banking, all these different kind of fighters. Anyway, that pretty much was going very well and building nicely.
Speaker 1:And, as we all know, in 2020, people decided to strip everybody of their freedom which doesn't sit very well with me. I'm always quite happy to talk about and it basically ruined my plans and a lot of people's plans and ruined a lot of people's lives and financial outlook as well. So you know, you can cry about it and that's fine, but you have to adapt or die, as the saying goes. So I'd always wanted to do a podcast but I hadn't been pushed into it because there wasn't any urgency. So I very quickly threw about two and a half thousand pounds at London Real if you know the London Real podcast with Brian Rose. So I'd been listening to Brian Rose. He had a similar story to me. He was Wall Street and then London. I used to work for one of the competitors of what I worked for and I listened to his podcasts and they did the podcast course. So I did that. That was really helpful.
Speaker 1:And we launched the podcast to try and create, like this, thought provoking content for men, because you know there's a lot of podcasts out there. But I wanted the guys to not just be the same old, same people you can listen to on the top podcasts, if that makes sense, because, don't be wrong, having big guests are great, but sometimes you've heard them on eight podcasts, whereas I like listening to guys that I'm like, I mean, you've said a couple things today that I'm like, oh, I might have to listen to that again, so write that down. And ultimately, it was about getting guys together to talk to start with, but that's not a enough and B, that's not a business plan, because events are really hard to run, because I would say getting bums on seats is the hardest bit, unless you've got a big marketing budget, which I had zero, basically, and word of mouth goes so far, but the hiring of venues is very expensive and then you've got, you know, the additional stuff and you know you're taking big risks. So what we then launched was the coaching, which meant it was one to one. We developed it.
Speaker 1:So the online course, energy protocol course, because we always think for a lot of guys. You know you're being bombarded with, you know your sleep's got to be on point and your food and your fitness and your relationships and your mindset, and blah, blah, blah. And guys testosterone levels are dropping rapidly, which is a good reason for that. But so that's another podcast in itself and we try to encapsulate the whole man, being the reason why the guy that first set the whole man Academy up with me, he wanted it to focus primarily or purely on mental health and I said that's fine, but that's not what I want. I want it to be fitness, health, mindset, family, relationships, money, grooming, you know all these different things, because for me that's what encapsulates a whole man.
Speaker 1:And I know guys who have got loads of money in the bank. You know a big house, great job, lovely family, but they're really overweight and they're unhappy. Whereas I know guys that have got a great body. You know a lovely family, freedom in their job, what have you but they're skin for whatever reason, and the business is doing badly. Well, you know you wouldn't say they need mental health help. You'd say they need financial and physical and blah, blah, blah. So I wanted that to encapsulate the whole man and my other story and that is if I stood up in the city when I worked with 300 guys and I was like ding, ding, ding, hey guys, who wants to come to mental health event for men this weekend? You'd have, fuck no, someone to throw a shoe at you and piss off, as if you said, hey guys, there's a strength and resilience event this weekend for men. We've got special forces guys, we've got ex footballers, we've got you know, millionaire crypto experts. Who wants to come? I've got my hand in the air and that's I've created it to help me when I was 36 in the city, basically, and that's pretty much where we are at the moment.
Speaker 1:I think with we're about to, or just working on, launching a whole man membership so that guys can develop their network so they're not just coming to me and me feeding stuff out. It is more of the guy knows where others live. The guy knows he can call them and what they do and what their specialty is. Great example one of our previous dinners last year, which was, which is further down the country two of the guys sat there and found out they've been to three or four events together and didn't realize they live in the same street and you just let.
Speaker 1:They were like what? And there's like no, I live there, no, I live there, I live there, I live there. And I was like, listen, if we had a you know a kind of a database of guys, you could find that there's some guys around your area or maybe your country you know, might not be in the UK because we've got guys from you know 40 different countries that listen to the podcast. So who knows how things might develop. So, in a nutshell, whole man Academy is about helping a guy live his own version of an Epic life, because I bet you and I have different versions of it. Mine isn't running a billion dollar business and working all the hours. Mine is spending as much time as I can with my kids and family, having a bit of time to relax and doing a job I love or, you know, a career I love.
Speaker 2:Basically, yeah, absolutely, and we're we're actually not far off on that definition of Epic.
Speaker 2:You know, what I really like about what you're doing is that you're taking the, the entire perspective of what men, what we, how we claim to be, who we claim to be as men, and taking and looking at all parts of it.
Speaker 2:And that's why, in the introduction there, you know, for me, as I was thinking about and looking at your work and the work that you're doing and in the similarities to the work that we're doing here at the Awakened man, is that we take it as a in a similar path and our focus is is still a bit more on.
Speaker 2:While we look at the Wheel of Life perspective, we have a little integrity challenge that I put the guys through to give them, give them a sense of where they're, where they're maybe lacking some, some area of their, of their life, but really the focus is on being helping them deal with the parts of themselves that they don't like, and then we can accept and integrate that.
Speaker 2:Then it gives them an opportunity to really grow and expand as men, because we end up by we end up by projecting though that part onto others and into our, into our lives, and then we wonder why our life is the way it is and then when we can look at it from a broader perspective. So I really like the work that you're doing, very similar to us. That's why I think it's really cool about men's work is that we all come from a little bit of different perspective. It's our, it's how we the experiences that we've had in life, and that's how we end up by changing and involving, and so tell me what's happening for men over in your and on your side of the side of the pond there.
Speaker 1:What's the biggest?
Speaker 2:threat facing men today. And what are you? What are you? What can they do about dealing with it?
Speaker 1:The government.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Simple. Well, I say the government, I mean depends how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go, but the government don't actually run the. You know, there's one or two companies that basically own every other company in the world and I've had great fun talking to people about that because it to use a term which is slightly condescending but it blows people's tiny minds. Because you say like, right, name a big company, and they'll say, oh, whoever? And you go, they're owned by X and X. No, they're not, they're a whoever and whoever. And you say, yes, and those companies are owned by that company. And those companies are owned by that company. Oh, what about this bank? And you go, no, they're major shareholders of that bank. Oh, what about Pepsi Cola? Yes, there is PepsiCo and PepsiCo are owned by this company. And people go, oh right, okay, so there's, it's a great question, and often I'll ask guys something similar and they'll kind of not really be sure what to say.
Speaker 1:The threat is or, oh, you know, suicide and stuff. Well, suicide doesn't just happen. Suicide comes from somewhere and some people don't like the term committing suicide. Others would rather it be taking your life for me and like listen if you're too busy worrying about what the term is. I think there's more important things than that to worry about. Yeah, but yeah for guys. I think these are a big threat.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:Mobile phones, you know, for your procrastination, for keeping it near your head, and Wi-Fi as well, for being spied on, and then we all know you might talk about, you know. Oh hey, and then I'm thinking about going camping next weekend I've never spoken about it before and then you'll turn YouTube on and they'll be like camping gear, you know what. So, yeah, it's for me, you know, the biggest threat is the powers that be. Or, as one of our second most popular ever podcast is a guy called Neil Kramer, and if there's only one podcast out of all ours that I suggest people listen to, it's that one. And people come back and say, fucking, now I had to listen to it twice.
Speaker 1:You know, it's, it's that good and not because it's me, it's because I just asked some questions and let the guy talk, but anyway he calls it empire and Empire. You know kind of encapsulates what the problem is at the moment. I mean, in the UK our NHS is being slowly destroyed. You know you can argue whether it's deliberate or not, but people are waiting 12 hours in accident emergency now in some places. That's their average waiting time in some places in the UK, considering how much tax we pay as well. Yeah, you know, you've got the oil prices and the petrol prices which were put up artificially and when they, when the prices drop down, they don't drop down for the consumer. They are the end consumer and I worked in carbon emissions broken for eight years so and energy trading. So I you know I'm not an expert, but I know a bit.
Speaker 1:Look at the food that people are eating. You know the quality of it is really poor and you know what it's wrapped in and what it's sprayed in. You look at the chemicals that are surrounding us in the house and in the. You know your mattress, what's that made from? And the chemicals that people put on their body through the moisturizers and everything. Yeah, I mean, it is a big onslaught but it's a silent one generally. The other one, of course, to go down the rabbit hole, is of now the agenda of confusing people about their sex.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't work to try and confuse adults. But if you try and confuse children at school, then in five or ten years time You're gonna have a lot of people that don't know if they're Arthur or Martha.
Speaker 1:Yeah and that is knowing people who have got kids. Thankfully, our kids I don't go to school, they are, then we call it home educated, because we're not trying to replicate school at home. Great, which is a challenge in itself. It's not easy, but it's, you know it's. It will be rewarding.
Speaker 1:But you know, we know people now that have got kids at senior school, that are just coming back and you know it's not a technical term, but just being like what the fuck are they being taught? Yeah, like about white privilege, about the fact that they're racist, and they don't know it and they've got to be allies to anybody that decides they can identify as a penguin or a cat or God knows what else. And you have to ask well, when you do bother to look at, where does all that agenda come from? If you trace it back, it's not very nice people and they don't have a great deal of. They're not doing it for the care of the children to be enlightened, they're doing it for slightly sicker, nefarious purposes. But again that that could be another whole hours conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and thank you so much. What a breath of fresh air to really talk about the big picture Of what men are faced with, because it's one thing for us to to deal with, like you said, you know, but can, considering taking our lives, you know the challenges that we're faced, but it stems from somewhere and we don't have enough of these conversations. And, and what I really like is I listen to Andy Frazella's podcast and, and Andy's really famous to say you know, our, our rebellion Is to become excellent at who we are.
Speaker 2:Is to just excel and get better and to recognize that if we don't understand what's happening, the macro and micro Economics around us, then how can we be, how can we be meant to lead our families in our communities? Yeah, we're just gonna stick our head in the sand and not understand what's going on. And yeah, and I would suggest that it's probably you know, as, depending on the information you're looking at, you know whether it's a, whether it's a black rock or a black stone, it's, there's a lot of weird Stuff going on right now and I think what's happened, if there's, if there's, if there's anything good that came out of this pandemic, it's people are starting to wake up, to say and realize there's something deeply wrong.
Speaker 2:There's something deeply wrong and we've been hoodwinked for a long time Hmm, a long, long time. And when we recognize that, okay, when you're more, when you're the most trusted person I know we have this, this survey, here in Canada and for years, years and years and years, like decades the most trusted person in the country would be, and would be, the CBC news anchor of the decade.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that's a lot about where we, how we think, that we we choose not to Spend any time to figure out what's really going on and when that is when that's who we're looking up to To Peter man's bridge and those are names of the past is, you know, makes you want, want to really scratch your head.
Speaker 1:You've hit on a an important topic on, and we've just started covering, but like calling it, say, the awakened man, because there's there's a question I like to pose to be which is how do you know if you've been brainwashed?
Speaker 1:Hmm and and I was, you know, prior to all the COVID bullshit. You know some of the stuff I I would have argued with people about that I was completely wrong about. I didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but because I watched the news and I've read the Daily Mail, I was like I've read it in the paper. I know what's going on. And now, you know, my best saying is Everything you know is wrong. You know, or at least question everything, everything about what you really, the newspapers, you know what, what you see on TV, what you see in films, all these different things. And to bring that back to threats to men, you know I've watched a really great stuff on.
Speaker 1:You know, like let's call it hypnosis in a mass hypnosis. And when you look at things like Darren Brown in this country, where he would do, he would create a whole kind of scene to see how far someone would go if they'd kill someone because they thought they'd done something they shouldn't, and of course, everybody but that person would be an actor To create this and in the end, that person would pull the trigger or just about to. And you realize how easy some people are being hypnotized and unfortunately, a lot of people are sleepwalking through life. But you know you try and tell someone that and that was me a few years ago or You're just gonna offend them. But you were right.
Speaker 1:A lot of people in the last you know year or two have looked around and just said Something's not right. I don't get it and most people can't get the full picture. It's a big jigsaw and I was say listen, you know there's a big wall behind me. I say listen, if you give me three hours in a massive whiteboard, you know I don't know everything, but I could start to help you put things together. Yeah, but you know also, some people don't want to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's because you know what ignorance is bliss, unfortunately, and the more that we know, the more that we realize just how much we don't know about things, and Then that gives us a sense of insecurity, really, in the end, our core selves.
Speaker 2:So you know, man or woman, and we want to have this, we want to have a sense of safety, the security, and Sometimes that's a big step for for guys to take out of there, and I, and for me, my belief is that is that it's because, as raised as young boys that we were just, you know, children to be seen and not heard, we were suppressed about to really deal with stuff and so we didn't, we didn't have a healthy way to to deal with our, with our emotions, not number one, how to, how to deal with, how to spend time and create relationships, and and then, as we get older, we take these, these, you know, really their survival habits.
Speaker 2:It's that have kept us going and we replay these programs over and over and over again until one day, hopefully, we wake up. Something happens to to jar us awake and you know, I have a gentleman in our work, I have everywhere, from a 30 year old, and we just had a new gentleman come and join us. He's 65 and it's starting to that awakening process, processes happening for him and you know, my heart just goes out to these, to these men, as we're doing our work and we're understanding how all the pieces fit together. And maybe you don't need to see the entire spider web, but you need to see enough of it. Yeah, you get a sense of how to take the next step forward, I think.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what is really nice what you said there about you know a guy who's, let's say, 65 Because I think sometimes people they just need to be shown something for it to like to just you know it pops open the can and then they start sniffing around. So my dad was a great example. You know dad's a smart guy. You know he worked. My dad's one of those it does my head in because he worked. He's very clever in the numerical or that side of things because he worked for Barclays Bank For many years and then when he got to his forties he basically said I don't want to do this anymore. I hardly ever see my kids. So he quit and we bought a farm down in down in down at the South Coast, which is really hard. But for me growing up, I saw my dad every day, which is fantastic. But he can also do electrical wiring, plumbing, his rebuilt car engines. He's built stables. He knows how every power tool works if your car breaks down. He knows you. I'm shit at stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But what I would say with him is I was going on and on and on at him through this, saying listen, we're not being told the truth.
Speaker 1:You know you can argue about what the truth is, but we know that what we've been told isn't it. And it was hard for him to start with, because it is hard when everything's like being you're being told you're wrong. And then he listened to one hour or two hour podcast with me. We were actually putting my son's Bed together you know a bunk bed for two of our kids and it was a two or three hour job which turned into about six hours and I just put this podcast on the background. And it was the guy I said I interviewed on the podcast, neil Kramer, and my dad was like what and what and what? And at the end of it it kind of like opened up a little, you know a little gap. And since then my dad has done loads of his own research and he said to me a while ago you know, all I know now is I was born and I'm here today and I don't know everything. Everything else in between feels like it's a bit of a lie. And I was like yep, yep, keep digging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and kudos to your father for having the you know the openness enough to listen to the podcast and then start to do some exploration. And really I think in our work we can, just as you're saying, we just crack open that wall, not a little bit, and allow something to come in there. And I think we were doing, we're doing, good work here. Yeah, hey, what is the one thing, and doing all this men's work, that you're finding that you still need to work on?
Speaker 1:The one thing I found really hard when I started working for myself was when, when you had a job, you basically turned up at 645 and you knew what to do from seven till five or six and then you went home and, unless you're out with the clients, you basically switched off. But I find it really hard to switch off because, also, I love what the whole man Academy. You know, I love what I do. But probably, like yourself, you know, every hour I could email more guys to get on a podcast, I could write more e-letters, I could publish more content, I could do some more videos, I could create a new online course.
Speaker 1:There's never an ending thing and I literally sometimes laying bed at night thinking I've just come up and said great idea for a LinkedIn post. And so for me it's like sometimes I need to learn how to switch off more because, yeah, that's at least it's a good. You know, I'm not switching off of something because I hate it, it's because my mind is always going on. But Neil Kramer, when I spoke to him, you know one of the big things was about men spending time contemplating. So not doing anything else, but just contemplating and not trying to get somewhere, not trying to meditate to clear your mind, but just being, and I was like, oh, that's hard, especially when you've got three kids now.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. That's a great, that's a great answer. I find the same thing as well to be able to shut it off, right, because I'll be same thing and and I'm a bit of a I'm a bit of a night talk, and so I like to stay up a little bit later, and that's normally when I have my creative juices going. And I just know that when I come into the home office here and I sit down at the computer and start typing away at something that two hours is going, it just goes, yeah, and you know it's like oh well, I guess it's just, it's one o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:Maybe I should go to bed. Yeah, very similar.
Speaker 2:But it's not because it's not what work that we don't like to do, it's because we are, so it is work that we love to do.
Speaker 1:And you find it hard to stop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a passion. It drives us. Yeah, what would you recommend, or your top three suggestions for any man that wants to take control of his life? What should you be doing?
Speaker 1:The first one is when I want to talk about energy. The reason I developed the energy protocol course was because it encapsulated what I thought was important for a guy, which again was you know a little bit of fitness, your mindset, what you're eating and drinking, you know how you're thinking and sleeping as well, and it's not highly technical stuff and you know. Just optimizing those basics to start with is one of the really important things, I think, because, again, if you do burn the candle at both ends and you end up like losing out on sleep, it might not feel like it now but it will catch up with you at some point. And eating a load of crap, you know doing that kind of stuff. So just taking care of yourself is probably, I think, one of the most important things to start with, and also having your relationships around you. I always think for the average guy, if he's got a partner I always hark back to. There's that saying of like happy wife, happy life. Now I know we could break that down and say that's not true because blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:But I interviewed a former police detective from from the US and he moved and left to be a men's coach, and I interviewed on the podcast and he said one thing which I thought was great and he said if you want, you know, see how relationship blossoms if you go to your partner and say this simple question. You said what can I do to make your day at 10? And you know, often like with my partner, she might literally be like can you just empty the dishwasher for me and do something, you know, whatever else is that she's been wanting you to do for a while. So they're not asking you to, like, climb Mount Everest or, you know, write a song here we often. But you could apply that question to your, your work or your you know. You could say to your team, like what could I do to make your week at work at 10? Yeah, you know it opens up and I was just like, damn, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, love that, love that as well. I just wrote that question. Yeah, great takeaway Awesome, love it. Let's think about where we are today, but then we fast forward 20 years from now and as you look back on today, you think about legacy. What would that, what would legacy look like to you? What would, what would that ultimately become?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you know, 20 years from now, whether, whether the whole man Academy would still be running. Who knows? I mean, to be honest, I think, if you, if you dial it back to the middle of our conversation, I think the next year or two are going to be very, very interesting for the economy, for freedom. And you know, with the introduction of AI, which I think is, you know, it's like a lot of things, like water, you know, if you, if you have too much water, you'll drown. If you don't have any, you'll die. So AI and I've used it and I think it's great to an extent, but it's quite disturbing to see. You know, I read this week some of that's basically lost their job working for a big company because they dealt with, let's just say, copywriting for argument's sake. But basically they've been told well, we've got like six or five or six people that we pay retainers to. We only need one now because they can generate it all through AI. You like mm.
Speaker 1:So for me it's really hard to know where legacy goes, because I think there will be a very interesting next couple of years, but if nothing happened, I mean the banking, the banks, are going to collapse. I do believe. I think that we'll see. You know, I predicted credit suise would go under. I wrote about that two years ago and Deutsche will be one of the ones. If you know. I won't be surprised if Deutsche are as well. But it seems like that that they're encouraging fear in keeping on money in the little banks, which means everybody will take their money out and put it in the big banks, and the big banks are the one that's controlled by the people that do everything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's an interesting one to go down. But legacy was I'd love the whole Mad Academy to have spread to. You know, having big events, like you know, 1000 men, I mean, I've always had this thing of like someone said something about like a 1000 man project or something like that. I don't know, it's in my head but not talking of like massive. But you know, having events where you've got hundreds of men come along and really feel like they belong to a movement, that for me would be enough of a legacy on the whole Mad Academy front. You know, taking family and all the other stuff aside, and that would be super cool to have regular events where guys get together and, you know, really kind of explode through things they're finding hard.
Speaker 2:Outstanding, outstanding. I have no doubt that exactly what will transpire with whole Mad Academy. You know, anthony, of everything we had an opportunity to speak about today, and maybe there was a topic we didn't get a chance to dive into what would be the one takeaway you'd want our listeners to have?
Speaker 1:For me it's about I was using the term for one. I think it's like questioning everything. So questioning like where you are in life, you know, if you're looking at yourself and then questioning things around you, because I think there's a lack of that at the moment. You know, what am I putting in my body? What am I letting people inject me with? What's being sprayed in the air? What am I watching on TV? What clothes am I putting my back? You know it sounds like an exhaustive process, but the sooner you start kind of questioning why am I being told this? Why? What sounds ulterior motive that can open up a real kind of a pathway for you to become more awake.
Speaker 2:Basically, yeah, I love that. It's about being conscious, right, being aware of all of our choices and decisions, and and having taking purposeful actions. So I just want to say thanks, anthony, for spending time with me today, and I think you gave us an opportunity we have actually left a few breadcrumbs for guys to understand what it really means to be a whole man. They were interested in getting in a whole of you and get involved with the Whole man Academy. What's the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can firstly just check out our website, which is wholemanacademycom, and the main thing I point people to is we have been publishing since 2019, the Whole man Journal, which is insights to maximise your mindset, body and performance, because it's all encapsulating and basically you could just sign up for that, and there's hundreds of guys across the world professional men who read it, enjoy it, email me back Sometimes, say, hey, I'm implementing this or that or whatever it is, and that's always nice when you get that feedback that you're, you're helping people, basically, you know, live their own version of Epic life. So, yeah, head to the website or go and listen to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Love it Awesome. I'll make sure that all that information is in the show notes for today's episode so folks can get out and read and get a whole of you. I just want to say once again, thank you so much, brother. It was an outstanding conversation. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1:I hope to do it again soon.
Speaker 2:We will.
Speaker 3:Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary man podcast. Are you ready to own your destiny, to become more the man you're destined to be? Join the Brotherhood that is the Awakened man at theawakendmannet and start forging a new destiny today.
