The Unplugged Alpha Male with Richard Cooper

Hi, I’m Igor Kheifets, and this is the list building lifestyle. The podcast for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures travel the world and help people improve their lives in the process, this podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my bestselling book, the list building lifestyle confessions of an email millionaire at www.igorsbook.com. Get the free book plus a $3,000 bonus package that includes my best capture page templates, email, swipe files, and traffic blueprints. Visit www.igorsbook.com for details. And now it’s time to claim your list building lifestyle.

00:50

Welcome back to the list building lifestyle. I’m your host, Igor Kheifets. And today I’m hosting Richard Cooper, the author of the book, The Unplugged Alpha, which I had the pleasure to listen to the other week. And this book left a really interesting impression on me because it’s very, it’s shot straight to the court. And it really calls out the man in me and I guess anyone who reads it, it is a book for men. It is a book for men who want to be leaders who want to lead a bestselling lifestyle true to their core. And I found this book to be extremely refreshing. And that’s why I wanted to get richer on the show. So, Richard, welcome to the list building lifestyle. Thanks for having me. Yeah, my pleasure, man. And I was also pleasantly surprised when I was researching you that you were actually nearby. Right, your fellow Canadian lives in Ontario. So, another, you know, another feather in your cap, I guess, to move you to the top of the list for potential guests. So before reading the book, you’re So, dispensing testosterone advice, so to speak to men on YouTube, how did that come to be like, because your background is completely different? Yeah, my interests are what I express in the content that I create. And a lot of times you have to make your wounds your work is one of the things I talked about in the intro of my book as well. So, one of the issues that men struggle with today is declining testosterone levels.

02:27

So, there’s a chapter in my book that I’m actually updating this summer. So, it’ll be a revised edition. But I think it’s incredibly important for men as they age to keep an eye on their testosterone levels and make sure they don’t expose themselves to anything that might inhibit decrease, you know, set off higher estrogen levels and testosterone because it’s what makes men So, right? Yeah, well, when I say testosterone advice, I guess I mean, in a more of a metaphorical way, where, you know, a man without a test testosterone or the sufficient levels of it, I see as a more of a flat, flabby man, you know what I mean? Like, men who don’t live to their core, who aren’t aggressive, don’t pursue goals, who kind of make man their woman to be the purpose of their existence, and basically live, live on true to what it really means to be a man.

03:24

So, you wrote the unplug alpha as a result of your YouTube channel taken off? And before, before that you owned a very successful debt man settlement company, right? Yeah, that’s correct. So could you tell us more about that, like, so obviously, you were very successful. And all of a sudden, you make a decision to walk away and start a whole new, I guess, startup start a whole new path in this educational direction? Yeah, I started up the debt settlement business in 2003. It was a few months after I took a package from the collection agency I was working at, it’s when I learned that they hire you for your resume, and they hire you for it, and they fire you for your fit.

04:07

So, they gave me some money, I went home, I thought about what I was going to do. And I decided to lean into what I knew best at the time, which was essentially the credit collections. And like, all that space sort of integrates in everything from student loans to sundry items to NSF checks or credit cards, all kinds of stuff. So, a lot of people struggle with credit card debt, I didn’t see a lot of reasonable and viable ways to get out of it. So, I set up a debt settlement company which essentially negotiates between the creditor and the debtor company still running today. The call center is located in the east end of Toronto. It’s called totaldebtfreedom.ca. And it’s, I think, to this date eliminated well over a quarter billion dollars’ worth of Canadian unsecured credit card debt.

04:53

There’s also a book that I even published on the step-by-step process that people can find on Amazon if they search for my author’s name. Well, that’s it you shooting. Let’s talk about that for a sec. I know it’s not, it’s not your primary area of focus these days. But it’s something that I’ve noticed I moved to Canada five years ago. And they moved from Israel. And in Israel, it’s, there’s not much talk about credit card debt. But there is this common idea that it’s okay to live in overdraft. Like, when I moved to Israel, one thing that became evident is that our bills were greater than our income. And so, we started sinking deeper, deeper and deeper into overdraft until eventually we were like, consistently beneath zero. And whenever a paycheck would come in, they would sort of like get us closer to zero, and then it would like slowly sink back, back so, and sometimes even deeper, every now and again, the bank would say, Look, we can’t go on like that anymore. So, my dad would take out a loan to cover the debt, because the interest on the loan would be lower than the overdraft fees were paying every month. But as I grew up, yeah, I know, but it’s the reality. But and as I grew up, what’s really interesting is, I discovered that the vast majority of people in Israel kind of live like that they live in consistent and constant overdraft. Now, when I moved to Canada, the idea of student loans, people taken on mortgages, they can’t afford people, you know, putting all their bills in credit cards, they’re buying today’s groceries with tomorrow’s money. And that became very obvious to me. So. And it sort of seems like, debt is almost like this new form of slavery, isn’t it? Absolutely is. And it’s not just debt like this is this is the way that the system enslaves you, you can use the exact same analogy that you talked about there with debt with people’s health here, as well in North America, because they offer you fast foods that are preservative laden with higher counts of ingredients that aren’t good for you. So, you end up sick, sometimes you have heart disease, you have cholesterol issues, you might have diabetes. And then Big Pharma comes in and says here, subscribe to this pill that you need to take basically, for the rest of your life.

07:07

It’s essentially what you know, the finance industry has done is enslave people with debt, because if they if they get them on the merry go round of debt, if they get them in a cycle of paying debt, then they can offer them other facilities and products at a slightly lower interest rate that will ease you know the burden and the pain, but it’s So, just another way to keep you enslaved in, in debt. And they’re there, they’re engineered, I mean, make no mistake about it. They’re contracted by their lawyers to move from one credit facility to the next, to make sure that you can’t get off the hook. So, you end up with, you know, most people, they kind of start off with a huge debt. Right? I mean, I got a buddy who was an environmental lawyer, we’re not super close, but I do know that he started out his life with like, over $100,000 in student loan debt, yeah, they usually start you young in school, because somebody that’s in their early 20s has a lot more life ahead of them than trying to get somebody that’s 50 into debt, they’re generally healthier, they generally live longer, they can, you know, if they get them in school, then they’re at some point going to chase the dream of mortgages, cars, and for the most part, you need, you know, loans to buy houses and cars now today. So, they get them in that cycle. And it’s like a little bit of a drug, you know, they give you something to give you a little bit of a hit, you get a brand-new car, you feel good, you drive off the lot with the new plates, everybody gets it smells so good, right. But, you know, when you look at the payment terms, it’s not uncommon to see people get into situations where the things that they buy, and they borrow for cost, some have asked for like 510 times more than what the actual like cost of the original purchase would have been had they paid with cash. And that’s just how the economy works today, when you see it and you understand it, then you can opt out from it. But the problem is, is you get kids walking around school that have never been financially educated or brand-new taught any form of literacy that you know, if we’re being honest, probably our great brand-new grandparents would teach my brand-new parents age sort of thing as they were coming to North America but it’s completely optional. Now the conversation doesn’t exist, there’s no you know, buy things with money that you have instead of borrow or any of those things like when I was a kid, my grandfather, he was talking about layaway where he would go to Marks and Spencer for example. And if you’d like a sweater, you would put a little bit of a couple of pounds down for it. And you’d make payments every sweater, few paychecks and then at some point when you’ve paid it off, you could take the sweater home and you could wear it so you know things are very sweater, different today and they and they prey on that because people like instant gratification you want a car now don’t worry about it no money down when you need a house now don’t worry about it. You know, we’ll also go on title the house in case you default so you don’t even have to worry about that too now. So, they create all of these new products and finance mechanisms that make it easier and easier for people to get what they want but they don’t really own anything. You know, they think they own things. But most people that own a house today they’re sitting on a house the bank really owns on land that they have to pay taxes on that they don’t own either, right? Yeah. And that’s very frustrating. All things considered because it’s like, you can spend your whole life paying for things you don’t actually own. And so, you’re no different. Even if you’re paying off a mortgage, you’re really no different than somebody who’s renting.

10:18

Because at the end of the day, the bank owns it. And you can’t really do much with it. And don’t even get me started on the whole, you know, what the governor is going to do with your money after you die, right, because they’re gonna tax it before you, you’re able to transfer it to your kids or whatnot. And there’s like a whole other set of issues with that. But I agree with you like my parents, well, so my parents were sort of in between this in this weird moment where they lived half their life in post in like a Soviet Union sort of state. And then they switched over to Israel after they were 40. And it’s more of an Americanized society, in my opinion, because Israel is very influenced by the US these days. And so, the economic system works in a kind of similar way. So, my parents went from living life where you had to save up for a car, right? So, like, back when they were kids, a car would cost like 4000 rubles and your paycheck was 120, something or whatever. So, you had to save up for a long time as a family with all your siblings to get a car and then you would share it too. And you would only take it out, like once a week or whatnot, and he would really take good care of it. Which I think is really cool. Because if you have to save so much time, he spent so much time saving for an item, you take better care of it, rather than being careless with it, and then discard it very quickly. I certainly know this to be true for me as a kid, like, if I were to get a toy like I will cherish it. My kids today don’t really cherish their toys. It’s like they’ll play with it now and then for an hour they forget about it. And then the other part of their life, they discovered Visa, MasterCard, debts, facilities. And I remember the day my dad got a visa, I’m not sure if he even understood how it works. But he actually went on to buy a stereo system and flat screen TV and a vacuum cleaner. I think my mom insisted that, you know, the one that can wash as well as vacuum, you know, and so immediately put everything in like 27 payments. And we spent the next like, I don’t know, three or whatever years paying it off, and was very unfortunate, because growing up with debt was so tough. Like it was tough, lots of borrowing, lots of things like begging, machine learning stuff, relatives.

12:45

And it’s not designed to be paid off. It’s designed to enslave you for as long as possible. Most anyway. Yeah, well, and, of course, there’s a conversation that can be had about using debt as a way to make money, especially if you’re in real estate or any other sort of business that requires that. But I’ve always liked the idea of buying things with cash. The first apartment that I bought in Israel actually, you know, pulled a dividend for my company just bought it cash. And I felt extremely proud in spite of paying a ridiculous tax because Israel, there’s like a 50% tax.

13:22

But I liked the idea that didn’t carry any debt. But even so when I moved to Canada, eventually, I guess the environment, sort of whatever environment you’re in, you know, like it can actually dictate who you become. And I think I became a hostage to that I didn’t even realize it when I purchased, you know, a property with a big mortgage on it.

13:45

So, let’s talk about your YouTube channel. You kind of had this hockey stick growth, if you will. And your message really resonated with your audience. And so, you decided to go into full time become an educator, and now you’re on I believe you’re on a mastermind. For men. If so, I’m right, yeah, I’ve got different groups that I offer to my audience in my community. But that’s just one of the elements of it. I started doing YouTube in 2014, I was at a retreat with my business group. So, an EO they have forums, and you usually meet once a year, and we were at this retreat, and I was talking to the facilitator about next steps, because that’s what the whole purpose of a retreat is, or a mastermind when you get together and do these things, you know, planning out, you know, your next few steps. And I have just grown tired of the debt settlement business. And I think most entrepreneurs at some point, they need to pivot and go on to something else. It’s not, it’s not often that a founder of a startup stays in that position for more than a decade or two. Anyway, I started cooking up this idea because I’ve always been a car guy and I like Top Gear. And I enjoyed watching TED Talks. So, the plan was to interview friends in their success stories about what it took for them to get those cars, talking about the cars, talking about their success, obstacles, you know that we’re putting away sort of things. And I did about four, maybe five episodes of that. And then I ran out of friends with cool cars to do videos on. And I also discovered the production to create the video was also quite expensive. And the payoff when you’re publishing the video on YouTube is very low, especially on a new channel if you don’t get enough views. So, I wasn’t gonna stop. I just knew that I liked doing what I was doing. And people were asking me questions they seemed like, early on in the channel after the first 1000 subs, I mean, you’re still reading the comments in the video at that point, because you don’t have any to unhinge crazies in there just yet. So, people were asking me, you know, other questions about business. And then one day somebody came along, and said something like, you should do a video on the kind of women to avoid dating, because I was doing stuff on how to use lawyers in your business, how I use parties to hire people and things like that. And that’s okay, well, you know, I’ll pivot and have a conversation about that, and I just blew it up. Normally, I would upload a video and it would get 1000 or 2000 views. And at that point, that video got like 100,000 views in the same period of time. So, I was like, okay, so then you look at the comments on that one. And people are asking similar types of questions, and you start to lean into those. And it was around the same time that I, I mean, I was already divorced at the time. And I was involved with a lady who had a couple of kids from her prior marriage that I was dating and that ended badly, she ended up cheating on me and lying to me and betraying me and doing a whole bunch of stuff. And I started sort of diving into this, like red pill space, which kind of leads to the whole manosphere. And I’m not a big fan of that space anymore. But it does contain some good information. Today, I call it the mental swamp. And I’ve learned that a lot of the creators in that space aren’t good men who are good at being men, but there is some good content there. And a lot of it does come from evolutionary psychology too. So, I spent more time doing that sort of stuff. And that kind of led me to where I am today with the book, the podcast, you know, the different channels, the men’s community, all of that stuff exists today, because of because of that may 23 2014 weekend at that retreat, when I said, I’m just going to start uploading videos to YouTube. So, in that red pill community, which ideas that you found there, which ideas do you not agree with or otherwise find?

17:28

Not true. A lot of the conversations and ideas that are held out are reasonably accurate, for the most part, there’s some things that that that go over the top, and then there’s these different sub communities, like there’s one called the Black pill, or MIG tau, where it’s essentially guys that just check out of life. And they sort of are not. So, check out a life that they check out of the sexual marketplace. So, they don’t date, they don’t want to get married, they don’t want anything to do with women, because women are all bad sort of thing. Like that’s the notion they have, and they’re just going to screw you over. Because their hypergamy Mr. are always going to cheat on you and find the next guy.

18:05

But, like, there’s nuances, right, like, like puzzles don’t contain one piece. It’s not like there’s, you know, like one piece of a puzzle to health. And there’s one piece of that puzzle to relationships. And there’s one piece of the puzzle to knowledge and stuff like that, like a conversation around relationships is a large puzzle with 1000s of pieces. And then the problem is, a lot of these guys, they’ll focus on a handful of things. And the guys that are more on the quitting side of life, like they don’t want to make the effort or they don’t want to learn the basics, or they don’t want to do the work on themselves will focus on what they don’t have and what other people have. And they’ll get mad at what other people have. And it’s like, it’s very similar in other areas of life, right? I mean, like, I’m sure people have shamed you or maybe insulted you for what you do, or, you know, for the offers that you put out there, for example, but there are also people that will look at that and say, okay, well, I see value in all these things. So, I’m going to lean into, and I’m going to take the value that I want from that. And I think that’s what you have to do with anything in life. You know, if you find useful information, it’s like an ala carte, you know, you kind of go to the menu, it’s like, I’ll have some of that that works, that works, that works. That works. That works. This is a load of BS. This is well now a little bit of this over here. So, it takes a little bit of practice to sort of distinguish, you know, what’s So, real from fake sort of thing.

19:21

And I spent a few years in space, you know, I did some speaking events, I did some collabs on YouTube with a few of the other creators. And I just decided one day, it’s like, you know, there were too many guys that I was getting to know. And I started to realize they’re not good men, and they’re not good at being men, and they wouldn’t have my back. If, you know, like one of the tests that I like to use is look if so, if the shit hits the fan if the zombie apocalypse comes or whatever, you know, do I have a tribe of like minded men that I can rely on and I begin to learn? No, they’re not the kind of people that I want to be around. I can certainly appreciate that.

19:59

My definition of a true friend is actually somebody you call at 3am. And you’re like, Dude, I, I need this. And I can tell you why. And he doesn’t ask you any questions. He’s like, okay, I’ll be, I’ll be there. Yeah, there’s a, there’s a, there’s a video clip out there with.

20:17

I can’t remember his name, but it’s, you’re gonna have to cut this out. There’s a video clip out there where he approaches his friend, and he says to him, we’re gonna hurt some people, we’re gonna have to bury some bodies, and I need your help. And then his friend looks at him, he says, he kind of pauses for a second, he says, whose car we took, right? Not to challenge him, but to absolutely agree and say, right, let’s go and do it. And we true friends are the kind of people that will make fun of you to your face, but they’ll protect you behind your back. And I think that fake friends are the ones that are kind to your face and talk shit about you behind your back. And it takes a little while to sort of distinguish, you know, between the two. But as you get better as you move through life, you start to see the snakes in the grass for who they are. You know, in Israel, we have the same people stepping in your face. But that has nothing to do with real friendship. It’s more like in Israel, nobody tries to be nice, you know, that’s another distinction I made when I moved to Canada, people are generally mostly nice on the outside here. And everybody keeps a really cool facade. And they’ll be very understanding and supportive and everything, but not too many people will kind of let you in. They want to be the open up watch. And this is very different from where I grew up in, in Ukraine, and then in Israel, where both cultures are very much about opening up. But it’s also about learning to, to deal with betrayal. Because as you open up to so many people, it’s only natural that the sound that will be traded.

21:51

And I’m very fortunate to not have gone through the experience of having to experience it, to have my woman betray me. Hopefully, I never will. But I definitely had the experience of people I consider to be friends, you know, the ones that I would call it 3am turn their back on me and learn a few lessons there. So, you’re so then you wrote the unplug alpha to, to put out your version. Guess your philosophy out in the world about what a true man is and this sort of conduct? Yeah, it’s So, not and it’s not a book about? I mean, some people say, well, what’s the book about? Is it a dating book? Is it a lifestyle book? Is it a, you know, as a self-improvement book, I think it’s all of those things, because there’s chapters in the book that that talks about understanding that the dynamics in the relationship, there’s a chapter in the book that talks about why I think every man needs to own a motorcycle at some point in his life, and why every man should get into combat sports and understand violence and be good at it sort of thing. So, the book kind of moves in different directions. But it’s a good distillation of a lot of the content that I’ve put on my YouTube channel that went absolutely viral and got the most positive feedback. I’ve also done a lot of private consultations with a lot of men over the years. And I’ve kept copious notes. And a lot of the stuff that I’ve talked to men about, there’s a lot of common themes that men do that cause problems in their lives. So, one of the chapters in my book, and I give it away for free, is the 20 red flag chapter. 

23:27

So, there’s a lot of commonalities in men’s lives that reoccur over and over again, when chaos ensues. And it’s usually like chaos comes from bad choices, doesn’t it because you have a broken belief system that you subscribe to, in your belief system governs the choices that you make. And every day, you’ll start to make choices which end in certain results. And you can always, if you follow that trail backwards from results, choices to belief system, and you can see what somebody is made of sort of thing. So, the whole point of the 20 red flag chapter So, to sort of get right to the point of that is, is to help guys establish what to try to avoid when dealing with women, if you’re going to invite them into your life on a long-term basis. Long term basis might mean anything from dating relationships to a marriage, anything more than just dating is the red flag chapter. So, if you keep those women out of your life, then you generally keep your life simple and pleasant and more enjoyable. It’s not to say that you like one of the red flags that I cover in my book is, let’s say we’re women with addictive personalities, could be to cigarettes could be alcohol could be to shopping, you know, you could be dating a woman that has a shopping addiction, and she likes buying three or four different lamps and we’ll bring them home and try him out on the night table and she has to go back and return the ones that she doesn’t like and then the next day it’s handbags and next age shoes, and that’s not going to absolutely ruin your relationship or maybe make her a terrible girlfriend or wife. But it’s going to unnecessarily complicate your life in ways that a woman that doesn’t have an addiction to shopping and returning things does and that’s just a very light example I also talk about to stay away from toxic feminists stay away from, you know, inviting women with children from prior relationships into your life. There’s lots of different conversations in that chapter. But that’s just an idea of what’s in there. What would you say is the most glaring red flag you absolutely must avoid. I think if you want a simple, pleasant life as a guy, peaceful life even, you want to stay away from anybody with a victim mindset. And one of the things that I talk about is toxic feminists today, because feminism has moved from an equality movement for women where they didn’t have equal rights to anything, you know, at one point, and I don’t think there’s anything today that women can’t do that men can do.

25:38

I still wait for examples whenever somebody tries to challenge me on that, and they’ll say, oh, well, women only make, you know, 75 cents on the dollar for every dollar that a man makes. Okay, well, do you do consider and evaluate on that, that most men that work on oil rigs roofing work longer hours for more dangerous jobs and 95% of workplace injuries are experienced by Matt like, do you count that into effect, because most women choose simpler jobs, easier hours and more comfortable like daycare, dental hygiene, you know, reception work, like these sorts of jobs will obviously pay more and they’re less dangerous. So, like, there’s lots of things to contemplate. And I think it’s moved into an area now where, you know, if you’re dealing with a woman you invite into your life, and she has a victim mindset. And that’s a loser’s mindset. And if you have a victim’s mindset, you also have to have an oppressor. Because in order for you to be victimized, somebody has to oppress you. So, guess who the oppressor ends up being for toxic feminists, its men, right? And you can’t opt out of that, because you’re still a man, you still have a penis, you’re still born biologically as a man. So, at some point, it’s going to turn around and come back on you. So again, you know, if you want to have a simple, pleasant, happy life, you know, as a man, then don’t invite toxic women in your life that subscribe to victim mindsets like toxic feminism. It’s a supremacy movement today, it doesn’t seek to equalize women to men, it seeks to more so make men subservient to women. Right.

26:59

And it’s, and it’s continuing to push in that direction, there’s not much that I think that we can do about it, it’s just going that way for the time being, and it will probably change at some point when so, masculinity becomes valued. We live very peaceful times, don’t we, you know, if you look at human history, humans are warring aggressive creatures on this earth, like, you know, we’re, we’re actually kind of disgusting, you know, if you like, break it down, and you know, compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, and this is the most peaceful time in history, even though there’s a war going on between Ukraine and Russia. If, if you look at the timeline of human history, a lot of the wars have really ceased to exist over the last 100 years, there’s been isolated cases of them, you know, with the exception of World War One and World War Two, but there’s been regional wars, but we live in very, very peaceful times that I think that we have a lot of time in our hands. And that’s why you see weird things today. Like they’re, you know, men thinking that they’re women. And you’ve got this character, Dillon Mulvaney that is being hired by cosmetic companies and beer companies to promote their products.

27:58

It’s, it’s just where we are today, right? And you have to identify these issues and define who so is on your side, like who’s on the inside of your perimeter, I always talk to guys about drawing a perimeter around the people that they care about your family, your children, your you know, your woman, whoever that happens to be, and defining the us versus them care characteristics. This is something that Jack Donovan talks about in his book The Way of men.

28:26

So yeah, back to your original question about the worst type of person who fits into your life, I would, I would say, if I had to pick one, it would definitely be toxic feminists, because they make most men’s lives absolutely miserable. They’re just not fun to be with. Fair enough. And I’m glad you mentioned the whole, I guess, I don’t know what it’s called the feminist movement, the woke culture, whatever. Because I’ve been recently worried about my daughter. So, I have a daughter, she’s 10. And my son is four.

28:53

I’ve been increasingly worried about my kids being exposed to the narrative, because in schools and in the media, on social media, you know, a lot of people have been celebrated, and for what I think they shouldn’t be celebrated for. And there’s an agenda to push forward. All the transgender stuff and all the people who identify as something else, just because it’s cool. It’s like there’s, like, is it? Well, it’s cool, it’s popular, right? But yeah, make it cool. They’re trying to make it popular, otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many people who all of a sudden identify as a frickin table. When in reality, they don’t tell you clearly, you know, shows that they’re like, either a man or a woman. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, they don’t because I mean, throughout history, the firkin percentages of humans that lean into that gray area of LGBTQ t plus like, you know, the alphabet soup sort of thing has been quite small. It’s been like maybe one or 2% and today now when they serve a, you know, these younger kids and I’m saying kids, but it’s firkin the generation under the age of I think 29. Now, about one 1/3 of them identify with the alphabet community.

30:10

Which is bizarre because historically, that’s not how, you know, we’ve grown. So, it’s got to be a function of nurture, you know, at this point with media, government, Hollywood sitcom TVs, you know, it all started when they started to normalize a lot of the stuff in the mainstream, like there was a movie, I think it was in the 80s, I think it was called Tootsie. And I think Robin, Robin Williams played the character. It was basically a drag queen dress, like a transport addressing sort of scenario. And then you have the sitcom TV show with, you know, the gay characters that they try to normalize. So, you go to a bank now, Igor, I was at the bank the other day, and they had the big TV, you know, the 70-inch TV. And every single ad on that TV, I watched it go from slide to slide to slide was catering to trans to gay to that entire community. And in real life, the vast majority of the population 98-99% doesn’t, isn’t that. So, I find it bizarre that, you know, even 70-inch large, large corporations pander to this narrative today, you know, the woke narrative? Well, Bud Light is regretting that I’ve seen a lot of lashes back to them choosing the transgender spokesperson, or whatever they’ve done. Well, the lady that was head of the marketing team was either dismissed or she quit. Apparently, she should, you know, yeah, it’s an embarrassment. Because I’ve never seen so many people make fun of Bud Light, like they do people make fun of Bud Light. Say it’s not real beer. But I mean, now, it’s just, it’s just nuts. You know, I had an interesting experience a few years back. Me and my closest friends, including my wife, and my best friend’s wife as well, we decided to surprise him. He’s a big Barcelona fan. And, you know, he flew out to Barcelona. And then later me, and my wife also came in, and we surprised him by going to the Barcelona game. And just so it happened, that he booked a hotel, I don’t know why, when he booked a hotel in Barcelona’s gay neighborhood.

32:19

So, it’s like a district, you know. And we live there in a gay friendly hotel in a gay neighborhood, and we got to walk around. And, you know, even So, though it’s like, publicly stating that this is a place for gay people, they’re not really into your face about that. And Israel is also very gay friendly. So, I grew up, I even you know, when I was in the Air Force, we had plenty of gay guys on the force. And you could tell like, they were gay, that was like, their body language gave it away. They were also like, pretty open about it, they never, you know, tried to hide the fact. And again, they were never trying to be in your face about it, you know, they were never trying to convert you or whatever. And now it feels like, if you almost don’t want to be some other kind of yourself, it’s like, you’re So, hating on everybody else. Like, you’re evil, you know, yeah, I’m, I’m of the opinion that you should do whatever you want to do in life. I’m more of a libertarian, you know, whatever you do in your house, it doesn’t bother me, but just don’t put So, on your drag costumes, and go to schools and try to convince children in elementary school that this is normal. You know, I think there was a protest recently in Toronto, if I’m not mistaken, where parents were upset at the Catholic school board, because they were talking about raising the pride flag for the month of June. And, you know, they had a little bit of a meltdown over the whole thing, and there’s a lot of conflict. And of course, you know, they started calling them bigots, racists, you know, sexist, you know, whatever. It’s, you know, they throw it at people to try to make you feel bad. But I think at the end of the day, it’s like, look at me, you know, if you enjoy doing something, then go do it. Just do it in the comfort and the pleasure of your own house, and don’t try to cram it down other people’s throats. But that message that’s been accepted for a very long time seems to have been lost now. And now they want you to accept and now they want you to, you know, infuse this into events and calendar dates, and I was at the Canadian Tire the other day, and there was a Canada Day section. And it’s no longer just flags and mugs and zippers for your bottles and all that sort of stuff with the Canadian flag on it. Now everything has rainbows on it or the trans flag logo so that they just try to maneuver it into your day-to-day activities. And it’s, you know, it’s a whole, you know, boiling of the frog, they just do it slowly, day by day, week, by week, month by month before day-to-day you know you’ve got a flag on the front window of your house and you wonder how the hell it got there and you realize, oh, my kid put it there. You’re so right. Yeah.

34:56

Let me ask you, so you, I don’t know how old you are. I’m assuming you’re at least 40. Plus, if you could go back in time, say 10-15 years, and spend, I don’t know, 10 minutes with yourself, like just having a conversation, what would be some of the things you would say to yourself, take bigger risks, absolutely take bigger risks, because I think men today, and even going back to when I was young, you know, when I was 20 years old, we, we don’t play to win, like we used to, I think we play more not to lose. And I feel sorry for younger men and women today, because they’ve heard this narrative of, of the victim mindset. Now for years, you know, they’ve been told, you know, masculinity is toxic, women are oppressed, they don’t have autonomy over their bodies or choice, blah, blah, blah. And I think back to when I was a kid, and I didn’t hear much of that, but even back then I would, I would go back into the time machine and say, take bigger risks, work harder, you know, fall down hard to get back up faster. And I think that we’re told to play it safe, right? Playing to win and playing not to lose might sound very similar, but they’re two very, very different things that when you play to win in life, then you put more on the line you take, you know, you put more down on the bet. And there, it’s not like you’re taking risky bets, you’re taking calculated bets, I believe anyway. So just day-to-day taking day-to-day bigger risks and playing more to win versus playing not to lose would be the narrative that I would have.

36:32

Would you mind sharing some of the things in your personal life where you wished you took a bigger risk?

36:39

Well, as an example, I came back from England in my early 20s. I went there for a few months, I think around 21 or so. And my first thought was okay, so I need a job. I have friends here. I like motorcycling; I need to be able to secure my bike and have gas in the tank and go out on Friday nights to hang out with the other guys to race on the streets. So, I need a job, you know, I need a place to live in, I need a job and somewhere to put my motorcycle. So that’s where I went. And then I spent the next nine or 10 years or so doing those jobs, but you’re never going to create real wealth or real freedom working for anybody else. It’s just it’s just never going to happen. And it never happened, you know, throughout history. But I think the kind of life that my grandparents lived back when they were younger in their 20s was a lot more comfortable like men back then, like my grandfather had to work half as hard to find a woman that’s twice as good as what men have to work with today, right? Like women today are bossy, they’re disagreeable, they’re more, they’re more promiscuous and Elio. Any other time in history. So arguably, you have to work harder now, for a good woman that’s half as good as what your grandparents did. So, taking So, more risks in life in the sense of, if you want to make real money, like life changing money, if you want freedom, if you like things like exotic cars, I remember sitting at the bus stop when I was 15-16 years old, waiting to take the bus to go to work to make 285 An hour and thinking to myself, oh, wow, look at that Ferrari. You know, I’d really like to have a car like that, but oh you never really put two and two together to understand how to make that kind of life changing money. And have there been more conversations about entrepreneurship? And what happens when you become an entrepreneur, I think that the risks would be taken, because you’d understand them better. Make no mistake, I mean, 30 years ago, it was a lot harder to be successful. As a self-employed entrepreneur than what it is today, we have the internet, there’s money just traveling through the internet today like this. And all you have to do is create some value and reach out and grab some of it. Right? Those sorts of things didn’t exist back then. But there were still opportunities for you to work in environments or in areas where you could lean into entrepreneurship. But I wasted probably about nine or 10 years of my life working for other people. And that’s fine. You know, I learned a lot of valuable lessons. But I would rather have been the guy that started my business at 20 instead of 30. All right, well, we’re about to wrap up. So, I know. So, you’ve got the book unplugged alpha, and I highly recommend checking it out. It’s actually quite an easy way to go through it. If you’re driving around. You can listen to it very, very quickly. I think within just one car ride, I went through like half of it. And it was really cool. So, you guys, can you have said you’ve given away a free chapter? Where can we get that? Yeah, if you just opt in to my email list, you can go to entrepreneurs and cops or entrepreneursincars.com/red-flags/ and that gives you the opportunity to opt in to my list and get the free chapter on the 20 red flags. Awesome. So, one final question. And we’ll include the link to the book to the free chapter of the book, enter the book itself in the show notes you can get those at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com One final question. You’ve obviously done a lot of work and a lot of research on what it means to be a man, especially today where most men have the absolute wrong idea about what that means. What are some of the resources, books, courses, podcasts that you can recommend for someone who’s aspiring to live this sort of life? Well, you could start with my book, obviously, because it’s got a lot of the elements and a lot of the things that I was influenced by. Another book I would recommend is Jack Donovan’s The Way of Men, which is more about a book about masculinity and what it means to be a man sort of thing.

40:32

But if you start there, then that’s a pretty good beginning point for most guys. Awesome. We’ll also include a link to Jack Donovan’s book in the show notes. So also, of course, where can we find your YouTube channel? What’s the name of the YouTube channel? Yeah, the best place to go to get everything is just my website richcooper.ca. It’s got links to my YouTube channel for entrepreneurs and cars is another YouTube channel for the podcast, which is the unplugged alpha, which essentially builds on the book. It builds a living extension of the book itself, because each podcast episode is things that could essentially be in that book. So, if you start there, then you’re ready to go to that beginning part. Awesome. Any, any final words to a young listener in their late 20s, early 30s, who was starting on their entrepreneurial journey, it’s always the same advice. It’s done at work, man. You know, work is dressed in overalls and it looks hard, but the payoff when you put the time into it is something that has a good ROI. If it enriches your life and moves you closer to your goals, just do the damn work. It’s going to be hard, but do it.

41:36

Thank you for listening to the list building lifestyle, get access to the previous episode’s transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com. Also, remember to claim your free copy of my bestselling book at www.igorsbook.com. It explains how I made millions with list building starting from scratch. Plus, I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my best landing page templates, email, swipe files and traffic. Go to www.igorsbook.com now to claim your free package