Today’s guest, Nicolas Gregoriades has appeared on several high-profile podcasts, including the Joe Rogan Experience and The Aubrey Marcus show. Nicolas Gregoriades is an internationally acclaimed jiu jitsu master, author and mentor.
Listen to Nic Gregoriades on the Manlihood ManCast on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Nic Gregoriades has grappled with both failure and success.
He is also an accomplished podcast host having interviewed guests such as Tim Ferris, Dorian Yates and Graham Hancock
His experiences in life, the good and the painful are helping to inform him
His mission is to help men face their fears, embrace their power and lead lives of extraordinary fulfillment.
His latest book, Aligned: The Modern Man’s Guide to Health, Wealth & Freedom features 20 essential principles for success which Nic has formulated from his extensive experience with martial arts, psychedelic journeys and international adventuring.
Born in South Africa
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, during the turbulent collapse of apartheid, Nic Gregoriades recognized at a young age that there was more to life than promised by the backward, small ideas of his country’s culture.
It was this which first sparked his hunger for wider knowledge and understanding, of
people, places, viewpoints, modes of living, and himself. And since then, with decades
of introspection, study, travel, and practice, and armed with the understanding that the
human experience is a gift, Nic has consistently been able to fulfill his potential.
He has dedicated himself and his life to discovering the secrets of a well-Iived life and
then sharing them with men who seek to go beyond the frustration, boredom and
At Manlihood, we’re curating chunks of manly wisdom for you. If you’re like a lot of men, you may find yourself short on time for reading long books to look for wisdom that you can apply to your life…. We’re offering you the Campbell’s Soup version… the best quotes and insights to help inspire you to be an even better man.
Listen to this episode of the Manlihood ManCast on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it,” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.”
— Fred Rogers
“We’re all human. People are often afraid to admit difficulties, but I don’t believe that there should be a struggle with anything that’s the truth. If you were a guy, you used to have to be really masculine, but now expressing emotion is accepted and respected.”
– Zayn Malik
“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” ― John Green
“If we start being honest about our pain, our anger, and our shortcomings instead of pretending they don’t exist, then maybe we’ll leave the world a better place than we found it.”
– Russell Wilson
“Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but, importantly, YOU ARE NOT THE RAIN.” — Matt Haig
“My dark days made me stronger. Or maybe I already was strong, and they made me prove it.” –Emery Lord
“But no matter how much evil I see, I think it’s important for everyone to understand that there is much more light than darkness.” ― Robert Uttaro
“Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.” — Ovid
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” ― Leonard Cohen
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves” ― Henry David Thoreau
“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.” — Charles Bukowski
“Promise me you’ll always remember — you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A.A. Milne via Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh
“In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” — Winston Churchill
“Change what you can, manage what you can’t.” ― Raymond McCauley
“If you have been brutally broken but still have the courage to be gentle to other living beings, then you’re a badass with a heart of an angel.” — Keanu Reeves
“There isn’t anybody out there who doesn’t have a mental health issue, whether it’s depression, anxiety, or how to cope with relationships. Having OCD is not an embarrassment anymore – for me. Just know that there is help and your life could be better if you go out and seek the help.” — Howie Mandel
“Being able to be your true self is one of the strongest components of good mental health.” — Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy
“In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” — Abraham Maslow
“You don’t need to find a lesson in your trauma.” — Jordan Pickell, MCP RCC
“Two things can be true. You can love your family and have deep wounds as a result of your family experiences.” — Nedra Glover Tawwab
“Your illness is not your identity. Your chemistry is not your character.” — Rick Warren
Author and Coach GS Youngblood talks with Josh Hatcher on the Manlihood ManCast about how a man can have a better relationship with his partner by better understanding what it means to be a man.
Listen to the Manlihood ManCast: a podcast for men on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
The Masculine Core
Every relationship has the potential for great personal turmoil. As men, we’ve got a responsibility to set the tone and temperature, but we often find ourselves reacting or overreacting.
GS Youngblood helps men in relationships to love and lead from their masculine core.
Relationship Coaching
GS Youngblood helps men to evaluate their relationships, and to find the calm and centered place to respond to the sometimes contentious or toxic criticism and frustrations that arise.
If you want to be more powerful in your relationship, less of a pleaser or Nice Guy… he gives practical tips for reclaiming and repairing that relationship.
It can get better
The first step in fixing a struggling relationship is in accepting the simple belief that it can get better.
Embodiment
GS Youngblood teaches some basic exercises that get you “out of your head” and into your body. It grounds your thinking to the moment you are in, rather than rustling through the hurts of the past or worrying and fretting about the future.
Testicular Fortitude means having deep seated masculine courage and strength. Balls. Guts. Manlihood.
Testicular Fortitude on the Manlihood ManCast is where we take a look at men who have beat the odds, men whose courage has left a lasting legacy.
John Muir’s adventuresome heart reflects the courage and wanderlust of a man with Testicular Fortitude.
A philosopher, zoologist, botanist, glaciologist, and an advocate for the preservation of the North American Wilderness, he earned the title of “Father of National Parks.”
Born in Scotland, he endured many whippings from his father for pursuing “anything other than Bible studies.” Those pursuits included exploring the forests and coastline, and fighting.
His family moved to Wisconsin was he was 11, and he later went on to drop out of college, with enough chemistry, botany, and geology knowledge to devote to study the wilds.
He took a job in an Indianapolis wagon wheel factory, and his innovation and creativity helped him move up to the role of supervisor, but a freak accident would change the course of his life. A file slipped and cut his cornea. And he spent the next several weeks recovering in a dark room hoping that he would regain his sight.
That pivotal moment in the darkness caused him to evaluate his purpose…
Muir said, “This affliction has driven me to the sweet fields. God has to nearly kill us sometimes, to teach us lessons”.
And he then devoted his life to exploration. He set off on a thousand mile hike from Kentucky to Florida, then he sailed to Cuba where he studied sea shells and plants, and after many other journeys, he ended up at Yosemite, where he fell in love with the land.
He founded the Sierra Club, which would advocate for the preservation of Yosemite and other places that would go on to become National Parks.
He personally guided President Teddy Roosevelt on a tour of Yosemite, and they slept beneath Sequias, and became friends.
Muir’s many writings describe not only the scientific observations of nature, but a theological and philosophical perspective that viewed nature as “straight from the hand of God.”
I’m honoring John Muir as a man with Testicular Fortitude, not only for his passion for nature, but for his ferocity in preserving it. At a time when the industrial revolution was in full swing, and progress and expansion required more and more from our natural resources, Muir fought back, and advocated not that progress should necessarily cease, but that wilderness itself was a virtue, and worth preserving.
I’ll end with this quote from John Muir.
“Keep close to Nature’s breasts… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb those voluptuous mountains or spend a week deep in the woods. Wash yourself clean…seriously wash yourself, you could get a disease or something.”
From the front lines of the battlefield, to the front lines of emergency medicine, our guest is no stranger to the harsh realities of life and death. His journey to overcoming his own struggles have driven Nick Quinton to a life helping others become fit, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.
Listen to Nick Quinton on the Manlihood ManCast: a podcast for men on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Being fit and healthy matters. Before that can happen in your body, though – it has to start in your mind. Nick talks about the techniques used in a high-pressure environment that can help you build resilience.
Building Resilience
In an age of uncertainty the demand for resilience is high, working with elite
teams Nick unpacks the steps to building resilient teams and robust leaders.
Performance Coach, Paramedic, and Ex-Paratrooper
A turbulent younger life leads to a confused adult searching for a place to fit in, wandering to far-flung corners of the earth. The taste for a life less ordinary and adventure found Nick volunteering to deploy as some of the first boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2006 as an airborne warrior.
Back from the intensity of combat, a search for security and structure found Nick on the corporate ladder which didn’t last but illuminated the right path, as Nick searched for a way to add value and support people to be healthy.
Fitness, coaching and health became the obsession and sculpted the professional coach working with inspiring teams to build strong, robust and resilient leaders.
Listen to the Latest Episode of the Manlihood ManCast: a podcast for men on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Fight Club is a monthly live panel discussion moderated by Josh Hatcher in his living room with several other men
This episode features: Josh Hatcher Dan Karrasch Dwayne Edgar Abe Hatcher
In this second installment of Fight Club, Josh Hatcher, Dan Karrasch, Dwayne Edgar, and Abe Hatcher talk about the reason young people do stupid things like cooking chicken in Nyquil (a “trend” similar to the Tide Pod Challenge).
Identity Issues
The group also talks about young people who “identify as” feline, or who crave a mental health diagnosis in order to feel belonging and acceptance.
They talk about how each of us longs for belonging, and how we need to understand our identity.
There are plenty of side discussions about politics, faith, and brotherhood. Make sure to tune in.
Be a part of FIGHT CLUB LIVE
Once a month, Josh will host Fight Club Live at his house, live streaming the discussion on Facebook. You can join the guys and be a part of the discussion. Check out our Facebook Event for the event dates.
Men often face an inner battle when they clock in to work everyday. A lack of fulfillment – the feeling of being a slave to the wage – and a desire for freedom and purpose can leave many men feeling hopeless and void. Our guest today, Ken Coleman, is working hard to help folks make the most of their careers.
America’s Career Coach
Ken Coleman is America’s Career Coach, the #1 national bestselling author of The Proximity Principle and From Paycheck to Purpose, and host of The Ken Coleman Show. Ken helps people discover what they were born to do and provides practical steps to make their dream job a reality. The Ken Coleman Show is a nationally syndicated, caller-driven show that helps listeners who are searching for something more out of their career.
The word “cuck” is an abbreviation of the word “cuckold”.
It refers to a man who has been spurned by his woman because of his weakness as she pursues a sexual relationship from a stronger man.
It’s become an internet insult, and it definitely sounds like a very dirty word – whether it’s officially a “cuss word” or not – it’s certainly a word that no man wants to be called, and it describes a position in which no man wants to be.
Men often go out of their way to get the girl. Then they get the girl and they give up.
Improving yourself, working on becoming a better, stronger man will make you measurably more attractive.
Meet her needs
Your spouse is looking for someone to meet her needs – physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Commit together to guard your family
Affairs don’t happen overnight.
Work together to draw your boundaries, and then enforce those boundaries without jealousy and with trust.
Fight Like Hell
I’ve been using the phrase a lot lately. You need to fight like hell to create the kind of marriage that overcomes temptation, that is full of love and respect, that is fiercely guarded and protected, and that is not full of dangerous fault lines and volcanic eruptions.
Today, September 30, is International Podcast Day! Today at Manlihood, we thought it would be a great opportunity to celebrate our podcast for men.
International Podcast Day™ is September 30th and is an international celebration of the power of podcasts.
In 2004, Adam Curry and Dave Winer were credited for the invention of podcasting. It wasn’t until Ben Hammersly wrote about the online audio shows in the Guardian newspaper that the term “podcasting” was coined.
It’s been almost 20 years since then, and we now have 2.4 million podcasts with 66 million episodes globally. There are more podcasts than anyone could ever listen to!
The Manosphere
Blogs centered around personal development for men have been around for quite awhile, but one of the more earth-shaking moments in the manosphere was the birth of The Art of Manliness Podcast in 2009.
In 2013, I sent an email to a handful of men that I respected, and pitched an idea. I wanted to make a website to equip, educate, entertain, and engage men to be better husbands, fathers, and leaders. The men had some great feedback. My hope was that I had just created a superhero team to build this crazy thing, only to find out, that most of them never really got involved.
At first, I was dissapointed, but one of them told me, “Josh, this is YOUR thing. We’re behind you, and we support you. But this is YOUR dream. YOU are the guy that needs to do it.”
And so I did.
Testing 1.2.3.
My first real job was at WFRM Radio in Coudersport, PA at 14 years old. I was running the board for Pittsburgh Pirates games, DJ’ing and announcing on Saturday mornings, recording commercials, and having the time of my life. I went to college for communications, with a broadcasting specialty, spinning plenty of Christian records on the campus radio station. I went on to work at a few more radio stations, as a news director, a DJ, a talk show-host.
Way before all of that, I used to play with a tape recorder, making my own DJ’d mix tapes. Most people hate the sound of their own voice when they hear it played back. I’ve been listening to mine for so long, I’m usually not bothered by how I sound, and I’ve developed the voice and production skills to be able to use it to make a living at various points in my life.
The Birth of the Manlihood ManCast
I always knew I wanted to build the blog into a podcast. But I hesitated for a long time. Part of me was afraid that I was going to be sending it out into the void. Why would anyone listen? Why invest the time, energy, and emotion into something for 20 people?
After listening to other podcasts, I kept telling myself- You can do that. You have all of the skills, the knowledge, the wisdom to create that.
But it was hard to pull the trigger. Self-doubt kept plaguing me.
I was stuck in this place where I knew I could start it, but I didn’t want to fail. I wasn’t quite ready, I didn’t know what would work, or what listeners wanted to hear. I had a plan, but it was just ideas and lots of scrawled notes in a journal, and nothing concrete.
I had a conversation online with Ryan Michler, and he said, “Start before you are ready.”
And that wisdom made a lot of sense. Just do it, and you can work out the details later. You can fix what isn’t working when you actually do something other than thinking and dreaming.
So we decided to get started by recycling some of our blog content into episodes. If you scroll back on your podcast app to the earliest episodes, you’ll see that the Manlihood ManCast then definitely isn’t what it is now! But I started.
Podcasting is important to me. This is the entrance into people’s hearts and minds as I do the mission I’ve been called to do.
What is it that drives Manlihood? Our Purpose, Mission, Vision, and Values.
Purpose:
Because the world needs men to lead in their families and communities, and because so many men have struggled to understand their value, Manlihood exists to help men become better men.
Mission:
The Manlihood Mission is to Educate, Equip, and Entertain Men in an Engaging Way.
Vision:
The Manlihood vision is to create resources to educate and equip men, to foster a thriving community of men, where bonds of brotherhood and accountability form. We seek to help men be better fathers, husbands, leaders, friends. We want to build through Manlihood a financially sustainable architecture that can support itself, but also to incubate ideas and opportunities from within the Manlihood community that support our purpose and mission.
Values:
Men matter.
Family matters.
Integrity and Honor matter.
Personal Responsibility matters. (If it is to be, it’s up to me.)
Men thrive and grow in community and brotherhood with each other.
Truth is everywhere. Wisdom knows how to pick it out.
Men should value and respect women. (People should respect people.)
Perseverance, Self-control and Self-discipline are sacred and essential.
Words are powerful, and how we use them matters.
Leadership is steeped in influence and responsibility. (Everyone is a leader, and everyone should embrace and nurture that role.)
Alonzo talks with Manlihood about the traditional values he believes in, and how it matters that men work to live by and preserve those values.
Leadership matters
“When we promote leaders, we typically promote based on skills other than leadership and this creates dysfunctional organizations. Leadership is a skill that can be learned and my simple and effective method can improve your team quickly.” – Alonzo Pettigrew
