#39 - Men's Mental Health with EVRYMAN Founder Lucas Krump

Lucas Krump joins me on the podcast this week to talk about men's mental health. Lucas started a company called EVRYMAN, for the sole purpose of helping men, improve their mental health and wellbeing by focused on the unique dynamics that men deal with around mental health and wellness.

Lucas is passionate about connection, community, and emotional wellness. As CEO and Co-Founder of EVRYMAN, Lucas together with EVRYMAN co-founders Dan Doty, Owen Marcus and Sascha Lewis lead a global movement that brings men together to develop their emotional skillset, enabling deeper connections with themselves and others. Since launching in 2017, EVRYMAN has supported thousands of men to lead happier, healthier more connected lives via retreats, weekly groups and online programs. EVRYMAN has been featured in the New York Times, Men's Health, The Today Show and The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast.

He is an adventurer and a traveler. Lucas grew up in Kansas, after college he spent 10 years living in Africa and Asia before moving to New York City and now Hudson, New York. where he calls home. His passion for service and commitment to purpose are rooted in his Jesuit education and midwest values. He believes deeply in human connection and its ability to heal wounds and open hearts to the endless possibilities of the human experience.

The mission statement of the EVRYMAN program says that we cannot change what life brings, but we can change how we respond. This resonates strongly with a lot of what I have learned in recovery from addiction.

You can connect with Lucas and learn more about EVRYMAN here: EVRYMAN Website, Lucas on LinkedIn, Video Explaining EVRYMAN, Lucas on Instagram, EVERYMAN on Instagram, EVRYMAN Podcast

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Lucas Krump joins us to talk about the mission of EVRYMAN. EVRYMAN is a men's wellness organization focused on supporting men with mental and emotional health by improving their emotional resiliency. The approach is peer to peer support by combining online and offline activities aimed at bringing men together to practice improving mental and emotional health.
   
   
   
2. Lucas explains the founding story of EVRYMAN and talks about his own personal struggle to find satisfaction and happiness in his late 30s. He thought about what he was missing and what he needed to make him happy. On paper, he had all the things society told him that would make him happy but that is not what he was feeling. That realization led him to create EVRYMAN out of his desire to find a group of men to support him personally in that effort.
   
   
   
3. What do men go through? What causes men to have a specific mental health challenge differently than women? Lucas explains how men go through transitions in their life and how those transitions impact us. We talked about how socially and culturally that men have received a message that they need to "go it alone" during the singular pursuit of accomplishment. This leads men to struggle to handle the transitions we face in life.
   
   
   
4. We talked about where the societal pressures that negatively impact men originated from and how they have evolved over time. We talked about why men tend to "suffer in silence" and what we can do about it. Lucas takes us all the way back to when we as a species evolved out from a "farming" based society to an "industrial" based society where individual pursuits were prioritized over team and community pursuits.
   
   
   
5. We talked about being proactive versus reactive with our own mental health care and wellbeing and how someone can go from being "reactive" about their wellness and mental health to being proactive and engaging in managing our mental health.
   
   
   
6. EVRYMAN started out as "in-person" men's groups and has evolved into digital groups as they scale toward their goal of reaching and helping 1 million men with their mental health.
   
   
   
7. We talked about nervous system regulation and learning how to do it (and why it is so important). We talked about how powerful groups, and interactions with others (sitting intentionally in a group, bound by a set of agreements) can be for helping us learn to slow down, feel safe, learn to express ourselves and begin to regulate our own nervous system.
   
   
   
8. We talked about the EVRYMAN business, how they are growing, who they want to work with and what they need to scale including potential partners, capital, etc.
   
   
   
9. Explanation of EVRYMAN from their website:
   
   EVRYMAN is not about "finding yourself," but "creating yourself" -- understanding and acting productively on your emotions instead of burying or redirecting them, and thereby building a more fulfilling life. With the need for safe distancing, our online program gives you what you need now more than ever. It's an interactive behavioral curriculum, not therapy or guru worship, and we invite you to experience it for yourself.
   
   Many of us have suffered major personal, professional and financial losses over the last several weeks, often on top of pre-existing feelings of sadness, loneliness or disconnection.
   
   As a Benefit Corporation, we invest profits directly into operational costs, programming, and the technology required to inspire and improve the lives of men, their communities, and humanity at large.

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