Ashanti Branch has been mentoring young men and women for 19 years in California. He is the founder of The Ever Forward Club, with a mission of changing the way students relate to learning. He is also the host of the Taking Off The Mask Podcast.

Ashanti joined me on the show to talk about how to build emotionally intelligent, resilient, and powerful humans. 

In this episode we dive into:

• Ashanti’s role in the film: The Mask You Live In.
• Creating a safe space for teenage boys.
• Talking about feelings vs. writing them down.
• The origin of “the mask” movement. 
• Myths about anger.
• Emotional literacy.
• Breaking the cycles perpetuated by older generations. 
• Making money vs. following your purpose.
• Ashanti’s journey from engineering to teaching. 
• What it looks like to run Ever Forward and host men’s groups. 
• Expectations of men in society: repressing feelings that have nowhere to go.
• The nature of emotions. 
• Conscious leadership. 
• Grief co-existing with anger.
• How to hold space for men experiencing anger.  
• Emotional expectations of women vs. men. 
• Examples of Ashanti’s work with boys in schools. 
• Ashanti’s life-changing path to creating men’s groups.
• Overcoming the lone wolf narrative: the importance of asking for help. 
• The magic of appreciation, recognition, and compliments in men sharing’s circles. 
• The “no homo” phase and what it was pointing to. 
• Younger generations: open minds and determination. 
• Gender and sexuality. 
• COVID vaccines and the divisiveness we are seeing. 
• Confirmation bias and the news. 
• Advocating for men to have support teams. 
• Taking Off the Mask podcast.

Links

• Ashanti’s Instagram
• Ashanti’s Twitter
• Ashanti’s Facebook
• Ashanti’s Website
• Ever Forward Club Instagram
• Ever Forward Club Website
• Mask Challenge 
• Brad Leslie on The Evolving Man Podcast