Our friends over at FOUNDED recently interviewed Good Men Project’s very own Lisa Hickey about what we’re doing here at the magazine. We’re glad to say that they enjoyed what we have to offer. (The feeling’s mutual.)
For those of you who’ve never heard of FOUNDED, they’re an online mag that features “interviews with rule breakers and risk takers from around the world” who “make sense of the daunting, sometimes irrational choices they will grapple with before taking a leap of faith.”
Sounds a little familiar, eh? We’ve attached an excerpt of the interview, below but check out the full transcript here.
What is “good” all about?
We want to brand the word but we also don’t want to define it for people. We want the conversation to really be about how men have reached moments of goodness in their life and when they have been confused. We don’t want to play god, we’re not the architects of moral decision-making. We also don’t think that “good” needs to be boring; we can talk about good and we can talk about bad and the juxtaposition of those two things. It’s about tackling really hard, provocative questions and decisions. (Check out this candid account of a dad who talks about why he started blow-drying his first-grade son’s hair and what he has to say to anyone who thinks that’s “weird” or “unmanly.”)
What is your advice to content creators and online entrepreneurs in terms of how to drive traffic?
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeThe thing people should realize about social media is that it’s not just about additional channels through which you promote yourself. You need to become helpful to different communities. So whenever we build up a community, we spend a lot of time listening to what they want. It’s not just about “Hey, buy my content!” … it’s more about “How can we engage you in what we’re doing?”
What were some of the greatest lessons learned as you’ve started various ventures?
Don’t assume that what you’re doing is right Get out there and make mistakes Find what works and then do more of that, and stop doing what doesn’t work.
Words have lost all meaning. Everybody has a different opinion of good men.
Personally, I think high standards, critical analysis, good dataTM, intellectual integrity and speaking out for the forgotten victims of domestic violence is what makes a good man*
*Not affiliated with TGMP