In The Business of Healthy Masculinity Breaking patterns via healthy masculinity with Rich Cooper
Hey, how are things your end today?
I’m feeling like this fire horse energy that everyone is talking about is really starting to come through! It’s messy, painful, and a tad scary, but somehow the breakdown feels necessary …?
As always, my thanks to Anna deNardin for her graphic and artwork support to help bring these conversations even more to life.
I am pleased to let you know that this podcast has its first sponsor in Hannah Litt. The work that she does around holding safe spaces for leaders, delivering keynote talks and fireside chats, and building community spaces all has a very strong values-alignment with the ethos of this podcast
Hannah joined me on episode #11 of this platform (as below) in case you wanted to ‘meet’ her.
Breaking patterns with Rich Cooper
Onto episode #15 of ‘In The Business of Healthy Masculinity,’ and I am SUPER excited to introduce you to my next guest today, Rich Cooper, who introduces himself as follows:
I have spent my career mainly in financial services, based around data, troubleshooting problems, building bigger pictures, working with systems, trying to make jobs easier for others. I’m technically minded but not technical, I’m business minded without being in the business.
Over the years I have job crafted in different directions, gaining a coaching qualification and helping others with their careers, shining a light on their innate talents, their strengths, their preferences, their motivations.
I’ve worked with people at all levels, I’ve seen people grow, develop, move on. I’ve helped new starters settle.
I am currently working in the world of football, very different to the world of corporate, some similar challenges, some different.
You can follow Rich at his LinkedIn.
Let’s dive in……
You can find this whole ‘In The Business of Healthy Masculinity’ conversation on the following platforms:
* Apple
* Spotify
* YouTube
The bias found within unhealthy masculinity, and indeed femininity
“I did quite a bit of coaching and spent a lot of time with women, on talent development programs, and I definitely saw that I was working with loads of talented women and they weren’t going up the ladder as quickly as other people. I thought, hmm, that’s interesting.” - Rich Cooper
This comment from Rich takes me back to that moment when I overheard two managers talking about a woman colleague who was pregnant, saying “Kayleigh is probably the best person for the job, but as she’ll go off on maternity soon, lets not include her in the process.”
I didn’t speak up at the time and I know that was poor on my side, so I am so grateful to Rich and other men especially who are conscious and curious about the more harmful patterns that do occur in business places from time to time.
What unspoken rules may block or suppress progress for women, Black, Brown, or disabled colleagues in your workplace, for example?
How would you feel to speak up and challenge such patterns in your context? We’d love to learn from you in the comments.
Consciously embracing all of our experience of life
“I have feminine traits, I have masculine traits. I like to think I understand both sides
And it’s actually being more comfortable that I don’t have to conform” - Rich Cooper
I really love the interplay between personal disruption and self-worth and societal conditioning that Rich speaks to here.
As he comes from a place of high self worth and knowing, he feels more comfortable to embrace his blend of masculine and feminine, which is counter to much of our societal conditioning which advertises and promotes more hyper-masculine, or what I would call it, healthy masculinity.
What more diverse range of conversations and debate is possible when we come from a place of higher self worth, and curiosity? Please do share your reflections and constructive challenges in the comments, and share this conversation if it moves you personally.
This part of our conversation reminds me of the powerful work of personal disruption that Whitney Johnson models. If you havwn’t come across this before, her S-curve of learning is super helpful. Rich in fact made me aware of Whitney’s work some years ago, and I was blessed to be a guest on her Disrupt Yourself podcast a few years back #FullCircle.
Curiosity as a pattern-breaker
“Be more curious. We can all feel trapped and we can all feel on a wheel that we can’t get off, it’s back to your point about slowing down, and actually just having more conversations with people you wouldn’t normally have conversations with” - Rich Cooper
I love Rich’s comment here, and I remember after George Floyd was murdered, it really made me get curious about how diverse or not, my global network was. It wasn’t very at that time, is the honest answer!
It took me being very intentional, and non-performative about learning about, connecting with, and sharing experiences with a much more diverse range of people, that really accelerated my own growth journey that continues today, and I trust there was some reciprocity in there too.
If you were to rate your level of curiosity between 1 and 5 today, with 1 being I am rarely curious, nor question, to 5 being I am always questioning and curious, how would you rate yourself, and why?
I offer this invitation alongside Rich’s as we don’t HAVE to keep running at the speed the hamster wheel demands. We choose to stay on it, or give ourselves a break. Cleverer people than me state that ‘Rest is Resistance.’
What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts? What may you challenge or agree with above? We’d appreciate your view in the comments.
Allowing people to FEEL in the workplace
“It would help with all kinds of this invisible thing that we call culture. What does it feel like to work somewhere? And how curious can I be? And how open is it for my feedback about how we can do things better? - Rich Cooper
What a gorgeous set of reflective questions Rich offers here.
Is it even okay to talk about feelings in your workplace? Do you allow yourself to feel at all?
It took me many years to remember that it is okay to feel, let alone bring that into the workplace.
It is easy to talk about connecting head, heart, and gut, but the reality is most organisations today in 2026 are set up for hyper-masculinity and as per other conversations on this platform, it is even rewarded as such.
This is why this platform exists; to create space and invite curiosity as Rich state beautifully to re-imagine who and what we can be in the world, and how differently we can lead ourselves and others as the old dies away and the new is necessarily birthed.
Are you ready to reclaim your self-worth from these unhealthy systems?
Until next time
We hope that you join us in this exploration, and please do feed back and share with your networks if you are getting value.
Finally, if any of the above questions have ignited curiosity within you,I am here if you are looking for a 1-1 Thinking Partner that can be in your corner by voice note, virtually, and in-person, I have found 5 x 60 minutes calls + unlimited voice note communication to work the best.
If you are ready to embrace the journey towards healthier masculinity and the goodness that brings, at home and at work, drop me a line at garry.turner@radicality.co.uk.
Episode #16 of the podcast will be published next Mon 2nd Feb 2026 with ex corporate employee, soulful coach, and supporter of individual contributors, Vanessa Periera.
Here is a little something to whet your appetite around not having to quit your 9-5 in order that you reclaim your purpose, and wishing you well with the rest of your week ahead.
I am always interested in your reflections, challenges, and anything else that piques your curiosity with these updates.
Until next time, take care and have as good a week ahead as possible,
Garry Turner
garry.turner@radicality.co.uk
+44 7928 979358
Get full access to In The Business of Healthy Masculinity at inbusinessofhealthymasculinity.substack.com/subscribe