EP255: Luis Rivas - Lessons From My Father

Written By Chris Rodd

"A lot of men like us are in hiding out of fear and self-preservation because they are being mislabeled as toxic masculine men. We need to create safe places for these men to feel like they can come and be themselves."

There is a quiet revolution underway. Men who have spent years hiding their values, muting their instincts, and keeping their heads down to avoid being labelled dangerous are starting to say enough is enough. Luis Rivas has lived it — and now he's doing something about it.

Luis came to Canada in 1985 as a refugee from a civil war in Nicaragua. His father was a deputy minister who gave up everything — status, comfort, family, country — to protect his wife and three sons from a regime that was recruiting children to fight. That kind of fatherhood leaves a mark. It teaches a boy what a man actually does when the stakes are real. Luis carried those lessons into a career in the Canadian government, into marriage, into raising two sons at home with his wife, and now into his work as Head Coach at Wealth Genius — and into the men's groups and dinners he is helping build alongside Nicky.

This conversation is honest about why men's groups feel uncomfortable to a certain kind of man — and why that discomfort is worth working through. Luis grew up in a culture where showing any emotion meant weakness, where vulnerability was not a concept to be explored but a social death sentence. He spent years believing he did not need this kind of outlet. Then a good friend took his own life. Then he saw it happen again. Twice more in sixty days. The cost of men having nowhere to go with the weight they carry became impossible to ignore.

Nicky and Luis also get into what it actually takes to build something in business when you are the only salesperson — and why the men who never get past that ceiling are the ones who refuse to look themselves honestly in the mirror. The resolve Nicky describes is not a technique. It is a decision about what kind of man you are going to be.

Luis Rivas is Head Coach at Wealth Genius, a real estate investment education platform based in Canada, and a representative for Expand Wealth Fund. He spent nearly two decades in the Canadian federal government before retiring in 2022. A husband, father of two, and now a builder of men's communities in Ottawa, Luis brings the perspective of a man who built his life from nothing — and who understands that the next generation of men needs what his father gave him: a clear model of what it means to show up.

Learn more and connect:

Wealth Genius: https://www.wealthgenius.ca

Expand Wealth Fund: https://www.expandwealthfund.ca

Resources mentioned:

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge: https://www.wildatheart.org

Band of Brothers (John Eldredge men's community): https://www.wildatheart.org/band-of-brothers

Sterling Institute of Relationship: https://www.sterlinginstitute.org

The Sovereign Man Movement: https://www.sovereignman.ca

Sovereign Circle: https://www.sovereignman.ca/sovereign-circle

You're invited to come to a Sovereign Circle meeting to experience it for yourself. To learn more, go to https://www.sovereignman.ca/. While you're there, check out the Battle Ready program and check out the store for Sovereign Man t-shirts, hats, and books.

EP255: Luis Rivas - Lessons From My Father
Nicky Billou

Past Episodes

Chris Rodd
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EP254: Tom Pfanner - Mothers Care, Fathers Prepare