Men Rising · Ages 13–17
Become the Leader of Your Life
Eight weeks for young men who are old enough to choose who they’re becoming — and ready to build it on purpose instead of absorbing it by accident.
Led by Kale Thomas. Live Tuesdays beginning October 6 at 7:00 p.m. Mountain · 90 minutes · $1,497.
What this is
This is not a boys’ group.
Men Rising is eight weeks where you learn how you work — what sets you off, what happens inside you before you react, and what you do with it.
Nobody in here is broken. You’re here to understand yourself well enough to actually choose what you do, instead of just reacting.
- Not therapy. Nothing here diagnoses or treats anything. It builds a skill.
- Not school. There is no grade, and nothing to memorise for later.
- Not a lecture from an adult. You do the work. You write your own standard. Nobody hands it to you.
Thirteen to seventeen is the exact stretch where the foundation either gets set on purpose or gets absorbed from whatever happens to be around. This is eight weeks of setting it on purpose, in a room that takes you seriously.
The model underneath everything
Somewhere in there, there was a choice.
Something happens. Your body responds before your brain catches up. The feeling shows up. You do something. And somewhere in the middle of all that, there was a moment you could have chosen differently.
- Trigger
- Body
- Emotion
- Reaction
- Choice
Most people never find that moment. The whole program is about finding it, and then getting fast enough to use it.
The eight weeks
Each week builds on the last. Nothing stands alone.
One live session a week, then a short module to practise between sessions. The exercises take fifteen minutes or less. They are not homework — they are reps.
Week 1
Notice Yourself
Your body keeps score before your brain does. You map where it lands — jaw, chest, stomach — and keep a trigger log for the week.
Week 2
Understand Your Pattern
The loop you didn’t choose, but keep running. You map it, then answer the harder question: who taught you that?
Week 3
Own Your Response
The difference between fault and ownership. An ownership inventory, and a week of practising “that’s mine.”
Week 4
Control Your Response
The space between trigger and response. A pause protocol, a pause log, and the ten-second experiment.
Week 5
Think Clearly
Your brain lies to you — here’s how to catch it. Story versus reality, and a week of asking what’s actually real.
Week 6
Choose Who You’re Becoming
You’re not stuck being who you were yesterday. The man I’m building exercise, reset practice, and an honest gap assessment.
Week 7
Show It in How You Act
Talk is cheap. Behaviour is the receipt. A behaviour evidence log, the accountability mirror, and one hard conversation.
Week 8
Become the Standard
Standards don’t graduate. They compound. A repair inventory, your operating system, a letter to your future self — and the Code, read out loud.
Every week ends the same way: a weekly reflection, and the Daily 3.
What you practise every day
Three small things. Every day.
The Daily 3 is the engine of the program. Each one takes seconds. Doing them daily is the entire point.
- One pauseCatch yourself right before a reaction and give yourself one second. One breath. That’s a rep.
- One ownership momentFind one thing you did today you can own without the explanation. No blame. Just: “That’s mine.” You don’t have to say it out loud. You have to mean it.
- One better choiceNot a perfect choice. A better one. The text you didn’t send. The truth you told. The door you didn’t slam.
What you walk out carrying
Five phrases that work in the real world.
You learn one at a time, in order, because each one needs the one before it. By Week 8 you carry all five.
That’s mine.
Week 3 · OwnershipOwnership of your response — not deflection, not blame.Pause.
Week 4 · RegulationOne second between the body signal and the reaction.What’s real?
Week 5 · ClarityWhat you actually know, versus what you’re making up.Let’s reset.
Week 6 · RedirectionI see the pattern, and I’m choosing to start again — from identity, not impulse.Can we repair this?
Week 8 · ReconnectionGoing back to the rupture, owning your part, and asking whether the relationship can move forward.
Each phrase is taught with its misuse, too — because “pause” can be a way to shut a conversation down, and “let’s reset” can be a way to skip the ownership. The order matters.
Where the eight weeks land
Your code. Your standard. Read out loud.
In Week 7 you write five or six statements about who you are becoming. In Week 8 you read them out loud — to the group, and to your parents.
It is not a wish list, and it is not something an adult hands you. It’s a standard, in your words, describing how the man you’re becoming actually behaves.
- First person. “I” statements. This one is yours.
- Present tense. Not “I will” — “I.”
- Behavioural. Something you do, not something you feel.
- Specific and observable. Someone watching you could see it.
“When I mess up, I own it the same day” is a standard. “I am a good person” is not.
The code doesn’t end with the program. You re-read it thirty days after you finish, and rewrite it at ninety based on what you’ve actually lived.
The room
There aren’t many rules. They all matter.
- Cameras onThis is a room, not a podcast. We see each other.
- Show upAll eight sessions, on time. If something real comes up, say so in advance — that’s ownership, and it’s the first thing we practise.
- Do the workFifteen minutes or less between sessions. It’s the difference between talking about change and changing.
- What’s said in the room stays in the roomNo screenshots, no recordings, no retelling someone else’s story — not to friends, not online, not at home. Your own story is yours to share however you want. Nobody else’s is.
- Respect — in how you say things, not just what you sayDisagree, push back, be real. Humour is welcome. Humour used to dodge, or to cut someone, gets named.
- Be honest, not impressiveYou don’t have to share everything, and you never have to talk about something you’re not ready for. But when you speak, say what’s real.
Who leads it
Kale Thomas
“I’m Kale — a son who grew up watching my dad raise five boys and a daughter, and now a father myself, raising my own son.”
“I’ve felt the weight of expectations, the struggle to figure out who I am as a man, and the responsibility of raising a son who doesn’t have to carry the same wounds forward.”
“I believe our sons deserve more than survival — they deserve to grow into men who are grounded, compassionate, and ready to lead with love.”
Kale built Men Rising so the next generation doesn’t have to work it out alone — close enough to remember what fifteen feels like, and old enough to hold the room.
For parents
What you’re actually enrolling him in.
If you’re the one reading this and he isn’t — here is the short version, without the pitch.
What it is and isn’t
Eight weeks of self-regulation and identity work in a small group. It is leadership development, not therapy or counselling, and it doesn’t diagnose or treat anything. If what your son needs is clinical support, this isn’t a substitute for it — and Kale will say so.
What confidentiality means here
The guys are asked not to repeat each other’s stories, including at home. That’s what makes honesty possible in the room. It isn’t secrecy from you about your own son — you’ll know what the program is teaching each week, because he’ll be practising it in your house.
What you’ll see
He’ll come home with shared language — “that’s mine,” “pause,” “what’s real?” “let’s reset,” “can we repair this?” It works best when the whole house honours the words. In Week 8 he reads the code he wrote out loud, in front of you.
What happens after you apply
Kale reads every application himself and follows up with the October 6 start details, the Tuesday 7:00 p.m. Mountain schedule, and the $1,497 investment. Applying doesn’t commit you to anything.
How you know it worked
You measure yourself at the start. You measure again at the end.
Before Session 1 you fill in two things: the Self-Check — how you handle yourself right now — and the Connection Check — how things actually are between you and the people you live with.
In Week 8 you take both again. The After Picture sits next to the Starting Point, in your own handwriting.
Nobody tells you what you are supposed to find. You compare the two yourself.
After Week 8
The program ends. The standard doesn’t.
The last module isn’t a goodbye. It’s what you keep.
- Your Young Man Code, final version — re-read at thirty days, rewritten at ninety based on what you actually lived.
- The Daily 3 ongoing tracker — the practice doesn’t stop because the sessions did.
- A family language reference — the five phrases, written for the whole house, so the words survive outside the room.
- The If You Slip protocol — written before you need it, because you will.
That last one matters more than it looks. Slipping is not the failure. Having no plan for the slip is.
Before you decide anything
Start with the free kit.
Five short guides built from the same material as the program. Two are written to him, two to whoever is raising him, and one is for the wall in the kitchen. No cost, nothing to download, nothing to cancel.
If you’re the young man
Read the two written to you
What’s actually going on, said straight, and one move you can use tonight. No lecture attached.
If you’re the parent
Get all five
What to say when he won’t talk, what repair actually looks like, and the two you hand him without saying anything else.
The foundation gets set now.
Not at twenty-five, when it takes years to undo.
Put your name in — whether you’re the young man or the parent — and Kale will follow up personally. The next live cohort begins Tuesday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. Mountain and meets weekly for eight 90-minute sessions.
Ages 13–17 · Small cohort · Applying commits you to nothing
Included with self-paced enrollment
One enrollment. Two connected learning spaces.
Men Rising gives the young man ownership of his identity and choices. The Parent Companion gives the adult a separate place to model healthy, present leadership without turning his growth into a monitoring system.
For the young man · Ages 13–17
Men Rising — Self-Paced
Eight weeks of practical leadership training he completes as his own work—not as a report to an adult.
- Eight progressive leadership modules
- The Daily 3 and weekly practice
- Shared language for ownership, regulation, clarity and repair
- His Young Man Code and 30/90-day continuation plan
For the parent or chosen father figure
The Parent Companion
A separate companion course that forms the adult’s role: model first, ask permission and stay available without taking over.
- Parent orientation and privacy boundaries
- The downloadable Father Companion Guide
- One observable modeling practice for each week
- Permission, mutual ownership and commitment conversations
Support without surveillance
Parents receive the weekly theme, logistics, agreed progress signals and required safety communication. The young man keeps his private reflections, personal disclosures and ownership of his Code unless he chooses to share them.
One-time payment · Immediate access to both courses · Parent purchases; the young man owns the work
