On this week’s episode, John McEntee joins to discuss dating as a conservative and how hard it can be to find someone who shares your values and beliefs. John is uniquely positioned to talk on this topic, as he’s the founder of “The Right Stuff,” a new dating app created for conservatives to connect in authentic and meaningful ways. We talk about the dating landscape and why it’s just so hard to find Mr. or Mrs. Right in today’s woke world. 

John McEntee served in the Trump administration as a personal aide to President Trump and the Director of the White House Personnel Office. He lives in Southern California where his startup is based and has become a viral sensation on TikTok — with Instagram soon to follow. 

TRANSCRIPT

Beverly Hallberg:

Welcome to She Thinks, a podcast where you’re allowed to think for yourself. I’m your host, Beverly Hallberg, and on today’s episode, we are focused on dating as a conservative. The challenge it can be to find someone who shares your values and beliefs. Joining me to discuss this tough topic and help you singles out there, navigate the Woke dating world is John McEntee, the founder of The Right Stuff, a new dating app created for conservatives to connect in authentic and meaningful ways. Prior to launching The Right Stuff, John McEntee served in the Trump Administration as a personal aid to President Trump and the director of the White House Personnel Office. He lives in southern California where his startup is based and has become a viral sensation on TikTok with Instagram soon to follow. John, a pleasure to have you on She Thinks.

John McEntee:

Thank you for having me.

Beverly Hallberg:

What does it feel like to be a social media influencer?

John McEntee:

I feel very accomplished.

Beverly Hallberg:

That’s right. I think it’s the number one job young people want these days, so you have achieved that. But of course we’re going to talk about your new dating app. The first question I have for you is, why is it so hard for conservatives to find Mr. or Mrs. Right?

John McEntee:

I think the biggest problem with dating in general right now is that not enough people are doing it. You add on top of that being a conservative living in a progressive area, and you have to hide your beliefs. You can’t speak openly or freely and you’re searching on the other apps, you’re trying to find your people, but not a lot of people are open to saying they’re an outright conservative because of the backlash or the hate they’ll get. Being in California or New York or Chicago where we were last week or really anywhere else, any major city, being a conservative can be tough. You sometimes feel like you’re alone. There’s no one out there like you, but really there’s millions of people out there like you and California has more registered Republicans than any state. We just need an easier way to find each other and connect.

Beverly Hallberg:

Yeah, it’s a large state. Just have to have the easiest way to find people there who think like you. I was reading up on the app and I find it really interesting that it is focused on political affiliation, not on faith or fiscal policies. Why have you decided to make it about more of a political ideology and affiliation than anything else?

John McEntee:

Well, when you look at dating apps, there’s a dating app for almost every group. There’s a dating app if you’re Jewish. There’s a dating app if you’re a single parent. There’s a dating app for music lovers for dog owners. But until now, there wasn’t a dating app for the identity most important to people, which is political affiliation. In the past, you used to see religion as the number one factor in dating, but now political affiliation seems to be passing that. Conservatives want to date conservatives and liberals want to date liberals. Conservatives actually are a little more open to dating the other side. The other side is not as open to dating us. That’s fine. What we’re doing is putting everyone in one place and saying, we’re taking that off the table. It’s one less thing to worry about. It saves you a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of money. Everyone here is kind of like you in this way. We have similar worldview, similar values. It makes things a lot easier.

Beverly Hallberg:

As far as how the app works, how do you identify whether or not somebody is truly a conservative? For example, do you have any bots in there trying to pretend to be conservative, but they really aren’t?

John McEntee:

I would say one out of every hundred profiles is somebody spamming or a bot or a troll, and we have a report feature and you just report it and then we ban them. It’s very simple. It’s a dating app for Republicans, so people go to it for that reason. It’s not hard to say, are you a Republican? We won’t let you in. There’s thousands and thousands of Republicans on it. You wouldn’t really go to it unless you’re looking for that. That’s pretty easy. We also have an invite structure. We have a lot of our users invite other users, so other like-minded people, and it’s growing that way. We don’t have a problem with finding conservatives or getting only conservatives on the app. That’s what it’s for and that’s how it’s being used.

Beverly Hallberg:

Can you give us some of the data so far? When did you launch it and how many users do you have?

John McEntee:

Yeah, we launched our official version one in January and we have 40,000 monthly active users.

Beverly Hallberg:

Any success stories so far?

John McEntee:

We have five engagements with the first wedding coming up in September.

Beverly Hallberg:

Are you invited to the wedding?

John McEntee:

I am. Yeah.

Beverly Hallberg:

I was even thinking even as we have the primary heating up, is there anything you’re introducing on this app that is going to even put the different candidates on there and having people choose who they plan to vote for?

John McEntee:

No, this app actually isn’t very political. It’s for conservatives, but it works just like any other dating app. The only differentiator is that it’s for conservatives and that we have a very unique feature where you can post a date. If you need a plus one to a wedding or if you have an extra ticket to a concert, you can actually post that event on the app and then see who’s interested. We want to emphasize getting out, going out, living. We’re conservatives, we want to go out, we want to have fun. We don’t want to be locked in the basement with our triple mask on. Those are really the big differentiators, just the network. Then that one unique feature emphasizing getting people out.

Beverly Hallberg:

Now as you’ve jumped into this world where you’re trying to connect people who want to date, and I’m assume most people on this app dating for marriage, so looking to find somebody to settle down with, what would you say are some of the challenges of modern day dating? Obviously we have this virtual component, which has pros and cons, but a lot of pros actually met my husband through a dating app. I’ve used dating-

John McEntee:

Which app was that? Just curious.

Beverly Hallberg:

It was Hinge. I don’t think yours was around yet when I used it. There are a lot of pros to that. What would you say dating is like with this virtual component, pros and cons that you’ve experienced?

John McEntee:

The pros of a dating app are that it’s a tool you can use to get to where you want to go. With a dating app at least there’s a little bit of intention there, especially on ours because people are dating more seriously, like you said, marriage, but just serious dating, not as casual as a Tinder or a Bumble. There’s that. With social media in general, I think that’s really damaged dating. I think people have too much access to too many people. It’s overstimulating. Guys are shying away from commitment because they think, “Oh, I could just find another person.” I think social media has sort of had a very negative effect on dating.

I think dating apps are a tool you can use. I don’t see any downside to them because what you’re doing on a dating app, people will say, oh, but you’re swiping through a lot of people. Well, that’s what I do in person too. If I go to a concert, I’m also just swiping through the crowd and then seeing the girl I want to approach. It’s a similar concept, and everyone here is dating with intention, which is the most important thing.

Beverly Hallberg:

And I’ve given advice to people, and you could tell me if this is bad advice. It was what the approach that I took, which was just lay it out upfront, what my faith was, what my politics were, what I am looking for, because it weeded so many people out. So you’ve already done that from the political angle with your app, but do you find those subjects were supposed to not talk about? It’s actually good to lay that out there upfront to even know if you’re compatible.

John McEntee:

I think that is, and that’s why we encourage people on our app to use our prompts and to have a concise but informative bio telling a little bit about yourself. Predominantly it’s a Christian, most of our users are Christian, but obviously there’s some Jewish, a lot of Catholic. Everyone’s pretty much faith-based. Getting on our app, you kind of know that ahead of time, which like you said, saves a lot of time and energy. With the other apps, I think people feel they can’t be as open as you are because of some hostility they’ll face, or people might try to go after them for it or call them out, or it feels like a hostile environment.

When you’re on one of the other dating apps, a lot of the leftism is built into the app itself, just filling out your thing that’s like, “Do you want to use this sticker or this tag?” But it’s all left wing stuff, or, “We’re supporting this cause and 10% of our funds will go to this.” And it’s a left-wing cause. On our app, you don’t have any of that. We’re actually probably the least political in that sense.

Beverly Hallberg:

Just as far as the issue of marriage, do you think that most people are on this dating app for marriage and that you find conservatives especially really do desire to find that person to settle down with?

John McEntee:

I think the majority are on for that reason. It’s being used in a lot of different ways. There’s also a lot of young people on it who might not be ready for marriage, but they want something more serious. So it’s being used in a lot of ways. Our average user is 28, 29 years old, definitely looking to settle down. Definitely wanting a family. Yeah, like we said, there’s five engagements so far. We hope there’s 500 more soon.

Beverly Hallberg:

I want to kind of go back into your career as well. What led you to this point? As I was reading in the bio, you were a personal assistant to President Trump when he was president. What was it like working in the White House and was there anything that happened during the time at the White House where you said, “I really need to help conservatives find a partner?”

John McEntee:

Working at the White House was a great honor. President Trump was a great boss. I did learn a lot from just following him around, watching him, how he worked. The White House is a pretty majestic place when you’re walking the halls it can almost take your breath away at times. It’s fast-paced. If anybody wants to work in politics, get ready. It’s a lot of young people, it’s a lot of grinding it out day after day. It’s fun to see what you’re working on affect people’s everyday lives. When I was working in D.C. and New York being a conservative, I found that it was kind of hard to go out and meet people outside of the people you worked with, especially D.C., which is somewhat hostile to Republicans. That sort of shaped my view of, oh, maybe conservatives do need an easier way to find each other, especially in these hostile progressive cities.

Beverly Hallberg:

And you make a lot of fun videos on TikTok. How do you come up with your content for that and what have you found to be successful as far as how much content you need to put out on a regular basis? What is your rotation of content?

John McEntee:

Sure. To get started, we started doing these TikTok videos in January and it took a couple months and every day we would post two or three. Then finally it got traction. We would always think they’re funny, but some of the other people, some got traction, some didn’t. It wasn’t until about March that it started to take off. As for the ideas, a lot of them came from Danielle in our office who was very creative and I would just kind of act out whatever she told me to. Now we have a lot of people sending us stuff because we have a bigger following and they’ll say, “Oh, you should do this.” Or, “I saw this at the airport, you should make fun of that.” Or just from our everyday life.

The other day I was at the airport, had time to kill because the flight was delayed. I put out a message on Instagram, “Is anybody at O’Hare Airport?” One guy was like, “I am.” He came. We filmed some funny videos. We’re just kind winging it. But we do try to put things out every day and our following is growing and that’s good because the more eyes the better and it gets more people on our app.

Beverly Hallberg:

I’ve talked about TikTok quite a bit on this podcast because there does seem to be a divide in the Republican Party. Maybe it’s more on the age side of things of how regulated TikTok should be. I’ve said to a lot of people, if you want to reach young people, TikTok is where it’s at. It’s the most popular social media platform. What do you say about the concerns that people have about TikTok and do you think it’s a necessary evil if you want to reach young people?

John McEntee:

No, I think all of that is way overblown. I think like you said, that’s where all of the eyes are and that’s where all of the young people are. Any conservative that isn’t on it isn’t promoting a message there is missing out on a little bit. People have security concerns when you look at TikTok’s privacy policies and their data sharing and whatever they’re tracking, they’re worried about China tracking you. It’s very similar to every other app. People are really worried because it’s tied into China. Well, Google’s tied into China as well. This is actually a competitor to Silicon Valley for conservatives that want to go after big tech. Well, TikTok is not part of big tech. It’s Chinese, but it’s actually a competitor to all the things you hate.

When you try to take down TikTok, you’re helping Facebook. I just think all of that’s overblown and we gave up the data stuff a long time ago. Our phones know what we’re doing. They know what we’re, that’s how the algorithms work. So if China knows, I like watching chocolate molding videos or Christian inspirational videos or whatever it is, so be it. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I think it’s way overblown. I think it’s conservatives throwing red meat to their base saying we’re going after tech, but we want them to go after Big Tech. TikTok is a competitor to that.

Beverly Hallberg:

Just kind of as we round out the conversation, I was hoping we could in this with some advice from you. Here you have started a dating app. What are the best steps you would give somebody as they’re using an app? What should they do? What shouldn’t they do? Anything at all that would be helpful?

John McEntee:

There’s two things. I think girls need to give these guys a chance. I think that’s the biggest thing we’re trying to do with posting a date is saying like, “Look, this guy has a fun thing. Go give it a try. Just put yourself out there.” I think that’s number one. You don’t have a lot to lose, just go for it. Then the guys, they actually need to put in a little bit more effort when making their profiles on these apps. Yesterday for an example, we put something on our Instagram giving an example of use bright photos, show a picture of something you’re passionate about, show you can clean up nice, throw on a suit, have a picture at a friend’s wedding, whatever it is. I think that guys need to put in a little more effort into their profiles and into dating in general. I think the girls need to be a little more open and give these guys a little bit more of a chance.

Beverly Hallberg:

I’m curious, what is the breakdown of women versus men who are members or who use the app?

John McEntee:

We have actually pretty close to 50-50, but slightly more women, believe it or not, because all of our marketing is targeted towards women. All of our merchandise is for women. All of the funny things I do or the dating series is all targeted towards women. We’re kind of going with the get the women first and then all the guys will follow. It’s been working so far and hopefully continues.

Beverly Hallberg:

Well, hopefully you’ll get a few more people signing up for the app based on listening to this episode today, it’s called The Right Stuff. John McEntee, thank you so much for joining us and also for creating a place where conservatives can date. Thank you so much.

John McEntee:

Thank you.

Beverly Hallberg:

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