What I've Learned in a Decade of Podcasting

In this special solo episode of Order of Man, founder Ryan Michler reflects on eleven years of podcasting, building a movement, and navigating personal evolution. Ryan interviews himself to extract actionable lessons for men leading families, starting businesses, or advancing their careers. He dives deep into why consistency beats talent every time, the costly "tuition payments" that come with entrepreneurship, and how to stand out in a saturated market. Ryan also opens up about his darkest personal battles, including divorce and alcohol recovery, offering a candid look at accountability, resilience, and adaptability. Tune in to learn why maintaining your dignity and affording yourself grace are essential to becoming the man you were meant to be. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 - Introduction & 11 Years of Order of Man 02:16 - Why Ryan Started the Podcast 06:49 - Business Mindset and Generating Income 09:08 - Why Consistency Beats Talent 11:30 - Paying Tuition: Learning from Costly Business Mistakes 13:58 - How to Stand Out in a Saturated Market 18:44 - Mastering Conversation and Everyday Lessons 23:28 - Evolving Interview Preparation and Adaptability 25:48 - True Accountability vs. Public Criticism 28:09 - Facing Personal Darkness and Choosing Not to Quit 32:55 - The Immutable Mission to Restore Masculinity 35:19 - Adapting to Cultural Shifts and New Technology 37:41 - Core Lessons: Grace, Adaptability, and Maintaining Dignity 39:42 - Conclusion & Call to Action Battle Planners: Pick yours up today! https://store.orderofman.com/products/order-of-man-annual-battle-planner Order Ryan's new book, The Masculinity Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/Masculinity-Manifesto-Establishes-Influence-Credibility/dp/1684513316/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665048672&sr=8-1. For more information on the Iron Council brotherhood https://orderofman.link/iron-council. Want maximum health, wealth, relationships, and abundance in your life? Sign up for our free course, 30 Days to Battle Ready https://orderofman.link/battle-ready-0

• 0:00Speaker 00

  I'm telling you right now, that's one of the most important things you can do as a man. Always maintain your dignity. When bad things happen in your life, handle it like the man you want to be would handle it. But if somebody harms you in some way, afford them some grace. Forgive them. Handle it like a man, be stoic. You know, sure, feel your emotion, feel anger and resentment and contention. But don't act on those things reactionary. Respond to those things like the man that you want to be would respond to those things.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

• 0:55Speaker 00

  Gentlemen, today I'm going to do something a little different than I have over the past 11 years. And I'm going to share with you some of the lessons that I've learned through 11 years now. I know the title says 10 years, but or a decade, I can't remember. But we've been going for 11 years now. And I've learned a lot about myself. I've learned a lot about podcasting and growing a business and marketing and resonating with the people you're trying to connect with. And I thought what I would do today for our interview is in a way, interview myself and let you know what I've learned, what I've taken away. And most importantly, how it can apply to you. And that, that's my, that is my most important function with this podcast is whether it's me

• 1:38Speaker 00

  sharing insight and ideas with you or having guests on the podcast. It's always important to me to ensure that you're walking away with actionable information, information that will actually serve you as you lead your family or grow a movement of your own, or even start a business or.

• 1:58Speaker 00

  Advance within your current career path, but regardless of what you're trying to accomplish, I want to give you the tools and resources you need. And today, again, I'm talking about some of my biggest lessons, including failures, setbacks, a little naivety when it came to starting the podcast and what it would take and how it transformed from a hobby into a very lucrative, not only business for me, but movement for the millions of men who have been impacted by the work that we do. And so I figured the place that I would start is, is why I even started to do this in the first place. And again, I'm going to tie this back to you because whenever you're pursuing something, whether it's a relationship or a business or a

• 2:42Speaker 00

  career path or additional education, whatever it might be, it's very important to understand why you're doing that thing because we know that it's going to get difficult. It's going to get hard. There's going to be challenges. And when I started this, I thought that podcasting would just be fun and easy. And it is in a lot of ways. And it was. What's interesting now, it's become more complex. The, the waters have become more, more polluted, I guess, maybe polluted is not the right way to say it. The markets just become more saturated. That's probably a better way to say it. And so I started this with really the idea of just having a fun hobby.

• 3:27Speaker 00

  I had a very lucrative financial planning practice when I started this podcast. In fact, I started another podcast, many of you may not know, called Wealth Anatomy. And that podcast was geared towards helping medical professionals with their, with their financial services. And what I realized very quickly is I love the medium of podcasting. And that's one of the first lessons that I learned is that just because you start something, doesn't mean you're obligated to stay down that path. It doesn't mean you can't quit. And it certainly doesn't mean that you can't pivot. And that's exactly what I did is I made the decision to pivot. And I think one of the things that I got right, and this is, this is another lesson for you.

• 4:10Speaker 00

  Is when I started doing Order of Man, I had made the decision, I was talking with a good friend of mine and he was giving me some counsel because he had worked with some other people who had, who had had successful podcasts. And I told him, I remember vividly, I said, I'm not going to make a decision on whether or not to continue to do this or pull the plug for at least two years. And at the time, that's a long time, especially because I wasn't thinking about turning this into a business. I wasn't thinking about making a lucrative lucrative career or, or creating a movement out of this thing by any means. I was just doing it because I wanted to talk with other men who I was motivated

• 4:52Speaker 00

  and inspired by. And I thought, what a great way to take conversations that I had with these men and give them to other guys like yourselves who listen to it. And we'll talk a little bit about the business lessons I started to extract, but the expectation that I had was that this would just be a fun side project because again, my financial planning practice was doing very, very well at, at the time. And probably all reason and rationale said, don't do this and detract from what you're doing with your financial planning business. Um, my, my then wife, my ex-wife now, uh, was, was concerned as

• 5:37Speaker 00

  my attention began to move and gravitate towards the Order of Man podcast, uh, more so than it did the financial planning practice. And I remember she came to me one night and she said, Hey, look, like, I love that you're doing this. You seem happy with it. It seems exciting, but you're taking more and more time out of your day to do Order of Man than you are your financial planning stuff and it's affecting household income. And she was exactly right. And so I had to make some decisions about, do I pull the plug? Which again, I, I committed, I said I wasn't going to for two years. This is about seven months into it. Or was I going to keep doing it as a project with boundaries?

• 6:20Speaker 00

  Or was I going to try to turn it into a business? And clearly it became a business and a movement. And that's one thing I want people to know too, is there seems to be this really weird belief that in order for it to be a money-making, money generating project, that you're not supposed to love it, or it's not supposed to be good for people. It's a pretty wild thought if you think about it. And I can't tell you how often people tell me, you know, yeah, well, aren't you just doing this out of the goodness of your heart? Or why are you charging men to help them with their lives? Like, shouldn't you just be giving them this information for free? And I do, because we do the podcast.

• 7:05Speaker 00

  There's plenty of great information that you have and can get for free. But then there's other things that take time and money and attention and energy. And I have to put food on the table and keep the lights on and run this business and build out this new studio. So there's costs associated with that. But it's always funny, because I might share with somebody just to turn it back on them and say, well, what do you do for work? And let's say it's a doctor. Okay, so you're a doctor. Well, why do you, why do you guys charge? Why not just help people out of the goodness of your heart? Like, are you just a money-grubbing, greedy, you know, capitalist? Or do you actually really care about people? And I think two things can exist at once. I think you can truly care about people and your profession.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  And I think you can make good money doing it. And I think you ought to. Even a plumber, you know, how can you charge a family when you come into their house and their house is flooded, or their toilet won't work, or their sink, or their dishwasher won't work, and you're going to charge them in their moment of suffering? Or an attorney, or a mechanic, or fill in the blank? But it only seems to really come into question when it's something along these lines. Or a therapist is also another one. You're going to charge? Yes, it's a business. So, so understand that, know that. And that's another lesson. There's going to be a lot just kind of hidden in here, is that not everybody's going to be on your side, not everybody's going to believe in you. You're not even entitled to their belief in you, not even your, the people who are

• 8:35Speaker 00

  closest, your wife, your kids, your, your family members, you know? I think at the time, my wife and her family and my family believed in me, but they questioned what I was doing. And that was okay, because I hadn't proven anything, not to them, and certainly not to myself, or anybody who might be listening. So you aren't entitled to that, but you can prove that over time. So let's get into a few, let's start with some business lessons. All right, the first one that I've learned is that consistency beats talent any day of the week. Now, if you have both, even better. But I think talent, when I think of talent, we usually think of a God-given gift or ability,

• 9:19Speaker 00

  something you're just innately and inherently born with. And there are certain people that are better at certain things than others. There are people who have higher IQs, and there are people who are more artistic, and there are people who can sing better, or maybe their genetics have created them to be the size they are. Or, you know, a good example of this is Michael Phelps. I remember when he had his record-setting year at the Olympics, they started to analyze his body type and the way that his torso relative to his leg length, and even down to the way that his toes were connected. There was a little bit of webbing, if I remember correctly, in his toes. He was obviously very talented.

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  He was born with a body that would help create one of the, if not the greatest swimmers of all time. So he started ahead, but as the saying goes, you know, the graveyard is full of people with good ideas, or people who are talented, but didn't do anything. And I know people who are, I would say significantly less athletic than I am, or maybe not as intelligent as I am, or maybe not as charming as I am. These are humble brags here. And yet, they're still killing it in whatever they're doing in life. So what's the difference? Is it talent alone? Never. So don't let a lack of talent deter you if it's something that you want to do.

• 10:47Speaker 00

  Now, if you're five foot seven and a buck twenty, are you gonna go play in the NBA? Yeah, probably not. But that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about being consistent, but also somewhat reasonable about what you do. So when it comes to consistency, we haven't missed an episode in 11 years, not one. And we do three episodes every single week, including this one, our Wednesday Ask Me Anything, and then also our Friday Field Notes. And I haven't missed a single one. Now, I will say, in some of the darkest times in my life, and we'll talk about that as a lesson as well, that I did do a couple of repeat episodes,

• 11:28Speaker 00

  but I still put something on the air. And we've put repeat episodes out periodically ever since, when it's appropriate. You know, when Charlie Kirk was shot and murdered,

• 11:38Speaker 00

  we reposted the episode that I did with Charlie, because that made sense. So we don't miss episodes here. And I don't have the luxury, because I'm not as talented, I'm not as gifted as a conversationalist, I'm not as well-connected as some people are. So I don't have the luxury of being sporadic. It's just not a luxury I get to enjoy. So I have to be consistent. And the same is true with you. Your consistency will separate you from the pack and outperform talent every day of the week. Keep that in mind. Lesson number two is that, well, there's one lesson, but there's two ways I've heard this phrase.

• 12:19Speaker 00

  My good friend Pete Roberts with Origin often says that the payments or the cost of doing business and the mistakes that we make are what he calls tuition payments. And tuition payments are costly mistakes. Dave Ramsey sometimes calls it and refers to it as stupid tax. And I've paid plenty. I've paid plenty of tuition. I've paid plenty of stupid tax. I've bought camera equipment that won't work for what I need, not able to return it. I've created a couple of shirts that companies have come back and threatened to sue me because they look so close to what they've put out there. And I've lost thousands of dollars making those dumb decisions.

• 13:05Speaker 00

  I've hired people that couldn't fulfill the duties and responsibilities that I was looking for and had to let them go after tens of thousands of dollars spent. I've spent money on marketing and ad copy and ads that haven't produced a single dime. I've, I've alienated customers. I, obviously, I went through a very difficult divorce and, and overcoming alcohol abuse, and that had a tremendous impact negatively on my business. Any mistake that you could make, I've done it. Other than I haven't been fraudulent by any means, or done anything illegal, but certainly I've made a lot of tuition payments.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  And what I'd like you to know about that, especially if you're young, because you might not have made as many tuition payments yet, and you will, trust me, don't, don't do that on purpose, by the way, but just know it'll happen. It's okay. It's all gonna be okay. You'll get through it. You'll learn from it. Sometimes the most painful, costly mistakes that you made are the ones that you learned the most from. And the question then becomes, did you actually learn and apply the new information you have? I would call that wisdom? Or do you just keep banging your dang head against the wall, doing the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again?

• 14:29Speaker 00

  All right. Lesson number three. What it actually takes to grow an audience versus what I thought it would be? I just thought, once you start talking, people will just show up. And that doesn't happen, especially now, because everything is so saturated. It's harder and harder. When I have guys who reach out to me and they're thinking, hey, I'd like to start something similar to what you do. My, my first thought is, good luck. And I'm not even saying that as, as a negative to them. I would love for them to start something that's meaningful, but it is so much more difficult to start something now, like we're doing, than it was 11 years ago.

• 15:11Speaker 00

  The algorithm was different. Social media was different. There weren't nearly as many people. There was probably three people doing this. Larry Hagner, Connor Beaton wasn't too far behind, or he may, maybe even ahead of when I started. And then, of course, Brett McKay, one of the OGs with art of manliness. And so I just thought, well, like, I'm gonna just put information out there. And I actually, when I started, was trying to build something very similar to Brett. And I realized very quickly that that was not my, that was not my shtick. That was not my bag. My first article I ever put out on the Order of Man website, actually, I wonder if it's still there.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  I'll have to check, is how to throw a baseball, which is like the last type of article that you would see on Order of Man. But it's important that every man know how to throw a baseball, but that's Brett's realm, that's his domain. That's good information, it's very practical information, it's activity-based. And we get more into the mindset and thought process and development of manliness and masculinity. So there's room for both. But the point that I'm making here, guys, is that when you're starting something, if you're the same as everybody else, whether it's a men's movement, or you're running for office, or a new plumbing organization, or a doctor's office, don't just follow the pack. If everybody's zigging, then you should zag, and vice versa.

• 16:38Speaker 00

  When everybody's going that way, or using a certain font, or using a certain color, or has a certain message, come up with something different. Sure, we can mimic some of the things that have worked well for those individuals, but if we don't do it our own way, then we'll never be able to

• 16:57Speaker 00

  get any sort of traction. And there's another thought in this, it's like, be willing to be bold and to say things that nobody else will say. And you know this will resonate when you hear people say, "I'm glad somebody said this." Finally, somebody's talking about this. It's not always going to be comfortable, because you're going to be controversial at times, I certainly am. I've had to eat my fair share of crow. I've made mistakes, I've been quick to anger, or lash out, or say something stupid on social media. Those are all things that are mistakes that I'm learning from. But I would rather make that mistake, putting something interesting into the world, that, by the way, I truly believe, I don't just make stuff up.

• 17:41Speaker 00

  But putting something interesting out into the world that's different from everybody else. Cause why should I be like Brett McKay? Brett McKay is Brett McKay. Why should I be like Larry or Connor, or any of these other guys? Andy Frisilla or Jaco, these guys I really look up to. They're the best at being them. I'm the best at being me. And so I can mimic and I can look for things that work, but I'm going to do it my own way. And if you're not willing to do it your own way, different fonts, different colors, different taglines, different methodology, different conversations, different topics, different pricing models, different services and products. And we've got a new one coming up in Q4 that you guys are just going to be ecstatic about. Then what is, what is the point? It's not even fun to do it like somebody else.

• 18:28Speaker 00

  But let's get into some lessons about the craft of what I do. Because if you're interested in podcasting, if you're interested in growing an audience, if you're interested in interviewing and making content, as they say, I hate that phrasing, by the way, making content. It's so devoid of soul. Like I'm a content creator. What kind of content? I don't know, just content. That's, I don't consider myself a content creator. I get the premise, I get the idea, but I consider myself a couple of things, more of a conversationalist and somebody who offers insights, ideas and

• 19:12Speaker 00

  tools that help the everyday man. But let's talk about what makes, makes a good conversation, or maybe a good content moment, as they'd say. Because it's important, you know, it's important to be a conversationalist. And one of the things that I've learned, probably more than anything that I think has helped me in life. From this business, more than anything else is how to hold conversations, how to be curious, how to ask good questions, how to direct conversation, but not dominate conversation, how to let people talk about themselves, but keep them on track. And it doesn't just apply to the podcasting world, it applies to every facet of your life,

• 19:55Speaker 00

  because you're always going to be talking to people, your boss, your colleagues, your employees, your clients, your family, your friends, your coworkers, and everybody else. And if you can be the guy who knows how to have a good conversation, then the person you're having that conversation with will inevitably leave with a better taste in their mouth about who you are and how you show up and how you make them feel. And this is applied to every facet of my life, from raising my children, to dating, to my marriage when I was married, to growing businesses, to reaching out to other people and creating connections, and partnerships that have been powerful and good in my life.

• 20:40Speaker 00

  And then the other thing is learning to look around and extract lessons from everyday life, my everyday life. You know, some people can't do this, or they don't want to do it, or they don't look for it. But there are so many opportunities in life that pass us by where we could actually extrapolate a really good lesson from that. You know, I made a post on Insta and Facebook the other day, and I think the post on Facebook, I want to say it's been liked like 18,000 or 19,000 times now. So it's gone a little viral. And it was just a simple post about a young man coming over to my house and offering to clean our trash cans. And some of the lessons there, I mean, it's not, it's not like anything real profound.

• 21:23Speaker 00

  It's an interesting moment. There's some good lessons in that. You can go check it out on Facebook or over on Instagram.

• 21:31Speaker 00

  But it resonates with people and it was just a simple moment that I thought, this might make an interesting conversation or bring up some interesting dialogue or engage other people. And I had a guy the other day say, hey, Ryan, I really appreciate that you respond back for the most part on social media. And he says, most people don't. And I said, well, it's social. This is social media. And when I think of being social, I think of having conversations and talking back and forth with each other. It's harder and harder as comments tend to get negative and it seems to be a cesspool for degeneracy and garbage and nonsense. But

• 22:12Speaker 00

  for the people who are truly there getting value and want to find value in what we do, it's actually pretty powerful when you communicate back with these people. And so I've had to change and develop and grow and evolve. And that's what you should be doing too. You know, I'm always amazed, for example, when I look at the human body and I can look at somebody and I can say, this individual is a powerlifter. This individual is a long distance runner. This individual seems like they're probably a gymnast or a dancer. This individual is, you know, fill in the blank, baseball player, lacrosse player. I can tell you can look at somebody's body. What that means is that their body has evolved and morphed through the demands of their

• 22:56Speaker 00

  training to become better equipped to be in that sport. And it's the same thing that's true about being a conversationalist, or being a plumber, or being a doctor, or being a trash collector, or a real estate investor. You were going to get better at that. And my preparation and the way that I host has changed drastically. I used to, I used to script all of my podcasts when I started. I used to have a script for all of the questions that I was going to ask my guests. And what I realized is that that was a good start, but eventually I started to move to bullet points because

• 23:40Speaker 00

  Asking all of my guests the same questions seemed silly because they weren't the same people. And what I realized is that I missed a lot of good opportunities for deeper dives into certain aspects of their lives because I was so worried about going on to point number two or question number seven, that I was going off track a little bit. And that's a good lesson. In life, you can go off track. You can go off script. Now, don't get too far off script because then you have something that's completely incoherent and difficult to follow or listen to. But the reality is, is like, everybody's different. You know, I remember one of my first big guests was Jaco Willink. And this was about the time that that his book Extreme Ownership came out and he

• 24:25Speaker 00

  was just getting started in this world. And I was nervous. And he was fresh, not well versed, as well versed as he is today. And I remember having this podcast with him. And I would say, I would ask him a question like, how does, how does a man become more disciplined? And he would say, you just do it. And I'm like, okay, do you care to elaborate? He's like, no, just do it. And so I was so nervous and I could barely get a thought out of him because he was so black and white. But if you listen to him now, he will actually go into how to become more disciplined, and how he thinks, and the process of what he's learned. So he's evolved too. But so have I,

• 25:09Speaker 00

  because I've had guests where I've had to like, literally try to like, pull, almost literally pull something out of them. And that can be very difficult. And then you have a guy, a guy like David Goggins, who had a great conversation with. And he's larger than life and intense and in your face. And I've had other guests who you can't get in a word and otherwise, and they're going off on all these different tangents. Like, everybody's different. And that was so, that's fun to me. The fact that every day I get to have different conversations with different people, doing different things, is such an amazing, amazing opportunity. So, think about in your own profession, in your own choice of career, what you need to do to evolve, to get better,

• 25:52Speaker 00

  to improve, to grow, to learn new things. What skill set are you missing right now? And then think about how you might develop that through repetition and practice. Now, let me, let me share with you a few personal stories.

• 26:07Speaker 00

  You know, repetition, for example, is crucial. I just talked about that. Public accountability, man, that's, that is so huge. It's, it's hard at times because people don't really understand what accountability means. Like, they might make a really inappropriate comment or post on, on my social media. And I'm like, dude, what are you, like, what are you saying? Why, why are you, why are you doing that? Well, I'm just holding you accountable. No, you're just being an a-hole. And there's a difference. See, it's easy to call people out. It's easy to say that you're doing it wrong and you're doing it wrong. I think I talked about, uh, on last week's Friday Field Notes, the, the, um, man in the arena excerpt from Citizenship in a Republic by Theodore Roosevelt.

• 26:53Speaker 00

  And how often you'll hear from people who will just sling mud at you from the cheap seats without getting into the arena themselves. That's not accountability, guys. Accountability is somebody that you care about, and you see that they're slipping or doing something wrong, and then you're willing to walk with them in their development and growth. That's the second part most people miss. You're willing to walk with them in their development and growth. I had a friend of mine, uh, his name is Steve. He messaged me the other day, and he put a screenshot of a response that I had made in one of my posts. And I was a little heavy-handed, to say the least. And I was kind of an a-hole myself in my response.

• 27:37Speaker 00

  And he sent me this message and he said, "Hey, Ryan, I saw this. This, this doesn't seem like, or this is beneath you. I think you can do better than this. Um, this was really powerful when you said this, but when you got here, you lost all power and credibility." And I messaged him back and I said, "You know what? I don't see it the same way. Um, and I don't appreciate how you told me that." That's what I told him. And he's like, hey, no, no problem, like no issue. I just want to let you know I care about you. I want to see the best for you. And I've said what I felt like I wanted to say. Cool. Gave him a thumbs up. He gave me a thumbs up. All good. About a half hour later, I messaged him back and I'm like, dude, you're right. I thought about it. You're right. And I went ahead and I deleted that response and I appreciate

• 28:21Speaker 00

  you being willing to just tell me. And he's like, oh, man, I get it. And he sent me a screenshot of a time where he blew up and did the same thing that I did. Because he wasn't just calling me out, he was telling me that he's willing to walk in it with me. And that's the kind of man that you should find in your life as a friendship, as a brotherhood. Is that a man who is going to hold you accountable? Again, call you out appropriately when needed? And then walk in your journey of growth and development. Um, and but, you know, when you put yourself out in the public, and I deserve it, I deserve the scrutiny. Sometimes people will say, here's a funny one, is they'll go through a tragic moment

• 29:05Speaker 00

  in their life. Um, you know, maybe they get caught doing something illegal, or they go through a divorce or something. And they'll, they'll blast it all on social media about what's going on and they're talk about their other partner and they'll do all the things. And then they'll come back a day or two later and they're like, you know, I'm really grieving. And at this time, we're just asking for privacy as we go through this difficult life or whatever. It's like, ask for privacy. You're the one that put it out there. Like, nobody would have known if you wouldn't have said anything about it, but you're the one that used it as content and put it out there. So don't believe for a second that we don't get the opportunity to poke holes

• 29:48Speaker 00

  in it. And that's what people did with me. Some of them were appropriate, some was inappropriate, but it was a very dark time. Um, when I, when I went through my divorce, three and a half years ago, almost, almost three and a half years ago now. Um, and overcoming alcohol abuse, that was tough. It was really difficult. And, you know, I had a lot of people who stood by me and I had a lot of people who, who didn't. Um, and the temptation for me to quit at that point was, was strong. I even entertained either just shutting it down.

• 30:27Speaker 00

  Or selling it, or walking away from it, letting somebody else do it. And I had a lot of people who advocated for that. And I had this thought, like, I'm not quitting. I'm not throwing away my business because of it. I had some good people, some good friends coming to my life and say, no, bro, this actually makes you more qualified. It may not feel like it now, but this will make you more qualified as you work through the divorce, and you work through sobriety, and you work through rekindling and rebuilding relationships with your children. Don't ever quit, guys. Now, with a caveat, if it's something you're no longer interested in, your heart, your soul's not in it, something else is calling or speaking to you, I think it's okay to quit. I really do.

• 31:11Speaker 00

  And that's weird coming from a podcaster who is in the space of self-development. People say, never quit, never quit, never quit. It's like, well, maybe sometimes you should, or at a minimum, pivot. That's what I did. From Wealth Anatomy Podcast to the Order of Man Podcast, and look how great it's become, because I was willing to pivot, and not stay in something and bang my head against the wall, hoping that something that was not meant to work would work. It didn't. It became unnecessarily difficult, and I realized it quickly and made the pivots. So, no, I'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna have to die before this thing is done. And even then, I don't even think I could stop this movement if I wanted to. I have succession plans in place

• 31:50Speaker 00

  to ensure that this work continues well beyond my time doing this. Um, let's talk about a few other things here, and then we'll, we'll wrap up for today, because there, there are, I could speak all day about the lessons that I've learned. But I want to talk about what's changed with the podcast, and what hasn't changed, because there are some things that will evolve and change over time, and then there's things that will not and should not change. Um, the message has always been the same, protect, provide, preside. Uh, the mission to reclaim and restore masculinity. You've heard me say those phrases a million

• 32:30Speaker 00

  times at this point. That will never change. In fact, I think it's more important today, 11 years later than it was when we started, which is wild to think about. And so some people might say, do you feel like you're making a difference? Of course I do. Because if I wasn't doing this, how many other men's podcasts and, and missions would not be available? Well, a lot. We are responsible for a large portion of the men's movement that you see out there right now. Now, we might not be the meteoric rise notoriety of, of men like, um, Jordan Peterson, uh, or, or Andrew Tate, and that's a whole other conversation, or

• 33:13Speaker 00

  even a guy like Scott Galloway. These are all men who have a lot more attention and notoriety than we do. But we are creating a powerful, powerful legion of movements and events and messages that are helping millions of men, not just the men who listen to this podcast, but the millions that listen to these other podcasts as well. That will never change. Now, the way I communicate it might, I've had life experiences and challenges and setbacks that I shared with you, um, and, and more that I haven't shared. Um, and

• 33:55Speaker 00

  so I evolve, you know, I grow. I think I'm a little bit less black and white than I have been in the past. I'm not so rigid, even though I still am pretty rigid, not so rigid as I once was. And so I, I've really learned to stop caring so much about the naysayers, stop caring so much about what people think about me or what I do or don't do. I even encourage other people to start their own movements. You know, guys will say, well, Ryan, you should do this thing. So why should I do it? You should do it. If it's important to you, you should do it. And look, I know most of the time when people give me ideas, it's because they care about what we're doing. And that's great. I'm very grateful for that. But I want people to get in the arena. I want them to do something about the missions and work that is important to them.

• 34:42Speaker 00

  At the end of the day, guys, I really care about the men who tune in. I care about the guys who've joined the Iron Council. I care about the men who will be served, who haven't heard what we're doing yet, or haven't come to one of our events yet, or haven't joined the Iron Council yet. We just had somebody in the Iron Council just recently pass away, one of our team leaders. And I'm sure it was devastating to the people he loved most, his girlfriend and his family. And we all who knew him well were deeply impacted and saddened by his passing. We rally behind each other. We support each other. And when I see guys saving their marriages or rallying behind somebody who's, you know,

• 35:23Speaker 00

  lost a loved one, or support somebody, a man who started a business in the Iron Council, and we want to support and uplift that guy.

• 35:32Speaker 00

  I can't help but think how great and how important this work is and what it would look like if it wasn't available, if it wasn't here. It'd be drastically different. I truly believe that. So I'm going to keep evolving. I'm going to keep growing. And I ask that you keep evolving and growing too, that you start looking at the market and the economy and the factors and the growing sentiments of the way culture is going, you know. One right now that you see a lot is this growing idea of socialism. It's horrific and it's horrible. And I imagine that will become a big part of the conversation that we have. I don't want to get too political necessarily here, but there's cultural issues like socialism that need to be addressed from a cultural lens, not necessarily a political one. And we're going to see these things come and go.

• 36:17Speaker 00

  We're going to have new presidencies and new elected representatives, and we're going to have new businesses, and we're going to have new technology like AI. I was thinking about that the other day, how much easier certain things are, even show prep, because AI is available. I want to prep on a guest. I can look at AI and it can pull up everything about that individual in seconds. I didn't have that when I started. What else is going to be available? Could I potentially be able to do some sort of? A digital podcast, but with a holograph or hologram of a person sitting here. So it actually looks like it's in person. Yeah, probably something like that. I mean, there's going to be some crazy technology and I'm excited about what that looks like.

• 37:01Speaker 00

  We have a lot of cool opportunities if we look for those opportunities and I've been doing it for 11 years and I know you guys have been growing your businesses and living your lives as well. These are the lessons that I've learned and these are the things that have made this movement such such a success. And I'll leave you with this. It's the one thing that I would, I would maybe tell myself on day one. And I want, I want you to leave with this and I want you to think about what you might tell yourself going back 10 or 15 or 20 years. And think about how this applies to the last decade of your life in the pursuit of something meaningful. And so for me, what I would tell myself is a couple of things. Number one, afford yourself some grace.

• 37:45Speaker 00

  You're a human being, you're gonna mess up, roll with the punch, laugh at it a little bit if you have to, and just keep charging on. The other thing I would say is you never know what's gonna happen. One day you're at the bottom of the pit and the next you're at the top of the mountain or vice versa. And things will always change. Your ability to adapt to those things, to evolve, to be light on your feet, quick on your toes, to be able to move and pivot and adjust and read and, and parry and block and go around or go through or go over and just be adaptable is one of the greatest skills that you have. The last thing I'd say is always maintain your dignity.

• 38:29Speaker 00

  I'm telling you right now, that's one of the most important things you can do as a man. Always maintain your dignity. If, I was gonna say if, but when bad things happen in your life, handle it like the man you want to be would handle it. She asks for a divorce, or to go through a breakup. You don't need to blow up. You don't need to lose your cool. You don't need to melt down. You don't need to fall apart. You just pick yourself back up. And you get back in the fight. And you dust yourself off, and you keep working. If somebody wrongs you in some way, I'm not saying that you need to expose yourself to the same potential hardship or heartache. But if somebody harms you in some way, afford them some grace. Forgive them. Handle it like a man. Be stoic. You know, sure, feel your emotion. Feel anger and resentment and contention.

• 39:13Speaker 00

  But don't act on those things reactionary. Respond to those things like the man that you want to be would respond to those things. There's a lot that's going to happen in your life. And you're going to make some horrible, horrible mistakes, as I have. And I think the best thing that we can do is, even in those mistakes, is to maintain our dignity. And that's what I would tell myself. And I feel like I've done a decent job. Not perfect, but decent. And I'll continue to improve in that. Guys, I really appreciate you. I'm going to leave you with this. I really appreciate you being here. I really appreciate you listening in. Buying the book, listening to the message, sharing the podcast, coming to our events, buying merchandise.

• 39:56Speaker 00

  Whichever way that you've supported what we're doing here, I want you to know, not only you're supporting this movement, but you're also supporting the other men who will be impacted by what you're doing. I can't tell you how often I might be in the airport, or at the mall, or at a restaurant, and somebody will come up to me and ask me if I'm Ryan. And I say, yes. The amount of gratitude that I get from the people who listen, who tune in and listen, and share their stories about their relationships, or their business, or how they feel about things, is so rewarding. And it can be that for you too, regardless of what you're doing, if you show up in a powerful way. Guys, if you're on YouTube, in the comments below, please let me know some of the lessons

• 40:38Speaker 00

  that you've learned over the past 10 years of your life. I would love to share this with each other. And if you're not on YouTube watching this, then go over if you wouldn't subscribe at youtube.com/OrderOfMan. Guys, we're gonna keep going, we're gonna keep driving on, I'm gonna keep evolving, and we're gonna keep adding services and value, hopefully, to your life. That is my goal. So, with that said, please subscribe, leave a rating and review, take a look at the Iron Council, OrderOfMan.com/IronCouncil. But most importantly, go apply the information that you've learned, and stick around, because we've got some good things coming. Then we'll be back tomorrow for our Ask Me Anything. Until then, go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.

• 41:21Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening to the Order of Man Podcast. Are you ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be? We invite you to join the Order at OrderOfMan.com.