Order of Man - 10 Tips to Crush Your Career ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart

00:00:05.000 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.

00:00:10.440 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who

00:00:17.240 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:00:22.840 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,

00:00:27.640 and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the movement that is Order of Man. I want to

00:00:32.540 welcome you back or welcome you here for the first time. If this is the first time you're tuning in,

00:00:36.900 this is your Friday Field Notes where you get to hear some of my thoughts and ideas and just some

00:00:41.680 of the conversations or topics that I've seen broached in our Facebook group and our exclusive

00:00:45.440 Brotherhood, the Iron Council. So I'll talk with you for about, I don't know, 30 or 40 minutes on

00:00:49.280 some of these topics. And today I've got a good one. We're going to be talking about crushing your

00:00:53.440 career because I've seen a lot of guys with questions about how to excel in their careers,

00:00:58.260 how to go on to eventually gain new promotions and start new businesses and everything else they

00:01:04.960 want out of their career. So we'll get into that here in a minute. Now, if you're new, this is a

00:01:11.300 movement, a podcast, having conversations all in an attempt to reclaim and restore masculinity. Now,

00:01:18.640 when I talk about that, I inevitably have people that ask me, what does that even mean? Like,

00:01:23.640 what is the point of reclaiming masculinity? What is it that you're talking about? Guys,

00:01:28.120 when I say reclaim masculinity, I'm talking about reclaiming the idea that masculinity is about being

00:01:34.240 strong and it's about being independent and it's about being rugged and it's about instilling

00:01:39.400 virtues and principles, not only in our own lives, but the lives of the people that we have an

00:01:44.260 obligation and responsibility for. So that's our families, our businesses, our employees, our

00:01:49.160 employers, our clients, our community members and neighbors. That's what being a man is. A man is

00:01:54.540 about serving. And I think the more that we get into social media and the more that we continue to see

00:02:00.980 this idea of traditional masculinity warped and distorted and misunderstood, then I think we're going

00:02:06.980 to see a falling out from this. And I believe that it's my job here on this podcast and everything else

00:02:12.540 we're doing within this movement to help fight against the push to minimize masculinity. And I'll

00:02:21.380 tell you this, I think it comes from a very, very small percentage of the people. It's the vocal

00:02:27.940 minority that are talking about this distorted view of masculinity and trying to change it or turn it into

00:02:33.400 something that it's not. I believe that generally and the overwhelming majority of people believe

00:02:39.700 that masculinity is inherently good and that there may be some men who take it to the extreme or go off

00:02:46.880 course. But I think there's, again, a small minority of people who believe that masculinity is somehow

00:02:51.820 inherently wrong or evil or bad or destructive to society. And the exception is that there's a few good

00:02:58.120 men. So my job is to help lift those of us who want to be better fathers, husbands, business owners,

00:03:04.600 community leaders, neighbors, employees, employers, you name it. It's my job to give you the tools,

00:03:11.780 the guidance, the direction, the conversation, and the resources that you need to help us all reclaim

00:03:16.660 masculinity in a society that needs it, quite frankly. And as we, as men, step up more fully

00:03:23.040 into our lives and in our homes and our businesses and our communities, we're going to see a lot happen

00:03:28.780 from that. We're going to see economies improve. We're going to see families improve. We're going to see

00:03:32.780 more families staying together. We're going to see more meaning and satisfaction and fulfillment in

00:03:37.400 life. We're going to see greater wealth. We're going to see greater health. There's so much positive

00:03:41.020 benefit that comes from the conversations and the movement that we have here at Order of Man.

00:03:45.840 So enough of that. I've got an interesting one, like I said, lined up for you today. I want to talk

00:03:50.820 with you about 10 tips to crush your career. Now I'm going to get into that in just a quick minute.

00:03:55.380 I need to make a couple of very, very fast announcements. Number one in August, August 25th through

00:04:01.700 September 1st, I am going to be in Maine. Hopefully by then I'll be living there, but I am going to be

00:04:07.320 in Maine, whether I'm living there or not for origins immersion camp. This is a Brazilian jujitsu

00:04:12.480 immersion camp. You can go for three days or six or seven days. I'm going to go to both sessions. So

00:04:19.520 I'll be there all week. And if you go to origin, main.com slash order camp origin, main.com slash order

00:04:27.860 camp. You can get registered. You can get signed up for session a B or both. And like I said,

00:04:34.860 I'll be there. Kip Sorensen will be there. Another partner of mine with the events that we run and

00:04:40.200 the experiences that we have will be there. I'm sure Jocko will be there and much of the

00:04:45.240 echelon front team as well. Of course, Pete and Brian will be there with origin. It's a great,

00:04:49.880 great experience. It's a great event. And I would love to see you guys there again.

00:04:54.000 That's origin, main.com slash order camp. And then the second announcement,

00:04:57.660 and I've been talking about this now for a couple of weeks is we're giving away a brand new Hoyt

00:05:01.640 helix, a brand new bow. If you're into bow hunting or would like to be, it's a good opportunity to win

00:05:07.020 a very, very nice bow from Hoyt. If you go to order of man.com slash Hoyt H O Y T, you can enter the

00:05:16.740 giveaway, no purchase or anything necessary. The instructions are pretty simple. Again, order of man.com

00:05:23.180 slash Hoyt H O Y T. And you're getting registered there. All right. That's enough of the announcements 0.99

00:05:28.260 guys. Let's get into this idea of crushing your career. Now I get these topics from our Facebook

00:05:33.940 group. I get these topics and these conversations from our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council.

00:05:38.220 And I've seen over the past, I would say week to week and a half, a lot of questions about

00:05:42.500 how to deal with employees and how to deal with employers. And I've got loyalty to my company and I'd want

00:05:48.200 to advance, but I don't know how, and there's no opportunities here. And how do I get out of this

00:05:52.200 position? Guys, I'm just here to tell you that being in a career and having something that's

00:05:58.180 meaningful, that's significant, that's rewarding, that's profitable is one of the greatest factors

00:06:03.720 to your success. I've talked about this at length, that men are three things, protectors,

00:06:09.340 providers, and presiders. Now, obviously when it comes to career, this falls more heavily in line

00:06:15.040 with the idea that we are providers and the better and more capable you are of being a provider,

00:06:21.940 the better life you're going to have, the better life your family is going to have,

00:06:26.460 the more capable you are going to be of engaging in things that are important to you, like coaching

00:06:31.900 your kids as teams and being able to give back to charities and organizations that you believe in.

00:06:37.020 And this all comes from having a fulfilling, rewarding, and financially lucrative career.

00:06:45.080 So this is not an exhaustive list. This is not something that if you follow these 10 steps,

00:06:49.900 then everything will work out and it will always be perfect. Of course, there's more to this than

00:06:53.780 this, but I believe that if you follow the 10 principles that I'm going to share with you today,

00:06:57.360 that you will significantly, significantly give yourself a leg up and you will experience the

00:07:03.900 type of success that you wish you had. And frankly, that you see a lot of other men having.

00:07:09.420 Now, I have not always adhered to these 10 steps. And when I haven't, and I've fallen away from

00:07:15.080 these ideas, I've failed and I fell behind and I've just dropped the ball in business. And quite

00:07:21.680 frankly, almost shut down a couple of different businesses. Now, when I adhere on the other hand

00:07:26.220 to these things, I find that meaning and that satisfaction and that financial reward. And just

00:07:32.080 very similar to what we've done here with order of man. So I want you guys to succeed. I want you to

00:07:36.720 thrive. Obviously career is not the only thing that we need to worry about as men. But if we pretend

00:07:42.260 that it's not a critical component of what it means to be a man, then I think we're,

00:07:47.720 well, we're a bit delusional and we're probably not stepping into that role as fully as we could

00:07:52.380 or should be. All right. So let's get into this. I've wasted enough time talking about everything

00:07:56.500 else. Let me just get right into these tips at this point. And these aren't in any order guys,

00:08:00.700 but again, write these down. If you're working out or driving, go back and check them out later.

00:08:06.040 You can, you know what I'll do too, is I will put the 10 tips in the actual notes of this show.

00:08:10.640 So if you're driving and listening to this and you want to pull up the 10 tips later,

00:08:14.140 you just pull them right off the show notes instead of having to listen to the entire show

00:08:17.680 again. All right, here we go. Number one, know the expectations. I mean, I can't tell you how many

00:08:24.560 times I've talked with men who have no idea what the employment agreement even is. Like how many hours

00:08:31.220 am I working? What is required of me? What is it that you want me to do? What is my job description?

00:08:35.840 Where is the line? You need to know these things. You need to understand what these expectations are

00:08:42.140 because two things, if you know what they are, you can meet those expectations. If you don't know

00:08:47.020 what they are, it's going to be very hard to meet those expectations. And essentially what you're

00:08:51.460 going to do is you're going to end up dropping the ball or falling short of what a supervisor

00:08:54.860 or a manager or the boss or the owner of the company has in mind for you. You certainly don't want

00:09:00.760 to do that. But if you know what the baseline is, you know what the baseline standard is,

00:09:04.440 you can meet that. And in addition to that, you can exceed that. You can go above and beyond what

00:09:09.420 is expected of you as far as time or commitment or a task or a project that you might be working on.

00:09:15.460 And you can really try to exceed those expectations because that is what's going to put you

00:09:21.680 above maybe somebody else. Because what most people are doing, guys, most employees, I'm just

00:09:27.520 telling you what they're going to do is they're going to try to find out the expectation and they're

00:09:31.960 going to attempt to do the bare minimum, the absolute minimum they possibly can in order

00:09:39.420 to just slightly meet that expectation. And they feel like, well, if I've done that, I've

00:09:44.160 done my job and all is well. And certainly you can do that or you can take the higher elevated

00:09:49.220 road and really decide to crush your career and thrive and put yourself in a position that

00:09:55.960 most people aren't willing to do, which is how can I do the most? How can I go above and

00:10:01.740 beyond? Can I, can I work a little bit later because there's a deadline to meet? Can I put

00:10:05.620 a little bit more effort into my sales calls? Can I put a little bit more work into this project

00:10:12.100 that we're managing? Can I, can I help lead that a team to accomplish a task? Is there something

00:10:18.200 that other people don't recognize that I can do that I can step into? Uh, one of the managers

00:10:23.460 I had when I was working in retail clothing is she said, you just, you look for problems,

00:10:29.660 right? Just look for problems and fill those problems. And a lot of the times you don't

00:10:33.480 even need to ask for permission. Now, sometimes you will, but a lot of times you won't need

00:10:37.260 to ask for permission. You just fill those problems. And that's about managing expectations.

00:10:42.820 And it's about exceeding those expectations. Also, if you don't know what the expectations

00:10:47.540 are, or there's some confusion or a breakdown in communication, then you need to have those discussions.

00:10:52.500 And that leads me to point number two, which is that you need to communicate effectively.

00:10:57.880 If there is a breakdown in communication, you're upset with your boss or manager or a manager or

00:11:03.080 a boss is maybe upset with you, then don't let that stuff go unchecked. Don't just assume that

00:11:09.060 it'll work out or sweep anything under the rug. Like address that like a man and a man is assertive.

00:11:15.100 A man sees something that's happening, a set of circumstances or a conversation that has,

00:11:20.400 is going unsaid. And he addresses that. Sure. There might be some fear there or concern about

00:11:25.720 addressing that situation, but man, if you can't communicate effectively, I think all of this other

00:11:31.200 stuff is really invalid. It really won't apply. So communicate, communicate, communicate, ask good

00:11:38.180 questions. If you see a problem, bring it up, bring it to somebody's attention. If somebody's dropping

00:11:44.540 the ball, let them know in a tactful way. All right. There's, there's very tactful ways to do this.

00:11:49.360 One great resource is called the assertiveness workbook. And if you have trouble being assertive,

00:11:55.020 then I would definitely suggest that, that you read that and go through it, do the workbook.

00:12:01.140 Now, the other thing I will say with communication is if you get a lot of feedback from people that

00:12:05.900 maybe you're being an a-hole or you're too aggressive, that is also a sign that you're 0.89

00:12:12.760 not communicating effectively. Now, some men, and I've seen this time and time again, will dismiss

00:12:18.060 that as people are weak, that the reason that they think I'm being too aggressive is because they're

00:12:23.180 weak. That might actually be true, but it also might be true that you're being too aggressive,

00:12:28.580 that you lacked tact and that you're not able to communicate effectively in a way that rallies the

00:12:33.640 troop. In fact, it pushes them down. So if you're getting that type of feedback and it's constant

00:12:41.040 and you see it and you hear it quite often, then really check yourself. Stop looking at other people

00:12:47.300 and saying, well, these people are just weak. They can't handle what I'm doing. No, maybe you're not

00:12:51.020 a great communicator. Maybe you railroad people or you, or you bully people. And that's certainly not

00:12:55.960 going to get the job done either. So there's really four methods of communication for four categories,

00:13:00.920 I should say. So number one is passive. And we all know the passive guy, right? He allows himself

00:13:05.320 to get railroaded. He won't bring up anything that may cause any sort of confrontation. He's

00:13:11.360 afraid of having a significant and meaningful discussion, especially if there's a chance that

00:13:16.160 it might get heated or there might be just some, some disagreement there, but that's the passive guy

00:13:21.200 on the opposite end of the spectrum. We have the aggressive, right? This is the bully. This is the guy

00:13:26.820 who doesn't take other people's thoughts and ideas into consideration and just says, go, go, go.

00:13:31.680 Don't, don't question it. Just do exactly as I say. And you might think that's assertive. It's not

00:13:37.100 necessarily assertive. It just might mean that you're being too aggressive. The third communication

00:13:42.280 style is passive aggressive. Now this is the person who's sarcastic. This is the person who makes a joke

00:13:48.820 out of everything. They can't take anything seriously. He's undermining other people. He won't tell you

00:13:55.080 what's wrong to your face, but it'll tell your coworker, Bob, exactly what's going on.

00:14:00.360 This is somebody who is pretending to be strong, but in fact, they're letting their fear dictate the

00:14:06.420 way they communicate with other people. That's called the passive aggressive. And the fourth is

00:14:10.620 the assertive. This is an individual who can recognize what needs to happen, who can see the

00:14:16.100 whole playing field, who's not afraid to bring these discussions up, but does it in a way that's

00:14:21.240 tactful and does it in a way that moves the needle. This is what we should all be striving

00:14:26.120 to be like. It's going to vary depending on our personality, but ultimately we want to be an

00:14:32.460 assertive communicator. So that's point. Number two is learn to communicate effectively. Uh, number

00:14:37.280 three, know your customer guys, you've got to know your customer. And when I say this, I think what a lot

00:14:43.160 of people are initially going to think is that you should know the person who's buying services

00:14:48.520 from you or our products or whatever it may be. And, and certainly that is your customer.

00:14:54.260 You should know who that customer is, but even more so than that, when it comes to crushing your

00:14:58.760 career, your customer is not necessarily the actual quote unquote customer, your customer,

00:15:06.240 or at least looking at your customer as your boss or employer or manager or business owner.

00:15:13.820 Guys, look at that individual as a customer. What if you treat him or her just as good as you treat

00:15:22.540 your real customers and clients? It's critical that you know that you are there to serve that

00:15:31.340 individual. And when I say that, I know inevitably guys are going to think, Oh, I'm not just a servant.

00:15:35.720 I'm not going to allow myself to be railroaded and just be this, this person's slave. That's not

00:15:40.180 what I'm suggesting guys. I'm suggesting that your obligation, responsibility and agreement

00:15:46.080 is to serve your boss, to serve your manager, to serve the person who hired you. So within reason

00:15:52.960 and, and knowing that we, we understand what the expectations are, you want to make that

00:15:58.300 individual look good. I talk with people every day who have bosses that are jerks or, you know,

00:16:05.240 they have a hard time working with a supervisor guys, your job is to make that individual look

00:16:10.260 good. Now you're not going to just randomly do things just to try to prop this person up.

00:16:15.940 Cause that could be brown nosing and that could actually backfire. But again, you want to help

00:16:20.200 this individual win. If you can help a team leader or a supervisor or your manager, when you become

00:16:25.880 invaluable to the organization and you will inevitably over time may not happen immediately,

00:16:31.980 but over time you will get the promotion, you will get the raise, you will get the opportunities

00:16:36.920 that present themselves because you are the one that helps other people win. Uh, another great book

00:16:42.780 by Cal Newport is so good. They can't ignore you. That is a great book on how to make yourself

00:16:51.160 indispensable. And I think that's actually another book by Seth Godin. Um, it's called lynchpin.

00:16:57.080 I believe I'm going to give you a lot of resources here. So, so good. They can't ignore you. And then

00:17:01.760 lynchpin by Seth Godin and the assertiveness workbook. And I don't know who that's by right

00:17:06.280 offhand. All right. So again, number two, or excuse me, number three, know who your customer is. Yes,

00:17:11.240 it's your customer, but it's always it. Yes, it's your customer, but it's also your, your higher ups,

00:17:18.080 if you will. All right. Uh, number four, and I already said this a little bit, but help others win.

00:17:22.780 Again, if you've got a teammate, a colleague, a coworker, a boss, a supervisor, somebody who's

00:17:28.260 even new, and you are the guy who helps these individuals win, you are the person who trains.

00:17:33.700 You are the person who, uh, doesn't have to get all the credit and all the glory you're helping

00:17:38.320 other individuals succeed and thrive. It's difficult, especially if you're vying maybe for

00:17:44.020 a job promotion or an opportunity to, uh, excel within the organization that you might look at it

00:17:49.940 as a competition. And there might be certain circumstances where it is, but ultimately

00:17:55.220 is, and again, I I'm, I'm talking about the long game here, guys, when we're talking about a career,

00:18:00.020 I'm not talking about what you're doing for the next two years. I'm not even talking about what

00:18:03.300 you're doing for the next 10 years. I'm talking about how you thrive in life, how you put 40 years

00:18:09.500 into, uh, an organization or an idea or just the workforce in general and how you win over the long

00:18:16.340 haul. And I'm telling you that the guys who help other people win those men inevitably win over the

00:18:23.380 long haul. If you step on people's toes and, and you push them down in order to lift yourself up and

00:18:29.500 you make them look stupid and you make them look foolish, you might get some temporary satisfaction 0.54

00:18:34.220 and some temporary gain. But over the long run, I'm telling that, telling you that if you do things

00:18:39.600 at the expense of other people, you will lose the long game, lift people up, help other people win,

00:18:47.400 assist them with their projects. Don't take credit for things. Just, just lift people up.

00:18:53.620 This is a natural, eternal principle that those who help other people will inevitably rise to the top.

00:19:01.080 Uh, I think Zig Ziglar said, if you help enough people get what they want, then you will inevitably get

00:19:07.200 what you want. And I paraphrased a bit there. So again, number four, helping other people win

00:19:12.260 always. Number five, this one is big. All right. This is probably the, the, the most important

00:19:18.460 topic that I see men bring up again in our Facebook group, which is at facebook.com slash groups slash

00:19:24.020 order of man. And also in our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council, which is at order of man.com

00:19:29.400 slash iron council. Number five is never, never, never, never. Can I say that enough? Never get

00:19:36.840 pulled into the mud. All right. There's going to be drama. There's going to be backstabbing. There's

00:19:43.460 going to be little nitpicking and, and, and people biting at each other. And when people get competitive

00:19:48.900 over a potential raise or a promotion or a job offer, uh, there's going to be drama. People are

00:19:55.020 going to bring their, their outside baggage into work. I'm telling you right now, stay above it.

00:20:00.740 All right. If somebody comes to you and wants to have a gripe session and get into gossip about

00:20:05.060 another employee or how this person dropped the ball or what, what this other individual is doing

00:20:09.660 in their personal life. Hey, disengage from that. Get yourself out of that situation. All right.

00:20:15.760 You're never going to win if you're stuck rolling around in the dirt and the mud and you're slinging

00:20:21.720 dirt at other people and you're having dirt slung at you. Stay above that nonsense. I heard somebody in

00:20:28.120 the Facebook group, ask a question or, or saw rather. And they said, how do I deal with somebody,

00:20:34.160 a coworker who's talking crap behind my back? And I very simply said, be so good at your job

00:20:41.940 that anybody that heard anything to the contrary simply wouldn't believe it. And I stand by that.

00:20:48.900 But if you get into the mud and you get into the drama and you get punching back and you're trying

00:20:53.700 to win arguments and debates, and you're trying to throw people under the bus or avoid being thrown

00:20:59.060 under the bus, you're not going to win. You're not going to win. Stay above it. Be stoic, if you will.

00:21:05.840 And by stoicism, I mean, understand what's happening around you, understand your environment,

00:21:11.100 and then respond accordingly. Don't get sucked into the mud. And if you feel yourself getting

00:21:16.540 stuck into the mud, disengage, just disengage altogether. I'm not saying leave in the middle

00:21:21.540 of the day. If you can't do that, I'm not saying quit. I'm just saying, find a way to,

00:21:25.740 to breathe, to give yourself some margin, some space, step back. So you can come back into the

00:21:33.280 engagement with a level head and a clear perspective about what it is you're trying

00:21:39.120 to accomplish. And you're not there to win a fight. All right. You don't need to get in fights

00:21:42.780 with people. You don't need to get pulled into the, into the drama. Although look, sometimes that's

00:21:47.420 exciting, right? You don't need that in your life. You need to stay above it. So again, number five,

00:21:52.520 never get pulled into the mud. Number six, elevate yourself, elevate yourself, elevate yourself,

00:21:58.600 elevate yourself. Always. How can I elevate myself? And I'm not saying that you do this falsely. I'm

00:22:03.520 not saying that you prop yourself up or you're giving yourself pats on the back or you're brown

00:22:08.240 nosing to your supervisor or manager. That's not what I'm talking about. When I say elevate yourself,

00:22:13.040 what I'm talking about is looking for opportunities to make yourself better. Again, I go back to that book.

00:22:18.600 So good. They can't ignore you. What opportunities have presented themselves or will you have to work

00:22:23.940 for a little bit that will elevate you in the eyes of your customers, your clients, your boss,

00:22:30.720 your manager, your teammates. This could come in the form of credentials, a new degrees and

00:22:37.400 designations, new information. It could come through helping other individuals win, which was a point

00:22:43.400 number four that I made. But in what ways can you continue to gain new knowledge, experience,

00:22:50.460 perspective, and how can you make yourself a better employee? The more that you invest in yourself

00:22:58.080 through education, formal or otherwise through certifications, through trainings. In fact,

00:23:04.360 a lot of these companies and organizations will pay for some of that, or they will offer it within

00:23:08.860 their organization. Go out and get that stuff done. Yeah. It might not be in your job description.

00:23:14.680 Yeah. You might not need that extra degree or credential or licensing requirement immediately,

00:23:20.060 but I promise you that if there's two guys, a employer or a manager or a supervisor is looking

00:23:25.540 at for an employer, a promotion, they're likely going to take the one who has asserted himself above

00:23:32.080 and beyond step number one, the expectations and has gone the extra mile to get some of these

00:23:37.740 certifications, credentials, degrees, knowledge, experience, and made himself more valuable to the

00:23:44.100 organization. And again, that goes to point number three, knowing your customer, your, your manager,

00:23:49.960 boss, employer, et cetera. So when you're at work and you're wondering how you can get these types of

00:23:57.600 promotions or, or, or elevate yourself, look to opportunities to serve, look for opportunities to

00:24:03.640 go into new departments and learn new information. If you have that option available, get those

00:24:08.740 credentials, get those degrees, et cetera, et cetera. All right. That was point number six. All right.

00:24:14.260 Number seven, we're cranking through these guys. So again, if, if you're not in a position where you

00:24:18.400 can write them down, you can go into the show notes afterwards and the show notes here on iTunes or

00:24:23.300 wherever you listen to the podcast. And, uh, you can see all 10 steps. So number seven, this one is

00:24:28.360 very, very important. And it's almost a swear word to a lot of people, but the idea is that you need

00:24:33.000 to network effectively. Networking is not a bad word unless, unless you don't know how to do it right,

00:24:40.720 or you're spending time around people who don't know how to do it right. But if you aren't constantly

00:24:45.040 networking, and when I say networking, I'm talking about meeting new people, helping them win,

00:24:50.940 uh, getting perspective, uh, trying to learn as much as you can about other people, trying to

00:24:57.040 make introductions where you can continually offering services and, and advice and anything

00:25:03.440 that you can on your own to connect yourself to other high achieving individuals. Those are the

00:25:09.760 types of things that you should be doing every single day. I can't even begin to describe how many

00:25:14.780 opportunities have presented or been presented to me. For example, on this podcast with podcast guests,

00:25:20.600 simply because I've been a fairly good networker that I know what other people are all about,

00:25:26.040 that I look for opportunities to help those other individuals win, that I want to serve those people.

00:25:31.400 And as I continue to do that and make all of these little expansive type networking strategies

00:25:37.040 come into play, the more opportunities that are presented to me, I've had this happen in,

00:25:42.600 in other careers as well. I can remember people coming to me and asking if I would, uh, I would

00:25:48.660 interview for, uh, other, other positions, management type positions and other organizations

00:25:54.060 to which I didn't even belong. And part of that was because I networked well with them and I was

00:25:59.540 constantly looking how I could serve and make connections and help other people win. So number

00:26:05.200 seven, network, network, network, network. So many opportunities will be presented. You're not there just

00:26:13.080 to do a job guys. If there's an underlying thread between the conversations I'm having right now,

00:26:17.380 or, or the topics and these points that I'm listing, you're not there just to do a transaction.

00:26:23.140 All right. You're not there just to, to, to be another number or to be an expense, or that's not

00:26:28.560 what you're there for. You're there to help maximize the opportunities that you have and maximize the

00:26:34.780 opportunities for your employer, uh, your manager, your teammates, et cetera, et cetera. So network

00:26:40.480 effectively. And over time guys, um, I'm going to break down these even further because I feel like I

00:26:45.840 just kind of skimmed over that. Uh, but Jordan Harbinger, a lot of you guys know Jordan Harbinger

00:26:50.360 with the Jordan Harbinger show. He's got some phenomenal, phenomenal information. And even I

00:26:55.720 believe level one workshop or something like that, you can go to his, his website. Uh, and he talks

00:27:01.380 about how to be a connector and how to be a more effective networker. All right. Uh, number eight,

00:27:08.700 understand that loyalty has limits. All right. Loyalty has limits. I talk with so many men

00:27:14.660 who believe that just because they entered into an, a fight, a financial arrangement with a,

00:27:20.520 with an employer that they owe them their blind allegiance for life. I mean, it sounds silly when

00:27:26.060 I say that, but frankly, some of you listening may have also fallen, fallen into that trap.

00:27:30.860 Like you have this other offer, for example, that is a significantly better offer with another

00:27:35.280 employer and you want to take this job, but you feel this false sense of loyalty to another

00:27:43.620 individual. What I would say is that you need to be dedicated. You need to be commitment,

00:27:48.020 committed. You need to pour your heart into the work that you're doing now, but you don't need to

00:27:52.440 be so loyal that you aren't willing to look for other opportunities that you aren't willing to

00:27:58.540 entertain potential opportunities that could excel your career. And frankly, could really help you

00:28:04.400 and your family and the people that you care about by exploring that opportunity.

00:28:08.380 So here's how you need to look at this, because I'm telling you, your employer doesn't have any

00:28:13.800 loyalty to you. I think you should be loyal as long as you're committed to that individual,

00:28:17.860 but an employment contract is basically this at its most basic level. The employer will pay you,

00:28:25.440 the employee, a stated amount of money for a stated job or amount of hours or specific roles or duties.

00:28:33.720 And when that's completed at the end of every night, when that is completed, you have completed

00:28:39.860 that job and your employer has paid you the money that they agreed to pay you. That is where the

00:28:45.220 loyalty ends. That's it. It's a basic contract. Now I'm not saying you need to go out in a blaze of

00:28:51.380 glory. I'm not saying you need to burn the boats or anything like that. What I'm saying is that if

00:28:56.640 other opportunities present themselves through everything else that you've been doing, knowing and

00:29:01.360 conceding expectations, communicating effectively, helping other people win, not getting pulled into

00:29:05.740 the mud, elevating yourself through new degrees and credentials and licensing, networking with other

00:29:10.820 individuals, then understand that you have created those opportunities for yourself. And to not at least

00:29:17.220 entertain the opportunity is really overlooking something that could potentially transform your life.

00:29:24.380 So loyalty is great. Dedication and commitment to something is wonderful, but it's not so comprehensive

00:29:33.360 that you should consider not taking a position simply out of loyalty itself. Give your, your notice,

00:29:42.700 help train other individuals, do the best you can while you're there. But look guys, number eight,

00:29:47.600 loyalty has limits. If something else comes up, something else is available. That's an opportunity that

00:29:52.860 you definitely ought to explore. All right. Uh, number nine, I feel like we kind of alluded to

00:29:58.460 this quite a bit throughout the conversation up to this point, but you are a problem solving machine,

00:30:04.580 a problem solving machine, not to be confused with a problem identifying machine. There is a huge

00:30:12.220 difference between a problem solving machine, excuse me, and a problem identifying machine. I think most

00:30:19.760 people, if you look around in your office, you're in an office with let's say 10 to 20 employees.

00:30:24.400 I think that most people inherently through evolutionary hardwiring are problem identifying

00:30:33.380 machines. We look around, we see problems that that person's dropping the ball or this management

00:30:40.280 style isn't working or, or this office arrangement isn't set up correctly, or this process isn't working

00:30:46.480 as effectively as it could be. All of us are looking for little inefficiencies and little problems and

00:30:52.060 little things that we see wrong. Why? Because that's what helps us stay alive. That's like I said, we're

00:30:56.960 evolutionary hardwired to look for things that are threats. Okay. But I think it's infinitely harder to find

00:31:03.980 somebody who is not only a problem identifying machine, but a problem solving machine. And that's what you

00:31:10.140 should be. When you see a problem, you should solve it. You should fix it. You should look for

00:31:16.920 opportunities to come up with solutions that will fix that problem. Now, some of these things you might

00:31:21.980 need permission for and others you won't take some initiative. If you see something wrong from just a

00:31:27.860 wrapper on the floor, that's a problem. That doesn't look good. Doesn't speak well to your image. You don't

00:31:33.500 need to wait for the janitor to come at night to pick the thing up. You should do that. If you see an

00:31:38.620 inefficiency in a system, now you may not have the power to change that immediately, but I would

00:31:43.920 definitely recommend that you talk with your team leader or your supervisor or your manager and say,

00:31:50.140 Hey, John, I've found this problem, this little inefficiency in our system, and it's costing us

00:31:55.720 this amount of money or this amount of time. And I really think if we implemented strategy X, Y, and Z,

00:32:02.040 that we could actually shore up that area and we could save ourselves time and money.

00:32:07.320 Like what manager is not going to be interested in that? What, what business owner or employer is

00:32:13.840 not going to be interested in that? So don't come to the table with problems, especially to a

00:32:18.900 supervisor because everybody's griping to that person. Everybody has problems. Like I said earlier,

00:32:23.960 we're all problem identifying machines, but it's a breath of fresh air. When an individual comes into

00:32:29.500 the office to talk with a manager or a supervisor or a team leader and says, Hey, I recognize this thing.

00:32:34.220 We're off here a little bit. And here's a solution. Here's how we can fix it. And, and then you let

00:32:40.020 it play out from there. Maybe you implement it. Maybe you don't, but you're constantly doing this

00:32:44.380 every day. How can I solve problems? How can I solve problems? What can I fix? How can I solve

00:32:47.920 problems? And the guy who solves problems is the guy everybody turns to the employees, the teammates,

00:32:53.640 the subordinates, and even, even the managers, the supervisors, the team leaders, and the bosses

00:33:00.000 always turn to the problem solver. All right. That was number nine. And the last one guys getting

00:33:06.920 through these pretty quick here today. There's a lot here to unpack, but I want to make sure you

00:33:11.160 get all of this. Number 10 is find meaning and significance in your current work. Cause I'll tell

00:33:17.820 you what a lot of guys, what they'll do is they'll complain and they'll gripe and they'll moan and

00:33:24.320 they'll belittle and they'll beat up what it is they're currently doing that it's not significant

00:33:29.540 or it's not meaningful or there's no purpose in it. And, and I get it. You know, I've been in

00:33:34.620 positions, whether it's delivering pizzas or doing landscaping or you name it, I've done all kinds of

00:33:41.400 things where I didn't feel that sense of purpose and meaning. And I don't think this should be a

00:33:46.300 perpetual state. I think if you find yourself always feeling like this, there's, there's a

00:33:50.420 problem. But I also believe that we maybe throw in the towel too quickly, or we dismiss the fact

00:33:56.120 that maybe you can find meaning and you can find purpose in anything that you're doing. I think about

00:34:02.460 my day-to-day operations from doing this podcast to, uh, doing some backend paperwork to having

00:34:10.260 conversations with great guests to making social media posts. And I'll tell you what, some of the stuff

00:34:14.900 I really, really enjoy doing, doing this podcast, having conversations with great people.

00:34:19.460 I enjoy, I love it. It uplifts me. It fulfills me. And there's other things that I find, like I just

00:34:24.280 don't enjoy it. Podcast editing, for example, was something that I didn't enjoy. And now I outsource

00:34:29.720 that. But when I was doing it, I was able to get it done because I found meaning and purpose and

00:34:34.780 significance in it. It was important. I understood how it moved the needle, why it was so important

00:34:39.640 and how it actually served in the greater and grander scheme of what I am trying to accomplish

00:34:45.600 here with an order of man of that, of that, what I said earlier, reclaiming and restoring masculinity.

00:34:51.920 So yes, there might be a situation that you need to get yourself out of. You may move on. There may

00:34:57.080 be an opportunity through networking or through elevating yourself where, where you can go on to

00:35:01.620 another employer or another job or create something new. Of course you can do those things,

00:35:06.760 but in the meantime, find meaning and significance and pour everything that you possibly can into your

00:35:13.880 work. Whether you're delivering pizzas, whether you're, you're picking up trashes or you're a

00:35:19.260 janitor or a school teacher or an attorney or a lawyer or you name it, firefighter, name it.

00:35:25.640 There can be meaning found in every single action that you engage in. The more meaning and purpose you

00:35:31.280 find in that item that you're doing, even if you hate it, the better you'll be at it. The more

00:35:36.160 committed to that thing, the, the excellence that you'll strive for towards that thing.

00:35:40.720 And the quicker you'll propel yourself to a position that you'd rather be. But if you treat

00:35:46.840 it like a chore and something you don't want to do and you moan about it and you gripe about it and

00:35:51.720 you complain to your bosses about it, you're actually doing the exact opposite of everything

00:35:56.040 I'm sharing with you here. And you're hindering your ability to go out there and literally crush

00:36:00.980 your career and make a life that you want, that you enjoy, that you're excited about,

00:36:07.660 and that's profitable and financially rewarding for you and mentally and physically and emotionally

00:36:13.580 demanding, yet uplifting and satisfying. All right. So let me go through these 10 steps with

00:36:18.440 you guys again, real quick, and then we'll get you out of here. So you can go out and crush your 0.63

00:36:22.320 career, crush your day and crush your career. Number one, know what the expectations are.

00:36:26.920 So first you can meet them and second, so you can exceed the expectations. Number two,

00:36:32.320 learn to communicate effectively as an assertive communicator, not passive, not aggressive,

00:36:38.600 not passive aggressive, but a assertive communicator. Number three, know your customer. Yes,

00:36:44.980 your actual customer and client, but also your boss, your colleagues, your coworkers, your higher

00:36:49.580 ups, your supervisors, your managers, and team leaders know who those individuals are and serve

00:36:53.820 them effectively. Number four, help other people win. Always help everybody else win. You will

00:36:59.560 inevitably win. Like a Zig Ziglar said, number five, never, never, never get pulled into the mud.

00:37:06.100 No drama, no chaos, no gossiping, no backstabbing or, or, you know, biting each other in the back and

00:37:14.380 none of that stuff. All right. Don't get pulled into the mud. Number six, elevate yourself through

00:37:19.020 learning, through experience, through education and knowledge, credentials, degrees, et cetera.

00:37:24.740 Number seven, network effectively within your organization, within your organization and outside

00:37:29.580 of your organization as well. Number eight, understand that loyalty has limits. Loyalty has

00:37:34.780 limits. Don't pass up opportunities out of blind allegiance or loyalty. Number nine, solve problems.

00:37:41.300 You are a solve, excuse me, a problem solving machine, not a problem identifying machine. That's easy.

00:37:47.760 Everybody does that. That's the standard. That's the baseline. That's the minimum requirement.

00:37:52.980 You need to be a problem solving machine. And number 10, find meaning and significance in

00:37:59.660 everything that you do. Every menial task to the things that you enjoy most, the more you find meaning

00:38:04.860 in the grand purpose and scheme of what it is you're trying to accomplish, the more effective you're going

00:38:10.180 to be at it, the better you're going to be at it, the more that other people are going to win.

00:38:13.240 And the quicker you'll elevate yourself to somewhere that maybe you have the potential to go,

00:38:17.760 and have a desire to go as well. So that's it guys. 10 tips to crushing your career. I'm going to let

00:38:23.780 you get out of here in just a quick minute, but I want to thank you. I really want to thank you

00:38:27.780 because you have helped me understand these. You have helped me articulate some of these ideas and

00:38:31.880 these concepts, and certainly some of the things that I share with you. And also some of the things

00:38:35.840 I learned from my guests and learn from you and in our brotherhood, the iron council have really,

00:38:40.480 really helped me to become a better man, a better father, husband, business owner, community leader,

00:38:47.960 coach, and every other facet of life that I'm showing up. So I want to say that I'd appreciate

00:38:52.420 you. A couple of announcements as we wind it down, the things that I mentioned earlier, number one,

00:38:56.920 origins immersion camp, which is August 25th this year through September 1st. And then the Hoyt giveaway,

00:39:04.300 we're giving away a brand new Hoyt helix bow. So order of man.com slash Hoyt H O Y T. That's all I 0.97

00:39:10.680 got for you guys. Let me know if there's some other tips that maybe you have thought about or

00:39:14.100 think that other men need to know about, then please share those connect with me on Instagram

00:39:17.580 at Ryan Mickler. My last name is spelled M I C H L E R. And also on Twitter at Ryan Mickler. Let me know

00:39:24.880 what I missed. Let me know what needs to be added. Let me know if you have some, some interesting or

00:39:29.160 insightful perspective that maybe I didn't cover. That's what this is all about is us helping each

00:39:34.060 other, helping us become better fathers, husbands, business owners, community leaders,

00:39:39.180 just men in general. All right, guys, I'll let you get out of here. Go out there, take action. Also

00:39:43.880 crush your career and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man

00:39:49.420 podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:39:54.180 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - March 15, 2019

10 Tips to Crush Your Career ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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