OoM 014： Creating a R.I.C.H. Experience with Armando Cruz
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
183.85509
Summary
Armando Cruz is a husband, father, entrepreneur, and ultra-runner. He is also the creator of the "Rich Man Experience" which helps fathers live happier, more connected and more fulfilled lives. In this episode, we talk about how the Rich Man Experience was born out of his struggle.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
It's hard to create the type of life you deserve when you're constantly in the grind,
00:00:03.480
especially if that grind is in a field or line of work that you don't enjoy.
00:00:06.840
So today, my guest Armando Cruz and I talk about how to take a step back,
00:00:11.280
figure out what you want in this world, and how you can create a plan to experience a rich life.
00:00:16.780
You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears,
00:00:20.920
and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time,
00:00:25.900
every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.
00:00:32.200
This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.
00:00:36.380
At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
00:00:42.500
Hey men, welcome back to The Order of Man. I am your host and founder of Order of Man,
00:00:45.980
Ryan Michler, and I want to take a quick second to thank you for listening to this show.
00:00:49.980
So whether you're here for the first time or you've listened to the previous 13 episodes,
00:00:53.640
your presence, and you listening in means a lot to me. It's because of you that I've started this
00:00:58.380
project. Now just a quick heads up, I'm going to be releasing a video within the next couple of
00:01:02.280
days on our YouTube channel about how you can create a bug out bag. I've got an incredibly
00:01:07.100
educated survival expert and friend who shares all the insights, everything you'll need to know
00:01:12.460
to keep safe in an emergency situation. So be sure this week to head over to our YouTube channel,
00:01:18.940
subscribe, and be on the lookout for that video. You can do that at
00:01:21.940
youtube.com slash orderofman. A quick reminder, as always, that you can check out the show notes
00:01:27.500
to this show if you want to follow up this conversation that my guest and I have today.
00:01:32.240
And again, you can do that at orderofman.com slash 014. Now today I have the pleasure of
00:01:37.820
introducing my friend Armando Cruz. He is a husband, he's a father, he's an entrepreneur,
00:01:42.500
he's an adventurer. He's also a lifestyle physical therapist. He's an ultra runner and also a
00:01:47.900
performance coach. Now he's the owner of cruise country fitness and physical therapy and the
00:01:53.700
creator of the rich man experience, which we'll talk more about in a minute. But this guy climbs
00:01:58.260
mountain. He's ran over 50 miles in a day, but he also says that fatherhood has been his biggest
00:02:03.540
adventure. And for those of us who are fathers, I think we can attest to that, but he's got a passion
00:02:09.180
to help fathers live happier, more connected and more fulfilled lives. And so he created this rich
00:02:14.040
man experience to help those men improve in every area of their lives from health and family career,
00:02:20.140
you name it. And that's what he's here to talk about today. Armando, so glad to have you on the
00:02:24.700
show. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you, Ryan. Thanks for having me. So tell me a little bit
00:02:29.080
about what you're doing these days. I know we talked a little bit about the rich man experience. Tell me a
00:02:33.540
little bit about your background and how you got into this work. Well, I mean, it goes, it goes back.
00:02:38.460
The rich man experience was born out of my struggle. It's the ugly part of it, right? The rich man
00:02:45.920
experience is the polished end version. But there was a time fairly recently in the past couple of
00:02:55.060
years where I just was at a crossroads of where I was. I kind of lost my ways. Ever since I was in
00:03:02.540
high school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I built that business. And something happened
00:03:07.460
somewhere along the way as I started learning more and continuing to grow and evolve, what I found
00:03:14.620
was now I found myself kind of searching for something else, something a little bit bigger.
00:03:20.520
And that caused a lot of confusion for me, in which case they made me hop on a plane to Thailand
00:03:28.100
for 10 days and go under a tent coaching and like an immersive retreat. All this while my wife was
00:03:38.840
like eight months pregnant. And, you know, basically the day that the day that I was going to come back
00:03:43.620
was a good chance that the baby could be born a little bit before or a little bit after. And,
00:03:50.900
you know, it was a very conscious decision between my wife and myself. And she's like,
00:03:56.700
listen, you know, you really need to do this for yourself. You know, I don't want to see you the way
00:04:01.260
you are right now. Like, you're not kind of at your best. You're not even great right now. Not even
00:04:08.320
not at your best. You know, like you need this for you. And, you know, this is our third child. And I was
00:04:14.520
like, okay, well, you know, if you feel like you can you can handle it, if the baby did come. I said,
00:04:19.340
okay, you know, it was a leap of faith. And it was probably one of the best decisions that I that I
00:04:26.400
made in my life at that point, to do that for myself and for my family. And within that grew the
00:04:34.640
rich man experience. I had been coaching people for a while I had, you know, I'm also a concierge
00:04:40.800
lifestyle, physical therapist. I have, you know, successful business, all the stuff that people
00:04:45.700
like. But there was something about this particular process that I went through that made it that much
00:04:52.720
more powerful. And so when I came back, the baby was born one day later. And so I made it in time.
00:04:59.980
Good, good timing. Yeah, exactly. And well, he waited for me, I think.
00:05:04.660
He knew. So what was your background? You said that you that in high school,
00:05:10.020
you came out of high school or college, and you pursued what you always wanted to do. What was that?
00:05:14.960
Yeah, so I, first of all, I, I was an athlete growing up. So I played all sports. And for me,
00:05:22.040
it was I thought it was to, to, to basically train athletes. That's what I thought it was. And so at
00:05:32.640
first, it was just pure exercise. I was like, Okay, well, how can I be the most efficient at exercise?
00:05:37.420
And then as you go into that, I realized, you know what, there's more to this. Then there was
00:05:41.580
a nutrition component. So then I studied more on the nutrition. And I was like, you know what,
00:05:45.640
there's more to that. And then, you know, well, how about mindset? Okay, well, as I went into more
00:05:51.580
of that, I started going a little bit more. And I started saying, Hey, but there's still more because
00:05:56.220
athletes are still doing all this, but now they're getting injured. So now I went to the rehabilitative
00:06:00.100
part. And I kept going back and forth. And I basically created my own version of what I do
00:06:06.780
today, which is like a concierge service for performance. But somewhere along the way, I,
00:06:14.620
I didn't feel like the athletes were my thing. Funny enough, I mean, I, I was a collegiate athlete,
00:06:23.520
I ran cross country and track, but I started realizing that I wanted to make an impact with
00:06:28.980
everyday people, but that have powerful effect. In other words, people who move people, right? So
00:06:37.240
not just athletes, but like movers and shakers, innovators, leaders, and leverage my, my time with
00:06:45.720
them so that they can leverage their time and affect more people is kind of more of a domino effect.
00:06:50.900
And that's really what I, what I do still. Um, but now I do it in a, in a, in a different
00:06:59.060
capacity. Now you said something happened in your life. Was it something catastrophic? Was it
00:07:04.880
something all just at once? Was it something that built up over time? What happened in your life to
00:07:09.620
make you want to make the change that, uh, or the direction that you're going now?
00:07:13.640
I think more than anything, it had to do with gaining more clarity as to, Oh wait, but there's more.
00:07:20.900
And so, you know, as, as, as the saying goes, you know, you get to, you get to see a little bit
00:07:25.220
further standing on the shoulders of giants, something along those lines, right? You know,
00:07:29.240
the, the Newton, I think it was, sorry, Isaac Newton that, that said that. Um, but so, so as I started
00:07:36.680
studying more, I started realizing that none of this takes place, whether performance, habits,
00:07:44.880
transformation, more than anything happens without the proper mindset. But then we started
00:07:50.940
going in deeper into the neuroscience and I started realizing, Hey, but there's more than
00:07:54.660
that. Now there's brain set, which is more along the path of where I work on.
00:08:00.660
Well, I think I want to bring this point up. I think what's really important is we get so
00:08:04.540
focused as men on the goal. And we talk about goal setting and what we want to achieve and how
00:08:09.880
great we want to be and how much money we want to make and what job we want to have. And then we
00:08:13.600
forget about the process and the learning experience comes in the process. And it sounds
00:08:17.480
like you have the foresight to be able to adapt and learn and to continue to grow as you learn new
00:08:23.620
things. And your mind became open to, to different ideas and thoughts.
00:08:26.800
Definitely. Definitely. I, I, you know, I, one of the, one of the biggest things that I,
00:08:31.680
that I can't stress enough is growth, right? Growth, uh, on a daily basis, always, you know,
00:08:38.120
I've seen this stuff that, you know, your podcasts and the videos and stuff, you know, that comes from
00:08:43.780
a desire to be better, to grow and not be better than another person, but be a better version of
00:08:51.640
yourself. Right. Right. It's just not a competition versus another, but more of,
00:08:56.800
Hey, what else can I find out about myself? So I want to, I want to talk a lot about that growth
00:09:03.180
and those steps for growth, even some of the things that you're personally doing. But before
00:09:06.740
we get into that, you, you went off to Thailand for, it sounds like about 10 days. Did I understand
00:09:11.380
you correctly? 10 days or so. Correct. And what are some of the things, the lessons that you walked
00:09:16.440
away with? What did you come back after 10 days wishing you would have known 10 days earlier?
00:09:21.480
So that's a great question because first of all, I mean, I've known this for a while and I've had
00:09:27.440
coaches before, right? So one of the biggest and most powerful things is the simple fact that I went
00:09:32.660
away, right? To retreat. Most people think of retreat, like in the sense of, well, there's two,
00:09:38.260
there's two, there's two forms that people think of when, when you hear a word retreat,
00:09:42.340
you think of either the army's retreating because they're being defeated. So they're moving away.
00:09:47.080
Right. Or the, you know, if you've been around churches and so forth, so, you know,
00:09:53.020
going on a weekend retreat and they, they tend to be words that people throw around. But like,
00:09:58.680
if you're really, really at the essence of what retreat means, it essentially to take you out of
00:10:06.360
where you normally are, like where your current being is and putting it in another place to give
00:10:13.500
you more perspective and time to reflect on your current life. So it's removing yourself from the
00:10:20.800
norm, uh, giving yourself space to reflect and really project what you really want. And so that's
00:10:28.640
what I did with the guidance of a coach, right? So I feel that coaching is very powerful. So not only do
00:10:35.360
I coach people, but I get coached as well because I believe in it.
00:10:39.840
Were there some things that you learned in the 10 days that, that were just absolute gold that
00:10:45.140
you walked away with that maybe even you're still applying in your life now?
00:10:48.680
Yeah. I mean, one of the most important things is the thing is not the thing.
00:10:54.800
Right. So very often, like we become overwhelmed, feel frustrated and feel bogged down by what we think
00:11:04.360
is the problem. But that problem is not really that problem. I'll give you an example from my
00:11:12.660
physical therapy. You know, one of the things that, that we work on is based off that principle. And
00:11:16.960
very often somebody will come to me with back pain. They've been experiencing back pain for two weeks.
00:11:23.220
I had a girl the other day come in, she had back pain for two weeks. Doctors went, they took x-rays and
00:11:28.740
everything. They said, Hey, you don't have anything. Um, you know, she went to go see a chiropractor.
00:11:33.860
He cracked her. He did all this stuff. Still nothing. She's still in excruciating pain. She
00:11:37.620
comes to see me through a referral. We eliminate the pain in the first 20 minutes. I didn't touch her
00:11:42.620
back. All we did was breathe. And so having the perspective and, and looking for, Hey, what is the
00:11:51.100
actual cause of something? Not the symptoms, but the cause. And if you start, what does it get? You
00:11:59.020
know, in math, it's like reducing to the simplest, uh, yeah, the lowest common denominator. Exactly.
00:12:05.260
What's that lowest common denominator in your life. And very often it goes back down to our brain,
00:12:10.540
not, not our, our mindset, but you know, everybody always talks about mindset, but you know, there,
00:12:16.800
there, there's a, another thing that we learned and another thing that was very powerful to me,
00:12:20.660
which was you can't meet the humans until the animals are happy, right? That means absolutely
00:12:27.180
nothing to anyone unless you understand the brain, which means there are animal brains in
00:12:33.140
there. We have three brains. We have a reptilian brain, a mammalian brain, and then we have our
00:12:37.040
human brain, which is where we think, where we do all our thinking processes, which is where
00:12:42.280
mindset is, but we can't get to the positive thoughts and the mindset work that is very powerful
00:12:49.960
without making the animals happy. In other words, if they are threatened, if they are not receiving
00:12:55.780
what they need to get, you will not be able to rationally think and think your way out of certain
00:13:03.200
things, which is why sometimes you, you hear of a friend and you're like, how does that make any sense
00:13:07.280
that you're doing this? And they get it like logically that like, they understand that, yes,
00:13:12.220
it doesn't make sense, but I still need to do this. So is this like Maslow's hierarchy of needs
00:13:17.100
type thing where the body needs, has certain needs, and once those are met, then you're able to elevate
00:13:23.400
or put yourself in a different position once those basic needs are met? It's exactly that,
00:13:29.000
but on the brain level. No, that makes total sense. So, I mean, the thing is not the thing.
00:13:33.960
You can't meet the human until the animals are happy. And then maybe something that's more
00:13:40.460
graspable for somebody who hasn't gone through some of this stuff. It's something as simple as,
00:13:47.260
are you clear on what you want? You know, we've heard it plenty of times as men. Oh, you know,
00:13:53.320
you got to know what you want and go after it and all that stuff, right? But are you really clear?
00:13:58.120
And what does clarity mean? See, the thing is that our clarity very often is usually based off
00:14:05.020
somebody else's definition, right? So it's important to define what our success is. It's
00:14:10.900
important to be clear that what we want is what we want, not what somebody else has deemed as success.
00:14:19.960
Right. Society or friends or colleagues or whatever it may be, we don't necessarily want. And that's
00:14:26.200
so prevalent even with social media, right? We see things on social media and we think, oh,
00:14:31.380
this guy's going on this cruise or this person's doing this and they're having success here. And
00:14:36.040
your knee-jerk reaction as a human, I think, is to say, I want that. But if you were able to stop
00:14:40.640
and take a step back, you probably don't necessarily want whatever it is they have. You just want the
00:14:45.800
recognition that comes along with whatever success they're having in that certain aspect of life.
00:14:50.840
Right. And even deeper, right? Remember, the thing is not the thing. So the recognition leads to
00:14:55.120
a feeling. What do you want to feel? And that's where the power is, right? So when you're driven
00:15:01.960
by a goal, hey, I want to own that Ferrari. Okay, great. Well, it's going to take, let's just say,
00:15:10.820
a year for you to make that money or however long, 10 years for you to make the money to get that
00:15:16.520
Ferrari. But what does that Ferrari provide for you? Well, you know, for some, well, okay, well,
00:15:21.800
maybe a status, maybe I just really like that car. Maybe I just like getting from point A to point B a
00:15:27.140
little quicker than my Volkswagen, you know? You know, whatever it is, right? But it provides
00:15:33.600
something. It provides a feeling. And that feeling you can have right now. Okay? So now, okay, well,
00:15:42.180
if I'm searching for status, what can I do right now to allow me to feel like my status is elevated?
00:15:49.460
And even deeper, why do I want status? What about status is, what does status make me feel?
00:15:58.060
It makes me feel important. Well, why is feeling important to you? Well, because of X, Y, and Z.
00:16:06.340
And so again, it's that lowest common denominator, what is it? I want to be happy.
00:16:12.240
And I think that's where we get so hung up is we think that, oh, once we have the Ferrari,
00:16:16.340
like you said, or once I have this amount of money in the bank, or once my business is doing
00:16:20.460
this good, then I'll be fulfilled. And the problem is you can actually have that before if you figure
00:16:25.380
out what it is, what's at your core, what it is that you really want. You don't need the Ferrari
00:16:29.620
to feel that. And I think that's what you're saying. I want to take a step back real quick,
00:16:33.580
because you talk about the reptilian and the mammalian brain having a need for certain things
00:16:38.940
before you're able to think on this deeper level. What are some of the things that you've experienced or
00:16:44.340
that you talk about that both the reptilian and the mammalian brain need in order for you to move
00:16:50.480
on to deeper level thinking? So let's break it down. The most primal one is the reptilian brain,
00:16:57.160
right? That's the one that keeps you alive. Right. When you're in full stress, which most people
00:17:02.840
live their day on go, go, go, go, go, it's the same exact feeling for the body as being chased by a tiger,
00:17:10.140
right? You know, let's say you're a caveman, you're being chased by a tiger, your body's saying,
00:17:15.580
well, listen, that thing is a lot bigger. It's got sharp teeth. The likelihood of me beating it is
00:17:20.560
not going to be that great. So let me run. You're out. You're out. Right. So you're trying to,
00:17:26.500
you know, so it's that fight, flight, or freeze. And that's how it usually comes about. And so you have
00:17:33.380
fight, flight, or freeze that really represents that, that reptilian brain. Are you meeting your
00:17:43.080
primary needs, whether nutritionally, are you meeting it? Are you meeting your rest? Are you
00:17:51.540
meeting? So one of the things to go back to the example that I gave of the, of, of the young lady
00:17:56.160
that I, that I, that I, that I was able to eliminate her back pain was, you know, we think
00:18:02.000
about breathing and people talk about, are you breathing correctly? And it sounds kind of like
00:18:06.820
a idiotic statement. If you think about it, it's like, well, I'm not dead. So I must be doing
00:18:10.960
something right. Right, right. You know? And so, yes, you're right. You're not dead, but you're not
00:18:18.820
optimal either. And so when you are not breathing properly, you are not giving the body the proper
00:18:26.840
oxygen, which it kind of downregulates your potential. It downregulates what you're capable
00:18:33.520
of doing. And then it sends signals. Sometimes in this case for her was pain, pain in the lower back,
00:18:40.440
which completely restricted her. Now, when I say that I did not touch her back, I literally did not
00:18:46.520
touch her back. It's most people think, oh, the pain's in the back. You rub her back. You do this,
00:18:50.160
you massage, you manipulate, you do none of that. I just had her breathe. I taught her how to breathe.
00:18:59.700
And then that was it. She got up and she was like, I, like she was, she was actually really,
00:19:06.600
she was, she was in shock and she was afraid for, she goes, what, what is this? Is this like voodoo?
00:19:11.520
Are you, as I know, you know, then I, I tried to explain that part. Right. But again, going back
00:19:18.940
to the reptilian brain, which is, it's a pattern seeking machine. So it can predict what's going to
00:19:26.160
happen or if not threat comes on or it can predict it, but it can't respond to it properly. Those two
00:19:32.820
things cause threat, which activate the reptilian brain. You talked a lot about nutrition. You talk
00:19:38.360
about sleep. How does somebody, how does a man get in the habit of doing those things? Cause I don't
00:19:45.340
think that's new information. I know we, I know most guys know that they need to exercise. We know
00:19:50.300
we need the right amount of sleep. We know we need to eat the right nutrients and put the right fuel in
00:19:54.920
our body, but we're just not doing it. Right. And so how do we get in the habits and your experience
00:20:00.800
of, of meeting those needs that the body and the mind has? Remember we talked about whether
00:20:06.300
something is logical or not. Right. You have them for like, the information is not new.
00:20:11.820
The information is not complicated. Nobody's confused that eating fries and chicken tenders
00:20:18.720
is healthier than eating fruits and vegetables. Like nobody thinks that no, nobody's ever confused
00:20:24.620
by that. Exactly. Right. But why do people choose one versus the other one? They know, like everyone
00:20:31.900
knows this part of that is, are you being congruent? And so what is stopping you from taking that action?
00:20:40.320
And part of this is something that most people don't talk about, which is a simple formula for
00:20:48.660
transformation. And it's this simple plus fun equals transformation. Easy. So think about how
00:20:57.340
nutrition has always been put to most people. It's always a chore. It's always something that makes
00:21:04.280
you suffer. Oh, I have to choose the salad while I'm watching everybody eat a pizza.
00:21:11.360
Right. So it's not that you always eat the pizza, but what is the value that the pizza bring? Or what is
00:21:18.800
the value that the salad brings at this point for what you truly want? And so what's more important for
00:21:25.180
you? And it's not about the pizza or the salad, but who you are when you're there. There's actually
00:21:31.340
a lot of studies on that that are even more important is who you are when you're eating is
00:21:36.800
probably more powerful than what you're eating. Because that's what allows you to stay and continue
00:21:41.380
on that path that you know is the right thing to do. Is that why? That's one. That's one. But
00:21:47.180
actually chemically, you start changing. Have you, I'll give you a perfect example. That person who is
00:21:52.900
very, very stress-free and they're like, you know, if they're going to eat something,
00:21:58.020
they'll eat it and they'll just move on and they'll keep going. And then you find that other
00:22:00.980
person, like women are a lot worse at this than men. Not that men aren't, but like you'll have these
00:22:07.920
people that these women that'll be like intensely, intensely stressed out about everything they put in
00:22:13.760
their mouth. And so it puts their body in that survival mode. They cannot thrive versus that
00:22:21.080
person that is just, okay, just roll with the punches. Okay, great. I'm going to have a pizza
00:22:25.900
today. Wonderful. Tomorrow I just get, you know, I just keep going. That's it. You know, it's just a
00:22:30.620
pizza. It's not the end of the world. So that's chemically, it puts you in a better state, but also
00:22:36.780
now you're more likely to stick with it at that point.
00:22:41.020
Okay. So we talk about the reptilian brain. How about the mammalian brain?
00:22:45.160
Ah, here's one for men. This is where, where the, the, the true men come out. I've, I bet you've
00:22:51.980
heard the saying, I don't care what people think about me. Of course. Right. You know, I'm my own
00:22:58.640
man. I, you know, I do what I want whenever I want. I don't, I don't care what people say,
00:23:03.480
but it's funny because those same men and women too, but in this case, let's say those same men
00:23:09.740
never say that. If somebody says, Hey, you did a great job today, or that was an awesome
00:23:14.660
presentation you just did. That's a good point. They never say, no, no, no, no, no. Don't tell
00:23:18.740
me that. I don't care what you think. Like nobody ever says that. So. Right. Yeah. That's a good
00:23:23.680
point. Why does, why is this important? What, what does this have to do with mammalian brain?
00:23:27.980
The mammalian brain is set in hierarchy, especially in men. And it's set in, um, what is the word
00:23:38.900
I'm looking for? Uh, community. So we are not solitary creatures as much as people would like
00:23:45.300
to believe that we can be independent. The human species depends on being with other humans.
00:23:53.060
Are there outliers? Yes. I would venture to say that even those that have lived in seclusion have
00:24:00.220
a lot of deficiencies, let's just say, except, you know, it's one of those things. Nobody sees it.
00:24:06.380
You're by yourself. Right. Yeah. Good. Yeah. But we are made to be social. We are social creatures.
00:24:13.880
And that is part of the mammalian brain is that we need other people around us. Now,
00:24:20.360
not what everybody says needs to be important in our life. Right. Just because, you know,
00:24:27.560
somebody that you don't know, all of a sudden puts a post on your video that you took all this time
00:24:32.620
and you know, that is authentic and, and, um, congruent with the message you want to share with
00:24:38.400
men in the world for, you know, for your podcast and the videos that you put out. Um, and they put
00:24:44.000
something that, you know, whatever, uh, a bad comment on there. Do you, do you, can you read it
00:24:49.700
and say, okay, yeah, you know what, maybe that's his opinion. That's fine. But do you now have to
00:24:53.980
change everything because that one guy doesn't like it? No. As long as you are still in alignment
00:24:59.800
with what your purpose and what you are doing and what the message that you want to give, then you
00:25:07.660
need to surround yourself with the people that, that are going to best serve you, not the people
00:25:12.120
that are going to detract from that. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, it does. And it sounds
00:25:16.300
like you're talking a lot about self-reflection and trying to really understand what it is that's
00:25:21.440
important to you and getting to your core. And we had a podcast, we've had several podcasts that talk
00:25:25.980
about trying, trying to find your true core. What would you say to men who understand that that's
00:25:32.140
important and they want to find their core and they want to find what's valuable to them, but maybe
00:25:36.100
don't have, or aren't going to take the opportunity to go, uh, across the globe for 10
00:25:42.020
days. How can you get that same retreat or that same understanding or reflection without having
00:25:50.180
to necessarily go across the, the, the world? Okay. Well, I mean, I'm the simple, the simple
00:25:57.040
answer to that is, I mean, it's, that's, that's basically what I dedicate myself to, right? I mean,
00:26:02.900
that's what the rich man experience is about, but even apart from a retreat is the more clear you can be
00:26:10.200
on your values. Now, when we talk about values, it's important to define what values are,
00:26:16.740
right? Because I've heard people throw around the word values and, and sometimes people don't get it.
00:26:22.420
It's very out there. You know, people have done exercises to, to, to work on their values and then
00:26:29.460
they put them away and they, they're really not useful. And so rich for the rich man experience
00:26:36.880
is a guiding value proposition. Okay. It's one that if you don't know where yours is right now,
00:26:44.980
it's a good one to start with. And so when we do our three day retreats, we start with that,
00:26:50.480
which is, it stands for the rich stands for R is respected. I is inspired. C is connected and H
00:27:00.520
is happy. So it's an acronym respected, inspired, connected, and happy, right? I have my own
00:27:06.840
personal ones, but that's, those are the ones from, for the rich man experience that have served
00:27:12.380
men like as a starting out point. When we go and do our 10 day retreat or seven day retreat in Costa
00:27:18.840
Rica, we actually dive into each person's individual ones and have them search for it there. But,
00:27:25.520
but why don't you start with those? Like you don't have to attend anything. Just know what
00:27:30.600
those are. So what is respected? What is inspired? What is connected? What is happy? So respected is
00:27:36.760
how can you show up as respected? Think about a person you respect. What, what are some of the
00:27:43.200
attributes that you attribute to somebody who's respected? I think somebody who's disciplined to
00:27:49.060
something, who has some passion for something, who's dedicated to something, I think has respect for
00:27:54.860
other people is a big one. Those are some of the things I think of. Right. Right. And so again,
00:28:01.400
part of this is giving each one of these words, you're very, to make it powerful, redefining what
00:28:08.000
each one of these means, but you're right on the money with that. Like nobody is confused about when
00:28:13.580
I say respected, what that means. And so now all of a sudden is, am I showing up as that today in the
00:28:21.360
way I'm speaking to you and the way I interact with my wife and the way I interact with the cashier
00:28:25.980
and the way I interact with my kids? Am I showing up as respected? That's number one. Number two is
00:28:32.100
inspired. Inspired is an interesting word because most people are constantly talking about not being
00:28:40.280
motivated. Right. But motivated is usually something that people are trying to be forced to do. In other
00:28:48.020
words, it's something that you don't really want to do that. You think that perhaps you should be
00:28:52.400
doing, but it's not something that you really want to do. So it's more of a should game than a,
00:28:58.020
than a want game. And so inspiration means to be spilled, to be filled with the spirit. So it's
00:29:05.880
coming from the inside out, meaning you are coming from the inside and projecting this out. So where is
00:29:13.380
your inspiration? Are you operating out of inspiration or are you operating under somebody
00:29:20.980
else's definitions right now? It's an, I think that's, that's such a good one because I think
00:29:26.940
we tend to believe that, you know, we have to provide or we have to put food on the table. And
00:29:32.840
so we ended up, we ended up taking these jobs or these careers where maybe we can provide the income
00:29:37.400
except for we're not inspired like you're talking about. And what's incredible is that at this day
00:29:43.660
and age that you can find out what your inspiration is. You can, you can get to that and you can make a
00:29:50.800
career, you can make a living, you can provide for your family doing what it is that you're inspired to
00:29:55.340
do. Right. I agree. I agree. And by the way, can you still be inspired? Can you still show up as
00:30:02.520
inspired doing a job that is not inspirational? And the answer to that is yes. Yeah. I believe
00:30:08.960
that you can too. Absolutely. Because it's a state of being. It's not a destination, right? Oh,
00:30:16.180
I will be inspired when I do this. No, it's a state of being. Are you coming from a place of inspiration?
00:30:22.920
Are you handling this opportunity from a place of inspiration? Right. Makes sense. And then connected,
00:30:30.060
right? So what is connected? Connected, you know, to be joined together, to be in the proper frequency
00:30:38.220
with another person. I think one of my, my mentor and coach, he, he shared an analogy that I thought
00:30:47.700
was just so, so powerful, which was said, he goes, if you have a message that you want to get to the
00:30:55.260
world, you can scream it and nobody except the people right next to you will hear it, but you
00:31:01.780
can whisper it over the right frequency. Meaning like if you were on the frequency of the, of a
00:31:07.040
radio wave, like if you would think of it like a radio, you can scream it over, you know, the radio
00:31:12.500
dial 99.1 and nobody's listening to that. Or you can whisper it at 100.7 on the dial. And that's where
00:31:23.440
everybody's at. And now people can hear it. So it's not how loud you yell, but are you in the
00:31:28.740
right frequency for that message? Are you connected with the people around you? Are you connected with
00:31:35.020
your purpose? Are you connected with what you want? Are you connected with the tasks that you're doing?
00:31:40.800
So that's how you can, it becomes that feedback mechanism to say, you know, is, am I connected?
00:31:47.360
And the final one is happy, right? So happy. I mean, it's, it's pretty straightforward. First of all,
00:31:53.040
what does happy mean to you? And how can you show up with that grace? How can you show up with that
00:31:59.240
light? How can you show up with that fulfillment with each task, which is with each relationship.
00:32:06.860
And so those provide respected, inspired, connected, and happy, at least a start. If you have nowhere to
00:32:13.280
start, and you don't have all the time in the world, at this point, or, you know, at this point,
00:32:18.580
you haven't been able to make that time for you, this is a good place to start.
00:32:23.320
What, so I want to go back, because we talked about growth, and we talked about men and personal
00:32:28.780
growth. What are some steps that men can take to grow that can grow personally? And what are some of
00:32:34.760
the things maybe even that you're doing that you can share with us on how we're able to grow more?
00:32:38.580
I'll tell you one of the, one of the habits that I have found very powerful for me is a daily journal.
00:32:45.660
Now, I heard that all my life, and I totally was not into it. But what made this different
00:32:52.940
was the simplicity of it. It's right next to my nightstand. And I do, I write six things. It's
00:33:00.780
my three wins for the day, and then three intentions for tomorrow. That's it. And so what that does is,
00:33:08.580
it celebrates your wins today, and it projects to what you want for tomorrow. And that's the last
00:33:16.360
thing you do before you go to bed. And so all of a sudden, now you're going to bed, and your
00:33:21.080
subconscious is absorbing what you just put in. And I can honestly tell you, I've been doing it already
00:33:27.340
for 105 days. I know, because I write the amount of days that I've gone through, and I haven't missed
00:33:34.980
a day. That's why it's really been that powerful for me. Like, I haven't missed a day. And I will
00:33:42.240
tell you that it's, some days it's a struggle, because, you know, I've been busy, but I don't
00:33:48.100
really feel like I did anything productive. And so sometimes I'm like, okay, well, what can I count
00:33:54.600
as a win? And sometimes it's like, hey, you know what? I really appreciated a smile that my daughter
00:34:02.540
gave me. Like, that was one of them, like, a few days back. Like, there was nothing business-wise
00:34:08.120
that I could say, wow, this was awesome. But personally, I was like, man, to have the perspective
00:34:16.880
of the smile that she just gave me, and what that actually meant. And then to have the consciousness
00:34:24.360
to be able to, like, think about that and say, wow, that was just such a beautiful smile, and an
00:34:30.240
innocent smile, and something that I will treasure forever is a win, because I was still enough to be
00:34:37.220
able to appreciate it. So to me, that was a win. Right? Yeah, you were present enough to be there and
00:34:41.700
to witness that and to be able to appreciate it. That's awesome. Right. So I mean, that, that's,
00:34:45.720
that to me is a, is a great one. Any other habits that you would suggest that we, we take advantage
00:34:51.020
of to grow personally? Again, simple plus fun equals transformation. So exercise is an important
00:34:58.540
part for me, but movement, you know, what are you, what are the things that make you excited? What are
00:35:03.540
the things that movement-wise that will inspire you? People, not everybody likes going to the gym.
00:35:10.140
I don't like it. I like running. I like going out for hikes. I like being out in nature. So
00:35:14.280
sometimes, you know, if I'm injured, or if I'm just tired, going out for a walk, and just being
00:35:22.280
present with that for even if it's 10 minutes, is a win for me. And creating the habit of spending that
00:35:28.680
time for yourself, even if it's 10 minutes, I always share 10 minutes as a minimum, because the
00:35:35.240
hardest part is starting. And everybody has time for 10 minutes. If you don't, then you need to really
00:35:40.500
reassess. Right. Yeah. Well, I saw you've got some big goals for running in the next, I think,
00:35:47.940
in the next five years. What are some of the goals that you have? I'm really curious about those big
00:35:51.980
goals that you have. I would like, I would really like to run the Western States 100, which is
00:35:59.060
basically 100 miles that, that crosses through California. Right? Yeah, intense. Yeah. And,
00:36:05.920
but I mean, this year, as kind of a challenge, a physical challenge on a, on a quarterly basis,
00:36:12.420
I just go out for a six hour run, nothing where I have to pay anything, I have a park next to me.
00:36:18.440
And I run a one mile loop for six hours. And you know, I invite people and, you know, it's been,
00:36:23.740
you know, I did it, the first time I did it was on the first of this year. And people were obviously
00:36:29.420
crazy. They're like, well, you're crazy. You couldn't wait until, you know, the next day or
00:36:34.660
everybody's partying. And I'm like, no, I want to do it. I want to start the year off with a bang.
00:36:41.740
Right? Like I, I, I want to provide a physical manifestation of going through a hardship,
00:36:49.740
a physical hardship and going through it so that the rest of the quarter, the rest of the year
00:36:55.060
feels easier. Like I've experienced it physically. What was your distance in that time?
00:37:00.500
Uh, I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't fast at all. I mean, I was, I think I did like 35 miles.
00:37:05.200
Yeah. Wow. So it wasn't that I was blazing, you know, I give you my son who's six ended up running
00:37:13.100
like, which ends up being like, it ended up being like a 12 minute pace or something like that. 12,
00:37:17.100
12, 12 and a half minute pace. But my son who is a, uh, you know, he's six years old.
00:37:24.180
He joined me for, for the mile and he brought the pace down to nine and a half minutes and he's only
00:37:29.200
six. And at that point, my legs were cramping and everything. And I had to muster everything that I
00:37:35.780
could just to keep up with him. And people are like, Oh, you know, just let him go. I'm like,
00:37:40.900
I cannot miss this opportunity that my son who's six years old wants to run. And I'm going to muster
00:37:48.380
everything that I can just to be with him. And let me tell you, those were the hardest miles from
00:37:53.520
the pain perspective, but they were the most exhilarating miles, even though I had such a
00:38:00.660
tough time to keep up with him at that point. You know, that's, what's so incredible to me is that
00:38:05.580
you can go through hardship and you can go through pain and all of these things, whether it's
00:38:10.140
physically or emotionally. And as long as you're continuing to push through it and you don't give
00:38:15.740
in and you don't give up how rewarding and how much satisfaction comes from pushing through that
00:38:23.620
trial or that obstacle. I do some Spartan races and I feel the same way. I just remember the end of
00:38:28.620
the last run was miserable. My legs were cramping up. I couldn't barely walk. And, uh, you know,
00:38:36.160
to finish, it was so exciting because I overcame something that was really, really difficult.
00:38:41.480
Right. That's wonderful. Awesome. Armando, I just have a couple more questions for you running down
00:38:46.280
on time. The first question I have is what do you feel like it means to be a man?
00:38:51.500
My definition of a man is, this is my personal one, is, is a provider, is, uh, a leader. A man is
00:39:02.360
a, um, a supporter and someone who can love, uh, a person who can love himself and a person who,
00:39:09.960
who can love others genuinely. Great definition. Thank you for sharing. And then the last question,
00:39:16.420
if someone has enjoyed this interview, wants to get in touch with you, wants to learn more about the
00:39:19.900
rich man experience and all the things that you have going on, what's the best way to connect with
00:39:23.320
you, Armando? Uh, they can go straight to the website, which is richmanexperience.com.
00:39:30.400
And they can also connect with me on Twitter, uh, Armando, A-R-M-A-N-D-O underscore cruise.
00:39:38.980
And, uh, you know, we can chat accordingly. Awesome. I appreciate the insights. I appreciate
00:39:44.420
you being on the show and taking your time today. Thanks for joining with us. Thank you so much,
00:39:47.820
trying. Man. Thanks again for joining us today. Hopefully you're walking away with some strategies
00:39:52.440
and some insights on how to get more clear about who you are, where you want to be and how you can
00:39:57.900
get there. As always, guys, I ask that you leave us a rating and review for the show. If you've enjoyed
00:40:02.240
the show, if you've gained any bit of information from this or our previous 13 shows, uh, right now
00:40:07.240
we've got 88 reviews for the show and I'm trying to crack 100 within the next week. So I need 12
00:40:12.260
ratings and reviews. If you can head over to order of men.com slash iTunes, leave us a review there.
00:40:18.520
Let us know what you think of the show. That support means a lot to me. And then also of course helps
00:40:23.000
get the visibility out for the podcast and helps other men like yourself, uh, get to know this
00:40:27.680
information. Of course, that's what we're trying to do here with order of men is build a community
00:40:30.880
of men who are like-minded and who want to succeed in life. Uh, now next week I want to give you the
00:40:35.620
heads up. We have got a show all about barbecue. I had a good interview with a barbecue expert.
00:40:41.020
So summer's officially here and what better time than to get out with the guys, cook and eat some
00:40:47.120
meat. So be sure to subscribe to this show on iTunes.com slash order of man, if you haven't
00:40:52.620
done so already. And that way you did not miss next week's show all about grilling and barbecue
00:40:57.800
guys. I look forward to talking with you next week, but until then take action and become the
00:41:02.140
man you were meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take
00:41:07.940
charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order