Order of Man - OoM 014： Creating a R.I.C.H. Experience with Armando Cruz

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.

00:10:53.280 What do you mean by that?

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, 0.89

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 0.92

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 1.00

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 0.91

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 1.00

00:22:07.920 people that these women that'll be like intensely, intensely stressed out about everything they put in 0.94

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 0.62

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 1.00

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

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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

00:41:12.580 of man.com.

Order of Man - June 23, 2015

OoM 014： Creating a R.I.C.H. Experience with Armando Cruz

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