The Importance and Power of Investing in Yourself ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
This Friday Field Notes episode is an audio version of a video I recorded a week and a half ago. In this episode, I talk about the importance of investing in yourself, taking risks, and being bold in your life. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler,
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and I am the host and founder of this podcast and the Order of Man movement. I want to welcome you
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today. This is your Friday Field Notes. Now, this one's a little bit different because
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I decided to make the audio version of a video that I recorded about a week and a half ago
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available via this podcast. So this is something that maybe some of you have heard if you're
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following me on the socials or on YouTube. But if not, this was a message that I think is probably
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one of, if not the single most important message that I have shared regarding being successful,
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investing in yourself, taking care of yourself, and making yourself ultimately the success that
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you're after. So the audio is a little bit off because I think I was recording it either on my
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walk or in my truck. But regardless, I think you're going to enjoy. So before I get into that,
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I just want to give you two resources for you to invest in yourself. Number one is our free course.
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So all you'll need to invest is not money, but time and commitment and energy. You can check that
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out at orderofman.com slash battle ready. You're going to get a series of emails over 30 days that
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are going to get you equipped to make the next quarter a success for yourself. And then the other
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investment I'd have you consider is the iron council. This is an exclusive brotherhood of men
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banded together. Over 600 members now are all working to improve themselves as fathers, husbands,
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leaders in their communities, business owners, employees, mentors, whatever facet of life they're
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showing up. So you can check that out at orderofman.com slash iron council. All right, guys,
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here's the recording from about a week and a half ago. I hope you enjoy.
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Gents, what's up? I hope all's well this afternoon or this morning, whatever time it is for you.
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Uh, I've got an interesting little lesson I wanted to share with you today. I'll wait for a couple of
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guys to jump on, but what I'm going to talk with you about is learning to invest in yourself,
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taking some risks, being bold. I know it's scary. I know it's hard to invest in yourself. I know
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everybody's financial situation is very different. Uh, and some of us are in the position to be able
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to invest in ourselves fully and as much as we'd like. And others just aren't quite there yet.
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And, and I've been on both sides of the spectrum. I've been in points in my life where I was worried
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about making the mortgage payment. I was worried about spending too much on groceries or putting
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gas in the, in the tank. These were things I was worried about at one point in my life.
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Uh, and then I've been on the opposite side of the spectrum where, you know, I don't have to worry
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about making those kinds of investments to, to my future self. So this isn't a, um, this isn't a
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rebuke to anybody, what I'm going to share with you. Uh, it isn't a judgment. Like I said, I know
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we're all in different, different financial situations. I just want you to wrap your heads
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around something for a minute. Okay. And, uh, I had somebody reach out and I'm just going to be
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general with this cause I'm, I'm not calling this individual out. I'm just using it as a learning
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opportunity to teach you what it is that I learned years ago that has drastically and radically
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improved my life. So I had this individual reach out and, uh, they're, they're struggling somewhat
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in launching their business. Uh, they've seen what we've been able to do with order of man.
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They're inspired by what we're doing. They want to build something similar in their own space to
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what we're doing. And he wanted to talk with me about potentially coaching him. And so we talked
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and I said, okay, well tell me what you want and why do you think I can do it? What have you tried
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in the past? And I went through a series of questions with him because I don't, I don't want to just
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rush into it and say, okay, just pay me X amount of dollars and I'll do whatever you want me to do.
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Like, I want to know, is this something I can actually help you with? So to this gentleman's
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credit, uh, he was very specific. Like he knew exactly what he wanted, which was actually very
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rare. It's not something I get a whole lot. He knew exactly what he wanted. He was crystal clear
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on his goals. Um, I asked him why he hadn't had success in the past. And he, he told me why that
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was the case. And we just had a back and forth, a good back and forth. And, and I said, all right,
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well, you know, if we, if, if you want to work together on a one-to-one basis, let's do that.
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I'm on board. Let's do it. And he said, well, it depends on the cost and, and to see if I can
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swing it right now, which again, I can completely appreciate. I've been there. I've been in situations
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where it's like, I got to worry about pinching pennies. So it's, it's a factor. It's something
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to consider. So I told him what it would cost. And I said, all right, well, well, here's your
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investment. This is what it's going to take for you to invest for the year. And, uh, here's where
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we're at. I got an email this morning from him and he declined. Now, again, this is not a rebuke
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to this individual. In fact, I, I, I hold this inner, this individual in high regard. I think
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highly of him. I respect him. He's not in a position to invest that, that type of money
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right now. I can understand that. I can appreciate that. But guys, what I want you to know is
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that at some point you're going to have to invest in yourself. That could be a five figure
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investment. Like I was asking this gentleman to make, it could be investing in a little
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bit of time and going to pick up a library card and figuring out how to get some free books
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to the library. It could be taking a $500 course. Uh, it could be signing up for the iron council,
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for example, depending on your financial situation. But here's what I will tell you.
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It's always in your best interest to invest a little bit more than maybe you're comfortable
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with. Consider that for a second. It's always in your best interest to invest a little bit
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more than you're currently comfortable with because here's the trap. Okay. The trap is
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that you only invest the amount that you're comfortable with and you sell yourself short
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or at best maintain the current status of where you are. Like we all know the adage, you get what
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you pay for. And sometimes that's true and sometimes it isn't. But I think generally it's true.
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So if you, if you get only what you pay for, then if you're only willing to invest the bare minimum,
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you're either going to stay exactly where you are or you're going to get inferior training.
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Like anything in life, there has to be an element of risk. So when it comes to investing in yourself,
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you have to be willing to spend a little bit more than you're comfortable with. I'm not telling you to
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be reckless. I'm not telling you to take out a loan on your house. I'm just saying invest a little bit
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more than you're comfortable with because that represents not only a risk, I get that, but it
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represents a potential reward. And if you're not willing to invest just a little bit more than you're
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comfortable with, you're going to maintain where you currently are. So I'll share with you my personal
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personal experience into the world of investing, not in the stock market, not in real estate. I've
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done both, but into the world of investing in myself. Six years ago, maybe seven, I reached out
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to a gentleman. His name is Jeff Rose. You guys can look him up. He runs an organization called Good
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Financial Sense. He's a financial advisor. I think very highly of Jeff. He was instrumental in helping me
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launch some digital assets with my financial planning practice at the time, which has now
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morphed and transformed into what we're doing here with Order of Man. So I reach out to this guy,
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Jeff, and I said, Hey, Jeff, I admire what you're doing. I respect what you're doing.
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I need to get some of your input, some of your advice. And I'd never invested in myself. And he said,
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all right, well, like I can help you out. Here's what it'll cost. And I don't remember what it cost.
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It cost a couple hundred bucks or something. It was, it was looking at it now. It was, it was
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marginal, but at the time it was a lot of money. I was like, man, a couple hundred bucks, two,
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300 bucks. Like, I don't know if I should. And I made the decision to do it. And it immediately
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and instantaneously paid off. And it not only directly, but indirectly set me on the path to
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make millions of dollars over the past seven, seven years. Guys, you have to be able to invest
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and risk more than you're comfortable with, because if you're not uncomfortable with it,
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then it's not a risk. So I made that investment a couple hundred bucks. Some of you guys think,
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well, that's not a big deal. Some of you guys are thinking that's a, that's a big deal.
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A couple hundred bucks, man. That that's like food. I can't put on the table for a week.
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Again, this is not a rebuke or a judgment against any of that or your financial situation.
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It's all relative. So I did that, made the investment immediately, instantaneously paid off.
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Then I start working with this organization that, uh, that trains and partners with financial advisors
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and teaches them marketing strategies, gives them tools and resources to build their practice.
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And, and, and, and be successful. And I go to this seminar and it cost a thousand dollars to go to
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the seminar. And again, some of you might be thinking, oh, it's nothing. Some of you might
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be thinking, oh, I don't have a thousand dollars to invest. It's all relative. Please hear me on
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that. It's all relative. So it was a thousand bucks. And I'm like, oh man, a thousand just to go.
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Cause I knew when I went, they're going to try to sell me on spending even more money.
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So I'm like a thousand dollars. I don't know. I don't know. And they offered a money back guarantee.
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And I said, okay, well, because they offer the money back guarantee, I'll give it a try. And I
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took a risk and I spent a thousand dollars. I spent 500 bucks or whatever it was on a plane ticket.
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I spent a thousand dollars on getting to this event and I thought, okay, worst case scenario,
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it's miserable. They gave me my money back and I'm out $500 for the plane ticket and whatever it
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cost me for the hotel. And I think I actually went with somebody and split the cost of a hotel.
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So what, like six, 700 bucks, right? I get there and I'm so impressed with the presentation. I'm so
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impressed with what they're doing. I talk with people who've been through the program and been with
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it for a very long time. I'm like, all right, I'm going to do this. And I, if I remember correctly,
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I spent seven grand guys, I didn't have $7,000 to my name at that point. Okay. I didn't have the
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$7,000. And I remember thinking, shit, I'm, I want to do this, but I'm gonna have to talk with my wife
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about it. How am I going to convince her when we're struggling to make the mortgage payments
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that we should invest $7,000 into hiring this organization to coach me on making more money
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on building my financial planning practice. And frankly, I don't remember how I did it. I just
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went to my wife and fortunately I have one of the most amazing, incredible, supportive
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wives on the planet. And she said, I trust you. She said, I trust you to make the best decision.
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Now, I don't know if she was teeing me up or what, but she trusted me and she said, she trusted me.
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And I said, okay, well, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And I put my money where my mouth was
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for probably the first time in my life, like a serious commitment, which was $7,000. Now,
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some of you, again, I'm going to keep saying this might be saying seven, that's it. Big deal.
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Well, shit. When I was broke, $7,000 was a big deal. So don't tell me it's not a big deal.
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If it's not a big deal to you, congratulations. If it is a big deal to you, I get it. I've been there.
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I've been broke. I literally, this is no joke. I literally wore a path
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in the grass of my backyard in our little 12, 1300 square foot home. Our first home we ever bought
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together. I was in Iraq in 2005. My wife and I decided to buy this home. She did all the planning
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and everything else. And I came back and we had this home. It was a nice little 1300 square foot
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home on a, I want to say like a quarter acre lot. And I literally wore a dirt path in the grass
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because I would pace around in the backyard and fret over how I was going to make the mortgage payment
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and how I was going to pay for diapers for our one-year-old kid at the time. And, and how I was
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going to put food on the table and how I was going to make something out of my life. So I know what it's
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like to be broke as shit and to feel like shit and not have $10 to your name, let alone $7,000 to
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invest in yourself in something that may or may not work out. And then having to try to convince your
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wife that you should do it for her to put it back on you and say, I trust you. So now it's a hundred
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percent up to me because she says, I trust you. And that means a lot. That means more to me than just
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about any other combination of words I could ever hear. I trust you. Oh shit. Now I don't have an
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excuse. Now I don't have a way out. I don't have anything to fall back on. And I was scared.
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I was scared because she said she trusted me. And if I failed, then I let her down and I undermined her
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trust in me as her husband. That's heavy. It should be heavy. If it isn't heavy,
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there's something wrong in your marriage. That was heavy for me. So I did it. I wrote a check
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that I didn't have any money for or who knows where I got it from. Maybe I put it on. I don't
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even know. Maybe I put it on credit. Maybe I wiped out my savings. I don't know what I did,
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but I came up with $7,000. Maybe I landed at a big case at just the right time. And I wrote that
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check for $7,000 and I dropped it in the mail and I immediately regretted it. Immediately. I was like,
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what did I do? I shouldn't have done that. But I went in, I went all in. And you know what?
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It's made seven figures for me in my financial planning practice because I invested in myself.
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I had no reason to believe in myself. All I had was faith. And I'll tell you what,
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I've got a buddy and he can attest to this. In fact, he bought my financial planning practice
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when I sold it about five years ago. Yeah. Five years ago. And I remember having conversations
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with him and he would attest to this. And I remember telling him for years, Greg, man,
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I just feel like I'm meant for something more. I just feel like I'm meant for something more,
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a higher calling, like something more purpose driven. Like I'm just, I'm meant for something
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more. And we would have him and I would have these conversations and I never, I didn't know what it
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was like. And I thought for a long time that it would just, it would just fall into my lap.
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That like it would just, at some point, something would just be presented to me and the clouds
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would part and the sun would shine through and the angels would sing hallelujah. And it would hit me
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like a ton of bricks that this was my calling in life. And unfortunately I realized it doesn't work
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like that. That you don't just have these magical blessings bestowed upon you and you don't trip and
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stumble your way over these types of, of blessings, but that you create them for yourself and you create
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them by taking calculated risks and having some faith in your own work ethic, your own effort,
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and your refusal to quit and give in when things get hard and they will get hard. I was broke.
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I wore those dirt paths into my grass. And yet I believed, I don't know why, but I believed enough
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in myself and those conversations I'd have with Greg about wanting something more, knowing there was
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something more to this. And I made that investment and it paid off. And since then I've invested
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multiple six figures into coaches and courses and traveling and hiring people and lunches and
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anything that I can books, podcasts, court, like anything that I could invest in that I think
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will serve me in some way. I know that whether I'm spending a hundred dollars or a hundred thousand
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dollars, because I believe in myself, not the other company necessarily. And by the way, that's
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important. You want to, you want to hire credible coaches, but I believe enough in myself that if
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I just learned one thing, just one thing that not only will I get my investment back, I will magnify
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it 10, a hundred, a thousand fold. And that initial investment that I made with Jeff Rose, which was
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probably a couple hundred bucks has paid me back a thousand fold. That's $7,000 I paid to belong to
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that coaching group paid back probably a hundred or more fold at this point because it was the right
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coach, because the information was good, because I believed in myself. And over the past five, six,
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seven years, I have worked my ass off in ensuring that I lived up to the words that my wife told me
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and said, I trust you. And now it's not even about her. Here's the interesting thing, guys.
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It's not even about her anymore. What, let me explain what I mean by that.
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I know she trusts me because I have a track record of success. Why would she not trust me?
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I tell her the truth. I honor our commitments. I work my ass off for myself and her and the family.
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She trusts me. I've earned that trust. But you know what? Even greater than that, this is going to
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sound weird. Maybe. Even greater than that, I trust me. I trust myself. So I'm willing to put my money
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where my mouth is because I know, I know, especially if my back's against the wall, that I'm going to
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fight and claw and scrap and do everything I can to ensure that I can not only honor myself, but I can
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honor her as my wife and I can honor my kids by doing what I'm supposed to be doing as a father
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and a husband and the patriarch of our family and the kind of man that I want to be.
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So I know a lot of you guys are in the position right now where you're broke and you're not satisfied
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and you're not happy and you felt like I felt like seven years ago when you're having a conversation
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with your buddy saying to him, I know I'm destined for something more. I know, I know there's something
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more for me. I don't know what it is, but I know it's there. And guys, the only way to figure it out
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is not by some miraculous set of circumstances to trip and stumble over your, your fate.
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It's to create it. It's to take a little bit more risk than you're comfortable with. It's to spend
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a little bit more money. It's to invest a little bit more time. It's to take just a little bit more
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risk. Again, it's all relative. So whether it's $100,000 that you're trying to invest or $100, it's all
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relative, but just a little bit more guys. You'll never, ever, ever unlock what it is you're after
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if all you're willing to invest in yourself is what you feel comfortable investing because you're going
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to shortchange yourself. By its very nature, you unlocking the next level is going to take
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more than what you're currently doing. More money, more time, more energy, more resources,
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more sacrifice, less sleep, less comfort. That's what it's going to take.
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So we went through a lot. If you're just catching this now, go back and listen to it because I think
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it's really powerful. Easy for me to say. But as I started this, I'll start with this,
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this gentleman who reached out. He decided not to take me up on that and that's okay.
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That's okay. I respect that. I know what it's like to be in that situation. He's not in the
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position to do that right now. It's okay. I'll be here when he's ready. I hope it's sooner rather
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than later because I think I can help him. And I know, I said, I think I can help him. I know I can
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help him. In fact, as I was thinking about it last night and I told him how much it would be to invest
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for some coaching, I thought to myself, man, this guy's getting a deal. I know that. I didn't always
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think that. I used to shortchange myself. I didn't believe in myself as much as I do now.
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But I thought to myself, as I asked him to invest five figures in himself, I said,
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I said to myself, I said, he is getting a deal.
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Just invest more than you're comfortable with, guys. Don't be reckless. Don't be stupid. You have
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obligations. You have responsibilities. You got a mortgage to pay. You probably got food,
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kids that you got to put food in their mouths. Don't, don't be reckless. That's not what I'm saying
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here. I'm just saying that if you want to unlock the next step, it's going to take a little bit of
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courage. The only thing I can think of right now is Indiana Jones. I don't even know which one it is
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where he has to step across that, that invisible bridge. It's like a leap of faith. You don't see it now
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because if you saw it, you'd already have it, but you don't get to see it until you make the leap of
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faith. But here's how you can develop that faith. Look to other people who have done it. Guys,
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I'm telling, I've walked the bridge, right? Like I've already walked across the canyon. I'm on the
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other side. I'm safe. I'm on the other side. There's another canyon I got to cross and I got
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to look to other people, but I've already made it. So look to the people that you trust and you
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respect and they will tell you the path to take. They will tell you, guys, look, I know it looks
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like the bridge is not there. I know it looks like you're going to fall into that canyon, but I can
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assure you that the bridge is there. It's there. You don't see it. I see it. I got a different
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perspective. It's there. Please just take one step. That's all I'm telling you guys to do.
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Now, whether it's investing $100 or $100,000, it's just got to be one step more than you've taken
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in the past and it will be returned to you. I promise you. I can assure you, take comfort in
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that. Have faith in that because I've done it because I had to look to other people who had it
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figured out. Like I was on the side that you're on right now and I'm like, there's no freaking bridge
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right here. I'm going to die. I'm going to step over this and I'm going to die. And I looked at
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everybody across on the other side and they said, no, Ryan, there's a bridge. Trust me there. It's
00:24:23.520
there. You can't see it, but it's there. I walked it. Literally, I walked it. It's there. And I said,
00:24:28.300
okay, I trust you. I trust you, which is the words that my wife shared to me. And I took the first
00:24:36.740
step. I'm like, holy shit, it is here. And then I took another step. Oh my, are you serious? It really
00:24:43.040
is here. And another step and another step and another step. And before you know it, I was on
00:24:47.020
the other side. I have more canyons to cross and I will, and I'm going to be scared just like I was
00:24:52.120
five, six, seven years ago. But I've equipped myself with the information and knowledge to look
00:24:59.080
to people who have the answers, who have already walked the path. And as long as they're credible
00:25:04.560
and have authority and I trust those individuals, then I'm just going to do what they say and have
00:25:09.540
faith that it'll work out. All right. So moral of the story after 20 minutes is invest in yourself,
00:25:16.580
guys. Not everything, but just a little bit more than you're comfortable with. And it will be
00:25:22.440
returned to you. All right. I'm out. Catch you guys soon. Thank you for listening to the Order of
00:25:26.920
Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be,
00:25:32.040
we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.