The Masculinity Manifesto | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES
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Summary
The Masculinity Manifesto is now available for purchase on Amazon! In this episode, Ryan talks about what the book is all about and how you can be a man of action. He also talks about why we need more men in this fight.
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 Mickler.
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I'm the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here. Welcome
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back. I am grateful that you're here, whether you've been with us for this is your first episode
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or you've listened to nearly a thousand episodes at this point. I'm still grateful that you're
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here and we need more men in this fight. We really, really do. I was talking with my wife
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the other day about how I've just generally seen a decline in people's happiness, people's
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fulfillment, people's joy, people's purpose and direction. I think a large part of that
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stems from not having strong, bold, courageous, capable men leading from the front, doing what
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it needs to do, doing what needs to be done, and then helping the people in our lives do
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the same. Today, I'm actually starting with our main event, which is our big annual event
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we do each and every year, but I wanted to get this podcast to you. Specifically, I want
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to talk with you about something I've alluded to over the past several months now, and that
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is that my new book, The Masculinity Manifesto. There it is right there if you can see it.
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The Masculinity Manifesto, How a Man Establishes Influence, Credibility, and Authority is now available.
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So I thought what I'd do today is just give you a quick 30,000 foot view of what the book
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is about. And in the meantime, ask for your support by picking up a copy, by leaving a verified
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review on Amazon. That goes a long way in making sure that other people see what this work is all
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about. I get a lot of messages from guys who are wondering how they can share this message,
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or they can help a brother or a father or a cousin or whoever it might be. And one way to do that is
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by picking up a copy of the book. And I'll go so far as to say, not just giving them a book,
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because sometimes that can be overwhelming, but actually read it yourself.
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And what I would suggest that you do is get some post-it notes and find sections that are
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meaningful and significant to you, or you think would resonate with the guy that you're trying
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to serve. And just put a little post-it note on that section or that page, or multiple post-it notes
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if there's multiple sections or stories or anecdotes in the book that you think could serve somebody
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else. So that said, yes, that's my ask and my request from you. But also I think this book is
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going to help you. As I was reading it, doing the audio version, and there is an audio version
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available now, I couldn't help but read it and be a little discouraged because there were elements of
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the book that I thought to myself, man, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that. I'm not great in this
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department. I need help here. And so the first thing I want to say is that I am not the epitome of what
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I'm talking about because I have a very, very long way to go. I have so much further to go and I mess
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up so often and I screw up and I'm trying to realize where those inadequacies and shortcomings
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and all of the past, maybe even baggage or trauma that I haven't dealt with, these types of things
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that stem into other issues of my life, I couldn't help but think that I'm the biggest recipient of
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that this book was written for me. And if it was written for me, then I think it's probably
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written for you too. Because I can't tell you how many times I hear from guys who are saying,
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man, you're telling my life story. Guys, we're all in the same boat. We have some little variances
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and maybe we work different places or we live in different areas, but we're all dealing with the
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same issues, the same struggles, the same past events that we're trying to work through,
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the same struggles currently. So hopefully this will serve. All right, let's get to it.
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I broke it down a little bit. I'm not going to disclose everything in the book, obviously,
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because for the sake of time, but if you like what you hear, again, pick up a copy.
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So the first thing I talk about is really what makes a man, a man. Now in society, there's this
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thing. And I hear from a lot of people that say, well, if you have the right anatomy,
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then you're a man. And that just isn't true. And why isn't that true? Well, I have three sons.
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I also have a daughter, but let's take my three boys. We don't call them men. They're young.
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They're still boys. We don't even expect them to be men. Now they have the right anatomy,
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right? That's what makes them male, but we don't call them men. Why? Because they haven't
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done certain things or developed certain characteristics or attributes, skill sets,
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virtues that we would generally consider manly. So a male, being a male is a matter of birthright.
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You're a male. Contrary to popular belief, you're either a male or a female. Yes, I know there's
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the 0.001 outliers of that, but we are binary, male or female. And outliers don't disprove the
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norm that we are binary creatures. So being born a male is a birthright, but being a man is so much
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more than that. And so in the very first part of the book, I talk about what makes a man, a man.
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And then we break it down into the archetypes. I've been talking about this for years,
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protect, provide, preside. That's what makes a male, a man, his ability to protect himself,
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his loved ones and others provide for again, himself, others and loved ones and preside or
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lead himself, his loved ones and others. Now, when a boy becomes a man, he is capable,
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or at least he's on the path of doing those things. It isn't like you do those for 10,
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20, 30 years, and you mess up along the way. And you will just like I do that. You lose that
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quote unquote man card. If you're on the path and you're working to improve yourself, then you are
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acting manly, or you are being a man. It's really important that we understand this,
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even though people get it messed up all the time. Well, you know, if you got a dick and balls,
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you're a man. No, that isn't true. Okay. You're a male. Yes. But it's really important that we
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understand that being a man is earned. It's something that we have to go above and beyond.
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We have to do more, be more, become more, serve more, help more, and really step into these
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archetypes of manliness. From there, guys, I get into the mindsets of masculine leadership.
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It's important that we learn how to lead as men. It's important that we can control our emotions.
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It's important that we understand what our proper role in the leadership capacity is.
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And in the book, I break down four key masculine leadership traits or characteristics. One is
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leading before the title. You don't need the title in order to lead. In fact, you should be leading
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before you get the title and the title comes. That's part of the influence, authority, and
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credibility, specifically authority. Another one is don't be a superhero. Another one is rendering
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yourself obsolete. These are masculine leadership traits and qualities that not many people are talking
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about that we can incorporate and live by in our lives. And we can more adequately serve ourselves,
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serve our loved ones, and serve other people that we have some sort of obligation and responsibility
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for. My background is in financial services. I was a fiduciary. And so part of my responsibility
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was not just to create plans, investment strategies, and plans that were suitable for people,
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but that were in their best interest of fiduciary. And it's our job as men to act in a similar capacity,
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to make ourselves strong, to make ourselves capable, to serve, to lead, to help, to inspire,
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to motivate, to push, to pull, to do whatever we need to do in order to serve in other people's
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best interest. And that's a burden at times. It's heavy. It's lonely. It's frustrating.
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And it causes us at times to falter under the weight. Imagine throwing a barbell on your back,
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two, 300 pounds of weight on your back and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking.
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At some point, you're going to get tired. It's a burden to carry that. And so we need to be able
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to have the outlets to be able to help us continue to carry that burden with honor. So that's the
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mindsets of masculine leadership. And then the main meat of the book is harnessing masculinity for
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productive outcomes. So let me make sure I get this right, because sometimes people think I'm
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conflating terms, masculinity and manliness. Those are two different things. And we need to
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understand that. Now we can get tripped up in semantics and we can debate and we can argue,
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but the principle is this. And I'm using the terms again, masculinity and manliness. If you
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interchange these terms, I don't care. The principle is what I'm getting at. Okay.
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Masculinity is nothing more than a set of characteristics, traits, and attributes that
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we attribute to men because of our biological makeup, primarily our hormones in utero and even
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into puberty. And later on in life, testosterone, namely being, being the, uh, the biggest factor.
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Okay. So masculinity that could be determined by a propensity for violence, aggression, dominance,
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stoicism, these are vigilance. These are the types of things that I think a lot of society look at
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and deem as negative or destructive or dangerous or quote unquote toxic, but they're not toxic.
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So that's one camp. One camp says that masculinity, dominance, stoicism, aggression, violence,
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vigilance, these types of things are toxic. So we have to undermine them. We have to dig away. We
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have to root these things out of society. They are no longer needed. We are civilized. And that is
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something that we don't need anymore. That's one side. That's one camp. The other camp says, well,
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no, masculinity is inherently positive dominance, aggression, stoicism, competitiveness, et cetera,
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et cetera, inherently positive. Well, that isn't true either. Let's take violence. I think we can
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all agree if we're being logical about it, that men have a greater propensity for violence than women,
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right? That's, that's not even open for debate. That is what it is. We have a greater propensity for
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violence than women do. If we're using that violence to get ahead at the expense of other people,
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we would all agree, except for the psychopaths, that that is not an effective use of masculine
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characteristics. So masculinity is not inherently toxic, but also it's not inherently positive.
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It just is. Again, it's a set of characteristics, behaviors, and virtues or attributes that we
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generally link with men because of their biological makeup. It's amoral. It's how we use it that matters.
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And so manliness is the ability to take our masculinity, those attributes I just described
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in more and harness them for productive outcomes for ourselves and other people. And we get this
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wrong a lot. All of us do. Anger is one I deal with. Impatience, you know, where I use my desire to
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control or dominate to, uh, get people to do what I want to control them, uh, to manipulate, right?
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That's not an effective use of it, but what is effective is making sure that we're using it so
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we can produce positive outcomes for the people in our lives. And that's what I talk about as a main
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subject of this book is harnessing those masculine characteristics like violence, vigilance, dominance,
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stoicism, aggression, honesty, self-respect, where we can use these things and we can use them to
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serve ourselves and other people effectively. That's the meat of the book because we all experience
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it. We all have it and we've all used it for negative outcomes and we've all used it for positive
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outcomes. I'm going to show you how to harness it more effectively for more and more positive than
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negative. And guys, the last thing I talk about is living like a man. How do we then take all
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this information and act? Because aren't we defined by what we do? We're not defined by what
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we think. We're not defined by our intentions. We're defined by our actions, what we do, how we
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perform, how we show up, how we make people feel, uh, what, what, what we produce, what results that we
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get. So living like a man is not just reading this book. Although reading is important, gaining new
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information is important, but we must turn it into wisdom, which is applied information.
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The more that we can turn this information into wisdom, which is practical application,
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the more manly we are becoming. So guys, if you want, admittedly, I'm biased, obviously it's my
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book, but if you want a book or a subject or, or, or information on how to make yourself a more
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capable, stronger, bold, courageous, assertive leader with influence and credibility and authority
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in the eyes of the people you love and even complete strangers, whether that's your family,
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your friends, colleagues, coworkers, neighbors, people on PTA, uh, coaches, employees, et cetera,
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et cetera. Then the masculinity manifesto will hopefully be that sort of resource for you.
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That's it. That's what I wanted to share with you guys today. Again, admittedly a little bit
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self-serving, but also not entirely because the words in this book, I believe are going to serve
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you because if I didn't believe that I wouldn't have spent all the time and energy writing this
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book. So if you would, again, please pick up a copy of the masculinity manifesto, how a man
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establishes influence, credibility, and authority. Amazon is probably best. We're going to have some
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signed copies here in the next several days or weeks, uh, on my website with some added little
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bonuses. So that's coming. Uh, and then leave the review. That's a big deal. Leave the review on
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Amazon. Let people know what you thought about the book, because that's what helps us get it out to
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more people. And you know, as well as I do this message of reclaiming, restoring masculinity needs
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to go to the masses. All right, guys, that's all I've got for you. I'll be back next week until then
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go out there, take action, pick up that copy of the masculinity manifesto and become the man you are
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meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life
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and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.