--:-- Ryan Hanley: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. It's election day, and I'm dropping this episode on November 5th, 2024. Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris. So much talk, so much hate, so much back and forth. You said information, misinformation. You're spreading disinformation. You're a communist. You're a Nazi. This has been wild. And Trump getting shot. Democrats kicking Joe Biden out and annoying Kamala Harris, right? Trump being taken out of context. Kamala being taken out of context. He's too old. She's inexperienced. It's been insane and troubling. A lot of tension, a lot of stress. Even if you try not to involve yourself in politics, you really have not been able to escape this election season and the tension that it's created in our country.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And I wanted to use this time with you not to talk about the election because frankly, I don't care who you voted for. In all transparency, I'm voting for Donald Trump. Take that for what it is. Unsubscribe, tell all your friends to subscribe if you love that or if you don't care. I hope you just keep listening because frankly, just because I voted for Trump, I hope if you vote for Kamala, I could care less. I have tons of friends that are either not voting or voting for her, and that's fine. That's the beauty of the country. The beauty of the place that we live is that you're supposed to be able to do whatever it is that you want, and as long as it doesn't impact other people directly, live your life.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And I want to start in that place. I had this conversation with a good friend of mine at an event recently in which I said, the American promise, I believe the American promise is different from the American dream. So the American dream is infinite upside, unabated. As big and bad and amazing as you want to be, as much money as you want to make, as much fame and notoriety as you want to have, as much whatever lifestyle you want to live and as far as you want to go inside that lifestyle, it's available to you here regardless of your religion regardless of the color of your skin regardless of what sex you are it doesn't matter you can go as far as you want that's the American dream right you know making a dollar out of 15 cents to quote Wu Tang but the American promise is slightly different and this is how I view it the American promise is I get to live however I want And as long as I don't put my shit on you, then we're all good, right?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: You want to be into NASCAR and shoot guns and go hunting and live that life? Awesome. That's amazing. If somebody else wants to be an artist and live in the city and do creative kind of hippie-ish things, that's amazing. You want to, you know, you can live whatever life you want to live. Have whatever interests you want to live. You know, paint your house, whatever color you want to paint it, right? Have five kids. Have no kids. Have side jobs. Have hobbies. Whatever you want to do, you can do it. As long as you don't put that shit on me. And that's what we've lost. The American dream still exists in this country, but I feel like we've broken the American promise.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So I want to take our time together, not talking about who's right, who's wrong, who's going to be better for the country. Because frankly, I have my opinions, but they're simply that. No one has any idea what's going to happen or who is going to be a better option for our country moving forward. Obviously, I'm voting the way I'm voting because that's through all the research and all the time I've spent looking at the candidates. That's who I decided I felt was best for the future of the country, not just myself, not just my family, but for the betterment of the country. And I tend to be a single voter, a single issue voter in this particular election.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So what I ultimately came down to was I want less war in the world. I am very – I believe the military is important, but the military-industrial complex is not or should not have as much weight as they do. and I don't want to bomb countries that don't necessarily need to be bombed. And I certainly don't want to be in regime change wars and I certainly don't want to be in resource wars that aren't absolutely positively necessary. And I believe one candidate will take us out of those wars. I believe one candidate will either keep us in those wars or possibly expand wars. And that's really the issue that I'm voting on. Take all the other issues aside, that's really the main issue for me. And that's what I believe.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: But you don't have to believe that, agree with that singular fact, or think that one candidate is better or not. For whatever reasons you get, you get to do that. And my point is we have to live together when this is over, when this whole thing is over, when the election is over. And we're past whatever happens on Tuesday, whatever happens today. We have to live together. And frankly, we should want everyone in the veins that they choose to take to get better. So I think we need to get back to I get to live my life. If you're Catholic, be freaking Catholic. But don't tell other people they're wrong for not being Catholic. It doesn't mean you can't talk to them about why you enjoy Catholicism. But it means you can't put your shit on them. That's not how this country works.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: People say, well, this country is formed on Judeo-Christian beliefs, 100%. I have on my left arm, I've told you guys this before, a half sleeve, which is an American flag with an insect cross. I believe in God. I follow Jesus. It's one of the core principles of my life, one of the core value structures come out of the Bible. But I'm not allowed to put my shit on someone else if they're a Hindu or a Jew or a Muslim or whatever other religion they want to be. Atheist. I think atheism is bananas. I've listened to countless arguments for it. I've read Sam Harris' book. I've listened to Scott Galloway. Both very smart people. I simply cannot get on board with atheism. But they have every single right to be atheists in this country. And I'm not going to judge them for that. And I'm not going to put my shit on them. I don't know either one of those guys, so I couldn't. But we've lost this. So we have to live together.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So how do we do that? Well, I spent some time thinking about, you know, living in New York, traditionally very left-leaning state. I have many friends that lean left or probably would have been center-left that now, unfortunately, because you're either all the way one or all the way other, are left, that I disagree with in different viewpoints but love as human beings. Actually, one of the most downloaded episodes of this podcast. If you go all the way back to Eric Garcia, it was January of 2024. I spoke with Eric Garcia in an episode called How to Have a Disagreement About Politics with a Friend and Still Love Them Listen to that episode Eric is a Democrat He tends to skew more liberal And we had this incredible conversation where once we talked all these things out, we came around to the fact that we were basically like millimeters off from each other and how we actually viewed the world and what we actually wanted to be the outcomes that came out of our country.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And it's just a wonderful conversation if you're into that kind of thing. But taking from that conversation and many others, understanding that my viewpoints tend to skew center right in general. I've always been a moderate. I voted for both Democrats and Republicans for president. I voted for both Democrats and Republicans down ticket. So while I tend to skew center right in my value structure, I am wholly open to liberal ideas, certainly classically liberal ideas, and I'm willing to be persuaded one way or the other based on new information, new ideas, effective research and results that come out of these practices, right?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So I feel like I've done a decent job of navigating that. Now, I do like to talk in hyperbole and I do like to bust chops. So you've probably heard me take swipes at the left before. I think the far, far left is bananas. I don't even think they're living in reality and that people placate them I think is insane. However, most of the people that I run into in a day-to-day basis, there is literally no problem. So how do we do that? How do we fit in with this mishmash melting pot of a country? How do we fit in, get by, and be successful and live happy and start to release some of this tension of red or blue? You know what I mean?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Look, I just – I think – look, you can think what you want about Obama, but he had it right in 2008. There aren't red states. There aren't blue states. There's the United States. and I know that sounds cheeky and I know it sounds kind of cliche or trite but it's absolutely positively true. There are no blue states. There are no red states. They're all purple states. They all are a mishmash of individuals. There's libertarians. There's Green Party people in there. There's tried and true communists who are legitimately lunatics because that is just the most tested system that doesn't work that people still try to believe does. I mean, just results. Just give me the receipts. But everything else in there that I said has its merits, right, and should be heard, and we all have to live together and get along.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And we have urban people and suburban people and country people and poor people and middle class people and rich people and super rich people, and we all have to live together. So how do we do that? Well, I pulled out three core ideas that I think we should spend some time thinking about. And guys, I want you to give me feedback. Are you tired of endless follow-ups and missed opportunities in your sales process? Chasing leads is a losing game. That's why I created the One Call Close System, a battle-tested sales system that uses behavioral psychology to close deals in just one call. No more, let me think about it. No more, I'll get back to you. Using the one call close system, we took new reps from 25% close ratio to over 80% in just three months. To grow fast, you must close deals faster at zero extra marketing cost. The one call close system allows you and your reps to build trust, address pain points, all while watching your revenue skyrocket. Ready to stop chasing leads and start closing? visit masteroftheclothes.com today. Close twice as many deals this time next week. Visit masteroftheclothes.com to learn how.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Back on this, right? If you're watching on the YouTube channel, leave a comment below. If you're listening to the podcast version, hit me up in the DMs or leave your response in the ratings and reviews of whatever platform you're in, whether it's Spotify, Apple, or wherever you're listening. That's where most of you people are. Right? Like, I want to hear your feedback on this, but I think there's three core concepts, three core ideas that we have to work through in order to release some of this tension, to be able to live inside ourselves and be comfortable knowing that there are people who vehemently disagree with our ideas and that's completely fucking okay.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Hey, there should be people who disagree with your ideas. If we all think the same, even if seemingly that's a good idea today, eventually that will grow toxic. We need the give and take. We need someone who just to the core of their fiber disagrees with our idea. We need that person to exist or we'll never get to the truth because the truth is never all the way one way or all the way the other. There is no black and white. We have to live in the gray space. I talk a lot about this with entrepreneurs. Right. Entrepreneurs thrive in the gray space, that murky, muddy, gray, brown space that's in between the white and the black that just can't really see through, isn't really tangible, doesn't have a clear, concise conclusion. That's where entrepreneurs thrive. And as Americans, that's where we have to thrive. That's the beauty of our country. It is a melting pot. It is a mixture.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And you can say, well, there's racism or sexism or whatever frigginism, and all those things do exist, you still have to live here. And taking out your finger and pointing it at the other person and blame everything that's happened to you in your life on someone else is not the friggin' answer. So we start with core values. Do you know what your core values are? Do you have an unbreakable rule? Do you have something about yourself that in a situation in which all your peers are thinking one way, you will not agree with them regardless because it's your core value.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: For me, one of my primary core values is telling the truth. I've always been honest with you guys on this podcast. Maybe my ideas weren't always articulated a proper way. Maybe I hadn't always thought an idea all the way out. But I have always given you exactly what my most honest thought was in that moment in whatever amount of time or effort I had spent digging into that particular topic. And most of the topics I do a lot of research on. So it's not like I'm just shooting for the hip on things. And when I am shooting for the hip, I try to be honest about that.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: But tell the truth. It's very difficult. It's the most difficult to yourself, right? I wrote an article on LinkedIn recently. If you go over there and follow me, I'm sure you can find it. I'll have it linked up in the show notes as well around never negotiate with yourself, right? negotiating with yourself is lying to yourself. Negotiating with yourself is saying, I'm going to get up at 5 a.m. every day and I'm going to read a book or I'm going to go for a walk or I'm going to have a cup of coffee with my spouse before the kids get up or I'm going to hit the gym, whatever that thing is. And then the alarm goes off and you start negotiating. What's 15 minutes? You know we had a cup of coffee yesterday together We don need to have one today or man I worked out the last four days in a row I don need to work out today even though I told myself I was going to do it every day And we start negotiating We hit the snooze And we hit the snooze Now all of a sudden it 6 p or 6 a And we rushing around trying to get things done, thinking, man, it would have been nice if I had that time and just gotten my ass out of bed. But instead, I negotiated with myself, right?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Tell the truth to Others, tell the truth to yourself. Now, why do I spend so much time on this? Because be honest about what your core values are. What are your core values? Do you embody them every day? Getting a grip on, and it can be two. You don't have to have 100 core values. You can have two core values, three. There's no right or wrong answer to core values. These are the unbreakable aspects of who you are.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I would love to say that there are plenty of things that I'm always being considerate of others. I would love to say that as a core value. I tend to lack empathy and lack consideration sometimes for other people's feelings because I'm solution-based and outcome and action-based and because I always want to live in the truth, I tend to not consider others' feelings sometimes with the things that I say, do, et cetera. That is a weak point for me. So I have to be honest about that. I can't say consideration, empathy is a core value for me because it's not, because I break that core. I would break that core value.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: When we establish our core values, we become confident in who we are and the viewpoints, be they words or actions of others, have less of an impact on us. So the first step of life after the election is not allowing what other people do and say to own space in our life, right? If I'm confident in my beliefs, if I'm confident in my spirituality, if I'm confident in my relationship with my family, if I'm confident in the core values that I live by, then when someone else shares their ideas, their core values, they do not impact me because I'm confident in what mine are.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: When people react, it is often because they feel insecure, they feel doubt, they feel fear in who they are. They lack confidence in that area, so they lash back out because they have to be right, or at least you have to be wrong for me to feel good about myself. But if you're confident in your core values, if you know exactly who you are, if you're grounded in the person, be it one core value or 100, if you're grounded in those values and you believe in your heart of hearts that you live those every day, then you won't react to other people. You can go through the life. You can drive down the road and see a political campaign sign for the other team and not feel any anxiousness or stress. You can hear something on the radio or the TV or in a podcast that strikes at what you believe and you don't feel that sense of reaction, that need to get them back or to prove them wrong or to be right in this scenario.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So to wrap up number one, understanding, writing down, and committing to your core values develops the confidence that you need to go through your life without reacting to those who disagree or present in a position that's opposing to yours. That will drastically reduce your stress.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Number two, understand that nuance exists in everything. We talked about that gray space. Guys, this is the problem with particularly politics today, but so much of our conversations that we have at work and with our family is that we make a statement and there's tons of nuance baked into that statement and someone takes it at face value and then straw man's the other side of it against you and there's nuance in every opinion there's nuance in every topic I once made a statement on the podcast around nuclear energy right that I believed that if climate activists truly cared about the climate and weren't just propagating a position in which they can enrich themselves, that nuclear would be number one, that we wouldn't be putting these ugly-ass, toxic windmills up all over our countryside, and we would be building nuclear power plants, especially Gen 3 nuclear power plants, that are insanely safe, that are light years ahead of any of the plants that actually melted down that everyone gets scared about, and can provide essentially limitless energy over time to our country.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: That's my position. Now, what's interesting about that is all the nuances associated with it. So I had someone on the show who had some expertise in this area, and they broke down how the cost structure, the regulatory structure, what goes into from pollution, and then the fact that all that energy couldn't necessarily work over our current grid, that then the grid would have to be updated, and there were all these nuances to it. And essentially came back and said, you're right at 30,000 feet, but at 10,000 feet, there's like 4 million nuances to the conversation, and we can't just blindly and in a broad stroke say something like, if climate activists actually cared about the climate, they would be 100% and all in on nuclear, right?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So the idea here is until that conversation, I basically viewed everyone in the climate activism space who doesn't push nuclear as someone who is being disingenuous. And what this person kind of showed me once I got to understand the nuances behind the topic, that while some of them still may be disingenuous, there were others who had actually done the research and realized that while nuclear should be part of the solution, it's not something that we can act on soon. and that there were other ways to help build in that, whether right or wrong, they believed could bridge that gap, et cetera.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So that's a very nuanced conversation, which radically changed my opinion of people who may, quote-unquote, have been on the other side of my position and allowed me to see what they were saying through a filter of, and this is the third one, understanding. once I understanded the nuance, once I had my core beliefs, right, and confident in those core beliefs, and approached every conversation to understand the nuances, not just the broad stroke statements, I could get to a place of understanding that allowed me to not just listen to what someone was saying at face value, but actually look deeper into what they were trying to get as an outcome, what their past was, what their experience was, and say, when you understand, you know, what is their why? That's what we're getting at, right? Like, why are they doing this?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And if we believe that they're coming from a good place, right, now, even if we still disagree with them, if we have understanding for their why, if we have understanding for where they coming from and the outcome they trying to achieve we look into the nuances of the conversation and spend time really getting to the core of what the issue is and we grounded in our core beliefs Now we can have productive conversations with people who disagree with us, regardless if it's about politics or the next sales campaign or what vacation we should go on as a family, right?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: It's layering in these three ideas that allow us to have very productive conversations. Guys, I've done, you know, this show has almost 300 episodes. I've done two other podcasts in my 15-year podcasting career and done thousands of interviews over the course of those three shows. I didn't agree with every single person that's come on the show. So I've had a lot of experience in this. and to have productive conversations with people who may disagree with you on a topic, we have to be understanding not just of what they're saying or what they're truly trying to say, but where they're coming from and what outcome they're ultimately trying to achieve.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: We have to look into the nuances of the argument and get to the details, get to the fine points, get to the results, not just take people's positions on broad stroke statements, which oftentimes are necessary, right? It is often necessary at the beginning of a sales meeting or in a political debate or when you're talking with your spouse, whatever, taking these scenarios. Like it is often to start a conversation from a broad stroke position. But if we stop the conversation there, we become embattled on either side where when we take time to understand and dig into the nuances and feel confident in our position based on our core values, we can have truly productive conversations, which is what I hope the country gets to.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I want to get back to the, you know, I remember, and many of you probably do as well, right? I grew up in the 80s and the 90s, and it was just like America's great. You can do anything you want. You just got to have the guts to go out and get it, and it's hard work. And it doesn't matter where you come from. And people are going to help you rise up if you're putting in that work and you're helping them and you're adding value. And you're telling your story. Like there was so much promise. I just remember so much potential and promise and excitement for what you could possibly achieve in your life.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: And so many conversations today have shifted away from that. They've shifted from this one's repressing this one. This group over here is repressing this group. And this group over here is incapable of ever reaching. And it's like, nah, we got to get away from that and get back to having truly productive conversations that help people make up their own mind for what is going to get them to the place that they want to be. And regardless of what they choose, you don't get to put your shit on them.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: That's my biggest takeaway from this entire video is do what you think is best for you, your family, your community, whatever, however you prioritize your structure there, however you prioritize your value structure. but you don't get to put your shit on anyone else. Stop putting yourself on someone else. They're a different religion. Who cares? They're from a different country. Who cares? They're from a, they're, they're a different color. Who cares? They natively speak a different language. Who cares? What are their core values? Do you understand where they're coming from? And do you understand it at a nuanced level? and as long as they're doing their best and not putting their shit on you, that's the American promise. That's where we have to get back to and I hope to have many more conversations on this show like that.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So guys, kind of short solo episode today. I had to get that out of me. I just, I find politics to be so intriguing from a like marketing, sales, messaging perspective. I find the way the media interacts with each other to be infuriating, but also incredibly interesting. However, I've felt the tension myself. I've had conversations with people that didn't necessarily go the way that I hoped. There are people who've, you know, unfollowed me because I posted a, you know, the Trump with the fist up after he got shot on my Instagram. And like, it's all good. I just wish that we could have a conversation about it. And I wish that I could like Trump, you could like Kamala or like whoever you like, and we all just frigging get along. I hate how trite that sounds but it's literally we gotta get back to growing the country we gotta get back to helping people rise out of situations that are impoverished or unfortunate we have to get back to supporting each other and we can't do that if we're fucking fighting with each other and I'm so sick of fighting so sick of this country fighting with itself that's understand that and I know maybe some of you listening don't maybe think this much because we have so much going on in our day-to-day lives, but every country, every enemy of this country, what's happening today is exactly what they want because if this country is pointing in the same direction, we're fucking unstoppable. We are the biggest badasses in the world, and I hope that however we can, however you can in your life, just give everybody some fucking grace. Just give them some grace. Just let people live. You do you. Let them do them. And as long as no one's putting any of their shit on each other, awesome. And if we can find even the smallest micro cross set of combined interest, lean into that spot. Not into the space that we don't agree. Let's start leaning into the spaces that we do agree. And watch what fucking happens.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I love you guys. I love you for listening to this show. I hope you liked this solo episode. But if you did, please hit me up in DMs or leave a comment wherever you're watching or listening. I'd love to know if you enjoy this solo format. I like doing these solo shows. I haven't done one in a very long time. This particular topic just obviously hit me kind of hard and wanted to get something out around it. But I'm interested in your feedback. This show is as much yours as it is mine. I love you for listening to this show. I'm out of here. Peace. Let's go. Yeah, make it look, make it look, make it look easy.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Thank you for listening to The Ryan Hanley Show. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
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