How to Be Vulnerable Like a Man | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

Order of Man

Ryan Michler

Business, Health, Leadership, Relationships, Man, Society & Culture, Intellect, Style, Lifestyle, Money, Selfdevelopment, Wealth, Fitness, Selfhelp, Nutrition

4.8 • 9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this Friday Field Notes episode, Ryan Michler breaks down what it really means to be vulnerable “like a man.” He challenges the popular narrative that vulnerability is strength in itself and instead explains how it should be used as a tool for growth. Ryan outlines why discernment matters, how goals must shape openness, and why solutions must accompany weakness.

Listeners will walk away with a sharper, more practical understanding of vulnerability—stripped of fluff and grounded in responsibility. This episode is a call for men to embrace honesty without falling into the trap of empty exposure.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
00:00 – Rethinking vulnerability
02:30 – Vulnerability as weakness
04:40 – Exercising discernment
09:00 – Setting goals for openness
11:20 – Pairing vulnerability with solutions
18:00 – Vulnerability plus solutions equals results
20:20 – Iron Council promotion
22:45 – Closing thoughts

Battle Planners: Pick yours up today!

Order Ryan's new book, The Masculinity Manifesto.

For more information on the Iron Council brotherhood.

Want maximum health, wealth, relationships, and abundance in your life? Sign up for our free course, 30 Days to Battle Ready

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Vulnerability for the sake of being vulnerable is not the goal.
0:04.0	It doesn't make you better to expose all of your weaknesses and all of your problems and all of your issues if there's not some sort of end goal in sight.
0:13.0	Is the goal just to get some level of empathy or sympathy from people? That's not a worthy goal.
0:18.0	If you don't have the second part of the equation, which is knowing what your goal and your objective is, then I don't think it's a healthy practice at all. In fact, I actually believe that it could be detrimental.
0:31.5	Men, we got to have a conversation about the word vulnerability. It has been overused. It has been misinterpreted, misrepresented,
0:42.9	bastardized, and it's just becoming a problem. And I'll tell you why it's a problem. Because if you adopt
0:51.8	the current narrative of vulnerability, all you're doing is exposing yourself to weakness, to heartache, to hardship, to being mistreated, abused, taken advantage of, and generally just feeling pathetic.
1:07.8	Now, I know this is going to be very controversial.
1:10.5	Every time I mention this word,
1:13.4	it conjures up both positive and negative, a lot of vitriol, people on all ends of the spectrum
1:20.4	with what they think this word means. And I'm going to put that to rest today. I want to tell you
1:26.2	exactly what it means. I'm going to tell you how we can
1:29.3	embrace to some degree vulnerability the way men ought to consider embracing it. And I'm just
1:35.2	going to end the conversation here because I think it's hurting people. I really do.
1:42.6	The Brenny Browns of the world and the individuals who say just be vulnerable
1:47.3	for vulnerability's sake, that it makes you stronger, that vulnerability is strength. That's not true.
1:55.8	And you're only getting part of the equation when people say vulnerability is strength or a man ought to be
2:02.6	vulnerable that isn't a complete sentence in the dictionary of men men ought to be vulnerable
2:09.5	that's not a complete sentence i'm going to explain what i mean that's half of the equation
2:14.8	there's another half that often gets overlooked by the overly empathetic, the soft, those who would love for you to keep your guard down, those who would love to take advantage of and exploit you.
2:29.8	And look, I'm not a pessimist by nature.
2:32.0	I'm actually pretty optimistic.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ryan Michler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ryan Michler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.