The Ryan Hanley Show
If You Can’t Win in 2025, You Can’t Win (and what you should be doing)
Mon, 28 Apr 2025
What if the real reason you're stuck isn't fear of failure... but fear of winning? In this fire-breathing episode, Ryan Hanley is joined by Michael McLean—is a multi-millionaire business owner, award-winning marketer, author, and speaker known for his unapologetic, raw coaching style. From pro hockey to exploding a small-town insurance agency, Michael has coached thousands of top-performing men on how to crush it in business and life. He splits his time between Naples, Florida and Perth, Ontario, where he continues to fundraise for children’s literacy, animal shelters, food banks, and more. From raising high-agency kids to escaping the trap of people-pleasing, Michael breaks down why 2025 is the best time in history to build, create, and win—and why most people are too sedated to realize it. This episode is a battle cry for anyone who wants to stop existing and start dominating their life with purpose. Learn more and subscribe to Michael’s daily message at: brassballsvideos.com 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 THE SHOW: Website: https://ryanhanley.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan_hanley YouTube: https://youtube.com/ryanmhanley
Chapter 1: Why do many people feel it's hard to win today?
In the green room, you started by saying something that I was like, all right, I got to hit record because I don't want you to waste all the flavor. You said a lot of people are complaining that it's difficult to win today. And you think that this is one of the best times to win. Can you break that down for us?
Chapter 2: What lessons did Michael learn from his father's advice?
Well, I'll break it down. The message from my 91-year-old father who retired. My dad worked until age 85, Ryan, so he's been retired for five years, almost six years. He said to me the other day when we were out on the boat, he said, you know, son, he says, I don't have many regrets in my life.
Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Michael McLean. Michael is a former professional hockey team owner, took a failing franchise in the junior pro division, turned that franchise around and six years later won the Barkley Cup. He then went on to purchase an insurance business, turned that business around, and
Chapter 3: How can men reclaim their lives and become successful?
turned it into one of the most successful insurance businesses in the United States. He now coaches men to find their power, to become kings, as he says. And we talk not just about
what that means and why men need to reclaim their lives, but why it's also not just important for the individuals, for the men themselves, but for those they love, for those in their world, for those that they want to take care of, help, support, right? In order to be the best father, we have to be good. In order to be the best spouse, we have to be good as men. And this is a dynamic conversation.
One warning before we move on to Michael, there is a lot of colorful language. in this episode, so if you are offended by colorful language, you may wanna turn the volume down just a little bit, but I promise you will be motivated, you will be inspired, and by the end of this episode, you will be ready to run through a brick wall. Guys, I love you for being here.
If you enjoy this show, we grow this show just by you sharing it, by telling people, by posting on social media, texting the show to friends. I appreciate you so much. I hope you enjoy this episode. Let's get on to Michael McLean. In the green room, you started by saying something that I was like, all right, I got to hit record because I don't want you to waste all the flavor.
You said a lot of people are complaining that it's difficult to win today. And you think that this is one of the best times to win. Can you break that down for us?
Well, I'll break it down. The message from my 91-year-old father who retired. My dad worked until age 85, Ryan, so he's been retired for five years, almost six years. He said to me the other day when we were out on the boat, he said, you know, son, he says, I don't have many regrets in my life. If you met my dad, Ryan, you would think he's 70, not 91. Same with my mom. My mom's 91.
She doesn't have any gray hair. He says to me, he goes, I have one regret. He says, I should have worked to 90. And then my dad and I were talking about how this is clearly the greatest time in history to be alive, especially if you're a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, a founder, any of that stuff. my dad started his businesses. He was an entrepreneur for 71 years.
He said, he goes, I started my business with the yellow pages. He said, you have the worldwide web, you have AI, you have the greatest time in history to be alive. And this is the message that I'm telling my 12 year old daughter all the time. You know, she has her own podcast. She makes her own money, that kind of stuff. But,
The men and women that I work with, they spend way, way, way too much time on rat poison platforms like the news, like politics is rat poison, and anti-social media. I mean, it's okay to be on there for a little bit, but... If you think that times are tough in 2025, you're in the wrong echo chamber. You need to get around better people. You need to get around people who have actually won.
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Chapter 4: Why are people afraid of winning?
So when I run into people that are afraid of losing, but more importantly, they're afraid of winning. They sedate and they medicate by spending their time in these places where they watch other people live. See, you're living. You're a man on a mission. I know your deal. You're a man on a mission.
But there's so many people that watch you instead of doing their own thing because they're afraid of winning. I would love to be like Ryan. But what if I became like Ryan and chase my mission? What would my wife think? What would my friends from high school think? What would my fuck all friends from college think?
And it gets down to that fundamental where if a person cannot escape that mindset of people pleasing, if they can't, that is the number one crippling thing in sports life and business. If you are a people pleaser instead of a man or a woman on a mission, you have no chance to live the life of your dreams. Why aren't we taught this?
Well, I mean, there's a lot of reasons that it's not taught in school and it's not, you don't run into it a lot is because, I mean, the education system as an example, I mean, we homeschool our daughter because I don't want her in the old factory industrial age, put up your hand to use the bathroom school. So I'm raising an entrepreneur. I'm raising a president, not a poodle.
I'm raising a president, not a princess. So we focus on entrepreneurship in our home, whether she decides to be a vet or decides. I don't care long as she runs the show for herself. Because I think in 2025 and looking down the road in five or 10 years, there's no place for anybody but the founder and the entrepreneur.
You're going to have a hard time commuting to work and sitting in a cubicle once AI gets going here. We're preaching freedom. I just believe the education system and society is set up in the hundred year old. We need workers. We need people to, you know, work in the factories. We need people to sit in the cubicles. But unfortunately, those days are all gone.
So in my daughter's particular case, she has six hours of private tutors a day. And we accomplish more in six hours than she would in six years. But it's interesting because I hired the number one math teacher in America and here in Naples. And what do they start every day with? They start every day with fitness and movement.
skipping rope push-ups all this she's been doing this since she was five years old so they get the body moving because the body is before the mind then ryan she does old school mathematics like she's 12 years old but she's at a college level of mathematics because what is math mac is the ultimate problem solving it's black and white it's not opinion based it's hard and it's difficult
And then she does cursive writing. She writes out the best advertisements in history. So she'll write out a Gary Halbert ad. She'll write out an Ogilvy ad. So that's cursive plus copywriting. And then the other thing that she does after that is she'll do something entrepreneurial, whether it's a lemonade stand or writing her book or whatever.
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Chapter 5: What role does entrepreneurship play in today's society?
I want to quit every day. But the fact that the parents are so soft as fucking shit that they let these kids start quitting when they're 2, 3, 4, and 5... That's a crippling habit. My dad calls it patronizing. So if you want to raise cupcake kids and snowflake kids and poodles, just lie to your kids all the time and patronize them. And eighth place trophies, like you said, is the secret to this.
Our kids are afraid of failure because of eighth place trophies. Now you're doing the right job where you know what? Bill Parcells said it best. When Bill Parcells, in my opinion, the greatest football coach in history, the scoreboard says who's best. The scoreboard says who's best. And that's the way you can get better when the scoreboard doesn't say you're the best. But you nailed it.
Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind. So when you have these cupcake parents, they think they're helping their children when actually, Ryan, they're crippling them for life.
Yeah, and for the guys out there that are listening who maybe you know you have people pleasing in you, and I'm a recovering people pleaser. When I look back at the places in my life where I've stagnated in my growth, it's because I allowed that side of my body. I wanted to be nice. I wanted people to like me. I wanted people versus what had to get done, right?
And it doesn't mean, you know, I think the way that this argument gets straw manned is, oh, well, you're just saying you yell at them and authoritarian. And it's like, that's not, that is not what you just said. You said, be clear, not yell, not bash people over the head. You don't have to dog people all the time. That's not what we're talking about. It's not good leadership.
It's not good culture building, but you can have But by simply letting people know what they're responsible for, what they need to do, and how they're going to be judged on their work, just giving people those three simple things will change the entire culture of your organization.
Because I guarantee most of the people listening to this, if you were to go survey, all of your employees cannot give you those three things. Cannot, cannot give you those three things that they have to do in their job. And they get confused and they misunderstand. And you start having HR meetings about tonality and email messages.
And now your whole business is fucked and you're spending half your time dealing with problems instead of, instead of going out and growing the business. When, what, what, what people, what I feel like so many are missing. And I know this because, because at different times in my life, I've missed this is like, what am I supposed to be doing? You know how many guys I talk to?
I mean, you know, you know, you do the same thing I do. How many guys do you talk to that? You can, you can see the energy in them. You can see that they're intelligent and talented at something. Right. And you're like, like from your perspective, you see this aura of potential, you know, like around their body. And they're like, But I have no clue what I'm supposed to be doing.
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Chapter 6: How can parents raise empowered children?
It's why I think people struggle so much with particular Elon Musk. I can understand. I'm a big Trump fan, but I can understand logically why someone might not like it. I can logically understand that. I cannot logically wrap my head around the Elon Musk hate. Because you don't have to you could do one chat GPT or one Google search or whatever and see the amount of work that this guy has done.
Right. And the amount of value driving products and services that he like life changing, like societal, like humanity changing products that he has built. And then we're going to say that he's working with Doge to steal our money. He wants access to our financial accounts like that.
When I hear that, when I hear that, that comment about him, that person has never, has never invested themselves as deeply into something as Elon Musk has. So they simply cannot relate. You just, you cannot relate if you've never given a hundred percent of yourself to something. And if you're out there and you have never given a hundred percent, your next thing,
thing in life stop listening to this podcast and go just for a month just do something a hundred percent and see how you feel it'll change your entire viewpoint on the world it'll change everything about it and i just i'm shocked at how few people have ever been willing to fully give themselves to a thing
Well, that goes back to Ryan afraid of winning. Sedating and medicating, now it's in your phone. But here's a big point that I make with my athletes and my students and my daughter. Being passionate about something or curious about something isn't enough. So a guy like you... People would look at you and say, you know, Ryan's really passionate about coaching. And to that, I say, yes, he is.
But what separates you from everybody else is you found a mission that you're obsessed with. I don't want anything to do with anybody else. that's not obsessed about their mission. So I don't go to lunch. I don't go to dinner. I don't go visit my sister. I don't do anything with people that aren't on a mission.
And I'm way, way too far gone to spend time with beta males and gamma males who talk about the weather or talk about Elon Musk or talk about, I'm like, tell me about your mission. So obsession, my dad said to me, so I walk into my dad, my dad says, you know, you're interested in taking over the family insurance business. And this is way back in the day, 20 years ago.
He said, don't you even think of buying this business unless you're gonna take this to the next level 10X and this becomes your obsession. Don't buy it if you're passionate about it. Don't buy it if you're curious about it and don't buy this agency If you want to drive a nice car, you better be obsessed or before you start, do something else. So number one in the nation.
Didn't take long because I was a man on a mission. Then I walk into my dad's office five years later. I said, Dad, I'm going to take over this bankrupt junior hockey team. Nobody can win in a small community. He says, the only question you have to answer is, are you on a mission? Will this be your next mission? I said, absolutely. He goes by it.
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Chapter 7: Why is having a mission crucial for success?
You make yourself magnetic to your children, your grandchildren. You make yourself magnetic to money. And the opposite, everything you just discussed, is what repels winning like nothing else. One word. neediness. I call it men in diapers, men in diapers. So 99.9% of men are scared little boys in 2025, men in diapers showing up as scared little boys. And they're needy, needy, needy.
Their body language, their breathing, their mentality, the cell phone use, the porn, the drugs, the alcohol, what you do. They're men in diapers. So all you have to do is rise as a king. And how do you rise as a king? You get on a mission that'll never end, and everything else trickles downhill from there. My younger brother, David, founded his own law practice.
Well, guess what my younger brother deals with from time to time? Divorce. So I'll never forget at my stag 20 years ago, I was lying there in bed one morning, I said to my brother, I said, what's the real reason that marriages end 50% of the time or more now? And he said, well, he says, I'm gonna surprise you. He says, number one, which you know is money.
People fight about money problems, that's why it ends. But he says, number two, you'll never believe. And I said, what is it? He says, He says, the man stops growing. And he's a Tony Robbins guy. He's like, the man is no longer dangerous, as Dr. Peterson would say. He's no longer weaponized. He's now a needy little bitch. And he's literally repelled his wife or girlfriend from him.
Because neediness repels money, winning, luck, the opposite sex like nothing else. And that's what men in diapers are. They're needy little men. So like you said, you can instantly become a king. You can literally decide to walk through the door at 6 p.m. at night, a high-frequency man. A high frequency man. And you can start to work on your health. You can start to work on your language.
You can start to work on all this stuff. And gradually you just rise a little more and a little more. And when my marriage has struggled, my wife literally stops me, Ryan, at the island in the kitchen when I start to, you know, not be a man on the mission from time to time. And she always looks me in the face and says, just remember, I married a king.
If you're not going to be a king, there's going to be lots of problems. And this is where I become a needy little guy. And I'm like, I'm going to spend more time with you guys. Let's do this. And she goes, we don't need it. We need to be led by a king. And my wife is the queen. But we don't need any of that stuff. We just need you to be a man on the mission. Share your mission with us.
Include us in your mission. And when the king rises, the kingdom rises as well. But that's exactly who you deal with. That's exactly who I deal with. When the king does not rise, the kingdom dies.
Yeah, I'm going to wrap up our conversation with this idea from Peterson because I think it encapsulates what we've talked about. expanding on your be dangerous thing, you know, he talks about there's no nobility in being kind. There's none. Anyone can be kind. It's easy. It's easy to be kind and soft and kind, kind, or maybe nice, be nice, right?
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Chapter 8: What characteristics define a man or woman on a mission?
Um, guys like you are serious students and that's because you understand that that force is against you. Gravity is against you in 2025. And if you want to be that top 1% of 1%, you got to be very smart with the inputs that you're putting into your body and your mind. So if you, uh, if you're in a situation where you need to rise in your family and your business, brass balls, uh, videos.com.
Michael, appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ryan.