Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple O’ Nukes as always. I'm your host. Mr Whiskey, and if you're just listening to this, I encourage you to watch it because Well, first of all, if you always listen, uh, you might not know this But I wear a black cowboy hat and I have a guest today who is also wearing a black cowboy hat It's not often that I my guests match hats like that.
It's happened Before a little bit, but this is the first time same color Almost same brim style. So it's we're already having a good time and we haven't even started talking yet. But yeah, ladies and gentlemen Today's conversation. I think it's one that I am personally very aligned with and very excited for I'll preface it with you need to be open minded And I say that because nowadays The stuff we're going to be talking about has been stigmatized to be such a negative toxic awful thing and it's called being a working man and It it's made out to be this villainized Topic that the traditional values are are evil or misogynistic are selfish But we're here with a working man who's trying to help all the other working men out there And Be men who lead their families and their communities in Strong powerful smart ways and we're going to be applying traditional values within the modern realities Which can be a difficult thing to do.
So we're here with dr Mark teague to break down what that looks like break down his book Which is a complete guide for that and talk about his personal journey and how he did it and became the working man He is today. So dr. Mark teague. Would you please introduce yourself for us? Mr. Whiskey, it's very good to be with you.
It's a pleasure. And yes, I'm glad you noted the cowboy hats. I mean, all you can say is we have good taste. I mean, yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's a great coincidence. Yeah, my name is Mark Teague. I have a doctorate in economics, agricultural economics, actually, or in that Oklahoma State University, graduated in May of 1995.
Uh, my wife and I have been on a long journey together. We actually grew up together. We have a picture in our, in our house here, me attending her second birthday party when she turned two years old. So, uh, we were high school sweethearts and got married, started a family and we were farming ranch, just like the background you have behind you, that looks very familiar to me.
That's how I grew up farming ranch. And we decided that this was during the eighties. That, um, you know, the farm economy was very difficult. Cashflow was tight. Risk was very high margins, very thin. We decided to make a living somewhere else. So I went to grad school, earned a doctorate in ag econ, and then joined the banking and finance, community and, and built a career there for about 25 years.
Uh, and along that journey, something very interesting happened that I love what you said up front about the stigma that has gotten associated with the working man persona. That is deeply unfortunate because that is our strength. That is what has made America, what it is. If we abandon that, we abandon it at our peril.
Well, I have a, uh, a perspective that not many share. And that is I've gone from that old, uh, old America, old fashioned values. You know those associated with farm and ranch and the agricultural community understand the incentives They're very simple. If you don't work, you don't eat. It's very straightforward, man.
It's right in front of you every day The feedback is immediate. Did you get your work done or not? Did you do it in a quality fashion or not? It's very straightforward Well, I have I have the perspective of growing up in that being a sconced in that making a living there starting a family there You know And then proceeding to the modern world, uh, the corporate world, uh, through, uh, um, you know, starter, uh, starting jobs and then middle management ranks and then upper management ranks.
And then I served 10 years in the corporate executive, uh, ranks, uh, the C suite, uh, officers and finished out with a private equity venture. So I've kind of seen the American economy from every angle, uh, the old fashioned view. Plus the modern view. And, uh, that drove some things home to me. Uh, that if you look at the incentives and the values of the ethics, old fashioned is best, but you need to apply those in a modern setting in today's world.
And that gave me the book. That's why I wrote it as those principles just came home to me in a very forceful, powerful way. And I so appreciate the depth and the richness of American tradition, American historical values. But the modern world, that's where we live. There are tremendous advantages here, tremendous opportunities.
But we're not going to do well by abandoning those old values and old principles. That's what brought us here. That's what got us where we are. We need to return back to those basic principles and be very proud of that. Be very forthright about it and apply it in a modern sense. That's very possible. I like to say it's having both roots and wings.
We can do both. We can have roots and be grounded in the past. We can have wings and fly and excel in today's world. That is absolutely possible. And I hope to encourage every American citizen out there that that's not only possible, it's the right way to do things. Yes, sir. I completely agree. And you know what?
I think it's interesting, especially the newest generations. We talk about work and a lot of people think, you know, blue collar industry, especially in the context of farming and ranching. And that's true. But there's also just the, the new generation. The values behind it discipline and effort and you know doing something and I'll say this in the context of you know There's so many conversations nowadays happening about AI and what we see is a lot of students In elementary schools and high schools and colleges are having AI do everything for them.
It schedules everything for them It writes their papers for them. It does and we're having kids just learn to be reliant on AI from a young age, and I think Like the older generations even even my generation like we grew up without AI, right? So we know how to work if we have to if all this stuff fails, I think you should work regardless I think there's so much that can be fruitful from that But even just knowing how to work in case when we don't have to and now we have to having that ready for us Because what we're teaching our children and our youth with this AI implementation is just laziness, you know Entitlement You know, where we're taking away even just their, their thought processes.
We're having the computers think for them. We're having the computers form their sentences for them. You know, create themes of, of, of politics, of indoctrination, and creating for them all this stuff, doing math for them. And there's a lot of stuff in school, I get it, where, you know, are you really gonna use it in life?
Maybe not. But it's still good to have that learning process and that discipline and, You know, Dr. Teague, I'd love to hear your input on that as well. Well, I think you're on to something, and I think your theme is 100 percent correct. You know, if you step back a little bit, and I would say, like, several, uh, thousands of years, a long time, this is, AI is the latest version of an age old problem, and that is that AI is a tool.
It's a tool that we've created. It has tremendous potential and value. There's also a danger to it. Uh, just go back to fire or knives or guns or, you know, technology, heavy equipment. It's, it all has the same, uh, potential and potential for misuse, uh, and danger. And that's the story of the human race. I expect, you know, we're going to stumble around.
We're going to do some stupid things and we'll learn how to use it properly. Uh, hopefully if we build something that is capable of destroying humanity and we turn it loose, well, I guess we deserve what we get if we're that dumb. But you know, AI is really the latest incarnation of a very old phenomenon, which is you come up with a new tool.
Uh, you come up with something that has potential. And it gets misused. And you're talking about that misuse side of it. I think you are 100 percent correct. There is no replacing hard work. There is no replacing learning. You still need the basic skills, analytical skills, social skills. Those are all still critical.
You need to know that before you can ever use AI to do anything of purpose and of use. So, I think that is an excellent example of, first, go back to first principles. Go back to basic values. You have to get those right. You do not compromise on those. And then we'll use whatever technology is handy and useful.
That's how humanity advances. through the use of technology. But humanity only advances in a positive way. If we keep those sound values, we keep those sound character traits. And I think I hope to be a voice calling us back. I hope to join you. I would like to join you. And that call back to basic values, basic character, basic hard work, basic commitment to family.
Now we can use technology to great ends. Great things will happen, but not if you abandon who you are. Uh, that's, uh, that will never work. For sure. You know, it reminds me of, I've always loved the tale of John Henry, you know, and, and for those of you who aren't familiar, basically, John Henry would, you know, chip, um, holes into mountains to make room for explosives.
And, and he would, he was like a mining man, a drilling man. And they made a machine that supposedly could do it better. And he and the machine dod against each other. And, and ultimately he won. And in some stories, you know, he, he dies at the end, exerting on his strength and, and others, he, he wins. And there, there's a bunch of variations of it, but, um.
No matter what variation you listen to, you're always rooting for the man, for humanity. Yet now we see it, and we're rooting for the machine, so. But like you said, it really is how you use it as a tool, and we've seen this before. I think people got lazy when, you know, automation was made. Where these assembly lines were made, you went from so much manual labor to compact it down.
That's not to say it wasn't great. I mean, we wouldn't all have the cars we do if we didn't have, you know, assembly lines. But When you give people the choice to not have to work, they're not going to do it on their own, which means they're not going to embody and chase those principles on their own.
Discipline, work ethic, you know, humility. I think, I think humility. We talked about entitlement. And I love, you know, this subtitle for your book, this strong value, strong life, I think that's so important. And if you get rid of those values, well, it's a chain. So if you don't have the values, then where's the life gonna come?
And if you don't have a life, where's the legacy gonna come? So can you talk a little bit about that connection there? The strong values, strong life, strong legacy. Uh, thank you very much. Well, I love your themes Everything you just said I agree with 100. That's exactly it. I would say it like this. You have to recognize that Well two things let me start with the internal issue, man.
I want to talk about the economy how an economy develops But first of all, you have to recognize the nature of the human heart, the human spirit, the human mind. We long for those deeper things. It's of high interest that what really drives us. It's not the physical, it's the intangibles, love, faith, hope, purpose, uh, nobility, courage, honor, valor, altruism.
Those things are what really satisfy the human heart. Those are the things that truly make us happy. Give us purpose, give us meaning. Uh, and when you abandon values, you abandon character, you've abandoned life itself, you have no future, you have no hope, but when you cling to those values and you invest yourself in those values, the intangibles, then the tangibles become very good.
We can do great things in the world of the physical, the material, the tangible aspects, when we get things right in the area of the intangible. And the human heart is simply built that way. It's, uh, if you want to be happy, get married and stay married. If you want to be wealthier, Get married and stay married.
If you want to have better health, get married and stay that way. So that commitment between a man and a woman that embodies those basic values, you're working it out with another person that gives you a foundation of character foundation of strong values. Now you could conquer the world. You'll take on every hardship that comes and use all the technology around you.
But when you divorce yourself from those intangibles and try to pursue just the material, you're going to be a very empty, hollow person. Uh, and that speaks exactly to what you refer to that when you divorce yourself from the value of hard work. Well, you're unmoored, you're untied. The value of hard work is one of those core values that you must hold to.
It's one of those intangibles that that will drive you through whatever physical challenge that you face and you will achieve things in the material world. Now, one other point, it's important. I'll lean on my education and my professional experience here. As we, as we engage in this world, And we attempt to get something done It's very important to understand context when we get up every day and we go to work What what is around us didn't just happen.
There is a ton of history behind that Economic forces and social forces driving that yeah It's very good to stop and take a look at that and understand context and it's basically this Economic development is a study in and of itself. It's an entire field The history of economic development. And I'll give you the basic idea.
There is a stage and phase view of that. That is very instructive. You can look at of virtually every developed economy that's advanced in the world today. And there was a path behind them. And it's basically this first you have a tribal nomadic several thousand years ago, a long time ago. That's how mankind met a living.
You go hunt, you go fish, you track it down. That's how you get your food and you create a shelter as best you can. Tribal nomadic was the rule of the day and in that it's the individual effort that's the emphasis. Following that came agrarian economies. So, as folks started to engage in the intentional cultivation of, uh, uh, food and livestock, that created a more stable food source.
So, now folks began to settle down in a location, and they would grow food instead of strictly hunting it. Well, now you have cities, you have trade, you have commerce. That's a major step forward in economic development. The third step is the Industrial Revolution. Those first two stages dominate almost all of human history.
Many thousands of years are devoted to that. The Industrial Revolution started in most experts put it in seven at 1760 in the UK. That's when the first factory type work. began that brought in teamwork that brought in a different aspect to the workforce. And then you have the service economy that really came of age in the seventies.
That was it started growing in the mid 1800s. It really came of age in the 1970s. That dominates our economy. Now it's fully three fourths of our economy, the service sector, a restaurant, so, uh, services, banking, et cetera, technology, I. T. That's all a part of the service sector that is dominated 100 percent by teamwork.
And then you have the next phase, the knowledge economy, what you know, intellectual property rights that started it. Oh, it came of age in the sixties. It is vastly, rapidly growing now, and that will dominate our future. Uh, and it's all about teamwork. And then you have the last piece, what we move into next.
I think that will be dominated by space. Our exploration off this planet. You see it now. You see, everyone sees what Elon Musk is doing in South Texas, my home state. Down around Brownsville, he's building out our first major launching pad to take the economy off this planet. It's still going to be dominated by teamwork.
So I would say to everyone that's listening, your entire audience in this country, first of all, values are paramount. If you abandon sound values, you've abandoned the human race and we need to wake up to that. You need to understand also every day when you get up. to make a living. You engage in the workforce.
There are roughly 260 million consumers out there. They have a vote in what you do. They have a say. You need to look around and see what they place value on and gear your efforts toward that. And secondly, virtually all of your work is going to be dominated by teamwork. You have to be a team player.
You're gonna get very few things done by yourself. It's not common in the workplace, and that has been true since the industrial revolution. It started to come to play. It dominates in the knowledge economy and the service sector. And it's going to dominate going forward. So those two things, consumers determine what is valuable and you need to pay attention to that when you're engaging in your work.
And secondly, you will do it in a team framework. That's a teamwork framework that is virtually a given. Yeah. And I think, uh, going back to like, we've talked about how the youth are interacting less socially because of technology in physical environments. And with AI doing a lot of tasks, a lot of tasks being automated.
Uh, you know, how is that affecting group work teamwork building and in the schooling systems and how is that going to affect the workplace culture? even we saw just You know post, you know coven 19 with the remote working in the hybrid working you have teamwork not happening You have it happening online And and it's great like you and I right now having a conversation This is a great way that we can use technology to connect around the world You know Uh, but if it's our only form of connection, because you and I have connected, uh, with people in real life, you know, throughout our whole life.
But what happens when people have only ever connected online? And what happens when they have to work in person together? How are they gonna respond? You know, it's, it's, even like as, as we see the way competitiveness and sportsmanship is being changed. And, you know, it's, it's interesting. And we actually had an episode on my show about, If you never do anything at home to teach competitiveness and sportsmanship in a respectful manner The first time your kid plays a sport or a game at school and loses They might have an adverse reaction They might you know hit someone or scream because they've never been exposed to it same thing if you've never exposed to teamwork and we have this thing where And actually we talked about it in an episode with dr.
Fred moss as well with ais If ai you make it How you like it who you want it to be I mean you could literally set it up to be You know named alicia and and you're a 23 old virtual assistant and you have a but you have a master's degree in Programming, you know, you can set it to all these settings and make it customized and I want you to Use an emoji every time you answer me.
I want lots of exclamation marks. You can customize it In the real world, you can't change people to your liking, especially when you're working together on a project. You have to learn to um, accept and, and relate and respect people's differences, uh, in, in their values, in their ability to work as a team, in their leadership.
You know, so, AI makes us all our own leaders of our own worlds, but um, that doesn't mean we'll do good under someone else's leadership. And I want to go back to talking about, again, the values and the work effort, and specifically discipline. I remember this. When I was in high school, probably junior year, there was this Marine I knew who worked security at the beach.
Because in New Jersey you have to pay to go on the beach, which a lot of places you don't have to do that. New Jersey is one of those places, one of the most expensive places, so shout out to them. But he was working security and I was talking to him and he said he did not like the Marines at all. He said he would never tell anyone to join the Marines for the Marines, but he said, For the discipline he said what he took away in discipline work Effort, you know and ethic What was phenomenal and I have to agree with that having gone through the military and that not necessarily I mean, yeah, you're putting an environment very different from the civilian world But you also work under conditions that are a bit more harsher I remember the first time I got out of the military and I worked at a restaurant And these teenagers and even college kids We're complaining about how difficult it was.
We've got a five hour shift. We got to wash some of the dishes. We got to serve tables. For me, having done 12 hour rotating shift work, 8 to 8, 12 to 12, 8 p. m. to 8 a. m. Working midnight watch on weekends, on holidays, doing tons of manual labor, doing all this stuff on my feet always, monitoring 20 different gauges and panels.
To me, the restaurant was so, so easy. So I think, you know, when you work hard, and the harder you work, and the more difficult tasks you take on, the easier everything else becomes. Not just at your job that you're at, but in life in general. For Whether that's helping your family move from one place to another, to taking on stress.
I mean, it's mental resilience, which we can get into that conversation, because you talk about stress is normal and natural, but here's how we should respond to it, and here's resilience, so can you talk a little bit about that? if if if if if if if if if if I'll tell you what, I'll start with one of the great ironies of the modern day.
Isn't it something to think that social media has made us socially dysfunctional? Isn't that something to ponder? Because it very much has. We've created this technology supposedly for social reasons, and in the middle of it, we completely forget how to be social. We divorce ourselves from the true aspect of humanity, which is interaction, relationship, talking to people, getting along.
You're exactly right on the teamwork and the negative impacts when you replace relationship with technology or some type of distancing, especially at younger ages. I'll tell you where the younger folks learn teamwork. It's in a Sunday school. It's in first and second grade. It's, uh, uh, the interactions around the family dinner table.
Uh, that's where they learn it. And so we need to place values on that. Uh, once again, because that is all preparation for the workforce. Uh, and you hit the nail on the head in terms of work ethic, you know, it, uh, through my career, farm, ranch and, and, uh, corporate executive management, most people scoff at a 12 hour day.
To me, that's just Tuesday . Exactly, exactly. That's, uh, that's a normal, uh, 12 to 15 hours is you're doing your part. Uh, so you do what it takes to get the job done. And that, uh, to a lot of folks has been lost. It's, uh, and here's another fact. I think we have to sit squarely in front of us. And that is whether you have a little in life.
And you're trying to grow that in terms of income or or possessions or wealth or whether you have a lot and you're trying to maintain it. The principles are the same. They are not different. That is a great myth that people want to believe that somehow if you if you gain something in life, all of a sudden the world is different.
Different rules apply. And I can say for personal experience, that is absolutely not true. Melissa and I have been, uh, church, my poor, uh, we've, uh, had very slim budgets, very thin, uh, means, and we've had a lot, uh, we've lived, uh, uh, across all of those circumstances. The principles are exactly the same. They do not change the principles of personal responsibility, being a good steward, working with the people around you, being good to get along with, having good values, good character, being honest.
Those basic things are fundamentally the same. They do not change, and that's how you build well. So as we come out of this phase where we're trying to pit every group against every other group using all of our social media keys, That is absurd and above all it's counterproductive It it hinders us from achievement.
It does not help us Uh, so that's why you know a statement i'm making my book is when I say working class I refuse to use income to define working class. That's irrelevant. It's a Definition the class that is working. That's how you define it If you're working, you're in that class. It doesn't matter the numbers behind it.
That's not relevant. The principles are the same regardless of that. So if we open our reopen our eyes to that, we understood that for many years as a nation. We kind of forgot that for a little while. Hopefully we're getting back to that. But then we can pursue principles and therefore public policies and public attitudes that actually benefit the working class.
That's where we need to be. No, I completely agree with you. And one thing I want to pivot back to is you said family dinner time and so many families nowadays and I get it. Not every mom and dad is at home at the same time. But so many family dinners I see People are just not interacting with each other.
They're sitting on the couch, eating on their lap, watching TV. Or you've got everyone is on their phone, doing something different. And like you said, the phones have created such a distracted environment. They've taken away the social aspect, because people aren't talking to one another, even when they're in touch.
Person together they're on their phone checking for text scrolling through social media even you know Just waiting anywhere or at work Everyone's at work is just trying to be on their phone every chance they have instead of focusing on a task at hand Or they're using the phone as an incentive to rush work and have poor first time quality So I completely agree.
And yeah, I think america needs to get back to Having family dinner time at least that one meal Together in in a traditional style rather than just scattered across Whatever, you know, it's it's really not helping people learn how and then they're going to take that into the thing is, you know children take what they see from their parents and Implemented into their lives either the opposite or the same And they will get used to that and get comfortable to that and then normalize it.
So I I agree with you on that and so At what point did you? Decide to take all of this in and make a book like what did you see that you were like? I need to teach this to other people and I'm gonna write a book and in order to do so You know, the key moment for that. Thank you for that question. That's a great question.
The key moment for that was in my career when I was getting into the management ranks in the corporate world headed towards the executive ranks, I realized I needed some tools to help build and manage a team that would harken back to the old values that I knew to be correct. And to be right, uh, and do it in a modern way, a modern setting.
So I developed a tool and I detail that tool in chapter six. It's called the impact index. Uh, it's a means of managing a team so that you get the highest amount of, you get a high performing team, you get high pro productivity out of a team of people, not just individuals who are all working together. So I developed that tool and in so doing I was taking notes and putting it together.
I used that tool for many years in my own management ranks and taught it to my managers. Uh, uh, the many, many employees that I've managed, I used that for a long time. That was the, uh, the starting point of taking notes and, and, uh, getting a framework. And then I just started building that out. That whole idea became clear to me.
the old fashioned values in a modern setting. And of course, my training in economics helped a great deal in terms of history and context. And and I give a great deal of credit, tremendous credit to my parents. They taught me well, uh, they, they, you may not believe this, but my mother took me to a cotton patch when I was four years old and she put a hoe in my hand and we walked half mile roads and owed cotton together.
That's how I started. And, uh, I just, I don't know any differently. That's what my parents taught me. And I give them a tremendous credit and I've carried that over, uh, as an adult, but it was that, uh, the, the, the formation was. Having to create a team in a corporate environment to get something done, you have all the modern forces pulling against that, uh, team.
Uh, I created a technique and that was the, the seed of the book.
Yeah, and so for, for people who are interested in the book, I know it's called the, the working man, but who should read it really? A working man's God. And, uh, uh, that's the title and the author, and you can see the subtitle there. Uh, so, uh, that, uh, I would encourage everyone to pick up a copy. You can get all four types, paperback, hardback, ebook, and audio book.
Uh, they are all available. Yes, sir. And we'll have your website and the book in the description below. And then additionally, I know you also have. a free toolkit that people can use their email to sign up for. Is that correct? That is correct. Yeah. The toolkit is a, uh, it's like a quick summary, about a four or five page summary, some of the main action points that you can take and you can get a lot of quick learning out of that.
You can get that that's free of charge. Uh, there's no charge for that. Go to the website and sign up and it's a working man's guide dot com. Drop the apostrophe and don't forget the a a working man's guide dot com and you can sign up. Just drop in your email. You'll get that tool kit free of charge and then you'll have links.
You can go to several sites. Amazon is a key 1. To purchase and You can buy directly off the website . Awesome. That's awesome. So dr. Teague, I feel like we've hit a lot of great points and so Before we close it up if you just want to leave us with one more thing Uh for everyone to take away with them Thank you very much, and I appreciate the time.
Mr. Whiskey. You're an excellent host I value highly your audience And I would say I'm a huge fan of the American working class. America is a working class nation. It always has been. It always will be. Uh, and the more that we just explicitly and acknowledge and embrace that the better off we'll be. I will be a happy man when that is reflected in our public policy, because I'll know that is the value that drives, uh, private life.
And this book is essentially a roadmap. I created a roadmap. It's, uh, uh, in voice, I write it directly to the, to the male, uh, the working man. But, you know, the true audience is really, uh, the female, uh, the lady. That's the one that I want to benefit because as men, if we step up and we do our job and we live by solid values, the ladies will benefit the most.
And I would love to see that. In fact, the best outcome of this would be for the ladies to buy this book, read it, and then tell their men what to do. That would be perfect, but I thank you for your time, and, uh, I hope your audience, uh, prospers. America is a working class nation. May she ever be strong and prosperous.
Amen. I couldn't agree more. So, thank you so much, Dr. Teague. I appreciate it. You bet. Take care.
