Coming up, we're gonna review the habits of maybe one of the most influential people America has ever known. And then middle-class jobs are shrinking, but there are some that are growing. We'll break it down. That's next. Welcome to the show that helps you win at work. I want you getting better so that you're moving up the ladder and you are leading effectively. So this is perfect.
You want to do great things, do what great people did. There you go. That could be the entire show. I could literally stop the show. Alex wouldn't be happy, but that would be enough for you to learn something today. You want to do great things, do what great people did. And so we're going to go back into the way back machine today. Uh, the team and I were talking about this recently about an idea and I'd been reading a book about, uh, America's founding fathers and, uh,
how they viewed the pursuit of happiness, a phrase that they actually talked about in their personal correspondence well before Thomas Jefferson penned it in the Declaration of Independence. It was an idea that they were influenced by. And so I was reading this book, the actual title of the book is The Pursuit of Happiness. It's a great book, you should read it. And one of the things that kept popping up in this book
was the daily rituals, the routines, the agendas of these very influential men. So let's start with Ben Franklin, shall we? I thought, let's just use Ben Franklin's daily agenda. There's lots of different versions because he would change his agenda. So for some of you fact checkers out there, relax. This version is one of many versions. He would have changed his daily agenda much like you do, okay? But I've seen multiple different versions
of his daily agenda, and the one we're going to share with you today is, in fact, very indicative of how he would spend each day. And so I want to roll through this and then give you some observations, okay? So this has been Franklin's daily rhythm, daily agenda. From 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. This is what his agenda was. Rise, wash, and address powerful goodness
Exclamation point. You love the way they talked and wrote back then. I certainly do. Contrive the day's business. That means kind of plan. Let's think about what I'm going to get done today and take the resolution of the day.
prosecute the present study and breakfast. I want to come back to each of these. Okay. There's so much richness in this. All right. Next from eight AM to 12 PM, he wrote down work. From 12 to two, he would read or overlook my accounts, his financial accounts, and then dine.
Okay. From two to six was blocked up for more work. From six to 10. This is what he would write, put things in their places, supper, music or diversion or conversation, examination of the day. And then from 10 PM to five AM sleep. All right.
I'm not saying that you have to do this agenda, but I'm saying if you had an agenda of your day that had these elements and these disciplines in it, you would be far more effective. Let's break it down. I'm going to take my analysis. I'm not a historian for those of you wondering. I'm not an expert on this, but I'm going to use some common sense and I've read a lot about Franklin.
I've read Isaac's biography on him. I know enough to inform my own comments on this. So let's break this schedule down. Now that I've given you the day, let's break it down. All right, five AM to eight AM. All right, we get the rise wash. That's like us taking a shower, right? And address powerful goodness. Now in, in his notes, powerful is capitalized and goodness is capitalized.
Can I tell you what he's talking about? I think he's talking about prayer. I think he's talking about some meditation. Address powerful goodness exclamation point was where he wrote it. I think that's saying I'm going to start my day being grateful for another morning. I'm going to start my day in gratitude. Thankful to the supreme power God, God of the universe who created all things and me. I think that's what he's saying.
Well, that's a great way to start. Then he says, contrived the day's business. Now that he's had some alone time with God, whatever that looked like for him, he's contriving the day's business. In other words, he's planning, thinking through, what's the most important thing today? What's the highest priority today? That's what he's saying. Take the resolution of the day. That's pretty cool.
I don't know what that means. And so I'm going to skip over that instead of try to fake it. All right. But to be resolute, to take a resolution, right? That's pretty interesting there could very well be saying after coming through, contrived the day's business. And what am I resolving? What is the theme of the day could be? I love prosecute the present study to me.
That's something that he's thinking about processing. Maybe he studies up, he was a classic inventor and then breakfast. So is that the order in which he did it? We'd have to have a historian to weigh in on that. The answer is we really don't know, but that was what was on his agenda from five a.m. to eight a.m. All right. Now eight to 12 is work. Okay.
12 to two. Fascinating. Now this is a power lunch. Ben Franklin was the first guy to have a power lunch. All right. Now power lunch in today's world might mean a lot of different things, a lot of different people, but this is a power lunch. He's taking a break from work. That's the key thing. A two hour break from work. Fascinating. It's going to read. First thing on his agenda is read going to go grab a book and I'm going to read.
Maybe you read, find the work you're wired to do. If you hate the work you're in, I don't know. Maybe you read a spy novel. Maybe you read about a subject, a subject matter that you're interested in your field. Read, then he overlooked his accounts. He's looking at his finances and he has lunch. Two to six, his work. Okay. Back to that, we get that another block of focused work.
And then six to 10. This is, I really enjoyed this one. Put things in their places. Organize things around the house, get things in order. He has his supper, music or diversion. I keep on my folks, these people did not have televisions. They did not have smartphones or iPads. They didn't have streaming services, Alex. You know what they had? Company. They would go sit in parlors. You sat and you gather and you talked.
It was relationships is the point. Music or diversion, I don't know what that means, but you can take that as you will. I will tell you that if you study Franklin, he was a ladies man, so I think that might be his diversion. And then conversation, and then here's my favorite thing. At the end of the day, examination. All great thinkers, all great doers have a rhythm of reflection at the end of the day.
So as much fun as I've had with this idea here, it's relationship and reflection where their evenings. Did you catch that? Relationships and reflection, that's what their evenings consisted of. And I think there's some great power in that. This idea that after a full day of work, we're going to be in relationship with other people and friends and have a good time, good drink, good food, good music.
Good time. So I want you to walk away from this to say that I took away from this. Good work. Good time and good reflection. I think if you had those three elements to your day, you'll see a massive change in your life. Good work. Do good work. Have a good time. Make sure that you have good reflection. I think that's really, really interesting stuff. Good work.
Good time. Good reflection. That's a good life.
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know, this month is all about gratitude. And most of us have people in our lives that we're grateful for. I can think of one person less who is like an older brother, but really have been a mentor to me throughout important times of my life. He's been through more than I've been through. He has a tremendous amount of wisdom, but most importantly, he's a great encourager. So when he's got to be honest with me, he's still patting me on the back and he's saying, you got this, I'm here for you.
And you know, when we're talking about gratitude, one of the people that we need to be most grateful to is ourselves. In other words,
How often are you getting alone and writing down what you're grateful for, saying out loud what you're grateful for in your life is so important. We don't always stop to acknowledge when we learn a new skill or work on a relationship to improve our lives and careers. So here's my reminder to thank the people in your life, including you. That's why I recommend better help because sometimes
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I'm one of my goals is to always keep you on the cutting edge of of trends and things that could affect your ability to make an income. Here's a CBS news article that I want to break down. I think it's important headline middle class jobs are shrinking and these could one day disappear.
uh, there are almost all of these are in the middle class, uh, that we're going to go over obviously. And we're talking about pay from 40,000 on the low end to right around a hundred thousand, a bit over a hundred thousand dollars a year. And in this, this particular, uh, group of professions and that demographic of income, the forecast from the department of labor, um, shows that
They will shed more than 600,000 jobs by 2033 in this particular area. We're going to break this down for you. And you're going to see here a heavy dose of clerical workers. Now, before I go through this,
Workers that remain in these particular occupations will have to have skills to adapt to new technology, such as artificial intelligence or other forms of automation. So here we go. I'm not going to go through all these. Let's just go through some of the top 10. Office clerks, they're going to see a reduction of 147,000 jobs through 2033. First line supervisors of retail sales workers.
I'm not going to go through the amount of jobs every time it. This is all adding up to obviously 600,000 jobs. First line supervisors of office and administrative support workers. So I want to stop there. We have two different categories and what you're seeing is first line supervisors. Okay. So that right there is an interesting indicator of a trend.
It doesn't matter whether the retail sales workers or they are administrative support workers. We are talking about that line of management. Okay. So if you've got a, a manager of a store, maybe we call them the, the, the overall manager and then you have a shift managers.
So we're talking about shift managers, whatever that title is, that first frontline of management, we could call it middle management in this situation, gone. You're going to see an efficiency there. That's interesting. Let's keep going. Metal and plastic machine workers.
So again, this is where AI and robots and automation is gonna come in and really affect these workers. Financial clerks, these are numbers people, crunching numbers. Again, AI and programming, gonna be able to crunch numbers a lot easier, a lot faster. Material recording clerks, bill and account collectors, quality control inspectors,
So again, I'm just highlighting about eight of the top 10 here. What do we see? Where
you can essentially write code and create an AI program and where an artificial intelligence, some type of bot or a program can do what other people have previously done and do it faster and a lot more efficient removing human error, that's where you're gonna see a shift, okay? But again, just because you're in this field doesn't mean that you're not gonna be able to make a living. You may have to adjust and add some skill sets because remember this, computers can only do
what humans allow them to do, or program them to do, or tell them what to do, okay? So keep that in mind. All right, now, let's keep going for a quick analysis, and then I'm gonna come back here in a minute, and I'm gonna tell you the middle class jobs that they're forecasting growth, okay? Because there's some good news here. Now, let's look at technology jobs, okay? Because as technology advances,
You will have a shift of technology workers who they were paid at one point to do A and now no longer needed to do A, but they can be shifted or they can pivot, if you will, into technology work to do B, okay? And that's what you're gonna see. This Bureau of Labor Statistics report is forecasting that computer programmers will shed 10% of their workers by 2033. The main reason, automation.
is making coders more efficient. And so you're requiring fewer programmers. However, the same report says that the economy will add more than 300,000 new software developers in the next decade. Okay. So again, you're not kicked out of an industry. You're just going to have to shift. You're going to have to pivot pivot. And again, this is important to point out the world of work right now.
is rapidly changing, and I think we will now have a new pace at which work evolves. In other words, the way I'm putting this is, I believe this, work from the dawn of time until now. As technology comes in, the way work evolves is evolving faster.
And then I think from the dawn of time to now, there have been certain periods where we see accelerated changes in the world of work. One, for example, would be the use of the internet. I mean, imagine how quickly our world at work, those who've been working long enough to remember when there was an internet. And I mean, Bob, I age myself here, but when I went to college, there was no internet. I know that freaks you out, Alex, but that's how old I am. If I went to college, there was no internet.
We didn't have laptops. We were using MS-DOS. Okay? So imagine how the world of work changed when the internet came in. I was there. I was probably 1920, first time I got on a computer with internet and I'm working on a campaign and the way we did work was like, it changed the game. All right, so there are seasons of history where
And I think with, with where we are in AI, I think the next two or three years is one of those times if history will look back on and say the world of work rapidly changed in this season. And as a result, every time we see rapid, a massive changes, then the speed of which work evolves is faster every time. So every time we come through a more major significant, oh, wow, work evolved. Well, guess what? The pace quickens. So.
Here's what I'm getting at. Make sure that you are upskilling and staying up to date with what you need to know. Like I remember 10 years ago, I was like, you need to be able to use Microsoft Excel. That's a joke now. I mean, I guess you still got to be able to use it, but that was like a big skill. So now you're going to have to be able to use AI. You're just going to have to be able to deal with it and use it.
So there you go. All right. Let me move into some good news. How many of you want some good news really quick? I'm going to roll through this in about a minute. Okay. Here are the same, same report. Where are the middle class jobs growing medical assistance?
Light truck drivers. Now let me explain that. That's not your 18 wheelers. You know, barreling down the interstate. This is light truck drivers. That's your, your local, your regional stops, construction laborers, substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors, heavy tractor trailer truck drivers, electricians, accountants, registered nurses,
analysts and general and operation managers. Now folks, those are we calling middle class jobs. We're talking about on the low range, 40,000 high range, a little bit over a hundred thousand. Those are growing. Did you see what's happening there? This is the anti AI. We need medical assistance to help a ever increasingly burdened healthcare system, doctors and nurses.
truck drivers, everybody's ordering something off a fricking website. Amazon has changed the game. Now you're ordering from your local business guy and they're dropping stuff off. Construction laborers. Gotta have them. Gotta have them to build houses, build buildings, substance abuse, behavioral disorder, mental health counselors, heavy tractor trailer, electricians, accountants, registered nurses, analysts, managers, leaders. Guess what's happening here?
Every one of these middle-class jobs that's growing has nothing to do with technology. It has everything to do with people. Only things that people can do. Everybody relax. AI, the big bad monster, is not going to kick you out of the workforce. You're just gonna have to adapt to it. Good news though for middle-class. We can get this economy straightened out. We'll see.
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Welcome back to the Ken Coleman show. Thrilled that you're with us. Hey, if you're enjoying the show and it's helping you, would you spread the word? You can do that by liking the video. They're watching on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel and sharing. And then if you're on your favorite podcast, give us a follow and a five star review and share as well. Candice is up next in Minneapolis. Candice, how can I help today? Hi, thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it. You bet. My overall question for you today is my
If my job is checking off my talents, I took the get clear assessment back in 2017 when I was struggling with my original job since college. I'd been there like 12 years. I had little kids. And so I took the assessment and I was evaluating what to do as a career. But then I heard your show and you mentioned to someone like,
Sometimes it's not vocation's location. And that kind of like opened up a new avenue for me. And so I did find a new job. It was from an hour commute down to five minutes. So it really helps my family a lot with the home for the kid. Yeah. But it was a big pay cut, which I justified and we made it work. Now fast forward to 2024. I'm six months into a new career doing basically the same thing, still working for state government.
And I got more money and now I work from home. But the problem is, is I'm not addressing any of my passions. And so I have a side hustle where I make things and sell them at the farmers market and I love that.
But everyone's like, oh, you should make it into a business, but I can't make the same kind of money doing that. And I'm worried, like doing more in regards to that would really eliminate the joy I get out of it because I'm become more of the business and administration. Right. Yeah. Cause now you're like, I got to produce mass, produce something that I just enjoy creating. Yeah. Yeah. In my talents being met, but my not my passions. I think so. What, what is the primary reason that you're working?
money. Exactly. And what is that money going to? What's the number one? Right. But in what specific way? Is it paying for college? Is it paying debt off? Is it just? Yeah. So that's the big thing is we are finally debt free. And in two years, we'll have our house paid off now that we have more money coming out. And my kids start graduating high school in three years. My husband can take retirement. You know, he's been the breadwinner working in law enforcement.
the burden of that being the breadwinner anymore. And so that really keeps me where I'm at. But again, it's just find that fulfillment factor. Well, so yeah, and I'm getting there. I totally love this question. I'm trying to end around and figure out if I'm right when I said yes, that you can be fulfilled in a talent only job. And my answer is yes, if
The sole purpose for working is a financial contribution, which it is. Then I do believe that you can look at a job and go, this particular job is a resource that is very much needed.
And it's fairly temporary. Goodness gracious, temporary. All of a sudden I just forgot how to talk, Candice. You know what I mean? And so now your mindset on this is, look, there's coming a day where I'm coming home and I'm going to do more of my stuff that I sell at the farmer's market. And that's just the labor of love. Maybe it turns into something, maybe it doesn't.
But I think in this case, I don't know that you have to have the, am I using what I do best to do what I love to produce results that I care about? I don't know that you have to have that if you have fulfillment in other areas of your life. In fact, I know you don't. If you see it that way. Yeah. Are you surprised that I said that?
No, I've been telling myself that for a while now, just because it makes me show up every day to work. Like it's fine. Well, but I think the purpose in your work, though, now is less about the contribution of the actual result of your work. And the purpose of the work is the contribution to your family and to the lifestyle that you're setting up that you want to live, right?
Yeah. And I think that, um, in the last few years, we've had a lot of family crisis and stuff like that. And I think my mind has kind of switched more of that. Like it's more of a job rather than me contributing to the world. Um, and I guess it's still trying to settle with that. Like I'm not going to change everything. Well, let me, that's right. And let me ask you this. What is the timeline best guess that you're, that you're going to quit this job and that you would go home?
15 to 20 years. Oh, I don't think I realized that. So yeah, I'm only in my 40. So right. But I just thought that with you guys paying your house off, your husband retiring, that you made downshift. Maybe. Oh.
Well, my answer changes a little bit in that everything I said, I believe, but I think there's come at a point where you may want to pivot to something that you really enjoy. If you've got a 15 year journey of work ahead of you to where you have to bring in a certain amount of money, then yeah, I don't want you.
written it out for 15 to 20 years on talent alone. That will get old. I was thinking, my answer, by the way, for the rest of our audience, in case you're wondering, my answer was based on a short-term season, is talent enough to be fulfilled? The answer is short-term, yes. Because I was somewhere in my mind, Candice, I had this idea you were doing this for a short-term. Well, I really need to only be here for five years to be bested for my pension.
So I have 12 years of pension already at this agency. What kind of pension would it be? It's an employer-backed pension. No, no. How much money are we talking about? If you stick it out for five years, what's your pension going to be?
It's based on my high five years of salary. Okay. And since I'm at the top of my salary, it would be, it would be best to stay there for that money. Okay. So we, so you, so, okay. Cause, cause, cause my opinion on that is, you know, I don't know if you're making more money. If I can freeze it and I don't have to pull on it until I'm full retirement age. Right. What, what would you be doing? If you could wave a wand and just say, I'm going to go do this kind of work. Cause I think you know the answer.
Yeah, I would probably be working with, um, in your community, probably. Okay. And so what, what's required for you to be able to do that work? Nothing. You're qualified now. I redo get by redo a lot of volunteer work through our church, helping our senior citizens. So what are there? Are there facilities in your area that are in a reasonable drive? So it's not back to that old situation. Yes. What do they pay? What are those positions? Pay more of the same and what you make now or less.
Oh, I see. So we're back to that again.
So I do volunteer through church, like serving meals and different things. To me, that is the same type of fulfillment as a job of a paycheck. As long as the work is creating a result that matters to you, the brain doesn't know whether in that moment you're doing that task, whether or not you're getting paid for it or not. The heart doesn't know either. All the brain and the heart know is, woo, we're enjoying this, right?
So from that standpoint, if you got to stick it out, as long as you're doing fulfilling work, like the volunteering, like the crafts or whatever you're making for the local farmers market, and then you're very involved at home, the life rhythm, the family rhythm as far as scheduling all that is really good, then I think that, yeah, you can maintain this. I don't know that I do it for more than five years though.
Okay. Because at this point, you guys have worked so hard to pay your home off and now you're at a different level. So maybe you don't have to make as much, you know what I mean? Or, you know, um, it's not about, it's not about making any money. That's gravy anyway. Right. But you're still bringing money in. Yeah. And you're still doing something you enjoy. So I think, is that, is that help you out? Did we get to what you needed? Yeah. I think it was just a confirmation that balancing not all just to the work.
It still gives you the balance. And I think I was just trying to reach for something that maybe I can't get through just work. That's right. I think your head's on right. I think your heart's totally wired the right way. And I'm really proud of you. Thank you very much for the call. That's really worthy stuff that you're thinking through financially, professionally. And I think you're balanced and you're going to do something to really help people. This is the Ken Coleman Show.
Thanks for listening to The Ken Coleman Show. For more, you can find the show on demand wherever you listen to podcasts and watch the show on YouTube. You can also find Ken across all social media by following at Ken Coleman.
