Podcasts about seanwes

Cory Miller talks with Sean McCabe, CEO of Seanwes Media. While it's likely never been easier to sell courses for an audience (especially if you are using a system like WordPress), what hasn't changed — according to Sean — is the marketing and the validation of what you are marketing, how you are marketing it, and how you are pricing it. Sean shares his perspectives on these permanent problems, outlining what has and hasn't worked for him. Sean also shares his thoughts on what comes first — the community, the courses, or both. This is a must-listen for anyone with a membership course or learning site, or anyone who is thinking of starting one. 

Sean McCabe is the founder and CEO of seanwes media, and Daily Content Machine. Sean is a prolific and successful creator, author, and influencer. His course, Learn Lettering, made $80,000 in the first 24 hours. For nearly a decade his podcast, blog, and courses have helped creators grow their brands, content, and skill sets.Sean's website is a treasure trove of courses and resources for anyone looking for business knowledge and creative support. Sean's book, Overlap, shows creators how to turn their passion into a successful business while working a full-time job. His podcast includes almost 500 episodes on content creation and entrepreneurship. His latest venture, Daily Content Machine, turns creators' best content into clippable moments they can share across their social media accounts.I talk with Sean about what it's like being a successful creator. We talk about growing your audience and connecting with them. We cover how to learn new skills fast, and about developing a growth mindset. We also talk about managing stress as a founder, how to handle burnout, and much more.In this episode, you'll learn: Why good writing is the foundation of great content How to connect better with your audience Leveraging short-form content to grow your brand Pricing at full value without feeling guilty How to avoid burnout, and what to do if you're already there Links & Resources Sean McCabe on The Nathan Barry Show episode 003 Craft + Commerce conference ConvertKit Enough Ryan Holiday James Clear Marie Forleo Ramit Sethi Sean McCabe's Links Follow Sean on Twitter Check out Sean on Instagram Sean's website Daily Content Machine Episode Transcript[00:00:00] Sean:If you are a founder, you should be in therapy. Full-stop. You need a therapist. I thought I didn't. I had a great upbringing. I'm all good. Everything's healthy. I don't have any problems. The problem was I didn't know the problems that I had. I didn't realize what I was stuffing down. I didn't realize what I was avoiding.There is so much to unpack that you don't know you need to unpack.[00:00:30] Nathan:In this episode I talk to my friend, Sean McCabe. We've known each other for seven years now. It's been a long time. We've been in a mastermind group together. He's actually been on the show before. Sean is a wildly talented designer. He got his start hand-lettering.I think last time he was on the show, years ago, we were talking about that aspect of his business and how he built this substantial course business. Selling courses on hand-lettering, on marketing, on writing. He's spoken at our conference Craft + Commerce, all kinds of things. Sean is one of the most prolific creators that I've ever known.It's also super fun that he's a friend and lives right here in town. We just have a great conversation. We talk about how you create content, which is one of those things that it's not even how you create content, it's why. Where that comes from. The internal drive in what you use. Where you choose to have as a source of fuel and energy to put into that creative output.How some sources are really good and productive, and others can be kind of like a house of cards, and it can be harmful. We also talk about scaling teams as a creator. How do you know when to build out a team around your business? He's done that two different ways. So I get to ask him about some of the things he's learned and applied differently.I'm going to stop there. There's a lot of good stuff. So with that, let's dive in.Sean. Welcome to the show.[00:01:59] Sean:Hey, Nathan, just saw you recently. We were playing volleyball, or something.[00:02:03] Nathan:Or something, like two days ago. You moved to my city. It's kind of…[00:02:08] Sean:Yeah. It's horrible. It's a terrible place. Boise. Don't move to Idaho.[00:02:15] Nathan:You mean Iowa? Boise, Iowa.[00:02:17] Sean:Iowa. Yeah. Don't, yeah. Did I do okay?[00:02:21] Nathan:Yeah. That's exactly what you're supposed to say. If you Google something about Boise, Google has the accordion of extra questions, or things you might want to know. One of them is, “Does Boise smell?” and it's just like auto complaints in there.And I was like, what is up with that? I clicked on it, and it's this satirical article that has 12 reasons you shouldn't move to Boise. One of them is the city dump is right in the middle of the city. Another one is like that the Ebola outbreak hasn't been fully contained yet.So it's not really safe. I think there was something about lava. Anyway, it's just an article about all the reasons to not move to Boise. So I think you're right in line.[00:03:08] Sean:Stay, away. That's what they tell me to say.[00:03:11] Nathan:Yes, but if someone were to ignore that and move to Boise, they could come to our weekly volleyball game on Wednesday nights.[00:03:19] Sean:It's casual. It's open.[00:03:21] Nathan:Let's try it. Yeah. It's been so fun having you and Laci here. It's also been fun because you started a new company. Your company is producing and editing and creating all the clips for this podcast. So, connections on so many levels.[00:03:37] Sean:Yeah. We produce this show, like the video show, the audio show, and then find clips and make those clips for social media. It's been great. We love this show. Our team's favorite content. So, I'm a little biased, but it's fun to be on. Because my team's going to work on this.[00:03:58] Nathan:Yeah, exactly. I made sure to spell your name correctly in the setup, and I know they'll get it all.I wanted to ask what sparked—like maybe first give a summary of Daily Content Machine, since that's what you're spending nearly all of your time on. More than a normal amount of time on. So, what sparked it, and what is it?[00:04:19] Sean:Fun fact. This is not the first time I've been on the show. The last time was episode three, 2,624 days ago.[00:04:30] Nathan:Give or take[00:04:32] Sean:I was doing different stuff then. It's been a crazy journey. Right now the newest iteration is an agency.We produce video clips. We turn long form video shows. If you have a video podcast or other kind of long form video content, we found that the hardest part is finding all the good moments in there, and turning those into short clips. That's what we do. I designed it for myself, really.I wanted it to be where you just show up, you record, and, everything just happens? What is your experience, Nathan, with having a video and audio podcasts made, and clips and all that published? What do you, what's your involvement.[00:05:14] Nathan:Yeah. So I think about who I want on the show, I email them and say, will you come on the show? And then I talked to them for an hour, and then I read no, either way. I don't even do that. Yep. That's my full involvement. And what happens is then really what I see is when the show comes out, which I don't touch anything from that moment on. I actually probably notice the show coming out like, oh yeah, that's the episode that we post this week. Cause we have a three week delay on our, production schedule. And so I noticed like, oh yeah, I had a David Perell on the show when I get the Twitter notification of like, David, Perell just retweeted you.And I'm like, oh, what did oh, right. Yeah. Because his episode came out and then every, I mean, David was especially generous. Right. But every clip that week seven in a row, he retweeted and posted to his, you know, hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. Right. Cause it makes him look really good. It's clips of him delivering these, you know, soundbites of genius, perfectly format.And he's like great retweet share with my audience. I think that one, I picked up like hundreds of new Twitter followers, just, you know, maybe more just from, from, that. So it's a, it's a great experience. The side that I haven't done as much with that I really want to. and you and I talked about this a lot when we. Like early days of Daily Content Machine and what could it be? And, and then, getting my show set up on it is the transcripts in the show notes that you all do. cause first you found the most interesting points of the show and then second there's text versions of all of that. And then they're all like neatly edited and, and everything.And so,[00:07:01] Sean:A lot of re-purposing options.[00:07:04] Nathan:Yeah, so like if you ask the same question or a similar question, like, Hey, how'd you grow from a thousand subscribers to 10,000. Tell me about that process. If you ask that consistently, which I'm not great about asking the same questions consistently, but then over the course of 20, 30 episodes, you have this great library of answers to that question and you could make like compile it all, write some narrative and it's like, oh, there's an ebook that would be 15 pages long and could be a free lead magnet or a giveaway or anything else. It's just a total by-product of the podcast and Daily Content Machine. So I'm a huge fan. That's my experience.[00:07:42] Sean:Well, it's great to hear. yeah, we wanted to make it, I wanted to make it, so I just show up. I record myself doing a podcast with the camera on, and then I walk away. Like I don't have to, the footage sinks. It goes to the team. They produce it. They made me look good. They make me sound good. They find all of the best things. I said, things my guests said, they think about my target audience. What are their struggles? What are their goals? What do they want, what do they need? How would they search for it? How would they say it themselves? And they work together to come up with good titles for them, then produce it, flawless captions, you know, do the research, how's the guests build their name.How does their company name capitalize? Like make sure it's, it's all polished and then publish it everywhere. So I just show up once a week for an hour and record, and then I get to be everywhere every day. That's that's at least the goal. And I'm hearing you say like one of the benefits, but one of the benefits of finding clips out of your long form shows to post on social media is you give your guests something to share.And there's kind of two, two ways of approaching podcasts. And one is kind of the old school way, you know, People used to blog and the used to subscribe to RSS feeds and like, you know, that's how they consumed their content. And definitely you still want to build your own platform, have a website, have a blog, you know, definitely have an email newsletter on ConvertKit but now we're, we're posting Twitter threads. We're posting more content natively and people are consuming more natively on the platforms. So there's the old idea of, I have a podcast, here's a link, go listen to my podcast, go watch my podcast, go watch my video shifting from that to, Hey, why don't we deliver the best moments of the show?Because people are consuming short form content, and that's how they're evaluating whether they want to subscribe, whether they want to spend an hour listening in depth to that interview. We're giving them all of these entrance points and just providing value natively on the platform. Instead of asking them to go off the platform and interrupt their experience, it's here you go.Here's some value here's where you can get more.And, and that that's such a great way to. Bring new listeners on as well as to give the guests something to share, because think about the experience between a guest, being told like, Hey, your episodes out, will you, will you share a link to it? And they're like, Hey, I was on a show, go listen to the show.It's such a great interview. You know, we, we do it. We want to help out that, that person with the podcast. But imagine if the best moments that, where you said that the smartest things with all of your filler words remove and your tangents remove was tweeted, and there's a video right there. All you have to do is hit retweet.It's free content for you. It looks good. But then also for you as the show host, it promotes your show and gives you a new awesome.[00:10:28] Nathan:The other thing in it, like the retweet is fantastic, but a lot of people want that as original content on their social channel. And so having like the, the deliverable that I get from you all is, is. Yeah, it just shows up in Dropbox of here's all the videos for all the platforms and everything, you know, from my archives and all that.And I've sent those on to the guests when they're like, Hey, can I post this? Not every tweet. Like I want to post it with my own, title or tweaks on that. And so I can just share that whole Dropbox folder and they'll, they'll go find the exact thing they want to share and, and use it in their own softens.Like, yes, absolutely. Because the pre-roll or like the, or the post roll on that video is like, go subscribe to item newsletters. It's like, yes, please.[00:11:14] Sean:And it's not like Nathan, that you would have trouble getting guests, but if one had trouble getting guests for their show, or you want to get someone that's like really big, really busy, they get all kinds of requests all the time. Well, imagine if they're evaluating between these different shows, you know what, what's the audience size?What am I going to get out of it? You know, especially if you don't have millions of downloads on your podcast. Well, if you're providing these additional assets, like, Hey, we're going to make clips of this. You're going to get content out of this. It can help people make that decision to come onto your show as opposed to maybe another.[00:11:46] Nathan:Yeah, totally. I want to go, so somebody different directions. This is, we talked about an agency and the business that you're starting. I have a question that I've kind of asked you one-on-one sometimes. And I want to know why build a business with a team and like build this X scale of business rather than go the indie creative route.Right? Because if we want to, if you wanted to say independent, no team, you could probably make a business doing $250,000 a year. Work on it, maybe 20 hours a week, something like that, you know, hanging out in the studio, you'd still have your podcast. You could sit down and like, you're one of the most prolific writers I've ever met. so you could do a bunch of those, those things. And yet you keep trying to do and succeeding in doing these much harder businesses of building a team. And I have to know why.[00:12:39] Sean:Nathan, I don't know. I don't know why. I kind of know why, uh it's it's like it's going to get deep. I mean, it, it probably really goes back to childhood and being, being the oldest of 13 kids feeling like. I don't know if my parents are watching, but like, I felt this, this pressure to be successful, to be a good example, to be, to be a leader, you know, like to be productive.And, you know, I'm working through a lot of that stuff in therapy, like learning, like where did my motivations come from? And like, you know, it is this healthy because, you know, you know, my, my background of extreme workaholism for like 10 years, like, Nope, no joke. It was really bad. Like 16 hour days, seven days a week for 10 years, like all I did was work and like that's, that's my tendency.And I think something beautiful came out of that, which is this sabbaticals idea where since 2014 now I've taken off every seventh week as a sabbatical. So I work six weeks and I, I take off a week and we do that with our team and all of our team members. I paid them to take off sabbaticals and it's just been beautiful.The heartbeat of the company. And like, it's been really good for me as well in terms of, you know, burnout prevention and just unlocking my best ideas, but that's, that's my tendency. And, you know, th there's, there's all kinds of reasons. And, you know, there there's messages that we hear that maybe were said or implicit, you know, growing up that we internalize.And so I think, honestly, Nathan it's, it's probably just like chasing, like, I'm going to be dead honest, like, like it's, it's just like, I think of your post that post that you titled about enough, you know, and, you know, thinking through it, like, like if I were to just think of a number, you know, it's like, no, that's not enough, you know, and I know that's not healthy.So like, yeah, I could totally, I could totally do the solo thing. I could totally make 600. Work part-time, have less stress and maybe I should, you know, maybe I will eventually, but there's something in me that wants to build something bigger, but at the same time, it's just so much fun. Get it, like, I just love processes and systems and like, you know, building things that can scale.And so, yeah, it's.[00:15:08] Nathan:Well, let's lean into it more because I have the same thing on two different sides. Like I made the same leap from a solar creator to having a team. and there's sometimes I miss aspects of the solo creator thing. Like there's a level of simplicity and like, I look at somebody's product launch or something, and it does $25,000 or $50,000.And I'm like, oh, I remember when that amount of money was substantial in that it moved the needle for the business and like, and drove real profits. Now, like 25 or $50,000 gets eaten up by that much of expenses, like immediately, you know, cause the, the machine is just so much, so much bigger. And so I have the same thing of, of pushing for more and trying to figure out what. Like, what is that balance? And, and, yeah, I guess, how do you think about the balance between gratitude and enough and drive and ambition?[00:16:08] Sean:Yeah, that is a great question. It is. It is a balance. And as someone who has a tendency towards all or nothing thinking like, I'm, I just get obsessed. Like if I'm, if I'm about something like, I'm just all in, or I don't care at all. Like I'm really not in between. And that I think is a double-edged sword.Like it's a reason for my success, but it's also a reason for all of my downfalls and like, you know, going years without exercising and losing relationships and friendships, because I was so consumed by what I was building, you know, it is very much a double-edged sword. And so I think the answer is balance, you know, in what you're saying, w what do you, what do I think about the balance?I think it is a balance. It has to be, you have to be operating from a place of enough and then have things that are pulling you forward. You know, something that you're working towards having goals I think is healthy. You know, it's. Something that gets you out of bed in the morning. You're excited about what you're doing.You have this vision for where you're going, but it's operating from a healthy place of, I'm not doing this to fill a void in my soul. Right? Like I'm not doing this because I believe I'm not enough because I believe I'm not worthy of something. But, but because I know, yes, I matter I'm worthy. I'm important.And I'm excited. Like, I think that's the, I'm not saying I'm even there. I just think that's the balance to strike[00:17:34] Nathan:Yeah. I think you're right in this. It's interesting of the things that you can do in your, I guess, life, maybe the creative Dr.. I think there's a tendency of using that insecurity to drive creative success that can work really, really well for an amount of time. Like if you need to finish a book, grow your audience to a thousand subscribers, you know, like accomplish some specific goal.And he used the chip on your shoulder and the feeling of like, this person doesn't believe in me and that like triggers those deep insecurities on one hand, it's wildly effective and on the other, it can be super destructive and it's such a weird balance and place to sit in.[00:18:21] Sean:Yeah, a double-edged sword, for sure. Like it can, it can be what helps you succeed? And it can be your downfall. So you have to wield it wisely. unintentional illiteration you ha you have to be careful with that because it's so easy to just get consumed by it, to drown in it, to let this, you know, whatever it is, this, this, this drive, this motivation, the chip on the shoulder, whatever it is to let it take you to a place where you're just like, along for the ride, you know, on a wave, going somewhere on a, on a, you know, a tube floating down the river, right.You're just being taken somewhere, but are you being taken where you wanna go?[00:19:05] Nathan:Well, yeah. And then realizing, like, it might feel like you are up into a point, but then I guess if you're not aware of it and you're not in control of it, then you'll get to the point where the thing that you were trying to succeed, that the book launch, you know, hitting $10,000 in sales or whatever else, like that's not going to have any of the satisfaction and.[00:19:25] Sean:If I can take an opportunity here just to speak very directly to a point. If you are a founder, you should be in therapy. Full-stop like you, you need a therapist. I thought I didn't. I was like, I had a great upbringing. I'm all good. You know, everything's healthy. I don't have any problems. The problem was, I didn't know the problems that I had.I didn't realize what I was stuffing down. I didn't realize what I was avoiding. There's so much stress, you know, being a founder or even any, any C level executive in a company, like there's just so much going on, and you're responsible for so many things it affects your personal life. It affects your relationships.It affects how you see yourself. There is so much to unpack that you don't know, you need to unpack. And there's probably also stuff that, you know, you need to unpack. and Maybe you don't want to, but I went my entire life until the past year. Never going into therapy, never went to therapy. I'm like, yeah, that's great.You know, if you have some serious problems or a really bad childhood or whatever, like yeah. That's, you know, I support, it like positive, you know, like golf clap and I'm like, oh my gosh since I've been going on. I'm like I didn't know why I was doing the things I was doing, what my reasons were, what my motivations were, the ways that it was unhealthy to me, the way that it was affecting my relationships.So I just want to encourage everyone to go to therapy. I promise it's going to be beneficial[00:20:53] Nathan:Yeah.I cannot echo that enough. I've had the same experience and just having someone to talk through whatever's going on in your life, whatever, like even just interesting observations. When someone said this, I reacted like that. And that doesn't quite add up. Like, can we spend some time digging into that kind of, you know, and you realize that like, oh, that wasn't, that wasn't a normal, like healthy reaction.And it had nothing to do with what the person said or who they are or anything like that. I had to do it. This other thing, the other thing that I think is interesting about therapy is when you're following people online, you're partially following them for the advice and what they can do for you and all of that.But I think the most interesting creators to follow are the ones who are on a journey and they bring their audience, their fans, along that journey with them. And a lot of people are on a really shallow journey or at least what they put out online is a really shallow journey of like a, I'm trying to grow a business from X to Y I'm trying to accomplish this thing.And it's like, Like, I'm happy for you. There's like tips and tactics that you use along the way. And that's moderately interesting, but I think if you're willing to dive in on therapy and why you do, or you make the decisions that you do and what really drives things, it makes for as much deeper journey, that's a lot more interesting to follow. And all of a sudden the person that you followed for like learning how to do Facebook ads is talking about not only that, but the sense of gratitude that they were able to find in the accomplishments that they made or how they help people in this way or other things that's like a really authentic connection.And I think that, even though like growing a more successful business is not the goal of therapy and, and all of that. Like, it has that as a by-product.[00:22:42] Sean:It does. It definitely does. Although I'm, I definitely look at things the way that you're saying, which is like, what is. Productive output of doing this thing. And it's like, yeah, that's why I need to be in therapy to understand why I apply that lens to absolutely everything. but I I've found it immensely helpful.I would say I would echo what you're saying. in terms of sharing your journey, both the ups and the downs. I think that the highs of your journey are only as high as the lowest that you share, because otherwise it's just kind of it's, it's flat, you know, there's nothing to compare to like th th in the hero's-journey-sense you know, we we're rooting for the underdog who is going through challenges, and then we're celebrating with them when they have the wins.If you know, if you're not sharing the, the, the low points, it's not as relatable. Now that doesn't mean you have to share everything you're going through. You don't, you know, you can keep some things, you can keep everything personal. I'm just saying, if you have the courage to share what you're going to find is that you're not alone.You're not the only person going through these things. You're not the only person feeling these things. And sometimes the biggest failures or, or the things that, that hurt the most or the most difficult to go through when you share those, those can actually resonate the most. That can be where your, your community really steps up.And you, you feel that, more than any other time.[00:24:07] Nathan:Yeah. I think that, like I wrote this article a few years ago, titled endure long enough to get noticed, and it was just actually wrote it, it was off the cuff. I was on a plane just like needed to get something out that week. And it was an idea about serum on my head and I wrote, wrote it out, send it off.And, just the replies from it, because it took a more personal angle and it was talking about some of the struggles and a bunch of the replies were like, oh, that's exactly what I needed in this moment. Like, I was about ready to give up on this thing, you know? And, and that was that bit of encouragement. It ends up being this thing that feeds both ways. If you're able to take care of your audience and then if you let them, your audience can take care of you of saying like, oh, that that was really, really, meaningful.[00:24:49] Sean:Can I turn it around on you for just a second and, and ask, I, I know Nathan, you've been writing recently, you're on a bit of a streak and for those. Following your journey for a long time. They know you've, you've gone on streaks for periods of time. You made an app to log those things. We're talking about this recently.And I was just curious, what, what made you start writing again? And it may be, if you can touch on like the identity piece that you were sharing with me.[00:25:17] Nathan:Yeah.So most good things that have come in my business. Many of them, at least for a whole period of time, he came from writing. I wrote a thousand words a day for over 600 days in a row. And like, that was. Multiple books, a 20,000 subscriber audience, like just a whole bunch of things so I can work it from and everything else. And I've, I've tried to restart that habit a handful of times since then. And yeah, you were asking the other day, I'm trying to think, where are we out of the brewery? Maybe? I don't know.[00:25:51] Sean:Yeah. Something like.[00:25:51] Nathan:Well, I've all something. And you're just asking like, Hey, you're restarting that what what's driving that. And the thing that came to, I actually came to it in a coaching therapy conversation was like, I'm a writer. That's who I am. You know, it's part of my identity and yes, I'm also a, a creator and a startup founder and CEO and whatever else, but like, realizing that. I'm most at home when I'm writing, that's not what I'm doing. Writing is my full-time thing. And like, here's the cadence that I put out books, you know, obvious thing of like Ryan holiday, he's super prolific, like a book or two a year, you know?I'm not a writer in that way, but I, I have things to say and, words have an impact on people in the act of writing has such an impact on me that I realized that I feel somewhat of this void if I don't exercise that muscle and stay consistent of not just like teaching and sharing, but also taking these unformed thoughts that bounce around in my head and it, and like being forced to put them out in an essay that is actually coherent and backs up its points and like, Yeah, it makes it clear.So anyway, that's the, that's why I'm writing again. And so far it's been quite enjoyable. I'm only on, I think, 20 days in a row of writing, writing every day, but it's coming along now. I have to look. 21 today will be 22.[00:27:19] Sean:Nice. Yeah. Right. Writing is so great for clarifying thinking. And I love the, the identity piece. It's like, I'm a writer, you know, that's what I do. And I think it's interesting to think about whether it's kind of chicken and the egg, right. Maybe, maybe James clear would, would disagree, but like, does it start with a belief that you're a writer and therefore you write, or is it the act of writing that makes you a writer?And if you, if you aren't writing, then you're not.[00:27:50] Nathan:Yeah. I wrote something recently and maybe it's a quote from somebody of, if you want to be the noun and you have to do the verb, you know, and so we're looking for, how do I become a writer? How do I become a painter? How do I become a musician An artist, any of these things? And it's like, if you want to be a writer?Yyou have to write, you know, like, and I think we, we get so caught up in the end state that we start to lose track of the, the verb, the thing of like writers, write painters, paint, photographers, take photos, you know? And so if you're not seeing progress in that area, then it's like, well, are you actually doing the verb?And yeah, that plays a lot into identity and, and everything else.[00:28:37] Sean:I like what James, James clear says about like casting a vote for the person you want to[00:28:43] Nathan:Yeah, I think I referenced James on. So it's the, I reference you probably every fourth episode. And then James, maybe at like, just on alternating ones.So the thing that I quote you on all the time is the show up every day for two years, like I always had create every day as a poster on my wall, and I really liked the for two years, angle. And so I I'd love for you to share where does the for two years part come from and why, why that long? Why not for two months or two decades or something else?[00:29:16] Sean:Right. It really, the whole show up every day for two years, idea came from me, drawing letters, hand lettering. You know, you think of the Coca-Cola logo. That's not a font. That's, you know, customer. That's what I would do is draw letters. Like, like what you have behind your head, that type of style of lettering.And I just enjoyed doing that and I, it wasn't a job or anything, and I really didn't pursue it seriously for a long time, even though I enjoyed it as a kid, because I thought I could never make a living at this, you know? And it's that like productivity filter again, what can I be successful at? You know, as opposed to like, Hey, what do I enjoy?You know? And, it took an artist telling me, Hey, if you enjoy it, just create. because cause you enjoy doing it. Just create. I was like, yeah, I don't know why I needed that permission, but I did. And I just started creating and I was creating for me, like, because I loved it. And I was sharing on Instagram and Twitter and places like that, the drawings I was making, but nobody really cared or noticed for the first two years.And it, it, it, that was okay with me because I was doing it for myself. I loved the process. I love the act of. But somewhere right around two years, it was just this inflection point. It's kinda like you say, you know, like do it until you're noticed, right. And people started asking for custom commissions, do you have posters?Do you have t-shirts? And the reason I recommend that people show up every day for two years is it's not going to happen overnight. You know, hopefully in that time you find the reason for yourself that you're showing up. and the two years part is arbitrary for some people within eight months, they're on the map and people notice their work and maybe they could quit their job or, or whatever.Right. But two years is really just to give people a mark, you know, to, to work towards. by that time they figure out like, oh, it's not actually about two years. It's about showing up every day.[00:31:16] Nathan:Yeah. And a lot of what I like about two years is it since your time horizon correctly. and it helps you measure your like past efforts. I think about, you know, if you've thought about starting a, like learning a musical instrument or starting a blog or any of those things, you're like, eh, I tried that before, you know, and you're like, yeah, I showed up most days kind of for two months, maybe, you know, like when you look back and you analyze it, you're like, oh, I didn't show up every day for two years. And there's also sort of this implicit, I guess conversation you have with yourself of like, if I do this, will I get the results that I want? And cause the, the most frustrating thing would be to put in the effort and to not get the results and how the outcome you're. Like, I tried it for so long and I didn't get there. And so I believe that if you're doing something like creating consistently showing up every day, writing every day for two years and you're publishing it and you're learning from what you, you know, the results you try and consistently to get better, you almost can't lose. Like, I don't know of examples of people.Like no one has come to me. I actually emailed this to my whole list and said, like, what is something that you've done every day for two years, that didn't work. And people came back to me with story after story of things that they thought would be that. And then it like started working a year or year and a half in, or at some point in there because it's really hard to fail when you're willing to show up consistently for a long period of time.[00:32:54] Sean:And I think there's a point of clarification there kind of a nuanced discussion where some people might say, well, you know, where where's, where's the other end of the spectrum, where you're just continually doing a thing that doesn't work, you know, doing the same thing and expecting different results.And I don't think that's what we're talking about here. Like when we say show up every day, Showing up everyday to your craft, you know, for yourself to better yourself, whether that's writing or drawing or working on your business. This doesn't mean never course-correcting, this doesn't mean adapting or adjusting to find product market fit.We're talking about showing up for yourself. This doesn't mean even posting every day. It's not, it's really not for others. Like share what you want. If you want to tweet every day, if you want to blog or post your art every day, go for it. I actually tried that and, you know, it was pretty exhausting and that's part of why I made Daily Content Machine.I was like, how about I show up one hour a week and you turn that into Daily Content for me. but still on all the other days, I want to show up for myself. And, and often for me, it starts with writing as well. I think it all starts with writing, whether it's a business idea or a course or a book or content like writing is just the seed of all of that.So I like writing, not because I. It was born a rider or anything. I just see results from it. So for me, it's showing up in writing, even if I'm not posting that, or I'm not posting it now, you know, it's just for me.[00:34:19] Nathan:Yeah. And that's an important point because a lot of the time my writing is just chipping away at some bigger thing. Like some of the long essays that I've written have been written over the course of three or four months, you know, it's not like I got it together and like published it and it was ready to go.It was like an ongoing thing.What, like, what are some of your other writing habits? Because you're someone who has written a ton, I've seen you consistently write like 4,000 words a day for an entire month and stuff like that. yeah. When someone asks you, how do I become a better writer? How do I write consistently any of that? What are some of your tips?[00:34:55] Sean:Yeah. I'll tell you how not to do it, which is how I've done it, which is back to our earlier discussion. Just kind of all or nothing. my first book I wrote in 14 days, 75, 80,000 words, and my, my second book, which I still haven't edited and published. I was like, I want to show people that things take, as long as the amount of time you give them, how long does it take to write a book a year, 10 years a month?You know, two weeks, I was like, I'm going to try and write a hundred thousand words in a single day. So I live streamed it, and my idea was to speak it and have it dictated, right. Have it transcribed. I made it to 55,000 words. And these are like, it's, it's all you, you can find it. it's, it's coherent words like this.Isn't just feel like, like the book was in my head. I made it to 55,000. My voice was going and I'm like, I think I've got most of the book. I'm not going to kill my voice. And that's, as far as I made it. So I failed on the goal, but still got 55,000 words. But then for the next, like three, three or six months or something I hardly wrote.Cause I was just like, oh yeah, you know, look what I did. You know, I wrote all those words and it's like, no, that's not the right way to do it. Like I actually, I think there was a point to what I was doing and it was, it was a fun stunt or whatever, but I kind of regret that, you know, I wish I just stuck to, you know, you had that, that idea of like write a thousand words a day and this is something I would share with people as like an idea for starting out, Hey, try and read a thousand words a day.And I found out people would get stuck on that. They'd be like, I wrote 830, 2 words. I'm a failure. I'm just gonna give up and wait until the weekend when I have more time. And it's like, no, that's not the point. The point is to just show up and, and put some words there. So maybe for you, it's a time like write for 20 minutes, write for 15 minutes, write three sentence.And maybe you keep going, you know, but like put in the reps, show up, you know, put on the running shoes and go out the front door. If you don't run the five miles, that's fine. You know, walk around the block, but show up. And so I I've done it both ways and I don't prefer the stunt way where I write 50,000 words in a day.I prefer the, the, the ones where I write 400 words every single day, that week[00:37:06] Nathan:Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. And I've, I've, had that a lot of times where I was like, oh, I can't write today because I, I wouldn't have time to hit 500 or a thousand words. And so that's something I'm doing differently this time around of like, look even a hundred or 200 is a, is a success, any amount of, of doing the reps as good.[00:37:26] Sean:I want to lean in on that idea of defining success as less. What I mean by defining success as less is, and this is especially helpful. If you're going through a hard time, if you're feeling burned out, if you're feeling depressed, w with remote work, growing and growing, you know, w we're commuting less, we have more time.We have more flexibility in our day, but we, we tend to fill that time with just more and more work. And it's really easy to get to the point where you feel overloaded. And you, you go into your day just too ambitious thinking. You can get too many things done and ending with disappointment. Like I didn't get all the things done, you know, and you're just on this perpetual cycle of disappointment every day, setting yourself up for disappointment, trying to do too much.And instead of defining success as less. And so if you're, if you're feeling depressed, I mean, this gets as small as today as a success. If you brush your teeth, like today's a success. If you shower, today's a success. If you walk around just your block, that's it not run a mile, you know, not come up with a new business plan or outline a whole course or something.Less defined success is less, when I would do podcasts, I, you know, a podcast is what an hour, maybe two hours or something like that. But it takes a lot of energy. If you've never been on a podcast, you know, it takes energy to record. And I would feel bad after I record a podcast, not getting as much done afterward, you know, like, oh, I didn't get that much done.I mean, I recorded a podcast, but then I was supposed to have this and this and this, and just beat myself up. And I realized like, Hey, that, that podcast I recorded, that's going to be heard by thousands of people. That's really high leverage work. And I brought my best self and I really showed up and I really delivered.And that was good work. And you know what, on days where I have a podcast, I'm going to define that day as a success. If I show up and record that podcast, anything else is a bonus. And, and you just make that smaller and smaller and smaller until it's accessible to you until it's attainable for you. So maybe it's like write three sentences.If you show up at all to your writing app and write three sentences, the days of success. And what you'll find is more often than. You'll keep going.[00:39:34] Nathan:I think that's so important in, and I imagine most creators have been in that position of no motivation feeling depressed. And then you beat yourself up because you didn't get anything done, like deriving yourself worth. This kind of goes back to the earlier conversation, driving your self worth from what you create can both be very powerful in that it can feed itself really well.And then it is also incredibly fragile. And I've gotten to that point where if you end up in the downward spiral version of that, then like not creating, not accomplishing something. Leads you to feel more upset and depressed and so on. And it like when it works, it works well. And when it stops working, it fails spectacularly.And I think you're right. That the only way out of it is to lower that bar of success to something crazy low that you can't consistently. And then, you know, gradually you're way out of it from there.[00:40:34] Sean:Yeah, you, you are more than what you do. You are more than what you create. You are more than what you produce. You are more than your job. You are not your company. You're not the money in the bank. You're not how much you make each month. You're not the decline in revenue from this month compared to last month.Like you're none of those things. You're a person you're a human outside of that with independent work. And that's such a hard thing to internalize, but, but if you can, I mean, you, you, you just become impervious to all the things that can come against you. You know, you just become unstoppable. Nothing's going to phase you.Like you can embrace the highs and embrace the lows and just ride the rollercoaster. And I'm just describing all the things that I don't know how to do, but I'm working.[00:41:20] Nathan:Yeah. It's all the things that we're trying to, like lean in on and remind ourselves of, in those, in those tough times, I have a friend who has his game, that he played his, a few little kids, and his sort of a little game that he plays with them over time. And he like in a playful, joking voice, he asked them like, oh, what do you need to do to be worthy of love? And it's like turned into the thing for they, like, they're like nothing, you know? And he's very purposefully trying to counteract this idea of like, oh, I need to earn worthiness. I need to earn love. If, if I like show up for my parents in this way, if I take care of my family in that way, if I'm not a burden on other people, then like, Then I'll be okay and I'll be worthy of love and all of that.And so he's just playing it, like making it a playful thing with his kids from a very young age to basically instill this idea of like, you are a complete whole person and you can't, like earn worthiness of love and you also can't lose it.[00:42:19] Sean:I'm just thinking of the titles for this episode, that my team's going to come up with, like how to be a founder worthy of love.[00:42:26] Nathan:Yes, exactly.[00:42:28] Sean:Don't use that title.[00:42:31] Nathan:Okay. But I want to go, you've built a, a team twice, for first for Sean West, as a business, you know, of the course and content, community business. And then now for Daily Content, I want to get into, like what you like, how you built the team differently between those two times and what you learned. but before we do that, let's talk about as a solo creator. When you're thinking about making that leap to something where you need a team to build it to the next level, maybe you're at a hundred thousand dollars a year in sales, and you're looking at maybe the roommate's eighties and the Marie Forleo's of the world where like a few, rungs above you on the same ladder.And you're like, okay, that would require a team. What are some of the things that you think people should consider in that leap?[00:43:22] Sean:My biggest mistake was applying the right advice at the wrong time.Like I'm not a, I'm not a reckless person. Like I'm going to do my research and learn and like get all the smart people's advice. And so every, every big mistake I've made was as a result of applying great advice from smart people at the wrong time.And so it's, and, and I don't think I've ever heard anyone really, really talk about this. There's a lot of people slinging advice who should really be asking questions, but at the same time, you can't even blame them. Cause like Twitter, there's no room for nuance. Like you tweet fortune cookie tweets, you know, with, with advice and like, hope that people apply it at the right time.Like, that's just kind of how it goes. But like, you know, to, to your point of like looking to other people and what they've built and like, oh, that's what I would need and stuff, you know, I, I heard things. Delegate, you know, you don't want superhero syndrome. Like you need to empower other people and delegate the things you're not good at delegate the things you don't like to do, delegate the things you're good at.And you like to do, but you shouldn't do because you're the founder and you need the vision, you know, like, so it's like delegate, delegate. And so, okay. All right. Hire. This is going to sound really stupid, but no one told me that you need to make sure the thing that you're doing is working before you hire, because hiring is scaling, which means to make something bigger.And if you've got a bucket at the beach and the bucket has holes in it, and you scale that bucket, you have a bigger bucket with holes. Like th th that's not better. That's like, do you, do you like the stressful problems you have now? How would you like problems with another zero on that? Like you have $30,000 problems.Do you want $300,000 a month problems? Like, you know, it's not fun. so nobody's told me that and looking back, it's like, it's so dumb. Like, do you think making this big. Automatically makes it better. It's just going to automatically make the problems go away. No, you need to, you need to scale. What's working, do more of what works and, and, and slow down and hold off and make sure the thing you have is working before you grow it.I don't know if I answered the question, but I'm just speaking to my past self.[00:45:32] Nathan:You totally did. So what are the things that, like, how does that play out as you're building Daily Content Machine, versus the previous team?[00:45:40] Sean:The difference here is my, my previous business required me to function and I hired people around me, you know, to support me. So I wasn't doing all the work, but I had to show up. I had to, you know, whatever I had to write, I, you know, come up with an email or blog or. Or live stream or podcast or whatever.It was like, it was built around me and there's nothing wrong with that. Like, that's totally fine. You can build a business where you do what you love and you're supported by your team. I just found that you can, you can do something that you love and burnout, like after you do that for years and years and years, it's not even that I don't like podcasting or I don't like writing cause I actually do what it ultimately came down to is that I don't like having to do it.And if I don't, if I don't, then everything falls apart. And so with this new business, the agency, it was like, okay, like the first thing I want to build from is this can't require me to function. It has to be built in a way that the team can run things where it's like, I don't have to be on the strategy call.I don't have to do the marketing. Like my face isn't necessarily the reason people are coming to. and that, that really shifted how we build things.[00:47:01] Nathan:Yeah. I mean, that, that's a huge thing. And like, I imagine you defining all of these roles and early on, you might be doing a bunch of them to test if it works and to build out the systems, but none of them are like defined by your own unique skillset. Like you actually I've loved watching your systems and the, as you've shown me behind the scenes, because you're breaking it down and you don't need one person who is a fantastic video editor and copywriter and project manager talking about that, actually, because I think so often we're trying to find the employee or the team member. That's like the, the unicorn perfect fit. And you've made a system that doesn't require.[00:47:42] Sean:Exactly. And we did start out that way, where, when, when I was initially hiring for, you know, this Daily Content Machine service that we have, what's involved in that process and we talked. Clients and prospects all the time that like the Mo one of the most common things they try to do is either build a team in-house that can find all the best moments scrubbed through the long form content, edit it.Well, you know, titles, research, all of that, the build that team in house, or hire a freelancer and the problems with either of those is like what I've identified as it comes down to the person doing, doing content repurposing well requires nine key skills among them like copywriting and marketing and design and animation and rendering, and like, you know, SEO and all of that stuff.And I'm not saying there's, there's no one out there with all those skills, but, but those people are doing their own thing most of the time,[00:48:38] Nathan:I think I'm a pretty good Jack of all trades. And I think if we get to five of those, probably maybe on a[00:48:45] Sean:You could probably do most, I can do most too, but I don't scale, you know, so I'm trying to, I'm trying to scale me. and the first thing I tried to do was hire someone who could do all the things like, okay, you need to be able to, and that very quickly was not the way that was not going to work.So we realized we need specialists. We need people who are really good writers. We need people who are really good animators. People who are good editors, people who are a good quality assurance, reviewers, people who are good project managers, you know, all of that. And that's, that's what probably sets us apart.You know, the most unique thing is like, we learn about your audience and we find all of the moments and like teaching people, I've talked to people who have their own teams, or they're trying to build teams for doing this. And that's the hardest part is how do you teach someone how to find those moments?Like video editing is commoditized. You can find a video editor anywhere, but what happens when you try and get a freelancer who can just chop up clips and animate it and put a slap a title on it? Yeah. Th they're not, they don't care about the quality. They're not capitalizing the book titles and the company names and spelling the guests.Right. You know, and the titles of the clips, that's like half of it, you know, like half of it is the title, because that's going to determine whether someone sticks around and clicks or watches or whatever, and they're not thinking the right way, or they're not finding the right moments. And so the person who's outsourcing, they're trying to go from, I've been doing this myself.I've been editing my own video. I've been scrubbing through my own long form content to now, okay, you have got this freelancer, but now you're a project manager and a quality assurance reviewer because their work isn't up to par. And so I have people asking me like, how do you teach people how to do this?Well, how to find those moments, what's going to provide value to the audience. How do you title it all? and that part, I'm not giving away because that's, that's our home.[00:50:33] Nathan:Yeah. And that, that makes sense. So you described Daily Content Machine as an agency and it is, but I was like, great. You're an agency. Here's my other idea for a show where. Like a dream it up and produce it. Or actually we build my website for me, like your, your designers on all that.Right. And your answer would be like a flattened and I think that's really important for the business. So can you talk about the difference between the agency that you're running in productized services and how you think about making that scale versus like a, an agency of, Hey, this is our hourly rate.These are the projects we're best at, but we'll kind of take on anything.[00:51:11] Sean:So maybe I'll I'll I'll title the clip of this moment, how here's, how you will try it like this. Here's how you create a six figure agency. And for. It is by saying no to almost everything and getting really specific about what you offer and to whom. So my previous, the previous iteration of my business, I was out of a scale of one to ten I was working at a level 11 effort, you know, to bring in six figures with this version of the business. It's like a one or two in terms of, you know, getting people to give you vast amounts of money. And the difference is in what you're providing and, and to whom. So you've kind of got this, this matrix of products or services that either make money for your clients, or they're just nice to have.And then on the people side, you have, it's a generalization, but people who have money and people who don't, and I was always playing on hard mode, you know, I was trying to sell like kind of more premium stuff to people who didn't have money. And I'm like, you know, feeling bad about not being able to give stuff to the people who don't have money.And it's like, you know, what a really great way to do this would be to provide premium services that make money for people who have. So I decided I'm going to start with six to seven figure business owners. What is it that they need? And what is it that, that I'm good at, you know, core competencies. And that's where we came up with this idea.And the hardest part has been not giving into shiny object syndrome. All of the things that we could do, all of the services that I want to build. And it's like, no, there's so much more juice in this one thing. If we just stick to this and just become the best at finding, identifying, and producing and distributing clips from long form content and just be really, really good at that.There's enough complexity in that, you know, and just see that as the game, like, how can we get really good at this? How can we sell this better? How can we deliver it better? How can we increase the quality and just getting really focused and aligning what you offer the value of that to the people you're offering it to within four weeks with just a page and a form.This was a six figure book.[00:53:16] Nathan:When I think about the price of the offering. So I think I have. for what I pay for and Daily Content Machine paying about $5,000 a month. Is that right? I think somewhere in there.[00:53:28] Sean:So, what we didn't say is you, you kind of talked me into, adding another service, which is, we also do the video and audio show notes, transcript, like podcast production piece. So like, we'll produce the full thing. You just show up and record sync the footage to us. We'll produce the show and we'll make the clips.That's actually been a really nice bundle, but I'm like, okay, that's it, that's it. You know? So you kind of have some extra services in there.[00:53:53] Nathan:Yeah.To be clear, you don't want to let your friends, even if they live in the same town, as you convince you to like change your agency,[00:54:00] Sean:Nathan's very convincing.[00:54:03] Nathan:I distinctly remember. I even invited you over for dinner and convinced you of it,[00:54:07] Sean:How am I supposed to say no,[00:54:08] Nathan:Exactly.[00:54:10] Sean:You made an offer. I couldn't refuse.[00:54:13] Nathan:But in that, so you're talking about like what you're selling to someone who might not be able to afford it, or like you might make a course that you charge $5,000 for that is absolutely worth every bit of that when in the right person's hand and apply it in the right way. But you're going to have a bunch of people trying to buy it, who like, aren't that person who's going to get the leverage to make it a clear 10 X value or something like that. And so you might have in this position where someone's like, oh, $5,000 is expensive. Should I buy it? I don't know. And you're like, honestly for you, I don't know if you should buy it.Like you're not in the target market and that's, that's $5,000 one time in the case of this. And this agency, this productized service, I guess, $5,000 a month. And so actually two of those clients, and you've got a six figure a year agency business. And it's just interesting. The thing that you said made me really drove home the point of, there's not necessarily a correlation between effort and income and, and effort and output. And so you found a model and kept, kept tweaking until you found one where it was like, look, there's a ton of work that goes into this, obviously. And there's a bunch of really smart people working on editing and transcribing and captioning and everything in the show. but like, it, it doesn't have to be crazy complicated, whereas some of the other business models that you and I have both tried have been way more effort for way less.[00:55:40] Sean:Yeah. And what can really hold you back is not realizing who you're trying to market to. And. getting Talked down in your prices by accidentally catering to the wrong people. So like people who can't afford your services, you could get on call consultation calls with them. And they're just like, I just don't have this much money and can you do discounts?And you, you almost start to feel bad. Like, you know, how can I charge this much? I must be charging way too much. And it's like, or maybe you're serving the wrong customers. Like, you know, when you talk to the right people, that may actually be really cheap. I remember when I started designing logos, this is like a decade ago.My first logo, I charged like 150 And then, once I sold that I got enough confidence to charge 300. And then I was like, I, you know what, instead of doubling again, I'm going to charge $750[00:56:30] Nathan:Ooh.[00:56:31] Sean:I did that. And you know, I'm like slowly building on my portfolio and I got up to like, $1,500 and clients were paying that and right around there, you start to get people resisting.Now you've got a price with a comma and it gives people. pause And they're like, can you come down? Can you do a little bit cheaper? And it's so tempting. You, you want to do that because you want the job. You, you want them to be happy. It could be a good portfolio item. And I remember just kind of fast forwarding through this, but like, you know, just mindset shifts and stuff.Eventually I got to the point where there was this startup out of San Francisco they wanted a logo. And I was like, this would be really valuable for this company, you know? And I somehow mustered up the courage to charge $4,000. And I found out later from a friend of a friend, you know, from someone that worked there that they thought I was like super cheap because someone else they knew or some other agency was going to charge $25,000 And I was like, wow, like I'm over here. Just like feeling bad about my prices, thinking I'm going so big. And really I'm. I was just serving the wrong code.[00:57:34] Nathan:Yeah. And it's so interesting because the person who's only able to pay $500 or only thinks the logo is worth $500. It's not that they're wrong or they're devaluing your service or something like that. It's that maybe it's for a side project or it's for a business that just got off the ground or any of that. And so it's not worth getting offended over or something like that. It's like, we just don't have product market fit, like product customer fit. It's not a thing here, you know, and my services are better for, you know, bigger, more established companies. So the saying no to, to, services, occasionally getting talked into specific services by your somewhat annoying local friends. but then where does it go from here as far as what are you looking to, to, to add more clients and, and keep scaling and growing?[00:58:30] Sean:Yeah. That's what we're trying to figure out right now is it's always tricky. It's a blessing and a curse when you have an audience, because it can kind of create false product market fit. Like you, you think you have something and then you exhaust your audience and then you're like, oh, like I kinda need to figure this out.You know, that's like, we're experiencing that right now because like, I was getting like 40% close rates on consultation calls on sales calls, and now we're not, and it's. Oh, no, like what's happening. And it's like, well, I think those people probably knew me for several years, you know? And then like, there's just all this trust and still Nathan we're a year in and we don't have, like, we don't have a proper website for, for the agency.It's like a page with a form. That's it? There's no, there's no examples. There's no case studies. There's no portfolio item and we've made it this far. but you know, when people don't know you, they need that social proof and they want the examples and they're looking for past versions of success. And like the sales cycle is a little bit longer.And so that's where we're at right now is like figuring out kind of like Mar marketing channel fit. And I know well enough to know, like it's better to, and back to right advice, wrong time. it's a good idea to be everywhere if you can, you know, cause different people consume on different platforms.Even if you don't use Instagram. Other people do, even if you don't use YouTube, other people do it's. Beyond LinkedIn, even if you don't, you know, that like there's, there's some, there's some sound reasoning to that at the same time. You don't want to try to do all of that all at once, you know, and, and spread yourself too thin, like pick one channel, do one channel.Well, and when you've got that down and it's easy and you have systems and it's not taking too much time, then expand to another channel with the goal of like, ultimately diversifying kind of like investments. You don't want to just diversify all at once. You know, like, like try some things out, you know, focus on one thing at a time, see what works for us.I, at least I know that much. And so it's like, okay, I'm not trying to do every version of marketing, you know, like, oh, do we do affiliates? Do we do ads? You know, do we do content? Do we do cold outreach? You know? I'm trying not to do everything at once. So we're kind of dabbling in one thing at a time and seeing what fits.[01:00:48] Nathan:So how many clients do you have now for the agency that are the consistent tenders?[01:00:53] Sean:Not a lot. It's still very small. And we've had like, I it's under a dozen cause like some, we had like several accounts, like not renew and stuff. So it's still very small. And for three or four months, I stopped marketing and sales completely because I did not want to break this thing with scale because I notice things in operation that were the operations that were not going well.I'm like, this is going to be really bad. Like if we just sign more clients, it's going to be really bad. So, I had clients pay upfront for like six months or 12 months of service, which kind of gave us time to focus on operations. And now everything's humming along smoothly. Like the systems we've built can support like dozens or hundreds of accounts, even like, we don't need it right now, but it'll support where we want to go.But it's still a very, it's actually very small, like again done, like almost no marketing a year end, still don't have a website. Like it's pretty much just been all internal focused.[01:01:52] N

Ben Aston is joined by Sean McCabe, owner of seanwes Media Agency. He spent 9,000 hours practicing a skill, got to the point where he was working with large clients, charging five-figure rates, and selling physical products with his own designs, and shipping out orders every single day. Listen to learn how to effectively repurpose content to increase value.

Before you create something you probably pause and consider what it is you want to say. Sometimes that question can paralyze you though because you aren’t sure what your “message” really is. Maybe you are being drawn to create but you are stuck...how do you find your voice in all the noise?  Sean Wes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0MQRMQGdbhhTHenNGUafMQ   RESOURCES: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/heatherparady/ HAPPY BRAIN: https://anchor.fm/happy-brain YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/heatherparady TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@heatherparady?

Shawn Blanc of Blanc Media joins us to discuss remote work, Blanc Media's unique "work cycles", building margin, physical health habits, and more! (Rebroadcast of Remotely Working episode 16) Shownotes GET Remote Work 101 — FREE (https://effectiveremotework.com/remote101) shawnblanc.net (https://shawnblanc.net/) The Sweet Setup (http://thesweetsetup.com/) The Focus Course (http://thefocuscourse.com/) Shape Up by Basecamp (https://basecamp.com/shapeup) Seanwes (http://seanwes.com/) Sean McCabe's Sabbatical Blog (https://sabbatical.blog/) Cortex (http://relay.fm/cortex) CGP Grey: Spaceship You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck) Everything Starts with Trust (HBR) (https://hbr.org/2020/05/begin-with-trust)

This Walk and Talk episode sees me walking around the local woods of Saltrum, while talking about random topics. lilDENNiS and Kitty joined me on this adventure, as we talked about various tings like: Breaking my Camcorder, Spontaneity, Rereading My Transgender Diary, Why I Disabled Comments on my website, Taking Photos, Connecting with Nature, The Mind, Why Start a Podcast?, English Accents and Impressions, Suicide and Spirituality, Dealing with Child Abuse, Lucid Dreaming and Healing, Life without Life Drawing, Why I left SeanWes in 2015, Do we each live in our own Universe?, Talking about lilSOPHiE, Do I still want to Draw?, and I go for a lil bike ride, ding ding! Hope you enjoy the atmospheric sounds on this one.

Berlin Germany 02:46am 2020-08-27 Lazy morning but then productive hours with a Producer Training by seanwes media, voiceover training on the science of sound via Gravy For The Brain, a copywriting critique training and how to use it for business purposes, and then a nap, some emails that I had postponed for a while, and some YouTubing. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/iian/message

Berlin Germany 01:49am 2020-08-19 Stayed longer in bed, then morning walk, went through the seanwes media Writer/Editor training, some organizational work for my theater group, then UCL game Leipzig vs PSG 0:3 while adding client logos to my naii.io website, and at the end of the day cleaned dishes while listening to a CRE podcast episode about bats (the animals) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/iian/message

Key Takeaways From This Episode:We don't need more time; we need more focused time.One 90-minute block of focused time can be more productive than 8 hours unfocused.Set up a no-interruption time.Turn off notifications.Find silence.Action Items:Figure out the right amount of time for your focused blocks and breaks.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeReal Artists Don't StarveFull Focus PlannerBest Self JournalFour Hour Work WeekRemote

Key Takeaways From This Episode:We all have 24 hours in a day.We can't make time, we must rearrange it.Combine time such as cleaning or commuting with learning time.Say NO to more things, and people.Hire to fill in spots that take you more time than they're worth.Action Items:Make your NO ListResources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeGaming for Fun and ProfitPat Flynn - The Riches Are In The Niches

Key Takeaways From This Episode:We can't wait for inspiration to strike. We must make motivation happen.The hardest part is to get started.Once you get started, motivation starts to flow.Remove any barriers stopping you from getting started.Action Items:Figure out what your barriers of getting started are.Remove those barriers.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeAuthority by Nathan BarryConvertKitSELF JournalFull Focus Planner

Key Takeaways From This Episode:We need to tell everyone our goals.Everyone in our life must be on board with our goals.If the person closest to us is not on board, invest in them until they naturally come on board.Public accountability is key, but we also need partner accountability and personal accountability.Action Items:Talk to your partner and decide if the time is right to invest in their goals first.Start being publicly accountable. Right now. Go post on social media or something.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins

Key Takeaways From This Episode:Scarcity mindset is what happens when you quit your day job, put all your eggs into one basket, your overlap, and then struggle to make money. Scarcity mindset kills your passion real fast.You need a day job that covers 100% of your financial needs.Another option is to save up 6 or more months of expenses and then quit your day job.You might have to put your passion on hold to avoid killing it.Action Items:Same as last episode.Realize if you need to quit your day job or not.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabe

Key Takeaways From This Episode:Don't quit your day job until your Overlap can cover 100% of your financial needs.If you don't come home from your day job energized to Overlap, you might need a new day job.Try doing your Overlap first thing in the morning, before your day job.Try cutting expenses and then cutting day job hours.Always think of your day job as a paid learning experience and apply as much of it as you can to your Overlap.Action Items:Realize if you need to quit your day job or not.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins

Key Takeaways From This Episode:A million dollars is not a lot of moneyDon't let other people crap on your goals.The difference between us and them is that we write down our goals, our plans, and our tasks.Work on the goal that will make the biggest impact on your life first.Action Items:Pick one goal.Make a list of 20 things you can do to get you closer to that goal.Do one of those things each day for the next 20 days.Rinse and repeat.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeOnline Business ONEGaming For Fun And ProfitTrace LabsOperation Safe Escape

Key Takeaways From This Episode:Many of us have a long list of passions.The truth is, we don't love those things, we love the idea of them.We can enter an exploratory phase to discover what's right to pursue right now.We don't need to worry about money yet; just find the passion.Every skill we gain now will help us in the future.Action Items:Audit your passion! Go through the episode and listen to the different ways you can figure out what your passion is.We'll need to know for the next episode/chapter.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabe

Key Takeaways From This Episode:People are going to tell us that we can't pursue our passion. They are wrong.Some people just want to protect us; others are jealous and want to stop us.We can't let them get in our way.We need to choose one thing to focus on while we build it up. Then we can move on to the next thing.Action Items:Take stock...how many things are you trying to pursue right now?Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff GoinsOnlineBusiness.ONE

Key Takeaways From This Episode:Overlapping is when you work a day job to pay your bills and then spend your extra time working on another craft with the goal of making it your next full time job.Imposter syndrome is normal, but we can't let it stop us.There is no wrong first step. Every step gets us closer to our goal.Action Items:Go buy the book Overlap by Sean McCabe at OverlapBook.comResources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comOverlap by Sean McCabeReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff GoinsOnlineBusiness.ONE

Key Takeaways From This Episode:Stressing over money will kill our passion for making art.We must make money to make art.Action Items:Pick up and start reading Overlap by Sean McCabe.Resources Mentioned in This Episode:NoAlarmsClub.comReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff GoinsOnlineBusiness.ONEOverlap by Sean McCabe

Key Takeaways:"Creativity is not about being original. It's about learning to rearrange what has already been in a way that brings fresh insight to old material." - Jeff Goins, Real Artists Don't StarveWe don't spend enough time studying those before us.We develop our own style by copying those we admire and then throwing our own flares on it to make it our own.When we reach success, we should promote artists who are inspired by us.Resources mentioned in this episode:NoAlarmsClub.comReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff GoinsOverlap by Sean McCabeOnlineBusiness.ONE

Key Take-Aways from this episode:It's okay to reinvent who we are.It's okay for us to "change the script," that we are living and pursue something else.We aren't born an artist. We become one."We don't fake it til we make it. We believe it until we become it."It takes hard work and dedication for most of us to become good at something.Entrepreneurs who don't "Overlap" are 33% more likely to fail.What is the next path that I want to take? I need to figure this out.Resources mentioned in this episode:NoAlarmsClub.comReal Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins4 Hour Work Week by Tim FerrissOverlap by Sean McCabeOnlineBusiness.ONEBoss vs Leader Image via Ikonik (not affiliated w/ this podcast).

Shawn Blanc of Blanc Media joins us to discuss remote work, Blanc Media's unique "work cycles", building margin, physical health habits, and more! Shownotes shawnblanc.net (https://shawnblanc.net) The Sweet Setup (http://thesweetsetup.com) The Focus Course (http://thefocuscourse.com) Shape Up by Basecamp (https://basecamp.com/shapeup) Seanwes (http://seanwes.com) Sean McCabe's Sabbatical Blog (sabbatical.blog) Cortex (http://relay.fm/cortex) CGP Grey: Spaceship You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck) Everything Starts with Trust (HBR) (https://hbr.org/2020/05/begin-with-trust) The Margin Course (affiliate) (https://thefocuscourse.com/margin/?ref=34&campaign=remotelyworking) Simple Habits Course (http://thesweetsetup.com/habits)

Episode 90 of The Teaching Space Podcast attempts to answer this question: should I start a teaching blog? Introduction I’m often asked where I get ideas for podcast episodes (which, 90 episodes in, is a fair question!) My favourite episodes are those that answer questions I am asked. This episode is one of those. A colleague asked me if they should start a teaching blog; I have recorded this response. The short answer is YES as more voices are needed in the online teaching community. We lack diversity. My colleague, of course, works in further education, so this is an area in particular that would benefit from more voices. But I would encourage anyone who thinks they might have something to say to start writing (notice I am not saying ‘start a blog’ yet!) This episode will look at writing in a more general sense before digging into blogging so there will be something for everyone. It All Starts With Writing One of my favourite business podcasts is the Seanwes podcast; I have listened for years. One of Sean’s mantras (he has a few!) is ‘it all starts with writing’. And he’s right. So much of what I do starts with writing, for example: Lesson or course planning Creating resources Podcast episodes Presentations Social media messages Email newsletters Let’s face it - most communication these days starts with writing! This is just one of the reasons writing is important. Before you decide whether or not you want to start a blog, I would suggest it is more important to establish a writing habit. Here’s some content on this topic from Sean. By writing regularly, you can develop your technical writing skills of course, but also your voice. The more you write, the more you have to say (this podcast is a case in point). As a teacher, writing allows me to participate in current education discussions, for example, through social media. It allows me to access a far wider community of teaching professionals than my immediate colleagues. It can be reflective, sometimes therapeutic, and always developmental. Remember, I am just talking about writing at the moment. You don’t have to share everything you write. Writing has created opportunities for me such as speaking at events and writing for other publications. I was able to publish my first book, The Productive Teacher, over a year ago: this was a lifelong ambition for me. Finally, writing allows me to give something back to the teaching community that I am so proud to be a part of. Are There Any Downsides? I honestly cannot think of any downsides to simply writing (not necessarily for publication). I guess it ‘takes time’, but time well spent really cannot be called a downside. If you are writing for a blog (or podcast), for example, there is the challenge of coming up with content ideas. But as I explained previously, writing generates ideas. One of the best ways to come up with content ideas is to listen to the challenges members of your community face and see if you can help them with your writing. One important thing to consider - and this should not be thought of as a downside - is that your employer is comfortable with what you intend to publish. For example, if you start a blog, it might be that you are required to make it clear on the blog that your opinions are your own and not those of your employer. This might also apply to social media. I’d like to think that most employers would encourage you to engage professionally in the wider teaching community. Also, not everyone will agree with your view. Be ready for that. Know how much you plan to share and where you boundaries are. Finally, there is the consideration of cost (again, a consideration, not a downside). You can start writing for free and you can publish a blog for free. You can also spend money if you want to. More on that in a moment. How to Get Started You’ve decided you have something to say. You’ve started writing regularly and feel ready to share it with the world. How do you get started? This is a very quick and dirty guide. Here’s a thought: it might be that you don’t start a blog straight away. Perhaps start on social media. Twitter is a great platform for teachers and trainers and, trust me, crafting the perfect tweet takes considerable skill. You can spread longer messages too by using threaded tweets. Instagram is also an interesting platform. It is image focussed, of course, but there is lots of space for you to write something meaningful underneath that image. If you’re ready to go all-in on your teaching blog, social media will come in handy for sharing your message after you’ve written a blog post, so I would recommend starting a Twitter account connected to your blog as a minimum. After that, you need to choose a blogging platform. There is an overwhelming range of blogging platforms to choose from and I have tried most of them. If I was starting a free blog from scratch today, I’d probably opt for Blogger or Wordpress.com in the first instance but I would also share my articles to Medium. I have heard some great things about Wix but have personally never used it. If you have a little budget to spend on your blog I would recommend you go for Squarespace and purchase your own domain (for me, that is theteachingspace.com as opposed to theteachingspace.squarespace.com). The Squarespace platform will enable you to create a beautiful website including a blog with limited technical skills. Unless you are super-tech savvy I would not recommend Wordpress.org. Once you have built your blog, the next step is to commit to a regular publishing schedule. ‘People don’t notice announcements, they notice consistency’ is another of Sean’s mantras that I love. Make sure your schedule is realistic and fits in with your other life commitments. I recommend batching your content creation. Finally, you need to tell people your blog is there. Use social media (perhaps a social media scheduling tool - don’t just share your work once) and start an email list (MailChimp is recommended). Share your work. Wrap Up And that’s it. If you have any questions about this episode or comments you’d like to share please join The Teaching Space Community: community.theteachingspace.com. The show notes for this episode include any links I’ve mentioned; you can find them at theteachingspace.com. If you have enjoyed this episode please consider supporting the show by making a small donation towards the running costs on my Ko-fi page which you can find at ko-fi.com/theteachingspace. Alternatively, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or whether you listen to the show. Thank you. Thanks for listening and I hope you’ll join me for the next episode.

Today I'm sharing a really powerful shift I learned from Seanwes to help you use your creativity to find answers to things you're struggling with! Seanwes Podcast 399: Finding time and energy About Meg & The Daily Pep! Meg Kissack is a writer, coach, podcaster and professional rebel-rouser for creative and multi-passionate women. Meg helps brilliant women like you leave self doubt at the door, do the things only they can do and live the life of the woman whose autobiography you'd love to read. She is the founder of That Hummingbird Life and host of The Couragemakers Podcast as well as The Daily Pep!- a daily pep talk podcast for fellow creative women. She lives in Liverpool, UK and when she's not behind the microphone you can find her playing with her silly puppy Merlin or covered in paint blasting music! Want to create a life you love? If you want to do your own thing with more sanity, flow and a sh*tload of compassion, head over to That Hummingbird Life to find out more about working with me as a coach!

136 – Influencers vs. Creators, and the Importance of Sharing Your Process This week Brandi interviews Sean Wes, a fellow creative, as he recounts his journey to teaching “the business side of art”. From sharing your “process”, to gathering inspiration (sound familiar?), Sean discusses how to achieve your goals and gain that creative and financial […]The post Sean McCabe [of SeanWes.com] on The Importance of Sharing Your Process (Chapter 8) appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..Support the show (https://buymeacoffee.com/BrandiSea)

136 - Influencers vs. Creators, and the Importance of Sharing Your Process This week Brandi interviews Sean Wes, a fellow creative, as he recounts his journey to teaching “the business side of art”. From sharing your “process”, to gathering inspiration (sound familiar?), Sean discusses how to achieve your goals and gain that creative and financial freedom we all so desperately crave as creatives. Featured Music Dear God by Phantogram    On this week’s episode: "So the first part is just recognizing that you don't get to decide what about your story about your journey and your life is interesting."  -SeanWes Sean's Tips:  Always be looking for and storing sources of inspiration Don’t wait for motivation Word mapping or creating lists Don’t skip working through the bad ideas Sleep on it Write down your process This Week's Uncommon Inspiration The Bean" in Chicago & Community Resources & Other Things We Talked About Find Sean at SeanWes.com “It's not like you can skip around or move around that the bad ideas and go straight to the good one. You have to go through the bad ideas to discover the good one.” -SeanWes " I think that a lot of people kind of discount the fact that getting through the things that might not seem good is how you get to the thing that will be good." -BrandiSea Share on email Email Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter Share on linkedin LinkedIn Share on pinterest Pinterest Want to support us? SHARE THIS PODCAST WITH A FRIEND or Visit Patreon and help support our podcast! We would be eternally grateful! We can't do this without YOU.  You can give as much as you want. Every little bit goes to helping us keep this podcast going. Also, if you get any value out of this show if you would please rate and review our podcast on iTunes! Have a question, comment, or episode subject request? Send an email to brandi@brandisea.com Find us on all forms of social media @designspeakspodcast Find Brandi @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Find Julie @juliehaider  Find Dakota @realdakotacook Thank You To The ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his song “Shatter in The Night” as our theme music on every episode of Design Speaks. Producers Kenneth Kniffin and Dakota Cook. Podcast Cover Art Illustration by Pippa Keel - @pippa.jk of Zhu Creative Copyright ©BrandiSea 2020. All Rights reserved. Design Speaks Episode 136  - Chapter 8:  The Importance of Sharing Your Process with SeanWes

If you’ve ever wanted to start your own business, or you already have, this episode will help. I’m stoked about this one. Sean McCabe has helped me more than perhaps anyone else in regards to my freelance career. Sean is the author Overlap: Start a Business While Working a Full-Time Job. He is also the founder of SeanWes.com and the host of the Sean Wes podcast, where he helps people begin doing the work they truly love. Enjoy!Click here to get added to my brand new email list! Check out Sean's book, it's amazing. Overlap - Start a Business Working a Full-Time JobCheck out Sean on IG. (He's currently taking the year off to travel and posting some cool stuff)Check out my social media pages for even more content on the mind and body.Follow: @maxwmccoyInstagram: @maxwmccoyTwitter: @MaxwMcCoyI get so many questions from viewers about starting a podcast that I decided to create a podcast course. Click the link below and learn how to launch your very own podcast.How to start a Podcast 101Subscribe to the PodcastiTunesSpotify See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Taylor Johnson joins Mason on the podcast today. Taylor is a sex educator and relationship coach who is deeply passionate about helping people to supercharge their sex lives and build powerful intimate relationships. Taylor believes that sexuality is at the core of what it means to be human, and when you supercharge your sex life, you supercharge your entire life. Taylor takes a grounded, practical and real approach to his work and we're thrilled to have him chatting to us today.    Taylor and Mason discuss: Premature ejaculation and self love. Taoist sexual practice and Tantra. Tension as a global epidemic and as a major factor in sexual dysfunction. Semen retention. Sexual practice as part of a holistic lifestyle. Re-channelling sexual energy into work and creativity. Multiple orgasm and edging.   Who is Taylor Johnson? Taylor Johnson is a sex educator and coach. Taylor helps men master their sexual energy and use it to supercharge their entire life. Taylor's programs and coaching synthesise elements of Tantra and Taoist sexuality with western practicality - in a grounded, accessible and powerful way.    Resources:  Taylor's Website Taylor's Instagram Taylor's YouTube Orgasmic Mastery Course   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast? A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Mason: (00:04) Taylor, welcome to the podcast man.   Taylor: (00:06) Thanks for having me, happy to be here.   Mason: (00:09) So, can you just say a quick g'day to everyone, let them know what you're up to with your life and in the world?   Taylor: (00:16) Yeah, absolutely. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening. My name is Taylor. I am a sex educator and a consultant for men primarily, and I help men do things like overcome premature ejaculation and master their sexual energy and be able to put it into whatever they want in their life.   Mason: (00:34) Yes, sweet.   Taylor: (00:35) [crosstalk 00:00:35] version.   Mason: (00:36) Man, I really like that. That's nice and succinct, and that's something that normally doesn't happen on this podcast. But you know what, you're refined and you're refining sexual energy. So no wonder you're able to actually refine your vocabulary into something potent. It's all macrocosm, microcosm stuff.   Taylor: (00:53) Working on it. It's a practice, you know, it's a practice.   Mason: (00:56) So I really wanted to have you on this conversation. Being Brovember we're talking about men's health. SuperFeast, the people listening to community here, are aware that we're looking at a very ancient system when it comes to the herbalism being the Taoist common herbs. We're looking at how we can very sustainably with respect and with, responsibly take something that's got such an ancient lineage and make that relevant to modern times, and that's why I put that respect there. So we're actually respecting the roots, and we kind of stay within that frame, but then how do we actually bring that relevance where these things like these sexual practices or even the fact that you take Taoist tonic herbs or do Taoist sexual practices or tantric practices. How do we not bring it over so it doesn't just get caught up into an egoic identity, which I think happens a lot? Sometimes you get into these communities. I remember when I got into the yogic community, it was like out of the frying pan into the fire.   Taylor: (01:55) Right? Yeah. How do you make it practical so you don't have to spend months and months and years, [inaudible 00:02:00], these techniques that you may or might not use. This talk about in conversation to like prove your worth or something, like grounded and practical and real, that's what I'm all about.   Mason: (02:11) Ground and practical and real, absolutely. And that relevance. I mean, I was talking to you about it because like we're going to go into multiple orgasms for men. We want to go into the retention of ejaculate, and how these conversations are actually going to be relevant to a modern man and in a modern relationship, and I was chatting to you about it. I'm kind of arriving at this point where I'm feeling really nice about approaching this practice in my own life. It's kind of feeling like, I'm not chasing anything, I'm not kind of not really coming to these practices anymore from that seeking or looking to mend a pattern that I picked up when I was a kid or in my teenage years, around where my own sexuality.   Mason: (03:01) I've kind of done a lot of inner work, a lot of psychological work, psychos, just getting into it, just trying to be, whether that's around stories I had around my own cock from porn. The shame I had around my cock from stories I'd made up by being, getting changed with other boys, couple of experiences when I was a teenager, and then again, probably watching porn and being like, "Hang on. I'm coming way too quick so I should probably go to Taoist sexual practices and be able to hold my come, so I don't feel embarrassed or self-conscious when I'm in the bedroom."   Mason: (03:38) I felt like that's been quite insidious for me coming out. I've gotten to that point where I've been on the precipice of being able to really do these retention practices and then gone, years ago and gone, "You know what, I'm not coming at this from the right reasons. I'm really trying to mend something that should come from a little bit more internal psychological, alchemical, spiritual place." But now I'm really feeling like I'm arriving with a clean slate. So I'd just like to hear your take and your experience on how you personally arrived in these practices, these sexual practices, if you've got any little caveats or advice for guys who are approaching it.   Taylor: (04:24) Yeah. Thank you. I'm curious to hear more about what you're experiencing right now too maybe in a little bit. But for me, This has been, I guess ,this has been a curiosity for me, sex, since I was a teenager, right? Sex and also those deeper energetic realms of spirituality and yoga and meditation, Qi Gong and that sort of stuff. From a young age I was interested in those things and I pursued yogic practice, I did yoga teacher trainings, I did the silent meditation retreats, I studied different religions. At the same time in this different compartment of my life, there was sex, and I was fascinated by it.   Taylor: (05:00) I was super attracted to women, super curious about sex, and at the same time, all these practices that I was studying around spirituality and energy, none of them ever mentioned sex. In fact, there was almost like an anti-sex attitude in a lot of those things. And it felt like this really strange disconnect in my body and in my mind, and heart and spirit. At a certain point, I had discovered a book, I believe it's called Sexual Energy Ecstasy. It's a blue book, I don't remember exactly. It was like 12 years ago, and it gave me this idea that you could actually mix yoga and intention and presence with sex. It was this like, the beginning of a process of merging those two worlds for me that has been a sort of lifelong journey since then. But that was a really catalyzing moment, like a huge lightbulb went off in my head because there was so much programming around sex not being spiritual and sex not being good, and sex pushing it to the side, that it was beautiful to experience that coming together.   Taylor: (06:08) And so fast forward a little bit. I started to try those practices and I regularly struggled with premature ejaculation during that time. So it was a little extra motivation to dive more deeply into that. I tried it a bunch, I tried it a bunch, I had some successes and then I noticed that it started to make me feel like, "Oh, yeah. I'm a sex master." I got this all figured out and it got to my ego and got to my head, I guess sort of similar to what you were saying. There was a certain point where I had to take a step back, because at the same time, I was struggling with porn addiction, yada, yada, yada. Fast forward to now, I feel like I've come into a much more balanced place with things too. I just skipped a bunch of stuff in the story, but I'll pause there to see. You looked like you had a little hand motion.   Mason: (06:57) Yeah. I mean, if we quickly go over the practices because I'm sure we've got men and women listening who haven't read like the Sexual Mastery for Men book by Mantak Chia, haven't been in that world of looking in Taoist multiple orgasms. However, if we can just have a quick little look at what those classic exercises are. You're kind of like talking about the squeezing the PC muscle.. I remember when I, like Mantak's just like, his books are just written the way he talks. Mantak is a Taoist practitioner and teacher everybody. You might have heard Tahnee talk about him. Tahnee's gone and learned at his Tao Garden in Chiang Mai.   Taylor: (07:45) Chiang Mai.   Mason: (07:46) So she wrote the Chi Nei Tsang, the Daoist's abdominal massage and it's an absolute weapon. But his books are just like, "Okay, you're squeezing the PC muscle 500 times a day. Just when you're in the car, you just sit there and you're just squeezing them. Like that feeling when you're holding, and you need to wee really bad and you need to squeeze that muscle. Do that 500 times a day, and that's the first step." And you decide, "Okay, it's a bit ambiguous."   Taylor: (08:09) Yeah, very mechanical and very dry honestly. I didn't make it through his book in entirety. I've experienced great success without reading that entire book. So just for anyone out there, there are other ways to get there that might feel a little more heart centered or warm, or at least less mechanical and engineering like. [crosstalk 00:08:27]. Just speak to that one piece you said, the PC muscle thing. I think this is a really important thing to talk about. Because all over the internet right now if you look for how to last longer in bed, or how to overcome premature ejaculation, pretty much the majority of what's out there immediately is PC muscle exercises, "Squeeze this. Squeeze this. Strengthen that. Strengthen that."   Taylor: (08:48) But a big problem with that is, when's the last time you or anybody went to the gym for 40 days in a row and did 200 squats every day for 40 days without stretching or without taking a break, right? That would create a problem in your body, that would create a problem in my body. I wouldn't be able to walk well after that, maybe not even after day four. I need a rest day. I need to stretch and I would need to counterbalance that. So a problem a lot of guys run into when they start doing PC muscle exercises all the time is they actually put their pelvic floor into a state of tension. Tension often is what causes premature ejaculation. Relaxing that area and being able to relax that is huge. So instead of doing 100 PC muscles exercises every day, like there's some other things you can do like different yoga poses and different stretches and different breathing exercises to bring more spaciousness down there.   Mason: (09:45) Would you mind if we go into that a bit later.   Taylor: (09:48) Yeah, happy to. One other little anecdote. I went to a Tantra workshop in Thailand two years ago, and the instructor asked this room probably full of 100 people, I would say, asked the room to close their eyes and tune into their pelvic floor. For everybody listening, I'm going to invite you to do that too. As long as you're not driving, just close your eyes and notice your pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor is the area around your genitals, in between your genitals and your anus. This is your perineum. And see if there is any amount that you can relax that area of your body at all just even a little bit. Are you holding any little micro tension there, tension at all?   Taylor: (10:38) It was really interesting in this workshop. You can open your eyes now. Because the instructor asked us that question and 90 plus percent of the people raised their hand. I did too. We all had tension there and we could all consciously relax that area of our body. Then the instructor asked us again five minutes later, and still 90 plus percent of the people raised their hand. And so it was this really interesting learning process of "Oh, wow. We're all walking around with a lot of tension in that area of our body. So maybe doing kegel exercises all the time, isn't the only answer.   Mason: (11:10) That comes up in like, I feel like that's what the world's really wanting is in that releasing of tension, that relaxation. Everyone in the West is obviously so Yang. We talked about shiny things we need to strengthen. Even with eye exercises, no one's even getting the sense of like, hang on, there's musculature around there that is super tense and you need to relax. And then you look at the West, everyone's so uptight, especially around the anus, and so that muscle, that PC muscle coming from the pubic bone right around to the coccyx, is like literally tight.   Mason: (11:45) As you're saying, that constant squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, if you got a tight neck, you're going to go and get like ... I'll just be like, "You know what, I'm going to really strengthen my with that muscle right now. This is how ..." You get one of those iron neck things that put a [crosstalk 00:11:58] on your head, "This is going to fix me." It's super obvious, but we've been so ... we've gone down that route of programming ourselves. And of course we're impressionable, and so we take-   Taylor: (12:09) Totally.   Mason: (12:10) Yeah. So like then, what are we doing in ... Let's just go into it now. What is your recommendations rather than just squeezing, and then how do we get a little bit more colour to that conversation and bringing blood flow and Qi down to that pelvic floor?   Taylor: (12:28) Yeah. One of my favorite and most simple exercises to do is deep belly breathing. And you can breathe into your pelvic floor too, and it doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be this great, mysterious mystical thing. You can just take a deep breath down into your belly, into your lower belly, and it literally expands that region of your body. One of my favorite ways to have people do this for their first time, if they're not used to deep belly breathing, is to lay on their back on the ground. And then you can put one hand on your chest and one hand on your lower belly, and try to breathe into that hand that's on your lower belly.   Taylor: (13:11) You'll notice that when you really focus your breath there, and you focus on expanding that part of your body, you can feel expansion in your sacrum, in your lower spine, in your abdomen, in your pelvic floor, and that whole area of your body. If you just slowly breathe into there, it's not a forceful, like get it done sort of thing, but it's a slow, easeful deep breath. That is an amazing, amazing, simple practice.   Mason: (13:38) One thing that when I was first getting into these practices, with good intentions and in some direction just seeking and chasing something, one thing that kind of threw me off was, I was all about the deep breathing. I've grown up around martial arts, and so had that ability to breathe into my belly. And then once I was in the bedroom, once I was having sex and really releasing tension, not realizing how much tension I was actually holding within my PC muscle, in that area around my sexual organs. And naturally physiologically, you release tension, your breath and your fascia is going to be able to bring subtle movement, you're going to get a flow of Qi there.   Mason: (14:25) In the beginning, I became more sensitive. Because despite the fact that I'd had evidence that I didn't really have to worry so much around premature ejaculation, that was still my sexual baggage and story I had about myself. So I actually got a little bit thrown off around how additionally sensitive I was, in the beginning. I just wanted to kind of throw that out there, because that sensitivity is something you want, but then working through that, that kind of somewhat disassociating that just because you get that pleasurable feeling, doesn't mean you're just going to get out of control and come real quick.   Taylor: (15:07) Right.   Mason: (15:09) That was a huge insight for me. Then opening up from you, you were talking about particular stretches, poses. Are you particularly looking at the hip flexor muscle when you're stretching out in through that area? What would you be looking at?   Taylor: (15:31) Well, yes, so they are the more active things, active poses you could do to do active stretching, but one of the ones that I really like is bridge pose, and with your hips up in the air, and your shoulders back on the ground and your feet on the ground. It would be cool if we could flash a diagram of that onto the screen right now. But basically, in that pose, somehow ... I haven't fully studied anatomy and physiology, but somehow the musculature in that pose allows you to relax your pelvic floor, in a way that is really incredible. I haven't experienced that in pretty much any other yoga pose or position. It's like a deep just dropping, deep connection with gravity of your pelvic floor and to feel that ease, it's really remarkable there. That's one for sure.   Taylor: (16:20) And then, yeah, there are generally just stretching your muscles, and your legs, and your hips is also helpful. I'd say, this thing of premature ejaculation, it's more than just learning one technique, or one stretch, or three stretches. Sometimes you have to approach it from 15 different angles, because for a lot of people it's a lifestyle thing. And it's learning to switch over your entire sexual response system from what we've grown up with, and maybe what sort of habits we've built, to a new type of sexual response system. And that takes some time for a lot of people and that's normal.   Taylor: (16:53) I think it's really awesome that you spoke to the piece in the beginning, where you had increased sensitivity at first, because I did too. And I thought, Oh shit. What am I doing? No, no, no, go backwards, go backwards. And then I couldn't go back. But in retrospect, it totally makes sense. I had to deprogram myself from years of watching porn, years of habitual masturbation, years of habitual objectifying of women, and to open myself to those deeper realms of sensitivity. At first it was overwhelming, and eventually that overwhelm can turn into this greater realms of orgasm and pleasure, that don't end in ejaculation.   Mason: (17:38) Before we go into the benefits of that, and why someone would be wanting to bring that into your lives, I'm curious to hear your grounded take, is what's the piece around like, what would you say is something to be ... As you're working on this at the same time or a precursor, in terms of the sexual relationship that you have with yourself, you are cock around self love, all those kinds of things. I just like to hear your take on that.   Taylor: (18:09) Specifically you're asking me what is ... Can you say that again?   Mason: (18:14) Yeah. I'm sorry. Sometimes I do just like dance around a concept, and don't ask a very direct question. Going forth, because I kind of personally feel a huge part has been this like okay, genuine loving relationship with myself, genuine non-shame based sexual relationship with myself is necessary, and feeling this innate forgiveness, and very deep love and appreciation that I do have for myself. I get that that could become a little bit cliche when you're running around these circles. So for you who you're teaching these arts, you're teaching the retention of ejaculate and multiple orgasms, that's the shiny thing. I'm assuming that there is a substance of this, what I'm talking about of like of this self love and healthy relationship. I know, because I've seen it in your videos and you talk to it, but just I wanted to hear directly the fabric of that, of what's surrounding the shiny thing of these multiple orgasms in and around what I was just referring to.   Taylor: (19:20) Yeah. Thank you for that clarification. That makes total sense. Yeah, nobody's going to do a Google search for, "How to self love better." Very few people. But hundreds of thousands of people will search for, "How to overcome premature ejaculation." So it's like, what are people looking for? And how to have them find me or find whoever is going to help them with this issue. Yes, so I run this course called Orgasmic Mastery. It's for men, and a lot of the stuff we've already talked about is in there, and so is this piece of self love and it's really important. For me ... What would I want to say about this?   Taylor: (20:02) I have people approach self pleasuring from like as a practice, incorporating breath, incorporating some exercises, but really trying to be fully present with themselves, not fantasizing about porn, not fantasizing about any partner, but tuning into this sensations that are in their body, the feeling of sheets on their skin, the feeling of warmth or coldness of the air, everything in that present moment, just tuning into those sensations, because that's going to orient you to this deeper presence that's available to you at any given moment. When you start exploring that realm, it's possible that all sorts of stuff come up. You might realize like, Oh my God, when's the last time I took 20 minutes for myself just to give myself pleasure? That can be overwhelming and sad, or beautiful, or happy for some people. It's really sort of like opening Pandora's box of potential for energy there.   Taylor: (21:01) It translates to the rest of your life. It has translated to the rest of my life. The more time I spend in a self pleasure session, versus just like wanking it or trying to get off, the more I walk in the world with my shoulders back, the more I walk in the world with confidence and love, and I exude this deeper presence, and it's because I've been cultivating that. I don't want to come across as I have all this shit figured out and I'm a master of it. Certainly, I'm very much a work in progress still, but I do notice that the more I approach this from a grounded place of self love, the better every area of my life becomes.   Mason: (21:41) That's evident, man, and I like that you've added those caveats. However, the cultivation is evident and it comes from consistency, and the grounded place in which no one was watching all your videos and reading your articles. That's why I was super stoked to have you on the podcast, and there's not many people I'd really want to talk about this with. But I had to talk about, so I was really happy that Elena, ... So everyone like Elena, who is a mate of ours runs Instagram, who has been a family friend for many years, put us on to Taylor's work, and I was like, "Boom. Yeah." That was three days ago and here we are, just awesome, because we needed to get this in for Brovember ASAP. Get it. Yeah. Now, let's go to why we would want to retain come, sperm. Let's look at some of the nuts and bolts of it.   Taylor: (22:34) The nuts and bolts. Great. So why would you want to retain your semen? Why would you want to retain your ejaculate? The first example I'll give is just of long term relationship. Say you're in a long term relationship, and we'll just go ahead and say monogamous for this particular example. For everybody listening, imagine that you're an year and a half into this relationship, maybe two years. Now imagine that you have sex with your partner every day for six days straight and you ejaculate every day of those six days. Chances are you're not going to want to be intimate with them on the seventh day, maybe even the six or the fifth or the fourth day, depending on how old you are, depending on your lifestyle and all this stuff.   Taylor: (23:25) One of the most practical reasons you might want to retain your semen is because when you ejaculate, generally speaking, you are losing polarity. You're losing that charge in your life, but also with your partner. And if you do it over and over and over again, it can lead to a depolarization in your relationship. And then all of a sudden, you might be more reactive and you might get into a little tiff or argument about somebody who left a little bit extra on the dishes, or it opens up the possibility for discontent.   Mason: (23:55) Mm-hmm (affirmative). The hangover.   Taylor: (23:58) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Example number one. Yeah, the orgasm hangover or the ejaculation hangover is real, and it affects not only your physiology, but your neuro chemicals as well. And that's something I want to do more research on to understand what exactly it is I'm talking about, but it has an effect on your brain for I think it's up to seven to ten days or something like that, I just read recently.   Mason: (24:22) Yeah. I think that's kind of confronting when you start reading about this, it definitely was for me when I was in a position where it wasn't necessarily something, like the mastery of that skill wasn't something that I saw was really on the horizon, and I had to do some other work first. And so then what comes up is, figuratively speaking is the morality around the fact that you're leaking your Jing essence and getting into like, "Is it bad for me to be coming?" I think that's when I was just ... I remember doing this years ago that I was interested again, of going and reading the reviews and seeing the reactions to this kind of, and I imagine you get it a lot as well, about to both the book Sexual Mastery for Men and The Tao of Sex, Health and Longevity by Daniel Reid.   Mason: (25:16) I don't know if you know his work. He's just another ... He's American, I think he's in his 70s now. Lived in Byron Bay for a while so he has a bit of a name of himself around here for being the local Taoist but he teaches a lot of these sexual practices. And you read the reviews of people really reacting. They're like, "This isn't natural. This isn't something that I want to do." But from a charged place and .... What I'm liking is what's coming out now I feel in the health scene is a very non-charged, "Hey, let's just lay out some of the realities of it. Don't get into right or wrong." Even if you're not going to be retaining ejaculate and having multiple orgasms, you can still be very aware of the physiological and neuro chemical nature of what happens when you do come, and then manage your energy and yourself, and your lifestyle, and your nutrition, and hydration in order to prevent you going, exactly what you're saying, start getting to that point where you do react towards yourself and your partner when you lose your essence.   Mason: (26:27) If you're already tired, and you lose that much mineral Jing essence, that little ... Actually I've got a quote here that I think kind of like in terms of what it is. Do you know Nicolas Venette, a 17th century sexologist?   Taylor: (26:43) I don't.   Mason: (26:45) "Semen is the most refined and noblest part of the whole human frame, containing in itself the whole nature and complexion of every part of the body, or in other words being the very essence of man." And if you're losing that essence, naturally, it's just going to be like, "Well guys, like of course. That takes a lot to make it and you releasing it, maybe you're going to be a bit tired afterwards." Have you just got like, I don't know if there's anything else you want to say to that hangover?   Taylor: (27:11) Yeah. Well, something came up that I have not really thought about before, but I'm just going to go off the cuff here. You've talked about some of those people on the reviews saying, "Oh, this isn't natural. We're meant to come regularly." And it makes me think like, if we take an evolutionary perspective on how we came to be here today, like if you look back tens of thousands of years ago at our ancestors, it was a much different scenario then. Survival was top on the list. It was survival, survive, procreate, eat, fuck, sleep, repeat. The death rate was probably much higher than it is now. There were predators around, there were different people who might want to kill you everywhere, and so it was probably advantageous to be ejaculating regularly in people to help the species continue, as much as possible, right?   Taylor: (28:03) And yes, we're factories for that. We could do that as men, and some of the research points to that. They've done studies on, there's one rat study in particular, where they looked at rats in captivity. They tried to have this one rat, mate with one mate over and over and over again, and the more times it ejaculated with this partner, the less it was interested and the less energy it had. But if you put in a bunch of new female rats, then this one male rat could have sex, sex, sex, sex, and would basically have sex until it died or got sick, with the introduction of new partners.   Taylor: (28:39) So if we fast forward today, we don't have to deal, we're not in that survival mindset in the same way that we were tens of thousands of years ago, yet our biology is generally the same by all intensive research purposes. So instead of being this factory for the production of more humans, like we could harness that energy and put it into our business, put it into our entrepreneurial pursuits, put it into our art, put it into our creativity. It's an option. That's just cool. It just occurred to me like, maybe it's not natural if we're trying to create as many humans as possible so we can survive, but we're not in that scenario anymore.   Mason: (29:19) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. I think the other nice thing is we're in a scenario where this doesn't have to be a super taboo or some hippy bullshit or something only for Taoists. This seems to be coming a little bit more of a grounded and logical conversation, which I'm really appreciating. And in that, what are you looking at in terms of primary benefits to someone's physiology, and long term health, if you start delving into this area. You've already mentioned the rechanneling, maybe you can talk a little bit more about that.   Taylor: (29:56) Yeah. Well, I'll speak to my own just personal practice of semen retention for a moment. I have discovered that my ideal ejaculation frequency is somewhere between 10 and 14 days. I can have as much sex as I want during that period or as much self-pleasure. But if I ejaculate at that frequency, I noticed that I don't suffer any of the effects of repeat ejaculation hangover. And so for me, an ejaculation hangover would manifest in my body and in my mind, with brain fog, with lack of clarity, with lack of feeling of direction and on purpose, less confidence, less zest, and just less creative energy.   Taylor: (30:37) I've noticed that I can do manual labor over and over and over again in that space, but what's more challenging for me is using my mind in creative ways to solve problems in that period of ejaculation hangover. I'm less sociable, I'm less able to hold up conversation, all that stuff. Whereas if I retain my semen, a benefit of that is more clarity, more direction of my life purpose, more feelings of vitality inside, more feelings of power. I'm convinced that people in public look at me differently if I'm 14 days in. I've done experiments with that and I think there's an energetic radiance that can sort of happen with that, and that getting into woo-woo territory. But there's something very real about that, and maybe it's just body language, maybe it's just how your eyes operate. But you know what I mean?   Mason: (31:30) Well, I mean, absolutely. I feel like in terms of being woo-woo, I mean, everybody listening to this podcast would have heard us talk about the three treasures regularly.   Taylor: (31:41) Okay, cool. Great. Awesome.   Mason: (31:41) Jing, Qi, Shen is probably like a foundation. The foundation of why we practice tonic herbalism isn't to remedy what's wrong, it is to tonify and cultivate the three energies which are the source of our life, which is the Jing, the Qi, and the Shen. So they very much understand the nature of Jing been associated with our sexual fluids, with semen and without genetic potential being the wax of the candle, in the analogy. If we can build up that wax of the candle, because whether we like it or not, we're not saying it's not like a very moral or extreme statement, what I'm saying and coming from someone who is coming.   Mason: (32:24) I'm not saying that you if you come, you're just going to keep on depleting that wax and you're going to leak your Jing and that's it for you, you're not going to be able to do this. We're just talking about almost another tool or another practice, to possibly continue to very successfully manage the wax of your candle, your Jing and your physiology. I think what you're talking about is when you're retaining that essence, and you're using it consciously or conscientiously, and you're conscientiously coming, you are building up that wax so that the flame can be nice and bright. So your Qi is cultivating and flowing so that your Shen, your wisdom, your essence is shining bright. The light coming off your candle can be brighter.   Mason: (33:06) We know that when you've got that skip in your step and that twinkle in your eye, you can notice it in people. If you've felt it in yourself when you're exhausted and tapped out, like I feel invisible when I'm like that. Naturally, I can take on a bit of a gray demeanor, verse when I'm really pumping and hydrated and I'm feeling great, I'm expressing my emotions, and I'm being responsible sexually, and cultivating energy and really connecting, fuck, you feel incredible. Of course, not that it's about that, but people notice it. So yeah, man. I think I appreciate you saying that.   Taylor: (33:43) Yeah, and thank you for saying that too. It's just meeting you now for the first time and just learning about everything you're doing two days ago, I haven't had a chance to really dive in and understand what you're sharing, but I've made it a personal mission of mine to try to take how I talk about this and make it as accessible and approachable to the mainstream as I can, because I believe in these practices and the power there. I've been sort of training myself to say less things that could be construed as the derogatory word woo-woo, just because I want CEOs to find us. I want big business people to find this. I want people who work in banks to find this because I do believe that these practices really will change the way that, how you see the world, how you see life, how you walk in the world, and I want more people to be doing this. So thanks for saying that.   Mason: (34:33) Yeah. And I appreciate you saying that as well. I mean, there is a reality and it's a confronting reality around what it means, where we build something like semen and then we release it constantly, but there's no reason why this can be decharged around being considered woo-woo, and almost this is something that was talked about in men. You can almost see that the pub, I was like, "Oh gosh, you're a bit grouchy, are you? You're in the ejaculation hangover, are you Terry? Just something that's like, it is somewhat of a reality, which doesn't mean it needs to be moralized. So I've got another quote here if you don't mind. I've never had-   Taylor: (35:13) Yeah, please.   Mason: (35:14) I got a couple from Kim Anami, just like she was talking about semen. Especially, if people who have gone down that route of the Taoists, even in Tantra, it can be very colorful and poetic, this whole thing, which is amazing. I personally love that. I'm kind of like, I've become somewhat of a tragic ... Did I just say come what of a ...? I'm somewhat of a romantic, just like a tragic in that area when it comes to talking about these things, which if that's the only way you talk about these things, it can become a little bit difficult to approach these and land them in your life. However, that's the nature of it, and especially if you look at the nature of the White Tigress in Jade Dragon traditions when it comes to Taoism.   Mason: (36:05) I don't know if you've read a lot of those books. It's really beautiful and poetic in terms of talking about these lineages of Taoism where they really were focusing on that cultivation of sexual energy. When you look at the Jade Dragon, the men's sexual, the semen retention practices, multiple orgasms, as well as the Qigong and the consumption of Jing herbs, and all these kinds of things. All they are is they're seen as spiritual practices, cultivating energy that can be then funneled into your meditation, into the work that you're doing out there into the world, and very much youthening practices as well, which can ...   Mason: (36:47) You can just think about it. If it takes fluid and minerals, and stem cells, and power, like an ATP and mitochondrial energy in order to create semen, and if you continuously release it and you need to direct all that energy to go and then constantly build it up and create it again, it's just simple science. It's simple logic, you're not going to have the essence and the enzymatic power, and the energy, and the organ power to redirect into other places, which are going to be seen as like, youthening, vitality, cultivation of Qi in other areas. So, in saying that, here is that quote from Mantak Chia, I think it was the Cultivating Male Sexual Energy, 1984. What year were you born, man?   Taylor: (37:37) '85.   Mason: (37:38) Yeah. Me is about maybe six, so this is before our time. Look at us. A couple of experts on sexual practices and meanwhile these quotes. "When hormonal secretions of the sexual glands are regularly leached out, the body is sapped at its root without a period of time, that will range from months to decades depending on the endowment of the individual, creative and sexual abilities are halved, and the ability to withstand disease and the frailties of old age is diminished". Don't know if you want to elaborate on that in any way, I'll put your two cents in.   Taylor: (38:19) I don't know what else there is to say.   Mason: (38:22) It nails it, right?   Taylor: (38:24) It does. I guess the one other piece I want to say is, semen retention, it's not like the magic bullet. I do want to say it's amazing but, and if you're not also ensuring that you get a good night's sleep, if you're not also staying hydrated. If you're not taking care of all these other areas of your life, it doesn't matter how much semen retention you do, you're still going to lose energy in all these other ways. It's like one piece of the whole picture of being a holistically minded individual. That's really important, that doesn't get talked about enough, but it isn't the only thing.   Mason: (39:01) Awesome. Yeah. And that's something, try and talk about that a lot. If you have very, very, very realistic expectations on these practices, on the tonic herbs, on medicinal mushrooms, whatever it is, if you just get it off a pedestal and just sit in it's very real relevant place, that means because you're not going to have expectations shattered, because you had something on a fucking pedestal for so long, it means you're going to have the stamina to consistently do the practice. In saying that, we were talking about having particular teachers, Taoist teachers, whether it's Mantak up on these pedestals. It's something that I think we both wanted to talk about, in terms of when approaching these things. You just want to have a jam out about that now?   Taylor: (39:53) Yeah, let's go for it. Let's go for it. I've never personally studied with Mantak, but I studied a fair amount with Michael Winn, who co-wrote the Cultivating Male Sexual Energy. He's actually based a few miles from where I live right now in Asheville. And so, that's been really convenient. Another big teacher in my life has been this guy named David Deida. I'm sure you've probably heard of him, have you?   Mason: (40:15) I do.   Taylor: (40:15) Yeah. So I've read most of his books. I did a workshop with him. Earlier this year, I actually had an opportunity to sit down with him and have a beer at a table with some other people, because I worked security at an event of his and we went out afterwards, and we just hung out. It was this really interesting process for me to, A, I had never done security at an event before. That was a trip. But, B, the most fascinating thing was, I had sort of deified him. After reading his books, after going through his workshop, I put him up on this pedestal and thought, just like all the things associated with that, like, "He can do no wrong," or "He has all the answers," or "Oh he has something that I don't," or "I need him for this, X, Y and Z."   Taylor: (40:58) It took a good half hour of being at that table with him and a handful of other people, to just whittle those away and remember like, "Oh you're just a guy, who has invested a lot of time and energy in studying this stuff, but you're still very much a human, you still struggle with things. You still don't want to be in big crowds of people. You have your own quirks just like everybody else." And it was a very humbling experience for me and a useful experience to realise, all these teachers that I have deified, even Mantak, I don't necessarily have to study with them to get the value from their material, and I don't necessarily even have to read all the material. They're not gods. I'm not a god. I don't know what else to say about that. I think it's just important to realise, you know what I mean? We're all humans.   Mason: (41:52) I think what's ... Because I think we've all gone through that, maybe, maybe not. But I'll speak definitely speak for myself, and I've had those people I'd put on pedestals, and then I've had to come crashing down. For me, it was a pattern of looking for that place that I think is right or the authority, and then attaching myself to that authority, so that I can feel ... For me, it was dietarily and health wise, that I can feel like I'm in a superior place, and I'm actually in a safe place, where I'm actually doing everything right now. That's just the case when you go ... And I can see it, you read The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida, and you're doing the Taoist sexual practice, and you look at the rest of the society, what I see, what happens is we oppose ourselves.   Mason: (42:33) A lot of the time in the beginning, we need opposition. So we oppose ourselves against society, which has taught us that pornography is the standard, that your own sexuality is taboo. So we need to kick back against that, and when we kick back against that, we look at who's on the other side of that thing we're opposing. We're trying, and so we find the leaders that we then go and deify, because in order to stay opposed to the energy of what we're moving away from, we need a deity or we need a different pole in order to go towards. And of course, it's all our own identity building. And in the beginning that can be useful, but also being aware of that charge. Because quite often what people look for then, is when they realize, hang on, I've identified with this person and making this person the deity, or just putting them on a pedestal.   Mason: (43:27) If the person you're following is in a good position, I assume like David Deida, it's good to hear he was just someone that was down to earth and just via following him or just being in his presence, you came to that realization for yourself. I feel like that's what happens with Mantak, from hearing about Tahnee being the Tao Garden and talking to him. He just sits down and eats with everyone, has chats with everyone, and talks his shit and all his students are likewise they're just like you know what? He's got his own stuff going on, and he deals with it, but we've just got a like a healthy relationship. We just go to him for the teachings and we know where the line is.   Mason: (44:06) But then there's those times when your teacher doesn't have that groundedness to defuse it in themselves, and so they parasitically ... Like they live off that energy of people deifying them, and that suck it up. And so, what we get used to is needing to find something wrong with that deity, with that person, in order to escape from their claws. Again, it's external, and then the pendulum swings and people need to get into this resentment around people who are representing this health, and teaching these ancient lineages, where it's not about them. Some people are fucking awful, and they are preying on people and they're abusing their position. But that's their shit. You need to just like de-charge and come to that position, where you just realise everyone's a human. We're all bloody equal here and it's your shit that you deify that person, right?   Taylor: (45:02) Yeah. Wow. Very well said. I'm going to go back and listen to you say that whole thing again. Thanks.   Mason: (45:07) Well, just hearing your ... This is what always happens on the podcast. I mean, and I learn personally through talking things out, and I always appreciate this podcast. Hear you talking about all these things and then it brings up some shit in myself, and I go on my rants and that's how I kind of work out these concepts internally.   Taylor: (45:32) It's great.   Mason: (45:33) First of all, that's great to hear that about David Deida, because he's such a legend. I found that book exceptionally transformational, and again, everyone ... And he's got several, but The Way of the Superior Man is just ... Imagine just having a term studying that in year nine and ten of like middle school for you guys. And parents can just go that. Parents, that's what the beauty of it, we don't have to rely on the schooling system to do it.   Taylor: (46:03) Now that's a fantasy, is bringing all this stuff, bringing everything we're talking about right now into kids, into the teenagers. Wow. How different would our society be if we did that? That's a fantasy of mine, passion somehow, maybe hopefully one day.   Mason: (46:22) Well, it's happening, for sure. Like there's parents who are exposing their kids, just and they're very grounded people. Again, we don't need to make this trippy or woo-woo, when kids can still be heavily integrated into the community, and not be ostracized by knowing about these things which go against very traditional society, if we teach them how to not grab on to these ideas, and try and become superior in themselves because they know them. Parents, you just have these conversations each and every day, appropriately based on the age, but you can just have these very responsibly. Anyway, we're all here doing it together. I think it's happening man.   Mason: (47:02) So then going into some of the practicalities again, in terms of what steps that men can be taking along this journey, and I think I'm definitely going to jump onto your course as well, and just go a little bit deeper down that route as well, because having a structure really works for me. But, what are the steps? And then can you also talk about some of the fallacies that occur, just in case everyone's heard it before. Some of the examples I'm talking about are like edging in an incorrect way, coming, edging towards orgasm, and then what are some of the fallacies there, and some of the correct ways to do it. Also, that false ejaculate retention by pushing up into the peritoneum there, or if you learned your physiology from Jackass, the Gooch, and pushing the semen and back up into the bladder. I just like to get the world of these steps that you're taking over months for men to start retaining semen.   Taylor: (48:12) Yeah. Wow. How to condense all these into some useful ... Well, I'd say the first thing to start with, sounds like a lot of people listening to this already are kind of on board, but it's just the realisation that there is something else that's possible. There is another paradigm of sex, there's another paradigm of energy and relating, and consciousness that's available, that society doesn't talk about in the grand scheme of things. So that's step one, is just to know that there's something else out there that's possible, and I'm here to say and it sounds like you're here to say, that it can be way more pleasurable and connective than the typical sex that I grew up with, and that I learned from porn.   Taylor: (48:52) And then seeking out resources. Books are a great way to start. Mantak Chia's book can be a great way to start. That book, The Way of the Superior Man, it has some awesome insights into sex. I posted about that book on my Instagram yesterday, and immediately. I think it was like less than a minute later, somebody responded with a DM that said, "That book saved my marriage. It literally saved my marriage." And then it was one of the most responded to stories I've posted in a while, with all these people saying how much it's impacted them. So books, start with books, and then YouTube. There's a lot of free information out there. Just start researching.   Taylor: (49:28) And then I'd say, another huge thing that's really important for us as men specifically, is to talk to another brother about this stuff. Talk to another man about this stuff. Find a friend who's interested, find some sort of community who's also interested in this. We're programmed often as men to do everything by ourselves, to be the sort of like lone wolf. We have to be self sufficient, self empowered, do everything ourselves. That's a problem and it's a fallacy. Having community around this, is so amazing. That was one of my favorite things about the course that we just did, was seeing and hearing about all the experiences from the guys in the Facebook group, and talking about on the live calls, and seeing different people's wins, and having them ask questions and have each other answer their questions.   Taylor: (50:19) I say that community piece is really, really important. And I think it's something as men in general, we need to step more into men's groups, men's gatherings, men's workshops, spaces for us to reevaluate how we walk in the world and that sort of thing. And then I know this is a fair amount of a tangent, but I think it's really important that we do that. And then you could take a course. You could take my course, you could take somebody else's course, if you want to go have a deeper dive into it. Not everybody wants to. I think everybody should, of course. Yeah, I'll pause there.   Mason: (50:54) Well, at least arriving at a point where it's a choice. I've heard a lot of people go like, "I've kind of learned it and then played around with it, and then I just chose that I didn't really want to have that as a practice in my life," which is kind of a nice non-charged way to go about it. Can you talk about, around anything in terms of practices for strengthening the PC muscle just very quickly, that might just shine some light on it for guys that are already taking on this practice. Maybe they've read the 500 a day kind of squeeze thing.   Taylor: (51:25) Yeah. I will hit that, and then want to speak to the retrograde ejaculation thing that you talked about, just because you mentioned it earlier. So there is this whole other thing that can happen, where some guys think that they're having a non-ejaculatory orgasm. And often that happens by using the million dollar point technique right before an ejaculatory orgasm where-   Mason: (51:48) That was the gooch was talking about everybody, to put it as they say in Grey's Anatomy.   Taylor: (51:53) Yes, putting the fingers forcefully into the perennial, and what you're actually doing there, you're still having an ejaculatory orgasm, you're just diverting your ejaculate into your bladder, instead of out through your penis. So you still lose everything that you lose during your orgasm, you still go through that refractory period. It might seem like you're having a non-ejaculatory orgasm, but if you pee in a glass cup immediately afterwards, you will see ejaculate in that.   Mason: (52:22) Do you see this happening even if they're not hitting that point, which, everyone is between the anus and the testes? That's the point we're talking about.   Taylor: (52:29) Yeah. Technically, you can strengthen your PC muscles to be able to squeeze hard enough there, that you can squeeze and divert that flow without touching your fingers. You can do it with crossing your legs. Some people supposedly can do that with intention. I don't know them. I've just heard about that. I prefer to not do that practice. If I'm going to have an ejaculation, I would rather it leave my penis and go through the natural flow, than get diverted up into my bladder. I would either rather have a non-ejaculatory, energetic full body orgasm, or a full on ejaculatory orgasm and not this sort of weird false, non-ejaculatory orgasm.   Mason: (53:10) I'm just going to ask another question here. I just want everyone to know, I'm still aware we're going to talk about edging and we're still going to talk about PC, but now I feel like somewhat of a seminal elephant in the room is, what happens to the ejaculate when you don't come?   Taylor: (53:31) Just gets reabsorbed by your body. It doesn't build up. You don't get giant testicles. It just cycles naturally internally. That's my understanding.   Mason: (53:45) Yeah. When you're going through these practices, I've heard you talk about blue balls quite a bit. I mean, can you quickly share whether it's blue balls and you feel that concentration of sexual energy? A lot of guys might be familiar, we have a deer antler velvet product and sometimes guys will take it consistently, and build up a lot of Yang Jing. I mean, a lot of sexual energy and feel charged. A lot of, you can associate that with that like, "I've got too testosterone. I'm feeling that slight frustration and aggression." What are some practices we can do to re-divert that energy?   Taylor: (54:32) Yes, I will hit on that. And I just wanted to add one other piece of clarity about what I just said, is I'm remembering that there is some evidence to show that if you do retain your semen for months, like four, or five, six plus months, then your sperm count might drop. It might go lower, so then if you're wanting to have a child ... And I'm not an expert on this, but I remember hearing this at the tantric school where I studied, I think they recommended having an ejaculation or two, before you actually try to conceive, but that's ... Do more research on that for sure. But I just wanted to add that one piece in, to [crosstalk 00:55:09] mouthful. Yeah. Can you say the last thing you just did again?   Mason: (55:14) Yeah. How are we taking that build up of sexual energy, and taking it into different places in the body? Just very simple practice.   Taylor: (55:21) Yeah. Well, there's so many different ways to do that. One of them is the microcosmic orbit, which I'm sure a lot of you listening are familiar with. Another, which I learned earlier this year on a different podcast, Sean Wes. It's a different business podcast, but they did a whole review of this book. What was it? Think and Grow Rich, and on the chapter about sublimating your sexual energy, one of the guys on there said he tried this technique. He was really attracted to this woman and feeling sexually charged, and thinking about her all the time while he was at the office, and he got out a sheet of paper and wrote down, "I am transmuting my sexual energy from this woman, and from being aroused by her, and I'm putting into my work right now." And the act of writing it down for him, it changed something in his physiology, and the solidifying of his intention on paper just shifted something internally for him. That's a very practical way to do that, and I thought that was fascinating. I've tried it a few times since then in a variety of contexts, and it works surprisingly well.   Mason: (56:25) Yeah, where your attention goes, your energy flows, right?   Taylor: (56:28) Totally.   Mason: (56:31) Completely with that, I feel like that's something that's often ... It's a pretty obvious caveat. Over the next, say like decade, it's going to be a really great endeavor for everyone to really get in touch with their sexual energy, and get an understanding, come into a deeper relationship with the nature of your creation of come, and how you're releasing it, and just watching the patterns that arise afterwards, and when you're retaining, that might just come from celibacy. It might not just be the fact that you're doing multiple orgasms. Just watch yourself because it's a reality, and give yourself time. Don't be too harsh on yourself.   Mason: (57:10) But inside of that, you're going to have to take that sexual energy at some point, and realise that it's a part of you. It's not isolated into a box, and around your dick. As you were saying, like just say, "I'm going to go put that into my work." I know that can be something very different for men. Well, how can I take something that's just used for like attraction or fucking, and put that into two hours sitting at my desk? I think most people have heard it, but it's worth reiterating again, that sexual energy, it's just energy and it's your energy, and it's just you and it is your creativity.   Taylor: (57:52) Totally. Yeah. And if you want it, a simple, practical way to try this, if you have a partner right now that you're having sex with, and you've never tried this before, I recommend having sex with your partner before you go to work and don't ejaculate. And at the end of that, to make sure you don't get blue balls or to make sure you don't get stagnation, massage your testicles, massage your perineum, do some jumping jacks, do some push ups, just to move your energy throughout your whole body, maybe some Qigong if you know, some Qigong exercises, and then go to work. And just notice what happens. Notice your levels of attention, notice your levels of motivation, and your ability to focus and concentrate. I would imagine and I would bet, that it will be different.   Mason: (58:36) Yeah. I love it. Now, I've read a couple of your blogs, and with the just talking about the difference in the type of orgasm, and what you'd be expecting from a multiple orgasm. So we're getting to this point where we we're in website, we're consistent, we're months in, we begin to procure this ability to retain our semen. What kind of orgasm are you going to be looking at? What's occurring there?   Taylor: (59:05) Yes, very good question. And if you look on the back of Mantak Chia's book it says ... I actually have this book right here. It says specifically, "Learn to separate orgasm and ejaculation." The very top line on the back of this book. And I think that there's truth to that, but it can be misleading for a lot of people. Because the types of orgasms that are the more full body, you could call it tantric, you could call it energetic orgasms. You could call it cosmic orgasms, whatever you want to call it, they're different than the typical ejaculatory orgasm. They don't have the involuntary genital contractions. They're not focused all in your penis and your general region. They could flow through your body like heat waves.   Taylor: (59:50) They can happen in your fingertips, in your heart, in your face and your nipples. You could experience energy moving everywhere and you could feel more pleasure. You could feel like your arm is ejaculating, minus the actual loss of semen and energy. And so, it's a different thing. So instead of saying, "Learn how to separate your orgasm from ejaculation," I would say, "Learn how to experience a new kind of orgasm, that's different probably from what you've experienced growing up. And this other kind of orgasm can do wonders for your health, for your relationship, for basically every area of your life and it can actually feel more pleasurable too."   Mason: (01:00:32) I mean, basically what I'm thinking there, especially if you look at those, the Taoist sexual schools, if you look at the Jade Dragon Schools, it's about cultivating this energy and to refine, and bring forth the elixir of immortality. That can be very poetic, kind of well, what is that? Are we talking about real immortality? Are we're talking about a nice long life, a rich life? What is it? However, what you were just saying in terms of that whole body orgasm, I think a lot of ... especially people who have had, whether it's psychedelics or drugs in their past, and there's been times where you can almost sit there in that peak experience of having a whole body orgasm.   Mason: (01:01:19) During these times, and we might be doing plant medicine or whatever it is, but remembering that those peak experiences are something that is innate, we do have all the ingredients of that, for lack of a better unpoetic word, the elixir of immortality, to be able to have those kinds of experiences. I'm sure whether a lot of people listening have had those, you can have a sexual experience where it's just cut and dry, and you're in and out, all those times when you might not be retaining, though you're really connected with your heart and you can feel a differentiation in the type of orgasm, where it does become a little bit more whole body and you can almost start tripping out. Not almost, you do start tripping.   Taylor: (01:02:03) You do.   Mason: (01:02:04) For sure. And there's something nice and endogenous us in that. Sorry, man.   Taylor: (01:02:10) Sorry, I interrupted you.   Mason: (01:02:12) Go for it.   Taylor: (01:02:13) Yeah. Also, I just want to be clear and transparent, that I'm not having these full transcendental, psychedelic full body orgasms every time I have sex. Sometimes when I have sex, it's just a very pleasure filled experience, and I can have orgasmic type experiences, but I'm not having like the full on psychedelic thing happen every time I have sex. My directive or my goal in sex has shifted from when I was younger. It used to be ejaculation only. Now, its pleasure, and connection, and energy.   Taylor: (01:02:52) And so, if I happen to have one of these cosmic orgasms, that's beautiful, and that's awesome, and it's not necessarily my end goal. Like I'm not going into sex thinking, "I'm going to have the cosmic orgasm." I'm going into sex thinking like, wow, A, either, "I'm so horny and turned on by you. I want to make love." And, B, like, "And I want this experience to be really connective, and awesome, and beautiful, and without going to this goal." Because with that goal oriented mindset, it sort of shapes the way sex progresses. Without that, there's a lot more openness for ebb and flow, and creativity that I have experienced.   Mason: (01:03:33) Right on man, and that's why you're on the pod, because that creation of just an open, grounded, realistic expectation on the practice is something that's necessary to make this sustainable. Let's touch back. Just there are two things I want to do. I'm just a hit, so we don't want to leave everyone hanging. Can you just explain what edging is? And could you just give a very brief touching a base of the way edging can be done? Just like whether it's ineffective versus effective.   Taylor: (01:04:06) Yeah. So real quick, edging is this practice of, if you think of sexual arousal and ejaculation on a scale of one, or zero to 100, and 95 is the point of no return, and in between 95 and 100 is your ejaculatory orgasm. Edging is the process of getting your sexual response system up to 92, 93, 94. Like that point just before ejaculation, and then pressing pause, and then doing some breathing and coming back down to maybe like 50% 70% somewhere on that scale. And the idea is to practice reaching that point, and to build your capacity to get to this higher states of pleasure and come back down. For that, it can be very useful. A big pitfall though, and a big problem with this whole edging practice that's not often talked about is, rushing to edge and seeing that area of 90% to 94% as pleasure, versus seeing that, everywhere else on that scale is pleasurable to.   Taylor: (01:05:08) And so, one problem that I ran into a bit ago, when I was doing a lot of this edging practice, I would notice that when I would self pleasure, when I would masturbate, I would rush right up to my edge, because that's where I experience "the most sexual pleasure." I would get to that edge in like a minute and a half, usually or less, because that's what I was going for. What that was doing, was training my sexual response system to go from non-erection to almost ejaculation in a minute and a half, and that translates into every sexual experience you could have from there.   Taylor: (01:05:45) Sure enough, after doing a lot of the edging practice, I thought, "I'm getting really good at going up and coming back down." When I got into the sexual experience, it was like, "A minute in, holy shit, back off." That's a danger area, and I would say be very a

Side Hustler's Series Part 1 of 4: 3 Levels to Find Your Wolf Pack Humble Side Hustle Beginnings “Be strong enough to stand alone, smart enough to know when you need help, and brave enough to ask for it.” — Ziad K. Abdelnour I've been side hustling for a hot minute now. One of my bigger side hustles was right out of college when a buddy and I started a clothing brand called Daydreamin' Clothing Incorporated. We quickly changed it to Company because we were far from a corporation, but it just sounded cool. Well, before lettering was a thing on Instagram, I was making hand-lettered logos and graphics for our brand back in 2010. We started off with our logo on a few shitty Gildan logo tees, then ordered some business cards through Vista Print and called ourselves a business. While our original launch was hot garbage, I'm proud of it because we were young dreamers taking big action. Those first few logo tees evolved into more complex designs as we filed an LLC. Two years into it, we were sponsoring rappers, skaters, motocross bikers, and local "influencers." Three years into it, we were hosting events at clubs, doing pop-ups shops, and getting in brick and mortar and online stores like Kazbah. We were making shit happen and figuring it out along the way. My partner was the point-of-contact string-puller, accountant, and fulfillment manager. I was obviously the artist, designer, and the marketing/promo lead. We balanced each other out well and brought in help for extra support. In our fourth year, we were getting serious and ready to elevate our product offerings. We lined up a huge investor and locked down a warehouse for creating custom threads and patterns for whatever we could scheme up. This was the turning point—it became a shit or get off the pot kind of thing. The Banana Split My partner was all-in and ready to quit his job to pursue this. I was in the middle of changing day jobs, had a new mortgage, and was sitting on a pile of private student loan debt. I wasn't as eager to take the risk and wanted to keep doing this as my secondary "full-time" side hustle. Things went sour when we discussed splitting shares of the company if we went with the investor. We didn't see eye-to-eye on percentages and my partner felt like he could make this dream happen on his own. We ended up making like a banana and split. That's when I started Perspective-Collective in 2014. I had made up my mind I was going solo, and I thought I didn't need anyone's help to get to where I wanted to be in life. I spent the first year obsessively learning hand-lettering and posting daily on Instagram. I slowly began developing my style, finding my voice, and growing an audience. I hit a wall the second year. I felt called to do more than just share pretty polished Instagram posts. However, I was trapped in my little Cedar Falls, Iowa, bubble and had no idea what the next step was. I felt so isolated and stuck, but the cure was doing something radical to rattle my comfort cage. Rattling the Comfort Cage I found the Creative South Conference through Instagram and made a decision I was going to find a way to attend. After my successful proposal to my day job, I flew to Columbus, GA, for a life-changing experience in April 2015. This conference allowed me to attach myself to people doing things I didn't know were possible. It revealed the next steps and provided answers to questions I didn't even know I was seeking. Most importantly, it showed me the power of getting around like-minded people who knew more than I did. This is the power of community. I went home on fire and immediately joined the Seanwes community. They welcomed me with open arms at the conference and eliminated the feeling of isolation. It was a pricey investment, but definitely worth it in the grand scheme of things. Find Your Wolf Pack From there, I joined an accountability group for the next level of connection. Along the way, I would pick up mentors like Jason Craig and Brian Manley, who took me under their wing in regards to public speaking. Every year, my side hustle evolved as I added something new to the tool belt. Drawing turned into blogging. Blogging turned into speaking. Speaking turned into a podcast. Somewhere in between, I started teaching workshops and selling products. Doing all of this outside my day job has helped me build my own community. It's put me in a position where I can pursue coaching other creatives to build something of their own outside their day jobs. The point I want to make? None of this would have happened if I thought I had all the answers and had been too prideful to ask for help. I've had help at each step along the way. Yes, sometimes, you have to to be the lone wolf and make mistakes in order to learn and push forward. In my experience, seeking out a wolf pack and asking for help allows you to bypass obstacles and get on the fast track for growth much quicker than being a lone wolf. Wolves survive and thrive by being in packs. If you're tired of feeling stuck and isolated on an island, I have a few levels for finding your wolf pack. Level 1: Find Community Finding community was the spark I needed to get off my island. Going to a conference—where I didn't know a soul—and leaving with people I considered family changed the game. I can't stress enough how important it is to get around like-minded people who are doing or strive to do the same thing you're trying to accomplish. Finding a community doesn't have to revolve around money. If you can't afford a conference or an online "gated" community, don't sweat it. There are free communities on Facebook, Slack, Instagram DM Groups, Online Forums, etc. that you can start with. In fact, it's the main reason I created The Perspective-Collective FREE private group. I want hungry side hustlers like you to be able to access like-minded creatives across the world sharing feedback, resources, and encouragement. This could be a great wolf pack to start with and we'd love to have ya. Level 2: Join/Create an Accountability Group Once you join a community and start building a rapport with people, you'll notice there are certain individuals whom you most vibe with. These are perfect candidates to start an accountability group with. Think of this as your tightest homies in the wolf pack. You guys form your own mini wolf pack. When I was in the Seanwes group back in 2015-2016, I had a lot in common with people like Colin Tierney, Eric Friedensohn, and Terence Tang. We were all lettering artists who focused on kicking out content, producing products, and growing an audience. We formed a little accountability Slack group where we'd do weekly Google Hangouts. This consisted of sharing: weekly progress updates short-term and long-term goals big wins areas for improvement things we could use some extra accountability on We slowly expanded our circle with more unique and like-minded people. Our group is still going and growing, and it's like a family reunion when we link up at conferences. Level 3A: Join a Mastermind If you've outgrown what your community and accountability group can offer, a Mastermind could be what you're looking for. It's typically an exclusive niche group of high-performers in the same focus as you. You'll usually need an invite or have to pay to become a member. For example, someone like Lewis Howes has a gated community called the Inner Circle. If you want more access to him, extra accountability, and greater exposure to people who are doing what you do but at a higher level, you could pay and apply to join his Mastermind. This isn't always the case though. If you and a few from your accountability group are all hyper-growing in the same direction, you could evolve and create a tight-knit Mastermind that's laser-focused on helping each other scale your businesses. However, sometimes you may want something more intimate, hands-on, and more direct to someone. You just may need a coach or a mentor, which is where I am today. Level 3B: Hire a Coach or Mentor There's a bit of a difference between coaching and mentorship. Coaching is more of a short-term structured relationship while a mentor is a long-term relationship that could expand from coaching. Hand Holding & Holding Feet In 2019, getting a coach has single-handedly elevated my side hustle business to the next level. Back in episode 101 last year in October, I talked about how my gut was telling me to take my business and podcast in a different direction. I knew I was ready to niche down and make a bigger impact in a focused direction, but I wasn't sure which steps to take. In February this year, I was fortunate enough to link up with Tom Ross, CEO of Design Cuts. In May, I started meeting with Hand Lettering Educator and Coach, Mye De Leon. Both immediately started helping me shape the bigger picture and held my feet to the fire to take action. I was stumbling in the right direction on my own, but progress was slow. However, getting help from coaches helped me gain clarity and traction quickly on this new path. These two have already accomplished what I strive to do and have helped others achieve similar results. I desperately needed them to hold my hand and teach me the ropes. Tom helped me embrace my identity as the Side Hustle Guy and how to communicate it to others. He also helped me build the Side Hustler's War Chest and explode my email list in the first month. Mye De Leon has been teaching me email marketing, copywriting, and setting up this 3-month Side Hustler's Coaching Program. Both have played pivotal roles in helping me lay the new foundation of Perspective-Collective moving forward. Not going to lie, coaching and mentors are an investment. However, you're able to easily get your ROI plus more if you find the right fit and apply yourself. The Biggest Names You Look Up to Invested in Help The people you see making the biggest waves in the creative industry have all sought out help one way or another. The following friends of the podcast are making huge waves. However, investing in business coaches or creative mentors sparked their breakthroughs. Read through their testimonials to see how a coach helped guide them to success. Pandr Design Co. After the first few months of starting our business, we knew we didn't know how to run it, what to charge, or how to get clients. Investing in a coach was the best choice we made for our business. The first 6 months we had an hour-long call every week, and the last 6 months we had an hour-long call once a month. Working with our coach helped us set bigger goals, get consistent clients coming in, have a pricing structure, etc. It built the foundation for the 6-figure business we run today. Lisa Quine I was just starting to think about life as a full-time freelancer. I knew nothing about running a business, so I knew I would need to do something to educate myself. I hired a coach running a summer special for two 1-hour phone calls for $500. She helped me get my thoughts aligned, pushing out the negative ones, and making sure my thoughts were on things like my goal, salary, marketing, etc. After our coaching sessions, she’s also hired me for 3 mural projects and gives me great exposure across Cleveland. Mye De Leon My progress was slow. I wanted to move forward faster and leverage the knowledge of someone who’s been in the trenches and can teach me how I can reach my goals sooner. I found community first and then was recommended the right coach. We met twice a month and regularly chatted via Slack. Coaching helped me massively increase my email list, where I was able to pre-sell my course for $17k. I recommend getting a coach because it helps you achieve clarity and focus and gets you to where you want to go faster. Tom Ross I had grown a large audience on my old design blog, but it was very disengaged and felt hollow. I was relying on advertising income and felt like I hadn’t built something truly long-term and meaningful. Meeting with my mentor once a week led to the biggest win of gaining clarity. I dropped all the annoying ads. I focused on engagement over vanity metrics. Truth be told, success came further down the line, in the form of my current company Design Cuts and my personal brand. But none of this could have happened without getting that earlier foundational clarity. Accelerate Your Growth & Provide Clarity To summarize, being the lone wolf is hard. It's a lot easier to survive and thrive when a wolf pack of like-minded savage beasts has your back. It's doable, but side-hustling solo is hard. Attaching yourself to a community, accountability group, mastermind, coach and/or mentor will accelerate your growth and provide clarity. Don't be too proud to admit that you don't have it all figured out. The answer is always no if you don't ask for help! Having people help wall you through the forest is way quicker than blindly stumbling through it on your own. Get off your isolated island and find your wolf pack. Need Some Extra Help? Check out The Side Hustler's Coaching Program If you're finding that you want some extra hand-holding and accountability to take the next step, sign up for the Side Hustler's Coaching Program now to join the waitlist for September 16th's launch week. Shownotes Download your FREE Side Hustler’s War Chest Get your FREE audiobook download from Audible Join our Private Global Facebook Community of Creators Listener of the Week: dontreallycare of USA Podcast Editor: Aine Brennan Shownotes Editor: Paige Garland Video Editor: Colton Bachar Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an Apple Podcast Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play Music Overcast

Procrastination and Writer's Block might just be the same thing around here. What about you? Show Notes: Hello Indie Authors! I'm Valerie Ihsan, and This is Season Two, Episode 21 of the podcast and it's 8/21/2019 as I record this. Main Topic: Procrastination/Writer's Block But first the personal update segment: • Course work for Sweet Spot Strategy. I finished writing my Origin Story and I'm working on a production calendar --trying to figure out how many times I want to offer my signature coaching program. I'm getting really excited about this! • If you want to talk to me for a 30-minute interview and tell me what your challenges are and what you think can help you, you can book yourself a call at indieauthormentor.as.me and choose the Interview Call option. • I'M READING: In fiction, Just finished Elizabeth George's first YA novel called The Edge of Nowhere. It was a fast read. Now reading The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld; Non-fiction: Resonance by Nancy Duarte, on how to give presentations that the audience, well, resonates with--doesn't make them fall asleep. PATREON: No new patrons this week. I'd like to remind everybody that this podcast is sponsored by my supporters at Patreon. Being a Patron of the Arts is a totally cool thing to do. For as low as a $1/mo, you can get sneak-peeks into my creative world, become a patron of the arts, and of me! Find me at Patreon.com/valerieihsan. Resources: Trying out a new-to-me podcast on business called Seanwes podcast; looks like it has a lot of good content. Next week I'll have an interview for you! I'll be talking with author Cai Emmons about her latest book and what her take is on mindset. Plus, what her upcoming talk at the Eugene Willamette Writers chapter meeting is about. And now: Procrastination and Writer's Block ▪ Where are you? (In between books? Stuck in the middle? On deadline?) ▪ Why? (Self-doubt? Too hard? Too big of a project? Distracted? Emotionally/Creatively dry? Exhausted?) ▪ What can you do about it? ⁃ Accept it. Clean out that closet. Maybe you really can't write until you've cleaned your office. ⁃ Research theme and character motivations. ⁃ Sleep. ⁃ Go play. ⁃ Take a walk. Or a shower. Do yard work. ⁃ Write about something different. ⁃ Journal. Or do other writing exercises or prompts. ⁃ Set a timer and just do it. Be miserable for 25 minutes, until you aren't. ⁃ Wait for the story. Do another hobby. (Knitting, or snorkeling.) ⁃ Meet up with other authors and discuss the perceived problem. ⁃ Chip away at it. Trust that if those wretched 300 words took 90 minutes to write and the scratched at you the whole time, when you read you manuscript before editing, you won't be able to tell where those 300 words are. ⁃ Affirmations. "I'm doing the best I can right now." Remember, your best yesterday doesn't equal your best today. You're different every day.

Toxic Ego can blend with healthy confidence so easily sometimes that it can be tricky to delineate the two. Hear about my disco loving hamster in my head that is my ego, how it talks to me, and how I've learned to work with it. Is your ego a hamster? lol I'd love to know. Message me on all social media @heatheryish. Also, I mentioned the Seanwes podcast episode linked here: https://seanwes.com/podcast/425-put-in-your-10-years-the-long-game/

                    This week Brandi and Michelle are taking a leaf out of Sean Wes’s book and recovering the topic of, how to hear your own voice when you are working for someone else. Brandi and Michelle encourage fellow creatives that it’s okay for you to have your own voice. It is your work and it’s okay to be in it. Michelle’s week: Michelle has had an interesting week thus far. She got to see Death Cab for Cutie live which made Brandi jealous. And Michelle is working hard at work on Easter stuff. Her daughter is on a soccer team so weekly they are at games. And she had a wild experience with her daughter the day of this recording because she and her husband were having coffee with some friends. Her daughter disappears for a minute, comes back, and when they asked where she went her response was, “I bought a burrito.” And sure enough, she had taken Kelly’s (Michelle’s husband) debit card, went to the register and bought a burrito! Brandi’s week: Brandi got a new pin this week from Two Girls Co. and it says "girls who design" and it is her new favorite pin. Brandi loves being a representative of girls being in a different sphere so that was really exciting to find. She's also working on the higher ed review portfolio for AIGA. This will be her last one as education director as she is transitioning into president very soon! And she was able to get in a good conversation with Hugh Weber this week! She has also been working with her daughter Jasmine because she is in a craft fair on Mother's Day. Jasmine has been making jewelry like crazy lately so this is an opportunity to sell and show off what she's been making. And something that has been inspiring Brandi this week is that she needs to just do things. She decided to do the 100 days challenge and she is doing something creative every day, and in order to do something creative every day, she's having to go back through inspiration folders on her phone to see what has inspired her in the past but hasn't used or posted yet.    Things to remember: Being creative is a vulnerable thing to do. Your voice matter. You are in your designs even if they are for someone else. You can’t take you out of your work. A style is different from a voice. A voice is what you have to say and a style is how you say it. You are hired for you. Your style and your voice are what make you different from all other designers Find your voice by making things. It will take time to find it, but by making things you find your voice; you find what makes you special In finding your voice, the things that you find yourself attracted to are probably part of your voice. And look for consistencies in what you do in your personal work and in the work you do for clients   Songs: Michelle’s song: What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie Brandi’s song: If You Want Love by NF       This Quarter's Book: We are reading and reviewing books on the podcast every quarter! If you would like to read along, THIS QUARTER, we've been reading, The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair. Want to support us? Go to Patreon and help support our podcast! Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com.   THANK YOU to the ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks.                       TRANSCRIPTION Brandi Sea: 00:00 45 minutes Michelle: 00:00 What should we call this episode? Episode 96 this is what we should call this episode Brandi Sea: 00:04 Listen to it. Speaker 2: 00:06 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being. AKA a non-designer. We're here to chat about music,

                    This week Brandi and Michelle are taking a leaf out of Sean Wes's book and recovering the topic of, how to hear your own voice when you are working for someone else. Brandi and Michelle encourage fellow creatives that it's okay for you to have […]The post How to Find Your Voice As a Designer – Episode 096 appeared first on BrandiSea Design Co..

This episode tells the story of Sean McCabe, founder of seanwes. Sean freelanced as a hand-lettering specialist, but ultimately turned the lessons he learned from that niche into a successful 7-figure online business. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us an honest rating on iTunes. Complete shownotes for this episode can be found on Millo.co Subscribe for new episodes at http://freelancetofounder.com. Thank you to our Sponsors for supporting this episode - Gusto: Making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for small businesses - just like yours. Sign up hereto get 3 months completely free when you run your first payroll. - BlockStack: Take back your digital rights. Try a new generation of apps that put you in control. Private, secure, and you own your data. Always. Visit blockstack.org/FTF to learn more and see real stories of developers and entrepreneurs using Blockstack to make a difference. - Pactly is the first easily accessible AI based contract review tool aimed to help freelancers and small businesses understand contracts better and faster. Visit pac.sg/FTF  to use Pactly completely free forever. When you’re ready to upgrade, use FTF30OFF to save 30% on any paid plan. - LinkedIn Jobs: Reach candidates you can't find anywhere else. Get your job in front of LinkedIn members who are active on our network, engaged in their careers, and open to new opportunities. Hurry on over to LinkedIn.com/Freelance and get $50 off your first job post. This podcast is a product of Millo. Recently from the Blog: 'How to start a blog and make money in less than 24 hours'. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What’s up, everyone! I am joined today by Sean McCabe aka Sean Wes: author of Overlap: The Ultimate Guide to Turning Your Side Passion into a Successful Business and creator of Supercharge Your Writing, a copywriting masterclass that aims to help you double your sales by fixing your messaging. We talk about his course and business model, and his journey from hand-lettering artist to business educator. Everything in life is sales. If it doesn't cost them money, it costs them time. Episode Quotes "You have to earn the right to play the long game." "Understand where your audience is at in the Buyer's Journey and deliver the right message." "Deliver value to the people who already know you, and give an entrance point to your potential audience." "The power in vulnerability is sharing things that will also help other people in their journey and adding value." Listen to Learn 00:25 Getting to know Sean McCabe, Rapid Five Questions 04:22 Sean's business journey 09:30 The evolution from hand lettering to online course creation 16:07 Supercharge Your Writing - who is it for and what problem does it solve? 17:15 Is it okay to talk more about yourself? 22:08 Understanding the "open loop" strategy 24:12 Why is it important to learn/write to sell? 28:38 Sean's tips in creating effective messaging 36:51 Supercharge Your Writing - course structure and modules 38:05 Where students get stuck and how Sean supports them 40:10 Choosing your business model: access vs ownership 50:01 Exciting things coming up from Sean McCabe, website and social media links Enjoy this episode? Subscribe for more! Text PODCAST to the number 44222 to stay up to date on new episodes, articles, and more.

                  This week we FINALLY start our series on Brandi's *patented* process. Get out your notebooks and prepare for some insight into her secret sauce to making your best work. Process Series Part 1: Intro, Client Meeting, & Design Brief Does everyone have a process? How I uncovered my existing process. Why a process is necessary. More Unique Concepts Solid Design Direction Creative Confidence Better Productivity You’ll have reasons for your Design Decisions Respect & Credibility All 8 Steps of Brandi's Process Client Meeting & Design Brief Word Map (Concept & Elements) Research & Brainstorm Sleep Sketch Narrow Options Execute Design Present       Featured Music: Harmony Hall by Vampire Weekend   This Month’s book: We are doing book reviews on the podcast every month! If you would like to read along, THIS MONTH, we've been reading, Called to Create, by Jordan Raynor.   Want to support us? Go to Patreon and help support our podcast!   Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com.   THANK YOU to the ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks. [clear-line][clear-line] TRANSCRIPTION: Michelle: 00:03 You're on your way to being Sean Wes. Brandi: 00:05 No, I just want to be me. Michelle: 00:07 Just be you, but like Brandi: 00:09 A little more organized like Sean Wes. Intro dude: 00:12 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being. A.K.A a non-designer. We're here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places or basically whatever we feel is relevant. Brandi: 00:29 Hey guys, I'm Brandi Sea Michelle: 00:31 And I'm Michelle Brandi: 00:32 And you're listening to episode 83 of Design Speaks. Michelle: 00:35 And on this episode we will be talking about or starting a brand new series on. Brandi's design process here is episode Brandi: 00:45 Part one. Michelle: 00:46 Part one, yeah. And what episode is it again? Brandi: 00:48 Episode 83. Michelle: 00:50 83! Brandi: 00:51 83 part one of five. I think. Michelle: 00:55 I'm really. We think. Brandi: 00:57 It might be six, but I'm, I'm really gonna try. Michelle: 01:01 Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. You know, let's play it by ear. Let's play it by ear. Brandi: 01:04 That's what we always do. We'll play it by the clock. That's what's happening Michelle: 01:07 Play it by the clock. Yeah, that's good. Brandi: 01:11 So yeah, we're not really going to do like the normal, like pre show banter as much. Michelle: 01:16 As much. Keep it to a minimum. Brandi: 01:18 This week my week was basically honestly planning for this series. Michelle: 01:22 Which has been really exciting to watch. Brandi: 01:25 Yeah, and also, uh, being mad crazy about Scott Belsky book, which we will talk about in episode 85. Um, and that's, that's basically been it. Michelle: 01:37 Have any songs. Brandi: 01:38 Yes, I do. I do, I do. So this, uh, this week my song is by Vampire Weekend and you have the phone so I don't remember what it's called. Michelle: 01:49 It's called Harmony Hall. Brandi: 01:51 Harmony Hall. Michelle: 01:51 They just released a brand new album. So this is off of it. Brandi: 01:54 Yeah. So, um, here's the song and I will talk about it after it plays. Brandi: 03:16 First off, let me say that the artwork for this, I'm just not a fan of really weird. It's just like white with a green snake on it and it doesn't feel as empire weekend to me. Michelle: 03:27 Man. Brandi: 03:28 Even visually.

Brandon Hull is a serial entrepreneur and host of the Freelance to Founder podcast. Brandon interviews prominent founders including Aweber founder Tom Kulzer, Chelsea Baldwin, Art of Charm host AJ Harbinger, and author Paul Jarvis, among others. Freelance to Founder features enlightening & entertaining stories of high-profile entrepreneurs like Bell + Ivy founder Cynthia Johnson, SeanWes founder Sean McCabe, The Futur founder Chris Do, 'Click it up a Notch' founder Courtney Slazinik, ConvertKit founder Nathan Barry, among other guests building incredible businesses. Season 6 will feature interviews from Tom Kulzer, the founder of massive email marketing software Aweber, co-founder of The Art of Charm, AJ Harbinger, and author and freelancing expert Paul Jarvis, among others. The show has been endorsed by top podcasters including Mixergy founder Andrew Warner, Michael Sacca, Host of Rocketship.fm, and Nick Loper of The Side Hustle Show.

                    This week we wanted to talk about why it's a good thing to share your imperfect work. Thanks for joining us! Featured Music: The Civil Wars - "Billie Jean" Shawn Mendez - "In My Blood" [clear-line] Inspirations, Thoughts, & What We've Been Up T0 Sharing your imperfect work and the benefits of doing so. But before we get into that we talk about Brandi’s week where she took a trip to Cancun for her mother-in-law’s wedding. She also shares about her experience at a Michael Jackson tribute show, and her song this week goes right along with that as it is Billy Jean by the Civil Wars. We hear all about Michelle getting into the Christmas spirit as she got her Christmas tree and found a new great Christmas movie on Netflix, however, she is not listening to just Christmas music as she brings In my Blood by Shawn Mendes which is a pop song Brandi has heard. Shocker! Then we jump into the topic this week, which is the benefits of showing your progress even if it may be imperfect. It can be a sign of relief seeing that another designer's sketches are as rough as your’s may be. Brandi also encourages the listeners that it’s okay if in the early stages of your design process look awful. Your sketches should only be for you in your process. And your sketches are a great roadmap to see how you got to your final design. It can also be really fun for your followers to see behind the scenes of your work, to see how you got to your final result. However, we also discuss the question of if there is ever a time when someone should not share their imperfect work. Brandi encourages listeners to maybe plan posts accordingly so as to not give your client a panic attack because of what you may do in your process make sure that you share what your client is okay with you sharing. Don’t release branding they aren’t ready to release, but never be afraid to share bits of your process just because it isn’t “perfect”. THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK!!!! "Because... I really needed it. I am a mom of 2 girls and a wife. I was a graphic designer 20 years ago. I drifted away from it to do other things. Became a wife, a mom, a stay at home Home Schooler Mom. Found out that Pricate school is a better fit for our family and came back to design with a born again love for Adobe Photoshop. I was searching for a good podcast about design and randomly found you. God Moment. Thank you for being there."  - Krista's Design on iTunes     Find us on all forms of social media via @BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and you can email us any burning questions you want Brandi to answer on an episode at brandi@brandisea.com. THANK YOU to the ultra-talented  Vesperteen (Colin Rigsby) for letting us use his (“Shatter in The Night”) track in every episode of Design Speaks.     [clear-line][clear-line] Transcription: Michelle: This week we will be talking about sharing your imperfect work and the benefits of doing so. Side note, Brandi is tired this week because she just got back from vacation and vacation tires you out? B: Specifically travel tires you out. Luging around your luggage, anxiety from flying. All of it just wears you out. M: So since we’re on the subject of your recent travel should we jump into your week? B: Sure, so I guess it’s been 2 weeks since last week we had a sabbatical week. Which I wanted to clarify the sabbatical week with you guys. So we don’t burn out since we are sticking to this thing for the long haul. M: Yeah, we decided we are recording 6 episodes, and on the 7th we will record either a short episode or a fun little blurb of something or we do a throwback episode, and this last week we did a throwback. B: Yeah, it’s a chance for us to just take some time off, for Joelle not to have to type show notes, and for us not having to record a full episode. And this is a Sean Wes thing. He started doing what we are doing, taking every 7th week off,

Sean McCabe is the author of a Overlap: How to start a business while working a full time job—and besides that, he writes more than a million words a year. He has helped tens of thousands of students with his courses on client work, pricing, marketing, and more. By day he runs a business community for creative professionals and hosts the Sean Wes podcast.

Our daily video show, seanwes tv, is back! We publish new videos 7 days a week. Today, we're talking about what goes into making a daily video show. Whether you want to make videos every day or even just publish more consistently, you'll get a lot out of this episode. Learn about streamlining your setup, creating an editorial calendar, planning ahead, creating a buffer, and more.

Sean McCabe is the author of Overlap: Start a Business While Working a Full-Time Job. He has helped tens of thousands of students with his courses on copywriting, client work, pricing, and marketing. On a daily basis, he runs seanwes.com: a learning community for entrepreneurs looking to do fulfilling and meaningful work. On today’s episode we’re talking about getting unstuck in your business, overlapping a day job and a side hustle and the power of masterminds.   ON TODAY’S EPISODE: Sean’s background and career path His book Overlap: Start a Business While Working a Full-Time Job How he managed all of his overlapping jobs at the beginning The financial benefits of transitioning rather than leaping The concept of curation The thing that responsibility and excuses have in common Why is it important for business owners to hone in on their passion What Sean is most passionate about right now The inspiration behind his book How his mastermind group has helped him How Sean defines success in his business Revising business practices or systems when something is not sustainable What is next for Sean and the SeanWes community KEY TAKE-AWAYS: “Show up every day for two years and don't expect any results during that time because it really is just being consistent.” - Sean McCabe   “What might look like an overnight success is really this culmination of a lot of things over time.” - Sean McCabe   “I would start with client work and get that cash that you can later invest in products.” - Sean McCabe   “Overlapping is about starting a business while you're working a full-time job.” - Sean McCabe   “If your bills are covered, you can let this build up however you want. You can say yes to the clients you want. You can say no to the clients you don't want. That kind of selectivity is going to allow you to enjoy it.” - Sean McCabe   “My day job allowed me to do things I wouldn't have otherwise been able to do in my business.” - Katie Hunt   “If you're looking for ways to take responsibility for your life and where you're at? You can find ways to do that. If you're looking for ways to find excuses and say why it's not your fault, you're also going to find that.” - Sean McCabe   “Passion is what allows you to keep going when you encounter resistance.” - Sean McCabe   “Success to me would be getting to do what I want, when I want, where I want, on my terms.” - Sean McCabe   LINKS: SeanWes Community Overlap Book CONNECT: Website: https://www.seanwes.com Facebook: https://facebook.com/seanwes Instagram: https://instagram.com/seanwes Twitter:  https://twitter.com/seanwes Youtube: https://youtube.com/seanwestv   JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY: Do you want to scale your business and add new revenue streams?  Are you ready to get a handle on your cash flow and tuck money away for retirement?   Maybe you are interested in increasing your visibility and fine-tuning your marketing outreach?  Perhaps you have a team that you want to nurture or need help building your team? Our newest on demand program, Paper Camp+ can help you with all of these things and more.  The program includes 5 keynote presentations and 2 panels from a wide range of business experts.  You can watch what you need, when you need it most and revisit the videos as often as you’d like.   This course was built for anyone running a product based business, and extends way beyond the paper industry.  Enroll at www.tradeshowcamp.com/pcplus ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT: Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Hi and Thank you for listening to episode 60 of the Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast!  For this episode we thought it would be fun to talk about why we enjoy welding so much.  If you're listening to a welding podcast then we're sure you're on the same page as us and will relate to a lot of things we chat about!  We would really like to hear your reasons why you enjoy this great trade!  Send us an email with your stories, but first be sure to download, pop your earbuds in, hit download, drop your hood, and Enjoy!     If you're liking what you hear please leave us a comment and rating on whatever podcast platform your listening from.  It's always great to hear what our listeners think.  Plus, the more positive ratings we get the higher the podcast is gets ranked which will make it seen for more future listeners.  Thanks!       Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast Patreon Page    We also would like to take a moment and thank those who support the show on Patreon. Each Patron helps keep the show going and allows us to publish each and every week. If you would like to support the show, in any dollar amount, head over to www.patreon.com/weldingtipsandtrickspodcast. Everyone there is greatly appreciated. This months top supporters of the show are Steve Funk, Shane Gunnin, Rick Alotto, Erik Ruppel, James Yocum, Thor Gudmundsson, Jacob Elder, Scott Silva, Noe Sanjuan, Alex Brown, Dave Horvath, and House of Chop.    NYC CNC Intro to Tig Welding Class    Do you want personal and hands on TIG Weld training from professionals in the industry? Roy Crumrine and Jonathan Lewis have partnered with John Saunders of Saunders Machine Works in Zanesville, OH to offer private welding training for beginners and advanced. To date we have our Intro to TIG Welding Class designed for those who either have absolutely no welding experience to those who are hobbiests that want to up their game. In this two day class we will be going over Welding Safety, TIG welding basics, filler metal selection, tungsten prep and a lot more. What you really are looking forward to is the hands on welding you will receive from Roy and Myself. Our classes are limited to 6 students each which allows the best experience possible. At the end of the two days you WILL be able to lay down a decent weld and be ready to go back to your home shop and build on the knowledge we gave to you.     Find more information at www.learntig.com   Here is a link to the Overlap book by Sean Wes mentioned in this episode.  At times it's a free audio download!   OverLap   Where Can You Find the Welding Tips and Tricks Forum?   Welding Tips and Tricks Forum Where can you find Us?   You can email Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast directly at WeldingTipsandTricksPodcast@gmail.com.     We would really like to hear your thoughts about this podcast and what would make it better for you, the listener.  Please leave us any questions that you would like to hear about welding, or questions you'd like to know about ourselves and future guests.     Give us a Call   You can also now call and leave us a voicemail!   (915)308-7024     How to reach us individually      Jody Collier           http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/                              Welding Tips and Tricks on Youtube                              @Weldmonger on Instagram                     Jonathan Lewis     http://www.superiorweldandfab.com/                              @Superiorwelding on Instagram                              Superiorwelding on Youtube                          Roy Crumrine        http://www.crummywelding.com/                              @CrummyWelding on Instagram   Interested in weld purging equipment? Head over to superiorweldandfabsupply.com to check out our complete selection of weld purging tools to help you make those perfect welds.   Where can you find a Tig Finger? You can find Tig fingers and other great welding supplies, like stubby gas lens kits, here at this link http://weldmongerstore.com/.  All of which are great tools to have in your job toolbox and also your home shop box.   This Podcast has been brought to you by Weldors for Weldors so that you can listen to Weldors talk about Welding while you're Welding!    New music brought to you by Jody's son Jake!

I first became exposed to this week’s guest, Sean McCabe, through his website [seanwes.com] one night while searching for something to keep me from just quitting this show. I needed a boost, and after searching around on the web, Sean’s website came up and I signed up immediately: it was encouraging and driving at the same time, and the guy on the camera, Sean, was so relaxed and personable I couldn’t help but be convinced that I could continue doing this show and maybe even be successful at it. And you know what, things are going really well! Sean is now an author, and after finishing his book, “Overlap”, I can highly recommend going and buying it IMMEDIATELY! I would especially suggest the audio book, because his relaxed demeanor and positive attitude is really brought to life. You know what, I’m not doing a good job selling him, he does a much better job and I suggest visiting his website [overlapbook.com] to read more about him, buy his excellent book, sign up for his amazing online classes, and generally become a huge fan of him and his philosophy as I have. If you aren’t just a little inspired and excited after listening to Sean, I don’t know what it’s going to take. I would like to inspire you do do something though! I want to donate a bunch of money to the Hurricane Relief fund, but I need your help. I need you go to iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Overcast, Player FM…. Wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review. A short one even. For every review I get I will be donating $1 to the Hurricane Relief fund, and I’m willing to donate a lot. So be generous with 5 minutes of your time to leave a review, and I will be generous out of my pocketbook! Do you ever order something off of the menu at a restaurant? You know what I mean, it’s something that sounds good, but it has mushrooms, and you hate mushrooms so you order the meal without the mushrooms? You’ve totally customized your meal, made it more suitable for yourself! Did you know you can do that almost everywhere in life? Any time you order something, a lot of times you can get it perfectly fit just for your needs and for your desires… and hopefully there isn’t any phlegm in it! Not sure if you know this or not, but Sketch Comedy Podcast Show wound up in the top 200 for Comedy Podcasts last week on iTunes! It was short-lived, but it was fun to see this show above Adam Corolla and Penn Jillette for a bit! I love to pay it forward and suggest podcasts from other people so that they can hopefully have the same thing happen. This week, I would like to suggest heading over to iTunes or your favorite podcatcher and downloading “The Dirty Bits” podcast. It’s a really fun show that explores all the dirty bits of history your teacher probably left out. The latest episode continues looking at the Tudors… there is a lot of dirty bits to explore here and the host, Tawny, does a great job doing so. Go check out the podcast AFTER you finish this one and hit the subscribe button, I think you will enjoy it! Next week, I have Thilo Savage, an interesting guy I met on a professional connection site (that’s Tinder for business), who specializes in getting people to step out of their shells and do bizarre things in public. We got along really well! Sketch Comedy Podcast show is an independent and completely improvised sketch podcast that is based on conversations with interesting people like YOU! We welcome all suggestions, and we are always looking for new and interesting people to have on the podcast. Thank you so much for watching and listening, and please check out our other links for more information, interaction and overall fun! For more episodes, information, and a chance to be on the show, visit: http://sketchcomedypodcastshow.com Tell us what you are hungry for at Facebook: http://facebook.com/sketchcomedypodcastshow Tweet us your favorite recipes at: http://twitter.com/sketchcompod Send us pictures of whatever you make at: http://instagram.com/sketchcompod Subscribe on iTunes: http://bit.ly/SCPSitunes Or Google Play: http://bit.ly/SCPSgplay Or Anywhere!: https://scps.fireside.fm/rss Sketch Comedy Podcast Show is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. © Copyright 2017 Marathon Productions, LLC.

Hi and Thank you for listening to episode 59 of the Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast!  For this episode we thought it would be fun to talk about Bosses.  We've all had good ones and bad ones so we thought it would be fun to tell some of our stories and see where it goes.  Hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it.  So be sure to download, pop those earbuds in, hit play, drop your hood, and enjoy!   If you're liking what you hear please leave us a comment and rating on whatever podcast platform your listening from.  It's always great to hear what our listeners think.  Plus, the more positive ratings we get the higher the podcast is gets ranked which will make it seen for more future listeners.  Thanks!       Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast Patreon Page    We also would like to take a moment and thank those who support the show on Patreon. Each Patron helps keep the show going and allows us to publish each and every week. If you would like to support the show, in any dollar amount, head over to www.patreon.com/weldingtipsandtrickspodcast. Everyone there is greatly appreciated. This months top supporters of the show are Steve Funk, Shane Gunnin, Rick Alotto, Erik Ruppel, James, Yocum, Thor Gudmundsson, Jacob Elder, Scott Silva, Noe Sanjuan, and House of Chop.    NYC CNC Intro to Tig Welding Class    Do you want personal and hands on TIG Weld training from professionals in the industry? Roy Crumrine and Jonathan Lewis have partnered with John Saunders of Saunders Machine Works in Zanesville, OH to offer private welding training for beginners and advanced. To date we have our Intro to TIG Welding Class designed for those who either have absolutely no welding experience to those who are hobbiests that want to up their game. In this two day class we will be going over Welding Safety, TIG welding basics, filler metal selection, tungsten prep and a lot more. What you really are looking forward to is the hands on welding you will receive from Roy and Myself. Our classes are limited to 6 students each which allows the best experience possible. At the end of the two days you WILL be able to lay down a decent weld and be ready to go back to your home shop and build on the knowledge we gave to you.     Find more information at www.learntig.com   Here is a link to the Overlap book by Sean Wes mentioned in this episode.  At times it's a free audio download!   OverLap   Where Can You Find the Welding Tips and Tricks Forum?   Welding Tips and Tricks Forum Where can you find Us?   You can email Welding Tips and Tricks Podcast directly at WeldingTipsandTricksPodcast@gmail.com.     We would really like to hear your thoughts about this podcast and what would make it better for you, the listener.  Please leave us any questions that you would like to hear about welding, or questions you'd like to know about ourselves and future guests.     Give us a Call   You can also now call and leave us a voicemail!   (915)308-7024     How to reach us individually      Jody Collier           http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/                              Welding Tips and Tricks on Youtube                              @Weldmonger on Instagram                     Jonathan Lewis     http://www.superiorweldandfab.com/                              @Superiorwelding on Instagram                              Superiorwelding on Youtube                          Roy Crumrine        http://www.crummywelding.com/                              @CrummyWelding on Instagram   Interested in weld purging equipment? Head over to superiorweldandfabsupply.com to check out our complete selection of weld purging tools to help you make those perfect welds.   Where can you find a Tig Finger? You can find Tig fingers and other great welding supplies, like stubby gas lens kits, here at this link http://weldmongerstore.com/.  All of which are great tools to have in your job toolbox and also your home shop box.   This Podcast has been brought to you by Weldors for Weldors so that you can listen to Weldors talk about Welding while you're Welding!    New music brought to you by Jody's son Jake!

Sean McCabe joins the show to talk about the subject of his new book: starting an enterprise while maintaining a steady job. Sean is the founder of the Seanwes brand, and educates about entrepreneurial creativity through his writing, podcasting, and much more. In this episode, he talks about what it means to be deliberate in your decision making.

On this episode of the podcast, I am joined by Sean McCabe of the Seanwes.com. Sean is an entrepreneur, a hand lettering artist, and the guy behind the Seanwes community which connects hundreds of like-minded creatives all over the world. We talked about starting a business and scaling it up while working a full-time job. Some of the things we discussed include how to find your passion, develop your skills as a creative, get out of the scarcity mindset and create a thriving business among many others. Relevant Links https://seanwes.com/ (Seanwes) https://seanwes.com/membership/ (Seanwes Community) http://overlapbook.com/?sp=30 (Overlap Book) https://twitter.com/seanwes (Sean McCabe | Twitter) Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. Until next time remember to stop guessing…and start going!

Episode 1 tells the story of Sean McCabe, founder of seanwes. Sean freelanced as a hand-lettering specialist, but ultimately turned the lessons he learned from that nicheinto a successful online business.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Michelle wants to know how to create something without accidentally plagiarizing someone else's work. 1:00 Fun and ExCiTiNg things with Michelle this week! 1. An out of the ordinary playlist on Apple Music… the Breakup playlist. (Adele, Lauryn Hill, One Republic…GOOD music!) 2. The color palette of Target for 2017 springtime! It’s so pwitty! 4:46 Stay tuned next episode for whatever the heck Michelle is going to do with all of this color inspiration! D: 5:00 Michelle’s song for this week is Sia, Elastic Heart. Go watch her music video, featuring Maddie Ziegler and Shia Lebeouf. Such a great video! 8:05 BREAKING NEWS: Brandi has actually heard this song! *standing ovation* 10:00 Things that Brandi was super into this week: She’s been planning a cool project/awareness campaign for women involving makeup and their faces as canvases. Keep listening for new updates on this great idea! 13:28 Brandi’s song for this week: Knox Hamilton, Rightfully So 14:58 Brandi is always looking for the better way. We’ll talk about our “whys” in a future episode. Side note: we’re both really intrigued by personality tests and what they say about us. Anyway… 15:31 She hates having songs on repeat because she’s afraid of missing a better song. 17:47 People relate to you better when you show your progress. It helps them realize that great things take time! 18:00 Except for haircuts. Don’t show us our haircut in progress, unless you want a minor meltdown in your chair. 18:45 Check out some of Brandi’s beginners work on her Instagram! 19:28 Sean Wes says to iterate in public. Show them where you came from! 20:00 Question of the week: How do you use someone else’s work as inspiration without ripping them off? 20:53 “There is nothing new under the sun.” - The oh-so-wise King Solomon. 21:48 There’s always going to be something you do that looks like something else. 22:50 You need to inform your client that copying other people outright is not okay 23:10 A good practice to have is to research! 23:25 Find a style reference (Something that feels like you want your project to feel like) 24:03 Jam your brain with information! 24:18 DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! No designing allowed! 25:31 Sleep on it! Close your eyes. S L E E P. 25:48 Your brain helps your solve problems when you’re sleeping. (that’s why dreams are so cool.) 26:25 When you wake up (or when you can after you've slept), start sketching. 27:00 Refer back to the research you’ve made and combine ideas. 27:49 When you’ve designed something, research again! Search your image. Double check your work and make sure you’re not accidentally plagiarizing. :D 30:29 Sorry if our podcast is too short for you. Wah wah waaaaaahhhhh 33:00 We’re on Soundcloud, Google Play, AND iTunes now! 34:30 We also have a Spotify playlist. 34:45 Give us your feed back on www.brandisea.com and @brandisea on Instagram & Twitter. Check out Vesperteen - Thanks to him for letting us use his song, Shatter in The Night, for our show. Wouldn’t be the same without some Vesperteen in our lives.

This week we address what it's like to bring another person's idea to life. 1:40 We’re off to a rocky start. Feeling a bit loopy. 2:20 Brandi’s favorite color is red and sea green. She doesn’t like to wear red, but she loves the color. 3:27 Is black a color? It depends on if you’re talking about light or pigment. If you’re talking about light, Black is the absence of colors. If you’re talking about pigment, it is all of the colors. 4:40 Michelle tells a story about the cashier woman at Subway being unsure about the hat she was wearing. 6:00 Today we will be talking about bringing a clients idea to fruition. 7:00 Everything relates to process. 7:06 Brandi teaches design thinking and creative concepts at the local art university. She asks students to write down their process. 7:40 How do you start your design, and what do you do between the start and final product. It’s eye opening to figure out your process. 8:00 Brandi has simplified her process into a 7 Step Design Process. 8:13 Today we will be touching on the 3 most important aspects of her process. 8:36 Step 1: The Design Brief. 9:56 The creative brief gives the designer a better scope of the possible client's design. Then she can give the client a quote. 10:25 Price sheets or flat rate? It depends on the designer. Brandi does not have a flat rate. 10:52 Sean Wes talks about value-based pricing. What is this? You don't base your price on how long it takes you and how much you are an hour. Rather, you charge them by how valuable the design is to somebody. If a company is going to make money off a design, then the designer deserves some of that and should charge accordingly. 11:24 The brief goes into everything she needs to know: who are you? how long have you been in business? who’s your ideal client? This gives her an idea who she’s designing for and who she’s trying to attract. 12:03 The brief also weeds out the people who are “just looking”. 12:42 Some people charge for a proposal, some people don’t. 12:56 Step 2: Brainstorming/mind mapping. 13:22 “Use Words First” A design is communication. Communication is words. With design, you communicate with visual AND words, so it only makes sense that your whole process starts with words. 13:42 If she’s designing a poster for a theatre, for example, The Little Mermaid, She mind maps The Little Mermaid. When she’s done she circles key words that will then become the concept. 14:11 Step 3: Sketching. Sketch out all of the ideas that relate back to the words you chose in the mind map. 14:26 This process is a fool proof way to get stuff done. It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling creative or not. If you’re on a deadline, you have to do it, and this helps. 15:22 To come up with a concept all you need is a pen, paper, and a thesaurus. Check out this app: Power Thesaurus 17:57 *NSYNC is better than BSB, but whatever. 18:46 Music is what brings us together. (So deep.) 19:17 Since we’re talking about how to get someone else’s idea onto paper, we thought it only appropriate to play a cover song. Check out Sleeping at Last’s Covers albums. They’re amazing and beautiful and perfect. Today’s song: As Long As You Love Me (Originally by The Backstreet Boys) 19:58 Ryan O'Neal of Sleeping at Last takes someone else vision and lyrics, and visualizes through his own eyes & ears. He brings his style to it. 20:17 Designers have a style, and the same goes for other creatives. Sleeping at Last has a distinct sound and it’s easy (and fun) to pick out his music. 22:32 Check out Vesperteen - Thanks to him for letting us use his song, Shatter in The Night, for our lil’ show. 23:03 Do you have any questions regarding process? Questions about anything we talked about? Are you going to formulate a process now that you know (or were reminded) that it’s important? Do you even care? 23:46 Find us at www.brandisea.com @brandisea on Instagram & Twitter.

This is Design Speaks - Ep 1 An introduction to this Design podcast: Who we are and why we are doing this Show Notes: :52 Elevator Pitch… sort of… Michelle and Brandi introduce each other. Brandi is a graphic designer. “Design makes the world prettier.” Michelle is a production assistant for a team of videographers. She’s explored the realm of radio and has explored a few facets of the creative world. 4:12 How old is Brandi? She’s 35. We’re bad at math, and she doesn’t know her own age. She loves sports, literature, whimsy, and Sam & Dean from Supernatural. 6:45 Michelle is 29. She’s sure. 8:09 Brandi Sea Design thinking education. She has a blog, she has a YouTube. All good things. Go check them out if you have a moment. However, she didn’t feel that she was getting to fully explore some of the things she was talking about and also learning about, thus, the Design Speaks podcast is born! 10:28 The goal of this particular podcast is to inform people who don’t know about the importance of design and to advance the design thinking of those who already know and love it. 11:45 We have sparkling personalities, so we hope you keep listening because of how great we are. (Are you convinced?) 13:00 What do we have in store for you? We want to share what’s inspiring us every week, whether it be music, book covers, books, movies, a shirt we saw at a store… Whatever is on our minds each week. 14:14 Nothing is off limits because... creativity. 15:06 Vesperteen - please do yourself a favor and go check out this music. (You’re welcome.) The intro/outro song is kind of our podcast soundtrack. The whole EP has a has great energy, “unfunks” us when we’re in a funk. 16:10 What We Could Have Been by Vesperteen (not a part of the original EP) 17:53 Brandi How to stay creative and motivated. 18:37 A tactic Brandi uses is listening to a specific set of music. Her music of choice is a score by Sleeping as Last called Many Beautiful Things.  Like Pavlov’s Dog, she’s conditioned her mind to be ready to work by the time specific songs hit. 20:16 She starts playing the score at 5:30 am, and by the second song, her brain gets to work. Ideas happen. It feels like magic. 20:48 Sean Wes says that it all starts with writing. Regardless of what kind of work you do, you should write every day. If you don’t know what to write about, then free form. 21:32 Sean Wes says to wake up, feet on the floor, open up your computer or whatever you write with, and write. Don’t delete. 21:46 Nope - an app for your computer that encourages writing without editing. The Most Dangers Writing App - Another great resource to kickstart your writing habits. 23:42 #6amclub - Brandi is a big fan of Sean Wes. 24:50 Question of the week: What inspires you? 25:35 Check out BrandiSea on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, and feel free to chime in with your thoughts, comments, and questions you have about anything graphic design. We’d love to talk about it!

Emily Carlton keeps GIRL POWER Season 3 rolling! She's an independent illustrator, sketchnoter, and designer. Emily and I talk about her background as a designer, illustrator, and sketchnoter, and her jump to independent work. We also talk about her Drawing and Donuts event organizing, favorite tools and her 3 tips for sketchnoters. Listen in! SPONSORED BY The Sketchnote Army Clothing Collection! A variety of t-shirts and sweatshirts available for sale at Teespring that support Sketchnote Army and look fashionable at the same time! http://sketchnotearmy.com/t-shirts SHOW NOTES World Sketchnote Day - http://sketchnotearmy.com/world-sketchnote-day/ Emily on Twitter - https://twitter.com/emilyacarlton Emily on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/emilyacarlton/ Emily Carlton Illustration - http://emilycarlton.com The Sketch Effect - http://thesketcheffect.com Emily's Sketchnote Biography - https://www.instagram.com/p/BJYDmf0gnfp/?taken-by=emilyacarlton Emily's Sketchnote Christmas Letter - https://www.instagram.com/p/BOxN5I1gwbC/?taken-by=emilyacarlton Mathias Jakobsen's 2016 Annual Report - http://www.thnkclrly.com/annualreport/ Drawing and Donuts - http://drawinganddonuts.com Viking Pump Roadmap - http://emilycarlton.com/project/company-roadmap/ Seanwes' Learn Lettering Course - https://seanwes.com/learn/ Papermate Flair Pens - https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-Flair-Porous-Medium/dp/B00MR1QBK8/therohdesignwebs Pentel Energel - https://www.amazon.com/Pentel-EnerGel-Liquid-Medium-Capped/dp/B005Y0T8C2/therohdesignwebs Tombow Gray Dual Brush Pens - https://www.amazon.com/Tombow-Brush-Markers-Grayscale-10-Pack/dp/B0044JOS6K/therohdesignwebs Moleskine Sketchbook - https://www.amazon.com/Moleskine-Sketchbook-Large-Classic-Notebooks/dp/8883701151/therohdesignwebs Procreate - http://procreate.si Paper by Fifty-three - https://www.fiftythree.com/paper EMILY'S 3 TIPS Recognizable over perfect! Don't be discouraged if you can't draw it perfectly, because a recognizable image works just fine. Practice over and over and over! Progress comes in small increments! Invest in a good book light! Cover yourself in dark situations.

Ben Toalson joins the podcast. If he sounds like a legit podcaster, it is because he is...he is on the Seanwes podcast as well as a podcast on parenting that he does with his wife. A designer by trade he shares the journey that took him to full time design freelancing and tons of nuggets along the way.

Today, I take you behind the scenes. Inside seanwes membership, Aaron Dowd and I host a weekly, members-only show called Fired Up Mondays. Our latest episode was so good, I decided to bring this exclusive clip to the seanwes podcast. I'm even more raw and real on Fired Up Mondays because I let the members in on the insider stuff and my plans for the future. Today's episode is no exception. You'll hear me lay out my plans to go all in on CommunityTalk.com—that's the SaaS company we're working on. We've built the best community messaging system in the world (we've been using it internally for years), and now we want to make it available to other community organizers. I also talk about my plans to build out a media agency by hiring members from our Community (the talent pool here is absolutely insane).

A year before he went freelance, Austin started blogging. Not only did it give him a space to document and reflect on his progress, but it brought him connections that referred him for work. Since then expanding his network through conferences has done the same. He continues to think big, experiment, grow and develop his business chops. His passion for hand lettering animation has brought him a new audience with which to share his expertise and hopefully to whom he can launch a course... but first... work. Lots of it. Episode sponsored by The Podcast Host - use the promo code FREELANCE for 10% off - bless 'em* Love learning from other freelancers like this? Check out the website beingfreelance.com, subscribe to the podcast and to the newsletter. You'll also find useful links for this episode. That's beingfreelance.com Who the hell is Steve Folland? You know how everyone bangs on about how powerful video and audio content can be? Yeah, well Steve helps businesses make it and make the most of it. Find out more at www.stevefolland.com Track him down on Twitter @sfolland or lay a trail of cake and he'll eventually catch you up.

I attended the first ever seanwes conference in Austin, TX. this conference was focused on business a business around your passion.

There's no other word I can use to describe seanwes conference but incredible. The event far surpassed and exceeded my expectations. It was a beautiful picture of empowering talented, professional people and the result was nothing short of flawless. It honestly blew me away. Everyone said it was the best conference they'd ever been to. People with many different kinds of different businesses came from all over the world to be in one place together for several days, to enjoy some fantastic speakers, great conversations, and famously delicious Austin food. In today's podcast episode, Ben and I recap what happened at seanwes conference—an event we started planning nearly 2 years ago. We specifically designed this event around the in-person conversations we knew people wanted to have. Generous margin was scheduled around speaking sessions with ample time for Q&A and lunch. In fact, after lunch we had an hour long "session" that was really just a time for people to talk. The first speaker after lunch didn't start until 3:30pm, so no one had to face the "after lunch crowd". It was very relaxed. People told us that while after most conferences they felt like they had to recover, seanwes conference actually left them feeling, full, recharged, and rested. Amazing. This episode gives a behind-the-scenes look at how we organized the conference. Ben, Cory, and I also share the gold nuggets we took away from the event. It's a fantastically jam-packed episode for anyone looking for insights or inspiration for organizing their own conference too.

This is a special episode. We're showing you what's inside seanwes membership! Becoming a member gives you access to The Vault, Learning Paths, mini courses, full network show archive, live broadcasts, 24/7 Community chat, mobile apps, custom content feeds for your favorite podcast app, and hundreds of like-minded people across the world eager to provide feedback and accountability. seanwes is the place to build and grow a sustainable business. Go behind the scenes of seanwes membership and see what's inside.

Today I’ve got a really special guest on the show. Aaron Dowd is a podcasting expert who has been editing podcasts for over 5 years now.  He edits all of the podcasts for the very popular Seanwes podcast, as well as several other shows in the Seanwes podcast network. Last year, he launched his own podcast called The Podcast Dude, where he shares everything he knows about podcasting. I’m a fan of his podcast and I’ve watched over the past year how Aaron has grown his audience and his reputation as an expert podcaster through his podcast. It’s an excellent example of how, through high quality content and excellent production values, you can rapidly build your reputation as an authority in your field. Of course, as a podcaster myself, podcasting is a topic I enjoy reading about, and, occasionally, I like to write about it. And I thought, given how much is changing--and changing fast--in this emerging industry, it’s worth a conversation on the topic. And who better to talk about podcasting than The Podcast Dude himself, Aaron Dowd. In addition to sharing 5 things he’s learned about growing an audience and making money with podcasting, Aaron shares a bunch of other tips and insights that I managed to squeeze out of him during our chat. Links The Podcast Dude podcast Successful Podcasting Course Aaron on Twitter Aaron on Youtube

The seanwes podcast is now going to have only one new episode a week instead of two. In 2013, I started the seanwes podcast with a commitment to produce two episodes a week. For nearly three years now, we've done that. However, some big changes are on the horizon for seanwes. I'm here to tell you about a few of those changes today. I took a step back. Actually, I took many steps back. Then I asked myself, "What is our mission? What is my vision for seanwes?" When I had that answer, I asked a second question: "Is everything I'm doing right now serving that goal?" The answer was no. Many of the things I was doing on a regular basis were not helping me fulfill that vision. They were not getting me closer to the goal. I was just doing them because I'd fallen into a routine of fulfilling commitments I'd made long ago when my goals were different. Things had to change. There are big changes coming to seanwes. I'm going to share a few of them with you today.

#053 - Should you put a lot of effort into trying to make something perfect, even if that means you can only create videos irregularly? Or should you have a schedule and stick to it, even if you are releasing sub-par content? In today's episode we debate consistency vs. quality and which you should strive for most. We also discuss how you can go about achieving both, if you should even attempt to do that, and how the types of content you make may decide it for you.Items mentioned in this episode:Gary Vaynerchuk's Take on Quality vs. Quantity: #AskGaryVee 149Casey Neistat on the Tim Ferriss ShowSpecial guests on this episode:Caleb Pike of DSLR Video ShooterCorbett Barr of FizzlePat Flynn of Smart Passive IncomeRollo Wenlock of WipsterSean McCabe of Seanwes

You want to grow your business. You want to double your revenue. You want to launch your product. You want to be charging more. You want to be stressed less. You want to be doing the best work of your career. You want to be doing less of work you hate for people that drain your energy? What's the solution? Mindset. Everything begins with changing the way you think. The fastest way to change the way you think is to get around people who think that way. Immerse yourself in a culture of people who are where you want to be. Absorb their thinking, learn how they speak, get to know their language. The fastest path to getting where you want to be is by getting around people who are already there. Successful people think differently. The reason the majority of people are not successful is because the majority of people are not willing to challenge the status quo of thinking and change their mindset.

5 fears I have Everyone will think I’m a fraud Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. A month before his death, he reportedly confided in a friend, saying “the exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler.” Solution: Realize that Everyone else feels like that. Become okay with it. Psychological research done in the early 1980s estimated that two out of five successful people consider themselves frauds and other studies have found that 70 percent of all people feel like impostors at one time or another. So get over it. I am a fraud, and everyone will find out soon This week I published a video in which I invited another developer to do a code review of my JS. So far 3K people have seen it. So now they know. Solution: Okay, now they know. So now I don’t have to worry that they will find out, because that already happened. What now? Keep moving. I will run out of ideas This is kind of a new one for me. Now that I’ve been sharing ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for a while and sometimes I sit down to spit out a new piece of content and I feel like the well is dry. Solution: Sean McCabe of Seanwes suggests to “Don’t worry about repeating yourself. People need to hear things multiple times and there are always new people finding your show or blog.” People will loose interest in what I’m doing I’ve always been afraid of getting old, But now I’m afraid of becoming irrelevant. My work relies on myself being able to have relevant ideas and being able to mold something meaningful from them. Solution: My value is not the work I did yesterday. My entire body of work speaks for itself. Solution: People only care about your work as long as it benefits themselves. I googled “people will loose interest in my work” and every result was about people struggling with their own work ethic. No one cares about you, relax. Then make something that helps someone. It will never be this good again In economics and decision theory, loss aversion refers to people's tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Most studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. Living like this is like driving while looking solely in the rear view mirror. It’s impossible to make good decisions. Solution: Maybe you are right. YOLO!

You know what's frustrating? Seeing someone make something hard look easy. What's worse is when you don't know that it's actually hard to do and you think that it should be easy. Then you just end up feeling bad about yourself for not being able to do it. They make it look so effortless. Surely they're not spending hundreds upon thousands upon tens of thousands of hours working at it. But in fact, they are. The easier they make it look, the harder they're working. As you read this, no doubt those people are working on their craft. I want to demystify the process for you. I'm going to take you behind the scenes and show you exactly what it takes and all that I'm doing to make everything happen. You'll witness the things that aren't normally visible to you. I'm going to get real and I'm going to tell you how many hours I work a week (hint: it's not a two-digit number). In this episode, I'm also going to be fully honest and tell you that I often forget to eat. Neither of these are things I'm proud of and neither are healthy. I'm not censoring any of this, I'm simply showing you the reality that is behind the curtain. I'm not promising it's going to be pretty (it never is behind the curtain). You're getting a real look inside the well-oiled machine. I'm showing you because I want you to see that it's not a machine at all.

Today I've got my absolute favorite product creation and launch story to share with you! Sean McCabe started as a web design consultant, then built up a following for his true passion: hand lettering.He then started teaching and grew a massive email list and then launched a training product. He shares the story and all the launch details (including exact revenue numbers) in this episode. Here's where you can find Sean on the web: His main site, Seanwes.com The seanwes podcast His new book, The Overlap Technique His tshirt and print store And finally, the wildly successful Learn Lettering course Here you can see the very first tshirt Sean sold in his store.      Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes.