So, you've figured out your flagship service. Great! After following what we covered in the last episode, on pricing and packaging, you now have a strong offer that converts. Most of the clients you attract accept the offer you're making. Awesome! Since we know we have something that works, now it's time to automate it. (Important note: You want to automate what works. Don't automate what doesn't work! If you don't have a flagship service, or you don't have an offer, or you're not getting clients, or the majority of clients you're attracting are not accepting the offer you're making, DON'T AUTOMATE. Go back and fix the previous steps first.) Remember, automation is powerful. If you're already heading in the right direction, automating is your best friend. But if you're heading in the wrong direction automation is your worst nightmare. The word "automate" may make you think of robots or machines. But while tools, software, macros, and algorithms are great, there's another way you can automate that involves zero coding: Creating processes. Processes are a group of steps that make up a procedure for performing some kind of task. It’s how you do your work. If you create a process for how you do your work, you can hand off that process to another person and they can do your work for you. Automation isn't limited to things that robots do. Automation includes processes for things that humans can do as well! We'll be covering: • Who creates processes • What processes to create • Why to create processes • Where processes live • When to create processes • How to create processes Essentially: make money while you sleep.

There are 3 ways you can price your service: 1. Hourly Pricing 2. Flat Rate Pricing 3. Value-Based Pricing I've talked about Value-Based Pricing on the seanwes podcast for over 7 years now, so it might surprise you to learn we're not using Value-Based Pricing for the Daily Content Machine. This comes down to the difference between providing custom work vs. a productized service. A productized service is not customized for each client. This means the price is fixed—like a product. When does it make sense to offer a productized service instead of a custom-tailored service? You'll get the answer. Once you decide on the type of service you want to provide, and your pricing model, then you have to come up with the actual price. You also have to decide whether or not you want to have different packages—and what prices those should have. We're covering all of that in today's episode.

You want clients and you want them now. But you don’t simply want *more* clients. You want more of the *right* clients. Because more bad clients is a nightmare. - Clients who **don’t pay you.** - Clients who **push you around.** - Clients who **don’t communicate.** - Clients who **demand extra revisions.** You want GREAT clients: - Great clients pay well. - Great clients pay you on time. - Great clients don’t demand extra work. - Great clients let you follow your process. That sounds incredible. How do we find these great clients? Great clients can only be *attracted*. They cannot be chased. In other words, you need to act like someone great clients want to work with, and draw them to you like a magnet. We’re sharing multiple methods you can use to **get great clients even if you don’t have a big audience**.

This is the start of a new series that goes behind the scenes on what it takes to create a highly profitable agency. We quietly launched seanwes media this summer, with a new flagship service, and it’s already a six-figure agency before we’ve really even started promoting our one service. The service is called Daily Content Machine. Learn more at http://DailyContentMachine.co. The offer is simple: We turn your weekly show into daily content. Every day, 7 days a week, you’ll have 5 videos to post on the big 5 platforms. Imagine the impact your brand will have with 150+ videos going out every month! All you have to do is record your weekly show. Okay, now you know the service. But the purpose of this podcast series is not to sell you on our service (though we’d love to work with you). The point is to help YOU create your own highly profitable agency. We’ll pull back the curtain and break down how to: - Identify your ideal client - Make competition irrelevant - Create processes and systems - Know exactly what service to sell - Create a compelling offer that converts - Price your service package as a no-brainer option - Switch from “Freelancer Mindset” to “Owner Mindset” - Scale without breaking things and remain highly profitable After thinking long and hard, I’ve decided I will share real numbers and actual profit margin on the series. I want to give you unprecedented insight because I hope it will help you avoid making the same mistakes I’ve made over the years.

Sean is back on the seanwes podcast! Today we’re sharing a special episode of our members-only Q&A show, Fired Up Mondays, where Sean joins Dan to tell us what he’s been up to on his sabbatical year. We also announce an exciting new series starting in the NEXT episode called “Build a Profitable Agency”. We’ll take you inside how we’re building seanwes media from the ground up. You don’t want to miss this! Aside from these announcements, we cover some great great questions from the Community members this week! Members get to experience Fired Up Mondays every single week, but we’re excited to share this particular episode with you publicly. Here are some of the questions we cover in this episode: • How do you use Value-Based Pricing effectively if your value-based price is for a year of work, but you bill in monthly installments? • How do you handle the disconnect between the value of the year-long work and the billing structure? • How do you balance long-term investment in your business with your short-term well-being? • How do you set goals when it’s not yet clear what you’re building towards? • How do you balance reading, continuing education, and self-investment with doing the actual work?

I was just about to eat lunch, but I have to record this. My wife Laci was sitting on the couch and looking kind of down and I said, "What's going on?" She said, "The book that I'm reading just really isn't that interesting. It's really hard to get through." And she looked kind of dejected, like she was required to finish this book. And I said, skip it. Move on to the next book. If you spent the rest of your life reading non-stop—you didn't sleep, or eat, or drink; you just read books—you wouldn't even be able to read all of the books that were published this year, let alone all the books in the world. Most books, they're actually not that great. Very few books are excellent and worth your time, and if you spent the rest of your life reading only the excellent books, you still couldn't get through them all. So don't feel guilty. It's the book's job to grab your attention and pull you through. And if it's not doing that, move on to the next book.

You haven’t written that book, or started that blog or podcast you’ve wanted to start, because you fear you don’t have anything worthy to say. I mean, you kind of think you have something worthy to say, but what if other people don’t think so? What if they don’t pay any attention to you at all? “Worthy” is another way of saying “valuable”. But value is subjective. Information can be worthless to one person and invaluable to another. This means you don’t get to determine what is valuable to someone else. Only they can decide what is valuable to them. We all have wisdom to share. Even the things that seem mundane, or uninteresting, to us can be novel to others. It’s not up to you to decide what’s valuable, it’s up to you to write.

Unless you’re Amazon, your business is probably bringing in a lot less revenue right now. Payment processors for small businesses are reporting that transaction volume is down as much as 50%. As a business owner, what do you do in a time like this? People have changed how they’re spending money, so you have to change how you make money. You can not afford to sell products people don’t need in a time like this. Unless your products are ESSENTIAL, you need to pivot. Pivot means to change direction and head in a new direction. Give up how you used to make money in the past. Times have changed. The world is different. You must reinvent yourself. Denial will result in going broke. Pivot to providing a MONEY-MAKING service for people who HAVE money. If you sell nice-to-have products, you’re going to have a bad time. You were lucky to be able to do that in a good economy. Now it’s time to face reality. If your market is mostly people who don’t have money, you’re going to have a bad time. The only way you’re going to survive is if you pivot to providing a service that MAKES MONEY for people who HAVE MONEY. While you make this pivot to bring in new revenue and keep your business afloat, you should also EXPAND and build your BRAND by significantly increasing the amount of content you produce. Most people are contracting right now. Most people are REDUCING their content output. This is a huge mistake. You should use this opportunity to provide as much valuable and helpful content as possible. If you wait until everything is back to “normal”, you’ll be too late. At best, you survive and you’re irrelevant. At worst (and more likely), your business will die. We are going to come out on the other side of this situation and people are going to spend money again. This will pass. You want to be top of mind when people start spending money again. The way you do this is by publishing content consistently while we’re in a crisis.

We moved out of our home at the beginning of 2020 to embark on a sabbatical year of nomadic travel. With no house or car, we set out to travel the world. Then the pandemic hit. This is an update on how we’re managing to #StayHome without a home.

There’s a lot going on right now. That’s an understatement, right? The COVID-19 pandemic has taken everyone’s attention in the last few weeks, and rightly so. Hopefully you’re in a situation where you’re safe, and healthy. But that doesn’t make it easy. A lot of things are changing all around us, and quickly. How do we stay on track with our lives? How do we keep working, playing, eating, exercising, and supporting one another when every day brings more uncertainty? Today we’ll talk about the mindsets and tactics needed to keep going, even when the world is more uncertain than ever.

This is it! The final episode of our 5-part podcast miniseries, Finding Community. If you’ve been following along, you know the incredible role a positive, uplifting community can play in your life. It can keep you on track, get you unstuck, make achieving your goals only a matter of time. But that’s just it: time. Who has time? We’re all busy, juggling a hundred different demands… and now we’re supposed to participate in a community, too? Has Sean discovered a magical 25th hour you can add to your day? Well… no. But he can tell you how to prioritize what’s important. Why you don’t have time for community. The reason Sean created this series is not only to teach you why finding a positive community is so important, it’s also to let you know about a great opportunity. We’re incredibly proud of the Community Sean’s built at seanwes. The investment for annual seanwes membership increases on March 20th. Now is the best time to join, get access to all of our courses and training, and lock in the current rate. We always reward loyalty: when you join before the 20th, we grandfather you in for the duration of your membership. If joining the seanwes Community is something you’ve been thinking about, now is the time! Go here to become a member: https://seanwes.com/membership Speaking of time… You may well be thinking “I don’t have time to participate in a community.” Frankly? You don’t have time. You don’t HAVE time to do anything. You MAKE time to do what’s important. This is true for all of us. We make time, but we only make time for what matters. If you want all the benefits that come from engaging with a community, you have to decide that engagement is important. You will get out of a community as much as you put in. This doesn’t mean you have to be someone special, that you have to contribute time and teach people, necessarily… In great communities like the one we’ve got at seanwes, when you invest time you receive clarity. The two-letter word that makes time. You want to make time for community, but you’ve got none to spare! - Your to-do list is ready to burst. - You’re feeling overwhelmed. - You have too much on your plate. - You’re caught up in the buzz of feeling “busy”. It feels like we should be busy—after all, you’ve got great things to achieve! But what you are actually getting done? Where are you going? Maybe instead of being busy, you want to be effective. Make sure you’re actually headed in the right direction. That the things you’re doing now will get you results. That every step is a step closer to your goal. You’ll never find time for community… until you make time. And NO is the two-letter word that makes time. What will you say no to, so that you can make time for community? Remember that you’re going to get clarity as a result of this time investment. Decide: When will you engage in community? Add time in community to your weekly cycle. We all live our lives in weekly cycles. We expect certain things to happen on certain days of the week. We’re all creatures of habit that way. It helps when your community fits into your weekly cycle with regular activities. That way, you can plan exactly when you’ll participate. In the seanwes Community, every Monday we stream our members-only show, Fired Up Mondays. This is your weekly office hours, where members can show up and: - Ask questions. - Get answers. - Get unstuck. - Find clarity. Every Tuesday, we live-stream recording of the seanwes podcast. You might be used to the show coming out on Wednesday—we actually record them 8 days in advance! The podcast is interactive inside the Community. Members not only get an exclusive pre-show and after-after-show, but we open up discussion an hour before the episode streams. Our members’ questions and live commentary throughout the show is what drives each episode of the podcast.

Money can be a touchy subject. When you work a job, your employer often forbids you from discussing it. When you sell products or services, you struggle to put a price on them that lets you make sales… but also lets you make money. You might find yourself thinking, “I wish I could get paid what I’m worth!” But how do you even know what that is? To be clear, we’re not talking about your personal worth; you can’t put a value on that. When we talk about getting paid what you’re worth, we’re really talking about finding a balance. There’s one thing that determines what your product or services are worth (and if you’re an employee, you’re still selling a service!): - The value to your customer. Aligning that with your needs is the key to getting paid what you’re worth. Today, we’re talking about how to find that alignment.

Today we’ve posted Part 4 of our 5-part podcast miniseries, Finding Community. Sean’s talked about replacing negative inputs in your life with positive ones, and he’s explained how to find people pursuing greatness in your field and grow alongside them. Community is key. The question is: should you join an existing community, or start one from scratch? The answer is in today’s episode. Before you start a community, seek one out. Starting your own community is tremendously rewarding. It’s also a lot of work. If you can, find an existing community in your field and join it instead. But don’t just join the community… pour yourself into the community! - Show initiative. - Pretend like you’re getting paid to be there. - Act like an owner. - Help the people around you. Do these things, and watch the community organizer take notice. When you add massive value to a community, the organizer will want to promote you… and that’s just for starters. Sean hires his team members out of the Community—hey, that’s how I got my job! And why wouldn’t he? You can see who’s in there every day, providing value. Act like the community manager, and you might end up getting paid to be one. When should you start a community of your own? If you can’t find an existing community in your space… start one! It’s worth the effort. Communities are where the magic happens. All the best things in your career will come out of community. People don’t like the word “networking”, but all it really means is building relationships with people. And that’s what people do when they’re in a community. They: - Form partnerships. - Tackle projects together. - Set up weekly calls. - Form mastermind groups. - Hire each other. - Recommend or promote each other. There are many benefits to being a part of a community. Starting a community from scratch is always an option, but expect it to take YEARS of effort. You're much better off joining a community that already exists if you can find one. Should a community be free or paid? Whether you start a community or join one, paid communities are the way to go. We’ve all been in free Facebook groups or hashtag-oriented “communities” on other social networks. We’ve seen how much noise there is for how little signal. And the trolls! Don’t even get me started. It takes time and resources to run a great community. If it’s going to stay vibrant, a community needs investment. Whether it’s yours or someone else’s, if you want a community to last, invest in it! Paid membership doesn’t just keep the lights on, it also keeps the quality level high. - The people looking to troll aren’t going to bother joining. - The people who aren’t serious will congregate elsewhere. - Instead, you get the people who are committed and willing to invest in themselves. Paid communities are much more likely to be higher in quality. But if you're thinking of creating your own, don’t start a community for the money. A community is a good investment. A paid community is great, but you don’t start one for the money; start a community for the people. The point is to attract great people so you can all grow together. Sean invested the money he made from his community over the years right back into the community! He’s focused on continually improving the member experience. A great community is a long-term investment. A high-quality experience that’s worth your time. How do you find your people? It takes a long time of consistently producing content to create a community. Sean has spent years putting out quality content which has attracted incredible people to the Community at seanwes. The seanwes Community is where you’ll meet like-minded creative professionals from all across the world. Get 24/7 support, whether you want to: - Grow an audience. - Get more clients. - Start a podcast. - Sell your own products. - Launch an online course.

Today we’ve posted Part 3 of our 5-part podcast miniseries, Finding Community. In the first two episodes, Sean gave us the crucial steps for replacing the negative inputs in your life with positive ones. With all that new positive energy, we can get to work pursuing our creative passions! But once we’ve created our great work, then what? We want to share it with the world. We want to forge friendships, make connections, build an audience around our work! Today Sean shares exactly how to make that happen. Getting someone famous to promote you. Everyone wants a shout-out from a famous person, right? It would be great if someone with huge reach promoted your thing to their audience. The problem is, it’s too late. If you try to befriend someone famous so they’ll promote your work, they'll see you coming. Everybody wants something from them. So how do you get someone with influence to promote you? You have to befriend them before they’re famous. Oh sure, you’re thinking, if you could predict who was going to be famous you wouldn’t need their promotion! Good news: you CAN predict who’s going to be big using The Greatness Formula, which you’ll hear about in a minute. Two types of positive people. Positive people—the people you want to surround yourself with—fall into two categories: - People to learn from: those many levels ahead of you in your field. - People to connect with: those on the same level as you. Obviously, you want to connect with people who are already famous and successful in your field, but it doesn’t work that way; learn from them instead. Connect with people on your own level who will someday have influence. Seek out people who are driven, taking action, making great work, have a positive mindset. These are the people to surround yourself with. This leads us to The Greatness Formula: how you can recognize greatness before it happens: The Greatness Formula: Mindset × Action + Time You want to identify: - People with a positive mindset (you know it when you see it). - Who are consistently taking action. - It’s only a matter of time before they achieve greatness. Attach yourself to these people! What level are you? When we talk about people being at different “levels” in their field, what do we mean? It’s a combination of experience, notoriety, and success. These numbers are arbitrary, but let’s say you have 2,000 hours of practice as an artist: you’re a Level 2 Artist. Now you know not to pursue someone who has 18,000 hours of practice—they’re a Level 18 Artist! Find other Level 2 Artists who match The Greatness Formula. Find the Level 2 Artists who are making work, sharing it with the world, practicing their art daily. Because these people are at your level, you can connect with them. Attach yourself to them. What does that mean? Well, how do you get a best friend? By being a best friend. Here’s the Best Friend Method: - Comment on their work. - Share their work. - Make a video for them. - Write a thoughtful email. - Send a package. - Repeat the above 100x. When you find a person who’s going places, you want to become their greatest supporter. That last step is the key: Repeat 100x. There’s one more key to connecting with someone who’s going places: You have to embody The Greatness Formula yourself. Embody The Greatness Formula. In the last two parts of this series, we talked about cutting out the negative, and replacing it with the positive. In order to pursue greatness, a positive mindset is crucial. But a positive mindset alone is not enough! The part you may be missing is taking action. You can’t just have a positive mindset and do nothing—that won’t get you anywhere. When you have a positive mindset and take action, people will notice. They’ll recognize The Greatness Formula, even subconsciously. Since you’re following the 14/7 rule discussed in Part 2,

On Monday we posted Part 1 of a 5-part podcast miniseries called Finding Community. Part 2 is available today! You can’t just cut out the negative. In Part 1, Sean talked about the necessity of cutting out the negative inputs in your life, whether that’s social media accounts or the people sitting next to you. But you can’t just cut out negativity, that leaves a void. You have to surround yourself with positivity. We all know the expression “24/7”—it means “all the time”. Sean wants you to remember a new expression: 14/7. Why 14/7? - You should be spending 8 hours sleeping. - That leaves 16… - But let’s say you have some negative people you just can’t get away from. So you get 2 hours with which to be flexible. But the rest of the time, those 14 hours a day… you’ve got to pipe positive inputs into your ears. You need to offset negativity with 5x as much positivity. As much as we try to cut out negative inputs, there’s always some that will still get through. Any negativity that you can’t cut out, you need to offset with positive inputs. Your mindset is shaped by your inputs. In Part 1, Sean talked about the dangers of scarcity mindset, and the need to cultivate a mindset of abundance instead—even if you’re in circumstances of real scarcity. You can’t cultivate an abundance mindset when you’re got negativity coming in. If you’re around negative people more than 2 hours a day… you need to change your environment. You can’t accept an environment of negativity. Even if it’s your job. Even if they’re your friends. You become like the people you spend time around. And negativity has gravity on its side. It’s not always easy (or possible) to control your physical environment… but you can control your digital environment. Create a positive digital environment. For 14 hours of the day, focus your digital environment on postive inputs. Yes, of course you have a job and need to get your work done. But all that other time—when you’re on the train or the bus, in your car, walking around, working out at the gym, washing dishes… pipe positive content into your ears. Immerse yourself in the positive. - Listen to the seanwes podcast—it’s all about improving yourself, self-development, positivity, and motivation. - Listen to other podcasts with positive values. - Seek more-positive sources of news and information—they’re out there. - Find better YouTube and Instagram accounts to follow. Here’s a secret: you don’t have to follow your friends on social media just because you know them. It’s true. Now that you know, try this: unfollow everyone. Every single person—all the way down to zero. If you’re worried someone you unfollow will get mad, or unfollow you in return… that's an indication your relationship with them is that shallow. You won't miss it. Now you can start building up from zero. Imagine opening an app and there’s NO content. How do you feel? Is your life better or worse? Start following accounts on social only if they add positive messages to your life. Remember: you are not obligated to follow anyone. This is you and your mindset at stake… take it seriously. Renew your physical environment with positivity. Okay, you’ve overhauled your digital environment… but what about the physical? What if you have friends and family dragging you down? Seriously consider cutting off those relationships. But if you can’t, you can still: - Limit your exposure to negative people as much as you can. - Offset negativity by immersing yourself in 5x the amount of positivity. What does offsetting negativity look like? Let’s say you have to spend 2 hours with a negative family member. Can you work that down to just 1 hour? Now you’re still experiencing an hour of negativity. So you need to pipe in 5 hours of positive input from other sources: - Talk to positive people in your life. - Listen to positive audiobooks, videos,

There’s nothing worse than launching to crickets. That’s what we call it when you pour time and effort into designing and building a great product—a piece of art, an online course, a great app—you work on it for weeks, or months… or years. You actually finish the product. You put this amazing thing you made out in the world… And no one wants it. In response to all your hard work, you get… nothing. Just the sound of crickets chirping. You know, figuratively (or maybe literally, depending on where you live!) That’s just the worst: making something that you love, and then finding out nobody else is interested. Was all that time wasted? Is there any way to salvage this product? Maybe if you used different launch strategies… We never want you to end up asking those questions. When you make a product you want people to buy, there’s a simple rule: you have to make something people WANT to buy. It’s not enough to make something you want. It’s not enough to make something you think other people want… you need to make something they actually want. You need to find out if people want your product long before you make it. You need to validate your big idea before you give it your blood, sweat, and tears. How do you do that? We’re going to tell you today.

Sean’s recorded a podcast mini-series called Finding Community, and the first part (of five) just published today. Below are some highlights, takeaways and quick wins from the recording (in case you’re more into reading than listening right now): Everyone needs a supportive community. Why does community matter, and why do you want to focus on finding community? A supportive community is rocket fuel for: - Finding your people, your audience, your tribe. - Starting or growing your own business. - Being financially supported by your creative passions. - Getting support when you’re stuck. Every time Sean has leveled up in business, it was because of a relationship, not just information. As helpful as information can be, you need context to apply it to your own situation. That’s where community comes in. Community can’t survive negativity. A negative attitude destroys communities. We’re not talking about critique or constructive criticism: you know true negativity when you encounter it. Negativity pulls you down… and keeps you down. When you have a negative voice in your life, you might want to pull that person up, help them let go of that negativity. And it’s great to want to help! But negativity has gravity on its side. It’s easier for a negative person to pull you down than for you to pull them up into positivity. You have to cut negativity out of your life. We’ll talk about how to do that in a minute. Negativity will kill your passion. Negativity is a breeding ground for scarcity mindset. We talk about this a lot: - When critical resources are scarce, you get desperate. - You’ll do anything to acquire those resources (usually money). - You take on jobs you shouldn’t. - You work with bad clients. - The negative people alongside you complain and enable this. - Pretty soon, your passion, the reason you wanted to make a living this way… it’s gone. This story is too common. You quit your job to pursue your creative passion, and pretty soon you’re mired in scarcity mindset. The opposite of scarcity mindset is abundance mindset: choosing to see the world as full of opportunity and the resources you need to survive as being widely available. The tricky thing is, you need to think in terms of abundance even when you’re in the middle of circumstantial scarcity. Even when your bank account is almost empty… you have to believe you can make ends meet. You have to defy what you see and make decisions based on a mindset of abundance. And you can’t do that when you’re surrounded by negativity. You can’t afford to be surrounded by negative people. You can’t afford to be around these types of people: - People who don’t believe in you. - People who aren’t achieving what you want to achieve. We’ve all heard that you become the average of the people around whom you spend your time. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends on who you’re around! If you’re surrounded by people who are lazy, complaining, negative, not driven… you’ll tend to be like that as well, try as you might not to be. You need to cut the negative inputs out of your life. But it’s not enough to just cut the negativity out of your life. There’s another step that you’ll hear about soon in Part 2 of this series. To keep this short, here’s your homework: - Cut negative people out of your life wherever you can. - Cancel events where you’re hanging around negative people. - Miss that party. - Skip that conference. - Ditch that happy hour where the team from work sits around complaining. - Unfollow and unsubscribe from negativity online. - Unsubscribe from negativity in podcasts, YouTube channels, and email newsletters. - Unfollow negative people on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. In a couple days, you’ll hear about what to do after you’ve cut out negativity—but you have to start here. P.S. The annual investment for seanwes membership increases permanen...

We all have things in our lives that we can’t wait to share with everyone we know. There are other things we’d just as soon keep to ourselves, yet we want to make a connection with other people. We want to feel heard and understood. On top of all that, we have a business to build, and a brand that we want to present to the world. So when is it okay to share, and when is it not? How do we talk about those things that aren’t easy wins, that aren’t sunny days on the beach, that aren’t sipping champagne in front of our private jet? How do we share the real stuff, the hard stuff… or do we share it at all? It’s hard to know how personal to get when we’re putting ourselves out there, especially on social media. How do we balance a desire to be real, to be authentic, with the responsibility we have to our audience, and to ourselves? Those are the questions we’re going to answer today.

Do you want to travel the world—or even travel your own country—with nothing but the pack on your back? Imagine that freedom—knowing you’ve already got everything you need. There’s that line, “The things you own… end up owning you.” Well, what if you didn’t need to own hardly anything? Between remote jobs and AirBnb, that unfettered life has never been more accessible… But you could never actually do it, of course! You have a job, a car, an apartment… or maybe even a house. You’ve got leases and responsibilities and you’ve got a really nice couch. But if there’s a part of you that just wishes you could pack it all up and hit the road… Maybe it’s time to listen to that voice. And if the voice is too quiet to hear… Sean is here to amplify it. In this call I had with Sean, he aims to prove that you can travel the world if you really want to. Yes, even you. Despite all the reasons and excuses… if this is what you really want, you can do it. This show will give you a lot to think about… and you might need to think twice about how much you really want that couch. Enjoy the show.

You should be proud of yourself: you’ve got a lot on your plate. You might be running a business, and, as I’ve heard it said, the great thing about running your own business is you can choose whichever 16 hours a day you want to work! Or you might have a job that takes up most of the day, and a passion that you work on in the mornings, or the evenings, or both. On top of all that, we all have our share of adulting: you know, doing the laundry, calling the bank, making sure there’s something in the fridge when we need it. And I haven’t even touched on all the other people you have in your life, some of whom might need you to do all of the above while carrying them around or solving their LEGO woes. You could be excused for just wanting a breather sometimes. Or maybe just wanting to give it all up and live in a tiny cabin on a moor. Or you could join a monastery, and possess nothing but a bowl, a robe, and a spartan room. If any of that is sounding appealing right now, you’re not alone. Feeling overwhelmed with your commitments, desires, and responsibilities is a fact of life. Taking flight for the hills with no forwarding address might be the solution… but I hope not. We still want to see you around these parts! :) Let’s talk about what it takes to keep playing the often-exhausting game of life. We have yet to find the rule book, but we can share what we’ve learned that works.

There are no two ways around it: selling a product does not come naturally to most of us. In fact, the very idea can feel a little slimy. Isn’t it a little weird to try to convince someone to part with their hard-earned money? Who am I to try to take it out of their pocket? Is this even ethical? In previous episodes we’ve discussed why you as a business owner need to learn to sell—to sell often, and with confidence. But the whole idea can still be uncomfortable. These days, we might feel a backlash against consumerism and materialism, and, even though we practice ethical and responsible ways of creating our work, we can’t shake the feeling that we’re still contributing to a problem. If you create a product, isn’t that just one more “thing” you expect people to burden their lives with? If these sorts of thoughts are leaving you paralyzed, don’t miss this conversation. We’re going to discuss the difference between creating and selling things that the world could do without, and truly valuable products that enrich the lives of their customers. Products, sales, money… these are all just tools for the movement of value between human beings. Are they good, or are they bad? It all depends on how you use them.

While on our first stop of the sabbatical year in San Diego, I got to visit Caleb Wojcik in his home studio. In addition to this episode, we also recorded an episode with me on the Caleb Wojcik Show which publishes today. Caleb is an incredible filmmaker who has worked with clients like Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income and ConvertKit (filming their I Am A Blogger series as well as the Craft + Commerce conference). He also filmed our own seanwes conference. Caleb regularly teaches what he’s learned building a successful six-figure client-services business with his podcast, courses, and YouTube channel. In today’s episode, I ask Caleb what he would do to get his first client if he was starting from scratch. If you’re looking to sell your filmmaking services, this episode is for you. Aside from client services, Caleb is also the inventor of SwitchPod. SwitchPod is a minimal, versatile, handheld tripod for vloggers that raised over $400,000 on Kickstarter. We talk about going from client services to physical products and the future of SwitchPod. Caleb recently set up what many would consider to be a dream home video studio in the past couple of years. But like many of us, he still struggles with overthinking content creation and production quality. We talk about some tips for overcoming overthinking and how to make videos more easily.

This podcast episode was not planned. While staying in San Diego during my sabbatical, my friend Caleb Wojcik invited me to his house to record a podcast. Caleb lives in Encinitas (about a one-hour train ride from where we were staying in downtown San Diego). Caleb and I recorded two podcasts: one for his show, and another for mine. You’ll see that interview with Caleb on the podcast feed in the next day or two. I was getting ready to take the 3:00pm train back to the city after recording with Caleb, when I received a new message on Instagram from Calvin Rosser: “Hey dude, think I saw you’re in San Diego. I’m in Encinitas (north of San Diego) if you want to get together. Fairly free during the evenings this week. Just working and surfing.” I’d met Calvin once last year at Craft + Commerce conference. We got coffee together the last morning before I went to the airport. Calvin has been a nomadic traveler for many years now. Over coffee last year in Boise, Idaho, he shared stories of his travels, and emphasized the importance of going with the flow and not having an overly rigid plan. “You may find that you love a place and want to stay longer.” At the time, he spoke of settling down. Several years of traveling nomadically was an incredible experience, but he was ready to slow down and stay in one place for awhile. We both just happened to be in Encinitas at the same exact time. How perfect was it that he messaged me without knowing? This must have been where he settled down last year. Calvin laughed. “I actually just got here a day ago.” “What happened to settling down?” “I still want to. I miss having friends I see regularly and with whom I can go deep.” We met at a coffee shop in Encinitas, but Calvin hardly sat down. Right away, he asked if we’d be willing to go somewhere else. “I actually have a car, but I prefer to walk. There’s a place nearby that’s really nice—it’s about a 14-minute walk from here. Is that okay?” Calvin has a thoughtful tone, as you’ll hear in the recording. He doesn’t mince words, and he doesn’t waste any time getting straight to deep and meaningful matters. Before I know it, we walk through an iron gate into another world. I’d never been in a meditation garden, but visiting at golden hour is everything you’d imagine: fish, flowers, and colorful foliage abound as you walk through winding pathways and up stairs. As we go up, the trees give way to a bright sky with a sun that will set within the hour. We find a bench at the top in a little clearing that reveals a stunning panorama of the Pacific Ocean. We are high up on the cliff. “I’m trying to remove guilt when not working,” Calvin says. “Do you mind if I record our conversation?” I ask. “We don’t have to do anything with the recording, but if we end up discussing something worth sharing, then at least we have the option of making it available as a podcast.” Calvin doesn’t mind. He almost seems indifferent. I hand him the lavalier microphone to clip to his shirt. He doesn’t seem phased. We don’t begin with any formal introductions. The tone of our conversation remains the same. We just continue talking. “With my work, I feel that there’s an endless list of things to do. When I’m not working, I should be focused on that list of things to do.” The guilt. As a recovering workaholic, I know it all too well. There were only ever two modes: 1. Working 2. Feeling guilty about not working I didn’t like feeling guilty. Calvin’s the same. He’s internally driven, and unsatisfied with anything less than reaching his full potential. That was me, and why I worked 18-hour days for a decade. Then I burned out. “The times I feel the guilt the least, and the times I feel most alive, is when I’m connecting one-on-one with someone else,” Calvin says. “I’m  able to engage with that in a way where the other stuff sort of melts away.” The seanwes podcast has not, historically,

Everybody knows if you want to be in pictures, move to Hollywood. Want to work in finance? New York, or London. Dreaming of starting the next big tech company? Better move to Silicon Valley—that’s where the money is. And if country music’s your jam, head out to Nashville. Is that really true? Is it only possible to succeed in a handful of cities around the world? Well, of course not. But your location does shape who you are. The things you see and hear every day, the way the people around you behave and what they talk about, the ease of access to what inspires you… it all plays a part in achieving your goals. Today we discuss how your location affects your motivation—the impact where you live has on the opportunities presented to you and your ability to capitalize on them. We’re not here to tell you where to live, but if you’ve been struggling with whether to move or stay where you are, this show will provide some clarity.

Since YouTube launched in 2005, online video has taken over the world. It might be hyperbolic to compare this to the invention of the printing press… but, then again, it might not. Quite simply, video is the medium by which a growing amount of the world’s information is consumed. For a creative person, someone who wants to share their message and their art with the world, creating videos gives you an incredible opportunity. But there’s a problem: For most of us, appearing on camera does not come naturally. Have you tried making videos—or at least thought about it—only to freeze up when that camera lens is pointed at you? Do you find yourself stuck, imagining the endless crowd staring at you, just waiting for you to mess up? Yup, it happens to the best of us. Today we’re talking about how to get comfortable with being on camera.

What does it feel like to move out of your old house but not have a new one to move into? It’s like climbing a staircase and expecting another step. Or as Laci puts it, “Like when you’re forgetting something, but it’s really big and important.” “Like where you’re going to live,” I said. “Exactly,” she replied. We are officially moved out of our house. Our belongings are in storage, and we each have a backpack which contains everything we’ll need for a year. We had some furniture to bring to family, so we rented a truck to drive to Dallas. Near the end of our trip, we pulled the truck over and recorded this podcast to capture our immediate thoughts and feelings on moving out, having no home, and beginning the sabbatical year. We also talk about how it feels to not yet know where we’re going to live after the sabbatical.

We are just a few days away from moving out of our house and officially beginning our sabbatical year. That means I also have only a few days left to sleep in my own bed with my own pillow. I’ll miss that. The nerves are starting to kick in. Are we really doing this?? Well, we booked a storage unit today, and our lease on the house is up soon—oh, and our internet, water, and electricity are all shutting down… so I guess we really are! It definitely hasn’t sunk in yet. Randomly, I’ll feel a little anxious, but I think that makes sense; what we’re doing isn’t exactly normal. I think it’s nervous excitement. Maybe a little restlessness, actually. We originally planned to be out January 1st, so I’ve been itching to go for weeks! My office is taking a lot of work to pack up. It’s just so complicated with all the gear and wiring. I’m also resisting the urge to shove everything into a box like spaghetti. I’m taking my time and trying to organize things neatly so I’ll actually be able to put it back together in 2021. I’m super excited for the Dallas, San Diego, and Los Angeles meetups happening in the next few weeks!

Every year, millions of people join a gym. And, every year, somewhere between 2-6 months after joining, millions of people stop going to the gym. And while this is arguably a boon to the people who own gyms, it isn’t good news for those of us seeking a healthier lifestyle. Change—whether it’s a change in your waistline or your net worth—takes time, and it takes effort. It takes both. If you hit the gym today and work out as hard as you can until you collapse… you won’t wake up much healthier tomorrow (quite the opposite). And if you just dutifully pay your gym fees for ten years, you won’t wake up a decade from now and discover yourself an athlete. No. If you want to change something, you’ll have to put in the reps, perhaps for years. How do you know if you’re up for that? How do you get yourself to be up for it? Let’s talk about what it takes to pursue a change for as long as it takes to see results.

I’m excited to announce our official move out date: January 26th! I’m so happy to finally begin our sabbatical year of nomadic world travel, and hopefully get to hang out with you in person. We won’t have a house or car, and we’ve sold a lot of our other possessions as well. Everything we’ll use for the next year will fit in a backpack. While we have some specific places in mind we’d like to visit, we also want to connect with people. I’ll keep you posted on any meetups in a city near you. But beyond meetups, a number of people have reached out to actually offer us a place to stay—which is incredible! The only problem is, I’ve had a hard time keeping track of the various comments and messages from people offering us a place to stay in various cities. So I came up with a solution: If you want to have us stay with you during 2020, you can visit the Host Us page to fill out a form so we know how to get in touch. That way, I’ll know how to reach you if I’m in your city. Laci and I would love to hang out with you! Lastly, I genuinely want to know: what questions do you have for me? Feel free to get in touch. What type of things do you want me to share? What are you interested in? What things would you like to see? I want to hear from you.

“Stop being such a weirdo.” I’m gonna make a prediction: at some point, probably while at recess, someone said this to you—or they said something very much like it. We are trained from birth to conform with the expectations of others. We are precision-engineered to please those around us. And let’s be clear: there’s enormous value in being able to get along with our fellow human beings! But if what you want out of life is not the same thing as your parents want, as your friends want, as what society keeps telling you you should want… You’re going to have to walk an uncomfortable road. You’re going to have to be… some kind of weirdo. It’s true. If you want something different from what other people get… you have to do things that other people do not—or will not—do. For some of us, this comes more easily than for others. But don’t kid yourself: the odds are stacked against you. Forces within and without will try to convince you to “just be normal”. Just try to fit in. Just go along with everyone else. Same clothes. Same job. Same hobbies. Same life. Why isn’t that enough for you? If it’s not enough, don’t worry, weirdo. You’re not alone. Today we’re going to give you—no. We’re going to get YOU to give yourself permission to be as weird as you need to be.

In this mini-sabbatical episode, Sean tells the story of how he hired Dan to run seanwes in 2020. Hiring the right person is never easy, but Sean gave himself a huge advantage: he created a community of awesome people. We also discuss what it takes to get an unusual job like Dan’s. The secret isn’t in how you format your résumé, it’s about how well you communicate and connect with others.

In this mini-sabbatical episode, Dan asks a question Sean’s been getting a lot lately: “Will you still do podcasts in 2020?” While the existence of this episode makes it clear that he’s not sitting out the whole year, Sean explains that he’ll be creating content—including podcasts—when he wants to, instead of on any kind of schedule; that’s the secret to a restful sabbatical: freedom from obligation. We also discuss seanwes as a “personality brand”, and what it means for both the podcast and the business as a whole to have Sean McCabe take a step away from center stage. How do you grow a business beyond yourself when the business is so closely associated with… you? Sean talks about the long game mindset, and how he’s willing to accept change and disruption now to build a better and stronger business in the years to come.

Welcome to the first behind-the-scenes look at Sean’s Sabbatical Year! Dan quizzes Sean on his mobile recording setup: now that the seanwes podcast studio is in storage, how will Sean produce content? Does he have to give up on quality? We talk about the lessons Sean learned hauling a 4K camera across Kauai, how the camera you have in your pocket is more than enough, and how you can produce the best work possible using the tools at hand. Look for more bonus sabbatical episodes in your podcast feed soon!

Happy New Year… and New Decade! But, look: In terms of your goals and aspirations, January 1st is much the same as April 17th, or August 22nd. But that’s not how we tick: we put a lot of stock in the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one. If nothing else, a “fresh start” is a useful thing. If you didn’t give yourself one a week or a month ago, you might as well do it at the new year. With that in mind—that this is as good a time as any!—let’s talk about how to accomplish whatever it is we want to accomplish in the coming year. The system that will take you in the right direction has three parts: 1. The Target: what we usually think of as a resolution (“I want to run 100 miles every month”). 2. The Strategy: how you’ll hit the target (“I’ll run three times a week in the morning, I’ll count my macros, I’ll change my diet in this way”). 3. The Reason: why you actually want to do all this—the change you want to see in yourself (“I want to be a healthy and athletic person”).

We're doing something a little different for this episode. In the seanwes Community, we do a special live show every Monday morning called Fired Up Mondays. This is our community office hours where members can get live answers to their questions right there on the show. This is just one of the many benefits of seanwes membership; to find out more, go to https://seanwes.com. Fired Up Mondays is members-only, but since Ben and I weren't able to record over the holidays, we're sharing this episode with you. It's a little different in format than the regular seanwes podcast, but I think you'll still find it full of value. Ben and I will be back next week with a great episode called "Setting Your 2020 Goals". In the meantime, enjoy this look inside Fired Up Mondays! 🔥 ---- It’s the last Fired Up Mondays of 2019! We have a big show today, starting with a question about staying sane during the period where you can’t afford to do your passion. It’s frustrating to feel like you aren’t making progress, but the key is to realize that you are: you’re laying a strong foundation for pursuing your passion wholeheartedly in the years to come. Next we have a question about giving value to your newsletter subscribers. If you can no longer produce exclusive content for them, how do you reward their loyalty? We’ve got a great episode from the seanwes podcast archives that lays out the plan for you. Finally, there’s a question about understanding the pain points of your podcast audience to come up with topics. You can only figure out so much about your audience before you drum up an audience, so your best bet is to just start with the topics you care about, and, once people respond, ask them what they’re struggling with! Finally-finally, Dan talks a bit about how much he (hasn’t) changed in the last seven years, and why, just maybe, that’s okay. See you in 2020!

*This episode of the seanwes podcast comes from a call Sean and Dan had while Sean is on his Sabbatical year. We decided this segment was interesting enough to record and edit into an episode of the podcast. Enjoy! Ben and Dan will be back with a regular episode next week.* Sean and Dan discuss a question implicit in the topic of this podcast: Who should, in fact, start a business? And why would they want to? Entrepreneurship gets a lot of press. Starting and running a business is portrayed as more than glamorous: it seems like the only way to escape a lifetime of unsatisfying employment and “live out our dreams”. But what does it really take to succeed at running a business, and withstand the workload and responsibilities required? As a longtime business owner, Sean shares his opinions, and we discuss the benefits of *not* being “Number One” in an enterprise. In the end, the person who succeeds at the challenge of building a business will need to push through resistance. They’ll need to find a passion strong enough that they don’t give up when the going gets tough… and then stays that way.

Update: Laci is doing great! She is healthy and feeling much more like herself. Getting treatment has been fantastic. We are absolutely thrilled how well she is doing. This episode was Laci's idea. She wanted to share the experience from her perspective. It's her hope that being vulnerable with her story might help someone else who is struggling. If this is your first time hearing about her struggles with an eating disorder, here's a bit of backstory: My wife's eating disorder almost killed her (as I talked about in a previous episode: https://seanwes.com/456). If you heard the previous episode I shared, you know how bad things had gotten. After starving herself earlier in 2019, her cognitive abilities declined so severely from malnutrition, she was unable to speak a single full sentence. We could not even communicate. I had to take off work for several months to take care of her full time. Later in the year, she was having panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety episodes that would last 6–8 hours a day. Treatment has literally been a life-saver. I'm happy to say, thanks to the generous support we received from so many, we were able to pay for the intensive care Laci needs. For a little over one month, she was in 7-day-per-week partial hospitalization at a recovery center, followed by 5 days per week of outpatient treatment. She's doing so well, this week, her team recommended she step down to 3-day-per week outpatient treatment. She continues to see multiple therapists and dietitians per week. Her diet has been consistent, nutrition is good, and cognitive abilities have returned! She's sharp and able to comprehend and respond quickly. Her sense of humor has also been restored. Her friends and I feel like we have Laci back. We are so grateful for your help. Thank you. As you'll see in this episode, her speaking abilities have returned, and she's able to communicate incredibly well. I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to see her look and sound more like herself. If you, or someone you know, is struggling with an eating disorder, anxiety, or depression, please see the many links and resources listed in the previous episode here: https://seanwes.com/456.

We look forward to it every year… or do we? The holiday season is just about on top of us, and while it can hypothetically be a time for peace, reflection, and family, those qualities are easily overwhelmed by feelings of stress, overcommitment, and inadequacy. Today, Ben and Dan give their best tips for making it through the holidays in one (mental and emotional) piece. A lot of these are perennial seanwes topics, and now is the perfect time of year to talk about them once again. (We also include a great sidebar on holiday travel, where Ben provides his recommendations for the best suitcases to pack your six kids in.) Between managing your commitments and protecting your time and attention, focusing on what’s meaningful and setting yourself up for a great new year, let’s go into 2020 strong. Happy Holidays! 🥳

The other day, Sean and Dan had a call. Sure, they could have talked about growing the business, or Sean’s upcoming sabbatical year. But, no. They had to talk about Dan’s lack of progress on his novel. See, Sean had this brilliant id—well. Sean had this… idea. “I want you to write a book called, 'I Tried to Write a Book'.” It’s the story of an aspiring author. A harried, foul-mouthed aspiring author. His name is Dane Jacobson (no relation). Today, Ben and Dan discuss this ambitious project: Is Sean for real? What is this cryptic book really about? And what the heck does any of this have to do with making a living pursuing our creative passions? Tune in to find out.

In Overlap, Sean talks about the importance of the day job to protect your passion: you need to cover all your bills with something that doesn’t rely on your passion so that you don’t compromise out of desperation to make ends meet. Compromise kills passion: do enough of the kind of work you love under circumstances you hate, and one day you’ll realize you don’t have that passion anymore. We’ve talked a lot about the dangers of the wrong day job. A bad job, that drains your energy, that you resent, but you can’t give it up because it keeps you comfortable. But today we want to explore something a little different: what happens when you have a great day job? A job you enjoy doing, with a flexible schedule, working with people you love, making a good living… That’s the ideal situation in which to pursue your passion on the side. Right? In his book, Turning Pro, Stephen Pressfield describes the “Shadow Career” as a calling we pursue because we’re terrified of our true calling: "Are you getting your Ph.D. in Elizabethan studies because you’re afraid to write the tragedies and comedies that you know you have inside you? Are you living the drugs-and-booze half of the musician’s life, without actually writing the music? Are you working in a support capacity for an innovator because you’re afraid to risk becoming an innovator yourself?" When you have a job you love AND a passion you want to pursue, is the job a stepping-stone, a companion on the journey… or just another way to hide from the work you were really meant to be doing?

Hey, Dan here. We’re doing something a little different for this episode of the seanwes podcast. In the seanwes Community, we do a special live show every Monday morning, called Fired Up Mondays. This is our community office hours, where members can ask questions and get answers right there on the show. This is just one of the many benefits of seanwes membership. To find out more, go to https://seanwes.com/membership Normally, Fired Up Mondays is members-only. But Sean suggested that we put this episode out on the regular feed. You’ll notice this show is a little different from the usual seanwes podcast. It’s a solo show, and I’m answering questions from our members and touching on a variety of topics. At the end, I give an update on my own “side-hustle”: the novel I’m writing. This is because Sean, well, basically dared me to talk about the novel every week as a form of accountability. Ugh! This guy, amirite? ;) There’s some context for what you’re about to hear. It’s a little different from the usual podcast, but still full of value. I hope you enjoy it! Ben and I will be back next week with another episode of the seanwes podcast. Thanks for listening!

Your internal life is wonderfully complex. You have an endless sea of thoughts and feelings, beliefs and reactions, and, for better or worse, they’re mostly your little secret. It’s not just you, of course: we all know, intellectually, that everyone has just as much going on beneath the surface as we do. But it’s one thing to know something, and another to understand its implications. The truth is, it’s hard to remember, in the moment, that each of us is an iceberg—what’s visible on the surface only tells a fraction of the story. When we all react differently to the same situations, when we do and say things that baffle or enrage each other, it’s because we thought we were all basically the same, thought the same, felt the same… But that’s a big “nope”. This isn’t just a reminder not to judge one another’s actions too harshly; it’s also the reason that sharing our own iceberg is so important. If you want to connect with people—really connect, in a meaningful way—you have to reveal at least some of what’s hidden beneath the surface. The problem? There’s nothing scarier than revealing what’s hidden beneath the surface. Let’s talk about why and how and with whom to share yourself—not the carefully polished and manicured self, but your actual self—and ask how we can better understand others, no matter what they share.

Is it safe to say we have all struggled with self-doubt? Very little is more frightening than a sense of uncertainty, and when we feel like we don’t know what we’re doing, it’s easy to become paralyzed. If you think you need to wait until you’re free of doubt and fear before you can accomplish anything… bad news: you’re not going anywhere. The people who do things and make things have one thing in common: they start before they feel ready to start. In this episode, Dan and Ben talk about the dangers (and inevitability) of comparison, self-doubt’s roots in your lack of skill and your abundance of ego, and the steps you can take to overcome self-doubt and build confidence in your abilities… in any area of life.

Something’s been going on for more than a year that I haven’t been able to talk about. My wife, Laci, nearly died earlier this year. She is currently in a partial hospitalization program. It’s still a dangerous situation. The recommended treatment period is a minimum of 30 days. But after only two weeks, our insurance suddenly decided to stop paying for treatment far short of the duration recommended by her team of healthcare professionals. I’ll explain more in a moment. Warning: this article talks about anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders. If you struggle with any of these things, consider having a loved one read this instead. What I’m about to share is extremely difficult for a lot of reasons, but we have decided it’s time.

We’ve been talking about content for the last few weeks: how to make it, why you should make it, what to make. But the truth is, despite knowing all the tactics, despite having the path laid out in front of us… Most of us still do nothing. We have a passion. We have a message that we want to share with the world. So why don’t we do anything about it? Today, Dan and Ben want to get to the bottom of this. What does it take? What does it take to turn intentions into action? What does it take to step past our barriers and do something? What does it take, to actually make the work we care about?

The final chapter of Think and Grow Rich warns of six "subtle enemies" that can remain hidden in the subconscious mind, where they are difficult to locate, and still more difficult to eliminate. These are the Six Ghosts of Fear. - The fear of POVERTY - The fear of CRITICISM - The fear of ILL HEALTH - The fear of LOSS OF LOVE OF SOMEONE - The fear of OLD AGE - The fear of DEATH "All other fears are of minor importance, they can be grouped under these six headings." But where does fear come from? "Study, analyze, and understand the three enemies you have to clear out. Where one is found, the other two are close at hand." The Unholy Trio: - Indecision - Doubt - Fear "INDECISION is the seedling of FEAR! Indecision crystalizes into DOUBT, the two blend and become FEAR!" Indecision and doubt blend to form fear. "The "blending" process often is slow. This is one reason why these three enemies are so dangerous. They germinate and grow without their presence being observed." The purpose of this chapter is to focus on the cause and cure of the six fears.

Most of the things you love and enjoy in life are imperfect in some way. But that doesn't keep you from loving them. In many cases, you love something because of its imperfections. Yet, we're pretty hard on ourselves. We expect perfection and nothing less, so we end up feeling stuck because we can't make something perfect. This is a huge problem because quantity leads to quality. Perfectionism inhibits consistency. Without consistency, you won't produce quantity—which means you can't produce quality. The very pursuit of perfectionism ensures you won't get the results you seek. Your standards are unrealistically high if they cause paralysis. You don't get to determine the value of your work. That's for others to decide. So how do you get past the mental roadblocks and be consistent? That's what we'll talk about today.

The Sixth Sense is a movie, right? Well, yes, but this chapter far predates the 1999 M. Night Shyamalan film by the same name. The book uses the term "sixth sense" to refer to "creative imagination", "hunches", or "inspiration". "The SIXTH SENSE is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been referred to as the Creative Imagination." "I find my mind most receptive to ideas, thoughts, and knowledge which reach me through the sixth sense." "[...] self-suggestion is a powerful factor in building character, that it is, in fact, the sole principle through which character is built." According to Think and Grow Rich, the sixth sense, "is a mixture of both the mental and the spiritual." "Step by step, through the preceding chapters, you have been led to this, the last principle. If you have mastered each of the preceding principles, you are now prepared to accept, without being skeptical, the stupendous claims made here. If you have not mastered the other principles, you must do so before you may determine, definitely, whether or not the claims made in this chapter are fact or fiction." The author shares his nightly routine of imagining a group of men seated with him around a table, which he called his Invisible Council. While he makes a point to state emphatically he still regards his meetings as purely imaginary, he stresses these visualizations were instrumental: "My original purpose in conducting Council meetings with imaginary beings, was solely that of impressing my own subconscious mind, through the principle of auto-suggestion, with certain characteristics which I desired to acquire." We're going to talk about this "sixth sense" and the idea of an Invisible Council.

I came across an article from nearly a decade ago that talked about how one writer 5X'd her writing speed. She came up with a triangle method. Here are the three sides: 1. Knowledge 2. Time 3. Enthusiasm Alone, each method can boost your numbers quite a bit, but combining all three will yield profound results. While originally designed for increasing writing speed, these methods can be adapted for content creation in general. That's what we're talking about today. If you've been feeling stuck, it's very likely one or more of these methods will unlock things for you.

So far in going through this book, each chapter has provided good insights, and I haven't had to look hard to find them. I'm struggling with Chapter 13, The Brain. It's an extremely short chapter, and I've read it twice in the past few days to see if I'm missing something. I've done my best to glean any wisdom and gold mine what nuggets I can from each chapter, but I'm still finding Chapter 13 difficult to parse. I'm not sure what to make of the comments on "telepathy": "The actual existence of telepathy and clairvoyance now seems to some scientists enormously probable as the result of Rhine's experiments. Various percipients were asked to name as many cards in a special pack as they could without looking at them and without other sensory access to them. About a score of men and women were discovered who could regularly name so many of the cards correctly that 'there was not one chance in many a million million of their having done their feats by luck or accident." The book goes on to say, "The reader is not asked to accept any of these conclusions unless he finds it necessary," which is encouraging, but I'm still left wondering what to take away from this chapter. The last paragraph of the chapter also contains somewhat of a cryptic message: "By adopting and following a similar plan any student of this philosophy may come into possession of the famous Carnegie formula briefly described in the introduction. If it means nothing to you at this time, mark this page and read it again after you have finished the last chapter." I'll keep an open mind and revisit it after reading the last chapter! I wrote this excerpt before Ryan and I spoke about the chapter, so we'll see what he has to say about it—he's been through the book more times than I.