Seanwes Podcast

You put a lot of work into creating your content. Why not have it serve you longer? Trends come and go, and they can be great for getting some short-term exposure, but producing things with a timeless message will continue to serve you for years to come. That's evergreen content. In today's short episode, we talk about the benefits of long-lasting content, repurposing that content for people in the future, and capitalizing on trends to bring people into your evergreen content.

On the most recent episode of the seanwes podcast, we talked about Backwards Building—my method for ramping up to a launch by announcing it ahead of time with a landing page (what I call a "Press Release"). We're continuing with that theme in this episode on content marketing. Today, we talk about what types of content to create to market your launch. We really hone in on the difference between products that solve a problem and products that are "nice to haves". This episode is especially valuable for those of you who sell products that fall more into the category of art or entertainment. Because the value you provide is more intangible, you have some unique challenges when it comes to marketing. We talk about those challenges and how to tell the story around your product using content to get people excited about it.

You want to launch something. You want people to care about it. You want them to buy. You don't want to launch to crickets. Maybe you made an app. Maybe want to launch a new product, subscription, or service. Maybe you have a really cool course. It's going to help a lot of people. Most people have two diametrically opposed goals: they want to keep their idea a secret while they make it, but when they launch they want everyone to know about it and care. The problem is it doesn't work like this. You need to get people to care first. You can't afford to launch to crickets. The longer you hold onto what you believe to be the uniqueness of your idea, the more you lose. Your idea is worthless. What matters then? Execution. You must execute this launch flawlessly if you want it to resonate and you need to start yesterday. We're already behind. Still hanging with me? Are all the wannabes gone? Good. Let's get into the episode and learn how to get people to care and pay attention.

The world population will increase 35% in the next 35 years. By 2050 there will be 9.7 billion people in the world. Not only that, but technology is becoming more and more accessible. Devices are cheaper and the number of people with access to the internet is growing. The average age of a person in 2050 will also be higher. Along with your potential audience size being higher from increased population and wider spread internet access, the average age of a person will be even higher than it is now which means the percentage of people able to buy from you and become a customer is greater. You have a ridiculous advantage right now. The potential size of your audience in 10 years is staggering. It will almost be automatic if you simply show up consistently, but in this episode we talk about making the most of this advantage.

We often think getting big results means working harder. In a way it's true: working harder does enable us to produce greater results. But what does this look like at scale? Do the people who make more work harder? Sometimes they do, but in the big picture, typically more people work harder for less. Those who make 10 times or 100 times what you make aren't necessarily working harder. They think differently. The phrase, "Work smarter, not harder," might sound cliché but it really is a matter of mindset. There's a mental leap you have to make in order to think bigger. We're going to help you make that leap. We're going to take what you thought was big (10X) and 10X that! 10 minutes in, the live listeners were all saying that were definitely going to listen to this episode again. It will completely change your thinking.

Content marketing is all the rage these days. If you want to make money, you need to sell. To sell, you need people to be paying attention. Content creation has become one of the best ways to get people's attention. You might be producing free content because you think that's what you're supposed be doing, but it's important that you do it within a context that makes financial sense. Free content can't just be something you make for its own sake. It needs to be a part of your business model. If you only produce free content, you'll produce yourself right out of business. In this episode, we talk about how to sell. You'll learn when the right time to start selling is, what is the ideal balance between paid and free content, and even how to sell something that you previously gave away for free (no, it's not wrong). We talk about different pricing approaches, pricing models, and different ways to generate revenue. Beginners will come away from this episode ready to sell their first product. Seasoned busine

It's time for you to sell. I know that's scary. Many of us have a bad association with the word "sell". It leaves a bad taste in our mouth because of past experiences with salesmen. But the difference between you and a salesman is that the salesman's entire job is to sell. If you have a bad experience, it doesn't affect them because you're talking to customer support. Their sole goal is to get you to sign on the line that is dotted. Often this means doing whatever it takes to get you to buy. We don't like that and we don't want to be like that person. But you're different. See, you made this thing you're selling. You're not selling someone else's product you don't believe in. You're selling something you made to better people's lives. People will benefit from what you created. If you don't learn to sell, people will not buy. Where does that leave you? Ultimately, it leaves you without a business. If you don't make money, you can't operate. Guess who loses? Everyone. Everyone loses when you don't sell. Y

Who are you to teach? Who are you to share? There's so many people that know more than you. What gives you the right to make a contribution? Who qualified you to give advice? If you've ever felt paralyzed by these feelings, you're not alone. Imposter syndrome is feeling like you're a fraud. Sometimes it manifests in something as simple as feeling like you may be more confident than you deserve to be. We all experience this. Every single one of us. Even people who are well-known. It's not something you outgrow—it evolves into new forms of inadequacy. The fear of being found out and the fear of being wrong are powerful forces. We show you how to turn those on their head and use them to your advantage. We also give you 6 ways to boost self confidence.

Once upon a time, I hated daily emails. I thought daily emails were spammy and horrible. You probably do too. Why? Because you've experienced horrible, daily emails! Naturally, those are what you think of when you hear "daily emails." But if you're interested in bass fishing, are you going to wake up tomorrow no longer interested in bass fishing? No, of course not. You're going to look at your subscriptions and watch videos and read magazines and articles about bass fishing. It's the same with growing your business or hand lettering. The people interested in hand lettering don't wake up the next day and look at their Instagram feed and say, "Why am I getting all of these lettering posts in my feed?! Get them out!" That's preposterous. They're going to consume because it's what they're interested in! There's no question that people will consume content in the area of their interest every single day. The true question is whether it's going to be your content or someone else's content. In this episode I'll

You've been thinking about going to conferences. You've heard people talk about these great events with awesome speaks and wonderful people. You want to experience a conference but you're just too shy. You don't consider yourself a people person or at least, it's exhausting to have to be ON for long periods of time. You're not alone. I mean, chances are you probably ARE alone if you're an introvert, but I'm speaking figuratively. All joking aside though, we made this episode especially for you. I am the most introverted of the introverted. You wouldn't know it. I used to stand behind the door for the entirety of class as a 6-year-old. I was deathly afraid of conferences and meetups. Now, not only do I go to conferences and regularly speak at them, but I'm putting on my own conference at seanwes.com/conference! This is crazy. What made the difference? What got me from there the here? In this episode, we dedicate it entirely to answering your questions about going to conferences. I guarantee the hesitatio

What if you talked about a friend as if they weren’t in the room... ...but they were? It's a cool, fall evening in McCall, Idaho. Seven of us are seated on a seven-person L-couch in the living room of a house we rented for four days. Seven people are here, but only six are talking. They're all talking about me as if I'm not here. They're talking about me and they're talking about my business and I'm not saying a word. In fact, I can't. Not for 10 minutes anyway. Those are the rules. This is the idea behind Unsolicited Advice.

One of the hardest things to do when you work for yourself is explain what you do to others. You likely wear a lot of hats and your income probably comes from numerous sources. When someone asks what you do, where do you even begin? In the episode, we help you find your "hook" or unique selling proposition. It's not enough to give someone the WHAT and the WHO. You've also got to explain the WHY in a way that makes you memorable. We walk you through developing your pitch and beyond. After all, a pitch is not meant to close the deal, it's meant to start the conversation. We talk about how to do it and provide real examples of what that looks like.

Waking up early is hard. It's even harder when you're not a morning person. If you're like me, you're a night owl. You get in the zone at night and that's where you do your best work. You hate waking up early and it totally doesn't feel like you. I hear you. That was me. I'm a night owl at heart and I always did my best work at night, but that's because I never truly gave mornings a chance. I decided to compare my output when working early vs. working late. I was blown away by the results. On days that I woke up early, I accomplished twice as much. It was insane. I don't wake up early because I enjoy it. I do it because I like who I am when I do. I'm an objective person and I could not argue with the results. Could I be successful as a night owl? Yes. But could I be MORE successful as an early bird? Without a doubt. In this episode, we'll give you some practical tips for making the transition to waking up early and why it will completely revolutionize your day.

The holy grail of business: automation. How great would it be to have your business run on its own without you? Everybody wants this. But not everybody is willing to lose the romanticism that is keeping you from being able to attain it. We talk about automating and scaling your business with replicable systems that you can reuse and repurpose. Take something that works and make carbon copies of it. This is how you build an empire. We get very specific about establishing your process, teaching and training people, systems vs. employees, and when to invest in new systems vs. when to do the best you can with what you have right now.

If you've been in business for awhile and showing up every day, at some point, you found something that was working well for you. Then a funny thing happened. You moved on. It's the strangest thing. We tend to find something that works well and then we move on to something else. It's just in our nature. But if you want to maximize your profits and level up, you need to do more of that thing! Go back and squeeze every last drop out of it! If you're asking yourself at this point, "How do I determine if something worked well in the past?" I'm not here to give you a litmus test. I'm talking to the people who know EXACTLY what I'm talking about and who can imagine a very specific thing they abandoned. If you're still trying to figure out what works, keep going! Keep doing, keep trying. In this episode we look at how to maximize the things that were working and get a whole lot more mileage out of them.

The Overlap Technique is the concept I'm writing my book on. It's where you establish a solid foundation to cover either your bills or your business expenses. It's crucial that your foundation cover 100% of your bills. If you're in a day job and you want to overlap to your passion, the day job must cover 100% of the bills if you want to prevent scarcity mindset. Scarcity mindset comes from compromise. When you aren't covering 100% of your bills with a day job (or some sort of baseline recurring revenue) you will find yourself getting desperate. When in desperation, you are more prone to making compromises on quality of life, your professionalism, your rate, and the clients you work with. In this episode, we discuss the establishing of your foundation so that you can level up to where you want to be. This also applies even if you have an existing business. I have been working for myself for 10 years and I'm constantly in a stage of overlapping.

Coming back from sabbatical and starting the next hundred episodes of the seanwes podcast, we decided to kick things off with a 4-part series on leveling up your business. Whether you’re just starting out or you have an established business, the concepts in next 4 episodes will give you the clarity to make sure you're prioritizing the right things and doing work that will make a difference. To kick off the series, we start with the most important thing: focus. Chances are, the majority of your effort is being spent doing things that are not making a real difference in your business. Whether you're taking your freelance full time, hiring your first (or 10th) employee, focus is crucial. Getting focus starts with defining your goals. We talk about finding the most important thing to be focusing on, and what things to say no to in order to maximize your focus so you can grow sustainable assets that will bring continual returns.

Do you want to win? Show up every day. “I know, I know, Sean. You say it all the time. I’ve heard you.” Well hear me again. Hear it a 7th time. Hear it a 700th time. Show up every day. Show up when it hurts. Show up when you’re tired. Show up when when you’re not feeling it. Show up when it’s early. Show up when it’s late. Show up when everyone else is giving up. Show up when it’s the first day. Show up when it’s 731st day. Show up every day for two years and don’t expect any results in that time. Any results you get in the first two years of showing up are a bonus. This is only the beginning.

Do you feel guilty when you’re not creating? I know I do. I have a hard time not making things. I had a weekend recently and it was the first true weekend I had in months. I didn’t have anything planned. It was incredible. I caught up on my reading list, I watched some videos, conference talks, a documentary even(!), and learned a ton. It was very relaxing. But it also felt very weird. I usually don’t go that long with making something. I still felt that itch—that drive to create. I see the chronic creator situation as a plus. Sure, it can be considered a curse, but look at the alternative: chronic consumer. Most people consume. Few people produce (which is why you’re not a small fish in a big pond).

After two years of podcasting twice a week, we are excited to share our 200th episode with you. Special guests Aaron Dowd and Matt Lopez join Ben and myself in person for this magical event. We talk about my "Show Up Every Day" mantra and our collective focus on the Long Game Mindset. With hundreds of episodes under our belt, we still feel as though this truly is the very beginning and look forward to many more hundreds in the future. We take a reflective look at how doing this show has changed our lives and what's in store for the future. This episode broadcasted publicly to a total of 1,058 live viewers who enjoyed full access to the Community chat during the event. We gave away over $2,000 in prizes to the group who attended live. Last but not least, what really set apart this magical evening was the live jam session we put on. We transformed the room into a studio right before the eyes of the viewers and put on an unscripted show. While the full live jam session was enjoyed exclusively by those who