Seanwes Podcast

Do you have two hands and a willingness to work hard? Good news! You can make some money. You have skills and experience that others don't have. You can use those skills to do work for people to make some money. Client work is the best place to start and it's the fastest way to make money in the short term. Now, you may have heard some horror stories about working with clients, but this doesn't have to be your future. We're going to tell you how to avoid all of those headaches right from the beginning.

What you have to say has already been said. Here's the good news: say it anyway. It's a new time, a new place, and a new context. Share your message and don't hold back. It takes hearing new information 7 times for us to retain it. That means if someone else has already said it, say it anyway. If you've already said it, say it again. Your voice matters. Context is everything and your unique perspective makes what you have to say new and valuable for someone. More than likely, what you have to say will resonate with MANY people. If you feel like you have nothing new to say or that other smarter people have said things better than you ever could, listen to this episode.

You did good work and you know your customer or client is happy, but it's another thing entirely to turn that great experience into an awesome testimonial. What should you ask? How should you ask? When should you ask? What if the testimonial they provide isn't very good? We answer those questions and also give you exactly what to say to get testimonials that will win you new business.

You're doing all the right things: providing value up front, helping people, giving them clarity, and building a relationship. Now you need to make the transition to actually selling something—and it feels awkward. There's a reason it feels awkward (but it doesn't have to). If you've ever edited a video before, you know there are different transition effects you can use between video clips. Most commonly, one clip will cut straight to the next. But you can also use a transition. A transition isn't instant but rather gradual. It's not overly long—maybe just a second or two—but it's enough for the viewer to follow along. If you say, "Nice to help you, buy my thing," it's no wonder you feel awkward. You need a transition. Done right, it can feel natural. It should feel natural! This topic applies to your conversations as well as your emails and other content. Today, we primarily talk about making the transition from providing value to selling in your email autoresponders (as a continuation of our sales fun

After recording what you’ll hear as next week’s episode, I shared a thought I had with Ben in the “after show”. Among a number of things, we talked about a concept Gary Vaynerchuk frequently stresses: self awareness. I’ve noticed a pattern personally over the years where I will develop my skills until I reach the top 10% in a given field and lose interest shortly after. I then systematize what I’ve built and move on. It seems the common denominator across everything has been my fondness for systematization and creating processes for things. This proclivity shows itself in programs I’ve made such as Hiring Bootcamp, Value-Based Pricing, and 30 Days to Better Writing, as well as with pursuits like computer repair, web design, and spending 9,000 hours doing hand lettering. On the topic of self awareness, this line of thinking lead to my recognition that maybe I’m not meant to be “the person doing the thing”, but rather “the person helping someone do their thing”. In other words, the person focused on the “bu

We're continuing our series on sales funnels and picking up where we left off in last week's episode on lead magnets. Now that you have a way for people to subscribe to your email list, you need an autoresponder to continue building the relationship with that person. How do you deliver value automatically? What should you provide first—and in what order? How often should you send? What about broadcasts? We'll cover all of these and even more questions in today's show.

On our last two blog posts, we've been getting email subscriber conversion rates of 20%–30% on thousands of visitors! I think we've cracked the code and found something that's working. But it requires being able to make lead magnets FAST. This is a skill you need to build. We're going to help you get more email subscribers from the content you work so hard to create!

Listener John Valles wrote in and asked about podcast burnout (UPDATE: he actually illustrated the featured image for this episode!). "I feel so tired right now. I feel like my head just can't take anymore learning right now." Ever feel that way? Or maybe for you it's social media. It just feels like too much for you right now. It's like a firehose of overwhelm. It might be time for a reset.

You know you should be making more videos. Spare me the excuses—I've heard them all before. (Actually, I've made them all myself before, that's how I know.) Let's get right down to it: how can you create more videos consistently? There's friction in your setup. There's friction in your mind. Things are holding you back from something that you know is not only possible but beneficial. You can make more videos—and you can do it without a bunch of free time, fancy equipment, or needing to buy any new gear. All you need is a mindset shift, some planning, and a little trick you've heard us talk about before: chaining habits.

You have good reasons for wanting to build a habit. Maybe you want to read, write, learn, exercise, eat healthy, or wake up early. All of these will improve your life, and they're worth making the necessary sacrifices. But it's not easy to build new habits. That's why you work to set yourself up for success as much as possible. Accountability, rewards, punishments—these are all methods people use to keep up their momentum and stay on track. But how do you know if you're staying on track unless you actually track your habits? That's what we're talking about today. Recently, I shared a sketch from my notebook featuring a habit tracker I designed. There was a lot of demand for me to write an in-depth blog post. In addition to a blog post, I also put together some downloadable resources to accompany what I wrote over at FiveHabitTracker.com.

Today’s sabbatical episode features special guest, Laci McCabe. I’m excited to have my wife back on the show (it’s been over 50 episodes since the last one she was on). For awhile, she’s been asking to join me on the show to talk about habits. Last year, Laci made some drastic changes in her habits to be able to run a 10K. That goal quickly expanded into a running half marathon (which she did)! It all started with something tiny—actually with flossing (more on that in the show). We talk about achieving big goals by starting small.

In the last episode, we talked about the importance of attention and why you need it. Today, we’re covering 5 methods you can use to get people’s attention. I made a mistake early on: I learned that it’s good to create content that is evergreen and remains relevant for a long time to come. While this is true, I went too far by creating ONLY evergreen content. Nearly 100% of what I focused on creating was built around a timeless message. There’s nothing wrong with timeless, but it’s the very evergreen nature of timeless material to not draw attention to itself! Things that are constant and always remain to be true can be boring. Your job then is to breathe life into what can otherwise be boring topics! How do you do that? That’s the focus of today’s show.

You’ve made something great. You want the world to see it, enjoy it, appreciate it, love it. Except, what you’ve made isn’t garnering the attention you think it deserves. It certainly isn’t garnering the amount of attention that you feel would be proportional to the amount of time you invested in creating what you’ve made. Why haven’t they noticed? Why don’t they care? There are two mindsets you can choose from: The Victim: “The world is lost. They wouldn’t know a good thing if it hit them in the face. Their loss, their mistake.” The Victor: “I haven’t captured their attention and earned the right to it. I need to find a way to provide relevant value and make a name for myself so I can be heard.” In next week’s episode, we’ll talk about 5 ways you can get attention. In this episode we’re talking about why you need attention and the 3 things you need attention for.

There's nothing worse than reaching a point in a business partnership where you determine: "It's not working out." At least, dissolving a partnership ends up being a nightmare for many (if not most) people who start one. Why? Because in most cases, neither person entered into the partnership with any idea of how they would part ways if things weren't working out! An accountability partnership is similar. When you're meeting regularly with someone and keeping each other accountable, it can potentially turn into a really awkward situation when you realize that you've outgrown your partner. It can feel like you're quitting on them, giving up, or as if you don't care. But sometimes, moving on from either an accountability partnership or mastermind group is the right thing to do. Sometimes it's necessarily to enter a new season. How do you navigate this situation gracefully? That's what we're talking about today!

Very rarely are you working on someone else’s business, and very rarely are other people working on your business. That’s what makes mastermind groups so special. We're continuing our mastermind series by covering what goes on inside a mastermind session. There are four general sections: 1. Updates 2. Goals 3. Challenges 4. Commitments There's also a bonus session: Unsolicited Advice. We'll talk about time limits and structure as well as what each section looks like.

Hopefully after listening to the last episode on the importance of masterminds, you know how beneficial it is to participate in a mastermind group. But how do you find a mastermind? Should you find an existing one or start your own? If you’re invited to a mastermind that’s a good fit, you should join. However, if you don’t get invited (or can’t find one), starting your own mastermind group is a great idea. In today’s episode, we’ll talk about finding a mastermind group that’s an ideal fit or starting your own from scratch.

What in the world is a mastermind, and is it for you? A mastermind is a group of about half a dozen people who meet regularly to help one another improve, stay accountable, and increase success. Because a mastermind group is comprised of people who are peers, you don't need to be at any certain level to be a part of one. You can be in a mastermind no matter what level you're at! Why would you want to be in a mastermind? Get a fresh perspective. Find accountability. Make sure you're taking action. We talk about these more in today's show on the importance of masterminds.

Case studies are in-depth overviews of your projects. You’re not just showing the completed work, but the goals your client presented and how you solved problems along the way. Case studies are a great way to tell stories that potential clients can envision themselves in. Yes, it is a story about a past project, but more importantly, it is a chance to set expectations with future clients. Most people aren’t willing to take the time to write case studies. High-quality case studies set you apart in your industry. In today's show, we cover how to write an effective case study. We dive into what you should and should not include in your case studies and who to write it for.

Before you invest a lot of time and energy into your business, you need to think about what type of product or service you're offering and who it’s for. There are a lot of ways to make money, but some are easier than others. You can make anything you want (and you can do anything you want), but if you want to make money, you must be strategic. Consider this product spectrum with two general types of products you can make, each of which represents opposite ends of the spectrum: Money-making products. Nice-to-have products. In addition to the wide range of products you can make, there’s also a range of people you can market to. There are people who have money and those who don’t, and there’s a wide range in between. You have to think about who you're selling to. Maybe your passion involves something that doesn’t solve problems or you’ve created a nice-to-have product. Well, you can’t just demand that the market pay you. The market decides what is valuable. If you start with a money-making product and se

Last week, we talked about making money on the side while overlapping with a day job. Eventually, the money you make on the side will eclipse what you make at the day job. Is that when it's time to quit? When you make the same amount? Not even close. In today's show, we're talking about knowing the right time to go full-time with your business: the money, the process, and what the transition looks like.