Seanwes Podcast

Here's what I believe: I think the world is a better place when people are able to do what fulfills them and work in areas where they can create the most value. Unfortunately, it's hard to do that when you feel stuck. Maybe your boss is overbearing or your family isn't supportive. Maybe you're in a toxic environment or you hate what you do. Some people say, "Quit your day job and do what you love!" That sounds nice and all, but it lacks practicality. We all know people who quit their job to pursue their passion only to end up having to look for a job again. Rather than quit your job, there's another more practical alternative: you can overlap.

When I was first getting started in business, I had Superhero Syndrome. I wanted to do it all myself, and I didn’t want to delegate because I was scared. I was scared that other people wouldn’t care as much as me, wouldn’t care about the quality, and wouldn’t work as hard. The thing is, you started a business because you want freedom. I mean, you want money too, but what good is money when you work 18 hour days, hardly see your family and don’t have fun anymore? You want money and freedom—and a business can give you that! But right now, things look different: You’re exhausted. You have more work than one human can possibly do. You need help—desperately. Somehow at the same time, you also can’t afford to hire help. You don’t even know who your first hire should be—let alone where to look for this person. Today's episode will be touching on some of the things we discussed in the Hiring Bootcamp workshop.

seanwes conference is coming up soon (and the price increases next month)! You can save $500 when you register today at https://seanwes.com/conference. Why go to a conference? Isn't it just as good if you look up the speakers and read their blogs? This misses the entire point of conferences. I could go on about the value of hearing people speak in person and getting to ask your questions, but the point of good speakers is to bring like-minded people together. If you’re interested in things like copywriting, personalizing your marketing, building your own community, spreading the word about what you do, getting your money right, or being more creative, those are the type of people we have at seanwes conference. As much as you want it to be what you know, it's WHO you know. I always wanted it to be what I knew. But that's just not how the world works. Relationships are everything. You can build relationships online, but it's the slow way. When you spend just a couple of days with someone in person, you

Slow down. Think for a moment. What do you have planned today? What do you have going on this week? What do you hope to accomplish this month? Why are you doing what you're doing? Seriously. Why is it you're doing the things you do? We get caught up in following the motions of daily life. We fall into patterns and do things without thinking much about them. There's nothing wrong with routine—so long as the routine you follow is taking you where you want to go. Where is your routine taking you?

Today, Aaron Dowd joins me to talk about habits. Aaron has three habits he says will 100% change your life if you implement them. But maybe more interesting is the first part of the show where we talk about where habits come from and how they form. Do you ever stop to think about the things you do automatically? When did you form the habits you have now? Why did they form? More importantly, what do you do if you don't like the habits you have? How can you intentionally form new habits? We talk about how to form new habits by paying attention to the trigger, routine, and reward (known as The Habit Loop).

I'm on sabbatical right now as you read this, and I thought it would be a good time to share my experience with writing my first book. After several years of sitting on the back-burner, I finally set aside time to write my book, Overlap. The Overlap book is about getting from where you are in life to where you want to be—purposefully. It's about picking the next thing when you're feeling overwhelmed. It's a guide to transitioning from what you're doing now, that you don't like, to what you really want to be doing. We hear phrases like "do what you love" and "pursue your passion," but those clichés are hardly actionable. When you boil it all down... * What do you literally need to do? * How can you build a business for yourself? * How can you start your own thing? * How can you create financial freedom for yourself? That's what Overlap is about.

I remember when I heard someone say "mastermind group" for the first time. It sounded like a strange thing. But it's not anything weird or exclusive! A mastermind is simply a group of people meeting regularly to improve together. What's the difference between a mastermind group and an accountability partner? A mastermind group will typically have several people as opposed to just two. A group size of half a dozen is ideal. Mastermind groups are a place to get feedback and insight on your situation. Unlike a coach, the partners in your mastermind group should be near your level. The idea is to grow together. If you're wanting to start your own mastermind (or you're curious about them), this episode is for you. We talk about whether or not you should start your own mastermind group or join an existing one, where to find the people, and how often you should meet. The most interesting part is the breakdown of what happens inside. I share what goes down in a mastermind session on today's episode.

You know how you say you're going to get up early, but you hit snooze the next morning anyway? It's because we're not afraid to let ourselves down. If we break a commitment to ourselves, it doesn't mean much because no one else knows. But most of us care a lot about what other people think of us. We don't want to let people down. You can use this to your advantage by getting an accountability partner. Accountability partners are there to help you stick to your commitments and get more done. Today, we'll be answering the following questions: * How do you find an accountability partner? * What qualities should you look for? * How often should you meet? * What should happen in the meetings?

Value-Based Pricing is a complete system for doing client work. We have solved every client problem. Imagine every issue you’ve faced with clients that makes your life a living nightmare— gone. That’s not something we say lightly. It’s something we worked on intently for years to solve. We don’t want pricing to be a guessing game for you. You DESERVE for it not to be a guessing game. This is the fourth and final part of our series on client work. Check out the past three episodes if you missed them. We bring it all home with a conclusive episode on pricing your work according to the value you create for your clients. Ben had some huge breakthroughs in this episode. I know you will too.

You could be charging more. Exactly how much more depends. Some people say, "Double your prices!" Other people just say, "Charge more!" And they mean well, but ultimately they're just guessing. You shouldn't have to guess when it comes to pricing. We've developed a 100% bulletproof pricing system based on logic and math at ValueBasedPricing.com. Today's show is part three of a four-part series on client work. We've talked about attracting the right clients and filtering with your questionnaire, and now we're going into the value discovery process. The value discovery process is where you consult with the client to discover the value of their project. This is how you are able to quote a fair price. The most notable part of this process is the omission of the "budget question". In other words, you don't ask the client for their budget. Talking about budgets or giving a ballpark figure of what you will charge is positioning you as an expense. We talk about what you should do instead.

If you want to attract high-value clients, you need to conduct yourself as a professional. The best clients will pay you the most money to focus on doing great work that produces valuable results. They won't distract you, they won't talk you down on price, they won't try to change the way you do your job, and they won't disrespect you. Sounds like a dream, right? You can get good clients every single time. And it's not a dream: it's the result of following a system. We're on part two of a four-part series on client work. Today's episode covers filtering out bad clients and how to find and attract more of the clients you actually want.

Client work can be a great way to make money. But it can also be a headache. • You don't have 100% confidence in your prices. • You're frequently running into problems. • It seems like you just don't get to work with great clients. Essentially, what was once a passion has turned into a job. It doesn't have to be this way. Whether you've been doing client work for a while and are having problems or you want to start doing client work and need some guidance, we're here to help you. Today's episode is a crash course on setting a professional foundation for client work so you can actually enjoy it!

Today, I'm going to share an entire chapter of my book, Overlap. Overlap (OverlapBook.com) is a practical guide to getting the life you want. If you want to get out of a soul-sucking day job, create financial freedom for yourself and your family, or you simply want to enjoy life again, go to OverlapBook.com and purchase a copy of the book for yourself (and while you're there get 10 copies for your friends, family, and the people you care about). If you enjoy my practical, no-nonsense approach to business, this book is for you. It's not just surface-level motivation, it's an actionable, step-by-step guide that will equip you with what you need to create the life you want. Without further ado, here's the chapter titled, "You Must Sell" from my book Overlap.

We believe in community at seanwes. That's not just because we have our own thriving community. We believe in the concept and future of independent communities. That's why we made CommunityTalk (http://CommunityTalk.com). We built our own community messaging system and it's been the glue to our membership site for years. Now, we want to make this available to others so they can build their own communities. But building a community requires much more than just having a messaging system. Today's episode explores what's required to build a community and what makes a community thrive.

Why build an audience? Some people I know are scared. They don't want to build an audience at all. What they don't realize is they have two diametrically opposed goals: on the one hand, they want to stay out of the limelight and remain unknown, but on the other hand, they want everyone to like, share, and buy their stuff. Not going to happen. People buy from those they know, like, and trust. If they don't know you, they won't buy from you. Why build an audience? • You are seen as an authority. • You are able to sell products. • You are able to build community. • Launching new things gets easier. If people see you as an authority, they'll buy your products. When you get enough people together who like the same things, you can build a community. When you have a community, launching new things in easier because you're never starting from scratch.

Who are you to share what you know? Hasn't someone else already said it before? It's true, there's nothing new under the sun… except YOU. You have something unique to offer the world. Yes, someone else has done similar work. Someone has made similar art, written similar copy, sold similar products, but your perspective, your voice, your upbringing, and your context is unlike any other. The world is worse off without your unique voice and perspective. You must believe this. Lean into this. Your quirky style, your weirdness, your history, your viewpoints are uniquely valuable. Do you ever catch yourself thinking, "What's the point?" Do you feel like you're just a drop in the ocean and everything has already been said before? Tune into today's show.

Writing is the starting point for all other mediums. • Want to do a speech? Write. • Want to sell products? Write. • Want to record a song? Write. • Want to compose a book? Write. • Want to produce a feature film? Write. • Want to make a great podcast? Write. • Want to teach an online course? Write. • Want to shoot a compelling video? Write. It all starts with writing. One of the most valuable things you can do for your career is build a writing habit. That's why I made http://30DaysToBetterWriting.com. It's a mini course designed to help you 10X your writing in just 30 days. I wanted to give you a sense of what's inside, so today we scratch the surface of the course and cover: • Why you need to write. • Why you don’t write. • How to start writing. • What to write about. • Where to use what you’ve written. • Getting better at writing on purpose.

If someone is not helping you get closer to your goal, they’re taking you away from it. This is a hard concept to accept. Is it really that black and white? Isn't it okay for someone to be passive? Think of a Flintstones car. The bottom of the car is open so you can pedal with your feet. The people in your life are in the Flintstone's car with you. Even though they may not be backpedalling, if they're sitting there and not helping you move forward, their dead weight is slowing you down! You can't afford to have people in your life who aren't on board with your vision. So how in the world do you get those people to buy in? What if they're not supportive? What if they're discouraging? What if they don't care? What if these people are your family members? Whether it's your friends, parents, siblings, or spouse, you must get everyone in your life on board. Easier said than done, right? We talk about how to do that in today's episode. The HOW is actually not very obvious at all. If you know there are peopl

A lot of people make big plans when there's a new year. Some people call them New Year's resolutions. Others say resolutions are nonsense and they don't work. Either way, at some point you're going to set a big goal and the new year seems as good a time as any to talk about seeing your goals through to completion. Without fail, we will reach a point where it's no longer fun to do the work required to achieve our goal. That's where we often burn out. Why does this happen? Why do we stop enjoying the process? Why do we lose motivation and start to hate the mundane tasks alone the way? When you're not motivated to do what you know you should be doing, it's because you've lost the context of your end goal. The goal you set determines the meaningfulness of your activities. Tune in to hear us talk about staying motivated.

This is the biggest show of the year (and not just because we gave away $3,000 in prizes). I share my vision for the future. We're building an agency, we're starting a non-profit, and we're extending the sabbatical concept from weeks to years. Moving forward, we're paying employees to take off every seventh week AND every seventh year. I share how I'm changing the future of work and building the best place to work in the world. I give a tangible analogy for how you can make more money by learning to think in bigger units (starting with sugar cubes). It will completely revolutionize the way you think. I share the revelations I had two weeks ago where I recognized the completely underutilized talent pool we have and how we're going to pivot that into a full-service digital marketing agency. We'll then deploy the agency against the software company we're launching in 2017 (CommunityTalk). This episode will change your life and you'll come away thinking much bigger than you ever did before.