Seanwes Podcast

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 usua

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

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 t

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 deter

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 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

Content is the key to building your brand, increasing your influence, and growing your audience. Maintaining consistency is the most important but also most difficult part. Weekly output is good, but daily output is the ultimate. But how in the world can you create daily content? It can definitely be overwhelming. That's why today, I want to share the system I've created for seanwes media (the client services branch of seanwes). This is our system for producing daily social media video content for our clients. If you'd like to just show up once a week, hit record, and then have us produce and distribute daily content for you on the big 5 platforms, feel free to get in touch. Otherwise, tune in to hear our process and get ideas for streamlining the creation, production, and distribution of daily content.

Your subconscious mind works day and night. Thought impulses reach your mind without you even realizing it. Some are positive and some are negative. You have to shut off the flow of negative impulses, the book says. Everything you create at one point began as a thought impulse. This chapter connects with one of the earlier chapters on Desire as well as Persistence. "After you have accepted, as a reality, the existence of the subconscious mind, and understand its possibilities, as a medium for transmuting your DESIRES into their physical or monetary equivalent, you will comprehend the full significance of the instructions given in the chapter on DESIRE." Writing is a common theme on the seanwes podcast, so I'm a big fan of this admonishment: "Make your desires clear, and to reduce them to writing." We'll discuss the book's claim that the subconscious mind is the link between finite and infinite intelligence as well as talk about The Seven Major Negative Emotions and The Seven Major Positive Emotions.

The hike of a lifetime did not go as planned. But the trip went better than I could have expected. From waterfalls and cliffs, to helicopters, 360° rainbows, beaches, and canyons, I recount my experiences in Kauai and Oahu. As amazing as this trip was, I talk about how the occasional vacation isn't enough. Vacations simply aren't restful. You need regular sabbaticals for deep rest and rejuvenation.

Dan and Ben are back once more while Sean is in Hawaii! Hear about his epic hike in 444: The Hike of a Lifetime: Kalalau Trail. Sean returns to the podcast next week. In Overlap, Sean talks about defining your “New Zero”: figure out how much money you’d need to cover all your expenses for six months. Until you have that much money in the bank, think of your account balance as being in the negative. But what if your balance already is in the negative? What if you’re already in debt? The first thing you need to do is get rid of that debt. But how can you? One way or the other the debt built up, and it’s not like you stop needing to spend money… Debt is a trap, and it’s one that, for all our best intentions, we’ve fallen into more than once. By sharing how we defeated debt—and the scarcity mindset that walks hand-in-hand with it—hopefully we can help you do the same.

Dan and Ben are back while Sean is in Hawaii! Hear about his epic hike in 444: The Hike of a Lifetime: Kalalau Trail “I don’t want to be rude.” “It’ll make them feel bad.” “This is just what’s expected of me.” You work hard and you fulfill your commitments. It’s just the way you are. And that’s what makes you effective! That’s why people know they can trust you. When you say you’ll do something, you do it. But sometimes, that’s the problem. We’ve talked a lot recently about rest. About avoiding burnout. About the dangers of being over-committed, and about your *non-negotiables*. A lot of those ideas sound good but seem out of reach. After all, you don’t have time, and there’s no time on the horizon, either. Just when you’d scheduled a free hour to focus, **something came up**. Something *always* comes up. Why is that? Well. When was the last time someone asked you to do something… and you just said, “No”? Today we’re talking about “no”. It’s a critical tool for preserving your time, energy, and happ

I was born in Hawaii, and I've been aching to return ever since we moved away when I was six years old. As a teenager, I decided I would work hard for all of my 20s so I could travel in my 30s. Now I'm 30 years old, and I'm about to go on vacation for the first time in years. There's been no doubt in my mind as to where I wanted to go: Hawaii. I chose the island of Kauai for our vacation because it is home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It’s known as the garden island. Parts of Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park were filmed on Kauai. I love beaches, and I love mountains, and Kauai is everything in one package. But we're not going to just any beach. We're venturing on a multi-day, epic hike along what is considered to be one of the most beautiful and difficult trails in the world. The 11-mile Kalalau Trail also makes the top 10 list of most dangerous trails, but your courage is rewarded with unparalleled views of the dramatic Na Pali Coast which can only be described as "out of this w

Non-negotiables are things you've decided you will not negotiate on. They're not up for debate. They're happening and that's final. Everything else can work around them. Your non-negotiables can be anything you want. Here are a few of my daily non-negotiables: • Write • Stretch • Read a book • Sleep 8 hours • Recite Definite Chief Aim • Close my Apple Watch Rings I also have other non-negotiables that don't happen every day: • Record seanwes podcast on Tuesdays • Seventh Week Sabbaticals • etc. These are the things I've decided I will do no matter what. It's not that I "have" time for them. I "make" time for them because I've decided they are important to me. I start my day with these things as a foregone conclusion. Everything else has to work around them. That's what makes them non-negotiables. It starts with a decision: decide the things that are important to you. Next comes ordering. Begin with your non-negotiables and build everything else around them. This may require a complete reset. By inte

Why is there a chapter on sex in the book, Think and Grow Rich? What does sex have to do with growing rich or acquiring wealth? And what in the world is "transmutation"? The very first sentence in this chapter defines what the author of Think and Grow Rich means by the word: “The meaning of the word ‘transmute’ is, in simple language, ‘the changing, or transferring of one element, or form of energy, into another.’” The human race is perpetuated by the desire for sex. It is one of our primary drivers because it's in our nature. It is inherently a creative urge. Sex transmutation is the process of redirecting the mind from thoughts of expressing this desire physically to thoughts of another creative effort. “The transmutation of sex energy calls for the exercise of will-power, to be sure, but the reward is worth the effort. The desire for sexual expression is inborn and natural. The desire cannot, and should not be submerged or eliminated. But it should be given an outlet through forms of expression whi

Life is busy, but things are more or less fine. You don't feel burned out right now. A little tired, maybe—exhausted, sometimes—but not burned out. Sure, a break would be nice, but you can't afford that right now. You can't afford to slow down. Too many things rely on you. Too many things depend on you. You're focused on making ends meet. Taking time to rest seems out of the question. Even if you wanted to, it's not like you could. The bad news is, burnout is in your future if nothing changes. The good news is, we're going to flip that around today and help set you free. Find margin, discover guilt-free rest, and avoid burnout—all while getting everything done on time.

You have to have a plan, but a plan is useless without sufficient power to translate those plans into action. "POWER is essential for success in the accumulation of money." Well then. We'd better figure out what power is! "POWER may be defined as 'organized and intelligently directed KNOWLEDGE'." This chapter discusses difference sources of knowledge, which may be organized and intelligently directed as power. More specifically, the book goes into how to gain power through the "Master Mind". "No individual may have great power without availing himself of the 'Master Mind.'"