Yeah, so I had to kind of grit my teeth and get through it, which is kind of sad. But it was the third sabbatical week, seven, you know, six, seven weeks later that, that it really clicked. Like that's where it felt right. And I've noticed that because now the first thing I thought was like, how am I going to make sure people on my team are doing their work while I'm on my sabbatical? And then I was like, Wait a second, wait a second.
Like, if this is a good idea, if I believe in this, I should give it to the team members as well. Like if we're happier, healthier, more well rested. We do better work. Why? Just me? So yeah, it's ended up being transformational. I mean, I haven't looked back that was 2014. I still take off every seventh week. I pay the team members to take off every seventh week. It's just game changing.
This is The MINDSHIFT Podcast where we share real stories, real strategies that will help you find real success. This is the place to hear from people just like you who have taken their ideas, goals and dreams from a point of inspiration to realization or when life knock them down from a point of breakdown to breakthrough. I'm your host Darrell Evans. Let's get started with today's episode.
Sean McCabe is an author and podcaster, who's been creating content online for over a decade. Now he's on a mission. To help busy business owners repurpose their content. Sean's daily content machine service turns long form videos into short clips for social media. By recording just once a week, daily content machine will help you be everywhere every day, while you're focusing on what you do best. Shawn is also very passionate about sabbaticals.
He's been paying his team to take off every seventh week as a sabbatical since 2014. And he says it's been a game changer. One of his big missions is that by the year of 2047, he wants every company in the world to pay their employees to take off every seventh week as a sabbatical. The intention that Sean has with his life in his business is absolutely fascinating. Hey, what's going on? Sean, I can't tell you how excited I am about this interview. Welcome to The MINDSHIFT Podcast.
I've been looking forward to it. Great to be here, Darrell.
Where are you in the world right now my friend.
I'm in Boise, Idaho, which we kind of ended up in randomly. And we were traveling the world pandemic hit. And we're like, Well, I guess we better hunker down, find a place to stay. And we stayed in Boise Airbnb for several months. And we're like, you know what, it's so great here. So beautiful. We just decided to rent a place for a year. And before you knew it, a year was up, and we renewed and I don't think we're going anywhere.
So it's funny, as we unpack this show, and get going with the conversation, audience listeners, you're going to find out something very interesting about Sean. I'm not going to do the spoiler alert now, but hear what he just said. We ended up in Boise, we Airbnb. And now we've decided to stay. Keep in mind that as we keep going, Shawn, do me a favor.
Tell everyone a little bit about yourself, your background, and there's a lot to unpack, we won't be able to impact at all, but just introduce yourself to the audience. And let's dive in.
Sure thing. Yeah, so I've been running my own business for 16,17 years. Now. It's evolved over the years, you know, different types of businesses, but I was in a band actually full time playing music. And that's how I was making a living until I wasn't.
And so we all kind of started our own businesses to kind of supplement income, but kind of got into entrepreneurship that way, repairing computers into web design, running an agency there for you know, doing client services for about seven years to drawing custom lettering, you know, logo types and graphics and like doing business, to business ad campaigns, you know, custom drawn for, like the city of Las Vegas, or Rachael Ray
magazine. So like, had this whole life in hand lettering, but that kind of got me into the business side of art. I had run these, you know, computer repair web design agency. So I knew about clients and pricing and all this stuff. And I was able to apply that to my art and make really good money as an artist. But I found that so many people wanted to know, how are you
doing this? How are you making living as an artist and so I started teaching the business side to people and I found so much more fulfillment, and helping other people get unstuck and make a living from what they're actually passionate about instead of a soul sucking day job. And so I shifted from art to teaching business and kind of, you know, various things like courses and podcasts and even ran a conference for a
couple years in Austin. Just kind of the the various different things, but really just like helping people get unstuck, and so that's kind of been my journey over the past decade or so.
Your journey is vast, and we talked a little bit off air before we start the recording. That as we've gotten to know each other the last Is it six, seven months ish, something like that. Got a nickname for you. And you're like the guru who doesn't want to be a guru. And you cringed when I said that to you, because your personality, your style, your flow, your intentionality. And what I've gotten to learn about your methodology and how your brain works in terms of your philosophies have just been
a breath of fresh air. For me, because I in the world of marketing as you are, as well, we see all of the hoopla and all the fanfare, and all of the two comma club crap, and I'm not knocking that stuff, like I love what they're doing. I just think that the world of entrepreneurship gets lulled to sleep, or they get lulled into fantasy land even of thinking, if they don't do that, then they aren't something special. And let's just do a couple things. You've got a podcast, you've
been doing podcasting. Now, since when?
Uh, eight years, so 2013.
So that just about makes you a grandfather in the world of podcasting? Is that right? I mean, podcasting is only a decade and a half old or something, right?
It was not a very big thing back then.
Yeah
It was still pretty early.
And you've got almost 800 reviews on your podcasts at a 4.9 rating. That means you've been showing up for your audience for eight years, and everybody loves it. And let's be clear, it's hard to get a review on Apple podcasts, they don't make it exactly the easiest thing to do. So if you got 100 reviews, just about five stars, just about how many people love that show who just haven't figured out how to leave a review yet. That's impressive
in and of itself. First of all, just want to say congratulations, man, I almost don't even know where to start. But let's go here. After the creative side of the world, when you first stepped into business, describe that first business model you stepped into.
So I was repairing computers. That was my first business in high school. And so I learned about how to find clients and how to price myself and invoicing and taxes and all of that. So when I came into the art world, I already had this business experience that I brought in. So it was it was like I was coming into this starving artists mentality. Everyone's like, you know, not valuing themselves, because they're thinking from their
perspective. And I was thinking from the business owners perspective, you know, I knew they're only hiring me because I'm helping them make money. And so that was kind of a competitive advantage there where I had this kind of hybrid mindset. And I didn't have the starving artists mentality. And I wasn't afraid to charge for my work. I wasn't afraid to say no, because I knew my worth from their perspective.
That's so good. I love that phrase. And if you're an artist or a creative, I wasn't afraid to charge for our work. That's an interesting distinction. And so many artists think they have to create the work, get validation, before they're worth anything. And it's Oh, is not just artists, right? It's some entrepreneurs who are just getting started in their journey. I often say that if you're getting started in an area of field, don't pretend to
be something you're not. But if you can help the person who's five steps behind you, you're worth something, right? Because they're not there yet. So it's very interesting. Again, all over the place, I could jump but I want to get into how did you get involved with the idea of starting a podcast because you're literally one of the early adopter 2013. I wasn't listening to podcasts in 2013. Now, you know, we've had various forms of what looks like a podcast called radio for how
many years. And then we had, of course, cassette tapes and CD programs and things of that nature that have, you know, just manifested into this world of podcasting. But what got you first interested in starting a podcast?
Well, I started listening to podcasts myself in 2007, 2008, back when you had to sync it to an iPod over a cable, and so I was a fan of them. But it wasn't until I went to a meetup, and I'm very introverted. I'm not especially outgoing. I've had to practice that I've had to make a real effort. And I went to this meetup. You know, it's like 100 mile round trip to drive to this meetup. And I really wanted to just stand on the side and not engage with people because I'm just, I'm naturally shy like
that. And I realized if I'm going to drive this far, doesn't make sense to sit on the side. So I just kind of made a choice to like, be the most outgoing person, they're like, kind of just pretend you know, and just go around and meet people and shake their hands. It was very uncomfortable for me to do that. But I ended up meeting the person who ended up helping me start a podcast, he actually edited podcasts for people and he just kind of started talking
about podcasts. And next thing you knew, we started a podcast together. So it was just kind of getting outside of my comfort zone, meeting the right person at the right time. And then we started the podcast, and that podcast is still active. It is although it's somewhat dormant at the moment, because I took a sabbatical year and I still need to get back to it. So I haven't revived it yet. But yeah, still active.
That's a good pivot point. You have a big belief and you're a believer In building, not just profitable businesses, which is why we start businesses in the first place, but you're a big believer in building sustainability, and having balance, and I really want to talk about that. Let's just go there now. You took a sabbatical for, was it a year?
Yes, yes. 2020.
Talk to us about that. What year was it? And why did you decide to do that?
I did not start out thinking I would take off a year, I was really kind of in a dark place where I was working 100, 110 - 120 hour, weeks, for years, years on end. And I found myself in a place where I realized, like, if you had asked me, Do you have friends? I'd be like, Yeah, I've friends. But anyone I would have named was on payroll. And I didn't even recognize it at all. And I was like, Well, I guess my No, my wife's on payroll, too.
Wow, that's interesting.
Like, what is going on here? You know, I was not exercising, I was not I would forget to eat. It was bad. It was bad. I've since learned through therapy, you know, like, just mindsets that I've had since childhood that that drove me. You know, I was trying to win this game, I guess. But it was the wrong game. And I didn't know it at the time. But I knew enough to realize like, I'm running myself into the ground.
Yes, I love what I do. But even if you love what you do, if there's no margin, burnout is in your future. And so I'm a very, all on or all off kind of guy, I'm either gonna go all in on something and really do it or I don't care. And so I started researching, like, what does it look like to go all in on a break? Because I don't know how to slow down? What does it mean to slow? I don't know, it's on
or off. Right. And so I came across this concept of sabbaticals in my research, and the traditional sabbatical is kind of an academic thing where you take off every seventh year, maybe do some research, you're right. You know, a lot of professors do this. But I was like, I don't want to take off a year, you know, I have a business to run, you know, what
about something in between? So I was just doing a play on numbers there seven days a week, there's this seventh year idea, what if I take off every seventh week, I'm sharing as I go on the podcast, you know, like just things I'm learning, just learning in public. So I said, I'm going to be a guinea pig. I'm going to try this. And I'll document the journey. So I take off the first week, and it was great, felt like a vacation and
get back to work. And then the next thing you know, six weeks go by, it's time to take off another week. There's that recurring sabbatical event I made in my Google Calendar and said, repeat every seven weeks. Here it is it's back again. I'm like, oh, no, there's too much work to do. I can't do this. Meanwhile, people are tuning in, what's going to happen? Shawn takes off his next week. So I had to do it. Because I put myself on the hook. You know, I put it out there publicly. And
yeah, publicly. Yeah. So I had to kind of grit my teeth and get through it, which is kind of sad. But it was the third sabbatical week, seven, you know, six, seven weeks later that, that it really clicked like that's where it felt, right. And I've noticed that because now, the first thing I thought was like, how am I going to make sure people on my team are doing their work while I'm on my sabbatical? And then I was like, Wait a second, wait a
second. Like, if this is a good idea, if I believe in this, I should give it to the team members as well. Like if we're happier, healthier, more well rested, we do better work. Why? Just me? So yeah, it's ended up being transformational. I mean, I haven't looked back, that was 2014. I still take off every seventh week, I pay the team members to take off every seventh week. It's just game changing.
That right there. My friend is a mind shift and a half. Let's talk about the first thing, right, which is burning the candle at all ins to try to win the game. And we all know what the game is, if you're an entrepreneur on this podcast listening, right now, if you're in leadership chasing the corporate ladder, somehow we believe and we've been sold this idea that it's a game like there's a winning point, right? But this isn't a sport. I love sports. At the end of the day.
It never gets done. Like a business is an entity it lives and breathes. Now you can do things to kill it, of course. But there isn't just this finish line when the scoreboard hits zero. I didn't get it either shot. You and I've talked about this. I mean, I've been you in my 30s In my early 20s and my 30s. I grinded it, you know, some people say, Darrell, you work hard today. I'm like, Yeah, I work hard today, on the things that I enjoy. I work. I'm very passionate about this show. I
work hard on this show. I work hard to find great guests like you and build relationships to have great conversations. But this is fun. But the grinding thing that you were talking about 120 hours a week. Good Lord. So you said okay, I don't think I can do this whole year thing. But maybe we tried the seven week thing. And I think the biggest thing in leadership and what I've learned from you, Sean, is this idea that look if it's good for me, it's good for
my people. And that is something that as entrepreneurs sometimes we're so selfish because we think well, we're the ones at risk are the ones who have all the capital at stake. It's our brand and how do I make sure they do what they're supposed to do? Well, you don't have to work But if you tell them take off the same time you do. So yeah, how big was your company? When you started this in terms of number of people on your team?
I think it was maybe 6,7,8, somewhere around there.
And today, you can't send everybody home for a week today, right? Because your team is much bigger.
Right? So we have different tracks now. So people have different sabbatical weeks, some people are on the same, but that way we can, you know, support clients and make sure everything's still running. So when it was much smaller, we took the same week off. But now it's staggered, just to make sure things are sustainable. But it's just been so great to see
what people have done. I had an employee who was working on a music album, he plays all these instruments, he was working on it for like six or seven years, never finished it. And in a few sabbatical weeks, he recorded the whole album.
That's amazing. That is awesome.
And it's like, that's so cool, you know, to be able to see that, like, we're human beings, I think we need to treat ourselves like human beings, not like robots, which I love that about, you know, at least what came out of the pandemic is just this enthusiasm for remote work and flexible schedules, like people are seeing, like, hey, employees
will get the work done. Yeah, you know, they don't have to be on this rigid schedule, they don't have to come into an office, they don't have to be supervised, like, it's just a matter of alignment of incentives.
I love it. I couldn't agree with you more, I've always had with or without the pandemic, we've always believed, and I've always had a belief that if you give people a path that they are passionate about, meaning give them a job they enjoy, don't give them a job they have to do. And that also has to do with how your hiring practices are and how you
structure job descriptions. And really what your intentionality is around the the role in the company is that if you build the right job description, the person shows up who believes that the perfect fit for that role. And so you don't have to micromanage them, if you work in my company, core competency is you, you know, you can self guide and self manage yourself, whether that means you're in the office, or you're not, we have a
five hour workday. And what that means is, is there's five hours, your all hands on deck, and there's three hours, you're lunching, you're working on other stuff. You know, I'm not worried about that. Because if I give you that freedom, look, you're gonna pop on social media when you want to, I don't care when you do it. But you know, you've got five hours of dedicated work. And I don't even tell you when you can do it, except that we have a small window. So I love your thought
process around that. What are their pain points outside of just the business and the grind? Were really sort of triggering points around this idea of the sabbatical.
I was starting to feel like I was burning out. I was at least asking the question Am I burned out? And what I've come to learn in the year since you know talking to people is if you're asking the question, you already are, oh, it's already happening. Like if you're wondering, Am I burned out? am I burning out? That's your body is trying to send you that signal. It's a leading indicator, like burnouts in your future, if you're not making changes, you know, if you're not setting
aside time, and margin. And then that was one of the key things. I started taking these sabbatical weeks. And initially, and I did not feel rested. I was expecting like this deep rejuvenation. And it wasn't happening. It took me two years to figure out why. And I figured it out it was that I saw the sabbaticals as free time. So I look on my calendar. Okay, I got a sabbatical week coming up in three weeks. It's just free time, what do we do with free time we fill it. So someone
says, Hey, are you available? I look at my calendar. Yeah, I'm available. Yes, yes, yes, I'll do this interview, I'll do this coffee, I'll do this, you know, all these things. When I get to the sabbatical, what I learned is, I don't know how much I need to rest, until I give myself the opportunity to rest. So past me thinks future me is gonna want to do this. I'm saying yes to
things I think I want to do. But I'm in that, you know, I really believe we're as a society, we're operating at this chronic low level burnout, we just kind of push it aside, shove it aside, you know, oh, yeah, I want to do that. But we don't realize how much we need that rest. And then I get to the sabbatical week, all I want to do is nothing. But I've got this full schedule of things that past me thought future me would want to do. And it's not the
activity. So it's not any one thing you do that is work, or that is play. It's not the activity, it's whether you have to do it or you choose to do it. The Act can be the same. Maybe you're writing a story or blog posts or an email to your newsletter that you're really excited about. That gives you
energy. But if you have to read a report for a client or whatever, even if you like the work, the fact that you have to do it means it's going to take your energy and so the one rule that I put in place for myself that solves this completely is don't schedule anything for the sabbatical. Keep it free from obligations and the idea isn't that you go in and stare at a blank wall. It's that you go in with possibility you go in with the with the option to say yes
to anything in the moment. And that's what will give you energy and since then operating by that rule, the sabbatical have just been so energy giving. And so that's something I always tell people when they're getting started.
I love this path to versus want to it is the binary battle of our energy and our focus and our brain. And I've lived it, Shawn, I think that's why we hit it off, I lived it. You know, I used to think, in my 30s, that when I took vacation, I was only on vacation just to kind of partially get away. But I used to carry my phone, laptop would go tell my team, hey, if in case of emergency, and of course, I could never define an emergency. So everything was a freaking
emergency. It is intentionality to what that means to you, right vacation has to become a meaning. And I love what you said, it doesn't mean you don't do something like, I go on vacation, and I will shoot some videos, if I'm in Hawaii, or if I'm at the beach. But I will choose to shoot that video from my phone because I'm in a moment. And it's a want to in the moment, because I can't just create that moment when I get back to desert Las Vegas, right when I'm in that moment, I'm
heading to Mexico. And in that moment, I may choose to be inspired to shoot a video or record some content or write some things down. But it's out of inspiration in the moment. And I love the way you put that
Margin is so important. And there's a difference between margin and free time. That's the thing is like, margin is space. It's intentionally created space. And I had to shift my mindset from this is free time to know, if you're going to a conference for several days, and you put a multi day event on your calendar that says conference, you're unavailable, you're booked, there's something on your calendar, I had to shift to thinking No, I'm unavailable.
I'm booked this margin this space, this sabbatical is the point that's the thing like a conferences a thing or a trip is the thing. It is that makes all the difference in the world. And to your point of you know, carrying the phone on vacation, I think we kind of delude ourselves a little bit and thinking like, well, I have to because if I'm not available, the business will fall apart. And there may be some truth to that. I found something out
about that. But the other part that you may want to think about, you know, the listener is, we often want to be needed. And we don't know who we are outside of the business because our identity is so tied up in the business. We've externalized it- it's ego.
Yeah. Our ego says we are needed. Yes. Oh, gosh, Sean, you just kill it. Yeah, I mean, I talked about this all the time, superstar DNA, a lot of times we start businesses because we're really good at something or we're really good in a certain aspect of our journey, whether that's an educational base, journey, lawyer doctors, you know, CPA, things of that nature, or we have become good at a skill set. And we feel like we need to be
needed. And the shift that can happen in entrepreneurial freedom, or entrepreneurial balance or entrepreneurial flexibility. And the word you're using is margin, it's a great word is when you realize that it's okay, when they don't need you, it doesn't reduce your value. What is actually interesting is you're transferring capability, if you do it, right, you're empowering people to succeed on their own
to fee. Just like you said, in the pandemic, you know, your businesses didn't fall apart because everyone's working from home on a Wi Fi connection. Right? You'd be surprised, more people are responsible than less responsible, right? More people will do what they're supposed to
do. You know, when they're not in plain view, then you think if you just give them the power, and so unfortunately, corporate America says if you're not in a cubicle from nine to five, you know, then you can't possibly perform and it's just something I've never believed in. So super interesting.
And on topic of responsibility. One of the things that sabbaticals does is it forces you to make sure no one is irreplaceable. And this is what people hear is like, make yourself irreplaceable. But again, it's back to ego, right? Yeah, if you're irreplaceable, you can't take sabbatical weeks. You can't take vacations and truly unplug. So it's like we need processes, we need backup, we need someone else to take over your responsibilities while
you're gone. But then that helps you level up and elevate and, you know, increase in your leadership and delegate and delegation. It's really hard as an entrepreneur, like, it's not so hard to get rid of the things you don't like, or you're not good at. It's the things that you are good at, and you'd like and you shouldn't be doing. That's the really hard stuff to give up. But I've boiled it down to two things. Yeah, two things that only I can do as a CEO is
voice and vision. You know, my voice and my vision, everything else I need to delegate and even voice you know, it's just it's about that message. That doesn't even mean someone else can't edit your voice or transcribe it or edit it and send that email but voice and vision.
Notice what we haven't said today. We didn't talk once about dollars. We're not interested in your total revenue. We're talking about lifestyle. Right? I talk about building a business that serves your life, right not just chasing dollars because you won an award or you want to stand on stage. I mean, you can stand on stage. But is the business sir In your life, that's what I talk about in my world. That's what you talk about your world talk about sustainability. I remember
coming into my 40s. And you know, having gone through that previous decade, 12 year business at that time, and I remember taking only one two week vacation. Now, to your point, I enjoyed what I was doing, but I didn't realize the burnout, the energy drain, the fact that I wasn't working out, I had gained, I don't know, 36 pounds. And you know, you just keep making excuses for the half to and to me grind culture
today, and hustle and grind. I mean, I get it, there are times when you do have to get your head down. You know, I learned a long time ago, one of my mentors way back, I don't know, 2005 or six, I met this guy. And I call him a mentor. But he really just spoke to us and an event. And then we stayed in a small community afterwards. And he said something, there will be seasons in life, where you're extremely unbalanced, in order to attain ultimate balance. But unfortunately, some people go
too far. And they make that unbalanced Season Two and a half, three decades, right. And that's what we're talking about here. It's like, you know, airplanes, they burn a certain amount of fuel to get off the ground and get to that cruising altitude rocket ships do the same thing. But we have to be able to have these limiters in our business and understand what is the sprint look like for this window time. And that's a word that I use in my world is Let's go on a sprint for 90 days. And
then let's pause. And so it's very interesting shot, we could talk for hours, I need to get into the business of the business. First of all, I hope everyone listen to this right now. Have just if nothing else, you're starting to understand, okay, where could I be adding margin in my life? Maybe it's not every seven week sabbatical today? Maybe it's not.
Can I speak to that? Yeah. Because most people don't feel like they're in a place where they could take off every seventh week. And I've kind of just been like, Well, I mean, maybe when you get more control of your schedule, you know, but I've since figured out a way. And I've outlined it a bit more. I started writing about this stuff, sabbatical dot blog slash weekend. So you can take a weekend sabbatical once a
month, where all it is. This doesn't mean you have to go to a bed and breakfast or something. It's just block off the last weekend of the month, as a sabbatical weekend. You know, it's margin. It's just where you don't book anything on that Saturday on that Sunday, just go into that weekend, choose to do whatever you want. Very simple. Anyone can do this. Everyone can do this, even if you're working in a day job.
That's a great thought. And I guess what you're speaking to then is that a lot of people still show up on the weekends with a lot of stuff to do. Is that right?
Not even just business, but just loading up your weekend with..
Personal activities, yeah.
Yeah, you don't get that rest that you need.
Yeah. So Sean, it's interesting. I'm actually feeling pretty good about myself at this moment, because I take a sabbatical every weekend, I guess. And it's getting to be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Because Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'll get asked, well, what are you doing today? I don't know. Now, I will be led to do something. But it's whatever. You want to go to lunch? Yeah, we go to lunch? Do you wanna have grandkids over? Yeah, we can have grandkids over? Yeah, no problem. You
know, what do you got planned? I don't know. My go to the store. I don't Yeah, I don't know if my go over to the mall or something? I don't know. So it's having that want to versus have to, that's what you really coming back to? is do we have to do anything? Do we want to do anything? I love the idea that weekend sabbatical that just a different perspective, just a different shift. Okay, listen, I got to get into the business of the business. And we could go
1000 ways. today. I know in order to get to some of this, you. And I speak a lot to this. But I want you to talk a little bit about the process of building standard operating procedures around your business. First of all, tell everybody about one of the primary services you offer to the world. And it speaks to those who are professional entrepreneurs who are wanting to create a brand and, and really take their expertise and get it out of their head. I love that concept
of expertise at scale. Here. That's what we're doing with this podcast, we're able to record something now that I live on, as long as I pay the bill on the hosting platform, which is forever. But talk a little about your primary business what you guys do how you do it? And let's break that down a little bit. Because it's fascinating how you built this machine?
Yeah, well, if you're like me, you know, and you've heard like, video is a big deal. All the platforms, even the ones that started out photo based, they're all going to video, you know, video is the place to be. It's how you build connections with people, how you build trust and loyalty at scale. You know, like, show up on video, you probably heard
this. And so one of the ways that is easy to do this is just to show up and record a podcast with your camera on have a conversation with people share some of your thoughts, your ideas, publish it every week, this may be a thing that you're doing this is something I was
doing. And I realized I had all this great stuff in this hour long show that I said you know, maybe half a dozen, a dozen different little nuggets or pieces of advice and like, it's great, you know, people would subscribe and listen or watch the whole thing but if you started a podcast, you know how difficult it is not just to keep it going and show up consistently but to also grow it you know, it's it's really difficult. It takes a lot of
effort. And what a lot of people do is they go on social media, they know that's where people are hanging out and they say, go check out my podcast, go subscribe to my podcast. But people don't really want to be directed off of the platform. Like if there was a way to give them just one little insight from your hour long show at minute 36. You know, clip out that moment. And then say, if you like this, check out the
full thing. That's a much better way to grow your podcasts and just build, you know, relationships and deliver value on the platforms itself. Even if someone never listened to the podcast. I mean, there are people who don't listen to podcasts, they just scroll social media, but you're already creating the content, you're already doing the hard work. You know, you're really working too hard. At least I felt like I was
working too hard. My desire was I want to show up once a week, I want to turn on the camera microphone once a week. I don't want to record every day. I don't want to have to figure that out. You know, I'm trying to run a business here. I know it would be great to publish every day. I just don't want to record every day. So how can I show up once a week and be everywhere every day
automatically. I just want to record someone else go find all the moments, I don't want to tell you the timestamps, I don't want to tell you the titles like think about who my audience is, what are their struggles and goals, come up with the best titles, find the best moments, edit out my filler words, and likes and ums and you nose and tangents and just make me look good. And then posted everywhere. That's what I wanted. And so I built this
system for myself. And I realized I've learned that a lot of other people want it. So we call it daily content machine. And very simply turns your long form videos into short clips for social media.
Absolutely amazing. So I work with a lot of professional service businesses, people that are experts, service providers is what my phrase is for them. And this works. Also for Sass companies it works for, you know, really any type of product or service brand. I mean, if you're a local gym, if you're a restaurant, you know, we've got a restaurant up the street. And we're always saying, listen, every night, your chefs put together new recipes, you go in the restaurant, and you get a
menu. It's a really fancy I mean, amazing Italian restaurant. But when you go in there, they'll tell you about six specials for the night. Like what restaurant does that, like they've always got something special, I went to the restaurant a dozen times never ordered off the menu. Because the specials were there was something in the specials. And I said hey, why don't you just turn on the camera? Talk to your
chef for just a few minutes. And maybe if you've got time have someone just watched the chef prepare that first dish for the night. And it's just all sorts of ways. So when Sean says podcast, like some of you get all cringy, when whether it's a podcast, or whether it's a long form conversation, it could be a strategy session you're having, it could be a coaching call with your group. So the word podcast, Sean, it correct me if I'm
wrong. We're talking about a long form or longer form piece of content that you're sharing any way. Like you're just naturally doing it anyway.
Right? Exactly. All day. You're on zoom all day, you know, it's already recorded. You're already making the content. What if someone else found all the good moments? You know, in between the the preamble, you know, and the side discussions? There's some really good stuff. You said? What if someone just found all of that, you know, and it doesn't have to be a podcast necessarily. Yes. Although that's a common one.
Yeah. But I love the fact that if it's a podcast, it's routine, and it becomes a scheduled product. But what I find in my last 11 years working and growing our digital marketing agency and working with companies that really want to grow their business, grow their brand, generate leads generate sales online, the problem is, they don't want to
blog, right? They don't want to sit down and do the writing part in order to do they say they want to rank on the first page of Google, you know, goodwill, they don't want to do what it takes. And the other side of it, though, is then they'll tell a company or an agency to write the content, but then they'll say, well, the content isn't really exactly I would have said, okay, but you don't want to write the content. And now you're saying the person writing the content isn't saying it the
way you would have said it. So what we have said to them as you should do video, and then of course, the argument comes up. Oh, I don't know what I'm going to say in front of the video. Okay, well say exactly what you would have said, if I was your customer. It's easier said than done. You and I both know it's a little harder and practice takes a little bit getting used to, to sit in front of a inanimate object and look at a lens and pretend it's a human who asked you a question who they're not
there. And so there's a little bit of exercise to it. So that's part one. But then part two is how do you leverage and scale that and that's what your company has done? Which is you do your part. Mr. Expert, Miss expert, you become the expert. Just speak your authority. And in Shawn's company has the entire system Sean breakdown, just if you can...
Yeah.
Just give people an idea because when I listened to your process, I was like he speaking directly to me, because I like you like the problem you were having like, my clients have. It was like, all they want to do is say speak their knowledge and expertise and be done with it. Yes, talk to us a little bit about those steps because it is fascinating how you've broken this down
Yeah, you just want to press record and then stop recording, walk away be done, the footage syncs, it all just happens, that's where you want to be. So I just knew the end result has to be, all I do is press record, and everything happens. So I worked backwards from that that had to be the end
result. So we take this recording, we transcribe the whole thing, we're doing a lot of research about your audience up front, their strategy calls an onboarding, because the unique, you know, selling proposition or value proposition for us, that differentiates us from other services is we do everything for you, we find all of the moments, we find those golden moments throughout your recording these other services that do similar things, you know, video editing, that's
commoditized. But you have to fill out these forms, you know, what template Do you want? What's the title? What's the timestamp? What's the out
timestamp? You know, it's like, your job went from video editor, if you were editing your own videos to project manager, you know, and the similar deal, you know, okay, maybe you can outsource it, maybe you could take it in house, maybe we could hire a freelancer, you know, again, now you're managing, you're managing freelancers, you're making sure they know how to do what they're doing, the quality assurance is there, they're showing up consistently, they're delivering on time, I
just wanted to take all of that out and say, you know, this is quality production at scale, you can sit back, relax, and it all just happens. And so we transcribe, we scrub through, you have a dedicated team, it's not random people switching in and out. So they're learning about you, your content your audience, they're finding those moments that they know this is going to deliver value to their audience without any of the other context of the rest of the
show. If there's context needed, we're going to pull that in, we're going to make sure there's a nice hook at the top, you know, we're gonna package it all together, edit it nicely. And then add captions. And this is another thing we really pride ourselves on the captions, a lot of other people will kind of cut corners here, other services or freelancers use those automated
tools. And it's like the line goes until it wraps and then there's one word on the second row, and it doesn't look balanced, you know, or it's like flashing and there's blank frames between or your book title isn't capitalized, or your friend's name isn't spelled right, like we're doing the research, because we know when we post these clips for you, as you, it's going to reflect on
you, either good or bad. You know, when your friend sees that clip, you post on Instagram or Twitter, and their names misspelled, or their book isn't spelled right, you know, that reflects on you. And that really matters. So our ideal client is someone who understands that a quality brand is the summation of all of these small, little details. Those are the things that we're caring about.
I can tell you as an expert, I can tell you that as you describe that that is the very pain point, right? As you get up the desire, interest, courage, and intentionality. I would love to use that to go ahead and become a thought leader. And listen today, at the end of the day, when your customer is online, and you're not you're out of business. As far as I'm concerned. If you're not figuring out digital today, you're going to get left behind and if the pandemic didn't help
you figure that out sooner. Some people are like, okay, great. The pandemics over let me go back to doing what I always did. You know, I talked to a 23 year old company a couple weeks ago. And first thing he wants to do is talk about, you know how great they are as a company Great, okay, sure their reviews online did show that they're really good at what they do.
Perfect. So if I'm at the bottom, right, if I'm near purchasing and I'm in your area, then those reviews are 100% relevant, and yes, probably going to convert me to come in. This was a local business come into the shop. But his goal was to grow by another, I don't know 25% of revenue. So he wants to go into this high cost acquisition called Google ads.
And I said, it'd be very interesting if we just had some level of content for your business, because as you would know, it's fairly commoditize the service, and just the content idea for him was like, No, we're just not going to do it. The problem is, the cost per acquisition in the channel that we would need to use wasn't going to work for his lifetime customer value. It just wasn't going to work. So you're telling me you want to do this, but the
numbers don't work. But there's another way to make the numbers work. And that's called brand visibility, thought leadership. And so without getting into all that tactical stuff, the reality of the reality is you're going to become a project manager. Once you're done with the video if you don't have a team or a company like Sean's in place to literally just hit record, hit record, hit stop. He's got it. And that's the beauty of it.
Sean, you're doing a lot there's there's so much we haven't unpacked I do want to say this though. You also have another business. I want to make sure people understand that you're a multi printer. Like you have a podcast network. We don't have time to unpack what that really means. You have an online learning community and the basis by which you do things which I just want to make sure we finish this episode talking about It just goes back to again speaking you, you say things like we
don't sell your attention. We don't sell advertising so that we can sell your attention. We want to have a community where people have like minds in a space where they can, hey, you met someone at a conference. But
now they're gone. And you're in a hurry to find them, again, you give people access to for a year, I just want you to talk a little bit about the way you crafted your Sean West Community, some of the high level high points and just your philosophy, because I think your philosophy is just rich, in comfort, share a few thoughts on that.
As far as like, sponsors, you know, the podcast has had millions of downloads, and I've never put ads or sponsors on it. Because I don't know, I just think about how I consume. You know, when I listen to a podcast, like I like when it just feels like I'm hanging out with someone that I know. And it's not interrupted and like, I just wanted to play a longer game, where it's relationship building, and I'm
not selling attention. At the same time, I don't judge, you know, when people do monetize, because that revenue at the time, you know, that would have made a huge difference, you know, and like, frankly, you know, I tried a lot of different ways to monetize. And we struggled with converting podcast listeners to paying members, you know, and like, at one point, we put the whole backlog inside the membership. So it was like, if you want to go back and listen, and we decided, No, that just didn't
feel right either. And so I mean, it's been a lot of trial and error over the years. But I just wanted to treat people like people play a long term game. And even still, to this day, when I talk with prospects for our service, I'm not really trying to get the sale so much as I'm trying to build a relationship, because I just see the value of that relationship over the rest of our lives, and every collaboration and recommendation and referral. You know, that's all it's all ROI
positive. Like I just don't overthink it, you know, instead of pushing people just be much more like a magnet.
And that shows up from the day we first spoke, I remember speaking via email, it even showed up in our email communication, leading to our first call. That is a lesson for those listening to the show, like all of it is ROI positive. People get caught up in the minutiae of dollars and adspend and return on adspend. Like, I have a phrase that I've used since 2011. And that's why don't we start measuring return on relationships? How about we do
that? Like, are we always interested in the monetization of someone's attention? Or time? Or sales funnels? What if we create a path that's helpful? And let that lead where it leads, right? Another phrase I've used over the years is just be a resource. You know, maybe you're a good fit to work with this person. Maybe you're not maybe the timings right, maybe it's not, maybe they have a
need. Maybe they don't maybe they're the right person who can buy maybe they are not the right person who can buy whatever, maybe they don't have the budget, maybe they do. But what if you just help them anyway? What could happen there? What if
you just help them anyway? And so Sean, I really admire what you've done, I admire the journey, the journey from hey, let's get this thing started to, okay, I'm working 120 hours a week, and just the awareness to be able to pivot and say, Okay, what am I going to do to find margin? And I think I want to finish off with this thought that it hit me when you said it. You're like, you're 100% All in? Or nothing. Meaning I'm all in, or I'm not interested. And man, we've never talked about this,
but my dad is me. Like, I can't, like if I say yes, I'm going to keep my word. And if I can't keep my word, it's no. Like if I can only show up 20% or 40%. It's a no. And it's very interesting how when I got to that point, my life I could find a little bit of breathing room in space, because I'm only saying yes to what I could have be like, I call it a hell yes. Like it has to be a hell yes. Or no. And it's not no, because I don't want to do it, or I'm not interested or I'm not capable.
It's no because I can't give you 100% of me. And that's what I think I'm hearing you say. And this aspect of sabbaticals is just fantastic last words. Where can people find out more about you and your business? If they're an expert, their thought leader, their coach, they're creating content anyway already day by day, whether the recording it today or not? Because you could probably give them some guidance on that. Where can they find out about the content machine process that you run?
Yeah, I would just say do less better. You probably are hearing all these messages, you should do a podcast you should do email marketing, newsletters, blogs, you know, SEO, like all of these things are well meaning you don't have to do all of them. And you don't have to do all of them at once. Just what you do. Do it
consistently. Whatever you can do if you can do daily, great if you can do weekly, great, you know, just be consistent and scale it down until you can be consistently good at it right? Do something well do less better that would be my recommendation. And then you could potentially leverage a service like ours to take the doing less better that you're doing and, you know, distribute that. So dailycontentmachine.co And then
sabbatical.blog. I've been kind of chronicling my journey with sabbaticals, thoughts on sabbaticals, and social media is just @Seanwes - Twitter, Instagram, places like that,
Sean, appreciate you, man. My goodness, so much we didn't talk about we didn't get a chance to talk about your book that you wrote. I mean, just so much Sean's world is
vast and varied. But what I love about Sean is his again, I'm gonna come back to this decision of being able to shift his thinking about what was going wrong, or what he wanted to change, and then getting very methodical about what I call the mind shift method, which is he made peace with the fact that Okay, that's about to burn out. Now, I've got to make a decision to do something new. I've got to come up with a plan. And then I've got to make it happen. And it doesn't all happen overnight.
Those are the four steps, the mind shift method. And you've done that eloquently. So Sean, my friend, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Over the last, I don't know, 6,7,8 months, I'm looking forward to our continued Association. I got to ask this last question. And that is, if for whatever reason, it all was to end today, on this beautiful planet we call earth what would you want? Everyone who's been involved with you, in some way, shape or form to remember you for?
Wow, that's? That's a great question. First of all, thank you for being so kind and intentional with this show. I really, really shows I just want to commend you for that. Thank you. I guess I would say like, Don't settle. Life is too short, you have one go at this. And you should do something that you're passionate about, and find a way to align that with making money but don't start with the money piece. I mean, I would have never figured I can make half a million dollars as a hand
lettering artist. And I resisted it. I was in middle school, I was drawing letters, I loved it. And then I stopped because I said, Well, I can't make a living at this. I need to do something practical. And I met an artist who came into town that I was looking up to and we had coffee and he said if you love it, just do it. You know if just create for the joy of creating and it was like he gave me permission. I don't know why I needed that. But he gave me permission I just started
creating. And it turned into this thing if flourished, you know, I know it's not as simple as follow your passion and it all works out. But life's just too short to do something that you hate. So don't start with the money.
Amazing. Sean McCabe thank you for being here on The MINDSHIFT Podcast.
Thank you, Darrell. It's been awesome.
Hey, my friend. Thanks again for listening to today's episode of The MINDSHIFT Podcast Listen, let's not have the conversation in here. Connect with me on social @MrDarrellEvans on all the platforms. Until next week, remember you're just one shift away from the breakthrough you're looking for.