Daily Content Machine

Do you want to win?

Show up every day.

“I know, I know, Sean. You say it all the time. I’ve heard you.”

Well hear me again. Hear it a 7th time. Hear it a 700th time. Show up every day.

Show up when it hurts. Show up when you’re tired. Show up when when you’re not feeling it. Show up when it’s early. Show up when it’s late. Show up when everyone else is giving up. Show up when it’s the first day. Show up when it’s 731st day. Show up every day for two years and don’t expect any results in that time.

Any results you get in the first two years of showing up are a bonus. This is only the beginning.

Do you feel guilty when you’re not creating? I know I do. I have a hard time not making things.

I had a weekend recently and it was the first true weekend I had in months. I didn’t have anything planned. It was incredible. I caught up on my reading list, I watched some videos, conference talks, a documentary even(!), and learned a ton. It was very relaxing.

But it also felt very weird. I usually don’t go that long with making something. I still felt that itch—that drive to create.

I see the chronic creator situation as a plus. Sure, it can be considered a curse, but look at the alternative: chronic consumer. Most people consume. Few people produce (which is why you’re not a small fish in a big pond).

After two years of podcasting twice a week, we are excited to share our 200th episode with you.

Special guests Aaron Dowd and Matt Lopez join Ben and myself in person for this magical event. We talk about my "Show Up Every Day" mantra and our collective focus on the Long Game Mindset.

With hundreds of episodes under our belt, we still feel as though this truly is the very beginning and look forward to many more hundreds in the future.

We take a reflective look at how doing this show has changed our lives and what's in store for the future.

This episode broadcasted publicly to a total of 1,058 live viewers who enjoyed full access to the Community chat during the event. We gave away over $2,000 in prizes to the group who attended live.

Last but not least, what really set apart this magical evening was the live jam session we put on. We transformed the room into a studio right before the eyes of the viewers and put on an unscripted show.

While the full live jam session was enjoyed exclusively by those who joined us live, I decided to include a single song at the end of the recorded podcast.

This is the big one.

Last month I launched my course, Learn Lettering 2.0. In this exhaustive, 8,000-word case study, I pull back the curtain and show you literally every step that went into it.

From the production to promotion to marketing, pricing, and real revenue numbers, you get uninhibited access to it all.

I've learned a lot from people sharing their marketing and launch insights with me over the years. Now, I'm paying it forward. I want to help you and hopefully inspire you.

I hope you find this valuable and learn a lot from it.

It's easy to dismiss someone entirely just because you don't agree with one thing they believe.

I know I've been guilty of throwing the baby out with the bath water before. Someone has a belief that differs from you and you discredit them as a whole.

For instance, maybe it's a marketer who uses a tactic you find spammy, or a business leader who curses when you don't, or simply someone who has a different point of view of theology or politics.

Ben and I talk today about maturity and being open minded and why it's actually good for the beliefs we already hold. The alternative is constructing an echo chamber around yourself where you only ever follow or listen to people who confirm beliefs you already have.

We talk about how allowing yourself to entertain ideas objectively and even let them challenge your beliefs is healthy and can strengthen your existing beliefs.

We also discuss how to distinguish between someone who simply has an opposing view, and may be worth hearing out, and someone who is simply spewing pollution.

It's a very real and raw discussion!

Ever had a personal project you never finished? Do you find it difficult to be your own client or design things for yourself?

Last episode, we talked about being your own boss. This time, we're breaking down what it looks like to be your own client.

Personal projects can be frustrating because we don't treat them as objectively as client projects. But it's absolutely crucial to separate your two selves to ensure the work gets done and the result is not compromised.

I make some bold statements in this episode: "If you're not able to remove your own subjective preference and compromise from a personal project, what makes you think you have business taking on clients?" We talk about professional responsibility and how to ensure projects where you are your own client are successfully completed.

It's pretty easy to recognize a bad boss when you're an employee. But when you work for yourself, you are your own boss. It's a little more difficult to distance yourself from the situation to look at it objectively.

In this episode, we collectively team up to define what a good boss looks like, and then dive in and analyze the most common ways in which those of us who are self employed tend to be bad bosses of ourselves.

We talk about distinguishing between your two selves (your boss self and your employee self) to become more self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses. We discuss how personality types play in, and how being aware of your tendency to overwork or be over-lenient is something you have to compensate for.

I also share my vision for Small Scale Sabbaticals and why I pay all of my employees to take a week off every 7th week and how it has affected our company.

This is an incredibly insightful episode that will cause you to rethink the customer experience from both the customer and business perspectives.

So many businesses optimize for the first sale with no consideration for investing in an experience that will result in creating extremely loyal customers that will continue to buy from you again and again.

This episode includes some incredible customer experience stories that Community members shared in the live chat as well as from our own encounters. In one story, a business that previously used to get people who constantly asked for discounts made a simple change that revolutionized how their customers saw their products and services. Not a single one of the new customers ever asked for a discount.

We talk about how you can use customer support to turn unfortunate circumstances into a unique opportunity to craft an incredible story that will turn your customer into an ambassador.

It's also full of discussion around promotion, discounts, popups, and other things that may appear to deliver tantalizing initial returns but are, in reality, affecting your long-term brand perception and success. This was one of the most enjoyable and eye-opening episodes in recent memory.

Constant switching, always juggling, so many things on your plate and so many responsibilities. Sound familiar?

It's hard giving up things you want to do. It's difficult delegating things you're good at. It scary to say no to offering more services because you're afraid that narrowing your focus will turn more people off.

In the beginning, you do have to wear a lot of hats. You do have to handle a lot of things in your business. This is a natural part of growth, but the risk is getting so accustomed to switching hats that you're essentially a Professional Hat-Switcher.

In this episode we talk about learning to delegate and learning to focus. We also discuss when to hire and what kinds of things you should be giving up.

I remember enjoying all of the different things I used to do, but I knew they weren't things that I should be doing. I knew I should be focusing on the things that only I can do. Now that I've delegated, the focus I have has been game-changing.

You may enjoy all of the things you're doing, but what if it's simply because you've never experienced the freedom and clarity of focusing on fewer things?

You're doing a lot of things yourself and you know you should be systematizing and automating things, but you're just not in a place where you can invest yet.

The question you should be asking is: "What things should I be automating in my workflow and business that I don't know to automate?"

Fortunately, a Community member asked it for you and that's exactly what we get to in this episode.

I share several of my favorite tools, shortcuts, and workflows and how I use them to maximize efficiency and get a ton done.

I guarantee even seasoned productivity pros will get something out of this episode, but if you know you're not as efficient as you need to be or if "automation" is a strange word for you, this episode is going to change your world.