The L.D. Sewell Podcast

Right now almost all of our focus is on finishing the few remaining major tasks to finish our site and link all our other platforms to it, and get some content in them all. That has been a massive project that has taken us almost about half a year give or take. We are very excited and happy to finally get to this point and we are putting in longer hours than usual working to get it all done. Next the work focuses on developing more courses, content, and resources and finally, after that, we will begin actively recruiting members for our membership and our facebook groups. Our founding members in our membership and our first two facebook groups are going to be getting all kinds of special benefits and opportunities that will never again be available to anyone else. Most they are going to get FREE just because they are our founding members and that is our way of saying thanks for helping build our community. Other benefits will include a lifetime Inner Circle membership with all its benefits for less than a cup of Starbucks coffee each month - and that rate will be locked in for life and never go up - so long as they remain members. They will also get massive amounts of help from me personally in the form of coaching and consulting if they want it. Our next course "How To Become An Independent Owner Operator" will be live on Udemy by the end of this week... hopefully - or next week at the latest but it is coming and should be available very soon! So thats whats happening right now. As always thanks for listening and I will talk to you soon in the next one.

We are still making changes and adding things both to our site and our other platforms and adding three channels this week. Finally, we are officially launching our YouTube channel along with our Vimeo channel and our Go To Stage channel. So we have been a little busier the past few days than usual. So what about YOU? How are you doing? I hope you are making serious progress toward your own goals too. Life is too precious and too short to let it go to waste. So make a commitment to yourself right now - if you are not doing the things you want to be doing or making the progress in your life you want to be making - then change it now. We can help you do that too. We have several new courses coming out on our different platforms over the next few weeks so - sign up for email notifications and as we add resources, courses and other things that can help you we will let you know. Find or create the work you need to be doing right now - set goals, use task management systems, stay on course and make progress every single day and you will change your life!

A very short podcast with another quick update. We will be launching our latest new course on Udemy very soon and also our very first courses in our own Training Center here on our site through our Teachable platform, and we also have our first course scheduled to launch on Skillshare too. So there is a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on day and night here now. I think there may be a lesson or two (maybe a few!) in all this too. If you are thinking about starting your own online training and publishing company you need to clearly understand it will take time and effort to build the business. More time to grow it. More time to scale it and you will just have to hang in there and keep at it if you want to do it bad enough to go out there and actually do it instead of just dreaming about it. Teaching online courses and publishing books and eBooks, manuals etc. is NOT a passive business. I laugh when I hear people say that and it amuses me. You can call it whatever you please - but just clearly understand it will take a ton of work to make it happen. True, once a course is launched it is mostly passive income - but not completely. You still have to update and maintain your courses, improve them, be available for your students, answer questions, do your own marketing and a ton of other stuff. Not to mention the fact you will very likely need a lot of courses - not just one, or a few. Building those courses takes time and effort and a lot of thought and some research too. No matter how well you may already know a topic there are always things you need to cover that you will not know or that you will need a great deal more information on. That takes more time and more work. So I do love it all - the entire process - and I enjoy all of my work, it just takes time. Anyway I am about done for the day as I write this post and as of this moment it is 1031 PM and I think that's about enough for the day since I started very early this morning. More info and resources coming soon!

We Now Have A Free Resources Page! This episode is to let you know more about our new Free Resources page and what is available there now and what we have coming soon as well as a general update on everything else we are working on for you now. On the Free Resources page, you will find access to checklists, reports, quick start guides, worksheets and much more. Many of these are available for your personal use absolutely free with no need to register or sign up to get them required. Several checklists and other resources are available there now and we will be adding a lot of new resources over the coming weeks until we have a fairly extensive library that covers all of our core topics that we focus on and that we teach. Simply pick the available resource you want and download it and use it. Simple, quick and easy. If you find the resources you use to be helpful and want more in-depth information, that will all be available to you too. You can get access to additional resources by selecting the Additional Resources Available button toward the bottom of the page and it will take you to the next Additional Resources Available summary page and give you access to even more resources for you and an overview of what is available there. Many of those resources will still be free to you but they will require an email address and sign up to access them. Others will be available at low affordable prices. You will have even more information, tools and resources that are very affordable available to you too. Some as low as 99 cents. We will also be offering a couple of bundle deals that will give you a ton of courses and resources at incredible values! They will be on the Additional Resources Page within a few weeks. You can also use the main navigation buttons and links for the site to get access to all of our available resources. We had a few site "challenges" as we have continued to make upgrades but everything is back up and under control - for the moment. Keep in mind we are still adding more key components but all of the major build-out is almost done. The site and what we do will always be getting updated and upgraded, evolving and changing as we need to to make it the best we can for you and keep it that way. But soon it will be mostly content instead of apps and platforms that we are adding. Our YouTube channel will be live by this weekend. May not have much on it just yet but it will be officially active and our Vimeo channel will be up and running by next weekend too. So lots of stuff coming together now! The next 90 days or so are going to be very interesting. Thanks for reading and or listening and I will talk to you again soon in the next one!

Thinking Of Becoming A Truck Driver? It is very important to get the right information and clearly understand it before you start your new truck driving career. Far too many new drivers don't. That helps make the washout rates extremely high - and that is a shame for everyone concerned. Especially when the trucking industry desperately needs good drivers - and you need a good job and a good career opportunity. The truth is trucking IS a GREAT opportunity! However - there are some hard realities you must understand and be willing to accept in order to be successful in trucking. Most people don't know what they need to know and others don't want to accept the realities they are getting themselves into so they quit. Here are a few things you need to be well aware of and consider before you start;

1. Recruiters are sales people - That means they are trying to sell you something - a job, so they can fill an empty seat. Some are better than others and some give you more accurate information than others do. Even then it is information that may be second or third hand - meaning they are just repeating what they were told to say without having first hand direct access to the people that actually control the things they are quoting. So the information you get is often exaggerated at best and flat-out wrong in some cases. Caveat emptor!
2. Most new drivers do little to no real research or study on their own. Instead, they rely on recruiting information alone. See number 1 again.
3. You will almost certainly be gone far more than you expect and you will be paid far less. Pay will get better over time - and faster if you truly learn more about what you are doing and how to maximize your benefits. More opportunities will also become available with more experience that will allow you more time at home - though this will always be a balancing act and a challenge in trucking - even if you own your own truck with your own authority someday. If the wheels aren't turning you aren't earning...

Try to visit a company terminal if you can and talk to current drivers there. Ask them about starting pay, time at home, time out on the road, equipment, loads and how the company treats drivers and staff. If you cant make it to a terminal go to your local truck stop and keep an eye out for one of their trucks - get ahold to the driver and offer to buy him or her lunch or coffee in exchange for a few questions. Do your homework. Learn about trucking. Do your research and learn about any company you are considering going to work at. In all cases be prepared - trucking is hard for most people especially their first few months through their first year. For those who survive past that - it does get easier and it does get better. There are big rewards if you are among the best and if you are motivated - but sadly most drivers - even those with years of experience are not the best and many are not very motivated at all. So they barely get by. That is not unique to trucking either - it spans all industries and all walks of life. So if you want to do better than that you are going to have to work at it and put in the effort. Check out www.ldsewell.com for free resources and additional information.

Little did I know how ironic that title would be. After I tried to upload the post Monday the whole site crashed! Actually, the server went down and apparently so did many other sites too. But we are back! We have also taken many steps to hopefully minimize problems in the future - but in this life and certainly in the cyber world - there can never be any total guarantees. So you do the best you can and roll with the punches. In this episode I talk about being prepared out on the road - and the same principles apply at home too. Always be ready for bad weather and extreme conditions. Carry extra water and food in your vehicle at all times. Have extra blankets and warm clothing and always keep your fuel tanks filled - much more important in the winter than it is in the summer - so when you get below half your total fuel capacity - starting looking for a place to fill up. It just snowed here again - and when that happens and the temps are very low - especially when it is unusual for an area, people get caught off guard. They cant get to the stores so they run out of food and supplies. They lose power so they have no water (wells and pumps) and worse - no heat. Pipes freeze and burst because people do not have basement heat - and they do not have exposed pipes insulated properly. The list goes on and on. You can help avoid such hardships by making your own list and getting ready BEFORE you have an event or crisis where you need stuff you don't have. Make a list and use it to help make sure you are ready. Start getting the things you need, and making the changes that need to be made now and you will be far better off when something happens - and sooner or later - something WILL happen...

In case you missed it - we disappeared from the cyber world for almost an entire 24 hour period, thanks to a server malfunction at our hosting company. They eventually managed to get everything back and operating again and we have taken some steps to make some more behind the scenes upgrades too. Enjoy this episode and I will talk to you again soon in the next one!

There are many different views on life. Yet there are two that are far-reaching and overriding, and one is the victim mentality. Poor me, I am so unlucky, and the world is out to get me. If only THEY (whoever THEY are depends on who the victim wants to blame). This is a terrible way to go through life - especially since it is NOT true! The other view - and the correct one - is that each person is ultimately responsible for themselves and the choices they make and the actions they take. Those who see life this way realize THEY are in charge and that they are the captains of their own ships sailing through this life. They know their decisions and actions lead them to either success or failure according to what they choose. In other words, it is not a preset fate or destiny bestowed upon them but their own fate to create and their own destiny is by their own hand. For those in the first group - sorry - I have nothing for you. Nor does anyone else really. You can not help someone who doesn't want help and isn't ready to receive it. However if you find yourself in the first group - leave it NOW! Get your head screwed on straight and open your mind - join the second group and then I and many others can and will help you if you want help! Now let's talk a little about your work. Since you are going to spend so many hours of your waking life doing work and since you will be doing it in large part to earn your living (unless you are a trust fund baby or a ward of another) then doesn't it only make good sense to intentionally choose your work carefully? Sure you have to make a living and earn enough money to do that. But there are many ways to earn money. so choose one that doesn't stress you out and make your miserable for starters. Then go beyond that and find a way to do work that brings you fulfilment and maybe even joy to be able to do it - and that still provides you with a better than good income. Forget whatever your dipshit guidance counselor told you - and what anyone else pushed you towards doing. Never mind the degree or the experience you already have - what do YOU really want to do for a living? Think about that. Write down some notes. Imagine there are no limits. What would it be? That is your starting point. Then start trying to figure out how you can find a way to move closer towards that ideal - maybe you can go straight toward it - maybe you cant. The realities of your situation will have to be dealt with (I don't believe in fairy dust and bull shit and you will have certain realities to deal with too as we all do) and you may have to take a zig zag course instead of a direct course - but if what ever you choose is really truely that important to you - then you will find a way to work at least much closer toward it and keep on getting closer stsp by step until you have it - or until you have given all you have to give and done all you can and made it as far as you can go. But where ever that is - it will be of your own intentional choosing and doing. Start taking some online classes and reading some books. Learn something new. Start a part-time microbusiness. Change careers if you like (become a truck driver - and yes I am serious!) do something different and change your life. Stop allowing others to set your course - stop allowing others to choose your work - stop allowing others to run your whole damn life and start running it yourself! The point to all this is this - If you are happy with your life, cool - then keep on keeping on until you are not. But one the other hand if you are NOT happy and not getting fulfillment out of your work and your life - then CHANGE IT! You have the power and the right. Your choice either way.

It's a great time to start changing your life! Figure out what work you are meant to be doing - what will bring you the most fulfillment and purpose while at the same time allow you to earn a better than good living while you do it. Do that instead of remaining trapped in a job and or a career that you hate. Life is to short - so don't wast another year! Find your best work and start building a better life and do it NOW! While you do that, also consider and figure out how you can gain more control over your ability to produce income - think about starting and owning a microbusiness of some kind. Even if your chosen work is working at another company and even if you are really happy with that - why not also start figuring out how you can take those skills and your experience and redirect some of it into something you control as a part time microbusiness of your own? That way you have more independence and self reliance in case something ever happens to the primary job - or just in case you decide to leave it someday. Let's say for example you love to teach. Then start teaching some online courses of your own. Maybe you are passionate about doing workshops or you counsel and help people with various issues as part of your primary job - then consider becoming a coach or a consultant in your own practice too. Just stuff to think about. I also wanted to let you know we are excited to be getting ready to release all kinds of new information, products, and other resources over the next ninety days or so - and the first of it will begin this weekend! We finally finished our MANIFESTO and that will be published on our site Saturday along with more information on the same page about exactly what it is we are working to accomplish and how we are doing it all. There are several new courses coming out and some new books too. As each one is published I will let you know about it in the next blog post as we launch them. One of those things also is going to be a new Free Resources page. On it, you will be able to download free checklists, reports, guides and other informative and helpful resources. There will also be free lists of other tools and other available resources including where you can get them from. We will also tell you about other resources we offer such as each of our facebook groups - what they are about, who should consider joining them and how to go about it. There will be information too on that page about all the other additional resources we offer and how to use them all. Well, that does it for this one - I hope you are having a wonderful and happy new year so far and I will talk to you again soon!

This time of year people are setting all kinds of New Year's resolutions - sadly almost all will fail - and most will be done, over and by the wayside before February ends. So do yourself a favor and skip the resolutions. Instead set specific goals and use sound proven methods and systems to reach goal after goal and continuously improve your life in all areas as you do. Think about it another way - how many years have you been setting resolutions? How many of those have you actually kept? The point is to find and use stuff in life that actually WORKS... So what have you got to lose? This year try something different - set goals and then go out and accomplish the goals you set. If you want help in doing that then visit www.ldsewell.com frequently - We have plenty of resources for you now and more coming!