051: Sean McCabe - Launch a Successful Business by Starting With Writing

Sean McCabe is the founder and CEO of seanwes media, and Daily Content Machine. Sean is a prolific and successful creator, author, and influencer. His course, Learn Lettering, made $80,000 in the first 24 hours. For nearly a decade his podcast, blog, and courses have helped creators grow their brands, content, and skill sets.

Sean’s website is a treasure trove of courses and resources for anyone looking for business knowledge and creative support. Sean’s book, Overlap, shows creators how to turn their passion into a successful business while working a full-time job. His podcast includes almost 500 episodes on content creation and entrepreneurship. His latest venture, Daily Content Machine, turns creators’ best content into clippable moments they can share across their social media accounts.

I talk with Sean about what it’s like being a successful creator. We talk about growing your audience and connecting with them. We cover how to learn new skills fast, and about developing a growth mindset. We also talk about managing stress as a founder, how to handle burnout, and much more.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why good writing is the foundation of great content
• How to connect better with your audience
• Leveraging short-form content to grow your brand
• Pricing at full value without feeling guilty
• How to avoid burnout, and what to do if you’re already there

Links & Resources

• Sean McCabe on The Nathan Barry Show episode 003
• Craft + Commerce conference
• ConvertKit
• Enough
• Ryan Holiday
• James Clear
• Marie Forleo
• Ramit Sethi

Sean McCabe’s Links

• Follow Sean on Twitter
• Check out Sean on Instagram
• Sean’s website
• Daily Content Machine

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Sean:
If you are a founder, you should be in therapy. Full-stop. You need a therapist. I thought I didn’t. I had a great upbringing. I’m all good. Everything’s healthy. I don’t have any problems. The problem was I didn’t know the problems that I had. I didn’t realize what I was stuffing down. I didn’t realize what I was avoiding.

There is so much to unpack that you don’t know you need to unpack.

[00:00:30] Nathan:
In this episode I talk to my friend, Sean McCabe. We’ve known each other for seven years now. It’s been a long time. We’ve been in a mastermind group together. He’s actually been on the show before. Sean is a wildly talented designer. He got his start hand-lettering.

I think last time he was on the show, years ago, we were talking about that aspect of his business and how he built this substantial course business. Selling courses on hand-lettering, on marketing, on writing. He’s spoken at our conference Craft + Commerce, all kinds of things. Sean is one of the most prolific creators that I’ve ever known.

It’s also super fun that he’s a friend and lives right here in town. We just have a great conversation. We talk about how you create content, which is one of those things that it’s not even how you create content, it’s why. Where that comes from. The internal drive in what you use. Where you choose to have as a source of fuel and energy to put into that creative output.

How some sources are really good and productive, and others can be kind of like a house of cards, and it can be harmful. We also talk about scaling teams as a creator. How do you know when to build out a team around your business? He’s done that two different ways. So I get to ask him about some of the things he’s learned and applied differently.

I’m going to stop there. There’s a lot of good stuff. So with that, let’s dive in.

Sean. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:59] Sean:
Hey, Nathan, just saw you recently. We were playing volleyball, or something.

[00:02:03] Nathan:
Or something, like two days ago. You moved to my city. It’s kind of…

[00:02:08] Sean:
Yeah. It’s horrible. It’s a terrible place. Boise. Don’t move to Idaho.

[00:02:15] Nathan:
You mean Iowa? Boise, Iowa.

[00:02:17] Sean:
Iowa. Yeah. Don’t, yeah. Did I do okay?

[00:02:21] Nathan:
Yeah. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to say. If you Google something about Boise, Google has the accordion of extra questions, or things you might want to know. One of them is, “Does Boise smell?” and it’s just like auto complaints in there.

And I was like, what is up with that? I clicked on it, and it’s this satirical article that has 12 reasons you shouldn’t move to Boise. One of them is the city dump is right in the middle of the city. Another one is like that the Ebola outbreak hasn’t been fully contained yet.

So it’s not really safe. I think there was something about lava. Anyway, it’s just an article about all the reasons to not move to Boise. So I think you’re right in line.

[00:03:08] Sean:
Stay, away. That’s what they tell me to say.

[00:03:11] Nathan:
Yes, but if someone were to ignore that and move to Boise, they could come to our weekly volleyball game on Wednesday nights.

[00:03:19] Sean:
It’s casual. It’s open.

[00:03:21] Nathan:
Let’s try it. Yeah. It’s been so fun having you and Laci here. It’s also been fun because you started a new company. Your company is producing and editing and creating all the clips for this podcast. So, connections on so many levels.

[00:03:37] Sean:
Yeah. We produce this show, like the video show, the audio show, and then find clips and make those clips for social media. It’s been great. We love this show. Our team’s favorite content. So, I’m a little biased, but it’s fun to be on. Because my team’s going to work on this.

[00:03:58] Nathan:
Yeah, exactly. I made sure to spell your name correctly in the setup, and I know they’ll get it all.

I wanted to ask what sparked—like maybe first give a summary of Daily Content Machine, since that’s what you’re spending nearly all of your time on. More than a normal amount of time on. So, what sparked it, and what is it?

[00:04:19] Sean:
Fun fact. This is not the first time I’ve been on the show. The last time was episode three, 2,624 days ago.

[00:04:30] Nathan:
Give or take

[00:04:32] Sean:
I was doing different stuff then. It’s been a crazy journey. Right now the newest iteration is an agency.

We produce video clips. We turn long form video shows. If you have a video podcast or other kind of long form video content, we found that the hardest part is finding all the good moments in there, and turning those into short clips. ...