Burnout and Sabbatical with Sean McCabe

2 Cent Dad Podcast

"I completely numbed myself out because it's like, you know, what do you do if your kid's stuck under the car? Like. You lift up the car, you find a way, and if it feels like your, your arms are going to come out of their sockets, will you keep holding until they crawl out from underneath the car?

You don't know where you find the energy you just, you just do. Right. It was like that, you know, you just have to numb yourself out to take care of people. But that was the wrong way to go about it. Like I, and of course it ultimately reached a breaking point. I ultimately reached a breaking point that resulted in my being burned out and depressed for two years." -Sean McCabe

Have you ever thought to yourself "am I burning out?", then that means you already are on your way (according to Sean McCabe).

Sean (known to most as seanwes) talks about burnout from very real experience, having reached max burnout running his company over the past 10 years. He is someone that I have followed over the past few years because of the wisdom that he shares openly with his audience, this topic being no exception. This topic is so very important today more than ever due to the changes going on in the world. Most people are operating in some low level burn out state and don't realize it or know how to fix it.

Very fun chat with Sean. I also found out in the interview that he is from a family with 13 kids!

Where to find Sean:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanwes
His Blog: https://seanwes.com/
His Agency: DailyContentMachine.co

Transcript Below (May contain typos):
Sean: [00:00:00] [00:00:00]I completely numbed myself out because it's like, you know, what do you do if your kid's stuck under the car? Like. You lift up the car, you find a way, and if it feels like your, your arms are going to come out of their sockets, will you keep holding until they crawl out from underneath the car?

You don't know where you find the energy you just, you just do. Right. It was like that, you know, you just have to numb yourself out to take care of people. But that was the wrong way to go about it. Like I, and of course it ultimately reached a breaking point. I ultimately reached a breaking point that resulted in my being burned out and depressed for two years.

Mike: [00:00:38] Have you ever asked yourself? I feel like I might be burning out. Well, if you have, then you probably already are on your way. It just a matter of how burned out you are, but you're inevitably going to reach that point of total burnout unless you change something. , that was the advice given by today's guest, Sean McCabe.

[00:01:00] Most might know him by his, online named Sean Wes. He's a guy that I've followed for quite a few years and very prolific entrepreneur online, very, , inspiring creator, , in a lot of the work that he does, but. He shares a lot of good wisdom around the topic of burnout, which has come up a lot in conversations I've had with fellow entrepreneurs.

So if you're feeling like you're burned out, I encourage you just to listen in on today's episode, to understand a little bit more about what you can do about it. And one of the topics that Sean talks about is this notion of a sabbatical. And it's something I've been really interested in, really seeing a lot more people.

Experiment with it. And there will be more content on that to come in the podcast. But I wanted you to learn from Sean and hear his story because. The last thing you want to do is repeat a mistake that you could have [00:02:00] learned by hearing someone else talk about it so let's jump into the episode with sean

today on the podcast, we have a very special guest, um, Sean McCabe known on the internet as Shawn West, um, from many projects, but I've been following Sean for a long time. He does amazing work. He is an entrepreneur with many different ventures. He's an author, podcaster, vlogger, um, He's not a dad, but he brings a very unique perspective to balancing entrepreneurship with, um, with burnout and, and, and a sabbatical as a solution.

So, Sean, thank you so much for being on the show, man. It's it's such an honor to have you on the show.

Sean: [00:02:39] Oh, thanks so much, Mike. I I've been looking forward to it. I'm glad we were able to make it happen. You're right. Not a dad, but I am the oldest of 13 kids and I've changed well over a thousand diapers. So I don't know what that qualifies me, but

Mike: [00:02:52] I should have known that before this interview, I knew you had a big family.

You're the oldest of

Sean: [00:02:56] 13 kids. That is awesome.

Mike: [00:02:59] That is [00:03:00] amazing. Yeah. So, so we need to start there then. So you got, so I guess, um, you know, I know you've done a lot and I don't want to get too much into the business side, even though you, you have some amazing accomplishments there and, and a lot of the ventures that you started, but, um, man, tell me about, tell me about growing up in a family of 13 kids.

That's awesome.

Sean: [00:03:22] Never a dull moment for sure. I remember walking around the house with a camera, like one of those before smartphones had cameras, you know, just film filming in every room. And there was a kid, there was multiple kids in every room, like just all over the, you know, the couch and under the desk and everywhere.

Um, so never a dull moment. Uh, but they're, they're great, you know, really well behaved, like we'd go out to eat. Everyone's super well behaved. You know, people would. Give compliments to the parents. So great family. We're all really good. Good friends. Still stay really close today. Um, yeah, it's it's holidays are a [00:04:00] blast and it's starting to grow exponentially as like kids have kids.

And, um, but for now, for now, we can meet. In one house for the holidays.

Mike: [00:04:10] That is awesome. Yeah. So, um, you said you're the oldest? Um, so my wife is the eldest of eight kids. Um, and I, and everyone is says, Whoa, whenever I zone that, I'm the, I'm the youngest of four, but. I'm sure you experienced this too. It's like when you have a get together, it's like a huge party and it's just family members, right?

Sean: [00:04:30] It's like

Mike: [00:04:33] just immediate family. It's not even aunts

Sean: [00:04:34] and uncles. It's a, it's a good time. I had started my first business. Um, so I'm, I'm almost 32. So about 15, 16 years ago is when I started my first business. I still lived at home, uh, just coming out of high school and, um, Yeah, I would work like after midnight, because that's when it would get quiet.

That was like the only time that was, I had this focus time.

[00:05:00] Mike: [00:05:00] That's awesome. Yeah. So we, um, I feel that same way, but I have four kids at home, so I feel ya, you know, I got the, we got the fifth one coming in February.

Sean: [00:05:08] Um, but congrats.

Mike: [00:05:10] Well, thank you. Um, That's I'm so I'm pumped. I'm sorry, I'm thrown off a little bit.

I'm so excited to hear that you

Sean: [00:05:16] were

Mike: [00:05:17] 13 because you have such a unique perspective.

Sean: [00:05:20] Um, and, and, uh, homeschooled, which I thin...