Overlap by Sean McCabe Review
9/10 will read again.
This book, plus Real Artists Don’t Starve by Jeff Goins, are the two books I recommend anyone start with who are beginning to make a path of their own.
My only criticism of this book is that it’s lacking solid examples.
For example, in one chapter, Sean talks about making a list of 20 things we can do each day to get us closer to our goal.
Then he says to do one of them every day.
He doesn’t include any examples.
I’m left wondering,
- Do I put them in step order?
- Once I’ve done one, do I cross it off the list?
- Can I put repeatable actions on the list?
I hope that in the next edition of this book he provides examples of actions he gives us to follow.
Overlap Notes by Chapter
These are not just “Cliff’s notes” style.
I include my own thoughts and examples of how I’m applying it to my life.
Get The Life You Want – Overlap by Sean McCabe Chapter 1
This book is made up of 5 sections and 26 chapters plus a conclusion chapter.
The first section is titled Find Your Passion.
The first chapter is titled Get The Life You Want.
Sean starts off the book telling us stories of his past jobs.
They’re pretty amusing, especially the one where he washes windows.
I will let you read them yourself.
But real quick…
He washed windows and played in a band.
He didn’t want to wash windows anymore, so when he needed money when he wasn’t touring, he started a computer repair business.
From there, he overlapped to web designer.
Then from web designer, he overlapped to becoming a hand-letterer.
He overlapped several other times to where he is now, which is teaching entrepreneurs and artists how to get started and achieve success through audience building .
Overlapping is when you work a day job to pay your bills and then spend your extra time working on another craft to make it your next full-time career.
That doesn’t mean that everything you do in your free time is overlapping.
A hobby is not necessarily something that you care to make a living from. Still, your overlap is when you are trying to turn that extracurricular activity into a full-time job.
Overlapping is a significant part of the No Alarms Club.
Most of us are in day jobs that we want to switch out of.
It doesn’t mean that we hate the day job, but we may just feel the need for a career change.
Or maybe you do hate your day job, and that’s why you’re reading this.
That’s okay, too.
We’re going to get you out of it.
The smart way to do this isn’t to suddenly quit our jobs and just try to make it work.
Some people believe that they will thrive when backed into a corner like that.
I’ve definitely been there multiple times and have been fine, but it’s just not worth the stress.
The smart way to leave a day job you don’t like is to overlap.
Sean talks about how great it feels to help people get out of a day job they hate.
He talks about how great it feels to help people realize a full-time income from pursuing their passion.
Helping people is what I want to do with the No Alarms Club.
Sean mentions that there are many people out there who teach people how to make money, but they only make their money by teaching people how to make money.
It’s kind of scummy, and I know what type of people he’s talking about.
Sean felt imposter syndrome despite having a pretty decent track record of being a successful hand-letter artist.
Not to mention all the other businesses he ran in the past that were successful.
It’s normal to feel this way.
You feel like despite having done what you’ve done, people will think you’re a fraud.
I feel this way too.
Right now, I’m overlapping from my day job working as Communications Director for a nonprofit.
But I have over a decade of experience in internet marketing and have run my own successful online businesses.
Plus I’ve helped many other online businesses achieve success through digital marketing.
Yet, I still feel like an imposter.
Sean points out that no matter what, there is no wrong first step.
Everything we’ve learned in the past and we’ll learn in the future will help us towards our goals.
Every step is a step forward.
And most importantly, when we overlap, that thing doesn’t have to be what we do forever.
In fact, it’s pretty unlikely that we will do anything for the rest of our lives.
We should never be afraid to overlap to the next thing.
I’m really excited to dig into the rest of this book.
Please go pick it up at overlapbook.com And follow along with me!
While I am reading the book and distilling my thoughts, insights, and sharing with you through the podcast and this notebook, you will get different ideas as you read it.
Then, you can compare them with mine and make yourself all the more successful.
Garrett Mickley
I've been working in digital marketing for a decade and a half, and I'm ready for a career change. This blog is my journal.
I don't have anything free to bribe you with.
