August 4, 2025 • 26 mins
In today’s #podcast episode, I interview Sean McManus. I ask Sean about how faith and health are connected. I also ask Sean about how self-confidence is connected to our mindset about health. Sean also shares how important it is as men to find time for our own health, spiritual, mental, and physical.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Thanks for joining us on episode 1563 of the Inspired Stewardship
podcast. Hey guys,
I'm Sean McManus.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
Having the ability to stop pursuing comfort and live into God's
(00:21):
plan is key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott
Mater. The way that you build self confidence is keeping the
promises that you make to yourself when you start a workout
program or when you start a nutrition plan.
(00:44):
As you start to build those wins,
as you become consistent,
as that becomes a part of your lifestyle,
your self confidence goes up.
Because now you're keeping the promises that you made to yourself
and you're teaching yourself that you can trust yourself again.
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
(01:05):
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent,
and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
(01:30):
In today's podcast episode,
I interview Sean McManus.
I asked Shawn about how faith and health are connected.
I also asked Shawn about how self confidence is connected to
our mindset about health.
And Shawn also shares with you how important it is as
men to find time for our own health,
our spiritual,
mental and physical health.
(01:53):
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering
your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com
it'll take you to a page where there's information and you
can sign up to get some mailings about it as well
(02:14):
as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
Sean McManus is a devoted family man,
entrepreneur and fitness coach dedicated to helping Christian men reclaim their
strength physically,
mentally and spiritually.
After years in the corporate world,
(02:34):
he found himself unfulfilled and disconnected from his true calling.
Fueled by faith and a passion for creating a better life
for his family,
he he took a leap of faith,
leaving the corporate world to build a life of purpose and
impact. Now,
as the founder of McManus Strength and Nutrition,
Shawn empowers Christian men to take ownership of their health,
mindset and leadership through strength training,
(02:56):
nutrition and faith based coaching.
His mission is simple.
To help men break free from burnout,
rebuild their self confidence and develop strong bodies and minds so
that they can lead themselves and their families with clarity and
and conviction.
Through his coaching programs and speaking engagements,
Sean shares practical strategies,
biblical wisdom and inspiring stories to equip men to step into
(03:19):
their God given potential with boldness and strength.
When he's not coaching or lifting weights,
you'll find him spending quality time with his wife and kids
and enjoying the great outdoors.
Welcome to the show,
Sean. Hey Scott,
Great to be here man.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely. So I talked a little bit in the intro about
(03:39):
some of the work you've done,
some of the journey that you've been on as you've begun
now focusing on empowering Christian men to work on their health
and their mindset as a coach.
But I always think intros and those sort of things just
tell us the highlight reel of our journey.
They don't really give the full story.
So take us back a little bit and share a little
(04:01):
bit more about your journey and what's brought you to this
point where this is what you feel called to do.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'll try to keep it relatively brief.
I can get a little long winded on the story,
but grew up on a small farm in the foothills of
North Carolina.
So we moved out to the farm when I was about
10 or 11 years old.
I was homeschooled throughout my entire childhood.
(04:22):
We actually.
I'm sorry,
let me take that back.
I went to public school through second grade and then I
was homeschooled from then on out.
My parents wanted to make sure that we had a Christ
centered education and they didn't like where the public school system
was going at that time,
so pulled us out and homeschooled us.
I am one of seven children,
so taking on homeschooling seven kids is quite the undertaking.
(04:44):
So the house,
the household was busy growing up.
It was great.
It was a lot of fun.
Grew up on the farm,
enjoyed the farm life,
learned how to work,
learned a good work ethic,
enjoyed being outside being in God's creation,
everything that comes along with that.
Working with my family,
with my dad,
lots of fun there.
Actually went to college for agriculture,
did a two year technical degree at NC State,
(05:06):
graduated from there,
started my journey into corporate America at that time working for
a poultry production company.
Did that for about eight years.
I'd always had this entrepreneurial spirit growing up,
but I did the thing I was supposed to.
I Went and got the quote unquote safe job and started
(05:29):
working the corporate life.
So about a year or two into that,
I knew that I really didn't enjoy it.
It wasn't very challenging for me.
There wasn't a lot of problem solving.
So I knew I wanted to do something different.
And I just had no idea what that was.
And then I had a bit of a wake up call.
I've got a younger brother that runs a business,
runs a big landscaping company,
(05:50):
and him and I were together.
I was about three or four years into my corporate job
at this time,
and we were riding together coming home from the beach.
I think both of our wives were asleep in the backseat
of his truck and we were just talking and chatting.
And he just looked over at me and he said,
what are you doing?
And it just took me back and I was like,
what are you talking about?
He said,
your job.
What's up with your job?
What are you doing?
(06:10):
I was like,
I'm just working,
I'm paying the bills,
I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
And he was like,
man, you can do so much more.
I don't.
I feel like you're getting too comfortable.
And I was like,
okay, this is coming out of nowhere.
But it hit me.
And so from then on,
I started my self.
You call it self leadership,
(06:30):
self growth journey.
I began to read a lot of self help books,
sales books,
entrepreneurial books,
financial mindset books.
And it really started to open up my mind to this
completely different world that I didn't even know about existed.
Started into that,
was still working my corporate job.
(06:51):
Throughout this growth journey,
I started a home repair business.
Construction is something that I had some experience in and it's
something I felt like I could do.
So I started doing that on the side.
That was my first side hustle,
per se.
I started doing that.
And then a few years into that,
we had actually saved up enough money to purchase our first
(07:13):
investment property.
Did the investment property for a little bit.
Completely remodeled that place.
It was an absolute wreck.
Spent about a year doing that while I was still working
my corporate job.
And then it was about a year and a half,
two years ago,
we found out we were pregnant with our second son.
And I am the sole breadwinner in my household.
(07:35):
My wife stays home with the kiddos and does an incredible
job raising them.
But we were pretty tight financially at that time already.
And with a second baby on the way,
I knew that I had to make some sort of shift.
So I started looking at jobs I came across a door
to door sales position for a solar company.
(07:56):
100 commission and completely different than anything I had done.
But they promised lots of money quickly if I worked hard
and learned fast.
And I knew that I could do both of those things.
Started in on that venture,
left my corporate job and started knocking doors for a solar
company. Did that for about three or four months.
Really didn't like the job.
(08:17):
Really didn't like showing up on people's doorsteps unannounced when they
got home from work.
They didn't like that either.
But I was pretty good at the sales part.
I was pretty good at making people feel pretty comfortable and.
But anyway,
I decided I didn't like doing that.
And so I went full on into my home repair business
after our second son was born and was also building my
(08:38):
coaching business on the side because I had been doing some
coaching part time for a while.
And then as I was trying to build both of those
businesses, both of them were fairly new,
so they were both requiring a lot of time.
I realized that I really didn't want to grow the home
repair business because it's not what I wanted to do.
So I stopped doing that and went full on into the
(08:58):
men's strength and nutrition coaching.
And that brings us to where we are now.
And it was a little bit of an overview,
a little bit all over the place,
but that's a general idea of my story.
That's all good.
A couple of things you mentioned several times feeling like you
were doing something.
Not that it was necessarily bad or anything,
but it just didn't feel like it was the thing that
you were supposed to be doing.
(09:19):
That's how you put it.
Talk a little bit more about what does that mean to
feel like it wasn't what you were supposed to be doing?
Because a lot of the folks that listen to the show
are struggling with that day of what is my calling,
what is my purpose,
what am I supposed to be doing?
So they get that.
But tell us a little bit more about for you.
What did that feel like?
How did you know it wasn't what you were supposed to
(09:40):
be doing?
Yeah, so one of the things was I just felt very
unfulfilled in my work.
I felt it was very monotonous.
It brought me no joy whatsoever other than hanging out with
co workers,
talking to them and spending time with them as far as
like the work aspect of it did not challenge me,
did not bring me any joy.
So yeah,
(10:00):
I've definitely had my own journey of feeling very unfulfilled feeling
like I was not where I was supposed to be,
but not knowing how to get away from that.
And the biggest thing that I can tell people in that
aspect is start looking at what you enjoy doing,
start looking at what you're good at and just start taking
(10:20):
some kind of small action in that direction.
It doesn't have to be huge.
You don't have to leave your job the next day,
but start exploring some of those options.
I would have never.
I started the home repair business not because I absolutely love
construction, but because it was something I knew I could do
and I did enjoy working with my hands.
So I put those two together and I was like,
(10:40):
let me give this a shot.
Turned out I didn't enjoy it that much.
So we pivoted and moved on.
But I would have never known if I didn't try to
do it.
Some type of action towards something is better than just thinking
about it all the time.
Let's circle back to One of the things I like to
highlight on the show is the intersection between our faith journey
(11:01):
and the spiritual walk that we're on and whatever that's playing
out for us and then our life journey and how those
two things intersect and influence each other.
Share a little bit more about how your faith has played
out and changed and evolved and affected your life journey.
Oh, man.
So faith has been a part of my life for as
(11:23):
long as I can remember.
My parents were both devout Christians and raised us in that
household. I don't have one of those Paul on the road
to Damascus type Christian journeys,
but there,
there have definitely been highs and lows in my journey to
where there are times where I feel very connected to God.
There are times where I feel that I'm spending the time
in his word that I need to.
(11:44):
I'm spending time in prayer that I need to.
And I feel like we're on the same page.
And then there are other times where maybe I'm not getting
my priorities straight.
Maybe I'm putting my business or my personal growth in front
of him and I don't feel as connected to him.
And it always,
whenever things are not going,
I don't want to say not going well,
(12:04):
but not,
however, I don't feel like things are going well.
Super stressed,
super anxious about how the business is doing or just very,
I guess,
unfulfilled, in a sense,
with how my life is going,
it usually comes back to me not having my priorities straight.
And I've shifted from spending the time with him that I
need to and putting him on the throne of my life,
(12:25):
where he needs to be.
So now that you're working more in the idea of faith
and fitness and kind of working on helping Christian men and
this sort of thing,
how did.
Why fitness?
Why is that something that you feel is important or you
(12:46):
feel is connected to the spiritual walk that other men are
on as well?
Yeah. So there's two parts.
Two parts to that.
Number one would be.
Fitness has been a big part of my life for many
years. I lifted.
Started lifting weights in high school,
lifted weights in college,
had no idea what I was doing,
but I was trying.
(13:06):
I always enjoyed it.
That was.
It was something that I aspired to do,
was to grow more muscle,
get stronger,
stay in shape.
But I really started getting serious a little bit over a
decade ago.
I had let myself go a little bit when I got
out of college and I started.
I was living by myself.
I was working the job,
maybe relaxing a little bit too much.
And my fiance,
who's my wife now,
(13:27):
she's very honest,
and she told me that I was letting myself go a
little bit,
and that stung a little bit.
But that kind of started my journey of getting very serious.
And I started doing research on nutrition research on certain types
of workouts and lifts.
I met a guy in my gym at that time who
was several years older than me,
but also much bigger,
much stronger than I was,
(13:48):
and we kind of made a fast friendship.
And he was my first quote,
unquote, coach.
So I learned a lot with him and started implementing that
in my journey.
But it takes us back to what we were talking about
before. People are feeling unfulfilled and taking some sort of action
in that direction.
Fitness is something that is very important to me.
It's something that I feel like I have mastered in some
sense, and it's something that I feel like I can bring
(14:09):
to other men.
I had friends that would reach out to me and say,
hey, you look good,
you're in shape,
you're strong.
I want to be like that.
How do I do it?
And I would start helping them.
So that was my first intro into that.
But, yeah,
so that was the first piece until,
okay, this is something I'm good at.
This is something I'm passionate about.
This is something I enjoy doing and something I'm going to
do for the rest of my life anyway.
(14:30):
So this is something that I can help other men do.
Now, the other piece to that,
as far as being specific to Christian men,
I see a very lackadaisical approach to fitness in modern Christianity
today. Almost non existent in a sense,
with Christian men,
it's a very.
(14:50):
We focus too much on the.
I don't want to say we focus too much on the
spiritual because our relationship with Christ is far more important than
our fitness.
But we almost use the I'm quote unquote spiritually strong as
an excuse to be physically weak.
And I don't think that's appropriate.
I think God has given us this body as a gift
(15:11):
and we should take care of it.
So that kind of ties those two together.
If that answers your question.
How do you think it plays out in terms of the
feeling, how men have feelings of confidence and doubt and these
sorts of things around their health,
their well being,
their fitness,
how does that affect their mental health and how does it
help their mental state?
(15:31):
Yeah. So it's been proven that exercise is as effective at
treating depression as antidepressants are.
So that's where I would say it helps your mental state
when you exercise,
when you fuel your body,
it very much improves your mental clarity.
When you exercise,
(15:52):
your body looks better.
When your body looks better,
when you feel better,
your self confidence goes up.
The other piece to that is the way that you build
self confidence is keeping the promises that you make to yourself
when you start a workout program or when you start a
nutrition plan.
As you start to build those wins,
as you become consistent,
as that becomes a part of your lifestyle,
(16:14):
your self confidence goes up.
Because now you're keeping the promises that you made to yourself
and you're teaching yourself that you can trust yourself again.
So you've mentioned several times fitness,
but you've also talked about nutrition.
That is one of the big debates that everyone has,
right? Is it exercise,
is it eating right?
I think this is a softball question I'm giving you,
(16:37):
but at the same time I figure I gotta ask it
for, for you.
What is that kind of balance between paying attention to,
to exercise,
to diet,
to how those fit together?
Man. Yeah,
it definitely a softball question.
It's all of the above for sure.
We hear the phrase you can't outwork a bad diet.
You may be able to in your teens,
Maybe in your 20s if you're lucky,
(16:57):
but eventually those cheeseburgers will catch up to you regardless of
the amount of time that you spend in the gym.
When we talk about balance,
the biggest thing that I work on with my clients is
just giving them a good mindset around food and teaching them
the basics of nutrition.
So when I say the basics of nutrition,
I'm talking about eating particularly whole foods.
(17:18):
Okay, so we eat food the way that God made it.
The closer you can get to the way he made it,
the better.
The processed junk,
the Pop Tarts,
the Doritos,
the box of cookies,
that's where you get in trouble.
And I'm not saying you can never eat those things again.
It's just the majority of the time,
let's say if you're not competing,
if you're just trying to be healthy,
let's say 80% of the time you do really well,
(17:40):
it's okay to eat those kinds of things occasionally.
That just doesn't need to be the norm for you.
Yeah. So I have a background in genetics,
and the question is always,
is it environment or is it.
Is it your genes?
And it's like geneticists answered that question a long time ago.
The answer to that question is yes,
it's both.
All of the above.
Like, nutrition and exercise is the same thing for fitness people.
(18:04):
Exactly. Because if all you're doing is sitting on the couch
all day,
you can eat good and you're still not going to be
healthy. And if all you're doing is eating junk all day,
you could be in the gym every day and still not
be healthy either one.
Take it to an extreme.
So when you think about stepping back and looking at your
life, you mentioned,
as you told your story,
that it feels like it was all over the place in
(18:24):
a lot of ways or a lot of different things.
And yet I know you also just were talking about balance
and being intentional in what you eat,
what you do.
How do you see that?
That tension between what does intentionality mean?
Versus also being responsive to trying things and then finding out
maybe that's not the right thing.
That tension between I want to be intentional,
(18:46):
I want to do what is good,
and yet I also want to be able to go the
direction that God is calling me,
which is sometimes surprising and unexpected.
I think they can go hand in hand.
I think you can intentionally try new things.
And so the thing that I see most of the time
in our society in general,
general, I want to speak to Christian men because that's who
(19:07):
I work with primarily.
But we get in a routine,
our life routine,
with our family,
with our church,
with our job,
and we stay in that routine for 20 years,
and we never even think about it.
We don't think about why we're working,
the job we're working.
We don't think about why we're letting the kids do 16
sports instead of just two.
And we have no time together as a family.
(19:28):
Like, we don't think about why we're exhausted all the time.
We don't think about why we're unfulfilled.
We just get in a routine,
and we don't ever question it.
So that's what I challenge people oftentimes.
Look, routines are good,
but you have a limited amount of time here on Earth.
Are you being intentional with how you spend it?
(19:49):
Are you being intentional with the type of work that you
do? Do you enjoy it?
Does it bring you closer to Christ,
or does it just exhaust you and you're just doing it
because society told you it was safe?
Yeah. What if the.
The things I talk about is habits aren't good or bad
until you examine them and figure out whether it's moving you
in the direction that you want to go.
It's the.
A habit is just a habit.
(20:10):
But some habits are moving you the place you ought to
go, and some habits aren't.
So it's the same.
Yeah, you've got to examine that and think about that.
And back to your cheeseburgers as a teenager.
The habits that served you well when you were 16 are
not always the habits that serve you well when you're 42
or 52.
We had to change and grow.
One of the things my father said to me one year
(20:32):
was he was about 55 at the time,
and he says,
yeah, I can still do everything I can do I could
do in my 20s.
And I kind of looked at him and he says,
of course,
it takes me about twice as long to recover from it,
but I can still do it.
I'm like,
yeah, that's okay.
Now that I'm in my 50s,
I understand what the man,
I got you right there with you.
So I've got a few questions that I like to ask
(20:53):
all of my guests.
But before I go there and ask those,
is there anything else about the work you do with Christian
men, their health and fitness,
that you feel is really important for the listener to hear?
Yeah. So a lot of people think oftentimes that it's so
far away,
and they think that they have to turn their entire life
(21:15):
upside down to get to the place where they need to
be, and it's just not the case.
A lot of the times we don't start moving towards something
because we think we're so far away from it that it
doesn't matter.
But every decision that you make to move you towards that
goal matters.
So a lot of my clients or even guys that I
just talked to that may become clients and may not,
I tell them,
(21:35):
especially if they're on the very far end of the spectrum
of unhealthy.
Look, I do not want you to go to the gym
five days a week and completely turn your diet upside down
because it isn't sustainable.
We need to work towards that.
If we do that now,
in about a week or two weeks,
you're going to tell me that you hate me and you,
we're never going to talk again.
(21:57):
It's just not,
it's not,
it's. I've been doing this for a long time.
It's still hard for me to do it sometimes.
If you haven't done anything for an extended period of time,
do not turn your life upside down.
What you need to do is start very small.
You need to start stacking wins.
You need to start stacking self confidence.
So when that time comes and we're 100 all in on
this thing,
(22:17):
you continue to do it for the rest of your life
versus doing it for a month or two months and falling
off the wagon and not getting anywhere.
So my brand is inspired stewardship.
And I run things through that lens of stewardship and that
yet over the years I've discovered that's one of those words
that can mean a lot of different things to a lot
of different people.
So when you hear the word stewardship,
(22:38):
what does that word mean to you?
Taken care of is what I think about when I hear
stewardship. I think about taking care of this body that God
has given me.
I think about using the finances that he's given me.
I think about taking care of my wife and kids in
(22:59):
a way that pleases Him.
Those are the examples that come top of mind when I
think stewardship.
So this is my favorite question that I ask everybody.
Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine.
And with that machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,
maybe 150,
maybe 250 years.
(23:20):
But through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life,
see all of the connections,
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
That's an excellent question.
I just hope that I leave it all on the table.
I hope that when I leave here that I am exhausted.
(23:43):
I hope that I have done everything that God has called
me to do,
everything that he set out before me when he created me.
I hope that my children are worshiping him.
I hope my children's children are worshiping Him.
I hope their children are worshiping him.
That's as far as like legacy.
That's my legacy.
(24:04):
I just want to know that when I get to heaven
and when I meet my maker,
that he tells me,
well done,
good and faithful servant,
and he means it.
And I'm exhausted because I did what he called me to
do and I didn't just sit on the sidelines and wait.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
Oh man.
So we're still pretty early on in business.
(24:26):
I've been doing this full time for a little over six
months. I've been doing it part time for a couple years
or we've been full time for a little over six months.
Obviously we still have some building to do in the strength
and nutrition space.
But as far as further on down the road,
what I would love to see from this business and what
I'm working towards is going back to my farming roots in
some way.
(24:46):
So what I would love to do is to be able
to coach guys in their strength and also provide them with
the nutrition that they need in,
in, in a sustainable agriculture kind of way.
Another thing that I would love to see on the horizon
is I would love to get into speaking.
Doing some speaking engagements and inspiring some guys.
That's something I would truly enjoy as well.
(25:07):
So you can find out more about Sean over at his
Instagram at the Sean McManus.
Of course,
I'll have a link to that over in the show notes
as well.
Sean, is there anything else you'd like to share with the
listener? Man,
I just challenge you guys.
I challenge you to take steps towards growing,
whatever that looks like for you.
(25:27):
Maybe it's growing a business,
maybe it's growing in your self leadership,
maybe it's getting closer to Christ,
whatever that looks like for you.
I just challenge you to not only question why you do
what you do,
but also start taking some small action towards growing and getting
better and becoming the man that God created you to be.
(25:51):
Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
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please, please do us a favor.
(26:12):
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Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
Thanks for joining us on episode 1563 of the Inspired Stewardship
podcast. Hey guys,
I'm Sean McManus.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
Having the ability to stop pursuing comfort and live into God's
(00:21):
plan is key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott
Mater. The way that you build self confidence is keeping the
promises that you make to yourself when you start a workout
program or when you start a nutrition plan.
(00:44):
As you start to build those wins,
as you become consistent,
as that becomes a part of your lifestyle,
your self confidence goes up.
Because now you're keeping the promises that you made to yourself
and you're teaching yourself that you can trust yourself again.
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
(01:05):
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent,
and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
(01:30):
In today's podcast episode,
I interview Sean McManus.
I asked Shawn about how faith and health are connected.
I also asked Shawn about how self confidence is connected to
our mindset about health.
And Shawn also shares with you how important it is as
men to find time for our own health,
our spiritual,
mental and physical health.
(01:53):
I have a great book that's been out for a while
now called Inspired Assemble the puzzle of your calling by mastering
your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
You can find out more about that book over@inspiredlivingbook.com
it'll take you to a page where there's information and you
can sign up to get some mailings about it as well
(02:14):
as purchase a copy there.
I'd love to see you get a copy and share with
me how it impacted your world.
Sean McManus is a devoted family man,
entrepreneur and fitness coach dedicated to helping Christian men reclaim their
strength physically,
mentally and spiritually.
After years in the corporate world,
(02:34):
he found himself unfulfilled and disconnected from his true calling.
Fueled by faith and a passion for creating a better life
for his family,
he he took a leap of faith,
leaving the corporate world to build a life of purpose and
impact. Now,
as the founder of McManus Strength and Nutrition,
Shawn empowers Christian men to take ownership of their health,
mindset and leadership through strength training,
(02:56):
nutrition and faith based coaching.
His mission is simple.
To help men break free from burnout,
rebuild their self confidence and develop strong bodies and minds so
that they can lead themselves and their families with clarity and
and conviction.
Through his coaching programs and speaking engagements,
Sean shares practical strategies,
biblical wisdom and inspiring stories to equip men to step into
(03:19):
their God given potential with boldness and strength.
When he's not coaching or lifting weights,
you'll find him spending quality time with his wife and kids
and enjoying the great outdoors.
Welcome to the show,
Sean. Hey Scott,
Great to be here man.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely. So I talked a little bit in the intro about
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some of the work you've done,
some of the journey that you've been on as you've begun
now focusing on empowering Christian men to work on their health
and their mindset as a coach.
But I always think intros and those sort of things just
tell us the highlight reel of our journey.
They don't really give the full story.
So take us back a little bit and share a little
(04:01):
bit more about your journey and what's brought you to this
point where this is what you feel called to do.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'll try to keep it relatively brief.
I can get a little long winded on the story,
but grew up on a small farm in the foothills of
North Carolina.
So we moved out to the farm when I was about
10 or 11 years old.
I was homeschooled throughout my entire childhood.
(04:22):
We actually.
I'm sorry,
let me take that back.
I went to public school through second grade and then I
was homeschooled from then on out.
My parents wanted to make sure that we had a Christ
centered education and they didn't like where the public school system
was going at that time,
so pulled us out and homeschooled us.
I am one of seven children,
so taking on homeschooling seven kids is quite the undertaking.
(04:44):
So the house,
the household was busy growing up.
It was great.
It was a lot of fun.
Grew up on the farm,
enjoyed the farm life,
learned how to work,
learned a good work ethic,
enjoyed being outside being in God's creation,
everything that comes along with that.
Working with my family,
with my dad,
lots of fun there.
Actually went to college for agriculture,
did a two year technical degree at NC State,
(05:06):
graduated from there,
started my journey into corporate America at that time working for
a poultry production company.
Did that for about eight years.
I'd always had this entrepreneurial spirit growing up,
but I did the thing I was supposed to.
I Went and got the quote unquote safe job and started
(05:29):
working the corporate life.
So about a year or two into that,
I knew that I really didn't enjoy it.
It wasn't very challenging for me.
There wasn't a lot of problem solving.
So I knew I wanted to do something different.
And I just had no idea what that was.
And then I had a bit of a wake up call.
I've got a younger brother that runs a business,
runs a big landscaping company,
(05:50):
and him and I were together.
I was about three or four years into my corporate job
at this time,
and we were riding together coming home from the beach.
I think both of our wives were asleep in the backseat
of his truck and we were just talking and chatting.
And he just looked over at me and he said,
what are you doing?
And it just took me back and I was like,
what are you talking about?
He said,
your job.
What's up with your job?
What are you doing?
(06:10):
I was like,
I'm just working,
I'm paying the bills,
I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
And he was like,
man, you can do so much more.
I don't.
I feel like you're getting too comfortable.
And I was like,
okay, this is coming out of nowhere.
But it hit me.
And so from then on,
I started my self.
You call it self leadership,
(06:30):
self growth journey.
I began to read a lot of self help books,
sales books,
entrepreneurial books,
financial mindset books.
And it really started to open up my mind to this
completely different world that I didn't even know about existed.
Started into that,
was still working my corporate job.
(06:51):
Throughout this growth journey,
I started a home repair business.
Construction is something that I had some experience in and it's
something I felt like I could do.
So I started doing that on the side.
That was my first side hustle,
per se.
I started doing that.
And then a few years into that,
we had actually saved up enough money to purchase our first
(07:13):
investment property.
Did the investment property for a little bit.
Completely remodeled that place.
It was an absolute wreck.
Spent about a year doing that while I was still working
my corporate job.
And then it was about a year and a half,
two years ago,
we found out we were pregnant with our second son.
And I am the sole breadwinner in my household.
(07:35):
My wife stays home with the kiddos and does an incredible
job raising them.
But we were pretty tight financially at that time already.
And with a second baby on the way,
I knew that I had to make some sort of shift.
So I started looking at jobs I came across a door
to door sales position for a solar company.
(07:56):
100 commission and completely different than anything I had done.
But they promised lots of money quickly if I worked hard
and learned fast.
And I knew that I could do both of those things.
Started in on that venture,
left my corporate job and started knocking doors for a solar
company. Did that for about three or four months.
Really didn't like the job.
(08:17):
Really didn't like showing up on people's doorsteps unannounced when they
got home from work.
They didn't like that either.
But I was pretty good at the sales part.
I was pretty good at making people feel pretty comfortable and.
But anyway,
I decided I didn't like doing that.
And so I went full on into my home repair business
after our second son was born and was also building my
(08:38):
coaching business on the side because I had been doing some
coaching part time for a while.
And then as I was trying to build both of those
businesses, both of them were fairly new,
so they were both requiring a lot of time.
I realized that I really didn't want to grow the home
repair business because it's not what I wanted to do.
So I stopped doing that and went full on into the
(08:58):
men's strength and nutrition coaching.
And that brings us to where we are now.
And it was a little bit of an overview,
a little bit all over the place,
but that's a general idea of my story.
That's all good.
A couple of things you mentioned several times feeling like you
were doing something.
Not that it was necessarily bad or anything,
but it just didn't feel like it was the thing that
you were supposed to be doing.
(09:19):
That's how you put it.
Talk a little bit more about what does that mean to
feel like it wasn't what you were supposed to be doing?
Because a lot of the folks that listen to the show
are struggling with that day of what is my calling,
what is my purpose,
what am I supposed to be doing?
So they get that.
But tell us a little bit more about for you.
What did that feel like?
How did you know it wasn't what you were supposed to
(09:40):
be doing?
Yeah, so one of the things was I just felt very
unfulfilled in my work.
I felt it was very monotonous.
It brought me no joy whatsoever other than hanging out with
co workers,
talking to them and spending time with them as far as
like the work aspect of it did not challenge me,
did not bring me any joy.
So yeah,
(10:00):
I've definitely had my own journey of feeling very unfulfilled feeling
like I was not where I was supposed to be,
but not knowing how to get away from that.
And the biggest thing that I can tell people in that
aspect is start looking at what you enjoy doing,
start looking at what you're good at and just start taking
(10:20):
some kind of small action in that direction.
It doesn't have to be huge.
You don't have to leave your job the next day,
but start exploring some of those options.
I would have never.
I started the home repair business not because I absolutely love
construction, but because it was something I knew I could do
and I did enjoy working with my hands.
So I put those two together and I was like,
(10:40):
let me give this a shot.
Turned out I didn't enjoy it that much.
So we pivoted and moved on.
But I would have never known if I didn't try to
do it.
Some type of action towards something is better than just thinking
about it all the time.
Let's circle back to One of the things I like to
highlight on the show is the intersection between our faith journey
(11:01):
and the spiritual walk that we're on and whatever that's playing
out for us and then our life journey and how those
two things intersect and influence each other.
Share a little bit more about how your faith has played
out and changed and evolved and affected your life journey.
Oh, man.
So faith has been a part of my life for as
(11:23):
long as I can remember.
My parents were both devout Christians and raised us in that
household. I don't have one of those Paul on the road
to Damascus type Christian journeys,
but there,
there have definitely been highs and lows in my journey to
where there are times where I feel very connected to God.
There are times where I feel that I'm spending the time
in his word that I need to.
(11:44):
I'm spending time in prayer that I need to.
And I feel like we're on the same page.
And then there are other times where maybe I'm not getting
my priorities straight.
Maybe I'm putting my business or my personal growth in front
of him and I don't feel as connected to him.
And it always,
whenever things are not going,
I don't want to say not going well,
(12:04):
but not,
however, I don't feel like things are going well.
Super stressed,
super anxious about how the business is doing or just very,
I guess,
unfulfilled, in a sense,
with how my life is going,
it usually comes back to me not having my priorities straight.
And I've shifted from spending the time with him that I
need to and putting him on the throne of my life,
(12:25):
where he needs to be.
So now that you're working more in the idea of faith
and fitness and kind of working on helping Christian men and
this sort of thing,
how did.
Why fitness?
Why is that something that you feel is important or you
(12:46):
feel is connected to the spiritual walk that other men are
on as well?
Yeah. So there's two parts.
Two parts to that.
Number one would be.
Fitness has been a big part of my life for many
years. I lifted.
Started lifting weights in high school,
lifted weights in college,
had no idea what I was doing,
but I was trying.
(13:06):
I always enjoyed it.
That was.
It was something that I aspired to do,
was to grow more muscle,
get stronger,
stay in shape.
But I really started getting serious a little bit over a
decade ago.
I had let myself go a little bit when I got
out of college and I started.
I was living by myself.
I was working the job,
maybe relaxing a little bit too much.
And my fiance,
who's my wife now,
(13:27):
she's very honest,
and she told me that I was letting myself go a
little bit,
and that stung a little bit.
But that kind of started my journey of getting very serious.
And I started doing research on nutrition research on certain types
of workouts and lifts.
I met a guy in my gym at that time who
was several years older than me,
but also much bigger,
much stronger than I was,
(13:48):
and we kind of made a fast friendship.
And he was my first quote,
unquote, coach.
So I learned a lot with him and started implementing that
in my journey.
But it takes us back to what we were talking about
before. People are feeling unfulfilled and taking some sort of action
in that direction.
Fitness is something that is very important to me.
It's something that I feel like I have mastered in some
sense, and it's something that I feel like I can bring
(14:09):
to other men.
I had friends that would reach out to me and say,
hey, you look good,
you're in shape,
you're strong.
I want to be like that.
How do I do it?
And I would start helping them.
So that was my first intro into that.
But, yeah,
so that was the first piece until,
okay, this is something I'm good at.
This is something I'm passionate about.
This is something I enjoy doing and something I'm going to
do for the rest of my life anyway.
(14:30):
So this is something that I can help other men do.
Now, the other piece to that,
as far as being specific to Christian men,
I see a very lackadaisical approach to fitness in modern Christianity
today. Almost non existent in a sense,
with Christian men,
it's a very.
(14:50):
We focus too much on the.
I don't want to say we focus too much on the
spiritual because our relationship with Christ is far more important than
our fitness.
But we almost use the I'm quote unquote spiritually strong as
an excuse to be physically weak.
And I don't think that's appropriate.
I think God has given us this body as a gift
(15:11):
and we should take care of it.
So that kind of ties those two together.
If that answers your question.
How do you think it plays out in terms of the
feeling, how men have feelings of confidence and doubt and these
sorts of things around their health,
their well being,
their fitness,
how does that affect their mental health and how does it
help their mental state?
(15:31):
Yeah. So it's been proven that exercise is as effective at
treating depression as antidepressants are.
So that's where I would say it helps your mental state
when you exercise,
when you fuel your body,
it very much improves your mental clarity.
When you exercise,
(15:52):
your body looks better.
When your body looks better,
when you feel better,
your self confidence goes up.
The other piece to that is the way that you build
self confidence is keeping the promises that you make to yourself
when you start a workout program or when you start a
nutrition plan.
As you start to build those wins,
as you become consistent,
as that becomes a part of your lifestyle,
(16:14):
your self confidence goes up.
Because now you're keeping the promises that you made to yourself
and you're teaching yourself that you can trust yourself again.
So you've mentioned several times fitness,
but you've also talked about nutrition.
That is one of the big debates that everyone has,
right? Is it exercise,
is it eating right?
I think this is a softball question I'm giving you,
(16:37):
but at the same time I figure I gotta ask it
for, for you.
What is that kind of balance between paying attention to,
to exercise,
to diet,
to how those fit together?
Man. Yeah,
it definitely a softball question.
It's all of the above for sure.
We hear the phrase you can't outwork a bad diet.
You may be able to in your teens,
Maybe in your 20s if you're lucky,
(16:57):
but eventually those cheeseburgers will catch up to you regardless of
the amount of time that you spend in the gym.
When we talk about balance,
the biggest thing that I work on with my clients is
just giving them a good mindset around food and teaching them
the basics of nutrition.
So when I say the basics of nutrition,
I'm talking about eating particularly whole foods.
(17:18):
Okay, so we eat food the way that God made it.
The closer you can get to the way he made it,
the better.
The processed junk,
the Pop Tarts,
the Doritos,
the box of cookies,
that's where you get in trouble.
And I'm not saying you can never eat those things again.
It's just the majority of the time,
let's say if you're not competing,
if you're just trying to be healthy,
let's say 80% of the time you do really well,
(17:40):
it's okay to eat those kinds of things occasionally.
That just doesn't need to be the norm for you.
Yeah. So I have a background in genetics,
and the question is always,
is it environment or is it.
Is it your genes?
And it's like geneticists answered that question a long time ago.
The answer to that question is yes,
it's both.
All of the above.
Like, nutrition and exercise is the same thing for fitness people.
(18:04):
Exactly. Because if all you're doing is sitting on the couch
all day,
you can eat good and you're still not going to be
healthy. And if all you're doing is eating junk all day,
you could be in the gym every day and still not
be healthy either one.
Take it to an extreme.
So when you think about stepping back and looking at your
life, you mentioned,
as you told your story,
that it feels like it was all over the place in
(18:24):
a lot of ways or a lot of different things.
And yet I know you also just were talking about balance
and being intentional in what you eat,
what you do.
How do you see that?
That tension between what does intentionality mean?
Versus also being responsive to trying things and then finding out
maybe that's not the right thing.
That tension between I want to be intentional,
(18:46):
I want to do what is good,
and yet I also want to be able to go the
direction that God is calling me,
which is sometimes surprising and unexpected.
I think they can go hand in hand.
I think you can intentionally try new things.
And so the thing that I see most of the time
in our society in general,
general, I want to speak to Christian men because that's who
(19:07):
I work with primarily.
But we get in a routine,
our life routine,
with our family,
with our church,
with our job,
and we stay in that routine for 20 years,
and we never even think about it.
We don't think about why we're working,
the job we're working.
We don't think about why we're letting the kids do 16
sports instead of just two.
And we have no time together as a family.
(19:28):
Like, we don't think about why we're exhausted all the time.
We don't think about why we're unfulfilled.
We just get in a routine,
and we don't ever question it.
So that's what I challenge people oftentimes.
Look, routines are good,
but you have a limited amount of time here on Earth.
Are you being intentional with how you spend it?
(19:49):
Are you being intentional with the type of work that you
do? Do you enjoy it?
Does it bring you closer to Christ,
or does it just exhaust you and you're just doing it
because society told you it was safe?
Yeah. What if the.
The things I talk about is habits aren't good or bad
until you examine them and figure out whether it's moving you
in the direction that you want to go.
It's the.
A habit is just a habit.
(20:10):
But some habits are moving you the place you ought to
go, and some habits aren't.
So it's the same.
Yeah, you've got to examine that and think about that.
And back to your cheeseburgers as a teenager.
The habits that served you well when you were 16 are
not always the habits that serve you well when you're 42
or 52.
We had to change and grow.
One of the things my father said to me one year
(20:32):
was he was about 55 at the time,
and he says,
yeah, I can still do everything I can do I could
do in my 20s.
And I kind of looked at him and he says,
of course,
it takes me about twice as long to recover from it,
but I can still do it.
I'm like,
yeah, that's okay.
Now that I'm in my 50s,
I understand what the man,
I got you right there with you.
So I've got a few questions that I like to ask
(20:53):
all of my guests.
But before I go there and ask those,
is there anything else about the work you do with Christian
men, their health and fitness,
that you feel is really important for the listener to hear?
Yeah. So a lot of people think oftentimes that it's so
far away,
and they think that they have to turn their entire life
(21:15):
upside down to get to the place where they need to
be, and it's just not the case.
A lot of the times we don't start moving towards something
because we think we're so far away from it that it
doesn't matter.
But every decision that you make to move you towards that
goal matters.
So a lot of my clients or even guys that I
just talked to that may become clients and may not,
I tell them,
(21:35):
especially if they're on the very far end of the spectrum
of unhealthy.
Look, I do not want you to go to the gym
five days a week and completely turn your diet upside down
because it isn't sustainable.
We need to work towards that.
If we do that now,
in about a week or two weeks,
you're going to tell me that you hate me and you,
we're never going to talk again.
(21:57):
It's just not,
it's not,
it's. I've been doing this for a long time.
It's still hard for me to do it sometimes.
If you haven't done anything for an extended period of time,
do not turn your life upside down.
What you need to do is start very small.
You need to start stacking wins.
You need to start stacking self confidence.
So when that time comes and we're 100 all in on
this thing,
(22:17):
you continue to do it for the rest of your life
versus doing it for a month or two months and falling
off the wagon and not getting anywhere.
So my brand is inspired stewardship.
And I run things through that lens of stewardship and that
yet over the years I've discovered that's one of those words
that can mean a lot of different things to a lot
of different people.
So when you hear the word stewardship,
(22:38):
what does that word mean to you?
Taken care of is what I think about when I hear
stewardship. I think about taking care of this body that God
has given me.
I think about using the finances that he's given me.
I think about taking care of my wife and kids in
(22:59):
a way that pleases Him.
Those are the examples that come top of mind when I
think stewardship.
So this is my favorite question that I ask everybody.
Imagine for a moment that I could invent this magic machine.
And with that machine,
I was able to take you from where you are today
and transport you into the future,
maybe 150,
maybe 250 years.
(23:20):
But through the power of this machine,
you were able to look back and see your entire life,
see all of the connections,
all of the ripples,
all of the impacts you've left.
What impact do you hope you've left in the world?
That's an excellent question.
I just hope that I leave it all on the table.
I hope that when I leave here that I am exhausted.
(23:43):
I hope that I have done everything that God has called
me to do,
everything that he set out before me when he created me.
I hope that my children are worshiping him.
I hope my children's children are worshiping Him.
I hope their children are worshiping him.
That's as far as like legacy.
That's my legacy.
(24:04):
I just want to know that when I get to heaven
and when I meet my maker,
that he tells me,
well done,
good and faithful servant,
and he means it.
And I'm exhausted because I did what he called me to
do and I didn't just sit on the sidelines and wait.
So what's on the roadmap?
What's coming next as you continue on this journey?
Oh man.
So we're still pretty early on in business.
(24:26):
I've been doing this full time for a little over six
months. I've been doing it part time for a couple years
or we've been full time for a little over six months.
Obviously we still have some building to do in the strength
and nutrition space.
But as far as further on down the road,
what I would love to see from this business and what
I'm working towards is going back to my farming roots in
some way.
(24:46):
So what I would love to do is to be able
to coach guys in their strength and also provide them with
the nutrition that they need in,
in, in a sustainable agriculture kind of way.
Another thing that I would love to see on the horizon
is I would love to get into speaking.
Doing some speaking engagements and inspiring some guys.
That's something I would truly enjoy as well.
(25:07):
So you can find out more about Sean over at his
Instagram at the Sean McManus.
Of course,
I'll have a link to that over in the show notes
as well.
Sean, is there anything else you'd like to share with the
listener? Man,
I just challenge you guys.
I challenge you to take steps towards growing,
whatever that looks like for you.
(25:27):
Maybe it's growing a business,
maybe it's growing in your self leadership,
maybe it's getting closer to Christ,
whatever that looks like for you.
I just challenge you to not only question why you do
what you do,
but also start taking some small action towards growing and getting
better and becoming the man that God created you to be.
(25:51):
Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
please, please do us a favor.
(26:12):
Go over to inspired stewardship.com
iTunes Rate all one word iTunes Rate.
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Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
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Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.