The Secret Behind Writing a Newsletter to 15,000 People Every Day for 5 Years | Ryan Weiss

Ryan Weiss learned the most important thing he knows about communication while dangling from a 40-foot rope in a monkey costume. He was a swing in Wicked, handed a track he'd had 45 minutes to learn. So before the curtain rose he told the entire cast the truth: I don't know what I'm doing. If you find me lost, grab me. The stage manager called it unprofessional. Ryan calls it the beginning of his real career.Seventeen years, a daily email to 15,000 strangers, and a new iHeart show later, he coaches founders, creatives and public figures through what he calls Emotional Fitness. His central claim is uncomfortable: most of us are experts at avoiding everything happening inside our own bodies, and that avoidance is what we've been calling anxiet. In this episode:Why anxiety isn't a feeling at all, and what it actually isThe term Oprah told him could save the worldThe Wicked story that reframed not knowing as a professional assetWhy he thinks "only surround yourself with light" is a recipe for failureThe Instigator/Inquirer exercise for conversations that usually end in a slammed doorWhat people actually need when they're suffering (two things, and advice isn't one)How Ryan builds a life by asking instead of forcing: "See my hands? I'm sitting on them." Subscribe to Well Said for new conversations on connection as a human skill. Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.