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👤 Connect with Today’s Guest – Sean Shanks

• Website: moneywisepayroll.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-shanks/

What does it look like to take over a business you didn’t start — and make it your own? For Sean Shanks, it meant stepping into leadership at just 26 years old, learning through failure, and rebuilding a company from within.

Sean is the President and CEO of MoneyWise Payroll, a Virginia-based company that now serves 450 small and medium-sized businesses across 39 states. In this episode, he opens up about his unexpected path to entrepreneurship, overcoming addiction, and how coaching, structure, and humility helped him become a stronger leader, father, and person.

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⏱️ Timestamps

0:00 – Intro & sponsor (Thankz)

0:38 – Meet Sean Shanks: President & CEO of MoneyWise Payroll

1:27 – From paper routes to payroll: early lessons in hustle

3:10 – Becoming CEO at 26 without formal business training

4:35 – Losing the company’s founder & buying the business from his family

6:00 – 24 years at MoneyWise: turning a legacy into his own

6:43 – Family life: marriage, raising three kids, and teaching ROI-based decisions

9:29 – Sobriety and the health habits that saved his life

11:50 – Why personal health is the single biggest business risk

13:10 – Training for triathlons & tracking recovery data

14:30 – Defining balance: structure, scheduling, and family time

18:15 – Pivotal moment: choosing sobriety & discovering the power of coaching

21:42 – Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: find peers and ask for help

23:30 – How self-improvement parallels leadership at home and work

24:43 – Where to find Sean (MoneyWise Payroll, LinkedIn)

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