
← Well Said11 Aug · 1 h 04 min
The Secret Behind Writing a Newsletter to 15,000 People Every Day for 5 Years | Ryan Weiss
<p><strong>Ryan Weiss</strong> 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 <em>Wicked</em>, 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.</p><p>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.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><ul>Why anxiety isn't a feeling at all, and what it actually is</ul><ul>The term Oprah told him could save the world</ul><ul>The <em>Wicked</em> story that reframed not knowing as a professional asset</ul><ul>Why he thinks "only surround yourself with light" is a recipe for failure</ul><ul>The Instigator/Inquirer exercise for conversations that usually end in a slammed door</ul><ul>What people actually need when they're suffering (two things, and advice isn't one)</ul><ul>How Ryan builds a life by asking instead of forcing: "See my hands? I'm sitting on them."</ul><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to Well Said for new conversations on connection as a human skill. Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.</p>