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		<title>Mentally Awake - The 1099 Operating System</title>
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		<description>Tired of the feast-or-famine cycle? You don&#039;t need more hustle; you need a system.

Mentally Awake is the podcast for busy 1099 contractors, agents, and solopreneurs who need to turn knowledge into action—fast. Each week, we break down a must-read business book and apply its lessons directly to the 5 Pillars of the 1099 Operating System: Direction, Resilience, Resources, Organization, and Community.

Get off the treadmill. Build your engine. Wake up your business.</description>
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		<itunes:subtitle>Your Unfair Advantage</itunes:subtitle>
		<itunes:author>Mark Sharman</itunes:author>
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		<itunes:summary>Tired of the feast-or-famine cycle? You don&#039;t need more hustle; you need a system.

Mentally Awake is the podcast for busy 1099 contractors, agents, and solopreneurs who need to turn knowledge into action—fast. Each week, we break down a must-read business book and apply its lessons directly to the 5 Pillars of the 1099 Operating System: Direction, Resilience, Resources, Organization, and Community.

Get off the treadmill. Build your engine. Wake up your business.</itunes:summary>
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		<googleplay:author><![CDATA[Mark Sharman]]></googleplay:author>
			<googleplay:email>marksharman@mentallyawake.com</googleplay:email>			<googleplay:description>Tired of the feast-or-famine cycle? You don&#039;t need more hustle; you need a system.

Mentally Awake is the podcast for busy 1099 contractors, agents, and solopreneurs who need to turn knowledge into action—fast. Each week, we break down a must-read business book and apply its lessons directly to the 5 Pillars of the 1099 Operating System: Direction, Resilience, Resources, Organization, and Community.

Get off the treadmill. Build your engine. Wake up your business.</googleplay:description>
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<item>
	<title>Start With Why: Escaping the Transactional Trap (Ep. 1)</title>
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	<description><![CDATA[Are you running your business, or is your business running you? For most 1099 entrepreneurs, the daily grind is a "transactional trap"—a cycle of chasing the next lead without a clear sense of direction. In this debut episode, Mark Sharman and Heather approach Simon Sinek’s classic Start With Why through the lens of the Mentally Awake system.]]></description>
	<itunes:subtitle><![CDATA[Are you running your business, or is your business running you? For most 1099 entrepreneurs, the daily grind is a transactional trap—a cycle of chasing the next lead without a clear sense of direction. In this debut episode, Mark Sharman and Heather appr]]></itunes:subtitle>
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<item>
	<title>Trailer: 15,000 Pages of Wisdom in 20 Minutes</title>
	<link>https://mentallyawake.com/podcast/trailer-15000-pages-of-wisdom-in-20-minutes/</link>
	<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jan 2026 03:57:24 +0000</pubDate>
	<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Sharman]]></dc:creator>
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	<description><![CDATA[How many business books are currently sitting on your nightstand gathering dust?  For a 1099 entrepreneur, time is your most precious non-renewable resource. Every hour spent wading through a 300-page book is an hour you aren’t billing or building. In this trailer for The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather introduces a way to get the...]]></description>
	<itunes:subtitle><![CDATA[How many business books are currently sitting on your nightstand gathering dust?  For a 1099 entrepreneur, time is your most precious non-renewable resource. Every hour spent wading through a 300-page book is an hour you aren’t billing or building. In th]]></itunes:subtitle>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[How many business books are currently sitting on your nightstand gathering dust?  For a 1099 entrepreneur, time is your most precious non-renewable resource. Every hour spent wading through a 300-page book is an hour you aren’t billing or building. In this trailer for The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather introduces a way to get the...]]></content:encoded>
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	<itunes:summary><![CDATA[How many business books are currently sitting on your nightstand gathering dust?  For a 1099 entrepreneur, time is your most precious non-renewable resource. Every hour spent wading through a 300-page book is an hour you aren’t billing or building. In this trailer for The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather introduces a way to get the...]]></itunes:summary>
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	<itunes:author><![CDATA[Mark Sharman]]></itunes:author>	<googleplay:description><![CDATA[How many business books are currently sitting on your nightstand gathering dust?  For a 1099 entrepreneur, time is your most precious non-renewable resource. Every hour spent wading through a 300-page book is an hour you aren’t billing or building. In this trailer for The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather introduces a way to get the...]]></googleplay:description>
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	<googleplay:explicit>No</googleplay:explicit>
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<item>
	<title>Trailer: The Unfair Advantage of the 1%: Decoding Your Business Operating System</title>
	<link>https://mentallyawake.com/podcast/trailer-the-unfair-advantage-of-the-1-decoding-your-business-operating-system/</link>
	<pubDate>Tue, 20 Jan 2026 02:13:50 +0000</pubDate>
	<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Sharman]]></dc:creator>
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	<description><![CDATA[Why does one 1099 entrepreneur scale quickly to six figures while another with the same talent stays stuck? The difference isn’t just working harder—it’s the Unfair Advantage of a business management system. Most solo professionals spend their energy fighting chaos instead of building momentum. In this second look at The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather...]]></description>
	<itunes:subtitle><![CDATA[Why does one 1099 entrepreneur scale quickly to six figures while another with the same talent stays stuck? The difference isn’t just working harder—it’s the Unfair Advantage of a business management system. Most solo professionals spend their energy fig]]></itunes:subtitle>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[Why does one 1099 entrepreneur scale quickly to six figures while another with the same talent stays stuck? The difference isn’t just working harder—it’s the Unfair Advantage of a business management system. Most solo professionals spend their energy fighting chaos instead of building momentum. In this second look at The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather...]]></content:encoded>
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	<itunes:summary><![CDATA[Why does one 1099 entrepreneur scale quickly to six figures while another with the same talent stays stuck? The difference isn’t just working harder—it’s the Unfair Advantage of a business management system. Most solo professionals spend their energy fighting chaos instead of building momentum. In this second look at The Mentally Awake Podcast, host Heather...]]></itunes:summary>
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<item>
	<title>Trailer: An Operating System for the 1099 Entrepreneur</title>
	<link>https://mentallyawake.com/podcast/trailer-an-operating-system-for-the-1099-entrepreneur/</link>
	<pubDate>Mon, 12 Jan 2026 20:33:13 +0000</pubDate>
	<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Sharman]]></dc:creator>
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	<itunes:subtitle><![CDATA[Are you running your business, or is it running you? Most solo professionals, agents, and independent contractors spend their lives on an &#8220;invisible treadmill&#8221;—working harder than ever but feeling stuck in a loop of feast-or-famine anxiety. I]]></itunes:subtitle>
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