After nearly three years, over 200 episodes, and a fire that burned hotter than he expected, Jason Seward is putting Burning the Ships on the shelf. This final episode is not a goodbye with fanfare or a highlight reel built for the algorithm. It's a honest, unfiltered look back at where the show started, what it was supposed to be, and why the time has come to step away from it — at least for now.

Jason traces it all the way back: the entrepreneurial itch that started at 15 years old with a lawn care business and never really went away, the 17 years at Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance that scratched enough of that itch to keep him comfortable, and the moment in 2022 when he finally burned the actual ships and walked out the door on December 31st. The podcast was born almost immediately after — not out of a business strategy, but out of a very simple need. He'd spent 17 years having real conversations with real people every day, and when that stopped, he felt the absence almost instantly. The podcast was how he got that back.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

[00:00] Jason opens with the fire metaphor and announces this is the final episode

[02:16] The 17-year career at Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance and what it gave him

[03:27] The entrepreneurial itch that started at 15 and never stopped

[04:17] Crabbing, restaurants, and every business he tried to build before real estate

[08:28] Partnering with Bill Phillips and building 608B Capital alongside a corporate career

[22:14] Why consistency was the one non-negotiable from day one

[25:15] 608B Capital scaling to $25 million under management and what that demands now

[28:27] The ADD personality pattern: obsession, energy, and when the fire goes out

[32:24] Tim Blodgett and the first year of production built from scratch

[33:41] How Josh Culler and Culler Media took over and ran the show

[39:45] The episodes and guests that stand out: Aaron Warburton, Wendy Lynn, Aaron Cole

[41:42] The final sign-off and the redirect to Dealmaker Catalyst

Quotables

• "He said in life you never want to burn the ships and leave it all behind, because if the next thing fails, you've got nothing to retreat back to. And that was the exact opposite of how I want to approach life."
• "I want to go all in on things — calculated, be responsible about it — but I want to go all in on things that might not make sense to everybody else to leave something behind."
• "If every episode resonates with just one person and they get action from that episode, that is a positive to their life. I'm done. My job is done and I'm happy with that."
• "I do not want to carry on something that is not feeding me in the way that it was when I was obsessed or passionate about it."
• "Consistency is probably the thing I'm most passionate about in everything I do. If I start something and show up on a schedule, I'm going to do it over and over until I don't — and when I don't, it's because I've made a choice, not because I got lazy."
• "I literally could not tell you if the last month of episodes got a million downloads or one download. I have no idea."
• "I hate ending anything. I'm quick to end things, but I don't like to do it. I take a lot of pride in sustaining things."

Links

• 608B Capital — https://www.608bcapital.com
• Dealmaker Catalyst Podcast — follow on your podcast platform of choice
• Burning the Ships back catalog — all episodes remain available wherever you listen

Jason Seward is the host of Burning the Ships and a private lender at 608B Capital, where he works daily with real estate investors to close deals fast. He's built his business on relationships and clear communication, which makes this solo episode feel less like a lesson and more like a conversation with someone who's had the same frustrations you've had.

In Episode 225, Jason introduces the Boat Theory — a simple but powerful mindset shift about how we assign blame, react to other people's behavior, and either pass negativity forward or stop it cold. This one's for anyone who has ever let a bad interaction ruin their day, in business, in marriage, or just navigating life with other humans.

This concept came from something Jason read a couple of months ago and couldn't shake. He tested it in real life just three days before recording this episode, and he'll be the first to tell you he handled it wrong before he got it right.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

[00:20] Jason introduces the Boat Theory and where the name fits with the show

[01:07] Setting the scene: calm lake, quiet kayak, then — bam

[02:20] The emotional pivot: anger disappears when you realize the boat was empty

[03:38] The core insight: we attach our emotions to assumptions about a situation

[04:00] Car analogy: getting rear-ended and assuming the worst about the driver

[05:09] What if they just found out their family member was in an accident?

[06:27] Jason's honest admission: he still gets irrationally emotional sometimes

[08:20] Every driver has been the distracted one — you've been that person too

[11:07] Real business example from three days before recording: a rude loan applicant

[14:54] The business partner texts at 8pm — here's what was actually going on

[20:05] Marriage version: clashing because you're not on the same emotional frequency

[23:55] The Cleveland Clinic video: 30 strangers, 30 invisible battles, no context

[26:43] The snowball effect: one rude interaction contaminates the whole chain

[29:32] How to give grace, stop the snowball, and not carry it forward

Quotables

"Your anger, which was ready to fight somebody right there, just slammed into nothing — and now you're confused."

"Most of the time in life, we attach our emotions into assumptions of the situation."

"You don't have to know the information, but be aware that these circumstances could exist."

"I've been that person before. If you catch me at the end of a really bad day and I answer a phone call, I'm probably not going to be 'Hey, how's it going?'"

"Nobody has a clue what battles you're fighting except the people you've shared those battles with."

"If it makes it to me, I want to stop that snowball."

"Be compassionate when you're getting bad energy. Look at it from the lens of — this person might be having a bad day, and they don't even know they're directing it at me."

"That's the boat theory."

Links

• 608B Capital — 608bcapital.com

Mike Cobb didn't find his path — he built it from scratch in a country most people couldn't locate on a map. In the mid-90s, a trip to Belize with a lawyer buddy turned into a mortgage company, which turned into a bank, which turned into a 2,500-acre development on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, which turned into a teak timber operation planted in 1999 that's only now coming to harvest. Three businesses, three countries, and thirty-plus years of building things designed to outlive him.

This episode isn't about the deals or the developments. It's about the mindset behind someone who has spent his entire adult life saying yes when most people would have walked away, and who now spends his time building leaders the same way he planted teak trees — knowing full well he may never sit in the shade.

Key Talking Points of the Episode

[00:37] How Mike and Jason first connected at a Dealmaker event in Richmond through Jim Ingersoll

[02:49] The mid-90s trip to Belize that accidentally launched a mortgage company

[03:51] Finding the gap: no mortgage money existed for North Americans buying in Belize

[04:36] Growing the mortgage company into a full bank — a process that took from 1998 to 2003

[08:00] Five years of asking to buy into the business — and finally deciding to burn the ships when the answer kept being no

[10:47] The risk calculation at 34: newly married, no kids, and willing to restart if it failed

[22:59] Moving to Nicaragua in 2002 with a two-year-old — and staying 14 years

[25:58] Raising third culture kids: the book, the fishbowl analogy, and what it means to grow up between two worlds

[29:30] Moving back to West Virginia in 2016 after the oldest daughter received a ballet scholarship to the Joffrey program in New York

[30:27] Building 100-year businesses and what that mindset shift does to how you lead and develop people

[36:51] Why great leaders should expect — and celebrate — when people outgrow the roles they were hired for

[38:19] How the original mortgage fund was structured before it became a bank

Quotables

• "We find a need that's either not being served or not being served very well. And if we can do something to change that, then we can be successful — if we're good at what we do."
• "You got to pick your path and you got to commit to it. You just have to go all in."
• "The fear of failure, the consequences of failure, can really paralyze us. So often in life, we imagine this two by 12 stretched between two skyscrapers, when in reality it might be a foot off the floor."
• "I'm willing to take almost any risk that keeps me in the alive category."
• "We said to ourselves: we're building a small town, and that's going to take 50, 75, 100 years. So we need to build a company that's going to be around for 100 years."
• "It's not just about bringing up leaders and having them evolve. It's about making sure they understand that their real job is to develop the leadership that comes after them."
• "You are not hiring people to stay in the role you're hiring them for. If they outgrow it, that should be a good thing."

Links

• ECI Development — ecidevelopment.com
• Mike Cobb's book: How to Buy Your Home Overseas and Get It Right the First Time — available on Amazon; free Kindle download via email: podcast@ecidevelopment.com (write "book" in subject line)
• 608B Capital (episode sponsor) — 608bcapital.com