WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #48
😵 1. Why People Fail On Social Media – Blog By Justin Welsh
Picking back up on last week’s email about my latest IG strategy, I wanted to share this blog post from Justin Welsh.
One of the best ways to learn is to figure out what NOT to do.
In this blog, Justin highlights three mistakes he personally made early on social media.
They were:
Mistake #1 – Being Too Clever
Dropping one-liners doesn’t work without a strong following.
If people don’t know you, they’re not going to care.
Like Justin said, “You’re not Naval.”
Instead of focusing on being clever, focus on being you.
Mistake #2 – Taking The Wrong Tone
I see this mistake often.
Taking two tones in one post.
Here’s Justin’s example from 2019 (& reflection from 2022):
Tone 1: Listen to me, the expert with 3,000 Twitter followers! (cringe)
Tone 2: Suddenly, I become a motivational speaker in the second part (double cringe)
Mistake #3 – Using Too Many Platitudes
What’s a platitude?
A platitude is a trite, meaningless, or prosaic statement, often used as a thought-terminating cliché
Or Justin’s definition: content that adds zero value.
Or my definition: advice that isn’t actually helpful.
Stop posting platitudes.
So what does work? According to Justin:
- Educational content: Content that is short, helpful, and actionable.
- Tear-downs: Taking a strategy or tactic that feels complex and tearing it down into a more digestible piece of information that people can understand.
- Success threads: Sharing a successful accomplishment or personal story and then going deep into how it happened.
🪟 2. I Can’t Believe I Just Learned About This In Gmail – Email Templates In Gmail
I MUST be late to the party on this.
But I just found out Gmail offers email templates in a hidden menu.
And you can fire them off right from the Compose window afterwards.
Tired of typing the same reply every time someone sends you email with a common question?
Compose your reply once and save the email as a template.
And if you don’t use Gmail, I recommend checking out the text expander: Magical.
🤑 3. Pricing Strategies So Good It’s Like Cheating – Twitter Thread by Denis Shatalin
I’ll let you in on a secret:
Price is not logical.
It is emotional.
If it was logical, “luxury” brands wouldn’t exist.
This Twitter thread breaks down 7 pricing tricks that can increase sales with 0 effort.
My favorite?
This strategy The Economist used in 1980 to increase sales by 45%:
Do you see what they did there?
🪑 4. New Office Tool I Picked Up This Week – Kangaroo Standing Desk Mat
I’ve been using my standing desk a lot recently (I have this brand).
I’ve been alternating an hour of sitting, then an hour of standing.
But if you do a lot of standing, your legs eventually get tired.
So I bought this mat (thanks to my wife for picking it!)
What’s cool about it?
It’s got 3D cushioned terrain.
Here’s what they say: Four unique areas of raised ergonomic terrain; raised incline, corners, side rails and massage dots offer feet a variety of comfortable movements while standing for prolonged periods of time.
So far I’m loving it.
You can check it out here.
📄 5. Notion Template Everyone In My Course Is Loving – OpSys By TheFutur
In Cohort II of my course 🏖How To Work Less, we are learning about how to design systems to save time and work less.
We’ve been experimenting with Notion templates, and many of my students have been loving this one: OpSys by The Futur
So what is it?
Operating System is an all-in-one template to manage projects, clients, and sales for your agency, studio, or freelance business. Powered by Notion.
I’ve downloaded it myself and it’s really good. Check it out here!
P.S. If you’re self-employed want to work with me to help you transform your business into a profitable lifestyle business, click to join the VIP Waitlist for Cohort 3 of HTWL. Cohort 3 kicks off in January 2023!
📚 WLW Is Sponsored By: Shortform
I’ve been using Shortform since 2021 and I’m loving it.
Shortform makes the world’s best guides to non-fiction books.
They’re like book summaries on steroids.
Here’s how I Shortform to save me time:
- Revisiting books I love for new insights.
- Previewing new books before I commit to a full read. They’ve got over 1,000 books. Business, productivity, health, and more.
- Getting inspo for content.
If you create content, you need Shortform.
Don’t know what to post about? Pull up a book summary.
Their summaries are perfect for condensing into Reels, Twitter Threads, YouTube vids, etc.