Work Less Wednesday
with Rich Webster
Work Less Wednesday: January 5
WLW #212
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #212 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🎙️ 1. New Podcast – “the week that changed my life – rich diary 004”
Another week another new podcast!
Last week was the 2 year anniversary of Hurricane Helene – which majorly upended my life – so this week for the first time I tell the full story of my insane natural disaster experience.
In addition, I also discuss:
- latest updates on book proposal
- i’m seeing 3 shows this week
- why the founder is the constraint
- thoughts on ai assistants
- where to integrate ai into your biz
I welcome any and all feedback – just hit reply and let me know!
You can watch the YouTube (video) version here.
Or take me on the go with the Spotify (audio) version.
🎙️ 2. ANOTHER Podcast For You – Do our gifts lie in our weaknesses or strengths?
My buddy Patrick McAndrew and I run it back for another long-form conversation.
Here’s the episode description from Patrick:
This time, the inquiry from Rich is: When should you focus on your strengths or work on your weaknesses? There are periods in life when doubling down on your zone of genius and delegating all else is a rewarding and fruitful way to live. There are other phases of life when we need to confront our weaknesses – the skills or capabilities that are undeveloped and stand in the way of our growth if not addressed.
And while you’re at it…
The Art of Relating – October 24 + 25 in NYC
Patrick is going to be hosting a two-day workshop in NYC later this month called “The Art of Relating.”
A two-day workshop to uncover the patterns that keep you from connecting and expressing yourself freely.
Do you…
- Leave conversations wishing you’d said what you really meant?
- Wish the playful, expressive you would show up around other people?
- Want to speak up without rehearsing every word?
- Wish you could enjoy a conversation without picking yourself apart afterward?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, this workshop is for you.
I’ve seen the effects of Patrick’s work firsthand and I can say with 100% conviction this event will be life-changing for the right person.
If you’re in NYC (or can get there), here is the link to sign up.
🔍 3. Short Note I Like – Rick Rubin on Comparison
Comparison is mostly pointless. Michael Jackson was much better at being Michael Jackson, and Prince was probably better at being Prince. You cannot really compare Michael Jackson and Prince, or Kanye and Drake, because they are giving you different experiences. Asking who is better is like asking whose diary entry is better. You do not need to make what someone else makes. You need to make the best version of the thing only you can make.
🐈 4. Life-Changing Medication For My Senior Cat – Adequan
Two weeks ago we started my senior cat Larry on a new medication for arthritis called Adequan.
It’s currently used mostly for dogs and horses, but some vets are now using it off-label for cats.
After just a few days, we noticed an INCREDIBLE improvement.
He is more mobile and active than he’s been in years.
If you have an older cat or a cat with arthritis, highly recommend talking to your vet about Adequan.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🎧 What I’m Listening To – Geese – Cobra
📘 Short Story I Loved Reading – The Man In The Black Suit by Stephen King
🍒 Crazy Coffee I’m Drinking – Paix Coffee Cherry Slushee – Red Bourbon Colombia
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“At your birth a seed is planted. That seed is your uniqueness. It wants to grow, transform itself, and flower to its full potential. It has a natural, assertive energy to it. Your Life’s Task is to bring that seed to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work. You have a destiny to fulfill. The stronger you feel and maintain it—as a force, a voice, or in whatever form—the greater your chance for fulfilling this Life’s Task and achieving mastery.” – Robert Greene, Mastery
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And you can work with me here:
- 🤝 Creative Partnership. I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
- 🧠 Advisory. Custom advisory services to select brands, leaders, and companies on creative strategy, inner work, and influence.
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #211
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #211 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🎙️ 1. New Podcast – “how i deal with people STEALING my work – rich diary 003”
Another week another new podcast!
We’re getting into some juicy stuff this week – among other things, this week I discuss:
- latest update on my book proposal
- soft launching a new offer
- what i’m up to this week
- how to deal with people COPYING you
- how to build self-trust
I welcome any and all feedback – just hit reply and let me know!
You can watch the YouTube (video) version here.
Or take me on the go with the Spotify (audio) version.
⚡2. Article That Blew My Mind – People Would Rather Be Shocked Than Be Alone With Their Thoughts
Came across this article while reading Jonny Miller’s “How to Unclench” – which I featured here last week.
This literally shocked me – lol.
It turns out people would rather be shocked than be alone with their thoughts.
Yes, actually electrocuted.
From UVA psychology professor Timothy D. Wilson’s work:
Eighteen men were put in the room with a device that would give them a small electrical shock if they pressed a button. Twelve of them administered the electric shocks to themselves rather than continue to sit alone with their thoughts during their session. One participant pushed the “shock” button 190 times.
As someone who loves both meditation and being alone – this was pretty disturbing – but also taught me a lot about the average person: They don’t want to be left alone with their mind.
Check out the study in Science.
🃏 3. Event I’m Attending This Weekend – Magic The Gathering Pre-Release
Very excited to be attending another Magic: The Gathering pre-release event this week, this time for the new set Reality Fracture.
I’ll be attending 3 pre-release tournaments at my local game store this weekend.
This is how it works:
You get to open 6 packs of cards and make a deck from the cards.
Then you play 3 rounds of a tournament and win prizes based on how well you perform.
Super fun casual event, highly recommend it!
📚4. Book + Clothing I Just Bought – Now-Time
Very into this company (I’ve shared them before in here).
Just picked up the latest drop from Now-Time – a company that combines design and philosophy in a way that majorly speaks to me.
Usually their drops of books and clothes sell out almost instantly… but their latest book is currently available still (for now!)
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🎧 What I’m Listening To – Getting Killed by Geese (seeing them next week!)
🐦 Great Window Decals To Stop Birds From Hitting Our Windows – Strip Prism Window Collision Clings
💬 Amazing Speech I Enjoyed Reading – John Gardner’s Personal Renewal Speech (1990)
🎮 Elden Ring Video I Enjoyed (Gamers Only) – What Makes Leyndell So Special?
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“The final test of freedom is this: Can you remain the same person in praise, in insult, in gain, and in loss?” – Seneca
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And you can work with me here:
- 🤝 Creative Partnership. I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
- 🧠 Advisory. Custom advisory services to select brands, leaders, and companies on creative strategy, inner work, and influence.
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #210
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #210 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🎙️ 1. New Podcast – “my lessons from $50k+ of mentorship – rich diary 002”
Week 2 – we are back!
Thank you for all the positive feedback (messages, DMs, comments) – sounds like we will be going with this format for a while.
Among other things, this week I discuss:
- Book proposal update
- What i’m reading
- How to find great mentors
- The roi from spending multiple 5 figures on mentorship
- Struggles with phone addiction and attention
Please let me know what you think and if there’s any topics you’d love to hear more about.
You can watch the YouTube (video) version here.
Or take me on the go with the Spotify (audio) version.
👊 2. Amazing Article Worth Reading – How To Unclench by Jonny Miller
Was really excited to discover this deep dive from Nervous System Mastery founder Jonny Miller on How To Unclench.
If you don’t know what clenching is – here’s a good definition:
Clenching is unconsciously holding tension in a way that narrows your capacity to feel and respond.
Everyone does it.
Our nervous system will unconsciously clench or tighten as a way to protect us from perceived threats.
You might even feel this in your body as you sit at the computer or scroll on your phone right now.
Johnny’s guide is a 30 minute deep dive that uncovers why we clench and how to practice unclenching – it also includes 10 “Unclenching Practices” designed to help.
Highly recommend checking it out.
🎸 3. Underrated Strategy – Being Cringe Is Cool
This short article from Sasha Chapin explains the Moat of Low Status.
(This is an idea that is expounded upon in their book “You Can Just Do Things” which I included in WLW a few weeks ago).
The point is that if you want to do anything cool in life, you need to be cringe first.
You must embarrass yourself. You must be a beginner. You must look stupid.
And this stops most people from doing anything.
When I started posting on Instagram in 2021, I committed to one thing – just post every day, no matter what – for one whole year.
My original posts were cringe.
But here I am now.
🏆 4. A Quick Way To Get Some Gratitude Back In Your Life – Ordinary Abundance
Give yourself four minutes to scroll through this ordinary apartment.
It may give you some perspective, and some gratitude.
We have much more to be grateful for than we realize.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
📕 Book I’m Reading – Mastery by Robert Greene
🕹️ Video Game I’ve Now Bought For The 3rd Time – Elden Ring (On Switch 2)
📗 Interesting Article As I’m Preparing To Write A Book – The Art of Self-Promotion by Jack Raines
🇸🇪 Swedish Cartoon I Just Discovered – Moomin (thanks Isak!)
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And you can work with me here:
- 🤝 Creative Partnership. I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
- 🧠 Advisory. Custom advisory services to select brands, leaders, and companies on creative strategy, inner work, and influence.
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #209
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #208 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🎙️ 1. New Podcast – “biz update, book proposal, plateauing, ai-proof skills – rich diary 001”
Got a fun one this week – I’m trying something new!
New podcast format – a business + life update from me.
Among other things, i discuss:
- Latest updates on my business
- What content stuff i’m up to
- Book proposal i’ve been working on
- Hitting plateaus in life and business
- Building ai-proof skills
PLEASE! let me know what you think and if there’s anything you’d like to hear me talk about.
If these resonate i’ll keep doing them weekly.
You can watch the YouTube (video) version here.
Or take me on the go with the Spotify (audio) version.
🤑 2. What Would You Do With A Billion Dollars? – Substack by Kevin Kelly
When people ask Kevin Kelly for live advice, he gives them this prompt:
“Imagine I am a wizard with a magic wand. I wave it over you and now you have a billion dollars. What would you do with your life? The price of things is no longer material. What do you use the money for?”
What you realize pretty quickly is you can satisfy all your material wants before the billion runs out.
Once that’s done, you’re left with the REAL question:
What do I want to do?
As he points out: “The point of my exercise is that most people’s dreams are not gated by money.”
Read on for his thoughts on what to do about it.
(It’s a short read.)
👹 3. My Ongoing Interest In Hieronymus Bosch Themed Content
I’ve always been drawn to the Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch.
I had a poster of it in my room for many years and it’s just something I always come back to.
The reason I’m telling you this is I’ve recently been enjoying some Garden-themed art and it’s been an interesting rabbit hole.
First, this video game set in the world of the painting:
The trailer looks super cool, hopefully it can live up to the premise.
Second, I’m currently re-reading the book Hollow by B. Catling.
Amazon describes it as, “An epic odyssey following a group of mercenaries hired to deliver a church’s ultimate power-a sacred oracle-as the decadence of carnival gives way to the gravity of lent and the mystic landscape grows ravenous – all set within a Bosch painting.”
Worth checking out if that sounds interesting to you.
🖐 4. More Things I’m Into This Week…
👤 Microsite I Enjoyed Playing With – Any Human Ever
✍️ Seth Godin Post I Liked – Fertilizing The Weeds
📖 Comic I’m (Still) Reading – Berserk (It’s Still Insane)
💬 Image I’m Pondering – From Khaden Hayward on IG
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #208
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #208 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🎙️ 1. Podcast I Recorded This Week – “When your business becomes a past version of you” with Patrick McAndrew
This week sat down with my good friend Patrick McAndrew to record a podcast.
In this wide-ranging convo, Patrick and I shared our experiences and work with clients around topics including:
- “growing out” of your business
- addiction + recovery
- time tracking + oura rings
- work-life alignment
- why i love self-help
- finding purpose
- self-esteem as the biggest lever
- and more!
In addition to my writing online, I want to share more of these in-depth convos in the future, so let me know if it’s something you want to see more of.
👩🎨 2. YouTube Video I Loved – How To Steal Artistic Valor by David Choe
Hilarious video from artist David Choe on faking it until you make it.
I can’t overstate how important this skill is.
Give yourself 8 minutes and watch.
🏠 3. Minimalist Architect I Discovered – John Pawson
In doing some research, for my latest Substack article, How To Say “No” – I came across the incredible work of minimalist architect John Pawson.
He describes simplicity as “The Minimum”:
The minimum could be defined as the perfection that an artifact achieves when it is not possible to improve it by subtraction. This is the quality that an object has when every component, every detail and every junction have been reduced or condensed to the essentials.“
It’s worth checking out some of his work to see this philosophy in action.
I particularly was fascinated by the contrast between this church and this church that he designed.
🤖 4. Interesting Article – Tim Ferriss’ Sales Are Way Down (Thanks To AI?)
I shared this article with a few of my clients several weeks ago, including one PR agent in the publishing world.
In it, author Tim Ferriss publicly shared his book sales data over the past 4 years.
And it does not look good.
But before you see this as all doom and gloom – read the article until the end.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🎧 Video Game Lore I’m Falling Asleep To (Lol) – Investigating Bloodborne’s Horrifying Story
📕 Book I’m Revisiting – How To Eat, Move And Be Healthy! by Paul Chek
❓ Not Sure What This Substack Is But I Like It – Source??? by Brendstack
🤖 Interesting Take On The Limits Of AI “Productivity” – The AI Productivity Illusion by Matt Scherer
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“There is not a single moment in your life when you do not have everything that you need to be happy. Think of that for a minute. The reason why you are unhappy is because you are focusing on what you do not have rather than on what you have right now.” – Anthony de Mello
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #207
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #207 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
❌ 1. New Substack Article This Week – How To Say “No.”
This week I revisited a topic that is near and dear to my heart – the art of subtraction.
As I grew an audience online over the last 5 years, I had to learn this the hard way – there was simply too many comments/messages/requests/etc. to keep up with.
To that end, I’ve compiled 16 tips that I use in order to say “No” and focus on what’s important.
📕 2. Book I’m Reading – The Way To Love by Anthony De Mello
Attended a workshop this week where someone read a passage from this book and knew I needed to pick it up.
Anthony de Mello was a 20th-century Jesuit priest and psychotherapist from India who has written a handful of books.
This one deals with happiness, love, and letting go of the illusions and expectations that create attachment.
🤑 3. How To Change Your Relationship To Money – Video From Joe Hudson
One of the things I work with my clients on is rewriting their money beliefs.
Usually one of the big things stopping them from charging higher prices is the stories they tell themselves about money.
These stories are often inherited from their family of origin or society.
I shared this video with a client this week who is working on that right now.
It’s a 20 minute journey showing the evolution of Joe Hudson’s beliefs about money.
You can watch the full thing OR just check out this super helpful PDF below:
🩸 4. Game I’m Playing This Weekend – The Duskbloods
I was lucky enough to be accepted to network test for FromSoftware’s new game, The Duskbloods this weekend.
I’ll have 5 four-hour windows to try the game early before it’s released later this year.
If you don’t know, I’m super into all of FromSoftware’s games Elden Ring, Dark Souls, etc. so this is going to be epic!
If you want to see a preview of what I’m doing – check out this video!
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🥪 My Go-To Sandwich Right Now – Stanley Tucci’s Desert Island Sandwich (thanks to my wife!)
📄 Interesting Article I Read Today – Building Without Predicting by Derek Sivers
🤑 Great Long-Read On Why The Economy Is So Weird Right Now – How To Get Rich In America by Kyla Scanlon
🏛️ Architect I’m Exploring – Giovanni Piranesi (thanks Tyler!)
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“The best measure of wealth is what you have minus what you want. (By this measure, some billionaires are broke.)” – Morgan Housel
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #206
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #206 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🧠 1. Site I’m Continuing To Returning To – Antislop
Came across this site online a few months ago and have found myself returning to it often.
Antislop is a curated collection of 5 links, every day.
“That’s it. No algorithm. No infinite feed. Five links. Here today, gone tomorrow.”
I’ve continued to find useful things on this site, including these articles:
- 📄 Fundamentals by Neville Goddard (1953)
- 💼 How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham (2023)
- 🪨 Make Something Heavy by Anu Atluru (2025)
- 🍎 Make Something Wonderful by Steve Jobs (2023)
🎙️ 2. Podcast I Enjoyed This Week – How to Start When You’re Stuck, Finish What You Begin, and Stop Waiting for Inspiration by Tim Ferriss
This podcast found me at the right time, as I am currently in a season that involves a lot of writing (more on that soon! 😉).
It is a highlight reel of conversations that Tim has had with guests over the years, all focused on these kind of questions:
- How do you choose a project and stay with it?
- How do you begin when inspiration refuses to show up?
- How do you build a practice that reliably produces pages?
- And how do you keep going when you fear your pages are terrible?
I recommend this to anyone with a creative practice that involves some degree of discipline.
🤖 3. Document Worth Reading – Clay’s AI Writing Policy
Obsessed with the startup Clay‘s internal AI writing policy – I wish I wrote it lol.
I believe everyone should abide something similar to this, read it below:
🃏 4. Event I Participated In Recently – Magic The Gathering The Hobbit Prerelease
As many of you are aware, I am a man with many hobbies – one of which is playing Magic: The Gathering.
This is a holdover from my time as a competitive pro gamer playing the digital card game Hearthstone, where I traveled the world and won some tournaments. (Who can forget Blizzcon 2017?)
Recently I went over to my local game store to play a quick tournament to celebrate the release of Magic’s latest set, which is themed after The Hobbit.
I had a great time and opened some good packs – you can see some pictures here:
NB: You’d be surprised how much some of these cards are worth. (Ex. The Arkenstone is $157 😳)
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🎧 Deep Work Music I’m Listening To – Music of the Wyld (1987) — Andy Portman
📰 Article That Made Me Think – If you teach a child to just power through unpleasant tasks, she’ll lack self-discipline by Samantha Watkins
🎨 Art Tool I’m Playing With – Cray-Pas Expressionist Pastels
🦎 Show I’m Enjoying – Monsters Of God (on HBO)
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” – Steven Pressfield
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #205
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #205 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
💸 1. New Substack Article – You owe it to your clients to be good at sales.
I’m back on Substack!
Today we tackle one of the most common issues facing entrepreneurs – the fear of sales.
There’s a whole micro-industry that is devoted to selling solutions to your sales shame:
- “How to sell without being salesy.”
- “Build your business without sales calls.”
- “Sell without selling your soul.”
Rather than pick up another course that shows you how to avoid selling, maybe it’s time to take a new approach?
🎨 2. Designers! My Client Is Hiring – Design Director at Marine Lane
I rarely do this, but today I want to share a really exciting job opportunity.
It is my hope that this opportunity finds the right person.
One of my favorite clients, Marine Lane, is hiring a Design Director.
This is a high-level role based at an incredible women-led, award-winning design firm in NYC.
You can check out the job post here and email them to apply if it feels like a fit.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.
🤖 3. Article I Enjoyed This Week – Mistaking making for the thing you’ve made – by Jason Fried
Awesome short blog by Jason Fried, the founder of Basecamp, who gets to the heart of where we are in this particular moment with AI.
Just because you can make more things faster, doesn’t mean that should be made, or that people will want them.
This line stood out to me:
“It’s like reviewing a restaurant by talking about how many cooks were in the kitchen, how long the shift lasted, how many orders they fired, or how late they stayed cleaning up. None of that tells you about the meal, the product, the customer’s experience.”
The vast majority of entrepreneurs already struggled with prioritization BEFORE AI.
Giving them a tool that allows them to do more of the wrong things faster (while telling them they’re a genius) probably isn’t going to help matters.
🧠 4. Article I Read This Week – The cure for your thinking addiction
Thought-provoking (and practical) Substack article by Alex Olshonsky.
It should come as no surprise to you that we spend a lot of our time stuck up in our heads.
“We’ve become a left-hemisphere culture, each of us under more cognitive load than any humans throughout all of history, drowning in information, endless choices, faux connection, and an attention economy literally (literally!) designed to distract us.”
But Alex takes it one step further – he believes we are literally addicted to thinking.
Fortunately for all of us, “freedom from the voice in your head is a trainable skill.”
If you want to find out more and get Alex’s protocol, definitely check out the full article.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
📘 Book I’m Reading – Awakening The Soul by Michael Meade
🤖 Interesting Blog I Read This Week – The Solution Might Be Cancelling My AI Subscription
📺 Video I’m Paying Attention To – Your Calling Keeps Calling by Michael Meade
🎮 Interesting Game I’m Checking Out – Time Flies
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” – Søren Kierkegaard
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #204
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #204 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
📕 1. Book I’m Reading – You Can Just Do Things by Cate Hall & Sasha Chapin
I already knew this book was going to be good before I read it.
I’ve been following the writing of Cate & Sasha (her husband and co-author) on Substack for a while, and when I saw their book was coming out, it was an instant pre-order.
You Can Just Do Things is a book about “personal agency” – which according to the author means:
“I think of agency as the capacity to both see and act on degrees of freedom that other people overlook. It’s being able to see choices where others only see constraints—the hidden doors in the walls of life. It’s also the courage to walk through those doors, to defy the forces keeping us normal—the pressures imposed by our inner script and by the boxes other people put us in.”
Basically its a book about to become unreasonably effective.
Also – one of the things I respect about this book is it’s length – 218 pages.
It takes a lot of restraint to respect the reader enough to write a succinct book. 😂
Highly recommend picking it up.
🎙️ 2. Podcast I Enjoyed This Week – I spent $600k on coaches (so you don’t have to)
Great podcast episode hosted by my buddy Jon (CEO of AJ&Smart).
In it he breaks down why he spent over $600,000 on coaches and the lessons that he learned from each of them.
It was interesting to see some of the insights that he shared mirror my own experience, and it’s also doubly funny because one of the coaches he hired I had a (small) direct impact on making the deal happen.
It seems to have worked out well for him.
Check out the full interview here.
Or read the text Substack version here.
🎙️ 3. Another Podcast I Enjoyed This Week – The Way Of The Spiritual Artist (Interview with Kim Krans)
Came across this interview on my YouTube home feed and really enjoyed it.
Kim is someone I follow on IG and who you probably know from her wildly popular tarot deck The Wild Unknown.
On top of that, Kim is an artist, musician, filmmaker, and sometimes standup comedian.
The podcast covers a lot of inspiring ground, but the one anecdote that stood out to me most was a story she told about one of her early drawing teachers. (You can hear it at 28:46)
The teacher would have the class do this exercise where they would look at drawings from classic artists like Cassatt and Rembrandt and she would ask the students: “Where was the artist in flow? Where were they having fun? Where were the nervous? Where did they get uptight?”
They would learn to discern through the lines what the artist was feeling or experiencing during the work.
For example, the artist might get uptight or anxious when drawing hands or eyes because of worrying about doing them right, and it would be reflected in the work.
This training in heightened sensory perception she took into her own creative practice and is something I’ll be paying close attention to.
Check out the full interview here.
📺 4. Video Worth Paying Attention To – Why AI Won’t Make You Rich In 2026
I’m not a huge Hormozi-head but I do think it’s important to pay attention to what the big dogs are saying if your clients are paying attention.
It’s like reading The New York Times, even if you don’t agree, it’s part of the “discourse.”
Anyways – Hormozi is saying something in this video I’ve been seeing behind the scenes for months:
Everyone is implementing AI in their business and surprise!
They are not making any more money.
I can list a variety of reasons for this, but I do agree with his reasoning.
He says AI allows founders to do low-priority stuff faster, which means they do “more stuff,” but not the things that move the needle.
He calls it being “efficiently distracted,” which I like.
He says the highest leverage activity in business is STILL making good decisions about what NOT to do, and focusing on the one constraint that most moves revenue.
When a video like this comes from him, you know there’s going to be a shift coming down the pipeline.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🎧 What I’m Listening To – Alfa Mist – Live at Real World Studios
🤖 New Update I’m Paying Attention To – Substack Introduces AI Detection
📱 New Device I’m Checking Out – Light Phone Flip Phone
🎨 Article I Enjoyed – On Making Art by Blake La Grange
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“There is a subtle but important difference between doing something we feel good about and doing something that makes us feel good.” – John Bruna
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.
WLW #203
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #203 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.
🤖 1. Is AI Killing The Billable Hour? – From The Neuron
My client Adan sent me this article this week – and it confirms what I’ve been saying for years:
Billing by the hour doesn’t make sense.
From the article:
“See, the WSJ just reported that consulting firms are trying to move away from hourly billing as AI makes some work faster, cheaper, and harder to meter the old way.
Business Insider reported a similar shift: clients increasingly want firms to put “skin in the game” through fees tied to results.”
I’ve been helping my client practice value-based pricing for years – where the price is tied to the value for the client, not the number of hours worked.
The cool thing about it?
You work less hours, get your clients better results, and make more money.
Well AI is now finally making everyone rethink the billable hour.
If a machine + a human can move much faster than a human alone, but create the same outcome – it no longer makes sense to use time as a proxy for value (tbh – it never did).
There’s a lot of catching up to do, but if you’re not thinking about value-based pricing by now, you should be.
Check out the full article here.
🎙️ 2. Podcast I Enjoyed This Week – Brene Brown + Adam Grant + Simon Sinek
My client Brooke shared this podcast with me after she recommended it to one of her own clients.
It’s a podcast featuring some heavy hitters – Brene Brown, Adam Grant, and Simon Sinek.
It’s a really cool fly on the wall experience watching three individuals talk shop about very high level consulting with organizations and leaders.
Highly recommend – check it out here.
🖼️ 3. New Killer Image Collection Online – The Public Domain Image Archive
The week The Public Domain Review released a new site “The Public Domain Image Archive.”
It is a hand-picked collection of 11,197 out-of-copyright works, free for all to browse, download, and reuse.
This is a living database with new images added every week.
It is a killer source of images and inspiration from the public domain.
Highly recommend checking out the “Infinite View.”
🐟 4. New Streaming Service I’m Loving – LivePhish With
As many of you know, I am a big Phish fan. (17 shows in the last 3 years!)
Phish has been running a streaming service called Live Phish for years – it’s pretty great.
You get streaming access to audio of nearly all of their live shows since 2000 for around $10 a month.
But recently they made the service MUCH better.
They just launched LivePhish With, with which now includes video live streams of all of their concerts for $150 a year.
It has been a no brainer.
I’ve watched most of their current summer tour live and it has been epic.
Here’s an example of what the stream looks like – highly recommend.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
🎧 What I’m Listening To – The Yussef Dayes Experience – Live From Cape Town
📖 Comic I’m Reading – Berserk by Kentaro Muira
☀️ SPF Shirt Keeping Me From Getting Burned – Choona Hoodie
🏢The Real Reason Behind The “Return To Office” – It’s Your Narcissistic Bosses Ego – lol
💬 Quote I’m Pondering…
“The main ingredient of achieving simplicity is confidence. A good designer finds an elegant way to put everything you need on a page. A great designer convinces you that half that shit is unnecessary.” – Mike Monteiro
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are two free ways I can help you:
- 👤 My Substack. My weekly Substack inner entrepreneur discusses the internal side of entrepreneurship – mindset & growth.
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
And two paid engagements:
- 💸 How To Charge More (COHORT 2 – MAY 4). Live cohort for entrepreneurs who want to scale their business by charging higher prices.
- 🤝 Creative Partnership (1:1). I work closely with high-level creative entrepreneurs + consultants to hit their first (or next) million in revenue.