WORK LESS WEDNESDAY

WLW #100

September 29, 2023

🎧 ON THE PODCAST 🎧

Ep. 12 – I Learned The Hard Way: Don’t Build Your House On Borrowed Land

In this episode, I cover: ​

  • How I (stupidly) built a product on someone else’s (digital) land and got hit with a $500k bill
  • 5 short cautionary tales of businesses affected by platform risk (and what happens)
  • Why diversification (usually) isn’t the solution to platform risk
  • 3 things you can do right now to avoid platform risk in 2023
Listen Now

👤 1. The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants & 10x Delegation – Sam Corcos on The Tim Ferriss Show

Enjoyed this 3 hour podcast deep dive with Sam Corcos (founder of Levels) and Tim Ferriss on delegation (and a whole lot more).

Here 4 of my takeaways:

👥 Executive Assistants – Sam has 4 (!!!) of them and strongly encourages each member of his team to have one. Here’s his guide on how to use them.​

📰 News Sobriety – Sam has been fully “news sober” for years. That means he doesn’t consume ANY news or social media. He credits it with drastically decreasing his anxiety.

✅ Swap To-Do List For Calendar – Sam does not use a to-do list. If he needs to do something, it goes on the calendar. If it can’t fit, it means he doesn’t have time, or needs different priorities.

📘 Book Buying Policy – Sam reads a hundred books a year. But he only buys one book at a time: The next one he is going to read. As someone with an extensive backlog, this sounds smart.

🗒️ On the topic of Delegation, this episode’s Show Notes are a goldmine. Sam publishes many of his businesses processes and SOPs publicly. Some highlights to check out:

​The whole episode is up on YouTube here.

🎨 2. The Problem With Competing On “Skill” – Newsletter By Jamie Brindle

Yesterday I hosted an awesome 90 Minute Freelance Workshop with Jamie Brindle for our 🏖️ How To Work Less community. (If you’re a past/current student, the replay is live in Circle!)

In this week’s issue of Jamie’s newsletter, he discussed an extremely common misconception:

That people hire “the best” or “most skilled” person for the job.

They don’t.

If you’re a freelancer or sell a service, there’s a big problem with competing on being “the best.”

  1. You’re not the best. Really. You’re not. There’s always going to be someone better than you.
  2. Clients don’t hire the best. They hire the best communicator.

For instance, I’m not the world’s best designer.

I don’t claim to be, and I’m okay with that.

Because despite this, I’ve made more money selling design that 99% of designers out there.

That should tell you something:

“The best practitioner isn’t the one who gets the job.”

So who does?

The best communicator.

The good news?

You can out-compete a better skilled practitioner by excelling as a communicator.

Here are 6 tips from Jamie that require ZERO technical skill:

  1. 🎯 Develop an easy-to-understand process: Clients value certainty. If you have a well-defined process for your projects, they will feel that.
  2. 🤔 Ask the right questions: Don’t assume you know what they need. Get clients talking to uncover their true pain points, goals, and priorities.
  3. 👂 Be an active listener: Actively listen and repeat your clients words back to them to show you understand.
  4. 🎁 Present solutions, not services: You are a problem-solver, not an order-taker.
  5. 🤩 Personalize Your Approach: Each client is unique. Some prefer concise updates, others less frequent, while some appreciate detailed weekly summaries.
  6. 💬 Over-communicate: Your client should always know exactly: What you’re doing. What they need to do. When they will hear from you next.

If you enjoyed this insight, hop on Jamie’s email newsletter here, or follow him on Instagram and Tiktok.

😵‍💫 3. How We All Got Tricked Into Content Addiction – 10 Minute YouTube Video by Horses

we all got tricked into content addiction youtube screenshot

Powerful 10 minute video on how we all got tricked into a content addiction

Worth a watch.

👂 4. My Favorite New Buy Under $35 – Loops Earplugs

loops earplugs

​

If you’re following my Instagram stories, you’ll see I go to a lot of concerts.

In fact I’m headed to 2 nights of Phish in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, our ears are not designed for loud concerts.

As I’m 33 now, I’m thinking more about protecting my hearing.

Which is where Loops come in.

These $35 earplugs look cool (relatively) and reduce the sound of concerts by 18db, while still retaining sound quality.

I’m using them for concerts, but they have models for: Noise Sensitivity, Sleep, Focus, Parenting, Live Events, and more.

​Check them out here.

5️⃣ 5. Five Things I’m Into This Month

In honor of our 100th episode, I’m going to try something new. Once a month, I’m going to give 5 rapid fire recommendations. No detailed description, just some insight into what I’m up to. Let me know what you think!

🎧 Audiobook I’m “Reading” – Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Issacson​

📱 App I’m On A 15 Day Steak With – Lumosity Brain Training​

🎵 Album I’m Listening To – Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road​

🧼 (Expensive) Hand Sanitizer I’m Crazy About – Noshinku​

💰 Online Course I’m Rewatching – Write Off Your Life

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