WORK LESS WEDNESDAY

WLW #141

January 22, 2025

👋 Hey Reader!

This is issue #141 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. 3 Insights From My Writing This Week

I’ve been writing up a storm.

Between my 30 Days of Morning Pages and my daily hour of writing, a lot is coming from it.

Here are 3 ideas I’m thinking about right now:

🤝 1. On Referrals

If you’re not growing through referrals you have one of two problems.

You’re not asking for them.
Your product isn’t good enough.

An author with a massive newsletter audience once shared this insight:

“The only way to sell a ton of books is to have the book sell itself.”

Even with 100k newsletter readers, eventually you run out of people who know you.

Then you’re on the endless hamster wheel of public speaking and social media content to get more sales.

Or, the book can sell itself (by being really good.)

If each reader brings in one new reader, you’ll never have to market again.

Unfortunately, that means spending way more time on the product than most people care to.

But would you rather build it right once, or market forever?

🧘 2. On A Healthy Nervous System

A healthy nervous system is the key to entrepreneurship.

When you’re always “on,” you’re never off.

Checking emails in bed.
Doomscrolling.
Mind racing.

Living live at a simmering 6 leads to burnout.

Live at 0 (rest) or 10 (focus).

That is high performance.

💸 3. On Making Money The Easy Way

It doesn’t have to be hard to make money.

Clients don’t care about whether something is hard or easy for us.

They care about what outcome it gets for them.

Often the things that are so easy we’d do them for free, are in fact the most valuable to our clients.

The hard thing is being willing to charge for it.

🍩 2. RIP David Lynch – A Real Artist & Meditator

One of my favorite directors David Lynch passed away this week.

Not only has his films been influential, his book on meditation and creativity Catching The Big Fish is one of my favorites.

In his honor, I’ll leave you with 3 pieces of Lynchian magic you should check out:

💻 3. How To Draw Ideas – Article by Ralph Ammer

If you haven’t seen, I’ve been dusting off my design skills in order to share some visuals to accompany my writing on Instagram.

To that end, I’ve been doing some research into data visualization and telling stories with images.

Which led me to this great article.

His point is that “drawing ideas with pen and paper can build a bridge between our imagination and the reality we want to create.”

It unlocks a part of our brain that is normally not accessed, not unlike writing.

His four step creative process is pretty interesting, it’s worth a read.

📰 Read The Article

💬 4. How To Grow Effortlessly As A Composer & Entrepreneur – Video by Zach Heyde

Zach Heyde is an all-star composter, entrepreneur, YouTuber (closing in on 100k subs!), and an incredible client.

This week he dropped a video anyone with a creative business should check out.

“We often think that “effort” as an artist and/or entrepreneur means doing things we DON’T want to do in order to achieve things we DO want.

But when we think that way, we often don’t show up to do the work for long enough to see results.

So what’s the solution?”

In this video, Zach tackles the subject in multiple parts, covering:

🧠 The mindset that sustains effort over time

⚖️ Optimizing for extrinsic results vs. intrinsic reward

🔼 The time/money/passion triangle

🐣 Reconnecting with your childhood

📵 Removing distractions and creating space

🧘 Letting go of trying to “control” your growth

📕 Watch The Video Here

🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week

👻 My Soundtrack For This Issue – Ghost by Phish (11.17.97)

👂 Are You Tone Deaf? Apparently I’m Not – Take This Test

🐦 How Pigeons Changed The Way We Work – Video By Patrick McAndrew

🧱 LEGO Build This Week – ICONS Fountain Garden