WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #143
Work Less (Friday): February 7
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #143 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.
Little late this week, but later is better than never. Let’s go!
📭 1. How I Fixed 1,500 New Email Subs Going To Spam – Deliverability Now
I’ve been posting a lot on Instagram recently.
As a result, I added 1,500 new readers to Work Less Wednesday in December.
There’s just one little problem…
All of my emails to new subscribers were landing in spam.
Not good. 😅
Last week’s stats
This was shocking to me, given WLW has an average of 65-70% open rate for current readers.
So I once again called on a trusted advisor, Matt Brown.
I met Matt when he took Cohort 4 of 🏖️How To Work Less in 2023.
Matt is an email deliverability genius.
A true expert.
Every time we’ve worked together it’s paid for itself immediately.
He was able to pinpoint a handful of issues I needed to address (one of the key issues was needing to set up DMARC authentication for my email hosting, which he helped me do), and set me up with Google Postmaster so I can monitor my email more closely.
If you’re running an email list, I highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter, Deliverability Now.
(FYI – it is invite and referral only, so get on it!).
And if you’re having issues, shoot him an nice email (matt@mattbrowncopy.com).
🏈 2. How To Become The Best by Tom Brady – Excerpt from Three Times Wiser
In honor of my beloved Philadelphia Eagles 🦅 probable Super Bowl win this weekend, I wanted to share this story from football legend Tom Brady about the value of experimentation and working smart.
This is an excerpt from Kpaxs‘ Substack “Three Times Wiser“, which is great.
(Fun Fact: Tom Brady will be also be announcing this Super Bowl for the first time on Sunday).
🎥 3. Documentary About Andy Goldsworthy I’m Rewatching – Rivers and Tides
I was in San Diego last weekend with a group of clients and friends for an event.
It was held at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
One thing stood out when I arrived: This Egg. 🥚
I immediately recognized it as a piece by Andy Goldsworthy, a British sculptor and environmentalist. From his Wikipedia page:
The materials used in Goldsworthy’s art often include brightly colored flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns.
In contrast to other artists who work with the land, most of Goldsworthy’s works are small in scale and temporary in their installation.
For these ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials.
Goldsworthy is generally considered the founder of modern rock balancing.
This piece is actually part of a large work that spans the entire United States called 3 Cairns. It is centered in Iowa and spans from California to New York.
“Cairns are stone structures [or markers] that identify a place of great importance.
The piece is centered in Iowa (pictured above.) One points toward New York, a matching cairn outside the Neugerger Museum of Art; the other points west to the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla.”
“The Iowa limestone used in the piece is so old that it contains oceanic creatures—all three cairns use this roughly cut Iowa limestone—shaped into an egg-like structure with hand-laid dry stone.”
I first experienced Andy’s work at my favorite museum of all time: Glenstone in Potomac, MD.
They have a work called “Clay Houses” displayed there.
Anyways, it was a perfect reminder to revisit Rivers and Tides, an incredible 90 minute documentary about Andy Goldsworthy’s work.
You can watch it free on YouTube here: ⬇️
👥 4. Get An AI Body Double For Zoom Calls – Pickle
In January 2023, I shared an AI tool in development from NVIDIA that allowed you to have your eyes focused on the camera on a Zoom call, even if you were looking down and reading.
Well, it’s 2025 and now you don’t even need to be in the damn room.
My description can’t really do it justice, so just watch this crazy video. ⬇️
The AI avatars from Pickle are definitely still creepy looking, but we’re getting there.
Although I do feel like if you don’t want to be on camera that bad, why not just go cam off?
The AI avatars from Pickle are definitely still creepy looking, but we’re getting there.
Although I do feel like if you don’t want to be on camera that bad, why not just go cam off?
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week
🎧 Soundtrack For This Week – Van Morrison – Saint Dominic’s Preview (2/1/1979)
🫚 Hot Drink I’m Enjoying Nightly – The Ginger People’s Ginger Juice + Lemon + Raw Honey
☕️ Coffee Subscription I’m Renewing For A 2nd Year – Rikka Fika Explorer
💡 Light Therapy I’m Using For AM Sunlight Until It Gets Warmer – Voraiya Light Therapy Lamp
💬 Quote I’m Pondering – From The Six Pillars of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Branden
