WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #153
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #153 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 Video – 38 Lessons My 6-Figure Mastermind Clients Learned Last Month
My mentorship clients pay me $12k a year to help them grow their business.
We meet two times a week for 2-4 hours and go deep on Leads, Sales, Pricing, Marketing, Clients, Content, Systems, Mindset, and more.
This week I tried something new…
I took all of our call transcripts from March and loaded them into Claude.
That’s 28 HOURS of calls.
It spit out these 38 lessons.
I’m not holding anything back here.
You can watch the full 90 minute video here, or catch the audio version on my podcast.
💰 2. My “Pre-Tariffs” Purchase – M4 Macbook Pro
In 2021 I bought the most expensive Macbook Pro Apple sold.
4 years later, it sucks.
So I used “tariffs” as an excuse to upgrade.
I got the Macbook Pro with the M4 chip.
I know Apple doesn’t need any free advertising from me, but this thing is a beast.
I paid $1,500 LESS than my 2021 MacBook Pro for a laptop that is EASILY 3x faster.
🤖 3. AI Use Is Now A “Baseline Expectation” At Shopify – Internal Memo from CEO Tobi Lutke
I’ve shifted a lot on AI in the past few months.
I went from “strategic ignorance,” to “paying attention,” to “oh shit.”
(You can hear me discuss my “oh shit” moment here.)
Whether you like it or not, I think it’s inevitable.
More evidence here in this internal memo from Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke:
It’s a good read, but here’s the TL;DR:
Using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation of everyone at Shopify. It’s a tool of all trades today, and will only grow in importance. Frankly, I don’t think it’s feasible to opt out of learning the skill of applying AI in your craft; you are welcome to try, but I want to be honest I cannot see this working out today, and definitely not tomorrow. Stagnation is almost certain, and stagnation is slow-motion failure. If you’re not climbing, you’re sliding.
If you need more proof, this quote from software engineer Geoffrey Huntley sums up the impact for his industry:
Software engineers who haven’t adopted or started exploring software assistants, are frankly not gonna make it. Engineering organizations right now are split between employees who have had that “oh fuck” moment, are leaning into software assistants and those who have not.
The times are scary, exciting, and unpredictable.
If you’re not at least curious about whats happening in AI, please do some research.
I’m hosting biweekly small meetups with my clients and entrepreneur friends to share how we’re implementing the tools into our systems.
History has shown us time and time again that “pretending it’s not happening” is not a wise strategy.
🐦⬛ 4. This Bird App Is Blowing My Mind – Merlin Bird ID
A few weeks ago I shared my latest obsession – wild bird feeders.
This week my wife shared this app with me that takes it to a new level: Merlin.
Not only does it allow you to identify any bird you can take a picture of, it also analyzes bird calls.
This screenshot is from my back porch.
We just hit record and it starts listing all of the types of birds currently making sounds.
The app listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for who’s singing.
It’s pretty incredible.
🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week…
💿 Album I’m Listening To This Week – SABLE, fABLE by Bon Iver
🔖 Bookmark Manager I’m Experimenting With – Raindrop
📰 Awesome Article About My Fav. Band Phish – In The New Yorker
☎️ The Truth About “Let’s Hop On A Quick Call” – By Jenny Wood
💬 Quote I’m Pondering – From It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
If you can’t fit everything you want to do within 40 hours per week, you need to get better at picking what to do, not work longer hours. Most of what we think we have to do, we don’t have to do at all. It’s a choice, and often it’s a poor one. When you cut out what’s unnecessary, you’re left with what you need.