WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #79
This week’s issue of Work Less Wednesday is sponsored by:
⚙️ System Sunday: The best systems for personal growth. ⚙️
If you like Work Less Wednesday, you’ll love System Sunday. 75K+ high performers get 1 actionable system—every Sunday—for health, wealth, and free time.
🎬 1. How I Gained 129,000 New Followers In 90 Days – Animated Instagram Reels
If you’ve been following my on Instagram, you’ll notice I’ve been experimenting with short-form animated videos for the last 90 days.
The results have been incredible.
Since January 29th (the day I posted my first video), I’ve released 21 videos.
My most popular video has over 26 million views.
I’ve reached over 25 million people.
And during that time I’ve gained 129,000 new followers and 3,500 email subscribers.
Needless to say, animations are working right now.
And the question I get more than anything else is…
“What software do you use to make them?”
The answer:
I build them from scratch in Adobe After Effects.
I work with an incredible animator on my team and we produce them in-house at my design agency, Richard Media Company.
The next question I get is…
“Can I hire you to make them for me?”
The answer:
No. My agency isn’t taking on clients for this work.
But I’ve got a solution for you.
My friend Dan Koe just launched a service that creates this kind of content.
It’s called Keyframe.
For $999, you get 3 expertly animated videos a month.
If you’re looking to grow on social media through animation, check them out here.
And if you’re looking for some guidance on how to write content that works as an animation, check out this 24 minute video from Dan that breaks down the process, called “Win At Animation.”
📘 2. Book I Read This Week – Catching The Big Fish by David Lynch
On my last trip to Asheville, NC, we stopped by one of my favorite local bookstores, Malaprops.
I found this book in the “Employee Picks” section.
Catching The Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity is a dive into the psyche of one of America’s most imaginative and surreal filmmakers, David Lynch.
Lynch’s work includes Twin Peaks, Eraserhead, and Mulholland Drive.
More than anything else, Catching The Big Fish is a book about the relationship between meditation and creativity.
Lynch has been practicing Transcendental Meditation daily since the 1970s, and it is the foundation of his creative practice.
It’s a fascinating read, and worth checking out.
I think this quote sums of the point of the book pretty nicely:
“Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They’re huge and abstract. And they’re very beautiful.”
🏛️ 3. What’s Ignored By The Media, But Will Be Studied By Historians? – Twitter Thread by George Mack
Really interesting Twitter thread this week from George Mack.
In it, he breaks down 8 trends that are being underreported in the media, but will be studied by historians when they look back on this time.
Here are 3 of my favorites:
1. 📰 The Headline-Death Gap
67% of deaths are from heart disease, cancer, and road incidents.
The New York Times barely covers these topics.
2. 👥 The Friendship Recession
- 15% of men have no close friends.
- 10% of women have no close friends.
- This has increased massively since 1990 – and is continuing to grow.
3. 📺 YouTube Is The New TV
TikTok and Snapchat are associated with Gen-Z by the media.
But YouTube is another level.
One-in-five teenagers report being “almost constantly on YouTube.”
🤬 4. Why We Build Businesses We Hate – IG Post by yourtraveldestiny
My friend Shyne shared this post from yourtraveldestiny in her Instagram stories this week, and it really resonated with me:
“We are so conditioned that we quit our jobs we hate, only to create businesses that mimic the jobs we hate, because we are so convinced that’s the ONLY way to succeed.”
I see this trend over and over again with my 1:1 clients and my students in How To Work Less.
People set out on their own, looking to escape the rat race and the 9-5, and then end up building the exact same type of job they had before.
Why does this happen?
People model what they know.
And what most people know is what they see in the world of the 9-5.
They end up creating another job for themselves, instead of a business designed around their goals.
Here’s the thing:
Most people just never take advantage of the BEST PARTS of being self-employed.
Things like…
🗓️ Non-traditional work schedules (4 day work week, 5 hour day)
🛠 Building/automating systems that run your business for you
💸 Value-based offers & pricing
👥 Delegating work you hate doing
And they feel just as stuck in their business as they did in their job.
If you’re interested in creating a business that works FOR YOU (instead of one that you WORK FOR,) definitely hop on the Waitlist for Cohort 5 of my course 🏖 How To Work Less.
🎙️ 5. Podcast Episode Thats Melting My Brain – Dr. Jack Kruse & Andrew Huberman w/ Rick Rubin
Legendary music producer Rick Rubin just started a new podcast.
This episode is melting my brain.
It’s a 4 hour conversation between Dr. Jack Kruse & Andrew Huberman (of The Huberman Lab podcast.)
(And its only part 1 of 2!)
I don’t even have words for it.
It goes deep.
Not for the faint of heart, but if you’re interested in health, longevity, biohacking, etc., check it out at the link above ⬆️