WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #98
Diversification Is A Distraction
In this episode, I cover: â
– 𤚠Why you donât need multiple streams of income, especially if you havenât reached 6-figures.
– đ¸ Why most people think more revenue streams = more money and less risk (and why theyâre wrong).
– đ Why you should drop your 10+ projects and focus on 1-2 things that really move the needle.
– đ§ Three questions I ask myself regularly to avoid this in my business.
â 1. How I Run My Agency In 10 Hours A Week
Over the last 5 years, Iâve gotten pretty good at figuring out what moves the needle and what doesnât.
The proof?
My design agency earned $500k last year with less than 10 hours of work/week from me.
This is a whole month.
So what does it take to get to 10 hours a week?
Here are a few things that worked for me:
- Invest time upfront to build (and train) an incredible team of freelancers/contractors. Designers, developers, animators, editors, etc.
- I got really good at sales, lead generation, networking, and have honed my offer over time. Fortunately, all of this is learnable.
- The ~10 hours of work I do is hard, focused deep work. Usually:
- High level design
- Marketing strategy
- Client management and sales
- I have to say âNoâ to A LOT of stuff most people say âYesâ to.
Which leads me to this list.
Here are 10 things most people do, that I donât do in my design agency, which allows me to work 10 hours a week.
- I donât write proposals (for free)
- I donât post on social media (for my agency)
- I donât submit for awards
- I donât do work for less than my minimum rate
- I donât do discounts: full price or free
- I don’t travel for work
- I donât take meetings 4 on days out of the week
- I donât do requests for coffee
- I donât work with bad/unethical clients (even for $$)
- I donât check email until noon (mostly)
P.S. If you want to hear the details, check out my podcast episode: 20+ Things I Donât Do As A $500k Solopreneur – it explains all 10 in detail.
đ§ 2. Brain Training Iâve Been Starting My Mornings With – Lumosity
A few weeks ago I came across a great YouTube video detailing Rob Dyrdekâs (yes, the skateboarder) Matrix productivity system.
In it, he has a daily habit routine called âThe Core 7â
These are the 7 activities that Rob must perform EVERY DAY, no matter what.
They include:
- Wake up at 5am every morning.
- Brain training – first thing in the morning.
- Meditation – 20 minutes in a giant egg. (lol)
- Work out
- Eat clean
- Avoid alcohol
- Daily supplements
The last few weeks, Iâve been inspired to add brain training to my morning meditation routine.
It helps me to get focused for deep work and is really fun.
I use the app Lumosity, which gives you 5 exercises daily to do, and takes about 10 minutes.
Give it a try, let me know what you think! (not an ad, just what Iâm doing)
đŹ 3. Youâre Not Asking Enough
One pattern I see constantly from people I work with and people online:
Theyâre not asking enough.
We constantly give value to the people around us:
- Free social media posts
- Quality work for our clients
- Free resources on our website
And then we never get to reap the rewards because we’re scared to put ourselves out there.
We all KNOW we should ask for what we want more, but we feel like we can only ask once, and thats enough.
No.
You need to ask much more often.
Whether you are:
- Asking for referrals from your happy clients
- Asking for newsletter signups from your followers
- Asking for people to buy in your mailing list
Youâre just not doing it enough.
Ask more.
People wonât get mad.
I promise.
⥠4. The Best Way To Make Time (When You Have No Time) – Article By Mandy Brown
âMandy Brown is a coach who works with high performers.
Their biggest complaint she hears, by far, is âI donât have enough time.â
By the time they reach her, theyâve done all the easy stuff:
- Theyâve reorganized their calendar.
- Theyâve blocked out time.
- Theyâve prioritized.
And it hasnât worked.
Mandy has a solution:
Here’s an example: Someone is so busy with work and caretaking that they donât make time for their art. At the end of the day theyâre too tired to write or paint or make music or whathaveyou. So they donât. Days, then weeks go by. They are more and more tired. They are getting less and less done. Then one day they say fuck it all. They eat leftover pasta over the sink, drop mom off at her mahjongg game, and go sit in the park to draw. They draw for hours, until the sun goes down and theyâre squinting under the street lights. And, lo and behold, the next day they plow through all those lingering to-dos. They see clearly that half of them were unnecessary when before they all seemed critical. They recognize a few others as things better handed off to their peers. They suddenly find time for attending to that one project theyâd been procrastinating on for weeks. They sleep better. It turns out, not doing their art was costing them time, was draining it away, little by little, like a slow but steady leak. They had assumed, wrongly, that there wasnât enough time in the day to do their art, because they assumed (because weâre conditioned to assume) that every thing we do costs time. But that math doesnât take energy into account, doesnât grok that doing things that energize you gives you time back. By doing their art, a whole lot of time suddenly returned. Their art didnât need more time; their time needed their art.
We all have something like this in our life.
Something that GIVES us energy.
When was the last time you did it?