13 years in recovery. Two $500k/y businesses. Creator of 🏖️How To Work Less. 32k read my newsletter. ⬇️
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👋 Work Less Wednesday — February 12, 2025
Published about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Work Less Wednesday: February 12
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #116 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.
Over the last 14 months, I've secretly been mentoring a small group of 6-figure Creative Solopreneurs.
They're all incredible designers, developers, writers, coaches, creators, educators, and artists, who have found success, but still felt something was missing.
So they started working with me as their mentor and "co-founder without the shares."
In this 26 minute video, I'll show you what we've been up to, and how you can work closely with me to grow your business.
But just a heads up:
Mentorship with me isn't for everyone. It's not a one-size fit all approach.
For you, that might look like:
Scaling to $50-100k/months, without ruining your life
Designing yourself out of the business, and working 10 hour weeks
Transitioning to more leveraged models, like retainers, productized services, and consulting
Finally exiting fulfillment, and focusing on the work you actually enjoy
Packaging and getting paid for your thinking, instead of the deliverables you sell
Building an audience & offer that is authentic to you
Any piece of information you want? Google it. Some AI has already written ten versions of it. Need work done? Robots will handle it. Design, copy, code, strategy— all spit out in seconds.
You don’t even need an office anymore. Hell, you barely need a business. Just an LLC and a social media account, and you’re good to go.
So what’s the point? Why bother building anything new when the whole game is just remixing what already exists? When automation will do it faster, cheaper, and probably better?
Here’s why: because they don’t have your taste.
Taste can’t be scraped, replicated, or automated. Your ability to see what others miss, to make the right call when there’s no data to back it up, to know—instinctively—what should exist… that’s the only thing that still matters.
In fact, that’s the only thing that ever really did matter.
And guess what? The robots don’t have it. The data can’t manufacture it. AI can predict what’s probable, but it can’t decide what’s good.
That’s your job.
So yeah, everything is free. But the one thing that still has value? That’s all you.
Ties perfectly into this Instagram post I shared a few weeks ago on Strategic Originality.
In 2025 and beyond, being yourself is the only real competitive advantage that will last.
Those who know who they are, and have the courage to share it, will be rewarded.
Last week my wife and I decided to pick up a new hobby: learning German.
My wife lived in Germany for a while during college and I have German heritage, so it seemed like a good fit.
One thing I like about learning a language is it activates parts of my brain I don't normally use. (I also felt similarly when I was in my career of becoming a pro gamer).
The process of learning new words, sentence structures, and rules keeps you sharp.
We've started the journey with a couple of things:
🦉 Duolingo - The gamified language app. Has been great for vocab, not great for learning rules.
🇩🇪 Stress Free German - A free podcast that has been SUPER helpful for actually learning stuff like cases and genders.
When you’re ready, here are 2 free ways I can help you:
🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
🛠️ 6-Figure Solopreneur Systems. Free email course. Steal the exact systems I used to run TWO multi-six-figure solo businesses in under 20 hours a week.
And 2 paid engagements:
🏖 How To Work Less. From 2012-2023, I built a design agency that made me $500k/year, working 10 hours a week. 🏖How To Work Less teaches you how to create your own lifestyle business. Enrolling now. (350+ past students. 5 stars)
🧪 The Lab. I advise 6-7 figure entrepreneurs on how to create, capture, and communicate value. If you want to work closely with me (i.e. we talk 1-2 times a week), watch this video, then let's talk.
Work Less Wednesday: April 2 👋 Hey Reader! This is issue #121 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. Why We Choose Profit - Article by 37signals This week I rediscovered this gem from 37signals (the parent company of Basecamp and Hey). It is a treatise on optimizing for profit in business, which I've been doing myself for years. So, why choose profit? Essentially, profit...
Work Less Wednesday: March 26 👋 Hey Reader! This is issue #120 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. How to work ON your business - New YouTube Video If you are feeling "stuck" in your business, watch my 7 minute video here. 🤕 2. No, Everything Doesn't Have To Suck - Blog by Paul Millerd In this great blog post, Paul Millerd shares an incredibly controversial idea... Work...
Work Less Wednesday: March 19 👋 Hey Reader! This is issue #120 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. 🎧 ON THE PODCAST 🎧 Ep. 28 - 10 Shifts From $100k To $500k As A Solopreneur In this episode, I cover: How I scaled two solo businesses to $500k+/year and the exact shifts you need to make to get there. Why you need to pick a clear path between two business models to break through...
