Work Less Wednesday: January 11

👋 Hey Reader!

This is issue #63 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.

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🗓️ 1. Rich’s Highlights From 2022

I spent the first week of 2023 SUPER sick. 😷

So I didn't had a chance to do a deep dive on my year like I usually do.

What I was able to do, was put together a quick highlight reel of what I did in 2022.

Read on to learn more...

🏦 Work Highlights

📬 Work Less Wednesday grew from 578 to 13,237 subscribers! You can read my reflections on that journey here.​

💌 I sent out Work Less Wednesday EVERY WEEK all year - 52 issues!

🏖️ I enrolled 83 amazing students in the first two Cohorts of 🏖️How To Work Less, netting $80,000+ (And welcomed another 77 in Cohort 3 in January! My first six-figure launch!).

📸 My Instagram grew from 10,100 followers to 104,000 (I posted nearly every day). You can read my thoughts on IG growth here.

🐦 My Twitter grew from 300 followers to 6,817 (follow me!)

🎨 I designed and launched my website, howtoworkless.com.

📜 I wrote and published the Work Less Manifesto.

📝 Wrote an article called “Good Things Come In Threes” for Field Notes.

🧑‍🏫 Created a 10 lesson mini-course called “Productivity For Creatives” for the Continuum app.

👥 Expanded my Work Less team - bringing on a Course Manager & Social Manager.

🏢 I continued to run my $500k+ design business, Richard Media Company.

⏰ And, in that one year period, I worked a total of 1,207 hours (JUST ~3 hours and 35 minutes a day.) Including only 7.6 hours a week on my agency. 🤯

I’m most proud of the last one.

I hope this breaks some limiting beliefs about how much time you need to work.

You DON’T have to work 80 hour weeks in order to be successful.

You CAN run a six-figure company of one in less than 20 hours a week.

✨ Personal Highlights

The WHOLE POINT of creating a lifestyle business is to free up your time to do the things you love. Here’s what I did with my free time:

🧮 I turned 33. You can read more about some lessons I learned this year here.​

✈️ I took 6 full weeks off - 3 in the Bahamas, 1 in Asheville, 1 in Paris, and 1 in other spots around the US.

👶 I met my niece Willa for the first time.

⚾ I watched the Phillies make the World Series in person!

🎵 I attended 8 concerts (BADBADNOTGOOD, Bright Eyes 2x, Pinegrove, Phish 2x, Van Morrison)

👨‍🎨 I went to 7 museum trips (Glenstone, Philadelphia Museum of Art x3, Musee Dorsy, Musee De Cluny, Dali Museum)

📚 My Top 5 Nonfiction Books Of 2022

This year I read 33 books. These were my top 5 in nonfiction:

​Fix This Next – Mike Michalowicz​

​The Psychology of Money – Morgan Housel​

​Building A StoryBrand - Donald Miller​

​Fierce Intimacy - Terry Real​

​Expert Secrets – Russel Brunson​

🎬 My 5 Fav Creators of 2022

These are the 5 content creators that inspired, educated, and entertained me the most in 2022.

​Jack Raines​

​Vanessa Lau​

​Alex Hormozi​

​Chris Do​

​Dan Koe​

📱 5 Apps I Used The Most in 2022

​Notion - I run my entire business in Notion.

​Arc - My new favorite web browser. I'm done with Chrome & Safari.

​Boomerang - I use it to pause my inbox so I don’t check email all day long.

​Tweet Hunter - The BEST Twitter scheduler & content inspiration generator.

​Circle - I teach How To Work Less through Circle. It’s great.

🕹️ 5 Hobbies I Got Into This Year

Sauna - Finally bought an infrared sauna and installed it in my basement. Can’t get enough.

​Phish - The greatest band touring. After seeing them live 2x in the summer, I went down the rabbit hole hard. I’ve got plans for a lot of shows in 2023.

LEGO - If you’re looking for a relaxing hobby, may I suggest building LEGO? I really enjoyed building the Taj Mahal & this Mario block.

Guitar - Got back into playing guitar and picked up a PRS Hollowbody.

Barefoot Shoes - Experimenting with minimal footwear and got a pair of VIVO barefoot shoes which I’m loving.

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed and you have a great 2023!

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📉 2. A CEOs Top 5 Failures From 2022 - Vanessa Lau’s 2022 In Review (YouTube)​

Entrepreneur, Course Creator, & YouTuber Vanessa Lau had a rough 2022.

She went from earning $2.5 million in 2021 (50-60% profit), to $1.8 million in 2022 (40% profit).

That’s a big drop.

What happens when a 7-figure business doesn’t hit it’s goals?

Usually no one talks about it.

What I love about Vanessa, is she does the opposite.

Not only is she OK with it, she’s sharing how it happened.

​This video breaks down the 5 lessons she learned in 2022.​

Totally worth a watch.

My key takeaway from the 60 minute video: Simplicity = Success

Vanessa started the year out with some wildly unprofitable months.

She lost between $10-30k a month in Q1.

The cause?

Too much complexity.

She had 20 people on her team ($75k of overhead).

She hired 3 consultants for $25k/mo.

At one point she literally had double of every position: Two Project Mangers, Two Community Managers, Two Assistants, etc.

All this complexity for what is actually not a complex business.

Her business is just:

1 Course

1 Youtube Channel

1 Instagram Page

Vanessa thought that a bigger team = more money.

In reality, bigger often just means more complex.

The solution - simplify.

When she downsized her team and simplified operations, something magic happened.

Less stress.

Less complexity.

More profits.

There’s a lesson in there.

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😵 3. How I Finally Removed My Instagram Impersonators - Twomarkup​

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know I’ve been dealing with fake/scam accounts impersonating me for over a year now.

It seems like every week a new account pops up with my picture and posts.

What’s worse?

They then message my followers and try to trick them into investing in a crypto or forex scam of some kind.

I would get messages constantly from concerned followers - telling me that my account was hacked or someone was impersonating me.

I’ve tried everything to fix it - reporting to Instagram, blocking them, and eventually…

I just gave up.

Thought it was the cost of doing business.

Until last week.

I met Ayuub on Twitter, and he told me about his company Twomarkup.

He was able to remove ALL of my impersonators in under 45 minutes.

My mind was blown.

A problem I spent countless hours dealing with over the last year, solved in an hour.

If you have this issue too, I highly recommend checking out Twomarkup.com.

They remove Instagram and TikTok impersonators in less than 7 days, and they don’t get paid until the job is done!

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💰 4. Finance Tool We’re Experimenting With For 2023 - Copilot​

One of my household goals for 2023 is to overhaul our budget systems.

It’s time to transition from my trusty budget Google Doc to a more formal and automated system.

You’d be shocked at how manual our system is now.

Definitely not “Work Less” approved. 😜

So I’m trying out Copilot for the first experiment.

It looks pretty cool.

What we need in a budget app:

• Automated budget tracking from multiple accounts
• Ability to set goals
• Tracking net worth

Have you had any success with finance apps?

What do you recommend?

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⏰ 5. Don’t Forget The Value Of Your Time - IG Post From With Honors​

Love this graphic from With Honors.

Remember:

1. Your time is valuable.
2. It is up to you to spend it well.

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🎁 BONUS: This Week's Most Popular Post: My Design Agency Did Over $500k In 2022 (❤️1,988)

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👋 Want to work together?

When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you:

1. 📺 (FREE) Watch my YouTube training: Work Less Fundamentals.
2. 🏖 Join the VIP Waitlist for May's Cohort 4 of 🏖How To Work Less. (144 students. 5 stars).
3. 🤝 Book a 1:1 session with me here. (Booking into Feb.)
4. 📬 Promote yourself to 13k+ subscribers by sponsoring Work Less Wednesday. (Booking into Feb.)

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That's it! I can't wait to hear what you think. What was your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Just reply to this email. Also, if you have anything interesting to share, I want to know about it.

😊 Have a great week -

Rich

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