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Work Less Wednesday: May 28
👋 Hey Reader!
This is issue #157 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. A Quick Update From Rich
Hey everyone! Wanted to check in and share a quick update on myself and the business.
Lately I’ve been:
I have some cool stuff coming up in the next few months:
- ⛰️ Hosting an in-person event for entrepreneurs - I’m running an in-person retreat for my clients this summer in Asheville, NC. I’ll open a few tickets first to How To Work Less students and then to my larger email list (if any are left).
- 🏖️ Doing some summer travel - I’ll be heading on a trip to the Bahamas 🇧🇸 and to see my beloved Phish at a couple stops on their summer tour.
- 📝 Writing and sharing more online - I’ve got a sequel to my mastermind video planned, plus videos on managing energy as an entrepreneur, designing a minimalist business, lessons from contemporary art on making money, and using entrepreneurship for personal development.
Can’t wait to share more in the coming weeks!
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I shared The Mochary Method way back in WLW #55 (November 2022!).
This week I resurfaced his article about the “Zone of Genius.”
In the article, he breaks down:
- The 4 zones (Zone of Incompetence, Zone of Competence, Zone of Excellence, Zone of Genius)
- What your Zone of Genius ACTUALLY is
- The fear most people have of living in their Zone of Genius.
He also shares a practical way to surface your “Zone of Genius,” which many struggle with. Here’s the hack: ⬇️
To do this, identify a group of people who interact with you regularly. Send them each a message:
“I am trying to understand the things that I am uniquely good at in the world. It is difficult for me to see them myself. But I am hoping that you can help me identify them. Would you be willing to take 10 minutes to answer the following questions? If yes, thank you. If not, no problem at all. I understand that this is an imposition on my part.
In your interactions with me:
- What do I do that you experience as “world-class”?
- What do I do where I appear to be experiencing fun, peace or joy (if different from above)?
- What do I do that I am good at but that I don’t appear to enjoy?
- What do I do that I am not better than others?
- What do I do that I am actually worse than others?”
Read the full 1.5 page article here.
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This one was recommended to me by one of my clients, a great entrepreneur named Taylor Widmann. 👇
On its surface, The Slight Edge is just another book about habits:
- Make good habits.
- Do them repeatedly.
- Watch the results compound.
But it also touches a much deeper lesson:
"Most of us are living our entire lives oscillating between failure and survival, striving toward success and maybe even reaching the level of success, but then invariably turning back and heading downward again. We do this in our finances, in our health, in our relationships, and in our lives as a whole." The answer?
You’ll have to read it to find out.
📌 P.S. This book pairs PERFECTLY with my most recent “Success Thermostat” video, which Taylor mentioned in his email to me.
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💸 4. Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From This YouTube Thumbnail Hack - Twitter Thread by Niels
I haven’t been spending much time on Twitter/X recently.
But every once and a while I come across some real gold on there (still):
This is a Twitter thread about YouTube thumbnails.
But there’s a deeper lesson that applies to all business.
So let’s start with the thumbnail lesson:
"Most creators try to summarize their content in the thumbnail." But here’s the hack:
“High-performing thumbnails don’t sell the video. They sell the feeling the viewer will have AFTER watching. The emotional outcome.” The science behind it is pretty wild:
“Your brain makes the “click or scroll” decision in 200 milliseconds. Rational thought takes 500+ milliseconds. By the time you can think “Is this video good?”, you’ve already decided to click or scroll. Emotion happens first, logic comes later.” But I want to talk about why this is so important for EVERY entrepreneur to understand (even if you’re not on YouTube).
It's all about outcomes.
Clients don’t care what you do. They care what you can do for them.
You can do the EXACT same work and get paid 10X as much when you talk about outcomes.
If it’s a YouTube video thumbnail, it can be the difference between a 1% and 10% CTR.
How you talk about (and present) your work matters. A lot.
- Level 1: Deliverables. You talk about what you do.
- Level 2: Ideas. You talk about how you think.
- Level 3: Outcomes. You talk about what they get.
At the end of the day, clients don’t want deliverables, they want outcomes.
Talk to them about that.
P.S. If you want to learn more about the thumbnail strategy specifically, I encourage you to read the whole thread here.
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🖐 5. More Random Things I'm Into This Week...
🫖 New Limited Edition East Fork Pickup - Gumdrop
⚔️ Elden Ring Lore YouTube Channel I Discovered (Gamers Only) - The Tarnished Archaeologist
🍬 Awesome Candy I Tried This Week - 4D Lucky Fish Gummies
🖼️ Artist Whose Work I Saw In Montreal & Loved - Alan Glass
💬 Quote I'm Pondering...
“Most of us seem to unconsciously judge what happens in our lives each day as good or bad, success or failure. We tend to feel happy about the "good" and angry, frustrated, or guilty about the "bad." Good and bad feelings, though, often have little to do with what's truly good or bad for us. We may learn more from our failures than our successes, especially if failure has come from taking a risk.”
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🎧 ON THE PODCAST 🎧
Ep. 31 - 🌡️ Why You’re Stuck at the Same Income Level (The Success Thermostat)
In this episode, I cover:
- Why entrepreneurs get stuck at the exact same income level for years
- Why using fear as motivation leads to burnout (and what to do instead)
- Why your income ceiling isn't a business problem - it's an IDENTITY problem
- Why your biggest fear isn't failure - it's actually success
- 7 frameworks you can use to reset your internal "success thermostat"
 Watch Here
Or listen to audio only here.
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How we can work together
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 gives the playbook. Enrolling now. (400+ past students. 5 stars)
- 🧪 The Lab. I advise and mentor 6-7 figure Creative Solopreneurs. If you want to work closely with me (i.e. we speak 1-2 times a week), watch this video, then let's talk.
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😊 Have a great week - Rich
P.S. Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe here.
P.P.S. Thank you for trusting me with your time. If these emails ever turn into a burden, I encourage you to unsubscribe from Work Less Wednesday.
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