I am SO excited about this week’s 5-minute book review segment.
If you haven’t heard, one of my goals this year was to read at least one book a week. And so far I’ve almost doubled that goal!
But more importantly, I’ve committed to implementing at least one new thing from each book I read.
Imagine how much your business would change if you implemented one new thing every single week?
And here’s the best part —
not only am I going to share what I read and what I learned, but I’m also giving away 10 copies of this book.
Here’s how to enter to win…
Leave a Review
Share a Screenshot
Ok without further ado, today I’m excited to introduce you to
The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.
For years my friends have told me to read Tim’s book… I’ve had so many people tell me that the way I teach my Business with Impact Society™ members productivity and how I’ve worked so diligently to master the art of working only 4 hours a day 4 days a week is something that needs its own book.
My only hesitation was that this book was that Audible told me it was going to take 13 hours to listen to it at regular speed. “Ummm…. Tim… that’s more than three WEEKS of work according to your four hours a week title!”
And yet, as I’m constantly telling my clients “the fact that you think you don’t have time to put in automations is the EXACT reason you MUST get them in place!” – It’s a total catch-22, am I right?!
Now I always want to give you the whole story when it comes to a book – and this one is excellent. While many of the concepts weren’t “new” to me, hearing Tim share how and when he’d implemented them was fantastic… and it gave me even more ideas as I continue to work to whittle down my already limited hours each week.
But I do want to warn you that you will want to apply your own filter to this book. When he wrote this, Tim was a single man who was looking for a way to travel the world without being tied down to one location. And he did this with a products-based approach.
I have no desire to be location independent – my husband and I feel very called to live where we are. We are here on purpose and for a purpose. So if you’re like me and location independence isn’t what you’re striving for, this book is still for you.
I also have no desire to have a products business. I help online business owners, course creators, coaches, and freelancers grow and scale their business using the power of automation – so they can start and scale their businesses without sacrificing their family, free time, or sanity.
And while I’ve helped many products-based do the same – it’s not my calling. So if you’re like me and a products business isn’t what you’re growing, this book is still for you.
I applied WAY more than three things that I learned while listening to this audiobook – and if I can take away that many things as a parent who has different ambitions than Tim, then I’m confident you can too.
… it gave me even more ideas as I continue to work to whittle down my already limited hours each week.
These are my top 3 takeaways from The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
#1
otherwise known as the 80/20 rule. Now we’ve talked about this before – in fact the entire premise behind my Business with Impact Society™ is the fact that 80% of the results come from 20% of the activities – so in The Business with Impact Society™ we focus on the 20% so that we can grow and scale more quickly while living a priority based life.
But what I love about the way that Tim approaches it. He says “Doing something unimportant well doesn’t make it important.”
When I heard him say that it immediately got me thinking about my own life and business — are there areas that I’m naturally good at but that aren’t actually important to the business? Are there areas I’m spending time on that aren’t really affecting the bottom line? Are there things we’re investing in that we aren’t really seeing a Return on Investment from?
And that combined with a few other things was the catalyst for my most recent social media fast, which I talk about more in Episode 146. And (spoiler alert) doing so didn’t hurt my business at all!
#2
#2 – The tools, templates, scripts, and systems.
The 4-Hour Work Week is broken down into four themes:
Definition
Elimination
Automation
Liberation
And in each theme, Tim doesn’t hold back – he shares all of the books he read, the systems he used, the emails he sent, the conversations he had, and more.
Now in the definition phase, we start by defining what success looks like on our terms – not what we’ve been taught or what others are doing – but what we want. Tim wants to travel the world and work only four hours a week. I want to fulfill two purposes at once – spending more time with my family while serving more people through the Business with Impact Society™.
In the elimination phase, we take things off of our plate that aren’t in the 20%. Here Tim shares ideas like his “media fast” which I now have a low-diet of, and it has changed so many things for me! He talks about stopping a book that you just don’t like and never picking it up again. And he talks about how to say no – tactfully and gracefully.
In the automation phase, he shares all kinds of tools and systems he uses – this section was so valuable as we started using several in our business too! He shares scripts + templates and so many high-value pieces that we found so useful in this phase.
In the liberation phase, he talks about how everyone from employees to entrepreneurs can embrace a freedom lifestyle – and again gave so many ideas, worked through difficult conversations, and shared the strategies and techniques that have worked for him and his students.
#3
#3 – Validating Your Business Idea BEFORE You Create It
in the Business with Impact Society™ we teach a concept that we call “Getting Paid to Create Your Offer” – what I mean by that is that when I have an idea for a course or program, I validate it by asking people “if I created this, would you want it?”.
If I get enough of a response, then I create the Sales Page using my Sales Page that Sells™ framework and I “launch” the offer as a “Beta” – meaning the first round or “paid test group.”
The test group knows that we are creating this together and they get the benefit of group calls that future customers may not have access to. They also get a discounted rate. And I get paid to create the program + the accountability to get it finished WITH them.
This concept is true whether you’re creating a digital product or a physical one — validate the idea through pre-sales.
As you can see when it comes to how he’s created a life he loves to live, Tim covers #allthingssales in this book.
Have you read The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss?
What was your biggest takeaway? Tag me @rachelrmcmichael and Tim Ferriss @timferriss on Instagram to be entered to win one of 10 copies this week.
And if you’re looking for a list of all of my favorites, head to rachelmcmichael.com/books for a full listing of all of the books I recommend for online business owners. In this list I’m sharing my favorites for leadership, mindset, team building, productivity, audience and traffic growth, content creation, sales, and money.
As a final reminder…
we’re giving away 10 copies of this book
and there are TWO ways to be entered to win a copy:
Leave a Review
Share a Screenshot
Check out our New Book Recommendation Guide
For more details on all of my favorite books for online business owners (including books on leadership, mindset, entrepreneurship + team building, productivity, audience + traffic building, content creation, sales, and money + finance, click here.
DO MORE THAN AUTOMATE YOUR EMAIL…
CREATE BUYERS AND CUSTOMERS!
One of the most important softwares we use in our business every day is ActiveCampaign. We use it to communicate with our email list and to create funnels to take potential customers from “who's this” to “I'm ready to work with you”… but there are so many things you can use it for!
ActiveCampaign is Louis Vuitton quality CRM at a Target price! With it you can create unlimited funnels, create tags and workflows, add notes to your customer files, manage #allthethings, and there are additional upgrades that even allow for texting and DMing, all from the platform!
Snag a 14-day free trial when you go to rachelmcmichael.com/active (the “lite” plan at $9/month has EVERYTHING you need!)
I know you’ll love ActiveCampaign as much as we do!
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Links mentioned in this episode:
- Grab the Productivity Playbook: rachelmcmichael.com/productivity
- Follow Rachel on Instagram: @rachelrmcmichael
Other ways to enjoy this episode:
Subscribe & Review On iTUNES!
Are you subscribed to the Business With Impact podcast on iTunes? If not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss a single content-rich episode. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!
And if you enjoyed today’s episode, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. iTunes reviews get the message out about this podcast, and I love hearing your feedback! All you have to do is click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what you loved about today’s episode.
You can also take a screenshot and post it to your Instagram Stories with your biggest takeaways and tag me, @rachelrmcmichael!
I’m so grateful for you!
