I just, I wanted to do a case study. I like doing case studies so we can see some of my ideas and action in the real world. So I have a, a written case study here from Liz. And so I'm going to read what Liz sent me. Thanks to your books and podcasts.

I doubled my income while cutting my hours in half. I am a freelance copywriter working in the advertising space. I came up through the ranks working the 60 plus hour weeks that advertising is known for. But along the way I created some commercials and campaigns that got national recognition and earned me enough career capital to go freelance after the birth of my first son.

That career capital was enough to get me clients as the new freelancer, but not enough to get me the lifestyle I was hoping for. I was still working crazy hours and feeling burnt out. This is where your ideas changed my life. I began implementing office hours with my clients via Slack and devoting large chunks of my day to doing uninterrupted writing.

This immediately increased my quality of work while cutting my hours by at least 30%, if not more. My clients didn't bat an eye because I was still agreeing to use their preferred method of communication, which was Slack and I was responding promptly to them during my next office hour.

It also didn't hurt that I framed those office hours as a way to maximize their money. Because at the end of the day, every client will acknowledge they aren't paying me to talk to them on Slack. They're paying me to write good ads. I also quit all forms of social media, which has given me so much more mental clarity than I ever could have imagined.

And I think has increased my overall productivity just as much as time blocking and office hours. Since going freelance, I have raised my rates twice without losing any clients. Right now I am on retainer with two different agencies for a total of 40 hours. But since implementing your practices has allowed me to work so much, much quicker, I often complete my work in half that time.

I spend this extra time picking up odd freelance jobs for extra income, reading books or going on phone free walks. I also stop work at 3pm every day to be with my older son when he gets home from preschool. It's exactly the lifestyle I had imagined with going freelance and I couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you. So Jesse, I love this case study for multiple reasons because it has multiple ideas we talk about working. And so I'm looking at my notes here about this case study. First, is this the, the career capital framework? I think that was absolutely the right framework for Liz to think about her career.

Yep. So her ultimate goal was to be freelance with flexible hours with good compensation. But you know, I'm done with work by three. And so she got enough career capital to go freelance by being so good. She couldn't be ignored. She had some ad campaigns that won awards, got national recognition, but it wasn't yet enough to get her to the schedule she wanted.

And so there she threw in, she had the capital for it. Then she threw in tactics. So it's this combination of career capital and tactics aimed at the particular vision you have of your lifestyle. So she put that together really nicely. If she had only done one and not the other, it would have been a problem.

If she had only focused on career capital, as we saw, she was still crazy busy, even after she was nationally recognized. And if she had only focused on strategies, she would have had trouble because if she wasn't doing work that was being nationally recognized, no one cares what your time management strategies are.

They're not going to hire you. And so I thought that combination was very powerful. Second thing I noticed here, um, was this notion. I talk about this in a world without email. People are afraid of if I put structure to communication with clients, they will not tolerate it. They demand accessibility.

I always argue that's not true. Clients don't need accessibility. They need consistency. They need to understand if I need to contact you, how does that work? And if they understand how that works, the accessibility is not so important. Accessibility is only important if there's no other system. So if it's just, I don't know, we just slack back and forth, then I really need you to answer my slack right away because otherwise I have to like sit around and wait and I don't know what I'm going to get an answer.

But if you have something that's consistent and clear, like office hours every day, that's when I will answer you. That's completely fine because what you're providing for the client is clarity. Oh, okay. So Liz, I can't just slack her right now. Um, but at three o'clock or two o'clock or whatever I can, and she'll answer, or I can send this to her now and expect an answer at two.

Great. I have clarity here. It's consistent and clear. I don't have to worry about this. Let me move on with all these other things I care about in my life. I don't care that she answers my slack right now. I care that I know and can trust when she will.

And so this clarity over accessibility is a theme that comes up often. Liz lived that out. Her clients were fine. Yeah. Okay. I can wait till office hours. I don't care. Just tell me how I do this. Great. Office hours. Good. Let's roll. And so she lost no clients doing that.

Um, I also like she quit social media. We often see this as two different magisteria. There's your personal life being on your phone. This is like digital minimalism applies. And then you have your professional life and it's about email and slack. And that's where books like deep work in a world without email apply.

They're not so separate. And as Liz learned, especially as a freelancer, what she was looking at, at her phone, the distraction that engendered though, not coming from clients and not directly related to work, distracted her from her work. And it was taking her much more time to get things done.

So when she got rid of social media, she's locked in when I'm working, I'm working and you don't have this back and forth. I think that's a big part of my own success is my lack of social media use means I'm working. I'm working. This is why a lot gets produced, even though I work a very standard number of hours.

And the final thing I'll say, I really liked about Liz's case study is that it is lifestyle centric career planning. She was a copywriter working big hours. Instead of just saying, I just want to quit or I want to make more money. She said, what lifestyle do I want?

She wanted autonomy. She wanted to be done by work by three to spend time with her kids and have similar compensation to what she was getting for working 60 plus hours. And there wasn't a switch she could flick the mint tomorrow. I'm going to have that, but she knew what she was working backwards from.

And she changed after change. Let me get really good. So good. I can't ignore you. Let me go freelance. Now that I'm freelancing, let me throw in tactics. Let me tame the way I deal with clients. Let me work with distractions, work, work, work, work all towards this eventual goal.

And then she hit it. So she started with the lifestyle and that drove all of these decisions. And she finally got there. And as she says, it's exactly the lifestyle she had imagined. So Liz, I really liked that case study. This is my advice and action for crafting a deep life.

Make and double the money too. Oh yeah. So I had that wrong. Yeah. She's doubling. Yeah. She's raised her weight rates twice and she's on a 40 hour a week retainer. Yeah. So she's probably making more bank than she was doing 60 hour weeks. I like it. Yeah. All right.

Well, good work Liz.