Strategic Subtraction - A 7-Step Process for Doing Less, Better

My friends who drive Jeeps tell me that something funny happens: Once you have one, you see them everywhere. Ideas work that way, too. One eludes you for years, and then all of the sudden, no matter where you turn, you see it. You can’t ignore it.

The idea of strategic subtraction was like that. It found me and kept finding me. In my online travels I caught glimpses of its leopard-spotted form.

Two examples will show you what I mean. Consider the first tweet in a February 2023 thread from marketing expert Katelyn Bourgoin:

There’s that word, “subtraction,” and later, in the same thread, Bourgoin points out the root problem: “Addition rarely solved the root problems in the business—it just created new ones.” Oof.

And her solution: “I had to do less, better.” Bourgoin echoes industrial designer Dieter Rams. More on Rams here.

Next, consider these excerpts from an interview with entrepreneur and former competitive cyclist Rob Fraser, published in October 2024:

“To get more, you should be doing less; typically you should be subtracting. So going into this year [2024], we are very clear on our goals. There’s almost a bit of an insecurity. Are socks enough? Is it a big enough goal? But [getting] outside of my own ego, why aren’t socks enough? Right? It’s a $50 billion industry, we’re a leader in it, and we’re doing really well and we’re of that market size.” - Rob Fraser

“Last year, mid-year, is when we were like, “That didn’t work out.” That’s when I just wiped the table clean and said, “Here’s everything we’re not doing anymore. We’re just going to strip this down. We’re going to subtract and rebuild because this just isn’t working, and I don’t care about these growth goals anymore. We need to get back to a place where we’re operating authentically and doing good work and fulfilling our mission. We’re not even listening to the customer anymore. We’re doing things trying to chase growth.” (bold mine)

Fraser hints at why we take on too much in the first place: “There’s almost a bit of an insecurity. Are socks enough?”

Substitute your niche for socks, and you have the ingredients for the tendency I see in nine out of ten of the freelancers and consultants I coach:

1. Worry that you are not enough.
2. Worry that your chosen niche isn’t rich enough.
3. Worry that the combination of these two, like a spark and petrol, will explode in your face.

And then let all those worries, especially the one about impending disaster, compel you to say yes to nearly every decent opportunity or paying project that comes along.

Before you start beating yourself up for being chronically overcommitted, I want you to know that this state of being is like a thick forest that every entrepreneurs must traverse.

Take Elon Musk, for example. Whether you believe he is part of the problem or the solution, you can’t deny that he knows something about engineering. In an interview with Everyday Astronaut, he shared the five-step process his teams follow:

1. Make your requirements less dumb. “Your requirements are definitely dumb” because everyone is wrong some of the time. The risk of moving forward with dumb requirements is even higher when smart people hand them down because fewer subordinates will question them.
2. Try very hard to delete the part or process. The bias is toward add-it-in-case-we-need-it argument, but you can make it in favor of many things. If you aren’t adding things back in later, then you didn’t delete enough at the start.
3. Simplify or optimize. Once you’ve verified that the part or process should exist, improving it is worth the effort.
4. Accelerate cycle time. You’re moving too slowly. Move faster, but only after you’ve gone through the first three steps. Some humor from Musk to punctuate: “Your grave—don’t dig it faster. Stop digging your grave.”
5. Automate. Remove yourself from the process entirely.

After sharing the process, Musk admits that it resulted from getting the steps in the wrong order many times: Automated, accelerated, simplified, and then deleted.

So here’s a guy who has built multiple billion-dollar companies and who wants to colonize Mars, and probably will, and he’s saying that he eventually figured out that the best engineers delete more than their average peers.

I could keep piling on more examples to prove my point, but we’re here to talk about strategic subtraction. It’s worth examining why we find ourselves with a surplus of projects, plans, and responsibilities.

Why do we overcommit?

Granted, that’s like asking, “Why do we worry about things beyond our control?” Uh, because we’re human and we’re forgetful, emotional, and social, but I digress.

Let me share 4 factors I have observed during my own intimate acquaintance with the obvious of strategic subtraction, which I’ll call “automatic addition”:

• Insecurity. Early in my freelance career, I had no clue what I was doing. I felt like an artist adrift in the business world, and as such, I always assumed I was doing something wrong. That insecurity that Rob Fraser pointed out related to socks? I had it about my capabilities. Negativity bias exacerbated the problem: Even when I had proof that I had done certain things well, I paid more attention to my mistakes and perceived flaws.
• Scarcity mindset. I’ve been in debt most of my adult life. Some of it came from investments in education and business ventures. Some of it resulted from circumstances beyond my control—for example, a medical event followed by an air conditioning unit pooping out. Some of it stemmed from ill-considered or indulgent decisions. Fine, I’m frail, finite, fallible—human—and it’s okay to make mistakes. I knew that in the logical part of my mind, and meanwhile, the emotional residue of my “failures,” including shame, fear, anger, embarrassment, influenced my mindset. I didn’t want to end up back at the bottom of the hole, so when opportunities presented themselves, I took on more and more to make more and more money without fully considering what all those yeses and commitments would mean for my health, joy, and family, or the hours I’d need to put into the business. Many solopreneurs fail to see the connection between scarcity mindset and burnout.
• Good advice. When someone like Richard Branson recommends you “protect your downside,” you pay attention. I’m naturally an Option B thinker, so you don’t have to tell me twice to hedge my bets. Combine that with scarcity mindset, and pretty soon, anxiety is masquerading as strategy. The various backup plans siphon time and attention from the main thing, and at times, I have spent the least time on what I told you was my main thing. All the while, I was wrapping good advice around the wrong set of circumstances.
• Optionality. It’s much easier to go after what you want if you, ahem, know what you want. But I’m the multipotentialite type. I was the class clown who secretly made straight As. I read more books than anyone else I knew and the only thing I loved more than literature was fishing. I’m endlessly curious, and I find it easy to get excited about what other people are working on, especially if there’s an intellectual or creative problem to solve. What I wanted could easily get obscured by temporary fascinations and passionate and persuasive friends and collaborators. I’d say yes to too many projects and opportunities, which were a warm yes but not what Derek Sivers would call a hot “hell yes.” Being a multipotentialite cuts both ways: I have all the options, and it’s difficult for me to pick just one thing to wholeheartedly pursue.

Of course, we could delve into the other reasons we fall prey to automatic addition: social pressure, the desire to not hurt people’s feelings, people pleasing, being caught off guard and not knowing how to say no,  and good old-fashioned fear of missing out.

For the sake of subtraction, let’s explore practical ways to embrace strategic subtraction:

1. Take inventory. Write down all of your projects, services, products, ventures, commitments, and responsibilities.
2. Find keepers. Most of us want more money, freedom, satisfaction, and impact. Go back to each item on your list, write any of those four that apply next to it, and circle the items that have a clear and high correlation to the business you want to build and life you want to live. We can’t always do what we want and get what we want. That is, we sometimes give up freedom for money or sacrifice short-term satisfaction for long-term impact. Even so, it’s usually pretty clear what things in your list are the keepers.
3. Compare results. You may want to keep certain services or continue in a certain direction with your business. Strategic subtraction would dictate that you look for ways to get better results with less effort. So ask yourself, “What’s working?” Or, “What should I double down on?” And, “What should I stop doing?”
4. Cut fluff. Now that you have clarity, you must make definitive decisions. What will you do? What will you defer or delegate? What will you delete? Write one of those words—Do, Defer, Delegate, Delete—next to everything in your list. Then, write the action step—for example, “Email Susanne to let her know I need to need to step down from the board.” Your first set of actions should be those related to Defer, Delegate, and Delete, so that you free up time inventory to focus on your Do list.
5. List Don’ts. Projects and commitments have a way of sneaking back in. While everything is fresh on your mind, make a Don’t List. You’ve just gone to the trouble of eliminating distractions, and you’ll need to maintain vigilance.
6. Create rules. It’s easy to say yes. So easy, in fact, that Nobel-prize winning behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman decided to not make decisions on the phone. He had come to regret enough of those yeses that he realized the only way to avoid them was to make a rule about it. Instead of relying on clear thinking and willpower to shore up your resolve to do less, rely on rules: “No last-minute client projects.” “No projects with a budget of less than $X,XXX.” “No meetings before 11:00am so I can write.”
7. Record decisions. Strategic subtraction led me to the decision to go all in on Freelance Cake. The thought of not proactively pursuing fCMO engagements scared me. My wife pointed out that I could always go back to consulting, which is true, but here was this thing I had dreamed about. What if I really went after it and it didn’t work? What if I… whiffed? We can “what if” ourselves straight into paralysis. I had to acknowledge my fear, and then I made a point to keep a decision journal. That way, I’d have a clear record of my thought process to return to on the days when I would inevitably second-guess myself. No matter how I’m feeling on any given day, I can trust that sensible, methodical thinking led me to this point. And if I did misjudge something, I’ll have an easier time pinpointing it.

So, Strategic Subtraction. We’ve reached the crux of this essay where you have to decide if you’re going to do anything with the idea.

Are you satisfied with the results you’re getting? If not, try subtracting.

As Bourgoin noted, “Addition rarely solved the root problems in the business—it just created new ones.”

P.S. If you want to get into the psychology and science behind subtraction, check out Subtract by University of Virginia professor Leidy Klotz.

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

1. Free Money. A pricing and money mindset guide for freelance creatives. If you’re unsure about your freelance pricing, this is the book for you.
2. Morning Marketing Habit. This course will help you build an “always be marketing” practice, become less dependent on referrals, and proactively build the business you want with the clients you want. My own morning marketing habit has enabled me to consistently make  6 figures as a freelancer.
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5. Clarity Session. It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle. I've done well over 100 of these 1:1 sessions with founders, solopreneurs, and freelancers who wanted guidance, a second opinion, or help creating a plan.