1000x leverage

Ever since I learned about the idea of leverage, I’ve been obsessed.

Leverage is the idea that you can achieve more results with less work. Two of the things I talk about most—software and content—are massive leverage. There’s a reason Naval Ravikant said “If you can't code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.”

It takes the same amount of work to write a tweet to 10 followers or 100k followers, but the results are very different. The same with writing software. Once the software is written, it can go to 1 user or 100k users, but again the results are very different. That’s leverage. No extra work. Big financial rewards. We live in the age of infinite leverage. But how do you go get this mysterious “leverage” thing?

On top of code and content, there’s a couple more ways to gain leverage: how you deploy your capital and leverage your network. If you don’t know what I mean yet, you’ll see by the end of the post. Here’s all the ways I’m using and gaining leverage across:

1. Code

2. Content

3. Capital

4. Network

Code:

I can’t code, but I can use other people’s code to gain leverage.

As the Head of Growth at Product Hunt, I’m constantly finding cool new software. Here’s 11 pieces of software I use to help me gain 1000x leverage.

1. TweetHunter: Scheduling tweets so they go out while I’m at the gym, auto-plugging my book under viral posts for me, etc.

2. Zapier: Automations to send book purchasers to my newsletter, notify my podcast producer of new podcast appointments, etc.

3. Beehiiv: Welcome sequences setup for new subscribers, automations based on survey info, automations based on clicks, etc.

4. Loom: Documenting and sending workflow processes to employees for seamless delegation, avoiding pointless meetings, moving faster

5. PhantomBuster: Auto-accepting requests on LinkedIn and sending them my newsletter, auto-adding people in my industry, etc.

6. Calendly: Podcasts, client meetings, phone calls, etc

7. Intro: Lets people sign up for monthly consulting subscriptions, sign up for recurring calls, and chat with me all in 1 place

8. Stripe: Newsletter subscriptions, Meme Alerts subscriptions, ghostwriting, etc.

9. Otter AI: Automatically send my community’s weekly meeting notes to my community so I don’t have to do it

10. Slack: Automated reminders 1 hour before calls, automated weekly check-in messages to employees, etc.

11. Repurpose: Sending all my YouTube shorts to TikTok/Instagram so I don’t even know when I’m going viral (it’s amazing)

Content:

Memes are the highest leverage tool in marketing.

Think about it: 1) memes are free, 2) fast to make, and 3) have huge viral potential.

You don’t need to go pay some marketing agency $10k for creative assets, you can make a meme in 10 minutes and get the same amount of views and sales all from your toilet. Meme Teams are the new Mad Men.

Yes I do tons of other kinds of content too, but memes are the highest leverage.

P.S. If you want to increase your memetic leverage, make sure to check out my daily newsletter with viral new meme templates Meme Alerts.

Capital:

Scared money don’t make money.

If you’ve got some cash laying around and you’re ready to jump on an opportunity, it’s time to start deploying capital. Here’s how I’m deploying capital:

1. Hired a full-time podcast producer: He handles all editing, show-notes, thumbnails, scheduling, writing posts, booking guests, etc.

2. Hired a full-time writer for Meme Alerts: He handles all Meme Alerts writing, sourcing new memes, and running a 2nd account to promote Meme Alerts

3. Hired engineers for Meme Alerts: I’m turning Meme Alerts into a SaaS and it’s almost ready to launch (I could’ve never done this alone)

4. Angel investing: Writing small checks ($3-10k) into early-stage startups to diversify bets and build portfolio

5. Taking paycut to get equity: I’m super bullish on 1 of the companies I work with so I took a paycut in order to get equity

6. Laundry: Pay $20 to the laundry place next-door, save 2 hours/week

7. Food Delivery: I’m of the Alex Hormozi belief that cooking is mostly a waste of time. I usually go out, order food, or get pre-made food.

8. Cleaning: Hired cleaning lady to come 1-2x/month. Saves me tons of time, makes wife very happy (worth the money)

9. Airplane Wifi: Bro!!! Buy the $8 wifi, your time is more valuable.

A good question to consider when deploying capital: What can I delegate, automate, and build systems for? See my post Systems, Funnels, and Processes for more.

Network:

1. Guest posts and podcasts: Doing guest posts on friends’ blogs and going on friends’ podcasts have driven me 100s of newsletter signups and book sales.

2. Guest speakers to community: Thanks to my network, I’m able to bring in top-notch guest speakers to my community.

3. Angel Investing: Unlike public markets where you can invest in anything, startup investing is a network game. You’ve gotta rely on your network and reputation to source and close deals.

4. Referrals: I’m no longer taking on new ghostwriting clients, so I refer potential clients to my talented network of friends and make $1-2k every time.

Leverage means your time is super-charged

The more leverage you get, the more every hour of your time is valuable.

When you find out about a new software that lets you build web apps, boom, your time is more valuable. When your following grows, boom, your time is more valuable. Infinite leverage makes you feel like you can do anything. So now that your time is super-charged and more valuable than ever, the main question to ask yourself is no longer “how will you do this?” but rather “what will you do with your time?” 

Now that we all have more leverage than ever, good judgement is more important than ever. As Naval wrote, “Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment.” Software is leverage. Distribution is leverage. Capital is leverage. Your network is leverage. If you have all of the above, it means you better judge and choose well what to do with your time because your leverage is higher than ever (and your opportunity cost of choosing wrong may be higher than ever too). You’re like an investor putting 1000x leverage on every goddamn decision. So decide well nerds.

My adventures this week

I had 2 geniuses on my pod this week. Pick your poison.

1. Sasha Kaletsky runs a $20M venture firm investing in creator software. We chatted about his investment in Beehiiv, his thoughts on AI startups, creator-focused marketing, and much more.

2. In 2008, Derek Sivers sold CD Baby for $22M and went off-grid to New Zealand to write books. We talked for an hour this week. Expect a deep thoughtful convo on life, death, money, software, and everything in between.

Tech Memes of the Week

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason “The Memelord” Levin

Head of Growth @ Product Hunt, Author of Memes Make Millions