Tim Ferriss

September 20, 2023

Sam Corcos, Co-Founder of Levels — The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants, 10x Delegation, and Winning Freedom by Letting Go (Plus: Creating Leverage with Tools, Systems, and Processes) (#694)

“A lack of communication is a lack of performance.”
— Sam Corcos

Sam Corcos (@samcorcos) is the CEO and co-founder of Levels, an a16z-backed startup that shows you how food affects your health, using continuous glucose monitors and other biosensors.

Please enjoy!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Brought to you by Sundays for Dogs ultra-high-quality dog food, AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement, and Shopify global commerce platform, providing tools to start, grow, market, and manage a retail business.

The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

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#694: Sam Corcos, Co-Founder of Levels — The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Assistants, 10x Delegation, and Winning Freedom by Letting Go (Plus: Creating Leverage with Tools, Systems, and Processes)

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This episode is brought to you by Shopify! Shopify is one of my favorite platforms and one of my favorite companies. Shopify is designed for anyone to sell anywhere, giving entrepreneurs the resources once reserved for big business. In no time flat, you can have a great-looking online store that brings your ideas to life, and you can have the tools to manage your day-to-day and drive sales. Go to shopify.com/Tim to sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period. It’s a great deal for a great service, so I encourage you to check it out. Take your business to the next level today by visiting shopify.com/Tim.

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Want to hear an episode with another founder who finds novel ways to manage time? Listen to my conversation with Asana’s Dustin Moskovitz, in which we discussed making quicker decisions, avoiding the paradox of choice, difficult but desirable delegation, No Meeting Wednesdays, effective altruism, the future of AI, and much more.

#686: Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder of Asana and Facebook — Energy Management, Coaching for Endurance, No Meeting Wednesdays, Understanding the Real Risks of AI, Embracing Frictionless Work with AI, The Value of Holding Stories Loosely, and More

What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Sam Corcos:

Levels Health | Twitter | Goodreads (Book Recommendations)

Publicly Shared Company-Building and Strategy Docs | Levels Health

SHOW NOTES

[05:08] Delegation implementation and common mistakes.
[11:07] Recommended reading for delegators, delegatees, and all humans.
[13:26] Building a company culture that treats people like adults.
[15:01] Tools for performance and communication accountability.
[20:39] Why Sam considers Loom the “most important” tool in the kit.
[24:18] Friday Forum.
[27:17] Acclimating the recording-averse to Loom.
[30:40] Organizing Loom recordings for later search and use.
[36:35] Common challenges of sourcing and properly utilizing EAs/chiefs of staff.
[43:19] Novelty-seeking and board games.
[44:35] Vetting, pairing, and onboarding EAs and chiefs of staff.
[48:38] News and social media sobriety.
[55:20] Why does new employee onboarding take a month at Levels?
[1:00:59] What most delegators wish they’d known as newbs.
[1:04:57] Loom security and privacy concerns.
[1:08:10] From to-do list to calendar.
[1:13:17] How Sam skips the to-do list entirely.
[1:16:49] General schedule and repeating items.
[1:18:22] Scheduling stress reduction.
[1:21:59] Selecting books and hosting themed salon dinners.
[1:37:03] Calendly and related social hurdles.
[1:38:42] Using email proactively.
[1:41:23] The underrated power of hotkeys and shortcuts.
[1:44:42] Scheduling spontaneity.
[1:48:23] Calendar course correction.
[1:49:59] How Sam utilizes multiple EAs.
[1:51:58] Improvement growth for intermediate delegators.
[1:58:56] The Working with Sam user manual.
[2:04:20] Memo culture over meeting culture.
[2:11:55] Fighting organizational entropy.
[2:14:12] Raised secularly, what does Sam get out of theology?
[2:22:54] The perils of postmodernism.
[2:26:35] Network theory and relationship management.
[2:39:33] The investor-swaying juice cart moment.
[2:41:22] Metabolic health and the Levels mission.
[2:45:29] Who is Levels hiring right now?
[2:46:37] Physical over philosophical minimalism.
[2:51:37] Why Sam has a travel-sized copy of the US Constitution.
[2:55:21] Parting thoughts.

MORE SAM CORCOS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW

“A lack of communication is a lack of performance.”
— Sam Corcos

“One of my new rules over the last couple of years is, I will only purchase a book if it is the next book that I’m going to read. I just found that stacks of books that I have committed to reading, that I have not read, felt like a betrayal of my own commitment to myself.”
— Sam Corcos

“You spend a handful of minutes, 15 minutes, maybe 10 minutes, one time, learning what hotkeys to use. And most people will see a 10 to 40 percent increase in productivity immediately for the rest of their lives. And yet most people don’t take the time to learn them. It is a free productivity boost.”
— Sam Corcos

“If you cannot write out your ideas, you do not have coherent thoughts.”
— Sam Corcos

“Every new surface that you add is an obligation to maintain — maybe forever.”
— Sam Corcos

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That's how we're gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you're rude, we'll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)

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Roberto Ibarra

2 years ago

Torrenegra (Colombia) popularized the user manual for reference in:
[1:58:56] The Working with Sam user manual.

Scott

2 years ago

LOVED this episode! This felt like old school Tim Ferriss – diving deep into the tactical, yet very insightful in how to gain productivity and improve communication.

Re: Loom, I’ve used it too but for a different use that was equally effective. When I network or job hunt, I create a personalized 2-3min video introducing myself, showing off my work, and why I want to meet. I used this to land my last job. After meeting with the recruiter and obtaining the interview list, I created a video and sent it to each person on the list prior to our interview time. Not only did I impress the hell out of the recruiter, it helped answer most of the questions from the hiring manager and allowed us to go deeper into specific questions. And yes, I did get the job!

Kaitlyn Dineen

2 years ago

I dont see his Notion page that outlines his assistant tasks referenced. Are you able to include?

Christopher Breedlove

2 years ago

Reply to Kaitlyn Dineen

Also looking for this.

Marcus

2 years ago

Reply to Christopher Breedlove

Likewise. Will this be added?

Marc Gadsdon

2 years ago

Reply to Kaitlyn Dineen

I think the link you want is the first one in the list above – “Sam Corcos Delegations”

Carlos

2 years ago

Alright, my company is struggling right now and I’m going all in with the strategies and tactics brought in this episode. I’m coming back in one year to tell how it went.

Louie Syred

1 year ago

Reply to Carlos

How did it go?

Dipti Paranjape

2 years ago

Two Comments that really stood out: “A lack of communication is a lack of performance.” “Your To-Do-List is your calendar.” I really enjoyed this episode. And have re-heard the one with Arthur Brooks. In my busy and manic schedules, I find your interviews a great way to center myself and my thoughts. Thank you!! Do you have any recommendations on how to build persuasion skills? What do you do if the insights and data point one way but your stakeholder wants the other. How do you convince them?

Wael Mahmoud

2 years ago

Hi Tim, great episode as always. Thank you. A question that I would have liked to ask Sam is about VAs and sharing logins, cc details or even access to my content. Is there a way around this like using an intermediary third party app? How should I contact Sam to find out? Thank you

Alexandre Nizoux

2 years ago

Thanks a lot Tim for yet another amazing interview. Sam is now a clear inspiration for me as he seems to have analyzed, captured and rendered conscious and purposeful a LOT of my default settings and behavior. I am grateful for what you both offered here.

Is this what was mentioned as a “how-to-work-with-me-guide”? https://torrenegra.medium.com/my-expectations-as-your-coworker-bb1881923164

Thanks again.

Amy Fee Bruzzichesi

2 years ago

Thank you for this episode. Sam’s discussion of time-blocking tasks on to the calendar along with links/information from their originating emails is helping me dig my way out of an avoidance loop with my inbox. I’m scheduling those tasks on my calendar, copy-pasting the reference info, and I HAVE MY TIME BACK. To the EA reading this– I would so much appreciate it if you would pass my deep appreciation along to Sam and Tim for helping me with something that has been a major hurdle for me for many years!

Anonymous

1 year ago

Reply to Amy Fee Bruzzichesi

I think this is what he was talking about.

https://levelshealth.notion.site/Sam-Corcos-Delegations-PUBLIC-8dbb1de9282a45adb8821838b18b2e66

Anonymous

2 years ago

Thanks for the thoughtful discussion on theology. I would enjoy a deeper dive on that topic in a future episode. Sam’s journey in that area of life sounds similar to mine. I appreciated your curiosity and open minded discussion. And the Loom ideas were great – my playbook is changing as a result!

Edillys

2 years ago

Hello, is there anyone here?

I’m practicing the first discomfort challenge, “learning to stare into the eyes”; I decided to start by learning to look at myself for 3 minutes, have you ever tried that? It is very challenging, thank you very much for your book, it is like swimming in your head, without knowing how to swim, without a lifeguard.

Btw: Hey Timothy Ferriss, you’re the first “unreachable” person I’ve written an email to and not in my native language.

Thank you!

drendel

2 years ago

He mentioned a couple of times that they measured increases in productivity with adding or changing an EA, any idea what they use to measure that with their employees?

Paula Butler

2 years ago

How I LOVED this episode! Such a generous and honest sharing of incredibly well thought out strategies for life. I have numerous notes, book references and ideas to follow up on from this one conversation. It’s a must listen for anyone who is seeking to maximise their time in order to lead a meaningful life. I love that it’s not just “productivity” for the sake of it but rather a strategy for living a more fulfilling and conscious life. Thank you both so much. Paula

Rugilė

1 year ago

Beautiful, I listened to this conversation again.
Thank you both very much.