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Tim Ferriss

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)

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Artist's rendering of Sam Corcos.
Illustration via 99designs

“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 Sundays for Dogs, ultra-high-quality dog food without the prep or mess! Most healthy dog foods are an expensive, frozen mess. They’re a hassle to thaw and serve, and the prep work eats up time I’d rather spend hiking with Molly. Sundays for Dogs solves my problem with air-dried, high-quality dog food I can store and pour right from my pantry. Get 50% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs by going to SundaysForDogs.com/TIM or by using code TIM at checkout.

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)

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

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