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)
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.
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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.
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Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onSpotify[image error]Listen onOvercast#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)This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system.
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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 MoreWhat 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 EPISODEConnect with Sam Corcos:Levels Health | Twitter | Goodreads (Book Recommendations)
Publicly Shared Company-Building and Strategy Docs | Levels HealthSam Corcos DelegationsOrganizational Design PrinciplesOrganizational EntropyPrinciples of Effective Communication (Part 1)Principles of Effective Communication (Part 2)Confidence Is EarnedPrinciples of Decision-MakingWhy We Write Such Long MemosInternal Communications PrinciplesHow We Do MeetingsTeam Building at LevelsTransparency Strategy — Building in PublicAnd Our Follow-up Transparency Strategy, Where We Push Things a Little FurtherJob TitlesHiring PhilosophyCompensation PhilosophyProduct-Design-Engineering BottlenecksHow to Reduce Scope and Combat Scope CreepWhat Should a Startup Prioritize?Software Development Culture Shift — May 2023Levels: A Cultural Anomaly | The GeneralistThe 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | AmazonExecutive Assistants and Why They Are a Force Multiplier for Our Team | Levels: Inside the Company #26A Tactical Guide to Working with EAs: How to Make Delegation Your Superpower | First Round ReviewAn Exact Breakdown of How One CEO Spent His First Two Years of Company-Building | First Round ReviewImposter Syndrome: Why You May Feel Like a Fraud | Verywell MindNo Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer | AmazonThe 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Warner Klemp | AmazonNonviolent Communication: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values by Marshall B. Rosenberg | AmazonThe Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande | AmazonTreat People Like Adults | A Whole New Level #67A Lack of Communication Is a Lack of Performance | A Whole New Level #188Ray Dalio’s Employees Called Out His Terrible Leadership. His Response Vastly Improved Their Corporate Culture | Inc.One Platform to Connect | ZoomAsync Video Messaging for Work | LoomA “Good at Computers” Loom Session with Jackie | Levels HealthThe Birth of Radio Drama | The AtlanticPair Programming | WikipediaFriday Forums | Levels HealthYour Connected Workspace for Wiki, Docs, and Projects | NotionGoogle Docs | Google WorkspaceThe Real Reason the Sound of Your Own Voice Makes You Cringe | The Guardian“I’m Not Listening to Your 3-Minute Voice Note.” | Seth at InstagramIntroducing ChatGPT | OpenAIHow to Create a Great Organizational Culture at Your Company | LoomVirtual Executive Assistants | AthenaThe World’s Work Marketplace | UpworkHeadhunter Agency for Overseas Talent | ShepherdTwilight Imperium 4th Edition | AmazonFind Local Pros | ThumbtackHow Slack Ruined Work | Wired UKFully Automated Time-Tracking Software | RescueTimeThe Low Information Diet | Mr. Money MustacheTrust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday | AmazonSeriously, Juice Is Not Healthy | The New York TimesAddictive Potential of Social Media, Explained | ScopeA Deep Dive Into Levels’ Month-Long Onboarding Program | MediumThe Levels Cultural Handbook | A Whole New Level #39GitLab’s Guide to All-Remote | GitLab1982 Tron Light Cycle Race | YouTubeHow to Blur Sensitive Information | LoomDitch Your To-Do List and Use Your Calendar Instead | MGMT IdeasTetrisWaking Up with Sam Harris AppFactfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, and Anna Rosling Rönnlund | AmazonThe Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker | AmazonThe Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries | AmazonThe Japanese Call This Practice Tsundoku, and It May Provide Lasting Benefits | Big ThinkHow to Host Salon Dinners | Levels HealthDemocracy and the Epistemic Commons | The Consilience ProjectNFTs in Wine: Barrels, Bottles, and Blockchains | The World of Fine WineHow AI Could Finally Give Crypto Its Use Case | Fast CompanyJackie Treehorn’s Doodle Pad | The Big LebowskiFree Online Appointment Scheduling Software | CalendlyPublic Opinion on Scheduling Etiquette Is Shifting | CalendlyInbox Zero and Time Management for Productivity | A Whole New Level #8Shortcut All the Things | Why We Emphasize Keyboard Shortcuts | Levels HealthLess Typing, Fewer Mistakes: How Gmail Snippets Can Save You Time and Effort | ZDNETWhy the Most Successful People Schedule Their Free Time | Inc.What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture by Ben Horowitz | AmazonThe Matrix | Prime VideoSix Steps for Successful Postmortem Meetings | AsanaFounder Dynamics | A Whole New Level #14Dustin Moskovitz’s Template: Time Budget | Google SheetsContext Switching is Killing Your Productivity | AsanaMemos over Meetings | A Whole New Level #65Creating a Digital Media Strategy | A Whole New Level #70Making Neural Nets Uncool Again | Fast.aiHow Levels got a 37,000-Person Waitlist | MixergyPlenty of Brainy People Believe in God. Let’s Hear from Them | The GuardianThe Holy Trinity: Doctrine of One God in Three Persons | Christianity.comHow to be Ultra Spiritual with JP Sears | Awaken with JPThe Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by William James | AmazonPostmodernism | Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyMoral Relativism | Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyA Brief Introduction to Marxism | The Curious ClassroomBurning ManNetwork Theory | WikipediaDunbar’s Number: Why We Can Only Maintain 150 Relationships | BBC FutureEigenvector Centrality | WikipediaThe Strength of Weak Ties by Mark Granovetter | American Journal of SociologyThe Real Strength of Weak Ties | Stanford NewsThe Juice Cart | A Whole New Level #4Creating New Categories: Metabolic Health with Sam Corcos & Andrew Conner, Co-Founders of Levels | The Deep EndJavaScript With Syntax For Types | TypeScriptSam’s Minimum Viable Stuff (December 2021) | Google SlidesPocket US Constitution and Declaration of Independence | AmazonSHOW 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
The post 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) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss.
