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 is a OPEN AI summary of the Tim Ferriss Podcast #694- visit www.TinyTim.blog for more AI summaries, or www.Tim.blog for the official Tim Ferriss Podcasts.

In this conversation, Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss delegation. Sam shares that he first began taking delegation seriously after reading Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek, and he outlines some of the common mistakes people make when delegating tasks. He stresses that it is important to find the right person for the job, and that if you have one bad experience with delegation, it doesn't mean that you can't have a good one.

There are two things that can prevent someone from delegating tasks: imposter syndrome and the belief that there is not enough work to justify a full-time EA. It is important to remember that EAs are there to help you be more productive, and creating busy work is not productive for either party. If you find yourself in this situation, tell your EA to take some time off or read some books. There is no required reading list for EAs at Levels, but there is a strongly recommended reading list that includes books on Netflix culture, conscious leadership, and nonviolent communication.

The article discusses the importance of treating people like adults in order to build a strong company culture. The author gives the example of how this can be done by closing communication loops so that people are kept in the loop and know what is going on. He also discusses how this value of treating people like adults can help to remove some of the need for follow-up.

In this conversation, Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss the benefits of recording all meetings in order to prevent gossip and improve communication. They also discuss the logic behind recording one-on-one meetings, and how this can help to prevent chronic inflammation within an organization.

Loom is a simple tool for recording your screen and creating async messages. It is easy to use and provides instant sharing. This makes it an ideal tool for businesses to use for content creation and scaling.

The Friday Forum is a weekly meeting at the company Sam Corcos works for. The purpose of the meeting is to celebrate the wins of the week and to have a special guest (usually a customer) share their positive experience using the company's product. The meeting is typically an hour long.

Onboarding for new employees at Sam Corcos' company includes a week where employees are only allowed to communicate using audio and video recordings. This is to force them to get used to working asynchronously.

In this clip, Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss the usefulness of AI tools for searchability and workflow recording. They argue that AI tools will make it easier to find and debug video recordings of tasks, making it easier to delegate work.

Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss the role of EAs in business and how to source talent for this position. They note that most tasks are not as complex as people think and that EAs can be sourced from agencies or directly through platforms like Upwork. They also discuss how to assess EA performance and when to keep or cut someone from the team.

The difference between an EA and a chief of staff is that an EA has more routine tasks, while a chief of staff is more like a "gardening role" where they take on bigger projects.

Sam Corcos and Tim Ferriss discuss the importance of onboarding and setting clear expectations early to reduce turnover and improve productivity. They also discuss how to vet and train employees to be proactive, and how to use Looms to communicate tasks and expectations.

In this conversation, Sam Corcos and Tim Ferriss discuss the idea of "news sobriety" and how it can improve one's life. News sobriety is the practice of avoiding news and current events in any form, in order to focus on more important things. Corcos explains that he has been news sober for 10 years and that it has improved his life in many ways. He also shares how he stays informed without consuming news, by reading books instead.

The biggest mistake people make when onboarding is trying to jump into their tasks too quickly. It's important to take the time to do the onboarding checklist thoroughly so that you are prepared for your new role.

The biggest hurdle in onboarding at Sam Corcos' company is cultural assimilation. New employees are expected to read memos, practice the company's values, and update the onboarding process for anything that is out of date.

In this interview, Tim Ferriss talks to Sam Corcos about delegation and remote work. Corcos emphasizes the importance of reducing your perceived risk when delegating tasks, and shares the tactic of using Loom to create workflow recordings. He also talks about the concept of "remote first", which is the idea that everything you do can be captured as content if you want it to be.

Sam Corcos is a product manager who is trying to figure out how to offload some of the tedious work to their EAs. This includes things like making sure things are up-to-date, shuffling tickets around, and setting reminders. It can be difficult to get people to record themselves doing their work, but it is possible to edit within the recording to blur or crop out sensitive information.

In this excerpt, Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss the importance of transitioning from a to-do list to a calendar in order to better manage time. According to Sam, this is the single most important tactic in time management. The goal is to have 50% of your time open, so that you can accommodate unexpected tasks that come up during the day. This process takes time and practice to master.

Sam Corcos and Tim Ferriss discuss the process of scheduling tasks and managing email. They recommend starting with a to-do list and then translating it into calendar blocks. This allows you to see how much time each task will take and to better manage your time.

Sam Corcos discusses how he uses his calendar as his to-do list in order to manage his time and stress levels. He explains that he stacks all of his recurring meetings on Mondays, and leaves Wednesdays open as "sacrificial anodes" for new meetings. He also tries to meditate, but hasn't found it particularly helpful.

Sam Corcos talks about how he has reduced stress in his life by cutting out news and only reading books that have been recommended to him. He also walks a lot and tries to read two books a week.

In this conversation, Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss the Japanese word "tsundoku" which refers to the stacks of books that we have committed to reading but have not yet read. Sam Corcos shares that he has a backlog of 300 books and chooses his next book to read based on how he is feeling in the moment. The two discuss how books can be practical, even if they are fiction, and mention some books that have made a substantial mark. They also talk about how EAs can help with finding time to read by taking care of administrative tasks.

The speaker discusses hosting "salon dinners" which are intellectual gatherings where the goal is to have stimulating conversation on a range of topics. The dinner groups are curated to ensure a diversity of perspectives, and discussion is had on a single topic for the entire evening. This format leads to more interesting and productive conversation than the typical group dinner where people socialize and talk about a variety of topics.

Sam Corcos discusses the importance of moderating conversations, and shares some tips for doing so effectively. He also talks about the ideal size for a salon dinner, and how to balance different factors to create a successful event.

Sam Corcos is a big fan of using ChatGPT and Calendly to help him host successful dinner events with engaging conversations. He has found that eight to ten people is the perfect number to shoot for and that it's important to curate the list of invitees carefully. He also believes that it's important to send a follow-up email to those who weren't able to attend the event.

In this clip, Tim Ferriss interviews Sam Corcos about his experience with Calendly, a tool that allows users to schedule appointments with each other. Ferriss asks how Calendly has helped Corcos to be more proactive, and how he processes email in general. Corcos explains that he uses Calendly to block off time for himself, which helps him to avoid getting pulled into other people's agendas. He also uses it to delegate email processing to his assistants, who flag any important messages that he needs to see.

Sam Corcos uses four assistants to help with a variety of tasks, including managing his email. He recommends using hotkeys to improve productivity when processing email, and suggests creating snippets of pre-drafted messages to save time.

Sam Corcos talks about the importance of tracking one's time and being aware of where one's time is actually going. He says that most people are negative about the idea of paying attention to their time, but that it is necessary in order to be successful. He also talks about the importance of having an EA (executive assistant) to help with tasks that one does not have time for.

Sam Corcos is a productivity expert who believes that how you spend your time is a reflection of your priorities. He recommends delegating tasks to others in order to free up time for more important things. He also suggests creating a system of feedback loops in order to get the most out of your assistant.

In this excerpt, Tim Ferriss interviews Sam Corcos about effective delegation. Corcos recommends that instead of relying on someone else to complete a task that you would normally do yourself, you should do it in parallel. This way, you can ensure that the task gets done and also provide feedback to the person you delegated it to.

The objective of this is for people to become more comfortable with delegating more responsibility. Sam Corcos suggests that people should ask the product EA to do their own retro from what they got in context from your daily updates, in order to save time and build confidence.

The key ingredients in that user manual are: background information on the person, communication patterns, and information on how to best work with that person. Memos are important because they are a way to communicate thoughts and ideas.

The importance of memos is that they provide data points of what was thought at a certain point in time. They allow the writer to reflect on their thoughts and improve upon them. Memos also help build trust between the writer and the reader.

In this interview, Sam Corcos discusses the importance of effective writing in the business world. He argues that it is crucial for companies to invest time in teaching their employees how to write well, as it can have a lasting impact on the business. Corcos also shares some of his own tips for writing effective memos.

Sam Corcos took a year off after his last company to study theology and network theory. He chose these two topics because he was interested in understanding the state of AI and because he wanted to learn more about religion. Network theory is the study of how networks (such as the internet) work. Corcos has found that network theory has helped him to understand how different systems (such as the human body) interact with each other.

Religion is more than just a set of beliefs - it can also be a set of values, rituals, and community. For some people, religion is a way to find meaning in life and connect with others.

This person interviewed various religious people and found that many of them could not answer basic questions about their religion. They found that religion is often more about community and ritual than it is about spiritual belief. They also found that there is no such thing as objective truth, only subjective truth.

Network theory is the study of interpersonal human networks. Graph theory is more mathematical. Sam Corcos did a gratitude exercise a few years ago and realized that most of the good things in his life were because of someone he knew, not because of something he did. He decided to focus more on the people in his life and set a goal of keeping up with 1,000 people.

The article discusses the importance of maintaining a network of friends and acquaintances, and how this can be used to one's advantage. It cites a study which found that people are more likely to find jobs and life partners through acquaintances than through close friends. It also discusses the concept of Eigenvector centrality, which is a measure of the importance of a person in a network.

The eigenvector centrality is a measure of how connected a person is in a dense network. The mayor of a small town, for example, has high degree centrality but probably nothing beyond that. Eigenvector centrality expands exponentially beyond what you would get from degree centrality. Tim Ferriss takes a different approach to networking, looking at the people who produced the peak low and high emotional valence in his interactions and trying to spend more time with those who produced positive emotional states.

The individual being interviewed discusses the importance of goal-setting and networking. They mention that its important to be selective with meeting requests and introductions in order to maintain a high signal-to-noise ratio. They also talk about the importance of understanding ones own limits and protecting their energy by only doing things that give them energy.

The company Levels is working to help people understand how food affects their health using biosensors. The goal is to use data to help people make their own decisions about what to eat.

In this conversation, Sam Corcos and Tim Ferriss discuss the idea that some seemingly healthy foods can actually have a negative impact on our health, depending on how much of them we eat. They also talk about how something as simple as going for a walk after a meal can have a huge impact on our glucose levels. Lastly, they discuss the idea of minimalism and how it can help us to focus on what is truly important to us.

The physical minimalism lifestyle is one where an individual has very few belongings and tries to live with as little as possible. This often includes digital nomads, who travel often and find it inconvenient to lug around a lot of stuff. For some, it may include only owning one pair of pants and a few shirts, as well as the essentials for hygiene and work. Others may go as far as to wear "focus goggles" - horse blinders that help them concentrate when working in public places.

In this excerpt, Tim Ferriss and Sam Corcos discuss the latter's invention, the "focus goggles." These goggles are designed to help the wearer focus by blocking out distractions. Ferriss and Corcos discuss the design of the goggles and how they can be used to improve productivity.

Sam Corcos discusses the importance of organizational design and treating people like adults in order to create successful systems. He also talks about the impact that Tim Ferriss' work has had on his life and others.

https://tim.blog/2023/09/20/sam-corcos/