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Hey, it's Ryan. | If you're working harder than ever but your business still feels stuck, it's not because you're lazy, unfocused, or bad at delegation… | …it's because you've hit a leverage ceiling. | In this issue, I'll show you how to break through that ceiling by climbing what I call The Leverage Ladder™…the 7 levels that took me from doing everything myself to leading businesses that scale without me. | Here's what you'll learn: | The 7 types of leverage that compound results without compounding effort Why most founders hire too early (and end up with chaos, not freedom) The "systems-first" rule that turns good people into true multipliers How to build capital leverage that pays you in freedom, not just dollars
| If you've ever wondered why some CEOs keep scaling while others stall, this is why. | Let's get into it… | P.S. I'm looking for 5 business owners who want to work 1-on-1 with my team and me to install a custom "operating system" so your business can scale and so you can exit the day-to-day. Click here for the details. |
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The Leverage Ladder | READ TIME: 3 min. 36 sec. |
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When I was first starting out, I thought the goal was to stop trading time for money. |
But I eventually learned that you never really stop trading time for money, you just get better returns on each hour you invest. |
The key is leverage. |
And leverage isn't one big breakthrough…it's a ladder. |
Each rung gives you a little more output for the same (or less) effort. |
Stack enough of them, and your business compounds like interest. |
Here's how I climbed each rung of what I now call The Leverage Ladder™, and how you can, too. |
Level 1: Manual Leverage (Time-for-Money) |
I started where everyone starts: trading hours for dollars. |
As an intern, if I didn't show up, I didn't get paid. Later, as a freelance web designer and copywriter, the paychecks got bigger, but the problem stayed the same… |
…no hours, no income. |
At this level, you don't own a business…the business owns you. |
To win here: |
Track your time as if it were money. Cut or delegate anything that doesn't produce a measurable return. Focus your limited hours on the few things that create momentum or cash.
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That shift…from worker to investor…is the foundation of all future leverage. |
Level 2: Skill Leverage |
When I started learning marketing, copywriting, and strategy, something clicked: |
I could now make ten times the impact in the same time. |
That's skill leverage…increasing your value per hour instead of your hours per week. |
To win here: |
Identify one skill that will multiply the impact of everything else you do. Go deep for 90 days. Depth beats breadth every time. Measure progress in outcomes, not effort.
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Eventually, every new skill creates a bottleneck: you can produce more value, but only if you can sell it. That's when sales leverage changes the game. |
Level 3: Sales Leverage |
Learning to sell was the single biggest turning point in my career. |
For the first time, I could generate cash on demand. |
But if every sale depended on me, it wasn't leverage…it was just a higher-paying job. |
To win here: |
Record and document your best pitches and close sequences. Automate your follow-up so momentum doesn't die when you log off. Turn your "gut feel" into a process someone else can follow.
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Once sales becomes a system, not a skill, you're ready to sell one-to-many instead of one-to-one. That's media leverage. |
Level 4: Media Leverage |
Media is where leverage starts to compound. |
When I turned my sales presentations into webinars and recorded trainings, my message could sell while I slept. |
Media leverage means your ideas and systems start working even when you're not. |
To win here: |
Record once, distribute forever. Repurpose what's already working: our best emails, slides, or scripts. Own the channel. If you don't own the audience, you don't own the leverage.
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When your message scales without you, the bottleneck shifts from attention to execution, and that's where systems come in. |
Level 5: Systems & Tech Leverage |
Most founders hit this level and think they need more people. |
Wrong. Good people can't fix broken systems. Broken systems break good people. |
The goal here is to make success repeatable. |
When I documented my web page process and used automation to handle the tedious stuff, my output jumped 10x. Same hours…ess chaos. |
To win here: |
Document your workflows while you do them. (Skip the dusty SOP binders.) Automate repetitive steps with tools, triggers, or AI. Focus on clarity and consistency…not complexity.
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Once you've got solid systems, you can safely layer on people…and that's when things really scale. |
Level 6: People Leverage |
When your systems are strong, people multiply them. |
When they're weak, people magnify the chaos. |
I learned that the hard way. Before I built systems, every hire just made the mess bigger. |
But once the playbooks existed, my team improved them — that's real leverage. |
To win here: |
Hire for ownership, not assistance. Delegate outcomes, not tasks. Bring on people who bring their own systems with them.
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When your team can execute and optimize without you, your time becomes infinitely more valuable, and your profit becomes investable. |
Level 7: Capital Leverage |
At this level, money finally works harder than you do. |
For me, that meant taking profits from our operating companies and investing them into other businesses, real estate, and assets that throw off cash. |
It's not "passive income," it's compounding leverage. |
To win here: |
Treat profit like fuel, not confetti. Create a "freedom fund" that invests in assets producing time and flexibility. Reinvest first in systems, then in people, then in capital.
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At this point, the goal isn't to stop working, it's to work only on the things that create exponential return. |
The Big Idea |
Leverage isn't luck or timing…it's layers. Each level amplifies the last: |
Skills make your time more valuable. Systems make your skills scalable. People make your systems unstoppable. Capital makes the whole thing compounding.
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⚡️Action Step: Determine which level of leverage you're operating at right now, and identify one upgrade you can make this quarter to climb to the next rung. |
Because freedom isn't found in doing less…it's found in climbing the Leverage Ladder. |
Ryan Deiss Co-Founder and CEO, The Scalable Company |
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P.S. I'm looking for 5 business owners who want to work 1-on-1 with my team and me to install a custom "operating system" so your business can scale and so you can exit the day-to-day. Click here to get the details. |
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Quick Hits |
Here's some other content from the Scalable network, plus some other cool stuff I liked and thought you might like, too: |
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Tweet of the Week |
 | Ryan Deiss @ryandeiss |  |
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What's the most important hire from $2M to $20M? Not a COO. Not another assistant. It's your first real functional leader in sales, marketing, or fulfillment...whichever role unblocks your biggest bottleneck. Hire specialists who create leverage, NOT generalists who burn | | | 1:36 PM • Oct 22, 2025 | | | | | | 52 Likes 1 Retweet | 17 Replies |
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