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Juan delicately squeezed the limes into his cocktail shaker.

He carefully measured 2 ounces of Casamigos Tequila.

A splash of Giffard pamplemousse liqueur. (A perfect substitute for Cointreau.)

A squirt of Agave.

And last — but certainly not least — his best Tom Cruise impression.

Juan was delighted that people were finally coming around to his cocktail, the Skinny Margarita.

For years, he’d gotten sh*t for it. (To be fair, ordering one at a dive bar is pretty embarrassing.)

But now everyone in his crew was coming around to this delicious (and hangover-free) concoction.

And after the day he had just had — boy did he need a few.

***

Meet Juan.

AKA $1K Juan.

Six years ago, he stepped off the corporate hamster wheel.

At the time he was 35 years old. (And a mere 4 years from becoming a partner.)

$1K Juan worked at the Law Firm Dechert and by some random circumstances, was one of their most experienced lawyers in the budding (and murky) world of Cryptocurrencies.

He had pristine relationships with traders all over the world, regulators and the rebels who launched DAOs.

So he decided to hang his own shingle and try to make it on his own.

***

With his salt-and-pepper 5 pm shade and his perma-smile, $1K Juan is the real deal.

(Unlike $10 Tim, he’s got the focus of a hawk. And unlike Hundo Hal, he gets that productivity systems have diminishing returns.)

$1K Juan is also well aware that he is an entrepreneur in the services business.

Ultimately, he’s trading his time for money. It’s good money (as the WSJ chart below indicates), but it lacks leverage.

When $1K Juan stops billing, he stops earning.

***

$1K Juan starts his day with a familiar ritual.

He takes out a piece of printer paper and carefully rips it in half.

He then creates 3 columns of tasks: L, N and O.

It’s based off of Shreyas Doshi’s LNO Effectiveness Framework.

He allocates 3 tasks to the Leverage (10x) category. And then the rest go into the Neutral (1x) and Overhead Category (<1x).

Today, these categories look like this:

It is 9:05 am and $1K Juan is ready to go. He has decided to work on their onboarding process.

With one associate and two paralegals joining at the end of the month - Juan recognizes the importance of onboarding in a fully-remote company.

He opens a Google doc and starts writing

Then he feels his phone vibrate. It is Layne, his associate.

Layne is working on entity formation documents for an NFT project called Zephyr. But she is stuck with the conflicting legal jurisdictions of the US, Bahamas and Malta.

Juan tries to hide his frustration.

Layne has already asked a version of this question two times in the past month.

This is easy for Juan - he could hammer out the clause in 45 minutes. Way less than the 2 hours it would take to map out the complexities on a whiteboard for Layne.

“I’ll grab it,” he says assertively.

“You sure,” Layne asks sheepishly. “This will come up again. Shouldn’t I learn how to do this?”

“Yes. Yes. But today’s a bit nuts. I got it.”

The onboarding curriculum would have to wait until tomorrow.

***

(Wondering about those Skinny Margaritas? We’ll get there.)

In private, $1K Juan is second guessing his decision to start his own law firm. On the outside, everything is going well.

Growth.

Revenue.

Clients.

But internally, every day is a wearying uphill sprint that shows no signs of easing.

(Plus, he’s making 10% of what he made at Dechert, which is quietly stressing him out.)

A friend recently recommended that he read the classic The E-Myth by Michael Gerber.

It turns out that the book is a must-read for anyone who struggles to inject leverage into their tasks, actions and thinking.

The most searing idea from the book is:

Stepping into Layne’s role (even for 45 minutes) is working IN the business.

That’s Juan playing the (low-leverage) role of being a lawyer.

To become $10K Juan, he needs to think like a CEO — he needs to get out of the weeds. Here’s how Gerber describes it:

That last bit — that’s where Juan was struggling. It’s where so many high-performers get stuck. They focus on “the thing they’re good at,” when instead they should be finding the levers to scale their impact.

$1K Juan knows he needs to learn the sacred art of delegation and automation.

He needs to focus on the essentials instead of perfection.

He needs to learn how to let go and trust himself more.

And that’s where the Skinny Margaritas come in.

How $1K Juan can find leverage

At the end of the day, Juan is so disillusioned by his inability to make any progress on his task list:

$1K Juan is so close - yet every day feels like a race on the hamster wheel. For Juan, it's no longer about tactics.

He mastered those years ago.

Juan needs to migrate into the sacred quadrant of $10K Work. This requires learning a new mindset.

It involves dropping perfectionism, overcoming impostor syndrome, learning how to say no and letting go of control.

To truly find leverage (and work less), Juan needs to ensure that he is in alignment. That his values - both personal and professional - match his activities.

Then - and only then - will he soar.

Sign up for Supercharge Your Productivity (and get $498 in bonuses)

If you're ready to start working ON your business and your career, Supercharge Your Productivity is the course for you.

During our live 4-week course, you'll learn how to:

• Stay focused on the most important things in life
• Think bigger (versus making smaller things better)
• Stop putting things off until some imaginary future date
• Invest in improving your mind, career and relationships

Plus, if you enroll by April 28th (Noon EDT) you’ll receive our two most popular courses (a bonus valued at $498): The GTD Power-Pack and The Fulfilling Path to Financial Independence.

​👉 Enroll in Supercharge Your Productivity (and get $498 in bonuses)​​

Tomorrow, you'll finally meet $10K Tina.

Unlike $1K Juan, Tina is in alignment. The resistance has been replaced with flow. She glides through her days with purpose and peace. You won't want to miss it.

With gratitude,

Khe

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