The Leverage Equation: How to Work Less, Make More, and Cut 30 Years Off Your Retirement Plan Todd Tresidder Copyright © 2018 | Todd R Tresidder All rights are reserved With the exception of brief quotations in a review, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, including electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, faxing, emailing, posting online, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher Published by FinancialMentor.com ISBN for Print 978-1-939273-02-4 ISBN for Ebook 978-1-939273-03-1 Financial Mentor and the Financial Mentor logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of CreateCorp Business Solutions, Inc and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners For bulk orders, please contact todd@financialmentor.com for a generous discount schedule To my wife, Katherine, and our wonderful daughters, Jenna and Ashley Thank you for your patience and support Every word was written with you in my mind Limit of Liability Disclaimer of Warranty The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, financial advice, or other professional services If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising here from, and both the publisher and the author specifically disclaim any liability, loss, or risk taken by individuals who directly or indirectly act on the information contained herein The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it was read While every effort has been made to make this book as complete and accurate as possible, there may be mistakes, both typographical and in content Use at your own risk Additional Books by Todd Tresidder How Much Money Do I Need To Retire? Don’t Hire a Financial Coach! (Until You Read This Book) The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates in Retirement Variable Annuity Pros and Cons: Surprising Truths Your Advisor Won’t Tell You Investment Fraud: How Financial “Experts” Rip You Off and What To Do About It Additional Courses by Todd Tresidder Expectancy Wealth Planning Risk Management: How To Make More By Risking Less OVERVIEW human labor with machine labor, further reducing costs and improving results Finally, design audit controls with checks and balances into your systems so they’re self-correcting It costs time and money to get systems leverage working for you, but those resources are well spent because the result is greater wealth, less risk, and more freedom And that’s a goal well worth pursuing Communications and Marketing Leverage – Access other people’s audiences through magazines, newsletters, and databases so you can communicate with millions for the same effort as one Communications leverage is the bridge that creates marketing leverage out of networks It has three main advantages: Low marginal cost for each touch point because it’s generally priced as a fixed expense allowing you to cost-effectively increase the frequency and breadth of communication Builds brand loyalty and trust by using technology to cost effectively deliver value through articles, courses, videos, and other educational resources Gives immediate data feedback so you can test offers in minutes at minimal cost then correct and adjust messaging until the conversion rate proves costeffectiveness There are many tactics to increase communications leverage (upsell, cross-sell, referral systems, joint ventures, automated sales funnels, continuity sales programs, media outreach), but they all boil down to two objectives Find new customers Increase the lifetime value of existing customers The key to success in communications leverage is knowing how to cut through all the information noise with a meaningful message that serves your customers Give them something valuable so you’re not just adding to all the noise that already clutters their lives Network and Relationship Leverage – Employ other people’s connections and resources so you’re not limited to your own Network leverage is based on relationships that exchange value instead of money The value exchanged might include contacts, resources, strategies, experiences, referrals, support, or any other form of value that costs the giver nothing but makes a big difference for the receiver The reason relationship leverage is important is because the root of all business is human relationship When you know how to leverage those relationships ethically, you’ll create more business, faster, with less risk, and with less of your own resources The four steps to building a network that multiplies your wealth are: Decide who you want in your network Connect with those people Build the relationship over time by giving and paying it forward – never using Be the first to offer up your contacts and resources before making any demands on the relationship Play the long game Finally, when the time is right, you can ask for an appropriate level of help Building a strong professional network of strategic contacts is something that can take years It requires effort, but strategic alliances with the right people can make or break your wealth plan The key is who you know, what you know, and how you ethically apply those resources Knowledge and Experience Leverage – Utilize other people’s expertise, or leverage your own expertise Knowledge is the foundation of all wealth-generating processes because it converts resources into something with economic value Stated another way, physical capital owes most of its value to intellectual capital Unfortunately, the ability to learn and grow intellectual capital is limited by your time and ability to internalize information There’s always more to learn than time to learn it That’s why hiring an expert who lives and breathes the knowledge you require can be such an effective leverage strategy to save you time and accelerate your wealth Alternatively, if your goal is to increase your earning capacity, it might make sense to gather the knowledge yourself so as to become the go-to expert that others leverage Regardless of which path you choose, knowledge leverage is a strategic way to reduce risk and increase return to accelerate your wealth growth Implementation Nobody is born with leverage skills so don’t get overwhelmed if these leverage strategies felt foreign or unusual The good news is there’s a strategic way to implement leverage, regardless of your current skill level, that will best capitalize on your existing strengths and minimize any weaknesses The first point to remember is leverage is just an accelerator for whatever business process is already in place When you multiply an efficient operation through leverage, you increase profits Conversely, when you leverage an inefficient operation, you multiply losses So the first rule is: bootstrap your way to profitability so that you control for risk of loss before ever applying leverage Think of it in two stages The first stage is controlling risk to minimize losses while developing a profitable model The second stage is multiplying that profitable model with leverage to create a huge win that tilts the payoff portion of your expectancy equation The second rule is: all six types of leverage work synergistically together They are not mutually exclusive Each type provides a unique tool for removing a specific constraint to growth, and when the tools are applied together, they produce a compound effect So just start with whatever leverage tool is most immediately appealing and don’t worry about the rest because they’ll naturally fit into your wealth plan in the fullness of time The goal is to accelerate your wealth growth and save your time because if you aren’t using leverage then you’re working harder than you should, to earn less than you could Bonus Content This book has been about taking action, so I encourage you to take action now To make it easy we’ve provided a complete set of printable templates, forms, and reference guides to help you, completely free of charge It includes: sample Standard Operating Procedures 101+ Leverage Hacks A Printable Exercise Workbook And an accountability chart for implementation You can get immediate access to all https://financialmentor.com/free-stuff/leverage-book of these resources at: Acknowledgements First, I need to thank Erin Millard, my assistant The rule is to always hire people better than yourself Erin defines that rule Without her constant support, this book wouldn’t be in your hands right now Second, I’d like to acknowledge Julie Broad and her professional publishing team at Book Launchers Their support and assistance with editing and designing took my rough draft and polished it into the book you hold today Finally, I’d like to acknowledge you, the reader It is your passion for learning that feeds my passion for teaching Thank you About the Author Todd R Tresidder’s financial writing has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Smart Money Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Inc., USA Today, and more He is a former hedge fund manager who “retired” at age 35 to become a financial consumer advocate and money coach In his spare time he’s an outdoor recreational enthusiast with varied interests from backpacking and adventure travel to endurance running and cycling He writes nine months of the year from his home in Reno, Nevada while his kids are in school, and he plays the rest of the year You can learn more about Todd at financialmentor.com Additional Books by Todd Tresidder How Much Money Do I Need To Retire? Don’t Hire A Financial Coach! (Until You Read This Book) The 4% Rule and Safe Withdrawal Rates in Retirement Variable Annuity Pros and Cons: Surprising Truths Your Advisor Won’t Tell You Investment Fraud: How Financial “Experts” Rip You Off and What To Do About It Additional Courses by Todd Tresidder This book was created from just three lessons taken from my master course, Expectancy Wealth Planning If you like this book, then you’ll love the full course Expectancy Wealth Planning can products/expectancy-wealth-plan be found at financialmentor.com/educational- ... reduced to equations and principles that are safe and smart to use These equations define the scope and shape of the process by forming boundaries around the knowledge required, which then provides... wealthy use leverage – and that’s what this book will show you They’re intentional and strategic in how they apply it They use it to accelerate results in their wealth plans With The Leverage Equation, ... experience leverage in the form of a technology consultant, who then employed systems leverage through third-party software packages to connect all the online business systems that ran the course, the