Dramatic Leverage Newsletter
Creating Assets that Compound
How to create digital assets that keep working for you once it’s done
Calculated Risks
Not too long ago, SpaceX launched its new Starship rocket for the first time.
Four minutes into the launch, the rocket exploded before it could ever reach space.
As the SpaceX team that built this rocket watched this devastating result unfold, they cheered.
Cheered?!
No, that’s not a typo. They cheered as the rocket exploded.
I happen to watch this launch live and was quite confused at the reaction.
Starship is the largest rocket ever built. It’s expected to one day be able to bring humans to Mars.
And despite the fact that this rocket exploded, it was considered a “successful failure.”
“Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk.”
- Bill Nelson, NASA administrator
I’m sure you’ve heard over and over that you should view failure as a positive.
Even in the story I’ve shared with you about my car getting repossessed, it's a moment where I turned a dreadful negative into a optimistic positive.
The truth is, this isn’t easy to do in the moment. The moment when all of your expectations or dreams are crushed.
Yet, seeing the SpaceX team cheer and clap was inspiring. For me, it was an immediate reminder of the attitude to have when something doesn’t go your way.
To be completely transparent, I’ve been on a losing streak for the last few months.
While I can write about having a video that has had 500,000+ views, or working on six-figure projects, or being featured on 100+ podcasts, not everything goes my way.
It's a weird feeling to have.
It gets pretty discouraging at times. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, I need to hit the reset button and go for a walk.
But I genuinely believe that despite how I feel (which seems like I feel A LOT more after experiencing burnout) I don’t allow it to stop me from continuing to try and show up.
It's not that I haven't heard "No" before, but I’m in a season of life where I’ve taken on a lot in the last 3 years. Keep in mind, this is coming from 13 years of simply producing client work and that's it.
In the last 3 years, I…
Have been featured as a guest on 100+ podcasts
Spoke on stages in person, across the US
Launched and currently selling a journal
Partnered with LuAnn Nigara to teach Storytelling for Creatives (a 6-week live course)
Produced 5 full-length documentary projects
launched a leadership program (invite only)
Having done so much in 3 years, I'm now looking for ways to focus on what matters most (which I talk about more below)
Marc Lore, a billion dollar entrepreneur, recently talked about how he still has moments of doubt despite having billion-dollar successes.
Marc recently pitched to 50 venture capitalists, and only 5 said yes to his pitch.
For a few minutes, this left him feeling like maybe he didn’t have a good idea. That his good days (selling Diapers.com for $500m and selling Jet.com for $3.3bn) were somehow behind him.
“It’s so important that you have that clear vision and strategy and you know exactly where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.
Don’t let any venture capitalists change your mind or have you change your deck. Once you start changing your deck, you’re lost.
You don’t know who you are, where you’re going. You’re following the wind.”
Theatre in the mind - two ways to uplevel your storytelling
The only thing 2 things I focus on when it comes to storytelling are:
What happened in the moment
What did I learn from that moment
Being able to tell a story is incredibly simple.
A story is a retelling of a very specific moment in time.
You’ve heard me share this over and over. But a “very specific moment” are 3 words you need to remember.
When you’re sharing about this very specific moment, you want your audience to feel as if they’re right there with you in the story.
You want them immersed in your world.
The most powerful way to do this is with Visual Words.
As a filmmaker, I can influence how you feel by what I show you. And if I influence how you feel, you are left feeling changed, sometimes even transformed.
That’s the idea I share in my book, Dramatic Demonstration, and I show you how to do this.
But sometimes, if you’re in a 1-on-1 meeting or on a call, you don’t have the luxury of cueing up a video.
This is where visual words can create a theatre in your mind.
When I tell the Car Repossession story, it would be quicker and easier for me to say:
My car got repossessed one morning, and I couldn’t believe it
OR
In 2011, my car was repossessed, and at that point, I wanted to give up
But neither one of these sentences bring you into my world.
Instead, I paint a picture of the moment with visual words.
“I heard the sounds of chains hitting the floor…” “I jumped up out of bed, looked out the front window…” “I walk back into my room, sit on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands…”
The visual words pull you into the story and take you on a journey.
Next, you want to make the journey worth it. It’s like riding a roller coaster. Although you’re scared to get on because you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, by the end of the ride, you're on a high.
That's what Universal Themes help you do. Make the journey worth it by connecting a powerful lesson.
Universal Themes are lessons or ideas that a wide audience can relate to, regardless of cultural differences or location.
Themes such as:
Good vs evil
Betrayal of a loyal friend
Justice for killing a family member
Family above everything else
Themes can also be seen as one’s philosophies and beliefs.
There are 2 Universal Themes I share in the Car Repossession story.
the struggle of going after my dreams (facing rejection)
Real growth happens when your perspective is challenged
When I say, “in the first 5 years, I was struggling to make money. Struggling to make $20,000 a year," you most likely know the pain and struggle of the early days of entrepreneurship.
Even if you're not an entrepreneur, you know the late nights of studying in college to pass your final exams. Or you know the doubt you’ve probably had when you hear someone say, “we decided to go in a different direction.”
With the 2nd theme, I share how my perspective is challenged. I could give up, or I could use this as motivation to push through.
The final thing to notice with both Universal Themes is that I don’t explicitly state these themes.
Instead, I bring you into this moment to experience it with me. I dramatically demonstrate the themes so that you feel and understand them.
To quickly recap, the only thing 2 things to focus on when it comes to storytelling are:
What happened in the moment (and use Visual Words to bring me into the moment)
What did you learn from that moment? (What is the Universal Theme in your story?)
How to create assets that compound
The challenge of entrepreneurship is working on what matters most.
Like a Jenga set, you have to know what pieces are important and have the courage to remove what isn't.
Instead of reinventing the wheel and chasing after new shiny objects, I think about the highest form of leverage I can get from a story.
If you think about the number of options you have to market and promote yourself, it makes it that much harder to know the next right move to make.
There are 70 different ways to leverage 1 video. 70 different ways I can repurpose the viral clip where I share the Car Repossession story.
And in 2 months after this video going viral, I started to do this. Started looking for ways to repurpose this and get more out of it. Instagram Ads, sharing in this newsletter, etc.
It got very minimal results.
I noticed this wasn't the highest form of leverage for me.
There are 70 different ways to leverage 1 video but it doesn't mean I have to go after every 1.
I'm deliberate and methodical about how someone enters my world.
I'm deliberate and methodical about creating experiences.
I'm deliberate and methodical about sharing stories on podcasts that create a deeper experience.
When I do this right, the connection latches on to you and you can't undo it. It's like a 3 strand chord that's impossible to break.
As a matter of fact, whenever someone applies for the Dramatic Leverage Newsletter, there's a question every person has to answer - "Tell me a little bit about yourself."
Take a look at what Stephanie said in her response to this question:
When it comes to mastering the art of storytelling and mastering the art of leverage - don't reinvent the wheel. Repackage what you already have.
Better yet, refine what you already have.
The stories I share, whether on a podcast, on stage, or in this newsletter, are deliberate and intentional. Some challenge the way you see the world, others inspire you to take action.
But they are assets that continue to compound exponentially. And it's the exponential part I'm truly after.
I want to stack the deck in my favor enough to create tsunami-like leverage.
While listening to a podcast recently, I heard James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, talk about the idea of creating assets that compound.
A question that I love and that I keep coming back to for increasing leverage is:
What is the work that keeps working for us once it’s done?
If you can do one or two things a day that are going to keep working for you in the long run, you end up two or three or five years later and you just have this tidal wave of previous effort that is working for you.
I wrote this article a couple years ago, it was called “The Physics of Productivity,” and it was just taking about Newton’s three laws and applying them to productivity in a hopefully clever way.
And it did fine. The article didn’t blow up or anything, but it was just kind of a normal piece. And it sat there on the site and people would occasionally read it.
And then a couple years later, this journalist from the New York Times read that article and they were writing this piece and they linked to the original article in it. And it wasn’t much, it was just like a sentence, but they linked to the website.
Well, there was this producer for CBS that read the article in the New York Times and then clicked through to my site and sent me an email and said, “Hey, do you want to come on CBS This Morning and talk about this piece?” And so I was like, “Okay, sure.”
So they flew me to New York and I did the segment and it was my first time on TV and so I was all nervous about it, but I tried to do my best and have a good segment.
And as soon as it got done, I went over to Gayle King and I said, “Hey, I have this book coming out in 10 months.” So this was 10 months before Atomic Habits. “I would love to come back and do a segment about that when the book comes out.” And she said, “Sure thing. We’ll have you back. Just make sure that we’re your first stop. Don’t do any other interviews on TV shows before us.” And so as soon as I left, I got her email and I sent a message to her and the publisher and everybody and I got on the calendar for launch day. And that was how I got on CBS This Morning for the launch of Atomic Habits.
And that ended up being an important moment for the launch of the book because it made it feel like a thing. It wasn’t just a guy launching a book, it was like, oh, this is a bigger event.
As soon as the segment got over, they put that clip on YouTube.
Then two hours later we took the YouTube clip and emailed it out to my audience and that was the launch email for the [Atomic Habits] book that day… “Here’s my segment on CBS This Morning. The book is out.”
And so what I’m getting at is that the work of writing that article about the physics of productivity, that work continued to work for me in really big ways three or five or six years later, even though the initial article didn’t seem like that big of a deal. And the reason it worked out is because that was work that kept working for me once it was done.
Now I think you can even do better than that, which is not only can you create assets that compound and keep working for you, you can do it in a way where they layer on top of each other.
So I’ll spend 20 minutes on a tweet - and that seems kind of an excessive amount of time to spend writing two sentences. But the time that I put into that, I’ll put it out there and it’s its own little asset.
Then maybe if it does well, I’m like, hey, we should use that in the newsletter. And so it goes in the newsletter.
And then maybe it becomes the seed of an idea for a longer chapter or an article in a book or something, or it gets added to related ideas that can become something bigger.
And so now that 20 minutes is actually doing a lot more work than just gaining a few Twitter followers.
And if you can find ways to layer those little assets on top of each other, then you get three or five or six years down the line and you really have dramatic effect.
Compounding your efforts
I recently printed out every letter I've written for the Dramatic Leverage Newsletter.
Combined, it is 164 pages.
Why did I do this?
While I am the biggest tech nerd out there, there is something to be said about having the physical product in your hands.
To see in a different form. To deconstruct it by spreading it out. To smell the paper. To experience it 3-dimensionally.
It unlocks the mind in ways that are hard to describe.
In the very first letter, “Welcome to the Dramatic Leverage Newsletter,” I shared a story about the opening day at Disney World in July 1965.
In July of 1965, a young man by the name of Walt Disney was opening up a theme park in Orlando, Florida. Some were convinced he was crazy and had no idea what he was doing. Others were curious.
On opening day, as Walt walked around before he opened the gates, he noticed there were weeds everywhere. There wasn’t enough money to finish the landscaping for the theme park so the team left as is.
Walt couldn’t imagine the kind of first impression this would make on guests and investors. So instead, he came up with a crazy idea.
Create signs with plant names written in Latin, and place them right in front of the weeds. Do you have the ability to see something besides weeds? To see something more than the imperfection that is right in front of you?
In other words, can you see more than what you have in your hands right now?
What if you slowed down for at least 30 minutes today and dreamed bigger about what you have right now and what it could be?
Can you see your business in a 3-dimensional way that goes beyond what you're doing right now?
This isn’t for the sake of simply making more money. Money is one-dimensional.
Instead, what can that money can do?
What can it help you accomplish?
What can it do for your friends?
What can it do for your family?
Or your mother whose health is declining?
Getting your feedback over time, and now having the physical letters in my hands, has helped me dream in ways that haven't happened to me before.
Wildly enough, all of this - the newsletter, the books, the journal, podcasting, speaking - started from having the crazy idea to start a video production company 17 years ago.
Here’s the bottom line. There are principles to Mastery that matter and you must follow.
These same principles allow you to create Dramatic Leverage in your business. So that you’re working smarter, not harder.
One thing I’ve noticed after being in business for 17 years, and helping other entrepreneurs grow their businesses, most people are doing too many things that keeps them busy but it does not move the needle in any major way.
When I talk about Dramatic Leverage, this is leverage that goes beyond simply reposting content on social media to actually lining up the right dominoes that help you achieve exponential results.
To put this another way, you can repost a video on social media or you can use that same video to turn a $10k project into $100k. Or you can turn a $100k project into a $1mm (something I intend on doing and showing you how I did it).
Think about this: If I have a service that costs $10,000, I could close 10 different people to make $100,000 or I could close 1 at $100,000.
The amount of effort and time it takes is the same.
Re-read that last line.
I know this to be true because it's how I’ve built my business over time.
In 2010, I worked with 21 clients. In 2022, I worked with only 3 clients and made 15x more than I did in 2010.
To have some fun with this letter, I asked ChatGPT to explain “compounding” in a way that a fifth-grader can understand.
Compounding is like a magic trick that happens with money. When you put your money in a bank account, the bank pays you a little bit of extra money for letting them use your money. This extra money is called interest.
But here's where the magic happens: when you leave your money in the bank account, the bank doesn't just pay you interest on the original amount of money you put in. They also pay you interest on the interest you've already earned!
So let's say you put $100 in a bank account that pays 5% interest every year. After one year, you would have earned $5 in interest. But here's the magic part: the next year, the bank would pay you 5% interest not just on your original $100, but also on the $5 in interest you earned the first year. That means you would earn $5.25 in interest the second year!
This keeps happening year after year, and over time, the amount of interest you earn gets bigger and bigger. That's why people say that compounding is like a snowball rolling downhill – it starts small, but it gets bigger and bigger as it goes.
As you read on, keep this definition of compounding in your mind.
The asset you build today, and how you shape it, can have compounding results later.
Going from 1D to 3D
I’m willing to bet you have a dream you’d like to accomplish that you’ve never told anyone about.
This dream is so crazy that deep down inside you think people will laugh at you if you ever say it out loud.
It's likely that you probably haven't thought of this dream in a while, or worse, gave up on it.
At one point, it felt exciting to even imagine it could happen. But you had no idea HOW.
What if I told you there was a formula that would almost guarantee your crazy dreams could happen?
What if I told you that I've seen a pattern in my own life and a pattern in 9 other entrepreneurs?
Would you believe me?
I’m actively working on deconstructing how these entrepreneurs have taken one simple asset (ie: a video project or a book) and turned it into Dramatic Leverage for their brand and business.
This isn't a pie-in-the-sky formula either. I've been researching very specific and detailed accounts of how opportunities and projects came about.
In the last letter, we talked about creating assets that compound.
I shared the story of James Clear writing an article, that later allowed him to get invited on CBS to talk about the article, which he then turned into an opportunity to be interviewed again about his first book - Atomic Habits.
What I forgot to mention is that as of this writing, Atomic Habits has sold over 10 million copies.
None of this happened overnight.
But it is repeatable.
Let's go back in time for a second.
I spoke at The Copywriter Club event last year in Nashville, TN.
During my talk, I used a Jenga set on stage.
I burnt out in 2020, and I had to learn how to remove things from my life. I had to learn how to subtract without allowing my life to fall apart.
You may notice that each of the blocks has words written on them. I wrote items I could subtract from my life.
Items such as:
Designing a new logo
Redoing my website
Overthinking
Listening to too many podcasts
Comparing myself to someone else
And there were 3 items to keep / add:
Core Values
Confidence
Courage
During my talk, I pulled different pieces and asked if anyone from the audience wanted to stop whatever was written on the block.
If there was someone that raised their hand, I tossed the wooden piece to them.
If someone wanted to work on their Core Values or add more Confidence, I would also toss that wooden piece to them.
The overall point I wanted to get across during the talk was of the talk was this:
When you get rid of certain wood pieces and don’t put it back on top (like you would do in a Jenga game), the structure still holds up.
The same thing happens with us. When we subtract some things from our lives, we can live lighter and better as human beings.
The lesson was strong but the story made it matter.
The audience really took this in. And it felt amazing to know that the point landed.
But what came after the event was over wasn't planned.
I went into the Facebook group for the event and asked if anyone still had their Jenga pieces.
Not only did some of the attendees respond, they added photos of the pieces.
I took my story about burnout, and made it tangible and 3 dimensional.
By making the story 3-dimensional, those seemingly ordinary pieces of wood became valuable pieces to keep at their desk, in front of their computer.
I invited the audience to be a part of the story and now they carry that story with them wherever they go.
I first used this Live Illustration at the TCC IRL event, but I have since used it another 2 times, with the same effect.
What would help me take this further, is if I created a mini-documentary sharing my story of burnout.
Or if I used this same story and illustration to promote my leadership program.
Or I could create my own brand of wood blocks and sell it online.
Truthfully, I may not run with any of these ideas, but this is simply me taking a few moments to dream about what else is possible with an asset that I've created.
Taking a few minutes to see my business in a different light.
To see what assets I have that can compound.
This is how I want you to view your business.
What assets are you overlooking that could repackaged and compounded?
Let’s make it more simple. You know that I’ve been featured on a lot of podcasts as a guest
Before my first book came out, Dramatic Demonstration, I was featured on 50 podcasts.
But I then took segments from those 50 podcasts to use within the Dramatic Demonstration audiobook.
Instead of simply posting an image on social media saying, "I've been featured on X podcast, go listen," I repackaged it and made the audiobook more engaging.
This created an asset that compounds.
One last example on how to look at this.
A few months after the talk in Nashville, I spoke at the Black Tech Week conference in Cincinnati, OH.
I shared the story about the day I found out my dad passed away. I also wore white shoes while speaking at the conference to honor my father's memory. I shared this with the audience too.
Again, making the story tangible and 3-dimensional.
James clear was given an opportunity to be featured. But he didn't just take the opportunity and say, "Thank you."
He sought out other opportunities within the moment he was given.
You have a project you've recently completed. Or maybe a product you're selling that's a best seller. What is the story of that project or product.
And then how do you bring this story to life in a 3-dimensional way so that it becomes an asset that continues to work for you and eventually compounds?
Don't reinvent the wheel. Repackage it.
Tools you don’t use
Several years ago, Bishop TD Jakes had his biggest event ever, Woman Thou Art Loose.
54,000 women in Atlanta, GA filled the Georgia Dome to be inspired, motivated and transformed.
By all standards, it was wonderful event. As Bishop TD Jakes puts it:
“The power of God felt. People were healed, they were delivered. All kinds of things happened. Yolks were broken over. People had been abused and molested and ostracized. It was a powerful meeting.”
It was so powerful that even after the conference was over, at the airport, while everyone was on their way back home, it created another frenzy. Singing and taking pictures with Bishop TD Jakes.
“We besieged the airport. We filled it with glee and singing, all in the corridor. It was crazy. We turned it into church.”
As Bishop TD Jakes and his family were taking it all in but all of a sudden as they were going through the security checkpoint, Bishop Jakes and his family found themselves surrounded by police.
Police approached them and calmly said, “Sir we need you and your family to come with us.”
As police searched one of the bags, they found a pearl revolver.
Worst of all, the gun belonged to Bishop Jakes’ mother.
You gotta understand, there wasn’t a need for his mother to even have a gun. Bishop Jakes has his own personal security, at least 4 trained men.
“Mama, why are you carrying a gun?“
The thing that amazed Bishop Jakes was that the gun was under all kinds of other stuff. Her makeup, keys, books, etc. She had a really big purse.
So even if she was bringing it to protect her and her son, She wouldn’t even be able to access it.
With all you’ve learned through this newsletter, you’re armed with tools to help you grow your business. To help you leverage stories you own.
But how accessible are your tools? If you never use it, how effective is your weapon?
It's not enough to teach you how to tell stories or how to use stories if you don’t use it.
When you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
Join the Dramatic Leverage Newsletter — every week I share strategies and frameworks for implementing storytelling in your business. This can help you double (or even triple) the income in your business like it has for so many others.
Buy the Dramatic Demonstration book — this book takes you behind the scenes with three entrepreneurs and shows you how they leverage storytelling. There are also 33 questions on page 67 that helps you create the Roadmap for yourself so you can do this too.
Work with me 1-on-1 — whether you’re looking for help to refine your story so that you can close your next big project OR you’re looking to elevate your brand with a documentary series, let’s work together to help you reach your goals.