The $100M Entrepreneur Podcast Episode Title: The Power of Leverage: Work Once, Get Paid Forever
Host: Brad Sugars
Date: January 7, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Brad Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH, delves into the transformative power of leverage—not just as a concept, but as a foundational strategy for scaling a business from startup to $100M and beyond. Brad explores the four main types of leverage (people, systems, marketing, and finance), shares practical examples from his career and client experiences, and offers specific insights on how entrepreneurs can shift their focus to activities that generate ongoing returns instead of one-off paydays.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

What Is Leverage and Why It Matters

• Definition & Formula:
  Leverage is doing the work once and getting paid over and over—sometimes even forever. It's the ability to multiply your outcomes without multiplying your inputs.

  “Do the work once, get paid forever. Yes, that is the definition of leverage.” (01:11)

• Work Smarter, Not Just Harder:
  At the start, entrepreneurs often need to work both smarter and harder, but ultimately, leverage allows you to focus on scalable smart work.

  “In the beginning, you got to do both. You got to work harder and smarter.” (02:05)

• Systemic Growth:
  Companies reaching $100M are not built on effort alone—they’re built on systems of leverage.

The Four Types of Leverage

1. People Leverage (04:00)

• Team Building, Networking, Partnerships:
  Leveraging people means building strong teams, networks, and partnerships—multiplying your impact and output through others.

2. Systems Leverage (04:51)

• Processes, Technology, Automations:
  Systems, processes, automations, and technology scale the business so you do less work for bigger results.

  "Systems, processes, automations, checklists, technology. These things help you scale with less effort.” (00:01)

3. Marketing Leverage (05:30)

• Content, Brand, Automation, Recurring Campaigns:
  Marketing creates assets that keep working after the initial effort:

  “Marketing, to me, is the ultimate investment.” (00:41)

  • Example: Brad’s dog food delivery business, acquiring the right number of customers per van and understanding customer acquisition costs.

  “For every $24.50 I spent in radio, I got a new customer. So if you don't know these numbers, by the way, these are great numbers to get to learn for your business. How much does it cost you to buy a customer?” (07:36)

  • The power of recurring business through subscriptions or memberships.

4. Financial Leverage (11:07)

• Using Other People’s Money, Credit, Advance Payments:
  Leveraging finances accelerates growth.

  “Financial leverage, using other people's money, credit, being paid in advance—these are some of the things to fuel your exponential growth.” (11:07)

The Leverage Ladder: Employee, Manager, Owner Work (12:23)

• Employee work: Do the work once, get paid once.
• Manager work: Do the work once, get paid long-term (through systems, training, etc.).
• Owner work: Do the work once, get paid forever.

  “If I can pay someone below this hourly rate to do it, I'll never do that job again.” (12:44)

Real-World Examples of Leverage in Action

• Books as Leveraged Assets:
  Brad's first book, “Instant Cash Flow,” still brings in income decades after initial effort.

  “My first book I ever wrote, Instant Cash Flow, that thing still sells today, still makes me money today.” (01:15)

• The Movie Business:
  Film as leverage—make it once, sell it forever (13:30).

• Client in Dairy Business:
  Moving from selling milk (one-time transaction) to cheese (value-added) to a Cheese of the Month subscription club (recurring revenue and leverage).

  “They went from selling a product they could only sell at one time to now getting customers that keep coming back forever and ever and ever.” (14:40)

• Construction to Storage Containers:
  A client shifted from construction (high input, one-off projects) to self-storage—scalable, recurring revenue, less overhead (15:45).

• Digital & AI Leverage:
  Transforming ActionCOACH resources into an AI platform, democratising coaching for entire companies (17:15).

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Brad’s Guiding Metric for Delegation:

  “If I can pay someone less than $20 an hour, I'm never going to do it again.” (12:57)

• On the Power of Recurring Revenue:

  “I want repeat business coming into my business.” (03:50)

• Marketing ROI Analogy:

  “If you went to the bank and gave them $24.50 and they gave you $38 back, would you keep giving them $24.50? Of course you would.” (09:23)

• Leverage as Long Tail:

  “Think of Long Tail really as a great way of thinking of leverage. How do I do something now that pays back forever?” (13:21)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – Introduction to leverage and its core definition
• 01:15 – Brad’s book as a leverage example
• 03:40 – Types of leverage and the leverage self-assessment
• 04:00 – People leverage explained
• 05:30 – Marketing leverage and customer acquisition cost example
• 11:07 – Financial leverage basics
• 12:23 – Owner vs. Manager vs. Employee work
• 13:30 – The movie business analogy
• 14:40 – Client case: Dairy to cheese subscription
• 15:45 – Construction to storage leverage example
• 17:15 – ActionCOACH and AI as leverage

Practical Takeaways for Entrepreneurs

• Shift your activity from tasks that are paid once to those that pay you repeatedly.
• Build systems, teams, and assets that enable “set it and forget it” returns.
• Know your customer acquisition costs and constantly optimize marketing for leverage.
• Seek scalable, value-added offerings—subscriptions, memberships, or digital products.
• Free up your time by aggressively delegating non-leverageable tasks.

Final Words

Brad drives home that becoming a $100M entrepreneur depends on relentlessly seeking leverage in every area—people, systems, marketing, and money. The path to lasting business success is to do the work once and get paid forever.

“We want you to become $100 million entrepreneur.” (18:20)

End of summary.