Find your weirdos, build your leverage
A single idea that changed how I’m thinking about the coming year
This week a single idea changed how I’m thinking about 2026: leverage.
I heard it on Jonathan Courtney’s podcast The Unscheduled CEO. He mentioned that speaking at big conferences with solid pay creates less business value for him than working on his podcast with a few hundred listeners per episode. So he charges absurd amounts for conferences, because otherwise the opportunity cost isn’t worth it.
What he’s talking about there is leverage: building things that create enough value that you get to be selective about everything else. Leverage gives you freedom to focus on work you actually want to do.
This doesn’t necessarily mean working harder or being more efficient, but being aware of where you are and the things that could multiply your impact disproportionately vs work that goes nowhere.
Two ways you can immediately start creating leverage
1) Find your weirdos
My newsletter and podcast combined reach ~500 people who actually engage. This is embarrassing by typical creator standards. But I’m very appreciative for anyone who shows up and connects with any of this. My public projects help me find all you other wonderful weirdos who care and think about the same kinds of things I do. Those connections and opportunities make this completely worthwhile.
This is also why I genuinely think every creative should have some kind of public outlet on one “channel”, be it a newsletter or whatever you prefer. You don’t need a huge audience. You need a small but engaged one. The easiest way to build leverage is to share what you make.
Small, genuinely engaged audiences generate disproportionate returns.
2) Actually ask for what you want
Jonathan mentioned another key point: he doesn’t just wait for leverage to magically appear. Early in his career as a junior designer, his first corporate job wanted him commuting to another city five days a week. He hated it. So he just asked if he could work from the city he lived in instead. They said no. He found the right person to ask, asked again, and made it clear he’d leave if it couldn’t work out.
Within a week, they’d changed their policy.
I admire this because I still struggle with it. Asking can be scary. But so many things can open up when you’re direct and honest about what you need. If you’re struggling to make time for your creative work, have you explored your options? Asked for a 4-day week? Flexibility to work from home?
Of course, to do this you need to be good at what you do and be really comfortable walking away from stuff if it’s not working out. Not as a negotiation tactic, but because you genuinely know what you want and what’s worth it to you.
What matters most?
Jonathan shared the classic Tim Ferriss thought experiment: If you could only work 4 hours per week, what would you do?
It immediately exposes what you actually care about. For me, if absolutely forced, it would be writing this newsletter and working on the podcast.
And leverage can be anything you want more of. Enjoyment, money, influence, experience. But it’s worth asking: “what creates the most impact for what’s important to me right now?”
For me, heading into 2026, leverage means amplifying what brings me the most joy, connection, and opportunities.
And I can already see low-lift things I can do. The simplest being growing the visibility of Imperfect Creatives, which means getting more eyeballs on it, and some obvious changes like adding video to the podcast (which I’m already recording but not using, for no reason) and sharing it more widely.
For you, leverage might mean something completely different. Whatever it is, ask yourself: What could give me the biggest return - creatively, financially, emotionally - for the smallest input?
Other good stuff this week
Year Compass - The best tool I’ve ever used to reflect and start planning my new year. I do this every year and can’t recommend it enough. The 2026 booklet is ready and completely free, just print your own.
A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox - A very relevant read (and amazing title) from
.5 Years: 1 Word Per Day - A simple yet beautiful creative project. I can’t imagine being this consistent with anything honestly.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy of Your Career -
explains how reframing your career as a bouncy castle may be exactly what you need.