MATT GRAY Profile picture
Feb 8, 2024 27 tweets 9 min read Read on X
How I work 4 hours a day (and make $730,000 per month): Image
If you thought of someone making $9M a year, how long would you guess they were working?

Most would guess 12-14 hours a day.

I am doing the complete opposite.

I’m on track to make $9M a year and only work 4 hours a day on my businesses.
But it wasn’t always like this.

I once believed in the mantra of hustling 24/7.

When I was 22, I ran a coding boot camp in Canada where I was working 15-hour days.

I was running myself into the ground… Image
I had thought I had it figured out as an entrepreneur.

But I had got it all wrong.

I was the embodiment of 'no days off'.

No control. No freedom.
Fast forward to today, I:

• Work 4 hours a day
• Am in the best shape of my life
• Have total control over my time
• Travel the world 6 months out of the year

I created the life of my dreams. How? Image
I realized it all came down to the 5 Pillars of Leverage.

Working smarter beats working harder. Every. Single. Time.

It’s not about working 14 hours a day on soul-sucking work and sacrificing your well-being.

It’s about doing the highest leverage activities only you can do.
When you focus on those pillars, you take a step towards freedom.

For me, true freedom is defined by controlling the 4 Ws in life:

• What you work on
• Who you work with
• Where you work
• Whenever you want Image
Success as a founder isn’t about the money.

It’s about your autonomy. It’s about building your own Automated Empire.

But to control the Ws in life, you first need to figure out one thing:
Find Your Ikigai

Ikigai is the Japanese concept of your 'reason for being'. Find yours by asking yourself:

• What do I love?
• What am I good at?
• What can I be paid for?
• What does the world need?
My Ikigai?

• Leveraging systems
• Selling online education
• Helping founders automate
• Solving founder overwhelm

I found my reason for being, and it transformed my life. Once you have found yours, it’s time to focus on: Image
The 5 Pillars of Leverage

• Deep Work
• Build Your Founder Flywheel
• Automate, Eliminate, Delegate
• Hire a Chief of Staff
• Apply the 80/20 System to Everything

Let’s break it down:
Deep Work

Cal Newport's 'Deep Work' revolutionized my productivity.

Deep work is your time to work in your zone of genius - completely undistracted.

1 hour of deep work is better than 8 hours of shallow work.
Block out your time as soon as you wake up and remove all possible distractions:

• No phone
• No notifications
• playlist

I wake up at 6am and dive into 4 hours of writing, systems building, and automation.

It’s my time to tap into my zone of genius. Brain.fm
Build your Founder Flywheel

“Small hinges swing big doors” - W. Clement Stone

Founders want every action to multiply the last.

We want there to be compounding effects on everything that we do.
Enter the flywheel.

There are 3 laws to a flywheel, according to my good friend and founder of ConvertKit, Nathan Barry:

• Activities flow from one to the next
• Each cycle gets easier
• Each cycle produces more
The Founder Flywheel is a self-propelling system I invented to 10x the results of my efforts and rapidly grow my brands.

It’s how I grew an audience of 16M+ fans.

This attention then drove Founder OS from $0 to $280K/month in the last 12 months.

How do you build your own?
Start by building an audience around your authentic personal brand.

As this grows, word spreads, which kicks into a referral flood - an endless flow of customers.

The more they hear your story, the more they want to be a part of it.

Turn your audience into advocates.
Automate, Eliminate, Delegate

Inspired by Tim Ferriss, I made it my mantra.

Never automate what can be eliminated. Never delegate what can be automated.

This system saved me 30+ hours a week. Image
I calculated my hourly rate: $5K/hr.

Anything below that, I delegated or automated. Now I focus purely on high-level strategy while my team handles the rest.

The ROI of auditing your time is level-raising.
Some tools I use for my Automated Empire:

• Loom for SOPs
• Kajabi for websites
• ConvertKit for newsletters
• Hypefury to schedule content
• Seamless to connect with fellow founders

Eliminate what’s unnecessary, automate what you can, and delegate the rest. Image
Hire a Chief of Staff

The highest leverage hire a founder can make.

A Chief of Staff manages my calendar, communications, and more so I can create.

They became my right hand, handling the daily so I could focus on the visionary.
We align in a 15-minute daily standup, and they are given 100% access to my schedule.

An expertly trained Chief of Staff runs my business as my second brain.

A game-changer for operational bandwidth. Image
Apply the 80/20 System to Everything

“The most important thing is to keep the important thing the important thing” - Albert Einstein

The Pareto Principle has become my decision filter.

20% of my efforts produce 80% of my results - I relentlessly double down on that 20%. Image
I solely focus on the needle-moving strategies.

I determine which systems, tools, clients, and tasks I need to focus on.

Leveraging your time to focus on the 20% drives unfairly outsized returns.
In the end, it's not just about the hours you put in.

It's the impact of each hour.

I reshaped my life around effectiveness, not busyness.

And you can, too.
Now, I choose when to work and how to live.

I've built a life where work serves me, not the other way around.

Take these lessons, mold them to fit your world, and watch as the impossible becomes your new normal.

Let's not just chase dreams; let's live them, 4 hours at a time. Image
P.S. If you like proven systems, you'll love my weekly newsletter (it's free).

1 actionable tip to grow your online business.

Bonus: You’ll receive my Vision Board System (worth $249) for free.

Join 107,000+ subscribers here:

founderos.com/newsletter

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More from @matt_gray_

Jul 13
How to work 4 hours a day (and remove yourself from operations):
Most founders are trapped in their own businesses.

I was checking Slack at 6 AM, answering emails at midnight, and attending 47 meetings per week.

Making $375,000 per month but feeling like I owned a job, not a business. Image
The Founder Trap

You think you're building a company.

You're actually building a prison.

Every decision flows through you.

Every problem lands on your desk.

Every fire becomes your emergency.

Your business doesn't run without you.

It runs because of you. Image
Read 12 tweets
Jul 12
How to scale smart (without hiring a big team or agency):
The Big Team Trap

Most founders fall into this pattern:

Problems arise → hire more people

Revenue grows → hire more people

Complexity increases → hire even more people

Soon you're managing 50 people instead of building a business.

You become a full-time manager, not a creator.Image
The AI Revolution Changes Everything

I'm trying to replace as many humans with AI as possible.

That might sound harsh, but it's actually liberating.

AI handles:

• Writing and copywriting (6x faster)
• Operations and SOPs (7x more productive) Image
Read 11 tweets
Jun 28
How to monetize your expertise (without selling your soul):
The Expertise Paradox

Most experts are broke.

They have incredible knowledge but no system to monetize it.

Meanwhile, mediocre people with systems make millions.

Knowledge without systems is just expensive hobbies. Image
My Expertise Transformation Story

2017: Built my first system, hit $5,000/month

2021: Systemized everything, reached $150,000/month

2024: Founder OS generates $464,000/month

Same expertise. Different systems. Image
Read 17 tweets
Jun 26
How I replaced 15 employees with AI (and increased revenue 200%):
The Great Reset Is Here

Traditional jobs are disappearing faster than new ones are being created.

But AI isn't your enemy.

It's your greatest opportunity.

The founders who win are the ones who use AI to build, not fear it. Image
My AI Transformation Story

18 months ago, I had a team of 40 people.

Today, I have 25 people generating 200% more revenue.

What changed? I replaced humans with AI in these roles:

• Copywriter
• Offer Strategist
• Executive Assistant
• Email Sequence Writer

AI doesn't replace humans. It replaces human tasks.Image
Read 15 tweets
Jun 18
How to build a profitable personal brand (in just 30 days):
The Old Game Is Dead

Stop playing by outdated rules:

• Paying for ads → Diminishing returns
• Chasing algorithms → Constant anxiety
• Hiring PR firms → Speaking someone else's words
• Press features → Temporary spikes
• Networking events → Surface-level connections

The new game: Become the media company.Image
You = The Media Company

Most founders still don't get it:

• Media companies own their distribution
• Media companies control their narrative
• Media companies create intellectual property
• Media companies build loyal audiences
• Media companies monetize attention

Stop acting like a guest on someone else's platform.Image
Read 10 tweets
Jun 15
I make $1.1M per month while taking 4-day weekends.

Here's how to build a business that runs without you:
Systems > Hustle

Most founders are stuck working IN their business instead of ON it.

They chase growth through brute force when they should be building systems.

The simple truth:

• You don't need to work harder
• You don't need more hours
• You don't need more motivation

You need systems that run without you.

The difference between a job and a business is whether it works when you don't.
The AED Framework

This is the exact system I use to remove myself from operations:

• AUTOMATE what's repetitive
• ELIMINATE what's unnecessary
• DELEGATE what's not in your zone of genius

When something lands on your plate, run it through this filter immediately.

Your most valuable resource isn't money, it's your attention.Image
Read 8 tweets

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