July 9, 2025

Happy Wednesday, everyone! 🚀
Good morning! You’re halfway through the week—may your inbox be manageable and your coffee taste like confidence.

Let’s talk about a little word with big impact: leverage.

No, not corporate buzzword leverage. Real-life, “get paid more without burning out” leverage. The kind that lets you turn your time, talent, and tools into income that doesn’t require you to be on 24/7. 🧠💼💰

Today we’re diving into how the wealthy use Leverage 101 to scale their value—not their hours. Because let’s be real: working more isn’t the only path to wealth. Working smarter is where the magic happens.

Let’s unpack what that looks like—and how you can start today, even if you’ve only got 15 minutes and a good idea.

— Ryan Rincon, Founder at The Wealth Wagon Inc.

— Napoleon Hill

Market Update: It was a mostly red day on Wall Street—think sluggish start to the week with a few bright spots peeking through.

The Nasdaq managed a microscopic gain, up just 0.029%, barely dodging the red. The S&P 500 slipped 0.072%, and the Dow Jones followed suit, down 0.37%—no real momentum from the big indices today.

Bitcoin dipped 0.14%, continuing its recent wobble, while Gold nudged lower by 0.06%, clinging to its recent support. Silver, though, broke ranks with a 0.42% rise—small, but steady.

Amazon investors didn’t love what they saw, as the stock dropped 1.84%. But the real bruising came from JP Morgan, sliding a sharp 3.15%—looks like the big banks caught a bit of turbulence. 🏦💥

On the bright side, Adobe posted a 1.41% gain, one of the day’s few strong performers—clearly, creativity still pays. 🎨📈

A mixed bag overall: a few flickers of green in a field of red. Silver and Adobe showed some spark, but big names like JPM and Amazon dragged the tone decidedly down.

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Deloitte projects 4% growth in U.S. corporate travel spending.
Forecasts show U.S. business travel hitting $316B this year, recovering fully and poised to grow further. It means new opportunities for airlines, hotels, and travel platform partners. Expect more “bleisure” options and loyalty perks in exec packages .

Business travel rebounding strongly in summer 2025.
BI reports corporate flight bookings are up 10%, hotel reservations up 25%, with companies scrutinizing costs more than before. Firms are mixing budget stays with essential travel—smart balancing act. Financial controllers, rejoice and rejoice again.

Remote work shifts trip styles toward extended journeys.
TravelAge West notes remote professionals are taking longer trips—39% in 2025 versus 31% last year. These “workcations” blend productivity with exploration—and require flexible lodging arrangements. Corporate travel policies should evolve to support blended travel days.

Dodgers owner buys Lakers in eye‑popping $10B deal.
Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter has snapped up the Lakers for $10 billion, making him a mega force in sports. That high-ticket deal signals consolidation in team ownership. Expect cross-promotion deals and shared branding playbooks.

Club World Cup expands huge, fueling scheduling headaches.
FIFA’s global club tournament grew from 7 to 32 teams in mid-2025, stirring backlash from European clubs and African nations. The packed calendar is testing fan patience and logistics. But for sports biz types, it signals global viewership—and sponsorship—opportunities.

Sports business conferences ramp up for second half of 2025.
iWorkinSport outlines must-attend events July–Dec, including pro football insights and sponsorship evolution summits. Themes include analytics-driven fan engagement and performance optimization. Marketers and execs: network now to stay ahead of tech and ROI strategies.

U.S. banks struggle with cost of interest and deposit margins.
Deloitte warns that 2025 will see squeezed net interest income as deposit rates stay high. Banks must rethink income strategies and cost structures to stay profitable. CFOs—time to play financial Tetris to maximize margins.

Major Fedwire update: ISO 20022 rollout goes live July 14.
On July 14, the Fedwire funds system transitions to the modern ISO 20022 messaging standard. U.S. banks should finalize integration now—or face transaction hiccups. This upgrade promises better data transparency—think SWIFT-like clarity—so plan proactively.

Global financial services sees mega‑deal surge in H1 2025.
PwC reports a 15% jump in deal value YoY despite flat deal volume—driven by ten megadeals over $5B. EMEA, Americas, and APAC each accounted for ~1/3 of deals. M&A is alive and well; consider bigger strategic consolidation moves.

IBM launches eco-friendly AI chips and servers for businesses.
IBM just introduced energy-efficient data-center chips aimed squarely at easing AI deployment pains. These chips reduce power consumption and complexity for corporate IT teams. Big win if you're managing budgets and rack space.

Google brings AI-powered e-commerce tools to boost Portuguese retailers.
In Portugal, Google is rolling out enhanced AI features to help merchants streamline ads, deploy AR shopping tools, and leverage smart glasses. This is a beta playground for global retail AI expansion. If you're in e‑tail, consider this a sneak preview of what's to come.

Mistral AI unveils enterprise coding assistant rivaling Copilot.
The startup Mistral has launched a powerful coding assistant for the enterprise—positioning itself as GitHub Copilot’s next challenger. It’s designed to boost developer efficiency and reduce mundane tasks. Corporate developers, rejoice—and expect faster iteration cycles.

Trump administration rolls out stringent farmland protection plan now.
A new “National Farm Security Action Plan” today aims to bar foreign adversaries—especially China—from buying U.S. farmland. It also includes changes to the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act and SNAP oversight. This is bipartisan beefing-up of food and supply chain resilience.

House Republicans plan “Crypto Week” to reshape digital currency rules.
This week will feature votes on three big crypto bills: the reflecting GENIUS Act, defining Clarity Act, and anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. Supporters say this is a major step toward stablecoin clarity and delineation between SEC and CFTC roles. Skeptics argue it could swing too far in favor of crypto firms over consumer protection.

New tariffs hit Asian and African nations, rattling markets.
Trump announced hefty tariffs—25% on Japan/South Korea, 30% on South Africa, 40% on Laos/Myanmar. The S&P 500 and Dow dropped sharply—Dow was down 600 points on the news. Treasury Secretary hints more trade deals are in the pipeline, but volatility is the current order of the day.

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Okay, let’s just say it: most of us were raised with a very “old school” view of money.

Work more hours → earn more money.

Grind harder → get rewarded.

Climb the ladder → eventually retire.

Cool in theory… kinda exhausting in practice.

But the real secret of building wealth?
It’s not about working harder. It’s about building leverage.

Let’s break it down in plain English.

Leverage is what allows people to do less and earn more.

It’s how someone can work 20 hours a week and make 6 figures — while someone else is working 60 and still living paycheck to paycheck.

Leverage means using tools, systems, people, or assets to multiply your impact without multiplying your time.

Or put more simply:

Leverage = getting results bigger than your effort.

Sounds magical, right? It kind of is.

And you don’t need to be a millionaire to start building it.

There are lots of types of leverage, but let’s focus on the most useful ones for regular people trying to level up.

This is stuff you create once that works for you forever.

Examples:

Content (or tech) scales without needing you to do it over and over. That’s leverage.

If you’ve got money, you can use it to make more money.

Investing, buying assets, putting cash to work for you — that’s capital leverage.

Examples:

Money doesn’t get tired, take days off, or complain about meetings. It just works (if you aim it right).

Hiring, partnering, outsourcing — this is classic business leverage.

The key? Stop trying to do everything yourself.

If you’re a business owner or freelancer:

Your time is worth more than checking emails and making Canva graphics all day.

This is the big one that most people ignore.

If you can get your message, product, or offer in front of lots of people consistently, you win.

Examples:

You build once, distribute forever. That’s leverage, baby.

Let’s get practical. Here’s how different folks can build leverage without flipping their life upside down:

👩‍💼 Mid-Level Corporate Employee

💼 Business Owner

📈 Investor

🧑‍🎓 Careerless (but ambitious) Young Person

Here’s a game-changer:

“What’s one thing I can do this week that creates leverage?”

Maybe it’s hiring help.
Maybe it’s automating something.
Maybe it’s building something that sells while you sleep.

Tiny changes → massive results over time.

Working hard is admirable. But let’s be honest — most people reading this?
You already know how to work hard.

The next step is learning to work smart.

Build things once. Sell them forever.
Delegate. Automate. Scale.
Stop trading time for money. Start trading systems for freedom.

Because at the end of the day…

Time-rich beats hustle-hard. Every single time.

I never sleep, yet I never eat.
I move trillions but never travel.
I obey algorithms more than people.
What am I?

Clue:
This company started by letting people post quirky videos of lip-syncing and dance.
It became a platform for short-form content, creators, commerce — and controversy.

Would you rather…

(Wisdom vs. war chest — which would you choose?)

You raise $1M in funding and spend exactly 10% of it each month.
How many months until you’ve spent more than half of your original raise?

*Answers at the bottom

Riddle - Answer: The global stock market

Guess the company - Answer: TikTok

Brain Teaser - Answer:
Month 1: $100K
Month 2: $100K
Month 3: $100K
Month 4: $100K
Month 5: $100K
Month 6: $100K
After 6 months, you’ve spent $600K = more than half

✅ Answer: 6 months