Three years ago, I was having breakfast with a friend.
Like me, he’s a visionary. Like me, he believes in the power of coaching.
But where I’ve built a boutique business for the past 15 years, he’s built, scaled and sold several businesses, over the past 30 years.
And where I’ve built a small community of passionate leaders by word-of-mouth, he’s a digital marketer who understands how to go wide—really wide.
At the end of breakfast, my wife, Monique, joined us.
She asked what we’d been talking about.
We told her of our separate visions for massively increasing the impact of coaching.
And that we were each looking for a partner to support us with our individual missions.
She was quiet for a moment…
And then she laughed out loud, “You two are like Dumb and Dumber!” she exclaimed. “Can’t you see you should be doing this together?”
We looked at each other, blinking slowly, like mole rats emerging in daylight.
We laughed loudly.
It was what I call an insight moment.
Life is one way. Something happens. And then it’s forever different.
“I wonder if we could create something together…” was now on both of our minds.
We met for breakfast again the next day.
And the next.
We began to really dream.
And then we began to scheme.
We realized that we have a vision for coaching that can’t be achieved alone.
And in 2020, we launched a new business called Truly Rich Ventures LLC. (Dumb and Dumber LLC broke too many copyright regulations. I looked into it!!)
1+1=11
A 1+1=2 partnership is an ordinary business partnership. You’re a coach and I’m a consultant, let’s share an office and share expenses…
A 1+1=3 partnership is when you create something really special by partnering together.
But a 1+1=11 partnership is where two people come together to create something that wouldn’t be possible for either of them alone. And it’s only possible because each of them works only in their Zone of Genius.
My friend and I have two very clear lanes.
- His Zone of Genius is business building, hiring rockstars and digital marketing.
- My Zone of Genius is coaching, creating and building community.
Stay in your lane
When we first co-founded the business, I wanted to be involved in every tiny detail.
I would check the website copy and the text of our emails. I would speak to every member of the team. I would be at every meeting and on every planning call. I would respond to every WhatsApp group message.
It took a few months (hey, we teach what we most need to learn!) before I realized that not only would this burn me out but I was also becoming a bottleneck in the organization.
I apologized to my partner and I explained that, moving forward, I’d stick to those 1-3 activities that only I can do.
The more we stay in our own lanes, the more the business will fly…
Start with Why
We are now in the coaching century, where the single biggest impact on the success of great leaders will be the support team they build around them.
That support team requires the ability to see what no one else can see and to say the things that no one else is brave enough to say.
It takes great leaders to coach great leaders.
And that’s where we come in…
Truly Rich Ventures has a singular mission. We help great leaders become great coaches.
If you can’t join them, beat them
If you’re reading this article, you already know who I am.
Chances are you’ve read my book, watched my videos, listened to my podcast or attended one of my Intensives.
One of the most common things I hear when someone first finds out about how I support great coaches is, “I binged on everything you created, Rich—from your website to YouTube to Spotify!”
But here’s the thing, there are more coaches who don’t know about The Prosperous Coach approach than who do.
And there are more coaches who don’t know about Deep Coaching than who do.
And that’s a shame because when great coaches succeed, great leaders succeed.
So, it’s time to share ideas like maximizing simplicity and how to coach people smarter, wealthier and more successful than you and uncomfortable marketing and $50M thinking and lazy leadership with more people.
Of course, this means that after 15 years of building a boutique business, one conversation at a time, I now need to lean deeply into my edge.
With a partner who is an expert at building businesses, hiring rockstars and digital marketing, I’m going to begin to do things that I’ve never done before to get the word out.
I’m on LinkedIn for the first time. We’ve built a team of experts from sales to marketing to project management. And I’m learning to let go of the reins more than ever before.
I’m living into a new distinction:
If you can’t join them, beat them!
We’re creating the preeminent resource for great leaders who are great coaches. We’re going to impact millions of people’s lives.
There are times when I’m scared (of screwing up, of letting people down, of being judged).
But when you’re on a mission you can do scared.
Transition Excellence
Throughout history, the greatest heroes have made it their mission to mentor other heroes.
You see, when you’ve spent a lifetime solving problems, there comes a time to leverage your expertise to help other people solve massive problems.
Imagine mentoring ambitious, driven, talented leaders, just like you…
It’s why we created Transition Excellence:
- So you can create high-performing clients. One conversation at a time. Invitation and referral only.
- So you can build massive confidence in yourself. You’ll finally be able to tell former colleagues (or your spouse) that you’re a coach—and have them respect you.
- So, you can join a community of high-level leaders who coach high-level leaders. Coaching is surprisingly lonely. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
If you want to be a hero to great leaders, we’ve got your back.
Love. Rich