My business began with a team of one. 

My first employee was moi! 

And I pushed that guy to work harder than any tough boss I’d ever worked for.

I was a mean boss. 

I made myself check email when I woke  up. 

I made myself check email before bed. 

And I made myself work on weekends. 

Look, it’s ok to bootstrap in the early days of any business. 

In fact, as a new coach, you should give yourself at least 1,000 days to get that fledgling business off the ground. 

Setting impossible goals will help you to fly.

Getting clear on what you are not willing to do—with an Avoid At All Costs list—will help you fly higher…   

If you have a mission that you can accomplish alone, you are not dreaming big enough…  

I spent many years running away from leadership. 

But the truth is I’ve been a leader from an early age. 

A secret behind high-level leadership is that the job of a leader is to create more leaders, not more followers. 

And it’s been my ability to recruit, train and retain extraordinary leaders that has taken my life and my business to the next level of success. 

I learned long ago to hire overlings, not underlings. I consistently hire people who are far more extraordinary than me. 

The team who run The Litvin Group is small and tight. 

Sarah is our Director of Operations. Her Zone of Genius is listening to my vision and then creating a roadmap for success—with the people and the resources we need to get there. She has set up every system and process behind the business so that when I say, “Can we do this?” the answer is always, “YES!”

Wendy is our Curator of Magical Experiences. Yep, that’s her job title! And yep, she ensures that every experience we run—from virtual events to one-on-one client experiences to live events are as high-end and as bespoke as our brand. 

Laura is our Community Concierge. She is the friendly face who interacts daily with the 30,000 members of our community. She handles every calendar invite and correspondence with hundreds of our clients. Seamlessly! 

The team who run Transition Excellence is far larger. It includes project managers, marketing experts and a sales team. Plus my business partner, who is an expert at digital marketing. His Zone of Genius is that he is world-class at hiring people who are world-class.  

Here are 9 lessons to help you build an extraordinary business:

1. Learn from your failures.
2. Set your business values.
3. Create an extraordinary team.
4. 7 assessments you need to build an extraordinary team.
5. Hire people far better than you. (How I Hired A Millionaire as my Personal Assistant)
6. Create a one line business plan. 
7. Make shit up! (My secret one-line business plan)
8. Prepare for the dark side of success.
9. You are more powerful than you know. And you can do more than you think.

The newest member of my team is Angela Tennison, who runs the Source Team for our live events. Angela was the first African-American woman to serve as White House Usher. She was a senior manager in the White House Executive Residence and managed staff, logistics, and operations for President Barack Obama and the First Family.

Angela has a big mission… “to increase Black wealth, elevate Black excellence and amplify Black leadership.” I am proud that I get to support her in her mission and that she gets to support me in mine. 

Set your values. Live your values. Hire people far better than you. Train your team in your values. Set big goals. And then step out of their way. 

Love. Rich