Trivinia — How to Build a Team and Scale Beyond Yourself

As best as you can, let your team in because when you let them in, they will see opportunities to support you that you won't even see because you've got your little blinders on.

— Trivinia Barber

This week Sachit (@sachitgupta) chats with Trivinia Barber (@trivinia) — Founder of Priority VA. She is a speaker, author, and leadership consultant who helps entrepreneurs in businesses of all sizes scale growth, sharpen leadership, and build teams they can trust. She developed The Momentum Method™ so clients can achieve better synergy between their products, people and processes for greater growth & efficiency. A global, in-demand speaker, Trivinia hosts the top-ranked podcast, Diary of a Doer, and has been a featured guest on dozens of other business podcasts like The $100 MBA, Eventual Millionaire, Screw the Nine to Five, Entrepreneur on Fire, and The Daily Grind with Colin Morgan.

Follow our host, Sachit Gupta on Twitter and sign up for the Creators Collective Newsletter.

Do you want to learn how to make a living as a creator? Check out the CreatorsMBA.

(02:43) - “Everybody wants a team until it's time to lead them”

(04:37) - What people should be doing before thinking about building a team

(05:37) - How doing personal work helped prepare her and enhance the business side

(07:16) - Examples of small things that can change things in a big way

(07:34) - Description of what a leader actually is 

(14:49) - How they help leaders figure out who they really are, so that they can hire a great team

(17:08) - Other common patterns they identify and how they help to resolve them

(20:37) - Stories of how they help to transform weaknesses into strengths

(23:34) - Things or situations that come up in the process, because of the way creators think

(25:27) - Other things you should be doing to prepare yourself to bring on an EA

(29:42) - How she makes sure the person she is working with is not a narcissist

(32:38) - How she identifies who the problem is - herself or the assistant?

(34:39) - How to create an environment of psychological safety for your team

(40:54) - Trivinia’s structure and her approach to management

(43:76) - Unexpected steps that brought the team together

(51:31) - Ways to lead the assistant to become a leader

(53:55) - Why CEO and EA relationships fall apart

(57:26) - What toxic leadership looks like

(59:38) - How she manages the balance between being vulnerable and not becoming co-dependent on her team

(1:02:35) - How to call the fight

(01:07:38) - The first step you can take to start building a team

(01:12:20) - How to set your assistant up as a gateway, instead of a gatekeeper

(01:13:41) - How to use a calendar

(01:17:10) - The three books that have made the biggest impact 

(01:18:24) - Wisdom that changed the game for her

(01:19:12) - Who Trivinia is grateful to

(01:20:18) - What it means to be a conscious creator

(01:21:08) - What she is most excited about in the next 5 years

(01:21:63) - Parting thoughts