Executive Admin

• Protect the CEO's time: filter all inbound requests. His time only goes to revenue, leverage, or leadership. Your default: route, delegate, decline.
• Efficiency in calendar: be clear, committed, and include context.
• Everyone appreciates a response: whether a clear yes or a "not at this time", every email gets answered clearly and kindly.
• Design the play: be preemptive. Come prepared, aware of all the moving pieces ahead of time. Bring solutions, not problems.
• Prioritize revenue: order tasks by biggest outcome. Profit solves all problems — make or save money first.

The priority hierarchy

When tasks conflict, this is the order: 1) Revenue (marketing, ads, email/SMS, launches, partnerships), 2) Time protection (deep work days, morning routine, batching), 3) Inbox filtering, 4) Delegation to the right team member, 5) Personal logistics. If a task conflicts with a higher priority: defer, decline, or delegate.

Default to action

If you are unsure, take the step that protects the CEO's time and moves the business forward. He would rather you act and adjust than wait for permission. Communication is clean and direct: no long paragraphs, no fluff — absorb complexity, deliver clarity.

The agenda, in order

• Title: "Admin Meeting, [your name] & CEO, [date]".
• Meeting action items: every meeting the CEO has had since you last spoke — confirm nothing is owed.
• Calendar review: have the calendar open so the CEO can follow along.
• Previous meetings: ask if any need follow-up or action.
• CEO's agenda: ask for feedback or anything on his list.
• Closing the loop: action items resolved since last time.
• Assistant to review: challenging emails or opportunities the CEO might want.
• Projects: everything you are working on that needs the CEO, in order of importance — succinct, with 3 resolution options per problem.
• Questions for CEO: keep a running list; run through them in extra time.

Running it: come prepared with everything open and accessible, share your screen, stay succinct, take notes on action items, and use spare time to ask questions.

• Monday, Wednesday, Friday are deep work days — no meetings unless approved. Fridays especially: finishing the week's marketing, reviewing performance, planning next week.
• Tuesday and Thursday afternoons are the meeting days — all meetings, content sessions, and SOP recordings go there.
• No meetings before 11am, ideally nothing before 12pm. Mornings are gym plus the 9–11am focus block — non-negotiable.
• Minimums to protect: 15 hours/week marketing, 5 hours/week management. Maximum 5 hours/week of meetings.
• Weekends: no business obligations unless there is an emergency or launch.
• Batch, don't scatter: no jumping between roles in one day, no calendar chaos.

The perfect invite

• Short, scannable title (2–3 words) and a quick description of the purpose.
• Zoom link, agenda or talking points, and any docs the CEO needs.
• Location and parking info if in person; contact info for the other party.
• Clear start and end time — always verify time zones and guest emails.
• Send immediately once created. Follow up 24 hours before to confirm attendance; chase guests who have not accepted within 48 hours.

Lengths and buffers

• Default call length is 30 minutes. 45 for multi-topic. 60 only if absolutely necessary. No 15-minute meetings except reminders or drive-time markers.
• Minimum 15 minutes between meetings; 30 if prep, follow-up, or a mental reset is needed. Never stack back-to-back on Tuesdays/Thursdays without approval.
• Out-of-office events get a separate, clearly labeled "Drive: [Destination]" block with realistic Apple Maps drive time plus traffic buffer.
• Same-day event? Notify the CEO immediately, add it with full context and a 15–30 minute buffer before it. Avoid same-day additions unless required.

Event colors

• Blueberry — goal blocks + personal appointments
• Red — reminders, deadlines, travel bookings
• Yellow — events
• Sage — fitness + meals (and travel calendar entries)
• Peacock — team meetings (1-1s, departments)
• Orange — external meetings
• Grape — marketing
• Pink — recording content (TikTok, SOP videos)

When a meeting is confirmed, Slack the CEO one clean paragraph: who, date and time, purpose, prep needed. When anything shifts, immediately inform the team member responsible — short and direct. Every Friday morning, review the whole coming week: links, agendas, time zones, buffers, travel blocks, acceptances.

Coordinate regularly on personal schedules, family commitments, travel, events, and household needs. Maintain a weekly Slack check-in to review upcoming plans and confirm both calendars reflect the same information. Handle logistics proactively so there are no surprises for either party — and if anything changes, notify both immediately and update the calendar. Keep communication simple, clear, respectful, and discreet.

• Pick a very open day on the calendar, confirm it with the CEO, then block the entire day as busy.
• Keep a running list of podcasts that reach out during the year; email hosts the recording date with the Calendly link so they pick their own slot.
• Vetting: engaged listeners, consistent publishing, hosts who get entrepreneurship, ecommerce, Italian culture, or media. Check the format (audio/video, remote/in-person, length), prefer Tuesdays or Thursdays, and avoid recordings over an hour unless the opportunity is high-value.

The CEO should only see emails that require his direct decision. Sweep the full inbox, move every message into the correct folder, respond to anything answerable without him, and route department questions to the right team member. Response expectations: initial reply within 1 day, resolution within 2 days.

The folder system

• !Mike — items only the CEO can address
• 1 – To Respond — messages you will respond to
• 2 – Review — FYI or unclear items needing clarification
• 3 – Responded — completed conversations
• 4 – Waiting On — waiting on someone else; follow up within 48–72 hours. Use this folder aggressively.
• 5 – Financials — invoices, receipts, payments (notify the finance team)
• 6 – Reference — vendor comms and operational details
• 7 – Newsletters — auto-filtered subscriptions

No email sits unprocessed, ever. Label immediately, use filters for newsletters, and if you are unsure how to respond, draft the reply and place it in To Respond for review.

Who owns what

• Product → Marissa (marissa@hardcoreitalians.com)
• Finance → Mary + Marlyn (mary@ / marlyn@hardcoreitalians.com)
• Social → Justin (justin@hardcoreitalians.com)
• Partnerships / Legal → Ficara (mikeficara@hardcoreitalians.com)
• Customer Service / Ops → Rachel (rachel@hardcoreitalians.com)

Anything sent to admin@hardcoreitalians.com already went to the CEO, Mary, and Marlyn — do NOT forward those again. When you do route something, reply to the sender, CC the team member, and make the introduction ("the CEO currently doesn't handle [responsibility] and I wanted to make sure you were directed to the proper member of our team..."). If someone reaches the CEO directly about something a team member owns, redirect them and remove the CEO from the thread.

The standard opener: "This is [Your Name], the CEO's assistant. I got to your email before he did and thought you'd appreciate a speedy reply..." There are approved templates for passing on investment opportunities, event invitations, and writing/blog collaborations — use them. Every pass is delivered kindly and wishes the sender well.

• Team discussions, decisions, and questions belong in public channels — redirect anything happening in personal group chats.
• Every team member submits an EOD form daily; department owners also submit Monday/Friday forms. React to each with an emoji, chase missing ones immediately, and flag patterns of inconsistency to the CEO.
• SOP adherence: if tasks fall behind, follow up directly and confirm the SOP was reviewed and understood. Repeated breaks get surfaced to the CEO with a recommendation.
• If someone goes quiet, misses forms, or disappears during working hours — follow up immediately, confirm availability, and surface issues to the CEO with context. Emergencies require daily communication until resolved.
• If a meeting doesn't require the CEO, you attend and give him a one-paragraph summary.

Phase 1 — decision to signed (days 0–2)

• Candidate assessments scored on the tracker (rankings, notes, rates); you turn the scorecard around within 24 hours of submissions landing.
• The CEO decides within 24 hours of the scorecard. Offer sent; target is a signed agreement within 2–3 days.
• No start date is announced until the agreement is signed. Contractor paperwork applies to everyone: agreement and W-9 in hand before the first payment, no exceptions.

Phase 2 — setup (before day 1)

• Collect the preferred Slack email and payment details; send payment details to Finance so the Bookkeeper confirms the rate and schedule in writing — the first payment is never a scramble.
• Slack access created, added only to the channels the role needs. Access list written down per role, so offboarding is a checklist too.
• Build the onboarding channel compact: about 3 canvases max (role overview, tools/access, First Week To-Dos). More overwhelms — HQ holds the deep material.
• Schedule the first call; if timing is tight, Monday beats a rushed same-day call.

Phase 3 — day 1 call (30–45 min, CEO + hire)

Keep it simple: intro and welcome, team walkthrough (who's who, Slack, HQ), role overview and the first week, questions. The call does not attempt training — training lives in HQ and the hire self-serves it after the call.

Phase 4 — training week

• HQ training is the backbone; the hire works through their role section by section.
• One Loom per section, recorded by whoever owns that knowledge, BEFORE the hire starts — not during their first week.
• Two to three short live sessions in week one to go deeper. You monitor First Week To-Dos as they check off.

Phase 5 — the quiz (end of week 1)

• Scenario-based over rule-recital: test whether they can apply the rule, not recognize it.
• 30 questions balanced across the role's areas (5 per area), randomized answer positions, believable wrong answers, no patterns.
• "Never" and "100%" only for actual zero-exception rules; everything tested is covered in the training; terminology consistent; acronyms spelled out on first use.

Phase 6 — trial window

New hires run a defined paid trial (the standard: two weeks) with concrete deliverables set on day 1, so the keep/pass decision is made on outcomes, not vibes. You track the deliverables — closed means confirmed.

• Create the welcome channel from the New Hire Onboarding template (e.g. #onboarding-jeff) and personalize it: welcome video, get started, who they report to, key meetings, channels to join, company culture.
• Build the first-week task Canvas: Week 1 is a daily Monday–Friday checklist; Week 2 is a single checklist for the full week. Include the playbook, daily EODs, training videos, and role tasks.
• Link all culture docs from #all-culture: company overview, core principles, mission, founding story, org chart, tools, SOPs.
• Send a personal welcome message, then monitor Canvas progress and follow up on anything delayed or missed. Keep the new hire accountable until every item is checked.

• Company SOPs and playbooks live in the shared Drive SOP library — help create and maintain them.
• Format every Loom with a title, summary, and chapters so the training library stays usable.
• Support content brainstorming for the CEO's brand, and send the Weekly Viral Watch message covering TikTok and Instagram trends.

Quarterly family vacations are mandatory, not optional. The Executive Admin owns making them happen: they go on the calendar at the start of the year, before anything else claims those weeks.

• Q1: a family vacation. Either this one or Q2 is the long trip of the year, around two weeks, Italy 2026 style.
• Q2: a family vacation. Whichever of Q1 or Q2 is not the long trip is a standard one.
• Q3: a standard family vacation.
• Q4: no vacation. It is the holiday selling season and everyone is on.

In January, confirm the year's dates with the CEO and his wife, block them on the calendar as Red travel entries, and start the 4-week booking timeline for the first trip right away. Each trip gets its own Trip Folder and its own itinerary PDF. If a quarter is passing with nothing booked, raise it. A missed quarter is a failure of this role, not a scheduling accident.

• 4 weeks out — confirm dates with the CEO (and his wife if applicable), create the Trip Folder in Google Drive, research flights and hotels, identify events and obligations tied to the trip, flag calendar conflicts.
• 2 weeks out — book flights, hotel, and transportation. Upload all confirmations to the Trip Folder. Add every detail to the calendar with correct time zones, travel blocks, and drive time. Slack the CEO a short message once everything is booked.
• Week before — reconfirm all bookings, check for flight changes, set check-in reminders, add packing prep to the calendar, and send the CEO a one-paragraph final summary.

Add flights to the calendar immediately after booking: exact times, airport codes, terminals, confirmation numbers, plus separate drive-time blocks with buffer. Use the Sage color for travel entries and link the Trip Folder in the calendar description. If a delay or cancellation hits, notify the CEO immediately with a simple summary and the best rebooking options — and rebook proactively.

• Flights: direct whenever possible. American Airlines first, United acceptable. Avoid Southwest, Spirit, and unfamiliar low-tier airlines. Main Cabin/Main Cabin Extra for short flights; Comfort/Preferred for longer trips.
• Seats: aisle when traveling alone. With his wife or someone close: they get the window, the CEO takes the middle.
• Timing: morning or early-afternoon departures, early-evening arrivals home. Avoid early-AM departures and late-night arrivals. Keep trips short and efficient.
• Hotels: clean and modern with strong reviews — Marriott preferred. Airbnb acceptable if clean, safe, and close. Rooms need a workspace, good Wi-Fi, and flexible cancellation.
• Ground: Uber is the default. In Chicago, Kenny the driver — (630) 450-5126 — for city driving, events with alcohol, or airport runs. Rentals only when driving is required (Hertz, Enterprise, National); decline unnecessary add-ons.

For any trip the CEO takes, build one document he can run the whole trip from on his phone: a Canva design exported as a PDF and saved to the Trip Folder. Marissa's Italy 2026 itinerary is the standard. A Vegas weekend uses the exact same template as a two-week Italy trip; it just has fewer pages.

Page order

• 1. Cover: a full-bleed photo of the destination on the top two-thirds, then the destination name and the dates.
• 2. Travel Itinerary overview: a vertical timeline of the whole trip. One stop per flight and per hotel, with dates, nights, and a photo of each place.
• 3. Route map: an outline map of the region with the start city and end city marked, titled 'A curated path connecting each destination'.
• 4. Transportation table: one row for every time you move. Date, from, to, duration, details, and a method icon (plane, car, bus). A checkbox on the left gets ticked as each one is booked.
• 5. Transportation confirmations: screenshots proving every transfer is booked.
• 6. Flights: one page per flight (there and home) with the airline reservation screenshot.
• 7. Accommodations summary: every hotel with its address, booking numbers, nights, guests, and check-in and check-out times.
• 8. One Accommodations confirmation page per hotel with the booking screenshots.
• 9. Then, for every day of the trip: a Daily Itinerary page, followed by a Confirmations page if anything that day was reserved.

The look

• A4 portrait, light grey background (#f2f2f2). Never white, never a pattern.
• Every interior page has a title in large caps, then a teal band (#638991) with white text carrying the date range or the day label, and a matching teal band across the bottom.
• Titles are Playfair Display SC in terracotta (#a78069): TRANSPORTATION, FLIGHTS, ACCOMMODATIONS, DAILY ITINERARY, CONFIRMATIONS. The cover title is Playfair Display Italic. (The Italy 2026 file spells it ACCOMODATIONS on two pages. Fix that when you duplicate it.)
• Body text is Garet, all caps, letter-spaced. Small, quiet, and easy to scan.
• Timelines are a thin vertical line with round dots in warm brown (#675b48). Times sit on the left, activities on the right.
• Photos are wide, editorial shots of the actual places you are going, connected to the timeline with a dot-and-line connector. Real scenery, not stock collages.

Conventions inside a day

• The band reads DAY N · DAY-OF-WEEK MONTH DD, YYYY. Day 1 is the first day on the ground, not the departure day.
• Anything reserved is written in green (#00bf63). Green means there is a confirmation for it on the next page. Everything else stays black.
• A question mark after a time means unconfirmed. A tilde means approximate.
• Under an activity, add smaller notes for what the CEO will need in the moment: address, phone, booking number, check-in and check-out, and instructions like 'press Get Voucher in the email' or 'cancellation fee'.
• Team follow-ups go in as notes too, with a name and a day: 'Justin needs to follow up via DM on Thursday'.
• The first daily page at each hotel repeats that hotel's address, phone, booking number, and check-in and check-out times.

What goes on a Confirmations page

• Screenshots of the real proof: the WhatsApp or text thread with the driver, the restaurant's confirmation email, the Expedia or booking page, the ticket app.
• Crop to the part that matters and keep it big enough to read on a phone.
• Same day label in the band as the daily page it follows.

• 1. In Canva, open Italy 2026 and choose Make a copy. Rename it '<Destination> <Year>', for example 'Vegas 2026'. Never build from a blank design.
• 2. Cover: replace the photo with a wide shot of the destination, then the destination name and the dates.
• 3. Overview page: one stop per flight and per hotel, in order, with dates and number of nights. Swap every photo.
• 4. Map page: replace the outline with the destination region and mark the start and end cities.
• 5. Transportation table: one row per movement. Add rows for a long trip, delete rows for a short one. Tick the checkbox as each is booked.
• 6. Transportation confirmations: paste the screenshots for every ground transfer.
• 7. Flights: one page each. The airline screenshot must show the confirmation code, flight number, times, aircraft, and seat numbers.
• 8. Accommodations: fill the summary page, then duplicate the confirmation page once per hotel and paste its booking screenshots.
• 9. Daily pages: duplicate the Daily Itinerary page once per day. Set the day label, enter times and activities top to bottom, turn reserved items green, delete unused rows.
• 10. After each day with reservations, duplicate the Confirmations page and paste that day's proof.
• 11. Search the design for leftover Italy words: Rome, Sorrento, Damaso, Bellavista, Naples, Positano. Fix anything that survived.
• 12. Export: Share, Download, PDF Standard, all pages. Name it '<Destination> <Year>.pdf'.
• 13. Save the PDF to the Trip Folder in Google Drive and Slack the CEO the link with a one-paragraph summary of the trip. As bookings change, edit the same Canva design and re-export. Do not start a second version.

Before you send it

• Every green item has a confirmation on the page that follows.
• Every hotel's check-in and check-out appear on the Accommodations page and again on its first daily page, and the times match the booking.
• Flights appear in three places (overview, transportation table, flight pages) and all three agree.
• Day numbers and days of the week are right for the whole run.
• No Italy text is left anywhere.
• Every screenshot is readable at phone size.
• Rough page count: cover, overview, map, two transportation pages, two flight pages, one accommodations page plus one per hotel, then about two pages per day.

This PDF is the CEO's personal trip data: booking numbers, phone numbers, and where he is sleeping on which night. It lives in the Trip Folder and on his phone. It never goes on the website and is never shared outside the team.

• Any purchase over $100 — personal or business — needs the CEO's approval first: identify the need, research 2–3 reliable options, compare price and delivery, present a short summary.
• Under $100: proceed without asking unless it seems unnecessary or off-brand.
• Books: Kindle version first, always, unless the CEO asks for physical or audio. Suggest 2–3 titles matched to current business blockers; under $20 and clearly aligned can be bought without asking. Add to his Kindle immediately.
• Clothing: the CEO wears a medium. Baseballism, Bombas socks, Buttercloth for dressier items.
• Handle all returns same-day without involving the CEO; track refunds, and log sizing/brand issues to improve future purchases.
• Track shipping on everything, and add important delivery dates to the calendar when the item is needed for a trip or event. Communicate only when something requires a decision.

• Track birthdays, anniversaries, milestones, and work anniversaries for team members, partners, and personal contacts. Prepare ideas 1–2 weeks in advance.
• Always present the CEO three researched options — never just one — with pricing, delivery timing, and why each fits.
• Budget: around $100 per gift. For the CEO's wife: $500–$1,000 depending on the occasion.
• Go-to categories: Harry & David baskets, Hardcore Italians apparel, concert tickets and experiences, tasteful personalized items — Italian-themed when appropriate.
• Every gift needs approval: send the three options, get confirmation, purchase, then track shipping and update the CEO.

• Save every new login immediately: site name, username/password, associated email, what the account is for, MFA backup codes, and Business/Personal/department tags. Test it before closing out.
• Share access through the appropriate Shared Folder without revealing the password when possible. Minimum access for the role; remove access immediately when someone's role changes or ends. Review access quarterly.
• Never reuse weak passwords — generate strong ones in LastPass. Never send passwords through Slack or email. Report suspicious login attempts to the CEO immediately.