Diana Faz is a seasoned, top level assistant with 15+ years of experience, a global EA mentor and advocate, and an all-around amazing person. Diana opens up about her experience with burnout during the pandemic, and also shares practical tips on managing email, networking, leading a team of admins, and anticipating your executive's needs. Enjoy our conversation! Note: The quote Diana references at the [...]
Lindsay Robinson spent 11 years as an assistant at the NBA, and is currently an Executive Assistant at LinkedIn. Lindsay talks about what it’s like to work for LinkedIn, how to improve your LinkedIn profile, being honest when you make mistakes, asking for help, and tips on self-care and avoiding burnout. Enjoy! LEADERSHIP QUOTE Failing to plan, is planning to fail. - Benjamin Franklin [...]
My first interview episode of 2020 is with Amanda Vinci, Founder and CEO of The EA Institute. It was fun interviewing Amanda from the other side of the world (she’s in Melbourne, Australia, I’m in St. Louis, MO). Amanda is an internationally accredited coach and trainer, Meta Dynamics Practitioner, Accredited EDISC Consultant, and International Keynote Speaker. We talk about mentors, mistakes, recognizing and avoiding [...]
Welcome to Episode 38, Leader Assistants! I'm very excited to share my conversation with the wonderful Lucy Brazier, CEO of Marcham Publishing, Publishers of Executive Secretary Magazine. I had the honor of finally meeting Lucy in person in Atlanta at her Executive Secretary Live event, and she was even more wonderful in person. She's even invited me to speak at Executive Secretary Live in [...]
Emily Burley is President of Executive Leadership Support (ELS), headquartered in Chicago, IL. ELS puts on amazing events for assistants, and I’m excited to share this episode with you. Emily talks about why she started ELS and gives us an inside look at the many ways they help assistants around the world. She also shares practical tips on how to ask for professional development [...]
Calling something an “emergency” doesn’t make it a true emergency. Most things can wait. Urgent is rarely urgent. Think about the last time you received a text or phone call from your executive during your off hours. Could it have waited until you were back online to address? Most likely, the answer is yes. This episode is a reminder that urgent is rarely urgent. [...]
How do you burnout-proof your life? In this episode, I continue the burnout theme from episode 9, and share 3 practical ways to avoid burnout. Note: I burned out at my last job and it was because I failed to apply these practices. Don't make the same mistake I did! LINKS IN EPISODE Read 10 Driving Forces Behind Burnout for more on what's behind [...]
I burned out in my last job. I'm not proud of it, but it happened. Thankfully, I had some time off in between that job and my next one, which gave me a chance to figure out what had gone wrong. In hindsight, I realize I missed the warning signs that could have prevented my crash and burn. Are you burned out? If you [...]
Taking time off is seen as lazy and many people don't use their allotted paid vacation time. Can we stop pretending the world revolves around us? Let's stop making excuses and use all of our paid time off. Don’t wait till you retire to take a vacation! Here's my article to executives urging them to leave their assistants alone during off ours and vacations. [...]
Something doesn’t feel right, but you’re too busy to figure out what it is. You’re stressed and exhausted, but everyone else is too, so you suck it up and push through. “Just keep grinding, no one cares how healthy I am. They just want me to produce,” you convince yourself. Those closest to you may spot it first, but they don’t always have the [...]