This episode features a Nova Chat session hosted by Nova founder and CEO Maggie Olson.
Maggie sits down with a current and experienced Chief of Staff in the Consumer Technology industry, Elise Kennedy, to discuss what it’s like holding an integral role with a family office and how she helped scale two companies to successful exits.
ABOUT ELISE
Elise Kennedy is a Chief of Staff with over 12 years of experience in consumer technology, including two exits. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff for a high-net-worth family office with investments spanning entertainment production, consumer technology, and luxury real estate. In this role, Elise oversees all operations and plays a key role in managing the family office’s diverse portfolio.
Elise’s previous experiences include being the first hire of Olivia AI, which was later acquired by Warren Buffett-backed Nubank (NYSE: Nu). She also served as the first business hire and Head of Product at Keet Health, acquired in 2018, and as CEO of a boutique consultancy firm for high-growth startups. Elise has been recognized in Crunchbase, TechCrunch, Mashable, and Cheddar.
In 2016, Elise was 1 of the 27 pitches chosen out of over 100,000 applicants on Apple TV’s Planet of the Apps, where she pitched the app Olivia AI to industry figures Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba, William, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
Elise lives in Los Angeles, CA where outside of work you’ll likely find her roller skating, enjoying live music, or hiking with her partner and dog.
ABOUT MAGGIE
Maggie Olson is the Founder of Nova Chief of Staff, the premier destination for Chief of Staff education and development. As the first Chief of Staff to a president at a Fortune 40 company — who led a multibillion-dollar business with 5,000+ employees — Maggie built the president’s Chief of Staff model from the ground up. Maggie has 20 years’ experience leading large teams and has spent her career focused on both customer and employee experience at companies including T-Mobile, Nordstrom, and Starbucks. In addition to operating the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course, Maggie is a fractional Chief of Staff focused on helping mission-driven, for-profit startup founders scale their businesses quickly. In her spare time, Maggie loves spending time outside with her husband, their animals, and their 1-year-old, Max!
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THE LEADER ASSISTANT BOOK
Download the first 3 chapters of The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of Game-Changing Assistant for FREE here or buy it on Amazon and listen to the audiobook on Audible. Also, check out the companion study guide, The Leader Assistant Workbook, to dig deeper.
LEADER ASSISTANT LIVE EVENTS
Check out our constantly updated schedule of events for admins and assistants at LeaderAssistantLive.com.
JOIN THE FREE COMMUNITY
Join the Leader Assistant Global Community for bonus content, job opportunities, and to network with other assistants who are committed to becoming leaders!
SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to The Leader Assistant Podcast so you don’t miss new episodes!
You can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora, and Stitcher.
Join my email list here if you want to get an email when a new episode goes live.
LEAVE A REVIEW
If you’re enjoying the podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Each review helps me stay motivated to keep the show going!
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00.060 –> 00:00:04.340
JEREMY: Hey, friends, welcome to episode 302 of The Leader Assistant Podcast.
00:00:04.340 –> 00:00:06.640
JEREMY: You can check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/302.
00:00:09.240 –> 00:00:13.340
JEREMY: This episode features another Nova Chat from my friend Maggie Olson.
00:00:13.340 –> 00:00:20.380
JEREMY: And in this one, she chats with Elise Kennedy, who is a family office chief of staff.
00:00:20.380 –> 00:00:32.180
JEREMY: And they discuss what it’s like holding an integral role with a family office and how Elise helped scale two companies in the past 12 years to a successful exit.
00:00:32.180 –> 00:00:37.820
JEREMY: I hope you enjoy this Nova Chat feature, and I’ve got a couple more coming up in the next few episodes.
00:00:37.820 –> 00:00:39.760
JEREMY: So thanks for listening and enjoy.
00:00:45.655 –> 00:00:53.235
<v SPEAKER_2>The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.
00:01:03.248 –> 00:01:10.468
JEREMY: Hey, Leader Assistants, have you heard the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course is about to see a price increase?
00:01:10.468 –> 00:01:17.388
JEREMY: But don’t worry, you can enroll now, lock in the current rate, and start whenever you’re ready with lifetime access.
00:01:17.388 –> 00:01:21.428
JEREMY: Nova’s mission is to give you the ultimate student experience.
00:01:21.428 –> 00:01:34.848
JEREMY: They’ve packed the course with dozens of templates, self-paced learning, hands-on practice, multiple instructor touchpoints, peer engagement, and even guest authored assignments.
00:01:34.848 –> 00:01:42.048
JEREMY: With over 500 students across 22 countries, Nova is the top spot for Chief of Staff Learning and Development.
00:01:42.048 –> 00:01:46.288
JEREMY: Don’t wait, enroll today and join the community at leaderassistant.com/nova.
00:01:49.108 –> 00:01:49.748
MAGGIE: Welcome.
00:01:49.748 –> 00:01:55.568
MAGGIE: We’ve got Elise Kennedy here for our Family Office Chief of Staff Nova Chat.
00:01:55.568 –> 00:01:56.868
MAGGIE: Super excited.
00:01:56.868 –> 00:02:09.348
MAGGIE: We are doing more of these Nova Chats that really dive into specific Chief of Staff areas of support and journeys that are unlike ours or journeys that I’m unfamiliar with that I want to share with all of you.
00:02:09.348 –> 00:02:10.788
MAGGIE: Welcome, Elise.
00:02:10.788 –> 00:02:12.388
MAGGIE: How are you?
00:02:12.388 –> 00:02:13.888
ELISE: I am great.
00:02:13.888 –> 00:02:14.508
ELISE: I’m great.
00:02:14.588 –> 00:02:18.428
ELISE: It’s a beautiful day here in LA, technically Pasadena.
00:02:18.908 –> 00:02:27.108
ELISE: I’m so excited to be here and so excited to hear about everyone’s experience and what they’re looking to do.
00:02:27.968 –> 00:02:33.848
ELISE: I’m a little nervous to be among such accomplished people, but I’m really excited.
00:02:33.848 –> 00:02:35.228
MAGGIE: I told Elise not to be nervous.
00:02:35.228 –> 00:02:36.188
MAGGIE: We’re casual.
00:02:36.188 –> 00:02:36.968
MAGGIE: It’s easy.
00:02:36.968 –> 00:02:37.748
MAGGIE: Don’t worry at all.
00:02:37.748 –> 00:02:40.588
MAGGIE: We’re just thankful for you to share your expertise with us.
00:02:40.588 –> 00:02:41.428
MAGGIE: I’m going to get going here.
00:02:41.628 –> 00:02:46.508
MAGGIE: The goal of our Nova Chats is to really go deeper with industry experts and guests.
00:02:46.508 –> 00:02:57.708
MAGGIE: We chat about job transitions and vulnerable moments, the do’s and don’ts along the way, you’re finding career alignment, when to move on and all of that good stuff.
00:02:57.708 –> 00:02:59.408
MAGGIE: A little bit about Elise here.
00:02:59.408 –> 00:03:04.588
MAGGIE: Elise is a Chief of Staff with over 12 years experience in consumer tech including two exits.
00:03:04.588 –> 00:03:06.608
MAGGIE: I definitely want to talk about that.
00:03:06.608 –> 00:03:20.928
MAGGIE: Currently, she’s the Chief of Staff for a high net worth family office with investments spanning from entertainment production, luxury real estate, gosh, more than that to consumer technology and I think more.
00:03:20.928 –> 00:03:30.088
MAGGIE: In this role, Elise oversees all operations and plays a key role in managing the family’s office, basically the diversity of their portfolio.
00:03:30.088 –> 00:03:36.168
MAGGIE: Elise’s previous experience is vast and includes being the first hire at Olivia AI.
00:03:36.168 –> 00:03:42.508
MAGGIE: We’ll dive into that as well, which was later acquired by Warren Buffett-backed Newbank.
00:03:42.508 –> 00:03:54.028
MAGGIE: She also served as the first business hire and head of product at Keat Health acquired in 2018 and as CEO of her own boutique consultancy firm for high growth startups, which is super, super cool.
00:03:54.028 –> 00:03:58.568
MAGGIE: And she’s been recognized in Crunchbase, TechCrunch, Mashable and Cheddar.
00:03:58.568 –> 00:04:00.688
MAGGIE: Good places to be recognized.
00:04:00.688 –> 00:04:02.228
MAGGIE: In 2016, this is fun.
00:04:02.448 –> 00:04:18.628
MAGGIE: Elise was number one of the 27 pitches chosen out of 100,000 applicants on Apple TV’s Planet of the Apps, where she pitched the app, Olivia AI, to industry figures, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Alba and Gary Vaynerchuk.
00:04:18.628 –> 00:04:20.368
MAGGIE: So pretty cool stuff.
00:04:20.368 –> 00:04:22.348
MAGGIE: Elise lives in LA.
00:04:22.348 –> 00:04:28.888
MAGGIE: Where outside of work, you’ll find her roller skating, enjoying live music and hiking with her partner and their dog.
00:04:28.888 –> 00:04:30.228
MAGGIE: So welcome, Elise.
00:04:31.068 –> 00:04:31.708
ELISE: Thank you.
00:04:31.708 –> 00:04:32.088
ELISE: Thank you.
00:04:32.088 –> 00:04:33.668
ELISE: I’m so happy to be here.
00:04:33.668 –> 00:04:34.188
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:04:34.188 –> 00:04:34.748
MAGGIE: So fun.
00:04:34.748 –> 00:04:34.968
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:04:34.968 –> 00:04:36.448
MAGGIE: Well, we’ve got lots to dive into.
00:04:36.448 –> 00:04:37.728
MAGGIE: I’m very excited.
00:04:37.728 –> 00:04:46.028
MAGGIE: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about, like let’s rewind and tell us about how your early career got going.
00:04:46.028 –> 00:04:49.908
MAGGIE: What were some of the threads like along the way that led you to where you are now?
00:04:49.908 –> 00:04:50.968
MAGGIE: Where did you go to school?
00:04:50.968 –> 00:04:52.588
MAGGIE: What were you studying?
00:04:52.588 –> 00:04:55.488
MAGGIE: And then what was your first job out of school?
00:04:55.488 –> 00:04:56.068
ELISE: Yeah.
00:04:56.068 –> 00:04:56.448
ELISE: Yeah.
00:04:56.448 –> 00:04:57.368
ELISE: Really good question.
00:04:57.368 –> 00:05:06.948
ELISE: And so I’m from a small town in East Texas, where I learned how to code when I was 10.
00:05:06.948 –> 00:05:11.348
ELISE: My brother kind of taught me how to code, just really basic HTML stuff.
00:05:11.348 –> 00:05:16.728
ELISE: But for me, the Internet was the window to the outside world, to a great beyond.
00:05:16.728 –> 00:05:20.548
ELISE: And so I was always just really into tech and the Internet.
00:05:20.548 –> 00:05:28.808
ELISE: And so I went to school at Texas A&M, Giga Maggie’s, where I majored in IT, Information Operations Management.
00:05:30.188 –> 00:05:30.528
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:05:30.528 –> 00:05:45.488
ELISE: And so right after that, I went straight into a very high growth startup, where there were like three of us, I think account managers did a whole lot of different stuff for at least 20,000 customers.
00:05:45.488 –> 00:05:47.788
ELISE: And we provided 24-7 support.
00:05:47.788 –> 00:05:51.328
ELISE: And so that’s really where I got a boot camp into high growth startups.
00:05:51.628 –> 00:05:53.208
MAGGIE: What company was that, Elise?
00:05:53.208 –> 00:05:58.408
ELISE: It was called at the time Columel, but I think it might now be called Textimal.
00:05:59.708 –> 00:06:02.848
ELISE: But yeah, so we got on the Inc 500.
00:06:02.848 –> 00:06:03.048
ELISE: Yeah.
00:06:03.048 –> 00:06:05.448
ELISE: And so it’s kind of my boot camp.
00:06:05.448 –> 00:06:06.168
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:06:06.168 –> 00:06:07.488
MAGGIE: Amazing.
00:06:07.488 –> 00:06:08.768
ELISE: Yeah.
00:06:08.768 –> 00:06:09.048
ELISE: Yeah.
00:06:09.048 –> 00:06:17.088
ELISE: So from then, I’ve just always been involved in the startup world, doing a variety of different roles, everything under the sun.
00:06:17.088 –> 00:06:21.008
ELISE: I always say that I tried to not get too under the hood with code.
00:06:22.108 –> 00:06:32.228
ELISE: But everything from operations to product, anything that falls under the umbrella, that’s not necessarily the super tech-heavy coding.
00:06:32.228 –> 00:06:33.628
MAGGIE: That’s me.
00:06:33.628 –> 00:06:34.128
MAGGIE: OK.
00:06:34.128 –> 00:06:42.928
MAGGIE: So and how many jobs did it take for you to then go from that company to Olivia AI?
00:06:42.928 –> 00:06:45.628
MAGGIE: Tell us the story there, the journey there.
00:06:45.688 –> 00:06:46.148
ELISE: Yeah.
00:06:46.148 –> 00:06:55.768
ELISE: So I was at Collimall and then I went to work for a non-profit in New York City that a friend had recommended me for.
00:06:55.768 –> 00:07:03.108
ELISE: So I was there for four years doing anything from like marketing operations for the college.
00:07:03.108 –> 00:07:05.768
ELISE: It was a small college in the heart of New York City.
00:07:05.768 –> 00:07:13.408
ELISE: And then I was also doing startup consulting on the side because I still had my foot kind of in that door and in that world.
00:07:13.488 –> 00:07:19.048
ELISE: That was just really passionate about what they were doing in the city and love New York.
00:07:19.048 –> 00:07:24.848
ELISE: And so eventually, Olivia AI was someone who I had just had a connection with.
00:07:24.848 –> 00:07:30.088
ELISE: And then they asked me to come on full time as they were raising their seed round.
00:07:30.088 –> 00:07:30.408
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:07:30.408 –> 00:07:38.348
MAGGIE: And at what point in this journey, did you launch your own boutique consultancy as CEO?
00:07:38.348 –> 00:07:38.828
ELISE: Yeah.
00:07:38.828 –> 00:07:41.948
ELISE: So that actually came after my second exit.
00:07:42.388 –> 00:07:43.188
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:07:43.188 –> 00:07:50.608
ELISE: And so someone else who had a really similar story to mine, but he was on the tech side of things, was a former tech stars.
00:07:50.608 –> 00:07:56.708
ELISE: He had his PhD in computer science and had just sold his previous company.
00:07:56.708 –> 00:08:07.208
ELISE: So he was doing kind of what I was doing on the side, just freelancing because other high growth startups were coming to be saying, hey, I really need help in scaling this thing.
00:08:07.208 –> 00:08:07.828
ELISE: What do I do?
00:08:07.828 –> 00:08:09.308
ELISE: And it just kind of turned into this.
00:08:09.468 –> 00:08:14.248
ELISE: But there was the tech portion too, and there were a few people I actually trusted with that.
00:08:14.248 –> 00:08:17.448
ELISE: And so he came to me and he said, hey, can we join forces?
00:08:17.448 –> 00:08:20.528
ELISE: And that’s kind of where we started from there.
00:08:20.528 –> 00:08:26.868
ELISE: And so I started as a kind of BOO, basically, Director of Operations there.
00:08:26.868 –> 00:08:34.148
ELISE: And one of our clients raised their Series A round of funding and then asked him to come on as their CTO.
00:08:34.148 –> 00:08:35.688
ELISE: So he asked me to become CEO.
00:08:35.688 –> 00:08:37.328
ELISE: And that’s when I stepped up.
00:08:38.068 –> 00:08:38.508
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:08:38.508 –> 00:08:38.808
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:08:38.808 –> 00:08:42.768
MAGGIE: So I don’t want to lose sight of kind of the early in career, the coding aspect.
00:08:42.768 –> 00:08:51.068
MAGGIE: How did coding show up in your day to day in those early foundational roles that you took on for startups?
00:08:51.068 –> 00:08:52.328
MAGGIE: What were you doing?
00:08:52.328 –> 00:08:53.828
ELISE: That’s a really good question.
00:08:53.828 –> 00:09:02.108
ELISE: So the coding aspect of it, I didn’t want to do as much because that required so much focus on that portion.
00:09:02.108 –> 00:09:17.688
ELISE: But it was really helpful because there are things that actually ended up being super valuable, like knowing how to code HTML for e-mails, like e-mail marketing, which I’m still a huge fan of because you’re not competing against algorithms.
00:09:19.068 –> 00:09:29.588
ELISE: Then small edits too, you’re not having to bug engineers for edits to a landing page for something or even a customer support page that you’re building on your own.
00:09:29.588 –> 00:09:31.508
ELISE: Small things like that were really helpful.
00:09:36.888 –> 00:09:37.848
MAGGIE: Have you heard?
00:09:37.848 –> 00:09:43.388
MAGGIE: The Nova Chief of Staff Certification course price is going up in January of 2025.
00:09:43.388 –> 00:09:47.188
MAGGIE: Enroll now and with lifetime access, start whenever you please.
00:09:47.188 –> 00:09:51.888
MAGGIE: Here at Nova, it’s our mission to provide the very best student experience possible.
00:09:51.888 –> 00:09:56.628
MAGGIE: Our course is chocked full of features and resources designed just for you.
00:09:56.628 –> 00:10:07.588
MAGGIE: Dozens of templates, self-paced online learning, hands-on practice, multiple instructor touchpoints, peer engagement opportunities, guest authored assignments, the list goes on.
00:10:07.588 –> 00:10:14.768
MAGGIE: With 500 students across 22 countries, Nova is the premier destination for Chief of Staff Learning and Development.
00:10:14.768 –> 00:10:17.088
MAGGIE: Enroll today and join us.
00:10:20.428 –> 00:10:20.908
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:10:20.908 –> 00:10:22.428
MAGGIE: Yeah, that makes sense.
00:10:22.428 –> 00:10:25.288
MAGGIE: It’s fun to hear a little bit about a unique background.
00:10:26.008 –> 00:10:31.868
MAGGIE: I have a lot of friends who are engineers and deep in coding, and I think there’s life lessons that you learn from coding, right?
00:10:31.868 –> 00:10:35.748
MAGGIE: Patterns, systems, organization, the way that you look at the world.
00:10:36.528 –> 00:10:41.708
MAGGIE: Do you feel like that’s been impacted by your technical coding background at all?
00:10:41.708 –> 00:10:43.188
ELISE: That’s a good question.
00:10:43.188 –> 00:10:58.548
ELISE: I think I learned patience because there’s so many things that just break all the time when you’re coding and so you just have to look things up on Stack Overflow and also learning like, hey, someone else use this template, let someone else use this code.
00:10:58.548 –> 00:11:02.108
ELISE: I can copy and paste this into here and I don’t have to recreate the wheel.
00:11:02.108 –> 00:11:02.368
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:11:02.368 –> 00:11:04.428
MAGGIE: We talk about that a lot as Chiefs of Staff.
00:11:04.428 –> 00:11:05.628
MAGGIE: So that’s really…
00:11:05.628 –> 00:11:06.568
ELISE: Exactly.
00:11:06.588 –> 00:11:07.008
MAGGIE: Exactly.
00:11:07.008 –> 00:11:08.768
MAGGIE: That checks.
00:11:08.768 –> 00:11:09.168
MAGGIE: All right.
00:11:09.168 –> 00:11:18.728
MAGGIE: So let’s get to where you started in Chief of Staff work and eventually Family Office work.
00:11:18.728 –> 00:11:27.808
MAGGIE: So you went from the companies you’ve been talking about up to this point and then you started in Chief of Staff specific roles to startups.
00:11:27.808 –> 00:11:28.288
MAGGIE: Is that right?
00:11:28.288 –> 00:11:30.768
MAGGIE: Do you want to share a little bit more with us about that?
00:11:30.768 –> 00:11:31.308
ELISE: Yeah.
00:11:31.308 –> 00:11:31.728
ELISE: Yeah.
00:11:31.728 –> 00:11:38.968
ELISE: So I think my journey’s been pretty interesting, kind of working up slowly to the CEO role.
00:11:38.968 –> 00:11:45.268
ELISE: And I realized, so I was asked to become CEO in January of 2020.
00:11:45.268 –> 00:11:49.128
ELISE: And that’s a crazy time to become CEO of a services-based company.
00:11:49.128 –> 00:11:50.948
ELISE: And so I did that for…
00:11:50.948 –> 00:11:54.528
MAGGIE: For the consulting company, the boutique consulting firm for startups.
00:11:54.528 –> 00:11:55.748
ELISE: For the consulting firm.
00:11:55.748 –> 00:11:56.208
ELISE: Yeah.
00:11:56.208 –> 00:12:03.188
ELISE: And so I was really proud of how we led the company through COVID, no layoffs, nothing like that.
00:12:03.188 –> 00:12:09.968
ELISE: We really worked together to push forward.
00:12:09.968 –> 00:12:15.528
ELISE: But I realized in that time frame, I’m going to be real, I was a good CEO.
00:12:15.528 –> 00:12:18.908
ELISE: But I was more of a Robin than a Batman.
00:12:19.588 –> 00:12:32.328
ELISE: And so I had realized, so my co-founder who had asked me to become CEO, who’s formerly CEO, he was now CTO at this other company, there was a chief of staff there.
00:12:32.328 –> 00:12:34.968
ELISE: And he said, I think, and it was a fairly new role.
00:12:34.968 –> 00:12:37.428
ELISE: I mean, this is still kind of a new role.
00:12:37.428 –> 00:12:37.668
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:12:37.668 –> 00:12:38.728
ELISE: And so he said, I think-
00:12:38.728 –> 00:12:39.908
MAGGIE: What year was this, Elise?
00:12:39.908 –> 00:12:41.248
MAGGIE: Sorry to interrupt, but what year was it?
00:12:41.248 –> 00:12:42.908
ELISE: No, no.
00:12:42.908 –> 00:12:44.088
ELISE: 2020.
00:12:44.128 –> 00:12:44.988
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:12:44.988 –> 00:12:46.188
ELISE: 2021, maybe.
00:12:46.188 –> 00:12:48.988
ELISE: 21.
00:12:48.988 –> 00:12:51.748
ELISE: And I’ve always been the de facto chief of staff.
00:12:51.748 –> 00:12:55.048
ELISE: I’m sure a lot of people here can relate to that.
00:12:55.048 –> 00:13:09.328
ELISE: You become like your principal’s trusted person and special projects and they know they can hand it off to you and they know that you’re going to do a good job and see it from start to finish.
00:13:09.328 –> 00:13:11.408
ELISE: And so he told me about the chief of staff role.
00:13:11.548 –> 00:13:14.088
ELISE: I was like, oh, that’s really interesting.
00:13:14.088 –> 00:13:16.448
ELISE: That really does seem up my alley.
00:13:16.448 –> 00:13:21.468
ELISE: I started doing informational coffee chats with a few other chiefs of staff.
00:13:21.468 –> 00:13:26.568
ELISE: I was like, oh, this is really my friend who was a chief of staff at Dropbox.
00:13:26.568 –> 00:13:30.548
ELISE: And I was like, oh, this is really up my alley.
00:13:31.748 –> 00:13:40.668
ELISE: Yeah, and so I knew someone in the FinTech space who was looking for someone kind of similar in that role at a company called Quill or Quinn.
00:13:41.728 –> 00:13:46.268
ELISE: Yeah, and that’s kind of how I officially got started with the title.
00:13:46.268 –> 00:13:50.008
ELISE: Again, that was the first official chief of staff title.
00:13:50.008 –> 00:13:50.328
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:13:50.328 –> 00:13:52.468
MAGGIE: And what company were you chief of staff for?
00:13:52.468 –> 00:13:56.188
MAGGIE: And then where did that lead from there to your next chief of staff role?
00:13:56.188 –> 00:13:56.728
ELISE: Yeah.
00:13:56.728 –> 00:14:04.908
ELISE: So I was chief of staff for, it was a venture-backed series, a fintech company called Quinn slash Quill.
00:14:04.908 –> 00:14:09.688
ELISE: Basically doing a lot of stuff in the credit space for unemployed people.
00:14:09.688 –> 00:14:23.088
ELISE: And so, yeah, basically taking that whole company from zero to 15,000 customers in the span of a couple months.
00:14:24.128 –> 00:14:34.768
ELISE: And then, sadly, it had to shut down because when FTX happened, the FDIC for new financial products was like, we don’t know what we’re trying to regulate.
00:14:34.768 –> 00:14:43.788
ELISE: We’re going to halt all new products for all new financial products in the fintech space for the next at least six months.
00:14:43.788 –> 00:14:45.548
ELISE: Like we’re not going to do this until then.
00:14:45.548 –> 00:14:51.328
ELISE: And so they said that to our banking partners and we’re like, well, okay, that’s that.
00:14:51.388 –> 00:14:55.608
ELISE: And so that’s kind of when I shifted to what I’m doing now.
00:14:55.608 –> 00:14:59.548
MAGGIE: Okay, so that led you to Family Office, to your role now in Family Office.
00:14:59.548 –> 00:15:01.308
MAGGIE: Okay, we’re going to dive deep into that.
00:15:01.308 –> 00:15:14.388
MAGGIE: But before we do, why don’t you tell us a little bit about the exits that you went through and the part that you took specifically in those exits in your de facto or actual chief of staff roles?
00:15:14.388 –> 00:15:15.888
ELISE: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
00:15:15.888 –> 00:15:28.748
ELISE: So I think the big thing that I always like to tell people who are scaling companies to exit is documentation is key, like absolutely key for two reasons.
00:15:28.788 –> 00:15:36.568
ELISE: One is when you’re scaling and you’re scaling quickly, you find kind of that piece in the market and customers want it, they want it quickly.
00:15:37.308 –> 00:15:57.328
ELISE: And being able to scale quickly and get more services out, have more customer service people coming on, creating more materials, creating more business verticals, having documentation so when you recruit the right people that come into your company, they can get on board super quickly.
00:15:57.328 –> 00:16:00.428
ELISE: So typically, with documentation, I like to do two things.
00:16:00.448 –> 00:16:09.188
ELISE: One is the typical writing out of processes of what exactly you’ve done from A to B to C on how to get on boarded in Zendesk.
00:16:09.188 –> 00:16:11.448
ELISE: Here are how we respond to this.
00:16:11.448 –> 00:16:15.948
ELISE: Here’s how you get into these different networks and Plaid and all of that to refund money.
00:16:15.948 –> 00:16:21.328
ELISE: Just all of these things so you can run smoothly and you can scale quickly.
00:16:21.328 –> 00:16:23.788
ELISE: That and then using Loom.
00:16:23.788 –> 00:16:30.868
ELISE: So that way, I’m using both the people that are visual learners versus the auditory learners.
00:16:30.868 –> 00:16:33.248
ELISE: They can just go through a quick Loom video.
00:16:33.248 –> 00:16:36.068
ELISE: So those are two big things.
00:16:36.148 –> 00:16:47.368
ELISE: Then the other reason for documentation too, specifically when it comes to exits, is whoever is going to be acquiring you is going to be doing a lot of due diligence.
00:16:47.368 –> 00:16:57.188
ELISE: From both the investors, as you continue to scale and do different rounds of funding, the investors and then the company themselves.
00:16:57.828 –> 00:17:05.248
ELISE: And so for them to make the most return on their investment, they want to be able to hop in there and really understand what’s going on.
00:17:05.248 –> 00:17:28.168
ELISE: They want to make sure that when they look under the hood, when they look at your CRM, when they look at your financial modeling, revenue forecasting, all of these things, they really want to say, okay, this is a sound investment and we can trust that these people have their stuff together to where we can easily pick this up, and it’s a very clear value add.
00:17:28.168 –> 00:17:29.448
MAGGIE: Yeah, that’s super helpful.
00:17:29.628 –> 00:17:34.268
MAGGIE: And specifically, what was your biggest part in those exits?
00:17:34.268 –> 00:17:35.208
MAGGIE: Were you documenting?
00:17:35.208 –> 00:17:36.388
MAGGIE: Were you filming looms?
00:17:36.388 –> 00:17:39.468
MAGGIE: Were you the doer in a lot of that?
00:17:39.468 –> 00:17:46.408
ELISE: Yeah, I think with the exits themselves, there’s due diligence is a really big part of that, right?
00:17:46.408 –> 00:18:06.848
ELISE: And so I think it’s also like, typically it’s the founders that are actually going and finding the person that’s going to acquire it happens just in a few ways of their like networking for that, or if it happens kind of organically, it’s happened in a little bit of both ways.
00:18:06.848 –> 00:18:16.868
ELISE: And, you know, like IPOs, I haven’t taken a company through an IPO since we are when we got acquired by Newbank, they IPO’d, I believe, two weeks after we were acquired.
00:18:16.908 –> 00:18:19.308
MAGGIE: Whoa, that’s why.
00:18:19.308 –> 00:18:21.888
ELISE: So we knew that was happening too.
00:18:21.888 –> 00:18:27.608
ELISE: So that added this like whole other layer of things that I can only say so much about.
00:18:27.608 –> 00:18:30.408
ELISE: But yeah, yeah.
00:18:30.408 –> 00:18:33.588
ELISE: So that’s kind of out in a nutshell.
00:18:33.588 –> 00:18:34.248
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:18:34.248 –> 00:18:34.708
MAGGIE: Amazing.
00:18:34.708 –> 00:18:36.788
MAGGIE: Well, super, super interesting.
00:18:38.028 –> 00:18:42.068
MAGGIE: I want to talk about your job now in Family Office.
00:18:42.068 –> 00:18:50.128
MAGGIE: So first of all, did you have your eyes set on Family Office, Chief of Staff work or how did this opportunity come about for you?
00:18:50.128 –> 00:18:52.328
ELISE: No, no.
00:18:52.328 –> 00:18:59.748
ELISE: I really, I knew some people who had worked in the Family Office world, but it’s not something that I specifically targeted.
00:19:01.168 –> 00:19:06.728
ELISE: Frankly, I was just kind of networking and I was looking for my next Chief of Staff role.
00:19:06.728 –> 00:19:10.908
ELISE: I knew that’s the role I wanted to stay in.
00:19:10.908 –> 00:19:14.188
ELISE: And it’s sometimes listed as several different things.
00:19:14.568 –> 00:19:18.248
ELISE: I think this job might have technically been listed as Director of Operations.
00:19:19.908 –> 00:19:25.008
ELISE: And so this role, I actually found online.
00:19:25.008 –> 00:19:32.188
ELISE: It’s funny because every single role that I’ve had, my entire career has all been networking, all been networking.
00:19:32.188 –> 00:19:37.588
ELISE: But this one, I found through a job board.
00:19:37.588 –> 00:19:49.628
ELISE: And it’s so funny because I was so unsure of it because, and I’ll get more into this later, but with family offices and a lot of these high net worth individuals, they do not have online presences at all.
00:19:49.628 –> 00:19:51.688
ELISE: So you’re like, what am I getting into?
00:19:51.688 –> 00:19:56.328
ELISE: You try to do as much due diligence on your end as you can.
00:19:56.328 –> 00:20:00.708
ELISE: But sometimes there’s only so much you actually can do and you don’t know it until you’re into it.
00:20:00.708 –> 00:20:02.068
ELISE: So I lucked out.
00:20:02.068 –> 00:20:04.008
ELISE: I’m very grateful for that.
00:20:04.008 –> 00:20:08.648
ELISE: But yeah, I wish I could have told my past self that it would be okay.
00:20:11.808 –> 00:20:13.248
MAGGIE: Oh, my gosh.
00:20:13.248 –> 00:20:18.688
MAGGIE: So yeah, tell us a little bit about, I guess, all-encompassing family office work.
00:20:18.968 –> 00:20:20.308
MAGGIE: What’s your day-to-day look like?
00:20:20.308 –> 00:20:21.348
MAGGIE: What’s your scope?
00:20:21.348 –> 00:20:25.388
MAGGIE: I know that we’re going to be confidential around who you work for, of course.
00:20:25.388 –> 00:20:30.028
MAGGIE: But share with us what it’s like for you and what the job is like.
00:20:30.028 –> 00:20:31.308
ELISE: Yeah.
00:20:31.308 –> 00:20:36.848
ELISE: So a lot of people who are in family offices are interested in going into that.
00:20:37.508 –> 00:20:43.608
ELISE: I always say the role can really vary depending on the family.
00:20:43.608 –> 00:20:49.208
ELISE: Depending on the family and their net worth, and then especially their investments.
00:20:49.208 –> 00:20:59.928
ELISE: Because some family offices almost operate like venture capital firms, and so they take people from the investment and VC space.
00:21:01.328 –> 00:21:18.748
ELISE: But as you had mentioned earlier, the way that my family office works is it’s basically a wealthy investor and his wife, and they’re three different companies of luxury, real estate, consumer tech, and the production company in those day-to-day operations.
00:21:18.748 –> 00:21:29.628
ELISE: It could really vary just depending on what the priorities are, and that’s something that I know probably everyone here can relate to.
00:21:29.628 –> 00:21:41.788
ELISE: But yeah, it’s really interesting because you’re working a log-side other ultra-high net worth individuals too, and so their priorities are really quickly changing.
00:21:41.788 –> 00:21:59.188
ELISE: So it’s like, oh, if one of them wants to make an investment or check on this one production, or an NFL player wants to come look at one of our properties, then things need to happen really quickly, but also be really high quality too.
00:21:59.188 –> 00:22:08.808
ELISE: So it’s balancing that matrix of what’s urgent now and really important what’s urgent long term and being strategic there.
00:22:08.808 –> 00:22:11.208
ELISE: So yeah, it can really vary.
00:22:11.208 –> 00:22:12.008
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:22:12.008 –> 00:22:12.228
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:22:12.228 –> 00:22:13.888
MAGGIE: So tell us that that makes a ton of sense.
00:22:13.888 –> 00:22:15.568
MAGGIE: Tell us about the team.
00:22:15.568 –> 00:22:17.248
MAGGIE: What is the Family Office team look like?
00:22:17.248 –> 00:22:26.828
MAGGIE: We’ve got several Family Office Chiefs of Staff in the Nova Chief of Staff Certification course, and I get to meet with all the students and hear kind of the structure of their office.
00:22:26.828 –> 00:22:35.268
MAGGIE: And I’m sure it can range hugely from, I’m the only one that’s not in the family, to there’s 10 or 20 of us.
00:22:35.268 –> 00:22:36.568
MAGGIE: So what is the structure look like?
00:22:36.568 –> 00:22:40.648
MAGGIE: And what are the other roles that are supporting the Family Office that you work with?
00:22:40.648 –> 00:22:46.368
ELISE: Yeah, so really because we’re small, we’re small and we’re lean for the Family Office themselves.
00:22:46.368 –> 00:22:52.688
ELISE: So it’s basically me and my boss and his wife for the Family Office umbrella itself.
00:22:52.688 –> 00:23:02.188
ELISE: And then there’s the three different companies, real estate and then the production company and then the consumer tech company.
00:23:02.368 –> 00:23:12.268
ELISE: So and these umbrellas, they, I think he’s technically the CEO of all of these, of all of these umbrella companies, if you will.
00:23:12.268 –> 00:23:16.888
ELISE: And then there’s a whole structure underneath each one of those companies.
00:23:16.888 –> 00:23:17.328
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:23:17.328 –> 00:23:26.708
MAGGIE: And so you work with the CEO of each of those companies based on the direction and the need of your boss?
00:23:26.708 –> 00:23:27.148
ELISE: Yeah.
00:23:27.148 –> 00:23:29.308
ELISE: So my boss is the CEO of each company.
00:23:29.308 –> 00:23:30.448
MAGGIE: He’s the CEO of each one.
00:23:30.768 –> 00:23:31.128
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:23:31.128 –> 00:23:36.568
MAGGIE: And so are you working within each company for your boss?
00:23:37.268 –> 00:23:37.668
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:23:37.668 –> 00:23:43.328
MAGGIE: And do you do anything outside of those three companies, like personal support or travel or things like that?
00:23:44.048 –> 00:23:47.028
MAGGIE: It’s pretty structured within the three categories.
00:23:47.688 –> 00:23:48.088
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:23:48.088 –> 00:23:48.328
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:23:48.328 –> 00:23:57.228
MAGGIE: And then he has teams, like large teams, small teams of people that also work within each of those companies.
00:23:58.048 –> 00:23:58.788
ELISE: Okay.
00:23:58.788 –> 00:23:59.088
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:23:59.088 –> 00:23:59.348
ELISE: Yeah.
00:23:59.368 –> 00:24:04.808
ELISE: So the consumer tech companies, like 15 or so.
00:24:04.808 –> 00:24:13.048
ELISE: And then the production company, the way a lot of production companies work is you have a lot of freelancers, but you still have some full-time people.
00:24:13.048 –> 00:24:16.248
ELISE: But you have a lot of editors and stuff that you’re working with.
00:24:16.248 –> 00:24:19.448
ELISE: And then the people, the producers that you’re working alongside.
00:24:20.848 –> 00:24:25.448
ELISE: And then with the real estate too, you have your whole construction team.
00:24:25.508 –> 00:24:30.848
ELISE: Without me giving away too much, you have your whole construction team, and then realtors and all of that.
00:24:30.868 –> 00:24:31.768
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:24:31.768 –> 00:24:32.248
MAGGIE: Amazing.
00:24:32.428 –> 00:24:35.448
MAGGIE: Well, this is a good time to share with everybody on that.
00:24:35.448 –> 00:24:39.468
MAGGIE: Feel free to pop questions into the Q&A box.
00:24:39.468 –> 00:24:44.468
MAGGIE: The chat’s a little harder for us to manage, but there’s a Q&A box down there that you can find.
00:24:44.468 –> 00:24:45.408
MAGGIE: Put questions in there.
00:24:45.408 –> 00:24:48.728
MAGGIE: If you have specific questions, we will totally get to them.
00:24:48.728 –> 00:24:54.868
MAGGIE: We’re going to dive into a couple other things here, but we can come back to anything that you guys really want to touch on here.
00:24:56.368 –> 00:25:03.108
MAGGIE: So, Elise, what qualities do you think are essential for success as a Chief of Staff of a Family Office?
00:25:03.108 –> 00:25:06.808
MAGGIE: And then additionally, for people that are like, oh, that sounds pretty cool.
00:25:06.808 –> 00:25:08.608
MAGGIE: I want to work for a Family Office.
00:25:08.608 –> 00:25:12.948
MAGGIE: What kind of advice do you give to those folks?
00:25:12.948 –> 00:25:15.108
ELISE: Yeah, that’s a great question.
00:25:15.108 –> 00:25:19.088
ELISE: So I think for Family Office life, what I mentioned, it can really vary.
00:25:19.088 –> 00:25:24.848
ELISE: So if you’re interested in the role, I think I would really narrow down as to what you’re interested in doing.
00:25:25.128 –> 00:25:32.528
ELISE: Because we’re in a place where Family Offices can really vary, and then also Chief of Staff roles can really vary.
00:25:32.628 –> 00:25:34.068
ELISE: So finding your own skills.
00:25:34.068 –> 00:25:42.688
ELISE: So for me, I’m like an MBA type, consulting type, techie, and that’s where my skills lie.
00:25:42.688 –> 00:25:45.868
ELISE: Shout out to all the EAs, but I’d be terrible at Calendar Tetris.
00:25:45.868 –> 00:25:48.308
ELISE: I’d be terrible at that.
00:25:48.308 –> 00:26:00.408
ELISE: So I try to make that really clear in my interviews of where I can provide the most support in a lot of things and getting clear on what the Family Office needs too.
00:26:00.408 –> 00:26:10.488
ELISE: So also what I said, getting a really good idea of what the Family Office does and where their investments are, so you can support those best.
00:26:10.488 –> 00:26:16.628
ELISE: For me, I didn’t know much about real estate when I got into this, and I was always intrigued by it.
00:26:17.808 –> 00:26:26.348
ELISE: That was a cool growth opportunity for me to hop in here and really learn a lot about that aspect of investing.
00:26:26.348 –> 00:26:27.688
ELISE: It’s very different from tech.
00:26:27.688 –> 00:26:34.248
ELISE: So I would think that those are for people that are looking into it for sure.
00:26:34.388 –> 00:26:35.888
ELISE: It just depends on the role.
00:26:35.888 –> 00:26:36.308
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:26:36.308 –> 00:26:43.228
MAGGIE: I think it’s pretty cool that you get to work in real estate, you get to work for production, like media, like that kind of a company.
00:26:43.228 –> 00:26:47.488
MAGGIE: You have so much variety, which was what us Chiefs of Staff loves.
00:26:47.488 –> 00:26:51.708
MAGGIE: We love variety, we love solving problems, we love change every day, doing something new.
00:26:51.708 –> 00:26:52.188
MAGGIE: We love it.
00:26:52.188 –> 00:26:54.108
MAGGIE: I think it’s great.
00:26:54.108 –> 00:26:54.628
MAGGIE: Right?
00:26:54.628 –> 00:26:55.648
ELISE: It’s so fun.
00:26:55.648 –> 00:26:56.708
ELISE: It’s so fun.
00:26:56.708 –> 00:27:11.428
ELISE: It seems like the common thread I see is that humility and discretion for family offices, because you get to talk to a lot of cool people and interesting people every day, but they’re just people at the end of the day.
00:27:11.428 –> 00:27:11.728
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:27:11.728 –> 00:27:14.488
ELISE: So that’s really fun.
00:27:14.488 –> 00:27:15.028
MAGGIE: Good.
00:27:15.028 –> 00:27:22.588
MAGGIE: So along those lines, what do you find is the most rewarding part about your work in family office and what’s the most challenging?
00:27:22.588 –> 00:27:23.328
ELISE: Yeah.
00:27:23.328 –> 00:27:40.208
ELISE: So I guess the most rewarding part is I’ll say, it’s really cool being able to work for a principal who is wonderful, who’s also personally invested in you, both literally and figuratively.
00:27:40.208 –> 00:27:43.848
ELISE: And so that’s really special.
00:27:43.848 –> 00:27:46.048
ELISE: And so like yesterday, I was having a rough day.
00:27:46.208 –> 00:27:49.308
ELISE: So he’s like, let’s go on a walk and grab coffee.
00:27:49.308 –> 00:27:51.048
ELISE: And that was really special.
00:27:51.048 –> 00:27:55.328
ELISE: And his, and since it’s a family thing, and he and his wife, they have small children.
00:27:55.328 –> 00:28:04.828
ELISE: And a lot of times just when schedules align, they’ll come to the office and we still need to finish something.
00:28:04.828 –> 00:28:07.968
ELISE: And so I’ll pop them popcorn, we’ll put on Disney Plus.
00:28:07.968 –> 00:28:14.868
ELISE: And my boss and I will talk strategy at the conference table while they watch TV.
00:28:15.208 –> 00:28:18.188
ELISE: So it’s really sweet to like have that kind of relationship.
00:28:18.188 –> 00:28:18.888
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:28:18.888 –> 00:28:19.348
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:28:19.348 –> 00:28:19.668
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:28:19.668 –> 00:28:23.488
MAGGIE: So happy Admin Day to everybody on the call who’s an admin.
00:28:23.488 –> 00:28:24.448
MAGGIE: I’ve never been an EA.
00:28:24.448 –> 00:28:25.428
MAGGIE: I work closely with them.
00:28:25.428 –> 00:28:28.228
MAGGIE: I advocate for them, but you guys are the real heroes.
00:28:28.228 –> 00:28:31.468
MAGGIE: So happy, happy Admin Day to all of you.
00:28:31.468 –> 00:28:33.688
MAGGIE: Do you work with an admin, Elise, in your current role?
00:28:33.688 –> 00:28:36.548
MAGGIE: Does your CEO have an admin across the family office?
00:28:36.548 –> 00:28:38.788
MAGGIE: Does he have an admin within each business?
00:28:38.788 –> 00:28:40.668
MAGGIE: How does that work?
00:28:40.668 –> 00:28:49.848
ELISE: So he has kind of an admin within each business, but that is something that’s kind of a hot topic in our office right now, is working on getting that.
00:28:51.008 –> 00:28:55.188
ELISE: Because it’s really interesting because it’s like, I’m always happy to do it.
00:28:55.188 –> 00:28:56.988
ELISE: I’m a sweep the floor kind of girl.
00:28:56.988 –> 00:29:00.428
ELISE: I’m like, if you need me to send a calendar invite, I’m totally fine with that.
00:29:00.428 –> 00:29:12.008
ELISE: But at the same time, especially with the tech company, if I’m being positioned as a certain title in a certain area and trying to step into that power.
00:29:12.448 –> 00:29:17.008
ELISE: But then if he asks me to send a calendar invite, people are like, wait, what’s her role again?
00:29:17.008 –> 00:29:18.628
ELISE: I’m confused.
00:29:18.628 –> 00:29:28.088
ELISE: And so that’s something that’s on our like quarterly goals, is getting an admin type in there to help with that, even if it’s part-time.
00:29:28.268 –> 00:29:34.888
ELISE: Just with a lot of those, I don’t know, just things like entering expenses and like my budget spreadsheet.
00:29:35.048 –> 00:29:42.648
ELISE: And keeping track of those because when we have an admin, I know it won’t just be like in the words of Chip Gaines, one plus one equals two.
00:29:42.648 –> 00:29:44.748
ELISE: When you add that, it’s one plus one equals 20.
00:29:44.748 –> 00:29:46.208
ELISE: It’s like a force multiplier.
00:29:46.208 –> 00:29:53.748
MAGGIE: I’m so surprised that you guys don’t have an admin even across all three, like sharing the responsibility across the businesses.
00:29:53.748 –> 00:29:54.848
ELISE: Yeah, exactly.
00:29:54.848 –> 00:30:03.448
ELISE: And so, and since like a lot of it, I have such a great relationship with our accountant who does a lot of, a lot of the like really nitty-gritty.
00:30:04.728 –> 00:30:09.488
ELISE: So when it comes to the day-to-day stuff, but yeah, hopefully we can get someone in there soon.
00:30:09.488 –> 00:30:10.168
MAGGIE: Cool.
00:30:10.168 –> 00:30:10.648
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:30:10.648 –> 00:30:11.228
MAGGIE: That’s amazing.
00:30:11.388 –> 00:30:16.908
MAGGIE: So with this, this is very relevant to our next question here.
00:30:16.948 –> 00:30:29.508
MAGGIE: Usually there’s admins, there’s teams, there’s people to do all the things, but you are in a way kind of like an office of one, and then you are within the three business categories as well.
00:30:29.508 –> 00:30:36.588
MAGGIE: So when you don’t have someone to call on or an expert to rely on, you did mention that you’re a sweep the floor kind of girl, you’re going to do it all.
00:30:36.588 –> 00:30:42.208
MAGGIE: But we know that you aren’t able to stay in the strategic space when you do that, and the positioning is difficult.
00:30:42.208 –> 00:30:45.808
MAGGIE: So do you phone a friend a lot?
00:30:46.168 –> 00:30:47.928
MAGGIE: Are you Googling, finding resources?
00:30:47.928 –> 00:30:49.148
MAGGIE: Are you just doing it all?
00:30:49.148 –> 00:30:58.548
MAGGIE: How do you find the answers that you don’t have when there’s so much and such a widespread of responsibilities to get done across all the businesses?
00:30:58.548 –> 00:31:01.248
ELISE: Yeah, always phoning a friend, always.
00:31:01.248 –> 00:31:03.428
ELISE: Always texting, hey, do you know this?
00:31:03.428 –> 00:31:13.148
ELISE: Do you know someone that can help with podcast ad sales, like for post-read ads, because our contract with Audible is up and we don’t want to continue with them.
00:31:13.148 –> 00:31:14.368
ELISE: Just stuff like that, right?
00:31:14.368 –> 00:31:18.768
ELISE: Where you’re like, I don’t know that and Reddit.
00:31:18.768 –> 00:31:19.148
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:31:19.148 –> 00:31:20.788
ELISE: Right.
00:31:20.788 –> 00:31:20.908
ELISE: Yeah.
00:31:20.908 –> 00:31:22.108
MAGGIE: You’re just finding resources.
00:31:22.108 –> 00:31:22.648
MAGGIE: It’s like part.
00:31:22.648 –> 00:31:24.768
MAGGIE: It’s like one of the chief of staff job descriptors.
00:31:24.768 –> 00:31:26.928
MAGGIE: It’s like resource finder.
00:31:26.928 –> 00:31:27.768
ELISE: Exactly.
00:31:27.768 –> 00:31:29.688
ELISE: Exactly.
00:31:29.688 –> 00:31:31.688
MAGGIE: Oh, my gosh.
00:31:31.688 –> 00:31:42.028
MAGGIE: OK, so I think, you know, my last specific question into like the categories of the family offices and how do you how do you structure your day?
00:31:42.028 –> 00:31:46.468
MAGGIE: I know that it kind of depends on the priorities, but there’s a three very, very different businesses.
00:31:46.468 –> 00:31:55.048
MAGGIE: And I imagine that it could be a little bit whiplash if you’re constantly moving across the different files or folders or projects or conversations.
00:31:55.048 –> 00:31:58.688
MAGGIE: Are there strategies or tactics that you use to stay focused?
00:31:58.688 –> 00:31:59.608
MAGGIE: Time block?
00:31:59.608 –> 00:32:04.388
MAGGIE: How do you like move across all these different businesses easily?
00:32:05.548 –> 00:32:07.328
ELISE: Ooh, that’s a great question.
00:32:07.328 –> 00:32:16.068
ELISE: And it’s funny because for me, specifically, it’s hard for me to time block because my boss is also Jin X.
00:32:16.068 –> 00:32:22.608
ELISE: And so he loves to pick up the phone and have someone pick up the phone right then.
00:32:22.608 –> 00:32:29.588
ELISE: He’s not like demanding in that way, but if he has that time, then I need to make myself available.
00:32:30.768 –> 00:32:38.528
ELISE: So I think like A, having a project management system, for like the small task where I need my boss’s input.
00:32:38.528 –> 00:32:42.928
ELISE: Like, hey, can I reach out to this podcaster about this?
00:32:42.928 –> 00:32:45.128
ELISE: Or can I reach out to this producer?
00:32:45.128 –> 00:32:46.608
ELISE: Like, where are we with this pitch deck?
00:32:46.608 –> 00:32:48.588
ELISE: What do you need from me?
00:32:48.588 –> 00:32:52.768
ELISE: So that way, because it’s also like organizing my boss’s time, right?
00:32:52.768 –> 00:32:55.028
ELISE: Of trying to decide like, okay.
00:32:55.028 –> 00:33:04.608
ELISE: So that’s been really helpful as I implemented Monday because I can break things down to the subtasks and like pink him there so that way he can just go through that list.
00:33:04.608 –> 00:33:04.888
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:33:04.888 –> 00:33:06.068
ELISE: So that’s one thing.
00:33:06.068 –> 00:33:14.788
ELISE: And the other thing too is because sometimes it could be a little bit more, a lot of things become urgent quickly, right?
00:33:14.788 –> 00:33:15.988
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:33:15.988 –> 00:33:17.908
ELISE: And each one of these areas.
00:33:17.908 –> 00:33:19.668
ELISE: So I just strap out my boss.
00:33:19.668 –> 00:33:22.648
ELISE: I’m like, here’s what I think the priorities are.
00:33:22.648 –> 00:33:24.828
ELISE: And it sometimes changes throughout the day, right?
00:33:24.828 –> 00:33:27.868
ELISE: I’m like, okay, this is what I played on doing.
00:33:27.868 –> 00:33:28.928
ELISE: Where are we with this?
00:33:29.508 –> 00:33:32.288
ELISE: And should I spend my time here?
00:33:32.288 –> 00:33:35.348
ELISE: Is this aligning with your priorities?
00:33:35.348 –> 00:33:38.388
MAGGIE: Yeah, it sounds like you, well, you’re, you have a great boss.
00:33:38.388 –> 00:33:39.608
MAGGIE: You guys have great communication.
00:33:39.608 –> 00:33:42.548
MAGGIE: You love this person, which is great to hear.
00:33:42.548 –> 00:33:46.388
MAGGIE: Like I always, I love to hear that for people who they work for.
00:33:46.388 –> 00:33:56.968
MAGGIE: And it also sounds like, you know, he’s able to direct you in your time and help you figure out, like, what’s most important and you’re there for them when they need to call you.
00:33:56.968 –> 00:33:57.488
MAGGIE: All the things.
00:33:57.488 –> 00:33:58.848
MAGGIE: And that’s Chief of Staff work, right?
00:33:58.928 –> 00:34:01.808
MAGGIE: Like, it’s never clear what our priorities are.
00:34:01.808 –> 00:34:09.248
MAGGIE: If you’re in helping one business or three, like, there’s going to be something that takes your mind and, you know, concentration other other places.
00:34:09.248 –> 00:34:12.608
MAGGIE: So I think it’s just a normal Chief of Staff struggle.
00:34:12.608 –> 00:34:13.628
ELISE: It totally is.
00:34:13.628 –> 00:34:14.648
ELISE: It totally is.
00:34:14.648 –> 00:34:17.388
ELISE: And I also have that project management system there, too.
00:34:17.388 –> 00:34:21.628
ELISE: So if he feels a little micromanaging that day, really wants to know what’s happening.
00:34:21.628 –> 00:34:23.688
ELISE: I like to put all my updates in there.
00:34:23.728 –> 00:34:25.828
ELISE: So that way, it’s self-service, right?
00:34:25.828 –> 00:34:26.368
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:34:26.368 –> 00:34:29.768
MAGGIE: Is there a software or tool that you guys use that you like?
00:34:30.788 –> 00:34:33.488
ELISE: I just use Monday, because that’s what I’ve used in the past.
00:34:33.488 –> 00:34:40.288
ELISE: But I think it’s just dependent on what your principal A is using right now or what they can adopt.
00:34:40.288 –> 00:34:41.268
MAGGIE: I was just going to say that.
00:34:41.268 –> 00:34:49.248
MAGGIE: Easy and willing to adopt, especially when you’re dealing with the principal and you just want to make it easy, it’s a big one.
00:34:49.248 –> 00:34:50.568
MAGGIE: OK, so last question for me.
00:34:50.568 –> 00:34:55.188
MAGGIE: And then we’ve got a ton of questions in our Q&A box here.
00:34:55.188 –> 00:34:56.448
MAGGIE: And I love this question.
00:34:56.448 –> 00:34:59.968
MAGGIE: So you’ve been working with a high net worth individual for a while.
00:34:59.968 –> 00:35:07.968
MAGGIE: Are there any takeaways you can share with us around kind of how they conduct business that can help average earners grow their wealth?
00:35:09.068 –> 00:35:11.108
ELISE: This is such a good question.
00:35:12.448 –> 00:35:16.808
ELISE: If I turn just to the side, it’s because I like jotted some notes down.
00:35:16.808 –> 00:35:18.528
MAGGIE: Yeah, yeah, that’s great.
00:35:18.528 –> 00:35:19.388
MAGGIE: We appreciate it.
00:35:21.308 –> 00:35:33.308
ELISE: So, something that’s been really surprising to me is that most wealthy people that I’ve met in this role have zero online presence, which is fascinating.
00:35:33.308 –> 00:35:39.388
ELISE: Zero, none, half of the businesses, you won’t have heard of.
00:35:39.388 –> 00:35:42.688
MAGGIE: You can’t even find the businesses, not just the person in the business.
00:35:43.548 –> 00:35:44.748
MAGGIE: Wow.
00:35:44.748 –> 00:35:46.768
ELISE: Not even in a shady way.
00:35:46.768 –> 00:35:54.348
ELISE: It’s just like some people are pretty old school, and especially those super high net worth folks.
00:35:56.548 –> 00:35:58.988
ELISE: That’s kind of on purpose sometimes too.
00:35:58.988 –> 00:36:05.568
ELISE: But I feel like that’s been really interesting, and also why it felt like a gamble when I first met my boss.
00:36:05.568 –> 00:36:08.928
ELISE: I was like, does this line up?
00:36:08.928 –> 00:36:35.048
ELISE: I think that’s been really interesting because these people invest in or run businesses that people need, that they need, and it’s difficult to either exit the service, whether it’s, that’s why people are into pool cleaning, HVAC, lawn care, residential and commercial lending, a lot of these things.
00:36:35.428 –> 00:36:44.448
ELISE: That brings me to my next point is that from what I’ve seen, it was like the quickest way to wealth is real estate.
00:36:46.088 –> 00:36:53.828
ELISE: And, you know, I’m not sure how true that is, but this is just kind of what I’ve seen from a bird’s eye view.
00:36:53.828 –> 00:36:54.428
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:36:54.428 –> 00:36:57.128
MAGGIE: I mean, it’s, it’s helpful to hear your observations.
00:36:57.128 –> 00:36:59.608
MAGGIE: So people take care, take over what it’s worth.
00:36:59.668 –> 00:37:00.708
MAGGIE: Right.
00:37:00.708 –> 00:37:00.948
ELISE: Right.
00:37:00.948 –> 00:37:12.908
ELISE: And people, people get really interesting with financing, not in a shady way, but it’s like, oh, I’m going to buy this multi-family property and then live in it, and then I won’t have a mortgage cost.
00:37:12.908 –> 00:37:15.688
ELISE: You know, things like that are really interesting.
00:37:15.688 –> 00:37:17.748
MAGGIE: OK, so this is a funny question.
00:37:17.748 –> 00:37:23.548
MAGGIE: Does the average person have no idea what a chief of staff at a family office is, who you talk to?
00:37:23.548 –> 00:37:24.188
ELISE: Right.
00:37:24.188 –> 00:37:24.508
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:37:24.508 –> 00:37:24.908
MAGGIE: Right.
00:37:24.948 –> 00:37:28.468
ELISE: I have family members, people who are my best friends my whole world.
00:37:28.468 –> 00:37:29.268
ELISE: They know everything.
00:37:29.348 –> 00:37:32.008
ELISE: They’re like, so what do you do again?
00:37:32.008 –> 00:37:32.968
MAGGIE: I know.
00:37:32.968 –> 00:37:38.188
MAGGIE: I think you mix chief of staff and then you add the very ambiguous like family office term.
00:37:38.188 –> 00:37:40.348
MAGGIE: And it’s just like, I don’t get it.
00:37:40.348 –> 00:37:42.148
MAGGIE: So you’re not alone.
00:37:42.148 –> 00:37:48.188
MAGGIE: One of our one of our attendees here is a chief of staff for a high net worth individual.
00:37:48.188 –> 00:37:53.348
MAGGIE: And she was saying that this is a huge struggle that she has, that nobody knows what she does.
00:37:53.348 –> 00:37:54.268
MAGGIE: It’s very hard to explain.
00:37:55.328 –> 00:38:04.548
MAGGIE: And that she she feels feels your pain on the difficulty in like the hiring and the search and figuring out who you’re going to work for because there’s just no information out there.
00:38:04.548 –> 00:38:05.128
ELISE: Yes.
00:38:05.128 –> 00:38:06.168
ELISE: Yes, it’s so true.
00:38:06.168 –> 00:38:10.488
ELISE: And it’s not like you can ask around because you don’t know who they know.
00:38:10.488 –> 00:38:11.848
MAGGIE: Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:11.848 –> 00:38:15.268
MAGGIE: So is it kind of the who you know game?
00:38:15.548 –> 00:38:26.568
MAGGIE: If you do want to get into the family office world, would it be like, hey, Elise, can you keep your ears open for somebody that’s looking for a chief of staff, maybe one of your principal’s peers?
00:38:26.568 –> 00:38:30.368
MAGGIE: Like how do you think somebody could get into family office work?
00:38:30.368 –> 00:38:31.968
ELISE: That’s a great question.
00:38:31.968 –> 00:38:39.008
ELISE: And honestly, you know, I think like for me, I feel like I have a pretty good network, but I did not get this role by networking.
00:38:39.008 –> 00:38:39.288
MAGGIE: Right.
00:38:39.288 –> 00:38:49.168
ELISE: So if people want to look it up, like there’s a lot of recruiting firms because they, these ultra wealthy people, they take advice from people that they trust, right?
00:38:49.168 –> 00:38:53.288
ELISE: So someone’s like, hey, I use this one recruiting firm and I love my chief of staff.
00:38:54.868 –> 00:38:56.208
ELISE: They’re going to use that recruiting firm.
00:38:56.208 –> 00:39:00.568
ELISE: And so, yeah, I think like that’s kind of nice about this role, right?
00:39:00.568 –> 00:39:04.188
ELISE: Is it’s pretty, in my mind, it’s accessible.
00:39:04.188 –> 00:39:04.648
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:39:04.648 –> 00:39:05.648
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:39:05.648 –> 00:39:06.068
MAGGIE: Okay.
00:39:06.068 –> 00:39:06.868
MAGGIE: That makes sense.
00:39:06.868 –> 00:39:08.768
MAGGIE: I love that.
00:39:08.768 –> 00:39:09.248
MAGGIE: All right.
00:39:09.248 –> 00:39:12.728
MAGGIE: So I have another question up here I wanted to touch on first.
00:39:12.728 –> 00:39:21.108
MAGGIE: What do you think your most valuable skill is as it contributes to the success of your chief of staff work and your principal’s business overall?
00:39:22.068 –> 00:39:24.728
ELISE: Oh, that’s a great question.
00:39:24.728 –> 00:39:27.788
ELISE: So I would say mine’s like two-fold.
00:39:27.808 –> 00:39:33.468
ELISE: One is, I call it untangling the cords, just like the process of things.
00:39:33.468 –> 00:39:37.868
ELISE: If there’s anything that’s not automated, there’s not a process, I will find a process.
00:39:37.868 –> 00:39:48.068
ELISE: We did not have good financial modeling, though I’m going to become best friends with the accountant and the CFO, and we’re going to figure out exactly what our cash flow is.
00:39:48.368 –> 00:39:51.888
ELISE: We are going to have automations and QuickBooks through Zapier.
00:39:51.888 –> 00:39:54.048
ELISE: We’re going to get W9s in a different way.
00:39:54.748 –> 00:40:00.568
ELISE: That’s probably just automating things.
00:40:00.568 –> 00:40:02.748
ELISE: Then the second is empathy.
00:40:02.748 –> 00:40:08.988
ELISE: Empathy is my superpower because I’m sure you can relate to this.
00:40:08.988 –> 00:40:12.928
ELISE: Half the time, you’re just refereeing conflict between different people.
00:40:13.688 –> 00:40:15.608
ELISE: You’re like, we’re all wanting the same thing here.
00:40:17.288 –> 00:40:28.388
ELISE: Let’s all get on the same page, and you’re listening, and you’re trying to understand what people’s motivations are, and you’re refereeing between co-founders or different executives.
00:40:31.468 –> 00:40:54.808
ELISE: That’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly, and I used to think it’s to get vulnerable, starting out in tech where it was only men, and being empathetic was seen as this thing to hide, or it was more of a, what’s the word, liability than a skill.
00:40:55.888 –> 00:40:58.468
ELISE: Now I’m like, oh wait, this is my superpower.
00:40:58.468 –> 00:40:59.868
ELISE: What a cool gift.
00:40:59.928 –> 00:41:02.148
MAGGIE: Yeah, lean in.
00:41:02.148 –> 00:41:04.288
ELISE: Right, exactly.
00:41:04.288 –> 00:41:04.788
MAGGIE: I love that.
00:41:04.788 –> 00:41:10.468
MAGGIE: Okay, so this comes up a lot, and I would love to hear your answer.
00:41:10.468 –> 00:41:15.568
MAGGIE: How do you and your principal measure your success as the Chief of Staff?
00:41:15.568 –> 00:41:16.028
MAGGIE: Then do you.
00:41:16.028 –> 00:41:24.748
ELISE: Yeah, that’s always a question I ask him, because his personnel, like his goals are always changing, right?
00:41:26.428 –> 00:41:29.748
ELISE: Like shocking, it’s like new shiny things.
00:41:29.748 –> 00:41:32.808
ELISE: I’m always trying to like kind of be like, hey, what about this?
00:41:32.808 –> 00:41:33.428
ELISE: What about this?
00:41:33.428 –> 00:41:36.408
MAGGIE: Like I know, I know this is a good thing.
00:41:36.408 –> 00:41:37.268
MAGGIE: This is a good thing.
00:41:37.268 –> 00:41:41.128
MAGGIE: We want CEOs and principals in that vision space.
00:41:41.128 –> 00:41:42.488
MAGGIE: So we kind of joke about it.
00:41:42.488 –> 00:41:48.888
MAGGIE: But like our role as Chiefs of Staff is to support them staying in that shiny thing space because they are the idea people.
00:41:48.888 –> 00:41:51.648
MAGGIE: So I’m just going to put that in there because we were kind of laughing about that.
00:41:52.668 –> 00:41:53.588
ELISE: Yes, yes.
00:41:53.588 –> 00:41:56.148
ELISE: And I was just talking about this with a friend yesterday.
00:41:56.148 –> 00:42:05.788
ELISE: It’s like every successful business has a vision or what about it’s like, what if we could do this or this or this, which is great.
00:42:05.788 –> 00:42:08.468
ELISE: And I have the have you thought about person.
00:42:08.468 –> 00:42:13.768
MAGGIE: And the capture, manage, prioritize, like placed for them to land.
00:42:13.768 –> 00:42:16.228
ELISE: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
00:42:16.228 –> 00:42:19.108
ELISE: And so it depends on the organization, right?
00:42:19.208 –> 00:42:25.688
ELISE: To where like you can gather more KPIs, because like I love a KPI, I love an OKR.
00:42:25.688 –> 00:42:35.208
ELISE: And that’s something like almost in every role I’ve had to manage up and kind of like teach executives the importance of those and kind of keeping us all to this like North Star.
00:42:35.208 –> 00:42:35.668
ELISE: Right.
00:42:35.668 –> 00:42:43.128
ELISE: And so I mean, at the end of the day, though, for what we do, it’s, I mean, profit margins and margins and money.
00:42:43.128 –> 00:42:45.908
ELISE: Yeah, that’s kind of like that at the end of the day.
00:42:45.908 –> 00:42:49.368
MAGGIE: And sometimes chiefs of staff are responsible for that and measured on it.
00:42:49.368 –> 00:42:54.528
MAGGIE: And I think more often it’s a lot of soft side feedback for chief of staff roles.
00:42:54.528 –> 00:43:04.668
MAGGIE: Like I think when I, in my last corporate chief of staff role, when I knew I was doing a good job, it was when multiple executives on my principal’s team came up to me and said, we’ve never been this organized.
00:43:04.668 –> 00:43:06.228
MAGGIE: So I’ve never known what was going on.
00:43:06.228 –> 00:43:07.868
MAGGIE: We’ve, you know, those kinds of things.
00:43:07.868 –> 00:43:11.388
MAGGIE: And it just sort of like, oh, okay, I’m doing this right.
00:43:11.388 –> 00:43:16.668
MAGGIE: You know, back when there’s no resources for chiefs of staff and you don’t know if you’re doing your job, like there’s a bit of that.
00:43:16.668 –> 00:43:18.668
MAGGIE: It’s just soft side feedback sometimes.
00:43:18.828 –> 00:43:26.028
MAGGIE: If your role isn’t directly relating to performance or scorecards, at least early on or yet.
00:43:26.028 –> 00:43:26.788
ELISE: Exactly.
00:43:26.788 –> 00:43:34.448
ELISE: And that’s something where I had to relearn and retrain myself because I can be so KPI and OKR focused.
00:43:34.448 –> 00:43:38.588
ELISE: And in reality, all that matters is his opinion of how I’m doing.
00:43:38.588 –> 00:43:40.308
ELISE: Am I bringing value?
00:43:40.308 –> 00:43:45.168
ELISE: And if I keep pushing him to quantify that, then he might get annoyed.
00:43:46.068 –> 00:43:49.688
ELISE: So sometimes I need to stick to that soft side feedback, right?
00:43:49.688 –> 00:43:54.448
ELISE: And so, yeah, I try to be a little bit more flexible now with that.
00:43:54.448 –> 00:43:56.908
MAGGIE: Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
00:43:56.908 –> 00:44:07.208
MAGGIE: So let’s go back for a minute to your story around moving from CEO into your first Chief of Staff role.
00:44:07.208 –> 00:44:09.908
MAGGIE: What, how did you know that was the right decision?
00:44:09.908 –> 00:44:15.588
MAGGIE: What specifically made you realize that Chief of Staff might have been a better fit than CEO for you?
00:44:17.668 –> 00:44:20.028
ELISE: That’s a good question.
00:44:20.028 –> 00:44:30.848
ELISE: I think just looking at the job description and what people did, there’s a book that I really like called Pivot, which gives really, have you read Pivot before?
00:44:30.848 –> 00:44:31.808
MAGGIE: I think I have it.
00:44:31.808 –> 00:44:34.988
MAGGIE: I think it’s on my list in my Audible library.
00:44:34.988 –> 00:44:37.428
ELISE: On the shelf, yeah.
00:44:37.468 –> 00:44:49.528
ELISE: But in between every career break, I always read that because it helps you map out exactly what you want, what your dream day is like, and talking to people I knew on the role and looking at the different responsibilities.
00:44:49.528 –> 00:44:53.708
ELISE: I was like, this is my favorite part of my day when I get to do this stuff.
00:44:53.708 –> 00:44:54.808
ELISE: Cool.
00:44:54.808 –> 00:44:57.928
ELISE: I am the what about person, have you thought about?
00:44:57.928 –> 00:45:00.268
ELISE: I don’t always like to be the visionary.
00:45:00.268 –> 00:45:01.068
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:45:01.448 –> 00:45:04.468
MAGGIE: You were able to realize that during that transition.
00:45:04.468 –> 00:45:05.508
MAGGIE: It’s good.
00:45:05.508 –> 00:45:06.548
ELISE: That self-awareness is key.
00:45:06.748 –> 00:45:12.608
ELISE: Also, I ask people around me too, of people that I worked with, of just like, where do you think my skills lie?
00:45:12.608 –> 00:45:20.708
ELISE: Because I want to make sure that I have the right assessment of where my skills lie.
00:45:20.708 –> 00:45:21.508
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:45:21.508 –> 00:45:23.268
MAGGIE: Totally.
00:45:23.268 –> 00:45:27.408
MAGGIE: We’ve got a question around how did Elise find her family office job.
00:45:27.408 –> 00:45:33.468
MAGGIE: She mentioned that it was actually the first and only time that it was not through networking, that it was a job board.
00:45:33.468 –> 00:45:42.248
MAGGIE: Then I think the second, the follow-up question to this from someone else is, you couldn’t find a lot of information, there wasn’t a big online presence.
00:45:42.248 –> 00:45:44.228
MAGGIE: What made you say yes?
00:45:46.128 –> 00:45:46.308
ELISE: Yeah.
00:45:46.308 –> 00:45:50.868
ELISE: I think it was the vision and then the conversations I had with my boss too.
00:45:50.868 –> 00:45:52.728
MAGGIE: Just a good feeling?
00:45:52.728 –> 00:45:53.328
ELISE: Yeah.
00:45:53.328 –> 00:45:57.528
ELISE: I really try to ask, I always ask, what’s your management style?
00:45:57.528 –> 00:46:00.468
ELISE: How would people describe your management style?
00:46:02.348 –> 00:46:12.308
ELISE: The first call with him before I met him in person, which was super helpful here too, is he was on his back patio with his dog.
00:46:12.308 –> 00:46:13.988
ELISE: He was like, wait, do you want to see my dog?
00:46:14.028 –> 00:46:15.548
ELISE: I was like shifting over.
00:46:15.548 –> 00:46:17.688
MAGGIE: A real human.
00:46:17.688 –> 00:46:19.208
ELISE: Just a real human.
00:46:19.208 –> 00:46:21.588
ELISE: Yeah.
00:46:21.588 –> 00:46:25.568
ELISE: His kids would come say hi and you’re like, oh, this is.
00:46:25.568 –> 00:46:28.508
ELISE: He really had a clear vision too of what he was building.
00:46:28.548 –> 00:46:32.808
ELISE: And so, yeah, there’s only so much due diligence you could do.
00:46:32.808 –> 00:46:34.348
MAGGIE: But yeah, yeah.
00:46:34.348 –> 00:46:46.408
MAGGIE: And I really do believe in like getting to a place where you really know yourself and you’re able to trust your gut and you’re able to ask the questions that you think you’re going to get as much information as possible, but you might not get all of it.
00:46:46.408 –> 00:46:48.868
MAGGIE: And then just kind of how does it feel?
00:46:48.868 –> 00:46:50.588
MAGGIE: What does it look like if you were to say yes?
00:46:50.588 –> 00:46:52.628
MAGGIE: What does it look like for fear to say no?
00:46:52.628 –> 00:46:54.468
MAGGIE: How is my body feeling in those moments?
00:46:54.468 –> 00:46:55.788
MAGGIE: Like it’s it’s a lot.
00:46:55.788 –> 00:47:00.888
MAGGIE: And I think those are lessons that some of us probably learn, like down our career journey a bit.
00:47:00.888 –> 00:47:04.268
MAGGIE: Like, I don’t think I had that awareness 10 or 15 years ago.
00:47:04.268 –> 00:47:09.388
MAGGIE: But trusting your gut, and I’m glad that it’s been working out for you.
00:47:09.388 –> 00:47:16.988
ELISE: Yeah, that’s such a good point about trusting your gut and what you feel in your body, because that that has never failed me.
00:47:16.988 –> 00:47:17.468
MAGGIE: Good.
00:47:17.468 –> 00:47:18.648
ELISE: Until now, right?
00:47:18.648 –> 00:47:20.208
ELISE: Like, yeah.
00:47:20.208 –> 00:47:22.548
MAGGIE: Yeah, I love that.
00:47:22.548 –> 00:47:25.728
MAGGIE: OK, so I want to go.
00:47:25.828 –> 00:47:29.308
MAGGIE: A little bit deeper into kind of a couple more questions here.
00:47:29.308 –> 00:47:38.328
MAGGIE: From a planning perspective, are there tools or systems that you guys use that you would recommend other people check out in the Family Office world or just as chiefs of staff?
00:47:38.328 –> 00:47:39.528
MAGGIE: Any platforms, tools?
00:47:39.528 –> 00:47:41.388
MAGGIE: It sounds like you work a lot.
00:47:41.388 –> 00:47:44.368
MAGGIE: QuickBooks, Zapier, you know, all the things.
00:47:44.368 –> 00:47:46.528
MAGGIE: Big automation fan.
00:47:46.528 –> 00:47:54.468
ELISE: Yeah, so I think I would even like drill down and ask what kind of planning specifically.
00:47:54.528 –> 00:47:55.188
MAGGIE: Yeah, okay.
00:47:55.188 –> 00:47:58.108
MAGGIE: Well, we’ll see if somebody chats back in on that.
00:47:58.108 –> 00:48:01.388
MAGGIE: But okay, well, we’re just going to take a couple more minutes here.
00:48:01.388 –> 00:48:14.268
MAGGIE: Elise, advice you have for aspiring chiefs of staff, for people that are looking to get into family office work, what should people be doing to build and grow their career in the chief of staff arena?
00:48:14.268 –> 00:48:16.828
ELISE: Yeah, that’s a really good question.
00:48:16.828 –> 00:48:35.148
ELISE: So A, I would say like a lot of the MBA level type of stuff I see in a lot of these job descriptions, people are looking for the financial modeling aspect, the consulting aspect where you can really come in quickly, make assessments on where the business needs help and then be really quick to that.
00:48:35.368 –> 00:48:44.348
ELISE: So I think a way to do that in current roles, now it’s really worked for me in the past, is just ask to sit in on meetings.
00:48:44.348 –> 00:48:45.628
ELISE: Yeah.
00:48:45.628 –> 00:48:47.488
ELISE: Just to ask to sit in on meetings.
00:48:47.488 –> 00:48:58.568
ELISE: That’s such an easy ask, especially with someone you’ve already built just a little rapport with, and I just said like, hey, I just want to sit in this pitch meeting.
00:48:58.848 –> 00:49:00.028
ELISE: I’m interested in it.
00:49:00.028 –> 00:49:05.968
ELISE: And I like it because if the person is busy or important, it requires nothing on their end.
00:49:05.968 –> 00:49:08.348
ELISE: They’re just like, I’m going to invite them to the meeting.
00:49:08.348 –> 00:49:08.568
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:49:08.568 –> 00:49:12.788
ELISE: And once you’ve sat in two or three, you have the contacts.
00:49:12.788 –> 00:49:15.348
ELISE: You have the contacts, they ask, what do you think?
00:49:15.348 –> 00:49:18.448
ELISE: And you’re like, maybe I could help with this one PowerPoint slide.
00:49:19.068 –> 00:49:32.248
ELISE: And I think it’s such a great way to augment any outside learning that you’re doing in addition to Nova or any other courses that you’re doing, any other upskilling because that way it’s on your resume.
00:49:32.248 –> 00:49:36.848
ELISE: And you have a really clear role that you’ve done.
00:49:36.848 –> 00:49:41.268
ELISE: And so that opens up you up to opportunities inside your company.
00:49:41.268 –> 00:49:45.388
ELISE: But even if you decide to interview outside, you’re like, oh, this is already under my JD.
00:49:45.768 –> 00:49:48.748
ELISE: And so it’s just a part of your experience.
00:49:48.748 –> 00:49:49.188
MAGGIE: Yeah.
00:49:49.188 –> 00:49:53.708
MAGGIE: And this is so relatable to, I think, anybody on this call.
00:49:53.708 –> 00:49:58.908
MAGGIE: It’s truly like, EAs, ask your principal to join in on something.
00:49:58.908 –> 00:50:00.328
MAGGIE: Ask to join the meeting.
00:50:00.328 –> 00:50:04.188
MAGGIE: Chiefs of staff, if you’re not invited, it could have just been missed, right?
00:50:04.188 –> 00:50:06.348
MAGGIE: Like just ask to go.
00:50:06.348 –> 00:50:08.308
MAGGIE: Invite a peer who’s learning.
00:50:08.308 –> 00:50:09.588
MAGGIE: Bring somebody else in.
00:50:09.588 –> 00:50:10.508
MAGGIE: Pay it forward.
00:50:10.508 –> 00:50:14.468
MAGGIE: I think that’s such a good advice from you, Elise.
00:50:14.568 –> 00:50:16.488
MAGGIE: So thank you for sharing that with us.
00:50:16.488 –> 00:50:18.208
ELISE: Yeah, yeah, of course.
00:50:18.208 –> 00:50:20.388
MAGGIE: Okay, well, we’re going to wrap here.
00:50:20.388 –> 00:50:32.728
MAGGIE: I did not mention in the beginning, but one of the cool things that Elise has done for us at Nova Chiefs of Staff is she created a investor market report assignment for our course.
00:50:32.728 –> 00:50:56.328
MAGGIE: Basically, students can research what it’s like to dive into real estate investing and the reports that you’re supposed to provide for your principal and investors, and you dive into this deeper level of an investment analysis than most categories of jobs that have nothing to do with real estate.
00:50:56.328 –> 00:50:57.848
MAGGIE: Students are really, really loving it.
00:50:57.848 –> 00:51:05.748
MAGGIE: If anybody wants to check that out, just send us a note at hello at novachiefofstaff.com, and we can give you the information for how to access that.
00:51:05.748 –> 00:51:12.728
MAGGIE: But it’s been wonderful having you part of our Nova ecosystem, and it’s been great to have you on today with our Nova Chat.
00:51:12.888 –> 00:51:15.488
MAGGIE: And thank you so much for being here.
00:51:15.488 –> 00:51:16.728
ELISE: Of course, of course.
00:51:16.728 –> 00:51:19.808
ELISE: It’s my pleasure, and thank you guys so much for joining.
00:51:19.808 –> 00:51:20.628
MAGGIE: Yeah, awesome.
00:51:20.628 –> 00:51:21.868
MAGGIE: Well, thanks, everyone, for joining.
00:51:21.868 –> 00:51:26.428
MAGGIE: We’ll let you all go and have a great afternoon, evening, night.
00:51:26.428 –> 00:51:30.348
MAGGIE: Have great dinners tomorrow, all of the things.
00:51:30.348 –> 00:51:31.968
MAGGIE: And let us know if you need anything.
00:51:31.968 –> 00:51:34.668
MAGGIE: You can find Elise Kennedy on LinkedIn.
00:51:34.668 –> 00:51:38.048
MAGGIE: If you follow me, you can find her through me very easily.
00:51:38.048 –> 00:51:41.148
MAGGIE: So we will see you all at our next session.
00:51:41.988 –> 00:51:43.248
MAGGIE: Take care.
00:51:43.588 –> 00:51:44.128
ELISE: Thanks everyone.
00:51:44.608 –> 00:51:45.048
MAGGIE: Thanks Elise.
00:51:45.048 –> 00:51:45.208
ELISE: Bye.
00:51:56.874 –> 00:51:59.234
<v SPEAKER_2>Please review on Apple Podcasts.
00:52:05.653 –> 00:52:07.353
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