Flo Esho is the founder of The Easy Flow Life, a U.S.-based executive support agency that helps founders and executives step out of the day-to-day and back into true leadership.
In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Flo talks about supporting executives in their personal and professional lives, tips for hiring an assistant, encouragement for those considering becoming a virtual assistant, travel planning tips, and more.
LEADERSHIP QUOTE
Treat people how you want to be treated!
CONNECT WITH FLO
ABOUT FLO
Flo Esho is the founder of The Easy Flow Life, a U.S.-based executive support agency that helps founders and executives step out of the day-to-day and back into true leadership.
Through her signature 360° executive support approach and The Flow Method, Flo and her team provide integrated support across both business operations and personal logistics, helping high-capacity leaders reduce operational overwhelm, decision fatigue, and constant context-switching.
With more than a decade of corporate experience supporting high-level operators, Flo is known for bringing structure to fast-moving environments and helping leaders build the operational support systems they need to scale sustainably.
Originally from Nigeria and now based in Atlanta, Flo is also a wife, mother, real estate investor, and travel enthusiast who believes the best executive support anticipates needs before they become problems.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
00:23->00:55 Jeremy
Hey friends, welcome to the Leader Assistant Podcast.
It’s your host, Jeremy Burrows, and this is episode 387.
You can check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/387.
Today, I’m very excited to be speaking with Flo Esho.
Flo is the founder of Easy Flow Life, a US-based executive support agency that helps founders and executives grow.
Step out of the day today and back into true leadership.
00:56->00:58 Jeremy
So Flo, welcome to the show.
00:59->01:02 Flo
Yes, thank you for having me, Jeremy.
I’m excited to be here.
01:03->01:04 Jeremy
Awesome.
And what part of the world are you in?
01:05->01:07 Flo
I am in Atlanta, Georgia.
01:08->01:10 Jeremy
Hotlanta.
Hotlanta.
01:10->01:20 Flo
Hotlanta.
That’s correct.
Though I’ve only been here since 2018 and I was told that until I make it to year 10, I cannot claim Atlanta.
01:20->01:27 Jeremy
So I have two more years to go.
There you go.
I did not know that fact.
Learn something every day.
01:27->01:28 Flo
Yes.
01:29->01:32 Jeremy
So tell us what you like to do when you’re not working.
01:34->02:08 Flo
When I am not working, I have two things that are like exact opposites.
I love being a couch potato, just binge watching like a really good show,
either eating Oreos and milk or like a warm brownie with ice cream on top.
That’s like one thing.
And then on the other side of that, I love to travel.
I love to just visit all types of countries.
I’m like a venture traveler.
So I’ve gone on skydiving before.
I’ve gone hiking and snorkeling and all of those things.
02:09->02:13 Jeremy
Wow.
That’s the skydiving is definitely another level.
02:14->02:15 Speaker 04
Yes.
02:16->02:32 Jeremy
That’s another level.
Awesome.
Well, tell us a little bit about your career.
And we’ll kind of go back in time to how you got into the world of executive assistant support.
And then we’ll talk about what you’re up to these days.
02:33->03:04 Flo
OK, sounds good.
I will take you back to the beginning of time when I went to school in Wisconsin, Madison, and I studied fashion merchandise.
And that was I worked at Anthropologie, the clothing store in college.
And so that was going to be my dream job, my dream career.
I was going to climb the corporate ladder and be the CEO one day.
And of course, I graduated school.
I landed the job.
I moved to Philadelphia and I was working in the corporate office and I was a buyer.
03:04->03:37 Flo
So I was in a merchandising space and I did that for about four years.
And then my favorite boss left and popped my little
Safety bubble at Anthropologie.
So I was like, I can’t do this without her.
So I decided to go and work for a really small fashion startup in Miami, still in the merchandising world.
So we were in Miami for about two years.
And then I was all about Miami.
I’m from Nigeria originally.
So I love heat.
I love water.
And Miami gave me all of those things.
03:37->04:03 Flo
So I was in the mix.
So it was time to buy a house.
And my husband said, I have a confession and I hate Miami.
I don’t want to be here.
So we were like, okay, well, where should we go next?
And since I chose Miami, I let them choose the next city.
So we chose Atlanta.
And then when I got to Atlanta, I worked at Home Depot.
And I was still kind of like in the merchandising product development space.
So I did that for about 10 years of my career.
04:03->04:23 Jeremy
Wow.
Great.
And then how did you end up transitioning into the, I mean, there’s a lot of, sounds
like a lot of operations and project management type work that’s applicable to the assistant stuff with your agency now,
but how did you transition from that world into what you do now?
04:23->04:57 Flo
Yeah, no, I’m glad that you asked that.
And I’m glad that you brought up the operation stuff.
And because I always saw people in merchandising at any company, you’re essentially like the hub of the business operation.
Like everybody has to go through you because your job is to take something from.
Ideation all the way through execution to where the end consumer is like purchasing it.
So you have to work with the designers, the sourcing team, the allocators, the finance team, the marketing team, the visual merchandisers,
and all of these different teams and stuff that you kind of have to make sure that
04:58->05:34 Flo
We’re all moving together and, you know, helping each other get to the finish line.
And so all of those, all of that skill set is translated very beautifully into the world of executive assistant because that’s what we
do in the executive assistant world, right?
Our job is to maintain the day-to-day and make sure that the backend is running smoothly so that our leaders can focus on the things
that only they can do and, you know, growing the business and executing at the
At the high level that they’re needed to be in.
And so I got into this world, honestly, because my husband’s 40th birthday was coming up.
05:34->06:05 Flo
And I wanted to take him to Japan.
Japan has been his dream place since I met him.
I met him when he turned 30.
I’m a big birthday person.
So I met him when he turned 30 and I had just missed his 30th birthday.
So I always knew for his 40th, the next milestone age, I got to do something really big.
So I always knew I was going to take him to Japan.
And so I wanted to do everything like
Just grand.
I wanted the five star hotels, the first class flights, the shopping sprees, you know, all of the things.
But you need money to do that, Jeremy.
06:05->06:37 Flo
You need money.
And so one of my friends was like, I was thinking about what can I do to just like make a little bit of side
money, you know, like on the side.
And one of my best friends was like, you should look into being like a virtual assistant.
And so, you know, like at that point throughout my career,
I had helped launch three businesses outside of like my corporate day to day job.
And so she was like, you can find a small business owner that’s just completely overwhelmed with everything that they have to do to get
their business going and just, you know, offer them some support and do some stuff for them.
06:38->07:09 Flo
So i designed i designed a little canva portfolio and i joined a bunch of facebook and linkedin groups and i started like pitching
myself and my very first client was a business coach and she posted a job and was like hey i’m looking for an executive
assistant i need someone to manage me like my business i’m running a seven-figure business
07:10->07:33 Flo
Nobody’s helping manage all of my travel logistics.
No one is a buffer between me and the rest of my team.
07:10->07:33 Flo
No one is helping be an accountability partner to ensure that I’m not taking a thousand client calls and not actually going to that doctor’s
appointment or following up to do their blood test and different things like that.
So I was like, oh, that sounds like all things that I even though I was never an executive assistant prior to this,
like these are all the things outside of the personal things that I do for all of my senior merchants and all of my
other teams.
07:33->07:35 Speaker 04
You know, I was like, I could I could do this in my sleep.
07:36->08:07 Flo
So I took so I applied for the job and I went through all of the the tests and the applications and all of those
things.
And I got the job.
And so she became my first client.
And then a few months later, she referred me to a second client.
And I was like, this is sweet, but I have a full time job.
So I was already being greedy by taking the second client.
So I was like, this is going to be it.
I am good.
I’m going to go to Japan and live my best life.
And then just fast forward, I kept getting referrals and I kept turning them down because I had a job and I couldn’t keep
08:07->08:38 Flo
doing it.
And then eventually I just realized that, you know, that.
I’m, I’m a, I’m a Christian.
So I, you know, eventually long story short, I feel like what I’m doing now is truly like God’s divine intervention because I’ve never
had a desire to be a business owner.
I was the corporate ladder girly all through and through.
And so like these clients kept coming and I kept turning them down and they kept coming.
And here I am now, three years later, I have a team of eight.
This is my full-time job.
And I’m going to stop the story there because I could just keep going and going.
08:39->08:42 Jeremy
Yeah.
That’s amazing.
You say you have a team of eight now.
08:43->08:44 Flo
Yes, I have a team of eight.
08:44->08:48 Jeremy
Wow.
So when did you when were you like, oh, no, I need to hire some help.
08:48->09:19 Flo
Yeah.
So honestly, it initially started when.
So I have a one year old son.
So it initially started when I was thinking about getting pregnant with my son.
And I was this was back in 2004.
And I was like, OK, I I have these clients that I’m somebody’s going to have to support them while I’m away because I
don’t want to have to be available anymore.
At the level that I am now with the, you know, if I get pregnant and I have a newborn at home,
09:19->09:56 Flo
I had also had like a few miscarriages in the past.
I was really like trying to be fully in my body present and not stressed, you know, like during this,
this period in my life.
And so I hired my first assistant solely to help take care of my own client work when I was trying to take care
of my health.
And then I did such a great job, Jeremy, of picking the right assistant that it was going so well that I was like,
you know what?
I can actually turn this business into an agency model where I don’t have to cap how many clients I can support myself.
09:57->10:06 Flo
And I could just continue to bring on new assistants and be able to bring in clients and just be the matchmaker,
matching clients and assistants together.
So that’s kind of how it got started.
10:07->10:21 Jeremy
Awesome.
So when you when you bring in more clients,
are you also doing at this point doing assistant work or are you mostly just managing the team of assistants that do most of the work?
Does that make sense?
10:21->10:24 Flo
Yeah, it does.
I still have two clients that I manage myself.
10:25->10:25 Jeremy
OK.
10:26->10:33 Flo
But the goal is to eventually only focus on running the business and not doing any client work anymore.
10:34->11:08 Jeremy
Gotcha.
Yeah.
That’s great.
So I would love to hear lots of lots of questions.
I know I’ve had several interviews over the years on the show with virtual assistants or people who run a virtual assistant firm or agency
with various models.
But so I know there’s some questions that are kind of more common in this space because assistants listening are thinking, you know what?
I’ve been trying to get out of this kind of corporate rut for a while.
11:08->11:41 Jeremy
And I, you know, should I go back?
Be a, you know, a contracted executive assistant for a few clients?
Can I make the same amount of money?
Can you know, how do I find those clients?
Should I stick stick with my corporate job that has health insurance and benefits and all that, you know, like all those questions,
but first off, I would love to hear, you know,
What you’ve learned or maybe what you sounds like you hit hit it right with the first assistant hire.
11:41->12:13 Jeremy
So I don’t know if you have any tips on, you know, finding it.
Another assistant or finding some help that you know maybe in the interview process or in the application process was a word of mouth
how you found this person like yeah any any tips there on like let’s say somebody is starting a business and they are starting
to get too many clients they do need to bring on help how did you find that rock star yeah so i i live
12:13->12:45 Flo
by test projects I i feel like everyone no matter what the job is should have to like actually do something that proves whatever they’re verbally saying
to you during the interview process in some capacity and so for me in my agency i have a framework that i call the act
framework act which essentially is just
Allowing me to see the characteristics that I believe makes a great executive assistant.
12:45->13:18 Flo
It allows me to see that like in real time during the interview process.
So I have a three step application process.
The first is a written application.
And even within that written application, there’s a particular question in a particular order that I’m using to see how you answer it.
To see if you are somebody that is a good communicator,
because that’s one of the skills that I think a good EA needs to have.
And then we move on to the one-on-one interview where I have like, you know, my list of questions that I,
that I go to, but it’s one particular question that I always have to ask.
13:19->13:50 Flo
And it’s around trying to pull out of you.
If you know how to challenge and push and manage up in terms of like your executives and,
And so like I’m asking a particular question around, you know,
like how have you ever worked with a client where you identify like an area of inefficiency?
Like how did you go about presenting that?
And, you know, just tell me the story around it.
If and when an assistant is like, you know what, that’s a great question.
Like I’ve never, I don’t know, like I’ve never had that.
13:50->14:23 Flo
That’s a big red flag to me because I know that naturally, like as assistants, we feel like, you know,
We have the boss and they do the things and they tell us what to do and we just say yes but what i’m
looking for my assistants are people that are going to be able to be like i know this is how you’ve always done it
but here is how we can do it better and this is why i think this way and so that question allows me to see
if you naturally have that or if you’re one of those assistants that just think i’m just going to say yes and do as i’m
14:23->14:53 Flo
told and not really do anything else
And then my third step is then my bread and butter.
Like if you could make it through those first two steps, then the final step is an actual physical paid.
I’m going to pay you for your time, paid test projects that you have to complete.
And so I have a bunch of different ones that test for different things.
But one of my favorite examples that I use is to test if somebody knows how to take initiative and knows how to do
things beyond testing.
14:55->15:30 Flo
The tasks that they’re being told to do.
Like if you know the full picture and you know what the outcome is going to be,
what else are you going to do to this thing that I didn’t even ask you to do?
And so a good example of that and one of the tests that I use is I say,
you have a client who runs a consulting firm.
Here is an utter transcript of like a conversation that this client just had with a new project they’re about to kickstart.
It’s a nine-month project.
Read through this transcript, and then I’m going to say, here is this very basic PowerPoint slide.
15:30->16:03 Flo
This is the template that your client has been using for three years to kick off a new project.
Just take this template and update it with the new key milestones and the key partners that are going to be a part of this
project, the budget, all of those things.
Anyone can do that, right?
Anyone can read the transcript and update those things.
16:03->16:03 Flo
This is supposed to be a client-facing document.
This is supposed to be a kickoff with a brand new client.
Let’s present ourselves in the best way possible.
16:04->16:35 Flo
I don’t need you to be a top designer, but if you could just think and just apply,
take three seconds to apply a pre-designed
Template that’s already existing in Microsoft PowerPoint to the document just to make your client look a little bit more polished.
That’s what I’m looking for.
So I say all that to say, if you’re looking for new assistants,
16:35->16:35 Flo
in this position.
And then you got to design a project that doesn’t just like give it to them.
16:35->16:44 Flo
I don’t just ask like, tell me when you’ve taken an initiative before.
Like I’m doing something to pull that out of them to see if they actually have it.
So that’s the secret sauce.
16:45->17:17 Jeremy
Love it.
Love it.
Thanks for sharing.
What would you say is maybe your top one or two suggestions or encouragements that you would share with those who are considering making
the leap from Corporate nine to five day job assistant to, Hey, I’m going to go find a few clients and, and do
this thing on my own.
What, what would you say to those considering that?
17:17->17:22 Jeremy
Like maybe, um, Words of caution, words of encouragement.
You know what I mean?
17:23->17:54 Flo
Yeah.
Yeah.
My number one thing is do not be shy.
Like leverage your network.
It’s amazing.
Even in the corporate world, especially in this day and age, everybody is all about multiple streams of income.
Everyone.
So even the people at your job.
Probably have side businesses right right and because they have nine to fives and they’re also trying to run a business and most of them
probably have families and children and extracurricular activities and things that they have to run they are also going to need support so just
17:55->18:27 Flo
obviously we don’t want anyone to lose their job so you know use some discernment you everybody knows their company’s culture better than you
know what i’m saying
But my biggest advice and encouragement is don’t be shy about what it is that you want to do and definitely test the waters.
Like I didn’t just jump all in, you know, like from the beginning.
I tested and I kind of like let the results happen and then it just kept kind of like going little by little.
So take your time, test it out.
Don’t be shy and leverage the people that are already in your life.
18:28->18:32 Flo
Fractional support is like it’s not going anywhere and it’s becoming more and more popular.
18:32->19:08 Jeremy
Yeah.
Love it.
Well, let’s talk a little bit about how your agency provides support for executives and business leaders.
You have what, you know, it’s called the easy flow life.
And you have a, what you call the flow method approach.
To provide 360 degree support.
So tell us about that method.
What’s the method?
How does it apply practically in your executive support for these business leaders?
19:08->19:10 Jeremy
And yeah, just talk us through that.
19:11->19:44 Flo
Yes.
Thank you for asking that.
So the 360 degree executive support is essentially like in the corporate world,
Oftentimes, like an executive assistant and a personal assistant are separate jobs and different people do them.
Within my agency, the 360 degree executive support essentially means that we’re combining that executive and personal support in one.
Because what I’ve learned is we don’t, as humans, just naturally, we don’t experience life in categories, right?
19:45->20:15 Flo
And a lot of people don’t think about or maybe subconsciously we might have an idea,
but we don’t really correlate that because you’re just one human that’s navigating both a business and your personal life demands.
Those two things are going to bleed into each other naturally.
And so when you’re experiencing things personally and you have a lot of logistics that you have to worry about in your personal life,
that still is holding a lot of mental space.
20:15->20:46 Flo
And that’s going to bleed into like how you operate in your business and how you show up for your business.
And so this 360 degree support allows us to have you have one integrated assistant.
That can toggle between both your business and your personal so practical example is that we are helping our clients with invoicing and project
management on the business side and then on the personal side we’re helping you find summer camp options before you miss the deadline and we
20:46->21:08 Flo
are making sure that whatever new dentist that we need to go to can actually take your family insurance and my personal favorite
It’s helping you plan that family vacation or that getaway weekend with just mom and dad or the girlfriend getaway that you’ve been talking
about for three years that you just don’t have the mental capacity to plan and do helping you do all of those things.
21:09->21:37 Jeremy
Wow, that’s great.
So you said personal favorites is like the travel getaway planning.
Yes.
I, I have to do, you know, I support CEO.
So I do a lot of personal assistant stuff as well.
And I’ve always done that for my, the CEOs that I support, but travel is not necessarily my favorite.
So what are some good tips for, for travel planning for an executive and their family?
21:38->22:12 Flo
Yeah, I think you…
This might sound basic, but I find that people don’t do it.
I have a travel preference doc.
And even when I first get with a client,
even if they don’t think travel is going to be one of the things that they’re going to need our help with, that’s
part of our onboarding.
It’s just…
What are some of the airlines that you like to travel?
What seat do you like to have on the plane?
Are you a morning traveler?
Are you a late traveler?
Are you a never red eye or are you actually love red eye?
22:12->22:51 Flo
Just getting all of those type of answers and documenting them so you don’t have to hold it in your brain as the assistant,
I think is really important.
And then my secret sauce is
Is i just love facebook groups like you get so much knowledge from just joining these like if one of my clients wants to go
to florida for example
This might sound a little psychotic because you might not do this for every client, but depending on how granular your planning is,
22:51->23:04 Flo
because for some of our clients, we actually plan day-by-day itinerary in addition to just booking the flights and the hotels.
I will go join a local Florida Jacksonville mom group.
[23:05]->[23:11] Speaker 04
And now watch, like, what are y’all doing this weekend?
You know, like, what does everybody do every summer?
23:11->23:29 Flo
And just, like, having those fresh ideas of, like, people that are living in the places that you’re trying to go to, that’s
one of my secret sauces is just, like, joining those and just, like,
browsing through some of the previous posts and comments and getting ideas that are not just from Google or ChatGPT.
23:30->24:01 Jeremy
No, that’s great.
What about…
You know, our worst nightmare, travel issues like cancellations, flight delays, flight reroutes.
I had some major issues with my executive’s family travel earlier this year.
And it was like one of the most stressful days of my 20 year career.
So what do you have travel agents on on speed dial?
Do you have airlines on speed dial?
Like, what do you do when the when it all just kind of falls apart?
24:02->24:33 Flo
Yeah, I we I don’t often use travel agents.
I think we might we use travel agents for just one client.
But for the rest of our for the rest of our clients, the phone,
like not just the 800 number that you can find on Google, but like most of our you know,
most of my clients naturally have like status with, you know, whoever their airline is.
So like having like the direct number that’s tied to like that level of status that they’re in within their program.
That’s the key.
So make sure you have that number.
24:33->24:58 Flo
If you don’t have it, get your client to either give you the login so you can get it or walk them through it
in one of your one-on-one meetings because they’re not going to do it if you just text them to.
So, you know, you got to trap sometimes.
So if we’re having like a weekly call and that’s something that I need, I’m going to make sure that we have that.
We have five minutes on the agenda to literally have you sit there and log in for me.
And so you can send me that screenshot so I can have what I need.
24:58->25:13 Jeremy
Nice.
Love it.
Well, super helpful tips.
Thanks so much for sharing your story and a little bit of your journey.
What, is there anything else that you’d like to share with, with assistants listening?
25:15->25:48 Flo
I think, I think I just want to share that.
And this has been coming up more and more often in like my discovery calls.
And I think that it’s just, yeah,
I don’t know if it’s a stereotype.
I don’t know if that’s the right word that I’m looking for, but a lot
of people are feeling or thinking that an executive assistant is just someone that manages inboxes and calendars and we’re just like task doers.
25:49->26:24 Flo
And obviously that is part of the job, but especially now in the world of AI, when AI can be the, you know,
Email drafter and the going and doing the research and compiling and organizing information and things like that.
I think that I just want to encourage all assistants to challenge themselves in their day to day to not just be the
The executor, but also like the operational brain behind whatever it is that you’re doing.
26:24->26:55 Flo
So like taking the time to truly understand like what the business priorities are and what your executives like,
Ideal outcome of whatever is because that will help you as the executive assistant manage the priorities the relationships anticipate like what might come
hold the context because our biggest job isn’t that we’re just like checking things off to do our biggest job is that we’re there
26:55->27:06 Flo
to help reduce how much responsibilities our executives are holding
And how much of that they’ll carry mentally.
So that’s one thing that I wanted to share.
27:07->27:16 Jeremy
Love it.
That’s great, Flo.
Thank you so much.
Well said.
What’s the best place for people to reach out if they want to connect and say hi and learn more about what you’re doing?
27:17->27:34 Flo
Yes, LinkedIn is my favorite.
My name is just my name, Flo Esho.
I’m also on Instagram.
And then, of course, my website, I have a contact section on my website for those that want to talk a little bit more.
But LinkedIn is the go-to.
That’s my number one choice.
27:35->27:57 Jeremy
Nice.
Awesome.
Well, I’ll put all those links in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/387.
Flo, thank you so much again for your time today.
And I wish you all the best and really appreciate your insight.
And yeah, thanks again for being on the show.
27:58->28:01 Flo
Yes.
Thank you for having me.
