Mia M. Lane is a senior executive assistant who empowers executives and their teams to perform at their highest level through strategic partnership, calm execution, and trusted support.
In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Mia talks about having the right people in your corner, tips on networking, the difference between a mentor and a sponsor, and more.
LEADERSHIP QUOTE
Your Impact is Real. Your Voice Matters. You Are Somebody.
CONNECT WITH MIA
ABOUT MIA
Mia M. Lane empowers executives and their teams to perform at their highest level through strategic partnership, calm execution, and trusted support. With over three decades of experience, she has led high-performing teams and provides support to senior executives.
A passionate advocate and mentor, Mia has dedicated her career to elevating the administrative profession and empowering others to recognize their worth and embrace their impact.
Her mantra says it all.
Your Impact is Real. Your Voice Matters. You Are Somebody.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
00:20->00:51 Jeremy
Hey friends, welcome to the Leader Assistant Podcast.
It’s your host, Jeremy Burrows, and I’m really excited to have you here today listening.
You can check out the show notes for this conversation at leaderassistant.com/389
So 389, side note, I am very excited that I’m so close to episode 400.
That’s kind of…
Wild to think about.
00:51->01:14 Jeremy
But, uh, back to, back to today’s conversation.
I’m very excited to be speaking with Mia Lane.
Mia is a senior executive assistant and I have been connected with Mia for a while, but it, I think we first met,
where did we meet?
Which city were we in?
Was it Seattle?
It was Chicago.
01:14->01:14 Mia
Chicago.
01:15->01:15 Jeremy
Okay.
01:15->01:21 Mia
Yeah.
Cause you were, um,
Doing the, uh, you were in the expo booth with Spoonful of Comfort.
01:22->01:47 Jeremy
Oh yeah, that’s right.
That’s right.
That was, that was way back when.
So we met then and then I’m finally excited to, we had some, uh, mutual friend, uh, Tara Sims really encourage, uh, strongly encourage,
I’ll say, uh, you to, to get on board with the podcast train.
So, uh, love Tara and, uh, really excited to have, have you on.
So welcome Mia.
Welcome.
01:48->01:49 Mia
Thank you for having me, Jeremy.
01:50->01:51 Jeremy
And what part of the world are you in?
01:52->02:01 Mia
I am based right outside of Dallas, Texas.
And I’ve lived here for about 32 years, originally from Kansas.
But Dallas is now my home.
02:02->02:05 Jeremy
Nice, nice.
And what do you like to do when you’re not working?
02:07->02:34 Mia
When I’m not working, I like to get a nice massage, two-hour massage, a lot of self-care going on.
I also like to–I recently started walking, so I’m getting–just one of my good friends encouraged me,
and I walk two or four miles with her, and we conversate while we’re on the phone, and it’s nice.
It’s nice.
02:35->02:37 Jeremy
Wow, that’s great.
And it’s healthy, very healthy.
02:40->02:52 Jeremy
Awesome.
Well, we’re going to jump right in.
Tell us a little bit about your career and how did you get into the assistant world and the assistant space?
And then tell us a little bit about your progression throughout your career.
02:53->03:25 Mia
Okay.
Well, again, thanks for having me.
I’ve been a senior EA, currently working at UKG, been in the profession for about 34 years.
Originally started out as an admin assistant.
Well, I guess first it started into customer service, transitioned into admin assistant, and
And just was something that I loved, you know.
Then I just kind of set milestones for myself to kind of climb up the ladder from admin all the way up to, you
03:26->03:53 Mia
know, a senior EA supporting at the C-level.
I am an advocate, a mentor, speaker, and passionate supporter for our profession.
I spent a lot of time just helping admins recognize their value
Own their voice and just lead from where they are.
And a lot of my work today focuses on partnership and just reminding people that their impact matters.
03:55->04:05 Jeremy
Love it.
Love it.
What has been your favorite part about specifically your assistant executive support roles?
04:07->04:37 Mia
My favorite part is actually that no day is ever the same.
And in the full gamut of my career, no day has ever repeated itself.
I like the fact that it’s you’re on your feet.
It’s last minute.
It’s pivoting here, you know, making decisions there.
And I think that’s what I like most about it.
It’s not.
It’s not boring in any fashion.
So I think that the fact that it keeps me on my feet and it’s new opportunities and challenges every day.
04:38->04:41 Mia
That’s what I admire about this profession.
04:43->04:48 Jeremy
Same, same.
I always say never a dull moment.
And I mean, there’s never a dull moment in this career.
04:48->04:49 Mia
Never a dull moment.
04:50->05:02 Jeremy
What about your least favorite part?
What’s been maybe, it doesn’t have to be with your current role or maybe just in general, but.
I can, I mean, I’m so ready to give you an answer on this.
05:02->05:33 Mia
I can’t wait for you to stop talking.
What is my least part?
The people who are not aware of the impact that we make.
And, you know, it’s to the point where, you know,
People can just assume, oh, we get coffee or, oh, we just calendar, we just, you know, schedule meetings.
But it’s far more than that.
And there used to be a time in my career where I actually got irritated when people assumed that they knew what my role
05:33->06:00 Mia
was and they were completely, you know, off from what it was.
So now it just empowers me more to say, hey, no, you got this wrong.
Let me tell you what I do.
So you have to embrace that something that could be negative like that into something positive and just, you know, say it.
Here’s what I do.
I bring impact to everything.
You know, I’m I may behind the scenes.
That’s why you really don’t know what I do.
But let me enlighten you.
06:03->06:30 Jeremy
Love it.
That’s great.
Um, so, and that’s kind of, you know, that’s been one of the big mission statements, if you will,
06:31->06:50 Jeremy
we assistants have to see ourselves as leaders and strategic business partners, but we need to help other people, uh,
see us as leaders as well.
06:31->06:50 Mia
Right.
Exactly.
And believe that you’re a leader because, you know, it’s unfortunate that some people in our profession just don’t believe that they are leaders.
And that plays a big part of our role, you know.
06:53->07:32 Jeremy
Great.
Well, let’s jump into the topic of this idea of having the right people in your corner.
And I just want you to, you know, for those that have been listening for a while,
you know that I like to ask my guests, hey, you know, what topics do you want to talk about?
What are you interested in?
What are you excited about?
What’s going on in your career?
What have you done throughout your career that you’d like to
Highlight.
And you mentioned the idea of advocacy, and then the power of strategically having the right people in your corner.
07:33->07:59 Jeremy
And then also self advocacy.
And then also this idea, I’m kind of throwing a bunch at you now just to kind of get us going.
But the the idea of the difference between a mentor and a sponsor is
And so what is the maybe first practical step listeners can take to start building a strategic circle of support,
getting the right people around you?
08:01->08:37 Mia
Yeah, I would say that you have to pay attention to who genuinely sees your potential and consistently supports your growth.
You have to build relationships before you need something because having the right people can totally change the direction of your career.
So it’s, you know, and building those relationships comes from networking, you know, of all things.
08:37->08:39 Mia
So I think that’s really important.
08:41->08:45 Jeremy
What’s been your number one networking hack over the years?
08:47->09:20 Mia
You know, networking hack is just getting comfortable with speaking to people I don’t know.
You know, it’s not easy.
You know, it may be while I’m grabbing a morning Starbucks, you know,
where I’m carrying a conversation on while I’m waiting for my coffee to come up.
But, you know, usually I would just be there and I’d be on my phone just scrolling.
But now I make it a point to speak to someone that I don’t know.
Hey, good morning.
How you doing?
You know, what is it that you do?
And that didn’t happen like initially.
09:20->09:52 Mia
That happened like halfway through my career is where I kind of had, you know,
the epiphany and things just changed and I became a different person.
But, yeah, that’s that’s something that I find is valuable because I meet a lot of different people.
And it’s not just when I’m at Starbucks, it could be in the grocery store or wherever, but at least once a day.
I try to do that, you know, and it gets me out of my, you know, comfort zone as well.
And even still years later, it can still be uncomfortable because, you know, a look is worth a thousand words.
09:52->09:58 Mia
And sometimes people can look at you like, are you really trying to talk to me?
And you don’t know me, you know, but, you know, it’s moving past that.
Yeah.
09:59->10:21 Jeremy
Nice.
So then let’s put it in maybe the work context, talking to people, talking to coworkers you don’t know, et cetera.
How do you start to identify those people who maybe could turn into a mentor or a sponsor or, you know,
somebody that’s really in your corner?
10:22->10:56 Mia
Well, I guess just to start out defining the two is,
I would define a mentor as someone who guides you, while a sponsor, in my eyes, is someone who actively advocates for you.
The mentor, they speak to you.
Sponsors speak about you in those rooms of opportunity.
So the distinction between the two can significantly impact your career.
10:57->11:06 Mia
And it’s a blessing when you can come across one person in your career that does both of those things for you.
11:07->11:35 Jeremy
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like the mentor is somebody that’s like, Hey, here’s how you can progress your thing and, you know, be there for you.
But then the sponsor is somebody who actually is goes to bat for you.
Um, that’s, that’s awesome.
So what has, or how has that looked in your career then as far as having a sponsor and what opportunities did that bring
and how did that come into effect?
11:37->12:08 Mia
Well, in my career, there was one leader who truly, I mean, he just reshaped my career.
His name was Scott Howlett.
I started working with him at McAfee, where I supported him as the CIO.
And about two and a half years into our partnership, he left and he went to UKG as the chief digital officer.
And I…
Followed him to support him there.
12:09->12:44 Mia
And within a year, he promoted me into managing the team of EAs under his umbrella.
So being that he was the chief digital officer, he had security, had corporate data and analysis.
He had I.T., risk and security.
Corporate applications, I believe.
No, security is what it was.
So he had those five departments under his umbrella.
And he said, hey, I am confident in you and I want you to manage the EAs in my organization.
12:45->13:17 Mia
And I am confident that you can do it.
I will mentor you.
I will coach you.
But aside from that,
And despite me mentoring and coaching you, I will expect you to do the work.
I was like, OK.
And, you know, I was fine with that because I would be managing a team doing the same work.
And I knew the role because that was my profession.
13:18->13:53 Mia
So I still remember him telling me, you know, like it was yesterday that that he believed in me.
And, you know, Through the course of my career, I’ve supported different executives and it’s like, oh, you know, you’re such a great supporter.
And, you know, I’m going to take you with me and I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that.
And, you know, until this part of my journey is when someone actually walked the talk.
And, you know, the level of belief and advocacy and investment in someone’s professional growth is rare.
13:54->14:25 Mia
And it really changed how I saw myself.
As a leader.
And throughout the course of our, we had almost six years together.
In 2024, we won the partnership award with IAAP.
And that was a meaningful moment in my career.
But timing was just so unfortunate because of the fact that when they had the summit in New York City, July of 2024,
14:28->15:10 Mia
Was when Scott and his wife were on vacation in Spain.
So he wasn’t even able to attend with me.
But what was really neat is he did a three or four minute video and they showed it on the screen,
giving his congratulatory remarks and it was great.
But, you know, after six years together, he retired.
But he still mentors me and coaches me today.
And we remain in touch.
But, you know, what I learned from that experience was sometimes it just takes one leader willing to believe in your potential before you
15:10->15:44 Mia
believe in it yourself.
And that kind of sponsorship can change your whole career.
And it really did.
So I’m very grateful.
I ended up leading for about three, almost three and a half years.
And then just recently, I have went back as an individual contributor.
We had some restructure at UKG and grateful to be just back in the trenches as an individual contributor doing what I know and love.
15:44->16:15 Jeremy
Wow.
So that’s amazing.
First of all, second of all, I can’t believe that he didn’t cancel his Spain trip.
I mean, come on, cancel the Spain trip for you.
Uh, no, but that’s, that’s amazing.
And, um, really is a career shaping experience for sure.
Uh, what did that tell us a little bit more about that partnership?
Like practically speaking, um, what maybe specific actions did you said it was Scott?
16:17->16:36 Jeremy
Did Scott take that, you know, other than the promotion thing, but like,
is there any sort of day to day rhythms that you had that kind of morphed into that type of a sponsorship?
Or, yeah, just any tips for developing that?
16:37->17:07 Mia
You know, when our partnership first started,
You know, I went into his office and I had my clipboard and I was like, okay, you know,
because the former CIO had left.
And so it’s like, okay, he’s not bringing anyone with him.
You’re it.
And so I’m like, okay, well, here you go.
This is how I operate.
And I was like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, things, you know, and this is what I need from you.
So, you know, what do you need from me?
And he was like,
Whatever you tell me to do.
17:07->17:44 Mia
I was like, okay.
But it starts out like I can’t tiptoe.
I have to be authentically me.
So, you know, speaking transparently right out the gate, you know,
that was valuable for both of us because that was one of the things I said is I want to not only be your
assistant, but I want to be your sounding board.
I want to be someone that you feel, you know,
we need to have each other’s back and we need to be able to support each other, you know,
and I can come in here and say whatever if I’m having, you know, a challenge or something comes across from someone else.
17:45->18:15 Mia
I could just talk openly with him about it,
but he knew that when I got behind my keyboard or in front of someone that I was going to carry myself as a reflection
of a leader, you know, so which is not always easy to do with some of the things that we deal with as admin
professionals, but that having the transparency and,
Quickly evolved the trust that we had with one of one another.
18:16->18:52 Mia
And, you know, we both had the same mindset is trust is, you know, honored until it’s broken, you know,
so you just right out the gate, you know, building that relationship of just being able to talk and ask questions.
And he wanted me involved in everything, you know, from, you know,
His inbox to being on his staff, treating me like I was one of, you know, one of his leaders, you know,
when we would do different, you know, scenarios with the different teams, you know, nine box or whatever it may be, you know,
18:52->19:19 Mia
as he was going around the table, well, Mia, what do you think?
You know, I was, I had a seat at the table and he had no problems sharing his
That I was his right hand and I had a seat at his table.
And even though I might not have been doing the work of the different teams,
I interacted with all the different people in the organization, which meant a lot to him as well.
Yeah.
19:22->19:53 Jeremy
That’s great.
So you mentioned in the middle of that, you kind of mentioned that it’s not easy to advocate for yourself.
So for assistants listening who feel like they constantly deliver at a high level,
but they struggle to speak up or present their own value to others,
Whether it’s HR or their executive or colleagues, etc.
19:53->20:08 Jeremy
Do you have any techniques that you would recommend they try?
Just something maybe specific, even this week as they’re listening.
What could they do to try and strengthen their self-advocacy muscle?
20:09->20:22 Mia
Well, it starts with believing in yourself.
And while this may sound, I don’t even know why I’m saying this word, corny.
That’s the Kansas in you, right?
20:22->20:23 Jeremy
That’s the Kansas in me.
20:25->20:56 Mia
You know, something that I do each and every day.
And, you know, sometimes I do it when I’m, you know, in my bathroom getting ready and I’m looking at myself in the mirror.
I’m like, girl, you are somebody.
You got this, you know.
And I just sit there and have a conversation telling myself how great I am.
And you know what?
It makes me feel good, too.
So I can now when I get behind my keyboard at work and I get in, you know, and I’m an hour in, it
may have to pause and I may have to go back to my mirror again, just depending on what I’m dealing with.
But I am really big on affirmations and just telling myself how good I am, because if I don’t believe that internally.
21:06->21:40 Mia
Number one, no one else will.
And how I communicate.
On behalf of myself is how people see me and how they take in what I say and if I’m not confident while I’m
speaking and I’m very quiet and timid and I act scared and nervous people see right through that so even when you don’t know
the answer to something be confident and say you’ll get it you’ll find out what it is so I feel like in order to strengthen
21:40->22:09 Mia
the muscle You have to believe in yourself.
And for me, it starts with confirming to myself on a daily basis what I see in me.
And you know what?
The other day, you did really good in me.
I’m proud of you.
And I just, like I said, I have these conversations with myself because, yes, you can have those conversations with other people,
but it starts internally.
Does that make sense?
22:09->22:38 Jeremy
Yeah, that’s great.
Yeah, I like to do…
My kind of reminder that I learned over the years that’s really helped me with my confidence is just to remind myself that I’m
a valuable human being no matter how well or not well I perform in my job.
And that really helps me stay grounded and…
Know that like at the end of the day, if I made a big mistake, that it doesn’t,
22:39->22:41
it doesn’t have anything to do with my worth as a human.
22:41->22:55 Jeremy
It’s just, I made a mistake and I don’t have to let that, you know,
I don’t have to dwell on that and let that really crush me emotionally.
Right.
Because I, because I’m detaching my worth from my work.
So.
22:55->23:22 Mia
Right.
And once you, you know, just like you said, on the line of making mistakes and,
It’s it’s learning from those mistakes, too, you know, because we’re all human.
None of us are perfect.
And as long as we can learn from those mistakes, they’re less likely to happen again.
So embrace the fact that, you know.
We need corrections as well.
23:24->23:49 Jeremy
Well, Mia, this has been great.
I would love to hear just a little bit about what you do outside of your day job as far as speaking and being
an ambassador for the administrative profession.
Just give us a little bit of what you’ve been doing and how you got into that.
And maybe even if anybody wants to reach out and connect and where they could get a hold of you.
23:50->24:25 Mia
I am very active on LinkedIn with, and I post pretty regularly and it’s all about, you know,
empowering people to know that they have an impact, that their voice matters and that they are, they are valued.
They’re somebody.
And through doing that, like in 2025, I actually set a goal for myself, which was
A crazy goal, but my goal was, you know what I want to develop.
24:25->25:06 Mia
I want to be more connected on LinkedIn.
I want to have more of a following on LinkedIn and be active on LinkedIn first and foremost.
And so I said, I’m going to post every day of the year.
So every day of twenty twenty five.
I posted on LinkedIn.
Now, those posts started out being two sentences and then they grew into being, you know, a couple of paragraphs or whatever.
They you know, you saw the growth.
But allowing me to do that, you never know who.
You are reaching because through those consistent posts, and I’m not saying you need to post every day because, you know, posting, you know,
25:06->25:37 Mia
based on the algorithm, posting a couple of times a week is great, you know, but I was on a mission.
And and the more I was posting, the more comfortable I was getting with it, because at first I was kind of like,
what do I have to say?
But then it went farther than that.
I was like, no, let me tell you what’s top of mind today.
And so I became more comfortable in posting.
And the way I post kind of changed.
And it grew people reaching out to me in my DMs.
25:37->26:08 Mia
It landed me speaking opportunities.
People would reach out.
And I wasn’t setting out to be a speaker.
I just wanted to be an advocate for the profession.
But In doing those things while I called, called it elevating my presence,
other doors started opening that I didn’t know that I was prepared to walk through, but I walked through them and here we are.
And now I can confidently say that.
Then I am an advocate for the profession.
26:09->26:36 Mia
You know, I’ve done speaking engagements.
I’ve been on panels.
I’ve hosted podcasts.
I’ve been the interviewer, the interviewee.
And just, you know, I’m loving it.
Because we have a great community.
And there are so many, so many speakers and just professionals in our industry.
And it’s a great community.
And there’s room for everybody.
26:39->26:46 Jeremy
Well said.
The only the only question, though, follow up I have, though, is why did it take you so long to be on my show?
I mean, come on now, Mia.
26:48->26:51 Mia
You know.
I don’t have an answer.
26:53->27:11 Jeremy
I’m just giving you a hard time.
I appreciate you.
And I’m glad that we finally had the conversation.
I will put your LinkedIn in the show notes at LeaderAssistant.com slash 389.
LeaderAssistant.com slash 389 for people to reach out and connect and follow you on LinkedIn for sure.
27:12->27:16 Mia
And then I also have a website, MiaMLane.com.
27:17->27:37 Jeremy
Perfect.
Yeah, I’ll put that in there as well.
So yeah, I’ll put that in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/389 so people can reach out.
But yeah, thanks so much again, Mia, for being on the show.
Thank you, Tara Sims.
A shout out to Tara again for encouraging you to finally do this.
And we’ll talk soon.
Great.
27:37->27:37 Mia
Thank you.
