EntreLeadership - #242: Jan Jones—Want More Time? Here’s How.

Episode Date: January 15, 2018

Author Jan Jones, who is also the founder and president of Jan Jones Worldwide Speakers Bureau, has found a way to save what no one can ever get enough of: time. Her solution—a can-do-it assistant��may seem like an unnecessary or even a too-expensive luxury, but Jan insists the right assistant doesn’t have to cost a lotand is worth every penny. The bottom line? Time is money. And if you’re spending your time booking appointments or ordering office supplies, well, you’re likely wasting a whole lot of money. Tune in to find out exactly what to look for in an assistant, as well as how to nurture and maximize that relationship so you can focus on the more important (and profitable) task of growing your business. entreleadership.com/podcast The CEO's Secret Weapon EP #153 Suzanne Simms—Qualities to Look For in Leaders The EntreLeader's Guide to Delegation 2018 Small Business Marketing Trends Report Want expert help with your business question? Call 844-944-1070 and leave a message for Ken with the details. You could be featured on a future podcast episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Andre Leadership. Now, here's your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders, by leaders, four leaders. Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Our theme this episode, something we've never been focused on, but it is going to be valuable. Your assistant. assistant assistants. That's right. Jan Jones is the author of the CEO's Secret Weapon,

how great leaders and their assistance maximize productivity and effectiveness. She is our featured guest. Joining her is Suzanne Sim. She's been on this broadcast before. She's one of our executive vice presidents here at Ramsey Solutions. And in the process of hiring a new executive assistant, she'll give you her point of view on this book and how she uses it. And then finally we bring in two of our absolute all-stars, Ramsey Solutions, executive assistants, Mia Higgins, and Lyndie Newton. And they're going to talk about three specific areas that you need to be thinking about as you not only plan, but hire and then build the relationship with your assistant from their unique point of view.

And don't forget, we're going to bring you two free resources for Montrey Leadership and InfusionSo. So let's get going. Jan Jones. She is somebody who has been an assistant at a very high level for Tony Robbins and Michael Gerber, so she knows of which she writes. So here is my conversation with Jan Jones. The book is entitled The CEO's Secret Weapon, How Great Leaders and Their Assistance Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness. And I will tell you that around Ramsey Solutions parts where assistants are a huge part of this fast-moving, highly efficient business. We love Jan's work. And so we're excited to have you on. Jan, thanks for being with us.

Thank you so much, Ken. I'm really thrilled to be here with you today. All right. Let's dive right into this. So let's go back. Before, you know, you become this author of this book that is, you know, so widely read and used, at some point in time, you were an executive assistant. You were in the trenches. I know with a lot of high-profile people. One comes to mind that most people will know a guy by the name of Tony Robbins who's traveling around the world, got a lot going on, several different business units. So you really did come up with your own system. This book is a reflection of so many years' experience. Why did you write this book? What was the impetus? What did you want people to really know? You know, it's interesting, Ken, because the story starts

actually, when I started my own business, I own a speakers bureau, so we represent a lot of business experts who go around the world and speak at conferences. And I was finding that these high-profile business experts had really substandard in some instances and not very good, not very capable assistance. And it was quite disturbing to me to see that somebody who on the world stage is so well respected and regarded doesn't have an assistant who was capable of representing these people as effectively as I thought they should be. And so I began making notes and jotting down ideas and things. And I also started coaching some of these assistants and talking to these executives about how they could get better quality assistance when they were looking

for a new assistant. And slowly but surely it turned into a book. My good friend and client, Chester Elton, who is a best-selling author. He, in fact, introduced me to his book publisher. And she took a look at some of the outlines that I had written. And she said, yes, this is a book will publish you. So that's how I ended up being published. Oh, wow. It's so great. Just solving a problem, much like entrepreneurs. There you go. Yes. All right. So I want to get right into some thoughts that you have for the small business owner, because I think many times you hear assistant or executive assistant, whatever title, and you get this idea of, well, I'm not big enough to do it. I can't afford it. And oh my goodness, you really blow that up in this book. So let's talk right to that small business owner

or small business person who they feel like they need that assistant, but they feel like, is it right? What should they be thinking? Well, you know, a lot of the time, it's a question of cash flow, right? And they say, well, we don't have the money for an assistant. And so, you know, having an assistant is a luxury. And so I need to keep doing these tasks. In fact, doing those tasks is the luxury because you really need to be focusing your time and your attention on strategy and growing your business. So if you're doing tasks that an assistant could be doing, you're not really not making the best use of your time. So, you know, there are things that I've seen executives do in small businesses that they really shouldn't be doing, you know, setting up their own appointments or checking their emails or making sure that

their office supplies on hand, things like that. These are not a good use of your time. So this is really important to consider whether or not this is something you should be doing. It's the best use of your time. And what's interesting too is that you don't have to have a lot of money in order to have a capable assistant because all over the world you can find good assistance in smaller towns and smaller areas, people who will work and do a good job for you and not necessarily you're having to pay them the kind of money you would pay someone who was in New York or Los Angeles, for example. Yeah, and you would assert, and I think correctly so, that if you need an assistant and you don't hire the assistant, it's essentially going to cost you not just your time, but money as well.

Well, absolutely, you know, because it's so interesting. So Greg Ranker is the coach chairman of Guthranker, they're a direct marketing company from all over the world, and they are actually the pioneers of the direct marketing industry. And he said to me, you know, you can easily convince me that the only thing I should be doing is working in this company on future strategy and making money. I'm only here to generate profit. And in order to do that, I have to be focused on strategy and making sure that we are doing the right things to maximize our profits. Otherwise, everything else I'm doing is off target. And I think this is a very good thing for executives to understand. Another executive, an entrepreneur who I did some work for

and interview for my book, he said to me, you know, business owners have to ask yourself, what am I doing and why am I doing it? What's the goal? What's the contribution to the company? So you should be figuring out what your time is worth and the low value tasks are not a good you putting out fires and not a good use of your time. And you should be delegating those to an assistant. Okay, so let's look at another wrinkle. And this is what I love about your book. You really address this. So Mettea, you have to talk about this because it's not just when considering an assistant, all right, do I have the right person that can take the task that I need to offload to somebody else and do them well, so efficiency. But you talk a lot about the executive from a brand standpoint.

We think of brand many times as a company name, but every person has a brand. And specifically, you write that the executive assistant is the face and voice to the world for that executive. So you really have to think about a lot more than just efficiencies and skills, but how do they represent me from the way they hold themselves, the way they speak to people, the way they represent me in every different facet because they really become another part of the executive. Yes, and in my book, I say that your executive assistant is the best PR person you could ever have. They are your face and your voice to the world. They make that first impression for you because a lot of the time the assistant is the first person that somebody gets when they make contact with you,

whether it's a new customer, whether it's somebody who is going to be a prospective business partner for you. They get your assistant first. So what image do you want to project? What do you want to say about yourself through your assistant? And people are judging you based on the assistant that you have because if it's not, it's like calling a company and you get a bad customer service rep. That tarnishes the impression of your company.

It's the same thing with your assistant. if you're getting an assistant who is sloppy in the way they answer the phone or they can't answer basic questions or they're not being polite to you, all of these things matter. People are forming an opinion of you based on their experience with your assistant. And I'll tell you also, when I've contacted, oftentimes because of the business that I'm in, which is the Speakers Bureau, I work with very high-level business executives and successful business people who have written books and are known all over the world. But if I speak to their assistant, and that assistant is not up to par,

That person immediately goes down in my estimation because I ask myself, what else is going on behind the scenes if they can't do something like hire an effective assistant, if they don't know what it takes to hire somebody who's going to represent them to the world. Yeah, and I want to drive deeper on a few things here. When you talk to somebody's assistant and they're just rude, how does that play into your opinion of that person who's hired them? because I get the they don't handle themselves as far as details well. I mean, I have a good follow-through. But what about just being rude? It's very interesting. I do a lot of work with celebrities. And so when I don't call the celebrity, I get to talk to their agents.

And their agents are great, but the agent's assistants, they have this idea that they have to project an image of, I'm very busy and I don't have time. So get on with it, that kind of thing. And so when I call them and they speak that way, I immediately slow it down. and just say, hi, good morning, and I tell them who I am, and I get right to why I'm calling, because they're accustomed to having people calling and wasting their time and say,

oh, do you think, you know, people waste their time a lot. So you get right down to business. And it takes them back for a second because then they're able to say, okay, this is a legitimate business call. This is not somebody calling to waste my time. So that's the way I handle it if I get somebody who's being a little aggressive or a little pushy. But that should not be happening. And in fact, I have known executives who will call into their office and they'll disguise their voice because they want to hear how the phone is being answered

by either the receptionist or by their assistant just so that they can get a feel for whether or not how people are being treated. So it's really, really important to pay attention to that. It really is because it does make people think the same thing about you. And you're not even talking to somebody. Yes. It really is a huge issue. All right. Another thing that's important is being able to handle pressure. Yes. Boy, this is so true. There are all different types of pressure.

And I want you to explain why this is so important when we're thinking about getting a capable assistant. You know, pressure is just a way of life, right? I mean, whether in our lives and also in our businesses, but you can't let it get to you. And the way to ensure that, I always say, is good communication between the executive and the assistant. Because if the assistant is comfortable

in understanding what you want, whether you're there or not, they can perform. And if they are confident in what they're doing, if they know what you want them to do, if they have the basic skills to get the job done, that takes a lot of the pressure off them. But if you're not communicating with them, if you're not helping them to understand how you want things done, how the business is run, that ends up causing a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress. A lot of the pressure that assistance experience is time pressure. You know, things getting changed constantly, a lot of people coming at them at the same time asking for things.

So the assistant has to be aware. And when you're interviewing the assistant, you have to be aware to tell them, look, this is the situation that we have constantly. And you can't be flustered. You can't drop the ball. You can't be rude to people on the phone just because you're busy and because you're under a lot of pressure right now. So it takes a lot of communication in the beginning. And it also takes communication when the executive is giving the assistant a lot of work to say, listen, I know you've got a lot on your plate right now. We'll get through this. We'll handle it.

You know, just take the pressure down just a little bit and help them to work through it. All right. I want to switch gears to the hiring process for an assistant. How is it different than maybe other hiring processes or is it not any different? What specifically does a leader, high-functioning person who wants an assistant, what do they need to be doing in the hiring process? The challenge with hiring an assistant is because the definition of the role of assistant is so varied. And it depends on the organization and what it is that they're looking for. So a lot of the time, the first thing that the executive has to do in hiring an assistant is to really sit down quietly and say, okay, what does this company need? What do I need? What are the things

we must have? Because if you don't analyze that, when somebody gets in front of you and you're interviewing them, you may get sidetracked. You might say, well, I like this person's personality, or I like the fact that they worked for this person before, and all kind of. ancillary miscellaneous things come into consideration when the first consideration needs to be, what is it that we need in this business? What is my work style? Am I a micromanager? Am I a big-picture person? Do I need somebody who needs to be managed? Do I need somebody who is able to take the ball and run with it? You have to really sit down and examine what it is you need and what your business needs. And then based on that, you hire the correct personality fit and the correct capability fit for you.

Now, one of the things you talk about in the book is the idea of self-evaluation. You have to understand yourself in order to hire an assistant who's a good fit for you. And I think this is a massive blind spot for so many people. If you can make the list and say, okay, this is what I need. But I'd love to spend a little bit of time talking about this back and forth. You get that right person. And in the hiring process, you want to find somebody that's not just a personality fit, but maybe has strengths where you have weaknesses and so forth and so on. And if we're not aware, then we're really hampering that assistant, not just the hiring. process, correct? Yes. So this is knowing yourself, right, is really, really important. And don't hesitate to say, this is what I need and this is what I want. I'm seeing a trend a lot with the younger executives, for example, who say things to me like, well, who am I to ask her to do that for me? And I say to them, you're the person who's paying them a salary so they can send their kids to school and put food on the table and put clothes on their back, you know? So don't say, who am I to ask them? They're there to do what the business needs them to do. So you need to be very, very clear about that. And a lot of the time I'm seeing also now the trend is to tell assistants, almost like being an assistant is

secondary to what they want to do in the role. So, you know, there are lots of adjacent opportunities to being an assistant to an executive. And a lot of assistants are focusing on those adjacent opportunities as opposed to this is what the executive really needs right now. This is what they've asked you to do. This is the priority. Focus on that. And if you find your persistent is not doing that, you need to have a conversation with them about it. Don't be afraid to say, this is what we need you to do in the business. Now, how big of a fan are you of sharing the personality, profiles, strengths, weaknesses right at the outset before you've actually hired? Is this done prior to the hire or after the hire? Oh, it has to be done prior to. Yeah, absolutely.

Yes, yeah, the elevation has to be done before. I know that there are some executives who are very, very good with their gut instincts and they'll hire based on that. No matter what else they're seeing, say, you know, my God is telling me this person is a good fit. So they'll hire that person. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. You know, Donald Trump said to me in a book interview that, you know, hiring is a gamble. In the end, you really don't know on how that person is going to work out until they're actually on board and you're seeing them in action. And I've seen this too where I have very, very good instincts. And on top of that, I know what's required to do the assistant job. But once in a while, an assistant will come on board and their personality is just

not meshing or they have an agenda on where they want to go and things like that. So sometimes you have to roll the dice, but a lot of the time you can really do your homework and trust your instincts. You know, when you're doing business, you trust yourself. You trust your instincts. You do your homework. So do the same thing when you're hiring an assistant. It's really no different hiring an assistant as there is to hiring a CFO or somebody like that. So do your homework. Now, you've talked to so many business leaders on this issue. I'm just curious as you've interviewed them and spent time talking through their answers and thinking through it. What are you seeing?

What patterns, anecdotes, stories of how assistants are so valuable to business leaders? It's so interesting. The stories are so varied. Joseph Micelli, who's a famous author who writes books on customer service, you know, he was saying to me that the thing about his assistant was that she increased his business value. She was somebody who, she actually had accounting background. So she always kept him on track when it came to him wanting to go off, be like an entrepreneur and go off and do 10 different things. She'd always bring him back to the business plan that they worked on at the beginning of the year.

And she'd say, okay, now, Joseph, are we keeping to this plan? Is this in line with what we intended to do? And he said to me, you know, she actually made me richer. Can you imagine having an executive assistant who makes you richer? Yes. I mean, that's an amazing story. But he was willing to listen to her. You know, he trusted her sufficiently where he listened to her.

A lot of executives don't listen to their assistants, and that's a big mistake. Donald Trump told me, and when I mentioned Donald Trump, this is before he became president, I interviewed him in 2015, he said to me that his assistant was so valuable to him because she could read situations really well. And she had really good instincts, and she was never afraid to tell him what she thought. And that's a really important thing to do, is to be able to respectfully give your input to your executive, and for them to trust you sufficiently. Obviously, after they've been with you for a while, they have a track record with you and you trust them.

But even in the beginning, to be able to give them some confidence, listen to what they're saying, that was another big thing. And Richard Branson told me that he liked having assistants with whom he could be good friends because you spend so much time with your assistant on a day-to-day basis that he felt it was really, really important from a personality perspective for them to be able to get along with each other.

Steve Forbes told me that his assistant was so capable in getting all of these little things done. He said, you know, the smallest thing, when she was not there, it would turn into some huge chaotic thing. And the minute she came back in the office, auto was restored right away, you know. So these are the kinds of things that they appreciated about their assistants who were able to support them and run their office for them. I love that you just said that the assistant supports the executive, but you also write about this in the book. the idea of great leaders give assistance the resources they need. So it's a, it's a reciprocal support. How do leaders do that? How do they support their assistance well? It always comes back to communication. Communicate to them. Let them know what you want, what you don't want. It has to be

face-to-face communication. In this day and age, we tend to rely a lot on electronic communication. That's good for convenience. But you must try, if you can, if you're in the office, at least one a day to get face to face with your assistant and tell them your strategy, tell them what's important to you, tell them what's coming overnight, what you're going to do with this, what you're going to do with that, what your expectations are. The more they're face to face with you, the more they can imbibe your presence, the more they understand who you are, the better they're going to be able to assist you. So this is one way you can actually be a resource to your assistant because there's a lot of learning to be had when you're sitting side by side with your executive and you're hearing them

speak and you're listening to them on the phone. And if you're in meetings with them, you're seeing what's going on. So you're able to grow as an assistant as well. And the more you grow, the more you grasp the business, the more you understand business, the better able you are to do, as I say, these adjacent opportunities that exist when you're supporting an executive, whether it's taking on additional projects and supporting some other divisions and departments, things like that. And then the other thing, too, is send them to training, send them to development. You know, this day and age, it's so competitive. Years ago, when I was working as an assistant, we never had the benefit and the opportunity of a book like mine, for example, or being sent to conferences and

things like that. You were expected to come into the job, knowing what you had to know, knowing what you needed to do, and that was it. You learned in the job, you learned on the job. But now, networking is becoming much more important. So sending your assistant to events, helping them to some companies actually help their assistance to get MBAs. I talk about this in the book. And of course, there's a big cost factor, and there's a big time factor because, you know, to get your MBA is no easy thing. So that's not always very popular.

But I've known a handful of companies who send their executive assistants to do the MBA training as well. So be a resource to them. If they need something to do the job, if they need a smartphone, if they need a laptop, whatever it is that they need in order to be able to help you, give them what they need in order to be able to do that. Well, this is a very important resource. You really do lay out the entire game plan on how to get the right assistant, how to work with the right assistant. It really is a treasure trove. What would you say to leaders who are thinking, all right, I need to get to the next level here. What am I going to get out of this book? I've heard a lot of

great stuff, but how do I use this book? What would you say to them? Okay, so in my book, I devote three chapters to what I call the tangible and intangible traits of exceptional executive assistants. And it's really important for you to read this chapter, to see some of the things, the characteristics that make up a great assistant. Now, you may not find all of these. You need to find maybe at least three of them in an assistant. So some of the things that I speak about there are anticipation ability, the ability to look ahead, resourcefulness, somebody, you know, you don't necessarily have to know all the information. It's important to know where to go for the information, who is a good resource for you, how to get things done. So that's important. You need to

have an assistant who is able to think fast on their feet, who's got some business savvy, and somebody who really wants to do the job. So I've broken down the chapters into three different areas that you should be looking at for assistance. So the most important thing to do is to read those three chapters and to see communication skills are important. Of course, they're going to have to have the basics, which is the fundamentals of being able to type and to answer the phone effectively and do the kinds of things that are given for secretarial. When I'm hiring, I hire for attitude. I want somebody who's got a real can-do-do-ad attitude, somebody who says, I'm going to jump in and take charge, and nothing is too much for me. I'm happy to be there as a resource for you. And especially

in a small business where a lot of the time there's a lot of overlap. You know, in larger companies, people tend to be in their areas and they tend to support people in the areas. But in small businesses, there's a lot of overlapping. So you have to have somebody who's really willing to do it, who really wants to step in and who really wants to partner with you. Well, it's great stuff, Jan. Thank you so much for being with us. This is a great resource.

I know you're busy and you've got a lot going on, but thanks for hanging out with us. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Big thanks to Jan Jones being with us. Again, the book is The CEO's Secret Weapon, How Great Leaders, and Their Assistance, Maximize Productivity and Effectiveness.

excited to have Suzanne Sims back on the broadcast with us. She first joined us on episode 153. We actually had lunch at a local eatery and talked. It was a really, really fun conversation. As I said at the top of the show, she's in the process right now of hiring a new executive assistant. She loves this book. She knows it cover to cover. We thought she had a great perspective. Here is my conversation with Suzanne Sims. Well, folks, this is a special treat because having just talked with Jan Jones about, her book, The CEO's Secret We Wanted to have one of our VPs in Executive Vice President Suzanne Sims in studio here because before I did the interview with Jan, I heard from our amazing team

that Suzanne loves the book and uses it and this is what's really cool. Yay! First time in our new studio. Thank you. All right. So you've been on the podcast before. I believe, guys, I'm looking behind the glass here. I believe the first time Suzanne was on, we had lunch together.

Yes. And we ate in front of these, well, in front of their ears, if you will. Yes, we did. And thankfully, I did not smack my food. My wife and mother were very proud. You kind of did. So she's back, and I set it up with the why. But folks have just heard my conversation with Jan.

And why does this book, why did it stand out? I mean, there's a lot of great resources on what are you looking for, how do you look for? But for somebody who relies so heavily on an executive assistant, what do you love about what Jan writes. I need to give you some context around why this is exciting to me because I've been in my role for about six years and I've got a lot of responsibility and I hired my current executive assistant right about six years ago and we just kind of got in a rhythm and she learned what was important to me and what my priorities were and we learned how to communicate and we just got in this rhythm and we never really broke up that rhythm. And it's worked. My calendar. My calendar. My calendar

under stays very well taken care of. My needs are well taken care of. She and I have a great relationship. She's really, really sharp. But it came time for her to move to a new opportunity in the organization, which is a great move for her. And I just said, you know what? A, I've got to replace her. But B, it is time for me to challenge myself as an executive because our company's growing really fast. And as executives, if we do not challenge ourselves, the company will pass us by. And I'm going to blink and look up. We'll have 1,000 team members, 1500 team members, and I don't know what my responsibility will look like, but we love to change things up around here. That's part of the fun of working here in a leadership role. And I decided I wanted a partner to come

in as more of a business partner with me and still handling my calendar and getting me coffee and all those glorious things. But send in meetings with me and learn the context around the businesses that I'm leading, the people that I'm leading. and the different nuances and really help me and guide me to some degree and challenge me. If I bring in someone who has a lot of responsibility leading teams, hiring and firing, making business decisions, and so that could be invaluable for me because it's a new perspective. And there's something really interesting about the role of an executive assistant. They sit with the team and they have their ear to the ground.

and the folks that report up to me will just say things to them, share information with them. They would not with me. They have the unique perspective of understanding things going on within the team that the executive would never have because of just who they are and where they sit and the circles they run in. And so if I don't tap into that, I'm crazy. I'm such a relational leader. It's crucial to me that I know what's going on with the people I lead. this person could be a wealth of information and wisdom when it comes to that. And so I want to do a better job of tapping into that than I have in the past.

What you're really describing sounds like to me is really an extension of you. It's just, you know, and it's really going to be a symbiotic relationship. That's what you're looking forward to. You've had it on some level, but you want to ramp that up. Yeah, and this is going to be a real challenge for me because I'm, most people don't believe this, but I'm actually more of an introvert. And so I'm not the one who's real actively communicating with my assistant and sharing all kinds of information. When I have time away from meetings, I have a tendency to go in my office and shut the door and take a breather or get some work done.

I'm going to have to come out of my comfort zone and really pull this person into my world and really communicate a lot more fluidly and a lot more frequently to bounce things off of them and to let them share the experience of leading, some of this stuff with me, but as my assistant. Yeah. To that end, we didn't talk about this with Jan, and I'm really excited to bring this up with you, because I know it's a big deal with you. Dave Ramsey models this, and I know it's a big, big deal to you. So building trust. So conceptually, I'm getting what you're saying. And I think a lot of leaders listening are going, okay, that's what I need to be doing that as well. But how do you build the trust? How are you going to develop that trust so that she's not just an extension to the rest of us, if you will, but really an extension of you so that you go, I not only trust what she says

and what she thinks, I trust how she's representing me as an extension. That's going to take some time, yes or no? It will take some time. I tend to trust people quicker than most people do, but I actually wrote down a list of words that are very important to me as my personal brand. Like when I want people to think of me, there are a list of words I want them to think of. It's fabulous one of them? Yes, it's the number one. I thought so. Go ahead. And so this person has to be able to represent me in that way. Right.

And so I think what I'm going to have to do, Ken, is I'm going to have to really observe her in action in meetings with people that are important to me that work with me and in her communication. And, you know, listen to her on the phone when she's representing me to outside vendors or what have you. And I think that's the way we'll build trust. Yeah, really interesting. So I want people to hear from you. how did you use this book? Because again, they've heard Jan kind of give an overview. I really want folks to go dive into it because I know you endorse it.

I'm not so much looking for an endorsement here as much as for you to say, how do you and maybe some of your fellow or other executives in our building use this? This book is amazing because it's so applicable. It literally has woven throughout it interview questions. Like, hey, when we're talking about this topic, here's a good interview question. So I literally built an entire document where I listed out the interview questions that were important to me and added to them. I made another document that as I was reading the book, I would stop and I would jot down, wait, that's something I've never done with an assistant before that I need to start doing. And that's going to be important.

So I started making a list. So I've got a really long list at this point that's probably going to overwhelm the person when she starts. But it gives us a good starting point and it gives us a good foundation to work on of just here's what's important. to me. And that's what they want to know. A good executive assistant really just wants to know what's important to you because they want to deliver on that. They want to even overdeliver. Okay. So I want to ask you how you handle weaknesses. Now, I'm a big strengths proponent, meaning, hey, you need to know your weaknesses and get them out there. Tell everybody, make jokes out of them so that everybody knows that you're aware and they're aware and then expectations and then you kind of train people that way.

That's been my approach, okay, personally. But literally, we're talking about your right arm. Okay. And there's going to be some weaknesses. I'm sure you talked about them on some level initially. How do you, as a leader of an executive assistant, how do you help them mitigate, communicate around weaknesses? I yell at them. Kick them out of my office. Right. That's not true. She's joking. No, I don't. You know what I mean? Like, I know you focus on strengths as well. However, we've got to be, you're a big fan of self-awareness.

Yes. I have a very big fan of self-awareness. Yeah. It goes a long way to cover a multitude of sense. That's right. I think what I haven't always done well in the past, I've had a tendency of overlooking weaknesses. You know, like if someone's really strong in their job, I'll focus on that, like you said, and just kind of brush past the weaknesses. What I'm going to have to challenge myself to do is address them in real time. So you have a meeting and a weakness presents itself and it's there.

The minute that meeting's over, you pull that person aside and you say, listen, this happened. Here's how I view that. And here's a way you and I are going to work on this together because it's not cool. You know, it's not acceptable. And those are the kind of conversations no one wants to have. But if you have a really good executive assistant, they are hungry for those conversations because they want to improve themselves. And so it's on you to do that.

Yeah, good stuff. All right, folks, there it is. The CEO's Secret Weapon is the book, How Great Leaders and Their Assistance, maximize productivity and effectiveness. She is Suzanne Sims, our executive vice. president of all things business to consumer one of the most influential ladies in talk radio that's not my description that was an award she got thanks for hanging out with it's always good to have your next time guys we need to have food in the studio so we will just combine our past experiences

are you good with that i'm totally good with that little wine and cheese wine and cheese never heard anybody maybe some tea some hot tea in the afternoon you know because i i prefer the english rituals but fun to have you with us appreciate you very much thanks kin All right, one big item that you will deal with. And if you master this, this idea of allowing your assistant to handle things that you don't need to be handling. This is just Delegation 101. And we want to help you on this item. This is a very important topic.

And as I said, if you master it, it's a game changer. The Entree Leadership Team has a tool for you this episode, the Entree Leaders' Guide to Delegation. This is the foundation for every leader getting. to maximization in every aspect of your work. So the Entree Leaders Guide to Delegation includes the 10 basics of delegation. We have a chart in there called the Entree Leader Time Tracker. This is taking your work week and it lays it out in 30 minute increments. This is really, really fun.

You're going to have different codes here, right? So with every activity, you're going to say I, if it's important, L for less important, T, if it's a time waster, H for hate it. So think about this tracker tool with an executive assistant. This could literally revolutionize how you use your more than valuable time. So we've got that for you. So all you've got to do is text the word delegate to 33444. That's delegate.

Text that word to 33444. Oh, this is great fun. Joining me in the Entry Leadership Studio right now, two amazing executive assistants on our Ramsey Solutions team. They are Lundy Newton and Mia Higgins. specifically serving some EVPs operating board members. So a lot going on in your world and their world every day. You're helping them lead.

And so we thought this would be big fun to get the perspective of people who have been hired here to play this role, who are now helping others get hired in your role, because I know there's like a little council. I see you all all the time in that fourth floor conference room. So let's start there. I see it all the time. It's a bunch of executive assistants. I don't know what's going on in there.

But what's going on in there? We get together because we're working on different processes and partnering with human resources and IT and operations internally just to make things better. Yeah. So I bring that up because it's very intentional. I mean, it's not just a, you're not on this little island with your leader. There's a great culture of community here on this. So our audience has heard from Suzanne Sims, who was hired and she spoke to her perspective on the importance of the CEO's secret weapon that Jan Jones also. spoke about on this episode. But I want to start with, Lindi, the process of when you are looking

and searching for that CEO's secret weapon, that executive assistant. I want you to talk about fit and function, because many times leaders, I think, make a mistake, correct me if I'm wrong, of just focusing on the function. What are the skills needed? Can they fulfill this role? And fit is huge. I want you to speak to. those two things? Sure. So often when we get together with HR with one of the recruiters to talk about who are we looking for, what we first might say is, you know, we're not looking for someone who only has administrative experience. There are a lot of other people out there who have the same skill set that can be applied in this role. So we're looking at people who are teachers,

paralegals, project managers, event planners. These folks make great assistance because when you look at their work style, you're seeing that they can manage deep. that they can get stuff done and that they know how to manage their time. These are qualities that really matter in an assistant. But on top of that, when it comes to fit, you're looking at personality fit. Do you as a leader enjoy being around this person? If you don't, they're not your fit. And another great thing is to look at the disc assessment. We use that internally just to see and understand how each other works, but you can use that as a guide when you're interviewing assistant

or even when you've got them as your team member to talk about their work style. And then finally, we talk about personal brand a lot. Personal brand is your attitude, how you communicate, how you interact with others, and how you carry yourselves. This really matters when it comes to a leader in an assistant dynamic in that partnership because, as Jan noted,

people are going to judge you, the leader, based on how your assistant carries themselves. And so if you want to have that healthy partnership. Yeah, that's so true. And I want to follow up on what Lindy said because it's not just the outward brand of the leader that you are projecting. But then there's this in the trenches. You know, you're working with this person so closely. You're around them all the time.

I mean, literally feet away from each other, right? In most situations. You could have the right, you could have all the right things. You could have the talent, you could have the personality. But then it could be something just the way you talk could drive the person crazy. Let's just be really honest with that. I mean, there's nothing like that that is too trivial. If it is in any way off-putting or obnoxious, it's not most likely going to get better.

Is that right? Absolutely. I think Wendy sort of hit on that a little bit too, where you actually have to like this person. Yeah. And as long as you don't rush the interview process and you are really taking time to be with that person, you're not too eager to go ahead and hire an assistant just because you need that help. You get to, if you spend that time in that interview process, you get to, you know, if you can't have communication in that, if you're not having good communication in that small window,

that's a good representative of what it's going to be like, you know, on the day to day. Because like you said, you're spending so much time with this person. Do you like them? Does your communication style match? Because, let's stay here for a moment. There's going to be moments where, over time, we'll get to. to some of this relationship stuff in a little bit. But I want to focus on this specific example. There's got to be times where times are tense. Could be external stuff going on in the leader's

life, could be external stuff going on in your life, could be accommodation of whatever, where it's just not always going to be so sweet and so perfect. Now, I don't see that with you too, knowing you the way I do. But I want you to speak to that. There's got to be times where it's tense and having a good relationship where you genuinely like each other. Boy, that has to cover a lot. a little faux pos and things like that. Is that fair? Sure. I know when Jen, she's a high D personality, so she's driving things. If I am someone who is also a high D personality, we're going to conflict in those moments. So she needs someone who can kind of step back and be a filter with her, but then help her act, help her get stuff done.

Yeah, I love that. All right, so let's move on. So we talked about fit and function, but let's talk about again from your perspective. To leaders listening in right now, how do they need to assess their needs? As they're thinking about, okay, I've got to get this person on board, what are the things that they should be thinking about when they start to make the list of this is what I need, what I'm looking for? Sure. One of those first things is delegating, offloading those small tasks that are really interrupting your own workflow.

There are smaller details that assistants can easily do. So if you can offload those and trust your assistant with those details, you then increase your productivity, you increase your efficiency, you create open space to think and focus about the priorities, those areas where you really do need to be pouring into. Yeah, I think it's also important for them to stop if they know they're going into the idea of hiring an assistant is to stop and kind of take an audit of what those things are that are really bogging them down, what kind of things that they could potentially offload, because if they go into the interview process and they don't really know what it is that they need, it's kind of hard to look for, it's kind of hard

to identify what you need in an assistant if you don't know what you plan to offload. I think they could really benefit from even looking to another leader in the company that has an assistant and seems to be utilizing them well and see, you know, how they're interacting and even meet with them and say, how do you use an assistant? Because for some leaders, especially leaders, like Blake, my leader, he had never had an assistant before me. He had worked 20 years here without ever having an assistant. And I mean, I remember him saying, I didn't even know what I was missing. I didn't know what I would give you. When you first started, I thought, oh my goodness, I'm not going to be able to keep her busy. Right. So, yeah, he really needed some time to decide, like, what,

you know, what kind of things can I hand off that, you know, are bogging me down and keeping me from doing what I should be doing that would, you know, make the most impact. Speaking of impact, I think one of the blind spots that leaders have in making that list of things they need and thinking through what's that job description look like. It's something that you wrote down, and I want you to share me because this is really great. And I've seen you do this with the team that Blake leads. Those folks serve me so very much. And I stand on their shoulders on a daily basis through the broadcast side of things.

And that's being eyes and ears. This is a very, very unique but wildly important role that if you just focus on function, function, as opposed to just, hey, wait a second. I've got somebody that can take the pulse for me. They can be a virtual human thermometer because you can walk amongst the team and interact with the team differently. Lindy, I'm sure you've experienced that as well. And you're a great sounding board for Jen. I want you both to just sound off just from your own personal experience on the role of the eyes and ears.

I can say, I know for Blake, his team is so important to him. He is really relational. But our leaders are just going nonstop. I mean, they're busy. And so it's, you know, we are this incredible resource to them. where we kind of have a pulse on their team, on any kind of trends, anything going either negative or positive. I mean, he depends on me to say, hey, you know, this really big thing just happened in a team member's life. We need to acknowledge this.

And those are things that he wants to be doing, but he is just going so fast that he can't do them all the time. All right. Final thing I want you both to speak to is, okay, you've made the right decisions in hiring. You've listed out the job description well. You've got all that going. and everything seems to be on the track. However, if you don't maximize the relationship, it'll never get to this idea of the secret weapon.

When I think CEO's secret weapon, I think, well, this is a relationship that has gone beyond the stuff we've talked about already. It is now like this well-oiled machine. I'm just curious, what are the elements? What are the things that have to happen for this relationship to just completely maximize? This is where you're going to be building trust. Trust is so important.

You want to hire someone who's trustworthy, someone who is discerning, but it's in those moments when you're spending time together that you build trust. You don't have it there necessarily on day one. It happens over time. So earlier I talked about delegating and offloading those smaller things that you don't need to be managing and delegating those tasks and seeing that your assistant can competently get the stuff done and move on to whatever's next. You're building trust.

You're getting ready to hand off. even more to them and seeing their potential. I would say trust is really key. And I actually asked Blake this when we were prepping for this. I said, how did we build trust? And, you know, because like I said, he hadn't had an assistant for 20 years. And so handing things off to him didn't come naturally. It was actually really challenging for him.

And he said, you know, it reminded him of Dave's rope analogy where he talks about, like, you give a little bit and see how they do with that before you give more. And, you know, he said little by little, as I saw how. you communicated, and I saw how you handled situations. Like, that's what built the trust for me. And then this idea of building trust. I mean, this speaks to intentionality. I want to ask you a question about that.

These are very, very busy people. You both are very, very busy. And if you're not careful, you're almost ships in the night. And that's not going to maximize the relationship. So speak to accessibility and allow you to maximize this symbiotic relationship. I feel really passionate about this particular. question and topic because I have seen, I think we talked about it earlier, about investment, and, you know, Jan talks about it in the book, like, this is a valuable resource. An assistant

to an executive is an valuable resource. If you're not investing in that relationship, and, you know, there's different ways to do that, like, you know, the way that you all do, it may not be the way Blake and I do that. But if you're not investing in that relationship, it's really hard to build trust. One of the ways that we do it is, Blake will give me high-level updates, you know, on things that have happened throughout the week. He thinks that he thinks that I need to know that will help me in my communication and give me more context as I'm working through projects. Wow, good stuff. A lot here. I guess you both fully endorse the CEO's Secret Weapon. Is that safe to say? Fun stuff. This has been a really, really fun episode,

giving you some unique perspectives. Lindy Newton, Mia Higgins, thank you so much. Appreciate you both for spending time with us. I mean, do you have to race out of here, right? Your leaders probably go, where are they? They're not at their desk. What am I going to do? Is that happening right now? There is a part that's wondering, do they need us? Right. Like, what's happening right now? Oh, fun stuff. Thanks for being with us. Thank you, Count. Hey, our friends at InfusionSoft have a free resource for you. The 2018 Small Business Marketing Trends report, this is really popular. You folks have been jumping on this, so excited to keep bringing this to you if you're new to our show. Infusionsoft brings you something free. Every

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We don't want you to be that. We want you to be on purpose. Go to infusionsoft.com slash 2018 report. That's infusionsoft.com slash 2018 report to download the Small Business Marketing Trends Report. Well, I bring you this very important announcement with mixed emotions. Eric the producer has been promoted. And so I'm very excited for him. I'm very proud of him, but I'm a little sad because this guy has been my right, left arm.

I've stood on his shoulders for nearly three years. And the guy is moving up into a role that he has not only earned, but he's really created. And I think that is something for leaders. You want to be able to say that about people that you've worked with when you celebrate it. I think it's great when somebody earns it. But I think it's really special when they create the role that they've earned. I mean, that is the idea of reproducing leadership. So we have multiple Ramsey Solutions podcast.

Obviously, the Dave Ramsey Show exists in podcast form, Entree Leadership. Then you've got Chris Hogan's retire inspired. You got Christy Wright's Business Boutique, Chris Brown's Life, Money Hope. The Ken Coleman Show has a podcast as well. So bottom line is when you've got all these podcasts, there are a lot of moving parts. You have producers of each of those entities. And so Eric is working with all those producers. The guy understands the ends and outs of podcasting, what works, what doesn't work.

And so he's moved into this role, the director of Ramsey Solutions podcast. And by the way, this is the perfect time for me to say, If you haven't subscribed to the Ken Coleman show, go ahead and do yourself a favor. You listen to Entree leadership, so you trust me. So this is a just unashamed, unabashed promo. Okay? And Eric, the producer is behind the glass laughing right now and shaking his head because he agrees with me. So there you go.

Go ahead and do that. Really, really excited for him. This guy is amazing. His commitment to quality is second to nudge. So if you've ever met Eric the producer or you've communicated with him on social media or via email, shooting him a note, give him some love. Everybody appreciates that. And so what that means is, so I've got mixed emotions. So what that means is if Eric is moving up, who's going to take Eric's role?

And you've heard me thank, Will the Engineer for what? How long? How long? A year? A year. And so Will the Engineer is now moving into the coveted, will the producer role? So now, when I wrap up, I'm going to have to really be on my P's and Q's to properly identify Will the producer. So excited for both of these guys, both great young men.

If you ever come to an entree leadership event and you have a chance to meet these guys, do that because they're great people. So there it is. There is the mixed emotions. Very excited. Very proud of you. Eric, no longer the producer. There you go. Well, I guess I call you Eric the director.

Eric the director of Ramsey Solutions Podcasts, good stuff. Appreciate you, buddy. Really, really proud of you. Well, folks, that's going to do it on behalf of producer Will Rutter and our engineer, Jim Bab, and the entire Entree leadership team. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon. Hey, folks, I want to make you aware that we have other great podcasts from Ramsey Solutions.

Here's a sample of the Dave Ramsey Show. If you're looking for boring financial talk, you're in the wrong place. This is not your mother's 401k meeting. This is life on the radio. And it's just downright entertaining. That's why there's about 14 million of you out there today. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. We're glad you're there.

To hear full episodes, just search Dave Ramsey in iTunes or go to Dave Ramsey.com.