EntreLeadership - Instantly Get 20 Hours Back in Your Week

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Hiring an assistant isn’t just about getting busywork off your plate.  In this episode, head coach John Felkins sits down with Mia Higgins, Ramsey Solutions’ director of assistant operations, to unpack the biggest misconceptions about assistants and how the right person can become a trusted partner who helps you focus on the work only you can do.   Next Steps: ·      😅 Still the chief everything officer in your business? Learn how to delegate with our Quick Read from Dave Ramsey. ·      🎥 Watch our video The First 3 Hires You Should Make in Business. ·      🎯 Not sure what to do next in your business? Let’s figure it out together. Book a free 30-minute consult call with the EntreLeadership® Team. ·      📞 Have a question for the show? Call 844-944-1070 or send us a message. ·      📚 Order Dave’s most recent EntreLeadership book, Build a Business You Love. ·      📧 Get EntreLeadership’s free weekly newsletter: expert advice and practical tips from the same playbook we used to build Ramsey Solutions into a $300 million company. ·      🌎 Attend our world-class leadership conference, EntreLeadership Summit. ·      📝 Stop guessing. Get a plan built for your business and someone who holds you to it. Find out which coaching option is right for you. ·      📈 Bad hires. Strategies that never get off the ground. 60-hour workweeks. Sleepless nights. EntreLeadership Master Series is where you trade all that for the exact systems our Executive Team used to scale Ramsey Solutions to $300 million. Don’t wait until seats are sold out.   Connect With Our Sponsors: ·      Go to BELAY Solutions or text ENTRE to 55123 for their free resource. ·       See if Christian Healthcare Ministries Groups are the right fit for your organization. ·      Visit NetSuite today to learn more.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if I told you there was one hire that could give you 10, 15, maybe even 20 hours of your week back? Would you make that higher? A lot of business owners spend their days answering emails, scheduling meetings, chasing paperwork, booking travel, and then wonder why they never seem to get ahead. But if you want to grow your business, you've got to get those tasks off your plate so you can focus on the work only you can do. And that's exactly where an assistant comes in. So today, Entree Leadership's head coach John Falcons is sitting down with Mia Higgins, our director of assistant operations, to talk about what an assistant really does, how they help you get your time back and how to hire the right one. Right now, you might be thinking, what would I even use an assistant for?

But by the end of this episode, you'll be asking how did I ever run my business without one? Well, let's get to it. Thanks, Dave. And Mia, thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. Absolutely. You lead all of RSA.

Ramsey's Solutions Assistance. Yes. You are the possessor of all of the knowledge about how to get the most out of the relationship between a leader and an assistant. I want to just jump right in and kind of ask a hard question. Okay. What do people get wrong about that? What do they get wrong about working with an assistant?

Oh, man. So I think that there is still the perspective of the old-time secretary and just a task taker or just an executor. And I think that when we think about it in that way and have that mindset, we really miss the true value that's in the role. This role has evolved so much. I mean, even since I have been here at Ramsey

and since I was... How long have you been here? 13 years next week. And I started as an assistant at Ramsey and had eight great years in it and now obviously getting to lead the team. I've seen the role evolve so much, especially as of late, even with AI, right?

Right. So I think if you continue to come into the role with that mindset of just a task taker, just an executor, that old secretary type picture in your mind, like you're really missing the true value that's in the role. What's the true value? What do you want people to be thinking about when they work with an assistant? Yeah, I think I would reform the picture as like a strategic partner. That's a great way that I like to think about the role. Like somebody who really can get in the work with you, see the business problems, connect the dots, and be helping you move the work forward, right? Maybe as a trusted

extension of you. Like, you know, you're one person as a business leader. You know this falcons. Like, you're one person. It's like you can't be everywhere at once. So think about the idea of having somebody that is a trusted extension of you, that you can trust to communicate on your behalf and to represent you in such a great, mature way. And maybe even a force multiplier. Extend your impact, right? Across all the things that you're doing, then you're multiplying your impact. You know, what I have had to learn in that is I have to slow down. and give my assistant, Kristen, who you know very well. She's great. She's so great.

She is great. I have to take the time to give her the context. Yes. To be able to do that because if I as the leader don't give her the context, she can't really act in that role. Right. This is the thing that I think leaders miss the most. They want an assistant to think like them,

to communicate like them, to be an extension of them. But they don't invite them in. They don't teach them how they communicate or they don't bring them even into the business, right? Like if you separate them as something completely different from you, then they don't know how to operate like you and they don't know how to go out in front of you. They can't help solve what they can't see. Say that again. They can't solve what they can't see. What they can't see.

That's so good. That's so good to keep in mind. So let's go to the point where a leader hires an assistant. They've been doing everything themselves and covering all those bases. What starts to change? Or maybe even what would you advise them to start to tackle first as they bring? bring an assistant on? First, I want to say that a great assistant, a great assistant, they're going to have eyes

and ears. They're going to be able to observe some of those things as they see what the leader is working on and maybe wasting some time on that they don't need to be doing. So they're going to be able to observe those things and pull some of those things from the leader's plate. So first, hire a great assistant who sees the things. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about the how to hire the great assistant, but I just immediately had this

thought. they're going to take things off the leader's plate. In your experience of doing that, is that always easy? Is the leader always immediately like, here, take all this stuff? No, because I think a key component to that is trust, right? And trust starts small. When we hire an assistant, even if you hire somebody and you see all of their qualities in them, that doesn't mean you're going to or even should fully trust them from day one.

I think it's like small trust just in the beginning. Like, hey, here's some things and make sure that they are reliable, that they follow through, that they actually do the things that they say they're going to do. And that's like building trust in a small way. And then that can expand so much bigger. That kind of reminds me of Dave's quick read on delegation. Yes. You start with little things, right, and build that trust.

And then over time, really, they do become that thought partner. That's right. What should the leader be looking for to lengthen that rope and give more stuff to do? Yeah, I think really look a lot for how they make decisions, right? What is their judgment like? And again, you can start in small ways. You don't have to let that rope up all the way. But really look at how are they communicating?

That's a huge piece, right? How are they communicating? How much do you trust their communication? How much do you trust their discretion and their maturity and things? And then really giving them small moments to say like, hey, what is the decision that they made? Maybe even without a ton of context. You know, I know we talked about context. That is really important.

Right. But you're not always going to have that. No. Yeah. And a great assistant can really operate in some levels of ambival. Yeah, I think everybody should read Dave's quick read on delegation, all the leaders watching this. So we'll put a link to that down in the description. But when you're thinking about that transition from doer to strategic partner or thinker,

what's a little bit of advice that you have both for the leader and I know probably some assistants are going to be watching this, or leaders are going to watch this and have a conversation with their assistant. So if I may, I'm thinking, what's me as advice to the assistant in this relationship? in this relationship also. Yeah, I would say huge piece to build that trust, do what you say you're going to do. Because I think, like, even in small ways, if we drop those small balls in the beginning,

that really does break the trust. You know, not that it can't be rebuilt, it totally can be rebuilt. It's going to slow things down. But it's going to slow things down. So I say, like, hey, don't even try to take it all on as an assistant in the beginning. Just really do what you say you're going to do, right?

And be really trustworthy in the small ways, and you will gain more trust in bigger ways. And then I would say be super observant as an assistant, right? And don't be afraid to talk with the leader and say, hey, I noticed you doing these things. How can I maybe pull some of that stuff off your plate? Or let me show you how I can pull that stuff off your plate. So I think being observant and then being passionate

and interested in the leader's business. I think we miss that sometimes, right? It's like, hey, this is what the leader is invested in. Why don't you be passionate about what that is? Because I think that you're going to really gain their respect and they're going to feel like you're really on their team. Do you think sometimes assistants are hesitant? to have those conversations with the leader and why so?

Yeah, I think they are. I think there's a level of respect for a leader that they don't want to overstep. A lot of times what I'll see is they don't want to, quote, waste their time. They see themselves as more of an inconvenience, rather than seeing themselves as that strategic thought partner that's really going to bring value to this executive.

I'm curious. You said you were an assistant for eight years and then now you're leading the entire assistant team. How many assistants is that? We have approximately 40 assistants. across Ramsey. So you lead a team of 40 people, right? Talk a little bit more about the things that you see assistants get hesitant about. You have to have seen a lot of patterns. You know, we talk about context for a second, right? And sometimes that really doesn't come naturally for our leaders

to bring the assistant in. It doesn't for me. And let me just say for the leaders out there, it's not because of a lack of trust. I just have to slow down enough to take the time to give the context. That's right. And see what you said is not a lack of trust. But they don't know. know that. Right. So it can communicate. She can't read my mind. What? That's crazy. I'm going to notes on this. So it can communicate that, right? If they are not willing to go in and have those hard conversations, they can get stuck with a belief that they aren't trusted or maybe they, you guys just don't see them that way and then they get stuck there. They can't overcome it. So really, you know, getting past those things for the assistance is really hard and actually asking to be

to be pulled into the context. And finding that. natural ways to do that. You know, like oftentimes our assistants are with leaders. They're in meetings and they can see that just as a moment to take notes, right? For example, where it's like, no, no, no, no. That is an opportunity that you are invited in and you're more than just someone to take notes. You really are there to gain context as well. So I think, again, what I've seen our assistant team struggle with is if a leader doesn't naturally know how to partner with them, is overcoming that and not taking it personally. Now, you might not be ready for a full. full-time assistant, but as a business owner, it's easy to get buried in the day-to-day junk.

Stuff like answering emails or scheduling meetings, taking every single customer call, and even ordering office supplies. You spend so much time working in your business, you never have time to work on your business. If that's where you're at, you need to talk to my friends at Belay. Belay helps overloaded leaders carve out time by providing highly vetted executive assistants to handle all of those time-sucking tasks. That means you can spend more time focusing on the things only you can do, leading your team, developing strategy, or growing your business, and even be able to turn off and have a family life again.

I've gotten to know the folks at Belay over the years. They understand leadership, they understand growth, and what it takes to help business owners achieve more. I trust them, and you can too. So don't keep wasting your valuable time on stuff that doesn't deserve it. Text Entree to 55123 to schedule a free consultation with Belay. That's ENTRE to the number 55123. You and I have actually had this conversation or a conversation like this before inside our coaching program.

Remember we had the interview with Blake way back in the day and that is part of our coaching program. But you said it was a big unlock when you started to work with Blake. You started to see that his life before and after his workday were woven in some, you know, and you started to help with that too. Would you mind talking a little bit about like how you viewed that and why getting a broader view was helpful? Yeah. I mean, I think honestly not so much like that I wasn't so much supporting him personally, but the bigger picture is that it's all one picture, right?

So I think like the way I would look at that is less about what I was doing for him personally. And more of like as a whole person, getting to know him really well and getting to know like his, his family and how that impacted his energy levels here and how he showed up here. So I think that's the bigger picture of what you're looking for there is like how do I know this leader as a whole, understand their behaviors, their decision making, their communication. You know, Blake and I worked together for about six years. And there was moments where I would just like look at him and I would know he's having a hard day, you know, or I would look at him and, you know, or I would look at him. you know, know that there's something we need to talk about. So I think that's really the key is like how well you know your leader. And I think for the leader, too, like investing in that with their assistants,

getting to know their assistants, getting to know what their specific gifts are and talents are and what they bring to the table. And your role of leading a lot of assistants, what do you look for around performance? Oh, this is good. Like, how do you measure an assistant doing well? Okay, so this is so interesting. When I'm doing skills interviews, for instance, for assistants, I think people would be surprised to know

I maybe spend 10% of the time on hard skills. Like, whether or not somebody can open up Outlook and put the right thing on the calendar or take notes, like that's not the thing that makes a great assistant. That's really just permission to play, right? To be able to do those things. I'm looking for soft skills, right?

So you're looking for somebody who has high emotional intelligence. What do you mean by that? They can read a room. They can read a room, right? And even like the unspoken sometimes. You know, one of the ways I've seen our executives really leverage their assistance.

Again, they're in a room, they're having a meeting, and great assistants can really pick up on the tone of the room, right? So they're picking up on maybe the unspoken as well, and the vibe. And next, next from there, is that they have the confidence to go talk to their executives and share what they see, right?

So that's a huge part. It's like they can read a room, they understand how they're being experienced, that's a huge piece, right? So I think like that EQ is really, really big. And then again, more soft skills, communication. At some point, a great way to leverage an assistant is communication as an extension of you. Right. So understanding that they really have great communication skills, that they

are clear, they're concise, that they're active listeners. Active listeners. That's like the part people forget about communication. How well do you listen? Right. You know, so again, honing in on those soft skills, that's going to get you the difference between a good and a great assistant. How do you do that in an interview process? You've never met this person and you're trying to pick up on everything you just said. How do you do that? Well, one thing I would say is we do a really good job here at Ramsey. It's not a one time. Like, you can't have one conversation with somebody and really get to know them. So I would say, as you continue to have conversations throughout the interview process, you're going to pick up on more of that. But I would say specifically get some scenario questions in there.

Can you tell us what one of those scenarios might be? Well, I might actually give somebody a scenario that's like, hey, I've known this type of scenario to take place here. Like, let's say you are to speak to a leader who maybe isn't inviting you in so much, right? They're not inviting you in, you're not feeling like a trusted partner. What are you going to do with that? Yeah. What are you going to do with that? So I think really taking things that you know that they'll encounter in the day to day that are realistic and putting that in front of them and asking them to walk through

how they think through that and how they would communicate to a leader. If you had to boil that all down to one word, one character trait that you look for for in assistance that you hire for Ramsey's solutions. What are you looking for? You know, I think of the word confidence a lot, and I think for me that's a really, that's a heavy word for me, because what I've seen over the year sometimes is confidence that is false, like confidence that is manufactured. Okay. And that's the worst. Yeah. I don't want that. Yeah. You know, I want somebody, I always combine two words together, and that's humble confidence. Okay.

Right. A deep rooted humble confidence. Somebody who really, really knows who they are and they know their worth. They're not looking for that in the work, right? Or an affirmation from other people. So it's like when you see somebody who shows up with like, hey, I definitely see that they have tons of confidence, but there's humility in that. I'm still going to be able to coach them. That is the person I'm looking for. That just sounds like a well-grounded, mature person. Yes. Yes. And again, it's like I can almost teach anybody how to work an outlook. Talk a little bit about, let's say a person's been with the company, with the leader for a year, two years. How are you assessing how well it's going from the performance perspective?

Honestly, I mean, this has been a journey because when I started in this role six years ago, we had no ways to assess our assistant team at all. And you know, you've been in the journey with me, Falcons. I think what we've learned, there are some key skills and we definitely want to assess those key skills. But I think what we've learned is to make that much more conversational as opposed to like going down a checklist, you know, and scoring people. Like, hey, we really want to make a conversation about it. And then the other piece that I've learned is I want them bought into that. So like when I'm assessing my assistant team.

To what part of it? To the growth goals. To the growth goals that you come up with. Yeah. And they're leader that they're supporting. Like that is one picture that we all need to be bought into if we're going to actually assess and see growth, right? So the way that we assess our assistant team now, we do have some skills that we want to talk about and how those are being applied in the day-to-day work. Right. And to be clear, I'm asking you this because I think your answer will arm leaders watching this.

Okay, this is how I should assess my assistant. So it is super helpful. Defining what great looks like I think is going to be huge. Like start with for me as a leader, what is it that I need and what does great look like and working backwards from there and saying where do they fall within that? what are gaps? Sometimes we'll look at an assistant and we'll just say like, hey, if they want to go from here to there, let's very clearly define those gaps. And let's just talk about them openly, right? So they are bought in and they understand what would have to be true to get to where we were trying to go. Right. What are some dimensions, let's say the top two or three dimensions that you're looking for in a performance review that you think it would be good for a leader watching this

to include in what they look for? Yeah, I think that it would be a miss to not talk about how to in the partnership, right? Like, that's a great picture to talk about that you guys can both decide together. What more would you want out of this working relationship? And do that together because then you're on the same page and trying to get there together and you're both bought into it. So definitely a huge partnership piece of it. And then I would say, like, I personally think that the skills are important to assess and say, again, don't assess them separate, though. Like, assess them as a part of a bigger picture. This is where we want to get to. What has to be true for us to get there. Yeah. Mia, why do you have such a heart for this? Because every time I talk to you about it, I can tell you're just like, it's something that you're passionate about. What is that? Yeah, I do. Actually, there's a part of me that, like, even misses, like, getting to have that working relationship with an executive. And I think that's what it is. It's the partnership. It's the relationship that comes with that partnership and getting to see somebody else succeed. And so even that's a part as I'm looking for a great assistant, like you just see them light up when they talk about getting behind an executive.

getting to see them succeed, getting to take chaos and turn it into something that's not chaos, right? I need that. Not to say your chaos or anything, Falcons. I'm saying that. But you see somebody who really has a passion for this type of work light up when they talk about working with that person day in and day out and seeing somebody else succeed. Because that's not every role, right? A lot of roles, like it's focused on a product or it's focused on an initiative, but this is focused on other people.

So that heart of service and that heart to see somebody else succeed and not always needing the credit behind it too, right? Like, of course we want to all feel like we're doing something that is valuable. But oftentimes these are not people who want to be thrown on stage and have a spotlight. Like to them, when they see you succeed, they find a lot of fulfillment in that. So I think I miss that probably the most is just getting to work so closely with somebody and see them succeed and know I just had a small part of that. Well, I know it's true that folks in that role and the role that you're in aren't always the ones that want to be on stage or be on camera. Yes. Which is why I'm especially thankful for you having joined us today.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. A great assistant is one of the best ways to get your time back so you can stop working in your business and start spending more time working on your business. But if you really want to build a business that grows without everything depending on you, there are two hundred. hires you need to make. So go watch this next video to find out what those are and why the order you hire them in makes all the difference. We'll also leave a link in the description. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, share, and subscribe for more real world

leadership content. I'm your host Dave Ramsey and this is Entree Leadership.