Start With A Win - Dynamic Duos: Empowered Executives and Aligned Assistants with Adam Hergenrother and Hallie Warner

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Despite the challenges for entrepreneurs created by the pandemic, many businesses have experienced explosive growth in the past few years. When organizations rapidly expand, it can be easy for leaders and team members to lose cohesive vision. Successful leaders recognize and utilize their own strengths and empower team members to do the same. Another important role for an executive is making meaningful decisions every day that push the company toward clearly communicated goals. Sometimes that means onboarding an executive assistant or chief of staff to share the responsibilities of leadership. An executive assistant maximizes efficiencies by allowing everyone to work within their strengths, including the founder. In this way, the force multiplier aids the executive in offering descriptive and prescriptive points of action so that everyone is operating at maximum potential. One of the best parts about adding an executive assistant to the leadership team is that it creates accountability to prevent burnout. Adam and Hallie work diligently to be proactive against corporate burnout by building mindfulness and wellness into their daily routine. Leading by example, they encourage team leaders to create a schedule that includes regular check-ins and one-on-one time so that they have a pulse on the community. Another way they prevent burnout is through intentional hiring and onboarding processes. As thriving business leaders, their goal is to find team members who are aligned with the organization’s vision. By working in tandem, they are living examples of how partnership at the top level creates a powerhouse organization that produces high-impact products and services.  Main TopicsThree values of a successful founder and how an executive assistant can leverage those values (03:40)A chief of staff delivers the prescriptive vision and translates that vision across the organization (08:05)A breakdown of the roles of virtual assistant, executive assistant, and chief of staff (09:12)Creating a schedule that allows you to be proactive against burnout (16:17)Importance of emotional intelligence in self and others to prevent burnout (20:30)Practical tools from Adam and Hallie’s book about how founders and force multipliers can work together to grow a business exponentially (24:00)  Episode Linkswww.founderandforcemultiplier.com Connect with Adam and Hallie:https://www.facebook.com/founderforcemultiplierhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/halliewarner/https://www.instagram.com/founderandforcemultiplier/https://www.youtube.com/@founderandforcemultiplierConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/Listen, rate, and subscribe!Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts

Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this. Coming to you from Brand Viva Media Headquarters here in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Kantos with Start With A Win. Mark, are you winning today? I am hashtag winning. There you go. I love it. Yeah, I had a cold. You know, I'm the one who's always getting sick on this podcast.

What the heck? I don't think you've ever had a cold or like anything. Immune system, baby. I know, dude. It's like proof in the pudding, as they like to say. Get up. Drink your water. Drink your water.

Your vitamins. Your green drink. It's in the fridge. That's right. I know. Exactly. And you too can have an immune system like Adam. There you go.

All right. I know. Exactly. And you too can have an immune system like Adam. There you go. All right. Okay. So we have Adam Hergenrother on the podcast today, and he's the founder and CEO of Adam Hergenrother Companies and has built this thriving organization in less than 10 years by creating a culture where personal growth and work-life integration come first. Through models, systems, culture, training, and community, the organization empowers the leaders of today to develop the leaders of tomorrow. And Hallie Werner serves as Adam's chief of staff and is also the co-author of The Founder and the Force Multiplier, How Entrepreneurs and Executive Assistants Ach achieve more together. You guys,

welcome to Start With The Win. Glad to have you guys here. I know. This is fun. I mean, first of all, to have two power hitters on the same show, I love it. I love it. So I want to jump in here, guys and gal, lady and gentlemen. Guys, it's fine. Guys, it's fine. By the way, if you are just a listener on this and you're not watching the video, make sure you flip over to the video because we're having a blast here. A lot of fun.

First of all, Adam, I love the background there with the artwork. And Hallie has one of the most organized bookshelves I've ever seen. It's color-coordinated and stuff. My daughter did this cool thing, right? It says like, love is the only thing stronger than fear, kind of sits on there. She painted that just one day and came home with it.

And I was like, man- That is killer. Yes. For six years old, I was like, that's great. That is killer. I mean, shameless plug here. I actually talk about love and fear in my book and how those two things play with each other. So it's incredible.

She's brilliant, by the way. Well, Adam, that's why I teed you up for the comment, dude. Oh, right on, right on. I want to dig into leadership here because we've got two really important components of leaders here. We have the founder and we have the force multiplier. By the way, awesome book, guys. That was a really, really spot-on book from somebody who's been a CEO, who's had a chief of staff, who's had executive assistants, who understands what's going on in this whole concept together and how all these things work to really massively increase the capability of that leader and the organization. First of all, Hallie, kudos to you. You are clearly the force multiplier and

having somebody like you in your world is a game changer. So Adam, let me start with you. What are three things that an executive or leader should be doing to be successful? And then how can an executive assistant leverage those things to help you reach goals? Wonderful question. I think number one is I think a leader, their product are decisions. And so number one is what a leader really should be doing is making three quality decisions every single day. I think, Adam, the difference between businesses that succeed marginally and succeed wildly over time is they come down to the ability as leadership

team to actually make quality decisions on a daily basis. This is why it's never really one moment or one decision that makes a company be Berkshire Hathaway. It's a series of decisions every day that compounding over time and over years adds up to geometrically different organization. So if you're an individual that is a leader that is bogged down with doing kind of, I always think about Hallie and I's position as one position. It's just we're doing different parts of it, right? She's doing the parts of it that really that I fall, that just aren't my strengths, that I'm really good at, right? And the majority of my job is I'm not really that good at, right? And Howie steps in and does that so that I can stay focused on the ability to actually make the best decision, which comes down to like, people always ask me, well, what does that look like, right? Well, it's like, where do you have your team

spending their time? Where is that organization spending their time? Is there a unified messaging system within the organization itself? Do you even have a unified goal? Because as businesses start to scale, a lot of times what happens is that every individual leader has a different version of what it means to win in the organization. And that's where people really get caught trying to build an organization is that everyone's working. So you look around and you go, man, nobody has any more free time, right? How many times have you heard that? And you come down to realize it's just you're working on the wrong things. And so the more as a leader can bring and boil that down.

So I always think of it as like decisions, right? Vision, right? Where's the organization going? If you don't have a vision, look, if you're looking for a sunset and everyone's running east, you're going to be looking for a long period of time until you turn around and go just turn west and you'll see the sunset right and then so vision direction and clarity right of actually how are we going to get there what's that you know the one of the the thing was a lot of times high power leaders is there they use very descriptive language um so they're very they could tell a story or they can have a five-minute conversation

with intrinsically motivated individuals and they go out there and just take it on. And it feels like a wonderful conversation. As organizations scale, you've got to be descriptive and prescriptive for everyone in the organization. So you don't lose your traction from the top's vision down to where the implementation actually happens. So that's kind of the second step in this is like, how do you become a visionary, but also make it descriptive for the whole organization? And then the third one is where I really start with, which is decision. So it's the three, the kind of answer your three, a three bucket, if you want to factor those in, it's vision.

It's that direction, that clarity of knowing where you're going, and then it's decisions. And then of course, your force multiplier comes in here to figure out where's your gaps in this? Like we use in the book, we talk about the scale from like one to a 10, right? I take things from like a zero to like a half or a one. And then Hallie will take them from a nine to an eight or a nine, another, or I take it from a one, a zero to one, she'll take it from a, you know,

one to a nine or one to an eight, depending on the need to come back to my desk or go to somebody else's. And so it really allows the strengths of all of us to come into play to maximize efficiencies of an organization. Because the last, I'll stop, but the last couple years, most businesses just organically grew, which was fun. They bumped into sales, they bumped into profit, and they don't really quite know how they did it. And so now I think people are waking

up and going, I didn't really have a solid business plan. What we're hearing from people, from founders, even from the book is going, I don't actually have a clear plan. Like I thought I did, but nobody's in the right path. And now it's starting to really show. And so if you follow those three things and get very clear on that,

you actually end up with better efficiencies for the organization. Awesome. Allie, thoughts on that? Well, yeah. So when he was talking about the descriptive versus prescriptive part, a lot, and to me, the force field supplier, EA, or chief of staff comes in for that prescriptive part a lot of times, and translating that very descriptive

vision from the principal or the executive, and needing to then translate it down to or across the organization to various departments, different divisions, different leadership team members, sometimes interpreting a little bit along the way if there's a lack of clarity, and then making sure that everyone has their clear goals in place about what they need to accomplish, and then helping either support them with different resources, holding them accountable, and then, of course, making sure that all the loops are closed in every project

because at the end of the day, it's still the leader's project, right? They're running the company. Right, right. And it needs to get done one way or the other. So a little bit of that project management and kind of sideways accountability. Okay, so I want to, Hallie, I want to get your take on something real quick here, then jump over to Adam to kind of fill in the gaps from the founder perspective,

leader perspective. So, Hallie, we hear the term EA or executive assistant. You know, we've also heard a lot of people, especially, you know, a lot of people in real estate, mortgage, entrepreneurs, things like that, listen to this podcast, as do a lot of CEOs in real estate, mortgage, entrepreneurs, things like that, listen to this podcast, as do a lot of CEOs of large companies and people globally. People are like, oh, I need to get an assistant. So take me through this. We've got some people who are like, I want to get a virtual assistant. Then you have an executive assistant, who I believe is somebody who's more present than not.

And then you have your chief of staff. Give me the breakdown of those positions real quick. As I mean, you've experienced them. You're a master at this. What are those? Sorry. Yeah. And I, and I done, I mean, I was at Adam's DA for what, five years and then moved into

his chief of staff. So I've done, I've done both roles. I'm a little bit of both at one time. So here's how I like to describe the main virtual assistant. I'm just going to put it on the side here a minute. But in terms of Executive Assistant versus Chief of Staff, it's still

it's the three of the individuals doing one main job. You're just doing different pieces of it. And a lot of times people say the EA is tactical, the Chief of Staff is strategic. I don't think that it is true at all. I'm with you. Both are very tactical and both are very strategic.

It comes down to me, for me, more of a time thing. Right. So, for example, an EA is going to be focused a lot on what the needs of the day are, perhaps up to like 90 days and I guess they're doing future planning but they're really having to work and operate in in the day-to-day in terms of meetings and rescheduling and making sure that their executive is prepared for what is happening right then and there and and being very responsive to different things that come in while also being as proactive as possible versus a chief of staff who is typically not necessarily in any of the day-to-day, but they're working 90 days to five or 10 years out, whether that's strategic planning, doing business planning,

planning for future company events, all company meetings. Yes, the EA is going to help support someone, but they're usually very busy dealing with what the hell is going on that day versus,. Versus, again, the cheaper staff where they can kind of step back a little bit and say, great, the day-to-day is taken care of, so I'm going to go and look at what's going on. Okay. Gotcha. That's how the different – sorry, go ahead.

I was going to say, okay, then how do you – what's a virtual assistant when it comes to all these things? Well, it depends on how you define virtual assistant because, I mean, we're all virtual. A lot of us are virtual right now. So, right, there's a lot of remote VAs and remote chiefs of staff. But I think when you mean a virtual assistant, you often are thinking of somebody only when you think of virtual assistants and thinking of somebody as maybe more project-based. Okay. Or alternatively, a little bit more tech-based.

Yes, you can have virtual assistants who are full-time VAs, but then you just call them an assistant. Gotcha. So, again,

I think virtual assistant is like, you need someone to fill out a gap for six months, or maybe you need to hire somebody for just to have

a, be like, the lead funnel and their, you know, their helping certain data. But, you know,

again, we don't have to talk about virtual assistants only because they are a different type of support and we do both. Okay, yeah, and Adam, I want to get your take on this, but I kind of look at it as you hear all these people, especially like in real estate

or mortgage or entrepreneurs or whatever, they're like, I need a virtual assistant. And I don't think they know what they want because they're like, I have more stuff to do than time. And the reality is they just want somebody to shovel things off to and say, here, go do this. That's the way I look at a virtual assistant. They're like a remote helper you pass stuff to. I think an executive assistant is somebody, and this is the relationship I've had with all my EAs, is there's somebody that I, they walk into my office and they go, here's what you need to do today, and I'm going to make sure you get it done. I mean, that's kind of what I've seen, and then all other items as included.

But Adam, what are your thoughts on those positions yeah i mean i think the how they said it well but the ea is somebody that's very kind of reactive to your schedule i mean you may walk in on a sunday afternoon or you know a sunday night look at your calendar and go these six meetings do not no longer are important to be actually two minutes before this poll i just canceled a meeting um that i was supposed to have this afternoon because it no longer fits within that schedule. So they're very reactive to what you're doing based on the needs of the organization because they do change. And they're also important to make sure that the EA is also aligned with what are the organization's goals of the day, of the week, and of the month, of the quarter, right? So that they can make sure that people aren't

getting in or they're just constantly saying no to be looked. Nope. This is the funny thing about, um, just in time people, everyone has 24 hours in a day. So time cannot be your cheat. Right. I always think of it.

And I don't want to be Elon Musk and work 21 out of 24 hours a day. Right. He's got the ability to be the most productive person out there, whether you like him or not. Like he has that. That's him. Right. I always kind of look at it as like, how good can I get in the time that I'm willing to

work? Right. And the unifying question that has to come down and the answer that comes out of that is, is what am I actually interacting with in this moment? And that's where I think an EA can do a really good job if they're part of your leadership team to keep you in that absolute zone of you doing your thing. Otherwise, you're just going to go distract yourself. You're going to get caught over here. At the end of the day, you're going to go, Adam, you know what? Man, I worked a 10 hour day or nine hour day, but I always go like, well, did it matter? I mean, like, look, everything matters, just not equal. So it's like, I don't know if you have kids or not, Adam. Like I'm sure

do you have kids? I do. I have three. They're all grown up and out of the house, but yes, I have three. That's awesome. Yeah. So I have three too, right? 10, eight, and six. And you would say, well, your kids, my kids matter. If you, of course you would say that, right? And I would say your kids matter.

But your kids probably matter more to you than they matter to me, right? So like everything matters, just not equally. And that's how an owner or a business or a leader has to look at there is like these things matter yes but they're not going to matter as much as something else is that we need to push down so that's how we think of the ea is the gatekeeper of making sure that the executive stays focused and all of that and then of course the cheapest staff right is how is very working on longer term projects. Like this morning, we're in a leadership meeting and she's now like her and I are going to go tag team on a quarterly

initiative that we need to do. And we'll set that stage and be able to work on those things. And again, I agree with the VA that is more of like people use the term VA, but really what they're saying is either a project VA or somebody that just happens to be virtual, that is awesome filling in those gaps as well. Cool. Awesome. So we've got the founder and the force multiplier, the name of the book. Go check it out for all the listeners out there. Definitely worth your time.

Burnout is a big problem in leaders, in high velocity teams. Realistically, folks, and for all you listening, if you have not veered toward burnout, you're not really testing your limits. I mean, it's like being in the, I view it as being like being in the gym. You want to know where those limits are and grow from those limits, but don't let them hurt you. And that's really what these super high-performing people are. And Adam talks about outworking people. And the reality is hard work will be talent when talent doesn't work hard. So we're really walking this fine line here of burnout. How can a founder and an EA together work to prevent the executive burnout and the team burnout in how we operate our businesses? And I'll start with you, Adam, on that one. and will literally can work seven days a week, long hours and just without thinking about it.

But then I start to recognize where she may be, she may need like a day or two to rebound or whatever that is. She will stop unless it's almost like she's actually getting much better at it now. But in the early part of our life, I had to be the one like, you just need to stop doing everything you're doing

because it's actually making you less effective right now, right? For what those things are. I think that's where I think people need to understand where people's are. It's not just about maximizing work. It's about prioritizing what it is from there. I also think behaviorally, people burn out faster because they're in a position or doing something that takes way more behavior than their natural behavioral style. There's a difference

team. If somebody is really good at golf, accelerating somebody at golf is different than teaching somebody how to swim behaviorally. Like somebody can get burnt out much deeper in the process if they're already naturally aligned with their behavioral style than somebody going over. Like if you put me in an accounting role, I would burn out much quicker than I would in other ways, right? So I think it's you making sure that you align people behaviorally so that you can figure out how to stretch those rubber bands that we have within us and then understand those limits from there. I think that's where people really get tied.

And what we see in our level is they're working in a position because their founder, specifically examples of this would be an EA or a chief of staff is in a position where their founder is asking to do things that may not be in alignment or their natural behavioral style, or maybe it's more project-based versus something along those lines. Or they're really holding somebody back or not getting full ownership of the job. So they always feel like I'm only doing 5% of this or 20% of this. And that can be very kind of like that whiplash scenario for people in there. On the other side for the founders, it's the behavior. Most founders are really good at one or two things and actually are terrible at everything else. Totally true.

Because your natural drive mostly as a founder is so strong that you push through so much more than the average person does. So it looks like you're good at everything. But the reality is, is the more, the faster you can get rid of 90% of what's your plate, you'll actually be much better in your strength zone. And you won't burn out nearly as much, if at all all if you understand this and I will say I also think that if you have I think burnout I don't feel like I've ever really been burned out and I think part of that is because I'm also very prescriptive on being proactive before I get to burnout meaning that I also understand that every day if I don't start my morning with three hours of personal development and then take a break in the middle of my day to meditate again, over time, I will probably want to one punch somebody or run through a wall. Right.

And so I recognize that about myself there. So then how do you create a schedule that allows you to never really feel the burnout because you're already being proactive in doing the things that are going to prevent it in the first place. Awesome. I've heard a few things here that I want to just kind of echo real quick to our listeners. I mean, first of all, you talk about recognizing different things. Too many people in small organizations or organizations for that matter, you have a big heavy lift project come in or something like that. And the leaders look around and they're like, okay, who's got a little bit of a gap in their schedule? Give it to Joe. Joe can do this. Even though Joe sucks at that, what are you going to do? You're going to burn that guy out or you're going to take and you're going to deplete his ability to handle all the other things that he should be

good at. So, you know, just, I hear this emotional intelligence and emotional maturity message coming through from you, Adam, on this, you know, awareness of self, awareness of others, awareness of the business and that alignment there. So Hallie, fill this in for me. What is your position? Talk to me from an EA role. And let's face it, not everybody has a chief of staff, okay? I mean, it's not a super common position. For those of us that do have one, we're like, yes, I've got a chief of staff. I mean, it's, it's not a super common position for those of us that do have one. We're like, yes, I've got a chief of staff. I mean, it's, it is definitely, that is probably one of the biggest force multiplier positions out there. You know, in addition to the EA,

but fill this in from an EA perspective, when you look at Adam and you're like, okay, there's a lot of high velocity stuff going on here. Where do you, where do you see the EA fit in that and to prevent burnout? Sure. Yeah. And, and I mean, Adam mentioned it, like I don't, Adam's never burned out and I, he would know it before anybody else and then definitely mitigate that. So I'm never like concerned about him or myself, quite honestly, but what we do to ensure that we don't allow others in the organization to burn out. Because Adam and I have worked together for 12 years. We know how much each other's worked,

and we've kind of set the tone for the business for 12 years, right? Like we were running more, and everyone else was going to run more with it. So alignment is huge, and we're really big on first making sure that we do those behavioral assessments from the beginning. And this is how DAs and or force mentors can help is by making sure that their founders or whoever is hiring is following really great hiring and onboarding practices

so that one you're making sure that you're hiring the right person including them in a role that aligns with their behavior because often founders are not going to necessarily want to follow the hiring process they're going to want to just maybe move forward faster um and then uh and then and again ensuring that the schedule is set up such that leader whoever their direct reports are are having the necessary time with their team members so they're keeping a pulse on their how they're doing mentally and emotionally um and checking in with them regularly. So we do weekly one-on-ones with any of our director of court. And then we also do what we call a client dealability question. It helps us keep that rate pulse on our team,

which seems like how is their mindset every day. And that's where places where we can mitigate immediately potential issues of burnout. Awesome. Huge. Incredibly important. Those of you that didn't listen to this last section about burnout and that alignment, I mean, you know, Hallie is like the air traffic controller of, you know, what's going on here. And then Adam, like, flies the fighter planes. So it's pretty cool to see the mission and the coordination coming together with this strategy and execution portion of how the founder fits

together with the force multiplier. Give me a quick flyover of the book, please. Adam, I'll start with you, but why should someone pick up this book and what are a couple of the key things that they can expect from it? Yeah, we're really excited about the kind of updated version of this because it's really a model designed to work with founders in force multipliers as a guide to strengthen their partnership. Like everyone over the years, everyone comes to us, how do I find a how, how do I get an item? How do I use your models? And so we really just created kind of what we do that works for us and has worked and laid it out in a way that is easy to follow and easy for both people to be and read along with so that they can actually start taking the themes from the book and putting it into

play in their life. I think there's too many books that are just talk about theories and concepts, which are great. There's nothing wrong with that. But for us, we wanted to get very prescriptive in terms of how do you actually create a better relationship? What does it actually mean to have a force multiplier? What do they actually do? What are the rules? How do I actually look for one? The number one thing we get is how do I find one? And then what do I do with them? So great great the first thing is we're actually seeing this in job descriptions now all over the all over the world we're going please read the founder and force multiplier before you apply for this job

so that we can make sure that we're in alignment with it and we're seeing that in job descriptions as people are doing that which is great because that's the point it's like well that is the role and if you don't like if that doesn't work for you, then it may not work for us. So again, we're trying to eliminate any type of potential mismatch. And then when there is a match, how do we strengthen that partnership? Excellent. And I mean, the reality is folks out there, you don't know what you don't know when it comes to this relationship. So you need to educate yourself on it. And there, there is no, Hey, go take this executive assistant class that describes what's going on from the perspective of an executive and how to operate in the business. Hallie,

anything to add to the book description? I thought it was a great book. And I'm a big fan of the concept. So what do you think, Hallie? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, everything that I am since Willie about that partnership, I think founders want to read the book and have been reading the book and they're recognizing who they're missing in their organization. So that's a very big part. And then for the force multipliers

who are reading the book, they're realizing what an impact and what a career opportunity it is to be a force multiplier. So when you take those two different perspectives and you put them together and then you get those partners working together, I mean, really the business just,

the business just should grow exponentially from there, which is awesome. Awesome, thank you. For all of our listeners, you can find the book at founderandforcemultiplier.com slash book. That's founderandforcemultiplier.com slash book. Adam and Hallie,

I have a question I ask all of our amazing guests on the show. I'll start with you, Adam. How do you start your day with a win? Once I gain consciousness, basically, like coming into it, right? The first thing that I ask myself every single day is how do I want to feel?

It's the first question that comes to mind because I think there's going to be challenges, there's going to be obstacles. So I always start my day as how do I want to feel? So first question that comes to mind, because I think there's going to be challenges, there's going to be obstacles. So I always start my day as how do I want to feel today? And I want to have joy, I want to have excitement, I want to have creativity, and that's a choice. So I just, I start my asking myself that question every day. And then I get into a series, I meditate for 20 minutes,

I do a series of journaling, and then in the winter time, I skin a mountain. I literally spent about an hour and 45 minutes skidding up a mountain and then coming down, starting at about 5.30 in the morning. So you start emerging in the dark, you get to the top of the mountain when it's light and you ski down.

And I live on a mountain, so it works beautifully. And so if you start your day before 7.30, like I can check the box and I'm good. You have conquered the mountain. Conquered the mountain. Awesome. Hallie, how do you start your day with a win? Oh, man. It's hard to follow that one. So,

my win in the morning is if I do not get up and check my email right away. That is a massive win for me. Huge win. That is a huge win. Yes. I think a lot of people need to listen to that one. Yeah, seriously. Thanks for being on Start With A Win, guys.

Great book. Everybody make sure you check it out and get yourself an executive assistant. A good one. That's right. Hey, if you've enjoyed this content, please think about subscribing in the app that you use to listen to podcasts. If you head over to adamcontos.com, you can get access to exclusive content and join our mailing list. So remember, until next time,

start with a win.