EA Management Guide

How much time a week are you spending working on tasks that drain your energy and generate little value for your business?

In the world of business, your time and energy are the most valuable assets.

As the founder or CEO, your time should be spent on strategic activities that drive growth and innovation. But, how often do you find yourself caught up in the whirlwind of admin tasks, emails, and meetings?

If you're nodding in agreement, it's time to unlock the potential of an Executive Assistant (EA).

I just wrote a 20-page comprehensive guide on hiring, onboarding, training, and turning your EA into a powerhouse.

You can grab it for free here.

Here are some of the things I covered in the guide:

The EA Difference

Your EA is not your average admin worker or glorified secretary.

They're your right-hand person, a strategic partner, and a critical player in helping you build a machine that is your business.

Yes, they can manage your calendar, inbox, and coordinate meetings.

But they can also liaise with your team and clients, and are often your first line of defense, filtering out unnecessary distractions so you can focus on what truly matters.

They can take energy-draining tasks off your plate so you can focus on what you do best: growing your business and working on your vision.

With proper training, they can start to learn how you think, behave and make decisions, allowing them to be an extension of you. This removes you from being the bottleneck in your business.

Hiring An EA

Hiring a rockstar EA begins with defining the scope of their role.

This step is crucial. Without it, you might end up in the weeds trying to delegate everything all at once. With a clear scope, you can create a plan that starts to get back your time.

The best time to hire an EA? Yesterday.

The second best time? Right now.

If you are:

• Overwhelmed with tasks that aren't in your zone of genius

• Spending more time on operations and management than on growth and strategy

• The bottleneck stalling business growth

It's time to start thinking about hiring an EA.

Where to start?

1. Do a Time & Energy Audit: this creates a list of tasks to delegate

2. Create an EA Role Scorecard: use the list of tasks from your audit

3. Decide if you want to hire through an agency or to do it yourself

If you don’t have a ton of experience with hiring yet, I recommend hiring through an agency.

It may cost you a bit more but it’ll save you time and energy, the whole purpose here.

What To Look For In An EA

Here are some key traits to look for in an EA:

• Organizational skills

• Professional-level communication skills

• Proactive

• Tech-savvy

• Confidentiality

• Meticulous attention to detail

A bonus thing I personally look for in an EA is a passion or curiosity in using AI tools and ChatGPT to speed up implementation.

Onboarding and Training Your EA

Once you've found the perfect EA, setting them up for success with effective onboarding and training is crucial.

The 3 secret ingredients to turning your EA into a powerhouse:

1. Your Energy Audit (task transfer)

2. Documentation (knowledge transfer)

3. Shadowing (context transfer)

Show your EA the tasks they'll be taking over.

Explain why these tasks drain your energy or why you need their support to either take these off your plate or to help speed up implementation. This gives them context and a clear idea of how to help you reclaim your time and energy.

Have them document the processes and keep them organized in a centralized knowledge hub. You can use tools like Loom, Tango, or Scribe.

Have your EA shadow and work alongside you, especially the first 30 days.

This allows your EA to observe and learn how you think, behave, and make decisions.

Nurturing a Great Relationship

I shared some best practices in the guide on how to build a great relationship with your EA.

• Have regular 1:1’s

• Communicate expectations clearly

• Invest in your EA’s growth

• Learn to handle conflict like a boss

• Understand Attachment Patterns

I highly recommend checking out the guide.

Everything shared in there is also relevant to building great working relationships with other hires in your business.

Newsletter Updates

It’s been 10 weeks since launching this newsletter.

I’ve been enjoying this journey so far and have decided to go all-in on growing this newsletter.

So here are some changes I’m making:

New Newsletter Name

I’m renaming the newsletter and doubling down on building a community of: 20 Hour Founders.

My personal goal is to keep building my portfolio of coaching businesses while working about 20 hours a week, only in my Zone of Genius.

I’ve coached my clients on this and now want to share my learnings with you so you can also become a 20 Hour Founder.

Some topics you can expect to see in the coming newsletters:

• Frameworks and tactics to reclaim 20+ hours a week

• How to build big businesses with small but high-performing teams

• How to unlock the fullest potential of your EA

• How to train your team to leverage AI to speed up implementation

• How to build simple systems that reduce operational friction

• Mindset shifts for a more aligned and fulfilled life

Let’s build the best community of 20 Hour Founders here!

Refer Friends, Earn Rewards!

I want to grow this newsletter organically so I have an ask.

If you enjoy this newsletter and know other founders, coaches, and creators who would benefit from these insights, please share it with them.

I’m offering rewards for referrals:

• Refer 1 person: you’ll get my AI-Assistant Playbook ($10 value)

• Refer 10 people: you’ll get my Business OS notion template ($150 value)

• Refer 25 people: you’ll get my 20 Hour Founders course ($500 value)

Thanks for spreading the word!