Beginners Guide to become a successful EA

Introduction

I listened to 2 podcasts from the leader assistant website. The first was podcast #64- The sneak peeks at the leader assistant book, the game-changing assistant. The author talks about his book and how it can help people to overcome the daily challenges of an Executive Assistant and try to become a game-changing Assistant. The other podcast was #70- The interview of a virtual EA Jacqueline Howard where she discussed multiple roles, responsibilities, and problems faced by a virtual assistant in his daily life.

Podcast #64- A game changing assistant:

I thought the podcast will tell something about the game-changing assistant or something about the 4 pillars of a confident assistant, but it was about a book written by the person who takes interviews for these podcasts. His name is Jeremy burrows. He was here to give us a sneak peek of his upcoming book, The Leader Assistant. The author shared his story at Andrews glacier and the hurdles he faced with his family. He connected those hurdles 16 years later with his life. His boss left the organization he made and left him into deep self-realization with what to do with his career now. The decision was to leave the job or to stay at the reworked organization. He took a major step by leaving the organization and thought of starting a new business. He was not ready for the real world. He connected his life with the problems he faced when he was stuck at the glacier. He started figuring things out one by one by building resumes, reaching out to people, improving his mistakes of not taking care of himself, and much more. The author's book describes many ways to deal with the short glaciers that are going to come in the life of an EA. The book is going to help make an Executive Assistant into a game-changing Assistant. I was intrigued by the prolonged of the author’s book which made me think that in today’s era, an EA needs to adapt skills that will make him a game-changing assistant.

Podcast #70- Jacqueline Howard: A Virtual EA

She started the podcast by describing herself as a virtual EA, a mom of 4 children, and a resident of Michigan. Some professions that Jacqueline has tried her hands on are babysitting, a team member at a fast-food place, and the front desk at a hair salon. Regardless of COVID-19, she has always worked virtually. When asked about what she loves about her role as an Assistant, Jacqueline described many things like learning something new every day, business models, tech tools, and different personalities. Her major struggles of always working remotely were not being able to judge people’s body language and physically interact with her employees. She gave tips for developing yourself in a virtual environment by planning the week and checking with her online accountability partner for daily tasks and accomplishments. She was asked how she managed multiple clients and tasks to which she replied that she read books of CEOs to adapt their mindset, looking herself as the client, shutting off everything, and focusing on that specific client- to run their business smoothly, researching, meeting client expectations. She recommended reading books like Tools for talking when stakes are high and the 40 laws of power.

Conclusion:

As a developing virtual assistant myself, these podcasts can help many new assistants to update their skills and learn something new from these people who herself has been a virtual executive assistant for her whole professional life and the person who interviews numerous successful executive assistant in his daily life.