How to Thrive as an Executive Assistant

how do companies create a culture and core values that employees actually live out the team at the receptionist a bootstrapped denver-based software company sets out to answer that very question welcome to the fabric podcast here's your host Michael Ashford in this episode I chat with Brooke bastain an executive assistant who sort of fell into the role at one of her early employers but Brooke has since thrived as an executive assistant and is now more than four years into her EA role at a denver-based software company called Conga as Brooke told me the role of an executive assistant is like those Choose Your Own Adventure books one day you're planning a sales kickoff and the next you're helping a new executive integrate into the culture of a newly acquired company as you'll hear from Brooke it's all part of the job now let's jump into the conversation Brooke before we get into the I'll say the meat of our conversation I have to go back a little bit in your background and talk about the movember foundation how did you get connected with that organization it's become such a huge uh I think cultural phenomenon over the last several years probably the last decade but how did you get involved in that organization let's start there uh I was unemployed and looking for jobs and so I found a Craigslist ad that they were looking for a temporary operations manager manager for the for North America um and so I applied for that role um and I got a call the next day I went in um for the interview and I was given some strange directions because it was at the time uh being run out of the CEO and co-founders two-bedroom apartment on the Venice boardwalk in L.A oh wow so I was told to to park behind the garage and if the trash cans in the way just move it um like this is starting to sound a little a little iffy a little sketch I gotta admit yeah yeah so I mean the interview went really well and I interviewed with the CEO and co-founder um and he said you know this is a temporary position but if we happen to raise any money it could turn into a full-time job so um I ended up being there for eight years yeah there's a lot there obviously and I don't know if we have all the time to get through it today but eight years spent at that organization and that foundation and for the listeners who don't know could you explain what the movember foundation does and and the involvement that it has in some really interesting and and important causes yeah so the movember foundation is a Men's Health Organization where they get men to grow mustaches in the month of November um so they start clean shaven on November 1st and um they shave it off on November 30th and in those 30 hairy days and Harry nights um you're raising funds for prostate cancer testicular cancer and men's mental health and it's all over the world when I started they were in seven countries and I was helping run US and Canada um and then we just continued to grow and grow wonderful stuff and yeah I think uh social media is littered with horrible mustaches and beards towards the end of November so it's super fun to see that and certainly raising money for a great cause so you stay there eight years after coming into a temporary what was to be a temporary office manager role Brooke walk me through then how you come to be and find yourself in the role that you're at now which is in the executive assistant space I I remember from our previous conversation that we didn't record this but you had mentioned that you know it was kind of a hey this is this is maybe something that I fell into can you kind of walk me through that yeah so um we were very shoestring you know everyone was you know doing everything his two-bedroom apartment was the Fulfillment house it was our uh you know Communications Headquarters it was our customer support it was everything so after we had that successful campaign um he was heading to Australia for to be with his family because some of them were starred in Australia and he said when I get back I don't want this in my house so I was tasked with the role and I had a month to find a new office for us um which I did uh and then I took over the merchandise and just started picking up more and more operation roles but it was also working very closely with them because we were a small team of four people at the time our growth was wild um we couldn't keep up and so he was kind of told by the board like hey you need to get an executive assistant um and he said I don't really want an executive assistant unless it's Brooke I always said that I was sort of his net and so kind of you know coming up with the idea of movember uh you have some crazy ideas so I would kind of help um net out all of his wild ideas and um I traveled all over the world with him and um just kind of learned to be an executive assistant helping him make the movember foundation a global sensation now I want to jump ahead a little bit to what you're doing now and then we'll we'll tie all this back together and and what I want to talk about because you just mentioned the crazy growth and scale that you experienced there you're now at a company called Conga correct uh you're based here in the Denver area where where we are you came to Conga as an executive assistant after kind of getting your feet wet with that role at the movember foundation how did you know this is something that okay this is my career path now this is where I want to take this what appealed to you um it didn't I mean it did and didn't um so I I the reason I left movember is because our CEO he had stepped down and so I kind of stepped down with him as well and everyone asked what are you gonna do next and I said I don't know I think I'm gonna move to Denver because I was living in Los Angeles at the time and people said what's in Denver I said I don't know I guess I'll find out and I didn't really know anybody and I didn't have any leads on jobs so I was doing some freelance work and thought you know maybe I'll just work for myself um because you know working for a non-profit you learn a lot of how to run a business on a shoestring budget so um I was I was doing a lot of a lot of little things and then I finally learned like I don't like working for myself and I miss working at an office and I you know miss you know as I kind of feel like a executive assistant is a puppeteer and in you know in the background just kind of you know making things run smoothly and when I was doing it for myself I was the face and I didn't like that um so then I started looking for EA roles and I ended up at Conga um and I was offered two executive assistant roles on the same day one was a smaller startup that was more similar to movember and kind of culturally and what I was used to and then there was Congo which was it was a lot bigger now but for me we were it was a bigger tech company and it's a way to get my feet wet in the tech industry at first I thought I should go with what I know um but then I really clicked with the um cro I had interviewed with and being executive assistant it's all about the relationship you have with the person not necessarily like you know what the company does because you work so closely with that person and so I chose to um go to conga now tell me if I have this right you've been there four years you've been through an acquisition you've been through seven bosses you're on your seventh boss I believe is what you told me yeah is that all correct I'm not I'm not a curse I promise there's just lots of change that happens in uh Tech so true and this show is all about how companies that are growing and scaling keep their culture uh the you know tight and intact and something you mentioned broke you said the executive assistant is kind of like the Puppeteer in the background and that's what you enjoyed and you liked and this is where I want to take our conversation here what is it about that role that is is so um so vital to a company's culture and and certainly through all the change that you went through at the movember foundation and now Conga that I just mentioned what is it about the role that has its its effects so spread out throughout the company so what I love about being an executive assistant is that every day is so different and I can have a to-do list when I'm driving into work I can know like this is what I have to get done and if I can get half done half of those things done by the end of the day it'd be amazing because it's like a new fire you have to put out like once you arrive you know it's something could have you know the executive could have had to completely shift his calendar or some big news came out with the company and it's just constantly changing and so I just love that you know I do love planning events and there's a lot of things I like doing but as an executive assistant I feel like I get to do all of those things and in this role you really get to see a big picture of the company and it's like a bird's eye view of what's going on because you know the executives are you know focused on what's going on in their department but you work closely with many departments so you're able to kind of see the bird's eye view and say hey I know you want to do this but this is also going on here here and here so like what are our priorities today or this is might be more important Brook for you that begs the question hearing that how do you manage to not get overwhelmed I think you just uh be calm cool and collected even though if I feel extremely overwhelmed I don't make it look that way do you have some sort of an outlet for that I mean is there is there I guess how are you supported by the executives that you you work with and work for in in managing that is there is that a factor um I have with my current boss I've now been with for two years um him and I have an amazing relationship and you know we connect on a daily basis and um it's I mean it's really all about the personality that you support and I am so fortunate in who I work with now and how I'm able to um you know be his gate gatekeeper and but also be a representative of him when I'm dealing with other people in the organization what is the what would you say in your experience has been the hardest thing to re keep intact or especially from a culture standpoint to to maintain when an organization is going through so much change and and growth and overhaul what's been the hardest thing to make sure this carries through from from change to change organization to organization that question makes sense yeah so change needs to be something you embrace and you need to be able to deal with the ever shifting environment but also evaluate your own processes and find ways to make things more efficient and effective and easier for you know everyone around you so we were acquired uh in May 2020 which it's kind of a wild time to be acquired yeah no doubt I've dealt with change a lot but that was probably the biggest change I've ever had to deal with so walk me through that what is what is your role or what was your role or even what is an executive assistant's role during a time like that how did you approach the coordination with the executive team and the rest of the company you know that being that like you said Puppeteer behind the scenes how did you approach that situation well that's a two-part question because that for the change for me was in the acquisition my boss that I had been working for for a year um was not staying with the company um and so there was a lot of uncertainty for me in that um I was not one of the executive assistants that was working on the exact acquisition like I knew some things were going on but I wasn't doing a lot of the coordination of it and so for me it was really scary because I'm like well someone else is coming into the role that I support and he already has an EA so do I still have a job uh you know what's what's going on what's going on so that was really scary for me but I had it in another amazing boss um at that time that said you know this is happening I'm leaving but you know I'm doing my best to advocate for you so that was great yeah um and so he connected me with the person I currently support um and I'm very I'm very fortunate for that um and then the second part of it is you know once you're Acquired and the announcement is made and things are going on um everyone thinks you know the executive assistant knows you know everything and whether I do or not it's really important to you know not say anything but also be empathetic to the people that are really concerned about you know will I have a job what's happening what's going on and then also it's the blending of the two cultures um and that's probably a lot easier to do when everyone's not working remote and finding out the information on a webinar or you know a zoom call um so I had a lot of conversations after the announcement was made and throughout as covid restrictions um loosened up we were able to you know do some happy hours and things like that but I think it's always you know like I said being calm cool collected you know acting like you know if don't cause drama as an EA and I think um making people feel comfortable is really important having been through uh in previous companies through Acquisitions before I can fully vouch for the fact that there are just a million questions from the team uh every single day I'm curious about something you also said earlier Brooke um you talked about how really you can a lot of times make the role your own and for you and and your experience what are the things that you look to do when you step into Nea role when you when you step into perhaps working with a new a new uh executive and you're supporting them in in making that role your own as you said what are the things that you look to do that other folks who may be looking to get into an EA type of role might want to consider or look for well I've been fortunate to work with executive leadership teams that value the role of an EA and have enabled me to be meaningful and being able to contribute to helping you know everything in a time of change or or just in general um and so I'm always looking for the holes in in a company so whether it's a small company and there's a lot of holes that need to be filled or it's a big company and you can just see where you know things are falling apart a bit and I know what were my strengths and I know what my weaknesses are so when I see something that there's a problem and it's one of my strengths I'm the first person to put my hand up and say hey can I try hey what about this and that's what I love about the role of an executive assistant and there's many types of executive systems you know some just are happy scheduling and saying yes and you know doing what they're told I am not that person um I am the one that says like are you sure that's a good idea and my CEO at movember what he taught me was like what you say no to is what defines you and so I'm always setting my boundaries of like what I'm willing to do and what I'm not willing to do because I think sometimes in the role of an EA you know you can be you know taken advantage of if you're not working for the right person and I think often Executives that haven't had an EA before um they don't know how to use one so it's like oh can you make this copy for me can you you know do this and you know I have no problems doing any of the you know menial tasks but I think that often they don't realize what an amazing resource an executive assistant can be and it can be you know their partner like I feel it's my job to make that person look as good as possible all the time well last couple of questions here for you Brooke and and on that note you know somebody let's say somebody knew who wants to get into an executive assistant type of role what you just mentioned and I love that line what you say no to is what defines you that takes a level of confidence doesn't it to to be able to speak that way what what advice would you give to other EAS who maybe don't feel that confident or or perhaps are working in a situation where they don't feel they have that the ear of their executive in that way what advice would you give to them that you maybe want to impart I mean it starts in the beginning of like who you're choosing to support and so that's what I looked for but like I said I'm on Boss number seven so I didn't get to choose them all um when I was first um assigned to somebody I it's really important to have you know a 30 to 45 minutes sit down and being like you know these are my strengths these are my weaknesses um this is how I work as an EA and I will speak up um and that's not for everybody so if you have an issue with that we should probably get that out of the way now because I may not be the right person for you um but it really is all about confidence and it is about going in and believing in yourself and if you're not able to stand up to the person you're supporting like you might not be the right person for that role because they need someone that will you know be their ear and listen to them because you know c-suites are surrounded by yes people and when you're in the Inner Circle you need to be able to say to them like no this isn't a good idea or like yes you should do this and like it's also your part to uh push them in who they are because they're you know they're not always 100 confident in you know the decisions they're making so it's you know being supportive and pushing them um and just being that right hand man Whoa man I love that perspective Brooke and and certainly you've been through enough change that you you have plenty of experience now so I think that will help anybody listening to uh to this podcast episode last question that we like to ask of all of our guests this is the fabric podcast after all and but fabric stands for fun authentic bold respectful Innovative and collaborative it is our core values here at the receptionist and which one of those resonates the most with you which one's your favorite out of those oh they're all so good can I choose two you can we have no words okay I like fun and collaborative um our CFO at Conga always tells he when he would run our All Hands he would always say like you only get so many heartbeats in life and so you know do it you you should be doing what you love um and so with the fun um value it's like if you don't enjoy going to work and if you don't enjoy what you're doing you're only given so many heartbeats so um I always like to you know keep things fun even in the tech world the messy times in the tech space yeah yeah exactly exactly yeah and then collaborative is I mean that's what this role is all about it's about building relationships with the other executive assistants and other departments and your executive and if you just sit in your own Silo you're not able to see that big picture so and doing things by yourself just isn't that fun no it is not we would agree with that here and something our CEO Andy allsup always says is hey I if it's not fun I don't want to be doing it so that's there's a reason why f is the first uh first core value and just happens to spell out fabric so Brooke thank you so much uh I appreciate it thanks for doing this it's always great to hear the perspective of folks that you know for us here at the receptionist are so often the the teams that we work with and we just appreciate the work that you do so thanks for coming on and sharing thank you for having me thank you so much for listening to this episode of the fabric podcast our show is hosted by me Michael Ashford director of marketing here at the receptionist and produced by our creative manager James Jordan if you want to see a video version of the show jump over to the receptionist.com fabric where you can watch episodes of all of the content that we've put out on this podcast you can see our bright smiling faces and you can see what our studio looks like as well if you'd like to give the receptionist for iPad visitor management system a try in your office jump over to the receptionist.com free trial and give us a test drive for 14 days with no credit card required see what you think until next time take care [Music]

Channel: The Receptionist

Views: 5,679

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Id: Os9U5aAyshE

Length: 22min 42sec (1362 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2022