How to Work with a Personal Assistant

How to Work with a Personal Assistant

Links Mentioned:Great Assistant: https://greatassistant.com/DavidPerellThe 11 Laws of Showrunning: http://okbjgm.weebly.com/uploads/3/1/5/0/31506003/11_laws_...

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David Perell and Rebecca Olason

• a little bit of laziness is good, giving someone a good job and operationalizing the work
• don't mistake busy-ness for business
• assistant - enjoy novelty, co-shape role
• david perell accomplished - articles, newsletters, twitter following, write of passage
• write 90 minutes a day, publish youtube videos, hobbies
• finding an assistant - how do I know if I'm ready?
• busy calendar and busy mind will destroy ability to create anything great - naval
• sluggish work, frustrated, overwhelmed, cash
• best if there's already a system - need x leads to generate y revenue
• misconceptions
• workload
• pay
• instant win
• no training
• best tasks: It's not that hard, but it takes a while
• questions to ask
• full vs part time
• timezone spectrum
• where do you need help
• personality type: find someone who different strengths who shares your values
• important to communicate boundaries
• weekly review
• tasks accomplished
• open questions
• blocks
• every urgent message is a failure in the system
• as few moving parts as possible
• position details
• 1099 contractor
• 20-25 h per week with room to grow
• recommended pay: $18-22 per hour
• long-term expectations
• test candidate by requesting a detailed response to job posting:
• 16 sentence email
• subject line
• paragraph 1 (ask for specific font/colors for each paragraph)
• paragraph 2
• paragraph 3
• paragraph 4
• resume
• more expensive option: use https://greatassistant.com/DavidPerell for serious candidates
• interview questions
• job fit: what gives you satisfaction
• compatibility: how do you learn best
• personality: how do you stay organized
• as a leader, must set clear expectations
• NO to "I'll know it when I see it"
• e.g. Cocoa-Cola's 1915 creative brief: "a bottle so distinct it could be recognized by touch in the dark or when lying broken on the ground"
• the 11 laws of showrunning
• the path - always describe a path to success
• next steps - don't leave a meeting until everyone has directions
• the gift of clear directives - every clear directive is a gift b/c it relieves the staff of the stress of having to divine your goals
• trust - a clear directive is a way of saying I've taken the time to figure out your goal, now I'm trusting you to take that knowledge and figure out the process

okbjgm.weebly.com

okbjgm.weebly.com

• mistakes will happen. don't get mad!
• make checklists and SOPs to create organizational capital and prevent repeated mistakes
• reality has a surprising amount of detail
• meet 2x a week
• pick tasks that take 20-60 min
• clear enough to define, short enough to learn fast, long enough to save time
• general admin
• respond to emails
• managing you
• the middle 80%
• publish videos and articles
• upload and proofread newsletters
• rookie mistakes
• hard to teach tasks
• tasks that require a lot of training
• one-off tasks
• limiting tasks to admin
• what should I spend more time doing?
• energy
• unique gifts
• alive
• flow state
• personal monopoly
• feels like play to me but looks like work to others
• what should I spend less time doing?
• dread
• boring
• others can do it as well as you
• things you procrasinate on
• repetitive, time-consuming activities
• key information
• general: address, DOB, key contacts, reward accounts and frequent flyer numbers
• booking travel: no flights before 12pm, non-stop, window, ecnomy plus, preferred airports
• 3-month window needed to save you time
• watch one, do one, teach one (write SOP)
• time tracking:
• figure out blocks, get good data
• delegation
• vision - design a company that is actually fun to work for
• resources
• definition of done
• making the public-facing tone clear if assistant is answering emails for you
• give feedback intermittantly rather than all at once
• good intentions don't work. mechanisms matter.
• create a system so the problem doesn't arise in the future
• optimize for more than time, e.g. number of times things change hands
• passwords, sensitive info - share only after building trust with other tasks