The podcast you're about to listen to is for entertainment purposes only. Nothing you hear should be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. The majority of people do not make money as coaches. If you hear someone on this show who has had extraordinary results, they are the exception, not the rule. You could do everything you hear on this podcast and still not get results. We don't know you, and we are not implying you will make money from anything you hear on this show. If you're not willing to accept that, this is not the show for you. If you're still here, let's get into it. And remember, this person is your gatekeeper. This is your loyal, nurturing person who's going to be there for you. They're going to give you more time. They could run to the PO box. They can run to the security deposit box. They can help you with every tiny little thing that gets you tripped up. Let's talk about your first hire and who should that person be? Because as entrepreneurs and visionaries, it's the same person for all of us. And that is an executive assistant. I cannot stress this point enough. An executive assistant is the person who is going to be your right-hand man or right-hand girl, whoever it is. And I'll tell you a little bit about that person who it is, why you should hire them a little bit sooner than you think you should, when to hire them, how to hire them, how to find them, how much to pay them, and what they should do and not do. So let's get right into it and we'll get right to the meat and potatoes. You are an entrepreneur. You are a revenue generating machine. So what an executive assistant does is we all start this journey where we're starting to make money and then all of a sudden like we're keeping all these plates in the air and they start to fall and break. and that is not good. One of the things that falls in break all the time on a new adventure as an entrepreneur is your marketing, right? So we broadcast to the world, right? Hey, we have this great product or service and then we have people pay us to get that product or service. And then as we're fulfilling that product or service, what do we do? We drop the ball in marketing. So now we create this rollercoaster ride that we're all on as entrepreneurs or when we start we're on that we need to kill right away so that we have more of a trajectory that's in the right direction and more consistent where we don't have these big swings. Why do we hire an executive assistant? Because an executive assistant gives us time. Time to do what? Focus on generating revenue, marketing, fulfillment, the pillars that hold the roof up, the columns that keep the whole business up. An executive assistant is someone who is gonna give you more time and more peace. They are your representative. They're the person who is loyal, nurturing, working hard for your good They protecting you They the gatekeeper They the ones who do the little tiny things that get you tripped up the routine Monday boring day in day out things that you are not meant to do as an entrepreneur. And it can be anything. And you're doing a lot more than you think. One of the things that my buddy Joe McCall taught me years ago, almost a decade ago now, was he said, get a pen and a paper. Now you can use your phone. But he said, get a piece of paper and just every 15 minutes have a little beeper go off and write down what are you doing right at that moment. And he said to do it for a week or two. I did it for like three days. And then I was like, this stupid thing. I can't stand this alarm, but I wrote it down. And then what he said to do is write a little EA executive assistant next to each thing that the executive assistant can do. Guys, this is a game changer. You are doing, even if you think you're not doing a lot, you're doing way more that is not in the realm of revenue production, fulfillment, and marketing, and sales, just the basics, right? So write down EA, and you'll see there are tons of things. One of the biggest mistakes that a lot of entrepreneurs do is they'll hire an EA, then they'll say, like, I don't have enough work for her, so what I'll do is I will just start to invent new things for her to do that I wasn't doing in the past. Don't do that huge mistake. Instead, have her do the things that you're already doing. Also, let's talk about an executive assistant. Who is this person? Here's what you should be looking at. Number one, this person must be local. I know I'm going to get a lot of kickback on this because people are like, well, what about a VA? I love virtual assistants who are overseas. I hire tons. I have lost count. I'm sure that my first hire, Lorena, who I actually flew down to Orlando. so her and her daughter Max could go to hang out in Disney World when we were at one of our conferences. I'm sure Lorena is one of the wealthiest people in the Philippines right now. When I first spoke to Lorena, I remember there was a, it was always like floods. She would send me pictures of her little apartment window where there's like a flood outside. And I heard a in the background, there was a rooster. And now when I see pictures of her, she's like living her best life, which I love. God bless her, right? So she's amazing. And we want to bless VAs and they're important parts of our business. But this position, the first hire should be local. Also, make sure here's some of the parameters of who to pick. Number one, they've got to have a college degree. Chances are you don't have a college degree. I know I don't. That's great. It's good for the owners. But remember, remember, your executive assistant should absolutely have a college degree. Why? What is a college? A college is a factory that produces people who are intelligent and or it shows a certain level of intelligence and it doesn't produce, but it indicates a certain level of follow through on details, routine, like little things like that, things that we're not normally good at. So make sure they have a college degree. Typically, if you took all of my clients across every industry and you said, well, who working with who Typically the gender is female more than male I don know anyone I don know anyone who in my top like 100 or 200 people that a male doing this So could be a male That fine But I would say if you're going to follow what it seems like other people are doing, it's typically female. Also, here's a big trick or here's a big secret. They must be already working. If they're not already working, no good. It's a hard pass. So if they come to the interview and they're not already working, hard pass, don't hire them. It's not for you. You have to hire people who are already working almost in every role in your business. You want people who are already working that you can take from another place where they're not appreciated or compensated perfectly. Also, when you're interviewing them, ask them what their expectation of compensation is. Sometimes they'll say, well, I expect to be paid $42,000. Other times they'll say it's $180,000 and everywhere in the middle. The more people you interview, I know that you want the fast way out of this, right? I know that you say that you're willing to interview people, but most people are lazy and they don't. They just call like, oh, maybe I could find a friend to do this. Get used to interviewing two to three people a week. Set up interviews, two to three people in person a week. Set it as a KPI that you have to interview two or three people a week, 20-minute interviews, and after 10 or 20 of those interviews, you'll just start to know in your gut who's a good fit and who's not. So that's another point. The other thing that I would suggest is as you're going through these interviews, the person has to be local, like we already said, but also the person should have a bookkeeping background. They don't have to be an expert, but they should understand basic QuickBooks. For your first executive assistant, a QuickBooks background or somebody who understands bookkeeping is absolutely vital. So those are some of the things to look at and to start interviewing right away. Here's another tip. What I would suggest is for the guys out there, well, here's a really game-changing tip, a strategy that I would strongly suggest that you do. interview as many people as you want, wind it down to like two or three or four people, and then have your wife or spouse or girlfriend do the final interview and let her pick who you're going to be working with. The bottom line is we're going to be spending a lot of time with these people, sometimes one-on-one. It's appropriate for our spouse to have some input into who that person is. And I'll get to give you a big secret. Your wife is a better judge of character than you are. I guarantee that that's true for you. And if it's, oh, if you're a female and you're going to hire a male or whatever the story is, I would just suggest whatever your life position is, your partnership, your whatever it is, I would strongly suggest that you have your significant other, your partner, your spouse, your fiance, do that final interview and choose that final person. They're usually a better judge of character than we are. So take that with a grain of salt, but I strongly suggest it. Implement this person right away. And remember, this person is your gatekeeper. This is your loyal, nurturing person who's going to be there for you. They're going to give you more time. They can run to the PO box. They can run to the security deposit box. They can help you with every tiny little thing that gets you tripped up setting up the LLC communicating with a VA hiring setting up interviews whatever Make sure that this should be your first hire an executive assistant If you need a great resource, read the book by Jan Jones, Tony Robbins' old executive assistant. It's called The CEO's Secret Weapon. It's by Jan Jones. Read that book. It's a super quick read. It'll give you a lot of insight, but this person will change your whole life. It'll help you achieve wealth and success. What do a lot of people with less business acumen do? They just fill every need as it pops up. And then what happens is you just have like this conglomerate of these people. They're all wearing multiple hats and it's just not as effective. Hire your right hand person. Let them help you with everything. They love it. You'll have a great relationship with them. Let them help be your gatekeeper, your protector of your time, and you will have a great adventure. this business adventure that we're all on. It'll be easy, peasy, lemon, squeezy. Try to do that today. And when should you hire them? As soon as you start consistently making money every single month, right? As soon as you start consistently driving revenue every single month and things are starting to get out of hand, hire that person earlier than you think. Don't give them new things to do. Give them things to do. And if you say to yourself, well, you know, Tom, I just can't justify a full-time position right now. Yes, you can. Because that person, when they're giving you more time and more energy and more focus, your revenue is going to go, guess where? Up, up, up, up. So good luck. If you need help on this adventure, if you'd like somebody by your side on this entrepreneurial journey that you're on, go to coachinginc.com, fill out an application. I'll review it myself. And I'd love to be on that journey with you. Enjoy the day, guys. And I will see you on the next episode. So make sure that you hire an executive assistant today. Do it right now. Go to indeed.com or whatever job site you like. Post the ad for an EA. Start reading them. Start setting up your interviews, even if it's the wrong person. And if they're not already working, it's a hard pass. Enjoy the day. We'll see you guys on the next one. Bye-bye. If you are a coach, a consultant, or an expert who wants to grow and scale your business with our help, be sure to head over to coachinginc.com. Again, that is coachinginc.com. Schedule a short discovery call with us. On the call, we'll take a look at where your business is right now, what's working, what's not, and we will give you a proven game plan to take your business to the next level. Okay, until next time, we will see you on the next episode. Comes the time to say that's good enough
