When to hire an executive assistant (and why you keep putting it off...) with Monique Helstrom

Summary

Podcast Summary: "When to Hire an Executive Assistant (and Why You Keep Putting It Off...)"

Shiny New Clients!
Host: Jenna Harding (Warriner)
Guest: Monique Helstrom
Release Date: January 20, 2025

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Introduction of the Guest

In this episode of Shiny New Clients!, host Jenna Harding welcomes Monique Helstrom, a seasoned expert in productivity and organizational growth. With over 23 years of experience, Monique is the former executive assistant and chief of Simon Sinek, playing a pivotal role in launching best-selling books and managing global speaking tours. Now, as a coach, speaker, and recruiter, Monique specializes in enhancing the relationships between leaders and their assistants to provide a strategic advantage.

Jenna Harding [01:33]: "A great executive and assistant partnership or business owner-assistant partnership can boost productivity by up to 50%. That's worth it."

The Initial Hurdles of Hiring an Executive Assistant

Jenna brings up a common scenario where small business owners, especially solopreneurs, feel that hiring an assistant might increase their workload rather than alleviate it. Monique acknowledges this concern, emphasizing that the initial phase will indeed require more effort to establish a productive partnership.

Monique Helstrom [01:56]: "This partnership can completely transform your business in a very short period of time. 20 to 50% on average. So get in there, get going, figure out what you want to do and hire the people that you need to move forward."

The Importance of Effective Onboarding

Monique stresses the necessity of investing time and attention into onboarding a new assistant. She describes the relationship as an "intimate partnership" where both parties must understand each other's workflows and responsibilities to ensure seamless collaboration.

Monique Helstrom [02:44]: "This partnership doesn't work that way. So you have to spend the time in the beginning."

Overcoming the 'Do-It-All' Mentality

A significant barrier Monique identifies is the tendency among female entrepreneurs to believe they must handle every aspect of their business alone. She highlights that recognizing the need for assistance is not a weakness but a strategic decision to focus on more critical business functions.

Monique Helstrom [03:42]: "The fact that you need someone to help you is not a slight on you. Doesn't mean that you can't. It means that you have more important things to do right now than those."

Optimizing Your Task List for Delegation

Jenna and Monique discuss practical steps for business owners to identify tasks that can be delegated. Monique advises categorizing tasks into those you dislike or are not skilled at and those that do not directly contribute to moving the business forward.

Monique Helstrom [06:49]: "Take like two weeks and write down all the things that you're doing... What is moving the needle forward. So you have to get rid of the tasks, even if you like doing them, that aren't moving the needle forward."

Unconventional Client Acquisition Strategies

Monique shares three unconventional strategies to attract clients, emphasizing the importance of nurturing internal relationships and leveraging existing networks.

1. Treating Employees Well

A cornerstone of Monique's first strategy is fostering a positive work environment. She asserts that happy employees become organic brand ambassadors who actively promote your business through word-of-mouth.

Monique Helstrom [08:25]: "When you treat your employees well, they are your best marketing asset, period."

Jenna adds that rewarding employees for referrals can further incentivize them to advocate for the business.

2. Leveraging Referrals

Monique emphasizes the power of referrals from satisfied clients and employees. She advises business owners to proactively ask for referrals by providing clear prompts and making the client feel like a hero who is helping others succeed.

Monique Helstrom [13:50]: "If you do ask them, there's a 50% chance that I'll say something. So go with the odds."

3. Enhancing Executive Presence

The third strategy revolves around cultivating a strong executive presence, which encompasses how the business presents itself through words, actions, and appearance. Monique highlights that consistency in executive presence builds trust and attracts clients who align with the business's values.

Monique Helstrom [14:17]: "Executive presence is all about how you show yourself into the world... There is no way that me personally, I'm going to work with someone who doesn't act the way that they say they will."

Effective Communication and Branding

Jenna and Monique delve into the importance of clear and effective communication in branding and client interactions. They discuss the balance between being authentic and tailoring messages to meet the audience's needs without "dumbing down" the content.

Monique Helstrom [16:40]: "Communication isn't about what you have to say, it's about what they need to hear so that they understand you and can take action."

Jenna Harding [17:33]: "We're not dumbing it down. We're meeting them where they're at."

Monique cautions against oversimplifying messages as it can lead to attracting less qualified clients and causing confusion about the business's offerings.

Conclusion and Contact Information

As the episode wraps up, Monique provides insights into whom her services are best suited for, ranging from administrative professionals to C-suite executives looking to optimize their operational efficiency. She encourages first-time executives to seek her expertise to navigate the complexities of hiring and managing an assistant.

Monique Helstrom [18:50]: "I do specialize in first timers. I love my first-timer executives that have never had support before..."

Jenna provides listeners with Monique's contact information to facilitate connections.

Jenna Harding [19:34]: "You can find [e-mail]... I'll put it in the show notes and everything as well so everybody can find you."

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Key Takeaways

1. Invest Time in Onboarding: Establishing a productive partnership with an executive assistant requires deliberate effort and time investment.
2. Delegate to Focus on Growth: Recognize the importance of delegating tasks that do not directly contribute to business growth.
3. Cultivate a Positive Work Environment: Happy employees are powerful brand advocates who can drive client acquisition through genuine referrals.
4. Leverage Referrals Effectively: Proactively seeking referrals from satisfied clients can significantly enhance your client base.
5. Maintain Consistent Executive Presence: A strong and consistent executive presence builds trust and attracts aligned clients.
6. Communicate Clearly and Effectively: Tailor your communication to meet the audience's needs without compromising authenticity.

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By addressing the common hesitations and providing actionable strategies, this episode equips business owners with the insights needed to effectively hire and utilize an executive assistant, ultimately boosting productivity and fostering business growth.

Transcript

[Jenna Warner]

Welcome to Shiny New Clients, the marketing podcast that helps you attract shiny new clients to your business. We'll talk about social media, what makes people buy, how to go viral, and marketing psychology all in 20 minutes or less. Whether you're a coach, a stylist or a wedding planner, if you've got a service based business to sell, this is the show you need to fill your calendar. I'm Jenna Warner, your new marketing coach and this is Shiny New New clients.

As a small business owner, you are strapped for time. Actually, that's why these episodes are so short. You're strapped for time. I'm strapped for time. So let's bring in someone to talk to us today who is an expert in productivity and organizational growth. Let me introduce you in just a second to Monique Hellstrom. She has over 23 years of experience. She's the former executive assistant and chief of Simon Sinek. So cool. It's like we're one degree of separation from Simon right now in that organization. She played a key role in launching best selling books and managing managing global speaking tours. She has seen it all. And now as a coach, a speaker and recruiter, she helps leaders and their assistants, assistants and their leaders turn their relationship into something that gives them major strategic advantage and something. I thought that was really cool reading up on you. Was that a great executive and assistant partnership or business owner assistant partnership can boost productivity by up to 50%. That's worth it.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Yes. Amen.

[Jenna Warner]

So, Monique, one of the things that I know my listeners have experienced or will experience is bringing on that first person to support them in their solopreneurship journey and realizing that now things feel like more work than they were before and they will. Is that sort of par for the course when you bring in an assistant, would you say?

[Monique Hellstrom]

Sure. And frankly it should be. I don't know what to tell the executives that think this should be a really easy entry and that you should not pay attention to this person or spend a lot of time with them or onboard them in a really good way or concentrate on this partnership because again, this partnership can completely transform your business in a very short period of time. 20 to 50% on average. So get in there, get, get going, figure out what you want to do and hire the people that you need to move forward.

[Jenna Warner]

Forward. It's funny, we often have so much resistance to bringing someone into our business. I feel like there's like there's a bunch of reasons for that one, because it feels like it's going to be more work, even just organizing passwords to share with someone can be really overwhelming. Are there other things that, you know, make people resist bringing someone in that we need to kind of get over?

[Monique Hellstrom]

Sure, sure. I'd say two things. Exactly what you said, that it's going to be more work on the onset. And again, it should be. This is a very. I'll call it an intimate partnership. You know, at the end of the day, you know, I knew Simon's Social Security number. I knew how much money he had. Like, we know everything about you. We have your bank account numbers. So it is an incredibly intimate partnership. And if you don't spend the time in the beginning to set it up, well, nothing will happen. You know, this isn't just a random person you could just throw into a spot and they'll figure it out. This partnership doesn't work that way. So you have to spend the time in the beginning. And that's usually one of the things that. That holds people. I will be very. What I like to call Philly Blunt and say that the most resistance I have found is from female entrepreneurs, female business owners, female small business owners who convince themselves that they can do everything. I can do everything. Even if I don't, I can't.

[Jenna Warner]

I can. And here's the thing.

[Monique Hellstrom]

You can. But should you. Do you need to. Yes, you could probably do it all. But the fact that you need someone to help you is not a slight on you. Doesn't mean that you can't. It means that you have more important things to do right now than those. This is something that Simon always tells me. He's like, I am the best at what I do, but you're the best at what you do. And so don't try to overlap those. I don't want to be you and you don't want to be me. Let's just stay in our lanes and do what we're good at, and together we'll make magic.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah, you know, I had a social media management agency, and I went from being a social media manager to an agency owner with social media manager skills and then had to very quickly be like, oh, I now run a company and then was just hobbling it together as best I could. And we use Asana for task management. And so that's basically if you're unfamiliar, like it's like a Monday.com or any sort of project management software. And I. I think I hired like three people to try and fix it after I had made a mess of all of our systems for many years. It took three tries to get someone to come in and take my brain and translate it into like I should have done it sooner is what I'm saying. I held on way too long to doing everything myself.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Yeah, I mean, that happens. And it's not out of, you know, ignorance or anything. It's just as women were kind of built to do everything and be everything and take every role and never say no. And again, hiring administrative help doesn't mean you can't. It means that this is an area where you shouldn't be spending a lot of your time or you're not good at it.

[Jenna Warner]

Give it up.

[Monique Hellstrom]

You know, this is what you just said about that. I have found this so much in my business. I'm a doer, I'm a worker. I'm an executive assistant by trade. So me owning a business is difficult. I'm not really good at the strategic thought. I'm not great at high level marketing and thinking. And I'll be totally honest with you, I despise social media. I don't know how to do it. I'm not good at it. I'm really good talker. I don't know how to put it all in teeny weeny little words and make a picture that goes with it. So I struggled for so many years. I could do it. I could do it, I could do it. And I was like, you know what, Monique, give it up. You're terrible at it and you hate it. Why are you making yourself crazy? So I hired a chief marketing officer to tell me what to do and my life is so much better.

[Jenna Warner]

One of the first tasks I did when I signed on with my first major business coach was she called it the shit I hate doing list. Right. So you like went through all the things and then also you realize all the stuff you're doing. Because I think another barrier to entry, to having somebody on your team working there with you is it's hard to even differentiate when you're doing an admin task and when you're doing project work because everything is all jammed together. Like at the point where you're hiring someone, you're pretty much cooked.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Right?

[Jenna Warner]

Like you're full to the brim. That's why you need someone. So how do you choose the first tasks to pass off? How do you optimize audit your business? Can you speak to that?

[Monique Hellstrom]

Sure. I would say it falls heavily into two different categories. A, the, the shit you don't like to do that is absolutely a category or that you don't want to do or that is not in your skill Set. Just admit that you need help in some area. We can't be everything. We can't be good at everything. The things that you don't like, things that you're not good at, things that you don't want to do. That's a great list. However, some of those things might still have to be on your list. If you're focused on sales or if you're a CEO, there's some crap that you're not going to like to do that you still have to do, being that you're in that position. But the second list is, and I encourage all of my executives to do this, is take like two weeks and write down all the things that you're doing. And if you want to get a pomodoro or a tracker or a timer, and write down the list really quickly. Like, I just spent an hour on email. I just spent two hours trying to find XYZ without judgment. Don't judge yourself on why you're doing it or that you're switching tasks. Just make a random list and then look at that and say, what should I have been doing? How many hours did I spend on things that aren't moving the needle forward? As a business owner, that is your job. What is moving the needle forward? So you have to get rid of the tasks, even if you like doing them, that aren't moving the needle forward.

[Jenna Warner]

Folks listening to the show love taking away some actionables. And Monique did her homework, came with this really good idea of sharing with you three things that you can do that are kind of unconventional ways to get clients. And we love giving. We love giving listeners homeware.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Great. So, yeah, as I said, you know, marketing is not necessarily my strong suit, but I can tell you from all of my experience, one of the best ways to get clients is to treat your employees well.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah.

[Monique Hellstrom]

And I know that sounds bizarre, but you have happy employees. Guess what happy employees do? They talk about you. They talk about the job. They talk about your services. They're at the counter getting a bagel at the deli, and they're like, oh, my goodness, you have a blah, blah, blah. I do. Blah, blah, blah. This is great. So when you treat your employees well, they are your best marketing asset, period.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Right.

[Jenna Warner]

Now, mostly, I teach social media to small business owners. I don't do the agency as much anymore. But I have had writers say to me, I keep telling my friend to hire you. I keep telling my friend to hire him. Like, that is such a good sign. And also maybe even rewarding those employees. When they do send over a referral.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Absolutely, absolutely. And reward them in unconventional ways.

[Jenna Warner]

Yes.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Money's always good, and depending on who you want to give, that's fantastic. But what if this person wanted to go to a conference one year and learn and get some professional development dollars? Maybe give her fifteen hundred dollars to go to a conference to learn to grow her skills, pay for the. The hotel and the airfare? Like, these are things that you can do that are extra, that show your team you believe in them as a human, not what they can do for you.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah. And because a lot of people listening, they're like, yeah, okay, that's one day I'll have the money for the airfare. And you will, dear listener.

[Monique Hellstrom]

As you will.

[Jenna Warner]

You will, as you will. But another idea. A book. Send them a book. You know, like in that episode of Ted Lasso where he gives every member of the soccer team a book that he feels like, this is why you.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Need to get to know your assistants and your people that you work with. You know, you know what they like, and you send them something that they like.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah.

[Monique Hellstrom]

And when you get a specific gift from your executive that is targeted to you, you're like, big hearts. Like, your heart is just jumping out of your skin. So there is no better marketing than having a really great sen of employees.

[Jenna Warner]

Amazing. Okay, next up, what's your second one? Your second idea?

[Monique Hellstrom]

My number two, focus on referrals. You know, happy employees make happy sales. Happy clients make happy sales. I feel like we're in this world of. Of newness and constantly trying to just. Every day there's something new happening, and we have to just go out there and find the new clients. Whereas if you connected with the clients that were really happy with you before and maybe caught up with them every once in a while and chipped in with them three weeks after you sold them whatever the product was and said, how is it going? These are very simple ways to tell your clients that they're cared for. And your second best marketing effort is clients who've already paid you and are telling other people, I've paid her for this. And I was satisfied because that's what people want to know. Did you get your money's worth?

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah, a hundred percent.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Nobody can tell a better story about that than your clients who got their money's worth.

[Jenna Warner]

And in terms of social media, I won't talk about it for too long because I know you don't like it.

[Monique Hellstrom]

I know it's like the worst thing to say on your. It's. I Don't like it because I don't understand it and I don't know how to do it and it intimidates me and again, it's not my specific skill set. So why am I going to push myself into something that, that I won't do good enough. That'll get me the result that I want too. Yeah, hire experts. I love that.

[Jenna Warner]

Here's the thing and I kind of have of two worlds. I'm just going to segue for a seckie. If you came to me and you said all that and you were like, I don't like it. I don't really understand it. It feels overwhelming. Feels like I'm not good. I'm the only person in the world that doesn't get it, but I want to. Then I would be like, come into my office. I've got you. I've heard it a million times. But if you're saying I hate it, I don't want to do it, I actually don't want to do it, then I'm like, great, don't.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Great, don't. Yes, thank you. Yes. I mean we, you know, I talk a lot about self awareness and all of my coaching and everything that I do and if we're not self aware about what our skill set is and where weaknesses lie and let's just be really honest with all of them and not. It's not a slight on you. Everyone can't be everything. So.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah, yeah. So I do want to give one quick tip for the audience. If you are a person who wants to use social media. Sometimes we think if we have a bunch of followers that are friends and family and our old network and are no clients and there isn't that element of newness that it's not worth it. But put the words in those people's mouths that they need to refer you. If you just started your business yesterday and you only have a personal account, you can still be getting clients from that and you can still be generating referrals from that by telling your audience what you're up to and exactly who to send to you.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Absolutely. Same thing with referrals. You know when you're talking to your past clients, you know when I get on with a recruiting client or an executive who I hired a great assistant for and they're super happy and we're six months later, I will say something to the effect of do you know anyone else who was going through the same thing that you were going through? You have any buddies that are struggling like you were struggling and they'll Yes, I do. I mean, oh, Bob and Steve and Jim and Joe. And they'll. Then they'll send them over, but you have to give them the words.

[Jenna Warner]

And then sometimes people feel like, okay, but I don't want to ask him for that. And he's already paid me, this client of mine, and like, I don't want to ask him for that. No, dude, you're making him the hero because he's about to go save Bob and Joe and George, right?

[Monique Hellstrom]

Yeah, right. And if you don't ask him, there's a hundred percent chance that he's not going to say anything. If you do ask them, there's a 50% chance that I'll say something. So go with the odds.

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah. Okay. And what's our third one?

[Monique Hellstrom]

You know, I talk a lot about executive presence. Executive presence is all about how you show yourself into the world. Now as a human, that's what that's called, executive presence. But the business can have that as well. It is what you say, how you act, and how you look. Those are the three things that make up executive presence. And again, that can be done for a human, but of a business. What are you saying? What are the words that are coming out? What are your marketing words? How are you talking about things? What sort of emotionally charged words are you using? Are they congruent with what you're selling? Does it make sense that your words and your product go together and then how you act? If I see a business that I really want to get attached to and I really want to work with, and then I do some research on social media and I find out that they've posted some really gross things on social or. Or whatever. I'm not taking that. Are you crazy? There's no. I don't care if you have the best product in the world. There is no way that me personally, I'm going to work with someone who doesn't act the way that they. That they say they will.

[Jenna Warner]

Controlling your public image, I would call it, if I was in my publicist days, having a personality, sharing that with the world, being intentional about how you want to show up and how you want to make people feel.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Yep, absolutely.

[Jenna Warner]

I had a client go through my program and there's a question near the very beginning. It's like, how do you want to make people feel when they arrive here? If you had a storefront, how do you want people to feel when you walk in and somebody was like, that question, like, transformed how they were thinking about things and how they were writing and how they were taking pictures and how they were doing all the stuff. I'm like, really? That question, like everything in this program? That question?

[Monique Hellstrom]

Yeah, absolutely. Something that I teach a lot in communication is communication isn't about what you have to say, it's about what they need to hear so that they understand you and can take action. So this is for employees, friends, family and clients. And everything. Me saying to you, me telling you something is a very one sided. I'm going to tell her blank. That's very kind of aggressive and it's very one sided. It's coming from my brain, how I think about things and my perception. But if I just twisted and said, what do they need to hear so that they will act, so that they will feel, so that they will buy, so that they will. Whatever, let's talk about that instead of what I need to say. That's not gonna help you.

[Jenna Warner]

That is so simple. But I feel like that applies to copywriting. That applies to everything.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Everything. It's, it could applies to how you communicate better with everyone. You know, and this isn't manipulation. I'm not gonna, I'm not saying you turn your personality into someone else. I'm saying, you know, when I, I'll give you a great example. I'm very loud and boisterous. I talk a lot. I'm very animated. And so whenever I talk with people who are more introverted, who are more quiet, who maybe don't have the same level, I keep my level, I keep my voice a little bit lower. I don't try to raise it as much, I'll go lower, deeper. But I don't take it up high. You know, I just allow myself to talk calmly and clearly and get the message across. That's not manipulation. That's me getting my point across. That's this actually understanding what I have to say. And isn't that the point?

[Jenna Warner]

Yeah. People often think that by not using jargon in their copy in their posts and using like simple language, they call it dumbing it down. I'm like, why are we. Don't I have a, I have a few things to say about that. We're not dumbing it down, we're communicating effectively. Like if someone is on the bus looking at their phone briefly, they don't have time for you to write an academic caption. They're not absorbing it. So we're not dumbing it down. We're meeting them where they're at and their stop is next and they're glancing at their phone quickly like it's Communication.

[Monique Hellstrom]

It's communication. And frankly, if your tactic is to dumb it down, then get ready for some dumb clients. Like, I'm just going to be real about that. If you're attracting the lowest common denominator, that's what you're going to get. So the, the, the dumber you go, you know, how, how are you going to get people really attracted to it if you're dumbing it down? And also that confuses things. I don't, I don't know what you mean. Sometimes when the words are too simple or too flowery or too colorful or too, you know, up in the air that I don't know what you're like. What is the ask? What do you want me to do with this information?

[Jenna Warner]

Be clear, Be clear. Okay, Monique, who should call you and when?

[Monique Hellstrom]

I work within the relationship of an executive and an assistant. So I work with all types of administrative professionals from office managers to chief of staffs, as well as on the executive side that could be small business owner, solopreneur, or even a personal assistant, all the way up to a C suite executive assistant. That's, you know, for the CEO. So whatever your needs are on the executive side. I do specialize in first timers. I love my first timer executives that have never had support before and they, again, they don't really know what to do. It's like this beautiful piece of technology that nobody taught you how to use. I want to get out there and help people understand what this beautiful piece of machinery that us executive assistants are online.

[Jenna Warner]

You can find [e-mail] that's for the drivers. M O N I Q U E H E L S T R O M Monique Hellstrom. And I'll put it in the show notes and everything as well so everybody can find you.

[Monique Hellstrom]

Thank you so much. This was so fun.

[Jenna Warner]

Good. Thanks for being here.