Natalie Schaefer on 5 Common Challenges for Emerging Assistants

Natalie · 0:00

Hi, I'm Natalie Schaefer. I am the Executive Business Partner at Aparium Hotel Group. And today's leadership quote comes from Ernest Hemingway. And it reads, When People's Heart Listen Completely.

Speaker 3 · 0:19

The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing, leader assistants.

Jeremy · 0:34

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Natalie · 1:58

I am located in Chicago, but I'm originally from Germany, have been living in the United States for about eight years now.

Jeremy · 2:05

Great. And what brought you to the States?

Natalie · 2:09

My husband.

Jeremy · 2:11

Nice. How did you meet?

Natalie · 2:13

We actually met here in Chicago when I was on a family trip slash vacation. And so we met here.

Jeremy · 2:22

Great, and do you like Chicago or is it too cold for you in the winter?

Natalie · 2:27

I loved it in the very beginning. There was obviously a lot to explore, a lot of new things. I'm coming from a really small town in Germany, so you can only imagine how two worlds kind of crashed. But now, you know, you find your groove after a few years, you know, you wait around and there's always new things to explore in Chicago, so excited to be here.

Jeremy · 2:51

Nice and so speaking of exploring Chicago, is that something you like to do in with your free time when you're not working?

Natalie · 3:00

I do, you know, especially the food scene is amazing in Chicago. Every time we travel to another city, and we always find that the Chicago food scene is, you know, unbeatable, so to say, but other than that, I love to spend time outdoors either hiking or gardening, just travel, explore different cultures, exposing myself to different people. And if it's a rainy Saturday night, I like to cook Italian food with my husband at home.

Jeremy · 3:33

Awesome. That sounds sounds lovely, making me hungry. So, tell us about how you ended up in the executive assistant career.

Natalie · 3:45

Yeah. So, I have to go way back into my childhood. I still remember myself sitting at my desk when I was maybe seven, eight years old. I had just started going to school and I was always playing secretary, you know, we're finding ourselves in the nineties right now, so the secretary word was very much out there. I've always had a passion for just being organized, organizing paper, planning, so I was sitting there and playing office when I was a child. So I knew there was something there that I should pursue. Then in my teenage years, I went to vocational school in Germany for office management and in foreign languages, which kind of further paved that path. And then I worked for a while as a translator in Germany, but really got into that EA field in about 2019 when I started working as an executive assistant for a global logistics and freight forwarding company and built my career from there.

Jeremy · 4:52

Nice, so then, you know, talked about the title secretary, when did you realize as you got into the assistant career, when did you realize it was actually a career?

Natalie · 5:03

I think actually really over the past two years, you know, I've been in the EA space for about five years now and a lot of things are new in the very beginning. When you change company, things are very new again, but especially over the past two years after settling into my new job, I've been sitting there analyzing the why and the reasons for doing what I'm doing. So I really started to realize how much material is out there, how many development opportunities are out there. I looked for certifications, found, for example, the paid certification that I did last year. And then just by getting involved into the admin community and by networking on LinkedIn, reading articles, I think that just increased my awareness that an EA is not just an admin and that was pretty eye-opening to me. However, I feel that many assistant positions can be very different, so the type of position that you have can make you feel like it's a career or it's not. But if you come to the conclusion that it's not, I think it's totally in your hands to change that.

Jeremy · 6:26

Yeah, that's a really interesting point. Just the fact of that, you could be an executive assistant to a CEO at one organization, and the role that you find yourself in is not very career-like, but yet you could be an administrative level one assistant at a different organization supporting a VP and very much feel like it's a career, so that's a very good point.

Natalie · 6:57

Right.

Jeremy · 6:58

Awesome. Well, what is your favorite part these days about being an assistant?

Natalie · 7:07

My favorite part of being an assistant, I think it's mainly that it combines my passion and my top skills, which I would name as time management, communication and organization. And I always think that when your passion combines with your skills, it becomes something totally different. And that's my favorite part, that I don't go to work every day and feel like I have to be there, but that I want to be there. And also obviously that I can increase these read efficiency through time management. I love to see when plans play out that I've crafted for days. And then just creating a better day-to-day rundown for my executives and taking the pressure off them by just strategically laying out their time.

Jeremy · 7:58

Nice. And what about your least favorite part?

Natalie · 8:03

My least favorite part, I would say it has to be right now mentality. I think many EAs will concur with that. You know, executives can have very hectic days of being pulled in so many different directions. And it's just right now, right now, right now. So then that doesn't really allow for sitting back, stepping out of that stress circle a little bit and just thinking big picture strategic thinking. Sometimes I've been missing that a little bit.

Jeremy · 8:41

Yeah, it makes sense. Well, one thing you talked about the strategic aspect, your title is executive business partner. And so, you know, you mentioned the 90s and the term secretary. Tell us a little bit about your path or the how you've progressed from that secretary world to executive business partner.

Natalie · 9:09

So yeah, last year in the late summer, it was about the time that my two year review of my role was coming up. At that time, I was about five years into my career and I started asking myself, okay, if I've kind of mastered, you know, the time management and all these tasks that I do every day, at a certain point, it becomes repetitive. And I started asking myself, what else could there be? How can I advance my career? And like I mentioned before, I wanted just to do something that was a little bit more strategic than just the ad hoc day to day. So scheduled the review with my CEO and proactively brought up that thought that, you know, hey, what do you think? I would like to do a little bit. I would like to increase my responsibilities. He was very receptive. We had a really open conversation and he just suggested I would do a little bit of brainstorming with our HR department, our CEO, and then bring the results of those brainstorming sessions back to him. So we did that. I was, I'm really grateful for, you know, feeling heard. I think many assistants might not find themselves in the position that they actually do feel heard when they're asking for some more in their career path, so that was awesome. And we really sat down during those brainstorming sessions, seeing what does the company need the most from the CEO and what could a newly created role do to help him get there. And so we basically landed on three main things that we thought everybody, including the CEO, could benefit from. And that's what we landed on.

Jeremy · 11:09

Nice. And so there was a good back and forth conversation and not too much resistance, huh?

Natalie · 11:17

Right. Yeah, it was very smooth. We worked on this a few months. Then we brainstormed titles. My ultimate goal is the chief of staff role. But we determined that the chief of staff title might not fit into how every company is laid out. So we landed on the executive business partner role. We found that was a really good title that would fit what I would be doing in addition to my regular tasks.

Jeremy · 11:53

Awesome. Awesome. So that's super exciting. Is there any, I'll throw a curveball at you, is there any funny or odd or, you know, crazy stories throughout your career as an assistant that you'd like to share?

Natalie · 12:11

Crazy stories, I just, I think that overall as an assistant throughout your career, you just, it's not crazy, it's not funny, it's just very insightful, I would think, that you see these executives, how human they really are. You know, when you don't have a lot of touch points with, you know, C3 executives as a regular employee, you see them very differently, you know, and so as an assistant, just to be able to be that bridge between the CEO and your coworkers, I think that's super exciting actually.

Jeremy · 12:56

Yeah, great, so then there's this, what I mentioned earlier, you're the founder of EAPathfinder. So tell us about EAPathfinder. What is it and what, how did you come to launch this project?

Natalie · 13:15

Yeah, so very exciting, again, end of last year, it seems that last year was kind of my year of reflection, so shortly after my role changed, I started thinking again, okay, now I'm in this role, you know, what else is there that I could do that would be really my own project, my own timeline, my own execution, creativity, what could I put together that would benefit the EA community and, you know, I started doing more research on available resources and you're finding yourself in that vast ocean of books and podcasts and videos and how to guide. And so what I really found was that the market could really benefit from a guidebook that's. For emerging executive assistants, and what topics could they really benefit from if I addressed them and provided everyday tips and tricks around those topics. So, I basically thought back about a lot of conversations that I had with peers, things that I experienced myself over the last five years, and really landed on these five topics that I found were striking, that everybody was running into.

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Jeremy · 15:25

Nice. And so, which of those five common challenges are, can you kind of walk us through the high level of that outline?

Natalie · 15:40

Definitely. So, I found that the five most common challenges were communication, time management, leadership and initiative, relationship building and career development. And I'll speak to each of them a little bit here in a minute. What was very important for me when I wrote the guide was that, kind of like the motto, time is a limited resource. How can NEA get information fast? Maybe someone would want to read a really big book, maybe their first week on the job, and, you know, fires are shooting out the ground and they're thinking, what can I do? So I'm really focusing the guide on hands-on, easily actionable and making them relevant for really every assistant that is getting started. So communication obviously is a huge topic. Thousands of books exist about it. EAPathfinder provides guidance on how to communicate more effectively and precise and addresses also the frequency of communication since in the EA, well, some of us really under-communicate and some over-communicate, so really finding that balance. Time management is a huge one in there. It's more a deep dive into really calendar management, which I'm finding is a crucial skill for every EA success, has real-life examples in there, for example, in times of travel, how to stay flexible. I know that us EAs love to get everything organized until we understand it of more that way. So how can you preserve that flexibility just for your own sanity and being okay with things constantly changing that you put so much effort in? And also the art of saying no, which is also essential for time management, obviously. We can say yes to everything when we're being asked for time with our executors. And sometimes there is no time, there are certain things that you can do to not just say no to somebody, but go about it in a different way. So that chapter lines out how to do that.

Jeremy · 18:14

Would you mind sharing just one example of how to say no without saying no, maybe?

Natalie · 18:19

Yeah, I think depending on the context, obviously, and on confidentiality, I always think that people appreciate when you give them the reason why you say no, that makes them more approachable and then just providing an alternative. So usually it's really never a no, it's a yes-but, I would say, maybe. So just working on alternatives in that case, and creating a little bit more awareness of how many things really channel to the CEO and that time really needs to be prioritized and grouped accordingly.

Jeremy · 19:06

Super helpful. Thanks for sharing.

Natalie · 19:10

Yeah. And then so the next one is leadership and initiative, and one would think, well, I'm an EA. What does leadership mean? So what I've seen throughout my career is really that managing up is very much important. I think leaders appreciate it. They don't want to micromanage. Sometimes they do it, but they really don't want to. It's intimidating if you're a young executive assistant and needs to be approached in the right way. And what I found is that once you show reliability to your executive, the trust will build and that will make it easier for you to manage up. Then obviously things like being proactive, how do you do that? How to trust your gut? I think it's imperative for executive assistants to develop that intuition over time and then embrace resourcefulness. How do you make the impossible possible with limited resources? Fourth one is relationship building, very essential in that career path. How do you build relationships but still maintain confidentiality? Because you will experience that people try to squeeze that information out of you, even if they don't say it directly, but you notice that they're trying, going back to intuition again, you just know. But how can you still build valuable relationships around the company, because it will be helpful? How do you set boundaries with people? How do you navigate through feedback? And how do you, even though you're being professional, give all these interactions a personal touch? So that is the relationship building chapter. And then the last one is career development. I'm listing the six key strategies to just stay ahead of the game and identify opportunities for professional growth in the EEA career path. Then I've included a little bit of bonus material in the form of a little journaling prompt that go back to each chapter, lessons learned, for just reflection and helping the reader identify ways forward, because I really want the reader to apply the guidance to that database. And I want to make it as accessible as possible. And I think that when you work through a section and then actually are being prompted to reflect on how that applies to your life, to your day to day, it can be really helpful.

Jeremy · 22:03

So what's the format of your resource? Is it a, is it text? Is it video? What's kind of the format?

Natalie · 22:14

It is digital, it's a, it's a text, so people can either read it on a screen or they can also print it out. You know, I, I'm always the person that I like to print out things and put little handwritten notes everywhere. And then obviously for the journaling prompts, it would be nice if you kind of had that in front of you that enables you to do the journaling.

Jeremy · 22:41

And what, what's maybe your, like, what's some feedback you've gotten from assistants that have gone through it or even, even just that you've helped the systems with in any of these areas, any of these topics?

Natalie · 22:59

Yeah. So the feedback has been very positive so far. I received a lot of feedback that it would be great if, you know, I started doing little videos. That's why I'm on your podcast today to practice that because, you know, with English not being your first language, that is definitely that comfort zone that you have to leave. So I'm taking the feedback and, you know, hopefully in the future I can release a version two or just build up on what's existing. You know, the launch is still relatively new, so I'm still gathering the feedback and then I will compile it and just extract what the demand is and then let's see where it takes me.

Jeremy · 23:43

Awesome. And then how long do you think it took you to put all this together?

Natalie · 23:49

About three to four months.

Jeremy · 23:54

Okay. And is it something that you recommend other assistants that have thought about putting together resources, like any tips on getting started?

Natalie · 24:07

Yeah, I, what I did is I took a huge sheet of paper and did a little brainstorming sessions and I just started writing out, you know, ideas, topics, and then it helped always to visualize things for me on paper. So then you start seeing the connections. Oh, how does that tie in with that? And then, you know, at some point the circle just closes and that then kind of gives you the line out for what you're writing. So that was really helpful for me. I also had an awesome graphic designer. I tried to do it myself, but it drove me crazy.

Jeremy · 24:46

Sounds like me trying to design things.

Natalie · 24:50

I just thought that, you know, it would just soak up so many of my hours and I was not okay with it, so through a connection, I was able to find a graphic designer that did an awesome job for me. So that was a huge help as well. So I always think that, you know, especially as you're getting started, you haven't earned anything yet. Obviously, you want to keep your costs low, but when you can find the right value for the right price, I think you can definitely outsource and get some help with the design.

Jeremy · 25:24

Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely my number one tip when it comes to trying to create things is to outsource the things that you either don't enjoy and or can't really do very well, right? So if you could buy a billboard or produce a Super Bowl ad that millions of assistants would see, what message would you put on that billboard or what would the message be for that Super Bowl ad?

Natalie · 25:59

It would be very short and sweet, three words, and it's own your career. And the emphasis would be on the own, simply because I think that there is not a direct, clear career path for EAs and you can just do so much. You're not stuck. You're not just an admin. You're not just there to schedule meetings. There's so much more than you can do, but nobody will lay it out for you but yourself. So just to be persistent, proactive, and manage your own goals. And I would really encourage everybody to pursue this career path as it brings them joy and they're good at it and you really need to own it. And it's unlike any other career path where there's a very clear direction that you'll be going. The DEA career is very different. So if you don't own it, nobody will do it for you and you might get stuck in the same job for 20 years, even though you want to do so much more, but it's really in your hand.

Jeremy · 27:08

Well said. I was actually had a coaching session with an assistant and we were talking about this exact idea of, listen, your company, your colleagues, your executive, even if they're the best company you worked for and the best executive you worked for, they're still not going to care as much as you do about your future. And they're not going to put as much focus and energy on what you do and your future as you will and you should. So yeah, it's definitely kind of you got to own your career, you got to ask for what you want, what you need. Sometimes it's kind of, especially as assistants, we have to self-manage ourselves and do the work and say, hey, you know what, here's my new job description, here's my new title. I've already done all the work for you. All I need is your stamp of approval and a salary increase.

Natalie · 28:12

Yeah, and definitely. And especially, I think the personality pairing of the assistant and whoever they assist, be it a CEO or VP or whoever, the personality really needs to be a fit that can make the biggest difference in the world.

Jeremy · 28:32

Yeah, yes, definitely. Well, what is the best place, Natalie, for people to reach out and learn more about you, say hi, connect, all the things?

Natalie · 28:46

Yes, I'm very active on LinkedIn. I am really limiting my social media presence on LinkedIn right now because I just think that it's the most fruitful for the type of audience that I'm trying to reach. They can reach me at eapathfinder.com. They can scroll through the website, learn a little bit more about the guidebook, reach out to me. There's a contact box at the bottom of the website and otherwise always happy to connect and network on LinkedIn.

Jeremy · 29:22

Perfect, and I will put those links, of course, in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/272. That's leaderassistant.com/272. Natalie, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for putting together this extensive resource for assistance. And, yeah, we'll hope to connect in the future, maybe over some good Chicago food, and best of luck to you.

Natalie · 29:55

I wish you the very same.

Speaker 3 · 30:07

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