Gabriel Francisco on Finding Joy at Work and Tapping Into the Rhythm of the Office

Gabriel · 0:00

Hey, I'm Gabriel Francisco, and today's quote comes from William Shakespeare. A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.

Speaker 3 · 0:16

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

Jeremy · 0:32

Are you a strategic senior executive assistant thinking about what's next? Whether you're ready for a promotion or loving the job you're in, NOVA Chief of Staff's certification course may be just the resource you're hungry for. With over 400 students across 20 countries and rave reviews, students graduate from NOVA's hands-on, self-paced online course with the confidence, knowledge, and power to make the move to Chief of Staff for their executive. But don't take my word for it. Visit leaderassistant.com/nova to find countless testimonials, the course syllabus, and lots of free resources to support you in your career journey. Hey friends, welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast. It's episode 293, and you can check out the show notes for this episode at leaderassistant.com/293, leaderassistant.com/293. I'm your host, Jeremy Burrows, and today I'm very excited to be speaking with Gabriel Francisco. Gabriel is EA to the CEO at Triple Bar, and Gabriel has a very interesting story that I'm excited to get into. So welcome to the show.

Gabriel · 1:45

Thank you so much, Jeremy. I'm stoked to be here.

Jeremy · 1:48

What part of the world are you in?

Gabriel · 1:50

So I'm from the Bay Area. I've lived in San Francisco for a while, and post-COVID, I'm on the East Bay. So I'm Emeryville, Oakland-based these days.

Jeremy · 2:00

Nice, nice. I apologize if you hear fireworks in the background. We are recording this the night, the eve of the 4th of July, and in my neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, people just shoot fireworks all day every day for like a week. So if you hear any loud booms, I'm probably okay. Awesome. Well, super excited to dive in. Tell us a little bit about you personally. What's maybe your favorite thing to do in the city when you're not working?

Gabriel · 2:33

Sure. Probably unsurprisingly, as we'll get into more, my favorite thing to do is dance. I love music. I love bringing people together. I love creating safe spaces for people to drop into joy. And usually that means within self and other, connecting with space and time and people. Yeah, I'm really into music and movement.

Jeremy · 2:59

Awesome. Awesome. And yeah, we'll definitely get in to more of that before. But yeah, I guess I'll dive a little deeper there before I jump into your career. So what was the initial music loving push? Like what got you into music initially and dance?

Gabriel · 3:20

My mom tells me this story when I was really young. I started speaking quite young and I don't know if I was three, four, five, but she was washing dishes in the kitchen and all of a sudden I said, what's that? And she got really worried about me and she turned down the music and she says, what's wrong? What's wrong, honey? And I said, that, what's that? And she turned it back up and she's like, oh, that's music. And she tells me, I said, music? I love music. And so ever since a very young age, I just felt a very deep connection and resonance with sound and how it hits the body and how it travels through space and what it does to us as humans. You know, from a baby in diapers doing a little bounce and, you know, to as we get older and even that it's, it's the original form of communication. Before we were carving on the inside of caves or creating our really early languages, like dance was the public service announcement of the original peoples.

Jeremy · 4:24

Yeah. Awesome. So then as you got older, was it certain types of music? Was it, you know, did you start getting into actually like playing instruments? Singing? What different elements of music?

Gabriel · 4:42

I grew up in a quite shy. And it wasn't until I was about 17, senior in high school, that I found out about dance. And I was just instantly hooked. Moving my body to music that I loved, just unlocked a whole part of me and sent me like a fireball, spiraling down a trajectory that led me around the world for over a decade and a half.

Jeremy · 5:08

Wow. So that was your career then, your primary career?

Gabriel · 5:13

Yeah. Yeah. My father's a doctor. My mom's a teacher. So helping and healing has been like ingrained in my soul. And I thought I was going to be a doctor until I saw my first cadaver. And then I made a hard left. And yeah, I was in the dance department of Sonoma State and Long Beach State University. And that opened up my career. And when I was 20 years old, I got my first invitation overseas to start teaching in Europe.

Jeremy · 5:47

Wow. That's great. So how long did you teach?

Gabriel · 5:51

So about 16 years. A lot of dancers and choreographers like myself, you know, that we go tour to tour. And in between time, we like, well, you know, some of them are servers at restaurants or Starbucks. And I just wanted to spend my lifetime inspiring others. So it was life on tour. I never looked back. When I got my first gig in Switzerland, the summer of 2000, it was like, like Matrix. I could just see all these timelines and how I could create a sustainable life going from country to country and city to city, just inspiring people through movement and music.

Jeremy · 6:38

That's awesome. So I'm sure, you know, as I am wondering, I dug into your bio a little bit, but I didn't want to get too into it because I wanted to have a fresh conversation and learn more about your story live on the show. But as, as I'm wondering, and as I'm sure assistants listening are wondering, you know, how, how in the heck did you get from that career and that world to becoming an assistant?

Gabriel · 7:06

Right. Yeah, that's quite a leap from being a full-time international artist to, you know, this, this new age kind of half butler, half secretary, executive assistant to CEO. I've also supported ultra-high net worth individuals. And so, yeah, bringing all that to the table, what, what led to that? I got, yeah, it's wild. I got my, I guess you call it a lucky break. When I moved home, when I retired from being an international choreographer, I was living in the Bay Area and this is like, you know, startup CEO central. And so a friend of a friend was the managing partner at a VC, at a VC company startup. And they needed someone who knew time zones, could be a calendar ninja, knew like planes, trains and automobiles, could really function on a high level and emailing everything. And the funny thing about this is for 16 years, I was my own international executive assistant. I was booking meetings with television. I was on my own international flights every single weekend to different cities being on time. You know, I lived in Switzerland, so punctuality is like ingrained in me now. And so they heard about what I've been and what I do. And they were really open minded. And so they brought me on. And I realized that I was made for this. I was at a past job interview. They asked me this really cool question. And they're like, did being an executive assistant, you know, did you find being an executive assistant or did being an executive assistant find you? And I really feel that this secondary calling just scooped me up. Because what I've done my entire life as a choreographer and dance teacher is unlock the somatic potential in people. I've unlocked the mover within. And what I do professionally as an executive assistant is I unlock the professional capacity, the efficiency. I bring about a whole other level, and we'll talk about joy and enjoyment later. But by taking off all of the low and mid-tier tasks off my CEO or C-Suite's to-do list, they get to focus on these really high-level, nuanced work. So I get to unlock them in a way. And another topic I really want to talk about later is just also being like a like a like a culture manager. I really love startup life, although all the companies I've worked for have been like under 100, 200 employees. And what that lets me do as being the right-hand man, woman or person behind the CEO is I have total purview of the company. And so I get to really have a hands-on effect in the happiness and connectivity of the entire org. And so the blending of what I've done and what I am now, for me, is just so seamless.

Jeremy · 10:30

Yeah. Yeah, when you put it that way, it definitely makes a lot of sense. I love how you're like, oh, I was my own assistant, doing all that stuff for myself. And then it's like you just transfer to doing it for someone else. So that's interesting. So, okay, so let's dive into, well, first of all, how long now have you, did you kind of make that transition or how long have you been an assistant now?

Gabriel · 10:53

Sure. And I really felt I was just so lucky and so blessed, and I really dove in on a high level. My first job was working with the managing partner and CEO of a fund. And so I was on the CEO level from the get-go, even though I was just learning so much, my learning curve was parabolic and I'm still learning. As an EA, I think we know that we're never done. We're never done learning. We are forever students. But I was blessed to be on an elevated level from the beginning. And so I've only supported different CEOs and founders. And I think I'm going on my ninth year.

Jeremy · 11:34

Okay.

Gabriel · 11:35

Yeah. And COVID shook us up. There's a lot of people who their companies got crunched and I was one of them. I had a liquidated office in downtown San Francisco and that was a really tough time. And then I had to transition to remote EA, which was a whole nother learning curve and in and of itself. Super grateful for that. And now I found myself back in the office. But yeah, nine years, give or take.

Jeremy · 12:01

Nice. Nice. Well, what we'll get in the culture manager, we'll get into join in the workspace. What I want to kind of start off with soft skills though. What do you, in your mind, what are the key soft skills and how have you developed your soft skills in your choreographer career? And then now obviously transition to your assistant career.

Gabriel · 12:28

Yeah. Yeah. Being a dance teacher as well as an EA to CEO, and finding all of these connections. Soft skills have been paramount in my work. And I think soft skills are paramount on any level of EA. Tactically speaking, being, like I said, being a calendar ninja, adaptability, creativity, and attention to detail. And then personally speaking, and this is really what can't be taught, is emotional intelligence and empathy and communication. You know, teaching around the world, I've had to communicate to people in multiple countries and ethnic backgrounds and really diverse origin. I remember, you know, one week I would be teaching in London, and then I would fly to Romania, and they, to drop me off at the airport, they had to drive through this village where like gyps, like the birthplace of gypsies. And just to like see that, that massive, that's just, it's mind-blowing, you know, the different cultures and different peoples and where they're from, and getting to communicate to them taught me a really beautiful lesson of, or skill to meet people with where they're at. And I always go above and beyond to meet them with kindness. That is the most important soft skill beyond all else. Doesn't matter if you're working with the janitor or someone off TaskRabbit, or it's your CSO. You know, just really approaching it with kindness and meeting people with wherever they're at. I think as an EA, we're constantly code-switching. We're constantly changing up how we do, what we do based upon who we're speaking to. And so, yeah, when it comes to soft skills, I just think they're so paramount in our world as an EA.

Jeremy · 14:32

Yeah. What's been maybe even something practically when it comes to your career in dance that maybe even a tactical thing in choreography that has transferred over to the assistant world?

Gabriel · 14:52

Yeah.

Jeremy · 14:52

Does that make sense?

Gabriel · 14:53

Yeah. Yeah. Specifically, as a dancer and teacher, the discipline and the precision and the dedication required to be a dance choreographer translates seamlessly into being an executive assistant, such as our attention to detail and our rehearsal of plans. Like if outside the execs are visiting our office, like really making that a white glove experience for them. And of course, every EA can understand adapting to last-minute changes, right? These are all really important. And one thing I really wanted to bring up, that this is a quote or an ethos in the theater arts world, that is a direct translation carryover into being an EA, is this thing we call, hurry up and wait, right? That the fast-paced nature of both the dance choreography and being an executive assistant requires agility. And on the daily, and I know you can resonate with this, we manage conflicting priorities. We navigate unforeseen challenges. Things pop up, you know, left, right and center. And as the right-hand man or woman of our leaders, of any company, is paramount also that we maintain composure. We are, to whatever degree you are in your company, right, however big or small it is, I honestly believe that we're like the, we're a face, we're a face of the company. We're seen when the foreign execs come in, we welcome them when they leave, we walk them out. We touch on, depending on how big your company is, but we're hanging out with all of the different job levels. In my current biotech company, I'll be hanging out with the scientists, and then I'll have a one-on-one with HR and the COO, and then I'll be hanging out and chopping it up with my CEO, which I'm so fortunate. My CEO is an amazing woman, and I just tell my friends and family that we just laugh. We laugh all day. We get really important things done, but there's such joy in the workplace, and there's such a good humor. I think I'm a little bit older than my CEO, and so we're on the same Northern California cultural tip, and we're on the same age, so we get all of our same 80s jokes. Yeah, it's really cool. I thought I was being very fortunate.

Jeremy · 17:52

Yeah. I was going to ask, that was the next topic I wanted to dive into, is joy in the workplace. What has helped you find joy at work? What has helped you laugh or figure out that camaraderie or that connection with your CEO and other colleagues and other roles in the past, that has given you that maybe freedom and confidence to open up and laugh and have fun and experience a little bit of joy at work?

Gabriel · 18:23

Yeah. It has to be. It has to be, Jeremy. You have to love what you, I mean, even beyond loving what you do, you have to enjoy what you do. And one of the things that I say in my interviews when I was interviewing for this job and past jobs is that nine to five is our lifetime, so we better make it the time of our life. You, meaning me, we have to enjoy what we do. And speaking personally, I won't do it. I'll find a company that appreciates me for who I am first and then what I do secondly. And I think I just hit it on the nose. I'm so grateful for my current company. I have the sweetest, most intelligent, most humble group of scientists and leadership team I could have ever asked for. And even today, there was an LT meeting, a leadership team meeting, and we could hear peals of laughter ricocheting down the hallway. And I was with Amanda. She's our new HR. And I was like, that's the sign. That's the sign of a healthy company, is where you hear laughter. And that's what matters to me, and that's what I bring. That's what I hope I bring. And it's just that joy to the workplace. I thrive on creativity and expression. And I believe in bringing joy to the workplace through positivity, encouragement, and then really fostering a collaborative environment. I'm always trying to work with someone on something. And then more so, and we have an amazing, I'm the, really interesting, I'm the EA to CEO and C-suite, but I'm also the office manager. So I really have this oversight on the office. And then in our same building, we have the lab and we have this amazing lab manager named Rebecca. And so her and I ping off each other pretty much daily. And there's a lot within the company that we celebrate each other's achievements. We just had our all hands today. And so acknowledging everyone's efforts, there's a lot of internal promotion too, which I brought up to my CEO. That's another really, for me, that's a really healthy sign of a functioning workplace, is internal promotions. Really recognizing people and giving them that raise and moving scientists too to senior scientists, for example, which just happened today, and clapping and giving them accolades, as well as injecting humor into the daily routine. This is all stuff that is paramount and can make a significant difference in your workplace.

Speaker 2 · 21:29

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Jeremy · 22:13

Love it. That's related to the next point in the question I wanted to throw at you. On the culture manager side, you mentioned that obviously you're talking a lot about joy and celebration and bringing that kindness and that empathy and that freedom to have fun together at work. And that's all obviously under that umbrella of culture shifter or culture manager or culture cultivator. But what about when things are tough? What about when you have challenges and difficulties and things are not so happy and things are not going so great or people aren't laughing? What have you found? And it doesn't have to be necessarily related to your current role, but throughout your career, how have you seen this either in your own role and what you've done or what somebody else has done that you've worked with as far as managing that culture when it's, like you mentioned, the COVID time was a tough time, but managing that culture during the tough times.

Gabriel · 23:34

Yeah. There's something called nonviolent communication, NVC, and it's really, I mentioned meeting people where they're at. I mentioned emotional intelligence. But more so, it's helping or letting or making people feel seen, heard, and safe. And if you can do that, then you'll de-escalate any situation. And if, you know, and I've, I remember at a past job, our CTO was a, an older Russian man, and he came across very harsh. And maybe I found maybe a little sexist because our, our, our customer success manager was a really bright woman. And I found that they were saying the same thing just differently. And it was causing a lot of conflict in that office. And so I went to one of them and I got their full story. I went to the other and I got their full story. And I mediated. And when I brought them together, I literally said, look, you guys are saying the same thing just differently. And it's, you know, it's a pleasure to put out fires. And throughout my life, you know, as I mentioned, kindness, and just meeting people where they're at and letting them, letting them speak, I think a lot of people, I think a lot of people just want to be heard. And we bring, like I mentioned, the time of our life, we don't just switch off our personality and who we are innately when we clock in as an executive assistant. Our job more than most other jobs, for example, like being a scientist or whatever it is, or like I said, a customer success manager, like as an executive assistant, we bring a lot of our personality to the table. Even more so, I would say that a lot of us are hired based upon our character fit with our CEO or direct report. Whoever we are managed by or whoever we report to or support. Usually, executive assistants, in my experience, are hired based upon that special je ne sais, this connection that we have with our CEO or managing partner.

Jeremy · 26:08

Yeah. Great. Well, what is there or is there a time when you have, you know, literally used your dance experience in the assistant world? Like, is it, are you dancing in the office? Are you like dancing at the holiday party? Like, how do you, do you like to show off?

Gabriel · 26:33

Like, sure. Yeah, that's a great question and something that I am, I usually try not to bring in my personal life literally until I've been on the job for a year.

Jeremy · 26:46

Yeah. Yeah.

Gabriel · 26:47

Because it's so left field and it's so non-professional, right? It is so artistic that I really let people know and put in my time as a, you know, a kick butt EA before I bring in the dance. But yeah, we have a monthly lunch and learn, we call it. And we've had a lot of different people speak and lecture about different facets of the company. But I am gearing up to do my own lunch and learn where I'll take people just lightly because I know these guys are scientists and execs and people who might not be movers. But I want to take them through their body and connect them with themselves. It can't hurt. It can't hurt to be closer to your movement and closer to your play, to be a kid again. I think there's something special there. There's something magical there. And if we're talking about bringing dance to the office in a more philosophical way rather than a direct physical way, I'll say that there's a groove. There's a groove to being an executive assistant and understanding your CEO's work style. There's a groove to anticipating needs and aligning and optimizing productivity. And I think it's about being an EA and also myself as being a dancer and putting my groove in my work. For me, it's been about building trust and finding my groove, being proactive and continuously refining my approach. I find that to be a dance. And then more so, if I broaden my, you know, micro to macro, I broaden my gaze to the whole office space, then there's a rhythm. There's a rhythm of the office if you pay attention to when people come in. And if they do coffee first thing, or they hit their desk first thing, there's a rhythm of the office. And similar to choreographing a dance, tapping the rhythm of the office involves understanding the dynamics and the communication style and the operational flow of the office. And then for me personally, you know, bringing, infusing joy into everything that I do, it's about creating harmony and fostering effective communication and insuring smooth coordination between all the different teams.

Jeremy · 29:26

Love it.

Speaker 3 · 29:26

Love it.

Jeremy · 29:27

That's so helpful. Thank you so much for kind of tying those two together and sharing your philosophy. I think it's super helpful and interesting for sure to hear that and how those worlds contribute to each other, if you will. So, I appreciate you doing that. So, there's got to be, you know, you did all that international travel. There's got to be some crazy or funny or wild stories in your time that you could share. It could be related to your own travel where you were trying to book something and something crazy happened and you ended up in the wrong country or maybe it's related to doing that for your executives. Is there any fun stories you'd like to share?

Gabriel · 30:16

Oh, yeah, there's a lot on both the personal level and how it ties in to being an EAA. I remember falling asleep on a train in Switzerland and waking up in Prague. I just was hundreds of miles off my path, which was embarrassing and expensive. I've definitely missed a flight in my time, which honestly just helps me be a better EAA when I'm booking other people's travel to know, and this is important to the EAAs out there. It's not when it comes to meetings or travel, it's not important the time booked. What's important is the time in between. It's knowing that buses break down and planes can be delayed. And booking time that's buffer, that acts as buffer or a safe space between things. And even on the daily, knowing that our CEOs got to go pee, right? Not booking everything back to back, even though we want to be as efficient as possible and get all the meetings in every single day. One of the greatest things I've done, I think, has implemented a focus time. At Monday to Friday, all my C-suite, all my execs have 12 to 1 redlined and 4 to 5. And that's a do not book for anyone except for them. If they want to accept something during that time, that's up to them. But this is time for them to be human. It's time for them to review their own notes. I find it to be really effective for their own efficiency to have that downtime, to catch up. Yeah. And I mean, there's a hundred, I mean, 16 years on tour, I could tell you lifetimes of stories from teaching in airplane hangers in Russia to 500 dancers, to underground dance studios in Amsterdam, you know, to choreographing for So You Think You Can Dance in Poland. I mean, I've been in danger. I've had guns pulled on me and, you know, and it's just really built my character, and it's really made me trust myself and know what I'm capable of on a personal level, which just brings it all home, just being an evening. Like, I really know what I'm capable of and have a lot of fun showing up.

Jeremy · 32:48

Awesome. Well, you mentioned that you've done a lot of speaking and engagements and teaching as well. So, what's maybe... I'm a huge fan of learning the skill of public speaking and trying to hone our craft of speaking in front of people. And even if you're not going to be in front on a stage with 500 people watching, even if it's just in a conference room at a meeting at work or on a Zoom call. So, what are your top tips for getting over those nerves or preparing to public speak or even just to perform in public in front of people with dancing? So, maybe just a couple tips for those who want to get a little more confident in their presenting abilities.

Gabriel · 33:38

Yeah. You know, I went about this... I went about both of my careers very organically. I fell into both of them just out of passion. And I learned along the way. So, I learned by doing. And so, my greatest advice would be to just do it. And there's, you know, I don't know any of the groups that do speaking or... I've listened to a few of your podcasts where other EAs talk about these groups that are really important. But, you know, just get out there and, you know, you can use your friends or your family as audience members. You can... I know poetry nights are really cool. So I guess that would be my first thing. I love reading and writing poetry. And there's endless open mics. Whatever city you live in, there's got to be an open mic. And you don't even have to write your own material. You can read any amazing poem that you've ever heard or buy a poetry book and flip to page 46 and just go for it. Like this, just challenge yourself. But I do find that being comfortable speaking is one of the greatest gifts, right? To be able to communicate and send a message from A to B and have it received as you intended it to. Probably one of my best classes in junior college was a communications class. You know, and our teacher, she taught standing in an A-frame and shoulders back and eliminating ums, likes, or buts from your vocabulary. And honestly, it spoke so much truth. And as an EA, if we are purveyors of efficiency, then ums, likes, or buts are the first things we got to eliminate.

Jeremy · 35:30

Love it. One of the best tips that I've ever heard is related to the ums and the filler words. And I always get on my kids for that. They'll start talking to me and they'll start saying um, um, um, and I'll say filler words, filler words. But one of the best tips that I heard was to be comfortable with and OK with silence. And if you can teach yourself to be OK with the pause and the silence, then you don't have to say um, or you don't have to fill it with um or like or but. And so that's been something that I've been trying to work on and it really helped me.

Gabriel · 36:12

That's huge. That's actually huge on like all levels of being on this, you know, to really zoom out to really being a human and on this planet and with each other, you know, being comfortable with silence and just letting the waves crash and letting the wind blow. It's like the most beautiful thing you can do is be silent. Yeah, well said.

Jeremy · 36:36

Awesome, Gabriel. Well, thank you so much again for being on the show. Is there a good place for people to reach out and connect or say hi? Or, you know, maybe they want to listen to your music or watch your dance videos. You know, I can put a bunch of links in the show notes if you want, but where's maybe the best place for people to reach out?

Gabriel · 36:55

Yeah, sure. I can send you some links later. I would say if you'd like to see my movement, that would be on YouTube. And YouTube backslash madorsai, M-D-O-R-S-A-I, will lead you to over 100 videos of choreography throughout my past career. You can also just Google Gabriel Francisco. And if you don't see someone playing soccer, then if you see a white guy dancing, you've found the right... as well as a DJ. If on SoundCloud and Mixcloud, my moniker is Superhero Hip Hop, because I do DJ as well as dance. And then of course, personally, or excuse me, professionally, I would love to expand my professional community. I'm always on the lookout to connect with more EAs. And that's just Gabriel Francisco. You can find me on LinkedIn.

Jeremy · 37:54

Perfect. Excited to check out all of those links for sure. And I'll put them all in the show notes at leaderassistant.com/293. Again, leaderassistant.com/293 to check out all those links and reach out to Gabriel and say hi. Actually, one more question that I would love to ask is, what's one thing you'd like to say to the assistants of the world, or maybe one phrase or statement that you'd like to put in a music video or in a Super Bowl ad or on a billboard?

Gabriel · 38:30

Sure. Yeah, this is actually my own quote. And it's, you are limited only by your endless imagination.

Jeremy · 38:43

Interesting, interesting. We'll have to have to simmer on that one for a minute. Awesome. That's great. Thanks for sharing. Appreciate your time and your energy and your passion for people and for the assistant world. And yeah, it's been my pleasure having you on the show.

Gabriel · 39:01

Thank you so much. This has been such a pleasure. Thank you, brother.

Speaker 2 · 39:24

goburrows.com.