How to Make Your Executive Assistant Your Secret Weapon with Ethan Bull

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Today on the show we have Ethan Bull. Ethan is one of the most experienced and effective executive assistants in the world and has now built a distributive team of executive assistants all over the country to serve many different visionaries at just the right capacity they need. Most visionaries don’t really know that it is possible to have a fractional assistant or know what’s possible when you have someone like this on your team.

We are going to talk about that today on the podcast with Ethan and we are going to get a lot of great information on how to be a better executive assistant and how to be a better principal or boss. So whether you want to be an executive assistant or would like an executive assistant in your world, this episode is going to be great for you.

We discuss:

[02:10] Ethan shares his defining moment when he was dropped off at college.
[06:40] Losing his best friend at a young age had a very profound effect on him and his life.
[10:18] Executive assistants help leaders focus their time on those things that move the needle the most and lift the burden of worrying about all the little things that serve them no purpose when they are striving for those bigger goals.
[14:26] They do run up against the “I can do it faster” mentality. They find if they can match them with the right person and they get over that hump they move from being a micromanager to a master delegator.
[15:34] Good traits for an executive assistant are someone with a Type A personality and someone that has demonstrated that they can do the role for an extended period of time. They also look for assistants with a servant’s heart, someone that understands they are behind the scenes, someone with emotional intelligence and self-awareness, effective communication, demonstrated work ethic, and the idea that this is their calling and role.
[21:03] Taking a risk and trusting is key even when you don’t know this person as much as you would love to.
[22:30] Record the Zoom call of you showing your computer your tasks as you talk through it. Leveraging technology to where you can step back quicker is always good.
[25:18] How you introduce, treat, and include your executive assistant in your work speaks volumes.
[26:37] An executive assistant can add five performance multipliers to a client or principal which adds five hours into their day. It doesn’t happen overnight. It needs to be built on trust and be an open partnership.
[27:42] The opportunities are endless but it is all about matching the person, what are their needs, and how they want to leverage the support.
[29:43] For a CEO to be able to take an idea, question, or task and be able to get it out of his brain and forwarded it to someone he knows, likes, and trusts and knows it will get done and never think about it again. There is a huge value there.
[31:07] The pandemic woke us all up that things can change quickly and you never know.
[32:44] The goal or purpose in life is to meet all of your responsibilities yet have as much fun as possible. If you are not having as much fun as you possibly think, maybe a change is needed.