An Hour-Long Call With My Assistant 🗣️⏳

I have a daily “huddle” with my Executive Assistant (EA) every work day.

We go over the previous day’s outcomes and challenges. I share any pertinent updates and corrections. We discuss any communications (emails, DMs, calls) that need my feedback.

On “smooth” days, the huddle lasts 10 minutes.

This past Wednesday, our huddle was an hour.

This is an improvement from 2020, the year I hired my first official EA. Some of those calls were 3 hours long. I’ve gotten better at explaining and documenting processes ahead of time since then.

This hour-long call was spent mostly going over our process for handling professional speaking inquiries.

Long story short, someone had reached out two weeks prior about hiring me to speak at their event. My EA scheduled a call between myself and that person. We had that call, and agreed to the major points — dates, times, fees, flights, hotels — and were on the same page regarding the next steps.

One complication, from the client’s end: They work at a company that has layers of decision makers.

Marketing.

Events.

Accounting.

Finance.

C-Suite.

Translated: Getting this entire deal DONE (read: We have money-in-hand, signed agreements and booked flights) meant bringing 2–8 more people into the conversation.