REACH - A Podcast for Executive Assistants Maven Recruiting Group

If you couldn’t join us for our second REACH Roundtable Livestream, here’s our playback. REACH Roundtable is an extension of our podcast where we invite former guests back to discuss all things hot topics in the Executive Assistant world. In this episode, you’ll hear from the guests you know and love, Lauren Pelusi, Rowe Hoffer, LJ Cohen, and Kristin Beatham as they share their unique perspectives staying engaged in their work as Executive Assistants and how they maintain their passion and commitment to their careers.

While we’re clearly huge advocates of the Executive Assistant career path, we also recognize that there are those whose inclinations and desires ultimately lead them away from that career and feel there is also value in talking about those guest stories. In this episode, we feature Tiffany Haughton’s story of going from Executive Assistant to the CEO of Poshmark to Growth Partnerships still within Poshmark! Tiffany’s roots as an EA go deep as she also supported the Founder & Creator of Android at one point in her career and she’s a big fan of the role. We talk about everything from how Tiffany wound up as an EA, when she realized she was ready to pivot into something new, how she had that conversation with her executive, as well as all of the ways in which the Executive Assistant role served as an excellent training ground for her current position. We know what you’re thinking, “What is growth partnerships anyway?” Well Tiffany answers that question, but we’ll give you a spoiler – she gets to collaborate with celebrities and influencers like Busy Phillips and Serena Williams!!!

Ellie Dunne, Executive Assistant to the Head of Global Security at Stripe, shares her tips and tricks for how to gather the context you need in order to confidently make decisions on your executive’s behalf and what that looks like in practice. Perhaps your executive never has the time to get you up to speed or lacks the communication style to provide you with the details... or maybe working from home has just made it all the more difficult to get your questions answered. Regardless, this is an important skill to have in your toolkit – something that takes time to master and something that Ellie knows how to do well.

There’s no denying the record of IPOs that have taken place on the US stock market this year and the flurry of organizations headed down that path next, so we decided it was time to dedicate an episode to the role an EA plays in taking a company public. We invited back former REACH guest Tanya Benvenuto, who played a significant role in Okta’s IPO back in 2017. At the center of it all, ringing the bell next to CEO, Todd McKinnon, Tanya lived and breathed this experience first-hand. In this episode, she shares what goes on behind the scenes, how best to support your executive through the process & how to navigate all of the additional intricacies and responsibilities that come with taking a company public all while maintaining the upmost level of discretion. So, if your organization has officially filed an S1, this episode promises to lend insight into the process and prepare you for that life-changing experience.

We’ve talked a lot about what it means to support an executive in the business realm, but less has been explored about what it takes to support an executive in the personal realm. We decided it was time to dedicate an entire episode to estate management, so we invited prominent Estate Manager & Personal Assistant, Alicia Myers, to discuss all things estate management and how to successfully set up a personal household. We touch on how to create a household manual and implement a seasonal maintenance checklist, to how to coordinate a design & build project, to how to manage multiple estates and above all, what it takes to support individuals in the public eye who live highly complex, involved and demanding lives. Here’s a teaser for you: it requires resourcefulness, discretion, precision, attentiveness, flexibility and the need to check your personal values and opinions at the door. So, if you’re an Estate Manager looking for best practices from the best of the best or, perhaps, you’re currently a nanny or family assistant who’s curious about the estate management piece, or even an executive assistant interested in transferring to private service, this episode is for you!

Angela Wiley, Executive Assistant to the SVP of Americas Sales and the SVP of Global Corporate Sales at Equinix, talks about her experience supporting newly minted leaders and executives who had never experienced support until Angela! In this episode, we discuss the typical areas that first-time founders need coaching or direction from their EAs and specifically, how Angela built both a thoughtful and meaningful partnership with her former executive at Inkling. When supporting a new executive, your role takes on a different responsibility in that you become both an ally and a coach. As Angela puts it, supporting a fist-time founder is a tremendous opportunity to leave a legacy as an executive assistant for years to come. So, whether you’re supporting an executive who has never been an executive before or has never had an assistant before, Angela knows what it’s like to be in your shoes and is here to offer you advice and encouragement.