Nick Jaworski:                    Very strange. Yes.

Michael Hyatt:                   All right. Hi, I’m Mike … oops. Hi, I’m Michael Hyatt.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         And I’m Megan Hyatt Miller.

Michael Hyatt:                   And this is Lead to Win, a weekly podcast to help you win at work and succeed at life. Is that what I say normally? No.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Our weekly podcast.

Michael Hyatt:                   Did I do that right? You’d think after a gazillion shows.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         You just said, a weekly podcast.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. Hi, I’m Michael Hyatt.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         And I’m Megan Hyatt Miller.

Michael Hyatt:                   And this is our …

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         This is the worst opening we’ve ever done. This is amazing. Wow. Can we get some real talent in here?

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay, let’s try again. [inaudible 00:00:44]. Megan, I need with a little bit of snap, so I don’t think.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Okay.

Michael Hyatt:                   All right. Hi, I’m Michael Hyatt.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         And I’m Megan Hyatt Miller.

Michael Hyatt:                   Why the delay?

Nick Jaworski:                    I think, it’s interesting. We got a delay right as we started recording, which we did not have-

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         I’m not delaying. Do you think I’m pausing?

Michael Hyatt:                   Yeah. It’s like a [inaudible 00:01:06].

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         No, I’m not pausing, it’s just doing it. I’m not doing it.

Michael Hyatt:                   All right.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         I’ll get around to it.

Michael Hyatt:                   And this is Lead to Win, our weekly podcast to help you win at work and succeed at life. Last week we talked about four rules for effective delegation, but that begs the question, who are you delegating to? Well, there’s no higher, that is more essential for a successful business owner or an executive, than a great executive assistant. Now, why do we say that? Well, today we’re going to talk about three essential tasks a world class executive assistant can do for you. Megan, I just want to ask you, are you excited about this topic?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         I’m so excited about this topic. I love talking about executive assistants. When we think about our coaching clients, this topic is probably one of the most popular, because I think people, particularly business owners and executives have this sense that they need help. They need somebody to kind of run point on all the supportive activities that are mission critical.

And yet it kind of feels like a black box. It’s not like you learn in business school or college or whatever, how to hire a great executive assistant. Or even more challenging, how to manage a great executive assistant. And so I think people sense that there’s a lot of potential here, but they don’t quite know how to access it. And so that’s what we’re going to dig into today and I’m pumped.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. I want to start with a story. So back when I was in the big corporate world, I had two full-time executive assistants. So one of them, their full-time responsibility was managing my calendar, booking my travel, anything that was calendar related. The other one managed my inbox, took meeting notes, did all the things that were related to being a CEO of a bigger company.

And so when I left that, I thought, I am so done with the bureaucracy of a big company. I don’t need no stinking executive assistant. I can do this myself. And I kind of had this attitude early in my career. I thought, well, executive assistants are for the people that just can’t manage stuff. It’s kind of a luxury that nobody that’s hardcore and really committed needs. So I kind of went back to that period in my life.

And I thought with this new role, as I’m starting this new company, which now is Full Focus, I’m just going to do without an executive assistant, because I can do it all myself. How hard could it be? Well, that lasted about three months, because I found myself totally engulfed in all these administrative tasks for which I had zero passion and even less skill.

So in the Freedom Compass, we call that your drudgery zone, right? So I’m trying to book travel, make a total mess of it. I’m trying to manage my inbox and feeling totally overwhelmed, always behind. And I’d always prided myself in inbox zero. Well, I got there because I had an executive assistant, but on my own, I had too much email to manage. So that lasted about three months, but here was the worst part.

As a business owner, I’m now focused on things that don’t generate revenue, that don’t grow the business, that don’t enable it to scale. So I was recently speaking to a group of business owners and I said, “Hey, I’m just curious, by a show of hands, how many of you have an executive assistant?” Only 50% of them raised their hand. And I’m thinking, what? And they were exactly where I was.

So I couldn’t really shame them, because I’ve been in that exact shape before. And so I said, “Well, why don’t you have an executive assistant?” And they gave me a variety of answers, but here’s the thing, once I got an executive assistant and I hired somebody who was a part-time virtual executive assistant, actually from be BELAY Solutions, which is a company that we usually recommend when we’re talking about this, it made such an enormous difference almost immediately.

I hired her for 10 hours a week and she turned my world upside down and better yet, not only was I taken off the things that I didn’t do well, but I was suddenly on the things that built the business. And so I said to these business owners yesterday, I said, “Speaking from my own experience, here’s the thing, you cannot scale your business unless you can scale yourself. That’s the first and most important foundation of scaling a business. You’ve got to be able to scale your time and you’re going to quickly run out of 168 hours a week. You’re going to run out of energy, and focus, and attention, and creativity, unless you can figure out how to scale yourself.” And an executive assistant is the first step toward that.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah, I think that’s absolutely right. And this is one of those things that business owners often have a blind spot around, because they see the other needs in their business. Maybe somebody else on their team is asking for a new hire. It’s like there’s always something to spend money on. There’s no shortage of places to invest as a business owner.

And sometimes the last place we prioritize investing is ourself. But as we talked about in our previous episode on delegation, you are your most valuable resource as the business owner, your time, the sense of stewardship over your time and how you think about investing. That is one of the most important things you need to be concerned with. And you know what I love about having an excellent world class, as we call it, executive assistant, is it not only does that person keep you from doing things that for you are lower leverage, the ROI on your investment of time, on maybe some of those more administratively oriented tasks, is not great relative to where you really get the biggest ROI for your time.

But a lot of what they do, it’s not just the ability to delegate things that you don’t want to do, because they’re in your drudgery zone. It’s also partnering with them, to do the part of your work that really is a thing that makes it able to be effective. For example, maybe you’re leading a meeting or you have an important vision that you need to articulate. Well, after you’ve written that vision, that’s your work as the business owner or the CEO, that’s got to get disseminated to the rest of your team.

That has to be, there’s probably some kind of a follow up that has to happen, for it to ultimately be as high leverage as it needs to be. And if it’s left up to somebody like me or somebody like you, dad, we’re not that good at that stuff. And we can very quickly end up kind of squandering the opportunity of some of our most important high leverage work, because nobody is coming behind us and making sure that whatever happens next goes where it needs to go.

Michael Hyatt:                   Yes, exactly. Well, we have a brand new course on this for executive assistants and for executives, we’re going to tell you more about that later. But what we want to talk about now is three essential tasks than an executive assistant can perform for you as the business owner or as the executive in your company. And try to expand your thinking about what’s possible, because we think this makes an enormous difference. So Meg, what’s the first one?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         So the first one is that a great executive assistant clears and protects time for high leverage work. And think of this as your partner in goal achievement. A really great executive assistant is going to make it possible for you to achieve your most important goals, in a way that you on your own really can’t, because those things are going to pop up in your business and your life that are going to threaten your goals.

The things that you’re committed to, your most important priorities, your highest leverage work. And what your executive assistant can do is say, “Okay, I know that you told me for this quarter, you’re focused on these three goals. Let’s make sure that in your calendar, there’s enough time in your calendar for your highest leverage work,” because everybody’s screaming at you know, internal requests, external requests, et cetera, et cetera.

Fires that pop up for your time. And if you don’t have someone proactively advocating for your goals and your most important priorities, they’re just not going to happen. And so what I love, is instead of me kind of having to advocate for myself, although some of that is necessary. I’ve got Elizabeth who is constantly saying, “Okay,” we did it in our one on one meeting this morning. “Okay, what are your big three for the week? What are the goals that you’re focused on this quarter? Okay, let’s make sure that what I’ve allocated for you,” she’s saying this to me, “There’s enough time on your calendar for you to accomplish that,” because if nothing else happens by the end of this week, it’s her job to make sure that I have enough time to get my weekly, big three done, because that is the domino that ultimately pushes my quarterly goals over.

So I think this is one of those areas that’s easy to discount. You might just think about tasks that an EA does, scheduling, travel management, inbox management, whatever, but there’s really outcomes that they’re enabling for you, like clearing and protecting time for high leverage work, that are invaluable.

Michael Hyatt:                   That’s so good. And I think our assistant is not just somebody that does the stuff we don’t want to do, but it’s a collaborative partner, and particularly our partner in goal achievement. But to just switch the lens slightly, this person is also the person who keeps us focused in what we call our desire zone.

Now, last week we talked a little bit about the Freedom Compass, which is a tool that we use in our business coaching program, where we talk about where passion and proficiency meet. Those things that we’re the most passionate about, that we love doing and the things that we’re the best at, in terms of generating revenue for our firm, meeting clients’ needs, and really doing the thing that we’re getting paid to do. If we can marry those two things together, that’s the desire zone. Now here’s reality. You’re not good at everything. And I don’t mean you, Megan. I mean, everybody listening to this, including me, nobody.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         I’m glad you clarified that, because I thought we were about to have an intervention.

Michael Hyatt:                   That’ll come later. Yeah, none of us are good at everything. And when it’s all said and done, there’s only a few things that any of us ought to be focused on, because there’s only a few things that we really accel at. There’s a lot of things that we do, that others could or would do if we would just ask them. And that would free us up to do the things that others can’t or won’t do.

Okay. So by the way, that’s a loose translation of a famous quote by Dawson Trotman, but it applies here. We need to focus on the things that only we can do. Now, for me, that’s about three things. And I tell our clients that it’s probably three to five things that are in your sweet spot. That’s your lane. That’s where you should be focused.

And an executive assistant can help you hold yourself accountable to not getting out of your lane and getting involved in those things that you don’t do so well. And for me, it’s all those administrative things, like managing my email inbox, managing my calendar, booking my own travel. Those things are all in my drudgery zone, which is the exact opposite of the desire zone. These are things I don’t like to do, and I’m not good at. In fact, it’s worse than not being good at. When I do them, I just kind of screw up and make work for everybody else.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah. That’s been my experience too, every now and then I’ll try to book my own dentist appointment or haircut or whatever. And inevitably my assistant has to come behind me and fix it, because I’ve double booked or I’ve gotten the times wrong or I thought it was free and I really wasn’t. I get the date wrong. It just, it’s a disaster every time.

So I now have a commitment to just be hands off, but one little kind of side note that I want to just make, that I think if you don’t have an executive assistant now, and maybe you had some resistance to it, it can be easy to think of this as like just the little administrative stuff. Almost belittle the work. This is just the administrative stuff and kind of like dad, your experience coming out of the corporate world, having two executive assistants, then being on your own, trying to do it all.

If you’ve ever tried to do this on your own, what you realize is, it is not insignificant at all. It’s actually very, very important. Just because it’s not high leverage for you because it’s not your greatest contribution, doesn’t mean it’s not very, very important, because here’s the reality. If your time is your most valuable resource in your business, then how you spend it and conversely, how you unintentionally waste it, because of bad scheduling or if you get too exhausted, because your travel’s not thought through, if you travel a lot and you get in a situation where you took a flight late at night and you got to bed late and you got an important presentation the next morning with an important client. And that’s not as good as it could have been, because you were too tired, because you didn’t think through all that.

That’s not insignificant. That is incredibly important. And a good executive assistant is a master of pulling together all the details, that you can do the things that you do best. It really is a partnership. And I think the best partnerships that we see as coaches in our business between executive assistants and business editors, are when people see it that way. If you have kind of like an old school secretary mentality, if you rewind and you’re back in the ’60’s or the ’70’s.

That’s not what we’re talking about. We are talking about really smart, really capable people, who are your partners, who have different strengths than you do that make it possible. As we said here in this first point, to clear the path and protect the time for your highest leverage work.

Michael Hyatt:                   So good. Yeah. And a really good executive assistant is going to anticipate your needs. So they’re not going behind you cleaning up, they’re going in front of you making the way clear so that you can stay focused on your highest leverage work. And I think that’s an important distinction, because I used to think it was the former, not the latter. But it really is that, being in front of me, making the way clear, so that I can stay focused on those things that really drive the business forward and create a life that I love.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yep.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. So the first one, the first task that a world class EA can do, is they clear and protect time for high leverage work. What’s the second one?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         The second one is that a great executive assistant handles coordination and communication. Now this is one of those things that is deceptively simple. And yet I don’t know about you, dad, but man, this is where I can get sucked into just a whole slew of tasks and things that distract me from making my highest leverage contribution, because there’s so many people that I have to communicate with. When I’m rolling out some change, which we’ve done some of lately, for example, with our switch, our rebrand to become Full Focus from Michael Hyatt and Company.

From a communication standpoint, that was very complex. There was so much coordination that was necessary. We had a whole cascading communication plan, internally, externally documents that were needed. If I had been in charge of that myself, the likelihood that we would’ve had dropped balls, that we would’ve had miscommunication, that we would’ve had inconsistent messaging, would’ve been very high because there’s a lot of sequencing that is necessary. And a great executive assistant could help keep you out of that, so you can do the thing that as the business owner, you’re really charged with, which is probably actually doing the communication itself, but they can think through, how does it get sequenced? Who needs to know first? Let’s make sure that you’re keeping up with your inbox, another kind of communication.

All the different things. Setting up meetings. There’s just so much of that kind of stuff. And you could spend 30 or 40% of your time as the business owner managing all that. Or you could spend 30 to 40% of your time generating revenue for the company, by being the visionary, by being out front, whatever it is that you do in your desire zone.

Michael Hyatt:                   I think it’s really easy to underestimate what capable executive assistants are capable of. So for example, one of the things that Jim has done increasingly. Jim is my executive assistant and he’s been with me now for a little over five years, I think. And one of the things about Jim, is that he will take, because he manages my inbox. He will compose drafts of replies to requests.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yep.

Michael Hyatt:                   That are for me. And those have gotten increasingly complex, but it’s to the point now where Jim will draft the draft. And I will say to him, “I wouldn’t change a word. I mean, that’s perfect. That sounds like it’s from me. It’s in my voice. It’s exactly what I would say.”

But here’s a cool thing, Jim, he’s not as connected to it emotionally. And this is a good thing, because for example, when somebody makes a request of me, they may catch me to weak point when I’m just trying to be my people pleasers self, which is not my best self. And I might say, “Yes.” But Jim has that perspective of the whole calendar. He knows my commitment to my family. He knows my commitment to my highest priorities. And he’s going to make sure that, that doesn’t happen. So usually, and he’s learned this as a self defense measure- (silence).

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Uh oh. Well.

Nick Jaworski:                    I was hoping he could pull it out.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         At least he ended at a period.

Nick Jaworski:                    Let’s see, Jim’s in the waiting room, but I told him to wait. It’s interesting. Why would Michael’s … I just assume all of your internets are so connected because you’re all so close.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Well, I mean, they’re not connected, like the same network.

Nick Jaworski:                    Sure. But I just, when there’s an outage, I assume it probably …

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah. I don’t know what that is. That’s weird. Yeah. Usually that is true. If their Comcast is out, ours is out.

Nick Jaworski:                    Let’s see.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Comcast, darn it.

Nick Jaworski:                    Just going to wait it out. While we’re waiting. Hey Joel? We should get together and I can help, because it sounds like there’s you have plans about the content of the shows and maybe I could help with some show development itself. Who do I talk to? Who’s your person? So DeAnne?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         D-E-A-N-N-E.

Nick Jaworski:                    Oh yeah. That’s right. Did I know that? I guess so.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Also known as D for short.

Nick Jaworski:                    Was she …

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Erin calls her D. Just like the letter D.

Nick Jaworski:                    Welcome.

Michael Hyatt:                   It just stopped. I was talking and I looked down, you guys were frozen.

Nick Jaworski:                    Yeah. You disappeared. And it happened … it was no degrading in quality. I was concerned you all were going to drop because, so it was just you. I don’t know what happened.

Michael Hyatt:                   What was I saying?

Nick Jaworski:                    You had just finished-

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Something about no.

Michael Hyatt:                   Had I just finished?

Nick Jaworski:                    Well, you had finished a thought. Yeah. I should have taken a better note of that. (Silence).

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. Okay. Are we recording?

Nick Jaworski:                    Yes.

Michael Hyatt:                   So Jim is able to go out in front of me and deal with these issues and be proactive, so that I don’t have the anxiety of having to make the decision myself. Jim knows what my highest values are. He doesn’t get confused, like I sometimes do. And he’s able to respond on my behalf and in a way that’s gracious and kind, but still protects my calendar. And that’s enormously helpful.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah. I think this is huge. And you actually said something that was sort of like a little Russian doll, nesting doll in there, where not only is he going out in front, but Jim is really making recommendations to you, whether that’s about communication and coordination, or opportunities that come through communication. Often for you, that comes through email requests that people send to you. And he’s the first line of defense there, which is so helpful. There’s like this buffer between the two of you.

And I think that not only does that protect you from making bad decisions where you might be inclined, like you said, out of a desire to people pleased to say yes, when you really want to say no, but it also reduces your decision fatigue, because instead of him coming to you and saying, “What do you want to do about this email or this request?” He’s saying, “I think you should say no to this because of X, Y, Z. In fact, I’ve already written this draft for you, will you just approve it?” And it’s like, he’s leading the horse to water. He’s leading the witness, in a great way. And I think that is such a huge thing, because then you can stay focused on the decisions only you can make.

Michael Hyatt:                   I’m thinking, because there was a response I was going to give to that. Yes, that’s exactly right. And part of this anticipation that he does, is anticipating things on my calendar that could really chip away at a lot of time that I have available and only have available to do the high leverage things. And so for example, as we’re recording this, it’s just before Mother’s Day. And so one of the things Jim did last week, is he sent me a little notice in Slack and he said, “Oh, by the way, I’ve ordered flowers for your mother. And I’ve ordered flowers for your wife for Mother’s Day. Here’s the messages I sent with them. And I just want you to know that they’re going to be arriving on Saturday before Mother’s Day so they can en enjoy them for the whole weekend.” That was amazing. And by the way [inaudible 00:24:35].

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Done and done.

Michael Hyatt:                   I know. I make no distinction between my private life and my personal life. Now in the corporate world, big corporate world, I couldn’t do that. But as a business owner, I can do that. And I told him at the beginning, there was going to be no distinction. So what Jim does in that situation, is he makes me the hero, because I always have the intention. I want to follow through, I want to show up for the people that I love, in a way that’s significant and communicates all the right things.

But sometimes I don’t follow through on the intention. But Jim makes good on my intentions. And he does that for all kinds of gifts, all kinds of things. I’ve told you, Megan, this is old news to you, but I have a weekly date with one of my five daughters and it’s on a rotating basis. And so that was an intention that sometimes it was hit or miss, till I got Jim involved.

And then I said, “Jim, I need you to coordinate this, so that it never ever falls off the map. So that I’ve always got this date sometime with one of my daughters, because they’re very important to me.” So Jim has made that happen beautifully. And again, it makes me the hero, because he’s coordinating the things that for whatever reason, I don’t have the time or the energy or the focus or the follow through to do.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Well, another thing like that is lunch. Okay? So another thing that seems like, seems like it’s kind of an ordinary thing, that why would it rise to the level of being on anyone’s job description? Well, have you ever gone to try to do a presentation with low blood sugar or crashing blood sugar, because all you could grab was a Snickers bar and a Coke, right? But instead, if your executive assistant is thinking about, okay, how do I prepare my person to go deliver that presentation? Then part of that preparation is making sure that you’re hydrated, that you have blood sugar taking care of, and that you’re not spending a lot of time worried about that. And he, or she may be able to come to you. And instead of saying, “What do you want for lunch? Or did you bring lunch today?” It’s, “I think, you should get this for lunch. Let me recommend this.”

And then if you’re like, “Nah, I don’t really feel like that. I Actually ate that yesterday. It was over the weekend or whatever.” Then they can go to option number two. But if you have a pre populated list and they know everything you like from all the local places, then when it’s a busy day and you couldn’t bring something from home or whatever, they can be intentional. And all that stuff goes together to help you perform at your best, which matters, because stewarding your own time and energy for the benefit of the people that you’re serving is one of your most important roles in your organization. So, all this comes together to really be a performance strategy with your partner, who’s your executive assistant.

Michael Hyatt:                   So good. Okay. So the first task that they can do is to clear and protect time for high leverage work. The second one is handle coordination and communication. What’s the third one?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         The third is that a great executive assistant can manage meetings and necessary follow up. Operative word, follow up.

Michael Hyatt:                   Yes.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         That’s like a bad word to me. I just don’t have the natural wiring to be good at follow up and beyond that, like most business owners and CEOs, I spend almost all of my time in meetings, except for our meeting free day, which is Wednesdays. Which means, unless I’m going to work before work and after work, I don’t even have time to do the follow up, because I’m in the meetings.

However, if I have Elizabeth with me in many of those meetings taking notes, which usually I do, if it’s a significant meeting, she is amazing at collating the action items, distributing them to the people that need to take action on them, following up to make sure they were done, getting any relevant documentation.

Oftentimes there’ll be something that, “Hey, we need to do some research on that or whatever.” She makes all that stuff happen, so that we don’t just sit in meetings and come up with great ideas. We actually take the action that we intend to, so that we can move the business forward. And again, these are critical contributions that our executive assistants are making. And if it just depended only on us as business owners or CEOs, there would be so many balls dropped that would really compromise our ability to deliver operating results.

Michael Hyatt:                   Well, and it really compromises our integrity with our own team.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yep.

Michael Hyatt:                   When we don’t follow through, when we give our word to something and tell them we’re going to do something and then we don’t do it, that sets a bad example. It compromises our integrity and it just doesn’t move the business forward. So one of the things that Jim does for me, I have, like everybody else, recurring meetings. And so Megan, you and I had a meeting before we got on today.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yep.

Michael Hyatt:                   And one of the things Jim always does for me, is the night before my meeting, so this would’ve been on Friday before Monday, we’re recording this. Jim would give me a list, not only of my meetings, but all the commitments that I made to get done before the meetings today. So I knew what I needed to get done in order to meet with you.

He also reminds me what other people committed to, so that I can ask him about that. So what that does, is it creates … not only it makes me look great, because I’m always following through, because I always get the reminder and if I haven’t done it, I can scramble and still get it done. But it also sets the pace for the entire organization that we make commitments. We keep commitments. And that’s kind of the cadence of the meetings that we’re involved in.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Absolutely. Okay. I have to tell you a funny thing that is my favorite thing about Elizabeth joining me in meetings. Okay. It’s not going to be what you think. She keeps up with the time. Now thankfully, a lot of the meetings that I’m in are creative kind of visionary type meetings. A lot of times there’s a whiteboard involve and man, I can just lose track of time. I love it. We make a lot of progress. It’s so fun.

But I have kids to pick up and if you’ve been listening to us for any length of time, you know, I got to leave to go pick up the kids from school. That is my commitment every day. And if I’m not careful, I can just keep going. Just like another 10 minutes. And before you know it, I got a kid standing out there waiting for mom at the end of the car line, which is not what I want.

And so she will keep up with the time and she’ll say things like, “Okay, we’ve got 15 more minutes until lunch arrives. Why don’t we finish this point? And then we can pick up after lunch.” Or she’ll say, “It’s 30 minute time check. You need to have X, Y, and Z on the agenda accomplished.” And she just manages that. And because she’s kind of a disinterested third party, she’s not contributing necessarily to the whiteboard session or the vision part of the meeting, she can really stay on top of that, so that ultimately we accomplish what was on the agenda for the meeting. We accomplished the purpose of the meeting and that’s why we’re all there. So again, such a high leverage contribution on her part.

Michael Hyatt:                   That’s so good. There’s another aspect of this managing meetings things that I think is easy to forget. And I used to think, well, I’ll just sit in the meetings and take notes as I’m participating or worse, leading. It’s really hard to be a participant or to lead a meeting and record the meeting minutes as you go. Virtually impossible, because I’m trying to do two things at once.

I’m kind of caught in the conversation that happened a minute ago and I’m not fully present to the conversation that’s happening now, because I’m trying to capture it. And one of the cool things that’s happened as a result of Zoom and so much since the pandemic, is that now still nearly all my meetings are on Zoom. And we have a service called otter.ai hooked up to Zoom. So we immediately get, we record all the meetings. Jim immediately gets a transcript of it.

And so Jim is able to summarize that meeting and capture it in a one or two page document, that has the notes. Now left to me, I’d be on to the next thing. I don’t have time to do that. I could do it after the meeting, but Jim does that and it’s a wonderful way to capture all that and keep me focused on the task at hand.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah, I think that’s really good. Back when we were all in school and we were taking notes and some of us, myself included were really good note takers, that was different, because you were attending a lecture. You were basically kind of an observer or a more passive participant. So you could be focused on the notes. But if you’re also the presenter or the contributor, that’s impossible. You just, you end up not taking notes and you end up leaving the meeting without clear action items.

And it’s very hit or miss as to whether or not people take action and the meeting is ultimately productive. And meetings, we’re not anti meeting here at Full Focus. We love meetings. We teach about meetings. But they have to be managed effectively or they can be a huge time suck and just a waste of time. And so if you want your meetings to really count, an executive assistant can be a fantastic partner in making the most of accomplishing the purpose and the desired results of your meetings.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. Are we ready for a summary and a CTA? Okay. So today we’ve been talking about three central tasks a world class executive assistant can do for you. Number one, task number one, clears and protects time for high leverage work. Task number two, handles coordination and communication. And task number three, manages meetings and necessary follow up. And believe me when I say, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. That’s why we’ve created a brand new course. Megan, tell the folks about it.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah. We have a brand new course that’s called Executive Assistance, A Course for Executives and Assistants to Maximize Results. And I think that’s what really makes our approach to training and managing and working with executives assistants different, is that we’re very outcome focused. We don’t want you to just delegate tasks. We want you to accomplish outcomes.

And really your most important outcomes as a business owner or an executive, and we have such a high esteem of this partnership, that we want everybody to get to experience the benefits of it. And honestly, this is the thing that we get asked about more than anything else from our coaching clients and prospective clients. They want to understand, okay, how do I open up that black box and really unlock the benefits of an executive assistant in my business? And that’s exactly why we did this deep dive and really pulled back the curtain of our methodology, how we walk through making the most of this critical partnership.

Michael Hyatt:                   One of the things I love about this course, is we didn’t just create a course for executive assistants, so you could buy it for your executive assistant, hand it off and forget about it. No, this is a course for both of you. This is a course for both of you. And that’s a real distinctive here, because in my experience, coaching now hundreds of business owners and executives, most of us don’t naturally know how to manage that relationship with an executive assistant.

We need the training as much as the executive assistant needs the training, because we don’t know what’s possible. We don’t know how to work with an executive assistant. Because again, as Megan said at the top of the episode, we didn’t learn this in business school. We didn’t learn it in college. It’s something that most of us have had to learn on the job and we do it to a greater or lesser extent, but we’ve taken best practices. We’ve surveyed our clients. We dove deep into our own experience and we figured out the best way to work together. But it requires both of you going through this course. And that’s why we designed it specifically for the two of you.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Totally. And even if you don’t have an executive assistant yet, if this is something you’re mulling over, like the other 50% of those business owners you were talking to, dad ho are thinking about it, but hadn’t made that decision yet. This is a great way to get yourself prepared to get the ROI on that investment. Or if maybe you have an executive assistant and you don’t feel like that relationship is where it could be, this is going to be the training that you need to really make that happen for yourself.

So, all right. You can find out more about this @leadto.win/EA. There is a special discount that applies only through May the 20th though. So check that out, get all the information @leadto.win/EA.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. So we don’t need to mention the price?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Well, since there were two prices, I was kind of like, I don’t really know what 297 and 197 means.

Michael Hyatt:                   The 197 is the discounted price.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Oh, okay.

Michael Hyatt:                   But I don’t think that hurts.

Nick Jaworski:                    Yeah, I probably should. I would think.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         We should?

Michael Hyatt:                   You think we should mention the price?

Nick Jaworski:                    Right, though. It’s time stamped. I know it’ll be out of date soon-ish but …

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Okay. Let me just say that real quick. So the price for this new executive assistant course is 297. However, through May the 20th, it is discounted to 197. So make sure to take advantage of this special offer, so that you can get it for the best possible deal. Again, it’s 197 through May 20th only. Just go to leadto.win/EA.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay guys, you owe it to yourself to check it out. So you may not do it, but it’s there for you. We think it could be a game changer, not just in your own leadership, but in the scaling of your business. So if you don’t have an executive assistant in particular, you’re going to want to get this course. And if you do have an executive assistant, you’re also going to want to get it. So this really is for everybody that’s a business owner or an executive in a company.

Okay guys, thank you so much for joining us. This has been the Lead to Win and we look forward to seeing you next time. That’s not how it usually finish it.

Nick Jaworski:                    That’s not how it usually goes. And I was like, do I need to …

Michael Hyatt:                   Do I need to do it again?

Nick Jaworski:                    It’s the catch phrase? It’s the stay focused of … [inaudible 00:38:39].

Michael Hyatt:                   I was going to tease the bonusode, but I actually think that’ll be counterproductive to the offer, because I think some people say, “Oh, I was going to go check the offer. But I think I’ll wait till I hear that bonusode first.”

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah, yeah.

Michael Hyatt:                   Okay. Awesome, Megan, do you got any final … okay, awesome, Megan, do you have any final thoughts?

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Yeah, I would just say give an EA a chance. No, I’m just kind of kidding. But really having an executive assistant is one of the most important partnerships that you will ever have in your professional career. If you get this right and you learn how to really maximize the relationship, it will unlock your potential and the potential of your business in ways that few things can.

So it’s really worth making the investment here. Really becoming a master at managing this relationship. Not only because of the potential in your business, but you’re also going to enjoy your work so much more, because you’ll have the confidence that you’re making your highest and best contribution.

Michael Hyatt:                   Guys, if you’ve sensed our excitement, it’s because we are excited about this topic. I love talking about this topic, because it’s been such a huge game changer for me and I know it has been for Megan. But I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. I hope you’ve gotten real use out of it. But we’ll look forward to you joining us next time and until then, lead to win.

Megan Hyatt Mil…:         Now we’re-