Michael Hyatt:
This episode is sponsored by BELAY Solutions. You can find out more at belaysolutions.com. Hi, I’m Michael Hyatt.

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

Michael Hyatt:
This is Lead to Win, our weekly podcast to help you win at work and succeed at life. And in this episode, we’re going to talk about five mistakes business owners make when hiring an assistant. Megan, we have a very, very special guest with us. Why don’t you introduce her?

Megan Hyatt Miller:
Okay. We do have a very special guest today. We really have the resident expert on executive assistant, the CEO of BELAY, Tricia Sciortino, our good friend, who was actually your executive assistant, we’ll talk about this later, many years ago. But she’s gone on to build an organization that has 3,000 clients and 1,700 plus executive assistants. She knows what she’s talking about. She truly is the expert.

Michael Hyatt:
She absolutely does. Tricia, welcome.

Tricia Sciortino:
Hey, guys, thanks for having me here today.

Michael Hyatt:
We’ve talked a lot about hiring an assistant. And in fact, I would say this, if you’re serious about scaling your business, if you want to grow it, you must hire an executive assistant, because you got to have somebody that you can delegate to. You’re going to fill up your capacity. You’re going to be unable to break through the ceiling unless you’ve got some help. And that’s why I’m so thrilled to have you, Tricia. I think this is going to be so important for so many business owners, so many business leaders that desperately need a little push to do what they probably have suspected they needed to do for a long time. But that’s partly why we’ve got you here.

Tricia Sciortino:
Yes. Well, I think to your point, a lot of leaders or business owners or new business owners wait. They wait for what feels like some moment’s going to come when an executive assistant makes sense. But Michael, you’re one… Specifically your story, when you left Thomas Nelson and started on your own journey, the first hire you made, an executive assistant.

Michael Hyatt:
Absolutely. And it happened to be you. Little did I know.

Tricia Sciortino:
Lucky me. I hit the lotto.

Michael Hyatt:
You got on to do these amazing things, running an entire company where you’re doing this. Did you know at the very beginning that that was going to be your destiny?

Tricia Sciortino:
I would say no. I mean, I actually really enjoyed being an assistant. I loved helping and supporting leaders and watching them grow and helping relieve them in the day-to-day. I found it very fulfilling. However, I’m a pretty ambitious gal.

Michael Hyatt:
Yes, you are.

Tricia Sciortino:
At the time, if you would’ve asked me what my five year goal was, I would’ve told you it would’ve been to be the CEO of the company.

Michael Hyatt:
Really?

Tricia Sciortino:
Take that for what it’s worth.

Michael Hyatt:
Wow! That’s pretty cool.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
I love that. I didn’t know that about you, Tricia.

Tricia Sciortino:
That’s a whole story.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
That’s a whole story. I love that. Well, I also love what you said about people, particularly business owners, tend to wait too long to hire. We have hundreds of clients in our BusinessAccelerator coaching program and this is one of the areas that we spend quite a lot of time on with our clients is why they need an executive assistant, but then how to effectively get that person up and running and get the most value out of that relationship possible, because we know what’s possible when people have executive assistants. We have seen this time and time and time again with our clients.
When they finally go and hire an EA, and oftentimes it’s through you guys because we recommend you so often, they’re like, “I can’t believe I waited so long. It’s made so many things possible,” not the least of which is their financial growth and in general the growth of their organization. I think you really hit the nail on the head here. If you’re listening and you’re one of those folks that’s kind of on the fence, I just want to give you a little gentle nudge. This is like your EA fairy godmother encouraging you to take action because it’s going to be a game changer

Michael Hyatt:
For me, when I started with Tricia, it was about three years into the founding of this company, this company which is now Full Focus. I think it was probably about 60 days too long. I could have used Tricia about… I mean, I need little time to get organized, so probably the first 30 days would’ve been good for me to get organized. But then I started drowning and that’s what I needed some help. I think a lot of people think, well, if I can just get the right productivity hacks in place, if I can just become more efficient with my time, then I can first stall this decision, or maybe I will never have to hire an EA. But that is really, really bad thinking.
I want to get into these mistakes here because you cannot hire an executive assistant too soon. The reason why is because as a business owner, you need to stay focused on the things that you and only you can do, driving revenue, increasing profitability, and you’ve got to have someone that’s really kind of a partner to assist you in all that other stuff that’s important that gets done is just that you don’t have to do it. For a lot of people, that’s a revelation. Tricia, let’s talk about these five mistakes. Let’s just launch into it. What’s the first one?

Tricia Sciortino:
The first one is when you do decide to make that hire, which hopefully you’ve made that decision after hearing Michael and Megan this morning, is that you make that hire too quickly. And by too quickly, we mean the process by with which you choose the right person to work for you is rushed because you’re probably feeling hurried, you’re overwhelmed, you want relief, and so you’re speeding through the process to find the right fit for you. And that in of itself can be a huge mistake. Slowing down the hiring process and being methodical and thoughtful with who you hire specifically for you is really important.

Michael Hyatt:
What is that process or what should it look like if it’s done well?

Tricia Sciortino:
I think it’s multiple layers. First and foremost, a resume is a great guide, but it is not the end all be all of a person’s character, their abilities, their work ethic. Interviewing is really important. When you get to the interviewing portion of hiring, interviewing somebody methodically with thoughtful questions, a lot of what if scenarios, avoiding the answers to any question being a yes or a no. You really want to hear somebody speak through how they would handle situations, so situational questions, brought to your interview and being prepared with what those are. And then bringing them through a multi-stage interview process.
Interview one, if it’s great, that’s amazing. Get a second set of eyeballs, a second opinion on your interview. Pass it along. Whether it’s a friend, a spouse, a coworker, whoever that may be, getting two opinions on anybody you hire is probably a great standard to have for anybody that you bring on board.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
I love that, Tricia. I think that’s so important, because probably almost as much as, or more than any other relationship you have professionally, the kind of chemistry and the alignment around these two people in this relationship, the business owner and the EA, has got to be right. This is not something that you’re just checking the boxes of a skillset. You really want to know how somebody thinks. Do you like them? Do you communicate naturally and easily together? Do your energies kind of match each other? I always say I’m a runner and I need people that are runners that are working with me.
My EA, Elizabeth, is fantastic at this. She’s always out ahead of me actually, which is so helpful. I think that’s part of what you’re looking to discern in this interview process and part of what you guys are so helpful at coaching people through and guiding people through as clients when they’re considering hiring an EA is they don’t have to do it all alone, which I think i really helpful. But it’s just critical to determine if you’ve got those right things in place because that’s going to determine how successful the partnership is. You need to think about it like a partnership.

Tricia Sciortino:
Absolutely. The interviewing is really just one part of it all. I mean, a lot of organizations we do, I know you do, use different types of assessments. We use predictive index. Some people use it Enneagram and DISC or whatever that looks like. Really getting to the core of people’s capabilities and how they show up, how they communicate at work. That’s another layer we always recommend people add into the process for them is that type of evaluation. And then lastly, when you get past that is truly a skills assessment. They’ve interviewed well. You connect.
Their personality style or characters align with how you want your assistant to align with. And now it’s put it to good use. Show me. That’s what we do here is we really put them through kind of a skills assessment to a day in the life of how somebody’s going to show up to work for you, what their work product looks like, how’s their written communication, how is their testing on different things. Those three things combined have been extremely effective, but they take time.

Michael Hyatt:
Tricia, how does this look different if somebody listening to this decides to go it alone versus working through a service like BELAY? What can you assume in terms of the vetting that’s been done, the skill assessment and all that if I’m hiring BELAY to find me that executive assistant?

Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah, great question. We basically do that for all of our assistants before you ever come here as a client. Every assistant that we bring on is already interviewed multiple times. They’ve already been through personality testing. They’ve already been through skills assessment testing. The virtual assistants that are here at BELAY have already been vetted and evaluated on all of those things before you even arrive.
When and if somebody decides to look for support through BELAY or like-minded organizations like ours, you should expect that those things have already been netted out and qualified and quantified for you when you get here. It takes that burden off of you because it’s a very arduous, extensive process to kind of go through.

Michael Hyatt:
What does the focus need to be? If I’m coming to BELAY looking for an executive assistant and I can assume that there’s been some vetting done, the skills assessment’s been done, character assessment, all that, what should the focus for me be as a prospective client? Should it be on just kind of the fit or the likability?

Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah, exactly. So then you kind of get to problem number two, if you will, or item number two is the fit. We’ve kind of validated that the core competencies are there for an executive assistant, and now we’re just finding the right executive assistant for you. That’s multi-layered. Of course, we’re ensuring that hard skillsets match, so if there’s certain tools that are necessary or time zones and some of those core things align, but really the focus is are we compatible as coworkers, as partners.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
I think that’s really important because this is where you can find yourself off track. Again, like I said earlier, you can have all the boxes checked, but part of what you’re trying to discern is, is someone going to solve problems in the way that you need them to. We use this phrase a lot, anticipate needs, when we talk about executives assistants at Full Focus. Part of what I’m always looking for when we’re hiring an executive assistant is, how do they think about anticipating needs, because a great executive assistant is always going to be out in front of you clearing the path.
Some people are better at that than others and different business owners and leaders have different interpretations of what that would look like for them. You’re really looking for somebody who can do that in a way that adds a lot of value to you as the business owner.

Michael Hyatt:
Do you also see, Tricia, as somebody that’s coming in when I’m evaluating them as a cultural fit, that I need to think of that person, again, even though it’s through a service like BELAY, that I need to think of them as part of my team?

Tricia Sciortino:
Absolutely. I mean, that’s really coaching number one, is regardless of the type of employee you’re hiring, even if you go on your own, you hire a freelancer, a 1099, a W-2, whatever that looks like, the relationship component and the connection and how they’re integrated into your organization should not be different regardless. The more integrated they can be into your team, the better they will be at serving you and being a great resource to you. We always recommend that you onboard your executive assistant as if they were part of your organization.

Michael Hyatt:
That’s exactly what I was going to ask. The onboarding looks the same regardless.

Tricia Sciortino:
The same. Yeah. I mean, the training plan we would put together for a virtual assistant would be the same training plan I would put together if I was hiring a new finance person to work here at BELAY. It’s all the same assimilation and the same process, even to the point where you’re setting expectations. They’ve got goals. They’ve got KPIs, OKRs. I mean, all those things that you would implement for any team member would be the same.

Michael Hyatt:
In a relationship with you guys, the relationship is going to be the executive assistant is going to be remote. If people are not used to working like that, if they’ve been on some other planet during the pandemic and they’re not used to working remotely, what would you say to allay the fears of somebody that feels like that executive assistant needs to be sitting in the same office?

Tricia Sciortino:
Oh, Michael, I could stand on this podium for a long time. Not necessary. Working remote is an extremely effective resource. We’ve built an entire organization of what Megan, you said, at the top of this conversation is we’ve built our entire organization 3,000 clients, 1,700 plus virtual assistants with every single person’s remote. I’m remote. My team’s remote. My executives, my CFO, my CMO, I mean, we are 100% remote and growing very successful.
What I think is different is the way with which you communicate with people has to be different because you’re remote, but that’s learned. That’s a skillset. Working remote, in my opinion, is a skill set that you learn, just like anything else you read in any other leadership book.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
I totally agree with that, Tricia. My executive assistant Elizabeth is relatively new with me. She’s been with me for a handful of months at this point, and she doesn’t live in Tennessee. That was not necessarily my first choice in my mind. However, she was so amazing that I was just dying to have her. I was willing to make that “compromise.” Let me tell you something, it has not been a compromise at all. She occasionally will come to the office maybe once every couple months if we have strategic planning or something like that. Although she’s pregnant right now and so she can’t travel, so she just did strategic planning with us virtually.
Honestly, there was no difference. I mean, she’s so capable and there is nothing lost… I feel like I would be very attuned to this if there were. There was nothing lost by having her virtual. In fact, I think she’s able to be more productive and focused and more focused on me because she doesn’t have the distractions of our office with other people pulling on her. She’s kind of got an audience of one and she’s doing an awesome job. I’ve lived that myself. I’ve had people in person and I’ve had people virtually. I’m a convert.

Michael Hyatt:
Well, if I could just tell a quick story here. I used to think, and I constantly get this from our clients, there’s this underlying mistrust. It’s very old school thinking. It’s like, if I can’t supervise the person that’s working for me, how do I know they’re not goofing off? It finally dawned on me one day, how would I know if somebody in the same office was goofing off or not, unless I was literally standing behind them eight hours a day looking over their shoulder? I mean, there’s a fundamental trust that has to happen, and you either hire good people that can do the work and you evaluate them by the results or you don’t. But every relationship takes that level of trust. Would you agree with that, Tricia?

Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah. I mean, you literally hit the nail on the head because we hear this all the time. When people are reaching out to find out more, 50% of the time it’s like, “But how do I know they’re doing the job? How do I know?” The answer is always you’ll know because the job doesn’t get done. The result, to your point. You’ll know because the result’s not there at the end. You’ll know they’re not doing their job or if they did their job if by Friday, the list of things they were supposed to do was done or it wasn’t done.
That’s truly how you know, but that brings into light the fact that you’re setting really great expectations. You’re clear on what needs to be done when. Delegation. This is where the whole delegation conversation integrates in is you have to be a really great delegator. And that’s how you know.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
Tricia, I think the great thing about delegation, and we see this all the time with our clients, delegation is also a learned skill. I mean, nobody comes out of the womb like a master delegator. Well, you and I might have, I don’t know. But in general, this is a learned skill. I sometimes say I probably came out of the womb pointing telling somebody what to do.

Michael Hyatt:
Oh, you did. I was there.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
But it’s really possible to go from feeling like, “Ugh, I’m not that great of a delegator. It’s faster if I just do it myself,” to being the kind of person that can effectively delegate. Sometimes actually a great EA can help you learn how to do that if you’re a good student, which is a little bit of a funny role reversal. I remember my first executive assistant, Susie, I kind of jokingly say that she trained me. She raised me right? All the other executive assistants that I’ve had since then got a competent delegator. I think she really helped me learn that, and I think that is characteristic of a great EA if this is a new area for you.

Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah, agreed. Even today, I’ve had an executive assistant myself who’s virtual for 10 plus years. And even though I think now I’m a good delegator, it took me years to figure out how to be comfortable and how to do it and to get the results that everybody was looking for. But even today with my virtual assistant, I mean, she’s slapping my hand because I’m sticking it where it doesn’t belong sometimes. She’s like, “Why are you in that document? Or why are you checking that thing? Or why are you editing your calendar? Or why are you checking something off a task list?”
She holds me accountable to delegate and let things go so she can own them. She can shame me really good on get out of my job. Don’t do my job is to do these things for you and stop doing my job for me. It’s great accountability when you can find the right person who will prevent you from resorting back to tasking, which are the things that sometimes naturally come to some of us operator type people, but we shouldn’t be doing them.

Michael Hyatt:
First mistake is business owners hire too fast. Second mistake is they don’t consider cultural fit. Tricia, what’s the third one?

Tricia Sciortino:
They fail to set expectations and train effectively. I think we talked a little bit about it, but you can find the best person in the world and they’re a perfect fit for you. But from there, it’s on you on how you onboard them, how you assimilate them, how you teach them, how you train them, and how you give them feedback. Feedback is a gift and training is a gift. Setting them up for success, those first 30, 60, 90 days, is so important. Michael, this reminds me of when you and I started together those many years ago and I was your virtual assistant. Day one, you sent me a document, The Michael Hyatt Document. I don’t know if you remember this, Mike.

Michael Hyatt:
I don’t remember this.

Tricia Sciortino:
It was like 27 pages long. It was a really robust document of all things Mike. Let me tell you what, it was so thoughtfully organized and planned, I knew exactly what it was I needed to do for you from the minute we started together. I had all the details. I knew the logins. I knew the history of who people were. I knew how you wanted your inbox managed. I knew why you had your calendar the way you had it and why you wanted to keep it certain ways. I knew Fridays were days you did lunch meetings.
You set me up to succeed, and that’s why being successful was easy and quick. I think that is a lesson here is that even when you decide and you find the right person, whether it’s on your own or through us, that’s the beginning, now starts the work of training and onboarding somebody effectively.

Michael Hyatt:
Well, first of all, that was totally by accident. I don’t know where that came from and I have no memory of it, but my guess is I was probably so desperate that I needed you to get up to speed quickly because I was drowning.

Tricia Sciortino:
Yes, yes. And now, we use something similar and we give it to our clients to say, “Hey, as you get ready to get started, here’s a blank template. Put it all in here for your virtual assistant.”

Megan Hyatt Miller:
Good grief, Tricia. I feel like that alone is worth hiring you guys for. Because as you were talking and my dad has got his 27 page document or whatever, I’m thinking most people would not know where to start on that. Don’t let that discourage you because you don’t need the 27 page document. You just need Tricia’s template. That would be fine. I was thinking too that your executive assistant can also interview you on those questions and help to assemble things if you feel intimidated. We share that with our clients sometimes.
I think the biggest thing that I see that our clients do in this onboarding process is they withhold information because there may be a little uncomfortable with the confidentiality aspects or giving the password access or the credit card access or whatever. I think assuming you’ve had proper vetting and you’ve done all your due diligence and that’s part of what you guys help people do and you know that it’s safe, you’ve got to give access to the things that they’re going to need access to to serve you well.
Otherwise, you are going to have your hand where it should be slapped probably because you need to leave it alone a little bit so that that person can do the things that they’re the best at and they need the proper access to do that in the onboarding.

Tricia Sciortino:
Yes, we see that a lot. It goes back to what Mike was saying just a little while ago about trust, is that people enter the relationship and they withhold trust and access because they feel like maybe it should be earned over time. But yet, it’s also hard to impress you and do the job well if you don’t have access as a VA. We advise and typically lean into the opposite to say give trust initially, which this is a good life lesson, if you will. Give trust. Most people deserve it until it’s taken away and let them decide.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
We’ve hired a lot of executive assistants in the lifetime of our business and I can’t think of one time where that trust was violated. We’ve certainly had some people who were better than others and all the normal business stuff, but no violation ever of those things.

Tricia Sciortino:
Same.

Michael Hyatt:
That’s good.

Tricia Sciortino:
I mean, we have thousands of assistants. We’ve never had a violation.

Michael Hyatt:
Just one quick hack here, and I really learned this from Dan Sullivan, but one of the things I like to do at the beginning of a relationship with somebody that’s going to work for me is basically tell them how they can be a rock star and how they can totally lose, how they can win and how they can lose. Sometimes people spend years trying to figure this out, but to just be explicit on the front end.
Like one of the things, Megan, to your point about anticipating needs, one of the things I said to Jim when he started, I said is, “This is critical for me. If I have to ask you for it, then you’ve already lost the battle. I want you to anticipate what I’m going to need based on my calendar, based on the projects you know that I’m working on.” One of the stories he likes to tell is I was at a speaking event and he was accompanying me and I kind of had a cold and I had a sore throat. He picked it up the first day. The next day I said, “Could you pick me up some cough drops today?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled one out because he anticipated the need. I love that. But again, why leave people to guess when you can be explicit? Write down those four or five things that will help that person win with you and the four or five things that will make them lose.

Tricia Sciortino:
I would almost say, just to add one layer on top of that, is be specific about some of the goals. Let’s say you want your VA to manage your email inbox. You say, “I’m giving you my inbox.” What exactly does that mean? My goal is for my assistant to be 90 days ahead of me. She’s already asking me about things that are being planned for the winter. Being very specific about what that looks like so there’s not a gap.

Michael Hyatt:
Tricia, what’s the fourth mistake?

Tricia Sciortino:
Under-communicating. That ties right back into mistake Number three. But under-communicating is the frequency of the communication, staying in tune and in touch with your assistant, and then the way with which you communicate. That could sometimes mean if you’re virtual, you want to get on Zoom. You want to see body language. Frequency and communication type is really important for success.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
I think that’s huge. In my case, I talk to Elizabeth every day, usually at the end of the day. I also have a weekly one-on-one meeting with her on Monday morning. I kick off the day and we usually kind of wrap up on Friday afternoon. I share what my big three are for the coming week, so she can make sure the calendar’s aligned around that. But I think that staying connected is really critical.
Because if I get ahead of her where I’m down the road with some project and she’s kind of lost touch with it, now all of a sudden, she’s flying blind and she can’t be out of in front. She’s kind of running behind me, and that’s not the way you want it. I think that that is critically important to stay connected and really overcommunicate.

Michael Hyatt:
I’m kind of struck by this point because the opposite of this is the business leader that expects his or her employees, and particularly their executive assistant, to read their mind. And then they get frustrated because they can’t read their mind. We encounter that with our clients constantly. They express some frustrations. Were you explicit with your expectations, to go back to the previous point? Well, no, but they should just know. Hey, nobody can read your mind. Not your spouse. Not your best friend. Certainly not your executive assistant.

Tricia Sciortino:
Absolutely. We can hang our hat on that one and those comments right there, is that people just have an expectation because somebody is skilled at something that they should know exactly what you want when you want it, how you want it, without you ever really telling them.
Totally agree. I’m with you, Megan. Every Monday morning, it’s the first meeting I have in my week. It’s the most important meeting I have. I mean, I meet with my executive assistant before I meet with my CFO. It’s just important to set the week out for both of us. The more I help her, the more she helps me. It’s an awesome cycle.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
I think the reason for that is because she’s making it possible for you to make your greatest contribution. That’s why it’s so critical that you prioritize communication. If you don’t empower her or him, dad, in your case, then they’re not going to be able to clear the path for you accomplishing big things for the organization. And that’s really what’s at stake here.

Tricia Sciortino:
That’s right.

Michael Hyatt:
Okay, let’s get to the fifth mistake and I think this one might be my favorite.

Tricia Sciortino:
They don’t leverage their VA for personal tasks.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
Yes.

Michael Hyatt:
You can do that?

Tricia Sciortino:
Yes. I know. I kind of chuckle a little bit inside when I have somebody ask me, “Can she help me make my dentist appointment?” I was like, yes, she can. Vacation planning, hair appointments, nail appointments for the ladies, I mean, all of the things. That’s part of your capability to show up and be amazing at work is the fact that you’re taking care of as a whole person. That is a gift we absolutely believe in is that our leaders here at BELAY are given virtual assistants and we ask them to leverage them for their whole person.

Michael Hyatt:
That was such a foreign idea when I came out of the corporate environment. Prior to starting this company, I was running a big public company and you couldn’t use corporate resources for personal use. If you did, you could get in big trouble fast. I had this kind wall of division between personal and professional, and anything that even smacked of personal, I would stay away from. But then I realized as a business owner, it really didn’t matter, right? That made a huge, huge difference. It was such a major paradigm shift for me.
Because again, you can get so bogged down with those personal tasks that if they aren’t attended to, they back up into your professional life and affect your business. Life is this… How do we like to say it, Megan? You’ve got all these various domains, they’re all interrelated. You’ve got to give attention to the personal side. Either you’re going to do it, or you’re going to get some help from somebody that can help you with it.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
Well, one of the things that I love about using this relationship to make sure the personal things are attended to is that it helps to drive performance. Because for example, if I’m healthy physically and emotionally, I’m going to be able to accomplish more at work. I’m going to be able to serve my team better. One of the things that I’ve done for a while is have a running list of regular doctor’s appointments that need to be scheduled on an annual basis. Elizabeth just knows she’s going to schedule the mammogram.
She’s going to schedule the well check, all the things that need to happen that are those things that we tend to put off because either we don’t want to do it for whatever reason, we’re kind of avoiding it, or it feels too difficult to make the schedule part work. You can give those things to your executive assistant and you will find that you’re never more consistent with taking care of yourself when you have somebody who’s advocating for you and, again, clearing the path to those things. I think this is just a huge value add in this relationship.

Michael Hyatt:
Tricia, do you find that a lot of executives have difficulty using their executive assistant for personal tasks?

Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah, we definitely do see it as a hurdle. But I will say over the last couple years, and maybe it’s just because the word is getting out that maybe this is something that is more common, but I would say over the last couple years, we were seeing that more and more executives are leveraging their assistants for their personal tasks, which is great, because I’m with you, Megan, when you say a healthy you brings a more productive you to work. That in turn helps the organization. We’re seeing a little bit of shift there, which is positive and amazing.

Michael Hyatt:
That’s great. Well, let me just recap for us. We’ve been talking about five mistakes business owners make when hiring an assistant. Number one, they hire too fast. Mistake number two, they don’t consider culture fit. Mistake number three, they failed to set expectations and train effectively. Mistake number four, they under communicate. And mistake number five, they don’t leverage their VA for personal tasks. Tricia, thank you. This has been fantastic. I understand that you have a free resource that you’d like to share with our audience.

Tricia Sciortino:
Yes, please. If you guys are on board, we have my ebook, Rise Up & Lead Well: How Leveraging An Assistant Will Change Your Life & Maximize Your Time. If you text Lead to Win to 55123, you’ll get this resource today. It is me sharing about my journey from VA to CEO of a VA organization and all of the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years.

Michael Hyatt:
Fantastic.

Megan Hyatt Miller:
Awesome. I think this is such a great resource, Tricia, so thank you for sharing it with our listeners. Again, you just want to text Lead to Win, L-E-A-D-T-O-W-I-N, to 55123 and you’ll get your free download. Guys, I hope this has been helpful for you, and I hope most of all, that this inspires you to not make the biggest mistake of all when you think about hiring an executive assistant, which is not hiring one in the first place. You got to take my word for it. This is going to be a game changer for your business.
I really want to encourage you, download Tricia’s book, go to the BELAY website and check out more about what they do, and consider if this is the right time for you to add this partner to your scaling journey of your business. Thanks again for joining us, Tricia. Thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next week. Until then, Lead to Win.