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Extreme Assistant and Your First Year

This is the toughest year for you and your employer. This is because if good files were not left for you, you are re-creating the wheel as far as getting to know the preferences of your new employer.  But no problem (right?) for the fearless extreme assistant that you are!

As with any new job, there is a lot to get to know. But for a personal assistant there are many foundational lists to be made: who do they give gifts to regularly; where do they like to eat; travel preferences; food preferences; medical issues and allergies, best friends, holiday gift lists, holiday card lists; habits and routines; etc.  There are other lists of vendors they prefer to use as well. If you are lucky enough to have those lists readily available and currently updated, lucky you. However, those I have followed enjoyed shredding those lists, no, torching them all the while dancing around the fire like they were at the Burning Man Festival.

What do you do? I have a small list of important forms I fill out on each category for every new client I get now. Sometimes they will happily fill it out, sometimes you have to sneak in questions and ask for five minutes a day for the first month or so, (as long as their patience holds out). More than likely you will learn from assimilation and observation. But it will really pay off in year two!

The other bit of good news is usually the first couple of months you’re really in the bonding year, the honeymoon period, if you will. You can make mistakes that are easily forgiven and your new employer and their existing team will do more to assist you! If you are honest with your need to understand and take notes so you don’t have to repeat the questions, soon you’ll know the routines and preferences like your own. Your Sylvia Brown mind-reading gene will kick in and, if the match is right, you’ll be on your way to a successful future together and live happily every after.

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Tools for the Personal Assistant

Whenever I picture other personal assistants, I see someone on the go, focused, and handling multiple chores at one time and switching into those roles without missing a beat. I often thought it would be funny to have a shelf in my office with different hats on the shelf. As the next request came up, I would say, “Hold on,” take off one hat and put on the next, “okay, speak,” and on and on it would go as I systematically put on five or more hats within a three-minute conversation. When you’re the go-to person, you are handling such a variety of situations in one household, you could easily wear ten hats or more in one hour or one day: accountant, secretary, data processor, pharmacist, construction manager, shopper, employer, staff manager, sales manager, publicist, manager, psychiatrist, nanny, pet sitter, organizer, party planner…well, you get the picture.

On crazy busy days here’s the hat I wear the most.

And here are the tools I must always have on hand to do my job effectively:

Paper and pen
Cell phone (preferably an android type)
Calendar
Laptop computer
A good bottle of wine
A good night’s sleep
A good man
(okay, you can omit the last two…maybe)

There are just some of the organizational systems and forms I have developed which are my lifelines:

Employer information list system
Weekly/Monthly/Annual house maintenance system
Filing system (business and personal)
Medical insurance billing system
Staff scheduling/hiring/firing system
Petty cash system
Accounting / bill pay system
Order taking, fulfillment and shipping system
Call sheets and end-of-day update forms
On-going grocery lists
Hot Sheet of important telephone numbers
Holiday Gift/Card Lists
Monthly Birthday Lists
Legal forms

Clearly the job of personal assistant is one that encompasses many and you’d be smart to sneak some of your employers Xanax pills every once in a while! (Just kidding, I don’t know anyone who takes that???) This is the one constant with every employer I’ve ever had-not the Xanax but wearing many hats part. With your demonstrated competency the job usually morphs into as many areas that you can handle so remember, at some point to re-assess and request a runner or a 2nd assistant to help with the more routine tasks and allow yourself the tools, systems and forms to help you do it easier. Remember to be humble and know you can’t do it all and still do it well without the help and cooperation of co-workers and systems.

 

 

P.S. Don’t take credit for the help you get.  Support rocks!

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The Hot List

Did I lead you to believe there would be pictures from People Magazine of Halle Barry or Tom Cruise? No, this is so much more useful. It’s about one of the most important lists their assistants prepare for them in their homes and one of the most important aspects of doing your job right–being able to contact the people consistently in your employer’s life. You can prioritize them as those on the “hot list” vs those on the support list. This “hot list” consists of people in their industry who they are working with at that time, close family, close friends, employees and emergency vendors who are constants like the doctor, pharmacy, pool man, swim teacher, gardener, veterinarian, etc. This list is laminated and posted or in a drawer nearby the phones in the house and updated a three of four times a year.

I once had an employer explain to a new employee that it was very important for them to know the “players” in the entertainment industry so they are familiar with who they should “jump” for. It can be embarrassing for you and your employer if you don’t. For the motion picture executive, it would be important to know Steven Spielberg’s development executive’s name when they happen to call. Or the big venture capitalist who is financing your employer’s next big project. Do you see how it would be important to know the “players” in their life?

Along this line, you would want to keep a list of birthdays for the important people in your employers life: usually those who are close family, those your employer are working with on a project, and of course, close friends. Circulate a monthly birthday list in advance so you can have plenty of time to buy gifts and are clear on how personal the card should be and to know in advance the best method to deliver the gift. Once the month is completed, file this list to refer to for next year. Often, seeing what they chose to get them (flowers vs  $500 bottle of wine) helps you make suggestions the following year.  Keeping your lists in an organized fashion helps you so you won’t have to ask twice.  By year three on the job, you won’t have to ask at all. Progression: Year one you have to list the people with a blank next to the name; year two has suggestions based on the prior year; year three has the gift you sent next to the name “I sent — and a card from you.”

So much of the job as an assistant is reading between the lines and being able to assimilate the nuances around making you aware of who is and is not on your employer’s every changing radar. But having key contacts at hand (and on their cell phone) is one of the tools to be efficient/prepared for the both of you.

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New Year’s Resolutions…Again?

I’m sure you’re all thinking, moaning and groaning, please not another blog about New Year’s Resolutions. I owe it to my thousands of followers (uh hum) to offer my bit of untraditional wisdom on the subject. Did you ever realize nothing happens overnight? The phenomenon of an “overnight success” is just that. When you look at someone like Michael Jackson and the success he achieved, many forget he was rehearsing, practicing, recording, and performing when most of us his age were outside playing kickball. Disney stars like Justin Timberlake, Brittany Spears or Christina Aguilera are all examples of this, young stars who have been working it since an extremely young age.

Success comes from a series of consistent and focused small steps towards a goal or overall idea of an outcome. Yes, “focused on a feeling” can be just as important as zeroing in on a specific target for those of us who can’t seem to figure life out.  My own evolution as a personal assistant started at a young age of taking care of my own family and home. My mother died when I was 12 and because my father was a working musician, he was often away touring. There were times when I was in charge of paying the housekeeper, organizing our home and paying all the bills from the signed checks and credit cards my dad entrusted to me. I had to develop small systems of organization to do this “job” while keeping up with school, homework while still having a teenage life. I had a friend whose parents toured and soon this became a side job for me to do so for their family too.

My overall goal then was to have flexibility, good pay, work in anything but a corporate environment and I had come to expect a certain level of excitement from the life I led as a musicians daughter (let’s just say party planning was another skill I learned early). While I didn’t “plan” to be here and had explored other avenues, I eventually excelled at what came as second nature to me and “officially” became a personal assistant and organizational expert. I did this by taking small steps of doing this career in an abbreviated version since I was a pre-teen.

The point to this you say? Often we are very clear on what we don’t want, but not what we want. If you are stuck and tired of your job or want to do anything different, don’t wait for a perfect opportunity or million dollar idea. Start small. Make small changes towards the life you feel is more ideal for you each month or every two months even. This is so much more important and lasting than a list of extreme changes you intend to make this year.  Write out your baby step strategy, commit to it, and see where it leads.

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Happy Really New Year—Chug, Chugging Along!

It struck me on this very new morning of the New Year what a great time it is to be alive as I believe this is going to be a year of peace. I think if there is to be a theme during this time, it is that countries, states, and individuals are demanding their freedom and fairness like we’ve never seen before.

JUST DANCE BABY!

You only have to look as far as what has happened in countries around the world who are going through a period of tremendous upheaval and change so great that some areas have been dubbed the “Arab Awakening” or “Arab Spring.” The countries of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Sudan and Oman are all embarking on huge changes to their “business as usual.”

It is no wonder that “The Protester” was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

The fallout from the demonstrations and leaders stepping down or dying, as in the instance of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un, or the American Occupy Wall Street movement remains to be seen. But I think the momentum garnered by the blood, sweat and tears that went into the demonstrations and the passion of the people will only focus more and more on what is to be, Peace and Cooperation because people are finally AWAKE. Bolstered by the tools of the internet like Twitter and Facebook, global atrocities can now be put on blast, front and center for all to see.

So of course on this new morning of the new year of 2012, as I watch the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, I recognize that it had more floats promoting peace and honoring sister cities and people around the world, more than I’ve ever witnessed. Maybe I’m more tapped into it, but I for one am looking forward to a very good year with what counts most—that which is unseen: faith, harmony, love, peace, and soooouuul! (Thank you Soul Train).

Hope you’re dancing into a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Christmas Decoration Storage

Okay, I know, Christmas hasn’t even happened and I am already talking about storage

for your Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, lights, and ornaments. But this is the time when you’re buying those things and the storage options to contain them are plentiful, in the stores, and you are too.

If you consider your gift-wrap and decorations necessities, consider this a necessity too. If you’re going to spend the money for these things, they will last years longer if you pack them up easily and effortlessly in protective containers. The other financial bonus is they are usually on sale. Jo-Ann’s Fabric and Crafts have their 60% off holiday sale going on. This includes holiday storage containers too. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target all have good assortments as well.

Originally I used to think this is one more way to get my money at holiday time. Yes, the cutesy colors to match the holidays (orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas) made me want to hurl. But you know what? When I needed to get them out year after year, it was so easy to spot which holiday I needed. Most of the clients I’ve had decorate for Christmas the week after Thanksgiving. Everyone knows the bins come out, the handyman is scheduled to come, and everything is clearly marked. The Thanksgiving decorations go back into their bins and the Christmas ones are rotated out. Doing this for your clients is one more way to impress them with your organization skills. It is one small tool from my core basic system to “idiot proof everything.” This system saves you expensive man-hours of explaining where things are and which boxes to pull year-after-year. Packing and unpacking is a breeze because everything has a place.

As for the containers themselves, I recommend staying away from the bags, as they don’t offer much protection when your kids are tossing them around in the attic. However, they are great for under bed storage if you do not have space for the large plastic bins. Here are a few links to some of my favorite containers.

Wreath Storage

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Wreath-Storage-2-Prodview.html

Christmas Wrapping Paper Storage

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Wrap-Storage-2-Prodview.html

Outdoor light storage

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Holiday-Snaplock-light-wrap-box-Prodview.html

Ornament or Gift Decoration Box

http://www.snapware.com/products/home-storage-ornament-box-1098785

Love Snapware Snap “N Stack. Not just for holidays and it keeps like items together.

Make sure to store areas you decorate together. Keep all the tree lights with the tree items. Extension cords, power surge plugs, lights, ornaments and tree topper, should all go together in one bin. Patriots of organization be fearless! Mix it up. You can take the bins for the tree lights and put it inside of a larger plastic bin that holds everything for the tree.

One last note on buying and packing up your Christmas decorations, mark your bins with a large paper with large print on the short and long side of your bins; “tree,” “outdoor decorations,” “mantel decorations,” etc.  Tape them on or better yet, slip them in a fed ex label holder (these have the best peel and stick adhesive) and viola!

You’ll thank me next year.