Superhuman Nick Ginsburg is the Executive Assistant to the Provost and Senior VP of Monash University, Founder of The Admin Collective, advocate for mental health, Bachelor of Psychology student, among many other things.

Nick shares how he manages his mountain of responsibilities while juggling his mental health, navigating burnout, and maintaining a social life. Nick shares his personal journey with knowing one's limits, emphasizing self-care and self-awareness. He explains what sparked his recent pursuit of becoming a clinical psychologist, along with his perspectives on work categorization, and a thought-provoking view on the future of administrative roles in an AI-driven era. Moreover, he discusses his emotional experience of handing over the Admin Collective, a safe, judgment-free space he created for administrative professionals worldwide. A significant part of the episode is devoted to men's mental health, breaking the stigma associated with seeking help, and the transformative impact of mental health support.

Hello, nick, and welcome to the podcast. Hi, thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited, me too. I remember we talked I think it was a couple months ago, and I just really enjoyed our conversation on. I Still had so many questions for you, so I was like I had to had to think this happened so I could really dig into some of your experience. I have some questions about the sale of your, the company that you founded, so I'm I'm ready to dive in if you are.

Yeah, absolutely, let's go so, in addition to being in Administrative and executive support rules for almost 12 years at Monash University, you're currently serving as the EA to the provost and senior vice president. You're also a keynote speaker, your podcast host to the founder of the admin collective, and I believe you're currently getting your degree in psychology. So, first of all, how do you balance all of those various responsibilities and opportunities? And then and then I have a follow-up question to that look.

So that is that. Probably the number one question I get asked is how, how I, how I juggled it, and really it comes down to passion and time management. So all of those things are stuff that I'm really passionate about. I really loved my day job. I love being an executive assistant. I love the sort of problem-solving and and Customer focused aspect of it. I love building relationships and I love helping people, which is a really big common thread through all the things that I'm doing, and so it's really down to that. So I'm so passionate about all of them that, well, yeah, it's a lot of work and I have very little social life. It's something that I'm super, super, super passionate about. Continue continuing doing and.

I'm good at time management. So I'm good at really planning out what my week, month semester looks like and doing it sort of like that really and and it's it's worked really well. So I've been juggling those for a few years now and I'm in a really good rhythm.

Yeah, that's awesome. You mentioned that you don't really have a lot of social time or maybe social needs, but I'm actually curious does that bother you, or is that you get your social fix in other ways, or are you an introvert?

I so Okay. So I I joke about that I still get to to have nice weekends and spend time with my husband and all of that fun stuff. But I do have to really plan things out in advance. I am I'm probably an extroverted introvert, so I quite like being at home, I quite like my own space, but I'm able to be extroverted relatively easily. Is is is how I am. But, yeah, I try and get some some social life. I'm quite big on self-care and making sure that sort of my mental well-being and mental health is looked after, and so it's. I really factor that into my planning as well, because I otherwise I'm just gonna burn out and then I'm no good to anyone.

Yeah, have you experienced burnout before in your career?

not Catastrophically so.

I've definitely reached periods where and I didn't know it at the time, and I think that that's a really common thing. So yeah, on reflection, I look back and I think, oof, I think I was probably a lot closer to burn out than what I thought I was, and there was a time a few years ago where it was pre-covid and there was a lot happening in my personal life, a lot happening at work, and I really kind of I Think I just ran on adrenaline for about six months and then Got to got to sort of a few months after everything had settled and realized we, I think that was a cutting it a bit too Close.

What were some of the? The things that you looked back on and said, oh, that felt like I was getting close to burnout, or like, what should some, what should other people look for so that that Then keep, keep an eye out for the burnout so that it doesn't happen.

Yeah, so for me it was mood. I was Very snappy, which I'm not generally. I Was also quite emotional, which I am, but even more so Also things like I was exhausted all the time. I had also not a great memory, so the company bloat was obviously just running at max.

Yes.

I am, and so my short-term memory was pretty wobbly and even now, like looking back on that period, there are big chunks that I don't have clear memories of, but the the reality is, with burnout, it's, it's and I heard someone else speak about this and I've forgotten who it was but it's almost like that, the analogy of putting what is it? A crab into like cold water and then boiling it up slowly, like you just don't know that it's happening, right until you're kind of at a point, and so keeping your, your yourself, front of mind constantly is the way to kind of counter that, and that's what's happened to me. So, since that period where I reflected and realized that that's how close I was, I Really really make sure that I know my limits, I know how much I'm willing to give to various aspects of my life and I don't give more. I'm quite comfortable at saying no, no.

Yeah, yeah, thank you for sharing that. I the the what the piece that you mentioned of the like the short-term memory piece, or like not being able to remember certain Like chunks of time just you saying that reminded actually did remind me of when I was in that burnout phase. I, too, did not know I was in it until you know, hindsight of 2020, and that is probably one of the classic with the classic sign for me to that I Was making mistakes, I was forgetting things and I'm like this is just not how I typically operate and that should have been a sign. But you know now I know, pay attention to it, and so I was curious why, why psychology, and why study that now?

Yeah, great question. I love when I get to talk about this. So psychology is something I've always been really passionate in. It is how our mind works and how people perceive and react to Situations is super fascinating to me, and so I've always had a passion for it. It's always been something that I was front of mind, but the reality was I never thought that I was smart enough to do it and I so I grew up and I talk about this. I've got a podcast where I don't talk about admin stuff at all. It is all about my childhood. I grew up with parents that struggled really badly with mental health issues and also addiction, and so I talked through that whole process.

I've performed way better than what I thought I would and I'm retaining the information and I love it, and I think passion plays a big part in that.

Mm-hmm, yeah and like, and you're just, it sounds like you're just super interested and curious about it and more. You really just want to continue to get learn, which is which is so cool. Do you think maybe it's too soon to tell, but do you think you may switch Career paths? Oh, okay, that's the, that's the plan, okay.

Yeah, hey, look, it's such a long road. I'm probably Five, five years away before that even gets close to a reality. And that's got it. So in Australia to the pathway to becoming a psychologist is you do your undergraduate, then you do a year of honours and then you do. There's a few different pathways, but the one I'll do is a year of honours and then there's a two-year masters degree and then you can. You can start practicing. So I'm miles away, like 86 years away, from doing it.

It's that's a good thing, that you love it, then yeah, exactly, but it is definitely the more I get into it, the more I can see myself in that space and working as a clinical psychologist. That's kind of where I'm working out at the moment. Obviously, I've still got a while in my degree, so that could change at any point, but the desire at the moment is to end up being a psychologist and, yeah, I can't wait.

I love it, I love that you know. So, when we were talking through all of these different areas of your life that you, that you have, you know all together, do you consider them like side hustles? Do you consider them passion projects? How do you something else Like how do you categorize all the work that you're doing?

It's. It's really that's a really great question, because I see them as one, yeah, except for maybe. So actually maybe not as one whole, but there is my work at Monash, so my day job, which I get to do a ton of the stuff in that. I love that. I also do outside of work, but everything that I do outside of work I see as one, so they're all common thread throughout. Those are so strong to me, but it's hard for other people to see that.

So for me, everything that I do is about improving mental well being and you do that by creating safe communities. Like the admin collective. You speak vulnerably about your own experiences, which is my podcast and my keynote, like this is all of. It has such a strong link to me and it's and is as one, whereas I think externally it's harder to see that, but even or even that. So improving mental well being sits within my role at Monash as well. So I run out a network internally and we've got 300 people in that and we don't have 300 titled EA's. We have the, the, the ruling, which is so silly. I rule with just a general social kind of norm, but anyone that is working in the administrative profession, that is supporting a leader of something at the university.

Gotcha. So there's about 300 of us. Yes, and a lot of the stuff I do in that is focused on mental well being and care, authenticity and making sure that people are putting themselves front of mind, and recently I organized a masterclass session with Rachel Bernetti from Australia, who is phenomenal. If you don't know her, she is a true superstar. Like I cannot sing her praises enough.

Yeah, I've been following her content quite a bit lately and I'm like I gotta meet. I gotta meet her.

You have to. She's honestly.

She is one of those people that I just watching or like yeah so we ran our first ever EA summit at Monash at the beginning of this year and she was our keynote speaker for that. Oh great, just the feedback was insane from the audience, like we did like it and she won't mind me saying this because it's very positive but we did obviously feedback and she got like a 9.4 or something out of 10, like wild. Yeah, totally, she's so incredible. But we invited her back to do a self care masterclass, so so to really focus on stress management and looking after yourself, and I was like look everyone, we've got 55 places. Once it's gone, it's gone. We saw that in two days.

Oh my gosh, wow, yeah, so she's phenomenal, but also that's the kind of stuff that I also don't work. So, while it can look disjointed in terms of my career, everything is really rooted in which is essentially my brand and my kind of authenticity around self care and mental well being and authenticity and all of that.

Yeah, I heard Gary Vaynerchuk in a video not too long ago talk about this the whole concept of like finding your niche and your brand, and and what really stood out to me that he said was that you are the niche and like the person is. And I'm like that's so true because, even just looking at the things that you do, yes, there's a common thread, but at the end of the day, the common thread is you and where you decide to spend your time and engage and connect and build communities, and so I love that.

And just on that, sorry to jump in what I think that's a really important thing to kind of hone in on, because I think when people start a business or anything that's kind of out on their own as them, as the front runner, right, yeah, people will often think about competition and who else is battling for your lane, right? Yes, so silly right that it's just. I mean, obviously, when you get to larger companies, yes, you need to be aware of your competition. Who's out there and all that.

I'm not silly, but when it comes to like stuff that I do, there isn't any competition, because even if someone is talking about something similar so like Rachel and I, for example, will touch on similar topics, but her and I very different people, we offer very different things, but we still kind of overlap there is no competition and I think that's a really important point to make, because people focus so much on what others are doing and you forget that you need to just focus on you, right? So the only person that that your plan and your career needs to make sense to is you.

Totally agree. Yeah, I'd stop so many people from taking that first step or that that well, really the first step and trying something or putting themselves out there I mean I know I've been guilty of it in the past like the market is so saturated we don't need someone else. Talking about the executive assistant role, I don't think, well, I'm going to, I'm going to just try it anyway, you'll see what happens. Exactly so I did have a lot of questions about the admin collective and the sale, because I thought that was super exciting, interesting, and I just that I don't see it very often when somebody building this brand and then, you know, sometimes I see collaborations of partnerships that you actually sold it, from my understanding. I would love to hear all about that process and you know what prompted you to make this sale. I just you know, I'd love to hear about that.

Yeah, and I think, yeah, I think you're right. I don't think this happens much, and when it does, it's not spoken about, and I think it's important to talk about it. So when I started the admin collective, the desire that I had was to create a space that was judgment free and really safe for admin professionals. Right, I wanted it to feel like a group where you could learn and share together without any fear of judgment, and I built it when I, when we got to the point of selling, we had 60 odd members from around the world. So we had members in the US, in Canada, the UK, new Zealand, australia. I think there was one in South Africa, like we built it to a point where or I'd built it to a point where it was global. We had great people in it, really incredible engagement and authenticity in our monthly meetings.

But I also knew that there is only so much that I can do, so my time is limited. I'm a one man show. I'm not one of the charmed ones. I can't freeze time and do work on other things, and so towards the end of last year and beginning particularly beginning of this year, I thought you know what this has gotten, as big as I can take it. So I've gotten it to a certain point, but someone else with better resources and more time can take it further, and so that was really the start of my thought around it. And then I started thinking about OK, well, who would I trust to take that on? Because this was such a personal thing for me. Also, I'm aware that members mostly signed up because of and this goes for any community the person that's in charge of it, and so you.

I had to really think through well, what does that look like? Who would take that on? Who has the ability to take it on, make it better, grow it and also keep the values the same, because that was the important aspect of selling it for me. Sure, there was monetary side of things, but the number one thing for me was that the members still continued to get the same value, and that the community had the same values was really important, and so I shortlisted a few people that I thought could possibly do it.

And then the number one on my list was Candice Burnigam, who is just out and so much fun, and she runs a company in Australia called Admin Avenues. She does a lot of work for our community worldwide, not just in Australia. She's had a stellar EAC career, like just super impressive. She knows her stuff and, more importantly, her and I share a similar set of values and so I had her as number one and I've made no secret of that. I said it from the kind of the moment we announced it.

But we jumped on a call, probably March or April, and she was talking to me about her side of things in the business and all of that. And then at the end of this conversation she said one of the things I've been told to do is to start an admin community, but I don't want to be in competition with you. And I went well, that's funny, because this is what I've been thinking and I talked her through this thought process and then we went away and we worked out all the nuts and bolts and made sure that the value stayed the same and that the community still felt appreciated and loved and received at base the same value for what they were putting in.

And then, on the first of July, we did the official switch over and announcement, which I was terrified. I had to film a video and I don't get like now I mean three years ago maybe, yes, terrified at my things, but like now, when it comes to this, I don't get terrified. And so recording the video to the members. We did a special video just to members a few days before it was announced. It took me probably maybe five times of recording it.

Yeah, why do you think that is?

Oh, I was so emotional Not emotional like I'm sad I'm letting go, or it wasn't anything like that, it was. It was I'm. There was a mixture of I'm so proud of myself that I got it to this point and it's now being taken on by someone else. Yeah, there was that, but it was also like this is the end of that chapter for me.

Yeah.

And that is, that is a thing you need to process, and so it took me a few goes, and even in the, even in the video that we ended up sending to members I had I watched it just recently because I'm a glutton for making myself sad and I looked at it and I was like, oh my gosh, you can tell I was just full of emotion, like my voice was like shaky, I was bright. So when I get, when I I have this beautiful thing like a nude face, so if I have any type of emotion, I go like purple, I just, it's just. And so I was bright, red, and I remember working on the computer trying to like reduce the redness.

Oh yeah.

It's so crazy. That process was so brilliant and Candice and her team just did such an incredible job. Yeah, it's so cool, and even now. So they've now been operating since the first of July. I'm obviously I will always be the founder. I'm still a member. I'm still heavily involved as a member, so I'm in and I'm in the chat and I'm on the calls and I'm obviously not leading. I'm making sure that Candice and her team have their space, but I'm still in it and they have done an incredible job. They shifted the platform over to something that is just so phenomenal. There's so many resources and they have these almost weekly master classes with special guests and monthly guests where we do big conversations like it. I'm so proud of where it's at.

Yeah.

I'm like it's almost like in mean girls. The stage mom, you know when she's like got the video camera recording me right Doing the dance moves. As she's recording, that's me watching the admin collective continue to grow and so so cool yeah.

Did you have a couple of questions, like on the kind of the business side?

of it.

When you originally started the admin collective, did you have intentions to sell or did that kind of come later as you were building it?

I knew it I this isn't a trickier question so I think I knew that at some point it would be too much, like I wouldn't be able to take it to where I think members deserve it to be taken. It's near, but it was never a solid plan, and keep in mind, I started at the end of 2020 and then lost my mom in the middle of 2021 and then lost my other mom in the middle of 2022.

And so it was whilst it was running and we're building it there was so much else happening that really it was me making sure that people felt loved and connected, while also making sure that I'm keeping myself healthy.

Yes, yeah, and looking after myself, and so there really wasn't an intentional thought process around it until sort of towards the end of last year. Beginning of this year is when it really sort of solidified in my head. But I think I always knew that I it would get to a point where someone else would have to take it on, or we'd have to bring someone else in as a partner or get some sort of funding or backing or something to enable me to do more with it. But then, sort of as life evolves, I was like no, I think, I think the baby needs to be handed over to give the best shot.

Mm, hmm, did you sell 100% or are you? Do you still have an equity stake?

So so my, my thought around that. So I didn't want to have an equity because I didn't want to still be meddling in it, so I wanted to give it the best opportunity to fly on its own with Candice and her team, because I felt that if, say, for example, I sold 60% of it and I kept 40. Whilst I'm a minority and I'm like there's obviously that constant income generating and all of that Money isn't the most important thing to me. So I tend not to lead with that in my, my, my decisions, yeah. And so I knew that if I still had a stake in it, I'm I'm really strong-willed and opinionated, and so I knew that I would be more inclined to say I think this is what we should be doing and I think this is the direction we should be heading, mm, hmm, and I didn't want to do that I wanted really to give them the chance to run it how they want and how it worked is actually very different.

So Candice still comes to me and talks me through stuff that she's thinking and and in terms of the admin collective and wants to make sure that I'm supportive, and that's really incredible and not something that she needed to do. I trust her fully and I trust her judgment and so it's it we. I, yeah, in the end, I wanted to give it a try. I wanted to give her the chance to do it herself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I just think it's. I think the whole process is really interesting. I think it's also just a testament to your ability to create and a great reminder to other people listening to this podcast that you know it was about three years, right, three years that you built this, that you built us. Whether you intended to or not, you ended up building a sellable asset, which is really incredible and and I mean just from for personally, really encouraging to know that that's, you know, a possibility that there's a path forward for that. It's very cool. Thank you for sharing.

No worries and I think just on that. I think a lot of people create these things, that they're the head of right.

So if we look at any type of community, any business where you are the face and they think that it has to stay with you until it dies. So it either is an incredible, huge success or it'll just like sort of flat line with you for years until it eventually folds right. And I just don't think that's the case. I think it's and this probably sounds a bit harsher than I intended, but I think that's quite a selfish way of looking at business. So for me, if, if you can see it and think, well, I think someone else can take this further than me, because it doesn't me selling, it doesn't remove me from the picture, it doesn't remove me from the history.

It doesn't negate what I have done. In fact it adds to it, and I and I think a lot of people are scared of that section and I- just don't think that there's a need to be scared of it.

And funnily enough and I'm sure countless will be happy with me saying this but she kept saying to me leading up to it. And then the first sort of month after now you're going to be, you know, you're going to have regret decisions, You're going to feel like you, you've made a big mistake, You'll probably cry about losing it, and that's all normal. It's all normal and yes, of course, it's all normal.

I didn't.

I never once regretted it. I never thought what have I done? I never, I never cried about it not being mine. That never happened. I was emotional, but predominantly because I was so proud yeah. Like I'm a boy that was that was raised in like government housing in Australia that had Nothing. Like I used to eat cereal for dinner, looked after myself. So the fact that I was able to Start a business and get it to a point of being able to sell a business is like was never on my bingo card, right it?

was never a possibility.

Yeah the emotion surrounding this was more proud of myself for the growth and when I've gotten to, as opposed to regret.

Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. I would like to shift a little bit and talk about some of the EA Roll, because you've obviously been in it for a long time and you understand that community very well. Yeah, so when you think back to the beginning of your EA executive support career, what is one thing that you wish you had new known when you started?

God, this is such a good question. So there's a few things, but the number one thing I think is is really critically important to know when you're starting out is there is no perfect mold of what the right assistant looks like.

So and I'll dive into that a bit more- yeah and when people start at my company so we are very large where Australia's largest university People look at the senior EAs of the company and go, oh, I must fit into that mold and it and it's so far from the truth. Being an EA is such a. It's so based on individual skill and personality and fit. Obviously there's a whole ton of skill set that we need and it's a common thread throughout everything. But when you get down to it, you win and lose jobs based on your fit and how you're gonna connect with people right and that is so that is such an individual gain.

And so if you are constantly molding yourself on Someone that you deem to be successful and you say, well, that is what I have to be, and I have to answer emails that way and I have to make sure I interact with people that way, be a positive or negative, we're going to be Completely burnt out. Trying to be someone that you're not. Yes, and I think that is critically, critically important, and I don't think people talk about it enough.

No, and I was just going to add that and that you end up trying to solve problems that don't Actually need to be solved because they're not problems for either your executive team or for your executive, which is what I see a lot, because they're they're like, well, this is the way to do it and I'm like, well, not necessarily, what is your team think? Is that how they like to do it?

That it is very into individual Lies, good and and just on that, I think that's such a good point. There are these set ways that people like to work with them. I think being adaptable as an assistant is so critically important. So I've, as EA to the provost I've now gone through and, just because of movement at the very top of our tree, I've gone through three executives I've currently got an acting one at the minute and All three of them are totally different. All three of them have different ways of working, have different preferences, have different requirements around what they expect from their team in meetings, and so if each time that changed in the last five years, I had a set rulebook that I refused to bend on, I Would be exhausted. I'd just be constantly fighting this battle that I put in place. Yes, exactly so by being adaptable and sort of saying, hey, how do you like to work? How are we gonna get the best out of this, this environment, what works for you? And then you go yeah, I can make that work.

Or if they don't know, then I feel like that's a great time to come in with some suggestions, or well, this is what I used to do, but you're right, you have to be so adaptable and flexible. Yeah, have you ever had the wrong fit with an, an executive, and did you work through it? Did you move on to a different opportunity? How did that materialize?

Yeah, they ended up leaving, so it actually so, whilst I've experienced it, I I haven't had to manage the end aspect of it. So I Ended up with someone not my choice. So there was some shuffling of roles, mm-hmm, shuffling of roles and I ended up supporting someone who just wasn't right fit for me and they're not a bad person, they're not bad at their job it just wasn't the right. We were not the right partnership, yeah, and so that was really challenging. So I worked in that space for about six months and then they ended up shifting out of that role.

Mm-hmm, I Was getting to a point where I thought you know what, this isn't worth it, I need to step out. And it wasn't sort of a toxic environment or anything like that, but it just didn't feel right and I I'm the type of person I think we all are, but we put varying Degrees of sort of importance on it. I need to be happy, I need to, I need to go into work Excited and feeling like I'm making a difference, and I didn't feel that in that role, and so I Was ready to step out Entirely. I was where I was ready to, and I and I and I talk about this a lot when I, when I chat with other assistants that If you're in a environment that isn't making you happy and You've done everything that you can to try and Sort of shift it and keeping in mind when I say that the responsibility isn't on you Solies only across the entire situation but if you've done everything that is in your power to try and change it and you're still having a horrible time, it's time to go.

Completely agree with you on that. Is there like a time frame that? Is it a time frame thing, like I'm gonna try for X number of months and if it still doesn't work, or how do you know when you when you really have given it enough?

Yeah, I don't. So I don't necessarily agree on the time frame thing, because everybody has a different Sort of level of reserves and of happiness and what can get you through a period like that. So for me, I was probably a month or two away from really pulling the pin, yeah, whereas whereas others that could have been weeks. Yeah right, yes, but it there isn't. I don't think there is a hard fast rule.

I think Self-awareness is a really, really important skill to have. People talk a lot about emotional intelligence and how critical it is and yes, it is critical and I fully agree and I fully back it. But it's very much a buzzword, I sort of saying at the minute. I do think Not not just assistance. I think every single person on this planet needs to work on their self-awareness. So If you have good self-awareness and you can understand and read your own emotional state, that is the cue to when you need to exit, so you'll be able to know when you need to to to step out. The struggle is, if you don't have that self-awareness Mm-hmm, you know quite a you can end up in quite a bad place, which isn't healthy or happy.

Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that you've had a couple of different executives over maybe the five years, I believe you said. So what is your recommendation that an EA or a chief of staff should do within that you know first 30 days when they are working with a new executive, whether You're the incumbent or whether the executive is an incumbent. But either way, it's a new relationship.

Yeah, there's a few things. So setting boundaries is really important. So the first, the first conversation or so needs to Talk about boundaries. And when I say talk about boundaries, I don't mean I don't necessarily mean you go in and say, well, this is what I'm willing to do, this is what I'm not willing to do, when this blah, blah, blah, it's, it's, this is how I like to work, this is how you get the most out of me, this is how I can help you get the most out of yourself in the role. Okay, that's what I mean by boundaries conversation, and I think that's a professional way of having a boundaries conversation. So that's the number one.

The other thing that that I think is is critically important is understanding how they like to work. What are their gripes, so what are the things that make them instantly Go? I'm not having a bar of that. I don't want to talk about it. I don't be. You know and there's yeah, we all have those topics that if someone tries to press us on it, we're gonna just go brick wall up. I'm not this.

I don't want to deal with it right.

So what is that for them? And then also, understanding how they want to work within a team environment is also critically important, and how you like to work in a team environment is also important. And then and then the final thing which I think goes Sort of missed a lot of the time when these conversations I had is watching, so I watch. I'm currently in Actually we're over 30 days now. It's about five weeks into the new relationship. Current executive end. Her and I Work are working really well together. She's great, I'm very lucky. But I watch everything.

Hmm.

I'm watching how she interacts with people. I'm watching her scent items. I'm watching how her life outside of work Is sort of factors in. How does that impact? What's what's she like when she gets to work? There is no much and it sounds weird again and I'm not a creeper, but like there's so much now.

It's so true, it's so valuable yeah and I think that's I think a lot of people do this, but maybe don't articulate it. So, yeah, really understanding and paying attention and, like a prime example for me is watching how my new executive interacts with people that she needs. What are her expectations in that corridor, right? So when someone's walking up to her room, what is she expecting? Does she kick straight into a business discussion or is she having a personal chat first? Mm-hmm, because that then dictates to me how much time I need to block out for meetings.

Yes.

So there's so much, so many layers in that that I think are really important that sometimes people forget because you just go oh my god, everything's happening at once. I'm just going to stay a flight, but stop breathe and watch.

Yeah, you start. You answered, I think, most of most of my question about the whole watching thing. I mean, you're not just watching to observe. You're not just observing to observe. You're observing for a very specific reason to take that information and then translate it. You gave the example of the time management piece. When you're looking at just the way she interacts, or any executive interacts in terms of their relationship, like what are you doing with that information? How are you, like, what's the benefit for you doing all this observation?

Huge. The benefit is enormous. So watching how she interacts enables me to talk on her behalf with authority. So I am watching how, what she's saying, how she's saying it, what her thoughts are on various issues, because that builds the picture for me as to what I can answer on her behalf without having to bother her. I mean that's one aspect.

The scent items I mean there is so much in a scent box, scent items. There is so much in there and this is I think I think some of the things that I hear on the ground is around people being concerned about writing on behalf of their executive and how do you find the tone and how do you make sure you get the messaging right and all of that stuff. It is all in the scent items. I totally agree, it's all there. So in her scent items I can see her personal emails to a family friend and how she writes those in comparison to how she writes maybe a more sternly worded email because someone's done something wrong to an email to the team, and I'm able to then use those as a guide to be able to draft communication for her and sort of not handball, but give our team also the right sort of level of tone for different patients. So our communications manager I'm able to provide to him hey, this is where this should sit.

Because I'm in there from watching. Yeah, that's such good stuff. I love that you mentioned the scent. That's a big thing that I like to look at too, and the thing maybe sometimes that can be missed when everyone is getting in the inbox they just think I'm just going to go through the inbox, not necessarily what's being sent out. What are you seeing right now for trends in the executive assistant role?

Oh, I always find this such a big question that I'm not sure I can ever answer well, because I think it's really country specific. So I think when you look at America, even versus Canada, versus the UK, versus here, they're all quite different. The thing that I will say around trends and our profession is that there are more people speaking up about their experiences.

So sharing their knowledge, which I'm a huge fan of, and what that enables is that it enables people to actually see a more nuanced view of our profession, that we are all very different and that we think of things very differently, and so that really, that, I think, has been a big shifter in the last few years.

So COVID really helped that people to step out of their box because they felt comfortable doing it from your own home, and so that has changed, I think, our profession. But in terms of real trends, I think that it is super country specific and probably not something that I can articulate well just because it's. I think it's a really like. The answer to that would have to be very nuanced. So I think, in short, to answer that sharing knowledge and the people that are willing to speak up has heavily influenced what people are going for, what roles, what skills they view as important, also what kind of assistant they want to be and understanding that they can actually do it from a place of authenticity without it being deemed as unprofessional. So I think that has really shifted in the community.

Yeah, yeah, thank you for that. I am curious maybe in the admin collective, or even just from the various people that you're talking to, is there a common question that keeps coming up?

Oh gosh always. So there's questions around the role and the future of the role. I think people and this has been a question that has been around for years already- yeah.

Like we, this whole question of how to use chat, gpt, and are we going to lose our roles and are we going to lose the vast majority of our role? I think that's a really big question. At the moment, I have my own views, as you will have your own views, and I think every person you ask will give you a different answer. But, in short, that question around are we going to lose our jobs? Are our jobs going to be replaced by AI? The answer is no. There will be tasks that will be taken away, but the emotional intelligence aspect of our role so being able to read a situation, being able to read a mood, understand a vast range of emotions AI can't do that, at least not yet.

And I don't think it ever will.

I think there will be an attempt for it to do some of that, yeah, but I think we're a fair way away from it being able to do it accurately, and so I don't think that we are in any threat of losing our jobs. But in saying that, I think if you're in the admin profession and you're not keeping up to date with technology and skills, you're doing yourself an enormous disservice.

If you've been with your executive for 10 years, for example, at the same company, and you go well. I'm very happy. I'm very comfortable. I don't want another job. I don't need to focus on all of this stuff. Your executive could leave it any minute.

And then you are then thrown into this pool of new experience and potentially having to find a new job, and you're going up against assistants who do know how to effectively use AI within their roles and that you have to keep yourself up to date, and there are so many incredible people that in our community and I'm not one of them that are talking about this in really great detail.

Me neither, but yes, I know that I know other people.

So one that I can recommend tech savvy assistant Jess, phenomenal, she's American but based in Canada, and she's also neurodivergent, which also enables a really unique perspective on the learning Something I think is incredible that we've got, that she does phenomenal work in this space, and how assistants can integrate AI into their work. She's running a course, it's coming up. I'm not sure when this will go live it may be past, but it's in a few weeks, I think, or a month or something, but she's always running sessions for people. If you see something online, even just the foundations of AI course, jump on, figure out what it is, because what we don't realize as assistants, ai is everywhere. If you've got, if you utilize the shortcut tap on your iPhone, that's AI. Like I have an automation turned on my phone because for parking at work I don't need to be paying parking fines, I can tell you that as soon as I drive onto campus, my iPhone does a pop-up saying run this command. I click it and it pay and my parking set up.

Yeah, yeah, we do use it so much more than we think we are in our every day and it's just I guess, in my opinion, it's just taking a lot of the you know the tasks and projects that we already do and layering on an AI or a tech component if we don't already. It's not a tech-enabled, it's not an assistant. Who's it? I'm trying to make sure I'm saying it right. It's a tech-enabled assistant. Yes, not an assistant enabled. I'm probably getting that wrong, but you know what I'm trying to say, right.

Like what are these great EAs who are elevated through the technology.

Exactly, and I think that's a really good way of looking at it. Also, think of it as this the AI stuff will take some of the more mundane tasks away from you, enables you to be more strategic and I everybody talks about being strategic as an assistant, and I think you and I could probably talk about this in this around common myths and all of that but by removing those tasks, it just frees you up to look at your role and what you can give to the company in a far more strategic way, and I'm always looking for stuff in my role to enable me to stop doing a manual task Like I'm all about efficiency. If I don't have to do it, I'm not doing it. Like, in all seriousness, if there is a step in the process that I think is redundant, I'm telling someone, and so that's what AI does. It removes those redundant aspects of a process, just transfers it to them, but it enables you to do so much more.

Yeah, yeah, totally great. Do you use chat GPT?

I do. I actually use the mobile app. So, yeah, if you don't have it, download the app because it's. I use it far more because I just pick up my phone and quickly ask the question. I don't use it as much as like as Jess does and for all the things that she does in it, and I probably need to take her course, to be fair, because I do want to figure out more about how I can work with it.

Yeah, I'm using it at probably a very basic level right now. I'm sure there's a lot more I can do, yeah.

You and I. This time I'm doing, I'm asking it lots of questions and I use it also a lot for idea generation. So for me, I have always a set of things that I love to sort of talk about and I've got a great idea. But you will know as well. But when you're constantly posting online, you go is there a different way that I can be saying this? So there's another way of talking about this topic and I'll put stuff into chat, GPT, and there'll be some times where it's like, oh no, that's way out. I'm not doing anything to do with that.

And then there are other ones. I'll be like oh, I really like this point. I might actually pull this out and talk about it more in my caption or in a video or whatnot. So idea generation is phenomenal and it can create documents for you. This is the thing that I think people understand. It can create agendas, it can create rough travel itineraries, and the opportunities are like yeah, amazing.

Yeah, yeah, I love it. Yeah, I have a lot more exploration to do, but it's, I'm definitely going to check out. It's Jessica, right, jessica?

Yes, just coming post. Yeah, yeah, if you just search tech savvy assistant, it's her. She's literally, I kid you not, she's the queen.

Yeah, yeah, I've definitely seen her stuff all over the place, so I'm probably taking classes at some point when it's time to dive back in.

Yeah, exactly.

I've spent it such on, you know, kind of a common thread of some of our conversation and certainly though a lot of the work that you do, which is around mental health and well being. I know that you are really passionate about that and it shows up in a lot of your work and in life. So what do you think are some of the current biggest challenges around mental health and well being and what can we do to help make progress in the right direction for ourselves and for others?

Oh, wow, that's a. That's a very big question. I'll talk about it more from a high level point of view. So I'll talk about a high level thing, and then I'll talk about stuff that we can do within our lives. We need to be lobbying for better mental health support, so there needs to be more services. There needs to be less stigma around seeking help. So I don't think this would come as a shock to anyone, but men are far less likely to seek any type of support for mental health issues or actually any medical issues so physical or mental which is why men are three times more likely to commit suicide, and that is a statistic that, to me, is is so sad because society has taught them that they can't speak up, that them expressing emotions is a bad thing, and that it deems them as weak, and so what we can do is as a society and this goes for everyone, not just men but breaking that stigma around mental health.

I talk about seeing a psychologist. I have a psychologist, I go to him monthly, and it is 100% one of the best things I've ever done for myself. To be able to talk to someone that is removed from your life about things that are happening with you is a huge help. So we need to be able to support people to go and seek help. So if you are comfortable sharing your mental health journey with someone that you think may be struggling, share it, even talk about it in a very conversational way. Just add something into the conversation like oh my psychologist the other week they mentioned this you don't have to say I can see you're struggling, I think you should go see someone. You find ways of mixing that in with the conversation Also, so that just helps remove the stigma and I think, that's pretty important.

The other thing is really for us as a community to look out for one another, so understanding that. So there's a couple of things. So perfect mental health doesn't exist. There is never. You're never going to be perfect.

As with mental health, I sometimes struggle with anxiety.

It's not something that happens all the time, but it pops up every now and again, and when it does, it's not a fun experience, as those that also do that will attest to. But there are days where we are just not mentally as strong as others, and so giving people the space and the time to feel supported and loved throughout those periods is so important. And then, separate to all of that, you have to put your own mask on first. So that's kind of the big picture stuff, but you need to put yourself first all the time, and I understand, particularly for mothers that is a near impossible ask, but you are no help to anyone else unless you are looking after yourself. So yourself first, booking things that replenish your battery. I get a monthly massage for 90 minutes. That is something that is non-negotiable in my budget Because it relaxes me, it recharges me, it makes me feel good, and I think stuff like that is important, so put stuff like that in place and it doesn't have to be a monetary value thing.

Even just walking to a park and sitting with your headphones and listening to music or a podcast for an hour Do that. You can tell people. I need to just step away. Put yourself first all the time.

Have you read any of Matt Hague's work?

No, but you are not the first person to ask me and it's on my list. Okay, yeah, I was just curious.

I just finished reading two of his book's reasons to stay alive, and then the second one, which is called Notes on a Nervous Planet and it actually talks. Yeah, the person who says you probably should go read some of Matt Hague just talks about so much of what you were just sharing and some of the stats you were just sharing he was talking about and he really shared his whole experience and journey with mental health and the challenges that he's had with anxiety and depression, and it just shed a completely different light on it. And really, because he's a fiction author and a really successful fiction author and then finally, when he began to share his story, people were like, yeah, me too, You're not alone. And it's like I'm so glad you shared because now I feel like I can share and it's really a really beautiful thing.

Yeah, I also think and this is an important note to make. So the symptoms of what you experience, both physical and mental, around physical health and mental well-being and mental health is actually can present wildly different depending on your environment, your situation, your biological sex is a play in it. So, and I think this is an interesting thing to kind of touch on for this section, is that, even if you look at some of the other, like heart attack symptoms, right, how males present heart attack symptoms is what is commonly posted worldwide, right? Yes, crushing chest pain, the left arm pain, you know all of that, right? Yes, you don't get the same symptoms, that's right. Yeah, but it's not promoted.

So that is because, historically, men have created the medical system.

Both psychological and physical, and so a lot of the symptoms of things that are published and put out there based on sex, so based on males and females, and so predominantly it's a male experience and so interesting. So when you're, when you're talking about your experiences and how things appear for you as a male and things kind of display in terms of symptoms for you, you are then showing someone else in the world that their experience is actually valid and because it may not, may not link to what is publicly posted, yeah, which is why I talk about my experience and it's why he's sharing his experience and, and it's really important, we need more people to be doing stuff like this and you don't have to do it on a public platform like this, right?

I get it. It's a crazy thing for some people to be doing, but even just within your friendship group, I agree. Yeah, so important there will be someone in your friendship group that has a similar experience and and experiences at the same way that you do. It has never felt, seen or heard before. And that big difference in terms of mental well being.

Yeah, I actually never heard the whole comparison like to the, to like medical symptoms and how they present, and obviously it makes so much sense after you said it. But it's again, it's so true because even when I was listening to Matt Hague's book, when I've experienced anxiety and depression myself so, and while there were some similarities, I was like, oh, I don't really I can understand, like, what he was feeling, but I, you know, it showed up very differently. So, what a great point. Thank you for mentioning that. Okay, so last question what are you not that you need anything else to work on, but what are you working on next?

Oh yeah, I definitely. I definitely don't need any water, but what I what I am focused on is is really harnessing all of the stuff that we've kind of covered off on in this. So I'm speaking to a bunch of conferences end of this year, next year which is super exciting talking to some big companies around authenticity, personal branding, mental well being, my story. So creating a life kind of against the odds is is something that I also talk about quite a lot. So really focusing on that, focusing on my studies, making sure that I continue to get good value out of that time at uni but then they're the main things. They absolutely the main things. And I knew follow me on Instagram, Halle, but that is where I kind of share the warts and all view of what is happening in my world.

And yeah, it's that's.

That's where it's all out at the minute.

Okay, cool, and we can all come join you on Instagram and follow along yeah.

Come along, come say hi and make sure I love this. So I do this every time. I do kind of like a podcast like this or or any type of like conference or speaking engagement. I ask people when they follow it and send me a message so come and introduce themselves to me. That goes on LinkedIn and for Instagram although I must say I'm much more active on Instagram. But send me a direct message and just say, hey, this is where I heard you from and this is a bit about me and we can chat. I'm all about the community experience I want. I don't. I'm the type of person I don't care about likes, comments and follow. I couldn't care less how many of any of those I have. I care about having a community where people feel valued and well and real connection.

Yeah, yeah, totally amazing.

Nick, thank you so much for spending so much time with me. I really, really appreciate it. I know we'll talk again soon, I'm sure. Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me. This chat was a blast. I had a ball, Thanks.