Life in Private Staffing

Today we have a lovely conversation with Rachel who is a British citizen but who hasn’t lived in the UK for more than 15 years! She spent more than 10 years working onboard yachts, travelling the world and being fortunate enough to work in some beautiful locations. We discuss her yachting career where she quickly progressed up to Chief Stew working on very large boats, mainly working on private ve...

Kandy has an entire career’s worth of experience under her belt having started her journey working in European hotels before moving into the private sector many years ago. She is a hands-on service-orientated Estate Manager who has most recently pivoted to offer her services on a consultancy basis across her hometown of Los Angeles but also across the UK and Europe (she is lucky enough to hold a U...

Today we have the fascinating Tracey on the show discussing how she works with Estate Managers globally to unlock their potential through mindset management. Her experience ranges from working with the military to politicians to athletes to UHNW and then more recently onto private service professionals themselves. We discuss the challenges senior members of staff experience on a day-to-day basis a...

It has been years since we had a nanny on the show so today, I was excited to chat with Ella who has been working as a superyacht nanny for the last 8 years. She has chosen a slightly different type of nanny career path though by working this entire time as a freelance nanny in appose to securing long-term permanent positions. This way, she joins families for their holidays only which can be 1-wee...

Today we head out to the UAE to chat with Hannah, a House Manager who has been in the industry for the last 10 years. I love talking to candidates who have made the decision to relocate and work somewhere which has such a different culture and temperature (!) to see why they decided to move and what the benefits of taking such a big step have been. We discuss the highs of working in the private se...

Our fabulous sponsor, Kelly Dixon from Estate Management Systems joins us today to discuss different areas of estate management. Having been a guest on the podcast before where we delved deep into her career history, today we focused more on some of the issues estate managers face on a day-to-day basis offering advice along the way.   Since leaving the world of estate management, Kelly has spent 3...

We invite our very first gardener to the show today! Being an area that I know very little about, I was excited to learn more about the life of a private gardener and how you get into managing the large amounts of land and gardens for UHNW individuals. We discuss the importance of experience over qualifications and that exaggerating your skill set at an interview is not advisable!    Jonathan has...

We have recently partnered with 2 highly experienced trainers of private household and yacht staff and today we are talking with our US based trainer Dwight. As a member of our Florida community, he has been part of the Silver Swan family for a while but with his extensive training experience gained from 5* world renowned hotels and more recently within the private sector we felt he was the perfec...

Today we bring the conversation back in-house by chatting all things Europe with Charlotte who has been managing our EU clients for the last year or so. The division was predominantly chalet and villa clients when she took over and it soon became a very busy private household desk with a large mummer of fantastic permanent positions on her books. We discuss the huge changes that we have seen in th...

Today we invite Jim to the show to discuss his 20-year career working as an Estate Manager in the USA. His roles have spread across Dallas, New York and Florida which is where he now calls home. He has an interesting story as he made the choice to switch careers and move into the private industry later in life and has already had a successful career working in public relations. It’s interesting to...

Today, we bring the conversation back in-house, this time discussing all things USA. Jessica is our USA specialist and is currently managing a large number of US based clients across LA, New York and Florida. There are aspects of the private industry which differ between the US and the UK and Europe and so it’s important that we delve into these different markets separately. A number of dilemmas w...

Today, we invite a long-time friend of Silver Swans to the show. Phoebe has been involved with our UK House Manager community since the start and has attended almost all of our events. She is a seasoned House Manager having started are career working onboard superyachts. She was able to transition reasonably smoothly into a land-based PA and House Manager position in Australia and has been working...

Silver Swan returns for our 4th season! This season we plan to invite a number of different guests to share their stories of working in the private sector and alongside these episodes we will be releasing Silver Swan episodes where I will be talking to different members of my team about the market in general and discussing different dilemmas which are sent in by our fabulous listeners. If you have...

As 2022 draws to an end we have taken the opportunity to pull out our personal highlights of Season 3. Over the last 22 episodes, we have had an array of guests from all over the globe, sharing their stories, their highs and lows and their most challenging client request. I don’t think our guests realise just how inspiring their stories are to others in the industry and especially to those listene...

Silver Swan is excited to launch our training services in partnership with Mathieu Barbe at Service Excellence Training. We have onboarded the highly experienced Mathieu as our in-house trainer here at Silver Swan and we now offer on-site bespoke training for all our clients worldwide. We are huge believers in the power of training and hiring good people is not enough if you want a highly effectiv...

Today we talk with Jarryd who is a member of our Palace Manager community in the UAE. He is embarking on a very exciting new challenge where he and his wife will be managing a very large VIP residence in Dubai.  Jarryd started his journey in the private staffing sector after spending 5 years working at an incredibly luxurious and gloriously beautiful safari resort in South Africa. They ran a...

Silver Swan has recently launched a concierge company to offer not only dedicated service to our UHNW clients but to offer support to our fabulous House/Estate Manager communities. These roles are already challenging without the last-minute or often crazy requests of the Principals – you are no longer alone! Instead of feeling that you need to find a way to make the impossible happen, just email c...

Today we are talking to a highly experienced European private chef who was one of the lucky ones to win a green card through the green card lottery and move over to New York. His story is inspiring having worked his way up from the literal bottom of the kitchen ladder up through the ranks in Michelin kitchens before transitioning over to the private sector when in New York. He has now been working...

We are often asked whether formal Butler training is essential for a successful career as a private butler, today we have Thomas on the show who has been working as a Butler Trainer all around the world for many years. We discuss what a typical course looks like, what you can expect and what content is included. It’s interesting to hear his insights on working as Butler in Europe versus China. He...

Today we’re talking to the fabulous Weber who has been working in the US in the private sector for a huge chunk of his career. With a background in interior design, he learnt all about the world of the UHNW clients and built a strong network over the years of designing. It was from here where he pivoted his career into the full management of his clients’ personal lives. He has worked for a number...

We’re heading stateside again today to speak with Alec, an Estate Manager based in Los Angeles. He built his strong hospitality career through F&B in restaurants and hotels before moving into property management. It was this role which opened him up to the private sector industry and specifically the world of estate managers. He moved over from Florida to LA to pursue an Estate Management care...

Today Philippa talks with a British chef who has worked his way up from basement kitchens to luxury ski chalets into private homes. A lot of guests we speak to talk about how they would never now return to a commercial kitchen having now experienced a career within the private industry….but not Sam. Philippa and Sam discuss the pros but also the cons associated with working with UHNW clients (of w...

Our guest today is part of our fabulous Florida estate manager community based over in Palm Beach and today she talks to Philippa about her fairly recent entry to the private sector where she was able to take her high levels of service experience from the commercial sector and step straight into house management. She is incredibly passionate about her work and wishes she discovered the private sec...

Today Philippa speaks with a highly experienced private butler who is proving how taking that decision to relocate for a role in Saudi Arabia was one of the best things he has done. He secured his first role 3 years ago via Silver Swan in a VIP property in Riyadh and he has never left the beautiful country since! He is now part of the team to open a brand-new boutique luxury resort in the highly t...

In this episode we are focusing on all things great about Saudi Arabia. A country still feared by many is actually fast becoming one of the most exciting places to be. With the country’s leader driving the country forward in regards to equality and women’s rights, along with the huge plans surround the 2030 vision it will soon not only be a great place to live and work but a holiday destination fo...