The Leader Assistant Podcast with Jeremy Burrows

Madeleine Westerhout landed her dream job at the White House as executive assistant to the President of the United States – and then lost the job due to a mistake on her part. In this episode, Madeleine shares how she ended up as executive assistant to President Donald Trump, what it was like working in the White House as an assistant, how she lost her dream job – and what she learned from it. No...

Viveka von Rosen is internationally known as the "LinkedIn Expert" and has been listed as a top social media influencer in Forbes multiple times. She works with B2B companies and executives, helping them achieve business success through the use of LinkedIn. In this episode, Viveka highlights the importance of building an online personal brand via a LinkedIn profile. She also shares ideas...

Lauren Bradley is the founder of The Officials, an online platform that empowers assistants through community, courses, and coaching. She is passionate about providing assistants affordable and accessible training. In this episode, Lauren talks about company culture, managing interruptions, being a strategic partner with your executive, owning mistakes, and more. Enjoy our conversation! Show Notes...

Rowe Lapiña Hoffer is the Sr. Executive Assistant to Mozilla’s co-founder and Chairwoman, Mitchell Baker.  In this episode, Rowe talks about seeing our role as assistants as important and vital to our organizations, the importance of boundaries, and having the humility to help where needed versus having a sense of entitlement. We also talk about the title "assistant" and what it means to...

Alice Default has spent over 6 years building productivity tools to help people work better at companies including Microsoft, Sunrise, and Front.  Since 2018, Alice and her team have been laser-focused on helping CEOs and their teams get more done with Double, a modern executive assistant service that sources experienced US-based assistants and empowers them with great tech. In this episode, Alice...

Hayley Cole provides EA support to the Head of EII EMEA Product Development at BlackRock. She is also the Co-Chair of GAIN EMEA, which is the professional network providing support and advocating for the administrative professionals at BlackRock. In this episode, Hayley shares tips on anticipating your executive's needs, staying productive, the importance of networking with other assistants,...

Enjoy this sneak peek at a new audio "podcourse" I produced in partnership with Himalaya.com. It's called 7 Keys to Reclaiming Your Time, Energy, and Productivity and it's available exclusively on Himalaya Learning . Himalaya Learning is an audio learning platform that provides an extensive library of courses straight to your ears from the world's greatest minds like Malco...

Lisa Olsen has a passion for motivating others to be their best. She's been a senior executive assistant for over 25 years, and is also co-owner of Admin to Admin. Lisa shares advice on managing an inbox, having the confidence to lead, professional development, and much more. I hope you enjoy our conversation!   Show Notes -> leaderassistant.com/77 Book -> leaderassistantbook.com Paid M...

Aimee Browne is an EA with over 15 years of experience, and is passionate about helping others succeed in business and life. Aimee shares openly about her struggle with burnout, depression and anxiety, and how difficult it was to ask for help and work toward recovery. She then shares some self-care tips that have helped her since her burnout. I really appreciate Aimee's honesty and vulnerabil...

Amanda Christoff is the CEO & Founder of Bloom Talent, a woman-owned boutique recruiting firm that specializes in Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant, and Startup Ops roles. Amanda has great insight on resume crafting (and the biggest mistake you can make when crafting yours), interview prep, job searching, negotiating a higher compensation package during the interview process, and more. Enjoy...

Kara Tanenbaum is an Executive Assistant, providing C-level support in a strategic partnership for over sixteen years. She also side-hustles as a Virtual Assistant, specializing in all things digital marketing. Kara shares tips on how to start a virtual assistant side-hustle, including thoughts on the importance of specializing, and how to market yourself and get more clients. She also talks about...

Gisele Karame-Kemp is the Executive Assistant to Scott Farquhar, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Atlassian, a collaboration software company that helps teams organize, discuss, and complete shared work. Atlassian owns the popular task management software Trello, which many assistants depend on to get their work done. Gisele talks about what it’s like working for a global software (with over a billion d...

Jessica Vann is the CEO and Founder of Maven Recruiting Group – a renowned recruiting brand specializing in connecting high-leverage executive assistant and operations hires to the nation’s most prominent executives and companies. We talk about changing the perception of the executive assistant profession on both sides of the table, what executives look for in an assistant, tips for preparing for...

Heather and I chat about leading an EA team, maintaining confidentiality in a publicly traded company, what it means to be a strategic partner with your executive, professional development for EAs, and how to resist burnout. Be sure to listen to our entire conversation because Heather takes over for a few minutes toward the end of the interview and asks me some questions. :-) The Leader Assistant...

Jacqueline Howard is a longtime Executive Virtual Assistant and homeschooling mom, so she has some great thoughts regarding working from home and more! Jacqueline and I talk about working remotely with kids in the home, how to stay connected with your executive while working from home, how to manage multiple executives, and more. Show notes -> leaderassistant.com/70 The Leader Assistant book -&...

In this episode, I chat with Julie Perrine, an executive assistant turned CEO and Founder of All Things Admin . Julie and I talk about managing an executive's email, personality tests, crafting a career plan, putting together systems and procedures, and tips for becoming a virtual assistant. Enjoy our conversation and be sure to check out Julie's resources for assistants at AllThingsAdmi...

Simone White has worked in the administrative profession for nearly 25 years. She is the global chair of GAIN – Global Administrative Initiative Network at BlackRock, supporting nearly 500 professionals across APAC, EMEA, and Americas. I had the pleasure of speaking at an event with Simone in Frankfurt, Germany a couple of years ago, and I'm so thrilled to have her on the podcast! Simone talk...

Today is release day for my new book, The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of a Confident, Game-Changing Assistant! In this episode, I share the audiobook version of Chapter 1: The Essential Characteristics . The audiobook releases later this year, but in the meantime, you can order the paperback, hardcover, or ebook versions of the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble . Thank you for your support a...

Lindsay Robinson spent 11 years as an assistant at the NBA, and is currently an Executive Assistant at LinkedIn. Lindsay talks about what it’s like to work for LinkedIn, how to improve your LinkedIn profile, being honest when you make mistakes, asking for help, and tips on self-care and avoiding burnout.  Show notes -> leaderassistant.com/66 The Leader Assistant book -> leaderassistantbook.c...

Shelley Trask is the Senior Executive Assistant to Cal Henderson, CTO at Slack in San Francisco. The Slack team does not use email. I love email. Shelley loves Slack. I'm not a big fan of how easy it is for people to get ahold of me via Slack. This should be fun... Shelley talks about what she loves about the EA role, productivity tips, and why Slack doesn't use email internally. She als...

I'm excited to share a sneak peek at my new book, The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of a Confident, Game-Changing Assistant . This episode is a departure from interviews (don't worry, plenty of those to come). Instead, I share a bit about the book, and read the entire Prologue which is titled, Andrews Glacier . Show notes -> leaderassistant.com/64 The Leader Assistant book -> lead...

Ethan Bull is a longtime Executive Assistant and CoFounder of ProAssisting, a remote EA firm in the U.S. He has great advice for working remotely, managing multiple executives, and more. Ethan and I talk about how their remote EA company, ProAssisting, is different from many of the other VA firms. We also talk about tips for hiring and interviewing, and he shares a crazy story from his time in the...

Meagan Strout is Founding Partner and CEO of Elevate Leadership Support Advisors – the leading provider of recruitment, management consulting, and career development training for administrative professionals, here in the U.S. Meagan shares a ton of amazing tips on interviewing for a job, crafting a resume, and compensation for assistants. Enjoy our conversation and be sure to check out Elevate&apo...

Joanne Linden has over 30 years of experience as an executive assistant and is currently president and master trainer at AdminUniverse™. Joanne and I talk about how executives can empower their assistants, what to do if you're not being respected, tips on gaining confidence, and much more. Show notes at leaderassistant.com/61 Info on The Leader Assistant book at leaderassistantbook.com Subscr...

Vickie Sokol Evans is a globally recognized digital productivity instructor and comedic speaker who trains the world's smartest people how to use their technology to get better results in less time. Vickie has experience as an assistant so she understands our role more than most digital productivity instructors. She's passionate about helping assistants automate processes and increase ef...