Articles

That is a sentence a client said to me last week during an interview preparation session. We were working through how he could speak about his experience to bridge the gap to the new role he was applying for. He was not trying to sound impressive for the sake of it. He was not looking for clever interview tricks, polished lines, or some rehearsed corporate speech where everyone pretends to be a “passionate self-starter” until the room loses the will to live. He said: “My conf

There’s a task that has been sitting on my list for two weeks. I know exactly what it is. I know it probably won’t even take that long. I’ve opened the document at least four times. And every single time, I’ve stared at it for about ninety seconds, felt something unpleasant crawl up from the keyboard, and closed it again. Very productive. Extremely executive. Five stars. The funny thing is, I’m not bad at my work. I do care (too much, most days!). I know that I know the thing

Last week I was running a resume review session with a group of Executive Assistants in EA How To and we were pulling apart a real job ad together. Senior EA role. Good one. We were maybe three bullet points in when someone dropped this in the chat: "Support the exec outside standard office hours: red flag." The chat was divided. Half the room was nodding hard. The other half was like, actually, I'd be totally fine with that. And I loved that moment. Because in about four sec

One resume for every job isn't working. Here's what actually is. Most EAs I speak to have a master resume. Long. Detailed. Covers everything they've ever done. They're proud of it (rightly so!). BUT.. then they send it to every job they apply for, maybe swap out a few bullet points, and wonder why they're not hearing back. I've been doing a lot of resume reviews lately, and this comes up every single time. One resume I looked at recently had a skills section sitting right the

Conversations EAs are avoiding (and how to have them) There's a conversation you've been putting off. You know the one. Where you're sitting in a meeting thinking "this keeps happening and someone needs to say something." Or you're in the car on the way home replaying the moment you didn't speak up, again. Or you've drafted the message three times and deleted it every time because you couldn't figure out how to say it without it sounding like a complaint. In our latest group

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it actually feels like to be stuck in your career. Because most people don’t say, “I need a 90-day action plan for my professional development.” They say things like: “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.” “I feel like I should be further ahead.” “I know I need to leave, but I don’t know where I’d even go.” “I keep applying for jobs and hearing nothing back.” “I’m getting interviews, but then I never get the job offer.” “I t

There's a conversation I keep having with Executive Assistants across Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and New Zealand at the moment. It usually starts with something like: "I just don't feel like they really see what I contribute, it's super hard to put metrics around it, so much of my work is in the background and invisible." And then, underneath that, something more pressing: "I'm also a little worried about what's coming." Both of those things are worth taking seriously

I’ve been in a lot of conversations lately. Webinars. Coaching sessions. Fireside chats. DMs at odd hours from people doom-scrolling LinkedIn advice about their careers. Different industries. Different countries. Same pattern. Some EAs are quietly becoming impossible to replace. Others… just as smart, just as experienced… are starting to feel a bit exposed. Same role. Very different outcome. Some of you are playing chess. Others are still updating the calendar. It’s not educa

Masterclass Replay I recently delivered a session with EA How To on How Executive Assistants Can Confidently Articulate Their Value (Especially in Interviews) Inside the session we cover: Why EAs struggle to talk about their work (and why it’s not your fault) How to shift from task-based language to impact-based language The 20-second value introduction framework How to reshape interview answers so they sound strategic, not small Real examples and live rewrites You can

How Executive Assistants Can Explain What They Do (Especially in interviews) If you’re an Executive Assistant, there’s a decent chance this has happened to you. You’re in an interview. Or a networking conversation. Or someone asks that deceptively simple question at a barbecue. “So… what do you do?” You pause. You scan your brain for where on earth to start. And eventually you say the thing that feels safest. “Honestly? Everything.” If that’s you, I want you to know something

There’s a type of self-doubt that I've been noticing a lot lately. It’s a different one, and difficult to label, because it’s one that only shows up AFTER you’ve been incredibly capable. It doesn’t come from failure, this one happens when the place you’re in stops reflecting who you are. When your skills are no longer recognised or used. When your environment no longer matches your capacity. Let me give you an example. The first time it happened to me personally, was in a tra

If you’ve ever gone through a big life or career change and suddenly felt like you misplaced your sense of self somewhere between chapters… this is for you. I see this all the time with my clients: brilliant, capable people who know they’ve outgrown a role, but feel frozen by the fear of losing the identity that comes with it. One minute you’re striding around with a job title that practically does the introductions for you. The next minute, life pulls the rug out from under

A survival guide for high-achieving women who accidentally become the emotional backbone of the entire organisation. The Job Description 🚩 When I was in my late twenties living in Sydney, I took an Executive Assistant role with a job description so vague it might as well have been written by someone who had never actually worked with an EA before. Which, to be honest, is usually the problem. People who have never had an EA have no idea what they actually do. So they write th

When I started my first side hustle, I didn’t have a five-page business plan, a marketing strategy, or even a vision board for that matter. What I did have was a six-month-old baby Nathaniel, an over-functioning coffee machine, a full time job, and a head full of both excitement and adrenaline. I’d just left an awful marriage — the kind that takes pieces of you with it — and moved across the country from Sydney to Perth. Big new promotion at work. New city. New neighbours. Ne