Two years ago I launched Assistants Together at the beginning of the first lockdown, who would have thought that two years later we would be doing a live episode at the PA Show in London. PA Show If you'd like to take advantage of the 10% discount from entry to The PA Show then use our code at checkout PA2272 and click this link to buy tickets - https://rfg.circdata.com/publish/PAS22/?source=HenriettaBarker Thank you to everyone who has listened and supported the podcast so far and hope to see y...
Mar 07, 2022•3 min•Season 8Ep. 3
This week I am welcoming Ruth Kilah, a Productivity & Wellbeing Strategist and Founder of Hoxton Hyde. During Ruth’s career as a Senior EA and Project Manager she lived in London and worked in the City. After years of not prioritising her health ruth had to make a big change. I absolutely love the fact that Ruth decided to take such a bold step in prioritising herself and she shares exactly how she decided to do that. Ruth launched Hoxton Hyde because she wanted to help EAs and PAs to become...
Mar 07, 2022•45 min•Season 8Ep. 4
I had the pleasure of speaking with Debra Coleman this week. It was tremendous fun having this conversation. She had actually interviewed me for her own podcast, Have a Seat which was terrifying but really fun too. You can check the episode out if you click here. Some of the things we speak about: - Launching her podcast, what she's learnt and why she started it - Confidence and how our perception of ourselves influence the choices we make - The importance of keeping going regardless of how you ...
Feb 04, 2022•37 min•Season 8Ep. 2
I'm excited to welcome Suzie Flynn back to the podcast this week. Suzie is a Mindset & Business Coach and she works with Executive Assistants who want to start a Virtual Assistant business as well. The new year brings a barrage of information about how we have to reinvent ourselves, have loads of New Years resolutions and get into a new space mentally and emotionally. So much of this is flawed and we can find ourselves falling short a few days or weeks into the process. When we are thinking ...
Jan 27, 2022•43 min•Season 8Ep. 1
This week is a really special episode for any office managers out there or if you’re in a hybrid role where you do some office management because I’m speaking with some of the winners from the first UK based office management awards. Launched by Hana Gray, the Founder of The Office Management Group to create a space where Office Managers can be recognised and celebrated for their work. After finding that all office management awards were given as part of an award ceremony for Assistants, Hana de...
Sep 08, 2021•41 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Victoria Wratten is the CEO and Founder of the Executive & Personal Assistants Association. A legally registered, government approved, not for profit professional body for Executive and Business Support Professionals in the UK. Victoria is a former award-winning EA with over 15 years experience across the public, third and corporate sectors. She is extremely passionate about the roles within Executive and Business Support and she actively encourages it as a truly fantastic career choice. For...
Aug 25, 2021•58 min•Season 7Ep. 7
I had the pleasure of speaking with Monique Helstrom who I am sure many of you know. Monique was the Executive Assistant to Simon Sinek, the New York Times Best Selling Author and TED celebrity. This episode is really about change. Change whether it’s wanted or unwanted can be so difficult to navigate and it was really a pleasure to speak with Monique about her experiences of change in her life. Monique was a workaholic, someone who knew how to work and whose life was defined in many ways by the...
Aug 11, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Carol Pito is based in Auckland, New Zealand and has created and consciously carved out a career as a strategic Executive Assistant. We use the term strategic a lot on this podcast and discuss how she moved away from being simply transactional to create a different path where she is actively working with the executive committee to define the goals of the business Carol shares a specific framework she used to transform her role to give her a seat at the illusive table. Not only that, she contribu...
Jul 28, 2021•54 min•Season 7Ep. 6
I was so pleased to have the chance to speak with Alice this week. Alice is well known as the Founder of The CWPA Club and operates as an Executive Assistant working in financial services. After her maternity leave in 2017, she realised there was no group in Canary Wharf for Assistants. For anyone outside of London, Canary Wharf is a part of London where a lot of financial organisations are based and it’s close to the City as well. Alice launched CWPA it and it quickly went from strength to stre...
Jul 07, 2021•48 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Marco has been working as an Executive Assistant in the Pharmaceutical industry for the past five years. Marco is based in Italy although he studied for his Masters in London. He took his MA in Corporate Communication. Marco is till really passionate about communications which shows in his work. Marco loves being an Executive Assistant, he is role is a very strategic one, and he works to support the Senior Leaders and Managers in the Oncology Business unit. Marco is really passionate about chall...
Jun 30, 2021•49 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Lucy Brazier is the CEO of Marcham Publishing, and publisher of Executive Support magazine. Lucy took over what was at the time a simple newsletter, and developed it into the brand it is today. Lucy has spoken at over 500 events held in over 40 countries. She delivers training, support and practical advice to help administrative professionals all over the world be the best at what they do. Lucy is deeply involved with Isipho Admin, a South African charity which helps young people into the admini...
Jun 23, 2021•48 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Rhonda Scharf is a well-recognised professional speaker, trainer, consultant and author based both in Ottawa, Canada and Fort Myers, Florida. Rhonda was an Executive Assistant but she was amazing at teaching other people how to use tech in their roles. She quickly became a trainer and then started her own business helping others. Since 1993 she has worked with tens of thousands of people in dozens of different countries. Rhonda has such a fun way of presenting things, she’s honest and tells us h...
Jun 16, 2021•42 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Alice Dartnell is a life and success coach who is passionate about helping people create a life by design. Life during and coming out of covid can be difficult, we are all in different parts of this pandemic but as things are changing again it can be daunting. That’s why Alice and I are speaking about some of the things we can do to create a great framework for ourselves to support our own experiences and look after ourselves at this point. Literally whatever this point in time is for you. Alice...
Jun 10, 2021•54 min•Season 7Ep. 1
My latest guest is the incredible Nick Ginsburg, a passionate and innovative Executive Assistant, Speaker and Community Leader. He is the Executive Assistant to the Provost and Senior Vice-President at Monash University and is the Co-Founder of the Global Fireside Series. Productivity, innovation, and relationship building are his strengths and passion. Nick thrives when he is helping people, and in particular Executive Assistants, by bringing them together to share their knowledge and grow in t...
May 11, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 2
My guests are Kerry Robinson and Cate Heaphy, the founders of The Online Assistants. Both really experienced and successful Executive Assistants, Kerry and Cate launched their business after they shared a bottle of wine and started talking about the future of the assistant role and how they felt how they would fit into that. They quickly launched the business, and worked incredibly hard to really build a successful operation. They’ve set their own rules about how they want to live their lives an...
May 05, 2021•40 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Annie Croner is my guest and Annie is a career EA and founder of Whole Assistant, an online platform & community, formed to provide a positive place where assistants can go to transform their lives and up level their careers. Annie has made it her focus to help assistants achieve their goals and manage everything on their plates, while finding freedom from overwhelm and burnout. Annie is a trained Coach and she supports people through transitions and events in their lives. Annie suffered a l...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Happy Administrative Professionals Day everyone🎉🎉 When I say the name Nicky Christmas, I am pretty sure that most of you will know who I am talking about.Nicky is the Founder of Practically Perfect PA as a blog ten years ago. The site provides support, information and guidance for people in their role. Nicky has taken that huge resource and created the EA Campus, a brand new community online for Assistants with events, training and tons of content that’s exclusive to the members. Nicky and I h...
Apr 21, 2021•47 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Lisa Boissel is the Managing Director of Miss Jones PA. She is an incredibly experienced event planner and connector who loves bringing people together and has been at the helm of Miss Jones PA for the past eight years. Miss Jones PA is the leading Assistant and events community in the UK and I am thrilled that Lisa spoke with me. If you have used their event calendar to see what is happening in our community, been to an event in person (pre pandemic obviously), attended one of the virtual summi...
Apr 14, 2021•52 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Shirwyn Weber is a South African based C-Level Executive Assistant with over 12 years of cross industry experience. He is an accomplished professional with numerous awards and accolades, including PAFSA PA of the Year. Shirwyn is an advocate for men in the profession, having faced discrimination when applying for roles and is fearless in discussing his own experiences in order to raise awareness and campaign for change in our industry. A mentor for the ISHIPO, a South African charity that works ...
Apr 07, 2021•40 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Hana Gray is such a force in our industry. As the Founder of The Office Management Group she is championing and elevating office managers in so many ways. Hana has been on the podcast before speaking about the need to really celebrate office managers and has been creating so much in the last year, continuing to build her community, launching the very first UK Awards to celebrate the work that they do and now creating a specific Institute of Administrative Professionals accredited course for offi...
Mar 31, 2021•48 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Hallie Warner, Force Multiplier, Chief of Staff, Author and Business & Career Consultant. Hallie is well known as the Chief of Staff to the Founder and CEO, Adam Hergenrother whom she has worked with for ten years. Hallie is also the co-author of The Founder & The Force Multiplier: How Entrepreneurs and Executive Assistants Achieve More Together. I was really excited to speak with Hallie, her impact has been seen throughout our industry and she has such a great way of articulating what’s...
Mar 24, 2021•53 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Shelagh Donnelly is my guest this week. No doubt you’ll have seen her posts on social. Maybe voted in one of her weekend polls? Read some of the interviews In her series Real Careers or attended one of her incredible talks. Shelagh is a speaker, trainer and writer: founder and publisher of Exceptional EA. Shelagh was an Assistant for almost three decades. She’s tremendously inspiring, positive and authentic. When you hear Shelagh speak, you know she understands the career and has fantastic insig...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 6
As an Assistant you cannot miss this episode, this is a very special episode with Lauren Bradley, Founder of The Officials. Lauren has been a guest on the podcast before and our conversations about careers led to me creating a course for The Officials members. Lauren and I deep dive into how you can really shape your career in the way that you want to. Lauren and I have had so many conversations about careers and job searching that we decided to record it and share it with you instead of keeping...
Mar 11, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Alex Foster is an Executive Assistant who knew that this was the career he wanted for a long time. It took some time for him to take the steps to become an Assistant and went for it, but it wasn’t without difficulties. He needed tenacity to be able to build a career in a space that is dominated by women. Only 6% of Assistants are men and Alex came face to face with some of the gender biases that exist within our industry. When he started to interview for roles it was clear that people weren’t ex...
Mar 03, 2021•55 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Jessica Robbins is an incredibly successful Executive Assistant working for Loréal as the PA to the GM of Lancôme and PA to the GM of Yves Saint Laurent Beauté. Jessica has achieved so much in her career, working for Samsung Electronics for twelve years as an Assistant and then moving to Loréal a few years ago. What I found so refreshing was that Jess was able to articulate so clearly what her transition was like, working for a more corporate tech firm, moving to a really fast paced and dynamic ...
Feb 24, 2021•42 min•Season 5Ep. 4
It was such a pleasure to welcome Nadine King to Assistants Together this week. Nadine is Special Assistant to the Provost at Spelman University, Founder of Black Admin Magic and the newly launched the National Association of Black Administrative Professionals and also author of The Ninja: Chronicles of an Assistant. Nadine opened up on why she felt compelled to write her book and the circumstances that led her to launch both Black Admin Magic and NABAP. Nadine and I speak about diversity and in...
Feb 11, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Mallory Rothstein, Founder of More Than An Admin, Learn What Matters, Administrative Business Partner at Google & TEDx Speaker. Mallory is on a mission to help teens and assistants level up on their personal development journey to fulfil their purpose and have a greater impact. She started Learn What Matters to create alumni programmes for high schools, help teens invest in self awareness and provide coaching and workshops. Mallory is also a TEDx speaker, talking about when she went back to ...
Feb 03, 2021•49 min•Season 5Ep. 2
When I saw the Instagram handle @theunemployedassistant I needed to know who this was. You can imagine that it peaked my interest and not just from a professional capacity, I just loved the forth rite name and I had to find out more. Jeff Marchand is an Executive Assistant in a Fortune 100 company and when he started his instagram account he had just been through a professional breakup. He had been hired for a role and it just didn’t work out. This happens to people regularly, but there is often...
Jan 27, 2021•58 min•Season 5Ep. 1
I was so excited to speak with Daniel Skermer, the Founder of the PA Forum. Daniel founded the hugely successful PA Forum in 2016. Having worked within the hospitality industry Daniel developed his ability to connect, inspire and communicate with people. His talent at bringing people together to celebrate their work, their life and their unique abilities is obvious. Daniel almost accidentally launched the PA Forum. He needed to start connecting with people in Birmingham so that he could succeed ...
Jan 20, 2021•52 min•Season 4Ep. 8
This week I am joined by Nick Ginsburg who has been on the podcast but I have been following what he’s been up to and I felt like we needed to revisit what he has been doing. Nick is the Host of The Open Drive podcast where he shares his life experiences and how he has created the life he has now. It’s an incredibly raw and honest account of his life and I know that it has brought a huge amount of comfort to so many other people who have had similar life experiences. He is an Executive Assistant...
Jan 07, 2021•59 min•Season 4Ep. 7
