Ep:12 Bonus Episode: Personal Branding & Generative AI Tips for Administrative Assistants with Amelia Sordell & Amy Lester

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Elevate and Automate | Personal Branding & AI for Assistants

Join us for this memorable, interactive episode recorded LIVE at The PA Show London!

This was the first time The PA Show had a podcast for administrative professionals exhibiting and delivering a Keynote Session - we are incredibly proud of this one!

Have you ever wondered how you can elevate or even get started with your personal branding and why it is necessary for our profession?

In this bonus episode also available to watch on YouTube we share personal stories of growth, illustrating how authenticity isn’t just a buzzword, but the currency of personal branding.

Our guest speaker, world-class personal branding strategist,  LinkedIn's top voice influencer, speaker, advisor & founder at Klowt - the personal branding agency -Amelia Sordell, sheds light and shares top tips to get started for Administrative Assistants.

Are you overwhelmed with the THOUSANDS of AI tool options to assist us in our tasks and want to know first-hand from a successful Virtual Assistant how to stay ahead of the game? Our other guest speaker Amy Lester - business owner,  executive assistant, VA mentor and coach, shares her top tips and knowledge from a virtual assistant's perspective.

Your personal brand is more than a self-promotional tool—it's a magnet for attracting those who will propel you towards your 'North Star'.

It's about networking with purpose, giving value without expectation, and the realization that follower counts pale in comparison to genuine connections.

We invite you to share your own experiences and strategies through our "Hi Crodie..." initiative get involved and send us your questions.

Value Bombs

Amelia Sordell - " Personal branding is essentially your reputation at scale, right? Every single one of you has got your roles in the jobs that you're in right now because of your reputation to deliver results for your customers or your employers, right? Your personal brand is simply an elevation of that.".

Amy Lester – " Certainly for me, the way that I utilise AI at the moment is in areas that maybe I'm not particularly strong. ".

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everyone for coming and takingtime out of your schedule today.
We are absolutely over the moonto have our amazing
contributors help us deliverthis episode, elevate and
automate, which is a real hottopic coded for our industry.
So we're going to be talkingabout elevating the profession,

(01:03):
elevating yourselves, how andalso linking that today, as it's
the VA conference, to VA's andhow AI is shaping the VA
industry and how, also, personalbranding is absolutely
paramount for VA's.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, we're really excited.
Thank you for coming.
So today we were going to talkabout personal branding and AI
for our assistants, which isquite important for our CEAs to
if you want to be recognised, toget into where we want to go to
, to make sure that we get theright job.
So over to you, jodie.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Right, without any further to do, we're just going
to get straight into it andintroduce our first.
Well, she needs I always sayneeds no introduction.
But yeah, you absolutely do.
Amelia Sordell, linkedin BlueBadge, linkedin's top voice,
blue Badge influencer andfounder of the personal branding
marketing agency Clout.

(01:57):
If you don't know, get to knowvery quickly, because it's super
aligned with what we all do aswell.
Amelia launched her firstbusiness, a clothing brand, at
the age of 21.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, wow.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
That failed quite quickly.
I'm just thinking about this.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
I'm not here talking about that.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Then went on we're just skipper.
Huge chunk.
But you went on to build a sixfigure personal branding agency
Clout during the pandemic.
You've also worked with techstartup founders to FTSE
leadership teams, including theNational Lottery, on building
their personal brands thatdeliver results.
Keyword A strong leader andrenowned public speaker.

(02:36):
Please help me welcome AmeliaSordell.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
Yeah thank you Seven figures actually.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Seven figures now.
We'll be right soon.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
We're going to be discussing with a virtual
assistant AI is Amy Lester,award winning and renowned EA
and VA.
Amy is a virtual assistant andan EA VA mentor.
Amy provides assistance andconsultancy services for her
small business owners since 2019.
She offers her client solutionsto every at every stage of

(03:10):
their business journey.
She's was shortlisted for 2020VA of the Year Westminster
Region in the UK VA Awards and2021 VA of the Year Westminster
PA Awards.
Can everybody congratulate her?
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
Amy.

Speaker 6 (03:29):
Good to be here.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Let's get into it then.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
So, amy, is personal branding.
Why is it important to us, howcan we connect the dots and how
do we make it relevant in ourroles?
Why is it relevant?
There's a hell of a lot ofdiscussion and hot topic around
how we, as any assistant, canelevate our careers and what the
gaps are in between.
So what are the dots in betweento get from where you are now

(03:56):
to where you want to be?
What is the plan?
Well, there's not much inbetween getting there and the
hot topic at the moment is thechief of staff role.
In between that moving into astrategic executive assistant
role, but there's a hell of alot missing in the middle.
I believe that the next hottopic and it is because we are

(04:17):
here is personal branding forall assistance and how we are
not needed anymore in theshadows and how we come to the
forefront.
So I want to ask Amelia whyshould we make the dots for us?
Why should we and how do weremain relevant?
Why is it important to me andeveryone else here today to

(04:37):
understand more about personalbranding?
What is it, what isn't it, andhow can we make it relevant in
our role, in our careeraspirations?

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Okay, I'm going to start first by like talk about
what personal brand is, becauseI think a lot of people think
it's an ego driven activitythat's all about.
Let's post on Instagram and geta thousand followers and like
look at me, me, me.
That's not what personalbranding is.
Personal branding isessentially your reputation at
scale right.
Every single one of you has gotyour roles in the jobs that
you're in right now because ofyour reputation to deliver

(05:06):
results for your customers orfor your employers.
Right, your personal brand issimply an elevation of that.
It is your resume, it is yourreputation, it is your business
card to get the in the door ofthe doors that you want to go in
.
I think it's really importantthat, first of all,
acknowledging that Amy's my EAand, with this out, without this
woman I could not live likeliterally ensures that I

(05:29):
actually we were laughing at itbecause there's a bell ringing
for, like all the things, she'smy bell.
Like I might be late toeverything, I'd miss everything.
I'd miss lights and misspicking my children, amy.
So I want to first of allacknowledge that what you guys
do as a function is, like,absolutely critical to the
performance of individuals, withtheir leadership, but also
business at its core.

(05:50):
Like, you guys are the glue thatkeeps the ship together as it
might be, but why personalbranding is relevant, for you
guys particularly is.
I'm sure there's a few VAs inthe room, so I'll start with you
first and then we'll move on tothe EA side, the virtual
assistants.
Your bread and butter isobviously providing services to
the customers that you work with, but I imagine that a lot of
you struggle to get new businessbecause you're so in the weeds

(06:11):
of your business.
You therefore struggle tomarket yourselves to get that
new business in right.
By building your personal brand, you're positioning yourself as
someone that can solve all ofthe problems that your ideal
customer has without even havingto ask them for anything in
return.
You're not trying to convinceanyone, you're just telling them
.
And actually Amy does a reallygood job and I suggest you all
go and follow her of puttingherself out there and getting

(06:33):
people to know who she is andwhy they should work with her
and not anyone else.
And she does that with a reallyperfect blend of like talking
about the fact she's a mum andshe's juggling motherhood with
also like working with ourcustomers.
She also talks about, like allthe trials and tribulations of
what it's like to be anexecutive assistant, like all
the things that she does for hercustomers and long suffering
list for you, I'm sure.

(06:53):
But because of that, she putsherself at the heart of her
business and ultimately, you areall the products that you're
selling.
Whether you're employed or not,you are people based service,
right, you are delivering yourknowledge, your experience and a
service to your customers or toyour employers.
By you building your personalbrand, you're marketing that in
its core of what it is, which isyourself.

(07:13):
You're marketing the product.
So it's a really big missedopportunity if you are a virtual
assistant and you're notbuilding your personal brand,
because otherwise you're goingto have times when customers
leave you and then you'rescrambling to backfill that hole
that's been left in yourbusiness because you haven't
been had the foresight or theproactivity to go and market
yourself from the jump.
Now, for those of you who areemployed cannot stress to you,

(07:37):
hands up, anyone here who's feellike and this is a safe space,
right, there's not a camera onyou who has not felt appreciated
by their employer.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Not now.
I'm not gonna say that In thepast, In the past John.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
A lot of you have felt unappreciated by your
employer Hands up.
People who feel like they knowthey're the glue that keeps
their employers' diary together,but they don't feel
acknowledged for that.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Right, you guys are doing these incredible roles for
these high functioning peopleand you don't get the
recognition you deserve becauseyou're not visible.
You are behind a curtain makingsure that everything is working,
making sure the pulleys aregoing down, making sure the
curtain goes up, making sure thecurtain goes down.
You don't get the recognitionyou deserve because you're not
seen.
I cannot stress to you enoughhow valuable it is for you to

(08:24):
build your personal brand online, because it's going to put your
face and the stuff that you doat the forefront of your
employer's mind.
So when a Chief of Staff rolecomes up or an Operations
Manager role comes up orsomething, or even a promotion
opportunity, you're going to beright at the forefront of their
head, every single opportunitythat comes up, because you've
been in their face the entiretime, on their LinkedIn feed, on

(08:46):
their TikTok feed, wherever itis that your clients live.
I can't stress to you enoughhow important it is to be
visible within the organisationthat you're working in.
Has anyone seen that episode ofFriends where Rachel starts
smoking because she wants to geta promotion?
Yeah, okay so if you're not inthe smoking area, you're not
going to get a promotion, andthe smoking area here is
LinkedIn.
So that would be my kind ofspeech to kick off with.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Let's pause there for LinkedIn.
I want to kind of demystifysocial media and the relevance
to personal branding.
For me, not even four years ago, there's no way I would be
thinking about a post or typinganything out without thinking,
oh my God, they're going tothink she's showing off, she's

(09:32):
boasting, what's the point?
I don't understand what I'mdoing it for, who's watching and
the visibility terrors I callit.
So we've spoke about thisbefore, where I just fast
forward a little bit to unpackwhat I'm saying is you think, oh
, no one's engaging with me,there's no point.

(09:53):
I get one like I feel a bitcrap now.
No one likes me, I'm notgetting an engagement.
And then you see high engagementand maybe low interactions in
the forms of likes or comments.
So can you demystify thatvisibility piece where people
are still absorbing and readingand seeing what you're posting

(10:16):
in form of sharing the knowledgewhich is what Craig and I are
all about is just sharing whatwe know and that fear, that
visibility terror of someone'swatching, hr's watching, my boss
is watching.
I can't be authentic because Iwant to talk about this.
And what if it highlights me?
How's that then going to look?
See a few of you nodding.

(10:37):
I think you can relate to whatI'm saying.
I don't know what happened to me.
I just something just fell offme and clicked and I just got to
the point where I don't careanymore.
I'm going to work on me.
I'm doing that.
But for Amelia specifically,unpack the visibility terrors
and the.
I call them the silent stalkers, if you like, in a good way and

(11:02):
the reason why we should bevisible and there, but we don't
need to be prolific on everysocial media site.
But how does it tie into justtrying something on LinkedIn and
why?
I think?

Speaker 3 (11:16):
there's like three questions there, so I'll try and
break it down.
But I'll start with thevisibility piece, because I
think actually everyone has afear of visibility, and I don't
just mean that on social media.
I think every single one of usare scared in some capacity of
something like, whether it'sasking for a discount at Zara or
like asking that person out ona date, or like trying to
negotiate with your toddler orsomething whether they're
broccoli, like, everyone isscared of something and I think

(11:39):
I understand the scaries thatyou're talking about.
I used to have them.
It's very easy for me to sithere presenting as a very
confident woman on a stage.
You know doing this, but fiveor six years ago I had no
self-esteem, no confidence.
I remember I used to get myex-husband to order food with
the waiter because I was sonervous to speak to like a
stranger, like he would orderfor me.
And I'm sitting here on thisstage right now because I built

(12:01):
my personal brand.
I'm not saying that from anexpertise perspective.
I'm saying that from aconfidence perspective.
Posting content online andpeople telling me you know
co-signing stuff and say, welldone, that's really fantastic.
But also telling me I'm wrongand disagreeing with a lot of
the stuff that I post has givenme a sense of confidence, sense
of self-worth, self-esteem.
I don't give a shit whethersomeone thinks that they like my

(12:22):
stuff or not anymore.
And to your point about a like,I don't care whether I get one
like or zero likes or a hundredthousand likes, because I know
who I am and I'm confident inwho I am and I know that,
whether or not you know, someoneagrees with me on LinkedIn or
TikTok or Instagram or whereverchannel I'm building.
That is not validation from mypersonality and it's just a

(12:43):
distribution channel for it.
And I think we spend so muchtime particularly I know I'm not
going to try and make thisabout gender too much, but
there's lots of women in theroom we spend a lot of time
seeking validation from otherpeople for our self-worth.
When you start building yourbrand, it gives me goosebumps to
talk about it, because itchanged my life.

(13:04):
It changed my life.
I was left with unhappymarriage.
I bought my own house.
I now run a multi-million poundbusiness with 13 employees.
I get to do this for fun.
You know what I mean.
It changed my life, but itstarted with me being okay to
share what I wanted to share andbe who I wanted to be and

(13:26):
choose how I showed up in theworld and be 100% okay with the
consequences of that.
And the reason that is reallyimportant and powerful is when
you're confident in who you areand you know who you are and you
know what your vision is andyou know what that journey is
that you want to go on.
You ooze that in every singleaspect of your life and guess

(13:47):
who wants to pay people lots ofmoney.
They're shipped togetherEmployers right.
When you show up in a way withconfidence and you know what
you're doing and you own theplace, particularly in this type
of role, people will throwmoney at you because they want
people like you in theirbusiness.
And to your point aboutvisibility what do people think
that I'm making about me, mimiand whatever?

(14:09):
Building your personal brand isnot about look at me.
It's about look what I can dofor you.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Say that again.

Speaker 3 (14:18):
Personal branding is not about look at me.
It's about look what I can dofor you.
Love that.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Really, really helpful.
There it is, that's it.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
This is the difference between having a
camera in your face and beinglike, oh look, how amazing my
makeup is and look at the newbag I bought and whatever.
And that's fine, we all lovethat content.
Go get me a new one.
I love an earmaid as a hawk Bigfan, but that's not going to
get you employment.
That's not going to get youcustomers.
That's not going to get youyour dream role.
Your dream role is showing upexactly how you present in the

(14:48):
real world, because, guess what?
That's why your employers havehired you, because they think
you're fucking great.
If you can present that in ascalable way, you will not only
be able to ask for more moneywhen it comes to promotion times
and get more clients and chargemore and all of those things,
but you will get opportunitiesto do things like this.
If this is the kind of thingthat you want to do, you will
get opportunities to enter roomsthat you otherwise just
wouldn't have access to.
Building your personal brandhelps you kick down doors that

(15:12):
simply just wouldn't existwithout it, and so if you're not
willing to do that, someoneelse will and you will miss out
on opportunities that youdeserve.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
And that's what we've been saying.
If not you, who?
Meaning if you don't do it orstart doing it in some capacity?
Not the full blown package, ifyou've liked it starts small.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
You need to be a videographer to your Start small
.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Just do one thing and , trust me, one thing just leads
on to other things.
And with the topics of how dowe elevate and how do we
progress in our careers, when weare the backbone, the company,
we are the glue that holdseverything together, we're
always behind the scenes, whichis great.
I love doing that.
I've been doing it for over 20years.

(15:56):
I still love doing it.
But there's also room forprogression.
There's room for growth.
And if you do want to move inyour career and you're not sure
what that looks or sounds likeor what it is on paper as in job
title, well, guess what?
It's a stepping stone towardsworking with the C-suite, it's a
stepping stone towards workingas a chief of staff.

(16:19):
It all means something.
But again, choose yourplatforms wisely.
We don't need to be everywhere.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
I just want to pick up on something you just said
there, which is it's not aboutbeing the best, it's about being
the best known, right, and thatis Look at Amazon, for example.
You can buy books anywhere, butwe all choose to get it on
Amazon because Amazon is, likeyou've meaning, yes, but also
the best known.
If you're the best known inyour industry at what you do,
and become significantly easierto get what you want.

(16:47):
I love that, I love that, butalso on your point about
platforms like I was only onLinkedIn.
So I've been building mypersonal brand now for four
years, five years, and now onevery channel I have a podcast,
I have a weekly vlog that goesout.
Hence the videographer, HiOllie Hence.

(17:07):
You know we were on TikTok oron Instagram, we're on all the
things, but I was on LinkedInonly for like three of those
five years.

Speaker 4 (17:15):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
I didn't even have a website for the first 18 months
of my business.
A lot of our business camethrough my LinkedIn profile.

Speaker 6 (17:20):
The other thing is as well.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Obviously, you set the foundations whilst you were
still employed as well, becauseI built my personal brand.
So as I pulled the lever of I'mstarting this business, we were
over subscribed within fourweeks.
So, yeah, I think it's reallyimportant that you understand
where your audience is.
You don't need to be everywhere.
You don't need to be everythingto everyone.
You don't need to pleaseeveryone.

(17:42):
If someone doesn't like yourcontent, great, that means you
don't have to worry aboutdealing with someone who's not
going to buy from you anyway.
Be okay with being yourself.
Afford to be yourself, I think,is probably a good way to put
it.
And if LinkedIn is where youneed to be, because that's
you're trying to attractexecutives, you're trying to get
the attention of your CEO,whatever it might be, stick on
LinkedIn.
Don't worry about the otherchannels.
If you're someone who'soperating in a slightly

(18:04):
different space and you thinkTikTok is your bag, go on TikTok
.
But I would always say focus onone channel, focus on where the
money is, focus on where theopportunity is and then don't
deviate from that goal untilyou've learned how to execute
unbelievably well and, trust me,you'll learn very, very quickly
.
I think a lot of people thinkthat this kind of stuff is hard.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Trust me, I'm.
Most days.
I don't even have two braincells.
This is not that hard.
It just requires a level ofconsistency which all of you are
going to be much better outthan I am because, this one has
to remind me to do most of thisstuff all the time.

Speaker 4 (18:32):
No everyone.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
It's all about social media, then.
I think I don't know about youguys, but social media a few
years ago just petrified me,because I am behind the scenes,
I do keep things ticking along.
It was this is kind of an oldstory so I don't mind sharing it
but there was an assistant whoasked me how do I get from there
to here?
What course do I need?

(18:55):
What education do I need?
What letters after my name do Ineed?
What's relevant?
And I said to her well, what areyou known as in the office?
Just as a bit of a joke.
And she said I'm known as theoffice mum.
And I almost didn't need to sayanything.
So do you think we need tostart shifting that persona

(19:19):
towards office mum to officemanager, and then office manager
to operations manager,operations manager to director
of administration?
Do you think that might help?
And it was just a bit of alight bulb moment for both of us
, really, when we thought, ah,you can't actually go from zero
to hero.
You do need to put in somesteps.

(19:39):
And social media isn't the onlyway to build a personal
branding, is it?
No, it's not just social.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
All of you here are sitting.
You should all be meeting eachother after this and shaking
each other's hand and seeing ifyou've got any opportunities
with each other.
Like we really really grosslyunderestimate the value of
networking and I feel like it'sa bit of a COVID hangover, right
Like pre-COVID, there wereloads of these events happening.
We'd meet people, we'd interactwith them, we'd go for drinks,
we'd take a week grab a coffee.
No one does that anymore and Ifeel like your competitive

(20:06):
advantage of the people sittingin the room right now is you're
in a room right now with peoplein your industry that can open
doors for you that you otherwisedon't have access to or might
open doors for you in the future.
And if you can get into theirspace right now and make friends
with them and keep up with themand remember the fact that they
have a two-year-old and askthem how their day at first at
school went, if they're four orfive, not two, that stuff really

(20:27):
compounds and turns into reallymeaningful relationships.
That actually becomesopportunity long-term.
To your question about socialmedia thing, social media
followers it's not aboutfollowers.
It's about creating friends,because followers aren't gonna
advocate for you, followersaren't gonna open doors for you.
Followers aren't going toinvite you to do things like
this if this is what you wannado, or invite you into closed

(20:48):
interviews for executives on theFTSE 100.
It's going to be personalrecommendations from people
who've got to know you, who'vegot to know your experience and
think you're really great inwhat you do.
But it's gonna open those doorsfor you and you can do that at
scale online, like I have.
We've had some incredibleopportunities come up recently
we were just talking about thisbefore we came on stage Inbound
for us, where people have seenour content on cloud and my

(21:11):
content and my team's contentand gone on VACC agents and for
us they've never met us but,more importantly, they've
thought that we know what we'retalking about because they've
had other recommendations topeople who have met us.
So your personal brand is notjust something that sits on
LinkedIn or sits on TikTok orsince Instagram.
It's actually how you just showup and if you're very different
in this room as you are online,there's a really big problem

(21:32):
there, because it means that thepeople do interact with your
content online and they meet youand you're completely different
.
Like that creates mistrust.
It's like if you booked aservice and then the service was
or you ordered a burger and itturned out to be like a burrito.
It'd be like what the hell?
So don't be a burrito.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
So how do we get started, then, for some of us
that have never touched socialmedia, or we've just been
lurking, how do we get started?
How do we find our why?
And we talk about goals a lothow do we get going when some of
us have never done it before,we haven't got a clue what to
post, don't know how to getstarted.
What are your top tips?

(22:13):
What are my?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
top tips.
How long have you got Right?
I think the number one thing iswhat is your goal.
And this is an interestingthing, because when you say what
is your goal, most people go Iwant 10,000 followers.
I was like, no, that is not thegoal.
Dream bigger than 10,000followers, please.
What is your goal?
Is it that you want thatchoose-of-stuff role?
I know from many of you thatmight be that next stage, or
maybe there's your current stage.

(22:35):
But what is that?
North Star?
Is it that you want to buy yourfirst home?
Is it that you want to be ableto I don't know get enough
income coming in that you cansave to then have a baby in a
year?
Or you want to take your wifeon holiday?
Like, what is the goal thatyou're trying to work towards?
And it needs to be somethingintrinsic that's going to keep
you on track.
Once you've worked out yourgoal, you can then go beneath

(22:57):
that and go cool.
Who do I need to attract tomake that goal happen?
So, if your goal is that chiefof staff role, who do you need
to attract into your network tomake that happen?
It might be CPOs, it might beCEOs, it might be like really,
really top level recruiters andheadhunters.
Who is that audience thatyou're trying to attract to make

(23:18):
that goal happen?
Once you know who your audienceis, you can then work out what
you need to talk about to beable to position you as someone
worth following by those people.
So, for example, if you aresomebody who wants to be the
chief of staff role and you'reon LinkedIn and you need to
attract because you want to workwith startups, right, you want
to attract founders andexecutives.
You know as chief execs, youknow that those audience are.

(23:40):
If I were you, I'd be postingcontent that you know will
resonate with those peoplebecause you already work with
those people.
So what are the trials andtribulations that they have?
You know, lots of my previousemployees have really struggled
trying to balance family timeand work time and, like I know,
at the start of a business, thatcan be really, really difficult
and my role as a chief of staffis to make sure that the team
are working together to executethat for that executive, because

(24:03):
if he or she can't show up,then the rest of the team are
fucked Like.
That might be something thatyou want to post because that's
going to resonate with thosefounders.
That's going to resonate withthose chief execs and you all
know that because you work withthese people day in and day out.
So all you need to do isbasically take your every single
day and then turn that intocontent.
That then is going to resonatewith the people you're trying to
attract, and what you would dois bring those people into your

(24:24):
network and they'll start seeinga lot of this and they'll say,
wow, this person really knowswhat they're talking about Boom.
You then open up all theseopportunities and people would
be like, oh, I saw you postedthat the other day.
That's really interesting.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
We've actually got this role coming up with this VC
backed text style that wouldyou be interested in applying,
and that's really interesting tojust pack that into this
conversation.
Don't be afraid of sharing yourknowledge, and that's what
Craig and I are all about.
You can't work in a silo andexpect growth.
Share what you know.
It's not about allowing otherpeople to copy you.

(24:54):
No, there's only going to beone you and the way you do it.
Don't be afraid to share theknowledge.
You'll get much moreinteractions, engagements, and
the ROI of just being new isgoing to be so much more
valuable than just keeping it toyourself.
You'll be amazed at who thedoors are open where you can
just let your guard down, takethe cloak off and just add value

(25:15):
.
Network, learn and grow is whatwe promote all the time.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
That's such an important point to make.
So, as an agency sorry tointerrupt you, but I really need
everyone to understand this asan agency, we charge a lot of
money.
Our entry level is like 50grand a year to work with an
executive.
I give 100% of my knowledgeaway for free.
If you really wanted to, youcould just follow all of my
LinkedIn posts and you couldactually do what we charge to do
yourself.

(25:39):
But 99% of people can't do thatBecause A they don't have the
time, they don't have theexpertise, they haven't got the
knowledge, etc.
Don't believe, don't be arrogantenough to think that your ideas
are unique.
If you think the way that youdo things is unique, you're
really, really going to bebarking up a very, very large
tree, because there are lots ofother people in the room who
could do exactly what you do inthe same way you do it.

(26:00):
But the thing that makes youunique is you right.
You might be doing exactly thesame job function as every
single other person in thisconference right now, but the
way you do it and yourpersonality is what makes you
unique.
One of you might not work verywell with someone else, but the
other person might be perfectfor that person.
I think it's really, reallyimportant and Amy does this so

(26:21):
well is to bring her personalityand who she is as a person into
her content, which is whatmakes her likable, trustable and
someone that you want to dobusiness with.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
The Crowdy Files is brought to you by Autograph
Events, our show sponsors.
Autograph Events are theexperts in providing a complete
event management solution fromfree global venue finding
through to full onsite eventmanagement, executive away days,
team building and offsitemeetings.
They can help us plan it all.

(26:55):
They offer that extra pair ofhands, a bit like the
assistant's assistant.
The best part is, theyunderstand how we like to work.
They understand our role.
So for more information, emailevents at autograph eventscouk,
quoting Crowdy Files 2023, tofind out how they can help you

(27:17):
plan your next event and foryour personal reward.
Terms and conditions apply.
Please see our website,craigandjodycom.
Perfect link into Amy Yep.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
Amy.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Hi, let's bring Amy in, let's bring Amy in.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
I've been in EA for almost 20 years but I've worked
in large corporations andproduction companies.
But I have to take my hat off.
I am unbelievable Virtualassistants.
I could never do that.
I'm a people person.
I have to see people, I have totalk to them.
Even if I'm not getting anemail back, I'm going to call
them just so I can have anothervoice on the other side and go

(27:58):
hi, my name is Craig.
Virtual assistants.
How do you do that?
So that is really admirable.

Speaker 6 (28:05):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I'm going to ask you those questions that we've been
getting about virtual assistants, For example.
Can you explain that AI isshaping the task of all
assistants?
How much is it used by VA's andwhat tasks are you using the AI
for?

Speaker 6 (28:23):
Sure, I think it's something that's very much
emerging at the moment.
I know there's a lot of noisearound AI within our industry.
I also think there's a littlebit of fear there, maybe that
we're going to get replaced andthat it's going to replace a lot
of our bread and butter,particularly so we AI's and VA's

(28:46):
at the start of their career,their journey.
I think in terms of the kind ofday-to-day tasks that it can
replace, I think that's verymuch depends on the unique sort
of responsibilities of the VA orthe EA.
Certainly, for me, the way thatI utilise AI at the moment is

(29:11):
in areas that maybe I'm notparticularly strong, so things
that might take me a lot longer.
Obviously, va is in particular.
Obviously we work under theconcept of time.
So whether that's the time thatwe're charging to our clients,
how long everything's going totake, they're paying us for a
fixed amount of time.

(29:32):
So anything that can create anefficiency, anything that can
streamline a process that takesaway you having to actually
manually do something, that is,I guess, an easy way to
implement AI into your workload.
For me, specifically, that'sthings that are, I guess, more

(29:54):
creative.
So I'm very good at you.
Tell me what to do, I'll get itdone.
I'd like to think of anythingto testify to that you tell me
what to do.
If I have a task that I need tocomplete, it's getting done.
My clients don't have to ask metwice for things.
They know that that's beendelivered.
That's obviously the wholepoint of having an exec
assistant or a virtual assistant.

(30:14):
But for me, I know that I canover procrastinate with
particularly things that areslightly more creative.
So, for example, if one of myclients turned to me and said I
want to do a team day like ateam building day, we need two
activities.
I would literally probably spend, if I had the luxury of the

(30:34):
time, half a day thinking well,how long the breaks need to be
and what structure does thatneed to have and whereabouts
should we base it?
Something like chat GPT can takeaway that thinking and give me
that template that then, as anexperienced DA, as an

(30:54):
experienced virtual assistantwho knows her clients inside out
, I can then plug my knowledgeinto that template.
But it saved me the time of thatprocrastinating time to start
off with and I think that'swhere AI can really add value
Having software platforms thatcan talk to each other, removing
that manual process of havingto go into one platform and then

(31:17):
replicate things in another.
They're very easy ways toalleviate some of the manual
responsibility and the benefitof that is that then you can
focus your time on being morestrategic and, particularly if
you're a VA that's looking toattract higher value clients or

(31:37):
clients that are, like Amelia,completely sort of bossing it
and or, equally, that kind ofpromotion, you want to be
positioning yourself in a morestrategic sort of vein and
taking away that kind of busywork, that mundane, repetitive
work, by using something like AIto your advantage.

(31:59):
Yes, that's replacing youactually doing it, but it allows
you the capacity, the time, thebrain space to actually
position yourself as a strategicadvisor to your clients or to
your exec.
And ultimately, I think that'swhat we all want here.
We want to be the personsupporting them and being able

(32:20):
to identify the problems beforethey happen.
Make those suggestions to maketheir lives easier.
Otherwise we wouldn't be doingwhat we're doing.

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah, I totally agree , and I don't think AI is here
to take our jobs away.
I think it's the EAs that learnthe AI software and how prompts
are working are going to takethe jobs away from the EAs who
are.
I don't have time for that.
I don't know how to learn moresoftware.
I'm too old I mean, it was my50th birthday two days ago.
I'm not old and I'm stilllearning the prompts.

(32:50):
And I think, getting back towhat you were saying, is that,
for example, you time yourclients you know per hour, for
example and then you've got thistask of 6,000, spreadsheet of
6,000 contacts.
You need to find all the emailaddresses for that.
So what you do is you create aprompt within the AI chat sheet,

(33:11):
you see, or whatever softwareyou would use, and then you
would say go to all thesefolders, what you want to
extract all those emails, putthis and you put the Excel
spreadsheet code or the filename in there, and that would
automatically which would takeyou about six or maybe a lot of
hours to put 6,000 emails into aspreadsheet and then what you

(33:31):
can do is use that same prompttwo weeks time, just copy and
paste whatever information youwant in that same prompt and
it'll just carry on doing it inthe background while you just
crack on with other stuff.
So that's where you weretalking about.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
I think AI is just another whole thing.
As me and Craig say on thepodcast all the time, this is a
whole different thing.
We can go a bit deeper withthat in other episodes for you
and invite Amy to come and chatabout that.
I do want to mention that Amyalso mentors and coaches VA's to
how to get started and sheoffers strategy days.
So connect with her afterwardsor come and see us on stand E16P

(34:05):
and she has a free downloadablefor you all free giveaway,
sharing her knowledge on someuseful prompts for VA's.
We've come into question timenow, so we have got time for one
question for Amelia.
Anyone on the floor got aquestion for Amelia?
Zoe, you've always got questionno-transcript.

Speaker 5 (34:33):
Thank you, this has been great.
Thank you so much.
It's a real honour to be ableto listen to you guys and I'm a
huge fan of the CRODE files.
I guess one of the things thatI've kind of seen from the admin
industry is that we've all gotsuch big personalities and we're
really good at projecting thatto each other.
One of the things that I findis EAs have a tendency of they

(34:55):
struggle to do that in front oftheir principals and executives.
What would be your three E tipsto be able to project their
personal branding to theirexecutives?

Speaker 3 (35:07):
I'm going to be really naughty.
She knows what I'm going to do.
I think she should answer thisquestion, because Amy's actually
got a really strong personalbrand and actually she
challenges me a lot as well.

Speaker 6 (35:20):
I think, from my perspective, building that trust
and that authority, I thinkthat is the key, fundamental
being able to back yourself upin terms of what you say and

(35:42):
being able to pack that up forany of the execs that you're
supporting.
I think from my experience, Ireally like quite heavily on
LinkedIn.
I often will share social proof.
Being a VA is slightlydifferent because obviously I've

(36:04):
got lots of different clients,but being able to say this is
kind of an example of what I did, this is a problem that I'm
having and this is how I solvedit, and being able to speak as
an authority on that, that'skind of the way that I do that
within.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
You're showing your value, you're adding value,
you're not being all sizzle andno steak.
You can back up everythingyou've done.
You can show what you're doing.
You can show this is my to-dolist, but this is what it
transferred into ROI for thebusiness because I freed up so
much of your time in, confidentenough to say I'm doing this and

(36:45):
I'm doing it really well and Istand by it.
Rather than well, I could havedone this, or I make sure it's a
bit better next time, beinghaving that confidence.
So personal development,equally as important as
professional development, alwaysone.
You can't have one without theother in my opinion.
I know Virginia's got a hotquestion over here on this whole

(37:06):
book.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
For those who have questions and want them to be
answered, you can come to E16Pand we can recall them and use
them for our podcast episodes sowe can get some answers from
other collaborators.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Virginia.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Thank you.
I've been in the AI for over 30years now and their technology
has been incredible Everythingthat's happening and it's
emerging.
What advice would you give topeople that are just starting
out, for them to focus on?
How would they start?
What would you recommend?
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (37:35):
Terms of software, terms of everything.
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
If you're just starting out as an AI and you
want to become a VA, things likethat.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Oh, stepping stones.
What do we need to go from?
Personal, maybe the personalbranding yeah, standing out,
adding value, showing your worth.

Speaker 6 (37:55):
I think so because I think you can add value and you
can have a relevant opinion andrelevant knowledge, even if it
was day one of what you're doing.
I'm going to quite Amelia, butjust a thing, I'm not as far
through it.

(38:17):
And actually it's a particularlyas a VA.
I think we again we can spend alot of time procrastinating
like is the logo right?
Is the website right?
Is the messaging right?
Have I got business cards?
Have I got this?
Have I got that?
And particularly when Itransitioned from being kind of
an executive assistant opsfull-time employee into running

(38:40):
my own business, I spent anawful amount of time just trying
to get everything perfect.
So I think the one piece ofadvice I would have is to just
jump into it, particularly.
As I said, I'm obviouslylooking at it slightly from a VA
side of things, but you mightchange the services that you

(39:01):
offer.
You might start down one pathof focusing on a particular
industry, or I'm going to becomea specialist in email marketing
and you might get three monthsinto it, but actually I hate
email marketing, I don't want todo that anymore and you can
pivot there's no harm in doingthat but if you don't actually
get started, you're not going toknow.

(39:22):
Equally, I found myself in a bitof a weird niche where I have a
couple of clients that work inlike entertainment and like
video production.
Well, I didn't really have anextensive background in that,
but I found those clients andnow that's a major sort of part
of the service that I offer.
That allows me to offeradditional services to other
clients in other industries.

(39:43):
But if I just sat down there onday one and gone, I'm going to
go and approach theentertainment industry.
Well, I haven't known how to dothat but now I have that skills
and experience just fromactually getting started to kind
of jump back slightly.
Obviously you were talkingabout, you know, building trust
and the kind of power of,obviously your personal brand

(40:06):
and promoting yourself online,but equally having that
authority and being atrustworthy figure just your
clients or the people that inyour organization and how that
opens doors.
And one thing that I think hasreally sort of helped that for
me is being able to sort of backeverything that I'm doing and

(40:29):
talking about with examples ofrelevant sort of work I've done,
maybe for the clients Can.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
I just add one quickly.
From my point of view, I wouldalways showcase my soft skills,
my adaptability, my empathy andmy emotional intelligence, and
that will get you into the doorsand try and get you a better
job than you would getAbsolutely.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
There's two things here and it's not necessarily
relevant to just executiveassistants.
Number one is you're going tosuck at everything that you
start when it's new.
I sucked at personal brand.
I look back at some of my videosnow and I'm like Jesus Christ,
I can't believe I posted that.
But here we are.
You suck at everything when youfirst start.
I think the second thing iseveryone here is talking about

(41:11):
add value.
Like what does value mean?
Value could mean a meme.
It could mean a dancing videoon TikTok.
It could be that you givepeople a white paper on how they
should be building theirpersonal brand or how they
should be running their business.
Value is defined by the personyou're trying to be valuable to.
So if you're someone who'sreally funny and that's a huge
part of your personality it'salso a big reason why people

(41:33):
like you lean into it.
If you're someone who's really,really organized and you're
someone who is employed for thatorganizational skills, lean
into it.
If you're someone who is anintrovert and finds the concept
of even posting content onlinereally quite scary, lean into it
.
The thing that makes you uniqueis you and to your point about

(41:54):
what's your advice for peoplewhen they first start out.
Like I said, everyone has tostart somewhere, but document
your journey from zero to expertand I think people will be
really, really bought into youas a person and ultimately will
want to be a part of yournetwork Great, excellent,
fantastic.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
So I think that's our session for today.
It's been amazing.
Thank you so much for joiningus and coming on stage and
really it's been my favoriteepisode so far.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
I think you guys absolutely nailed this, by the
way, so well done.

Speaker 1 (42:23):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
The world is changing and technology is right in our
future.
Without us, there is notomorrow.
We need to change with thetimes.
Help in, guide in and teach ineach other Is the only way we
will get through this togetheras a team.