The Leader Assistant Podcast with Jeremy Burrows

#352: Yvette Lamb - Founder of The Admin Wrap

• Jeremy Burrows • Episode 352

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Yvette Lamb is the writer behind The Admin Wrap – a practical newsletter for administrative professionals.

In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Yvette talks about her career as an EA, Chief of Staff, and operations manager.

Show Notes -> leaderassistant.com/352 

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Yvette:

Hi everyone, I'm Yvette Lamb. Today's leadership quote comes from W. Edwards Deming, and it's without data, you are just someone else with an opinion.

Speaker 1:

The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident, game-changing leader assistants.

Jeremy:

Hey friends, welcome to the Leader Assistant Podcast. It's your host, Jeremy Burroughs, and I'm really excited to be speaking with Yvette Lamb today, and we'll jump right in. But first, it's episode 352. Thanks for listening. You can check out the show notes and the bio and everything and all the information to connect with Yvette on leaderassistant.com slash 352. LeaderAssistant.com slash 352 for the show notes. But Yvette, welcome to the show. Tell us uh what part of the world you're in, and maybe tell us what your favorite thing to do is when you're not working.

Yvette:

Hi, Jeremy. Thanks so much for having me. So I'm in the UK. I'm in Surrey, which is just to the west of London. I live about 30 minutes' drive from Heathrow Airport. Um, when I'm not working, I love going in the garden. I love a bit of gardening. I've got bird feeders. Um, my husband has bought me a new bird bath, so I'm filling it up with water. It's just outside my window, so I can watch the birds in it. So that's what I like doing, just going in the garden and planting things and chopping things down.

Jeremy:

Love it, love it. Do you do a lot of um like food gardening as well? Or is it is it more of like floral gardening?

Yvette:

Well, I do have some accidental strawberries growing um the side of my decking.

Jeremy:

Awesome. Yeah, we do uh we do strawberries. That's the only thing that we could keep alive. Um we tried tomatoes and a few other things, but for some reason the strawberries were the only ones that would that would grow well and they kind of took over. So I'm like, well, I like strawberries, it's like my favorite food, so might as well run with it. Uh so do you have uh any any kids or pets? Or um, you know, what's uh maybe one of the favorite uh hobbies other than gardening um that you like to enjoy?

Yvette:

So no kids, no pets, one husband. Um so I do have, thankfully, a little bit of free time occasionally. Um I'm a weightlifter. So I do a lot of um weightlifting, obviously. Um I joined my local strongman, Jim. Um I'm recovering from a bit of an injury, so I'm taking it easy, but I'm hoping to get back into it uh quickly. But yeah, I'm a weightlifter.

Jeremy:

Wow. That's uh that's probably, I mean, other than the injury, that's probably a pretty healthy uh hobby to have.

Yvette:

Helps with the gardening, to be honest.

Jeremy:

Yeah, yeah, there you go. Uh awesome. Well, Yvette, thanks again for joining. Uh, let's talk a little bit about your career and and tell us a little bit how uh you got into the assistant world uh originally.

Yvette:

So, probably similar to a lot of assistants, it was sort of by accident. I had taken a job in over summer at my local estate agents, sort of selling houses, but doing the admin side, updating the website and things like that. And towards the end of the summer, they they offered me a full-time job. And it was terribly paid. I didn't get to do very much. My boss was um, or one of the one of my bosses was horrible. And, you know, similar story to a lot of people. I thought I can't do this forever. And um I grew up the other side of London to the east of London, quite far out. Um, and I just decided one day that I would go into London and and find myself a job. And you know, this was more than 20 years ago. It was a different world back then. And everyone basically said I was crazy. 18-year-old me just wandered into go went to London. It was an hour on the train. It just wasn't even a commuter town. And I made some appointments with some recruitment agencies and uh took myself into London. I had my maps printed out on paper because you know, you didn't have maps on your phone in those days. Went and went to some agencies. One of them called me later that afternoon and said, Are you still in town? I said, Yes. They said, Oh, we've got an interview for you. The recruiter walked me to the interview because I didn't know where I was going, went and had a job interview and got the job on the spot. And it was a sort of a receptionist style uh role. And it was probably the worst job I've ever had, if I'm honest. My boss was very particular and very pedantic. He complained when he asked me to um print out a letter for him. I printed a letter out and took it to him, and he gave me a right telling off in the middle of the office because I didn't give him an envelope at the same time. And bearing in mind, I was I was 18, it was my first job. Um, I was mortified. And I lasted three months in that role before I thought I can't, I can't do this. And I went and um got a different job working as a junior admin assistant for a stockbroking firm, um, which was infinitely better and uh, you know, made some really good friends and I got loads of experience there. But honestly, it was just being a bit ballsy. I just decided and and probably naive. I just thought, I don't like this, I'm gonna do something else. So I did.

Jeremy:

Nice. So then how how long did you kind of ride that wave as far as the you know, executive assistant slash PA, um, you know, operations roles?

Yvette:

So I was in admin for probably 15 years. I went I went through a few a few roles, um, always because I wanted the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. I was always the person that put my hand up for projects and put my hand up for extra things. And when those projects and those extra responsibilities weren't there, I got really bored and I went and looked for the next thing. I moved from the stockbroking firm and got a job for a really large investment bank in Canary Wharf, you know, the UK's financial district. I remember walking into the office on my first day. At this point, I was still only 19, taking a photo on my terrible old phone of the office because I was so excited to uh to be there. This was pre-2008 crash. So at that point, working for an investment bank was really quite prestigious. And um I learned an awful lot there, good and bad. Um, some of the stories are pretty appalling. But you know, it's where I learnt my trade. And I was there for six, seven years. And then I sort of tried to move up the ranks again because I tried to get promoted when I was there. I was went through the whole process. If anyone's worked in investment banking, you'll know that the official promotion process is rather vigorous and uh time consuming. At the end of that, I was told you don't qualify because you're just an assistant. And for me, that was like a red rag to a ball. I was like, no, I'm out, I'm out, and uh went and worked somewhere else.

Jeremy:

Wow. So you are kind of looking through your LinkedIn, and it's pretty fascinating to see the you know the different titles, right? So like you've got PA to the COO, you've got executive assistant and office manager, office and business operations manager, head of business intelligence, which is kind of a different uh different role, and then you've got chief of staff, uh, and then senior manager commercial operations. And now you're kind of in the revenue operations world. How did that come to be?

Yvette:

So when I um long story short, I I got a role for a startup financial services company. I started off as the executive assistant and office manager. There were five or six people working off of basically a kitchen table. And the company grew and grew. Whilst I was there, I basically set the office up, you know, new office, company policies, handbooks, putting in the corporate benefits, everything that wasn't sales, basically, I was responsible for. And, you know, lots of funny stories about having giant printers delivered and blocking the fire exit on the 18th floor of a London high rise.

Jeremy:

Wow.

Yvette:

And I wasn't there, which went down very well. Um, but uh it was at that company where I got on really well with all of the leadership team, and they were trying to launch a data analytics product, and they basically said, Yvette, you're the only person that we think that can sell this. My response was, are you nuts? Like, I'm not a salesperson, I'm not a data person, like I'm none of those things. They said, we need somebody who can go out on the road with our sales team and sell this data propensity model. And I said, I don't know what a data propensity model is. How can I sell something I don't even understand? And um, they all had complete faith in me. And honestly, that was probably the most fun job looking back that I ever had. I got to travel nowhere glamorous, just around the UK, but I got to go and meet all kinds of really interesting companies, mostly accountancy firms and law firms, but it gave you a real gave me a real eye-opener to different industries and different sectors because these companies were dealing with lots of other, these accountants were dealing with lots of companies, um, basically giving them um loans. And so I got involved in all kinds of industries and and and things like that. I got made redundant from that job because there was a change in leadership, and the new exec chief executive that came in decided that she didn't want to spend any time on this data propensity model, and um I was out, which you know, when you have a really good relationship with your chief executive, you think that you're almost set for life. You think, well, I'm never gonna get fired. This person will never fire me. And they probably never will, but what happens if they get fired? It's a completely, you know, completely different story. And I suddenly found myself made redundant. And that's when I sat down and I thought, I don't know what to do. I don't, I feel like I'm I'm more than you know, a typical assistant. I've done all this sales stuff, but I'm not a salesperson because I haven't done it for long enough. I don't know where I sit. And so it was a real uh struggle for me to work out what I was gonna do next. And I was looking on LinkedIn, it was over Christmas. I had no idea what to look for or do or anything. It was all a bit of a mess. And then this role came up, chief of staff to the VP of sales at an aerospace company, which was a completely new sector. Um, I had no walking in, I was very confident of my own ability, but I had no clue what this company did. I had no idea of the customers, the clients, the um, you know, the procurement chain, um, anything. They were selling satellites and satellite data into analytics firms and governments. It was so far beyond anything I'd ever done before. And I remember thinking in that first job that I had at the stockbrokers' firm, I remember sitting in one of the meetings and they were talking about all of these different acronyms and things, and I had no clue what they were saying. And I said to myself, I've been here before, I got through it, I did it, I could do it again. And um, so yeah, I was there, and that was um 2020, and the whole world was about to collapse, and I had no idea. And I was in that job for basically a month, and then we had lockdown, and I was fortunate enough I could do my job from home. So I was very, very lucky. Um and there the chief of staff role just grew and grew and grew. The company was growing, and that's where it grew into um sort of a head of commercial operations role, which was fantastic. I I loved it, it was a really interesting sector. Um, I was doing loads of stuff that I understood, but there was also bits to it that I didn't understand, and so I was learning loads. Um, and I never ever lost sight of my assistant roots because those skills that I learned all those years ago saw me through a period of time that I had no clue what I was doing.

Jeremy:

Yeah. Wow. So how much do you maybe miss from the assistant role, but also how much do you still feel like some days you are an assistant? Does that make sense?

Yvette:

Yes, I feel like I'm assistant, an assistant every single day. If you're naturally a coordinator of people, you never lose that. In my role now, I'm volunteering for project management type roles or projects um leading on um initiatives that the company wants to do from a coordination perspective. It's something that I learned, I guess, not that all that long ago. When you're really good at something like coordination of people, you don't necessarily attribute that, attribute much value to it. You think, well, it's not a skill. I'm not doing anything, I'm not producing the report, I'm not building the product. But actually, you think of yourself like the the conductor of an orchestra, that conductor can't play, you know, the flute as well as you know, the people playing the flutes, or the violin as well as the the violinists. But actually that those those people wouldn't be able to play their instruments as well as they do without the conductor. And when somebody said to me, coordinating people is a skill and it is valuable, it changed my whole perception of that. Because for so long I just thought, well, I just, you know, organize people, I you know, get them in the room together and I pull out the actions. That is a skill. And when you meet people that can't do it, you realize how much of a skill it really is.

Jeremy:

Yeah. Yeah, that's kind of the experience I had early on. Is I was like, wait, why are why is everybody so bad at showing up on time and following up and details and organization? And and then I kind of started to realize, well, actually, maybe I'm just really good at it. And then a little more time, I said, Well, it's a little bit of both. You know, people are I'm good at it, but also people really not everyone's wired to be punctual.

Yvette:

You find a lot of people just want some direction, they want it, they need direction, they need to be told, I need you to do this by this date, and that's it. And then they just go and do it.

Jeremy:

Yeah. Awesome. Well, what was, let's see, before we kind of transition to your, I don't know if you would you call it your side hustle? Would you call it your hobby? What would you call the admin rap?

Yvette:

Well, I guess technically it's a side hustle, but it's a passion project. How about that?

Jeremy:

There you go. There's a that's that's a that's a good way to call it. Well, before we get into that, I do want to hear kind of maybe what um, and you know, it's related to the the networking and the connection that you have with other assistants of the world because of the admin wrap, but what would you say is the number one struggle that assistants have, um, you know, based on your your networking and your writing with the admin wrap and and all that, what would you say is the number one struggle?

Yvette:

Number one struggle is probably having faith in your own abilities. I think we just touched on that just now about not placing much value on the things that you are naturally good at. I think we mag if you magnify that across the whole industry of assistance, I think there's so many people who feel that they are just an assistant. They place they don't place high enough value on what they do. And I think that's a real it's a real struggle to change that mindset because actually, if you weren't there and you weren't doing what you did, you know, you are the conductor of the orchestra. The orchestra, the music would be terrible if you weren't there.

Jeremy:

Yeah, that makes sense. Awesome. Uh, what about the your favorite part of your career as an assistant? What was maybe your favorite moment or just the day-to-day um favorite part of that role?

Yvette:

It was probably when I worked for the um the startup, and it was probably the only time that I can remember in my career when I didn't hear my alarm in the morning and think, oh, I've got to go to work. My alarm went off. I got out of bed, got to go to work. I wouldn't I wouldn't go as far to say I jumped out of bed joyous about going to work. I wasn't quite that far. But I remember just being perfectly happy going to work. And it was, I think it boils down to the fact that I was so needed in that role. Every single thing that I did was was important and really mattered. And it was noticed if it didn't happen. Not in a not in a bad sort of micromanagement way, but I was, you know, I set up a meeting with a healthcare provider to get insurance for my colleagues. Like that was really important, and I cared about them and I wanted it to be a good policy. Um, you know, I had to go and find a new office. I wanted the office to be nice and I wanted to have it fitted out in a way that they would be comfortable and happy in it, you know, within the budget treat constraints, of course. But I really cared and I and I I hope that it came across that way. And I but I think the the most joy that I've ever had from a role is when it really mattered. And I know I wasn't saving lives and teaching children things and anything like that. It was in the grand scheme of things, it was nothing, but it was really important. felt really valued.

Jeremy:

Awesome. Yeah, I think that's uh something that I always have to remind myself of too. It's this idea that okay it's not just, oh I'm I just scheduled a bunch of meetings. It's like what were what was the purpose of those meetings, right? And what is the impact of those meetings and um what are the results of of those meetings that I booked and that kind of helps you stay motivated when you see that oh you know what this was a really important session where our team you know became more aligned on a project or this was a call with an investor that put in a million dollars and that means we can pay our employees for another six months you know like all those types of uh reasons to kind of stay motivated instead of just seeing it like oh here's another meeting 100% absolutely well Yvette tell us about the admin wrap so when did you start it why did you start it what is it all all the fun things so again like lots of other people I started in lockdown um you know we had had a bit of time on my hands and I thought and I was thinking about various things and um I just thought there was I was getting lots of emails in my inbox from various companies like recruiters and um networks and you know people who sell to assistants and everything.

Yvette:

And I thought you have to sign up to so many newsletters and so many and look at so many things to find out what's going on. Why can't somebody who is um agnostic to everything not promoting anything specific could just collate them all and put them into one newsletter and so I started and I thought well we'll see how it goes we'll see who reads it and uh go from there type of thing and um here we are five years later and I'm still doing it.

Jeremy:

Nice nice and is it so how much time do you think you spend on it? Like do you curate a bunch of do you kind of you know you subscribe to all those things and then just pull pull from them and then and put it together is it something that you're able to you know do in batches where you you maybe pull uh a month's worth of of newsletters together and then schedule them out or are you pretty much like you know live updates every week?

Yvette:

So I'm pretty I'm pretty live. I do subscribe to a lot of stuff and I I try and look through it you know when I have I used to commute on the train so I used to look go through all of the newsletters on the train um when I'm sitting watching TV and you know when you're scrolling when you're meant to be watching something on TV.

Jeremy:

Right.

Yvette:

Put it all together it is pretty live because I try and keep it recent. I have another one part of the admin wrap that I launched probably about a year or 18 months ago was the extra wrap which is a more in-depth article that I write. I can do those in advance. So and if I'm if I'm going on holiday or something I can redo those so people can still get those in an inbox. But if I'm on holiday um quite often I've I've just not done the admin rap while I'm away it's just me that does it so I don't want to do sort of a half assed job of it. So I just say to people there isn't one next week I'm gonna be laying by the pool.

Jeremy:

Right totally totally and then is there is there a uh is there a cost to it is it free is there kind of multiple options how how does it work on that for our listeners so the admin wrap is free.

Yvette:

I do have the occasional sponsor that that pays me to you know keep the lights on and I sometimes share some sponsored links and things like that. But the you to receive the admin wrap is completely free. There's a charge for the extra wrap I put quite a lot of effort into that um probably a good two or three hours per article researching and and writing it. And so I charge uh £45 a year for that. And there's a monthly option as well. Occasionally run promotions and things but not all that often. But yeah so it's uh mostly mostly sponsors on the the Avenue wrap um and then there's a subscription fee for the extra app and that's partly why I will always make sure that it goes out even if I'm away because people are paying for it.

Jeremy:

So still get it.

Yvette:

Awesome.

Jeremy:

Well what's the um what's the best place for people to subscribe or learn more and reach out.

Yvette:

So you can go on to theadminwrap.com and that will there's a link on there to take you straight to sign up to the newsletter which is uh built on Substack.

Jeremy:

Gotcha gotcha cool well I will uh that's theadminwrap.com but I'll also share that as well as your LinkedIn URL uh in the show notes at leaderassistant.com slash three five two and uh hopefully people will reach out and check it out. Um I definitely have been subscribing to it for I don't know I think probably since early on since 2020ish um so I always enjoy uh the the work that you put in that uh I don't have to the work that I don't have to put in to to pull these together these resources together because it is shed I've shared a few of your events as well on there. Yeah and I appreciate that appreciate that well Yvette thank you so much for being on the show is there any kind of last words or final notes of of inspiration or challenging uh assistants that are listening that you want to you want to kind of leave on um that's a great question um I think we've we and we've touched on this like having a faith in your own ability like being an assistant is not easy.

Yvette:

If you're a really really good assistant you are worth your weight in gold and if the person that you're working with doesn't see that you're working for the wrong person it has to gel it has to work well and sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does but more often than not it's not it hasn't if it hasn't worked it's not because the assistant is the problem the problem is something bigger than that and it's a bit like having a medical professional or a therapist or or someone you don't quite connect with it's not anyone's fault it just hasn't worked so you know just try and find the the partnership that that really works for you and uh and go from there.

Jeremy:

Well said well said thank you so much Yvette and uh thank you everyone for listening again the show notes are at leaderassistant.com slash three five two and uh yvette I appreciate your time and I appreciate the the work that you put in for the assistant community with the admin wrap and uh we'll hope to uh hope to meet you in person someday.

Speaker 1:

My pleasure thank you so much for having me please review an Apple Podcast GoBullows dot com

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