The Leader Assistant Podcast with Jeremy Burrows

#357: Finding EA Communities Online with Jess Lindgren

• Jeremy Burrows • Episode 357

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Jess Lindgren is a longtime C-Suite assistant, and host of the Ask an Assistant podcast. 

In this Ask an Assistant spotlight episode, Jess talks about finding EA communities online.

Show Notes -> leaderassistant.com/357 

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Jeremy:

Hey friends, it's Jeremy Burrows, host of the Leader Assistant Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Today I'm actually excited to put the spotlight on my friend Jess Lindgren's podcast called Ask an Assistant. Jess takes questions from you all and then answers them on the Ask an Assistant show. So be sure to go to ask an assistant dot com to check out more episodes and submit your questions for Jess. I hope you enjoy this spotlight episode of the Ask an Assistant show, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2:

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

Jess:

I'm your host, Jess Lindgren. Let's get to work. This week's question comes from esteemed colleague Nicole, who asks, Hi Jess, I'm looking for an online community of executive assistants. Are you part of any that you can recommend? Nicole, I'm so glad that you asked. I don't mean to be all let me Google that for you, but if you search for executive assistant on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Reddit, tons of results pop up. Um, Twitter honestly isn't really set up for groups and community in the same way. And really, who knows what the heck is going on over in that corner of the internet. So today we're just going to talk a little bit about Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit groups that I am familiar with. It really depends on your personal preference in terms of platform. Um, for instance, I know a lot of workplaces block Facebook and or Reddit since they are technically social media sites. Um, you might be able to chat with your IT team and see if you can get an exception. I don't know if IT can block like or allow whitelist, if you will, unfirewall um specific Facebook pages, or if it would then have to unblock Facebook as a whole for you. Um, it is also something that if you were to find a community that you really like, um and in in the past, I have been able to make a case to my executive to ask for certain sites to be unblocked, even if they were blocked at more of a company-wide level. Um, if you did have something really great, really helpful, some kind of resource in some way, shape, or form, um, I think making a case to your executive to get that resource unblocked is not a bad thing to do. Um, literally the worst thing anybody can do is say no. And if they say yes, then you have access to that resource during your workday. So um again, if your workplace blocks Facebook or Reddit, um, you could ask for an exception to have it unblocked for you if you do find that there's a group that just like really helps um answer questions on a quick turnaround basis. If it's something that's really good that helps you a lot doing your work, um, I don't see a bad thing about making a case to that to your executive and or the IT team. Um, but you might also find that LinkedIn is a bit more accessible, especially during the workday. Um again, it comes down to platform preference. Uh, if Reddit isn't really your jam, you might feel a little more comfortable on Facebook. I know actually, I don't know. I was gonna say I know which one came first, but I don't know if it was Reddit or uh Facebook that came first. I'm guessing Reddit. Um, but I have been on Facebook I think longer than I have been. Yeah, Facebook was like 2005. Anyway, doesn't matter, not gonna look it up. Um, but I've been on Facebook since like 2005. I am old enough to remember when you had to have an EDU email address to get a Facebook account. Um, so even though I know that Facebook has gone through a lot of changes over the last almost 20 years, um it is a lot more familiar and a lot more user-friendly if you spend a lot of time on it. Uh Reddit, I didn't really get Reddit for a long time. I have had an account for 10 plus years, um, maybe even more like 12 or 13 at this point. But um it definitely took some time to get the hang of it. Like I I never really used to like it that like anybody could reply, um, that it wasn't like you ask someone posts something and then you make a comment, and then only the original poster can respond to you. Like anybody can respond to anything. And it did take me um quite some time to get into that. But now that I have gotten into it and understand it, I like Reddit and I don't personally spend a ton of time on Facebook. Um for me personally, LinkedIn gives me a headache. It's not somewhere that I like to spend a lot of time. Um, so just kind of pick and choose whatever feels good. And maybe if it is something even where a certain platform you just don't get it, you don't like it, you don't understand it, maybe you can set some time aside to get to know it a little bit to join a community if you find one that you like. Um, I really like that Reddit can be fully anonymous. Like you can, at a moment's notice, sign up for a new account um and just make it a random generated string of letters and numbers as your username. You can make up words, you can pick and choose random words, you know, call your account, horse, staple, battery, and just ask your questions and have it have nothing to do with your name, your place of business. Um, it's definitely something as an executive assistant. We deal with a lot of confidential information, if it's about our executive directly, if it's about our department, our company at large. It is something where there's a lot of confidential information passing through your eyes and ears on any given day and the ability to be fully anonymous. Um, I do appreciate that most people also uh do a good job when they are posting anonymously on Reddit, um, do a good job of anonymizing details as well. You know, they won't pop on there and say, hey, my global multinational company of XYZ number of people that rhymes with Henerl Hills, you know, you just people do a good job of saying, hey, my executive, call them they instead of he or she. Um, you know, just talk in general terms about things. And I think that that can be really helpful to just know with beyond the shadow of a doubt that nobody is gonna know who you are, what the exact situation is that you're posting about. Um, in recent years, Facebook groups have also rolled out some features where you can ask questions anonymously. I know for a long time, um group leaders, group moderators, group admins uh used to have to collect those questions and then post them anonymously and say, hey, I'm not the person asking the question. I'm posting this anonymously on someone else's behalf. And even then, you know, you're kind of taking a leap of faith by letting someone else collect it and post anonymously for you. Um, so it's really nice to see that Facebook has also picked up the ability to post anonymously. Um, it's really helpful, especially in our line of work. We are often, yes, we are as executive assistants part of the executive department. We are part of the C-suite, um, but we're also a department of one a lot of times. Um, especially if you're someone who might be the executive assistant to the CEO, um, where it's a very one-on-one, there's only one CEO, there's only one executive assistant. It can feel very lonely, very siloed. Um, so it's really important to be able to vent. Um, and like for me personally, my husband is a software developer. He doesn't get when I vent to him about things. You know, we're not dealing with the same things day in, day out in our lines of work. Um, and it's just really nice to talk with people who get it, even if you are posting anonymously. It's nice to be able to vent, it's nice to be able to commiserate with people, uh, get advice about a tricky or sticky situation, however it might arise. Um, but just being able to go to people who know, but still doing it with that veil of anonymity in front of you is a big relief. Um, in addition to Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, and subreddits, there are a handful of private executive assistant communities out on the internet to be found. Uh, the only private community that I have firsthand experience with is Jeremy Burroughs' leader assistant community on Circle. Uh I also work with Circle at my full-time day job. Uh, my executive works very closely with the team at Circle. It's um a private, buildable community space. So I'm part of a handful of Circle communities. Uh, Jeremy's leader assistant community is the only one hosted on Circle that I have personal assistant, uh, excuse me, personal experience with in the executive assistant sphere. Um, I've definitely encountered other executive assistant groups um like EA How to, the assistant room, and the EA campus, uh, but I am not a member of these or any other paid groups um that might be found on the internet. And as of the time of recording, I am also not a premium member of Jeremy's community. I can only speak to the free side of the community. Um, and his community actually had originally been hosted on Slack. Uh, I felt like it was differently active when it was on Slack. That was also several years ago that it was hosted on Slack as opposed to circle. A lot has changed on the internet, a lot has changed with his podcast, business model, all that good stuff. Um, and again, not being part of the premium community. Uh, I do feel like the free portion of the community is fairly active. It's very supportive, very kind place. Um, but I cannot speak to any paid communities at the time of recording. Um, there are some Facebook groups, even though I personally try very hard to stay off of Facebook. Um, for the most part, I don't have social media apps on my phone. I don't have Reddit, I don't have Twitter, I don't have Facebook. Um I just like to spend my time away from my phone whenever possible. Um, but some Facebook groups that I have encountered and recommend checking out are the State of the Executive Assistant, uh, the Exceptional Executive Assistants, and the Virtual Assistant Savvies. All three of these groups have very solid membership numbers and uh they're really active. They're people are on them all day, every day. People quickly throw in their two cents, they throw their expertise in and give advice to people. Um, so that's where I say, you know, like if it is something where you find a lot of help and support, especially as a team of one uh as an executive assistant, don't be shy to ask for an exception to be made if this is something that you find helpful. Um, and I do really think that those Facebook communities are very active, very quick to respond, um, especially if you did say something like urgent help needed. Like people definitely clock that and um throw in their ideas. So uh on LinkedIn, I just found that Jeremy also has a leader assistant group on LinkedIn, which is at the time of recording pushing a hundred thousand members, which is absolutely incredible. Be sure to check that one out, help push him over that milestone and um yeah, join the group. It seems very similar to his uh circle community. It seems like a very involved, very active, very supportive, and helpful place. Um, there's a number of other LinkedIn groups out there, so make sure to check out, just search for executive assistant. You can scroll down to the groups section of the results and check some out. Just see what you like and don't like in an online group. Um the place that I spend the most time out of Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, all that is um, and again, I touched on this a little bit a couple minutes ago, that I don't have social media apps on my phone. And honestly, the browser experience is nowhere near as algorithmic, as addictive, as dopamine hitting as the app experience. Like being in the browser, things don't circulate as quickly, things aren't served up to you in the same way, which um is really great for my screen time usage, honestly, both on my phone and on my computer. Um, I think if the browser experience functioned a little bit more the way the app experience does, um, I would be in trouble. But uh I really like things the way that they are, keeping the social media apps off my phone, uh sticking to browser only, checking in once in a while. Um, I'm really glad to have rained my screen time in over the years, but that was a little bit of a tangent. All that said, uh the place where I do spend the most of my time in terms of an executive assistant community is the executive assistants subreddit, which at the time of recording has about 25,000-ish members. Um, that number when I joined the community was more like eight or nine thousand members. So it's really great to have seen it grow over the years. It's a very active place. Most posts are anonymous. Um, I have the fortune or misfortune, if you will, of my handle being Gal Friday612. You kind of can't miss me. Um, so I'm a little less anonymous. Uh, I try to throw in more in the comments uh when folks are asking for help than posting my own things. Uh, but I do find that members of the community are helpful and supportive. I feel like every so often, as with any online community, you're gonna have posts that get one or two comments, you're gonna have posts that get 50 to 100 comments, and you just never know which post it is that's gonna garner all of that engagement. I don't know what the algorithm is or isn't doing, if it's something where certain members flag the algorithm and drive more engagement, if it's something where you just got lucky based on the time of day that you posted. Um, I don't know. But uh by and large, I do find the executive assistance, and that's assistance plural, executive assistance subreddit um to be great. I really like uh spending a little time there every day. Um, online communities are just they're gonna be really hit and miss for everyone. So try to give as much as you get um when you join any or all spaces. Um help keep them active and helpful places to spend time. Like there are a lot of folks you'd think with an executive assistant position being as uh storied, as long-lived, you know, it's not something new like a social media manager came into play within the last like 10 to 15 years. Executive assistants have been around for a long time. And um, there are a lot of people just getting their first EA role, folks who are transitioning to new EA roles. Everybody needs guidance and tips and ideas all the time. So um check them out. Just offer your expertise. Um, that's something that I really like to say about myself is that I am an expert only in my own experience. Um, I do like to share the ideas, the comments, questions, thoughts, concerns that I have with all of you. But um, you know, I don't pretend to be some kind of guru, some kind of executive assistant expert who's got all the answers. Um so yeah, just jump in. You have expertise and experience and guidance and happy words to share with people in the communities. Um, start small. There are hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of executive assistant communities out there. Um, choose a couple, check them out, participate in the discussions, offer whatever it is that you have to offer when folks ask questions, attend the events that the community members and leaders produce. They put a lot of time and effort into those. And um, having people show up is proof of concept. It's it keeps them going. You know, every time that you put on an event, if you get one person today, you get five people next week, you get 10 people the week after, like that's really encouraging. And just it does nothing but good for the people who are taking their time to run and maintain these communities, which is a ton of work. Um after all that's said and done, if you check out a bunch of groups and you're just not finding what you want, step up and create your own. Um, it could be a handful of folks at your office getting together once a quarter for a lunch and learn. It could be some local EAs in your city, uh meeting up once a month for coffee, or even a few esteemed colleagues that you might know from the internet banding together in a Slack channel, a Discord server, a subreddit that you create, a Patreon page. It could be just there are innumerable ways to connect with people and group people together. And um you could really grow it into something really fun and impactful over time. And everything starts with one person standing up and saying, Hey, I want to do something different. Let's all get together and try it. So, Nicole, I really hope that that helps. Um, for everybody out there listening, I am all ears. Let me know which communities that you're a part of and enjoy, or which communities that you lead and are so proud of. Uh, I would be honored to check them out. So please don't hesitate to drop me a link. You can always most reliably find me at askanassistant.com. Keeping in mind that no question is too big or too small, and the only stupid question is the one that you don't ask. Until next time, take care.

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Jeremy Burrows

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