Bonus Episode: Confidence Visibility and Growth- Insights from Zoe Hill

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From Invisible to Invincible- The Crodie Files meet with special guest Zoe Hill former Chief of Staff and founder of Premier Admin Services to share valuable insights for administrative and business support professionals looking to take their careers to the next level.

Zoe, Craig & Jodie discussed this listener question:

Listener question
 Hi Crodie: If you could have predicted your career path what one thing would you have done in the early days (course and learning-wise) to make your future role easier or more manageable?

So much value through lived experience was shared  during this bonus episode including;

• Networking strategies for administrative professionals
• Building confidence and overcoming imposter syndrome
• Essential skills for modern administrative roles
• Career development and growth for Executive Assistants
• Adapting to change and futureproofing your administrative career

Chapters:
11:40 Professional Growth and Networking Tips

18:22 Sharing Knowledge With Premier Admin Services

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

Value Bombs

 "Asking questions and understanding the business is the key to unlocking your value as an administrative professional." - Zoe Hill 

 "Mentorship is the fast track to success. Learn from those who have walked the path before you." - Craig 

 "The modern administrative professional is a strategic partner, not just a support role. Own your value and make your mark." - Jodie 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Come take my hand. I won't walk with you. I won't let go till you say so. Thank you for joining the Cody Files bonus episodes.

Speaker 2: 0:14

Today we have an amazing bonus edition guest with us today and excited as you can tell, grinning from ear to ear, to introduce to you Zoe Hill, founder of Premier Admin Services and former Chief of Staff Now Zoe, it would be much better if you gave a better introduction to yourself, as you've got a little bit more detail and you can provide us with what's going on with Zoe at the moment moment. And then we're going to get into our list of questions.

Speaker 3: 0:45

It's such an honor to be here speaking to you guys. I've been waiting for this moment and it's finally here. I have been an assistant since I was like 18 years old. I started off at a school and then did 12 years at JP Morgan and more recently I was chief of staff at Arcade Media, which has been an incredible journey. I founded Premier Admin Services on the 1st of March and the ultimate goal is all around empowerment, elevation, inspiration, networking and just bringing people together in that real admin industry, just to be able to collaborate and, as you guys would say, share the knowledge. And it's been yeah, it's been absolutely incredible.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Amazing. Thank you so much. You've got a lot going on and you've got an absolute wealth of knowledge, a big treasure trove of knowledge for us to dip into to help us answer this listener question. So, as you all know, we have the High Crowdy Initiative where we collate lots of listener questions which are assistance globally, sending us all types of questions. They're the hot topics of the industry, live and direct from assistance and business support professionals. So we would like you, zoe Zoe, to help us discuss this question and kind of deep dive into helping this listener discover what they could do and add it into their the context that they wanted the answer to be in. So it's not a direct answer. Take from it whatever you need. So, hi, crodi, if you could have predicted your career path, what one thing would you have done in the early days course and learning wise to make your future role easier or more manageable?

Speaker 3: 2:37

hmm, it's a hindsight question I never wanted to be an assistant. I actually wanted to be a hairdresser and if if anyone reads sort of like LinkedIn posts, they know I got fired from that job.

Speaker 2: 2:49

So that would exactly work. What did you do to someone's hair? Was it? Was it a hair disaster?

Speaker 3: 2:54

I just stayed in the back. I was just never visible is the word that I'm going to use. That which kind of brings me into if I knew I was going to be where I was now, I would have made myself more visible back in the day when I was like 21, in my early 20s, and you know, I would have taken notes more. Everyone absolutely despises going into meetings and making all of those notes.

Speaker 3: 3:21

But actually I never regret anything, ever because I'm I'm proud of my journey. I'm very accepting of who I am as a person, and we all experience things in really different ways. I do wish that I had asked questions more from the start.

Speaker 1: 3:39

Yeah, took an interest in the business you know, understood.

Speaker 3: 3:43

You know so what are your goals and what are your priorities. You know, and you know what do you have coming in the business. You know, understood, you know so what are your goals and what are your priorities. You know and you know what do you have coming in the next six months, so that I could really truly add more value at like right from the word go.

Speaker 3: 3:55

Instead, what I did was I put a guard up. I didn't like it and you know I was on a really fast route down to failure. You know I was very lucky that I met a particular woman. You know I was on a really fast route down to failure. You know I was very lucky that I met a particular woman who, you know, kind of took me underneath her wing and really showed me what it was like to be an assistant. She wasn't an assistant, she was a top dog MD at JP Morgan and you know you learn a lot from her. In the case of what? Two weeks. But yeah, I guess in hindsight, that's what I would have done. I would have been more visible, I would have networked more, I would have lived the fear rather than hiding behind the shadows, because I was just too afraid to kind of put myself out there that's right.

Speaker 2: 4:34

No, you, you picked on sort of networking and what that looks like today is confidence. It's the confidence and it's really difficult, isn't it, in the early days. I guess, with this listener question, is it enables us as sort of experienced EAs in the role right now, to be able to pass that knowledge down to almost help newer assistants that are having their light bulb moments now, fast track and not wait as long as we had to wait. I know craig's got a similar story. You know, I don't think I took my role seriously until recent years, like four, three, four years ago. That's ridiculous. The potential was missed at the beginning. So would you, if we pick on the course and learning wise, because it's really difficult isn't it to try and suggest how someone could gain confidence to ask more questions.

Speaker 2: 5:33

But okay, let's focus on that for now because I know Craig's got something to add for confidence. Craig, I'll come to you with the confidence part and then maybe, Zoe, you can help us unpick applicable course learning and development for Craig. What, what would you say, would have helped you in your younger years?

Speaker 1: 5:54

being told what the, the, what the role is more about in my past was it's for a granny with gray hair, glasses, typing pool, and it wasn't sold very well when we were growing up. You're a woman, you should be a secretary. Secretaries are for typing pools the EA structure today. If we had that back in the day when we were growing up, that would be more appealing for me to go ahead and go. I want to be in that job Once I knew and got my feet under the desk. I never wanted to start off to be as an EA. I wanted to be an actor and a chef and I just accidentally came into this role and once I knew, I got my confidence from that and I believed in who I was. Because I know what I want now. I think that's where you can get the confidence to come through. That's where we need to focus on the education. They need to change and modernize the industry for the younger generation.

Speaker 2: 6:46

Yeah, we're lucky in a sense that now we have advocates for the younger generation. Yeah, we're lucky in a sense that now we have advocates, we have trainers, we have coaches I never heard of a mentor for an admin professional back in the day, there was no mentors. You maybe got a mentor at school if you weren't doing so well in reading and writing, but it wasn't sold, we didn't have the advocacy that we do today.

Speaker 2: 7:08

So it would have been very difficult for you know, the likes of us oldies, if you like, that aren't even old to have progressed. We've taken so much longer to get from where we were to where we are now people to not necessarily success, as that is not a destination, but maybe to fast track them through all of the hurdles that they don't need to take so long over, like years over, would you agree?

Speaker 3: 7:40

yeah, absolutely. It's funny. I had a conversation back in my JP days and a guy come up to me and we were just kind of like having a general conversation. He provided me some feedback on an assistant. It was glowing like, the feedback was amazing on this particular assistant. It was so lovely to hear.

Speaker 3: 7:58

And he made a particular comment which I had to challenge him on, because he turned around and said to me you are teaching your successor, you know you are creating your successor. And I said no, absolutely not. That is not something that I am doing, because nobody, nobody, needs hundreds of like zoe's kind of like running around, like. That's not the way this is meant to work. What I am, what I'm looking to do, what I am training and what I am coaching on, is for people to be better than me. Learn what I do, even if I do something right, pick it out, unpick what I've done. How would you do it better? Yeah, and that's what you know I've always kind of like strived to be able to achieve once I got to a certain level was, you know, I hope people learn from what I've done and take note of that and, you know, write it down and, you know, process it in a completely different way to make it even better than the way that I would have done it in the first place.

Speaker 2: 8:53

That's true growth and progression, isn't it, craig? I mean, we talk about sharing the knowledge as being our ethos and you know, for most of the time, sharing the knowledge for free where you can, whether that's an intro call, whether that's getting to know people in a networking event you don't have to be afraid of asking for help in fear of not being able to access it or afford it. I would say ask the questions, because you never know. Your assumptions might be wrong about paid for mentorship coaching as well. It's not all super expensive. It's not all.

Speaker 2: 9:27

For a certain mindset of assistant, you might be in the role already. So we have a lot of assistants that were already in situ. They're already in their role. I've been here for years. I'm fine, I don't need anything, I'm perfectly fine, everything's tickety-boo, it's ticking along, and I guess I was one of those assistants, you know, putting my head in the sand and not realizing what I needed to do to progress, which ultimately is meeting new people, getting out of your comfort zone, for sure, getting out of your environment. That's limiting you, and understanding earlier on that my environment, professionally and personally, and who I hung out with personally and professionally was, controversially the thing that was holding me back and I was just too lazy Mindset, was too lazy to think you're holding me back.

Speaker 1: 10:30

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:30

We need to shuffle things around, or hi? Yeah, I need a learning and development course. I'm not sure what I need. I haven't been advised yet, but how I'm going to wrap this into what I'm making. My point is, if I didn't change my environment and the people that I was hanging around with personally and professionally, I would never have met the person who suggested that I go on a course and meet this advocate trainer in the industry who then opened up this whole new world to me. I had no idea that the PA show existed post 2020. You know, you don't know what you don't know, right, craig?

Speaker 1: 11:15

Yeah, totally I found that back in the day we I had to learn how to do audio typing and dictation. You know writing down short notes, but we don't need to do that now. So, zoe, what have you used now that you've carried through your career in sort of platforms and courses and sort of what?

Speaker 3: 11:34

has helped you, for anyone who does know me from my JP days is going to really laugh at this. I have a meeting tracker that I use and I love it. It has everything in there. Everything's documented. I've got all you know assistants, I've got all you know CEOs, founders, company names, contact details when meetings took place, everything, Everything is absolutely documented in that and I have generally taken that with me, no matter who I've been kind of like working with, what I've been kind of doing, and I also utilize it within Premier Admin Services now and it's just my absolute Bible. I live by that and I even with my clientele now as part of Premier Admin Services, I'm like, hey, you need to be looking at this, and then I pass on that and it's absolutely great.

Speaker 2: 12:25

We'll have to learn more about that.

Speaker 2: 12:27

We need to drop that into the show notes. So, yeah, do divulge. After this recording we will get some more information from you so we can share that knowledge. It might be something that we've not heard of before and Craig loves a new piece of software, so he will be very excited to learn what that is all about. So that's a big knowledge drop. Thank you, zoe.

Speaker 2: 12:52

Yeah, I think for me, Craig, one course I don't think it was the course content. I think I was maybe lucky that day of who I met, who was on my course, and I felt welcome, I felt comfortable, I felt confident within that room, and that probably had a lot to do with the trainer and me. I have to take responsibility. It was me as well, because you can say, oh, it was, you know this person. It was Oprah Winfrey. It was you know, it was her who did it to me, you know she inspired me.

Speaker 2: 13:26

But I think we forget to congratulate ourselves a lot of the time to say, actually it was you, it was in you all along. It was maybe buried and you just needed to meet a few different people in a few different settings to kind of draw that out of you. That was there all along. So your desire for wanting more, for doing more, is always going to be a situation, a person, a circumstance, to kind of drag that out of you again for you to realize, oh, I do like feeling that way when I go on a course, or I feel really comfortable talking about my past experiences in that setting.

Speaker 2: 14:12

For me that's how it kind of progressed. I just, when I found my confidence, I found my people. When I found my confidence, I found my people. What I meant by that is I found people who loved administration, where I was kind of hiding it a little bit because I thought it's not even a proper job, but I didn't own it, is my point, I didn't own it at the time. So it was me having my own penny drop moment when I was ready to feel confident, put myself in different environments, going on that course and letting the floodgates open. I love sort of project management style of courses. I wish I learned more about project management specifically for the administrative role. That's one thing I would have liked to have learned earlier. How about you, craig?

Speaker 1: 15:00

Mine would have been patience. I need to have patience for people who, after telling me over and over, is well, write it down. You know, I've learned so much about keeping my patience and having that confidence, understanding that people can't learn as quickly as I can, and just giving them that helping hand, that nudge where they need to get. What about you, zoe?

Speaker 3: 15:25

So yeah, project management 100%. I love doing the change management training. I personally I didn't do it as part of a like an in-person thing, but what it did help to do was raise my confidence a little bit and help with anxiety, because it's all about that emotional curve and, for people who like to see things in front of them and have kind of a visual picture, it outlines all of the different emotions that you feel when change happens. You go through all of the different emotions, through all of the different emotions. Now, as an assistant, we experience change every single day, not just in our professional lives, but in our personal lives as well. So actually what that did was, every time change would happen, I was able to refocus myself and recenter myself, because in my head I'm going to this part on the emotional curve. It was just really interesting and I loved it and I refresh myself on it every single year. That's amazing.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Yeah, that is something else. We draw on so many different departments, don't we? In our knowledge, we know more than we give ourselves credit for. So bringing that to a point, then let's wrap this up for this listener.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:36

Any closing thoughts Craig.

Speaker 1: 16:39

That software thate's going to be sharing with us. I can't wait. That's going to be a game changer for me, keeping on top of things and making sure that meetings are coming up, as well as getting the confidence and patience for other people. What about you? Is it um zoe?

Speaker 3: 16:53

it's just absolutely amazing. I highly recommend listening on these podcasts you do learn a lot as you're kind of entering in as an assistant, changing careers, looking to kind of transition. Having that knowledge that is so out there now for us, when it wasn't back in the day, is absolutely phenomenal, and for me breaking out of your bubble get out of there as soon as possible.

Speaker 2: 17:17

You might not even realize you're in a bubble until you change your environment, meet new people, ask questions and network. Network, learn, grow is what we bang on about all the time, but it really does. And the other thing I always say is networking. It simply works. You've been doing it since you were a young child. If you've forgotten how to do it, you need to tap into your inner child of meeting new friends or just saying hi, introducing yourself. We have some resources and and advice on our linkedin profiles and articles that we've written. Um particularly an introvert like me, I know people will probably think well, she's not an introvert, but I am an introvert.

Speaker 2: 17:54

I'm a confident introvert, um, and networking really wasn't something I would do even four or five years ago, no way. So network internally. Network if you don't want to do any external networking. Introduce yourself internally to the various departments. Understand what they do and align that to how you can work together and collaborate.

Speaker 1: 18:18

Great, great Great.

Speaker 2: 18:21

Yeah, so that's the. I'm so pleased we've got to sort of unpack that in detail for our listener.

Speaker 2: 18:27

We will reply and make sure that they get this recording. It was an anonymous, high-crowdy question, but we really encourage everyone to send in more questions to us. It can be about anything personal and professional development to do with the administrative and business support world. We will have Zoe's contact details in the show notes and all of our LinkedIn posts. Of course, we look forward to staying in touch and finding out what Premier Admin Services is doing next. Continue to share the knowledge with us.

Speaker 1: 18:58

Thank you, Zoe, for joining us.

Speaker 3: 19:01

Thank you for having me.