Giving an EA Access to Everything: What the Real Risk Is
The first time someone asked for my calendar password, I said no.
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The first time someone asked for my calendar password, I said no.
I said it for nine years. "It's faster if I just do it myself."
The last time I hired a director-level role, I tracked every coordination task from first interview to offer accepted.
I spent six hours in a single week emailing one vendor.
I pulled up a random week from my calendar in 2022 last month. Looking at it made me uncomfortable.
I had my first EA for eleven days before I realized I was still doing most of the work myself.
Every EA service says the same thing.
I built my first brand from a spare bedroom in 2012. I was 27 years old, I had no employees, and I handled everything myself. That felt right at the time. It felt scrappy and responsible and like the
I have hired from three different EA services over the years. One was great. Two were expensive lessons. The difference had nothing to do with price. It had everything to do with the model.
I tracked my own calendar for 30 days in 2022. Not productivity-guru-style tracking. Not a time audit with pretty charts. I just wrote down every task I did and how long it took.
I hired through a staffing agency twice. Both times, the person looked great on paper. Both times, I spent more time managing them than I saved by having them. The second one lasted three weeks befor
I spent $0 on executive support for 12 years. I thought I was saving money. I was spending about $200,000 a year in lost time, missed opportunities, and decisions I made while exhausted. That number