Ged: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Cardcast, the podcast where Milan and I pick a card at random from a deck of cards just like this. A deck of cards that Milan conceived of, designed of, and produced. We shuffle the pack, choose a card at random from the pack, and that’s what we talk about in the podcast. So let’s shuffle the deck and see what pops out
Milan: We have a club card So clubs are all around mindset and I think that all about mindset and I think this one is really good example of switching a mindset of know early stage CEO or founder CEO Well you know I know some doing this for decades and they still haven’t made that switch so maybe early stage is not that great On the other hand their companies have tendency to be still in early stages even after those decades so you know what is the cause What is the consequence Anyway this [00:01:00] card is about hiring an assistant I suggest that quite often and almost all the time I get every time I get either one or a collection of excuses from pretty much the same list Right Like we’re too small for it can’t afford it too much for a cash flow you know it feels like I shouldn’t have one because you know I’m not that kind of CEO right It’s an ego thing It’s like you know the only assholes have assistants You know like all all of that stuff right Have you ever run into any of that
Ged: Yeah, pretty much the same excuses. There’s, there’s many more. Some people have just said to me, “You know what? I’m terrible at delegating, so why, why would I have an assistant?” And that to me just opens up a whole can of other questions because you know, as a CEO, your job is to delegate. Well, [00:02:00] if not, not delegate, but your job is to get people to want to do what needs to be done, and that is just delegation in another form really.
Milan: So your answer is so you’re enjoying being the bottleneck Okay fantastic Good for you then why am I here Right
Ged: Someone once said to me, “If you don’t have an assistant, you are an assistant.” And I thought, “Ooh, yeah, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. That’s good. I like that.”
Milan: Yeah pretty much It’s it’s in the same vein of the if your business depends on you you don’t have a business you have a job right
Ged: Right. Yeah.
Mmhmm
Milan: Job because your boss is a lunatic but that’s a different story
Ged: Yeah. Yeah, yeah
Milan: So let’s let’s talk about let’s talk about why is it so important to get over this hump this mental barrier of you know what It might not be a bad idea to as Don Martell would say buy back [00:03:00] some of your time and really you know getting getting an assistant and d say the word assistant but you know it could be any kind of titles that point basically somebody to take over that are not the best use of your time Of course you can you know spend extra couple of hours on email every day Of course you can you can do that Of course you can book your own travel Of course you can y you know figure out the tickets or figure out a reservation for a restaurant that you will take your client in the following day All of those things you can do but just because you can doesn’t mean you should one big reason Think about what you could do instead if you didn’t have to do it
Ged: Yeah, this is an opportunity cost thing, isn’t it? You know, you- the [00:04:00] money you’re paying out to an assistant could be, the time that represents could be far, far better spent doing more high-value, productive work
Milan: Yeah exactly So so let’s think in terms of ROI right Like what would it cost you to hire somebody who can do a highlevel task at exactly precisely actually the same level of quality and output as you can Because that’s what you’re doing right The fact that you hire somebody to do something so you don’t have to means that you can have one more sales call You can prepare better for your board meeting you can mm you know spend more time on coaching your second in command like whatever that is You know whatever are those things that only you can do for the organization And you [00:05:00] know ultimately even if you use that hour sleeping and instead of four hours you sleep five the return of investment is still massive right and people just don’t understand that that really going back to Dan Martell this is not about luxury This is not about hiring somebody This is about buying back your time so you can repurpose it for something that is of higher value to the organization or yourself and that’s it That’s all there is to it really And the type of work is usually the easiest the the biggest leverage because it takes the stuff from the bottom so you can do more the of the salesy and and all of that stuff And people just don’t understand it Like it’s easy to do it Why would I hire somebody else Because it’s easy to do it
Ged: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Yeah. I recently recorded a podcast on Buy Back Your Time and with, with Peter Oxley. [00:06:00] And and he, he used an expression that I that I really loved. You know, and, you know, if you’re, if you don’t have assistants, you are robbing the company of money because you’re drawing a CEO’s salary and doing an administrator’s job.
So you’re robbing the company of money. You’re robbing your own company by not having an assistant.
Milan: Mmhmm
Ged: We, we all hear the same excuses for why people don’t have an assistant, and I know you iterated through them at the beginning and there’s, there’s many, many more. But there is something that blocks people from bringing on an assistant.
Now some- there is, there is s- one, there is something that they just can’t conceptually get their head around the value of bringing assistants. What, what do you think that is? I mean, I have, I have my own idea. But what, what do you think that one block is?
Milan: Well, very often when I talk to them [00:07:00] they already spent every cent in their operating budget, and they’re seeing this an additional spend rather than as a replacement or as an investment with RegBank. So sometimes it’s a cash, constraint which really comes back to poor planning, right? So that is usually the one hard thing that tells me not yet, right?
That means, okay, we need to get through the race or we need to do that. But then you will do it right away, right? Know get the accountability on that. I think that that’s the, that’s the one reason that I hear when I give people a temporary pass on that. What
Ged: The,
Milan: In mind?
Ged: Yeah, the reason I, I hear, and you know, this is the most often quoted reason, is, “I don’t have time to teach them what I do.” And just let that sink in for a moment. You know, they’re basically saying, “I am prepared to do this 10 times, 100 times, and take [00:08:00] on the cost of doing that rather than teaching someone how to do it,” which will maybe take one or two iterations of doing it. So they’re, they’re never in a position where they incrementally start freeing up their time. So they’re the ones who are working 80 hours a week, and 40 of those is doing the administrator’s job, the assistant’s job. And that, that’s a conceptual barrier that’s very, very hard to push through and some…
And if you can’t, you know, the, you know, you, there’s a, there’s probably a red flag that they’re probably not gonna be particularly coachable as well. Because if they’re not prepared to take on that learning, if they’re not t- prepared to take on that change of behavior those really hard changes of behavior that they’re gonna be asked to do down the track, no chance.
No chance
Milan: You know what’s really funny though? Is that the same CEO, especially if they’re techie, is willing to spend an extra four hours a day playing with AI to see whether you can automate something. And that’s not a [00:09:00] wrong thing. That don’t please, I, you know, just that it’s exactly the same thing.
It’s an investment into a process, whether it’s automatic or human, the principles are exactly the same. You still need to, you know, come up with a standard operating procedure because you cannot delegate or, automate something that isn’t defined. The advantage is that in case of the of the human you have a new problem solver, right?
And then you can literally just say, “Okay, I just need this outcome,” and they will figure out the details. And yes, AI is doing a lot of that too. But the, the principles are, are very, very similar, is that you have to spend some time to save a lot of time, right? And it might take you two hours to save 15 minute transaction, but that 15 minute happens every week or every day or twice a week. So the return on investment is counted in [00:10:00] days generally on, on these type of things. And when you get a good assistant or, you know, good EA chances are they already know a whole bunch of these things better than you do. Like,
Ged: Yep
Milan: Unique, most of those tasks you’re not,
Ged: Yep.
Hmm
Milan: It’s just the reality.
Ged: I, I have a situation with a client right now that is exactly that. He’s got right, right into AI and he’s loving what AI… Sorry, AI and he’s loving what AI can do. And he’s stopped doing his job. Yeah, he has stopped doing his job as a CEO, and he’s now, you know, knee-deep in working through AI products and solutions that might benefit his business in the long run.
And I’m saying to him and the leadership team, like, you know, “You know, you should not be spending your time doing this.” And the leadership team are backing him up and saying, “Oh, what he’s doing is brilliant.” [00:11:00] and I said, “Yes, but he’s not doing his job. No, he’s doing your job. So if he’s doing your job, what job are you doing?
And why are you being paid? And who’s doing the CEO’s job? Because from what I can see, no one’s doing it.”
Milan: Yeah, exactly. No, that, that happens, right? Which again, it’s not bad. Like, if this is where your heart is, then, you know, promote yourself to VP of R&D and
Ged: Yes
Milan: That’s good, right? Nothing wrong with that, right?
Ged: Well, that’s where we’re going. Yep
Milan: Or make it as a part of the– your visionary scorecard and find a, find an operator or, you know, elevate an operator who will keep the company going.
Because, you know, I will never stop somebody from going where they’re — where they naturally want to put their energy in, because chances are that they will progress in that direction faster. But they cannot abandon the other stuff. Like if you’re, you know, if you’re accountable for the health of the organization, you need to think about succession in that.
Ged: So
We’ve mentioned AI a few [00:12:00] times, and these days we can’t really talk about bringing on assistants without talking about AI as well. So in your mind, where is, where is the divide between what a CEO can do or should do, what an assistant can and should do, and how can we leverage AI to, to maximize what AI does in this world?
You know, there’s… Do, do you have an approach as to how that gets separated out?
Milan: Oh yeah, absolutely. But I, I would want to hire an assistant who is very familiar and very experienced in using AI, and they, they have the mind of the AI architect themselves because– And then if they’re lazy, even better, right? Because because if I can go and say, “Hey, this is what I need,” and they say, “Okay, this is what I can do,” or, “This is what I can have AI do,” like fantastic.
Like, everybody wins, right? Yet again, why would I as a CEO need to burden myself with those decisions where, know, we need [00:13:00] to figure out the strategy of the organization or the next big partnership or the, the next big move in the IP space, like the things that really truly nobody else can do. So that’s, that’s pretty much it, right?
Like, you know, you, you look at a process and frankly, you know, if you have a good agentic system implemented in the organization, then chances are that those agents themselves will tell you, ” you should have a human do this.” Right? “This is not, this is not great.” you know, it’s, it’s smart enough these days to even tell you when it’s not smart enough to do something or not flexible enough, or the problem is not defined well enough and, and so on and so on.
Ged: So if, if you were to say to someone who doesn’t have an assistant, “You need to get an assistant,” what would the, what would the rationale or what would be the justification for that?
Milan: Just give them buyback [00:14:00] your time to read and then see what they say after they do, right? That’s
Ged: But they haven’t got enough time to read Buy Back Your Time. They’re too busy to read Buy Back Your Time
Milan: They often are, aren’t they?
Ged: Mm-hmm. Yep, yep. Mm-hmm
So closing out this episode, if you don’t have an assistant, you should get yourself assis- an assistant. If you don’t have an assistant, you are robbing the business of money because you’re doing work that is way, way, way below your pay grade. And if you take one thing away from this episode, think of one thing that you could delegate to an assistant to free up some of your time back in your day.
And when you’ve done that, think of another thing, and then think of another thing.
Milan: Mm-hmm
Ged: But most of all, get an assistant
Milan: And, you know, I think that, that the important thing is this is actually one of the first hires
Ged: Mm-hmm.
Milan: Can make because, you know, you’re probably not ready to hand off sales to somebody. You’re probably not ready to, you know, head R– hand off R&D. But you [00:15:00] can definitely hand off calendar management, you know, setting up meetings, you know, doing the logistics, doing all of those things around that.
So look for things that are the lowest value on your, list in terms of what you’re doing, in terms of, you know, they’re necessary so, you know, that’s the, the value is there, of course. But in terms of the alternative, what else could you do in the meantime? And you start chopping it off, and it very often starts with an assistant.
