Executive Assistant To Ceo

Hi! My name is Joel. I’m a self-employed professional speaker, author, and CEO of a small business. I’m looking for an amazing teammate.

There’s a lot to share – and the nature of a small business means this isn’t a “standard job description” posting. I’ve opted to sacrifice brevity in order to give you as much detail as I can.

Our company is called Beanstalk Creative. We have an awesome team of 5 full-time staff (reducing to 4 come June), and a great team of part-time people, including our awesome facilitators who bring everything to life.

There are a few different “things” running under the “Beanstalk” umbrella, but they overlap. Let’s call them “Strong & Kind Training”, “Joel Hilchey Speaking”, and “Beanstalk Creative”.

Beanstalk Creative is about empowering students toward fulfilling careers.

• We have a team of awesome facilitators (entertainers-turned-educators) who do career skills workshops in high schools across Ontario.
• We also run events at cool venues to provide career exploration opportunities, which adds a layer of fun!
• This is the largest “chunk” of the business and where most of my time goes currently.

The “Joel Hilchey Speaking” business is more of my “personal” brand – an umbrella for all the other schemes and ideas I’ve had – but the themes are creativity, fun, and culture.

• I get hired as a keynote speaker at conferences and events to talk about fun. Apparently it’s good to remind people that we do better when we feel better.
• I’ve taken the foot off the gas pedal lately, because time has been limited.
• In 10 years, I’d love to be something like a Seth Godin. (Perhaps that’s too ambitious – but it’s the right flavour.)

The “Strong & Kind Training” business is my wife Kathleen’s brand.

• Kathleen ALSO gets hired to go a speak at conferences and events.
• She’s specialized in helping provide training for Camp staff, but also for everyone who works with kids.
• Kathleen is a Qualified Mediator, and she sometimes gets hired as a conflict coach.

Let’s talk about you!

In this Executive Assistant role, your main job would be to help our team make more of an impact in the world by protecting my time.

As what we do continues to grow in complexity, there’s just not enough hours in the day to do all the things I’d like to do! (And sometimes not even enough hours to do the things I NEED to do.) I’ve been told that this is a normal problem; almost every startup business is limited by the founder/CEO’s time constraints.

In the past, I’ve hired people to help “find new business” and “grow”; it’s felt like a business development and marketing role. But this is NOT what I envision this time.

I imagine this role to be focused on admin: Email inbox management is an easy starting place. Errands. Follow-ups with people. Calendar scheduling.

My IDEAL assistant is hybrid; I’d love to find someone who wants a mix of online and in-person work. Maybe you could help organize a desk, sort through my papers and notes and turn them into actionables, run an errand to buy a something-or-other or drop-off something else, organize our mess of A/V equipment, mail books or thank-you-cards, or any number of other “actual tasks that require an actual person” that I’m just not getting to.

I don’t need you to clean our kitchen or bathrooms, but I DO imagine that you’d be doing some admin stuff that’s completely unrelated to “the business”… We have 3 kids, so there’s a lot of “life administration” type tasks that need to happen. In the same way that you’ll be helping me maximize my “CEO time”, I feel like having an assistant can help Kathleen and I maximize the “parenting & family time” we have.

Here are some qualities that I’ll need you to have:

• Trustworthy – Because you’ll be working in our house and representing our business.
• Enjoyable to Work With – Because life should be mostly fun.
• Independent – Because I won’t always be able to (or want to) oversee exactly what you’re doing. But we’ll be creating “Standard Operating Procedures” so we both feel confident things are getting done in a way that works.
• Computer Literate – Especially MS Office and Google stuff, but generally being able to figure out what’s happening is helpful.
• Practical & Organized – Because there’s always at least a few projects on the go, and a long list in the queue.
• Detail-focused – Because that’s not always my strength, so it can be yours!
• A balance of entrepreneurial spirit with process-driven execution – because we always start by searching for what works, and then when we find it, we systematize it to make it efficient.
• Good writing skills – Because you’ll be a representative of me.
• Good speaking skills – Being courteous and friendly go a long way on the phone.
• Open to feedback – There’s going to be a lot for both of us to learn to make the relationship work.
• Ability to be in Dundas at least 2 days a week. All virtual hasn’t worked for me in the past. We’re on a transit route, but a driver’s license is probably necessary for errands.

Who would be a good fit?

Let’s start with who this job is NOT for. If you’re hungry for rapid “career advancement”, you’d probably be disappointed. (We’re pretty “flat” as an organization). If you’re the type of person who dreams of being a VP of Marketing for a big company, this is probably NOT the best way to get on that track.

I could see this job being appealing to 3 broad groups of people:

1) People who are starting off in their career, know that they want to contribute but aren’t sure how, and want an insider’s view on how a small business runs. I could imagine someone staying with me for 2 or 3 years, learning a TON, and then deciding on their next move in their own professional journey.

2) College or university students who are looking for a paid internship (or 12-16 month co-op placement). Same reasons as in group #1 - you’ll probably learn a ton about business, and I’d love to have someone who wants to contribute and learn, even if it meant only having you for 12-16 months.

3) People who are looking for a “lifestyle” job. If you’re the type who’d love to contribute your skills, but you are equally concerned about finding work that melds well with your other life priorities, I could imagine this being appealing.

What do you get?

In short – Partially flexible hours, doing varied and interesting work that you can feel good about doing, with cool people and within a really positive environment. And with compensation well above minimum wage.

Let’s break it down for the long version.

“Partially Flexible Hours” :

• I’m actually not sure how many hours a week will be ideal. But it needs to be a fit for everyone.
• From a flexibility perspective, it’d be amazing if you had the capacity to scale up or scale down as needed. BUT – I recognize that you might have financial needs and expectations, so that can be a conversation.
• I’d say 10 hours per week is probably not enough to make the investment worth the effort. 20-30 hours per week is easily doable (and full-time is probably possible for the right candidate), but about 50% of the work can probably be done on your own schedule.
• The summer might be less busy, so it’s possible we could scale down the hours in the summer if you wanted more flexible time. (ie – some family-centred folks might find this convenient).
• You’ll generally need to be available most weekdays for at least some time between 9am and 4pm, because that’s when I try to do my work, and it’s when most of the phone calls happen. But we wouldn’t necessarily have to get together every day. I’d imagine 1 or 2 days per week in person, with the others done virtually.
• The in-person stuff will be at my home office (in downtown Dundas), alongside me and Kathleen – especially at the start. When you’re at your home, you just need a solid internet connection.

“Varied & Interesting Work”: Lots of different stuff – random projects and problems, lots of consistent email and some good consistent processes.

“..that you can feel good about doing in a growing small business..”: We’re making a difference. Education and entrepreneurship has a magic feeling to it. Kathleen is delivering awesome training and reaching more and more folks. And my presentations are ridiculous. And also fun. And hopefully you think helping support my family is a worthy cause too.

“..with cool people..”: jugglers, magicians, circus artists.. just read our facilitator bios – we’re all weirdos.

“..a really positive environment.”: Aside from being surrounded by nice coworkers, there’s a level of professionalism and calm courtesy in the world of education and associations that makes things feel civilized, positive, (mostly) unpretentious, and relaxed.

For compensation:

• I’d prefer to start this role as an hourly contract role, at approximately $25/hr. But maybe I’d go higher for the right person.
• I imagine the first 3 months will be a trial & learning period for both of us.
• I recognize that $25/hr isn't at the top for an assistant role, so after we get you trained and we both feel like things are working, we’ll increase the pay.
• ($30/hr isn’t out of the question if you’re really efficient).
• After our trial period, we can potentially get you access to our team’s benefits programs too. (Everyone has access to an employee-assistance program, and full-time employees additionally have a Health Spending Account).

If you have a different salary or wage expectation, please let me know upfront in your cover letter. I want to play the long game here. The business has gone through a hard time during the pandemic, but we appear to be coming out of that financially, and I think the whole team should be able to share in the benefit.

I’m hoping to find someone quickly to start the trial period during the busy season (April-May), so you could start in early April (or even sooner if you were open), but once again, I’m flexible on that for the right candidate.

To Apply:

First – check out our websites: www.joelhilchey.com & www.beanstalkcreative.org & www.strongandkindcamps.org . Get a sense of who I am what we do.

Apply through indeed with a cover letter and a resume. I’ve told you lots about me and the job. Tell me about you. Tell me about why you’re interested in this job. In the cover letter, just for fun, include the name of one of my books.

Last time I posted for a position like this, I received a LOT of applications. Don't let that hold you back from applying, but please know that if I don't get back to you right away, it's not because you're a bad person (or even a bad candidate), it's just that the process may take longer than I expect.

Overall – my final thoughts:

I need an awesome teammate - someone who can help me reach more people and make a bigger impact in the world with my speaking and writing, all while being more available as a dad and husband. Too many people don’t care at all about their companies or their work. I really believe in what I’m doing, and I think this job will give someone the chance to make a real difference in a supportive role. Thanks for reading – I’m excited to meet some awesome people!

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent, Freelance, Internship / Co-op

Salary: $25.00-$30.00 per hour

Expected hours: 20 – 40 per week

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company events
• Employee assistance program
• Extended health care
• Flexible schedule
• Wellness program
• Work from home

Flexible Language Requirement:

• French not required

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Education:

• Secondary School (required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Dundas, ON L9H 1X5

Application deadline: 2024-03-15
Expected start date: 2024-04-08