Scot Wisniewski is Senior Executive Assistant to the Global Head of Studios at Spotify, and he has over 20 years of experience as an EA.

scot wisniewski spotify leader assistant podcast

In this episode of The Leader Assistant Podcast, Scot and I chat about what makes an assistant a leader, the world of podcasting, email and calendar management, working remotely, and tips for new assistants.

LEADERSHIP QUOTE

Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.

– Oprah Winfrey

CONNECT WITH SCOT

Scot Wisniewski Leader Assistant Podcast Spotify

ABOUT SCOT

Scot Wisniewski is an accomplished executive assistant with over twenty years’ experience in the field. In his current role, Scot is the Senior Executive Assistant to the Global Head of Spotify Studios who’s in charge of all podcast and video production on the platform. Prior to his current role, Scot was the Senior EA to the former Global Head of Markets at Spotify. Previous to Spotify, Scot held several C suite assistant roles at Revlon Cosmetics where he supported the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of Media and PR. Prior to Revlon, Scot held executive assistant roles in the travel and food industries.

Wisniewski is a magna cum laude graduate of Keuka College with a Bachelor of Science degree with concentrations in elementary and special education as well as English literature. In his spare time, Scot enjoys cooking, reading and the performing arts. He is well known in NYC’s cabaret circuit, has released two solo albums, has performed in many regional theater productions and he’s even appeared on Broadway. He is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and The Screen Actors Guild. He resides in NY.

THE LEADER ASSISTANT PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP

Check out the Leader Assistant Premium Membership for ongoing training, coaching, and community.

LEADER ASSISTANT LIVE EVENTS

Check out our constantly updated schedule of events for admins and assistants at LeaderAssistantLive.com.

THE LEADER ASSISTANT BOOK

Download the first 3 chapters of The Leader Assistant: Four Pillars of Game-Changing Assistant for FREE here or buy it on Amazon or Audible.

JOIN THE FREE COMMUNITY

Join the Leader Assistant Global Community here, or the Facebook Group here for bonus content and to network with other assistants who are committed to becoming leaders!

SUBSCRIBE

Subscribe to The Leader Assistant Podcast so you don’t miss new episodes!

You can find the show on Apple PodcastsSpotifyGoogle Podcasts, Pandora, and Stitcher.

Join my email list here if you want to get an email when a new episode goes live.

LEAVE A REVIEW

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please take 2 minutes to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Each review helps me stay motivated to keep the show going!

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Scot Wisniewski 0:00
Hi, I’m Scot Wisniewski. Today’s leadership quote comes from Oprah Winfrey. Don’t worry about being successful but worry toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.

Podcast Intro 0:12
The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistants to become confident game changing leader assistants.

Jeremy Burrows 0:26
Thank you so much for listening. Oh, I’m old. Hey friends. Thanks for tuning in to Episode 110, you can check out the show notes at leaderassistant.com/110. Also, before we jump into today’s interview, I wanted to invite you to join us in the leader assistant premium membership leaderassistant.com/membership. We have ongoing monthly coaching training sessions. And we post the video replay of those sessions in the members only library so you can go back and check out all of the different training sessions on a variety of topics like negotiation, resumes, performance reviews, email and calendar management, auditing your executives calendar and much, much more. Again, that’s leaderassistant.com/membership. Hope you can join us. Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning into The Leader Assistant Podcast. It’s your host, Jeremy Burrows and I’m speaking with Scot Wisniewski. Scot is the senior executive assistant to the Global Head of studios at Spotify. Scot, how’s it going?

Scot Wisniewski 1:42
Well, Jeremy, thanks for having me on. It’s great to finally connect. And congratulations to you the success of not only this podcast, but also your book and everything you’re doing for the assistant community. It’s really fantastic.

Jeremy Burrows 1:53
Thanks, God appreciate it. And where are you at in the world?

Scot Wisniewski 1:58
So I’m currently in central New York in the heart of the Finger Lakes region. So I’m currently staring out on Tuscany Atlas lake as we speak. So I’m about 20 miles west of Syracuse to kind of give you more of a geographical standpoint.

Jeremy Burrows 2:12
Awesome. And how long have you been in Spotify?

Scot Wisniewski 2:15
So I’ve been at Spotify, just shy of three years, I’ve had two roles within the organization. But yeah, it’s it’s a great company to work for.

Jeremy Burrows 2:26
Cool. So why don’t you tell us three non work related things about you?

Scot Wisniewski 2:33
Okay, let’s see, I would say a huge part of my life is fitness. I actually used to be significantly, actually very overweight, close to 400 pounds, toward the end of high school. And so I put a huge amount of emphasis on trying to stay active, stay healthy, working out, taking long walks, doing whatever I can, I lost about 120 pounds, and I’m able to keep about at least 110 of that off for well over 20 years. So working out and maintaining a healthy active lifestyle, something that’s very important to me. Another thing would be all throughout my life I’ve been involved in the performing arts theater has been a huge part of my life, I’ve been performing on stage for a very long time. I actually am a member of a jazz trio that performs around the city. And I’ve done a couple of one man cabaret shows that have done very well and have a couple of albums out as well. And I’m a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity. So performing is a big part of my life. And I would say a third thing would probably be that in my spare time, I also just love to entertain cook and travel.

Jeremy Burrows 3:48
Wow. So that’s a lot. Yeah. Yeah, we’ll have to share up to Sydney a couple of links to your you know, your music stuff. And just, you know, sure we can check that out. Absolutely. Yeah,

Scot Wisniewski 4:04
it’s available on all major streaming platforms.

Jeremy Burrows 4:06
Awesome. So if you could give or if I could give you an extra hour in your day, what would you do with it?

Scot Wisniewski 4:16
Hmm, good question. I think it probably depends on the day. I would probably have to say most days, I would probably try to get an extra hour asleep. I try to get at least seven to eight hours sleep a night but I usually fall short by a good hour or two. I’m not sleep deprived by any means but I also I just love to sleep. Another great option would be probably to get a massage. I always tell myself every year Jeremy that I’m going to start getting a massage once a month. And I always fall short a bit for some reason. So I have an extra hour I’d love to go grab a quick massage. It’s a great way to kind of decompress especially in our roles as EAS and just relax and and give us some me time I should say you

Jeremy Burrows 5:00
Yeah. So speaking of EAs, how did you end up being an executive assistant?

Scot Wisniewski 5:05
Well, how much time do you have? This is kind of a long story, I’ll try to give you the abridged version. But my degrees are actually in elementary and special education. So I always thought that I would end up being a teacher. And in fact, after I finished my student teaching, when I graduated from college, I did end up teaching for several months at Watkins Glen Elementary School here in upstate New York. So the teacher that I had actually a student taught for, was pregnant, and she needed to go out on maternity leave. So the school had asked me since I was about to graduate, would I be willing just to stay on and teach the students and finish out the school year with them since I had already had a report with all them being their student teacher. So I did that thoroughly enjoyed it, loved it. But I also always was in love with New York City and had a big, I guess, a love affair, you can say with the city and would go down, often being in the performing arts would take either the train down or the bus and stay with family and friends on Long Island and take the LI WR indepen and catch as many, you know, Broadway shows as I could and live theater and jazz and whatever I could soak up for a weekend and go back to Central New York. And my parents said, you know, you could always move to New York, Scott, as long as you graduate from college. So after I taught for a few months, it was kind of at a crossroads, Jeremy and I decided if I don’t do this, now, if I don’t move to New York, the chances of it happening are probably slim to none. So mom and I went down, we looked at a bunch of apartments. And lo and behold, I found a tiny 375 square foot studio in Gramercy Park, and literally packed up my tiny little U haul with my cat and drove down to New York City. And I did not know one person. And I had my first month’s rent paid by my parents, and my second month’s rent paid and they said, Good luck. You’re on your own. Make it here, I guess. So. I literally the next day, picked up a copy. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. But there used to be a publication in the city called The Village Voice. It’s since stopped publication. But they had a great Help Wanted section. And I found a ad or a company by the name of Springer blog, which is one of the leading textbook companies for science and mathematics. And they were looking for a receptionist. So that was kind of my first dip into the whole administrative professional roll and ended up getting the job and worked for them from nine to five. That still wasn’t enough to pay my rent. So in the evening, I had to find another job. And I actually ended up working I always have cautious when I say this at a telemarketing office. But we weren’t those annoying, cold calling telemarketers that bothered people. It was actually sales over the phone. And it was calling people that have registered for the opportunity to receive a discounted vacation package to Florida and the Bahamas. So I ended up working there at night on the phone had my day job at Spring Arbor log ended up doing so well. In the sales arena that I ended up about six months after taking the job at Springer, quitting and actually just focusing on the sales aspect. And working at night for our company called SRP enterprises, a small private company. That company grew and grew. So eventually, the owner said to me, we know we’re opening up satellite offices, I need an assistant to kind of keep things on track for me to manage my calendar, my agenda, my travel, my expense reports, etc. Would you be interested? So I took her on and was with her for many, many years, until about 2008. And then the wonderful recession hit. And so people stopped buying luxury purchases, per se. So vacations, you know, people were being very cautious. And so then I was at another crossroads, and I was actually at a wedding in New Jersey. And while I was there at the reception, someone at my table was actually speaking to my husband who’s also an executive assistant and said, hey, you know, you’re a former boss at Revlon is looking for an EA is Do you know anybody? He kind of hit me under the neath the table and said, Yeah, I do actually. So literally, a few days later, I went in had an interview with Kiki Greg, where, who I credit much of my career to were very close to this day. And so kind of then took the jump from a much smaller company into a global organization, and had many roles at Revlon and prior to leaving was supporting the Chief Operating of markets for several years before I came to Spotify. So that’s a long answer, but it kind of just shows you the trajectory of how it all worked out.

Jeremy Burrows 9:55
Wow. So what’s maybe one thing that A shock to you going from the small company to a global organization?

Scot Wisniewski 10:05
For sure, I mean, definitely the pace, right? I mean, it was much more I wasn’t used to working in such a fast paced environment. And even now at Spotify, it’s even more fast than it was at Revlon because at Tech, everything’s just live at the push a button. But yeah, working at a global company, the pace and the acceleration of how things happen. The processes and procedures was definitely eye opening, and, obviously just made me better and better. Yeah, in the long run.

Jeremy Burrows 10:33
Yeah. So let’s talk about Spotify for a second. What do you like, Sure, about Spotify, that you haven’t experienced in your other roles?

Scot Wisniewski 10:46
Yeah, the great thing about Spotify and I know this word is kind of thrown out all the time and use sometimes kind of haphazardly, but it’s the culture. I mean, I have to tell you, Jeremy, that the culture of Spotify is truly like any other company that I’ve ever worked for in the past, they really, really take care of their people, I actually was poached by them on LinkedIn, I wasn’t looking to leave Revlon. But I’m always a huge advocate of having a conversation, because you never ever know where it could lead. So they reached out to me and said they were looking for an executive assistant to support a high level person within the organization, would I be willing, and I had a few phone interviews with HR generalists and coordinators in the beginning. And then when they finally brought me in, I remember just sitting at reception, waiting for the HR rep to come and greet me and bring me back to the interview room. And people were kind of just walking by and like, high fiving each other with their laptops. And we’re in such a good mood, I actually thought that I was being punked, I’m like, this doesn’t exist, this can, this can’t be this, people can be this happy to be at work. And I remember just thinking this is crazy. They purposely have hired these actors to do this, this can’t be real. But lo and behold, it’s true. I mean, there’s so many great positive aspects about the company. I mean, they really take care of their people from not only a benefits perspective, but through growth and development. And there’s just an energy at the company that is so palpable, everyone is really there to help each other out. It’s very team oriented egos are checked at the door. You know, it’s also super exciting just to work for a brand that has such an amazing global reputation. You know, I tell people I work at Spotify, their, their eyes kind of light up, and they’re like, oh, wow, what, tell me about it, because it’s, it’s not easy to get in. We receive roughly 50 to 60,000 applications for per month for our jobs. And we only hire about four to 500 people a year. So it’s kind of like saying that, yeah, that it’s easier to get into Harvard than to Spotify. And you know, I had just to give you an idea. I had 16 interviews before I landed my role. So yeah, so that goes to show you that it was a long process, but great news. And I had a great job supporting a wonderful executive that I was with for years, it’s always easier to look for a job when you have one, right. But yeah, it was, it was an amazing process. And I thoroughly loved working there. It’s just an amazing company and organization. And it’s just, it’s all about growth and development. And both personally and professionally. They have an entire department at Spotify called greenhouse that is specifically just focused on fostering growth and development with their employees. So it’s a pretty, pretty special place.

Jeremy Burrows 13:37
So let’s, uh, you know, Spotify, obviously, has gotten into the podcast world. Suddenly, you know, kind of a random question. Have you met Joe Rogan?

Scot Wisniewski 13:50
I have not. But now that he’s exclusive with us, you know, what’s the who knows what the future holds? But no, I love that.

Jeremy Burrows 13:59
So in your professional opinion, speaking more of podcasts, what makes a great podcast?

Scot Wisniewski 14:06
Good question. I think that, you know, it depends Jeremy on what type of podcasts you’re hoping to release. There’s all different types of podcasts. And to give you an idea, at the end of 2019, we only had about 700,000 podcasts on our platform to date, we have 2.2 million. So that just goes to show you in the past 18 months the exponential growth that become podcasting. It’s truly amazing. But whether you’re doing like a scripted series, or a non scripted series, or a talk show or just an interview format, such as you do with your podcast, I definitely think there’s themes that need to be there. First and foremost, there needs to be a centralized theme and topic right and the people need to know that when they tune in to the podcast there. There’s going to be consistency across episodes. You’ve done a great job of that with this podcast focusing on EAS and leadership and growth and motivate additional speakers and development people know when they tune in to The Leader Assistant Podcast, they’re hopefully going to learn and grow as EAS. So that’s critical. I think also just as important, a lot of people fail here. So there needs to be consistency on when the actual podcast is released. You’d be surprised how many people, it seems like everybody just wants to get into podcasting, but they start out strong, and then they kind of weaned off. And so that’s a sure fire way to lose your audience. You have to have consistency when you’re releasing episodes. And obviously, you need to have a host that’s authentic, that’s relatable, that’s humble. Has great compassion for their guests learns from their guests just as much as their guests provide information. It’s a it’s a two way street, right. And that’s like what I like to call the magic sauce. So I think that, you know, you have to have a host that really is authentic and cares about what the, the guest has to say and learns just as much from it. So that’s just a rough idea.

Jeremy Burrows 16:02
Wow, that’s great. Yeah, that’s like, a few really strong, strong tips. I remember when I was doing some research before I launched mine. And, you know, I kind of discovered that consistency was one of the biggest things and I didn’t want to launch mine until I knew that I could commit to publishing one episode every week at the same time. Yeah, it’s been. It’s definitely worked out well.

Scot Wisniewski 16:28
So yeah, every Sunday, we get a new episode. I love it. Yeah.

Jeremy Burrows 16:35
All right. So let’s talk about the assistant role. A little bit, what would you tell someone who’s about to start their first week as an assistant?

Scot Wisniewski 16:46
No, oh, my gosh. I mean, what I’ve been telling myself back in the day when I started, but I mean, I mean, I would definitely say that, if anything, is consistent in the role of EA is to expect the unexpected, to truly, I think, be successful in the role. You have to be flexible and adaptable at all times. I kind of like to think of myself as a chameleon, right? And I need to constantly be shifting gears and changing my mindset at a moment’s notice. So if you’re someone that you know, likes extreme structure, and doesn’t like a lot of change, and doesn’t, you know, and things can change at a moment’s notice, this probably is not the role for you. You know, what I also love about being an EA to that fact is that no one day is ever the same. I mean, just when I think I have something down, it’s gonna change, especially in tech, things are constantly changing at lightning speed. So I think what definite one guarantee about being an EA is that things are constantly going to change. And that actually excites me and I talked a lot, family members and friends and they’re always like, I would never in a million years want to do what you do. I have zero desire, just hearing about it gives me massive anxiety, right. But um, I think that, you know, for me, I for some reason, I like the chaos, I just like to control it. And I would also stress the importance really, this is critical to getting to know other EAS, when you started a new job just within that organization, if it’s not already set up from you from HR during your onboarding process, make it a point to reach out to fellow EAS at the company and ask to meet with them, you know, for 15 or 30 minutes, you know, across different departments and sit down what works for you what doesn’t work for you, what’s it like working here, you kind of just have to soak up as much information as possible. We are in many ways, like sponges, so you know, be open to that and network. And you know, I can’t I always stress this when I talk to a lot of EAs I’m fascinated by they’re so great at their jobs, but they could be so much better if they just make those connections not only within their organizations, but externally as well. It’s all about networking and connecting and I’ve seen it time and time again when when EAS that are on the forefront and on their executive eyes, obviously, but also within other leaders within the organization that you know when there’s reorg or things happen, you know, they kind of fall by the wayside and they end up not getting a new role. It’s simply because they’re not out front and you can’t really sit on the back burner when you’re in the EAA. You know, I mean, you kind of have to make a conscious effort to get out there and be seen and be heard.

Jeremy Burrows 19:28
So what let’s let’s get a little more specific on a couple of tips. Do you have any game changing tips for managing email or calendars?

Scot Wisniewski 19:40
Yeah. So when it comes to email and calendars, obviously staying organized is extremely important. When it comes to email Jeremy I tend to only have in my inbox, an email that requires an action on my part within 24 hours. I received For a typical day between three and 400 emails, obviously a good portion of those are replies or calendar invites. But it’s super easy, at least for me anyway, I’ve done it in the past multiple times where I become extremely overwhelmed with the amount of emails that are coming in. And I sometimes felt as though I was falling down this black hole with emails. So one thing I developed years ago is I started obviously creating, you know, rules and sub filters to help filter messages come in to different categories. And you know, what I recently started doing as well. And I think I’ve heard some other people talk about this on your podcast is, I actually just like within the last year started scheduling time to check emails. And that’s helped me tremendously, because I kind of always used to think that I needed to respond right away and get back within a certain amount of time, there was a lot of pressure. So I now schedule a solid hour every morning, when I wake up to check my email. And then I have a couple other 30 minute blocks throughout the day on my calendar, to know to go in and check. So that’s one way that I’ve definitely helped manage the email aspect. When it comes to calendars, I’m extremely visual, I always have been. So no matter what executive I’ve supported, throughout my career, I’ve always color coded everything. And so I know at a moment’s glance at the calendar, if something can be moved or cannot be moved, so meetings that are in, you know, bright red for my boss, or executive our meetings he or she has with their boss or the CEO, those are just not touchable meetings, and like green or with external clients and vendors, either conference calls or video calls. So I try not to move those because they’re dealing with external people. Dark green is travel, there hasn’t been a lot of that with a pandemic. But you know, if these my executives in flight, or you know, in transit in a car, those will be in dark green, orange or internal meeting, so they have more flex, light blue or status meetings with my executives direct. So I know I can easily move those. So it just kind of helps me when I glanced at the calendar, I know what I can play Tetris with and what I can’t. So that’s worked really well for me.

Jeremy Burrows 22:12
So does he see these colors as well?

Scot Wisniewski 22:15
He does. He does. And actually, when I first started supporting my current executive, he, he actually brought that to my attention. He’s like, wow, okay, I’ve never had this before. And then he’s actually really started to enjoy it, and is now taking it on. It’s like, Yeah, I can’t imagine without the colors. So it helps, it really does help. So it also works for him, he can look at the calendar and say, Okay, I know, at this time I’ve got a meeting with with our CEO are my boss, so you know, it helps. And then obviously, you know, scheduling in as well, with calendars, you know, breaks, I tried to give my executive at least a 30 minute break every three hours to, you know, grab something to eat, or go to the bathroom or whatever, you know, just being conscious of their time. And at the end of the week, I tried to always schedule a three or four hour block of time for them to catch up on, you know, anything that’s happened that week, or redex, for upcoming meetings, etc.

Jeremy Burrows 23:13
Yeah, my executive likes it too. He even suggested that, you know, because I try not to do too many categories. Yeah. But recently, he’s like, hey, could we add a color for this specific category? I think it’s Oh, it’s for like HR interviews, interviewing potential hires. We hadn’t had a ton of those. We’re a smaller company, and but we’re kind of growing pretty quickly now. And so he’s like, Hey, can we go ahead and just do a color for that that way? He loves it. So that because he can look at his calendar and say, Oh, I’ve got an investor meeting today. I’ve got a sales meeting today, and I’ve got an interview today. Yeah, so it really

Scot Wisniewski 23:50
helps. It really, really helps. So if it’s funny, I even do it with like, my panda flexes, I don’t print much. But, you know, I like certain colors. I know where for certain things, when I do on a rare occasion have to print a doc or whatever. And I know, it’s gonna go in this color. pendoflex. So it just helps me stay on top of it all.

Jeremy Burrows 24:11
Yeah. Awesome. So how is your partnership with your executive changed during the global pandemic? Great question.

Scot Wisniewski 24:19
Um, so interestingly enough, I started with my current executive in April, mid April of this year. So my previous executive that I was supporting at Spotify, decided at the beginning of March of 2020, to leave the organization and pursue another opportunity. So I’ll kind of preface this by saying, you know, as I talked about earlier, they were big on growth and development at Spotify. So I kinda was, again, another crossroads, and trying to figure out what my next role would be. So I, again, the importance of networking and knowing people within the organization, so I met with a bunch of different people and applied for it A couple of different roles, because actually, there wasn’t an executive assistant role open at the time. And I had several interviews and met with a lot of great people within the company, but I kind of after a few weeks was trying to, you know, decide them if I’m supposed to stay at Spotify or not. And I think the key message here is that a lot of times as assistants, we want to be in control of things. But sometimes when you surrender, and you just put it out to the universe, something happens. And that’s exactly what happened. So literally, about four or five weeks in, which is great, and then of itself, because they let me try to figure out what my next path would be at the company. My current executives assistant, sent out an email that she was going on into another role in the organization. And so I immediately picked her and said, Hey, Jane is you know, Courtney, looking for a new age? Well, yes, he is. But He’s based in Los Angeles, and you’re in New York. And I said, Yeah, that, you know, we’re all working remotely anyway, what’s the difference at this point? So it just ended up working out he, you know, I knew Courtney, previously, he had had a lot of meetings with my former boss. And so we have not had any face to face interaction yet. It has all been virtual to answer your question. And it’s, the coal company has been working from home since March, and will continue to do so we just announced recently, that we’re going to offer different options for employees moving forward as a lot of companies, and especially in the tech space are doing, but it’s been working out really well. Me being based in New York, him in Los Angeles, our global headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden. So I’m kind of in between all you know, for him in LA, and Stockholm, six hours ahead, I’m in New York, three hours ahead of him, he’s in LA. So it actually is working out really, really well. And it’s been a great, wonderful positive experience, I’m certainly enjoying it and being part of the studios team.

Jeremy Burrows 27:05
That’s awesome. Any, any quick tips for working remotely?

Scot Wisniewski 27:12
Again, going back to scheduling time for yourself, you know, making it a point to you know, step away from the computer screen, I take at least two long walks each day, obviously, have my phone with me in case my executive needs to reach me for anything that’s, you know, super urgent. But um, I think that, you know, it’s been interesting, when we started all working from home, there was sort of like a, I don’t know, you know, if we’re going to be able to make this work, and if anything, that company has grown significantly since last March, we just had one of our strongest quarters ever. So I think that, you know, I think that the way that we’re all going to work, even post pandemic is going to change, I think organizations are realizing that, you know, at the end of the day, as long as the works getting done is getting done well. That’s really honestly all that should matter. I don’t think that, you know, the days of going into an office and being chained to a desk five days a week, I think are pretty much forever going to be gone. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And it’s great. I mean, like, I’m sure for you as well, right? Were you ever able to work from home prior to the pandemic? Are you always in the office?

Jeremy Burrows 28:20
Yeah, I was able to do. Well, for my last executive, my prior company, I was pretty much I think, towards the end, I was pretty much doing work from home, two or three days a week. And then with my current executive, before the pandemic, I would work in the office most of the time, but I would kind of give them a heads up and say, Hey, can I’m gonna work from home Friday so that I can crank some stuff out, was always flexible about that. But he was actually pretty, fairly anti remote work just because we’re a startup we’re trying to figure things out. And he really liked the collaboration and, you know, brainstorming sessions with the whiteboard and and all that. But with being forced to work from home, he’s actually done a complete flip on his opinion, because he’s like, wow, I’m I’m able to like go for walks to see my kids more like a bit more fast focus to deep work done. And he still misses the collaboration part. But I think the I think the remote hybrid is definitely the future. Yes.

Scot Wisniewski 29:35
For sure. Yeah. And I don’t know about for you, but I find myself so much more focused at home. at Spotify, in our work areas, we’re all open, no one had an office. So everyone was on the floor. So it can get loud at times, and I’m the type of person that really needs kind of like, for things to be quiet when I hone in especially in a particular project or a deck or something I need to really be in it. So Oh, that it’s gonna be difficult for me. But I definitely agree with you. I mean, I wouldn’t mind seeing people a few times a year, you know. And we’re going to have that opportunity, which is great. But I find that I am just so much more productive at home than I ever was. And I just so much more focused, but it’s it’s nothing but positive for me.

Jeremy Burrows 30:18
Yeah, definitely. All right, Scott. Well, one of my favorite questions to ask is what makes an assistant a leader?

Scot Wisniewski 30:28
Wow. Wow, I think a lot of things. I think that, you know, great executive assistants who are great leaders are self aware. They prioritize personal and professional development. Even more importantly, they focus developing others. And whether that’s helping other assistants. They’re obviously not only on the forefront of their executives, but again, I’ve said it before everyone in the company from the mailroom to the CEOs office, they’re seen they’re heard. You know, they’re validated, they don’t hide in the shadows. I think just as important, they have a great business, foresight and acumen for the business, they know what’s going on with the business, they’re able to connect the dots and properly, prioritize tasks. They’re self aware, and show great compassion and empathy for others, their true team players, they don’t lead with their egos. And I think, you know, they take great pride in what they do, I’m really excited to see, especially with your podcasts and your book and all the other different, like support groups that are, you know, starting to form on LinkedIn and Facebook that, you know, the role is now I think, taking on a much different light. And it’s very refreshing to see that we’re not, we’re moving away from being considered just to help. Right. And I think that it’s, it’s exciting to see. So, you know, we may not always get the recognition that our executives do, but you know, we’re comfortable with that. And we’re the glue that holds everything together. So lots of things, I think, make assistants, great leaders, but I think just most importantly, they help other people and you know, our role, we’re in a role of service. Right. So it’s all about making things run more effectively and efficiently.

Jeremy Burrows 32:19
Wilson Scott Wilson, mic drop, Mic drop. Thanks. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being on the show. Really excited to meet you in person someday, hopefully. And yes, much and yeah. How can people listening, connect with you and reach out to you?

Scot Wisniewski 32:39
Sure. Yeah. I mean, LinkedIn is the best way so I’m sure you’ll link my profile in the show notes. But please reach out drop me a line. I love connecting with other EAS all around the globe. We’re all in this together. So it was great to find the happiness chat Jeremy and nothing but the best deal. Awesome. Thanks,

Jeremy Burrows 32:57
guys. Have a great day. You too.

Scot Wisniewski 32:59
Take care.

Unknown Speaker 33:12
pleased to have you on Apple podcasts. Goburrows.com

Download FREE Chapters