The Elevator – Are “RA's” are the New Executive Assistant?
Welcome.
Thanks for stepping onto The Elevator. I’m David Sherry, former founder of Death to Stock turned growth partner to entrepreneurs seeking business growth and inner-wisdom. Every week I work with a dozen business owners via my coaching practice. In The Elevator I’ll share trends I see emerging in the industry, people you should know about, and my own personal insights.
The Lobby
Last update I wrote about how I’m using GPT4 and taking vacations as a business owner.
Next week I'm heading to Italy: Rome, Tuscany, then Lake Como. I’m bringing my film camera, so I'll be sure to share some photos later. We're most excited about driving around Tuscany.
Word has it the gym at the Vineyard has an insane view and looks like you're working out in a castle. Weirdly excited about that?
I.
GPT4 Won't Take Your Job, And it Will Make Your Team Better.
Congrats, your business now has 1,000 interns at your disposal 24/7.
The downside is you always have to check their work, and they don’t really grasp the larger context well, so it takes explaining.
Contrary to what most people believe, I *don't* think GPT4 will take many people's jobs, at least in the short to medium term.
I think it will make all of us more productive.
The winner here is the customer. I believe this will create consumer-surplus and drive costs down for better services.
In exchange, we all get super-powers and do less busy-work.
My question to you: *Do you have your whole team using this yet?
*Have you been developing best practices with everyone yet?
II.
Trend: Are “RA's” are the New EA?
For the past few months, I've been working with a "Research Assistant" in addition to my EA.
Top writers and investors use RA's for their processes. Like many things, products start at the high end of the market and before moving across the curve to the mainstream.
I look to someone like Billy Oppenheimer, who is Ryan Holiday's full-time RA, as an example of where things might go.
Why hire an RA?
Research is about sifting through the sea of information we are drowning in, to help find "signal."
Discernment and decision-making means acquiring and creatively remixing the right information.
This continues to get more important every day.
What can you do with the research?
You can publish it for thought leadership, use it to inform your product development cycles, due diligence, or do customer research for product creation.
DTS is publishing trend research in public which is an effective way to fuse research with building domain expertise on social media, while the research itself is infused into the content-production planning process.
III.
Passion is the best Productivity Tool, Says Flow Science
Flow makes us up to 400% more productive, it improves our reading retention by almost 250%, and it feels AMAZING.
So, why don't we use this more as our primary productivity tool?
Contrary to the hustle culture view, the science tells us that passion is a key ingredient precursor for Flow.
Business owners can sometimes feel guilty when trying to figure out how to align your passion with your business.
The benefits aren’t just personal, it’s how you reach peak performance. Read Steven Kotler for more.
My question to you:
*How many days per week do you experience a flow state?
IV.
The Concierge: My Executive Assistant has availability for one new client.
If you don’t have someone at the very least handling your calendar and admin tasks I highly recommend it.
Your time is valuable and partners can help you focus on higher-leverage activities.
I've worked with her for over 3-4 years, she's super competent and diligent.
She's US based so you pay more for quality.
Is looking for 10+ hours per month.
*Hit reply if you’re interested in learning more.
V.
Rooftop: See you again next month.
I’m really looking forward to refreshing my mind a bit with some wine and pasta. Make sure to find the time to get into flow this week and see if you can experience a bit of that benefit. And, if you don’t have your whole team yet onboarded with AI’s, ask yourself what you’re waiting for?
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*As always, lmk how I can help and feel free to reply/DM/reach out.
<3<3 David
Partner to founders & entrepreneurs |