00:00 Introduction
Jack Jostes:
Do you ever find yourself awake at 9, 10, 11 o'clock at night or on the weekend or weeks after things are due, opening your mail or doing administrative tasks that are just draining to you? If you're like most small business owners, that's probably happening for you quite a bit. But in today's podcast, I'm gonna interview Erin Kaufold, our Senior Executive Assistant at Ramblin Jackson, who's worked with me for three years to talk about how someone like her, an Executive Assistant, could free up time for you, the owner of your snow and landscape company, and how this would help you and your employees and your customers have a better experience. Plus, Erin's gonna share her favorite Ramblin Jackson core values, what she loves about this job, which is interesting because I wouldn't want to do her job and she wouldn't really want to do my job. And what to look for when you're recruiting or hiring for someone in this role.
Hey, it's Jack Jostes. Welcome to the Landscaper's Guide, where we share inspiring sales, marketing, and leadership content. Most of my snow and landscape clients struggle to hire and retain the right office staff, and I can tell you that having an executive assistant on your team could be a tremendous asset to you. And I hope you enjoy today's interview. And if you do, make sure you subscribe at landscapersguide.com/podcast so you get our weekly podcast, email newsletter, invitations to upcoming events and more. All right, everyone, welcome back to the Landscaper's Guide. Today I'm excited to interview Ramblin Jackson's Senior Executive Assistant, Erin Kaufold, who has worked with me for three years. We were just talking about how we've been working together for three years, and in some ways it seems to have gone fast. And in some ways it seems like ages ago that we interviewed, cuz it was during COVID and everything when we started. And I'm excited to have you on the show, Erin because really I believe that our clients, the people listening: snow and landscape companies, could really benefit from having someone like you on their team. And they may not have ever even thought of it. So first, could, could you tell us what is an executive assistant? What do you do?
2:29 Unveiling the Role: The Essential Duties of an Executive Assistant
Erin Kaufold:
I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. After being behind the scenes for so long, it's nice to be on this side of it. It's fun. So thanks so much for the opportunity. The executive assistant role, what I love about it is it can go to all industries, it's skills that you can do at an accounting firm, at a marketing firm, at a landscaping company. The basic goal of an executive assistant is to free up the time for the executive or the owner. So just to get the owner a lot of time to think about things like strategic picture, big time ideas for the company so that the executive assistant will take care of the other details, calendar management, inbox management, travel logistics, things like that. Things that the executive assistant are good at. And a lot of times the executive or the owner doesn't wanna do those things. That's not their strength. The owner's strength is to get a vision for the company and the executive assistant helps get that vision implemented.
Jack Jostes:
I think that's a great summary of that role. And one of the things that I wanted to chat about is why do you enjoy doing this? Because you mentioned that you enjoy doing things that the owner of a company typically doesn't enjoy. And I know from my experience, before I've gotten used to asking for help from you or other people on the team, but a lot of times I'm asking for help with things that I really dislike doing and I feel bad doing them. And then I think a lot of people feel this way and then they end up trying to do it. And you push it back to these are the things that you do at nine or 10 or 11 o'clock at night or on the weekend, when you're exhausted. And then you do them poorly and then they drain you even more. And so the idea that you would ask somebody else to do that feels bad because you're assuming everyone else would also hate to do them, but, but they don't. So, can you talk, what's great about what you're doing? Why do you do it? You've been doing this for, for how long?
4:47 The Joys of The Job
Erin Kaufold:
Oh, gosh. For a while. Probably too long to mention. You should never feel badly about asking me to do things because it is what I enjoy doing. This is what I signed up for. The way that I look at it, your strength is the vision and the strategic thinking, and that's what your strength is. And my strength is keeping things organized because that's what I like to do. I have a service heart, I lead from service and I look at the role as being of service. So I wanna be of service and, and how can I support and take care of people. I enjoy working with people. I enjoy keeping them organized and on task. I like to problem solve and every day is different with the executive assistant.
And that's one of the things I really like about it. Things come up every day that are unplanned for, and that just keeps me on my toes, keeps me busy and keeps me interested. I enjoy being a strategic partner and I strive to add value. I've really noticed that recently. I enjoy working with entrepreneurs. I've been working with entrepreneurs the last seven, eight years, and it's just different than the corporate world. And it's exciting to me to see an idea from an owner get implemented and be part of that and see the growth. And it's just, it's really exciting to me.
Jack Jostes:
Well, you're really good at it. And I'd say you're a key part of the client experience. And so many people listening may not realize that when they've come to the landscaper summit and they've gotten the gift box, or when they've received our marketing toolbox with a bag of beef jerky or the various gifts that we send people, you know, Erin is ultimately the one making sure that that happens. And one of the things that I really enjoyed was, I think it was Chris Ahlgren and actually is our client. And he came to our landscaper summit a few years ago and he got his gift box and he said that he felt like a kid at Christmas. One of the things that I do not enjoy doing is gift wrapping, like you should see the gifts that I wrap for my family.
I love giving gifts to people. And that's why it's a key part of my vision of the company is, is this experience that we have and it has gifts being sent to people that are thoughtful and they're sent at the right time. And I also don't really want to deal with like, what address are they being sent to? And I just need to know that they're gonna arrive there at the right time. And so you, you manage that. I wanted to ask now that you've been here three years, you know our clients, you've met them, you've, you've seen them. How, how could someone like you, an executive assistant, support a landscape company? So for the people who are listening, it's summer, right? They're probably bombarded, it's hot, they're stressed out, there's a million different things going on. How could an executive assistant help someone like one of our clients?
8:11 Leveraging an Executive Assistant's Role for Your Landscape Business
Erin Kaufold:
It's all the things we've talked about. It's the freeing up of time, is the big thing. It's helping the company run smoothly when it's so chaotic. An executive assistant can bring calmness and a steady hand to everything. They can take on special projects, they can do calendar management, inbox management, book travel. And the executive assistant also has a hand in building company culture. They can organize company events or keep track of employee milestones and all that just is something that the owner of the company doesn't need to be doing. There are other things that they can work on.
Jack Jostes:
So you've worked at Ram Jackson for three years and our core values are a big part of how we recruit people and how we retain and coach and, and expand our team. I was curious, you know, which of our core values, if you could pick one or two, come to the top of mind as most meaningful for you?
9:17 Erin’s Perspective on The Most Impactful Core Values
Erin Kaufold:
They all resonate with me, without a doubt. If I had to pick, I'll pick two. Create Profit & Results with Integrity has gotta be the number one reason I was attracted to Ramblin Jackson in the first place. And, you know, the whole company is rooted in integrity and Jack, you lead with integrity. So the whole team does as well. And it includes being transparent, we're transparent with our clients and internally, Jack, you're transparent with the team and it's all about being accountable and admitting mistakes and that sort of thing. It just makes us a more solid company and we're known for, for acting with integrity in the market. And, and that's huge. That's huge for us as a company and for our growth. The other one is Grow or Die. I'm kind of a curious person just by nature in general and I learn new things every day and I really enjoy that. So I enjoy the book clubs that we have at work and, I'm so thankful for you for being supportive to me and my growth both professionally and personally. I've joined two executive assistant groups I’ve joined. I just love learning new things from that group as well. And our team, our team is great. We have a tremendous team at Ramblin and Jackson and I learn and grow from them all the time. So it's, that's probably the, the biggest joy working with the team and learning from them.
Jack Jostes:
I agree. I love working with the team too. We have an awesome team.
Erin Kaufold:
Yeah. We really do.
Jack Jostes:
I know I own the company and everything, but it is a cool place to work because of the people, absolutely, who work here. And you're a key part of that.
Erin Kaufold:
People push each other in a respectful way, and it pushes us to grow as a team.
Jack Jostes:
I agree. I think we are still a small business and innovating and there's rumbling happen is what, what we call it. And ultimately it's rooted in serving our clients, which, you know, creates profit and results with integrity is a balance of the people here, our clients. And we have to be profitable cuz we're not some venture backed startup or whatever. It's like we're, we're a small business like our clients are. So we have to be profitable, and grow or die. I see learning and continually improving yourself. I wanted to acknowledge this core value with you and talk about it cuz you just went out and joined those groups on your own and started reading some books. And I mean, cuz I, frankly, I don't have a lot to offer you about how to be a better executive assistant, I really just need your help.
I'm sure there's things that you've learned from me and from the other Ramblers, but I I like that you went out and found those groups. You know, so we just, actually just minutes before this had the Landscape Executive Mastermind where our clients come, our Wild frontier clients come and Jeff Riddle presented on, sales tax in Texas, which was really fascinating and to learn how different sales tax for landscapers around the country. So I'm always learning. What are you learning, I guess from your two groups, what are maybe some of the things that, that you've, you've gained from that?
12:56 Insights and Learnings from Executive Assistant Peer Networks
Erin Kaufold:
You know, there's so much every time we get on a call, you just can learn so much. And what I love about the groups is its people from all industries, people from all over the country and even international people. And so you can learn different approaches, how different EAs handle certain things. it's so great. I think the biggest thing that I'm kind of still working on is that I've learned from the group is learning to separate my self-worth from the work. So like, I'm a perfectionist, I'm a people pleaser. So like, if I make a mistake, it's not that I'm a bad person, it's just that maybe I had a bad day, I didn't have all the information I needed or something like that. That's a really a big important thing that I've learned from the group for sure. And it just, you constantly need to reinforce that cuz it's so important. Sort of like in tandem with that is the notion of serving the work for the sake of producing good work, right. And not for people pleasing. And that's really important also because you can't be tied to the people pleasing part of it. It's just creating great work that you can be proud of.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. I think, you know, a couple things there. So separating yourself from the work is really important. And one of the ways that I try to coach Ramblers to do that is we've done the IR exercise from Sandler, which is the separation of your identity and your role. And also they are closely aligned. But you know, if you're not performing in your role, if you let it, if you take it too personally, then it can really hamper your confidence and how you feel in your identity. But there's also a balance of doing a really great job, right? But I think sometimes we all make mistakes and we need to look at them as the work and improve it. And as long as it's improving, I don't think it should impact your worth
Erin Kaufold:
And you can learn that's how you learn and grow from mistakes.
Jack Jostes:
Right. And, I was thinking about, we're sending out an email about when I was a milkman and it was a really great experience doing door-to-door sales because so many people told me no. And it was like armor building for me to just go out and like hear no 90% of the day. At first it was kind of crushing, but then after a while I was just like, cool, you don't drink milk? No, no I don't drink milk. Okay, great. Well, you know, nice to meet you. It had nothing to do with me. They didn't buy milk, they just don't drink milk. So that's how I try and think about some of these things. And I get a lot of, you sometimes see the stupid comments that we get on social media from people being nasty. And I've found a way just to laugh at it or reply in a way that makes me laugh.
Erin Kaufold:
It builds resiliency, doesn't it? It really does. And, looking at it from a making you laugh is the best way to do it.
Jack Jostes:
But it also, I also take the podcast and our producing quality content seriously, but I, I also know that when I get those comments, it's, it's not even really about me. I'm just some guy on the internet that they're posting something dumb about. It's not, even really about me. I feel like I'm playing a video game sometimes. So I think there's, yeah, I think there's a balance though of taking the work seriously enough and doing a really excellent job. And also I think it's something that, you know, we've talked about this with one of my professors from college about perfectionism and, the pursuit of perfectionism and I choose to try and pursue excellence is how I think about it. How can I do excellent work? I don't know that it can be perfect.
Erin Kaufold:
Right. That's a hard bar to live up to, isn't it?
17:26 The Courageous Leap of Accepting Help from Others
Jack Jostes:
Yeah, it is. But it also is inspiring to me. I enjoy doing things well and related to the topic here of having other people on your team that allow you to focus on the things that you do well, so you're not tired and strung out and just maxed out allows you to do things well. And, and having someone like you on the team, they would love doing the things that you're not good at doing those things really well. So it seems really obvious, but I swear most people struggle with the idea of accepting help from someone like you.
Erin Kaufold:
Well, it's sort of a leap of faith in a way too. You have to really develop trust to be able to do that. And you have to wanna level up to the next, the next level really. If you're gonna grow your business, you need to have people around you that are gonna support you and be able to organize things and have things run smoothly, it is just essential to grow your business.
Jack Jostes:
A lot of it just kind of makes sense in any business of having a Hell Yes Customer. Having a process allows you to bring in people and scale and ultimately deliver a good client experience.
Erin Kaufold:
Right. And the executive assistant can help build the processes and make sure that they run smoothly.
Jack Jostes:
Erin, do you have questions for me for the podcast or anything?
18:52 Jack’s Confronting of Trepidations on Hiring an Executive Assistant
Erin Kaufold:
What was your trepidation about getting an executive assistant? Was there a sort of fear of letting go of doing all the things and wearing all the hats and that sort of thing?
Jack Jostes:
I think it was, there was a financial concern of getting started. How do you take on the overhead of an employee that isn't billable, right? It is something that I think a lot of people think about. It's like, I'm not gonna charge for them, you know, you're not doing billable work per se.
Erin Kaufold:
The way to look at it is that the executive assistant is saving your time, so you're getting your time back is the key to it.
Jack Jostes:
Well, that is part of how I made the decision. There's one page of Perry Marshall's 80/20 Sales and Marketing book where he talks about the value of the founder's time and putting a dollar amount on it. And what are the things that you didn't get done this week that were maybe a $20,000 an hour task? So there are certain things, not everything is $20,000 of value per hour per day, but there are certain things that could be, and I literally started making a list of the things that I didn't get done and I thought about the value of that to the organization. I think that was one of them was the financial concern. And then also, yeah, trusting somebody else to manage my email. There's a lot of sensitive information in there.
There's a lot of HRness to, there's a lot of not fun things to, to receive or send emails about when you run a business. And the idea partly of someone else would want to help me do this. It's like there's so much, I don't know, it's draining. A lot of it's awful. A lot of running a business is frankly awful. Not a lot of people talk about this. They talk about how great it is to be an entrepreneur and you can set your own hours and so on. But there's also, there's just a lot of things that are not fun about, I think work in general. I think everyone has aspects of their work that's just work and it stinks, but then there's a different tier of nonsense and HR and legal compliance and vendor issues, employee issues and things like these. So the idea of somebody else helping with that was, I think the bigger thing, at least for me, like somebody else would want to help me manage this.
Erin Kaufold:
Right.
Jack Jostes:
Right, right. Why would anyone sign up for that?
Erin Kaufold:
Well they would sign up cuz they believe in you and they believe in the company and the vision. Right. And everybody has their role. And so it's in support of that and in service of that, it's all about framing it.
Jack Jostes:
I agree. I agree. So a lot of that was head trash. What I thought people wouldn't wanna do and that I couldn't afford it. And then part of it was just taking the step to doing it. And that allowed me that. So that was like maybe six years ago that I hired my first executive assistant through Belay. And that allowed me at that time to then focus way more of my time on sales. Right. And that allowed me to then produce more revenue. And then we continued growing with project and account managers and a salesperson and other salespeople. So it was, you know, it was kind of like an investment that you need to make. You kind of need to pay into it first and then maybe three to six, six months later you start to get a return on the investment.
Erin Kaufold:
Yeah.
Jack Jostes:
Totally. But, without it though, I don't know, I think there's a certain cap of what you can do all by yourself as an owner of a company.
Erin Kaufold:
Oh, there's no doubt. You need to be surrounding yourself with a good team.
Jack Jostes:
So Erin, what should people listening do if they're like, you know what, maybe I should consider this. What do you think are some of the traits of a great executive assistant? What should people look for?
23:33 What are the Key Traits to Look For When Hiring an Executive Assistant?
Erin Kaufold:
Somebody who's organized, somebody who's proactive, somebody who's strategic and they can think ahead. Organized, empathetic, open to new ideas, always willing to learn, always willing to do anything.
Jack Jostes:
Well Erin, thanks so much for coming on the show. We've talked about a lot of different things. If people want to network with you, how can they connect?
Erin Kaufold:
Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn, you can find me there. Thanks so much for having me. Really appreciate it.
Jack Jostes:
Congrats again to Erin on your three year Ramblerversary. Thank you for working here. Everything you contribute to me and my family, to the Ramblers and to our clients, you're a tremendous asset. And it was fun interviewing you on the show. So everyone listening, I hope you enjoyed this. Hopefully you got some ideas about how somebody like Erin could join your team and what to look for when you're hiring. My name's Jack Jostes. You've been listening to The Landscaper’s Guide and I invite you to subscribe at landscapersguide.com/podcast so you get our weekly podcast, email newsletter and more. See our show notes for a link to that and I look forward to talking to you next week on the Landscaper's Guide.
