The competitive and challenging business of Executive Assistants with Gina Cotner

Many of us have Executive Assistants, many of us would like an EA, many of us may think of this job as a low-level task person, some of us may want to start with someone part time and see how it goes, and many of us may not know the value of a great EA. Gina Cotner, Founder & CEO of Athena Executive Services, knows all too well the ins and outs of this business. Gina stumbled into the business five years ago and has been very successful in representing and placing virtual EAs with busy executives. She was a resistant entrepreneur because of past mixed results. Her focus is on high-caliber EAs who build powerful partnerships with their executives. This is no small task, so what goes on behind the scenes before a CXO even meets their potential EA is nothing short of brilliant matchmaking. One might think of Athena as a search firm or staffing firm, but Gina looks at her company as a contracting firm. Athena coaches and trains the EAs, and matches them to executives. Having grown the business to North of 500k may not seem like a lot, but her business is thriving and there is a waiting list of executives anxious to get a high-quality EA from her. We speak about what's preventing her from taking on a co-founder and really growing the business. After all, she's providing an important service that many busy executives desperately need. We also discuss the differences between what Athena does and cheap VAs overseas. What's important to realize is that Gina sees her organization as one that places Virtual Executive Assistants, so listen in and learn what there is to know about this industry.Learn more about Gina and Athena Executive ServicesYou can find more information on all our episodes at verticalelevation.com/podcasts, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.