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Welcome to The Admin Avenues Podcast!
In each episode, I’ll be chatting with inspiring Australian admin professionals, expert advisors, and a few surprise guests you won’t want to miss.
No matter where your admin career has taken you, this is your space to learn, grow, and connect with the people shaping the future of our profession.
Expect real stories, practical insights, and expert advice to help you thrive, whether you're just starting out or leading at the top.
We’re also here to celebrate the Australian admin community, because admins are at the heart of every successful business.
Let’s shape the future of admin in Australia, one conversation at a time.
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Visit adminavenues.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram @adminavenues
Candice: Hello, and welcome back to the Admin Avenues podcast. I'm your host, Candice Burningham, and today we have a woman who doesn't need an introduction 'cause she's one of the biggest admins in the world.
She's the founder of EA How To, and today we are going to be talking about EA to Global Community builder, Alicia Fairclough. Thank you so much for joining us, and welcome to the show.
Alicia: That is a very generous introduction. Thank
Candice: It's true. It's true. I mean, you've built one of the most recognized global platforms for admin pr- professionals, and I wanna talk about it all, so~ so I wanna,~ I wanna go right back to the beginning and talk about how it all even started. Let's talk about your career first before we even step into that.
How did you even first start in the admin profession?
Alicia: Accidentally.
at university. I was becoming a schoolteacher. I realized before I even finished university that I didn't actually want to be a schoolteacher, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I finished those degrees. I got a Bachelor of Teaching and a Bachelor of Arts, and then had a kind of quarter-life crisis when I graduated, going, "What am I gonna do with my life?
I've just got two degrees that I don't wanna use, and I hate being a teacher," and all this kind of stuff. And mad respect to teachers, by the way.
Candice: Yes, props to the
Alicia: is... Oh my God , bless all of you. I was not cut out for it. I went and worked on cruise ships for a few years spontaneously, and that was the best thing I ever did.
Working on cruise ships just really opened my eyes to possibilities. I think it's really hard to overstate the difference between when we were-- I mean, I was 16 picking university subjects, for starters, and I think about 16-year-olds and go, "Good on you if you know what you wanna do when you're 16. I am so impressed."
But I just didn't, and- But not only did I not know what I wanted to do, I didn't know what options there were. Like, there was no YouTube and TikTok showing me all of the different jobs that were available. It was like the only jobs I knew were the jobs that were around me. So I think that's how teaching came up, because it was like, "Well, I know what a teacher does, so I guess I'll do that."
And I think a lot of girls our age who didn't know what they wanted to do either went into teaching or nursing. It was like, "Do you like kids or blood?" And I went kids. And so working on cruise ships was huge for me because I was traveling, I was living with people from just about every national- I mean, on my first cruise ship we had, 46 nationalities on board, and meeting people.
I'd just be in the crew bar and I'd be chatting with a guy who was funding his six-month surfing adventure by selling his photographs and doing gallery exhibitions, and I was just like, "I didn't even know that that was an option." Like, I didn't know that was a thing you could do.
So, , my teaching degree did come in handy because I was working with kids on cruise ships. I was running the teen activities program for P&O Australia, and then I moved to Canada and I worked with P&O in the US. , I nannied my way around North America for quite a while. I did a whole lot of different things before I... I guess my first taste of an admin role in, like, an office job was in Vancouver, and I worked in a nanny booking agency, and I was a nanny, and I also got a job in the booking agency, which was great 'cause I could give myself a lot of the gigs that I really wanted, like the on-call gigs.
But that was sort of my first proper experience of working in an office environment. And then, lots of other things in between. But then my next real experience with working in an office, I became a travel agent when I was moving around and I needed a, a job, and I was working with Flight Centre in Australia.
And then I went into government administration, and government administration was really... I sort of found my feet with governance and policies and dealing with, politicians and decision-makers. And, , the thing I really loved about that was I've always been very curious and I loved finding out behind the scenes of how things get done.
Like, no one thinks about the behind the scenes of garbage collection and tree maintenance and parks and barking dogs and when there's cranes on the road and how buildings get made and, who approves literally everything from barking dogs to 50-story skyscrapers all in one day. Like, you're dealing with all of it, because this was North Sydney Council, and I really loved finding out how things happened.
What goes into closing roads for the New Year's Eve fireworks to How do you get change in the community when, whether it's potholes or new gardens or, access to public spaces? And I found that really interesting, so that was probably my first real foray into, , certainly my first real foray into that more official side of governance.
Candice: So it definitely wasn't a deliberate career choice. do you feel like you grew into it?
Alicia: I definitely grew into it. I mean, in fact, I think I had several quarter-life crisises. When I was having
Candice: I'm still doing them.
Alicia: oh my I was really upset and thinking, "I don't know what I'm gonna do with my life," and someone close to me at the time suggested I become an executive assistant, and I was actually really offended.
I was so ignorant as to what EAs did, I thought, "You know everything that I do and everything I'm capable of, and all you think I can be is a secretary." And they knew far more about the EA world, and they were working in tech and were like, " I think you have a misalignment of what EAs do." They really respected the EA world.
And I was thinking, " You've gotta be kidding me. Like, I'm not gonna be an assistant, I'm gonna have an assistant. Like, like, what are you talking about?" I didn't think it was a career path. I didn't think it was something that, anyone really aspired to, and that was because I was just an idiot. I just didn't know.
Candice: Well, no one ever said it was a career path either.
Alicia: no, it,
Candice: It was a stepping stone.
Alicia: to, it was a stepping stone. Exactly. And so they explained it to me and said, " one of the most organized people I've ever met. You're incredible when it comes to booking travel and the details, and you are literally the organizer of everyone around you, whether it's your family, your friends, in the workplace.
You are the one that does all of that stuff." And they saw those qualities in me, I just didn't think it was a career path. And so when I did eventually discover that world, I actually felt like I'd found my people. I went, "Oh, my God, it, it makes sense now. Like, I get it." I just didn't know about it before.
Candice: Yep. And at what point did you realize actually this could be more than just a job, this could be a career?
Alicia: Not until I'd moved to London. I was well into my 30s. Like, it was al- it was still always something that I did and, "Yeah, okay, I'll just move on to the next thing." And then, when I saw the types of jobs that were available when I moved to the UK, I never got interviews for those types of roles in Australia.
To be fair, I didn't really try hard to go after them. I didn't... Again, I didn't really know they were out there, but Australia culturally, I really came up against a hard wall of, "You did a teaching degree. Why are you applying for this?" And I couldn't get an interview. Uh, that... Whereas the UK culturally was entirely different.
They were just like- Oh, wow, you have a degree and you wanna interview with us? It, it ... The market changed for me entirely. And so having other people see the value in the skills that I had changed my own perception. I don't think I would've gotten any of the opportunities that I had in the UK while I was in Australia.
Candice: Yeah. And just to clarify for those who are a little confused that this is an, an Australian podcast, Alicia is from Australia. She is Australian, but she lives in the UK and has for how many years now?
Alicia: This'll be my ninth year here. Yeah.
Candice: Yeah. So she's still Aussie, so she makes the list.
Alicia: Yes.
Candice: And so what, was it that made you go, "Yep, this, this could be a career"?
Alicia: I saw what was available. I saw the types of jobs, the type of money that was out there. not that I had necessarily been in all of those roles, I was just being exposed to them. when I found tech, that was interesting to me because I've discovered that I was much more of a startup EA than a corporate EA.
I had never really enjoyed or fit the corporate mold, but being a startup EA and being able to get my hands dirty in lots of different things, and it truly was no day is ever the same, and you're able to get exposure to so many different parts of the business, suddenly that became really interesting. I think it was a shame that it took kind of other people seeing the value in what I could bring to the table before I realized it, but that's just how it was for me.
Candice: Yep. Uh, so many people have the same story, and because no one ever said to us that this could be a career, we always just thought, "Oh, it's a job until I find out what I really wanna do."
Alicia: Yeah.
Candice: then when people started really enjoying it and finding, like, a career path in these jobs, we were like, " c-can't we just...
can we stay here? Like, I, I like this. This
Alicia: doing
Candice: This-- I feel good. Like, I'm part of a leadership team. I'm working with the CEO. Like, can I not just do this?" And people are like, "Well, y-yeah." Like, "But don't you wanna do, like, a real job?" It's just like framed it like that made me question myself.
Did it, did it do the same thing for you?
Alicia: Absolutely. But once I was working with people who valued my skillset and what I brought to the table, then I valued my skillset and what I brought to the table, and it tapped into what I was saying about l- really enjoying being behind the scenes and understanding how things happen.
Because that to me was the best part about working in government. But when I think back to every job I was in, my favorite part of it was always- Being, like, just figuring out how things happen behind the scenes and knowing what goes into the planning of all of these different events. And, you know, government in particular is really special because you see how change is and isn't made, and it's not made by posting in the comments of Facebook groups, for instance.
But there are genuinely official processes where people have to listen to you if you go through the right path. But you kind of need to understand how to navigate admin to be able to do that. A lot of, you know, people in the community, if they're just upset about the thing that they're upset about, and they just wanna call the government, their politician, whoever it is, they call it the government, but they don't really know who in the government they're meant to be speaking to.
It's just kind of this ambiguous... It's quite an abstract concept, right, of I need to complain to someone. But when you see that there are official channels and that people have to listen to you and there is a way to be heard, I found that really fascinating, and it prompted me to get involved in all kinds of things, that I still get involved in.
But just understanding how things happen and how things work and how things get done, and being an EA perfectly tapped into that.
Candice: Yep. I would say it was the first thing that I went, "I'm really good at this."
Alicia: Yeah.
Candice: never a great swimmer, I was never a great
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah.
Candice: was, never great at anything, and then all of a sudden I was a really, really great EA. And I was like, "Why can't this be my career? I'm really good at it and I really like it." And so I did.
Alicia: Yeah. We just didn't know .
Candice: no, that's exactly it, and this is what I love about what we're doing for the future generation, is to say, "This is absolutely a career. Come and we'll show you how." Like, but there just wasn't that message before that. But not many people know this about you. You started as a YouTuber before you did EA
content.
Alicia: I don't know because I don't like talking
about it , Candice.
Candice: Oh, come on, you were great. You were a, YouTuber before I even knew what a YouTuber
was.
Alicia: I was a YouTuber before I knew
what a YouTuber was.
Candice: to us about that. Like, I find this so interesting
Alicia: It's another thing that happened accidentally. So the thing that I, I will talk about, but I, I always kind of dread talking about, is that if we go back to circa 2009 when I was, again, figuring out what I was gonna do with my life, I became a certified clinical hypnotherapist, and I was-- I had a wellness clinic in Vancouver.
I was working with some quite high-profile clients. I was working on things like, , anxiety, phobias, performance anxiety, and I was working with some high-profile actors, speakers, sports people on, performance-driven hypnosis and meditation. And I was teaching a very brief course at the school that I went to to become a hypnotherapist, and it was like a weekend certification thing that they were doing, and I was demonstrating a technique, and I needed to move on and go, "Look, we don't really have time to keep going with this, but what I'll do is I'll record a video of it.
I'll send it to you after this." And there was, like, 20-something people in the class. And I went home, and I needed to just upload a demonstration of this technique to them.
So I did, and The only thing that I knew to upload on at that time was, I was like, "Well, that's what YouTube's for." I didn't even have a YouTube account.
And it was still cat videos. like, I didn't understand YouTube yet. I just used it as, "Okay, this is a thing that we upload videos on," and I sent them the link thinking that, like, the 20-something people in that room would view it. And the next morning I woke up and it had over 6,000 views, which in one day with one video is a bit insane.
Like, 6,000 doesn't sound like it's gone viral kind of thing, but when you expect 20 people to see it, it was weird to me, and it took me quite a while to understand what had happened because I didn't, I didn't get it. Like, I was like, "Why are these randos watching my videos, and why are they commenting on them?"
so i- there was a bit of a journey there. There was a bit of starting and stopping, and then I went, "Oh, actually, I... This seems to be helping people." Like, people were messaging me going, "That really helped calm me down," or, "That helped me sleep." And I started uploading videos. My first two channels don't exist.
I took them down a long time ago. but then when I got a better understanding of what was happening with YouTube, I started uploading those types of videos. I had an app in the App Store. I was still seeing clients in person, and I was specializing in sleep and anxiety and phobias. And so YouTube really grew from that, and it was a very different landscape back then, and there were a lot less YouTubers, so to speak.
but it was an amazing job. It was creative, and I could do it... It was flexible, and suddenly I was finding something that was really unique. And I was even still making those videos when I was working in government. I was doing them on the side because I just wasn't sure career-wise if, like, if this could be a real thing, like I need a real job, so to speak, something a bit more stable.
And so at different times, sometimes it was full-time, sometimes it was on the side of my, other gig. But YouTube was an education. And I would say it was probably after cruise ships was, like, the next big, " Oh, wow," you know, eye-opener of there are so many other ways to make money and so many creative things that you can do in the world.
Candice: And at what point did you see the opportunity to pivot into admin-focused content?
Alicia: 2019, so 10 years after I had started doing YouTube content. So, the first EA How-To YouTube video went up in June 2019, and the purpose for that was to become, more high-profile as an EA in London. I was getting my foot in the door for some jobs that I really, really wanted, some great jobs, high-paying jobs, things that were really interesting to me.
And a couple of times in a row, the same thing happened. I would get right to the end, and it would seem like I was gonna get the job. I was really close, and it was really exciting, and the feedback, it was like three times in a row, the feedback was, "She's great. We love her. We really wanna work with her.
We're not hiring her. We think she's not gonna stay here. She's gonna leave." And if you Googled me, it looked like I did anything other than be an executive assistant. Like, I still had an online business that I was genuinely winding down. I did not want to make sleep hypnosis videos and that kind of thing anymore.
But they still paid me, and they were what was allowing me to afford to be able to move to London. So I wasn't on LinkedIn., If you Googled me, it just looked like I did anything other than be an EA. And I thought, "Okay, you need to build your brand as an executive assistant. You do know the YouTube world.
Start there." I wanted to make it so that when people Googled Alicia Fairclough, it came up Alicia Fairclough, executive assistant, London. That was really the only goal in the beginning. And the same thing happened as what had happened 10 years ago, which is I started making these helpful EA videos, and people started responding to them and saying, "Hey, that was great.
Can you show us how to do this? Can you show us how to do that? Can you show me..." , It could be something as simple as showing how to do a mail merge or how to add a watermark to a document in Microsoft Word versus in Google Docs. And I would h- get all of these emails from people going, "That was fantastic.
Can you show me how to do X, Y, and Z?" And it worked., It got my foot in the door for some really great opportunities. And then when I was... I kept making them because I thought by that stage I was really enjoying it, and I did think it was a good idea, and it had proven useful to me career-wise to build that brand, and I got on LinkedIn reluctantly.
I was really quite nervous about LinkedIn. But it was working for me. And I was managing some, , other admins, front of house staff, junior admins, junior assistants, things like that. And basically, any time they asked me how to do something or I realized they didn't know how to do something, that was my next YouTube video.
I'd be like, "Well, if they don't know, other people don't know." And it was a great way for me to demo, and they loved it because somebody was dedicating time to properly showing them how to do things.
So
I wasn't just... No. And I wasn't just making a YouTube video. I would obviously-- I was putting together standard operating procedures and PDFs going, like, step by step, this is how we book the courier.
I like creating things, and so I was always putting together a business binder that had, you know, before I even knew what a standard operating procedure was, I was creating standard operating procedures, I just didn't know they were called that. And I'd be like, "Right, this is how you book the courier," and step by step, "and these are the screenshots, and this is what you do."
And I was always creating that kind of stuff, and it was always helpful. People were like, "Oh my God, this is, you know, so helpful. Thank you so much." And I just kept doing that, but then kind of scaled it by doing it on YouTube.
Candice: Yep. it's all well and good doing these things for people that you know, but how-- did you have any hesitation about putting yourself out there publicly at the time?
Alicia: Fun fact, the reason that my first two YouTube channels don't exist is that men on the internet are disgusting to women.
Candice: Yep.
Alicia: if you could only see, I mean, genuinely, you have no clue, and it is not safe for this podcast for me to read out the stuff that was sent to me.
And I always actually thought that when I had a hypnosis and meditation channel, I always expected that most of my clients would be women. For whatever reason, that was just a, a, I guess, a preconceived idea that I had had. And when it turned out that my audience was literally, like, 98.7% men in the United States, things got dark and grim.
And that was why I, I removed it. And then, now it sits there and, you know, I just stopped looking at comments. , But I used to get really upset about it, and I'd heavily moderate comments, and I would reply and tell them that they were disgusting and all this kind of thing. The amazing thing about creating YouTube content is that my audience immediately switched to 98% women.
And women on the internet, , for the most part, are not disgusting and do not send you horrible things. And so, , any hesitation I had was pretty quickly gone when I, I was relieved. It was quite nice to be uploading content and not having a man message me to tell me what he'd like to do to my face.
Candice: Oh, God.
Alicia: 'Cause women, you know, they're just like, "That was a great video. Thanks so much. That was helpful."
Candice: Yeah, much, much nicer experience. So that-- let, let's segue that into the birth of EA How To. So y-you, you're these, you're doing your little helpful videos. You're like, "Yeah, this is cute. Yeah, I like doing this." But actually, is there a spark here to say, "Hey, I feel like this could be helpful for a bigger community than just , the immediate people I know or the people I'm working with"?
Alicia: Yeah. It was very much a scratching my own itch situation where I- Because I was in startups, I was usually the only EA or the, or one of very few. , I was always EA to the CEO, and so even if there were other sort of junior admins, There was no one that was a genuine peer that I could go and...
I didn't have a team around me.
Candice: Yeah.
Alicia: And I had started going to some great events in London. There were things like The Assistant Room and Canary Wharf PA Club, 'cause I was working in Canary Wharf at the time, and Alice had just started that. And I thought that those were absolutely brilliant, and I felt that if you were an EA somewhere like London, you were really fortunate, and you could spend every night going to venue viewings and cocktails and canapés and meeting other EAs, and that was great.
What wasn't around at that time, and it, it's kind of hard to believe now, but back then there was no online community. There was nowhere I could go for when the mail merge wasn't working, and I've tried 900 different things, and I'm ready to throw my laptop out the window, and yet someone's screaming at me that we've gotta do these 600 letters.
There was nowhere I could go and ask, "Hey, does anyone have any ideas why this isn't working, and how can I help?"
Candice: Mm-hmm.
Alicia: And so at the time, I say there was nothing. There was one Facebook group. The Facebook group still exists, but it was a sewer, and it was the kind of place where you were afraid to ask a question because people would just tell you, "Well, if you're so stupid you can't figure out a mail merge, then why are you even an EA?"
That kind of thing. And I thought, "I want the lovely vibe of these in-person events online. I want this community of people, and instead of it being about venues and cocktails and canapés," and all of that is, is great, but that's being served. I want a space to go where we can ask each other questions and help each other with the day-to-day of the job.
Candice: Yep.
Alicia: And it's not a great business name. The reason EA How To had its name was because it, it was very good for YouTube. , It was literally, like, the how to do the EA role. And in the interest of consistency, I went, "Okay, well, it's all gonna be called EA How To." Knowing what I know now, I probably would've come up with a better name.
But,
that was what I wanted to create, an online space w- that was about the day-to-day of how to do the role, all of the different things that we do, all of the random things we're asked, the formatting that just won't work no matter what you try, and you think somebody must have some idea of how to fix this, or the PDF that just won't split, and you've tried everything.
So, , that was what I wanted to create, and that's how the community started.
Candice: And did you expect it to grow in- into what it is today?
Alicia: Never. I had always had an idea for this community, but I was in a full-time role in London. I was commuting. This was all pre- COVID time, so, you know, I would occasionally have, like, one day working from home, but for the most part, we were in the office all the time. And I was going to the gym, and I had a life, and when you're commuting, you know, you're up at quarter to 6:00 in the morning, and you're not home until...
You're usually-- You've got something on after work, whether it's gym or there's a post-work drinks, or you're in the office late working on something, and you're not getting home till, like, 9:00. When was I ever gonna do this community? And then during 2020, like everyone else, I suddenly had... I shouldn't say everyone else, not, like, doctors and nurses, but for those of us who worked in offices, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands,
by this stage,, EA How To had moved to LinkedIn. I was hiding behind a company logo, so the company page was up, but I didn't post as myself. And I said to people, "I have this idea for this community. Would you be interested in joining it?" And within, like, two hours, I had 800 responses. And so that afternoon, I just started a private Facebook group and went, "Okay," like, "I guess this is what we're doing."
So that's how it started, and then it grew from there. But no, I did not
Candice: turning point where you were like, "Nah, this is something much bigger. I'm, I'm have
Alicia: That was one of the... I think there's been a series of turning points, and that was one of them. That was one of the early ones.
Candice: Okay. So it started as a little side hustle, and it's now a humongouso global platform. What would you say, like, are some of the biggest lessons you've learned in scaling it? Because it kind of blew out pretty damn quick.
Alicia: Yeah. , I still try to reflect on if there are lessons that I should be learning from all of this.
Candice: just life.
Alicia: yeah. We are suddenly-- Right now we're a team of five, which blows my mind. , One of the biggest lessons, I guess, has been in delegating. I never liked managing people. In fact, I absolutely hated it. I've, I've never wanted to be responsible for other people.
I've always been a loner, , in that I like working on my own. It's probably why I really like being an EA. Like, I do answer to someone, but most of your work is quite autonomous. As a kid, I liked being on my own. I liked doing my own thing all the time. And so learning to bring other people into the fold and not have to carry the burden, because that's how you end up having, like, a series of quarter-life crisises, is that I have always carried the burden of everything myself.
I've never been good at sharing that with other people, and you just can't. We got to a point that, like, I have to bring other people in, and I have to trust them, and I have to delegate, and, that has been a journey and, and it's one that I've been really fortunate in, in that basically everyone I've brought into the business has been great.
And so I've had really good experiences, so I'm not sort of scarred from having negative experiences with, like, my first hire. Like, my, my first hire was amazing, and so that really set the tone.
Candice: Shout out
Alicia: yeah. And I'm surrounded by people who are really good at that stuff. So it- I think that's probably been the hardest one for me, has been figuring out...
Also just not losing what I liked doing. You know, I, I run my own business because I like doing it, and the job has changed completely from what it was, in 2019 and in 2020 and in 2021. , But particularly I would say the last 18 months, the job has changed massively, and I didn't wanna lose the things that I loved about it.
And so trying to stay involved in the stuff that brings me joy and connect- keeps me connected to the community, because it's never been just a business. It was never a business in the beginning. It has become a business, and I don't think there's... I have no shame in that. There's nothing wrong with it. It needs to make money.
We now... I'm very proud that I can pay people, that I can pay myself, and I can create a working environment that I wished I had worked in. All of that is amazing, but it comes with a lot of responsibility, and it comes with a lot, , there's just a lot more. The job has changed.
Candice: with that, there's gotta be challenges that you faced in a community growing that quick, and especially across different regions. How did you kind of deal with that? Especially you're an Aussie and people in Australia would've been like, "Hey, what about us?"
But your time zone is UK.
How did you deal with all those kind of challenges and, you know, feedback and people, you know, all of that?
Alicia: I hadn't really considered this before you asked actually, but really that's how the membership started. Because I thought, "Well, I've gotta find a way to give people at least access to replays so that if they can't be waking up at 3:00 in the morning..." Because the very first events, we didn't record them.
I didn't do anything with them. We- I just had an event, and people would turn up, and that was it. And really, the global nature and the fact that there were EAs from Australia and New Zealand and Singapore and all over the world joining and were missing out on things, that's kind of what started the membership in many ways.
There were a couple of things, but that was one of the drivers behind it. And going, "Okay. Well, we can give them access to replays." And then in- That's obviously grown and there... For a long time there's been a real chicken and egg problem for me in order to bring someone on to help me with APAC, I needed to have enough APAC members to justify that, but you only get APAC members by putting on the events in the first place.
It's very, very hard. And so APAC has kind of been propped up in the business by the other regions right now because technically If it was just a business, the better business decision would be we're not serving APAC, we're just gonna serve like where I am. I'm gonna serve North America, I'm gonna serve Europe, but really North America and that would be it, and I just didn't want that.
I didn't want it for a number of reasons. I am Australian, I know what it was like to be in Australia and to want to join in these types of things that were always very usually US heavy. And so from a personal perspective, I didn't want to. From a community perspective, I really didn't want to. I've always really believed in the power of the global nature of the community, in EAs learning from each other in all different parts of the world because the job is the job.
We all have different roles, but there is so much that we can learn from people doing that role, whether it's in Australia or New Zealand or Singapore or India or, you know, anywhere, the United States, Greece. Like, we have members from absolutely everywhere and there is something that we can all learn from each other.
So I wanted to bring it in. I just... It, it's taken time and it's still taking time but as you know, I guess the big change happened at the end of last year when I decided to bring Trinity in to run APAC.
Candice: Yeah. Who rocks. We love Trinity.
and she's done such a great job in bringing people in Asia-Pac together, different voices, different areas. Like, she's killing it. I'm, I'm loving what she's doing. And it's just so great to be able to point people to say, "Actually, this is in your time zone. You can actually be part of the conversation with this."
So well done on figuring that one out 'cause it's hard, right? Like,
Alicia: It, it's really
Candice: here and then I moved to London, and Jessica was in America, and we were-- With the pod- podcast we were trying to-- Like it j- it was hard work. It was hard work, and I, I truly do believe that what you're doing is the right decision on having someone represent you in another, um, time zone is,
Alicia: just can't be everywhere, but you also have to find someone that you trust, someone who wants to do it. You know, everyone's got their own job, right? Like- Yeah ... so it's finding someone who actually wants to do that, has the capacity, the timing is right for them, and is willing to grow into it. Because as I said, I don't-- we don't have the resources to be able to just go, "Oh, cool.
We'll just pay someone to take on all of APAC." It's gotta be someone who is being compensated, but is also growing into it and is invested in growing it, and that's a hard combination to find.
Candice: Yeah, it's so true
Alicia: 'Cause the revenue's
not there for it. Yeah. It's
Candice: it's someone else's business,
no one's ever gonna love it like you do.
Alicia: anyone. Yeah. And you can't expect them to.
That's okay. I, I would never expect anyone in the business to feel the same way about it the way I do. But finding someone who does care and sees the potential, and that you see the potential in them to grow it, is huge.
Candice: Yeah. Yeah. I'm big fan. So speaking of speaking and training and industry impact, , you've done a lot of speaking yourself and training, , of unknown professionals all over the world, , including we both were at APC in,
Alicia: Yeah. Well, rather.
Candice: so much fun. I was looking at the photos the other day and I'm like, "Gosh, that was fun just for like the social interaction alone."
It was
so
Alicia: are good for that.
Candice: it was. It was like a reunion of all the people we'd met online, and we all got to actually meet in person. That was so fun. But like, is there a standout experience for you? Like a, a specific event or somewhere where you've trained or something that you're like, "Damn, that was good."
Alicia: They all have their own, thing that makes them special. You know, APAC is amazing because of its size. There's just nothing like that anywhere else i-in the way that only a company in the US could pull off. , You and I know what it's like, particularly between Australia, the UK, and the US, and there are amazing events in Australia, there are amazing events in the UK, but no one can do the scale that the US is able to produce.
So it's incredible for that. But then there are other events where they're much smaller rooms, and they're amazing in their own way because you develop more of a connection with the people in the room, and it's not just you on a stage, but you're actually able to engage with people. I think there's a place for all of them.
Not everyone likes being among 2,000 other people and being in those big auditoriums, and it can be quite, I don't wanna say confronting, but it can be a lot for people and it's also just not accessible for everyone. It's really expensive, so it's easy for us to talk about APC when you're being paid to go, but, culturally it's different in the US.
They're more likely to be funded to go to these things. Like, tickets for that are in the range of about 3,000 US dollars for anyone listening wondering, how do I do that? They're also being flown in. You're talking about, you know, m- two to four days, depending on how long they're staying, of accommodation, flights, food, and a roughly $3,000 ticket to attend this stuff.
So it's amazing to be given the opportunity to be part of it, but it's also just not accessible for your average EA. , So I love all of it. I love everything from the webinars. , I especially love the webinars 'cause that's my thing and I get to do it from home with my comfy soft pants on. But also cocktails with Canary Wharf PA Club or going and, one day, Touchwood, going and doing an Admin Avenues event in Australia and being in a room with 100 EAs is also amazing.
Candice: Yep.
Alicia: It's just different.
Candice: Yeah. And, uh, are there any common themes you're hearing regardless of the geography?
Alicia: EAs are really hungry for learning and development, no matter where they are. You know, they have an appetite to want to learn more all the time, and I think we're all proving that. You're proving it, I'm proving it, all of those events are proving it. The fact that they keep showing up and that they keep wanting to learn, that is consistent among all EAs, I think.
Candice: Yep. And do you think there's like a mis-- any, like, misconceptions about the admin profession that I'll use an example that's in my head at the moment, is that people turn up to these professional development events and
Alicia: Oh, because they're
Candice: a three-day course is gonna give them
Alicia: God.
Candice: new career in another area.
Like, if you do a three-day course in project management, that does not make you a project manager.
There's a lot behind it, and there's a lot-- Like, is that something that you think there's a big misconception in the profession around?
Alicia: Yeah. I mean, yes is the answer to that question. I think there's a, um, a segment of the profession that really feel that they need to collect certificates, and I've said it a million times, they're not Pokémon cards. You don't need to collect them all. Like, you don't need to do them all. I'm not saying don't do any of those certifications.
I'm not saying don't participate, don't go and learn what you need to learn. But think about why and think about what you're realistically going to get out of it. The most successful EAs that I've interviewed, and I've now-- , I can't even tell you the number of EAs that I've interviewed over the last few years now through EA How To.
None of them have done any of those things. L-literally none of them. They've never... And that's not to say that they don't learn things. They do. In their own way, they're very invested in their learning and development. But they're not going around and collecting certificates for the sake of collecting certificates.
So, I think just really examining why you're doing these things and, and where your money goes, because I guess the corporate world has well and truly discovered the admin profession, that they're a market that they can sell to. And I would be hypocritical to get too upset about that because I now run a business that makes money from the administrative community.
That's not lost on me, and I can get on my high horse about how, you know, people like you and I, it's built by admins for admins, but we're running businesses, and we're not, allowed to say we're the only ones in here. We're not the gatekeepers of the industry. But the commercial world has well and truly discovered the admin world, and there are so many different people and companies trying to get your money that you need to be discerning, and you need to think about what you're realistically going to get from that.
Candice: Yeah. I don't think a certification has got me anywhere in life, just that's my own personal journey. I don't think-- I have done certifications in things that I just felt like I needed it. Like, I even did a certification in entrepreneurship when I was starting Admin Avenues. Guess what, guess what that's done for me? Whoa! I don't
even know where it
Alicia: Your certification in entrepreneurship is just
doing it.
Candice: Yeah, and it wasn't even good. Like, uh, anyway. okay, on that, let's talk about you've co-founded a thing called the EA Salary Survey.
Alicia: Yes.
Candice: Now, this is-- Well, I'll let you say what it is.
Alicia: I co-founded it with Yvette Lam,
and Yeah, she's the best. , It is the most comprehensive salary surveys that have ever been conducted in the administrative profession. It's entirely independent. It's the US, UK, Australia, and Canada, and it is independent data collected directly from assistants from all over those countries on salaries and job satisfaction and benefits and more.
That's what it is.
Candice: And why is that different to, say, a recruiter's one?
Alicia: So there is value in the reports that recruiters create, but the reports that were out there, it was created because that content didn't exist. If you Googled what is the salary of an executive assistant in any of those regions, , it was just so wildly different. You can check Glassdoor, and Glassdoor would say it's 60,000 a year, and something else would say it's 40,000 a year, and then something else would say it's $180,000 a year.
It was wild. It wasn't a little bit different. And you look at recruiter reports, and some recruiters were saying the average salary in, you know, London is 30,000 pounds a year, and then another one would say it's 90,000 pounds a year. And the reason for that is because recruiters specialize in certain areas and levels.
And so some recruiters specialize in placing people in very entry-level roles where the average salary is around 30,000 pounds a year. And other recruiters specialize in placing people in much more experienced higher level roles, and their average salary that they're going to report is more like 100,000.
So we needed something that spoke to not the market that the recruiter is working within or, the reason why they might be invested in saying that a salary is higher than it actually is, and those reports, they are marketing. And so we wanted something that was just created directly from data collected directly from assistants, that it's not owned by anyone other than us.
And so there's no agenda behind it. There's no employers involved because employers put out these reports, you know. Some of the world's largest employers will put out their own reports, and again, they're determined to set a sal- They have a different reason entire- entirely, but they're saying, "Well, we're saying this is what we value an assistant at."
That's what it's saying. It's not saying that's what the market is and what other assistants are being paid. They're really just saying, "This is what we pay." And so we wanted to look at all of the different regions. It's also just not statistically, sensible, for lack of a better word. you can't say, "This is the salary of EAs in Australia."
You just can't, and it doesn't take much to think about why. Okay, are you an inner-city Sydney EA? Are, are you in a regional area? Are you in Newcastle? Are you in, the Northern Territory? Are you in Perth? what industry are you in? Are you working in government, or are you working in mining, or are you, you working in aviation?
And so we wanted to take a comprehensive look at all of those factors, age, race, gender, location, level of experience, industry, and be able to say These are what salaries look like, and these are, are the ranges of those salaries. And so that's what we did.
Candice: you did. And you've got another one coming that will be
released-- The Australia one will be in October.
Alicia: Yes. So we're going to start collecting the data very soon. Yvette and I had another meeting about it yesterday 'cause we're adding in-- we're actually adding another section to the survey that has not been in there the last three years. so we had a call about what that's going to look like, so we're collecting more data again. And it's a tricky process, but yeah, we're going to start it soon, and it will be released, um, October.
Candice: We'll have to find a, a reason and a, uh, and a way for you to launch it in Australia.
Alicia: Right. If only, if only someone were having some sort of event in October
for admins.
Candice: there was a conference that we could have you speak at about salaries and the importance of
Alicia: really work on that. Candice, sort it out.
Candice: Yeah. I think, yeah, let's work on that.
Alicia: Hmm.
Candice: important? And, like, do you think it's something-- it's an-- the conversation that we need to be having more in this profession?
Because when I was an EA, no one talked about their salary, and I was like,
Alicia: No one talks about their salary anywhere, and the only people protected by salary tran- uh, by a lack of salary transparency are employers. No one else benefits, , when people don't talk about their salaries because you can't be what you can't see. So if I had known when I was making, you know, I don't know, $50,000 a year, that there were people who had my same skill set who were in roles making $120,000 a year, that would have changed my life.
Candice: I mean, you and I have had this conversation of different jobs that we've had and the salaries
Alicia: the same for me.
Candice: and we were both just like, "What?"
Alicia: If I had known that you were in the same city making twice what I was making, that's life-changing information. And I think this doesn't just apply to the admin world, this applies to people everywhere, but especially women. We've always been kind of conditioned to just feel, just feel grateful we're in the room.
Just be glad we've got a job. You know, just be grateful. And I am grateful. I'm very grateful, and I've been very appreciative to all my employers. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be talking about how much we're earning and how much we're worth because you can't grow in the dark, you can't be what you can't see.
All of those cliches, they're all true. And so it helps if you're an EA who is, you know- In Australia right now, and you look at the salary report, so for context, you can go and get last year's salary s- report from 2025, easalarysurvey.com. It's free for you to download. And if you go and look at that, and you're thinking, "I'm, you know, sitting in a suburb just outside Canberra," and you're like, "Wow, really?
That's the average salary? I'm, like, 20 grand below that," I want you to feel really optimistic because instead of feeling deflated and thinking, "Well, everyone else is earning more," what that should be telling you is, "I have the potential to be earning at least $20,000 a year more."
Candice: Mm-hmm.
Alicia: So, it's always been designed to be something that empowers assistants who are almost entirely women, and I never want people to feel bad about those reports.
If you're reading the report thinking, "I'm in the sort of bottom 5% of salary," read it and feel hopeful and feel optimistic because what you're finding out now is what's actually available out there, and it's far greater than where you are right now, and that means you have so much potential and so much opportunity to
grow.
Candice: use it. Take it with you into your review and be like: "Hey, here's the data. I'm down here. It's saying that I should be here. Let's talk about this."
Alicia: Yeah. Yeah. And, and apply for other jobs. Start applying, and when they say, "How much?" You say, "This much," you know.
Candice: Yep. Uh, were there any insights that surprised you from the data?
Alicia: Loads. Different in different regions. There are certain things that are consistent everywhere. Across Australia, the US, Canada, and Australia, , EAs cite a lack of, , career progression as one of their biggest concerns. They just don't know what they should be looking towards. They don't feel like there's a career path, and it's actually one of the biggest indicators of whether or not EAs are going to leave their job in the next 12 months.
If whether or not they intend to leave is whether they feel, , valued and whether they-- So their job satisfaction and their salary satisfaction has a lot to do with it, but their perceived opportunities for career progression is actually the biggest indicator of whether they're gonna leave their current role.
So, it matters for employers, too. It matters in terms of re-retention and keeping good people. There was some interesting stuff around benefits in that most benefits didn't move the needle at all in terms of, job satisfaction. But in each region, there were two benefits that actually did move the needle, but it was always a different two in the different regions.
So, for instance, in Australia, one of them was definitely, , access to Either childcare subsidies or on-site childcare, whereas in other countries it was, you know, access to, health benefits or, you know, it was always something different. So it- I think lessons for HR are clear as well, there's no one-size-fits-all in terms of your benefits policies.
You need to be looking at what's important to people in specific locations and spending money on the things that actually move the needle. Because we saw everything from pet insurance, to haircuts, to cycle-to-work schemes, through to, you know, massively, beneficial contributions to superannuation and childcare and things like that.
Candice: Mm-hmm.
Alicia: the benefits were interesting. I always find the data on industries really interesting, um, which industries are the happiest and the most well-paid versus the, lowest satisfaction and the lowest paid. For example, I never would've thought that insurance and aviation were going to be among the happiest industries. Like, because why would we know that? But they were in, like, the top five for salaries and the top five for job satisfaction, whereas arts, media, and entertainment were in the bottom five for salary and the bottom five for satisfaction.
lots of
Candice: to... Yeah, exactly. And I was talking to a girl today, lady, I call everyone a girl., A lady today who worked for one of the biggest tech firms in the world, and,, she just recently resigned from her post and people would just ne- like, just wouldn't believe that you would resign from this job.
And she was just like, "I was so miserable." Like, it was just so isolating and so rubbish, and I was just like, isn't it funny how people have this perception that if you work for a massive tech company and you have, like, your free snacks and you have this apparent relaxed lifestyle and... But most of the people that I've talked to that have been in those kind of companies hate their jobs and can't wait...
They stay 'cause they're addicted to the
Alicia: For a while, yeah. Well, and the golden handcuffs are legit, right?
Candice: yeah, and then there's, they're just like, "Nah, I can't do it anymore. I just, I can't." So it's really interesting to see those insights of where people are happy and where people are like, "Meh, don't come here."
Alicia: Yeah. A really big one for Australia specifically, , it was unsurprising yet wild to me how few Australians have, , the ability to work fully remote compared to everywhere else. So I, I-- it was wild. It, it was not a small, amount. So the US unsurprisingly had, far more opportunities to be fully remote And to be clear, obviously not everyone wants to be fully remote.
It's not suitable for every business, but there just weren't even the opportunities in Australia. Australian workplaces seem very intent on people being in the office. There's a real culture of if you're not here, you mustn't be working that is changing everywhere else. Um, you know, to be fair, Canada was not far from Australia in that as well, but, that was one of the biggest takeaways from the Australian one specifically.
There's a real lack of work from home culture.
Candice: Yeah.
Alicia: If you're an EA in Australia thinking you're hearing about all these people with their fully remote jobs and all of that, it was, it was something like 4% of EAs in Australia, where it was like 21% of EAs in the US.
Candice: Yeah. It's good. Yeah, it is wild, but yeah, that's definitely the feel here. okay, I'm a bit conscious of time 'cause I know that you're on the other side of the world. , Advice.
For someone who is early in their admin careers, what would you focus on right now?
Alicia: Ooh, that's a really good question. if you're early in your career, mastering the basics, so all of the basics are still really important, accuracy, excellent communication, attention to detail, learning your systems. I'm gonna sound really boring, but it's really im- important. You can't just start your career and be thinking...
I'm gonna give you an example. I met someone at APC when you and I were there, and she was sitting next to me, and they had, you know, one of those, "Turn to the person next to you and ask them what they wanna get out of this." And she said, "I'm really excited to do the chief of staff certification," 'cause it's a three-day certification, and she believed in three days she was going to become a chief of staff.
And she said to me, "Because I've been an EA for two years now, and so that's really my next step." And I don't wanna spoil this for anyone, but, being an EA for two years does not a chief of staff make, nor does a three-day certification. so just the idea that using it as a stepping stone and thinking, "Oh, I've been an EA for two years now, so now I'm gonna go and do all of these other things."
Take your time, learn the business, develop your business acumen. That is one thing that is way easier now with AI than it ever was when you and I were starting out making a sound 900. But it's true. I mean, you didn't have the ability to feed, , a company annual report into AI and say, "Can you, , I guess translate this into something that I can actually understand and tell me what this means?"
And You know, when they're sitting in their meetings and they're talking about EBITDA, and they're talking about the financial forecasts and things, and you're thinking, "You might as well be speaking Russian. I don't know what you're talking about." And
oh my God, now the fact that you have the opportunity to be in on these meetings and to see the annual reports and all of that stuff, and to ask AI questions and go, "What does this mean?
And can you translate this into something that I can actually understand?" And you can develop your business acumen that way. Do that. Understand how the businesses that you're in make money, who their competitors are, what their challenges are, because all of that gives you context that you're actually really fortunate that you have the ability to get now.
It was much harder for us old people.
Candice: Mm-hmm. And what about us old people that are maybe getting a little bit stale in the profession and thinking, "Mm, I don't know what's next." Have you got any advice for them?
Alicia: finding roles that you still enjoy. I don't wanna be one of those people that's like, you know, ongoing learning and development. Learning and development, it's obviously important. You still need to know the job and stuff is changing, stay on top of it. And being an active community member is something that I see bringing so many people joy.
So if you're one of the ones that has been doing it for quite a while, then maybe start taking opportunities to mentor people who are just starting out, or to go into an industry that you've always wanted to work in and maybe prioritize your job satisfaction over other things. Because you've got the experience, you don't need to necessarily take the roles to help you grow.
You can maybe prioritize enjoying life more and having an executive and work-life balance, that is better for you. So I'm a really big believer that you can have a great career as an executive assistant, that it doesn't-- It could be a stepping stone for some people, but that you can actually have a really fulfilling and lucrative career as an executive assistant, that you don't have to move on.
But you might have to move on from the current role you're in or the industry that you're in, and you might find that you are a really great corporate EA and you don't like being in the startup environment. Or you might be more like me and think, "You know what? I've been in corporate, but I really wanna go and help these companies that are in their kind of series A, series B phase."
And they're the companies that you can go and get your hands dirty in and really set up the admin from scratch because they haven't had someone come in and do that yet. So just finding ways to enjoy what you're doing
Candice: Yep.
Alicia: and to stay sharp.
Candice: for those that are looking to become an EA member-- A EA How To member, not an EA member. You're already an EA member. You're a member of the community. For people that wanna join EA How To, how do they become part of the community?
Alicia: So we run free events all the time. We did 79 events last year, all online. , There are more this year because we have Trinity, so APAC have so many options now., EA How To Plus is everything that EAs love about EA How To plus more. So it's access to replays of all of those events. It's access to group coaching sessions, , our Slack community where you can connect with people, EAs, peers from all over the world, special members-only sessions, members-only training, discounts on courses, all of that stuff.
So, it's everything that you love about EA How To plus more, and we do intake several times a year. So our next intake period is in June. You can join the wait list. If you just go to eahowto.com, you'll find a wait list on there. We do that to streamline the onboarding process, and we're actually in the process of building a new members portal now, making it a little bit more slick and a little bit more user-friendly.
, But there is just so mu- there's so much for you, available to you. We do everything we can to keep it as affordable as possible, though we always encourage employ- ask your employer to pay for it. It's so affordable. It's like 146 Australian dollars a year for all of your content. Your employer can afford it.
Like, just But go to
Candice: cheap. And when
Alicia: pop your name
Candice: how much content is in there and your library of stuff, it's just ridiculously cheap.
Yeah. So there's absolutely no excuse to not be getting amongst it. I, myself am an EA How To member, have been for a very long time. I love to, when I've got the opportunity to, sit in and listen in on, on what's been-- what I've missed out on, because that's one of the best parts is because I'm time poor, I can just always go into EA How To plus member portal, and I can watch the catch up.
It works for me instead of me having to feel like, "Oh, well, what's the point? I can never make a twelve o'clock, you know, sitting." I love, love being able to do that. So
we will be putting the links in the show notes as well, so that people can make it nice and easy to click through. , And to the EA salary survey, if you haven't downloaded that, please do.
It's free and it's just so useful. Even just to start a conversation around your role and around your salary, it's just a really great true data point to be able to, to, to use. .
Alicia: Just to put it all into context, so look at your salary in the context of what's your location, what's your industry, what's your age, what's your level of experience, -- because all of that matters. It's not just as simple as going, "The average salary for executive assistants in Australia is $106,000 a year."
Like, no We can give you that figure because technically the average of all of the salaries that we've looked at is that figure, but that doesn't mean anything. Like, that's obviously not your salary if you're in Wollongong versus Alice Springs versus Perth versus Adelaide, So it's just a matter of looking at the data in the context of your situation and as a whole, and determining where you sit and where you want to go, and what you might need to do to get there.
Candice: Yeah. Yeah. Alicia, this has been a great conversation. I love our chats. , And I can't wait to have you out here in October. More on that later. But thank you for everything you're doing to elevate the profession globally. You are such a superstar, and the way you always give back, the way you're always helping out the community, it's just you're an absolute legend, and I can't thank you enough for all that you do.
So thank you for being on the podcast. You're our first sneaky international guest, but 'cause you're an, you're an Aussie, y-you get to sneak in, and you're gonna be here in October. So that's fantastic. We can't wait to see you in the flesh. Thank you for joining us and, , we'll be putting all the links in the show notes, as I said.
Thank you as always for joining us on the Admin Avenues podcast, and we'll see you soon.
Alicia: Thank you so much