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Step into your power and design a life, business, and mindset that works on your terms. Hosted by acclaimed coach, keynote speaker, and bestselling author Amy Landino, the podcast unpacks the real strategies and habits behind living confidently and productively without following someone else’s script. Each episode delivers unfiltered advice, practical tips, and actionable routines to help you build your brand, elevate your mornings, and take the lead in your own story.
Intro
Amy Landino: I needed to hire an assistant. I could not hire an assistant. I didn’t have the money to hire an assistant—but I could pretend to hire an assistant.
Yes, it is true. Years ago, I had a fake assistant.
What Held Me Back
When I first started my career, the hardest thing was wanting to be more legitimate—on a higher level than I actually was. When you’re first starting out a business, you don’t have a ton of resources. You can barely make enough money to pay yourself, and no one’s taking you seriously—not even you.
One thing I realized was holding me back from reaching my potential and making more money is that it was a little too intimate in negotiations—whether I was trying to do a speaking engagement or bring on a new client. Dealing with me directly made my operation look as small as it actually was, which allowed people to see that they could just ask me for favors—lowering my prices or changing things to make it perfect for them. When you’re not feeling confident, this is a disaster. You take on clients because you need to cash the check—and they end up being the most annoying clients you’ll ever have. Those who haggle with you the most tend to be the most demanding.
I finally realized that if I wanted the legitimacy I was hoping for in my business, I needed to implement it—immediately.
The Smartest Thing I Did to Level Up
First step: I needed to hire an assistant. I couldn’t hire an assistant. I didn’t have the money. But I could pretend to hire an assistant. This was one of the best things I ever did to set myself up for long-run success, for two reasons.
Reason 1: Legitimacy
When you emulate the result of where you want to be, others feel it. It goes from “how it could work” to “how we do things.”
Reason 2: More Time
How is that possible if you’re playing the role of your fake assistant? At first it may not seem like it, but the ability to switch gears—between being yourself and doing administrative tasks as your assistant—makes time blocking very effective. You build a process that someone in the future can step into and understand how you want the job done—faster than if you trained from scratch.
If you don’t like this idea because it lacks authenticity or transparency, don’t do it. But if you’re bootstrapping and willing to do what it takes to get to the next level, consider it. It could completely change the game like it did for me.
How to Create a Fake Assistant
As the saying goes, you need to spend money to make money—but not a lot. You’ll spend on something smart you’d probably do anyway.
Step 1: Buy a Vanity URL
You need a vanity URL for your business. It’s important for legitimacy and helps on the email front. You can get a URL for $10/year or less. If you’re “Vegan Delights,” buy vegandelights.com. If you’re personal brand like me, AmyLandino.com. Acquire the URL. Own it.
Step 2: Set Up Business Email
Head over to Google for Business (or similar) to set up email addresses using your vanity URL.
Step 3: Create Your CEO/Talent Email
You need an email specifically for “the CEO/the talent.” When someone is speaking with you directly, it should be something like charlotte@charlottejones.com.
Step 4: Create a Separate Inbox for Your Assistant
Set up a separate inbox for your fake assistant. Options:
hello@vegandelights.com
team@charlottejones.com
This is versatile because when you hire someone later, they can jump in without changing email addresses. But when you’re first starting and it’s a fake assistant, I think naming your assistant helps your confidence.
Fake Assistant Pro Tip: Name Your Assistant
There’s something about naming your assistant that makes it feel more personal when connecting with contacts or potential clients. It avoids the impostor syndrome of saying “my team” and instead reinforces: “we have a system and someone handles this.”
So you could pick Stanley—stanley@vegandelights.com—or Gertrude—gertrude@charlottejones.com. With a name, it’s easier to say, “I’m connecting you to Gertrude; she’ll help us stay organized.”
Sidebar: On Sexism and Assistant Names
When I shared this on TikTok, I saw lots of people say their alter ego/fake assistant is male. I’ve never studied whether a man’s name gets treated better than a woman’s. But if you’re practicing leadership and think a male assistant will be treated better, you may miss practice in being the biggest advocate and cheerleader for your team. Any time someone communicated with my real or fake assistant in a derogatory or infuriating way, I quickly found out who I would and wouldn’t do business with.
If picking a male name boosts your confidence, do you. But I think you’ll learn a lot about email communication—and I hope one lesson is advocating for anyone you hire.
Introducing Your Fake Assistant into Your Workflow
Time to implement the process.
Put the assistant email address in critical places:
Social platforms where a single tap sends an email—route that to your admin address, not personal.
Media kit—use the assistant email as the main point of contact.
I don’t like dealing with emails in my personal inbox. Anything I want organized, I connect to my assistant. It should be no different for a fake assistant—if for no other reason than it keeps follow-ups in a more organized space.
Key: Start leveraging your assistant’s email regularly. This gives you practice with having a team, and helps you flex the muscle of offloading admin duties you’ll eventually hire out.
Potential Assistant Tasks to Start Delegating
Arranging appointments (e.g., dentist)
Scheduling coffee meetings
Booking locations for your next YouTube shoot
Start cc’ing or routing those threads through your assistant inbox. When you eventually delegate for real, it will be much easier.
Maximizing Your Time
You might not feel like you’re saving time at first—but you can get time back immediately.
We waste a lot of time in email. Some messages require thoughtful responses, some are research-driven, some are spam, shopping, administrative, bills—everything mixed together. It’s exhausting, so we skip hard ones for easy ones or skip everything when overwhelmed.
If you pare down your personal inbox and send administrative tasks to the right place, you’ll save time reviewing your own email and handling admin.
When you put on the alter ego—“I am Gertrude, I’m replying to admin, scheduling appointments, booking things”—you’re in doer mode. When you go into that inbox, you know what you’ll find. If you block specific time for assistant emails, you get time back and handle them efficiently. Then you can switch back to CEO/talent mode—either in your other inbox or by doing real work.
Be intentional with fake-assistant time. Eventually, you don’t want a fake assistant—you want a real one. The better you label, folder, and save canned copy you reuse, the easier onboarding will be later. You’ll literally show someone how you handle each type of communication.
The Gatekeeper Effect
One of the most valuable aspects is the gatekeeper effect. By taking yourself out of certain steps where appropriate, you can do business on your terms.
Whether it’s negotiating pricing or having someone gracefully say, “Amy doesn’t have time for that,” this inbox helps a lot—and saves time.
Let me tell you: Olivia—my previous fake assistant—was ruthless. If Amy wasn’t available or didn’t have energy, Olivia took it right out. For brand deals that don’t pay enough or clients who want fully customized packages for very little, you need someone to say, “That’s not how we do things,” and mean it when they say “we.”
It’s just business. If someone takes it personally, they’re not seeing the vision and probably won’t be a good fit anyway. If someone is irritated because you brought an assistant into things—real or fake—it happens with real assistants all the time. “Oh, you passed me off?” Yeah. You should be doing the same thing—making better use of your time instead of sending 10–20 emails to find a Zoom time.
Final Advice
One of my favorite pieces of feedback is: “I wish I had a Gertrude. I wish I had a Hannah.” That tells me my assistant is representing me so well that the perception of our business and how we get things done is appreciated, and they’re having a good experience. That’s customer service—and that’s what matters in growing something built to last.
How your assistant represents you is important. Have the right hat on when you’re in fake-assistant mode. That person emulates what your business’s success and processes look like, so people know you’re more than just an individual figuring it out. We’re all figuring it out—so there’s no reason to wait for an arbitrary metric or revenue status to give yourself legitimacy. You’ll reach it sooner by implementing something that looks like it now.
When it comes to your business’s legitimacy, you are the only thing holding you back. I hope the fake assistant technique—or something like it—helps increase your confidence to do your best work.
Outro
Thanks so much for tuning in—I appreciate it. As always, remember: subscribe for good vibes, kiss the ones you love, and go after the life you want. Cheers.