Interview with Lauren Bradley

This week, I am so excited to be interviewing a true leader in the administrative world, as well as my friend, Lauren Bradley! She's a dynamic voice in our community, dedicated to empowering administrative professionals and elevating our entire industry. I can't wait to share her incredible insights and wisdom with all of you.

Lauren, after 20+ years in the industry, you founded The Officials to help administrative professionals see the true power and influence of their role. What was the pivotal moment or specific frustration that made you decide to stop looking for a community and training platform and start building your own?

I had moved to the NYC area and had landed a fantastic new job working for a streaming media start-up. I was providing a higher level of support than I had ever before and I was in desperate need of help. I knew that connecting with other administrative professionals was the only way to go. At that time most communities met in person, and I had a young toddler I was racing to pick up from daycare each day. I needed to learn in a way that was virtual and administrative professional-led. When I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for I built it.

You specialize in helping assistants become growth accelerators for leadership teams. What's one key mindset shift or skill you teach to help an administrative professional move from being a task manager to a strategic partner?

In my Treat Your Career as a Startup framework, I teach our industry to see themselves as business owners and their employers are their clients. You need to know the services you provide and the value they brings to your customer. This framework helps you understand where to set boundaries, how to mitigate risk, and how to identify opportunities.

In fact, we have a cohort starting Oct 14th where I’ll be teaching this exact framework.

Given your vast experience mentoring and training assistants, what's one common challenge that you see EAs struggling with the most, and what's your go-to advice for overcoming it?

In a word, confidence. I use my Treat Your Career as a Startup framework to reframe how one should approach the role in order to be seen as the business leader they are.

The other challenge is technology. In our industry many spend too much time trying to catch up all the tasks they have committed to but not enough time exploring the tools they already have at their fingertips and how those tools can save them countless hours of work. The advice is to set time aside on Friday afternoons to explore the technology you already have at your fingertips and to come to our free Tech Hacks each month.

From Pittsburgh to London, your life has involved quite a bit of change. How has that adaptability and experience juggling career and family contributed to your professional resilience and growth?

What a great question! I learned early on that I do best when I take the leap and figure it out along the way. This attitude is likely mostly due to my ADHD-led brain that pushes me to follow my interests, not always see the vision through to 100%, and fail often. The failures are what taught me the biggest lesson. The lesson that I could fail and survive, and it most of the time no one noticed I had failed.

Finally, with a full plate of running a business and supporting a family, what is your personal approach to self-care and preventing burnout? What do you do to recharge so you can continue to empower others?

To be honest, I’m still figuring that one out. But I know that cuddles with my kids, long baths, good music, video games, and jigsaw puzzles are the closest thing to self-care I’m ever going to find.

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Lauren loves helping assistants, admin and leaders see the true power and influence of any administrative professional role. Administrative professionals are professional problem-solvers, executive focus managers and leaders in their own right.

Lauren founded The Officials, an online training and community platform for administrative professionals. She took her 20+ years experience in the industry and the vast knowledge she built from mentoring and training assistants across the globe and brought it to an affordable online solution.

Lauren started The Officials first as a community, it is the heart of our organization, so that administrative professionals including executive assistants, office managers, administrative assistants and more could crowdsource advise, build their network and find support from those who know what it's like to do this amazing job. The Officials has now evolved into not only a global community but due to popular demand we extended to mentorship and training.

Though Lauren is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania she now lives in London, UK where you can find her constantly neglecting her cup of tea while juggling career and family (2 adorable daughters and a german shepherd!) Among her many past lives, she has been a member of Higher Ed faculty, head of marketing, head of sales, virtual assistant, private personal assistant to HNWIs, an executive assistant and more.

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenmbradley/