Interior Designers: Stop Working Weekends
What successful designers do differently with their time
Last Saturday at 9 PM, while your friends were having dinner together, where were you? Answering vendor emails? Chasing down project details? Updating invoices that should have gone out two weeks ago?
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. But here's what's frustrating: some of your most successful competitors never work weekends. They take real vacations. They attend family events without checking their phones.
What do they know that you don't?
Gina Cotner, founder of Athena Executive Services, has spent nearly a decade helping business owners - including interior designers - reclaim their personal time without sacrificing business growth. Her insight: successful designers don't work more hours. They work differently.
In this episode of the Interior DesignHer podcast, I dive deep into the world of Executive Assistants with Gina. If you would like more free time for your actual life AND spend more of your work time actually designing interiors, you’re going to love my interview with Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services.
Apple - Youtube Music - Spotify - Youtube
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - INTRO
01:06 - ORIGIN STORY
06:44 - CEO + EA RELATIONSHIP
08:34 - WHAT DO DESIGNERS NEED?
11:57 - WHAT DO DESIGNERS NEED?
13:32 - MONEY!!!
17:10 - SHERPA
18:29 - HUMANS vs TECH
21:41 - SOFTWARE WARS?
23:35 - VA vs EA
27:02 - CORPORATE BACKGROUND
29:01 - LONG TERM COMMITMENT
31:06 - DRY SPELLS
33:18 - BREAKING IN PERIOD
36:41 - FEAR FACTOR
38:59 - DUMP and RUN
41:48 - MISCOMMUNICATION
43:51 - ONBOARDING PROCESS
49:38 - WANNA WORK WITH GINA COTNER?
51:50 - OUTRO
During our conversation, Gina revealed the specific strategies that separate weekend-working designers from those who protect their personal time.
Here's what successful designers do differently:
They understand the difference between virtual assistants and executive assistants
They break the feast-famine cycle by having someone nurture future business while they design
They delegate decision-making, not just task completion
They calculate the true cost of working weekends (hint: it's higher than you think)
They invest in support that thinks strategically, not just tactically
They protect their creative energy by removing administrative drain
Key Takeaways:
Virtual Assistant vs Executive Assistant: The Critical Difference Virtual assistants follow instructions and complete tasks. Executive assistants make decisions and solve problems. When a client emails with a concern, an EA responds appropriately in your voice without checking with you first.
The Feast-Famine Cycle is Predictable and Preventable Designers get so busy executing current projects they forget to nurture future business relationships. An experienced EA spots when work is winding down and helps you start networking before the pipeline goes dry.
Your Administrative Work is Someone Else's Specialty That CRM research you've been avoiding? The government paperwork you dread? Many executive assistants love tackling these challenges. Your energy drains become their fuel.
Delegation is a Learnable Skill Some designers dump tasks and disappear. Others micromanage every detail. Effective delegation means giving clear direction, staying available for questions, but letting your EA own the outcome.
Systems Need Human Management Calendar scheduling tools, CRMs, and automation only work when someone manages them properly. An EA ensures your systems reflect your brand and serve clients well.
ROI Comes from Time Recovery When you stop managing your inbox and start designing, networking, or taking weekends off, the return becomes obvious. It's not about the cost - it's about what you do with the recovered time.
Read the Transcript:
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Gina, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey of how you started your own business and how Athena Executive Services came to be?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah, sure. You know, I was thinking about where. Where do you start this story. How far back do you go? And. And I will say that I was in corporate America, and I left corporate America about 20 years ago. So I was in my early 30s, and I'm glad I was there. I was in there in my late 30s, 20s, my early 30s.
I was at IBM, Big Blue. Learned a ton of great practices. And then I said, I am going to go be an entrepreneur because I. I want to be free, and I want to be in control of my time and, you know, I'm going to control my destiny and all of that. So, off I went, and, I worked for myself. I was a solopreneur, and I had all kinds of little businesses. I was a business coach, coach, and I was a life coach. And I would have these temp jobs on the side to make sure I could still pay my bills.
And I was a hospitality consultant. And then I, was in the middle of a divorce, and I. It was not going well financially, and I got kind of scared. Thought we were going to lose this home, and it was headed toward foreclosure. And I just said, I just need a job. Like, I can no longer have my ability to pay bills be dependent upon whether or not I sign this next contract. I just need a job. I want to show up somewhere. I want somebody to pay me. I'm going to go home and just keep it simple. And, I was on Facebook, I don't know, one day, 15 years ago or so, and there was this woman I knew, and she was looking for an executive assistant. And I was like, I know her. I think I could do that. I think I have that skill set that doesn't sound too complicated. And so I applied and became her executive assistant.
And she was a CEO of a small recruiting firm. And I went to the office every day for about a month. And then she sold the office or the lease ended, and we were suddenly all working from home. So there I was, an executive assistant working from home for a CEO. And I loved it. I was like, this is the greatest thing ever. And then that business fizzled out, and just got smaller and smaller. She didn't need me anymore. And so then I went looking for another CEO to support. And one of my friends said, yeah, my CEO could really use you. And I said, great, so I'll start working for this guy named Darren. And she comes back to me next month and says, you know, I need to, too, so if you could plan next quarter to come be my ea, that'd be great. And I said, I don't.
I don't have any more bandwidth. I'm full. And she said, no problem. Just find me somebody like you. And now the seeds are getting sown, right? And she said, you know, you should probably, consider opening this as a business. And I was like, no, no, no. I've been an entrepreneur before. I am not doing that. Just. She goes, all right. So we put our heads together and we find somebody that we both know. And we said, this woman, Dorian, would be great, but she's young. She's had one job her entire adult life. And I said, you know, if we pluck her out of her job, we've. You've got to be a great person to work for, and I'll coach her. So I coached. They paid me to coach her, and we turned her into an executive assistant.
And this woman, Tiffany, said, when are you going to open this as a business? And I said, I'm just not. And then finally a third time, she came back and said, all right, the guy's in sales. Spend way too much time on administrative, low level work. It's ridiculous. You need to find me somebody else, and you need to get over yourself and open this as a business. And so I finally did. And that was almost 10 years ago. That was nine and a half years ago. And I was an EA along with Dorian and along with Allison, and the three of us were these three EAs. We worked for this one company until I started finding other clients and other EAs and started pairing them together and. And then worked myself out of a job and became a business owner, basically.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So you still kept your, foot in there, being an EA yourself to make sure you had that income coming in as well?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: I did. I did for a while. Yeah. And that was a huge leap when I finally said, okay, I'm going to run the business, and I'm going to manage and coach and train and develop executive assistants. And it was a long time before I myself had an ea. So it was a big, very interesting journey. Yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And how long had you been working for that, that CEO?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: By the time I opened the business, maybe six months. And I just kept working for him for maybe another six months and then I turned him over to somebody else on my team who I trained and developed.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, I wonder what that was like from their point of view. Like, is that stressful? Like they, they know you, they. And, and now you're like, you want.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: To change and yeah, in general that is very, I will say now as the owner of a firm with a bunch of EAs, that is the one thing we don't want to have happen. We don't ever want that to happen. And sometimes it does. So we're always prepared for it because we know from a client point of view it is stressful. It can be disheartening. Right. You've created this relationship with somebody. Maybe they've been your executive assistant for two years and, and maybe something happened in their life. Maybe they got some big job offer and then it's on us as an agency to make that great for the client. And we have a lot of systems in which we do if we have to do turnover like that. But yeah, we're very compassionate about that and do our best to not have that happen.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, Well, I mean, like you said, when you first started doing it, it was, you know, they were, they were finding that they were spending too much time on low level tasks and they needed somebody to come and. But I'm sure the relationship and the and the job relationship and the personal relationship change over time. Right. Like you start doing other things that you weren't doing at the start. And so you would become quite embedded with that company.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: You do. And sometimes with that human and with that family, you know, especially when it's somebody who's got control of the purse strings and they don't have to, you know, at a great level, you use an assistant for everything in your life. That is not the highest and best use of you. Now, if you're a manager who's only spending company funds. Right. You're probably not going to use those company funds to have your assistant help you plan your mother's 70th birthday party. That wouldn't be appropriate. But there's a lot of people who are our, clients that over time. Yeah. You are embedded in the company, but also in their family. Right. You know, when their mother's 75th birthday is coming and you make sure that all the holiday cards go out for the company. And for the family.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. Things like a level of trust there between those two people, so.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah. Yep, you bet. But you know, when career EAs are good at their job, they also can come in and just pretty quickly become what I call your shoulder to shoulder partner. Because they're for you as a human. And they know you as a human. You have a family, you have business, you have bills, you have kids. Kids got to get to soccer practice. They need to get to the doctor's office, but you also need to get to the gym and like, there's a whole human to take care of. And good EA's will just jump in and do that.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I mean, we all think we're special snowflakes and completely unique, but I'm. We all have lives.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Exactly. Exactly.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah. Maybe we can, slide over a little bit focusing on interior designers specifically. I'm curious when a, designer reaches out to you and your company what they're asking for and maybe what they actually need. Need and how that kind of changes possibly over time.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah, well, when they first reach out to us, they end up talking with this great woman named Jennifer Tracy, who's our client care manager. And they're usually. It's just, they're simply overwhelmed. Right. When they first reach out to us, I was talking to Jennifer about it and she's like, yeah, you can even hear it in their voice. You can see it in their emails. They're just in, in it. Right. They're in the thick of it. They've got multiple projects in motion. They've got clients calling, they've got vendors emailing, and they have creative ideas bouncing around in their head. So things are chaotic. Inbox is overflowing. Calendar is a puzzle. They're spending more time putting out fires than actually designing. You know, and what they're craving is some kind of structure and, and some kind of path forward that gets them back to being able to do what they love to do, which is design work. And the thing is, you know, they know it could be better, but they're kind of, whether they're an interior designer, no matter who they are, everybody's like, I know this could be better, but I can't get off the rat wheel long enough to go design something that's better. If I could get systems in place and give away the lower work, lower level work, and have somebody who manages all the pieces, then, you know, they're like, gosh, maybe I could actually take a breath and focus on the creative vision that got them into this business in the first place, you know, so in the beginning it's putting out fires, which might be the inbox, the calendar, the invoices that are just sitting in draft form that should have gone out two weeks ago.
And that's in the beginning, I'd say, you know, the first month or two, that's what that's like, is getting the systems together or working with the systems that already exist, or improving them or just building them from scratch. There are no systems. So that's something that's happening for the ea. And then slowly, one little part of the business after one other little part of the business starts to feel a little more sane. Like, okay, the emails that actually need my attention are in a folder or, or we've created a system in which that's what I need to look at. Not sit on my phone in bed in the morning and scroll through the inbox and figure out what needs me. No, you know, EAs will create great systems for that. And yes, it absolutely evolves from put out the fires, create systems to fast forward 6, 9, 12 months. Now all of a sudden they know you, they know your systems, they know your voice and you trust them and they know your clients and they've been holding that client's hand with you on that long nine month project. And now Sally, the client almost wants to hear from the EA more than from you, because that's who they're used to. Like, oh, yeah, Allison said I need to sign that thing. Allison said I need to make that decision. Allison said we need to get back to that vendor. Okay, I'm going to do that so that, you know, the designer can just be doing what they need to do. Right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And I mean, designers like just about any small business, you don't start a business because you want to do the accounting and all of that stuff. You've got a passion or an interest or skill in something and you want to bring that to the world. But then you realize pretty quickly that that's such a small part of the business and all the rest of it is like huge.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: It is. And you're true, it's true. Whether you're somebody who loves to bake pies, whether you're a massage therapist, whether you're a financial advisor, you're passionate about that thing. You are probably not passionate about invoicing, but that's one of the funnest things about having an assistant is that they are like an interesting phase that clients go through is like, I don't even want to give this away because this project sucks. Sucks. Like, I don't. I wouldn't want to do this research for some new CRM I wouldn't want to do. I don't want to get back to irs. Well, IRS in the United States. Right. But I don't want to get back to some government entity where I'm going to have to wait on hold forever. I feel bad turning this over. No good. EAs don't care. They love it. They're. I, hated social media when I started. I was like, do I have to manage my social media? My EA loves social media. She just like, send me videos, send me, send me pictures. Gina. I'm going to turn it into great stuff. I was like, oh, hallelujah. So you, over time, you find your executive assistant's superpowers and you'll be amazed what they love to do that. Yeah, you hate to do. That's not your specialty.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So, if I'm a designer who, you know, maybe I'm thinking of this, but you know, this, the cost I'm going to have to incur. What's, what is, I mean, best case scenario, what is their life going to look like? What is their business going to look like? 6 months, 8 months down the road so that they can justify that cost in their, in their brain.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah. Well, you imagine if you traded out, let's say, 10 hours a week worth of work that you do, that is not the highest and best use of you. Now what are you going to do with that 10 hours? And that's really where the answer lies. Because you can, you're buying yourself time now. You're going to get all kinds of other benefits you weren't expecting. Like some projects and work are going to get done better than you would have done them. It's just not your specialty. You know, I'm amazed at what my team produces. I would never have produced it. But in terms of return on investment, it really is. You think about invoicing, that's getting done, late payments that are coming in, late payments, processes that are not going well, how much time you waste in processes aren't going well, how much more networking you think you should do, but you're not getting to it. So you've got to think both. All the stuff I want to give away, which sounds so luxurious, but now what are you going to do? If we gave you five to 10 hours a week, how would you spend it? Because if you're going to spend it spinning your wheels where you are already spending your Wheels. Well, there's going to be no roi. But if you say, you know what, I'm going to go to one networking event a week and I'm going to keep up with my architect contacts or I'm going to keep up with my different business contacts that I have, I'm going to take one person to lunch. You know, what are you going to do to then bring in money a year from now? Right, because you designers often live in like this feast or famine world because they're so busy doing the work and then one day they look up and they're like, oh, the work dried up. Oh, I gotta go back to networking now. No, you should have been networking the whole time, but you couldn't. So that's where the roi, I think comes in, is you've got the EA who can also look out ahead for you and go, okay, it's now time to go to, you know, ramp up your networking. Because we're now, these three projects are now starting to wind down and if we don't start seeding, you know, get some little seeds out there and start planting and nurturing our connections, in three months we're going to have no work. So a partner who can look out there with you also makes a difference. So anyway, there's lots of facets to the, how you answer the return on investment, but it's such a good question that you want to confront because it just sounds like, oh, I'm gonna buy myself time. Oh, that's gonna be fabulous.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, well, what are you gonna do with it? Exactly, what are you gonna do with it?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: And for some people, yeah, you should go networking. For some of you, you should take two days off. That's what you should do. You should go sleep, you should go take your family on a three day weekend. I mean, I'm not saying everybody should be like looking for the next client. You know, some of you need to get to Pilates or yoga or, you know, go for a walk with your friends. You gotta do other things that will feed you and fuel you.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And would it be right to say that, an experienced EA would kind of be almost like a Sherpa to guide that, that new client, that new designer client through that process?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Because truly they want your whole life to work and they know what you're, what's most important is, okay, we got to make. If I'm going to pay you Mr. Or Ms. Ea, we better be making more money. And they know that, right? They know we've now added to you, a bill to pay. So they need to, you know, help you with that. But over time, they really do just want your life to work. In your life, working includes, you know, that you see your family to some the degree that you want and that you're taking care of yourself. And they're the ones who know that you keep putting in your calendar, you're going to go to yoga and you don't go. And then that for them gives them some access or a view into. I see. You know, Jeanette keeps not doing what she really wants to do because she keeps getting bogged down here. Okay, that's a clue to me, the EA to go, I need to start grabbing more of that work. There's like this push pull that happens, right? Designers and clients, they want to, they need to push work to us, but rea is also pull it.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Definitely. You brought up systems, and processes and all that good stuff. And I'm a big operations nerd myself and. But I can see that, you know, a designer who might say, well, can't I just automate some of this rather than, you know, paying for a human being to help me with this. Right? There's a difference.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yep, there is and it's not. It's not either or, it's both. And, unless you want to go geek out on making that automated system work really well, you know, we could talk about AI for days, but let's just back up 10 years when everybody started using like a calendaring link. And then people are like, oh, the world of executive assistants are going to go away because there's these calendar links. No, people use them so awfully. So it's, it's like I said to somebody once, I said, do you know your. I booked with you on this calendar link and then I got this email and then do you know I got this. And then do you know that it had this in it? And this link came and they go, yeah, that's just what it does. And I was like, no, it's not just what it does. It's what you're tolerating the software doing because you haven't gotten in there to go learn it and make it really look like you sound like you be your brand, have your look and have it add. Well, I understand. I don't want to do that. I would delegate that to my team in a hot minute. So if you want to get into technology and make it work for you, great. If you don't, you've got somebody has to be Managing all of that. And yes, use AI, and your assistants better be using AI. But does that work product that they just produced out of Chat GPT, does that sound like you? Does that look like you? Does that have your feel? Does that have your vibe? Okay, well, somebody needs to get in there and manage that. So that's, that's the both. And, you know, just take a CRM, for example. Who's going to keep that accurate and up to date? And that thing's only as good as up to date as it is up to date. Right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And if we're looking at, at interior designers, business owners who are already, as you said, head down, trying just to work, work, work, work, work. Now you're like, on top of that. Now I have to figure out how to properly use this software to its, you know, best advantage. Like, where am I finding that time? To do that.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Exactly. And you do know you need workflows and you need processes, but tools don't, you know, they just don't run themselves. So, and you might have none, in which case that might be your first project for your EA called Help me be More Efficient, or you might have some that you like and you say, I've got this project management software. I don't love it, but we're going to use it for now and they'll, you know, they'll work with it until things can get better.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right? Are, you know, if I've got software already existing, Are your EAS kind of platform agnostic? They'll work with anything. Or they say, you know, really, this is better, or this is better.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: They will definitely work with what you have, because until they're in it enough to go, this is great, or you know what, we should try this other thing. So part of, part of what happens in my firm, and this podcast isn't about my firm, but it's all of our executive assistants also collaborate. So they might. And you might have one of our assistants working for you. And they don't love the software, but it's okay. But then they end up in a huddle with a bunch of EAs from our team, and all of a sudden everybody's talking about, oh, what's clearcup? Oh, what's Monday? Oh, wait, but we're using Asana. Oh, well, what would you use? Well, what don't you like about what's going on on that? Oh, well, I'm working with this designer and we keep hating this part. What do you think? So they have in in our firm they have a team they can go back to and they have a performance coach they can go back to and say, the system's not bad, but it's not great. And they might come back to you and say, listen, not a rush, but here's why I think maybe we want to move. We don't consider ourselves technology experts, but they do use so much software. And you know, we have 20, 25 of them at any given time. So between all of them, they all have got their hand in some piece of software. So it won't be surprised if an EA came back to you and said, let's, let's shift gears. But they won't come in like that. Like, I use this and this. And so, Doug Douglas, we're gonna switch over to ClickUp because that's what I use. No, they won't do that. Okay, fair enough.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: When I was talking to a couple of designers about this upcoming podcast interview with you, and they said, oh, virtual assistant. Yeah, yeah, I've done, I've had a virtual assistant before for. And I said, well, no, it's an executive assistant. And then they replied, well, what's the difference? And then I went, and I kind of could explain it, but not really. So I'm going to ask you that question. What's, what is the difference between a, virtual assistant and an executive assistant?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Well, there is no truth about it. The, the great craziness of the virtual assistant industry right now. It's just the wild, wild west, right? Everybody is one can say they are one and can name themselves whatever they want. So I just made this up and other people use this term too. It's not like I coined the term, but when I opened the business, I said, I, I want to provide for business owners a high caliber executive assistant. Somebody that is like that person that's on the 40th floor of the downtown high rise, sitting outside the office of the CEO, cmo, cto, cio, whoever. I want people to be able to have that caliber of executive assistant, but in a part time function. So there's a lot of small business owners need somebody with a high level of business acumen and polish and professionalism and confidence, but they only need that person 10, 15 hours a week. Great. So that's why I use the term executive assistant. Now, it's not to say that somebody who calls themselves a VA is not that they might be, they just might use the term I'm a va. Okay.
But more and more as this industry has now blown up, you know, post Covid. Covid just blew it up even more. It was already on a fast track, I would say. What's starting to become more and more the common notion is when you say va, people think of somebody in the Philippines who's whatever, doing tasks for you for $6 an hour. And there is a place for that and that's a big part of the industry. But you also have a high caliber individual who's working for themselves sitting at their dining room table in Calgary right now that would be perfect for you. They're going to charge a lot less than a US based agency, I'll tell you that. They're going to charge more than the Philippines and they'd be perfect for you. But you have to go find them. So you know, our firm is a US based agency. So we're, we're like a top shelf expensive product in some senses. But in the other sense you get a high caliber product and you don't need them 40 hours a week. So there's no right answer. But that's how I think of the difference. I mean there, there are also executive assistants, you know, that make $150,000 a year. That's their profession and they are amazing at that. And they would not, you know, they wouldn't ever want to be considered VAs. So I think the answer is going to be different three years from now and then another three years from now.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Probably, of some of the, and not just specifically to, to people who are doing assistant type work, but all sorts of different service providers for interior designers. I have found that the people who, the founders who come from a corporate background tend to have a slightly different point of view than somebody who didn't. And it's just they've experienced things that other people haven't. And so they're saying, well yeah, we could do it at this level. But you know, when I was working with the C suite executive, they expected it to be at a certain level. And so that's what I'm going to. And that's kind of what I'm hearing from you. As you described your business like from day one is that you were going to provide a certain level, not a six dollar. And like you said, I mean that for certain tasks that's totally acceptable. Right. But if you've got an executive assistant working with a designer who has more of a luxury clientele, how they interact with those homeowners also, you know, it's important.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah. And I would say luxury or not luxury, any client, if you Want your assistant to do any client facing work that better be right on brand, right? That better have that client be like, wow, I'm loving this experience. Next time I need something, I'm coming back to this person. So the ability, how much communication you want with your clients and that is the whole key, isn't it? I mean it all comes down to how well we communicate with our clients. Whether it's via text, via email, via a phone call, via a cup of coffee. And that's pretty hard to replicate. Even the really, really good ones. And I get messages from overseas and they're pretty darn good, but I can tell, no, I wouldn't want that email. It's close, but it's not quite on brand for us. Right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Interior designers, I mean there's, there's, you know, certain businesses that are similar but we've got very long project lives. Right. I mean if you're talking, you're doing a home, whole home renovation, you know, 18 months is not out of the, the realm of possibilities. You know, how does an EA deal with that? Right? I mean being embedded with, with their designer for up to that length of time.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah, I think that it's a, it's a, wonderful, wonderful time for the EAs, I'll tell you. Because you really, you the designer, but also the EA really get to know the client and that's where a high level EA can really be a game changer. Because as the EA learned, your voice, your preferences, how you like to communicate. So then when your assistant can then step in and it can feel very seamless for the client and sometimes the executive assistant is speaking as themselves, you know, hi, I'm Jolene's assistant and wanted to follow up on xyz. Sometimes they might speak as you, as, as a principal designer, let's say, you know, making sure that the client experience is consistent, it's professional, it's personal. And over time those relationships deepen until your assistant can become the reliable point of contact who keeps that communication flowing, keeps the timelines on track, keeps the clients feeling cared for again, all so that the designer can focus on the work that they really want to do and that they are the best at.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Quite frankly.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And yeah, and you mentioned earlier about you know, an EA maybe gently pushing a designer to make better use of the time that they have now freed up by the, by the EA taking on different tasks. Interior design is largely residential design is largely referral based and there can be for some Firms, ups and downs, dry spells. How can an EA help when that happens? I mean, even if they, they see it coming, that they're not doing enough marketing or whatever to. And. But when that dip happens, is there things an EA can do?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Well, I think it's, this is where sometimes your EA becomes a bit of a business partner, which is really ideal. Right? I think your EA will sit down with you and say, okay, what's the plan? Now if the EA has been with you a little while, they could have, they will see it coming. Right? Like I said before, listen, there's going to be a dip in work. So we've got to now look at your schedule. And yes, I know we got these three big projects going, but we also need to figure out when, where, how do you want to market? Now sometimes that might be, that your EA could begin some of that for you. Right? I don't know. It would all start with what you would want to do if there were three of you. You know, if you could be designing and networking and sending these Messages out via LinkedIn or however you want to do it. Okay, now the EA can look and go, okay, well what of that could I grab? Now the EA is not going to go take somebody to coffee, but the EA might go into your LinkedIn account and send messages to these five people that you would like to do if you had the time. Or maybe send 20 emails to people who have been past clients. Maybe they're the ones who make sure that on the birthday or the anniversary of that great project that that person is getting a message or a note. The EA can use systems to keep you top of mind for people. Now we would start with what other system you have. Now if you have none, then it's like, okay, well let's start brainstorming. How do you think you best want to market and network? And then the EA can look and see what they can do. The EA is going to do, you know, what they can do from their dining room table. Right.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Let's say, Nie starts working with our theoretical, designer. How long typically before that designer might see, you know, this is working out. I'm, I'm seeing some results. How long does that take?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: I think you're going to see something in a couple weeks, frankly. You're going to see something. You're going to be like, oh, okay, wow, she really does manage that. I really don't actually have to go look at that anymore. Wow, that's kind of miraculous. But over time, I would say, you know, you think about how many questions you're going to answer from your brand for your brand new EA in the first 30 days and you're never going to answer those again. They're going to start a file on you, right. And they're going to know, your preferences of all kinds of things, right. Window or aisle, and how do you want to pay for these things and how do we pay for those things? And when this person emails, what is your standard response? You know, when we get an initial inquiry, from somebody, what is my initial response? There's just so many things in the first 30 days that you're never going to talk about again. So by the end of the first month you're going to start to see things shift. I'd say by the end of 90 days you're living in a, in a different world.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Wow, that's amazing. So that, that first month is a lot of question and answer and a learning process.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Right. And we are dancing with how well you delegate. So you might be a master delegator and you've got your list and you're ready to go and it's day one and you're just throwing us, the house and everything but the kitchen sink. Other people, we've got to say, it's okay, just give me that. It won't hurt, I promise. Like, sometimes we've got to reach in and say, listen, I got into your Inbox, I see 10 of these things. I can handle that. You know, sometimes we've got to pull and sometimes you got to push, but we don't know how much of a good pusher you are till we get in that dance with you. So, that's what the beginning stages looks like. And there's a lot of setup. You know, how often are we going to talk? What software are we going to use to communicate? What is your best what. How do you want to be communicated with? What meetings do you need me to be a part of so that I can arrange around that. When you're working with anybody who's, you know, virtual or fractional, you, you've got to take into account they probably have other clients. So you want to work out. Okay. If you're going to hire somebody, say 15 hours a week, do you care when they work? You know, it might be like, yeah, I need you in the Monday meeting. Every Monday at 10am We've got to have you there and we've got to have you here in between there. I don't care when you Work or you know what, I'd really like you to work in the mornings. That's so important to me. Two hours every morning, please. Other people are going to say, I don't care. Work on Sunday. So there's working out. How are we going to partner together? And all your preferences, you can't imagine how many preferences you have until somebody starts asking you or you start doing things and they go, oh, you want it done that way? And I go, oh, yeah, I guess I do, yeah.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I mean it's funny, I would. Prior to having this conversation with you, I would have assumed that everybody who contacts you is like super excited and like about wanting this ea. But I kind of think that there's definitely going to be some Maybe not skepticism is the right word, but hesitancy or a little bit of fear and, and want and being able to let go.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: It's huge. It's huge. And you're right, some people are so excited and they're just ready to roll. And when people talk to Jennifer, our client care manager, she will tell them even before they start, she'll just say, start your list. Just start your list of what you're going to give away. Right, what you think you're going to give away. But it's just everybody has a different level of trust. So some people are going to start off with very low level things as kind of an audition. Like, let's see how you do. I'm going to give you this low level stuff. That's fine. You know, if you want to build your own comfort level that way. When I coach people, I coach them, I say, listen, give people more than you think they can handle because the EA is going to tell you, listen, I don't know how to do that. I'm going to go watch three videos or they're going to say, you've now given me 20 things to do, but I'm only working for you 10 hours a week. So I'm going to get these three done by Friday and then on Monday we'll talk about what the next three are. And you might say, oh, no, no, no, no. Let me tell you what the top three are. Okay, good, you tell me. Right, so it's we, we see the whole gamut. What all. What surprised me in the early days is every now and then somebody would come to us and say, like they're getting coached by their business coach or somebody in their industry who's telling them you need to have an assistant. And they trusted that person so much. They would hire us and they would go, I don't know what to do. I just. My coach told me I need an assistant. And I was always shocked by that because I thought what you thought like, well, don't they just chomping at the bit to unload a bunch of stuff? It's more like they aren't chomping at the bit, but they know they should be. And they're like, I just don't know where to start. And I know I should give it away, so help. And that's fine. You know, we can be like, all right, well, then we start interviewing them, and then again, we just start taking.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And I'm sure the business owners that, that your ex, Your assistants work with, they all have different styles of. Of how they're going to delegate, different abilities to be able to let go. What was the term? Somebody said to me, dump and run. And I thought that was hilarious. Right? And they're like, yeah, that, that. Oh, that was somebody who, who was. Was in the business. And they were like, you know, that's not something. Could you explain what that is?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: What?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Dump and run?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. I lead workshops called Delegate and elevate and teaching people how to delegate and how to hold people accountable. And every now and then I use that phrase. I'm like, yeah, one way to delegate is you could dump and run, which is like, here's everything I need. And you just walk away as if you're no longer a part of the project. And that's weak delegating. I would say strong delegating is I am going to give somebody a lot of work to do, but I'm available. I'm available for questions. I'm curious what questions you have. I'm still accountable, so I'm not abdicating my responsibility. It's my firm. Right. I'm ultimately accountable for your performance. So I want to be on your team. When I delegate to somebody, I delegate. And then I say, this is now yours. However, I now work for you. What can I provide? What questions do you have? What do you need? Dump and run is. Well, I told you to do that. Why isn't it done, like, as if you're no longer a part of the end result? And, yeah, over time, you're going to become less and less and less and less a part of the end result getting produced. It's certainly in the early days, you want to be very available for questions, concerns, because if you're not. Is the other problem with dump and run. People can then be afraid to come back to you with questions. Right? And you don't want people to be afraid to come back to you with questions because what's going to happen is you're going to say, do these three things by Friday, then on Monday they're going to tell you all the reasons why they didn't get them done by Friday. And I don't. Something not done, plus a good reason does not equal it getting done. So I need to know ahead of time that we're not on track for, that task to get done so I could do something about it. I mean, I was around before the EA came around. I was solving all the problems myself. If I know there's a problem, just tell me. I promise you I can figure it out. I don't want to, but sometimes I'd rap, you know, that's my prerogative. If I need that done by Friday and you can't do it, tell me. But no harm, no foul, no shame. If it becomes an environment in which it's a problem to come to you with problems, they're never going to come to you with problems. You're never going to be able to work it out together. Right?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Would it be right to assume that, I mean, especially if I'm working with an experienced assistant, that if there is a problem with communication, it's probably me, right? It's probably my style, right? Like, if they've worked with half a dozen different people and we're still not connecting, maybe I need to look at myself a little bit.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yeah, absolutely. And on our team, rea will go back to their performance coach. Everybody has a performance coach. They talk to their performance coach two or three times a month. And odds are if there's a communication problem, they're going back to their performance coach and saying, listen, I. Things are not. I don't know what to do with Joe. And oftentimes they will get coached and they'll talk through. How are we going to talk to Joe? Because Joe's our client, right? We want Joe to be happy, but there's some way that client Joe is not communicating well. But we also don't consider that Joe's problem. I mean, Joe's just doing what Joe does everywhere in life. It's our job to muster the courage. And this is why it's worth paying for a high caliber assistant. Because a high caliber assistant will come in and have the courage and the professionalism to say, joe, listen, you know the way we've been doing things is just not working. So let's talk about it. You know, I'm committed that this work. How can we communicate better? I like text. But you hate text and you keep wanting to do blah, blah, blah. But that doesn't really work for me. I'm picking up my kids at school at that time, you know, like have the courage and the professionalism to work it out in communication. Weird. I don't know. Communication is always a two way street, right? Nobody's got the wrong communication style, right?
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, but I mean we're not. You know, when I take my car to the mechanic to be worked on, they hook it up to the computer and they read all the sensors and they can tell me, you know, more or less this is wrong and this is fine. Human, beings aren't like that. You know, there's no computer to hook us up to. So I was wondering if. So you know when, when a business owner starts working with you, is it straight to the EA or is there kind of a, a process in between where they deal with, you know, the company first and like these are expectations, this is what you know, for, you know, for what you're paying, this is what you're going to get and all that kind of stuff before they meet the aea.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Yes and no. So one thing that's I think really unique about us, we do a lot of secret shopping in the industry and I don't know that anybody else in the industry does this, which is we let you, we say, listen, we're going to give you the best we think we have for you and we're gonna, we set up what's called a meet and greet. And you get to meet your potential EA and say, yeah, I agree. Now 95% of the time everybody agrees. The EA agrees, yeah, I want to work for you. And you're like excited and you go, yeah, I want to work for them. And once those two parties say yes, then we send out contracts. Okay, but so we, we call it not doing arranged marriages. So we, you know, you get to sign off essentially on it. And it's a little bit of a crazy process for us because we haven't signed, signed you yet and yet and it's a one on one conversation. We're not there, we're not there. Making sure this last call with the prospective client goes well. But we are also like, listen, we have high caliber talent and if they can't coherently be on a great call with you on camera and give you the Experience that they're a high caliber EA worth $55 an hour, then we've done something wrong. But it, it, when I look back on it after a couple years, I thought, Gina Cotner, you are crazy. You are leaving the last step of the sales process in the hands of your staff. But that has really worked and it's become kind of a unique thing about us. Now, before then, you have had it short call with Jennifer, who's our client care manager, just to see, like, are we the right. And if you're, if we're not, if she can tell, like, listen, you're not ready for us yet. We have recommendations, we'll send you to some other people. Let's say you say, okay, yeah, this sounds good. What do we do now? Jennifer will send a questionnaire out to prospective clients. And the questionnaire is for the clients to really think through what, help them process what they're trying to process anyway, which is, what am I going to give away? How much do I give away? Should I get an EA now? Should I get an EA three months from now, I'm about to go on vacation or about to have this thing or kind of all that stuff. People are working out. We put in a questionnaire form and then Jennifer will have about a 45 minute conversation with you, just a complimentary consultation session to go over your specific situation. So that's all you've really had ahead of time. And you can ask whatever. You know, we have a new client handbook you can have. We have various things you can use, but it's usually a couple calls with Jennifer and then we set you up for a meet and greet because some people are like, I want to start next week. And some people are like, I need one, but I don't know when I want to start. And so then Jennifer helps them kind of suss out like, like, okay, given all you have going on, you know, and given our pipeline of staff and given where you're at, let's align on a start date of September 20th or something like that. But that's really, that's it. And then after that, it's you and your ea, but behind the scenes, you know, we're like the ducks on the pond with the little. Their feet are paddling really fast underwater. We're making sure that that EA who's working for you is super. They're just extra supported in those first few weeks because you imagine you're, you're dating, right? You're trying to get a relationship off the ground, a partnership off the ground. And it takes something more than it's going to take 30 days from now. So we just make sure that we, we keep an extra close eye on the partnership in the first few weeks to make sure it's really gelling and it's starting the right direction.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: So the EA isn't out, there on an island by themselves.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Exactly. And that's frankly what they love about being here. They could be solopreneurs, they could work for bigger agencies. But the people who work for us, that's exactly why they like to work for us, because they have a lot of independence, but they also never feel alone. Like, they always feel like if somebody's got their back. Because the other thing is why you're paying top dollar is your EA is our problem, not your problem. Your job is to just delegate the house and the kitchen sink. Our job is to know that their grandmother's not well and their dog got hit by a car this weekend and their kid is sick, and the school that their kid is in is now, you know, got a day off on Friday. Like all that personal human stuff, we tend to that in a. An amazing way. We do it because it is our brand. But it also keeps you, which some people want to do that, some people don't. It keeps you. You don't have to. You can just know your EA is very well taken care of. Your job is just deal with you and your business.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Okay, well, that sounds fantastic. So, so let's just imagine that I'm a designer who is totally excited and want to sign up with you and have you come and fix my, junky little business that is, that needs help. What would the process be like?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Good. Well, you find us out on our website, most likely. And there's a lot of buttons on there that say learn more now or interested in more now or whatever those buttons say. All buttons lead you to this wonderful woman, Jennifer Tracy, who is sitting in Peoria, Illinois. And, she. You'll have an initial conversation with her for like 15 minutes or so, and then, just see if it seems like you want to proceed. And if you do, like I said, she'll give you a questionnaire to help you work through some things. She'll have a consultation session with you, and start to figure out, okay, what are the three or four main things that would really make a difference in your business and for you? Then, behind the scenes, she goes over to Dorian, right? Staff member number one from nine years ago. Dorian runs all the staff and the performance of the staff. So. And Jennifer manages all the clients and, quality control of all the clients. So those two put their heads together almost every day. So Jennifer will go to Dorian and say, listen, I got this designer. Listen, they need this, this, this, and this. And Dorian will say, okay, who I think would be best for that is Danielle. And so I'm going to reach out to Danielle and check on her bandwidth. We usually know what everybody's bandwidth is, and we, for the most part, don't give anybody more than two clients. It's too crazy making. Even if it's only 10 hours a week and 10 hours a week, being in too many different industries is crazy making. Just your brain. Right. It's tough to deal with. So then Dorian will come back to Jennifer and say, okay, I think Stephanie is who we should pair with that person. And then Jennifer will go back to you and say, listen, I'm going to set you up with a meet and greet with Stephanie. And then it rolls from there.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Rolls from there. Okay. Is there anything about Your business or EAs working with designers that identify. I didn't. Any questions? I didn't think to ask you. Am I missing anything?
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Boy, your questions were so, so good. No, we've just. We've gotten to work with a few designers, and it's just been really. It's been really, really great. And on the one hand, you're unique, and like you said earlier, on the other hand, you're not a unique snowflake. Right. Every small business owner is drowning and dreams of being able to do the thing they're the most passionate about, and that's probably not updating the project management plan for sure. Okay.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I guess we'll wrap it up. This has been great. I really appreciate you coming on, Gina. I learned a bunch. And, for everybody, I'll make sure to include all the links and phone numbers and emails and all that good stuff so they can get in contact with you.
Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services: Great. It's been really great. Thanks for having me.
Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, thanks very much.
The Benefits: Why Executive Assistant Investment Changes Everything
When you delegate administrative work to the right person, three immediate changes happen. You remember why you started your interior design business. Your creative energy returns because you're not drained by vendor emails and invoice chasing. Clients notice your renewed focus and enthusiasm.
The long-term transformation goes deeper. With someone managing systems and spotting business trends, you break the feast-famine cycle that traps most designers. You take weekends without guilt. Your business grows predictably because someone's nurturing future opportunities while you design.
The Blueprint: Your Next Steps to EA Success
Track your time for one week. Document every administrative task that pulls you from design work. Calculate your hourly design rate and compare it to time spent on administrative tasks. If you bill $150 per hour but spend five hours weekly managing invoices, you're losing $750 in potential revenue.
Determine your budget and service level. Executive assistants cost more than virtual assistants but deliver business judgment, not just task completion. Look for someone who understands your industry and can communicate professionally with your clients.
The Transformation: From Administrative Overwhelm to Design Focus
The goal isn't just buying back time - it's transforming how your business operates. Instead of reacting to whatever's loudest in your inbox, you work strategically. Your EA handles urgent tasks while you focus on important work.
This changes everything. Clients get better service because someone always manages communication. Projects run smoother because systems work properly. You rediscover your passion for design because it fills your days again, not administrative busywork.
Connect With Gina Cotner - Athena Executive Services
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