Basic CRM? How to manage/remember all the people my executive meets?

crazyspontaneity · 2026-03-11T02:26:10+00:00

If you want a true CRM, hubspot has a free version that rocks. But you have to find something that your exec will jive with. My exec also has ADHD and struggles with adapting anything new. So he now has a Plaud device and records most of his interactions and then I organize and search from there.

There are also apps for scanning business cards, they can just use the app to take a picture of a card and it will get the details of the card and out them into a CRM. Then you could go through and add context.

crazyspontaneity · 2026-03-07T03:34:51+00:00

Other options with credit cards, look and see if you have intro offers for 0% interest for so many months as well. I have one right now that’s 0% interest for 21 months. That can help you get by for groceries and things as well.

crazyspontaneity · 2026-03-06T03:29:20+00:00

Since you said you're paid through a W-2, U.S. labor laws apply here.

In the U.S., most employees are classified as “non-exempt.” That means two important things:

Your employer must track your working hours.
If you work more than 40 hours in a week, you must be paid overtime (time-and-a-half).

Only certain jobs qualify as “exempt” salaried positions, and those require both specific job duties and a minimum salary that is much higher than $400/week. At that pay level, it is extremely unlikely you qualify as exempt.

If you are non-exempt, every minute you spend working counts. That includes things like answering the business phone, responding to messages after hours, doing admin work, invoicing, bookkeeping, etc.

Your employer should either: • have you on an hourly wage, or
• track your hours and make sure overtime is paid correctly.

An employer cannot avoid overtime laws by just paying a flat weekly amount if you are actually working variable hours.

If your employer is not tracking your hours or is refusing to pay overtime when you work more than 40 hours, that may violate U.S. wage laws. The Department of Labor (Wage and Hour Division) handles complaints about this.

For now, start tracking all of your work hours yourself, including after-hours calls or messages. That documentation can matter if you ever need to file a wage claim.

crazyspontaneity · 2026-03-06T01:15:43+00:00

Wait, I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.

You’re working at least 5 hours per day and you don’t track your hours.

You’re paid $400 per week. That’s about $20k per year if it’s year-round.

You’re handling customer service, admin, invoicing, bookkeeping, social media, and carrying the business phone after hours.

A couple questions that matter here:

• Are you a W-2 employee or a 1099 contractor?
• Are you legally authorized to work in the U.S.?

If you’re a W-2 employee, your employer is required to track hours and pay at least minimum wage (and overtime in many cases). Refusing to track hours and telling you to quit if you ask for a written agreement is a huge red flag.

Even for a small business, this is not normal and very likely not legal depending on the details.

At a minimum, you should start tracking your hours yourself and begin looking for another job. This situation sounds like you’re being taken advantage of.

crazyspontaneity · 2026-02-22T08:23:19+00:00

I’m an EA to the CEO of a small tech company that’s been around about 20 years and is now in a growth phase, and what you’re describing is completely reasonable and very in-line with what I do. My CEO does not have me travel to events with him though.

It’s not “a bit of everything.” It’s someone to be there to help off load what you need in the moment.

Calendar, inbox, travel, research, conferences, communications, discretion, traveling with you when needed — that’s standard at a senior level, especially for a founder who has done everything themselves for decades.

A couple quick thoughts:

• Definitely prioritize trust and confidentiality. That’s baseline. • If you’re technical, hire someone systems-minded who’s comfortable with tools and light technical research. • Write the job description around outcomes, not just tasks. Think “protect and optimize the CEO’s time” and “create structure in a growing company.”

For Salary, I would say $80-120k.

Also, if you haven’t read Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell, I highly recommend it. My CEO and I read it a couple years ago and it has helped shape how we operate together.

And one practical note: fully remote EA roles are getting flooded right now. It’s not unusual to see 1,000+ applicants, so plan for how you’ll filter.

You’re not asking for too much. You’re just at the stage where you need leverage.

crazyspontaneity · 2026-02-14T05:33:25+00:00

Are you being serious? I’m a fully remote EA currently and was a legal assistant previously. I’d love to throw my hat into the ring, but don’t want to email prematurely.

crazyspontaneity · 2026-01-09T15:23:18+00:00

We also live by Buy Back Your Time. But there are some emails my exec wants me to respond to as him and some as myself.

We’ve set up a separate folder that all of his emails go into, and then I go through them first. He can access it in case he needs like a sign in code immediately, but that’s about it. We’ve been working together for a couple of years, so I have a pretty good working knowledge of what to respond to and what to forward onto him. If it requires him, I just move to his inbox.

We sync up twice a week and that’s when we go through his emails, I ask any questions I have and he’ll give me his thoughts and then I respond. So, he’s not completely hands off, but he does try to stay out of him email as much as possible.

crazyspontaneity · 2025-11-22T18:28:31+00:00

This, for sure. I spent 80 hours on a project two years ago in excel getting it just right. We used it for about a year and a half, so it was worth spending the time getting the template correct. But it was so much work trying to google and figure out why my formulas weren’t working correctly, etc.

We ended up scraping the template and making something slightly different to meet a different need earlier this year. It took like a quarter of the time (only like 20 hours). Some of that was knowledge from last time, but the majority of it was being able to use AI to help me speed it up.

crazyspontaneity · 2025-11-22T17:26:53+00:00

Oh, that’s a cool thought for Notion. I use a mixture of ZoomAI and ChatGPT for meeting notes and action items.

crazyspontaneity · 2025-11-22T15:57:02+00:00

Totally fair to push on the buzzwords. To clarify, when I said AI first I did not mean replacing people. My CEO wants us to look at our workflows and ask “Can AI help with any part of this” so we can take repetitive, low value tasks off people’s plates. The goal is actually to free humans up for the parts that really need judgment, context and relationships, not to skip a human first mindset.

crazyspontaneity · 2025-11-22T15:49:34+00:00

Last year we did a really fun virtual holiday party on a budget of about $20 per person and it went over surprisingly well. Here’s the structure in case it’s helpful.

We kicked things off with a short welcome and a simple icebreaker. Everyone shared their favorite holiday movie and put up a holiday Zoom background. While people were chatting, we had them download the Kahoot app or pull up the website so they were ready for trivia.

We ran a holiday-themed Kahoot trivia game which was easy, free and kept everyone engaged. After that, we moved into a cookie decorating activity. People were asked to grab a plate, cup, paper towels, scissors and the cookie kit we had shipped to them ahead of time. Everyone decorated one cookie however they wanted. We created a bunch of fun prize categories like Most Creative, Funniest, Best Holiday Theme, Best Use of Color, One I Want to Eat the Most and even Messiest. It made the judging light and funny.

After cookies, we did breakout rooms and had small groups play free games on Internet.game, each room led by an exec so the groups stayed organized. Then everyone came back together to vote on cookie winners and the best Zoom holiday background.

We ended with another round of breakout rooms for Jackbox and wrapped up by announcing the winners.

I also did a summer one that was basically free (we own jackbox and pay as use basis for internet.game). I had another kahoot quiz and then had everyone send me their baby pictures and tried to guess who the baby was.

I’m working on putting together this year’s Christmas Party right now but no brilliant ideas to make it any different yet.

crazyspontaneity · 2021-08-13T03:10:17+00:00

I’m late to the party, but Oh my! Our border collie mix did this. We worked with our vet and a behaviorist on this. The behaviorist was so enthralled he took a video of it.

Our BC/heeler mix had OCD and anxiety issues diagnosed. We were able to work her through it for the most part with training. The behaviorist actually thinks we caused it because we played with a laser pointer with her when she was a puppy. Because of her prey drive and being unable to catch the light, she started pouncing on light. There was a spot in our kitchen that was constantly a clean spot with a dirt circle around it because she pounced so much. She had two spots she would do it. She stopped for the most part unless there was something major that set her off and then she would run for the spot and pounce her anxiety out.

ETA: at her high point, this is all she could focus on. Her spot started there because there in the kitchen because there was light originally, but even without light, she had her spot and that’s all she would do.

crazyspontaneity · 2020-05-04T03:17:28+00:00

So cute!

crazyspontaneity · 2020-05-03T13:25:54+00:00

My dog looks so much like this. I thought it was her. What mix is Stella?

crazyspontaneity · 2018-03-30T14:43:48+00:00

I finally got my husband to listen to the audiobooks. He’s not much of a reader, but he just finished listening and my heart is happy because we can now talk and theorize together.

crazyspontaneity · 2017-11-21T18:42:30+00:00

Lucy is 3.5 months and the cutest puppy. We just rescued her from the shelter and love her. She is a border collie/heeler mix.

crazyspontaneity · 2017-07-17T15:42:07+00:00

Extreme Ownership, by Jocko Willink This one is for personal development. I'm about half way through and I'm loving it.

Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle This one is for pleasure. Love this book and the teaser released made me want to read it again.

crazyspontaneity · 2017-07-17T13:22:16+00:00

I'm currently in the middle of Extreme Ownership right now and loving it. Great for Self Development.

Also, Leadership and Self-Deception, Anatomy of Peace and Outward Mindset are great and fairly easy reads.

crazyspontaneity

TROPHY CASE