Online Business Executive Assistant to the CEO
Company Description:
Gardenary, Inc exists to make gardening ordinary for everyone through online courses, books, and high quality gardening products in the Gardenary shop while inspiring and educating millions through social media, podcasts and the Gardenary blog.
Gardenary is a leading online business specializing in garden education, supplies and garden consultant certification. We are dedicated to providing innovative solutions that meet the needs of our diverse customer base. As we continue to expand our online presence, we are seeking an amazing, full-time Executive Assistant to join our team of A Players and support our CEO, Nicole Burke. If you are a highly organized administrative professional with experience supporting C-Level Executives, read on to learn more about this exciting opportunity!
Position Overview:
This is a full-time role reporting to our CEO. For this role, you’ll need to live in or near Nashville, TN and be willing to commute to Brentwood 3-4 days per week, and have the ability to work from home 1-2 days per week. Typical hours for this role are 8 am-5 pm, Monday-Friday; on occasion there is a need to work additional hours on evenings and weekends during a launch or other events throughout the year.
The mission of the Executive Assistant is to stay ten steps ahead of our CEO, tracking all of the administrative details, and clearing the path for her to make her greatest contribution to our business. The Executive Assistant will be a key asset to the CEO by anticipating needs at an exceptionally high level, allowing her to develop vision and strategy for all aspects of the business at Gardenary, Inc.
While repetitive tasks are certainly part of this position, the tasks assigned will vary from week to week based on the CEO’s needs and the needs of business. The most important responsibility of the Executive Assistant is to ensure that all scheduling and administrative tasks and projects are completed with a high level of efficiency, confidentiality, accuracy, flexibility, and positivity in order to support the initiatives of the CEO.
Our ideal EA candidate is highly accustomed to and very comfortable in fast-paced environments, organized, forward-thinking, action-oriented, direct and concise when communicating, cool under pressure, and discrete.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The Executive Assistant to the CEO will contribute to the overall profitability of Gardenary by proactively anticipating the needs of the CEO, and effectively managing her schedule and priorities while protecting the deadlines of the business. This is achieved through a variety of tasks, including but not limited to:
- Complex calendar management and scheduling (both personally and professionally)
- Email management on behalf of the CEO
- Communicating on the CEO’s behalf both internally and externally
- Meeting management including preparing agendas, taking notes, distributing action items, and arranging catering
- Varying personal and professional administrative tasks including, but not limited to, booking appointments, research projects, coordinating travel, ordering gifts/flowers, coordination and communications for garden installs, scheduling photo/video shoots, etc.
- Running errands and attending in person meetings multiple times per week
- Assisting with family and home needs, daily–Including running errands, coordinating with contractors and vendors, managing children’s schedules, meal prep and daily home-related tasks.
Skills, Abilities and Experience:
The ideal candidate possesses and prioritize the following strengths and skills:
Quality Communication:
The Executive Assistant must be an excellent communicator, in both written and oral form. This includes proficiency in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This also includes being able to take a large amount of information and summarize it quickly both in writing and orally on a regular basis. You must also be able to track communication (and be extremely responsive) across multiple channels without losing any details. Those channels could include in-person meetings, virtual video calls, Slack messages, phone calls, text messages and/or emails.
High Level of Discretion:
Since our Executive Assistant will regularly work with confidential information, discretion and sensitivity is a must.
Team Player:
In addition to working directly with the CEO, the EA will also work closely with members of the Leadership, Content, and Marketing Teams. They’ll need to be able to collaborate and communicate well with these team members, maintaining a can-do spirit and not complaining, making excuses, or gossiping.
Anticipating Needs:
As a part of our commitment to enabling our CEO to serve our company and customers at the top of her game, our EA will strive to anticipate needs and eliminate friction at work and home whenever possible. This means you know how to stay ten steps ahead of your leader, anticipating how plans might go awry, having contingencies in place and clearing the path for her to make her greatest contribution.
Affinity for Technology:
Our EA will be a technologically savvy Mac user and will not be intimidated by learning new technology. Proficiency in the following tech platforms is ideal: Slack, Zoom, Google Suite, AirTable, Asana, Microsoft Office Suite.
Qualifications:
- Education: Bachelor’s degree, preferred.
- Experience: 2-5 years supporting c-suite executive(s)
- Physical: Ability to bend, reach, and lift boxes and garden supplies up to 50 lbs. Willingness to use power tools.
- Job Type: Full Time, Salaried
Application Instructions:
If you’d like to be considered for this role please submit the following as quick as possible via email to careers@gardenary.com:
- Cover letter and PDF of your resume
- Answers to the following questions via email:
- Why do you think you are the best fit for this position?
- We are looking for someone who takes ownership. Give us 3 reasons why that is you.
- Here is a link to Nicole’s inbox. How would you tackle this?
- Nicole has an event for her daughter at 9 AM. Nicole is trying to meet with her speech coach for her soon approaching event, and the Coach has limited time. She also needs to meet with the team to plan for the coming week. All this is occurring on Friday morning. How would you go about managing the schedule?
- I have attached a screenshot of Nicole’s calendar for the day, How would you best prepare her for that day and support her throughout the day?
- Nicole wants to introduce herself to another entrepreneur with the hopes of creating an affiliate partnership. Please write an introductory email on behalf of Nicole that tells a little bit about herself and the company and makes it compelling for the person to want to reply. The email can be three paragraphs long.
- Nicole has a family emergency and needs to change her calendar for the day. Write a task list of things you would prioritize to be sure all bases are covered. Also, write an email that you would share with team members for that day and a plan for any meetings she had scheduled that will need to be changed.
- Nicole needs to travel for a trip where she will be the main speaker. List five things you would do to help her prepare for that trip.
- A 3-minute video introduction. (We will not review videos longer than 3 minutes. Please ensure the video is viewable to anyone with the link.
Although we permit “side gigs” / work outside this role, it must not compete or overlap with the work we do, or interfere with your role and responsibilities within the team. This role needs to be highly responsive and available to meet the needs of the CEO.
If you want to step into a role with a great opportunity, you enjoy knowing all the details, and you have an action-oriented and proactive working style, this just might be the role for you!
*Please note, applicants must reside within the greater Nashville area.
Want to learn a little bit more about us? Keep reading!
Meet Nicole:
Nicole Johnsey Burke, the founder of Gardenary, Inc., and the author of Kitchen Garden Revival, is on a mission to bring back the kitchen revival garden and make it an ordinary part of life for everyone, no matter their level of gardening experience. Since starting her own kitchen garden business in 2015, Burke and her company have built hundreds of kitchen gardens, taught thousands of students to create their own through her online courses and Gardenary 365, and trained hundreds of garden consultants through the Garden Coach Society. Her work has been featured by Southern Living, This Old House, Modern Farmer, and the Garden Club of America. She believes kitchen gardens are a step that everyone can take to create positive change. To find more tips and tricks for building your own kitchen garden, visit her online at www.gardenary.com and download the Gardenary app from your favorite app store.
Gardenary Perks & Pay:
Check out some of the amazing perks of working for Gardenary! We're fast-paced and rapidly growing, but these awesome perks help just a little too:
- Generous PTO and Sick Leave – Working hard is crucial, but rest is too! We prioritize both here at Gardenary. Here’s how we support that:
- 3 Weeks Discretionary PTO
- 10 Wellness Days
- Paid Holidays – We offer 12 paid holidays per year!
- Summer Week of Rest – What would it be like to experience a solid week of no work texts, emergency calls, or messages to answer when you return? Glorious, right?! That’s why we completely shut down for the first week of July. This allows us all to fully unplug at the same time and jump back in together, feeling fully refreshed and ready to go!
- Healthcare Reimbursement – Gardenary offers a $500/month healthcare reimbursement.
- Retirement Savings Plan – We know our greatest asset is our team. That’s why we provide our eligible full-time employees the opportunity to enroll in our 401(k) plan to save for the future. We also offer a generous 401k match.
- 100% of your deferrals up to 3% of your compensation; plus
- 50% of your deferrals over 3% but that do not exceed 5% of your compensation.
- Position Salary: $70,000-$80,000, based on experience