From Assistant to Operations Manager: How My Client Grew a Right-Hand Woman in 14 Months

If every new client feels like more pressure… if you’re spending more time answering questions than making decisions… if getting sick for a few days means your inbox piles up, client messages go unanswered, and no one moves forward without your green light, something’s off.

Not with you. But with the setup.

This is exactly where my client found herself.

Her business was thriving on paper, multi-6 figures in revenue with 70% profit margins. She had a signature core offer, clear messaging, streamlined delivery… but still, every growth opportunity felt like a burden, not a blessing.

She built smart and lean, but it was time for support to match the scale.

She wasn’t just managing the business, she was the business. And there came a point where her capacity was the cap.

So we made one pivotal move: we hired her first executive assistant.

We Didn’t Start with an Operations Manager

One of the biggest misconceptions in the online business space is thinking you need to hire “big titles” too soon, an Integrator, an OBM, a COO, a project manager, when what you really need is someone to consistently execute the basics, someone who can grow with you.

But here’s what most people miss:

We didn’t hire an Operations Manager because the business wasn’t ready for that level of delegation.

My client wasn’t in a position to fully hand off decision-making yet and that’s a critical thing to understand about your business maturity and leadership preferences.

We wanted an EA to grow with her because—while yes, she was scaling—she wasn’t ready to let go of core decision-making, nor did the business require high-level strategy support from an internal team member just yet. What she needed was implementation support she could trust, someone who could own and evolve the day-to-day as she focused on revenue and lead generation.

Instead of hiring someone to “build systems” from scratch, she stayed in the driver's seat of core process creation.

Here’s what we did:

• She already had a process, how you’re currently doing something is the process.

• We had her complete a two-week time study where she tracked every task she did in the business, including how long it took.

• She recorded herself completing these tasks, and those recordings became the first version of her assistant’s training library.

This ensured that she was handing off things that were actually on her plate to buy back time, not just inventing work for an EA to do.

We hired the right level of support for the structure of the business and the level of management she wanted to lead with. That clarity is crucial, especially for coaching companies.

She trained her assistant slowly and intentionally. We set clear expectations. Started with task-based work. Documented every repeatable process. Focused on transferring not just tasks—but the decision-making associated with those tasks.

And month by month, that assistant grew.

From writing welcome emails, to managing client onboarding, to proactively solving problems before my client even noticed them.

14 months later?

She’s not just an assistant anymore. She’s the Operations Manager.

She thinks strategically. She owns outcomes. She protects the company’s integrity and boundaries—without needing hand-holding. She guards the CEO’s energy like it’s part of the job description (because it is).

It’s More Than Delegation. It’s Leadership.

That’s what it looks like to grow a right-hand woman.

Not just support, but shared stewardship.

This shift didn’t happen because my client hired a unicorn or found the perfect person. It happened because she was willing to lead. To document. To delegate. And to trust someone else to carry a piece of the weight.

The result? She’s no longer the bottleneck. And for the first time in a long time, she can dream again—not because she’s disconnected, but because she’s finally supported.

This is the kind of work I support my private clients with, whether we’re mapping out your next offer, redesigning your org chart, or helping you become the kind of leader your next level requires.

If you’re ready to stop holding it all alone, let’s talk.

👉 Join the Waitlist for Private Coaching

Or if you're wondering if you're ready for an assistant in the first place, this episode will help:

🎙️ How to Know if You Can Afford an Executive Assistant (Apple Podcasts)