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The Most Important Hire You’re Not Making: Executive Assistants

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In his latest Forbes article, Chad Willardson—President & Founder of Pacific Capital and ELEVATED—makes a compelling case for one of the most overlooked hires in entrepreneurship: the executive assistant (EA). Drawing from his own leadership experience and the systems he’s developed, Willardson explains why a high-level EA is not just an admin, but a force multiplier that protects your “genius zone” and unlocks exponential growth.

Key insights include:

  • The Hidden Cost of DIY Leadership: Founders waste high-leverage hours on low-value tasks, creating hidden bottlenecks and stalling momentum.
  • Delegation as Strategy: A great EA doesn’t just manage tasks—they create systems, anticipate needs, and keep strategic energy flowing.
  • Hiring at the Right Level: Underpaying or undervaluing the role leads to poor leverage. Treat the EA hire with the same rigor as a VP role.
  • The Dual-Assistant Model: Willardson shares his two-EA setup—splitting duties between relational and operational tasks to eliminate context switching and maximize bandwidth.
  • The Multiplier Effect: Protecting your time with the right hire frees up cognitive capacity to spot market shifts, drive innovation, and maintain work-life balance.

Bottom line: A world-class EA may be the highest-ROI investment a founder can make—not just for productivity, but for long-term business growth and personal freedom.

You can read the full article here.