Turn your assistant into a mind reader with the Atlas Executive Assistant Certification Program
Your EA will receive world class coaching so they can learn how to think & how to approach any situation thrown at them with confidence.
Who is it for:
Your (soon to be) Elite Executive Assistant
Program Length: 8 Week Program
Time Commitment from your EA: 2-3 hours each week
Time Commitment from you, the executive: 0.5 - 1 hour each week
From Pulling My Hair Out to Having an Assistant Who Reads My Mind
From: Zion Kim
Founder & CEO of Atlas Assistants
It took me TWO years to replace my longtime Executive Assistant.
I still vividly remember the chaos:
Jumping between overflowing inboxes….
Calendar issues (where at times I was triple booked)…
Constant interruptions from my team, clients, and partners…
The days blurred together as I could feel myself burning out.
At its worst I honestly couldn’t even imagine there’d be any light at the end of the tunnel.
After a few failed hires, I figured I had to recruit from “the big leagues” and I hired assistants from top companies like Microsoft and Intel.
I even hired one who had worked with a billionaire…
…but one after the other, they all failed to meet my expectations.
They came with a ton of bad habits on how they thought things should work and were not open to feedback on how I needed things done.
One even quit because I asked for help in my personal life, although it’s just what I needed to get through the week.
Were my standards too high?
My standards:
Donna from Suits – Harvey Specter’s Assistant
And
Pepper Potts from Iron Man – Tony Stark’s Assistant
Ok sure, maybe they are a little high…
AS THEY SHOULD BE
…but at the same time I had scars from multiple bad experiences that I ended up severely limiting what I gave to each subsequent person I hired to fill the role of my EA.
After 2 years, I hired Jen.
Jen had worked with a couple entrepreneurs before me so I was hopeful she would finally be the right fit.
She wasn’t as experienced as the previous hires but she was HUNGRY.
She dove straight in and was willing to take on any request. Her attitude was amazing but I quickly realized that she had no idea how to truly support an executive.
Jen had previous bosses, but they were really poor mentors who didn’t do a great job of training her.
But she was incredibly receptive to feedback and rarely had to be told something more than once before making the necessary adjustments.
She got better and better each week through training & feedback until finally I felt that she truly was an extension of me.
After a year, she grew into an absolute rockstar and it was obvious to anyone who interacted with me or the business. Other entrepreneurs and executives asked me all the time where they could find their own “Jen.”
I told them that finding a person with the right attitude was actually the easy half of the battle.
Jen has a great attitude and work ethic but we had to work together to create a system that worked for both of us.
With Jen, and every EA I’ve had since Jen, I tell them something on their first day:
“I know you’re going to leave one day. The only thing I expect is for you to train the next person for me.
I know you will be successful, when I don’t feel that anything has actually changed.”
In this case, Jen received a promotion to another role within the company.
While I was so proud of her growth & incredibly happy to offer her a greater opportunity, it also meant that I was on the hunt for a new EA again.
Once I hired a new assistant, Jen did her best to train her.
And even though the fundamentals & best practices did get passed on, I still had to step in to give feedback every day to my new EA.
I realized that I was pretty far from having a system that was thorough enough to make this transition completely seamless.
Here’s the thing…
EAs learn individualized (unique to each executive) work styles, not standardized frameworks and best practices.
EAs are NOT consultants.
Unfortunately, most executives & entrepreneurs do not have an actual system for onboarding and training an EA.
As a result, both the EA and the executive have to figure things out “on the fly” and guess at how to best work together.
Core problems like these rarely get solved because, honestly, when do people as busy as us ever have time to work on a system that will let someone else support us?
Most days it feels like there’s barely enough time between constantly working both “in” and “on” our business.
The worst part?
The only guarantee you have here is that one day you will have a new EA.
When your current EA leaves, all their understanding of your unique preferences, the nuances of how you operate, and how to best manage all the processes will ALL leave with them.
Which puts you back at square one.
The cost and pain of starting over with a new EA is so great that many executives will keep a mediocre (at best) EA around for months or years longer than they should instead of trying to find a new one.
I started Atlas Assistants to solve this problem.
I set out to help amazing people hire and train executive assistants who would become their secret weapon.
I wanted to build a proven system that would allow an entrepreneur to plug their EA into so they would be effective on day one and get better with every passing week.
When I enrolled the first clients for our EA placement agency, I shared this one fact on nearly every sales call:
👌🏻 I needed a system that would not LEAVE when the EA left but rather would stay with the executive and, in fact, would improve with every new EA that came into it.
Most entrepreneurs really suck at training people on how to support them. It’s the blind leading the blind because they’re not exactly sure what their EA should be doing for them or if they’re really leveraging their EA the best way…
…and most of the EAs out there?
They were trained by another entrepreneur or executive who’s just as lost as anyone else…
🫠 The thing is... I knew I was in the same boat.
I knew I had figured out how to ensure that my EAs did a great job FOR ME…
… but I didn’t know if it was actually the BEST way for an EA to work with an executive.
I needed a system that would work not just for my EA, but for every single one of our clients as well.
It needed to be repeatable and duplicatable but also customizable to fit each individual executive.
👌🏻 I needed a system that would not LEAVE when the EA left but rather would stay with the executive and, in fact, would improve with every new EA that came into it.
I knew there had to be a better way.
One day, I came across coaching frameworks from Matt Mochary, who works with leading Silicon Valley investors and unicorns. I took a quick glance at his bio:
🚀 The CEOs that Matt coaches or has coached include those at Attentive, Brex, ClickUp, Coinbase, Confluent, Discord, Faire, Flexport, Front, Grammarly, Notion, OpenAI, Opendoor, OpenSea, Plaid, Postmates, Reddit, Rippling, Robinhood, Scale, Viz, WhatNot and Worldcoin.
The investors that he coaches or has coached include managing partners at Sequoia, YC,Benchmark, General Catalyst, Kleiner, Greenoaks, Lachy Groom, Venrock, Felicis, Floodgate and Amity.
I was blown away.
I couldn’t believe I had never heard of him.
After looking further into his coaching, I learned that he won’t even work with you until you have a Chief of Staff or an executive assistant already in place.
I read through every single one of his company’s resources for operators, Chiefs of Staff, and Executive Assistants.
I discovered that all of these resources were created by Matt’s first Chief of Staff (who eventually became his COO) — Regina Gerbeaux.
Regina became the go-to person for many of the top people in the world on what an EA should actually do, how to onboard them, and how to train an EA on how to think.
I want to share with you one of the things that really hit me:
This means learning how to think like them, make decisions like them, and prioritize for them. When fully aligned, the EA’s brain essentially becomes a clone of their Executive’s.
Then she shared a story of what Matt was looking for… it was so impactful she wrote it on a post it note
“It might depend on your Exec’s definition of “Superhuman,” but it’s pretty clear in my relationship with Matt: I have to enable him to do all the things he cares about.”
After I read this, Regina became my DREAM person to help me build trainings for our EAs.
Who could be better than the talent developer behind some of the most elite EAs and Chiefs of Staff out there?
There’s a cool manifestation story on how we got connected, but I’ll save that for another day…
Once we were connected, she started to give us feedback on our processes & made instant (and massive!) upgrades to how we do things.
One day…
🚀 I asked Regina if she wanted to build the best training for Executive Assistants in the WORLD.
She laughed and said: “Well if we aren’t going to make it the best, what’s the point of even doing it?”
Me when she agreed:
I’m extremely excited to share this with you…
We are combining Regina’s years of experience with our battle-tested systems.
To date we’ve matched and onboarded EAs with over a hundred 7 and 8 figure entrepreneurs.
We’ve extracted the key learnings from the sum of those experiences to create the Atlas Executive Management System (Atlas EMS).
The Atlas Executive Management System (Atlas EMS)
Designed to transform the relationship between executives and their assistants into a finely tuned, high-performance partnership.
We realized a successful partnership has four core pillars:
1. Goal & Vision Alignment
Problem: Expectations from the executive assistant role are often unclear & lead to uncommunicated needs. This misalignment creates frustration and gets in the way of the EA’s ability to provide strategic support.
🎯 Objective:
✅ Approach:
2. Proactive Partnership
Problem: Most assistants don’t receive proper onboarding to understand how their executives prioritize and make decisions. This limits the EA’s ability to provide proactive strategic support.
🎯 Objective:
Create clear structures for assistants to be able to act proactively instead of reactively.
✅ Approach:
Implement shadowing, feedback loops, and regular review sessions to regularly work on the relationship & make sure the executive and the EA are always on the same page.
3. Standardized Systems
Problem: Most assistants do not have proven systems on how to work with their executive. Critical knowledge gets lost during each transition between assistants.
🎯 Objective:
✅ Approach:
Install a comprehensive suite of best practices, workflows, and systems (for example, Inbox Zero, Calendar Management, and Communication Rituals).
Document them in a way that new EAs can easily absorb the knowledge. This will preserve the knowledge and minimize disruption.
4. Ongoing Growth & Development
Problem: Assistants can’t take on more tasks or grow in their roles without specific training. This limits how well they can adjust to their executive’s changing needs.
🎯 Objective:
✅ Approach:
Offer ongoing training and mentorship opportunities, including advanced communication and conflict resolution, to empower EAs to grow with their executives (and potentially even advance within the organization).
🙌🏻 After many months of planning and having now run our first couple of “beta” cohorts — we have now released our full Executive Assistant Accelerator program. This is where we will train your EA on how to roll out the entire Executive Management System (EMS) alongside you in your business.
The Atlas Executive Assistant Accelerator provides in-depth training for your EA on how to implement a version of the EMS that is customized to best suit you.
Over 8 weeks, we equip them to smoothly install the key workflows, rituals, and systems that make high-performance support repeatable and sustainable.
The Atlas EMS empowers ANY EA to quickly plug into a structured framework for managing an executive.
Our systems and workflows are based on proven best practices refined over years of experience with leading entrepreneurs.
What can you expect?
Let’s go back to what you actually want.
Remember these two?
In our second lesson of the program, we demonstrate how to embody the essence of an epic executive assistant (and the very things that make Donna and Pepper Potts amazing)...
Compare how most EAs operate versus how you want your EA to operate:
Focus | Most EAs | What You Actually Want |
---|---|---|
Proactive Resourcefulness | ❌ “Can you tell me what to do, exactly to a tee? Also, I’m not going to think ahead unless you tell me to.” | ✅ “I want someone to be two steps ahead of me” |
Problem Solving & Decision Making (Getting sh*t done) | ❌ “Help me with every single problem. I don’t know what to do. What do I do next?” | ✅ “I want my EA to make decisions as if I were making them” |
Attention to Detail | ❌ “Oops, sorry! I made a mistake!” (For the fifth time.) | ✅ “I don’t want to have to double check everything my EA does.” |
Communication & Clarity | ❌ “Sorry, I’m just not very confident in my decisions, and I have a hard time telling you that I don’t have enough information to do this task.” | ✅ “I want someone to talk like me, if not better.” |
Workflows & systems | ❌ “I’m really overwhelmed with all the things you’re asking me to juggle and not really sure how to prioritize.” | ✅ “I want my EA to be clear on what they should actually be doing every day.” |
I mean let’s be honest this is exactly what you want:
How do we get there?
Part 1: The Coaching
Your EA will attend a weekly hour long mentorship call to learn new skills, expand their understanding of how they can best support you, get their questions answered, and learn from the experience of all the other EAs on the calls each week:
1. Your EA will be able to attend one, 90 minute bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) mentorship call with Regina.
2. Your EA will have access to 3 open office hours sessions per week with our EA Mentor team
Meet your instructors:
Regina Gerbeaux
Regina Gerbeaux is the executive coach for top-tier CEOs, Operators, and Investors.
She is best known for her work as an operator scaling companies in both size (10→100+ employees) and revenue (10x and greater.) Her open-sourced write-ups on Operational Excellence and how to run a scaling company have been viral hits across Silicon Valley.
Most recently, Regina was the Chief of Staff to Matt Mochary, who is the coach to the CEOs of Coinbase, Brex, and more.
Matt chose Regina to become his first student on how to coach using the Mochary Method Curriculum, and within five months, she became one of the most sought-after coaches.
Through this experience, she built a strong community to exchange tactical solutions with that included operators from Sonder, Snapdocs, WhatNot, Legend, and Sword Health.
Regina became COO of Mochary Method in 2022, where she managed the internal engineering, product, and design team. She was also responsible for developing the all-in-one operating system.
Before Mochary Method, Regina was the Head of Operations at On Deck, where she launched 10+ fellowships and helped to 10x their revenue on their way to a successful $20M Series A raise. She also exited a bootstrapped music business she founded in college that hit $1M of annual recurring revenue by the time she was 20.
Zion Kim
Zion Kim is the founder of Atlas Assistants, a company that specializes in hiring, training, and onboarding world class executive assistants.
Prior to founding Atlas, Zion has advised hundreds of entrepreneurs and thought leaders as an early stage investor, advisor, and fractional CEO in online mentorship companies including The Budgetnista, Preston Smiles, Danielle Leslie, and Jess Lenouvel (Listings Lab).
As the Co-Founder of Kaboom Coaching, Zion has mentored thousands of coaches and as the Chief Strategy Officer of the World Business and Executive Coach Summit, he ran the largest online conference for coaches in the world.
Previously, he has transformed marketing departments with industry leaders in mortgage, lawn care, specialty insurance, and global tech firms (including Dell).
His mission with Atlas is to help entrepreneurs build their businesses around their zone of genius & enable them to focus their time doing things that they love.
Zion lives in Lisbon, Portugal, and is a new father to his 1-year-old daughter, Zaya and is an avid collector of rare crystals.
Part 2: The Program
Over 8 weeks, we will equip your EA to operate as an invaluable strategic partner to you who will be able to install a new system or process into your business each week.
Week 1: EA Role Alignment and Expectations
✅ Define the scope of responsibilities and key outcomes
✅ Set clear expectations via EA Role Scorecard
✅ Assess competence in each area to create development goals
✅ How to cultivate a proactive mindset
✅ REVEALED: What makes Donna and Pepper such EPIC EAs?
🔑 System Installation: Finalize and roll out the EA Role Scorecard
Week 2: Strategic Alignment
✅ Create 30, 60, and 90 day strategic plans tied to executive goals
✅ Establish a consistent feedback process to foster safe & open two-way communication
✅ How to build trust
✅ How to show up with solutions instead of problems: 1-3-1 rule
✅ Design system-agnostic task tracking framework
✅ Set up centralized task management with categories
🔑 System Installation:
- 30/60/90 day strategic plan
- Agreements Tracker (task management)
- Feedback Ritual
Week 3: Delegate Your Inbox - Inbox Zero System
✅ Install the “Inbox Zero” system to manage the executive’s email
✅ Reporting on the inbox to minimize executive’s time spent in inbox
✅ Taking proactive action on emails and follow thru on open items
✅ Documenting all inbox preferences and management SOPs
🔑 System Installation: Inbox Zero System
Week 4: Delegate Your Calendar - Calendar Management System
✅ Design the executive’s ideal week to balance Self-care, Focus, Meetings, and time off
✅ Creating customized rules for scheduling things in the executive’s calendar
✅ Conducting Daily Calendar Proofing
✅ Weekly calendar & time analysis and audit for top goal alignment
✅ Documenting all calendar preferences and management SOPs
🔑 System Installation: Calendar Management System
Week 5: Daily and Weekly Communication Rituals
✅ Enable alignment and clarity through consistent start of day, end of day, and weekly reports
✅ Running Effective Executive Weekly 1:1’s
✅ Track lessons learned for continuous improvement
✅ Documenting all SOD/EOD/EOW templates with examples [Start Of Day, End of Day, End of Week]
🔑 System Installation: Implement new daily reporting rhythms and weekly 1:1’s
Week 6: Helping Your Executive Get More Done
✅ Document all recurring tasks and SOPs in knowledge base
✅ Apply different frameworks to help executive complete their top priorities
✅ ABCDE Framework
✅ Sacred Six
✅ Ivy Method
✅ 10-80-10 rule
🔑 System Installation: Roll out executive prioritization system
Week 7: Executive Atlas - Documenting EVERYTHING
✅ Create a support checklist with all recurring tasks, processes, and systems (daily, weekly, monthly, etc)
✅ Document all SOPs in knowledge base
✅ Map critical business processes end-to-end
🔑 System Installation: Documentation of everything in your Executive Atlas so nothing slips through the cracks with your current EA (plus it allows for seamless onboarding for any future EA you may have)
The Only GUARANTEE you have is that one day you will have a different EA.
Whether they get promoted or they leave or you let them go — make sure that everything they know about you doesn’t disappear when they exit from the role
Week 8: Travel Management
✅ Business vs personal travel
✅ How to shift calendars and make sure executives are completely ready for ALL travel
✅ How to book flights, accommodations, transportation, and lifestyle desires
🔑 System Installation: Checklists for before, during, and on the day of travel
Part 3: The Community (for your EA)
Live support in our private community of elite executive assistants from all around the world.
In between calls, your EA will be able to ask any questions, about anything, at any time in an exclusive community for Executive Assistants.
Your EA will get to meet other EA’s working with 7+ figure CEOs.
They can learn what’s working (& not working) for other Executive Assistants in various industries.
You’ll also get…
✅ Atlas HomeOS Management System
Templates and step by step instructions to create systems to manage your home
Create a fridge, pantry, and toiletries restock list (NEVER have to replace your own toilet paper or toothpaste ever again)
How to find, compensate, and onboard a competent & trustworthy house manager
🔑 System Installation: Home Management System
You after your EA implements the Atlas Executive Management System
Investment: $3,500
or
Payment Plan Option available — two payments of $2,000
NOTE:
Current Cohort In Session.
Next Cohort Start Date Announcing Soon!
Join The Waitlist For Free Now:
Not Sure If The Atlas EMS Is Right For You?
Frequently Asked Questions
How much time will this program take each week?
Your EA should expect to commit 2-3 hours per week during the length of this program.
Executives should set aside 30-60 minutes per week to engage with the program alongside their EA to learn about the implementation of the new systems.
Can my EA & I move through the program faster?
Yes, you can move as quickly through the program. There are 8 weeks worth of self-directed content for your EA to go through but there are 12 weeks worth of coaching & support to make sure there is plenty of time to properly install all of the systems.
Plus there are intentionally crafted sets of action items for each week, so there is buffer space to ensure everything can get integrated without you (the executive) or your EA getting overwhelmed.
We’re mindful that you still have a plate of full work every day so extra time was built in. But if your EA has the bandwidth to get through the content faster, go for it! Everything will be available to your EA starting on day 1.
What if my EA or I cannot make one of the live sessions?
All sessions are recorded and will be made available for participants to view at their convenience. However, we encourage live attendance to make the most of the interactive elements and personalized Q&A opportunities.
Will there be any support after the program ends?
Yes, graduates will continue to have access to the community of EAs where they can receive ongoing support, share their experiences, and access resources.
We have multiple EAs on our team. Can they all go through the program together when we register or is there a separate fee for each EA?
Because we offer the ability for all EAs to receive individual support through the coaching calls, mentorship calls, and the online community, the investment for the program is for a single EA.
Your company can register multiple EAs for the program to match the number of team members you would like to access our coaching, resources, and community.
What is the cancellation/refund policy?
We offer a full satisfaction guarantee. If after attending the first two sessions, you (or your EA) feel the program isn’t the right fit, we will provide a full refund.
How do I know whether I need to totally replace my current EA or if I just need to give my current EA better training & support?
There are a few questions to ask yourself here:
Does your EA have a history of growing? Do you believe that if you invest in them, that they will continue to grow?
Do you envision your current EA being able to grow fast enough to keep up as your right hand person as you & your business continue to grow?
If you believe their shortcomings have more to do with failures to fully set them up to succeed, then it is likely they can develop into a high level performer once they are given needed systems and support.
Note:
This program is designed so that all the systems will stay with you & your business regardless of how long your current EA stays in the role.
It is a guarantee that one day you will have a different EA. Once installed, your current EA or any future EA can step in to manage them as the documentation, organization, and SOPs that comes with these systems are tight.
No, Atlas Assistants does not believe in locking our clients into long-term contracts. We ask for a 30 day notice since there are humans involved!
Our executive assistants are strategically located to serve clients across US time zones. We work diligently to match you with an assistant who aligns with your preferred working hours and availability.
Our assistants hail from diverse regions, but all are proficient in English and have experience serving US-based clientele. We aim to match you with an assistant that aligns with your communication style and cultural context.
We always recommend a primary and secondary communication channel. Our Founder Zion, uses Slack and WhatsApp and he will use which ever one is up. From there, his assistant knows exactly how to process every item so it makes it to the right place.
Atlas Assistants has a rigorous 7 step selection process. Candidates undergo thorough interviews, skill assessments, and background checks to ensure we onboard only top-notch executive assistants.
We offer continuous support for both clients and EAs. This includes regular check-ins, bi-weekly workshops, feedback sessions, and providing resources to enhance the working relationship.
While SOPs can be beneficial, they aren’t mandatory. Our assistants are adept at understanding your workflow and can help create SOPs if you desire.
Our EAs come with significant experience and require minimal training. However, for specific tasks unique to your business, you will be asked to record videos to download your best practices to your new Atlas Assistant.
Absolutely! If, for any reason, you feel the match is not perfect, we’ll facilitate a smooth transition to another executive assistant better suited to your needs.