Recruiter for the High Net Worth Interviewed by BBC News
Assistant for sports star
Do you have what it takes to be an Executive Personal Assistant and Lifestyle Manager to a sports star? Brian Daniel, Headhunter to the Stars, weighs in on the discipline and the dedication needed to deal with the star and his lawyers, publicity agents, talent management, extended family, and business managers. Not to mention that this particular sports star needs management of his global brand and products.
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
Well, I did see the advert (job ad). I read through it quickly and my first impression was that he's not paying enough money for the personal assistant job.
So it says 50,000 to 60,000 British pounds, which is a reasonable amount for an average PA, but the fact is he looking for someone who's basically going to be a hybrid position, which means he wants an executive assistant at a personal assistant and he wants them 24 hours a day.
So it's a very demanding role to say the least. Is this usual then for PA to do tasks like creating a global brand for
sport star as well as watering the plants? Yes and no. Here's the problem. These roles typically now for celebrities do
become very demanding, and more and more I'm seeing these kinds of situations where they're looking for an
all-in-one person.
But the problem is here's the rub. If you will.. they... It's going to be very difficult to find someone who has the chops to do the kind of role that the executive assistant side demands, and then have them be willing to roll their sleeves up and hop over the fence, so to speak, and, you know be picking up the dry cleaning and do the dishes and things like that. It's a lot of errand running.
So and these kinds of situations in my business we call that "combat pay". And typically in a situation like that you're definitely going to be looking at about $150,000 salary for this kind of expertise. Give us an insight, Brian, into what it's like to be a PA to a big sports star. Do you ever get any time off? It seems as though in this role you have to do absolutely everything.
It's a 24/7 job. It is. It's a 24/7 job and it's an a-to-z job. Now you have to have what we call very thick skin. So it is going to be demanding in the sense that you're going to be dealing with all the business contacts for the sports star. So you're going to be dealing with a publicity reps, the management for the team, the lawyers, the doctors, and everything else... and then, you know, you're going to be having to manage the domestic staff at the different estates.
Then you have to handle all the personal side, which is going to be booking travel plans, and it's what we call lifestyle management. So in a situation like that if you're not cooking at home, they are going to say, well, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday start booking us reservations at the top restaurants that we like to go to. Of course the restaurants where all of the celebrities go. And it's very common for the other family members and even the extended family members to get involved in these sort of situations.
So, for example, the mother might say: "Well, I don't like that restaurant, and then you will have to book what we call three or four deep. So you have to book at several different restaurants because you don't know which ones are going to pick. And the problem is, you know, you're going to have to get a table at the hottest restaurant in town, and they're going to want an eight top, and it's a very difficult thing to do.
And so you have to... You know, when I was working for the Royal Saudi family, for example, I would have to do that sort of situation, and you have to stop by the restaurant and you're going to have to pay off the manager because they know the person's probably not going to show up, and then I wasted that table sitting empty for an hour or two.
What's the strangest request you've ever had then, Brian, from one of your clients? The strangest request I ever had was at 8:00 on Friday night, they wanted me to get a movie theater for them. They wanted... it was a brand new movie.
It was a hit movie, and the in the show was sold out. And of course, they're the only ones that are allowed to be in there, cuz we're talking, you know, extreme VIP situation with a sports star and they don't want people gawking and taking pictures for the glamour magazines.
So I had to tell the manager I need that theater and what I need you to do is refund all of the patrons and tell them that the projector broke down. And he started laughing and he said under no circumstances can I do that. I said, the circumstances are I'm willing to pay you $5,000 if you do it, and he did it. And what we did was they emptied the
theater and they put a sign on the door saying, you know, the projector has malfunctioned, and then we stuck the VIPs in the side door through the back in a separate secrete entrance. It was the real Hollywood star treatment.
And, so, the patrons never even knew that, you know, there was a major a A-list star right behind that door with his family watching a movie. Wow, that is series power, isn't it? Absolutely. When you are in this role, Brian, some of the roles I think seem quite demeaning on paper. Do you have to leave your ego out of this job? Absolutely. Absolutely. This is not the job for anyone faint of heart. Now, one of the biggest problems when filling these celebrity assistant roles...
It's finding someone, one, that has the ability; but two, perhaps this is the harder part, it's the sacrifice. You have to find someone that has the skill-set and the thick skin, and they have to be willing, as you said, to leave their ego at the door. Because it's not about the money. There are plenty of people say that I will work for a hundred fifty thousand U.S. a year.
But as soon as they start getting calls from the celebrity at 2:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning... come make me a milkshake, and you get these really unbelievable, ridiculous requests. That's where a lot of people fall apart. And when you start, you know, your working day, and you've only had three or four hours of sleep, and you got a 15 or 16-hour day ahead of you. Most assistants just can't hack it.
So the turnover must be extremely high. You must be tempted at some point to say, I don't want to deal with this guy anymore. I don't want the ego. I'm leaving this job. Yeah, so basically what my job is as a headhunter, because I've been in those kinds of roles myself, I understand the kind of personality, and what kind of thick skin it takes.
So when you're dealing up my level, because I'm dealing exclusively with billionaires and celebrities and so forth. I do a very rigorous interview process, and unless someone has even been doing the job for 5 to 10 years and, you know,
unless they have some really strong recommendations... I don't even consider interviewing them, because a lot of people say, oh, I would love to work for this VIP, but they're star-struck. And what assistants have to realize is, this is a business. It is absolutely a business and you can't be star-struck. And it's all about putting on your business hat and leaving, you know, not being a fan.
And, frankly, after you've worked for people for several years, for several years, You'll realize their public persona is usually quite different than the actual reality. So a lot of people they understand that and they don't mind working
for a hundred fifty thousand salary or two hundred thousand U.S. a year Because, basically, what they're doing is, like a squirrel they're putting all their nuts in the bank and, you know, they're going to wait for that day they can retire early and, you know, hopefully it will have all been worth it.
What would you say, then, to someone who is tempted to apply for this role is the PA to this sports star? I would say you have to do a lot of homework and read through the job description quite carefully, because a lot of people,
conceptually, they think... Oh, I have the skills. I can do that. But, you know, they're looking for someone who's going to be a brand manager. They need someone who can manage domestic staff. You have to be a whiz, an absolute wizard, with Microsoft Office Suite because you're going to be doing heavy calendar management, and you're going to have to program Excel spreadsheets. And unless you can hit it out of the park and be a 10 or 11 skill set with these kind of situations...
There's no point in even applying. So if you just want to be friends with a sports star, if you just want to hang out with celebrities, if that's why want to apply, you'd say forget it. It's going to be it's going to be in the resume. I mean, unless you're you have a very deep resume with some strong recommendations from some prior celebrities or VIPs. That you've worked for... or a high-net-worth family at you're not even going to get a call.
I mean, I'm certain about that. In this case, in this job description, it was identified that the Personal Assistant that they were looking for was for a football star. Is it unusual for celebrities to be identified when they looking for these
roles? Yes, that part of it did catch my attention because typically the employers that might come through me, for example, they need a third-party recruiter or headhunter because they want to insulate themselves from the onslaught of CVs and resumes that they're going to get. So it is possible that this client, although I don't want to make any assumptions.
He might be doing some sort of publicity stunt because it is certainly very unusual and my business for someone to put their name on the advert like that.
We have all picked up on this because it's a high-profile footballer. Are these job ads out there all the time, for the celebrity personal assistants? One of the strange things that I've seen over the years, you know, I've been a
headhunter since 2007, but I've been working with celebrities for over 20 years. With the advent of the internet, a lot of celebrities are attempting to do hire a PA by themselves. So they'll open a job ad, but 99% of the time it's going to say
"confidential employer" and then they'll put as much information in the advert as they can without revealing too much.
So I'm inclined to say perhaps that he did take out a secret advert already and wasn't able to find the person he wanted. So to boost the profile of the job ad, you know, he put his name on there... This is just a theory of mine, and perhaps he's going to go for round 2 and see if he can get some more qualified candidates.
One thing I really wanted to ask you about, Brian, is confidentiality. You must see some things the general public would not even believe about these celebrities, about these sports stars. How difficult is it to keep things confidential?
Well as first and foremost, I want to say that it's standard operating procedure now to sign an NDA: non-disclosure agreement. That's the first thing the clients do before they even tell me anything,
I have to sign the contract and then all of the assistants who are interviewing for the position have to sign a contract. They are quite thick now, because over the years we've been seeing all these scandalous situations where PA tells all, nanny tells all, and they're writing books and their on some talk show.
So the celebrities have gotten wise to it, and their attorneys are quite savvy and you're basically not allowed to disclose a single thing that you ever saw. You have to take all those secrets to the grave with you. So you can't be a gossip do this job. Absolutely. Yeah, it's all about business, as I said before.
So a lot of the seasoned personal assistants that have been doing it 5, 10, 20 years... They already know what they're getting themselves into. They already know that the public persona is going to be totally different and they're willing to kind of bend their own rules, so to speak, in order to get that paycheck so they can retire early on that on that nice tropical island.
And, interestingly, Brian, the job description has been withdrawn now, which perhaps shows that they made a mistake in the advert, putting his name to it. That's possible. I don't want to draw any conclusions, but it does say the job's no longer available.
I just noticed that when I refreshed the page and perhaps they got some sort of whiplash effect that they weren't expecting because some news outlets have picked up on the story, and it's pretty easy, even if you're polite, to constructively criticize this ad because basically what they're asking for and what they're willing to pay, I think they're miles apart.
Personally, I don't think he would be able to fill the position at 60,000 British pounds a year.
Well, I did see the advert (job ad). I read through it quickly and my first impression was that he's not paying enough money for the personal assistant job.
So it says 50,000 to 60,000 British pounds, which is a reasonable amount for an average PA, but the fact is he looking for someone who's basically going to be a hybrid position, which means he wants an executive assistant at a personal assistant and he wants them 24 hours a day.
So it's a very demanding role to say the least. Is this usual then for PA to do tasks like creating a global brand for
sport star as well as watering the plants? Yes and no. Here's the problem. These roles typically now for celebrities do
become very demanding, and more and more I'm seeing these kinds of situations where they're looking for an
all-in-one person.
But the problem is here's the rub. If you will.. they... It's going to be very difficult to find someone who has the chops to do the kind of role that the executive assistant side demands, and then have them be willing to roll their sleeves up and hop over the fence, so to speak, and, you know be picking up the dry cleaning and do the dishes and things like that. It's a lot of errand running.
So and these kinds of situations in my business we call that "combat pay". And typically in a situation like that you're definitely going to be looking at about $150,000 salary for this kind of expertise. Give us an insight, Brian, into what it's like to be a PA to a big sports star. Do you ever get any time off? It seems as though in this role you have to do absolutely everything.
It's a 24/7 job. It is. It's a 24/7 job and it's an a-to-z job. Now you have to have what we call very thick skin. So it is going to be demanding in the sense that you're going to be dealing with all the business contacts for the sports star. So you're going to be dealing with a publicity reps, the management for the team, the lawyers, the doctors, and everything else... and then, you know, you're going to be having to manage the domestic staff at the different estates.
Then you have to handle all the personal side, which is going to be booking travel plans, and it's what we call lifestyle management. So in a situation like that if you're not cooking at home, they are going to say, well, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday start booking us reservations at the top restaurants that we like to go to. Of course the restaurants where all of the celebrities go. And it's very common for the other family members and even the extended family members to get involved in these sort of situations.
So, for example, the mother might say: "Well, I don't like that restaurant, and then you will have to book what we call three or four deep. So you have to book at several different restaurants because you don't know which ones are going to pick. And the problem is, you know, you're going to have to get a table at the hottest restaurant in town, and they're going to want an eight top, and it's a very difficult thing to do.
And so you have to... You know, when I was working for the Royal Saudi family, for example, I would have to do that sort of situation, and you have to stop by the restaurant and you're going to have to pay off the manager because they know the person's probably not going to show up, and then I wasted that table sitting empty for an hour or two.
What's the strangest request you've ever had then, Brian, from one of your clients? The strangest request I ever had was at 8:00 on Friday night, they wanted me to get a movie theater for them. They wanted... it was a brand new movie.
It was a hit movie, and the in the show was sold out. And of course, they're the only ones that are allowed to be in there, cuz we're talking, you know, extreme VIP situation with a sports star and they don't want people gawking and taking pictures for the glamour magazines.
So I had to tell the manager I need that theater and what I need you to do is refund all of the patrons and tell them that the projector broke down. And he started laughing and he said under no circumstances can I do that. I said, the circumstances are I'm willing to pay you $5,000 if you do it, and he did it. And what we did was they emptied the
theater and they put a sign on the door saying, you know, the projector has malfunctioned, and then we stuck the VIPs in the side door through the back in a separate secrete entrance. It was the real Hollywood star treatment.
And, so, the patrons never even knew that, you know, there was a major a A-list star right behind that door with his family watching a movie. Wow, that is series power, isn't it? Absolutely. When you are in this role, Brian, some of the roles I think seem quite demeaning on paper. Do you have to leave your ego out of this job? Absolutely. Absolutely. This is not the job for anyone faint of heart. Now, one of the biggest problems when filling these celebrity assistant roles...
It's finding someone, one, that has the ability; but two, perhaps this is the harder part, it's the sacrifice. You have to find someone that has the skill-set and the thick skin, and they have to be willing, as you said, to leave their ego at the door. Because it's not about the money. There are plenty of people say that I will work for a hundred fifty thousand U.S. a year.
But as soon as they start getting calls from the celebrity at 2:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning... come make me a milkshake, and you get these really unbelievable, ridiculous requests. That's where a lot of people fall apart. And when you start, you know, your working day, and you've only had three or four hours of sleep, and you got a 15 or 16-hour day ahead of you. Most assistants just can't hack it.
So the turnover must be extremely high. You must be tempted at some point to say, I don't want to deal with this guy anymore. I don't want the ego. I'm leaving this job. Yeah, so basically what my job is as a headhunter, because I've been in those kinds of roles myself, I understand the kind of personality, and what kind of thick skin it takes.
So when you're dealing up my level, because I'm dealing exclusively with billionaires and celebrities and so forth. I do a very rigorous interview process, and unless someone has even been doing the job for 5 to 10 years and, you know,
unless they have some really strong recommendations... I don't even consider interviewing them, because a lot of people say, oh, I would love to work for this VIP, but they're star-struck. And what assistants have to realize is, this is a business. It is absolutely a business and you can't be star-struck. And it's all about putting on your business hat and leaving, you know, not being a fan.
And, frankly, after you've worked for people for several years, for several years, You'll realize their public persona is usually quite different than the actual reality. So a lot of people they understand that and they don't mind working
for a hundred fifty thousand salary or two hundred thousand U.S. a year Because, basically, what they're doing is, like a squirrel they're putting all their nuts in the bank and, you know, they're going to wait for that day they can retire early and, you know, hopefully it will have all been worth it.
What would you say, then, to someone who is tempted to apply for this role is the PA to this sports star? I would say you have to do a lot of homework and read through the job description quite carefully, because a lot of people,
conceptually, they think... Oh, I have the skills. I can do that. But, you know, they're looking for someone who's going to be a brand manager. They need someone who can manage domestic staff. You have to be a whiz, an absolute wizard, with Microsoft Office Suite because you're going to be doing heavy calendar management, and you're going to have to program Excel spreadsheets. And unless you can hit it out of the park and be a 10 or 11 skill set with these kind of situations...
There's no point in even applying. So if you just want to be friends with a sports star, if you just want to hang out with celebrities, if that's why want to apply, you'd say forget it. It's going to be it's going to be in the resume. I mean, unless you're you have a very deep resume with some strong recommendations from some prior celebrities or VIPs. That you've worked for... or a high-net-worth family at you're not even going to get a call.
I mean, I'm certain about that. In this case, in this job description, it was identified that the Personal Assistant that they were looking for was for a football star. Is it unusual for celebrities to be identified when they looking for these
roles? Yes, that part of it did catch my attention because typically the employers that might come through me, for example, they need a third-party recruiter or headhunter because they want to insulate themselves from the onslaught of CVs and resumes that they're going to get. So it is possible that this client, although I don't want to make any assumptions.
He might be doing some sort of publicity stunt because it is certainly very unusual and my business for someone to put their name on the advert like that.
We have all picked up on this because it's a high-profile footballer. Are these job ads out there all the time, for the celebrity personal assistants? One of the strange things that I've seen over the years, you know, I've been a
headhunter since 2007, but I've been working with celebrities for over 20 years. With the advent of the internet, a lot of celebrities are attempting to do hire a PA by themselves. So they'll open a job ad, but 99% of the time it's going to say
"confidential employer" and then they'll put as much information in the advert as they can without revealing too much.
So I'm inclined to say perhaps that he did take out a secret advert already and wasn't able to find the person he wanted. So to boost the profile of the job ad, you know, he put his name on there... This is just a theory of mine, and perhaps he's going to go for round 2 and see if he can get some more qualified candidates.
One thing I really wanted to ask you about, Brian, is confidentiality. You must see some things the general public would not even believe about these celebrities, about these sports stars. How difficult is it to keep things confidential?
Well as first and foremost, I want to say that it's standard operating procedure now to sign an NDA: non-disclosure agreement. That's the first thing the clients do before they even tell me anything,
I have to sign the contract and then all of the assistants who are interviewing for the position have to sign a contract. They are quite thick now, because over the years we've been seeing all these scandalous situations where PA tells all, nanny tells all, and they're writing books and their on some talk show.
So the celebrities have gotten wise to it, and their attorneys are quite savvy and you're basically not allowed to disclose a single thing that you ever saw. You have to take all those secrets to the grave with you. So you can't be a gossip do this job. Absolutely. Yeah, it's all about business, as I said before.
So a lot of the seasoned personal assistants that have been doing it 5, 10, 20 years... They already know what they're getting themselves into. They already know that the public persona is going to be totally different and they're willing to kind of bend their own rules, so to speak, in order to get that paycheck so they can retire early on that on that nice tropical island.
And, interestingly, Brian, the job description has been withdrawn now, which perhaps shows that they made a mistake in the advert, putting his name to it. That's possible. I don't want to draw any conclusions, but it does say the job's no longer available.
I just noticed that when I refreshed the page and perhaps they got some sort of whiplash effect that they weren't expecting because some news outlets have picked up on the story, and it's pretty easy, even if you're polite, to constructively criticize this ad because basically what they're asking for and what they're willing to pay, I think they're miles apart.
Personally, I don't think he would be able to fill the position at 60,000 British pounds a year.