Our Guest

Alex Hughes

Hosts

Shelley Fishel

Shelley Fishel

Jo Brianti

Jo Brianti

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Show Notes

Today we are in conversation with Alex Hughes who is an Online Business Manager. Alex helps business owners work out what is working in their business and what is not and helping them figure out what needs to happen. Alex explains how Admin is central to your business and touches everything that you do and so needs to be taken very seriously. Alex talks about becoming a “second brain” and shares her top tips with us. Jo and I round up chatting about the contents of our freezers….

Our Guest - Alex Hughes

Having achieved a very successful 30 year career progression within the financial markets, sales and administration, in2017 I launched a Virtual Business Management ( Virtual Assistant) business providing bespoke administration services to small business owners. Outsourcing projects and tasks to a safe pair of hands enables owners to save time and money and allows them to then focus on growing their business, working ‘on’it not just ‘in’it. Having worked for bespoke furniture manufacturers for the last 17years as an Administration Manager, after my career in the financial world ,I gained insight and a solid grasp of operations and business practices in manufacturing and in the furniture industry. This in turn developed my deeper understanding of company goals and strategies, combined with good project management skills. I provide bespoke Administration Services to SME’s supporting and assisting in areas such as HRM, Health &Safety, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Research, CRM, accreditation and tender documen t compilation and project-based activities. Since setting up my business in 2017 I have supported over 20 SME’s in various Industries of health and wellbeing, website building, research, bookkeeping, media, Wi-Fi, photography, housing, charities, coaches, speakers, trainers, copywriters and manufacturers. Work is conducted on either on an ad hoc, retainer, project or audit basis and is backed up with Insurance, ICO registration, VIPVA accreditation and various networking memberships including Kingston Chamber of Commerce. I am also a Kingston University Alumni, having completed a BA Hons in Business and Professional Administration in 2007.

You will learn

Alex shares her top tips

Watch on Youtube

I have used what I learned to help me be quicker and more efficient when creating new documents, letters and even spreadsheets even though I have not done the Excel part of the course yet – just knowing what Copilot is capable of has enabled this and I am excited to learn more about how I can use it with Excel.  It is also great for helping me find lost information and sources.  It has definitely made a positive impact on my productivity and efficiency, and I hope even more so once I have recapped all the sessions.  I think the overarching benefit of the course is that it allows you to see what Copilot can be used with and how; if you don’t know what it can do, you can’t ask the right questions, now I know how to ask the right questions to get what I need.

I would definitely recommend that all the other EAs do this course – if it is an option for them to do so and they want to!  

Microsoft 365 with Copilot – The Human Advantage

Really clear and inclusive training at a good pace

Microsoft 365 with Copilot – The Human Advantage

Shelley’s teaching style is relaxed but engaging, she’s happy to take questions & go over things more than once and in different ways to help you understand.

If you need to get to grip with CoPilot – whether it’s because you want to or (worse) have to, then I can’t recommend Shelley’s course highly enough. She’s got a new cohort running in January – my advice: Be there or be a right -angled, equal-sided parallelogram!

Colin Foster

Microsoft 365 with Copilot – The Human Advantage

This course has benefitted me enormously in becoming the go to person for all things AI with colleagues, I have a learnt an awful lot in these four sessions with Shelley across Microsoft 365 and can better visualise how to use it on a daily basis.  Shelley uses clear examples on how to incorporate it in your daily work, and not only that but the access to the recordings and the additional documents is invaluable, thank you so much again Shelley!

 Elizabeth Bate  

Microsoft 365 with Copilot – The Human Advantage

Attending the Copilot AI course was a game-changer for my productivity. I learned how to leverage AI to streamline tasks, draft content faster, and make smarter decisions with real-time insights. The course was practical, easy to follow, and immediately applicable to my daily work. Highly recommended for anyone looking to stay ahead in a tech-driven world in the EA world.

Joann Bergstrom

Microsoft 365 with Copilot- The Human Advantage

Shelley provides invaluable insight into leveraging Microsoft products most efficiently and effectively.

Top Time Busting Tips for Microsoft Office – Ginger Aslous

Crammed a lot in today’s session and we all came away having learnt a lot of things! Considering how much time we had, I feel a lot was taken away

Manage your data in Excel – Olivia Nelson Potter Space

Microsoft 365 is the perfect session to get a basic (and more) understanding of Microsoft 365 incl. all apps! Shelley is a great trainer and expert with lots of experience and so much knowledge. I could have listened to all her tips many more hours. With all features out there, Microsoft 365 seems like a wild jungle sometimes but the session helped me getting a few things sorted. I look forward to the next session!

This participant wished to remain anonymous.

Collaboration with Microsoft 365

I always come away from a presentation by Shelley with useful tips to incorporate into my day job – she has a clear & patient presenting style & her content always has some invaluable tips for streamlining and making processes more efficient.

Collaboration with Microsoft 365 – Kate Watson

Shelley is very patient and made me feel comfortable with asking for further clarification. She was very receptive to intermittent questions as well.

This participant wished to remain anonymous.

Collaboration with Microsoft 365

Shelley was very thorough in her explanations and made OneDrive and SharePoint easy to understand – would recommend.

Collaboration with Microsoft 365 – Olivia Tubman

I find Shelley’s training easy to follow and the very best thing is that you can do it all at your own pace and revisit modules if it doesn’t quite sink in the first time round! I have learned so much from her training and continue to do so! She is responsive to my questions and I learn something new with each module. I find Iam hardly ever having to Google or YouTube information now, so it really is saving me time in my work day. Time that can be better used by learning more about the business I operate in!
Thanks Shelley!

Tracey Whitehouse – Executive Assistant

I have been following Shelley on Linkedin for several years, and always loved her hints and tips. In May of this year, I had the opportunity to recommend Shelley as one of our workshop speakers at the annual HMC Heads’ PA Conference in Sheffield.

On receiving the brief Shelley quickly produced content for two IT Microsoft Skills Workshops covering nuggets from Outlook, Word and Excel. Shelley then delivered (virtually) these two fantastic workshops to over 60 PAs at our conference.

From initial enquiry to delivery Shelley is the consummate professional and it was my pleasure to have had the opportunity to engage with her.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Shelley to any individual or group.

Michaela Fletcher – Heads PA

Shelley is THE guru on all things Microsoft.

I love Outlook, use it every day, and think I have a pretty good understanding of it. But every time I attend one of her sessions I learn a lot more. Her knowledge is remarkable. And she delivers her knowledge in a really clear, engaging way.

Thanks Shelley

Kathy Soulsby

I have just spent less than an hour at one of Shelley’s presentations and my mind is truly blown! I thought I was fairly proficient in Outlook, but I had no idea it could do so much more! So many time saving tips and shortcuts to help me – I can’t wait to get stuck in and implement them all! Thank you Shelley – I would highly recommend!

Hayley Rose – Executive Assistant -Dalcour Maclaren

Shelley joined us for the annual HMC Heads’ PAs conference in May 2023, where she delivered two hands-on practical IT skills workshops for over 60 PAs in attendance. Both sessions were warmly received by all participants, and from a personal perspective it was an absolute pleasure for me to work with Shelley both offline in the extensive prep phase ahead of the sessions, and online during the day itself – sharp in subject knowledge, flexible in content delivery and everything executed with a really affable manner and “can-do” approach throughout. I would recommend her services wholeheartedly.

Gareth Johnson – Leader GRE Education

Heads PA Conference