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Mary Ryan
Mary Ryan is a talented professional with a diverse background in executive assistance, journalism, and contracting. She obtained a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts with a focus on Journalism from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. Throughout her career, Mary has held key positions in various organizations, showcasing her expertise in supporting top-level executives and managing office operations.
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There are some common misconceptions around what EAs or administrative professionals do. I missed Tip Friday (apologies!) but I've explained a few things below to help you decode what administrative professionals are working on behind the scenes - I've said it before, but here's a reminder. We don't work in an episode of Mad Men; if you think filling coffees and answering phones is all we can do, keep reading!
We're pure magic.
Decoding an EAs Sorcery!
What you see: An assistant grabs their boss a coffee What’s really happening: The assistant knows their boss is far too busy to grab a coffee today but has back to back meetings and will need the coffee boost/treat to get their day started on the right foot. So although they weren’t asked to get coffee, they grab it, just the way their boss likes it, because we’re mind readers.
What you see: A leader shows up to a team meeting, company event, board meeting etc. prepared and polished, and knocks it out of the park. What’s really happening: For weeks, the assistant has prepared for this event. They’ve researched and prepared for everything from who the audience is, to what the talk track will be. Things their boss should remember, who they should talk to, and/or what they could/should talk about. They have curated and edited decks meticulously, cleared the time before and in front of said meeting for prep and decompressing, they blocked special time solely for preparing for this meeting. They encouraged their leader beforehand and cheered them on as they presented, because we’re their biggest fan.
What you see: A leader shows up on a work trip, rested, hydrated, on time, and prepared. They have gifts on hand for the team their visiting, a fun dinner out with the team goes off w/out a hitch, strategizing took place, the trip was a success. What’s really happening: Leading up to this trip, the assistant ensured every inch of the travels plans were booked and confirmed from traveling to the airport, timed flights with seat preference for comfort and time to work quietly on the plane in mind, vehicle arranged for travel to hotel. We've likely texted them reminding them to drink water and grab a bite to eat or had food ready for them on arrival to their destination or in their room. We’ve called the hotel, requested upgrades where possible, had the concierge drop off vitamin C, cough drops, Advil, etc., because we already know traveling can be a pain, we found the perfect spot for dinner and worked around all food allergies and dietary restrictions, and procured the perfect swag for our leader to surprise the team with. Then we sit back and watch them shine because we are people pleasers and want to help however we can.
Next to nearly all successful c-suite teams and leaders, is a power-house administrative professional. Not behind them, NEXT to them. Shine on #administrativeprofessionals!
#executiveassistant #administrativeassistant
I'd like to humbly ask that you take a moment to read about something I experienced over the weekend in hopes of turning the tide on stigmas surrounding my career as an #executiveassistant.
It’s never too late to rewire your understanding.
Over the weekend I ran into an old friend and the conversation went like this….
Him - Are you still an assistant or whatever supporting a CEO?
Me - Yes, I’m still an Executive Assistant and supporting a CEO.
Him - So I bet you’re loving that this summer. Pretty easy, don’t really have to do much. Just sit around and schedule a meeting here or there or grab a coffee when they need you.
Me - {Feels anger, frustration, sadness, but mostly disappointment} If by sitting around and not doing much you mean acting as a Chief of Staff to an Executive Leadership Team, strategic project management, researching and reporting, planning events, and too many other roles to count, then yes, I’m loving being the right hand to our CEO and leadership team.
Him - Ahhh haha - waaaaait, wow? You do reporting and project management? Seriously?
Me - Yes, this isn’t an episode of Mad Men. And I worked my tail off to gain the respect and trust of my team and my peers. So I don’t believe you have a clue as to what I actually do but I'd be happy to fill you in.
Here’s where I’m going with this. Administrative professionals, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Someone else’s INABILITY to see your worth does not devalue you or determine your value in any way.
At times like this, there’s a demeaning stigma tied to being an administrative professional and I will continue to work everyday to educate other professionals on what it really entails to work in an administrative capacity. Whether you’re a receptionist and just getting started or the executive assistant to the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, what you’re doing matters!
And as long as you see that value, enjoy what you do, and your boss/peers respect your craft, you will thrive. Continue sharing what you bring to the table and advocating for your trade and skill sets. Shine on admins!
#administrativeassistant #executiveassistants #chiefofstaff #administrativeprofessionals #selfadvocacy
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.