How Top Founders Train EAs to Run Their Business (Step by Step)

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Most founders don’t fail because of bad hires. 

They fail because they have no system of delegation.

After watching hundreds of founders onboard executive assistants, here’s what we've learned works best at Go Carpathian.

Every one of our VIP EAs trains on this same framework, and you can steal it for your own team. 

Here are the steps that we take to ensure reliable results. 

Step 1: Synchronize Schedules

Stay in the same time zone. Async EAs sound flexible, but in practice, they make you the assistant when no one else is online. 

Our rule: no off-time-zone hires for exec support. 

All our EAs work U.S. hours, so your calendar, clients, and internal communication run in real time, not 12 hours later. 

Step 2: Create a Clear Communication Structure

If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist. Verbal requests disappear. Written tasks close loops.

Here’s our exact flow:

• Send short voice notes in Slack.

• EA logs them into Notion.

• You get a notification as soon as the task is marked complete.

Result: no chasing, no wondering what’s done, no “did you see this?” messages.

Step 3: Become Their Teacher

Your new best friend is Loom. Every bit of training follows four steps I learned back in Boy Scouts: Explain. Demonstrate. Guide. Enable.

Back in Scouts, when I learned how to tie knots, the troop leaders first explained the knot, then demoed it, then guided us through it. Finally, they made sure that we could do it on our own. 

The same logic works for developing your EA.

1. Explain the task in a quick Loom.

2. Demonstrate by recording yourself doing it once.

3. Guide them through it (async works fine—Slack + screenshots).

4. Enable by revisiting it a week later to see what questions popped up.

This method takes minutes but locks the skill in for good.

Step 4: Build a Lasting Playbook 

Death to SOPs, long live playbooks. SOP libraries look nice, but never get used. When I used to use them, I’d waste so much time searching for that one doc.

Instead, we build playbooks: triggers and responses.

• New client signed →  EA follows the client‑welcome sequence.

• Travel coming up →  EA books flights, hotels, and calendar buffers automatically.

• Team change →  EA runs the offboarding checklist.

Great playbooks cover two things: 

1. Step‑by‑step protocols for recurring tasks.

2. Preferences and heuristics for ambiguous decisions (how you’d handle it).

And here’s the key part: your EA writes the playbook, not you.

That’s part of their job, to document your preferences so every new hire starts stronger than the last.

How Go Carpathian Helps

We find and vet the top 1% of EAs from South Africa,  Eastern Europe,  Latin America, and the  U.S., people who’ve supported leadership teams at scale and already know how to document, delegate, and execute inside busy companies.

You get proven systems for delegation, and they get the structure they thrive in.

That’s how founders reclaim 20 + hours a week and finally step out of the weeds.

Book a free discovery call to see how fast an elite, system‑minded EA can start running your operations while you focus on growth.

Until next time,
Nathan