Jonathan Swanson
27 statements across 1 episodes · 8 bullish · 1 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Dec 10, 2025 by Jonathan Swanson · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Jonathan Swanson's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Everything said about Jonathan Swanson, oldest first
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025 positive
Dec 10, 2025 positive
Dec 10, 2025
Hire executive assistants for decade-long tenure and chiefs of staff for slope
“The way I break it down is, assistant, you find someone you want to go a decade with. The intimacy and the compound, you know, that relationship is super important. And so you go deep, and that means you, Probably don't find a founder, because they're not gonn…”
Dec 10, 2025 neutral
Jonathan Swanson employs six specialized personal assistants for different life domains
“I just had one that did everything as a generalist, and now a half dozen, which I know sounds crazy, but each one specializes in different things. One is on work, one is on home, one is on kids, family, travel finances.”
Dec 10, 2025 positive
A new executive assistant's first project should be saving their own salary
“So the first thing I'd recommend if you're getting an assistant is to have them help you save money. If you have a big budget, not a big deal, but the first project can be, Hey, help. Pay for your salary by looking through all my subscriptions, finding things …”
Dec 10, 2025
Voice messaging is the fastest and most effective way to delegate
“You know, the most common way people delegate is with your thumbs and your phone. That's the worst way. Very slow. Better use all 10 fingers at a computer, but that's actually pretty slow as well. The best way to really delay is using your voice. And so voice,…”
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025
Switching assistants annually destroys compounding operational leverage
“The second mistake people make is they don't compound for the long term, and they hire someone, and then switch an assistant every six, 12 months, but it's the compounding that creates incredible leverage. I've been working with Marnie for a decade, like a lit…”
Dec 10, 2025 positive
Personal leverage from executive assistants drives ambition, not vice versa
“People assume that people of great power or wealth or resources can afford this team. And then that is why they have this ambition. But we've actually seen the opposite is the case, is as people get more leverage with Assistant, their ambition increases.”
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025 positive
Dec 10, 2025
Traditional interviews fail for C-suite executives because they excel at interviewing
“One thing that is obvious as you hire execs is the more senior they go, the better they are interviewing. Almost by definition, and so when you get to C-Suite, they all are really good at interviewing, and so you actually have to discard the interview more the…”
Dec 10, 2025 neutral
Reviewing a routine list of lawsuits at board meetings signals startup scale
“Well, it's like the first time you get sued, or you're worried about getting sued, and then eventually you have a board meeting, and there's just a list of lawsuits, and it's just, you review them quarterly. It's just like, that's actually what success is. It'…”
Dec 10, 2025 neutral
Dec 10, 2025 bullish
AI assistants will evolve into full autonomy like self-driving cars
“Yeah, I mean, it's a moving target, obviously, is gonna get increasingly more capable, and our view is it's like self-driving cars, where it's not self-driving overnight, it's you drive the Tesla at first, And then there's assisted steering and braking, and th…”
Dec 10, 2025 bullish
Athena prototyped an AI that monitors screens to auto-delegate tasks
“We've built an internal demo of this. It's not live for customers, but the way it works is we build something that watches your screen as you work, and it screenshots the screen, and when it identifies things that you should be delegating to your assistant, it…”
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025 negative
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025 positive
Grant assistant access in stages, starting with email before banking
“Obviously, you need someone you truly trust to go deep with, and we kind of recommend that you build this trust over time, and, you know, you give email and calendar access at first and bank account later but as you earn that trust, then the more access you gi…”
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025
A power law applies to goals; one quarterly outcome outweighs all others
“There's a power law in everything, and power law in business, power law in venture, power law in your life, and there's typically one thing every month or quarter that if you accomplish is worth more than everything else combined, and figuring out what that on…”
Dec 10, 2025
Advanced delegation requires exporting internal preferences to delegate by algorithm
“The kind of entry-level delegation is you delegate by task. You say, help me plan this dinner party. If you just say that, you're not gonna get what you want. The more advanced way to delegate is called delegate by algorithm, where you actually export your own…”
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025
Dec 10, 2025 neutral
Leaders should delay company-wide crisis disclosure until an actionable plan exists
“You want to ultimately be transparent, but if I just walked into a new class and say, hey, the business might be dead it's not gonna work, and so you have to kind of get a handle of the situation you know, the people who need to know it, and then once there's …”