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Rewrite The Playbook with Rachael Bonetti
Rewrite The Playbook with Rachael Bonetti episodes
- The Commercial Case For Offshoring EA Functions
Offshoring EA functions is an uncomfortable conversation, but it is one the profession cannot afford to avoid.
Drawing on direct feedback from executives using offshore EA support, Rachael examines why organisations are moving executive assistant roles offshore and the commercial equation behind those decisions.
You’ll hear:
- what executives are reporting about cost, quality and service
- how hybrid work is influencing comparisons between onshore and offshore support
- why hard work and strong relationships may not protect an EA function
- what EAs need to make visible before their value is reduced to a cost comparison
- A candid look at offshoring, organisational decision-making and the changing value of executive support.
Resources mentioned
Free audio training series: The EA Compass
Free self-audit: The Strategic EA Reset
Learn more about The Elite EA Academy
If you’re enjoying the show, please consider sharing the episode or leaving a review. It helps more executive assistants find the conversation.
Connect with Rachael
LinkedIn
Instagram
Forbes Australia
Substack
28 min - Executive Assistant career growth, visibility and why execution alone is no longer enough
This episode explores one of the biggest shifts happening inside the Executive Assistant profession right now: Why many highly capable Executive Assistants are already operating strategically, while still undervaluing or under-articulating their contribution.
Rachael Bonetti unpacks the growing gap between strategic Executive Assistant capability and strategic visibility, and why Executive Assistant career growth increasingly depends on more than execution, responsiveness and coordination alone.
As AI reshapes administrative work and organisations rethink where human value sits, this conversation explores what strategic Executive Assistant skills now look like, how EAs can strengthen their visibility and influence, and why operational effectiveness is becoming one of the most valuable capabilities in modern organisations.
Inside the episode:
- Why the benchmark for high-performing Executive Assistants has shifted
- The growing gap between strategic contribution and strategic visibility
- How AI is reshaping the future of Executive Assistant work
- Why execution alone is no longer enough to stand out
- The hidden cost of interpreting the EA role too narrowly
- The difference between transactional support and strategic partnership
- What strategic Executive Assistants tend to notice that others miss
- Why many EAs are already operating strategically long before they recognise it themselves
This episode is for Executive Assistants who want to strengthen their strategic thinking, increase their visibility and influence, and better understand how to position themselves for long-term career growth in a rapidly changing business environment.
If you’re enjoying the show, sharing the episode or leaving a review helps more Executive Assistants find the conversation.
Referenced in this episode:
- Why Strategic Executive Assistants Still Feel Invisible at Work
- The Strategic EA Reset
- Learn more about The Elite EA Academy
Connect with, and read more insights from Rachael
LinkedIn
Instagram
Forbes Australia
10 min - Strategic Thinking Is a Skill. Here’s How You Train EAs In It.
How do you train EAs to think strategically?
“Be more strategic.”
It’s one of the most common pieces of advice executive assistants hear.
It’s also one of the least explained.
Strategic thinking isn’t a personality trait and it’s not something you either have or don’t have.
- It’s a skill, and like any skill, it can be trained. In this episode, Rachael Bonetti breaks down:
Why some EAs develop strategic thinking through exposure- why others are placed into environments that keep their role transactional.
- Why this isn't a capability gap.
- Why it IS a context gap.
- What strategic thinking actually looks like in executive support and how you can start developing it deliberately in your role.
If you’re enjoying the show, sharing the episode or leaving a review helps more executive assistants find the conversation.
Resources mentioned
Free private audio series: The EA Compass
Learn more about The Elite EA Academy
Connect with, and read more insights from Rachael
LinkedIn
Instagram
Forbes Australia
10 min - It’s a skill, and like any skill, it can be trained. In this episode, Rachael Bonetti breaks down:
- How to Measure Executive Assistant Performance Effectively
How should executive assistant performance actually be measured?
Most organisations still assess executive assistant performance through responsiveness, output and how smoothly things run.
Those things matter, but they don’t explain where the real leverage of executive support sits. In this episode, Rachael Bonetti introduces The Executive Support Performance Lens™, a framework for measuring executive assistant performance based on how executive support strengthens leadership effectiveness and organisational performance.
In this episode we'll explore:
Why traditional executive assistant performance metrics fall short
The five dimensions of the Executive Support Performance Lens™
How executive assistants enable stronger leadership performance
How organisations can rethink executive assistant performance frameworks
Resources mentioned
Full article and the diagnostic tool on the website
The Elite EA Academy
In-house training for EAs
Connect with, and read more insights from Rachael
LinkedIn
Instagram
Forbes Australia
12 min - The Invisible Work of Executive Assistants: Why Organisations Misjudge Support Roles
Most organisations measure output. Very few measure stability.
In this episode, Rachael explores the invisible work EAs quietly hold that keeps decision-making, workflow, and pace from breaking under pressure.
From reading the room and managing bottlenecks to holding context and reducing friction, this is the layer of work that rarely shows up in KPIs but is immediately felt when it disappears.
The episode unpacks why “admin efficiency” often erodes judgement rather than strengthening it, how organisations defer cost when they restructure or offshore without mapping invisible work, and why leaders underestimate the conditions EAs create for effective execution.
This is not a conversation about effort.
It is about risk, continuity, and how work actually holds together inside fast-moving organisations.
If you are an EA who knows you carry more than what appears on paper, or a leader responsible for designing roles and support structures, this episode will help you see what is being quietly stabilised every day and what is at stake when it is overlooked.
You'll also hear how to start making strategic thinking clear without the performative visibility.
Links and resources mentioned in this episode
- Get your free Strategic Self-Assessment Checklist here It only takes 5 minutes to go through — and the shifts it sparks can be career-changing.
- LinkedIn post on headlines and narrative here
- LinkedIn post on offshoring EA roles here
- Learn more about Rachael or exploring working together here
- Find free insights on instagram @rachaelbonetti
- Join Rachael’s fortnightly insights newsletter here
16 min - Personal Brand for Executive Assistants: Why Reputation Now Determines Value
Personal brand is already shaping your career, whether you engage with it or not. In this episode, Rachael unpacks why capable executive assistants are often categorised as “helpful support” rather than talent, and how that distinction quietly affects trust, opportunity, and protection inside organisations.
This isn't a conversation about visibility or self-promotion. It’s about reputation, judgement, and the narratives that form when value isn’t clearly articulated. Especially in environments under pressure, where decisions about roles, investment, and capability are being made quickly.
If you’ve ever felt the gap between the value you know you bring and how you’re being seen, this episode will help you understand why that gap forms and what’s actually at stake.
Show notes
This is a keynote and in-house training topic Rachael works with regularly, shaped by real conversations with EAs, executives, and leadership teams navigating change in real time. To learn more, visit www.rachaelbonetti.com
Connect with Rachael on socials:
LinkedIn
Instagram @rachaelbonetti
13 min - The EA Role at a Crossroads: How Executive Support Is Being Redefined
The EA role is at a crossroads. Not a trend. A decision point. Organisations are consolidating. AI is reshaping work. Executives are relying more on judgement and context than ever, yet many EA roles are still being designed for a world that no longer exists. In this episode, Rachael explores what’s changing, why timing matters, and what happens when EAs and organisations actively shape the role versus letting it be shaped for them.
Show notes
Connect with Rachael
Linkedin
Instagram @rachaelbonetti
Website www.rachaelbonetti.com
The reflection questions shared in this episode:
- Where is the way you’ve always done things no longer fit for purpose?
- What changed last year in your workplace?
- And the year before that?
- What might that tell you about what’s coming next?
- What your opportunities could be?
- And what’s one stretch you could make in how you’re showing up, so you’re positioned on the right side of this shift rather than watching it happen around you?
17 min - The Real Reason Executive Calendars Never Stabilise
If your calendar never really settled in 2025, this episode will help you understand why.
After spending the year inside organisations training and working closely with executive assistants and executive teams, one pattern kept repeating: constant reprioritisation.
Not as a time management issue. Not as a capability gap. But as a signal of deeper capacity strain.
In this season-opening episode of Rewrite The Playbook, we name what was actually happening beneath the surface and why so many capable EAs felt stretched, despite doing everything “right”.
You’ll hear:
- Why reprioritisation became so common in 2025
- The difference between strategic, reactive, and structural reprioritisation
- What unsettled calendars reveal about organisational load and decision pressure
- Why the EA role is becoming more influential as organisations search for stability
This is a grounded conversation for EAs who want clearer language for what they were navigating last year and stronger footing as they move into 2026, and it will give you the language to raise it at a leadership level.
Show Notes
The Elite EA Academy
This is where I continue this work with executive assistants who want to better understand the patterns they’re seeing, develop language for their judgement, and stand behind the influence they already have. January intake is open now.
👉 https://www.rachaelbonetti.com/the-elite-ea-academy
Subscribe to my newsletter For first access to free community classes and new work.
Free audio training: The EA Compass: https://www.rachaelbonetti.com/free-ea-training
👉 https://rachaelbonetti.myflodesk.com/subscribe
Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachaelbonetti/
Follow me and connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-bonetti-4b46561a/
13 min - AMA: Ask Me Anything (Yes, Really)
In this final episode of the season, I’m answering six questions from the community in a rapid-fire mentoring format. Think career clarity, mindset shifts, becoming more strategic, and turning your passions into something more.
This episode is for you if you’re:
- Sitting on years of experience and wondering if there’s a business in it
- The first EA in your company, trying to figure out where to start
- Craving more strategy and influence in your day-to-day
- Stuck in procrastination or struggling to focus on what is working
- Exploring how to build a career or side gig that’s more you
You’ll get grounded, practical advice I usually only share inside my private mentoring and courses—plus a first look at what’s coming in the new Dear Rachael newsletter segment, where I’ll be answering questions like these every month.
Episode Highlights:
- How to turn your EA experience and love of books into a side gig
- What to do first if you’re starting a business with 17+ years in another field
- Where to focus your energy when you’re the only EA in the organisation
- Practical mindset shifts for dealing with procrastination
- What being strategic really means (and how to start thinking that way)
- The weekly habit I used to stay focused on progress, not problems
Loved this episode?
- Rate and review to help others find it
- Share it with a friend or colleague
- Subscribe so you don’t miss what’s coming next season
Links and resources
- Instagram: @rachaelbonetti
- LinkedIn
- Join the newsletter
- Submit a question for the newsletter Dear Rachael segment
- Visit The Career Success Shop to get the Strategic Impact Planner
23 min - Biz Rizz: The Secret Sauce to Getting Ahead (Without the Hustle)
What exactly is Biz Rizz?
It’s your ability to build powerful relationships in a professional setting. It’s executive presence with a rebrand. And if you’ve never thought about how others experience you at work, you might be missing out on career-changing opportunities.
In this episode, we’re breaking down Biz Rizz—business charisma that opens doors—so you can command a room, influence outcomes, and be seen as someone who belongs at the table without waiting for an invite.
This episode is for you if you’re:
- Wondering why some people naturally attract promotions, trust, and career-defining opportunities
- Feeling stuck behind the scenes, waiting for recognition that never comes
- Ready to show up with the kind of presence that makes people listen and respect your voice
Tune in to learn five practical ways to cultivate Biz Rizz starting today. No fluff. No awkward networking hacks. Just real, strategic moves to elevate how you show up at work.
Episode Highlights:
- Why Biz Rizz matters more than ever, especially if you started your career post-pandemic
- The Barbie Movie lesson that changes the game for behind-the-scenes professionals
- The truth about executive presence and why some people get ahead faster
- How to hold attention, hold space, and influence outcomes
- Five core moves to develop Biz Rizz in your career
Loved this episode?
- Rate and review to help others find it
- Share it with your network—someone you know needs to hear this
- Subscribe so you never miss a powerful insight
Links & Resources:
Work with me
The Elite EA Academy
Follow me for more tips on Instagram @rachaelbonetti
And on LinkedIn
16 min
About Rewrite The Playbook with Rachael Bonetti
From the publisher's feed
Smarter strategies for career and business success—on your terms. This isn’t just another podcast about working hard. It’s about evolving boldly, ditching the playbook, and finding a way of working…
that’s as original as you are. In a world obsessed with sameness, we’ll explore what it means to think differently, work with ease, and redefine success in your own way. If you’re ready to break free from the grind, trust your instincts, and step into your competitive edge, this is where it starts.