Kim Kardashian’s Assistant is Brimming With Career Advice


When Refinery29 published a 4,000-word profile on Kim Kardashian’s assistant yesterday, I regret to inform you I dropped my work tout de suite and read it feverishly. Fortunately for all involved, my work does not involve power tools.


It was a surprisingly informative read, and not in the way I expected. If I came for the behind-the-scenes scoop on America’s royal fam (sorry everyone, I don’t make the rules!), I stayed for the woman behind them, Stephanie Shepherd. Sure, her story — which takes her from rural Ohio to driving to Kanye’s house in her Audi A4 while dictating texts to Kim via Siri — might be a little rag-to-riches cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less compelling. It’s hard to come by a Hollywood-adjacent success story that celebrates quiet, hard work over fame.


The piece is packed to the gills with work tips, without even meaning to be. Shepherd, who’s in her late 20s, came to Los Angeles to be a dancer and ended up the COO of Kardashian West Brands. A casual career arc. If you’re looking to make a leap of equal or lesser value, consider the below advice, which I’ve gleaned from Stephanie’s professional rise. Apply it to your own career and who knows, this could be you:





A post shared by STEPHANIE ANN SHEPHERD (@steph_shep) on May 4, 2017 at 8:01pm PDT





1. Build North’s stroller and plan her parents’ wedding, too.


Be as down for the menial work as you are the glamorous work.


Shepherd does her work — all her work — with excitement, no matter the task. “Assistant to Kim since 2013,” writes Refinery29’s Arianna Davis, “Shepherd has been responsible for everything from putting together North West’s first strollers to getting Kim down the aisle in Italy.”


2. Be such an incredible assistant that your boss will want to refer you.


Don’t underestimate the importance of being a competent and hardworking employee, even if you don’t feel important. It will open doors.


Shepherd came to L.A. to dance, but ended up assisting a choreographer instead. But she took the gig, and worked hard. “After a few years working for [choreographer] Minden and Girardi and a few freelance backup dance gigs for artists like Pitbull, Minden’s business partner and former Pussycat Doll Robin Antin asked Shepherd if she might be interested in an assistant job with a friend of hers: Kim Kardashian. And just like that, dancing became a distant memory.”


3. Tell Kim you can do it and then figure the rest out later.


It’s okay to be nervous and fake it at first.


Of her interview with Kim for the assistant gig, Shepherd explains, “[Kim] had no makeup on and was in her sweats, super pregnant with North. She was just like, ‘Look, I need help, Robin loves you and says great things about you; this is what I need. Can you do it?’ And I was like, ‘Okay, sure, I can do that — and if I can’t, I’ll figure it out!’ Meanwhile in my head, I was so nervous.”


4. Stay late at Kim’s until shit is more than taken care of.


Exceed your boss’s expectations whenever possible.


“I was doing her whole schedule, doing her laundry, booking travel, putting the stroller together and all of these things. But I wasn’t nervous. I was just excited,” Shepherd says of her first months on the job, “always staying longer than I needed because I was trying to prove myself.”





A post shared by STEPHANIE ANN SHEPHERD (@steph_shep) on Mar 3, 2017 at 9:36am PST





5. Keep your trunk stocked with Kimoji merch.


Anticipate your boss’s needs and be ready in the wings.


“Shepherd is still in assistant mode,” Davis writes of her time with Shepherd, “constantly checking her iPhone and revealing a trunk fully stocked with Kimoji paraphernalia. ‘With Kim, you never know when you might need to gift some merch!'” A good employee is always prepared.


6. Once you know the exact amount of time it takes to get from Kris’s to Kourtney’s house (to the minute), ask for a promotion.


Get your job down to a science, then move up.


Shepherd explains the transition she made from acting as Kim’s executive assistant to helping with Kim’s growing businesses. “My role has expanded outside of just an executive assistant… I’m basically Kim’s liaison at this point,” she tells Davis. “Every time she launches a product or makes a move to own her brand, it’s essentially like launching a startup. … The assistant stuff is like second nature now; I don’t even have to think about it. I know her, I know her schedule, I know how long it takes to go from Kourtney’s to Kris’ down to the second, I can map it out.”


“It was time for a title change.”


7. Hire Michael — he’s saved your ass so many times!


Extend a hand to people who have helped you in the past.


At one point Shepherd hired an old coworker from her dance assistant days to be Kim’s personal assistant. “…I’ll check in with her personal assistant, Michael, who I also brought on to the team — he used to work with me and Erika,” Shepherd explains. “I knew I could trust him because when we worked together before, he saved my ass so many times!”


8. Text Kim all day every day.


Stay in close touch with your boss. Communication is key.


“Obviously Kim and I text all day every day,” she says, “from the second we wake up until we go to bed, so we just bounce off ideas, like, ‘Oh my God this is so funny, let’s make it a Kimoji!’ It’s fun to have an idea and see it brought to life.”





you guyssss #kimojis are out now!! also I’m going to Miami for nye and my morals are not coming with me. bless up!


A post shared by STEPHANIE ANN SHEPHERD (@steph_shep) on Dec 21, 2015 at 2:50pm PST





9. Absorb everything you can from Kris Jenner.


Find a good mentor, figure out what they do well and then emulate it.


“Kris Jenner is a fucking G,” Shepherd says. “The biggest lesson she’s taught me is to not procrastinate. When you want something done, get it done. If you’re a procrastinator, this is not the world for you. If someone tells her no, she has no problem standing her ground…”


(Or just make Kris your mentor from afar?)


10. Appreciate the spoils, but don’t forget you still have to schlep the bags.


Don’t let work perks distract you from your responsibilities.


As Kardashian staff, Shepherd gets to travel the world and enter spaces she’d otherwise never get to, but she never forgets her job. “Truly, this family is so much fun, and we go to some amazing places and do some incredible things. But don’t forget that when you’re an assistant, with all of that glamour comes schlepping the bags and the suitcases and taking the fall when the car doesn’t show up or the flight is delayed or something goes wrong.”


11. Don’t let the followers go to your head.


Stay humble.


“Sometimes I think about how it’s such a weird thing that people want to know or even care about me,” she says, of her 700,000 IG followers, “just because I work for Kim.”


12. Tell Kim when you fucked up.


Own up to your mistakes and then fix them.


Shepherd says she’s made plenty of mistakes, but that hasn’t slowed her down. “I’ve fucked up a lot. I’m only human,” Shepherd says. “…[I]f you mess up, take responsibility and own it. I’ve fucked up, I’m human. But I will just say, ‘I am so sorry, and I will fix this.”





classic.

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Published on May 16, 2017 10:21
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