Celebrity Personal Assistants

I just got this spam from Celebrity Personal Assistants, Inc. with a testimonial from Dave Matthews' violinist concerning his search for a personal assistant (read below). So what's up with this career choice. Seems to me as it would only result in a load of interesting stories that you couldn't tell because the pants would be promptly sued off of you by yr former employer. While you're on the job, you're just on call to be shat upon. But maybe that's every job, and at least on this one you get to live the high life, kinda.

Grammy Award winning, Dave Matthews Band-member enlists CPAI to
find a new Professional Personal Assistant.

ATLANTA - When rock violinist Boyd Tinsley (Dave Matthews Band
member) called the offices of Atlanta based Celebrity Personal
Assistants, Inc (CPAI) to find a new assistant, he was hesitant at first to undergo the agencys extensive process. He told us - I need someone immediately, commented CPAI founder, Dionne M. Muhammad. I explained to him that our recruiting process requires us to implement an accurate nationwide search to insure that we hire and train the right consultant on his behalf. We can sometimes do the one-day hiring process for major celebrity markets like Los Angeles or New York. But these are usually requests for temporary assistants to work on movie-sets or to participate in conferences and events, she said

Mr. Tinsley was encouraged to complete a job requisition form detailing what the immediate and recurring tasks would be for the new
consultant and to explain his most pressing need. I needed to know if he needed help with concierge tasks like travel and dinner or if he needed a high level professional that could launch a media campaign or manage his growing real-estate properties or someone that possesses the requisite business acumen to manage his office. Once the needs assessment was completed, the agency placed the advertisement in CPAIs online career center. They also took out an ad in the local newspaper in Charlottesville, Virginia where the band is based.

Until I contacted Celebrity Personal Assistants, Inc., I had gone
through numerous personal assistants who weren't able to perform the
tasks that my busy and complicated life demanded. In the past, I
chose what I thought was the easiest route to finding a capable,
reliable assistantI hired personal friends. In the end, the people I chose could not live up to the responsibilities of such a challenging job. The last thing I wanted to do was go through the process of working with an agency to find someone who could do all the things that I needed to have done. But the demands of my life made it imperative that I find someone professional, hard working and flexible. So I called Celebrity Personal Assistants, Inc. They talked to me about what I needed from a personal assistant, and in a matter of a few short weeks, through a thorough and professional process, paired me with the perfect person to take care of the day to day chores and tasks of my life. I was pleasantly surprised at how painless the process turned out to be. I recommend this agency to anyone in the entertainment or sports world who needs professional, dependable help in his or her day to day life. - Boyd Tinsley (Grammy Award Winning Dave Matthews Band member)

CPAI receives hundreds of inquiries and resumes per week from
individuals seeking work as a Personal Assistant, Publicist and various other support services in sports and entertainment. For Mr. Tinsleys ad alone, we had over 80 respondents. We then did an initial screening of each person by carefully critiquing their resumes. Once we identified those closely fitting his requirements we contacted them over the telephone to conduct an initial interview.

After selecting the preferred candidate list, the agency forwarded
those resumes on to Mr. Tinsley. He then requested the candidates
he wanted to see in person. We then flew to Charlottesville to
conduct in-person interviews. Mr. Tinsley had an opportunity to have
a one-to-one personal interview with each candidate we flew in. He
chose April Freund, who was working as a paralegal at a prestigious law firm - she started the very next week, Muhammad continued.

To make life easier for clients, the agency retains the consultant(s) as their employee(s) and provides them as a full-time resource to the
client. Consultants report to work with the client every day and the agency processes payroll, pays benefits and other services that most of clients would rather not be bothered with, said Alva Johnson, Vice President of Human Resources for the company. Another advantage of the consultants remaining as a CPAI employee is the support offered by the agency to help them manage their relationship with the client. They are provided with continuing education and training which covers topics like public relations, concierge services, international travel and customs, event planning and other pertinent topics.

CPAI also uses email, internet technology as well as a call-center of
live lifestyle managers and assistants to make reservations, provide
stock updates, order tickets, plan events, send emails, check the
weather at a travel destination, provide phone numbers and answer
other detailed requests. Each consultant has access to the online
request system where they can seek assistance from CPAIs call center
to help those complete tasks for their clients when they become
overwhelmed. Sometimes a client may need 50 things completed at
once, which the assistant cant handle single-handedly. They can
logon to the web-site and enter those requests  or call our 24/7
Concierge hotline to phone in the requests to our call center
representatives  and Consider it done!

Our consultants working in the field with our clients get to
concentrate on high level professional tasks and can allow our call
center to take care of the minor details, Ms. Johnson said. The
assistants assigned to work with our clients  can use email, the
internet or our 24/7 VIP hotline to get the help they need. Its like providing the assistant with an assistant  and our clients love this, Ms. Muhammad said. Individuals and companys can also subscribe to the VIP hotline to help their existing (non-CPAI) assistants manage their time better.

I think the company is wonderful. I feel very secure with the way
employees are treated. Im definitely impressed with how well CPAI
keeps up with me and how quickly and firmly Dionne takes care of any
business that comes up or questions or problems. Dionne is incredibly approachable and I know that I can contact her or the call-center about anything with any concerns or questions that I may have. I love the security and protection the company provides me, the employee, commented April Freund, one of the newest CPAI Consultants. As for the job, there may not be words to describe it. It is so exciting to be exposed to such a unique and intriguing world. The travel opportunities, the people I get to meeteverything I need to run as a smooth, confident operator in this position and in this industry is right at my fingertips. I am looking forward to learning more about the industry and becoming a more confident business womanbeing able to handle things of an intense nature independently, April said.

About Celebrity Personal Assistant, Inc. CPAI is the premiere
consulting firm and preferred partner to celebrities, athletes,
executives, politicians - and anyone else with a busy schedule that
needs "just the right thing at just the right time." Most
CPAI "consultants" have at least a Bachelors Degree in Business,
Marketing, Human Resources, Sales or Public Relations. Some
consultants have advanced degrees as well. The agency has 3
divisions, Lifestyle, Image and Business. The Public Relations division is growing just as fast as the Lifestyle Management and Personal Assisting division. CPAI has handled significant media and marketing campaigns for celebrities and athletes across the United States. CPAI has been featured in Essence, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, Onyx Magazine and Private Clubs Magazine among other publications. ###