How the Founder and CEO of Perksy realized she deserved to delegate

“I can proudly say that I’m not good at filling out DMV paperwork,” says Nadia Masri, the Founder and CEO of Perksy. “I’ve realized that completing the forms necessary to get a driver’s license is not the most leveraged use of my time, and it’s not embarrassing anymore—it’s actually empowering because it encourages me to focus my time and talents on activities with a high yield.”

Nadia Masri might not be good at DMV paperwork, but she’s the successful founder of 4 companies. The latest company she started, Perksy, helps drive engagement in the consumer insights space by providing a mobile-first solution that allows brands to gather feedback from consumers in a fun, engaging way. Using Perksy, brands can build surveys, reach consumers, and collect high-quality data that provides actionable insights to drive sales, customer retention, and business success. On the flip side, consumers interact with the brands they love and get rewarded for giving feedback—it’s a win-win.

Nadia’s role as founder and CEO of Perksy involves many responsibilities: “When you’re a founder, you wear all the hats at first, then, progressively, take them off and give them to other people over time,” Nadia says. Those responsibilities include driving business strategy, hiring team members, developing company leadership, building a sales strategy and pipelines, and leading product development.

Upon further reflection, Nadia realized that an EA would be the only person at the company solely dedicated to helping her succeed—which would, in turn, help Perksy succeed.

“After all, great founders don’t build companies for themselves, they build them to serve their customers,” Nadia explains. “Since it’s a founder’s responsibility to drive business success and the only to do that is to be ruthlessly focused on the things that only they can do, hiring an EA to make a founder more effective and focused is critical to the company’s growth.”

Nadia’s ‘aha’ moment—when she admitted that an EA would be an excellent investment, and she deserved one—was when she realized the work she’d delegate to an EA was truly important. “I realized the tasks I’d hand off do matter to the company because by delegating them, I’d be able to focus my time and energy and do more, faster,” she says.

What’s more, Nadia realized she wasn’t serving her team the way they needed her to. “I’m happy to wear multiple hats and pick up the little things that don’t fit within the rest of the team’s purview, but when I started dropping the ball on tasks that my team needed me to do, that’s when I knew hiring an assistant was critical,” she says.

But Nadia didn’t approach the decision to get an EA without hesitation. She had previously hired full-time and part-time EAs and tried virtual assistants. “I’m extremely picky when it comes to hiring someone to help me,” she says. When she’d brought on EAs before, Nadia felt a little discomfort: “I felt awkward asking my EA to do things—but once I realized that they are here to enable me to do my job and be my best self, I was able to get on board,” she says.

Finally, when Nadia found a solution that married technology with a highly skilled EA—Double—she knew she’d discovered a new way to deliver on her responsibilities and drive success for Perksy. She had hired assistants before, but they lacked the fluidity in their relationships to really thrive working together, and technology was a significant missing piece in the equation.

She also handed off several operational and administrative projects, like processing checks and payments for the company .

Daily, Nadia’s Double helps her triage her work, answering the question, “Where should I be working today to bring the most value to my team—what can I do that no one else can?” Then, anything that doesn’t fall on that list is her Double’s responsibility. “The reality is, if it weren’t important, it wouldn’t be on my list at all—my Double helps me make sure everything important is getting done,” she says.

Nadia handed off personal matters, too, transferring her personal Asana tasks into Double. This includes tasks like booking appointments, helping with personal paperwork (like DMV applications), and scheduling a charity donation pick up at her house.

Nadia’s Double has also helped her improve her work-life balance, such as by researching and incorporating swimming into her schedule. Her Double helped find the best local pool, got a membership, and put time for Nadia to go swimming on her calendar.

A big part of how Nadia and her Double collaborate is the technology they use. After all, Double’s technology was a huge deciding factor for Nadia choosing a Double, so it’s no surprise that she uses it to get things done. Nadia relies on Asana to manage her work across Perksy and has the Double app open as a separate space to collaborate with her Double. They use the email extension to keep her inbox organized, and the task manager provides visibility into what needs to get done. They chat throughout the day using Double’s messaging feature and task manager so that both Nadia and her Double are always up to date.

Since bringing on her Double, Nadia has noticed several benefits.

She’s able to triage tasks without guilt. The more she started delegating tasks to her Double, the more she got comfortable doing so. “I’ve become proud to ask my Double for help, instead of embarrassed,” she says. “It’s not that I don’t know how to or can’t do the work she does, she’s just enabling me to spend my time doing things that drive the most value for my company and life—and she’s much, much faster at them than I am.”

She saves time. Because her Double is faster—and more experienced—at her work, she saves Nadia a lot of time every day.

She provides better customer service. With her Double, Nadia can get back to clients on time and provide positive experiences for them because she’s not spread so thin trying to respond to everyone.

She feels more motivated and recognizes the importance of both of their tasks. “My Double has a knack for reminding me that anything she’s working on is important for us to do,” Nadia says. Getting a daily reminder that everything is critical helps her stay motivated and focused.

“At the end of the day, my Double and I are partners; she sticks up for me when people try to crowd my calendar and she drives projects that are invaluable to my wellbeing and professional success,” Nadia said. This felt even more true when Nadia ended up in the hospital and was unable to work for a stretch of time. Her Double handled absolutely everything by supporting, updating, and reassuring her. Since then, she’s helped Nadia make lifestyle changes that enable her to stay healthy, too.

As a CEO and founder many times over, one thing that’s become clear to Nadia is that people bring value to an organization for doing a specific thing they’re really good at. “That’s why they should be doing those things, and anything else should be done by someone else,” she says. Though sometimes running a startup might feel like you should be able to do it all yourself, Nadia has learned that her job is to serve her team and company, so she needs to stay ruthlessly focused.

She achieves that focus by leveraging technology and her Double to create the perfect system that enables her to grow her company, the fullness of her life, and her leadership abilities. With her Double, she’s better able to help Perksy thrive and optimize her personal health and work-life balance—and get a driver’s license, too.