Hi, my name is April Hartsfield and I am a celebrity personal assistant.
What got me into being a Personal Assistant is that I really wanted to be involved in the Arts.
My passion is nurturing creativity.
I've always attracted really artsy people.
Part of what my job is as a Personal Assistant is helping them organize being the creative person that
they are.
Funny enough when I was a little girl, I used to pretend to be a secretary.
Eventually it evolved and I wanted to be in the music industry.
People get into it for different reasons.
I did it because of the creativity and I think that a lot of the people that I work for appreciate that
because I'm not using the job to maybe get a book deal, or try to be a famous actress, or anything like
that.
This is what I do.
I'm a career assistant.
From previous jobs.
I learned organizational skills, definitely, because everybody requires something different.
So, previously I worked in the music industry.
And this position that I'm in currently, it can be anything from doing a photo shoot, to doing test
patterns and tear sheets for magazines.
I organize travel.
One skill that's been valuable to me is being adaptable.
It's rare to get into the industry that you would like to be in initially.
Sometimes, you have to kind of do a lateral move to get where you want to be.
From one industry to the next, it's like jumping from one world to the other and learning all about
this new world.
I never even really had any experience with photography.
So, it was something that I definitely acquired from this particular position.
And, it's also about connecting with the personality of that person.
That's very important because you're going to have to see them day in, day out, in their underwear,
you know, traveling with them.
There's always a way to say something so that they understand that you are there for them, but you're
not going to be a doormat so it's like linguistic gymnastics.
You have to be creative in you're saying no
Someone new getting into this business: I just say research, research, study, study.
Whoever it is that you work for, just find out as much information as you can about the job, about the
person, about their scope working, what you have to do.
What excites me is when my boss gets excited about something.
So, a new project will come up and it's like, "Alright, let's do it.
Let's make this happen!"
It's this energy that I kind of thrive off of, and what's gratifying for me is at the end of it, I get to
see the end of the project and know that I was a part of that.
I never thought I would be doing any of this and it's a lot of fun.
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