Curious, Competitive, Courageous.

What Survivor Strategy Can Teach Administrative Professionals About Winning at Work and in Life

Kiara has two non-negotiables: stay curious and stay competitive. But there’s a third quality that turns both into action: courage.

As Executive Assistant to the Head of Product for Slack, Kiara has built a career around reading rooms, recognizing patterns, connecting dots, building trust and anticipating what’s coming next. Outside of work, she's spent more than a decade building a successful floral design company, with work featured in Vogue, while raising two daughters.

And then she decided to put all of those skills to the ultimate test: Survivor.

A lifelong fan, Kiara auditioned and made it all the way to the final stages of casting on her first try. She didn't get picked.

So she's trying again.

Along the way, she realized that many of the skills that make an exceptional Executive Assistant also make a formidable Survivor player: emotional intelligence, pattern recognition, relationship building, gathering information, influencing without authority, adapting quickly and seeing moves before they happen.

In this candid conversation with Admin Awards Founder Sunny Nunan, Kiara shares why curiosity may be an Admin's greatest career advantage, why competition isn't a dirty word and why courage matters more than certainty.

We'll also explore why Admins shouldn't hitch their careers entirely to someone else's, how to build an identity and ambition of your own, and what rejection can teach us about confidence, risk and trying again.

Because courage isn't knowing you'll win.

It's auditioning anyway. Applying anyway. Pitching anyway. Raising your hand anyway. And when you don't get picked, having the courage to come back and try again.