Nicole Kramer.
Courtesy of Nicole Kramer
- Nicole Kramer fell in love with ‘Selling Sunset’ and knew she wanted to be part of that world.
- A cold email she sent to Mary Fitzgerald led to an interview with the ‘Selling Sunset’ star.
- Kramer says her social media experience and personal branding experience got her the job.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicole Kramer, Mary Fitzgerald’s social media manager and personal assistant. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I sent Mary Fitzgerald my résumé on a whim. I knew I wanted to work for her as soon as I watched the first two seasons of “Selling Sunset.” I’m now four months into my job as her social media manager and personal assistant.
I watched “Selling Sunset” when it had just been released on Netflix. I lived in Chicago at the time, and had just graduated from the University of Alabama in 2019 with a degree in advertising. I remember watching the show and feeling like this is the world I wanted to be in — the mansions, the outfits, the luxe, and the glam.
So I cold-emailed Mary my résumé and wrote something like, “Hi, I love “Selling Sunset.” I would love to work with you, pretty much in any capacity. Here’s my résumé.”
I also mentioned that I was going to get my real estate license, which didn’t end up happening. I think that was a blessing in disguise because my social media experience proved to be useful for what I’m doing today.
I hadn’t even planned on moving to California, but I knew that if she contacted me, I would go.
I didn’t hear anything from my cold email for a year and a half
I moved to LA and started working anyway. When I flew out to tour apartments, West Hollywood felt like my scene — it just really appealed to me. I’d pass the office from “Selling Sunset” sometimes and just be in awe.
I feel like I manifested this life for myself, because a year and a half after reaching out, Mary contacted me.
I got a text from a random number late at night (and knowing Mary, that makes so much sense now) that said, “Hi Nicole, this is Mary Fitzgerald from the Oppenheim Group. I received your résumé a while back. I was wondering if you’re still interested.”
And I was like, wow, no way — I thought one of my friends was messing with me. But it was the real deal.
I ended up getting on the phone with Mary, then going over to meet her and Romain Bonnet. It seemed like the perfect fit.
Here’s the résumé I sent in my cold email:
Working with clients in close proximity to Mary and having marketing experience is probably what helped me stand out.
Courtesy of Nicole Kramer
Mary really liked my social media experience
My résumé got me a phone conversation, and then my growing expertise in branding is what continued our conversation. I think what stood out to Mary was my social media experience.
It was really beneficial that within the year and a half of waiting, I had been working in social media with other clients in the West Hollywood area. In that time I had really grown my expertise in social media and personal branding. I think she valued that experience and my advertising degree.
The interview felt more like a consultation
Our meeting was less about Mary interviewing me and more of a consulting session. Their attitudes weren’t, “Why should we let you work for us?” Instead, they wanted to hear about my ideas and how I could improve their personal brands.
Because I had looked at their pages before going into the meeting, I talked with them about areas that seemed to be lacking, how they could boost their numbers, and possible partnership ideas. I think they really trusted my gut and agreed with all the points I gave them.
Mary and Romain are really open to my opinions on what works for their social.
Courtesy of Nicole Kramer
Personal assistant salaries range depending on who you’re working for
Some assistants make $45,000 a year, and those who work for bigger names can make up to $220,000 in New York or LA. It really depends on who you work for and how much is required of you.
Mary pays me a good amount of money to have a nice lifestyle in LA.
In general, Mary needs a personal assistant about 70% of the time, and extra help in other categories the rest of the time. When she was looking for a new assistant, I think she was specifically looking for someone to help with her social media collabs because they’re a huge part of her brand.
Her social media is huge — her numbers are absolutely insane, and so are the collaboration opportunities that are brought to her. I think she really wanted to start focusing more on her personal brand, so I was a great fit.
My job is different every single day
I film and then edit all of Mary’s social media posts and brand collaborations. I also run Romain Bonnet’s pages, even though he does a lot of his own stuff. I predominantly work on Mary’s social media, but no day is the same.
I film Mary’s content and then edit it at home.
Courtesy of Nicole Kramer
My personal assistant duties include helping her with her daily needs, scheduling with her stylist, making sure she has all of her appointments taken care of, as well as helping with showings and scheduling open houses for the real estate side of things.
Any time she has a collaboration come through, we get it on Mary’s social media calendar and schedule a time to shoot. After we get some footage done, I go home and edit it. We then submit that to the brands to make sure it’s aligned with everything that they were hoping to have within their creative brief.
Sometimes I help with Mary’s real estate projects
I also help with any real estate listings Mary has going on. For example, one of her clients is from London and is moving here with his family. I’ve been helping her schedule showings so that when he is in town, they have a really nice calendar of listings and showings lined up for her to take him and his family too.
She has a couple other listings that I’ve helped her out with as well — for open houses, I’ll go with her and film content. At the last open house, we did a ton of amazing drone footage, which my boyfriend helped me with because he’s a videographer. I also help Mary promote listings on social media.
My role will change when we’re filming ‘Selling Sunset’
My time with Mary hasn’t overlapped with filming “Selling Sunset” yet. However, we just filmed a whole production for a social media collaboration. I think that gave me a little preview of what my job will be like when filming for “Selling Sunset” begins.
Mary has mentioned to me that production days can be very long, and the schedules are always changing. I’m assuming that for days she’s on set, I’ll probably be with her to help with anything she needs, and then also answering emails and helping film behind the scenes content.
My favorite day so far was assisting on a photoshoot
I would say my best day working for Mary so far was my first editorial photo shoot with her. Mary had so many different looks — and it was really my first time getting to experience how I imagined California would be, because COVID had shut down so much production and filming when I first moved here. There’s much more going on around LA now, but at that point I really hadn’t seen anyone filming or shooting anything.
It was also my first opportunity to see what it’s like behind the scenes of a shoot with hair, makeup, changing outfits, a whole production team, a call sheet — a full blown photo shoot. It was the epitome of an assistant day: I ran out and got coffee, and I was meeting them at each location. I couldn’t have had a better time.
I haven’t necessarily had a worst day, but there are some days where there’s a lot of miscellaneous driving — those are my least favorite. Something will come up in one place and I’ll have to drive 30 minutes, get home, and then go right back in the same direction because something else came up.
My hope is that after working with Mary, I will have established myself enough in a business sense to create more opportunities — social media, real estate, or just more business opportunities — for myself. I’m hoping that this job brings me a lot of networking opportunities and provides the foundation I need for getting my feet planted in LA.
If you work in Hollywood and would like to share your story, email Eboni Boykin-Patterson at [email protected].
Read the original article on Business Insider
