Profile: Bonnie Low-Kramen in CanvasRebel Magazine

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bonnie Low-Kramen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bonnie below.

Bonnie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Nothing about my career was planned. Now, in 2026, I own my Executive Assistant training company and I have traveled to 14 countries speaking and teaching my Be the Ultimate Assistant workshops. I have trained the team at the British Parliament and at the Wharton School. I am the author of two books and I was invited to deliver a TEDx talk in 2022. I called it, “The Real Reasons People Quit.” I go into business schools and train the business students who are our future leaders on Staff Matters. I am considered a workplace expert and was named a Top 100 HR Influencer of 2024.

The truth is that I expected none of this. Looking back, I realize that every step I took came out of a need and problems that I thought I could solve. It is useful to go back to the beginning.

In 1979, when I graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in theater and English literature, my dream was to be an actress, not an assistant. Those dreams lasted for about three months before the frustration of rejections sent me to seek work behind the curtain. Determined to somehow be in show business, I began working in theater box offices selling tickets.

In a million years, I never thought that job in a box office, making $4.25 an hour, would lead me to work for a movie star as her personal and executive assistant, which would lead me to write a book about the experience, which would then lead me to be hired in 14 countries to teach others how to be ultimate assistants. But it did.

In 1985, a colleague told me about a job at a small theater in Montclair, New Jersey, not far from where I grew up. The person in charge was Olympia Dukakis, the producing artistic director and soon-to-be Oscar-winning actress. Ten months into our work together, she was cast to co-star with Cher, Nicolas Cage, and Danny Aiello in the film Moonstruck.

While Olympia was shooting the film in Toronto, she needed someone to coordinate communications with her theater staff back in Montclair. I was chosen to fill this role and functioned as “communications central,” which was essentially an assistant job. At the time, I didn’t know there was a name for what I was doing. We soon figured out that the work was called “Personal Assistant.”

In those early months, I would often think, “how can I be as great an assistant as Olympia is an actress?”

I decided to answer that question. I went on the search for books on running offices. I drove to Barnes and Noble and found the “Business and Management” section in a far corner of the store. I found next to nothing about what I was doing running a one-person office out of my employer’s home. I stood in among the books that day and said out loud, “I think I have to write the damned thing myself.”

I wrote “Be the Ultimate Assistant” and Olympia wrote the Foreword. I have sold 15,000 copies since 2004. I went searching for a class to know how to be a great assistant, and again, found very little. I put pen to paper and built curriculum for the workshop called “Be the Ultimate Assistant.” That’s how my company, Ultimate Assistant Training & Consulting, Inc. was born. That’s how it happened. Out of a need. I built a company not because I wanted to be a business owner, but because I was frustrated by the lack of resources for high-level assistants.

I became involved as a founding member of New York Celebrity Assistants (NYCA), a professional networking organization. Through NYCA, I met the prominent New York City recruiter Melba J. Duncan who connected me to my first paid speaking engagement which led to 300 more. My second book called Staff Matters, came out in February, 2023. Melba J. Duncan wrote the Foreword to the book. Life Lesson: People do things for people they know, like, and trust.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The profession of assisting is populated by 93-97% women and therefore, I spend my life in rooms of women. I consider it a privilege to know their stories from the workplace and to use what I know to help others. There are a few burning issues that are especially hot for women, such as negotiating salaries, workplace bullying, and sexual harassment. I am known for not shying away from these issues that are preoccupying so many and chasing away others. This is partly what sets me apart from other trainers.

I have a global perspective on this workplace that others don’t have and that breadth of knowledge and experience comes into every room. My students and audiences know that I am one of them. I respect them and tell them the truth.

I feel proud that my students write to me months and even years after my training to let me know how much our time together meant. I treasure that.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In a world where everyone seems to question whether information and pictures are “real” or not, the most prized quality on social media is trust, credibility, and authenticity. As a writer and as someone who cares about workplace issues, I was drawn to LinkedIn as my primary social media platform. I began by posting my articles and when people would comment on them, I would engage with them and comment in response or ask them a question. Sometimes those interactions led to a phone conversation which led to being hired at companies to train the team.

As with all writing, my advice is to write what you know and to be authentically yourself. Post real photos of yourself to help tell the story of whatever it is you are sharing. Follow the famous 80/20 Rule. Post 80% helpful content and 20% about products you want to sell such as books, classes, coaching, and communities. There is so much noise on all social media platforms so my advice is to not copy what anyone else is doing. Rather, choose the platform that feels right to you and post with consistency, ideally 2-3 times/per week so that your audience gets to know you and you get to know them.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

1. I write all of my own promotional materials, including social media posts and my website. There is a consistency of message that my students tell me matters to them. I am trusted because I have sustained this consistency over many years. I am most definitely not a new voice on the landscape.
2. I keep my word and do what I say I am going to do. My students and clients depend on this.
3. I have fair pricing with transparency and no hidden costs. My clients feel that I am overdelivering and therefore, I am invited back.

   Read the original article as it appears on CanvasRebel.com here.