Dannie Erb

Dannie Erb is the general manager of Goods Electric, Heating & Air, an industry-leading electrical and HVAC services company.

Since opening its doors in 2001, Goods Electric, Heating & Air has provided industry-leading electrical and HVAC services to homeowners in the greater Youngstown, Ohio, metro area. 

After 23 years in business, Goods has 39 employees and acquires a yearly revenue of roughly $8.3 Million.

It supports homeowners by providing customer-centered solutions for repairing, replacing, and maintaining their electrical, heating, and cooling systems so they can experience a bright, safe, and comfortable home.

The Challenge

“I actually didn't reach out to BELAY,” Dannie admits. ”I was convinced I didn't need help. And Daniel, the owner, had mentioned multiple times that he [was seeing] the pain points that I have clearer than I was seeing them. 

“Finally, one day I was like, ‘No. I think I'm good. I think I'm okay.’ I kept telling him this and I kept pushing it off. He wanted me to be operating at a higher level of focus on the business versus just day-to-day stuff. So he reached out to BELAY. 

“I got an email from Daniel and he says, ‘So by the way, I scheduled a meeting with you, me, and Theresa Summerlin. You're going to see an invitation come through from BELAY. I just want you to meet her. We'll decide after that if it is a fit. 

“Well, Theresa was good at walking me through why I need an assistant. And when she asked how many hours I would think I need in that first conversation, I said, ‘I mean, not more than 20 hours a month,’ to which Daniel laughed and she laughed. And then they decided that we'll start with 85.”

Enter BELAY Virtual Assistant Haley Vick.

The Solution

“At the end of the first week, I was like, ‘I have no idea how I even functioned before this,’ because it was almost immediate,” Dannie says. 

“It was on a Monday morning when the official first day would've been. I was still scrambling to get all my stuff together, login information and get stuff over to a spot where she can have it and so on. I hadn't even gotten started with it yet. I was still just scrambling. 

“And then I got a message from her as just a good morning and day one sort of thing. She already had solutions.”

One of those solutions Haley provided Dannie with right off the bat was an Evernote document affectionately called “brain dump.” Here, Haley guided him to list anything that came to his mind that needed to be done. 

“And then the organization started to happen,” Dannie remembers. “At that point, we were still using Asana as far as a project management software. And so she started organizing it and bringing it into order. And I was like, ‘Holy smokes. I guess my life could actually be organized.’ 

“I could go through a day of having my calendar look like it's not one meeting scheduled on top of another meeting scheduled on top of another meeting because I forgot about the other meetings that were scheduled as well. 

“The immediate relief was simply realizing somebody can just do all of that, and I don't have to try to keep that all in my head [to] make that happen.”

Haley has a unique perspective in helping Danny as she is also a business owner as well.

“[Dannie is] my first Virtual Assistant client, but I also own a business, and so I understand a lot of things from a business standpoint,” Haley explains. “We first met with [our CSC] during our kickoff call, and it was great. And she kind of explained how the situation was going to work. 

“She and Danny talked about pain points in the business. And then from there I took the words that were being said, and I untangled [them]. It was like a tangled-up ball of yarn, and I just started pulling the threads and untangling it. 

“I said, ‘Okay, well, these are the main pain points that I'm seeing right now. Let's start working on this one.’ And then from there, it kind of evolved into what it is today where we took a lot of those things and just organized them and made them easy to find.”

Dannie and Haley attribute open communication and their weekly meetings to their success.

“We meet every single Monday morning, and we've added ad hoc brainstorming meetings in there as well,” Haley says. “We've had really clear and open communication. At the end of every single meeting, we do a feedback session where we go, ‘Hey, is this working? Is there anything that's not working? Let's talk about it.’ 

“And usually it's like, ‘Yeah, no, it's going great. Go, team!’ And we just always communicate those things. That is a huge, huge part of it—the open and super honest communication that we have with each other. Without that, it wouldn't work, but with that, it's awesome.”

The Result

From the brain dump document, Haley has organized tasks into Notion and Google Drive to make things easy to find. She has also been handling meeting facilitation for the leadership and manager teams.

Haley also does research for Daniel whether it’s a book, restaurant hotel, or gift. She’s also color-coded and labeled Dannie’s calendar for him. Haley also works with team members to follow up with them on their projects and help them stay organized as well.

When asked what he has gained by having a BELAY Virtual Assistant, Dannie mentioned the all too common dread of Monday mornings.

“The first thing that comes to my mind is Sunday evenings,” Dannie says. “Friday evening was this moment of just a breath of a little relief, like a moment in the middle of a raging war, if you will, that I just had a little relief where I could just kind of hang things up. I wasn't getting into my projects for the weekend yet. 

 

“Sundays we would go to church. I would come home from church and just start this anxious feeling building up inside of me. And I would start to [think], ‘Alright, what am I doing the next day? What's the next week looking like?’ 

“And many times I would work anything from four to eight hours on Sunday afternoon. As I would get into Sunday evenings, most of the time, [I] couldn't sleep before midnight just gearing up for the week.

“Now, Sunday evenings are one of my favorite times. We have people over again, which we hadn't been doing for a long time. That's huge because what happens after work and outside of business hours is insanely important to me.

“I have six kids, and we have a farm with animals. My kids have stuff that they’re doing, that they’re into, and I want to support and I want to be there for them.

Along with that major personal win, Haley has also been able to help Dannie restructure.

“Another thing is when Haley started, there were 16 people that were directly reporting to me in the company,” Dannie says. “Now I’m down to three which are all on the leadership team, which is the way it should be, which is what Daniel envisioned.

“I was working up to anything from 65 to 75 hours a week. I am very close to 50 hours now, and it’s probably only going to diminish a little from there. That was unimaginable to me. I had no idea that was even a possibility anymore.”

And Haley couldn’t be happier for Dannie.

“We've talked about it several times and every single time it just makes my heart so happy because I'm like, ‘Oh, yay! No more Sunday scaries,” Haley laughs. “And it makes my heart really happy because I am in it to help people. 

“I own a business and I'm a VA because I love people and I love helping people, and I want to make people's lives easier and fill a gap in that day. The fact that we've been able to accomplish so much already, getting those direct reports—if you had seen the organization chart that we made before this current one, it looked like a little octopus
with all of the arms coming off of Danny, and it was nuts. It’s been such a big change in the best way and seeing all of that come to fruition, it makes my heart really happy.”