Rob Howe doesn’t do things halfway. As the founder of Recreation Dallas, an advertising agency, and a second venture in Diabetics Doing Things, Rob was building two businesses simultaneously, and doing far too much of the work himself.
By mid-2023, the volume had become unsustainable.
“Before BELAY, I was working all the time,” Rob recalls. “My task list was disorganized. I didn’t have a system to run, and I was playing catch-up all the time.”
The Challenge: Running Two Businesses, Wearing Every Hat
For Rob, the warning signs weren’t subtle. His days were full, but his nights and early mornings were, too.
“I would go to work, get my work done, come home, maybe take a break to eat or work out or hang out with my wife, and then I’d have a night shift,” he explains. “Or I would wake up early and do a morning shift before everybody else was up. That was pretty regular on a weekly basis.”
Emails went unanswered. Meetings were double-booked. Tasks lived only in his head and had a way of slipping through the cracks. Time with family was suffering. There simply wasn’t enough of Rob to go around.
He knew he needed help. He just hadn’t found the right solution.
Finding the Solution: A Process Worth Trusting
Rob didn’t stumble into BELAY. He triple-bid the decision, vetting three companies before committing.
One competitor had no onboarding process. Another didn’t inspire confidence. BELAY stood apart, not just in what they offered, but in how they offered it.
“The onboarding process is what sold me,” Rob says. “I had tried and failed in the past because I didn’t really know how to delegate. The BELAY onboarding process made me confident that if I followed that framework, I would get what I wanted out of it.”
His account manager, Krystal, worked closely with Rob to find the right match. After meeting a few candidates, they landed on Laura, the executive assistant who has been part of Rob’s team nearly every day since.
Laura: The EA Who Became a True Team Member
From inbox management to event planning, podcast editing to travel logistics, Laura took on the work that had been pulling Rob away from what actually moved his businesses forward.
Her reliability became especially clear when Rob enrolled in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, a 12-week course that took him fully offline every Friday.
“Losing one day a week prior to having BELAY, I wouldn’t have been able to do that with as much confidence,” he says. “But I knew when I logged back in, there was going to be a list of things for me to tackle. It was extremely impactful.”
There’s also the story that best captures what a great EA really means. During a basketball clinic Rob was running, snacks for the kids were forgotten, and Rob was already on the flight.
“Laura had a Costco membership and was able to order things to be delivered after I was already on the flight to the location,” he recalls. “I showed up, and it was done. That was big time.”
When Laura went on maternity leave, BELAY stepped in with a trained substitute, so Rob could keep operating at full capacity, a continuity he never could have guaranteed with a direct hire.
Adding the Bookkeeper: Completing the Financial Picture
About eight months in, a business course Rob was taking clarified something important: Every business needs three financial roles: a CFO, a CPA, and a bookkeeper. He had two of the three.
“I was missing a bookkeeper, and that was causing me a lot of stress and extra time looking at numbers because I couldn’t count on what was in the books.”
He reached out to BELAY, and they matched him with Jackson. Getting the accounts coded correctly and the books cleaned up was a significant lift upfront, but once the foundation was in place, the clarity followed.
A third-party reviewer who later connected to the books said it best: “Man, your books are really clean. Compliments to whoever has done them.”
Now, Rob can log into his QuickBooks dashboard and trust what he sees. “I’m confident looking at the books. I know that after he’s done his entering of all the accounts, everything’s where it should be.”
The Results: More Capacity, More Confidence, More Growth
The impact has shown up in concrete ways. At Diabetics Doing Things, revenue has grown because Rob can focus on selling and client work rather than administrative overhead. He credits BELAY with helping him add the equivalent of an entire new client to his book of business.
He also made a top-20 finish in a competitive pitch competition, something he attributes directly to having the capacity and support to see it through.
“I wouldn’t have had time to do it if it had not been for BELAY,” he says. “Because we did that, it got done.”
Missed deadlines, double-booked calendars, and forgotten commitments are largely a thing of the past. And perhaps most meaningfully, Rob has become the kind of executive he always envisioned.
“I have become an executive that relies on an admin, and that was a goal of mine,” he says. “I saw myself as somebody who needed that and wanted that.”
What Made It Work: Delegation, Done Right
For Rob, BELAY didn’t just solve a staffing problem. It transformed how he leads.
One principle from the onboarding has stuck with him and shaped how he manages his broader team: “If someone can do 70 percent of a job as well as you, then that’s a win. Let them improve from there. That’s got to be our baseline.”
When asked to sum up what BELAY has meant to him, Rob doesn’t hesitate.
“Because of BELAY, I have time to do the things that only I can do. I’m not spending as much time trying to get myself in order. I’m able to prioritize the work and be more organized.”
His billboard-worthy headline? “Delegate, dummy.”
“You cannot do everything yourself. You have to trust. And having a partner there making sure your onboarding is successful? That makes all the difference.”
Ready to build a team you trust and reclaim the time to lead?