106: My Pleasure: How a BELAY VA Serves Chick-fil-A

1. Delegation allows you to be fully present in your life and work. If you surround yourself with great people, you won’t need to sacrifice your personal life or your sanity for the sake of your job.

2. Micromanaging just means you’re doing double the amount of work. To delegate effectively, you first need to find someone you trust.

3. We’re better on purpose. To fully live out your core values, you need to consistently evaluate yourself and your team and continue to strive for more.

Rob Herald on LinkedIn

Mindy Brewer on LinkedIn

BELAY’s Virtual Assistant services

BELAY’s Accounting services

(2:23) Rob explains why he decided to hire a BELAY virtual assistant

(6:41) When you find people you can trust, you stop feeling like you have to do it all

(8:02) Mindy shares the first things she did to support Rob 

(8:53) Rob explains how BELAY made it easier to overcome the “trust gap” and start delegating

(11:08) How do you integrate a VA into a mostly in-person work environment?

(14:34) What does your day-to-day work dynamic look like?

(20:22) Mindy and Rob explain how they’ve built a strong working relationship

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Hey, y’all. Ryan here, and before we get started, I have to tell you about a special, limited-time offer from BELAY. At BELAY, we know that time is money, and now through the end of August, we’re doing something that will allow you to save on both. For the first time ever, we’re offering $300 off your startup cost with a BELAY virtual assistant. $300. All you have to do is book a call with our sales team by August 31st to qualify. There’s no better time than now to accomplish more and juggle less. Head to BELAYSolutions.com to get started.

Rob Herold:

BELAY, as I did research with the company and I knew some other people through Chick-fil-A who had worked with BELAY, I had a lot of trust in y’all’s corporate values and the things that you do. I really liked the relational aspect of what you do. You didn’t just pick someone for me and said, “Here, work with Mindy.” I was introduced to Mindy and got a chance to get to know her for a little while. And I got to choose that she was the person that I wanted to work with. And I really appreciated that.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step, the most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by BELAY, the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity, with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media managers. Accomplish more. Juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY. And now to your hosts.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business, so it stops running you. I’m Ryan and on today’s episode, Tricia, the CEO here at BELAY, is talking with our guests, Rob Herold and Mindy Brewer. Rob is a Chick-fil-A operator and a BELAY client. And Mindy is his BELAY virtual assistant. Rob and Mindy have developed a great working relationship and we thought other leaders should learn from them and learn from their story. They’re here to tell us how to make the most of a virtual assistant and how they work together to help Rob’s Chick-fil-A restaurant run smoothly. This is going to be an incredible discussion. And if you’re like me, you love Chick-fil-A and you think they do everything well. And so I think from an operational excellence standpoint, there’s so much to take away from that conversation.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

But first, let’s talk about time and how there’s never enough of it, but what if you could have an extra 15 hours every week? Does it sound too good to be true? It’s not. People like Rob and so many other business owners and leaders have found that with the help of BELAY, the incredible organization, revolutionizing productivity with subscription based virtual assistant, bookkeeping and social media strategist services, you can reclaim an average of 15 hours every week by delegating just five tasks. Tasks like email, scheduling, social media management, accounts payable and receivables and expense reporting. Accomplish more. Juggle less. Modern staffing from BELAY.

Tricia Sciortino :

Rob and Mindy, thank you so much for joining us today on the One Next Step. I’m glad you took time out of your day to talk to us.

Mindy Brewer:

Yay. We’re excited.

Rob Herold:

Excited to be here.

Tricia Sciortino :

Great. So as we get started, I would love it, if Rob, you wouldn’t mind telling us a little bit about you. Maybe just introduce yourself for a minute, tell our listeners what you do and most importantly, how you came to BELAY.

Rob Herold:

Awesome. Well, thanks, I appreciate being here. So I’m a Chick-fil-A owner-operator. I’ve been with Chick-fil-A since I was 17 years old. Started as a frontline team member in the drive through back in 2001. And I became an owner-operator in 2009 and I’ve grown all the way up. It’s been 12 years now. I own a restaurant here in Bowie, Maryland. It’s my hometown. And I love what I get to do every day. I have about 150 team members that I get to lead in the restaurant and we love delivery here. We love selling chicken. We love really changing people’s lives. It’s the deeper version of what we get to do at Chick-fil-A. But I could talk a little bit more about that if we get into it.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yeah, absolutely. And Chick-fil-A is just an impressive organization altogether. So anytime I meet somebody who works for Chick-fil-A, I just commend them. I know you guys go through so much on and spend a lot of time and energy on leadership development and it’s definitely an organization who I hold its values personally high, in high esteem for myself.

Rob Herold:

Yeah, I really appreciate you saying that. I’ll tell you the way I found out about BELAY, was actually through some folks that are with Chick-fil-A at the support center down in Atlanta and a couple of operators. I was looking for a virtual assistant. I didn’t know that’s what that was called at the time. But I was just really looking for someone to help organize my life and help me stop stressing out about little things. And they pointed me in the direction and I connected with a gentleman named Myles who worked with me and introduced me to Mindy. And here we are. So, that was back in October of last year.

Tricia Sciortino :

Fantastic. We love it. So what exactly was going on in your world that you knew you needed a virtual assistant or whatever at the time, maybe it didn’t have a title. What was going on with you as a leader that you knew you were going to need some kind of help or support, and this was the direction you were going to go?

Rob Herold:

So I was telling a couple of other of my colleagues about this. As a small business owner, we don’t necessarily think of ourselves as CEOs. Sometimes we help cover shifts, we run registers and help bag in the restaurant sometimes. And over the years I’ve tried to work myself out of those roles as much as possible. But I found myself holding onto things like email and scheduling and just thought, “I could do that. That’s easy.” But I found myself missing appointments and missing emails and not being able to reply. And it just got to be so overwhelming that I went to a conference and someone said, “If you’re doing something that someone else could be doing, why are you doing it?”

Rob Herold:

And so that challenge caused me to start looking. And I don’t just serve in the restaurant. I also help serve in the market. I serve on a couple of different boards. And so it’s not just the restaurant that Mindy helps me with, but the restaurant’s my bread and butter. The restaurant’s my main responsibility from a business perspective. I’m also a single dad. And so I have to balance that side of my life as well. Because my son is my absolute, most important responsibility in life. And so I want to make sure I can be fully present with him at all times, regardless of what’s going on in the restaurant or with all the things I’m involved in with the market. And so I really just wanted to make sure that I was in a really solid place to where I could be present in all aspects of my life.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yeah. I mean, that seems like the story that I wish more people would tell themselves, is that actually is possible. I think a lot of people think to your point, Rob, that it just it’s par for the course. “I own a restaurant I’m, I’m the CEO and manager of all these things. And I’m overseeing 150 people. So I just can’t. I’m going to have to sacrifice my personal life or my family will have to sacrifice because of those things.” And I’m with you in that. No, actually not at all. You really, really don’t have to. If you equip yourself with the right people and you surround yourself with the right people, you teach yourself how to be an awesome delegator, that you actually can live life fully and do great work at the same time. And one not outweigh or overshadow another.

Rob Herold:

Yeah. And I actually want you to hear me say that. Because I think it’s really important for people to hear people in my position and business owners to say, “I thought I could do it all. And I realized I cannot do this. I cannot do this on my own. I need someone strategically to help me. And I need to start looking for that person.” And that’s really what BELAY helped me figure out. And honestly, I’m not just going to say BELAY, I’m going to say that’s what Mindy helped me figure out, because I’m Mindy’s hugest fan, so.

Tricia Sciortino :

Well. Awesome. And now we get to hear a little bit from Mindy, your awesome BELAY virtual assistant. Before we go there, I will say to you, Rob, can’t doing it all. Absolutely. And also, shouldn’t. Can, sure. Work 80 hours a week. Can. But should you? So truly I believe in what you’re saying. It’s a can’t, it’s a shouldn’t, it’s a you don’t have to. So.

Rob Herold:

Amen.

Tricia Sciortino :

Anyway, Mindy. Yes. Amen. Mindy, Mindy. Hi.

Mindy Brewer:

Hi.

Tricia Sciortino :

So you had some big shoes to fill, right? Rob wanted to make some changes. He wanted to get the help he needed. What was one thing you did to support him at the beginning when you guys first started working together?

Mindy Brewer:

So what I have to say first is something you should know about Rob, is that when he commits to something, he is all in. And so I think he really came into this process, open handed and willing to let go. And so he made it easy in the beginning to… Like I said, he came in and he just handed over his email, he just handed over. And so I dare to say it was easy to jump in from the beginning.

Rob Herold:

It was more like, “Take this. I don’t want this anymore.”

Tricia Sciortino :

That is something we see though, right? Is that, we see leaders who may make the commitment to do this. Make the commitment to work with a virtual assistant, but they can’t let it go. Or they are reluctant to let it go. There’s this trust gap thing, where they want to let go of the thing. It’s the reason they’ve decided to work with a virtual assistant, but there’s something in that trust gap that doesn’t let that. So Rob, how did you really just go forward, barely knowing Mindy right at the beginning and say, “Here’s all the things.” Like, how did that work for you?

Rob Herold:

I think the first thing I would say, or the main thing I would say about that, is someone that’s in a role like this, where you’re leading an organization, no matter what the size of it is, you’re going to have to let go of the vine, is the terminology we use here. And it’s this idea of like, you can’t do everything yourself as the CEO, as the president over the organization. I’m the president of our RH Enterprises, which does business Chick-fil-A. So, I have to view myself as someone who can’t do it all, can’t wear all the hats. And I have to identify which hats do I need to wear and what hats do I need to put on other people. And doing the things that a virtual assistant does I recognized, or I became aware that those were the things I needed to just trust someone else to do.

Rob Herold:

So that’s what I would say to someone who’s really contemplating whether or not this is worth doing, is asking yourself, can you let go? And if you can’t, then you’re not going to fully benefit from it. Because I don’t micromanage. I don’t like micromanaging. It’s not worth my time. It’s like doing double work, honestly, when you micromanage. So for me, it was just kind of a, I’ve got to trust in this regard. And BELAY, as I did research with the company and I knew some other people through Chick-fil-A who had worked with BELAY, I had a lot of trust in y’all’s corporate values and the things that you do. I really like the relational aspect of what you do. You didn’t just pick someone for me and said, “Here, work with Mindy.” I was introduced to Mindy and got a chance to get to know her for a little while. And I got to choose that she was the person that I wanted to work with. And I really appreciated that.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yeah, that’s awesome. So how has it been like integrating or how do you integrate Mindy into your team as a virtual team member, being that most of what you’re doing is a very onsite business? I mean, you’re running a restaurant. Mindy comes in virtually. Tell us a little bit about what that integration and inclusion is for Mindy inside of all of that.

Rob Herold:

If it’s okay, could I actually have Mindy share that from her perspective first>

Tricia Sciortino :

I would love from Mindy.

Rob Herold:

Okay. I’d love for her to do that. And I’m delegating that question to you, Mindy.

Tricia Sciortino :

I love it. This is-

Mindy Brewer:

Nice. Nice. Thanks Rob. I just want to back up a little bit and speak to, you asked him, what helped us gain that trust? From my perspective, I think it was important as the VA to also be transparent and also share why I’m doing this. And like he said, we had a common denominator. He wants to be present with his son and I wanted to be present with my kids. And so I thought that was an important connection that we made up front, that also built on our relationship. So just wanted to speak to the VAs a little bit, just to say, make sure you are transparent and you open and share your life as well.

Tricia Sciortino :

Absolutely.

Mindy Brewer:

But integrating into this culture, it was kind of weird to be the only virtual person coming into the team. I didn’t know how that connection would happen, being that they’re all physically present together, working together every day. And here is my face on a computer, trying to build a relationship with them. But the culture of Chick-fil-A, is so caring. And they just really open up and care about you. And so I can’t speak highly enough of his team for the way they have welcomed me in and the way they have connected and really made me feel like I’m really a part of the team and that I’m there.

Tricia Sciortino :

That’s important, I think. I mean, that’s important aspect of all of this, is the connection part and the integration part. It must make your job, Mindy, feel better or easier to do because you can connect with more than just Rob there.

Mindy Brewer:

Yes. So they have not only welcomed me professionally to do the job that I’m here to do, but like I said, they’ve really welcomed me as part of the family and they are like family. And I haven’t just made a connection with Rob. I’ve been able to connect with his entire team and it’s been great.

Tricia Sciortino :

That is amazing.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

For more than a decade, BELAY has had the privilege of helping thousands of leaders with their bookkeeping. For some, they just need help with accounts payable, accounts receivable and credit card reconciliation from our accounting clerks. For others, they need all the financial bells and whistles from our bookkeepers. Then we realized there was yet another way to meet their needs to equip them with the confidence to climb higher. So we’re proud to announce the addition of CFO and tax prep and filing services to our bookkeeping service line. Our new CFO services include financial review and analysis, strategic profit planning and execution, cash flow projections and forecasting and liaison with tax experts. And the best part, both new and current clients can take advantage of these additional services. To learn more, visit belaysolutions.com.

Tricia Sciortino :

I’d love to just tease out a little bit of what it looks like to work with each other? What are the days and the weeks like? Any practical application tips that maybe a leader and their VA are listening right now, one or the other, maybe both, and they’d love some advice on how you make your relationship work so well?

Rob Herold:

Mindy, if I could start with that one, I want to call to attention something I think that’s really unique about you as a part of my team. And I want to make sure I call this out. Mindy isn’t just a part of my team. I don’t exclusively use her services and what she does, her skills and expertise just for Chick-fil-A. She’s actually my personal assistant as well. And she does a lot of things for me personally. And I think there’s some value there for a couple of reasons.

Rob Herold:

Number one, like I said, it keeps my attention on what’s most important, both professionally and personally. But it also creates this bridge for my team, because she does interact with my team on a regular basis, almost as much as I do. But she knows the ins and outs of what I’ve got going on personally so that she can arrange my schedule accordingly. She can respond to emails accordingly. I’ll give you a perfect example. Yesterday, I was in a board meeting all day and I had emails flying in left and right. I had guests that was inviting virtually to the meeting and the meeting was going longer.

Rob Herold:

And so during the meeting, while I’m supposed to be facilitating this meeting with these 10 representatives of an 80 operator market. I’m texting her like, “Hey, can you tell Dr. Walden from National Restaurant Association that we’re running late? And see if he can move his time to 30 minutes later.” And that literally was a value add that she had for me that had nothing to do with my Chick-fil-A restaurant. She was able to move the guests that we had. She was responding to email. She called attention to a guest that had a question about something and she took care of that for me.

Rob Herold:

So I’ll go back kind of line by line, because we do have a cadence that we follow each week. I think that’s been super healthy, but also, there’s a lot of audibles that happen. And because she walks, not just through business with me, but she kind is walking through life with me as well, and she knows the ins and outs. That is so critical for what I get to do, because she can cater to how she needs to address the needs that I have. Whether it’s the emails I have the schedule I have. If she knows I’m not having a great week, she has actually asked, “Do you want me to clear your calendar? Do you want to move these?” She’ll almost challenge me, which is kind of what I need. I don’t want someone that’s just going to fill my calendar up. She makes sure that I can be fully present in those meetings. And so I really appreciate that about her.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yeah. Like accountability partner. I sometimes view my VA as my accountability partner. If I say, “I only want to have this amount of meetings in a day, I’m trusting that you’re actually going to make sure that’s actually how many meetings I have in that day. There’s no more.”

Rob Herold:

That’s right. In fact, we encountered a situation where a couple months in, we had completely organized my entire week. And I had figured out, I had this grand idea where I was going to do something every week, every month and I had just filled my calendar. And I felt the stress that I had gotten relief from bringing her on, start to creep back in, because I wasn’t getting the stuff done that I was putting on my own calendar. No one was holding me to this. I was holding myself to this. And so she stopped me and asked me and she said, “Rob, you sure you need to do all this? Is there anything I could do for this? Because you’ve basically created more work for yourself now that you’ve had all this work taken off of your plate.” And it was an aha moment or an awakening of, you know what, I probably could do this a little differently.

Rob Herold:

So it’s been a progression where, you got these things that you can take off the plate and then you can do this. And then it’s like, oh wait, I want to do more. But wait, I can get those things off my plate so I can do more. And she’s helped me do that. I’m hoping I’m explaining that right. And Mindy, if you’ve got any ways to counter that, please share.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yes. Mindy, I’d love to know what it looks like being on the other side of that, right? How you’ve stepped in and really been able to have those great conversations with Rob.

Mindy Brewer:

Well, something he just said was, it’s funny, because it’s just recently happened. I asked him to create a list of all the things he’s involved in. And so Rob loves spreadsheets. He’s really good at spreadsheets. And so he made this pretty colorful spreadsheet of all the different boards, all the different things that he’s a part of personally and professionally. And when we talked about it, he said, “I’ve never really done this. I’m in a lot.” And so it was a great activity for him to recognize all that he participates in, but also to open up that door and bridge that gap on, “Okay, now where can I come in to all these pieces to make it easier so that you can do what you do best.”

Mindy Brewer:

But a typical week for us, we have set up some pretty specific times. We meet at the beginning of each week, so we can look at the week ahead, make sure we’re on the same page. See if there’s any things that have popped up over the weekend that we need to take care of. And then we talk almost every day. Whether that be through text message, email chat. And I talk to his team pretty much every day. With his top leaders, we have a chat just between the three of us. And there are things that just happen throughout the day that need to be taken care of. And if I can jump in to do those, then I take the initiative to do that. And then at the end of the week, we just close and recap and see if there’s anything we’ve missed and then to set up the next week on what that’s going to look like.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yeah. That’s perfect. Mindy, I’d love to ask you, I think this is great advice for virtual assistants. Your ability to lead Rob, if you will, in certain things like, “Hi, can you make a list of all the things?” To take that initiative, to go, truly ask what those things are so you could better serve him. What does that come from? What is it about you? What is it about Mindy, that enables you to be able to truly do those things for Rob?

Mindy Brewer:

That’s a good question, Tricia. I don’t typically like to talk about myself.

Tricia Sciortino :

That might be part of it.

Mindy Brewer:

I think I just have an attitude of any type of relationship that I have, whether it be in your family or in your work or in your friendships, that you come to it with that idea in mind that you want it to be a relationship, that you want it to be a friendship. And so to be able to just open up my life, to share with him, almost allows him the space and creates the room for him to do the same. And so it just builds a level of trust that makes us more real. I mean, I’m on a computer. I’m not sitting next to him in a meeting room or a board meeting. And to bridge that gap between being just a person on the phone or a person on the computer to be, we’re real people and we are in a relationship together, I think is important.

Tricia Sciortino :

That’s a gift for both of you and kudos to you, Rob as well for being a leader that leverages that and can be that person and be approachable and that Mindy’s comfortable coming to you. And having great transparent conversations. Because I think there’s also so many people out there that are not open and willing to receive this type of relationship. So, kudos.

Rob Herold:

I appreciate you saying that. And I’ll add this Tricia. We have a set of values here. I think values are very important in an organization. I think that it’s really important that the culture in any organization is very, very intentional. We started that exercise way back in 2017 and that set the foundation for where we are today with an intentional culture. But one of our values is, refined. And what that means for us is we’re better on purpose. And I think that one of the things that we did when Mindy first came in is we did an orientation and we talked about our values and we set the tone and said, “We’re refined. We’re better on purpose.”

Rob Herold:

And that thought process of, “Okay, so we are here, how can we get better?” And just constantly checking in on that. And it’s not a sense of being discontent. That’s not what it is. It’s this idea of we know we can do better. We know we can do more, because we know what our ultimate goal, which is to be the most caring so that we can win hearts and change lives. That’s really what our goal here is at this restaurant. And so if every person that’s in a significant role here in the restaurant understands that and they play that part, it just continues to help everybody get better. Iron sharpen iron, is something we say here, so.

Tricia Sciortino :

Yes, I love that. I literally pulled out a post-it note from my desk and I wrote down, “Better on purpose.” Because it’s very true. Never accepting the status quo, always looking to improve. Not that we’re broken, it’s just that we can be better tomorrow than we are today. As people, as organizations and relationships. So thank you for that. I love that so much. This has been a great conversation with you guys, Rob and Mindy. I really appreciate it. I would love it if you would hang out a little bit after this. I have one more question for you guys about making the most of your relationship. Sound good?

Rob Herold:

Yes.

Mindy Brewer:

Sure. Yes.

Rob Herold:

Sounds great.

Tricia Sciortino :

Awesome. Okay guys, you don’t want to miss it to hear that clip, subscribe to our email list and we will send you a link to our bonus content or visit onenextsteppodcast.com, where you can find a link in our show notes.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

Gosh, what a great conversation. We love hearing our client’s success stories and it’s so encouraging to hear the impact Mindy is having on Rod’s business and on his life. We hope you are walking away with a few delegation tips and tricks from today’s episode too. But if you’re finally ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less like Rob has, go to belaysolutions.com to take your first step.

Ryan Fitzgerald:

And thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s One Next Step to make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple podcast or follow us on Spotify. Join us next time for more practical tips and tools to help you advance your business, one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com.

Lisa Zeeveld:

Next week, we’ll be joined by BELAY’s own CEO, Tricia Sciortino, for a conversation about company culture. Tricia and I will explain why culture is so important, and she’ll share some great examples of the ways we’ve built BELAY’s culture to align with our mission, vision and values. Here is a sneak peak of our conversation.

Tricia Sciortino :

12 years ago, when this organization was founded, it was really foundational that we wanted to create a different type of place for people to work. We wanted to get out of the corporate, political, cutthroat environments that we were in and create an organization that people can feel really comfortable in, that they could develop in. They could feel honored at, they could have fun at, they could feel gratitude and express gratitude, that they could be collaborative and all of those other corporate-y things could be removed.