"My life is different because I have her now. I don't feel pressure that I'm going to forget something. I don't feel pressure that I'm not able to meet with the people I need to meet with."
— Rob Herold, Owner-Operator
The Challenge
Rob Herold has spent 21 years with Chick-fil-A and 12 years as an owner-operator in Maryland, leading a restaurant team of 125 employees. Despite his experience and drive, the daily demands of running a thriving operation were pulling him away from the high-level leadership he wanted to provide.
After attending a conference in early 2021 built around the EOS system from the book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business, Rob was inspired by the idea that visionary leaders should move tasks off their plates to focus on what only they can do. He later invited BELAY as a vendor to a similar conference he organized for fellow operators — and that's when he began exploring what support could look like for himself.
"As the entrepreneur of the business, there's a lot of stuff on my plate. I'd find myself overwhelmed with daily tasks. I'd always have emails I hadn't gotten to or emails that [were] forgotten, and my schedule was not consistent."
Rob was missing meetings and struggling to find time for the people who wanted to connect with him. He needed more than a tool — he needed a trusted partner to help him regain control of his time and attention.
The Solution
BELAY Client Success Consultant Miles Flora began by getting to know Rob — not just his business, but his values, leadership style, and daily pain points. Together, they pinpointed two core needs: for Rob to never have to check his own email again, and to have someone fully manage his calendar.
"He did a search for a week, told me he found a perfect person for me, and then Mindy and I were introduced to each other."
Virtual Assistant Mindy Brewer arrived ready to work. From their very first meeting, she dove into Rob's email accounts and calendar without requiring top-down training.
"I didn't have to train her [on] anything. She came with a predetermined set of skills, knowledge, life experience and work experience."
Mindy's first project was consolidating Rob's multiple email accounts into a single organized inbox — decluttering, categorizing, and creating a clear system for what needed his attention. Over time, her role expanded to include responding to and flagging emails, managing his calendar, building a shared weekly to-do list via Apple Notes, and facilitating both executive team and strategic meetings. Her detail-oriented approach proved to be the ideal complement to Rob's big-picture thinking.
"I've been able to delegate a lot of my plate. I can [now] spend time dreaming, thinking, writing, planning, and meeting with people — doing the things only I can do."
— Rob Herold, Owner-OperatorThe Impact
Partnering with Mindy transformed the way Rob leads — both his business and his team. He no longer misses meetings, no longer faces an unmanageable inbox, and now has the structure and confidence to follow through on every commitment.
"My life is different because I have her now. I don't feel pressure that I'm going to forget something. I don't feel pressure that I'm not able to meet with the people I need to meet with."
One of Rob's long-held goals was to spend dedicated time with each of his 125 employees every month. With Mindy's help, he designed a system to make that possible — turning an aspirational goal into a consistent practice. He's also become an enthusiastic advocate for BELAY among fellow Chick-fil-A operators, even having Mindy compile a formal list of their shared accomplishments to pass along to peers.
"I am more productive now than I've ever been. I feel more confident now than I ever did before in getting things done in my business."
Perhaps most meaningfully, Rob now has the space to lead the way he always envisioned — dreaming, planning, writing, and building relationships, freed from the administrative weight that once consumed his days.