"What you gain is a lot of what you give up. You gain a lot of your time back [so] that you can be thinking and working on the high-value activities that you ought to be doing. And that's only something you as the leader of your business can really do. It's given me more time to focus on and think about the company's vision and our mission and where we're going to be headed."
— Ross Albers, Founder and CEO
The Challenge
Ross Albers, founder and CEO of Albers & Associates — a full-service Maryland law firm with multiple offices and a team of 11 attorneys — was no stranger to hard work. But like many leaders, he found himself buried in low-value tasks that consumed time he should have been spending on higher-level priorities.
Email management, travel coordination, scheduling, and personal errands were eating into his day. Ross knew these tasks needed to be handled, but he also knew they weren't the best use of his time as the firm's chief executive.
The turning point came when Ross attended a John Maxwell event and heard BELAY CEO Tricia Sciortino speak.
"[Tricia] was talking about how she had been a Virtual Assistant and now was CEO, and how the company had helped her grow and take her business and career to the next level. When she spoke about email, that resonated with me."
Ross walked out into the hallway, connected with a BELAY team representative, and scheduled a call for the following Monday. Within a month, he had been matched with Virtual Assistant Andrea Shead.
The Solution
From the very start, working with BELAY VA Andrea Shead gave Ross a sense of relief he hadn't expected to feel so quickly. The first win was simple but powerful: he no longer had to live in his inbox.
"The initial relief was looking at my email inbox once in the morning and then not checking it until later that afternoon — and not feeling like I needed to be responding to every little thing that was happening."
Ross embraced delegation wholeheartedly, testing just how much he could hand off. Andrea took over scheduling meetings with referral partners, paying personal bills, and even ordering his daughter's birthday cake. Because Ross was willing to trust the process from day one, he experienced measurable ROI within the very first week.
Over time, the partnership evolved. Andrea moved beyond administrative tasks and began working in Ross's CRM — entering new contacts, managing his pipeline, and reaching out to potential referral partners and clients on his behalf. What started as inbox management had grown into a full extension of his professional and personal life.
"BELAY has already done that for me, so I don't have to do it. And what's even better is they're experts at it. So why am I not using their expertise to find the right person for me?"
— Ross Albers, Founder and CEOThe Impact
The impact of working with Andrea extended well beyond saved hours. Ross found himself more present — at work and at home — because the mental load of forgotten tasks and low-priority to-dos had been lifted.
"The ROI is improving relationships with people in my company, people that we work with, people who send us business. [I'm also] improving relationships at home with my wife or my children because [my VA] is able to execute on the things that maybe I forget to do or I don't want to do."
Ross describes Andrea as a "team mom" — someone who not only supports him but also interfaces with his broader team. He credits BELAY's recruiting process as a key differentiator, noting that finding the right assistant on his own would likely have taken three to five tries. BELAY found the right match in one.
Most importantly, the partnership gave Ross what every leader needs most: the freedom to think strategically.
"It's given me more time to focus on and think about the company's vision and our mission and where we're going to be headed."