""If five hours a week, she's going to do this, and five hours a week, she's going to do that, and another five hours a week, she's going to do this, then that's 15 hours I suddenly have available.""
— Will Parsley, President and COO
The Challenge
Will Parsley, President and COO of Carswell Distributing Company, was drowning in the demands of his inbox. As the leader of a third-generation, family-owned business supplying dealers with lawn and garden equipment and home heating appliances, Will was at the center of a constant stream of time-sensitive communications — each one requiring a decision or guidance on a pressing obstacle.
Will admits he once thought assistants were reserved for "incredibly successful" business owners with a "bathroom in [their] office." But the reality of his situation was impossible to ignore. He couldn't function "outside of [his] email" for four or five hours at a time, and the messages kept accumulating.
The result was staggering: an inbox holding over 11,000 emails, all demanding his attention, but never enough hours in the day to organize and respond to them all. And compounding the demands on his time was his growing family — his wife expecting their fifth child — leaving Will stretched thin on every front.
The Solution
BELAY matched Will with Virtual Assistant Lisa Speir, who immediately set to work bringing order to the chaos. Rather than triaging messages as they arrived, Lisa developed a proactive system: she took full ownership of all emails three days old and beyond, keeping Will's inbox consistently under one hundred messages and ensuring nothing fell through the cracks. She also managed his travel arrangements, calendar, and — to Will's pleasant surprise — personal tasks as well.
Will valued the remote dynamic. He trusted Lisa completely and appreciated that, not being in the office, she couldn't be tempted to share personal information with his staff.
"It wasn't really part of the value proposition … but then people have very much appreciated [my] response time,"he noted, finding that Lisa's support allowed him to be fully present during staff meetings.
When COVID-19 upended daily operations, the partnership adapted rather than dissolved. With travel and in-person meeting logistics no longer relevant, Lisa pivoted into project management.
"We're opening a warehouse in Florida and [Lisa] has put more time into opening that warehouse than I have,"Will explains — including creating the company's first-ever forklift driver job description by leveraging her own HR network at a moment when the internal HR team was stretched thin.
""I love the fact that Lisa works on personal stuff for me. Whether that be a family budget or filing a warranty on the kid's trampoline, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh. There's this thing that has to be taken care of.' And that is so fantastic.""
— Will Parsley, President and COOThe Impact
The impact of working with BELAY has been felt across every dimension of Will's professional and personal life. With Lisa managing the email backlog, scheduling, and day-to-day logistics, Will has reclaimed an estimated 15 hours per week — time he now reinvests in leadership, strategic priorities, and his growing family.
"If five hours a week, she's going to do this, and five hours a week, she's going to do that, and another five hours a week, she's going to do this, then that's 15 hours I suddenly have available,"Will reflects. No longer mentally tethered to an overflowing inbox, he is fully present when it matters most.
The partnership has also extended well beyond the office walls into the personal — something Will never expected to value.
"I love the fact that Lisa works on personal stuff for me. Whether that be a family budget or filing a warranty on the kid's trampoline, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh. There's this thing that has to be taken care of.' And that is so fantastic."With a fifth child on the way, the timing of this comprehensive support has proven more meaningful than Will could have anticipated.