""[Having Kyla as an EA] is enabling me to do better. There's that accountability factor. I'm compelled to prepare and stay on task with things that she and I have worked on together.""
— Zaman Agha, President and Owner
The Challenge
Zaman Agha, president and owner of Milk Barn LLC, recognized a growing tension between the weight of daily administration and his ambitions for the company's future. As a full-service DeLaval dealer focused on herd health and milking equipment, Milk Barn needed its leader out in the field — building customer relationships, thinking big, and driving the dairy industry forward one pound of milk at a time.
Instead, Zaman was buried. Between 50 and 80 emails a day, plus phone calls, texts, and in-person meetings, keeping up had become impossible.
"I was not keeping up. My inbox was just ballooning."
He understood the shift he needed to make: less administrative, more visionary.
"I was realizing that one of the ways I could drive Milk Barn forward was to be more 'boots on the ground' with customers — more PR-related, more visionary versus admin."
But Zaman had one firm requirement for any VA candidate. Because Milk Barn operates in a highly specialized industry, he needed someone who wouldn't be lost in the language.
"I specifically asked [my CSC] for someone with a farming background so they could at least understand a lot of the strange terminology and words we throw around."
The Solution
BELAY delivered exactly what Zaman needed: Kyla Gailey, a Wisconsin native with real farming experience and a professional background in agricultural marketing and sales. The match was deliberate, and the onboarding reflected that intentionality.
Zaman began by copying Kyla on all of his emails, giving her a window into his communication patterns before she gradually took ownership of his inbox. From there, scheduling followed. Kyla became the steady hand behind the calendar, allowing Zaman to step back from the logistics of his own day.
"The integration of Kyla has been very seamless. She has the character to be able to make suggestions regarding how to get to the goals that we have, instead of just waiting on me to drive that."
Kyla's role expanded naturally from there. She attends manager meetings, logs to-dos and action items, and compiles a Monday morning newsletter — drawing from Zaman and other managers — that he can send to his entire team. She's also putting her writing and design skills to work on a "journey book" for dairy farmers: a curated idea and discussion tool that Milk Barn can bring directly to customers in the field.
""I was not keeping up. My inbox was just ballooning, and today it's a lot more comfortable, and I feel a lot more sane.""
— Zaman Agha, President and OwnerThe Impact
The results went further than Zaman anticipated. His inbox — once an overwhelming daily burden — is now under control. He's reduced his hands-on involvement in his own schedule to just 10%, a level of delegation he hadn't thought possible for himself.
"I'm surprised I got there. I like to be at the steering wheel but for me to let go like that, it's actually given me more control."
Beyond the logistics, Zaman found that having the right support created a new kind of accountability — one that sharpened his focus rather than limiting it.
"[Having Kyla as an EA] is enabling me to do better. There's that accountability factor. I'm compelled to prepare and stay on task with things that she and I have worked on together."
He also credits Kyla's disposition as a meaningful part of the outcome.
"Her personality is refreshing. She's very upbeat and professional. She's never had a bad day or a bad attitude. She communicates well with me."The partnership reshaped how Zaman thinks about leadership itself — he's now applying the same trust and delegation model to other departments, planning ahead in areas where he once struggled, and scaling his own best habits across the business.