WEBVTT

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Amy Hutto: Welcome to So Tell Me What You Do.

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Amy Hutto: I'm Amy Hutto, a productivity coach who takes the friction out of work for independent small business owners.

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Amy Hutto: If we talked, you'd know instantly that what I love most is learning all about other people's work.

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Amy Hutto: So join me as we talk to a different small business owner, entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or creative each week, so they can tell me and you what they do.

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Amy Hutto: This podcast represents the opinions of the speakers and guests to the show.

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Amy Hutto: The content should not be taken as advice, medical or otherwise.

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Amy Hutto: The content here is for informational purposes only.

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Amy Hutto: Because each person is so unique, please consult a healthcare professional for any medical questions.

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Amy Hutto: How are you?

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Amy Hutto: Charlie, do you want to introduce yourself?

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Charlie Rash: We are a virtual workforce that specializes in executive assistant services and project management services.

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Amy Hutto: So Charlie, this is one of my favorite topics, but not a lot of people know what that is.

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Amy Hutto: Tell me what you do.

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Charlie Rash: Something different every day is the best option.

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Charlie Rash: That's why I love it.

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Charlie Rash: It is really hard to plan your day when you're working with clients and their busy schedules, so you really have to be on your toes.

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Charlie Rash: Generally, I have a checklist that I can kind of keep, and nine times out of ten, it is never accomplished because I have other things that are added to the checklist that are more important or appear more important to the client.

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Amy Hutto: So Charlie, what kind of things go on that list?

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Charlie Rash: Working from home, you get to kind of hit out personal and business tasks at the same time.

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Charlie Rash: So for me, checking emails, anything that is time-sensitive email-wise that needs to be scheduled, I try to hit those first, especially in the busy world.

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Charlie Rash: There's usually a lot of back and forth from emails, so trying to just stay on top of that, not let anything get too stagnant.

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Charlie Rash: We do a lot of travel coordination, travel scheduling trips, reviewing calendars, making sure either my day or the client's day is organized as possible.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, we put everything from drive times to bathroom breaks to you name it, it's on there.

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Charlie Rash: And just making sure it works.

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Charlie Rash: I think you learn quick.

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Charlie Rash: Things on paper work a lot better than real life sometimes, so just trying to live it and just think to myself, like, is this how I want my day to be?

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Charlie Rash: Those are what I usually do when I wake up in the morning.

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Charlie Rash: From a service standpoint, then I usually go to finances, making sure bills are paid from a client perspective, just seeing what has come in over slack over the night or throughout the day that I'm gonna miss.

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Amy Hutto: So if you had to say what you spend the vast majority of your time doing work wise, what do you concentrate on?

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Charlie Rash: I would say I'm a counselor.

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Charlie Rash: I think most of the stuff I do all day is counseling our team on how they would handle things or their frustrations or counseling clients on how they would handle things or their frustrations.

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Charlie Rash: So it's really managing emotions and expectations and just seeing how we can take those and just accomplish the goals we're trying to get accomplished.

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Amy Hutto: So you're creating this team bond and how many people's emotions are you managing on a daily basis?

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Charlie Rash: So from a service team, I think we're at 24, and they're like, it's a good close knit team, but there's a lot of emotions sometimes, even mine, my own song.

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Charlie Rash: And then from a client perspective, it's a lot more than that.

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Amy Hutto: What made you start?

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Charlie Rash: Hunger, I think.

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Charlie Rash: I was working as a realtor before it was fun and cool to be a realtor.

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Charlie Rash: Out of college, I worked for this real estate developer named John Thunder Thornton out of Chattanooga.

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Charlie Rash: Learned a lot.

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Charlie Rash: I was young out of college.

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Charlie Rash: Cannot say I would have hired me, but he did.

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Charlie Rash: And he would take raw land and make it neighborhoods.

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Charlie Rash: So really just saw the beginning and then moved into real estate partners in Chattanooga.

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Charlie Rash: So back in my day, the real estate market completely stopped in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the wintertime.

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Charlie Rash: And I had a new wife and a new baby and needed to feed her.

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Charlie Rash: So I had become a office manager for a real estate developer.

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Charlie Rash: And I was like, man, this was eight years ago now.

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Charlie Rash: So even before virtual, really, that's what I spent most of my day doing, explaining what the word virtual meant.

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Charlie Rash: But real was like, I can do this, I can do both.

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Charlie Rash: Like, I don't need to go get a job.

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Charlie Rash: And so really just kind of put myself out there, started slow, would get one hour, five hours, stuff like that.

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Charlie Rash: But yeah, it was just seeing a need.

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Charlie Rash: Like people didn't need a full-time admin in their office, but they needed someone to help, even with just data entry, just help them catch up.

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Charlie Rash: And so that's where I saw the need, and it's just kind of snowballed since then.

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Amy Hutto: Who wouldn't want an assistant?

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Charlie Rash: I know.

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Charlie Rash: Even if it's just fun to say, I have an assistant sometimes.

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Charlie Rash: My wife calls me a human golden retriever.

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Charlie Rash: And I think it's because I just, I don't really care if I'm front and center, but like having loyalties or relationships with friends or family or clients or anything, like I just like it.

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Charlie Rash: It's just how I'm wired, especially from a client's perspective.

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Charlie Rash: Like if they're succeeding, I'm succeeding.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, we usually grow with our clients, add team members as they grow.

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Charlie Rash: So I mean, it obviously is a financial benefit for me and my business, but most of my clients I actually really like.

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Charlie Rash: And so I like to see them succeed.

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Charlie Rash: So yeah, that's just how I'm wired.

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Amy Hutto: So, Jherrily, how did you know it was time to start a business?

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Charlie Rash: How did I?

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Charlie Rash: So how did I know it was time to start from transitioning from real estate to this full time?

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Charlie Rash: I really couldn't keep up.

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Charlie Rash: Back then, eight years ago, was explaining what the word virtual meant.

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Charlie Rash: Once people got the idea, they really were intrigued by it.

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Charlie Rash: So a lot of it's word of mouth.

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Charlie Rash: We've never done any type of marketing.

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Charlie Rash: People just talk about how awesome we are, and they're like, oh, I need that.

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Charlie Rash: And it got to a point where myself, I couldn't, like I was working over 40 hours.

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Charlie Rash: And so that seemed to be the better market than real estate.

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Charlie Rash: I tried to have one foot in both jobs for a while, and it's just not possible at some point.

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Charlie Rash: But really, it was just a leap of faith.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, I don't know if there was anything that said, hey, it's time.

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Charlie Rash: It was just, let's do it.

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Amy Hutto: You hit the tipping point.

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Charlie Rash: Yeah, I mean, you could kind of keep doing everything half to your ability, or you could just put all your eggs in one basket and just see what happened.

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Amy Hutto: What is it that you love about this work?

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Charlie Rash: I think the people.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, the people in doing something different every day.

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Charlie Rash: Like I said, I play counselor a lot, and I really do love helping people solve their problems.

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Charlie Rash: Even if I don't know the best way to solve their problems, like just being kind of in the trenches with people, walking through any issues, or if it's growth, or struggling businesses, I mean, anything really, people just need somebody kind of in their corner.

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Charlie Rash: And I think it's different when you're paying someone, obviously, they're a little invested in your success.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, friends and family always are going to be kind of cheerleader, but at the end of the day, they don't really have any skin in the game.

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Charlie Rash: So I do think it's nice to have some, like almost an employee in your corner, really rooting for your success too, and in there with you.

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Charlie Rash: And that's just what I like to give my clients.

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Charlie Rash: Well, our job is, if you are a CEO at the company, it is not in your best interest to grow your company if you're spending 10 hours a week on emails or scheduling.

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Charlie Rash: And so, what we really try to do is we are in there with you.

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Charlie Rash: We are a sounding block for what you need from a project standpoint, but also just freeing up your time so you can actually do what you, I mean, hopefully started your company to do.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, I don't think anybody started their company to answer emails all day.

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Charlie Rash: I guess maybe me, but maybe I'm the only one.

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Charlie Rash: But a normal company, that is not what a CEO and a founder is really gonna be in their best interest to do.

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Charlie Rash: And so, that's what we like to come in and just free up people's time.

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Amy Hutto: As a former virtual assistant, people ask me all the time what the first thing is that they should outsource that I always send.

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Amy Hutto: Email.

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Charlie Rash: And if you don't know what to do, like, I'm wicked all the time.

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Charlie Rash: Like, I don't really know what I would even use a virtual assistant for.

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Charlie Rash: It's like, well, let me in your email.

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Charlie Rash: I bet you I can find a lot of stuff real quick.

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Amy Hutto: What is it that you wish you could get your client base to understand about working with a virtual assistant?

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Charlie Rash: That is a really good question.

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Charlie Rash: And so, I think that you don't have to know everything.

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Charlie Rash: Like, in order to hire us, you don't have to have these massive documents of how things work or what you need.

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Charlie Rash: Really, our job is to not figure it out on our own, but there's gonna be things that we see that you're not even gonna think about.

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Charlie Rash: And so really, it's just like trusting us to get in there, get integrated.

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Charlie Rash: We're gonna do things the way you like to do, but we've also been doing this a long time.

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Charlie Rash: So there's gonna be things that we can help out that wasn't even on your radar.

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Charlie Rash: So really, just not trying to have it all figured out before you make the leap to work with us.

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Amy Hutto: You don't have to know the end before you can start.

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Amy Hutto: What's your eternal challenge that you run across?

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Charlie Rash: Oh, I think releasing control.

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Charlie Rash: That's a big one.

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Charlie Rash: I know I preach it to our clients all the time, but anybody knows that start a business, it's your baby.

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Charlie Rash: And especially if we are hiring new clients.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, there's some clients that I don't interact with, you know, day to day, but it's still kind of my name that's getting put out there for services we're offering.

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Charlie Rash: So even just like making sure that everyone is offering the level of service that I want them to, which the trust is there because I hired them.

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Charlie Rash: I know they can do it, but they're still always that little, would I do it the same way?

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Charlie Rash: And you know, you really have to just trust your team that they're gonna do it.

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Charlie Rash: They're just as invested as you are in certain things.

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Charlie Rash: So yeah, it is definitely something I still struggle with, but I also, I'm trying to practice what I preach also.

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Amy Hutto: Okay, so with a team of 24, you're winning that struggle on some level.

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Amy Hutto: What's the trick for pushing forward, even as you still have that internal struggle?

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Charlie Rash: I mean, I really, it is really just trusting the team.

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Charlie Rash: We have very little turnover at our team, and I'm not taking any credit for that.

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Charlie Rash: Her name is Delaney.

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Charlie Rash: You can look her up.

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Charlie Rash: She can read people.

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Charlie Rash: We do vibe checks, which is pretty much what we do.

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Charlie Rash: It's like, hey, if you can carry on a conversation, it's a good step.

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Charlie Rash: But we do have a really good vetting process.

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Charlie Rash: Virtual culture is hard to have a corporate culture, just because everybody's kind of working at home.

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Charlie Rash: But I would say as best as we can working virtually, we have a good culture and you either fit it or you don't.

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Charlie Rash: And if you fit it, it's a lot easier to trust that people are going to be doing what we need them to do.

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Charlie Rash: I trust our team.

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Charlie Rash: Very rarely do we have to get on calls that nobody wants to do of, why did you do that?

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Charlie Rash: For the most part, if it was not a outcome that I would have wanted, it's still a good decision.

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Charlie Rash: So just kind of letting go of control in that capacity.

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Amy Hutto: So what are the moments that let you fall in love with having this business all over again?

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Charlie Rash: I mean, really, just like I said at the beginning, like tomorrow's a different day.

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Charlie Rash: Like no day is the same.

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Charlie Rash: And so it's almost anxiety, but also excitement for tomorrow.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, because the same things can drag over, but they also can be completely different, or you might have even just a different outlook on it.

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Charlie Rash: So really, it's just every day is a little different.

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Charlie Rash: I couldn't tell you this is my task list, like Monday through Friday.

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Charlie Rash: And so that's what I like about it.

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Amy Hutto: So if someone's looking to have a really steady life with no novelty, this probably isn't the arena for them.

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Charlie Rash: Absolutely.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, you maybe could find it.

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Charlie Rash: There's a lot of people in the world and a lot of jobs.

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Amy Hutto: Charlie, who is it that you wish you could reach with your work?

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Charlie Rash: I love working with entrepreneurs.

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Charlie Rash: Like the startup culture, I just geek out about a lot of times.

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Charlie Rash: Like I love when you have to wear multiple hats.

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Charlie Rash: And that's the hardest people to reach because they're usually very money conscious.

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Charlie Rash: They have the control issues most of the time.

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Charlie Rash: And so it's a really hard group to reach, but they probably need us the most.

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Charlie Rash: And I think it's part of that, like they think they have to hire someone for 40 hours, and that's just not the case.

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Charlie Rash: And they are usually the people who need more support and more people in their corner than anything.

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Amy Hutto: What's your one takeaway from doing this work?

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Charlie Rash: Consistency.

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Charlie Rash: I mean, it's weird to say COVID.

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Charlie Rash: Definitely it helped us in a way.

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Charlie Rash: It just changed the dynamic of how we communicate, and it's so much easier to be virtual.

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Charlie Rash: Would never have thought that was gonna happen.

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Charlie Rash: I don't have to explain what the word virtual is anymore.

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Charlie Rash: But I think we didn't change our business practices over COVID.

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Charlie Rash: Like we did the exact same thing we did before.

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Charlie Rash: We're doing it now.

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Charlie Rash: And I think that is what our client's like.

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Charlie Rash: We don't change the trends.

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Charlie Rash: We just do what works.

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Charlie Rash: And so it has been a sometimes slow, sometimes fast-paced growth years, but we're still doing the same thing, just chugging along.

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Charlie Rash: And I think just the constant pushing the ball down the field is really why we're here.

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Amy Hutto: Charlie, thank you so much for being with me today and answering these questions.

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Amy Hutto: If someone is out there listening and they think they need a little service and they'd like to talk to you more, how do they get in touch?

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Charlie Rash: Email me.

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Charlie Rash: That's really the best way.

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Charlie Rash: It's charlie at service.com, so it's crvas.com.

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Charlie Rash: We're very much a people person, so if you need me or want to talk to me, I want to talk to you directly.

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Amy Hutto: Thank you for being with me today.

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Amy Hutto: Thanks for joining us.

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Amy Hutto: If you felt inspired by what you heard today, please subscribe and leave a review.

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Amy Hutto: And if you haven't already, I encourage you to take that first step towards what you feel called to do.

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Amy Hutto: If you need some help gaining clarity on that vision, reach out.

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Amy Hutto: The world needs more people doing the thing they love most, and that includes you.

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Charlie Rash: Thank you.