From Caregiver to CEO: How Systems Saved Carrie’s Sanity

What if the skills you’ve used to care for your family could become the foundation of a business that cares for you?

This week’s guest, Carrie McWherter, is a virtual assistant who turned her natural gift for organization—and a season of caregiving—into a thriving business that helps entrepreneurs reclaim their time (and their sanity).

In our conversation, Carrie shares how she went from caring for her mother-in-law to running a successful VA business that keeps her clients organized, supported, and growing. We dive into the systems that make life and business easier—and the mindset shifts that make it all possible.

Here’s what we talk about:

• How caregiving inspired Carrie’s business journey
• Why strong systems create calm, not chaos
• Simple ways to automate tasks and free up energy
• The confidence that comes from clarity and organization
• How to use your real-life skills to serve others and build income

💡 If every month feels like recreating the wheel, it might be time to create simple SOPs—repeatable checklists that save time, reduce stress, and make delegation easy.

If you’ve been craving a little more breathing room, sometimes it just takes a nudge, a fresh set of eyes, or a new way of looking at what’s already working.

Curious where to begin? You can reach out to me here to explore what might bring more ease and flow into your days:  👉 pennyforyourshots.com/chat

To learn more about Carrie's business: https://www.allinorderwithcarrie.com/

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Transcript

From Caregiver to CEO: How Systems Saved Carrie’s Sanity

[00:00:33] Carrie McWherter: Today's episode features someone who is a lifesaver for busy entrepreneurs, the amazing Carrie McWhorter. Carrie's a virtual assistant or VA who helps business owners get their systems, their inboxes, and their sanity in order. And in this conversation, she shares how she went from caring for her mother-in-law to running a thriving online business that keeps her clients organized, stress-free and growing.

You'll [00:01:00] hear us talk about things like CRMs. Which are customer relationship management tools that help you track clients and communication and SOPs or standard operating procedures. Basically your repeatable checklists that make life and business so much easier. But this isn't just about tech and tools, it's about how women can take the skills we've built running households, caring for families, and juggling all the things and turn them into thriving, flexible businesses that truly serve others.

Let's pour a drink. Get comfy and jump in here is Carrie McWherter.

Good morning, Carrie. How are you? I'm good. 

[00:01:38] Penny Fitzgerald: Did I see that you're in Central City? 

[00:01:41] Carrie McWherter: Iowa. 

[00:01:42] Penny Fitzgerald: I'm in New Hall, Iowa. 

[00:01:43] Carrie McWherter: Since you're familiar. I'm actually closer to Stone City,

[00:01:46] Penny Fitzgerald: We could have done this in person. 

[00:01:48] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. That would've been more fun. We'll have to say, do that sometimes. Get 

[00:01:51] Penny Fitzgerald: coffee together or something. Yeah, 

[00:01:53] Carrie McWherter: be great. 

[00:01:54] Penny Fitzgerald: So for my audience's benefit and Me too. Tell us, tell me a little bit more about you. [00:02:00] Like, um, what, what you do and um, like what you love about it. 

[00:02:05] Carrie McWherter: Okay. Um, so I'm a virtual assistant.

I started my business uh, about three and a half years ago. I was caring for my mother-in-law, who is in early stages of dementia, and I needed something that I could do while basically still being on call for her. Um, when I learned about being a va, I was like, Hey, I like, I love to organize and I like helping people.

And, um. I had been taking, I homeschooled our kids, so I was taking care of two households and I was keeping track of everybody's schedules and, you know, kind of the things that I now do for clients. And, um, so it just seemed like a good fit. I usually start with the organization piece for my clients, so doing things like cleaning up email, inboxes, calendars, files, and then we move into setting up systems too.

Basically help their day to day run more smoothly so that they can focus on growing their business and doing the things they love. 

[00:02:59] Penny Fitzgerald: [00:03:00] That's amazing. It, it's so important to have systems. 

[00:03:03] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. It, it really makes a difference. And you know what you, what you get done in a day. If you don't have a plan, then, um, oh my gosh.

You kind of bounce from one thing to the next. 

[00:03:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and you're reactionary instead of like a actually being intentional. Right. And able to work on the things that. Provide the most impact. You are scrambling to catch up with what you didn't get done yesterday or the day before. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I might be familiar with some of that.

Yeah. That's cool. 'cause I think women kind of come at, we, we have all these skills that we, like you were saying, you were doing all these things for your family and now you're doing it for clients. 

[00:03:47] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:03:48] Penny Fitzgerald: I think it comes a little bit more naturally to women to be able to organize things because we've done it for our families.

[00:03:55] Carrie McWherter: Because you have to find a time to do all the things anyway. And I mean, that was like when I [00:04:00] started my business, I was like, I got married two weeks after I turned 18. Can I, you know, can I really have that imposter syndrome? I'm like, I never worked in corporate, 

When I started, I didn't know what A CRM was. I didn't know what it could do. Now I'm like, oh yeah, you know, go high level all in one. Yeah, I can do this and I can do that, you know, and so then when you can, um, find something that you love doing, it makes it that much easier.

And, and any business, you know, whether you're a coach or, you know, helping people in with health and fitness or business or, you know, whatever, that, it just makes it all, you know. Feel good and come together. Something you wanna do. 

[00:04:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. To create an impact for your people. Yeah. Wow. It's so smart that you didn't go into corporate.

That's what I've heard. Yeah. So many of us who have, um, I was in corporate for a number of years, and the, the skills that you're talking about, you, you do use them in the corporate field, but any skills that you have that you learn along the way from either personal [00:05:00] experience or raising a family or caring for your elderly parents and.

Or in the corporate world, all those skills, they're cumulative. So they all kind of build on each other and you're, they're, I see and hear so many women talking about imposter syndrome or not even realizing that they have it. 

[00:05:20] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:05:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Women don't give our, we don't give ourselves enough credit. 

[00:05:24] Carrie McWherter: No one. Once you get going, it's like, oh, wait a minute.

I guess I can do that. And you know, and that's absolutely, it's been great to. And even helping some of my clients to see it like, okay, well yeah, we can make this happen. Like what's that idea and let's turn it into, you know, a real thing. 

[00:05:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow, that's so cool. Yeah. So you're really, you're helping organize, you're helping implement systems, but you're also kind of coaching?

[00:05:51] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. We did some strategy sessions and just figure out, because a lot of times, like I said, they have the idea and they don't. On the tech side, they don't even know if it's possible. Mm-hmm. But it's like, mm-hmm. [00:06:00] I had I, for an example, I had a client reach out a couple weeks ago who needed, had this workshop and she's like, I wanna do it in two weeks.

And I don't know how to set, you know, like, I need these email reminders done. I need the registration done, I want this upsell page done. She's like. And she was talking about going from here to here and I'm like, you know, we can just go to this platform and then put this. And she's like, really? You know?

And so I was able to get it done so she could go live the following Monday and, you know, still be able to get people in before the workshop. So it was just the. Sometimes just talking to somebody who has a little bit of knowledge in that area to be able to say, oh no, you're, that's the long way around.

Yeah, that would work. But we can condense it, so, 

[00:06:38] Penny Fitzgerald: wow. Well, and I feel like a lot of us also try and complicate things, or we think it's harder than it is and just simplify it. Yeah, 

[00:06:47] Carrie McWherter: yeah. Say and yeah, and it's a lot of times, I mean, and I, I mean, I don't use AI a ton in my business, but there are times that.

For a platform, it's like, can it do this? You know? So if you have something that you're paying [00:07:00] for and you're like, you know, I think I, I wanna do this on it, you know, I, I've even told clients that I'm like, just ask, you know, just say, because doing a general Google search, you're not necessarily gonna get a how to, whereas you go on AI and it will say, oh yeah, click here, go here, go here.

And, um, it will tell you step by step sometimes, um. How to make it more efficient for you. 

[00:07:24] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Isn't that amazing how much in the last, even six months, that has shifted. 

[00:07:29] Carrie McWherter: Yeah, 

[00:07:30] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah, for sure. Yeah. What do you recommend to clients about, I hear a lot of women also say, I'm afraid of ai, or, I don't know where to start with it, or, you know, they're just afraid to play around with it.

Um, do you, do you encounter that in your clients as well? 

[00:07:48] Carrie McWherter: Um, I. Like I have, I don't write content, so I'm often like, they'll send me a newsletter to, you know, put, put it in the template. So I, I say I don't write content, [00:08:00] but I can make it look pretty. So I can, you see your banner and I can find some graphics to go with your content.

Um, but sometimes they don't have a subject line or they don't have, you know, so I'm like, oh. Copy and paste your newsletter into chat and say, mm-hmm. Give five ideas for subject lines. You know, or, you know, so that's more where I would, you know, en encourage my clients. Like, or you have an idea that you wanna use for a newsletter or, you know, to build out something on your website and just ask for, and I always give it a number, like, gimme three ideas or gimme five ideas.

But like. Say you wanna have three points, key points in your newsletter and be like, okay, here's my topic. Here's a story to go with it. Now what are three ways? I mean, for me, my newsletter's about helping entrepreneurs organize or get something, make their, you know, business easier on their own. Um, and I'm like.

How can that be compared to real life, you know? And so, because sometimes then that pops up and it may not be anything that I even wanna use, but it just gives me that idea. It's like, oh yeah, it reminds me of a story [00:09:00] or something that is going on in my life that I can actually personalize it. Um, so yeah, I, I don't recommend just putting it in and then copy and paste and using that as a newsletter, but always personalize it.

Um, you can use it for, I mean, social media, you can use it for newsletters, you can use it for your website. Um, I was. Recently did some updates on my website and I, you know, I was kind of one of those where I was like, okay, I had attended this thing and they said, value stacks. I'm like, what is a value stack?

You know? So, you know, I'm like, based on the information, you know about me, because I had already, yeah, go to my website and read what you know, you know, and so it was able to actually help me pull some number, you know, I, I had to find the numbers, but you know, then I was able to say, okay, this is how many clients I've had.

This is how many emails. I've helped clean up, you know, those types of things. Whereas I didn't even think about what a value stack was. You know, I needed more ideas. So you hear word, so that would be, you know, a short, you hear words just ask, like, give me examples and how does that relate to my business?[00:10:00] 

So, you know, you gotta, obviously you have to kind of train it so it knows who you are. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah. 

[00:10:05] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, I agree. The more you use it, the more it gets to know you. 

[00:10:09] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:10:09] Penny Fitzgerald: And the more it sounds like you, the more, the more it relates. Effecti, I do commend going into 

[00:10:13] Carrie McWherter: the, the settings and shutting off the share with everybody else.

[00:10:17] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. There 

[00:10:18] Carrie McWherter: is a slider in there for that. Yeah. But, um, but otherwise that's it. It's nice to be able to. Build on your own. So like I said, when I throw a newsletter idea in there, I be like, okay, make it sound more about like me because you know this about my about page and you have this idea from my testimonials people have given me or something.

So 

[00:10:38] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. Yeah, that's that's very helpful. It saves a lot of time. Yeah, and it kind of a gut check too, although you don't wanna rely on it for your only. Source of for sure. 

[00:10:51] Carrie McWherter: Information. Yeah. Yep. And that's, yeah, especially if you're doing research, I definitely recommend cross checking with other places. Um, yeah.

Because I've had people [00:11:00] where they, they do it and they're like, oh yeah, it says it's, you know, it gives you your examples of where it's at. It's like, but that's not exactly, they're pulling quotes, you know? Yeah. Um, 

So yeah. It's a little 

[00:11:10] Penny Fitzgerald: outta context or, yeah. So, yeah. And it's getting better too, I feel like, but it, for a while, and it, it still does, but it's less now. Yeah. Makes things up because it, it wants to please, it's like a puppy. a puppy crossed with a teenager. 

[00:11:26] Carrie McWherter: Right. 

[00:11:26] Penny Fitzgerald: So, you know, kind of a smaller attention span, one thing at a time.

Yeah. And they want to please it. The, the chat that you're working with, they, it wants to make you happy. Yeah. And so it will tell you things that you wanna hear, even if it's not true. 

[00:11:43] Carrie McWherter: Well, I had a client that wants, that hired me to help her transcribe her podcasts because when she originally recorded them, she didn't have it.

So she's got some older podcasts she wants to transcribe and, um. I asked Chad, can you do this? And they're like, oh yeah, I can use this know exactly. [00:12:00] And like three days later I kept getting Blake, like there were no transcripts I got, and they weren't even actual, like I got the date and some of them had the title filled in of the podcast, but like, there was no information.

I'm like, I need this for my client. And it's like, I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have told you I could do it. Oh geez. So I mean, and then obviously we, we ended up going to OtterBox. You know, directly going through them, but it was just one of those where you told me you could use your free resources. Yeah.

So why do I have to now pay for a subscription? Well, my client paid for it, but um. I'm like, don't, don't say you can do it. If you can't do it, just tell me no so I can move on. 

[00:12:38] Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Yeah. I had a very similar experience, um, about a year ago. Yeah. When it was, you know, early on 

 I was looking for the top 10 episodes from the previous year of my podcast. Okay. I asked, okay, here's the link to find all the podcasts. Yeah. Can you do this? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get it. I'll get it to you. I'm like, okay, take your time. And I [00:13:00] wanna see, you know what, what were the ones that were most valuable for people and most watched And most, yeah.

And two weeks later it's like, oh, just gimme two more days. Like, is this even possible? Well, no. 

[00:13:18] Carrie McWherter: I'm still thinking. 

[00:13:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, yeah, and it's a learning curve for us that are using it and 

[00:13:26] Carrie McWherter: training it. Well, like you said, as long as, as long as people are aware that they can't just take what it, at, what they get out of it at face value, they have to like have some, you know, common sense, read everything that you're getting, make it your own.

Verify. 

[00:13:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Verify 

[00:13:42] Carrie McWherter: it. Yes. Um, you don't just, I mean, you. I'm sure you can do the same thing I do. You go on social media, you can tell the people that literally just copied and paste them over. 

[00:13:51] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. Um, 

[00:13:52] Carrie McWherter: and it, it's like you don't want that to be your business. You wanna be somebody that takes the time to make it your own, which is kind of why I don't write content because it's just [00:14:00] not Mm, I don't know you well enough.

I don't know a client well enough to be able to make it. Um, I mean, I can tell you all kinds of people that can help with like brand voice and so they can write content for you. Yeah, that, that's one of my referral list people is I'm like, I always wanna have a list of people because you gotta find a good fit too for something like that.

[00:14:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Absolutely. Yeah. Somebody who speaks like you do. Someone who understands your goals and your heart and your intent. Exactly. And all of it. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So you, you are, you take someone's a business owner's. Um, content and then you make it pretty and you put it into a website, you do a blog for them. What, what other, what things do you accomplish for them?

[00:14:44] Carrie McWherter: Um, so I also will do, uh, email inbox. Um, I've done like cleanup, so I had a client that had over a hundred thousand emails and we got down to oh, my 10,000 in a week, you know, so, um, wow. Just. Just figuring out, okay, [00:15:00] what do you really need to keep? What can be archived? What, you know, that sort of thing. Um, I have, you know, but then also in the email, I've got a couple of ladies that I check one's daily, multiple times a day.

The other one's a couple of days a week and we just have decided this is how much time I spend there then. 

These are ones that I can reply to. If she happens to get in there, she can move stuff in there that she wants me to take care of, newsletters that she can read later. You know, those types of things. I just kind of keep the main inbox empty so that she doesn't go in and have 50 emails every time she wants to do 

[00:15:30] Penny Fitzgerald: something.

Wow. Um, that sounds amazing. 

[00:15:34] Carrie McWherter: And that's what, you know, she says that every once in a while, she's like, oh. She actually going outta time. She's like, you're the best. I'm glad I don't even have to think about it while I'm gone for three days. So, um, nice. Yeah. And then for that same client, I actually, she has a community that's over 50,000 people and so a Facebook community.

And so I'm what she calls her community manager. And so I'm in there again multiple times a day and just answering questions, leading them to her [00:16:00] freebie, you know, free training, whether it's blog posts or videos. Um, and. Answering questions, you know, just maintaining to make sure that we don't have a bunch of spam.

And you know, when you get that many people in a group, you kind of just have to watch it. Yeah. Um, so that's something, that's a way that I've helped clients and groups. Something I, I enjoy like setting up, um, the automation funnels, you know, 'cause it's very satisfying when, you know, you have that idea, like I said earlier, you start with the idea and then you can make it work for a client and it actually, you know, gets to the right people on the right.

Right time and 

[00:16:37] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. You 

[00:16:37] Carrie McWherter: know, and then all the follow up afterwards. So, um, that's one of my favorite parts is automation. Um, I mean, I do a variety of other things. I do some website updates in Wix and Squarespace, um, as well as, let's see, what else? Yeah, keep, I, I just kind of, I, I [00:17:00] don't limit it mainly because if a client doesn't wanna have to have four VAs.

They can kind of get a lot of the same thing from one person, but at the same time, if they want something more specific, you know, I went through a VA training and I have people, like I said, I have content, you know, I have people that like edit videos 'cause I, I can do just a little bit, like I can add a header and puter and some lead in music for 'em, but I don't do a lot of like video editing beyond that.

But I've got two or three names of people that I know and trust that I can say, Hey, hey, they. I'm in this group with 'em, it's less than a hundred people. So, you know, they're, they're real people to me. They're not just the 50,000 people, you know, it's, it's a, yeah. It's small enough that I, I am confident in referring them out if they Yeah.

Need something. 

[00:17:47] Penny Fitzgerald: You've seen enough of their responses or posts and Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 

[00:17:52] Carrie McWherter: And been in live zooms with them and Oh, nice. Trainings and stuff like that, so 

[00:17:56] Penny Fitzgerald: that helps. I mean, it's so hard to. [00:18:00] It's from a creator standpoint, it's hard to hand off what you've worked on Yeah. To someone else. And the piece that most creators are good at is creating, you know, talking with people and doing their creative, their mar the, you know, the, the meat of the business.

But then the marketing side is so overwhelming for so many people. Right? 

[00:18:19] Carrie McWherter: Yep. 

[00:18:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. Well, 

[00:18:21] Carrie McWherter: there's so many different steps to that, that, 

[00:18:23] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah, 

[00:18:24] Carrie McWherter: just have to. That's where, you know, like we get the system in place and then whatever's repetitive, we can do that because, you know, setting it up, like for me, for onboarding clients, you know, I have the checklist of things that needs to be done for each client as far as adding a folder on my Google Drive and putting their name in my time tracker and you know, just different stuff like that.

 I have a lot of that automated, so it's like I make them an active client in my CRM and these things happen, These are all the things that have to be done every single time.

And then you don't have to rethink it and be like, oh, did I miss a step? Because you have it. 

[00:18:57] Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. So 

[00:18:58] Carrie McWherter: SOPs are, you know, put together and, [00:19:00] um, the procedures are figured out so that you don't waste time trying to. Waste time for getting something or waste time trying to figure out every time 

[00:19:10] Penny Fitzgerald: what you need.

Exactly, exactly. Well, and then you get a, a wrench in the wheel that is like your sys, your automations, well, your automations are set up and systems are set up, but then you might have something pop up like, oh, the technology is down today or Exactly. Ran into that this week with my, with editing. So yeah, it was very frustrating.

I had a, um. A 45 minute, um, episode that I, an interview. Mm-hmm. And was editing it for Yeah. 30 minutes of it. Gone. Where'd it go? I can see that it's still there somewhere, but it was, it had, you couldn't see it created a second layer and it was, yeah, it was really gross. So. Yeah. That, 

[00:19:57] Carrie McWherter: that's sad. You're 

[00:19:58] Penny Fitzgerald: like, so [00:20:00] yeah.

What normally would take, you know, an hour is now four hours, and I mean, that kind of thing just happens and you, and the 

[00:20:05] Carrie McWherter: stress just level keeps going higher because you're like, I know it's there, but I can't see it. And Yeah. 

[00:20:10] Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. Yeah. You just have to remind yourself that, okay, it's all right. It's all right.

The important part, just one time. Yeah. Yeah, exactly that and well, like a creator would get. You know, overwhelmed by all the things, you know, what, what piece of technology do I need? How often do I need to do this? What is, you know, like all those questions. But those are, I feel like just kind of excuses to help us stay safe in our comfort zone so that we don't create a bigger impact.

If we can't be seen. If we aren't seen, we can't be judged. Right. Yeah, that's, and it's just sad. It kind of stops, stops a lot of us from moving forward. that'sthe thing that I work on with, with the women that I work with and coach is not only the systems, but you gotta have the mindset and you have [00:21:00] to be able to accept, um, the growth that you're going to get because your business only grows at the speed that you do.

Yeah. So keeping, keeping that in mind and just, just doing one thing, just taking that step, you know, and if you're not comfortable with the editing. Find Carrie, you know, find a VA that Yeah. That can help you with those steps and like just taking that overwhelm off your shoulders and laying it out and like, okay, what are, what are you doing?

 tell us about your process. How do you, like when you first meet someone that might be interested in, putting in some automations or taking some of the things off their plate, how do you approach it? 

[00:21:37] Carrie McWherter: Um, so yeah, usually we have, I do a, like a 30 minute discovery call, free discovery call.

Mm-hmm. Um, if they decide they wanna work together, but they're not sure where to start, usually, um, we can set up a strategy session and just look at what they currently have for system. Like, what are you paying for every month? Are you using it? Is it set up like, I mean, a lot of people have say it's [00:22:00] scheduling link and they don't have reminders set up or they have, um.

Or they're missing emails because they don't have filters or they're getting, you know, stuff's going to spam or it's, they just aren't seeing something or, um, and the list can go on and on. But, you know, it's just looking at what they currently have, what they're currently doing, and um, and then talking through it.

I mean, some of 'em know they want a CRM, but some of 'em think they want. Like go high level or Kajabi or Zoho, you know, one of these great big things. Mm-hmm. But they could get by with something small, like less annoying, CRM or begin, or you know, something that they don't really need this big, 

[00:22:43] Penny Fitzgerald: the bells and whistles.

[00:22:44] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. Um, so I talked through that with them and I mean, as an example, I built a quiz for a client, um, it's been a few months ago now, but she, she's like, I don't know what quiz platform I wanna use. I'm like, well, I did this course and this is the one that they recommended, but [00:23:00] it's really expensive. I said, it's really good and it does all these great things.

But I said, here's three other ones. And she's like, well, which one? You know? And so she's like, okay, when, and we looked at the cost and looked at, you know, what it could do and what can it integrate with? So what email platform could we connect it to where her email sequence could go, you know? And so, but I like to help a client narrow it down.

So what do they need? And then, um, give them some, I'll do some research for them if they want me to. And, because like I said, you can go out there and find. 10 different email platforms and you really don't know, or you know, 50 different CRMs, you know, and mm-hmm. If, if you haven't thought about what it can do.

And, um, just helping them narrow it down. And then of course I can help set it up, bring in their people, you know, their contacts and get that initial stuff. And, um. Get some of the automation, get, you know, it just depends on how far they wanna take it. Um, I love working with clients long [00:24:00] term and keeping, you know, keeping things going for them so that they don't have to think about it.

You know, my goal is like for you not to have to keep moving things down on your to-do list. So what are the things that you put on your to-do list that always wait till Friday afternoon because you didn't wanna do 'em? You know, it might be simple as, you know, doing follow up after networking calls. I've, I've done that.

[00:24:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. Or 

[00:24:19] Carrie McWherter: if you're having workshops and you wanna invite people, I've done personal invitations through, um, messenger or emails, you know, from their account. So it's coming from them, but just I, um. Just helping them to see, or helping them to do those things, you know, start the conversation. Because once that conversation started, it's easier for them to take it over and follow up with the, you know, keep it going.

Mm-hmm. But sometimes it's that initial, oh, I have this chat that has 50 people that I'd really like to connect with on LinkedIn, but I just don't have time to say, Hey, it was great seeing you at such and such an event. Um, you know, I, I'd love to learn more about you or what, [00:25:00] however their wording would be, because Uhhuh, um, but then I can send, like I said, I can send those message, the initial connection and then they just take over the conversation.

But it's that first step that gets them and that helps them move their business forward because they made those connections and they didn't just attend the meeting. And, um, which so many, unfortunately, so many people do with networking. You go and you save the chat and then nothing happens to the chat.

But, um. Yeah, exactly. I mean, there's several examples of ways that we can work more specifically, just depending on, I really focus what I do on what they need, um, because everybody feels overwhelmed in different areas and, you know, some people, like I personally don't mind doing my own books. You know, I'm, I'm, you know, invoicing, I, but.

I'll do invoices for other clients, but I will send, you know them to bookkeepers to do their actual books. I don't want anything else to do with their money, but like, I don't wanna be responsible for that. Yeah. Um, but I don't have any problem [00:26:00] following up with invoices and making sure they're getting paid, but don't ask me to like track your checking account.

Um, but anyway, so it's just there's the different things that they need. Um. Because like you said, as a creative, you know, they're like, maybe you really enjoy editing the podcast, but you don't wanna have to upload them. Yeah. So like, if you can have a VA do that part and put the description in and the title in and make sure it's to all the places.

And, um, and then post that it's live and you know, your email and your, you know, and the, the marketing behind it. Yeah. The other stuff that goes with it. Then that those are the types of things that you could hand off to somebody so you can enjoy the part you enjoy without having to Exactly. Do that after list, 

[00:26:47] Penny Fitzgerald: so, yeah, exactly.

Yeah. When you do the things that bring you joy, it just creates more it, it's attractive to more of the things that bring you joy. So yeah, it just keeps building on itself. It's this momentum thing. [00:27:00] And like you were saying with, with the networking events, some of those things are just so time sensitive.

Mm-hmm. The sooner you follow up with someone when you, when they remember you, when they are excited to talk to you again, or Yeah, maybe you had a connection in the meeting or in the Zoom or where, wherever it was that you met them, you wanna really. Cap capitalize on that, or at least, you know, build that relationship.

But it's the beginning of a friendship and you don't wanna just a week later, 

[00:27:26] Carrie McWherter: like, go a few 

[00:27:27] Penny Fitzgerald: weeks or three weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So some of that stuff is so important. 

[00:27:31] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:27:31] Penny Fitzgerald: And I, I feel like that's another thing that keeps us small. 'cause if we don't reach out to those people, then I, I don't have to, I don't have to be uncomfortable in starting a conversation.

So those things that you do for them is big. 

[00:27:44] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. And I, I did that for a workshop. It's been a couple, it was last summer, a client was doing a monthly workshop all summer long. And so she was doing a lot of great social media posting, but she wasn't take she, not that she wasn't taking the time, she just didn't have the time to respond to the [00:28:00] post.

Oh. So like I set up a spreadsheet, I put all the people's names that commented, or you know, like the posts and then she went through 'em. She's like, oh yeah, I wanna send them an vita. You know? And so then I was sending the private messages saying, Hey, I noticed you liked this post. Would you be interested?

I have this workshop coming up or would you be interested in it? And she, I think she told me at the end, she ended up having 30 more people sign up and attend the workshops as a result of those messages that were sent. 

[00:28:28] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:28:28] Carrie McWherter: And I was like, for three workshops. I thought that was pretty good. You know?

That's powerful. Yeah. So, I mean, and, and she was able to see it 'cause we had it tracked. Were, how many times were they, you know, they were sent the message for the first one, and then did they get sent to the second one? Did they attend more than one? You know, those types of things. So we just put it on a spreadsheet, but like with the networking, that could be tracked in somebody's CRM or it can just be tracked on an Excel, you know, Google sheet, whatever.

The Google sheets great because like I can be entering stuff, but my client can see it at the same time. So as they do the follow up, [00:29:00] then they can mark stuff off and it's always updated and, um, active. 

[00:29:04] Penny Fitzgerald: Love that shared and in real time. 

[00:29:06] Carrie McWherter: Yep. 

[00:29:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. That's so powerful too, to have the metrics behind it to prove that, okay, this worked.

This really didn't, you know, you can see it. The numbers don't lie. I mean, you might have a gut feeling that, okay, I thought I felt like this really worked. Yeah. But then if you have the numbers to back it up, you can verify that, yeah, that really did work. Or I thought it did, but worth a ton of money. Yeah, yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. Wow, that's really. Important stuff that, you know, to take that first step to just reach out to people after you've Yeah, after someone's met them. Yeah. That's a big piece of it. Keeping those relationships going and really getting them so more solid and For sure. Yeah. It's just really about serving people.

[00:29:49] Carrie McWherter: Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's how I've grown my business is through virtual networking and. Like I said, not just attending the meetings, but building the relat relationships afterwards. So, 

[00:29:59] Penny Fitzgerald: oh yeah. [00:30:00] That's what it's all about. Yeah. You know, people, you, you work with people you know, like, and trust. 

[00:30:05] Carrie McWherter: Exactly.

[00:30:06] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Well, and it's, it's another thing that women are more in tune to is building relationships. So that's great. Do you work mainly with women or do you have some male clients as well? I have a 

[00:30:16] Carrie McWherter: couple of, uh, well, I don't currently have any male clients, but I have had a couple in the past. Um. Uh, the only one that I would say wa did wasn't a good fit was more because he was a product based.

And most of my clients are service based and he actually had like a brick and mortar, so it was hard. He'd never worked with a virtual assistant. And then he had a hard time, um, delegating in like, 'cause he had like a person assistant, and then he had me, and then he was like, what do I have her do versus what do I have her do?

You know? So Uhhuh that made it a little like. So that relationship didn't last very long. I mean, I did what he needed me to as far as updating some, I, I was actually, I cleaned up his desktop and I remote logged into his desktop because I didn't know that you could do this until I saw his desktop. But did you know that like if [00:31:00] you have too many things on your desktop, that if you slide over you can actually have more things on that you had three desktops full.

[00:31:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh wow. 

[00:31:08] Carrie McWherter: So I remote logged in and cleaned up his desktop for, so he could actually like all of his PDF d files. 'cause I couldn't delete anything 'cause I didn't know enough. Right this, but like I put all the like, types of files together, Uhhuh, and they weren't labeled, so like, it wasn't even like I could sort them by product or by this.

They were like, no. Oh, you know, stuff, like I said, he knew, but so, oh gosh. I put them in, you know, so I sorted all the PDFs here together and all the Excel sheets are together, you know, and so then he, I got it down to one page and he only had like eight folders and you know, all his photos were now in one place and, you know, Uhhuh.

So just, um, but otherwise, yes, typically I work with. Women, um, like I said, service-based, typically solo entrepreneurs, a few of them have small teams. Um. A lot of my clients are coaches, but if, if you network, you know that you meet a lot of coaches of various, [00:32:00] various kinds of coaches in networking. Mm-hmm.

Um, but I mean, I've got somebody that's an attorney. I've got somebody that's the website designer, marketing, you know, various things as well besides 

[00:32:09] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. And do you work with, um, all different kinds of platforms? I've, I've heard you mention a few. Um, yeah. 

[00:32:15] Carrie McWherter: Yep. I'm, I'm willing to learn them. Um, if not, like I said, I usually know I can find somebody that knows the, a certain platform.

[00:32:23] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:32:23] Carrie McWherter: Um, and I mean, like, I, like I mentioned, go high level. Mm-hmm. I had a client that wanted to have a community set up and I'd done everything but like set up a community in it. And so we feel, and, and I say this very openly, that if it's something that I think I will use for other clients. I will, like, the learning time is on me.

You know, like I don't charge my clients for that learning time uhhuh until I'm working on your stuff, you know? So like I had to do some research to figure out, okay, how do I set up the tiers and how do I do the, you know, those things, Uhhuh. And then, you know, it's like, okay, clock's on. 

so it was just one of those where like [00:33:00] depending on the platform, sometimes it's, you know, it's worked in and sometimes it's, you know. I just because I wanna learn it. If it's something that's common and that I'm often asked about 

[00:33:09] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh, then 

[00:33:10] Carrie McWherter: I'll just learn it on my own.

And then, yeah. Like I said, once I start setting up your stuff, then that's when the clock starts, 

[00:33:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Uhhuh. Well, I would think that that would be very helpful for clients as well, because if you have experience with multiple platforms Yeah. And someone is looking for advice on, okay, this is what I wanna do.

[00:33:27] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:33:28] Penny Fitzgerald: You have knowledge of all of these different ways to do it. To accomplish it. Yeah. And you might be able to, well, 

[00:33:34] Carrie McWherter: and, and two, what their budget is. Because like for example, MailChimp, MailerLite, and Convert Kit, which is now just called Kit, but like mm-hmm. If they have a freebie and they're wanting to set up an automation, but they're looked at, they'll kind of small.

I would recommend MailerLite because you can stay on their free plan and have those, that automation with, you know, as many like follow up emails as you want, where you have to upgrade the other two in order to start sending [00:34:00] multiple, like an email sequence. Oh. So, um, so like that's, otherwise the other ones you can use on free for up to 500 contacts.

Which is usually enough for people 'cause it takes a while to build up your list that much. Mm-hmm. But one, if you wanna have your freebie with the follow up emails, then you're like, oh, now I have to upgrade and it's $25 a month and do I wanna spend $25 a month yet? And you know, those types of right decisions where, um, it's not always necessary.

It, depending on how much you're doing in your email, you know, if, if you wanna spend or if you want a certain company for whatever reason. But I mean, I recently switched from mailer light to, or sorry, from MailChimp to mailer light. And my open rate is actually just a little bit better than what it was with MailChimp.

So, 

[00:34:47] Penny Fitzgerald: um, yeah. And it's easier to use. Yeah. 

[00:34:50] Carrie McWherter: So, um, so in that sense, and, and I found like I have a client that uses AWeber and we're pulling stuff out of that to put it on another platform, [00:35:00] and I had never used it. Once you find out what words mean, what like Yeah. You know, mail, MailChimp uses Journey and you know, then you have your automation and then you have your email sequence and you know, everybody uses different terms.

Yeah. So once you figure out that term, they're pretty much the same. 

[00:35:15] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm-hmm. 

[00:35:17] Carrie McWherter: The same thing in the big, yeah. 

[00:35:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Well, and as people grow, as the businesses grow, can you help them migrate from one yes to another? Okay. Yep. 

[00:35:25] Carrie McWherter: And that's what I'm doing. Like the one that's in awe where she's now moved up to, um, go high level.

So we're moving all of our contacts Okay. And over email sequences. And, um, she's on another funnels. Um. Not ClickFunnels. Yeah, ClickFunnels like she's moving all of her funnels from that to, it can all be moved to the same one. So Uhhuh, some of it can be imported depending on the plat, you know, the, how the platforms integrate.

Mm-hmm. Um, without the copy and paste. And other ones. Yeah. It is literally hiring somebody to move it all over. But if you wanna keep it, I mean, if it's stuff you're still actively [00:36:00] using mm-hmm. It's worth it to have it done and not have to spend the time yourself doing it. Oh gosh, 

[00:36:04] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. I went through that last year.

I moved from MailerLite to Kajabi. 

[00:36:10] Carrie McWherter: Oh yeah. 

[00:36:11] Penny Fitzgerald: Thinking that Kajabi would do all the things and it does a lot of things, but it's a lot more complicated. Yeah. 

[00:36:17] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. Your email sequences are a little harder to set up. 

[00:36:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I agree. But, um, yeah, you get more bells and whistles with it for sure. And the ability to, um, like have your courses password protected at the client level.

At the customer level. That was the main reason why I switched over, but. 

[00:36:39] Carrie McWherter: Yeah, if you have a lot of courses or have a main like community, or not community, but a course that's goes out to a lot of people, it's nice to be able to have that. 

[00:36:48] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. The password protection was big, you know? And then for, for a customer, like if, if one of my, um, clients were taking one of my courses and they log in, they're able to [00:37:00] pick up where they left off and be able to see Exactly, yeah.

Because it's at her level rather than. 

[00:37:05] Carrie McWherter: My level. 

[00:37:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. This is, this is what we're doing this week. This is where we're at. Yeah. Yeah. This is the 

[00:37:10] Carrie McWherter: module that she completed last and 

[00:37:12] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's very helpful. But, um, but complicated. Yeah. Oh gosh. Well, what, how, how can people find you, first of all, like, how, how can they learn more about what you do and, um, maybe set up a 30 minute.

Conference with you. 

[00:37:33] Carrie McWherter: Okay. Um, my website is all in order with carrie.com. Um, I have a link there that you can, well, as you look around, you can see my services, as I mentioned today. There's a variety of different things I do. I do have 'em broken to kind of like four different areas, so sometimes it's hard to like, I don't know, she said all these things.

So some hopefully that will help you narrow it down. And of course there's the buttons that lead to, um, my. Link [00:38:00] to have a meeting with me. Uh, if you're looking to, uh, get your email inbox cleaned up on your own a little bit, I do have a, under my free resources, there's a checklist of five different. Yeah, there's five things to help you get started on cleaning up your inbox.

Um, obviously I'm always happy to help with that if you get in there and you're like, I still don't wanna do it. Um, but that's on there. And some past blogs. If you're interested in getting monthly tips, I just send a monthly newsletter, um, and helping, I guess I did mention this too, but, you know, just simple tips to organize your business.

I do a little bit of mindset stuff, just. Basically getting in there and making sure that you're not overthinking all the things. 

[00:38:45] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh gosh, yeah. It's so easy to do. I like to break it 

[00:38:47] Carrie McWherter: down into simple steps and hopefully I hope everybody can pull something out of it to apply, if not to their business, to their personal life.

Because sometimes, I mean, one of my big tips is setting a timer for [00:39:00] 15 minutes and because. Whether it's work or cleaning that closet or whatever, you would be amazed at what you can get done in 15 minutes and it keeps you focused. So if you're easily distracted by your phone or you know, notification mm-hmm.

Say, no, I'm not looking at it for 15 minutes, I'm gonna work on this project or work on. This thing. Um, but yeah, so 

[00:39:19] Penny Fitzgerald: It's also a way kind of to gamify it. Yeah. Like how much can I get done in 15 minutes? Minutes, exactly. Let's find out. 

[00:39:27] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. Let's see what I could actually accomplish. Yeah. I only gotta do one drawer and I got three done.

[00:39:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. And then the feeling of accomplishment and then also that I only have to do this for 15 minutes. I can do anything for 15 minutes. 

[00:39:38] Carrie McWherter: Exactly. Yes. 

[00:39:39] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, that's big. 

[00:39:41] Carrie McWherter: So yeah. But yeah, I would love to. Talk to anybody. Like you said, I've got the 30 minute, uh, discovery call and very low key. I'm not a high pressure salesperson.

If, if you have questions, I'm happy to answer them and help where I can. 

[00:39:55] Penny Fitzgerald: That's very cool. I'll put your link in my show notes as well so people can find you easier and [00:40:00] all, but is there anything I haven't asked you that you would love to share with people? 

[00:40:05] Carrie McWherter: Um, we live in a small cabin in the woods, have about four acres and 40 chickens and two Rottweilers as you met Gertrude. But, and Mildred is our other one. Mildred and Gertrude. That is so cute. Three kids in their twenties. Two daughters and a son. And I've been married for 28 years, so Oh, wow.

My high school sweetheart. So we. Aw. He still works in the town where we graduated, so. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's a little bit 

[00:40:33] Penny Fitzgerald: about me, like personally, but that's really cool. Okay, so on a personal note, I, I was telling my husband who I was talking with today, and he goes, McWherters, I think we grew up with some McWherters. 

But you guys grew up there, right? 

[00:40:45] Carrie McWherter: Cedar Rapid 

his next closest sibling is 11 years older than him.

my husband is the youngest of six. Okay. So, and we graduated in Springville is where we actually graduated 

[00:40:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Springville. Okay. So my husband,was born in Cedar Rapids. Oh, okay. And then I think he was 12 [00:41:00] ish when they moved to,Lowden, Iowa. Okay. Yeah. But, 

[00:41:04] Carrie McWherter: what a small world in Cedar Rapids,

[00:41:05] Penny Fitzgerald: that'd be 

[00:41:06] Carrie McWherter: funny. 

[00:41:06] Penny Fitzgerald: I bet he knows him. Wow, that's fun. That, 

[00:41:09] Carrie McWherter: that would be too funny. 

[00:41:09] Penny Fitzgerald: So at the end of all my episodes, I ask my guests, uh, fun, unrelated to business question.

Okay. And that is, um, what is your favorite cocktail or glass of wine? Do you have a favorite beverage? 

[00:41:22] Carrie McWherter: Um. I don't really drink wine or cocktails. Okay. Okay. Um, something that I do drink on a regular basis. I don't know if you've ever heard of a lotus drink. Um, no. So it's, it's a fruity, it's um, it's actually a caffeinated drink made from the coffee bean, but it's not, that doesn't taste anything like coffee.

'cause I don't, I don't even like the smell of coffee. Um, but different, um, coffee,

not coffees. Whatever, cafes, whatever coffee stores, Uhhuh coffee shops, that's the word I'm looking for. Um, we'll make them like if. Because they use the [00:42:00] syrups. That would be like the flavor. We, the fruity ones instead of your vanilla and you know, that sort of thing. So Uhhuh. Yeah. So a friend of mine introduced me to those.

So I usually make one of those every day. So that's nice. We, we finally just buy them, you know, we buy the big bottles. 'cause why do you wanna go to and spend six bucks for a cup when you can make your own 

[00:42:18] Penny Fitzgerald: one, right? Oh my gosh. It's got so expensive. You get a lot more than 

[00:42:20] Carrie McWherter: six out of the bottle for the price.

[00:42:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:42:23] Carrie McWherter: Um, 

[00:42:23] Penny Fitzgerald: so it's called a Lotus drink. 

[00:42:25] Carrie McWherter: Lotus, yeah. L-O-T-U-S. 

[00:42:27] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. And then 

[00:42:30] Carrie McWherter: is it made with coffee? Nope. It's actually, nope, it's just the, the syrup, there's like bases. Okay. So there's a pink base, a red base, a blue base, um, and it, it's just made from the coffee bean. Okay. To get the caffeine is what Oh. What they're taking out of it.

So it's a caffeinated drink. Okay. But yeah, not coffee flavored at all. 

[00:42:53] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. Um, so it's kind of like an energy drink of some sort. Yeah. Okay. Basically, but with fruit, fruity, fruity flavors, fruit. Yeah. 

[00:42:59] Carrie McWherter: And [00:43:00] so, yeah, like I, there's the purple base and then I put pomegranate and what else do I put in there?

Pomegranate and desert. Pear and blueberry is what I put in there today. Ooh. Sounds fancy. So my husband's like, why do we have to have these hanging on or all sitting on the shelf? You don't need all that syrup. I'm like, you get your fancy coffee. I'm have. Yeah. He's like, he's like, it's diabetes in a bottle is what he 

[00:43:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, geez.

Jokes, 

[00:43:27] Carrie McWherter: because it's like, it's never, you 

[00:43:27] Penny Fitzgerald: mind 

[00:43:28] Carrie McWherter: the straight syrup up like that you add to the other, so you, 

[00:43:32] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah. 

[00:43:32] Carrie McWherter: But anyway, I'm like, one a day I can do it. 

[00:43:35] Penny Fitzgerald: That's right, that's right. We all have something that we love that, not 

[00:43:38] Carrie McWherter: that he really cares, but he just has to get me. 

[00:43:39] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, of course. Of course. Okay, so what's a, what's a favorite memory with girlfriends?

Like just chatting or having a nice. Lotus with them. 

[00:43:50] Carrie McWherter: So I am a quilter. Um, and this summer my two best quilting friends, we got an Airbnb in June and [00:44:00] we, um, sewed for five days straight. So it was really nice. We all picked the same pattern. We made it picked our own fabrics and then Uhhuh, it was a new pattern, new designer.

So we learned new techniques together and Oh, 

[00:44:12] Penny Fitzgerald: fun. 

[00:44:13] Carrie McWherter: Um, so yeah, I actually. The quilt I counted the other day and it will actually has like around 640 pieces of fabric in it. 

[00:44:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my God. 

[00:44:22] Carrie McWherter: And I will have it done by the end of August. 

[00:44:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh wow. 

[00:44:26] Carrie McWherter: Started it mid-June and we'll have it done in the next couple of weeks, so.

[00:44:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh wow. Okay. So how, how much time do you spend on it? Do you do something daily on it? 

[00:44:35] Carrie McWherter: Um, I have been, I didn't work on it for a few weeks 'cause I was finishing, I was hired to make some quilts and stuff, so I was, oh. When we got home, I was working on those, um. But what I've been doing here lately is like I take and I have to pin sections on and then I have to sew and it it's, are you a quilter?

Do you know? 

[00:44:53] Penny Fitzgerald: I used to do some dabble on it. Okay. Do you know what paper 

[00:44:56] Carrie McWherter: piecing is? 

[00:44:57] Penny Fitzgerald: I think so what, when? So you're sewing A lot [00:45:00] of my people won't. Yeah, okay. 

[00:45:02] Carrie McWherter: But, um, so anyway, you, you would, you actually sew right on the lines, on the paper and then you have to, on the paper, take the paper off. 

[00:45:08] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay.

But there's a lot of 

[00:45:09] Carrie McWherter: curved steams, so when you put them together you have to pin it in a special way. So, anyway. So I go down, like in front of the TV at night, I'll pin the next six sec sections, and then during the day between my meetings, I'll sneak over to my machine or before my husband gets home and I'll sew those next pieces and then I'll see Uhhuh.

So yeah, if anybody wants to see it, I have like my progress pictures on Facebook, so you can follow me on Facebook and, oh, fun. Shoot me a message if you're gonna send me a friend request because you tell me why you're sending because I don't accept everybody. This is going on a podcast. I might get some unfamiliar names on there, but I'm happy to, but yeah, if you're, if you're interested in quilting and wanna see it, it's, I've got, that's what that's so intricate on Facebook is like quilting dogs and chickens.

Occasionally. My kids are grown, so I don't do a lot of kid pictures, but, and this one here was made by my great-great grandma. 

[00:45:59] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, [00:46:00] I wonder, I saw that over your shoulder. That's so, you know, hopefully people will be all. 

[00:46:04] Carrie McWherter: So, 

[00:46:05] Penny Fitzgerald: oh my goodness. Yeah, there's a lot of, lot of angles and Yeah. Different pieces in there.

Wow. Wow. Yeah. That's beautiful. Yeah. That's, and just to have that heirloom, 

[00:46:14] Carrie McWherter: yeah. 

[00:46:15] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm. It 

[00:46:15] Carrie McWherter: sat in a cedar chest for years, and then when I started quilting, my mom's like, Hey, do you wanna, she had four tops. They weren't even finished. Um, and she's like, well, since you're a quilter, do you wanna pick out the one you want?

I was like, okay, yeah. I'll take this one. 

[00:46:27] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, please. 

[00:46:28] Carrie McWherter: And then we found a, a group at a church that's. They do hand quilting. So like the group gets together and they have it on a big frame and you know, like in Oh yeah, what the Amish do now. And, but in those days everybody like had their quilting days and they, they quilted it, they all hand quilted it as well.

So it's been Wow. Completely hand done. 

[00:46:48] Penny Fitzgerald: You know, that is. Women getting together and sharing expertise and sharing stories with each other and just connecting. 

[00:46:57] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:46:58] Penny Fitzgerald: It's just so important. And to do [00:47:00] it over a quilt while you're accomplishing something. 

[00:47:03] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:47:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Mine's usually over a cocktail. Yes. Yeah. It's all about the connection piece, you know that.

Yeah. Talking with women and building those friendships and relationships and 

[00:47:15] Carrie McWherter: Yeah. 

[00:47:15] Penny Fitzgerald: It's a support group really. 

[00:47:17] Carrie McWherter: It's been great. I, I mean, the quilting has been, we do, we do that one just with our small one. We usually do two small ones a year, and then we have two bigger ones that we do every spring and fall.

[00:47:27] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, wow. With 

[00:47:27] Carrie McWherter: 25 ladies at each of those. So come here girl. 

[00:47:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Ger gertrude's, like alerting you to a squirrel or something. 

[00:47:34] Carrie McWherter: That's probably the other, the other dog's probably at the bottom of the steps and she doesn't wanna clear my space. 

[00:47:40] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Oh my gosh. So fun. Carrie, this has been so fun getting to know you and, um, hearing what you're doing and sharing that information.

I appreciate your time. 

 we should meet over a lotus and a coffee or something. That would be good. We're not too far apart. That's right, that's right. Oh my gosh. Well, 

Thank you again.

[00:47:58] Carrie McWherter: Have a great day. You [00:48:00] too.