The Shadow
COVINGTON, Va. (ALLEGHANY BUSINESS REVIEW) — Richard Mansell was content being paid to do a hobby. The electronics tinkerer-turned-entrepreneur said that at first, he had little interest in improving his business when he was first introduced to the Advancement Foundation’s Gauntlet program nearly seven years ago.
“I was trying to improve my craft, but not my business,” Mansell said in a recent appearance on The Value Prop podcast. “I didn’t want to go because I was too busy with my craft. The reality is I didn’t know what I didn’t know that I needed to know.”
Today, Mansell is the owner of Mountain Rush, a family entertainment center on Main Street in Covington that opened in August 2025 and has quickly become a community gathering spot. He also operates IVO Limited, a boutique electronics research and development firm that builds prototypes for companies working with drones, autonomous vehicles and medical devices. And he serves as assistant pastor at Calvary Baptist Church on Wills Avenue, a role that brought him to the Alleghany Highlands 15 years ago.
Mansell, who grew up in Japan as the son of Baptist missionaries, said the Gauntlet transformed his approach from hobbyist to CEO. The program provided structured lessons in marketing, finance and long-term business planning, but he said its greatest value has been the mentor network.
“Leo, my mentor, still checks up on me some seven years later,” Mansell said. “He prepared me for things I didn’t know I needed to anticipate. Before it came up, he had warned me about it, and when it happened, I had a plan.”
Several of his business contracts since completing the Gauntlet have come directly from connections made through the program and subsequent networking events, he said. Mansell now serves as a Gauntlet mentor himself, guiding new cohorts of local entrepreneurs.
His first piece of advice to aspiring business owners may surprise some: determine whether the idea should remain a hobby.
“People have great ideas that should not become businesses,” he said, citing a family story about his great uncle Harold, who co-founded a laminated wood I-beam company. “He wasn’t the inventor — his partner was. But Harold could handle the business side. They were successful because they found each other.”
Of the entrepreneurs he has mentored, Mansell estimated about half have gone on to build successful ventures, a rate he considers reasonable given the economic disruptions of recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
For those who do launch, Mansell stressed listening to paying customers over personal preferences. He pointed to Mountain Rush’s evolution since its grand opening, noting that he has expanded some offerings and scaled back others based on what patrons are actually spending money on.
Cross-promotion among local businesses is another pillar of his philosophy. Mansell said Mountain Rush does not offer duck pin bowling because the community already has a bowling alley. Instead, he and nearby businesses like Alleghany Outdoors actively promote each other — suggesting customers rent laser tag equipment from Mountain Rush for outdoor parties, or directing families seeking an outdoor venue to Alleghany Outdoors’ deck and grill space.
“Business by nature involves other people. It also involves other businesses,” Mansell said. “It involves the city, the county, the Chamber of Commerce, the chamber of tourism. It involves your competitors.”
Mansell also urged local business owners to look beyond county lines for inspiration, noting that several of the Alleghany Highlands’ most successful recent ventures were started by people who brought experience from elsewhere. Before opening Mountain Rush, he visited family entertainment centers in Ohio, Florida and the Virginia Beach area to learn what works.
With Covington positioned just three hours from Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Richmond, Mansell said the area has significant untapped potential to attract visitors already drawn to the mountains and the river. He offered a bold vision for the community’s future.
“I sincerely believe that Covington could become the Gatlinburg of Virginia,” Mansell said.
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Transcript (generated by ai)
Richard Mansell 0:00
The Bible is not a business book, right? However, every aspect of business that touches on is true. Now, a lot of it comes down to the second aspect, and that is people, right? Business is people. That’s, that’s kind of where I was, yeah, yeah. So I might be working on electronics at the old Edgemont building, but those electronics have to apply to a person, a person’s life and my interaction for trying to sell that product or improve that product involves a person. No matter what your business is, it involves people. If it doesn’t, ships right, and because of that, you’re talking about people’s characteristics, their personalities, their interests, their desires, their fears, the more you can get to know what people are like and how to properly interact with people, I think the more successful you can be in any kind of business. Hey,
Gene Mundy 0:59
Good morning, everybody. We’re here today with Richard Mansell. Richard is owner, operator of Mountain Rush and a whole lot of other things. He’s a entrepreneur, an innovator, a mentor and a pastor. Richard, great to have you with us today.
Richard Mansell 1:14
Thank you. It’s nice to be here today. I’m looking forward to our conversation.
Gene Mundy 1:18
Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to chatting with you as well. So Richard, you’ve been in the community for a while now, and you’ve got mountain Rush is doing very well now. And can you give us a overview or background, a little bit about yourself? Yeah.
Richard Mansell 1:34
So I grew up in Japan. My parents are Baptist missionaries there, and so when I turned 18, came back to the states for college, for Bible and missions, and then ended up pastoring in North Carolina for a number of years. And then from North Carolina, moved up here specifically to become the assistant pastor at Calvary Baptist church over on wills Avenue. So that was, it’ll be 15 years ago this year that we moved up here, along the way, found out that I enjoy a number of other things, including electronic development, business, etc, but the main thing is pastoring and just ministering to people.
Gene Mundy 2:17
When we first met, we were just chatting about that it’s probably been, what, six or seven years over at the old, you know, the drone zone at Edgemont, you were involved in a really, you know, innovative technology approach. And I don’t presume to know them, you know how it works. But can you give us just a, you know, high level on what you developed from there, and how that kind of moved you forward in the innovative space.
Richard Mansell 2:45
Yeah, maybe even backing up a little bit helped give some context, and that is that I got into this automotive community, not so much driving cars, as much as the mechanics and electronics of cars, and found it to be rather interesting, how to develop the electronics and what are needed in not only from a vehicle perspective, but from the driver’s perspective. And so then, from that, started finding out that I enjoy the electronics, yeah, and developing those things. And so it kind of became a hobby of just tinkering with electronics, and then from there, finding out that people were willing to pay me for this hobby, right, right? But I believe it’s also very important for later conversation, understand that my mentality, though, was I was being paid to do a hobby. Yeah, and so by the time you met me, I had gone through the gauntlet, which really helped my mentality change. I know we’re going to talk about that some more. So by that point, then it was now a business and developing electronics for various companies, whether it was drones, autonomous vehicles, trucks, cars, some medical devices, kind of a boutique shop of research and development. So companies hire us to say, this is our we need a solution in this area. Can you develop a prototype for it? We develop a prototype, and then once it’s to the point they like it, then they pass it on to their manufacturing facility, to the manufacturing and we move on to another thing that’s kind of the work they were doing when I met you. Yeah, we were working with drones as well.
Gene Mundy 4:31
Yeah, you mentioned the gauntlet, and we had the folks from the advancement foundation on, and a couple weeks ago, we talked about the new gauntlet, you know, the this version that’s getting ready to kick off with this cohort. How did the gauntlet kind of change your approach to business? How did that experience help?
Richard Mansell 4:53
Yeah, so I was being paid to do a hobby that was my mentality before, and I was totally content with that. Actually, I was not looking for improvement. I was trying to improve my craft, but not my business. And I think sometimes business owners can unintentionally get tripped up, held back in their progress as a business because they’re so focused on improving their craft. Yeah, whatever their specialty is, whatever it is they’re they’re providing for people, but they they don’t consider improving the business side of things. And that’s two very different things. So when I was first introduced to the concept of the gauntlet, I didn’t want to go because I was too busy with my craft, I was like, What good is this going to do me? The reality is I didn’t know what I didn’t know that I needed to know. And they really helped mold my mentality from being paid to do a hobby into actually running a business to actually being CEO of my company and the business side of things, and I believe that’s really helped with the longevity of Evo. EVO limited my business, because if you don’t have that long term business structure and the mentality that goes along with it in place, no matter how good your craft is, the business could fail, not because you’re not a good person or that you’re not good at your craft, but just there’s this whole aspect of marketing and customers and finances and structure that’s important, and the gauntlet helped provide that for me, not only in the lessons and the structure of the gauntlet itself, but also in the mentor network. Leo, my mentor still checks up on me, you know, some seven years later, he’ll check on me, see, ask how things are going, and he helped provide things, things that I didn’t know, that I needed to anticipate. And so he he prepared me for that. So before it came up, he had warned me about it. I was like, I’ve never had to deal with that in my life. And then when it happens, like, Oh, this is what he was talking about. And now I had a plan, right? So that helped out, and then the continuation of that network in the following year. So the gauntlet isn’t a you participate this year. Good job. You got a little badge. We’re on to the next year’s cohort. You know, kind of thing. It’s become part of this ecosystem. A number of my contracts since then have actually come from people that I met, businesses I met, not only in the industry, but also the municipalities and the areas. Have arisen from the connections that we made through the gauntlet, and then the subsequent networking events since then,
Gene Mundy 7:44
and you must have had a very strong mentor. You mentioned him, and you know, you continue to engage and learn from him. How have you applied those same principles back? Because I understand you’re a gauntlet mentor now,
Richard Mansell 7:58
yes, when I can be, I am, I guess some of the important things is, one is to really listen to the person I’m trying to mentor, like my, my little bit of knowledge could probably help them in the business they’re working on, but maybe in a different way than the way we applied it to a business last year. So in trying to listen just like I listen to customers, you try to listen to each business owner and what they’re working on, and then try to structure, mold the advice you’re going to give them to what’s appropriate, and sometimes it’s what you don’t say. I appreciate my mentor and all the years of wisdom and stuff that he had that he did not share with me, because either it didn’t apply to me or I wasn’t ready for it, or who knows what else I don’t know. I don’t know in that aspect, but I think there’s a number of men and women in business who have shared knowledge with me, but they also refrained from sharing certain knowledge with me because it just doesn’t apply. And I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that as well,
Gene Mundy 9:16
not distracting or introducing ideas that aren’t relevant, that may distract the small business owner?
Richard Mansell 9:24
Yeah, yeah. For instance, Leo worked at the paper mill, so he was an entrepreneur. However, because of his expertise, he was involved with patent processes, so he was able to give me a lot of advice concerning the patent process, but there’s aspect of his knowledge base there at the mill that just doesn’t apply to a startup electronic business. Likewise, we have a whole range of businesses here in the Alleghany highlands that we can help one another out with. But they’re all different. You know, a brick and mortar store is very different than uh. Brick and mortar retail store is very different from like a services store or electronic development or an online presence or counseling, you know. So I think we need to be smart in tailoring our help and advice to each entrepreneur based on what their actual needs are. But then also, I think that means we need to expand. So I know in one way, I’m trying to say we need to restrict what we do depending on what business or business owner. We’re trying to help relevance, right? Relevance? Yeah, exactly. But then at the same time, we need to expand, because cross pollination of ideas between businesses is so beneficial for the community as a whole. So not only that, that individual business owner or entrepreneur, but for the community as a whole, we can all grow together that way.
Gene Mundy 10:55
I want to come back and revisit that and but I want to, I want to kind of focus on one of the one of your comments and and I want your your thoughts on regarding mentorship. You know you’re a pastor, you lead a congregation. How do you think your experience in leading a congregation and interacting helps you mentor.
Richard Mansell 11:24
One would be Bible. The Bible is not a business book, right? However, every aspect of business that touches on it’s true. Now, a lot of it comes down to the second aspect, and that is people, right?
Gene Mundy 11:40
Business is people. That’s that’s kind of where I was. Yeah,
Richard Mansell 11:43
yeah. So I might be working on electronics at the old Edgemont building, but those electronics have to apply to a person, a person’s life, and my interaction for trying to sell that product or improve that product involves a person, no matter what your business is, it involves people, if it doesn’t, ships right, and because of that, you’re talking about people’s characteristics, their personalities, their interests, their desires, their fears. The more you can get to know what people are like and how to properly interact with people, I think the more successful you can be in any kind of business. So I do believe that my experience in pastoring, my education and in Bible truths has definitely helped in setting the stage for how I relate to people, how I communicate with people. For instance, Matthew makes it very clear that if you have a problem with someone, you don’t go to Facebook first, right? Instead, you go to that person one on one, you discuss with that person, see if you can work it out, and if you can work it out one on one, without making a public scene of it, you’ve gained a brother, the Bible says. And if that doesn’t happen, then, but it’s still an urgent matter that’s going to affect other people. You bring one other person along with, you know, try and work it as a small group to help out, you know. So that same kind of principle then applies to relationships with business, with customers, trying to do what’s right for other people, putting yourself second or third or fourth or, you know, down the line. All those principles having to do with people, I believe apply so much the business so, yeah, I think that that has been a benefit to me in the side of conducting business.
Gene Mundy 13:52
As a mentor, someone brings you a business idea, whether that’s through the gauntlet or personal relationship or casual conversation. What’s, what’s the first kind of thing you consider when they do that?
Richard Mansell 14:08
Yeah, so one of my first things is, is, should this stay a hobby? Really? People have great ideas that should not become businesses, either because the product is too specialized, or maybe they’re not good going to be good at the business side. They don’t. What I mean by that is, I think anybody can learn, but not everyone’s willing to learn or to adapt. Also, some people are just not good at business, and that’s nothing wrong against them. Nothing against them. My my great uncle, Harold, he had a business. He and his partner had a business with laminated wood, and I beams. They invented that market at eight years ago. And so I asked him one day about how he came up with the idea of inventing this laminated wood and I beam. And he said. I didn’t that was my partner. He was good at inventing. He had this creative mind. He was innovative. He just wasn’t good at business. Says I was not creative at all. I’m not inventive, but I could handle business. I could do accounting, I could do marketing, I could do business relationships. And so they were successful, not because grand Uncle Harold was a good businessman, and not because his business partner was a great inventor, but because they found each other and they worked together. So going back to your question, you know, should that person actually be going in the business? Is my first thing that I really try to find out. I don’t want to discourage them from their craft. But how should they be How should they be a blessing to their community with this craft? Should it be a hobby? Should it be a business? Is it something they can handle on their own, or should they team up with someone else? I guess that’s that’s the foundational side, because I want to encourage them in their craft. I want to encourage them with their idea. But that’s the first thing, is, should it actually become a business? Because I think those are two distinct things.
Gene Mundy 16:11
Yeah, you’re the folks that you have mentored over the last few years from the gauntlet. What’s their track record in general, without being specific, I mean,
Richard Mansell 16:26
yeah, in general, I say it’s probably 5050, yeah. I think some have fizzled out, and some have gone on to be very successful. And some of the ones that fizzled out was not because I because they were bad or they’re a bad person, or I had a bad idea. I think a number of factors came in timing in the market, whether they’re appropriate for running the business, a number of factors. But I would say an answer to your question, probably about 50% Yeah.
Gene Mundy 17:01
I mean, you figure in that time period, we’ve been through some pretty significant events in our country, you know, yes, covid was, I think, in front of, you know, forefront of everybody’s mind, and that had a significant impact on, you know, not only the national economy, but local economy. And, you know, startups past few years, economically, we’ve had, you know, national struggles and that that resonates here locally. So, I mean 5050, is not bad odds when you consider we, our entire economy folded, right? You know, for about 1824, months during covid, right? So, you know, for for the business owners, you know that beyond yourself, I mean you, your mountain rush business occupies a significant, you know, location on Main Street here in Covington. What advice could you share with the other business owners, and what advice have you got that helped you with mountain rush as a startup?
Richard Mansell 18:09
Well, first would be finding out what paying customers are wanting to do. Surveys are cheap and easy, right? And you have to take the results with a grain of salt, because people who are filling out a survey for free can say whatever they want, right? Not that those can’t give you some guidance. But really listen to your paying customers. See what people are paying for. You know, we we open for at Mountain rush, a couple soft openings early in 2025 a grand opening was August of 2025 and we’ve been open since then. We had the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop and party there New Year’s Eve. And one of the things that one of the individuals that have been following us through the year said at the New Year’s Eve party was I like how you’ve adjusted since you’ve opened. You opened with a lot of great ideas, but you’ve expanded on some areas and you’ve changed other areas based on feedback. And we appreciate that, and it was nice hearing it from that person, because I was a paying customer, right, right? But also the reason why we we adjusted some areas and then did more of other areas was just based on what people were actually paying for, right? Is really good. Sometimes people have a free event. I was like, Look how many people we had. That’s not a business, right? What you need to do is find out what the paying customers want and then adjust there. And no matter how much I personally want to do something at Mountain rush, yeah, like, there’s something that I think would be so great, is that really the thing that I should have there right now? For instance, a star. Ship bridge simulator is something I’m looking forward to, where it’s a simulated Star Trek Bridge, like the enterprise and one person is the captain. You have a helms officer, a well weapons officer, each have your own computers, and you work together as a team to go through missions. I’m excited about that, but we don’t have that right now, because that’s not the main thing to get going. Yeah, right. So part of my advice to other people is find out what paying customers would like and then put your own personal preferences on back burners for the appropriate time, right? I think that’ll be good for your longevity. And then the second aspect of that is work together with other businesses. Some people are like, you know, over a year ago, a year and a half, maybe it was almost two years ago now, is when we had the community meeting where we publicly announced this idea for mountain rush down there at 14, ironically, in that same building, and that we announced, and some people are like, Why are they making this public? I thought businesses just buy a building or rent a building, they set up in secret, and then all of a sudden, boom, there it is. But we wanted to work with other businesses. We wanted the community to be behind it. We’re not a silo, and I think there’s a lot of danger in trying to be a solopreneur, as some people call it, you know, it’s like, I got to make it on my own. No, you won’t. Business by nature, involves other people. It also involves other businesses. It involves the city. It involves the county, involves the Chamber of Commerce, involves the chamber of tourism. It involves your competitors and so if you can build the relationships with those other business owners in such a way that you guys don’t overlap in actual craft, you know, services, but you do overlap in support, well, then even from a selfish perspective, that’s good for your business. Just thrive, yeah? But then also helps the other businesses. So I mean, like, that’s why we don’t do duck pin bowling at Mountain rush, because we have a bowling alley, right, right? Yeah. So thunder, there’s plenty of other things to do. And like, I appreciate Alleghany outdoors, how they cross support us, like they were just announcing concerning they have the outdoor space, you know, the deck and the grill and stuff. You can have outdoor parties there and reserve and pay for that. Well, we do parties at our place too. So in that sense, we’re competitors, but they’re different, right? So we made that we post, reposted their comment saying, Hey, we like to host parties, but if you want to outdoor party, this is a great place to go. And then Alleghany outdoors cross posted ours and said, That’s a great idea, but Why not rent Laser Tag Guns from Mountain rush and bring it to our party here, that kind of support I’m getting from other businesses in this area, and that’s fantastic.
Gene Mundy 23:04
So with that at, you know, that aspect of of mutually supporting each other, how does that, you know, go we talk about a durable business, you know, where you know, you can overcome, you know, lag in the market or eight inches of ice. Can’t get them down, you know, to a business location because they’re, you know, you can’t because of weather or what have you right? You know, that relationship you’re talking about. How do we do better at that as a community?
Richard Mansell 23:40
It’s a good question. Like I said, I can give responses, not necessarily answers. What will help you, but relationships can outlast temporal situations. Yeah, building relationships while times are good are probably the best time, instead of waiting for something catastrophic. Yeah? You know, when it comes to relationships, there’s this concept of a love bank, the idea of how you feel towards someone else, and if your first interaction with them is a negative, then it’s like that person starts with a deficit in your mind. Yeah? And you know, you know, police officers have to deal with this, because a lot of times their first interaction with someone is is a bad situation. And so, you know, for some people’s mind, their first, you know, their mentality concerning a police officer is negative, even though, what did it mean for it to be that way, right? And so it’s important for police officers to be able to have that community interaction during good times? Yeah, I think likewise with businesses, to try to interact with other people as much as possible during good times when things are going well, so that when the negative, when the droughts happen, you can carry through your relationship capital, if you will, can carry you through to. Yeah, you’ve
Gene Mundy 25:00
got, you know, organizations that come to mind, like the structure to do what you’re saying, exist, you know, we have Old Town Covington, we have main street Clifton Forge. We have Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, right? Like this week is Restaurant Week. They’ve got together to, you know, to help promote local restaurants. I mean, those are, those are, you know, vehicles that a small business owner or any business owner can utilize to do kindly, what what you’re saying,
Richard Mansell 25:29
Yeah, and I say, get out and get to know those groups, become a part of them. And even, same thing with city hall or the county or whatever, you know, municipality, you deal with building inspectors, etc, get to know them. Build that relationship as well, because they’re actually there to serve us, and we can have a good relationship. So, yeah, get your networking out. Build those relationships will help you carry through. And the other thing is, it’s just a tenacity that’s not built on Pride. So I’m gonna carry through no matter what, no matter what anyone says. It’s kind of dangerous. But to carry through even during the load times is very important. I really encourage businesses to, to, you know, stick with your published opening hours, consistency, consistency, right? The consistency will help carry you through. Like, for instance, Thursdays at Mountain Rush is, is probably our slowest business day if anyone wants to come and hit the arcades without, you know, having to wait in line too much. Thursdays is a day to do that. But sometimes my employees are kind of like, it’s really slow today. Can we close early? It’s like, Nope, we’re not, because you don’t know when someone will come in. And they will and like, two Thursdays ago, we had a couple families come in at eight o’clock, so there’s only an hour left, but they paid for their kids to be able to have unlimited play just for an hour, because their kids came in and we let them run. You know, it’s a place for them to run and just play, and so that’s what the why the families brought their little kids, was just to let them run and get their wiggles out before going to bed. You know, if we had closed at 730 thinking, Oh, we haven’t had a customer for the last 30 minutes or an hour, we would have missed that opportunity, not only from a business perspective, but also by ministering to this family or a couple families that came
Gene Mundy 27:37
and you hit on, that’s you hit on something right there. I mean, if you’re a, you know, we always hear this, you know, shop, local one, and look here before you go out of the community. One of the things that hurts that kindly is, if you go, you go somewhere, pick a location, right? You go to a business and during the normal operating hours that a business should be operating outside of an emergency whatever, right? And you go to and you pull the door and they’re closed. Well, what message does that send? How does that transcend shop local, when, for whatever reason, we decided to close early because the weather was right.
Richard Mansell 28:24
What in emergency situations? Personal interest? You know, that’s good. I think communicating that to your customers is very important. When those things happen. Those things happen communicate. Make sure you communicate, but otherwise you have consistency of hours, consistency of services. Consistency of availability is an advantage that larger cities have that’s harder here, especially to get started. So you need to have the support system to be able to prime the pump, if you will. One of the things that helped mountain Rush was not an army of employees. It was an army of volunteers that were willing to help out and cover even when I couldn’t be there. Yeah, and that helped prime the pump for us. And I think there’s another thing concerning shopping local that I would I would like to just jump on briefly here, and that is that the local business owners need to go to other locations. They need to get outside of the county and see what’s going on. I think some of the successful businesses that have opened in the Alleghany Highlands over the last several years have been by individuals who have lived elsewhere. And either they’ve never, you know, they didn’t grow up here and they moved to this area because we have a great area. They love the mountains, they love the river. They love the small town, you know, they love that. So they’ve moved here, but they brought their expertise and experience of business from outside this community in and it’s being successful, and so vice versa. I think those who have lived. Here and worked here. Go meet up with other businesses, similar businesses in other in other states, before starting mountain rush, I was in communication with FECs or family entertainment centers in Ohio, in Florida. We go visit them. Right eastern Virginia, Virginia Beach area. We go visit them, and I believe that’s one of the things that has helped me, personally, is the advice, either spoken or just by being exposed to these other businesses in other states, in other counties. Nothing wrong with the Alleghany Highlands, and you need to tailor what you’re going to do specifically to the people and culture here. I get that, but an outside view can really help out to bring that success that well, why are people not shopping local? Why do they go outside of this area? Well, they’re looking for something that they don’t have here, which means that we have to do something different here than we have been doing. We have to do it like the other businesses outside of this area are doing what attracts them to Yeah, yeah. And I think that that melding of Alleghany Highlands uniqueness and our own hometown expertise, along with the outside expertise and businesses experiences, I believe that’s a key to successful businesses.
Gene Mundy 31:21
That’s a great you know, thought, thought process. And you know, we’ve talked about here, Boomerang families that grew up, left, went out in the world, got experience, came back, either started a business, raised their family. Why did they come? What attracts them? The whole purpose of the podcast, the value proposition is, what do we have to offer that bring people to our community? What do we have that keeps people in our community? And I think you just hit on, you know, a great, a great thread that to pull on, and that’s the influence that of an outside experience or external influence brings back to our community to make us better, to give, you know, to answer a gap, or, you know, absence of something that would benefit our community.
Richard Mansell 32:15
Yes, it’ll also help with people either moving to this area permanently, or when they come to visit the mountains, to get their business, to capture that business while they’re here. Because, you know, we’re right off i 64 we have, we’re three hours from DC, Northern Virginia, three hours from Richmond. People are already coming to this area from the bigger cities. But we have to tailor our businesses, not just for a local, loyal clientele, Right? But also so that we’re a welcoming place for these outsiders. How do we capture that revenue? Right? Well, we’re not going to capture them if, if they come to our business here in Covington. And it’s, I’m going to say it from their perspective. Some are redneck back hills, you know, kind of business, it’s like, it’s not what they’re used to. And I’m not saying that we change completely. You know, we have this we have great country time. They’re coming to this area for a reason. We’re here for Right? Like we want to want to be here. We want to be here. And these outside people coming in, they’re coming here for a reason as well. But we need to make sure that our businesses, our retail stores, etc, are geared to be able to attract and keep them
Gene Mundy 33:29
the charm. Convey that charm and that feeling of what brought us here and how we how we do business.
Richard Mansell 33:39
Yeah, I sincerely believe that Covington could become the Gatlinburg of Virginia.
Gene Mundy 33:44
Bring it if we want, if it could be. Yeah, excellent, Richard. It’s been a pleasure having you on. We really hit some great comments. They’re very insightful and you know, and I’m sure our listeners will will appreciate that, and we thank you for being on
Richard Mansell 34:06
Well, thank you. It’s privilege being here again. Just my thoughts at this time. You know, I’m still learning. We are still growing, but looking forward to continue to do business here in the Alleghany Highlands.
