00:00

Welcome to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul with me Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert. This podcast is for you if you are an online entrepreneur who is looking to simplify their business to scale.  On this podcast you can expect to hear regular talk about wealth, about selling and about wellbeing. Because I believe these three core fundamental things are pivotal to your growth moving forward.

00:44

Hello, and welcome to make more money without selling your soul with myself Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert and cushy business pioneer.

And today on the show, I am delighted to have my guest Charlie Day. Charlie Day is a multi-award winning entrepreneur. She has built three multi, six figure businesses from the ground up. Yes, I know she’s passionate about helping business owners to create more sales in their businesses, and proclaims that selling is easy if you just know how Charlie believes in selling the right way, with integrity and the customer’s best interests at heart, no sleazy sales tactics or pushy closes with Charlie. She wants to change the face of sales and help people create a sales strategy that works time and time again. Charlie is also the founder of sales made, the agency where she sells on behalf of other business owners. And she also has written a diploma in sales, which is featured by the UK’s biggest corporate online learning platform and the University of Westminster in 2019 at just 31 Charlie won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Essex. Her efforts have been praised by Thea perfitis when she won Small Business Sunday. Charlie has also been featured in The Daily Mail, The Guardian series, The Independent the metro, BBC Radio two and Good Morning Britain. She’s also got a top 50 podcast sales is easy if you just know how. Apologies if I’m stumbling over my words here, but there is so much to share about the incredible Charlie. So if you’re looking for Charlie, you’ll usually find her in Costa drinking in americano or in Disneyland with her husband and her seven year old Ernie. But fortunately for us, today, you’ll find her on make more money without selling your soul. Well, let’s get straight into it.

02:27

Welcome Charlie Day.  Oh my gosh. I’ve been waiting for this day a long time. Yeah, welcome Charlie. Welcome to make more money without selling your soul, a message that I think probably resonates strongly with you.

02:39

Yes, I absolutely love it. I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

02:44

Well, firstly, before we get into this today, the main theme of today, of course, is sales because, I mean, it’s just synonymous with the name Charlie day now, right? But before we get into that, for anyone who has not met Charlie, I mean, where have you been? But for anyone who not met Charlie, Charlie, can you just tell me a little bit more about yourself and how you came to be working in this online space, a bit more about your entrepreneurial journey that got you to where you are now?

03:10

Yeah, sure. So there’s a running joke in my family that I’ve never had a real job, and it’s true. I have never had a real job, and I’m super proud of that. I set up my first business when I was 21 and I’ve built four businesses from the ground up since, well, 14 years now. So yeah, I learned a lot along the way. I don’t know if it was like my 21 year old arrogance or what, but I just assumed it was going to be easy. I would just set up a business and everybody would come running. Obviously wasn’t the case at all. I set up a theater school when I was 21 and I struggled so much to make sales, to get people to come, to get in front of people. And I basically made a promise to myself really early on that was going to get really good at sales, because I recognized really early on that that was the main thing that was going to move this ship forward. Right? Without sales, you don’t have a business, and I guess I was lucky to realize that really, really early on in my business. So I built a theater school. It still exists today. 500 children on a weekly basis are taught at that theater school. I went on to found a phonics with robot Reg, which is a preschool phonics class, which is international. We’ve got 54 franchisees across the world. I also ran a party business with all of that.

04:37

And I mean, there’s so much variety in what you’re sharing here. I don’t want to interrupt you, but the same time, I’m like, tell me, like, what was the motivation behind all these businesses?

04:47

I think I just see, like, gaps in the market. So I, I went to drama school, and I tried to be an actress for like five months. And I was like, This is not for me. I was not built to not like. Know where my wage was coming from, and, like, it was just not for me. I didn’t like it at all. I found it soul destroying. And, no, I loved, like, learning about drama and being a performer, but actually doing it as a job. I realized really quickly that wasn’t for me. Yeah, obviously opening a theater school was like, you know, the perfect next step. Like, okay, what are you going to do? And I was like, good question. Oh, open a theater school. And so that happened quite organically. Then obviously, I was doing the theater school, which was three till seven, like most days, but I had a lot of spare time, so a lot of the kids at the theater school wanted birthday party entertainer, and I was dressing up as a pirate and a fairy on a weekend, and then that actually turned into an agency model. So we would book the parties and then farm out entertainers, because it got to a point where I didn’t want to be a fairy on the weekend anymore. I mean, is it as simple as that? Because, I mean, it just sounds like everything you put your hand to it starts from a kind of like, you say, spotting a gap in the market, but also something very personal to you. But then every single time you’ve managed to find a way to really look at it with a with a business mind, right? And to see the community and turn it into something that’s not solely dependent on you. That’s really impressive.

06:21

Yeah, I guess I’ve never like that before, and the same with them, the phonics thing, you know, my sister wanted to leave teaching. She hated it. She was burnt out. She had two young kids. And I said, Well, why don’t we just run a business? Then you could, like, get to choose your hours, get to choose how much money you earn. And you know, she was very much of the teacher mentality of like, but I can’t leave a solid wage and I’m like, But you just said you hate it. So why wouldn’t you run away from that? You know, my parents are like, but she’s a teacher. I’m like, she hates being a teacher. And so we we set up phonics with Robo Reg, and that had to do well, like when I ran the theater school, I was going from being an out of work actress to running a theater school. So this wasn’t doing well. So it didn’t really matter if this didn’t do well, but when my sister came out of the classroom like that, business had to do well, which was why we franchised it. I guess I’m quite good at, like, jumping onto a business model, like I say with the parties, it was like, I’m going to reach capacity quite quickly, if I’m just having to every weekend, you know, farm myself out as a princess.

07:27

But there’s so much bravery in that, though, because I think it’s one thing to like be a business and for it to be you, but to kind of trust that there’s enough demand and all the others. I guess that comes back to your innate confidence in your ability to make sales, right? You know, you the selling bit is the bit that I guess comes easily. Has it always come easily in all these different kind of businesses you run, yeah. So I learned it really early on, and I learned sort of a formula that worked, and to rinse and repeat it, and then, I guess that’s the challenge to any business is like, rinsing and repeating it, yeah, yeah. I’m like, and so is this a kind of formula that came about through trial and error, or is it something that you learned, like, how did that come about?

08:14

Yeah, through trial and error, through me, just doing all the things and nothing working to one day doing something and something working and me going, right? We need to do more of that one thing to get more results. And that’s what it is. You know, my book is called sales is easy if you just know how, right. That’s the title of my books. The title of my podcast. Sales is easy if you just know how. Like, I see you Polly, you know all these posh things. You know how to do so much cool stuff. I don’t have a clue. You saw me trying to log on to this podcast. I am so terrible with tech. Nothing I know is complicated. But the problem with most people is that they won’t do the things consistently. Yeah, results. People get bored, people give up way too fast, and people just don’t do the activity needed to get the results. And I think maybe it’s my ADHD hyper focus, I’m not sure, but I have the ability to do the thing over and over again until I get the results that I want to. I love that.

09:17

I think one of the things as well is the resiliency required around that No, right? There’s some people who are like, I’m just another no away from me Yes. And there’s another person who’s like, weeping into their cornflakes because they got their first No. And I suspect you’re not someone who weeps into their cornflakes over any nose.

09:34

Well, do you know what? I think that we are all a combination of those two people. So yeah, moving into my cornflakes. And some days I can take it, you know, it’s hard, but one thing I did again early on, when I would learn all my mistakes, is I made myself a no chart every single morning, it had 10 circles. And we used to sell theater workshops into schools, because I used to just have that whole day spare before I did the after school. Clubs and then the weekends for the parties, but the whole day was spare. So we’re like, Okay, well, what can we do? We’ll sell our theater workshops into schools for like PPA cover and whatnot. And so I would literally ring the schools. I used to send out bulky mail through the post, like a tea bag, have a break or a screwed up piece of paper. We won’t screw up your drama. And then I used to follow up with a phone call. You know, it’s like, Hey, did you get my letter? Are you interested in the drama? No, not interested. Okay, brilliant. One No, and I tick it off. Hey, no, not interested. Two no’s. And then, like, eventually it’d be like, yeah, no, we want to invite you in to have a further chat. I’d be like, okay, okay, what’s my expecting that? Because the reality is, you are getting more nos than you’re getting yeses. You are getting ghosted by people. I did a Tiktok about this yesterday. I sent out 35 messages. I made four sales in one hour, which equated to over 11,000 pounds, right? So if I tell you this story, you’ll be like, Oh, my God, you made 11,000 pounds in an hour. Yeah, sure, I did. It’s true, but the reality of that is 19 people completely ghosted me. Three people said, no, they’re straight up not interested. One of them was quite rude and said, Please never contact me again. And five people said, not right now. And you know, people will say to me, Oh, my God, I wish I could make 11,000 pounds an hour. You can, but you’re gonna have to deal with some shit along the way as well.

11:29

Yeah, no, I love that. Because also, like, when you think about any kind of growth in any kind of area, there’s always some discomfort along the way, right? And like you say, it’s not that we’re all immune to discomfort. It’s just that it’s learning to be with it. And yeah, I hear you like, I yeah, a lot of people want the 11,000 pounds. Not many people are willing to reach out to 35 people to make that 11,000 pounds, right? Okay, so you mentioned your book and you know, your podcast. We kind of got to the part where with robot Reg, so fill in the gap. How did we go from robot reg to book podcast and everything else comes since?

12:05

Yeah, so I was head of sales for phonics with robot reg. I got it up to 54 franchises again. I created a sales strategy that worked. We rinsed and repeated. We put a sales team in there, and suddenly I was, this was 2020 really early. 2020 I had a bit more time on my hands, and people started asking me, Hey, Charlie, how did you grow? There was this massive national newspaper story that went viral because I sold my 30th franchise the week before my 30th birthday, and they picked this up, and they’re like, yeah, there was a whole thing, right? And that was Star of of this business. Now, right? Because what happened was people read that newspaper article. They were like, Oh my gosh, can I take you out for lunch and find out how you did that? And I’d be like, free lunch. Sure, I’m there coffee, sure. I was going out for more coffees and lunches, telling everybody what I did, and then they started getting results. But ultimately, I was still managing the sales team for phonics with robot Reg, and I think the head office were like, Okay, you can’t go out for lunch every day. This is ridiculous. And so I started a Facebook group. It was called the entrepreneurs growth club, and yeah, I started it, and I was like, hey, Polly, why don’t you come into this group? Because actually, I know that there’s this other person who I’ve spoken to, I had lunch with last week, who’d be able to help you out, and and at the end of the first week, I had 250 people in that and I literally couldn’t believe it. I was like, Oh my gosh, like, so many people had told people, and then they all came. And so this business was born, and of course, then a couple of months later, we were in covid, and the online space went mental, and I sort of was already had the ball, ball rolling, if you like, but, yeah, I created a business called Charlie Day sales where I basically taught people how to make more sales and how to create a strategy that worked for them in their business. And then last year, my sisters tell me that I get the five year rich, because every five years, like start a new business. But last year, on April the eighth, we launched our agency. It’s called sales made the agency, and we do done for you, sales. So I’ve got a whole sales team. Yeah, we do sales for people, and I absolutely love it. It’s like, yeah, it’s the best business. Yet,

14:26

I love this. I mean, I think the one question everyone must have listening to this episode right now is, what do you have for breakfast? Because how the heck do you juggle all of these things? Seriously, it’s amazing. Yeah. I mean, what does your average working day look like? Because I’m just blown away by all of these pieces that you kind of managed to spin at the same time. It’s phenomenal. Yeah,

14:52

I think if you spoke to my team, they’d be like, she’s a hot mess. Because I think you have to be right. I have all these ideas. I have all these. Things going on, and I I can’t, I can’t stop that. You know, sometimes it’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s just slow down and do this one thing. I’m like, all the ideas, and obviously, as you know, I’ve also got an autistic ADHD, seven year old to keep me on my toes as well. I don’t really shy away from the fact that I have a lot of help as well. Like, I remember when I was on this journey, and you know, there was one point in my life, right, Polly, where I was teaching phonics classes in the day. Because when we started phonics before at franchise, I was actually on the floor, like teaching it. So I was teaching phonics during the day, then going to my theater school during the evening, and then on the weekends, entertaining children at kids birthday parties. And now, I know, I Yeah, you’re a hero though. I

15:47

mean, I’m doing all of that. What’s the drive behind that? Because you have to be massively driven right to kind of be able to put that many hours and that much kind of heart into the work you do. Is it because you really love it? Is it? Is a big vision that you’re kind of, that you’re always working towards. Like, what’s the thing that the thing that gets you up better every morning and makes you go, yeah, let’s do this. I

16:06

think I can always see the end. So even though I was on the floor teaching the phonics classes, I knew we were going to franchise. We were going to be the leading phonics franchise. There was nobody else doing it. So I always have the end in mind. Even now with the this business, I’ve got the end in mind. I know what we’re aiming for, and so I think it makes you feel like less worried about doing that. But anyway, I was doing those three things, and that was my life and and to be fair, I remember I saved 42,000 pounds in just the parties alone in like envelopes in my house before I got married. So it’s not that I wasn’t making loads of money, but I mean, I worked my absolute socks off for that. You’ve got to like it was, it wasn’t a good use of my time in terms of return on investment, but I was doing all of this stuff, and I had no time, and I didn’t feel like I had loads of money. And then I got pregnant, and I was like, Oh, well, this is an interesting situation, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m sure he can just sit in a Rockette and just, you know, that won’t be a problem at all. And you know, people were saying to me, I delivered my last ever party, seven months pregnant, dressed as alpha. And my mum was like, You’re gonna have to that’s why the party business had to go, because I was always the backup, you know, like if there was staff ill or whatever. So that’s but they were scared of you singing. Let it go. Seven months pregnant, please do not let it go.

17:38

But yeah, you know, my mum was like, this is not You’re not going to be able to do this with a with a baby. And I found that really difficult at first to juggle the both, because I think some people start their business after they’ve had a child, and so it’s like the business has to fit in with the child, whereas for me, it was the other way around. I’m like, you know, I’ve got I’ve got a vision, I’ve got a goal. You’re stopping me from getting there. And so had to find a way for the two to coexist. But anyway, my point to this whole story was, I used to look at people and go, How do you do it? How are you running this massive business? How? How? How, you know, I’m doing it all, all the childcare, because it didn’t make sense for us to put him into childcare full time, the cleaning, the cooking, the washing, all the things, you know, I was doing everything and running three businesses trying to get them off the ground. And what I wish that some successful business owner had turned around and said to me is like, I have loads of help. I have loads of help. That is how I do it. I’m not Wonder Woman. I’m not Superwoman. I have help. I outsource things, and I have lots of help. And I would hate for anybody to think that I was, you know, oh, I tell you what, Polly, I just have extra protein in my breakfast in the morning, and it means I can do everything.

18:51

Is there anything unusual that you outsource? I outsource everything, everything, like, meal cooking or, you know, like, like. So I had the recipe boxes.  You know, the recipe Nice, nice.  Just, I had those for my meals. I’d love a I’d love a chef. I wouldn’t say no to a chef, but yeah, like, I have a cleaner twice a week. I remember when a cleaner was on my vision board. I have a cleaner twice a week. My ironing goes out. My washing goes out. I’ve got a nanny. You know, in the business, obviously, I’m outsourcing loads of things. I outsource my travel. I’ve got some a lady who works for me who just does, like, travel, weekends away, holidays, hotels, all of those things. So, yeah, I basically outsource anything that I can. If you’re listening to this podcast and you’ve got, like, I had a florist who, like, delivers me flowers. Was like, Oh, would you like an autumnal wreath for your door? I was like, boo, yeah, get it over to me, Emma. Send it over. I love that.

19:47

And it’s such a valuable conversation, because I don’t think people talk about it enough, and I think the sooner you start trusting in the vision and doing things like outsourcing, it’s so powerful. But I’ve invited on you on here to talk about sales. I’m gonna I’m. Not going to allow myself to get distracted, which I’m very good at doing. And one of the questions I wanted to ask you, particularly because you have this sales agency, and as we’ve just kind of discussed, a lot of people have quite a big resistance to selling. And one of the things that so many of my clients say to me all the time is I just want to get to the stage where someone else can do it for me? And as you have your agency, I felt you were the perfect person to ask for that person who perhaps has their group program, maybe they’re running at Evergreen, say, with me, and they’re thinking about who can be dealing with these inquiries, like, what would you say put someone in a good position to even be considering it and getting a good return on investment, on it and all that kind of stuff.

20:42

So the first thing that I will say is nobody is going to sell it better than you do. Nobody is going to sell your course or your program or whatever, better than you do, because sales is an exchange of energy, right? And you are so energetic and excited and enthusiastic and passionate, I hope about your product or service that I or any of my sales team couldn’t replicate the founders, passion and energy and enthusiasm. You know, it oozes through our clients, certainly, and I always think that you need to figure out your sales first, which is where the Charlie Day sales side of my business comes in. You need to figure out your business and your sales first, and that strategy, that part that we can rinse and repeat, and then when you get me and my team in, is when you are at capacity. And sales people are very expensive. They’re the most expensive staff that you could employ or contract. So at that point where you’re like, I can’t do any more lead gen, I can’t get on any more calls. I’ve got more leads than I can cope with. That is when we will come in, we will sweep up your sales strategy and we will amplify it so we’ll be able to do way more than you can do just because we’ve got more bodies. And rather than employing a salesperson, that would be very expensive and that you would have to manage, we’ve got a sales team that’s there. You get your own sales associates so they fit into your team, so it sort of does feel like a contractor, but you’ve got we’re managing the team. We’re incentivizing them from the inside, because that’s the biggest problem with salespeople. You need to keep them incentivized. You need to keep them hungry for more, and you want the best people selling your stuff, right? So that is why we’ve got that right here. But you’ve got to sort out your sales strategy first. I actually say to everybody, I believe every single person, no matter how big or small your business is, needs to have a sales team in it. So if you are a solopreneur, guess what your head of sales? You are a salesperson, and you have got to step into that, because sales is the lifeblood of your business. Without sales, you don’t have a business, so you are the salesperson. You know, hopefully you’ll be able to outsource that. Maybe you’ll be able to employ a sales team and have your own sales team within it, but when you start out, you are the salesperson. And I really think that more business owners need to start acting like salespeople. I totally agree,

23:22

and it’s one of the reasons why I love being around you. I have to admit, one of the things that I really recognized from going to one of your sales retreats, which are amazing, by the way, if anyone’s thinking about a sales retreat, Charlie’s are amazing. But I did reckon one of the really valuable takeaways was how, because I love funnels and because I love marketing. I can be a bit cerebral and a bit in my head and be designing out this perfect client journey. And in the meantime, you’re just making the invitation, and people are saying yes, and it really can be that simple. And since then, I’ve taken that motivation to make more regular invitations without having to think about perfectly crafting some amazing pitch, and instead relying on my ability to have a good conversation with them instead, and I make so many more sales that way, I now pass that on to my clients and say, you know, there are people in your world who will just say yes without needing all the frills. So you’re so right, and it’s really interesting how I think, you know, a lot of people are so nervous about the sales part that they will throw themselves into learning how to dance on reels, for example, before, before actually learning how to have a sales conversation. So if someone’s just heard what you’re saying and thinking, Oh, shite. Pardon me, thinking, you know, I am terrified of making sales. How on earth do I get to the stage where I can be a confident enough salesperson before, you know, outsourcing it to someone else. What kind of top tips would you give to them to help them get started?

24:47

Yeah, so I think that, you know, it’s really simple. What we’re trying to do here, you’ve got a message about your product or service that you need to get out into the world. Right? The way that we do that is through our marketing. So we. Got our message, and we’re marketing it. We’re trying to get the attention of the person who is our ideal client. So let’s imagine, and again, it depends what stage you’re at, but let’s imagine that you’re you’ve already started. You’ve got, you know, 100 people who follow you on Instagram or whatever. That’s 100 people who are thinking about buying from you, potentially. You know, have you messaged every single person who follows you and said, Hey, thanks for the follow if you’d like to jump on a call to find out. Insert thing that you do. Then are you free on Thursday or Friday this week you jump on a call with them. Let’s imagine, yeah, Auntie Barbara is one of those people you’re thinking that Auntie Barbara is not going to want. Going to want to do it, but she might not want to do it, but she might know somebody who wants to do it. And so like, let’s just open ourselves up to that opportunity and start having the conversation. Get that message out there. Tell people. Message people. If you could send out 100 messages today, even if those people weren’t going to buy from you, they would at least know who you are and what you do, so that they could refer you on. Imagine if you did that every day, every day, five days, that’s 500 people, and next week, 1000 people, you’re going to be making sales in no time at all. The problem is people over complicate things, and people think, like you said, everything needs to be perfect and everything needs to be ready. You will never be ready, and it will never be perfect. So you may as well start cracking on today.

26:29

I absolutely love that. And I think what’s so true is, like, you know, if you were in a pub with 100 people, like, oftentimes people look at their following, oh, it’s really tiny. But actually, if you put all those people in a room, it’s, not tiny and beyond that, if someone in that room said, you know, like, was kind of approaching you or giving you the eye of the bar, you wouldn’t be like, well, here’s my website. You would have a conversation, right? You would have a conversation. So everything you’re saying is just human, right? And I think so often on the online space, we kind of want to be all corporate. We want to have our instant messages, responding to DMS and all that kind of stuff that makes us appear really professional, and actually, all it does is damage that human interaction. So Charlie, thank you so much for all your amazing golden nuggets today. You are so so inspiring. Your journey’s so inspiring. What you’re doing now is so inspiring. And your core message about how selling gets to be easy if you just actually study well, do it with me throwing in some bad language. It’s just so so true. So if anyone’s listening right now thinking, oh my gosh, I really need to get better at selling. And Charlie sounds like she knows her stuff, which, by the way, yes, she does. How can they find out about you? Where can they find you?

27:35

My website is charliedaysales.co.uk, but come and join my community, which is called sales, is easy if you just know how on Facebook or I’m Charlie Day sales on Instagram, if you prefer Instagram, I’m on Tiktok, Charlie Day sales. I’m on LinkedIn. Charlie Day, I’m everywhere, like literally everywhere. Don’t know how I do it. Oh, I love it. I outsource

27:58

such a good name as well, right? Everyone? So Charlie Day or Charlie Day sell, so you will find her that way amazing. And of course, as always, there will be all of Charlie’s details in the show notes, so you can go check her out that way too. Thank you so much, Charlie for your time today.

28:10

Thank you so much, Charlie. I’ve loved it. Well. I hope you’re feeling inspired and invigorated, which is the way I always feel after any conversation with Charlie. And really importantly, I hope one of the biggest takeaways you take from this episode is the importance of recognizing that in any business there is a marketing department and a sales department. The two are not one in the same and if there’s one mistake I see a lot of online business owners making is a belief that posting a real is the same thing as asking for a sale, and it’s not so anyway, if you are curious to learn more about Charlie and learn dive more into what it means to be the best salesperson you can be for your own business, go and check out her details in the show notes, and in the meantime, I will be back Next week, sharing with you my amazing new free resource. It’s an offer calculator, where I share with you how with just enrolling three new clients per month, you can build a business that’s generating over 200,000 pounds in revenue per year. And of course, it’s a free resource, but I wanted to record my own separate podcast episode to share more about why I created it, why it matters, how it’s going to help you, and how you can get the most from it and make it work for your own business. So I cannot wait to share that episode. It’s coming up next week and well, I’ll be in your ears. Then if you found this episode helpful, please do share it with your business besties. Give us a review any of those things. It’s really, really helpful to a small business owner like me, who would love to help as many people on this planet as possible, particularly with all these new resources I’m developing all the time. I would love for as many business owners to get their hands on them, because I take a lot of time meticulously designing them to ensure they are as impactful as humanly possible. So like I said, review, share. Share, tag me online. I’d love to hear it and yeah, be in your ears next week.