S4, E5: Philanthropy and Entrepreneurship with Charlie Panayi (CEO, Investor, International Speaker, Business & Property Mentor, NED)

In this episode:   

Charlie Panayi is an inspirational speaker, entrepreneur and recognised property investment expert. 

Business and property led by core values of Honesty, Trust and Compassion were instilled in Charlie from an early age. Leading to him buying his first property at the age 18 and becoming a self-made millionaire by 25.

 His continued success is reflected in building four high-value property portfolios, owners of investment funds, mentoring of high-net worth individuals and his standing at the forefront of ‘the property investment industry’ as CEO of multi award-winning Red Squirrel Property Shop a highly successful sales, letting and property investment company.

Charlie enjoys sharing his personal experiences and insights on success with audiences at conferences, business events in addition to teams within a business. Inspiring everyone to be more and do more.  Helping them to understand the opportunities that exist when you bring focus to achieve what is important to you in business and life.

He lives on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of the England, with his wife and children and is a valued member of the business community and contributor to many charities and good causes.  This includes petitioning for ‘Zoes Law’ which calls for the mandatory testing of removed moles and skin tags for melanoma cancer. Which followed the tragic death of his sister Zoe from skin cancer at the age of 26. A petition which has already seen almost 35,000 signatures, support from politicians and many across the medical profession. Check out the link below to sign the petition.  

Get ready to be inspired…..5-4-3-2-1. 

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Connect with Charlie Panayi:

Linkedin
Website
Email: charliepanayi@hotmail.co.uk
Zoes Law Go Fund Me Page
Zoes Law - Sign the petition here

Connect with Vicki Main - Podcast Host & Co-Author of The Momentum Mindset Book:

LinkedIn Profile

VLM Instagram

Website

Click here to purchase a copy of The Momentum Mindset Book by Vicki Main and Jonathan S.Bean.

Transcript

0:00

I'm very clear with anyone I work with, one thing you mislead me on, I'm gone. I don't care what you pay me. One thing, there's no second chance for me because if you lie once, then you're going to lie again. Welcome to the Get Unstuck Fast Viscosity podcast VLM training and coaching specialists across the UK and Australia hosted by me, Vicki Main. Are you a business owner, leader, or executive? Have you ever felt stuck or disappointed where your life or business is heading? Do you ever feel overwhelmed, compare yourself to others, or feel like you're swimming in treacle at times? This podcast is here to help you get unstuck fast from viscosity to achieving escape velocity and expanding your knowledge. Our guests on the show will share practical tips and real life experience about how they got out of negative situations or circumstances to live their best life on their terms. We will be sharing real life stories from real people doing some incredible things. Stay tuned for our next guest. Welcome to season four, episode five of the Get Unstuck Fast Viscosity podcast. I'm your host, Vicky Maine, and today we have a very special guest on the show, Charlie Panay. Welcome Charlie, live from Dubai at the moment, I believe. You're in Dubai? Hi Vicky. Yeah, in Dubai as we speak, for another week or so. What a life. Brilliant. Looking forward to having you on the show. And Charlie, you've had an extensive career and I know you're going to share more about what you've been up to recently and in the past, but Charlie, you're an investor, an international speaker. You've got a business and property business, and you're a mentor as well. And it's absolutely brilliant to have you on the show today. And you've been doing some amazing challenges. But I'm going to stop right there and I'm going to let you share a bit more information about that. So thank you for coming on the show. I know you're going to be a very inspiring for our listeners, but can you tell our listeners, Charlie, about your incredible career journey so far and what you're doing now? I mean, so it's been considering my age 33. So the, it's been a pretty rollercoaster. Upwards roller coaster career to be fair. Um, so yeah, I was really quite a sad child. So from about seven years old, I knew I wanted to be financially free. Don't know why. For the long and short of it was, that's what I wanted. Um, I think the earliest memory I can remember is probably being on a holiday where most of my friends don't, and that made me want to do it. So I started saving to buy properties. Again, I don't know really what made me establish property as my way out, but that's what I did. And then, yeah, I just worked really hard. I was quite fortunate, but again, I believe in making your own luck and I got a very good job at 16 and then become an account director by 17, managing millions of pounds. So some really large blue chip companies, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention all their names. I created their sales processes internationally at 17. And we're talking worldwide companies, not national companies. So yeah, yeah. And that enabled me to buy my first house at 18. So, and then from there, I just scaled massively. I don't really remember when I become a technical Millionaire, because I only really realized when I was 25, but realistically it might've been when I was 21, I don't really know anymore, but I was financially free by 21 and then I started doing other things. So buying businesses, investing for people. So because I was doing so well investing, obviously people around me were like, Oh, well, how do I make money? And it just become a natural thing. So nowadays, you know, fast forward, we've got my. Puppy, as I call it, as Red Squirrel is a UK estate agency. I love that what we do, we do things differently, but obviously I've got interests in media companies and investment companies, and I've headed up world's largest independent financial consultancy and all sorts, all sorts of things. So today. I've got a few businesses running, obviously my portfolios, I'm always buying, you know, I bought three properties last week, one commercial unit, two properties, and I invest for people. So I have investors all over the world that use me to make them money. And then I do a lot of speaking, you mentioned the speaking engagements. Sure. That was unintentional, really. I didn't even realize I was doing them for a long time. It was actually a friend of mine that made me aware when I was about 29, just how many talks I did. On the stage to different industries and I was like, Oh yeah, didn't even realize. So yeah, today I do that mentoring. I don't ever take on too many people mentoring. So I like the personal touch. And then I've got a biannual sort of retreats for mindset, business related stuff. So yeah, I have a lot of facts, but I enjoy it. It's incredible. I mean, Charlie, you and I, we've talked when you've been, when I met you in the Isle of Wight, I was along because I have a vested interest in property investment myself, and I came along to one of your talks and I was really inspired by your Depth and breadth of knowledge of the industry, but also the humbleness of how you just share so much about your life, about your journey, and it was really inspiring to listen to you talk. And I bet your mom as well, and she's very proud of you, but what really, I know you said you fell into, I suppose, entrepreneurship and bought your first house and then have you always had this since you were a child, have you always sort of had this innate, intrinsically motivated. mindset to be able to do something and then do well and then just keep on going with it. I think so. Like when I was young, I had a bad accident and I got a bit conscious of things and I didn't speak for a while. But I mean, from the age of like, I think the earliest memory I had was seven when I was on that holiday. And it's quite a weird thing for a seven year old to think about things like this. I guess looking at my children and nephews and nieces, it's not a normal thing to do, but. Yeah, I just established that I was lucky. You know, I was in a place where not many of my friends used to go on holiday ever. Um, some of them never went until they were adults and saved their own money. So, Yeah, I think for me, I don't know if it was I was born with it or if that there was something that's flipped a switch. And from that day, I mean, I went into such detail that Easter, I used to ask my parents not to give me Easter eggs and just give me whatever they were going to spend on Easter eggs, just give me the money and I put in the bank account. So yeah, I started saving genuinely from like, I remember as a child sitting on my living room floor with my dad counting coins and money and stuff. And I used to work in the market for him in London and I used to make them paint me. I went working for free, you know, work for free, not for free. Yeah, no, I think it has always been there. And I probably was inspired by my parents. I mean, all my siblings were all very different. I love them all, but we're all very different. But I personally looked at their work ethic. And they worked all the time, like seven days a week. And I thought, you know, especially my mum, it really inspired me to like, do that for myself and not be reliant on other people. So it probably come from, my dad worked bloody hard as well. So they both did. But yeah, so I think the combination of seeing what them two did inspired me. Obviously some families get a bit lazy when they see parents working really hard. But for me, it just made me think, well, they can do it, I can do it. So I just went into proper learning mode. I wanted to know how to do things, why they did things, you know, my mum was far better at paperwork and. Stuff like that. I've realized now she might not be as skilled as I thought, but to me, she was a much better one. It was my dad was the grafter and she was the clever one and he was the one who knew how to just do things. I literally embedded it. So I don't know if I was born with it or something sparked it at seven, but something happened. Maybe until child. That's fascinating. And what is the one thing that you love about what you do? I know you've got a big portfolio and you travel the world now, work with investors and you're now in Dubai, branching out into Dubai. Well, yeah. What is it you love about what you do? The biggest thing for you? So I've actually worked internationally for my whole career, by the way. So it's something I've always traveled, but I actually just love meeting people. And I think if lots of people have known me for a long time, um, would probably have seen all my charitable work. I first started doing charity stuff when I was about 20, so. 13, 14 years. So I think for me, I'm quite a giving person. I mean, what I've done for charities is maybe not always appreciated as much as it could be locally. But you know, I'm quite happy to be direct and outspoken on that. For me, I don't really do it for recognition. I do it because I enjoy it. So yeah, I love meeting people, love supporting people. I've had to learn over the course. When I first started doing it, I used to just give everything away for free. I must say nowadays in the business side, I'm a bit more like, Hey, actually I'm worth a lot of money, but I can tell you in 45 minutes can make you hundreds of thousands. So I think now I'm a bit more conscious of that, but the charity side is still there. You know, we're probably going to talk about at some point, but the last 12 months, every single year, I always want to make a difference to communities and charitable stuff. So that's what I enjoy. Yeah, that's fantastic. And again, we're going to come onto your 12 challenges or 13 challenges that you've done in the last 10 months. I think, um, and contribution and giving back is such an important thing and it's something that shouldn't be overlooked. And I really commend you for what you've done, you know, in the past few years with your charitable work. And I know you were a big personality on the Isle of Wight in terms of giving back as well and beyond that across the UK and internationally now, but let's talk about the challenges, the 12 challenges in the last 10 10 months. I know, and I am going to share the links to your GoFundMe page. Tell us about, a bit about the background about how that all started and your why. So, yeah, it was meant to actually start out as one challenge because, so my sister died in 2020 from, um, cancer. And to be fair, she found out 55 days before she was dead that she was ill. So it was quite a quick process. And for me, I've always supported a lot, whereas this quite focused over the last. A couple of years to change in memory of my sister. She asked, you know, me quite directly to try and change the law with re regards to melanoma and moles, how they dealt with in the uk. So yeah, I took that upon myself really, and it was a bit of a slog.'cause a lots of people do a lot of things at the start, you know, and it's fresh. A young girls died and left behind two children. But then after a few months, I think people think, oh, they're okay now. You know, it's not, it's moved on. The reality is still, every day I wake up and think of her. So. It's quite a focused point of trying to get that changed and then I did an event, not an event, I've done a Tough Mudder in 2022 and me and two of my mates done it and we just wore a Zoe's Law t shirt. So, and we had a thousand signatures that day just for people stopping me saying what's that about. I mean, they were a bit taken back when I turned around and said my sister died. They were like, oh, they get a bit awkward, but I don't mind talking about her. And yeah, so that sort of sparked this idea that I'll do a Tough Mudder in her memory next year and Brett take a team of us. And then I always wanted to do Kilimanjaro. So I thought, well, I'll put Kilimanjaro. And the mountaineer I booted up with does three things. Everest, Base camp in Kalapata, Three Peaks and Kilimanjaro. So I thought, well, I might as well do them. And then I booked those as well. And then I thought, well, they're all spread out over 10 months. So I might as well fill it. So then I ended up doing Mount Etna, 76 mile bike, I might be further than that, 76 mile bike ride, um, sea swims, Trail marathons, lots of things all within. So yeah, it was tough, but it was all a memory of my sister. So we're still trying to make that change. It's a bit of a slog and it's tough, but you know, and the hospice, we tend to support a lot financially from what we raise and they looked after her, you know, just amazingly really. And we really appreciate the services that they offer people. So a lot of what we raise goes to them, but I also support. Other charities that need help. So, but sometimes I support these guys with just me going on as a non exec director or on the board or things like that. So sometimes it isn't financially. It might just be me sitting, I won't name the charities. I don't know if they want to, but recently I just sat in one board meeting. There are ladies actually at this charity and you know, I just sat with them for a couple of hours and help them structure business related stuff. And that they couldn't be thankful enough. So. We do it for all the reasons, but this is just a memory, as always. So yeah, there was a tough old slog. Ended up doing a lot of things. I decided to do Kalapatha once I'd done the base camp, and Kalapatha's higher, and I thought, why not? Well, I can't imagine, as a family, what you must have gone through during that time. But in Zoe's memory, I mean, to achieve what you've done is pretty incredible. And I want to say to all the listeners listening in, we will have a link to the GoFundMe page, and also the link to Zoe's Law as well on there. So please, if anybody's listening, all our listeners from Australia as well, as far wide as Australia and the UK, please jump on there and show your support for Charlie and his family as well. That would be amazing. And I guess. When you were going up Kilimanjaro, and it's been on my bucket list as well for a while to do this, and I did actually, I was going to go to Base Camp Everest myself, unfortunately, at the time, it was about five years ago, and I was going to do it with a PT, a lady who I knew, she ended up going and doing it anyway, and I didn't go. I'll live out of you. I let fear hold me back. I watched a few YouTube videos and I thought, Oh, well, you know, and I saw this. It's stuff around people coming off, you know, having to be airlifted off, going on leave. It's every day? Every single day? And it just, it scared me a little bit at the time my kids were young in Australia and I kind of thought there's one thing jumping off a telephone pole at a Tony Robbins event and being strapped to the back of a bungee. And there's one thing swimming with sharks, but there's another thing, I didn't want to put myself at risk at that point, but I've gone on to write a book about mindset. So, you know, I needed to take my own advice at the time. To be fair. Kilimanjaro is harder than Everest Base Camp, but they're different types. Yeah, I've done both. Yeah, yeah. Different types are hard. So what they don't publicize, this isn't to scare you even more, by the way, I only really realized this once I landed and started Everest Base Camp, but over 65 percent of people that start don't finish Base Camp. And I didn't know that. I can't find that stat anywhere, but it's a known fact on the mountain. Like as soon as you're there, they tell you, and you see it day one, we were seeing whole groups not making it, which mainly for altitude sickness. So the difference is Everest, you're there longer. So the chances of altitude sickness are higher, obviously. Whereas Kilimanjaro, I've done quite a short route, but the thing is like, they're not going to see my hands, but Kilimanjaro is just straight up. It's a low mountain. Whereas Everest is quite gradual. So actually, you know, put it this way, the last day on Everest, I ran because they were telling me it's a four hour hike that day. I was like, I want to see how quick I can do it then. So it's tough. Like both of them are extremely tough and I definitely would do them if you don't train properly. But it's actually more of it is in the head. Like for me, everything's about how your mindset is, because there's a gentleman, an American guy who I met on the first day and he was overweight. He was definitely not in a condition to do Everest Base Camp, and he was slow. He wasn't with me, but he was slow. And I did think, I'm not a judgmental person, but in my head, I'll be honest, I was thinking, this guy's got no chance. You know, I just thought, but yes, he was super slow, but he was so driven. He done it. I mean, I don't know how, you know, he physically probably shouldn't have been able to, but he done it. So, you know, it goes to show he had a strong mindset and he finished it. So for me. Physically, it's tough, but I'm quite, you know, the two people that done it with me, but they speak quite highly of how I am, and I don't really get phased of things. I'll just get it done. Whether I'm physically fit enough or not, I know I'm going to do it. So it don't really matter. So yeah, but definitely worth it. You should do it. Everest is probably the most amazing hike I've ever done anywhere. It is stunning. Every single hour of every day, is like unbelievable. And when I've done Kilimanjaro, I thought that, but Kilimanjaro does not compete in terms of scenery and views and Everest is just different level, but you should do all of them. Well, maybe I'll get the sailing around the world trip done first and then I'll look at that afterwards. But what an inspiring journey you've had. I mean, you know, I've not met many people and spoken to many people who've done Like what you've done in terms of challenges like that. I mean, that's really pretty, pretty inspiring. And I guess moving forward, because you've done all these things, it's like, what's next for you? What does success look like? Oh, success is just so, I get asked about money a lot. I mean, my net worth hasn't actually technically grown in incredible amounts in the last 10 years because of so tend to give a lot of stuff away. So money. I think people get confused with my success to think I wanted to be rich, but most of it was actually just, I like to do things really well and I wanted to be financially free. So since I've become financially free, we all go through that phase of, Oh, well, I don't know what I'm doing now. I was so focused and now I'm like, what am I doing? So I spent a little bit of time trying to figure that out and I established I just like being successful. So whether that is finishing 13 challenges in 10 months or building a successful business or I'm working with a gentleman at the moment who. Started a mentorship thing with me about five months ago, and I think he thought I was blowing smoke up his backside Sorry about the direct language But when I said to him I was really excited to work with him because he sort of threw an accident that affected him He got half a million pounds payout. He should have had a lot more than that, but You know, they were clever and tied up for eight years. So in the end he gave up and to him and his family, they've never had that sort of money before. Now half a million pounds cash sounds a lot of money, but the reality is if you're young, it's not going to last you long. So when he approached me, he knew me through a friend and stuff. I was so excited. So for me, like looking at that success for me is actually helping him change his life. And in the space of four months, we've already made 200, 000 of that in worth 1. 3 million. So and that's just 200, 000 of the 500, we've got another 300, the other 200 is going to keep working. So for me, success is now for him, he's paying me, but the reality is, if I can make him really successful, I feel successful. So I think my drive is just that. And then I had my son three years ago, and I know you follow my socials. Yes. So anyone that follows my social medias. tends to see that it's a bit of an Otis show. My son's called Otis. So when I had him, I sound probably quite odd, but I probably have OCD and maybe some form of autism, who knows? But my money's my money. That's how I look at things. I made that. So that's me. And I've done that for myself, obviously for my family and everything else to live free. So now I'm looking at, I want to build a generational wealth for my son. He's never going to know. The reality is he's probably going to realize he has a nice house and goes on holidays, but outside of that, he isn't going to get a penny off of me until he's shown me he can do it himself. But what I'd love is one day when he's 25, 30, 40, whatever it is, and he's made it himself, I can say, all right, here you are. However many millions I can just give to him and say, there you are, you've done it. Give this to your kids. So that's my next drive for success, I think. I'm always doing your stuff. Well, I mean, it's great to instill those values and that work ethic as well in your kids. Absolutely. It's, it's fantastic. I mean, I'm a parent myself and I know that as my kids grew up, I mean, I bought my first house at 19. Like you young, and I remember at 23, I was actually going to remortgage. And I said to my former husband at the time, I want to invest in a Domino's pizza franchise when I was 23, because I saw the whole Domino's and the pizza sort of everything taken off now. And He disagreed at the time. So that was fine. And I didn't end up investing, but because I love pizza, there's every cloud has got a silver lining because I would have been like 20 stone by now, but I would have been very rich. Um, and it, you know, it's funny. And I was going to take that leap, but I didn't do it at the time. And I look back and go, I probably would have had like 10 Domino's pizza franchises at the time, but I was ready. I was prepared to put all my chips in. But at the time it just wasn't right as a family, but yeah, I think buying property young is quite an interesting doing it and having that ambition. So I know that's something that I want to instill in my kids as well and get them financially secure as well for the future, for sure. Yeah, definitely. Like I said, he has me wrapped around his little finger at the moment. But the reality is I learned some good things from my parents. You know, my dad was quite big on me doing stuff for myself. So, didn't work for all my siblings, but for me it worked. So, you know, I want to at least try and do the same because I don't want to brat. I don't want someone who's used to being given everything. So he might think I'm harsh at times as he gets older. But the reality is I want him to do it himself. I don't want to give him anything. You know, my uncle was a bit like that, to be fair. And you know, he was always very, what's the return? If I'm going to invest in you, what's the return? Not with me, but with his children. And I quite liked that in a way. Doesn't always work though, mind you. No, that's brilliant. That's absolutely brilliant. So, can I ask, obviously you've got an amazing mindset and you're very driven. Are you fearful of anything? I don't think I was. In all honesty, I remember the first time I felled at something and I actually, I'm not really, apart from my sister's death and now Otis makes me cry when he's happy, I'm not really an emotional person. So, but yeah, I remember the first time I felled and I cried to my mum. I hated it. And it wasn't actually a big deal by the way. It was actually something very small and I was about 20 something, 24. I don't know. And I hated it, but I never really got, even that happening didn't make me scared of, you Failure, because the reality is if you're too scared, you're not going to get anywhere. However, it's not probably business related. I would say my sister's deaf. Definitely made me more fearful of time and actually a lot of people say to me for somebody who's 33 to have done what I've done and the amount of world I've seen and the holidays and the traveling that I've done a lot in 33 years, but I think I'm probably even more scared of time, i. e. losing it. So, yeah, definitely fearful of that. Never really affected me in business because I never really took time anyway. I'm quite good at, I think I mentioned to you the other day, an Aussie guy asked me what my ability was. Yeah. And it was a question I've never been asked. And that's the first time I realized my ability actually is just to see something and see the opportunity. I'm financially literate business structure. I see it and it's all right. We're going to do that. So I think, yeah, probably time is my fear now. And I'm young, but I'm like, I've got a lot to do. I've got a lot to do. So yeah. Do you know, I can resonate with that because I lost an uncle about 13 years ago, sadly, to suicide. He's actually the same age as I am now. And it was a bit of a shock. He didn't tell anyone, obviously, he just did it. And lots of things going on behind the scenes for him. And in fact, he had a brain tumor a few years beforehand and he was never the same ever since. However, when he died, It was almost like something not snapped in me, but almost like it activated, like this thing of life is so precious. And six months later, I found myself emigrating to Australia and living in Australia. And I do put it down to one of the things where I was like, no, I'm doing it anyway. I'm going to take my family. We're emigrating because. Just, I felt that feeling of that life is not infinite, it's, you get a short period of time on the earth and you've actually got to live it, embrace it and contribute, serve, be there to, you know, be a great member of the community and do all those things that you do and live your best life. So that was a turning point for me as well. So I can completely resonate with that and what you're saying. And I guess through everything that's happened in the tragedy with your sister and, you know, I guess dealing with setbacks, I mean, that's. Huge. And dealing with a death in the family, like I know I have as well in the past, and a lot of people who are listening will have, what are your tips for not giving up and having that resilience? What is it that makes you go, you know what, come on, let's do this, move forward. What are the tips for you? So like I said, I've always been quite driven anyway. First time I went to Columbia for work was when they didn't have direct flights and all that lot, and my mum was offering me money not to go. And I was like, mum. If I walk out on the road tomorrow and die, so if I get kidnapped and killed, then it's on me. I didn't, so I'm here. But so I've always had that anyway. And then for me, any single talk, I think anyone's watched me deliver. I always talk about taking massive action. And that's how I am now. I was quite resilient and nothing really fazed me apart from that one failure where I cried, but then I got up and went anyway. But then since my sister died, obviously that was something that I'd never really envisaged. You know, I was the older brother. So. I never envisaged losing a younger sibling. So that, that was probably the toughest thing I've ever, well, is the toughest thing I've ever experienced. And I'm always a bit of an action taker. Sometimes a downfall of mine, you know, from relationship side of things. I think sometimes people don't want someone to fix something. They want to just me to like not try and fix something, but anyway, that's my downfall. But yeah, so I think I learned to realize. Probably a few months after my sister died that, you know, is actually, you know, it's okay. It's a bit like losing an arm. You know, if you lose an arm today, it's not going to grow back, it's not going to get better. You just got to learn to live with it. And that's the reality. Now, you know, Jeremy Kyle and other formats made a living out of having people that made a lot of excuses. You know, there's always someone else's fault for why I didn't do this and someone else's fault for why this happened to me. The reality is it's your own choice. So, you can give yourself whatever excuse you want, but it's on you to do it, and to be direct. Stop making excuses for yourself. That's what I say to myself. Every time I go to make an excuse to myself, I'm probably worse at it since my sister died, but it's like, look, it's okay. It's actually okay for it not to feel okay. But the reality is you've got to figure out a way to live with it. And that's why I use the arm analogy or the leg. You know, if you lose a leg, you just learn how to walk again without that leg. So that's how I look at everything really. I don't really like excuses. You know, get over yourself is what I say. I know I sound harsh, but you've got to get over yourself and figure out how to work with this situation. Do you find yourself that when people are around you, they don't dare make an excuse because you call them out on it? I'm not really opinionated in that way. Like, it depends if they're mentored by me or not. So, if they're paying me, then I am going to be direct. Hey, look, go for yourself. I had actually had, maybe he'll listen to this, a media company that I mentor in and uh, and uh, he Yeah, I was quite direct with him last week, when some excuses he'd come back with about how what a rubbish day he's had. There's always a lot of people who have worse days, so get on with it. So no, I'm not really opinionated because, you know, it's up to someone else if they want to listen to me. But I would suggest if they've been to a talk of mine, or if they work with me a lot, then yes, they probably know. Let's not make excuses. I am happy for people to fail and I'm happy for people to make mistakes, but I don't like excuses. Yeah. No, that's really, it's a great point. I mean, I'm going to give the book a little plug now, cheeky plug, called The Momentum Mindset with Jonathan Bean. And it's really interesting. You talk about how you don't like to make excuses and you don't like this and you'll call people out. Just because I wrote a book called The Momentum Mindset doesn't mean to say I'll wake up every morning, thigh slap my way through life and go, it's brilliant because I have my off days too. However, what I am conscious about is how I show up in the world. And if I'm having a bad day, or I'm feeling like I'm not feeling great, I'll take myself off and almost retreat and have a bit of discernment and go, you know what, I'm going to just go and take myself off and do something like go to the gym, for example, or go watch a movie or just not burden people with my issues or whatever's going on. But I think now that I've written the book, It's one of those things where actually I have to keep myself accountable. So I'm not the type of person who make excuses either, because I'm going, well, I need to do, I need to tell myself, do whatever it in the book, you know, to help other people. So I can absolutely resonate with what you're saying there, Charlie. It's fascinating. So what I know you've sort of said tips for being optimistic and positive. One of them is obviously not making excuses, but what else you say is the biggest things for you, your top tips about staying positive and optimistic. Despite what throws at you. I didn't really realize until a lady called Tracy Jones made me aware that I'm probably not a usual person. Um, and she got me to do talks with the Welsh government and stuff about how I live my days. I, from when I wake up to when I go to sleep, and that's when I realized I was probably different to the runner, the mill. Average person. And I'm not saying that to be, could be a bad thing in a way, but for me, it's, and as a guy who's worked quite close to me the last month, a lot of, and he probably gets to see a lot of it, but I'm very routine driven. So for me, and you might say, well, everyone can create a routine. Yeah, you can, but that's how you win. So. Like you said, everyone has bad days. With my sister, when she first died, it was quite difficult to control my emotions. However, now I can choose, I think about her every day, but I can control when I am sad about her in terms of like, it's okay to cry about it or be upset, but I can decide when that is. And so routines are really important because you create little wins for yourself. So if you're having a really bad day or bad week, or obviously I always use that term and sort of go over yourself a little bit, but I think Tony Robbins talks about a lot, but you can change your state of mind with it. Literally flicking a switch. So routines help that. So for me, I know my routines daily and will making your bed in the morning make you a millionaire? No. But what it will do, believe it or not, scientifically, the way your brain works, it helps you create little wins. So, even if you can't be bothered, make it before you go out to work or whatever you're doing that day. And it just, in your head, you might not even realize it, you're actually sort of winning something. So you might be feeling like you're losing everything else, but you're starting to create that. Exercise is massive. You know, again, we can all make excuses. I have two routines. If I'm putting my son to bed, I'm already dressed ready to go. I put my gym bag at the bottom of the stairs now because I don't like going to the gym. But what I realize is mentally helps massively in terms of if you are having a bad day and having a set back. Whether it's a long walk, fast walk, a gym session, whatever it is, it can sometimes get you out of that rut and you think of something that you just weren't going to do sitting in a boardroom or brainstorming nonsense. So I have that at the bottom of the stairs because that's my routine, that's the switch that says I can't go into the gym. I'm going in the morning, why anyone that struggles with snoozing needs to figure a way to change that because that's not a good win, you're already losing. From the minute you get out of your bed, if you snooze your alarm once, you've lost. So sorry to anyone that does that, but you need to figure out a way that you can actually. Get up when your alarm goes off, because that's a win. So yeah, that's how I look. It's routines. And I think that's for me, an exercise. Two, two separate things there. But routines and exercise are what help me overcome pretty much anything. Yeah, that's very inspiring. And I know I work a lot with Australian clients, so I'm up early anyway. I'm an early bird. Up early, and I have my set routines of everything I do. When I diarise everything, I put it in the diary. And all sorts of things like I have my dog, Leo, who I don't know if you ever, if you met Leo when I, no, I never met him. I've seen him. Oh. Oh no I haven't. I have actually. He's quite a little character. I'm very much a dog person and so is my partner Will. But you know, I'm always open. I'll take the dog for a walk and make sure that, because it's miserable for him sitting in his basket all day just watching me work. You know, if I work from home and I'm like. I want to create joy for him and be there, but it's those routines and putting them in your diary and getting out there. It's really important. I can't actually remember when I started this, but it was way before I, I sort of look at things before pre pre and post COVID nowadays. And certain meetings, I just said, Hey, should we walk, like, should we meet at a park and walk? And they were like, these are like corporate guys. That's not allowed. Hey, guess what? I'm the boss. I don't matter if it's allowed or not. I'm doing it. And the reason I've done that is because again, when I was 16, I was quite fortunate that my employer done a lot of neuro linguistic program training with me. So I didn't realize the benefit of it back then. And I just changed it. It doesn't work for every meeting, but I actually started doing walking meetings. And I still try and do it nowadays. Certain times you can't, you know, if you've got paperwork, you've got to go through it, you have to physically be sat around. But I try and actually do that now because what your brain is doing, you're exercising whilst having a meeting and you just come up with things you just won't, don't come in a boardroom or whatever meeting room. And I'm this specific, by the way, that my wife, realize this trait of me when she first got with me on our first ever holiday, but my alarms are literally like this morning, for example, I was getting up a little bit later because my first meeting was a bit after that. So Toby, who I'm staying with at the moment, God's working with me. I put my alarm on for 637. He's like, why 637? He's like, I don't know. What the hell is that about? I said, well, first of all, it's an odd number in your brain stays and you get up, you go. But the main thing is I take 17 minutes to shower and brush my teeth. But combined time wise, I take five minutes to do my hair. I take three minutes to get dressed. The drive to that meeting room is 24 minutes. So basically this is how my brain works for days and sometimes weeks in advance. I know the exact time I need to go. So that's why I know I can put my alarm on for 6. 37 because that's the latest I can get up to achieve what I do. And I'm like bang, out of bed, gone. That's how I work. So that was accounting for my gym session as well this morning, things like that, you know. So I am that specific. When I say routine driven, I know how long it takes me to do absolutely everything. And so for me, I've never snoozed an alarm because I don't need to. I give myself the longest sleeping opportunity because I know when I need to get up. So there's no excuses. So I come back to that, but it's no excuses for me. I know what I need to do. So that's how specific I am. And my wife and I have done a holiday with me. I put my alarm on at 6 something in the morning, she was like, what are you doing? Yeah, she doesn't come from a corporate, do you know what? It's just a normal, normal average, you know, and she was like, what are you doing? We're on holiday. I was like, exactly. I've got things to do. I was like, look, you don't have to come. You can stay in bed, but you just tell me what time you need me back to the hotel to meet you and I'll come back. Yeah. I'm going out to do things. Yeah. That's what I mean. So I can't help. I've got, this is way before my sister passed. I've always been like this, you know, since my mum thought I was going to struggle with life. You know, she thought I was going to struggle to live a normal life, I think, at one point because of the way I was. That's how I am. That's fantastic. And it's great to hear to that level of detail of how you do fulfill your routines. It's really interesting. Um, I'm going to record how long it takes me to get you to do that now and just see it's a game changer. Honestly, I talk about people that I work with, like our mentorships and things like that. They get a lot more of me than the average person, obviously. And I talked to him about, you know, zones of delusion and where you spend your time. And they're like, Oh, I think, no, work out. It doesn't take you that long to figure it out. Look, and most of them spend like 30 something hours a week on Netflix and think and Instagram and mobile phones and all of that. I said, it doesn't take time, but you do that for one week. You just figure out your average time is it's going to change your life because then you can help stop making excuses for yourself. And we've all got 168 hours in a week. So whatever excuse you want to come up with. You've got more time than you say, when people say to me, I've got no time, Hey, I've got multiple businesses. I sit on the board of directors for three large companies. I have family, I go on holidays, I travel, I've got my son, so if I've got time, you've got time. Exactly. Exactly. I love that. And you know, time, if you see it as currency, we all get given the same amount of currency every day. And it's what we do with that time really matters for sure. So let's talk about teams. So with teams, you'll have worked with a lot of teams and mentored a lot of leaders. What do you think is the worst thing that leaders do? When they're working with teams, what have you seen are the common mistakes that people have seen? I find a lot of people who think they're leaders that are actually just managers. Let's ignore managers at the moment because they're different to leaders. I've worked with some people who are, you know, natural leaders and I've been prone to this by the way. This is something I've had to learn over the course of time that sometimes leaders expect people to be able to do the things they do. And I think that's quite a big flaw. And actually I got made this aware to me by one of my team members a while back and that's why I started to realize, Hey, I can be like that sometimes because you know, someone that's working with me all the time, I sort of naturally believe that they can do what I do. But the reality is no, my brain's wired differently, but the more consistent flaw I've seen with leaders I've worked with is that they just expect people to do what they do. And the reality is they probably can't. So that's a really big flaw. And also. Passive floor in certain leaders, they think carving the best. We're all probably got that arrogance in us somewhere, but I'm the best at this. I've got to do it all the time and I've got that delegation is the best form of scalability. So stop doing things you shouldn't be doing. Or can't do that well and invest in people that can, 'cause that's gonna, you know, I'm a strong believer in surrounding yourself with better people than you. And I think those are probably the two most common flaws, is expecting people to be able to do what you do and overworking. You need to take time, you have to take time out. You have to value your mental capacity. But also, again, when I talk about these zones of delusion and time of demand, you wanna be in your area of like expertise where you are, the Einstein. If you're spending all your time overworking in other areas and you're wasting it. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And I love what you said there about delegation is the best form of scalability. Yeah. It's really inspiring. I think it's certainly something that I've learned in business that you can't do everything yourself. You have to outsource as quickly as possible and focus on what you're really good at. I mean, I have an amazing virtual assistant who lives in Australia and she is an incredible woman, Denise, and she's worked with me for years actually. And she's just, I'll just. Send her things all the time and she just gets on with it. And she's my right hand woman behind the scenes. So I totally agree. Delegate or delegate. I know that happens a lot of the time. So we've talked about leadership. Tell us about conflict in the workplace. Now, I'm actually doing some research on this as a subject area, and I'm curious to know what you think about how would you handle conflict in the workplace and have you seen it handled badly? And what do you think, what would trigger you? Where there would be something that would just completely trigger you and your hot buttons. If you like, I'm curious two questions in one Yeah, obviously I've worked in big organizations and small organizations. I mean in big organizations you see a lot of conflict Normally that's created from the management The reality is, management or ownership not really understanding their own workforce. That causes conflict. If there's not clear structure and clear pathways, it's going to cause conflict. So that's what I've probably seen. Tell us how I've dealt with conflict in the workplace. I'm pretty cutthroat, you know. I'm a very moral driven person and values are important to me. You know, everything I do is value driven. If I don't trust someone, they don't get my time. That's as straightforward as it gets. So if there's conflict that's derived from misleading or mistrust, then to be honest, they're gone. One way or the other, they're going. So that might not be the best way to deal with conflict, but for me, if you've got one bad egg in a cart or such or whatever you want to call it, then it's going to cause more problems. So that's how I deal with conflict. If it's actually just generic, then I encourage an open platform. Look, communicate. I don't take things personally. Let's just say it how it is and let's sort it out. You know, old fashioned way of let's just talk about it properly rather than in riddles. And the bit that really grinds my gears is probably just said it dishonesty or misleading. Sometimes people don't mean to be dishonest, but they're selling stuff they can't sell. And this is in a workplace. I'm not about selling a product, job roles, progression, whatever it might be. That's a bit real. And it can be the small, I've been dealing with it. Obviously I work in Dubai a lot, and that's quite prone for certain ways of promising that doesn't happen. Now I'm very clear with anyone I work with, whether it's consultancy, partnership in Dubai, one thing you mislead me on, I'm gone. I don't care what you pay me. One thing, like it's, and I'm talking like most minute thing, cause that grinds my gears. Soon as you mislead me, I don't trust you. So you gone have we got the same horoscope? What? What star sign are you? I'm curious. Oh, no, I'm very good. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm an earth sign, Capricorn. I, I believe in all that sort of stuff. It's all very, but I get it. Like you mistrust is a big thing for me and trust. And if someone misleads me, I absolutely, I'm the same. It's like, that's it. Gone. Yeah, that's it. There's no second chance of me because if you lie once, then you're gonna lie again. It's very difficult. And like I said, sometimes people. Actually, there's a couple of people I know off the top of my head that don't, I don't think they mean to lie. They just like to make people happy. And that's as bad as anything for me. You're not helping anyone. So, I give them a little bit more benefit of the doubt, but that's because I understand them. There's only those two people, but anyone else, nothing. And like I said, it could be the smallest of thing. I'll be like, that's that, gone. I think over time, I have been quite, I would say, I use the word cultural, but that's not, it sounds very fierce, but I'm quite decisive when I make my mind up about something. But I think as I've got older, I attempt to walk in their shoes, but then when it comes to trust, once the trust's gone, it's gone. I totally agree where you're coming from there. Um, final thoughts on tips for people who are feeling stuck at the moment and they want to get out of a negative situation in their life or in their business or working for someone else. What would be your biggest top tips that you would share with the audience? So there was someone who I know personally that had this situation recently, you know, and I only realized because I saw an Instagram story that he deleted very quickly. I just happened to maybe gone at the right time and it was quite a guy that isn't depressive, doesn't come across as that way, always fun to be around, nice guy, but is depressed. Quite an in depth story on his Instagram. But like I said, I think he deleted it instantly, but I saw it. So I reached out to him and actually his situation was, been working for an engineering company and he just felt completely stuck in his job. Didn't really any progression, actually hated going in. And he's, I don't know, he was doing this for years, like, and it's like, but it's quite a simple fix. But I, now I might sound quite, like I said, I'm, like, the word you use, decisive. When I make a decision, I'm going to go with it. And he's, I come back to what I said about making excuses. A lot of people procrastinate, and procrastination will kill you. Maybe not physically kill you, but it will kill you mentally. So I spoke to him, just, you know, chatted with him and said, look, how do we solve the solution? Rather than you keep doing the same thing you're doing day in, day out, what are we going to do? Because this has been going on for years. Well, I could look for a job. No, I was about to swear then. Yeah, pretty obvious. Yeah, no shit. Like, so let's do this first of all, what are you really good at? So you've got to understand your values. So what I worked with him was, what is your values? What are you good at? So what's important to you? So he told me some bits that are important to him, and what are you good at? So actually what he does, he's really good at. He just, the company he worked for are terrible. So the reality is you actually do like what you do. You just don't know where you are and your values align to this, why not rather than jump ship to somewhere else you're going to be unhappy with because he's been a dedicated, he's quite a dedicated person, he's been at this company, was at this company, he's just left for like I think 12, 13 years so it wasn't like he's Just there for a minute, I said, so rather than jump in ship and just go into the same thing, look for companies that actually have the same values as you, and look, you can't know for definite, but read what they do, read how they do things, you can look into these things now, good companies will talk about their ethos, and you can see their attention on staff, you can see all these things now, with the digital wage, we can get access to pretty much anything, and then just apply for all the bloody jobs at those companies, and I can tell you now you're going to be happy, so he actually did it, and he is a Two months in and he couldn't be happier to the new role. So actually all it was is really stepping back and saying, what are my values in life? Maybe he wanted to walk down the road fast. So find some people to walk down the road fast and do it, you know, and what you're good at, because sometimes people think, Oh, I really want to be a professional footballer. I wanted to be a professional footballer. The reality is I wasn't good at that. So what are my values? And what are my next best stats? So you sort of go down in that together, values, best stat and follow and find where they align and then just take massive action. Don't make excuses, get on with it. That's it. I think that's a great tip. And speaking of football, you support the same football team as I do. I do. Sorry, not did, I do. I just don't get to watch Newcastle v Sunderland like you. Oh, well, that was an interesting game. I haven't been to the Derby for years, but it was Oh, you've been to Derby? Yeah, well, I've lived in Australia for 10 years, so it was, but yeah, going to the Derby was pretty, pretty special. It was really good considering my son supports Sunderland and I'm a Newcastle fan. It's quite interesting. It's just, yeah. So, well, thank you so much, Charlie, for sharing insights. It's really been a pleasure. Fascinating too. I'm excited to start and measure my routines and look at how long it takes me to do my hair on a morning. But I think you've shared some really interesting things and some tips. I think what you've done with your challenges and your sister's memories has been incredible. And please, if anybody checks, check out the link at the bottom of this, because we will put the GoFundMe page on there again. And we will also have the Zoe's Law, the link to the petition is still open, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Still open. We're still trying. Yeah. So, so please, if you can do one thing, just get on there and sign the petition, that would be brilliant. And, uh, Charlie, where can we find you? Where can listeners find you? Well, the best way to communicate with me is probably Instagram. So that's charlie underscore Penaro. But you can put on your thing, I guess, and website. So contact us, pay on my website, charlie. com visit there. I'm always happy to have questions. I mean, I actually had a lady who's starting a career and she asked if she could publish a blog and put it on my website the other day. And I think she keeps getting told no by everyone. I said, yeah, tell me what I need to tag and I'll pop it on there for you. So website or Instagram is the best way to find me because otherwise I don't know where I am. Fantastic. Well, you definitely saw an opportunity and saw something in her that gave her the opportunity. So good on you. That's great. Went outside her comfort zone and approached someone that was probably quite daunting because rejection is always a fear of most people, but you know, yeah, yeah, no, but thank you so much, Charlie. And you're also on LinkedIn as well. So yeah, but um, I know you're going to stay on the line, but thank you for today and really appreciate all your insights and it's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.