Episode 078 – Grace Nelson and Charlotte Barrett

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Richard Matthews 0:02
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Hello, and welcome back to the HERO Show. My name is Richard Matthews and I am live on the line today with Grace and Charlotte. Grace. Are you guys there?

Charlotte Nelson 1:16
Yes, we are, I heard it, Richard.

Grace Barrett 1:18
Hi Richard.

Richard Matthews 1:19
Awesome. Glad to have you here real quick. Can you guys raise your hands real quick with which one is which? So our audience knows who’s who?

Grace Barrett 1:25
So, I’m Grace.

Charlotte Nelson 1:27
And, I’m Charlotte.

Richard Matthews 1:29
Awesome. So glad to have you guys here. And you guys are joining us all the way from, you said London in the UK. Is that right?

Charlotte Nelson 1:35
We are so excited to be here with you. And that’s great – The internet that we can just really connect globally.

Richard Matthews 1:43
I know. It’s super cool to be able to do that. Because, you know, we’re currently in Central Missouri in the middle of the United States and you guys are on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Grace Barrett 1:54
Which is really cool. -. We love it.

Richard Matthews 1:58
That’s really, really fun. So let me introduce you guys for our guests who don’t know who you are. You guys are founders of Grace and Charlotte, the business startup agency. And you guys are business startup strategists, digital marketers, and podcast hosts yourself and you focus on helping female entrepreneurs build successful businesses online. Is that right?

Charlotte Nelson 2:21
That is correct. Yeah, we absolutely love what we do. And we work with the females that we work with, and to build their businesses in really small pockets of time. A lot of them are still building alongside their nine-to-five as well. So it’s really challenging, but we love what we do know we can help them.

Richard Matthews 2:39
That’s really incredible. And I know, as a father of three daughters, myself, I always really enjoy getting to hear from other female entrepreneurs because I know it’s going to give them people to look up to themselves and see the work that you guys are doing. So just start off. Tell me what it is that you guys are known for what is Grace in Charlotte, all about? Who are your primary clients? And what are the services that you provide? What is it that people hire you for?

Grace Barrett 3:07
So we are known both in the online and offline space and for working with many female entrepreneurs. And as Charlotte said, who wants to start and grow an online business, whilst they’re either still in a nine-to-five, or they’ve got family and other commitments, so essentially, they’ve got small pockets of time. So we help them to leverage their time in order to leverage their business and just show them through our experiences, what we do on their given daily basis as to how to prioritize their time, so that they’re focusing on the right things in their business to ensure that success because there’s always a confusion as to what should I be focusing on? Should it be the logo, the website, all these nice, pretty stuff which are essentially behind the scenes stuff? We want you to just refocus on the right stuff. And so-

Richard Matthews 4:11
Get an offer and make it to the marketplace.

Grace Barrett 4:15
And we’re really big on having that combination. “Yes, mindset” is very important. You know, without that, I mean, mindset is even a more 80% to achieving success, essentially. But it’s combining that with strategy as well. So having those two together in what you’re doing, we’re really big on really showcasing that combination in everything that we do.

Charlotte Nelson 4:40
Yeah.

Richard Matthews 4:42
So my curiosity then for you is, I know you work in London and you work with female entrepreneurs, do you work with entrepreneurs all over the world? Or do you work just in the UK or just in Europe? Where does your customer base come from, and this new sort of global world we live in

Charlotte Nelson 4:59
That’s the fantastic part, all over the world. So we have clients in Malaysia, a lot of clients in the US and Canada, UK, all over the world, which is such a blessing to us that we’ve been able to connect. And we can work with the time zone as well.

Grace Barrett 5:19
Yeah.

Charlotte Nelson 5:19
We work with clients globally and we do some corporate stuff over here in the UK as well, where we work with universities and teach entrepreneurship, and do training for some companies that are based here, but once one client programs- the names’ are all over the world. So it’s really lovely that when we have these containers, these week programs that people get into me, other women and other business states basically somewhere they may have never been and what was great. I think we had an event recently and one of my clients flew over from the US and was just like it’s just amazing.

Grace Barrett 5:52
Yeah.

Richard Matthews 5:53
Really cool.

Grace Barrett 5:56
Richard, we’re essentially growing a global She-E-O sisterhood, what we call it.

Richard Matthews 6:03
I like it, the She-E-Os. I travel full time. We’re in an RV and so the timezone thing is really important for us because like our time zone is moving all the time. My favorite thing is, on the calendar you can actually switch which time zone you’re in and all your appointments shift to the next thing. I was like, Oh, that would have been so hard 20 years ago without digital calendars.

Charlotte Nelson 6:28
Exactly, missed appointments.

Richard Matthews 6:31
I missed appointments and all sorts of things. So just a curious question because it’s not very common for those of us here in the US. Do you guys conduct business in languages other than English since I know you mentioned Malaysia and a few other countries? Do you guys or do you guys just work in English?

Charlotte Nelson 6:45
Just in English and but that can be an ambition for the future to become trilingual.

It happens that all our clients are English speaking or at least it has been the first language they’ve been given. So yeah, absolutely.

Richard Matthews 6:59
I know in Europe, it’s more common to have more than one language that is here in the US.

Grace Barrett 7:08
Well, I do speak French or German, but I think I’ll be showing up –

Richard Matthews 7:15
You don’t speak French enough to speak on stage doing French yet?

Grace Barrett 7:20
Pardon?

Richard Matthews 7:21
I said, you don’t speak French well enough to speak on stage in French?

Grace Barrett 7:24
Definitely not, Richard, no.

Richard Matthews 7:30
So my next question for you, ladies is your origin story, right? We talked on the show all the time, how every hero has their origin stories where you started to realize that you were different, that maybe you had superpowers, maybe you could use them to help other people. How did you start to discover or develop the value that you guys bring to this world? And I’d really like to get sort of both of your perspective on where you got into the world of entrepreneurship.

Charlotte Nelson 7:54
Okay, so we were both on different journeys at the point when we came together at a business partnership, I’ll share from my point of view and Grace can go in and merge stories together. So for me, I was a point in my career both had corporate careers and quite demanding, I had my oldest daughter at the time as well. And was at a company, I was basically, like, hit the glass ceiling, and there was nowhere left for me to go. And I felt really disempowered and in a way that I’m sure many of the listeners would believe that I didn’t feel I was valued enough. And I would have the ideas we have outside consultants come in, do half the work, but double the payoff was getting there just got set point was frustrated. And I knew that actually, entrepreneurship was, for me. My story’s a little different than a lot of other people and that I had started my entrepreneur career very early. And when I was age 21, I had the restaurant and catering company for five years, did that and did other bits and pieces and I went back to corporate. So going back, and then I still have that yearning entrepreneurship. And that feeling of dissatisfaction and unvalued. I was like, Okay, I need to do something. I’ve got so many gifts, so many talents, I can go out and do. And Grace and I, we’ve been friends for years, we had those moments where we got to meet wide. We’ve had, you know, we say we’ve put the worlds twice we’d have a girly talk. We both are there and grow up in a state of so dissatisfaction, with moaning and we absolutely hate that point. We really wish we took action, but we’d be there, you know, just saying how dissatisfied she was with our jobs. And then one day I came across, I think it was a Facebook ad. And it was for a seminar, a motivational seminar. And at that point, we both hadn’t been to the Walmart seminar, and so they came into London. I said, Grace, let’s just go see what this is about something told me that this was going to – we just needed to go. And we made a decision and we went into central London, we attended this event. And it was as if the motivational speakers spoke to us. This has been a first-time __ minded and everything he said it was like it was the right time for us. And after that event, we went and had coffee in a nearby coffee shop. And we looked at each other, it’s like we sat on the same wavelength was like let’s join forces. Let’s create a business we both have got amazing strengths. And we can ask jumps to it to really balance out our weaknesses and this form of business. Because basically, I’ve been thinking about something cut off I had, but at that time was that actually we can be a more powerful force together. And we originated and we started an events management company, which we had for a couple of years, which is very successful and then evolutive into what is now the business growth agency. So that was stuck, frustrated, I think we just want to touch on where she was at that time.

Grace Barrett 11:00
And it definitely was the case. So before I get into my backstory, it definitely was a case of when the student is ready, the teacher will come. Yeah. And that’s really what there’s so much more potential within us that we can achieve. So Richard, just getting back from my story, and I woke up to entrepreneurship, I would say, quite late on compared to most people in my circle, so I was 28 at the time. And I come from a very, you know, strict African parents education all the way and you’ve got to end up in one of the big __ being a lawyer, an accountant, a doctor.

Richard Matthews 11:47
Doctor.

Grace Barrett 11:48
The impressive money.

So I did all of the educational University stuff MBA, got my MBA degree, etc. and ended up with a good marketing job in a really small company.

Charlotte Nelson 12:04
And the culture there was really great in terms of my other colleagues, but I was being bullied by my line manager. And so it was a very sort of dark time for me. And at the time, I should say that I also suffer from quite severe autoimmune disease. So the stress that will bring upon me, there were days where I couldn’t even get out of bed, just the thought of going into work, and also how it was affecting my body as well, physically. And there were times when I would go home crying, just that something very slight that she had said to me, and I just knew that this couldn’t be it for me. There needed to be more. And so that’s when Charlotte was saying that we used to meet up and we used to go to war with the world and just think there’s gonna be something else out there. And they all start to unravel from there to the very point now, whereby we share our experiences, how we started to build our businesses in small pockets of time, in a nine-to-five, well, you’re feeling you know, some people really hating their job, they’re looking for a way out. But it’s reframing all of that and viewing your job your nine-to-five as an angel investor, essentially, so that you can start to invest in your personal development and start to invest in your business, giving you that liquid as well.

Richard Matthews 13:39
It makes a lot of sense. So for you guys, when you came together after that event and formed your business, how long did it take you to go from that sort of decision to replace it in your nine-to-five income so that you guys are doing this full time?

Charlotte Nelson 13:54
So we, first of all, we have the events management company. We had that number super successful but then that model didn’t suit us. So we were saying it was taking us away from our families, we have to be at all weekends, etc. So we switched the business model, I’d say about three years. The stress of doing corporate events, if anyone, events management, you know, is super intense. Brings back memories. And so, then I think about three years. And then about two years ago, I went part-time. And then we’ve been growing it since. So it’s been five years now.

Grace Barrett 14:37
Yeah. Five-year anniversary now.

Richard Matthews 14:41
Five years. That’s awesome. So I know you guys both said you have sort of entrepreneurial feelings from a young age. And, got into the corporate world and it’s interesting you say, you use the job, so to speak as an angel investor because I know a lot of entrepreneurs look at jobs or going back into a job is like a sign of failure. And I know like for myself, I started my first business when I was like 13. Buying candy and selling it wholesale on campus at school. And after that I got into post-college, I started my career as a marketing consultant, which is what I do now. And did that for a number of years until I got to a point where I like I just couldn’t do it anymore because I was, I had some problems mainly confidence problems that I needed to solve for pricing and other things and I ended up going back into the corporate world and use the corporate place, steady paycheck, steady work, that kind of thing, not to worry about all these other things and really knocked it out of the park for them and was able to, 18 I think it was 18 months later, go back and start my consultancy again. And really, for me, I used the corporate world as you said, like as an investor in my own confidence, right? That allowed me to go back and really grow my company a lot better after that. So I like I just really liked that thought process you have. Do you find that you find that the women that you share that with really helps them understand sort of where they’re at with, you know with their job and you know moving into business, that kind of stuff.

Charlotte Nelson 16:27
I think absolutely because it reframes, so they may be in a situation that we always say is that where you are right now does not define where you’re going to be. So __ into an investor, it takes time to seed a fund and grow. There is I think once you can understand that actually, you create a new avenue and the exit then it becomes much more bearable way while we always talk about transferable skills, I would say if you are in a job, you can do all the training that you can there. A lot of things skills are going to be transferable to your business. And then when it’s time for you to switch from being that employee, which is a big shift, becoming the She-E-O, as we say, you can use a lot of those skills and you can start to look at how that corporation is running their business, how far in advance they pan in, you know, launches, etc. How does the finance department work? So I think when we shift and we look at this, they can see actually, there’s a big picture, and then that helps them you know, feel a bit more comfortable with where they are, as well. So I think as an investment, it really helps a lot.

Richard Matthews 17:36
So I know that a CEO sort of thinking is a very different way of thinking about your business than even just a solopreneur or certainly an employee. And I’m curious how much of your teaching revolves around teaching someone to think like a leader in their business versus thinking like a self-employed person or like an employee and how much is that part of what you do and teach for your people

Grace Barrett 18:06
So, Charlotte and I, we focus on you know, creativity and innovation and embodying these leadership skills. So you know, we share the difference between having a fixed mindset which is essentially you and your employee made whereby there’s no risk or real accountability. You know, that everything you’re doing you’re following instructions to the tee and you’re just getting paid. The paycheck at the end no matter what, but moving into that steered ___ mode, as we call it, the accountability, the risk, it all lies with you. And you really get into that growth mindset in order to be able to think on your feet, you think on your feet, start thinking ahead, planning, strategizing as well. And be bold to ask the right questions. If you’re developing something, you need to be asking your audience what exactly they want, not just making assumptions as well. Embracing fear, going out there, asking the right questions, showing up being visible, and getting into other people’s audiences as well in order to build up your presence especially as we work with a lot of online entrepreneurs as well. And all of these actions together, just really helped me to, to grow and own that person that you want to become essentially running that five-figure, six-figure, seven-figure business in the long run.

Charlotte Nelson 19:36
I just want to touch, leadership is so important and in terms of – because if you lead yourself first and others will follow as well. And coming from the point of view that was before I had a business where I was a silent entrepreneur who had bricks and mortar, you get into that point where it’s just you. And I’ve been online to actually say that’s not the kind of business we want for our clients because we want them to start to think about if they were to step right in the business, would it be to one without the other systems? Could you build teams and processes? And because after I think for me, as I read in that book by Michael E. Gerber, you don’t want to know, pays one job for another, to jump out of a job that you want to actually what you want to do, which a lot of time is a bit more freedom or lifestyle and not just to be stuck in the business 24 seven.

Richard Matthews 20:31
The business name we have behind our business is called Five freedoms. And I talk all the time about, the lot of people are aware of, you know, political freedom or spiritual freedom or financial freedom. And those are the big three that everyone knows about, but the two that most people forget and don’t realize how important they are, especially when it comes to building the type of business you’re talking about this time freedom and location freedom. If you have the ability to choose, what you’re doing with your time, right? If you step away from the business, as a business grower, does it stop? And the same thing with you know, can you choose where you are is your business, like, locking you into one spot, you have to be at the office every day, showing up if you don’t like it, just as an example, if you’re a dentist cleaning teeth like you have to show up and clean teeth or you don’t have a business or you don’t have any, you know, freedom of location. And so it sounds to me like you’re helping women get into businesses and like, at the very beginning, think about that structure. How are you going to have not just the financial freedom that a business can give you but also time freedom, location freedom, to build your life the way you want?

Charlotte Nelson 21:40
And be happy. The process is massive and starts from thinking about it from the beginning. So it becomes ingrained. And the decisions you make are based on that, even if you’re not there yet.

Richard Matthews 21:55
You mentioned systems and processes. That’s such a huge thing, right. And I know that’s like, we actually, I run a sub-business called Push Button Processes. That’s about helping people build systems and processes. And it’s such a huge thing that I think even big businesses miss, right? You know, big, big companies and organizations realize that I refer to it as poorly managed chaos. A lot of businesses are running on chaos. And you can run a successful business chaotically, right. And what’s interesting is there’s always someone’s got to be there patching the holes and making sure it’s going forward and everything is like, I don’t know, building the thing as it’s going on down the road, and it’s such a powerful thing when you can get in and actually like, you have systems for everything that’s documented well, and you know, you can – the people that come in and out. When you have the system and you have the documentation. It’s not like falling apart if you use it right, you know, and you can plug people and you can grow faster. You can do a lot of things when you have your systems nailed down.

Grace Barrett 23:09
Having that standard operating manual so that when the time comes and you want to start growing your team, hiring people to help them progress or in a pathway to follow that so that people can easily come in, pick up and run with it as well. So you’re not a slave to your business. You’re not always working in your business, just like you’re an employee working in your job as well. You can step away, you can go on holiday, and not come back to business as completely crashed and burned.

Richard Matthews 23:46
I was really excited. A couple of weeks ago, I had a mastermind to go to and it was three days and I stepped away from the business for three days and everything ran without me. It was wonderful. So, It’s still, all the client stuff still happened. Payments still went through, like everything still happened. And I was like, Yes, we’re finally there. It only took me 10 years, but you know. So my next question for you is about your superpowers, right? This is what you do. We’re the builder of this world that really helps solve problems for people, the things you use to help slay the world’s villains, so to speak. And the way I like to frame this is if you look at your set of skills, right, the things that you do, there is probably one of those skills that is energizing or empowering the rest of them. The one thing is your zone of genius, so to speak. I’m curious what you think that is for each of you.

Grace Barrett 24:47
That’s a good one. I think, going fast, if you don’t mind, Charlotte.

It’s definitely, it’s helping them to gain that clarity

Charlotte Nelson 24:58
That’s what I was going to say.

Grace Barrett 25:00
We’re always in sync, Richard. When people are magnetized to us they’re coming from a state whereby they’re confused, they’re not sure about the next step out. They’ve got so many questions going on in their mind. And we just help them gain that clarity. And we do it in such a way that the answers are deep within they’ve actually got all of the answers, but by asking the right questions, we help to ease those answers out for them. And they start to say it, they start to articulate it in a way that resonates with them. And that helps them to then go forward and to start to have stronger messaging when they’re reaching out to their clientele as well. So it’s definitely moving them from confusion to clarity. And, when people come to us whether it’s just a short introductory call, every time they leave, they always say oh my gosh, you’ve opened my eyes to a whole new world. Thank you, Grace and Charlotte. Because that cloud has just been lifted. And I’ll say, yeah, that’s definitely something that we can say is our forte.

Richard Matthews 26:12
Your superpower. So what it sort of comes across for me is that it’s interesting how common this is, in the people who do the type of work you do, is knowing how to ask better questions, right? Ask questions that other people don’t think to ask, ask themselves or ask the people around them. And it’s when you ask yourself better questions, you get better answers. And for you guys, you’re not the ones providing the answers, they do, right. The answers are in them. You just have to ask the questions that get the answers to come out. So it’s a powerful skill and one that more people I think need to work on developing for themselves.

Charlotte Nelson 26:56
It is and I think __ the quality of your life is dependent on the questions you ask, and it’s so true, like they just need, once you have to answer this, and what happens with a lot of our clients, when they come to us and they get the answers, they are able to make empowered actions. And obviously the actions lead to results, which leads to increased confidence, which is momentum. So it’s just a snowball, and it’s just unlocking a few key things in that way as well.

Richard Matthews 27:28
And it’s interesting too because sometimes changing the question that you’re asking will completely change the frame of reference that you’re going into something with and just unlocked whole new areas of your brain and the way you think about problems that you’re facing and everything. And it can really change the direction of your business.

Charlotte Nelson 27:47
Absolutely.

Richard Matthews 27:51
A cape with a question mark on it. So, the flip side of a superpower is, of course, the fatal flaw, right? Just like Superman has his Kryptonite, or Batman is not actually a superhero, right? He’s just really dedicated and has lots of money. So the fatal flaw in the way I like to think about this is something that has held you back in growing your business, something you realize either, you know, a personality flaw or a work ethic flaw, something that you’ve had to deal with. And more importantly, how have you guys sort of smooth over those edges or worked on that flaw for someone who’s suffering from it who’s listening, right? How am I – They could learn from you. Like for me, I was a perfectionist, and one of the things I had to do is just work on getting things off of my plate and into someone else’s, so they could just get it done and get it out the door. So what does that do for you guys what’s held you back? And how have you guys sort of overcome that?

Charlotte Nelson 28:53
I always think that I’m -. We have this thing now. I say that I’m the start, and Grace is the finisher. So for me, I love to be creative. I’m the one that will have an idea a million miles a minute, but I don’t always go through to the end and finish it. And so what’s been great is that we’ve been in a partnership and then Grace will finish it, get the details. And so that is what we really are, well that’s been our strengths and weaknesses and works really well. And maybe we start to look at the detail, sometimes less of the concept, the creative vision. So if we hadn’t been in a partnership, then I would have made sure that I would have taken people on in the business with maybe with a little bit of a picture, with a little bit of detail of maybe a contract, etc. And then Grace gets on the __ side. __

Richard Matthews 29:47
It’s such an important thing to know where your weaknesses are, man. I know there is a school of thought that says you should shore up your weaknesses and make them stronger. The reality is, and something I’ve learned over the years is that the wealthiest, most successful people in the world ignore their weaknesses. And they focus just on their strength and wherever their zone of genius is. And that’s all they do. And they find other people to put into places where they have a weakness.

Grace Barrett 30:18
Exactly, our mantra, which is do what you do best, and outsource the rest. So play to your strengths. You know, that’s you’re saying the genius as you were saying before, and that’s what Charlotte and I do, and things that we’re not back to or we don’t really have time for websites as admin finance, fit, we’ve got a VA, we’ve got an accountant. And you know, that’s the way to start building your team that you’re getting quality people who are adding value to what you’re already doing as well.

Richard Matthews 30:50
And I know that’s been a thing in my businesses as well, is realizing where I’m best used. And for me, that’s systems and processes and stuff like that, and having other people in my team that I’m the same way that you are with the – I’m definitely the visionary, the starter kind of thing. And like, once I’ve figured out a problem, then like, I don’t care anymore. So what it still needs to get done, right, like, it’s just someone still needs to actually do it. I’m like, I figured it out. But like, now we need to implement and I’m like, I have to have people, people on my team who will implement because I’m like, figured it out. I don’t care anymore. I’m gonna move on to the next thing. I gotta figure something else out because I’m just not engaged in the details of getting things done. So, do you know to your point I have staff that handles the implementation for me and they are fantastic? My business would not run without them. And I know they listened to podcasts. So you know, we got to talking about Yeah, so it’s a really cool thing. too, also to note, when you are operating in your zone of genius, you can push forward so much faster and so much stronger and have much greater strides in your business than when you’re working on things that you’re weak at. Right? And so you can really that’s where you get competitive advantages. And like you said earlier, like innovating in your space, it’s going to happen in your zone of genius, not in your weaknesses.

Charlotte Nelson 32:28
Is that okay? I think it just as you said, it just speeds up the process when you’re willing to just say, okay, and you can’t be good at everything. So it was absolutely fine. I think the most successful people identify it and get a solution to the problem.

Richard Matthews 32:44
So just a curious question, how do you guys encourage people to make that first shift into hiring someone to sort weaknesses – if it’s just you know, hiring an outsourcer for a project or bringing someone on full time because I know like, the question that entrepreneurs ask themselves all the time is how can I afford that? Right? I can’t afford to hire someone to do this. And so they do it themselves. Right. And to that point that we talked about earlier. That’s a poor question. Right? So how do you reframe that for people? So they asked themselves better questions and started getting people to help supercharge their business.

Charlotte Nelson 33:24
And so I think what we do is we actually will always go back and say someone would have had a lot of time to come to us, and they’ve been trying and some people want, it’s not working. So it’s like, really making clear, you’ve been trying to do this for x amount of time. You’ve wasted this amount of time doing this and there are no results used to outsource it. And we always talk about leveraging your time you’ve got X amount, how can you leverage it and make it works for you X amount of times one bit, and that’s either outsource it to someone to do those jobs or As we said, maybe leverage in another network or collaborative because we’re really looking at how you can maximize what you do have and make the best of it. So don’t have that time, maximize it. And I think when we frame and we work with our clients, we show them like, sometimes we really crystal clear, we just look so you this amount of hours, you’ve wasted business, you could have had that and look at maybe lead gen or looked at putting people in or have built a system that will be able to replicate again, leveraging the time instead of you trying to do it. But one of the main things we always talk about is that we talk about trying to get visibility like you’ve been trying to put this will do this for how many times yourself a VA could have done that in literally, like, you know, an hour, two hours because that’s a skill. And I think when we talk to clients, we actually show them physically even sometimes look it on a bit of paper, they sort of get it and we look at if it’s not working before. We’re looking for results now. So we’ve got to try something different.

Richard Matthews 35:02
Yeah, yeah. And I know for me when I hired my first person, it only took like three months to double the revenue in my business. Right just because I was, I suddenly had so much more leverage time. Right, and things were getting done and that’s like I would mess and stuff we’re getting accomplished. So like, you know, you have more work output and more work output equals more revenue, generally speaking, we met

Grace Barrett 35:28
Yeah, so thinking about the bigger picture at the end of it, they are already working within small pockets of time. So why focus on things that aren’t going to get them the revenue, you know, why not outsource some bits, you know, and now some low cost, freelancers that you can get in virtual assistants as well, but they can add really add value and help to push you further along in your business. Rather than you spinning so many plates wearing so many hats.

Richard Matthews 35:57
So one other thing, just Interesting. The first thing I had my first employee to do for me was document processes. And that’s we spent several months documenting processes in our business and what that did for us was it made all of our processes faster, we could implement faster and get things done faster, we can bring people in to accomplish those things. And it was a really big win for my business. I think we’ve got a hundred and 50 or so of our processes documented now.

So it’s like leverage on leverage, right when you have someone come in, and then you have them work on something really powerful like documenting processes. Yeah, it was super cool.

Charlotte Nelson 36:44
Exactly, save so much time.

Richard Matthews 36:49
So my next question for you is about your common enemy. Right. So if you, I like to think about it like this, right? If you could remove one thing from your client’s life, wave a magic wand and just remove it and you know, they would get much faster or better results, because they didn’t have that mindset they were struggling with or something. Something you guys run into all the time that you wish you could just get rid of. What is that you guys run into?

Grace Barrett 37:12
I think it will be when many of our clients get stuck in their head, they start to really overthink things and not just these to procrastination or them just standing still. So it’s reframing that and getting them out of their head and actually doing it’s all in the action, the execution that’s where real success actually comes from. And so we really work with them to reframe it to really drill down and not some why you begin again, several layers deep to the point whereby it’s just an excuse, they don’t know where this particular limitation has come from, there’s no real ring to it, and that it’s much easier for them to get out of that funk and get doing and because on the other side of doing that’s where clarity comes, success, great relationships. It’s pretty much… there’s so much on the other side.

Richard Matthews 38:07
I love that, on the other side of doing that, that’s a really great way to say that. Because of the way that I’ve always looked at that mentality, my dad gave this to me. And I remember I was, I don’t know, 19 at the time, and I was like, Hey, Dad, I was considering getting married or like asking this young lady to marry me. And I was like, How do I know if I’m ready? And his response was, there’s no such thing as being ready. And he was like, taking action. Doing a thing is what makes you ready. And that mentality has really, really served me well in business. To realize there’s no such thing as the planets lining up. There’s no such thing as like, everything is right. And now you can take action. There’s no such thing as being ready to have kids or being ready to get married or ready to take the next step in your business. You just do those things and the act of doing, right on the other side of the action is where readiness comes from.

Charlotte Nelson 39:06
Absolutely. It’s so true. The more people realize it and see it just not think we’re just saying it is so true. It’s so

Grace Barrett 39:16
It’s just so powerful, just moving you. Because they put up so many barriers and things that they think all try and preempt may happen. And then when they actually started doing that action they realized that it was all made up, you know, nothing, everything that was in their head, it hasn’t really come to fruition, you know, just for the doing and seeing and you can keep figuring out the way you don’t have to have it all figured it out there. And then beforehand.

Richard Matthews 39:50
My wife’s favorite thing to tell me is that her worrying about things is the most successful thing in her life because everything she worries about none of it comes true. So she’s like it must be working.

Grace Barrett 40:00
Yes. That’s it.

Richard Matthews 40:11
Which always cracks me up because it’s backward but it’s fun. So if your common enemy is something that you, if your common enemy, something you fight against, then your driving force is the thing that you fight for just like Spider-Man fights to save New York or Batman fights to save Gotham or Google fights to index and categorize all the world’s information. What is it that you guys fight for? What’s your mission?

Charlotte Nelson 40:35
I think we fight for the clients and women that we work with to take control and ownership back over, whether it’s ambition, whether it’s back for the life they’re creating and taking back all those excuses that we talked about all of its time with its I’ve got the kids or whatnot, and turning those things and so why so that they can actually create what they want to create. So it’s taking back the power for themselves. And, you know, really, that’s why we say She-E-O because you can actually come to the show not just of your business but of your life. And that’s what we’re fighting for. Empowerment for these women, and that they don’t have to settle and that where they are right now, actually, it doesn’t have to determine where we are two years, five years, 10 years from now.

Richard Matthews 41:24
So do you find that working with female entrepreneurs and helping them sort of step into that type of role? Is, I don’t know, difficult with the cultural problems that come with being a woman and you know, being homemakers and working with children and doing some of those things. How do you sort of help women navigate that whole? That whole part of, you know, there’s so much more to being a woman than just working? Right. So how do you help women navigate that and really take hold of, you know I can be a She-EO, and still do all the things that women do so much better than men like be mothers and raise their children and stuff like that.

Charlotte Nelson 42:11
So I think as well being physical and real examples of Dana ourselves, so I’ve got two kids. I’ve also got a seven-month-old baby. So whilst I literally a few days before I gave birth, I was too, I was signing clients, I was working, as well.

Richard Matthews 42:30
I can do this.

Charlotte Nelson 42:37
… But I think even one of my clients recently was pregnant, I know I saw her do it and then go through and that you still … your business. The thing is always been real examples actually can do this as always, as they figure out a way to actually make this happen. And it’s funny because we have had a male client actually just take a moment with a male client recently, but we don’t, obviously openly do that all the time. But you can see the difference. So the males have a lot less to think about and they’re more logical and straightforward. This is and obviously, and that’s a generalization but we do see a lot of women space is talking about more stuck in their head, more worried about, usually. They cut themselves to the bottom of the list because women naturally are the caregivers looking after the home or maybe even if they have family payments, whatever. So it’s one of the ways we get ranters, we talk to them and we say that actually you matter. So all of this is instrumental and you have, we talk about practical self-care so that you’re able to show up and be in your business until they’re perfect, you’re doing and self-care where the spots are, where you have to go to a spa, etc. But just making sure that you fill yourself up as you do personal development. Maybe she takes 10 minutes to just go out and be with your force and then how you can practically implement that. And then that empowers you to show up and do what you’re doing and be able to be…

Richard Matthews 44:06
I know that one of the things that really surprised me, we run a supplement company and we sell multivitamins for you know, we have a men’s multivitamin, a women’s multivitamin, a prenatal multivitamin teens, kids, like we have all our primary audience is women, right? And what surprised me is the women’s multivitamin, by itself is our worst seller. But our prenatal multivitamin is one of our best sellers, right? Because a woman is very unlikely to take care of herself until she has another life inside and she’s like a man taking care of that right there so often looking at taking care of the people around them, right, whether that’s their family or their employees or their work environment. So it’s interesting to see how you guys have to help and coach women to do that self-care.

Charlotte Nelson 44:57
That’s so true what you said, always put to the bottom of the list than everyone else. So yeah, that’s physical data you’ve got that to prove that point.

Grace Barrett 45:05
But when we show up, Richard. We’re very transparent and we’re really raw and authentic, and that’s what resonates with the people that we work with. Because we show them you know, there will be good days, there will be bad days as well. Just saying things to get.

Richard Matthews 45:26
I tell a lot of my clients that you know, I work from home, I got four kids and there’s a pretty good chance that they’ll walk in on our conversation stuff like that I actually earlier in the webinar, my 10-month-old just started walking and she like walked all the way up here and I’m like, well, you’re gonna come get the baby. She’s invading the interview. Because, you know, it’s a way thing goes but you can certainly run your business and still a parent and take care of life and do those things.

It’s really cool.

Grace Barrett 46:00
… We polish, we say that things can happen, you know we show this little baby sometimes in my face on our webinars and that’s just the way it goes.

Richard Matthews 46:12
It happens right and we just – another level of that – we just adopted a cat and the cat really like me for some reason. Like, walk across, like he keeps walking across every time I do an interview. So you know how he’s gonna just be a regular thing and our show is for our guests who see him. His name’s Thomas O’Malley, so he’ll be probably a regular. You’ll see his tail come through our interview all the time now. So it’s, you know, that’s just life. You can’t always control all those things. So my next question for you is more on the practical side. So when it comes to running a business today, and actually doing the things that you do, right. Maybe we call this your Hero’s Toolbelt, right? Maybe you have a big magical hammer like Thor or a bulletproof vest like your neighborhood police officer or maybe you just really love how Evernote helps you organize your thoughts for your business, right? What are some of the tools either for client management, lead management, product development that you couldn’t do without today that really help you do what you do in your business?

Grace Barrett 47:24
The same actually. Well, one thing is that Charlotte and I’ve got something we call our Power Hours as well. So that helps us frame my days where we should be focusing on the nonnegotiables in our business, the lead generation, income-producing activities, and that’s what we share and teach with our clients and audiences as well. And everything is written down and scheduled. Google calendar is our best friend. You know, we practically live in it just to make sure that we’ve got our PowerPoint here. We’ve got our podcast with Richard, at this time. So we get those alerts all the time throughout the day as well. That just keeps us on track. And in terms of other processes. We use Trello project management boards as well.

Richard Matthews 48:14
Trello is amazing.

Grace Barrett 48:17
So we’ve got processes mapped our assets mapped out. And that’s shared with our team as well. And in terms of sharing stuff with, we use Dropbox and Google Calendar, so they’re at, you know, very good tools, Cloud Storage base, so you could have on the go access from anywhere in the world.

Charlotte Nelson 48:41
I think for us as well, because most of us we need to access the stuff. Women not always together, whoever else as well. So the clouds been massive, but everything has to get saved up into the cloud.

Richard Matthews 48:54
We pretty much use Google Drive for that. Like, I don’t know how we would live without Google Drive, because we got our teams all over the place. But I want to touch on something that you, mentioned was the calendar because I think we’re on like, this is like Episode 74, something like that for our show. And probably out of 74 episodes, like 70 people have mentioned how important their calendar is to their life. And I remember it was about this time last year, I was in the car with my stepdad. And I mentioned that like, I live and die by my calendar and he was like, That’s crazy. How could you live and die by your calendar? Like, people don’t do that? And I’m like, Yeah, like my, and entrepreneurs, every entrepreneur I know. Does that. Their calendar is freedom. And the more things are scheduled, the more free your life is. And, it’s a weird mindset because people think that if all my stuff is scheduled, even my free time that I spend with my family is scheduled on the calendar. You don’t have freedom. But if it’s not scheduled, it’s not there it doesn’t happen. So for me at least and for everyone I know, that’s been in this space. When you have it on the calendar, it frees up the mind space, right and you know, Okay, I’ve got this time, this is all I need to do here, right? I can give myself 100% to whatever that is, whether that’s playing with my kids, cooking dinner or adventuring with my family or doing work right whatever is on the calendar that’s what I can put my whole attention to because everything is scheduled. So I was just curious what your thoughts were on that.

Charlotte Nelson 50:40
It’s so true. We always say fun even has to be scheduled for me because it’s so busy. This is ‘fun time.’ We’re having fun now whether you like it or not.

– is instrumental when, as you said, I think especially being so it’s such a busy society. If we were to try and … literally send us crazy today. So we need that freedom, we need to have that order and as people, they have access to be able to check-in as well. And for me as well because I’m quite a visual person, I have my whiteboards as well, and the whiteboards again, this is just another visual prompt of what is mostly on the calendar, but the projects, my mom says that my last thing that I actually use and a little bit with me it’s my alarm because I will forget things so every minute my alarm, we’re lucky it hasn’t happened. Yet, I will alarm even to the point of just reminding me to breathe, take time out of breath.

Richard Matthews 51:40
I do the same thing right. I set alarms to remember to take it you know take my supplement or something like that or remember to give it up and like I have this problem where I will forget to eat. Not because I don’t like food or anything, I love to eat. I just -I get so into working and I’m like, I need to stop. And like if I don’t put lunch on the calendar, I will skip it.

Grace Barrett 52:05
Yeah.

Richard Matthews 52:07
So I have to make sure it’s in the calendar and the thing again, that it allows you freedom in those spaces to you know, when you said you schedule your fun, right? As soon as the thing says schedule fun you can just turn off your brain for other things and you can be there you can be present. So, super-powerful, I think.

Grace Barrett 52:31
It’s not in Google Calendar, it’s not getting done.

Richard Matthews 52:36
I have a couple of calendars I keep on my phone that, I’ve got like a family calendar and I’m like I tell my wife all the time. I was like, if you want me to be there, even if it’s just super simple stuff, just drop it on the family calendar because like all of my appointment scheduling stuff, all of my team, like if they need access to me, they’re going to check the calendar and it’s going to everything you put on the family calendar will block my time out. Right

So that was … we use, what do you call them one of those like scheduling things like Schedule Monster, whatever. Some people can schedule appointments and like, it’ll check my family calendar as well as my own personal calendars. I was like, “so, if you want me to be available, you can block off the day, block off the thing and like, my systems will handle the rest.

Grace Barrett 53:01
Yeah.

Charlotte Nelson 53:18
You got access.

Richard Matthews 53:26
You got access. So, it’s like I have to train everyone, right? My wife, my family, my kids, my workers, my employees, the clients that I work with. It’s like my calendar, I live and die by it. Lucky for me, most of my clients are also entrepreneurs and they live and die by their calendar too.

My wife gets it, but like my family who is not entrepreneurs, they’re like, I don’t understand, like, why does it happen? To be on your calendar for it to exist. And I’m like, because literally if it’s not on the calendar, I will not be there.

So, I want to want to talk a little about your own personal heroes, right? So just like Frodo had Gandalf or Luke had Obi-Wan Kenobi or Robert Kiyosaki had his Rich Dad, who were some of your heroes? Were they real-life mentors, speakers or authors, peers who were maybe a couple of years ahead of you, and how important were they to what you two have accomplished so far in your business career?

Grace Barrett 54:33
Okay. First, I mean, every time I think about a real-life hero, straight away, I immediately think of this woman, Michelle Obama, just because of everything she embodies, you know, the elegance and that sort of regal nature but also she’s a leader in her own right, you know, she is a story. She’s very much empowering, encouraging, giving back as well and it’s truly a woman that I look up to and really admire as well. You know, just how she’s doing it and her presence in this world as well.

Richard Matthews 55:11
She’s definitely a modern-day hero.

Grace Barrett 55:13
And in terms of somebody closer to my heart, I would probably say my mom as well is my hero. And, you know, just in terms of, she’s been through a lot, health-wise, she’s had really downtimes in life as well, but she’s resilient. She keeps on you know, bouncing back, being there for the family caring for all of us all the time. And now she’s really trying to take back control and find her superpower at the moment and I’m loving seeing that change in her as well that transformation as it’s slowly starting to happen for her as well. So they’re gonna be my two heroes.

Charlotte Nelson 55:57
Okay, so I think for me popping my parents first. And that’s because I saw them, they introduced entrepreneurship to me from an early age. So my dad, when I was 14, I started working with my dad’s company, when I was about, I think six or seven, I saw my mom … So they made it be normal to me to know that entrepreneurship was actually accessible. You could do it and I saw them grow their business and got to be involved in it. So that I definitely think shaped on why I was able. When I’ve done the degree and stuff I thought actually I could go into entrepreneurship about habits and get a job because I saw actually it was quite normal and it wasn’t something that would be frowned upon. So I think that was a massive influence and why and I’ve always been able to feel bold enough to be able to go and do that because the best support massively both my parents and then I had a mentor when I was first about 21. She said, I really wish I was still in touch with her now because she never knew how much he impacted me. And I think the great thing about mentors is they can often see ahead for you before you can they believe in you before often you can as well. And it can really impact them through that guidance with this particular lady. By the support she set me on even dim certain qualifications, the way she helped me shape my business, it definitely is influenced and even what we do now and just me thinking as women, as a person that you can always do more. And I think that’s what I impart and then a great staff and our clients as well as that belief sometimes before they even believe in a suit. When you can hold on to that until you get your own self-belief as well.

Richard Matthews 57:44
It’s amazing too, how impactful certain people will be in your life. Right and I look back over my life and I had you know, teachers and business people who have been heroes of mine, and my parents as well and you don’t realize sometimes until years later. Like little things that someone said or showed you how to do how much they impacted your life.

Charlotte Nelson 58:05
Yeah.

Richard Matthews 58:07
Like one of the things that really surprised me was like my son just started reading the Rich Dad books. The Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of books and he’s listening to him on audiobook is he’s an auditory learner. And so I’m getting to hear them again and realizing I was like, wow, like a lot of my like thinking and thought processes came from reading those books as a kid myself. And you don’t realize that till you’re an adult, you go back and look at them. You’re like, oh, wow, that’s like a thing I say all the time. And it came from this hero in my life.

Charlotte Nelson 58:39
Yeah. It’s great hindsight, it’s an amazing thing to see afterward. Sometimes. No, that’s great. Your son’s reading this, but how else is he?

Richard Matthews 58:50
He’s 10. I’ve got four of them. I’ve got a 10-year-old, a six-year-old, a three-year-old and an 11-month-old.

Charlotte Nelson 58:56
I love it, busy.

Richard Matthews 58:59
You can probably hear them in the background actually, they’re over there.

Charlotte Nelson 59:05
Surprisingly quiet.

Richard Matthews 59:10
They are amazing. I don’t know what I would be doing in my life without them but they’re the reason I do pretty much everything I do. So it’s super fun. So my last question for you here is guiding principles. Top of one or two principles or actions that you regularly use that you think to contribute to the success and influence that you guys have in your business may be something you guys wish you had known when you first started out on this entrepreneurial journey together.

Charlotte Nelson 59:45
For me would be perfection doesn’t exist for a long time. I think that held us back in thinking that things needed to be a certain way. Show up and easy to look like x, y & z you need to do this in order to do that. And when they show us call it shackles because it holds so many people back. And when they could have seen women have results, whatever it may look like to them, if they just actually got on with it and didn’t worry about it, I needed to look or feel a certain way. I think that goes in all aspects of your life. So that perfection doesn’t exist. You may think it does, but it doesn’t. No one or nothing or no laws, no process, no business is perfect. And the more you understand, the more you’re just actually going out there and do it. I’ve been that’s been a big guide. Now, if things aren’t perfect, we’re still saying with data, but I could still get out. And we’re still going to do it. And number two makes it as a long you know … evolving process.

Grace Barrett 1:00:45
I would definitely follow on with that, say get support as well. You don’t have to do it alone. I’m of the view that there’s no such thing as a self-made millionaire because they always have somebody around them, whether it’s somebody in their team like-minded individuals or even business besties as well, or a mentor, but get support. You don’t have to do it alone, surround yourself with like-minded people, people that get it, people that are on the same journey with you, people that are few steps ahead of you, as well. So that you’re always striving and moving forward and putting yourself forward as well. So something that I really try to ingrain and reiterate, when I’m talking to my audiences and our clients as well, you know, don’t just figure it out alone and get help towards other people as well.

Richard Matthews 1:01:41
It’s really important to understand how important it is to think in terms of like you should have someone that is behind you, that you’re helping and someone that’s in front of you that you’re getting help from, right because there’s so much value on both sides of that as well as having running partners peers that you’re running along with. And look at that triad of relationships if you can set those up in your life, it really helps push you forward. And to that point, one of my peers that I run within my business mentioned to me something about perfectionism that has really, really stuck. And she said that perfection is the lowest standard you can hold yourself to. Because perfection is not something you can achieve. Right? So it’s like you have to- if it’s the lowest standard, right and you’re looking to hold your business to a higher standard than perfection is not it. Right. So you have to have a different standard and for me, it’s been shipping right you have to ship you have to get the product or the service out to the market and actually make the offer right and if you don’t ever get there, you don’t have anything so it’s a much better standard to hold yourself to.

Charlotte Nelson 1:02:52
Yeah, I love that reframe it, just eliminates it altogether.

Just take out the …

Richard Matthews 1:03:05
The lowest standard you can hold yourself to is perfection. So anyway, it was a great reframe for me because there’s someone who struggles with wanting everything to be perfect. And realizing that like, you know, you just have to do it and like get things out and you know, adjust and course-correct as you’re going along. So yeah, man. Thanks a lot – So that is basically it for our interview, but I do one last thing. It’s something I call the Hero Challenge and the Hero Challenge is pretty simple. We do it on every show. It’s basically this, do you guys have someone in your network or in your life that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they? First names are fine. And why do you think they should come to our show and share their story.

Grace Barrett 1:03:51
I would say –

Charlotte Nelson 1:03:53
Shawna.

Grace Barrett 1:04:03
So yeah, we’ve got an amazing client, Shawna, who has taught how many thousands of children.

Charlotte Nelson 1:04:13
Over the years. And I think it’s over 10,000.

Grace Barrett 1:04:17
Over 10,000 children and over a short period of time, and she’s named in the space as a Child Whisperer. So really working with children, understanding children, and working with families essentially have been empowering families. And she’s just going from strength to strength, you know, just really taking that brand and running event magnetizing families to come into a world and work with that. So we just think she would be the perfect fit for your show and just sharing a story, what she’s been through over the years, and you know, her forward vision as well as to where she wants to take her brand and business to.

Charlotte Nelson 1:04:34
And I think what’s also great about her, she’s had some personal struggles. And she’s managed to use that to fuel how it compels me to tell if I think it’s a great place to share what she’s been through.

Richard Matthews 1:05:16
That’s really cool. We’ll reach out after the show and see about getting her details we can have her on because that sounds really fascinating to me, just on a personal level, because I have a bunch of kids I would love to be able to do child whispering stuff. I don’t like I mentioned my three younger ones are daughters, and I love the crap out of them, but they don’t make any sense at all. One of them might, my toddler is something else. I can’t even begin to describe the things that she says and does. I’m like, I don’t get it. My son, I totally understand right, like he and I are on the same wavelength all the time. And like I get him and like my – he does think of my wife’s like, I don’t understand. I’m like, I get it totally, he makes sense. But my daughters, is like another world completely. So, –

Charlotte Nelson 1:06:08
-Wait ’til they get older, it gets worse.

Richard Matthews 1:06:14
Once they hit teenagerhood, I hear it gets significantly more fun. Yeah, and I was I just realized the other day, I’m going to have a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old girl in my house at the same time, right when my son leaves, right, so my son’s gonna leave I’m gonna have teenage daughters.

Charlotte Nelson 1:06:38
– And the best thing is you get to be there.

– Should never give up.

Richard Matthews 1:06:47
I think you’re the way that’s gonna go down is, you know, every four weeks or so I’m going to spend the weekend over my son’s house and be like, “Hey, I got kicked out.” I’ll just move in with my son for a while. So thank you guys so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. It was super fun and getting to talk to both of you, Grace and Charlotte. So the last thing we do is just where can people find you, right? Who are the right people to reach out to? And where can they find you online or if they’re looking to work for someone like you guys?

Grace Barrett 1:07:27
So we’re usually hanging out on Facebook. And we’ve got our free community called the Female Entrepreneur Collective. So that’s where we have all the SHE-E-O vibing off each other really highly interactive, really great vibes there. And we’ve also got Instagram as well, which is Grace, underscore and underscore Charlotte underscore. Sorry, it’s a bit confusing.

Charlotte Nelson 1:07:59
But Grace and Charlotte were taken names.

Grace Barrett 1:08:04
So you can hit us up on either Facebook or Instagram. If you want to hit us up personally, I’m Grace Nelson. And this is Charlotte Barrett. And you can find our profiles on Facebook.

Richard Matthews 1:08:17
And we’ll see if we can link all those in the show notes for people on here. So again, thank you so much for coming on the show you guys have any final words of wisdom for our audience before we hit this stop record button and end the episode?

Charlotte Nelson 1:08:30
Thank you for having us. We’ve had a real ball. And everyone, to keep them shiny with their superpowers. And if they haven’t found that yet, go on that journey because everyone has something amazing about to show, as well.

Grace Barrett 1:08:45
And stop sitting on the fence. Stop being stuck in your head start now. That’s when the magic the true magic will start to unravel.

Richard Matthews 1:08:55
You heard them. Start now. Find your superpowers. Get out there. The world needs to hear your story, needs your value, needs the things that you can bring to the table. So again, thank you so much for coming on to the show. And I can’t wait to have you guys back on in the future sometime. Thank you.

Grace Barrett 1:09:12
Thank you, Richard.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai