The Journey to Self-Reliance and Success

How would your life change if you dared to bet on yourself? Join Charli Chanté on the Gag Is Podcast as she unpacks the remarkable story behind "Dare to Become," a book that chronicles the journey of a woman entrepreneur who rose from humble beginnings to build a successful empire. Charli dives deep into the lessons of discipline, support, and personalized communication, reflecting on her own entrepreneurial path. This episode promises to inspire and motivate, encouraging you to take bold steps toward your dreams and embrace the discomfort that comes with growth.

Discover the power of self-reliance and the importance of crafting a positive work environment as Charli shares the story of a woman who quit her stable job, choosing to support herself without financial help from her spouse. This episode covers essential topics such as having a clear exit strategy, setting tangible goals, and paving your own path despite the challenges. Grab a snack and your favorite drink, and get ready for a compelling conversation that will leave you feeling empowered and ready to take on your entrepreneurial journey with renewed vigor.

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Chapters

• 0:35 Entrepreneurial Journey
• 13:22 Bet on Yourself

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to the Gag Is Podcast. I am your girl, charli Chanté. Thank you for joining me on another Friday. Oh man, it seems like these days are just like passing, passing, passing right, and I feel like I'm always like happy Friday, welcome back, guys. Like before you know it, it's going to be Thanksgiving, it's going to be Christmas, it's going to be New Year's, but you know, we have to take it for what it is and we just have to go from there, and so that should tell you that time waits for no one. So if there's anything you want to do, you got to go ahead and do it now, because time waits for no one. Today's a special one, um, I I've spoken in the past about a lot of self-care, and one of the things that I do for self-care is to read.

Speaker 1: 1:31

I love, love, love to read, um, and so today I've had the pleasure of reviewing a book called Dare to Become Very, very, very good book. We're going to jump into some of that here in a moment. So, if you have not already, grab your snack, grab your drink and let's go ahead and get started and jump into this book review. So this book is a book written by a woman who has several businesses and has become an entrepreneur over the last decade. Now, typically when I see books like this, or I read books like this, I always think, okay, what's this person's story? And is this person writing a story because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth? What's going to take place in this book and what can I take from this book? This is a book that I could read two, three more times because I feel like it was so good that I'm sure there were some things I missed, but this is one of those books that I couldn't put down. I couldn't stop reading it Like I wanted more and more and more.

Speaker 1: 2:55

This book is very authentic, very authentic from her early upbringing all the way to where she is now. Life struggles along the way. I don't think there's enough time to even talk to you guys about how good this book is, and anytime I read a good book, I always recommend it, and this is a must read for any woman out there that is going to soon start their entrepreneur journey. Who has been thinking about it, who has had any doubt about it? This is the book for you. I kid you not. I really love this book how she started off in her family's business and how that led her to the work ethic that she has now. There's many times in the book where she talks about the experiences that she's had. She's many times in the book where she talks about the experiences that she's had. She's gotten to go overseas and go to college and have experiences and such, and I will say I think I may have stayed overseas with some of the opportunities that she was given, but she decided to come back to the States, ended up going back to her family's business and just kind of finding herself.

Speaker 1: 4:20

One of the big things and this is something because you guys know, last year I started this podcast. We're coming up on a year and one of the big things was how much discipline do I have? Do I have enough discipline to be an entrepreneur? Do I have the tools? Do I have what it takes to become an entrepreneur? And I ended up talking to my best friends and they were like you're good, you got it, and whatever you don't have you'll figure out along the way. And so I started the company in March but I and I soft launched the podcast in June and then I hard launched in September. So we are coming up on that one year.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Um, and I feel like the rollercoaster that I have been on is what she talks about in her book. Um, you know, cause a lot of times people make it like, oh, I started this business and it was just peaches and cream. She started literally from the bottom and one thing that stuck out is how people didn't believe in her and people didn't support her initially, and she didn't really let that detour her from what it is she wanted to do. She knew that this was something that she wanted to do to fulfill her, and many times I kind of feel like that. I'm like I'll talk more about that in the anniversary episode. I'm going to talk about people who you think will have your back and who are the closest to you, but then when you start out on a venture, on a journey, it turns out to be anything but that. With the support journey, it turns out to be anything but that. With the support man.

Speaker 1: 6:17

This book is so, so, so, super good, and I have not met her in person, but I think that I would like to meet her because there's just so much information in there that I walked away with that one of the biggest things that I took away is always start your emails and things with a salutation, good morning, good evening, something is that could. And I went back and I looked at some of my stuff and I'm like man, I'm like many times I've just started an email hi, charlotte, or hi such and such. You know, there is no personable feeling and greeting in that and oh my gosh. So I'm reviewing her book. I'm going to see if I can meet her in person one day, because I just feel like she would be an amazing person to meet and I feel like there's so much stuff that I could pick up from her and just be mentored by her. So I'm going to go. If you see me looking over, I'm just looking at my bullet points.

Speaker 1: 7:26

As I read this book, I just made sure that I took a lot of notes, I had a lot of bullet points and then I wanted to make sure that I tied it in with the show. Excuse me, tied it in with the show as well. And, as I mentioned, you know, this book is definitely something that I'm keeping on hand, keeping for reference pertaining to anything in my professional life, anything along my entrepreneurial journey, first, my professional life anything along my entrepreneurial journey. I'm one year in and I I'm I'm blessed to even be one year in in podcasting, although I don't have a major platform, like you know, with thousands and thousands of followers and things like that. I'm grateful for the little community that I do have, because it's rough in the first year and you know a lot of people are are people are broke within the first year, you know they just don't put the time and the effort into it. And for me, I'm my own recorder, editor, producer, I'm my own everything, and I think that's the thing about being an entrepreneur People don't realize the time commitment that it has. And I'm doing all this while I still work. I still work a full nine, nine to five, you know, and I still have to be a mom, but this is something that I've always wanted to do and I just I just stepped out on faith with it and you know, here we are a year later and things are good.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Another thing that I picked up is, oftentimes we don't realize that our childhood and our upbringing play important parts in our life, whether we realize it or not. And, as I said, in this book she details about how working in her family business helped shape her work ethic and how she is today, and I think I know from my upbringing I didn't have that type of upbringing where I had something like a family business or anything. Most of my lessons that I learned, most of my work ethic, comes from just learning. I did see my mother and my grandma work hard, and so I knew that I should always work, and it was just. What am I working toward? Am I going to want to work to somebody forever, or is there going to be a come point? Okay, y'all forgive me If there comes a point in time where you want to work for someone else, you know. So, like I said, a lot of personal touches in this book and I just can't say enough good things about this book. I think over the holidays I'm going to take the time to reread the book again to see what I can gather and garner from this book.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Another thing that stood out is she never gave up on her dream that she set out for herself. Oftentimes we set the bar really, really high and then the first time we encounter something that deviates us from that, we're like you know what? This is no longer my dream. Let me set my bar a little bit lower, because this is way too high for me. And one thing she did she always bet it on herself. And a lot of times we don't bet on ourselves. And every day I'm going to always bet on myself, always going to always bet on myself, because if I don't bet on me, nobody else is going to bet on me. Everybody else is taking a chance on me and they don't know what they're going to get. But with me, I know. If I bet on me, I know what I'm going to get because I'm going to put my all into it.

Speaker 1: 11:14

And anytime she faced an issue, she always sought to find a solution. And that's how I am as a person. We can have a problem and something can occur. Okay, the problem has happened, it can occur, we can't go back, we can't change that. And so anytime I'm faced with a problem or anything, I always look for the solution because, like I said, the problem has already occurred. And so, instead of harping on what has happened, how do we fix it? Like, how do we fix it? You know, is this something that we know got to take a couple steps back, or do I need to reach out to help. Is this something that I need to fix within me? How do I do that?

Speaker 1: 11:56

Um, and, like I said, anytime she got done with what she was doing in her personal life, she was able to go back to her family's restaurant. Um, and she had that kind of crush to Lino, but over time she knew that she couldn't go. She couldn't continue to go back to that. So although the business was a help you know it you know it could be a hindrance too, and so one of the slogans that I've kind of created for myself from reading this book is back to the basics, what we know to be tried and true. And sometimes you just have to take a breath, take a look and start, turn it around, go back, start back to the basics and I've found myself saying that a lot lately, like girl get back to the basics, just get back to the basics. What you know is tried and true. It's okay to start again. You've all had to start. Think about some of the greats. We've all had to restart over. So just because you have to start over doesn't mean you're a failure. It's just you're looking for a new route, that's, embark on your journey on Um.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Then my next bullet point is quitting your job. Um, she quit her job to start her companies. I don't know if I'm that brave Uh, I don't know if I'm that bold just to be like you know what. I can't do this anymore. You know, I know I'm worth better than this.

Speaker 1: 13:45

And she just quit her job and bet it heavily on herself and didn't accept any help from her husband, which I thought was so, so cool. I understand why she did it. And then I don't understand why she did it, because in the short term, you're like, oh, she didn't accept the help, like, oh, that's silly of her. But in the same token, when you are betting on yourself and when you're starting out, you don't want to have to say, well, so-and-so helped me. You want to have the ability to say I bet it on myself and I won, I did it on my own. But that's not to say that shouldn't take help, not to say anything like that. But I just thought that that was really cool. She took the experiences that she had had working for other high profile companies and she knew how she had been treated in those companies and she vowed not to treat her employees like that and I commend her for that, for not keeping that cycle of what I say is employee misuse, not keeping that alive and, in her own business, fostering a positive work environment, work relationship with her employees, work environment, work relationship with her employees.

Speaker 1: 15:06

I love her saying and I've probably said this saying like a million times before I read this book, without even realizing One of her favorite sayings out of the book is it's fine, I'm fine, it's going to be fine. I probably don't say, have not said those words, but I've probably been like I'm good, I'm good, it's cool, it's going to be all right. So we're always saying, yeah, it's going to be okay, it's going to be all right, it's going to be good. So throughout her book she uses that little slogan and it resonated with me very much. So One of the big things that stuck with me that I want to think about, but I'm kind of afraid to because again, I have to bet on myself and she bet it on herself.

Speaker 1: 16:00

And so since reading this book, I've taken the time. I had to take the time and I had to sit and I'm like okay, charlie, where do you want to go with this podcast? What do you want to do? What is your end plan. An exit plan is something like what steps are you going to take to leave the current situation so that you can fulfill your new hopes, dreams, so you can pursue your passion? And so I've had to start thinking where do I want to take this podcast? Is podcasting something that I solely want to do? Are there other avenues that I want to explore, or is podcasting it? Do I want to podcast and then have other avenues, then have other avenues? Where are we going with this? Because you can't just sit in front of this camera week in and week out in this microphone and just talk about different topics. This can't be the end goal. Where are we going? Are we going to use this to start a nonprofit? Are you going to use this to go and speak to women? What are we doing here? You've got to have that exit strategy because you can't.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Only for so long will I be able to work a nine to five and podcast at the same time, especially in the capacity that I'm doing it, where I'm doing all the editing and everything like that. And so since reading this book, I've really sat down and said, ok, this is what I want to do, this is my game plan, this is my five year game plan. This is how well I started with a three year game plan and I said this is what I want to do and this is where I want to be. And I said this is what I want to do and this is where I want to be. And I noticed that I started taking those steps to help me get to where I want to be in three years, you know. And when I started thinking about it, I was like, ok, I'm like this is super scary, so I quit thinking about it. And then I revisited and then I start writing down. I bounced it off, nikki. I was like, okay, I was like this is where I want to be. And she's like well, how are you going to get there? So I know I want to be here, but I want to get there. And I'm going to have to pave the road to get there, because where I want to be, that road is not paved already. There are some side dirt roads. You know that can help me get there. No-transcript. How much sacrifice are you willing to give to pave that road? And I feel like I can do it. I just have to restructure.

Speaker 1: 19:07

And, oddly enough, yesterday one of my old clips came up. Somebody had liked one of my old clips and it was from a year ago where I said, in order to move up, sometimes you got to be, you got to get uncomfortable to get comfortable, and I think I thought it was very ironic that I'm sitting here planning and trying to do all of this stuff and out of all the clips, like not none of my recent clips, not even clips from this year, but a clip from last year where I was talking about in order to get comfortable, sometimes you got to get uncomfortable Like wow, how ironic is that. Come up, so that let me know that I'm on the right track, that you know my thinking is good and you know it's. It's going to get uncomfortable, you know it's going to get uncomfortable. But when it gets uncomfortable I have to just put my seatbelt on and I'm going to have to hold on tight because it's going to be uncomfortable. It's going to get probably very uncomfortable, but while I'm uncomfortable, I know that the situation is working out for me to be comfortable and so I just keep that kind of like in the back of my mind. But again, I cannot say enough things, enough good things about this book and things about this book and when I'm in Atlanta I hope that I get to meet you one day I hope that I get to run into you Would love to talk more about.

Speaker 1: 20:49

I feel like this book needs a follow-up. I feel like this book definitely needs a follow-up with some kind of like rules of engagement book definitely needs a follow-up with some kind of like rules of engagement. But um would definitely love to meet this author, um, just to just to get some more information about her. Um, so, like I said, leading up into this one year anniversary show, I'm it's just nothing but positivity. Um, I am so super glad that I was able to review this book.

Speaker 1: 21:20

This book is, oh my man, you guys just gonna have to read it for yourself, yeah, and you're just gonna have to read it to yourself. I recommend any woman to go read it. I will put the link down below so that you can go and order this book. I'm not sure if it's available on Audible or anything, but I do know it's available via Amazon. Like I said, that link will be down below. Entrepreneur Her said that link will be down below, and so, yeah, so, entrepreneur her, that's just what it is so moral of the story bet on yourself, because ain't nobody else going to bet and take them chances on you that you will All right. So y'all know we always do a song lyric of the week, and so I felt like for this week, what is one of the songs that I utilize when I need that little motivation, when I need to get up and go? And so for my song lyric of the week I chose Believing in Me by Monica, very positive song, and every time I kind of get down a little bit, I always listen to that and it reminds me that I need to continue to do what I'm doing and strive to be better and continue to believe in me even if nobody else does.

Speaker 1: 22:55

All right, we have come to the end of the show and, like I always say, if you are not already, please make sure that you are following us on Instagram and YouTube. At thegagispod, feel free to follow my personal page at smartfit, underscore oki as well. Make sure that when you are listening to the episodes, that you are clicking the notification button so that every time a new episode is released, you are notified. Please, please, please. This is my big favorite of you. After you listen to an episode, please share it with someone. Also, leave a comment. Rate it, because that helps to get the show out to more people. All right, guys, because that helps to get the show out to more people. All right guys, until next week. I am your girl, charlie Shante. This is the Gag, is podcast. Bye, guys.