From Burnout to Business Success: A Conversation with Charity Brown

Are you ready to gain clarity in your business and mindset? This week, I sit down with the incredible Charity Brown, a hybrid coach, consultant, and entrepreneur with a passion for helping business owners scale successfully. Charity shares her inspiring journey—from accounting to high-level business consulting, her personal struggles and triumphs, and the mindset shifts that led her to success.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• [00:03:25] Charity’s journey from accounting to business consulting and coaching
• [00:05:27] How a young mom turned her struggles into a thriving bookkeeping business
• [00:09:00] The shocking moment she uncovered financial fraud—and how it changed her career
• [00:12:00] Overcoming burnout, weight gain, and personal loss to rebuild a life of joy and purpose
• [00:17:00] The power of mentorship and coaching—how it transformed her mindset and business
• [00:31:00] Daily habits that set Charity up for success, including affirmations and visualization
• [00:32:42] Charity’s Luxury Business Accelerators—an immersive retreat experience in Mexico for entrepreneurs
• [00:34:40] How Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank discovered her and endorsed her business
• [00:42:16] Why inner fitness is just as important as business strategy
• [00:44:49] Charity’s favorite cocktail and why she only drinks Tito’s Vodka

Final Takeaway:
Your mindset and inner work are just as critical to your success as your business strategy. Charity’s journey proves that transformation is possible when you take back your power, find mentorship, and commit to growth.

Connect with Charity:
Website: charitybrown.biz
Books: Create Clarity with Charity on Amazon
Podcast: Create Clarity with Charity (Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & more)
Instagram & YouTube: @charitybrownbiz

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Transcript

[00:00:36] Charity Brown: Charity. 

[00:00:38] Audio Only - All Participants: Hi there. 

[00:00:39] Charity Brown: it's great to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Where are you in this world? Well, right now I am in, um, Puerto Panasco, Sonora, Mexico. Nice. Yes. Good for you. Yeah. I've been here a couple of months now, so I have a house here and in Phoenix.

[00:00:59] In Phoenix. [00:01:00] Okay. Very 

[00:01:00] Penny Fitzgerald: good. Nice. Okay. I'm in Sarasota, Florida and it's cold. Ooh, yeah. It wasn't for Florida. 

[00:01:08] Charity Brown: It is that I love Florida though. It's been, my family's from there, so it's, it's a great place to visit. Yeah. 

[00:01:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. We have a place in Iowa too. So, um, do the sun chasing thing. 

[00:01:25] Charity Brown: Oh, yeah. Oh, my family's from Des Moines.

[00:01:27] I used to go to Iowa like every For real? Yeah, like every summer I go to Des Moines to visit my great uncle who owned Sorenson's Health Gym. He was like one of the first bodybuilders in the 1940s, fifties. Oh my gosh. And like a health gym. It was kind of like a new thing, like dumbbells and stuff. . So he was, he was kind of famous in Des Moines for his That's 

[00:01:50] Penny Fitzgerald: very cool.

[00:01:51] Charity Brown: Gym. Yeah. And as a kid growing up, I would go work there for the summer. 

[00:01:56] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow, [00:02:00] yeah, yeah, I lived in Des Moines for a few years. Um, well, about 15, um, early, like after, after college and before snowbirding. 

[00:02:10] Charity Brown: Yes. Oh, I love being a snowbird for sure. I'm cause I'm originally from Oregon and it's rainy and cold there all the time.

[00:02:15] Oh, it's beautiful. But yeah, it is kind of chilly and damp. It's very lush and very green, but very wet. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So I ran away to Arizona, you know, like, oh, and finally my daughter's 20, in her 20s and my, you know, loved ones that were, you know, ailing had passed away. And I felt like I did everything I could there to like.

[00:02:40] You know, grow. And so I moved to Arizona. Good for 

[00:02:46] Penny Fitzgerald: you. 

[00:02:46] Charity Brown: Yeah. Like the first person out of four generations of my family to leave the state. So it was kind of like, everyone was like, no, don't go.

[00:02:58] Penny Fitzgerald: You can still come back and visit, you [00:03:00] know, that's the thing. People are around or wherever you want to go. Fantastic. Okay. So I was looking something I was checking out your social profiles and stuff and you, you work with entrepreneurs, but also businesses, right? And corporate. So I guess just tell us what you do and give us your own definition or description of.

[00:03:23] What you do? 

[00:03:25] Charity Brown: Okay. Yeah. I'm a hybrid coach and consultant. Um, I do high level CFO consulting because I've been an accountant since 1999. There's a lot of, not a lot of joy in that profession that you, you know, if you're a numbers person, you can get creative with it, but I'm, I'm a more people person. So I like the kind of.

[00:03:47] You know, working with the business owners, helping scale their businesses, creating live plans and business GPS to help people get dialed into the key areas to, um, you know, be [00:04:00] successful in their business, usually using numbers, um, and different software. And, um. Mentors and coaches. So my platform create clarity with charity is that high level hybrid coaching and consulting platform where I help entrepreneurs and business owners dial into their key business, um, metrics and plans and goals and help them stay accountable to their goals.

[00:04:27] Penny Fitzgerald: That's great. So you're blending the best of both worlds. You have the number side, which a lot of entrepreneurs and creatives are. It's not our, it's not our wheelhouse. 

[00:04:38] Charity Brown: Yeah. And you kind of need college for it. So it's like one of those degrees that like you kind of have to have to, you know, It's always like being a doctor or nurse or, you know, an attorney, you have to go to school for it.

[00:04:50] So a lot of people are like turned off by it because math has never been anyone's favorite subject. Right. Very few. I mean, well, 

[00:04:59] Penny Fitzgerald: [00:05:00] yeah, I'm fortunate to have, um, so my husband's really into math and our two sons, um, one's an actuary and the other teaches math. Awesome. But it's either men, 

[00:05:13] Charity Brown: the women in math are different.

[00:05:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Exactly. I'm a minority, 

[00:05:18] Charity Brown: always in the classroom, so. 

[00:05:22] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh my gosh. So how did you get into what you do? How did you, what led you to it? 

[00:05:27] Charity Brown: Um, well, in 1999, I graduated with a degree in business and accounting. Um, I was a young mom. I actually started out as a. I got my nail, my, I was a nail tech when I was 18, 19 and started my salon.

[00:05:45] Um, and that was before I was pregnant and my little small town that I grew up in, um, and I just thought like all these clients are just going to come. Coming through the door, you know, like all my friends were going to show up when I turned the open sign on. Right. But that's not really how it works. [00:06:00] I mean, you have a few people that will support you, but to support a business, it takes a lot more, you know, to do that.

[00:06:06] Um, and I didn't know anything about business. And so while I was waiting for my book of business to fill up, I

[00:06:18] I was building my Beauty business. And so that was, that's what got me into, you know, um, Business and accounting. Um, because I had never like as a kid, I'd never thought, oh, I want to be an accountant. Like, of course, I was never like my big dream. No. But what happened was I went to school and I got a business transfer degree to get into Oregon State University.

[00:06:49] And my grandpa, who was an economics professor was mentoring me and helping me And supporting me through, um, yeah. And so he was like, look at the paper, you know, [00:07:00] and find what kind of jobs are there in the paper. And he's like, just study the Sunday times every time it comes out and just look at all the jobs.

[00:07:07] Like, wow, there's a lot of jobs and counting numbers counts, payable payroll money, all these jobs all the time. He's like, yeah, you would never be without a job if you know your numbers. So it's. Yeah. So I started taking accounting one, two, three, and then I was like, well, I'm actually pretty good at this.

[00:07:24] So cool. I kept going. And, um, so yeah, when I graduated, I started my own bookkeeping business, um, at payroll and bookkeeping business. I had one client, her name was Janet. She was like my first real mentor. Like she was amazing. She, she was, um, Just like a guiding light in my life, um, because she was my first client and she also supported me when I was pregnant because I was pregnant the last year of college with my daughter, Juliana, and, you know, I was, [00:08:00] you know, struggling and she supported me because I didn't have a lot of support at that time.

[00:08:05] I actually, um, remember her. Kind of being like that mom, I always needed to, to help me as a mom. Um, so she was great and she like was my first client and she owned like an airplane and like a commerce. Center and like high contracts with like UPS and like, so I got this big account, like multi million dollar account.

[00:08:30] Like, wow. Yeah. So before I was even graduated, I was already making like a hundred thousand dollars a year on my business as a bookkeeper and accountant. Yeah. So I ditched the beautician business. I wasn't really paying my bills. It was kind of, you know, being a freelancer and it's kind of hard. And so, uh, yeah, and that was how I got into the numbers.

[00:08:54] Like she really trusted me and I found somebody embezzling [00:09:00] and her commerce center out of state. And so that's how I knew I got confident in my numbers because I actually really caught a thief. 

[00:09:08] Penny Fitzgerald: Wow. 

[00:09:09] Charity Brown: So, at that point, then I started working for small businesses and helping them get out of trouble with the IRS, filing, and a lot of restaurants, car lots, security companies.

[00:09:20] Um, and then I got into the restaurant business and opened my own restaurant. And, yeah, I had five lottery facilities. Holy cow! Uh huh. But it was hard. I was like, all my money that I was making was from my accounting business and I was filtering it into the restaurants and was just eating up all my money and my time and my sanity.

[00:09:41] So that's when I had my, yeah, that's when I like literally got burnt out. 

[00:09:47] Yeah. You could see that. Yeah. Holy cow. So why did you, um, what was it about the restaurant business that drew you in or what attracted you to it? 

[00:09:57] Um, well, the money, [00:10:00] well, cause I had a client who had like five restaurants and I was in charge of like, you know, the financials and payroll and all that stuff.

[00:10:09] So I was like, you know, I think I could do this. I could make a ton of money. And my friends owned a restaurant and they were right next door to my office and they needed help. So they gave me 50 percent partnership to come in and clean up all their accounting stuff. So I used my. My equity, my sweat equity to get positioned in the restaurant business.

[00:10:30] Okay. Okay. Yeah. I 

[00:10:31] Penny Fitzgerald: mean, it's interesting how those opportunities just pop up and then yeah, I just follow this path. 

[00:10:37] Charity Brown: Yeah. And then I was doing that for like 15 years and it just burnt me out completely. I ended up selling my restaurants. Um, and then moving to Portland out of my small town where I grew up and worked for a big corporation that had 25 locations in Portland area.

[00:10:57] Um, the pizzicatos, the Lovejoy [00:11:00] bakeries and the South Italian restaurants, and I was their corporate controller. So then I got into corporate hospitality, restaurant business, multiple chains, multiple franchises. That was a lot and it was not fun and that is probably where I had my literally like midlife crisis where like I lost all the joy and finding what I love to do in life, you know, I, you know, was in a dysfunctional relationship.

[00:11:25] I was raising my daughter who was kind of an unruly teen at that time. 

[00:11:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:11:31] Charity Brown: Yeah. As we were. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:37] Yeah. And then that's what I wrote my book on, the Create Clarity With Charity book and the podcast that I have is all about, you know, finding the happiness factor, coming back from resilient, you know, being resilient. I love that. Yeah, overcoming, you know, failures and, um, kind of despair because I lost a lot of [00:12:00] people.

[00:12:00] My loved ones passed away, like all within like five years, I lost five people that were like my solids. And so that also impacted my mental health, my physical wellbeing, I've pretty much lost sight of anything that. You know, made me joyful, happy and free 

[00:12:18] and was 

[00:12:19] just spiraling into doom and gloom. And I gained like 80 pounds.

[00:12:24] I've lost over a hundred pounds in the last, like six years ago, I lost all the way. Yeah. Cause I gained a ton of weight because I was on all these steroids and drugs because I had these massive back surgeries. I had to have two back surgeries, um, and they were just. Back then they were just popping us full of Vicodin and steroids.

[00:12:44] Like, like I get the prescriptions, they were giving us, there's like 90 to a hundred and they would refill it every two weeks. And so they were just keeping me medicated and not giving me the surgery. And so I blew up no fix. It was just medicating, medicating, medicating, you know, [00:13:00] and you know, it just took me into a very ugly place and I gained all this weight.

[00:13:04] And, um, you know, I had to decide, you know, at that point, am I going to be You know, kind of on social security or, uh, you know, a vegetable pouch, or am I going to beat this, you know, am I going to take my power back and find out what really matters to me and what makes me happy and how I can do that each day.

[00:13:32] And that's how the nine steps to inner freedom came about. Cool. 

[00:13:38] Penny Fitzgerald: That's, yeah. What a, you know, we follow, we, we just put one foot in front of the other. It feels like to me anyway, that we, we get caught in a rut sometimes that, okay, this is what I have to do. These are my responsibilities. This is what I need to do.

[00:13:52] So I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and it leads you down a path. But then it's like you said, you didn't have [00:14:00] a conscious decision. You took kind of a, a wake up call to find, oh my gosh, what's, what am I doing? Like to follow your joy and to turn it around. And when you follow you, don't you feel too?

[00:14:14] Like when you follow your joy, that brings the good things that's going to bring the money instead and the success and the, where you're helping and serving other people rather than just putting one foot in front of the other. But we lose sight of that. Yeah. 

[00:14:30] Charity Brown: Yeah, and that's, you know, I was, I'm always an empath and a giver, like, I'm a giver, giver, giver, you know, hence the name, but I really try to live up to my name.

[00:14:41] I don't know why my parents named me that. I guess it's pretty, but it's a, it's a great. Thing to be able to be of service to others, but when you're depleted yourself and your cup isn't full and you continue giving, then it leads to a place of resentment and, you know, overgiving can cause a lot of depression [00:15:00] and feeling unworthy and unloved and all that.

[00:15:02] And so I had to learn how to undo all that. Cause I was doing that. I was self sacrificing. 

[00:15:10] Penny Fitzgerald: And that doesn't serve anyone. You're not, it doesn't really help the people that you want to help by being that constant giver and being in that space. Yeah. Yeah. So, 

[00:15:22] Charity Brown: I mean, it's kind of like one day, literally, I remember laying in bed and I used to have to crawl to get out of bed in the morning because of my back surgeries.

[00:15:31] It was so bad. That was so bad that I would be in so much pain that I couldn't even. You know, walk, um, and I was like, this is it, like, I'm going to get up and I stood up in pain, literally, and I'm like, I'm done. I was, I was literally with that conviction. It was a switch. And, and it happened when I started doing, I think it's the 57 steps with Tai Lopez.

[00:15:59] So I'm laying in [00:16:00] bed healing from this back surgeries. I'm on workers comp. I'm miserable. I am in this dysfunctional relationship. I'm breaking up with my fiance. My daughter's being unruly. I'm like, I got to change my life. Like everything is just not working. So I saw this course. The 57 steps with Tai Lopez, shift your life, change your life.

[00:16:23] And while I was, I was going through those steps while I was healing, the light went on. And so that's why I really push mentorship and coaching programs because they do work. The shift for the transformation is there. If you have. Uh, you know, a framework that works and you have somebody who has really done it and and he has he's nailed some of those amazing coaching programs and that that helped me.

[00:16:54] Take my life back at that incident time. I was like, there's nothing gonna stop me. I'm going to [00:17:00] be who I was, who I wanted to be 10 years ago, who I wanted to be now, and I'm not going to give up on it. And I wrote out my vision, my plan. I started doing my dream boards. I started putting all the happy, joyful things around.

[00:17:14] I was locking the door on people that weren't bringing me joy, you know? 

[00:17:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. You were ready. 

[00:17:21] Charity Brown: I was ready. Yeah. 

[00:17:24] Penny Fitzgerald: And you were ready. Yeah. 

[00:17:27] Charity Brown: Yeah. And it worked. So like ever since then, cause not even just the, just the mental side of it. I also got some amazing business coaches out of it that helped me start now answer group, which is the consulting firm.

[00:17:40] That was endorsed by Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank on my five star business accelerator. Yeah, it all started 

[00:17:48] Penny Fitzgerald: manifesting after I, yeah, it brings more that it's like a momentum thing, right? You get it. Yeah. The momentum 

[00:17:55] Charity Brown: was like, because I do it every day. My morning power hour. I look at my dream [00:18:00] board.

[00:18:00] I look at my goals. You know, I get out in nature and go for a walk instead of laying there in pain and feeling sorry for myself. The only one who can change your life is yourself. You have to want it so bad because I could easily. Gave up and just lived off the state or something like been disabled and, you know, for 

[00:18:22] Penny Fitzgerald: that, you know, that amount of pain and yeah, to turn yourself around like that is big.

[00:18:29] It's, it's not an easy task and it's really inspiring to hear you talk about it. Thank you. 

[00:18:36] Charity Brown: Yeah, it was hard and I wrote about it in my book. Um, it really is a testament for women. You know, we face a lot of adversity over, you know, men in business, um, being taken seriously, you know, being respected, you know, having people, you know.

[00:18:55] Really be in it for the right reason with you, not trying to take advantage of [00:19:00] you or, you know, you gotta be on your P's and Q's. And so that can take a toll, you know, to feel unsupported, you know, or not have enough resources because there wasn't these podcasts and these coaching programs. Back then when I went to beauty school, I mean, I guess I did go to a Tony Robbins convention when I was like 19 and that did shift my life for when I went into the beauty business.

[00:19:24] Cause I was so lost. I was a lost team. Um, yeah. And he planted that seed in me then. And that's why I just always encourage, get a coach, you know, do those seminars, go to the raw raw seminars, you know, get a coach, get a consultant, get some framework. You know, always put yourself first when you wake up in the morning.

[00:19:44] What is your goals today? What is your best life look like? You know, um, how, how, how are you doing, you know, measuring your targets and things and then do everything else for everyone else because then you're full. [00:20:00] You feel clear and have the clarity on your success, what success looks like, you know, what, you know, a happy, joyful life looks like, what are you doing?

[00:20:12] Where are you at? Who are you with? You know, how much money are you making, you know, who's helping you. And if you can close your eyes and see that vision of what you look like, then, then you're going to. Yes. Your future 

[00:20:26] Penny Fitzgerald: self, your future self. 

[00:20:28] Charity Brown: Yeah. 

[00:20:28] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Oh, that's cool. That's a lot of the same thing that I preach.

[00:20:33] Charity Brown: Yeah. I saw that. Yes. I love that on your show. Of course 

[00:20:38] Penny Fitzgerald: it's good fit. Yeah. Okay. So tell us a little bit more about your book. What are you, what are you, what, what are the principles and like, tell our, tell our listeners what to discuss. 

[00:20:51] Charity Brown: So I have the create clarity with charity book that I wrote during COVID.

[00:20:56] I was isolated in my little box [00:21:00] for way too long, as we all were. So it helped me process, you know, um, a lot of the wounding and things I needed to heal. And, um, so the book is about that, you know, I did come from adversity. My mom was like 14 when she had my brother and almost 16 when she had me. And I came from, you know, a very.

[00:21:25] Alternative, let's say, um, childhood, so, you know, not having the right idea of who I was going to be when I grew up. Like, I literally can only think that all I wanted to be was a mom. That's like, I was just playing the kitchen and playing my baby dolls. I didn't think businesswoman, you know. Or like, oh, accountant or anything like that.

[00:21:46] So I kind of had to stumble through my pre adulthood. And so I wrote about those challenges in my book at the beginning, you know, because I did take the alternative way. [00:22:00] Like I dropped out of high school. I got my GED, um, and that was always frowned on, you know, I was always, I was already labeled a loser, you know, because my brother was a loser or.

[00:22:11] My mom was a teen mom or whatever, you know, every all societal norms put me in this box of failure and loser, you know, and so I had to carry that around with me and the lack of support, you know, from people just assuming, since these are the conditions that I'm from, that I'm going to be a loser. So I had to fight.

[00:22:33] Every day and I decided I am not going to be a loser. I don't care what they say, like, I'm, I hate high school. Like everyone was so catty. It was so annoying. Like I got my GED. It took me, like, my grandma drove me to the test. I didn't even study for it and I passed it. And then I went to beauty school before I was even 18.

[00:22:54] And I was, cause I wanted to be, I wanted, I wanted to do.[00:23:00] 

[00:23:01] So I wrote about that and the challenges of, you know, being unsupported and having all these issues of shame issues about failure, because no one ever teaches you when you're young. It's okay to fail. It's okay to not. It's okay not to fit into everyone's box, like 

[00:23:18] it 

[00:23:18] is okay to be yourself and to find your own way.

[00:23:22] And that's about kind of the foundation of the book is like to find your passion, to really dial in and pick yourself up from failures. How do you overcome, you know, those negative ego voices in your head that were planted there when you're a child, when it has to do with relationships with, you know, men or.

[00:23:41] Money or other people or yourself worth? And so it has a lot to do about how to build that and there's the nine steps of the inner freedom that I Certified in my my other mentor Alan Knight former Zen monk [00:24:00] He created this nine steps to inner freedom and he licensed me and I've been working with him for many years And so there is this very strategic way that you can forgive yourself and others, get rid of the resentment and all the heavy baggage we carry around that then follows us into our reality as adults.

[00:24:17] And, and so I. Practice these nine steps and teach them, 

[00:24:23] you 

[00:24:23] know, to, um, dial yourself in and kind of get calibrated for your best life. And the book talks about how I got to that point. How down did I have to go to find the light? 

[00:24:36] Kind of 

[00:24:36] thing. So that's what that book's about. I made, I, I wrote like four micro series after that.

[00:24:42] I took that book and I made little short books. Oh, great. Um, ones like Ignite Limit looks, well, the first one's Living Boldly because that was always, oh, you're so bold. How bold are you to just do what you feel is right when we all think you need to be doing this, you know, [00:25:00] wow. Expectations from somebody else.

[00:25:02] Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. You know, it's hard to pick yourself and be like, what am I passionate about? What do I like to do? And even if my mom and dad, they want me to, you know, be a doctor or a lawyer, or, you know, maybe they don't have any goals for me, whatever you need to find that. And how people are like, how do I find that?

[00:25:20] Because it's not something that you just sit down on the couch and all of a sudden you're like, okay. I know what it is. I meant to be a coach and a consultant. That's it. Yeah. I'm going to go spend 15 years failing so I can help people not fail. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. No. So, yeah, it's kind of like one of those, um, the book is like my legacy project.

[00:25:43] I want to rewrite it again and again and again, because I think there's so many things that I left out. 

[00:25:49] Penny Fitzgerald: Um, we evolve, right? I mean, we, yeah, that's the goal anyway, is to keep, to keep reinventing, keep evolving and keep getting better for, so we can be better for others and for [00:26:00] ourselves. 

[00:26:00] Charity Brown: Yeah, and that's the great thing about it is life is all about learning and, you know, resiliency and that we are resilient.

[00:26:09] It's like humans are so resilient, like the things that we can go through and then be back and, um, success the following year is just like, wow. Um, just don't get stuck in the past, you know, there's lots of ways to work through those kinds of emotions and, 

[00:26:31] um, 

[00:26:31] things I've done a lot of workshops, a lot of retreats, a lot of help from mentors, coaches, and practitioners that have mastered the art of, you know, reprogramming ourselves, right.

[00:26:44] Learning to love ourselves more. 

[00:26:47] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. You know, something you mentioned earlier about, um, you know, as kids, we're not, um, we're not really taught to fail, you know, or how to get out of that. Cause everybody's going to fail at something, some point, [00:27:00] you know, life is not a continuous upward trajectory where everything gets better and better and better.

[00:27:05] At some point you face something like you have, you know, as a kid, you have a test that you fail or. A project that doesn't go your way or you're not, you know, not everybody's in a student, so you're going to have those adversities that you have to figure out and to be equipped to, to know that. Okay.

[00:27:24] That's that failure doesn't define you. Right? It's a learning thing. It's the 

[00:27:30] Charity Brown: best. It's the best teacher. Failure is the best teacher and. It hurts and stings until you realize, actually, what can I learn from this? And I started, so in the restaurant business, you know, they fail fast. So when you launch new businesses, you want to fail first back, like just launch it.

[00:27:49] Gonna fail. Just do it. You know, and then you got to get in that. Okay. It's a game now. Instead of that feeling, you take that emotion and you get excited about it. [00:28:00] You know, fear factor, you know, use, try to re steer the emotionality because you know, it's just a given. It's part of life. And they don't teach us that when we're young.

[00:28:12] They think failure is bad. You feel like failure, you know, like, oh man, right? Um, but it's okay. And the kids need to know that, like, that's why you're in school is to fail. So you learn, fail, learn, fail, learn, fail, learn. I mean, if you're an A student the whole time, you're not going to learn life because life's harder to get.

[00:28:33] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. If you're an A student all along, all along, it's harder when you have that first failure. So like, what is this? Yeah. 

[00:28:43] Charity Brown: And in business, that's all you, I mean, most businesses. We'll hit like five to seven failures before they're successful. 

[00:28:50] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and how do you define failure because You know, what, what I look at for myself as being, uh, I didn't [00:29:00] do as well as I wanted to do.

[00:29:02] And you can't compare yourself to other people. What's your best today? You know, are you, are you putting out the best thing that you can do today? Are you serving your people the way that you want to, or the way that they need to be served or have asked for, then you're making progress and just keep doing it.

[00:29:20] Charity Brown: Yes. One win a day is all we need. And that's what I help people kind of get off that. When you look in the mirror, when you feel like I didn't. I suck, you know, like, yeah, those I am statements. Yeah. The I am like looking at yourself. I mean, actually, like, I want to focus on one win a day. I tell my clients from my students, like, that's a given when you look in the mirror in the morning, I want those.

[00:29:46] I am beautiful. I am successful. I am loved. I am worthy. I am enough. You know, once you start developing that relationship with yourself, when you look at yourself, Your subconscious [00:30:00] immediately changes and that's one of the easiest things you can do. It sounds cheesy and it's very uncomfortable. It feels really weird.

[00:30:07] But it works. 

[00:30:08] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. It works. Talk to yourself like you would your bestie, you know, use kind kindness and lift them up. Yeah. 

[00:30:16] Charity Brown: It helps. It really helps with that. You know. Cause I used to be my worst critic. I still am. I'm very like, I'm, I'm, I try to be a perfectionist and I have to, I had to ditch the perfectionism at the ditch, you know, the, the constant chatter in my head about critiquing and worrying.

[00:30:33] And, you know, it was like a, a bad cycle. You know, and when I finally quieted the mind with the nine steps, um, and doing these activities, putting myself first in the morning, doing my power hour, doing my IMs, doing my meditations, looking at my dream board, looking at my goals, really focusing on what it takes.

[00:30:55] To get me there. I, the, the [00:31:00] chatter gets quieter. 

[00:31:01] Audio Only - All Participants: Yeah. 

[00:31:02] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Totally. Totally love that. Um, starting your day out like that. That's fantastic. 

[00:31:11] Audio Only - All Participants: You 

[00:31:11] Penny Fitzgerald: know, a quick meditation. It doesn't have to be a long drawn out thing. Just a quick meditation, a quick affirmation, something grounding, get yourself out in the sunshine.

[00:31:21] Yes. Earth. Mm-hmm . Yeah. I love 

[00:31:25] Charity Brown: it. It helps. I love walking around barefoot. You know, I'm in Mexico, so I take my dogs to the beach every morning. Yay. I get get Earthed, yay by the beach. But I did it when I was in Arizona, in the desert, at like 5:00 AM I would go out with my dog. And get in the desert and just soak up the beautiful sunshine and stand in the light and just get recharged and just, you know, breathing in and doing yoga and mindful practices.

[00:31:51] It really will help manifest. First, you need to get super clear and that's how you can do it for your vision to [00:32:00] manifest. And if you continue doing that and you keep that momentum, everything starts coming to life, which is so exciting. 

[00:32:09] Penny Fitzgerald: It's all good things. Very cool. So what have you got going next?

[00:32:15] What's next for you? 

[00:32:17] Charity Brown: Uh, well today are, or that's why I'm in Mexico, the event center. So we're doing retreats, weekend business accelerators. So they get to stay at the luxury, um, five star resort, Las Palomas. And then we have a 10 hour Saturday where we get in the boardroom and we develop the mindset. The live plan, the business GPS and the billion dollar branding strategy.

[00:32:42] And they get their websites, their team, their branding, their branding reports, and their business GPS. So they have like their strategy, their action items, their accountability. And then, then they join the group and then we meet once a week to follow up. On the goals [00:33:00] on their business strategies, um, you know, problems, pain points, um, they get pretty much consulting an hour for consulting every, every week for their businesses.

[00:33:11] And so we're going to do the, the luxury business accelerator events here in Mexico. 

[00:33:18] Yeah. 

[00:33:19] Wow. 

[00:33:20] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. That sounds yummy. 

[00:33:24] Charity Brown: Yes. I'm excited. Yeah, I'm sure. Cause think of the transformation that people will experience and they're meeting new friends and getting accountability partners and yes, new friends for life for sure.

[00:33:39] Yes. And resources and tools and people that will act like we have some great consultants like Brian, the CEO of Ad Manatee, who owns the billion dollar branding portal, which is high and he'll be there. He'll he's doing. I have like five experts, I might have someone from Kevin Harrington's team because he's [00:34:00] our shark.

[00:34:01] Um, and he has, yeah, he, so for funding for people that want to get international licensing and things like that. 

[00:34:07] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. 

[00:34:07] Charity Brown: Um, and then we have Alan, who's this former Zen monk, he's a mindset and inner fitness guru. So he'll do. Part of the mindset shift at the front. So it's a four P's power position, power, planning, positioning, and profits.

[00:34:22] That's what it's the four P's. And so I have experts that come in that help with each of those areas. 

[00:34:31] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, that's, that's very exciting. So how did you, were you on Shark Tank? Did you present and that's how you got connected with Kevin? 

[00:34:40] Charity Brown: No, it was so crazy. It was during COVID. Um, and I started this.

[00:34:46] Business accelerator and my woman cave and literally, because I stopped having, yeah. And I was like, I had my little laptop, you know, and I [00:35:00] was helping like these leadership organization and I. It's like broke off into my own little accelerator group and there ended up being 25 or 30 people that went through that were like so excited and they did all these videos and testimonials for me and just thought like, and some of them were just, just graduated high school and it's COVID.

[00:35:20] They have nothing to do. They have nowhere to go. Everyone's lost. Everyone's like, I don't know, my business is failing, you know? So we started all these new businesses. From ranging from 18 year old to like 70 year old and we were all in one group together and, um, I did this video on YouTube and it went viral.

[00:35:42] I got like 1. 8 million views and then like a week later, Kevin's agent called me and said, Hey, we saw your video on the five star businesses about accelerator, which is the investor pitch. It's the investor pitch. So I was teaching them how to pitch their business and I used. [00:36:00] This template that I put together and Kevin said, you know, if they, everyone did that before they pitched the shark, they would fund 80 percent more businesses if they would just do what I teach in those five steps.

[00:36:14] And he said that would save everyone so much time and they would fund more businesses if everyone had that packet that I helped them put together. So he's like, I would like you to come to my show cause he has his own TV network, shark TV. And, um, in, in Florida, he, he's Tampa and, but it was COVID and I was, I was like, I'm not going to fly.

[00:36:39] I can't, I can't fly out. And he's like, okay, well I'll just do an endorsement. So he did an endorsement for me in his studio. The first one. And it was like, it hit home. It was like, oh my God, I'm doing something right. Oh my God, I'm doing this. I was like, so grateful. I was like, this really means I'm doing something right.

[00:36:55] Like I got a shark who just pulled me. I wasn't looking for him. I didn't find him on an ad. He wasn't, he [00:37:00] wasn't endorsing anyone then. Like he literally was like breaking off into his new business ventures. And, um, it was just like, that's what shifted my life when I knew that my manifestation and my changing of my life and that now, then I was isolating, I was helping all these people start their businesses now.

[00:37:18] And I was feeling joyful. Free and happy internally, even though I was stuck at home and COVID, you know, I felt freer than I ever had making a 

[00:37:28] Penny Fitzgerald: difference. 

[00:37:28] Charity Brown: And so. Yeah, so he just did that endorsement for me and it went viral on YouTube and, um, everyone just started joining. And then he called me again. A year later, and he said, okay, because the flights are back, he's like, I want you to come to my new studio in Tampa and his buddy, Bobby.

[00:37:50] Um, who is kind of a big celebrity producer guy. He set that all up for me and they flew me out and I went to his studio [00:38:00] and then he interviewed me. Oh, wow. Yeah. And he's, he's been on my podcast like five times too. He comes and he. Yeah. And he does it all for free. He doesn't make me pay him. And everyone's like, how did you do that?

[00:38:14] I don't know. He likes me, I guess. Cause they actually gave me a partnership too. So I have the shark team. We have our own page. Like, cause I work with investors and corporate. So I don't know. It was just an honor. Like the way it happened. Yeah. It was just like, yeah, it was just one of the best things that's ever happened to me in business.

[00:38:33] Really? Yeah. That's 

[00:38:34] Penny Fitzgerald: cool. That's stuff. You know, the stuff that you can't explain like that. It's just. It's everything's energy, you know, you're following your path, you're creating this thing. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. 

[00:38:49] Charity Brown: It 

[00:38:49] Penny Fitzgerald: is. 

[00:38:51] Charity Brown: Yeah. It's been fun. Like I've never giving up on it. I mean, I've had some failures since, you know, like the book wasn't a big hit.

[00:38:58] I spent a lot of money on [00:39:00] marketing. I spent too much here. I spent too much here. 

[00:39:01] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:39:02] Charity Brown: You know, business is business. You like, you, you can roll the dice, you can quantify things, you can, you know, plan them out. But the mechanisms of making them all run smoothly is an art. And so it comes with a lot of work, a lot of teamwork, and then there's all these, you know, and yeah, and you got to learn to manage the mess, you know, and then you don't want to be a mess, but it just does.

[00:39:23] So it 

[00:39:24] Penny Fitzgerald: happens. Yeah. Well, it's how you learn. It's the whole, you know, failing forward thing where you, yeah. Hopefully the failures are minor compared to the successes and to the impact that you can make. So yeah, just keeping all that in mind and keeping, keeping your eye on the prize. 

[00:39:43] Charity Brown: Yeah, exactly. And knowing that vision, the end game for me, that's being of service to women, giving them the tools and the power that they need mentally, emotionally, financially, and spiritually and business wise.

[00:39:59] If you can, [00:40:00] you know, all get that balanced, life can be amazing, right? Like I. I feel like I'm in the flow most of the time, ease and flow, you know, where you're just soaking it up. Like Abraham, you know, Abraham. 

[00:40:15] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:40:16] Charity Brown: Yeah. I love her. So. She's one of my mentors too, because I love listening to her. 

[00:40:21] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, cool.

[00:40:22] Charity Brown: Yeah. Um, and so I like to stay in that kind of elevated, energetically clear, not try to force anymore. Cause I used to force things a lot and that would cause a lot of failures. If things are resisting it, you got to stop and wait and breathe and think about it. 

[00:40:41] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Cause I've done a. Yeah. 

[00:40:43] Charity Brown: Cool. Yeah. Why?

[00:40:44] You know, the wise ask five wise and you will find the 

[00:40:47] Penny Fitzgerald: truth. There's an answer for every question. There's not a question without an answer to it. So you just have to find it. 

[00:40:54] Charity Brown: Yeah. Yeah. And having a mentor, a coach and groups. So that's like my main [00:41:00] mission is like, I didn't know about any of that until I was like in my twenties.

[00:41:05] Um, and then even after that, like Tony Robbins was like the only. Coach guru out there for many, many years, 

[00:41:13] Penny Fitzgerald: but I 

[00:41:14] Charity Brown: always would get his next book. I always would go to his conventions. I would always, you know, I, I was just, I just wanted to fix myself so bad, you know, like it was, and I'd have to say it will be your best project.

[00:41:28] So, right. 

[00:41:30] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. 

[00:41:30] Charity Brown: Right. That's a really great way to phrase that because it is. 

[00:41:35] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, and 

[00:41:37] Charity Brown: it's hard. It's work, you know, like that's why I call it inner fitness. It's literally like going to the gym I'm picking up a dumbbell every day. 

[00:41:43] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, 

[00:41:44] Charity Brown: right It's literally like getting on that treadmill working on yourself your inner core and your innermost desires and feelings emotions It is like going to the gym.

[00:41:54] You have to be that dedicated to yourself. And then you'll start realizing you're [00:42:00] flexing new muscles. You're building that, that new self worth and self esteem and that great vision. And you literally can reinvent yourself. Yeah. Oh, that's our choice. We have the power of choice. That's our superpower.

[00:42:16] Right. So free will. So you make the choice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's empowering when you really decide you yeah, 

[00:42:28] Penny Fitzgerald: yeah, I love it Okay. Um, can I change gears on you a little bit? Okay. So part of my podcast at the end of every episode, I ask my cast, what's your favorite cocktail or glass of wine? Like, what do you love to drink?

[00:42:47] Charity Brown: Um, well, I'm kind of like a picky drinker, let's say. Yes. I only drink one thing. I only drink Tito's because it's dog friendly. Vodka Titos [00:43:00] dog friendly. I didn't know that. Yeah. They donate their proceeds to the Humane Society and to kennels and they help dogs. 

[00:43:08] Audio Only - All Participants: Yeah. Titos. 

[00:43:09] Charity Brown: Yeah. Um, and it's light and I just drink it with Sprite and a lime or maybe a splash of ginger beer.

[00:43:16] I'm a simple 

[00:43:17] Penny Fitzgerald: Oh, ginger beer. Get a little, a little sass . Yeah. Like a 

[00:43:20] Charity Brown: little spice.

[00:43:25] Penny Fitzgerald: Have you ever tried jalapeno in there to like a little muddled jalapeno? It's good. Yum. Try that. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Sprite. Sprite. Like it has just a little bit of sweetness and some bubble. Just a 

[00:43:40] Charity Brown: little bit. And I actually like Sprite Zero even better. So then it's like guiltless drinking. It's like 80 calories.

[00:43:47] Yeah. Yeah. I like guiltless drinking. Yeah. 

[00:43:53] Penny Fitzgerald: That's a good, that's a very good thing. Um, okay. So what's a favorite memory with friends like [00:44:00] hanging out or with, with colleagues or, you know, what, what memory do you have? 

[00:44:04] Charity Brown: Oh my gosh. Oh, well, the first one I just came to mind, I just got back from Africa. Um, and with my girl group, we go every year and we went to, yeah, we went to, um, what was it?

[00:44:20] Vietnam and Cambodia the year before. And then this year we went to Africa, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Turkey, and yeah. I mean, I love to travel with my girls, like, I love to be free and experience new things and be on the water, like, we do a lot of boating and snorkeling and laying out and laughing and dancing and, you know, just traveling, I guess.

[00:44:49] With friends and my daughter and stuff like that's just brings my little warm hearts everywhere. 

[00:44:56] Penny Fitzgerald: I love it. I love to travel too, especially with friends. My, my hubby [00:45:00] and I have this group that we go at least every other year and sometimes every year, but somewhere. And it's just, there's nothing like it.

[00:45:09] Just, you know, each other so well, and you laugh at each other's whatever's 

[00:45:15] Charity Brown: yeah, be silly, goofy and free. I love that. We're just like magic carpet, right? Let's go. Like, we don't know what we're going to do, but we're going to have fun doing it. Go. 

[00:45:26] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, sure. Oh, that's wonderful. 

[00:45:29] Charity Brown: Yeah. 

[00:45:29] Penny Fitzgerald: Okay. So, um, what have I not asked you that you would love to share?

[00:45:38] Charity Brown: Um, Well, can I share my info with your audience? Absolutely. Because I am taking new clients and we're doing these events and I would love to jump on a zoom with anyone who's looking to. Do you, you know, find a new coach or, uh, the inner fitness program or the five star business accelerator? Um, you can check it out [00:46:00] at my website, charitybrown.

[00:46:02] biz and my Instagram and my YouTube channel. That's all charity brown biz, B I Z. And also you can find my books on Amazon, Create Clarity With Charity, and you can find my podcasts on. Apple and all the other channels. 

[00:46:19] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. I found you on Spotify. So yeah, cool. I will, I'll include links to all of that in my show notes too.

[00:46:26] So people can find you and yeah, fun. So you have, so you have, um, People there and you're doing your thing tomorrow. Is it tomorrow that you're doing some? Yeah. No, we're um, 

[00:46:39] Charity Brown: yeah We're we have guests here. So I'm doing some one on one coaching. So we have like, 

[00:46:45] Penny Fitzgerald: okay 

[00:46:46] Charity Brown: two people that are But the bigger events are gonna start in the spring when the weather gets nicer here Because we want to have everyone also have the luxury experience, not just the 10 hours in, in the boardroom.

[00:46:57] Yeah. Getting all their work, work, work . Yeah. We're also [00:47:00] gonna do like, yeah, like the sunset cruises, the horses, the, the Banes, if they want the quads, the beach, the luxury resort, the pools, you know, sky lounges. So we're gonna work all that in. Wonderful. So it's an experience. 

[00:47:16] Penny Fitzgerald: Mm mm-hmm . Yeah. That does sound totally yummy.

[00:47:19] Sorry, . Yeah. Yes. It will be yummy. Yes. All the fresh seafood. Oh, I love that. Very cool. Yes. Charity, this has been so fun. I'm so glad to meet you and grateful and I am just excited for you. This is a really fun thing. 

[00:47:41] Charity Brown: I'm excited for the next phase of life. You know, we have to keep excited about what we're doing.

[00:47:46] We're living our passion. All right. Live our passion, passion, helping others transform into their best self because I did it. You can't. 

[00:47:54] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 

[00:47:56] Charity Brown: I've 

[00:47:56] Penny Fitzgerald: heard it said, said both ways. Life is too short to not do what you love. [00:48:00] I've also heard life is too long to do what you don't love. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:06] It's so true. We, yeah. Walk toward your future, better self and enjoy every step. 

[00:48:14] Charity Brown: Yeah, because that's our superpower. We get to choose. Yeah. I mean, staying optimistic and having a wonderful group of people to encourage you and mentor you and support you is so key. And my, I have my school group where we do that.

[00:48:32] Um, the. The follow up coaching programs where we have our groups and there's so much love, you know, that comes from everyone else, you know, supporting each other that. I don't think there's any better way of growing your business. That's right. It's all 

[00:48:54] Penny Fitzgerald: about collaborations and support. Yeah. Girl power.

[00:48:58] Like your amazing podcast 

[00:48:59] Charity Brown: [00:49:00] like this. This is, this is an awesome way to do it as well. 

[00:49:03] Penny Fitzgerald: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I really get a lot of joy from hearing the stories and sharing them and lifting people up. So that's great. Yeah, 

[00:49:11] Charity Brown: that's wonderful. That's a gift. 

[00:49:13] Penny Fitzgerald: Yes. Oh, I 

[00:49:14] Charity Brown: love 

[00:49:14] Penny Fitzgerald: it. 

[00:49:14] Charity Brown: Yeah. Yay. Penny. Well, we'll have to do this again.

[00:49:18] Maybe you could be on my show. I would love to. Yeah. That would be great. Okay. 

[00:49:23] Penny Fitzgerald: I'd love that. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you again, Charity. Have so much fun in Mexico and with your clients. It's going to be amazing. I'm sure. Yes. It's going to be awesome. Yay. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. 

[00:49:37] Audio Only - All Participants: Bye. [00:50:00]