Secrets to Predictable Profits & Growing Beyond 7-Figures with Charles Gaudet – EP 181

Justin Donald: What's up, Charlie? Good to have you on the show.

Charles Gaudet: It's awesome to be here, my friend.

Justin Donald: Well, hey, this is perfect because you and I just had a chance to catch up in Florida. We are at a Strategic Coach Free Zone Frontier event, which is kind of their highest ticket community. I think that's a 50K a year community and you're part of that community. And I came as a guest of one of my private clients who wanted to expose me to all of you amazing people. And I just had a blast. So, wow, what a great group of people.

Charles Gaudet: Yeah. Believe it or not, I was actually there as a guest as well. So, you and I both were there. I want to just take a moment, Justin, to say I feel like I should be interviewing you again because the time that we spoke together, you're such an interesting individual, you've had so many different experiences in business and finance and whatnot, I feel like you and I could have sat down, quite frankly, for hours and hours and hours, and just kept going.

Justin Donald: Well, thanks for the kind words. The feelings are mutual, and hence the reason we're having this podcast is because you and I were sitting down, or actually, we were standing up, at a stand-up table outside in some gorgeous weather on a lunch break. And we were just talking about business and life and health and financial freedom. And it was in that moment, I had recently been on your podcast, which we can talk about, The Beyond 7-Figures Podcast, which is great. Check it out for those of you tuning in. And you and I met for the first time in person. I think we've got a handful of mutual friends but we talked. I mean, all of a sudden, lunch was done and we're like, "Wait a minute. We have a lot more that we want to talk about. Let's continue this via podcast.” So, here we are.

Charles Gaudet: Awesome. Well, I'm excited.

Justin Donald: Yeah. This will be fun. So, I would love to get into your story because you've had great successes as an entrepreneur. You've had failures as an entrepreneur. And by the way, I feel like the entrepreneurs that haven't had the failures aren't as well rounded, right? There's so much that you learn from that. And I would love to hear kind of how you became the entrepreneur you are. It sounds like you started at an early age, if memory serves me correctly. Either we talked about this or I read it somewhere. You had your first business at like four years old. Something like that, right?

Charles Gaudet: Right. Four years old. Exactly.

Justin Donald: So, how did that come to be?

Charles Gaudet: People, they make decisions for two reasons. Either do it out of inspiration or desperation. And it's funny when I hear people say, "Entrepreneurs are born.” And maybe some of them are but I wasn't born an entrepreneur. My dad worked every waking hour of every day, and that was seven days a week. So, he would get up for work before I got out of bed, he would come home after I went to bed, and I didn't really know my father very well until the third grade. But when I did see my dad, he would say, "Hey, kid, if you ever want to make something of yourself, you got to be an entrepreneur.” And so, I, like many kids, were vying for my father's love and affection. And so, I decided I was going to start a business.

And so, I started a business to show my dad, "Hey, I'm making something of myself.” Even at four years old, I was selling artwork to my neighbors and my dad was really proud of me in that moment. And so, that's the only thing I needed to feel in order for me to develop that entrepreneurial bug and then continue from there. I'd never have had a traditional real job. After graduating from college, I started a business nominated by Ernst & Young as being one of the nation's best seed-stage companies. I created my first multi-million dollar business at the age of 24 and then continued to build and grow a number of different companies until 2010, and that's when somebody offered to pay me to help them grow their company and I started Predictable Profits.

And from that time, we continued to build and grow a number of different companies, and the work that we did allowed us to get recognized and seen. International Business Times did a featured story on me, calling me the go-to business coach for seven and eight-figure companies. And just last week, I flew out to New York City and was asked to do a media appearance on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, the floor of the exchange just talking about different business concepts and ideas. Now, I told you about my wins but we didn't talk about the failures that you mentioned earlier. And I've heard many people talk about, "Oh, I'm at rock bottom.”

And now that I can say that I've been to rock bottom, I don't know that people actually understand what rock bottom means. And to define rock bottom, the most profound way that I can define rock bottom is at the point where you genuinely don't know if being alive is worth it. And I remember one moment when I was sitting in the car and I was driving somewhere, and I gave a little silent prayer that somebody would just hit me head-on and just end it all. That's what I look at as rock bottom. And that rock bottom happens because I was in a moment where I was building this business and it just seemed like one thing after another. It didn't seem to be working for me.

I did what everybody said to do, which was just hard work, hard work, hard work, and it just wasn't enough. It wasn't getting me over that hump. And that happened. Not rock bottom. Rock bottom happened once but there were several different times when I went through this cycle of struggle before hitting success. And back in 2005, now, I had gone through this period of struggle but it was different. It was emotional struggle. I had said that back in the day that I would shovel S-H-I-T for $1 million, right? That was my thing. I said I would shovel it, and I felt like I did, and I made $1 million but I was at an emotional low point.

And so, I invested a quarter million dollars between my wife and I with Tony Robbins. And I’m with Tony Robbins out in Western Canada and he asked me about my problems. And so, I told him about all these different problems that I was having at the time. And he said, "Who's your professional role model?” I said, "Well, Richard Branson.” And you and I just spoke about that. I mean, you were at his island and whatnot, right? So, I talked about I said, “Richard Branson would be my professional role model.” And he said, "Do you think Richard Branson would lose any sleep over your problems?” And I'm like, "No, probably not.” He goes, "Do you think he would lose like one-tenth of a second of sleep over your big, huge problems?” And I'm like, "Probably not. But why do you ask?”

And he said, "Because I'm sizing you up. Big people have big problems. Little people have little problems.” See, little people run away from their problems but big people will create big problems for themselves. And you look at some of our entrepreneurial geniuses today like Elon Musk. You know, Elon Musk is publicly saying he's going to colonize Mars, right? He's created massive, massive problems for himself, free speech, and everything he's doing with X. Now, you don't have to agree with him and I know he can be controversial but the point is he's creating big problems for himself, right?

So, when I look at my problems now, they're framed differently. I later learned by going through the different cycles of problems, that if it wasn't for my problems, they wouldn't have benefited from the same opportunities. Problems and opportunities, you can actually take any sentence you would say with the word problem and switch the word with opportunity and it actually still remains the same. It's still true.

Justin Donald: I love that. That's awesome. So, now I got a question on the Tony Robbins experience because I've gone through all of his programs to the point that I can run a team with him. I’m part of his leadership team. I've never done platinum partners. It sounds like that's the 250K investment that you made. I'm curious what you think the value there was. Was that worth it? Was that the right move for you at that time? Yeah, I've gotten mixed reviews. A lot of people have enjoyed it but I've heard a lot of people say, "Hey, it's overpriced for what it is.” What do you think?

Charles Gaudet: It was exactly what I needed in that moment, right? So, I could argue, was it worth it? Is it not? But when I can look back and say, "You know what? It's exactly what needed to happen in that moment.” And so, for me, I'm grateful. Now, I find Tony to be the best personal development expert for personal development one-on-one. And then there are some other people that I've met throughout my life that have made an even more profound impact. Dr. John DeMartini, many people aren't familiar with him but John DeMartini, I still reflect on some of the lessons that I learned from John years later, almost every day.

So, there are some really great people out there but it goes back to that old saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will come. So, it all depends on the gaps that you're trying to fill, and you'll find the right teacher for you in that moment.

Justin Donald: I love it. How many businesses have you had? How many have succeeded? How many have failed? Your newest endeavor, I'm assuming that is one of your newest, most recent businesses.

Charles Gaudet: Yeah. So, I mean, right now, I'm currently running one, two, three, four different companies right now. In terms of the amount of companies that I have had, it were probably close to, probably close to a dozen thereabouts. And they've ranged, I started one of the very first pet health insurance companies back in the day. Unfortunately, we started at right before pet health insurance was something that became common. And that was one of the struggles that we had. We got many accolades and awards and whatnot, and we raised some money but then when it came down to the venture capitalist actually writing the big check, the market crashed in 2000, and he had to meet us in the boardroom to say, "Look, there's just no money.” So, we had to close down that business, I did realize the…

Justin Donald: By the way, you start that today, I think it's a whole different story or even five years ago. So, it's amazing what timing really does and the power of the right timing.

Charles Gaudet: Yeah. No, for sure. I mean, the timing thing is interesting. There are so many times that you'll hear people say things like, “Ah, we're almost there. We're almost there.” And I remember one of my earlier mentors said to me, "You'll be the closest you'll ever be to success at the moment you want to give up more than anything else in the world.” And I didn't understand what he meant by that until I do remember that one moment where I said, "Is this worth it? Should I give up?” And his quote continued to run through my head and I stayed with it. And then sure enough, it was like just, boom, one after the other. It was just one success hit after another, and I'm like, "Oh, this is what he meant.”

Justin Donald: That's good, Charlie. I love that. So true. Such true words. I'm curious, what are some of the other industries or niches that you've been in business in?

Charles Gaudet: So, real estate development was one. I also, for a little while, decided I needed a break from working with people. So, I started a proprietary stock trading company where I thought in the beginning it would just be me solo. I'm a builder so I think I'm going to do something solo and then I just continue to build. So, I started a proprietary stock trading company. We ran millions in the market, designed algorithms, or we’re eventually starting a hedge fund out in the BVI. And so, I did that. I had a marketing company and then progressively related different businesses until that took me over to Predictable Profits.

And now I have a commercial real estate company. We have a company that we've partnered with the founder of Planet Fitness where we're going to help take companies and franchise those companies. We also started a nutraceutical company. So, those are a number of the different things that I've got my hands in now. So, it's been keeping me busy.

Justin Donald: Well, you seem to have had experience in a lot of different industries, a lot of different niches, which is really fun. I'm curious right now, how would you compare your current business with some of the ones of the past? Is this one that you feel like has some of the most potential? Is it kind of in the middle? Is it more of a lifestyle business? Is it just kind of like the perfect type of consulting? I know you said you have four companies right now but I would imagine one is more near and dear to your heart than anything else and probably with doing some of the Predictable Profits playbook consulting. That's just my hypothesis here.

Charles Gaudet: So, I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world, Justin. And I have a feeling that you can actually relate to the statement that I'm about to make. When my son asked me when I wanted to retire and so forth, I said to him, “If you're my age and you're already looking to retire, then you failed because you want to love what you do so much that work equals play.” And I said, “I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world because I get paid to talk to my close friends all day.” And I work with people that I genuinely enjoy and love and like to celebrate in their successes and so forth. So, Predictable Profits has a really special place in my heart because there's not a day that goes by that I don't feel like I'm playing all day.

Justin Donald: I love it. That's so cool. That's fantastic. So, Charlie, one of the things that I know about you, you've got kids, right? And you talked about how your dad was very instrumental and influential in the world of entrepreneurship and kind of encouraging you at a young age to get into it. I have to imagine the same is true of your kids and you call them kid-preneurs. So, are there some methodologies, some things that you've done to kind of instill entrepreneurship and just this comfortability in the unknown with your kids?

Charles Gaudet: So, my son is my oldest and it actually started with him. Like most kids, they have this idea of wanting to run lemonade stands. And so, he came in the house one day, “I want to do a lemonade stand.” And he went to the fridge, grabs a lemonade, the cups, the whole deal, then went out to the end of the street and tried to sell lemonade. And as successful as he was when he was selling the lemonade, I stopped and reflected for a moment, and I said, “I made a mistake.” He's not going to learn the lessons that he needs to learn about entrepreneurship in that moment. So, that he made so much money, he decided, "This is great. I'm going to go ahead and I’m going to do a lemonade stand again.” So, I said, "Hey, before you do that, you and I need to have a discussion.”

And so, I asked him to sit down next to me by the curb and I said, "Hey, Branson, here's the deal. I'll go ahead and I'll go to the store and I'll buy all the lemonade. I'll buy all the cups. I get you all set up at the end of the street and I'll pay you $2 an hour to run the lemonade stand.” I said, "Or the other way is you could use your money and go to the store and buy all the lemonade and you could run the lemonade stand because if I'm the one paying for everything, then technically it's my business but I can hire you as my employee. But if you are taking all the risk, it can be your business. But you will also run the risk of losing your birthday money and your Christmas money and so forth. What decision do you want?” And he goes, "Well, I want it to be my business.”

And so, he went to the store and it was fascinating because when it was my money, it was just grab lemonade, don't think about anything, and go out there and sell it. When it was his money, he sat there and he said, "Should I buy this lemonade that costs $4 or this one that costs $2.50?” I said, "Well, the $4 one is a better-tasting lemonade than the other one.” And he said, "Okay. But if it's better tasting, will they come back?” And I said, "They will come back if it's better tasting.” He goes, “Then I want the better-tasting one.” And I said, "Okay,” and then he bought the cups. And as we were walking out, he sees this package of water bottles. And it was the package of water bottles or something like $5 for a bunch of 24 water bottles.

And he said, "Dad, I know at school they sell water bottles for $1 apiece. That whole thing of 24 bottles is $5 but I could sell them for a dollar apiece. Can I buy them?” “You can.” And so, he ran all these numbers in his head, used his money, went down, and what he didn't know is that I went behind the trees and I'm calling people saying, "Hey, you better get yourself down here to buy some lemonade for my kid,” because, while there was risk, I wanted to make sure that I was setting him up for success so that the very least, he’d walk away with some money. And then he created his own entrepreneurial bug and really enjoyed it. And the girls, they talk about wanting to start their own business. There's no obligation at the end of the day.

My philosophy in life is that if you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. Whatever career path they choose, entrepreneurship or working for somebody else, my only requirement is just love what you do.

Justin Donald: Charlie, these are some great lessons and so applicable. And I just love how you made the pivot from you buying the supplies to your children or in this case, your son buying the supplies and the difference between an employee, a business owner, the safety and comfort of being an employee, the risk and upside of being an entrepreneur. And it's amazing when they have skin in the game, they will make different decisions. We try and do a lot of things like that where, with our daughter, even if it's things that maybe other people don't think twice about buying their kids, we often want it to be a split. So, there are certain things that we’ll pay for.

But anything that goes above necessities, we generally do a 50/50 split to see how bad our daughter really wants that item. Is she willing to put in half on it? And we do a lot of arts and crafts, so she uses her money to buy all these craft kits and make all these things and do business fairs and art fairs and all kinds of stuff. And it is really fun to watch. It's neat seeing the bug kick in at a young age. And for me, it's cool because it's younger. You know, I didn't start at four years old selling stuff but I did start pretty early. She's got an earlier start than me.

Charles Gaudet: Right. I think that's great because, like yourself and myself, we learn so much through struggle. Like, I look at it like a diving board. Depending on how far you're willing to spring down, that will proportionately dictate how far you spring back up again. And so, my kids know the rule. I will buy them any car that they want, any car that they want. I just match them dollar for dollar. So, whatever they want to put out there, I'll match it dollar for dollar. Now, my son being the oldest, he was the one that asked the question first like, “So, my friend's parents are buying them cars. But why are you doing it this way? Why do I have to pay half?”

And I explained to him just like an adult. I said, "Look, nothing would make me happier than to just buy you a car, and I know how much you would appreciate it and whatnot. But what I'm trying to do as your parent is set you up for massive success. And my feeling is that if you were to contribute for this car, the lessons in that will help you further succeed in life rather than just giving it to you.” And he stops and he goes, “You know what? Okay, I get it.” And I'm like, "Oh, well, that made it easy.” But he sees different things like he's training to be a professional race car driver. Every race that he's involved in is $10,000. And so, that doesn't include all the practice he does before that. It doesn't include the three karts we've already been, you know, purchased in the last few months. It doesn't include any of that.

But I'm not asking him for any money because I feel like there's a line. Like a car? Yeah, contribute. But his career? My dad was great at helping me in so many ways and investing in my future. Just for him, it was, "Well, we'll make an agreement. If I will spend this money but you have to be incredibly dedicated and make this a priority in your life. And if you hold your end of the bargain by making this a priority and showing me that you're fully committed, then I will hold my end of the bargain and I'll invest in your future.” And he said, "Awesome. And I promise you, when I become successful, I'll buy you an Aston Martin.” I said, "We have a deal. That works.”

Justin Donald: I love it. Well, I'm excited for you to have that Aston Martin. Not on your dime. That's pretty fun. Not that you need the help buying one but, I mean, that's kind of where you see the full circle kick in. It will be cool. Not just because of the prize but because of what it created in the process. Very cool.

Charles Gaudet: We're a team. I think that's important that our family unit, we see each other as a team now. Yeah, it's a pretty powerful thing.

Justin Donald: It's so cool, Charlie. You had a really cool honor by being named by American geniuses as a top 50 industry influencer. And I'm curious. What words of wisdom like if you had to soak up the biggest keys to the success that you've had, what would they be? I mean, you've gleaned from a lot of people. You've gotten shoulder-to-shoulder with Tony Robbins and I'm sure countless other high-profile, high-powered entrepreneurs. If you had to distill it down for our audience, what would it be?

Charles Gaudet: So, there's what logic wants me to tell you but then there's what I believe actually is the core reason and the authentic answer. And I'm going to give you the authentic one rather than the one that is designed to make me look cool. And that one is I learned to embrace my greatest weakness. I was diagnosed as a kid as having one of the greatest learning disabilities that the doctor had ever seen. The doctor was talking to my mother and literally said the words, “I'm surprised that your son could function in a normal school.” And while that was devastating in the beginning to hear that and I had to wrestle through a lot of self-talk, "Am I dumb? Am I this and that?” in the very beginning, my mother said something to me that I held on to that story and I've never asked her if it was true.

She said, "Oh, you didn't hear the full story. The doctor said you also have one of the highest IQs she had ever seen, and that's how you were able to do this and that.” But I have always known that I had to think differently and do things differently. I could never learn in a traditional classroom setting. I always had to leave the class and teach myself all this stuff. When I read a book, I have to like use different colored pens and draw pictures in the margins and everything just so I can remember what I read. But it has forced me to see things so much differently than everybody else, and I can approach things differently.

The reason why I get the accolades that I do is because I can offer new and fresh perspective in a world where just seemingly feels like everybody is regurgitating the same thing over and over and over again. When you're able to stand out by offering a different perspective, people take note of that. And my success is ultimately because rather than run away from my differences or use them as an excuse or my story, instead I embraced it and I'm like, “Well, it seems to be working for me. Let me just lean in even more.” And that's what I did.

Justin Donald: That's fantastic. And it's great hearing just some of the challenges you had from an educational standpoint, you know? My daughter has dyslexia and so we've experienced through her that she learns differently and she needs to be educated differently. And it's not the taboo thing that it once was. I mean, I had a conversation with Richard Branson about this, and I shared that video with you about how he talked about dyslexia is his superpower, and all kids need to know it's not a learning disability, it's a learning ability. And you're going to have these powers, this genius in other realms. And it was so cool having him share that. So cool seeing my daughter's response to that. And I think it'll be even cooler as she really understands who the great Richard Branson is.

But it's really interesting to see the way she sees the world. I mean, we'll play cards, we'll play strategy games, we'll play chess, we'll play different things, and she sees stuff. I feel like those are games I'm actually pretty good at. You know, if it's probabilities, if it's thinking ahead to future moves like those I really excel in that realm, which I think has lent me a lot of success. I'm an ADD guy and probably never diagnosed correctly or missed, but she just runs circles around me and seeing these things and seeing the probabilities and the connections and different ways of doing things. It's really just quite mind-boggling when you sit down and kind of assess the different learning styles.

Charles Gaudet: And now when we look at the future, when we look at the future, we realize that the advantages today aren't really going to go to the kids who have book smarts and all that other jazz. It's actually changing a lot. And as I've told my children, we're entering a fascinating time of life where it's going to be the person who's most curious and creative is going to have the advantage that other people don't have. So, it pays to be curious. And I said, "With the advent of AI and so forth, you don't need the answers.” In fact, at the rate that AI is growing right now, AI's capabilities already are superior to most humans and I believe it's by the end of next year it will be superior to every human.

And so, the question or what they need to train the muscles that they need to build are second and third-level thinking, which are know the questions that nobody else is asking. So, what are the real questions that you have to be asking yourself right now? And that muscle is underdeveloped by almost every person on the planet. They just haven't spent enough time really thinking about what are the real questions, and what does that mean? And so, that creative type of thinking and angles, I think, is really the people who have those learning differences tend to be inherently gifted in a way where the questions that they ask, they've built that muscle because historically they haven't been able to learn in the same way as everybody else so they're constantly asking different questions.

Justin Donald: Yeah, totally. Menial tasks, job responsibilities that are not complex, these are all going to be solved by AI. So, the standard education is really not going to be the norm and it's not where you're going to get ahead. It is going to be fascinating to see the incorporation of AI into just typical roles, typical jobs, what can be replaced. You know, there are certain things that we're never going to be able to replace human thought, human creativity, human activity but there are times that will be. So, it'll be fascinating to see, and it'll be fascinating to see the specialties that end up being the outliers that, and by the way, I do think it's going to be a lot of dyslexic type of learners that are going to be the outliers that are not going to be as easily replaced or displaced.

Charles Gaudet: Yeah. We're entering into an extraordinarily fascinating time and you bring up these questions about people worrying about different, you know, being replaced and all that other jazz. But the coolest thing about AI is AI can teach you how to compete against itself. It comes down to making sure you can ask the right questions knowing how and what skill sets to develop. Because humans will always be able to leverage the tool that gives them the advantage if they position themselves in the right way.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Couldn't agree with you more. So, this has been such a fun conversation. I know people are going to be interested to learn more about you. Where can they go to find out more about you and all the cool stuff that you're up to, Charlie?

Charles Gaudet: Sure. Well, PredictableProfits.com would be the easiest way for them to learn more about the business. There are different resources available at PredictableProfits.com. I also encourage people to check out The Beyond 7-Figures Podcast. If they thought anything we said today was interesting, The Beyond 7-Figures Podcast would be a great resource for them. And of course, throughout socials, Charles Gaudet. If they just look at any of the handles there, Charles Gaudet, they'll find me there. I think I'm not on TikTok because whatever but everywhere else, they'll be able to find me.

Justin Donald: Well, that makes two of us. I like it. Well, I love ending each episode with a question to our audience. And my question is the same each week. What is one step that you can take today to move towards financial freedom and move towards a life that you truly desire, one that's on your terms, not by default like most people but rather by design? Thanks. And we will catch you next week.