Pampered Chef Virtual Executive is always on the move
Charlott Nagai is different. She prides herself on not doing things like everyone else and it’s paid off big time for her direct sales business.
She became Pampered Chef’s first virtual executive — something we in this modern era of remote working and social selling might not consider out of the ordinary. But Charlott and her family don’t have a permanent home. She’s an executive director with 385 people and 16 directors on her team in a company that sells cook and bakeware, and she doesn’t cook.
The Nagai’s live a unique lifestyle. They sold everything they had in 2012 and became full-time RVers. Charlott, her husband and two of her three children actually put down roots for about a month in the Orlando, Florida area around the time of the CinchShare Summit. Charlott was asked to speak to the group of 150 summit attendees and share the unique way she “Cinches.” But she couldn’t convey in 15 minutes the incredulousness of her success.
She runs trainings, virtual parties and engages with her clientele on social media using CinchShare from whichever piece of road she’s rolling along. The company asks her to run trainings for its consultants — most not on Charlott’s team. Oh and her team does between $100,000 and $200,000 a month in sales. That nets her $4,000-$5,000 a month earned purely of her team.
The Nagais have three children who are 19, 17 and 9. After five years on the road, the oldest, Danielle, decided to move into a home that’s not on wheels in their native Washington state. The family used to move around every two to seven days, but lately has been staying put a bit longer, immersing themselves in communities. They actually stayed a few months in Maine, enjoyed the month and a half traveling down to Florida, then spent a few months in the Sunshine State. Charlott’s husband, Christian, even got a job as a concierge at a Disney resort.
The other children are Tyler, 17, and Matsu, 9. Both are unschooled, meaning the family lives as if school doesn’t exist. They don’t homeschool, they just live life and learn along the way.
The first year or two on the road, the Nagais didn’t have internet. “Then my business took off and I needed to work. Campground internet stinks,” Charlott said. So how did this business of selling cooking items soar for the non-cook?
Charlott joined Pampered Chef in 2013. The Nagais visited and stayed with friends in Georgia and their hostess cooked and fed them all weekend. Wanting to send a thank-you gift, Charlott Googled “chopping tool” and landed on such a tool from PC. She found another RVer who was a consultant, ordered the chopping tool and checked the box to “learn more” about the opportunity. She bought the startup kit for $150 and “we started playing with the products.”
Charlott’s success comes through Facebook parties that last 10 days, which she hosts in groups, as opposed to events. And of course, she made them her own, not wanting to copy how others were doing it. “I like to be different and do my own thing,” she said. “If everyone else is doing it, I don’t like to do it.”
The first time she used CinchShare to schedule a party and a team training, Charlott said she realized it made everything easier, especially while she’s on the road. She has 12 team pages plus parties, a VIP group and two groups surrounding the ketogenic eating lifestyle — one just for PC consultants and one open to anyone. Charlott has lost 40 pounds, 9 inches and dropped from a size 14 to a 2 in about seven months just by changing her way of eating. So she’s managing content and interacting with her new community there, in addition to PC.
She also runs groups with the PC home office focused on training virtual leaders and developing virtual parties. Some 20,000 consultants are in Charlott’s circle of influence with these alone.
The road to Charlott’s success as a leader was not a traditional one, either. Her director was not present for her so she adopted things she saw and said she “figured out how to be a leader.” Part of that was finding the right tools — like she did with that PC chopping tool for her friend that started this entire journey. Using CinchShare allowed her to be present and interact with her team during virtual team meetings. It meant no longer having to have multiple browser tabs open and stress about not posting in a party because they were leaving the campground and rolling through somewhere with spotty internet.
Charlott posts to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and YouTube. She also has a strong partner in Christian, who in addition to assisting with graphics and their blog, has become known as #shirtlesschef — for, as you guessed it, appearing as such in some of their videos.
“What made me successful was being different,” Charlott said. “Following exactly what someone else does doesn’t get you there, you have to figure out what you’re passionate about and what you want to share. There’s always a niche.”
You can follow Charlott and her family on their Nagai Adventures Facebook page and website NagaiAdventures.com.
NOTE: Sharing Success is an ongoing series of stories where we highlight CinchShare users — the people utilizing CinchShare to grow their businesses while enjoying more of life.
