Charlie Sloth | Extraordinary Life Stories

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0:38Go, go, go, go! A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13. Charlie Slough. How are you John? I'm very well all the better for this I've been so looking forward to talking with you. So have I. Appreciate that. Who is Charlie Slough? I'm a father, family man, hustler, businessman, entrepreneur, DJ, producer and a cultural star. Brilliant I mean All of that is just mega.

1:26And I know how busy you are. So I feel super lucky to have you sat here because you are everywhere. Yeah, and to be fair, I don't really do interviews like this. It's not my thing. I don't really enjoy it. As much as I'm public facing, I'm quite reserved, quite private. I've probably done three of these interviews in my whole career. Makes me feel even more privileged. And I've been around for 20 years. So it's not something I really do, but I appreciate what you do and your messaging and so I thought you know what I think it's a great thank you thank you for having me no I really appreciate and I think that's key things for me that you know make me interested in you are that sort of entrepreneurship that sort of integrity that sits behind it all you know the family man but putting out there unbelievable content as well and just being so relentlessly busy where does that come from so many years to reflect on this and I'm someone who does that quite a lot I ask myself a lot of serious questions so I can understand why I am the way I am.

2:25I'm always trying to improve and be better. And it always comes back to my mum, to be fair. I grew up literally just down the road on an estate in Somertown, Camden, North West London. And growing up, my mum, she was a cleaner and she had like six jobs. I remember actually saying this last time, saying she had six jobs and she pulled me up and she said, I have nine, just so you know. So she had nine jobs cleaning. She was cleaning offices. She used to clean an office literally around the corner of Drayton House. And she used to clean all of the rich folks' houses in Primrose Hill, Parliament Hill.

3:02And I remember going to work with her when I weren't at school or on school holidays, weekends, and just seeing how hard she worked. And when I was younger, I thought that was the norm because that's all I knew. So I'd always saw my mum work hard and my dad worked hard as well. But I think because I was with my mum, I got to see it. And then get into a certain age in life where I'm watching my parents struggle, but yet they're working so hard, I couldn't understand it. So I felt, for me, I felt like a burden that I had to help. I felt like I can't let my mum keep working as hard as she is with no reward.

3:42And there was one significant moment, and I spoke to my mum about this about two years ago. I was probably about ten. and there was a few moments but this one this one was real significant I remember going to McDonald's and like McDonald's was a massive treat it was like wow I'm going to McDonald's and I went with my sister and my mum and my mum said like what do you want and I said I want a Big Mac and she was like oh you can't have a Big Mac and I'm like what I want a Big Mac she's like you can't have one and I'm like ma I just want a Big Mac and then she started crying and I'm like whoa, what's happening here?

4:17And then she explained that she couldn't afford to buy a Big Mac. So I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not right. There was another moment as well. My nickname growing up was Slippers. And there was a period in my life when I was going to primary school where I wore a pair of Liverpool slippers that were like fake Liverpool slippers. The liver bird was the wrong way around. My parents are both from Liverpool. And I had holes at the front of the slippers. My toes were hanging out. I was going to school. And one of the teachers pulled my mum in and said like you need to get him some shoes he's being bullied and my mum broke down on a way i'm so sorry i'm going to get you some shoes i weren't like she she was the best mum on the planet but and still one of my best friends in the world to this day you know um but she just wasn't in a position to do that so i love that she told you yeah she told me a different different person could have hidden that yeah you wouldn't know why you couldn't have a big mac and then you can get chippy and resentful yeah she's such a strong woman my mum such a strong woman i think that's where I get a lot of my passion, drive and desire from and my strength to not give up, the resilience.

5:17So from when I was 11, I started selling sandwiches at school. I started with sandwiches and I used to get a meal ticket because obviously my family were not earning enough money to pay for school meals. So my mum used to make me some sandwiches and I used to get a meal ticket.

5:38So I I was buying a loaf of bread and I was buying all the ingredients that went into the sandwiches. Then I started buying sweets. Then I started buying cigarettes. Then I started buying drinks. So literally I would sell everything and anything that I could during the first break and lunch break. And it got to the point where I was making 50, 60 quid a week. And I was never really a spender. I was always a saver and I would always get to mum like, here's 20 quid mum. Where'd you get that from? Ah, don't worry. Don't worry. and then obviously as time went on i started doing more and more stuff selling more and more stuff by the time i was 17 i had like 110 fly pictures across london selling counterfeit already an entrepreneur tycoon yeah 17 yeah so i was like i had like nearly 200 people working for me love that and do you know i love as well is that to get to that point you you tested and tried all sorts of things.

6:35So you've gone through that. Exactly. You've gone through the journey that a lot of people have to wait until that. So everyone else is studying algebra, me included, man. I mean, you know, I'm listening to you and it's like, it's inspiring. And I wasn't achieving anything out of, you used your environment. Yeah. Created that environment. Exactly that. And actually there's two things there. There's a needs must. You realised clearly that when your mum said, I can't afford to buy the boot mat, there was probably a part of it was, I'm going to make sure I can buy myself and you one. A hundred percent.

7:02That, the resilience, as you say comes but also you've then got to have the the whole kind of why as in like how am I going to make this happen and you clearly got very busy yeah and you know what I've always I've always made sure that I have a why I think the why is the most important driving force behind anything you do and the minute you lose a why you lose all focus momentum and meaning to what your purpose is so I've always had a why and if I lose a why when I'm doing something it means it's no longer for me i'm not going to create a new why and invent a why just to stay in it for financial gain or for monetary reasons if it's not for me it's not for me and it's happened it's happened a few times in my career in my life where i've lost the why i need to find a new why if i don't find a new why it's not for me that's interesting because why and purpose are so linked right yeah and it can change it always changes you will have changed and your why would have changed since becoming a dad It's the first thing you said when you introduced yourself, which I grew up from and I really identify with.

8:01What's your why right now? I've always set myself whys throughout my career. And they're milestones. They're milestones for me. The milestone and the why, they're best friends and they hold hands and they stick together. I've always got to the why in life and then got to the why that I thought was the why. So I've achieved something and I've made something a reality. so for example I always said to myself when I get to x amount of money I'll be comfortable and my why was freedom it wasn't to have fancy things it was for financial freedom to make sure that I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted without answering to anybody and that included my children and I got there and I was like okay I could actually walk away now from everything and I can live that why.

8:58My children's children's children are financially safe. I'm good. But then it becomes a bigger picture for me and it's not only about my family and my children. It's about those that have helped me become who I am and the people in my work, why the circle that I class as family and that I love and secondly legacy legacy is a massive thing for me like integrity is everything that Charlie Sloth stands for so if I've built something and I've been a part of building something until it's got to the place that I'm content with and I feel that it's in the right space and in the right hands to keep growing and developing then I'm never going to be content so I've reached and this happens so many times I've reached that that moment of eureka i've done it and my why has been achieved the drive but then it's like okay could i do more should i do more yes i should and that drives me on and i'm in a place now in life where i'm in such a privileged position where i don't make decisions based on financial gain because i love money everyone loves money and of course i work for money and anyone who says they don't is a liar and i'll never trust them i love money but it's bigger than that the feeling that i get from from winning from success from making other people happy and helping other people achieve their dreams is much bigger than the feeling that i got when i realized my why i love that and you learned that by achieving the way someone's talking to me even i think it was yesterday about a book called the second mountain first mountain is the lamborghini it's the big house it's the enough money you you decided would be enough to be able to do all the things you want and then that's that's that summit is not the summit and and and that really resonates to me there's also an element of and i love that giving back like you're crediting people that helped you so many people just don't look back yeah i think you're so important yeah i agree with that how much of all of this is also part of stimulating what's clearly a very fast brain and they're very a very kind of um capable person who's proven they can do a lot my point being i can't see you sitting on the beach with a cocktail and being well sorry an ae vodka thank you and not uh thinking i've got to be doing something you might be able to do that for a morning yeah i better do it for an hour a day but there's a charlie stuff i can imagine it's like you're already plotting you're already thinking about something yeah i mean it's for me in an ideal world I'd love to be able to do that but I'm also a realist and I know that I can't see that time coming I know that there is a time and a place where I'm going to start slowing down and I'm going to start pivoting from the lifestyle I live because it's not sustainable like if you see how I live my life it's it's not sustainable and I'm 44 now I'm not young anymore so I realized that and I can't you got that self-awareness yeah I can't keep doing what I'm doing at the minute you You know, like, in the summer, I'm in a different country every day.

12:09I'm flying here, there and everywhere. And I party and drink a lot. And I don't hide away from that. Like, it's clear to see I've got weight issues. Do you know what I mean? So it's like, I understand that. I'm aware of that. And that's a part of my lifestyle. It comes with the lifestyle I've chosen to live. But unfortunately, that is the Charlie Sloth lifestyle and the Charlie Sloth brand. So I know that I can't. It's not sustainable for me to do this forever. And in an ideal world, I'd love to have that moment of being able to do nothing. But at the same time, that scares the shit out of me.

12:44When did you last do that? During the first lockdown. It was the first time in 10 years that I'd ever stood still. Like, ever. I'm talking no holidays. Like, I hadn't stood still. And even when I'd go away, I would still be working. It weren't like I was on holiday. I'd still be on my phone. and I'll still be on my laptop. And for the first two weeks, I thought, this is incredible. What have I been doing with my life? This is insane. Not having to answer to anyone, not having to go to any meetings, not travelling to a different country. I thought, this is incredible at home. But I found a room in my home that I never knew I had.

13:25How insane is that? I'd been living in this house for five years and I found a room that I never knew I had. That's how bizarre it is. So the first two weeks, incredible. Spending time with the kids, amazing. And then after the second week, I'm like, this ain't for me. I'm twiddling my thumbs, pulling my hair out, being short. And I ended up spending the rest of lockdown travelling from country to country, wherever the regulations were the most fitting for me and my family. So we ended up going to Malta, from Malta to Greece, from Greece to Turkey, and then from Turkey, we ended up going to Dubai, and then I ended up staying in Dubai for the rest of that lockdown, and then the next lockdown, because the regulations weren't nowhere near as fierce as they were here.

14:20You could still live a pretty normal life. and again when I reflect back on that I'm like I could have just sat still and just chilled and enjoyed my free time but I couldn't I couldn't and when I was going to these places in my head the way that I justified it to myself is well I can go and have meetings in these places and meet with people about potential business and and I was doing that and to be fair I generated some great business on those travels. But it's not the point. The point is that I realized that I couldn't sit still. Even given the opportunity, being forced to sit still, I just couldn't.

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15:37Or a sweet vanilla? Smooth caramel, maybe. Or a white chocolate mocha. Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. find Starbucks Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries. The balance that I can hear from you is that that didn't suit you, but you know it's unsustainable right now. And I was going to bring it up. I remember seeing some of the stuff you put out in the summer on a flight, going somewhere else, having DJ'd, had no sleep and you were talking to the camera and you could see it. You almost like, not a cry for help because there's no victim in mind. So you're doing it because you want to, right?

16:08But there was an element of like, I can't keep doing this. But also thriving off the fact that you were flying to ibiza or somewhere to be djing at the next party yeah with the um the vodka and the private jet and so on around you in a little bit of like this is this is how i roll yeah there's um there's a side to it i really respect which is that any one time you've been doing something you could have done forever so fire in the booth like so there was a pioneering element to that and the whole like suddenly you know you're you're part of the bbc and charlie Sloth and BBC you would never put them together you made that happen and then you create you created use your word a legacy that at the time was pioneering was groundbreaking and was incredible and we were talking off camera about Dino and I wanted to bring up Ren as well people that um you and I know this from talking to other people you brought to my attention that no one else did in an environment where it literally showcased their talent but I want to say this to you as well through your talent you know the way that you positioned it the way you know you'd set them up and you'd sort of encourage and then they'd be off the whole thing is just so watchable thank you absolute pleasure but ultimately you you decided enough my point mean you could still be doing that yeah and that could have elevated to other but you you you make a decision to stop and start other things and i want to know when you feel it's the right time to stop something i think it's just a feeling i think we're frying the booth i think there was a massive shift in culture and again it's happening now and i think culture has always been my currency i understand culture i understand how to talk to audiences that most corporations and most businesses don't and especially in today's era more than ever and i just felt that things were changing and how people were consuming content was changing and at the time when i was at bbc i was almost there through a golden era where people were still listening to radio they weren't distracted by apple music and spotify and youtube and i think unfortunately times changed so when i made that pivot i was like i'd actually just done a final booth with drake um at the bbc and i'd been in the bbc for eight years almost nine years almost 10 it was and um so I'd started at the BBC doing the graveyard shift Saturday night one to four in the morning getting 150 pound a show and I quickly worked my way up to doing the Saturday night rap show which was like my dream that was the holy grail and doing drive time Monday to Friday four to seven um and then because they could see that I was getting a bit I wouldn't say bored but complacent with it and I had a great relationship with the with the gaffer there Ben at the time and they gave me a brand new show on Radio 1 which was the first of its kind it was like it was called The 8th and you was allowed to swear it was unheard of on the BBC it was very challenging and very fresh and very new and I loved it once I'd done that final booth with Drake that was kind of like that was my holy grail I'd achieved a rap show I'd done the final booth with one person I wanted to do it with so then I started asking myself what's next where do I go from here I can't ever see myself doing radio one breakfast or one extra breakfast not my cup of tea it's not for me so I start asking myself a lot of questions and then within six months I had made the decision to pivot from the BBC and I joined Apple, which is a very different offering, but I knew that's where things were moving.

19:56You know, streaming, the way people were consuming content and I felt like Apple were the market leader. Well, they weren't at the time, but I felt like they was about to be. They were the future. They were the future. So I've done a deal with Apple and licensed Find A Booth to them. Recently, again, I think there's been a massive shift And especially in rap culture, I think, and unfortunately, this happens every seven years. And this is my third time going through this culture shift, this unbalance of what's cool and what's not. And everyone's like, rap's finished, hip-hop's done. It's not making the money that it was once making because the money being invested into the culture, into the scene is not being invested.

20:40And that's for multiple reasons. labels are not investing because labels are not making money the way that the landscape has shifted and changed forever so again it's another reason for me to look at the cultural currency of things and where do I fit in this new landscape so I'm forever shifting and forever evolving because I take time to understand what people are listening to what people are talking about what people are consuming how people are dressing why they're dressing the way they're dressing i pay attention to that like it's almost like being a data analyst but i'm analyzing different stuff just imagine your brain like an algorithm of getting all fed in yeah you you stayed so relevant and current and that element of i guess being ahead of the curve yeah which is what you've been so many times and tell me if you can answer this but in context of what you're working on now that feeding that algorithm being this this this person with all the experience and perspective you've got on culture what are you working on now because it's exciting for me yeah because you're clearly feeding it in and something's going to come out and dare i say this could be the next groundbreaking yeah well i mean for me the the music thing is still very important for me and it's like my backbone that's my passion music's always been my passion i've never sat there and thought i'm gonna get rich from making music and i still do the music thing because i I love it.

22:08That's my hobby. I've never tried to make a business of it. I've always made sure the artist comes before me. So I'd rather see the artist win than myself. It's just my passion and I love it. My main priority in business is AU because it's such a big beast and we've recently just launched in the States and you can look online and the response we're getting is mind And you've got to bear in mind that we're three lads who have come from a place of obscurity and not having any relationships whatsoever in the beverage industry. And we now have the top selling premium vodka in the UK. Congratulations.

22:52We have the top selling RTDs, ready to drink cans in the UK. We currently sell 1.6 million cans a week in the UK. just in the UK and we've branched out all over the world but our focus right now is America and for me it's a massive challenge because everyone's always said you'll never do that I bet that lights you up that lights me up you've got no chance do you know how much they spend so yeah I do know how much they spend we haven't got that war chest but I know that we have the tools and the knowledge and cultural understanding that we can make an impact bigger at a fraction another price it may take us a little bit longer and we may have to work some crazy hours but we'll do it and like and i'm down for that but i'm still going into stores i'm going into stores in america and selling the product in the stores there's a there's a funny video actually that i only posted yesterday where i go into there's a popular bar in miami called um pink flamingo a cold call in there i'm like can you stock our cans and um she was like oh we've got no space in the fridge so i'm like if i can fix that will you stock the cans and she's like okay sure so i go outside and i get the can the guys are bringing one of the au fridges which looks amazing probably anyway right big old fridge yeah um but doing that halfway through we're filming this segment and this guy comes up to me and he's like charlie's laugh whoa man what are you doing in miami i'm like uh just trying to get this bar to stock some AU cans and he's like what like you out here actually working i'm like of course like i'm still on the ground and when i'm in america that's what i'm doing a lot of people think it's like glam and i'm chilling out of all the famous rappers i'm on the ground going to stores bars and clubs trying to make them stock AU vodka but that goes back to the young lad that was doing deals at school yeah yeah i've never stopped you wouldn't ever want to be top of the tree because you'd be asking how they're getting on and you'd be like i could probably do a better job than that's exactly that which which you thrive off right there's a lot of what how you're talking and what you're saying there that makes you a role model like you know i'm learning from you now and there's that entrepreneurship there's that not being afraid to take risks but also back yourself and never be too big to be the person that goes never never there's a there's a there's a really sad state in in kind of a report that the center for social justice are put together of lost boys, the lack of identity and confidence young lads have got coming through.

25:30You are a role model and I wonder whether you sort of one embrace that and two kind of have an opinion on why certain role models that perhaps aren't putting out the right messages like you work ethic you know sort of follow your passion purpose why all the things you've said there seems to be role models that have risen to the top on social media that aren't putting those messages out and what your thoughts are on that and this is something that I talk about quite a lot being a father and I've always felt the responsibility to not do or say things that are irresponsible or could lead people down the wrong path because I come from that environment I've lived in that environment I've been a part of it so I understand how negative and detrimental it can be so I've always tried to make sure that I'm always positive and I'm always trying to give people the right advice without trying to preach or say you should or shouldn't do this because everyone has got to make their own choices and decisions in life right that's what makes us human but it does concern me when I see a lot of the people that are deemed as role models in today's society talking about the stuff they're talking about and trying to promote this story of quick wins that's the thing that bothers me the most I think because that sets people up to fail in a way that's almost it it's almost impossible to come back from because if you're if you're looking up to somebody and they're saying look get into trading all you need to do is get a thousand pound put a thousand pound in join my group and you could be living like me and they're all talking nonsense i see a lot of these guys and i'm out of a lot of these guys when i'm in dubai or if i'm in miami so i'll see how they're really living and for me that is super concerning because we're building a society of young men who think that success comes with an easy win and it breeds this unhealthy sense of entitlement which for me is the biggest concern I think like everyone's always going to have opinions and everyone's going to always want to walk down their own road that they feel is right for them but the minute you start breeding the society of victims and people who have been set up to fail i think it puts us in a dangerous place and i see it i see it firsthand and the amount of messages that i'll get for young men that have kind of bought into this bubble of success comes overnight through trading or whatever the case may be it's it's actually quite upsetting that's why you you know you're using that that video as an example you put it out yesterday going in you're not doing it for the content you know the the the camera captures it and it's brilliant it does because it goes back to the role model but you're prepared to be doing stuff that in this environment we could order a pizza on our phones and it arrives now we don't have to do anything anymore we can do everything on the phone and there is an element creeping in of laziness massive lethargy and that flips into victim of why should i have to do that and so on and you are the opposite you've gone after everything you go after everything that you want to make happen.

28:33I think it's important. And like my eldest son, he's 20. He works for me. He works for AU. He's never asked me for anything. Ever. And he knows that I'd probably give it to him. I'd probably say, why are you asking him? Why don't you get it yourself? But I'd probably give it to him. He's never asked me for anything. I bet you're super proud of him. I'm super proud of that. You should be proud of yourself for that as well. Yeah. You talked about legacy. Yeah, I think his mum plays a big part of that as well, to be fair. Yeah, 100%. I meant the parenting. Yeah. Yeah. I think that when I look at him and then I compare him to your average 20 year old I think it is quite concerning that there's not many people out there that are go-getters anymore like everybody wants things handed to them and even when I hire people sometimes it's disheartening and that's not to say that the new generation are bums at all but I do think there needs to be some kind of responsibility put on our generation to make sure that the next generation are educated and understand the steps that they have to walk to be successful and no matter what field that's in you've got to work hard like my thing has always been outwork everyone like I'm not the most talented guy there's people that's better than me at everything I do but there's no one that I know that works harder than me and that is what's got me where I'm where I'm at I was going to ask you like what advice would you give to someone because you know your inspiration has talked with i'm loving this you can tell and anyone watching listening just what would you do what would you ask what advice would you give and it's that and it just you just you just outrun everyone everyone can't run past them you'll just you'll just do them on stamina yeah there's no cheat codes there's no shortcuts it's just hard work and not giving up having that resilience to wake up the next day when you're told you're a piece and you're useless and keep going and that's it it's just that drive that hunger, that ambition, that you can't let no one strip away from you.

30:32Sitting here now, how would you describe success? I'm successful by my own admission because I've achieved ultimately what I set out to do, which was to make sure that my family, especially my children, have every advantage possible to go on and live a successful, happy life. And I've done that. I never knew what university was. I genuinely had no idea what a university was until I was in my 20s you were in the University of Life at 11 years old yeah but you know I had dreams as a kid I wanted to be a movie director I was told you can't be a movie director I wanted to draw comics you can't draw comics I had no idea I was told you're probably best bet it to be a plumber or an electrician I'm like what?

31:18no way I can do what I want to do so for me to be able to achieve all the things that I've achieved, show my children that it's possible coming from a place where I've come from and to give them the opportunity to go on and be better than me. That's all I want and that's all I ask of them. No pressure, just be better than me and that doesn't mean make more money than me, just be a better person than I've been and they are all better people than me. So I'm successful by my own admission. Yeah and you know you at the very beginning you said legacy was so important to and i can feel that and uh you know that that that role model part of you that extends to people watching this thing is clearly what's gone into your your kids as well right oh you can you can you can definitely see yeah there's like so well-mannered humbled humble grace gracious and just good people and they all they all have ambition and desires to go on and do their own thing so yeah i mean that's that that for me i'm successful forget the money the accolades the fact that I can look at my children and be proud that they've become young, hungry, ambitious human beings.

32:26That for me is everything. And I love that because that said, with contentment and pride, without any arrogance or ego, which is actually, you know, credit to you. I said to you at the beginning that I was so looking forward to this and I meant it. And I also massive thank you, because I know you don't do this very often, but we've run out of time. Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me. You are a pleasure to talk with. I knew I'd learn from you when I have Charlie thank you pleasure thank you so much thank you