and we are live welcome everybody to
another Google hangout super excited to
be here I have a special guest on with
me
Matt sandrini runs the time zillionaire
calm and matt reached out to me a little
while ago asking for me to be in a mash
up that he was doing around goal setting
in the motivation that that’s what he
covers on his blog and website and i
said that’s awesome happy to do it but
why don’t we turn it into a Google
hangout so that you guys could join in
live to and also learn from the
experience so Matt welcome aboard oh
thank you thanks for having here
it’s great to be here with the believe
elation I’ve been looking forward to
this chat for a week so it’s good to be
here so yeah we we started talking a few
weeks ago when I was putting together
the roundup post I asked a few people
how do you stay motivated when you’re
working on your goals and that’s how we
started our chat right yeah absolutely
yeah so I just wanted to start by asking
you how do you set your goals and how do
you make sure that you can’t stick to
them yeah that’s a great question
goal-setting is super important
especially for entrepreneurs when you
don’t have anybody yeah as your boss
right nobody kind of forced me to do
something you got to do it on your own I
think the most important thing to start
with goal-setting is understanding your
direction first I think people are
easily scattered you know I remember
reading a Tony Robbins book and he’s
talking about you know if you want to
write your book or you want to create a
poem or you want to you know write up
make a musical masterpiece like oh yeah
and I was in this I want to do all those
things but really those aren’t the
things that kind of support what I want
to do really and so understanding
yourself and knowing the mission that
you’re on for me that’s where it starts
and then once you know your mission and
the vision that you want to create then
it’s moving to setting specific goals
for me I find it helpful to have one
kind of big goal that I’m shooting
towards one where I don’t necessarily
even care about attaining that specific
measure so for example
my big goals I want to help a billion
entrepreneurs and people ask me well how
do you measure if you hit a billion
entrepreneurs or not in I don’t actually
care like I’m not actually tracking
specifically like how many subscribers I
have you know getting to a billion it’s
more that it changes the way that I
approach things
it makes me think on a bigger scale
where if my goal is to help reach a
billion entrepreneurs I have to say no
to a lot of things that are too small
and I need to make sure that I’m
focusing my time on projects that have
ability to have a big impact and so
that’s where that comes into play for me
one sec second of that big goal then I
work towards smaller ones so for example
in the YouTube channel it was to hit
initials I hit a hundred thousand
subscribers it’s a great hit 100,000
subscribers the next ones I hit a
million so we’re at 300,000 now trying
to get to million as the next town and I
think it’s good to have goals that are
still stretch that forced you to want to
do something more the forced you to kind
of get out of bed and work harder
actually the first one my youtube
channel was I was at my agency I have a
agency in New York and it was another
guy on YouTube who was bigger than me
and I said you know my goal I’m gonna
beat that guy I’m gonna I want I want
the healthy competition I’m gonna get
ahead of that guy and it took me I think
over a year to do it but but I did it
and so having competition built into
your goal setting can also be at least
for me motivating and losing that like
once I beat him does it go well who do I
who do I try to chase after now but
again making sure that the goals are in
line still with the big vision that you
have because otherwise you become a
hollow pursuit and then they don’t
motivate you as much as they really
should yeah I think that’s a great boy
let me asked all the entrepreneur of my
post and my experience as well really
having that long term vision is quite
important like a compacts for all you
want to do in your life so in my
experience in the past I kind of
followed that shiny object we were
talking about earlier there are a lot of
people see I would like to do this I
would like to do that but there’s no no
plan and so you can’t go and you follow
that
Charlie object and I did that in the
past and you know it’s really difficult
to kind of stick to that goal and stay
motivated because you just said it you
know on a whim but if you actually have
a plan and so I talked a lot about
vision so a year ago I kind of switched
from a medium term thinking to a longer
term thinking and I really focus on my
vision and 101 my life to look like in a
few years time and that really helped me
understand where I want to achieve and
what do I need to say no to like you are
saying and so when I interviewed all the
other entrepreneurs of 38 and from
around outpost most of them they talked
about a vision or their legacy so Lewis
Howes was saying that when he needs some
motivation he just thinks about the
legacy there wants to leave
there was an evap so and so I think
that’s a really really powerful
motivator right there yeah so I just
want to ask one thing to you and to your
audience the guys that are live with us
right now do you ever have a day we
don’t feel like work here you feel a bit
down and you don’t know how to stay
motivated and if you do how you know
what do you do on that day I spoke to
you and to to the guys online if you
want to before I put your comments in
the chat and say you know when you feel
down will they would focus on it yeah
absolutely absolutely I think I think
it’s one of the big myths of
entrepreneurship is that every day is
great you know if you’re if you’re
working some nine-to-five job and you
hate it and you want to start your own
business they go that’s gonna be the
dream everything’s gonna be amazing and
it’s not and it’s way harder because
often you’re by yourself and you may not
have people around you who can help you
hopefully you have some kind of support
system you know friends or family or you
know wife husband whatever who can
provide some emotional support but
finding people got to give you the
business advice and what you need to do
is it’s hard starting my first business
was the most soul-crushing thing that
I’ve ever done in my life I knew that
anything else that I applied myself to I
was getting results from whether it was
athletics or school or what
I worked harder I would get results and
he where I was not getting results in my
business like just sucking and working
insanely hard and nothing seemed to be
working and it’s it’s extremely
dehumanizing and really saps your sense
of self-worth and value to the point
where I you know I told my partner that
I quit and I don’t want to do this
anymore I think what really helps is you
know kind of getting through that one
understanding that is normal yeah well
people don’t talk about it like you
don’t read about the hard day’s a lot in
the self-doubt a lot in the newspaper
articles and the you know blog posts and
all that stuff and you know maybe maybe
you do one on time zillionaire but you
don’t see it a lot in other places so
like it’s normal to doubt yourself is
normal not to be fully confident all the
time it’s normal not to have a great day
all the time that’s gonna happen if
that’s like every day then maybe
something needs to be tweaked and
changed but yeah it’s normal for that to
happen what really helped me was trying
to set myself up with an environment
that supported me to do great things
when I was first getting started there
was a book that really helped me called
radicals and visionaries that is out of
print now but it’s basically the stories
of successful entrepreneurs and how they
got started and I would read a page
start one story a day which is like 300
pages so it’s easy to kind of weed in
the morning and just being around these
successful entrepreneurs and hearing
about their struggles and really
failures one gave me motivation to wanna
you know kind of keep going like Oh
Oprah had it really hard when she was
getting started you know Bill Gates had
a hard he was getting started and to
gave me specific strategies for what I
could do and so I’ve evolved that now
where for like at my youtube channel the
reason for creating the end stressful
series in the top ten series is to be
around these successful entrepreneurs
where if you watch one video from Steve
Jobs maybe that maybe that shifts your
thinking for the day but if you are
constantly connecting and watching the
video every day around Steve Jobs or
Elon Musk or Richard Branson Bill Gates
or any these guys slowly
the the pixie dust rubs off on you and
makes you start to shift your beliefs
change your mindset change your
environment make you want to go out and
do greater things and I think for any
entrepreneur it’s it’s really limiting
at the start because you don’t have that
in your environment yet you don’t have
the friends and family so instead of
just you know blaming your friends for
not supporting you go out and create a
better environment right surround
yourself with knowledge and resources
and ideas and people that force you to
want to get better and crush those kind
of limiting personal beliefs that you
have so so how do you find the right
people in in your life both around you
so both offline as saying online how did
you find the right people that
motivating you then supporting you yeah
that’s a good question I think I think
in terms of my the people that I
actually know most of the people are
just more emotional support which is
limiting you know like it’s great that I
can talk to my wife or friends you know
I have a mastermind group but I’ve kind
of grown a lot faster than the people
around me and it’s great that I can
bring them up for me you know I don’t
have that mentor yet and so that is
limiting but what I get what I do is I
look at the videos like every day I
watch successful entrepreneurs and
successful athletes and musicians
talking about what led to their success
and the way that they think and slowly
that starts to change me I remember I
was so I work with sage as an example
every month I do a call Google hangout
with with Peter Kelly oh yeah that’s
even Kelly we have a Peter Kelly Stephen
Cal uses te o sage and here’s the guy
runs a fifteen thousand person company
and remember when I first started that
series I spoke to my dad he’s like well
what gave you the courage to like how
are you on the same level of Steven
Keller it’s not not like putting me down
just like really curious about how I got
the the courage or the motivation this
see myself is playing on the same level
where when I’m talking with Stephen were
equals I’m not like some young guy and
he has all the experience we’re equals
and answering the questions and it’s
because I spend my time surrounded by
guys who have way bigger than him right
I’m spending my time being absorbing the
wisdom from people who’ve done way way
way more and so I’m not fazed by the CEO
of some huge company and so that kind of
perspective shift has really helped me
watching those videos every day and a
lot of people say well I don’t have a
mentor my life so so like I’m screwed
I’m gonna give up you know and then they
let that hold them back so yes it’s
super helpful to have mentors if you can
find them I had a great mentor when I
was in my first business who really
taught me a lot and helped me grow but
now it’s mostly through those videos and
hanging around successful entrepreneurs
yeah so it’s quite similar for me so I
have a mastermind group that really
helped me so it’s great for from a month
of gods and from my vision and my yearly
goal because we we support each other
and we keep each other accountable which
is so important but at the same time I
don’t have a real-life mentor but I have
a lot of virtual mentors so a lot of
people that I follow online sometimes I
speak to them by email or or a listen to
that podcast so it’s kind of a one-way
chat but it’s very still quite personal
and I learn a lot and I am around people
that are very very inspiring and they
really helped me and so it’s quite
similar to your experience and so I I
want to ask you one one more one more
question about this which is why didn’t
you find a sort of one mentor maybe a
real-life mentor not a virtual mentor
that the follows you what what stops you
from finding one so far because I’m on a
similar quest so that’s why I’m very
interested yeah
so I’ve had to kind of mentors that
really have an impact on my life
apart from my parents who gave me you
know I guess all the values and systems
and made me who I am but from a business
perspective at the moment I don’t know I
don’t feel like it’s a huge I feel like
I’m growing I don’t feel like it’s a
huge need you’re like in general what
I’ve had when I I get what I’m getting
from the videos I guess and it’s helping
me I’m the kind of guy like when I get
something on my mind I go and do it I
don’t have a bucket list of a hundred
things I wish do you like I just start
like it’ll get done and so if I really
wanted a mentor I wouldn’t be the guy
saying I wish I had a mentor and like so
complaining about it I’m not more
successful cuz they don’t have the right
person if I really valued it enough I’ll
just go and do it
so honestly I just don’t value it enough
at where I’m at right now and that may
change like six months later I may be
totally different person and I may need
a lot of help with something and then
I’m gonna shift gears but for now I
don’t feel like it’s a huge issue so I’m
learning what I’m learning from the
videos and it’s it’s doing what it needs
to for now yeah that’s a great point
because I think they’re like goals and a
system that you use to to achieve them
those girls they they all change over
time as you change as a person you might
need a mentor at a certain moment alive
you might want a certain goal but then
you know six months later things may
change and so so in that case otherwise
to ask you affirm if your goals really
changed over time say if we take the
past say two years have your goals
changed at law in that timeframe or
either pretty much stay the same that’s
a tough one right I’m trying I’m trying
to think I mean I’m not the guy that
often I usually have like one main goal
that I’m working on like I’ve heard from
my big goal I’ll have one main goal that
I’m working on and it’s typically a
reflection of what I’m doing so right
now I’m I’m pretty much all in on
YouTube and so my goals reflect YouTube
so in the past couple years it’s been
okay I wanna I wanna you know beat the
other guy on YouTube I want to hit a
hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube
now I want to hit a million subscribers
on YouTube that’s my
main business goal so I guess it’s it’s
changed as I’ve grown but it’s still
related to YouTube and once I hit a
million a million isn’t like the
stopping point like hey I’m hit it and
then now you know kind of get the
pressed it beyond the something else how
we were feeling but like if I stop
liking YouTube in six months I’ll move
it on to something else
you know I won’t be so attached to the
goal that that has to be the only thing
that I do
I just I’m modeling on YouTube that’s
where my mindset is that and so that’s
where I tend to focus my energies yeah
so I do something similar so I do 100
days bursts so I focus on just one goal
for a hundred days and I try to kind of
think may again set that as a stretch
goal quite an ambitious goal but there
are still no I can get there but it’s
gonna be quite difficult and then I just
focus on it for a hundred days and then
I don’t think about anything else and
what’s quite strange is that I’ve
noticed that when I do that when I drop
everything else then I can focus on that
goal
I get more results in less time by the
same times those goals that I’ve kind of
left
I haven’t focused on they progressed at
the same time so anything everything
behind but just go I’m focusing on one
then everything else sort of moves along
then still still still progressing so
that’s quite a cool trick that I
definitely recommend if you yeah if you
have a big goal is to break it in a
hundred days bursts what I find maybe
this is particular than me but I’ll find
I have moments where I wear a strict
schedule is really helpful for me and
strict balls and other times where I
find it almost detrimental I find like
when I know what I want to do and I have
absolute clarity on it then having the
schedule and having the goals the cues
with my goal for this week use my goal
for today here’s what I get done makes
total sense but as soon as I start to
question the bigger picture then the
goals fall apart like this all’s apart
like if I start questioning why am i
doing youtube then then the goal of a
million subscribers gets destroyed and
all of the things underneath it get
destroyed too and they have to go back
and rethink everything all over again
and so I find what I’m when I have that
clarity then then the goals are super
helpful and I’m in a really strict
schedule and then I’ll get I’ll often
get bored or tired of that maybe once a
quarter and then I need to switch
everything up again okay so I know
that’s just me but but I’m I’m I feel
like as you continue to grow and evolve
as a human you need to grow and evolve
your goals and your schedule in your
routine alongside it yeah definitely
Malheur in my case so when I focused so
much for one goal then I have to go take
a break and recover and then you know
just either this for a few days and
think about everything else and go back
to the goal with my my fall focus and so
yeah that’s quite interesting and I
think is it’s not just you
so it’s one more thing I want to ask is
a well on a good day so we talked about
a bad day when you don’t feel motivated
so on a good day do you go back and
think about the low points of the night
that past week or the past months or
maybe you’re you’ve passed in your last
few years do you ever think about buying
go like wow actually I mean a great
moment now I feel really grateful I can
sort of I can crush it does that ever
happen on a good day do I think about
the bad days and yeah the distance
between you and those bad days right ah
on a good day for me is when I’m so in
the zone on what I’m doing did I forget
about everything like I’m not thinking
about the past
I’m not even think we’re going to the
bathroom you know I’m not thinking about
eating I’m thinking about what I’m
working on like it I wake up when I’m
working and then it’s 8:00 at night and
I’m still doing it right and I feel
reminded to go take care of my body and
you know so so on a really good day no
I’m not reflecting I try to build it at
the
gratitude practice or think about three
things that I’m grateful for in the
morning and I have a private Facebook
group with some of the people on my team
and we share like the three things that
were people for today and that helps and
some of those things are really easy to
understand you know like I’m grateful
for my wife and her health and her
looking after me and that kind of stuff
when some of them are like I’m grateful
for the Internet and I’m grateful for
the Saturday and you know you might
sound crazy but that’s what I’m thinking
of so I find that that help I love the
Internet so I think having a daily
gratitude practice can really help I I
think that might keep your keep you from
experiencing too many the low lows but
to answer the question specifically I’m
a good day I’m not thinking about
anything else except what I’m working on
at that moment well that’s why I know
it’s a great day you can focus on all
your help you doing yeah and not even
work to like it could be a Sunday Sunday
out with my wife you know we’re just we
just have a day plan then we’re having
breakfast somewhere and you know taking
a walk or whatever like I’m just if I’m
lost in the moment with her that’s a
great day to you know just kind of being
fully present and enjoying what I’m
doing and not thinking about other stuff
that’s a great day so how do you balance
because you seem very focused on like on
your goals like you want to get to a
million subscribers and so how do you
balance that we kind of your health or
you know your your personal light do you
actually to keep the balance is it
difficult sometimes and it always the
same do you have any tips I think for me
the thing that’s helped the most is
scheduling everything in I think people
often say I do all their business any
but they won’t schedule their personal
time in and so I will I will schedule
time in like at this time this is when
I’m this is when my wife comes home this
is when I’m spending time with her I’m
not letting business kind of bleed into
that I treat that appointment
just as importantly as I would treat
something like this right or an
interview with some you know New York
Times or whatever it is I think people
don’t schedule in their personal stuff
and then it’s just so easy for business
to bleed into it that’s probably been
the thing that’s helped me the most and
then sitting down you know I don’t know
if you’re married I’m not many people
watching are married right so you know
once you get married and you know you
have kids that especially when you’re
married though you have now it’s like
two lives in one and so I work with my
wife to try to figure out what what a
what a good balance is for us you know
she has a normal 9 to 5 job so
definitely when she’s out working I’m
working right like we wake up at the
same time and she’s off working like the
I think a not great thing to do is like
sleeping and then she’s off working and
then I’m working late into the night and
so like we try to make our schedules
overlap as much as possible I don’t use
a cell phone which is kind of super
weird but you know you put in at certain
times you just don’t all know I don’t I
have a cell phone with no data and no
phone number
that’s fascinating ok only so my
smartphone I can’t use my browser unless
an unwise quiet which is a good
compromise for me but you you took it to
a whole nother level which is great well
bye fascinating yeah I mean and it’s not
something everybody can do and I
understand that I’m the weird one uh but
at first my wife hated it because she
couldn’t reach me but now she loves it
because nobody else can reach me when
I’m with her so like when I’m her and
I’m not doing other stuff and I’m worth
when I’m with you I’m not doing
something else and you know all the way
through so I used my I have a phone but
I use it as a tablet basically there’s
no no cell number and no no data and so
that’s helped me kind of say focuses I
think it’s super easy to get distracted
by things especially on when it’s
supposed to be personal time like if I’m
if I’m taking my son swimming I want to
enjoy that time swimming
with him in not checking my phone for a
Twitter update or whatever and I think
it’s for me at least the easiest thing
to do is just not have access to it
that resolves the problem then try to
force discipline of okay for the next
hour I’m not going to check anything you
know different strokes I don’t think my
solution is best for everybody but it
works for me and for everybody watching
you got a family works for you yeah
sorry so one last thing the ones who ask
you about goals if that’s okay is that
in the past two weeks I am spoken with
some of your team and so I just want to
know if you set goals for your team and
how do you do it how do you share it how
do you keep traveling with my team I try
to make sure that everybody is now
becoming the best version of themselves
and so when I hire somebody I’m looking
for someone who’s passionate of what
they’re doing but also wants to grow and
learn and I always have a set assignment
right like this is what I need done this
is what I’m hiring somebody for but I
don’t want that to be the final be-all
and end-all I always try to find
something that pushes and encourages
them to explore something that will help
the business but they’re also really
excited interested by like hopefully
they’re interested by the work that I’m
hiring them for but also I want them to
pick something that is inspiring for
them if you want to keep working on that
usually have tools to get to the
training phase so they come on you know
the training they’re getting up to speed
on what they have to do and then what I
don’t hire for a full-time role I hire
for you know a less than full-time role
and then fill up the rest of the hours
with projects that we’re both interested
in right so I find that to be super
helpful and lady – we’ve pretty low
turnover rate but yeah you know you want
your team to be to be growing as well
and it’s easy it’s easy for the CEO the
founder because you see all the positive
like I see all the comments from YouTube
and one of the things that everybody on
my team does is spend an hour a day in
the YouTube comments responding because
I want them to feel we have a great
community believe nation and I want them
to feel the impact of what they’re doing
so like my programmer who never talks to
customers and just sitting behind this
computer typing you know he spends an
hour day in the comments too so you can
see the benefit of all the work that
he’s doing as well because it’s it’s
selfish and amazing for me to get all
this attention and love but really it’s
a team effort it’s all the guys behind
me – they let me do the big things that
I’m doing so I want them to share and
experience that as well that’s cool to
wrap up because I think they only have a
few minutes left in our mail
conversation if we were to give one
piece of advice to to the people
watching on how to start one goal what
would that piece of advance me I think
the most important thing with the goal
is to make sure that you’re excited by
it it’s your goal it’s not your parents
goal for you it’s not your culture’s
goal for you you know and it can take a
lot of guts to break through that I
think of akio morita who started Sony
who came from 11 generations of sake
farmers in Japan and you think of
Japanese culture is being very
traditional very follow the rules and he
was expected to take over as the oldest
son and it’s 11 generations I’m not just
like you’re your father’s business
that’s 11 generations of history but he
said I’m not gonna do this I want to
start my own business and then now he
didn’t know was gonna be you know what
became Sony of this huge company but
making sure that you have a goal that
feels right to you that you’re excited
by that you are passionate about waking
up every morning working towards and not
somebody else’s version of your life for
you yeah so I hear that quite often with
my readers because I like to share my
goals with them and read their goals as
well and help each other and quite a few
times
some people shared goals with me and
they’re clearly not their goals and then
they wonder why they’re not motivated
and the great piece of advice just
follow your goals or not somebody else
seems cool
I know we’re kind of running short on
time there’s a dissonance yeah amount of
chattering questions coming in but we’re
not able to hit them but for people who
want to be able to reach you
I don’t even look on goal setting and
you’re also available on Twitter or how
can people reach you and tell us give us
the lowdown
so I’m max and rainy on Twitter and then
you can reach me on my website and my
email my email address at the end of
each post so you could just go on one
one blog post you’ll find my email
address at the bottom and I’ve have an
e-book on goal-setting
just for for believe nation and that’s a
time zillionaire calm slash believe
nation so we’ll find it there and I
really hope to hear from from the people
live now if you have any questions just
send me an email I read all emails that
I received and I reply to all of them
yeah so I hope to implement cool so I
put the link to the e-book as
it should be in the description and
Matt’s Twitter handles also in the title
of that this video so you can check him
out Matt thank you so much man thanks
for the time thank you guys all for
watching continue to believe guys and
we’ll see you soon see you soon thanks
Evan thank you guys
another Google hangout super excited to
be here I have a special guest on with
me
Matt sandrini runs the time zillionaire
calm and matt reached out to me a little
while ago asking for me to be in a mash
up that he was doing around goal setting
in the motivation that that’s what he
covers on his blog and website and i
said that’s awesome happy to do it but
why don’t we turn it into a Google
hangout so that you guys could join in
live to and also learn from the
experience so Matt welcome aboard oh
thank you thanks for having here
it’s great to be here with the believe
elation I’ve been looking forward to
this chat for a week so it’s good to be
here so yeah we we started talking a few
weeks ago when I was putting together
the roundup post I asked a few people
how do you stay motivated when you’re
working on your goals and that’s how we
started our chat right yeah absolutely
yeah so I just wanted to start by asking
you how do you set your goals and how do
you make sure that you can’t stick to
them yeah that’s a great question
goal-setting is super important
especially for entrepreneurs when you
don’t have anybody yeah as your boss
right nobody kind of forced me to do
something you got to do it on your own I
think the most important thing to start
with goal-setting is understanding your
direction first I think people are
easily scattered you know I remember
reading a Tony Robbins book and he’s
talking about you know if you want to
write your book or you want to create a
poem or you want to you know write up
make a musical masterpiece like oh yeah
and I was in this I want to do all those
things but really those aren’t the
things that kind of support what I want
to do really and so understanding
yourself and knowing the mission that
you’re on for me that’s where it starts
and then once you know your mission and
the vision that you want to create then
it’s moving to setting specific goals
for me I find it helpful to have one
kind of big goal that I’m shooting
towards one where I don’t necessarily
even care about attaining that specific
measure so for example
my big goals I want to help a billion
entrepreneurs and people ask me well how
do you measure if you hit a billion
entrepreneurs or not in I don’t actually
care like I’m not actually tracking
specifically like how many subscribers I
have you know getting to a billion it’s
more that it changes the way that I
approach things
it makes me think on a bigger scale
where if my goal is to help reach a
billion entrepreneurs I have to say no
to a lot of things that are too small
and I need to make sure that I’m
focusing my time on projects that have
ability to have a big impact and so
that’s where that comes into play for me
one sec second of that big goal then I
work towards smaller ones so for example
in the YouTube channel it was to hit
initials I hit a hundred thousand
subscribers it’s a great hit 100,000
subscribers the next ones I hit a
million so we’re at 300,000 now trying
to get to million as the next town and I
think it’s good to have goals that are
still stretch that forced you to want to
do something more the forced you to kind
of get out of bed and work harder
actually the first one my youtube
channel was I was at my agency I have a
agency in New York and it was another
guy on YouTube who was bigger than me
and I said you know my goal I’m gonna
beat that guy I’m gonna I want I want
the healthy competition I’m gonna get
ahead of that guy and it took me I think
over a year to do it but but I did it
and so having competition built into
your goal setting can also be at least
for me motivating and losing that like
once I beat him does it go well who do I
who do I try to chase after now but
again making sure that the goals are in
line still with the big vision that you
have because otherwise you become a
hollow pursuit and then they don’t
motivate you as much as they really
should yeah I think that’s a great boy
let me asked all the entrepreneur of my
post and my experience as well really
having that long term vision is quite
important like a compacts for all you
want to do in your life so in my
experience in the past I kind of
followed that shiny object we were
talking about earlier there are a lot of
people see I would like to do this I
would like to do that but there’s no no
plan and so you can’t go and you follow
that
Charlie object and I did that in the
past and you know it’s really difficult
to kind of stick to that goal and stay
motivated because you just said it you
know on a whim but if you actually have
a plan and so I talked a lot about
vision so a year ago I kind of switched
from a medium term thinking to a longer
term thinking and I really focus on my
vision and 101 my life to look like in a
few years time and that really helped me
understand where I want to achieve and
what do I need to say no to like you are
saying and so when I interviewed all the
other entrepreneurs of 38 and from
around outpost most of them they talked
about a vision or their legacy so Lewis
Howes was saying that when he needs some
motivation he just thinks about the
legacy there wants to leave
there was an evap so and so I think
that’s a really really powerful
motivator right there yeah so I just
want to ask one thing to you and to your
audience the guys that are live with us
right now do you ever have a day we
don’t feel like work here you feel a bit
down and you don’t know how to stay
motivated and if you do how you know
what do you do on that day I spoke to
you and to to the guys online if you
want to before I put your comments in
the chat and say you know when you feel
down will they would focus on it yeah
absolutely absolutely I think I think
it’s one of the big myths of
entrepreneurship is that every day is
great you know if you’re if you’re
working some nine-to-five job and you
hate it and you want to start your own
business they go that’s gonna be the
dream everything’s gonna be amazing and
it’s not and it’s way harder because
often you’re by yourself and you may not
have people around you who can help you
hopefully you have some kind of support
system you know friends or family or you
know wife husband whatever who can
provide some emotional support but
finding people got to give you the
business advice and what you need to do
is it’s hard starting my first business
was the most soul-crushing thing that
I’ve ever done in my life I knew that
anything else that I applied myself to I
was getting results from whether it was
athletics or school or what
I worked harder I would get results and
he where I was not getting results in my
business like just sucking and working
insanely hard and nothing seemed to be
working and it’s it’s extremely
dehumanizing and really saps your sense
of self-worth and value to the point
where I you know I told my partner that
I quit and I don’t want to do this
anymore I think what really helps is you
know kind of getting through that one
understanding that is normal yeah well
people don’t talk about it like you
don’t read about the hard day’s a lot in
the self-doubt a lot in the newspaper
articles and the you know blog posts and
all that stuff and you know maybe maybe
you do one on time zillionaire but you
don’t see it a lot in other places so
like it’s normal to doubt yourself is
normal not to be fully confident all the
time it’s normal not to have a great day
all the time that’s gonna happen if
that’s like every day then maybe
something needs to be tweaked and
changed but yeah it’s normal for that to
happen what really helped me was trying
to set myself up with an environment
that supported me to do great things
when I was first getting started there
was a book that really helped me called
radicals and visionaries that is out of
print now but it’s basically the stories
of successful entrepreneurs and how they
got started and I would read a page
start one story a day which is like 300
pages so it’s easy to kind of weed in
the morning and just being around these
successful entrepreneurs and hearing
about their struggles and really
failures one gave me motivation to wanna
you know kind of keep going like Oh
Oprah had it really hard when she was
getting started you know Bill Gates had
a hard he was getting started and to
gave me specific strategies for what I
could do and so I’ve evolved that now
where for like at my youtube channel the
reason for creating the end stressful
series in the top ten series is to be
around these successful entrepreneurs
where if you watch one video from Steve
Jobs maybe that maybe that shifts your
thinking for the day but if you are
constantly connecting and watching the
video every day around Steve Jobs or
Elon Musk or Richard Branson Bill Gates
or any these guys slowly
the the pixie dust rubs off on you and
makes you start to shift your beliefs
change your mindset change your
environment make you want to go out and
do greater things and I think for any
entrepreneur it’s it’s really limiting
at the start because you don’t have that
in your environment yet you don’t have
the friends and family so instead of
just you know blaming your friends for
not supporting you go out and create a
better environment right surround
yourself with knowledge and resources
and ideas and people that force you to
want to get better and crush those kind
of limiting personal beliefs that you
have so so how do you find the right
people in in your life both around you
so both offline as saying online how did
you find the right people that
motivating you then supporting you yeah
that’s a good question I think I think
in terms of my the people that I
actually know most of the people are
just more emotional support which is
limiting you know like it’s great that I
can talk to my wife or friends you know
I have a mastermind group but I’ve kind
of grown a lot faster than the people
around me and it’s great that I can
bring them up for me you know I don’t
have that mentor yet and so that is
limiting but what I get what I do is I
look at the videos like every day I
watch successful entrepreneurs and
successful athletes and musicians
talking about what led to their success
and the way that they think and slowly
that starts to change me I remember I
was so I work with sage as an example
every month I do a call Google hangout
with with Peter Kelly oh yeah that’s
even Kelly we have a Peter Kelly Stephen
Cal uses te o sage and here’s the guy
runs a fifteen thousand person company
and remember when I first started that
series I spoke to my dad he’s like well
what gave you the courage to like how
are you on the same level of Steven
Keller it’s not not like putting me down
just like really curious about how I got
the the courage or the motivation this
see myself is playing on the same level
where when I’m talking with Stephen were
equals I’m not like some young guy and
he has all the experience we’re equals
and answering the questions and it’s
because I spend my time surrounded by
guys who have way bigger than him right
I’m spending my time being absorbing the
wisdom from people who’ve done way way
way more and so I’m not fazed by the CEO
of some huge company and so that kind of
perspective shift has really helped me
watching those videos every day and a
lot of people say well I don’t have a
mentor my life so so like I’m screwed
I’m gonna give up you know and then they
let that hold them back so yes it’s
super helpful to have mentors if you can
find them I had a great mentor when I
was in my first business who really
taught me a lot and helped me grow but
now it’s mostly through those videos and
hanging around successful entrepreneurs
yeah so it’s quite similar for me so I
have a mastermind group that really
helped me so it’s great for from a month
of gods and from my vision and my yearly
goal because we we support each other
and we keep each other accountable which
is so important but at the same time I
don’t have a real-life mentor but I have
a lot of virtual mentors so a lot of
people that I follow online sometimes I
speak to them by email or or a listen to
that podcast so it’s kind of a one-way
chat but it’s very still quite personal
and I learn a lot and I am around people
that are very very inspiring and they
really helped me and so it’s quite
similar to your experience and so I I
want to ask you one one more one more
question about this which is why didn’t
you find a sort of one mentor maybe a
real-life mentor not a virtual mentor
that the follows you what what stops you
from finding one so far because I’m on a
similar quest so that’s why I’m very
interested yeah
so I’ve had to kind of mentors that
really have an impact on my life
apart from my parents who gave me you
know I guess all the values and systems
and made me who I am but from a business
perspective at the moment I don’t know I
don’t feel like it’s a huge I feel like
I’m growing I don’t feel like it’s a
huge need you’re like in general what
I’ve had when I I get what I’m getting
from the videos I guess and it’s helping
me I’m the kind of guy like when I get
something on my mind I go and do it I
don’t have a bucket list of a hundred
things I wish do you like I just start
like it’ll get done and so if I really
wanted a mentor I wouldn’t be the guy
saying I wish I had a mentor and like so
complaining about it I’m not more
successful cuz they don’t have the right
person if I really valued it enough I’ll
just go and do it
so honestly I just don’t value it enough
at where I’m at right now and that may
change like six months later I may be
totally different person and I may need
a lot of help with something and then
I’m gonna shift gears but for now I
don’t feel like it’s a huge issue so I’m
learning what I’m learning from the
videos and it’s it’s doing what it needs
to for now yeah that’s a great point
because I think they’re like goals and a
system that you use to to achieve them
those girls they they all change over
time as you change as a person you might
need a mentor at a certain moment alive
you might want a certain goal but then
you know six months later things may
change and so so in that case otherwise
to ask you affirm if your goals really
changed over time say if we take the
past say two years have your goals
changed at law in that timeframe or
either pretty much stay the same that’s
a tough one right I’m trying I’m trying
to think I mean I’m not the guy that
often I usually have like one main goal
that I’m working on like I’ve heard from
my big goal I’ll have one main goal that
I’m working on and it’s typically a
reflection of what I’m doing so right
now I’m I’m pretty much all in on
YouTube and so my goals reflect YouTube
so in the past couple years it’s been
okay I wanna I wanna you know beat the
other guy on YouTube I want to hit a
hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube
now I want to hit a million subscribers
on YouTube that’s my
main business goal so I guess it’s it’s
changed as I’ve grown but it’s still
related to YouTube and once I hit a
million a million isn’t like the
stopping point like hey I’m hit it and
then now you know kind of get the
pressed it beyond the something else how
we were feeling but like if I stop
liking YouTube in six months I’ll move
it on to something else
you know I won’t be so attached to the
goal that that has to be the only thing
that I do
I just I’m modeling on YouTube that’s
where my mindset is that and so that’s
where I tend to focus my energies yeah
so I do something similar so I do 100
days bursts so I focus on just one goal
for a hundred days and I try to kind of
think may again set that as a stretch
goal quite an ambitious goal but there
are still no I can get there but it’s
gonna be quite difficult and then I just
focus on it for a hundred days and then
I don’t think about anything else and
what’s quite strange is that I’ve
noticed that when I do that when I drop
everything else then I can focus on that
goal
I get more results in less time by the
same times those goals that I’ve kind of
left
I haven’t focused on they progressed at
the same time so anything everything
behind but just go I’m focusing on one
then everything else sort of moves along
then still still still progressing so
that’s quite a cool trick that I
definitely recommend if you yeah if you
have a big goal is to break it in a
hundred days bursts what I find maybe
this is particular than me but I’ll find
I have moments where I wear a strict
schedule is really helpful for me and
strict balls and other times where I
find it almost detrimental I find like
when I know what I want to do and I have
absolute clarity on it then having the
schedule and having the goals the cues
with my goal for this week use my goal
for today here’s what I get done makes
total sense but as soon as I start to
question the bigger picture then the
goals fall apart like this all’s apart
like if I start questioning why am i
doing youtube then then the goal of a
million subscribers gets destroyed and
all of the things underneath it get
destroyed too and they have to go back
and rethink everything all over again
and so I find what I’m when I have that
clarity then then the goals are super
helpful and I’m in a really strict
schedule and then I’ll get I’ll often
get bored or tired of that maybe once a
quarter and then I need to switch
everything up again okay so I know
that’s just me but but I’m I’m I feel
like as you continue to grow and evolve
as a human you need to grow and evolve
your goals and your schedule in your
routine alongside it yeah definitely
Malheur in my case so when I focused so
much for one goal then I have to go take
a break and recover and then you know
just either this for a few days and
think about everything else and go back
to the goal with my my fall focus and so
yeah that’s quite interesting and I
think is it’s not just you
so it’s one more thing I want to ask is
a well on a good day so we talked about
a bad day when you don’t feel motivated
so on a good day do you go back and
think about the low points of the night
that past week or the past months or
maybe you’re you’ve passed in your last
few years do you ever think about buying
go like wow actually I mean a great
moment now I feel really grateful I can
sort of I can crush it does that ever
happen on a good day do I think about
the bad days and yeah the distance
between you and those bad days right ah
on a good day for me is when I’m so in
the zone on what I’m doing did I forget
about everything like I’m not thinking
about the past
I’m not even think we’re going to the
bathroom you know I’m not thinking about
eating I’m thinking about what I’m
working on like it I wake up when I’m
working and then it’s 8:00 at night and
I’m still doing it right and I feel
reminded to go take care of my body and
you know so so on a really good day no
I’m not reflecting I try to build it at
the
gratitude practice or think about three
things that I’m grateful for in the
morning and I have a private Facebook
group with some of the people on my team
and we share like the three things that
were people for today and that helps and
some of those things are really easy to
understand you know like I’m grateful
for my wife and her health and her
looking after me and that kind of stuff
when some of them are like I’m grateful
for the Internet and I’m grateful for
the Saturday and you know you might
sound crazy but that’s what I’m thinking
of so I find that that help I love the
Internet so I think having a daily
gratitude practice can really help I I
think that might keep your keep you from
experiencing too many the low lows but
to answer the question specifically I’m
a good day I’m not thinking about
anything else except what I’m working on
at that moment well that’s why I know
it’s a great day you can focus on all
your help you doing yeah and not even
work to like it could be a Sunday Sunday
out with my wife you know we’re just we
just have a day plan then we’re having
breakfast somewhere and you know taking
a walk or whatever like I’m just if I’m
lost in the moment with her that’s a
great day to you know just kind of being
fully present and enjoying what I’m
doing and not thinking about other stuff
that’s a great day so how do you balance
because you seem very focused on like on
your goals like you want to get to a
million subscribers and so how do you
balance that we kind of your health or
you know your your personal light do you
actually to keep the balance is it
difficult sometimes and it always the
same do you have any tips I think for me
the thing that’s helped the most is
scheduling everything in I think people
often say I do all their business any
but they won’t schedule their personal
time in and so I will I will schedule
time in like at this time this is when
I’m this is when my wife comes home this
is when I’m spending time with her I’m
not letting business kind of bleed into
that I treat that appointment
just as importantly as I would treat
something like this right or an
interview with some you know New York
Times or whatever it is I think people
don’t schedule in their personal stuff
and then it’s just so easy for business
to bleed into it that’s probably been
the thing that’s helped me the most and
then sitting down you know I don’t know
if you’re married I’m not many people
watching are married right so you know
once you get married and you know you
have kids that especially when you’re
married though you have now it’s like
two lives in one and so I work with my
wife to try to figure out what what a
what a good balance is for us you know
she has a normal 9 to 5 job so
definitely when she’s out working I’m
working right like we wake up at the
same time and she’s off working like the
I think a not great thing to do is like
sleeping and then she’s off working and
then I’m working late into the night and
so like we try to make our schedules
overlap as much as possible I don’t use
a cell phone which is kind of super
weird but you know you put in at certain
times you just don’t all know I don’t I
have a cell phone with no data and no
phone number
that’s fascinating ok only so my
smartphone I can’t use my browser unless
an unwise quiet which is a good
compromise for me but you you took it to
a whole nother level which is great well
bye fascinating yeah I mean and it’s not
something everybody can do and I
understand that I’m the weird one uh but
at first my wife hated it because she
couldn’t reach me but now she loves it
because nobody else can reach me when
I’m with her so like when I’m her and
I’m not doing other stuff and I’m worth
when I’m with you I’m not doing
something else and you know all the way
through so I used my I have a phone but
I use it as a tablet basically there’s
no no cell number and no no data and so
that’s helped me kind of say focuses I
think it’s super easy to get distracted
by things especially on when it’s
supposed to be personal time like if I’m
if I’m taking my son swimming I want to
enjoy that time swimming
with him in not checking my phone for a
Twitter update or whatever and I think
it’s for me at least the easiest thing
to do is just not have access to it
that resolves the problem then try to
force discipline of okay for the next
hour I’m not going to check anything you
know different strokes I don’t think my
solution is best for everybody but it
works for me and for everybody watching
you got a family works for you yeah
sorry so one last thing the ones who ask
you about goals if that’s okay is that
in the past two weeks I am spoken with
some of your team and so I just want to
know if you set goals for your team and
how do you do it how do you share it how
do you keep traveling with my team I try
to make sure that everybody is now
becoming the best version of themselves
and so when I hire somebody I’m looking
for someone who’s passionate of what
they’re doing but also wants to grow and
learn and I always have a set assignment
right like this is what I need done this
is what I’m hiring somebody for but I
don’t want that to be the final be-all
and end-all I always try to find
something that pushes and encourages
them to explore something that will help
the business but they’re also really
excited interested by like hopefully
they’re interested by the work that I’m
hiring them for but also I want them to
pick something that is inspiring for
them if you want to keep working on that
usually have tools to get to the
training phase so they come on you know
the training they’re getting up to speed
on what they have to do and then what I
don’t hire for a full-time role I hire
for you know a less than full-time role
and then fill up the rest of the hours
with projects that we’re both interested
in right so I find that to be super
helpful and lady – we’ve pretty low
turnover rate but yeah you know you want
your team to be to be growing as well
and it’s easy it’s easy for the CEO the
founder because you see all the positive
like I see all the comments from YouTube
and one of the things that everybody on
my team does is spend an hour a day in
the YouTube comments responding because
I want them to feel we have a great
community believe nation and I want them
to feel the impact of what they’re doing
so like my programmer who never talks to
customers and just sitting behind this
computer typing you know he spends an
hour day in the comments too so you can
see the benefit of all the work that
he’s doing as well because it’s it’s
selfish and amazing for me to get all
this attention and love but really it’s
a team effort it’s all the guys behind
me – they let me do the big things that
I’m doing so I want them to share and
experience that as well that’s cool to
wrap up because I think they only have a
few minutes left in our mail
conversation if we were to give one
piece of advice to to the people
watching on how to start one goal what
would that piece of advance me I think
the most important thing with the goal
is to make sure that you’re excited by
it it’s your goal it’s not your parents
goal for you it’s not your culture’s
goal for you you know and it can take a
lot of guts to break through that I
think of akio morita who started Sony
who came from 11 generations of sake
farmers in Japan and you think of
Japanese culture is being very
traditional very follow the rules and he
was expected to take over as the oldest
son and it’s 11 generations I’m not just
like you’re your father’s business
that’s 11 generations of history but he
said I’m not gonna do this I want to
start my own business and then now he
didn’t know was gonna be you know what
became Sony of this huge company but
making sure that you have a goal that
feels right to you that you’re excited
by that you are passionate about waking
up every morning working towards and not
somebody else’s version of your life for
you yeah so I hear that quite often with
my readers because I like to share my
goals with them and read their goals as
well and help each other and quite a few
times
some people shared goals with me and
they’re clearly not their goals and then
they wonder why they’re not motivated
and the great piece of advice just
follow your goals or not somebody else
seems cool
I know we’re kind of running short on
time there’s a dissonance yeah amount of
chattering questions coming in but we’re
not able to hit them but for people who
want to be able to reach you
I don’t even look on goal setting and
you’re also available on Twitter or how
can people reach you and tell us give us
the lowdown
so I’m max and rainy on Twitter and then
you can reach me on my website and my
email my email address at the end of
each post so you could just go on one
one blog post you’ll find my email
address at the bottom and I’ve have an
e-book on goal-setting
just for for believe nation and that’s a
time zillionaire calm slash believe
nation so we’ll find it there and I
really hope to hear from from the people
live now if you have any questions just
send me an email I read all emails that
I received and I reply to all of them
yeah so I hope to implement cool so I
put the link to the e-book as
it should be in the description and
Matt’s Twitter handles also in the title
of that this video so you can check him
out Matt thank you so much man thanks
for the time thank you guys all for
watching continue to believe guys and
we’ll see you soon see you soon thanks
Evan thank you guys
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