hello everybody welcome to another
YouTube hang out super excited to be
here I am joined by a special guest and
new friend then the man from Forbes sean
bell and he’s going to ask you some
questions from for his article on forbes
and we’re going to have a conversation
as well because he is an expert in his
own right talking about Gen Y and moving
from student to CEO one of his personal
missions that he’s gonna he’s going to
talk to us about so Dan before we get
into your questions first of all welcome
aboard man join us from New York City so
what happened was I was playing you as
you were talking because I had it logged
in on youtube at the same time okay this
is this a little it’s so here we go so
welcome dad welcome aboard happy to be
here I’ve known about you for a long
time I mean I’m just overly impressed
with the amount of content you produce
and very smart to focus on one word
focus on different people their
perspectives and much in the same way we
have in common where we’re constantly
interviewing people spotlighting people
and sharing that knowledge with an
audience you’ve connected with so many
different people and spotlighted so many
different individuals for me it’s been
almost 1,700 individuals in the past 10
years and and now you’ve been added to
that special group is what i like to say
and so it’s really special to be here
with you and and to celebrate your new
book because hey it ain’t easy right i
love that thanks man to tell the odds a
little bit about you what you’re all
about that and then we’ll dive into the
questions absolutely so i am an
entrepreneur i’d started until the
company last year so now i have a
consulting company that helps other
companies figure out the millennial
generation and then i have a research
and events company called future
workplace so millennial branding and
future workplace have also interviewed
about 1700 successful people from arnold
schwarzenegger to tony robbins to
jessica alba for forbes and various
other outlets like Business Week
you know I’ve written two best-selling
books me to point out and promote
yourself and several other things that I
can’t think of I have a speaking career
I very I’m a spokesperson for major
brands and it’s been quite a journey and
I started work when I was 13 years old
so for me and you know in terms of what
after Evan represents it’s hard work
it’s not like you magically get hundreds
of thousands of youtube subscribers they
don’t just immediately give those to you
have to earn everything and so that’s
why you see a lot of successful people
connecting with successful people
because it’s almost like when I pledged
a fraternity is you’re all in this
together you all go through these
hearted hardships and it’s easier to
connect with successful people because
you’ve all been through a lot Evan would
you agree oh yeah hundred percent and
even doing this again reached out said
hey you wanted to do an article for his
uh his Forbes I said let’s great love to
participate when I would turn this into
a hangout to so I could share his
messenger to you guys as well so we’ll
get to his questions first and then dive
into a little bit more about him and get
to a knowledge exchange as well I’m
curious to learn a little bit more so uh
then I already I don’t know what the
five bushes are but i’ll talk to find
out what do we got all right how do you
figure out your single word that
captures your purpose and mission it’s
really the crux of the new book what’s
your word I mean for me I was thinking
as I was reading your book you know
resourceful or responsive would be two
of the words that i would think our
first when i’m thinking about myself but
what about you so for me it’s believed i
built the whole business and brand and i
believe and it’s not just a mark
anything it’s me like I believe in
people it’s where it all came from when
I turned it into that marketing element
for my business um for you responsive
and resourceful you might think of what
what is a more meta word that kind of
encapsulates both of those things so
it’s like you have a hard time picking
between two then what’s what maybe
something that sits above it that breaks
both of them down so as an example um I
was going through my father and he loves
adventure an adventure is always part of
his life and you
he’s in his 60s and rides a motorcycle
and likes to go bungee you know the
bungee cording and the whole bunch of
crazy like I’m too afraid to do that
he’s not doing it to Moses venture but
he’s also really he’s one of the nicest
people you were gonna meet just super
warm friendly just like he’s way nicer
than I am too so so he’s like well how
do i balance these two things and what
he ended up with heart where heart can
represent the adventure side and heart
is also the warmth of being nice to
people and doing the right thing and so
that is what he ended up now building
his life around thinking okay well how
do i add more heart to my relationship
to my my kids to my career to you know
my environment and so there if you have
to they’re having a hard time with then
maybe there’s something more matter that
brings them both together that with
little bit of thinking can can come down
to once you have this one word how do
you best leverage it in terms of
communicating with others in terms of
profiling yourself maybe online how do
you almost unearth it and double down on
it because it seems like based on your
previous response it’s about once you
can lock this down this is your focus
areas people need to recognize you as
this you need to promote this you need
to internalize this how do you best
leverage this word yeah I think most
people live in a fog I think I think I
think if you ask those people they’re
not happy with their lives entrepreneurs
might be a little different story might
have a greater percentage as we’ve gone
off and done our own thing we’re trying
to live our dream but I think most
people are not happy with their life and
they may not even know why they’re just
the kind of mediocre and they’re living
for the weekends and evenings and and so
having a self awareness is what finding
your one were is all about understanding
what your core value is and whether you
then turn that you know I see the world
through entrepreneurship context but
whether it’s just how do I apply this to
my life and my relationships it starts
with just having that self-awareness so
what you figured it out
ok so my word is believer my word is
heart that is understanding that within
the business context people people like
two x values first so people start
whenever you sell a product you look at
okay we’re going to sell the features
right feature selling grade somewhere
along the line president about selling
the benefits ella been assaulted the
whole of the drill you some of the
benefits but the best companies in the
world understand poor selling where
you’re buying the brand you’re buying
the value you want to feel the same
mission of that company’s feeling when
I’m buying a Nike shoe I’m not buying it
because it has stronger laces than
Reebok right like he never compares
himself to reebok they don’t care
they’re on their own mission I feel like
I’m LeBron James when I put on my
thankee shoes and the same for Apple the
same for starbucks see all these guys
and so people want to buy the mission
and so for a lot of entrepreneurs they
don’t really have a strong mission and
the mission is led from your one word
again not just the marketing thing is a
very personal thing this is your
advantage as an entrepreneur why you
started this business as your advantage
you stand out so whatever you’re selling
if you’re selling me computer repair
services and I go to Google I look up
computer repair services you know you’re
going to show up amongst a list of 25
different local computer repair service
chops you know what I am I going to pick
you if I can’t tell the difference it’s
going to be based on price it’s just a
race to the bottom but forgive for
example you brand yourself as the
dependable computer repair service shop
because your one word is dependable not
because it’s a marketing thing but like
you are actually like you can’t stand
people are not dependable and I go to
your website as a story about you and it
gives me the background about how you
know it comes from your family or
whatever it is and i feel that emotional
connection to dependability if I’m
someone who cares about dependable I’m
going to want to hire you and I’ll pay
more for it because we value the same
thing I want that experience i’ll pay
more to go to Whole Foods you’ve no good
by the same thing at costco because i’m
buying it from whole foods and so a lot
of people
just look the same a lot of companies
look the same and it’s on you as an
entrepreneur to be able to spread that
message in all of your marketing on your
website tell your story make it
meaningful make it connect not just a
standard about us page like make me have
that emotional objection to you and then
it’s not just about the marketing is
about everything it’s the lens through
which you see the world right so if
we’re only looking at a business context
if you’re hiring somebody you need to
hire dependable people right people who
value dependability if you’re working
with suppliers you need the pentacle
suppliers right and so what most people
are hiring somebody they’ll just look at
I need a I need a coder so I’m going to
look for PHP skills and I’m going to you
know just checking out the boxes where
the values are really what’s what’s
going to sell people on the job and get
the right people coming in if somebody
does not value dependability I collie
won’t be a good fit for them I don’t I
don’t want to work with them like we’re
gonna fight they’re not going to get it
you know it’s going to be a going to
have to go there multiple times they’re
never going to refer me business where
somebody does value that I’m going to be
their best fit we’re going to be we’re
going to be amazing together they’re
going to pass my name on to other people
and is on you as the entrepreneur to the
share what that message is absolutely
one of the big focuses that I want to
take this too is is on career paths
right it’s you start to focus on one
career path let’s say when you graduate
college or even when you graduate high
school and then you start to see there’s
roadblocks there’s challenges you’re
starting to get feedback from maybe your
parents for your friends from your peers
may be mentors how do you know if you
you should or shouldn’t be an
entrepreneur maybe a lot of people still
want to be employees or maybe
freelancers or maybe you go to this
industry over that industry over time
you know it’s very unpredictable right
like 20 years ago you didn’t know you’d
be doing this today so is it a guess and
check type of
system where you pursue something and
then you figure out is this right for me
not right for me and then you pivot to
something else and keep pivoting until
you’re in your sweet spot or is life a
bunch of pivots and you’re never a
hundred percent doing what you’re doing
or should be doing yeah what is your
what is your take on deciding and then
pivoting and then long-term do you feel
like people have three to six curves in
their lifetime now and 11 and about 11
jobs between 18 and 45 so what do you
think career paths should go and how can
you help the individual best decide on
the right career path awesome um I love
it i think i think as we’re starting off
on our career path I think as young
adults you know an l2 childhood we are
the collective what are all of our you
know the friends and family around us
right like your values your beliefs your
life is according to what your parents
and you know the people around you want
you to do right uh as you get older and
as you graduate now if you know your
university and your kind of figure out
where I want to go now you have your
chance at some point you have to break
free of other people’s expectations of
you and figure out what is it you want
to do some people never break free of
that some people are 60 years old and
have 80 year old parents and are still
trying to live up to their parents
expectations right so i think that’s
that’s changing i think there’s a lot on
people’s radar now that a lot of
influences that make people get there
faster but i think it starts with the
mindset that i’m going to live my
version of my life and not anybody
else’s version of my life so making that
decision and there’s a lot of confusion
do I go into account or go into science
do I you know become an entrepreneur
what do i do is a ton of confusion but i
think i think it starts with that and
for a lot of people it’s really
difficult to say no mom and dad I don’t
want to go to med school I want to do my
own thing um from there it’s in my view
just starting um your one word will help
you with that and that if it’s you know
if your one word as possibility
then okay boy am I going to make this
decision based off the safe thing to do
or the possibility my one word is
adventure chances are I’m not just going
to take some safe accounting job I’m
going to go to Peru and try something
that and come back to this more related
to what I’m all about um it’s it’s
testing something on a small scale doing
tons of small starts I think people only
have more careers as we go and probably
multiple crews at the same time as we go
I think people don’t want to get locked
in on an accounting job or whatever and
picking on a candle a lot today locked
in an accounting job and then I think a
lot of people land on a job because it’s
the easy thing to do at a university and
it starts up some part-time saying and
then it just unfolds into this career
that they can’t get off the track and it
leads to a full-time job and that leads
to a promotion another promotion and all
of a sudden 15 years of gonna buy you
been with the same company um and so I
think people are not they don’t tolerate
that as much I think people recognize
that they want to not wait until
retirement to enjoy their life and they
want to go and try different things I
think we constantly evolve as human
beings i think you know i may have the
same values as they did 10 years ago but
I’ve I’ve grown and learn new things I
want to try something new what I want to
do the same thing over and over and over
again and I think people are now more
and more willing to take those small
risks to adjust their career path
alongside their interests whether that’s
on a full-time basis whether that’s
certain to part-time gig there’s a lot
of people have their side hustles going
on just try and stuff out whether that’s
you know interning somewhere or taking a
year off as a sabbatical and going on
some exploration I think it’s only going
to happen more and more people feel
dissatisfied with where they’re at I
think the the current generation is much
more willing to take those risks and
live for the now and not just do things
because that’s how it’s always been done
absolutely so you’ve profiled a lot of
people in the book
and as well as in all of your videos so
we’re talking a lot of pieces of content
what you must notice from distilling all
of this knowledge from all these
different people is some common threats
right it’s like I wrote an article for
Forbes and a few years ago which was
after I don’t over a thousand interviews
here the 12 things that I see run
through most of these interviews in
terms of the best advice that people
have talked to me about for you I’m very
curious since you know I’ve gone through
this exercise I’m sure that you have
gone through this exercise as well what
are some of the pieces of advice they
keep coming up again and again to a
point where you’re not you personally
can’t get them out of your head because
it’s it you be almost surprised if
someone does it mention those pieces of
advice sure um it’s not the ones that a
lot of people would expect I think there
are some common ones but I think a lot
of people think to be an entrepreneur
you have to be a typing personality you
have to be outgoing you have to be you
have to have the bravado you have to
have the swagger and it’s not there’s so
many people at tons of success being
introverted like you can have massive
success being an introvert and not
dealing well with people there’s there’s
entrepreneurs who had success to me not
I think you hear about the ones that are
out there being loud because that’s what
they’re good at like that’s how they
have success by being loud so you’re
going to hear their stories I think if I
looked at common threads uh one is they
started I think a lot of people have an
idea everybody has an idea the guy who’s
working in his IBM cubicle who hates his
life you know he has an idea was not
doing anything about it the
entrepreneurs started uh so that’s super
important I think the one that you’ll
hear most common is is the passion love
of the work early I am Jerry Seinfeld
posted as the the torture that you enjoy
you know like what somebody might look
at your schedule gain like hey how many
trips to be done this year like 28 trips
48 trips right so like your final in the
world given these speeches inspiring
audience people look at that’s it that’s
nuts like I hate airports I hate travel
you know that’s crazy I couldn’t do that
man that’s that sounds like torture but
for you it’s like I love this I want
connect with more people I want to spend
my message and so people who looked at
my schedule we’re making three to five
videos a day for my channel we’re a lot
of people have a hard time making one
video week and I’m cramming out you know
20 to 30 um people look at my schedule
and see it is torture but for me i love
i love the work and so I think it’s if
you look at the passion I would say not
just like the extension follow your
passion the extension of it is not just
the passion for the end result like I
want to achieve this but the work like
the grind loving the grind doing the
work because they love the work i think
is super common you know steve jobs here
up on the wall was a multi-millionaire
in his 20s and work till the day he died
on apple because that’s what he just you
just loved the work he could have gone
off and went on vacations and just
whatever you wanted to do and wanted to
do the work and it wasn’t about making
the money and he became you built the
biggest company by market cap in the
world and so you see that consistently
over time from almost everybody the love
of the work so they started they love
the work and if i had a third point i
don’t know that it’s a message that
people give a lot but more just by
watching them seeing how they act the
the humility for the cause even the most
you know ego bravado filled people will
do whatever they need to do to get the
thing moving whatever whatever their big
goal is whatever their mission is
whatever need to get done they’re going
to do it whether it’s getting on a sales
call sweeping the floor leading a CEO
meeting whatever it is like if this
needs to get done I am NOT above doing X
Y Z because I need to get it done or I
think a lot of people don’t have that
look well I’m not I’m not clean up the
office do it like guy or something for
that i’m not i’m not going to walk 10
blocks that meeting where’s my car like
a lot of people feel they’re above doing
some work and yes all of these people
that we profiled are great at delegating
of built amazing team
but if something has to get done the
success of the mission not even the
company the mission is more important
than their ego around doing whatever
work has to get done um so yeah I’m in
the pic 3 like start love the word love
the torture and humility for the cause
excellent well those are the questions I
have I just want to add on to what you
just said and I think when you think
about the most successful people look at
their first job or second job for me I
was a caterer at my temple I had to deal
with very difficult people at weddings
bar mitzvahs Shabbat dinners where I was
cleaning up setting up cooking you name
it and my second job my first internship
in high school was cold calling and I’m
an introvert that was torture but I
learned more about myself what I like
doing what I didn’t like doing and it
was now if I were to have the coke all
it’s not as big of a deal because they
did it when I was younger and I look at
it as everything is part of the process
right this book is one project in your
long journey and why do you do it
because you see the bigger picture why
do you clean the floor because you see
the bigger picture it’s one item that is
part of something so much greater like
you were saying and that’s people who
are passionate and find meaning in their
work and their mission as you said those
people don’t complain as much about
those small-minded tasks hmm interesting
I like it I like it well we got some
questions let’s drill let’s mind in for
some information here too now I’m
excited our boy theorize is asking
question for Dan how do you see the
entrepreneurial landscape changing from
this generation to the next it’s a great
question what’s really interesting about
the millennial generation is they’re
actually very risk-averse they’re the
least likely to consider themselves to
be entrepreneurs
so what you’ve seen online and in the
news are the rare cases where a
millennial has been very successful like
David Karp of tumblr or Kevin Systrom of
Instagram or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook
you’re seeing these massive stories but
the true story of what’s actually going
on in America with Millennials is
they’ve been disenfranchised a lot of
them are still living with their parents
there they’ve had a delayed adulthood in
terms of when they’re going to be moving
out and starting their lives getting
married having children get buying cars
it’s really affected a lot of them so
that’s the real story of what’s
happening and the average costs or the
lowest or average cost to start a
business now is 30,000 and with the
advent of student loans where at one
point three trillion in student loan
debt that has prevented a lot of this
generation from becoming entrepreneurial
it’s not like they don’t have the
aspiration but realistically it’s hard
for many to make that level of a jump
because of those hardships right it’s I
always go back to Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs you think about it you gotta have
shelter you gotta you know bring food to
the table and then once you get to the
point where you’re trying to make a
living and live independently it’s do I
start a business or right just take this
job just to be able to pay rent and to
move out and to save up and their
savings have been cut because the
economy so that’s the real story of
what’s happening in so what’s
interesting with the next generation
which is generation Z who is now one
year into the workplace they are more
realistic in terms of their ambitions
and they’re questioning the system in a
way that uh that no one has before
meaning that why do I have to go to
college why do I want to take on the
student loan debt you know why is there
a nine-to-five work day they’re asking
these massive questions millennial start
to ask these questions but gen Z is now
firming that up and saying you know we
don’t want to do this we’re into the
going to be the first generation that
repels against their traditional system
and start to reinvent their own system
now what’s really interesting if you
compare when I started so I a lot of
this when I graduated school start from
a blog that I built from 0 comments0
article 0
will you know a few errs subscribers and
everything up into millions and then I
launched other companies like a magazine
like a speaking career like a book and
various other things on top of that blog
but now if I were to start from scratch
now and maybe you admit this it’s so
much more competitive there’s so much
more noise and what I’m going to what
you’re going to see next year is that
the fragmentation of the media will be
at an all-time high there’s going to be
a lot of winners and losers a lot of
casualties I’ve been meeting with a lot
of journalists top publications tons of
layoffs so it’s going to get even more
challenging and complicated next year to
build a foundation to build a brand and
what you’re going to see is as you know
more people are realistic and
risk-averse I think a lot of these
so-called entrepreneurs will realize hey
this isn’t for me they’ll go back into
corporate America and then the true
bread entrepreneurs and you know like
Gary Vaynerchuk mutual contact bars and
various other people are like the true
entrepreneurs next year are going to
start to come out because of all of
these changes that are impacting our
lives um so you know maybe that sounds
negative but the optimism is there
because it’s like okay well if you’re
meant to do this there might even be
less competition if more people go into
corporate America but it’s still not
going to be easy and maybe it was never
easy but when we we both started when
did you start your show I’ve been on
YouTube for almost 10 years yeah um but
I took it seriously in the more in like
past three years more seriously yeah and
it’s really about you know if you think
about all the major media outlets now
it’s it’s about you know they might call
content farms it’s about a lot of
production of content and trying to keep
up with the pace of what people are
looking for and you know everyone’s
about headlines now wait what’s the next
BuzzFeed headline you know tweets are
140 characters that train the individual
to want something quick an instant and
less about reading full articles and
more about using the headline to figure
out what to even bother with and share
and so I think the challenges are there
but i think what
comes down to again like you’re saying
like what’s your one word what what are
you driving yourself towards what do you
really want to focus on and for me my
mission has become clear in the past few
years is I want to help Millennials from
college to CEO so on the top of my
website it’s kind of what I stand for it
guides my choices meaning that my first
book helped Millennials get from college
the first job me to point out and then
the second but promote yourself is like
congratulations you of your first job
here’s how to get ahead and eventually
become a manager and so clearly each
book is going to follow along that path
and courses and consulting and speaking
and everything else will be tied to
everything I do so I’m not going to
start a restaurant I’m not going to do
things outside of my core I’m going to
continue to make decisions as they align
to the mission and I think that
everything that you discuss in your book
and what we talked about so far it even
is good feedback for me being like yeah
that does make sense that should you
should be internalizing that mission in
guiding towards admission otherwise you
end up wasting time and things that
actually got soaked up your time so you
it almost prevents you from doing what
you want to hear what were you two
things and you had responsive what was
the other one with are resourceful and
it’s a responsive is when you email me
you’re getting a response quick and I
think over time I built that type of
brand where people is an expectation
that you know Dan’s reliable basically
and then resourceful is important
because it’s like all right you know you
need to meet this person you know you
just moved to South Boston Massachusetts
and you don’t have many friends oh y
know people there quick introduction now
you’re on your way like that to me is is
it is resourceful i can get you what you
need when you need it and a part of that
has to do with my background in terms of
you know almost 1,700 interviews with
successful people but also i’ve raised
half a million dollars in research i’ve
conducted 35 primary research studies my
field so it’s you know you can ask me
any question the world about the
workplace and in my head I am figuring
out what statistic to share with you
because I’ve already done years worth of
primary research
and I skimmed through 450 secondary
research reports every year and so for
me content is obviously really important
it’s kind of the crux of everything I’ve
done and and that’s why I think how we
connect is obviously we produce a lot
you and your world me and my world but
there’s there’s connection points that
bring us together and that’s why we’re
here today is there is there is there
something that you can think of that
sits above that look you think about
responsiveness resourcefulness maybe
even like productivity or hard working
or whatever there’s something that you
feel like embodies all three of those I
can come together I think with how
people describe me which is part of this
right because that’s how you get
feedback to realize you know what you
focus on or how you best represent
yourself and people always say have a
good work ethic meaning that you need
something done I get it done you need to
meet a person I connect you to that
person it just happens very quick
there’s no delays um and so I think that
that’s really important is to be able to
be someone who’s reliable who can
connect people and and who’s really just
dependable overall you know because do
you know and you’ve dealt with so many
people to where people will say they’re
going to do something and not do it they
won’t respond in five days so when
people are actually responsive to you
that that they stand out immediately if
people immediately say hey I know you’ve
got a book out or hey I know you’re
working on this project I’m gonna help
you immediately how you view them is
completely different and the way in
which I changed from college to now at
this point in time is I realize that a
lot of people said what can you do for
me and I realized in my early 20s that
it’s not about that it’s about finding
the right people figuring out how you
can help them and then they’ll naturally
want to reciprocate and so that one
philosophy has gotten me to where I am
today right it’s how do I have all these
people out and then maybe in the future
they help me and if they don’t get um
and so I think I think there’s power in
that because
it doesn’t set these crazy expectations
and it’s because I think that for all of
us if we’re in a market so like let’s
say you’re in the marketing world you
want to create good karma right you want
to be a good civilian and a community
number of your world right so if you
help every if you have self godin and
David Meerman Scott and you know maybe a
Tim Ferriss whoever you would say is
part of your world then you’re kind of
part of their world to your your your
part of that community that’s helping
them and you can only benefit from doing
that so authors you know think of how
many authors that you promoted over the
over the years how many authors that I
promote it and everyone needs help any
successful person wants to become more
successful right and so if you can help
a successful person become more
successful they’re going to want to help
you without you even saying anything
yeah on a percent I’m thinking about
your like three hours here reliable
responsibly what what I do so what
encouraging the book is you have your
you have your one word and then you have
your credo and the Credo consists of
three different values that fit under
your one word that make your one or
change it from so for me believe is the
word but it ends up becoming hashtag
believe and the hashtag is my like what
the lead means to me because I think for
most people believe you think about
self-confidence like believe in yourself
well yeah I’m that self-confidence and
that’s definitely part of it but believe
for me is also believing the work it’s
like how passion for the work that
you’re doing and then also have the
conviction like follow through it’s
going to work out it believes it’ll work
out so hashtag Willie for me is passion
self confidence and conviction those are
three things that I values it’s like
you’ve got reliable responsive
resourceful and then so like what does
that form to build that met a word that
could be super powerful and then it
helps everything like if you’re if you
are hiring somebody to help you screen
interviews or proofread your work or
help you with your next book you know if
they are not reliable responsive and
resourceful it’s not going to be a fit
with Dan like don’t come walk in the
dance war
this is not going to work out right and
so like even you’ve been and i’m sure
you are like you articulating died in
your job as and call it a day i need a
reliable resourceful responsive copy
editor or whatever some people look at
that and say well you know that’s a
stupid thing to put in a job added a
title you look great like don’t apply
because we are not going to get along
and somebody say yeah okay great because
i want to work with a writer who’s
responsive reliable and resorts all
right i’m tired of working with these
dead beat writers you don’t get back to
me and don’t approve my stuff on time
right so like it helps attract the right
people to you but i also think it
happens naturally too so think about
this think about through your life new
people come into your life your
relationship with people changes may be
so the best friend and maybe there are
acquaintances maybe an acquaintance
become so in closer not people are in
and out of your life maybe you hold on
to one high school front for that your
whole life and what you notice which i
think is so fascinating is once you get
deeper with these individuals and create
a stronger relationship you realize why
they’re your friend and your friend
because of maybe they have the same word
as you and to me that’s pretty
fascinating right if someone has the
same values you you know whether you’re
looking for relationship marriage
friendship it’s typically people have
shared values i think that’s the core of
how we connect with people and it is
almost like the filter of who stays in
our life and how strong or weak that tie
is a hundred percent one hundred percent
that’s what an exercise to find out what
your one word is think about your best
friends why you like them think about
your favorite movies and why you like
that your favorite songs your favorite
books your favorite interviews what you
love about your parents your favorite
teacher all of that like why do they
stick with you why does that one teacher
stick with you where the other hundreds
that you’ve had just float by you know
and I what does have to do with your
favorite song well that’s the glue
that’s the sticky stuff that’s your one
word that’s what you have to figure out
and when you identify it then you can
start doing things with more intention
now you’re looking for that instead of
it being an accidental like floating
through 100 teachers before you find the
next one
right so that’s when you get out of the
mud and you start actually living your
life but also doing your business with
more with more intention um we got a
question have have you read Robert child
Dinis signs of persuasion yeah so I
interviewed him for that book and then I
need to meet him for his new book and
that’s one of the things I was I was
emphasizing a little bit earlier was
reciprocation which is one of his rules
in terms of influencing other people is
influencing by helping others and then
them wanting to reciprocate because they
feel like it’s the right thing to do and
you know you not everyone is going to
reciprocate not everyone’s can be your
friend and that’s why you have to put
yourself out there meet many people and
then in my opinion I’m a numbers guy
playoff percentages right you don’t know
how things are going to pan out for
instance one of our mutual connections
is luis house right the lewis has a
great podcast got a book i’ve known him
a long time I knew him when he was
crashing at his sister’s couch so it’s
kind of crazy I was introduced but
to buy him from someone who has bought
this woman Connie Benson he was blogging
for me a long long long time ago and now
she works in social media Dell and so
it’s just a random coincidence but um
you know I think him his is obvious
right his is um his one word is you know
what it is is it’s called a greatness
goodness greatness greatness is his work
right and so everything he does the
book’s title the podcast title making
sure everyone defines the word in his
podcast and their own interpretation it
just rampa sizes it’s almost like that’s
the word you associate with him it
actually reminds me of a long time ago
where Laura Ries um who’s won’t like our
big time marketing guru from a long long
long time ago and they were talking
about and she heard dad alois wrote with
Jack trout
is positioning the battle for your mind
and so when I saw your book I’m like oh
this is like the next generation of that
right because that was more about from a
corporation in product standpoint and
you have more of the individual
standpoint as I see in your book which
is to me is even more applicable today
right because you have them where it’s
like yeah focus on one word for brand
because people don’t have time they
don’t have time to think of you as a
million different your company or your
product is million different things and
the way i internalized what you’re
trying to do is you know you you as an
individual you know we’re human so it’s
different a big company even though
we’re in this social media era it’s
still a company for a person to be able
to think about what they represent and
to internalize one word it makes it easy
for them but it also makes it easy for
other people to identify that term in
them and that’s where the true power is
in my finger yeah I think too especially
as introverts you know you and me both
introverts like I’m not that you take
all those flights I’m not talking to the
guy next to me on the airplane you know
I don’t talk to people at networking
events lest I come up to me I love
people you know but I never initiate
stuff and so this is power is a powerful
tool for us as introverts because it’s a
magnet that attracts like minded people
like I love that message let me have you
on my show and let’s talk about it oh
cool let’s do it i’m happy to come on
and do it because i’m not going to be
the guy emailing out connecting lewis’s
lewis is such an extroverted dude like
he goes all the events and will shake
everybody’s hand and will introduce
himself and talking about his podcast
all of his stuff happens at the parties
and the networking events how he makes
his connections and it’s awesome it
works for him uh like I would my
business dependent on that I’d be out of
business because I just suck at it so
much and I don’t enjoy it’s like
terrifying so through the one word that
believe on the mission and the work it
attracts not just like mine its staff
and an audience but resources people
connections
media to help kind of spread that
because they identify with what I’m
doing and a lot of people say believe is
stupid like believe come on like be
practical or you know it’s great and
like those people don’t even want to
come anywhere near me because they think
is a superb message and it’s awesome
like stay away because I don’t want you
here either is mutually beneficial but
as an introvert I think it’d be really
powerful to get your messaging out to
that marketing and people will clamor to
come and help you this guy in the UK
sent me a bunch of believe Mars bars in
the UK they had this campaign with a
crow opt out the logo like a fine one
they believe Mars bar is awesome so they
swapped out the logo and put believe on
it and like a fan of mine in the UK it’s
like I gotta send that to Evan like
great you know it’s like this happens
consistently where’s people see the word
and they think of me and like I’m not
special to happen for everybody whatever
your one word is people like greatness
people think of Louis right if you see
something with greatness they’re going
to send it to him and people love
greatness they’re going to want to
follow this podcast if people think
greatness I like come on let’s overrated
or like you know whatever it is great
like you’re not going to go there so
it’s super helpful to help people come
to your mission and as a as a
introverted entrepreneur just an
entrepreneur in general and we don’t
have the budget to go out and take super
bowl commercials and you need to get
people talking about you need to get the
grassroots and tie into the emotions and
it’s a powerful way to do it two things
when you choose that one word you’re
basically taking a stand you’re like
this is who I am this is my focus this
is what I represent like it or not and
that’s going to attract or repel people
but it’s going to find the right people
for you um and that’s a good thing I
don’t think people should be of afraid
of that I think it’s very empowering and
it should excite people once they do it
because a lot of elements of life will
start clicking for them and they’ll
start to make sense of why they made
certain decisions why maybe something
has failed or succeeded or why they
surround themselves with certain people
or when
one career path and not another so a lot
becomes clear to them and that can be
very exciting and empowering I love it
um the kiru is asking then what’s your
plan for the next year and I like how
how they said year because the idea of
having a five or ten year plan now is
much more complicated than used to be so
actually setting is a great topic
because five years ago I started what I
call it’s like a checklist a goal
checklist so the way it’s constructed
this three levels to it the first level
is the things I gotta do right now the
second level are five personal and
professional goals and it’s a checklist
right I just check it off once I’ve done
it and then under those goals so I’ll
give you an example research eight
research studies this year every time I
get a research study funded I write it
up there’s one of the eight and then
once it’s executed I check it off one
under personal could be travel and now
i’m dividing travel from domestic to
international so on international for
instance israel and peru and london and
wherever and once that strips done it’s
done so it’s my way of committing to
accomplishing those goals and the goal
is to how do i check off at least eat at
least eighty percent of these every year
and when i think of something i want to
do in the future I go all the way to the
bottom of the spreadsheet and I put down
future goals you know write this book
start this company things that I know
I’m not going to do this year but in my
head I want to remember because if
certain things happen i’m able to start
working on those so I think goal setting
is so for me this year at least was you
know travel to other more other
countries to get more of a global
perspective what’s going on to bring
light to the research and to take
vacation to be honest another one was um
I really wanted to start from a research
perspective create a work innovation
barometer to say you know what’s really
going on in the workplace when
technology wise virtual reality
augmented reality robotics what are
what’s being embraced by come
what’s the adoption curve look like and
so that was a challenge this year
obviously another challenge in the next
you know three three or four months
maybe it’ll take is the third book right
walking down the publisher getting that
in motion and that book will depict
various other goals that are connected
with launching a book as you know it’s
not just launching a book there’s
various other activities that are
involved from the promotional maybe
course perspective that you might want
to to do and I think that goal setting
is never going to die I just think
people need to be more conscious of what
they’re able to do you know to be
realistic and and really create a
checklist to really commit to doing
these things if you’re not committing to
do it not gonna happen right and I think
goal setting should be exciting like you
know after the next maybe two weeks i’ll
have a pretty good idea of what next
year is going to look like in the more
you set goals so think about five years
ago when i started this versus now but I
kind of know what I can pull off and not
pull off right based on what I’ve done
in the past and that’s good because now
you can be more realistic you can maybe
get more done but always challenge
yourself like make yourself
uncomfortable for instance you know one
of the things I’m working on now as a
documentary and I’m like wow I’m an
introverted argument like this is I have
not done it before I’m more used to the
written medium right I deal with tunnel
written thousands of articles and this
is a challenge for me and and so I think
the challenge is like I just in Peru I
did not only Machu Picchu Machu Picchu
but I did what was the hardest physical
thing I’ve ever done which was rainbow
mountain have you heard of rainbow
mountain no so it’s actually what it
seems like the mountains are the various
color purple red yellow everything and
it’s literally a six hour hike 13 or so
miles and I was starting off I was
leading the pack but the altitude and
rainbow mountain imbrue is so great that
it gets to a point where you can’t
breathe so every five steps you stop and
you go you’re taking three giant breasts
and then you’re going another few steps
and it’s literally like that for a
long period of time and so that was a
massive challenge and it got to a point
where I was looking at the nun I’m like
am I gonna keep going am I gonna keep
calling and you know what throughout
everything it’s like gotta kind of
fought there gotta fall through so I got
to the top finally it was like this big
victory but then I had to go back I’m
like the last two miles I was limping it
was so doc even and they had I remember
the peruvians they had horses for people
who really couldn’t make it and the
horse is good and breathe it was intense
I us but I think I you know it’s a chant
I’ve never done anything that hard
before physically that was a challenge
right professionally he got a challenge
it once things become easy people who
want to be successful or ambitious or
whatnot you have to be able to do
something that’s uncomfortable and
that’s challenging otherwise you’re
never going to grow I love it Steph is
asking him in a day and I wanted to ask
if I could have two words I’ve been
thinking about it the first is fun in
the second is freedom again my take on
that is going back to earlier where we
discussed like you got your one word and
then you have to create all the three
things underneath that build up to the
one word I think I think you got to get
it down the one I try to find till the
net encapsulates fun and clean it
together until it’s mean it’s easy to
remember even asking people to remember
two things is going to be hard like
nobody’s going to send me a fun and
freedom mars bar but to Semien believe
mars bar like people will remember that
people won’t remember Louis for
greatness and two other things right get
it down to one so it’s easy to remember
um Steph is asking how can you guys be
introverts and expose yourself as you do
here oh great question so I thought
about this for years and really what
happens is you and I and I hate to talk
for you but I just think you’re going to
regret is we’ve used media we’ve used
social media as a way to make ourselves
more comfortable making the initial
point of contact so when I think about
all those virtual relationships that I
built over the years and then the
promotion
it’s made it so much easier in person to
communicate with people because I
already know them or they already know
me and so since Evan you built up this
great brand if you are at a conference
maybe some people recognize you and it’s
much easier for you to talk to people
who are already in or who are initiating
conversation with you as you said before
part of the fear or something that’s not
natural to you is initiating the
conversation but that but because of
your hard work because of the medium
that’s actually being done for you more
and more and ten years from now it’s
going to be even more right it’s
exponentially growing and so so that has
been something that saves me it’s almost
like I have always had a bad direction
sense yes flushing Boston Boston when
you’re there in other words make any
sense not like New York go to 14th and
first right it’s like go somewhere I
gotta navigate Boston I was there for 30
years and navigate when I graduated that
there was navigation systems incarnate
like saved me um I think in the same way
that social meeting this new technology
has saved me because it would have been
really hard to build up a network going
to networking events but it’s so much
easier now to create the initial point
of contact by reaching out an email
social media et cetera and then going
from there and meeting maybe them in
person and in person is obviously very
powerful but the online medium has made
that much easier for us yeah I love the
answer I feel similarly I mean we talked
already about how I use this as my
marketing so that I don’t have to go and
do the sales I’m much more comfortable
come and talk to me the two things that
I would add is one in most things I
don’t enjoy conversations yeah like if
you want to talk to me about
entrepreneurship the Toronto Blue Jays
or league of legends I can have a
spirited conversation with you uh almost
anything else i I don’t I don’t care
about and so like my passion for those
things breaks my introverted pneus so
like we talked about entrepreneurship
right now I can turn up you guys give me
a question
dan has some great questions you know I
can get excited about that but other
things i’ll be super quiet um the other
thing is for the videos I sucked at the
start guys like I’ve done 4,000 YouTube
videos by the way not to interrupt but
you suck at the start google my name and
see some of my original stuff it is I
hold it they I won’t take it down
because it’s so bad that I think it has
actually inspired people yeah I get the
same thing people still watch some of my
first videos and not all of them are
public but my first videos are all
public it’s terrible like the point with
the content still good with the delivery
it’s just terrible and I’m jealous
because I look at Alex who I hired to
run one of my companies and he’s he’s
just naturally you know extroverted he
still makes some mistakes but he does
such a great job and it took me like two
thousand videos before I was that good
like yeah but just like I did a lot of
work I had the look through practice
since repetition you get better you get
better you do better so think those two
things like combining just the practice
repetition with the passion for the
subject material breaks me out of my
introverted pneus but they’re connected
because they’re connected because
without the passion you wouldn’t have
put that much work in anyways one
hundred percent yeah right I’m how can I
used to I used to have a full time when
I graduated full time job outside of
work twelve blog posts a week started my
own magazine did various other things
lucky you’re not gonna blog 12 times a
week if you’re not passionate about it
yeah this except for six month I got no
traction for six months so to write for
no audience for me not know very small
audience for six months you know I mean
that’s the true test if you love it or
not right to write for no one enjoy the
torture you got to enjoy the time um
Mitchell is asking Dan what is your
thought on the future of automation
technology so we just released a study
with a big company konica minolta and we
found two things uh companies and then
believe that in the next three years
over twelve percent of employees will be
laid off and replaced by automated
technologies and they believe in the
next three years that also the workplace
will become at least twelve percent more
productive at the same time so there
will be casualties new jobs will
potentially be created to man the
machines but you need to get a few if
you’re thinking about this for your own
career you need to get ahead of this by
recognizing that some of these jobs that
are more manual but more you know can
easily be replaced by technology or it’s
not going to be a good career move you
to stay in those fields or those
professions you got to be one step ahead
what’s the next step where should you
invest your time so don’t I think we’re
in a world web um people are nervous
about being obsolete people are nervous
about you know obviously you’re not
getting paid enough hourly salary wise
and how volatile global marketplace is
you need to not only be the best at what
you do but you have to look at the other
skills that are only going to become
more relevant year over year and start
to position yourself so that you’re the
one of the new experts for the new
skills that are important for instance
over the past so give you two things one
over the past few years I you might have
seen this linkedin said you know the
hottest profession is data science so
literally companies are hiring data
scientists like the going out of style
you know six-figure salaries right out
of school and they’re immediately
getting direct reports so even the
biggest companies in the world of doing
this there’s massive opportunity but the
other thing that’s interesting is the
trades right so with the trades that
we’re talking electricians plumbing it
doesn’t sound sexy but if you go to a
trade school and you decide to be an
electrician you’re going to be making a
ton of money you’re gonna have great job
security because there’s a lack of those
in our economy the other two things are
and this is random but it’s been for at
least five years that I’ve been
following it nurses do you want to be a
nurse right now if even 35 years ago
that’s the most in demand
fashion in at least America the second
most in-demand profession has nothing to
do with nursing it’s truck driver oh
that might not be in demand in a few
years because of driverless cars or
driving a little struts if that ever
happens so right it’s really we live in
interesting times where it’s not just
about being the best of what you do in
this moment but you and everyone else
has to look at what’s next not just
awesome entrepreneurs if everyone has to
do this and that’s because any industry
any profession now can be disrupted very
quickly if you wonder if you passed a
parking garage from your children to
their children to their children well
welcome to a new world of work where the
combination of uber and lyft and
driverless cars might make garages
obsolete and all of that you know
security that he thought you had can be
gone if you provide electricity to a
city um you know the the Tesla home
battery let’s say even 10 years from now
you thought you were invincible you’re
not hotel so you thought you’re
invincible you’re not you have Airbnb
now as a competitor so we live in really
I mean it could the amount of pressure
on entrepreneurs clearly but on everyone
everyone has to worry now and so that’s
what people are feeling internally is oh
my god like I know I’m not you know
people are making ten percent less than
they did 10 years ago crazy so now what
now what do people do and that’s that is
the untold story of the this economy in
the US and the global economy you know
you’ve traveled you go to Spain people
or poverty I mean it’s not easy in some
of these countries and since we’re all
globally connected now there’s more
pressure on people so it’s it’s more on
the individual not the company to do
something about it and I’ll give you a
great example before we move on I I
think with AT&T had an article in The
New York Times and the CTO of the
company said hey employees it you know
the jobs you have right now
not exist in the future because we’re
heading into these new business every as
it focuses its on you to do something
about it and if you do something about
it if you acquire these new skills we’re
going to make sure that you get one of
the new jobs that are created but if you
don’t goodbye pretty interesting on for
a big brand-name company yeah that’s
crazy it’s a brave new or old man that’s
people have to work harder they have to
do more research and they have to scale
up I mean think about how people learn
and develop now you know more and more
companies are saying you don’t need a
degree this wouldn’t have happened ten
years ago it’s you know ten years ago
it’s oh oh I’m only gonna recruit you
know people from the school I went to
now it’s different now it’s all about
diversity so it’s actually created new
opportunities but only for people who
are aggressive and looking towards the
future getting the right skills and our
students for life right I think you
would agree this is so in your real
house the workplace and just work in
general is all about continuous learning
and we are all students for life anyone
who says they know everything doesn’t
it’s just not possible but things
changed quickly 1% cool man well mean we
blew past our original time budget but
has been it’s been amazing tons of fun
thank you for the questions and also the
insightful answers from from the
community what is the interview going to
be up for people to check out it’s it
should be published when your book comes
out that’s what I always do because if I
was the author that’s what I would want
I’m feeling the love man that’s awesome
that’s cool um and for people who want
to learn more about you i know we’ve
linked it up with your website in the
description but like where do you hang
out where’s the best place to follow
your your next stuff yeah so just go to
dan schawbel calm SCH aw de el calm and
that’s where I centralized the research
the articles everything I do because
it’s you have a fairly spread out and I
really appreciate you having me on it
was incredible to finally catch up with
you you know it’s it’s
one of these things like you know years
ago I was showing up on your Twitter
list and like oh who’s this guy and then
see the new books coming out I’m like
all right Leon I just talk like this is
ridiculous right and it’s so funny like
like embarrassed like some of these
people had connected with for years I’m
like finally just meeting it’s like I
like because we’re such introverts that
it’s like bakes is so much longer to do
this that’s so funny well I’m glad you
reached out man the first of many
conversations thank you for your
insights as well the questions thank you
guys for watching we’re going to post
this to the main youtube channel as well
hope you guys have an amazing rest of
the night continue to believe or
whatever your one word is and we’ll see
you soon
YouTube hang out super excited to be
here I am joined by a special guest and
new friend then the man from Forbes sean
bell and he’s going to ask you some
questions from for his article on forbes
and we’re going to have a conversation
as well because he is an expert in his
own right talking about Gen Y and moving
from student to CEO one of his personal
missions that he’s gonna he’s going to
talk to us about so Dan before we get
into your questions first of all welcome
aboard man join us from New York City so
what happened was I was playing you as
you were talking because I had it logged
in on youtube at the same time okay this
is this a little it’s so here we go so
welcome dad welcome aboard happy to be
here I’ve known about you for a long
time I mean I’m just overly impressed
with the amount of content you produce
and very smart to focus on one word
focus on different people their
perspectives and much in the same way we
have in common where we’re constantly
interviewing people spotlighting people
and sharing that knowledge with an
audience you’ve connected with so many
different people and spotlighted so many
different individuals for me it’s been
almost 1,700 individuals in the past 10
years and and now you’ve been added to
that special group is what i like to say
and so it’s really special to be here
with you and and to celebrate your new
book because hey it ain’t easy right i
love that thanks man to tell the odds a
little bit about you what you’re all
about that and then we’ll dive into the
questions absolutely so i am an
entrepreneur i’d started until the
company last year so now i have a
consulting company that helps other
companies figure out the millennial
generation and then i have a research
and events company called future
workplace so millennial branding and
future workplace have also interviewed
about 1700 successful people from arnold
schwarzenegger to tony robbins to
jessica alba for forbes and various
other outlets like Business Week
you know I’ve written two best-selling
books me to point out and promote
yourself and several other things that I
can’t think of I have a speaking career
I very I’m a spokesperson for major
brands and it’s been quite a journey and
I started work when I was 13 years old
so for me and you know in terms of what
after Evan represents it’s hard work
it’s not like you magically get hundreds
of thousands of youtube subscribers they
don’t just immediately give those to you
have to earn everything and so that’s
why you see a lot of successful people
connecting with successful people
because it’s almost like when I pledged
a fraternity is you’re all in this
together you all go through these
hearted hardships and it’s easier to
connect with successful people because
you’ve all been through a lot Evan would
you agree oh yeah hundred percent and
even doing this again reached out said
hey you wanted to do an article for his
uh his Forbes I said let’s great love to
participate when I would turn this into
a hangout to so I could share his
messenger to you guys as well so we’ll
get to his questions first and then dive
into a little bit more about him and get
to a knowledge exchange as well I’m
curious to learn a little bit more so uh
then I already I don’t know what the
five bushes are but i’ll talk to find
out what do we got all right how do you
figure out your single word that
captures your purpose and mission it’s
really the crux of the new book what’s
your word I mean for me I was thinking
as I was reading your book you know
resourceful or responsive would be two
of the words that i would think our
first when i’m thinking about myself but
what about you so for me it’s believed i
built the whole business and brand and i
believe and it’s not just a mark
anything it’s me like I believe in
people it’s where it all came from when
I turned it into that marketing element
for my business um for you responsive
and resourceful you might think of what
what is a more meta word that kind of
encapsulates both of those things so
it’s like you have a hard time picking
between two then what’s what maybe
something that sits above it that breaks
both of them down so as an example um I
was going through my father and he loves
adventure an adventure is always part of
his life and you
he’s in his 60s and rides a motorcycle
and likes to go bungee you know the
bungee cording and the whole bunch of
crazy like I’m too afraid to do that
he’s not doing it to Moses venture but
he’s also really he’s one of the nicest
people you were gonna meet just super
warm friendly just like he’s way nicer
than I am too so so he’s like well how
do i balance these two things and what
he ended up with heart where heart can
represent the adventure side and heart
is also the warmth of being nice to
people and doing the right thing and so
that is what he ended up now building
his life around thinking okay well how
do i add more heart to my relationship
to my my kids to my career to you know
my environment and so there if you have
to they’re having a hard time with then
maybe there’s something more matter that
brings them both together that with
little bit of thinking can can come down
to once you have this one word how do
you best leverage it in terms of
communicating with others in terms of
profiling yourself maybe online how do
you almost unearth it and double down on
it because it seems like based on your
previous response it’s about once you
can lock this down this is your focus
areas people need to recognize you as
this you need to promote this you need
to internalize this how do you best
leverage this word yeah I think most
people live in a fog I think I think I
think if you ask those people they’re
not happy with their lives entrepreneurs
might be a little different story might
have a greater percentage as we’ve gone
off and done our own thing we’re trying
to live our dream but I think most
people are not happy with their life and
they may not even know why they’re just
the kind of mediocre and they’re living
for the weekends and evenings and and so
having a self awareness is what finding
your one were is all about understanding
what your core value is and whether you
then turn that you know I see the world
through entrepreneurship context but
whether it’s just how do I apply this to
my life and my relationships it starts
with just having that self-awareness so
what you figured it out
ok so my word is believer my word is
heart that is understanding that within
the business context people people like
two x values first so people start
whenever you sell a product you look at
okay we’re going to sell the features
right feature selling grade somewhere
along the line president about selling
the benefits ella been assaulted the
whole of the drill you some of the
benefits but the best companies in the
world understand poor selling where
you’re buying the brand you’re buying
the value you want to feel the same
mission of that company’s feeling when
I’m buying a Nike shoe I’m not buying it
because it has stronger laces than
Reebok right like he never compares
himself to reebok they don’t care
they’re on their own mission I feel like
I’m LeBron James when I put on my
thankee shoes and the same for Apple the
same for starbucks see all these guys
and so people want to buy the mission
and so for a lot of entrepreneurs they
don’t really have a strong mission and
the mission is led from your one word
again not just the marketing thing is a
very personal thing this is your
advantage as an entrepreneur why you
started this business as your advantage
you stand out so whatever you’re selling
if you’re selling me computer repair
services and I go to Google I look up
computer repair services you know you’re
going to show up amongst a list of 25
different local computer repair service
chops you know what I am I going to pick
you if I can’t tell the difference it’s
going to be based on price it’s just a
race to the bottom but forgive for
example you brand yourself as the
dependable computer repair service shop
because your one word is dependable not
because it’s a marketing thing but like
you are actually like you can’t stand
people are not dependable and I go to
your website as a story about you and it
gives me the background about how you
know it comes from your family or
whatever it is and i feel that emotional
connection to dependability if I’m
someone who cares about dependable I’m
going to want to hire you and I’ll pay
more for it because we value the same
thing I want that experience i’ll pay
more to go to Whole Foods you’ve no good
by the same thing at costco because i’m
buying it from whole foods and so a lot
of people
just look the same a lot of companies
look the same and it’s on you as an
entrepreneur to be able to spread that
message in all of your marketing on your
website tell your story make it
meaningful make it connect not just a
standard about us page like make me have
that emotional objection to you and then
it’s not just about the marketing is
about everything it’s the lens through
which you see the world right so if
we’re only looking at a business context
if you’re hiring somebody you need to
hire dependable people right people who
value dependability if you’re working
with suppliers you need the pentacle
suppliers right and so what most people
are hiring somebody they’ll just look at
I need a I need a coder so I’m going to
look for PHP skills and I’m going to you
know just checking out the boxes where
the values are really what’s what’s
going to sell people on the job and get
the right people coming in if somebody
does not value dependability I collie
won’t be a good fit for them I don’t I
don’t want to work with them like we’re
gonna fight they’re not going to get it
you know it’s going to be a going to
have to go there multiple times they’re
never going to refer me business where
somebody does value that I’m going to be
their best fit we’re going to be we’re
going to be amazing together they’re
going to pass my name on to other people
and is on you as the entrepreneur to the
share what that message is absolutely
one of the big focuses that I want to
take this too is is on career paths
right it’s you start to focus on one
career path let’s say when you graduate
college or even when you graduate high
school and then you start to see there’s
roadblocks there’s challenges you’re
starting to get feedback from maybe your
parents for your friends from your peers
may be mentors how do you know if you
you should or shouldn’t be an
entrepreneur maybe a lot of people still
want to be employees or maybe
freelancers or maybe you go to this
industry over that industry over time
you know it’s very unpredictable right
like 20 years ago you didn’t know you’d
be doing this today so is it a guess and
check type of
system where you pursue something and
then you figure out is this right for me
not right for me and then you pivot to
something else and keep pivoting until
you’re in your sweet spot or is life a
bunch of pivots and you’re never a
hundred percent doing what you’re doing
or should be doing yeah what is your
what is your take on deciding and then
pivoting and then long-term do you feel
like people have three to six curves in
their lifetime now and 11 and about 11
jobs between 18 and 45 so what do you
think career paths should go and how can
you help the individual best decide on
the right career path awesome um I love
it i think i think as we’re starting off
on our career path I think as young
adults you know an l2 childhood we are
the collective what are all of our you
know the friends and family around us
right like your values your beliefs your
life is according to what your parents
and you know the people around you want
you to do right uh as you get older and
as you graduate now if you know your
university and your kind of figure out
where I want to go now you have your
chance at some point you have to break
free of other people’s expectations of
you and figure out what is it you want
to do some people never break free of
that some people are 60 years old and
have 80 year old parents and are still
trying to live up to their parents
expectations right so i think that’s
that’s changing i think there’s a lot on
people’s radar now that a lot of
influences that make people get there
faster but i think it starts with the
mindset that i’m going to live my
version of my life and not anybody
else’s version of my life so making that
decision and there’s a lot of confusion
do I go into account or go into science
do I you know become an entrepreneur
what do i do is a ton of confusion but i
think i think it starts with that and
for a lot of people it’s really
difficult to say no mom and dad I don’t
want to go to med school I want to do my
own thing um from there it’s in my view
just starting um your one word will help
you with that and that if it’s you know
if your one word as possibility
then okay boy am I going to make this
decision based off the safe thing to do
or the possibility my one word is
adventure chances are I’m not just going
to take some safe accounting job I’m
going to go to Peru and try something
that and come back to this more related
to what I’m all about um it’s it’s
testing something on a small scale doing
tons of small starts I think people only
have more careers as we go and probably
multiple crews at the same time as we go
I think people don’t want to get locked
in on an accounting job or whatever and
picking on a candle a lot today locked
in an accounting job and then I think a
lot of people land on a job because it’s
the easy thing to do at a university and
it starts up some part-time saying and
then it just unfolds into this career
that they can’t get off the track and it
leads to a full-time job and that leads
to a promotion another promotion and all
of a sudden 15 years of gonna buy you
been with the same company um and so I
think people are not they don’t tolerate
that as much I think people recognize
that they want to not wait until
retirement to enjoy their life and they
want to go and try different things I
think we constantly evolve as human
beings i think you know i may have the
same values as they did 10 years ago but
I’ve I’ve grown and learn new things I
want to try something new what I want to
do the same thing over and over and over
again and I think people are now more
and more willing to take those small
risks to adjust their career path
alongside their interests whether that’s
on a full-time basis whether that’s
certain to part-time gig there’s a lot
of people have their side hustles going
on just try and stuff out whether that’s
you know interning somewhere or taking a
year off as a sabbatical and going on
some exploration I think it’s only going
to happen more and more people feel
dissatisfied with where they’re at I
think the the current generation is much
more willing to take those risks and
live for the now and not just do things
because that’s how it’s always been done
absolutely so you’ve profiled a lot of
people in the book
and as well as in all of your videos so
we’re talking a lot of pieces of content
what you must notice from distilling all
of this knowledge from all these
different people is some common threats
right it’s like I wrote an article for
Forbes and a few years ago which was
after I don’t over a thousand interviews
here the 12 things that I see run
through most of these interviews in
terms of the best advice that people
have talked to me about for you I’m very
curious since you know I’ve gone through
this exercise I’m sure that you have
gone through this exercise as well what
are some of the pieces of advice they
keep coming up again and again to a
point where you’re not you personally
can’t get them out of your head because
it’s it you be almost surprised if
someone does it mention those pieces of
advice sure um it’s not the ones that a
lot of people would expect I think there
are some common ones but I think a lot
of people think to be an entrepreneur
you have to be a typing personality you
have to be outgoing you have to be you
have to have the bravado you have to
have the swagger and it’s not there’s so
many people at tons of success being
introverted like you can have massive
success being an introvert and not
dealing well with people there’s there’s
entrepreneurs who had success to me not
I think you hear about the ones that are
out there being loud because that’s what
they’re good at like that’s how they
have success by being loud so you’re
going to hear their stories I think if I
looked at common threads uh one is they
started I think a lot of people have an
idea everybody has an idea the guy who’s
working in his IBM cubicle who hates his
life you know he has an idea was not
doing anything about it the
entrepreneurs started uh so that’s super
important I think the one that you’ll
hear most common is is the passion love
of the work early I am Jerry Seinfeld
posted as the the torture that you enjoy
you know like what somebody might look
at your schedule gain like hey how many
trips to be done this year like 28 trips
48 trips right so like your final in the
world given these speeches inspiring
audience people look at that’s it that’s
nuts like I hate airports I hate travel
you know that’s crazy I couldn’t do that
man that’s that sounds like torture but
for you it’s like I love this I want
connect with more people I want to spend
my message and so people who looked at
my schedule we’re making three to five
videos a day for my channel we’re a lot
of people have a hard time making one
video week and I’m cramming out you know
20 to 30 um people look at my schedule
and see it is torture but for me i love
i love the work and so I think it’s if
you look at the passion I would say not
just like the extension follow your
passion the extension of it is not just
the passion for the end result like I
want to achieve this but the work like
the grind loving the grind doing the
work because they love the work i think
is super common you know steve jobs here
up on the wall was a multi-millionaire
in his 20s and work till the day he died
on apple because that’s what he just you
just loved the work he could have gone
off and went on vacations and just
whatever you wanted to do and wanted to
do the work and it wasn’t about making
the money and he became you built the
biggest company by market cap in the
world and so you see that consistently
over time from almost everybody the love
of the work so they started they love
the work and if i had a third point i
don’t know that it’s a message that
people give a lot but more just by
watching them seeing how they act the
the humility for the cause even the most
you know ego bravado filled people will
do whatever they need to do to get the
thing moving whatever whatever their big
goal is whatever their mission is
whatever need to get done they’re going
to do it whether it’s getting on a sales
call sweeping the floor leading a CEO
meeting whatever it is like if this
needs to get done I am NOT above doing X
Y Z because I need to get it done or I
think a lot of people don’t have that
look well I’m not I’m not clean up the
office do it like guy or something for
that i’m not i’m not going to walk 10
blocks that meeting where’s my car like
a lot of people feel they’re above doing
some work and yes all of these people
that we profiled are great at delegating
of built amazing team
but if something has to get done the
success of the mission not even the
company the mission is more important
than their ego around doing whatever
work has to get done um so yeah I’m in
the pic 3 like start love the word love
the torture and humility for the cause
excellent well those are the questions I
have I just want to add on to what you
just said and I think when you think
about the most successful people look at
their first job or second job for me I
was a caterer at my temple I had to deal
with very difficult people at weddings
bar mitzvahs Shabbat dinners where I was
cleaning up setting up cooking you name
it and my second job my first internship
in high school was cold calling and I’m
an introvert that was torture but I
learned more about myself what I like
doing what I didn’t like doing and it
was now if I were to have the coke all
it’s not as big of a deal because they
did it when I was younger and I look at
it as everything is part of the process
right this book is one project in your
long journey and why do you do it
because you see the bigger picture why
do you clean the floor because you see
the bigger picture it’s one item that is
part of something so much greater like
you were saying and that’s people who
are passionate and find meaning in their
work and their mission as you said those
people don’t complain as much about
those small-minded tasks hmm interesting
I like it I like it well we got some
questions let’s drill let’s mind in for
some information here too now I’m
excited our boy theorize is asking
question for Dan how do you see the
entrepreneurial landscape changing from
this generation to the next it’s a great
question what’s really interesting about
the millennial generation is they’re
actually very risk-averse they’re the
least likely to consider themselves to
be entrepreneurs
so what you’ve seen online and in the
news are the rare cases where a
millennial has been very successful like
David Karp of tumblr or Kevin Systrom of
Instagram or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook
you’re seeing these massive stories but
the true story of what’s actually going
on in America with Millennials is
they’ve been disenfranchised a lot of
them are still living with their parents
there they’ve had a delayed adulthood in
terms of when they’re going to be moving
out and starting their lives getting
married having children get buying cars
it’s really affected a lot of them so
that’s the real story of what’s
happening and the average costs or the
lowest or average cost to start a
business now is 30,000 and with the
advent of student loans where at one
point three trillion in student loan
debt that has prevented a lot of this
generation from becoming entrepreneurial
it’s not like they don’t have the
aspiration but realistically it’s hard
for many to make that level of a jump
because of those hardships right it’s I
always go back to Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs you think about it you gotta have
shelter you gotta you know bring food to
the table and then once you get to the
point where you’re trying to make a
living and live independently it’s do I
start a business or right just take this
job just to be able to pay rent and to
move out and to save up and their
savings have been cut because the
economy so that’s the real story of
what’s happening in so what’s
interesting with the next generation
which is generation Z who is now one
year into the workplace they are more
realistic in terms of their ambitions
and they’re questioning the system in a
way that uh that no one has before
meaning that why do I have to go to
college why do I want to take on the
student loan debt you know why is there
a nine-to-five work day they’re asking
these massive questions millennial start
to ask these questions but gen Z is now
firming that up and saying you know we
don’t want to do this we’re into the
going to be the first generation that
repels against their traditional system
and start to reinvent their own system
now what’s really interesting if you
compare when I started so I a lot of
this when I graduated school start from
a blog that I built from 0 comments0
article 0
will you know a few errs subscribers and
everything up into millions and then I
launched other companies like a magazine
like a speaking career like a book and
various other things on top of that blog
but now if I were to start from scratch
now and maybe you admit this it’s so
much more competitive there’s so much
more noise and what I’m going to what
you’re going to see next year is that
the fragmentation of the media will be
at an all-time high there’s going to be
a lot of winners and losers a lot of
casualties I’ve been meeting with a lot
of journalists top publications tons of
layoffs so it’s going to get even more
challenging and complicated next year to
build a foundation to build a brand and
what you’re going to see is as you know
more people are realistic and
risk-averse I think a lot of these
so-called entrepreneurs will realize hey
this isn’t for me they’ll go back into
corporate America and then the true
bread entrepreneurs and you know like
Gary Vaynerchuk mutual contact bars and
various other people are like the true
entrepreneurs next year are going to
start to come out because of all of
these changes that are impacting our
lives um so you know maybe that sounds
negative but the optimism is there
because it’s like okay well if you’re
meant to do this there might even be
less competition if more people go into
corporate America but it’s still not
going to be easy and maybe it was never
easy but when we we both started when
did you start your show I’ve been on
YouTube for almost 10 years yeah um but
I took it seriously in the more in like
past three years more seriously yeah and
it’s really about you know if you think
about all the major media outlets now
it’s it’s about you know they might call
content farms it’s about a lot of
production of content and trying to keep
up with the pace of what people are
looking for and you know everyone’s
about headlines now wait what’s the next
BuzzFeed headline you know tweets are
140 characters that train the individual
to want something quick an instant and
less about reading full articles and
more about using the headline to figure
out what to even bother with and share
and so I think the challenges are there
but i think what
comes down to again like you’re saying
like what’s your one word what what are
you driving yourself towards what do you
really want to focus on and for me my
mission has become clear in the past few
years is I want to help Millennials from
college to CEO so on the top of my
website it’s kind of what I stand for it
guides my choices meaning that my first
book helped Millennials get from college
the first job me to point out and then
the second but promote yourself is like
congratulations you of your first job
here’s how to get ahead and eventually
become a manager and so clearly each
book is going to follow along that path
and courses and consulting and speaking
and everything else will be tied to
everything I do so I’m not going to
start a restaurant I’m not going to do
things outside of my core I’m going to
continue to make decisions as they align
to the mission and I think that
everything that you discuss in your book
and what we talked about so far it even
is good feedback for me being like yeah
that does make sense that should you
should be internalizing that mission in
guiding towards admission otherwise you
end up wasting time and things that
actually got soaked up your time so you
it almost prevents you from doing what
you want to hear what were you two
things and you had responsive what was
the other one with are resourceful and
it’s a responsive is when you email me
you’re getting a response quick and I
think over time I built that type of
brand where people is an expectation
that you know Dan’s reliable basically
and then resourceful is important
because it’s like all right you know you
need to meet this person you know you
just moved to South Boston Massachusetts
and you don’t have many friends oh y
know people there quick introduction now
you’re on your way like that to me is is
it is resourceful i can get you what you
need when you need it and a part of that
has to do with my background in terms of
you know almost 1,700 interviews with
successful people but also i’ve raised
half a million dollars in research i’ve
conducted 35 primary research studies my
field so it’s you know you can ask me
any question the world about the
workplace and in my head I am figuring
out what statistic to share with you
because I’ve already done years worth of
primary research
and I skimmed through 450 secondary
research reports every year and so for
me content is obviously really important
it’s kind of the crux of everything I’ve
done and and that’s why I think how we
connect is obviously we produce a lot
you and your world me and my world but
there’s there’s connection points that
bring us together and that’s why we’re
here today is there is there is there
something that you can think of that
sits above that look you think about
responsiveness resourcefulness maybe
even like productivity or hard working
or whatever there’s something that you
feel like embodies all three of those I
can come together I think with how
people describe me which is part of this
right because that’s how you get
feedback to realize you know what you
focus on or how you best represent
yourself and people always say have a
good work ethic meaning that you need
something done I get it done you need to
meet a person I connect you to that
person it just happens very quick
there’s no delays um and so I think that
that’s really important is to be able to
be someone who’s reliable who can
connect people and and who’s really just
dependable overall you know because do
you know and you’ve dealt with so many
people to where people will say they’re
going to do something and not do it they
won’t respond in five days so when
people are actually responsive to you
that that they stand out immediately if
people immediately say hey I know you’ve
got a book out or hey I know you’re
working on this project I’m gonna help
you immediately how you view them is
completely different and the way in
which I changed from college to now at
this point in time is I realize that a
lot of people said what can you do for
me and I realized in my early 20s that
it’s not about that it’s about finding
the right people figuring out how you
can help them and then they’ll naturally
want to reciprocate and so that one
philosophy has gotten me to where I am
today right it’s how do I have all these
people out and then maybe in the future
they help me and if they don’t get um
and so I think I think there’s power in
that because
it doesn’t set these crazy expectations
and it’s because I think that for all of
us if we’re in a market so like let’s
say you’re in the marketing world you
want to create good karma right you want
to be a good civilian and a community
number of your world right so if you
help every if you have self godin and
David Meerman Scott and you know maybe a
Tim Ferriss whoever you would say is
part of your world then you’re kind of
part of their world to your your your
part of that community that’s helping
them and you can only benefit from doing
that so authors you know think of how
many authors that you promoted over the
over the years how many authors that I
promote it and everyone needs help any
successful person wants to become more
successful right and so if you can help
a successful person become more
successful they’re going to want to help
you without you even saying anything
yeah on a percent I’m thinking about
your like three hours here reliable
responsibly what what I do so what
encouraging the book is you have your
you have your one word and then you have
your credo and the Credo consists of
three different values that fit under
your one word that make your one or
change it from so for me believe is the
word but it ends up becoming hashtag
believe and the hashtag is my like what
the lead means to me because I think for
most people believe you think about
self-confidence like believe in yourself
well yeah I’m that self-confidence and
that’s definitely part of it but believe
for me is also believing the work it’s
like how passion for the work that
you’re doing and then also have the
conviction like follow through it’s
going to work out it believes it’ll work
out so hashtag Willie for me is passion
self confidence and conviction those are
three things that I values it’s like
you’ve got reliable responsive
resourceful and then so like what does
that form to build that met a word that
could be super powerful and then it
helps everything like if you’re if you
are hiring somebody to help you screen
interviews or proofread your work or
help you with your next book you know if
they are not reliable responsive and
resourceful it’s not going to be a fit
with Dan like don’t come walk in the
dance war
this is not going to work out right and
so like even you’ve been and i’m sure
you are like you articulating died in
your job as and call it a day i need a
reliable resourceful responsive copy
editor or whatever some people look at
that and say well you know that’s a
stupid thing to put in a job added a
title you look great like don’t apply
because we are not going to get along
and somebody say yeah okay great because
i want to work with a writer who’s
responsive reliable and resorts all
right i’m tired of working with these
dead beat writers you don’t get back to
me and don’t approve my stuff on time
right so like it helps attract the right
people to you but i also think it
happens naturally too so think about
this think about through your life new
people come into your life your
relationship with people changes may be
so the best friend and maybe there are
acquaintances maybe an acquaintance
become so in closer not people are in
and out of your life maybe you hold on
to one high school front for that your
whole life and what you notice which i
think is so fascinating is once you get
deeper with these individuals and create
a stronger relationship you realize why
they’re your friend and your friend
because of maybe they have the same word
as you and to me that’s pretty
fascinating right if someone has the
same values you you know whether you’re
looking for relationship marriage
friendship it’s typically people have
shared values i think that’s the core of
how we connect with people and it is
almost like the filter of who stays in
our life and how strong or weak that tie
is a hundred percent one hundred percent
that’s what an exercise to find out what
your one word is think about your best
friends why you like them think about
your favorite movies and why you like
that your favorite songs your favorite
books your favorite interviews what you
love about your parents your favorite
teacher all of that like why do they
stick with you why does that one teacher
stick with you where the other hundreds
that you’ve had just float by you know
and I what does have to do with your
favorite song well that’s the glue
that’s the sticky stuff that’s your one
word that’s what you have to figure out
and when you identify it then you can
start doing things with more intention
now you’re looking for that instead of
it being an accidental like floating
through 100 teachers before you find the
next one
right so that’s when you get out of the
mud and you start actually living your
life but also doing your business with
more with more intention um we got a
question have have you read Robert child
Dinis signs of persuasion yeah so I
interviewed him for that book and then I
need to meet him for his new book and
that’s one of the things I was I was
emphasizing a little bit earlier was
reciprocation which is one of his rules
in terms of influencing other people is
influencing by helping others and then
them wanting to reciprocate because they
feel like it’s the right thing to do and
you know you not everyone is going to
reciprocate not everyone’s can be your
friend and that’s why you have to put
yourself out there meet many people and
then in my opinion I’m a numbers guy
playoff percentages right you don’t know
how things are going to pan out for
instance one of our mutual connections
is luis house right the lewis has a
great podcast got a book i’ve known him
a long time I knew him when he was
crashing at his sister’s couch so it’s
kind of crazy I was introduced but
to buy him from someone who has bought
this woman Connie Benson he was blogging
for me a long long long time ago and now
she works in social media Dell and so
it’s just a random coincidence but um
you know I think him his is obvious
right his is um his one word is you know
what it is is it’s called a greatness
goodness greatness greatness is his work
right and so everything he does the
book’s title the podcast title making
sure everyone defines the word in his
podcast and their own interpretation it
just rampa sizes it’s almost like that’s
the word you associate with him it
actually reminds me of a long time ago
where Laura Ries um who’s won’t like our
big time marketing guru from a long long
long time ago and they were talking
about and she heard dad alois wrote with
Jack trout
is positioning the battle for your mind
and so when I saw your book I’m like oh
this is like the next generation of that
right because that was more about from a
corporation in product standpoint and
you have more of the individual
standpoint as I see in your book which
is to me is even more applicable today
right because you have them where it’s
like yeah focus on one word for brand
because people don’t have time they
don’t have time to think of you as a
million different your company or your
product is million different things and
the way i internalized what you’re
trying to do is you know you you as an
individual you know we’re human so it’s
different a big company even though
we’re in this social media era it’s
still a company for a person to be able
to think about what they represent and
to internalize one word it makes it easy
for them but it also makes it easy for
other people to identify that term in
them and that’s where the true power is
in my finger yeah I think too especially
as introverts you know you and me both
introverts like I’m not that you take
all those flights I’m not talking to the
guy next to me on the airplane you know
I don’t talk to people at networking
events lest I come up to me I love
people you know but I never initiate
stuff and so this is power is a powerful
tool for us as introverts because it’s a
magnet that attracts like minded people
like I love that message let me have you
on my show and let’s talk about it oh
cool let’s do it i’m happy to come on
and do it because i’m not going to be
the guy emailing out connecting lewis’s
lewis is such an extroverted dude like
he goes all the events and will shake
everybody’s hand and will introduce
himself and talking about his podcast
all of his stuff happens at the parties
and the networking events how he makes
his connections and it’s awesome it
works for him uh like I would my
business dependent on that I’d be out of
business because I just suck at it so
much and I don’t enjoy it’s like
terrifying so through the one word that
believe on the mission and the work it
attracts not just like mine its staff
and an audience but resources people
connections
media to help kind of spread that
because they identify with what I’m
doing and a lot of people say believe is
stupid like believe come on like be
practical or you know it’s great and
like those people don’t even want to
come anywhere near me because they think
is a superb message and it’s awesome
like stay away because I don’t want you
here either is mutually beneficial but
as an introvert I think it’d be really
powerful to get your messaging out to
that marketing and people will clamor to
come and help you this guy in the UK
sent me a bunch of believe Mars bars in
the UK they had this campaign with a
crow opt out the logo like a fine one
they believe Mars bar is awesome so they
swapped out the logo and put believe on
it and like a fan of mine in the UK it’s
like I gotta send that to Evan like
great you know it’s like this happens
consistently where’s people see the word
and they think of me and like I’m not
special to happen for everybody whatever
your one word is people like greatness
people think of Louis right if you see
something with greatness they’re going
to send it to him and people love
greatness they’re going to want to
follow this podcast if people think
greatness I like come on let’s overrated
or like you know whatever it is great
like you’re not going to go there so
it’s super helpful to help people come
to your mission and as a as a
introverted entrepreneur just an
entrepreneur in general and we don’t
have the budget to go out and take super
bowl commercials and you need to get
people talking about you need to get the
grassroots and tie into the emotions and
it’s a powerful way to do it two things
when you choose that one word you’re
basically taking a stand you’re like
this is who I am this is my focus this
is what I represent like it or not and
that’s going to attract or repel people
but it’s going to find the right people
for you um and that’s a good thing I
don’t think people should be of afraid
of that I think it’s very empowering and
it should excite people once they do it
because a lot of elements of life will
start clicking for them and they’ll
start to make sense of why they made
certain decisions why maybe something
has failed or succeeded or why they
surround themselves with certain people
or when
one career path and not another so a lot
becomes clear to them and that can be
very exciting and empowering I love it
um the kiru is asking then what’s your
plan for the next year and I like how
how they said year because the idea of
having a five or ten year plan now is
much more complicated than used to be so
actually setting is a great topic
because five years ago I started what I
call it’s like a checklist a goal
checklist so the way it’s constructed
this three levels to it the first level
is the things I gotta do right now the
second level are five personal and
professional goals and it’s a checklist
right I just check it off once I’ve done
it and then under those goals so I’ll
give you an example research eight
research studies this year every time I
get a research study funded I write it
up there’s one of the eight and then
once it’s executed I check it off one
under personal could be travel and now
i’m dividing travel from domestic to
international so on international for
instance israel and peru and london and
wherever and once that strips done it’s
done so it’s my way of committing to
accomplishing those goals and the goal
is to how do i check off at least eat at
least eighty percent of these every year
and when i think of something i want to
do in the future I go all the way to the
bottom of the spreadsheet and I put down
future goals you know write this book
start this company things that I know
I’m not going to do this year but in my
head I want to remember because if
certain things happen i’m able to start
working on those so I think goal setting
is so for me this year at least was you
know travel to other more other
countries to get more of a global
perspective what’s going on to bring
light to the research and to take
vacation to be honest another one was um
I really wanted to start from a research
perspective create a work innovation
barometer to say you know what’s really
going on in the workplace when
technology wise virtual reality
augmented reality robotics what are
what’s being embraced by come
what’s the adoption curve look like and
so that was a challenge this year
obviously another challenge in the next
you know three three or four months
maybe it’ll take is the third book right
walking down the publisher getting that
in motion and that book will depict
various other goals that are connected
with launching a book as you know it’s
not just launching a book there’s
various other activities that are
involved from the promotional maybe
course perspective that you might want
to to do and I think that goal setting
is never going to die I just think
people need to be more conscious of what
they’re able to do you know to be
realistic and and really create a
checklist to really commit to doing
these things if you’re not committing to
do it not gonna happen right and I think
goal setting should be exciting like you
know after the next maybe two weeks i’ll
have a pretty good idea of what next
year is going to look like in the more
you set goals so think about five years
ago when i started this versus now but I
kind of know what I can pull off and not
pull off right based on what I’ve done
in the past and that’s good because now
you can be more realistic you can maybe
get more done but always challenge
yourself like make yourself
uncomfortable for instance you know one
of the things I’m working on now as a
documentary and I’m like wow I’m an
introverted argument like this is I have
not done it before I’m more used to the
written medium right I deal with tunnel
written thousands of articles and this
is a challenge for me and and so I think
the challenge is like I just in Peru I
did not only Machu Picchu Machu Picchu
but I did what was the hardest physical
thing I’ve ever done which was rainbow
mountain have you heard of rainbow
mountain no so it’s actually what it
seems like the mountains are the various
color purple red yellow everything and
it’s literally a six hour hike 13 or so
miles and I was starting off I was
leading the pack but the altitude and
rainbow mountain imbrue is so great that
it gets to a point where you can’t
breathe so every five steps you stop and
you go you’re taking three giant breasts
and then you’re going another few steps
and it’s literally like that for a
long period of time and so that was a
massive challenge and it got to a point
where I was looking at the nun I’m like
am I gonna keep going am I gonna keep
calling and you know what throughout
everything it’s like gotta kind of
fought there gotta fall through so I got
to the top finally it was like this big
victory but then I had to go back I’m
like the last two miles I was limping it
was so doc even and they had I remember
the peruvians they had horses for people
who really couldn’t make it and the
horse is good and breathe it was intense
I us but I think I you know it’s a chant
I’ve never done anything that hard
before physically that was a challenge
right professionally he got a challenge
it once things become easy people who
want to be successful or ambitious or
whatnot you have to be able to do
something that’s uncomfortable and
that’s challenging otherwise you’re
never going to grow I love it Steph is
asking him in a day and I wanted to ask
if I could have two words I’ve been
thinking about it the first is fun in
the second is freedom again my take on
that is going back to earlier where we
discussed like you got your one word and
then you have to create all the three
things underneath that build up to the
one word I think I think you got to get
it down the one I try to find till the
net encapsulates fun and clean it
together until it’s mean it’s easy to
remember even asking people to remember
two things is going to be hard like
nobody’s going to send me a fun and
freedom mars bar but to Semien believe
mars bar like people will remember that
people won’t remember Louis for
greatness and two other things right get
it down to one so it’s easy to remember
um Steph is asking how can you guys be
introverts and expose yourself as you do
here oh great question so I thought
about this for years and really what
happens is you and I and I hate to talk
for you but I just think you’re going to
regret is we’ve used media we’ve used
social media as a way to make ourselves
more comfortable making the initial
point of contact so when I think about
all those virtual relationships that I
built over the years and then the
promotion
it’s made it so much easier in person to
communicate with people because I
already know them or they already know
me and so since Evan you built up this
great brand if you are at a conference
maybe some people recognize you and it’s
much easier for you to talk to people
who are already in or who are initiating
conversation with you as you said before
part of the fear or something that’s not
natural to you is initiating the
conversation but that but because of
your hard work because of the medium
that’s actually being done for you more
and more and ten years from now it’s
going to be even more right it’s
exponentially growing and so so that has
been something that saves me it’s almost
like I have always had a bad direction
sense yes flushing Boston Boston when
you’re there in other words make any
sense not like New York go to 14th and
first right it’s like go somewhere I
gotta navigate Boston I was there for 30
years and navigate when I graduated that
there was navigation systems incarnate
like saved me um I think in the same way
that social meeting this new technology
has saved me because it would have been
really hard to build up a network going
to networking events but it’s so much
easier now to create the initial point
of contact by reaching out an email
social media et cetera and then going
from there and meeting maybe them in
person and in person is obviously very
powerful but the online medium has made
that much easier for us yeah I love the
answer I feel similarly I mean we talked
already about how I use this as my
marketing so that I don’t have to go and
do the sales I’m much more comfortable
come and talk to me the two things that
I would add is one in most things I
don’t enjoy conversations yeah like if
you want to talk to me about
entrepreneurship the Toronto Blue Jays
or league of legends I can have a
spirited conversation with you uh almost
anything else i I don’t I don’t care
about and so like my passion for those
things breaks my introverted pneus so
like we talked about entrepreneurship
right now I can turn up you guys give me
a question
dan has some great questions you know I
can get excited about that but other
things i’ll be super quiet um the other
thing is for the videos I sucked at the
start guys like I’ve done 4,000 YouTube
videos by the way not to interrupt but
you suck at the start google my name and
see some of my original stuff it is I
hold it they I won’t take it down
because it’s so bad that I think it has
actually inspired people yeah I get the
same thing people still watch some of my
first videos and not all of them are
public but my first videos are all
public it’s terrible like the point with
the content still good with the delivery
it’s just terrible and I’m jealous
because I look at Alex who I hired to
run one of my companies and he’s he’s
just naturally you know extroverted he
still makes some mistakes but he does
such a great job and it took me like two
thousand videos before I was that good
like yeah but just like I did a lot of
work I had the look through practice
since repetition you get better you get
better you do better so think those two
things like combining just the practice
repetition with the passion for the
subject material breaks me out of my
introverted pneus but they’re connected
because they’re connected because
without the passion you wouldn’t have
put that much work in anyways one
hundred percent yeah right I’m how can I
used to I used to have a full time when
I graduated full time job outside of
work twelve blog posts a week started my
own magazine did various other things
lucky you’re not gonna blog 12 times a
week if you’re not passionate about it
yeah this except for six month I got no
traction for six months so to write for
no audience for me not know very small
audience for six months you know I mean
that’s the true test if you love it or
not right to write for no one enjoy the
torture you got to enjoy the time um
Mitchell is asking Dan what is your
thought on the future of automation
technology so we just released a study
with a big company konica minolta and we
found two things uh companies and then
believe that in the next three years
over twelve percent of employees will be
laid off and replaced by automated
technologies and they believe in the
next three years that also the workplace
will become at least twelve percent more
productive at the same time so there
will be casualties new jobs will
potentially be created to man the
machines but you need to get a few if
you’re thinking about this for your own
career you need to get ahead of this by
recognizing that some of these jobs that
are more manual but more you know can
easily be replaced by technology or it’s
not going to be a good career move you
to stay in those fields or those
professions you got to be one step ahead
what’s the next step where should you
invest your time so don’t I think we’re
in a world web um people are nervous
about being obsolete people are nervous
about you know obviously you’re not
getting paid enough hourly salary wise
and how volatile global marketplace is
you need to not only be the best at what
you do but you have to look at the other
skills that are only going to become
more relevant year over year and start
to position yourself so that you’re the
one of the new experts for the new
skills that are important for instance
over the past so give you two things one
over the past few years I you might have
seen this linkedin said you know the
hottest profession is data science so
literally companies are hiring data
scientists like the going out of style
you know six-figure salaries right out
of school and they’re immediately
getting direct reports so even the
biggest companies in the world of doing
this there’s massive opportunity but the
other thing that’s interesting is the
trades right so with the trades that
we’re talking electricians plumbing it
doesn’t sound sexy but if you go to a
trade school and you decide to be an
electrician you’re going to be making a
ton of money you’re gonna have great job
security because there’s a lack of those
in our economy the other two things are
and this is random but it’s been for at
least five years that I’ve been
following it nurses do you want to be a
nurse right now if even 35 years ago
that’s the most in demand
fashion in at least America the second
most in-demand profession has nothing to
do with nursing it’s truck driver oh
that might not be in demand in a few
years because of driverless cars or
driving a little struts if that ever
happens so right it’s really we live in
interesting times where it’s not just
about being the best of what you do in
this moment but you and everyone else
has to look at what’s next not just
awesome entrepreneurs if everyone has to
do this and that’s because any industry
any profession now can be disrupted very
quickly if you wonder if you passed a
parking garage from your children to
their children to their children well
welcome to a new world of work where the
combination of uber and lyft and
driverless cars might make garages
obsolete and all of that you know
security that he thought you had can be
gone if you provide electricity to a
city um you know the the Tesla home
battery let’s say even 10 years from now
you thought you were invincible you’re
not hotel so you thought you’re
invincible you’re not you have Airbnb
now as a competitor so we live in really
I mean it could the amount of pressure
on entrepreneurs clearly but on everyone
everyone has to worry now and so that’s
what people are feeling internally is oh
my god like I know I’m not you know
people are making ten percent less than
they did 10 years ago crazy so now what
now what do people do and that’s that is
the untold story of the this economy in
the US and the global economy you know
you’ve traveled you go to Spain people
or poverty I mean it’s not easy in some
of these countries and since we’re all
globally connected now there’s more
pressure on people so it’s it’s more on
the individual not the company to do
something about it and I’ll give you a
great example before we move on I I
think with AT&T had an article in The
New York Times and the CTO of the
company said hey employees it you know
the jobs you have right now
not exist in the future because we’re
heading into these new business every as
it focuses its on you to do something
about it and if you do something about
it if you acquire these new skills we’re
going to make sure that you get one of
the new jobs that are created but if you
don’t goodbye pretty interesting on for
a big brand-name company yeah that’s
crazy it’s a brave new or old man that’s
people have to work harder they have to
do more research and they have to scale
up I mean think about how people learn
and develop now you know more and more
companies are saying you don’t need a
degree this wouldn’t have happened ten
years ago it’s you know ten years ago
it’s oh oh I’m only gonna recruit you
know people from the school I went to
now it’s different now it’s all about
diversity so it’s actually created new
opportunities but only for people who
are aggressive and looking towards the
future getting the right skills and our
students for life right I think you
would agree this is so in your real
house the workplace and just work in
general is all about continuous learning
and we are all students for life anyone
who says they know everything doesn’t
it’s just not possible but things
changed quickly 1% cool man well mean we
blew past our original time budget but
has been it’s been amazing tons of fun
thank you for the questions and also the
insightful answers from from the
community what is the interview going to
be up for people to check out it’s it
should be published when your book comes
out that’s what I always do because if I
was the author that’s what I would want
I’m feeling the love man that’s awesome
that’s cool um and for people who want
to learn more about you i know we’ve
linked it up with your website in the
description but like where do you hang
out where’s the best place to follow
your your next stuff yeah so just go to
dan schawbel calm SCH aw de el calm and
that’s where I centralized the research
the articles everything I do because
it’s you have a fairly spread out and I
really appreciate you having me on it
was incredible to finally catch up with
you you know it’s it’s
one of these things like you know years
ago I was showing up on your Twitter
list and like oh who’s this guy and then
see the new books coming out I’m like
all right Leon I just talk like this is
ridiculous right and it’s so funny like
like embarrassed like some of these
people had connected with for years I’m
like finally just meeting it’s like I
like because we’re such introverts that
it’s like bakes is so much longer to do
this that’s so funny well I’m glad you
reached out man the first of many
conversations thank you for your
insights as well the questions thank you
guys for watching we’re going to post
this to the main youtube channel as well
hope you guys have an amazing rest of
the night continue to believe or
whatever your one word is and we’ll see
you soon
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