all right everybody welcome to another
hangout super excited to be with you
today couple minutes late we have a
substitute I put Ruben in the
description but Vance I’m Ian banks are
going to be here talking about
entrepreneurship making cashier start up
he’s got a podcast that I’ve linked up
the website to cash flow startup calm so
thanks take it away right maybe like
quick intro for my audience and then run
it like you would run your show I also
my name is Vance I’ve been selling
things online for the past six years I
currently have a sokka another business
and this is a passion project mind cash
flow startup to help entrepreneurs just
like Evan and yeah so we started this
podcast just to find out like almost
under the radar entrepreneurs doing
amazing things I Evans not really under
the radar but um but I’m sure he has a
lot of things to share with our audience
so we have a list of questions and if
you’re ready for it let’s get into it
let’s do it alright awesome so we always
like to get a little bit of background
on the people on the show so can you
maybe tell us how you got started
business why you got started in business
and just about your come up story sure I
think there were signs all along that I
had an interest in entrepreneurship from
when I was five years old and took my
three or little sister door-to-door
selling our art projects and then kind
of growing up and selling baseball cards
and doing all those you know little
entrepreneurial ventures but I didn’t
have any influences in my life for one
entrepreneurship and so when I was in
high school and you have to write in the
yearbook where you’re gonna be in 10
years I said VP a bank that’s that’s
where I thought it was gonna be my
parents had safe kind of corporate jobs
and there were no which was my family so
that’s what i thought i was going to do
and then when i got to university I
connected with a couple of entrepreneurs
they had a business and invited me to
join as an owner and it was interesting
challenge and and we we sucked and we
failed and you know let’s make it three
hundred dollars a month and I really you
know some tough tough days on that
business and I had opportunities to go
work at jobs that I thought I wanted you
know paint a tat $100,000 starting
salary and at the banks and consulting
companies that I
all my friends wanted and was what I
said that I wanted in my yearbook but
something about this business made me
feel like I need to give it a shot
otherwise I might regret it for the rest
of my life and so I could live with
turning down the jobs and going for it
next year but I couldn’t live with not
trying this business so I said I’m going
to take a year I’m gonna focus on my
business and if that works great if
nautical backing at a job but at least I
have a certainty of knowing right age
and and I never look back and never end
up having to get a job so work that
uh-huh and was this song I read a little
bit of via piled this was just a biotech
company yeah I was a biotech software
company okay awesome so um maybe you
could get a little bit granular with
that and so once you got into it
obviously it probably wasn’t an
overnight success can you talk a little
bit about that process of you going
through it maybe some trials and
tribulations sure there was a lot I’m
Joe so I’m sitting there I’m making
three hundred dollars a month you know
not able really to survive I mean while
I’m telling my friends I’m an
entrepreneur and then I’m living like a
entrepreneur lifestyle and I was too
ashamed and too embarrassed to say
listen I’m like I’m super struggling
right I had to pick you talk about
trials and tribulations I have to pick
one thing a month that I can go to with
my friends as a birthday or just you
know beer and pizza because I couldn’t
afford the 20 bucks that it would spend
you know that would cost me for that
night and so I always come with an
excuse like I mean I’m just really busy
got this deal and working on that and so
it was super tough it was one really
lonely because I didn’t share my you
know challenges and to uh you know you
want to feel like the stuff that you’re
doing you’re getting recognition for and
you’re adding value right everything
that I had tried before if I practice
and work harder I would get better at it
you know if it worked on my jump shot i
would get better at it here I was
busting everything to try to make it
work and I just wasn’t getting better
and that in that is soul-crushing you
know it makes you feel like you are
adding no value and the toughest day was
when we’re at a family event and I was
at my parents house in my I was at
having a fight with my partner my
business burger in you know when you’re
not making money everyone yeah nobody’s
feeling good nobody’s happy you know and
you’re trying to find different ways to
try to make it work and then I just you
know what I said I can’t do this I’m I
quit I’m done you know I need to do
something where I can add value because
I don’t know what else to do here
anymore mm-hmm and I hung up the phone
and I just started crying you know the
hardest I’ve ever cried in my life and
like stuff coming out of my nose you
know like just like the worst day of my
life and my mom heard me and she comes
up and she puts a hand on my shoulder
and uh you know I didn’t remember what
she told me just I blacked out like a
just a couple night uh and then I woke
up you know the next day and I thought I
can’t quit like it’s not me this sucks I
can’t quit I have to find I have to find
another way to do this and I showed up
at my we work out of my business
partners apartment you know and have an
office or anything I worked out of his
dining room table because his office was
too small in there for me to fit all
right I showed up there and to his
credit he didn’t give me a hard time you
know he didn’t say well you quit you
know get out of here but uh we just went
back to work and then the thing that
saved my business I was like a year of
just sucking right like what was it up
before we get into the inflection point
yeah well during that year like what
were the top some of the type of tasks
that you were doing and why wasn’t it
getting attraction um so my two business
partners were were the coders with the
programmers were in charge of creating
the software they were the scientist
they made it because they were
scientists and they needed this tool and
what they were doing right I didn’t have
a science background my job was business
development partnerships marketing
getting the word out um I just didn’t
know what I was doing and I was like it
was my first time doing it the first
time you do anything you suck at it you
can research and learn and try to read
on it but you know the first time you
guys started your podcast you know I’m
sure it’s gotten better with every
podcast that you create yep um so I just
I made a lot of mistakes just I didn’t
know what I was doing you know I one not
having the knowledge and to being self
conscious of my age because I was 19 and
I was trying to sell the people who were
you know in their 40s 50s 60s people had
peach DS meanwhile you know I drop
science in high schools my first at the
first opportunity and I felt like these
guys don’t want to talk to me like I
what what value can I bring them they’re
gonna look at my age and look at my
degree and say this guy’s a loser and
can’t offer me any value mm-hmm and I
realize that was actually just a story
that I made up but damn care that all
they cared about was could my software
help them right which it could right I’m
that was a huge that wasn’t the big
inflection point we’ll get to that but
but that was a big turning point in that
just and I figured that out every every
every big growth that I’ve had in in my
business and personal careers come from
finding a limiting belief that i have in
smashing i totally agree like totally
agree like when we were doing web design
my brother and I at first we had all of
those type of limiting beliefs because
we’d have a portfolio wouldn’t have any
experience and so like for us to like go
and try to sell these big companies on
websites it like we we didn’t believe in
ourselves but really it was just a
limiting belief and if you just like
plow through it you’ll find like oh okay
i can get clients anyways yeah and so
that that that helped kind of start the
turning point process but I was doing I
was tryin to email customers I don’t
remember a long and stuff I was doing
but I just knew that wasn’t working out
you know okay close you know I spent out
I spent three months working on a
business plan that we didn’t even use
like right we need to have the business
plan before we start selling right right
and so that’s what I spent a lot of time
on and it wasn’t what we ended up you
know once you get out to market and
start talking to people your business
line changes mm-hmm I didn’t do enough
of that talking to people too and your
ladies but I didn’t know I didn’t know
like I nobody taught me I didn’t you
read a book it says make a business
and so that’s what I started doing
mm-hmm and just uh all those learning
like anything you’d want to learn
snowboard and you’re going to follow a
thousand times before you can get down
the hill and do jumps and stuff so right
that was me just sucking and falling
down the hill mm-hmm awesome and uh and
yeah and I actually on that know a lot
of people in our audience I would like
to remind them about that because I
think when they start businesses because
like like business school and all of
them they really teach a lot of that
formalized training Oh welcome ruben
this is ruben my co-host to the call
finally made it look ruben hallelujah
group thanks for your patience man I
appreciate it it’s all good cool so uh
yeah we were just talking about Evans
journey so far in his biotech company
that first year when he was struggling a
lot and I was just making that one
takeaway I think for audiences is about
how when a lot of people start their
businesses they’re focusing on a lot of
the extra stuff that’s not important
that that don’t actually help contribute
to getting the first customers to the
door and getting those first customers
through the door is the key to getting
traction in the beginning in my opinion
and so I’ve been was talking about how
they he spent three months writing out a
business plan but that would didn’t
really prove to be helpful and actually
like getting the business going but yeah
we were about to dive into the
inflection point so after this whole
year I’ve been uh what happened like why
did things started taking off uh so
after that kind of worst day of my life
moment and showing up to my business
partners apartment the next day um I
realized that the the light bulb moment
for me was I’m not the first guy to try
to sell software before I’m not the
first people have done this there has to
be a recipe somewhere there’s a model I
can follow and there’s no there wasn’t a
book that’s like how to sell software
but what I wanted to do was find people
who had had success and model that
because my default was I’m going to come
up with every great idea myself and you
don’t have to do that and so I looked at
Microsoft I looked at mcafee and looked
at into it I looked at software
companies at a built-up not in the
biotech space because there weren’t huge
biotech software companies at that time
just software companies and Bill Gates I
was curious well how did Bill Gates make
his first million zero
one right I don’t care how he makes a
million dollars now all right like 0 to
1 how did that happen that’s what I want
to do give me the recipe and and the
bigger the the mentor you’re looking up
to the bigger the company the easier
just to find information and so I look
back on Microsoft strategy and how they
got started and it was always to
partnerships doing fine they wouldn’t
sell soft for like one of the time the
people they’d find people to connect
with that could help sell them sell
thousands of copies of it Microsoft’s
big deal came with IBM where every IBM
was the computer maker at the time every
IBM shipped had Microsoft software on it
that’s that’s the deal that made IBM but
Microsoft was already a seven million
dollar company when they made that deal
now seven million is not huge but it’s
seven million more than when I had right
and they got to that seven million
through partnerships too so they’re all
that’s really interesting partnership so
I started to try to make partnerships
for my business and within a couple
weeks i had my first partnership deal
and i got them to agree to give us 13
and a half thousand dollars up front and
like that may not seem like a lot of
money but man to me 13 and a half k was
that’s like it’s raining money guys
either that’s like somebody believes in
us this is huge and more importantly
give me a model to then replicate and so
I started forming lots of partners with
different companies and getting more
money coming in I’m that so that one
strategy was super helpful to save in
our business but then just that concept
of I don’t have to figure everything out
myself somebody has already done this
model that success and let me apply it
to my business is what really ultimately
helped turn our business around super
fast growth we closed nasa johnson
johnson big deals within two years we
had been acquired by another company
from being like below the poverty line
so right right uh yeah massive
inflection point i think so eminem and
you bring up a good point and again
thanks for allowing me to joining in
lane I apologize but uh when you say
partnerships I’m curious to what does
that really look like a four
or for those listeners who may want to
think about growing there I guess their
strategic alliance I think we talked a
lot about those 2 key points that you
talked about that having those people
who can actually open up doors for other
opportunities like a super connector and
at the same time reinventing the wheel
on not reinventing the wheel so I like
those two points but can you talk a
little bit about how that looks like for
you that process sure so I basically
look for who else are my customers
buying from that is not a competitor to
me hmm so as an example the company that
I made the deal with was a distributor
so we sold to result to researchers we
sold a scientist mm-hmm the first deal
that I closed they sold equipment and
supplies to scientists but they didn’t
sell our kind of software hmm so I wrote
to them so here you have these customers
you know here’s an opportunity to make
more money you’re already reaching out
to them it’s an add on sale for you and
they agree they like being able to make
more money represent a quality product
and then for me all I had to manage was
that one relationship when they
introduced us to faradic all of their
clients right on going and so the idea
is find people who are already selling
to your target audience that they’re not
selling competing products to you and
reach out to them and see if you
construct your deal it was always a
commission kind of deal so they never
when I say partner they were never an
owner in our business there were three
of us who were the owners we never give
up equity to any of these people right
but we gave them a cut for every sale
that they made and in some cases
exclusive coverage of different regions
so example i’m trying to sell i want to
sell more to japan i don’t speak
Japanese you know I don’t understand the
culture I don’t want to be up at two in
the morning to do phone calls so why
don’t we partner up with somebody who
understands a Japanese market who has
related products and services that they
can make money from this and then we
filter all the leads through them and so
that was one of the things that I did
was set up relationships with partners
in 30 different countries to help
represent our brand
and it was a win for everybody winning
for the customers they had so many
locals a win for our distributors
because they make more money as a win
for us because we got more customers and
we didn’t have to worry about the
support issues and end the marketing
mm-hmm and when you went about finding
these partners like all over the world
how did you go about that digital like
conferences like where did you seek them
out uh I started with we have a service
in Canada whether we have agents I don’t
know if it’s in the u.s. to where they
have representatives in different
countries where you can write to them
and say hey I’m trying to grow my
business in Germany who can i connect
with in Germany and then they try to
make connections some of them just like
anything else some people love doing
their jobs and some people go right some
people just like give you this huge list
of totally unrelated people others were
like hey I’d love to help you I’ll make
phone calls if you come here i’ll set up
meetings so that part was just a numbers
game in finding you know the right
connectors into us um the second thing
we did was we started to collect leads
from people in different markets so we
sold software yeah and we create a free
trial where you can download the
software and test it out and part of
that was to then leave your in contact
information and so we’d have we’d start
getting leads but I couldn’t follow up
with someone in Japan because of all
those you know issues of language
culture time zone and so when we
collected the leads I could then go to
somebody and say hey look we have these
leads here are free leads for you to
follow up on so we’re going in offering
them value right away as well as opposed
to just taking right now always give and
take you that’s interesting sweet and
then so this is i guess like this
strategy of partnership is a strategy of
like of like like finding people all
across the world this is the one that
took this company and i ended up getting
it sold and then after this company um
believe you started Evan Carmichael
right like is that kind of yeah close
yeah um
so after I sold the company I didn’t
know what I wanted to do it was kind of
depressing yeah pretty young I was 22
yeah I mean it’s a good problem to have
I’m not i mean not complaining it’s a
first world problems if you have a good
problem to have but still a problem I
didn’t know what I wanted to do and so I
started to explore on one side I was
getting a lot of speaking engagements
where people were saying because it was
a young success story people wanted to
have me talk at their conferences and
stuff it was pretty cool to share my
knowledge um but that wasn’t a full-time
thing by any stretch I also wanted to
learn about venture capital and raising
money we never had to do it in our
business we thought about it but we
never had to do it and I didn’t know
anything about it so I connected with a
local firm and basically asked to join
them and there were three guys in their
60s and 70s who had tons of experience
but weren’t hustling anymore to get new
business you know they already made it
was like almost a retirement job for
them and so I joined to bring in
business and help recruit and they
educated like they mentored me they
taught me a lot about the world of
business as well as raising capital and
I was with them for a couple years while
I was doing my Evan Carmichael stuff on
the side being asked to speak building
up the website sharing my knowledge like
that stuff building a website was never
intended to be a business model it was
just I wanted to because I sucked and
because I almost failed I thought that’s
how this should be easier for others and
so I was just trying to share my
discovery of modeling success and I
shared stories of famous entrepreneurs
and built up one of the largest archives
of famous entrepreneur stories on my
website and then that transition to
becoming a business model but it was
never the intent when I first created it
was really more just about sharing
trying to help entrepreneurs it and I
really like that angle by the way of
like sharing other entrepreneurs story
rather a lot of people there they become
the gurus but for you it’s you’re like
mixed in with all these rest arrested
these successful entrepreneurs I wonder
that that was that like a strategy
starting fun
beginning did you think about that um
did you like not want to be the guru or
something i didn’t know i did not want
to be the guy i mean i had i had learned
some sure i sold a business great and i
knew a lot about raising money now
button but who am i compared to Walt
Disney and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and
these guys I felt like I’m still
learning times I don’t have the answers
guys like these days right and so if you
went to my website in the early days um
I hid behind the famous faces so we’ll
just go to you see Oprah or Martha
Stewart or some huge entrepreneur and
then i would start getting questions
like oh who are you like why did you
start this side or what do you think i
should do about this problem why are you
not on the website it’s off your name
right I nice I slowly added myself back
in and I think it’s really powerful
because you the personal connection is
important people want to know the story
and where you came from and they make a
personal connection to you so I think
every entrepreneur that’s your secret
advantage like that that’s how you beat
a big guy in the industry because that
it’s a big company that nobody cares
about if I can feel your passion why
you’re doing this mm-hmm that’s that’s a
secret sauce and so for me I started
sharing my story a little bit more I
started answering questions i started
this my youtube channel which I’m all in
on now just to answer questions people
had I would sit there with 30 to 45
minutes you know writing one email to
somebody and thought this is a big waste
of time like I’m helping that person but
if I made a video I could help them and
help others who had the same problem to
know so we turn it into videos and i
love that having because i noticed i
mean that’s actually how I got in touch
with you as well commented on a video
and i have to say by the way you do a
phenomenal job doing that but would you
say when you start inserting your your
presence did you see a difference
initially because I think sometimes we
do some of us in these businesses online
sometimes we’re afraid of maybe putting
ourselves out there but would you say
you saw a significant difference of like
okay now there is a face behind the
business and people or connect
thing with actually I think I heard you
maybe say that but I’m not sure if
that’s why you have G ended up seeing
yeah I think I think there’s a lot more
interest I think it brought a lot more
loyalty mm-hmm where people were excited
to see what I was going to do next and
what piece of content I was going to put
out next um I think it’s still important
you know i only talk about the stuff
that I know about you asking a question
that I don’t know but I’m not going to
try to give you an answer and so I think
people appreciate the kind of
anticipated here and realize that night
you know I can help most entrepreneurs
out with a lot of the things in their
business based on what I’ve done there
may be people who are way above me that
I can’t give as much value to UM and
that was like a change into thinking too
that hey you know I’m not steve jobs but
i can really help this guy who’s trying
to start up a business out of his house
because i went through that right um and
so I’ve always mixed the content there’s
still a lot of famous entrepreneur I’m
still learning it’s still a reflection
of what I like and what what I’m pulling
from these famous entrepreneurs and
surround myself with their ideas right
and trying to inject that into the
content and yeah and so Evan like um
just for the sake of time like I would
like to jump into these like rapid-fire
questions we usually do so we could
leave the audience the audience our
audience with a bunch of good takeaways
Oh guys so the first question I wanted
to ask is um so like what is like do you
think like your best habit that that you
have like instigate implemented excuse
me that leads to success um maybe it’s
like if you can give a little insight
into like what your day looks like that
allows you to accomplish so much it’s my
environment if you want to create great
things you need to be in a great
environment and I don’t have
entrepreneurs around me and I don’t have
a family of entrepreneurs and the way
that I do is is through my youtube
channel trying to pull ideas from these
great people so every morning I wake up
and I watch the videos that may become
an entrepreneur maybe from actress and
maybe from a sports figure but some
people who have accomplished and
achieved and that makes me want to do
more because it’s easy to get complacent
it’s easy they already did a lot or it
is easy to be lazy
one day when do you may wake up maybe
maybe people listen to your podcast like
man these guys are awesome I’m going to
do my business this is amazing and
that’s like four o’clock on a Sunday and
then they wake up the next day and poof
it’s gone yeah what happened to my
motivation well I was so bold and
certain yesterday and it’s gone and so
you need to at least in my view not just
have that happened by accident that oh I
accidentally ran across these guys and
heard this great podcast or read this
book but you with intention design that
into your environment so if you want to
create great things you need to be
surrounded by greatness mr. you need a
great environment around you yeah I
would like to follow up on that by
saying like sometimes you need to have
discipline in order to create that
because I remember when I was first
starting out with business all of my
friends they were not interested in it
and so to kind of distance myself away
from them that took a lot of I think
discipline because it doesn’t feel good
to always say no to hang out or no to
just like being around the people you
spend all these years with but if
they’re not on the same path as you
they’re not creating that positive
environment then that’s maybe something
you just have to do oh cool and then the
next question is um two books you could
recommend and why ah my two favorite
books are one the 40 work week nice a
legend you know classic book now not so
much I mean the main idea there is that
you build a business that you only work
four hours on and the rest you’re
enjoying your life I don’t actually
agree with that I think you should do a
business that you love and then don’t
worry about like having to spend the
time working on because you love doing
it but just the time management the
delegation the scheduling I took a lot
from that because I think it was maybe a
little too disorganized all over the
place and the second is radicals and
visionaries that you can’t find anymore
it’s out of print but you may pick up a
copy on eBay or something it’s basically
an early version of what I’ve done on my
youtube channel where it’s fifty or a
hundred different entrepreneurs and it
tells their story in two to three pages
so I would wake up every day you know
before YouTube was around and I would
read three pages about Jeff Bezos from
amazon and just feel a little
jeff bezos ooze into my head and that’s
it that gave me some juice to like so
it’s like creating the environment for
greatness um so radicals and Visionnaire
if you can find a copy it may not be as
relevant anymore some of the businesses
may not be as important as they used to
be but that at the time super helped my
mindset and environment that’s awesome
that’s really interesting because I
think you do a good job of transferring
that exact same energy in your videos
and have to say I’m a big fan of them
and I always get you Larry you know I’ll
be like check this one out um my
favorite one just so you know I’ve been
is um so far as like going by Denzel
Washington oh that’s insane the food is
on fire the ghost at your death bed
before um when you die one just gave me
the goosebumps and I think that’s so
great that you can like you said you
just give that trigger and it does spark
in someone’s you know I guess conscious
of like man I really need to do this so
so thank you for that that being said I
know you talk a lot about the
environment and I think what we love is
having people one we have guests come on
the show is that they actually get to
share a little bit of their knowledge so
like books and tools so i think the next
question would be like what are two
tools you would recommend and and and
why and tools as in anything that helps
you go about your day effectively as an
entrepreneur as a human being I think we
always like to get that take away um I
think that I think that YouTube videos
are definitely a huge part i mean i
curate them and then put them on the
channel but I’m absorbing a lot of
information and i think that i mean i
think the lesson I’ve learned through
this too is you go to Denzel Washington
as an example mm-hmm uh he’s not an
entrepreneur you know you’ll see
wouldn’t think this guy’s an
entrepreneur was an actor I don’t even
know he has other businesses and I don’t
know much about him outside of the
videos that you watch of him being a
movie star and yet he had some awesome
like life-changing advice where you’ve
been an entrepreneur have this chamber
full of entrepreneurs and you pick
Denzel to be the one that you like the
most and so
think it’s understanding and
appreciating that you could learn from
anybody who’s had success and apply it
to what you’re trying to do in your life
and in your business that you can learn
from an actor you can learn from a
musician you can learn from a celebrity
just as much as you can learn from an
entrepreneur and so the first tool that
use a guess is YouTube and get in the
videos what else do i do is a tool that
I use on a day-to-day basis that helps
me with my business I’m you know i might
say this might be too super tactical
hands on but i’m a big fan of up work
okay yep where I have 16 people who work
on my team I used to think I have to
have everybody local but I adjusted it
to that there’s only one guy who’s I’m
in Toronto Canada there’s only one guy
who’s in toronto on my team everybody
else is somewhere else overseas in the
US and upward upward calm is a great
place to be able to find people to work
for you remotely to build the team is
you can’t do it all yourself oh yeah
awesome and then removing that on the
next questions your favorite one so lazy
your question this is it yeah this is a
rapper fireman that the mythbuster
what’s what do you think is and this
would be interesting with your
background what is the biggest
misconception that people have in
business or when approaching business or
when approaching business here I think
it’s it’s the limiting beliefs that they
carry with them that’s going to hold
them back I think it’s people who come
in like I did and I thought I was too
young to be successful people think I’m
too old to be successful people think I
don’t have a rich you know uncle so I
can’t be successful I didn’t go to
university so I can’t be successful I
you know I’m not uh I’m not a man or I’m
disabled or I’m from a different country
like all of these things that as long as
you hold on to that story it’s going to
keep you where you are and when you
accept the responsibility that you can
change that everything is under your
control that’s when you start to see the
lift and we talked I don’t know if you
were here when we talk about it but
every major breakthrough that I’ve had
in my life and business has become just
come from me breaking a limiting belief
that i had and
helps me hit a new height and so I think
a lot of people starting off in business
you carry with you this story and that
that prevents you from even in the chat
before we’re getting started is like
there’s a guy who’s 13 years old uh Sean
mm-hmm Sean I hope I got that one right
and it’s like I’m so i can’t i can’t
sell I’m 13 well no it’s not that you
can’t sell because you’re through I was
outside when I was 13 your age has
nothing to do with it it’s you know
whatever product or service start asking
yourself how can I sell this not when
can I sell this right you don’t have to
wait till you’re 22 to be able to start
selling go out and start building it now
right that’s so interesting because a
lot of the and this is what’s so
interesting to actually gather these
kind of people are guests when they come
on the show the like-minded individuals
we realize a lot of it is just personal
beliefs and personal development it’s
more internal than it is external it’s
less of what you’re doing out there it’s
more like how it begins initially inside
and that’s why it’s always like
inspiring when we get i guess like you
come on who share that message with us
and the rest of our community because i
think that’s that’s a big key takeaway
to think about like what are you
stopping yourself from doing from from
from doing every day that may actually
help your self oh and your business or
in your life so that’s that’s awesome
stuff let me give you a tactical example
that will help bring it home i think one
of the things that I found that really
hurt me was I want people to be happy
and I want I want to always feel like
I’m giving value if I’m not giving value
I feel like I’m disappointing I want to
disappoint other people and so I would
always secretly hope that somebody would
cancel on me before I want to meet them
right cause it’s a copy meeting or like
you know I remember I got invited to go
speaking in in Brunei and Asia for his
big conference and be nationally
televised and I secretly hoped that they
were gonna call and say Evan it’s
cancelled don’t worry you don’t have to
come yeah like huh yeah no good awesome
amigo that you owe me one yeah I I
always even for somebody meeting know
like a start-up entrepreneur who I know
I could help meeting at a starbucks just
to talk about their business I always
would secretly hope that they
what canceled on me like the day of uh
because it was a fear that I wouldn’t be
able to give value even though I know
that it’s always like I leave I’m super
excited that I helped them and they’re
super excited on their proud I know it’s
going to cause a result but I still had
this belief and i think that the hardest
thing is recognized the awareness like
understanding that i’m holding myself
back because these things you’ve been
doing for so many years that it’s
subconscious that you don’t even you’re
not even aware of most of the things
that are holding you back so it’s
catching it that’s the hardest part then
when you catch it you want to try to
catch it in the moment not catch it
afterwards right like the next day or
that afternoon like oh yeah that was
when I was you know I should have done
that right that’s when I was holding
back if you can catch it in the moment
and then and then have to have the
courage to change to do something that
you wouldn’t normally do that’s how you
start to break those limiting beliefs
and it’s like if you can catch those
things in the moment it’s one of the
most important things you can do for
your life it’s like self self awareness
on the spot is like almost like what
you’re saying right like just being able
to just instantly okay this is what’s
happening yeah yeah exactly and like I
know I recently got an advice about
someone who says you should always lean
into your fears because that’s like
getting into that habit of leaning into
those doubts leaning into those fears
and like whenever you feel it just plow
through it anyways when you get the
habit of that you you go through some
serious personal growth and that always
reflects into your business yeah yeah
I’m in other areas of your life too you
know I’m playing league of legends last
night with a buddy of mine mm-hmm you
guys play league I know okay fine so
it’s a player versus player game yeah
it’s five against five but he’s only
played against box so you’re playing
against robots instead of people right
and I said okay Louie today we’re gonna
play again he’s like oh my god I’m so
scared I’m gonna taste good to me I’m so
nervous I said you know what okay you
need to stretch yourself today we’re
gonna go do it I need commands Aquino
what it’s not that bad like he didn’t do
really well mmm that looks like about as
mad as he thought it was gonna be right
he’s up to do it again and i love it
like if you’re feeling nervous it’s just
the
that you’re nervous and then thinking to
actually make the change instead of
doing what you normally do because it’s
super hard to catch it you’re going to
come up with a story that you’ve always
told yourself of why you can’t do it
that covers the real reason which is you
just being afraid right so can you catch
your fear in the moment and then do you
have the courage to actually make it a
change in what your normal behavior is
that’s super tough yeah but skinny it’s
great advice yeah love it big love love
the tackling that fear is one Larry
that’s that’s that’s like so so let’s uh
let’s conclude this with um the final
question is what do you think the best
advice you’ve ever received I know
that’s a loaded question but if
something pops into your mind may could
be in personal development could be in
business help you frame it um yeah the
best advice is probably from my parents
who always told me that I macos truly
Carmichael and I could do anything that
I want when I was growing up I always
got B’s and C’s in school and there was
an expectation that we would get AIDS
that’s the kind of expectation from my
parents and my sisters both got a’s and
so every every report card season it
would be that time to sit down and meet
the parents and go over the report card
again and they never like slam me or
punish me but they always built me up
and my mom’s last name is cuz truly my
middle name is cuz truly so they’d
always tell him about me cuz truly
Carmichael and I could do anything I
wanted in that that’s like the root of
believe favorites awesome where you know
even you know that relates cuz I’ve
built the foundation of Who I am it
applies its not business advice you know
I could say well somebody told me to do
partnerships or somebody told me to talk
to the media but I think at the core is
the belief in myself that I can do it
that more people had that belief than
they would accomplish more and that’s
what I’m now trying to instill not just
in my like in my in my son now pass that
on but to my audience in the community
and the people watching mm-hmm well
awesome I know ever have you ever had
the book psycho cybernetics no should I
yes I should it’s the the best self
development book I’ve ever read
and it’s probably one of the original
ones written by this written by this
plastic surgeon so he talks about how
self-image really dictates like how well
we achieve in anything mm-hmm but he
goes into really elaborate stuff so
worthwhile to read psycho cybernetics
yeah all right um and awesome so uh I
mean you want to conclude maybe give a
little shout out for yourself a call to
action may be of some sort to our
community to your community I mean the
list and yeah and to in to that point
Larian and no I don’t know if Evan got a
chance to talk about this but I also
being on your side I saw the packages
that you offer the the passion I thought
that was really interesting we’ll put
together so I don’t know if there’s a
chance for a community to check that
stuff out because I I was getting my
hands on that as well look really
interesting so yeah do you have any
anything you could share with them yeah
I you know what guys the easiest easiest
starting point is probably say YouTube
channel yeah check out the channel
subscribe come watch the Denzel video
link i doubt the group favorite now
you’re gonna watch it yeah and that’s it
like you like Daniel probably watch some
more ah that’s it man I want to spread
believe but I think I think your
audience would find that valuable yeah i
was i was just telling Larry offline how
if they had like a YouTube Oscar that
you should definitely get one man
because that’s tell you that you there
is like it sits straight fire man its
energy I’m wish it pump so hey well
you’re on it now you’re you’re part of
living memory of the youtube channel so
you can haha nice appreciate that and
just so you know Ivan as a FYI men shout
out to Toronto man I grew up there in
Hamilton actually so was a nice and neat
when I found out the man behind all this
those cool videos with another Canadian
you got this whole Canadian
entrepreneurship movement happening so
have time to come back for all the time
to come back i am i’m too busy trying to
travel and meet people like you man so
it’s actually been really humbling every
time we run into people like like you
and I get a chance to connect with all
of our network so it’s uh I’ll be back
man maybe I’ll hold you to it and when
I’m in Toronto find some time let’s do
it come on say highs game
there you go awesome all right Ivan well
thanks for getting on um and uh it will
be in touch I appreciate it guys thanks
for the time definitely thanks Evan
whatever good have a go I hip
hangout super excited to be with you
today couple minutes late we have a
substitute I put Ruben in the
description but Vance I’m Ian banks are
going to be here talking about
entrepreneurship making cashier start up
he’s got a podcast that I’ve linked up
the website to cash flow startup calm so
thanks take it away right maybe like
quick intro for my audience and then run
it like you would run your show I also
my name is Vance I’ve been selling
things online for the past six years I
currently have a sokka another business
and this is a passion project mind cash
flow startup to help entrepreneurs just
like Evan and yeah so we started this
podcast just to find out like almost
under the radar entrepreneurs doing
amazing things I Evans not really under
the radar but um but I’m sure he has a
lot of things to share with our audience
so we have a list of questions and if
you’re ready for it let’s get into it
let’s do it alright awesome so we always
like to get a little bit of background
on the people on the show so can you
maybe tell us how you got started
business why you got started in business
and just about your come up story sure I
think there were signs all along that I
had an interest in entrepreneurship from
when I was five years old and took my
three or little sister door-to-door
selling our art projects and then kind
of growing up and selling baseball cards
and doing all those you know little
entrepreneurial ventures but I didn’t
have any influences in my life for one
entrepreneurship and so when I was in
high school and you have to write in the
yearbook where you’re gonna be in 10
years I said VP a bank that’s that’s
where I thought it was gonna be my
parents had safe kind of corporate jobs
and there were no which was my family so
that’s what i thought i was going to do
and then when i got to university I
connected with a couple of entrepreneurs
they had a business and invited me to
join as an owner and it was interesting
challenge and and we we sucked and we
failed and you know let’s make it three
hundred dollars a month and I really you
know some tough tough days on that
business and I had opportunities to go
work at jobs that I thought I wanted you
know paint a tat $100,000 starting
salary and at the banks and consulting
companies that I
all my friends wanted and was what I
said that I wanted in my yearbook but
something about this business made me
feel like I need to give it a shot
otherwise I might regret it for the rest
of my life and so I could live with
turning down the jobs and going for it
next year but I couldn’t live with not
trying this business so I said I’m going
to take a year I’m gonna focus on my
business and if that works great if
nautical backing at a job but at least I
have a certainty of knowing right age
and and I never look back and never end
up having to get a job so work that
uh-huh and was this song I read a little
bit of via piled this was just a biotech
company yeah I was a biotech software
company okay awesome so um maybe you
could get a little bit granular with
that and so once you got into it
obviously it probably wasn’t an
overnight success can you talk a little
bit about that process of you going
through it maybe some trials and
tribulations sure there was a lot I’m
Joe so I’m sitting there I’m making
three hundred dollars a month you know
not able really to survive I mean while
I’m telling my friends I’m an
entrepreneur and then I’m living like a
entrepreneur lifestyle and I was too
ashamed and too embarrassed to say
listen I’m like I’m super struggling
right I had to pick you talk about
trials and tribulations I have to pick
one thing a month that I can go to with
my friends as a birthday or just you
know beer and pizza because I couldn’t
afford the 20 bucks that it would spend
you know that would cost me for that
night and so I always come with an
excuse like I mean I’m just really busy
got this deal and working on that and so
it was super tough it was one really
lonely because I didn’t share my you
know challenges and to uh you know you
want to feel like the stuff that you’re
doing you’re getting recognition for and
you’re adding value right everything
that I had tried before if I practice
and work harder I would get better at it
you know if it worked on my jump shot i
would get better at it here I was
busting everything to try to make it
work and I just wasn’t getting better
and that in that is soul-crushing you
know it makes you feel like you are
adding no value and the toughest day was
when we’re at a family event and I was
at my parents house in my I was at
having a fight with my partner my
business burger in you know when you’re
not making money everyone yeah nobody’s
feeling good nobody’s happy you know and
you’re trying to find different ways to
try to make it work and then I just you
know what I said I can’t do this I’m I
quit I’m done you know I need to do
something where I can add value because
I don’t know what else to do here
anymore mm-hmm and I hung up the phone
and I just started crying you know the
hardest I’ve ever cried in my life and
like stuff coming out of my nose you
know like just like the worst day of my
life and my mom heard me and she comes
up and she puts a hand on my shoulder
and uh you know I didn’t remember what
she told me just I blacked out like a
just a couple night uh and then I woke
up you know the next day and I thought I
can’t quit like it’s not me this sucks I
can’t quit I have to find I have to find
another way to do this and I showed up
at my we work out of my business
partners apartment you know and have an
office or anything I worked out of his
dining room table because his office was
too small in there for me to fit all
right I showed up there and to his
credit he didn’t give me a hard time you
know he didn’t say well you quit you
know get out of here but uh we just went
back to work and then the thing that
saved my business I was like a year of
just sucking right like what was it up
before we get into the inflection point
yeah well during that year like what
were the top some of the type of tasks
that you were doing and why wasn’t it
getting attraction um so my two business
partners were were the coders with the
programmers were in charge of creating
the software they were the scientist
they made it because they were
scientists and they needed this tool and
what they were doing right I didn’t have
a science background my job was business
development partnerships marketing
getting the word out um I just didn’t
know what I was doing and I was like it
was my first time doing it the first
time you do anything you suck at it you
can research and learn and try to read
on it but you know the first time you
guys started your podcast you know I’m
sure it’s gotten better with every
podcast that you create yep um so I just
I made a lot of mistakes just I didn’t
know what I was doing you know I one not
having the knowledge and to being self
conscious of my age because I was 19 and
I was trying to sell the people who were
you know in their 40s 50s 60s people had
peach DS meanwhile you know I drop
science in high schools my first at the
first opportunity and I felt like these
guys don’t want to talk to me like I
what what value can I bring them they’re
gonna look at my age and look at my
degree and say this guy’s a loser and
can’t offer me any value mm-hmm and I
realize that was actually just a story
that I made up but damn care that all
they cared about was could my software
help them right which it could right I’m
that was a huge that wasn’t the big
inflection point we’ll get to that but
but that was a big turning point in that
just and I figured that out every every
every big growth that I’ve had in in my
business and personal careers come from
finding a limiting belief that i have in
smashing i totally agree like totally
agree like when we were doing web design
my brother and I at first we had all of
those type of limiting beliefs because
we’d have a portfolio wouldn’t have any
experience and so like for us to like go
and try to sell these big companies on
websites it like we we didn’t believe in
ourselves but really it was just a
limiting belief and if you just like
plow through it you’ll find like oh okay
i can get clients anyways yeah and so
that that that helped kind of start the
turning point process but I was doing I
was tryin to email customers I don’t
remember a long and stuff I was doing
but I just knew that wasn’t working out
you know okay close you know I spent out
I spent three months working on a
business plan that we didn’t even use
like right we need to have the business
plan before we start selling right right
and so that’s what I spent a lot of time
on and it wasn’t what we ended up you
know once you get out to market and
start talking to people your business
line changes mm-hmm I didn’t do enough
of that talking to people too and your
ladies but I didn’t know I didn’t know
like I nobody taught me I didn’t you
read a book it says make a business
and so that’s what I started doing
mm-hmm and just uh all those learning
like anything you’d want to learn
snowboard and you’re going to follow a
thousand times before you can get down
the hill and do jumps and stuff so right
that was me just sucking and falling
down the hill mm-hmm awesome and uh and
yeah and I actually on that know a lot
of people in our audience I would like
to remind them about that because I
think when they start businesses because
like like business school and all of
them they really teach a lot of that
formalized training Oh welcome ruben
this is ruben my co-host to the call
finally made it look ruben hallelujah
group thanks for your patience man I
appreciate it it’s all good cool so uh
yeah we were just talking about Evans
journey so far in his biotech company
that first year when he was struggling a
lot and I was just making that one
takeaway I think for audiences is about
how when a lot of people start their
businesses they’re focusing on a lot of
the extra stuff that’s not important
that that don’t actually help contribute
to getting the first customers to the
door and getting those first customers
through the door is the key to getting
traction in the beginning in my opinion
and so I’ve been was talking about how
they he spent three months writing out a
business plan but that would didn’t
really prove to be helpful and actually
like getting the business going but yeah
we were about to dive into the
inflection point so after this whole
year I’ve been uh what happened like why
did things started taking off uh so
after that kind of worst day of my life
moment and showing up to my business
partners apartment the next day um I
realized that the the light bulb moment
for me was I’m not the first guy to try
to sell software before I’m not the
first people have done this there has to
be a recipe somewhere there’s a model I
can follow and there’s no there wasn’t a
book that’s like how to sell software
but what I wanted to do was find people
who had had success and model that
because my default was I’m going to come
up with every great idea myself and you
don’t have to do that and so I looked at
Microsoft I looked at mcafee and looked
at into it I looked at software
companies at a built-up not in the
biotech space because there weren’t huge
biotech software companies at that time
just software companies and Bill Gates I
was curious well how did Bill Gates make
his first million zero
one right I don’t care how he makes a
million dollars now all right like 0 to
1 how did that happen that’s what I want
to do give me the recipe and and the
bigger the the mentor you’re looking up
to the bigger the company the easier
just to find information and so I look
back on Microsoft strategy and how they
got started and it was always to
partnerships doing fine they wouldn’t
sell soft for like one of the time the
people they’d find people to connect
with that could help sell them sell
thousands of copies of it Microsoft’s
big deal came with IBM where every IBM
was the computer maker at the time every
IBM shipped had Microsoft software on it
that’s that’s the deal that made IBM but
Microsoft was already a seven million
dollar company when they made that deal
now seven million is not huge but it’s
seven million more than when I had right
and they got to that seven million
through partnerships too so they’re all
that’s really interesting partnership so
I started to try to make partnerships
for my business and within a couple
weeks i had my first partnership deal
and i got them to agree to give us 13
and a half thousand dollars up front and
like that may not seem like a lot of
money but man to me 13 and a half k was
that’s like it’s raining money guys
either that’s like somebody believes in
us this is huge and more importantly
give me a model to then replicate and so
I started forming lots of partners with
different companies and getting more
money coming in I’m that so that one
strategy was super helpful to save in
our business but then just that concept
of I don’t have to figure everything out
myself somebody has already done this
model that success and let me apply it
to my business is what really ultimately
helped turn our business around super
fast growth we closed nasa johnson
johnson big deals within two years we
had been acquired by another company
from being like below the poverty line
so right right uh yeah massive
inflection point i think so eminem and
you bring up a good point and again
thanks for allowing me to joining in
lane I apologize but uh when you say
partnerships I’m curious to what does
that really look like a four
or for those listeners who may want to
think about growing there I guess their
strategic alliance I think we talked a
lot about those 2 key points that you
talked about that having those people
who can actually open up doors for other
opportunities like a super connector and
at the same time reinventing the wheel
on not reinventing the wheel so I like
those two points but can you talk a
little bit about how that looks like for
you that process sure so I basically
look for who else are my customers
buying from that is not a competitor to
me hmm so as an example the company that
I made the deal with was a distributor
so we sold to result to researchers we
sold a scientist mm-hmm the first deal
that I closed they sold equipment and
supplies to scientists but they didn’t
sell our kind of software hmm so I wrote
to them so here you have these customers
you know here’s an opportunity to make
more money you’re already reaching out
to them it’s an add on sale for you and
they agree they like being able to make
more money represent a quality product
and then for me all I had to manage was
that one relationship when they
introduced us to faradic all of their
clients right on going and so the idea
is find people who are already selling
to your target audience that they’re not
selling competing products to you and
reach out to them and see if you
construct your deal it was always a
commission kind of deal so they never
when I say partner they were never an
owner in our business there were three
of us who were the owners we never give
up equity to any of these people right
but we gave them a cut for every sale
that they made and in some cases
exclusive coverage of different regions
so example i’m trying to sell i want to
sell more to japan i don’t speak
Japanese you know I don’t understand the
culture I don’t want to be up at two in
the morning to do phone calls so why
don’t we partner up with somebody who
understands a Japanese market who has
related products and services that they
can make money from this and then we
filter all the leads through them and so
that was one of the things that I did
was set up relationships with partners
in 30 different countries to help
represent our brand
and it was a win for everybody winning
for the customers they had so many
locals a win for our distributors
because they make more money as a win
for us because we got more customers and
we didn’t have to worry about the
support issues and end the marketing
mm-hmm and when you went about finding
these partners like all over the world
how did you go about that digital like
conferences like where did you seek them
out uh I started with we have a service
in Canada whether we have agents I don’t
know if it’s in the u.s. to where they
have representatives in different
countries where you can write to them
and say hey I’m trying to grow my
business in Germany who can i connect
with in Germany and then they try to
make connections some of them just like
anything else some people love doing
their jobs and some people go right some
people just like give you this huge list
of totally unrelated people others were
like hey I’d love to help you I’ll make
phone calls if you come here i’ll set up
meetings so that part was just a numbers
game in finding you know the right
connectors into us um the second thing
we did was we started to collect leads
from people in different markets so we
sold software yeah and we create a free
trial where you can download the
software and test it out and part of
that was to then leave your in contact
information and so we’d have we’d start
getting leads but I couldn’t follow up
with someone in Japan because of all
those you know issues of language
culture time zone and so when we
collected the leads I could then go to
somebody and say hey look we have these
leads here are free leads for you to
follow up on so we’re going in offering
them value right away as well as opposed
to just taking right now always give and
take you that’s interesting sweet and
then so this is i guess like this
strategy of partnership is a strategy of
like of like like finding people all
across the world this is the one that
took this company and i ended up getting
it sold and then after this company um
believe you started Evan Carmichael
right like is that kind of yeah close
yeah um
so after I sold the company I didn’t
know what I wanted to do it was kind of
depressing yeah pretty young I was 22
yeah I mean it’s a good problem to have
I’m not i mean not complaining it’s a
first world problems if you have a good
problem to have but still a problem I
didn’t know what I wanted to do and so I
started to explore on one side I was
getting a lot of speaking engagements
where people were saying because it was
a young success story people wanted to
have me talk at their conferences and
stuff it was pretty cool to share my
knowledge um but that wasn’t a full-time
thing by any stretch I also wanted to
learn about venture capital and raising
money we never had to do it in our
business we thought about it but we
never had to do it and I didn’t know
anything about it so I connected with a
local firm and basically asked to join
them and there were three guys in their
60s and 70s who had tons of experience
but weren’t hustling anymore to get new
business you know they already made it
was like almost a retirement job for
them and so I joined to bring in
business and help recruit and they
educated like they mentored me they
taught me a lot about the world of
business as well as raising capital and
I was with them for a couple years while
I was doing my Evan Carmichael stuff on
the side being asked to speak building
up the website sharing my knowledge like
that stuff building a website was never
intended to be a business model it was
just I wanted to because I sucked and
because I almost failed I thought that’s
how this should be easier for others and
so I was just trying to share my
discovery of modeling success and I
shared stories of famous entrepreneurs
and built up one of the largest archives
of famous entrepreneur stories on my
website and then that transition to
becoming a business model but it was
never the intent when I first created it
was really more just about sharing
trying to help entrepreneurs it and I
really like that angle by the way of
like sharing other entrepreneurs story
rather a lot of people there they become
the gurus but for you it’s you’re like
mixed in with all these rest arrested
these successful entrepreneurs I wonder
that that was that like a strategy
starting fun
beginning did you think about that um
did you like not want to be the guru or
something i didn’t know i did not want
to be the guy i mean i had i had learned
some sure i sold a business great and i
knew a lot about raising money now
button but who am i compared to Walt
Disney and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and
these guys I felt like I’m still
learning times I don’t have the answers
guys like these days right and so if you
went to my website in the early days um
I hid behind the famous faces so we’ll
just go to you see Oprah or Martha
Stewart or some huge entrepreneur and
then i would start getting questions
like oh who are you like why did you
start this side or what do you think i
should do about this problem why are you
not on the website it’s off your name
right I nice I slowly added myself back
in and I think it’s really powerful
because you the personal connection is
important people want to know the story
and where you came from and they make a
personal connection to you so I think
every entrepreneur that’s your secret
advantage like that that’s how you beat
a big guy in the industry because that
it’s a big company that nobody cares
about if I can feel your passion why
you’re doing this mm-hmm that’s that’s a
secret sauce and so for me I started
sharing my story a little bit more I
started answering questions i started
this my youtube channel which I’m all in
on now just to answer questions people
had I would sit there with 30 to 45
minutes you know writing one email to
somebody and thought this is a big waste
of time like I’m helping that person but
if I made a video I could help them and
help others who had the same problem to
know so we turn it into videos and i
love that having because i noticed i
mean that’s actually how I got in touch
with you as well commented on a video
and i have to say by the way you do a
phenomenal job doing that but would you
say when you start inserting your your
presence did you see a difference
initially because I think sometimes we
do some of us in these businesses online
sometimes we’re afraid of maybe putting
ourselves out there but would you say
you saw a significant difference of like
okay now there is a face behind the
business and people or connect
thing with actually I think I heard you
maybe say that but I’m not sure if
that’s why you have G ended up seeing
yeah I think I think there’s a lot more
interest I think it brought a lot more
loyalty mm-hmm where people were excited
to see what I was going to do next and
what piece of content I was going to put
out next um I think it’s still important
you know i only talk about the stuff
that I know about you asking a question
that I don’t know but I’m not going to
try to give you an answer and so I think
people appreciate the kind of
anticipated here and realize that night
you know I can help most entrepreneurs
out with a lot of the things in their
business based on what I’ve done there
may be people who are way above me that
I can’t give as much value to UM and
that was like a change into thinking too
that hey you know I’m not steve jobs but
i can really help this guy who’s trying
to start up a business out of his house
because i went through that right um and
so I’ve always mixed the content there’s
still a lot of famous entrepreneur I’m
still learning it’s still a reflection
of what I like and what what I’m pulling
from these famous entrepreneurs and
surround myself with their ideas right
and trying to inject that into the
content and yeah and so Evan like um
just for the sake of time like I would
like to jump into these like rapid-fire
questions we usually do so we could
leave the audience the audience our
audience with a bunch of good takeaways
Oh guys so the first question I wanted
to ask is um so like what is like do you
think like your best habit that that you
have like instigate implemented excuse
me that leads to success um maybe it’s
like if you can give a little insight
into like what your day looks like that
allows you to accomplish so much it’s my
environment if you want to create great
things you need to be in a great
environment and I don’t have
entrepreneurs around me and I don’t have
a family of entrepreneurs and the way
that I do is is through my youtube
channel trying to pull ideas from these
great people so every morning I wake up
and I watch the videos that may become
an entrepreneur maybe from actress and
maybe from a sports figure but some
people who have accomplished and
achieved and that makes me want to do
more because it’s easy to get complacent
it’s easy they already did a lot or it
is easy to be lazy
one day when do you may wake up maybe
maybe people listen to your podcast like
man these guys are awesome I’m going to
do my business this is amazing and
that’s like four o’clock on a Sunday and
then they wake up the next day and poof
it’s gone yeah what happened to my
motivation well I was so bold and
certain yesterday and it’s gone and so
you need to at least in my view not just
have that happened by accident that oh I
accidentally ran across these guys and
heard this great podcast or read this
book but you with intention design that
into your environment so if you want to
create great things you need to be
surrounded by greatness mr. you need a
great environment around you yeah I
would like to follow up on that by
saying like sometimes you need to have
discipline in order to create that
because I remember when I was first
starting out with business all of my
friends they were not interested in it
and so to kind of distance myself away
from them that took a lot of I think
discipline because it doesn’t feel good
to always say no to hang out or no to
just like being around the people you
spend all these years with but if
they’re not on the same path as you
they’re not creating that positive
environment then that’s maybe something
you just have to do oh cool and then the
next question is um two books you could
recommend and why ah my two favorite
books are one the 40 work week nice a
legend you know classic book now not so
much I mean the main idea there is that
you build a business that you only work
four hours on and the rest you’re
enjoying your life I don’t actually
agree with that I think you should do a
business that you love and then don’t
worry about like having to spend the
time working on because you love doing
it but just the time management the
delegation the scheduling I took a lot
from that because I think it was maybe a
little too disorganized all over the
place and the second is radicals and
visionaries that you can’t find anymore
it’s out of print but you may pick up a
copy on eBay or something it’s basically
an early version of what I’ve done on my
youtube channel where it’s fifty or a
hundred different entrepreneurs and it
tells their story in two to three pages
so I would wake up every day you know
before YouTube was around and I would
read three pages about Jeff Bezos from
amazon and just feel a little
jeff bezos ooze into my head and that’s
it that gave me some juice to like so
it’s like creating the environment for
greatness um so radicals and Visionnaire
if you can find a copy it may not be as
relevant anymore some of the businesses
may not be as important as they used to
be but that at the time super helped my
mindset and environment that’s awesome
that’s really interesting because I
think you do a good job of transferring
that exact same energy in your videos
and have to say I’m a big fan of them
and I always get you Larry you know I’ll
be like check this one out um my
favorite one just so you know I’ve been
is um so far as like going by Denzel
Washington oh that’s insane the food is
on fire the ghost at your death bed
before um when you die one just gave me
the goosebumps and I think that’s so
great that you can like you said you
just give that trigger and it does spark
in someone’s you know I guess conscious
of like man I really need to do this so
so thank you for that that being said I
know you talk a lot about the
environment and I think what we love is
having people one we have guests come on
the show is that they actually get to
share a little bit of their knowledge so
like books and tools so i think the next
question would be like what are two
tools you would recommend and and and
why and tools as in anything that helps
you go about your day effectively as an
entrepreneur as a human being I think we
always like to get that take away um I
think that I think that YouTube videos
are definitely a huge part i mean i
curate them and then put them on the
channel but I’m absorbing a lot of
information and i think that i mean i
think the lesson I’ve learned through
this too is you go to Denzel Washington
as an example mm-hmm uh he’s not an
entrepreneur you know you’ll see
wouldn’t think this guy’s an
entrepreneur was an actor I don’t even
know he has other businesses and I don’t
know much about him outside of the
videos that you watch of him being a
movie star and yet he had some awesome
like life-changing advice where you’ve
been an entrepreneur have this chamber
full of entrepreneurs and you pick
Denzel to be the one that you like the
most and so
think it’s understanding and
appreciating that you could learn from
anybody who’s had success and apply it
to what you’re trying to do in your life
and in your business that you can learn
from an actor you can learn from a
musician you can learn from a celebrity
just as much as you can learn from an
entrepreneur and so the first tool that
use a guess is YouTube and get in the
videos what else do i do is a tool that
I use on a day-to-day basis that helps
me with my business I’m you know i might
say this might be too super tactical
hands on but i’m a big fan of up work
okay yep where I have 16 people who work
on my team I used to think I have to
have everybody local but I adjusted it
to that there’s only one guy who’s I’m
in Toronto Canada there’s only one guy
who’s in toronto on my team everybody
else is somewhere else overseas in the
US and upward upward calm is a great
place to be able to find people to work
for you remotely to build the team is
you can’t do it all yourself oh yeah
awesome and then removing that on the
next questions your favorite one so lazy
your question this is it yeah this is a
rapper fireman that the mythbuster
what’s what do you think is and this
would be interesting with your
background what is the biggest
misconception that people have in
business or when approaching business or
when approaching business here I think
it’s it’s the limiting beliefs that they
carry with them that’s going to hold
them back I think it’s people who come
in like I did and I thought I was too
young to be successful people think I’m
too old to be successful people think I
don’t have a rich you know uncle so I
can’t be successful I didn’t go to
university so I can’t be successful I
you know I’m not uh I’m not a man or I’m
disabled or I’m from a different country
like all of these things that as long as
you hold on to that story it’s going to
keep you where you are and when you
accept the responsibility that you can
change that everything is under your
control that’s when you start to see the
lift and we talked I don’t know if you
were here when we talk about it but
every major breakthrough that I’ve had
in my life and business has become just
come from me breaking a limiting belief
that i had and
helps me hit a new height and so I think
a lot of people starting off in business
you carry with you this story and that
that prevents you from even in the chat
before we’re getting started is like
there’s a guy who’s 13 years old uh Sean
mm-hmm Sean I hope I got that one right
and it’s like I’m so i can’t i can’t
sell I’m 13 well no it’s not that you
can’t sell because you’re through I was
outside when I was 13 your age has
nothing to do with it it’s you know
whatever product or service start asking
yourself how can I sell this not when
can I sell this right you don’t have to
wait till you’re 22 to be able to start
selling go out and start building it now
right that’s so interesting because a
lot of the and this is what’s so
interesting to actually gather these
kind of people are guests when they come
on the show the like-minded individuals
we realize a lot of it is just personal
beliefs and personal development it’s
more internal than it is external it’s
less of what you’re doing out there it’s
more like how it begins initially inside
and that’s why it’s always like
inspiring when we get i guess like you
come on who share that message with us
and the rest of our community because i
think that’s that’s a big key takeaway
to think about like what are you
stopping yourself from doing from from
from doing every day that may actually
help your self oh and your business or
in your life so that’s that’s awesome
stuff let me give you a tactical example
that will help bring it home i think one
of the things that I found that really
hurt me was I want people to be happy
and I want I want to always feel like
I’m giving value if I’m not giving value
I feel like I’m disappointing I want to
disappoint other people and so I would
always secretly hope that somebody would
cancel on me before I want to meet them
right cause it’s a copy meeting or like
you know I remember I got invited to go
speaking in in Brunei and Asia for his
big conference and be nationally
televised and I secretly hoped that they
were gonna call and say Evan it’s
cancelled don’t worry you don’t have to
come yeah like huh yeah no good awesome
amigo that you owe me one yeah I I
always even for somebody meeting know
like a start-up entrepreneur who I know
I could help meeting at a starbucks just
to talk about their business I always
would secretly hope that they
what canceled on me like the day of uh
because it was a fear that I wouldn’t be
able to give value even though I know
that it’s always like I leave I’m super
excited that I helped them and they’re
super excited on their proud I know it’s
going to cause a result but I still had
this belief and i think that the hardest
thing is recognized the awareness like
understanding that i’m holding myself
back because these things you’ve been
doing for so many years that it’s
subconscious that you don’t even you’re
not even aware of most of the things
that are holding you back so it’s
catching it that’s the hardest part then
when you catch it you want to try to
catch it in the moment not catch it
afterwards right like the next day or
that afternoon like oh yeah that was
when I was you know I should have done
that right that’s when I was holding
back if you can catch it in the moment
and then and then have to have the
courage to change to do something that
you wouldn’t normally do that’s how you
start to break those limiting beliefs
and it’s like if you can catch those
things in the moment it’s one of the
most important things you can do for
your life it’s like self self awareness
on the spot is like almost like what
you’re saying right like just being able
to just instantly okay this is what’s
happening yeah yeah exactly and like I
know I recently got an advice about
someone who says you should always lean
into your fears because that’s like
getting into that habit of leaning into
those doubts leaning into those fears
and like whenever you feel it just plow
through it anyways when you get the
habit of that you you go through some
serious personal growth and that always
reflects into your business yeah yeah
I’m in other areas of your life too you
know I’m playing league of legends last
night with a buddy of mine mm-hmm you
guys play league I know okay fine so
it’s a player versus player game yeah
it’s five against five but he’s only
played against box so you’re playing
against robots instead of people right
and I said okay Louie today we’re gonna
play again he’s like oh my god I’m so
scared I’m gonna taste good to me I’m so
nervous I said you know what okay you
need to stretch yourself today we’re
gonna go do it I need commands Aquino
what it’s not that bad like he didn’t do
really well mmm that looks like about as
mad as he thought it was gonna be right
he’s up to do it again and i love it
like if you’re feeling nervous it’s just
the
that you’re nervous and then thinking to
actually make the change instead of
doing what you normally do because it’s
super hard to catch it you’re going to
come up with a story that you’ve always
told yourself of why you can’t do it
that covers the real reason which is you
just being afraid right so can you catch
your fear in the moment and then do you
have the courage to actually make it a
change in what your normal behavior is
that’s super tough yeah but skinny it’s
great advice yeah love it big love love
the tackling that fear is one Larry
that’s that’s that’s like so so let’s uh
let’s conclude this with um the final
question is what do you think the best
advice you’ve ever received I know
that’s a loaded question but if
something pops into your mind may could
be in personal development could be in
business help you frame it um yeah the
best advice is probably from my parents
who always told me that I macos truly
Carmichael and I could do anything that
I want when I was growing up I always
got B’s and C’s in school and there was
an expectation that we would get AIDS
that’s the kind of expectation from my
parents and my sisters both got a’s and
so every every report card season it
would be that time to sit down and meet
the parents and go over the report card
again and they never like slam me or
punish me but they always built me up
and my mom’s last name is cuz truly my
middle name is cuz truly so they’d
always tell him about me cuz truly
Carmichael and I could do anything I
wanted in that that’s like the root of
believe favorites awesome where you know
even you know that relates cuz I’ve
built the foundation of Who I am it
applies its not business advice you know
I could say well somebody told me to do
partnerships or somebody told me to talk
to the media but I think at the core is
the belief in myself that I can do it
that more people had that belief than
they would accomplish more and that’s
what I’m now trying to instill not just
in my like in my in my son now pass that
on but to my audience in the community
and the people watching mm-hmm well
awesome I know ever have you ever had
the book psycho cybernetics no should I
yes I should it’s the the best self
development book I’ve ever read
and it’s probably one of the original
ones written by this written by this
plastic surgeon so he talks about how
self-image really dictates like how well
we achieve in anything mm-hmm but he
goes into really elaborate stuff so
worthwhile to read psycho cybernetics
yeah all right um and awesome so uh I
mean you want to conclude maybe give a
little shout out for yourself a call to
action may be of some sort to our
community to your community I mean the
list and yeah and to in to that point
Larian and no I don’t know if Evan got a
chance to talk about this but I also
being on your side I saw the packages
that you offer the the passion I thought
that was really interesting we’ll put
together so I don’t know if there’s a
chance for a community to check that
stuff out because I I was getting my
hands on that as well look really
interesting so yeah do you have any
anything you could share with them yeah
I you know what guys the easiest easiest
starting point is probably say YouTube
channel yeah check out the channel
subscribe come watch the Denzel video
link i doubt the group favorite now
you’re gonna watch it yeah and that’s it
like you like Daniel probably watch some
more ah that’s it man I want to spread
believe but I think I think your
audience would find that valuable yeah i
was i was just telling Larry offline how
if they had like a YouTube Oscar that
you should definitely get one man
because that’s tell you that you there
is like it sits straight fire man its
energy I’m wish it pump so hey well
you’re on it now you’re you’re part of
living memory of the youtube channel so
you can haha nice appreciate that and
just so you know Ivan as a FYI men shout
out to Toronto man I grew up there in
Hamilton actually so was a nice and neat
when I found out the man behind all this
those cool videos with another Canadian
you got this whole Canadian
entrepreneurship movement happening so
have time to come back for all the time
to come back i am i’m too busy trying to
travel and meet people like you man so
it’s actually been really humbling every
time we run into people like like you
and I get a chance to connect with all
of our network so it’s uh I’ll be back
man maybe I’ll hold you to it and when
I’m in Toronto find some time let’s do
it come on say highs game
there you go awesome all right Ivan well
thanks for getting on um and uh it will
be in touch I appreciate it guys thanks
for the time definitely thanks Evan
whatever good have a go I hip
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