all right hello everyone and welcome to
another YouTube hang out I’m super
excited today to be talking to you about
how to come up with that big idea to
launch your business and I’m also really
excited to have a special guest with me
today Steven Kelley is the CEO of sage
and they have the accounting software
company and they’ve got you know over
10,000 employees and you may know them
and use them in your business why i love
steven is this guy and welcome to
another yo kinda amazing super expose
Etta Stephen Stephen cares about
entrepreneurs this guy actually cares
about entrepreneurs where I’ve met with
a ton of CEOs who sell the entrepreneurs
and it just kind of pay lip service
because if our customers but this guy
actually has a passion to help small
business owners out and I wanted to have
them on today for this hangout so Steven
welcome aboard great to be here Evan
you’re right I’ve got a passion around
small and medium businesses these guys
on knows you and I know you guys out
there the risk takers you that the
heroes of your kind so we love you love
it now we have a lot of people already
asking questions we’re talking about how
to get started how to cope with that big
idea so I’m curious if you have any
general advice off the top what do you
recommend in terms of coming up with
that big idea for your new business yeah
I think um it’s kind of like the essence
of life is you know follow your dreams
do you love so if you’re passionate
about cycling and your passion about
service you know what I ran a small
business myself and I was absolutely
loved fixing really complicated problems
around customer service so I work for a
start-up out of California back in 97
and that’s what we did and we try to
transform the way banks who had a really
messy customer service dealt with their
consumers like you and me ah and and you
know it was a pretty kind of scary ride
a roller coaster of worried about
payroll every month but at the end the
day everybody in that company was
passionate about one thing about kind of
really fixing the problem so whatever
your passion is it’s almost like what
what advice he gives your kids in terms
of what
a college study doing in love do your
passion about because then you’ll be an
expert in that area and you will be able
to recruit a volunteer army of kind of
reboot fans its customers so I think
that’s kind of lesson number one and you
got to think about it evidence work you
if you start a business and I don’t say
you want to want to live your dreams
which most people want to do it’s much
better to feel really excited about the
product is selling all this service they
deliver to really believe in it to be
the expert for their customers yeah I
couldn’t agree with you more and I think
too many people start a business just
because they’re trying to make money you
know they look at here the top ten new
business ideas for you from The Wall
Street Journal at the top 10 hottest
industries to get into so I’m going to
go jump in and do that where you don’t
actually have a love for that industry
of that product and and you’re never
going to make it so the key like every
success I’ve had is because I have built
something that was for me that was
selfish that I love and then I share
that with the world I think that’s
definitely right approaches start with
start with something your passion what
you get to get too excited because as
soon as it gets hard and it’s going to
get hard it’s that passion is going to
keep it going get you through it yeah
the other thing I you know I think
you’re lucky if you can find something
you love and then also find existing
service providers or product creators
who just drive you crazy so if you get
frustrated about a service a web service
product and you think wow there’s gotta
be a better way then that’s you’re
probably on to some here and there’s so
many great companies been created out of
frustration where the existing guys by
the god honestly complacent or they’ve
just kind of forgot their customers and
they forgot it at seven and its crew a
huge opportunity particularly you know
the world of the digital economy where
you know entrepreneurs can start
businesses so um something you remember
kind of like brandy temple who’s a
business started out frustration on at
home wanna how great clothes want to
have everything intuitive
terms of clothes for kids and stuff like
that so witness gaps in the marketplace
when you see huge frustration as a
consumer or business to business user
that’s also probably a catalyst saying
there’s a business idea here we’re
absolutely is part of a dream something
I’m passionate about and these guys
aren’t doing a good job and I could go a
lot better I love it I love it the
advice is awesome so how this is going
to work guys usual YouTube hang out with
me there’s a there’s a chat section
you’re on the right where if you want to
leave your questions for me and Stephen
we’re going to try to get through all of
them and also feel free to joining the
chart in support each other i know a lot
of the best ideas also come from you
guys helping each other out so the first
question comes in is jason who wrote in
the say he has a fear of failure how do
i get over my fear of failure what do
you think Stephen you know that some guy
I look at myself Tommy every week I I
probably fair that something I think
it’s a really good point I think as
human beings the way we kind of
indoctrinated by the education system is
all about passing exams and perfection
and that’s not real life that’s not
business business is all about making a
lot of mistakes and one one man trying
to use internally ear it’s ages fell
fast learn quickly and also I kind of
think because of the fear of failure
people spend way too much time building
fancy business plans that never see the
light of day or over-engineering crazy
strategies and fancy diagrams and stuff
as if they’re you know GE or someone
like that you’re much better test drive
and getting into execution fading fast
course correction find out and again you
know the world you’ve really kind of
captured this ever around social media
you can find out in nanoseconds customer
reaction and therefore you can involve
your product strategy in minutes um so I
kind of think the whole essence of great
business is great star knots of people
who fail fast and I’ve got passion
around learning improve
I love it I would add that I think think
people see failure as this big huge
negative thing you should avoid where
it’s it’s just part of the process if
you try to do something and avoid any
kind of failure than your plane it’s so
safe that that you’re never going to
accomplish your goal and so failure is
not the enemy it’s just making sure you
don’t fail huge right you’re going to
fail a lot along your weight think about
anything that you learned right you you
wrote a bike you fell down you learn to
ski you fell down you learn French you
made mistakes like failure is just part
of the process you can’t avoid it it’s
just understanding that you’re using
that that leverage that you’ve learned
to then make your product your service
your business better and so just bail
fast feel smarter feel smaller so that
you can get to where you want to go and
so don’t fear failure because it’s going
to happen and I think just understanding
that might relieve some of the pressure
like you don’t have to be perfect as
perfect doesn’t exist and fairly what
happened along the way to you achieving
your goal yeah yeah everything is test
drive often you know test drive you talk
about riding the bike ride in your car
getting your license you have to test
drive yeah in business you have to
absolutely and then probably every month
every year you need to be reinvented
itself hopefully the world we live in
particular social medias about tweaks
today from customers then guys you could
do a better job that is the best
feedback like a nap every day I live and
die by taking feedback and change in the
course in terms of the service
composition all the products or whatever
it is we’re out there doing so I think
kind of directly geopoint evidence is
something which would probably train
through the kind of education systems a
negative I see is a really massive
positive I love it um next one is am I
and/or my big idea good enough whoo am I
good enough what do you think little
relief I’d say a bit of advice I got you
know again I started I grow up if I had
two small businesses and the great thing
about small business with three fighters
were offering where are they were
customer time
and and everything you should focus is
actually doing good enough and learning
and improving I would advocate number
one don’t try and come up back to your
first point really Evan with the Holy
Grail don’t worry about perfection
actually get a business off the ground
engage your customers get a flight out
I’ll get the service proposition out and
then learn fast improved so I kind of
think if you think it’s good enough
you’re passionate about it you love what
you’re doing and you think there’s a gap
in the mob go and find out test drive it
with friends could be are you know
trommel customers and then you’ll find
out really quickly whether it’s good
enough you know the rubber hits the very
what customers tell you that you’ve got
the best product in the world and you
know view actually the early customers
again when I kind of started this
business in California we said the first
20 customers they’ve got to be raving
fans they got to be evangelist they got
a you know when you cut into the DNA of
them they gotta believe in us because
we’re there for them built rusticana
because you know with all these things
again with social media those 20 guys
from to come thousands of guys and and
no it goes viral so I wouldn’t worry too
much about analyzing again is it good
enough I’d get into the execution phase
and start test on and again one of the
phrase on use around here is a class
strategy of in class execution is always
inferior to be fast for a DNA class
execution get out and find out what work
to improve it yeah i love it i wanna i
love that I love that a Class B Class
thing is cool I’m I might take that from
you mindset is super important here uh
you have to believe you know right
believe you got to believe that your
idea is good enough and every major
breakthrough that I’ve had in my
business career has been because I’ve
shattered a limiting belief that I had
in my first business was a it was a
biotech software company I was 19 years
old I was selling to scientists
researchers who were three times my age
had PhDs all these degrees and the story
I told myself was I’m too young to do
this I’m they’re never going to take me
seriously and as long as I believe
as long as I was a story I told myself
then it was a self-fulfilling prophecy
that actually happened and then the
shift came when I realized that hey I
can actually provide value to these
people right they don’t care about my
background and my credentials as long as
I can actually help them accomplish
something important in what they’re
doing and like we’d all have our own
limiting beliefs we tell ourselves we’re
too young we’re too old we don’t have
the right parents we don’t have the
educational background I don’t have
enough money I don’t have you know
whatever excuse you come up with as long
as you believe that story then it’s
going to come true and again once you
realize that that’s just a story you’re
telling yourself and you accept
responsibility for your life and not
blame the conditions then you can see if
they break through in your business yeah
group oh cool next up help her desk I
thought if we need to start a channel
about a new passion and update your
progress as you improve for example I
love surfing yet I’ve never been would
watch me learn to surf be a good idea
yeah um I kind of think again anything
you know I am a massive fan a couple of
things one is busy Lawson success looks
like and actually is a great way to
overcome your sort of self believes and
limitations because if you visualize
yourself being successful you know
actually changes what’s in your head and
you believe all um the other thing that
kind of pretty significant here is I
think there’s a lot of things now of the
world we live in a global village and
everything’s available to everybody and
it’s just unimaginable the Internet’s
changed online so so the things like
kind of surfing stuff like that and cool
incredible sports around there so I
think again if there’s a passion there’s
an idea I’d encourage everybody to be
disruptor to innovate innovate innovate
and create something that’s kind of very
different in general different
experience so you go for it you’ll find
out quickly if you launch a business
like that whether there’s a lot of
interest of arms and what is the right
time yeah I mean to add to that I would
say as a general principle in business
if you provide value to people you will
make money
right you provide more value make more
money provide value quickly you’ll make
money quickly it’s about providing value
to somebody else and so you know if you
don’t know how to surf then your value
won’t be in providing expert surf tips
right because you’re not the surfer yet
but I love the idea of taking people
along the journey with you because your
approach it from a beginner’s mind and
they will learn as you learn and for
anybody who’s starting a new project I’m
a huge believer in in Craig on youtube
channel or in allowing people to follow
you and what you’re doing on Twitter or
Facebook and keep updating them and as
you make mistakes and as you learn you
create content about that I’m writing my
first book with with penguin Random
House I’ve never written a book before
and every week I make a video on my
youtube channel about my book writing
process frustrations I have winds that
I’m having I answer your questions and
I’m bringing you along the journey with
me to help you understand that book
writing process I can’t make a book
about uh sir I can’t make a video go
here’s the 10 things you need to do to
write a best-seller book because I
haven’t done it yet but I can make those
videos about my journey and so I think I
think that’s the value that you can add
as a kind of side twist to this a little
curveball I’d add is I think making it
public and also keep you on track with
your business I think if you are
starting up any new thing it could be it
can be exciting but also frustrating
then lonely and you may go out and you
start surfing and you fall and you fail
and the guy that’s it I’m done I’m never
going to be good at this but if you now
have a community of people supporting
you and cheering you on and you’re
committed to them you’re much more
likely to follow through just like when
you tell your friend hit come to the gym
with me you’re going to go to take that
Jim appointment and so I think that the
side benefit could be it gives you a lot
more motivation as well to actually
execute against your plan in the Lotus
of your interview maestressa but
everybody’s posting stuff on Facebook
Instagram and it sort of piece of vision
of the world that’s perfect everyone is
a celebrity go to vegas the weekend
spring break everybody’s having fun all
the time and kind of that’s not real so
what you bring out
people genuine real life kind of all
abilities so if you’re out there and
learning to surf you build a community
and you share your kind of hold
abilities that’s very engaging and kind
of brings people with you and you know
all the kind of face book heroes out
there kind of out there’s kind of brands
now a lot of it’s based on just
connected with real life people with
real life situations physics foreign
people’s vulnerabilities you write your
books that’s tough my everyday is a
perfect day not every day comes out with
the best chapter so I kind of think
there’s you’re onto something there by
disconnecting with people’s real life
emotions but when there’s a Steven
Kelley book coming out we’re gonna do
one together deal I haven’t finished my
first one though man it’s killing me oh
okay I mix up tons of questions Jameel I
love your speaking style maybe it’s the
accent I don’t know if he’s talking to
you or me but we got Canada and UK in
the house uh how do I find the first few
investors and keep them happy in my
business yeah on this great question and
you know one of these when I was in the
start this is all kind of wind down side
of your own pc money and all that sort
of stuff um I think what I would advise
generally if you got a great business
idea you read it but even it’d probably
start if you can do we did research
assemblage set of our customers actually
use your own life savings or people get
their homes to fund their businesses I
would be advocating if you can do go
friends and family first ah and then you
keep control and and you kind of you
know again you can waste a lot of time
go to banks go to finance houses go to
VCS when you should be building your
businesses a lot of your customers
following to drink so I kind of put more
emphasis that but it’s time to go is
when you’ve got something that you think
real tangible and they’ll call it a kind
of proven business model but ultimately
then you kind of have peer nails and
cash flow projections and all that sort
of stuff underneath it but the longer
you can defer that I would be
the big advocate and the only way that
our argue against myself is if you come
across something where you have got the
next Facebook and it’s going to be so
massive and so big and you’ve got to
invest at scale we’ve gotta go global
because you know you’re just going to
miss that with your opportunity and then
it might make sense to go I’m gonna good
fruit and you know there’s a lot of
people I Devon you know tons of people
in Canada Toronto you can actually fund
businesses in the UK in the u.s. angel
investors probably are advocating the
best route because again they’re not in
vases they won’t interfere and they’ll
give you capital based on business plan
and trust and it allows you to get on
and really kind of fun the next day to
do business yeah I mean just to
piggyback on that I think I hate
spending money till I’m making money
just as a general rule I think anybody
can spend money if I give you a million
dollars you can find a million different
ways to spend it not everybody can make
money and so that’s the discipline you
need to learn and when you are out
getting investors the hardest i used to
be a VC I was raising half a million 15
million dollars for companies the
hardest money to raise is the startup
capital because it’s the riskiest time
and they’ll take the biggest chunk of
your business right they could take
three percent of your business for a
small amount of money because there’s a
high risk where if you can show them
that you can deliver a result then you
can get some revenue that somebody’s
willing to actually pay you for this the
easiest kind of money to raise his
expansion capital mean I’ve already
selling I have some sales come in it now
I need to grow that’s easy money to
raise you’ll get a much better valuation
and raising capital can’t be a full-time
business for you and like Stephen said
that takes your eye off the ball of
actually running your business and so if
i were you i would try as much as
possible to focus on the execution find
little ways to get started invest my
hustle my time my energy not dollars and
especially not other people’s dollars
until I got to the point where I had a
product that was out that was making
some money i mean i’ll be profitable yet
but i’m making money I have a path to
profitability because that really
reduces the risk and you’ll get a much
better the
from investors nature ah cool next
crystal hello mr. caracal mr. Kelly so
formal so far now mr. Kelly and mr.
carmack look at us that that’s like a
talk show or something I was 17 year old
student I’m turning 18 September I asked
my mom for capital so I can invest in a
network marketing company is that a bad
idea I kind of think um we probably need
to say did the mum say yes or no but
it’s kind of she believes in network
marketing and she thinks as a business
opportunity how could like in 30 days we
test drive that and do some untried
development or test drive it in terms of
kind of research even if it’s kind of
friends and family and then go to the
mall and say you know am I trying to get
this started and get it on the road and
then kind of what you said is work with
all these things I kind of didn’t say
this but one of the worst things you can
do is raise money for bc’s because I see
so many companies get there and it’s
almost like companies do an initial
public offering IPO and they think it’s
the end of the journey I tell you guys
that’s the start of the journey and um
you’ve gotta keep this is really
important culturally culture is
everything about stars and you’ve got to
have that culture that you treat the
company’s money as if it’s your own cuz
it is so you’ve gotta be mean on
expenses you’ve got to be fair but mean
but ultimately on this question I’d say
if your mom kind of backs the idea she
believes in you and you’re passionate
about it seventy or your whole life page
you can got to go for it and and it
might take two or three reps now the
guys are you know profitable everybody
knows about wd-40 ah what was it the
guys back in what 1953 kicked off a
project they they fail 40 times before
they actually invented some sort of
substance that separated water for jet
engines and rockets 40 failures and now
they’ve got a kind of global leader
prime so with these sort of things is 17
year old you got 70 great years ahead
here where you can be working 80 hours a
week
all your dreams building great
businesses go for it yeah i mean i agree
i love seeing the young entrepreneurs i
love the people are looking at starting
the business as their career path
instead of starting work at a big
company and then uh you know it makes it
harder to then jump off and start doing
business later uh you know to my last
point I hate I hate raising money till
I’m making money honestly I would find a
way to hustle to make that money myself
to then invest in my business I don’t
know how much money you need you need a
thousand dollars $5,000 $10,000 I would
hustle my way to make that money somehow
and put it into then launching the
business and bet on myself um that’s
maybe that’s just me I hate taking money
till I’m making money and the other
thing that i would add there is why are
you picking network marketing um I’ve
made a couple videos on this and it’s a
little bit of a touchy subject but I
feel a lot of people getting to know
what marketing for the wrong reasons
they’re promised huge income
opportunities and they think they can
make you rich overnight and that just
doesn’t happen the way to have success
is if you’re actually using a product
you love it it’s something that you
would recommend to your mom to you say
mom is a fantastic product if you can’t
do that then you should not be selling
that product is you’re not going to have
success with it and so I really
encourage you to examine the business
that you’re getting into are you a
passionate a user and can you be a
passionate advocate for it because if
you can’t be then I would I love the
idea of starting a business I would
challenge you to think about what
business you want to start it’s gotta be
something your passion back to like the
very top of the show where we’re talking
about finding that business around your
passion next Dominic Dominic is a
question about explaining why customers
should take action so he says I see that
you have been talking to me do not spend
a lot of time to your audience why they
should start a business is that the
right thing to do hmm educational how
much education you guys do see you in at
sage um we never good enough but I’d say
if the question is should a sub
just to what you said I think the
freedom it gives you I think the
learning you get by starting the
business making a ton of mistakes
falling flat on your face dust yourself
off and you know constantly innovating
your products and services is the
University of life it’s the best place
to learn I think you know when I look at
the US economy about 12 million jobs
created down in the u.s. in the last
five years sixty-six percent have been
created by small and medium businesses
the value that small immediate business
in Canada us over Europe greatly
economies and prosperity way off the
scale and the truth is the voice they
have in terms of governments of people
is tiny but it’s really guys who give up
their lines a lot of human sacrifice a
lot of hours worked a life savings got
into it but the rewards are huge because
you built something yourself that’s very
special you’re doing what you love
you’re doing what you’re passionate
about and I just think it’s for a career
point of view it’s probably most
fulfilling thing you can do so I’ll be a
huge supporter like Evan said on the
last question we love the young kids
coming out of like a college or at
straight out of school and starting
their businesses because you guys the
future yeah it’s interesting so I don’t
talk a lot about uh why you should start
a business I think it’s just
understanding who your audiences I am
not trying to convert people to be
entrepreneurs that’s not my audience my
arms are the people who already are
entrepreneurs or want to be
entrepreneurs and need advice to get
better so that’s where my content is
geared towards right we haven’t talked
about in this video why you should start
a business versus working at a company
so I think it’s just understanding
education is definitely important and my
channel there’s a lot of education on
and that’s why we’re doing this video
series even today to help answer your
questions and teach you guys but it’s
understanding who your target audiences
and what hurdles they have so I don’t
consider the guys for working at big
companies to who are happy with their
jobs to be my audience
from my role to be the convince them to
leave so that’s why I don’t talk too
much about it um so just understanding
your audience and making content and
making products and services that are
here best towards them yeah it is
obvious but thump happens totally
counterintuitive though some of the best
businesses have been created when is the
big economic downturn I’m back to two
thousand nine because and it’s kind of
logical when you thought it through a
lot of you know the reduction forces
when country companies laid off a lot of
people and gave them pay off some of
those people use their payoffs to go and
start a business follow their dreams so
that was a really kind of top edge of
new business size many of those people
who felt they’re trapped in a big
company within 20 years and almost
ironically got massive release when they
were laid off and that’s unleash their
passions and that’s all in a dream but I
think again I think now there’s so much
evidence across the world where startups
business is absolutely kind of a very
accepted way of going about your career
and and should be valued much more wider
community honestly especially when you
look at you can around in Canada rural
communities if it wasn’t for the smaller
medium businesses then we ditched you
know kind of once you get a big pharma
succeeds the guys that cradle the
prosperity de Prentice jobs this is
more media businesses respect I told you
who is passionate entrepreneurs I love a
man sues meet oh I’m deeply passionate
about Latin dancing salsa and bachata
but I don’t know how to turn this
passion into a lucrative business
without entering an already overcrowded
market of dane schools I’ll tell you
that’s a great question so I think the
reality is that’s a really hot area so
you got to think about what is it you
want was different from what’s being
provided uh
when I look at you know this great
compass now huge companies startup
company there was a market technology
called CRM there was a company called
Siebel it was a very saturated market
place and this guy Marc Benioff a
garbage huge admiration for stud that
come people salesforce com and you would
have argued at that time that is a
totally crazy idea because it’s a
saturated market place and he basically
completely reimagined the space so what
it means again back to landing dancing
is there a way you could provide
learning dancing that’s different that
really meets the needs wherever you are
the town you’re in or are there other
things that you can build in terms of
value that people really won because
again you know again things like
learning darn and salsa dancing it is a
really hot area there’s no doubt this
demand out um it’s a great way you can
build communities but I think with those
sort of things you’ve gotta build value
and you’ve got to build something it’s a
little bit different and constantly
innovate as well because as soon as you
come out with something that’s really
innovative you can guarantee someone in
that sort of space can catch up really
quickly so you’ve got to be constantly
offering more innovation and one of
their kind of dance class or
collaborations with local restaurants or
stuff like that which is a kind of bit
different this question his kind of
close to home because I’m a salsa dancer
and I’m a investor in I think North
America’s largest maybe the world’s
largest salsa dancing school trained
five six thousand people a year how to
dance salsa so i can i can speak with
some Authority on this one at least the
first thing that comes to mind is
understanding why people come to dance
classes people are not coming to dance
classes to be the greatest salsa dancer
bachata dancer right your competition is
not the other dance schools it’s rock
climbing it’s going out for the movies
right your competition is the
entertainment dollar and so why we’re
successful where most of the companies
aren’t is that we focus on letting them
have fun it so it’s not about making it
the perfect technique
people don’t come into most of our
classes trying to become again a
performer the greatest dance in the
world they just want to have fun and so
understanding that that’s what your
audience is looking for adjust your
mindset to be able to create a product
that they could use those a simple
example speaking like directly to you we
start with merengue merengue is a much
easier dance to learned in salsa sauce
as eat beets is the harder to pick up it
can be frustrating at the start merengue
is two beats you don’t have to worry
about your feet all you’re doing is arms
and so it’s a lot easier to pick up and
so it’s the cane people come to that
first class or having fun it builds them
up it gives them confidence then keep
going and so I find a lot of the people
in the salsa community or so focused on
the technique and they’re all competing
for the more advanced students where you
can focus on the having fun part then it
opens up a much wider audience for you I
am just a crazy nails down and into the
last week in Tuscany and that’s your boy
gelato ice cream in this town in Tuscany
tons of gelato one chill artist all had
choose lines down the road because the
guys service guys and girls was singing
singing Italian songs crazy let’s loving
people were actually gathering crowd
roaring and that place was yet one of
probably 20 ice cream stores in the town
but it was rocket it was rocking this
people what having fun people wanted to
do it is something I love it um yeah
awesome example next up see sorry sent
city we’re a new business using sage pay
for our e-commerce website we think that
payers you use feature is vital for
small business what new things do you
have in store to support small
businesses so that that’s all you Steven
what’s in store to support small
businesses there’s a lot of stuff on
safe and the other thing my email
address is Stephen Kelly at save com so
any kind of things any of our customers
have you know we are totally accountable
to you through service will lead and you
can reach out of me if any time we drop
it off as any kind of company does
though the aspiration is that you guys
to like it and have you kind of as great
that so that’s really important to us vs
essence elicited loads of great
properties is coming out on the safety
pay site the other thing is kind of
really interesting is we find a lot of
small and medium businesses all I kind
of actually have totally integrated
management of their money a cash
invoicing cash collection plans plans
all these sort of things management
expenses and income so we’re seeing a
lot of interest in the marketplace where
you got kind of safe pay on the payroll
looking after employees say two payments
which is managing cash in and out and
also the kind of Korra County and
obviously there what when I going to see
customers who have got they’ve got a
website safe fashion they take on
transactions over the web with people’s
credit cards and it automatically does
all to stop reordering it automatically
updates all the ledges you know it’s
totally what we call kind of freshness
accounting where it’s fully automated
because again what we don’t want to do I
get one in five small businesses work
more than send the out of me what we
want to do for you guys is give your
time back spend with your families or
grey business is faster and and just do
a lot of less of manual car note or data
resubmitting or taking the shoebox of
invoices to your accountant that is kind
of so 1990s the world of today is all
about automation running the business
from your palm of a hand from your
smartphone having your business in your
pocket and you know 24 by 7 so you can
look at cash please you look at invoice
cells then you can look if you want on
cash flow everything should be kind of
automated in the Pawnee Annika’s again I
think Evan as consumers in the last 10
years with Samsung’s an iphone we’ve got
used to controlling our own personal
life and we believe the smaller
businesses coming it’s like I should do
exactly the same as companies like Apple
have done for consumers so as to give
you guys control in the pamir hands so
which is facing only specific product
questions you can email me I’ll be in
touch of the right people but kind of
that golden triangle
money around from penny people payroll
payments collecting cash from customers
and she updating all your accounts and
IRS returns and alerts and stuff is the
way to go yeah i mean i’d say in general
to as entrepreneurs you should be
looking at trying to free up your time
to do the things that you’re best at you
know most entrepreneurs you’re doing
everything in your business you’re
you’re the janitor up to the CEO and
you’re not going to be able to create
something great if you only spend in ten
percent of your time focused on the
projects that will make you great and so
you know so what I try to think of what
every day is what is the highest value
that I could bring to my company today
and then the other tasks have to get
done in my business I look to automate
through software like sage I look to
delegate I look to even eliminate if
it’s not relevant anymore and ideally if
you’re managing your time you want to
try to figure out again how can i free
up with the distractions free up the
stuff that I don’t like doing to let me
focus on doing what I love that makes me
come alive that adds insane value to my
business I the follow-up question there
was we turned our passion into something
quite special and looking forward on how
the digital online marketing will unfold
you have any thoughts on this digital
online marketing yeah and I just think
sorry one of the most exciting things
happen I I just think we’re so
privileged to see what’s happening
through the whole kind of web experience
the old did you work on um you know I’m
pretty straight line I am pretty crazy I
like to kind of dream dream big but I
kind of recognize a lot of small
business out there also what a great
lifestyle manage no family I’m fanta and
we encourage all that but the digital
marketing just makes everything so much
easier and back to Evans point is is you
are typically part of a big community
now and it is a paradigm if you’re in
the state of the US 30 years ago you
typically sell night i’m sending product
within a 30-mile radius now you lift
your eyes up and into a global village
and
the web you could be selling countries
within two to three months of just angry
so um the barriers have completely been
smashed and digital marketing you can
really intelligently now I think
segments and all the stuff like SEO
optimization sem we get smaller and
smaller to create a great dish with pros
itself and again you know everything’s
going to be authentic everything is
going to have high integrity so your
digital presence has got to reflect the
company you are the service you deliver
your love for customers but I think um
you know I think definitely I would say
all CEOs out there all man integrates
the businesses I’d say kind of think for
us get social be socially so to be out
there be visible all feedback is good
feedback on Twitter Facebook the sort of
channels out because it’s just an
invaluable way to listen I can’t ten
hours to the marketplace and see what’s
going on and the phpbb and you get is
immense so i think is invaluable in
digital marketing has lifted my eyes to
stuff that blows me away this stuff that
used to play two years can be done in
two weeks now and camp at the old world
of campaigns of Arctic you know has been
so disrupted ah it’s really exciting
times and actually the other thing I’d
say is don’t just kind of think of it as
a silo of digital marketing but think of
it digital integrated marketing selling
services so you’re taking customers for
a whole life cycle firstly kind of hit
your website may be trying to product by
product and then giving great customer
experience afterwards so make it a
journey for the customer where it’s
going to be a customer for life I love
it and for those of you guys watching
Stephen is he eats his own dog food he
is active on social in a way that most
CEOs aren’t you’ll see mostly eels just
post press releases and super boring
stuff where Stephen actually has some
interesting content you know because he
actually cares about entrepreneurs
imagine that so we’re following on
Twitter to answer the question I would
say
it’s never been easier to start a
business and to market it the tools have
never been cheaper right you don’t have
to take out TV commercials and radio
spots a newspaper ads you can get
started on youtube on facebook on
Twitter and start driving some attention
for your company I think I think it can
be overwhelming at the start I think a
lot of times people don’t know what to
do they’re so focused on building their
product or service and trying to create
an amazing experience and offering that
marketing becomes his side things
they’re not sure how to go out and
promote themselves and so everybody has
these accounts but they don’t do
anything valuable with them what I would
honestly recommend you doing is picking
the one that best feels right to you and
starting with that for me it’s You Tube
I love you too bye love video I’m a
visual learner I like being on camera I
love watching videos and so it allows me
to excel in a way that I might not excel
in other platforms and so it be figuring
out like being on camera do you like
writing do you like long-form you like
short from do you like graphic design
and making pictures and whatever you
enjoy the most pick the social media
platform that best fits your passions
and you’ll have a lot more success and
that’s that’s the place to start and
then you can branch out to the other the
other categories on top of that i would
i would prove to yourself to make it
work a lot of people go hardcore and
they say hey you got to get on youtube
when so they’ll go crazy for a month and
they’ll post 10 videos they all didn’t
get any results and so they quit and
where i would rather you start slowly
get the account keep the name to
yourself that nobody can squat on it
just listen use your ears to start you
know people are tagging you then at
least respond because those are
potential champions for you people give
me negative feedback that’s learnings
for you to put back into your company
and then slowly start posting content
and every step along the way you’ve
proven to yourself that this is a
worthwhile time investment his time is
your most valuable asset right sage
might be freeing up some of that time
because of their software you know now
you gotta make sure you’re using it
wisely and you can easily waste days
just you’re on social media so you want
to make sure that every step along the
way you’ve proven you
stop that that’s working and adding
value to you is one a couple of things
that you it’s amazing now I think
there’s only seven chief executives
likely will disperse 100 companies which
is the large scope is new UK qureshi on
social media things angry I guarantee in
five years time will be eighty percent
it’s just you know a lot of people are
behind the curve everybody I think with
what I leapfrog and get to the future
and they should be doing that now the
other thing I’d say is to your point is
really important i think these areas on
digital option sometimes be pretty scary
but you know reality is outside do it
yourself some small exactly you said I’m
youtube and and build your social
presence and then you get a kind of
momentum and you build a community and
you get kind of rolling thunder um the
other thing I’d say is if you really
kind of feel exposed you have to get off
to a digital marketing agency um then I
go to a boutique one a small one a small
business and what I always did when I
start the business with try and cut
deals with them well i didn’t pay on
cash because cash is king and i do you
know i’ll give them a call center
company you know so they really have to
believe I’m give them a tiny little bit
of steaks and we’ll do this for free and
we’ll pay or pay more results run
campaigns pair of results so yeah if we
get the lead generation the qualified
leads and kind of will pay you a
percentage of that so there’s kind of
real skin in the game from their point
of view and also you’ve got to get these
things you’ve got to get their Rockstar
there’s a lot of people in digital
market is such a hot area but there’s a
very few rock star so I’ll go go ask the
lobsters when you find them hang on sir
and give another tunnel over the
wreckage or make them really focused on
your business success which is terrible
that’s an ass some point and it’s funny
because again like most people wouldn’t
expect they who that kind of advice from
somebody who has over 10,000 employees
and you know huge company um I love it
like the bootstrapping nature and one
last thing I would add to the social
media site is make sure just like you’re
picking products and
services that you’re passionate about
make sure that you are posting stuff on
social that you’re passionate about so
not just discount and coupon codes and
promotions but what is the positive
change you’re trying to make in the
world and spread that message through
social that’s what’s going to get you in
audience and so it’s going to get people
to care about you a lot of the CEOs
aren’t on Twitter and I think when a lot
of them do you’re going to fail because
they don’t have an ability to relate to
the the end user the customer the the
general public Steven you can feel his
passion and energy and creativity and
his love for entrepreneurs so if he will
excel where a lot of the CEOs that I
find aren’t I mean they’re great
managers but they don’t have a passion
that can be tied into their messages so
yeah I think they’re going to get on but
I don’t think they’re going to do a good
job and I think a lot of entrepreneurs
get on and they don’t do a good job
either because they don’t tap into their
passion what they stand for what they
want to do in the world and put that out
is that’s what’s going to attract people
to you Patrick is asking about the
Richard Branson way what do we think
about the Richard Branson awayfind the
market that’s being poorly served right
now in enter it was with a pain that was
where the airline industry is almost
acted like a monopoly no group friends
like Canada Erika and United those guys
me too easy too long and then people
like Brandon came along and said I kind
of think we want to give an amazing
experience to our passengers loadable
waste food service and reliability and
he said similar things on music
obviously stun become the mobility
around virgin mobile all these sort of
things so that the other thing that you
kind of can’t forget about Richard
Branson is he is the brand of the
company he’s a rock star and he has
built a culture around loving customers
and you know the training around
customer customer customers
then I’ll give you an example I was very
lucky well probably have 15 years ago to
go to one of Richard Branson’s private
parties these farm up near Oxford in the
UK and you wouldn’t believe that all
these employees there once here massive
sulphide it reminds me when I started my
business back again in California we had
summer body for our employees in my yard
the Richard Branson is a rock stars and
international legend everybody’s getting
off buses there must have been 50 bus
loads of people from NATO with boys
custom all these people and he was there
to personally shake everybody’s that you
know wow you know and meet the kids and
me because that’s that’s what it because
i think the end of day as entrepreneurs
is very personal you got a purpose you
got center puts you follow any passion
and you never want to get reason you
started the business love you had from
day one i even when you’ve been there in
20 30 40 years because still going to
that fashion my energy and i’ll say
branson not only has been a disrupter
and really gotta challenge cover
monopoly guys the complacent cards which
we all thought and he’s a winner he’s
done in the right way and build an
amazing culture I’m really connecting
these people with a local customers it’s
absolutely was yeah and I think remember
to when Branson started he was doing
things that he loved to you might look
at branson saying now who’s involved in
hundreds of industries and hundreds of
businesses when he was starting like the
behavior to model isn’t just look for an
opportunity and jump into it you have to
have that passion to want to do it to
the industries that he tackled on
himself when he was starting work and
she said he cared about that he wanted
to make a difference in and that’s why
he had so much success in it and
Barney’s money from his family his
daughter and I was also founded I know
you I know you not to follow along the
chat but there’s tons of great comments
him saying thank you so much great
advice people weren’t expecting this
from someone who works in a corporate
environment so
you got some compliments there um more
questions I know we’re kind of running
short of the time but someone is asking
what do i do about someone who’s copying
my every move and innovation yes I guess
you talked about competitor now one
thing I kind of you know if I if I if I
just live a moment in dreams you know
won’t say things like we want to be
loved our customers loved by our
colleagues our employees but one thing I
would always say is we want to be
mimicked and cottage and absolutely bar
competitors because i think that’s
that’s the biggest credit you build a
business you build a serviceable product
and when you see competitors trying to
copy you it means you doing though i
think so i would say again kind of you
know if you’ve got chronic business with
intellectual property you can do stuff
like pattern so you can build some
barriers to entry build value made those
elements of invention very precious and
also protect them I don’t encourage you
to do that but but also just as a
culture because if you have the
innovator out there everybody’s going to
follow you and I think that’s that’s the
company everybody wants to work for they
don’t want to work for the guys and copy
you they want to work and get absolutely
the front of the train so i would say
again it’s kind of not a negative is a
positive and what it should spur you on
is to never be complacent never rest on
your laurels invent the next thing so
they’re always kind of in your every
error I love it I completely agree I
think I thing can go one of two ways the
one way is to fight it you know sue them
you know get your lawyers write them
letters taking the cord all of that
stuff and the other way is just keep
doing what you’re great at and building
new innovations and new products and new
services and stay ahead of the curve and
I’m much I’m much more the positive guy
right i love the positive approach
people copy me people rip off my videos
people take things that I’ve said and
they put their name on it constantly
it’s flattery and I just honest
just ignore it because my strengths are
going to be more in continue to produce
and integrate amazing stuff instead of
trying to fight them and take that down
and don’t do that and it’s just negative
energy i don’t know maybe that’s me
personally I know there’s definitely a
place for lawyers and lawsuits and all
that stuff but I just tend to focus on
the positive i just say mine is flattery
keep going build something amazing come
with the next innovation go faster maybe
time for one more kiss an old clock
people are talking about mindset and
parents and uh being influences and
wondering who are your influences that
help you develop your positive mindset
um I think there’s a lot of people of
work with her through this very lucky
luckiest girl I’m a one star there’s a
lot of people over he is this guy was
back in the 80s with a company called
Oracle there’s amazing leader there
could relay there’s an amazing guy who’s
now sells for steep garnet it’s just
there’s loads of people because again
this is about I think authenticity
integrity folliat dreams and people will
gravitate towards your optimism so
you’ll get people who come and put your
arm around you so you can do that and
this loss and they said there there’s
lots of people who will say are now kind
of bring through that and go with the
positivity of the people who in kind of
your mentors and and you can be very
honest with them and again share your
vulnerabilities or what you worried
about how to do things differently what
might not work on and al to me how you
can course-correct things both in terms
of products services and sometimes you
know your own behavior and leadership
and all those sort of personal elements
as well so I would say I’m something
we’ve done it’s a gesture is kind of
formalized somebody called a mentoring
program the small and medium businesses
so one of my executives actually go out
there with our customers and help them
on their growth plans their business
plans have a go international all these
sort of things that are kind of the
typical issues yeah and we’re going to
grow
business because I mean you’ve gotta
gravitate towards people who feel that
sense of responsibility and it’s amazing
who you get advice from honestly so you
can read books as well you can do all
the good great books and all the
mentoring books how to start a business
but I’m a kind of believer in like
heaven is small businesses we’re in the
University of life and we’re learning on
the streets of how to build great
companies and special companies and
follow our dreams and follow that sense
of purpose and you will find there’ll be
loads of people I’m sure Evan would say
this who will give you in valuable
advice and and I think wall of the
school great sense of humility and
getting nuggets of advice from people
about great experience is is how is
magic I love it I think for me people
had the biggest impact on my mind said
have been my parents live in didn’t know
much about entrepreneurship I when I was
growing up I thought I want to be a
banker my high school yearbook
graduating it says where do you want to
be in taking I said VP at a bank and so
I didn’t get a lot of entrepreneurialism
from them but it was more just believe
in myself right believe there that comes
from my parents i remember when i was in
school and doing poorly in grades I mean
like have ceased that’s poor and my
family my sister’s always got straight
A’s I’d have to sit down with them every
uh every time report card came in and
they wanted to talk about I knew it was
in trouble and they always told me that
I was a cost really Carmichael on that I
could do it and so my mom’s last name is
cuz truly and they always just instill
that belief in me to trust in myself and
you know by the end of high school I was
straight 90s and and kind of turned
everything around but um yeah I really
credit them for instilling that self
confidence and belief in myself and I’ve
gotten a lot of advice and business
ideas from from different people along
my route but that mindset i think really
came from them I know we’re bumping up
against a clock a bunch of people right
in to say hey how can i find you on
social you guys know how to find me
steven is is
kelly CEO uh I will elite i’ll link it
in the description if you guys want to
follow stephen as well and we are gonna
do this again right we’re going to
stevens coming to toronto on tuesday
drawn about the labor day yeah he’s
coming on tuesday and we’re going to do
this live together and so I know there’s
a lot of people that we weren’t able to
answer the questions from I apologize to
kind of go through and quickly but a lot
of you guys were interested so we’ll do
a follow-up session on Tuesday to answer
all your questions and appreciate guys
tuning in Steven did you have any any
final things to say about finding you or
sage words of advice um you guys you put
my on twitter handle on there and we’re
very fruitful pretty informal obviously
we are totally committed as as your
champion small immediate business we
love seeing people like ever as another
of your champions out that your guardian
angel and we’ve got to build this
community where people really appreciate
the family almost very special about
small and medium business why you guys
and together the true here is the
economy the risk takers the guys who go
the extra mile the guys who come in the
office crazy times in the morning to
leave late at night the guy sometimes
hope you do not chew off to his family
birthdays and stuff like that because
you love your customers on entering so
we’re all there mooncalf you and you
know see ya we will have another one of
these so let’s keep the conversation
going I love it well thank you guys so
much for watching Stephen thank you so
much for joining me and I will see you
all on Tuesday great job thanks Alan
thanks
another YouTube hang out I’m super
excited today to be talking to you about
how to come up with that big idea to
launch your business and I’m also really
excited to have a special guest with me
today Steven Kelley is the CEO of sage
and they have the accounting software
company and they’ve got you know over
10,000 employees and you may know them
and use them in your business why i love
steven is this guy and welcome to
another yo kinda amazing super expose
Etta Stephen Stephen cares about
entrepreneurs this guy actually cares
about entrepreneurs where I’ve met with
a ton of CEOs who sell the entrepreneurs
and it just kind of pay lip service
because if our customers but this guy
actually has a passion to help small
business owners out and I wanted to have
them on today for this hangout so Steven
welcome aboard great to be here Evan
you’re right I’ve got a passion around
small and medium businesses these guys
on knows you and I know you guys out
there the risk takers you that the
heroes of your kind so we love you love
it now we have a lot of people already
asking questions we’re talking about how
to get started how to cope with that big
idea so I’m curious if you have any
general advice off the top what do you
recommend in terms of coming up with
that big idea for your new business yeah
I think um it’s kind of like the essence
of life is you know follow your dreams
do you love so if you’re passionate
about cycling and your passion about
service you know what I ran a small
business myself and I was absolutely
loved fixing really complicated problems
around customer service so I work for a
start-up out of California back in 97
and that’s what we did and we try to
transform the way banks who had a really
messy customer service dealt with their
consumers like you and me ah and and you
know it was a pretty kind of scary ride
a roller coaster of worried about
payroll every month but at the end the
day everybody in that company was
passionate about one thing about kind of
really fixing the problem so whatever
your passion is it’s almost like what
what advice he gives your kids in terms
of what
a college study doing in love do your
passion about because then you’ll be an
expert in that area and you will be able
to recruit a volunteer army of kind of
reboot fans its customers so I think
that’s kind of lesson number one and you
got to think about it evidence work you
if you start a business and I don’t say
you want to want to live your dreams
which most people want to do it’s much
better to feel really excited about the
product is selling all this service they
deliver to really believe in it to be
the expert for their customers yeah I
couldn’t agree with you more and I think
too many people start a business just
because they’re trying to make money you
know they look at here the top ten new
business ideas for you from The Wall
Street Journal at the top 10 hottest
industries to get into so I’m going to
go jump in and do that where you don’t
actually have a love for that industry
of that product and and you’re never
going to make it so the key like every
success I’ve had is because I have built
something that was for me that was
selfish that I love and then I share
that with the world I think that’s
definitely right approaches start with
start with something your passion what
you get to get too excited because as
soon as it gets hard and it’s going to
get hard it’s that passion is going to
keep it going get you through it yeah
the other thing I you know I think
you’re lucky if you can find something
you love and then also find existing
service providers or product creators
who just drive you crazy so if you get
frustrated about a service a web service
product and you think wow there’s gotta
be a better way then that’s you’re
probably on to some here and there’s so
many great companies been created out of
frustration where the existing guys by
the god honestly complacent or they’ve
just kind of forgot their customers and
they forgot it at seven and its crew a
huge opportunity particularly you know
the world of the digital economy where
you know entrepreneurs can start
businesses so um something you remember
kind of like brandy temple who’s a
business started out frustration on at
home wanna how great clothes want to
have everything intuitive
terms of clothes for kids and stuff like
that so witness gaps in the marketplace
when you see huge frustration as a
consumer or business to business user
that’s also probably a catalyst saying
there’s a business idea here we’re
absolutely is part of a dream something
I’m passionate about and these guys
aren’t doing a good job and I could go a
lot better I love it I love it the
advice is awesome so how this is going
to work guys usual YouTube hang out with
me there’s a there’s a chat section
you’re on the right where if you want to
leave your questions for me and Stephen
we’re going to try to get through all of
them and also feel free to joining the
chart in support each other i know a lot
of the best ideas also come from you
guys helping each other out so the first
question comes in is jason who wrote in
the say he has a fear of failure how do
i get over my fear of failure what do
you think Stephen you know that some guy
I look at myself Tommy every week I I
probably fair that something I think
it’s a really good point I think as
human beings the way we kind of
indoctrinated by the education system is
all about passing exams and perfection
and that’s not real life that’s not
business business is all about making a
lot of mistakes and one one man trying
to use internally ear it’s ages fell
fast learn quickly and also I kind of
think because of the fear of failure
people spend way too much time building
fancy business plans that never see the
light of day or over-engineering crazy
strategies and fancy diagrams and stuff
as if they’re you know GE or someone
like that you’re much better test drive
and getting into execution fading fast
course correction find out and again you
know the world you’ve really kind of
captured this ever around social media
you can find out in nanoseconds customer
reaction and therefore you can involve
your product strategy in minutes um so I
kind of think the whole essence of great
business is great star knots of people
who fail fast and I’ve got passion
around learning improve
I love it I would add that I think think
people see failure as this big huge
negative thing you should avoid where
it’s it’s just part of the process if
you try to do something and avoid any
kind of failure than your plane it’s so
safe that that you’re never going to
accomplish your goal and so failure is
not the enemy it’s just making sure you
don’t fail huge right you’re going to
fail a lot along your weight think about
anything that you learned right you you
wrote a bike you fell down you learn to
ski you fell down you learn French you
made mistakes like failure is just part
of the process you can’t avoid it it’s
just understanding that you’re using
that that leverage that you’ve learned
to then make your product your service
your business better and so just bail
fast feel smarter feel smaller so that
you can get to where you want to go and
so don’t fear failure because it’s going
to happen and I think just understanding
that might relieve some of the pressure
like you don’t have to be perfect as
perfect doesn’t exist and fairly what
happened along the way to you achieving
your goal yeah yeah everything is test
drive often you know test drive you talk
about riding the bike ride in your car
getting your license you have to test
drive yeah in business you have to
absolutely and then probably every month
every year you need to be reinvented
itself hopefully the world we live in
particular social medias about tweaks
today from customers then guys you could
do a better job that is the best
feedback like a nap every day I live and
die by taking feedback and change in the
course in terms of the service
composition all the products or whatever
it is we’re out there doing so I think
kind of directly geopoint evidence is
something which would probably train
through the kind of education systems a
negative I see is a really massive
positive I love it um next one is am I
and/or my big idea good enough whoo am I
good enough what do you think little
relief I’d say a bit of advice I got you
know again I started I grow up if I had
two small businesses and the great thing
about small business with three fighters
were offering where are they were
customer time
and and everything you should focus is
actually doing good enough and learning
and improving I would advocate number
one don’t try and come up back to your
first point really Evan with the Holy
Grail don’t worry about perfection
actually get a business off the ground
engage your customers get a flight out
I’ll get the service proposition out and
then learn fast improved so I kind of
think if you think it’s good enough
you’re passionate about it you love what
you’re doing and you think there’s a gap
in the mob go and find out test drive it
with friends could be are you know
trommel customers and then you’ll find
out really quickly whether it’s good
enough you know the rubber hits the very
what customers tell you that you’ve got
the best product in the world and you
know view actually the early customers
again when I kind of started this
business in California we said the first
20 customers they’ve got to be raving
fans they got to be evangelist they got
a you know when you cut into the DNA of
them they gotta believe in us because
we’re there for them built rusticana
because you know with all these things
again with social media those 20 guys
from to come thousands of guys and and
no it goes viral so I wouldn’t worry too
much about analyzing again is it good
enough I’d get into the execution phase
and start test on and again one of the
phrase on use around here is a class
strategy of in class execution is always
inferior to be fast for a DNA class
execution get out and find out what work
to improve it yeah i love it i wanna i
love that I love that a Class B Class
thing is cool I’m I might take that from
you mindset is super important here uh
you have to believe you know right
believe you got to believe that your
idea is good enough and every major
breakthrough that I’ve had in my
business career has been because I’ve
shattered a limiting belief that I had
in my first business was a it was a
biotech software company I was 19 years
old I was selling to scientists
researchers who were three times my age
had PhDs all these degrees and the story
I told myself was I’m too young to do
this I’m they’re never going to take me
seriously and as long as I believe
as long as I was a story I told myself
then it was a self-fulfilling prophecy
that actually happened and then the
shift came when I realized that hey I
can actually provide value to these
people right they don’t care about my
background and my credentials as long as
I can actually help them accomplish
something important in what they’re
doing and like we’d all have our own
limiting beliefs we tell ourselves we’re
too young we’re too old we don’t have
the right parents we don’t have the
educational background I don’t have
enough money I don’t have you know
whatever excuse you come up with as long
as you believe that story then it’s
going to come true and again once you
realize that that’s just a story you’re
telling yourself and you accept
responsibility for your life and not
blame the conditions then you can see if
they break through in your business yeah
group oh cool next up help her desk I
thought if we need to start a channel
about a new passion and update your
progress as you improve for example I
love surfing yet I’ve never been would
watch me learn to surf be a good idea
yeah um I kind of think again anything
you know I am a massive fan a couple of
things one is busy Lawson success looks
like and actually is a great way to
overcome your sort of self believes and
limitations because if you visualize
yourself being successful you know
actually changes what’s in your head and
you believe all um the other thing that
kind of pretty significant here is I
think there’s a lot of things now of the
world we live in a global village and
everything’s available to everybody and
it’s just unimaginable the Internet’s
changed online so so the things like
kind of surfing stuff like that and cool
incredible sports around there so I
think again if there’s a passion there’s
an idea I’d encourage everybody to be
disruptor to innovate innovate innovate
and create something that’s kind of very
different in general different
experience so you go for it you’ll find
out quickly if you launch a business
like that whether there’s a lot of
interest of arms and what is the right
time yeah I mean to add to that I would
say as a general principle in business
if you provide value to people you will
make money
right you provide more value make more
money provide value quickly you’ll make
money quickly it’s about providing value
to somebody else and so you know if you
don’t know how to surf then your value
won’t be in providing expert surf tips
right because you’re not the surfer yet
but I love the idea of taking people
along the journey with you because your
approach it from a beginner’s mind and
they will learn as you learn and for
anybody who’s starting a new project I’m
a huge believer in in Craig on youtube
channel or in allowing people to follow
you and what you’re doing on Twitter or
Facebook and keep updating them and as
you make mistakes and as you learn you
create content about that I’m writing my
first book with with penguin Random
House I’ve never written a book before
and every week I make a video on my
youtube channel about my book writing
process frustrations I have winds that
I’m having I answer your questions and
I’m bringing you along the journey with
me to help you understand that book
writing process I can’t make a book
about uh sir I can’t make a video go
here’s the 10 things you need to do to
write a best-seller book because I
haven’t done it yet but I can make those
videos about my journey and so I think I
think that’s the value that you can add
as a kind of side twist to this a little
curveball I’d add is I think making it
public and also keep you on track with
your business I think if you are
starting up any new thing it could be it
can be exciting but also frustrating
then lonely and you may go out and you
start surfing and you fall and you fail
and the guy that’s it I’m done I’m never
going to be good at this but if you now
have a community of people supporting
you and cheering you on and you’re
committed to them you’re much more
likely to follow through just like when
you tell your friend hit come to the gym
with me you’re going to go to take that
Jim appointment and so I think that the
side benefit could be it gives you a lot
more motivation as well to actually
execute against your plan in the Lotus
of your interview maestressa but
everybody’s posting stuff on Facebook
Instagram and it sort of piece of vision
of the world that’s perfect everyone is
a celebrity go to vegas the weekend
spring break everybody’s having fun all
the time and kind of that’s not real so
what you bring out
people genuine real life kind of all
abilities so if you’re out there and
learning to surf you build a community
and you share your kind of hold
abilities that’s very engaging and kind
of brings people with you and you know
all the kind of face book heroes out
there kind of out there’s kind of brands
now a lot of it’s based on just
connected with real life people with
real life situations physics foreign
people’s vulnerabilities you write your
books that’s tough my everyday is a
perfect day not every day comes out with
the best chapter so I kind of think
there’s you’re onto something there by
disconnecting with people’s real life
emotions but when there’s a Steven
Kelley book coming out we’re gonna do
one together deal I haven’t finished my
first one though man it’s killing me oh
okay I mix up tons of questions Jameel I
love your speaking style maybe it’s the
accent I don’t know if he’s talking to
you or me but we got Canada and UK in
the house uh how do I find the first few
investors and keep them happy in my
business yeah on this great question and
you know one of these when I was in the
start this is all kind of wind down side
of your own pc money and all that sort
of stuff um I think what I would advise
generally if you got a great business
idea you read it but even it’d probably
start if you can do we did research
assemblage set of our customers actually
use your own life savings or people get
their homes to fund their businesses I
would be advocating if you can do go
friends and family first ah and then you
keep control and and you kind of you
know again you can waste a lot of time
go to banks go to finance houses go to
VCS when you should be building your
businesses a lot of your customers
following to drink so I kind of put more
emphasis that but it’s time to go is
when you’ve got something that you think
real tangible and they’ll call it a kind
of proven business model but ultimately
then you kind of have peer nails and
cash flow projections and all that sort
of stuff underneath it but the longer
you can defer that I would be
the big advocate and the only way that
our argue against myself is if you come
across something where you have got the
next Facebook and it’s going to be so
massive and so big and you’ve got to
invest at scale we’ve gotta go global
because you know you’re just going to
miss that with your opportunity and then
it might make sense to go I’m gonna good
fruit and you know there’s a lot of
people I Devon you know tons of people
in Canada Toronto you can actually fund
businesses in the UK in the u.s. angel
investors probably are advocating the
best route because again they’re not in
vases they won’t interfere and they’ll
give you capital based on business plan
and trust and it allows you to get on
and really kind of fun the next day to
do business yeah I mean just to
piggyback on that I think I hate
spending money till I’m making money
just as a general rule I think anybody
can spend money if I give you a million
dollars you can find a million different
ways to spend it not everybody can make
money and so that’s the discipline you
need to learn and when you are out
getting investors the hardest i used to
be a VC I was raising half a million 15
million dollars for companies the
hardest money to raise is the startup
capital because it’s the riskiest time
and they’ll take the biggest chunk of
your business right they could take
three percent of your business for a
small amount of money because there’s a
high risk where if you can show them
that you can deliver a result then you
can get some revenue that somebody’s
willing to actually pay you for this the
easiest kind of money to raise his
expansion capital mean I’ve already
selling I have some sales come in it now
I need to grow that’s easy money to
raise you’ll get a much better valuation
and raising capital can’t be a full-time
business for you and like Stephen said
that takes your eye off the ball of
actually running your business and so if
i were you i would try as much as
possible to focus on the execution find
little ways to get started invest my
hustle my time my energy not dollars and
especially not other people’s dollars
until I got to the point where I had a
product that was out that was making
some money i mean i’ll be profitable yet
but i’m making money I have a path to
profitability because that really
reduces the risk and you’ll get a much
better the
from investors nature ah cool next
crystal hello mr. caracal mr. Kelly so
formal so far now mr. Kelly and mr.
carmack look at us that that’s like a
talk show or something I was 17 year old
student I’m turning 18 September I asked
my mom for capital so I can invest in a
network marketing company is that a bad
idea I kind of think um we probably need
to say did the mum say yes or no but
it’s kind of she believes in network
marketing and she thinks as a business
opportunity how could like in 30 days we
test drive that and do some untried
development or test drive it in terms of
kind of research even if it’s kind of
friends and family and then go to the
mall and say you know am I trying to get
this started and get it on the road and
then kind of what you said is work with
all these things I kind of didn’t say
this but one of the worst things you can
do is raise money for bc’s because I see
so many companies get there and it’s
almost like companies do an initial
public offering IPO and they think it’s
the end of the journey I tell you guys
that’s the start of the journey and um
you’ve gotta keep this is really
important culturally culture is
everything about stars and you’ve got to
have that culture that you treat the
company’s money as if it’s your own cuz
it is so you’ve gotta be mean on
expenses you’ve got to be fair but mean
but ultimately on this question I’d say
if your mom kind of backs the idea she
believes in you and you’re passionate
about it seventy or your whole life page
you can got to go for it and and it
might take two or three reps now the
guys are you know profitable everybody
knows about wd-40 ah what was it the
guys back in what 1953 kicked off a
project they they fail 40 times before
they actually invented some sort of
substance that separated water for jet
engines and rockets 40 failures and now
they’ve got a kind of global leader
prime so with these sort of things is 17
year old you got 70 great years ahead
here where you can be working 80 hours a
week
all your dreams building great
businesses go for it yeah i mean i agree
i love seeing the young entrepreneurs i
love the people are looking at starting
the business as their career path
instead of starting work at a big
company and then uh you know it makes it
harder to then jump off and start doing
business later uh you know to my last
point I hate I hate raising money till
I’m making money honestly I would find a
way to hustle to make that money myself
to then invest in my business I don’t
know how much money you need you need a
thousand dollars $5,000 $10,000 I would
hustle my way to make that money somehow
and put it into then launching the
business and bet on myself um that’s
maybe that’s just me I hate taking money
till I’m making money and the other
thing that i would add there is why are
you picking network marketing um I’ve
made a couple videos on this and it’s a
little bit of a touchy subject but I
feel a lot of people getting to know
what marketing for the wrong reasons
they’re promised huge income
opportunities and they think they can
make you rich overnight and that just
doesn’t happen the way to have success
is if you’re actually using a product
you love it it’s something that you
would recommend to your mom to you say
mom is a fantastic product if you can’t
do that then you should not be selling
that product is you’re not going to have
success with it and so I really
encourage you to examine the business
that you’re getting into are you a
passionate a user and can you be a
passionate advocate for it because if
you can’t be then I would I love the
idea of starting a business I would
challenge you to think about what
business you want to start it’s gotta be
something your passion back to like the
very top of the show where we’re talking
about finding that business around your
passion next Dominic Dominic is a
question about explaining why customers
should take action so he says I see that
you have been talking to me do not spend
a lot of time to your audience why they
should start a business is that the
right thing to do hmm educational how
much education you guys do see you in at
sage um we never good enough but I’d say
if the question is should a sub
just to what you said I think the
freedom it gives you I think the
learning you get by starting the
business making a ton of mistakes
falling flat on your face dust yourself
off and you know constantly innovating
your products and services is the
University of life it’s the best place
to learn I think you know when I look at
the US economy about 12 million jobs
created down in the u.s. in the last
five years sixty-six percent have been
created by small and medium businesses
the value that small immediate business
in Canada us over Europe greatly
economies and prosperity way off the
scale and the truth is the voice they
have in terms of governments of people
is tiny but it’s really guys who give up
their lines a lot of human sacrifice a
lot of hours worked a life savings got
into it but the rewards are huge because
you built something yourself that’s very
special you’re doing what you love
you’re doing what you’re passionate
about and I just think it’s for a career
point of view it’s probably most
fulfilling thing you can do so I’ll be a
huge supporter like Evan said on the
last question we love the young kids
coming out of like a college or at
straight out of school and starting
their businesses because you guys the
future yeah it’s interesting so I don’t
talk a lot about uh why you should start
a business I think it’s just
understanding who your audiences I am
not trying to convert people to be
entrepreneurs that’s not my audience my
arms are the people who already are
entrepreneurs or want to be
entrepreneurs and need advice to get
better so that’s where my content is
geared towards right we haven’t talked
about in this video why you should start
a business versus working at a company
so I think it’s just understanding
education is definitely important and my
channel there’s a lot of education on
and that’s why we’re doing this video
series even today to help answer your
questions and teach you guys but it’s
understanding who your target audiences
and what hurdles they have so I don’t
consider the guys for working at big
companies to who are happy with their
jobs to be my audience
from my role to be the convince them to
leave so that’s why I don’t talk too
much about it um so just understanding
your audience and making content and
making products and services that are
here best towards them yeah it is
obvious but thump happens totally
counterintuitive though some of the best
businesses have been created when is the
big economic downturn I’m back to two
thousand nine because and it’s kind of
logical when you thought it through a
lot of you know the reduction forces
when country companies laid off a lot of
people and gave them pay off some of
those people use their payoffs to go and
start a business follow their dreams so
that was a really kind of top edge of
new business size many of those people
who felt they’re trapped in a big
company within 20 years and almost
ironically got massive release when they
were laid off and that’s unleash their
passions and that’s all in a dream but I
think again I think now there’s so much
evidence across the world where startups
business is absolutely kind of a very
accepted way of going about your career
and and should be valued much more wider
community honestly especially when you
look at you can around in Canada rural
communities if it wasn’t for the smaller
medium businesses then we ditched you
know kind of once you get a big pharma
succeeds the guys that cradle the
prosperity de Prentice jobs this is
more media businesses respect I told you
who is passionate entrepreneurs I love a
man sues meet oh I’m deeply passionate
about Latin dancing salsa and bachata
but I don’t know how to turn this
passion into a lucrative business
without entering an already overcrowded
market of dane schools I’ll tell you
that’s a great question so I think the
reality is that’s a really hot area so
you got to think about what is it you
want was different from what’s being
provided uh
when I look at you know this great
compass now huge companies startup
company there was a market technology
called CRM there was a company called
Siebel it was a very saturated market
place and this guy Marc Benioff a
garbage huge admiration for stud that
come people salesforce com and you would
have argued at that time that is a
totally crazy idea because it’s a
saturated market place and he basically
completely reimagined the space so what
it means again back to landing dancing
is there a way you could provide
learning dancing that’s different that
really meets the needs wherever you are
the town you’re in or are there other
things that you can build in terms of
value that people really won because
again you know again things like
learning darn and salsa dancing it is a
really hot area there’s no doubt this
demand out um it’s a great way you can
build communities but I think with those
sort of things you’ve gotta build value
and you’ve got to build something it’s a
little bit different and constantly
innovate as well because as soon as you
come out with something that’s really
innovative you can guarantee someone in
that sort of space can catch up really
quickly so you’ve got to be constantly
offering more innovation and one of
their kind of dance class or
collaborations with local restaurants or
stuff like that which is a kind of bit
different this question his kind of
close to home because I’m a salsa dancer
and I’m a investor in I think North
America’s largest maybe the world’s
largest salsa dancing school trained
five six thousand people a year how to
dance salsa so i can i can speak with
some Authority on this one at least the
first thing that comes to mind is
understanding why people come to dance
classes people are not coming to dance
classes to be the greatest salsa dancer
bachata dancer right your competition is
not the other dance schools it’s rock
climbing it’s going out for the movies
right your competition is the
entertainment dollar and so why we’re
successful where most of the companies
aren’t is that we focus on letting them
have fun it so it’s not about making it
the perfect technique
people don’t come into most of our
classes trying to become again a
performer the greatest dance in the
world they just want to have fun and so
understanding that that’s what your
audience is looking for adjust your
mindset to be able to create a product
that they could use those a simple
example speaking like directly to you we
start with merengue merengue is a much
easier dance to learned in salsa sauce
as eat beets is the harder to pick up it
can be frustrating at the start merengue
is two beats you don’t have to worry
about your feet all you’re doing is arms
and so it’s a lot easier to pick up and
so it’s the cane people come to that
first class or having fun it builds them
up it gives them confidence then keep
going and so I find a lot of the people
in the salsa community or so focused on
the technique and they’re all competing
for the more advanced students where you
can focus on the having fun part then it
opens up a much wider audience for you I
am just a crazy nails down and into the
last week in Tuscany and that’s your boy
gelato ice cream in this town in Tuscany
tons of gelato one chill artist all had
choose lines down the road because the
guys service guys and girls was singing
singing Italian songs crazy let’s loving
people were actually gathering crowd
roaring and that place was yet one of
probably 20 ice cream stores in the town
but it was rocket it was rocking this
people what having fun people wanted to
do it is something I love it um yeah
awesome example next up see sorry sent
city we’re a new business using sage pay
for our e-commerce website we think that
payers you use feature is vital for
small business what new things do you
have in store to support small
businesses so that that’s all you Steven
what’s in store to support small
businesses there’s a lot of stuff on
safe and the other thing my email
address is Stephen Kelly at save com so
any kind of things any of our customers
have you know we are totally accountable
to you through service will lead and you
can reach out of me if any time we drop
it off as any kind of company does
though the aspiration is that you guys
to like it and have you kind of as great
that so that’s really important to us vs
essence elicited loads of great
properties is coming out on the safety
pay site the other thing is kind of
really interesting is we find a lot of
small and medium businesses all I kind
of actually have totally integrated
management of their money a cash
invoicing cash collection plans plans
all these sort of things management
expenses and income so we’re seeing a
lot of interest in the marketplace where
you got kind of safe pay on the payroll
looking after employees say two payments
which is managing cash in and out and
also the kind of Korra County and
obviously there what when I going to see
customers who have got they’ve got a
website safe fashion they take on
transactions over the web with people’s
credit cards and it automatically does
all to stop reordering it automatically
updates all the ledges you know it’s
totally what we call kind of freshness
accounting where it’s fully automated
because again what we don’t want to do I
get one in five small businesses work
more than send the out of me what we
want to do for you guys is give your
time back spend with your families or
grey business is faster and and just do
a lot of less of manual car note or data
resubmitting or taking the shoebox of
invoices to your accountant that is kind
of so 1990s the world of today is all
about automation running the business
from your palm of a hand from your
smartphone having your business in your
pocket and you know 24 by 7 so you can
look at cash please you look at invoice
cells then you can look if you want on
cash flow everything should be kind of
automated in the Pawnee Annika’s again I
think Evan as consumers in the last 10
years with Samsung’s an iphone we’ve got
used to controlling our own personal
life and we believe the smaller
businesses coming it’s like I should do
exactly the same as companies like Apple
have done for consumers so as to give
you guys control in the pamir hands so
which is facing only specific product
questions you can email me I’ll be in
touch of the right people but kind of
that golden triangle
money around from penny people payroll
payments collecting cash from customers
and she updating all your accounts and
IRS returns and alerts and stuff is the
way to go yeah i mean i’d say in general
to as entrepreneurs you should be
looking at trying to free up your time
to do the things that you’re best at you
know most entrepreneurs you’re doing
everything in your business you’re
you’re the janitor up to the CEO and
you’re not going to be able to create
something great if you only spend in ten
percent of your time focused on the
projects that will make you great and so
you know so what I try to think of what
every day is what is the highest value
that I could bring to my company today
and then the other tasks have to get
done in my business I look to automate
through software like sage I look to
delegate I look to even eliminate if
it’s not relevant anymore and ideally if
you’re managing your time you want to
try to figure out again how can i free
up with the distractions free up the
stuff that I don’t like doing to let me
focus on doing what I love that makes me
come alive that adds insane value to my
business I the follow-up question there
was we turned our passion into something
quite special and looking forward on how
the digital online marketing will unfold
you have any thoughts on this digital
online marketing yeah and I just think
sorry one of the most exciting things
happen I I just think we’re so
privileged to see what’s happening
through the whole kind of web experience
the old did you work on um you know I’m
pretty straight line I am pretty crazy I
like to kind of dream dream big but I
kind of recognize a lot of small
business out there also what a great
lifestyle manage no family I’m fanta and
we encourage all that but the digital
marketing just makes everything so much
easier and back to Evans point is is you
are typically part of a big community
now and it is a paradigm if you’re in
the state of the US 30 years ago you
typically sell night i’m sending product
within a 30-mile radius now you lift
your eyes up and into a global village
and
the web you could be selling countries
within two to three months of just angry
so um the barriers have completely been
smashed and digital marketing you can
really intelligently now I think
segments and all the stuff like SEO
optimization sem we get smaller and
smaller to create a great dish with pros
itself and again you know everything’s
going to be authentic everything is
going to have high integrity so your
digital presence has got to reflect the
company you are the service you deliver
your love for customers but I think um
you know I think definitely I would say
all CEOs out there all man integrates
the businesses I’d say kind of think for
us get social be socially so to be out
there be visible all feedback is good
feedback on Twitter Facebook the sort of
channels out because it’s just an
invaluable way to listen I can’t ten
hours to the marketplace and see what’s
going on and the phpbb and you get is
immense so i think is invaluable in
digital marketing has lifted my eyes to
stuff that blows me away this stuff that
used to play two years can be done in
two weeks now and camp at the old world
of campaigns of Arctic you know has been
so disrupted ah it’s really exciting
times and actually the other thing I’d
say is don’t just kind of think of it as
a silo of digital marketing but think of
it digital integrated marketing selling
services so you’re taking customers for
a whole life cycle firstly kind of hit
your website may be trying to product by
product and then giving great customer
experience afterwards so make it a
journey for the customer where it’s
going to be a customer for life I love
it and for those of you guys watching
Stephen is he eats his own dog food he
is active on social in a way that most
CEOs aren’t you’ll see mostly eels just
post press releases and super boring
stuff where Stephen actually has some
interesting content you know because he
actually cares about entrepreneurs
imagine that so we’re following on
Twitter to answer the question I would
say
it’s never been easier to start a
business and to market it the tools have
never been cheaper right you don’t have
to take out TV commercials and radio
spots a newspaper ads you can get
started on youtube on facebook on
Twitter and start driving some attention
for your company I think I think it can
be overwhelming at the start I think a
lot of times people don’t know what to
do they’re so focused on building their
product or service and trying to create
an amazing experience and offering that
marketing becomes his side things
they’re not sure how to go out and
promote themselves and so everybody has
these accounts but they don’t do
anything valuable with them what I would
honestly recommend you doing is picking
the one that best feels right to you and
starting with that for me it’s You Tube
I love you too bye love video I’m a
visual learner I like being on camera I
love watching videos and so it allows me
to excel in a way that I might not excel
in other platforms and so it be figuring
out like being on camera do you like
writing do you like long-form you like
short from do you like graphic design
and making pictures and whatever you
enjoy the most pick the social media
platform that best fits your passions
and you’ll have a lot more success and
that’s that’s the place to start and
then you can branch out to the other the
other categories on top of that i would
i would prove to yourself to make it
work a lot of people go hardcore and
they say hey you got to get on youtube
when so they’ll go crazy for a month and
they’ll post 10 videos they all didn’t
get any results and so they quit and
where i would rather you start slowly
get the account keep the name to
yourself that nobody can squat on it
just listen use your ears to start you
know people are tagging you then at
least respond because those are
potential champions for you people give
me negative feedback that’s learnings
for you to put back into your company
and then slowly start posting content
and every step along the way you’ve
proven to yourself that this is a
worthwhile time investment his time is
your most valuable asset right sage
might be freeing up some of that time
because of their software you know now
you gotta make sure you’re using it
wisely and you can easily waste days
just you’re on social media so you want
to make sure that every step along the
way you’ve proven you
stop that that’s working and adding
value to you is one a couple of things
that you it’s amazing now I think
there’s only seven chief executives
likely will disperse 100 companies which
is the large scope is new UK qureshi on
social media things angry I guarantee in
five years time will be eighty percent
it’s just you know a lot of people are
behind the curve everybody I think with
what I leapfrog and get to the future
and they should be doing that now the
other thing I’d say is to your point is
really important i think these areas on
digital option sometimes be pretty scary
but you know reality is outside do it
yourself some small exactly you said I’m
youtube and and build your social
presence and then you get a kind of
momentum and you build a community and
you get kind of rolling thunder um the
other thing I’d say is if you really
kind of feel exposed you have to get off
to a digital marketing agency um then I
go to a boutique one a small one a small
business and what I always did when I
start the business with try and cut
deals with them well i didn’t pay on
cash because cash is king and i do you
know i’ll give them a call center
company you know so they really have to
believe I’m give them a tiny little bit
of steaks and we’ll do this for free and
we’ll pay or pay more results run
campaigns pair of results so yeah if we
get the lead generation the qualified
leads and kind of will pay you a
percentage of that so there’s kind of
real skin in the game from their point
of view and also you’ve got to get these
things you’ve got to get their Rockstar
there’s a lot of people in digital
market is such a hot area but there’s a
very few rock star so I’ll go go ask the
lobsters when you find them hang on sir
and give another tunnel over the
wreckage or make them really focused on
your business success which is terrible
that’s an ass some point and it’s funny
because again like most people wouldn’t
expect they who that kind of advice from
somebody who has over 10,000 employees
and you know huge company um I love it
like the bootstrapping nature and one
last thing I would add to the social
media site is make sure just like you’re
picking products and
services that you’re passionate about
make sure that you are posting stuff on
social that you’re passionate about so
not just discount and coupon codes and
promotions but what is the positive
change you’re trying to make in the
world and spread that message through
social that’s what’s going to get you in
audience and so it’s going to get people
to care about you a lot of the CEOs
aren’t on Twitter and I think when a lot
of them do you’re going to fail because
they don’t have an ability to relate to
the the end user the customer the the
general public Steven you can feel his
passion and energy and creativity and
his love for entrepreneurs so if he will
excel where a lot of the CEOs that I
find aren’t I mean they’re great
managers but they don’t have a passion
that can be tied into their messages so
yeah I think they’re going to get on but
I don’t think they’re going to do a good
job and I think a lot of entrepreneurs
get on and they don’t do a good job
either because they don’t tap into their
passion what they stand for what they
want to do in the world and put that out
is that’s what’s going to attract people
to you Patrick is asking about the
Richard Branson way what do we think
about the Richard Branson awayfind the
market that’s being poorly served right
now in enter it was with a pain that was
where the airline industry is almost
acted like a monopoly no group friends
like Canada Erika and United those guys
me too easy too long and then people
like Brandon came along and said I kind
of think we want to give an amazing
experience to our passengers loadable
waste food service and reliability and
he said similar things on music
obviously stun become the mobility
around virgin mobile all these sort of
things so that the other thing that you
kind of can’t forget about Richard
Branson is he is the brand of the
company he’s a rock star and he has
built a culture around loving customers
and you know the training around
customer customer customers
then I’ll give you an example I was very
lucky well probably have 15 years ago to
go to one of Richard Branson’s private
parties these farm up near Oxford in the
UK and you wouldn’t believe that all
these employees there once here massive
sulphide it reminds me when I started my
business back again in California we had
summer body for our employees in my yard
the Richard Branson is a rock stars and
international legend everybody’s getting
off buses there must have been 50 bus
loads of people from NATO with boys
custom all these people and he was there
to personally shake everybody’s that you
know wow you know and meet the kids and
me because that’s that’s what it because
i think the end of day as entrepreneurs
is very personal you got a purpose you
got center puts you follow any passion
and you never want to get reason you
started the business love you had from
day one i even when you’ve been there in
20 30 40 years because still going to
that fashion my energy and i’ll say
branson not only has been a disrupter
and really gotta challenge cover
monopoly guys the complacent cards which
we all thought and he’s a winner he’s
done in the right way and build an
amazing culture I’m really connecting
these people with a local customers it’s
absolutely was yeah and I think remember
to when Branson started he was doing
things that he loved to you might look
at branson saying now who’s involved in
hundreds of industries and hundreds of
businesses when he was starting like the
behavior to model isn’t just look for an
opportunity and jump into it you have to
have that passion to want to do it to
the industries that he tackled on
himself when he was starting work and
she said he cared about that he wanted
to make a difference in and that’s why
he had so much success in it and
Barney’s money from his family his
daughter and I was also founded I know
you I know you not to follow along the
chat but there’s tons of great comments
him saying thank you so much great
advice people weren’t expecting this
from someone who works in a corporate
environment so
you got some compliments there um more
questions I know we’re kind of running
short of the time but someone is asking
what do i do about someone who’s copying
my every move and innovation yes I guess
you talked about competitor now one
thing I kind of you know if I if I if I
just live a moment in dreams you know
won’t say things like we want to be
loved our customers loved by our
colleagues our employees but one thing I
would always say is we want to be
mimicked and cottage and absolutely bar
competitors because i think that’s
that’s the biggest credit you build a
business you build a serviceable product
and when you see competitors trying to
copy you it means you doing though i
think so i would say again kind of you
know if you’ve got chronic business with
intellectual property you can do stuff
like pattern so you can build some
barriers to entry build value made those
elements of invention very precious and
also protect them I don’t encourage you
to do that but but also just as a
culture because if you have the
innovator out there everybody’s going to
follow you and I think that’s that’s the
company everybody wants to work for they
don’t want to work for the guys and copy
you they want to work and get absolutely
the front of the train so i would say
again it’s kind of not a negative is a
positive and what it should spur you on
is to never be complacent never rest on
your laurels invent the next thing so
they’re always kind of in your every
error I love it I completely agree I
think I thing can go one of two ways the
one way is to fight it you know sue them
you know get your lawyers write them
letters taking the cord all of that
stuff and the other way is just keep
doing what you’re great at and building
new innovations and new products and new
services and stay ahead of the curve and
I’m much I’m much more the positive guy
right i love the positive approach
people copy me people rip off my videos
people take things that I’ve said and
they put their name on it constantly
it’s flattery and I just honest
just ignore it because my strengths are
going to be more in continue to produce
and integrate amazing stuff instead of
trying to fight them and take that down
and don’t do that and it’s just negative
energy i don’t know maybe that’s me
personally I know there’s definitely a
place for lawyers and lawsuits and all
that stuff but I just tend to focus on
the positive i just say mine is flattery
keep going build something amazing come
with the next innovation go faster maybe
time for one more kiss an old clock
people are talking about mindset and
parents and uh being influences and
wondering who are your influences that
help you develop your positive mindset
um I think there’s a lot of people of
work with her through this very lucky
luckiest girl I’m a one star there’s a
lot of people over he is this guy was
back in the 80s with a company called
Oracle there’s amazing leader there
could relay there’s an amazing guy who’s
now sells for steep garnet it’s just
there’s loads of people because again
this is about I think authenticity
integrity folliat dreams and people will
gravitate towards your optimism so
you’ll get people who come and put your
arm around you so you can do that and
this loss and they said there there’s
lots of people who will say are now kind
of bring through that and go with the
positivity of the people who in kind of
your mentors and and you can be very
honest with them and again share your
vulnerabilities or what you worried
about how to do things differently what
might not work on and al to me how you
can course-correct things both in terms
of products services and sometimes you
know your own behavior and leadership
and all those sort of personal elements
as well so I would say I’m something
we’ve done it’s a gesture is kind of
formalized somebody called a mentoring
program the small and medium businesses
so one of my executives actually go out
there with our customers and help them
on their growth plans their business
plans have a go international all these
sort of things that are kind of the
typical issues yeah and we’re going to
grow
business because I mean you’ve gotta
gravitate towards people who feel that
sense of responsibility and it’s amazing
who you get advice from honestly so you
can read books as well you can do all
the good great books and all the
mentoring books how to start a business
but I’m a kind of believer in like
heaven is small businesses we’re in the
University of life and we’re learning on
the streets of how to build great
companies and special companies and
follow our dreams and follow that sense
of purpose and you will find there’ll be
loads of people I’m sure Evan would say
this who will give you in valuable
advice and and I think wall of the
school great sense of humility and
getting nuggets of advice from people
about great experience is is how is
magic I love it I think for me people
had the biggest impact on my mind said
have been my parents live in didn’t know
much about entrepreneurship I when I was
growing up I thought I want to be a
banker my high school yearbook
graduating it says where do you want to
be in taking I said VP at a bank and so
I didn’t get a lot of entrepreneurialism
from them but it was more just believe
in myself right believe there that comes
from my parents i remember when i was in
school and doing poorly in grades I mean
like have ceased that’s poor and my
family my sister’s always got straight
A’s I’d have to sit down with them every
uh every time report card came in and
they wanted to talk about I knew it was
in trouble and they always told me that
I was a cost really Carmichael on that I
could do it and so my mom’s last name is
cuz truly and they always just instill
that belief in me to trust in myself and
you know by the end of high school I was
straight 90s and and kind of turned
everything around but um yeah I really
credit them for instilling that self
confidence and belief in myself and I’ve
gotten a lot of advice and business
ideas from from different people along
my route but that mindset i think really
came from them I know we’re bumping up
against a clock a bunch of people right
in to say hey how can i find you on
social you guys know how to find me
steven is is
kelly CEO uh I will elite i’ll link it
in the description if you guys want to
follow stephen as well and we are gonna
do this again right we’re going to
stevens coming to toronto on tuesday
drawn about the labor day yeah he’s
coming on tuesday and we’re going to do
this live together and so I know there’s
a lot of people that we weren’t able to
answer the questions from I apologize to
kind of go through and quickly but a lot
of you guys were interested so we’ll do
a follow-up session on Tuesday to answer
all your questions and appreciate guys
tuning in Steven did you have any any
final things to say about finding you or
sage words of advice um you guys you put
my on twitter handle on there and we’re
very fruitful pretty informal obviously
we are totally committed as as your
champion small immediate business we
love seeing people like ever as another
of your champions out that your guardian
angel and we’ve got to build this
community where people really appreciate
the family almost very special about
small and medium business why you guys
and together the true here is the
economy the risk takers the guys who go
the extra mile the guys who come in the
office crazy times in the morning to
leave late at night the guy sometimes
hope you do not chew off to his family
birthdays and stuff like that because
you love your customers on entering so
we’re all there mooncalf you and you
know see ya we will have another one of
these so let’s keep the conversation
going I love it well thank you guys so
much for watching Stephen thank you so
much for joining me and I will see you
all on Tuesday great job thanks Alan
thanks
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