and we are live welcome everybody to
another YouTube hangout super excited to
be back on with you I love Thursday’s
get to do all these interviews so much
fun I have a repeat guests with me you
may have remembered my special guest
Phoebe when we talked I don’t I want to
say two weeks ago about yeah the brand
journalism advantage I was interviewing
her on my channel and now she wanted to
interview me for her podcast and today
we’re going to talk about how to have
success with YouTube for all you guys
that they’re wanting to have more
success on YouTube so Phoebe welcome
back hey thanks for having me so good to
be here cool so Phoebe’s gonna run this
like her podcast so I’m gonna turn over
the reins to her and she’s gonna go
through her in show and whatever magic
stuff she does you guys can check out
the brand journalism advantage is that
the brand journalism advantage com is
that where people with my yes that’s
right or even easier than typing that is
think like a journalist calm they both
direct they’re so cool pretty easy to
get there and right I’ve got the rain so
let’s go right get me up here we go well
you know this is really cool brand
journalism community because we’re doing
something a little bit different and I
really want to direct you to Evan
Carmichael calm to check out his YouTube
channel and learn about what he’s doing
for entrepreneurs because you guys come
to my show to learn a lot of information
about brand journalism storytelling
entrepreneurship and this goes hand in
hand so so fun I was on Evans show a
little while back at the time of this
recording and now Evans joining us and
we’re doing it as a google hangout so
Evan is really testing me here and
pushing me to move into that space of
video having come from the world of TV I
really need to do more of that so Thank
You Evan for getting me here but welcome
brand journalism community I am Phoebe
Chong chua thanks for tuning in to the
brand journalism advantage podcast here
we go with the inside scoop on today’s
show Evan Carmichael Evan believes in
entrepreneurs at the age of 19 he built
then sold a biotech software company now
at just 22 years old he was a VC helping
five helping to raise 500,000 to 15 min
today he runs Evan Carmichael calm a
popular website which is loaded with
information for entrepreneurs he
breathes and bleeds entrepreneurship he
is obsessed with it and aims to help 1
billion entrepreneurs change the world
welcome to the show Evan how are you
thanks for having me Phoebe I’m pumped
I’m ready to do this yeah me too me too
well we share a word in common as we
were discussing before we got online and
that’s believe I want you to quickly
tell me how that word came about to you
why is it so impactful yeah and so I
believe everybody has one word that
defines them it’s actually the topic of
of my new book I think most people
aren’t aware of what their main core
values are and as a result they kind of
live life not as purposefully as it
could be and so for me I was running a
business I was having some success but I
felt kind of disconnected I felt like I
could be having a greater impact I felt
like I could do more and I think a lot
of people feel that like I’m doing okay
but I feel like there’s more to me I
feel like I’m not reaching my potential
and so I started looking anywhere to
figure out what is it that I’m all about
before getting to what project I’m going
to work on like who is Evan Carmichael
what do I stand for you know what’s the
most important core value to me and it
kept coming back to this word believe
and I ended up doing this crazy thing
and build my entire business around
believe and everything that I touched
that had to do with believe just
instantly started doing well and taking
off and you know we can go further into
all that if you want but I think kind of
understanding your core value what
you’re all about and then bringing that
to your business and your life so
everything is done a lot more on purpose
will make you happier as well as have a
much greater impact on the people around
you well you know brand journalism
community we talk about positivity we
talk about storytelling and belief is
certainly at the core when you want to
launch a brand or a business if you
don’t have that the chances of
succeeding are very very slim I’ve often
referred to my career in TV and the fact
that I was able to get into the San
Diego marketplace at 19 I had to really
believe so great great word what we’re
talking about in this episode brand
journalist
community is building your internet TV
channel and I love this because Evans
done a remarkable job at it so make sure
you go to his site you’ll find them in
the show notes that think like a
journalist calm and check it out you’ll
see I mean it’s literally like turning
on a great cable channel and and just
watching I mean you know I do it all the
time with your stuff so good good stuff
but before we go into those top tips
let’s kick it off with your ice breaker
and Evan you know this just doesn’t
surprise me in light of what I read in
your bio but at five years old get this
Evan was convincing his yes
three-year-old little sister to go into
business with him essentially was it art
and baseball cards tell me yeah so yeah
my first thing was selling art I was
five my sister was three and I convinced
her to uh just draw we went to our
bedroom we were drawing stuff on paper
and then I want to go door-to-door my
neighborhood and sell them and I sold my
first piece to my next door neighbor for
five cents or ten cents and yeah I was
in business that was my first entree
adventure well that’s cool because I
gotta tell you my older sister she
didn’t sell her artwork she sold my
mom’s jewelry and let me tell you that
didn’t go over too little entrepreneurs
running around all right well you know
we kick it off with the think like a
journalist quote and I know this is
going to resonate with you but I’d love
to get your input the true entrepreneur
is a doer not a dreamer Nolan Bushnell
entrepreneur what do you think of that I
love that yeah I think a lot of I think
I think a lot of entrepreneurs are
dreamers too but i think the ones that
make it or when they can combine it
because everybody has some kind of dream
even people who are in a company is a
lot of people thought about wanting to
start their own business and they don’t
yeah and the biggest thing that
separates someone who has a lot of
success as an entrepreneur from the ones
who don’t is that they actually did
something about it they don’t just dream
about it don’t just complain when
somebody else gets takes your idea and
makes sense of money off of it they had
the courage to get up and take action
and it’s not about being a type-a
personality or
introverted extrovert or tons of
resources and low resources people
successful entrepreneur some all walks
of life but the one thing that they all
had in common is that they got started
and took action so it’s a must to be a
success as entrepreneur for sure well
share with us a success tip or a quote
we know that your one word is believed
but what’s something that will be
impactful as people want to build out
maybe their own internet channels maybe
there’s a quote or a tip that you’d like
to share around that or one that’s just
meaningful to you um one of my favorite
quotes comes from Calvin Coolidge and
it’s actually on the desk kind of behind
me back there where he says persistence
alone is omnipotent and that’s maybe a
mouthful and not easily kind of
understood by everybody but he’s
basically going on and calvin coolidge
was president united states a lot of
people don’t know that either but
basically saying it’s not about how wise
you are it’s not about how many
resources you have it’s not about most
of the things people think makeup
success its persistence it’s just
getting up and doing it again and doing
it again and do it again and when you
have a dream and you want to do
something that hasn’t been done before
especially there’s gonna be people who
hate on it there’s gonna be people tell
you can’t do it you’re gonna tell
yourself sometimes that you can’t do and
that you’re crazy and what am i doing I
should go back to the safe thing and the
thing that just keeps you going is that
persistence the the persistence will
solve the problems of humanity just keep
on attacking it until you climb that
mountain that’s right never never giving
up well it certainly sounds like you
have that thriving spirit from all of
what we’ve heard but what I’d like you
to do is take us back in time let us get
to know you a little bit more with a
little bit more of your backstory and
then take us forward to that moment in
time that is considered your proudest
moment your career highlight Wow okay so
how far back do you want to go back to
I’d really went to five years old with
you know fill in a little bit of the
gaps where we talked about you know you
were 19 you built this business I’m kind
of curious how you know what
19 would you build and sell a biotech
software and then don’t forget to take
me to that moment that one moment one
story that’s your proudest moment sure
um I think I had a lot of
entrepreneurial tendencies growing up I
didn’t really recognize them nobody in
my family was entrepreneurs my parents
had safe kind of jobs they supported
everything I did they supported my
baseball card ventures and my you know
lemonade stains and when I tried to turn
raisins into grapes outside and try to
sell them and didn’t realize it goes the
other way um I still thought I want to
be a banker in my high school yearbook
when I was graduating this says we’re
going to be in ten years for me was VP
at a bank so I had a lot of tendencies
but i didn’t i didn’t have the
environment around me to kind of push me
to be an entrepreneur I’m I connected
with two people in my university and
they had a software company that I
joined as an owner in and that was my
first real exposure to entrepreneurship
and I was faced with a really really
really tough decision as to whether i
should go i had opportunities to go work
for the banks that I thought I want to
do and make you know eighty
hundred-thousand-dollar starting salary
and fire on the world and all of these
great things that I thought I wanted
versus be at this startup where I was
not making anything three hundred
dollars a month and that was one of the
toughest decisions of my life was
deciding I’m gonna I don’t wanna live
with regret I want to I’m gonna try this
and give myself a year and just see how
it goes I could live with turning the
jobs down and come back next year and
get a different job me I’d be that exact
same job but I can find another job
where I felt like this opportunity isn’t
going to come around again and I owed it
to myself to to try and that’s one of
the proudest moments of my early career
I think because I’ve used that framework
that decision making process for every
big decisions I’ve had to do in my life
will I regret not doing this mm-hmm and
if I’m going to regret it then I have to
do it even if I’m afraid if I’m scared
if I don’t the resources even if
whatever reason comes into your head
when you’re
rate or something if I’m going to regret
not doing this then I have to go and do
it and that time the first time making
that decision was so hard looking back
now it’s so easy to say i owe is like
the easiest decision ever like of course
it made sense but it was it was
massively painful and ever since then
it’s been a lot easier to make those
tough decisions because I just fast
forward to life at 90 or you know by the
time I’m there might be like we’re
living forever so i’ll be like 250
looking back on my my years and just not
living a life full of regret it’s really
helped me make a lot of important
decisions i think a lot of people
listening to that when they hear not
living with regret you know they
immediately might feel that that twinge
of pain or something because they go ah
i regret this so i think the message is
if you’re living in that space now you
know hearing what Evans saying you have
to move beyond that because the real
risk is living with it right living with
that regret of something I know was a
burning desire and I wanted to do for me
it was that newscaster I was scared to
death to talk to a microphone or a
camera I mean you know so so how do you
become a newscaster then so I I know
exactly what you’re talking about Evan
I’d like for you to share with us a time
you know because this goes hand in hand
it makes people understand and helps
them you know move to that space where
they’re not going to live with regret
that there are going to be mistakes
there are going to be those moments in
time I call them when it didn’t work so
share with us a story now about when it
didn’t work what was your struggle and
really on packet take us to that moment
so we can feel what you are experiencing
and then tell us how maybe you found
correction is direction through that one
it didn’t work moment correction is
direction I like that like that um yeah
so especially that first company I I’ll
take you to one of the hardest days ever
in my life I was sitting there with my
business we were not having success i’m
making a few hundred dollars a month i’m
lying to my friends saying that I can’t
go out to dinner or whatever with them
because i’m busy in living entrepreneur
dream and I’ll
I just really couldn’t afford it and I
didn’t I was too ashamed to tell them
I’m the kind of guy who I worked hard at
everything i did and i knew when i
worked hard i got results in school and
athletics and whatever i did and here i
was i was working i was grinding like
every waking hour was going to this
business and it was not getting results
and I just felt absolutely worthless
like I’m adding no value to the world
and it’s just with with months and
months and months of this happening it
just takes its toll on you and you feel
like a total failure and I’m wasn’t used
to feeling that way so that a family
dinner and I remember having a
disagreement with my partner over what
the direction of the company should be
and i I just I told them you know what
I’m tired of feeling useless I quit I’m
out I’m like I’m done you do whatever
you want to do and I haven’t the phone
and just started bawling uh you know
stuff come out of my nose my eyes like
just terrible and my mom comes up it was
think it’s Thanksgiving her health and
she she hears me she was her hand on my
shoulder and I don’t even know what she
says and just like that’s the lowest
point ever in my life and what I learned
from that the correction is direction I
had a terrible night’s sleep and I woke
up the next day I realized like I don’t
want to be a quitter like hearing those
words come out of my mouth just didn’t
feel right and i still had passion for
this alliance was i just have to find a
different way to stand I have to find a
different way to do this and going to
rock bottom helped me realize that you
know what I’m not the first guy to try
to sell software before you know like
somebody’s figured this out why do I
have to come with that for a genius idea
myself somebody has figured this out I
need to learn from that and apply it to
my business and so I looked up Microsoft
and Bill Gates and how Bill Gates
started 0 to 1 that’s it not how he
makes another million now it’s like who
cares 021 how did he get there and it
was through partnerships and so that
strategy i applied to my business and
that’s actually how i started to get out
of the hole but coming down to the
bottom the corrections direction moment
for me
realizing that I’m not the first guy to
try to do this somebody has figured it
out and I can learn from it tweak it and
apply it to make it work for me wow what
a cool story but you know we don’t we
don’t grow like that I don’t think
anyway until you hit those moments we’ve
all had those really deep dark moments
when we feel some level of shame and
just being able to push through that
shows your character and like we talked
about at the very beginning that
entrepreneurial spirit of perseverance
right in the taking action hi the
percent and a big credit goes to my
business partner to where you know I
quit on him I said no you know I’m out
and the next day I woke up and I like I
wanted to keep going and i just showed
up at his apartment like i normally i
work from his dining room table out of
his condo I was our headquarters and I
should have the next day and and he
didn’t even like we had no conversation
I just look them in the eyes and like
went back to work and he couldn’t get a
really hard time yeah right like you
could have said I thought you quit man
while you’re out like you could have had
a big ego trip and so to his credit to I
was able to just go back to work and and
we eventually found their way out out of
that massive hole with her yeah worst
day of my life oh man I I can imagine
but you know there have been so many
better days so that’s cool thanks for
sharing that let’s dive into this
building your internet TV channel Evan
because I mean all right so you came
from that you were 19 you did some other
things you knows vc but then you got
this idea so take me back to when the
idea came about to do the channel and
then give us an idea of like you know
did you just say hey everybody’s
watching YouTube I want to be there what
what happened yeah so when i started
youtube I didn’t want to be YouTube
famous like it wasn’t a thing youtube
celebrity was not the aspiration I think
a lot of people now are like I want to
be I want to be meeting for that’s my
career I never thought I would make
money from YouTube it wasn’t my goal um
I I found a lot of success in modeling
others so Bill Gates saved my business
even though I never met him because of
how he started Microsoft and there was
a lot of great resources that I found
online in a visual format i like i like
learning visually through a lot of books
and stuff but i wanted a visual format
so i started making videos on youtube of
successful entrepreneurs and how they
got started fortunately for myself to
keep learning from these great
entrepreneurs and also to share it in
hopes that other people wouldn’t have to
feel the big low that i felt when i was
starting my company so i did a bunch of
those and then people started asking me
questions and i would write out long
email responses i would take 20-30
minutes and i thought why don’t i just
turn this into a video i’d rather talk
then right and it’ll help them and it’ll
help other people have the same problem
and so I started making video responses
out of that and started building up I
guess uh expertise there was no strategy
though it wasn’t like this was not part
of my plan I think now if you’re looking
at getting online and building a brand
on being seen as an expert or being a
reporter a journalist I think it’s it’s
a critical component but when I was
starting out it was just curiosity I
wish I could say like I knew it I had it
all planned out I’m a genius but it was
all like just fumbling my way through
alright so let’s talk a little bit about
it somebody who’s listening and you know
because I always encourage brands on
this podcast the brand journalism
advantage to be the media and what I
mean by that is exactly what you’re
doing um you know you intentionally or
not intentionally you luckily wound up
that way and so you get great interviews
so let’s let’s talk about going back in
time you have this idea you started
doing it you started learning from it
but now you know 20-20 hindsight right
so what would you tell our audience
listening today what are the first steps
of doing it obviously taking action
setting up your video and not being
afraid to get on we hear a lot of that
but what are some of the strategic
strategies that you can you know to
share with us to build it because now
when people watch or when they’re
starting to do this there’s so much
noise and so much disruption how do you
get through and find that audience so
first off I would say there’s always
room for
holiday in whatever industry you’re in a
lot of industries are noisy there’s
always room for quality at the top so
you have to make something good if you
make something good you will be able to
gain an audience I would say understand
what it is that you want to like what
are you staying for what’s your message
like if you’re reporting on the news and
you report it the same way everybody
else is reporting it you’re going to
lose you need your own your own style
your own edge your own one word your own
like Phoebe doesn’t do it the way
everybody else does it you know you need
your own Phoebe recipe your own special
sauce has to come out in your delivery
of the content I think it gives you a
lot more freedom to have it on your own
channel where if you’re in a news
program you’re expected to be formal and
you say these exact words and don’t
deviate from the script and these are
how anchors you know are supposed to act
where it doesn’t allow for a lot of
personality come out where with your own
show you can do whatever you want you
know and so I think that’s super
important i would i would expect to suck
at the start now if your audience are
already journalists already has some
kind of on-camera experience they might
be ahead of the game who break the most
people but expect expect a sock-like
expect your first thing not to do well I
think a lot of times you put so much
pressure on it on our cells that the
first thing has to be great it’s like
going on a first date with somebody and
expecting to marry them you put so much
pressure that it then it doesn’t work at
like the first time you get on a
snowboard you’re going down a hill
you’re going to fall down a hundred
times right that’s just it’s okay and I
think people look to the bigger
youtubers and they say well look at how
that person is delivering looking look
at how you know brick Phoebe is at her
podcast I want to do it like her and you
get on it you do your first podcast and
it’s nowhere near but and you can’t
compare where you’re starting with where
Phoebe’s at now because of all the
experience that she said and I so I
think it’s important that the quantity
leads to the quality but you got to do a
lot of work I’m not gifted at this I
have four thousand plus videos of
experience if you go back to my channel
look at me early days it
embarrassing I watched like oh man I
sure of that video is so much oh no it’s
all good and that that sounds like my
early newscasting days embarrassing haha
thankfully YouTube wasn’t around then so
not archived to the web well can you
give us maybe three things and I’m
talking about in building the channel
obviously you know you want quality over
quantity but there is that pressure
because if your if your quality means
releasing one video once every three
months you know you’re you’re not going
to build that audience you have to be
more consistent think about TV news you
got to be able to turn it on and and and
have it there so what are three things
that you learned through this process
that helped you build your channel and
that could be you know whether you were
using Instagram or Pinterest or buying
ads via youtube what are the three
things that you think really helped you
sure well first off addressing that I’ve
had the most success within the platform
so I haven’t had success by promoting it
on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or
going off platform to promote it but
most of my success within platform um
organic or were you doing paid you know
did you build eventually into pay all
our like paid doesn’t give you
subscribers pay doesn’t give you the
long-term success paid well like if you
want vanity metrics and you want to say
hey I have X number of views and that
helps you go get corporate sponsorship
or whatever then you can do it but it’s
not going to lead to real engagement um
so it’s a model especially if there’s
like if you had some sponsored content
that you really want to drive use up on
you know you could put a paid program
behind it they get some exposure and
most brands they don’t even know what
they’re doing on YouTube to all they
care about is the views and so you can
you know inflate your numbers but it’s
not going to help your channel really
long term it’s like the vanity metrics
on any of these things you know if you
have a Twitter feed that has tons and
tons and tons of people but and they’re
not quality people and they’re not
engaging what’s the point so okay so you
did it organic and and two other things
and you did it within the platform
that’s interesting yeah i would say
create content that you want to see that
you feel is missing so a lot of the
stuff that I’ve done I was the first to
do it because I didn’t even want to do
it I wish somebody else had done it I
wanted to just be a consumer of it but
it wasn’t being done and so I went out
and had to do it and now build a team
around there’s six people full-time
working on my youtube channel I had to
go out and make it and so like where’s
the hole in the market if you’re a
journalist reporting on something what
what’s the problem with journalism that
you see today and how can you fix that
problem for yourself and bring it out um
and then if I had to give another tip I
would say I saw really big jump when I
moved to daily content instead of weekly
um moving the daily content I think one
within just a YouTube algorithm they
like seeing more content coming out and
as people watch one video they want to
see what else you have in and watch the
next video in the next video in the next
video and I think also it just helped me
get a lot better in that the more videos
I did the more comfortable i got the
more expressive i became the more my
nature came out more kind of figured out
what I was all about and so jumping from
like one to two to three videos a day
like now we’re up to five to nine videos
a day on the channel Wow but the biggest
jump I think came from once a week to
once a day yeah um and so I would
encourage like yes quality is important
absolutely if your stuff is garbage it
doesn’t matter if you’re posting 20
times a day it’s not going to help you
but understanding that the quantity
leads to the quality you’re going to
suck at the start and you have to put in
the work to get good at it and don’t be
so embarrassed because nobody’s watching
it to start anyway so when you’re have
all of these crappy videos you know
nobody’s watching you so get out there
practice that that’s right definitely
all right it’s time to think like a
journalist Evan you’ve been hired to
help an ailing company it’s about to
financially collapse now its reputation
shot
you’ve got a month a thousand dollar
budget a smart phone and a laptop how do
you begin to turn this company around uh
I would look at what strengths the CEO
ideally founder of the business has and
i would i would leverage that you don’t
really need money to do it I don’t even
need a thousand dollars to do it I would
ideally try to get the story out on a
video format because people connect with
video better but what I would want to
see is the passion and conviction of the
founder telling the story as to why he
or she started the business why the rat
were the right now and how they’re going
to come out of it and it doesn’t have to
be highly produced it could be off your
cell phone you know if I had a thousand
dollars i would i would just buy it you
know a five or ten dollar like tripod
stand for that cell phone so it’s not
like wobbly as I’m going through it
maybe even a external microphone jack
but you don’t really need that and I
would want to start storytelling around
the founder as to why you’re here and
the passion to want to come through I
need to feel if I’m if I’m a consumer if
I’m a like if the public company if I’m
shareholders if it’s the media I want to
feel a personal connection to the
founder and the story that’s behind it
and the confidence that you’re going to
get through it what is one piece of
technology video multimedia equipment or
an app that you just can’t live without
I like I can’t live without you two but
it’s more a platform and terms of the
technology honestly it doesn’t matter um
like right now we recording off a webcam
and I have a Yeti microphone um I filmed
off my iPad off my phone off of a
ten-thousand-dollar camera off of my
handycam I’ll still make videos but
here’s an example I got mine won’t say
the name I got hired by a company to be
on their TV series and and they flew me
out to their offices on the west coast
and they had this huge production with a
co-host and like 8 to 10 people on set
with lights and cameras and sound and
like oh well you’re like tricked out to
the max like you know they’re spending
tons of money they’re hiring me to come
out there and do this thing and then
while I’m there I’m taking my sony
handycam and and walking through the
streets of the city do my own videos for
my youtube channel and in just one of my
videos got more views than then all of
the like miniseries that we did on the
interviews on their channel yeah and so
like I feel like it’s such a day wasted
so much money on this but they can I
don’t know how they justify they justify
it somehow but it’s not about the gear
and so many people ask me like what you
to use this yet don’t get don’t get
tricked up in the gear much more as you
but you put Phoebe on something with a
crappy like five year old iphone and
she’s gonna crush it compared to some
you know rookie who’s got all the fancy
gear in the world and so much more
important like it’s easy to focus on
that because because that’s easy to
focus on like yeah it’s easy to think
that hey I just get that camera that’s
going to make the difference I don’t
want to put in all the hard work about
to make myself better and improving my
skills as a host or a thought leader and
Ingrid viewer um so yeah like there’s no
single piece of yeah yeah I know
absolutely absolutely true alright this
is going to be a tough one but just name
one
book documentary blog podcast or
internet TV channel that you’d like to
recommend to the community um you know I
just made a list I just put on a video
of my seven favorite YouTube channels
for entrepreneurs and I put my own
channels number one uh mostly I think
because of the like I collect I
aggregate famous entrepreneurs and
innovators and thought leaders and and
put out their wisdom and so like even if
you don’t like what I have to say we
collect this data from instead of
watching 40 hours of Elon Musk videos
here it is his best best stuff that he’s
ever said in eight minutes for you to
hear um so I think it’s uh I’m a big fan
of my own channel but if I had to pick
another one the one that I like mosters
to i would go with gary vaynerchuk
channel mm-hmm he’s on the marketing
side of things um he’s very aggressive
and can come off as rude and you know
swears a lot but if you can get past
that the message he has is a really good
one and the other was Lewis Howes who
has another youtube channel I’m more
known as a podcast here solely when a
familiar than school of greatness but
also has a YouTube channel that has
video of his podcast and he interviews
you know world-class performers in
athletics and authors and
entrepreneurship and has them on his
show at least once a week maybe twice a
week and so those two those two guys I
watch every video pretty much that they
put out and I would recommend checking
it as we start to wind down its expert
predictions time the year is 20 25 so
from your vantage point in particular
you know building this internet TV
channel that you didn’t expect to be
making money off of but it’s come you
know into a nice business for you tell
us what you think the landscape will
look like and what’s one piece of
parting advice to build a competitive
advantage about nine years out Wow
Phoebe it’s the questions um
I would say you want to be paying
attention to where people’s attention is
and I think people been really slow to
adapt to it especially the bigger
companies I think even now the the
influencers the people with popular
YouTube channels are reaching more
people than then a lot of traditional
media and the advertisers still haven’t
figured it out and a lot of the money’s
still just going to come in and so
paying attention to where people’s
attention is and is going is super
important it may not always be YouTube
you know it may be schmap tube that
comes out and like that’s the thing
right or snapchat is the thing yeah
right and so understanding where
people’s attention are is and then
bringing it especially if you have a
skill like in the early days of YouTube
people sucked and still people now the
people who are asking people who are
doing interviews and podcasts a lot of
them suck like they don’t have the
skills yet they’re working on them but
they’ve just been podcasting for a year
where if you took your skills and your
abilities of like a decade or however
long you’ve been a journalist for asking
questions you could destroy in the
industry and they’re not and so like all
these influencers who have grown up in
prominence are there just because people
there’s this huge demand and the people
with the most talent people who already
on already on already are sorry on-air
personalities they could be just
crushing it and so just be thinking
about paying attention to where people’s
eyeballs are and then trying to keep
going there and as we close out you know
adding to that circling back brand
journalism community to where we were in
the beginning which is talking about not
just dreaming but actually taking action
and then of course Evans favorite word
and mind to actually believe right love
it it’s all possible it’s all possible
and you know if you think about it you
know like I have guests on the show when
I ask them that question about 20-25 I
can’t remember which episode it was but
gentleman said yeah it’s what they’re
gonna technology will be implanted in us
and I mean it’s it’s wild the stuff
that’s coming out so for me you know
there’s people who will be afraid of all
of this and afraid like they want to
keep it the same you know and you have
to like you said learn and push forward
and continue to develop and persevere so
I just thank you so much i love what
you’re doing i’m definitely a fan of
your channel as well so thank you so
much heaven for being on the brand
journalism advantage podcast cool thanks
having a fuse for fun well that was fun
yeah ok cool so good do you have any
like clothes out that you want so I
actual it we add in a close at the end
so we roll in some music and stuff like
that and yeah I don’t know how you want
to do that I’m happy to share that with
you but actually what I asked my guests
to do is to introduce the show so in the
way the guest does that as their name
what we’re talking about so we’re
talking about building your internet TV
channel and you’re listening to the
brand journalism advantage so you know
I’m Evan Carmichael however you want to
introduce yourself we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to the brand journalism
advantage so if you could do that for me
and it’d be awesome let me write this
down to make sure yeah yeah I’m Evan
Carmichael let me say entrepreneur and
youtuber yet and you’re listening to the
brand journalism advantage brain
journalism journalism advantage just
before that i would say what we’re
talking about so I’m Evan Carmichael
youtuber and you know how often harder
aha entrepreneur we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to so you close with
and you’re listening to a brand
journalism advantage cool we got people
watching live like is this still
supposed to be live yes this is still
supposed to alive okay you’re in behind
this is what happens behind the scenes
on a broadcast that’s right media
podcast
addition um okay I so let me read it
first hi Evan Carmichael entrepreneur
and youtuber today we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to the brand journalism
advantage you got it okay let me do that
with a little more oomph yeah okay hi
I’m Evan Carmichael entrepreneur and
youtuber today we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to the brain journalism
advantage hey I didn’t hear your name
didn’t I say hi Evan Carmichael I don’t
know you can ask people listening but I
didn’t hear it so maybe uh maybe do that
one more time alright again hi I’m Evan
Carmichael entrepreneur and youtuber
today we’re talking about building your
internet TV channel and you’re listening
to the brain journalism advantage boom
love it so so good Evan that was fun and
I really appreciate you being on the
show cool do you want to get to some of
the comments yeah of course of course
cool um Andrews talking about having a
great why we saw it back to like the
regret comment I think yeah do you have
a great why that’s the foundation for
your otherwise is this a statement
question yeah well just like typical
yeah guess the question with you what’s
your great why so you have a great why
that is the foundation for your
otherwise like one big one that’s above
the others yeah and the little baby wise
underneath yeah so um you know I I do so
I am all about the story um for me I i
became a you know people become
journalist for different reasons but i
really felt that I wanted a front seat
to the world right to be able to tell
those stories so my why is always about
getting the story out and today as a
brand journalist in working for
corporations in helping other people
build what’s so important to them it’s
gone beyond just telling the story but
helping them live what i would call
purposeful lives and you know these the
integrity of doing and pursuing what you
want and that’s what
drives me to do what I do that’s why I
have you know some 350 episodes of the
brand journalism advantage podcast
because I’m learning from that but then
I also feel like hey I could have done
this and called up and gotten these
interviews and just kept it to myself
but I felt like it’s so important to get
it out to the world as well so that’s
that’s kind of in what’s driven me and
it’s the stories have changed i don’t i
don’t cover double homicides anymore
thankfully you know I now get to cover
the cool stuff like people like yourself
and and you know the editor-in-chief of
entrepreneurs gonna be on my show so
people like that who are really doing
awesome stuff and that’s what inspires
me and that’s that’s what literally when
I feel those moments where I want to
give up that’s what keeps me going don’t
people people love the baby wise comment
there hashtagging baby harness Thank
storytellers hashtag babywise um J reyez
is asking why is it called the brand
journalism advantage ah good question um
and sometimes i wonder if i should have
called it that but but um you know
here’s kind of a shoutout to John Lee
Dumas who does entrepreneur on fire I
met with him and I actually told his
story a video story and we got into this
discussion about brand journalism and he
kind of advised me just call it what it
is and so in that moment I was like well
as brand journalism and it gives you a
competitive advantage so if you put it
all together that’s why at the end of
the show I always ask the question
what’s your competitive advantage in
20-25 brand journalism is storytelling
for brands not necessarily about brands
but it’s to benefit them and their
audience and so it’s not content
marketing it literally is sort of a new
style storytelling and it gives you that
advantage in your marketplace so the
brand journalism advantage it’s it’s
super long but well there you have it
Google the follow-up was thank you for
the clarity and people have a lot of
respect for positive storytellers so
there you go how do you stay on
top of social trends collective
conversations and the flow of attention
hmm man ok so my iPad sitting here next
to me my macbook’s are here my
smartphone um I am on social media all
the time I do a lot of events um so I’m
asked to MC a lot of different things
you know I just did at the time of this
recording the LaCosta film festival and
you know had a lot of the directors in
their learning about their storytelling
from a cinematography angle but i keep
on my iphone and and my Apple watch I
keep tons of content flowing to me and I
read all the time i watch all the time I
am an avid learner and I think you’ll
hear that about most journalists they
want to learn learn learn it’s you know
it’s like this insatiable desire that we
have and so I’m always plugged into that
uh maybe sometimes to a fault you know
that I have to kind of like okay let’s
chill out and and and have those those
moments so that’s why I go and I
practice yoga and and I try to unplug
from it but I really consider it my job
I can’t do a good job for my clients and
I do take on lots of clients especially
in the lifestyle space and I’m expected
to know you know I can’t know everything
you know I mean I often call myself a
strategist rather than an expert even
though I ask you know expert predictions
but because we’re always learning and
we’re always honing that craft so I’ve
spent 20 years in front of cameras and
and you know microphones and things like
that but there’s always something I
learned from someone else so I think
that if you keep those streams alive and
then I use things i can tell you i use
bundle post i use HootSuite i use apple
news i use google news i use twitter
everything you can imagine to bring that
in and just kind of go through it so i
set aside a portion of my day to really
get that that download and I and then I
I try to stay up on everything even the
things that I’m maybe not as
you know um as in two I still think it’s
important to know about and that’s
that’s a journalist perspective for sure
cool well people saying a good answer I
like the honesty thank you nice hashtag
advitor so they’re liking it hey um
maybe one last question cuz in a week
yeah uh basically asking about on-air
interviewers how can people be better on
air interviewers or what are you seeing
wrong with how people are interviewing
on there so here’s what I’d recommend i
started out at KPBS which is the public
broadcast station now that’s radio but I
wanted to be on TV and I got my feet wet
there and I worked for you know a cable
portion of the station for the visually
impaired and I just practiced so much
like Evan said I think you said 4,000
videos or something like that you get
better by doing that is the only way so
what I do is I carry on this I carry a
secondary iPhone because I teach iphone
storytelling and so sometimes you know
I’m plugged in on this one and sometimes
i’m using this with camera gear attached
and i’m telling stories so much these
stories get on the air as far as and
when i say on the air i’m talking about
your non-traditional now YouTube but
sometimes they make it on the air on TV
news segments you know that kind of
thing as well the way you get better is
to force yourself to do it so if you
want to be a better writer write
everyday read every day make it a
practice same thing with my yoga same
thing with the interviewing so get these
people on to your show start as small as
you have to start ask them you know I do
a lot of speaking for people because I’m
happy to help but you know that’s that’s
what got me off the ground but the the
number one tip is don’t just do it
review it okay and I didn’t mean it to
sound that way but it kind of came out
that way you know literally don’t just
do it review it because when I started
out in the industry I was afraid to
watch myself on camera because I was
just horrified I didn’t think I looked
good
I didn’t like the way I sounded I was
super critical you know all of this goes
through your head you have to be able to
watch it and review it because if you
don’t you’re just basically doing
without evaluating so that’s the same
thing as if you work for a brand or your
business and you go out and you put out
all this content you never look to see
is anybody reading it or what’s
happening with it or you don’t measure
it you get better through measuring
results same when you hit the gym you
get better by knowing how much you
lifted last week versus how much you’re
lifting this week right so that is
probably one of the things that I see
the least practice and when I when I
coach in this area and I’m videotape
folks often they don’t want to watch it
you know they just want to hear me give
their feedback and I’ll say or even
after a podcast you know what’s really
great I’ve noticed a trend lately is the
pod the interviewee will say to me what
could I have done better so if you ask
that question that also helps but
literally go back and listen to it as
painful as it may be and a lot of times
you’ll find it’s not painful because it
really was indeed good the final part
that I would say to that is just be real
up when I learned I start off talking
about KPBS when I learned to watch their
style if you listen to Ira Glass and you
you follow the great story and that
those guys are really great storytellers
it’s different from TV news because we
have a very commercialized structured
style which actually I love this YouTube
space and Facebook because I can break
away from that in a way that I couldn’t
break away from it as a TV newscaster
because I had to hit certain times and
you know there’s a countdown going on
five four three you gotta hit this sound
bite right and there’s all this going on
like you were talking about with all the
cameras and everything so it’s a
different vibe so I think now is the
greatest time for some of the people who
are just super low-key they don’t have
that singsong eNOS in their voice that
comes from you know a newscaster that
has been poorly trained or just you know
isn’t plugged in so that last parting
advice after reviewing it and being real
is keeping in your head who you’re
talking to and be
in the present moment because you will
go to somewhere else if you’re not in
the present moment and when your
delivery isn’t isn’t in the present
moment you’re not going to sound good
you’re going to sound canned or fake and
people don’t resonate with that so now
we can be as real as we can be and
that’s what’s awesome i love that very
cool as a fountain of wisdom over there
i love it well Phoebe thank you so much
for the opportunity thank you guys for
watching on the live stream too and all
the great questions you can check Phoebe
out that think like a journalist calm
this podcast coming out in a couple
weeks yeah maybe even sooner i’m going
to link it together with you know some
of the founders of our enough founders
but the managing editor and the
editor-in-chief of entrepreneur so good
good stuff cool well thank you guys
again for watching Phoebe and I both
believe in you we hope you continue to
believe in yourselves and whatever your
one word is much love guys see you soon
bye bye
another YouTube hangout super excited to
be back on with you I love Thursday’s
get to do all these interviews so much
fun I have a repeat guests with me you
may have remembered my special guest
Phoebe when we talked I don’t I want to
say two weeks ago about yeah the brand
journalism advantage I was interviewing
her on my channel and now she wanted to
interview me for her podcast and today
we’re going to talk about how to have
success with YouTube for all you guys
that they’re wanting to have more
success on YouTube so Phoebe welcome
back hey thanks for having me so good to
be here cool so Phoebe’s gonna run this
like her podcast so I’m gonna turn over
the reins to her and she’s gonna go
through her in show and whatever magic
stuff she does you guys can check out
the brand journalism advantage is that
the brand journalism advantage com is
that where people with my yes that’s
right or even easier than typing that is
think like a journalist calm they both
direct they’re so cool pretty easy to
get there and right I’ve got the rain so
let’s go right get me up here we go well
you know this is really cool brand
journalism community because we’re doing
something a little bit different and I
really want to direct you to Evan
Carmichael calm to check out his YouTube
channel and learn about what he’s doing
for entrepreneurs because you guys come
to my show to learn a lot of information
about brand journalism storytelling
entrepreneurship and this goes hand in
hand so so fun I was on Evans show a
little while back at the time of this
recording and now Evans joining us and
we’re doing it as a google hangout so
Evan is really testing me here and
pushing me to move into that space of
video having come from the world of TV I
really need to do more of that so Thank
You Evan for getting me here but welcome
brand journalism community I am Phoebe
Chong chua thanks for tuning in to the
brand journalism advantage podcast here
we go with the inside scoop on today’s
show Evan Carmichael Evan believes in
entrepreneurs at the age of 19 he built
then sold a biotech software company now
at just 22 years old he was a VC helping
five helping to raise 500,000 to 15 min
today he runs Evan Carmichael calm a
popular website which is loaded with
information for entrepreneurs he
breathes and bleeds entrepreneurship he
is obsessed with it and aims to help 1
billion entrepreneurs change the world
welcome to the show Evan how are you
thanks for having me Phoebe I’m pumped
I’m ready to do this yeah me too me too
well we share a word in common as we
were discussing before we got online and
that’s believe I want you to quickly
tell me how that word came about to you
why is it so impactful yeah and so I
believe everybody has one word that
defines them it’s actually the topic of
of my new book I think most people
aren’t aware of what their main core
values are and as a result they kind of
live life not as purposefully as it
could be and so for me I was running a
business I was having some success but I
felt kind of disconnected I felt like I
could be having a greater impact I felt
like I could do more and I think a lot
of people feel that like I’m doing okay
but I feel like there’s more to me I
feel like I’m not reaching my potential
and so I started looking anywhere to
figure out what is it that I’m all about
before getting to what project I’m going
to work on like who is Evan Carmichael
what do I stand for you know what’s the
most important core value to me and it
kept coming back to this word believe
and I ended up doing this crazy thing
and build my entire business around
believe and everything that I touched
that had to do with believe just
instantly started doing well and taking
off and you know we can go further into
all that if you want but I think kind of
understanding your core value what
you’re all about and then bringing that
to your business and your life so
everything is done a lot more on purpose
will make you happier as well as have a
much greater impact on the people around
you well you know brand journalism
community we talk about positivity we
talk about storytelling and belief is
certainly at the core when you want to
launch a brand or a business if you
don’t have that the chances of
succeeding are very very slim I’ve often
referred to my career in TV and the fact
that I was able to get into the San
Diego marketplace at 19 I had to really
believe so great great word what we’re
talking about in this episode brand
journalist
community is building your internet TV
channel and I love this because Evans
done a remarkable job at it so make sure
you go to his site you’ll find them in
the show notes that think like a
journalist calm and check it out you’ll
see I mean it’s literally like turning
on a great cable channel and and just
watching I mean you know I do it all the
time with your stuff so good good stuff
but before we go into those top tips
let’s kick it off with your ice breaker
and Evan you know this just doesn’t
surprise me in light of what I read in
your bio but at five years old get this
Evan was convincing his yes
three-year-old little sister to go into
business with him essentially was it art
and baseball cards tell me yeah so yeah
my first thing was selling art I was
five my sister was three and I convinced
her to uh just draw we went to our
bedroom we were drawing stuff on paper
and then I want to go door-to-door my
neighborhood and sell them and I sold my
first piece to my next door neighbor for
five cents or ten cents and yeah I was
in business that was my first entree
adventure well that’s cool because I
gotta tell you my older sister she
didn’t sell her artwork she sold my
mom’s jewelry and let me tell you that
didn’t go over too little entrepreneurs
running around all right well you know
we kick it off with the think like a
journalist quote and I know this is
going to resonate with you but I’d love
to get your input the true entrepreneur
is a doer not a dreamer Nolan Bushnell
entrepreneur what do you think of that I
love that yeah I think a lot of I think
I think a lot of entrepreneurs are
dreamers too but i think the ones that
make it or when they can combine it
because everybody has some kind of dream
even people who are in a company is a
lot of people thought about wanting to
start their own business and they don’t
yeah and the biggest thing that
separates someone who has a lot of
success as an entrepreneur from the ones
who don’t is that they actually did
something about it they don’t just dream
about it don’t just complain when
somebody else gets takes your idea and
makes sense of money off of it they had
the courage to get up and take action
and it’s not about being a type-a
personality or
introverted extrovert or tons of
resources and low resources people
successful entrepreneur some all walks
of life but the one thing that they all
had in common is that they got started
and took action so it’s a must to be a
success as entrepreneur for sure well
share with us a success tip or a quote
we know that your one word is believed
but what’s something that will be
impactful as people want to build out
maybe their own internet channels maybe
there’s a quote or a tip that you’d like
to share around that or one that’s just
meaningful to you um one of my favorite
quotes comes from Calvin Coolidge and
it’s actually on the desk kind of behind
me back there where he says persistence
alone is omnipotent and that’s maybe a
mouthful and not easily kind of
understood by everybody but he’s
basically going on and calvin coolidge
was president united states a lot of
people don’t know that either but
basically saying it’s not about how wise
you are it’s not about how many
resources you have it’s not about most
of the things people think makeup
success its persistence it’s just
getting up and doing it again and doing
it again and do it again and when you
have a dream and you want to do
something that hasn’t been done before
especially there’s gonna be people who
hate on it there’s gonna be people tell
you can’t do it you’re gonna tell
yourself sometimes that you can’t do and
that you’re crazy and what am i doing I
should go back to the safe thing and the
thing that just keeps you going is that
persistence the the persistence will
solve the problems of humanity just keep
on attacking it until you climb that
mountain that’s right never never giving
up well it certainly sounds like you
have that thriving spirit from all of
what we’ve heard but what I’d like you
to do is take us back in time let us get
to know you a little bit more with a
little bit more of your backstory and
then take us forward to that moment in
time that is considered your proudest
moment your career highlight Wow okay so
how far back do you want to go back to
I’d really went to five years old with
you know fill in a little bit of the
gaps where we talked about you know you
were 19 you built this business I’m kind
of curious how you know what
19 would you build and sell a biotech
software and then don’t forget to take
me to that moment that one moment one
story that’s your proudest moment sure
um I think I had a lot of
entrepreneurial tendencies growing up I
didn’t really recognize them nobody in
my family was entrepreneurs my parents
had safe kind of jobs they supported
everything I did they supported my
baseball card ventures and my you know
lemonade stains and when I tried to turn
raisins into grapes outside and try to
sell them and didn’t realize it goes the
other way um I still thought I want to
be a banker in my high school yearbook
when I was graduating this says we’re
going to be in ten years for me was VP
at a bank so I had a lot of tendencies
but i didn’t i didn’t have the
environment around me to kind of push me
to be an entrepreneur I’m I connected
with two people in my university and
they had a software company that I
joined as an owner in and that was my
first real exposure to entrepreneurship
and I was faced with a really really
really tough decision as to whether i
should go i had opportunities to go work
for the banks that I thought I want to
do and make you know eighty
hundred-thousand-dollar starting salary
and fire on the world and all of these
great things that I thought I wanted
versus be at this startup where I was
not making anything three hundred
dollars a month and that was one of the
toughest decisions of my life was
deciding I’m gonna I don’t wanna live
with regret I want to I’m gonna try this
and give myself a year and just see how
it goes I could live with turning the
jobs down and come back next year and
get a different job me I’d be that exact
same job but I can find another job
where I felt like this opportunity isn’t
going to come around again and I owed it
to myself to to try and that’s one of
the proudest moments of my early career
I think because I’ve used that framework
that decision making process for every
big decisions I’ve had to do in my life
will I regret not doing this mm-hmm and
if I’m going to regret it then I have to
do it even if I’m afraid if I’m scared
if I don’t the resources even if
whatever reason comes into your head
when you’re
rate or something if I’m going to regret
not doing this then I have to go and do
it and that time the first time making
that decision was so hard looking back
now it’s so easy to say i owe is like
the easiest decision ever like of course
it made sense but it was it was
massively painful and ever since then
it’s been a lot easier to make those
tough decisions because I just fast
forward to life at 90 or you know by the
time I’m there might be like we’re
living forever so i’ll be like 250
looking back on my my years and just not
living a life full of regret it’s really
helped me make a lot of important
decisions i think a lot of people
listening to that when they hear not
living with regret you know they
immediately might feel that that twinge
of pain or something because they go ah
i regret this so i think the message is
if you’re living in that space now you
know hearing what Evans saying you have
to move beyond that because the real
risk is living with it right living with
that regret of something I know was a
burning desire and I wanted to do for me
it was that newscaster I was scared to
death to talk to a microphone or a
camera I mean you know so so how do you
become a newscaster then so I I know
exactly what you’re talking about Evan
I’d like for you to share with us a time
you know because this goes hand in hand
it makes people understand and helps
them you know move to that space where
they’re not going to live with regret
that there are going to be mistakes
there are going to be those moments in
time I call them when it didn’t work so
share with us a story now about when it
didn’t work what was your struggle and
really on packet take us to that moment
so we can feel what you are experiencing
and then tell us how maybe you found
correction is direction through that one
it didn’t work moment correction is
direction I like that like that um yeah
so especially that first company I I’ll
take you to one of the hardest days ever
in my life I was sitting there with my
business we were not having success i’m
making a few hundred dollars a month i’m
lying to my friends saying that I can’t
go out to dinner or whatever with them
because i’m busy in living entrepreneur
dream and I’ll
I just really couldn’t afford it and I
didn’t I was too ashamed to tell them
I’m the kind of guy who I worked hard at
everything i did and i knew when i
worked hard i got results in school and
athletics and whatever i did and here i
was i was working i was grinding like
every waking hour was going to this
business and it was not getting results
and I just felt absolutely worthless
like I’m adding no value to the world
and it’s just with with months and
months and months of this happening it
just takes its toll on you and you feel
like a total failure and I’m wasn’t used
to feeling that way so that a family
dinner and I remember having a
disagreement with my partner over what
the direction of the company should be
and i I just I told them you know what
I’m tired of feeling useless I quit I’m
out I’m like I’m done you do whatever
you want to do and I haven’t the phone
and just started bawling uh you know
stuff come out of my nose my eyes like
just terrible and my mom comes up it was
think it’s Thanksgiving her health and
she she hears me she was her hand on my
shoulder and I don’t even know what she
says and just like that’s the lowest
point ever in my life and what I learned
from that the correction is direction I
had a terrible night’s sleep and I woke
up the next day I realized like I don’t
want to be a quitter like hearing those
words come out of my mouth just didn’t
feel right and i still had passion for
this alliance was i just have to find a
different way to stand I have to find a
different way to do this and going to
rock bottom helped me realize that you
know what I’m not the first guy to try
to sell software before you know like
somebody’s figured this out why do I
have to come with that for a genius idea
myself somebody has figured this out I
need to learn from that and apply it to
my business and so I looked up Microsoft
and Bill Gates and how Bill Gates
started 0 to 1 that’s it not how he
makes another million now it’s like who
cares 021 how did he get there and it
was through partnerships and so that
strategy i applied to my business and
that’s actually how i started to get out
of the hole but coming down to the
bottom the corrections direction moment
for me
realizing that I’m not the first guy to
try to do this somebody has figured it
out and I can learn from it tweak it and
apply it to make it work for me wow what
a cool story but you know we don’t we
don’t grow like that I don’t think
anyway until you hit those moments we’ve
all had those really deep dark moments
when we feel some level of shame and
just being able to push through that
shows your character and like we talked
about at the very beginning that
entrepreneurial spirit of perseverance
right in the taking action hi the
percent and a big credit goes to my
business partner to where you know I
quit on him I said no you know I’m out
and the next day I woke up and I like I
wanted to keep going and i just showed
up at his apartment like i normally i
work from his dining room table out of
his condo I was our headquarters and I
should have the next day and and he
didn’t even like we had no conversation
I just look them in the eyes and like
went back to work and he couldn’t get a
really hard time yeah right like you
could have said I thought you quit man
while you’re out like you could have had
a big ego trip and so to his credit to I
was able to just go back to work and and
we eventually found their way out out of
that massive hole with her yeah worst
day of my life oh man I I can imagine
but you know there have been so many
better days so that’s cool thanks for
sharing that let’s dive into this
building your internet TV channel Evan
because I mean all right so you came
from that you were 19 you did some other
things you knows vc but then you got
this idea so take me back to when the
idea came about to do the channel and
then give us an idea of like you know
did you just say hey everybody’s
watching YouTube I want to be there what
what happened yeah so when i started
youtube I didn’t want to be YouTube
famous like it wasn’t a thing youtube
celebrity was not the aspiration I think
a lot of people now are like I want to
be I want to be meeting for that’s my
career I never thought I would make
money from YouTube it wasn’t my goal um
I I found a lot of success in modeling
others so Bill Gates saved my business
even though I never met him because of
how he started Microsoft and there was
a lot of great resources that I found
online in a visual format i like i like
learning visually through a lot of books
and stuff but i wanted a visual format
so i started making videos on youtube of
successful entrepreneurs and how they
got started fortunately for myself to
keep learning from these great
entrepreneurs and also to share it in
hopes that other people wouldn’t have to
feel the big low that i felt when i was
starting my company so i did a bunch of
those and then people started asking me
questions and i would write out long
email responses i would take 20-30
minutes and i thought why don’t i just
turn this into a video i’d rather talk
then right and it’ll help them and it’ll
help other people have the same problem
and so I started making video responses
out of that and started building up I
guess uh expertise there was no strategy
though it wasn’t like this was not part
of my plan I think now if you’re looking
at getting online and building a brand
on being seen as an expert or being a
reporter a journalist I think it’s it’s
a critical component but when I was
starting out it was just curiosity I
wish I could say like I knew it I had it
all planned out I’m a genius but it was
all like just fumbling my way through
alright so let’s talk a little bit about
it somebody who’s listening and you know
because I always encourage brands on
this podcast the brand journalism
advantage to be the media and what I
mean by that is exactly what you’re
doing um you know you intentionally or
not intentionally you luckily wound up
that way and so you get great interviews
so let’s let’s talk about going back in
time you have this idea you started
doing it you started learning from it
but now you know 20-20 hindsight right
so what would you tell our audience
listening today what are the first steps
of doing it obviously taking action
setting up your video and not being
afraid to get on we hear a lot of that
but what are some of the strategic
strategies that you can you know to
share with us to build it because now
when people watch or when they’re
starting to do this there’s so much
noise and so much disruption how do you
get through and find that audience so
first off I would say there’s always
room for
holiday in whatever industry you’re in a
lot of industries are noisy there’s
always room for quality at the top so
you have to make something good if you
make something good you will be able to
gain an audience I would say understand
what it is that you want to like what
are you staying for what’s your message
like if you’re reporting on the news and
you report it the same way everybody
else is reporting it you’re going to
lose you need your own your own style
your own edge your own one word your own
like Phoebe doesn’t do it the way
everybody else does it you know you need
your own Phoebe recipe your own special
sauce has to come out in your delivery
of the content I think it gives you a
lot more freedom to have it on your own
channel where if you’re in a news
program you’re expected to be formal and
you say these exact words and don’t
deviate from the script and these are
how anchors you know are supposed to act
where it doesn’t allow for a lot of
personality come out where with your own
show you can do whatever you want you
know and so I think that’s super
important i would i would expect to suck
at the start now if your audience are
already journalists already has some
kind of on-camera experience they might
be ahead of the game who break the most
people but expect expect a sock-like
expect your first thing not to do well I
think a lot of times you put so much
pressure on it on our cells that the
first thing has to be great it’s like
going on a first date with somebody and
expecting to marry them you put so much
pressure that it then it doesn’t work at
like the first time you get on a
snowboard you’re going down a hill
you’re going to fall down a hundred
times right that’s just it’s okay and I
think people look to the bigger
youtubers and they say well look at how
that person is delivering looking look
at how you know brick Phoebe is at her
podcast I want to do it like her and you
get on it you do your first podcast and
it’s nowhere near but and you can’t
compare where you’re starting with where
Phoebe’s at now because of all the
experience that she said and I so I
think it’s important that the quantity
leads to the quality but you got to do a
lot of work I’m not gifted at this I
have four thousand plus videos of
experience if you go back to my channel
look at me early days it
embarrassing I watched like oh man I
sure of that video is so much oh no it’s
all good and that that sounds like my
early newscasting days embarrassing haha
thankfully YouTube wasn’t around then so
not archived to the web well can you
give us maybe three things and I’m
talking about in building the channel
obviously you know you want quality over
quantity but there is that pressure
because if your if your quality means
releasing one video once every three
months you know you’re you’re not going
to build that audience you have to be
more consistent think about TV news you
got to be able to turn it on and and and
have it there so what are three things
that you learned through this process
that helped you build your channel and
that could be you know whether you were
using Instagram or Pinterest or buying
ads via youtube what are the three
things that you think really helped you
sure well first off addressing that I’ve
had the most success within the platform
so I haven’t had success by promoting it
on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or
going off platform to promote it but
most of my success within platform um
organic or were you doing paid you know
did you build eventually into pay all
our like paid doesn’t give you
subscribers pay doesn’t give you the
long-term success paid well like if you
want vanity metrics and you want to say
hey I have X number of views and that
helps you go get corporate sponsorship
or whatever then you can do it but it’s
not going to lead to real engagement um
so it’s a model especially if there’s
like if you had some sponsored content
that you really want to drive use up on
you know you could put a paid program
behind it they get some exposure and
most brands they don’t even know what
they’re doing on YouTube to all they
care about is the views and so you can
you know inflate your numbers but it’s
not going to help your channel really
long term it’s like the vanity metrics
on any of these things you know if you
have a Twitter feed that has tons and
tons and tons of people but and they’re
not quality people and they’re not
engaging what’s the point so okay so you
did it organic and and two other things
and you did it within the platform
that’s interesting yeah i would say
create content that you want to see that
you feel is missing so a lot of the
stuff that I’ve done I was the first to
do it because I didn’t even want to do
it I wish somebody else had done it I
wanted to just be a consumer of it but
it wasn’t being done and so I went out
and had to do it and now build a team
around there’s six people full-time
working on my youtube channel I had to
go out and make it and so like where’s
the hole in the market if you’re a
journalist reporting on something what
what’s the problem with journalism that
you see today and how can you fix that
problem for yourself and bring it out um
and then if I had to give another tip I
would say I saw really big jump when I
moved to daily content instead of weekly
um moving the daily content I think one
within just a YouTube algorithm they
like seeing more content coming out and
as people watch one video they want to
see what else you have in and watch the
next video in the next video in the next
video and I think also it just helped me
get a lot better in that the more videos
I did the more comfortable i got the
more expressive i became the more my
nature came out more kind of figured out
what I was all about and so jumping from
like one to two to three videos a day
like now we’re up to five to nine videos
a day on the channel Wow but the biggest
jump I think came from once a week to
once a day yeah um and so I would
encourage like yes quality is important
absolutely if your stuff is garbage it
doesn’t matter if you’re posting 20
times a day it’s not going to help you
but understanding that the quantity
leads to the quality you’re going to
suck at the start and you have to put in
the work to get good at it and don’t be
so embarrassed because nobody’s watching
it to start anyway so when you’re have
all of these crappy videos you know
nobody’s watching you so get out there
practice that that’s right definitely
all right it’s time to think like a
journalist Evan you’ve been hired to
help an ailing company it’s about to
financially collapse now its reputation
shot
you’ve got a month a thousand dollar
budget a smart phone and a laptop how do
you begin to turn this company around uh
I would look at what strengths the CEO
ideally founder of the business has and
i would i would leverage that you don’t
really need money to do it I don’t even
need a thousand dollars to do it I would
ideally try to get the story out on a
video format because people connect with
video better but what I would want to
see is the passion and conviction of the
founder telling the story as to why he
or she started the business why the rat
were the right now and how they’re going
to come out of it and it doesn’t have to
be highly produced it could be off your
cell phone you know if I had a thousand
dollars i would i would just buy it you
know a five or ten dollar like tripod
stand for that cell phone so it’s not
like wobbly as I’m going through it
maybe even a external microphone jack
but you don’t really need that and I
would want to start storytelling around
the founder as to why you’re here and
the passion to want to come through I
need to feel if I’m if I’m a consumer if
I’m a like if the public company if I’m
shareholders if it’s the media I want to
feel a personal connection to the
founder and the story that’s behind it
and the confidence that you’re going to
get through it what is one piece of
technology video multimedia equipment or
an app that you just can’t live without
I like I can’t live without you two but
it’s more a platform and terms of the
technology honestly it doesn’t matter um
like right now we recording off a webcam
and I have a Yeti microphone um I filmed
off my iPad off my phone off of a
ten-thousand-dollar camera off of my
handycam I’ll still make videos but
here’s an example I got mine won’t say
the name I got hired by a company to be
on their TV series and and they flew me
out to their offices on the west coast
and they had this huge production with a
co-host and like 8 to 10 people on set
with lights and cameras and sound and
like oh well you’re like tricked out to
the max like you know they’re spending
tons of money they’re hiring me to come
out there and do this thing and then
while I’m there I’m taking my sony
handycam and and walking through the
streets of the city do my own videos for
my youtube channel and in just one of my
videos got more views than then all of
the like miniseries that we did on the
interviews on their channel yeah and so
like I feel like it’s such a day wasted
so much money on this but they can I
don’t know how they justify they justify
it somehow but it’s not about the gear
and so many people ask me like what you
to use this yet don’t get don’t get
tricked up in the gear much more as you
but you put Phoebe on something with a
crappy like five year old iphone and
she’s gonna crush it compared to some
you know rookie who’s got all the fancy
gear in the world and so much more
important like it’s easy to focus on
that because because that’s easy to
focus on like yeah it’s easy to think
that hey I just get that camera that’s
going to make the difference I don’t
want to put in all the hard work about
to make myself better and improving my
skills as a host or a thought leader and
Ingrid viewer um so yeah like there’s no
single piece of yeah yeah I know
absolutely absolutely true alright this
is going to be a tough one but just name
one
book documentary blog podcast or
internet TV channel that you’d like to
recommend to the community um you know I
just made a list I just put on a video
of my seven favorite YouTube channels
for entrepreneurs and I put my own
channels number one uh mostly I think
because of the like I collect I
aggregate famous entrepreneurs and
innovators and thought leaders and and
put out their wisdom and so like even if
you don’t like what I have to say we
collect this data from instead of
watching 40 hours of Elon Musk videos
here it is his best best stuff that he’s
ever said in eight minutes for you to
hear um so I think it’s uh I’m a big fan
of my own channel but if I had to pick
another one the one that I like mosters
to i would go with gary vaynerchuk
channel mm-hmm he’s on the marketing
side of things um he’s very aggressive
and can come off as rude and you know
swears a lot but if you can get past
that the message he has is a really good
one and the other was Lewis Howes who
has another youtube channel I’m more
known as a podcast here solely when a
familiar than school of greatness but
also has a YouTube channel that has
video of his podcast and he interviews
you know world-class performers in
athletics and authors and
entrepreneurship and has them on his
show at least once a week maybe twice a
week and so those two those two guys I
watch every video pretty much that they
put out and I would recommend checking
it as we start to wind down its expert
predictions time the year is 20 25 so
from your vantage point in particular
you know building this internet TV
channel that you didn’t expect to be
making money off of but it’s come you
know into a nice business for you tell
us what you think the landscape will
look like and what’s one piece of
parting advice to build a competitive
advantage about nine years out Wow
Phoebe it’s the questions um
I would say you want to be paying
attention to where people’s attention is
and I think people been really slow to
adapt to it especially the bigger
companies I think even now the the
influencers the people with popular
YouTube channels are reaching more
people than then a lot of traditional
media and the advertisers still haven’t
figured it out and a lot of the money’s
still just going to come in and so
paying attention to where people’s
attention is and is going is super
important it may not always be YouTube
you know it may be schmap tube that
comes out and like that’s the thing
right or snapchat is the thing yeah
right and so understanding where
people’s attention are is and then
bringing it especially if you have a
skill like in the early days of YouTube
people sucked and still people now the
people who are asking people who are
doing interviews and podcasts a lot of
them suck like they don’t have the
skills yet they’re working on them but
they’ve just been podcasting for a year
where if you took your skills and your
abilities of like a decade or however
long you’ve been a journalist for asking
questions you could destroy in the
industry and they’re not and so like all
these influencers who have grown up in
prominence are there just because people
there’s this huge demand and the people
with the most talent people who already
on already on already are sorry on-air
personalities they could be just
crushing it and so just be thinking
about paying attention to where people’s
eyeballs are and then trying to keep
going there and as we close out you know
adding to that circling back brand
journalism community to where we were in
the beginning which is talking about not
just dreaming but actually taking action
and then of course Evans favorite word
and mind to actually believe right love
it it’s all possible it’s all possible
and you know if you think about it you
know like I have guests on the show when
I ask them that question about 20-25 I
can’t remember which episode it was but
gentleman said yeah it’s what they’re
gonna technology will be implanted in us
and I mean it’s it’s wild the stuff
that’s coming out so for me you know
there’s people who will be afraid of all
of this and afraid like they want to
keep it the same you know and you have
to like you said learn and push forward
and continue to develop and persevere so
I just thank you so much i love what
you’re doing i’m definitely a fan of
your channel as well so thank you so
much heaven for being on the brand
journalism advantage podcast cool thanks
having a fuse for fun well that was fun
yeah ok cool so good do you have any
like clothes out that you want so I
actual it we add in a close at the end
so we roll in some music and stuff like
that and yeah I don’t know how you want
to do that I’m happy to share that with
you but actually what I asked my guests
to do is to introduce the show so in the
way the guest does that as their name
what we’re talking about so we’re
talking about building your internet TV
channel and you’re listening to the
brand journalism advantage so you know
I’m Evan Carmichael however you want to
introduce yourself we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to the brand journalism
advantage so if you could do that for me
and it’d be awesome let me write this
down to make sure yeah yeah I’m Evan
Carmichael let me say entrepreneur and
youtuber yet and you’re listening to the
brand journalism advantage brain
journalism journalism advantage just
before that i would say what we’re
talking about so I’m Evan Carmichael
youtuber and you know how often harder
aha entrepreneur we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to so you close with
and you’re listening to a brand
journalism advantage cool we got people
watching live like is this still
supposed to be live yes this is still
supposed to alive okay you’re in behind
this is what happens behind the scenes
on a broadcast that’s right media
podcast
addition um okay I so let me read it
first hi Evan Carmichael entrepreneur
and youtuber today we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to the brand journalism
advantage you got it okay let me do that
with a little more oomph yeah okay hi
I’m Evan Carmichael entrepreneur and
youtuber today we’re talking about
building your internet TV channel and
you’re listening to the brain journalism
advantage hey I didn’t hear your name
didn’t I say hi Evan Carmichael I don’t
know you can ask people listening but I
didn’t hear it so maybe uh maybe do that
one more time alright again hi I’m Evan
Carmichael entrepreneur and youtuber
today we’re talking about building your
internet TV channel and you’re listening
to the brain journalism advantage boom
love it so so good Evan that was fun and
I really appreciate you being on the
show cool do you want to get to some of
the comments yeah of course of course
cool um Andrews talking about having a
great why we saw it back to like the
regret comment I think yeah do you have
a great why that’s the foundation for
your otherwise is this a statement
question yeah well just like typical
yeah guess the question with you what’s
your great why so you have a great why
that is the foundation for your
otherwise like one big one that’s above
the others yeah and the little baby wise
underneath yeah so um you know I I do so
I am all about the story um for me I i
became a you know people become
journalist for different reasons but i
really felt that I wanted a front seat
to the world right to be able to tell
those stories so my why is always about
getting the story out and today as a
brand journalist in working for
corporations in helping other people
build what’s so important to them it’s
gone beyond just telling the story but
helping them live what i would call
purposeful lives and you know these the
integrity of doing and pursuing what you
want and that’s what
drives me to do what I do that’s why I
have you know some 350 episodes of the
brand journalism advantage podcast
because I’m learning from that but then
I also feel like hey I could have done
this and called up and gotten these
interviews and just kept it to myself
but I felt like it’s so important to get
it out to the world as well so that’s
that’s kind of in what’s driven me and
it’s the stories have changed i don’t i
don’t cover double homicides anymore
thankfully you know I now get to cover
the cool stuff like people like yourself
and and you know the editor-in-chief of
entrepreneurs gonna be on my show so
people like that who are really doing
awesome stuff and that’s what inspires
me and that’s that’s what literally when
I feel those moments where I want to
give up that’s what keeps me going don’t
people people love the baby wise comment
there hashtagging baby harness Thank
storytellers hashtag babywise um J reyez
is asking why is it called the brand
journalism advantage ah good question um
and sometimes i wonder if i should have
called it that but but um you know
here’s kind of a shoutout to John Lee
Dumas who does entrepreneur on fire I
met with him and I actually told his
story a video story and we got into this
discussion about brand journalism and he
kind of advised me just call it what it
is and so in that moment I was like well
as brand journalism and it gives you a
competitive advantage so if you put it
all together that’s why at the end of
the show I always ask the question
what’s your competitive advantage in
20-25 brand journalism is storytelling
for brands not necessarily about brands
but it’s to benefit them and their
audience and so it’s not content
marketing it literally is sort of a new
style storytelling and it gives you that
advantage in your marketplace so the
brand journalism advantage it’s it’s
super long but well there you have it
Google the follow-up was thank you for
the clarity and people have a lot of
respect for positive storytellers so
there you go how do you stay on
top of social trends collective
conversations and the flow of attention
hmm man ok so my iPad sitting here next
to me my macbook’s are here my
smartphone um I am on social media all
the time I do a lot of events um so I’m
asked to MC a lot of different things
you know I just did at the time of this
recording the LaCosta film festival and
you know had a lot of the directors in
their learning about their storytelling
from a cinematography angle but i keep
on my iphone and and my Apple watch I
keep tons of content flowing to me and I
read all the time i watch all the time I
am an avid learner and I think you’ll
hear that about most journalists they
want to learn learn learn it’s you know
it’s like this insatiable desire that we
have and so I’m always plugged into that
uh maybe sometimes to a fault you know
that I have to kind of like okay let’s
chill out and and and have those those
moments so that’s why I go and I
practice yoga and and I try to unplug
from it but I really consider it my job
I can’t do a good job for my clients and
I do take on lots of clients especially
in the lifestyle space and I’m expected
to know you know I can’t know everything
you know I mean I often call myself a
strategist rather than an expert even
though I ask you know expert predictions
but because we’re always learning and
we’re always honing that craft so I’ve
spent 20 years in front of cameras and
and you know microphones and things like
that but there’s always something I
learned from someone else so I think
that if you keep those streams alive and
then I use things i can tell you i use
bundle post i use HootSuite i use apple
news i use google news i use twitter
everything you can imagine to bring that
in and just kind of go through it so i
set aside a portion of my day to really
get that that download and I and then I
I try to stay up on everything even the
things that I’m maybe not as
you know um as in two I still think it’s
important to know about and that’s
that’s a journalist perspective for sure
cool well people saying a good answer I
like the honesty thank you nice hashtag
advitor so they’re liking it hey um
maybe one last question cuz in a week
yeah uh basically asking about on-air
interviewers how can people be better on
air interviewers or what are you seeing
wrong with how people are interviewing
on there so here’s what I’d recommend i
started out at KPBS which is the public
broadcast station now that’s radio but I
wanted to be on TV and I got my feet wet
there and I worked for you know a cable
portion of the station for the visually
impaired and I just practiced so much
like Evan said I think you said 4,000
videos or something like that you get
better by doing that is the only way so
what I do is I carry on this I carry a
secondary iPhone because I teach iphone
storytelling and so sometimes you know
I’m plugged in on this one and sometimes
i’m using this with camera gear attached
and i’m telling stories so much these
stories get on the air as far as and
when i say on the air i’m talking about
your non-traditional now YouTube but
sometimes they make it on the air on TV
news segments you know that kind of
thing as well the way you get better is
to force yourself to do it so if you
want to be a better writer write
everyday read every day make it a
practice same thing with my yoga same
thing with the interviewing so get these
people on to your show start as small as
you have to start ask them you know I do
a lot of speaking for people because I’m
happy to help but you know that’s that’s
what got me off the ground but the the
number one tip is don’t just do it
review it okay and I didn’t mean it to
sound that way but it kind of came out
that way you know literally don’t just
do it review it because when I started
out in the industry I was afraid to
watch myself on camera because I was
just horrified I didn’t think I looked
good
I didn’t like the way I sounded I was
super critical you know all of this goes
through your head you have to be able to
watch it and review it because if you
don’t you’re just basically doing
without evaluating so that’s the same
thing as if you work for a brand or your
business and you go out and you put out
all this content you never look to see
is anybody reading it or what’s
happening with it or you don’t measure
it you get better through measuring
results same when you hit the gym you
get better by knowing how much you
lifted last week versus how much you’re
lifting this week right so that is
probably one of the things that I see
the least practice and when I when I
coach in this area and I’m videotape
folks often they don’t want to watch it
you know they just want to hear me give
their feedback and I’ll say or even
after a podcast you know what’s really
great I’ve noticed a trend lately is the
pod the interviewee will say to me what
could I have done better so if you ask
that question that also helps but
literally go back and listen to it as
painful as it may be and a lot of times
you’ll find it’s not painful because it
really was indeed good the final part
that I would say to that is just be real
up when I learned I start off talking
about KPBS when I learned to watch their
style if you listen to Ira Glass and you
you follow the great story and that
those guys are really great storytellers
it’s different from TV news because we
have a very commercialized structured
style which actually I love this YouTube
space and Facebook because I can break
away from that in a way that I couldn’t
break away from it as a TV newscaster
because I had to hit certain times and
you know there’s a countdown going on
five four three you gotta hit this sound
bite right and there’s all this going on
like you were talking about with all the
cameras and everything so it’s a
different vibe so I think now is the
greatest time for some of the people who
are just super low-key they don’t have
that singsong eNOS in their voice that
comes from you know a newscaster that
has been poorly trained or just you know
isn’t plugged in so that last parting
advice after reviewing it and being real
is keeping in your head who you’re
talking to and be
in the present moment because you will
go to somewhere else if you’re not in
the present moment and when your
delivery isn’t isn’t in the present
moment you’re not going to sound good
you’re going to sound canned or fake and
people don’t resonate with that so now
we can be as real as we can be and
that’s what’s awesome i love that very
cool as a fountain of wisdom over there
i love it well Phoebe thank you so much
for the opportunity thank you guys for
watching on the live stream too and all
the great questions you can check Phoebe
out that think like a journalist calm
this podcast coming out in a couple
weeks yeah maybe even sooner i’m going
to link it together with you know some
of the founders of our enough founders
but the managing editor and the
editor-in-chief of entrepreneur so good
good stuff cool well thank you guys
again for watching Phoebe and I both
believe in you we hope you continue to
believe in yourselves and whatever your
one word is much love guys see you soon
bye bye
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