alright everyone welcome to their
Google+ Hangout I’m excited to have dr.
Alan Zimmerman with me on today he asked
me if he could interview me as a part of
his book launches coming out that sounds
very exciting and I said yeah let’s do
it and why not we want to turn into a
google hangout so I could promote him to
my events too and he wanted to ask him
how to create a life that you want and
so I haven’t looked at the questions I
like to spawn 28 though over you Allen
take it away well thanks Evan I’m Alan
Zimmerman and as Evans said I’ve been
interviewing 12 superstars in the world
of business entrepreneurship and
certainly one of them and I’ve been
impressed with his work for years as
ensure all of you listening have been
and so I thought let’s go behind the
curtain and not just see the techniques
but some of the secrets of Evans success
I read some of your bio ebony mentioned
such things as being a DC capitalist
raising money building software
companies selling them you breathe you
bleed on preneur shit but what caught my
attention was a couple things two World
Records a stand-up desk riding a vespa
raising funds for Kiva wearing five-toed
shoes and of course loving your wife
your son Toronto Blue Jays before we dig
into the seekers of success tell us
about those World Records what were they
for sure first of all I want to say I
love your voice it’s like like a
baseball announcer or like a radio show
host its yeah you could do a lot of
voice over stuff to it do you have a
radio show I don’t thank you but my
first job was a DJ actually way back in
college oh there you go there’s the
Train I’m cool okay so yes i listed a
whole bunch of stuff in my bio uh I find
most people’s bios are boring you know
that’s the same same kind of stuff you
know it’s featured in this magazine in
this publication here’s what i did and i
don’t know i just wanted to add
something a little more different and
unique and you know even just the
question that’s just the personal stuff
is what resonated with you when sparked
the interest more than the business
stuff so that’s cool the two World
Records one was for the largest
mentoring
session I know is based here in Toronto
Canada and a friend of mine asked me if
I would be one of the mentors and they
had I don’t know how many thousand
people we took over one of the biggest
convention spaces in the city and it was
speed mentoring and they had all these
entrepreneurs and we had two to three
minutes each and you basically it’s
really hard they gotta you gotta give
them advice in you know two to three
minutes and then you know the bell would
ring and then a new person would come
and the mentees kind of switch chairs
every time we sat we were so that was
fun the other was building the world’s
largest QR code to support a local
entrepreneurship here in Toronto again
where we took a liberator field and we
carried these pieces which were then the
up being the pixels of the QR code and
then I was taken from a helicopter above
the ticket football oh yeah to old
records that’s what they are hey cool I
don’t interview many folks like that
with World Records that’s cool what
about the five-toed shoes are the five
toe shoes so then the vibram shoes
they’re right about them I don’t know
how long ago maybe five years ago but
using them ever since ah the idea behind
that is walking shoes is not good for
you I’m I used to have a lot of knee
problems and I’m young like I’m 35 now I
had knee problems from when I was in my
early 20s from you know I mean I don’t
know from what but um as soon as I
changed my running shoes to kick out
throwing shoes and go with the five toe
shoes it’s meant to simulate your bare
feet and as humans I don’t know the
science behind it but you’re supposed to
be barefoot as much as possible around
the house I’m always barefoot and when
I’m out and it’s other honest we get
snow a lot but I when it’s not snowing
one of the permits i’m wearing my five
toe shoes well cool that’s a little
bonus for all our listeners right kind
of shoes to wear yeah so the audience
knows i spent about 30 years researching
the ingredients of success and teaching
others how to get those ingredients into
their lives under their work the first
ingredient is purpose and obviously your
extraordinary entrepreneur you have
vision
purpose drive so I would ask how do you
define your purpose and why is that so
important to you uh my purposes on the
wall here you know III believe in people
um all my life and I didn’t discover
this until you know a lot later in life
but all my life I believed in people
I’ve been optimistic I’ve encouraged
people I’ve when people come to me with
an idea that others you know may just
poke holes in I try to encourage them
I’ve just always been that kind of
person and I enjoy it I enjoy being a
cheerleader the supporter the believer
and I’ve applied that to entrepreneurs
because they’ll zap like connect with
most I’m a notch for myself and I find
that they need it most because a lot of
people who are starting the business you
know they need to be the first in their
family to try to do it certainly
business one of the hardest things that
you’re ever going to do in your life and
they don’t have a lot of support they
don’t have people who believe in them
and being an entrepreneur myself and one
who almost failed I find that I get a
lot of great personal joy and
satisfaction by helping other people
believe in themselves and giving them
it’s it’s both the motivation the
inspiration but also the tactical
strategies of how do you you know apply
the information of your business grow so
um my purpose is I believe in
entrepreneurs yeah I love it and I love
that comment about believe in yourself i
really know from the research that you
perform exactly as you see yourself you
don’t believe yourself see yourself
positively don’t perform very well I’m
right with you and I thought a lot of
entrepreneurs really struggle trying to
figure out what is my purpose why am I
here what am I supposed to do they
struggle and struggle so what advice
would you give to entrepreneurs who are
trying to find their purpose uh so I
find that there’s two kinds of people
there’s a there’s a people who know what
they want to do they have a passion for
something and they have a good they have
that clear kind of goal but a lot of
them aren’t necessarily doing it you
know I want to start a business that’s
my purpose is to do this
but but I met this job and I’m too
afraid and you know I have all these
limiting beliefs that hold me back and
the short answer without going to too
long as you gotta do it you have to find
a way to do it even if it’s part time
started small but momentum but you gotta
do it I then is the other people who
don’t know what they’re what they want
to do they have no idea they just know
they’re not happy with what they’re
doing now and my advice is to explore
you know to try things i will try almost
anything once and see if I like it and
most stuff doesn’t stick right I hate
mutt climbing I tried it once I hate
archery tag I tried it once I hate it uh
you know but I’m willing to go and try
my stuff and what will often happen is
you’ll you’ll discover that you fall in
love with something and it may not be
what you expected it may be something
that looks terrible on paper an example
for me is salsa dancing uh so yeah I’ll
try subsidence and why not on paper I’m
a really poor candidate for salsa dance
I’m too tall you know I take big steps I
don’t speak Spanish I don’t know the
music I’m learning late in life to like
all these reasons why I shouldn’t be in
salsa and yet I just went and I fell in
love with it and now over a decade later
and I’m an investor in the business that
teaches salsa ldj events i’ll instruct
some classes it’s something that I love
I met my wife from salsa and so if you
don’t know what you want to do that’s
totally normal but you can’t keep doing
what you’re doing so you got to explore
say yes to things try things out and and
don’t put so much pressure on it that
this has to be the next thing right just
go and see if you fall in love with it
and if not we’ll try something else I
like it don’t be afraid of failure when
I research successful people they see
failure is simply a step in the process
you learn from the failure you move on
to the next step yeah if I could add
something here I tell people when they
are trying to find their purpose or
clarify their purpose need ask themself
three questions the first one what are
you good at
secondly what excites you and thirdly
what difference do you want to make
you’ve obviously found the answer to all
three questions going beyond that going
beyond finding your purpose I think a
person has to live and work on purpose
indeed the only other alternative to
living on purpose is living my accident
which is most people yeah and I’m
curious what your thoughts are on that
but living by accident versus on purpose
yeah most people are reactionary most
people most people settle most people
look at the environment that they’re in
the upbringing that they’re part of and
that’s who they’re going to be you’re
going to be like your parents you’re
gonna you know that’s what you end up
being and most people don’t have the
courage to break free and realize that
those restrictions that were placed on
you can be broken free of you know you
don’t have to live your parents life you
don’t have to live the life of your
friends but most people they don’t plan
proactively they just live in a
reactionary world where their constant
is putting out fires and doing what
they’re told instead of saying hey
here’s what I want out of life here’s
the plan I’m gonna go make and and I
think even if even if you’re not very
good at it you know you can get good at
something if you’re excited by it if
you’re passionate about something you
can learn really quickly where I think
that holds a lot of people back they try
something and they fail at it and so
they’re never gonna do it again you know
when you try to anything the first time
you sucked at it you know ride a bike
the first time you go on you couldn’t
snowboard the first time you got on
anything you do you try to learn a
language you’re gonna be really terrible
the first time you try it that’s part of
the learning anything you’re going to
suck at it and the only way to get you
to sin practice and the practice comes
when you’re really passionate excited
about it you’re really passionate about
learning something you’ll pick it up way
faster than somebody who is forced to
learn it and may even be really good at
it you could eclipse them really quickly
because you’re deeply passionate about
it perfect answer didn’t expect that it
leads to my next question now I refer to
my research earlier that there are three
ingredients for all success and all
successful people first one is /
we’ve talked about that the second
ingredient is passion you just mentioned
that and Evan I find passion throughout
your work in your believe logo right
behind you everywhere I see in your work
the way i visualize passion is like a
fire you need some fuel and oxygen to
keep it burning and needs sapphire ring
to make it useful and I think the fuel
for passion is attitude so you mentioned
it a little bit but tell us what role is
attitude played in your business life in
your life overall that’s a never been
asked that question before yeah I like
it up you know I talk about mindset a
lot and I think attitude and mindset are
our kind of closely related um I think
attitude is is really important right
like you can have all the passion the
world to want to do something but if
your attitude is I could never do that
then you’re you’re constantly stuck in
the world where you don’t go out and
achieve your goals and that’s most
people like most people live for the
evenings and the weekends most people
and teach their jobs and they’re working
for some boss and their attitude is I
can’t change this like I don’t like it
I’m not passionate about it but the the
attitude that I’ve taken is I can’t
change my surroundings I can’t go out
and do things on my own and and they
just take a negative approach where it’s
this really sucks my life sucks i really
hate this and i can’t wait till saturday
comes around where you know if you
change your attitude and said hey maybe
there’s a way that i could do something
else you know maybe i could live my life
on purpose maybe that thing that I’m so
passionate about maybe I should give
that thing a shot that’s when your life
starts to change yeah yeah and another
one of my books I talk about attitude
and it’s quite simplistic but I tell
people that basically good attitudes
tend to bring good results and bad
attitudes tend to bring bad results
pretty basic the question I want to
bring up is it’s easy to keep a positive
attitude and everything is going well
but we know the lighten up renewer is
more challenging than that so what have
you done to maintain a positive attitude
when things might be challenging yeah a
couple things and this there’s a whole
ton of questions coming in on the chat
too
this will kind of answer one Alex Gordon
how to keep my motivation up when when
your life is down so a couple things
three three main things i’ll talk about
first is having a routine that sets you
up for success a lot of times you know
you may read you may read islands book
one I have to do and feel like wow I’m
so jazzed up now I’m going to live my
life on purpose but you know maybe he
didn’t open that book the four o’clock
that afternoon so what happened to the
morning right and a lot of times every
day you wake up you may be really
exciting if you listen this interview
and you get all jazzed up and excited
and you’re off killing it on your
passion and then the next day you wake
up and it is gone it was like well now
what like you got to start over every
day at least I find that for me I gotta
stood over every day and so instead of
waiting for something to happen waiting
to be inspired waiting for a moment of
inspiration to happen I design it and it
created a routine in the morning first
thing is listening to music like put on
music that makes you dance it gets you
excited that music changes your state
you know what I look music may be
different than what you like and music
may be different from the viewers so
there’s no like you listen to this song
but whatever makes you want to dance and
move you got to play that kind of music
in the morning to get you excited and
move in and ready for action the next
thing is a big why you know what’s the
big why what are you what are you trying
to do I want to help a billion
entrepreneurs that’s a motivating goal
that keeps me inspired and excited if
you don’t have a big why then it’s hard
to stay motivated and excited so what’s
your big goal that you want to go and
accomplish and then the third part is
the little wise and the little wise are
the the everyday small wins that you see
and this is what can help really keep
you motivated it’s when um so for me
it’s my youtube comments you know i love
my youtube com to youtube comments are
one of the first things i look at every
morning because it’s all these people
sending Evan great job thank you so much
you changed my life I really appreciate
like that gets me fired out once we go
out to do more and put more of myself
into it I’m fortunate now that I have a
large yo following that fuels me
or had that I want to do public speaking
I would always get you know the notes
from people afterwards their feedback
and I would just put that into a
powerpoint presentation I would watch
every morning just people’s comments
about my presentation about thank you so
much for the great presentation it
really changed my life that kind of
stuff and and as entrepreneurs you’re
getting feedback all the time from
customers and people you’ve helped and
so I would just put that together in a
PowerPoint and look at it every morning
the little wise to remind you that you
know what you’re doing is important to
have any impact on people’s lives you’re
right those are so practical love those
ideas I mentioned that passion needs
fuel and oxygen to keep it burning but
it also needs talk about the attitude
part but the oxygen keeps that fire
burning I call that persistence to keep
on keeping on in my world of speaking
training consulting and writing I say
eighty-five percent of the people give
up within a couple three years they lack
persistence so what role as persistence
played in your career uh it’s huge you
know you gotta you gotta do something
every single day for your business and
if you are doing it even if it’s part on
him you got to spend time every single
day on your business even it was half an
hour a day you hadn’t something every
day and I look at so this is going to my
YouTube audience uh you look at my
youtube when I first started on my
youtube channel I was i socked and I was
part of an agency and they and I almost
didn’t make it in because I wasn’t good
enough on youtube and then I practiced
you know where everybody else at the
agency was making one video a week and
having a hard time making one video a
week i was doing two videos a day haha
and then within a couple months i was
being used as the best practice at the
agency for what to do on youtube i went
from not being good enough barely good
enough to get in to being the best
practice at the agency in a couple
months because of consistency i found it
you know i made an important time I said
this is my goal I’m gonna spend time
every day doing this and I released two
videos a day others couldn’t do one a
week and and I grows up really quickly
and that’s just through consistency and
people complain that I don’t have time
to make a video you know
when I’m sick I make a video when I’m on
vacation I make a video if I’m in a
hospital I would be there with my camera
making a medium like I gotta get two
videos out per day and that’s being
assistant you got to do it for your
business bro it’s also being
extraordinary when I’m coaching
entrepreneurs I heard them say well
that’s just who i am i’m not good at
sticking to something and that may be
true but i think it’s a big fat lie also
in the sense that you can change you can
improve you can become consistent on the
flip side them there are some situations
where maybe it’s better to let go and
move on to something else yeah do you
have certain guidelines that you use to
decide when it’s time to move on and
when it’s time to keep on yeah pretty
simple when you don’t love it anymore
uh-huh as long as you love it you going
to keep going you got to find a way to
keep going you take another job you know
you go back to the workforce whatever it
is if it’s still your passion you got to
find a way to keep going because
otherwise you’re going to live a life of
regret you’re going to look back on your
life and you’re 75 and save man I wish I
just gave that one more month or one
more try and that’s not the life you
want if you don’t love it and a lot of
entrepreneurs will hang on for too long
in they then their business plateaus and
it sets of decline they don’t know what
to do sell it really if you can get
money out of it sell it if you can’t
just dump it move on to something else
you have to for you to create great
works for you to have a big impact on
the world it’s it’s never going to come
from doing stuff that you hate like if
you’re not in love with what you’re
doing you won’t create something amazing
so as long as you love your business and
love the idea behind it then keep going
maybe that’s fine a different way to
stay and trying different strategies and
maybe going backing in the job in
between part time uh so as long as you
love you guys keep going if you don’t
love it then you quit we wanted
something else it’s totally cool I hope
everybody wrote that answer down that’s
a great answer if you don’t love it it’s
time to move on we’ve talked about
hashing needing fuel and oxygen to keep
it burning in my book the payoff
principle I also talked about the need
for a fire ring to make the player
useful without a fire ring the fire can
burn the wrong direction can burn out of
control and I call it firing character
or integrity or doing the right thing
and from what I know about you Evan in
your work your business character is an
important part of that so how would you
define character and how is that
affected your work in your decisions uh
again I think it’s pretty simple for me
you do what feels right um and I think
the hardest part when that comes in is
usually around money you know when money
yeah every time I’ve done something for
money the didn’t feel right I’ve always
been burned always always been burned
and it’s always tempting right oh here’s
this huge opportunity this huge deal but
to do what I gotta do this thing that
I’m not super happy with uh and it just
never worked out so um it’s just a gut
check for me am I excited about this
right do I have reservations and and
it’s important to understand that the
reservations are out of fear I’m afraid
to do this I’ve never done before this
is bigger than I’ve done before and so I
make up a reason for not doing it or is
it legit like this makes me feel
uncomfortable and if I feel
uncomfortable um I feel like it’s it’s
violating a personal value of mine then
I try to say no to it I like that I
think you’ve answered my next question
already but i’ll bring it up anyway when
I work with salespeople entrepreneurs I
hear a variety of opinions when it comes
to character at one end of the spectrum
some people say well it’s just tell them
whatever they want to hear and others
will say honesty is not the best policy
it’s the only policy let’s say you’re
coaching some entrepreneur Albin about
doing the right thing the character
thing anything else you’d add to that to
make the right decision I you know
you’re playing a long game as an
entrepreneur if you want to play for the
war and not the battle and all of those
all of those things that seem like maybe
it’s a good idea just chasing
opportunity but it violates the core
value of yours it never works out in the
long term um and and it just doesn’t
make you a happy person you know like
you want to feel good about the work
you’re doing feel proud about it if it’s
something that you’re not proud to have
being on the front page of your local
newspaper you know then then don’t do it
good guideline we’ve talked about the
three ingredients for success i call it
the payoff principle that purpose plus
passion plus process equals payoff we’ve
discussed the first two purpose and
passion purpose is the why of course why
you work so hard the meaning in your
work passion is the what what keeps you
going but processes the how how do I get
the job done and I think there are
certain skills or strategies or
competencies that entrepreneurs have to
use to be successful from your
perspective as one of the superstars
what are two three key processes that
people have to follow to ensure success
in their business um I think I think you
have to do you I think you have to
figure out what you’re best at and go go
all in on I think it’s never been easier
to start a business or to be successful
as an entrepreneur um and I think you
don’t give an example guy I was asking a
guy recently but a conference that was
coming up and should i go to it and he
said yeah it’s great networking but the
presentation material isn’t great so go
for the networking i suck at networking
I hate networking some people are great
at it but it’s not me I’m not the guy in
the airplane to like talk to look down
next to me and hang out my business
cards it’s just I’m not I don’t enjoy it
i’m not good at it it’s not out of fear
I just I don’t enjoy it it’s not me ah
and so that self-awareness helps me
because I have people come to me because
what I do is I kick up a bunch of noise
I become well known in my market and
people people then write to me like
yourself right hey can we do this
interview you found me right youtube or
somehow online for me what a lot of arch
birds would do is say I need to learn
how to be a better networker and so they
go and they say well to be you know
successful entrepreneur needs to be in
networker so they’ll try to improve
themselves on a skill that they’re not
very good at and I would say don’t try
to be well-rounded i would say trigger
what you’re amazing at and go be one of
the best world that we’re too many
entrepreneurs feel like i have to cross
these boxes off and then you end up
sucking at eighty percent of the stuff
you’re doing instead of
join them given the somebody else to do
or just eliminating them and focus on
the twenty percent that you could be
best in the world at is that’s where
you’re going to create a lot of amazing
work so being quite specific which
skills to focus on what’s your amazing
at ya like that and I’m surprised by
your answer actually you said you suck
it and he’ll working and and I look at
you I’m not a theory I’m when I’m on
camera when I’m meeting people I’m very
energetic but yeah I’m not a sociable
person in general it’s may be surprising
but I don’t strike up conversations I’m
usually by myself an event and I don’t I
don’t enjoy that kind of stuff so I know
that like it’s fine i don’t i’m not i
don’t beat myself up on it I just don’t
put myself in situations I put myself in
situations where I can be great and be
me that makes sense I know on those
inventories for personality I always
come out as an introvert yet my whole
job is on the stage speaking to people
yeah and I tell people a not be your
greatest strength but you can still do
it if you wish to do it you mentioned
some questions coming in any particular
question you want us to take and stop
for a moment yeah I mean we’ve got one
minute left so I want to make sure we
can stay where people can go um one more
one question this time sorry guys I
can’t answer all of this stuff I know
we’re really crunched on time miss
Ellie’s Prado wrote what are your
thoughts on loving more than one venture
and wanted to do it all my honest
thoughts were be trying to combine them
I try not to be try not to do two things
kind of halfway and make them boring and
instead combine them in a quick example
there’s a guy who’s a financial planner
who also loved hockey who’s the friend
of mine and he combined them and he was
a financial advisor for hockey ended up
getting huge deals with the hockey
superstars and they relate to him
because they love hockey he loves hockey
so you combine this passions together so
instead of thinking with two separate
business ventures trying to combine them
into one and be unique um that’s my
advice I’ll I know we’re bumping up
against the clock for people who are
watching where can they learn more about
you well my name again is dr. Alan
Zimmerman you can find my website by
just going to dr. Zimmerman calm
you can find the new book to pay our
principal on amazon com awesome thank
you for the time and good luck with the
launch I’m excited to see the book
you’ll be out there Evan thanks so much
appreciate it alright they care bye bye
Google+ Hangout I’m excited to have dr.
Alan Zimmerman with me on today he asked
me if he could interview me as a part of
his book launches coming out that sounds
very exciting and I said yeah let’s do
it and why not we want to turn into a
google hangout so I could promote him to
my events too and he wanted to ask him
how to create a life that you want and
so I haven’t looked at the questions I
like to spawn 28 though over you Allen
take it away well thanks Evan I’m Alan
Zimmerman and as Evans said I’ve been
interviewing 12 superstars in the world
of business entrepreneurship and
certainly one of them and I’ve been
impressed with his work for years as
ensure all of you listening have been
and so I thought let’s go behind the
curtain and not just see the techniques
but some of the secrets of Evans success
I read some of your bio ebony mentioned
such things as being a DC capitalist
raising money building software
companies selling them you breathe you
bleed on preneur shit but what caught my
attention was a couple things two World
Records a stand-up desk riding a vespa
raising funds for Kiva wearing five-toed
shoes and of course loving your wife
your son Toronto Blue Jays before we dig
into the seekers of success tell us
about those World Records what were they
for sure first of all I want to say I
love your voice it’s like like a
baseball announcer or like a radio show
host its yeah you could do a lot of
voice over stuff to it do you have a
radio show I don’t thank you but my
first job was a DJ actually way back in
college oh there you go there’s the
Train I’m cool okay so yes i listed a
whole bunch of stuff in my bio uh I find
most people’s bios are boring you know
that’s the same same kind of stuff you
know it’s featured in this magazine in
this publication here’s what i did and i
don’t know i just wanted to add
something a little more different and
unique and you know even just the
question that’s just the personal stuff
is what resonated with you when sparked
the interest more than the business
stuff so that’s cool the two World
Records one was for the largest
mentoring
session I know is based here in Toronto
Canada and a friend of mine asked me if
I would be one of the mentors and they
had I don’t know how many thousand
people we took over one of the biggest
convention spaces in the city and it was
speed mentoring and they had all these
entrepreneurs and we had two to three
minutes each and you basically it’s
really hard they gotta you gotta give
them advice in you know two to three
minutes and then you know the bell would
ring and then a new person would come
and the mentees kind of switch chairs
every time we sat we were so that was
fun the other was building the world’s
largest QR code to support a local
entrepreneurship here in Toronto again
where we took a liberator field and we
carried these pieces which were then the
up being the pixels of the QR code and
then I was taken from a helicopter above
the ticket football oh yeah to old
records that’s what they are hey cool I
don’t interview many folks like that
with World Records that’s cool what
about the five-toed shoes are the five
toe shoes so then the vibram shoes
they’re right about them I don’t know
how long ago maybe five years ago but
using them ever since ah the idea behind
that is walking shoes is not good for
you I’m I used to have a lot of knee
problems and I’m young like I’m 35 now I
had knee problems from when I was in my
early 20s from you know I mean I don’t
know from what but um as soon as I
changed my running shoes to kick out
throwing shoes and go with the five toe
shoes it’s meant to simulate your bare
feet and as humans I don’t know the
science behind it but you’re supposed to
be barefoot as much as possible around
the house I’m always barefoot and when
I’m out and it’s other honest we get
snow a lot but I when it’s not snowing
one of the permits i’m wearing my five
toe shoes well cool that’s a little
bonus for all our listeners right kind
of shoes to wear yeah so the audience
knows i spent about 30 years researching
the ingredients of success and teaching
others how to get those ingredients into
their lives under their work the first
ingredient is purpose and obviously your
extraordinary entrepreneur you have
vision
purpose drive so I would ask how do you
define your purpose and why is that so
important to you uh my purposes on the
wall here you know III believe in people
um all my life and I didn’t discover
this until you know a lot later in life
but all my life I believed in people
I’ve been optimistic I’ve encouraged
people I’ve when people come to me with
an idea that others you know may just
poke holes in I try to encourage them
I’ve just always been that kind of
person and I enjoy it I enjoy being a
cheerleader the supporter the believer
and I’ve applied that to entrepreneurs
because they’ll zap like connect with
most I’m a notch for myself and I find
that they need it most because a lot of
people who are starting the business you
know they need to be the first in their
family to try to do it certainly
business one of the hardest things that
you’re ever going to do in your life and
they don’t have a lot of support they
don’t have people who believe in them
and being an entrepreneur myself and one
who almost failed I find that I get a
lot of great personal joy and
satisfaction by helping other people
believe in themselves and giving them
it’s it’s both the motivation the
inspiration but also the tactical
strategies of how do you you know apply
the information of your business grow so
um my purpose is I believe in
entrepreneurs yeah I love it and I love
that comment about believe in yourself i
really know from the research that you
perform exactly as you see yourself you
don’t believe yourself see yourself
positively don’t perform very well I’m
right with you and I thought a lot of
entrepreneurs really struggle trying to
figure out what is my purpose why am I
here what am I supposed to do they
struggle and struggle so what advice
would you give to entrepreneurs who are
trying to find their purpose uh so I
find that there’s two kinds of people
there’s a there’s a people who know what
they want to do they have a passion for
something and they have a good they have
that clear kind of goal but a lot of
them aren’t necessarily doing it you
know I want to start a business that’s
my purpose is to do this
but but I met this job and I’m too
afraid and you know I have all these
limiting beliefs that hold me back and
the short answer without going to too
long as you gotta do it you have to find
a way to do it even if it’s part time
started small but momentum but you gotta
do it I then is the other people who
don’t know what they’re what they want
to do they have no idea they just know
they’re not happy with what they’re
doing now and my advice is to explore
you know to try things i will try almost
anything once and see if I like it and
most stuff doesn’t stick right I hate
mutt climbing I tried it once I hate
archery tag I tried it once I hate it uh
you know but I’m willing to go and try
my stuff and what will often happen is
you’ll you’ll discover that you fall in
love with something and it may not be
what you expected it may be something
that looks terrible on paper an example
for me is salsa dancing uh so yeah I’ll
try subsidence and why not on paper I’m
a really poor candidate for salsa dance
I’m too tall you know I take big steps I
don’t speak Spanish I don’t know the
music I’m learning late in life to like
all these reasons why I shouldn’t be in
salsa and yet I just went and I fell in
love with it and now over a decade later
and I’m an investor in the business that
teaches salsa ldj events i’ll instruct
some classes it’s something that I love
I met my wife from salsa and so if you
don’t know what you want to do that’s
totally normal but you can’t keep doing
what you’re doing so you got to explore
say yes to things try things out and and
don’t put so much pressure on it that
this has to be the next thing right just
go and see if you fall in love with it
and if not we’ll try something else I
like it don’t be afraid of failure when
I research successful people they see
failure is simply a step in the process
you learn from the failure you move on
to the next step yeah if I could add
something here I tell people when they
are trying to find their purpose or
clarify their purpose need ask themself
three questions the first one what are
you good at
secondly what excites you and thirdly
what difference do you want to make
you’ve obviously found the answer to all
three questions going beyond that going
beyond finding your purpose I think a
person has to live and work on purpose
indeed the only other alternative to
living on purpose is living my accident
which is most people yeah and I’m
curious what your thoughts are on that
but living by accident versus on purpose
yeah most people are reactionary most
people most people settle most people
look at the environment that they’re in
the upbringing that they’re part of and
that’s who they’re going to be you’re
going to be like your parents you’re
gonna you know that’s what you end up
being and most people don’t have the
courage to break free and realize that
those restrictions that were placed on
you can be broken free of you know you
don’t have to live your parents life you
don’t have to live the life of your
friends but most people they don’t plan
proactively they just live in a
reactionary world where their constant
is putting out fires and doing what
they’re told instead of saying hey
here’s what I want out of life here’s
the plan I’m gonna go make and and I
think even if even if you’re not very
good at it you know you can get good at
something if you’re excited by it if
you’re passionate about something you
can learn really quickly where I think
that holds a lot of people back they try
something and they fail at it and so
they’re never gonna do it again you know
when you try to anything the first time
you sucked at it you know ride a bike
the first time you go on you couldn’t
snowboard the first time you got on
anything you do you try to learn a
language you’re gonna be really terrible
the first time you try it that’s part of
the learning anything you’re going to
suck at it and the only way to get you
to sin practice and the practice comes
when you’re really passionate excited
about it you’re really passionate about
learning something you’ll pick it up way
faster than somebody who is forced to
learn it and may even be really good at
it you could eclipse them really quickly
because you’re deeply passionate about
it perfect answer didn’t expect that it
leads to my next question now I refer to
my research earlier that there are three
ingredients for all success and all
successful people first one is /
we’ve talked about that the second
ingredient is passion you just mentioned
that and Evan I find passion throughout
your work in your believe logo right
behind you everywhere I see in your work
the way i visualize passion is like a
fire you need some fuel and oxygen to
keep it burning and needs sapphire ring
to make it useful and I think the fuel
for passion is attitude so you mentioned
it a little bit but tell us what role is
attitude played in your business life in
your life overall that’s a never been
asked that question before yeah I like
it up you know I talk about mindset a
lot and I think attitude and mindset are
our kind of closely related um I think
attitude is is really important right
like you can have all the passion the
world to want to do something but if
your attitude is I could never do that
then you’re you’re constantly stuck in
the world where you don’t go out and
achieve your goals and that’s most
people like most people live for the
evenings and the weekends most people
and teach their jobs and they’re working
for some boss and their attitude is I
can’t change this like I don’t like it
I’m not passionate about it but the the
attitude that I’ve taken is I can’t
change my surroundings I can’t go out
and do things on my own and and they
just take a negative approach where it’s
this really sucks my life sucks i really
hate this and i can’t wait till saturday
comes around where you know if you
change your attitude and said hey maybe
there’s a way that i could do something
else you know maybe i could live my life
on purpose maybe that thing that I’m so
passionate about maybe I should give
that thing a shot that’s when your life
starts to change yeah yeah and another
one of my books I talk about attitude
and it’s quite simplistic but I tell
people that basically good attitudes
tend to bring good results and bad
attitudes tend to bring bad results
pretty basic the question I want to
bring up is it’s easy to keep a positive
attitude and everything is going well
but we know the lighten up renewer is
more challenging than that so what have
you done to maintain a positive attitude
when things might be challenging yeah a
couple things and this there’s a whole
ton of questions coming in on the chat
too
this will kind of answer one Alex Gordon
how to keep my motivation up when when
your life is down so a couple things
three three main things i’ll talk about
first is having a routine that sets you
up for success a lot of times you know
you may read you may read islands book
one I have to do and feel like wow I’m
so jazzed up now I’m going to live my
life on purpose but you know maybe he
didn’t open that book the four o’clock
that afternoon so what happened to the
morning right and a lot of times every
day you wake up you may be really
exciting if you listen this interview
and you get all jazzed up and excited
and you’re off killing it on your
passion and then the next day you wake
up and it is gone it was like well now
what like you got to start over every
day at least I find that for me I gotta
stood over every day and so instead of
waiting for something to happen waiting
to be inspired waiting for a moment of
inspiration to happen I design it and it
created a routine in the morning first
thing is listening to music like put on
music that makes you dance it gets you
excited that music changes your state
you know what I look music may be
different than what you like and music
may be different from the viewers so
there’s no like you listen to this song
but whatever makes you want to dance and
move you got to play that kind of music
in the morning to get you excited and
move in and ready for action the next
thing is a big why you know what’s the
big why what are you what are you trying
to do I want to help a billion
entrepreneurs that’s a motivating goal
that keeps me inspired and excited if
you don’t have a big why then it’s hard
to stay motivated and excited so what’s
your big goal that you want to go and
accomplish and then the third part is
the little wise and the little wise are
the the everyday small wins that you see
and this is what can help really keep
you motivated it’s when um so for me
it’s my youtube comments you know i love
my youtube com to youtube comments are
one of the first things i look at every
morning because it’s all these people
sending Evan great job thank you so much
you changed my life I really appreciate
like that gets me fired out once we go
out to do more and put more of myself
into it I’m fortunate now that I have a
large yo following that fuels me
or had that I want to do public speaking
I would always get you know the notes
from people afterwards their feedback
and I would just put that into a
powerpoint presentation I would watch
every morning just people’s comments
about my presentation about thank you so
much for the great presentation it
really changed my life that kind of
stuff and and as entrepreneurs you’re
getting feedback all the time from
customers and people you’ve helped and
so I would just put that together in a
PowerPoint and look at it every morning
the little wise to remind you that you
know what you’re doing is important to
have any impact on people’s lives you’re
right those are so practical love those
ideas I mentioned that passion needs
fuel and oxygen to keep it burning but
it also needs talk about the attitude
part but the oxygen keeps that fire
burning I call that persistence to keep
on keeping on in my world of speaking
training consulting and writing I say
eighty-five percent of the people give
up within a couple three years they lack
persistence so what role as persistence
played in your career uh it’s huge you
know you gotta you gotta do something
every single day for your business and
if you are doing it even if it’s part on
him you got to spend time every single
day on your business even it was half an
hour a day you hadn’t something every
day and I look at so this is going to my
YouTube audience uh you look at my
youtube when I first started on my
youtube channel I was i socked and I was
part of an agency and they and I almost
didn’t make it in because I wasn’t good
enough on youtube and then I practiced
you know where everybody else at the
agency was making one video a week and
having a hard time making one video a
week i was doing two videos a day haha
and then within a couple months i was
being used as the best practice at the
agency for what to do on youtube i went
from not being good enough barely good
enough to get in to being the best
practice at the agency in a couple
months because of consistency i found it
you know i made an important time I said
this is my goal I’m gonna spend time
every day doing this and I released two
videos a day others couldn’t do one a
week and and I grows up really quickly
and that’s just through consistency and
people complain that I don’t have time
to make a video you know
when I’m sick I make a video when I’m on
vacation I make a video if I’m in a
hospital I would be there with my camera
making a medium like I gotta get two
videos out per day and that’s being
assistant you got to do it for your
business bro it’s also being
extraordinary when I’m coaching
entrepreneurs I heard them say well
that’s just who i am i’m not good at
sticking to something and that may be
true but i think it’s a big fat lie also
in the sense that you can change you can
improve you can become consistent on the
flip side them there are some situations
where maybe it’s better to let go and
move on to something else yeah do you
have certain guidelines that you use to
decide when it’s time to move on and
when it’s time to keep on yeah pretty
simple when you don’t love it anymore
uh-huh as long as you love it you going
to keep going you got to find a way to
keep going you take another job you know
you go back to the workforce whatever it
is if it’s still your passion you got to
find a way to keep going because
otherwise you’re going to live a life of
regret you’re going to look back on your
life and you’re 75 and save man I wish I
just gave that one more month or one
more try and that’s not the life you
want if you don’t love it and a lot of
entrepreneurs will hang on for too long
in they then their business plateaus and
it sets of decline they don’t know what
to do sell it really if you can get
money out of it sell it if you can’t
just dump it move on to something else
you have to for you to create great
works for you to have a big impact on
the world it’s it’s never going to come
from doing stuff that you hate like if
you’re not in love with what you’re
doing you won’t create something amazing
so as long as you love your business and
love the idea behind it then keep going
maybe that’s fine a different way to
stay and trying different strategies and
maybe going backing in the job in
between part time uh so as long as you
love you guys keep going if you don’t
love it then you quit we wanted
something else it’s totally cool I hope
everybody wrote that answer down that’s
a great answer if you don’t love it it’s
time to move on we’ve talked about
hashing needing fuel and oxygen to keep
it burning in my book the payoff
principle I also talked about the need
for a fire ring to make the player
useful without a fire ring the fire can
burn the wrong direction can burn out of
control and I call it firing character
or integrity or doing the right thing
and from what I know about you Evan in
your work your business character is an
important part of that so how would you
define character and how is that
affected your work in your decisions uh
again I think it’s pretty simple for me
you do what feels right um and I think
the hardest part when that comes in is
usually around money you know when money
yeah every time I’ve done something for
money the didn’t feel right I’ve always
been burned always always been burned
and it’s always tempting right oh here’s
this huge opportunity this huge deal but
to do what I gotta do this thing that
I’m not super happy with uh and it just
never worked out so um it’s just a gut
check for me am I excited about this
right do I have reservations and and
it’s important to understand that the
reservations are out of fear I’m afraid
to do this I’ve never done before this
is bigger than I’ve done before and so I
make up a reason for not doing it or is
it legit like this makes me feel
uncomfortable and if I feel
uncomfortable um I feel like it’s it’s
violating a personal value of mine then
I try to say no to it I like that I
think you’ve answered my next question
already but i’ll bring it up anyway when
I work with salespeople entrepreneurs I
hear a variety of opinions when it comes
to character at one end of the spectrum
some people say well it’s just tell them
whatever they want to hear and others
will say honesty is not the best policy
it’s the only policy let’s say you’re
coaching some entrepreneur Albin about
doing the right thing the character
thing anything else you’d add to that to
make the right decision I you know
you’re playing a long game as an
entrepreneur if you want to play for the
war and not the battle and all of those
all of those things that seem like maybe
it’s a good idea just chasing
opportunity but it violates the core
value of yours it never works out in the
long term um and and it just doesn’t
make you a happy person you know like
you want to feel good about the work
you’re doing feel proud about it if it’s
something that you’re not proud to have
being on the front page of your local
newspaper you know then then don’t do it
good guideline we’ve talked about the
three ingredients for success i call it
the payoff principle that purpose plus
passion plus process equals payoff we’ve
discussed the first two purpose and
passion purpose is the why of course why
you work so hard the meaning in your
work passion is the what what keeps you
going but processes the how how do I get
the job done and I think there are
certain skills or strategies or
competencies that entrepreneurs have to
use to be successful from your
perspective as one of the superstars
what are two three key processes that
people have to follow to ensure success
in their business um I think I think you
have to do you I think you have to
figure out what you’re best at and go go
all in on I think it’s never been easier
to start a business or to be successful
as an entrepreneur um and I think you
don’t give an example guy I was asking a
guy recently but a conference that was
coming up and should i go to it and he
said yeah it’s great networking but the
presentation material isn’t great so go
for the networking i suck at networking
I hate networking some people are great
at it but it’s not me I’m not the guy in
the airplane to like talk to look down
next to me and hang out my business
cards it’s just I’m not I don’t enjoy it
i’m not good at it it’s not out of fear
I just I don’t enjoy it it’s not me ah
and so that self-awareness helps me
because I have people come to me because
what I do is I kick up a bunch of noise
I become well known in my market and
people people then write to me like
yourself right hey can we do this
interview you found me right youtube or
somehow online for me what a lot of arch
birds would do is say I need to learn
how to be a better networker and so they
go and they say well to be you know
successful entrepreneur needs to be in
networker so they’ll try to improve
themselves on a skill that they’re not
very good at and I would say don’t try
to be well-rounded i would say trigger
what you’re amazing at and go be one of
the best world that we’re too many
entrepreneurs feel like i have to cross
these boxes off and then you end up
sucking at eighty percent of the stuff
you’re doing instead of
join them given the somebody else to do
or just eliminating them and focus on
the twenty percent that you could be
best in the world at is that’s where
you’re going to create a lot of amazing
work so being quite specific which
skills to focus on what’s your amazing
at ya like that and I’m surprised by
your answer actually you said you suck
it and he’ll working and and I look at
you I’m not a theory I’m when I’m on
camera when I’m meeting people I’m very
energetic but yeah I’m not a sociable
person in general it’s may be surprising
but I don’t strike up conversations I’m
usually by myself an event and I don’t I
don’t enjoy that kind of stuff so I know
that like it’s fine i don’t i’m not i
don’t beat myself up on it I just don’t
put myself in situations I put myself in
situations where I can be great and be
me that makes sense I know on those
inventories for personality I always
come out as an introvert yet my whole
job is on the stage speaking to people
yeah and I tell people a not be your
greatest strength but you can still do
it if you wish to do it you mentioned
some questions coming in any particular
question you want us to take and stop
for a moment yeah I mean we’ve got one
minute left so I want to make sure we
can stay where people can go um one more
one question this time sorry guys I
can’t answer all of this stuff I know
we’re really crunched on time miss
Ellie’s Prado wrote what are your
thoughts on loving more than one venture
and wanted to do it all my honest
thoughts were be trying to combine them
I try not to be try not to do two things
kind of halfway and make them boring and
instead combine them in a quick example
there’s a guy who’s a financial planner
who also loved hockey who’s the friend
of mine and he combined them and he was
a financial advisor for hockey ended up
getting huge deals with the hockey
superstars and they relate to him
because they love hockey he loves hockey
so you combine this passions together so
instead of thinking with two separate
business ventures trying to combine them
into one and be unique um that’s my
advice I’ll I know we’re bumping up
against the clock for people who are
watching where can they learn more about
you well my name again is dr. Alan
Zimmerman you can find my website by
just going to dr. Zimmerman calm
you can find the new book to pay our
principal on amazon com awesome thank
you for the time and good luck with the
launch I’m excited to see the book
you’ll be out there Evan thanks so much
appreciate it alright they care bye bye
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