any we are live welcome everybody to
another YouTube hang out super excited
to be here with my special guest CEO of
sage Stephen Kelly Stephen welcome back
Greta beer ever thank you are you at
your London offices again yeah I’m here
but I’m traveling now pretty much for
the rest of July’s so I’m coming out for
the big sage summit in Chicago where
we’re going to have some amazing
celebrities including yourself Evan so
we’re proud to have you in host here in
Chicago with Richard Branson when it’s
pulled through zooey deschanel Ashton
Kutcher and Evan Carmichael I’m looking
for a new I love into chicago yet this
might be my first trip to chicago you
kidding me no it’s one of those cities
that just never hit so I’m excited and
and a hotbed of startups Illinois it’s
buzzing loads of tech startups those
early stage companies yes really
happened in place it’s good great city
looking forward to it so today we’re
talking about how to take smart risks
you know a lot of entrepreneurs or
people were thinking certain business
feel like it might be too big a risk to
jump in to become an entrepreneur and
you know I don’t want to take a mortgage
out of my house or I don’t want cash in
my retirement savings what do you think
I mean lots of questions coming in but
but high-level thoughts from you on
taking risks as an entrepreneur have it
do it in a smart way yeah I think we’ll
get on to the meat of it Evan but i
think all businesses all entrepreneurs
yeah have to take risk even what you’re
doing because you know seventy percent
of our customers you thrown life savings
remortgage at homes all the things we
talked about before because they care
that pursuing their passion and the you
know the only constant in life is change
so can I can I indulge you with a cup of
quota I did because I love this topic I
love this topic so much I’ll start with
a very kind of somber quote from a great
president JFK he says there’s risks and
costs to action but there are far less
than the long-range risk of comfortable
in action and that’s john-john Kennedy
now someone who is very topic win
use Muhammad Ali he who is not
courageous to take risks will accomplish
nothing in life and then one of my own
heroes Zukerberg among the burgh the
biggest biggest risk are not taking risk
that is the biggest risk in a world of
change the only strategy guaranteed fail
is not taking risks and the last one
which is my favorite heaven and I never
thought I’d do a shout-out for the
Kardashians but Khloe Kardashian I’m
strong I’m fearless and I’m not afraid
of taking risks in business big
shout-out for khloe kardashian so yeah
we’ve got to take risk and we’ll get
into the meat and all the questions it’s
just a fundamental aspect and it’s how
do we help your audience out there take
smart risks that drive additional growth
and value for their customers I love I
wonder how many CEOs of big companies
are giving Khloe Kardashian a shout out
I love it cool is there then be forged
questions is there a risk that that
you’ve taken the obviously taking risk
but it’s restore you can share that
might serve as some inspiration for
further people watching risk that you
took that paid off and we didn’t pay off
but you’re still glad that you did it
yeah and I think in the kind of what we
said before a lot is just follow the
audience follow your customers make sure
you where they are and I way back you
know before a lot of your your viewers
today were probably born I went to a
startup company early-stage company and
everybody I asked for advice said I was
a craziest guy on the planet I was
stupid I was leave leaving now kind of
good graduate program at a big corporate
with great training good prospects and I
went to this early stage Californian
company ah just kind of our VIP oh and
that company was Oracle and wow I spent
nine great years there and I never
looked back and that was probably the
best I you know I went to the University
of life in terms of scale in tech
businesses and I never looked bad but
every if I’d listened to everybody Evan
I would never even take taken the
interview and I took the job everybody
thought I was completely mad I had a
which other home it was reckless and and
then you know we just doubled every year
for what eight out of nine years I was
there and we had a fall and it was it
was just it was a blast did it feel
reckless for you to do it no fell
exactly the right thing I went into it
with my I knew it’s a big risk actually
do you know what this this is this is
what i told myself at the time do you
know what the guys who i’m leaving with
my current company i’m not going to burn
any bridges there they still like me
they know me they trust me i’ve proven a
little bit in year two years what I
could do for them so the end the day I
know they’ll always be a door open so
what am I worried about I think this
stuff we’ve sort of talked about before
the voices you have planning your head
and all these wise people around you
said don’t do it don’t do it don’t it
there’s more risk in staying where you
are typically than doing nothing and I i
do really commend you to just look at
you know the pros and cons look a little
bit objectively but do follow your
instincts follia gap and again it comes
back you’ve got to do with your love and
you’ve got to be in companies where you
want to be and you guys at entrepreneur
you’ve got to be passionate about you
will provide your services and what they
do for customers and I think within that
you know genuinely and I say this to
everybody inside the only constant is
change so how do we really kind of drive
anything around change and how we really
reconnect ourself to what matters which
is value for customers how do we you
know make our customers Raven fanatics
of our product and if we’re services
company I’ll services how do we kind of
never let a customer down and and you
just can’t stand still you just cannot
stand still and and I think the good
news is the entrepreneurs we serve a
much better risk takers the big business
they and they’re so much more connected
personally to the risks both on the
outside and the downside now people
might look at look at CH now it’s a-okay
huge company you know i’m i’m a small
entrepreneur i’m just getting started
talk about taking risk now i mean we’re
talking before
are getting on how you were one of the
only CEOs who supported the gay and
lesbian community some of the other
risks you’ve taken like what tell me
what you’re doing now that isn’t just
okay we have a big business we’re just
going to keep on but we want to
ferociously attack the future what are
the some of the risky things you’re
taking on right now I think what we’re
doing a lot of I think our
responsibilities business people have
talked about this before as well as
entrepreneurs is obviously you start and
you finish growing and building a great
company and it starts with really
motivating your colleagues i call them
colleagues my colleagues and sage to be
you know walking the talk believe in
everything almost having a DNA there’s
passionate about customers and then if
you’ve got amazing colleagues and you
build that from from doing the basics
really well and walking the talk and
live in the culture living the values
then you have customers who can feel
that infection they can feel that
passion they can feel that energy in
every phone call in every web hit you
know there’s got to be something that
really sets you apart and lifts you up
and I’ll save and I’ll be the first one
to say it say we’ve got a way to go i’m
never said it but always one more but
we’re definitely on that journey and
then with that said you know i think
then you’ve got a big responsibility
while what it bill to you products to
building your services you grow in
employ more people keeping keeping the
consistency the value to the first day
you started that company and getting
people excited about it getting all your
colleagues excited getting the community
excited getting your customers your
partner’s excited and having a big
social presence and then I think you
know back to what you said is I think we
should call out where we see injustice
in the world because i do think reality
you’ve got an amazing prime minister and
creditor Justin Trudeau he speaks on to
truth and i think there’s so many
leaders out there who just say what
they’re supposed to say and it’s all
very safe and it’s very boring and i
think actually what our colleagues
expect and our customers expect it is
you take positions on things so there
was a big issue
round Georgia where there was potential
legislation that discriminated against
LGBT we didn’t think that was right so
we pulled that out I’m we’re in a index
of stocks called the 3100 which is the
biggest companies in the UK and I think
I’m the only foot to 100 chief executive
signing up and supporting a charter for
LGBT and you know I just think we’ve got
to realize this is 2016 guys is hello
well what you know I just think
sometimes and again honestly big
business is locked in a time warp and
we’ve got to accelerate and I think
actually the entrepreneurs who are on
your pool today and we’re talking to
right here right now totally get it and
it’s the right thing to do and I think
the other thing I think you know you’re
in Toronto that there’s lots of wealth
as brilliant startups in Toronto but if
you walk down the streets in Toronto
there’s a lot of vulnerable people as
other homeless people so i would also
advocate we are the world credit we’re
creating jobs we’re creating momentum
and growth but also there’s something
about giving back to the communities we
serve as well and i think business have
got a big responsibility to do that so
that’s why we started the sage
foundation you’ll see its age summit
actually haven’t sorted kind of give a
shameless plug on this but you’ll see a
massive push around Sage Foundation what
we’re doing around the communities we
serve whether it’s building schools down
in South Africa whether it’s going to
help homeless people you know staff in
food banks all these sort of things
where we really encourage our bodies to
get out there and play an active role in
their community so it all speaks to
being non conventional if speaks to
doing and being proud to be different
because different sometimes is right you
shouldn’t be different just for
difference a but if you trust your
instinct rusty gut you know what’s right
and always I think in business like
anything in life you want to follow your
moral compass you know you know where
true north is and that’s where you’ve
got to pursue and that inevitably means
you’ve got to change you’ve got to
involve you’ve got to stir up yourself
you’ve got to say you know even if you
getting rave reviews and five stars from
your customers you and I know there’s a
new competitor
around the corner that you want to
reinvent the whole of the experience
their customers to improve and get
better I love it deliver rent there i
love it was good people are writing in
skl hooks a homeless LGBT in office in
schools I’m feeling it and people like
your quotes to at the start so that but
they might you might have set some
expectations there now for future
sessions to lead off with quotes I will
get to the questions now so those you’re
watching live if you have a question you
can leave it in the chat on the right
time and all the charts already blowing
up but I will try to hit up as many as
we can in the time that we have first
one comes from a longtime viewer we
should cap TV do you guys have any
wisdom principles about how to take the
greatest risk and turn them into rewards
yeah maybe I’ll go first divinar I think
the greatest risk and this is sometimes
actually in life you know I’ve been
shocked when there’s either personal
tragedy might I talked about my dad’s
business before this is when I was
growing up as a kid you know my dad got
sick and the reality of that is he can
run the business but because of that we
never realized at the time but from that
adversity that was a great opportunity
for us as kids just go and get jobs and
start businesses and and that was a
catalyst for my entrepreneurial spirit
and I know guys who have been fired and
gals a bit fajr and that’s been the
trigger point for them starting their
own business and they’ve never looked
back so I think um you know Rishi in
terms of the question you’ve got to
really look at the biggest risk is you
know ultimately if you get fired and if
you’ve got no job no income you got more
richly got a family that’s when you’re
really exposed but it’s it’s the spirit
of positivity and optimism to know that
you you’ve got so much to give back and
you’ve got so much energy and passion to
think of a gap in the market I think of
a product or service that’s going to be
kind of a world beater and just go out
there and create it yeah I love it and I
mean the thing can relate to the quotes
that you started off as well the
greatest risk is not betting on yourself
like the greatest risk is you know
putting your hands putting your future
into somebody else’s hands and thinking
you’re going to be a dancing job for the
next 40 years it’s you know it’s not
going to happen anymore and so it’s not
risky as much anymore to bet on yourself
it’s never been easier to start a
company and you don’t have to go in full
time at the start they learn the market
do it part time get your side hustle on
you don’t have to cash in your
retirement savings and you know mortgage
the house to the max because I’d also
shortens your one way because then you
only have like two months to make this
work and often it takes a lot longer or
if you can still have whatever is making
you money and then on the side start
your business get it growing get some
cash flow coming in and then once you
have it to the point where you can quit
you’re not making tons of money but you
have enough to pay the internet and feed
yourself and the family then now you
know when you go full time on your
business you’re able to spend a lot more
time to obviously and continue to grow
so I don’t know that you have to go out
and take massive risks but the greatest
risk of all is not not doing anything so
like I have this idea and then you never
act on it because you think is too scary
and then you know you’re 90 looking back
in your life and that’s the greatest
risk of all-cause you regret that you
can take any action yeah but I think
what do you say there it’s so true so
you know if you’re going to start a new
new biz Rishi then how do you do it in a
way we’re not betting the whole of your
life on it and you know we just done
some research with Millennials to say
there’s very different kind of segments
of Millennials out there with different
needs and there’s some very kind of
different motivations around them but
one common theme is that most of them
expect to be running and started more
than one business through their life in
a in Nigeria did this over 16 countries
in Nigeria summation they reckon they’ll
be running five businesses and starting
five new businesses their life which is
tremendous and then I kind of think it
comes back to culture of them and I’ve
always run companies with words I use I
treat the company’s money as if it’s
your own and
loved your concept of bootstrap at a
business and I used to you know when
I’ve started businesses or funder
businesses I’d say it’s really great to
almost run it on fumes for a while and
then kind of build momentum test drive
staff when you know stuff works for
customers are the product or services
then you scale out but you shouldn’t
kinda hate this concept I really
honestly hate this concept where you go
raise loads of money have flash offices
go flying around the world in business
class and just waste money and lose the
essence of waste on the business or
connection with the customers whereas
it’s much better to have that culture
where you’re a street fighter you’re out
there you’re grappling and scrap it and
you you really focused on delivering for
your customers and really making a
difference but to Evans point you’re not
you know every step of the journey
you’re kind of just thinking about
what’s the next risk what’s the next
it’s had away how do I reduce that risk
and I’ll reduce my exposure but you
still keep that essence of you know a
bootstrap business and even as you grow
your business I’m you know I got a
little case that a really good dumb
coming out in Vancouver actually
peekaboo beans started by Tracy Kosta
back in i’m in 2006 and she was her
passion was actually just amazing play
way for kids and clothes and she stunned
a brand sold it direct and then she saw
the you know cataclysmic change in terms
of buying habits between Main Street and
the web and she kind of moved our whole
business took a big business debt so
change the whole distribution channel of
all her clothing boutiques in Vancouver
and went direct but while she’s never
looked back and what seventy percent
year-on-year growth I think she employs
over 700 am salespeople scalable model
in and they’ve got 25 employees up in
richmond ave quarters but more
importantly she’s kept the ethos of
treat the company’s money as if it’s
your own remember those kind of really
exciting days when we started the
business bring that energy into your
business that you had on day one when
you used to take people down the bar on
a friday night or you got our keg of
beer into the parking lot
like that these those are the things
that first of all people remember and
secondly it keeps your true to original
values I love it and you know I always
love the Canadian success stories you
feel you put that in there just for me I
like it it’s a sickness I’m accountable
we love it oh cool Nathaniel’s asking
hey Evan can you ask Stephen Kelly what
books he recommends or suggest about
taking risks in business thank you I’ve
read a load of books and I would say
actually now a lot a lot of it is they
come back to the basics of trust rinsing
and and they all say the same thing so
whether it’s i read the google books
work rules pretty recently that’s pretty
cool around disruption and also you know
how bears all started at amazon that’s
pretty cool as well I I think you know
that what you need to do in all these
books is say yeah what does that apply
to me but but also you don’t want to be
a clone you don’t want to follow in
someone else’s shadow you want to be
your own entrepreneur you won’t want to
be your own you want to have your own
moon mission you want to take moonshots
and that’s what makes you special and
that’s what makes you different and i
would say it comes back to a lot of it
chattering things do you research around
customers and it’s so easy through
social now to get amazing feedback you
know in nanoseconds about your product
or service and listen listen listen
listen listen and then change evolve and
then you’ll you will be a world-beater
you’ll grow fast what’s your favorite
book of all time right love this but it
speaks to I just love disrupted a lovely
blue and I have with the status quo to
kill a mockingbird ah it’s my favorite
to kill a mockingbird and it speaks to
everything that you know even if
whatever you are what 50 60 years ago
and all the great changes through the
civil rights movement that have changed
the world a little bit but you know I
think all of us in entrepreneurs not
only want to pursue our passions but if
we can challenge inequality
and injustice then wow you know it’s not
about just building a great business and
clocking out the rest of the world we’ve
got to be part of the world we can’t
exclude ourselves in blog cool very
interesting next up is one of your
employees ask you a question this is
from what they do what they do as a new
North American sage employee how can I
get involved with driving more
viewership for our sage YouTube page as
a creator that’s great I think I’m what
number one everybody believe Evan
Carmichael watches channel right you
can’t grow up secondly any colleagues we
do a lot of stuff social web I’ve just
unearthed we’re doing some mum Scott TV
stuff now so and then I think to the
question specifically what I believe
every colleague in any company not the
sage you know your ambassadors for the
company you are with your one or ten
people and I think social is an amazing
mechanism and channel to amplify the
message to get your brand out to build
consistency and really connect with your
customers as well it’s just the best
yeah I haven’t I get um probably half a
dozen five or six issue you know we’ve
got millions of customers around the
world every customer knows that they can
tweet me they can ping me on social even
email me and they’ll get an immediate
response because you know with a big
company like us you drop balls not
everything goes right all the time you
give us some great feedback Kevin I
listen you always got to listen and if
you if you in terms of the colleague
who’s asked that question want to get
involved in social ping ping the guys
here you ping me directly and I’ll pass
you on all the social is old initiative
around sociability and we want to get
you you know to be a absolutely on the
volunteer army around our social course
yeah I think I think it’s storytelling
you gotta I want to feel your passion
for the business right and for helping
entrepreneurs I mean Stephens doing it
at a high level obviously being the CEO
we’ve got is two
our accounts going is doing these
hangouts has got great interviews you
know as an employee at a company and for
those who are watching who may not be
entrepreneurs yet you can still add
value for your customers by telling your
own story you may be thinking well I’m
not the CEO I’m not the founder you know
what’s my story why do people care but
your passion for the business your
passion to help entrepreneurs can really
help people connect because a lot of big
companies are just they’re faceless and
I you know I mean connect like Stevens
doing a great job I may connect with
with sage through his story but then I’m
dealing with somebody on the North
American team and you know I don’t know
who they are and so you could be one of
those voices so why did you start you
know why are you here why did you why
you sit in marketing why do you love
entrepreneurs tell me that store that
you grow up as an entrepreneur your
family entrepreneurs and then maybe to
extend that for for the entrepreneurial
audience who are watching the kind of
the bulk of the audience here telling
your story is your competitive advantage
you know I can’t understand why you’re
different than the next guy I’m just
going to beat you down on price and but
if I feel your connection if I feel your
passion I feel like you are going to cut
my grass or give me internet service or
whatever the services you’re providing
like you would for your mother because
this is just a deep passion that you
have then i’m going to buy from you and
i’ll pay more for that and that’s your
story that helps people understand that
and a lot of people feel like that’s a
risk to share their story people might
judge me you might get out there i don’t
want people thinking I’m this or that
but really that is your competitive
advantage and it’s not just about your
ego will and making you feel really good
it’s about a connection that your
customers can have to you and if you
don’t do that then you’re missing a lot
of opportunity not just to make money
but they have an impact on people’s
lives yeah but you know I just think it
even if we had no audience on I’d still
love to do this with you because I feel
they ever loved but we’re here to serve
the audience and we’re here to serve
every morn i wake up i think what can we
do better for our customers
entrepreneurs who are the champions of
all economists and I
well when we do these hangouts if we’re
not given your audience what they need
it hurts me you know like if we drop the
ball on a product we do a bad job for a
customer it personally hurts me and I
would say we’ve kind of got no ego doing
these hangouts we got no ego absolutely
we’ve got a lot of pride though and and
it comes to us telling our stories about
you know that sense of pride our passion
and our energy and our enthusiasm that
allows us to be very different to our
customers and I think you know if you
said all that so yeah keep telling of
stories it’s never about you it’s about
the story that’s about the customer and
it’s about the difference you make and
if you make magic happen you’re gonna
have a great business new to the future
success when I salute you I love it next
up Banerjee is asking being a student is
it a good choice for me to risk all my
savings on my startup plan when I’m
totally unaware of the outcome yeah I
think I’d say is there a way you could
maybe take 25 you sent your savings or
fifty percent your savings and test
drive your plan so obviously I don’t
know what your plan is but it sounds
like you don’t know what the outcome is
the way to find out what the outcomes
likely to be is to start you know again
a great quote from Martin Luther King
one of my heroes just changed the world
and he said when you’re going to go to
the top of that John staircase and touch
of the stars you have to just take the
first step so for you I think what we
say how could how could you and we
talked about it what is the minimum
viable product that you have to have to
test drive your idea how could you do it
I don’t know for ten percent of your
savings or 27 whatever it takes but the
other thing I do and actually ever this
is really cool and changing the culture
in this company there’s this thing and
it is some what I learned way back in
college called future future perfect
tense where if you’ve ever got a problem
or are you looking at risk if you
imagine you have overcome the risk and
you’re living in the future and then you
look back so you use different tense so
instead of
you know in 2017 I’m gonna try to grow
the business by a news future today one
hundred percent if you say auntie I’m
sitting here on a blab with Evan
Carmichael we knock the ball out the
part what do we have to do to achieve
our huge success so if you actually
change the tenth of what you use and ask
you the question how you know how did
you achieve the outcome of test driving
that you had a viable product for a
market in your new your emt new the
customer needs what did you have to do
to make that success and then say how
much investment did I say you know dude
take your time and again in the spirit
of street fighters how can you get
people to do something for you for
nothing how can you get your friends to
meant to you how can you get the social
bars how can you really kind of really
bootstrap stuff so it doesn’t always
take big money to start businesses and I
think some of the best business is back
to have example a really kind of ideas
that have grounded landed for customers
and then once you know what works then
scale it up I’m even i think i’m even
more risk averse I mean for me I hate
spending money into line making money I
will invest my heart my energy my hustle
but I will not spend money until I’m
finding a way to make money look at this
YouTube channel I already have a
successful business while I was stood my
youtube channel I didn’t invest in
anything i used my camera that i had and
borrowed a camera for other episodes
from a friend of mine i did to get it in
myself uh it all i did all the research
myself and that was that led to one
video a week max because i think it’s so
easy to spend money on the stuff right
like i could have bought the gear and I
could have hired an editor and I could
have had a white you know our green
screen and all of this stuff I got to
spend tons of money on this idea and
then I get into it like ah you know I
don’t know if I’m feeling this YouTube
thing and then I’m stuck with a garage
full of gear right and that happens to a
lot of people you put a lot of money
into something you’re not putting enough
time into it and suddenly you’re out of
money because you spent everything on
year and inventory so
I’d much rather spend the resources that
I had with my time to see if I’d love it
to figure out a way to make it work to
justify that this is an idea that is
viable and then as I start making money
reinvest it back into the growth so if i
was a student I would not be investing
my life savings into it I’d be trying to
hustle my way to figure out how I can
make money by investing my time that’s
what I would do I like heaven and and if
you if you’re ever out of an answer go
and go and talk to your customers
potential customers potential
prospective customers and find out what
their needs up they’ll they’ll tell you
straight away with you going to knock
the ball out the park or you get it’s
going to walk into a wall and then you
know if you’re going to walk into what
what would work for them to it close
that gap in the market so I think you’re
right yes exactly as Evan Evan called it
out you’re getting a lot of love here so
much wrong in this live stream hashtag
believe s Kelly so much heart Wow steven
is a quote encyclopedia thank you for
liking these quotes we gotta give me a
hotdog oh we gotta share that may be
wondering man I love it um okay Michael
how do I persuade a developer to code
for me even though I do not have much
money since I’m a student with a lot of
student entrepreneurs here I love that
no I’m and a couple of gigs we started
we got people actually one of the
companies i went to another style of
california startup this is a long time
ago about 18 years ago we kind of work
for nothing for a while did run
ourselves on fumes but boy it makes you
really hustle but we we got basically I
one of the guys when we took a mom we
said with Trey kind of cash for equity
and we gave most very small percentage
in terms of the company so there’s loads
of things you can do and again I think
if you’re right at the start of a
product with these studies you’ve got to
avoid boiling the ocean you just gotta
start small and then when you got
something works scale it up so so my
question for you if you’re going to code
a product and you’re going to build some
technology building that
whatever it might be kind of what’s the
minimum viable product that you need to
build and these days with technology
hopefully build that unless in a couple
of weeks but I reckon for a couple of
weeks coding someone’s likely to work
for free and there’s loads of things you
can do you can do to third earnings you
know and you could say lock it to the
company’s success you could give them a
small portion of equity says loads of
creative things you can do but also you
know obviously if you give people money
ironically this is sad about human
nature they tend to switch off from the
mission if you actually say you know if
we land on the moon together we take
some moon shots and everybody’s kind of
got skin in the game it really drives a
great culture and it keeps them keen as
mustard to really bit on the company
success and also the only other thing of
college students I know you know if you
build an app you reckon you can build it
out of it three days it always takes a
bit longer than you think so what you
need to do is keep keep that I’m not a
student really focused on delivering the
Minimum Viable Product and getting
something the hands of customers so they
can road test it and then you’ll
validate whether you got a business and
then then you can share it but I think
the final thing I’d say is we’ll all
these things just got to be honest with
because this guy could be a potential
coworker if he does a great job code in
your app you wanted to be your first
employee so how do you think about him
being you know effectively a co-founder
of the company and being on the
management team maybe it’s not the guy
may be easily best techy and he’s coding
for you so you need to kind of think
about head of how the movie might play
out but I also think you owe it to that
individual to share with them and be
honest with them and transparent with
them you haven’t got you know you’re not
kind of Warren Buffett yeah you’re a
student you’ve got a dream you you
wanted to be part of it selling the
story if you believe in the story he’ll
cut that LLL cut code for you yeah I
mean the only thing I agree with
everything Steven saying the only thing
I would add is if you want to be a tech
company you need to have tech leadership
in your team you can’t be a successful
app company
you’re so you’re not a coder you want to
run a nap great you can’t just have
somebody who you hire and then you know
us occasional maintenance on it if you
want to be a successful app company you
need to have somebody who cares just as
deeply as you do about the business and
as part of the company so you need a
co-founder and that’s not a decision
that you just take lightly you don’t
just enter into business with somebody
and like the values are super important
to not just a skill set but I wouldn’t
if you treat this just as I can hire
somebody and you know when I need them
all I’ll bring them on that is not the
way to build a successful tech company
if you don’t know how to do the tech
yourself you need somebody who’s just as
committed to doing this and build a
company if you do the business item they
do the tack but if you want to make it
big you got like look at every
successful tech company one of the
co-founders knew the tack you need
somebody on your on your team who’s
deeply committed who understands attack
yeah actually Evan just I love this is
another shameless plug your new office
so look at that guy behind you him
Stevie no I’m gonna come to him then he
was Stevie was genius tenish and that’s
the genesis of Apple you know guys
brilliant genius technologist great
partnership and if you think your your
body is going to be a great leader in
terms of a brilliant technical brain
then you could get him to cut the code
do the first kind of first product first
app and then offer him the opportunity
if it’s successful that they you know he
could be the co-founder with you with a
cut of the action as well and then
finally I just want everybody out there
in the audience to show some love for
Evan and Nina Nina Evans partner and
that’s the photo and I love the picture
and the dad there so that’s really cool
love it Evan core i5 Nina there’s new
year this wall will change the next time
we do it it’ll look even better so
you’ll see the you’ll see the evolution
of the new wall um no I school and thank
you Michael for the question
I this is an interesting one and Kita’s
writing in who is your mentor and also
how do you find the mentor if you don’t
have one that’s a great great point I
think actually in terms of small risks
key thing is generally you want to
attach yourself to someone whose shares
your vision is a disruptor but also
ideally we’ve got the experience of
having walked on your journey before so
you know they know where the bear traps
are but they know kind of where the
quick wins are all those sort of things
and they can really help you navigate
and manage the risk to you know the pot
of the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow so I would say I’ve really been
lucky I’ve had lots of mentors but
they’re both like four more mentors but
I love just informal mentors now I
encourage in our company I say to people
all our colleagues you know there’s
someone you really respect just go and
grab them in a hallway and say look
would you mind coming for coffee with me
mentoring can be over a coffee and a 30
minute conversation and I’ve never known
anybody with experience to see know they
always you know everybody likes to help
and everybody loves to help the next
generation I love going out tomorrow I’m
going with safe foundation we going out
food banks with kids and volunteering
and we’re going to be out with teenagers
and you know what better way for me to
spend some time and honestly I think I
think again you’ve got to stop those
voices in your head telling you I can’t
ask that person to be my mentor and I
wouldn’t even use the word mentor just
say looking at some advice I’ve got
massive respect for you you’ve achieved
a great deal and I just welcome some
advice I’ve never known anybody to say
no so I would also say the other thing
is you know there’s lots of people you
need to go to when you look at kind of
the risk in your business you use your
so what are the big risks is it is a
product risk of it you know can I build
a website can I was a technology risk
and then once you’ve identified that go
and find the people you can
and upload the gaps either in your
network on social media there’s tons of
people out there who are available out
on social media you want to make sure
you know they’re authentic and they’re
not looking to kind of make money or
explore you so you’ve got to be sensible
there however then you can i’d say this
guy Evan I’d say Evans one of my mentis
you know Evan gives me advice he pings
me you know a little tweet it pings me
an email he tells me what we’re doing
okay he says where we can do better I
love that I love that because it just
keeps me honest and I think what I’d say
therefore you should have a you
shouldn’t spend all your data it meant
it but there’s key people that you
respect that can help you navigate the
risks and overcome them and you should
reach out to them and I guarantee that
they’ll be there for you and they’ll be
there to support you and sometimes you
know if they’re really amazing people
you know and you grow your business you
get to tempe for 20 people and sometimes
you’re gonna think about you know
investment downstream there’d be amazing
people to invest in your business as
well cool I appreciate that before
before i get to my answer i want to sell
it you got a lot of love in the comments
for the Nina comment uh you know you
show us Nina you’re gonna get a lot of
love from the from the community so
there’s a soft spot there for her so so
it’s good cats blowing up I’m chica at
Chicago ah she wants to that’s the right
answer she wants to i’m honestly worried
that she’s gonna be bored like one big
girl she doesn’t like y entre preneur
stuff and and she she wants to come for
me and and I need to spend my time with
with everybody so that that’s like
that’s the challenge if we gotta figure
out well if she comes it’s gonna hey
Evan she should come yes cut your call
obviously but there’ll be loads of
amazing things parties and we’ll make
sure she’s well looked after well at the
hand of friendship any friend of Evan a
partner of evan is much loved in our
world all right i’ll let her know i’ll
let her know for the question I
mentorship I mean a good everything
he even said uh the only thing I would
add is I also benefit tremendously from
aspirational mentors you’ll see on the
next hangout five people here on the
wall so you got the one here in jobs
like I learned a lot from steve jobs i
would consider him my mentor even though
I’ve never met him I never will meet him
maybe in the next life who knows but you
can learn a lot from people who you will
never meet and so if you look at people
who have done what you want to do and
and you know we read their books Steven
recommended a number are ready Jeff
Bezos and a few other ones you can find
videos of them I do a lot of them on
this channel you can find aspirational
mentors in addition to traditional
mentor so you’re going out and meeting
for coffee in having that one-on-one
relationship you can reach out to people
just by researching them and finding of
use and learn from someone who has done
like way more than somebody you know we
more than the then you thought your
expectations yourself might be and that
pushes you to want to be able to do more
so I would just couple those together
traditional mentorship plus the
aspirational mentorship to make your
dream team to help your your business be
successful you have an aspirational
mentor Steven yeah I a lot you I’ve got
a few Anna just think in 2016 yeah this
is where social media is amazing and I
can go on and look at a TED talk I can
go on and I do get a buzz out of that or
you know whatever the challenge I face
Evan there’s so much content and help
out there available to help me or you or
any of us people i’m really i just love
authenticity and i love integrity and a
guy we’ve got coming to summit is
amazing we’ve talked about him before
richard branson serial entrepreneur but
from from the get-go he wanted to be a
disruptor he challenged the status quo
he did it with integrity started you
know what I love is people who I love
chief executives talking about how
important their people are their
colleagues their employees and just just
being in service of their employee
and Richard I’d tell you a party I went
two years if it’s probably 20 years ago
he used to have a party for all his
colleagues and it was just like the best
party of the year and all all his
employees used to camp at his home and
and they had rock bands and fun fairs
and you wouldn’t believe in stuff for
kids face painting you just couldn’t
believe them it was the best part of the
year and I go along and too richly must
have had he had thousands of people
working from and this guy they they
parked your car in field and then they
bust you into his house and I just blew
me away so there’s this guy chief
executive rockstar personally welcome in
every one of his employees and every one
of their kids and every one of their
husbands partners wife that just just
the humility of that just just move me
and I just thought wow this guy he’s
what it says on the tin he’s the real
deal and that authenticity I just think
is so fundamental and very special
interesting I know he’s going to come to
summit this month in in Chicago and
you’re gonna interview him on stage yeah
I’m curious what question you’re most
excited to ask him and hear what he has
to say I’m going to ask him loads of
questions that people would never asked
before one of the things I want to ask
him because this guy he started his
business at 60 we started a magazine
business then scouted into music
business then of the airways when he was
down in weston Disney couldn’t get on a
plane so he said there’s a gap in the
market here you know these kind of fat
cat airliners need shaken up and he
changed the commercial airline you know
he changed so many things about the
market because he’s a consummate
disruptor but why I want to ask him Evan
he’s probably Hayes run more businesses
than I could dream of and he’s probably
semi and he must be getting towards 70
now how does he keep the genesis of the
passion that he had
when he was 60 and just keep that drive
moment he probably works as hard now as
he’s ever worked and and I just want to
understand that what is the DNA the
drives it I’m curious how you would
answer that question because I see you
working hard and waking up I remember
when you came to Toronto I message your
teams and hey we should grab a coffee
and they’re like the only time to meet
Steven I think I was like six in the
morning or something something crazy um
and so like you have an insane schedule
your pack your final over the world uh
what are you keep it like how do you
keep your passion where that Genesis
come from from when you started as you
know that entrepreneur in California to
where you are now and still putting in
the grind and hustle about it’s just
ever we said it you said it I just love
what I do it’s all about making a
difference I’ve been so privileged and
generally humbled that I can do a job
Dyan sue love and I pursue my passion
I’m following my dreams every day I
always reconnect myself to this you know
the first day I started working and and
how I wanted to really make a difference
and to have that honestly we all know
you only get one shot in life but I’m
the luckiest guy alive and you know
that’s a real honor and a privilege and
that’s what drives me you know I work
insane hours I floral in the world when
we go to summon little things matter
that I’ll go and see every one of our
customers and partners that turn up and
again thank for being there thanking for
their loyalty to pour it matters to me I
think the other thing ever year like
this it’s very personal I say well we’ve
got no ego whatsoever but it is personal
you wanna you want to do the best dear
customers you want to knock the ball out
the park for them because they are
amazing people and and I for me that’s
what motivates me and drives me as much
as ever and I probably should tell you
ever and I’ve set my retirement date and
it’s are probably going to be the day I
die nice here we go again
I said morbid no but I just love why do
so much i’m just gonna I work at some
level because you know god there’s just
so much exciting when I go home on
Friday night we’re all exhausted but boy
oh boy sometimes you just move the
needle a little bit sometimes you’ve had
weeks of three steps forward to thurs
back in the startup world at all you
guys out there honestly every day was an
emotional roller coaster of ups and
downs a moments of depression but that’s
exhilarated that you know that’s the
excitement and we should never forget
that and that’s what keeps me going
something tells me that even you know
after you die the Stephen Kelly Spirit
will remain and you’ll you’ll infect
people and Stephen Kelly will continue
working even past then I feel it’s gonna
happen um question as Kelly will there
be a sage summit live stream for any of
the sessions we’re going to do one of
these live I’ll leave right but about
the other sessions like people watch
what’s going on yeah there’s a massive
that will be lost and they’ll be tens of
thousands of people on the live stream
so they were definitely do the search
not Evan and you know you will have will
publicize that and we’ll put on social
and it’s going to be absolutely rocking
so that’s a must see session we might do
some crazy things and get special gifts
and the crazy stuff like that because
it’s fun I hope we’re doing it from the
show floor as well and then also all the
kind of main key notes and everything is
going to be live streamed so if you want
to go to there’s a safe summit website
if you want to go to that it’ll probably
give you clothes at the time all the
details for the live stream and I think
some of the sessions will be amazing
just thinking about last year in New
Orleans both the sort of entrepreneurial
sessions and we had amazing people like
Colin Powell and Deepak Chopra and just
the wisdom of their their business years
and what they could bring to the
audience and stories that they can tell
it’s all about stories and
idea just in general i do find these
things inspirational so Evan will be
there but there’ll be loads more amazing
content and it will be live stream I
remember last year there were so many
people still even watching the live
stream while watching it there too that
the internet started to die at stage so
it says like crash the city with their
internet with everybody trying to watch
the live stream so yeah well the link is
already linked up in the description of
this video so you guys can check it out
and if anybody’s coming to Chicago let
me know because I want to meet you will
chat maybe do a hangout get something
going yeah a lot then I’ll join you for
that cool alright cool um ji rise is
writing at s Cal do you feel you’re
growing and improving your on-air
personality because of all of these live
streams hey that’s a great question um I
kind of think yeah okay i’m getting a
little bit better I’m bit clumsy but I’m
Evan healthy along he guides me on the
way I would never claim one of my
aspirations is to be a youtube sensation
I just want to be great for our
customers and connecting our colleagues
to create magic print something very
special and unique and I tell you what
we should do even if anybody comes from
your show to summit in Chicago will will
pose for selfies yeah you and me yeah
with them so right i think ya know Evan
are the great users guys I’ve got a
great coach or mentor ever and after
these shows says Steven you could do
this you can do that do that better and
i love it and you know it’s um it’s this
is great i think this is just a general
rule of thumb leadership i guess is
everyday you want to change into a
better job every day you’re never happy
with yourself and you’re never satisfied
that’s just the reality of aspiring to
you know touch stars and take moonshots
but it takes a lot to be able to change
your behaviors and and do more stuff
that really works but we will try to do
that so you guys can give me feedback
and we live in
died on feedback feedback we love and
again through social it’s just an
awesome way to get real time feedback to
Evan give me give me marks out of 10 but
be out of me be tough I will the
audience feels like you’ve been to her
on yourself ready you’re getting your
great as Cal clumsy what are you talking
about as Kelly’s amazing on-air and
always has the best ties so you like
this one this is on brand as well guys
and it’s one of our customers I love
buying trucks from our customers IRA
cool to be good out of my well say I do
a safe sandy pit of our customers i’ll
try not g whenever i’m going to come to
toronto and do some shopping at some of
the sage customers up there ever cool i
love it i love it um you can a bunch of
personal questions too and maybe will
lump them together and see which ones
you feel about it were entering there’s
a couple of them one was Evan please ask
him what his priorities are in love
wealth health relationship people want
to know if you have a college degree
people want to know what your morning
routine is so yeah so love do your love
pursue your passions I’m like ever and
I’m really lucky I’m very blessed to go
great family got amazing three daughters
I’ve got an amazing partner long time
partner and she’s unbelievable so I love
that I’ll be honest I’ve never done
business for wealth it’s just been
something you know in terms of creating
opportunities and making a difference is
driven me and changing being disruptive
yeah and and just doing what I love the
last thing I’ve ever thought about is
the money I’ll make out of what I’ve
done I’ve never thought about that when
it’s gone really really well the money
is followed and but but that’s not ever
been a motivator for me and it never
will be I’ll be honest my morning
routine is I get up and I kind of either
go for a run or swim or something some
sort of exercise probably about four
days a week and I’m getting up typically
around five o’clock and then I start
work sometime after six o’clock
and then I’ll go through till pretty
late tonight i’ll go through i’m not
late eight o’clock and then you know see
the family and stuff like that and then
catch up armaan emails or or social
after that and then back all over again
it’s like being on a treadmill life and
the great thing is every time we do it
Evan turn to up a notch or two and makes
me run a bit faster I know you do your
morning runs and I i I’m scared to join
I feel like you’ll destroy me in those
runs but I would like to see some some
snaps or some little YouTube videos
inspirational message five in the
morning Steven Kelley doing his morning
runs I think what would you ever comment
Chicago while dude I don’t know i’ll
probably get i’ll probably a total by
the police authorities for doing this
but will probably try and get a drone to
follow us on an early morning run and
we’ll do something crazy and obviously
put on youtube stuff like that but we
will do some crazy stuff with drones
just to follow us around the streets of
Chicago like whenever it gets light
there yeah and you can come with me and
we we will run at the pace of where
we’ll we’ll have a family kind of at the
sage family-run we’ll just whoever wants
to turn up you can come out running with
me and we guarantee we’ll go at the
slowest rate of the slowest member area
I’m will all across the line together
holding hands all right all right I’m
down otherwise I think I might need to
have my Vespa due to like run your like
training and i’ll be i’ll be on the vest
by next to you floyd mayweather um I
know that we love skirt oh the
connection got stuck a little there some
people asking about the the stream and
if it’s going to be available yes like
this is a live stream now but the video
will will live forever on youtube so
it’s the same link you can check it out
and watch it Steven you’re getting the
question from branimir at s Kel you’re
getting asked a lot people love the S
Cal what are your plans in the next five
years regarding the market expansion and
raising the quality of your services I
Brenneman that’s great question so five
years in this industry is a lifetime so
but we got loads of stuff actually we’re
going to profile
loads of this in Chicago and say summit
we I just think this is just in terms of
products this is the time I’ll hold this
up guys this wasn’t invented nine years
ago and now there’s two billion of these
on the planet and we run our lives from
the personalized apps in the palm of our
hand for my smartphone we sing
entrepreneurs deserve the same usability
business apps as the consumer apps give
us every day so we think you guys are
awesome people you do when you love you
follow your dreams and we believe its
age you deserve awesome technology and
therefore we’re going to be showing some
amazing stuff we’re going to do loads of
stuff in terms of machine learning
Internet of Things loads of stuff easily
mobility everything mobile first said
it’ll be loads of really cool technology
and then around the services offering so
we do want to just every time we touch a
customer we want to make that custom
feel obviously we answered an issue or
solve the problem but we want to make
them feel very special as well so it’s
not just kind of fixing the war but it’s
the hell so within that we’re changing a
lot of things in terms of our training
training around cultural values role and
all that stuff in terms of the other
team performance management systems it’s
not just people at Sage can be taught
performance but it’s how they do it’s
really important live in the valleys
Evans talked about this before you know
the values you have as an entrepreneur
the values you get up every morning
around building a company around
customers you know it’s really
fundamental particularly as you scale
and grow to keep those values alive and
in everybody you know have to train them
and reward them for living the values I
love it I know we’re bumping up against
the clock you’ve got a rush off into
your thing any last kind of parting
words on taking risk in a smart way your
advice for entrepreneurs yeah I think
final would and we’ve talked about a
better today you know with risk it can
seem daunting
they’re grown a business consent aunt
and so one I’ll encourage you as I said
use this kind of future perfect tense I
think there’s a psychologist can’t like
you who wrote about this and so we’ll
send you the link Evan on that but so
number one live in the future I think
great entrepreneurs they live in the
future they dream dreams and then they
were backwards to see how they actually
put the journey map together to deliver
those dreams secondly the risk you face
are never as big as you think right
honestly we’ve all done this you sit
down you worry about stuff you get out
there and you actually do it you find
after you have overcome the risks there
were never as big as what they appear to
be when you look to them and I’ve come
to kind of thing the first thing with
all these things is you know what it
says on your t-shirt there Evan you
gotta believe you know we believe in you
you’ve gotta believe in yourself and if
you believe generally you’ve got a dream
you pursue your passion do your love you
can overcome all those risks and you can
manage them and if you ever get hit with
big ones break them down like you know
coming up a little elephant and do into
small chunks to do it by size so they
can be overcome and you could be
successful but you have to believe I
love it steven thank you so much for
spending your time with us for all you
guys watching thank you too there’s a
ton of questions we didn’t get to so I
apologize but get them in early for next
time so you can answer them for you
hopefully we’ll see you at Sage summit
will do some selfies together thanks
again for watching continue to believe
and we’ll see you soon your eye stuff
thanks guys thanks everybody thanks Evan
another YouTube hang out super excited
to be here with my special guest CEO of
sage Stephen Kelly Stephen welcome back
Greta beer ever thank you are you at
your London offices again yeah I’m here
but I’m traveling now pretty much for
the rest of July’s so I’m coming out for
the big sage summit in Chicago where
we’re going to have some amazing
celebrities including yourself Evan so
we’re proud to have you in host here in
Chicago with Richard Branson when it’s
pulled through zooey deschanel Ashton
Kutcher and Evan Carmichael I’m looking
for a new I love into chicago yet this
might be my first trip to chicago you
kidding me no it’s one of those cities
that just never hit so I’m excited and
and a hotbed of startups Illinois it’s
buzzing loads of tech startups those
early stage companies yes really
happened in place it’s good great city
looking forward to it so today we’re
talking about how to take smart risks
you know a lot of entrepreneurs or
people were thinking certain business
feel like it might be too big a risk to
jump in to become an entrepreneur and
you know I don’t want to take a mortgage
out of my house or I don’t want cash in
my retirement savings what do you think
I mean lots of questions coming in but
but high-level thoughts from you on
taking risks as an entrepreneur have it
do it in a smart way yeah I think we’ll
get on to the meat of it Evan but i
think all businesses all entrepreneurs
yeah have to take risk even what you’re
doing because you know seventy percent
of our customers you thrown life savings
remortgage at homes all the things we
talked about before because they care
that pursuing their passion and the you
know the only constant in life is change
so can I can I indulge you with a cup of
quota I did because I love this topic I
love this topic so much I’ll start with
a very kind of somber quote from a great
president JFK he says there’s risks and
costs to action but there are far less
than the long-range risk of comfortable
in action and that’s john-john Kennedy
now someone who is very topic win
use Muhammad Ali he who is not
courageous to take risks will accomplish
nothing in life and then one of my own
heroes Zukerberg among the burgh the
biggest biggest risk are not taking risk
that is the biggest risk in a world of
change the only strategy guaranteed fail
is not taking risks and the last one
which is my favorite heaven and I never
thought I’d do a shout-out for the
Kardashians but Khloe Kardashian I’m
strong I’m fearless and I’m not afraid
of taking risks in business big
shout-out for khloe kardashian so yeah
we’ve got to take risk and we’ll get
into the meat and all the questions it’s
just a fundamental aspect and it’s how
do we help your audience out there take
smart risks that drive additional growth
and value for their customers I love I
wonder how many CEOs of big companies
are giving Khloe Kardashian a shout out
I love it cool is there then be forged
questions is there a risk that that
you’ve taken the obviously taking risk
but it’s restore you can share that
might serve as some inspiration for
further people watching risk that you
took that paid off and we didn’t pay off
but you’re still glad that you did it
yeah and I think in the kind of what we
said before a lot is just follow the
audience follow your customers make sure
you where they are and I way back you
know before a lot of your your viewers
today were probably born I went to a
startup company early-stage company and
everybody I asked for advice said I was
a craziest guy on the planet I was
stupid I was leave leaving now kind of
good graduate program at a big corporate
with great training good prospects and I
went to this early stage Californian
company ah just kind of our VIP oh and
that company was Oracle and wow I spent
nine great years there and I never
looked back and that was probably the
best I you know I went to the University
of life in terms of scale in tech
businesses and I never looked bad but
every if I’d listened to everybody Evan
I would never even take taken the
interview and I took the job everybody
thought I was completely mad I had a
which other home it was reckless and and
then you know we just doubled every year
for what eight out of nine years I was
there and we had a fall and it was it
was just it was a blast did it feel
reckless for you to do it no fell
exactly the right thing I went into it
with my I knew it’s a big risk actually
do you know what this this is this is
what i told myself at the time do you
know what the guys who i’m leaving with
my current company i’m not going to burn
any bridges there they still like me
they know me they trust me i’ve proven a
little bit in year two years what I
could do for them so the end the day I
know they’ll always be a door open so
what am I worried about I think this
stuff we’ve sort of talked about before
the voices you have planning your head
and all these wise people around you
said don’t do it don’t do it don’t it
there’s more risk in staying where you
are typically than doing nothing and I i
do really commend you to just look at
you know the pros and cons look a little
bit objectively but do follow your
instincts follia gap and again it comes
back you’ve got to do with your love and
you’ve got to be in companies where you
want to be and you guys at entrepreneur
you’ve got to be passionate about you
will provide your services and what they
do for customers and I think within that
you know genuinely and I say this to
everybody inside the only constant is
change so how do we really kind of drive
anything around change and how we really
reconnect ourself to what matters which
is value for customers how do we you
know make our customers Raven fanatics
of our product and if we’re services
company I’ll services how do we kind of
never let a customer down and and you
just can’t stand still you just cannot
stand still and and I think the good
news is the entrepreneurs we serve a
much better risk takers the big business
they and they’re so much more connected
personally to the risks both on the
outside and the downside now people
might look at look at CH now it’s a-okay
huge company you know i’m i’m a small
entrepreneur i’m just getting started
talk about taking risk now i mean we’re
talking before
are getting on how you were one of the
only CEOs who supported the gay and
lesbian community some of the other
risks you’ve taken like what tell me
what you’re doing now that isn’t just
okay we have a big business we’re just
going to keep on but we want to
ferociously attack the future what are
the some of the risky things you’re
taking on right now I think what we’re
doing a lot of I think our
responsibilities business people have
talked about this before as well as
entrepreneurs is obviously you start and
you finish growing and building a great
company and it starts with really
motivating your colleagues i call them
colleagues my colleagues and sage to be
you know walking the talk believe in
everything almost having a DNA there’s
passionate about customers and then if
you’ve got amazing colleagues and you
build that from from doing the basics
really well and walking the talk and
live in the culture living the values
then you have customers who can feel
that infection they can feel that
passion they can feel that energy in
every phone call in every web hit you
know there’s got to be something that
really sets you apart and lifts you up
and I’ll save and I’ll be the first one
to say it say we’ve got a way to go i’m
never said it but always one more but
we’re definitely on that journey and
then with that said you know i think
then you’ve got a big responsibility
while what it bill to you products to
building your services you grow in
employ more people keeping keeping the
consistency the value to the first day
you started that company and getting
people excited about it getting all your
colleagues excited getting the community
excited getting your customers your
partner’s excited and having a big
social presence and then I think you
know back to what you said is I think we
should call out where we see injustice
in the world because i do think reality
you’ve got an amazing prime minister and
creditor Justin Trudeau he speaks on to
truth and i think there’s so many
leaders out there who just say what
they’re supposed to say and it’s all
very safe and it’s very boring and i
think actually what our colleagues
expect and our customers expect it is
you take positions on things so there
was a big issue
round Georgia where there was potential
legislation that discriminated against
LGBT we didn’t think that was right so
we pulled that out I’m we’re in a index
of stocks called the 3100 which is the
biggest companies in the UK and I think
I’m the only foot to 100 chief executive
signing up and supporting a charter for
LGBT and you know I just think we’ve got
to realize this is 2016 guys is hello
well what you know I just think
sometimes and again honestly big
business is locked in a time warp and
we’ve got to accelerate and I think
actually the entrepreneurs who are on
your pool today and we’re talking to
right here right now totally get it and
it’s the right thing to do and I think
the other thing I think you know you’re
in Toronto that there’s lots of wealth
as brilliant startups in Toronto but if
you walk down the streets in Toronto
there’s a lot of vulnerable people as
other homeless people so i would also
advocate we are the world credit we’re
creating jobs we’re creating momentum
and growth but also there’s something
about giving back to the communities we
serve as well and i think business have
got a big responsibility to do that so
that’s why we started the sage
foundation you’ll see its age summit
actually haven’t sorted kind of give a
shameless plug on this but you’ll see a
massive push around Sage Foundation what
we’re doing around the communities we
serve whether it’s building schools down
in South Africa whether it’s going to
help homeless people you know staff in
food banks all these sort of things
where we really encourage our bodies to
get out there and play an active role in
their community so it all speaks to
being non conventional if speaks to
doing and being proud to be different
because different sometimes is right you
shouldn’t be different just for
difference a but if you trust your
instinct rusty gut you know what’s right
and always I think in business like
anything in life you want to follow your
moral compass you know you know where
true north is and that’s where you’ve
got to pursue and that inevitably means
you’ve got to change you’ve got to
involve you’ve got to stir up yourself
you’ve got to say you know even if you
getting rave reviews and five stars from
your customers you and I know there’s a
new competitor
around the corner that you want to
reinvent the whole of the experience
their customers to improve and get
better I love it deliver rent there i
love it was good people are writing in
skl hooks a homeless LGBT in office in
schools I’m feeling it and people like
your quotes to at the start so that but
they might you might have set some
expectations there now for future
sessions to lead off with quotes I will
get to the questions now so those you’re
watching live if you have a question you
can leave it in the chat on the right
time and all the charts already blowing
up but I will try to hit up as many as
we can in the time that we have first
one comes from a longtime viewer we
should cap TV do you guys have any
wisdom principles about how to take the
greatest risk and turn them into rewards
yeah maybe I’ll go first divinar I think
the greatest risk and this is sometimes
actually in life you know I’ve been
shocked when there’s either personal
tragedy might I talked about my dad’s
business before this is when I was
growing up as a kid you know my dad got
sick and the reality of that is he can
run the business but because of that we
never realized at the time but from that
adversity that was a great opportunity
for us as kids just go and get jobs and
start businesses and and that was a
catalyst for my entrepreneurial spirit
and I know guys who have been fired and
gals a bit fajr and that’s been the
trigger point for them starting their
own business and they’ve never looked
back so I think um you know Rishi in
terms of the question you’ve got to
really look at the biggest risk is you
know ultimately if you get fired and if
you’ve got no job no income you got more
richly got a family that’s when you’re
really exposed but it’s it’s the spirit
of positivity and optimism to know that
you you’ve got so much to give back and
you’ve got so much energy and passion to
think of a gap in the market I think of
a product or service that’s going to be
kind of a world beater and just go out
there and create it yeah I love it and I
mean the thing can relate to the quotes
that you started off as well the
greatest risk is not betting on yourself
like the greatest risk is you know
putting your hands putting your future
into somebody else’s hands and thinking
you’re going to be a dancing job for the
next 40 years it’s you know it’s not
going to happen anymore and so it’s not
risky as much anymore to bet on yourself
it’s never been easier to start a
company and you don’t have to go in full
time at the start they learn the market
do it part time get your side hustle on
you don’t have to cash in your
retirement savings and you know mortgage
the house to the max because I’d also
shortens your one way because then you
only have like two months to make this
work and often it takes a lot longer or
if you can still have whatever is making
you money and then on the side start
your business get it growing get some
cash flow coming in and then once you
have it to the point where you can quit
you’re not making tons of money but you
have enough to pay the internet and feed
yourself and the family then now you
know when you go full time on your
business you’re able to spend a lot more
time to obviously and continue to grow
so I don’t know that you have to go out
and take massive risks but the greatest
risk of all is not not doing anything so
like I have this idea and then you never
act on it because you think is too scary
and then you know you’re 90 looking back
in your life and that’s the greatest
risk of all-cause you regret that you
can take any action yeah but I think
what do you say there it’s so true so
you know if you’re going to start a new
new biz Rishi then how do you do it in a
way we’re not betting the whole of your
life on it and you know we just done
some research with Millennials to say
there’s very different kind of segments
of Millennials out there with different
needs and there’s some very kind of
different motivations around them but
one common theme is that most of them
expect to be running and started more
than one business through their life in
a in Nigeria did this over 16 countries
in Nigeria summation they reckon they’ll
be running five businesses and starting
five new businesses their life which is
tremendous and then I kind of think it
comes back to culture of them and I’ve
always run companies with words I use I
treat the company’s money as if it’s
your own and
loved your concept of bootstrap at a
business and I used to you know when
I’ve started businesses or funder
businesses I’d say it’s really great to
almost run it on fumes for a while and
then kind of build momentum test drive
staff when you know stuff works for
customers are the product or services
then you scale out but you shouldn’t
kinda hate this concept I really
honestly hate this concept where you go
raise loads of money have flash offices
go flying around the world in business
class and just waste money and lose the
essence of waste on the business or
connection with the customers whereas
it’s much better to have that culture
where you’re a street fighter you’re out
there you’re grappling and scrap it and
you you really focused on delivering for
your customers and really making a
difference but to Evans point you’re not
you know every step of the journey
you’re kind of just thinking about
what’s the next risk what’s the next
it’s had away how do I reduce that risk
and I’ll reduce my exposure but you
still keep that essence of you know a
bootstrap business and even as you grow
your business I’m you know I got a
little case that a really good dumb
coming out in Vancouver actually
peekaboo beans started by Tracy Kosta
back in i’m in 2006 and she was her
passion was actually just amazing play
way for kids and clothes and she stunned
a brand sold it direct and then she saw
the you know cataclysmic change in terms
of buying habits between Main Street and
the web and she kind of moved our whole
business took a big business debt so
change the whole distribution channel of
all her clothing boutiques in Vancouver
and went direct but while she’s never
looked back and what seventy percent
year-on-year growth I think she employs
over 700 am salespeople scalable model
in and they’ve got 25 employees up in
richmond ave quarters but more
importantly she’s kept the ethos of
treat the company’s money as if it’s
your own remember those kind of really
exciting days when we started the
business bring that energy into your
business that you had on day one when
you used to take people down the bar on
a friday night or you got our keg of
beer into the parking lot
like that these those are the things
that first of all people remember and
secondly it keeps your true to original
values I love it and you know I always
love the Canadian success stories you
feel you put that in there just for me I
like it it’s a sickness I’m accountable
we love it oh cool Nathaniel’s asking
hey Evan can you ask Stephen Kelly what
books he recommends or suggest about
taking risks in business thank you I’ve
read a load of books and I would say
actually now a lot a lot of it is they
come back to the basics of trust rinsing
and and they all say the same thing so
whether it’s i read the google books
work rules pretty recently that’s pretty
cool around disruption and also you know
how bears all started at amazon that’s
pretty cool as well I I think you know
that what you need to do in all these
books is say yeah what does that apply
to me but but also you don’t want to be
a clone you don’t want to follow in
someone else’s shadow you want to be
your own entrepreneur you won’t want to
be your own you want to have your own
moon mission you want to take moonshots
and that’s what makes you special and
that’s what makes you different and i
would say it comes back to a lot of it
chattering things do you research around
customers and it’s so easy through
social now to get amazing feedback you
know in nanoseconds about your product
or service and listen listen listen
listen listen and then change evolve and
then you’ll you will be a world-beater
you’ll grow fast what’s your favorite
book of all time right love this but it
speaks to I just love disrupted a lovely
blue and I have with the status quo to
kill a mockingbird ah it’s my favorite
to kill a mockingbird and it speaks to
everything that you know even if
whatever you are what 50 60 years ago
and all the great changes through the
civil rights movement that have changed
the world a little bit but you know I
think all of us in entrepreneurs not
only want to pursue our passions but if
we can challenge inequality
and injustice then wow you know it’s not
about just building a great business and
clocking out the rest of the world we’ve
got to be part of the world we can’t
exclude ourselves in blog cool very
interesting next up is one of your
employees ask you a question this is
from what they do what they do as a new
North American sage employee how can I
get involved with driving more
viewership for our sage YouTube page as
a creator that’s great I think I’m what
number one everybody believe Evan
Carmichael watches channel right you
can’t grow up secondly any colleagues we
do a lot of stuff social web I’ve just
unearthed we’re doing some mum Scott TV
stuff now so and then I think to the
question specifically what I believe
every colleague in any company not the
sage you know your ambassadors for the
company you are with your one or ten
people and I think social is an amazing
mechanism and channel to amplify the
message to get your brand out to build
consistency and really connect with your
customers as well it’s just the best
yeah I haven’t I get um probably half a
dozen five or six issue you know we’ve
got millions of customers around the
world every customer knows that they can
tweet me they can ping me on social even
email me and they’ll get an immediate
response because you know with a big
company like us you drop balls not
everything goes right all the time you
give us some great feedback Kevin I
listen you always got to listen and if
you if you in terms of the colleague
who’s asked that question want to get
involved in social ping ping the guys
here you ping me directly and I’ll pass
you on all the social is old initiative
around sociability and we want to get
you you know to be a absolutely on the
volunteer army around our social course
yeah I think I think it’s storytelling
you gotta I want to feel your passion
for the business right and for helping
entrepreneurs I mean Stephens doing it
at a high level obviously being the CEO
we’ve got is two
our accounts going is doing these
hangouts has got great interviews you
know as an employee at a company and for
those who are watching who may not be
entrepreneurs yet you can still add
value for your customers by telling your
own story you may be thinking well I’m
not the CEO I’m not the founder you know
what’s my story why do people care but
your passion for the business your
passion to help entrepreneurs can really
help people connect because a lot of big
companies are just they’re faceless and
I you know I mean connect like Stevens
doing a great job I may connect with
with sage through his story but then I’m
dealing with somebody on the North
American team and you know I don’t know
who they are and so you could be one of
those voices so why did you start you
know why are you here why did you why
you sit in marketing why do you love
entrepreneurs tell me that store that
you grow up as an entrepreneur your
family entrepreneurs and then maybe to
extend that for for the entrepreneurial
audience who are watching the kind of
the bulk of the audience here telling
your story is your competitive advantage
you know I can’t understand why you’re
different than the next guy I’m just
going to beat you down on price and but
if I feel your connection if I feel your
passion I feel like you are going to cut
my grass or give me internet service or
whatever the services you’re providing
like you would for your mother because
this is just a deep passion that you
have then i’m going to buy from you and
i’ll pay more for that and that’s your
story that helps people understand that
and a lot of people feel like that’s a
risk to share their story people might
judge me you might get out there i don’t
want people thinking I’m this or that
but really that is your competitive
advantage and it’s not just about your
ego will and making you feel really good
it’s about a connection that your
customers can have to you and if you
don’t do that then you’re missing a lot
of opportunity not just to make money
but they have an impact on people’s
lives yeah but you know I just think it
even if we had no audience on I’d still
love to do this with you because I feel
they ever loved but we’re here to serve
the audience and we’re here to serve
every morn i wake up i think what can we
do better for our customers
entrepreneurs who are the champions of
all economists and I
well when we do these hangouts if we’re
not given your audience what they need
it hurts me you know like if we drop the
ball on a product we do a bad job for a
customer it personally hurts me and I
would say we’ve kind of got no ego doing
these hangouts we got no ego absolutely
we’ve got a lot of pride though and and
it comes to us telling our stories about
you know that sense of pride our passion
and our energy and our enthusiasm that
allows us to be very different to our
customers and I think you know if you
said all that so yeah keep telling of
stories it’s never about you it’s about
the story that’s about the customer and
it’s about the difference you make and
if you make magic happen you’re gonna
have a great business new to the future
success when I salute you I love it next
up Banerjee is asking being a student is
it a good choice for me to risk all my
savings on my startup plan when I’m
totally unaware of the outcome yeah I
think I’d say is there a way you could
maybe take 25 you sent your savings or
fifty percent your savings and test
drive your plan so obviously I don’t
know what your plan is but it sounds
like you don’t know what the outcome is
the way to find out what the outcomes
likely to be is to start you know again
a great quote from Martin Luther King
one of my heroes just changed the world
and he said when you’re going to go to
the top of that John staircase and touch
of the stars you have to just take the
first step so for you I think what we
say how could how could you and we
talked about it what is the minimum
viable product that you have to have to
test drive your idea how could you do it
I don’t know for ten percent of your
savings or 27 whatever it takes but the
other thing I do and actually ever this
is really cool and changing the culture
in this company there’s this thing and
it is some what I learned way back in
college called future future perfect
tense where if you’ve ever got a problem
or are you looking at risk if you
imagine you have overcome the risk and
you’re living in the future and then you
look back so you use different tense so
instead of
you know in 2017 I’m gonna try to grow
the business by a news future today one
hundred percent if you say auntie I’m
sitting here on a blab with Evan
Carmichael we knock the ball out the
part what do we have to do to achieve
our huge success so if you actually
change the tenth of what you use and ask
you the question how you know how did
you achieve the outcome of test driving
that you had a viable product for a
market in your new your emt new the
customer needs what did you have to do
to make that success and then say how
much investment did I say you know dude
take your time and again in the spirit
of street fighters how can you get
people to do something for you for
nothing how can you get your friends to
meant to you how can you get the social
bars how can you really kind of really
bootstrap stuff so it doesn’t always
take big money to start businesses and I
think some of the best business is back
to have example a really kind of ideas
that have grounded landed for customers
and then once you know what works then
scale it up I’m even i think i’m even
more risk averse I mean for me I hate
spending money into line making money I
will invest my heart my energy my hustle
but I will not spend money until I’m
finding a way to make money look at this
YouTube channel I already have a
successful business while I was stood my
youtube channel I didn’t invest in
anything i used my camera that i had and
borrowed a camera for other episodes
from a friend of mine i did to get it in
myself uh it all i did all the research
myself and that was that led to one
video a week max because i think it’s so
easy to spend money on the stuff right
like i could have bought the gear and I
could have hired an editor and I could
have had a white you know our green
screen and all of this stuff I got to
spend tons of money on this idea and
then I get into it like ah you know I
don’t know if I’m feeling this YouTube
thing and then I’m stuck with a garage
full of gear right and that happens to a
lot of people you put a lot of money
into something you’re not putting enough
time into it and suddenly you’re out of
money because you spent everything on
year and inventory so
I’d much rather spend the resources that
I had with my time to see if I’d love it
to figure out a way to make it work to
justify that this is an idea that is
viable and then as I start making money
reinvest it back into the growth so if i
was a student I would not be investing
my life savings into it I’d be trying to
hustle my way to figure out how I can
make money by investing my time that’s
what I would do I like heaven and and if
you if you’re ever out of an answer go
and go and talk to your customers
potential customers potential
prospective customers and find out what
their needs up they’ll they’ll tell you
straight away with you going to knock
the ball out the park or you get it’s
going to walk into a wall and then you
know if you’re going to walk into what
what would work for them to it close
that gap in the market so I think you’re
right yes exactly as Evan Evan called it
out you’re getting a lot of love here so
much wrong in this live stream hashtag
believe s Kelly so much heart Wow steven
is a quote encyclopedia thank you for
liking these quotes we gotta give me a
hotdog oh we gotta share that may be
wondering man I love it um okay Michael
how do I persuade a developer to code
for me even though I do not have much
money since I’m a student with a lot of
student entrepreneurs here I love that
no I’m and a couple of gigs we started
we got people actually one of the
companies i went to another style of
california startup this is a long time
ago about 18 years ago we kind of work
for nothing for a while did run
ourselves on fumes but boy it makes you
really hustle but we we got basically I
one of the guys when we took a mom we
said with Trey kind of cash for equity
and we gave most very small percentage
in terms of the company so there’s loads
of things you can do and again I think
if you’re right at the start of a
product with these studies you’ve got to
avoid boiling the ocean you just gotta
start small and then when you got
something works scale it up so so my
question for you if you’re going to code
a product and you’re going to build some
technology building that
whatever it might be kind of what’s the
minimum viable product that you need to
build and these days with technology
hopefully build that unless in a couple
of weeks but I reckon for a couple of
weeks coding someone’s likely to work
for free and there’s loads of things you
can do you can do to third earnings you
know and you could say lock it to the
company’s success you could give them a
small portion of equity says loads of
creative things you can do but also you
know obviously if you give people money
ironically this is sad about human
nature they tend to switch off from the
mission if you actually say you know if
we land on the moon together we take
some moon shots and everybody’s kind of
got skin in the game it really drives a
great culture and it keeps them keen as
mustard to really bit on the company
success and also the only other thing of
college students I know you know if you
build an app you reckon you can build it
out of it three days it always takes a
bit longer than you think so what you
need to do is keep keep that I’m not a
student really focused on delivering the
Minimum Viable Product and getting
something the hands of customers so they
can road test it and then you’ll
validate whether you got a business and
then then you can share it but I think
the final thing I’d say is we’ll all
these things just got to be honest with
because this guy could be a potential
coworker if he does a great job code in
your app you wanted to be your first
employee so how do you think about him
being you know effectively a co-founder
of the company and being on the
management team maybe it’s not the guy
may be easily best techy and he’s coding
for you so you need to kind of think
about head of how the movie might play
out but I also think you owe it to that
individual to share with them and be
honest with them and transparent with
them you haven’t got you know you’re not
kind of Warren Buffett yeah you’re a
student you’ve got a dream you you
wanted to be part of it selling the
story if you believe in the story he’ll
cut that LLL cut code for you yeah I
mean the only thing I agree with
everything Steven saying the only thing
I would add is if you want to be a tech
company you need to have tech leadership
in your team you can’t be a successful
app company
you’re so you’re not a coder you want to
run a nap great you can’t just have
somebody who you hire and then you know
us occasional maintenance on it if you
want to be a successful app company you
need to have somebody who cares just as
deeply as you do about the business and
as part of the company so you need a
co-founder and that’s not a decision
that you just take lightly you don’t
just enter into business with somebody
and like the values are super important
to not just a skill set but I wouldn’t
if you treat this just as I can hire
somebody and you know when I need them
all I’ll bring them on that is not the
way to build a successful tech company
if you don’t know how to do the tech
yourself you need somebody who’s just as
committed to doing this and build a
company if you do the business item they
do the tack but if you want to make it
big you got like look at every
successful tech company one of the
co-founders knew the tack you need
somebody on your on your team who’s
deeply committed who understands attack
yeah actually Evan just I love this is
another shameless plug your new office
so look at that guy behind you him
Stevie no I’m gonna come to him then he
was Stevie was genius tenish and that’s
the genesis of Apple you know guys
brilliant genius technologist great
partnership and if you think your your
body is going to be a great leader in
terms of a brilliant technical brain
then you could get him to cut the code
do the first kind of first product first
app and then offer him the opportunity
if it’s successful that they you know he
could be the co-founder with you with a
cut of the action as well and then
finally I just want everybody out there
in the audience to show some love for
Evan and Nina Nina Evans partner and
that’s the photo and I love the picture
and the dad there so that’s really cool
love it Evan core i5 Nina there’s new
year this wall will change the next time
we do it it’ll look even better so
you’ll see the you’ll see the evolution
of the new wall um no I school and thank
you Michael for the question
I this is an interesting one and Kita’s
writing in who is your mentor and also
how do you find the mentor if you don’t
have one that’s a great great point I
think actually in terms of small risks
key thing is generally you want to
attach yourself to someone whose shares
your vision is a disruptor but also
ideally we’ve got the experience of
having walked on your journey before so
you know they know where the bear traps
are but they know kind of where the
quick wins are all those sort of things
and they can really help you navigate
and manage the risk to you know the pot
of the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow so I would say I’ve really been
lucky I’ve had lots of mentors but
they’re both like four more mentors but
I love just informal mentors now I
encourage in our company I say to people
all our colleagues you know there’s
someone you really respect just go and
grab them in a hallway and say look
would you mind coming for coffee with me
mentoring can be over a coffee and a 30
minute conversation and I’ve never known
anybody with experience to see know they
always you know everybody likes to help
and everybody loves to help the next
generation I love going out tomorrow I’m
going with safe foundation we going out
food banks with kids and volunteering
and we’re going to be out with teenagers
and you know what better way for me to
spend some time and honestly I think I
think again you’ve got to stop those
voices in your head telling you I can’t
ask that person to be my mentor and I
wouldn’t even use the word mentor just
say looking at some advice I’ve got
massive respect for you you’ve achieved
a great deal and I just welcome some
advice I’ve never known anybody to say
no so I would also say the other thing
is you know there’s lots of people you
need to go to when you look at kind of
the risk in your business you use your
so what are the big risks is it is a
product risk of it you know can I build
a website can I was a technology risk
and then once you’ve identified that go
and find the people you can
and upload the gaps either in your
network on social media there’s tons of
people out there who are available out
on social media you want to make sure
you know they’re authentic and they’re
not looking to kind of make money or
explore you so you’ve got to be sensible
there however then you can i’d say this
guy Evan I’d say Evans one of my mentis
you know Evan gives me advice he pings
me you know a little tweet it pings me
an email he tells me what we’re doing
okay he says where we can do better I
love that I love that because it just
keeps me honest and I think what I’d say
therefore you should have a you
shouldn’t spend all your data it meant
it but there’s key people that you
respect that can help you navigate the
risks and overcome them and you should
reach out to them and I guarantee that
they’ll be there for you and they’ll be
there to support you and sometimes you
know if they’re really amazing people
you know and you grow your business you
get to tempe for 20 people and sometimes
you’re gonna think about you know
investment downstream there’d be amazing
people to invest in your business as
well cool I appreciate that before
before i get to my answer i want to sell
it you got a lot of love in the comments
for the Nina comment uh you know you
show us Nina you’re gonna get a lot of
love from the from the community so
there’s a soft spot there for her so so
it’s good cats blowing up I’m chica at
Chicago ah she wants to that’s the right
answer she wants to i’m honestly worried
that she’s gonna be bored like one big
girl she doesn’t like y entre preneur
stuff and and she she wants to come for
me and and I need to spend my time with
with everybody so that that’s like
that’s the challenge if we gotta figure
out well if she comes it’s gonna hey
Evan she should come yes cut your call
obviously but there’ll be loads of
amazing things parties and we’ll make
sure she’s well looked after well at the
hand of friendship any friend of Evan a
partner of evan is much loved in our
world all right i’ll let her know i’ll
let her know for the question I
mentorship I mean a good everything
he even said uh the only thing I would
add is I also benefit tremendously from
aspirational mentors you’ll see on the
next hangout five people here on the
wall so you got the one here in jobs
like I learned a lot from steve jobs i
would consider him my mentor even though
I’ve never met him I never will meet him
maybe in the next life who knows but you
can learn a lot from people who you will
never meet and so if you look at people
who have done what you want to do and
and you know we read their books Steven
recommended a number are ready Jeff
Bezos and a few other ones you can find
videos of them I do a lot of them on
this channel you can find aspirational
mentors in addition to traditional
mentor so you’re going out and meeting
for coffee in having that one-on-one
relationship you can reach out to people
just by researching them and finding of
use and learn from someone who has done
like way more than somebody you know we
more than the then you thought your
expectations yourself might be and that
pushes you to want to be able to do more
so I would just couple those together
traditional mentorship plus the
aspirational mentorship to make your
dream team to help your your business be
successful you have an aspirational
mentor Steven yeah I a lot you I’ve got
a few Anna just think in 2016 yeah this
is where social media is amazing and I
can go on and look at a TED talk I can
go on and I do get a buzz out of that or
you know whatever the challenge I face
Evan there’s so much content and help
out there available to help me or you or
any of us people i’m really i just love
authenticity and i love integrity and a
guy we’ve got coming to summit is
amazing we’ve talked about him before
richard branson serial entrepreneur but
from from the get-go he wanted to be a
disruptor he challenged the status quo
he did it with integrity started you
know what I love is people who I love
chief executives talking about how
important their people are their
colleagues their employees and just just
being in service of their employee
and Richard I’d tell you a party I went
two years if it’s probably 20 years ago
he used to have a party for all his
colleagues and it was just like the best
party of the year and all all his
employees used to camp at his home and
and they had rock bands and fun fairs
and you wouldn’t believe in stuff for
kids face painting you just couldn’t
believe them it was the best part of the
year and I go along and too richly must
have had he had thousands of people
working from and this guy they they
parked your car in field and then they
bust you into his house and I just blew
me away so there’s this guy chief
executive rockstar personally welcome in
every one of his employees and every one
of their kids and every one of their
husbands partners wife that just just
the humility of that just just move me
and I just thought wow this guy he’s
what it says on the tin he’s the real
deal and that authenticity I just think
is so fundamental and very special
interesting I know he’s going to come to
summit this month in in Chicago and
you’re gonna interview him on stage yeah
I’m curious what question you’re most
excited to ask him and hear what he has
to say I’m going to ask him loads of
questions that people would never asked
before one of the things I want to ask
him because this guy he started his
business at 60 we started a magazine
business then scouted into music
business then of the airways when he was
down in weston Disney couldn’t get on a
plane so he said there’s a gap in the
market here you know these kind of fat
cat airliners need shaken up and he
changed the commercial airline you know
he changed so many things about the
market because he’s a consummate
disruptor but why I want to ask him Evan
he’s probably Hayes run more businesses
than I could dream of and he’s probably
semi and he must be getting towards 70
now how does he keep the genesis of the
passion that he had
when he was 60 and just keep that drive
moment he probably works as hard now as
he’s ever worked and and I just want to
understand that what is the DNA the
drives it I’m curious how you would
answer that question because I see you
working hard and waking up I remember
when you came to Toronto I message your
teams and hey we should grab a coffee
and they’re like the only time to meet
Steven I think I was like six in the
morning or something something crazy um
and so like you have an insane schedule
your pack your final over the world uh
what are you keep it like how do you
keep your passion where that Genesis
come from from when you started as you
know that entrepreneur in California to
where you are now and still putting in
the grind and hustle about it’s just
ever we said it you said it I just love
what I do it’s all about making a
difference I’ve been so privileged and
generally humbled that I can do a job
Dyan sue love and I pursue my passion
I’m following my dreams every day I
always reconnect myself to this you know
the first day I started working and and
how I wanted to really make a difference
and to have that honestly we all know
you only get one shot in life but I’m
the luckiest guy alive and you know
that’s a real honor and a privilege and
that’s what drives me you know I work
insane hours I floral in the world when
we go to summon little things matter
that I’ll go and see every one of our
customers and partners that turn up and
again thank for being there thanking for
their loyalty to pour it matters to me I
think the other thing ever year like
this it’s very personal I say well we’ve
got no ego whatsoever but it is personal
you wanna you want to do the best dear
customers you want to knock the ball out
the park for them because they are
amazing people and and I for me that’s
what motivates me and drives me as much
as ever and I probably should tell you
ever and I’ve set my retirement date and
it’s are probably going to be the day I
die nice here we go again
I said morbid no but I just love why do
so much i’m just gonna I work at some
level because you know god there’s just
so much exciting when I go home on
Friday night we’re all exhausted but boy
oh boy sometimes you just move the
needle a little bit sometimes you’ve had
weeks of three steps forward to thurs
back in the startup world at all you
guys out there honestly every day was an
emotional roller coaster of ups and
downs a moments of depression but that’s
exhilarated that you know that’s the
excitement and we should never forget
that and that’s what keeps me going
something tells me that even you know
after you die the Stephen Kelly Spirit
will remain and you’ll you’ll infect
people and Stephen Kelly will continue
working even past then I feel it’s gonna
happen um question as Kelly will there
be a sage summit live stream for any of
the sessions we’re going to do one of
these live I’ll leave right but about
the other sessions like people watch
what’s going on yeah there’s a massive
that will be lost and they’ll be tens of
thousands of people on the live stream
so they were definitely do the search
not Evan and you know you will have will
publicize that and we’ll put on social
and it’s going to be absolutely rocking
so that’s a must see session we might do
some crazy things and get special gifts
and the crazy stuff like that because
it’s fun I hope we’re doing it from the
show floor as well and then also all the
kind of main key notes and everything is
going to be live streamed so if you want
to go to there’s a safe summit website
if you want to go to that it’ll probably
give you clothes at the time all the
details for the live stream and I think
some of the sessions will be amazing
just thinking about last year in New
Orleans both the sort of entrepreneurial
sessions and we had amazing people like
Colin Powell and Deepak Chopra and just
the wisdom of their their business years
and what they could bring to the
audience and stories that they can tell
it’s all about stories and
idea just in general i do find these
things inspirational so Evan will be
there but there’ll be loads more amazing
content and it will be live stream I
remember last year there were so many
people still even watching the live
stream while watching it there too that
the internet started to die at stage so
it says like crash the city with their
internet with everybody trying to watch
the live stream so yeah well the link is
already linked up in the description of
this video so you guys can check it out
and if anybody’s coming to Chicago let
me know because I want to meet you will
chat maybe do a hangout get something
going yeah a lot then I’ll join you for
that cool alright cool um ji rise is
writing at s Cal do you feel you’re
growing and improving your on-air
personality because of all of these live
streams hey that’s a great question um I
kind of think yeah okay i’m getting a
little bit better I’m bit clumsy but I’m
Evan healthy along he guides me on the
way I would never claim one of my
aspirations is to be a youtube sensation
I just want to be great for our
customers and connecting our colleagues
to create magic print something very
special and unique and I tell you what
we should do even if anybody comes from
your show to summit in Chicago will will
pose for selfies yeah you and me yeah
with them so right i think ya know Evan
are the great users guys I’ve got a
great coach or mentor ever and after
these shows says Steven you could do
this you can do that do that better and
i love it and you know it’s um it’s this
is great i think this is just a general
rule of thumb leadership i guess is
everyday you want to change into a
better job every day you’re never happy
with yourself and you’re never satisfied
that’s just the reality of aspiring to
you know touch stars and take moonshots
but it takes a lot to be able to change
your behaviors and and do more stuff
that really works but we will try to do
that so you guys can give me feedback
and we live in
died on feedback feedback we love and
again through social it’s just an
awesome way to get real time feedback to
Evan give me give me marks out of 10 but
be out of me be tough I will the
audience feels like you’ve been to her
on yourself ready you’re getting your
great as Cal clumsy what are you talking
about as Kelly’s amazing on-air and
always has the best ties so you like
this one this is on brand as well guys
and it’s one of our customers I love
buying trucks from our customers IRA
cool to be good out of my well say I do
a safe sandy pit of our customers i’ll
try not g whenever i’m going to come to
toronto and do some shopping at some of
the sage customers up there ever cool i
love it i love it um you can a bunch of
personal questions too and maybe will
lump them together and see which ones
you feel about it were entering there’s
a couple of them one was Evan please ask
him what his priorities are in love
wealth health relationship people want
to know if you have a college degree
people want to know what your morning
routine is so yeah so love do your love
pursue your passions I’m like ever and
I’m really lucky I’m very blessed to go
great family got amazing three daughters
I’ve got an amazing partner long time
partner and she’s unbelievable so I love
that I’ll be honest I’ve never done
business for wealth it’s just been
something you know in terms of creating
opportunities and making a difference is
driven me and changing being disruptive
yeah and and just doing what I love the
last thing I’ve ever thought about is
the money I’ll make out of what I’ve
done I’ve never thought about that when
it’s gone really really well the money
is followed and but but that’s not ever
been a motivator for me and it never
will be I’ll be honest my morning
routine is I get up and I kind of either
go for a run or swim or something some
sort of exercise probably about four
days a week and I’m getting up typically
around five o’clock and then I start
work sometime after six o’clock
and then I’ll go through till pretty
late tonight i’ll go through i’m not
late eight o’clock and then you know see
the family and stuff like that and then
catch up armaan emails or or social
after that and then back all over again
it’s like being on a treadmill life and
the great thing is every time we do it
Evan turn to up a notch or two and makes
me run a bit faster I know you do your
morning runs and I i I’m scared to join
I feel like you’ll destroy me in those
runs but I would like to see some some
snaps or some little YouTube videos
inspirational message five in the
morning Steven Kelley doing his morning
runs I think what would you ever comment
Chicago while dude I don’t know i’ll
probably get i’ll probably a total by
the police authorities for doing this
but will probably try and get a drone to
follow us on an early morning run and
we’ll do something crazy and obviously
put on youtube stuff like that but we
will do some crazy stuff with drones
just to follow us around the streets of
Chicago like whenever it gets light
there yeah and you can come with me and
we we will run at the pace of where
we’ll we’ll have a family kind of at the
sage family-run we’ll just whoever wants
to turn up you can come out running with
me and we guarantee we’ll go at the
slowest rate of the slowest member area
I’m will all across the line together
holding hands all right all right I’m
down otherwise I think I might need to
have my Vespa due to like run your like
training and i’ll be i’ll be on the vest
by next to you floyd mayweather um I
know that we love skirt oh the
connection got stuck a little there some
people asking about the the stream and
if it’s going to be available yes like
this is a live stream now but the video
will will live forever on youtube so
it’s the same link you can check it out
and watch it Steven you’re getting the
question from branimir at s Kel you’re
getting asked a lot people love the S
Cal what are your plans in the next five
years regarding the market expansion and
raising the quality of your services I
Brenneman that’s great question so five
years in this industry is a lifetime so
but we got loads of stuff actually we’re
going to profile
loads of this in Chicago and say summit
we I just think this is just in terms of
products this is the time I’ll hold this
up guys this wasn’t invented nine years
ago and now there’s two billion of these
on the planet and we run our lives from
the personalized apps in the palm of our
hand for my smartphone we sing
entrepreneurs deserve the same usability
business apps as the consumer apps give
us every day so we think you guys are
awesome people you do when you love you
follow your dreams and we believe its
age you deserve awesome technology and
therefore we’re going to be showing some
amazing stuff we’re going to do loads of
stuff in terms of machine learning
Internet of Things loads of stuff easily
mobility everything mobile first said
it’ll be loads of really cool technology
and then around the services offering so
we do want to just every time we touch a
customer we want to make that custom
feel obviously we answered an issue or
solve the problem but we want to make
them feel very special as well so it’s
not just kind of fixing the war but it’s
the hell so within that we’re changing a
lot of things in terms of our training
training around cultural values role and
all that stuff in terms of the other
team performance management systems it’s
not just people at Sage can be taught
performance but it’s how they do it’s
really important live in the valleys
Evans talked about this before you know
the values you have as an entrepreneur
the values you get up every morning
around building a company around
customers you know it’s really
fundamental particularly as you scale
and grow to keep those values alive and
in everybody you know have to train them
and reward them for living the values I
love it I know we’re bumping up against
the clock you’ve got a rush off into
your thing any last kind of parting
words on taking risk in a smart way your
advice for entrepreneurs yeah I think
final would and we’ve talked about a
better today you know with risk it can
seem daunting
they’re grown a business consent aunt
and so one I’ll encourage you as I said
use this kind of future perfect tense I
think there’s a psychologist can’t like
you who wrote about this and so we’ll
send you the link Evan on that but so
number one live in the future I think
great entrepreneurs they live in the
future they dream dreams and then they
were backwards to see how they actually
put the journey map together to deliver
those dreams secondly the risk you face
are never as big as you think right
honestly we’ve all done this you sit
down you worry about stuff you get out
there and you actually do it you find
after you have overcome the risks there
were never as big as what they appear to
be when you look to them and I’ve come
to kind of thing the first thing with
all these things is you know what it
says on your t-shirt there Evan you
gotta believe you know we believe in you
you’ve gotta believe in yourself and if
you believe generally you’ve got a dream
you pursue your passion do your love you
can overcome all those risks and you can
manage them and if you ever get hit with
big ones break them down like you know
coming up a little elephant and do into
small chunks to do it by size so they
can be overcome and you could be
successful but you have to believe I
love it steven thank you so much for
spending your time with us for all you
guys watching thank you too there’s a
ton of questions we didn’t get to so I
apologize but get them in early for next
time so you can answer them for you
hopefully we’ll see you at Sage summit
will do some selfies together thanks
again for watching continue to believe
and we’ll see you soon your eye stuff
thanks guys thanks everybody thanks Evan
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