and we’re live welcome everybody to
another YouTube hangout super excited to
be here with my good friend and one of
my favorite CEOs of all time mr. Stephen
Kelly how you doing I’m fantastic and
I’m so excited to be in your home city
this is Toronto and this place rocks
we’re back together again live is always
great to be able to do it face to face
and not just over the Internet yes yes
the second the third one we’ve done live
I think when we’ve done save some I did
seen Tower was very and tower New
Orleans I don’t think we did why over to
Chicago we did Chicago and then this is
trying to third one so there we go see
some what’s happening here in Toronto
today I was a mentor speaker tons of fun
but we’re spending an hour with you guys
today to talk about how to turn your
business ideas into reality and we have
to start off with Stephen Kelly quotes
because that’s what you guys look
forward to so I’ve got three quotes to
kick it off with and good ones actually
and I think also we might have a few
quotes from some of the speakers who had
at save summit during the kind of
broadcast so first quote is um every
morning you have two choices you
continue to sleep with your dreams or
wake up and chase them and make them
happen there’s a second one a great
author called Victor Hugo there is one
thing stronger than all the all the
armies in the world and that’s an idea
who has come to times the idea that time
has come and the final one really I
actually had him as a speaker I think it
was in Chicago : pal yeah last year
amazing yeah and he said he’s so right a
dream doesn’t turn into reality through
magic it takes sweat determination and
hard work so you’ve got to make it
happen and that’s so important for those
gulp we we all know it I think Kevin and
I would say it’s probably been periods
in our life where we just thought about
stuff too much rather than had that bias
for action and just get on and do it
sometimes we know it’s right especially
if you’re at trust your instincts is a
good rule of life so three great codes
to kick off with
we’re in your hometown so let’s get the
show going I like it and and and
Stephens rocking some Canadian pride
we’ve got the Canada pin happening there
oh there’s sage at the top – I didn’t
see that little sage look at the top
that the cufflinks you can’t see his
shoes he’s got the shoes he’s got the
tattoo happening on the arm area upside
down sorry Gus here
there it is look at that there it is
flying sit here we got that pretty crazy
I love it well guys I see her any
questions pouring in so come in say hi
I’m looking out to the side to get your
questions but before kind of diving in
on that Oh update you know since our
last hangout the channel my channel just
crossed a hundred million views wow
that’s a channel so you’ve contributed a
good chunk of those but on behalf of
everybody out there and there’s some
kind of regular sort of viewers to the
channel and some new folks today but I
just want to thank this guy Evan
forgiving a lot of people belief and
conviction and confidence to do what
they know is right and pursue their
dreams and just make their dreams come
true and this guy has been a great role
model I know from just listening to a
lot of what you say about Evan he’s kind
of changed lives and giving you the
confidence and the belief to actually
just start your business where your
business would be successful so credit
to you so I don’t know that actually I
know Evan is a good friend and it’s not
about building his brand or there’s no
ego about this he’s just so committed to
your success and to seeing you just be
the entrepreneur that you could be
thanks man I gotta bring this guy with
me everywhere I said that’s a good intro
I love it I appreciate that yeah it was
been fun I didn’t I didn’t I wasn’t even
tracking a number and then someone on my
team said hey we just crossed a hundred
million views like wow that’s good but
we’re here to add value to you guys talk
about how to turn your business ideas
into reality before diving in all the
questions you’re going to get two quick
thoughts what’s your overall bit of
advice on how to turn ideas into reality
for entrepreneurs yeah I think actually
an amazing not related to this but an
amazing guy Martin Luther King said to
time to climb that giant stick
you’ve got to just take the first step
and I think the golden rule is if you’re
you have conviction you have belief you
have an idea then it’s all about down to
you to make it happen and it is so easy
to just worry about stuff or to think
about the reasons why you can’t do and I
think for entrepreneurs that’s leaf you
know we all have periods of self-doubt
let’s be honest but you’ve got to have
you’ve got to clear those cobwebs away
and say right I’m going to do it
absolute we it will in Sage we I say to
all my colleagues I say guys let’s just
do it if it’s right for the customer
walk in the shoes of the customer keep
an empty chair in every meeting for the
customer if it’s the right thing to do
then just go for it I’ll give you a
hundred percent air cover and a far
prefer you fail fast fail quick and then
find the idea that really meets the
customer needs then just think about it
and that kind of old analysis paralysis
which kills companies kills
entrepreneurs I love it so guys leave
your your questions in the comments
let’s get to a few already pouring in
Jer eyes first question arises a
longtime viewer is there a set process
that reliably consistently works for
everyone on turning a business idea into
reality
yeah I think I think the kana there’s
some golden rules I wouldn’t say there’s
a cookie cutter process but there’s some
golden rules kind of rule number one is
always live in the shoes of your
customer whether it’s a product you know
or or service and that rule never goes
away as you grow and scale your business
actually you live in issues in customer
I’ll you know really be where your
audience is and that’s the start of
everything now I we’ve talked about and
I love this if you’ve got something you
really get frustrated by with the
service that you’re receiving or a
company you deal with think about how do
you distance media that will do that a
lot better than they can do and then
make that have a lot of businesses have
been created just through the genius of
people who have become very frustrated
so I think the key thing is golden rule
number one is just be where your
customers are and then have that sort of
bias traction
to think of your idea and then test
drive it with hopefully early adopter
customers to make sure it’s really if
it’s real and scale it up yeah I would
add I think you got to make sure you
take an action I think a lot of
entrepreneurs have ideas but we’re
talking in this episode how to turn into
reality it’s taking consistent action
it’s waking up every day and doing
something to move your business forward
even if you feel like it’s too big an
idea or it’s too scary I think a lot of
times people are so worried about taking
the perfect first step that they don’t
do anything where there is no perfect
first step it’s just go out and do and
like Stephen started a blog vlog on our
last episode right 20 days ago we
started a vlog and and you’ve done a
second episode yep and you do a third
one here yep and just we’re gonna get
started and we’re gonna learn each time
and you’re like hey give us feedback and
we’re gonna do again and do it again and
do it again and every time you do it it
gets better you know there’s no perfect
way to start a vlog you just get a
camera out and you start vlogging and
you make improvements every time and so
I think a lot of times entrepreneurs are
in their their own way and their own
head too much we’re gonna vote how do I
get started what first step do I take
just do something and then tomorrow do
it again and do it again and every time
you get a little bit better that
consistency is gonna be really important
yeah I think I know a lot of
entrepreneurs and I’ll say and sometimes
it’s about me or one of the things I’ll
be critical of myself is sometimes you
know do you see perfection realities you
know will probably never find perfection
on this planet and if you’re looking to
have the perfect product or the perfect
sort of market research trial in or
whatever yeah you’re just never gonna do
that and you’re gonna spin yourself in
circles you’re much better often
actually what Evan said is just that
action action orientation to start and
you know on that video vlog that we’re
doing honestly I didn’t know if it met
the knee but I thought kind of a good
idea so why don’t we just try if it
didn’t work we didn’t get the reaction
we didn’t get the audience who really
said that we’re meeting the need that
they they have then we would have
stopped it and and I think the other
thing is hockey we’re in this is a
hockey City right so Maple Leafs over
Air Canada sent
and that also big plug for his team Blue
Jays from another graceful said Toronto
great city great culture great Symphony
Orchestra’s great theater but great
sport too I’m Wayne Gretzky arguably one
of the greatest hockey players ever
amazing player and he kind of watched
some of his his dribbles on YouTube just
out of this world what he said is he
never never kind of um he never runs to
where the puck is he always runs to
where it’s gonna be and I think we we
and we get inspired by entrepreneurs who
have ideas about inventing the future
and inventing taking customers on a
journey where the customer might not
even know they have a need a later need
and just turn and think that smartphones
have done this it clearly
15 years ago we would have said it’s
probably crazy to have a phone and
integrated a computing device with a
calendar and apps and stuff we probably
wouldn’t have saw the logic of that
could be all kind of walk around at that
time either with black wrists another
Greek actually Canadian company that
I’ve got disintermediated a great kind
of lesson in terms of missing a big
shift in that movement where they didn’t
realize where the puck was gonna be they
were putting the puck on the ice and
just keep on going back to that Park and
you can’t do that so I think that bars
fraction is so important and Evan you’re
absolutely spot-on with that advice cool
all right well let’s get to more
questions I see them flowing in so I’m
gonna scroll down and see we got it’s
nice having to take out the golden
forest 15 year old 15 year old
entrepreneur who works remotely sorry I
just got something a good friend he’s a
15 year old entrepreneur who works
remotely on a daily basis here to learn
do you have advice so we have advice for
15 year old entrepreneur who wants to
work remotely in their business what
advice would you give yeah I think if
you want to work remotely then I guess
first of all you want to ask yourself
what it what are you passionate about
you know I know this girl my left is is
passionate about helping entrepreneurs
so you know the channel was just a
vehicle where he can serve you be your
mentor give you great advice support you
grow your business so the first thing is
you know as a 15 year old there’s
something you love you know it’s poor is
it salsa dancing what what is it you
love that really you get excited about
because if you get excited about it you
can inspire you know a movement a
movement of customers then the second
thing I think if you want to work
remotely you’ve got to think about how
you’re going to deliver that service or
product to customers and again I think
the world of social media really does
amplify that the Internet’s change
everything and it’s fantastic gives
people huge flexibility in terms of
where they work and in Madison you know
we’re doing this broadcast from Toronto
no fancy studios just a laptop pretty
low cost probably the tech here cost
less than a thousand dollars so the
world has changed this would have been
unimaginable ten years ago so I’d say
yeah absolutely be passionate about
something you really love because that
will give you your idea for the business
and then think about where the customer
is and how you get there and I’d commend
you if you want to work remotely to
really look at kind of social media and
the channels whether it’s Instagram
Facebook or whatever channel where your
audiences yeah I would say also continue
to learn and reach out in model success
and like I wish that this existed now is
15 I wish I could ask Stephen Kelly a
question as a 15 year old entrepreneur
and so I think continue to surround
yourself with resources with people you
know watch youtube videos read books go
to Sage summit if it’s in your city
continue to try to invest and learn a
mile success because surrounding
yourself with people who’ve done great
things even if it’s not maybe there’s
nobody in your family who’s done great
things but by reading books you get a
window into somebody else’s mind or
watching the videos that we make you get
a window into somebody’s mind and by
constantly exposing yourself to those
things your perspective will shift your
opportunity will open up and you’ll see
new ways to navigate to help you build
that business and so Stephen very like
tactical great strategies and I would
just add just continue to educate
continue to learn and continue to reach
out could come back ask more questions
right it’s a it’s an amazing world we
live in right now the opportunity to
reach so many people and I think people
are also willing to help and help out
young entrepreneurs you just like I
when I see someone say they’re 15 years
old is like I love it we have we’ve had
13 year olds on it’s great like I think
a lot of people want to give back and
help the next generation as well so use
that it’s an advantage right now and
then go take action on it
yeah I think um don’t underestimate how
much people like me you know Evans
obviously loads way younger than I am
but he’s been down on the mentoring
floor and I remember last year I was on
the mentoring floor and I had a
thirteen-year-old I’d come along to talk
to me about a brilliant app idea that in
this case he’d had and he started off
and and if it was gonna be successful
he’s even kind of thinking about
reducing education in college and that
she started a business in parallel with
that so so I just can’t believe how much
people I Evan me would love to help
younger generation entrepreneurs the
other thing when I kind of grew up I
used to kind of think wow good a
conference and I’ll see someone I really
respect Anna MA I sort of try and hang
around by the stage door to just you
know it’s or step them and say just what
I’ve got this idea what do you think of
it and again in your head you will think
oh that they won’t see me they won’t
have time for me that I have bodyguards
and have security they you know and and
now with social media
loads of people dear me I’m sure it’s
exactly the same for Evan loads of
people contact him through social media
and you know now Evans got to a business
was hugely successful he has sort of
people helping him kind of categorize
that but he still answers a lot of that
himself and just don’t underestimate
that people are here to help you so if
this voice is telling you in your head
though I can’t access that guy or that
lady so it again back to you what is
your innate what are you passionate
about then think of the top three people
who are the experts this sort of you
know the rock stars the gurus and and
try to reach them through social media
and say look I’m trying to think about
this I guarantee if you’re 15 years old
they’ll give you the time they’ll give
you the benefit of their advice and from
that conversation that idea and it might
refine your idea you could have a
I’ll get that you can actually start a
business yeah just to add on to that I
would say if they are doing an event
they’re speaking at a conference like
sage summit or they’re doing a hangout
like this be first a lot of times you’re
afraid to go up and be first and you
want to wait for the crowd but then it
just gets too crazy you know I’ve done
three different chunks of mentoring time
here at Sage my first one is right after
the keynote and it was empty because
everybody’s going to the bathroom and
you know chatting and getting used to
the surroundings and then the other two
were like insane where we’re being
triple books in Quadra booked and
booking on my breaks I’m booked talking
as I’m walking to other meetings and and
that happens you know if you try to get
to a speaker after they’ve done their
speech they’re gonna be swamped get to
them first you want to get your question
answered on I hang out like this like
get in there first get in there sooner
so it’s noticed so if you’re trying to
get on on somebody’s radar at that kind
of event or a live event just get in
there you have your questions is what
you came here for you want to be around
them you want to get an answer to that
question don’t hesitate to just jump
right in and get it answered so true
it’s great advice really great of us and
I think conferences are brilliant
brilliant if you think about it when
Evans done a big conference speech or
you know keynote it somewhere typically
typically that individuals not rushing
away immediately to go into another key
know normally they kind of spend you
know we had Michael Hart you know here
yesterday amazing on to there actually
we had Rick amazing comedian Canadian
Rick Mercer and I was blown away he came
down here and spent an hour on the show
floor and doing selfies and pictures so
so again people are really generous
people are generous with their time so
be first and grab them and doorstep them
and make sure you know you get your idea
across because you’ll probably find
especially if you’re 50 years old
they’ll be so proud of you going up to
them and having the confidence to do
that and they’ll spend time with you
nice cool all right let’s keep going ask
your question guys in the comments Paula
you guys you are together now Quadra
exclamation mark cool hi from Tokyo all
right i from near London
people checking in from around the world
oh it just skipped or skipped at the
bottom uh so who are our top five so who
your top favorite entrepreneurs I kind
of asked you this question in there yeah
and our Facebook hangout but who’s your
favorite entrepreneur who do you look up
to there’s so many you know there’s some
learning by the way Marnie hey Marnie so
there are so many and there’s what I
would say in the spirit of there’s no
one who’s who’s the perfect entrepreneur
there’s lots of people I love
entrepreneurs who are very humble who
have that says humility to talk about
their mistakes I think that self
deprivation is very powerful and
therefore folks you know actually I say
people I ever unbelievable just very
honest very very humble guy but then the
the famous ones include people like you
know Richard Branson’s from the sort of
multi sort of consumer brand experience
from Airlines to music the guys we had
actually Richard on the stage last year
saved on it and again what a humble guy
unbelievable actually or inspiring and
he’s you know what multi-millionaire but
you just sit across never a cup of
coffee with him and it’s just a regular
guy and then people I am in our industry
technology people like Steve Jobs
you could argue probably Steve Jobs
wasn’t the nicest guy in the world but
why would a genius technology genius and
he definitely saw where the putt was
gonna go and he invented a whole
different user experience for consumers
and and they had dreams about
integration and convergence of different
technologies to give consumers something
that he thought would be very practical
and I just yeah I’m sure you’ve seen the
movie I’ve read the books and when you
look at him going into that ball meet
and trying to persuade people about the
iPhone and half the board kind of
weren’t there or maybe even thought it
was crazy
they had conviction belief and you know
because of that moment it’s sort of
changed the world and that great
companies we mentioned like blackberry I
really kind of not the powerhouse they
were at making it no more and what is it
I think in three years time the it seems
like the data says there’ll be six
billion smartphones on the planet and
that is 15 years ago a technology
wasn’t even invented so some so those
got those jobs a great inspiration but I
think there’s a lot of entre nice you
can you can get little nuggets from many
different entrepreneurs who you might
agree so I mean I agree a hundred
percent I my goal is never to be the
next Steve Jobs or the next anybody it’s
not the advice it’s you want to be the
best version of yourself and you can
pull from lots of different people you
like this thing about Steve Jobs and
hate all these other things great like
forget those and just take that one
thing and so it’s what I try to do in
this channel is pull all of these
different famous entrepreneurs and
successful people and if you learn one
thing from them that makes you better
you that’s the whole point if I depict
them my favorite famous entrepreneur I
default to AP Giannini who started Bank
of America and he was the guy who bet on
the little guy he was one who insisted
on giving loans to immigrant workers
when nobody wanted to give loans to
immigrants blue-collar workers he would
lend money to people based off a
handshake and a look in their eye if you
can believe that from a banker he gave
money to Walt Disney when everybody
thought he was crazy for wanting to make
a full-length cartoon movie so not a lot
people know his story even inside the
Bank of America you say pigeon he’s like
who’s that like is your founder he’s
your found there guys you gotta know
this story so he’s had to pick one guy
it’s him because he’s the believe banker
and always cared for the little guy
but I agree like you pull from so many
different people different things I
pulled for my parents I pulled from
successful entrepreneurs athletes
musicians inventors CEOs you can learn
something from anybody who’s had more
success than you yeah actually just one
other guy that blew me away and I think
been a massive influence on technology
in the last decade and started the
company in 2000 called Marc Benioff and
definitely was reading his books as well
inspirational leader great technology
visionary but the reason why I pick him
out is something we’ve been talking
about earlier on a broadcast and we
featured a lot here at sage summit is
around this whole area of compassionate
capitalism obviously want to build a
great company have awesome customers
awesome technology all those things but
we also want to give back to the
communities and play an active role
really kind of supporting youth and
things we really care about and Marc
Benioff sort of pioneered that whatever
you call it social philanthropy I think
the culture that he’s building that
company is just like just to be so a mod
so it’s about building a great business
but doing it the right way and also give
him back to the communities and really
being an active participant of the
communities and and at the time what I
love about Marc is back in what almost
20 years ago when he started that
company it would have been very
unpopular to do what he he had a vision
and a set of values around because you
know traditionally you launched a public
company and everybody says it’s all
about return for shareholders and he
said actually I’m gonna I’m gonna say
yeah it is about return for shareholders
but I’ve also got a support other
stakeholders I’ve got to look after my
colleagues the people who work for
Salesforce I’ve got to look after my
customers I’m fanatical about customers
and partners but also I’ve got a plan
really active for all in the communities
and if that in the short term means you
know we don’t maximize profit from day
one then that’s the right thing to do
for the business because we’re about
building a sustainable successful
business that has huge longevity
increase in a massive legacy so that is
I love the concept and reason why I’m
telling you that about Marc is it was
completely against the the you know the
deterrent of I guess the water flowing
against him and he was very contrary in
terms of that was a massive moment and I
think has been influential on the
technology industry and other industries
where they’ve come up with a big pledge
around making sure they set up a
foundation or work in the community and
that you know gives real context
particularly for sales for some
companies like us for attracting
Millennials they feel that’s a really
critical part of why they want to work
and give some loyalty to a company so
you know hat tip to mark and I think it
really is is the way all companies
should be run I’m just I don’t think if
we did a video a top 10 on him we may
have on the channel
maybe if not we should he’s a he’s a
such a dude as well he’s just so you
know again if he was here yeah just sit
across have a cup of tea or a beer or
whatever and he’s just some the most
regular guy fantastic guy
obviously multi-billionaire but I’m just
such a amazing inspirational leader and
shows a great sense of humility I think
Darrell’s about to take off there’ll get
in here
take get it hey yeah there are a lot
list oh yeah so Darryl Darryl works on
Team sage music I was as all the behind
the scenes stuff the computer we’re
using the background you see the chairs
and table internet connection reason why
go so smoothly is this guy here he comes
now it does for me I’m pretty average
gone
Darryl through social media makes me
look okay so now it’s all down you know
he just pushed me forward but he’s the
guy who makes it all happen
the wind beneath our will there is but
Darrell’s gotta catch his flight back to
London to it so we won’t keep them but
thank you man I did any message thank
you yes sir of years gone doubt you
gotta know Darryl mesas happen and it’s
a word of advice here it is put on the
same sage words what sage word is use
any channel you can to get yourself out
there to the most relevant audience to
you so if that’s Instagram that’s great
if it’s Twitter that’s great work out
what’s the right channel for you and
just use it to the best you can with
good quality content like this awesome I
love it out man have a good flight a
flight buddy alright cool
I got a little spontaneity happening
there I love it okay keep the guys there
were so many questions that came in that
YouTube reset the thing I went all over
to the bottom so you have a question we
didn’t get to ask it again too many too
much has happened it’s a good problem to
have
Roy can you touch on whether the process
is different if my focus is a cause
rather than entrepreneurship like
targeting special needs parents so we’re
talking about taking an idea into
reality if it’s for a cause instead of
for business is the process any
different I think the process is the
same and I think well you know I think
both Evan I would applaud your course
around special needs and again I think
it’s it’s what is identifying the gap
that’s there now and identifying how
through your idea you could actually
improve the world beer
of parents of special needs kids in this
case and you know I think there’s
there’s many gaps I think whether you’re
in the US or Canada or any developed
economy there’s a lot of gaps open up
because you know the traditional sort of
welfare system it is struggling to keep
up with though that both the demos sort
of demographic shift in terms of
thinking at all that other stuff like
mental health and all these things that
were really able to talk about it now
whereas probably a decade ago people
just kind of hid this stuff in the
cupboards so there’s a lot of stuff and
there’s a lot of people who are needing
a lot of support so if you’ve got an
idea around that again is it’s making
that idea come to reality and I think
around that one it sounds like without
knowing the details but it sounds like
you could have an idea where at very low
costs you could actually create
something that you could test drive with
a selection of parents just to validate
your idea and then then again scale
alpha I think that would be a fantastic
course I was trying to suppose trying to
scroll back to the question but there’s
so many that came in that I lost it so
Roy is a good problem same advice that I
started off with I think like consistent
action like whatever that idea you have
is to reach special needs parents
whatever thing when in creative it’s not
a company if it’s just an initiative or
project partnerships whatever it is that
you do something every day you don’t let
your head talk you out of doing the big
thing that you have in mind and that you
create an environment that allows you to
wake up every day whether it’s going for
a 6:00 a.m. run like Stephen does every
day or watching a video reading the book
or reminding yourself of the vision like
whatever it is it gets you into the mode
that every day you’re gonna go off and
take action on achieving your vision
because otherwise it just stays here and
never comes out so whether you’re
building a business or just moving a
cause forward I believe it’s the same
thing yeah I think it’s and I think in
that case you’d probably you want a
prototype so on the test drive it then
also I think there’s an entrepreneur
where you’ve got to think about how do
you scale that and she I think Donald’s
comment is again through social media
through content that’s a great way to
scale a business so but it’s always
fantastic to validate it first and go
and test drive it Road test it
in this case parents with special-needs
kids
Rory’s writing back thank you and caps
so much gentleman three exclamation
points so thank you for feeling the love
there okay let’s go to this one here
grandpa’s farm gosailing’ that’s a
creative name how critical is a
multi-platform marketing plan as opposed
to just concentrating on YouTube I think
we’re gonna get Daryl backing down to
answer man on this I think yeah what do
you call it multi-platform multi-channel
I think the key thing is where is your
audience and if you’re already you know
I was down in Madrid last we talked
about Iberia which is Spain and Portugal
you know no one uses Twitter down in
Portugal so they use a totally different
channel obviously and China is totally
different stuff so every audience every
country has unique elements around what
the social channel is so I personally
think YouTube’s amazing again we had
Chad Hurley who’s the founder of YouTube
up on the stage and Wow last year for
what an inspiration but what he said was
I think at the time he was hoping that
would they’d have you know maybe 10,000
videos kind of loaded something like a
month or something crazy and now I think
it’s like this is it 400 hours of
content loaded every minute as well as 2
billion users or something crazy like
that so he could never have estimated
just how YouTube’s become all pervasive
and again what an amazing kind of
channel I think it’s incredible for
content video video content is really
rich and normally it’s fantastic now you
might go some parts of the world if
you’re not living in the US or Canada
and you might have really kind of slow
bandwidth so that’s got an impact on
video and and and all these sort of
things so I just again think about what
Darrell said
what’s the channel that really your
audience is attuned to and then you know
put a lot of the wood behind that arrow
it’s going to link the finest hour
yeah yeah it’s exactly right you know
where you’re on its marketing 101 you
want to be where your customers are
you know if you’re selling to redheaded
women and this is conference or
redheaded women like you want to be
there you know wherever your audience is
you need to be there the only thing I
would add is combine it with what you’re
good at
you know if you suck at doing videos and
the idea of doing videos just terrifies
you and you’re a great writer you don’t
have to be on YouTube right you can go
to medium you can go to LinkedIn you can
go to Facebook you can start a blog
right go to Twitter is a lot of other
options your customers are in a lot of
different places so you don’t have to do
all of those things just figure out
where your audience is combined with
what you’re good at
you know Steven started his new vlog
series it can do well most CEOs I’ve met
a lot of them are super boring and would
not have a great personal vlog and so
that maybe that’s not the best path for
them right even though the audience is
on YouTube so you’ve got to combine
those two things together I think
entrepreneurs try to do everything and
then you do nothing well mmm you try to
the YouTube and Twitter and LinkedIn and
medium and Facebook and Instagram and
everything and then everything sucks and
so pick the platform that has your
audience and combines your natural
talent and then make that awesome so
that if I watch your YouTube video or
see your tweet I’m gonna want to consume
it again and share it with my friends
making content that you’re proud of is
way more important than making decent
content across everything yeah actually
there’s such an impulse important Evan
and and any advice you give in terms of
the different choices between the social
channels you know because there’s a lot
of factors in terms of whether its
content whether it’s a really high
quality photograph pick you know there’s
a lot of different things any any advice
you give well if you look at like
Twitter YouTube Facebook they have all
audiences they’re so big that they cover
everything Instagram – you can go niche
like LinkedIn is gonna be more for the
business crowd and you know Pinterest is
a certain crowd and snapchat skews
younger but it’s coming up older so you
can be a little strategic about that but
yeah leverage your strengths if you’re a
great photographer you know you take
beautiful pictures you can turn that
into a YouTube video but it’s still
pictures it’s not as great as if you
turn it into Instagram photos or
Facebook photos or partner up with a
motivational speaker and use their
quotes to be on top of your pick
right so leverage the thing that you’re
really good at with where your audience
is and it’s just start with one yeah I
would get all the domains of all of them
like get the handles so if a new thing
opened up I would get the Evan
Carmichael of you know soo tube just
just to have it and then I’d figure out
later if I’m actually gonna use it or
not so nobody takes your name yeah
actually
in summer space where Ivan said there
has huge impact on me said start with
one I’d also I encourage you to start
with one idea don’t try and do too many
things because you kind of become all
things to all people and you good at
nothing so it’s the same with social
media is pick one channel same with kind
of product or service just pick one to
start with and then you know we call it
a sort of beachhead strategy you own one
beachhead you do really well there then
you think about the next one that’s
related and then you do the next one and
multi next one and and that’s how you
kind of ultimately scale a great
business hello
he’s writing back to say once again
thanks for the awesome content
motivation so that’s great that we can
help
next Zach does a positive outlook play a
part in calling some young aspiring
entrepreneurs anxiety so role of
positive out outlook on quelling anxiety
for entrepreneurs yeah I think that’s
Soviet we better start with the man who
invented hashtag belief this is him on
my left is Evan so important yeah I mean
it just like I started off the talk
saying I think the mindset is super
important I think you know 10% of your
life is what happens to you and 90% is
how you react to it and how you choose
to look at it you know is this it’s the
difference between is this am I having a
bad day or am I having a growth day
right this is a me growing day there’s a
concept that would you know the
difference between being buried and
being planted because when you’re in the
ground all you see is darkness around
you and maybe you’re just being planted
to grow stronger to come up and create
this amazing thing versus I’m buried I’m
suffocated I can’t do anything if you
look at all the people who’ve had
massive success
it’s not inherited well but genuine
massive success that they created on
their own it doesn’t come from people
who you know had super wealthy parents
right people who grew up with massive
safety nets and trust funds it’s the
people who had nothing growing up when
they turned it into something amazing
and I think a big challenge is if you
don’t have anything right now the people
around you can be telling you that you
don’t have anything that you want to
mount there anything that you know you
know the education or background their
money or anything and so changing your
environment whether it’s watching videos
like this or reading books all the stuff
I talked about whatever it is it gets
you excited cuz we’ve all we’ve all had
these moments of boldness and excitement
and velocity is one of Stephens favorite
words we’ve all had these moments we
weren’t just go and charge and do
amazing things like what led to that and
then how do you make that part of your
daily routine
instead of happening to come across at
five o’clock on a you know Tuesday
afternoon so that you are applying it on
a regular basis I think the mindset the
environment is super super important
much more than whatever resources you
have I think it’s probably one of the
most important aspects of a successful
on to that I mean the the thing we
celebrate is we all got different
personalities you know we’re probably
ironically introverts and yeah you know
sometimes it has sort of naturally made
us quite anxious about stuff but what I
would say is there’s just such strong
evidence that positivity and optimism is
actually not only inspiring but it’s
also quite contagious it’s infectious so
and your customers will detect this and
it is tough to fake so authenticity
we’ve talked so much about our
authenticity is such a powerful
compelling quality but if you’re gonna
hire like someone to come and work these
you’ve got to be positive about your
dream and your vision your idea so and
there’s just starting to be a lowly life
of sort of behavioral psychology written
around this and sort of nudging
behaviors but I think you waking up
every day and having convict
and have a belief and expressing that in
optimism and positivity about how your
products can change the world in its own
little way it’s very compelling and I
think the other thing you know just
practically because you just can’t be
always sort of on and always positive so
sometimes we all kind of have a bad day
whatever that is and if that’s the case
maybe I don’t know you don’t want to do
sort of frontline work you want to do
stuff about think is so if you know I’m
a great day decent thoughtful word to
some stuff about I don’t know pride
development whatever but if you if you
haven’t you’re in the zone you having a
good day you’re positive get out there
talk to customers talk to media post
stuff on social media so play to your
strengths in terms of how you are cuz
we’re not none of us have like a
consistent sort of mood that just always
operates at the same level but I would I
would absolutely always been encouraged
by all the entre notes I’ve met with
when they’re in the zone they’re
unbelievably positive because because
what they’re doing is really persuading
us all that there’s a better way there’s
a better world there’s a better product
there’s a different way to do stuff
there’s a different way to crack the
code and all of us get compelled to
following that vision they create a
movement and that’s how you scale very
companies like it Valley is asking how
do you transform a bad day into a bad
minute or hour I think um actually a
great way so if you are you’re not in
the zone yeah whatever
you could be depressed you could you
could just just had it something happens
which kind of knocks you off track what
you want to do is actually sort of
quarter-sized that and just just move on
it could be loads of different things
you could and it depends what fee you
could go for a walk go for a run I tend
to you know from I’m certainly the way
that I’d be jet lag and stuff like that
it’s just go running gets to be feeling
good gets healed and orphans go and all
that sort of stuff or you could just go
and get a mentor you could go and have a
coffee with someone you could do
breathing exercises you could do
mindfulness you could do whatever works
for you really I think it’s really
important that you are always your
unique personality
and you find just what works for you and
allows you to kind of recalibrate your
optimism and positivity and come back
and if you can you know it’s great if
she instead of out with a bad day just
have a bad minute
wow that’s powerful really is power from
them bounced back a couple things that
helped me 1 try to solve the problem
look if it’s a problem that’s happening
this is crisis in my business or
something I need to solve ok go and
solve the problem like do it if you know
if it’s scary because the more you just
let it sit the problems not just gonna
go away on its own so go and solve it if
it’s the kind of thing that I can’t
solve I’m frustrated for a different
reason I like the line of turning your
expectations into appreciation so I’m
sitting in traffic you know or I’m
waiting for the elevator and it’s not
working or you know something happens
that’s just beyond my control just
turning your expectations into
appreciation gratitude like I’m in a car
like this is great I can drive imagine
if it was 100 years ago I’d be on a
horse you know and I get to talk to
people like you guys over the internet
every day and wouldn’t have been able to
happen 100 years ago right just that
kind of stuff just resets and makes them
realize that most of these things that
I’m upset about don’t actually really
matter and to get back on the horse and
go do the thing that I care about so
solve the problem if there is a problem
you can solve immediately don’t delay
and to trade your expectations for
appreciation yeah actually the other
thing just looking back on my career you
know you do worry about stuff at times
but when I look back on it with the
benefit of hindsight there’s never been
anything that we didn’t overcome and I
think there’s a great quality around
perseverance and and you just got to
give yourself context you got to step
back from the moment sort of be your own
shadow and then watch yourself in the
moment and sometimes when you do that
you think well I’m in pretty ridiculous
I’m getting worried about stuff I don’t
need to worry about and there’s kind of
a few rules for entrepreneurs the rules
of life really yeah you should only
worry about what you can change no point
worrying about stuff you can’t you know
if you worried about the u.s. president
your word of our stuff what can you do
on estate what can you do about this
worry about stuff we can change about
your customers the product the service
the channels you
those things you can really um it’s been
Thailand and just become very pragmatic
but what I would say is well you know
starting a business you know it takes
that the Gus the perseverance just to go
across the line take the first step but
then a lot of it really is about
continued perseverance tenacity grit and
all those sort of qualities come out to
the fore in terms of just the
consistency of execution over that over
the long term to be proud of what you’ve
created so I think a lot of it is
definitely you know in your hands and we
would definitely encourage you in that
vein to be really positive really
optimistic and well you know I haven’t a
bad they just allow yourself to step
back just be objective and say you know
back to Evans point what is the problem
we’re trying to solve here and how do we
fix it you know and then you you create
a few smart guys you’ll find a way I
like it
Daniel’s writing in how do you balance
real-life kids bill Payne with invested
in your ideas when you have more month
than money not sure what that last part
is but basically idea of being a balance
your life kids bill pain with trying to
start a business I think that’s a tough
one
and I would say you know probably this
is where I question some of the sort of
media portrayal of entrepreneurs and
sometimes entrepreneurs are painted as
people who have everything and never
have to make compromises I don’t I don’t
know those entrepreneurs because I you
know forever and would maybe talk Evans
got kids is a lot of juggling you have
to we sort of have a belief but I
absolutely love life a lot being an
entrepreneur and I say in sage my
colleagues you know think of us as like
their most excited startup in the world
but in a business I think you do have
big dreams across your life for sadness
at the only sadness about life is you
just get one one life and that kind of
thing for people like ever one life was
never enough because we just got so much
to do with our one life but what does
that mean it what it means to me is that
um in terms of the context of balancing
things I think you know reality is you
got one shot
you got one life you probably got loads
of business ideas and you have to juggle
you have to make compromises if you’re
having kids you have to tell what I
would advise honestly I think it’s tough
to have it all and you know have a
career and work crazy hours and balance
your life and keep all the balls
juggling in the air it’s tough because
you have to compromise but what I would
say and if this would be advice I’d give
to my younger self just go into every
situation with your eyes wide open
always have the discussion whether it’s
with kids or partners or whoever it is
to be as honest you can at that point in
time what you what you tend to find
again this is sort of bit the benefit of
hindsight it is you can never really
predict the future because yeah and the
the downside of me being an optimist in
some ways as their entrepreneur is
sometimes I said what we’re gonna have
to double down for the next say 30 days
90 days my experience tells me those 30
days has always become 90 days or 180
days it’s always taken me longer then
I’ve anticipated so my sort of I guess
answer your question is I think you do
have to compromise you have to juggle
the balls but I think with that comes a
responsibility to be honest to yourself
and honest with the people you care
about and try and just be you know just
to just have that conversation so you’re
going with your eyes wide open but also
just to acknowledge that actually things
might change over time if your business
really picks up and it’s going
gangbusters it might take more time and
therefore you’re gonna have to double
down a bit longer so you kind of need a
reset and a check point down that
journey and again worth having a honest
conversation and just making sure all
the people you care about are on board
and and all committed and and have that
kind of shared meaning Yammer I’m
reminded of Steve Wozniak who whose
advice to entrepreneurs so he co-founded
Apple Steve Jobs would say don’t focus
on what you don’t have rather focus on
what you can do with what you do have
and I think even just that mindset shift
is a huge difference because we tend to
focus on all the things we don’t have
the money we don’t have the time we
don’t have the resources we don’t have
the connections we don’t have the
education we don’t have and if that’s
the world
that you live in you’re never gonna
build anything you can’t just focus on
what you don’t have because you’re
operating in a world of scarcity where
if you focus on listen I have half an
hour a night that’s what I have great
like use that half an hour to build your
business every single day you don’t need
to have fancy gear or tools or anything
to get started you just start with what
you have where you are you start you
want to set a YouTube channel get out
your phone and start making videos do
you want to make huge productions yes
great that’s your long-term goal so
start working on it cuz nobody’s gonna
fund that for you you have to bet on
yourself and start putting in the work
to get good at it using the tools that
you have and so even just thinking about
it like one of the most important skills
of an entrepreneur is resourcefulness
because you never have enough resources
to do what you want to do so if to be
creative with be resourceful it’s how
new things are invented you can’t just
throw money at a problem right you need
resourcefulness and so it’s a great
thing for you to learn right now and
it’s a real situation right you have
bills you have a family you got mouths
to feed you don’t have a ton of time
great everybody’s fighting their own
battle there’s a lot of things that I
could say about my life or the reasons
why I can’t build my business just like
everybody else but I focus I make time
for it at the start it was an hour a day
half an hour a day whatever it was and
you start expanding as you start you
know provide value and earning income
and so just that mindset shift of I’m
not gonna focus what I don’t have here’s
what I do have here’s what I’m grateful
for here’s how I’m gonna maximize what I
do have right now and how can I be more
resourceful to figure things out just
switch in our minds that will make a
huge huge huge different much more than
any specific tactic that I can give you
yeah with that that’s a great quote
resourcefulness is always the answer
not resources and if you think of a
start in your business I think um
actually it’s a great thing to do to
moonlight so you you know you time slice
to what Evan says so you’re working full
time you’re funding you know the family
the mortgage the kids and all that stuff
but maybe you know when you put the kids
to bed you actually sit down and think
about your business idea and use the
evenings to start your business
start to start your big idea and how you
gonna do that maybe come some time out
the weekends to do that and then you
start your business and when it’s kind
of going up and it’s really taken off
then you think about when you step down
from your full-time employment but I
know again loads of great entrepreneurs
who have effectively moonlighted to kind
of kind of a pump start their business
and it’s been very effective and the
amazingly realms from those it’s just
the resourcefulness people come up with
in terms of the scarce resource we all
have this time making it go as far as
they can do to be successful one thing I
always remind myself of is no matter how
bad a situation is remember somebody has
it worse somebody’s had it worse than
you had fewer resources in you and went
on to do amazing amazing things you know
if you think of Oprah growing up you
know the you know being raped by family
members and being so poor that she had
to wear potato sacks you know to school
as a dress and just it’s story after
story after story of the story of these
ultra successful people who started with
way less than what you already have
right now and the difference is they
didn’t focus on what they don’t have
right focus on what you do have and be
resourceful
yeah actually and when I sat in the
Silicon Valley at the time sort of late
nineties and loads of companies raising
money and VC money typically the
companies that raised loads of money not
only successful and also destroyed their
culture because – what I haven’t said
and I think this is so fundamental is
that I wouldn’t necessarily argue you
want to run a company on fumes but you
want to run it lean and mean I think
that startup keep that startup mentality
as you’ve grown to get and there’s some
great papers of around founders
mentality which keeps you fresh keeps
you young keeps you focused on customer
obsession and there’s so many companies
I see who grow and grow and then they
become wasteful and they kind of lose
their that kind of wake-up call of why
they started at their adventure in the
first place
so again you know startup entrenar
really think it’s pretty important if
you really sort of almost run on fumes
and you haven’t got loads of money to
spend on marketing and stuff like that
your farm ways
just creativity and resourcefulness to
get the job done to meet the end results
and to find really efficient ways to do
that I love it I know we’re certainly
run short on time Stephens got a crazy
schedule here today at Sage Summit
one last question let’s get to Shahrukh
Hussein the setting unrealistic goals
work I’m realistic I guess if I reframe
that and said you know will you call it
big hairy audacious I said I certainly
think was a couple of things goals are
sort of plans okay one thing is really
important and we probably talk about
sometimes if you do an incremental plan
from where you are you can only see the
next step what you want to do as an
entrepreneur is say the end game of you
know what is it I want to dream and you
almost live in the future and then come
back to the present so and this is the
way most successful companies actually
plan they’ll say you know three years
what do I want to do you know we want to
say force H launched a million
businesses a new businesses help them
get up and run it and so if we did that
then three years what would have to year
one and then kind of work it back to
month one and then I think it really
does give you an opportunity to have
very ambitious plans I think it’s great
to have ambitious plans and share those
plans and the more ambition you have
typically the more successful you are
the other thing I’d say is just the the
way the human psyche works if you say
I’ll have a plan where we’ll have out of
them half a million dollars of revenue
in five years or something like that
if you said because the way it works is
then you’d be happy if you maybe got
four hundred thousand but if you said
actually we want to do a million dollars
it just drives your mentality to be more
ambitious and achieve more so I would
set yourself higher goals and higher
ambitions because effectively you’ll get
probably 90% are there and ninety
percent of a double in ambition level is
much better than a hundred percent of a
very low ambition yeah I think it’s
super important to have a big goal that
you’re shooting towards I have a reason
to get up every day you know I want to
help a billion entrepreneurs that’s
inspiring it leads me to create a
YouTube channel and do book deals and
speak and do things that can has the
potential to hit a lot of people at the
same time I think you
also need to enjoy the work it’s I’m not
only doing this to hit this goal
whatever your big crazy goal is but I
like grinding every single day like I
like doing this I like editing my videos
I like talking to you one-on-one so I
think too many people just have a goal
and it’s like okay I just I’ll do
whatever it takes just to hit that goal
I don’t think that’s the right mindset I
think you have to actually enjoy the
work that you’re doing every single day
as well you’re enjoying the climb almost
more than hitting the top of the
mountain right because you hit the top
like well now what do I do you got to
climb some more right so goals are great
I love it it’s part of what inspires me
daily but I think even more important is
actually enjoying the day-to-day work
that you’re doing yeah I’ll go to
metaphor because we’re in Toronto so
you’re gonna love this hope you love
this anyway so I’d say as an
entrepreneur you want to shoot for the
stars but you might find by shooting for
the stars if you land on top of the CN
tower I like it I like it cool well
thank you guys so much for watching
Steven I know you’ve got a run to your
next thing how do you want to end this
out do we have a quote to ended I have a
final thought what do you how do you
want to finish this yeah just we had a
great speaker down with us on Sage
Summit Michael Hart who’s a amazing tech
visionary Canadian very inspired and and
the the the quote that he left me with
is I’m a 20-year overnight success so
you know you’re you got dreams you got
ambitions you had great questions here
but actually you need perseverance and
you need tenacity and the first thing
you’ve got to do in the context of
today’s kind of broadcast is take that
first step and we you know compel you to
take that first step forward because
then you start living your dreams and
you get momentum behind you and you get
confidence and you start believing in
yourself and the more you believe in
yourself just the more successful you’ll
be I love it
well thank you guys for watching we’re
gonna do it again next month let us know
in the comments down below what topics
wants to cover not in the live chat
because YouTube destroys that in the
comments afterwards below Stephen thank
you right Evan really enjoyed it greater
than your city thanks have been amazing
host and go Blue Jays thanks to the love
guys believe we’ll see you soon
and let’s end it
another YouTube hangout super excited to
be here with my good friend and one of
my favorite CEOs of all time mr. Stephen
Kelly how you doing I’m fantastic and
I’m so excited to be in your home city
this is Toronto and this place rocks
we’re back together again live is always
great to be able to do it face to face
and not just over the Internet yes yes
the second the third one we’ve done live
I think when we’ve done save some I did
seen Tower was very and tower New
Orleans I don’t think we did why over to
Chicago we did Chicago and then this is
trying to third one so there we go see
some what’s happening here in Toronto
today I was a mentor speaker tons of fun
but we’re spending an hour with you guys
today to talk about how to turn your
business ideas into reality and we have
to start off with Stephen Kelly quotes
because that’s what you guys look
forward to so I’ve got three quotes to
kick it off with and good ones actually
and I think also we might have a few
quotes from some of the speakers who had
at save summit during the kind of
broadcast so first quote is um every
morning you have two choices you
continue to sleep with your dreams or
wake up and chase them and make them
happen there’s a second one a great
author called Victor Hugo there is one
thing stronger than all the all the
armies in the world and that’s an idea
who has come to times the idea that time
has come and the final one really I
actually had him as a speaker I think it
was in Chicago : pal yeah last year
amazing yeah and he said he’s so right a
dream doesn’t turn into reality through
magic it takes sweat determination and
hard work so you’ve got to make it
happen and that’s so important for those
gulp we we all know it I think Kevin and
I would say it’s probably been periods
in our life where we just thought about
stuff too much rather than had that bias
for action and just get on and do it
sometimes we know it’s right especially
if you’re at trust your instincts is a
good rule of life so three great codes
to kick off with
we’re in your hometown so let’s get the
show going I like it and and and
Stephens rocking some Canadian pride
we’ve got the Canada pin happening there
oh there’s sage at the top – I didn’t
see that little sage look at the top
that the cufflinks you can’t see his
shoes he’s got the shoes he’s got the
tattoo happening on the arm area upside
down sorry Gus here
there it is look at that there it is
flying sit here we got that pretty crazy
I love it well guys I see her any
questions pouring in so come in say hi
I’m looking out to the side to get your
questions but before kind of diving in
on that Oh update you know since our
last hangout the channel my channel just
crossed a hundred million views wow
that’s a channel so you’ve contributed a
good chunk of those but on behalf of
everybody out there and there’s some
kind of regular sort of viewers to the
channel and some new folks today but I
just want to thank this guy Evan
forgiving a lot of people belief and
conviction and confidence to do what
they know is right and pursue their
dreams and just make their dreams come
true and this guy has been a great role
model I know from just listening to a
lot of what you say about Evan he’s kind
of changed lives and giving you the
confidence and the belief to actually
just start your business where your
business would be successful so credit
to you so I don’t know that actually I
know Evan is a good friend and it’s not
about building his brand or there’s no
ego about this he’s just so committed to
your success and to seeing you just be
the entrepreneur that you could be
thanks man I gotta bring this guy with
me everywhere I said that’s a good intro
I love it I appreciate that yeah it was
been fun I didn’t I didn’t I wasn’t even
tracking a number and then someone on my
team said hey we just crossed a hundred
million views like wow that’s good but
we’re here to add value to you guys talk
about how to turn your business ideas
into reality before diving in all the
questions you’re going to get two quick
thoughts what’s your overall bit of
advice on how to turn ideas into reality
for entrepreneurs yeah I think actually
an amazing not related to this but an
amazing guy Martin Luther King said to
time to climb that giant stick
you’ve got to just take the first step
and I think the golden rule is if you’re
you have conviction you have belief you
have an idea then it’s all about down to
you to make it happen and it is so easy
to just worry about stuff or to think
about the reasons why you can’t do and I
think for entrepreneurs that’s leaf you
know we all have periods of self-doubt
let’s be honest but you’ve got to have
you’ve got to clear those cobwebs away
and say right I’m going to do it
absolute we it will in Sage we I say to
all my colleagues I say guys let’s just
do it if it’s right for the customer
walk in the shoes of the customer keep
an empty chair in every meeting for the
customer if it’s the right thing to do
then just go for it I’ll give you a
hundred percent air cover and a far
prefer you fail fast fail quick and then
find the idea that really meets the
customer needs then just think about it
and that kind of old analysis paralysis
which kills companies kills
entrepreneurs I love it so guys leave
your your questions in the comments
let’s get to a few already pouring in
Jer eyes first question arises a
longtime viewer is there a set process
that reliably consistently works for
everyone on turning a business idea into
reality
yeah I think I think the kana there’s
some golden rules I wouldn’t say there’s
a cookie cutter process but there’s some
golden rules kind of rule number one is
always live in the shoes of your
customer whether it’s a product you know
or or service and that rule never goes
away as you grow and scale your business
actually you live in issues in customer
I’ll you know really be where your
audience is and that’s the start of
everything now I we’ve talked about and
I love this if you’ve got something you
really get frustrated by with the
service that you’re receiving or a
company you deal with think about how do
you distance media that will do that a
lot better than they can do and then
make that have a lot of businesses have
been created just through the genius of
people who have become very frustrated
so I think the key thing is golden rule
number one is just be where your
customers are and then have that sort of
bias traction
to think of your idea and then test
drive it with hopefully early adopter
customers to make sure it’s really if
it’s real and scale it up yeah I would
add I think you got to make sure you
take an action I think a lot of
entrepreneurs have ideas but we’re
talking in this episode how to turn into
reality it’s taking consistent action
it’s waking up every day and doing
something to move your business forward
even if you feel like it’s too big an
idea or it’s too scary I think a lot of
times people are so worried about taking
the perfect first step that they don’t
do anything where there is no perfect
first step it’s just go out and do and
like Stephen started a blog vlog on our
last episode right 20 days ago we
started a vlog and and you’ve done a
second episode yep and you do a third
one here yep and just we’re gonna get
started and we’re gonna learn each time
and you’re like hey give us feedback and
we’re gonna do again and do it again and
do it again and every time you do it it
gets better you know there’s no perfect
way to start a vlog you just get a
camera out and you start vlogging and
you make improvements every time and so
I think a lot of times entrepreneurs are
in their their own way and their own
head too much we’re gonna vote how do I
get started what first step do I take
just do something and then tomorrow do
it again and do it again and every time
you get a little bit better that
consistency is gonna be really important
yeah I think I know a lot of
entrepreneurs and I’ll say and sometimes
it’s about me or one of the things I’ll
be critical of myself is sometimes you
know do you see perfection realities you
know will probably never find perfection
on this planet and if you’re looking to
have the perfect product or the perfect
sort of market research trial in or
whatever yeah you’re just never gonna do
that and you’re gonna spin yourself in
circles you’re much better often
actually what Evan said is just that
action action orientation to start and
you know on that video vlog that we’re
doing honestly I didn’t know if it met
the knee but I thought kind of a good
idea so why don’t we just try if it
didn’t work we didn’t get the reaction
we didn’t get the audience who really
said that we’re meeting the need that
they they have then we would have
stopped it and and I think the other
thing is hockey we’re in this is a
hockey City right so Maple Leafs over
Air Canada sent
and that also big plug for his team Blue
Jays from another graceful said Toronto
great city great culture great Symphony
Orchestra’s great theater but great
sport too I’m Wayne Gretzky arguably one
of the greatest hockey players ever
amazing player and he kind of watched
some of his his dribbles on YouTube just
out of this world what he said is he
never never kind of um he never runs to
where the puck is he always runs to
where it’s gonna be and I think we we
and we get inspired by entrepreneurs who
have ideas about inventing the future
and inventing taking customers on a
journey where the customer might not
even know they have a need a later need
and just turn and think that smartphones
have done this it clearly
15 years ago we would have said it’s
probably crazy to have a phone and
integrated a computing device with a
calendar and apps and stuff we probably
wouldn’t have saw the logic of that
could be all kind of walk around at that
time either with black wrists another
Greek actually Canadian company that
I’ve got disintermediated a great kind
of lesson in terms of missing a big
shift in that movement where they didn’t
realize where the puck was gonna be they
were putting the puck on the ice and
just keep on going back to that Park and
you can’t do that so I think that bars
fraction is so important and Evan you’re
absolutely spot-on with that advice cool
all right well let’s get to more
questions I see them flowing in so I’m
gonna scroll down and see we got it’s
nice having to take out the golden
forest 15 year old 15 year old
entrepreneur who works remotely sorry I
just got something a good friend he’s a
15 year old entrepreneur who works
remotely on a daily basis here to learn
do you have advice so we have advice for
15 year old entrepreneur who wants to
work remotely in their business what
advice would you give yeah I think if
you want to work remotely then I guess
first of all you want to ask yourself
what it what are you passionate about
you know I know this girl my left is is
passionate about helping entrepreneurs
so you know the channel was just a
vehicle where he can serve you be your
mentor give you great advice support you
grow your business so the first thing is
you know as a 15 year old there’s
something you love you know it’s poor is
it salsa dancing what what is it you
love that really you get excited about
because if you get excited about it you
can inspire you know a movement a
movement of customers then the second
thing I think if you want to work
remotely you’ve got to think about how
you’re going to deliver that service or
product to customers and again I think
the world of social media really does
amplify that the Internet’s change
everything and it’s fantastic gives
people huge flexibility in terms of
where they work and in Madison you know
we’re doing this broadcast from Toronto
no fancy studios just a laptop pretty
low cost probably the tech here cost
less than a thousand dollars so the
world has changed this would have been
unimaginable ten years ago so I’d say
yeah absolutely be passionate about
something you really love because that
will give you your idea for the business
and then think about where the customer
is and how you get there and I’d commend
you if you want to work remotely to
really look at kind of social media and
the channels whether it’s Instagram
Facebook or whatever channel where your
audiences yeah I would say also continue
to learn and reach out in model success
and like I wish that this existed now is
15 I wish I could ask Stephen Kelly a
question as a 15 year old entrepreneur
and so I think continue to surround
yourself with resources with people you
know watch youtube videos read books go
to Sage summit if it’s in your city
continue to try to invest and learn a
mile success because surrounding
yourself with people who’ve done great
things even if it’s not maybe there’s
nobody in your family who’s done great
things but by reading books you get a
window into somebody else’s mind or
watching the videos that we make you get
a window into somebody’s mind and by
constantly exposing yourself to those
things your perspective will shift your
opportunity will open up and you’ll see
new ways to navigate to help you build
that business and so Stephen very like
tactical great strategies and I would
just add just continue to educate
continue to learn and continue to reach
out could come back ask more questions
right it’s a it’s an amazing world we
live in right now the opportunity to
reach so many people and I think people
are also willing to help and help out
young entrepreneurs you just like I
when I see someone say they’re 15 years
old is like I love it we have we’ve had
13 year olds on it’s great like I think
a lot of people want to give back and
help the next generation as well so use
that it’s an advantage right now and
then go take action on it
yeah I think um don’t underestimate how
much people like me you know Evans
obviously loads way younger than I am
but he’s been down on the mentoring
floor and I remember last year I was on
the mentoring floor and I had a
thirteen-year-old I’d come along to talk
to me about a brilliant app idea that in
this case he’d had and he started off
and and if it was gonna be successful
he’s even kind of thinking about
reducing education in college and that
she started a business in parallel with
that so so I just can’t believe how much
people I Evan me would love to help
younger generation entrepreneurs the
other thing when I kind of grew up I
used to kind of think wow good a
conference and I’ll see someone I really
respect Anna MA I sort of try and hang
around by the stage door to just you
know it’s or step them and say just what
I’ve got this idea what do you think of
it and again in your head you will think
oh that they won’t see me they won’t
have time for me that I have bodyguards
and have security they you know and and
now with social media
loads of people dear me I’m sure it’s
exactly the same for Evan loads of
people contact him through social media
and you know now Evans got to a business
was hugely successful he has sort of
people helping him kind of categorize
that but he still answers a lot of that
himself and just don’t underestimate
that people are here to help you so if
this voice is telling you in your head
though I can’t access that guy or that
lady so it again back to you what is
your innate what are you passionate
about then think of the top three people
who are the experts this sort of you
know the rock stars the gurus and and
try to reach them through social media
and say look I’m trying to think about
this I guarantee if you’re 15 years old
they’ll give you the time they’ll give
you the benefit of their advice and from
that conversation that idea and it might
refine your idea you could have a
I’ll get that you can actually start a
business yeah just to add on to that I
would say if they are doing an event
they’re speaking at a conference like
sage summit or they’re doing a hangout
like this be first a lot of times you’re
afraid to go up and be first and you
want to wait for the crowd but then it
just gets too crazy you know I’ve done
three different chunks of mentoring time
here at Sage my first one is right after
the keynote and it was empty because
everybody’s going to the bathroom and
you know chatting and getting used to
the surroundings and then the other two
were like insane where we’re being
triple books in Quadra booked and
booking on my breaks I’m booked talking
as I’m walking to other meetings and and
that happens you know if you try to get
to a speaker after they’ve done their
speech they’re gonna be swamped get to
them first you want to get your question
answered on I hang out like this like
get in there first get in there sooner
so it’s noticed so if you’re trying to
get on on somebody’s radar at that kind
of event or a live event just get in
there you have your questions is what
you came here for you want to be around
them you want to get an answer to that
question don’t hesitate to just jump
right in and get it answered so true
it’s great advice really great of us and
I think conferences are brilliant
brilliant if you think about it when
Evans done a big conference speech or
you know keynote it somewhere typically
typically that individuals not rushing
away immediately to go into another key
know normally they kind of spend you
know we had Michael Hart you know here
yesterday amazing on to there actually
we had Rick amazing comedian Canadian
Rick Mercer and I was blown away he came
down here and spent an hour on the show
floor and doing selfies and pictures so
so again people are really generous
people are generous with their time so
be first and grab them and doorstep them
and make sure you know you get your idea
across because you’ll probably find
especially if you’re 50 years old
they’ll be so proud of you going up to
them and having the confidence to do
that and they’ll spend time with you
nice cool all right let’s keep going ask
your question guys in the comments Paula
you guys you are together now Quadra
exclamation mark cool hi from Tokyo all
right i from near London
people checking in from around the world
oh it just skipped or skipped at the
bottom uh so who are our top five so who
your top favorite entrepreneurs I kind
of asked you this question in there yeah
and our Facebook hangout but who’s your
favorite entrepreneur who do you look up
to there’s so many you know there’s some
learning by the way Marnie hey Marnie so
there are so many and there’s what I
would say in the spirit of there’s no
one who’s who’s the perfect entrepreneur
there’s lots of people I love
entrepreneurs who are very humble who
have that says humility to talk about
their mistakes I think that self
deprivation is very powerful and
therefore folks you know actually I say
people I ever unbelievable just very
honest very very humble guy but then the
the famous ones include people like you
know Richard Branson’s from the sort of
multi sort of consumer brand experience
from Airlines to music the guys we had
actually Richard on the stage last year
saved on it and again what a humble guy
unbelievable actually or inspiring and
he’s you know what multi-millionaire but
you just sit across never a cup of
coffee with him and it’s just a regular
guy and then people I am in our industry
technology people like Steve Jobs
you could argue probably Steve Jobs
wasn’t the nicest guy in the world but
why would a genius technology genius and
he definitely saw where the putt was
gonna go and he invented a whole
different user experience for consumers
and and they had dreams about
integration and convergence of different
technologies to give consumers something
that he thought would be very practical
and I just yeah I’m sure you’ve seen the
movie I’ve read the books and when you
look at him going into that ball meet
and trying to persuade people about the
iPhone and half the board kind of
weren’t there or maybe even thought it
was crazy
they had conviction belief and you know
because of that moment it’s sort of
changed the world and that great
companies we mentioned like blackberry I
really kind of not the powerhouse they
were at making it no more and what is it
I think in three years time the it seems
like the data says there’ll be six
billion smartphones on the planet and
that is 15 years ago a technology
wasn’t even invented so some so those
got those jobs a great inspiration but I
think there’s a lot of entre nice you
can you can get little nuggets from many
different entrepreneurs who you might
agree so I mean I agree a hundred
percent I my goal is never to be the
next Steve Jobs or the next anybody it’s
not the advice it’s you want to be the
best version of yourself and you can
pull from lots of different people you
like this thing about Steve Jobs and
hate all these other things great like
forget those and just take that one
thing and so it’s what I try to do in
this channel is pull all of these
different famous entrepreneurs and
successful people and if you learn one
thing from them that makes you better
you that’s the whole point if I depict
them my favorite famous entrepreneur I
default to AP Giannini who started Bank
of America and he was the guy who bet on
the little guy he was one who insisted
on giving loans to immigrant workers
when nobody wanted to give loans to
immigrants blue-collar workers he would
lend money to people based off a
handshake and a look in their eye if you
can believe that from a banker he gave
money to Walt Disney when everybody
thought he was crazy for wanting to make
a full-length cartoon movie so not a lot
people know his story even inside the
Bank of America you say pigeon he’s like
who’s that like is your founder he’s
your found there guys you gotta know
this story so he’s had to pick one guy
it’s him because he’s the believe banker
and always cared for the little guy
but I agree like you pull from so many
different people different things I
pulled for my parents I pulled from
successful entrepreneurs athletes
musicians inventors CEOs you can learn
something from anybody who’s had more
success than you yeah actually just one
other guy that blew me away and I think
been a massive influence on technology
in the last decade and started the
company in 2000 called Marc Benioff and
definitely was reading his books as well
inspirational leader great technology
visionary but the reason why I pick him
out is something we’ve been talking
about earlier on a broadcast and we
featured a lot here at sage summit is
around this whole area of compassionate
capitalism obviously want to build a
great company have awesome customers
awesome technology all those things but
we also want to give back to the
communities and play an active role
really kind of supporting youth and
things we really care about and Marc
Benioff sort of pioneered that whatever
you call it social philanthropy I think
the culture that he’s building that
company is just like just to be so a mod
so it’s about building a great business
but doing it the right way and also give
him back to the communities and really
being an active participant of the
communities and and at the time what I
love about Marc is back in what almost
20 years ago when he started that
company it would have been very
unpopular to do what he he had a vision
and a set of values around because you
know traditionally you launched a public
company and everybody says it’s all
about return for shareholders and he
said actually I’m gonna I’m gonna say
yeah it is about return for shareholders
but I’ve also got a support other
stakeholders I’ve got to look after my
colleagues the people who work for
Salesforce I’ve got to look after my
customers I’m fanatical about customers
and partners but also I’ve got a plan
really active for all in the communities
and if that in the short term means you
know we don’t maximize profit from day
one then that’s the right thing to do
for the business because we’re about
building a sustainable successful
business that has huge longevity
increase in a massive legacy so that is
I love the concept and reason why I’m
telling you that about Marc is it was
completely against the the you know the
deterrent of I guess the water flowing
against him and he was very contrary in
terms of that was a massive moment and I
think has been influential on the
technology industry and other industries
where they’ve come up with a big pledge
around making sure they set up a
foundation or work in the community and
that you know gives real context
particularly for sales for some
companies like us for attracting
Millennials they feel that’s a really
critical part of why they want to work
and give some loyalty to a company so
you know hat tip to mark and I think it
really is is the way all companies
should be run I’m just I don’t think if
we did a video a top 10 on him we may
have on the channel
maybe if not we should he’s a he’s a
such a dude as well he’s just so you
know again if he was here yeah just sit
across have a cup of tea or a beer or
whatever and he’s just some the most
regular guy fantastic guy
obviously multi-billionaire but I’m just
such a amazing inspirational leader and
shows a great sense of humility I think
Darrell’s about to take off there’ll get
in here
take get it hey yeah there are a lot
list oh yeah so Darryl Darryl works on
Team sage music I was as all the behind
the scenes stuff the computer we’re
using the background you see the chairs
and table internet connection reason why
go so smoothly is this guy here he comes
now it does for me I’m pretty average
gone
Darryl through social media makes me
look okay so now it’s all down you know
he just pushed me forward but he’s the
guy who makes it all happen
the wind beneath our will there is but
Darrell’s gotta catch his flight back to
London to it so we won’t keep them but
thank you man I did any message thank
you yes sir of years gone doubt you
gotta know Darryl mesas happen and it’s
a word of advice here it is put on the
same sage words what sage word is use
any channel you can to get yourself out
there to the most relevant audience to
you so if that’s Instagram that’s great
if it’s Twitter that’s great work out
what’s the right channel for you and
just use it to the best you can with
good quality content like this awesome I
love it out man have a good flight a
flight buddy alright cool
I got a little spontaneity happening
there I love it okay keep the guys there
were so many questions that came in that
YouTube reset the thing I went all over
to the bottom so you have a question we
didn’t get to ask it again too many too
much has happened it’s a good problem to
have
Roy can you touch on whether the process
is different if my focus is a cause
rather than entrepreneurship like
targeting special needs parents so we’re
talking about taking an idea into
reality if it’s for a cause instead of
for business is the process any
different I think the process is the
same and I think well you know I think
both Evan I would applaud your course
around special needs and again I think
it’s it’s what is identifying the gap
that’s there now and identifying how
through your idea you could actually
improve the world beer
of parents of special needs kids in this
case and you know I think there’s
there’s many gaps I think whether you’re
in the US or Canada or any developed
economy there’s a lot of gaps open up
because you know the traditional sort of
welfare system it is struggling to keep
up with though that both the demos sort
of demographic shift in terms of
thinking at all that other stuff like
mental health and all these things that
were really able to talk about it now
whereas probably a decade ago people
just kind of hid this stuff in the
cupboards so there’s a lot of stuff and
there’s a lot of people who are needing
a lot of support so if you’ve got an
idea around that again is it’s making
that idea come to reality and I think
around that one it sounds like without
knowing the details but it sounds like
you could have an idea where at very low
costs you could actually create
something that you could test drive with
a selection of parents just to validate
your idea and then then again scale
alpha I think that would be a fantastic
course I was trying to suppose trying to
scroll back to the question but there’s
so many that came in that I lost it so
Roy is a good problem same advice that I
started off with I think like consistent
action like whatever that idea you have
is to reach special needs parents
whatever thing when in creative it’s not
a company if it’s just an initiative or
project partnerships whatever it is that
you do something every day you don’t let
your head talk you out of doing the big
thing that you have in mind and that you
create an environment that allows you to
wake up every day whether it’s going for
a 6:00 a.m. run like Stephen does every
day or watching a video reading the book
or reminding yourself of the vision like
whatever it is it gets you into the mode
that every day you’re gonna go off and
take action on achieving your vision
because otherwise it just stays here and
never comes out so whether you’re
building a business or just moving a
cause forward I believe it’s the same
thing yeah I think it’s and I think in
that case you’d probably you want a
prototype so on the test drive it then
also I think there’s an entrepreneur
where you’ve got to think about how do
you scale that and she I think Donald’s
comment is again through social media
through content that’s a great way to
scale a business so but it’s always
fantastic to validate it first and go
and test drive it Road test it
in this case parents with special-needs
kids
Rory’s writing back thank you and caps
so much gentleman three exclamation
points so thank you for feeling the love
there okay let’s go to this one here
grandpa’s farm gosailing’ that’s a
creative name how critical is a
multi-platform marketing plan as opposed
to just concentrating on YouTube I think
we’re gonna get Daryl backing down to
answer man on this I think yeah what do
you call it multi-platform multi-channel
I think the key thing is where is your
audience and if you’re already you know
I was down in Madrid last we talked
about Iberia which is Spain and Portugal
you know no one uses Twitter down in
Portugal so they use a totally different
channel obviously and China is totally
different stuff so every audience every
country has unique elements around what
the social channel is so I personally
think YouTube’s amazing again we had
Chad Hurley who’s the founder of YouTube
up on the stage and Wow last year for
what an inspiration but what he said was
I think at the time he was hoping that
would they’d have you know maybe 10,000
videos kind of loaded something like a
month or something crazy and now I think
it’s like this is it 400 hours of
content loaded every minute as well as 2
billion users or something crazy like
that so he could never have estimated
just how YouTube’s become all pervasive
and again what an amazing kind of
channel I think it’s incredible for
content video video content is really
rich and normally it’s fantastic now you
might go some parts of the world if
you’re not living in the US or Canada
and you might have really kind of slow
bandwidth so that’s got an impact on
video and and and all these sort of
things so I just again think about what
Darrell said
what’s the channel that really your
audience is attuned to and then you know
put a lot of the wood behind that arrow
it’s going to link the finest hour
yeah yeah it’s exactly right you know
where you’re on its marketing 101 you
want to be where your customers are
you know if you’re selling to redheaded
women and this is conference or
redheaded women like you want to be
there you know wherever your audience is
you need to be there the only thing I
would add is combine it with what you’re
good at
you know if you suck at doing videos and
the idea of doing videos just terrifies
you and you’re a great writer you don’t
have to be on YouTube right you can go
to medium you can go to LinkedIn you can
go to Facebook you can start a blog
right go to Twitter is a lot of other
options your customers are in a lot of
different places so you don’t have to do
all of those things just figure out
where your audience is combined with
what you’re good at
you know Steven started his new vlog
series it can do well most CEOs I’ve met
a lot of them are super boring and would
not have a great personal vlog and so
that maybe that’s not the best path for
them right even though the audience is
on YouTube so you’ve got to combine
those two things together I think
entrepreneurs try to do everything and
then you do nothing well mmm you try to
the YouTube and Twitter and LinkedIn and
medium and Facebook and Instagram and
everything and then everything sucks and
so pick the platform that has your
audience and combines your natural
talent and then make that awesome so
that if I watch your YouTube video or
see your tweet I’m gonna want to consume
it again and share it with my friends
making content that you’re proud of is
way more important than making decent
content across everything yeah actually
there’s such an impulse important Evan
and and any advice you give in terms of
the different choices between the social
channels you know because there’s a lot
of factors in terms of whether its
content whether it’s a really high
quality photograph pick you know there’s
a lot of different things any any advice
you give well if you look at like
Twitter YouTube Facebook they have all
audiences they’re so big that they cover
everything Instagram – you can go niche
like LinkedIn is gonna be more for the
business crowd and you know Pinterest is
a certain crowd and snapchat skews
younger but it’s coming up older so you
can be a little strategic about that but
yeah leverage your strengths if you’re a
great photographer you know you take
beautiful pictures you can turn that
into a YouTube video but it’s still
pictures it’s not as great as if you
turn it into Instagram photos or
Facebook photos or partner up with a
motivational speaker and use their
quotes to be on top of your pick
right so leverage the thing that you’re
really good at with where your audience
is and it’s just start with one yeah I
would get all the domains of all of them
like get the handles so if a new thing
opened up I would get the Evan
Carmichael of you know soo tube just
just to have it and then I’d figure out
later if I’m actually gonna use it or
not so nobody takes your name yeah
actually
in summer space where Ivan said there
has huge impact on me said start with
one I’d also I encourage you to start
with one idea don’t try and do too many
things because you kind of become all
things to all people and you good at
nothing so it’s the same with social
media is pick one channel same with kind
of product or service just pick one to
start with and then you know we call it
a sort of beachhead strategy you own one
beachhead you do really well there then
you think about the next one that’s
related and then you do the next one and
multi next one and and that’s how you
kind of ultimately scale a great
business hello
he’s writing back to say once again
thanks for the awesome content
motivation so that’s great that we can
help
next Zach does a positive outlook play a
part in calling some young aspiring
entrepreneurs anxiety so role of
positive out outlook on quelling anxiety
for entrepreneurs yeah I think that’s
Soviet we better start with the man who
invented hashtag belief this is him on
my left is Evan so important yeah I mean
it just like I started off the talk
saying I think the mindset is super
important I think you know 10% of your
life is what happens to you and 90% is
how you react to it and how you choose
to look at it you know is this it’s the
difference between is this am I having a
bad day or am I having a growth day
right this is a me growing day there’s a
concept that would you know the
difference between being buried and
being planted because when you’re in the
ground all you see is darkness around
you and maybe you’re just being planted
to grow stronger to come up and create
this amazing thing versus I’m buried I’m
suffocated I can’t do anything if you
look at all the people who’ve had
massive success
it’s not inherited well but genuine
massive success that they created on
their own it doesn’t come from people
who you know had super wealthy parents
right people who grew up with massive
safety nets and trust funds it’s the
people who had nothing growing up when
they turned it into something amazing
and I think a big challenge is if you
don’t have anything right now the people
around you can be telling you that you
don’t have anything that you want to
mount there anything that you know you
know the education or background their
money or anything and so changing your
environment whether it’s watching videos
like this or reading books all the stuff
I talked about whatever it is it gets
you excited cuz we’ve all we’ve all had
these moments of boldness and excitement
and velocity is one of Stephens favorite
words we’ve all had these moments we
weren’t just go and charge and do
amazing things like what led to that and
then how do you make that part of your
daily routine
instead of happening to come across at
five o’clock on a you know Tuesday
afternoon so that you are applying it on
a regular basis I think the mindset the
environment is super super important
much more than whatever resources you
have I think it’s probably one of the
most important aspects of a successful
on to that I mean the the thing we
celebrate is we all got different
personalities you know we’re probably
ironically introverts and yeah you know
sometimes it has sort of naturally made
us quite anxious about stuff but what I
would say is there’s just such strong
evidence that positivity and optimism is
actually not only inspiring but it’s
also quite contagious it’s infectious so
and your customers will detect this and
it is tough to fake so authenticity
we’ve talked so much about our
authenticity is such a powerful
compelling quality but if you’re gonna
hire like someone to come and work these
you’ve got to be positive about your
dream and your vision your idea so and
there’s just starting to be a lowly life
of sort of behavioral psychology written
around this and sort of nudging
behaviors but I think you waking up
every day and having convict
and have a belief and expressing that in
optimism and positivity about how your
products can change the world in its own
little way it’s very compelling and I
think the other thing you know just
practically because you just can’t be
always sort of on and always positive so
sometimes we all kind of have a bad day
whatever that is and if that’s the case
maybe I don’t know you don’t want to do
sort of frontline work you want to do
stuff about think is so if you know I’m
a great day decent thoughtful word to
some stuff about I don’t know pride
development whatever but if you if you
haven’t you’re in the zone you having a
good day you’re positive get out there
talk to customers talk to media post
stuff on social media so play to your
strengths in terms of how you are cuz
we’re not none of us have like a
consistent sort of mood that just always
operates at the same level but I would I
would absolutely always been encouraged
by all the entre notes I’ve met with
when they’re in the zone they’re
unbelievably positive because because
what they’re doing is really persuading
us all that there’s a better way there’s
a better world there’s a better product
there’s a different way to do stuff
there’s a different way to crack the
code and all of us get compelled to
following that vision they create a
movement and that’s how you scale very
companies like it Valley is asking how
do you transform a bad day into a bad
minute or hour I think um actually a
great way so if you are you’re not in
the zone yeah whatever
you could be depressed you could you
could just just had it something happens
which kind of knocks you off track what
you want to do is actually sort of
quarter-sized that and just just move on
it could be loads of different things
you could and it depends what fee you
could go for a walk go for a run I tend
to you know from I’m certainly the way
that I’d be jet lag and stuff like that
it’s just go running gets to be feeling
good gets healed and orphans go and all
that sort of stuff or you could just go
and get a mentor you could go and have a
coffee with someone you could do
breathing exercises you could do
mindfulness you could do whatever works
for you really I think it’s really
important that you are always your
unique personality
and you find just what works for you and
allows you to kind of recalibrate your
optimism and positivity and come back
and if you can you know it’s great if
she instead of out with a bad day just
have a bad minute
wow that’s powerful really is power from
them bounced back a couple things that
helped me 1 try to solve the problem
look if it’s a problem that’s happening
this is crisis in my business or
something I need to solve ok go and
solve the problem like do it if you know
if it’s scary because the more you just
let it sit the problems not just gonna
go away on its own so go and solve it if
it’s the kind of thing that I can’t
solve I’m frustrated for a different
reason I like the line of turning your
expectations into appreciation so I’m
sitting in traffic you know or I’m
waiting for the elevator and it’s not
working or you know something happens
that’s just beyond my control just
turning your expectations into
appreciation gratitude like I’m in a car
like this is great I can drive imagine
if it was 100 years ago I’d be on a
horse you know and I get to talk to
people like you guys over the internet
every day and wouldn’t have been able to
happen 100 years ago right just that
kind of stuff just resets and makes them
realize that most of these things that
I’m upset about don’t actually really
matter and to get back on the horse and
go do the thing that I care about so
solve the problem if there is a problem
you can solve immediately don’t delay
and to trade your expectations for
appreciation yeah actually the other
thing just looking back on my career you
know you do worry about stuff at times
but when I look back on it with the
benefit of hindsight there’s never been
anything that we didn’t overcome and I
think there’s a great quality around
perseverance and and you just got to
give yourself context you got to step
back from the moment sort of be your own
shadow and then watch yourself in the
moment and sometimes when you do that
you think well I’m in pretty ridiculous
I’m getting worried about stuff I don’t
need to worry about and there’s kind of
a few rules for entrepreneurs the rules
of life really yeah you should only
worry about what you can change no point
worrying about stuff you can’t you know
if you worried about the u.s. president
your word of our stuff what can you do
on estate what can you do about this
worry about stuff we can change about
your customers the product the service
the channels you
those things you can really um it’s been
Thailand and just become very pragmatic
but what I would say is well you know
starting a business you know it takes
that the Gus the perseverance just to go
across the line take the first step but
then a lot of it really is about
continued perseverance tenacity grit and
all those sort of qualities come out to
the fore in terms of just the
consistency of execution over that over
the long term to be proud of what you’ve
created so I think a lot of it is
definitely you know in your hands and we
would definitely encourage you in that
vein to be really positive really
optimistic and well you know I haven’t a
bad they just allow yourself to step
back just be objective and say you know
back to Evans point what is the problem
we’re trying to solve here and how do we
fix it you know and then you you create
a few smart guys you’ll find a way I
like it
Daniel’s writing in how do you balance
real-life kids bill Payne with invested
in your ideas when you have more month
than money not sure what that last part
is but basically idea of being a balance
your life kids bill pain with trying to
start a business I think that’s a tough
one
and I would say you know probably this
is where I question some of the sort of
media portrayal of entrepreneurs and
sometimes entrepreneurs are painted as
people who have everything and never
have to make compromises I don’t I don’t
know those entrepreneurs because I you
know forever and would maybe talk Evans
got kids is a lot of juggling you have
to we sort of have a belief but I
absolutely love life a lot being an
entrepreneur and I say in sage my
colleagues you know think of us as like
their most excited startup in the world
but in a business I think you do have
big dreams across your life for sadness
at the only sadness about life is you
just get one one life and that kind of
thing for people like ever one life was
never enough because we just got so much
to do with our one life but what does
that mean it what it means to me is that
um in terms of the context of balancing
things I think you know reality is you
got one shot
you got one life you probably got loads
of business ideas and you have to juggle
you have to make compromises if you’re
having kids you have to tell what I
would advise honestly I think it’s tough
to have it all and you know have a
career and work crazy hours and balance
your life and keep all the balls
juggling in the air it’s tough because
you have to compromise but what I would
say and if this would be advice I’d give
to my younger self just go into every
situation with your eyes wide open
always have the discussion whether it’s
with kids or partners or whoever it is
to be as honest you can at that point in
time what you what you tend to find
again this is sort of bit the benefit of
hindsight it is you can never really
predict the future because yeah and the
the downside of me being an optimist in
some ways as their entrepreneur is
sometimes I said what we’re gonna have
to double down for the next say 30 days
90 days my experience tells me those 30
days has always become 90 days or 180
days it’s always taken me longer then
I’ve anticipated so my sort of I guess
answer your question is I think you do
have to compromise you have to juggle
the balls but I think with that comes a
responsibility to be honest to yourself
and honest with the people you care
about and try and just be you know just
to just have that conversation so you’re
going with your eyes wide open but also
just to acknowledge that actually things
might change over time if your business
really picks up and it’s going
gangbusters it might take more time and
therefore you’re gonna have to double
down a bit longer so you kind of need a
reset and a check point down that
journey and again worth having a honest
conversation and just making sure all
the people you care about are on board
and and all committed and and have that
kind of shared meaning Yammer I’m
reminded of Steve Wozniak who whose
advice to entrepreneurs so he co-founded
Apple Steve Jobs would say don’t focus
on what you don’t have rather focus on
what you can do with what you do have
and I think even just that mindset shift
is a huge difference because we tend to
focus on all the things we don’t have
the money we don’t have the time we
don’t have the resources we don’t have
the connections we don’t have the
education we don’t have and if that’s
the world
that you live in you’re never gonna
build anything you can’t just focus on
what you don’t have because you’re
operating in a world of scarcity where
if you focus on listen I have half an
hour a night that’s what I have great
like use that half an hour to build your
business every single day you don’t need
to have fancy gear or tools or anything
to get started you just start with what
you have where you are you start you
want to set a YouTube channel get out
your phone and start making videos do
you want to make huge productions yes
great that’s your long-term goal so
start working on it cuz nobody’s gonna
fund that for you you have to bet on
yourself and start putting in the work
to get good at it using the tools that
you have and so even just thinking about
it like one of the most important skills
of an entrepreneur is resourcefulness
because you never have enough resources
to do what you want to do so if to be
creative with be resourceful it’s how
new things are invented you can’t just
throw money at a problem right you need
resourcefulness and so it’s a great
thing for you to learn right now and
it’s a real situation right you have
bills you have a family you got mouths
to feed you don’t have a ton of time
great everybody’s fighting their own
battle there’s a lot of things that I
could say about my life or the reasons
why I can’t build my business just like
everybody else but I focus I make time
for it at the start it was an hour a day
half an hour a day whatever it was and
you start expanding as you start you
know provide value and earning income
and so just that mindset shift of I’m
not gonna focus what I don’t have here’s
what I do have here’s what I’m grateful
for here’s how I’m gonna maximize what I
do have right now and how can I be more
resourceful to figure things out just
switch in our minds that will make a
huge huge huge different much more than
any specific tactic that I can give you
yeah with that that’s a great quote
resourcefulness is always the answer
not resources and if you think of a
start in your business I think um
actually it’s a great thing to do to
moonlight so you you know you time slice
to what Evan says so you’re working full
time you’re funding you know the family
the mortgage the kids and all that stuff
but maybe you know when you put the kids
to bed you actually sit down and think
about your business idea and use the
evenings to start your business
start to start your big idea and how you
gonna do that maybe come some time out
the weekends to do that and then you
start your business and when it’s kind
of going up and it’s really taken off
then you think about when you step down
from your full-time employment but I
know again loads of great entrepreneurs
who have effectively moonlighted to kind
of kind of a pump start their business
and it’s been very effective and the
amazingly realms from those it’s just
the resourcefulness people come up with
in terms of the scarce resource we all
have this time making it go as far as
they can do to be successful one thing I
always remind myself of is no matter how
bad a situation is remember somebody has
it worse somebody’s had it worse than
you had fewer resources in you and went
on to do amazing amazing things you know
if you think of Oprah growing up you
know the you know being raped by family
members and being so poor that she had
to wear potato sacks you know to school
as a dress and just it’s story after
story after story of the story of these
ultra successful people who started with
way less than what you already have
right now and the difference is they
didn’t focus on what they don’t have
right focus on what you do have and be
resourceful
yeah actually and when I sat in the
Silicon Valley at the time sort of late
nineties and loads of companies raising
money and VC money typically the
companies that raised loads of money not
only successful and also destroyed their
culture because – what I haven’t said
and I think this is so fundamental is
that I wouldn’t necessarily argue you
want to run a company on fumes but you
want to run it lean and mean I think
that startup keep that startup mentality
as you’ve grown to get and there’s some
great papers of around founders
mentality which keeps you fresh keeps
you young keeps you focused on customer
obsession and there’s so many companies
I see who grow and grow and then they
become wasteful and they kind of lose
their that kind of wake-up call of why
they started at their adventure in the
first place
so again you know startup entrenar
really think it’s pretty important if
you really sort of almost run on fumes
and you haven’t got loads of money to
spend on marketing and stuff like that
your farm ways
just creativity and resourcefulness to
get the job done to meet the end results
and to find really efficient ways to do
that I love it I know we’re certainly
run short on time Stephens got a crazy
schedule here today at Sage Summit
one last question let’s get to Shahrukh
Hussein the setting unrealistic goals
work I’m realistic I guess if I reframe
that and said you know will you call it
big hairy audacious I said I certainly
think was a couple of things goals are
sort of plans okay one thing is really
important and we probably talk about
sometimes if you do an incremental plan
from where you are you can only see the
next step what you want to do as an
entrepreneur is say the end game of you
know what is it I want to dream and you
almost live in the future and then come
back to the present so and this is the
way most successful companies actually
plan they’ll say you know three years
what do I want to do you know we want to
say force H launched a million
businesses a new businesses help them
get up and run it and so if we did that
then three years what would have to year
one and then kind of work it back to
month one and then I think it really
does give you an opportunity to have
very ambitious plans I think it’s great
to have ambitious plans and share those
plans and the more ambition you have
typically the more successful you are
the other thing I’d say is just the the
way the human psyche works if you say
I’ll have a plan where we’ll have out of
them half a million dollars of revenue
in five years or something like that
if you said because the way it works is
then you’d be happy if you maybe got
four hundred thousand but if you said
actually we want to do a million dollars
it just drives your mentality to be more
ambitious and achieve more so I would
set yourself higher goals and higher
ambitions because effectively you’ll get
probably 90% are there and ninety
percent of a double in ambition level is
much better than a hundred percent of a
very low ambition yeah I think it’s
super important to have a big goal that
you’re shooting towards I have a reason
to get up every day you know I want to
help a billion entrepreneurs that’s
inspiring it leads me to create a
YouTube channel and do book deals and
speak and do things that can has the
potential to hit a lot of people at the
same time I think you
also need to enjoy the work it’s I’m not
only doing this to hit this goal
whatever your big crazy goal is but I
like grinding every single day like I
like doing this I like editing my videos
I like talking to you one-on-one so I
think too many people just have a goal
and it’s like okay I just I’ll do
whatever it takes just to hit that goal
I don’t think that’s the right mindset I
think you have to actually enjoy the
work that you’re doing every single day
as well you’re enjoying the climb almost
more than hitting the top of the
mountain right because you hit the top
like well now what do I do you got to
climb some more right so goals are great
I love it it’s part of what inspires me
daily but I think even more important is
actually enjoying the day-to-day work
that you’re doing yeah I’ll go to
metaphor because we’re in Toronto so
you’re gonna love this hope you love
this anyway so I’d say as an
entrepreneur you want to shoot for the
stars but you might find by shooting for
the stars if you land on top of the CN
tower I like it I like it cool well
thank you guys so much for watching
Steven I know you’ve got a run to your
next thing how do you want to end this
out do we have a quote to ended I have a
final thought what do you how do you
want to finish this yeah just we had a
great speaker down with us on Sage
Summit Michael Hart who’s a amazing tech
visionary Canadian very inspired and and
the the the quote that he left me with
is I’m a 20-year overnight success so
you know you’re you got dreams you got
ambitions you had great questions here
but actually you need perseverance and
you need tenacity and the first thing
you’ve got to do in the context of
today’s kind of broadcast is take that
first step and we you know compel you to
take that first step forward because
then you start living your dreams and
you get momentum behind you and you get
confidence and you start believing in
yourself and the more you believe in
yourself just the more successful you’ll
be I love it
well thank you guys for watching we’re
gonna do it again next month let us know
in the comments down below what topics
wants to cover not in the live chat
because YouTube destroys that in the
comments afterwards below Stephen thank
you right Evan really enjoyed it greater
than your city thanks have been amazing
host and go Blue Jays thanks to the love
guys believe we’ll see you soon
and let’s end it
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