hello everyone and welcome to another
google hangout i’m excited to have with
me loveland medicine who runs a podcast
called imagine the possibilities and she
wanted me to come on and do a skype
interview with her for her podcast and i
said hey let’s turn it into a video
Google hangout so that you guys my aunts
get benefit as well I’m learning a
little bit about her show and she can
use the audio for her podcast as well so
loveland welcome aboard thank you
welcome to imagine the possibilities I
love it I know you’ve got a bunch of
questions you want to just give a quick
overview of what your podcast is all
about and then just hit me with whatever
you want okay imagine the possibilities
is a kind of a new podcast this will
only be twenty third episode and it is a
podcast where I interview people who are
living fascinating lives the idea is
that we can learn from what other people
have done in the past their mistakes and
their successes I like it number number
23 it’s Michael Jordan that’s some
pressure you put on yeah I don’t know
anything about sports so I wouldn’t know
that all right so we’ll just jump right
into the questions and all right yeah
hit me all right so you talked a lot
about how you have a passion for
entrepreneurship and helping
entrepreneurs I just thought you could
start out just by telling us a bit about
where that passion comes from ha that’s
a great question um in my first business
was a software company and it was just
me and my two business partners and I
didn’t do anything help with other
entrepreneurs didn’t really know about
the entrepreneurialism you know a goal
or passion of mine necessarily and we
struggled a lot and eventually made it
through and I you know I just felt at
that time like I wish it was easier wish
there was information that would help me
more than what I had available to me um
you know there’s nothing really at my
university nobody my family was
entrepreneurs and so we struggled and
almost almost quit and almost gave up
and then you know when we had some
success and I sold
my business I was invited to speak at a
couple of events being kind of this
young entrepreneur success story I guess
and one of the first ones was with a
YMCA and they asked if I would come and
do a speech to their students they had
this program helping entrepreneurs get
started in Toronto which is my city and
it’s a chair I’ll come and I spent kind
of a couple weeks preparing you know I
wanted to get all of my best advice and
tips in there for all the lessons that I
felt I had learned and and they were
promoting it and I promoted it was a
free event and only three people showed
up which which was uh like heartbreaking
for me um but I loved it and and as like
the show must go on and I helped those
three people out and they left change
people and inspired to go and do their
business and at the time I didn’t know
what I was going to do next I sold my
business I was just looking for new
opportunities a little bit sad and even
let me be even depressed because I you
know had this huge high and I didn’t
know what to do next um and I kind of
got it again when I was helping those
three entrepreneurs and I didn’t know
how I would turn it into a business um
in fact if you look at it you know if
you can’t get people to come out to a
free event only three people show up how
are you ever going to turn this into a
business logic would dictate that I
should go do something else um but I
just I loved it I loved it so much I
loved helping those people and so I knew
that I had to find a way to keep doing
it so that was that was kind of I i
stumbled into it was an invite from the
ymca and i’m a big believer in following
your flow when you get into that you got
to stay there as long as possible so i
had to find a way to make it work so you
said you started out right on the
university with your own business about
right yeah you know when i was in high
school I thought I was going to be a
banker you know when you have to fill
out that form at the end of the year and
say where am I going to be in 10 years
mindset I would be a banker at a BP at a
big bank that was my those my dream
coming at high school because again I
didn’t have any entrepreneur
winces in my life nobody in my family’s
an entrepreneur I didn’t know anybody
was an entrepreneur so I just felt like
I’m gonna do the banking route and then
I got University and there were two
people who are connected with what
started the business who weren’t doing
super well and asked me to join as a
partner to help do the business side of
it and at the time I was facing a big
struggle because I had gotten job offers
from the banks from the companies that I
wanted to go work with I had an offer
with merrill lynch and with McKinsey
Consulting and you know they’re paying
80 to 100 thousand dollars starting
salary fly me to the world of Astoria to
recruit me um very tempting and at the
time i was making three hundred dollars
a month that my startup business so
that’s uh you know that was pretty sad
um but something made me feel like you
know I want to I want to give this
company a shot I don’t know something
made me feel like I don’t want to live
the rest of my life and regret and worry
that man what if I had taken that chance
and I figured I could always go and get
a job in another year and I said I take
a year off I’m going to do my business
and and see how it goes so again I kind
of just stumbled into it I you know I
met those two people and they needed
help and I thought it was an exciting
challenge and so followed my flow into
that opportunity and fortunately we
turned it around um but I had to turn
down kind of big offers that at the time
I thought was what my my dream was so
how did the people around you respond
when you were turning down these big
offers to continue forward this business
it was struggling uh they were confused
um uh unlucky that my parents important
whatever I want to do you know they meet
me know like bully you see it on the
wall that came from them they always
believed in me they always told me that
I macos truly carmike and I can do
whatever I want and even though they are
very safe you know my dad worked for the
government for forever you know very
safe players they did
hold me back from doing what I wanted to
do they may be couldn’t give me advice
as to what to do but they they just
always made me feel like I could do
whatever I wanted to do my friends were
also confused cuz they wanted those same
jobs right like I’m getting the call to
go to New York for this big job and
they’re not and so they’re jealous and
then I don’t do it to go do this other
business um I was embarrassed and
ashamed at the time they didn’t know how
how badly my company was doing didn’t
know i was making three hundred dollars
a month you know um and I was too
ashamed to tell them and so that’s on me
I guess and that was tough because I had
I had you know I can only go out maybe
once a month with them for pizza and
beer because I couldn’t afford anything
else I didn’t have the money to do it
and I was supposed to be living the
entrepreneur dream you know I turned it
on the job says stick it to the man and
do what I wanted and I was not having
success um so yeah I was it was kind of
isolating like I didn’t know who to talk
to you about what I was going through my
parents where it gets emotional support
but my friends and my own fault by not
opening up they were confused and you
know thought I might be crazy to go and
try and do this thing I think it’s
interesting that you said that you were
you felt embarrassed by the situation
because for me personally I have a big
problem with being embarrassed and that
holds me back a lot from doing things
that I would want to do so I get over
that embarrassment um it’s a good
question i guess i became successful
like I don’t think I told anybody um any
of my friends really they all that just
assumed I was I was successful and it
was you know they were working for the
man and they were hating their jobs and
working 100 hours a week and um yeah I
don’t think I really i mean III think i
think it would have been better if i did
like looking back I think maybe it was
immaturity or stubbornness or what but i
think i think i would have had an easier
time getting through it
they knew how hard a time I was having
an appeal to give me some more support
and ideas even if just emotional support
um yeah so I don’t know I don’t think I
handle it very well but that’s I guess
that’s the story now I became successful
then I and then I told my story but how
I we struggled and they were like why do
you were sparkling back then I didn’t
know um so now I’m much more open at
least I feel in admitting where I’m
struggling and what mistakes I have and
how it how I’m trying to get better
that’s good though because then people
can learn from your experience I think
it’s really good that you’re willing to
be so open about what’s going on with
your business now and what’s happened in
the past it’s really good so when you’re
you were struggling in the business what
gave you the drive to stick to it and
not just say okay I’m gonna go get a
normal conventional job yeah uh I almost
quit um and I think it’s normal I think
I think it’s something nobody talks
about how you know it’s an entrepreneur
always seeing all the good things right
like oh I just launches new podcast I
just got this new client or whatever
it’s always a good stuff but not that I
don’t know what I’m doing if I’m going
to make it and I think I might have to
go and get a job nobody ever really
talks about that and I think it’s
important to acknowledge that that
everybody goes through that on their
journey and on their cycle I think that
makes a little easier because when
you’re struggling and you can’t make it
work and you just read the magazines and
newspapers and watch videos with the
people making a huge like why am I not
there until my story you know I had
always had success when I applied myself
um I think it’s for most people like if
I spent more time at school I would get
better grades if I practice you know my
jump shot I’d have a better play better
basketball and here it was in my
business working hard like I was not
slacking I was working my butt off and I
was not getting results and it was just
soul crushing you know like I’ve never
felt so demoralized so worthless ever
in my life anything you know if I wasn’t
trying fine like they can write that up
if here I was like really trying um and
one day came where it was the family
event and uh I got into a disagreement
with my partner and just you know I as
general we’re pretty much on the same
page when you’re not making any money
you know you start to disagree over
where to take the business and and I
told them that I quit like I can’t do
this anymore I want to feel like I’m
contributing something valuable I can’t
take this anymore I quit I’m done um and
I hung up the phone I just cried
endlessly for I don’t know 45 minutes
and I was at my parents house and I mom
came up and put her hand on my shoulder
and I didn’t know what she said to me I
mean you know tears coming in my eyes my
nose just like one of the worst days of
my life um and then you know what I woke
up the next day and I just felt like I
can’t quit oh that’s okay not quit I
need to do this but the way that I had
been doing it wasn’t working so I need
to find a different way to stain I gotta
find something else I gotta I gotta
figure this out and just I don’t know
something about me felt like I just I
didn’t want to live with regret I didn’t
want to quit and into my partner’s
credit you know showed up the next day
we worked out of his condo um and he
didn’t he didn’t give me a hard time he
didn’t say like oh you quit on me why
are you here you know do you want to be
a part of this he didn’t give me hearts
and we just went back to work and that
was that that was great on his part and
I appreciate him for that uh what helped
me we kind of get over it was realizing
that I’m not the first guy to try to
sell sophomore at the time um you know
the main I’ve been I was in biotech
software there wasn’t this huge biotech
software company good luck up to but
there were other software companies and
I would try to model success and I
thought hey somebody else has already
figured this out how can I model that
success to help me grow and I looked at
Bill Gates from Microsoft and he had
success in software like well how does
he make how did he make his first
milling right like not not how he makes
money now
because you know he’s make made a ton of
money but like 0 to 1 how did they do
that that’s what I wanted to how do i
how do i get that i needed through
forming alliances making partnerships
and so I thought okay I know try that
I’m not going to try to invent the wheel
for everything i’m just going to apply
that strategy and within a month or two
I had my first partnership and they paid
13 and a half thousand dollars up front
to me and man that felt good you know
that’s that that may not be a lot of
money but to me making three hundred
dollars a month that that was like I hit
the jackpot that was awesome and better
than just having that money I had I had
a strategy now that I can replicate I
can go find other partners and make
similar deals and that’s how we started
turning the tide with the company and
meet starting to feel like I had some
self-worth again um but I guess I mean
to come back to the questions just there
was something inside of me feel like I
can’t quit you know I don’t want to quit
on this it’s too important I want to I
want to ride it at I don’t know maybe it
was crazy do you think you were always
like that do you think what separates
the people from that quit and then just
go on to live a life of regret to from
the people who keep moving forward even
the face of what seems like failure yeah
that’s a great question I’m enjoying
this you have really like calm cool
demeanor I’m thanking you know uh yeah
yeah I’m excited for the podcast future
I I quit on a lot of things actually I I
i love doing small tests and if it’s not
working out or if i’m not feeling if i
quit and I’m totally okay with that I
think it’s when I’m a stubborn person I
can be really stubborn over big things
over most like little things in life I
don’t care you know my wife wants to
watch movie what movie do much I don’t
care what do you do me what do we got to
dinner I don’t really care but some of
the big things i can get super stubborn
on and i hate i hate giving up on
something that I’m really stubborn about
um
have I always been like that I think so
you know what I want something it’s like
blinders on and I go and chase it until
it’s done but along the way like I’ll
quit and a whole bunch of other things
that just weren’t as important mm-hmm
just about separating let’s import and
what’s not important yeah I’m a big
believer in following your flow right
I’ve talked about a couple of times
already um when you when you feel like
you when you are doing something that
makes you come alive whatever it is it’s
making a podcast doing a painting doing
business whatever it is when you feel
like you’re in that zone and you feel
alive you have to do that more and and
most of the time when you first do it it
doesn’t make sense like there’s no
logical way to go and follow that path
and that’s the hardest time to say yes
because there’s like this safe path
that’s lined out for you that everybody
goes down that makes total sense but but
isn’t exciting a challenging for you and
then this is crazy path that everybody
is too afraid to take that really
excites you but there’s no safety net
and nobody’s doing it and you know that
that that’s too scary to go down I think
we all have those moments where like we
wish we could be out here but were we’re
here I’ve always been about like I want
to chase that and so going into the
biotech software company when I had
these big job offers seem crazy but it
was what got me excited you know going
to help entrepreneurs when I couldn’t
get people to come up to a free event
it’s crazy but I had to keep doing it
because I loved it and so um I’ve tried
to make that a theme i guess for my life
I’m much more self aware of that now
than I was before I was much more
confused and those decisions I maybe I
may be kind of glossed over those were
hard decision saying no to those gods
wasn’t just like oh yeah I’ll come back
in a year no prob like that was heart
wrenching that was really tough um I
didn’t know if I was making the biggest
mistake of my life you know uh now i’m
much more self-aware and can be more
proactive with it and whenever I’m in
the flow on something or something I
really want to try to do I just I just
start and do it until I start until I
the excitement and if I don’t lose the
excitement to keep going so your company
grew and grew and then you sold it right
mmhmm yeah um a little little drink
break um go ahead that’s good yeah so we
you know we started laying in
partnerships um I started doing a lot
more media for the company we got we got
big clients nasa johnson Johnson um in
our industry there was you notice a lot
of industries were they they consolidate
where you get a few big players and then
they start to expand a whole bunch of
new startups coming industries kind of
go in these waves like that and so what
was happening in our industry at the
time was comes consolidation so the big
companies are climbing up all the little
companies and so we had to make a
decision do we want to try to stay
independent stay being a little guy and
ride it out until the next cycle that
might be eight or ten years later or do
we want to get bought out and join a
bigger company and I actually wanted to
stay I want to stay in fight like we
were growing we had momentum we were
kicking it up a gear we could do this
we’ve got it but my business partner is
one of one of their lifelong dreams I
guess was to go to California um we’re
based in Toronto Canada and you we can’t
I can’t just pick up and move to
California you know legally at least and
so we had an opportunity to join a
company that was based in California and
that sponsored my partner’s to go and so
that was our that you know how do you
tell somebody no you can’t live your
personal dream you have to stay in this
business and so we ended up selling the
company in California and they move
there and I sit here when you started
moving on to doing different ventures
okay so you work with entrepreneurs now
and one of the things that I think is
really interesting about your message or
what you tell people to do is you have
the idea of having one word that
encompasses the
of the company could you talk a bit
about that idea yeah um you know my
board is here when the wall believe I
think it’s I think most people don’t
live there life on purpose I think
people live their life reacting to the
things around them and they end up being
just a victim of their circumstances in
their environment and if you look at
most people you will be basically like
your parents who will be basically like
your friends and we’re constant living
in reactionary mode where what I believe
is is a there’s a single theme that
combines everything that you like
together and always have like together
so if you look at what’s your favorite
movie and what are your favorite songs
and what do you like about your husband
or your wife or your boyfriend and
girlfriend or what did you love about
your favorite teacher there’s a common
theme that if you look at it unifies all
of these things together for me it’s
believed so you know my favorite movie
is Seabiscuit I don’t know if you’ve
seen see business yeah it’s about this
horse and his jockey and his owner and
everybody’s down on their luck and then
they they come up and they rise and I’ve
seen that movie no 25 times or something
um I love that story i love the like you
know parents told me your costs rally
car mat that you can do anything i love
i love instilling belief in others and I
love trying to believe in myself to go
and accomplish things and so now when
you have that awareness of what you
staying for and what your one word is
and what your most important it’s
basically your most important core value
you can start to make decisions in your
life and in your business if you’re
dealing with entrepreneurs that’s much
more proactive so you know as an example
if I’m hiring somebody from my team i
will lead with you know i’m looking for
a believe programmer and then i explain
what believe is all about because i want
somebody who loves what this company is
all about before the skill set where
most people do the opposite so i need
someone who can do PHP and throw up a
website for me and yes they have all the
skills but because that person isn’t
aligned with what you stand for then
it’s never going to be a fantastic
relationship
and so I’m a big believer in trying to
get it down to that one word
understanding what defines you and then
use that as your compass use that as
your like the lens through which you see
the world so that you can make decisions
more proactively and live a life on
purpose instead of just being
reactionary to other people’s beliefs
okay you talk a lot about entrepreneurs
not just chasing the money but following
their passions and I know there’s a
phrase that gets tossed around a lot
online like follow your passion and the
money will follow I just wonder what you
think about that phrase yeah I agree if
you look at famous entrepreneurs and and
you know my how I got inserted in the
Entrepreneurship world after was in
profile and famous entrepreneurs or one
of the largest collections of famous
entrepreneur stories online a great
collection look at if you look at why
they started you watch their videos you
listen to their speeches um money was
never the most important thing uh no
that’s not the money is important right
like it’s not saying hey forget about
money like we’re not doing charities
here you have to make money but money is
never the number one reason to start
something if it is you’re gonna quit
because whatever you do is going to get
tough you’ll have moments of like I had
with my business you’ll have you know
just moments where you want to quit and
give up and you the thing that pushes
you through is because you love what
you’re doing you want to have an impact
you want to make a difference if you’re
doing to just trying to make money then
as soon as it gets hard you’re gonna
move to something else and that’s what a
lot of people do they start a business
and others i can make tons of money here
so they start they don’t make money it
gets hard they quit they move on to
something else and they keep chasing
these little opportunities and they
never hit it big where if you look at
any another encourage you know your
listeners look at any famous
entrepreneur something you look up to
and research their story you’ll always
find that they had a genuine love for
what they’re doing the examples Steve
Jobs Apple you know one of the people I
look up to
he was a multi-millionaire in his early
20s he was worth a hundred million
dollars in his mid-20s one hundred
million dollars in your mid-twenties and
yet he worked until the day that he died
at apple and he built apple into
becoming the most valuable company in
the world according to market cap where
his number one goal was never money um
and that’s not just for business that’s
anything you know you look at the people
the top people in any industry if you if
you just you know you don’t have the
gumption to be an entrepreneur it’s not
part of who you are you want to ride the
corporate ladder you look at whoever is
the CEO you look at the people who are
in charge of these companies they love
what they do like if you can have some
success just basing off of your your
talent but if you don’t have the heart
you’re never going to rise to the top of
your industry no matter what you’re
doing and so when you’re following your
passion and you’re invested into it
you’re learning everything can about it
then you’re going to create something of
immense value for your industry for your
market but that’s how you create tons of
values because you genuinely care about
making a difference and then if you
provide a lot of value that’s how you
make money money comes from providing
value you wouldn’t provide you want to
make a lot of money you got provided a
lot of Audi right you want to make a lot
of money quickly provide a lot of value
quickly and then the question becomes
okay that’s how do i make money how do i
get to the point where i’m providing a
lot of value and you very rarely find
somebody who can provide immense over
the top value who doesn’t actually love
what they’re doing and so you know you
can get to a certain point in life just
five following the same path and you’ll
make money and that’s that’s ninety
percent of you know America you know
they’re living for the evenings and
weekends and they hate their jobs but it
supports their lifestyle but you’ll
never you’ll never get up here you’ll
never have a huge impact if you’re not
doing something that you absolutely love
so what advice could you give to someone
who is a new to entrepreneurship and
they are not quite sure what their
passion is yet
or what that thing is that they should
yeah um explore it’s super common like a
lot of people don’t know what their
passion is we’re never taught find your
passion right where do you go to school
for this I don’t know why we’re not
taught this in school right probably the
most important thing you’ll ever need in
your life is not is not being taught and
there’s some some people have families
who are lucky enough where their parents
might teach them but for the most part
people have no idea and so the the best
advice I can give is to explore and try
things and say yes the things and see
what you fall in love with and that
often leads to business opportunities so
a give you an example um I got invited
to go rock climbing I what I said yes
let’s do it I hated it things like the
harness is in my crotch and I’m afraid
of height saying just like no I’m back
um so you will not get me rock climbing
again but I said yes to try because you
never know um I went snowboarding and I
got I became obsessed with snowboarding
for for like two years it was obsessed
where I would go every day I would push
off meetings to go snowboarding I China
45 minutes I can hit the hill and come
back I was just I was obsessed and then
my passion started to fall off well now
go a couple times a year in the winter
and it’s fine but it’s not like the
obsession anymore and then there’s salsa
dancing where I said yes it’s also
dancing and and I fell in love with it
and it’s been I don’t know 12 years now
and i’m still super passionate about it
i’ve invested in a salsa dancing school
I met my wife through salsa dancing just
become part of my life and my business
and if you look at it on paper this is
what most people do like they look at it
on paper right like how does my how do
my skills match up with where I could
make money and you like do this little
analytical chart um it almost never
works out like that you know i went to a
salsa class i said yes i fell in love
with it on paper i’m not a great
candidate for salsa you know like I’m 62
63 I’m too tall to take big steps I
don’t speak Spanish I never heard the
music
before you know I’m learning as an adult
there’s so many reasons why i would
never be great at salsa that if i just
look at on paper they forget it but it
doesn’t factory in the heart because i
went and i loved it and i fell in love
with it and and then even then I didn’t
know what’s going to be a business for
me but um just by trying and continue to
follow the things that i love i
discovered that as an opportunity to
then have a business I’m an investor in
the largest salsa dance school in North
America and so if you don’t know what
your passion is explore try stuff say
yes and see what you fall in love with
and if you don’t like it you know like
my rock climbing then dump it move on to
something else and you may find
something you like for a little bit like
my snowboarding and then that doesn’t
you know that’s not where you’re meant
to be so fine dumping go find something
else until you find the most people
settle stop settling like if you if you
wake up every day and you’re not excited
and then lesson you gonna get excited
every single day that’s not realistic
but if you’re waking up and Hayden your
life you know something is wrong you got
it you got to fix something you got to
find something to get you excited again
and and just keep following that
excitement to the leads you to a path
that you can turn it into a business or
you know this is it applies to every
area of your life I think that advice is
so right on because so many times I see
people getting paralyzed because they’re
just looking for the one perfect thing
but you don’t know if something’s going
to be right for you or not till you try
it and sometimes you have to try lots of
different things before we find that
thing that’s right but you can always
change your mind yeah and I would
encourage people to do a lot of small
starts yeah um a lot of people they have
this dream like here onion I want to do
this and they shelve it because it costs
too much money or it’ll take too much
time they don’t the resources in with
education of the training all of these
you know hurdles they put in front of
them or then maybe they go all in on it
because they now is my time I’m going to
try it but it wasn’t the right
opportunity for them don’t make it this
big step start here start tiny start
small um
samples mean making my youtube channel
now right we have almost 100,000
subscribers who hit that there any of
the month over 10 million views but in a
month I when I started it it was you
know I could have gone out and said okay
well I need the gear I need to have a
camera I need to have a tripod and the
lighting I need to have the background
and just add up all these costs I could
have done one episode and feel like yeah
you know what I don’t want to do this
and that’s what a lot of people do they
I’m going to start a t-shirt business
and they order 5,000 t-shirts with with
their new design that’s going to be the
next big thing and it doesn’t sell and
then they lose their passion they have
5,000 t-shirts sitting in the garage
what do you want to do is instead of
like going all-in or making it this big
step that you’re too afraid to go and
take find like the smallest simplest
thing that you can do to get started now
as a test don’t put so much pressure on
yourself to make it be the next huge
thing just explore and then if you like
that take one more step one more step
and then all of a sudden like to realize
that you’ve taken a huge step forward by
taking tons of little steps yeah I think
your YouTube channel is a great example
cuz didn’t you start that because you
were not very good at speaking in front
of people or speaking I can’t remember I
saw a story like a video that you made
about why you started the channel
originally yeah so if you go way back on
the channel um it’s it’s all famous
entrepreneur stories because my mantra
became after I learned from bill gates
and that helped my business it became I
want to help I want to study other
successful entrepreneurs and then share
that with people who haven’t done the
research and I’m a visual learner so I
found like be better for me to make
videos then just to read about a story
and for a while I did it all myself and
and I you know I wasn’t very good I
sucked at the start I mean I almost want
to remove those videos at the start
they’re still there you can go back
these still good views and comments and
people like them and I think you’re
always going to be you’re your own worst
critic and you look at your own work and
say man I could have done this better so
many different ways um even look at my
channel now look at look at what I’m
doing now six months ago right like I
started my channel maybe six years ago
but you
just look at how we’ve grown in the past
six months and you’ll notice a quality
difference because I’m putting in work
time effort right I’ve recorded 2,500
videos because I love it and so you get
better each time that you do it but the
start was just I want to share this I’m
a visual learner i want to put these
stories up and i’ll see if i like it and
I did and then I kept doing it and along
the way like there were hundreds of
other things that I tried that didn’t go
anywhere because it wasn’t for me yeah
it’s a great example of just starting
small and then it builds and builds as
you see that you you like it and you
want to continue and the videos are
wonderful i watch the videos all the
sides cool well now you’re in one yeah
all right well thank you so much for
joining us for the show and you want to
just tell the listeners where they can
find you in line yeah um I’m you have a
website Emma comical com or if you want
to get the YouTube channel you could
just type in Evan Carmichael in Google
you’ll find a whole bunch of stuff all
right it’s been great great thanks for
having me alright so that’s it for luck
we got a bunch of questions coming in to
all right so I guess you could end it
there or we can continue on for your
podcast if you want um okay so red red
key is asking I want to know how you
hang the procrastination I want to get
better in life your videos helped me a
lot procrastination you have thoughts
don’t do it no I do have a thought
though and this is just about being kind
to yourself because a lot of times we do
have something that we do wrong and we
beat ourselves up about it you get very
quick self-critical and I’ve been
reading a lot recently about self
compassion and how self-compassion
actually motivates you more than being
critical of yourself and there’s
actually a study done of students
who I think it was done at the
University of California Berkeley and a
one group of students who have problems
with procrastination were giving
instructions to be compassionate with
themselves when they found themselves
can craft a navy and then another group
was they weren’t given these
instructions and what happened over the
course of the semester is they found
that the students that were taught
self-compassion procrastinated less as a
semester put on why the students who
weren’t taught that actually
progressively got worse with their
procrastination as is faster than on
cool i like it see I knew you had like a
nice vibe you know the compassion of
ivett school um yeah I love that
actually I haven’t heard that before
that’s a nice little curveball for me I
like it um i would add to that to create
an environment that supports you I find
a lot of people a lot of people find it
may be hard to be internally motivated
and they need kind of like a external
stimulus to help them get going um and
that maybe like listening to your
podcast but maybe that happens at six
o’clock on a Friday evening and then
it’s like oh wow that’s so great and
you’re off like working like crazy and
then you wake up and from scratch again
least I found that was me you know i
could get super excited because i watch
a video or just got an idea and i’m off
to the races and then the next day I
wake up and it’s gone I feel like I’m
starting over uh-uh and so I believe
that people’s environments hold them
where they are and if you want to have
if you want to do something great you
need to have an environment that
supports greatness so you know there’s a
reason why this is on the wall is the
reason why i like this guy is here and i
try to do things in the morning that set
me up for success yeah i get to go like
having that routine whether it’s
watching videos whether it’s reading the
blog whether it’s listen to podcast
whether it’s whatever find out what
makes you tick and gets you going gets
your juices flowing and then schedule
that every day in the morning to start
you off
well instead of just randomly having it
happen to you and then you’re on fire
one day um and it you know it doesn’t
work one hundred percent of the time but
I found that for me really helped set up
my days much more for success um just
one more thing yeah also this is
something that I do sometimes I actually
don’t do it all the time but I didn’t do
do it sometimes to remind myself is I
will create a little event at the
beginning of the day my google calendar
i’ll just write a reminder to myself why
I’m doing what I do and then that could
email to me when I get email my schedule
because that’s there and then I so I
received that email and it’s a reminder
to me of why I’m doing all the work I do
cool yeah I love it remember your why um
Elias hey Evan did you get my men’s long
message no we did not Elias maybe you
can shrink it down and send uh Vivek is
writing in I want this I want to be a
speaker I just want he’s 22 years old
doesn’t want to have get a job once we
hope book speaking he has an idea but
he’s scared to go ahead what do you
think have you heard of Toastmasters
International mm-hmm because I used to
be incredibly shy and terrified to speak
to anyone I joined Toastmasters
International and that really helped me
be able to do something like this like I
would not have been able to do this
podcast a year ago because I was so shy
and afraid of talking in front of people
are talking to people and when i started
Toastmasters but the first time I got
called to the front and do a speech I
just did their silent and terrified but
then having that practice doing it every
week really helped me develop the
ability to speak in front of people and
to be able to do that and then once you
get that ability to try to speak and be
able to speak in front of people you can
look for more opportunities in your
local area there are opportunities all
around there are lake chamber of
commerce and different association
and things that will let you come speak
to them most of the time that won’t be
pay but it will be good practice for
getting up in front of people and
getting that experience yeah I love it I
honestly the more practice you can get
the butter going to place like
Toastmasters where you can model success
right learn from people who are better
than you you know accelerate your
learning I’d also suggest starting a
YouTube channel in practice speaking i
remember in mic so you know in my first
videos i used to have to have I had a
DSLR camera that did not out of focus so
used to have to have somebody on my team
or my sister come in and focus me leave
the room because I was too nervous to do
it in front of them and then and then I
could start recording in and do my thing
um because I was just too afraid too
nervous too scared uh and then it built
up to the point our like whatever I
don’t care who’s here doesn’t matter
right you know loveland wanted to do a
skype interview so let’s do a video um
so with honestly that scared me oh my
goodness people are going to see what I
look like this is going to be horrible
what am I going to do but then it’s by
just pushing yourself forward into that
thing that makes you uncomfortable like
on the other side there could be
something that is your passion or that
will help you move forward into what
your potential is so it’s great that who
is the person who asked the question
emma lemac yeah it was great that um to
uh it’s great that this was it wanted to
wants to go forward this public speaking
even though there’s some kind of fear
there because moving forward into that
fear will help you progress yeah and i
love that point you know fear is normal
a lot of people try to avoid fear you’re
never going to avoid fear uh it’s
feeling the fear and doing it any anyway
going forward with it and I think just
breaking it down the smaller chunks ah
make a youtube video is an easy way to
get started and it builds the muscle it
builds the muscle builds muscles get
stronger you get better um I’m gonna
give a random I don’t know why I’m just
gonna give a random gaming analogy and
this is part of another thing like what
comes into your head say it like express
it for because it’s probably gonna lead
somewhere I play league of legends it’s
a video game I don’t know if you’ve
heard of it or play it and it’s a it’s a
game where you have five people on your
team so you and four people and then
five people on the other team and when I
started playing it it was always against
robots so you’re with four people
against robot players and I have a
personal fear of letting people down I
hate letting people down it’s why it’s a
weakness and a strength it’s why over
delivered you know I’ll do way more than
it’s expected because I don’t want to
let somebody down it’s why I’m never
late for meetings or anything else
because I I don’t want anybody to be let
down I don’t know where that comes from
but um anyway so I always played this
game me and for people and that’s
already like scary enough because I
don’t want to let my team down right I
don’t want to do something in the game
that we lose because it’s on me um one
of the players asked me to be his friend
and then invites me to another game like
yeah yeah sure why not this blitz play
and I noticed that there’s 10 people
queuing up instead of five gonna be
going against people not against robots
and and it just freaked me out the first
time um like oh my god I’m not ready for
this whatever let my team down holy cow
I was like having a panic attack when we
were getting into the game and then it
was like it was okay it was fine it was
it worked and now like I never play
against robots Harris played with people
and so like that scariness help stretch
your comfort zone so that you can do it
more and do greater and bigger things
you know I often secretly have a little
thing inside my head that like witches
people would cancel on me before
something big that scares me I remember
both speaking in Brunei and they can you
come
speaking for nine was like a couple
months away yeah I no problem sure no
problem and then we’re getting close to
there oh my god i go to speaking Brunei
and a good national television and like
the royal family is gonna be there and
I’ll starting to freak out and kind of
secretly wished they would call me and
say Evan you know what we can’t sit the
event like oh great perfect no problem
awesome um because I’m you know I have a
fear of letting people down in the
audience like what if I’m not good
enough you know like they paid me to go
there I want to make sure it’s crazy
value um I know it went it went really
well obviously or maybe not but I went
and went very well and that that lets me
now do bigger things like I could do
that again no problem right I’m not
afraid of that anymore and so that
unless we do something big and big and
bigger and so if you have a test that I
try to give myself when i’m looking at
something new and i’m i’m facing like
internal demons is do I not want to do
this because I’m afraid or do I not want
to do this because it actually makes
sense not to do this um and and will
often like will cover that will will
tell ourselves reasons why we shouldn’t
do something and make it seem logical
but the real reason is because we’re
afraid that’s that’s some hard
self-awareness not at least for me I
think some people get it naturally but
for me that was super super difficult I
think it’s difficult for a lot of people
and there’s most people their fear is
around not being enough we’re afraid of
not being enough or we’re afraid of
losing love for the people around us if
we go forward and do this thing and they
find out that we’re not enough so it’s a
really common fear and I think it’s good
to always remember because a lot of
times we think of things we struggle
with are things that were afraid of
separate us from everyone and that this
is what’s wrong with me I’m afraid aura
and this is terrible but a reality those
are the things that connect you to
everyone else because everybody has fear
everyone has things that are struggling
with it’s important to remember that
even the people that you look up to and
you might think have it all going on
they have things that they’re struggling
with two because for all you
me and we all struggle yeah I think
that’s that’s helped me too and looking
at successful entrepreneurs and reading
the early sore and realizing that they
struggle and they didn’t have all the
answers and how they almost gave up and
quit made me feel like I’m just like I’m
just like that guy I’m just like him um
because I don’t think we tell those
stories enough but we just we just see
like the perfection we don’t measure up
so we get we lose we lose confidence
yeah um sedc 23 is wondering what good
books we recommend reading hey I’m
curious what your recommended book is um
I read a lot of books there’s hard it’s
hard for you to recommend one i recently
read an interesting book called the
books called the luck factor where is
that should be somewhere I don’t see it
but anyways cause a lot factor it was
just about people who are unlucky and
people are lucky and how they’re really
different like how they just look at
life differently and then how you can
change so you can be lucky to and then
also recently I read steal like an
artist which is a good book and I read a
lot of books it’s hard to say if you
want to read a novel I’m an author and I
have a novel class it’s my lessons cool
um so for me I know if you’re on my
newsletter or not but I give a list of
all my books in the newsletter that I
recommend my number one and two books
one is super common one nobody knows
about um my favorite book is the 4-hour
workweek Tim Ferriss super practical
talks a lot about time management in
there running the business in there and
that kind of my eyes up to delegating
building the team at the time I was
trying to do everything myself and that
really kind of a huge impact on how I
structure my day and my thoughts and
building my business that’s a I mean
it’s been new york times bestseller for
I don’t know how many years in a row so
you guys may have heard of that one
before the
one is out of print it’s called radicals
and visionaries and this helps my my
business it was put up by entrepreneur
press I talked about it in a video
before and then somebody commented and
said we can’t find that video is out of
print I started that book and somebody
sell on ebay for one hundred fifty
dollars or something okay I’m glad I
have mine but on basically what it does
is it looks at successful entrepreneurs
and tells their story in like five pages
and so I would start my day we talked a
routine schedule environment that’s how
I would start my day before when I was
getting started was I would read a
one-person story five pages quick kind
of jolt get some motivation to go and as
well as some ideas that may help your
business so radicals and visionaries may
be able to find it those are doing my
two bucks a dread dog how do you manage
your time when you have a full-time job
and you’re a single parent that’s a good
question I’m not very good at time
management it so fast that with you
honestly I’m not I’m not very good at it
I’m cool dry dog okay I’ll take that one
I have a lot I have a lot of weird
things about time management I’m the one
may be the easiest I’d guess is chunking
similar tasks you put on similar in
similar days I think people lose a lot
of time from switching tasks like you’re
working on something and then somebody
calls you or email comes in and then to
get back to what you’re doing before
might take you half an hour to get back
in that zone and so anything as a
general rule anything that you do
multiple times per day do once a day
holdem times per week do once a week
multi for a month once a month and so on
um so as an example my week is scheduled
so that mondays are my like work in the
business day it’s my administer not
monday don’t talk to me on monday don’t
call me on Monday don’t email me on
Monday you’re not getting a response
like
monday I’m just working i am hauling
it’s just all just straight work and you
know i don’t have to dress up i don’t
have to shave you know whatever right
like you’re just in that zone um tuesday
i’m writing the book i’m writing a book
too so that’s coming out and that’s my
writing day and so tuesday you know
Monday I’ve done all my stuff for the
week I’ve planned it out so tuesday i’m
writing so I walked to the local Whole
Foods and I sit down pull up my macbook
air and I’m just tapping away we’re in
the book something like right in the
book as you know like you could
interrupted by writing the book to get
back into it this ridiculous takes me an
hour just to get into it from what I was
doing last week maybe I’m maybe that’s
my process and I’m slow and whatever but
I need an entire day just to write uh
wednesday i do film i video tape for my
channel right will do aah now how many
were doing doing like 20 videos a week
on the youtube channel it’s in your boom
yeah it’s insane most of those are our
film on wednesday the camera guy comes
over and we have every wednesday we sit
and we record all the videos for the
channel and then Thursday is my
public-facing day Thursday is my let’s
do a hangout today it’s Thursday right
let’s do a hangout let’s go I have
meetings I have phone calls I have other
interviews you know Thursday is when it
all happens and I give people like like
loveland had a has a link to my schedule
and she went and she booked the time
that fit her schedule and it’s always on
a Thursday and she big slots and here we
aren’t doing our thing and so like every
day I have sectioned off to do something
else so that I’m not switching between
tasks and I can stay focused I generally
find working in 90 minute chunks really
helpful so working 90-minute chunk and
then 15 minute break in a 90-minute
chunk and I mean the exception to all of
that is when I’m when I’m in flow you
know like if I’m really feeling
something then then I might break it
like if I’m
by Tuesday morning wake up with an
amazing idea I need to go work on it
I’ll forget about the book and just go
work on that or if i’m doing my 90
minute chunks i’m just really feeling
something I’ll just I’ll plow through it
because that’s when you’re going to
create really that’s the goal you don’t
want to limit and say well my 90 minutes
are up so I’m gonna move on to something
else um but dont trick yourself because
you’re not in flow often raisio I’m
really in flow answering these emails
who this is amazing right um I have much
of other weird ones like I don’t have a
phone I don’t have a cell phone I have a
regular phone I’m own is not now now
it’s other people’s agenda for your time
what a phone is um so sometimes people
feel like I’m offending them like they
say I wanted to a conference in New
Orleans I was speaking at last week in
the organizers like what’s your cell
phone number so we can keep in touch it
I don’t have a cell phone well how can
we text you but you can’t text me not
happening and she was a she fought like
I was just like didn’t want to give it
to her I know I was you know she’s like
well don’t worry I won’t give you a
number up to anybody else that it just
before the conference like no like I
really don’t have a phone um yeah I
really value my time and the counter
part of that is what I mean it I mean it
like we’re talking now and not doing
anything else I’m not checking email not
on facebook i’m not doing anything but
talking to you and so when I am doing in
those chunks I’m focused and that lets
you get a lot of amazing stuff done yeah
and so the original question was time
mentioned being a single parent I would
I would look at what can I do I mean so
you don’t have all day you have a job
you have a kid I would try to chunk out
like half an hour a day an hour day
whatever you can find a time dedicate it
to work around your business and commit
to doing that every single day yeah
whatever time here you can take look
even it’s a small amount of time a small
amount of time every single day adds up
yeah now would i would like every day at
least half an hour you got to find half
an hour every single day if you’re you
know super busy just that’s that’s
important for your dream don’t
to die because you have other things
coming up you know it’s like you get
home it’s really late you still have
half an hour work on your business and
then go to bed uh king j how important
is diet when starting the business how
important is diet it’s always important
whether or not you’re starting to
business you need to take care of your
body the way that you’re going to be
able to have the energy that you need to
start a business is by putting the right
tool fuel into your body so that you can
have the energy to do that die it’s
always important and then that you
followed up since is king king j
normally here business owners say they
stay up late nights drinking unhealthy
amounts of coffee uh well i am drinking
my green smoothie granite this is what i
have every day I don’t know what’s in
here my wife makes these for me uh green
means it’s kale I don’t know what the
rest of it is it kind of varies from day
to day um yeah I mean I think you can
you can you can plow through stuff if
you absolutely need to but if you’re in
it for the long haul you need to take
care of yourself um and I would also
look as a curveball to this i would i
would try to figure out uh what time of
day works best for you because i feel i
feel like there are people who work
better at night and some people regret
in the morning if you’re a night person
and you i am not like a early morning
person I can’t wait to get there I can’t
I’m not the five thirty in the morning
wake up and like get stuff done before
the house gets up um I can’t do that but
that’s cool like some people are and
that’s awesome so you have to find your
cadence find what works for you and if
you’re the kind of person who likes
working into the night and that gives
you your peace and solitude and gets you
into the zone then do that and stretch
your life around that but if you’re not
taking care of yourself you know you’re
not going to you’re not going to last
very long um I know we’re kind of we’re
bumping up the clock and we still have a
ton of questions so people are liking
your liking the topic here um my passion
maybe last one Sonam so now is writing
uh my passion is inspiring young
athletes that go after their dreams of
playing basketball but this will take
time to build he’s starting a blog and I
need to provide money for family myself
right now what do you think I think
there’s nothing wrong with starting
something part-time at first to get it
started so that you’re not you don’t
have a lot of pressure on yourself to
like if you need the money to take care
of your family or other responsibilities
maybe you have to start that business on
the side for now but that’s an
acceptable thing to do I think we have a
lot of pressures we put all I pressure
on ourselves sometimes to like you just
have to do it all it’s all or nothing
right now but I think that there is room
for a different way to start or to do
something on the side and build it up to
it creating that income so that you can
eventually quit that day job in to your
business full time yeah I agree we’re on
the same page with that one I think a
lot of entrepreneurs they quit they
start a business they don’t get results
fast enough and then 36 months later
they burn through other savings and on
their back having to go get job super
demoralise and like having nothing to
your name and it’s way better to start
the business on the side and just
dedicate time at least half an hour
every single day to making this business
happen the curveball I would throw is I
would try to get a job that would help
me become a better entrepreneur so if
you want to help aspiring young athletes
play professional basketball I would try
to get a job where I’m going to learn
about the game professional basketball
and working with a sports team i’m
working with the kids something where
you’re going to learn how to transfer
those skills to make your business
better so you’re not just getting some
job I don’t know what you’re doing if
you’re in accounting or you know
something you know you in mcdonalds job
or whatever if it’s something totally
unrelated then that’s not going to help
you we’re ideally you have a job where
you’re learning you’re getting
mentorship you’re making money you’re
building
actually getting the experience you’re
getting paid to make mistakes so that
when you go and you start your business
and you jump in you’re going to have a
leg up I’m going to end up there where
we’re up against the owl already um it’s
been tons of fun to thank you guys for
watching and all the questions and I’m
sorry we couldn’t get to all of them
next time you know get those questions
and early and loveland I really
appreciate the time and the great
questions and your your vibe and energy
you know I’m feeling soulful now like it
it today oh that’s great thank you so
much I really appreciate your vibe
energy and that you took the time to do
this interview it’s great yeah and in
loveland podcasters imagine
possibilities and I’ve linked it in
descriptions you guys can go subscribe
have a great day we’ll see you guys soon
thank you
google hangout i’m excited to have with
me loveland medicine who runs a podcast
called imagine the possibilities and she
wanted me to come on and do a skype
interview with her for her podcast and i
said hey let’s turn it into a video
Google hangout so that you guys my aunts
get benefit as well I’m learning a
little bit about her show and she can
use the audio for her podcast as well so
loveland welcome aboard thank you
welcome to imagine the possibilities I
love it I know you’ve got a bunch of
questions you want to just give a quick
overview of what your podcast is all
about and then just hit me with whatever
you want okay imagine the possibilities
is a kind of a new podcast this will
only be twenty third episode and it is a
podcast where I interview people who are
living fascinating lives the idea is
that we can learn from what other people
have done in the past their mistakes and
their successes I like it number number
23 it’s Michael Jordan that’s some
pressure you put on yeah I don’t know
anything about sports so I wouldn’t know
that all right so we’ll just jump right
into the questions and all right yeah
hit me all right so you talked a lot
about how you have a passion for
entrepreneurship and helping
entrepreneurs I just thought you could
start out just by telling us a bit about
where that passion comes from ha that’s
a great question um in my first business
was a software company and it was just
me and my two business partners and I
didn’t do anything help with other
entrepreneurs didn’t really know about
the entrepreneurialism you know a goal
or passion of mine necessarily and we
struggled a lot and eventually made it
through and I you know I just felt at
that time like I wish it was easier wish
there was information that would help me
more than what I had available to me um
you know there’s nothing really at my
university nobody my family was
entrepreneurs and so we struggled and
almost almost quit and almost gave up
and then you know when we had some
success and I sold
my business I was invited to speak at a
couple of events being kind of this
young entrepreneur success story I guess
and one of the first ones was with a
YMCA and they asked if I would come and
do a speech to their students they had
this program helping entrepreneurs get
started in Toronto which is my city and
it’s a chair I’ll come and I spent kind
of a couple weeks preparing you know I
wanted to get all of my best advice and
tips in there for all the lessons that I
felt I had learned and and they were
promoting it and I promoted it was a
free event and only three people showed
up which which was uh like heartbreaking
for me um but I loved it and and as like
the show must go on and I helped those
three people out and they left change
people and inspired to go and do their
business and at the time I didn’t know
what I was going to do next I sold my
business I was just looking for new
opportunities a little bit sad and even
let me be even depressed because I you
know had this huge high and I didn’t
know what to do next um and I kind of
got it again when I was helping those
three entrepreneurs and I didn’t know
how I would turn it into a business um
in fact if you look at it you know if
you can’t get people to come out to a
free event only three people show up how
are you ever going to turn this into a
business logic would dictate that I
should go do something else um but I
just I loved it I loved it so much I
loved helping those people and so I knew
that I had to find a way to keep doing
it so that was that was kind of I i
stumbled into it was an invite from the
ymca and i’m a big believer in following
your flow when you get into that you got
to stay there as long as possible so i
had to find a way to make it work so you
said you started out right on the
university with your own business about
right yeah you know when i was in high
school I thought I was going to be a
banker you know when you have to fill
out that form at the end of the year and
say where am I going to be in 10 years
mindset I would be a banker at a BP at a
big bank that was my those my dream
coming at high school because again I
didn’t have any entrepreneur
winces in my life nobody in my family’s
an entrepreneur I didn’t know anybody
was an entrepreneur so I just felt like
I’m gonna do the banking route and then
I got University and there were two
people who are connected with what
started the business who weren’t doing
super well and asked me to join as a
partner to help do the business side of
it and at the time I was facing a big
struggle because I had gotten job offers
from the banks from the companies that I
wanted to go work with I had an offer
with merrill lynch and with McKinsey
Consulting and you know they’re paying
80 to 100 thousand dollars starting
salary fly me to the world of Astoria to
recruit me um very tempting and at the
time i was making three hundred dollars
a month that my startup business so
that’s uh you know that was pretty sad
um but something made me feel like you
know I want to I want to give this
company a shot I don’t know something
made me feel like I don’t want to live
the rest of my life and regret and worry
that man what if I had taken that chance
and I figured I could always go and get
a job in another year and I said I take
a year off I’m going to do my business
and and see how it goes so again I kind
of just stumbled into it I you know I
met those two people and they needed
help and I thought it was an exciting
challenge and so followed my flow into
that opportunity and fortunately we
turned it around um but I had to turn
down kind of big offers that at the time
I thought was what my my dream was so
how did the people around you respond
when you were turning down these big
offers to continue forward this business
it was struggling uh they were confused
um uh unlucky that my parents important
whatever I want to do you know they meet
me know like bully you see it on the
wall that came from them they always
believed in me they always told me that
I macos truly carmike and I can do
whatever I want and even though they are
very safe you know my dad worked for the
government for forever you know very
safe players they did
hold me back from doing what I wanted to
do they may be couldn’t give me advice
as to what to do but they they just
always made me feel like I could do
whatever I wanted to do my friends were
also confused cuz they wanted those same
jobs right like I’m getting the call to
go to New York for this big job and
they’re not and so they’re jealous and
then I don’t do it to go do this other
business um I was embarrassed and
ashamed at the time they didn’t know how
how badly my company was doing didn’t
know i was making three hundred dollars
a month you know um and I was too
ashamed to tell them and so that’s on me
I guess and that was tough because I had
I had you know I can only go out maybe
once a month with them for pizza and
beer because I couldn’t afford anything
else I didn’t have the money to do it
and I was supposed to be living the
entrepreneur dream you know I turned it
on the job says stick it to the man and
do what I wanted and I was not having
success um so yeah I was it was kind of
isolating like I didn’t know who to talk
to you about what I was going through my
parents where it gets emotional support
but my friends and my own fault by not
opening up they were confused and you
know thought I might be crazy to go and
try and do this thing I think it’s
interesting that you said that you were
you felt embarrassed by the situation
because for me personally I have a big
problem with being embarrassed and that
holds me back a lot from doing things
that I would want to do so I get over
that embarrassment um it’s a good
question i guess i became successful
like I don’t think I told anybody um any
of my friends really they all that just
assumed I was I was successful and it
was you know they were working for the
man and they were hating their jobs and
working 100 hours a week and um yeah I
don’t think I really i mean III think i
think it would have been better if i did
like looking back I think maybe it was
immaturity or stubbornness or what but i
think i think i would have had an easier
time getting through it
they knew how hard a time I was having
an appeal to give me some more support
and ideas even if just emotional support
um yeah so I don’t know I don’t think I
handle it very well but that’s I guess
that’s the story now I became successful
then I and then I told my story but how
I we struggled and they were like why do
you were sparkling back then I didn’t
know um so now I’m much more open at
least I feel in admitting where I’m
struggling and what mistakes I have and
how it how I’m trying to get better
that’s good though because then people
can learn from your experience I think
it’s really good that you’re willing to
be so open about what’s going on with
your business now and what’s happened in
the past it’s really good so when you’re
you were struggling in the business what
gave you the drive to stick to it and
not just say okay I’m gonna go get a
normal conventional job yeah uh I almost
quit um and I think it’s normal I think
I think it’s something nobody talks
about how you know it’s an entrepreneur
always seeing all the good things right
like oh I just launches new podcast I
just got this new client or whatever
it’s always a good stuff but not that I
don’t know what I’m doing if I’m going
to make it and I think I might have to
go and get a job nobody ever really
talks about that and I think it’s
important to acknowledge that that
everybody goes through that on their
journey and on their cycle I think that
makes a little easier because when
you’re struggling and you can’t make it
work and you just read the magazines and
newspapers and watch videos with the
people making a huge like why am I not
there until my story you know I had
always had success when I applied myself
um I think it’s for most people like if
I spent more time at school I would get
better grades if I practice you know my
jump shot I’d have a better play better
basketball and here it was in my
business working hard like I was not
slacking I was working my butt off and I
was not getting results and it was just
soul crushing you know like I’ve never
felt so demoralized so worthless ever
in my life anything you know if I wasn’t
trying fine like they can write that up
if here I was like really trying um and
one day came where it was the family
event and uh I got into a disagreement
with my partner and just you know I as
general we’re pretty much on the same
page when you’re not making any money
you know you start to disagree over
where to take the business and and I
told them that I quit like I can’t do
this anymore I want to feel like I’m
contributing something valuable I can’t
take this anymore I quit I’m done um and
I hung up the phone I just cried
endlessly for I don’t know 45 minutes
and I was at my parents house and I mom
came up and put her hand on my shoulder
and I didn’t know what she said to me I
mean you know tears coming in my eyes my
nose just like one of the worst days of
my life um and then you know what I woke
up the next day and I just felt like I
can’t quit oh that’s okay not quit I
need to do this but the way that I had
been doing it wasn’t working so I need
to find a different way to stain I gotta
find something else I gotta I gotta
figure this out and just I don’t know
something about me felt like I just I
didn’t want to live with regret I didn’t
want to quit and into my partner’s
credit you know showed up the next day
we worked out of his condo um and he
didn’t he didn’t give me a hard time he
didn’t say like oh you quit on me why
are you here you know do you want to be
a part of this he didn’t give me hearts
and we just went back to work and that
was that that was great on his part and
I appreciate him for that uh what helped
me we kind of get over it was realizing
that I’m not the first guy to try to
sell sophomore at the time um you know
the main I’ve been I was in biotech
software there wasn’t this huge biotech
software company good luck up to but
there were other software companies and
I would try to model success and I
thought hey somebody else has already
figured this out how can I model that
success to help me grow and I looked at
Bill Gates from Microsoft and he had
success in software like well how does
he make how did he make his first
milling right like not not how he makes
money now
because you know he’s make made a ton of
money but like 0 to 1 how did they do
that that’s what I wanted to how do i
how do i get that i needed through
forming alliances making partnerships
and so I thought okay I know try that
I’m not going to try to invent the wheel
for everything i’m just going to apply
that strategy and within a month or two
I had my first partnership and they paid
13 and a half thousand dollars up front
to me and man that felt good you know
that’s that that may not be a lot of
money but to me making three hundred
dollars a month that that was like I hit
the jackpot that was awesome and better
than just having that money I had I had
a strategy now that I can replicate I
can go find other partners and make
similar deals and that’s how we started
turning the tide with the company and
meet starting to feel like I had some
self-worth again um but I guess I mean
to come back to the questions just there
was something inside of me feel like I
can’t quit you know I don’t want to quit
on this it’s too important I want to I
want to ride it at I don’t know maybe it
was crazy do you think you were always
like that do you think what separates
the people from that quit and then just
go on to live a life of regret to from
the people who keep moving forward even
the face of what seems like failure yeah
that’s a great question I’m enjoying
this you have really like calm cool
demeanor I’m thanking you know uh yeah
yeah I’m excited for the podcast future
I I quit on a lot of things actually I I
i love doing small tests and if it’s not
working out or if i’m not feeling if i
quit and I’m totally okay with that I
think it’s when I’m a stubborn person I
can be really stubborn over big things
over most like little things in life I
don’t care you know my wife wants to
watch movie what movie do much I don’t
care what do you do me what do we got to
dinner I don’t really care but some of
the big things i can get super stubborn
on and i hate i hate giving up on
something that I’m really stubborn about
um
have I always been like that I think so
you know what I want something it’s like
blinders on and I go and chase it until
it’s done but along the way like I’ll
quit and a whole bunch of other things
that just weren’t as important mm-hmm
just about separating let’s import and
what’s not important yeah I’m a big
believer in following your flow right
I’ve talked about a couple of times
already um when you when you feel like
you when you are doing something that
makes you come alive whatever it is it’s
making a podcast doing a painting doing
business whatever it is when you feel
like you’re in that zone and you feel
alive you have to do that more and and
most of the time when you first do it it
doesn’t make sense like there’s no
logical way to go and follow that path
and that’s the hardest time to say yes
because there’s like this safe path
that’s lined out for you that everybody
goes down that makes total sense but but
isn’t exciting a challenging for you and
then this is crazy path that everybody
is too afraid to take that really
excites you but there’s no safety net
and nobody’s doing it and you know that
that that’s too scary to go down I think
we all have those moments where like we
wish we could be out here but were we’re
here I’ve always been about like I want
to chase that and so going into the
biotech software company when I had
these big job offers seem crazy but it
was what got me excited you know going
to help entrepreneurs when I couldn’t
get people to come up to a free event
it’s crazy but I had to keep doing it
because I loved it and so um I’ve tried
to make that a theme i guess for my life
I’m much more self aware of that now
than I was before I was much more
confused and those decisions I maybe I
may be kind of glossed over those were
hard decision saying no to those gods
wasn’t just like oh yeah I’ll come back
in a year no prob like that was heart
wrenching that was really tough um I
didn’t know if I was making the biggest
mistake of my life you know uh now i’m
much more self-aware and can be more
proactive with it and whenever I’m in
the flow on something or something I
really want to try to do I just I just
start and do it until I start until I
the excitement and if I don’t lose the
excitement to keep going so your company
grew and grew and then you sold it right
mmhmm yeah um a little little drink
break um go ahead that’s good yeah so we
you know we started laying in
partnerships um I started doing a lot
more media for the company we got we got
big clients nasa johnson Johnson um in
our industry there was you notice a lot
of industries were they they consolidate
where you get a few big players and then
they start to expand a whole bunch of
new startups coming industries kind of
go in these waves like that and so what
was happening in our industry at the
time was comes consolidation so the big
companies are climbing up all the little
companies and so we had to make a
decision do we want to try to stay
independent stay being a little guy and
ride it out until the next cycle that
might be eight or ten years later or do
we want to get bought out and join a
bigger company and I actually wanted to
stay I want to stay in fight like we
were growing we had momentum we were
kicking it up a gear we could do this
we’ve got it but my business partner is
one of one of their lifelong dreams I
guess was to go to California um we’re
based in Toronto Canada and you we can’t
I can’t just pick up and move to
California you know legally at least and
so we had an opportunity to join a
company that was based in California and
that sponsored my partner’s to go and so
that was our that you know how do you
tell somebody no you can’t live your
personal dream you have to stay in this
business and so we ended up selling the
company in California and they move
there and I sit here when you started
moving on to doing different ventures
okay so you work with entrepreneurs now
and one of the things that I think is
really interesting about your message or
what you tell people to do is you have
the idea of having one word that
encompasses the
of the company could you talk a bit
about that idea yeah um you know my
board is here when the wall believe I
think it’s I think most people don’t
live there life on purpose I think
people live their life reacting to the
things around them and they end up being
just a victim of their circumstances in
their environment and if you look at
most people you will be basically like
your parents who will be basically like
your friends and we’re constant living
in reactionary mode where what I believe
is is a there’s a single theme that
combines everything that you like
together and always have like together
so if you look at what’s your favorite
movie and what are your favorite songs
and what do you like about your husband
or your wife or your boyfriend and
girlfriend or what did you love about
your favorite teacher there’s a common
theme that if you look at it unifies all
of these things together for me it’s
believed so you know my favorite movie
is Seabiscuit I don’t know if you’ve
seen see business yeah it’s about this
horse and his jockey and his owner and
everybody’s down on their luck and then
they they come up and they rise and I’ve
seen that movie no 25 times or something
um I love that story i love the like you
know parents told me your costs rally
car mat that you can do anything i love
i love instilling belief in others and I
love trying to believe in myself to go
and accomplish things and so now when
you have that awareness of what you
staying for and what your one word is
and what your most important it’s
basically your most important core value
you can start to make decisions in your
life and in your business if you’re
dealing with entrepreneurs that’s much
more proactive so you know as an example
if I’m hiring somebody from my team i
will lead with you know i’m looking for
a believe programmer and then i explain
what believe is all about because i want
somebody who loves what this company is
all about before the skill set where
most people do the opposite so i need
someone who can do PHP and throw up a
website for me and yes they have all the
skills but because that person isn’t
aligned with what you stand for then
it’s never going to be a fantastic
relationship
and so I’m a big believer in trying to
get it down to that one word
understanding what defines you and then
use that as your compass use that as
your like the lens through which you see
the world so that you can make decisions
more proactively and live a life on
purpose instead of just being
reactionary to other people’s beliefs
okay you talk a lot about entrepreneurs
not just chasing the money but following
their passions and I know there’s a
phrase that gets tossed around a lot
online like follow your passion and the
money will follow I just wonder what you
think about that phrase yeah I agree if
you look at famous entrepreneurs and and
you know my how I got inserted in the
Entrepreneurship world after was in
profile and famous entrepreneurs or one
of the largest collections of famous
entrepreneur stories online a great
collection look at if you look at why
they started you watch their videos you
listen to their speeches um money was
never the most important thing uh no
that’s not the money is important right
like it’s not saying hey forget about
money like we’re not doing charities
here you have to make money but money is
never the number one reason to start
something if it is you’re gonna quit
because whatever you do is going to get
tough you’ll have moments of like I had
with my business you’ll have you know
just moments where you want to quit and
give up and you the thing that pushes
you through is because you love what
you’re doing you want to have an impact
you want to make a difference if you’re
doing to just trying to make money then
as soon as it gets hard you’re gonna
move to something else and that’s what a
lot of people do they start a business
and others i can make tons of money here
so they start they don’t make money it
gets hard they quit they move on to
something else and they keep chasing
these little opportunities and they
never hit it big where if you look at
any another encourage you know your
listeners look at any famous
entrepreneur something you look up to
and research their story you’ll always
find that they had a genuine love for
what they’re doing the examples Steve
Jobs Apple you know one of the people I
look up to
he was a multi-millionaire in his early
20s he was worth a hundred million
dollars in his mid-20s one hundred
million dollars in your mid-twenties and
yet he worked until the day that he died
at apple and he built apple into
becoming the most valuable company in
the world according to market cap where
his number one goal was never money um
and that’s not just for business that’s
anything you know you look at the people
the top people in any industry if you if
you just you know you don’t have the
gumption to be an entrepreneur it’s not
part of who you are you want to ride the
corporate ladder you look at whoever is
the CEO you look at the people who are
in charge of these companies they love
what they do like if you can have some
success just basing off of your your
talent but if you don’t have the heart
you’re never going to rise to the top of
your industry no matter what you’re
doing and so when you’re following your
passion and you’re invested into it
you’re learning everything can about it
then you’re going to create something of
immense value for your industry for your
market but that’s how you create tons of
values because you genuinely care about
making a difference and then if you
provide a lot of value that’s how you
make money money comes from providing
value you wouldn’t provide you want to
make a lot of money you got provided a
lot of Audi right you want to make a lot
of money quickly provide a lot of value
quickly and then the question becomes
okay that’s how do i make money how do i
get to the point where i’m providing a
lot of value and you very rarely find
somebody who can provide immense over
the top value who doesn’t actually love
what they’re doing and so you know you
can get to a certain point in life just
five following the same path and you’ll
make money and that’s that’s ninety
percent of you know America you know
they’re living for the evenings and
weekends and they hate their jobs but it
supports their lifestyle but you’ll
never you’ll never get up here you’ll
never have a huge impact if you’re not
doing something that you absolutely love
so what advice could you give to someone
who is a new to entrepreneurship and
they are not quite sure what their
passion is yet
or what that thing is that they should
yeah um explore it’s super common like a
lot of people don’t know what their
passion is we’re never taught find your
passion right where do you go to school
for this I don’t know why we’re not
taught this in school right probably the
most important thing you’ll ever need in
your life is not is not being taught and
there’s some some people have families
who are lucky enough where their parents
might teach them but for the most part
people have no idea and so the the best
advice I can give is to explore and try
things and say yes the things and see
what you fall in love with and that
often leads to business opportunities so
a give you an example um I got invited
to go rock climbing I what I said yes
let’s do it I hated it things like the
harness is in my crotch and I’m afraid
of height saying just like no I’m back
um so you will not get me rock climbing
again but I said yes to try because you
never know um I went snowboarding and I
got I became obsessed with snowboarding
for for like two years it was obsessed
where I would go every day I would push
off meetings to go snowboarding I China
45 minutes I can hit the hill and come
back I was just I was obsessed and then
my passion started to fall off well now
go a couple times a year in the winter
and it’s fine but it’s not like the
obsession anymore and then there’s salsa
dancing where I said yes it’s also
dancing and and I fell in love with it
and it’s been I don’t know 12 years now
and i’m still super passionate about it
i’ve invested in a salsa dancing school
I met my wife through salsa dancing just
become part of my life and my business
and if you look at it on paper this is
what most people do like they look at it
on paper right like how does my how do
my skills match up with where I could
make money and you like do this little
analytical chart um it almost never
works out like that you know i went to a
salsa class i said yes i fell in love
with it on paper i’m not a great
candidate for salsa you know like I’m 62
63 I’m too tall to take big steps I
don’t speak Spanish I never heard the
music
before you know I’m learning as an adult
there’s so many reasons why i would
never be great at salsa that if i just
look at on paper they forget it but it
doesn’t factory in the heart because i
went and i loved it and i fell in love
with it and and then even then I didn’t
know what’s going to be a business for
me but um just by trying and continue to
follow the things that i love i
discovered that as an opportunity to
then have a business I’m an investor in
the largest salsa dance school in North
America and so if you don’t know what
your passion is explore try stuff say
yes and see what you fall in love with
and if you don’t like it you know like
my rock climbing then dump it move on to
something else and you may find
something you like for a little bit like
my snowboarding and then that doesn’t
you know that’s not where you’re meant
to be so fine dumping go find something
else until you find the most people
settle stop settling like if you if you
wake up every day and you’re not excited
and then lesson you gonna get excited
every single day that’s not realistic
but if you’re waking up and Hayden your
life you know something is wrong you got
it you got to fix something you got to
find something to get you excited again
and and just keep following that
excitement to the leads you to a path
that you can turn it into a business or
you know this is it applies to every
area of your life I think that advice is
so right on because so many times I see
people getting paralyzed because they’re
just looking for the one perfect thing
but you don’t know if something’s going
to be right for you or not till you try
it and sometimes you have to try lots of
different things before we find that
thing that’s right but you can always
change your mind yeah and I would
encourage people to do a lot of small
starts yeah um a lot of people they have
this dream like here onion I want to do
this and they shelve it because it costs
too much money or it’ll take too much
time they don’t the resources in with
education of the training all of these
you know hurdles they put in front of
them or then maybe they go all in on it
because they now is my time I’m going to
try it but it wasn’t the right
opportunity for them don’t make it this
big step start here start tiny start
small um
samples mean making my youtube channel
now right we have almost 100,000
subscribers who hit that there any of
the month over 10 million views but in a
month I when I started it it was you
know I could have gone out and said okay
well I need the gear I need to have a
camera I need to have a tripod and the
lighting I need to have the background
and just add up all these costs I could
have done one episode and feel like yeah
you know what I don’t want to do this
and that’s what a lot of people do they
I’m going to start a t-shirt business
and they order 5,000 t-shirts with with
their new design that’s going to be the
next big thing and it doesn’t sell and
then they lose their passion they have
5,000 t-shirts sitting in the garage
what do you want to do is instead of
like going all-in or making it this big
step that you’re too afraid to go and
take find like the smallest simplest
thing that you can do to get started now
as a test don’t put so much pressure on
yourself to make it be the next huge
thing just explore and then if you like
that take one more step one more step
and then all of a sudden like to realize
that you’ve taken a huge step forward by
taking tons of little steps yeah I think
your YouTube channel is a great example
cuz didn’t you start that because you
were not very good at speaking in front
of people or speaking I can’t remember I
saw a story like a video that you made
about why you started the channel
originally yeah so if you go way back on
the channel um it’s it’s all famous
entrepreneur stories because my mantra
became after I learned from bill gates
and that helped my business it became I
want to help I want to study other
successful entrepreneurs and then share
that with people who haven’t done the
research and I’m a visual learner so I
found like be better for me to make
videos then just to read about a story
and for a while I did it all myself and
and I you know I wasn’t very good I
sucked at the start I mean I almost want
to remove those videos at the start
they’re still there you can go back
these still good views and comments and
people like them and I think you’re
always going to be you’re your own worst
critic and you look at your own work and
say man I could have done this better so
many different ways um even look at my
channel now look at look at what I’m
doing now six months ago right like I
started my channel maybe six years ago
but you
just look at how we’ve grown in the past
six months and you’ll notice a quality
difference because I’m putting in work
time effort right I’ve recorded 2,500
videos because I love it and so you get
better each time that you do it but the
start was just I want to share this I’m
a visual learner i want to put these
stories up and i’ll see if i like it and
I did and then I kept doing it and along
the way like there were hundreds of
other things that I tried that didn’t go
anywhere because it wasn’t for me yeah
it’s a great example of just starting
small and then it builds and builds as
you see that you you like it and you
want to continue and the videos are
wonderful i watch the videos all the
sides cool well now you’re in one yeah
all right well thank you so much for
joining us for the show and you want to
just tell the listeners where they can
find you in line yeah um I’m you have a
website Emma comical com or if you want
to get the YouTube channel you could
just type in Evan Carmichael in Google
you’ll find a whole bunch of stuff all
right it’s been great great thanks for
having me alright so that’s it for luck
we got a bunch of questions coming in to
all right so I guess you could end it
there or we can continue on for your
podcast if you want um okay so red red
key is asking I want to know how you
hang the procrastination I want to get
better in life your videos helped me a
lot procrastination you have thoughts
don’t do it no I do have a thought
though and this is just about being kind
to yourself because a lot of times we do
have something that we do wrong and we
beat ourselves up about it you get very
quick self-critical and I’ve been
reading a lot recently about self
compassion and how self-compassion
actually motivates you more than being
critical of yourself and there’s
actually a study done of students
who I think it was done at the
University of California Berkeley and a
one group of students who have problems
with procrastination were giving
instructions to be compassionate with
themselves when they found themselves
can craft a navy and then another group
was they weren’t given these
instructions and what happened over the
course of the semester is they found
that the students that were taught
self-compassion procrastinated less as a
semester put on why the students who
weren’t taught that actually
progressively got worse with their
procrastination as is faster than on
cool i like it see I knew you had like a
nice vibe you know the compassion of
ivett school um yeah I love that
actually I haven’t heard that before
that’s a nice little curveball for me I
like it um i would add to that to create
an environment that supports you I find
a lot of people a lot of people find it
may be hard to be internally motivated
and they need kind of like a external
stimulus to help them get going um and
that maybe like listening to your
podcast but maybe that happens at six
o’clock on a Friday evening and then
it’s like oh wow that’s so great and
you’re off like working like crazy and
then you wake up and from scratch again
least I found that was me you know i
could get super excited because i watch
a video or just got an idea and i’m off
to the races and then the next day I
wake up and it’s gone I feel like I’m
starting over uh-uh and so I believe
that people’s environments hold them
where they are and if you want to have
if you want to do something great you
need to have an environment that
supports greatness so you know there’s a
reason why this is on the wall is the
reason why i like this guy is here and i
try to do things in the morning that set
me up for success yeah i get to go like
having that routine whether it’s
watching videos whether it’s reading the
blog whether it’s listen to podcast
whether it’s whatever find out what
makes you tick and gets you going gets
your juices flowing and then schedule
that every day in the morning to start
you off
well instead of just randomly having it
happen to you and then you’re on fire
one day um and it you know it doesn’t
work one hundred percent of the time but
I found that for me really helped set up
my days much more for success um just
one more thing yeah also this is
something that I do sometimes I actually
don’t do it all the time but I didn’t do
do it sometimes to remind myself is I
will create a little event at the
beginning of the day my google calendar
i’ll just write a reminder to myself why
I’m doing what I do and then that could
email to me when I get email my schedule
because that’s there and then I so I
received that email and it’s a reminder
to me of why I’m doing all the work I do
cool yeah I love it remember your why um
Elias hey Evan did you get my men’s long
message no we did not Elias maybe you
can shrink it down and send uh Vivek is
writing in I want this I want to be a
speaker I just want he’s 22 years old
doesn’t want to have get a job once we
hope book speaking he has an idea but
he’s scared to go ahead what do you
think have you heard of Toastmasters
International mm-hmm because I used to
be incredibly shy and terrified to speak
to anyone I joined Toastmasters
International and that really helped me
be able to do something like this like I
would not have been able to do this
podcast a year ago because I was so shy
and afraid of talking in front of people
are talking to people and when i started
Toastmasters but the first time I got
called to the front and do a speech I
just did their silent and terrified but
then having that practice doing it every
week really helped me develop the
ability to speak in front of people and
to be able to do that and then once you
get that ability to try to speak and be
able to speak in front of people you can
look for more opportunities in your
local area there are opportunities all
around there are lake chamber of
commerce and different association
and things that will let you come speak
to them most of the time that won’t be
pay but it will be good practice for
getting up in front of people and
getting that experience yeah I love it I
honestly the more practice you can get
the butter going to place like
Toastmasters where you can model success
right learn from people who are better
than you you know accelerate your
learning I’d also suggest starting a
YouTube channel in practice speaking i
remember in mic so you know in my first
videos i used to have to have I had a
DSLR camera that did not out of focus so
used to have to have somebody on my team
or my sister come in and focus me leave
the room because I was too nervous to do
it in front of them and then and then I
could start recording in and do my thing
um because I was just too afraid too
nervous too scared uh and then it built
up to the point our like whatever I
don’t care who’s here doesn’t matter
right you know loveland wanted to do a
skype interview so let’s do a video um
so with honestly that scared me oh my
goodness people are going to see what I
look like this is going to be horrible
what am I going to do but then it’s by
just pushing yourself forward into that
thing that makes you uncomfortable like
on the other side there could be
something that is your passion or that
will help you move forward into what
your potential is so it’s great that who
is the person who asked the question
emma lemac yeah it was great that um to
uh it’s great that this was it wanted to
wants to go forward this public speaking
even though there’s some kind of fear
there because moving forward into that
fear will help you progress yeah and i
love that point you know fear is normal
a lot of people try to avoid fear you’re
never going to avoid fear uh it’s
feeling the fear and doing it any anyway
going forward with it and I think just
breaking it down the smaller chunks ah
make a youtube video is an easy way to
get started and it builds the muscle it
builds the muscle builds muscles get
stronger you get better um I’m gonna
give a random I don’t know why I’m just
gonna give a random gaming analogy and
this is part of another thing like what
comes into your head say it like express
it for because it’s probably gonna lead
somewhere I play league of legends it’s
a video game I don’t know if you’ve
heard of it or play it and it’s a it’s a
game where you have five people on your
team so you and four people and then
five people on the other team and when I
started playing it it was always against
robots so you’re with four people
against robot players and I have a
personal fear of letting people down I
hate letting people down it’s why it’s a
weakness and a strength it’s why over
delivered you know I’ll do way more than
it’s expected because I don’t want to
let somebody down it’s why I’m never
late for meetings or anything else
because I I don’t want anybody to be let
down I don’t know where that comes from
but um anyway so I always played this
game me and for people and that’s
already like scary enough because I
don’t want to let my team down right I
don’t want to do something in the game
that we lose because it’s on me um one
of the players asked me to be his friend
and then invites me to another game like
yeah yeah sure why not this blitz play
and I noticed that there’s 10 people
queuing up instead of five gonna be
going against people not against robots
and and it just freaked me out the first
time um like oh my god I’m not ready for
this whatever let my team down holy cow
I was like having a panic attack when we
were getting into the game and then it
was like it was okay it was fine it was
it worked and now like I never play
against robots Harris played with people
and so like that scariness help stretch
your comfort zone so that you can do it
more and do greater and bigger things
you know I often secretly have a little
thing inside my head that like witches
people would cancel on me before
something big that scares me I remember
both speaking in Brunei and they can you
come
speaking for nine was like a couple
months away yeah I no problem sure no
problem and then we’re getting close to
there oh my god i go to speaking Brunei
and a good national television and like
the royal family is gonna be there and
I’ll starting to freak out and kind of
secretly wished they would call me and
say Evan you know what we can’t sit the
event like oh great perfect no problem
awesome um because I’m you know I have a
fear of letting people down in the
audience like what if I’m not good
enough you know like they paid me to go
there I want to make sure it’s crazy
value um I know it went it went really
well obviously or maybe not but I went
and went very well and that that lets me
now do bigger things like I could do
that again no problem right I’m not
afraid of that anymore and so that
unless we do something big and big and
bigger and so if you have a test that I
try to give myself when i’m looking at
something new and i’m i’m facing like
internal demons is do I not want to do
this because I’m afraid or do I not want
to do this because it actually makes
sense not to do this um and and will
often like will cover that will will
tell ourselves reasons why we shouldn’t
do something and make it seem logical
but the real reason is because we’re
afraid that’s that’s some hard
self-awareness not at least for me I
think some people get it naturally but
for me that was super super difficult I
think it’s difficult for a lot of people
and there’s most people their fear is
around not being enough we’re afraid of
not being enough or we’re afraid of
losing love for the people around us if
we go forward and do this thing and they
find out that we’re not enough so it’s a
really common fear and I think it’s good
to always remember because a lot of
times we think of things we struggle
with are things that were afraid of
separate us from everyone and that this
is what’s wrong with me I’m afraid aura
and this is terrible but a reality those
are the things that connect you to
everyone else because everybody has fear
everyone has things that are struggling
with it’s important to remember that
even the people that you look up to and
you might think have it all going on
they have things that they’re struggling
with two because for all you
me and we all struggle yeah I think
that’s that’s helped me too and looking
at successful entrepreneurs and reading
the early sore and realizing that they
struggle and they didn’t have all the
answers and how they almost gave up and
quit made me feel like I’m just like I’m
just like that guy I’m just like him um
because I don’t think we tell those
stories enough but we just we just see
like the perfection we don’t measure up
so we get we lose we lose confidence
yeah um sedc 23 is wondering what good
books we recommend reading hey I’m
curious what your recommended book is um
I read a lot of books there’s hard it’s
hard for you to recommend one i recently
read an interesting book called the
books called the luck factor where is
that should be somewhere I don’t see it
but anyways cause a lot factor it was
just about people who are unlucky and
people are lucky and how they’re really
different like how they just look at
life differently and then how you can
change so you can be lucky to and then
also recently I read steal like an
artist which is a good book and I read a
lot of books it’s hard to say if you
want to read a novel I’m an author and I
have a novel class it’s my lessons cool
um so for me I know if you’re on my
newsletter or not but I give a list of
all my books in the newsletter that I
recommend my number one and two books
one is super common one nobody knows
about um my favorite book is the 4-hour
workweek Tim Ferriss super practical
talks a lot about time management in
there running the business in there and
that kind of my eyes up to delegating
building the team at the time I was
trying to do everything myself and that
really kind of a huge impact on how I
structure my day and my thoughts and
building my business that’s a I mean
it’s been new york times bestseller for
I don’t know how many years in a row so
you guys may have heard of that one
before the
one is out of print it’s called radicals
and visionaries and this helps my my
business it was put up by entrepreneur
press I talked about it in a video
before and then somebody commented and
said we can’t find that video is out of
print I started that book and somebody
sell on ebay for one hundred fifty
dollars or something okay I’m glad I
have mine but on basically what it does
is it looks at successful entrepreneurs
and tells their story in like five pages
and so I would start my day we talked a
routine schedule environment that’s how
I would start my day before when I was
getting started was I would read a
one-person story five pages quick kind
of jolt get some motivation to go and as
well as some ideas that may help your
business so radicals and visionaries may
be able to find it those are doing my
two bucks a dread dog how do you manage
your time when you have a full-time job
and you’re a single parent that’s a good
question I’m not very good at time
management it so fast that with you
honestly I’m not I’m not very good at it
I’m cool dry dog okay I’ll take that one
I have a lot I have a lot of weird
things about time management I’m the one
may be the easiest I’d guess is chunking
similar tasks you put on similar in
similar days I think people lose a lot
of time from switching tasks like you’re
working on something and then somebody
calls you or email comes in and then to
get back to what you’re doing before
might take you half an hour to get back
in that zone and so anything as a
general rule anything that you do
multiple times per day do once a day
holdem times per week do once a week
multi for a month once a month and so on
um so as an example my week is scheduled
so that mondays are my like work in the
business day it’s my administer not
monday don’t talk to me on monday don’t
call me on Monday don’t email me on
Monday you’re not getting a response
like
monday I’m just working i am hauling
it’s just all just straight work and you
know i don’t have to dress up i don’t
have to shave you know whatever right
like you’re just in that zone um tuesday
i’m writing the book i’m writing a book
too so that’s coming out and that’s my
writing day and so tuesday you know
Monday I’ve done all my stuff for the
week I’ve planned it out so tuesday i’m
writing so I walked to the local Whole
Foods and I sit down pull up my macbook
air and I’m just tapping away we’re in
the book something like right in the
book as you know like you could
interrupted by writing the book to get
back into it this ridiculous takes me an
hour just to get into it from what I was
doing last week maybe I’m maybe that’s
my process and I’m slow and whatever but
I need an entire day just to write uh
wednesday i do film i video tape for my
channel right will do aah now how many
were doing doing like 20 videos a week
on the youtube channel it’s in your boom
yeah it’s insane most of those are our
film on wednesday the camera guy comes
over and we have every wednesday we sit
and we record all the videos for the
channel and then Thursday is my
public-facing day Thursday is my let’s
do a hangout today it’s Thursday right
let’s do a hangout let’s go I have
meetings I have phone calls I have other
interviews you know Thursday is when it
all happens and I give people like like
loveland had a has a link to my schedule
and she went and she booked the time
that fit her schedule and it’s always on
a Thursday and she big slots and here we
aren’t doing our thing and so like every
day I have sectioned off to do something
else so that I’m not switching between
tasks and I can stay focused I generally
find working in 90 minute chunks really
helpful so working 90-minute chunk and
then 15 minute break in a 90-minute
chunk and I mean the exception to all of
that is when I’m when I’m in flow you
know like if I’m really feeling
something then then I might break it
like if I’m
by Tuesday morning wake up with an
amazing idea I need to go work on it
I’ll forget about the book and just go
work on that or if i’m doing my 90
minute chunks i’m just really feeling
something I’ll just I’ll plow through it
because that’s when you’re going to
create really that’s the goal you don’t
want to limit and say well my 90 minutes
are up so I’m gonna move on to something
else um but dont trick yourself because
you’re not in flow often raisio I’m
really in flow answering these emails
who this is amazing right um I have much
of other weird ones like I don’t have a
phone I don’t have a cell phone I have a
regular phone I’m own is not now now
it’s other people’s agenda for your time
what a phone is um so sometimes people
feel like I’m offending them like they
say I wanted to a conference in New
Orleans I was speaking at last week in
the organizers like what’s your cell
phone number so we can keep in touch it
I don’t have a cell phone well how can
we text you but you can’t text me not
happening and she was a she fought like
I was just like didn’t want to give it
to her I know I was you know she’s like
well don’t worry I won’t give you a
number up to anybody else that it just
before the conference like no like I
really don’t have a phone um yeah I
really value my time and the counter
part of that is what I mean it I mean it
like we’re talking now and not doing
anything else I’m not checking email not
on facebook i’m not doing anything but
talking to you and so when I am doing in
those chunks I’m focused and that lets
you get a lot of amazing stuff done yeah
and so the original question was time
mentioned being a single parent I would
I would look at what can I do I mean so
you don’t have all day you have a job
you have a kid I would try to chunk out
like half an hour a day an hour day
whatever you can find a time dedicate it
to work around your business and commit
to doing that every single day yeah
whatever time here you can take look
even it’s a small amount of time a small
amount of time every single day adds up
yeah now would i would like every day at
least half an hour you got to find half
an hour every single day if you’re you
know super busy just that’s that’s
important for your dream don’t
to die because you have other things
coming up you know it’s like you get
home it’s really late you still have
half an hour work on your business and
then go to bed uh king j how important
is diet when starting the business how
important is diet it’s always important
whether or not you’re starting to
business you need to take care of your
body the way that you’re going to be
able to have the energy that you need to
start a business is by putting the right
tool fuel into your body so that you can
have the energy to do that die it’s
always important and then that you
followed up since is king king j
normally here business owners say they
stay up late nights drinking unhealthy
amounts of coffee uh well i am drinking
my green smoothie granite this is what i
have every day I don’t know what’s in
here my wife makes these for me uh green
means it’s kale I don’t know what the
rest of it is it kind of varies from day
to day um yeah I mean I think you can
you can you can plow through stuff if
you absolutely need to but if you’re in
it for the long haul you need to take
care of yourself um and I would also
look as a curveball to this i would i
would try to figure out uh what time of
day works best for you because i feel i
feel like there are people who work
better at night and some people regret
in the morning if you’re a night person
and you i am not like a early morning
person I can’t wait to get there I can’t
I’m not the five thirty in the morning
wake up and like get stuff done before
the house gets up um I can’t do that but
that’s cool like some people are and
that’s awesome so you have to find your
cadence find what works for you and if
you’re the kind of person who likes
working into the night and that gives
you your peace and solitude and gets you
into the zone then do that and stretch
your life around that but if you’re not
taking care of yourself you know you’re
not going to you’re not going to last
very long um I know we’re kind of we’re
bumping up the clock and we still have a
ton of questions so people are liking
your liking the topic here um my passion
maybe last one Sonam so now is writing
uh my passion is inspiring young
athletes that go after their dreams of
playing basketball but this will take
time to build he’s starting a blog and I
need to provide money for family myself
right now what do you think I think
there’s nothing wrong with starting
something part-time at first to get it
started so that you’re not you don’t
have a lot of pressure on yourself to
like if you need the money to take care
of your family or other responsibilities
maybe you have to start that business on
the side for now but that’s an
acceptable thing to do I think we have a
lot of pressures we put all I pressure
on ourselves sometimes to like you just
have to do it all it’s all or nothing
right now but I think that there is room
for a different way to start or to do
something on the side and build it up to
it creating that income so that you can
eventually quit that day job in to your
business full time yeah I agree we’re on
the same page with that one I think a
lot of entrepreneurs they quit they
start a business they don’t get results
fast enough and then 36 months later
they burn through other savings and on
their back having to go get job super
demoralise and like having nothing to
your name and it’s way better to start
the business on the side and just
dedicate time at least half an hour
every single day to making this business
happen the curveball I would throw is I
would try to get a job that would help
me become a better entrepreneur so if
you want to help aspiring young athletes
play professional basketball I would try
to get a job where I’m going to learn
about the game professional basketball
and working with a sports team i’m
working with the kids something where
you’re going to learn how to transfer
those skills to make your business
better so you’re not just getting some
job I don’t know what you’re doing if
you’re in accounting or you know
something you know you in mcdonalds job
or whatever if it’s something totally
unrelated then that’s not going to help
you we’re ideally you have a job where
you’re learning you’re getting
mentorship you’re making money you’re
building
actually getting the experience you’re
getting paid to make mistakes so that
when you go and you start your business
and you jump in you’re going to have a
leg up I’m going to end up there where
we’re up against the owl already um it’s
been tons of fun to thank you guys for
watching and all the questions and I’m
sorry we couldn’t get to all of them
next time you know get those questions
and early and loveland I really
appreciate the time and the great
questions and your your vibe and energy
you know I’m feeling soulful now like it
it today oh that’s great thank you so
much I really appreciate your vibe
energy and that you took the time to do
this interview it’s great yeah and in
loveland podcasters imagine
possibilities and I’ve linked it in
descriptions you guys can go subscribe
have a great day we’ll see you guys soon
thank you
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