hey guys it’s mike McHale it’s your
author of the toilet paper entrepreneur
the pumpkin plan and now profit first
and you are listening to the best show
for entrepreneurs ever the Chris
surround show enjoy it episode 40 you’re
listening to the Krista round show
inspiring interviews with entrepreneurs
and awesome people that will motivate
you to take action now now now your host
Chris their own
Oh
hello welcome back episode 40 now to
find the show notes for this particular
episode makes you go to surround show
calm / 40 and my next guest is
absolutely amazing you are going to hear
not only such a phenomenal story but
well the guy he’s he’s kind of a big
deal okay he runs a massive entrepreneur
site it is literally like the library
for entrepreneurs he’s worked with major
people he’s had Donald Trump participate
on his site Guy Kawasaki I you know what
I just cannot say enough great things
and we really had a great time so before
I say any more I want to save it for
this next episode however because it is
the big 40 I want to celebrate I want to
give away something my friends over at
nomad they gave me this awesome that’s
called the charge key and now it’s for
iphone users specifically iphone 5 5 s
5c I have a nomad charge key to give you
for all my iphone users out there all
you have to do is share this episode
share this particular episode on Twitter
on Facebook it doesn’t matter make sure
you tag me though so I know it came from
you and I will pick a winner at random
so if you have an iPhone if you
specifically have an iphone 5 make sure
you share this episode win this
fantastic charge key by nomads fits on
your keychain it’s super small I
actually have one I love it I will send
this to you now don’t forget ceron show
calm / 40 for the show notes that’s all
I have
let’s get into it right when I said
let’s get into it I literally saw
there’s two seconds left of the song I
just had to let it play out now let’s
get into it how do you start a business
and do it right what if you don’t have
enough money do you still even try how
do you get your company to stand out in
a competitive market now I can go on and
on with this line of questioning but
instead I’d rather have a great guest on
talking about these things so when
you’re working out driving in your car
doing the dishes or whatever you do
while listening to this podcast you get
the information you need to fill in that
missing piece that really has probably
been bugging you for a while well today
is no exception and I have just the
perfect guest for you at 19 he built and
sold a biotech company and that 22 was a
venture capitalist helping raise between
500,000 and 15 million as an
entrepreneur expert he’s been featured
in Forbes The Wall Street Journal the
New York Times Mashable in so many other
major media outlets currently he runs
one of the world’s most popular websites
for entrepreneurs that despite the fact
has more celebrity authors than one can
count he has over 70,000 helpful
articles from buying a business finance
sales productivity even work-life
balance he is a salsa dancer baseball
fan lifehacker an avid Vespa writer Evan
Carmichael how are you I’m great thanks
for the great intro there Chris I get
that a lot and I really try hard because
I value every single one of my guests do
it doing this show and I really want to
give them the the intro they deserve you
know I don’t want to just say hey Evan
why don’t you you know tell not to knock
anybody but i want to say hey evan why
don’t you just tell us about yourself I
like it man i think the why everybody
listens to the chris’s podcast here you
got the energy flow I what you need it i
mean if if you and i SAT and talked here
and we just kind of sounded like this
and yeah I’m sure
nourish if I mean what value would that
bring what would anybody even get out of
something like that you know i love it
man i love it now I that’s why I
actually like your YouTube videos on
your YouTube channel you deal with such
a wide variety of topics but every
single one they connect the dots I mean
it’s not just an entrepreneur how to you
go into like how do you support the
crazies and you know just do it follow
your heart all that other stuff
originally when you start it on YouTube
and we’ll get into your background will
get into your site and all that but I’m
really curious about the YouTube piece
when you originally got into it was it a
passion for video is it a passion to get
your message out there ah that’s a great
question when i first started on YouTube
you know I’m a visual learner so I like
watching things more than reading things
or hearing things and so video always
appealed to me but I never I never
figured out a way to turn it into a
business so I just I just started it
took me a while to kind of get it going
but the very first videos were me just
with my camera and you know my DSLR and
it’s shaking all over the place and out
of focus and just brutal stuff and it
started with me wanting to share the
stories of famous entrepreneurs and I
found when I was when I had my biotech
software company I I was struggling and
I was 19 and I had two business partners
and we felt like we had a really great
product and we put a lot of love and a
lot of effort a lot of heart into making
this product happen and we just weren’t
getting results we just we were just not
making sales I was making I was pulling
out three hundred dollars a month from
the company and just like that’s you
can’t survive on that i was eating beans
for lunch every day and just and it’s it
was so hard because i really felt like I
had something special is just why can’t
we connect the dots to make this thing
work like why am I struggling so much to
get this thing off the ground and the
thing that saved my business that
prevented me from going to get a job or
quitting was when I realized I am not
the first guy to try to sell software
before and there was no big leader and
specifically what we’re doing biotech
software but I realized you know I’m not
the first guy to try to do this like
somebody has solved this problem why am
I trying to come up with every answer
myself yeah why why are you trying to
reinvent the wheel it’s not needed yeah
and I wish you know I knew that sooner
because I almost quit and so I looked at
guys like Bill Gates from Microsoft that
looked at McAfee looking into it I
looked at how they got started how did
they make their first meal in like how
can I do that that’s all I wanted to do
I don’t care how Bill Gates make some
million dollars now but 0 to 1 like idea
to first million that’s what I wanted to
learn uh-huh and I started applying
those strategies to my business and we
we finally started actually getting some
momentum when I sold my company we built
it up from nothing like 300 bucks a
month was pulling out to a couple years
three years I had huge clients nasa
johnson johnson we’re in over 30
countries and we got acquired rooms
round major major stuff happened for you
during that time yeah and modeling the
success of those guys that’s what helped
save my business from being like poverty
line to being an exit with my with my
company and so I I just want to share
that I felt like there are other
entrepreneurs out there who were facing
the same problems that I was facing and
I wanted to share what I had learned
from these successful entrepreneurs and
and just help them and there wasn’t a
business model there wasn’t a here’s my
next you know ideas just I wanted to
help other people not face the same
suffering that I had launching this
thing and so that was the intention
behind my first videos and they were
terrible quality and it was just really
bad you know I want to pull them down I
look back on that stuff I just want to
pull them down but they’re still getting
views and likes and comment ask joy them
say okay we’ll keep it up but that was
the incentive the motivation for
starting my channel so all the early
stuff is around the famous entrepreneurs
and then people serve asking me
questions and I said Evan how would you
handle this Evan what would you do in
this
and so now most of my videos are just
responding to questions are come in from
people who’ve asked them I love that you
do that by the way I mean you’ll
actually give the the person to shout
out one of the videos i watched and I
don’t remember how far back in the
timeline it was it was about someone who
created an app and how to get it out
there and you gave him a shout out and
you answered his question but what I
love that you did was you in in your
answer you said you know tell everybody
about it Bubba blah but then you called
the person now in a fun way and you said
hey why didn’t you tell me what the app
was why didn’t you tell me what it did I
could have been reading it right now on
my youtube channel telling the world
about it so even things like that I mean
it’s just so informative and helpful for
people yeah it’s trying to help that
person as well as help everybody else
who has that same kind of question
because not everybody will have the guts
to write in put themselves on the line
like that and you should do this all by
email I used to respond to everybody by
email and it just became so
time-consuming and again I thought if I
made a video of this then I’m not only
just helping that one person I do email
and only helping that one person with
video I’m helping everybody else it has
the same problem so the goal was just to
help entrepreneurs and overcome their
struggle cuz cuz it’s man you know you
know you’re you you’re fighting the
fight it’s hard man it is absolutely
your podcast so let’s kind of go back in
time for a second because you touched on
you’re a young guy you built a company
will you like was your background being
an entrepreneur I mean did you kind of
learn that from your parents or your
upbringing or was that kind of something
that you stumbled on and said hey I like
this yeah it’s a great question um I
feel like I’ve always had a part of it
in me I you know my first thing like
remembers an entrepreneurial ventures I
was five years old and I convinced my
three-year-old sister to draw pictures
with me and we sold them door to door
and through my life I’ve had various
little ventures baseball cards you know
online biz
says a whole bunch of little stuff
nothing really took off and I never
thought it’d be an entrepreneur as a
career it’s just I don’t know things
that I dabbled in my parents were not
entrepreneurs my family was an
entrepreneurs they support everything I
did but it just I didn’t grow up with
entrepreneurs around me when I graduated
high school in my yearbook I looked back
recently and I said you know what do you
want to be in 10 years or where do you
see yourself in 10 years and i wrote a
VP at a bank I always thought I would be
in the in banking world something like
that something in finance yeah you know
when I played Monopoly I was always the
banker I always had to be the banker and
so I figured I’d end up somewhere in
there and then when I got University my
life kind of changed I’ve met up with
these two founders of the software
company and they had this great product
but they couldn’t figure out how to sell
it they were they were the programmers
they were the creative geniuses they
just want to sit in front of their
computer and code and they needed help
on the business side and I thought that
I had a ton of experience and I was 19 I
didn’t really know what I was doing
either but it was more interesting for
me they didn’t want to learn it whereas
i did and i joined them and an
interesting thing happened in my last
year i got opportunities to work with
two of the biggest and most well-known
companies in my field it was merrill
lynch on the investment bank inside and
McKinsey Consulting one of the biggest
strategic consulting firms in the world
and two years ago that would have been
my dream job like ah are you kidding me
you guys want me to come and work for
you this is what I signed up for this is
amazing and all my friends were kind of
dying to get those kinds of jobs and
they flew me to New York and they put me
up in the Waldorf Astoria and they put
me through the whole interview process
they wanted me to join but it just
didn’t feel right for some reason and at
that time and things didn’t really make
sense like I have this company that I’m
doing that I’m not making anything on
300 bucks a month meanwhile Merrill
Lynch McInnes either they’re offering
eat into a hundred thousand starting
salary traveling around the world and
yet for some reason I’m geared to war
doing my business my own thing and it
didn’t make any sense my friends thought
I was crazy and I don’t know I just felt
like I would regret it I would regret it
if I didn’t try i had to try and the way
i got the courage to do that was to say
I’m gonna take a year you know some of
my friends graduating from University
took a year off to travel or whatever
yeah I said I’m going to take a year I’m
gonna try this thing and I’m gonna try
to make it work and just to let that
that so I won’t live my life with
regrets and that’s how I summon the
courage to do it because it didn’t make
any logical sense to do this over get
this amazing job and I never looked back
you know that the year it worked out and
just kept building from there so it was
a pivotal time in my life but I never
thought I was going to be an
entrepreneur that’s awesome most people
when they were you know if they’re ever
presented with a fantastic opportunity
like that how could you turn it down and
I imagine some people probably thought
you were nuts when you made that
decision but I understand that I mean as
you know prior to hitting record you and
I were talking I kind of went through
something similar and like you can’t put
your finger on you just know that you’re
you’re drawn to doing your own thing or
whatever it is I mean look you probably
could have been real happy at that
position right you probably have made a
lot of money rose in the ranks in really
done well for yourself but it sounds
like there was that one thing in the pit
of your stomach that’s saying you know
what let me let me just do this first
but before I get all gung-ho and and I
landed the the job of my dreams let me
just try this first let me give myself
enough time enough runway and give it an
honest go because at the end of the day
you wouldn’t you probably wouldn’t been
able to live with yourself if you didn’t
at least try am I correct yeah yeah and
the funny thing is the my friends who
kind of made fun of me and said what are
you doing you know ten years later come
back and they’re there in those jobs and
they and they hate their lives and they
come back and they meet with me to say
Evan I gotta gather this I want to start
my own business what do you recommend
and I’m
just so grateful that I did not go down
that path that probably has to feel
really good I mean deep down selfishly
like you probably you probably feel
really I don’t know fulfilled
accomplished I mean really you probably
feel excellent right yeah you know it’s
a full circle moment because these are
the guys giving me a hard time and and
you know they were they weren’t bashing
on me they weren’t saying you’re stupid
uh they just didn’t understand it you
know they thought they didn’t want me to
make a mistake it was out of love more
than anything else because they wouldn’t
have done that themselves so I i am not
happy to see my friends suffering so who
does really once once that year was up i
was glad you know once my company
started to take off i was glad that i
didn’t go i didn’t i didn’t regret it i
didn’t regret going for my business
instead of taking on the job yeah and
then from there you went into becoming a
venture capitalist you did all this
stuff and intact and in that space but
something led you to start your own
website we’re now hosts I mean talk
about a library of information no did
all this come from a lot of the stuff
that you personally went through and you
personally learned and kind of going
back to what you said about the email
you realized hey I can help my friends I
can give advice I can write an email but
I’m only helping 12 maybe 10 people by
doing that if I create a website in a
home base you know so to speak for an
entrepreneur I could help tens of
millions of people did it originally
starlight that with that vision or did
you just kind of want to have a place to
to you know host all your great content
yeah I wish I could say this was my
genius idea that’s all find out but it’s
nowhere close yeah I didn’t know what I
was doing to be honest I sold my
business I i bought my domain name the
sites off my name it’s not small
business success or something like that
it’s off of my name real quick it’s Evan
Carmichael calm so the the site that
we’re talking about go check it out Evan
Carmichael calm add genius named after
yourself I don’t know if you did that on
purpose but sorry
right ahead yeah and I started it after
I sold my business you know I was 22 23
I was asked to do a lot of speaking uh
you know in North America and abroad
just telling my story and helping out
other entrepreneurs and so I used a
website just as a place to say here’s
where I’m gonna be speaking and here’s
what I’m talking about there were no
articles there was nothing on there I
built it up to start sharing some
content around the famous entrepreneur
so I started with the videos and I
started writing articles as well and
then I was at the point where I didn’t
know what to do with my life I didn’t
know what to do next I sold my business
it was a great tie for me but then you
know everything I had worked towards for
those years was gone I didn’t know what
I was supposed to do next I shall was in
a period of just exploring and seeing
what I wanted to do and the idea of
venture capital was always intriguing to
me i didn’t i didn’t take venture
capital for my business we thought about
it but we didn’t need it and so I wanted
to just learn and if you don’t know what
you want to do next go out and learn
just try stuff and see what six and
don’t put pressure on yourself you have
to find the one thing right now and I’m
connected with a company and that the
four principal founders were all in
their 60s or 70s had learned you know a
lot in their career and I joined them
and they took me on as kind of an
apprentice and I help bringing deals and
they taught me about the venture capital
world and we’re raising half a million
to 15 million for companies and I use my
website just as lead generation you know
I started writing articles this is kind
of earlier days of the web started
writing articles and people would find
my site and I would use it to introduce
them to the venture capital world and
then people just started writing to me
say heaven I love your site I’m a
marketing consultant do you mind if I
write an article on marketing and I read
it and look good as a sure you know I
wasn’t charging them I wasn’t making
money from it but it was helping my
reader so but why not and more and more
people just started contacting me wanted
to contribute and they had great stuff
to share so I thought why not and we
slowly built up the site and once I
realized hey maybe
this could be a revenue opportunity
maybe this is a business here then I
focused on it and got more and more
people to contribute to the site but the
early days there wasn’t this grand
vision and said here’s what I’m gonna do
uh it just kind of just hadn’t evolved
into enterprise today like I was excited
by it I was learning about it and and by
following my passion that led to this
now a lot of the early contributors to
your website I imagine you you vetted
them out pretty good I mean you didn’t
just someone you know wrote in and say
hey I could talk about this and you’re
like yeah come on let’s go yeah they
were there were people that I knew or
people who that had read something that
I wrote about venture capital or a
famous entrepreneur and they usually
sent in something they sent it in
article said here’s what I would like to
add on your side are you okay with it
and I read it over and look good so I
thought why not it the first person i
figured who the first person ones who
wrote in but I didn’t know if I wanted
to do it at the start like well this is
my site it’s my name why would I put
somebody else’s stuff up on here but I
read the article thought it was good it
gave me some insight so but well why not
I mean the site’s about helping
entrepreneurs so I might as well help
spread that message so it originally
started with the the angel investors and
venture capitalists and all that correct
yeah agent Lee sin yeah combination of
the very first content was the famous
entrepreneur stuff I was just sharing it
to share there was no model at all and
then I involved it to also include some
some more the venture capital side than
angel but how to raise capital and use
that as a as a lead gen for the venture
capital business that I was in so there
was more of a purpose with that content
so that’s going to be evolution then
people started to write to me and then
fast forward to today I mean you have
take money on the picture you have
advertising book reviews business plans
business travel retail sales I mean just
literally like the Swiss Army knife of
information so no matter what you’re
doing whatever your business is be it
online or offline you can go to this
this resource and just pick what you
need
and run with it yeah it’s been a lot of
fun building that we have the largest
collection of famous entrepreneur
stories online and that is what kind of
keeps me inspired and motivated reading
those stories and how they failed and
they you know they suck that the early
days and they built up something great
that’s what helped me keep going and I
think as people read those articles they
want to contribute and so everybody on
the site we have I don’t know eight
thousand author something like that and
everybody is an expert in their field
and they share advice to help
entrepreneurs solve you know whatever
problems are facing yeah I mean you even
have on the master section Wolfgang Puck
Sean Diddy Combs I mean these are some
Donald Trump this is a major major major
people yeah it was fun putting that
together a lot of that came from readers
who said I’d love to have something on
Jennifer Lopez or you know Henry Ford or
whoever it is and so we we got the work
instead of creating content that’s
awesome not that I imagine has helped
your site in your brand kind of propel
it to the next level just by having that
social credibility that social proof
right yeah you know when I was going
after authors when I decided hey this is
a business and we need to go start
getting people so it’s not just rely on
the you know one or two a month the
people who are writing in to me I had to
go and make this a business and get lots
of content my goal was to get Donald
Trump on the site and at the time The
Apprentice had just come out like first
use of the apprentice I don’t know if
you watch that show but I did yeah I was
a huge fan I had like parties at my
house people like this and so he was the
biggest name in entrepreneurship but I
said I wanted to get him on my site but
I didn’t want to go right to him because
I didn’t really have much on my site yet
and so I kind of figured out a plan how
we’re gonna get to Donald Trump and
start working with some smaller guys and
move my way up so the first to kind of
bigger name people who I brought on
board with Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki
who you probably know are there there’s
no kind of in the online world but
offline maybe not too much and they’re
both bigger now than
when I first contacted them and they
said yes which is great and I just wrote
to them out of the blue and they said
yes and then I used their names to bring
in slowly bigger and bigger bigger
people so we brought in zig ziglar and
Jack Canfield and Michael Gerber who are
the e-myth and then use all those names
to then pull in Donald Trump’s where
it’s you know it’s hard for them to say
no when they see all this momentum has
been built up and then once we got Trump
we stopped I stopped having to reach out
like outreach basically stopped I’m for
Trump because we had hit the tipping
point where people now wanted to become
part of our site because we had all
these big name authors like Donald Trump
um I so it’s just kind of grown from
there it isn’t that funny how you would
think asking somebody for help no matter
how big or famous they are how highly
respected they’re in their field a lot
of people are fearful of just taking
that first step and saying hey I want
Donald Trump let me reach out to I want
guy you know Kawasaki let me reach out
to him once you start doing those things
I mean wouldn’t you agree it’s a lot
easier than you think well you know
getting that may be that big name or it
maybe it’s not an interview maybe it’s
not content maybe it’s you know you want
the the head of some distribution
company for your t-shirt company you
know I mean like once you actually just
start reaching out to these people you
realize it’s not that bad it’s not that
hard yeah I think if you can show your
passion and your excitement then that
gets infectious and people will want to
work with you in whatever capacity it is
if it’s just being a mentor to you or
half hour phone call or if you want to
partner up on something you need to show
that infectious enthusiasm and the
passion for what you’re doing and if you
can do that then it’s a lot easier to
get people on board well yeah and not
only that but you actually have to have
something legit I mean you got to have
some type of value that you’re doing I
mean you can’t just reach out to a
Donald Trump and say hey I’m selling my
weight loss pills would you give me a
testimony or whatever right
I mean you get it’s got to be something
of value yeah yeah i agree i mean
sometimes the value can just be giving
back a lot of entrepreneurs are happy to
give back and help out other
entrepreneurs if you feel like they’re
actually going to listen to you and take
the advice i remember one person who
wrote in who is an entrepreneur who’s on
my list or youtube views or whatever it
was and yeah I’m pretty protected with
my time there’s only so much to go
around I’m happy to do video responses
but this person really wanted to meet
and you know that takes like in a half
an hour an hour out of my day instead of
five minutes to make a video and the way
she wrote in was just so passionate and
she said you know even if even if it’s
five minutes as you’re walking to your
car you know I will be there and I’ll
bring a treat for you to eat and just
like so much passion came out of that
correspondence that I felt like you know
what I got it I gotta I gotta meet her
and what did I get from what she’s not
paying me I’m not part of her business
we’re not recording this isn’t going
anywhere it’s just helping her but
helping her helps me know because I felt
like he was gonna listen and take that
advice and that feeling of giving back
is something that made me feel good and
so i would i would do it even knows
maybe no financial or other game that i
would get oh so it’s somehow in the way
she constructed her email or whatever
you got the sense of okay this isn’t
just you know some fan or maybe some
crazy psycho like this is a person
actually invested in what she’s doing
and if i gave her the couple minutes of
my time like you said off camera off
audio it wasn’t a PR move you knew that
whatever discussion that you guys were
going to have whatever advice you were
going to give this person that they
would not only listen to it but they
would value it and it would probably
change their life and if you can do
something like that for somebody uh
selfishly for you then it’s it’s almost
like paying it forward you’re gonna feel
great you’re going to help somebody
that’s it that’s it and that fashion
show
through and so you know people are
willing to help you if you reach out
like you reached out to me about this
show and you are excited in your email
and looked interesting and so you know I
I said yeah let’s do it let’s let’s do
this in help entrepreneurs so when
you’re when you’re reaching out to
people asking for help if you genuinely
show that you are excited by this it’s
infectious people want to be a part of
it it comes a dia almost like you can
you just sense it right yeah and it’s
not it’s not it’s not what you say it’s
how you say it right I you could you
could say the same words with no
enthusiasm just like you talked about
the beginning of the show we talked I
how great you are leading off the show
you know you can see those same words
and and everybody’s going to tune out
because it’s not excited but you love
what you’re doing like this is this is
what you love doing and that shows and
that brings out quality it brings out
great guest absolutely so let’s talk
about we you know love what you’re doing
because you are a big fan of you have to
have passion for what you’re doing you
can’t just jump into something for the
money or for the fame one of your videos
you mentioned I think it was a network
marketing video and you mentioned the
fact that a lot of people get into that
or other similar things because they
they have shiny object syndrome right
they just want to do or no no I’m sorry
it was the ebay they wanted to start an
eBay business because they wanted to
just buy low sell high make a lot of
money and you’re really not a fan of
that like you have to have some type of
passion or love for what it is yeah it’s
true and I get it you know so many
people are in such serious financial
situations you know you’re in debt you
don’t know how you’re gonna pay your
bills and so you you’re desperate to
find something that was gonna make you
money you know you got to eat you gotta
pay rent and so you you jump on
something and somebody promises you here
is the way to make money and so you
start doing it and it’s never it’s never
the right decision if you look at famous
successful entrepreneurs pick anyone
pick your favorite famous entrepreneur
look at how they got started it was
never for the money these
guys do not start your business for the
money they started it to have an impact
because they’d love what they were doing
they wanted to help people in some
capacity and that’s why they started
money is a part of it I’m not saying via
charity yeah the money comes from
offering value the more value you give
somebody the more they’re gonna pay you
but it’s never the main reason you look
at the most successful richest people
they made a lot of money but it wasn’t
their goal to make a ton of money one of
my favorite examples is George Lucas you
started Lucasfilm made the star wars
franchise Indiana Jones franchise and he
got into film school and at a time where
if you went in the film school you
basically weren’t making any money like
there were no jobs in the film industry
and he decided to go on his own to his
own business and for the first six years
he had nothing no results failure just
one failure after another for six years
that’s a long time by the way could you
last right like how many people give up
on their dreams too soon you try for
three months and they quit Yeah right
like six years of nothing total failure
and he kept thinking constantly I don’t
know if I’m I like maybe I should go
back to get a job I don’t know if I want
to keep doing this right that’s the the
biggest misconception amounts
entrepreneurs is that we never doubt
ourselves like every entrepreneur thinks
that you know they’re not doing a good
enough job but we have a crisis of
confidence a lot where we think you know
maybe I should just go back and get a
job because this is really hard when he
created Star Wars he thought it was too
wacky for the general public he thought
nobody would watch this but he he just
had a passion for it so he built it and
so he lasted through all of this all of
these all of these failures when it
didn’t make any sense to keep going and
what gets you through is that passion
for your project passion for what you’re
doing that’s the only thing that’s going
to get you through because otherwise
you’re crazy but you have to be a little
bit crazy to do this because it’s going
to take everything you got to get you
through and now George Lucas worked over
four billion dollars and it’s easy to
say you know you look back on our
stories already did this this this this
and this whatever but it was hard and he
struggled and he failed and that’s the
story for most people most six
entrepreneurs they have to go through
this massive period of darkness where
they don’t know how it’s going to work
out and they just keep going believing
that somehow it’s going to work because
they love what they’re doing yeah for
some it may take a year for others and
may take six years but let’s put this in
perspective six years is a very long
time I I can almost guarantee he
probably had thoughts of doubt like
almost every 10 minutes at some point
you know in he pushed through it he
broke through it and now he is who he is
today but on the grand scale of life I
bet you now he probably doesn’t even
remember what it was like to struggle he
put in his dues he can now enjoy that
the fruition of of what he does and
everything he’s created so when people
are are really struggling and it’s been
a long time yeah you go through that but
once you once you finally hit on that
that thing that that that makes you
successful and your business is growing
down the line it’s not really that bad
it’s it’s only a certain period of your
life out of your whole life that you had
to go through that right yeah I mean
it’s true I think back I still think
back to the my early days like that 300
bucks a month that eating beans for
lunch every day we celebrated a big win
by going to McDonald’s and getting
french fries like I had no money that’s
still painful and in what’s painful I
almost I almost quit that business and
if I did I wouldn’t be here today I
remember telling my partner on the phone
like I’ve had it I this is enough we’re
not making any money my talents are not
being used I deserve better than this
and I’m done I quit and I hung up the
phone and I cried for 20 minutes and my
mom came up and I don’t even know what I
told her but the next day I got up and I
went back to work just that yeah the
reset bunion you just kept kept doing it
every day you just reset let me just
start over I’m here for this and this is
what I believe in and this is what I’m
gonna do yeah and the only thing that
gets you through was your is your
passion if you’re in it just for the
money
you won’t go through all that they’re
gonna quit like it is too hard you you
won’t get all the great things that that
come with the sweat equity I mean I
almost willing to bet that you
appreciate in value celebrating at
McDonald’s and all those struggles you
went to because you probably learned a
lot one not only about business but
yourself but to you learned about what
works and what doesn’t for that business
you can’t effectively get a proper
education on your own thing if you don’t
go through some of those trials and
tribulations am I am I correct yeah yeah
I mean you know what I’m I’m now I’m a
little zoned out I’m thinking back that
to my early days and the frustration
than the end of pain usually painful
period here Chris I you know I am sorry
I didn’t mean to do that but I mean it’s
important because your story is
extremely inspiring for 12 I’m in a sick
way happy you just said that because
that just grounds the of how much of a
great human being that you are you
didn’t blow up and it you know biotech
company and I’m gonna help a billion
people and now a rock star and I know
everything I mean the other if I got
that impression I wouldn’t have had you
on my show you know what i mean but i
think a lot of people can learn from
that I hope so I mean that’s the goal
absolutely so someone starting a
business right now yeah they they have
no money yeah a lot of people are in the
entrepreneur space are very DIY they
they don’t want to release whatever
thing it is from those talons of theirs
because they’re afraid that it’s going
to cost too much no one could do it
better than me you know I I have to do
this myself no one knows how to do this
but me and that is the biggest
misconception that you portray and I
actually agree with I mean someone right
now they can start a business with with
no money and delegate and still be
successful correct yeah yeah i’ma get
it’s you know you don’t want to spend
money but the first person I hired you
talk about delegation the first person I
hired was for one hour a day uh huh uh
and I was so sick of doing this database
entry stuff that was not what I was good
at and didn’t help grow my business and
so I hired a guy for an hour day what
you got way more done than I could in
that hour and it just freed up an hour
of my day to do something that was
helping me grow my business you cannot
do everything yourself you can’t like
you’re good at some things that’s what
you need to focus on if you try to be
everything then you’re never gonna build
a great business and so on doesn’t mean
this still impacts me today I hate doing
things that I’m not good at and are not
helping me grow my company on my walk
into the office every day I say to
myself what’s the thing that I can do
today is gonna add the most value to my
business and then I try to go and do
that yeah you want you want that time
freed up for you to focus on what you’re
truly good at and truly passionate about
right yeah I call it CEO time I like
that you have to block out CEO time
hopefully every day but you know for
those of us who are crazy busy and
haven’t figured anything out yet start
with once a week like CEO Tom this is
time to focus on building your business
projects you’re the CEO of your company
you got to start acting like it and not
just be everything from the salesman
down to the janitor you got to carve it
out carve out that time you know monday
afternoons tuesday mornings whatever it
is CEO time yeah i mean look at every
successful entrepreneur they’re not a
one-man show or one-woman show they have
people help them so going back to the no
money thing now a lot of people think
that they need to have all this huge
reserves of cash to start their product
or their online business I mean that’s
not necessarily the case you probably
have seen countless amount of people who
started from nothing and didn’t have
that money but they also didn’t let that
hinder their business either yeah you
know most entrepreneurs don’t have that
rich uncle to fund their company ID
have that I certainly didn’t have that
if that’s you then that’s awesome but
you know I don’t know what advice to
give you because you’re in a great
situation I was i come from the
struggling to get by can barely survive
camp I think the most important thing
when you’re first getting started is you
need to figure out how to get to
survival survival means you have enough
money to pay your bills to eat to pay
your electricity it’s not a glamorous
lifestyle but it survived one it means
you don’t have to go back and get a job
so how do you get there and I want you
know entrepreneurs to think about your
big vision your big picture how I’m
going to change the world that’s amazing
but how do you get to survival at the
start what’s the fastest path together
to survival and that may even mean
having a job but I’m not it from the
camp where you have to quit everything
and jump in and do your business full
time because you have limited runway if
you run out of funds you know three
months in you lose Aldo mentum with your
business and go get a job I’m okay if
you’re doing it part time I think though
if you’re going to take a job the reason
to take a job is to learn so whatever
business that you’re trying to start up
and if you’re trying to start a magazine
go work for a magazine what are you
doing driving a truck go work for a
magazine like find the company that has
you know ten employees a small business
and and get a job there and learn the
ropes and learn the business and make
your mistakes while getting paid by
somebody else yeah and in your off hours
start your own business and you’re
making contacts and you’re you’re
developing your skills and getting the
training while getting paid you’re
getting paid to learn about your
business it’s a beautiful concept yeah
and then and then when when you launch
your company you know you really have a
little bit of fun since you started on
the side and build that up because what
can happen is if you just start up and
you’re out of the money you go back get
a job you’ve lost all the momentum that
you’ve built up so you know I love
entrepreneurship but yeah like sometimes
the path is getting the job that
supports it and then that helps you
transition to be a full-time
entrepreneur now for a lot of those
people who are in the thick of it
another key thing to to focus on is like
me time it’s it’s that work-life balance
what you talked about a lot I mean one
of your videos was don’t forget to eat
yeah and people forget these things
though I mean lunch it’s almost two
o’clock here I have any I know I forget
it too I talked two days no it’s true um
you know I think this also depends on
your situation your frameless situation
now being being a father uh there’s a
lot more demands on my time than before
uh and I like to have clearly defined
lines between my work in my life and I
set out my guy I have a very scheduled
day and I’ll chunk my time and say okay
this is my CEO time this is this is my
interview with Chris time this is right
I’ll have it all blocked out and then
when I have a family time I I do totally
disconnect right yeah yeah yeah I’m not
I mean I’m i think as entrepreneurs I
don’t you can absolutely totally
disconnected I’m always coming up with
ideas for my business I’m sure we all
are you noodle something you see how a
retail stores operating and you see a
commercial on TV and you get an idea
I’ll just not myself yeah right because
I don’t want to be up all night thinking
about this idea and I don’t want to
forget this tomorrow so just email
myself and it’s out of my head but you
know I make the family time as important
as my business time as well didn’t you
just recently within the past couple
months get a new place a new look like a
new condo yeah i got a new condo
congratulations by the way the thing a
beautiful go on youtube check it out
nice hardwood floors and one of the
greatest views I’ve ever seen it’s fun
yeah you know I uh I went from so after
I sold my business i decided i wanted to
build a house and i built a house from
scratch and it was 5,000 square feet and
gorgeous modern interior and just I
realized that the maintenance on this is
ridiculous I’m a low maintenance guy and
way too much space or what I needed so I
sold it and moved into a condo where I
don’t have to do anything so I’d like I
had an apartment and then I had a
townhouse i bought a townhouse then I
built a huge monster home and then I
sold that and now I’m back into a condo
well the word that the reason why I
bring that up is because you want I mean
work-life balance you want time to enjoy
your new place you want to pick out
furniture and you know hang stuff on the
wall and just be involved I mean it’s
really tough to pull away but at the
same time like doing certain things like
I don’t know maybe it was buying a new
TV for your place or a rug like that
kind of stuff gets you invigorated you
know it makes you more creative so when
you do go back to work you’re your
hundred-percent self do you notice that
yeah and I think I think having hobbies
and having other things outside of work
will it gives you the creative time and
it also gives you ideas for what to do
with your business you know I rarely get
great business ideas when I’m in my
office pounding away on work it doesn’t
want to get my ideas it’s when I’m in
the shower it’s when I’m salsa dancing
it’s when I’m out on the street like
having that free time that’s when i get
my ideas and so opening up space to
allow you to you know have that
creativity is important absolutely now
the future mmm 2014 and beyond I mean
what kind of stuff is is getting you
excited these days I mean we’re kind of
almost up on our time here but I want to
know like what what’s getting you fired
up these days what’s something that
you’re looking forward to well yeah so
my goals out the billion entrepreneurs
that’s kind of my driving force I’m
spending a lot of my time on YouTube the
best part of my day is waking up every
day I pull up my lentils I start eating
breakfast and I load up my comments on
YouTube and it’s like 40 or 50 comments
a day and just seeing how people have
enjoyed the videos and their lives are
being changed that’s that’s what I love
doing so I’m spending a lot of time and
effort on my youtube page new projects
that are coming up i’m working on a
t-shirt line i’m working on a book deal
working on a TV deal um you know what
it’s hard to say i’m not the here’s
where I’m gonna be in five years look
how that worked out for me in high
school yeah I don’t know like and it’s
okay not to know I’m continually
following things that I’m passionate
about in my biz
is always going to be a reflection of
what I’m into at the moment so well it
sounds like that what you just said
right there is what you’re excited about
it’s the excitement of the unknown it’s
the excitement of what else could I
learn in you know what else can I go
into on my current passions and where
that’s going to take me who knows but
just the fact that I know that I can
pursue it and learn is just exciting
enough is that kind of where you’re at
yeah I end up in short-term projects so
like I have burst I know what I’m gonna
do for the next six months for next year
uh-huh beyond that I don’t know what’s
happening that’s awesome so go on his
website Evan Carmichael calm like I said
wealth of knowledge there’s so many
different i was playing around with it
over the the weekend just kind of doing
my homework for this show but i ended up
getting sucked into reading about stuff
for my own business definitely go to his
YouTube channel I mean you’ll hear tons
of great tips tons of great stuff to do
for your business but you’ll also see
some fun stuff you’ll see the tour of
his new place that we just talked about
you’ll find out why it’s so important
that you need to eat which if I were you
I’d eat after this interview by the way
so definitely check all that out Evan I
I just had a great time thank you so so
much thanks chris has been a lot of fun
and to find out more i know i just
plugged it but i’m going to say it again
Evan Carmichael calm and that’s it take
care
such an amazing guest a great chat it
was inspiring his entertaining it was
education via audio all those things at
least it was for me Thank You mr. Evan
Carmichael for such a wonderful episode
now do not forget I am giving away the
Nomad charge key you must be an iphone
user you must be an iphone 5 user share
this episode ceron show calm / 40 make
sure you tag me in whatever you share
whether it’s Twitter whether it’s
Facebook YouTube it doesn’t matter I
have to know that you you shared it so i
can give you credit anyway that’s all i
have thank you so much for listening and
i will talk to you guys later
author of the toilet paper entrepreneur
the pumpkin plan and now profit first
and you are listening to the best show
for entrepreneurs ever the Chris
surround show enjoy it episode 40 you’re
listening to the Krista round show
inspiring interviews with entrepreneurs
and awesome people that will motivate
you to take action now now now your host
Chris their own
Oh
hello welcome back episode 40 now to
find the show notes for this particular
episode makes you go to surround show
calm / 40 and my next guest is
absolutely amazing you are going to hear
not only such a phenomenal story but
well the guy he’s he’s kind of a big
deal okay he runs a massive entrepreneur
site it is literally like the library
for entrepreneurs he’s worked with major
people he’s had Donald Trump participate
on his site Guy Kawasaki I you know what
I just cannot say enough great things
and we really had a great time so before
I say any more I want to save it for
this next episode however because it is
the big 40 I want to celebrate I want to
give away something my friends over at
nomad they gave me this awesome that’s
called the charge key and now it’s for
iphone users specifically iphone 5 5 s
5c I have a nomad charge key to give you
for all my iphone users out there all
you have to do is share this episode
share this particular episode on Twitter
on Facebook it doesn’t matter make sure
you tag me though so I know it came from
you and I will pick a winner at random
so if you have an iPhone if you
specifically have an iphone 5 make sure
you share this episode win this
fantastic charge key by nomads fits on
your keychain it’s super small I
actually have one I love it I will send
this to you now don’t forget ceron show
calm / 40 for the show notes that’s all
I have
let’s get into it right when I said
let’s get into it I literally saw
there’s two seconds left of the song I
just had to let it play out now let’s
get into it how do you start a business
and do it right what if you don’t have
enough money do you still even try how
do you get your company to stand out in
a competitive market now I can go on and
on with this line of questioning but
instead I’d rather have a great guest on
talking about these things so when
you’re working out driving in your car
doing the dishes or whatever you do
while listening to this podcast you get
the information you need to fill in that
missing piece that really has probably
been bugging you for a while well today
is no exception and I have just the
perfect guest for you at 19 he built and
sold a biotech company and that 22 was a
venture capitalist helping raise between
500,000 and 15 million as an
entrepreneur expert he’s been featured
in Forbes The Wall Street Journal the
New York Times Mashable in so many other
major media outlets currently he runs
one of the world’s most popular websites
for entrepreneurs that despite the fact
has more celebrity authors than one can
count he has over 70,000 helpful
articles from buying a business finance
sales productivity even work-life
balance he is a salsa dancer baseball
fan lifehacker an avid Vespa writer Evan
Carmichael how are you I’m great thanks
for the great intro there Chris I get
that a lot and I really try hard because
I value every single one of my guests do
it doing this show and I really want to
give them the the intro they deserve you
know I don’t want to just say hey Evan
why don’t you you know tell not to knock
anybody but i want to say hey evan why
don’t you just tell us about yourself I
like it man i think the why everybody
listens to the chris’s podcast here you
got the energy flow I what you need it i
mean if if you and i SAT and talked here
and we just kind of sounded like this
and yeah I’m sure
nourish if I mean what value would that
bring what would anybody even get out of
something like that you know i love it
man i love it now I that’s why I
actually like your YouTube videos on
your YouTube channel you deal with such
a wide variety of topics but every
single one they connect the dots I mean
it’s not just an entrepreneur how to you
go into like how do you support the
crazies and you know just do it follow
your heart all that other stuff
originally when you start it on YouTube
and we’ll get into your background will
get into your site and all that but I’m
really curious about the YouTube piece
when you originally got into it was it a
passion for video is it a passion to get
your message out there ah that’s a great
question when i first started on YouTube
you know I’m a visual learner so I like
watching things more than reading things
or hearing things and so video always
appealed to me but I never I never
figured out a way to turn it into a
business so I just I just started it
took me a while to kind of get it going
but the very first videos were me just
with my camera and you know my DSLR and
it’s shaking all over the place and out
of focus and just brutal stuff and it
started with me wanting to share the
stories of famous entrepreneurs and I
found when I was when I had my biotech
software company I I was struggling and
I was 19 and I had two business partners
and we felt like we had a really great
product and we put a lot of love and a
lot of effort a lot of heart into making
this product happen and we just weren’t
getting results we just we were just not
making sales I was making I was pulling
out three hundred dollars a month from
the company and just like that’s you
can’t survive on that i was eating beans
for lunch every day and just and it’s it
was so hard because i really felt like I
had something special is just why can’t
we connect the dots to make this thing
work like why am I struggling so much to
get this thing off the ground and the
thing that saved my business that
prevented me from going to get a job or
quitting was when I realized I am not
the first guy to try to sell software
before and there was no big leader and
specifically what we’re doing biotech
software but I realized you know I’m not
the first guy to try to do this like
somebody has solved this problem why am
I trying to come up with every answer
myself yeah why why are you trying to
reinvent the wheel it’s not needed yeah
and I wish you know I knew that sooner
because I almost quit and so I looked at
guys like Bill Gates from Microsoft that
looked at McAfee looking into it I
looked at how they got started how did
they make their first meal in like how
can I do that that’s all I wanted to do
I don’t care how Bill Gates make some
million dollars now but 0 to 1 like idea
to first million that’s what I wanted to
learn uh-huh and I started applying
those strategies to my business and we
we finally started actually getting some
momentum when I sold my company we built
it up from nothing like 300 bucks a
month was pulling out to a couple years
three years I had huge clients nasa
johnson johnson we’re in over 30
countries and we got acquired rooms
round major major stuff happened for you
during that time yeah and modeling the
success of those guys that’s what helped
save my business from being like poverty
line to being an exit with my with my
company and so I I just want to share
that I felt like there are other
entrepreneurs out there who were facing
the same problems that I was facing and
I wanted to share what I had learned
from these successful entrepreneurs and
and just help them and there wasn’t a
business model there wasn’t a here’s my
next you know ideas just I wanted to
help other people not face the same
suffering that I had launching this
thing and so that was the intention
behind my first videos and they were
terrible quality and it was just really
bad you know I want to pull them down I
look back on that stuff I just want to
pull them down but they’re still getting
views and likes and comment ask joy them
say okay we’ll keep it up but that was
the incentive the motivation for
starting my channel so all the early
stuff is around the famous entrepreneurs
and then people serve asking me
questions and I said Evan how would you
handle this Evan what would you do in
this
and so now most of my videos are just
responding to questions are come in from
people who’ve asked them I love that you
do that by the way I mean you’ll
actually give the the person to shout
out one of the videos i watched and I
don’t remember how far back in the
timeline it was it was about someone who
created an app and how to get it out
there and you gave him a shout out and
you answered his question but what I
love that you did was you in in your
answer you said you know tell everybody
about it Bubba blah but then you called
the person now in a fun way and you said
hey why didn’t you tell me what the app
was why didn’t you tell me what it did I
could have been reading it right now on
my youtube channel telling the world
about it so even things like that I mean
it’s just so informative and helpful for
people yeah it’s trying to help that
person as well as help everybody else
who has that same kind of question
because not everybody will have the guts
to write in put themselves on the line
like that and you should do this all by
email I used to respond to everybody by
email and it just became so
time-consuming and again I thought if I
made a video of this then I’m not only
just helping that one person I do email
and only helping that one person with
video I’m helping everybody else it has
the same problem so the goal was just to
help entrepreneurs and overcome their
struggle cuz cuz it’s man you know you
know you’re you you’re fighting the
fight it’s hard man it is absolutely
your podcast so let’s kind of go back in
time for a second because you touched on
you’re a young guy you built a company
will you like was your background being
an entrepreneur I mean did you kind of
learn that from your parents or your
upbringing or was that kind of something
that you stumbled on and said hey I like
this yeah it’s a great question um I
feel like I’ve always had a part of it
in me I you know my first thing like
remembers an entrepreneurial ventures I
was five years old and I convinced my
three-year-old sister to draw pictures
with me and we sold them door to door
and through my life I’ve had various
little ventures baseball cards you know
online biz
says a whole bunch of little stuff
nothing really took off and I never
thought it’d be an entrepreneur as a
career it’s just I don’t know things
that I dabbled in my parents were not
entrepreneurs my family was an
entrepreneurs they support everything I
did but it just I didn’t grow up with
entrepreneurs around me when I graduated
high school in my yearbook I looked back
recently and I said you know what do you
want to be in 10 years or where do you
see yourself in 10 years and i wrote a
VP at a bank I always thought I would be
in the in banking world something like
that something in finance yeah you know
when I played Monopoly I was always the
banker I always had to be the banker and
so I figured I’d end up somewhere in
there and then when I got University my
life kind of changed I’ve met up with
these two founders of the software
company and they had this great product
but they couldn’t figure out how to sell
it they were they were the programmers
they were the creative geniuses they
just want to sit in front of their
computer and code and they needed help
on the business side and I thought that
I had a ton of experience and I was 19 I
didn’t really know what I was doing
either but it was more interesting for
me they didn’t want to learn it whereas
i did and i joined them and an
interesting thing happened in my last
year i got opportunities to work with
two of the biggest and most well-known
companies in my field it was merrill
lynch on the investment bank inside and
McKinsey Consulting one of the biggest
strategic consulting firms in the world
and two years ago that would have been
my dream job like ah are you kidding me
you guys want me to come and work for
you this is what I signed up for this is
amazing and all my friends were kind of
dying to get those kinds of jobs and
they flew me to New York and they put me
up in the Waldorf Astoria and they put
me through the whole interview process
they wanted me to join but it just
didn’t feel right for some reason and at
that time and things didn’t really make
sense like I have this company that I’m
doing that I’m not making anything on
300 bucks a month meanwhile Merrill
Lynch McInnes either they’re offering
eat into a hundred thousand starting
salary traveling around the world and
yet for some reason I’m geared to war
doing my business my own thing and it
didn’t make any sense my friends thought
I was crazy and I don’t know I just felt
like I would regret it I would regret it
if I didn’t try i had to try and the way
i got the courage to do that was to say
I’m gonna take a year you know some of
my friends graduating from University
took a year off to travel or whatever
yeah I said I’m going to take a year I’m
gonna try this thing and I’m gonna try
to make it work and just to let that
that so I won’t live my life with
regrets and that’s how I summon the
courage to do it because it didn’t make
any logical sense to do this over get
this amazing job and I never looked back
you know that the year it worked out and
just kept building from there so it was
a pivotal time in my life but I never
thought I was going to be an
entrepreneur that’s awesome most people
when they were you know if they’re ever
presented with a fantastic opportunity
like that how could you turn it down and
I imagine some people probably thought
you were nuts when you made that
decision but I understand that I mean as
you know prior to hitting record you and
I were talking I kind of went through
something similar and like you can’t put
your finger on you just know that you’re
you’re drawn to doing your own thing or
whatever it is I mean look you probably
could have been real happy at that
position right you probably have made a
lot of money rose in the ranks in really
done well for yourself but it sounds
like there was that one thing in the pit
of your stomach that’s saying you know
what let me let me just do this first
but before I get all gung-ho and and I
landed the the job of my dreams let me
just try this first let me give myself
enough time enough runway and give it an
honest go because at the end of the day
you wouldn’t you probably wouldn’t been
able to live with yourself if you didn’t
at least try am I correct yeah yeah and
the funny thing is the my friends who
kind of made fun of me and said what are
you doing you know ten years later come
back and they’re there in those jobs and
they and they hate their lives and they
come back and they meet with me to say
Evan I gotta gather this I want to start
my own business what do you recommend
and I’m
just so grateful that I did not go down
that path that probably has to feel
really good I mean deep down selfishly
like you probably you probably feel
really I don’t know fulfilled
accomplished I mean really you probably
feel excellent right yeah you know it’s
a full circle moment because these are
the guys giving me a hard time and and
you know they were they weren’t bashing
on me they weren’t saying you’re stupid
uh they just didn’t understand it you
know they thought they didn’t want me to
make a mistake it was out of love more
than anything else because they wouldn’t
have done that themselves so I i am not
happy to see my friends suffering so who
does really once once that year was up i
was glad you know once my company
started to take off i was glad that i
didn’t go i didn’t i didn’t regret it i
didn’t regret going for my business
instead of taking on the job yeah and
then from there you went into becoming a
venture capitalist you did all this
stuff and intact and in that space but
something led you to start your own
website we’re now hosts I mean talk
about a library of information no did
all this come from a lot of the stuff
that you personally went through and you
personally learned and kind of going
back to what you said about the email
you realized hey I can help my friends I
can give advice I can write an email but
I’m only helping 12 maybe 10 people by
doing that if I create a website in a
home base you know so to speak for an
entrepreneur I could help tens of
millions of people did it originally
starlight that with that vision or did
you just kind of want to have a place to
to you know host all your great content
yeah I wish I could say this was my
genius idea that’s all find out but it’s
nowhere close yeah I didn’t know what I
was doing to be honest I sold my
business I i bought my domain name the
sites off my name it’s not small
business success or something like that
it’s off of my name real quick it’s Evan
Carmichael calm so the the site that
we’re talking about go check it out Evan
Carmichael calm add genius named after
yourself I don’t know if you did that on
purpose but sorry
right ahead yeah and I started it after
I sold my business you know I was 22 23
I was asked to do a lot of speaking uh
you know in North America and abroad
just telling my story and helping out
other entrepreneurs and so I used a
website just as a place to say here’s
where I’m gonna be speaking and here’s
what I’m talking about there were no
articles there was nothing on there I
built it up to start sharing some
content around the famous entrepreneur
so I started with the videos and I
started writing articles as well and
then I was at the point where I didn’t
know what to do with my life I didn’t
know what to do next I sold my business
it was a great tie for me but then you
know everything I had worked towards for
those years was gone I didn’t know what
I was supposed to do next I shall was in
a period of just exploring and seeing
what I wanted to do and the idea of
venture capital was always intriguing to
me i didn’t i didn’t take venture
capital for my business we thought about
it but we didn’t need it and so I wanted
to just learn and if you don’t know what
you want to do next go out and learn
just try stuff and see what six and
don’t put pressure on yourself you have
to find the one thing right now and I’m
connected with a company and that the
four principal founders were all in
their 60s or 70s had learned you know a
lot in their career and I joined them
and they took me on as kind of an
apprentice and I help bringing deals and
they taught me about the venture capital
world and we’re raising half a million
to 15 million for companies and I use my
website just as lead generation you know
I started writing articles this is kind
of earlier days of the web started
writing articles and people would find
my site and I would use it to introduce
them to the venture capital world and
then people just started writing to me
say heaven I love your site I’m a
marketing consultant do you mind if I
write an article on marketing and I read
it and look good as a sure you know I
wasn’t charging them I wasn’t making
money from it but it was helping my
reader so but why not and more and more
people just started contacting me wanted
to contribute and they had great stuff
to share so I thought why not and we
slowly built up the site and once I
realized hey maybe
this could be a revenue opportunity
maybe this is a business here then I
focused on it and got more and more
people to contribute to the site but the
early days there wasn’t this grand
vision and said here’s what I’m gonna do
uh it just kind of just hadn’t evolved
into enterprise today like I was excited
by it I was learning about it and and by
following my passion that led to this
now a lot of the early contributors to
your website I imagine you you vetted
them out pretty good I mean you didn’t
just someone you know wrote in and say
hey I could talk about this and you’re
like yeah come on let’s go yeah they
were there were people that I knew or
people who that had read something that
I wrote about venture capital or a
famous entrepreneur and they usually
sent in something they sent it in
article said here’s what I would like to
add on your side are you okay with it
and I read it over and look good so I
thought why not it the first person i
figured who the first person ones who
wrote in but I didn’t know if I wanted
to do it at the start like well this is
my site it’s my name why would I put
somebody else’s stuff up on here but I
read the article thought it was good it
gave me some insight so but well why not
I mean the site’s about helping
entrepreneurs so I might as well help
spread that message so it originally
started with the the angel investors and
venture capitalists and all that correct
yeah agent Lee sin yeah combination of
the very first content was the famous
entrepreneur stuff I was just sharing it
to share there was no model at all and
then I involved it to also include some
some more the venture capital side than
angel but how to raise capital and use
that as a as a lead gen for the venture
capital business that I was in so there
was more of a purpose with that content
so that’s going to be evolution then
people started to write to me and then
fast forward to today I mean you have
take money on the picture you have
advertising book reviews business plans
business travel retail sales I mean just
literally like the Swiss Army knife of
information so no matter what you’re
doing whatever your business is be it
online or offline you can go to this
this resource and just pick what you
need
and run with it yeah it’s been a lot of
fun building that we have the largest
collection of famous entrepreneur
stories online and that is what kind of
keeps me inspired and motivated reading
those stories and how they failed and
they you know they suck that the early
days and they built up something great
that’s what helped me keep going and I
think as people read those articles they
want to contribute and so everybody on
the site we have I don’t know eight
thousand author something like that and
everybody is an expert in their field
and they share advice to help
entrepreneurs solve you know whatever
problems are facing yeah I mean you even
have on the master section Wolfgang Puck
Sean Diddy Combs I mean these are some
Donald Trump this is a major major major
people yeah it was fun putting that
together a lot of that came from readers
who said I’d love to have something on
Jennifer Lopez or you know Henry Ford or
whoever it is and so we we got the work
instead of creating content that’s
awesome not that I imagine has helped
your site in your brand kind of propel
it to the next level just by having that
social credibility that social proof
right yeah you know when I was going
after authors when I decided hey this is
a business and we need to go start
getting people so it’s not just rely on
the you know one or two a month the
people who are writing in to me I had to
go and make this a business and get lots
of content my goal was to get Donald
Trump on the site and at the time The
Apprentice had just come out like first
use of the apprentice I don’t know if
you watch that show but I did yeah I was
a huge fan I had like parties at my
house people like this and so he was the
biggest name in entrepreneurship but I
said I wanted to get him on my site but
I didn’t want to go right to him because
I didn’t really have much on my site yet
and so I kind of figured out a plan how
we’re gonna get to Donald Trump and
start working with some smaller guys and
move my way up so the first to kind of
bigger name people who I brought on
board with Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki
who you probably know are there there’s
no kind of in the online world but
offline maybe not too much and they’re
both bigger now than
when I first contacted them and they
said yes which is great and I just wrote
to them out of the blue and they said
yes and then I used their names to bring
in slowly bigger and bigger bigger
people so we brought in zig ziglar and
Jack Canfield and Michael Gerber who are
the e-myth and then use all those names
to then pull in Donald Trump’s where
it’s you know it’s hard for them to say
no when they see all this momentum has
been built up and then once we got Trump
we stopped I stopped having to reach out
like outreach basically stopped I’m for
Trump because we had hit the tipping
point where people now wanted to become
part of our site because we had all
these big name authors like Donald Trump
um I so it’s just kind of grown from
there it isn’t that funny how you would
think asking somebody for help no matter
how big or famous they are how highly
respected they’re in their field a lot
of people are fearful of just taking
that first step and saying hey I want
Donald Trump let me reach out to I want
guy you know Kawasaki let me reach out
to him once you start doing those things
I mean wouldn’t you agree it’s a lot
easier than you think well you know
getting that may be that big name or it
maybe it’s not an interview maybe it’s
not content maybe it’s you know you want
the the head of some distribution
company for your t-shirt company you
know I mean like once you actually just
start reaching out to these people you
realize it’s not that bad it’s not that
hard yeah I think if you can show your
passion and your excitement then that
gets infectious and people will want to
work with you in whatever capacity it is
if it’s just being a mentor to you or
half hour phone call or if you want to
partner up on something you need to show
that infectious enthusiasm and the
passion for what you’re doing and if you
can do that then it’s a lot easier to
get people on board well yeah and not
only that but you actually have to have
something legit I mean you got to have
some type of value that you’re doing I
mean you can’t just reach out to a
Donald Trump and say hey I’m selling my
weight loss pills would you give me a
testimony or whatever right
I mean you get it’s got to be something
of value yeah yeah i agree i mean
sometimes the value can just be giving
back a lot of entrepreneurs are happy to
give back and help out other
entrepreneurs if you feel like they’re
actually going to listen to you and take
the advice i remember one person who
wrote in who is an entrepreneur who’s on
my list or youtube views or whatever it
was and yeah I’m pretty protected with
my time there’s only so much to go
around I’m happy to do video responses
but this person really wanted to meet
and you know that takes like in a half
an hour an hour out of my day instead of
five minutes to make a video and the way
she wrote in was just so passionate and
she said you know even if even if it’s
five minutes as you’re walking to your
car you know I will be there and I’ll
bring a treat for you to eat and just
like so much passion came out of that
correspondence that I felt like you know
what I got it I gotta I gotta meet her
and what did I get from what she’s not
paying me I’m not part of her business
we’re not recording this isn’t going
anywhere it’s just helping her but
helping her helps me know because I felt
like he was gonna listen and take that
advice and that feeling of giving back
is something that made me feel good and
so i would i would do it even knows
maybe no financial or other game that i
would get oh so it’s somehow in the way
she constructed her email or whatever
you got the sense of okay this isn’t
just you know some fan or maybe some
crazy psycho like this is a person
actually invested in what she’s doing
and if i gave her the couple minutes of
my time like you said off camera off
audio it wasn’t a PR move you knew that
whatever discussion that you guys were
going to have whatever advice you were
going to give this person that they
would not only listen to it but they
would value it and it would probably
change their life and if you can do
something like that for somebody uh
selfishly for you then it’s it’s almost
like paying it forward you’re gonna feel
great you’re going to help somebody
that’s it that’s it and that fashion
show
through and so you know people are
willing to help you if you reach out
like you reached out to me about this
show and you are excited in your email
and looked interesting and so you know I
I said yeah let’s do it let’s let’s do
this in help entrepreneurs so when
you’re when you’re reaching out to
people asking for help if you genuinely
show that you are excited by this it’s
infectious people want to be a part of
it it comes a dia almost like you can
you just sense it right yeah and it’s
not it’s not it’s not what you say it’s
how you say it right I you could you
could say the same words with no
enthusiasm just like you talked about
the beginning of the show we talked I
how great you are leading off the show
you know you can see those same words
and and everybody’s going to tune out
because it’s not excited but you love
what you’re doing like this is this is
what you love doing and that shows and
that brings out quality it brings out
great guest absolutely so let’s talk
about we you know love what you’re doing
because you are a big fan of you have to
have passion for what you’re doing you
can’t just jump into something for the
money or for the fame one of your videos
you mentioned I think it was a network
marketing video and you mentioned the
fact that a lot of people get into that
or other similar things because they
they have shiny object syndrome right
they just want to do or no no I’m sorry
it was the ebay they wanted to start an
eBay business because they wanted to
just buy low sell high make a lot of
money and you’re really not a fan of
that like you have to have some type of
passion or love for what it is yeah it’s
true and I get it you know so many
people are in such serious financial
situations you know you’re in debt you
don’t know how you’re gonna pay your
bills and so you you’re desperate to
find something that was gonna make you
money you know you got to eat you gotta
pay rent and so you you jump on
something and somebody promises you here
is the way to make money and so you
start doing it and it’s never it’s never
the right decision if you look at famous
successful entrepreneurs pick anyone
pick your favorite famous entrepreneur
look at how they got started it was
never for the money these
guys do not start your business for the
money they started it to have an impact
because they’d love what they were doing
they wanted to help people in some
capacity and that’s why they started
money is a part of it I’m not saying via
charity yeah the money comes from
offering value the more value you give
somebody the more they’re gonna pay you
but it’s never the main reason you look
at the most successful richest people
they made a lot of money but it wasn’t
their goal to make a ton of money one of
my favorite examples is George Lucas you
started Lucasfilm made the star wars
franchise Indiana Jones franchise and he
got into film school and at a time where
if you went in the film school you
basically weren’t making any money like
there were no jobs in the film industry
and he decided to go on his own to his
own business and for the first six years
he had nothing no results failure just
one failure after another for six years
that’s a long time by the way could you
last right like how many people give up
on their dreams too soon you try for
three months and they quit Yeah right
like six years of nothing total failure
and he kept thinking constantly I don’t
know if I’m I like maybe I should go
back to get a job I don’t know if I want
to keep doing this right that’s the the
biggest misconception amounts
entrepreneurs is that we never doubt
ourselves like every entrepreneur thinks
that you know they’re not doing a good
enough job but we have a crisis of
confidence a lot where we think you know
maybe I should just go back and get a
job because this is really hard when he
created Star Wars he thought it was too
wacky for the general public he thought
nobody would watch this but he he just
had a passion for it so he built it and
so he lasted through all of this all of
these all of these failures when it
didn’t make any sense to keep going and
what gets you through is that passion
for your project passion for what you’re
doing that’s the only thing that’s going
to get you through because otherwise
you’re crazy but you have to be a little
bit crazy to do this because it’s going
to take everything you got to get you
through and now George Lucas worked over
four billion dollars and it’s easy to
say you know you look back on our
stories already did this this this this
and this whatever but it was hard and he
struggled and he failed and that’s the
story for most people most six
entrepreneurs they have to go through
this massive period of darkness where
they don’t know how it’s going to work
out and they just keep going believing
that somehow it’s going to work because
they love what they’re doing yeah for
some it may take a year for others and
may take six years but let’s put this in
perspective six years is a very long
time I I can almost guarantee he
probably had thoughts of doubt like
almost every 10 minutes at some point
you know in he pushed through it he
broke through it and now he is who he is
today but on the grand scale of life I
bet you now he probably doesn’t even
remember what it was like to struggle he
put in his dues he can now enjoy that
the fruition of of what he does and
everything he’s created so when people
are are really struggling and it’s been
a long time yeah you go through that but
once you once you finally hit on that
that thing that that that makes you
successful and your business is growing
down the line it’s not really that bad
it’s it’s only a certain period of your
life out of your whole life that you had
to go through that right yeah I mean
it’s true I think back I still think
back to the my early days like that 300
bucks a month that eating beans for
lunch every day we celebrated a big win
by going to McDonald’s and getting
french fries like I had no money that’s
still painful and in what’s painful I
almost I almost quit that business and
if I did I wouldn’t be here today I
remember telling my partner on the phone
like I’ve had it I this is enough we’re
not making any money my talents are not
being used I deserve better than this
and I’m done I quit and I hung up the
phone and I cried for 20 minutes and my
mom came up and I don’t even know what I
told her but the next day I got up and I
went back to work just that yeah the
reset bunion you just kept kept doing it
every day you just reset let me just
start over I’m here for this and this is
what I believe in and this is what I’m
gonna do yeah and the only thing that
gets you through was your is your
passion if you’re in it just for the
money
you won’t go through all that they’re
gonna quit like it is too hard you you
won’t get all the great things that that
come with the sweat equity I mean I
almost willing to bet that you
appreciate in value celebrating at
McDonald’s and all those struggles you
went to because you probably learned a
lot one not only about business but
yourself but to you learned about what
works and what doesn’t for that business
you can’t effectively get a proper
education on your own thing if you don’t
go through some of those trials and
tribulations am I am I correct yeah yeah
I mean you know what I’m I’m now I’m a
little zoned out I’m thinking back that
to my early days and the frustration
than the end of pain usually painful
period here Chris I you know I am sorry
I didn’t mean to do that but I mean it’s
important because your story is
extremely inspiring for 12 I’m in a sick
way happy you just said that because
that just grounds the of how much of a
great human being that you are you
didn’t blow up and it you know biotech
company and I’m gonna help a billion
people and now a rock star and I know
everything I mean the other if I got
that impression I wouldn’t have had you
on my show you know what i mean but i
think a lot of people can learn from
that I hope so I mean that’s the goal
absolutely so someone starting a
business right now yeah they they have
no money yeah a lot of people are in the
entrepreneur space are very DIY they
they don’t want to release whatever
thing it is from those talons of theirs
because they’re afraid that it’s going
to cost too much no one could do it
better than me you know I I have to do
this myself no one knows how to do this
but me and that is the biggest
misconception that you portray and I
actually agree with I mean someone right
now they can start a business with with
no money and delegate and still be
successful correct yeah yeah i’ma get
it’s you know you don’t want to spend
money but the first person I hired you
talk about delegation the first person I
hired was for one hour a day uh huh uh
and I was so sick of doing this database
entry stuff that was not what I was good
at and didn’t help grow my business and
so I hired a guy for an hour day what
you got way more done than I could in
that hour and it just freed up an hour
of my day to do something that was
helping me grow my business you cannot
do everything yourself you can’t like
you’re good at some things that’s what
you need to focus on if you try to be
everything then you’re never gonna build
a great business and so on doesn’t mean
this still impacts me today I hate doing
things that I’m not good at and are not
helping me grow my company on my walk
into the office every day I say to
myself what’s the thing that I can do
today is gonna add the most value to my
business and then I try to go and do
that yeah you want you want that time
freed up for you to focus on what you’re
truly good at and truly passionate about
right yeah I call it CEO time I like
that you have to block out CEO time
hopefully every day but you know for
those of us who are crazy busy and
haven’t figured anything out yet start
with once a week like CEO Tom this is
time to focus on building your business
projects you’re the CEO of your company
you got to start acting like it and not
just be everything from the salesman
down to the janitor you got to carve it
out carve out that time you know monday
afternoons tuesday mornings whatever it
is CEO time yeah i mean look at every
successful entrepreneur they’re not a
one-man show or one-woman show they have
people help them so going back to the no
money thing now a lot of people think
that they need to have all this huge
reserves of cash to start their product
or their online business I mean that’s
not necessarily the case you probably
have seen countless amount of people who
started from nothing and didn’t have
that money but they also didn’t let that
hinder their business either yeah you
know most entrepreneurs don’t have that
rich uncle to fund their company ID
have that I certainly didn’t have that
if that’s you then that’s awesome but
you know I don’t know what advice to
give you because you’re in a great
situation I was i come from the
struggling to get by can barely survive
camp I think the most important thing
when you’re first getting started is you
need to figure out how to get to
survival survival means you have enough
money to pay your bills to eat to pay
your electricity it’s not a glamorous
lifestyle but it survived one it means
you don’t have to go back and get a job
so how do you get there and I want you
know entrepreneurs to think about your
big vision your big picture how I’m
going to change the world that’s amazing
but how do you get to survival at the
start what’s the fastest path together
to survival and that may even mean
having a job but I’m not it from the
camp where you have to quit everything
and jump in and do your business full
time because you have limited runway if
you run out of funds you know three
months in you lose Aldo mentum with your
business and go get a job I’m okay if
you’re doing it part time I think though
if you’re going to take a job the reason
to take a job is to learn so whatever
business that you’re trying to start up
and if you’re trying to start a magazine
go work for a magazine what are you
doing driving a truck go work for a
magazine like find the company that has
you know ten employees a small business
and and get a job there and learn the
ropes and learn the business and make
your mistakes while getting paid by
somebody else yeah and in your off hours
start your own business and you’re
making contacts and you’re you’re
developing your skills and getting the
training while getting paid you’re
getting paid to learn about your
business it’s a beautiful concept yeah
and then and then when when you launch
your company you know you really have a
little bit of fun since you started on
the side and build that up because what
can happen is if you just start up and
you’re out of the money you go back get
a job you’ve lost all the momentum that
you’ve built up so you know I love
entrepreneurship but yeah like sometimes
the path is getting the job that
supports it and then that helps you
transition to be a full-time
entrepreneur now for a lot of those
people who are in the thick of it
another key thing to to focus on is like
me time it’s it’s that work-life balance
what you talked about a lot I mean one
of your videos was don’t forget to eat
yeah and people forget these things
though I mean lunch it’s almost two
o’clock here I have any I know I forget
it too I talked two days no it’s true um
you know I think this also depends on
your situation your frameless situation
now being being a father uh there’s a
lot more demands on my time than before
uh and I like to have clearly defined
lines between my work in my life and I
set out my guy I have a very scheduled
day and I’ll chunk my time and say okay
this is my CEO time this is this is my
interview with Chris time this is right
I’ll have it all blocked out and then
when I have a family time I I do totally
disconnect right yeah yeah yeah I’m not
I mean I’m i think as entrepreneurs I
don’t you can absolutely totally
disconnected I’m always coming up with
ideas for my business I’m sure we all
are you noodle something you see how a
retail stores operating and you see a
commercial on TV and you get an idea
I’ll just not myself yeah right because
I don’t want to be up all night thinking
about this idea and I don’t want to
forget this tomorrow so just email
myself and it’s out of my head but you
know I make the family time as important
as my business time as well didn’t you
just recently within the past couple
months get a new place a new look like a
new condo yeah i got a new condo
congratulations by the way the thing a
beautiful go on youtube check it out
nice hardwood floors and one of the
greatest views I’ve ever seen it’s fun
yeah you know I uh I went from so after
I sold my business i decided i wanted to
build a house and i built a house from
scratch and it was 5,000 square feet and
gorgeous modern interior and just I
realized that the maintenance on this is
ridiculous I’m a low maintenance guy and
way too much space or what I needed so I
sold it and moved into a condo where I
don’t have to do anything so I’d like I
had an apartment and then I had a
townhouse i bought a townhouse then I
built a huge monster home and then I
sold that and now I’m back into a condo
well the word that the reason why I
bring that up is because you want I mean
work-life balance you want time to enjoy
your new place you want to pick out
furniture and you know hang stuff on the
wall and just be involved I mean it’s
really tough to pull away but at the
same time like doing certain things like
I don’t know maybe it was buying a new
TV for your place or a rug like that
kind of stuff gets you invigorated you
know it makes you more creative so when
you do go back to work you’re your
hundred-percent self do you notice that
yeah and I think I think having hobbies
and having other things outside of work
will it gives you the creative time and
it also gives you ideas for what to do
with your business you know I rarely get
great business ideas when I’m in my
office pounding away on work it doesn’t
want to get my ideas it’s when I’m in
the shower it’s when I’m salsa dancing
it’s when I’m out on the street like
having that free time that’s when i get
my ideas and so opening up space to
allow you to you know have that
creativity is important absolutely now
the future mmm 2014 and beyond I mean
what kind of stuff is is getting you
excited these days I mean we’re kind of
almost up on our time here but I want to
know like what what’s getting you fired
up these days what’s something that
you’re looking forward to well yeah so
my goals out the billion entrepreneurs
that’s kind of my driving force I’m
spending a lot of my time on YouTube the
best part of my day is waking up every
day I pull up my lentils I start eating
breakfast and I load up my comments on
YouTube and it’s like 40 or 50 comments
a day and just seeing how people have
enjoyed the videos and their lives are
being changed that’s that’s what I love
doing so I’m spending a lot of time and
effort on my youtube page new projects
that are coming up i’m working on a
t-shirt line i’m working on a book deal
working on a TV deal um you know what
it’s hard to say i’m not the here’s
where I’m gonna be in five years look
how that worked out for me in high
school yeah I don’t know like and it’s
okay not to know I’m continually
following things that I’m passionate
about in my biz
is always going to be a reflection of
what I’m into at the moment so well it
sounds like that what you just said
right there is what you’re excited about
it’s the excitement of the unknown it’s
the excitement of what else could I
learn in you know what else can I go
into on my current passions and where
that’s going to take me who knows but
just the fact that I know that I can
pursue it and learn is just exciting
enough is that kind of where you’re at
yeah I end up in short-term projects so
like I have burst I know what I’m gonna
do for the next six months for next year
uh-huh beyond that I don’t know what’s
happening that’s awesome so go on his
website Evan Carmichael calm like I said
wealth of knowledge there’s so many
different i was playing around with it
over the the weekend just kind of doing
my homework for this show but i ended up
getting sucked into reading about stuff
for my own business definitely go to his
YouTube channel I mean you’ll hear tons
of great tips tons of great stuff to do
for your business but you’ll also see
some fun stuff you’ll see the tour of
his new place that we just talked about
you’ll find out why it’s so important
that you need to eat which if I were you
I’d eat after this interview by the way
so definitely check all that out Evan I
I just had a great time thank you so so
much thanks chris has been a lot of fun
and to find out more i know i just
plugged it but i’m going to say it again
Evan Carmichael calm and that’s it take
care
such an amazing guest a great chat it
was inspiring his entertaining it was
education via audio all those things at
least it was for me Thank You mr. Evan
Carmichael for such a wonderful episode
now do not forget I am giving away the
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i will talk to you guys later
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