um bom all right everyone welcome to
another google+ hangout i’m excited to
be here this is a slightly different
time than usual it’s nighttime it’s 830
here in Toronto I’ve got a special guest
with me Sam berry who has a podcast
where he interviews entrepreneurs and he
asked if he could interview me for his
podcast so I said sure why not let’s
turn it into a Google+ Hangout I’m so
Sam it’s Sam Barry calm you guys can go
check that out later and I’m gonna I’m
going to turn it over the same and we’re
gonna pretend like it’s his show it’s
his podcast and I am the guest on his
show so Sam let’s do it r11 let’s do it
welcome to believe you’re a mute that
man Barry who has a podcast where
interviews entreprise you gotta close
the window so I said sure why not let’s
don’t watch don’t watch the livestream
because there’s a delay how do i turn it
off just close close a YouTube page keep
this window open and close to YouTube
page you don’t need to see it the
diamond oh that was really confusing but
I’m thankfully we’re back we’re back
into it all right welcome to believe I’m
the host Sam Barry and we’re hanging out
today with my friend Evan Carmichael
from Evan mark Carmichael calm and I
just want to briefly talk about Evan and
he at 19 he built and sold a biotech
software company 22 it was a venture
capitalist helping raise between 500,000
to 15 million dollars in venture capital
now runs Evan Carmichael calm one of the
world’s most popular website for
entrepreneurs and I’m very pleased to
have Evan on the show thank you very
much ever thanks for having me man I’m
excited
and likewise um you know you and I both
share a similar vision and that vision
that we’re really going to talk about on
today’s episode is belief and believing
in ourselves as entrepreneurs and a just
as people doing something different in
the world and sharing our mission and
our message in the world I think it’s
important to believe and we’re similar
on that level where I feel that people
really need to believe in themselves and
you’ve helped inspire me name this show
I’m a fan of the name believe I Stanbury
I like it and so I want to really ask
you like have you always had a strong
belief in yourself from the beginning oh
wow dude he goes deep on the first
question um have I always had a strong
belief in myself I think um you know I
credit my parents a lot for that I don’t
know if I always had a you know a lot of
self-confidence um I remember one of my
earlier memories was at school my I’ve
two sisters I have an older sister and a
younger sister and and they always did
way better than me at school and every
time we had a report card that came in
I’d have to go and sit with my parents I
knew it was time for the talk the report
card talk and yeah I didn’t fail but it
wasn’t up to my parents standards for
where I should be and my mother’s last
name is Cass truly and my middle name is
Chris truest was Evan kiss Julie
Carmichael and my parents used to always
sit me down and tell me that I was a
kiss truly Carmichael and that I could
do it and they didn’t didn’t chastise me
and they didn’t um didn’t you know did
it make me feel bad they always try to
make me they always try to make me
believe they always try to instill that
self confidence in me until my last year
of high school where my expectations of
myself were beyond what my parents
expectations of me were so I don’t know
what happened um what sparked that
change but in my last year of high
school I had just more more expectations
on what I should be doing than even what
my family put on me um but I think you
know growing up I had I had you know I
was I didn’t like doing things
necessarily by the book might have been
a bit of a problem child a bit of a bit
of a rebel nothing too crazy nothing
illegal or anything okay it’s it’s okay
like oh yeah but but I think they gave
me that they gave me a lot of confidence
in myself you know making me feel like a
you work is really Carmichael you can do
this whatever problem comes your way you
you know it’s in your blood to be able
to be successful and overcome those
challenges so they’re really reinforced
that certainty or that confidence in
your personality from a young age yeah
as far back as I can remember my parents
were always really supportive of
everything I was doing and made me feel
like I could do anything mm-hmm that’s
very important like to plot character
building is it from a young age to when
you become an adult I think that it’s
very important I mean how does that work
into bringing that into your personal
brand like what we doing before you
started Evan Carmichael calm I mean we
did briefly talk about it in the intro
but um what led you to start this
believe campaign sure uh and i started i
started my business 11 carmical calm
before i came up with belief believe
came afterwards a couple years
afterwards so it wasn’t like I’m
starting with this and here we go um my
how did I start my business career yeah
I was always I was always the
entrepreneur hustler growing up always a
entrepreneur hustler selling baseball
cards and
you know always had some business going
on my earliest business was when I was
five years old and my sister was three
and we we drew a bunch of you know
pictures and we went door-to-door
selling our art for five cents or ten
cents or you know whatever we could get
so I’ve always been involved in some
kind of venture of some kind the the
first kind of real venture that started
to take off or had some success with was
a software company that I was in
University and with two business
partners who are also the same
University and I went through a lot of
you know struggle and failure with that
but ended up selling it to a big company
and having Klein’s like NASA and johnson
Johnson and that was my first like put
my stamp on actually having a successful
successful business not just talking
baseball cards or whatever I was trying
to sell the time um and it was through
that process where uh you know I had it
was it was one of the highlights of my
life is being able to build that and
sell it but it was also the worst day of
my life I within building that business
as I had the worst day of my life where
I told my business partner that I quit
and we were disagreeing and I almost I
almost failed like we almost failed uh
and when I sold my business and I had
success i started my website just as a
resource for other entrepreneurs to try
to help them not go through the same
failure and struggle that I went through
you know I turned down big jobs jobs at
a couple years earlier I wanted to go
two jabs at my my classmates at
University all were were you know
fighting for jobs that would pay me like
80 hundred thousand dollars starting
salary and finally around the world
working on exciting projects to do this
business where I’m now making three
hundred dollars a month and eating beans
for lunch every day and you know can’t
afford to
go for drinks with my buddies and me
being too embarrassed to say hey guys I
can’t afford the ten dollars for you
know a beer and a side of fries uh like
that’s that’s low low you know I didn’t
say that i would say like oh yeah I’m
busy like I’m living the entrepreneur
life right I I leave those big jobs to
do my own thing so this pride in that
and and I was embarrassed um and so I
didn’t want to have I I don’t know I
felt I felt like this should be easier
for people I felt like I wished I had
somebody to help me on my path and i
started my website just as a resource
for other entrepreneurs as a result of
selling my business i was 22 when i sold
it uh and i got asked to do a whole
bunch of speaking and the website was
also like where’s i’ve been speaking
where am i going to be at UH so that you
know that’s that site started when I was
like 22 years old and I am I am 35 in
May and believe is maybe two years old
maybe hey interesting so I think doing
this like helping entrepreneur thing for
a long time but believe is a really new
addition to it and I was always been
part of me but I never really understood
it and internalize it and use that to
really help propel my business forward
okay that’s very interesting and has
that propelled your business for would
have people connected with that message
of belief oh so much man it’s it’s uh
it’s so powerful ah the first thing I
did was I said okay I thought it was too
too big like who believe you know
believe is such a yeah big word You Know
Who am I delusionary yeah and so I just
did a full a small test like I had to
prove that it that this would work um
now I’m all-in right like you may see
the all in heaven and
posting stuff everywhere and making the
videos and I’m fully like fully
confident behind it you know I got that
got the shirt on there and yeah I’m all
in on it I have no shame uh and it’s
easy to attract people because it was
confidence with it but my first thing
when i first started it I you know I
didn’t know I just was searching for
something to help me better define what
I was doing and my first task was with
my newsletter I had an oozer that I sent
out every week to my audience and I said
you know why it’s a newsletter the
fantastic newsletter by the way thank
you right for that I said this news that
are gonna make about believe and just
we’ll see what happens and it was the
highest response rate that I ever had on
any of my newsletters and my sister
wrote to me to say I actually read your
newsletter this time like wow Thank You
Stephanie but so that mean like hey I’m
onto something and so then I started I
showed her all these little test they
started then okay I’m gonna make a
little tweak on my website I’m going to
post a little bit the social media and
everything I tested would believe
because it was so much you know I had
passion and heart that went into it it
had the best result of anything that I
was doing and so that helped convinced
me to hey I’m gonna go all in on this
and and it’s been crazy the results have
been crazy mm-hmm going back to that
point where you turned down those those
big jobs the eighty thousand a hundred
thousand dollars a year starting base
salary okay and and you know eating
beans and living off three hundred
dollars a month you know that starting
point when you took that leap of faith
to become an entrepreneur um I want to
talk about that was that hard was that a
hard choice to made make and what helped
you follow through with that yeah that’s
a great question so it was hard it was
hard because I don’t have entrepreneurs
I didn’t have entrepreneurs in my family
I didn’t have entrepreneurs in my
network my circles you know I don’t have
an uncle joe who is an entrepreneur
or was it was interesting for me like I
read about it but I didn’t have any my
environment was an entrepreneurial so
everything in my environment was telling
me hey Evan you gotta go you got this
great job it was more of my friends my
parents would be okay with whatever
whatever I wanted to do but my friends
are saying hey you got this job with
this huge company like I that’s the job
that they wanted and here I have this
opportunity like how i’m a retard you
know we shouldn’t use that word i’m
stupid for her not you know going after
that opportunity uh and at the same time
my business wasn’t taking off like i
started my business while i was in
university so i had time to get it going
and it wasn’t going right and i was
struggling and so you know how do how do
you even compare um and I went to do
some of the interviews just as like as
my fallback right like i wish i coulda
said I knew I knew all along I wasn’t
going to be successful I got for sure it
was easy turning that it was a it was
hard right and you know one of the
companies they flew me to New York and
put me up in the Waldorf Astoria and
took me around New York for a couple day
like it was full-on like here’s a major
opportunity to work at a serious company
and I had Jeff Bezos in my head and this
is the this is why it’s so important to
create an environment that makes you
want to be great uh whatever goals you
have whatever dreams you have you have
to surround yourself with that because I
had very little of it in my environment
where I was right everything in my
environment was was go get a job and
work for a big company for the rest of
your life that was my environment but I
watched some random video of Jeff Bezos
um and he was talking about living with
regret and why he started amazon com and
he said that with Amazon he was afraid
that he would live the rest of his life
in regret if you did
try it he was he was a the youngest-ever
vp at a firm like a banking firm Wall
Street firm and he was on the track to
be you know superstar in the field and
he left to do this thing on the internet
that like what’s the internet you can’t
sell books on the internet that’s a
stupid but such a stupid thing to do why
would you do this and he said I could
live with trying and failing but I
couldn’t live with not trying and then
rest of my life worrying and so what
helped me was like just having that one
thing right helps now like that pulls me
from my out of my environment to
something a little bit greater and that
that thought process gave me the courage
to say you know what I’m going to try
this for a year right I’m going to try
for a year I can always go back there’ll
be other job opportunities I may miss
out with this company but there’s others
I can go back to this path on a year but
I don’t want to live my life regretting
that I didn’t take the shot that I had
and I never went back so you know we’re
out and what’s up quite well so it
sounds like um you followed your gut
feeling you know your instinct on this
you took you did kind of taking a
calculated risk but also you followed
your intuition yeah and what’s helped me
ever since then is an advice that I give
to others is all the big decisions you
make with your heart and the small ones
with your head because oftentimes the
decision that’s right for you doesn’t
make any logical sense you know if you
wrote down on that sheet of paper to
compare eighty thousand dollars a year
and world travel and career
opportunities and three hundred dollars
a month and you know doesn’t make any
logical sense logically zero sense uh
but with all of the big decisions of
your life and it’s something that I then
tried to live through and that’s it’s
painful and it’s scary because you’re
taking a leap into the unknown but any
major important decision that you have
to take make it with your heart
and your gut and your passion what feels
right instead of trying to logically
make sense of it because the logic will
hold you back and prevent you from doing
something scary but that’s really the
path that you need to take yeah so like
how did you then monetize so you started
a personal brand you did make that leap
of faith how did it turn into an actual
viable business model yeah and this is
where believe came in so what happened
was choice you after I sold my software
company I made some money off of that
right so now I’m not I’m not I’m not
three hundred dollars a month you know
struggling anymore so I mean it’s great
i joined the venture capital firm sort
of raised in venture capital for
companies and i started using my website
as a tool to bring in leeds and people
then started to want to contribute
content to the site and as I became a
publisher then the content that i would
pick uh started gearing towards how many
eyeballs can I get because that’s the
publisher game how many eyeballs can I
get to my website i can sell out against
advertising and that’s how I make money
and so I started putting up content that
I wasn’t necessarily super in love with
but that drove a lot of traffic and
drove a lot of ad sales and allow me to
grow my team and I built I built my
business to having eight people off just
off my website selling ads and and then
I put the business almost on autopilot I
give it to my team to run because it
wasn’t fulfilling you know like okay
another top 10 whatever like I wasn’t a
part of it you know that the content
creation wasn’t exciting for me and I
spent my time doing things that I loved
which was helping entrepreneurs and
doing speaking engagements and things
that some of them made money and some of
them just like didn’t but I loved it
right like i would meet entrepreneurs
for coffee every day and yell startling
people ignorant they can’t they can’t
afford to pay you right like it’s not a
paying gig it’s just it my business
filled my financial need and and the the
stuff that i actually
you’d spent my time on feel a soulful
personal need um and then I got to the
point where like this is like how is my
business not not making me happy right
like how am i spending my time outside
my business it’s great like I didn’t
want the 4-hour workweek you know I
didn’t want to just set up something and
leave I wanted to enjoy my work right I
didn’t want to have something that then
I go off in vacation whatever gives you
get bored of that like it’s if you’re
stressed out and overworked the vacation
the traveling is awesome but then you
want to come back and have meaning right
you want to do something valuable and
meaningful that contributes to the world
and I felt like if I could somehow
combine these things where I have my
business that’s successful and my own
personal interest if I can mix oh soo
together I would have a lot more
personal satisfaction and I can have a
much bigger impact on the community and
on the world and so then I started
thinking well what is it like what’s
missing what do i stain for what is the
impact that I want to have what is the
change that I want to make and I
remember going to watch the jobs movie I
don’t know if you saw that movie with
Ashton Kutcher yeah that was the start
so whenever that came out you know I was
already kind of restless and you know
trying to figure things out but when the
job movie came out and I watched that
and I after that dug into every Steve
Jobs video resource everything the next
week was just like all in on Steve Jobs
um and he very much yeah you read the
book by walter isaacson the Steve Jobs
biography of his life yeah uh I don’t
know if I read that in that time I don’t
remember I don’t think I think he was
still alive yeah he was he was it was
just prior to him passing away but it’s
very in depth yeah I haven’t read so no
I don’t think I read it in that time but
I mean I tried to consume everything
steve jobs and jobs had this one video
that was really great that changed my
life
uh where he just came back from he was
fired from Apple he just came back and
he was talking about how what Apple
stood for like at the core what is Apple
all about and it’s not about making
boxes and make people’s lives easier
it’s about helping people change the
world with their technology and and Jobs
was never a money guy like he he was a
multi-millionaire in his early 20s yet
all the money he would ever need for the
rest of his life and he like till the
day he died was that Apple and why he
built it to be the most valuable company
in the world when his number one
motivation was not money that’s
interesting and so then I thought what I
like what how do I do this what’s what
do I stand for how do I bring that to
what I want to do to have a positive
impact and I sat down with a buddy of
mine Jason and we went for coffee and
and I was trying to cope with like a new
tagline or you have you know just
exploring you know I didn’t know what I
was doing and we came down with
something like I think was hungry
entrepreneurs deserve help that was what
I came up with that was like my new
tagline hungry entrepreneurs deserve
help yeah I think it does like summarize
what I’m all about but you know I don’t
know I started using it in some of my
videos and and it was okay but it didn’t
quite feel right yet um so just had to
rain down more ideas and more ideas and
uh one of the ideas i wrote down was the
word believe and i was just one idea
right and then the next morning I came
back when I like believe I let me work
with believe because believe on its own
is too simple I can’t just do believe I
got to do something more so he’s believe
believe you can do it believe in
yourself believable work believe all
these things and I looked at the list
that’s okay it’s okay and then I you
know went to bed again the next morning
I woke up is that you know why just I
just like believe hmm i don’t like
everything I like I just want believe
for whatever reason it just felt right
and then that’s when I started playing
with it and testing it and the more you
know as you make as you’re thinking
about decisions um I
fine you know the reason why you sleep
on it and I find like the more something
sits with you you’re really going to
like it more and more or you’re going to
dislike it more my we were talking about
this for the name of your show right
like it’s got to be something that you
come up with ideas you might like it
instantly but the next day you wake up
is a guy you know what I know I’m not
feeling that name as much and you lose
interest but the other names that the
more assists with you the more you like
it and the more you like it and it just
feels right and that was the case for me
with with believe um and then slowly
started incorporating to all the stuff
that I that I’m doing and I’ve had lots
of success and fun and so I encourage
entrepreneurs and not even entreprise I
guess everybody to defined I believe
this one word and I’m writing the book
on this but one word that defines
everybody that that ties everything in
your life together so believe you know
my favorites movie is Seabiscuit I don’t
know if you seen Seabiscuit about this
race horse that everybody counts out you
know it’s like it got injured and it’s
too small and you know all these things
and and it has an owner who’s like a
who’s lost all his money and you know
this trainer that everybody thinks is
garbage it’s like all these all of these
losers coming together and then he wins
everything right yeah I love that that’s
it’s a belief I’ve always been believed
right I just never really understood it
and now that makes it so much easier for
me to guide a path that is true to me
and what I want to accomplish and it
makes accomplishing things so much
faster and so much easier then my
business is taken off since I’ve
embraced it and I’ve seen similar
results with other people who have taken
on their word and had success so I’m a
big fan so it seems like that’s your
message and you found you a message
you’ve always been about to leave but
like someone else that wants to start
their own message or their own brands
would you would you recommend they go
with their own you know domain name and
use their own name or or come up with a
name what’s what’s your understanding of
that what advice would you give to
someone who’s thinking about that um I
guess it depends on what you’re you know
what you’re trying to accomplish if
you’re trying to do anything personal I
love the idea of having a personal name
because your business will change it’s
going to change you know my business is
not the business that I had 10 years ago
it’s a lot different even though it’s
still my chemical calm and as you grow
and as you learn and as your interest
change you your business should always
be a reflection of what you’re what
you’re interested in if it’s not your
business will suffer right if your
interests are it happened to me right
you’re your interests are somewhere else
and your business is here it’s not going
to be fulfilling not going to have
success you’re not going to have as much
impact as you could have if you align
your interest with your business and
that for a lot of people it starts off
fully aligned and then the challenge
becomes the entrepreneurs interest
changes to go here and the business
still is on this path so if you have a
name that’s off of your own personal
name it’s whatever you want it to be
right if you go back in the internet
archive to look at what my website used
to look like it’s changed man it’s
changed many many many many many times
so that’s if you’re building anything
related to your own personal brand and
it’s definitely best to have your own
personal name if you can get it right I
mean all of the means you got a great
one man i’m jealous Sam berry that’s a
good day I was it was so hard to get I
waited until it expired and then I was
on it every day until I there because
there’s a lot of Sam berries out there
yeah that’s three syllables that’s a
great domain name yeah there’s an irish
tennis player there’s um there’s an
author who lives out in San Francisco um
and yeah I got it very lucky to get it I
want to I want to ask you now about your
vision which is believed but
should should you be totally passionate
about your vision in order to make that
vision part of your business like how do
you hold yourself accountable to your
vision oh uh I think it’s really a gut
check with everything that you’re doing
right like does this feel right you know
um the bigger challenge I think becomes
when you bring on a team because you
know what feels right you know if you’re
the only something for the reason you
know if it feels comfortable and you
know this is the right thing to do where
it’s not the right thing to do you know
not and doing something not because you
know you’re afraid to do it is different
if you’re afraid to do it and you don’t
do it that’s you should go do it you
don’t do it because of fear you do it
you don’t do it because it doesn’t fit
with you personally so I think I think
you like most people have a pretty good
compass know you’re doing the right
thing or not um I think is you bring on
a team though it becomes if you don’t
articulate that right if your team
doesn’t understand that you’re about
believe or about whatever then it
becomes a lot harder to make good
decisions you know you look at most
companies they all say they’re guided by
core values right every company has a
core value uh how many people do you
think could actually named the core
values of their business you know could
the CEO even name the ten core values of
the business you know probably not and
so that makes it hard to have this
operating philosophy if you’re not all
working from the same page so will
regularly look at projects and say is
this is this believe or not right is
this this contribute to our mission and
what we’re trying to do you know our
goal is to help a billion entrepreneur
so you know through the website in the
channel everything that I’m doing I want
to reach a billion entrepreneurs and and
by you saying that like by you saying
you want to reach a billion
entrepreneurs it’s like I i resonate
with that you know I want I want to help
you reach more entrepreneurs so
like when you put a such a great
intention in the world others connect
with that um what are your intentions
like reaching a billion entrepreneurs
helping them start their own businesses
yeah i wanna i want to help people live
their dreams main and I mean that sounds
really maybe airy-fairy um more and more
I want to help people who want to have
an impact you know like people who are
trying to do something not just you know
if you’re an entrepreneur you’re trying
to make money and this is a this is a
real challenge I signed up i’ll give you
a story um there’s a local Toronto
organization that asked me if I would
mentor some entrepreneurs and I said uh
you know it’s part of my mission I’m
happy to mentor entrepreneurs but has to
be the right fit for me cuz I’m not
that’s time you know I’m happy to meet
with somebody for coffee but a
mentorship is an ongoing relationship
and so some of them I haven’t found the
right person in short because all of
them are doing it just trying to make
money or just trying to avoid their job
or whatever and I’m happy to sit down
and I’m happy to give you advice and
I’ll give you practical advice to help
you grow your business but where I want
to invest my personal time and energy
and really connect with whatever project
I’m working on is that person has to
have a bigger mission to want to do
something positive somehow that that
gets me excited man that’s what I want
to work on I’m helping people want to
change the world and positive ways
somehow and I’ve been fortunate to work
with the number of people who are who
are doing that but more and more that is
what excites me I love helping on I
could talk to entrepreneurs all day long
I go to a conference and it’s it’s like
it gives me energy I’m talking to you
it’s like nine o’clock at night i’m
getting energy like you are giving me
energy it’s not draining at all but at
the same time you know I want to have a
really huge impact on the world and so
I’m trying to focus my time on picking
projects and working with people where I
feel like I can reach people who will do
something really positive in the
world great and when you started looking
this ties right in when you started
making YouTube videos with your message
how did they turn out and how did you
get them to be to the song is like my
first vid even sucked so hard but we’ll
have that in the show notes yeah we’ll
have your first video and yeah I
actually did a video about a month ago
of me looking back on my first videos
and it’s it’s just it’s terrible um okay
so yeah I started doing video because
I’m a visual learner like I I I learned
better from seeing something and reading
it or hearing it just my style and so I
wanted to be able to help other people
learn that as well my first videos were
famous entrepreneur success stories this
thing that saved my business that
software company was making three
hundred dollars a month and then I
turned it around the thing that saved me
was when I hit bottom and realized that
I’m not the first guy to try to sell
software before and I looked at
Microsoft and Bill Gates and how he did
it and said hey maybe I can apply his
strategy to my business and grow and
Microsoft dated all through partnerships
some I started forming partnerships and
I for the first time started making
started having some success and when I
had my first partnership check for 13
and a half thousand dollars that was
like yeah man I’m rolling I’m rolling
yeah so the videos i started making just
just as a resource right like i wish
this was around when I was getting
started and I was trying to build up my
business um but they suck the content
was great eyesight you know the delivery
was terrible I’m nervous you know I’m
trying to memorize something but it’s
like anything else I mean any skill you
pick up the first time you do it you’re
gonna suck you’re going to make mistakes
especially if nobody’s teaching
what to do you’re just trying um but I
just like with it man it’s my bday hmm
but like I mean you’ve got some pretty
good videos now and you know you’ve
built your YouTube channel and you’ve
got a lot of followers but was there any
luck did you just hack your way into it
ah actually any other people were you
inspired by others so it’s a it’s a
combination of one I’m just sticking
with it you know I kept making videos uh
and to a big shift came when i got my
agent so i have an agent who represents
me who books me he got me the book deal
speaking gigs that kind of stuff and
part of what they do is training so we
looked at my videos and say okay you
know you got the work ethic you’ve got a
you’ve got a good message but you are
terrible on camera I thought I thought
it was pretty good you know like I’ve
been doing this man I got it I got like
seven hundred videos up man i’m rocking
it when he’s like no no no you’re really
bad um and he almost didn’t love this is
an interesting story because he almost
didn’t let me into the agency they
usually work with people who already
have a bigger presence already good on
camera and they help them develop a
platforms like you’re a celebrity you’ve
got a platform you’ve got lots of people
following you but you don’t have a
message so we’ll help you get your
message that you can reach a wider
audience I was the opposite where I
didn’t have a huge following but I had a
message and I wasn’t a celebrity yet and
I wasn’t great on camera so they had to
make an investment in me in to making my
videos better um so I barely got in but
then for the next couple months I like
everything they told me I did man I did
version after version you know he wanted
me to create my creation story which is
why I’m doing this why as is important
to me I must have done like 20 versions
of that I would record it he would tear
it to shreds
and I do it again like the next day okay
here it is again you tear it to shreds
and I just I just do it I take all the
information they gave me and and within
three months I became the best practice
at the agency I’m consulting the other
guys at the agency now and how to build
a YouTube channel and get people it’s
crazy and it’s because I put in the work
right like most of these guys they
struggle to get one video up per week
it’s like oh I got I don’t know what I’m
going to do it I don’t have the time I
got to figure that I’m putting up 14
videos a week right like I’m hustling
and I’m getting better and I’m listening
to the feedback and putting that in and
so uh you know i don’t i don’t really
have the natural talent for it i just
put in a ton of work and I listen to to
the wisdom of people who knew what they
were talking about like if I did that
earlier I spent years just on my own
doing whatever I’m not not doing what
what i recommend modeling success right
i was just doing whatever now here i had
a coach to help guide me and my channel
took off like we’ve five million views
almost on the channel um well we’re
going to pass that probably this month
so yeah man it’s been a huge rod and you
can see the mark like when I started
working with my agent and started
training and putting the practice in I
got a lot better hmm do you outsource
your video editing work or do you do it
yourself I so I’m a big believer are not
spending money till I’m making money I
hate spending money till I’m making
money anybody can spend money it’s easy
to spend money and so at the start I
didn’t even buy a camera right I had no
gear i just use whatever I had right
like a flip cam and some of my first
videos I just put the flip cam up on the
on the counter on my shelf and then
press record and I did it too quickly so
you can see the flip cam like it’s
wobbling a little bit and so you see the
camera moving and I’m moving like this
in the camera anyway I didn’t notice
because it’s such a little camera but
yep so many entrepreneurs don’t do that
they go in they buy the gear they buy
I’m gonna start a t-shirt business so
they buy all the t-shirts and then they
get tired of it or bored or sick of it
whatever and then they have this
basement or closet or garage full of
crap that they don’t use anymore so I
didn’t want to be that guy so I did
everything myself I used the gear that i
had i started with windows movie maker
which is a free program within windows i
taught myself how to edit you know
wasn’t good but it was it was there it
was up from there I moved to Camtasia
when I had a little more comfort in what
I was doing and you know that has more
features but if I just jump straight to
that I would have been frustrated and
gotten lost and then after I started
making some money from my channel the
first thing I did was hire an editor and
you know allows me to spend my time
doing what I’m better at which is
speaking and filming and being on camera
as opposed to being the guy behind the
scenes editing the stuff um and so now I
have an editor and I had to switch over
but she Christina’s my editor and she
she takes the video she puts the intro
the extra background music zooms pans
you know cuts the supposing to be in
there she’ll post to the channel she’ll
schedule it shall add the tags at the
description like all of the stuff that
needs to get done that isn’t the best
use of my time she does that but but I
started myself man it’s hustle you get
it up there make some money from it and
then expand hmm interesting but I want
to go into like the person listening to
this right now he’s probably thinking I
have a message I want to get that out
but I’ve got bills to pay I’ve got you
know a little mouths to feed you know
how can how can they how can they put
their message out to the world start
part time you know I don’t you don’t
have to dive all in it’s another huge
mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is
they quit their job they go all in you
know you
three months of savings it takes longer
than you think it’s going to take and
then you’re back out trying to get a job
because your business didn’t work start
part-time figure out so a lot of people
don’t know what their message is so if
you’ve already figured that out you’re
ahead of the game on a lot of people um
start part time on a project that
excites you you know I love video
YouTube is my favorite place to be I
love it I love the comments I love
making the videos I you know you ask you
to do an interview so I said hey can we
do it on YouTube you know like I love
you too but yeah not everybody’s YouTube
they’re not a youtuber right so find
what you love and start doing it part
time you know yeah you’re looking at
even you and your believe show right
it’s something you’re testing out it’s
not a you’re not you’re not doing it
full time yet you’re not interviewing
somebody every hour right you’ve got
other time and your day to do other
stuff and you’ll explore you know why
did you do this show because you want to
learn from people right you want to get
their experience and you want to share
that and help other people in the
process too so fine for the people
listening you don’t know what to do yet
you know you have this job that you hate
and you want to have a positive impact
somehow start something small start
something part-time start something on
the side and explore and build it up to
the point where you’re making some money
from it so that you can then afford to
quit your job hmm do you believe that
everybody has a message to share um it’s
a good question i think so i don’t know
i’m a positive optimistic guy um do the
do the trolling guys who these comments
on YouTube do they have a positive
message to share uh maybe you know
probably probably i think a lot of
people need a lot of help to figure that
out to recognize that they are important
and have an important message to share
again because their environment holds
them back you know the environment
environment is it’s just killer and it
kills so many dreams and so many ideas
and so many messages that same person
who’s troll
on youtube you know in a different
environment could be doing something
really amazing so yes and my answer is
yes everybody has a message to share do
you have a philosophy on giving back um
yeah give back like hey I made through
charity or even to give away contents
just giving like giving back to people
yeah I you know it’s not something that
necessarily impose on others um I think
it just feels good you know it feels
good to help others it feels good to
give back uh you’ll have people on two
sides you know so they’ll be the people
who don’t give back who you know I’m not
given to that guy on the street he
should use a lazy bombers you’ll get a
job right you know people with that
mindset and they live in a mindset of
scarcity and and we’ll never have
abundance because they that’s their
that’s the mindset that they they have
but then you’ll have the other people
too who are who are almost too generous
and almost to giving back to charity and
like you have to run a business to right
and by by being a successful
entrepreneur by having a successful
business it allows you to give back more
right so to be entrepreneur is it not
true a friend of mine I’m thinking of in
particular who who always had the sauce
but I always wanted to take on these
projects for clients who couldn’t afford
him and he spent his time and his team’s
time to help them but then he can never
grow his business and he had the he had
to lose his employees because he
couldn’t afford to pay them but if he
built his business up and he eventually
did to make some money right then he
could afford to hire those people and
afford to take on more charity projects
so I think I think giving back is
important i think i think everybody who
does yo just doing things that help or
the people is important and doing things
that make you feel good is important
so you know I do a lot of giving back if
it’s consulting or if it’s giving you
know we do a lot of work with Kiva which
is a charity that I’m connected to but I
don’t know i think it’s just part of
being a a good human being is helping
other people hmm what are you currently
working on I am currently working on
some exciting stuff uh what can i
disclose it’s like I’m I’m just signing
a book deal which has been super
exciting we’ve just been negotiating
this week and we close that off so I’m
not allowed to say much about that but
it’s coming it’s coming and I’m also
working on a special project on YouTube
to help build this might be like the
first public announcement of it hmm Sam
Barry break some exclusives there yeah
I’m working on a project called mission
which is a new agency that I’m building
for youtubers who have an important
message to share who will have an
audience and who need help get it out
there a lot of youtubers you know they
only make money they only think they can
make money from adsense but there are
people with sizeable audiences who threw
the connections that I have we can get
them book deals we can get them on TV
shows or their own TV show we can get
them their own radio show we can get
them their own brand opportunities and
by doing that allows them to spread
their message even more so it’s it’s
getting youtubers who have an audience
but aren’t aren’t I I don’t want like a
stupid cat or the hey pinch this girl’s
butt prank video or whatever right like
people wouldn’t have a positive message
already and amplify that and giving them
resources and connections and tools to
be able to do that so that’s the between
the book and that project those are the
two things that I’m most focused on at
the moment and I’m excited man awesome
what are some of you
every quotes oh man my favorite quote um
I have a lot but I don’t know if this
one that I can memorize I’m the one that
I used to have on on my wall with some
Calvin Coolidge who was the president of
the US nobody really knows from Calvin
Coolidge’s I guess a lesser-known
president um and I don’t remember the
exact quotes but it was it was about
pressing on and it was saying that
persistent son loan is omnipotent and it
was saying that you know doesn’t matter
if you’re you don’t have to be a genius
you don’t have to be rich you don’t have
to have all these things that most
people think you need to be successful
the things that solve the problems of
the world are you going to work and
solving them and being persistent and
that was something that I really took
the heart and really enjoyed now my
favorite quote what’s my favorite quote
there’s one about the bird this one
keeps coming back i made a t-shirt of it
I should go find the t-shirt and put it
on but there’s there’s a bird sitting on
a tree and the bird isn’t afraid of
falling because his trust is not in the
branch but his trust is in his own wings
mmm yeah that’s great it’s believed in
Rick’s laughs hmm um so that that’s the
quote that I like it’s responding
somebody here that’s the quote that I
like uh the most I think when it comes
down to like one of my favorite quotes
what would I put on a t-shirt why would
I put on a coffee mug or whatever that’s
what I would that’s what I probably
would say yeah I love a lot of cool love
quotes man i got you look at my videos
are full of quotes are there any books
that have helped shape your journey the
book that I like the most where is my
books here ah there’s two we’re so hot
in here somewhere anyway um my favorite
book is still the 4-hour workweek Tim
Ferriss everybody would know that one on
and I actually don’t necessarily agree
with some of the things in it um the
idea of having them use the idea of
having something that just makes you
money and that you can then go off and
do whatever I you know I’m much more a
believer in that you want to spend your
effort you want to be in business that
you want to go and do something and you
want to have meaning in your work and
and Tim himself dude works crazy hours
right like that my guy is not because
you get bored of it right like I did
that when you travel it sounds like the
luxury life but it’s it gets boring I
promise you you want to come back and
you want to do something meaningful and
so pour that into your work and so that
that side is maybe a little it doesn’t
agree with me but the rest of it the the
the productivity the outsourcing the
tools and the training it was like the
first time I’d been exposed to any of
that kind of stuff and so I really I
really enjoyed it the other one is
really lesser-known it’s called radicals
and visionaries by Thaddeus wall row and
it’s put up by entrepreneur press and
all it is is a collection of famous
entrepreneur stories this is the
precursor to my website it’s a book of
famous entrepreneur stories and in like
four pages talks about each entrepreneur
so show Jeff Bezos and four pages of how
he started in his lesson and then Donald
Trump and four page and so like super
quick digestible information but but
motivating and inspiring and I used to
read a page or a chapter four pages
every morning just as a because I had
nothing in my environment that was
entrepreneurial so I had to make it and
so I was i surrounded myself with Jeff
Bezos and Donald Trump and these guys
are now I’d never met them but they’re
part of my surrounding so that won’t
have a profound impact on me those two
are with the top two hmm do you value
mentals yeah a lot man mall in success
and I think mentorship comes in two
forms one is a traditional mentor that
most people think of right
somebody you can bounce ideas off of
somebody that you know like like my
video training that I get from my agency
right they mentored me I got way better
I’ve seen the results and so that
definitely helps in my first business I
have a mentor who you know who helped
guide us a little bit so definitely
helps that’s what most people think of
but you can also be mentored by people
you’ve never met like Bill Gates was my
first real business mentor I’ve never
met him maybe one day I will but he was
my mentor like he saved me you know he
gave me hope he gave me advice he gave
me counsel you know I would I would I
would even like this might sound crazy
but you know I was desperate i would i
would even imagine myself like i would
meditate i would imagine Here I am you
know in a white room when there’s bill
gates and then like what do I ask him
right and what’s the advice he gives me
right I was trying to surround myself
with that kind of thinking so that I
could escape the lowly life that I had
and it worked and so mentorship is super
important and and the traditional
mentorship process is super important
but you know you creating the show you
are now a mentor to other people right
and they mean not ever meet the famous
Sam berry but listening to your voice
you know every week as you do your shows
and following you on twitter you know
just having a little bit of Sam bear in
their life your mentoring them your
guiding them and so for people who don’t
feel like they have any mentors they’re
accessible man like watch videos read
books listen to these podcasts those
people can still mentor you and give you
the advice you need to get to where you
want to go do you have any favorite
podcasts I am NOT a podcaster I don’t
know as people tell me I should be just
taking my videos and turning them into
podcast I maybe I’m uh I’m ignorant to
the podcasting world I feel like video
is just a way better method to reach
people because of all the visual
learning that you get and because I’m a
visual guy
but I get the people driving to work and
they want to download a podcast and
listen to it so I do not have any
favorites the Sam Barry show is my
favorite podcast the only one I know but
it’s my favorite podcast fantastic
fantastic I know it’s not the same be
rich was believed by saying bully with
silver believe with San berries my
favorite podcast you could put that on
your website Evan Carmichael’s favorite
podcast the leave miss Embry what a
success mean to you success is doing
what I want to do when I want to do it
and being happy you know I think I do
not work well when I’m constrained when
I am forced to do things that I don’t
want to do I mean nobody likes to be
forced to do things I guess I didn’t
want to do but I’m particularly upset
and so I think success for me is is
success for me as being happy and being
happy for me is doing projects that I’m
excited about and I’m able to do when I
want to do them okay how do you overcome
obstacles um it’s a great question I
think what really helps me is to to
break down the obstacle into little
steps to things so that’s one like break
it down break this small thing usually
obstacles like a fear right if it’s not
a fear then it’s it’s a it’s a lack of
skill or lack of understanding in which
case you can go learn like my obstacle
is you know I can’t talk to somebody in
Chinese so i can go learn chinese you
know it’s it’s more that the mental ones
the mental blocks that are that hold
people back and it’s you know you see
this big thing and you don’t know how
you’re going to get there you know I
want to build a million-dollar business
but nobody my family’s ever done it and
I i’m in debt and i’m sleeping on my
friend’s couch so that seems like a huge
obstacle so you break it down and then
you try to find a small step that you
can
you can do that and say oh well that
little step most most entrepreneurs they
don’t take giant leaps they take and
most successful people they take they
just take a lot of small steps and most
people want to take the giant leap and
the frustrated that they can’t get there
and they don’t realize that it’s really
just a collection of tiny steps but
that’s done consistently and so whatever
that big obstacle is that you’re trying
to reach you know go here and then you
have the confidence you get that done
you can go here go here and go here the
other thing that that I find helps is
reminding myself why I’m doing it I have
I have a fear of letting people down you
know I don’t like letting people down it
kills me so that’s why if I if I commit
to somebody to do something I always do
it you know we have a session you know
you said tonight we’re gonna meet 830 I
was early right I’m always early I’m
never late you know and I’m reluctant to
tell people I’m gonna do something
because I know what I do it I’m gonna
have to deliver so this this is my fear
of letting people down and um as a
result it gets in my way sometimes when
I will secretly hope that people will
cancel on me because I don’t want to let
them down so an example last year I went
to Malaysia so the Malaysian government
wanted to fly me over to talk about
believe and and I was kind of secretly
hoping that Oh Evan you know the events
cancelled and you know you don’t have to
worry about coming on and it’s like oh
what a relief I don’t have to i don’t
think it because I’m worried that my
presentation may not be enough valuable
enough but I want to let them down even
on some phone calls with with normal
entrepreneurs right people who are
looking to me for guidance I would
secretly sometimes hope that they would
email me before and say Evan I can’t
make it I’ve got some conflict so that
you know because I’m worried that I may
not be able to give them advice um this
is like in my own thing that I I’m
afraid of but but then it always ends up
great right like the presentation of
Malaysia was a
amazing we were trending on Twitter
nationally for my presentation and calls
with people go amazingly well um and so
it’s reminding myself that hey like I
can add value here I love this stuff
you’re going to like it when you get
into it it’s just all the fear and panic
leading up to it so so those two things
right like breaking down the big steps
into little micro steps to give you
confidence to go and then reminding
yourself while you’re doing it because I
will give you more boldness and more
courage right like this is a step to get
to where you want to go so suck it up
let’s do this thing because I’m you’re
going to enjoy it and it’s going to get
you closer to your goal and I find those
two things help me with obstacles at
least in my life and we could keep good
we could keep going all day on this
seriously I have a couple more questions
I don’t want to take up too much of your
time what are some resources and
anything else that you’d like to add to
help people ah resources to help people
I think I think it could be a youtube
videos as well yeah I think I think the
biggest um the biggest resource that
that you can have is you and maybe this
is cliche or whatever but it’s yourself
and finding whatever my whenever i’m
going to try something new my process is
I try to find someone who has already
done it model success so whatever
obstacle you have whatever goal you have
you’re an entrepreneur your your you
want to be a singer you want to be you
want to be a you want to be a VP
whatever whatever your goal is you have
ambitions you have aspirations find
someone who’s done it and go and learn
from them and and they maybe have they
have a book out maybe they’re giving a
talk at some event maybe they have a
youtube channel it’s really the fastest
way to learn is to model that success
for you know the entrepreneur world um
I’m a fan of my channel obviously you
know I just launched a new series
I found that you know I find with
entrepreneurs maybe it’s just me but I
find with a lot of entrepreneurs you
need to start your starting from scratch
every day you know like you could be on
top of the world you know you listen to
the San Barry believe show and and
you’re on fire and like yeah I’m now I’m
going to go rock it and then you’re
killing it for a couple hours is bed
time you go to sleep in the next day you
wake up and it it’s like what happened
it’s gone that the mojo is gone right
and so I felt like there needs to be
some I wish there were something that
but there was this morning thing that I
could watch it gets me energized and
gives me ideas it makes me want to think
bigger and makes me stretch my comfort
zone a little bit um and I said that to
enough people I said that to myself
enough that i just created it I was so
frustrated that there was nothing that I
created it so I’ve launched a new
morning series on my youtube channel
that seven a.m. eastern every day is a
new famous entrepreneur nugget of wisdom
this is like 3-4 minutes long but the
idea is to like kick start your day and
help get you you know ready to go for
whatever challenges you have a head um
so I like that series for me even if
nobody else watches it I don’t care I
want to watch that every morning uh from
other I mean I’m all in on youtube and
and I jest a lot of YouTube a lot of the
stuff that I’m learning is specific to
what I want to get better at so you know
I follow video creators and Darryl eaves
on youtube because I want to get better
with my youtube videos so they’ll
they’ll talk about trends on YouTube and
titles and all the things you need to
worry about there’s a guy subscribe to
the learn new salsa moves because i am a
salsa dancer there’s a guy subscribe to
who teaches me about League of Legends
because I’m a league of legends player
you know so a lot of the learnings and
resources that I use are very selfish
and personal and probably wouldn’t be of
interest to a lot of the people watching
but but the what is of interest I guess
is like find your own like whatever you
are excited about whatever you want to
learn whatever you want to get better at
find someone who’s
teaching that and go learn from them hmm
and my final question which I like to
ask my guests is how can we get more
people to believe in themselves mm
mm-hmm it’s a good question i think i
think the biggest thing that holds
people back as we talked about before is
their environment you know the people in
their lives the books that they read the
podcasts that they listen to the TV
shows they watch your environment holds
you where you are it holds you where you
are you’re likely to be as successful as
your parents are you’re likely to be as
successful as your friends are that’s
that’s the environment that you’re in
and so if you’re in a non believe
environment that’s what you’re likely
going to grow up with and what happens
to a lot of people is it gets parked by
something you know they go to a Tony
Robbins session or you know they watch a
specific video and they get inspired and
or they wake up in the middle the night
and have this dream right like I here’s
what I want to do and they have a moment
of boldness a moment of boldness we’re
like now this is my path this is where I
want to go you know now I believe in
myself I think I can do it but
everything else in their environment
sucks everything else in their
environment holds them where they are
and so if you want to believe in
something bigger if you want to believe
in a bigger dream if you want to believe
in yourself more you need to surround
yourself with people and things that
make that happen make that part of your
environment so so do a hard check right
the simple stuff is okay look at look at
the videos that you watch look at the
youtube channels you want to look at the
podcast you listen to you know start
listening to the to believe with Sam
berry you want to believe more listen to
believe with Sam very right those are
easy things to start changing you can
look at your physical environment right
so like something up on the wall right
where’s my Steve Jobs quote or what
ever writes start to feel that energy
right what’s on your desktop background
what’s on your phone right what are
those things that you’re surrounded by
constantly the next level up the harder
part is the people in your life right
your friends your family the people you
hang out with do they support you and
help you become better or do they keep
you where you are and that’s you know
those are tough decisions man do you cut
somebody out of your life because
they’re holding you back you know I’m
not a relationship guy but it’s an
important thing if you want you know the
fastest way to learn Japanese is go to
Japan right it’s not too it’s not that
it’s not to get the memorized Japanese
app and figure it out right it’s going
to take you years and years and years
and you probably won’t commit to it
right because there’s one little thing
that’s Japanese in your life and nothing
else is your friends will speak Japanese
there’s no Japanese in the wall you
don’t watch japanese TV show so you’re
likely never going to learn japanese
even if you were inspired one day and
it’s deep in there somewhere you want to
learn japanese you’re never going to do
it where if you go to Japan you’ll pick
it up in a couple months because you’re
forced to because everything around you
is Japanese you have no choice so if you
want to believe it’s the same thing you
know the believe app on your phone that
you load once a week will give you
little sparks but it’s not enough you
have to create an entire environment
around you that helps you want to
accomplish your big goal yeah it’s been
a pleasure Evan thank you for being on
the show thanks man anytime I love it
cool mr. live what’s that still a lot
yeah we’re still a lot one question cuz
Justin asked me and I just robot this
and he’ll answer you at the end of the
session cool um we can answer questions
yeah yeah yeahs suggestion was asking me
XO guys if you want to ask a question I
guess you can you can post there in the
chat but just was asking what would have
been my profession I guess when we were
talking about my
when I had the job offers and I turned
them down all my life I wanted to be a
banker all my life I wanted to be a
banker if you look at my high school
yearbook they always ask you like hey
where you going to be in 10 years I said
I was going to be a VP at a bank that’s
that’s that’s what I thought my career
path changed a little bit in university
when I connected with these two
entrepreneurs and join their business
but again nothing in my environment was
really entrepreneurial so so the jobs
were going to be in the banking field
one was one was with merrill lynch which
in investment banking which I thought I
always want to be and the other was
little aside is with McKinsey Consulting
which is a strategic consulting company
um I had an interest in that and I just
I just like business and the thought
maybe it’d be a good fit there um so
that those were the two and yeah I yeah
Michael Dell was another great story
about that were they he was in med
school and he wanted to start his own
business and his parents said no because
you’re gonna be a doctor how do you go
up against your parents and he said give
me a summer to try this I’m gonna make
computers and sell them give me a summer
to try and he got them to agree for
summer and then he made he made the
business take off and that summer and
then he never went back to school um so
yeah up until like third year of
university I thought I was going to be a
banker wow so sad how sad would I be
Evan the banker man I would want to be
pulling my eyes out and because I’ve had
friends now come back like my friends
from University who took those jobs that
I was thinking about taking we now say
Evan I’m dying here I want to start a
business how do I do it a guy literally
came back and we had a coffee and I
helped coach him a university buddy of
mine on how he could start his business
because he hated his life and his job
and I was so grateful that man that was
almost
yeah stuck in a cubicle wanting to just
yeah take your life yeah oh uh well my
wife is going to come home soon from
dancing so probably better to end it off
here and then I guess for people
watching my part of it you guys can go
check out Sam very calm I think it’s in
is it in the description yeah it’s in
the description Sam very calm and what
is this going to go on your podcast so
this will go live in July so will be
available in the iTunes Store in itunes
it’s free to listen to everything we’ve
been talking about will be in the show
notes so everything that Evan was
mentioning will be available in the show
notes for reference thank you very much
oven cool there’s one question I know if
it’s for me or for you I I will check
out Thai Lopez yeah yeah I’ve checked
out by Lopez um I think I just subscribe
to his channel today um this is a
service called tubular labs which
analyzes YouTube channels and it tells
you uh it looks at your audience and
then it tells you what other channels
has overlapped with your audience so
like people who are watching my channel
also watch these people’s channels and
Tai Lopez was like one of the top ten so
my audience and his are similar like ten
percent of my audience overlaps with
ties oh that’s interesting I gotta check
out who this guy is um I think Scott’s I
commented on a video of his today he’s
got some good stuff I think his thing is
you went from you know sleep on some
guy’s couch to having a Lamborghini and
how I’ve only watched one video and i
left the comment on it today but that
may be a guest like that could be a good
opportunity yeah yeah yeah you could
tell them I am greater said that Tai
Lopez is somebody to be checked there
someone we checked out definitely i’ll
invite him on the show cool
oh yeah that’s fine all right well
thanks Sam thank you everybody for
watching have a great evening or day for
those Australians and continue to
believe believe that’s it the only way
that’s here cheers yes
another google+ hangout i’m excited to
be here this is a slightly different
time than usual it’s nighttime it’s 830
here in Toronto I’ve got a special guest
with me Sam berry who has a podcast
where he interviews entrepreneurs and he
asked if he could interview me for his
podcast so I said sure why not let’s
turn it into a Google+ Hangout I’m so
Sam it’s Sam Barry calm you guys can go
check that out later and I’m gonna I’m
going to turn it over the same and we’re
gonna pretend like it’s his show it’s
his podcast and I am the guest on his
show so Sam let’s do it r11 let’s do it
welcome to believe you’re a mute that
man Barry who has a podcast where
interviews entreprise you gotta close
the window so I said sure why not let’s
don’t watch don’t watch the livestream
because there’s a delay how do i turn it
off just close close a YouTube page keep
this window open and close to YouTube
page you don’t need to see it the
diamond oh that was really confusing but
I’m thankfully we’re back we’re back
into it all right welcome to believe I’m
the host Sam Barry and we’re hanging out
today with my friend Evan Carmichael
from Evan mark Carmichael calm and I
just want to briefly talk about Evan and
he at 19 he built and sold a biotech
software company 22 it was a venture
capitalist helping raise between 500,000
to 15 million dollars in venture capital
now runs Evan Carmichael calm one of the
world’s most popular website for
entrepreneurs and I’m very pleased to
have Evan on the show thank you very
much ever thanks for having me man I’m
excited
and likewise um you know you and I both
share a similar vision and that vision
that we’re really going to talk about on
today’s episode is belief and believing
in ourselves as entrepreneurs and a just
as people doing something different in
the world and sharing our mission and
our message in the world I think it’s
important to believe and we’re similar
on that level where I feel that people
really need to believe in themselves and
you’ve helped inspire me name this show
I’m a fan of the name believe I Stanbury
I like it and so I want to really ask
you like have you always had a strong
belief in yourself from the beginning oh
wow dude he goes deep on the first
question um have I always had a strong
belief in myself I think um you know I
credit my parents a lot for that I don’t
know if I always had a you know a lot of
self-confidence um I remember one of my
earlier memories was at school my I’ve
two sisters I have an older sister and a
younger sister and and they always did
way better than me at school and every
time we had a report card that came in
I’d have to go and sit with my parents I
knew it was time for the talk the report
card talk and yeah I didn’t fail but it
wasn’t up to my parents standards for
where I should be and my mother’s last
name is Cass truly and my middle name is
Chris truest was Evan kiss Julie
Carmichael and my parents used to always
sit me down and tell me that I was a
kiss truly Carmichael and that I could
do it and they didn’t didn’t chastise me
and they didn’t um didn’t you know did
it make me feel bad they always try to
make me they always try to make me
believe they always try to instill that
self confidence in me until my last year
of high school where my expectations of
myself were beyond what my parents
expectations of me were so I don’t know
what happened um what sparked that
change but in my last year of high
school I had just more more expectations
on what I should be doing than even what
my family put on me um but I think you
know growing up I had I had you know I
was I didn’t like doing things
necessarily by the book might have been
a bit of a problem child a bit of a bit
of a rebel nothing too crazy nothing
illegal or anything okay it’s it’s okay
like oh yeah but but I think they gave
me that they gave me a lot of confidence
in myself you know making me feel like a
you work is really Carmichael you can do
this whatever problem comes your way you
you know it’s in your blood to be able
to be successful and overcome those
challenges so they’re really reinforced
that certainty or that confidence in
your personality from a young age yeah
as far back as I can remember my parents
were always really supportive of
everything I was doing and made me feel
like I could do anything mm-hmm that’s
very important like to plot character
building is it from a young age to when
you become an adult I think that it’s
very important I mean how does that work
into bringing that into your personal
brand like what we doing before you
started Evan Carmichael calm I mean we
did briefly talk about it in the intro
but um what led you to start this
believe campaign sure uh and i started i
started my business 11 carmical calm
before i came up with belief believe
came afterwards a couple years
afterwards so it wasn’t like I’m
starting with this and here we go um my
how did I start my business career yeah
I was always I was always the
entrepreneur hustler growing up always a
entrepreneur hustler selling baseball
cards and
you know always had some business going
on my earliest business was when I was
five years old and my sister was three
and we we drew a bunch of you know
pictures and we went door-to-door
selling our art for five cents or ten
cents or you know whatever we could get
so I’ve always been involved in some
kind of venture of some kind the the
first kind of real venture that started
to take off or had some success with was
a software company that I was in
University and with two business
partners who are also the same
University and I went through a lot of
you know struggle and failure with that
but ended up selling it to a big company
and having Klein’s like NASA and johnson
Johnson and that was my first like put
my stamp on actually having a successful
successful business not just talking
baseball cards or whatever I was trying
to sell the time um and it was through
that process where uh you know I had it
was it was one of the highlights of my
life is being able to build that and
sell it but it was also the worst day of
my life I within building that business
as I had the worst day of my life where
I told my business partner that I quit
and we were disagreeing and I almost I
almost failed like we almost failed uh
and when I sold my business and I had
success i started my website just as a
resource for other entrepreneurs to try
to help them not go through the same
failure and struggle that I went through
you know I turned down big jobs jobs at
a couple years earlier I wanted to go
two jabs at my my classmates at
University all were were you know
fighting for jobs that would pay me like
80 hundred thousand dollars starting
salary and finally around the world
working on exciting projects to do this
business where I’m now making three
hundred dollars a month and eating beans
for lunch every day and you know can’t
afford to
go for drinks with my buddies and me
being too embarrassed to say hey guys I
can’t afford the ten dollars for you
know a beer and a side of fries uh like
that’s that’s low low you know I didn’t
say that i would say like oh yeah I’m
busy like I’m living the entrepreneur
life right I I leave those big jobs to
do my own thing so this pride in that
and and I was embarrassed um and so I
didn’t want to have I I don’t know I
felt I felt like this should be easier
for people I felt like I wished I had
somebody to help me on my path and i
started my website just as a resource
for other entrepreneurs as a result of
selling my business i was 22 when i sold
it uh and i got asked to do a whole
bunch of speaking and the website was
also like where’s i’ve been speaking
where am i going to be at UH so that you
know that’s that site started when I was
like 22 years old and I am I am 35 in
May and believe is maybe two years old
maybe hey interesting so I think doing
this like helping entrepreneur thing for
a long time but believe is a really new
addition to it and I was always been
part of me but I never really understood
it and internalize it and use that to
really help propel my business forward
okay that’s very interesting and has
that propelled your business for would
have people connected with that message
of belief oh so much man it’s it’s uh
it’s so powerful ah the first thing I
did was I said okay I thought it was too
too big like who believe you know
believe is such a yeah big word You Know
Who am I delusionary yeah and so I just
did a full a small test like I had to
prove that it that this would work um
now I’m all-in right like you may see
the all in heaven and
posting stuff everywhere and making the
videos and I’m fully like fully
confident behind it you know I got that
got the shirt on there and yeah I’m all
in on it I have no shame uh and it’s
easy to attract people because it was
confidence with it but my first thing
when i first started it I you know I
didn’t know I just was searching for
something to help me better define what
I was doing and my first task was with
my newsletter I had an oozer that I sent
out every week to my audience and I said
you know why it’s a newsletter the
fantastic newsletter by the way thank
you right for that I said this news that
are gonna make about believe and just
we’ll see what happens and it was the
highest response rate that I ever had on
any of my newsletters and my sister
wrote to me to say I actually read your
newsletter this time like wow Thank You
Stephanie but so that mean like hey I’m
onto something and so then I started I
showed her all these little test they
started then okay I’m gonna make a
little tweak on my website I’m going to
post a little bit the social media and
everything I tested would believe
because it was so much you know I had
passion and heart that went into it it
had the best result of anything that I
was doing and so that helped convinced
me to hey I’m gonna go all in on this
and and it’s been crazy the results have
been crazy mm-hmm going back to that
point where you turned down those those
big jobs the eighty thousand a hundred
thousand dollars a year starting base
salary okay and and you know eating
beans and living off three hundred
dollars a month you know that starting
point when you took that leap of faith
to become an entrepreneur um I want to
talk about that was that hard was that a
hard choice to made make and what helped
you follow through with that yeah that’s
a great question so it was hard it was
hard because I don’t have entrepreneurs
I didn’t have entrepreneurs in my family
I didn’t have entrepreneurs in my
network my circles you know I don’t have
an uncle joe who is an entrepreneur
or was it was interesting for me like I
read about it but I didn’t have any my
environment was an entrepreneurial so
everything in my environment was telling
me hey Evan you gotta go you got this
great job it was more of my friends my
parents would be okay with whatever
whatever I wanted to do but my friends
are saying hey you got this job with
this huge company like I that’s the job
that they wanted and here I have this
opportunity like how i’m a retard you
know we shouldn’t use that word i’m
stupid for her not you know going after
that opportunity uh and at the same time
my business wasn’t taking off like i
started my business while i was in
university so i had time to get it going
and it wasn’t going right and i was
struggling and so you know how do how do
you even compare um and I went to do
some of the interviews just as like as
my fallback right like i wish i coulda
said I knew I knew all along I wasn’t
going to be successful I got for sure it
was easy turning that it was a it was
hard right and you know one of the
companies they flew me to New York and
put me up in the Waldorf Astoria and
took me around New York for a couple day
like it was full-on like here’s a major
opportunity to work at a serious company
and I had Jeff Bezos in my head and this
is the this is why it’s so important to
create an environment that makes you
want to be great uh whatever goals you
have whatever dreams you have you have
to surround yourself with that because I
had very little of it in my environment
where I was right everything in my
environment was was go get a job and
work for a big company for the rest of
your life that was my environment but I
watched some random video of Jeff Bezos
um and he was talking about living with
regret and why he started amazon com and
he said that with Amazon he was afraid
that he would live the rest of his life
in regret if you did
try it he was he was a the youngest-ever
vp at a firm like a banking firm Wall
Street firm and he was on the track to
be you know superstar in the field and
he left to do this thing on the internet
that like what’s the internet you can’t
sell books on the internet that’s a
stupid but such a stupid thing to do why
would you do this and he said I could
live with trying and failing but I
couldn’t live with not trying and then
rest of my life worrying and so what
helped me was like just having that one
thing right helps now like that pulls me
from my out of my environment to
something a little bit greater and that
that thought process gave me the courage
to say you know what I’m going to try
this for a year right I’m going to try
for a year I can always go back there’ll
be other job opportunities I may miss
out with this company but there’s others
I can go back to this path on a year but
I don’t want to live my life regretting
that I didn’t take the shot that I had
and I never went back so you know we’re
out and what’s up quite well so it
sounds like um you followed your gut
feeling you know your instinct on this
you took you did kind of taking a
calculated risk but also you followed
your intuition yeah and what’s helped me
ever since then is an advice that I give
to others is all the big decisions you
make with your heart and the small ones
with your head because oftentimes the
decision that’s right for you doesn’t
make any logical sense you know if you
wrote down on that sheet of paper to
compare eighty thousand dollars a year
and world travel and career
opportunities and three hundred dollars
a month and you know doesn’t make any
logical sense logically zero sense uh
but with all of the big decisions of
your life and it’s something that I then
tried to live through and that’s it’s
painful and it’s scary because you’re
taking a leap into the unknown but any
major important decision that you have
to take make it with your heart
and your gut and your passion what feels
right instead of trying to logically
make sense of it because the logic will
hold you back and prevent you from doing
something scary but that’s really the
path that you need to take yeah so like
how did you then monetize so you started
a personal brand you did make that leap
of faith how did it turn into an actual
viable business model yeah and this is
where believe came in so what happened
was choice you after I sold my software
company I made some money off of that
right so now I’m not I’m not I’m not
three hundred dollars a month you know
struggling anymore so I mean it’s great
i joined the venture capital firm sort
of raised in venture capital for
companies and i started using my website
as a tool to bring in leeds and people
then started to want to contribute
content to the site and as I became a
publisher then the content that i would
pick uh started gearing towards how many
eyeballs can I get because that’s the
publisher game how many eyeballs can I
get to my website i can sell out against
advertising and that’s how I make money
and so I started putting up content that
I wasn’t necessarily super in love with
but that drove a lot of traffic and
drove a lot of ad sales and allow me to
grow my team and I built I built my
business to having eight people off just
off my website selling ads and and then
I put the business almost on autopilot I
give it to my team to run because it
wasn’t fulfilling you know like okay
another top 10 whatever like I wasn’t a
part of it you know that the content
creation wasn’t exciting for me and I
spent my time doing things that I loved
which was helping entrepreneurs and
doing speaking engagements and things
that some of them made money and some of
them just like didn’t but I loved it
right like i would meet entrepreneurs
for coffee every day and yell startling
people ignorant they can’t they can’t
afford to pay you right like it’s not a
paying gig it’s just it my business
filled my financial need and and the the
stuff that i actually
you’d spent my time on feel a soulful
personal need um and then I got to the
point where like this is like how is my
business not not making me happy right
like how am i spending my time outside
my business it’s great like I didn’t
want the 4-hour workweek you know I
didn’t want to just set up something and
leave I wanted to enjoy my work right I
didn’t want to have something that then
I go off in vacation whatever gives you
get bored of that like it’s if you’re
stressed out and overworked the vacation
the traveling is awesome but then you
want to come back and have meaning right
you want to do something valuable and
meaningful that contributes to the world
and I felt like if I could somehow
combine these things where I have my
business that’s successful and my own
personal interest if I can mix oh soo
together I would have a lot more
personal satisfaction and I can have a
much bigger impact on the community and
on the world and so then I started
thinking well what is it like what’s
missing what do i stain for what is the
impact that I want to have what is the
change that I want to make and I
remember going to watch the jobs movie I
don’t know if you saw that movie with
Ashton Kutcher yeah that was the start
so whenever that came out you know I was
already kind of restless and you know
trying to figure things out but when the
job movie came out and I watched that
and I after that dug into every Steve
Jobs video resource everything the next
week was just like all in on Steve Jobs
um and he very much yeah you read the
book by walter isaacson the Steve Jobs
biography of his life yeah uh I don’t
know if I read that in that time I don’t
remember I don’t think I think he was
still alive yeah he was he was it was
just prior to him passing away but it’s
very in depth yeah I haven’t read so no
I don’t think I read it in that time but
I mean I tried to consume everything
steve jobs and jobs had this one video
that was really great that changed my
life
uh where he just came back from he was
fired from Apple he just came back and
he was talking about how what Apple
stood for like at the core what is Apple
all about and it’s not about making
boxes and make people’s lives easier
it’s about helping people change the
world with their technology and and Jobs
was never a money guy like he he was a
multi-millionaire in his early 20s yet
all the money he would ever need for the
rest of his life and he like till the
day he died was that Apple and why he
built it to be the most valuable company
in the world when his number one
motivation was not money that’s
interesting and so then I thought what I
like what how do I do this what’s what
do I stand for how do I bring that to
what I want to do to have a positive
impact and I sat down with a buddy of
mine Jason and we went for coffee and
and I was trying to cope with like a new
tagline or you have you know just
exploring you know I didn’t know what I
was doing and we came down with
something like I think was hungry
entrepreneurs deserve help that was what
I came up with that was like my new
tagline hungry entrepreneurs deserve
help yeah I think it does like summarize
what I’m all about but you know I don’t
know I started using it in some of my
videos and and it was okay but it didn’t
quite feel right yet um so just had to
rain down more ideas and more ideas and
uh one of the ideas i wrote down was the
word believe and i was just one idea
right and then the next morning I came
back when I like believe I let me work
with believe because believe on its own
is too simple I can’t just do believe I
got to do something more so he’s believe
believe you can do it believe in
yourself believable work believe all
these things and I looked at the list
that’s okay it’s okay and then I you
know went to bed again the next morning
I woke up is that you know why just I
just like believe hmm i don’t like
everything I like I just want believe
for whatever reason it just felt right
and then that’s when I started playing
with it and testing it and the more you
know as you make as you’re thinking
about decisions um I
fine you know the reason why you sleep
on it and I find like the more something
sits with you you’re really going to
like it more and more or you’re going to
dislike it more my we were talking about
this for the name of your show right
like it’s got to be something that you
come up with ideas you might like it
instantly but the next day you wake up
is a guy you know what I know I’m not
feeling that name as much and you lose
interest but the other names that the
more assists with you the more you like
it and the more you like it and it just
feels right and that was the case for me
with with believe um and then slowly
started incorporating to all the stuff
that I that I’m doing and I’ve had lots
of success and fun and so I encourage
entrepreneurs and not even entreprise I
guess everybody to defined I believe
this one word and I’m writing the book
on this but one word that defines
everybody that that ties everything in
your life together so believe you know
my favorites movie is Seabiscuit I don’t
know if you seen Seabiscuit about this
race horse that everybody counts out you
know it’s like it got injured and it’s
too small and you know all these things
and and it has an owner who’s like a
who’s lost all his money and you know
this trainer that everybody thinks is
garbage it’s like all these all of these
losers coming together and then he wins
everything right yeah I love that that’s
it’s a belief I’ve always been believed
right I just never really understood it
and now that makes it so much easier for
me to guide a path that is true to me
and what I want to accomplish and it
makes accomplishing things so much
faster and so much easier then my
business is taken off since I’ve
embraced it and I’ve seen similar
results with other people who have taken
on their word and had success so I’m a
big fan so it seems like that’s your
message and you found you a message
you’ve always been about to leave but
like someone else that wants to start
their own message or their own brands
would you would you recommend they go
with their own you know domain name and
use their own name or or come up with a
name what’s what’s your understanding of
that what advice would you give to
someone who’s thinking about that um I
guess it depends on what you’re you know
what you’re trying to accomplish if
you’re trying to do anything personal I
love the idea of having a personal name
because your business will change it’s
going to change you know my business is
not the business that I had 10 years ago
it’s a lot different even though it’s
still my chemical calm and as you grow
and as you learn and as your interest
change you your business should always
be a reflection of what you’re what
you’re interested in if it’s not your
business will suffer right if your
interests are it happened to me right
you’re your interests are somewhere else
and your business is here it’s not going
to be fulfilling not going to have
success you’re not going to have as much
impact as you could have if you align
your interest with your business and
that for a lot of people it starts off
fully aligned and then the challenge
becomes the entrepreneurs interest
changes to go here and the business
still is on this path so if you have a
name that’s off of your own personal
name it’s whatever you want it to be
right if you go back in the internet
archive to look at what my website used
to look like it’s changed man it’s
changed many many many many many times
so that’s if you’re building anything
related to your own personal brand and
it’s definitely best to have your own
personal name if you can get it right I
mean all of the means you got a great
one man i’m jealous Sam berry that’s a
good day I was it was so hard to get I
waited until it expired and then I was
on it every day until I there because
there’s a lot of Sam berries out there
yeah that’s three syllables that’s a
great domain name yeah there’s an irish
tennis player there’s um there’s an
author who lives out in San Francisco um
and yeah I got it very lucky to get it I
want to I want to ask you now about your
vision which is believed but
should should you be totally passionate
about your vision in order to make that
vision part of your business like how do
you hold yourself accountable to your
vision oh uh I think it’s really a gut
check with everything that you’re doing
right like does this feel right you know
um the bigger challenge I think becomes
when you bring on a team because you
know what feels right you know if you’re
the only something for the reason you
know if it feels comfortable and you
know this is the right thing to do where
it’s not the right thing to do you know
not and doing something not because you
know you’re afraid to do it is different
if you’re afraid to do it and you don’t
do it that’s you should go do it you
don’t do it because of fear you do it
you don’t do it because it doesn’t fit
with you personally so I think I think
you like most people have a pretty good
compass know you’re doing the right
thing or not um I think is you bring on
a team though it becomes if you don’t
articulate that right if your team
doesn’t understand that you’re about
believe or about whatever then it
becomes a lot harder to make good
decisions you know you look at most
companies they all say they’re guided by
core values right every company has a
core value uh how many people do you
think could actually named the core
values of their business you know could
the CEO even name the ten core values of
the business you know probably not and
so that makes it hard to have this
operating philosophy if you’re not all
working from the same page so will
regularly look at projects and say is
this is this believe or not right is
this this contribute to our mission and
what we’re trying to do you know our
goal is to help a billion entrepreneur
so you know through the website in the
channel everything that I’m doing I want
to reach a billion entrepreneurs and and
by you saying that like by you saying
you want to reach a billion
entrepreneurs it’s like I i resonate
with that you know I want I want to help
you reach more entrepreneurs so
like when you put a such a great
intention in the world others connect
with that um what are your intentions
like reaching a billion entrepreneurs
helping them start their own businesses
yeah i wanna i want to help people live
their dreams main and I mean that sounds
really maybe airy-fairy um more and more
I want to help people who want to have
an impact you know like people who are
trying to do something not just you know
if you’re an entrepreneur you’re trying
to make money and this is a this is a
real challenge I signed up i’ll give you
a story um there’s a local Toronto
organization that asked me if I would
mentor some entrepreneurs and I said uh
you know it’s part of my mission I’m
happy to mentor entrepreneurs but has to
be the right fit for me cuz I’m not
that’s time you know I’m happy to meet
with somebody for coffee but a
mentorship is an ongoing relationship
and so some of them I haven’t found the
right person in short because all of
them are doing it just trying to make
money or just trying to avoid their job
or whatever and I’m happy to sit down
and I’m happy to give you advice and
I’ll give you practical advice to help
you grow your business but where I want
to invest my personal time and energy
and really connect with whatever project
I’m working on is that person has to
have a bigger mission to want to do
something positive somehow that that
gets me excited man that’s what I want
to work on I’m helping people want to
change the world and positive ways
somehow and I’ve been fortunate to work
with the number of people who are who
are doing that but more and more that is
what excites me I love helping on I
could talk to entrepreneurs all day long
I go to a conference and it’s it’s like
it gives me energy I’m talking to you
it’s like nine o’clock at night i’m
getting energy like you are giving me
energy it’s not draining at all but at
the same time you know I want to have a
really huge impact on the world and so
I’m trying to focus my time on picking
projects and working with people where I
feel like I can reach people who will do
something really positive in the
world great and when you started looking
this ties right in when you started
making YouTube videos with your message
how did they turn out and how did you
get them to be to the song is like my
first vid even sucked so hard but we’ll
have that in the show notes yeah we’ll
have your first video and yeah I
actually did a video about a month ago
of me looking back on my first videos
and it’s it’s just it’s terrible um okay
so yeah I started doing video because
I’m a visual learner like I I I learned
better from seeing something and reading
it or hearing it just my style and so I
wanted to be able to help other people
learn that as well my first videos were
famous entrepreneur success stories this
thing that saved my business that
software company was making three
hundred dollars a month and then I
turned it around the thing that saved me
was when I hit bottom and realized that
I’m not the first guy to try to sell
software before and I looked at
Microsoft and Bill Gates and how he did
it and said hey maybe I can apply his
strategy to my business and grow and
Microsoft dated all through partnerships
some I started forming partnerships and
I for the first time started making
started having some success and when I
had my first partnership check for 13
and a half thousand dollars that was
like yeah man I’m rolling I’m rolling
yeah so the videos i started making just
just as a resource right like i wish
this was around when I was getting
started and I was trying to build up my
business um but they suck the content
was great eyesight you know the delivery
was terrible I’m nervous you know I’m
trying to memorize something but it’s
like anything else I mean any skill you
pick up the first time you do it you’re
gonna suck you’re going to make mistakes
especially if nobody’s teaching
what to do you’re just trying um but I
just like with it man it’s my bday hmm
but like I mean you’ve got some pretty
good videos now and you know you’ve
built your YouTube channel and you’ve
got a lot of followers but was there any
luck did you just hack your way into it
ah actually any other people were you
inspired by others so it’s a it’s a
combination of one I’m just sticking
with it you know I kept making videos uh
and to a big shift came when i got my
agent so i have an agent who represents
me who books me he got me the book deal
speaking gigs that kind of stuff and
part of what they do is training so we
looked at my videos and say okay you
know you got the work ethic you’ve got a
you’ve got a good message but you are
terrible on camera I thought I thought
it was pretty good you know like I’ve
been doing this man I got it I got like
seven hundred videos up man i’m rocking
it when he’s like no no no you’re really
bad um and he almost didn’t love this is
an interesting story because he almost
didn’t let me into the agency they
usually work with people who already
have a bigger presence already good on
camera and they help them develop a
platforms like you’re a celebrity you’ve
got a platform you’ve got lots of people
following you but you don’t have a
message so we’ll help you get your
message that you can reach a wider
audience I was the opposite where I
didn’t have a huge following but I had a
message and I wasn’t a celebrity yet and
I wasn’t great on camera so they had to
make an investment in me in to making my
videos better um so I barely got in but
then for the next couple months I like
everything they told me I did man I did
version after version you know he wanted
me to create my creation story which is
why I’m doing this why as is important
to me I must have done like 20 versions
of that I would record it he would tear
it to shreds
and I do it again like the next day okay
here it is again you tear it to shreds
and I just I just do it I take all the
information they gave me and and within
three months I became the best practice
at the agency I’m consulting the other
guys at the agency now and how to build
a YouTube channel and get people it’s
crazy and it’s because I put in the work
right like most of these guys they
struggle to get one video up per week
it’s like oh I got I don’t know what I’m
going to do it I don’t have the time I
got to figure that I’m putting up 14
videos a week right like I’m hustling
and I’m getting better and I’m listening
to the feedback and putting that in and
so uh you know i don’t i don’t really
have the natural talent for it i just
put in a ton of work and I listen to to
the wisdom of people who knew what they
were talking about like if I did that
earlier I spent years just on my own
doing whatever I’m not not doing what
what i recommend modeling success right
i was just doing whatever now here i had
a coach to help guide me and my channel
took off like we’ve five million views
almost on the channel um well we’re
going to pass that probably this month
so yeah man it’s been a huge rod and you
can see the mark like when I started
working with my agent and started
training and putting the practice in I
got a lot better hmm do you outsource
your video editing work or do you do it
yourself I so I’m a big believer are not
spending money till I’m making money I
hate spending money till I’m making
money anybody can spend money it’s easy
to spend money and so at the start I
didn’t even buy a camera right I had no
gear i just use whatever I had right
like a flip cam and some of my first
videos I just put the flip cam up on the
on the counter on my shelf and then
press record and I did it too quickly so
you can see the flip cam like it’s
wobbling a little bit and so you see the
camera moving and I’m moving like this
in the camera anyway I didn’t notice
because it’s such a little camera but
yep so many entrepreneurs don’t do that
they go in they buy the gear they buy
I’m gonna start a t-shirt business so
they buy all the t-shirts and then they
get tired of it or bored or sick of it
whatever and then they have this
basement or closet or garage full of
crap that they don’t use anymore so I
didn’t want to be that guy so I did
everything myself I used the gear that i
had i started with windows movie maker
which is a free program within windows i
taught myself how to edit you know
wasn’t good but it was it was there it
was up from there I moved to Camtasia
when I had a little more comfort in what
I was doing and you know that has more
features but if I just jump straight to
that I would have been frustrated and
gotten lost and then after I started
making some money from my channel the
first thing I did was hire an editor and
you know allows me to spend my time
doing what I’m better at which is
speaking and filming and being on camera
as opposed to being the guy behind the
scenes editing the stuff um and so now I
have an editor and I had to switch over
but she Christina’s my editor and she
she takes the video she puts the intro
the extra background music zooms pans
you know cuts the supposing to be in
there she’ll post to the channel she’ll
schedule it shall add the tags at the
description like all of the stuff that
needs to get done that isn’t the best
use of my time she does that but but I
started myself man it’s hustle you get
it up there make some money from it and
then expand hmm interesting but I want
to go into like the person listening to
this right now he’s probably thinking I
have a message I want to get that out
but I’ve got bills to pay I’ve got you
know a little mouths to feed you know
how can how can they how can they put
their message out to the world start
part time you know I don’t you don’t
have to dive all in it’s another huge
mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make is
they quit their job they go all in you
know you
three months of savings it takes longer
than you think it’s going to take and
then you’re back out trying to get a job
because your business didn’t work start
part-time figure out so a lot of people
don’t know what their message is so if
you’ve already figured that out you’re
ahead of the game on a lot of people um
start part time on a project that
excites you you know I love video
YouTube is my favorite place to be I
love it I love the comments I love
making the videos I you know you ask you
to do an interview so I said hey can we
do it on YouTube you know like I love
you too but yeah not everybody’s YouTube
they’re not a youtuber right so find
what you love and start doing it part
time you know yeah you’re looking at
even you and your believe show right
it’s something you’re testing out it’s
not a you’re not you’re not doing it
full time yet you’re not interviewing
somebody every hour right you’ve got
other time and your day to do other
stuff and you’ll explore you know why
did you do this show because you want to
learn from people right you want to get
their experience and you want to share
that and help other people in the
process too so fine for the people
listening you don’t know what to do yet
you know you have this job that you hate
and you want to have a positive impact
somehow start something small start
something part-time start something on
the side and explore and build it up to
the point where you’re making some money
from it so that you can then afford to
quit your job hmm do you believe that
everybody has a message to share um it’s
a good question i think so i don’t know
i’m a positive optimistic guy um do the
do the trolling guys who these comments
on YouTube do they have a positive
message to share uh maybe you know
probably probably i think a lot of
people need a lot of help to figure that
out to recognize that they are important
and have an important message to share
again because their environment holds
them back you know the environment
environment is it’s just killer and it
kills so many dreams and so many ideas
and so many messages that same person
who’s troll
on youtube you know in a different
environment could be doing something
really amazing so yes and my answer is
yes everybody has a message to share do
you have a philosophy on giving back um
yeah give back like hey I made through
charity or even to give away contents
just giving like giving back to people
yeah I you know it’s not something that
necessarily impose on others um I think
it just feels good you know it feels
good to help others it feels good to
give back uh you’ll have people on two
sides you know so they’ll be the people
who don’t give back who you know I’m not
given to that guy on the street he
should use a lazy bombers you’ll get a
job right you know people with that
mindset and they live in a mindset of
scarcity and and we’ll never have
abundance because they that’s their
that’s the mindset that they they have
but then you’ll have the other people
too who are who are almost too generous
and almost to giving back to charity and
like you have to run a business to right
and by by being a successful
entrepreneur by having a successful
business it allows you to give back more
right so to be entrepreneur is it not
true a friend of mine I’m thinking of in
particular who who always had the sauce
but I always wanted to take on these
projects for clients who couldn’t afford
him and he spent his time and his team’s
time to help them but then he can never
grow his business and he had the he had
to lose his employees because he
couldn’t afford to pay them but if he
built his business up and he eventually
did to make some money right then he
could afford to hire those people and
afford to take on more charity projects
so I think I think giving back is
important i think i think everybody who
does yo just doing things that help or
the people is important and doing things
that make you feel good is important
so you know I do a lot of giving back if
it’s consulting or if it’s giving you
know we do a lot of work with Kiva which
is a charity that I’m connected to but I
don’t know i think it’s just part of
being a a good human being is helping
other people hmm what are you currently
working on I am currently working on
some exciting stuff uh what can i
disclose it’s like I’m I’m just signing
a book deal which has been super
exciting we’ve just been negotiating
this week and we close that off so I’m
not allowed to say much about that but
it’s coming it’s coming and I’m also
working on a special project on YouTube
to help build this might be like the
first public announcement of it hmm Sam
Barry break some exclusives there yeah
I’m working on a project called mission
which is a new agency that I’m building
for youtubers who have an important
message to share who will have an
audience and who need help get it out
there a lot of youtubers you know they
only make money they only think they can
make money from adsense but there are
people with sizeable audiences who threw
the connections that I have we can get
them book deals we can get them on TV
shows or their own TV show we can get
them their own radio show we can get
them their own brand opportunities and
by doing that allows them to spread
their message even more so it’s it’s
getting youtubers who have an audience
but aren’t aren’t I I don’t want like a
stupid cat or the hey pinch this girl’s
butt prank video or whatever right like
people wouldn’t have a positive message
already and amplify that and giving them
resources and connections and tools to
be able to do that so that’s the between
the book and that project those are the
two things that I’m most focused on at
the moment and I’m excited man awesome
what are some of you
every quotes oh man my favorite quote um
I have a lot but I don’t know if this
one that I can memorize I’m the one that
I used to have on on my wall with some
Calvin Coolidge who was the president of
the US nobody really knows from Calvin
Coolidge’s I guess a lesser-known
president um and I don’t remember the
exact quotes but it was it was about
pressing on and it was saying that
persistent son loan is omnipotent and it
was saying that you know doesn’t matter
if you’re you don’t have to be a genius
you don’t have to be rich you don’t have
to have all these things that most
people think you need to be successful
the things that solve the problems of
the world are you going to work and
solving them and being persistent and
that was something that I really took
the heart and really enjoyed now my
favorite quote what’s my favorite quote
there’s one about the bird this one
keeps coming back i made a t-shirt of it
I should go find the t-shirt and put it
on but there’s there’s a bird sitting on
a tree and the bird isn’t afraid of
falling because his trust is not in the
branch but his trust is in his own wings
mmm yeah that’s great it’s believed in
Rick’s laughs hmm um so that that’s the
quote that I like it’s responding
somebody here that’s the quote that I
like uh the most I think when it comes
down to like one of my favorite quotes
what would I put on a t-shirt why would
I put on a coffee mug or whatever that’s
what I would that’s what I probably
would say yeah I love a lot of cool love
quotes man i got you look at my videos
are full of quotes are there any books
that have helped shape your journey the
book that I like the most where is my
books here ah there’s two we’re so hot
in here somewhere anyway um my favorite
book is still the 4-hour workweek Tim
Ferriss everybody would know that one on
and I actually don’t necessarily agree
with some of the things in it um the
idea of having them use the idea of
having something that just makes you
money and that you can then go off and
do whatever I you know I’m much more a
believer in that you want to spend your
effort you want to be in business that
you want to go and do something and you
want to have meaning in your work and
and Tim himself dude works crazy hours
right like that my guy is not because
you get bored of it right like I did
that when you travel it sounds like the
luxury life but it’s it gets boring I
promise you you want to come back and
you want to do something meaningful and
so pour that into your work and so that
that side is maybe a little it doesn’t
agree with me but the rest of it the the
the productivity the outsourcing the
tools and the training it was like the
first time I’d been exposed to any of
that kind of stuff and so I really I
really enjoyed it the other one is
really lesser-known it’s called radicals
and visionaries by Thaddeus wall row and
it’s put up by entrepreneur press and
all it is is a collection of famous
entrepreneur stories this is the
precursor to my website it’s a book of
famous entrepreneur stories and in like
four pages talks about each entrepreneur
so show Jeff Bezos and four pages of how
he started in his lesson and then Donald
Trump and four page and so like super
quick digestible information but but
motivating and inspiring and I used to
read a page or a chapter four pages
every morning just as a because I had
nothing in my environment that was
entrepreneurial so I had to make it and
so I was i surrounded myself with Jeff
Bezos and Donald Trump and these guys
are now I’d never met them but they’re
part of my surrounding so that won’t
have a profound impact on me those two
are with the top two hmm do you value
mentals yeah a lot man mall in success
and I think mentorship comes in two
forms one is a traditional mentor that
most people think of right
somebody you can bounce ideas off of
somebody that you know like like my
video training that I get from my agency
right they mentored me I got way better
I’ve seen the results and so that
definitely helps in my first business I
have a mentor who you know who helped
guide us a little bit so definitely
helps that’s what most people think of
but you can also be mentored by people
you’ve never met like Bill Gates was my
first real business mentor I’ve never
met him maybe one day I will but he was
my mentor like he saved me you know he
gave me hope he gave me advice he gave
me counsel you know I would I would I
would even like this might sound crazy
but you know I was desperate i would i
would even imagine myself like i would
meditate i would imagine Here I am you
know in a white room when there’s bill
gates and then like what do I ask him
right and what’s the advice he gives me
right I was trying to surround myself
with that kind of thinking so that I
could escape the lowly life that I had
and it worked and so mentorship is super
important and and the traditional
mentorship process is super important
but you know you creating the show you
are now a mentor to other people right
and they mean not ever meet the famous
Sam berry but listening to your voice
you know every week as you do your shows
and following you on twitter you know
just having a little bit of Sam bear in
their life your mentoring them your
guiding them and so for people who don’t
feel like they have any mentors they’re
accessible man like watch videos read
books listen to these podcasts those
people can still mentor you and give you
the advice you need to get to where you
want to go do you have any favorite
podcasts I am NOT a podcaster I don’t
know as people tell me I should be just
taking my videos and turning them into
podcast I maybe I’m uh I’m ignorant to
the podcasting world I feel like video
is just a way better method to reach
people because of all the visual
learning that you get and because I’m a
visual guy
but I get the people driving to work and
they want to download a podcast and
listen to it so I do not have any
favorites the Sam Barry show is my
favorite podcast the only one I know but
it’s my favorite podcast fantastic
fantastic I know it’s not the same be
rich was believed by saying bully with
silver believe with San berries my
favorite podcast you could put that on
your website Evan Carmichael’s favorite
podcast the leave miss Embry what a
success mean to you success is doing
what I want to do when I want to do it
and being happy you know I think I do
not work well when I’m constrained when
I am forced to do things that I don’t
want to do I mean nobody likes to be
forced to do things I guess I didn’t
want to do but I’m particularly upset
and so I think success for me is is
success for me as being happy and being
happy for me is doing projects that I’m
excited about and I’m able to do when I
want to do them okay how do you overcome
obstacles um it’s a great question I
think what really helps me is to to
break down the obstacle into little
steps to things so that’s one like break
it down break this small thing usually
obstacles like a fear right if it’s not
a fear then it’s it’s a it’s a lack of
skill or lack of understanding in which
case you can go learn like my obstacle
is you know I can’t talk to somebody in
Chinese so i can go learn chinese you
know it’s it’s more that the mental ones
the mental blocks that are that hold
people back and it’s you know you see
this big thing and you don’t know how
you’re going to get there you know I
want to build a million-dollar business
but nobody my family’s ever done it and
I i’m in debt and i’m sleeping on my
friend’s couch so that seems like a huge
obstacle so you break it down and then
you try to find a small step that you
can
you can do that and say oh well that
little step most most entrepreneurs they
don’t take giant leaps they take and
most successful people they take they
just take a lot of small steps and most
people want to take the giant leap and
the frustrated that they can’t get there
and they don’t realize that it’s really
just a collection of tiny steps but
that’s done consistently and so whatever
that big obstacle is that you’re trying
to reach you know go here and then you
have the confidence you get that done
you can go here go here and go here the
other thing that that I find helps is
reminding myself why I’m doing it I have
I have a fear of letting people down you
know I don’t like letting people down it
kills me so that’s why if I if I commit
to somebody to do something I always do
it you know we have a session you know
you said tonight we’re gonna meet 830 I
was early right I’m always early I’m
never late you know and I’m reluctant to
tell people I’m gonna do something
because I know what I do it I’m gonna
have to deliver so this this is my fear
of letting people down and um as a
result it gets in my way sometimes when
I will secretly hope that people will
cancel on me because I don’t want to let
them down so an example last year I went
to Malaysia so the Malaysian government
wanted to fly me over to talk about
believe and and I was kind of secretly
hoping that Oh Evan you know the events
cancelled and you know you don’t have to
worry about coming on and it’s like oh
what a relief I don’t have to i don’t
think it because I’m worried that my
presentation may not be enough valuable
enough but I want to let them down even
on some phone calls with with normal
entrepreneurs right people who are
looking to me for guidance I would
secretly sometimes hope that they would
email me before and say Evan I can’t
make it I’ve got some conflict so that
you know because I’m worried that I may
not be able to give them advice um this
is like in my own thing that I I’m
afraid of but but then it always ends up
great right like the presentation of
Malaysia was a
amazing we were trending on Twitter
nationally for my presentation and calls
with people go amazingly well um and so
it’s reminding myself that hey like I
can add value here I love this stuff
you’re going to like it when you get
into it it’s just all the fear and panic
leading up to it so so those two things
right like breaking down the big steps
into little micro steps to give you
confidence to go and then reminding
yourself while you’re doing it because I
will give you more boldness and more
courage right like this is a step to get
to where you want to go so suck it up
let’s do this thing because I’m you’re
going to enjoy it and it’s going to get
you closer to your goal and I find those
two things help me with obstacles at
least in my life and we could keep good
we could keep going all day on this
seriously I have a couple more questions
I don’t want to take up too much of your
time what are some resources and
anything else that you’d like to add to
help people ah resources to help people
I think I think it could be a youtube
videos as well yeah I think I think the
biggest um the biggest resource that
that you can have is you and maybe this
is cliche or whatever but it’s yourself
and finding whatever my whenever i’m
going to try something new my process is
I try to find someone who has already
done it model success so whatever
obstacle you have whatever goal you have
you’re an entrepreneur your your you
want to be a singer you want to be you
want to be a you want to be a VP
whatever whatever your goal is you have
ambitions you have aspirations find
someone who’s done it and go and learn
from them and and they maybe have they
have a book out maybe they’re giving a
talk at some event maybe they have a
youtube channel it’s really the fastest
way to learn is to model that success
for you know the entrepreneur world um
I’m a fan of my channel obviously you
know I just launched a new series
I found that you know I find with
entrepreneurs maybe it’s just me but I
find with a lot of entrepreneurs you
need to start your starting from scratch
every day you know like you could be on
top of the world you know you listen to
the San Barry believe show and and
you’re on fire and like yeah I’m now I’m
going to go rock it and then you’re
killing it for a couple hours is bed
time you go to sleep in the next day you
wake up and it it’s like what happened
it’s gone that the mojo is gone right
and so I felt like there needs to be
some I wish there were something that
but there was this morning thing that I
could watch it gets me energized and
gives me ideas it makes me want to think
bigger and makes me stretch my comfort
zone a little bit um and I said that to
enough people I said that to myself
enough that i just created it I was so
frustrated that there was nothing that I
created it so I’ve launched a new
morning series on my youtube channel
that seven a.m. eastern every day is a
new famous entrepreneur nugget of wisdom
this is like 3-4 minutes long but the
idea is to like kick start your day and
help get you you know ready to go for
whatever challenges you have a head um
so I like that series for me even if
nobody else watches it I don’t care I
want to watch that every morning uh from
other I mean I’m all in on youtube and
and I jest a lot of YouTube a lot of the
stuff that I’m learning is specific to
what I want to get better at so you know
I follow video creators and Darryl eaves
on youtube because I want to get better
with my youtube videos so they’ll
they’ll talk about trends on YouTube and
titles and all the things you need to
worry about there’s a guy subscribe to
the learn new salsa moves because i am a
salsa dancer there’s a guy subscribe to
who teaches me about League of Legends
because I’m a league of legends player
you know so a lot of the learnings and
resources that I use are very selfish
and personal and probably wouldn’t be of
interest to a lot of the people watching
but but the what is of interest I guess
is like find your own like whatever you
are excited about whatever you want to
learn whatever you want to get better at
find someone who’s
teaching that and go learn from them hmm
and my final question which I like to
ask my guests is how can we get more
people to believe in themselves mm
mm-hmm it’s a good question i think i
think the biggest thing that holds
people back as we talked about before is
their environment you know the people in
their lives the books that they read the
podcasts that they listen to the TV
shows they watch your environment holds
you where you are it holds you where you
are you’re likely to be as successful as
your parents are you’re likely to be as
successful as your friends are that’s
that’s the environment that you’re in
and so if you’re in a non believe
environment that’s what you’re likely
going to grow up with and what happens
to a lot of people is it gets parked by
something you know they go to a Tony
Robbins session or you know they watch a
specific video and they get inspired and
or they wake up in the middle the night
and have this dream right like I here’s
what I want to do and they have a moment
of boldness a moment of boldness we’re
like now this is my path this is where I
want to go you know now I believe in
myself I think I can do it but
everything else in their environment
sucks everything else in their
environment holds them where they are
and so if you want to believe in
something bigger if you want to believe
in a bigger dream if you want to believe
in yourself more you need to surround
yourself with people and things that
make that happen make that part of your
environment so so do a hard check right
the simple stuff is okay look at look at
the videos that you watch look at the
youtube channels you want to look at the
podcast you listen to you know start
listening to the to believe with Sam
berry you want to believe more listen to
believe with Sam very right those are
easy things to start changing you can
look at your physical environment right
so like something up on the wall right
where’s my Steve Jobs quote or what
ever writes start to feel that energy
right what’s on your desktop background
what’s on your phone right what are
those things that you’re surrounded by
constantly the next level up the harder
part is the people in your life right
your friends your family the people you
hang out with do they support you and
help you become better or do they keep
you where you are and that’s you know
those are tough decisions man do you cut
somebody out of your life because
they’re holding you back you know I’m
not a relationship guy but it’s an
important thing if you want you know the
fastest way to learn Japanese is go to
Japan right it’s not too it’s not that
it’s not to get the memorized Japanese
app and figure it out right it’s going
to take you years and years and years
and you probably won’t commit to it
right because there’s one little thing
that’s Japanese in your life and nothing
else is your friends will speak Japanese
there’s no Japanese in the wall you
don’t watch japanese TV show so you’re
likely never going to learn japanese
even if you were inspired one day and
it’s deep in there somewhere you want to
learn japanese you’re never going to do
it where if you go to Japan you’ll pick
it up in a couple months because you’re
forced to because everything around you
is Japanese you have no choice so if you
want to believe it’s the same thing you
know the believe app on your phone that
you load once a week will give you
little sparks but it’s not enough you
have to create an entire environment
around you that helps you want to
accomplish your big goal yeah it’s been
a pleasure Evan thank you for being on
the show thanks man anytime I love it
cool mr. live what’s that still a lot
yeah we’re still a lot one question cuz
Justin asked me and I just robot this
and he’ll answer you at the end of the
session cool um we can answer questions
yeah yeah yeahs suggestion was asking me
XO guys if you want to ask a question I
guess you can you can post there in the
chat but just was asking what would have
been my profession I guess when we were
talking about my
when I had the job offers and I turned
them down all my life I wanted to be a
banker all my life I wanted to be a
banker if you look at my high school
yearbook they always ask you like hey
where you going to be in 10 years I said
I was going to be a VP at a bank that’s
that’s that’s what I thought my career
path changed a little bit in university
when I connected with these two
entrepreneurs and join their business
but again nothing in my environment was
really entrepreneurial so so the jobs
were going to be in the banking field
one was one was with merrill lynch which
in investment banking which I thought I
always want to be and the other was
little aside is with McKinsey Consulting
which is a strategic consulting company
um I had an interest in that and I just
I just like business and the thought
maybe it’d be a good fit there um so
that those were the two and yeah I yeah
Michael Dell was another great story
about that were they he was in med
school and he wanted to start his own
business and his parents said no because
you’re gonna be a doctor how do you go
up against your parents and he said give
me a summer to try this I’m gonna make
computers and sell them give me a summer
to try and he got them to agree for
summer and then he made he made the
business take off and that summer and
then he never went back to school um so
yeah up until like third year of
university I thought I was going to be a
banker wow so sad how sad would I be
Evan the banker man I would want to be
pulling my eyes out and because I’ve had
friends now come back like my friends
from University who took those jobs that
I was thinking about taking we now say
Evan I’m dying here I want to start a
business how do I do it a guy literally
came back and we had a coffee and I
helped coach him a university buddy of
mine on how he could start his business
because he hated his life and his job
and I was so grateful that man that was
almost
yeah stuck in a cubicle wanting to just
yeah take your life yeah oh uh well my
wife is going to come home soon from
dancing so probably better to end it off
here and then I guess for people
watching my part of it you guys can go
check out Sam very calm I think it’s in
is it in the description yeah it’s in
the description Sam very calm and what
is this going to go on your podcast so
this will go live in July so will be
available in the iTunes Store in itunes
it’s free to listen to everything we’ve
been talking about will be in the show
notes so everything that Evan was
mentioning will be available in the show
notes for reference thank you very much
oven cool there’s one question I know if
it’s for me or for you I I will check
out Thai Lopez yeah yeah I’ve checked
out by Lopez um I think I just subscribe
to his channel today um this is a
service called tubular labs which
analyzes YouTube channels and it tells
you uh it looks at your audience and
then it tells you what other channels
has overlapped with your audience so
like people who are watching my channel
also watch these people’s channels and
Tai Lopez was like one of the top ten so
my audience and his are similar like ten
percent of my audience overlaps with
ties oh that’s interesting I gotta check
out who this guy is um I think Scott’s I
commented on a video of his today he’s
got some good stuff I think his thing is
you went from you know sleep on some
guy’s couch to having a Lamborghini and
how I’ve only watched one video and i
left the comment on it today but that
may be a guest like that could be a good
opportunity yeah yeah yeah you could
tell them I am greater said that Tai
Lopez is somebody to be checked there
someone we checked out definitely i’ll
invite him on the show cool
oh yeah that’s fine all right well
thanks Sam thank you everybody for
watching have a great evening or day for
those Australians and continue to
believe believe that’s it the only way
that’s here cheers yes
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