another YouTube hangout I am sincerely
sorry for the delay here we got a mixup
in our schedule apparently in Canada our
daylight savings starts at March 11th
and in the UK it starts March 25th and
we happen to fall in that gap right now
so that’s completely on me and I know a
lot of you been waiting here for half an
hour for us to start so thank you thank
you thank you we have Steve and Kelly
the man in the house today we’re talking
about tips for starting a successful
business Stephen welcome back it’s been
a while it’s been a while and it’s great
to be back and I totally endorse your
apology to all your followers out there
I’m really really sorry about the mix-up
on the time but we’re gonna make this
the best broadcast ever yeah and thank
you Stephen for coming on half an hour
early in your schedule making time for
this to happen we always start with
Stephen Kelly quotes people love it so
woody got the kick ass off today Stephen
we’ve got a couple of great quotes that
I start with some famous people first of
all our Walt Disney obviously you know
you know the main man amazing
entertainment and he says the way to get
started is to quit talking and to start
doing and then another great quote from
someone we met actually I ever knew that
inspirational entrepreneur Richard
Branson starting a business is a lot of
hard work so you’d better enjoy it and
that’s that’s about living your dream
and then an amazing woman in terms of
fashion and perfume as well I didn’t get
there by wishing for it or hoping for it
I got there by working for it and that’s
Esther Lauda and so a couple of my own
quotes and you probably heard these many
times before you know strategy without
execution is halleluh sir nation like
and lists this is a Stephen Kelly quote
the biggest failure for an aspiring
entrepreneur is not trying once you’re
on the journey you can’t fail you can
only I like it for those of you guys
watching Stephens been kicking up his
Twitter and Instagram game throwing some
of these quotes up so if you like the
quotes you can follow him over there for
a regular dose instead of just a
once-a-month over here Steve we’re
talking about tips to start a successful
business there’s a ton of questions that
are pouring in but before that what are
your kind of three general tips or your
intro some tips that you have first
starting a successful company I think
the key thing is really an ash I think
I’m on this show actually and wouldn’t
talk about our own personal experiences
when kind of what’s gone well what
hasn’t how we how we kind of grafted to
make it real and start our own
businesses but number of tip number one
is have an idea for a product or service
that you think is compelling and you get
excited about secondly think about
always always you can’t kind of live in
the shoes of the audience but the people
who are gonna buy it standing
shoulder-to-shoulder to think about what
is it about your product your offering
that makes you special compelling
different from competitors and standout
and then most of all once you’ve done
that is put a plan in place and execute
the hell out of it I like it well
there’s a ton of comments coming through
people saying don’t worry about the
timing it’s great to be here people
saying they love your quotes so let’s
get to some questions guys tag me it’s a
lot easier for me to see it so it comes
through because the chat moves so
quickly first up is coming from Thomas
he says I’ve been Stephen greetings from
Finland the best way to start a morning
is to take a 40 to 1 hour minute walk
and just listen to your videos how do
you guys start your morning what do you
do to start your morning you go for a
run is that a daily thing yeah most days
I go for run I was in Dublin yesterday
and I’m in Lisbon Madrid last week and I
try and go for a run clear my head and
it’s the great way Thomas you’re right
to have fantastic ideas sometimes I
listen to podcasts sometimes I listen to
music but it is you know if you kind of
get fired up by the killers it’s a great
way to start the day and get you get you
just clears your head and it can really
help you focus as an entrepreneur a tip
of every entrepreneur be kind of what
are the one two or three things no more
than three things that you want to
achieve that day and when you go for a
runner you go to the gym whatever you do
to sit down
and a breakfast it’s really good just to
have a little bit of thinking time what
is it I want to achieve today where do I
want to be when I go home tonight and
what will I have achieved
so Evan what’s your what’s your big way
to start a day I start my day by
actually reading a page of my book the
top ten rules of success
I like I like to get hit with some
inspiration from a huge thought leader
so I’m getting two rules from Steve Jobs
or Oprah or whoever it is and it just it
sets my mind up right and then I get on
Instagram gonna make a video so like a
morning rant video quick like 15 seconds
of advice and I just woke up I’m tired
you see like the lines on my face from
the bed sheets but it’s it’s just I like
it it’s pure fire in the morning and it
gets me set up for a great day so all in
all it takes you know 10 minutes to do
but it gets me from being just waking up
and tired to motivating ready to start
today that’s great it’s good way and had
any kind of crazy day
how do I close my day 10 o’clock we tend
to start to wind down lights off I take
the dog for a walk and just just unwind
not have any devices it’s hard to put
away the Instagram in the YouTube and
all that stuff so 10 o’clock my wife and
I just set a rule to kind of turn all
the lights out and start to wind down
and get ready for bed by 11 o’clock
we’re usually in bed so that our take
the dog out wind down and all that how
about you well I love to do that and the
reality is kind of a schedule you know
like I was on the Dublin flight six
o’clock yesterday morning and the flight
landed back in London at 10 o’clock at
night but but I love that routine where
you got structure it’s pretty similar
for me but I can get home if I’ve done a
dinner or with customers and stuff like
that it could be 11 o’clock sometimes or
a functor ambulance what I try and do is
similar to you is I kind of try and
switch off social media after 11 o’clock
put my iPhone on airplane mode stop it
being in all night because that’s what
it does otherwise and actually take the
dog for a walk if I’m ever home
and then I just kind of wind down and
then get a pretty decent night’s sleep
and back up and jumping around at five
o’clock in the morning ready for another
day of adventure another run I like it
okay guys keep the questions coming
let’s get through a bunch of them so God
is ready to say how do you become
successful in social media marketing
well you’ve been up in your game and
social media what advice do you have
yeah I think so yeah I think I’m an
Evans the master and an dad actually
everyone just give you a shout-out I
love your product placements in the
background great books guys if you
haven’t got it you will learn a lot I’ve
read your one word and it’s all hashtag
belief so I love Evan but the way to be
successful social media directly your
question is is get engaged and have a
strong point of view and sometimes a
different point of view but I think with
social media people can really taste the
authenticity and they can also taste get
excited about people who have strong
points of view and if you know the great
thing second if you’ve got a product
that you’re so passionate about that
that personality you want to bring out
in social media and then again you’ve
got to find where your audience is I
don’t know if maybe if it’s a younger
generation you really want to be looking
at Instagram more traditional sort of
business probably Twitter so there’s
lots of different channels you can look
at you know Facebook LinkedIn all these
different channels and go where your
audiences and and really give them
compelling content and I think around
this is it’s not just talking about your
product but it’s also talking about the
reason why your products need it and
talking about the benefits and you know
if it’s got impact on health it’s got
impact on other things that well-being
then bring all that out to the fore
because the more you make a human story
the more it will connect with the
audience out on social media and then
you get a bigger following you’ll get
people kind of like and you retweet it
and all that sort of stuff and then you
really do you get a following you’re
part of a community of like-minded
spirits but at the center of it is your
big idea so I with these sort of things
I’d step out there I think also with
social media there’s still a bit of fear
about
send or posted something stupid you know
we all do that you’ll do that I’ve
posted stuff that’s stupid but you don’t
let that horn you you just got to learn
and get wiser the next time but the
really important thing is to get out
there you don’t you want to have like
business you wouldn’t never want to have
a fear of failure you will be your much
better
getting out there posting start looking
to get in the conversation going I’m
really with engaging content bring your
personality to life yeah I want to hurry
aswhat stupid stuff you posted I don’t
say anything stupid coming for you but
to Stevens point about engagement Jay
rice who’s a pretty regular guy in our
chat I don’t see him here today but he
has an Instagram account and he has less
than a hundred followers I think and he
messaged me last week and he said
Stephen Kelly liked one of my posts it’s
like it makes a difference right you
know for whatever reason you’re on his
account you saw the picture you liked it
and and that little touch makes a huge
difference and so for the people who are
following you just engaging with them
saying thank you giving them a like last
night I was on YouTube live just
randomly going through people’s live
streams and and jumping in and saying
hey so some people have like a hundred
followers on YouTube hundred subscribers
and I’m jumping in it’s like oh my god
Evan Carmichael join the chat thank you
so much somebody’s started crying on
this Jane is like hey just keep doing
your thing this is amazing I’m here to
support you and so being it like you
have to be engaged you can’t just see it
as a as a content pumping machine you
have to react and engage with the people
and then tow it say to Stevens Point
like you have to post up the matters
it’s the posts of the era both post your
opinion post something that your
grandkids would be proud of that you
want to show them I think most people
what they post is just it’s kind of
garbage you know you would not follow
you right so make that a priority
posting something that really matters
it’s just one other thing ever done this
is sort of a personal view all these
social marketers will tell me I’m crazy
but I think you know social marketing
and social media has been
transformational
and is changed the way you know even
voters for elections it’s changed
everything
however the truth is everybody paints a
picture of themselves on social media
that’s a life of perfection and
everybody you know if you’re a celebrity
always photo shopped you know it’s not
real life I think there’s there’s a real
appetite for food would be authentic be
real if you tell them you’ve had a bad
day put something up about why Annabeth
damn what you’re gonna do about to
overcome it cuz if you just kind of read
everything on social media you think
life is perfection everybody’s beautiful
photo shot everybody Wow everybody’s at
parties all the time and it’s not real
life you know there’s from bad days to
life an entrepreneur is a life of a
roller coaster ride it’s you know up and
down and every day is just a
white-knuckle ride and I think if you
can express that as part of your social
media you’ll get people to gravitate to
you way more than just post him pretty
pictures on the beach of Mexico yeah I
agree
I think I think that’s why my morning
series as well cuz I am I just woke up
when I have the lines on my face and you
just not super polished I want to see
some like pre run Stephen Kelly quick
Instagram story every morning 5:00 a.m.
run with Stephen message of the day 15
seconds and then go I think I think that
could be I would follow that I’m gonna
think about it I’ll do it man do that
looking rough long lines running in the
dark in downtown Toronto with 9 foot of
snow around me I like it I wanna see it
okay next i gar Evan and Stephen how do
you overcome a lack of resources to
start a business I think that’s great I
got another great quote the problem you
have is never resources it’s always
resourceful nuts so I am a few ideas
when you study business just see a
businesses I’ve started I’ll tell you a
couple of ways I’ve done it three ways
number one
I’d always encourage you to moonlight so
we’ve had examples like Marc Benioff
when he started Salesforce he were to
Oracle he you know collectors kind of
weekly biweekly pay check out of our
court and in the meantime and even into
the weekend she was starting Salesforce
and now Salesforce uh devaluation
seventy eighty billion dollars or
something like that when I started
business also was severe when other
angel investors will have that other
jobs and we we started the business of
the weekend and we met up one evening a
week and we all had our actions as you
know we kind of organized it so one
person was just marked and one person
didn’t product development and then when
it got us to a stage where we launched
the product and we got some momentum
when you we knew the business was real
we stepped down from the day job and the
the effectively the thing that had given
us a check paycheck to fund the time we
had to start a new business so that’s
one idea
um second idea would be to and this has
been very successful as well one
business I started well ninety ninety
seven a long time ago great company
called Cordia four years later we put on
the Nasdaq 100 million dollars in four
years of growth so from the get-go from
nothing and that business was always
cashflow positive
why because we actually sold ourselves
out and charged a day rate to customers
for consultant advice so you know for
the business model in the first six
months is two days a week we’d actually
go out there with customers charging
their money real money and then the
other three days would effectively do
business development selling marketing
product development and that why was
that good number one it meant the
customer actually customers through the
consulting contrasted with us paid for
the startup cost of the business
secondly is it meant we could test ideas
with customers real customers you know
in the coffee-break and stuff like that
and refine the product ideas we were
having and that was a really great idea
and thirdly is sort of validated it
de-risk the whole business model and the
idea because every time we test it with
a real
we knew that we’re making progress and
we’ve refined it and refined it and
eventually got it right and there six
months later we stopped doing the
consulting and we just focused you know
seven days a week on building the
business and then the final thing
actually is did in one business was
actually pitched the idea to an early
stage customer and the customer liked it
so much they actually wanted to invest
in the company and they said and wow
what a sweetheart that was one of the
best things we ever did so the customer
became like it wasn’t a big investor
like a 3% investor but with that cash it
allowed us to fund the business it
allowed us to have the customer we call
it a focus group at the time they refine
the product and then we’ve got a product
to market so I are you know I’m sort of
planted a picture where you know
entrepreneurs were battlers we’re
hustlers
with grafters and you can always think
of resourceful nasai Diaz to overcome
the lack of cash and also get the other
obviously I do think Evans done this
with some of his buddies and friends and
family get some of the friends and
family to give their free time to the
business ideas to get you off the ground
so there’s loads of ideas and I think if
you’ve got real belief in your product
and your hustler then there’s nothing
stopping you Stephen Kelly is on point
today that was awesome I love all three
of those tips that was great I agree a
hundred percent I think Stephens point
number two really goes under the radar
for a lot of people start with the
service not a product if you can start
with a service you start bringing
revenue and it gets you tight to your
customer you really know what the
problems are and then you can focus on
building a product out afterwards but I
totally agree it’s all about your
resourcefulness try to find the fastest
path to making money even if it’s not
your long-term vision it’s a piece of it
like you want to be up here I don’t
think spending time trying to raise
capital is the path because you end up
spending most your time raising capital
instead of actually building momentum to
build the business so I love it I agree
Evan what would be a top top tip to it
for a hustler out there Hannah how do
they get going
how do they start our business and how
do they keep some level of cash flow the
anything or get or get deployed
is onto the team around there kind of
big picture in the the adventure I think
the biggest thing for starting up a lot
of entrepreneurs is just consistency I
don’t think people stay consistent
enough I think entrepreneurs especially
when we don’t have a boss telling us
what we need to do ultimately our
customers our boss but you don’t really
have somebody looking over your shoulder
saying you need to get this done you
need to show up at this time and I think
entrepreneurs might have a great Monday
and get motivated inspired like they’re
watching this and they get super
motivated and then Thursdays amazing and
then they wake up Friday and they’re
back to square one and don’t have that
the drive and motivation constantly it
says back and forth constantly and
people aren’t consistent enough so
finding I think the morning routine that
sits you out remembering your why
whether you’re going for a run like
Stephen whether you’re reading the book
like me whether whatever the thing is it
gets you feeling bold and unstoppable in
the morning being more consistent every
single day people like I’m really
building my Instagram journey as an
example right now and I’m gonna win
because I’m gonna do three to four posts
a day for four years four years ago on
YouTube I had 7000 subscribers four
years ago seven thousand subscribers an
hour at 1.2 million by doing a video to
3 videos every single day just every
single day you show up and you do the
work and Instagram I’m gonna do the same
thing and whatever the next thing is
it’s just every single day showing up
and doing work and I think people burn
out too quickly and they’re not
consistent enough like three months at
doing it is not enough you have to be
thinking I’m gonna do this for four
years and then I’ll be successful or
Never all right let’s keep it going
Luke Evan and Stephen would having a
business management degree from a
university to give me an advantage in
the business world ah Luke is great
question I think it gives you a
foundation because then you kind of
understand accounting marketing but but
it’s predominately theory and I think
the University of Life is the best way
of getting some hard knocks and learning
you know how to roll with the punches so
the best experience you can get actually
you know when I started a business I
probably learned three I I did a
business degree and I probably learned
in three months why learning
years of business school boy oh boy yeah
there’s a rude awakening
and not everything they tell you at
business school kind of works in real
life so and also you know with anything
like Business School you learn
everything about everything and it’s all
I like kind of going to school you you
you become such an expert about small
range of topics but when you’re out
there was an entrepreneur and a hustler
there’s only a few things you really
need to know at any point in time and
then you just need to apply common sense
so I’d say Lou you you’re much better
really adapting that our foundation
which is a great foundation I’m sure but
into real life and starting a business
and having again what I do love is some
business schools actually Canada in the
u.s. over in Europe do kind of these
combined degrees and more and more I
think this is the way the future where
you could go off and landed it could be
over three years five years but it’s
only a part-time qualification and what
you’re doing in in maybe three days a
week is actually building a business so
then you’ve got real life experience
building your business and it’s
connected to the theory of you know
price elasticity or pricing or marketing
or social media or whatever the top of
your learning so you can actually make
whatever you learn in a business school
really apply to you big idea and get it
get a kind of accelerated start to that
so I would say you’re much better off
working doing it trying sometimes
failing but if you can connect what
you’ve learned through your academic
foundation then you know it’s a great
start for you I think it depends on what
your ambitions are I think if you want
to be an entrepreneur there are very few
industries where you need to have a
degree where people even care you know
nobody asked me in what I do what school
I went to what my degree is I went to
university I did undergrad Bachelor
Commerce University of Toronto but like
nobody cares now if I’m a if I’m a
doctor or something that’s gonna matter
a lot more if I’m a lawyer that’s gonna
matter a lot more but if you want to be
an entrepreneur I don’t think it really
makes a huge difference if you want to
get a job though it does like I don’t
know how many high school dropouts
Sage’s hiring right now they might cuz
Stevens a forward-looking
kind of guy but in general you know if
you want to get a job and you don’t have
a degree that’s gonna be tough too
getting in the door you have to have
something really amazing on your resume
to stand out and if you’re not sure then
I see it as a back-up plan like if you
think you want to be an entrepreneur but
you’re not sure you might need to go and
get a job then having university degree
and then trying to use your university
to hack your education like Steve was
saying doing things on the side part
time when I was university I made my own
course I was running my own business at
the time already and I made a my own
course with a economics professor and I
basically did my own company as my
course and he gave me a grade on it
which was fantastic and every school
project that I worked on was always
around my business and you can use the
alumni of the university to make sales
calls and make introductions because
they care about people from the same
University so I’ve been looking how can
i hack my university education to try to
help my business if you’re a hundred
percent sure you never want to get a job
then it may not be that useful to go to
school University but if you if you’re
not sure you need a back-up plan you
know you want to go get a job for a
number of years then I think it’s
definitely helpful yeah well you said
Evan I think it’s really good if you’re
at college now then I’d definitely think
about starting a business while you’re
at college and as Evan said use your
alumni network you use you know when you
have to a dissertation or a project do
it about your business and then it
becomes really connected and valuable
and you know then you can kind of leave
college and you’ve got a thriving
business right interesting when you said
actually Evan we got 300 amazing 16 to
21 year olds in the company and we call
them apprentices and this is they’re
basically yeah high school dropouts and
but they’re brilliant they’re
inspirational a lot of my hustlers a lot
of them sort of move into sales or
marketing but what’s really cool is we
also allow them to have time off from
work to go and do sort of college
education as well and I think companies
so if you if you’re looking at this loop
look for companies if you are looking at
the end of that and you saw the
traditional way might be something like
you do college start a business there
then you’re going to get a job somewhere
off your degree to two or three years
kind of gay self comfortable business
and then you’ve got nothing to fear and
then go and start your own business
if you’re gonna do that pick companies
who are going to invest in you give you
a lot of autonomy a lot of
entrepreneurship type of skills but the
best entrepreneurship skills honestly
I’ve experienced don’t get taught in
college they get taught in the
university of life I love it
breathe fitness TV evidence Stephen what
what do you do if you have a product
idea but have no idea how to get it from
your brain to a reality that’s good I
think if you got a product idea the
first thing you will ask is who’s gonna
use it and where’s the audience and
there’s loads of ways you can do that
you know there’s a kind of a traditional
step and you can check this out with
loads of different tools on the web the
obviously you do some more kind of
market research research if you don’t
know how to get you if you can’t cross
the chasm then you’ve got to go and talk
to people so if you’ve identified the
audience if it’s gonna surf go and talk
to friends talk to family yeah refine
the product idea based on what they say
and then once you’ve got that I think
the next step is put a really kind of
skeleton plan together about you know
who you gonna serve what’s the revenue
what’s the price in what’s the value how
are you different from competitors and
then and that will actually relay then
to do a kind of very skeleton sort of
financial plan and I would always say
you know I guess there’s an entrepreneur
hustler you want to be able to try and
create a model where you get money
really immediately from the get-go and
then you’ve got to do for things like
think of a name for the product think of
the name for the company create some
sort of structure so you know you could
be a partnership structure you know
there’s loads of the things in every
country and then obviously I would say
this at some time when you’re ready to
start your business you need a
world-class accounting system and that’s
when you come at the talk to Sage things
you might think you can work from home
yeah or you can if you’re working with a
buddy or start a partnership you can
kind of work working co-located spaces
again on location I wouldn’t waste a lot
of time there really smart thing I did
once was actually go and ask the
customer if I could use their offices
and they gave me six months office
because again they love it because if
you’re there on site they can come and
get you
and
also what a great way to get real-time
feedback about your product but also
what a great way to save a load of money
on office space and then you’ve got to
think about hiring people the skills you
need and then obviously promotion
marketing and always connecting with the
audience so there’s a kind of a flow of
activities you need to do but the most
important thing is they have an idea you
believe in really get you up in the
morning with loads of passion and then
connect it to who’s gonna buy it who’s
gonna pay real money for it
and who’s gonna really love it and be
advocates for you both on social media
but also as a product user of your
company there’s gonna be biggest raving
fans well breathe fitness TV just wrote
back to say thank you for answering the
question so that’s awesome and still
around I agree I think getting customers
like talking to your customers you will
have a business when you take that thing
that you love with what the audience
wants we’re too often you create
something that there’s not enough of
demand for and it just becomes a hobby
for you where you always have to tweak
like your initial idea always has to be
tweaked based off of customer feedback
and so the sooner you can get it into
the hands of other people even a
prototype even just an idea and
co-create with your customers understand
what their problems are and if they
would use this if this would be
something super valuable to them the
sooner you can get it out of your head
and into conversations then the sooner
you’re gonna be on your path to
greatness as a product
hey Evan have you come across instances
where entrepreneurs have spent way too
long
developing the product and the idea and
not getting out there talking to us was
getting out the market
yeah me I lost a 40 million dollar deal
because of it like I spent an entire
summer working on my business plan
because when I was 19 years old I spent
an entire summer working on my business
plan thinking I need a perfect business
planning the perfect business plan I
just researched and researched and
researched and thought I had the perfect
business plan and then once we launched
realized wow some of our assumptions
were actually wrong like once we started
talking to customers we had to make some
modifications
and we ended up almost being acquired by
this big company they bought our biggest
competitor for 40 million dollars and if
I was there sooner if I didn’t waste
that summer going down the wrong path
who would have had a much better shot so
business plan is important but you’re
not going to figure out all that just
sitting on your couch on your computer
you have to get out and start talking to
customers so this is there a kind of
message there for everybody the good
enough is the best you don’t have to
have the perfect business plan yeah I
think for people who love the plan you
need to do more and for people who love
to do you need to plan more yeah I was
just an over planner and I needed to do
more and I think a lot of people fall
into that category but people who just
go and do and have no idea what they’re
doing you might need a little more
planning and structure but there’s a lot
of entrepreneurs who just plan plan plan
plan plan and never do you need to do
before you feel you’re ready and start
talking to customers as soon as possible
Evan that’s a great quote if you love to
plan do more if you love to do Flair
more that’s so true that is a great
message I might need to put that on my
Instagram they’re both from these chats
Steve and I know already bumping up on
the our final message final tip how do
you want to wrap this up in a bowl leave
us with some awesome value on a Thursday
afternoon I think especially via yeah
listening you’re online in the US this
and Canada and this is a golden this is
the golden era of entrepreneurship this
is the golden time stuff as I said we
look at all the surveys this is an
all-time high in terms of confidence
about the economy obviously tax cuts in
the US all these sort of things small
business is getting stronger
entrepreneurship is is you know ready
for prime time
so the platform’s there for you to step
out into the audience with your big idea
and I’d say make it happen do it now
carpe diem bitter Latin to finish with
seize the moment I love it Steven Keller
ladies and gentlemen go check him out
Instagram Twitter Facebook now picking
up some activity there to guys really
appreciate the time here in a Thursday
afternoon again thank you for making
accommodation apologies for being late
totally my fault we bother you
but we continue to believe in yourself
and whatever your one where it is
much love and we’ll see you soon great stuff thanks