Evan Carmichael - Entrepreneur, Author & Youtuber | Built To Serve

Welcome to success story, the most useful podcast in the world. I'm your host Scott D. Clary The success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network and the blue wire podcast network The HubSpot podcast network has incredible podcasts like my first million my first million is hosted by Sam par and Shawn perry They feature famous guests They discuss how companies made their first million and then some they brainstorm new business ideas based on the hottest trends and opportunities in the marketplace Here are some of the topics you talk about if you like any of these you will love the show Three profitable business ideas that you should start in 2022 Drunk business ideas that can make you millions asking the founder of Grammarly how he built a 13 billion dollar company or SAS companies that anybody can start if these topics are up your alley go check out my first million listen to it wherever you listen to your podcast Today my guess is Evan Carmichael Evan is a prolific youtuber. He's built a community of over three million subscribers Of course, he's done a lot more than that. He's also wrote several books. He speaks globally the goal of his brand of Evan Carmichael His to inspire a 19 year old version of himself. So when he was 19 He built and sold a biotech software company a lot of ups and downs going into entrepreneurship at 22 He was a venture capitalists. He raised between 500,000 to 15 million dollars for various deals He then started creating content focused on Insights lessons Advise for that 19 year old Evan that was trying to navigate career life Entrepreneurship startup business. So now like I said He has a three million plus subscriber community all focused on inspiration and business and entrepreneurship and startup advice So what do we speak about what we spoke about his story how he went from big bank potential finance career into Startup land making 300 dollars a month barely knowing if he could afford rent or to put food on the table we spoke about When he gave up and when he decided to not give up and how he ended up the second He decided to not give up closing the biggest deal of his life at that point which allowed him to scale his startup Eventually exit it then we spoke about after startup life how he just wished that he could have some Advice some some guidance and at the time YouTube wasn't what it was you didn't have the access to the information that we all have access to now So he started creating content and he of course is an incredible content creator And then we spoke about some of the things that he's learned as a content creator So we spoke about identifying your purpose and why it's so important for content creator to understand who they're serving We spoke about creating content that resonates what content actually impacts an audience and How do you build that audience how do you serve that audience what the secret to success is as a content creator and then ultimately Once you've started which is the hardest part how do you continue how do you maintain how do you grow and some lessons that he's learned building his community Over several years that will hopefully allow some content creators that are listening to this podcast to Grow a little bit quicker and so they don't have to go through all the ups and downs and trials and tribulations that Evan went through So a ton of great advice on growing a community Creating content building a brand what it all means the mindset and the tactical behind it from somebody who's probably Done it better than most and is known as an incredible content creator So learn from the best let's jump right into it. This is Evan Carmichael serial entrepreneur content creator podcaster author global speaker. He's done it all let's go Yeah, so high school. I had a lot of entrepreneurial tendencies I'm 41 years old now so going back to high school. It's been a while But it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't a professional. It wasn't a career option Nope my friends weren't talking about being entrepreneurs. I didn't know anybody who was an entrepreneur You kind of had to be a little crazy Basically unemployable to be an entrepreneur But I had a lot of entrepreneurial tendencies in that I was selling baseball cards and doing garage sales and all that kind of fun stuff In starting my own little tiny businesses. It never really went anywhere, but it was kind of in me And then in university, you know, if you look at my high school yearbook to before university it was where you're going to be in 10 years I said VP at a bank because I love I love making money and I love the idea of managing money And I thought you had to be a banker to make money, you know, totally different world back then And I got university and went down the path of becoming an investment banker my dream job And also had a chance to join a startup take 30% equity in the company and make 300 bucks a month And that was the toughest decision of my life Scott is like I got a chance to go work at Merrill Lynch my dream job get paid six figures travel around, you know, the world doing doing deals or Have 300 bucks a month and 30% ownership in this startup and I Really wrestled with that the thing that I decided on was you know what? I don't know if I'll ever get this chance to be an entrepreneur again I could get another job. I mean, I'd be the same job. I mean, I'd be Merrill Lynch I mean, I'd be traveling on the world, but I can get a kind of similar job I didn't want to live with the regret of not knowing And so I told myself it rather no one failed and not knowing even even if it didn't work out At least I would know because it didn't want to I would I didn't want to be an old man at 40 This is what I would tell myself when I'm 40 and life is over and and you're finished You know, and you look back on your life You're gonna regret not knowing so that got me into the in the path of starting my first business You know struggled failed some of the worst years of my life eventually built and sold I don't know how deep you want to go into that stuff But coming out high school. I mean, I had a lot of entrepreneurial drives and tendencies But didn't really know where to put them and so really grateful that I discovered entrepreneurship I you know, I appreciate the story actually you know what I'm not gonna go too deep into that story Because I've heard that story a lot and I know that you've told that story before only because only because I get a lot of awesome entrepreneurs But I don't get a lot of people that have built such a strong brand had create so much content So I think that's like the the thing that you got to pull out and you got to teach people because People do build businesses, but not everybody builds a brand like you built your brand So I'm curious your mindset when you're going into Starting a YouTube account is that a side hustles. That's something you just Thought would be a hobby. Was it purposeful? Was it not where what was the mindset when you first started this out? So I'm a big believer that your purpose comes from your pain That whatever you struggle the most with as a human is what you want to help other people with And so I struggled so much as an entrepreneur myself I wanted to make the path easier for other entrepreneurs, right? It's still what I'm doing now like 20 years later 22 years later whatever Making videos being on here with you Scott is trying to help the 19 year old Evans of the world out there because there are millions of those people right now I went to YouTube because I'm a visual Person I like to see I like to see something and at the time I had a popular website Just Evan Carmichael dot com. We had a hundred thousand plus pages of content We had huge people writing for the website But I I can read it's okay, but I'd rather see a video and video was just starting to emerge and be a thing and so I thought I would go to YouTube and just start making some videos. I never expected it to blow up Like being YouTube famous wasn't a thing And if you went to YouTube in 2009 when I uploaded my first video It was it was all sorts of stupid videos man falls downstairs Here's my cat like just really stupid things. There was no education videos. No entrepreneurship videos Not really and so I did it just because I thought it might help a few people you know, I'd never People say well, how did you know like I didn't know I was I'm not that smart I didn't know what YouTube was gonna become. I just I like video and I wanted to be there And my first video in the first year of it being up had three comments One was my mom one was my sister and one was some random guy So it's like I didn't I didn't hit a big out of the gate it took Five years or something to get the five figures in in subscribers So it took a long long time. I was doing it because I Thought it would help a few people my my business was my website and my passion was helping Create content on YouTube and ultimately things I stuck around long enough that things started to happen fortunately But I didn't know that this is where it was gonna be So you you you did this you did this and and you built this From the pain you experienced and you wanted to teach and you found that medium um is there a process that you reverse engineered if you if somebody was looking to Create content to to build a brand um What is that what is the way to find your purpose as a content creator to somebody could be a little bit more purposeful With their actions from day one because I would probably expedite their process Yeah, so recognize first of all that a brand is in emotion A brand is how you want people to feel when they're around any of your stuff whether they're buying your merch is like How do I feel when I put this on or if I'm putting on Some Michael Jordan's how am I going to feel when I put those on if I'm watching your content How do you want me how do you want to make me feel like your interview Scott? How do you want people to feel when they're watching and listen to your interviews? Enlightened Motivated Educated a passionate like just like light a fire and feel like they can go do whatever they want to go do Probably very similar to your audience to be honest like same same idea Yeah, and listen if you had if people had that clarity in terms of Jumping into making content that I want people to feel enlightened like if we run with that I want people to feel enlightened when they watch my video most of the time when we get in front of a camera to press record We're worried about how am I looking and I weren't there right thing is the light okay? Am I in focus? What is what am I even going to be sane? I forgot my lines and even if you end up having the perfect words If they don't have the emotion behind it, they won't land where having the emotion with imperfect words will land So if the goal before going into any interview or any piece of content I really want the people listening to this to feel enlightened and empowered It just changes how you show up it changes the content direction changes the guests that people invite on their shows It changes the picture that you post to Instagram. So your brain is in emotion minus believe If people figure out what that is it relieves a lot of pressure and also gives a lot more clarity for what to do next So I think that's the starting point like what do you stand for? What do you want your brain to be? What is the one word emotion that you want to permeate everything you make? In terms of purpose Well, now we need to apply that to the people who who are exactly like who you used to be right? Your purpose is to help people who currently are who you used to be I'm still making content for nine trillion eleven because there are millions of people out there who are nine And they need help they need guidance and you support they need wisdom and inspiration In that's who I'm making my content for I can help anybody believe and there's a lot of people who watch my content Who are entrepreneurs and that's awesome But I feel most connected to the people who are struggling to get their business off the ground because that's when I had the The biggest pain point in my life And it's just recognizing that your journey your story has value In that you're We're not where we want to be like I'm not done growing Scotts not done growing like neither of us are where we ultimately want to be And a lot of people will then use that as well. I'm I'm no Tony Robbins or I'm no whoever so I'm not even going to try But You could go back and help the person that you used to be I can go back and sit on a park bench and talk to Nineteen or eleven give him some knowledge that will that will help him and that becomes the exercise then that every time that you You're climbing a mountain and you try to get to the top and you never want to get to the top because that means you're done growing But you're climbing climbing climbing climbing. Hopefully every day if you listen to Scotts show you're going to climb and learn more every day But every time you take a step up you then reach back and pull to help somebody else get to where you're at And most people are stuck still at zero most people are stuck at just taking the first step And so they can be inspired by your story they can learn from you and knowing that you've been through What they are going through Gives them the hope and the belief that maybe they can get out of the hole they're into If you just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's episode HubSpot now as a leader You're always on the lookout for more ways to arm yourself with knowledge the books the seminars and most importantly The podcast that help you make the best possible decision for you your company your customers because when you know more You can apply more and you can grow with HubSpot serum platform You can store track manage and report on all the tasks and activities that make up your relationships with customers With the birds eye view over all your customer interactions HubSpot empowers your decision making like never before so you can give your business and your customers all the good You've got learn how to make your business grow better at HubSpot.com If somebody is starting so Evan you're starting day one What is the advice you give to somebody so that they make it past this this initial hump so that they feel comfortable taking the first step And then once they take the first I know it's going to be a two-part question which is a dip move on my part But what once so what's the advice to get them to take the first step and then once they take that first step What's the advice to maintain continuity maintain momentum do it for five years so they see the result So when you're first getting started expect a suck Just expect a suck expect it to be terrible expect your first interview to suck your first video to suck Just expect it expect your camera to break and like sound not to record and you you being a nervous You know just wreck just expect a suck. It doesn't mean that you suck as a human It just means that you don't have the skill set yet. Well, how do you get the skill set? You practice like don't this is this is the problem for a lot of people is they'll look at People don't expect to be great You know like if you're starting the show whoever your heroes are Joe Rogan or Tim Ferriss or whoever Larry King like who do you think are the best interviewers of all time great You can look at them and say well, I don't think I'm gonna be as good as them yet like I might on a long enough Horizon but I'm not gonna be as good as them those are the a plus category great But you can easily think yourself. Okay, if they're a plus I'm probably like a B minus right now, you know like I I ask great questions. I'm curious I think I could do that and then you go and you do your first show and you realize you're not a B minus You're a D minus like it's just way worse than you thought because when you go live You freeze up you're deer in the headlights asked the wrong question stumble look back and say oh my gosh I didn't do anything that I thought I was gonna do and you just realized that you're way worse than you thought you were gonna be And that's where most people quit like they make one or they try to make the first one And then they look back and say this is terrible I guess I suck at this and it's not for me. I'm not as good as I thought I was and they never keep going expect to suck Again, it means you're amazing as a human because you tried and if you keep keep trying and keep improving keep getting better You will not suck anymore. So that's where a lot of people struggle. They know what looks good They feel they can make it They can't at the beginning and so they stop trying In terms of keeping going how do you keep going when you're struggling and failing and not seeing the results People ask me this all the time where you know, it took me five years to get the 5,000 subscribers or whatever Close numbers like that where a lot of people on they're they're hitting that in the first few months It took me five years to get there. I like sharing the journey because it's it's great to see 3 million whatever now But a five years 5,000 subscribers Uh What kept me going through those days was I always focus on who I was serving instead of who I'm not Most people will focus on who they're not serving and that game never ends, right? I have three million subscribers Why is it why isn't it four or five for ten like I've dive deeper into that concept. That's very interesting What do you mean by they're focusing on the people that they're not serving? So if I'm at three million subscribers Most people who are even at my level are thinking well, I should be at five or should be at seven or should be at 10 I should be at like the net we're focused on who we don't have we're focused on and that's great goal oriented like hey Where we're going next, but if you focus too much on that it's actually really depleting of your energy So if at the beginning you get you get five views on your video you get 50 views on your video Like I only got 50 views. I spent so much time in energy and effort I thought it was actually decent and only 50 people watched it were focused on who we're not having Right, why is it a five hundred or five thousand or whatever a meaningful number is that you thought you would have And as our standards get higher we keep increasing that number right if I get Five thousand views on a video. That's a failure. We're at the beginning. It's like oh my god five thousand views so How I've always just approached it And maybe it was because at the beginning there was no such thing as being YouTube famous Was I just focus on who I was serving that if I had 50 people watch the video like 50 people watch this video Yeah, like if you were to go give a speech at a library or or or YMCA or something 50 people showed up You'd be pretty amped you'd be pretty nervous You know your first speaking gig oh my god. It's a good night. Yeah, I mean, it's great right 50 people showed up to listen to you But because it's online we we feel like that's nobody and and it doesn't matter and it doesn't it doesn't hit anybody You know assume That for one of those 50 people your video is a life-changing video The message you're speaking is having a major impact not on everybody But at least one person in those 50 maybe your words the way you said it today With your tone and your story actually punctured through where other people happened like they heard your message Even if they don't leave a comment to tell you what an impact that has had And if you focus on the 50 people you are serving instead of the you know all the people that you're not It does two things one it makes you feel like you're doing work that matters It makes you feel Like your work is meaningful and at the end of the day we all want to wake up and feel like We're gonna do something meaningful If you wake up and feel like it doesn't mean anything if we show up or not today then You're not that's the path the stress depression anxiety suicide because we feel like we don't matter But if you woke up today and felt like today's going to matter it's going to mean something I look at my calendar I see Scott in the calendar is like yes, let's go. It's going to be a great day guys Uh Then that's the path to to purpose and fulfillment and happiness So focusing on who you are serving makes you feel better and gives you more energy and happiness to pour into your creative projects It also has a funny effect where if you focus on who you are serving They take you to the people who you're not If you love on your current community And they they feel that love and they're going to reciprocate it and take you to their friends to hate Have you listened to Scotch show? It's amazing. This guy cares so much. He invices great guests on ask amazing questions Right they will take you to the people who are not serving so that was the thing that got me going It was that that kept me going it was not oh, I didn't get 500 views on his video so I'm gonna quit like no seven people watch this video. I'm having an impact keep going That is a great dovetail into well, you kind of answered it But that was I always love asking people why they named their book what they named their book and that sort of ties it all together So you you actually wrote a book called built to serve and that's why that's such a central theme in what's made you successful So it's always it's always focusing on who you already have and I think that's actually I've never heard it phrase that way and I think that most people don't look at growing social audiences that way at all It's almost like always looking internally versus at words That's Yeah, I mean, you know what Scott I didn't I didn't I couldn't vocalize it as well when I first got started So if we had this interview back in 2009 when I was first getting stuff I wouldn't have been able to say it as clearly as that But what I what I found over the years was And I've been around for a long enough time that you start to you know hear stories A lot of the people who have watched my videos they would go Years and never Leave a comment and never tell me the impact that the video had remember this one woman who Had cancer and she was in the hospital and having her treatments and every every time it was painful She would pull up an iPad and watch one of my videos for inspiration and She told me that she had one really really painful day And she just wanted to quit like just end it. I'm done. This is too much pain I'm not I don't want to live like this anymore and her mom came in and she said That's not happening. Who's that guy that you watch on YouTube again? Like what's his name where you're gonna watch your video right now from his channel And she pulled up the iPad and showed it to her and you know helped her get through another day and We did an episode on her show when she was telling me this story and this had happened four or five years before we did The interview on her podcast and I had never known like she never left a comment on my videos She'd never written in the email to say thank you And now four to five years after this whole thing happened. She's telling me face-to-face How much of an impact my content is played in her life So we tend to default that if unless people leave gushing comments on our videos or we get tons of views that It's not having an impact and it doesn't matter Where I've seen enough of those stories come back that it's like hey if if 50 people watched it For one person that could be a life-changing video and if you can actually hold on to that Actually capture that and feel that that for at least one person this message is life changing for them That's what will fill you up and give you the the motivation energy Hope encouragement to keep going on the content And just want to take a second to think to sponsor of today's episode swag calm now You know if you've ever received a corporate gift or swag in the past How many of those gifts did you actually keep probably not many Which is probably because the stuff that you got was not so great. I've gotten Like a lot of stuff from great shows and from companies in the past that I've just thrown out the second I get it So this is why you need to check out swag calm I've been on the receiving end of getting garbage gifts I've also worked in companies where I only had access to a really really small inventory of stuff that I wanted to give My customers and my employees and I knew that it wasn't going to resonate. I knew that it was going to suck So what is swag calm? Well, it's like swag upgraded. It's the best place to buy custom gifts and swag The people will actually want to keep so they sent me a box because obviously they're sponsoring the show And I wanted to see what it's all about. I you know I've worked in businesses. I want to make sure that the quality of their stuff Actually was up to my standards because I can tell you right now that when I get garbage It goes right into the trash it like it really goes right into the trash I'm going to get back from the trade show or the conference or whatever So I received one of the custom swag boxes from swag calm I loved the unique packaging so it was a beautiful unboxing experience I love the actual products. They sent me and there's a whole bunch more that obviously they didn't send me But the stuff that they did send was absolutely beautiful It was very high quality and I can only imagine that if I actually got this when I was working for companies I probably would have actually used it and to be honest I'm going to start using them for people that work on my show and in my company as well because I know This isn't just a novelty gift that somebody's going to throw it's stuff that they can actually use They have so many unique and customizable gifts that I've never seen anywhere else They have custom yoga mats. They have custom apple air pods. They even have branded kayaks Which I did not know was to think so they carry all these premium brands like North Face Yeti, Nike and more and it's all customizable with your company's logo or artwork With swag calm they take care of all of your swag at their warehouse and they ship it to individual addresses Or if you prefer you can just send it to a bulk location in one single shipment It's easy to manage from their online portal which you obviously get access to So if this is something that you think would benefit you if you have clients or customers or a team And you want to go the extra mile and you actually want to give gifts that people appreciate Which is the whole point of giving these gifts in the first place Go to swag calm for the perfect swag and custom gifts Right now they're giving everybody who's a success story podcast listener special offer It's 10% off your entire order But only when you go to swag calm slash success and enter promo code success 10 Remember for 10% off go to swag calm slash success and use promo code success 10 Incredible okay, I also like to highlight that obviously every journey is not so easy So failures pick pick failures that you've had How did you navigate those how did you circumvent those like how did you In the darkest point in any point in your life it could be personal and professional How did you navigate that and then get through it So the the biggest failure I had was I quit on my business partner So the this is why I tried and courtship to keep going and believe and all because that was me because I needed it because Because 20 year old Evan that badly needed that message We were not having success. I was a year in on this business. I turned down my dream job to take this You know company opportunity all my friends were were getting rich Doing all this stuff and I was too poor to go hang out with them And I was too embarrassed to tell them that I was broke right is they want to hang out And I can't because 20 bucks for pizza and beer and then like bowling night or whatever would be too much right And so I said I can I'm hustling. I'm living the entrepreneur life, you know, not not I like that I can't I make 300 bucks a month guys. I can't afford this so At some point it just got to a breaking point where I can't handle this anymore, you know I'm I'm I'm busting my butt like every day wake up. It's dark. I go to my partner's condo It's dark. I leave and go home right being salad for lunch every day Just day and day out if you weren't working hard and you're not getting results That's fine. You can kind of understand But when you're grinding every single day all day and have no other life and you're still not getting results I don't know I think at some point it just beats you down this So I can't take this anymore. And so at a family event I was Christmas or Thanksgiving or whatever I told my business partner like I can't do this anymore. I need I need to feel like I'm a valuable person And just this isn't working and so I quit And then I I cried like crazy had stuff kind of my eyes my nose You know, I was just totally lost And the next day I woke up and I felt I can't quit yet because I'm going to regret if I quit now I know again when I'm an old man at 40 I'm going to regret this life changing decision But I can't keep going the way that I'm going I have to find something else because this is not working as it is And that's where I had a aha moment kind of at my bottom which was I'm not the first guy to try to build software before and sell it like who's done this And the first guy I thought of was Bill Gates who started Microsoft So I thought okay, how do Bill Gates do it? I'm going to learn his story And maybe this something I can learn from it And I did it looked at how Microsoft got started not not how did he make a mix an extra million dollars now like who cares You know makes a million dollars a second just Just sitting around how do you go from zero to one? That's what I wanted to do And I looked at a story and Copy that strategy and shortly after had my first deal for 13 and a half thousand dollars in my business And you know grains came with things. That's not a lot of money But holy cow when you're making through in bucks a month and you get a 13 and a half key deal My dude, it's it's like I was rich like I won the lottery You know, I have I have have dollars hitting my bank account I felt rich and more important is like hope like oh my gosh something finally worked Like maybe this could actually happen light at the end of the tunnel And then I just modeled that strategy to keep getting more and more and more growth And so If you think about what do I do now like what saved me back then modeling success I don't have to be the guy to figure out all of my own. I can model somebody who's done it What have I done for the past 20 plus years is teach people how to model success You know, I'm like I'm still talking in 19 year old Evan profiling famous people and say here's where you can learn from them to apply to your situation You know, it's funny though like you've always you've always gone into situations like I guess in the software company You did up people you could model but when you were starting your own brand and you're creating content I don't think there was a model, but you still figured it out I mean, that's a great point Scott and I think that's why it took so long You know that I that I didn't model somebody. I think I think you could like people ask me who's your who's your hero or who do you want to be most like And my answer is princess die Uh, that's my that's my model And I just like there's a lot of things about her that I think can apply it. How does it apply to like my 2022 You know business youtube etc That's that's the challenge But I think if I applied it earlier to my situation it wouldn't have taken me five years to get five thousand subscribers I would have been able to get there a lot faster Um every time I haven't known what to do and I asked myself who's done this before And maybe you can talk to them, but I didn't have any connection. So I like I'm not calling up Bill Gates to say hey Billy Um, what do you think But but the bigger they are the more their stories are out there for you to learn and so if I was Smart enough to go back and say I'm building a brand like the idea of a brand Scott was not something that was in my vocabulary You know, I wasn't thinking about wasn't anyone's vocabulary. It's kind of not new about some content You know, I'm gonna make some videos and hopefully help somebody right that was really the start So if You know, there were no big parallels in youtube, but I could have pulled from other other people who were Who are big at the time? I could have pulled from Oprah who had her TV show I could have pulled from people if I If I had the smarts or the role models, I guess to think about it So again, like this is what I'm trying to help people. You don't have to take as long as I did to get here. You can go a lot faster Um one more question on on content creation that I want to do a couple of rapid sparks. I want to respect your time too But um last question on content creation um Somebody's starting day one no resources. They they want to start putting content into the world What is the number one thing to think about is it process? Is it you mentioned some mindset things But the actual doing if they're gonna start today what advice would you give them? You you pull out your phone You know if you go on youtube you turn it sideways You press record Right like I think it depends on the industry that you're gonna you know what your niche is I I specialize in education thought leadership um specifically entrepreneurship person development if that's you then people over-focus on like quality Content they think of quality of production the camera you use a microphone you use the lighting Yeah, and and that barely matters like inside of thought leadership education What matters most is quality of thought Can you teach me something that I don't know your job as a thought leader is to take what's in your head and plant it into your audience's head Now if you're if you're a videographer Then yeah, you're real better look fire if you're a videographer I don't want to see a bunch of youtube videos with like shaky hand on your cell phone, right? I mean you're not gonna get hired for that But if you're a speaker you're you're you want to be an expert your coach your trainer You're selling consulting then it's it's not so much about how good it looks. It's more about how good you are And we overthink and over analyze and over prepare and over script all other videos if you thought about how much time You spent and I I mean, I'm guilty too go back and watch my first videos I did all the same mistakes everybody else did as well my first video I'm in I'm sitting down. I'm in a suit super uncomfortable. We have the perfect setting and lighting and all this stuff behind us And and that was not that video was not fire. I mean, it's it's taken off Because it's my first video and people want to see what video number one is But it's not like it was some amazing video Because I suck because I was nervous and I didn't have a great message So the most important thing is just get the phone out and imagine you're not speaking to a lens But imagine you're speaking to a human And it can either be yourself like you're gonna sit down with I would sit down with 19 year old Evan And like here's what you need to know in 19 year old Evan Replace the camera lens with person's face or an actual friend of yours I used to there was an entrepreneur friend of mine who has always seen to be struggling And so instead of seeing the lens I would see him and I'd be talking just to him And when you can do that That's how you get real and authentic and vulnerable and all of our buzz phrases because it feels like you're talking to a human instead of just the camera lens That's awesome and good good advice just to get started and I and I like that I like that idea of Replacing that that camera with the person because all the best conversations that I've ever had and I'm sure you do it too Well, now you've done it a lot but when you just off the cuff just shoot the shit with a friend That's by far the best advice you're ever gonna give ever ever ever Okay, let's do a couple rapid fire, but most importantly most importantly where do people go consume more of your content drop a couple handles Website wherever you want to send people Uh, you know, I'm Evan Carmichael everywhere. You can probably find me whatever platform you're on. I think the I mean how many episodes of this have you done Scott? 250 Yeah, well this is 250 No, not this one in particular. I've recorded 250. I don't know which one this is though. This is this is in there This is so I can make it 250. Yeah, let's go. Yes. I like I can do that. I mean, I want to be those I like the milestone numbers Okay, guys, this is episode 250 Whether you are new to Scott's show or this is your first episode the greatest you can do is go go leave a comment or go leave a review for this episode Where people are like YouTube or iTunes or what's that what's both actually? Yeah, wherever your list if you're on iTunes Just leave a leave a five star review give some feedback and if you're on YouTube leave a comment and let's got no What's up? You'd be surprised at how much that helps Especially the iTunes reviews for getting exposure. It's it's a lot of work to make 250 videos guys, right? This isn't just yeah, I'm gonna show up and hopefully you know make some good content So the best thing you knew for me is if you enjoyed any of this content go give Scott some love on on iTunes or YouTube So more people get access to all of his guests and his wisdom too Thank you, man. That was actually super cool. No one's ever done that before. I appreciate the shout out That's very very cool. Okay, let's do a couple rapid fire then we'll wrap this thing up It's also because I remember me back at the beginning. I know you're at the beginning But it's like man every comment I got I just oh man, I gotta comment You know, you're not you're not wrong You're not wrong like like my like the it's a podcast So it definitely takes off a little bit more on on like iTunes bought a five But yeah, for sure on YouTube like right now Starting on about like 20k 20k subs like it's like It's it means a lot like it means it means like a lot to a creator when you show a little love and actually I'd try and sort of Take that the heart when I have friends that put out content and I'm trying to like support everybody I just go through my friends list when they post anything. It's just commenting sharing everything I have a couple of friends do a lot of this stuff so I can action item for your audience like one Go give Scott some love on iTunes or YouTube, but to look at look at who you like to look at whose content You like to mess with in in YouTube Instagram wherever you're spending a lot of time and look at who's a small account Like leave in a comment on my channel's awesome, but I'm probably not going to see most of them at this point my team does Leave in a comment on on Joe Rogan's channel or whatever. It's probably not going to be ever seen by the creator But look at the channels who are smaller than you or who you know or just getting some and you generally like their stuff And just give them give them a little bit of love just tell them how much their stuff means to you like like the woman Who was watching my videos in a hospital and she never told me just tell the people who are smaller than you What their content means to you that comment? I'm telling you could be the difference between them quitting and then keeping on for another month And then their big break happens like your your eight seconds to leave a comment on that person's video or post Could be the difference between them quitting Millions of creators out there right now are on the verge today. They will quit and never post again And your comic could be the difference for them. So that's a little bit actually more Preach I love it. Okay, you touch on this quick, but biggest challenge you've overcome in your own personal life But was it had you overcome it was that that's still same example if so we can move on or yeah, like just to deciding the deciding Not to quit on the business, but to decide in which path to go do I become an entrepreneur and take this big gamble or do I Take this job that I thought I always wanted in The two lessons that I'd like the modeling success less than I learned at 20 and I still use today and the I'd rather fail And no then not know Basically live a life with no regrets was at 19 and still those are the filters to which I make decisions now Amazing, okay There's been many people that have had an impact on your life pick one person and what did they teach you? Uh, I mean I pick my parents. They're behind me on my wall here There's a picture. I guess for the audio listeners. You can't see but I've got five giant canvases These are half human size and I've got a picture of me when I'm eight or nine and then my mom and my dad above me And I see them every day when I walk into my office and and they're not entrepreneurs and they didn't teach me any about entrepreneurship or business But they taught me how to be a human and they would always tell me your everyone could really calm out because you can do anything you believe that you can and Yeah, it's just I'm really just pumping what my parents gave me out into the entrepreneur world Amazing A book podcast audible something you'd recommend people go check out that has it's got show. Let's go guys I'm there Come on Give some fire start reviews. Let's give Scott some love. All right. We'll keep that one. I'll keep that one I appreciate it. Um, okay, if you could tell your 20 year old self one thing what would it be believe Believe that you can't believe that it will work out believe that you can you can figure out the skills to get there Believe believe believe believe that someone like you can do it and last question. What does success mean to you? Uh, what does success mean to me? I'm not really a definitions guy, but I think Feeling like what I do matters every day is what we're all chasing. So if I woke up I and I generally enjoy what's in my calendar And I feel like I'm gonna do something that's gonna mean something either to the world or to You know the closest people to me like my wife. I think that's success