Are You Ready to START Your Business? Evan's Guide to Entrepreneurial Success!

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe. I do believe. We shall overcome someday. We shall overcome someday.

All right, welcome to another edition of Ask Evan, episode number 10. That's an interesting song. One of my favorites and probably the slowest one that I have on my Believe playlist. It's by Pete Seeger, "We Shall Overcome." A really important song in the equal rights movement. I just came back last night. I watched Selma, which is a movie with Martin Luther King about equal rights for Black people, and Pete Seeger was instrumental in that movement as well, and singing songs. What I love about him was using his art, using his music as a way to shine light on a cause. You know, I love Martin Luther King. I love Pete Seeger. I think as entrepreneurs you should be using your voice to spread light on a cause as well. And he got people involved, right? You want to sing along to the catchy music, but he also told people what to sing before it was coming up. So it's very inclusive, very loving, and I love Pete Seeger. So it's the slowest song on my playlist, but it also is inspiring for me, and that's why it's there. And I'm ready to start Ask Evan #10. So you may have noticed, for those of you loyal viewers, Believe Nation, that the orchid is back in the picture. Christina, you may notice here we have two buds happening here. We gotta zoom in on this. Two buds that are coming up here, so it's gonna be flowering. And you get to see the progression along the way. It is Frappuccino plus Lemon Water Day. And I wanted to start with a question for you guys. I think I might make this a tradition. I'm thinking about my YouTube videos and, you know, I don't put a ton of effort into the SEO of them. I think a little bit about the titles, but I don't do keyword research. I don't put the description, I don't fill that out. I don't have a transcript. I don't have timestamps. I do a little bit of tagging, but not a lot. I get a lot of people consistently writing to me every week to say, "Evan, I love your videos. You should have more views. I don't understand why there's not more views on all your videos." That's a great problem to have, right? I'm not complaining. I'm wondering if the SEO could be better. If you have experience with that, I'd love to hear your comments below or you can shoot me a message. For me, is the juice worth the squeeze, right? Is it going to be worth the investment because it's not going to be me doing it. So I have to bring somebody on board, hire somebody to help me with that. Am I going to get enough of a return by optimizing the titles a little more and putting the text in the description, all that stuff to make it worth my while. Is it worth it? I want your experience, your answers, your suggestions. Leave a comment below, let me know. Now let's get to your questions. First up is a newsletter subscriber, Isaac, who writes in to say, "Hey Evan, I've seen some of your videos on YouTube. The passion in your words brought me motivation and hope. I have a goal of creating the best pet retail store. Problem is I have no clue where to start." "I'm 20, hate my job, and broke. If you would recommend as soon as possible, I'd appreciate it. The guidance keeps changing lives, my friend, and may God continue to bless you." Isaac, loving it, loving the passion, loving the message of HOPE, all capital letters. And honestly, I can see you building a business around the word hope. And what I'd love for you to do to start is start by getting some experience. You have no idea where to start? Get some experience. You know, you're starting a retail shop? That's expensive stuff, right? To get your own location, to hire staff, to pay for rent, to pay for all the utilities, to buy all the products. That's expensive stuff. So what I would do is start by getting a job at a leading pet retailer right now. Learn the industry, learn the suppliers, learn what works, learn what's not working, get as close to the entrepreneur founder as possible, take on as many projects as possible to develop your skills, to get paid while you're making mistakes. And then when you're ready to go, I would build a brand around hope since that's what you capitalize here. I would make your pet store all about hope and show dogs who are— who've been rescued and have a mission to help some of those dogs out as well. And maybe you donate a certain percentage of your revenue or profits to the Humane Society or actively campaigning to help the Humane Society or promoting any campaigns for lost dogs, like messages of hope. Make that clear because when I go to a pet store, it looks like every other pet store. It's boring. It doesn't mean anything to me. So start with that message of hope. Make that mean something to me. Tell me the stories that you're involved with helping these dogs out, and I'm more likely to want to buy from you. I'd also try to figure out how can you start without a retail store. That may be your end goal, but it's going to cost you a lot of money to start that up. So how can I start smaller? How can I start with an online shop selling some specific products and learning the market and making some contacts and connections and expanding that to building a name in the community and opening your own store. So, 1, get a job learning the industry, getting paid to make mistakes. 2, start cheap, start online, start small, learn the market. And then 3, build a message around hope that builds a brand that attracts people, that makes people a magnet to you, just like they are to me for Believe. If they're thinking hope and they love dogs, they're coming to you first. Alright, next up is a YouTube viewer, Nipun, who writes in to say, Hi, thanks for the video. I have a question. Is it never too late? So Nipun, looking at your picture there, it looks like you're still a pretty young dude. I don't know how old you are there, but it's kind of hard to see, but you're not looking like you're in your 60s or 70s, okay? Dude, it's never too late to start. There are so many examples of famous entrepreneurs who started later in their career. You look at Ray Kroc from McDonald's who was in his 50s and had diabetes and had all these problems with his health and and he was still convinced that the best years were ahead of him, right? He had arthritis and he was selling milkshake mixtures for a living, and he left that to create McDonald's and become one of the biggest brands in the world. I've told the story of Harlan Sanders, who started KFC, and he didn't have success till he was in his 60s. You know, it's never too late to start. The key thing is that you are passionate about what you're doing and it helps people in some way. Everybody has these limiting beliefs, okay? We all have them. You're telling yourself a story as to why you can't accomplish something. For some people, it's, you know, I'm too old. I can't do this. And you may believe that because you're 25 years old, that's too old to start. You may look at, you know, internet entrepreneurs and they're starting when they're 13, 14, 15. You think, wow, I'm 25. I'm way too old. As long as you believe that, it's not going to work for you. I had the same thing when I was starting my first business. It was the opposite. I thought I was too young. I thought, "Hey, I'm selling to these guys 3 times my age. I'm too young. They're not going to listen to me. They're not going to take me seriously. They're scientists with PhDs. I'm a university student who knows nothing about science. How am I going to sell these guys on my software?" And that really held me back. I didn't want to talk to anybody on the phone. I would only want to do email conversation. I would double-check every email with my partner to make sure that I was saying the right things. And so I didn't grow because of that, because that limiting belief held held me back. And it wasn't until I discovered that these guys don't care how old I am as long as I can help them. If I can help them solve a problem, they're willing to listen to me. And when I overcame that barrier, I managed to break through. You know, I burst through the fear that I had and started making sales and started getting contacts. So we all have these stories that we're telling ourselves. Yours is, "I'm too old to start." Well, you're not. And the easiest way to break through is to find stories of people who you look up to who show you that you're not too old, right? You can look at people who started in their 30s, in their 40s, in their 50s, in their 60s, in their 70s, had success. Put that up on the wall. Look at that every day. Create an environment that is supportive, that builds you up, that makes you feel like you can go out and accomplish anything because you can. So it's not too late to start. Start right now. Okay, next up, another YouTuber. The Official Faces Factory writes in to say, "Hi, I'm dealing with the government sector, but my company for venture capital, I'm going for an e-presentation. Okay, the Q&A. What do I need to wear to impress them, and what's the first word to come out of my mouth because I'm dealing with the big guys? I don't want to miss that chance. My company really needed the deal to continue my business. Thank you." Great question and one that I can empathize with. I used to be in the venture capital business, and I've also sold to to governments and sold big deals into governments and to big companies. I can tell you this, this is with absolute certainty. It's much more about how you wear something than what you wear. It's much more about how you say something than what you say. It's about the confidence and knowing that you can help them. So, you know, don't go in looking like a total slob, but if wearing a three-piece suit makes you uncomfortable and you're walking in there and you're feeling nervous and you're fidgety and like it's too tight and the tie is choking you, that's gonna come out, right? People will notice that, that you're uncomfortable and it raises flags. It makes people feel uncomfortable as well. I'd much rather have you go in wearing something that you're comfortable with. It could be even business casual. It could be a shirt with a sweater, something that you feel at home in. Again, not total slob, but it's much more about how you wear it than what you wear. Same thing for what you say. It doesn't matter so much what the first word out of your mouth is. It doesn't matter about exactly what sentence you say. It's more about how you say it. Are you confident? Do you believe in it? I remember when I first started making the videos, you know, I wanted to be perfect. I had to be perfect. Every line I said was scripted, had to be amazing, you know, well thought out, took me a long time to write the script. And then I would be sitting there thinking, you know, explaining it and talking and trying to remember what it was that I said. And you may see me looking up and being uncertain with it. And the delivery sucked, right? The content was fantastic, but the delivery sucked. And as a result, people didn't care as much, even though I might have said better things then than what I said now, maybe. You know, the results aren't the same because now I can speak with a lot more conviction and confidence than I could before because I have practice. So don't worry so much about saying the exact right thing, and instead practice on having the confidence so that whatever you do say comes out eloquently. So a couple things to help you with this, okay? This is what helped me when I was going into big deals and I was nervous talking to the big guys. You know, this is a make-or-break opportunity. You don't want to miss your one shot, right? The first thing is know that you can help them. The thing that always eased my mind when I was going to talk to big customers Even now, when I'm talking to a big brand, if I'm going in and talking to Microsoft about a big campaign we're working on, I feel like I can help them. And I just try to remember that, like what I have to share, even though I'm going in, there might be a room of 20 people, I'm going in knowing that I can help them, that I have a solution that I'm confident in that can help them. And that puts me at ease. Yes, it's still a big deal. Yes, I still want to close it. Yes, I'm still nervous, but knowing that I have something that can work for them, makes me feel just a little bit more confident. The second thing is practice. Practice your presentation. Practice your speech. Practice your pitch. And try to practice in front of somebody. And if it's not in front of a person, start by practicing in front of the plant, right? I'm sitting here talking to Mr. Orchid explaining my pitch, right? It seems silly, but it helps. Practice talking to your cat. Practice talking to your dog. Ideally, then you can bring somebody else in the room. You know, it may lead to starting to practice talking in the mirror. Get your pitch down so that again, you may miss parts of it. It may not be perfect. You may not use the exact same words every single time, but you want to practice it so that when you get out there and you start talking to them, you're eloquent, you're confident, you're passionate, you're determined, and they can feel that, right? And they're going to care again much less about what you say than how you say it. When I do these videos now, Even now, I mean, I've had a lot of practice doing these videos. Before I come out and do a video, if I'm doing a One Minute Monday, if I'm doing a Famous Friday, if I'm answering a specific question, I will usually look at the question and I will walk around for a little bit, walking back and forth, practicing what I want to say, hitting kind of the key points that I have in my mind, muttering to myself, "Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm." You know, trying to get into it, and then I go and film. And that may only take me, you know, 5 minutes before each video now because I get used to it. When I'm doing the Ask Evan Show, it's actually a lot less. I'm more likely to screw up or make a mistake. I really just look at the question, think for 30 seconds, and then start recording. But that comes with practice. To summarize, okay, number 1, first of all, congrats on the opportunity. I'm really excited for you. Number 1, much less about what you say and what you're wearing and more about how you're saying it and and how you're wearing it. And 2, practice. Get some experience, practice over, over, over, over, over, drill it to the point where you're feeling confident knowing that you guys can go in and help them, and that'll help seal the deal. Good luck, let me know how it goes. I want to hear some positive news. Keep believing, let's keep the show rolling. Next up, turning over to Twitter, looking at a question from Nahom who wrote in to say, Evan Carmichael, how do I get started, man? Could you put me on the right track? I'm a big fan of your videos and what you do, by the way. Thank you, Nahom, I appreciate it. I hope I'm pronouncing your name properly. Listen, you get started at the start. You don't have to make this too complicated, too confusing. You start by following something that you love to do. Get lost, explore, find something that you can consume yourself in and just love doing. And you're gonna find a couple things, okay? And I've told these stories a couple times, but you're gonna find some things that you do that you're all excited by, you love the opportunity, and then it fizzles out. For me, some examples were I went rock climbing, okay? I went rock climbing and I hated it, okay? So some things you'll try, you're going to hate it. I went rock climbing, the thing is in my crotch, I'm afraid of heights, I'm fighting it, I'm not having fun. I know if I fall off, that person has me, but I'm fighting it. I don't like it. I'm not going to do it. I'm done with rock climbing. Nothing against You guys who love rock climbing, just not for me. Then I tried snowboarding, and snowboarding was something that I loved doing, and I got into it, and for 2 years I was killing it, and I was going every day snowboarding. I was finding ways to reschedule my meetings so I can get to the local snowboarding hill to get my practice in, and I was learning jumps, and I was doing my S-turns, and finding ways to duck out so I can go snowboarding. But then that fizzled. Now I'm going to go a couple of times in a year, maintain my skills, and that's it. I don't have the love for it anymore. And then I did salsa. And salsa was something that I still love doing. I'm still lost in it. I DJ, I teach, I've become an investor in a company. It's become a business where it started off as a hobby. 10 years later, I still love doing it. I'm still actively involved. This is the progression you need to take with your ideas. You're going to try some ideas that that will not work, that you'll hate immediately. Cool, move on. You'll find some that you love for a little bit and it's a quick rush and then you realize this isn't for you. Awesome, don't stay in that. If you're not loving it, get out, do something else. And then you want to find the ones that you love doing, that you get lost in, that you can do, you know, you look down, it's 9 o'clock, you look up, it's 6 o'clock at night. You're like, "What happened to the day?" You're consumed by what you're doing, you love it so much. And then figure out how do I add value to people's lives. And we can combine that That's a successful start, man. That's how you get started. So start to explore. Start figuring out what you can get lost in. And one last tip is I would model success and start looking at famous entrepreneurs. Look at their stories, look at how they got started. Get inspired. Get inspired by people who are doing big things and that make you want to go out and try stuff because we're often so locked into these, this world that we create for ourselves that keeps us in place. And by surrounding yourself with people doing big things, even if it's just reading books, watching videos, listening to interviews, whatever it is. Get inspired by greatness to make you want to get out of your comfort zone and do something. Okay, next up, last question already. Another YouTuber, Joey Carr, writes in to say, "Hi Evan, I have a product in inventory but have yet to make any significant strides for substantial sale. Can I or someone representing me present my product directly to a local big box retail store manager?" Great question, and yes, absolutely. Now, there are 3 suggestions I'm going to give you, okay? The first one is you can go direct. You can go yourself. You can look for opportunities to present. All of these major big box guys will have a way to reach them. Sometimes it'll be an email. Sometimes it'll be a phone number. Sometimes they'll have open houses where you can submit an application. This is what I did to get my— the company I invested in, a salsa dancing company. We made a DVD. We got it on the Shopping Channel. There was an open call. You submit your business plan to them, how they can make money from it, and then the best ones that they like in different categories, they have a 1-day meetup at a hotel. You go, you have 10 minutes with a buyer, and they decide if they like you or not. So there's a couple-phase process. One is sending them an email with your plan, and then the next round is getting to meet the buyer at a hotel on a certain day, and then from there they decide if they want to bring you on or not. And so it's, you know, making sure you have the right plan, making sure you know when the dates are going to be, making sure you monitor those pages for opportunities to connect with them. Okay, so that's one way you can do it yourself. And to make that work, you have to make sure that you have, you know, a great plan because they're going to get pitched tons of different opportunities. My background was in venture capital, was in seeing business plans, knowing which plans were not working. And so that experience helped us get that first deal, get that first meeting, and we were way more professional than most of the people who were submitting applications. So you want to make sure you do your work, look for some examples, really upgrade your skills to write a good plan to pitch these guys. Number 2 is you can use a website called Jigsaw, and it's jigsaw.com, which I think recently changed to Connect— let me look it up— connect.data.com. And basically it allows you to find people around the world in different positions. So if you're trying to get into Walmart, You're trying to find the buyer for a certain region in Walmart. You can look that up. You can find that person. You can get their name, their phone number, their email address, and you can reach out to them. Again, when you do it, you want to make sure you're sending them value. It's the right person to contact. You're sending them a quality business plan. You're not harassing them. You're not spamming them, right? And so again, you could do that yourself or you can have somebody do it for you. And the third thing is connecting with a company that specializes in this. There are, there are companies, there are consultants, there are people you can work with who that's their business is trying to get orders from big-box stores. And they take a cut. Sometimes they'll ask for some money upfront. Sometimes they'll make it a mix of, of some kind of retainer upfront plus percentage of sales. Sometimes it'll be all victory-based, right? Usually it'll be more expensive longer term, right? They'll take a cut of every anything that you sell through that big box store, but they have connections, they've done it before, and so that's another option to go. If you don't feel comfortable that you don't have the business planning skills, you don't want to learn that, you don't want to do the pitching yourself, then partner up with somebody to come into your business to help you do that, or make an alliance with one of these brokers who that's their area of expertise. That's what they do all day long, that's what they specialize in, so you can get your product into the big box stores. Good luck. Woo! Another episode down. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you like this video, you can subscribe to the channel and make sure to answer my question in the comments back to the very top about SEO video, you know, titles, descriptions, timestamps. Let me know, is it worth it? Resources I should be checking out? I'd be very appreciative if you can share some knowledge, spread some light for me. Thank you guys so much for watching. I'll see you soon.

We shall live in peace. We shall live in peace. Someday! Someday!

Hi, Raquel English here with Mermaid Junkie TV. Are you on Evan Carmichael's newsletter subscription? If not, you should be. I read every single one, and you should too.

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