In this episode, Evan Carmichael urges entrepreneurs to take pride in everything they produce, from books and newsletters to YouTube channels, framing creation as a legacy for future generations. He shares a behind‑the‑scenes update on his own book—now in week 39 of writing—detailing his intensive review process, the final steps before publication, and his emotional excitement about the work. Carmichael answers audience questions, offering concrete guidance on publishing routes (using a literary agent versus self‑publishing), strategies for managing a large corporate YouTube channel by leveraging the CEO’s personality, and the anticipated release schedule for his book, including potential European availability and audio/e‑book formats. Throughout, he emphasizes quality over mediocrity, the importance of authentic storytelling, and the personal fulfillment that comes from creating work you can proudly showcase to family and fans.
Questions this video answers
Carmichael recommends first getting a business/entertainment agent who can introduce you to a literary agent; the literary agent then pitches to publishers. He suggests using an agent if you have an audience, as they can secure better deals and handle publisher dynamics. If you lack an audience or an agent won’t take you, self‑publishing is an alternative.
Carmichael stresses that content quality is paramount. Leverage the CEO’s genuine passion and personality—daily vlogs, short personal messages, behind‑the‑scenes clips—to humanize the brand. Technical SEO (titles, tags) won’t compensate for boring content. The CEO must care and be authentic for the channel to succeed.
Originally slated for January, the release is now targeted for December to meet holiday demand. An audio version and deluxe e‑book are planned. European availability is expected for the English edition, with potential for translations depending on demand.
Chapters
Be proud of what you create. I think it's super important that for entrepreneurs, you make something that you're proud of. I think too many entrepreneurs mail it in. I think too many entrepreneurs put out something that's just okay, that's just good, that's just average. And I think, you know, this may not be always something that only one one entrepreneur can always do, like you're gonna be up and down, right? You'll have moments where you wanna be proud of everything you create, and then there'll be other moments where you kind of pack it in a little bit. But today I wanna challenge you to really be proud of the things that you create, the books that you're writing, the social media content you're creating, the newsletter that you're sending out, the website that you're doing. I want you to look at what you're creating and say, I'm proud of this. I want my grandkids to see this and say, here's what Grandpa Evan did. That matters to me. This is your legacy. And again, I think too many entrepreneurs just mail it in and put something out that's just okay. It's like, yeah, I put a lot of work into it, but it's just kind of okay stuff instead of something that's truly great. So how this relates to my book, I'm working on my book. This is the first time I'm doing like a Blab version of an update because I've got to do a lot of work today on it. I'm in my review mode. I'm in the final stages of creating it. And now it's going through every single page and making sure that I'm proud of it. So this is this is also a message to myself. This is a message to me that I want to be proud of every single page that's in that book, right? And I don't want to feel like, ah, you know what? I kind of mailed it in on that title or that sentence. I want it to be gold. And that's what I'm going to be doing today. As soon as I get off this call, I'm going to be basically for the next 12 hours, probably reviewing the book, going through every single page to make sure it's something that I love. And so I would challenge you guys to do the same thing. Look at the work that you're doing today. And create something that you're proud of, that you can hang your hat on to say, "I made that." Even if it doesn't take off, even if it doesn't blow up, you know that you created something special, deep, and meaningful. Hey, Grandpa Evan. Hey, Zeno. Great to have you here on the blab. I'm going to hit a few questions that came in from the YouTube channel because that's what I usually do when I answer my book stuff. So the first one came in. Amanda Nilo, "Congrats on finishing the book. Must be a huge piece of joy. About the difficult part of the process, what is the best way to secure an agent, or should I go directly to a publisher?" "An independent publisher." First off, thank you. It is a huge piece of joy. It's— this is week 39. This is serious. You know, 39 weeks of working on something. It's creating a child here. So thank you. I appreciate the love and respect there. In terms of securing an agent, what I did was I had a normal agent, like an entertainment agent, the person responsible for booking you into speaking gigs and negotiating deals for you and getting brand deals. He introduced me to a literary agent, and the literary agent then goes out and sells you into the different publishers. And we ended up having, I forget how many publishers she contacted, but we had 5 calls back to back to back on 2 different days, basically pitting the publishers against each other. So I would say it depends on what your goal is. If your goal is you want to do, you want to have a big reach, this is why I started to write a book, because I wanted to do things, I wanted to work on projects that had the potential to reach millions of people. And I wasn't interested in doing self-publishing because it's not a money grab for me. It's more about impact and reach and getting the message out there. And I figured with a well-known publisher, that would be— I'd have a bigger potential impact than just trying to do it myself. And so the agent helps with that. You could do the same route that I went in terms of first finding a regular agent, like a business agent, and then going to find a literary agent, or just hop right to the literary agent. It really depends these days on your audience. It was a lot easier for me because I already have an audience. And they rely a lot on the author to kind of spread the word, get the buzz going. And so if you're a first-time author and you don't have an audience, it's going to be a lot harder. But I would definitely recommend trying to work through an agent if you can, as opposed to going to independent publishers, because they set up better deals for you. They know what publishers are looking for, which deals right now, who the right contact is to get in touch with. And you could try to invest all that time. It's not that you can't learn that, just takes potentially years to get into it and understand the dynamics and the connections and who the people are. Where really, I don't want to spend the time doing that. I want to spend time writing the book and marketing and getting it out there. So I would recommend going agent to help you get the publisher. If the agent won't take you on because you may not be big enough yet, then you can look at doing it yourself. Zeno, unfortunately I got to do this one thing and eat. No worries, Zeno. Enjoy your lunch. Next, Pete4725, congrats on the pre-edition of the book. Now, Here's another question I really need help with. I've recently acquired a new job as a YouTube channel manager for a huge company CEO. I'm gonna be taking care of their content and their channel directly, and I feel it's a great opportunity, none like I've had, but it seems like a high enough level that I need some advice or tips if you have ever experienced something like this. Hope to hear your thoughts. Thanks again and congrats. Pete, awesome. Thanks for the question and thanks for the love. I'm feeling it. So I don't know who the CEO is that you took over from and you're helping manage their account, but I look at my experience, I'm working with Sage, right? I'm working with Stephen Kelly. He's the CEO of Sage. 15,000 employees, huge business on the London Stock Exchange in Europe. So I don't know if your company is bigger than that or not, but that's a sizable business. Most content on big companies' YouTube channels suck, period. And it doesn't matter how well you optimize the title and add descriptions and add tags and create playlists and reach out to influencers and do all the stuff that you're supposed to do. If the content sucks, it's never going to take off. And this is one of the biggest things that I struggle with and fight with with Sage, is that the content, even right now on their YouTube channel, for the most part sucks, is boring. And so there's no, no, no reason to put in marketing dollars to promote it because the product is crap. And I look at their competitors, one of their competitors has a popular YouTube channel, popular because they're spending $100,000 plus a month in YouTube ads to drive people to see their videos and there's no engagement and there's no subscribers because their videos suck too. And so, you know, I don't want to give you the tactical advice because in all likelihood it's not going to do much for you. Reality, what you need to do is make sure that you're putting out quality content and often it starts with the CEO. I'm lucky in that I'm working with Sage and Stephen Kelly is a man on a mission and is somebody who people want to hear from and, you know, needs a little work on the messaging and the examples, but the dude has fire. He has passion. He wants to have an impact on the world. It's not just about, I'm gonna get on and talk about Sage and how great a company this is, right? The guy actually cares. And so I would try to tap into someone who actually cares. If it's a CEO, most likely they'll care the most. Ideally, if they don't care, then you're in a big problem. And try to make content with them, like make the company accessible, make them human, do a daily vlog with the CEO where they're, you know, working out and have the quick message, or they're flying from one country to another and they're at the airport and it's just a quick shout out, right? 30 seconds. The content that I make with Stephen Kelly right now is the best content that Sage has globally on their YouTube channels. And so they can use that too, right, on their channel. So I'd be looking at how can I leverage the personality of the people involved to make a personal connection because the challenge with a lot of big companies is you don't feel connected to the person up there. You don't feel connected to the person who founded this or who the CEO is, and it looks too boring. And if I have a choice as a consumer to buy from a company where I have no connection to them or buy from a company where I feel the founder's story and I feel the passion that they have, I'm gonna go with the story. I'm gonna go with the passion is. And so The challenge for you is to bring that out of the CEO and put it out there. That would probably be my number one tip to help you build that YouTube channel up. King Alak. Hi Evan, when is your book planned to be released? Will it be available in Europe? Thanks Evan, you inspire me a lot with your many powerful videos. I'm very eager and excited to get a copy of the book. I know this will be the best book. I appreciate that King Alak. King Alak, cool name. So release date, initially it was supposed to be January. As I mentioned it a couple times on the channel, I know a lot of you guys wrote in to say you wanted it for the holiday season. And so I've given that feedback to them. Them, and we're trying to make it for December now instead of January. A lot has to happen. I don't know everything that has to happen between now and December to get the book out, but that's our new timetable to be able to get it out for you guys. Will it be available in Europe? I'm hoping so. I don't know, again, about too much of the marketing details. We did get the, the go-ahead to do an audio version of the book and a deluxe ebook version of the book, and a lot of that, again, came from you guys giving feedback and suggestions and ideas. So in terms of languages, they're open to it. I need to figure out kind of where and what languages. If it's just English version in Europe, I'm assuming that that's going to be released. But as I have more details and information, I will let you know. You know, a hardcore loyal fan, got to make sure that the book gets in your hand one way or the other, even if I have to buy it for you and ship it out to Europe. Cool. Well, thank you guys so much for watching. I'm going to go back into deep book writing, editing, reviewing, and creating. Again, make something you're proud of today. Do something that you would be proud to show your mom, show your kids, show your friends and say, "I made this." Do that today and have a great day. So it is—
what time is it?
10:30.
It's 10:30.
It's been another crazy day.
It's been a 14-hour day. Just finished reviewing the book, editing it down. I'm so happy. It's so solid. It's so awesome.
Just feeling overwhelming joy right now.
The only thing that's left that I have to write is a conclusion, and I have about 5,000 words to be able to do that, and so that shouldn't be a problem. I just sent everything to my editor or my publisher again to look at and get feedback, but hopefully everything comes back okay because I would release it as is. Just so much, so much gold. It's so tight.
Ah, I love it. What?
Nina's blowing me kisses. Back to you, friend.
I'm overwhelmed.
I'm just overwhelmed with happiness. You know, Marian, my editor, gave me some good feedback, and the 20 people that I gave it to gave me some amazing feedback. I made some changes. Anyway, I'm really happy, and, and also, uh, super happy with my supportive wife who's, who's put up with me recently. I haven't spent as much time as I'd like to or normally do because it's been just crazy book writing and editing mode, and once I get into that mode, it's kind of hard to shake me out of it. I just want to finish it. So yeah, I will keep you guys updated. Thank you for the continuous love and support. I really feel it. I can't believe I have to wait till like December for it to come out.
I want it out now.
And I'll keep you updated. Appreciate it, guys. I'll see you soon.
