Business Q&A + League of Legends Ep. #3 ft. @RishyCupTV

Welcome everybody, good Monday morning. Super excited to be here again for another League of Legends stream plus answering entrepreneur questions. And of course, back in the hot seat with me is Rishi Cup TV. How you doing, Rishi?

Hey, hey Evan, good morning and happy Monday to everyone.

What's in the cup today?

Well, we got regular good old coffee and we also have a cup of LOL, League of Legends.

I love it. I'm drinking my Vitaminwater. Popped up on the screen. My wife leaves it for me every morning, so that's it.

She's amazing.

She really is. Good, so getting the rank game on here. Gonna try for some jungler, some mid while we answer entrepreneurial questions. So I'm ready when you are, Rishi. What's the first one?

Okay, first question is coming from Firstizio.

Firstizio.

And, Prastizio says he's got a brother who went to school for 2 careers and after having done that he didn't find any jobs, he can't find anything and so he's just coming to you to see what can he do, he needs some help.

Okay, that's a tough situation. What do you think, Rishi?

Okay, well, I guess two times in a career that hasn't worked out yet. I guess I'd want to know a little bit more of the context as far as how long has he been out of school, like what has he been doing to actually find a job. So context might be a little bit more helpful for this, but It sounds like, gosh, I'd have to say, is the brother really passionate about these two careers that he's pursued? Did he just pursue these careers because this is what he should do, or was this something that he was really passionate about? And based on that answer, I would say, you know, what to do next, because if he's really passionate about these careers, I'd say you got to just keep going and keep trying and get your belief pull that believe up and just keep at it. But I don't, if he doesn't, if he's not passionate about these careers and if he's not getting jobs because he's not very good at this particular industry because he's not passionate, then I'd say, okay, well maybe it's time for you to start paving a new path.

Some tough, tough love, tough love advice from Rishi Cup today. That's a good start to the morning. Yeah, I mean, I would echo that. I think, as an example, I had a meeting yesterday with one of my instructors from Toronto Dance Salsa and she's doing two things for us. One of the things you can tell that she really loves and she's putting a ton of heart and effort into and she's thinking about it on the weekends and she's just going above and beyond and just putting in extra work. And then the other thing, she's just kind of going through the motions and just doing it because it's part of the job, and she's not super excited about that. And really what you want to do is do the thing that makes you come alive. And so we're trying to, you know, focus on, okay, well, how can we focus on these things that you're really good at and you really love doing and you're already putting all this extra love and effort into? And so it's the passion for what you're doing that that keeps you going through. If he really does absolutely want to be in one of these professions, then that love and passion will keep you going through. But if he's doing it just because, "Oh, I got this degree because I think there's an opportunity here," or "I'll probably find a job somewhere," but you're not really madly in love with it, then I would hate for you to go and, you know, really push in that career just because you think it's an opportunity, but not one that you actually feel like you're going to grow and learn and have a lot of, um, love for. Uh, and so I agree with Rishan, like the extra context would be helpful. Is this something that you madly want to pursue and keep going, or is it something that, meh, you know, you're just, you're just, you're stressed because you want to find a job and you need to make money to kind of survive. And if that's the case, then, then I'd say continue to explore, like explore, explore, explore, Try different things until you find the thing that makes you come alive and then go all in on that because you'll find that it's, it's just so much easier when you're doing something that you love. Doors open for you, resources come to you.

Yeah.

The path is just way easier when you're doing something you love, where if you're constantly fighting and fighting and fighting, you know, maybe something's wrong there and maybe you should be doing something else.

That's so good.

That's it, I'm gonna X this game and try to line up a new one. I don't know why I'm not finding a— I'm not finding a match. Come on, nobody's playing League at 8:30 in the morning.

I wonder why, Evan.

Don't go to work, people, play League, come on.

So I just want you to know I'm, I'm really excited because I see the stream right now, which is good, good sign. And it's a little bit delayed, but also I don't see a chat right now. So just keep an eye on the chat and let me know if I'm missing anything if you can. Okay, next question comes from Mark Anthony.

Ooh, I got a game. Okay, I got a game and Mark Anthony, let's go. I like the name, Mark Anthony. I just finished watching the Rome series. I don't know if he's ever seen Rome, the TV show. It's a little old.

No, should I?

I liked it, it's old. It's an old series, Nina got me into it. But yeah, Mark Antony is a pivotal character in Roman history, so I like the name, it's a good start.

Okay, so Mark Antony asks, he says, "Evan, my girlfriend is getting into videos." Do you have any quick advice?

All right, well, all right, I have a lot of advice for this.

Yeah, um, I mean, I'm super excited. I'm just about to celebrate a year on YouTube, so I was in your girlfriend's position about a year ago. I wanted to just start making videos, and so Evan, you know my big thing that I had to overcome was the perfectionism. So I would say to this girlfriend, just start, number one, just start. And expect to suck at the start. My first video was pretty horrible. But I had to really let go of a lot of perfectionism and just do it. The only, I think the best advice that I've ever gotten as I've been following Evan's channel, is just like, yes, you want it to be perfect, but you've got to just take action. You've just got to get it out. And more is better, because you can get better quicker. So I went from 1 video a week to now 5 videos a week. And do something that you really love, because it is a lot of work. But I absolutely love, really, I mean I get tired because I work so hard, but I love every single second of it because I'm doing what I love. I'm making videos that I'm excited about, and that I hope my audience is excited about. So anyway, I love making videos, and you're going to love it too.

I love the honesty and the excitement there at the end. That was nice. Um, so yeah, for me, a couple things. One, the consistency is super important. Rishi touched on it, making videos, you know, every day now, uh, or at least 5 times a week. I think it'll take time for you to get good, and this is where the perfectionism bug kind of sits in. I think people in general have a standard for what they think they can create. They have a standard for what they like. Like, when you watch somebody else's videos, like, oh, that's a really good video, and then you make something and your skills aren't up to your standards, and a lot of people quit at that point, and they think, "Oh, well, I can't make a vlog like Casey Neistat, and so I'm gonna stop. Like, I'm not good enough." And really, you have to understand that it will take time and that you need, just like anything else, when you're first learning it, you know, when I'm learning how to play League of Legends, or I'm trying to learn, you know, Italian, or snowboarding, or whatever it is, you're gonna suck at the start, and you'll get better each time. And I think people too often compare themselves to other people's channels, and they don't realize that, hey, this person's been around for a number of years, and they have put in a lot of time and effort to hone their style, and you're just getting started. So Don't worry if it— if you suck at the start, uh, just make sure that you're better than you were on the last video each time. It took me 700 videos until I wasn't embarrassed by what I was doing. Uh, and most people quit like 5 videos into their channel. Uh, the second thing I would say, yeah, yeah, to Rishi's point about kind of loving what you're doing, uh, I would echo that and say you need to love the process. And not just the outcome. I think a lot of people, you know, I want to be a big-time YouTuber, I want to make a full-time income from YouTube, and so they're just attached to like, okay, when I make X amount of dollars from YouTube, I will be happy. Where really what you want to do is enjoy the process. Like, if you don't actually enjoy making videos and you're not pouring your creativity into it, and, and that is reward for you, then you're not going to be successful on YouTube. You have to love the process of doing it and not just the outcome. But I'm super excited and, and, uh, what was his name?

This is Mark Anthony.

Mark Anthony, right, right, right, the awesome name, I loved it. And I love that you're asking for your girlfriend. I love like the love and attention that you're trying to give her and support her. And I think for you, Mark, she's gonna need that too. So your role is to help support her and be her cheerleader and, you know, be her cameraman if she needs it and try to pull resources. And she's gonna have days where it's gonna be— she's gonna feel like quitting, and you could play a really important role to help keep her on her track as well. I love it.

Love it. Love the—

there's some warmth there. Love the—

yeah, love the holistic advice there because it's so much more than just making videos, right? It's also the support that you have along the way.

Yeah, Marc Anthony is a good guy. He wasn't that good a guy in ancient Rome, but this is the new Marc Anthony. Okay, I'm in game. Let me turn down my volume here. I am playing Teemo Jungle. So let's see how we do.

So basically all these people on the screen is like all the people who you found?

Yeah, so it's 5 on 5, so I have me plus 4 teammates against 5 other people.

Oh cool, alright.

There's a lot of League lessons that are applicable in business too, like to make a good team, everybody has different strengths. So just like in running the business, you need to have people with different skill sets and different strengths. If you have a team that everybody's the same kind of character, you often lose. You're probably gonna lose. You need people that balance it out to have like— so my guy, for example, is very— he can die very easily. He's not very strong.

Why?

He's very weak, like he has very low health. They call that squishy in the game. But, um, okay. But he can put out damage. So, and if I go down here, there's this big guy named Braum who doesn't put out a lot of damage, but he's really strong and can defend. So like, he's supposed to be my— he's the front line. Like, he's supposed to take and eat all the damage from the enemy team while I'm behind him attacking. Where we had a team of just me's. I'm not even getting the leash. These guys suck, man. Ah, that bothers me. Anyway, I didn't even get any items. Oh, I'm making mistakes all over the place here. I'll have to go back. I may die. Yeah, anyway, if it was just a team of me's, then we would we would fail and lose. And if it's just a team of that guy, his name is Braum, we would fail and lose. But the diversity is what makes us. This is a really embarrassing stream because I didn't buy anything, which is not how you're supposed to play, and I didn't get any help on that first camp. Anyway, okay, now I'm really playing, guys. Now this is it. I'm a little behind. Good. That was a League lesson for everybody and myself. Next question, let's move on.

I love it, that was great, great wisdom there, Evan. Next question comes from Adetilewa, and I don't know if that's a he or a she, but it says, you were just 19 years when you started. Yeah. How did you become so great? At such a tender age? I can't answer this one for you, Evan.

Uh-huh. I think you can add some context here. I'm not going to let you off the hook that easily.

At 19, I wasn't as accomplished as you, my friend.

What were you doing at 19? Wow.

I was in college. I was in university. I was in New York City. I went and so—

You were in New York and in Nome?

Yeah, yeah, I went to university in New York City. And so at 19, I was a, 'cause I moved at 17, 18, so I was a junior, I guess. And actually my junior year is when I went abroad to Spain. 'Cause I got my, this is to the point of our previous question of like this guy who went to school and can't find a job. Like I got my degree in Spanish and Latin American literature and I'm not doing anything with it. I mean, besides the fact that I love speaking Spanish, I mean, I'm not pursuing my degree basically. So it's okay if you go to school and you have a degree and you end up in a career that's actually different from your degree. But yeah, so junior year, 19 years old, I was in Japan probably for my year, my time abroad. But I don't know, what was I doing other than that? I was in school, that's all I can contribute. What do you want?

I like it, I like the honesty. So for me, I always thought I was gonna be a banker. And I told this story a couple times on my channel, but I always thought I was gonna be a banker. When you write in your high school yearbook, what are you gonna do when you're— when you, you know, grow up? And then 10 years, I— it said like VP at a bank. That's what I always thought I was gonna be. And when I got to university, I How old are you in university? Was it 18, 19? I forget what year it was. Um, you know, I had my path. I think I went— I think I went when I was 18. It was my second year, uh, and I had job opportunities to go work at banks and in strategic consulting companies and things that I thought were what I really wanted. And I had offers, uh, with Merrill Lynch and McKinsey Consulting, which again were like what my friends all wanted, what I thought I wanted, what I was working towards. And, you know, they flew me to New York and put me up in a Waldorf Astoria, and that was just by being a good student, you know, like I did. I wasn't, I wasn't top of my class in school, but I always had other things that I was doing, other kind of my entrepreneurial ventures and past, I guess, kind of made me stand out. Mm. And I, I was started running this company. I was invited to be an owner. It started, it was started by two people in my university and I joined on the business side. It was a software company in biotech and I knew nothing about biotech and I knew nothing about software. Science was my worst subject in school. I dropped it in high school as soon as I could. Was just really bad at it. And here I am now having to sell scientific software. So that was an interesting challenge. And I had all sorts of limiting beliefs at the start. You know, I'm too young. You know, these guys who are 3 times my age and have all these degrees, they're never going to listen to me. Why? You know, what am I doing? You know, I don't know anything about science. How am I going to sell scientific software? All of these limiting things. And it wasn't until I discovered that, you know, all they care about is that I can add value to their lives. Like, if my tool can help them in what they're doing, they're going to listen to me. And so that was massively helpful. And the decision to stick with the company, at the start the company was not doing well. It wasn't like I was rocking it and everything was great and, you know, I'm so glad I made that decision. It started off of me sucking at the start. We weren't making any money. I was making $300 a month. I was too embarrassed to tell my friends what was going on because I turned down the big job to go do this, so it was kind of embarrassing to say that it's not working. What ended up happening was like why I took— I stuck with the business instead of going off and taking the job that I thought that I always wanted was I just didn't want to live in regret. And it was a tough decision at the start, but it's become my default ever since is that I don't want to live my life with regret. If there's something that I really want to do or wish I could do, and like maybe I'm afraid of, I try as much as possible now to, to just do it. And by thinking about where I'm going to be like 90 years old, looking back on my life, uh, that really helps me. Uh, and so that all started because of that experience in university where I I did not want to leave my company to get the job because I was worried that I may never get this chance. I could always go back and get another job, but I may not get this chance to do this kind of business again. And so I don't know that, you know, my parents weren't entrepreneurs. I didn't have entrepreneur role models growing up. It was really just I didn't want to miss that chance. I think we all get these chances multiple times, and when it comes, it's having the guts to actually go for it and give it a shot, and giving up the safe kind of smart thing to do. Nobody would have faulted me for taking the job. In fact, people were saying I should go take that job instead of running this business where I wasn't making any money. So that was it. And that was probably one of the hardest decisions that I had to make in my life. And once you get used to making those kinds of decisions, the future ones just become easier. Like, I've already gone through that, and it's easier to do the next time. It's just like building any kind of muscle.

Wow.

19.

19. And, and how, how long thereafter, by the way, because I know you— I've heard the story before, but I can't remember how long thereafter Was it after? Was it before you made that first good paycheck after struggling?

That's a good question. The big paycheck came when I sold the business. That was the big paycheck for me. Oh, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. No, I didn't die.

Yes, yes.

Did not die.

Believe, Evan.

Very exciting. So I started making okay paychecks. I think, I mean, the big money that you can make in those businesses is when you get acquired. A lot of the money that we made went back into the business to help it continue to grow and expand. But I wasn't like, I was making money, you know, I wasn't still on my $300 a month and couldn't survive. The first breakthrough that happened was And I've told this story a couple times, but, you know, I wanted to quit and I told my partner I quit. I just felt so bad about myself that I wasn't living up to my expectations because I had, you know, things I had done in the past. I knew if I put a little bit more time and effort into it, I would be successful. Like, it would— when I— where I put my effort and energy, I, you know, I turned out results in anything, in athletics and in life and whatever. I would always get results just by putting more work in. But here I was working hard and I wasn't getting any results. And then the big moment that changed everything was when I was reading the story of Bill Gates. And how he got Microsoft started. And he built Microsoft through partnerships. And his— the first big partnership came with IBM where they— every IBM computer sold had Microsoft software on it. And that was their big deal that they're known for that really made Microsoft. But before that, Microsoft was already a $7 million company and they did that through partnerships as well. And so I thought, okay, you know what, I wanna do partnerships. I worked with Bill Gates, you know, maybe I won't make it to $7 million off of it, but I can try. Let's try to do something here. And so I made my first deal with a company that I got $13,500 for. I just got an assist, very exciting. And that felt like I made it. That felt like a huge paycheck. Like, that's not a lot of money, you know, thinking about it now, that's really nothing. But compared to where I was, like, when you're making $300 a month and you can't pay anything, $13,500, man, that was lottery. That was lottery money. And that maybe happened a year after. I don't— I have to look at the timelines, I guess. I don't even remember that story. It was something that I had to work through with my agent. Like, I just kind of blocked it out. I don't know. I don't remember that. I think entrepreneurs, we kind of sometimes have to block out. If you just thought about all the negative things and how tough things were, you may not want to keep going. So I don't know the exact timeline on that. But let's say it was about a year until I made that first sale, like that big sale, the $13,500. And it still again wasn't a ton of money, but it gave me hope.

Absolutely.

Gave me hope. And more importantly, it gave me a model that I could follow. I could close more partnerships. This was one partnership of many that I could then go out and start to form. So yeah, I think, and ever since then, like I learned a lot through that first business. One, about not living with regret, but two, about forming partnerships and alliances. Ever since then, like when I try to grow a new business, I think about, am I gonna, like how can I form an alliance partnership to help me through this to help me do it better. And it's the fastest way to grow business, to partner with someone who's already done what you're trying to do.

Love it. Awesome. All right, so we got our next question from Rose, and Rose has a nature care business. And so she's saying, Evan, I'm wondering what went wrong. I gave enough advertising by pamphlet, and so a few people came to this nature care treatment and they got healed and they were happy, but I can't find the flow. So how can I approach this business where I can convince people that this nature cure business actually works and that people do get healed. There's— it's safe, no risk, and it's cheaper than some of the other things out there. But anyway, so she— so it works. People came, it worked for them, but she can't find the flow. She can't seem to make it actually work. So my, my first feedback is It sounds like she actually does have a valuable product in that it sounds like it's doing exactly what it promises to do. I mean, I don't know what kind of healing this is referring to, but I mean, that's a pretty good product if whatever you're giving is actually working and bringing healing to people's lives. So the value part is there. It sounds like she— did advertise well. I wonder if this is more kind of like bridging the gap in the education of what this product is, because when I think about trying a new medicine or a new way of doing anything, I'm very— like me personally, I'm super slow. I get in my little routine. When I'm sick, I do this, or when I— you know. And so introducing something new For me, as just the— the person on the other side of this, I would probably need some education, and I'd need to know why— I think it just takes a long time to educate people into why something is better than what they're already doing. So I wonder if that is part of it. Can she put, can she do things that are like maybe even just free educational things for people so people can start to know more about it and be introduced to it. I know that takes a little time. She might not have that kind of luxury to sit there and educate and educate and educate, but I just think it takes people a really long time to make choices to do something new, especially when it comes to health. My mom is always trying to get me to try these, like, she's all into the natural medicine and all this stuff, and I can't tell you how many times she calls me and says, "Have you tried this? Have you tried that?" And I'm like, "Yeah," but I don't actually do it, and then I just— takes me a long time to come around. So I don't know. It sounds like it's a great product. Sounds like she's doing her part in terms of the marketing, but it may just take time for people to come around.

I like that. I died while you were going through your story.

I like it. Oh no.

No, I know, it was close, it was close. But anyway, yeah, I mean, it's Rose, right? Rose?

This is Rose.

Rose. That's— it sucks. And the truth is, welcome to the world of entrepreneurship. This is part of running a business, and I think a lot of people who even do believe in their products and think they have something amazing, there's still the struggle at the start. It's way harder than you think it's going to be to get a business going. So one, like the positive side of that is It's normal. Like, it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you or necessarily, you know, your business. This happens to most entrepreneurs when they're getting started, so it's okay. Now, like, how to fix it. One, we talked about the partnerships. So again, instead of— like, the hardest thing for you to do is go out and get one client after another client after another client. Easiest thing to do is go find somebody who's already sold to your, your audience and has a base and find a way to form an alliance with them. So what we talked about it in my story, and it could be super helpful for you to do too. So, you know, I'd be looking at who is already selling— oh, I died again— who is already selling those related products, like who already has a market of people who care about health products and and can you introduce this to them and have them help you sell it? So you start building an audience. It's the fastest way to grow. Flyer marketing can work but is super difficult. Um, and to expect that like, hey, I'm gonna put out some flyers and people are just gonna show up and start buying, uh, you know, you need consistent— like, those kinds of things work with consistency. So you need to keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it, keep doing it, and eventually you'll get some recognition for it. So I'd be working again more on the strategic partnership angle. The second thing is storytelling is super important for any business, but especially this kind of product. I'd be looking at trying to tell the story of, ideally, your own story, like why is this so helpful to you? What did you What did you solve as a result of trying out this product? If it's not you, then, you know, is it your family? Is it friends who've used it? You know, even as you explain it here, we don't really know about the product, right? Like, anytime you're talking about the product to anybody, you want to be able to dish out the story. Right? So we're trying to help answer a question and we don't know the context of what your product does or how it's helped you. Every time you're talking about your company, your product, you want to tell a little bit of the story and how helpful it's been in your life. So those two things I think will be a lot of help. One, doing strategic alliances, and two, figuring out your story behind it to Inspire action.

Nice.

I'm in the middle of a big fight here. Can we do something? It's tight.

Oh, I got killed again.

This jungler is crazy. Okay.

Oh no.

No, it's okay. She's targeting me. She's targeting me. I got an assist though. All right, next question.

And I will just say, to Rose's credit, she did mention it is an allopathic medicine, so that's like similar to homeopathic remedies, that type of thing. So a natural, I guess it's a natural medicine thing. Well, but that's the thing, like, not—

and this is a good lesson for entrepreneurs in telling the story. I don't really care about, you know, I want to know what it does to help me, right? So like, and that doesn't mean anything to me. It may mean something to some people, but what are the benefits that I get from using it? Like, mm-hmm, saying that it's naturopathic, or, you know, telling me that some solution is organic, or, you know, like, what's the problem that it's solving?

Mm-hmm. I don't either. That's good. Okay, question from Lauren, and Lauren says, where do you find your strength? And the reason she's asking, Evan, is because she She's got a new blog and I guess she tried to do something like this in the past, but when she got some little man feedback, she kind of crumbled. And so now she's trying again and she's optimistic, but she wants to know, where do you find your strength?

I like that question.

So, it's a good question, right?

Yeah.

[Speaker:KELLY] So, there's so many different things that I think are so important in terms of kind of building your resilience, especially when it's something new. I think a huge one is your environment, your support, your community. You know, it's like you're that little kid in the very beginning who's just trying to take a few steps a day and those few steps, it's just going to require almost like a little bit extra guard. I love, how does she say it? Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, when you're first starting out at something, your muscles, your resilience muscles are much weaker than they will be later. And so you kind of have to, I think, go out of your way to create an environment where you can really support that weaker muscle. And so I would say make sure you are surrounding yourself with the things that really make you come alive and really make you feel confident about what it is that you're doing. And try to guard yourself from the criticism or the negative things that are inevitably going to come in the process. I just think it's like anything in that very beginning stage. It's like you're a toddler and you just need that extra amount of support to make sure that you don't crumble.

I like it, I like it. While you were talking, I got a kill, so I'm also liking that.

Nice!

One kill, three deaths, and seven assists, so It's not bad, it's not bad. Team is doing okay here. Yeah, it's just a great question, and I think, you know, part of why I did this channel, part of why I talk about some of the content I do talk about, is nobody talks about how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. And, you know, to Rose's question too, the last time around, nobody talks how hard it is, and And I just got a kill, which is exciting. And so it's normal. And like, I love these kinds of questions because it shows the vulnerability of being an entrepreneur. Because when you're off at events or whatever, people ask you how you're doing with your business. It's always the— you're always saying all the positive things and not the, you know, like, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to continue doing this, you know. So I love that. For me, I think you find the strength from a couple things. One, from doing something that you are, you know, that you love, right? Like, to be able to put up with the pain and suffering and setbacks and, you know, blows to your ego and feeling like you're not adding a lot of value is really tough unless you really love what it is that you're doing. So that's the first part. The second is doing a lot of little pushes against limiting beliefs that you have. I think, you know, how do you get— how do you overcome your fears and how do you build up courage? It's by starting to do something. Even something that's really small that may not seem like a big step, but something that you were afraid to do. You know, so say like you're really afraid of public speaking as an example, and that would terrify you. Well, your next step isn't going to be going and speaking on stage at some big stadium. It might be talking at a YMCA. That may be life and death for you. That may feel like it's the scariest thing ever in the world. I remember I got my speaking start at the YMCA. So I get it. I was terrified. But once you do that, you could do it again. And then you could do it again. And then you could do it again. It just becomes easier every time. And it's having the courage to test yourself on the small things when you are afraid, because then the next time, and the next time, and the next time, it always will become a lot easier. So those two things, like one, feeling like you're doing something important, relevant, valuable. My goal is always impact. I want to, I want to make an impact and do things that, that will impact others. And then when you are faced with something that you're really afraid about, then it's just realizing that this is something that you should push yourself through and and keep going with. And if you could do it once, then you'll be able to do it over and over and over again.

Yeah, and Evan, I, I just say, to your point about the testing on a small scale, I love that because I think so many times we'll like try to do too much too soon, and then we end up like— that's part of why we crumble, is we just we get so overwhelmed by trying to do the big, big goal instead of just testing small. So I love the point about just trying something on a small scale so that if it does fail, you're not completely destroyed and you can keep moving forward.

I like it. I am now— I got a number of kills. I'm 4 and 3, so that's pretty good. The turnaround is real. The turnaround is real. Yeah, but thank you for the question. I love the vulnerability questions too. I mean, everybody is vulnerable in some sense, I guess, like the willingness to ask a question. But I like it. Those kinds of questions are more important than any single marketing strategy, because if you're not motivated, if you're not in the right headspace, if you don't have the right mindset, then no specific marketing strategy is really gonna help you until you solve that.

We've got another vulnerable question.

Alright, I got another kill, so let's do it.

Things are looking up. Alright, so this is a question from Ibrahim. Sorry Ibrahim if I'm saying your name wrong. He says, I would Oh, maybe it's Abraham. Well, it's spelled— yeah, it's spelled very differently. Maybe it's like an Abraham, but very spelled differently. Um, I would like to be, but I don't know who I am.

I'm— you cut out.

I would like to be what?

I would like to be—

I would like— I would like to be me, but I don't know who I am.

Ah, okay. Wow. Okay.

And there's another quote.

We're going even deeper on this one, Ibrahim.

Yeah, he's going deep. And he does add, "I'm in a deep forest trying to find proper tree to grow unknown carrier. Still don't know where I should start." And I was trying to figure out, is this literal or is this a metaphor for, is he in a deep forest like literally, or is he in the tree business? But we'll start with the first part.

Is he in the tree business?

Because you get people from all over the world, Evan, asking questions. I really do. OK, so this is, I would like to be me, but I don't know who I am. So gosh, that's obviously a pretty weighty question. Really at the end of the day, your journey is going to be uniquely yours. And I will just say to Abraham, a lot of people feel this way, and I think even those of us who feel like we have got a very strong sense of who we are, life is constantly a process of becoming. And so, you know, Don't feel like you're somehow alone in this journey of feeling like you want to know who you are. We're all continuously discovering that. We are all growing. We are all changing. And so I just would say, get excited about the fact that you're on your journey and that you are going to discover who you are. And it's okay. You're not alone in that feeling. And one of the things too that I think can help you through that practically, I'm going to kind of go with this whole one-word thing that constantly is always being talked about here on Evan's channel, where, you know, part of figuring out who you are, you can do some really practical things. You can think about what excites you. You can think about what makes you come alive. You can think about, you know, what are the movies that you watch, the books that you read, the people that you're attracted to. And then, what are the things that you despise, the things that you hate? You know, what gets you upset? What do you like to rant about, you know? And I think within all of those questions, you get at least some keys into your purpose, why you're here. And so I'd start there, like if you, you know, just if you want some practical things to do, just start thinking about some of the themes and the connecting, the connecting dots in your life and what makes you tick. As far as the deep forest, I don't know if this is literal or metaphor, but Evan, do you know anything about— he's trying to find proper tree, find a proper tree to grow an unknown carrier. I mean, that sounds like a literal question.

I don't know. I think it's probably— an analogy that's kind of been maybe lost in the translation. Or if it is, I don't have the answer to that one, so just taking that with a grain of salt. But in terms of answering the question about finding out who I am, I agree. I think there's another thing where most people don't go around sharing their deepest vulnerabilities and concerns and You have to have a pretty tight relationship with a friend to say, to tell them, you know, I don't know who I am. That's a tough conversation to have. Sometimes it's easier maybe talking to a stranger. I just got another kill, super excited about that. I agree in that I don't think, you know, even me, I don't fully know who I am because I'm constantly changing too. And I think that's part of the excitement is that you always want to be evolving who you are based on what you become interested in and follow your curiosity. So in my case, I always try to do the things that I'm curious about and get me excited. I think we'll go through ebbs and flows. I think the thing that might get you really excited can quickly become boring, and you need to constantly change and evolve. I think as long as you feel like you're growing, there's pain and suffering with growing, but there's also a lot of happiness with growing. Learning a new skill is painful and can be even dehumanizing at times. But you want to learn new stuff. Like, if you stop learning, then you get really dissatisfied with where you are. And so part of that is constantly learning about yourself too. And the habit that I would encourage you to try to get into is figuring out, whenever I'm curious about something, I'm going to try to do it in some small way. I'm going to try to do it. And not be so held up on having a perfect answer for who you are, because it's gonna constantly evolve. I mean, I wouldn't say change, but constantly evolve. Mm-hmm. So, so again, like, even just understanding that you're not alone helps, that like everybody goes through this helps. Yeah. And not having to have a perfect answer, because I think it's easy to see other people and say, well, it looks like they have it all figured out. What's wrong with me? Where that doesn't have to be, that doesn't have to be, that's not the case, right? Nobody really has everything fully figured out because we're constantly, all of us constantly evolving.

Absolutely. So good. And I think so many people never start because they think they have to have all the answers right in the beginning. I know I can relate to that.

So yeah, that's a perfectionist bug creeping in there.

Yeah, Evan. Okay, how are you doing on the game? Are you wanting more questions?

Yeah, yeah, I'm, uh, how am I doing? I'm considering the terrible start that I had, uh, just making a whole bunch of mistakes and I don't know what was going on there. Things are good. I have 7 kills, only 3 deaths now. I started off with no kills and 3 deaths, I think. So gone on a 7-kill streak, so I'm pretty excited about that. And I'm ready for the next question. We're doing well. Team is doing well. So far, so good.

Love it. Love it. All right. Next question comes from Kibumbi.

Kavumbi.

Yes, yes sir. And, uh, he says this is, this is pretty jam-packed, Evan. Are you ready for this?

Okay, hit me.

Kavumbi, I am requesting you to please send me some info on the following: business scalability, value addition, and how longevity of a business determines its success.

Okay, we can do that. Let's go one by one at a time. Business scalability.

Mm-hmm. All right, well, I would have to say for scalability, just going back to what you said about partnerships, I mean, probably the best way to scale a business is to have pursued those alliances and partnerships. Of course, you know, each business is different, but If I have no information, that would be where my first response would be.

Yeah, I think if you're looking at scalability, some models— oh, I just died. And I got a kill, so not that bad. So it's a business model question. Some businesses scale easier than others, and you can adjust your model to make it more scalable. Products inherently are more scalable than services. As an example, you know, you can only scale your time so much. I actually recommend starting with a service-based business because it's easier to bring in cash flow consistently than a product, but it's harder to scale and make it bigger long term. So you can transition from service to product. You want to look at, you know, if you look at scalability, you're basically saying that as I grow, like as I bring in more revenue and more sales and acquire more customers, that the cost that it takes me to make it goes down. That's scalability. So if you're making, uh, t-shirts, you know, one t-shirt might cost you $20 to make, but if you're buying 10,000 t-shirts, it goes down to $1 per make or $0.50 to make. And that's what you want. And any business you can add a little more scalability to with a little bit of thought. But that's basically kind of summarizing what scalability is all about.

Okay. Value addition.

Okay.

So I don't know specifically, I guess, what he would be referring to, but I know you talk a lot about how value is the big— I mean, value is everything, and that you will see financial— a relationship between the value you're putting in and the money you make. So value addition, is there something that you want to say specific to that, Evan, that I would Yeah, I think—

so the thing that I did not understand early enough in my career is that really being a success in entrepreneurship is about providing value. The more value you can provide, the more money you're going to make, the more impact you're going to have. You know, if you are not giving people value in their in their lives, in their business, you're not gonna have a business. And so it's just constantly thinking, what can I do to make somebody's life easier, better, more affordable, solve a problem? And my favorite way to do it is to look at what I'm facing in my business or in my life. Like, I try to solve my own problems, and then I provide that solution to others. And it's a fantastic way to start and grow a business. You look at the pains in your own life. I can look at a lot of the reasons for the channel, the videos on my channel come from me wanting to solve something that is happening in my life. Like, I want the Top 10 series for me selfishly, and I share that. And so it's just constantly looking at what can I do to help more people. And if you do that, people focus too much on the profit at the start. If you, if you do that and provide value real tangible value that makes a difference in people's lives, then the money will come from that. So, and it's a good question to be constantly asking yourself because you always need to constantly be evolving your offerings.

Yeah, and just to add to that, so far scalability and value addition, I mean there's tons of videos on channel about those two topics. So I encourage Kuvumbi to just do a search on those two topics on your channel, because you've got plenty of videos on, on those two topics. And then longevity of a business and how does it determine the success? I would say that longevity is success. You want a business that is going to be able to stand the test of time and I'm not sure I can add much more to that. I think longevity is success.

So for me, I think— I mean, I agree with Rishi and I think a lot of these questions that he's asking are tied to each other. I think, I think the longevity of a business is going to be based on how much you can consistently provide value. Like, as long as you are providing value, you will still have a company that continues to sustain and grow and, you know, do all the great things that you're trying to do. If you when you stop providing value, then that's the end of your company. In terms of building a bigger business, that's going to come from how scalable your company is, right? So you want to be providing value that's going to help people, that's going to keep your company around, uh, that'll help your longevity. But if you, if you are not, uh, adding scalability into it, then your business won't grow to anything bigger than it is. Right? So like, you could be a consultant, as an example. You could be a really high-paid consultant. Great, you're, you're making good money as a consultant. As long as you're providing value, you're still gonna have your consulting business. Clients will keep coming back to you. But if you want to build it to something bigger, then you need to do something more. Like, you need to have products that you add in there, or you need to build a consulting team around you. To make it a little more scalable. So I'd love to know what kind of business he's in because the questions are all— they may seem different but they all have a common theme that tie them together. So anyway, hopefully it was a good learning lesson there.

Yeah, awesome. Kabumbi, let us know what business are you in. So we've got our next question from Charles. And Charles is a part of a marketing company. They also do graphic design and production. They have a production firm. And so basically he thinks, he says, "Evan, I need some of your expert advice and coaching. I watch all your videos and I know you are the one that I need to listen to." All right, Charles.

Let's do it.

So there's not really a specific question that he's looking for in this, in what he wrote here, but it looks, I guess, Evan, for people, people are always constantly wanting to be mentored by you, wanting to be coached by you. How does that work? How does someone get to be coached by Evan?

So this is just an interesting question. It ties into the last question too. I have made a conscious decision to try to make the advice that I give more scalable. You know, I have a passion for helping entrepreneurs. I have a passion for, you know, believing in people, and entrepreneurship is just where I have the most ability to be able to help people. And when I first started doing my YouTube channel, it was because I wanted to be able to answer people's questions, not just one at a time. I would spend 30, 40 minutes writing email responses back to people. I thought, this is ridiculous. There's got to be other people who could benefit from it as well. So in answering one person's question, just like we're doing right now, like I'm answering one person's question, and hopefully the other people that watch it have the same problem. Will be able to get value from the answer. So combining that, I'm delaying because I'm in the middle of a huge fight here, and I got one kill, and hopefully I will not die. I died. Okay, good. Come on, where's my team? Back me up! Good times, good times. So I made a conscious decision to try to make things more scalable, to make my time more scalable. And so I try to do it through doing YouTube videos. So as much as I love meeting people one-on-one and helping them, I really, you know, limit that to when typically when I'm traveling, like I'm going to New York City this Friday and and I'm gonna send an email out to my list of people who are in New York, say, "Hey, I'm gonna be in New York. If you guys want to meet up, grab a coffee, talk about your business, let's do it." And when I travel, I try to do that, at least have, you know, an afternoon open to be able to help people. Because I still love it, like it means a lot to me, it's just not scalable. And my ultimate goal is to help a billion entrepreneurs, so I need to do things that are massively scalable. So YouTube is a great way for me to do it. You know, people ask me questions, I try to answer on YouTube. The book is a way that I do it. So I don't really do a lot of one-on-one mentoring, and it's not really my goal. There's a few people in Toronto, in my local city, that I am mentoring, and I see, you know, I want to put Toronto on the map, one of my own kind of personal goals. I want to put Toronto on the map and build a little mini, like, business empire here in the city and mentoring entrepreneurs to help them go. So as an investor in companies like the salsa business, I invested in it and then acquired it. And now I'm training somebody to run the company. And I want to continue to do that with people who I can see have the ability to impact lots of other people. So by changing, you know, Alex's life, who's my operations guy at Toronto Dance Salsa, I'm also changing the lives of a lot of people who he will impact and reach. So yeah, that's important to me. But the mentoring, I don't, I You know, because there's so much time involved in it and I hate mailing it in. I hate doing like the bare minimum. I hate just giving, uh, like if I'm mentoring you, I want you to be massively successful and it requires a lot of conversation, a lot of time that I just don't, yeah. Like I can't commit the time a lot of times to it.

So, um, and I think Evan, I mean, I don't know if people realize I have to say this again, that the YouTube channel is like free entrepreneurial university. I mean, you can get coached on just about anything. There are so many videos on your channel. So again, encourage anyone out there who really wants to get coached by Evan. I mean, you can get coached literally— there's about how many videos you put out a day?

There's 3 a day. There's 3,000+ on the channel. Uh, hey, we're about to hit 300,000 subscribers, so there you go. Lots of threes. Three good things coming.

Wow, so cool. So anyone who wants to get coached, you can get coached right now. Uh, and, um, I mean, I've, I've learned so much just by watching the channel, and so just putting that out there again.

I love it, the, the channel ambassador, Rishi Cup TV. This is a long game. Holy cow, it's a long game here. It's gonna end soon though. Either we're gonna win or we're gonna lose pretty soon. I think next team fight will decide it.

I'm delayed on this, on the stream, so I, I love watching. At least the stream is working, but it is a little delayed, so I can't see exactly where you are.

Well, I have 12 kills, 7 deaths, 13 assists, and, uh, the way it gets late into the game, it scales so much that, uh, basically the next time everybody dies on one team, that's going to be the— that's going to be end of the game. So you gotta be really careful. We don't lose the next fight or it's over.

Okay, well, we got, uh, one more question maybe we have time for. I don't know. We'll see. This one is kind of long. I'm going to actually not mention the name on this one.

Okay.

Because there's some— it's got some sensitive information I guess. But this couple is in a food business. And what they're trying to do, it's pretty cool actually. They want to be able to provide healthy food healthy food and drinks at affordable prices to the poor masses.

Healthy food and drinks, okay, to the poor masses, yeah.

Yeah, and where they're getting stuck is basically they're stuck with the finances of the business because the cost of buying the equipment and the raw materials is more than they can afford right now. So the husband is basically saying we either need to get a loan from the bank or we need to get an investor. But the wife isn't— at this stage, the wife is not comfortable with sharing the idea with anyone else, actually, other than you right now, Evan, because unfortunately she has a history where she got burned in the past. She helped someone develop a product in the past and then basically got used. So she's afraid to even get help because of being burned in the past. But the husband is trying to move forward with financing the business. So I guess they're just kind of in this place of where do they go from here, being that they need the money to go forward, but the wife is really kind of afraid at this point to share the idea with anyone else.

Got it.

But I love— first of all, I just say I love that they're trying to provide healthy food and drinks to the poor masses because, I mean, let's face it, anything healthy is always so expensive. So I think it's a great cause or a great— I shouldn't say a cause, but just a great idea. There's a couple layers here in terms of not wanting to move forward because of being burned in the past. I would just say, I'm so sorry that happened. I definitely know what that feels like. And the fear of not wanting to get help because, you know, the, the risk of being vulnerable, being open— we talked about this a lot already on, on today's stream— like, being vulnerable in this email is a huge step in moving forward, just being able to go to someone you can trust and say, "I need help, but what do I do?" And I think that what I've learned is that you absolutely, no matter what, as scary as it is to have to trust again and to make yourself vulnerable again, there's like the— there's no way around it. I'm not saying just be— trusting anyone, but I think that part of moving forward is going to require opening up again and maybe trusting again. We often can't move forward without making that first step. That's been my experience. And then as far as the question about financing, Man, that's a tough one. I see so many different opinions on whether you should get a loan. I know, Evan, you've talked about not getting investors in the very beginning part because you end up giving away too much too soon of the business. So, hmm, I would ask, have they— have they really done everything on their part in terms of really, I don't know, putting a ton of love into the business? Sounds like they have, but I don't know, Evan, you're going to have to answer that one as far as investors versus getting a loan.

Yeah. Did they say how they were burned in the past? What happened or just in general they were burned in the past?

Yeah, she basically says that an individual used her to develop an orange-flavored yogurt drink and she was paid peanuts, it says.

Cool. So a couple of things here. First, for that, you know, you learn through experience. and you know, you can learn through a lot of negative experiences. And what I would try to take that as a positive, and that, okay, yes, this bad thing happened to you, but you've learned from it and you're not going to let it happen again, as opposed to, I'm never going to try, right? Like, if you are learning to ride a bike and you fall off, it doesn't mean you don't get back on the bike and try again. It just means you don't do it the same way that you did it before. And so I think that's super important because a lot of people, when they get burned, they, instead of learning from it and making themselves better, they just retreat. You know, a lot of people, maybe they hired their first employee and that employee didn't work out, and so like, well, I'm never gonna hire an employee again. I'm just gonna do it all myself because I know how to do it. I'm not gonna get screwed over. Well, that's not That's not really the answer to build something big and powerful. Uh, that's not really going to get you where you need to go. And so yes, you need to be able to work with people. You need to be able to trust people. Uh, but, but also you don't have to be too trusting from the start. Maybe you were too trusting of this individual the first time through and you'll make better decisions next time. So don't let that, you know, early failure prevent you from doing something big with your life and your business. In terms of the financing, you know, I mean, I talked about this a lot on the channel. I hate spending money till I'm making money. There's a lot of ways to be able to get this thing started, like go get some sales, go get some orders. I think of— did I talk about Bunnr's last time on the stream?

No.

No. There was this company that I love called Bunnr's. And they make organic cookies and pastries and treats, but it's all not just gluten-free but vegetarian, vegan. It's like vegan butter tarts, that kind of stuff. And I'm not like— I'm enough of a health guy, but I'm not like a crazy health guy. So, you know, I'm not so like I would try it. Like, I'm interested in it. It has to still taste good though. I wouldn't give up. I love butter tarts. You know, it's one of my favorite things. Butter tarts are just pure goodness. So they started, you know, kind of similar mission. Like, I want to make goods that people can buy. They started just in church basements selling selling, you know, she made it from her kitchen and she used the resources she had and just started from selling from the basement of the churches. And then eventually from enough of those, she built up and she got sales and she got a following and she got customers, and eventually she was able to open up her own location, and then she launched a second location, and then she launched a cookbook, and she's been able to scale her business But at the start, it was church basements. And so that, you know, I hate to see people going off and burning a whole bunch of money before they're making anything. And especially if you've been burned in the past, you don't want to risk that all over again.

Yeah.

And so I'd be looking at how can I not just spend tons of money and then bring on investors, like, I don't know if this is going to work or not. I'd much rather see them. I'd much rather see them try to invest in their profits, try to make this. And it sucks to take a step back, and it sucks to— when you see something so big and have so much potential, you know, you want to go out and get it financed. But I would, I would look at— I mean, it's me. I'm a— hey, we won! I got a triple kill and we won. Yeah, yeah, it was a good turnaround. I was an embarrassing start to the stream, man. I didn't buy items. It was a really bad start. But, but we turned it around. I'll give everybody— at the end of every game, you— well, you're supposed to say GG. It means good game. GG. Oh good, some people aren't. Some people aren't. So I'd hate to see them spending money, somebody else's money, you know, especially going to— you go into debt, man, that scares me. Yeah, you know, you're taking out your house or whatever other assets you have, and if it doesn't work out, that could be like the rest of your life kind of decision impact, right? You know, you take out an extra mortgage on your house, it's 30 years to pay that back. If that doesn't work out, then you're really hurting yourself. The only way I would do it is if I had an order. Like if I had orders, if you got orders from Whole Foods to put your products into their store, then fine, that may make sense. Those are the easiest kinds of businesses to get money for, the ones that have momentum and have some orders coming in. But if you don't and it's just an idea, I would be super wary of going out and getting a loan to bring on. So kind of summarizing, one, yes, you need to be able to trust people. I think it's great that you have, you know, you have your team already, so you have each other to lean on. That's more than a lot of entrepreneurs have, so it's great. Uh, the next time you bring on somebody, start small, do one small test project and see if that works and then continue to invest more and more time with them. Uh, cause everything always looks good at the start on paper. Uh, and then when you start working with somebody, you may realize that you're coming from different places or don't share the same values and just aren't a good fit. Not that either of you are bad people, just sometimes it just doesn't work out and better to discover that on small projects than than having, you know, given away a big chunk of what you're trying to do. And then financing, there's a lot of options, but I would still think try to do it yourselves. If you're giving up equity, you're going to give up too much, and if you're taking on a loan, you risk, you know, potentially for the rest of your lives having to pay this thing back if it doesn't work out. So I'd much rather see you invest from your profits and slow down the growth at the start still have the big vision, but, but start smaller to make it happen. Um, that's it. It's a tough spot to be in, but hopefully that helped.

Awesome.

Cool. Well, I got somebody on the opposite team saying good job, Timo, which is me, so I'm going to give them a thank you for that. And that's great. So another victory. Pretty excited about that. Rishi, people want to find out more about you, where are they heading off to?

I'm on YouTube at Rishi Cup TV. Cup of love, y'all.

Cool, I'll add the link in the description. Thank you guys for watching. Any last words, Rishi?

No, just thank you to everyone. Great questions and thanks for showing such vulnerability. It's pretty amazing.

Yeah, good. I like the questions today. I mean, I like the questions always, but it was a good selection today. Cool. All right guys, have a great day. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.