Business Q&A + League of Legends Ep. #23 ft. @RishyCupTV

Welcome everybody to another business Q&A while I play League of Legends. Happy Thursday morning, super excited to be here. It's my second stream of the day out of 7 or so, so super pumped. I'm trying to play Teemo in the jungle again, we'll see what happens. I gave Rishi and J-Rise the option of Teemo or Eve, and Teemo was the choice, so that's what I'm gonna try to do. And as usual, I've got JRise with me in-game and Rishi Cup TV with me on air. What's up, Rishi? Happy Thursday!

Happy Thursday! Much love, Believe Nation. Glad to be here today.

Cool.

What's up? What's in your cup, Evan?

What's in the cup, right? I was about to jump to the Twitch stream. What's in my cup? I've got— well, I don't have Alex here with me today, so I don't have my coffee. Alex usually stops by a coffee shop and brings me something in the morning, but I've got my nettle tea with honey from J-Rise, my protein mix, and some water. That's it. And a cup of excitement for the day ahead, helping entrepreneurs all day long on streams and calls. So I'm super excited. I'm gonna crash tonight for sure, but I love this stuff. I love Thursdays. How about you?

Yeah. Well, you want to know why I'm a cup of excited, like really excited today?

Yes.

Because we've got an Evan Carmichael and Stephen Kelly collab today. It's coming up.

It's coming up in what, just under 3 hours?

Love those Hangouts. I love Thursday because Thursday's Hangout day. So good. Good stuff.

Cool. Well, we're gonna get some questions before— let's do some shoutouts to people watching on the Twitch stream. We've got our usual group. Zaino— Zaino, get a win, guys, has been rough lately. Come on, Zaino. Zaino, like, hitting it where it hurts in the morning here, man. Rise Online, as usual. Jen So Much joining us. Early morning for her. That's awesome. Um, cool. Well, let's get into it. What's our— what are some of our questions? We're waiting for a game to load, and while we do that, let's, uh, help some entrepreneurs.

Let's do it. First question this morning comes from Dana.

Dana.

And Dana says, um, I'm struggling with what I stand for. My pieces can be so different from each other. That I don't feel like they have a common theme to stand for one thing I believe in. Does it matter that they are so different? And can I still stand for one thing? So for those of you listening, sounds like Dana is referring specifically to your book, Evan, Your One Word. Sounds like he's heard a lot about the value of discovering that one thing that resonates with you and integrating that into basically your life and your business. But he's struggling because he has lots and lots of, I guess in his words, different pieces and he doesn't feel like they fit together. And it's interesting because I think a lot of people struggle with this and I'd be really curious to hear all these different things that you think you're— that are unrelated, because I think with a little bit of help, and maybe once you get to read the book, hope you— hope you can get the book, because I know, Evan, you go way more in-depth in terms of how to see all the connecting piece— all the connecting pieces. And you can have two seemingly unrelated interests But there is still something that connects them that resonates deeply with you as a person. So I would say, Dana, that I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised that with a little bit of more depth, looking into it a little bit more deeply, that you will find— I think you can find that thing that kind of connects all these seemingly random different interests. In my case, just as an example, I've done so many different things. But one of the things that I see in every single, to use his language, piece is my love for connection. And that could be connecting with people, connecting with myself, connecting with God, whatever it is, there's connection. I'm usually always somehow involved in everything that I'm doing. So I just, I'm excited for you, for you to find out what that is.

Yeah, from the word peace, I feel like Dane is an artist. I may be reading that wrong, but—

Oh yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I believe that everybody has— I mean, Rishi talked about the book. I believe everybody has one word that makes up who they are, and you have to figure out what that is. And quite often what happens is if you have multiple things that you feel like you stand for, then usually there's, there's a higher level, more meta word for you. What I go through in the book as an exercise, and you guys can start thinking about it now, is you have your one word and then you have your credo, and under the credo is you come up with the 3 things that break down what your one word means. So for me, believe is the one word, and then it's about believing in what you're doing, which is having passion for your work. It's believing in yourself, self-confidence, which is what most people would probably think about believe, and then believing that it's going to work out and having the conviction to follow through. And so if you find that there are two things that— or three things, you know, ideally we'll get the three where they may seem connected, they may seem totally disconnected. Chances are there's something that could sit above those three things that is what you're all about. So as an example, I was going through the exercise with my father and he was talking about, you know, one, he's really caring. And he really cares for other people, and it's really important that you treat people the right way. And another one that he has was adventure. He loves adventure, and he, you know, he wants to go out and see the world and try a bunch of different experiences. And at first glance, those two things may seem totally disjointed. How do you connect caring with adventure. And what he came up with was heart, where heart is caring for others, having the heart, but also having the heart to go out, to having heart and adventure and going out and trying new stuff and, and not listening just to your head but listening to your heart of something you really want to do that might be scary. I look at Alex, who's from Toronto Dance Salsa, and he— I'm playing mid. All right, Timo mid. You guys wanted Timo mid.

Nice.

We'll try Timo mid. It's always harder because I have to focus. I got to focus extra hard when I'm playing mid. Alex is about— he wants to validate people. Validation is really important to him. Not judging people is super important to him, and creating a welcoming environment is super important to him. And he put those three things together under Belong. He wants people to feel like they belong. So if you know some of the, you know, key components of what you're all about, then chances are there's that higher-level meta word that you just have to figure out what it means to you, and that's the difference between— that's the difference for me between belong and #belong. With #belong, I get to put my own stamp on the word belong, right? Or Alex, or belong, for me it's believe, right? I get to put my own stamp on it. There's always going to be a common definition that most people would associate with, but you then get to make it your own by putting that hashtag in front. You get to define what it means to you. And again, there's often a common definition, and then there's two other parts to it that people may not make an immediate connection to, but once you explain it, they can see it, like my dad with #heart. So that's what I would encourage you to do, is think about What you've got now. Think about all these different themes. What are you— let's just say Dana's a painter. What are you painting? What are you trying to get out and express? What are some of the common themes that come across in each piece that you create? You know, I create tons of pieces on my YouTube channel. We're doing with these two live streams now, you know, 5 to 6 videos a day. Every piece is different. This is a League of Legends piece, you know, the first one was a gratitude piece. We're doing Hangouts all day today. There's the top 10 and the espresso. And let me just pick my champion here, Teemo. And throughout all of them is still the core of believe, mm-hmm, even though the content is different. So even though you know, the canvas is different and the painting is different, who you are as a person is not different. And so being able to tap into that gives you a higher sense of self and also makes it easy to make the hard decisions in your life and makes it easy for people to talk about you because they know now what you stand for as opposed to you just being a painter. You're a painter on a mission.

Yeah, love it.

That's what I got.

Yeah, I— it'd be cool if he is an artist. All the different pieces. And I think it's funny, your instinct, Evan, is always right on. I can hear my echo, sorry.

Oh yeah, I could turn it down a bit. Is, uh, is Dana—

I think you're right. I really think, I really think he— yeah, because I'm seeing that, uh, that multiple— I think if the email is correct, he had multiple different paintings.

Cool.

Next question.

Here we go.

Nice cup.

Nice cup. Oh, you like my cup? Yeah, I've had this cup on. Oh, you know what's cool? I never noticed this. There's these quotes on the tea bag. This is from J-Rise. I never noticed that there were quotes. In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous. Aristotle.

Mm.

All right, I gotta start reading what's on my tea bag.

Great. All right, next question comes from Beatrice.

Beatrice, all right.

Yeah, Beatrice is hoping to be one of your protégés, and she believes that She can be a positive role model for others, and she has a story of survival and a passion for mentoring. She would like to quit her day job as a federal civilian employee and start her own online digital marketing and mentorship leadership development business. Other than starting a website, I have no idea how to run a business. Thanks for reaching out, Beatriz. And it's interesting, you know, Evan, a lot of people do write in. They, they want to, you know, be one of your next protégés or mentees. And we elaborate a little bit more in depth about that actually on Episode 19. So if you want to check out more about that very topic, check out episode 19 of LOL, League of Legends. But also in terms of the online digital marketing mentoring leadership development business, I think one of the greatest ways that you can start, and I know that this is somewhat of my cliché answer at this point, but I think YouTube is a really great place to start because, I mean, honestly, for so many reasons. I know it is— it's not going to be like get rich quick, but if you really are passionate for mentoring, you're passionate for making a difference, and also giving value through, you know, leadership and marketing and all of those things. Like, it's a great place to start getting yourself out there and having that digital publishing presence. And aside from that, YouTube really is— I mean, I know that the social media game is always changing, but YouTube still, in terms of business, is, you know, even the businesses that aren't— their predominant presence is not YouTube. Like, everybody has a YouTube channel because they know that it's valuable. So I think it would be a great— I just think it would be a great place for so many reasons in terms of building skills, getting better at what it is that you want to do, and Yeah, just kind of throwing yourself into a place of learning, and I think it's a great place to start.

I feel like your path should be through— I think you got to go prove, prove the model. Like, for me, this is kind of like the, the weight loss person Like if you want to sell a weight loss product, then— or like a fitness product, then you have to have gone through the process of losing weight or getting fit. It's like you're not going to buy a fitness product from somebody who is out of shape, right? Like they went through their journey, whatever it was, to get to where they are. And so, this is an important part of your journey and you need to go and prove the model of mentorship, right? Like, this is a great test case for you to go out and say, I had no idea how to build a business, and I built a huge business through me learning and me getting mentored, right? You're going to go off and teach these mentorship concepts. Go out and prove it yourself, and this is your perfect example to go out and start trying. So what is in your mentorship methodology that you go through with people? And how can you start applying your own lessons and figure it out for yourself so that— yeah, I missed a minion. How can you figure it out for yourself so that you have a case study in yourself to be able to go out and reach your goals? I think that would be more valuable than a specific tactic. Like, yes, YouTube can work. Yes, Facebook can work. Yes, Snapchat can work. All of these, all of these resources can work immensely well for you. But more important than that is the process you get through and the story that it can give you, at least I feel, for, for your business. So yeah, that's it. I don't want to give a specific answer. That's my answer. Follow your process. What's your process? What's your mentorship process? Follow that.

Great, I like that answer. All right, next question comes from Mayank.

Mayank.

Mayank, yeah. Mayank, 20-year-old guy who is an engineering student from India, and he's seen your videos on successful people, and one thing that he's, you know, hearing them always talk about is do what you love. And even yesterday, Nespresso with Matt Damon was giving that message. And he feels just really like frustrated because he can't find what he loves and he's trying out different things and he doesn't know, you know, he wants to follow what he loves, but he also has that side where he wants a practical, you know, the practical part where it will benefit him in the future. And so It's frustrating for him to try to find his answer through the constant reminder of like, do what you love, follow your passion, that message. And yeah, you know, Mayank, thanks for sharing, feeling the frustration, feeling the desire that you want to follow the advice and just not exactly knowing how to practically apply it. I heard an amazing, what do you call it, just a presentation by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it's called The Flight of a Hummingbird, and it just is actually talking about this very thing because there are those people out there who kind of get it really quick they know what they want to do. In her case, she was a writer and she knew from very early on that she just wanted to be a writer and she just— that's what her goal was for her whole life and she pursued it passionately. And then I won't give all of the video away, but, you know, she talks about what she learned from someone who had a really different experience where they couldn't they just couldn't really figure out what their passion was. And out of that came a lot of interesting wisdom that she had to share. So I think that would be a great place to start.

I love it. While you were talking, J-Rise got the first kill of the game, so pretty exciting there.

Yes, J!

Yeah. There's a reason why that message keeps popping up again and again and again and again and again. It's because it's true. Because if you look at, you know, and this is something that when I first started my channel, or when I first started doing the profiles, I guess maybe that's a better way to put it, I only did entrepreneurs. And then I— and then we've expanded, right? You talked about Matt Damon, and is Matt Damon an entrepreneur? Maybe. You know, he has some things going on, I guess. Not to diss Matt Damon, but you know, we've had actors and inventors and athletes and singers, and what you find is the rules for success are very similar. Yes, there are some things that you might do as an actor that's different than, you know, an entrepreneur, but a lot of the mindset issues, the what you do issues, the big important things are for the most part the same. Mm-hmm. And so that's why we started doing them. I think what's hard is we're talking about things that are important to your heart and they don't always make sense. So if there's something that you have in mind that you want to do that I heard the word practical in there, and quite often the thing that you're supposed to do is not the practical thing, and that's hard to wrap your head around because it just doesn't make logical sense. It's just something that you have to go and do because you love it and you need to find a way to make it work. If he has nothing, then— whoa, I'm dying— if he has nothing, like no clue at all, then you just explore. You explore and you explore and you explore until you find the thing that makes you come alive and you really want to do. We've talked about this multiple times on the channel too. You just keep exploring and eventually you'll find the thing as long as you don't quit. But with that being said, if he doesn't know— I'm sorry, if he does know, if he has something in his mind and he's just worried that it's not practical enough, that's probably where you need to go. That's probably where you need to spend your time and learn and figure out how you can get better. That's how I got into this business, you know. I told this story a number of times, but what got me into this was going to the YMCA and doing a free event that nobody wanted to come out to, that 3 people showed up to. And if I can't get 3, more than 3 people to come out to a free event, how am I ever going to get this into a business? Like, it just doesn't make sense. But the thing that helped me through was I just, I love doing it. I had to find a way to keep doing it. Made me come alive. And even if I couldn't turn it into a business, I would want to just keep doing it because of how good it made me feel. And so often your best opportunities are the ones that are not practical, but you find a way to make it work. So that's it. You know, if he knows what he wants to do but he doesn't think it's practical, go and do it and find a way. If you don't know what you want to do, then explore. Try a bunch of stuff. You're not going to figure it out by sitting on the couch. You got to go out and try. Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. And I think too recognizing opportunity in forms that you may not expect. It's like you may want to be this other thing, this— maybe there's this particular picture of what you dream to do. And then someone invites you to do something else that might not look like it's that big thing, you know, but learning how to recognize when opportunity is presenting itself in that acorn stage of what your oak tree dream is.

And I like that, acorn stage.

Yeah, I can't take credit for that. I've heard that a few people talk about that, but I think your dreams sometimes present themselves in acorn form, and then you say yes to the acorn, and then the acorn grows into something bigger and bigger and bigger, and then maybe, you know, eventually you do get to the the oak tree, but you gotta learn how to take— to show up for the opportunities when they present themselves that can get you there. It's like, you know.

Yeah, often you'll have no idea. Like, I am an owner of— I am the owner of Toronto Dance Salsa, and it's something I never thought that running a salsa school would be on my list of things that I wanted to do. Even dancing salsa, you know, I'm very tall, I take big steps, I didn't learn salsa growing up, I don't speak Spanish, you know, all of these things that on paper don't make any sense. And if I just looked on paper, then I wouldn't have even gone into that first salsa class. But I just said yes, and I tried, and it became this amazing thing. And so you never know where it's gonna come from. Like, it never ends up like you think it's gonna end up. Never.

Mm-hmm.

Businesses always change, lives always change. Like, no matter how great— it doesn't mean don't plan. You can have a great plan, but the plan will never work exactly like you want it to work. Never. There's always— you always have to change and adapt to the circumstances, and that's the beauty. And if you try to force your plan, you're probably gonna fail.

Nice. We've got a good comment from Jen Somuch in the live chat, says, being open to where you can give value, listen to what other people tell you your skills are, because it's So natural to us, sometimes we don't even recognize it. It's a good point. I completely know what that is. It's like the things that you are really good at, sometimes they're just so natural that you don't even realize that it's a valuable skill to contribute into a certain area and to be able to realize what other people's feedback is about your strengths. A great way to— might point you in your direction a little bit too.

All right, uh, thanks for the contribution, Jen.

Yeah, we got 7 wins, uh, 7 kills and 7 deaths.

Yep, that's right, our team is even. I've done, uh, I'm 0-0-0. I've done nothing. It's coming though, it's coming. Timo is a late game beast. It's coming, it's coming later on. But overall, yes, the team is— it's an even game, it's an even game so far.

Nice. All right, next question comes from Robert, and Robert is asking about scalability. He says he wanted to, you know, find some information on how to scale a business. He wants to understand how— the how to scale a business. And he says he looked for videos but couldn't find anything. So yeah, so the actual definition I know of scalability is that as As I grow as a business, I bring in— and as I bring in more revenue and as I acquire more customers, the cost that it takes to make— let's say you're a product-based business— the cost it takes to make that product goes down as you grow. And so if you sell acorns, Use my last example. Well, this is a good example because you can't make acorns. Let's say you're making cups. So you have one cup cost you $20, and when you scale your business now, you can make like 10,000 cups. And $1 per cup. So the cost of making that cup goes down from $20 to $1. So I think that— I think there's a lot of different ways that you can scale this, and it so all depends on your business model and unique— the unique, yeah, business model that you have. But I think the main thing that you have to have to start is just a business that's actually bringing in customers already. You already have customers, you already have cash flow, and then you need a strategy for scaling your business. Maybe Evan, you can talk more to the strategy part.

The question was, how do I scale my business? Or can you say the question again? I was kind of— I was confused by it.

Yeah, he just searched videos, how to scale a business, and he can't— he couldn't find anything, so he wants to understand how do you actually do it.

Okay, so there's a number of different ways, and first it depends on your— whatever you're selling. Some businesses are just easier to scale than others, right? A service-based business is really hard to scale because every time you want to grow, you've got to hire somebody new, where that's why you don't see massively profitable service-based businesses or really huge service-based businesses. It's just too hard to scale. Scalability just basically means that as you grow, as you sell more, your costs are less and you have the infrastructure to be able to build up. So at Toronto Dance Salsa, you know, we can scale a little bit, but again, we're a service-based business, so it's hard for us. It's not one at a time, it's not like one-to-one interaction, it's one-to-many. So it's like, as an instructor with 40 students or 30 students in a class, you know, I have a physical location, and for that location I can scale up to have X number of classes, and once I'm there, that's it. For our YouTube channel, it's insanely scalable, right? You know, you might want to hire people as you grow, but you don't necessarily need to. And when you— to reach one person or to reach a thousand people or to reach a million people doesn't have to cost anything extra. You just have to be able to create really good content. And so this is why venture capitalists and angel investors, they want to invest in scalable businesses, right? They want to invest in software, they want to invest in technology, they want to invest in apps, because as they put their money in, it doesn't need tons of money to keep going. So a lot of it is based off of the, the business itself. You basically want to find a way that as you grow, it doesn't cost you as much to acquire a customer. That's really what scalability is. The customer acquisition goes down as you get bigger. Now there's, you know, if you've already picked your business, this is why Cresson is a little bit confusing If you've already picked your business, then you might look for, okay, how can I scale this more? So for example, if I'm in the salsa business, uh, maybe doing online classes would be an option, right? That's way more scalable. We can have 1,000 people in a room instead of 30, or, you know, a million people in a room, right? The cost is exactly the same to operate that. Uh, it could be maybe we start selling, you know, DVDs or t-shirts or products, which again, much more easy to scale than an actual service. So you can look at how do I augment my current offering? How do I change what I'm currently selling to be more scalable? Or how do I acquire customers? Right? Everything can scale better, even in a business that isn't highly scalable. So as an example, you might be in a service-based business, and, and okay, that's a hard-to-scale kind of company, but what's your marketing? If your marketing is just going to trade shows, that can be hard to scale because you have to go to every trade show, or you need to hire somebody to go to every single trade show. Whereas if you move your marketing to be online and social media, then it's much more scalable. So even though you have an unscalable business, you can have a more scalable marketing strategy. So I hope that helped. I wish I had a little more clarity on it to be able to give a better answer, but I would just look at the scalability in both the business itself and then all the underlying components so that The idea is as you grow, it costs you less. Mm-hmm.

No, I think you hit it right on. I just, I think that he, like a lot of people, they hear these words when they're, you know, learning about business and they don't have a context and want, they want to be able to go and just apply information. And I think scalability is one of those words that you hear a lot, but You may not know how, and I think what is a little bit more complex about that kind of a question is what you're saying. It just so is dependent upon the business model, if it's service-based, if it's product-based, and so there's no how-to like that. You can't just work— you can't just get an easy, quick how-to for every single business, you know. So yeah, I think you—

I think if I knew the business, it'd be a lot easier to provide more value in the answer. So That's— it's frustrating for me to not be able to answer the question as I'd like to.

Yeah.

Anyway.

Yeah. So those out there asking questions, and this does come up a lot, like the more information about the specifics of, you know, what you're trying to do is not only more interesting, but also helpful to give more value. All right. Next question comes from Oli, and actually you were just mentioning in the last question, Evan, how, you know, investors, they want to invest in scalable businesses, and so we've got Oli here who actually just won a 3-day entrepreneur competition, and he was awarded with capital to get his app idea built.

All right, congratulations.

Yeah, so he's got a plan for his, his app. It's nearly built and ready to launch, and the app is called StreetScope. He's actually given you some pretty thorough information about his plan. The app is called Street Scope, and Street Scope helps users discover local boutique clothing stores that best suit their personal style.

Okay.

Pretty cool. And users select— users select categories and then find the appropriate local store. He has a plan to list stores for free And he also is marketing to audience through social media, paid ads, paying for shoutouts of local pages. I'm just going in, in detail, Evan, because at the end of all of this, he, he kind of just wants to hear your feedback about his plan. Um, so his marketing includes paid ads, paying for shoutouts on local pages, who have his target audience, posting flyers. And he says, "When my analytics show that people are visiting places, I contact the places and ask if they'd like to pay monthly to stay on my app before I clear out to paying customers only." And he looks forward to hearing your experienced and knowledgeable opinion on his idea. So congrats, Ollie, on your competition. Super exciting to know that there's people who are believing in your idea and you have this opportunity to now put it into action. The advice that I would just have is more on the side of once you actually launch, because this is what I've said a lot in terms of app marketing and those types of things, is do whatever you can to pay attention to those first, you know, even if it's those first 20 users, and show them a lot of love and provide great customer service and support. Support for anyone and everyone in those early stages. Because as we've mentioned here on earlier streams, you only need to get that smaller group of super fans than to try to reach those massive amounts of people in the very beginning. I mean, yeah, it'd be great to, to get your app to as many— out as many people, but really making sure that you're providing the best support for your Users, pay attention to their feedback, make your app great. And I think if you can really keep your focus on those things, you know, you're setting yourself up for success.

Alright, just an intense fight just happened that our team lost badly, but I'm the only one alive. So, yeah, this one, I would honestly— this model has been proved a lot of times before, and I would go research it, not with the app but with any marketplace. This has happened in the early web days. Basically what you need to do is go and talk to all of the retailers to get them listed. The retailers are always looking for marketing, and that's the easiest path in. You need to get data, like it's a chicken and egg that you need to get data from the retailers and you need to get people using it. The retailers want— don't really want to do too much, and they definitely don't want to pay until you get an active user base, and the user base doesn't want to come and do anything until they see that there's actually helpful data for them in there. So that's the chicken and the egg, and how you get it is going to the retailers, and it helps to have a niche. What is it, boutique?

What was it? He helps people discover their local boutique clothing stores that best suit their personal style.

Right, so It's definitely going in and talking to the boutiques and getting their— getting them to sign up, getting their feedback, putting a free profile up. It's free and it's exposure even if it's to a limited group. It's still free and it's exposure and so you're going to get people saying yes. You need to get that first. You need to go at every boutique even if you put up free listings, copy it from Google, places or whatever just to get data in there. Super, super, super important. From there, I love the strategy of contacting the stores that are already getting feedback. So if people are already visiting and, you know, they're getting checked out to their stores, then that's amazing, and it's a great strategy to reach out to them on that basis afterwards. I, I'm not actually a huge fan of the boutique idea, mostly because of scalability.

You said you, you don't think it's— sorry, you said what about the boutique idea?

I'm not a fan of the boutique idea because it's harder to scale. I mean, talking about scalability, where what I would want to see is why not— why can't I get You know, what's a big, what's a big US retail outlet?

Macy's.

Macy's. Like, I would love to see Macy's use this for all of their places as well. And maybe that's not the point, I get it, but you're gonna be in that model where you are constantly having to go out and get new stores one at a time, one at a time, one at a time. Where if you can get some chain stores, it just saves you a ton of effort. Um, but again, that may not be philosophically where you want to go, and I get that. So you just have to do a good job of getting the retailers on board first, giving them some kind of offer, making it special for them so you can easily get them on board, uh, and then create a great user experience for the customers. The, the end consumer so that I would want to load your app instead of just going to Google. Like, if I'm looking for a clothing store near me, I might— I'm gonna go Google Local, or, you know, Yelp. I've got tons of options. Why would I use yours instead? Um, and not being critical to say that yours sucks, just you need to give me that value, right? You have to demonstrate that value to people so that they want to go and sign up with you. Yeah, I'm excited, man.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're— I didn't— I'm not seeing necessarily here how he's differentiating. And I do know that there are several boutique clothing store apps out there. Like, so I just would say make sure that at least you know how you're different from everyone else. All right, looking at the live chat here.

Oh yeah, shoutouts! What can we do in the live chat? What's going on?

Yeah, still got a lot of love coming here on the chat. Demaso was just sharing, yeah, he agrees, you know, that customer support is key. And can take you far. And yeah, if you guys have any questions in the live chat, leave them in the chat. We'll definitely answer your, your questions as well. Next question comes from John, and John is asking— oh, this is cool. Alright, we know you're the, you're the owner of TBS and a lover of dance and salsa, so he's got a dance question for you.

Alright, John, John the dancer, I like it.

Yeah, so John is asking for advice on improving and growing as a dancer. Okay, he feels frustrated, he feels frustrated at times, he's a beginner, and And he's in beginner choreography classes, mostly hip-hop, street dance, locking. And he's a slow learner, and so there are moments that people in the class, quote, mean fellow students would make snide comments or laugh at him when he makes mistakes. And so he says, can you please give some advice and words of wisdom for dancing? What can I do to keep showing up to class while avoiding the negative remarks and energy of these individuals? Cool. Loving the dance, John. So I— some of you guys may not know this, but for many years I was a hip-hop dance instructor. And, uh, only because I know the hip-hop scene in terms of dance classes in particular, um, you know, it, it can be the funnest dance experience, but it can also be an experience where you are going to have to learn how to really be confident and show up and just, you know, you gotta kind of flex, flex your muscles there because hip-hop is all about the 'I'm in your face' and, you know, there's attitude and you just gotta, you know, it's that form just kind of already lends itself to being someone who has a lot of audacity and so I would just say honestly, the best thing you can do in this situation is to just keep coming and learn how to stand in an environment that feels like it's a little bit hostile. Because in a lot of ways, that's what hip-hop really is about. It's like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you. And you may be bad, you may be bad, but you can't get better if you don't keep showing up and you don't keep just doing the work, you know. And, and I know it's difficult when you've got people who are laughing at you, but I just think that that's part of growing. It's part of It's part of it, and you've got to learn whether it's in hip-hop or anything else, you've got to learn how to do what you love when people doubt you and think that you're crazy. And in time, as you do the work, you know, people won't laugh anymore because you will have, you will have done the work and kind of proven them wrong, I guess is the best way to say it. So there's tons of videos you can watch. Keep putting in the work after class, like whatever you got to do to find out where your weaknesses are and how you can improve. Just, you know, go after it. And yeah, I think it's I think it's a good learning opportunity to learn how to stand when you're in that kind of a thing.

This one, you know, it's interesting. I guess he wrote in because of the Toronto Dance Salsa Connection. I'm not used to answering dance questions, so it's good. But this one touches an emotional core for me because of my connection to dancing and owning a salsa school, I would say a couple things. I would say my belief, which might be a little bit different than Rishi's, but my belief is that you should be able to learn a dance without— like, even if the attitude and the aggression is there in hip-hop, I feel like you should be able to learn it without having to go through ridicule. And honestly, I feel like it's, it's, you need a better school. Like, one of the things, the reason why we're the biggest school in the country, maybe even North America, for teaching salsa classes is because it's not about becoming always the best salsa dancer in the world, recognizing people come to do this for fun. And our one word is family, right? It's about making people feel welcome, making people not feel left out, making people feel like they're, um, they're, they're always welcome and, and that their progress is, uh, you know, might be slow, but is okay. And a lot of people come to us aren't massively confident and do suck at the start. And you see that when they start learning, they start making friends, and they start getting progress, you see just a massive boost in their overall confidence in life, not just in that dance. And so honestly, I feel like you're at the wrong school. I feel like you're surrounded by the wrong people. Just like if you're trying to learn how to be an entrepreneur and you're surrounded by people who are telling you how hard it is and how stupid you look and how many mistakes you're making. Like, does that help you? Yeah. You know, like, is that the right environment for you to succeed as an entrepreneur in? No. And so is it part of the game? Sure. Right? Like, do you— are you gonna face lots of problems? Absolutely. Does this help train you to be better?

Maybe.

But if it were me, I would rather go and find a place that I am welcome, I am accepted. And a lot of it comes from the, the, the mindset of the, the school, the instructor, like who's leading this. People, you know, like attracts like. So you'll find, you'll find that if the instructor is arrogant and the instructor feels like they're the best and the instructor feels like they have to give you a hard time, then you're going to get a bunch of students who like that and then also give you a hard time. Or if the instructor is nice and caring and wants to see you succeed and, you know, really is genuine, then you're going to find the students are like that as well. So I don't know that I would just assume that because it's hip-hop and it's an aggressive dance that you need to embody aggressiveness all the time and you need to struggle through it. I would look for just more like-minded people and a better school that you can learn from that more fits your style. Because some people like that. Some people like being yelled at. Some people love boot camps and Some people love, you know, that style and it's great for those people, but it's not something that I really believe in. It's not how I would like to be taught and it's not how we do things at Toronto Dance Ensemble. So I think if you just found a better school, you will be happier.

Absolutely. And I think there is a difference between the teacher shaming you and like students. I think that sometimes you can't control when your peers— it sounds like in this case it's more his peers, but if his teacher's also coming down on him, I would definitely say that you would want to get different— get definitely find a different school.

Well, I mean, often it's reflective of the culture. Like, the teacher sets the tone. If somebody was being made fun of consistently in our school, they wouldn't be around very long, right? Like, we wouldn't let that continue, right? That person would be asked to leave the school. Mm-hmm. So the teacher is allowing it to happen either through negligence, like they don't know, they don't see it, which isn't great, or they see it and are too weak to do anything about it, or they encourage it. And so just like you become like your parents, you know, the values and all that, the students are learning and are modeling the behaviors from the instructor. So if that's— if it's one student, then maybe, but if it's rampant at the school, then I would really look at just having a different school. It's an emotional one for me because we deal with a lot of students who are who are not necessarily the cool kids or who don't learn quickly and the thought that unless you pick it up by this point in time that you can't enjoy all the benefits that dance can bring you, I find I fundamentally disagree with. It's like at the core of what I'm all about. It's at the core of what, why our business is successful and what we're trying to do as a business. So yeah, that's my quick thoughts.

And I realize as you're talking this out too, like there's a difference between dancers who are coming to have a good time and to learn and this is something they're passionate about, but they may not necessarily want to pursue this as a profession. And I don't, I don't think that the answer necessarily changes in terms of you should still be in a healthy environment where your teachers don't allow abuse. I 100% agree with that. I guess too, I've seen that if you want to, if you want to pursue this maybe as a as a profession, I'm speaking specifically to that you'll have to put in the work no matter what because there will always be people who doubt your abilities, if that makes sense.

Yeah, and most people who take a dance class don't have an interest in becoming professional dancers. Mm-hmm. Right? It's a fun thing to do. It's something different. And we recognize that, you know, there are some dedicated people who really want to learn. But if you think about why you sign up for a dance class, it's just like, why do you go on vacation to Cuba? It doesn't mean you want to move to Cuba. It's just you're looking for something different. You're looking for something fun. And yes, some people may go and fall in love with it and decide, you know what, I want to move here. But for most people, it's just a fun thing that they can do. And so a good dance school will recognize that. And maybe to broaden the question for everybody else, you know, making your customers feel comfortable, giving them an environment that they are happy with and they feel like they're growing in, is important.

Absolutely. It's interesting. I'll say one more thing too. Dance— it's interesting how dance in particular is an industry where you do experience a lot of shaming, you know, whether it's hip-hop, salsa, ballet. It's very common in, in a lot of dance schools that that teachers will use shame to motivate their students. And that is something that I think is rampant in dance schools. So, it's very encouraging to know, you know, that you can go to a TDS and know that as a— from an organization they have a value for, we're going to make this not a place where you have to be shamed to be taught. Right. Alright, how's the game? We're—

I'm doing well, but the team is not, so we're— I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying. I am trying and playing my heart out trying to win. I'm 9— I have 9 kills and 1 death, but my team is suffering, so We'll see. If I die, we're probably gonna lose the game, so it's a responsibility. It's a responsibility. But it's not bad, not bad. They wanted to surrender a couple times, but we didn't, so we'll see. Next question, let's do it.

Okay, next question comes from, uh, Aka Tuwera. Akatuwera wants to know, I really want to learn business, man, but I don't know how to start. Please advise me. All right. So exciting times, Akatuwera. You want to start. And I think the simplest thing to do is just start. I, I Every business starts with having an idea for how you want to contribute your business— I mean, your product or your service. And so if you're not— if you haven't yet been able to get in touch with what kind of business you want to have, how you want to contribute, then it's a great place to just start by thinking about, you know, what— how can you scratch your own itch? What is it that you see is missing in the world right now that you really feel needs to exist? And yeah, I think you just kind of have to start with how do you want to contribute? And from a practical standpoint, I know Evan, you always say service-based businesses are great. It's great to start with service-based business because, you know, it is a little bit of an easier way to get cash flow in the beginning, in the beginning stages.

But yeah, I mean, the two pieces of advice that I always give that I feel are kind of fundamental and core, one is you have to do something that you I mean, we've talked about it already on this stream. It comes up multiple times. You have to do something that you love in anything. Like, you have to marry the person that you love. You have to be in a career that you love. You know, you got to do the thing that makes you come alive and you don't see as work. Other people might see it as torture, but you see it as awesome. That's the work that you need to do. And then to have business success, it's just going to come from providing value. So if you can combine those things, do what you love that also can provide value to others, you have a successful start for a business.

Yeah, value, value, value.

That's it.

Love it. Next question comes from Trent, and Trent says he's a student currently at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and he's come up with an idea that has great benefits for athletes but also patients in the medical field. I'm studying exercise science at the moment and also been diagnosed with a very long disease that I cannot pronounce, and it— which triggered this idea. The basic concept behind the invention, um, he knows the science behind it, he— and it's supported by research, and he's just really— he's surprised that this product isn't already somehow out there. So he just basically wants some advice and steps on making his idea happen. So it's, again, it's a, it's an idea that would benefit athletes and also patients in the medical field.

Okay, and the question is how to get it out there?

Yeah, just do you have some advice and steps in making this happen? It's a, it's a product-based business, but he didn't go into the specifics. Specifics of, you know, what the product is. But, um, yeah, so the first thing that just came to mind for me was to start getting involved in the community with the medical field and the athletes and just starting to talk with either potential users or potential customers or potential partners. I mean, thinking in your mind, okay, who are the people that are going to be interested in what it is that I am wanting to do? And I think would be a great way to identify your value, just to the last point of providing value. A lot of that comes by knowing your market and what the market wants. And that, I think part of that can be by just talking to people who are in your market and finding out what they want and kind of creating the business around the information and the feedback that you get from them.

Got it. Well, uh, we lost the game. I went, uh, I went 10-3 and Jay went 8-6, but the rest of our team had terrible scores. So, uh, we were, we were carrying some. We were trying, we were trying, we were trying. Anyway, it's all good. Um, for this one, I'd be thinking— I'm not 100% sure where you are at in the stage. So you have an idea, it's great, and this is helpful for everybody who has an idea, they want to get it out there on the market. Uh, you have an idea Can you create the product or the service? Can you do it yourself? Do you, do you know what needs to get done to release this product out there, right? If you just have an idea, the idea is not enough. You need to be able to execute on it. So do you need to learn the skills yourself or do you need to partner up with somebody who can help you create this thing? If you know how to create it, great, get started. Create it, then the next step is getting into people's hands, letting them test it, letting them try it, getting some feedback. And again, is it something that you can do just for a small user base, right? Go out to a conference and start talking to people or hit people up on social media just to get on their radar so they know who you are. Or, you know, do you not want to do that? Do you not have the skills to do that and you need to partner with somebody to help you do that? That's like, you need to get that core base of people using a usable product or service to give you feedback and start paying you money. So that's a start. I'm unclear where the lack of resources or skills are, but you need to figure out that market How do I create the product or service? And then how do I market it to that first group of people who can be my testers to the point where I'm making something valuable enough that you could charge money for it? And do you have the skills to do it, or do you need to partner up with somebody to help you get to where you need to go? That's it.

All right.

All right, well, thank you guys for watching. Rishi, do we have a final message for the audience, for the YouTube audience, for the live Twitch audience?

Yes, look for your acorn opportunity. And we've got some funny chat going on here. I'm going to encourage the people in the chat to look for your acorn opportunity as well.

Yeah, and maybe to add to that, I would say that you maybe don't— you don't even know when you found your acorn. Sometimes you put too much pressure, like the salsa thing for me, if— if— or the wine, pretty much everything for me. If you put the pressure on it, right? Like you go on a first date and like, this has to be the person I marry. You put so much pressure on it that it's probably not going to work out. I put so much pressure and going to that first salsa class and say, this has to become a business or I'm going to stop. Then I probably would have stopped. If I went to that YMCA and said, this has to be the thing that works for me, didn't make practical sense, I would have stopped. And so maybe as you're searching for acorns, Find the thing that more feels right than sounds right.

There you go. Love it.

That's my add-on. So thank you guys for watching. Hope you guys enjoy the rest of your day. We've got a bunch of live streams coming up later that I'd love to have your participation on. Super excited about all of them. And if not, then we'll see you again tomorrow morning. Thank you, Jay Rise, for the for the in-game fun. Thank you, Rishi, for joining. Go check out her channel, Rishi Cup TV. It's in the description. Continue to believe, guys, or whatever your one word is, and we'll see you soon.