Business Q&A + League of Legends Ep. #8 ft. @RishyCupTV

Welcome everybody, another League of Legends hangout, answering questions, playing the game, joined by my usual co-host Rishi CupTV. Rishi, welcome aboard.

Thanks Evan, hey everybody, Believe Nation.

Also have a special guest with me, Jryze is in the house. Believe Nation! We're going to be playing a game together, we're going to be trying to get a Heimer mid for Jay and the Teemo jungle for me. We'll see if we can make that work, have some coordination between us. Hopefully it doesn't take us 40 minutes to get into a game like it did on Wednesday. That was, that was good times. So we're set up.

That was such good times.

Yeah, and let's, let's, let's get into it. Let's go, let's get some questions going. Let's see what we got. Helping entrepreneurs Friday morning.

Friday morning, awesome. Okay, first question comes from Key, and Key says if there's any advice you can give me for starting a YouTube channel, gaining subscribers, and gaining views.

What was the name?

Key, yep.

Like the letter?

No, no, Key, it's actually K-H-E-E.

Oh, Key, Key, okay, I heard T. Okay, Key, got it, okay. Let's do it. Go. Rishi loves you.

All right.

So there was— 2 episodes ago, I think every answer Rishi gave had to do with YouTube somehow. I think you should have a YouTube channel. So this one is tailor-made for Rishi. Here we go. YouTube advice. Bringing it.

All right. Well, great question. First thing I would say— and this is actually something that I hear Evan tell a lot of up-and-coming YouTubers— is just start. If you want to start a YouTube channel, what often happens is you get so hung up and caught up in trying to think about the perfect idea, or thinking about what is going to be the perfect thing, and you never actually start. So the first advice I would give you, Key, is just start. The next thing I would start to try to identify is your passion. What do you want to— what's the content that you want to create and what are you really passionate about? One way I like to think about this, like I'm starting a new series on my channel, Evan.

What?

You are? Kind of, yeah.

Are you dropping some knowledge? Some news right now? Breaking news?

It's still confidential, so you have to follow my channel to see it.

J-Rise is going to your channel right now. He wants to find it.

Yeah, it is not there yet unfortunately. But yeah, one of the things, I will give you a key that I learned that is really super powerful I think, and that is some of the most successful YouTubers that we know today started out by making the kinds of videos that they just wanted to privately send to their family and friends. So some people, if you think about Miranda Sings, if you guys follow that comedy channel, or Ava, My Life as Ava. I'm pretty sure you don't watch these channels, Evan. I haven't heard of them.

I'm excited.

Yeah, so what's really, really awesome about these channels is that they literally started making videos for their friends with no intention of ever actually like showing them publicly on YouTube. And so they started making these videos, and then decided, well, in the case of My Life is Eva, I don't know what happened, but she started getting serious growth. Eventually I guess she did put them on YouTube. And then the same thing with Miranda Sings, like they just blew up, and they actually didn't intend for them to ever be really something for a large, large audience. So I think the key there is that they would be making these videos anyway, like whether or not you Ki, you are asking about gaining subscribers and getting views. Don't even think about that part yet. Don't worry about the subscribers. Don't worry about the views. What kind of content would you create no matter if 1 person or 0 people ever watched it, and that you would enjoy sending to your family or to your friends? I think that is just a good way to maybe identify what you are really passionate about. What will you do if you never get paid for it, or if you never get subscribers or views, because those are the types of videos you should be making. And then lastly, I will just on a practical level for people out there who are interested in how to grow their channels, like more on practical levels, like I know for me personally, Evan's channel, I watch Evan's channel. That is hugely recommended for new YouTubers. I also consume a lot of Derral Eves, Tim Schmoyer, Video Creators. And then, yeah, so those are just channels that practically give you some knowledge about kind of how to— I think Evan, you've got a great video, how to go from 0 to 100,000 subscribers, so you can search that, those of you out there. But yeah, just start and find out what kind of videos you really want to make, and then just do it.

Just do it! We need the Shayla Buff coming on. I like that, we got— that's a 3-part Rishi answer, look at that! Wow, that's some in-depth stuff. So J-Rise wants me to make the game because we didn't get a game going. What am I doing? How am I doing this? I don't make games. Normal blind pick? Draft pick? Normal draft pick? Launch, assemble your party, invite. Okay, this isn't as bad as I thought it was. I'm usually on the other side. Did you accept? You accepted, okay. Queue up, okay. Yeah, I agree with a lot of what Rishi said. What can I add to that? I would say, I would say you need to find your voice and what is gonna be different about your channel. I think a lot of people look up to YouTubers now and say, I want to be like that person. I don't remember the names where she put out, but, um, or like, I want to be like Tim Schmoyer or Derral Eves or, or Evan Carmichael's channel or whatever. And there are a lot of people who will copy it, right? There's a lot of people who copy my stuff and do it in their own style, but not really like just basically doing exactly the same thing I'm doing, and that's not how you're gonna grow. You got to figure out what you're gonna do that's different. And yes, you can model, right? Like, the channel— my channel is called Model Success, so it's great that you're modeling from different people. And that's usually the start, honestly. Like, when you start off, yeah, something you pull inspiration from different people, and it may look like you're copying them, And even to yourself, you're kind of just copying them. But if you do that enough, then you'll eventually find out your own style through it. I remember this great video in— I think it's in 50 Cent's Top 10 Rules video, where he's talking on stage about being pitched audio deals from new artists that are coming up. And he says he gets so many people now who sound like Lil Wayne, as an example. And he said he puts on the record and listens to the track and he says, "Yeah, that sounds just like Lil Wayne. That's great. Like, you can make it. You're a mean Lil Wayne. Like, I couldn't tell the difference. But I'm not gonna sign you because we already have Lil Wayne. Like, nobody wants to listen to the Lil Wayne copycat. They want to hear you." So a lot of people on YouTube are just copying other people and you And you know, as somebody who's being copied, I don't care, right? I don't worry about it because you can't outdo me at what I'm doing. And so people will say, hey, look, this person has copied your videos. Like, I don't care. Like, they're not— I'm focused on the future, not about what people are trying to copy off me. So I get that that could be the start for you, just copying other people. But at some point, you need to find your own voice. And figure out what is unique that you're gonna bring to it. And for me, a lot of it came through frustration of what I wasn't seeing out there. So nobody was doing the top 10 rules, nobody was doing the Espressos, nobody doing the Mentor Me series, whether they use those names or not. They just— it wasn't— nobody was doing these compilations. Oh, looks like we have a game. And so I wanted it for myself, and that's what I ended up creating and sharing with everybody else. So All of, all of Rishi's points, um, agree with, and I would just add on that you need to find your voice, find the thing that you're different and special with, and discover and explore. Because, you know, you'll make mistakes as you put them out, and you'll think, oh, that's a, that's a stupid video. Um, but just try until you find the thing that you really love doing, and that's that's different from the other YouTubers out there?

I'm thinking about Evan, the time that I went to another channel to watch a video and I realized it was someone— someone had actually taken your video and posted it on their channel. And yeah, so I actually— I know that's true. A lot of people are wanting to imitate your channel quite literally.

Yeah, and you have to, you know, people— it started with people remixing my voice. So they'll take my voice on a speech that I said or a rant that I went on and they use that in some kind of motivational video. The thing is, if you're going to pull stuff from other people's channels, you need to add something to it. You know, a lot of the videos that I have are remixes from other people's videos. Right? We'll look at, you know, 10, 20 hours of research of different entrepreneurs and compile it into a 10-minute video for people to watch. But that mashup, that using other people's content becomes valuable because I'm adding something different to it. If all you're doing is copying one of my videos or one of Rishi's songs and putting them on your channel, it's not gonna work. You gotta add art to it. You gotta figure out what you can add to that to make it unique and make it yours and make it something that doesn't exist yet on the internet.

Agreed.

We're still waiting to get in the game.

Wow.

Yeah. We almost have it. Alright. But let's go. We got more time for questions.

Okay. Cool. Next question comes from Josephine. Josephine is 50 years old, and she actually shares that after 24 years of marriage, she actually— her husband left her, and it was like a devastating time in her life. But she shares that in the midst of that loss, she actually started to learn what her passion was and find her her inner strength. So anyway, she just shared a pretty touching story. With that was a question about how can she start finding speaking engagements. Her main passion at this point is helping women find their inner strength. And she wants to basically speak to help other women overcome their fears, And she doesn't kind of know where to find speaking engagements for that kind of thing. She says her goal isn't to make money. I mean, her main goal is to just make a difference one life at a time. So, yeah, thanks, Josephine, for sharing. I would just say, you know, there are so many different organizations and things probably in your local area where you could begin to build relationships. And people would probably be open to having someone come in and speak. Some things that come to mind would be like, I know your story specifically about your divorce, so I know there are divorce support groups. There are Women's organizations, churches, schools and colleges. I know Evan, your story about the YMCA. So I'm sure there are lots of different organizations in your area that you could begin to build relationship with that would be more than happy to give you an opportunity to kind of share your story and make an impact. And then I know that there are online opportunities as well that you could— I mean, here's my thing again, YouTube channel. I mean, definitely there's opportunity of sharing your story to help women on a YouTube channel. Like, there's all kinds of opportunities online for sharing your story and helping impact people. What do you think, Evan?

Yeah, um, you know, just thinking about her story, it's great to see that she's turning that really down moment in her life into something powerful and positive, uh, not just for herself but for others. And I think a lot of people get hit with something hard and then that's the story for the rest of their life and they, they can't turn things around. Um, so That's awesome. There's a lot of people who also feel like, hey, at this, you know, at this age, I'm not gonna start something new. You know, I'm only this, I'm only this kind of person. So there's a lot of bravery and courage that Josephine is displaying today, which is awesome. In terms of doing speaking, is it that she wants to be a professional speaker? She just wants to share a story. Was that— I didn't really get that part. Or maybe she didn't say.

Well, yeah, she didn't say professionally. I mean, her goal definitely isn't necessarily the making money part. She says she really just wants to help make a difference in women's lives. So, but maybe, maybe she is trying to do it also professionally and doesn't directly mention that.

Yeah, so if you want to be a speaker, well, if you want to be anything, you know, you got to develop the skills and get better at it. So you want to get as many opportunities as possible to share the story and just practice. And at the start, you're doing it for free. Rishi mentioned the YMCA thing. That was one of my first local speaking things. And I did it and it made me come alive and I wanted to do it some more, right? Even though only 3 people showed up to that event and it was a free event. It's one of those things like if I wanted to be a public speaker and make money off it and I can only get 3 people to come to a free event, the odds of me turning this into a successful business, you know, on paper don't look that good. But it was something that just made me come alive and so I had to find a way to keep doing it even if I didn't know how I'd monetize it. I spoke at a bunch of other things. I spoke at Enterprise Toronto, which is a local entrepreneur, you know, City of Toronto entrepreneur group that I spoke with. There's tons of different organizations you can connect with. Rishi already mentioned a bunch of them that you can look up in your area. So just getting out and practicing, like I try to do one event a week to get out and tell your story and practice. And if you're not charging, then there's always organizations that are looking for free speakers to come out and give value. And every time you do it, you'll get better and better and better and better and better. You'll learn how to give better value. I also agree with the YouTube channel on this one. One, for practice, because speaking once a week isn't enough, right? If you want to learn a new language, you want to learn French, practicing your French once a week isn't enough to be great at French. You got to You got to practice daily. Oh, you're not in. Jay's not in. No! What happened, Jay? Oh, okay. We're still struggling to find the game here. Jay's resetting his computer or something. So you have to practice more. You've got to make it a daily habit to practice in front of the camera, and that is still speaking. The good thing about it too with YouTube is that it then makes it public, and you can start building some momentum, building an audience, and getting some feedback. And at the start, you won't get much, and don't expect to blow up overnight. But people in general are way more supportive than you think at the start. You know, as long as you're genuine, you're sharing your story, as you grow, you'll get some haters, but from the start, usually people are pretty supportive. And that can lead to other opportunities. If people see you speak, So part of the YouTube channel is just getting the experience and the practice to hone your skills, right? I've done 3,000+ YouTube videos. Not all of them are public, but that's a lot of practice, you know? And I was not very good at it at the start. You can go back to my channel and see my videos. They were pretty bad. The content was pretty good, but my delivery, my performance as a speaker was pretty bad. So you got to put in the work, but it can also then lead to opportunities. And again, most of my biggest opportunities now, speaking gigs, book deals, all that stuff comes through my YouTube channel. So getting more practice and experience there can really help. Yeah, cool. One other thing, I guess, you know what I want to add, just thinking about it, is I would also look for to improve yourself by modeling success. It's the name of my channel. But looking at speakers that you look up to, for me, I love Les Brown, like young Les Brown. And so consuming his stuff and his wisdom in his courses and learning from him. I was with, well, I am, I have an agent in New York and media training is part of the program. And so for 2 years, had a media coach helping me to get better, improve my channel, and I basically just graduated. You know, she said, I don't know what else to teach you anymore. So learning from someone else can be really helpful, whether it's somebody that you can actually connect with and get feedback on, like Toastmasters, or whether— Jay, you're supposed to be paying attention here, man. We're going, hey, we got a game going on here. Okay. Yeah, whether it's somebody you can actually connect with one-on-one like, like a Toastmasters, or just a friend of yours who is a speaker, or someone who you just look up to online, you know, maybe you love Brené Brown and you study all her stuff, and that is something that makes you, you know, learn from Jay's snapping me because I have the band of champions here. Nice recovery so we don't lose that game. Yeah, finding someone that you look up to and respect online with the content that they're creating that you can learn either through direct training, like Les Brown would say, here are the 5 things that you need to learn to be a better speaker, or just through osmosis, through watching them and how they do it, you pick up different things. And so practice once a week going to different events and speaking, set up your YouTube channel and practice daily creating the content so you get better, and then connect with mentors or people that you can learn from, whether face-to-face or online, to improve yourself.

Cool. I have a little like added question to this.

Okay.

So, you know, one of the things that kind of caught my attention in this is when she's like, my goal is not to make money, I just want to make a difference. And I find, just based on the little that I read about what she does, she also has a nonprofit that helps women and children. Like, I find that for anyone who's in kind of really, really has a heart for service and I don't know how to put that in one category, but it can be uncomfortable to do what you love and then also have a desire to make money doing it. Can you speak a little to like anyone who has trouble with the part of like helping but also being able to be paid for what you do? Because I think that that's common amongst Well, maybe not even just people who are wanting to change the world through like these service ministries and I'm having a hard time finding what I'm trying to say, but like—

No, I got it.

Can you speak a little to that?

Yeah, I think almost everybody has— oh, let me pick my champion so I don't lose this game. I think almost everybody growing up has some kind of belief around money. That is hurting them. Almost everyone. You got some people who money is everything to them and they're just chasing it and they get all their meaning through money, which isn't great. And then you got other people who shun money and say and feel like they don't deserve it and that it's wrong. There aren't that many people growing up who have a balanced perspective on money and somewhere along the lines we have to figure it out for ourselves, hopefully. And so if you're on that other side where you see money is almost evil or you don't deserve it or, you know, I'm just trying to give feed, I'm just trying to help people, you know, I don't want to get paid. There's nothing wrong with getting paid, right?

Yeah.

Like there's nothing wrong with earning money. Money is good. It's not everything, but it's not evil either, right? And making money allows you to do better things, not just for yourself, but for the world, for the community that you're giving back to, for the impact that you're trying to make, right? Money helps make things happen. And so first is just, first is just the mindset and the awareness because most people don't have that. Or they're on the other side again where they're just so all about money that they don't have any, they don't care about adding value, they don't care about the service and care. Doesn't sound like that's your friend, or that's our friend here. Um, understand that as you are adding more value, you're going to start getting offers to get paid to do things, and then it's that mindset that will potentially hold you back, or changing the mindset will help you become the person that you can be. So What I'd be looking to do is if you're doing sessions with people, as example, if you're doing one-on-one and trying to help somebody out, or if you're doing speaking, right? If you film those videos and you get to be a good speaker and you put it up on YouTube, you'll get offers to go and speak and get paid to speak, and you'll get offers to have a book deal, and you'll get offers to sit on boards of companies, and you'll get offers to, you know, do a whole bunch of stuff that you may not have ever thought of. And I know because it's happened to me, right? Like, I'm in the same field as you are, just serving a different audience. And so if you're adding a lot of value, and as you get better, you'll continue to get more and more opportunities at you. But my biggest fear would be that you would turn them away because of the 'I'm not trying to make money' thing, and that would limit your ability to have a greater impact. And so money is not— money itself is not evil. Money is an exchange of value. And so if you get a book opportunity, if you get a speaking gig, you don't— you can still do this stuff for free. You can still do the things that, you know, there's a community of people who you know can't afford your services, you can still contribute and help back. I look at Toronto Dance Salsa as an example. We charge for people to come and learn salsa classes. If we didn't charge for people to come and learn, we wouldn't have a business. It'd be one person maybe volunteering their time, and so that one person could maybe reach, you know, how many people? A couple people a week? Instead, we're doing 5,000 people a year. Right? So because we charge, we're able to have a greater impact and reach more people. But not everybody is able to afford it. You know, we have people who are, you know, refugees coming to the country and they don't know anybody and they want to meet people and kind of get an understanding of how the culture works, but they don't have any money to do it. Or, you know, university students, or there's a whole bunch of, you know, different people in different circumstances of what they can and can't afford. And so if people are really having a hard time, if they're asked for like a payment plan or sometimes just for free, you know, we have a bursary program where we give away classes to people who can't afford them. So, you know, for those people, it's great. They have an opportunity to still learn and benefit, but there are a lot of people who can also afford it, right? Like if you're dealing with people who are getting divorced or trying to inspire women, right? It was just women?

Yeah.

Telling women your story, right? There's a lot of women who can afford to come and listen to you speak and would want to buy a coaching package from you and would want to support you in what you're doing. And, you know, there are people who write to my YouTube channel saying, hey, how can I support you financially because I love what you're doing? And if you say, no, I don't do it for money, Like you're not just taking away from yourself, you're taking away from your audience because you could use that money to hire somebody to help you. And you're taking away from that person who wants to give you money. Right? Well, that person wants to give you money to support you and you're taking that opportunity away from them. And a lot of times we don't see that. And so it's usually some kind of conditioning that comes early on in our lives about money money is evil, or, you know, it usually comes from our parents, someone in our family. And so money itself, again, is not evil. It allows you to do stuff, but it doesn't mean you have to be a sellout. Like, do things on your own terms. Do things that always make you feel comfortable and that are sticking to your integrity. And money is good, you know. For people who don't like— who shun money, money Money is good, but money is not everything. There's nothing wrong with making money and using that to go out and have a bigger impact in other people's lives too.

Very cool. Thank you, Evan. All right. How's the game going?

We just started and we're losing. Oh man, we're losing big. We just got 2 kills against us, but Jay and I are alive, so That's a good start. I have confidence as long as Jane and I are alive.

Okay, next question comes from Motlare.

What? What's the name?

Motlare. M-O-T-L-A-R-E. Motlare.

Motlare, okay. Alright, let's do it, Motlare.

Motlare says, Tender Things. I don't know whether the problem is my business profile or I must just be patient. So that's all that, um, what Larry wrote. And, uh, wait, can you say it again? Tender things. Tender things.

Tender things. Okay.

Yes. I don't know whether the problem is with my business profile or I must just be patient.

Okay.

Yeah, so just to— obviously don't know much about what your business is, Mollare. You're wondering if it's a profile issue or maybe you just need to give it some time. And so it sounds like Mollare is in a business that's not succeeding. And because we don't know really what the exact problem is or what the business is, it's hard to give too much feedback without some more context. But I guess what I will just say is that for anyone out there who is an entrepreneur, I know that it's absolutely— patience is a big part of it. You know, when I started my YouTube channel a year ago, I didn't expect myself to like blow up. I didn't come in with an unrealistic idea of what I was going to be able to accomplish quickly. But, you know, I mean, it's a little over a year now, and I guess I could say, you know, I would have hoped I was at this subscriber number or that, but I know that YouTube, you have to be in it for the long haul, because you need patience. Things aren't just going to happen really quickly, at least in the YouTube world I know. I know Evan, you could probably give me more of an idea of like an actual forefront business or a startup, kind of like how to gauge your success level, how patient should you be, or when is it time to just like say, okay, this is not going to work. But I know at least With probably anything that you're doing, you're going to have to have patience because it's going to be hard. Things won't go as you think they're going to go. And if this business that you're doing, what, Laurie, is something that you really believe in and you're really passionate about, yeah, patience absolutely you're going to need. And try to find someone maybe in your area who can help you look at the details of your business and maybe give you some feedback about what isn't working. Obviously we don't have enough information here to address that.

Cool. Yeah, limited information, but I want to tackle both points in that really short sentence that came in. The first off is, I don't know if my profile is enough. Wait, what was the first sentence? I was just curious again. It was something— it was different than blessings or something. What was it? Tender feelings?

Tender things.

Tender things. It's interesting. I like it. Okay, so my— I don't know if my business profile is wrong or whatever there. One, you know, maybe it is, but two, also you can't just rely on a business profile as the only thing that you're doing. right? Like putting up a profile on LinkedIn or just putting up a website isn't enough. You have to figure out other ways to get your name out there, right? So if you're finding that you're not getting enough momentum or you're not getting business from the one thing you're doing, then you have to explore and try more things and partner up with people, form some alliances, or get some influencers on board, or do some media releases, or post on social media or get out and speak, right? Like there's a lot of things that you can do to try to grow a business and don't just rely on having a good profile somewhere and that's gonna be the thing that takes you off. So I think you gotta do— and it's for everybody, like we get zoned into doing one thing and quite often you gotta expand a little bit to understand how to get some momentum for your business. 'Cause quite often the thing that you start with is not the thing that actually ends up making you take off. And then the second thing about patience, yeah, it is hard. I mean, all of the points that Rishi talked about before, people expect things to happen super quick. And I remember being in the venture capital business, people would submit a business plan and would show like their best case, realistic case, worst case scenario. And we would always look at, assume the worst case scenario, but even worse than the worst case scenario. Which I think if you talk to entrepreneurs who've gone through it, no matter how bad they think it's gonna be, it's worse. It just takes longer. It just does. You know, some people might just hit it big overnight, but If that's your strategy, I would be worried. You know, it's like, I'm gonna make one video and it's gonna go viral and I'm gonna then get a record deal and then be a movie star, right? Like, that's my plan. Well, okay, like maybe it worked for one person, but, uh, you know, good luck with that. So if you look at— and not just entrepreneurs too— you look at successful people, you look at the people we profiled on the channel, actors and athletes and and musicians and inventors, politicians. It's never just one thing and like immediately become a huge success. It takes time to build up. And so having patience is important. And the thing that gets you through the patience, like the reason why you have the patience is because you love the process. Because like if you're a singer or an aspiring singer, You love making the music. Like, you'll do it even if nobody's listening because that's what you love. Otherwise, if all you're doing is holding on to some future payout, right? I'm gonna keep grinding out this stupid music so that one day I'll have a con— like, it's not gonna work, right? You have to love the content that you're creating. You have to love the process. Of the work, and that's what gets you through all the crap that comes along with trying to build yourself up. Hopefully that helped. I think we churned out some good answers for a pretty short message there.

Yeah. Okay, next question comes from Lorena. "I have a business Facebook page, but it seems that since I put it out, because people don't know who's running the business," it sounds like she has kind of like a generic Facebook page for her business, and she's not getting followers. She's wondering if it's because people don't know who's running the business. And she's thinking about making it more personal, having a personal Facebook page. She's been out of social media for years. So she just kind of wants to get your feedback about that. Okay, so, you know, for me personally, I would so much quicker want to see a business that has a person. To it. I mean, absolutely, that's why I, you know, I like watching Evan's channel because I know, you know, it's Evan Carmichael, Believe. Anybody that I follow in terms of entrepreneurs or business are people that I know their personal story. They kind of share themselves. So for me personally, that would be my preference is to have people be able to see you, tell some of your story, why are you in this business, you know, what, how did you get from where you were to where you are now. Those are the kinds of things that I think people really want to hear, and then as they get to know you and love you, they, you know, then they want to more become your customers. And yeah, people prefer, I think people prefer a face. And I think that's pretty much, yeah, social media, it sounds like she's been out of social media for a long time, so obviously, you know, the more you can get familiar with Facebook too. I don't know if maybe, maybe the fact that your page isn't doing well is not just because you're not personally on the page, although I think it would be good to make it more personal. But there are some things that you can learn as to how to use Facebook to your advantage to make it more effective to find your target audience. So if you have been out of social media for a while, I think it would be good to find out how you can use it to your advantage to get more customers and the people that you believe you want to make an impact on.

I love it. There's been some insane gameplay happening here. Well, we've been going over that. Did we get a kill, Jay? What happened there? We got— we got— we got— I got an assist. Anyway, we didn't die, which was close. I agree with Rishi. I think having your personal story makes a difference. I think understanding the passion behind what went into your company, why you're doing this, why it's important to you makes a difference for people. Just in general, I think Facebook is probably the wrong execution for you in terms of a brand page. Facebook, in their algorithm, really downgrades brand stories. They want it to be— it's really a pay-to-play environment, so you have to pay to get your stories. If you're a brand, you have to pay to get your stories to show up. So it probably is not going to help you much on Facebook just because that's how the algorithm works. Where you could try personal Facebook, you probably get more success with that, but you're limited in how many people can be your friend. People can just follow you and track you, so there's an opportunity there. But in general, storytelling and making yourself more personal should be in everything that you do. It should be on your website, right? When I visit your website, does it tell me the story? Do I feel the passion? Do I feel like you're really connected to this business and you really care about this thing that you're doing? That should be everywhere, on all your social channels and all your marketing, all over your website. If you make a video— I was waiting for the Rishi start a YouTube channel and tell your story on video, because it'd be good to tell your story. I want to hear it, right? Like, make it personable. And even if you just have a video with your— like, just an intro video, maybe you don't want to be a YouTuber, maybe just something on your, on your channel— I'm sorry, on your website that shows what you're doing. That could be helpful. Um, yeah, so yes to storytelling. Facebook is probably not the best execution on the brand page unless you're willing to start spending advertising dollars.

So Evan, do you use a like— I don't think you— now that I think about it, yeah, you don't really— I guess you're on Facebook, that's obviously not your main platform. You like your YouTube and your Twitter. Twitter is kind of like still your— Number 2 at this point?

YouTube is by far number 1. Facebook used to be number 1 for me. It was because you can get like, you can get reach. My goal is impact, right? I don't care about YouTube per se. What I care about is reaching entrepreneurs, and YouTube is the easiest way to reach as many entrepreneurs as I can. It also lines up with my skills. Facebook, you Used to be a lot easier to reach people. They just really shifted how stories show up. Like there aren't that many more people going on Facebook, right? Like everybody's on Facebook, but there's more and more brands that are getting on Facebook and spending more and more money on Facebook. And so when people go to Facebook, you know, you see your feed, whatever shows up in that newsfeed when you first get there. That is now much more dominated by your friends and dominated by the advertisers that are spending money to be there. So they take away from people like you who just have a page who aren't spending money because they'd rather show the ones who are spending money. And because there's so many people spending money now that they can do it and say, hey, you don't want to send money, we're not going to show your stuff. So some people will see it, but it's really limited. And from a time perspective, I would hate for you to put in all this time and work into trying to make some really awesome content and then it doesn't go anywhere. And then you feel like, oh, it's, you know, it's maybe my story wasn't good or maybe my, you know, content wasn't that good or maybe just the platforms, you know, doesn't suit what you're trying to do. So if I was spending my time, I just wouldn't have it there.

Great.

All right.

Next question comes from Edwin. Edwin asks, he's been working for someone for a while in a business, and the business is very young. It's only about a year old, but he didn't start the business, but he works in this business with someone else. But he said there's really no prospect for growth.

Oh, right.

Yeah, he says he's not even making enough money to pay his bills. And so he's now thinking about enrolling into a master's program and maybe after that, you know, just getting a regular job. So he kind of wants feedback for what he should do. So, yeah, Edwin, it's— again, I don't know exactly what business you are in, and it sounds as though after a year there's no growth, and I know that's not a very good thing. I mean, I hear that most, you know, if you really are successful in that first year, Evan, maybe you can speak to this a little bit more, but like, you know, if there's no growth after a year, depending on what business you're in, yeah, it might be time to think about what's not working. And if you can't identify what it is and make changes, then yeah, it might be time to consider something new. Because I don't know what the business is and I'm not sure how passionate you are about this particular business, it's hard to know whether the best next step for you would be to just completely start a new education and new job. Because if you really don't care about this business, if it's not something that really you're passionate about, then there probably isn't a reason for you to keep— keep going for it. So I think that most successful— I don't know if I'm wrong, Evan, but like within a year, most businesses that are successful do have pretty rapid growth, and he's saying there's no growth. Am I— after a year, if you see no growth, is that time to kind of like throw in the towel or—

So while you were asking the question, it got insane where Jay was, and I went to go and save him, but I was having a hard time with that split attention focus.

Yeah, that's okay. I can explain it again.

So he's been in this business, he does not own it, he hasn't had success for a year in it, and he's wondering should he leave and go do something else because he's wasting his time here? Is that like a high-level Summary?

Yeah, it sounds like he— and it doesn't sound like he's the one who started it. It sounds like he works for this business.

Right.

But yeah, you're right, that's exactly kind of the scenario, and it's been a year, no growth. So should he, you know, shift gears and go to school, maybe get another job?

Does he have any interest in this business, or did he say, like, does he— does he have a prospect of, uh, of earning a part of the equity, or we don't know?

Yeah, that, that's what I wanted to know as well. It kind of was his level of personal passion investment in this business that he doesn't say. Got it.

Okay, so in general, the reason to have a job is to learn, right? The reason to have a job is to, to learn something to make you a better human being. If it's to eventually become an entrepreneur, then you're learning from whoever, you know, the founder is and gaining skills and knowledge and contacts so that if you want to start your own business, you're ready to go, you know, you're learning while you're getting paid by somebody else. So before thinking about leaving, why not be looking at, well, you know, am I making money, right? Like the business isn't making money, but are you getting paid? Are you able to support yourself? Financially, or are you donating your time that'll make an impact? And then, are you learning? Like, are you still getting growth personally from this? Even if the business isn't growing, are you getting personal growth and development from this? It can take a while to get a business off the ground. One year, you know, is not a long time. If it's only been up for a year, or if you've been there for a year and you're not getting results, that could be a different story. But just making sure that first we don't just look at money as the only factor and that we don't just assume one year, you know, is the make or break point and like that's it, we won't have success because it hasn't worked out in a year. Number one though would be for me, are you— like if you're getting— if you're still learning, still getting value, then think of it as like a university education, but you are getting paid to do it instead of having to pay to do it. So if you're not learning anymore though, like if that's it, you're, you're just frustrated and you're not getting any benefit from it, then, then even if you are making money, you should be looking at something else. You should be moving on to something else where you feel like you're, you still get a chance to grow and continue to learn. Those are my high-level thoughts. I think with all of this and with everybody writing in to ask questions, to get a good meaningful deep response, it's always great to try to include the why. It's always great to understand what the intention is, like why are you in this job or why is this important to you. Because then it can help shape the answer for whoever your mentor is or whoever you're asking the question is to be able to give you the kind of the best, most meaningful, most helpful answer possible. So that would be my assumption, you know, that's how I would answer the question given the information that we have, and hopefully that helped.

Yeah, and also if you guys listening are answering questions —always include the detail of what the actual business is too. I think it helps to know specifically what your business is. Yeah, we can.

We can. A lot—

Or it's just interesting. It's just more interesting.

Yeah, it's helpful to know. I mean, a lot of the business— a lot of the business principles apply regardless of the industry that you're in. Um, sometimes it can be, so it's good to have context. Uh, ideally we get both, right? So if you get both the why and the, and the business that they're trying to do, be super helpful. We're doing well on this game. Timo is, is 5 kills, 1 death, and 2 assists, uh, amid all the chaos. This is a pretty— when I play with Jason, we have a set strategy where I'm supposed to be not fighting in many fights and just going off, doing— like taking their base without fighting them while the team kind of distracts them. Kind of like the ninja that goes in from behind. It hasn't really happened in this game. I found I had to get involved in a lot more of the face-on fights. Anyway, but it's working. Our team is losing in deaths, but I feel we have more pressure. So this is a tight game. This is a tight game. This is a good test. But if we got Evan and J-Rise in the game, there's always hope. There's always hope. There's always hope. That's how we go into it, at least, feeling. That's good.

Always better to have partners in crime. Okay, next question comes from Gray. Gray. And yeah, so Gray is 28 years old, and he is in kind of two businesses because he has a passion for food and for making— he wants to make these really unique burgers. So that's one part of the business that he's really passionate about. The other part of the business that he's really interested in is being able to make messages that people have trouble delivering personally to someone else. For example, an apology, or you have a crush on somebody, or saying thank you, or maybe even unfriending somebody. And so he wants to be able to deliver these messages with these burgers.

Okay, the I'm sorry burger.

So, um, so yeah, that's what— that's, that's one part of what he wants to do. Um, but if he gets success in this business with the burger message business, he then wants to build a café for sad people. All right. And he had experiences in his own life when he was suffering from depression, and he felt like he had nowhere, you know, no place he could go where he could just basically be depressed. And so he'd want to build a café where people can go so they can literally just be sad and cry if they want. But then also enjoy these burgers. Okay. So I am thinking of— so anyway, this is his idea. It's obviously very unique, and he— but he's, he's just struggling with, can he do it? Does he— he has limited resources, no support from his family and friends. What should he do? Got it. Okay, so Yeah, I mean, the first thing I'll just say is I feel like it's cool, kind of like the woman who went through what she went through with her divorce, and it kind of fueled her into purpose. It sounds like this person, Gray, has had, you know, an experience in his own depression that has now caused him to want to be able to give service and value to other people who might be where he was, which is always cool to see someone want to help others after they've been through really difficult times. And there's a lot of, you know, different— you're in the food, and then it sounds like you're in the So it's kind of like the food business, but it also kind of sounds like, I don't know what industry you would call giving a place for people to just be sad and cry, but obviously you're really sensitive to people. You want to be there for people. Actually, it kind of reminds me, Evan, have you ever heard of that business, I think it started in Oregon actually, where people, like, it's like a place where you could actually— it's like a cuddling place or something. Like, people— okay, so people pay to basically get physical touch and connection because they're so lacking in connection and physical touch. And it's so— it's an interesting— I think it's this idea also kind of speaks to to like where we are at right now culturally too. Because like the idea of just giving people a place where they can be sad and cry speaks to being in a culture where it's just like really not, you're not able to like openly express the negative emotions and the negative feelings. So I don't know. I think with this kind of a thing, I always know it's good to like test the market. I don't know how successful something like this would be, and I think it's great to find ways where you could test it before you actually do go in spending your time and resources. You know, maybe you could start by interviewing people around you, friends or family, or maybe not family if they're not, or maybe, maybe don't go to the people who you don't feel really are I'm super supportive of you, but is there a way that you can kind of survey people and see, would you go to a café and would you find value in being able to have a place where you can go and just be sad and cry? Because me personally, like I think about me, like I don't think I personally would find value in that. If I am sad and want to cry, Typically do go into my own house and just do it. Like, I don't know that I would find it of value to go into like a Starbucks cafe, let's say it's a Starbucks, and just like be in a room full of other people who are crying their eyes out. Like, that might be something that would make me feel more sad, but I don't know if that would be the same effect that other people have. So I think it'd be a good idea in this case since it's I think that's a different idea. To find ways of asking people, would they have— would this be of value? Is this something that they would need? And kind of go from there. You know, I don't know. And then I think about the girl who did the cuddling thing, the cuddling business. Like, I don't know. I mean, there's probably a level of boldness that she had to have in believing in her idea no matter what, that no matter what people said to her, she really believed that this was going to be something that was going to be successful, so she just went for it. So there's also a— in your idea. But I think it is good to— go ahead, sorry.

No, you cut out a little bit there, but that's okay. I still got the gist. This is interesting, and in general, people who are— who have visionary ideas, two things I find. One, they don't get support of people around them. They don't have support of their friends, their family, or the general society culture. People think they're crazy. So, you know, it's normal. Everybody who said Steve Jobs was crazy or says Kanye West is crazy or any of these people It's normal because you want to do something that's different, and by that very, you know, definition, you have to be different. And so don't expect amazing support when you're doing something that really challenges norms and traditional culture. What's— oh my god, you upset about the game, Jay? Okay, I don't know what's happening. I'm doing my best to do everything here. The team just suicided. The team suicided, okay. Well, let me see if I can take tower. Yeah. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. All right, I got it. Holy work. So yeah, one, like expect that and what may help us to take solace in the other examples. Like look at people that you look up to who have done some visionary things and reading those stories. At least it always helped me stay motivated. Not that I didn't have— I didn't have a lot of people who were hating on what I was doing, but maybe people didn't understand it. So having people who I could look up to and respect, who looking at their early stories, like it's easy to look at a Steve Jobs in his later life, but look at the early start. Look at Walt Disney who wanted to make full-length cartoons when people thought cartoons were just a fad or just for kids. And all the pain he had to go through and dealing with other people's vision of what he should do with his life, that can be inspiring. The other thing is, and this I find also a common problem with people who are visionary, have visionary ideas, to get started on a small scale. Right? So he wants to have a café and he's already seen how it like branches out to a million different things. But nothing is gonna happen until you get that idea and start doing something with it. Right? Like you need to actually take some action, which a lot of the visionary people can have a hard time doing. Because they want to do it big or they don't want to do it at all. Where a lot of times, like, the little steps lead to the big steps. And when you have this big idea in your head and you're not seeing it come to fruition, that can be massively frustrating. Um, so just, just understand that, like, your first step in this is probably not to have a restaurant, but to collaborate with somebody Who does? Or to have a food stand at a flea market, you know, something super easy and simple. I think about a local place here in Toronto that sells gluten-free everything, gluten-free cupcakes and desserts and all this gluten-free stuff. And when I first met her, she was doing bake sales inside a basement of a church. You know, like, I don't know how much they charge her to be there, probably not a heck of a lot, but she's inside of a basement of a church selling her gluten-free cupcakes, and it looked, you know, very amateurish, and, you know, she's just getting started and figuring out what products are working and all that stuff that she needs to kind of establish a customer base and all the processes to build a company. And now she's got like 2 retail stores that are super successful, and she has her own cook— cookbook that's launching and brand-name clients and catering and like a whole bunch of awesome stuff, but it all started out of a church basement. And so as a visionary, being willing to start small, have a big goal, have a big dream, but being willing to start small can be super important. So that would be my advice. One, like, be prepared for critics and be prepared for for people not believing in you, and that's okay, and that's normal. And that, like, use that as a sign of a badge of honor that, you know, maybe you're doing the right thing. I think of Ted Turner, who started CNN, and he would say, like, he would tell people his idea, and he wouldn't be happy until a lot of people— it's like, if people were hating on it, then he knew he was on to something good.

Yeah, it's kind of true, right?

So taking pride in that and then just finding a way to start small. Just start small, start small, start small, build up. That's it. Oh, visionaries. I got a soft spot for visionaries.

Yeah, I mean, definitely. I've never heard of an idea like this. So, alrighty, next question comes from Leo. Leo. So Leo, Leo, he has— this is a YouTuber now. This is the YouTube day. What? YouTube day. It's a day. Leo has a YouTube channel, it's called Taste This, and it's a foodie food channel. So he cooks and does all kinds of fun things on his channel. But he wants to get some feedback in terms of marketing and getting mass exposure, because he really is not too familiar with social media, and kind of wants to hear from you, you know, which platform you think he should be on. And why. And then he— it's kind of like a two-part question. Also, he wants to be able to get support eventually from, you know, kind of influencers and popular personalities. And so he wants to kind of know the best way to approach those types of people in hopes to get support. So first question is about social media. Which ones should he use? And why? And then also, how can he most effectively reach out to popular personalities for support?

Got it. All right, cool.

Yeah, so another social media question here. We heard earlier from Evan about Facebook, and I mean, I think in general, for, for making an impact and for mass exposure, you're going to have to be on some kind of social media. And I don't think that you need to be on every single platform, although I personally am on, I think I'm on 5 at least. But I don't have my full attention like on every single one. I've chosen at least 3 that I'm going to be really, really focused on. I try to provide a lot of value on those 3. And some people can do more, but for me, more than 3, giving my full efforts is kind of good for me. But I do have a presence on more than 3. And I know I've learned from Evan to kick up a ton of noise. So YouTube is one of my platforms that I'm all in on, and I'm currently not picking up a ton of noise because I'm down to one video a week right now. It's very temporarily, but I was making 5 videos a week, and I know there's a new series coming soon, we heard. So I can absolutely say that I was making 5 videos a week versus 1 video a week, I was Everything increases subscriber growth and impact because you are just more visible and you are more on people's radar. So pick 3, I would say, or if you feel like you can do more, that you can really put a lot of love and regularly kind of be there and present and giving value or education in food. And also in terms of social media, pick what you think really works for you. You are on YouTube, so it means you really like to be in front of the camera. Where is your audience? Where can you— where do you know that they are hanging out the most? Try to figure out those things when it comes to picking your social media. And then what are you really into? If you really like being in front of the camera, you might like some of the live streaming social media apps, Periscope, Blab. And if you really like taking pictures, if you really think food photography might be a part of your channel, obviously you could do some really cool stuff on Instagram. So I think it's really a matter of Which 3 platforms do you really think would be suited for your strengths? Where is your audience? And then just kick up a ton of noise on those platforms.

All right.

There's a part— there's a part B question too. We can get to that, I guess, after.

Oh, wow. Okay. I don't know. The game may be over by then. Doing damage, although— oh wow, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a rough game. It's a rough game, man. It is a rough game, but we're doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it. We're doing it. I'm doing it well. Oh, I just died. All right, good. Oh, we got a kill from it. Oh, we got a double kill from it. All right, good. Worth. Um, so for YouTube Man, you had a long answer. I was paying attention to it and I forgot the question. He's a YouTuber who wants to know how to get more visibility on social media and where he should be spending his time, right? Is that— that's the gist? That's right. Yeah, so, you know, so as a YouTuber, fellow YouTuber, welcome to the party. I have what, I'm closing in on 400,000 subscribers. Most of my time is spent on YouTube. Mm-hmm. Like, that's where I spend my time. I'll be on the other networks a little bit, but the best result that I get is investing more into my YouTube channel. And there is a— there's this constant— like, I get it, there's this constant frustration of, I want to do more, like, my videos are good, I should do better, I want to be reaching and getting more results. How do I promote it more? How do I get more exposure? Where really the best results that I've always gotten is just pouring more into the channel, like making my videos better. You will get better results from making the videos better than from trying to just market it, right? Like people have the opportunity, and this is some harsh truth, but people have the opportunity every day to promote your videos. Videos, right? Like, they are watching your videos every day. Some people, right? At least one person every day is watching your videos and they're not sharing it, right? Like, people watch my videos every day. Even, even the, you know, the channel size that I'm at, I'm, I'm ahead of the game compared to a lot of people. I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm not huge in the YouTube world yet, but for where I'm at, it's pretty good. But there's still people every day who watch my videos and don't share. And so why? Like, the content isn't good enough, right? What I'm making is not good enough yet for people to want to insta-share it. And some videos get that. Some videos do get, you know, explode and go crazy, which is awesome, and I appreciate that. But a lot don't. And that's on me. And it's not about giving it more promotion. People will promote it. Like, YouTube is meant to be a social platform, a social network. People will promote it if they like it, if they're getting value from it, if they see it as something that's really helpful and interesting. And so every time I've looked— we just won, which is great— every time I've looked at the— every time I've looked at at my YouTube channel and thought, hey, how can I make it better? It's always just come down to not more marketing, but just better content. And when I put more love into the channel, into the videos, my channel grows. Yeah, we both— Jay and I got the highest scores in the game. Good game, we won! All right.

I love it. And how do you win at the, at the market, at marketing? You put a love, you put love into your channel and make great content. That's it.

That's it. You put out a Neil Gaiman one recently, it was make great art no matter what's going on. Make great, make great art. Yeah, that's good. I like that one. Um, and then the other thing about like collaborations, why not be looking at people who you already like people whose channel you subscribe to and already like their stuff, so there's a personal connection. And when you talk to them, they can feel the love and they really appreciate it. So it's not just like some cold outreach of somebody that you don't know. And two, I'd be looking at people who are leaving comments on your videos and who are subscribing to your videos. Are they— do they have a YouTube channel? And can you, can you work with them on a video? Even if they don't have a sizable audience at the start, just for the practice, just to get better at it. Just to— like, most of the collaborations I do with people are— they have way smaller numbers than I do, but it's one, still, you know, sending love to the entrepreneur community, and two, I get better at it. It's just more practice from each time. And then one other place I'd look to— I don't know how many subscribers he has. If you have over, I think it's 1,000, you could join FameBit. And I find FameBit to not be a great place for doing brand deals. That's how they pitch themselves. I don't think you'll get a lot of great opportunities there, but more on the collaboration side, you can find other people who want to collaborate and reach out to them and say, hey, I want to do something. Are you up for, are you up for something? So one, looking at people who you follow and see if there's a an opportunity to make a deal. 2, people who are currently subscribing to you or leaving comments. 3, people who are on FameBit who are open to collaborations. And maybe a 4th one, I'd be looking at like local meetup groups, local events. Since you have a cooking channel, it's easiest to do it when you're like with somebody live as opposed to an online Hangout kind of thing. Yeah, that would be it. Good luck. Produce better content. Make it better, make it better, make it better. Always.

Yeah, can I add one quick thing to this? Yeah, um, just that for, you know, um, trying to get on the radar of popular personalities and things for his food, like, maybe are there some other, um, food personalities that you could create value for them? Like, I know, um, I was able to do some really fun stuff on my channel for a Food Network winner of the Cupcake Wars on Food Network. And the way I was able to do that is because she was about to have an appearance on a show, and so I was able to make some promo videos for her so that she could, you know, I could promote her appearance on the show on my channel. And so Add value. Find someone maybe that you really want to support and try to find value. And maybe you can make some promo videos for them, or create something that will help what they are doing and further their purpose along. Instead of thinking of it as getting them to just support your channel, how can you be of service to them and help further along their goals and dreams.

J-Rise wants you to click the damage graph. Where am I going? Damage dealt. Oh, there you go. Nice. That's some good damage. That's some good damage. Team did well. Awesome. Well, thank you, Rishi, for the awesome answers and Q&A. Thank you, J-Rise, for the fun game. For everybody watching, we look forward to more questions coming in, and we'll do it again very soon. Maybe sticking to the Wednesday, Friday morning schedule. That might be something that we keep on with. We've got 100 more questions to get through, so we're gonna put in some time.

Sounds good. Thanks, Evan. Thanks, Jay. Thanks, Believe Nation.

Continue to believe, guys, and we'll see you soon.