Evan Carmichael advises young workers on gaining respect despite age bias. Cultivate genuine confidence in your value, lead by working alongside your team instead of issuing commands, and stop over-caring about image. He sold software at 19 to PhDs and ditched suits for casual clothes once he realized performance matters more than appearance.
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How young people can get respect. So I got a great question from one of my newsletter readers, Trevor, love you guys, who wrote in to say, Evan, in today's corporate world, if you're interested in advancement and moving up, it's not so much about how good you are at your job or how hard you work, but how people see you. Well, it took me some time to come to terms and realize this. I must say it's a constant battle. I graduated college in 2012. In September, took a job with the company simply to make ends meet. I got an opportunity that gave me some exposure and got promoted within 3 months, and then 9 9 months later I got promoted again. I love what I do. My passion is to lead people and this allows me to do it. However, the next step has much more to do with image. I'm 25 and I've met many people under me or that are equal to me who are old enough to be my parents. I tell you this simply because I was wondering if you could do a video or give feedback on image in the corporate world, specifically around how people above you, below you, and equal to you see you. Thanks a ton, my friend. Trevor. Trevor, this is a great question and one that I struggled myself with. You know, with all of my ventures, I was always the youngest person in the room and I was selling to people who were way older than me. And at the beginning I had a really hard time with it. And so my 3 bits of advice, the first one for you is have confidence. And this one was so hard for me at the start. I remember my first software company, I was 19 years old. And I was selling to people who were 3 times my age and had PhDs and all this experience. And I was so nervous and scared at the beginning. I'm like, "Who am I compared to these guys?" And then I realized that what I had could help them. Right? I don't need to be the expert at, you know, what they're an expert at. But my software, my product, my service could help them do their job better. And once I realized that and I had more confidence going in, they could smell it, right? Like, they can smell your confidence and they're much more willing to listen to you. Where if you come in and you're afraid and, and you're not so sure, they're gonna think, ah, this young punk, you know, wasting my time. So one, understand that you are talented, you have skills, you're gonna help these people. And it's not an ego thing. It's not, I'm the best, you know, I'm amazing, screw you guys, you don't know what you're talking about, I'm the greatest thing ever. That's not it. It's just knowing deep down inside that you can help them. You can help these people do their jobs better. The second one is to remember that respect is earned, right? If you're managing somebody who is old enough to be your parents, then they may start off with a little bit of bias, right? Like, ah, this young kid, Is my boss telling me what to do? But there is a reason why you're there. There's a reason why you're their boss. And if you want to earn their respect, you want to talk about leading people, right? Leading— leadership is your passion. Leading people is what you want to do, right? Respect is earned. So what can you do to earn people's respect, right? You got to show that you're working hard, right? This, this person who's under you, if they're having a hard time making a deadline, maybe you stayed late. And help them, and you're working side by side with them, right? That's gonna make them want to work with you, right? That's gonna make them respect you, say, wow, this person is a good boss. So you gotta earn their respect, and it's not by you sitting on top of them and saying, do this, do this, do this, right? I'm the greatest thing ever. You get down in the trenches, you work with them, you show them why you were hired, right? You're leading from the front. You're going into battle with them. So quickly earn their respect. Show them. And then the third thing is don't care so much. I know you think this is the end-all, right? Like it's all about— it's not about how hard you work and your skills, it's about how people perceive you. I gotta tell you, man, stop caring as much about what other people think about yourself. As long as you are playing to other people's expectations of you, then you're never going to realize your full potential. You're living somebody else's dream. Now here's a quick example, okay? When I was super young, so I'm what, I'm 30, what year, I'm 34 now, so you know, I'm still going into meetings with people who are sometimes twice my age. I'm not always the youngest in the room, but often I'm still talking to people way older than me. When I first started meeting people, clients, I used to always have a suit on. I felt like the suit made me more important, gave me more confidence. It just gave me a sense that, you know, I'm a little more professional. And over the years, I've dropped the suit. You know, I went down to business casual, now almost casual. I'll go to meetings with the Believe shirt, with my hoodie on. Important meetings. And they don't care because I don't care, right? When you walk in and, and you're so concerned about what other people are thinking about you, it shows. I promise you, it shows. They can smell it. Where if you walk in, and again, it's not an ego thing, it's not saying how great you are, but you're not worried so much about what other people are thinking. You're not worried about having a suit on because that makes you feel more important. You are important. You feel important just being you. And it doesn't matter what you're wearing. You gotta get to that point. And I guarantee when you get there, you'll have a lot more fun. You'll get promoted way faster. You will get way more results. For your company. So it's all internal. And for young people watching, because I had to battle this, I had to battle this in a really bad way when I was first getting started. Age is an issue, but not nearly as big an issue as you make it out to be. As long as you go into any situation feeling like you're being held back because of your age, then that's going to be your reality. It's such a tiny issue. It's almost a non-issue. There are so many more important factors. So know that you're awesome. Feel it. Be confident, not from an ego point of view again, but just know that you're really good at what you do, that you can really help, and you don't care so much about how other people perceive you. Know that you're just as good as the people who are 2, 3 times your age, if not better. And if you go in with that mindset and you actually feel it, it's not like you got to sit in the washroom and tell yourself before, okay, you know, I'm really good, don't get nervous, I'm really good. You're not prepping yourself up, but you actually feel that. Then they'll respect you and you'll get faster promotions and you'll get better results. Believe. For those of you watching, if you have a story to share about how you overcame confidence issues or feeling like you're too young, leave it in the comments below. I want to hear your story. You guys like this video? Thumbs up below. Click on my face, subscribe to the channel. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
