In this motivational monologue, Evan Carmichael responds to a teenage subscriber, "Jay," who wants to become a motivational speaker but faces ridicule and lack of support from his parents. Evan argues that living according to others' expectations—especially unsupportive family—leads to a life of regret, while following one's passion creates fulfillment, impact, and financial success. He advises the teen to (1) change his environment by surrounding himself with inspiring speakers, media, and daily routines that reinforce his goals; (2) start creating content immediately, focusing on three practical strategies: share authentic knowledge drawn from personal experience, document and discuss the challenges he is currently facing (fear of YouTube, parental disapproval), and interview role models whose messages can educate both him and his audience. Evan emphasizes that authenticity, consistent action, and a supportive environment are essential to overcoming unsupportive parents and avoiding lifelong regret.
Chapters
Hi everyone, today I want to talk quickly about what to do when you have unsupportive parents. So I recently got asked by one of my YouTube subscribers who's a teenager, uh, we'll call him Jay, and he wanted to be a motivational speaker. And so I invited him into my mastermind group TGIM for one week just to ask his question to the group and get some feedback and support as well as this video from me. And here's his problem. So he's a teenager, he wants to be a motivational speaker, He wants to start improving his skills. He wants to launch a YouTube channel to start to get some practice, and his parents laughed at his face. They laughed at him, said he can't do it, said nobody would ever listen to his advice, and this is something that he's holding himself back from doing. It's something that he really wants to do, but he's not doing it because he doesn't have the support of his family, and so he wanted our feedback. And so this drives me nuts. It drives me nuts because Having unsupportive friends and family, you know, the little man in your life will hold you back always from doing something great. You have to first of all understand that if you want to be happy, you want to be fulfilled, you want to make a lot of money, you want to have a big impact on this world, the only way that it's going to happen is if you follow your passion and do what makes you come alive. If you do what your parents tell you to do, if you do what your friends think you should do, then you're living somebody else's version of your life instead of your own version of your life, and there's no way that you're going to be be a big success by living somebody else's version. Don't let them put their experiences and their thought processes and their biases on you to drive you down a path that you don't want to go. Whatever it is you want to learn, go and learn. You want to try it? Try it. You want to launch a YouTube channel to practice being a speaker? Practice being a speaker. Put it up. You always want to do this. I mean, you're young now, just a teenager. You've got a huge life path ahead of you. You always want to do the things that make you come alive and get you excited. You don't want to be the guy like most people who look back on their life, right? You're 40, 50, 60, looking back to when you were 19 and say, "Man, I really wish I started." Right? Living with that regret for the rest of your life. Don't let that be you. If you want something, you go after it right now. Your environment sucks, and that's the first thing that you need to change. And I'm not saying get new parents. I'm sure they love you, and I'm sure their advice that they're giving you is out of love, right? They want to see you be successful. Just their approach totally sucks, and your environment is terrible. And so what you need to start doing is changing your environment. What I would recommend is look at people who inspire you. Look at speakers that you look up to and say, "I want to be like that guy, that girl." Surround yourself with that, right? Start your day every day with a video from a speaker you look up to. Have stuff on your wall, have statues, have things that support you, that build you up, that make you want to be great. If you want to be great, you have to surround yourself with greatness. That's the only way that it happens. And if you don't have greatness around you, if you have mediocrity around you, guess what you're gonna be? So start changing your environment from the media you consume, the books you read, the videos you watch, your morning routine, your daily schedule. It's gotta support you to being up here, right? You can't even see it, it's off the screen. Up here, that's where you gotta be. Where right now, You're super low, right? And if you continue on this path, you're going to live the life that your parents are living, and that's not the path that you want to go down. In terms of adding value and creating content that people will listen to, I have two things to offer you advice on. One, I would start with things that you know about, okay? So what have you gone through to this point in your life, right? So you're a teenager, you've learned some lessons along the way. It may not be a long road, you may not have 80 years of experience to give to somebody, but you've learned some things and you can help people who are still younger than you. So what lessons can you give to people who are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 years younger than you? Because they're on YouTube, man. They are on YouTube. They're looking for advice, looking for help, and they don't look up to the 40, 50-year-olds, right? They want somebody who can relate to them. And so talking to those people are people who can be inspired by your message. Right? You may not inspire your 40-year-old, 50-year-old parents, whatever. You may, but depending on the message, you may not, and that's okay. Look to the people that you can help. Be authentic, right? Anything that you're giving advice on, it's something that you've experienced, it's something that you feel, not something that you're just like researching and trying to get a grasp on, right? Something that, ah, hits you here. That's what you want to talk about. I'm passionate about this video. It's coming through. It's more exciting. It has more impact than if I'm talking like this and I'm trying to research and I say, "You need to follow your passion because it's really important." Right? Like if I read off some quote, it's not legit. It's gotta— right there. That's where it's gotta come from, okay? And then the other way that I would do it— that kind of hurt a bit. The other thing that I would do is talk about what you're going through. So what are the challenges that you're facing right now? Talk about this, talk about the fear of going on YouTube, talking about the fear of not having the support of your parents, talk about all that stuff, things that you are currently going through right now, because that will inspire other people who are going through those same problems, and how you're doing it, and how you're overcoming it, and allowing people to follow you on your journey could be another great way for you to motivate people without having to be the expert on everything, right? Say, "I don't know how to do this," But I don't want to live in regret for the rest of my life, so I'm trying to figure it out, and this is my path. I hope you guys will join me on it, and you'll get lots of support. One more idea— I know I said two, but I got three. The third one is I would interview people who you look up to who have a message that you can learn from, right? So if you look up to whatever public speaker or whatever author, whatever YouTuber, ask to do an interview with them, and ask them questions that not only help you but also will help your audience. So by that combination of 1, sharing what you know authentically, right? I'm not going to pound this hard this time. And then 2, sharing what you're going through right now, your fears, your concerns, your worries, your journey. And then 3, interviewing people who are ahead of you, who you look up to, who have an inspiring message as well that you can learn from and pull questions from to help inspire your audience. That's gold, man. That's gold. And maybe this isn't, you know, you start on YouTube, maybe you go somewhere else and you follow some other path, and that's okay, right? Life is not this straight line. You're going to wobble all over the place. But the only way to go from here to here is to start, right? If you're just staying down here and you're not taking any action because your parents tell you that you suck and they're laughing at you, you're never going to get to where you want to go, okay? Follow your passion, change your environment, start making an impact, and I'm going to start following you. I want to see that video. All right, good luck. That's it. Believe. I'll talk to you soon, man.
