Discover Your Passion and Succeed in Business

Make an impact. Hello everyone, welcome from New Orleans. I'm here with Sage speaking at their Small Business Summit. It's, I think, the largest event for entrepreneurs in the world where there's about 8,000 people here. And this is usually my book update time slot, and I haven't had time to work on my book this week at all. The main reason is because my big goal for doing everything that I do is to have a big impact. That's what I'm here on this earth to do. That's my mission. I want to help entrepreneurs in a big way. And so when this opportunity came up, I had to take it knowing that I wouldn't be able to spend this week writing my book because it's important. It's more aligned with my mission than spending the week at home writing the book. And so today, as an example, today is supposed to be my writing day. Today was supposed to be my writing day. Instead, I delivered a session At the event, I did 2 interviews. I handed out an award. I just got back. It's, it's quarter past 10. Handed out an award and left. I'm trying to find my wife on Facebook to have a quick chat with her. I am obsessed with these smoothies. These are ginormous. The Smoothie King stuff is huge. This is like kale and mix of stuff. And so sometimes it's okay not to— sometimes it's okay to deviate from your schedule if it's if opportunities come up that are more in tune with your goals. And so that's what I'm about, having an impact. I got a lot of questions this time. Last week, no questions, one from Mark Drager about mosquitoes, and this week tons of questions. So I am going to go through them rapid-fire and see how I can get through them. I'm sitting here in the hotel room in New Orleans. Okay, first up, Dread Dog, "Thanks for the video. How do you stay motivated?" I've done lots of videos on this. I think the easiest way is— Christine, if we can link that up, couple of the videos about staying motivated. That's probably the easiest bet than spending 7 minutes going through it here, but I love the question and it's one of the most important issues facing a lot of entrepreneurs. J-Rise: "Question for next week: Is the book's content, name, topic, publishing date, chapter titles, etc., shrouded in mystery on purpose? If so, why?" You know, curiosity is part of my brand and I like keeping things a secret to some extent in advance of promoting things. I don't know. I just— I like surprises. I like surprising people. This one, I'm walking a line even with these videos. I'm not supposed to say too much about what I'm doing in advance of it coming out. So I don't know if I'm allowed to say the title and some of the topics. But I want to keep an open dialogue with you guys. I really probably should have a discussion with my publisher and talk about what I'm allowed to say, what I'm not allowed to say. Yeah. So is it short and mystery on purpose? Partially, but most of it is thinking that I don't want to get in trouble with my publisher. I mean, I've gotten in trouble with people before, but I want to keep that relationship. Next, Shane Bize: "When is your book coming out and will it also be in ebook format?" The schedule time for me to complete the manuscript is this October. I believe it's October 15th, so I got some writing to do. And the release date would be next fall or end of summer, probably August. Somewhere. And so it's a bit of a wait. That's kind of the game, unfortunately. Ebook format? I'm thinking yes. That wasn't— I don't know if that was discussed. If it was, I didn't pay much attention to it. Probably. I would say probably. Next, Sensei Ryan. Did I go to VidCon? Didn't see you there. No, I did not go to VidCon. I don't know if I've become a snob or what, but I don't really go to events. Much anymore. One, I find that the topics— you know, I like to go all in on stuff. You know, when I commit to something, I'm all in, and I know a lot about very narrow topics and very little about what else is going on in the world. There's so much stuff in pop culture and politics and all this stuff that I have no idea what's happening, and I'm okay with that because when I go in on something, I go all in. And so what I find is going to events going to conferences. If I'm interested in it, I probably would have learned the information anyway. That may sound like super snobby, but I'm already watching videos, I'm already reading the blogs, I'm already following the people that I need to follow on Twitter and engaging and soaking up the knowledge. And so if I'm going to a conference, I find that I learn very little, and the stuff that I am learning, I'm not interested in. So I don't go to conferences anymore. The other thing is one of the big benefits of going to events is the networking, meeting people, exchanging ideas, making contacts. And as I talked about before, I suck at that. I don't enjoy it. I'm not a networker. And so I try to put myself in positions where I can deal from what I'm good at instead of weakness, what I don't enjoy, what I'm not good at, and what I don't want to improve at, to be honest. So I go to conferences when I'm speaking. I go to conferences when I'm paid to speak and I feel like it's going to have an impact. And I'm going to be able to reach some entrepreneurs. So I was not asked to speak at VidCon, and so I did not go to VidCon. Nothing against VidCon, and I'm glad you had fun, Sensei Ryan, and maybe you can make a video about what you learned at VidCon and see if I missed out, and maybe I did, who knows? Next, Chow Kokow 2000. That's an awesome name. Chow Kokow 2000. How do you determine when you share your great idea with others, especially service-based business ideas or others, particularly when you're networking as opposed to just sharing your dream with close family? So we're kind of straying from the book idea a little bit here, but quick answer for you is, uh, there's so much that you have to worry about in the execution that the idea doesn't mean that much, to be honest. Like if you're talking to somebody at a networking event and you share a high-level version of what you want to do of your idea, that's not giving it away. You want to talk about the problem and talk about the solution in a way that nobody can go out and just do it from that spark, right? If they could do it, then probably tons of people have that idea and you're going to lose because you're not executing well. And I'd rather be out sharing the idea and building my team and talking to people who are passionate about it and might be able to help me or connect me than just telling my family about it and losing because I don't build the team to help me execute. So I'd be out sharing it. Joshua, Joshua wrote a long question. I don't know my passion and I'm focused on climbing the corporate ladder, but a friend of mine suddenly introduced network marketing, promises good returns. Any advice? I'm so confused what to do. Setting down my goals, don't know where to go, what I want to be, thanks. Okay, don't go into network marketing. That's not the answer, man. First of all, you never want to go into a business because you're trying to make a lot of money. That is the fastest path to failure because if you're not sticking to it, you're not committed to it, you're not in passion, you're not in love with it, you're not going to have results of anything, right? You get into anything without passion, you try to be a husband without passion, you try to be a father without passion, you try to be a friend without passion, you try to be an entrepreneur without passion. Whatever it is, if you don't have passion, you will not succeed, you won't get results, and you won't be a happy person either. Don't chase network marketing. Network marketing can work, it works for a lot of people, but don't chase it just because you're looking at returns. That's, that's the path to failure, 100%. If you don't know what your passion is, I would say it's time to explore. You got to explore, you got to look at different options, you got to say yes to things, try them out. You could, you could try the network marketing if you feel like there might be some kind of spark or interest. But not if you're just trying to make money. And try a bunch of other stuff too and see what sticks and see what you love and see what you feel like you can really sink yourself into and make returns be your secondary objective, right? First is fall in love with what you're doing. If you do that and you're providing value to people, you'll make more returns than you thought were possible. Next up, Matas. Question: What way of storytelling is the most engaging that would make an immense emotion that would in turn create a motion? Thanks. This is an interesting question. I touched on storytelling last week in the video and is an awesome way to convince people. There's a lot of different ways you could do it, and I'm not sure that I am the expert on storytelling. The two that I find super helpful, one are when you're telling a personal story, a personal example, and the other is when you're telling somebody else's story. So I could tell the story about Sylvester Stallone and Rocky and how he was homeless and how he had to do a porn movie because he had no money and how he turned down all this money to make the movie, but he turned it down because he wanted to act in it and they didn't want him to act in it. All of these— like, I could tell somebody else's story, but I think the most powerful one is when you tell your own story. And I think it depends on who you're trying to reach, but I think that the personal story has the most impact. I know when I get on stage and I'm telling a story and it's mine, I'm more emotionally invested into it. I'm more committed to it. It's more personal. I can get— if I go deep, I can get really emotional about it. And it's credible, obviously, because it's my story. And I think it's easier for people to have an emotional connection to me when I'm telling my story. Now, I don't have stories about everything. Sometimes my stories may not be fantastic. Sharing somebody else's story is an easy way to supplement your own story. So that's what I recommend. Your own story first, something you're passionate and emotional about, and then other people's stories to supplement. Next, Devon. I wrote a book some years ago. I went on a couple of talk shows and did a few radio interviews. My question is, what are some of the best ways to promote a book without spending tons on marketing? You don't need to spend a lot of money on marketing, and I think a lot of the entrepreneurs and authors who do often end up not getting results, not getting a return on that investment that they put in. What you do need to spend is some hustle. The number one way that I would recommend to promote a book without spending money is go connect with all the influencers in your community. Who are the people that this book is for? And then connect with all the people who can help you reach that audience. So, for example, the name of his book I see here is Should Men Cry? And I would be thinking, So is this a lifestyle book? Is this related to marriage or weddings, or is it business about crying in business or not? And depending on who you're targeting, those are different audiences. If you wanted to target entrepreneurs, I'm one of the best people in the world to connect to to help spread your message. If you want to target single moms, I'm not, right? I'm not in that space. You want to sell jewelry, I'm not the guy to talk to. I have a wedding ring, but I don't wear a ton of jewelry. So I'm not the right guy. So it's not just talking to people who have large audiences, it's connecting with people who have the audience that you want and then finding a message that resonates with them, right? If you reach out to me and you're just trying to promote your book, I'm probably not going to write back to you. But if you are commenting on my Twitter feed, commenting on my YouTube videos, you know, I'm going to look at who is this person, what are they all about? And maybe there's an opportunity to do an interview with you or to help share your story or share One of the tweets that you put out, right? So you want to target people who have the same target audience as you, as well as people who are on the same vibe, right? Like they believe the same things as you, you have this similar passion to create a difference in the industry that you're in. They're just attacking it from a different way and engage with them, get on their radar screen, let them know who you are, and then have the ask to do some kind of promotion, interview, whatever it is to their audience to help spread the word. Next, Orion Dark Knight, "Hey Evan, how can I recognize, create opportunities as an actor and in general?" This is a big question, but "How do you think I can be successful? Keep up the awesome work. Much love." If I was an actor, I would do a combination of things. The first thing I'd do is try to think, how can I be different? What can I be known as? Almost even as a gimmick. What could I be known as that's different than everybody else? Were attracted to Arnold Schwarzenegger because he was so huge, right? He had these ginormous muscles, and even though they said, "You're never going to get into business with this long crazy name and your crazy accent," that was one of the things that made him stand out from everybody else. So I would try to find something either physical or in the way I acted or something that I wore, something, something, because at all these auditions you are one of you know, hundreds of people. So I try to have something that makes me stand out. The second thing I would do is I would be overly positive and optimistic and bring energy to everything that you're doing. I can't tell you how many times I'm at events and I meet people, they come up and talk to me, or I'm speaking, and just they love the positivity. I'm always happy and optimistic and engaging and talking to, you know, the receptionist or talking to the person who's just Handing out water, whatever, right? Like, energy, bring it. You're on set, you know, you're going for auditions, you gotta— everybody's like sitting there trying to memorize lines and they're stressed out. Bring energy, bring happiness, bring calmness, and it just relaxes people and again helps you be a little bit more memorable. The third thing I would do is— these are just coming from the top of my head, but I think it's valuable. What would I do? The third thing I would do is I would go to lots of auditions. right? Like you got to make a name for yourself. You got to get out there. You got to practice and hustle, right? And partially to make your name, but also partially for you to get better. Like you got to get better. You got to go and do more and get better. Look at my YouTube channel, right? I'm doing 2 videos every day and that makes me better. It's not just having more content up. It makes me better as a speaker. And you go back on my channel and look at my old videos, look at how I am now. I'm much better, and that's not because I'm fantastic or a great speaker. It's because through practice you get better. Anything else, you want to learn French, you want to learn to ride a bike, you want to learn whatever it is, through practice you'll get better, and every time you go do an audition, the next one will be better, and the next one will be better, and the next one will be better. And then lastly, the fourth thing I would do was throw a curveball, and I would try to build up my own audience. I would try to build up my own audience. Figure out what I stand for, make regular YouTube videos, again, to practice being in front of the camera, and try to make a name for myself in a certain industry. So again, figure out what it is that you feel the world needs more of, right? What's wrong with the world? What's your solution? Make out opinion pieces if you're acting them out or if you're just being you and being real. Build up an audience because that can really help you if you're entering any contests. You know, that audience that you build up can help vote for you, can help get you in. Your audience can help refer you to potential deals that are coming up, and it also makes you better because you have more practice. So those are the 4 things I would do. Good luck, man. Keep me posted. Next, you know, also one last thing I would— if I'm on YouTube now, right, you're on YouTube, I put your name, right? You're trying to make a name for yourself. Put your name, put your face, right? You have Orion Dark Knight, I think the thumbnail is like a Batman figure or something. Get personal, right? I want to say, "Oh, that guy, right? John!" And I recognize your face and I say, "Oh, he's an actor." You know, it kind of puts it on my radar, puts it on everybody's radar. So I'd make things a lot more personal. And last question, Will You Laugh? "Okay, my question is what do you think a man or woman should do if money is an issue and you need food and shelter but you also want to follow your passion? Where should you go?" local fast food store, any job you can get initially, then build from there. Embrace the genius of the end, my friend. Embrace the genius of the end, and that means parallel paths. You have to survive, okay? And there's some people who say you need to burn the boats, you got to go all in, you got to launch your business. I'm not in that camp. I don't believe you have to throw away all the other options and force yourself to be an entrepreneur. It works for some people. It does work for some people, but I don't think it works for the majority of people. Where I think you should do whatever it takes to survive, and I would ideally take a job where I'm learning something about the industry I want to get into. So I wouldn't just go work at a fast food place unless your goal was to build a fast food restaurant. Then you're learning something. So whatever your goal is, I would try to go learn from somebody who's done it. Get an internship, get a, get a part-time job, get a full-time job, like work your way up, learn. So you're getting paid to make mistakes, you're getting paid to get your education. And then, you know, you're building up savings and you can start your business on the side. And I think that's the key, is you have business on the side going every single day, half an hour at least every single day. No excuses, no breaks. You're tired, you came home late, you had a rough day at work, half an hour still at least every single day on your business. Don't fall into the trap of being stuck on the corporate ladder, being in a job, and then your business and your dreams slowly die off, okay? So parallel paths, make an income so that you can support yourself and learn continue to build momentum for your business, and when it reaches a point where you can support yourself and pay your bills, then you quit and go full-time on your company and hopefully start to take off. That's it. Light on the content in terms of what I'm doing, but heavy on the questions. So I appreciate you guys, and let me know if you have questions for next week. Ideally, I want to try to keep it to like book-related stuff— my book, your book-related process— or what I talked about this week, which was doing things that are important. So thank you guys. Continue to believe. I'm going to go see if I can find my wife and have a quick chat before she gets to bed. So thank you guys. I'll see you soon.