Evan Carmichael responds to Terry, 37 and unemployed, who wants to build a business around her passion. Combine what you love with what adds value to others, start small with side projects, and let audience feedback guide you. Carmichael's own YouTube channel grew from a barely-attended YMCA talk.
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How do you find your passion? I got an email. It's a kind of a heartbreaking email that came in from one of my newsletter readers, Terry. I'm going to share some of it today, and hopefully we can end on a positive note. She writes in and says, I'm 37, I'm unemployed, and I'm literally, literally counting down the days to my end. My greatest desire is to be an entrepreneur, to be totally enveloped in something I love to do, something that gives me purpose and pleasure in life. I don't have to make millions of dollars, but I'd love to work towards something that gives me purpose. The only thing is I have no clue as to what that thing is that I'm supposed to do. I simply don't know my purpose. I know what I enjoy, what gives me joy, but again, is it a passion that we can turn into a profitable venture to sustain a family on? She goes on and talks about how her passion is her ministry, and she's thinking about making publications, books, magazines. She has another obstacle that she started her own business. She's so discouraged about life that I don't know where I can start a business. I don't— I know I can't live my life in suspense like this anymore. It's tormenting. Being unemployed, absolutely no income, is depressing itself. Please help me. I'm at my breaking point. Terry, I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through this. The, the good thing from this that I would take is that you want to start a business around something that you are passionate about and has a purpose. And just that, even though you don't know what you want to do yet, just having that alone puts you ahead of so many other entrepreneurs who are starting up right now. Because people often start for the wrong reasons. They start just trying to make money. They have no purpose, and they end up losing money and having to go back and get a job and live a life that they're unhappy with. So your desire to start a business around something that, that is purposeful for you is the place to start, and you're asking the right questions. And when you start asking the right questions, you start getting the right answers. So you're on the right path, even though it looks bleak and you don't know where it's leading. You are on the right path, and I want you to believe that. In terms of what business to start, you know, I have a whole ZUGA guide that I walk people through how to find their passion, and to try to kind of summarize that for you You want to think about the things that bring you joy and that add value to other people's lives. Okay, things that you are passionate about, that you love doing, that you can get lost in, that when you start at 9 in the morning and you look up and it's 6 at night, you're still going and you don't know where the day went because you love doing this so much. Combine that with what adds a lot of value to people's lives because you have to make money from this business and it's going to come. Money comes from helping people. The more you help people in a meaningful way, the more money you're gonna make. So combine those two things— something that you absolutely love doing with something that adds value to people's lives. That's the foundation of your business. And don't let the fear of having the right idea hold you back. If you have some ideas around the ministry and that's what you love doing and preaching and helping people with, just start something. Start something small, start something on the side, start something without spending a lot of money on it. Just start something and you'll see if it's for you or not. You'll see by the looks on the people's faces if this is something that, that is your purpose or not. Here's how I discovered mine, okay? I just sold my business, I didn't know what I was going to do. I was kind of bouncing around with different ideas and I did a talk with the YMCA. And they said, can you come and talk to our entrepreneurs? And I said, sure, why not? I'm happy to share my message. I love that. And I spent weeks preparing and I promoted this as a free event. They promoted it. And I went into the room all excited to deliver my presentation and there were only 3 people there. And I'm like, 3 people? Come on, really? Like after all this promotion and all the work that I put into making this presentation, 3 people showed up. And for most people, that would have been failure. You know, you look at that business logically, rationally, like, you could only get 3 people to show up between your efforts and between the YMCA's efforts, their own people. 3 people show up for a free event? Are you serious? This is a stupid business idea. What are you doing? But, but I just loved it. I got up, I did my thing, I helped those 3 people that day. They came out different people than when they came in. I had an impact and that made me feel good. And I, I had to do it again and again and again. And I didn't know what the format was going to be. And it's evolved into this. It's evolved into a YouTube channel and a popular website. And I would never have predicted that this is, this would be the path. I only started following something that I was excited about and that I knew felt good and I knew was helping people. So you can't plan the whole thing out. You don't know what you're going to look like in 10 years, but nothing's going to happen unless you do something. So start today with something. If it's the ministry, start with something. If it's the books, the magazines, pick one thing that you're excited about and start with that and see if it works and see if you get the reaction that you want from people and see if you feel it in your heart that this, this is what you were meant to do. This is your purpose. You're not going to really find your purpose until you start actually trying some of the things you have in your head. And it will come, I promise you. When it feels right, it'll come, and it's almost overwhelming. Like, this, this is what I've been searching for. And you may not get it the first time or the second time or the third time, but keep trying, keep reaching out, keep trying to find your passion. You are on the right path, and the answer will come to you if you start taking action, small steps, immediately, right now. Believe. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. That's what keeps me going, that's what keeps me making these videos for you. Let me know what you think, leave a comment underneath, tell me how you found your passion. If you have a question for your business, leave it in the section below, I'll make a video response. Subscribe to the channel if you like what you're seeing and you want to see more. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
