In this Thankful Thursday episode, Evan Carmichael publicly thanks Mark Drager, founder of Fantamedia in Toronto, for two pivotal contributions to his entrepreneurial journey. First, Mark helped produce and edit Evan’s early YouTube videos, notably the popular Walt Disney story, which jump‑started Evan’s channel and gave him confidence to pursue video content. Second, Mark inspired Evan’s current one‑word movement centered on the word “extraordinary,” embodying a mindset of excelling in business, family, and faith; Mark’s lived example became a case study for the movement and will feature in Evan’s upcoming book. Evan uses the segment to encourage viewers to identify and thank someone who has helped their own business, highlighting gratitude as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. He ends with a call‑to‑action to subscribe for more similar content.
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Welcome to another edition of Thankful Thursdays. I believe it's important to thank the people in your business who've, who've helped you grow because this isn't easy. This is a hard thing running a company and, and we rely on other people's help, support, knowledge, resources. So today I want to thank Mark Drager. Mark Drager is the founder of a company called Fantamedia here in Toronto. Ent City. And I want to thank Mark for two things primarily. He's been a great friend over the years, but for two things. The first one is when I first started this YouTube channel, if you go way back and look at my very first videos, some of them were produced with Mark. And my most popular video for a long time was a story about Walt Disney, and that was produced with Mark's company. And for the longest time I wanted to get into video. I really felt like it would be a good medium for me, but I don't know, I was afraid. I didn't feel like I had I didn't have a team to help me do it. I didn't feel I'd be good at it. I don't know, like things were holding me back. You know, you have this goal, but you see obstacles, and then that makes you not want to go forward on it. So Mark offered to help film some of the videos and had his team edit some of the videos for me, and that kind of got the ball rolling. And we've, you know, I've changed around my format and what I talk about, and lots have changed on my channel. But Mark's little ignite there helped launch the channel into what it's become now. So really, if you guys like these videos, you should all be thankful to Mark Drager as well. The other one was my new one-word movement. A couple years ago, Mark came to me and said, "You know, Evan, I had this thought where I want to build everything around one word of extraordinary." And he didn't use those words, but he said, "I want to be extraordinary, you know. It's not just ordinary, but extraordinary." And he wanted to be an extraordinary a father, he wanted to be an extraordinary businessperson, he wanted to be extraordinary in his faith. Everything that he did, he wanted to be extraordinary. I said, "Ah, that's cool." I said, "That's a cool way to live." And I tried to challenge him on that, you know, as he came to me with challenges and issues he was going through. I said, "Well, Mark, is that extraordinary? Because that's how you want to live." And now that I'm on the one-word movement, I thought about it. I was like, "Hey, Mark, here's a guy who's actually already living it, right? Here's a guy who's doing it and was trying to apply it." And even though he didn't necessarily use those words and say, this is, this is my one word, I'm basing everything off of it, he's already been living that lifestyle. And so I've had him on, on my YouTube channel, had him interview, and we're probably going to use him in the book. And so it's been another little Mark Vega spark to kind of kick things off. So Mark, thank you so much. All your ideas and your helpfulness and resources have been Very much appreciated over the years, and that's it. I want to say thank you. So for all of you watching, I want you to think about somebody who you can thank today, okay? A friend, a family member, a colleague, an investor, employee, whatever it is. Somebody who has helped you in some way grow your business and supported you. It'll make you feel great, it'll make them feel great, and it'll make everybody's day. So go out and say thank you. Believe. For those of you watching, you like the video, you can subscribe to the channel to see more videos just like this. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon.
