Evan Carmichael argues that picking one defining word like "giving" or "believe" and embedding it into every part of your business—hiring, product design, customer interactions—makes you stand out and drives word-of-mouth. A real-estate agent, a shoe seller, and a web developer show how this clarity attracts the right customers and employees without constant selling.
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What makes your company different? I'm a big believer that to have success as an entrepreneur, you need to do something to stand out. You need to have a mission that you're on, a purpose that you're living, that will attract great customers to you, great employees to you, great media to you, great suppliers to you. You have to have something different because there's so much competition out there. Consumers and customers have so many options to go to. Why should they choose choose you. And a lot of it comes down to picking one word that you can stand for, that you believe in, that explains what makes you different, what mission you're on. Pick one word and let that be a magnet for you. I got a question from one of my YouTube viewers, uh, love you guys, Lily, who wrote in to say, I think what makes me outstandingly different is my personality. I'm a giving person and not many are like this nowadays. Everyone is all for themselves. Replying back to your comment, what makes me different? You can build a company, Lily, around giving, and you can still be a highly profitable company even though you're giving a lot. And what you want to do is build that into your culture so your customers know that you're a giving company and potential employees know that you're a giving company. Somebody like me, I'd love to work with— so I don't know what your company actually sells, but if you sell shoes, I'd love to work with a company that sells shoes that is really giving. I'd love to work with a website development company that's really giving. I like working with people who are giving. That's what's different. So build that into your culture. It immediately separates you from everybody else. If you're selling, if you're a real estate agent, okay, most people think real estate agents are all in it for themselves. They're egomaniacs putting their faces up all on every sign, right? You may not like your real estate agent. What real estate agent is known as the giving agent? Now you have something to stand out on. Now you have something that is different than every other real estate agent. You're not the one who's saying, I'm in the top 1% sold for this neighborhood, right? That's BS. People don't care about that. Everybody says the same thing. Nobody says they're the giving real estate agent. And it's not just a marketing thing. You have to live it. Right? What does that mean to be the giving real estate agent? What does that mean to you? And it's how you treat your clients, it's how you determine your products and your services, it's how you bring on new people to your team, it's how you bring on customers. You want customers who love the idea of giving as well. This is so important for you to figure out, and for everybody watching, you gotta figure this out. It's your way, it's your path to become successful. I'm about belief, right? It oozes from everything that I do. I believe in entrepreneurs, and it's so easy for people to spread the message about my business because I give them a clear message, right? If you're a real estate agent, how do I spread the message about you? I can't— I'm not going to tell friends, oh, he or she is in the 1% of all agents in this neighborhood. Give me something to talk about. This is it. You're the giving real estate agent. So people know that I'm about belief, and that's an easy message to spread. And people either love it or they don't, and that's cool. I'm not here to convince anybody, but it helps people self-identify. So it helps my customers self-identify. If you are a company who wants to work with me and you don't believe in entrepreneurs, We're not going to have business together. I'm not going to convince you that this is the right thing to do. I don't want to work with you. I don't want to talk to you because you're not on the same mission as me, and I don't have to sell you on anything. And the companies who do believe in entrepreneurs, they know I'm the guy to talk to because I'm spreading this message and I'm living what I'm preaching. Same thing for bringing on employees onto my team. I need people who believe in entrepreneurs. If you don't like entrepreneurs, you're not going to have fun on my team. You're not going to be in a good place. You're not going to enjoy your job. But if you love entrepreneurs and you believe in them, this is the best place for you. And I'm not bringing on people and convincing them, hey, you gotta love entrepreneurs now. This is something that you come with. And if you're of that mindset, then you're going to be great on this team. So I don't know what it is that you sell, and it almost doesn't matter because you've done the harder work in understanding that your culture is all about giving, and you apply that to anything that you're doing. Okay, I'm about believing. If I wasn't helping entrepreneurs, I'd be believing in somebody else. I'd be believing in people learning how to salsa dance. I'd be believing in learning how to be a piano player. I'd be believing in Making chairs that are amazing, whatever it is. Believing is part of me. I believe in people and I've applied it to helping entrepreneurs. You're a giving person, apply it to whatever it is that you're selling. And for everybody else watching, figure out what your one word is and apply that because until you do, you're making it impossible for people to know where you stand and you're making it super difficult for people to spread the message about you and you want to make it easy for people to talk about you, especially if you're in a competitive field. Believe. For those of you watching, you like the video, give it a thumbs up. Let me know what you think. You have your one word, put it below too. I want to see it. You have a question, leave it below. I'll make a video reply for you. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
