How to Build Business Skills While Gaming | 90 MINS

but that's going to change. Um, but anyway, yeah, so here comes Evan back.

All right, Rishi, you can hear me but not see me, right?

That's correct.

Okay, good. Well, we're currently streaming live now to Twitch. Very excited. We've had some tech issues trying to figure this out. I can't be on Blab and Twitch at the same time. So we are starting a new series answering questions from entrepreneurs who emailed me in while I play League of Legends, and we'll see how well I can multitask and do this. And my special guest and co-host is Rishi from the YouTube channel Rishi Cupp TV. Rishi, how you doing?

Hey, hey everyone! I'm doing fabulous, super excited to try this new idea that you have.

JasonRiseOnline is on Twitch watching, says, "Hey Rishi." So I am going to set up. I'm going to get into a ranked game here on League of Legends. And we're going to get through some questions. So the format is people have written in. And Rishi's going to ask the question. And then she's going to answer it. And then I'm going to answer it. And we're going to move on to the next question. And we'll see how we do. While I queue up for my ranked game.

So Rishi, it's going to be super fun.

Who is our first question?

Okay, first question is Kevin Knight. Kevin has got a question about— and are you ready, sir, for this? Are you ready for me to just rock with the question?

I'm ready, I'm ready.

Okay, what's in a name, Kevin says. He says, I'm about to incorporate my business operations and I've been thinking What would be the best name to give it? He says, I currently have one core business, but I do not— but I do have other interests. And so he basically, yeah, wants to know how important is this name. But I'll just say he does not give much info on the business that he's looking to name.

Okay, so, so what do you think? What's in a name?

This is a really good question. I think For sure, a lot is in a name because in this day and age, time goes so quickly. You only have a second to grab people, and so I'm thinking that if anything, the name is going to be your first impression, and you want to grab people in that first impression and at least tease them to what your business is about and the value that you're going to be giving them. So that's my first thought. What do you think?

I like it. I think people make a lot of mistakes in a name. I think the advice that people are given generally in a name is tell me what you do, and then they end up calling themselves, you know, OklahomaPlumbers.com or something. And it helps with the keywords, and it is very practical and does say what you do, but it's really limiting in that it doesn't speak to where you could potentially grow. And I look at Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett-Packard started by creating oscillators, you know, one little invention that they made. And imagine if they called themselves, you know, Palo Alto— that's where they were from— Oscillators, you know, and how much that they've grown and changed since then. And I think it's just limiting to have a name that that just says exactly what you do today because your company is likely going to change. You know, when I first started EvanCarmichael.com, my company name, my official company name, I don't really talk about it, I guess, but it's Evan Carmichael Communications. And when I first started that, I thought, ah, you know, it was just a personal brand. It was where I was going to be speaking and, you know, I was doing a lot of traveling and speaking, so it was just a personal kind of business site. And then as it grew, I really, I kick myself and I wish that, I wish that I had found a better keyword name. I wish I called myself like Small Business Secrets or something. But then as I moved back, you know, with time I realized that I'm super happy that I didn't go that way. I'm super happy that I kept it off my name 'cause my business is always an extension of myself and whatever I'm interested in doing, like streaming League of Legends while answering business questions, I can do because it's off my name. And so if you look at like the most successful companies, there are some common traits between the names, but the one thing that they don't have in common is that they don't say exactly what they did. And I think that's the biggest limiting factor with the name. It also limits your thinking, like, this is who we are, and it becomes hard to break out of the mold because you put yourself in that box. And so I would just caution against it. There's a lot of different ways to name a business. Like, you look at Virgin, they named themselves Virgin because they were all virgins in business. Apple came from just, you know, Steve Jobs was driving the car with Wozniak, and they wanted— they wanted a name that was ahead of Atari in the phone book, because at the time, you know, people use phone books, and Atari was where Jobs used to work. And he liked apples, so they called it Apple. And they said, hey, if we come up with a better name, then we'll change it. And they never did, so they kept it. Um, Yeah, and so, you know, all over the place. I look at Xerox. They wanted a name that was difficult to pronounce on purpose because once you remember it, you'll never forget it. People have names named themselves after their own business, right? Mine is named after myself. You know, Hewlett-Packard was named after Hewlett-Packard. Lots of different examples. Nike was named after the Greek god of victory. So lots of examples, but they don't— like Nike didn't call themselves sports running shoes.

Sure.

Right? So I think that's the biggest danger in naming yourself, not to be too specific. Make it something that you can continue to grow with as you build your business. For those watching on the stream, I'm going to— I can't connect. It's not finding me a match, so I'm going to start it up again there. Where did you come up with— talk about the Rishi Cup name. You had some issues with that and thinking about that and struggles and tribulations. Tell the story there.

Yeah, and so what I'm understanding you're saying, Evan, is that the most important thing is to really think more about what your values are versus what you do because the values never change. Is that kind of what I'm understanding you're saying?

That can definitely be part of it. It doesn't— values can be a big part of it. Like The Honest Company is named after their one word, which is honest. But, you know, Hewlett-Packard is named after two people, the founders.

Okay.

Not necessarily a value. What I was saying was it's not necessarily bad to name it after your values. It's definitely a great way to do it. Just don't name it after exactly what you do so you put yourself in a box.

Perfect. Yeah, well, um, Rishi Cup TV is definitely for me becoming more and more— the name is, I guess, becoming more and more significant, um, because when I started out with Rishi Cup TV, I didn't choose it, uh, really having a a clear idea of what that even meant. And I guess it's kind of similar to you in that it's more naming my business after me than naming it after what I do. But I'm still in the process of kind of defining what that is and what that means. But—

well, tell the story of the cup because you were on the fence, should I keep the cup, not keep the cup.

Yeah, the Cup kind of just was like, again, the name for me was a choice kind of intuitively. And so, I mean, the cup for me means a lot of things, but I'm a coffee lover, so there's just the very natural love for the coffee cup.

But I'm drinking coffee right now. I got it on me. I got my Tim Hortons. Well, it's not really in a cup. From Tim Hortons, but—

What kind of coffee are you drinking today?

I have an extra large decaf double double, which in non-Canadian speak is 2 milk, 2— oh, I think it might actually be 2 cream, that's why it's so sweet. I should do 2 milk, 2 milk, 2 sugar.

But are you a decaf? Are you a decaf drinker?

Normally I will drink decaf At night, if I'm having a coffee, but because of the stomach issues that I've been having, one of the recommendations is to cut back on caffeine. And there's a massive, massive difference between decaf and regular. It's like 10% of the caffeine in decaf, which everybody told me, it's like, ah, it's not that big a difference. Maybe it's just Tim Hortons. Maybe Tim Hortons, maybe these guys are the only ones that have that big difference. I looked at that. I don't really, I don't taste the difference, and I don't need the caffeine to wake me up.

Okay.

So I don't know if you can actually taste caffeine. Oh, I found the match, very exciting. Yeah, so that's what I'm drinking. But back to your story, I didn't want to interrupt there.

No, that's okay. Yeah, I just, I guess for me, the cup, beyond being a coffee cup, is a symbol for me, kind of like what you were talking about. It kind of represents all the things that I want to share with people. And so I think it's the cup being a symbol for who I am, what my message is, is starting to be more and more helpful for me because I don't think that message is going to change. I mean, I think it's going to get refined and all of that over time, but For the most part, that cup is symbolic of how I want to touch the world. And so hopefully that name is going to be helpful for me going forward in communicating the message.

And one of the things that I really loved about the cup is you start off when you're coming on chats or streams of what's in the cup, and it's become this tradition where people ask you What's in the cup? It's like cup of love or cup of appreciation or cup of whatever. So you can know it reflects what you're feeling at the moment. So that was interesting. I like it.

Thanks. Are you set up on your end?

It's not— no, I was in— I was almost in a game and then they banned away my champion and then somebody left. I just— it's never taken me this long to find a game, but it allows me to focus on the questions a little more, so I wish I understood League of Legends.

I don't even know what you're dealing with on your end right now.

Well, nothing yet. I'm just waiting. Basically, you gotta wait for 9 people to join so you can play with and against them.

Oh wow.

But for some reason—

Do you want me to feed you another question?

Yeah, we can go to the next question. And next time we'll get it set up so you can hopefully see the Twitch stream too.

Well, now here's the thing too. I just want to make sure, because are you able to still get this I guess we need to wait for the game. Are you still able to get the question for your video even though the game is not set up right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is all being recorded. This is good.

Okay, good. All right.

Hit the next question.

Next question comes from Jacqueline Lee. She says, I have a little struggle with my startup and I hope you can help me out. I have tried really hard to find funding for my business, but I have no investors. Who are willing to invest in a not-so-corporate startup. And again, she didn't provide information really about what business she's in, but she's looking for funding and investors and needs help.

Right. And she didn't say how much, right? Mm-mm. Okay. Okay, cool. And what was her name again?

Her name is Jacqueline Lee.

Jacqueline. Jacqueline. Okay, cool. So what do you think?

I said she needs to talk to Mark with this not-so-corporate podcast. Yeah, that's true.

Mark Drager is a friend of ours and actually we did a video on my YouTube channel that did pretty well where he talked about how to build a— how he built a million-dollar-plus business. So there's lots of— yeah, lots of interesting advice in that video. But yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Well, I guess kind of going back to what we were talking about is like the more you know who you are and the impact that you want to have, the easier it will be for people, investors, potential investors to get on board with what you're doing. And so I would just recommend that maybe she has a very clear idea of what her startup— how she plans to impact the world with this startup so that, you know, potential investors can resonate or not resonate with what it is that she's doing. Not so corporate, I'm sure there's a bunch of people out there who are not so corporate who would be passionate about whatever it is that she wants to provide.

Yeah, it's interesting, you know, I think, I don't know very many startups that are corporate. Like, people start a business because they don't want to be corporate. There aren't that many corporate traditional startups. It's kind of It's kind of an oxymoron. I think in terms of looking for investors, it depends on how much you're trying to raise. I don't know if you're talking like venture capital level where you're looking at half a million dollars plus, or you want $1,000 to, you know, buy some supplies and start the business. I think either way though, I think too many people focus on the funding at the start. I think it's the wrong place to start. The best thing you can do is not go into debt and not bring on an investor. If you're bringing on an investor, you're going to be giving up a huge chunk of your company. Like if you have zero revenue coming in right now, you just have an idea and you bring on an equity investor, you're just going to give up way too much of your business. It won't be valued fairly. And as you grow and if you still need money to market and expand, that's when you want to bring on an investor because the risk is a lot lower for them. When you're starting though, I also love to see you prove it to yourself. Like, show yourself that it can work. Show yourself that it's worth putting your time and effort into. I've said this a lot on the different streams and videos, but I hate spending money until I'm making money, and I would try to find a way to hustle and bootstrap and make it happen If you really are out of options, I'd be looking at trying to find a job in the industry that I want to learn from. Find someone who has already built the kind of company that you want to build and go work for them and try to be more involved with them and be active with them, and they'll teach you how to run a business, and you'll be making contacts and be making mistakes while getting paid to do it. And then the money that you do make from that, you can invest into your company. But I'd be looking at hustling hustling on the side, bootstrapping, going to go find a customer, and trying to spend as little money as possible and going on trying to get a deal. Because anybody can spend money, and that's the risk for investors. Anybody can spend money, not everybody can make money. And so you're going to get destroyed on your valuation. I have a match found! Okay, maybe we can actually get a game. How long have we been— this is crazy! I've never, never, never, never Taking this long to find a game. We'll see, we'll see. Last time somebody quit. Oh no, somebody quit again. This is crazy. Anyway.

Well, 9 people is a lot of people to wait for, so I don't know.

It usually happens a lot faster, but we'll see.

Might need to play like Tetris instead or something.

I'm kind of in right now, we'll see. I'm queuing up to see if anybody leaves. Anyway. Yeah, I think too many people focus on the funding part and there are options, you know, there's also government options but you also spend most of your time then raising— trying to go out and raise funding instead of actually building your business. Wow. And the best thing you can do is just go out and try to find a customer and use the profits that you get from bringing customers in to fuel your business growth. I know it sucks and it's hard and you're thinking at the start, you know, I don't have enough money or I don't have anybody in my corner and I'm not going to start until I get that funding. But if you look at the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, you look at the people that you look up to, you look at the people who've had a ton of success, you'll find that when they started, they probably have they probably had less resources than you already have right now.

Mm, that's a good one.

You know, Oprah, when she started, like when she was growing up, she had no money. She had to wear— she grew up a significant chunk of her time with her grandmother who was totally broke, and Oprah had to go to school with potato— like they took potato bags and turned that into a dress for her. Couldn't afford to buy clothes, so she wore potato bags to school.

Oh my gosh.

And everybody of course made fun of her. Oh, I'm getting yelled at in the chat because I banned somebody's champion. I thought you wanted me to ban that champion. Oops, my bad. Making mistakes with the split focus. Yeah, so—

You tweeted something out, I'm looking for it, yesterday you tweeted something out that was so good, I'm looking for it now, but about how to be resourceful, you know, but anyway, go ahead, sorry.

No, just saying that what I would encourage you to do is go look at, you know, successful entrepreneurs you look up to, people that you, you know, you respect and love and cherish and, you know, your idols and role models and look at how they started and chances are they didn't have an investor, they didn't have, you know, a rich uncle backing them, they didn't have a venture capitalist, they just started. And don't use the lack of resources as an excuse for you not getting started because a lot of people will take that and say, I, you know, I'm not doing this until this happens, until I get funded or until, you know, whatever case happens, right? And you're always waiting for the perfect time to start a business where just like having a kid, you know, there is no perfect time. You just start. You just do it. So just do it. Find a way to get started. It's always about how resourceful you are instead of how many resources you have. And that's the hallmark of an entrepreneur, is being able to see something when nobody else sees it and turn mud into gold because you're just super resourceful. So don't, I mean honestly I wouldn't waste my time right now. That would not be where I spend my time trying to find an investor. I'd be looking at how can I hustle and bootstrap it up. All right, we got a game. Everybody accepted. This is very exciting. I have to play a new champion that I just started playing today, so I'll probably suck even more than usual. Word of warning to the viewers, I'm not a very good League of Legends player. But I will do my best. Alright, any follow-up or do you want to hit the next question?

No, that was great. Alright, this is Mehdi from Iran. He says, hi Evan, I'm a CEO at Revex. We are about to face a big failure in our business. We are selling music instruments like guitars and violins. Our customers are cut by half this year. And it says, he said, I just saw a video you guys messaged about renting DJ equipment. You told him to give his customers a message. What can this message be? Because we are the same as this guy. So it looks like there was a video that went out where you told a DJ renting company to give a message. Anyway, he's a failing business.

What is he selling?

It looks like he sells music instruments and guitars and violins.

Okay, I'm gonna mute this here so we don't get too much background volume. Okay, so he sells instruments and violins.

Yeah, and he's— they're failing. They just got cut. Their customers got cut in half this year.

Yeah.

And what do they do?

Okay, what do you think?

Well, it sounds like he's really resonating with your, your message about giving a message. So it sounds like maybe he's not really differentiating or standing out his business from any other guitar, violin business. So maybe they're losing business because they're not really standing out. And so I'm thinking, how are you unique? How are you different? What can give you an edge from every other music business out there so that people will come to you instead of going somewhere else. I'm thinking of your message, stand out by standing up.

Yeah, that may be the video that he watched.

Maybe.

It's an interesting business. I'm wondering why the business isn't doing well, like why are they losing people and who their main audience is. Is it young people that they're losing? Or is it, you know, older people, like what their age and their demo is? Because that will give us a little bit of feedback as to how to, you know, fix the problem. But yeah, you know, so even if the market is shrinking, even if it is declining, understanding what it is that you stand for as a business helps, right? Like when somebody is buying from you, they're not just buying the product or service you're selling, they're buying more. They're buying the values of the business. And so I look at Toronto Dance Salsa as an example. It's a company that I've invested in. I'm an owner now, you know, major role in. And the theme there is about family, where we treat everybody like they're family. And people who come don't come just to learn how to dance, but they come because they want to feel connected and be part of a community. And they want to— you know, most people don't come and sign up to be the world's greatest salsa dancer. They come because they want something fun to do in their life. They're bored. They want to meet somebody. And so what's the real reason behind somebody wanting to come and learn how to play a guitar or violin? Like, what's the major reason behind it? What's the emotional connection you can get behind it? And then tap into that as being your main message. Your message should come from a core value. Like, what do you want to see in the world and how can you be a beacon of intelligence for that? So for me, it's believe. All of my videos are about believe. Everything I do is about believe. The YouTube channel, my website, everything that I do is just in me. Like, I believe in people. I can't help it. I want people to do well. And If I look at what would I do otherwise, like if I wasn't a YouTuber, what would I do? If I didn't understand business, what would I do? I'd be believing in people some other way. I'd be believing in salsa dancers or I'd be believing in kids or I'd be believing in athletes, something. It's just part of who I am and I want people to believe in themselves more and I try to spread that message. So there's a lot of different people you can go to. For business advice, you know, people come to me, not everybody, like some people may hate the message, some people say, believe that, that's really stupid, and that's awesome, you know, like we're not gonna probably get along very well.

That's not awesome.

Well, I mean, that may not be awesome, but like, you know, I don't need to get into battles and fight them. By stating up front, you know, you're your values and it helps people to self-select in or out, and I think that's important.

Yeah, what might be some other factors? Like, let's say he does have his message and he's still failing, where would you tell him to go next?

Right, so it's a great question. If you're doing like, so sales marketing, you're trying to get your business up, the first part is the the core selling, which is what we talked about, right? So get that message down. The easiest way to then grow your business is to look at alliances. So I'd be looking at who else is already selling to these guys and how can I partner with them? So this is then again understanding— I'm pretty sure he understands who his audience is, but say for example that It's young people, right? He's selling to high schoolers. Then who else is connecting with high schoolers and how can you partner up with them to create some kind of alliance that works for everybody? I'd be looking at, you know, YouTubers in your area or people who are big on Instagram and how can I help, you know, if for example there's somebody who's really big on Instagram or YouTube in my local area, right? I try to have them come in and learn how to play guitar. And teach them a lesson, right? And showcase that they learned this at your school. So again, the fastest way to grow your business is to find people who are already selling to your target audience and find a way to connect with them. And the easiest way to connect with them is over that shared value, right? If you go in and just say, hey, I like selling instruments to kids, can you help promote me? That's not an easy yes. Where if you are trying to help promote, say it's confidence, right? You believe that, you know, people, kids get more confident when they learn music, and that's your mission is to make kids more confident. That's something that like touches the soul a little bit more. That's something that's a lot easier for people to want to get on board with and be a part of. And so until you get the message, it's harder to reach out and have success. But once you do, then all of those usual marketing tactics work out well, you know, talking to the media, doing strategic alliances and partnerships, super helpful to help you actually grow the business.

Awesome.

All right, I kind of went on a rant there, but—

That was good stuff. Absolutely. You made a video this morning about asking for help, and I think just the fact that Mehdi asked for help in the situation where he's failing is a huge step forward, you know, just being like able to realize that I'm— I don't have what it is I need to get to the next level. And so that's kind of what you're talking about, alliances, and, and, and just get building a support around you. And anyway, good stuff.

I love it. Well, so while that happened, I got my first kill. So we're doing well here, we're doing— my team is winning, I got a kill, I'm pretty excited. So far so good on the multitasking here, I'm feeling this.

Yeah, it's awesome. Okay, here we go, next question.

Next.

We've got Anna the Artist.

Anna the Artist, I love artists. Man, artists don't get enough respect or love as entrepreneurs.

Wow, and a lot of people might not know that you actually have done a lot with artists. So you've invested in a lot of art, right? And helped art businesses and all of that. People might not know that. That's really cool.

Yeah, there's a nice quote like, the earth without art is a— like, eh. Like, the earth without art is eh. Yeah. I think, I mean, I think if we go a little meta, I think everybody's an artist. Just how we express our art is different. You know, I express my art through entrepreneurship. I am a terrible— although I can dance, I'll say that. Although I sucked when I first started, but I can dance. But I can't sing. If you want to hear some great singing, you can listen to Rishi's channel. Every week you have a new song, right?

Every week, every Monday.

I don't know how you— that's crazy. A new song every single week. That's an insane amount of dedication to make that happen. Anyway, I don't know how people do it, but But I don't think artists get enough respect as entrepreneurs and they need help and you don't learn, like you go to a music class, you don't learn how to be an entrepreneur, you learn the technique of being a musician but how do you turn that into something you can build a career off of? Nobody tells you that stuff. Anyway, my quick— before we even get into the question, that's my rant on—

It's good, it's a good rant because I think artists really are lacking Well, I don't want to make a sweeping generalization, but I know coming from an artist family, I mean, we had a lot of talent, but sometimes you don't have the entrepreneurial know-how. So I absolutely love this question. Anna says, I don't like putting my art in large galleries because there's so many other artists, like 500 to 1,000 other art pieces. That are being represented in the galleries. And so when you walk in, you're bombarded with pictures sort of crammed together, covering all the walls. Every inch space is taken up. And she says, anyway, it looks like— I'm trying to find the question, but basically it sounds like galleries for her are overcrowded. She doesn't want to do her art there. So what do you think, what do you think she should do if she doesn't want to put her art in the galleries?

Okay, what do you think?

Hmm, well, I don't know the visual arts space, but I do know that like the music industry has completely changed where now You know, people still do go out to see music, but so much is online now, and I just wonder if she's aware of what opportunities there are for artists. I mean, you just had a video up with a visual artist. I can't remember his name, but it was all about how to use YouTube and use different online opportunities to really make a living off of your art. So I guess my first question to her would be, has she looked into her options as far as online? I know that there are online galleries, but I don't know much about them.

What was that noise? It sounds like coffee being poured.

I was just gonna say, I am in Starbucks, for those of you who are hearing The frappuccino machine going off.

Oh man, I want a frap now listening to that. Holy cow. So, okay, so this is interesting. So I think if you look at the art gallery model, it's back to the other question we dealt with of how do I get my name out there. Having partnerships and alliances helps, right? So art galleries, they're already selling to your target market, right? And so being able to connect with them can help. Now it's one, finding the right art gallery, and two, it could be on you. I just died, so that sucks. I thought I had a kill there, but I was— I felt like I was close. I had no backup and I died. So anyway, I'm 1 and 1 right now, moving strong. So if you don't go to the art galleries, what's the backup plan? Like, how else are you going to promote yourself, right? Art galleries are one way to do it, but if it's not working for you, fine. What are you going to do instead? And I think that's the bigger issue. So are you going to try to be online and have a YouTube channel and show how you do your art and build up a name for yourself? Are you going to try to Are you going to try to get into the media and talk about your art and talk about the message that you stand for and try to create more collaborations? Are you going to try to partner up with people in different kinds of art forms? If you're a visual artist, maybe you paint a picture of a celebrity at the time or a YouTuber or it's the election right now, maybe you put it you put it, a picture of Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, but in your own style and with the message that you want to share. Like as an example, if you were about, if your one word was peace or harmony and that was kind of what you stood for, then you could do a picture in your style of Trump and Clinton dancing together or something, right? Like that would get some attention, that would get some notoriety, that would make people talk. Because you have a powerful mission that you're on. If you do go, I wouldn't necessarily give up on the art gallery route. If I was in an art gallery, and this is now beyond just artists, this is any entrepreneur where you get distribution, it's the same thing. You write a book, you're going to get buried in a bookstore. You know, you get into Walmart, you're going to be one of how many thousands of products. I would work my hardest to stand out at that art gallery. I would be there, I would have times where, you know, they could— patrons coming by could talk to the artists. I would try to help promote them on social media so that, you know, maybe they give me a better spot. I'd be looking at, you know, you're hustling, you're being resourceful. How can you get a better spot in an art gallery? What more value can you bring to help them out so that you don't get buried, you know, at the back of the gallery somewhere, but you are given a more prominent spot because you're really helping them. Hmm. So those two things I think could be really valuable. One, like, the art gallery model may really work, but you have to make it work. You can't just rely on them to do everything. And then two, what are your backup options? What else are you gonna do to get your name out? Because at least the gallery is doing something If you take that away, then what are you going to do to make it work on your own? And hopefully some of the options that I talked about can help you.

That's great.

My teammate is really upset at me because he went into a bad fight and I didn't follow him. And he's like, why don't you follow me? So anyway, people raging.

Oh man.

You never know what you're going to get in a game of League of Legends.

That's right.

Yup. Alright.

Alright, so Andy Mo, the engineer.

Engineer, alright. Engineers are also artists.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I started my company a month ago. I lost sense of direction and I'm no longer sure if what I am designing is a product that will sell or will it be useless. I can't find a proper reliable partner to share with me that dream. What, what do you advise? And then he has a little, uh, at the end, my business model is to design a product, make a brochure using 3D models I produced, make a prototype, and make a good contract with customer, then offshore the production. You will understand that more than I will. Okay, so yeah, what do you got for Andy Mo, the engineer who It's basically lost his direction, doesn't know if he can find a partner. Oh, are you going to ask me?

Yeah, I think I got a lot, but what do you have? It starts with Rishi answering.

Oh, okay. Um, well, I don't think that I have a lot of knowledge at all in terms about of engineering, but, um, yeah, I guess he— it sounds like the main thing is that he feels like he's lost his motivation. And so I guess I would ask Andy, you know, what is going to get you back to a place where you feel like you're excited about this product that you're designing? Because if you're at a place where you're questioning whether this is the direction, then, you know, I think the first step is why am I— why do I feel lost? Why do I not exactly know what direction I want to go? I think all the other stuff will fall in line once you can tap into that place of excitement again. Because the partner, you know, you can't find a lot— you know, everybody else that's going to be helpful to you in the process will come, I think, once you feel like you got your excitement back and you know why you're doing what you're doing. So I would ask why, why are you doing this? What's the why behind why you're doing what you're doing? And I think that first step will help all the other things fall in line.

Cool. I don't know if you hear like mad clicking happening here, but Yeah, that's okay.

I hear it.

We're trying to go get dragon right now. Okay, so I hear two things. One, I hear the frustration of having a product that's not, you know, he's not sure of anymore, it's not working anymore. And two was the lack of a partner and, you know, not sure how to find a partner to help him grow the business. Is that—

Wow, you're good. I'm really— good job.

Okay.

Doing a video game and kicking that out.

Yep. It's harder than I thought it would be, actually. But we're doing it. We're doing it. If anything, I'm neglecting my team here. Listen, I'm getting some hate. I'm getting some hate from the team that I'm not doing my job enough. But it's not serious, so.

Does your team— they don't know that you're multitasking right now?

No, they don't know that I'm streaming this. They don't know I'm streaming this.

They don't know I'm streaming this.

If they did, I don't know, they might be happy or probably not. This is a ranked game, which means that if you, like, this counts towards your score. So everybody has a score, and if you lose, then it's bad.

Oh man.

So I'm playing a ranked game. Anyway, it's okay. I'm doing better than they are, so I could do better, but I'm doing better than they are, so. Okay, so for the first part about, Having lost confidence in the product, I think it comes down to a few things. One, understanding again, like, why you started this. Like, was it your own need, or did you think people would be interested in it? Was it your own frustration? You know, where did the original idea come from? And is that— is that problem kind of— does it still exist, right? You know, engineers solve problems. That's what engineers do. So there's a problem still exist and can you go about it a different way of solving it or not? Like, can you talk to people? Can you get more feedback? I think one of the biggest challenges for people is they build something thinking that there's a market for it and then they realize that nobody actually cared about it. You know, I had this problem in my first software company where we built something that we thought was amazing and my partners were actually in the field, so it wasn't like people were just, you know, doing whatever they wanted. You know, they actually had this problem, but not enough other people had the same problem, and we, we built a whole bunch of functionality that at the end of the day people didn't want. They didn't care about it. Uh, luckily we had enough in the product that we could still build something and still make something from it, but we wasted a lot of time going in the wrong direction, building features that people didn't care about. Uh, so I think it's important to tap into, you know, is there actually a need for it? Do people care? And then do your best to— now I'm in the middle of a battle, just killed somebody, so there's some distraction there, but I got a kill and an assist, so it's pretty exciting. Basically going back to the roots of like if this was just something in your head, then that's going to be a problem. You need to talk to customers, you need to get some feedback, you need to see if it's going to actually work out or not. And so tap back into that, like why did you initially start this? And it may be that your idea just like maybe it wasn't good enough yet, and that doesn't necessarily have to discourage you from being an entrepreneur. You know, you just might have to shift focus, right? Maybe there's something that's useful in what you have created that you can tweak and modify. You know, as an example, if I go back to that software company that we had, the most complicated feature that we had in the tool was the ability to do undo, redo as many times as you wanted. So you can undo— I just got another kill, very exciting. You can undo, like, if you think about you make a mistake, you can undo it, right? You can undo, you can undo, or you can undo. And that was apparently very complicated for my partners to do. I don't know how complex it actually is, but for them, they said it was the most complicated thing. It turns out our customers didn't care. You know? They didn't care at all about it. Like, if we can go back 10 steps, that's fine. We don't need to go back all the way to the beginning of using the tool. So that's a big blow. Like, it sucks to spend a lot of time on something and then realize that nobody actually cares about it. About it. Now luckily again, we had enough in the other thing that in the rest of the— in the rest of the tool that people did care about it. But I'd be looking at, you know, how can I modify my product so that it is more valuable and start talking to customers and get some feedback and then take it from there. Hopefully that gets you a better product. Now in terms of the partners, this is another thing kind of like the funding. Like, I can't do this until I get a partner. Don't let that hold you back. Too many people are held back by that. They, they, oh, you know, I, I really want to do it, but I can't because I don't have a partner, so I'll never be successful. Start. Like, you need to start regardless. Be resourceful. And a partner still may be the, the option for you. But don't let it be such a big deal for you that you don't actually get going on building your business. In terms of finding a partner, for me it still comes down to understanding what you stand for. We've talked— this is a recurring theme here on this episode. Understanding what you stand for so you can attract the people with the right values. Because you may say, well, I'm an engineer, so I need a salesperson to join me. Great. Just because somebody has the skills on paper doesn't mean they're going to be a good fit with you, right? Just like in any relationship, if you are looking to get married, you know, if you're a guy, you know, the fact that she's a girl is not enough of a criteria, right?

That's a good point.

It's just not enough of a criteria. And so I think too many people make that mistake. It looks good on paper, right? Like, oh, this person is so good at sales, it's going to be such a great fit. And then, and everybody's super happy, just like in any relationship, there's a honeymoon phase, you're super happy at the start, but then you run into problems. And I think that's a big challenge for a lot of people. They don't do enough homework. You know, you want to date before you get married. You want to make sure that you guys get along as human beings and you share the same values as well as sharing the same mission. And I think because a lot of people aren't clear in what their values are, then they— it's just— what's the expression? Just luck of the draw, right? Like you're just hoping that it works out with this person. And then what happens with a lot of people is they get so frustrated because the first one didn't work out, then they say, oh, 'Well, I can never be successful. I can never, you know, I can never have a partner,' and then they just give up completely.

Wow. That is so underestimated, the need to know your value and to know the value of others and how they align or don't align. I can't more stamp a yes on that point that you made.

I like it. Well, I said all that while my team is raging on me. Raging? One of my teammates is raging hardcore on me, but I have 3 kills and 1 assist, friends. Okay, I am, I'm doing well compared to them, so we'll see what happens. Anyway, good. I liked it. I like, I like the, I like the question because I think a lot of people do, uh, restrict themselves. For both of them, both in terms of like, oh, my product sucks, I'm going to give up, or oh, I can't do anything until I have a partner.

Yeah, and to that last point, I found the tweet that you put out. It says, we don't have the money, the connection, or the support, but we don't make excuses.

I like it. Well, I tweeted it, but I still like it. Hey, you got to like your own stuff.

That's right.

It's funny, somebody asked me, I forget where it was, it was an interview or something. Somebody asked me—

Yeah, it was the— I saw that one. Yeah, go ahead, sorry. Yeah, well, somebody asked me what was your favorite YouTube channel, and you said mine, right?

Yeah, somebody asked me what my favorite YouTube channel was, and it's my own, you know? Like, I love my channel. I think you have to be— and it's not like in an egotistical way that, oh, my channel is you know, you guys all suck and yeah, just— I love my channel. I love what I'm creating. I think as entrepreneurs, you know, if you make shoes and somebody asks you, what's your favorite shoe? How is it not your own? Right? Like, you don't love your shoes? I don't know. I think you can be confident in your product or service without being insanely egotistical. But yeah, I don't know. I answered the question that you wanted, which was like other YouTube channels too, which is fine. But I love my YouTube channel, you know? And if somebody asks me what my favorite YouTube channel is, I'm going to say my own.

Well, we love it too. We love it too. All right.

What's next?

This next one is a very long name. Chukwunyere Nwa. Sorry, sorry if I killed that, Mr. Maxwell. I'm just going to call him Mr. Maxwell for this.

Maxwell.

Yep, and he says, I'm an aspiring entrepreneur. He wants— he says, can you mentor me to success? I love your passion for business. A little boy from Nigeria. What can you do to help me, especially in skills and says skills accusation, but I think maybe he means skills— I don't know, do you have some just overall mentoring advice for an aspiring entrepreneur from Nigeria?

Sure. What's yours? Oh, snap.

Okay, my— I think my Advice is that I keep— I guess it goes kind of back to the— what you were saying about the limiting beliefs. Like, no matter where you are, what you don't have, you know, I don't know what he is working with or what the business is that he's pursuing, but just to know that you can start where you are with very little, with nothing. I mean, I started my YouTube channel on my iPad. Yeah, still, I still do it on my iPad. I record all my music on my iPad. Like, it's— some days I'm like super sad that that's my— what they call a DAW, your, your music setup, but I just make it happen because I just believe in this. So I guess I would just say that you can make anything happen where you are with what you have.

Breadbox Studios, I love the name. That's Rishi's studio name. Well, my team wants to surrender because we're losing here, but we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. Maybe we can pull it out. Maybe we can pull it out. Never surrender. Oh, I died. All right. So this is an interesting question. And one, congrats on reaching out. This is Maxwell, right? Maxwell?

This is— yeah. Maxwell. Maxwell. His last name is Maxwell. His first name is Chuong Nguyen Ngua.

OK. One, congrats on reaching out. I mean, I wish YouTube was around when I was getting started as an entrepreneur. There's so many people to connect with, so many videos, so many resources. I wish it was around honestly. And congrats for you doing it. I think the number one advice I always give to young entrepreneurs is you have to do something that you're insanely passionate about. If you look at famous entrepreneurs and the advice that they give, it's always that. It's the most common piece of advice across any— not even successful entrepreneurs, just successful people, period. You know, if you want to be— if you love accounting, you know, like that is your insane passion, you love accounting, those are the guys who rise to be the top of the accounting firms. If you are just doing it as a job, you're never going to be at the top. If you look at the people at the top of any field, entrepreneurs or otherwise, they always had an insane love for what they're doing. And so that's always the default place that I start. I think for whatever reason, we are trained somewhere to think that you've got to chase the money, and people get suckered into all sorts of different make money quick kind of opportunities, and you know, more times than not, you just end up losing losing money instead of making it and wasting a lot of time and energy. Starting a business is one of the hardest things you're ever going to do. I know it's super kind of sexy and, you know, in vogue and trendy. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, but it's going to be so difficult that if you don't absolutely love it, you're going to quit as soon as it gets hard. Like, it's going to get hard. It's going to get insanely hard, and I don't think people talk enough about how hard it gets as an entrepreneur. You just hear like the success stories of people who made it, but not all the crap that they have to go through. And entrepreneurs in general, and I was like this too, you don't share the problems when they come up, right? I remember when I was starting my business, I would always just talk about, you know, even if I was dead broke, somebody asked me how I was doing, yeah, I'm good, I'm, yeah, yeah, things are going well, like it's just embarrassing to feel like a failure.

Right.

So, you know, expect it, prepare for it, like it's going to happen and that's okay. So that would be my advice. Like, it's— like, you gotta love it. You gotta love it first of all, and then get ready for a battle. And the love of what you do will get you through all the hard times.

Yeah, and just like this guy is asking you, I mean, there's so many people who are asking you all the time, will you mentor me? I think continue to watch videos because just like I always say this, like watching Believe Model the Masters channel with Evan Carmichael is literally just like free entrepreneurial university. It's like you can get pretty much what you need in a video. So I would recommend since he's in Nigeria, you know, he may not have someone in his local area, but he can watch YouTube, and there's so much you can learn.

So yeah, and I think to just touch on mentorship in terms of reaching out and connecting with people, people are often willing to help, especially helping young people, if you show willingness to want to learn and get better. But I would watch out of just asking a total stranger, will you mentor me, because it implies a relationship. And so I would ask, start with a question. Like, the best thing you could do is take what I've told you. You want to start a mentorship relationship, take what I've told you and do something about it, and then come back and say, hey, I did this. What's next? Tell me what's next, because there's so many fake wannabe mentees who want the advice but don't want to put in the work, and there's nothing more frustrating for a mentor than having a mentee who doesn't want to put in the work. And so you need to stand out. For all the people who say that, you know, they want to be mentored by me or whoever, you need to stand out by actually doing the things that, you know, you get the wisdom to do. So my little rant on mentorship. Going on rants. Losing a game makes me go on rants.

Just remember to kill your game opponents, not anybody else.

Not the people asking questions. No, no, no, it's true.

Okay, alright, next question comes from Madi who—

Madi?

Mari, M-A-R-I, Mari.

Mari.

I think it might be short for Marisol. Okay. Or Maribel, I can't remember. It was, I shortened these anyway, sorry. She actually doesn't have a direct question, but she's starting a, she wants to start a blog called Doodle Journey.

Doodle Journey, okay.

Doodle Journey, and it's basically Restarting our, in her words, restarting our schooling from scratch, but this time self-taught through the internet and our own studies.

Huh.

And she wants to use this Doodle Journey blog to post the journey. But the thing that she, I think, is looking to you for is she's trying to kind of nail down what she, what to pursue because she has a love for so many things. She goes on to list that she has a love for being neat and organized, for researching things, DIY tutorials, hobbies. So she has a bunch of different things that she loves. She wants to be an entrepreneur, but kind of, I think, needs direction because she has all these different interests.

I didn't fully understand the The question?

Well, there isn't really a direct question.

I got the question of like where to focus, but I didn't fully understand the mission. She wants to— okay, she's trying to start a channel. Um, sorry, she's trying to start something to, to—

for schooling.

It looks like for herself or for, for kids?

Uh, it doesn't say.

Okay, okay, well I like the theme, right? I like that there's so many people who— oh, sorry, you know what? Rishi, what do you think?

I was hoping you'd just go for it.

I just went into it like, wait a minute, this is a tag team effort. You can't just— okay, you gotta answer too.

All right, well, there's this amazing video that I will recommend that she watches by Elizabeth Gilbert, and it's called The Flight of a Hummingbird, and it just basically talks about following your curiosity and not necessarily trying to figure out the, the big huge one thing passion if you're not sure what to do or where to start. And I like it because I can so relate with years of not knowing what to pursue and having a whole bunch of interests and You know, I don't know, Evan, it sounds like you're someone who— and I think there are different types of people, but it sounds like you're the type of person who kind of knew pretty quickly once you got into that space of helping entrepreneurs, once you got that bug, you were just— it was— the fire was lit and it was single-minded, forward, full steam ahead. Whereas some of us don't always have that really clear-cut passion. So I would say to her, if she's trying to figure out where to focus, just start by experimenting with the things that you do love and trying, trying different things on a small scale that are like low risk to see if you come alive and it excites you and you're passionate, and then I would, you know, go from there. I don't know if I'm helping her question in terms of this doodle journey blog because I don't know, I don't know if her question specifically in terms of that, but to me it seems like she was looking for what to do when you just have so many different interests and hobbies and things and you want to start a business but you don't know where to start.

Yeah, so my thinking here is I would try to find a way to combine them. I think that they all fit under your mission, which is to teach people how to learn on their own without having to go through a formal schooling process, right? That's kind of what I— that's what I was trying to clarify what the mission was. I feel like that was it.

Yeah, I think you hit it. I think you're right.

So if your mission is to teach people to learn outside of the formal schooling system, then anything that deals with learning is relevant and interesting, right? So all of these things, if you're teaching people how to learn to do any of it, it's all relevant and helpful and practical and applicable.

Um, wow, that's so good.

So That's what I would say. I think if you start with the mission and the goals and what you're all about, and people will be on board with it, right? People are like, "Yeah, I want to learn how to homeschool or unschool or learn on my own or find resources. I love that mission." Then you can provide them the tools based on what your own interests are, right? So if you really love I forget what one of them was. Organizing, right? Organizing was one.

Yep, organizing.

People are saying in the chat, I've never seen—

I was gonna say, you just started killing someone again, didn't you?

No, no, no, they're saying, I've never seen somebody play this passively. And the other guy's saying, well, at least he's not just feeding the other team. Come on, guys, I'm doing well! I'm 5 kills! Holy cow, haters, haters, haters everywhere, man. Haters are everywhere. Anyway, okay, um, yeah, yeah, so, and I died. Embracing, embracing the genius at the end. Get people on board with your mission, what you're all about, what you're trying to do. You'll get people who, uh, are in tune with that, and then you take people on your journey or on other people's journeys. So if you're trying to do it for kids as an example, Bring on, you know, I have a 6-year-old, so bring on a 6-year-old and teach them how to organize, teach them how to draw Captain America or whatever it is. And by that person learning, the people who are watching are learning as well. So I think you can, you can cover a lot of different topics, you can cover a lot of different angles. And I think that's the secret. Like, if you just box yourself into only talking about organization, then you're not going to be happy. You're going to have all these other pieces that you want to incorporate. And you should incorporate. If I only did one kind of video on my channel, I would get frustrated. And I would want to change it. And if you look at the evolution of my channel, I've changed it a lot over the years, like the style, the format, the types of videos that I do. They still are, I don't believe, the common theme. But how I do the videos are totally different. And so as an entrepreneur, you want to have that freedom to be always the full expression of yourself. And as you change, that will change as well. So embrace the genius of the and.

Embrace the genius of the and. Yeah, and I think I just will add that now that I'm hearing that she really has passion for education. As someone who has a passion for learning, I'm wondering if that's the connection between having all of these different passions. Because when you, when you like, when you, when you see a value in just learning and researching and gaining knowledge, like, the world is your ocean. There's so many things that you're interested in because you just like the process of learning and then sharing that knowledge. So I think that's why I was thinking what you're I think what you're talking about with trying not limiting yourself to one or the other, I think is going to be gold for her. I think your passion is being able to experiment and try and learn a lot of different things. So that's what I've experienced specifically on Rishi Cup TV. I don't do one or the other. And for some people watching my channel, they might really feel like, gosh, this is just all over the place. And I hope it does find focus more and more. But I think my viewers are liking what I'm doing because I'm liking what I'm doing. And I have a lot of different interests. So I think I would definitely encourage that. Just everything you said is brilliant. Yep. Okay.

Yeah. You said something super important there where about liking what you're doing, do things you like to do, and it'll, it'll show up. Like if you are doing something only to make money or only to make this customer happy or only because you think it's a job opportunity, then your company's not gonna go anywhere. You're not gonna do well. You have to have, back to the point from Maxwell, you have to have that passion. Combined with providing value to the customer. As soon as you start losing interest in what you're doing, you need to change. Too many entrepreneurs box themselves into doing the same thing over and over again, and you need to constantly evolve your business.

Nice. All right, you ready for the next one?

Yep.

All right. Trisha Mahendra says, "Hello Evan, I've been watching your videos and you speak of values." Oh, here it comes again. "I would like to know how did you set your values and how do you stick to them irrespective of the condition you are in?" Great question. Oh, I'm supposed to answer this question. Okay, values. Well, I will, I will definitely say that Evan and I attribute Evan for sure in me starting to focus on what my values are, figuring out what those are. And so he's modeled that incredibly well for me. I love also this thing about values because I think once you know what your values are, then you can provide— I don't know, to me it's connected. If you want to provide value, You've got to know what your values are. And I think that how do you stick to them irrespective of the conditions you are in? Starting out, I mean, I don't know if all businesses do this or Evan, you encourage all businesses to start out doing this, but I think if you can write down somewhere what your values are and actually just have that as best as you can. I mean, not being perfectionistic about it because you may not know everything to start, but being as clear as you can in the start about what your values are so that when the opportunities come, it's that much more easy to kind of not compromise on your values because you've already settled within yourself what those values are. Like I've heard you say, Evan, you know, I love entrepreneurs, so it's going to be easy for me to stick, you know, basically if opportunities come and the people who want to work with me don't like entrepreneurs, it's going to be that much more easy for me to say no because we don't have that same value. So the clearer you are in the get-go about what your values are, the easier it is to not compromise.

Cool. Yeah, you know, for me it's all about belief. Obviously, you know, we talked about this. The values that you have have nothing to do with the business that you're in. The values that you have come from who you are as a human being, and then you bring that to any business that you go into. And so for me, belief came from my parents in terms of— I believe it was, how do you identify your values and then how do you stick with them No matter what, right? That was, that was it. Okay.

Yeah, that's right.

So, uh, there's a lot that I could talk about. I believe everybody has one word that defines who they are, and when you understand that, you'll have a lot more success and be able to live a life on purpose. I think it starts with, in terms of identifying your values, the things that make you happy. What makes you happy? In life, what are the things that made you the happiest? And then trying to connect them. So, you know, for me, my favorite movie is Seabiscuit. You know, you guys, you may have heard of it. Maybe you like it, maybe you hate it, I don't know. But it's about this horse that everybody was against and then, you know, miraculously turned it around and a jockey that was too big and, you know, all these things that were wrong with this horse that ended up, you know, winning. And so just like, I love the comeback stories. I love the underdogs. And that comes from my parents. My parents believed in me. My parents always used to tell me that I was a Castrilli Carmichael. My mother's last name is Castrilli. And I could do anything. That I wanted. Anything I put my mind to, I could do. And that was the source of belief. My parents were not entrepreneurs and don't have aspirations to be entrepreneurs and, you know, didn't really give me business advice, but they helped me a lot with that aspect of it, like understanding who I was. They forged that in me. And so it starts with thinking about what What makes you happy? What connects all the things in your life that make you come alive? And if you have a hard time with that, and I know kind of Rishi went through this, we're having a hard time kind of figuring out some of them. What can help too is what's your anti-word? Like what's the thing that you hate the most in other people? Who are the kinds of people that you would hate to have to spend any kind of significant time with? You know, what's the one characteristic about the people you hate that is in common? And then, you know, the opposite of that is your one word. So finding it for some people is easy, and for others it's really hard and challenging. For me, it was not— wasn't fast, it wasn't easy. It took me a while to figure it out. But other people have insane self-awareness and they just They figure it out super quick, and I'm kind of jealous of those people.

What was the tipping point when you really knew?

I think with anything, like, the more you sleep on it— when it comes down to values, there's often decisions that you have to make based off values, and you know you made the right decision when you wake up the next day and you feel good about it, and you wake up the next day and you feel even better about it. You know, the sleep on it test is super effective, at least I find. And when I first came up with Believe, I thought it was too big. It's, you know, I need to make it more specific. You know, maybe Believe in Entrepreneurs or Believe in Yourself or something. Like, Believe alone was too big a word. And then as I tried adding more things to it, I just didn't like any of it, you know. And it just kept coming back to Believe. I said, well, maybe I can do this. Maybe that can be about believe. And you know, there's other people who've used believe before, you know, Justin Bieber had an album Believe and, you know, lots of musicians and artists have used believe before and that's okay. Like I'm putting my own spin on it and that's important. So identifying it again, for some people is super easy and comes naturally and others it takes a long time to figure out. Once you get it, having to stick with it no matter what, that's the hard part. And I think that, you know, there's an expression about the devil always comes holding a bag of money. It's often you'll do things because, you know, there's this opportunity that looks good on paper and there's a lot of money attached to it and so you're tempted but then it's always, it's almost always something that just sucks. The deals that I took just for money have never worked out, never ever ever worked out. It always come back to hit me and I think you learn that through mistakes. I don't think at the start you just say, I'm never going to make a decision that doesn't tie in with, you know, my core value. I think you're going to make mistakes and you're going to learn from those mistakes and then those mistakes will teach you to be better the next time. You're less likely to make mistakes next time around. And so you don't have to be perfect. Like you don't have to put this pressure on yourself to be perfect all the time and make every right decision all the time. You're going to make mistakes. It's okay. And yeah, I mean, I've learned to stick to my gut and my values because I've in the past not done it and it's been painful. And so that pain, you know, means that now I'm going to stick to it.

Yeah, that's so good. You tested it and even made mistakes along the way, but it's helped. It's— the mistakes have helped you even solidify more what your values are, right?

This is a crazy long game. Games do not go this long, and we had a crazy setup too, but here we go. It's a giant stream.

How long do these games usually last?

Uh, it can be from 20 minutes to 40 minutes.

And it's still going.

And we're already at like 55 minutes, plus it took a long time to get into the game. So, anyway, good, we get to answer some extra questions.

Good stuff. Alright, next question comes from— now, looks like, okay, I'm going to go to Nathan Moraldo. The drummer, we got another artist person. And he says, uh, he, his passion was drumming, but then his parents thought it would be best that it would just be a hobby and not an actual career. So he quit music school and started a multi-level marketing opportunity that his parents, I guess, kind of told him about and the multi-level marketing company involves flight tickets, hotels, rental cars. Anyway, he wants to know from you, you know, did he cheat himself out of music? He does have financial responsibilities so he's got very real demands in terms of making money right now. But, you know, did he cheat himself out of music?

Yeah, okay, so what do you got?

Okay, I guess—

As someone who's doing music?

Yeah, and every situation is so unique. I mean, you know, you've talked a lot about not You know, don't make these crazy, insane decisions that are gonna make you, like, refinance your house and just all this craziness. So I would say if music is still his passion, he wants to still pursue this, but he does have financial responsibilities, is there something that he can do every single day even if it's a half hour a day to pursue the music. I don't know much about the multi-level marketing stuff. I don't know if he's passionate about it. If he's not passionate about it, I probably would say that's not the best place to be. There's other ways that you can probably get a job or find, you know, a way to support yourself without doing something that you're not passionate about. But music for sure is something that he can pursue each and every day, and it could grow into something that could support him. I think sometimes two people do have passion for music, but they might have— I mean, I don't know if this sounds too harsh, but I mean, some people— I, as a vocal teacher, I mean, I did have students students who like they just wanted to pursue singing, you know, they wanted that to be their career, but it was clear that that was not going to be probably the best choice because they just didn't have an ability to sing. I don't know if you have different thoughts on this. I know there's a whole discussion about talent versus working hard, but if you really feel like you've got a talent for drumming and you really feel like you could to do this and go for it, then I think you should. I think I need to hear a little bit more details about kind of like what he would want to pursue specifically, but that's my two cents.

I love it. Words of wisdom from Rishi Cupp TV right there. For me, I hate living with regret, period. And I try to do things as much as possible to avoid living with regret. I don't want to be the guy who's, you know, 90 years old looking back and saying, I wish I did drumming, or I wish I did, you know, whatever, whatever it is that you really want to do. I wish I did that. And the next thing becomes, well, am I out of time? Like, is it too late now? Because I'm already however old he is, and there's all these responsibilities. And a lot of people then let that dictate their dreams. And you still can. And it's understanding that you just need to do it. Like, you get started. Like Rishi said, every day you do something, even if it's little. Every day you're working on your drumming. You know, whether you're making YouTube videos, whether you're trying to teach people, you know, whether you want to be in a band. I don't know what your long-term aspirations are around drumming. Maybe you haven't figured it out yet, and that's okay. But just, uh, just sitting there, just the fact that you're wondering You know, did I make a mistake already shows the regret that you're living with. And so it comes down to, you know, how long are you going to be— this is going to happen for the rest of your life. If you don't do something about it, you will wonder for the rest of your life. And is that how you want the rest of your life to play out? Wondering what could have been. And for me, that just, that kills me, that, that, like, that idea. Just kills me. And I know it's scary, right? Like, it's easy to say, but it's hard to execute because it's very scary. And it doesn't mean you have to quit your job, and it doesn't mean you have to mortgage your house. It doesn't mean you have to go full-time. It doesn't mean, you know, you have to give up on your family. It doesn't mean now, you know, your wife has to support you guys. You know, all these assumptions that people make, it doesn't have to be any of that. You could still— we still have time. You make time for things that are important. You can still find time to make it happen. My computer just crashed. You can still hear me? Yes. All right.

Oh, we're back.

We're back. My computer crashed, but we're back. Oh, no, now it's frozen again. I don't know what's going on. But I didn't die, so that's good.

Is— OK, the game is back on?

No. This is the longest game of all time. This is the craziest first This is my first attempt at this stream ever.

This is great, but that's good. We can get more questions in.

So I'm going to give two examples that might help with this. The first, when I was in university, I had an opportunity to join a software company where up until that point, all I wanted to do was be a banker. You look at my high school yearbook, it says I want to be a banker. That's what I want to do. I'm going to be a banker, banker, banker, banker. Then I had this opportunity to join a startup and I also had opportunities from banks that I really looked up to where I would be earning, you know, $80,000 to $100,000 starting salary and travel and do all the stuff that I always thought I wanted to do. But there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head that, oh man, I'm not going to get another chance at this, right? I could always get another bank job, but I don't know if I'll ever get another chance at doing this. And that was actually what made the difference for me, understanding that I could always go back, I can always get another bank job, but this I would regret not saying yes to. And so even if it didn't work out, I gave myself a year and I said, I'm going to try this crazy thing for a year and see how it works out. And luckily it worked out. I didn't have to go back and get a job.

Wow.

But it was hard. It was 18. My friends wanted those jobs. They were telling me, this is stupid. Why would you join this company? And I was making $300 a month at that company. I wasn't— it was not making money where I turned down huge jobs to do this. And it was just that feeling that, you know, I did not want to live in regret. I had to give it a shot and see if I can make it work or not. That's what saved me. And so now I try to use that as a buffer, like as my mantra, as a guiding principle as well. And more recently, I had an opportunity to work with an agency where Somebody would, you know, agent represent me, book me deals, get me, you know, book deals and other opportunities. And they needed some upfront money from me for training. And historically, I hate spending money until I'm making money, right? I made that comment earlier on. And so like, do I break my own rule to do this? And what it came down to was You know, I would regret if I didn't say yes and do this deal. I would regret it. I would regret it. Like, I never heard of another agency that does this before, and I did not want that gnawing feeling. So I broke my rule of not spending money to spend the money on the training, and it worked out, you know, thankfully it worked out. But even if it didn't, like, even if it wasn't successful, I would still be okay with it because at least I tried and all it cost me was that financial investment as opposed to the rest of my life worrying like what could have happened if I just said yes to this. Wow. And so anytime you have that feeling that you might regret this, then do it. Just do it, you know, and the more you get used to doing it, the less scary it becomes to do it again.

Wow, yep.

So that's really been a helping point for me, and I hope that it can help him start his drumming career.

Absolutely, we look forward to hearing a year from now what you've been doing with your drumming.

Yeah!

Alright, next question comes from— And okay, this one was a little strange, Evan Carmichael, because it seemed like you guys might, this might have been a reply, so if you don't understand this, we'll just—

What was the name? I didn't catch the name properly on that.

Ann.

Ann.

And then the last name is Dmarisk.

Dmarisk. Ann, like A-N-N?

A-N-N, yep.

Oh, okay, okay.

And it says, "I would love LastPass even more if it would launch for me when I hit the command. I put in the necessary time, URL, etc., but launch the site without me having to find my password each time. It doesn't do. Am I missing something?" Oh, LastPass. Cool.

Okay. So I love— LastPass is a tool that I use, that I've used for— oh man, I don't know how long. It's been a while now. And what it does is it remembers your passwords for you anytime you set it up, and it also helps you generate passwords. You don't have the same password for everything all the time. And so the way that it works is when you log into the site, whenever you create a new account— No, you just won!

Woo! Wow, amazing. I wasn't super hopeful, I'll be honest.

Well, I had a terrible team, especially one player. But we won. I contributed. I wasn't the best I could be, but I contributed. So good. Good. So this is our last question to wrap up on. I like it. Yes, LastPass, awesome tool. When you log into a new website to create an account, it'll say— there's an option there to have it help you generate a password, which I usually use so that I'm not using the same password for everything. And then if you click on the advanced settings after you create it, it'll say like, do you want LastPass to remember this? And you say yes. It'll load a little window, and then in that window under advanced settings, you have to click on the arrow underneath. It says auto-login, which is a little checkbox that you check off. So any time that you come back to that website, it'll auto-log you in every time. So yeah, it's a technical one, but we got it. And it's quick.

And we won!

Hey! Yay!

Hey!

Pretty good. So that's the end of our first stream. Thank you guys for watching. Rishi, for people who want to learn more about you and find out about your channel, what's the best place to go?

YouTube at Rishi Cup TV. That's R-I-S-H-Y C-U-P TV.

I love it. Signing off, continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.