How To Harness Your Mind For Entrepreneurial Success | 52 Minutes

Hey everybody, welcome to another League of Legends Q&A AMA session helping entrepreneurs out with my famous co-host Rishi KhebTV.

Woop woop, the League Nation!

So League just came out with a new patch. I don't really know what happened in the old patch. I don't know what changes there are, but it doesn't matter. We're still gonna get into a game and just see what happens. While we answer your questions. So it's a beautiful Wednesday morning here in Toronto, 9 AM for me and 8 AM for Rishi.

Nice.

Let's, let's— what's in your cup today, Rishi?

Well, quite literally, I have a cup of Illy again because I'm newly obsessed with Illy coffee. And I also today am feeling a Cup of purpose. Loving being here chatting with Sir E.C. and helping out some entrepreneurs.

Cup of purpose, I like it. Well, I've got, I've got water. That's what I have, a big thing of water. Ready to play some games and help some entrepreneurs.

Nice.

All right, well, I'm queuing up for a game. We'll see if we can land one. Let's hit up some questions.

Great. Okay then. First question comes from Vyasin. Vyasin asks— or actually, he just has a statement. It sounds like he needs some help. He says, "My biggest challenge is funding." And there's no more information about what specifically his business is or what he's wanting to do. So I'll just get right into it. But we've had some good discussions on some other streams about Really, your most powerful tool with funding, let's say fundraising, I'm just going to— I know this is a huge general question, but fundraising I know has a lot to do with storytelling, and your ability as a company to tell your story in a way where people really believe in what you are doing and want to be a part of it in some way. So I know he could be asking about all— different areas of funding, but I think fundraising and storytelling is a really cool conversation, and one that I think is really important for anyone who wants to try to fundraise.

Yeah, so we've talked about this. We had an entire— we were joking about it this morning before we got on live. We had an entire stream basically dedicated to fundraising. It seemed to be all the questions of the day were around funding. Uh, so definitely go back and watch that. I think it was, it was a 2, 2 episodes ago, 3 episodes ago.

Episode 5 was the huge raising money stream.

Episode 5. So go back and check out episode 5. Just quickly on a high level, one, it's understanding how much you need. Uh, there are different people you go to depending on how much money you're looking for to raise. Uh, but two, probably more importantly is understanding that fundraising is probably not the best way to go. Oh, I got a game here, gotta click accept. That people spend so much time trying to raise funds that they don't, they don't actually build their business. And nobody's coming to kind of save your company. You've gotta, you've gotta go out and do it yourself. And bootstrapping is the best way to do it if you can. Oh, I'm playing mid. I'm not— I don't get my usual jungle. All right, this should be interesting. Yeah, you spend so much time going out raising capital that you're not running your business, and people think, I need to raise $50,000 or $500 or whatever before I grow and start my company. And as long as you are waiting for something else to happen before you actually go out and start, then you're never going to start, and then you're just going to keep blaming other people, you know, that, oh, I don't have the investors, so I can't start, or, you know, 'You know, the market hasn't changed yet, so I can't start,' or, you know, 'I don't have the connections, so I can't start.' No, the only thing stopping you from starting is you, and you need to go and start. And honestly, that's 95% of companies. They shouldn't seek financing, they should just start. And then for that other 5%, then understanding how much you need and different sources to go to is important. And then go watch episode 5 of this series.

Tough love from the former VC.

Well, but it's like, it's true. And it's because I don't want people wasting their time. I don't want people blaming other people, making excuses and wasting their time. You know, you want to go and build your business, go and start. Just start, do something now. You don't need money, you don't need a website, you don't need inventory, you don't need employees, you don't need a car, you know, just start. Find a way. Entrepreneurship is about being resourceful. Just start. And if you're trying to raise money, then the more you've started, the easier it is to raise money and the less of the company that they take, right? Because it's less risky.

Right.

So a lot of investors don't want to see companies who are pure startups. They want to see that you have some revenue coming in. And if you don't have anything, they're going to take a massive chunk of your business, and that, uh, that's going to suck for you. So start.

Just start. Be awesome. Thank you for the question. All right. Next question comes from Marius. And Marius, so sorry if I'm killing the pronunciation of your name. He's the CEO of a company called International Value Market. It's a trading platform for individual investors. To invest globally. And he's basically— sounds like he's just taken all the advice that you just had, Evan. He's done everything he can bootstrapping it, and— but he thinks that this is the time in which he can't go further without external financing. And the problem he's having is that he's in Poland, and it's been very difficult where he is to make a connection with potential investors. He's tried through an angel list. He's tried through direct mailing. But he's just wondering, one, do you know a better way to get in contact with angel investors? And two, with the fact that he now has a business plan, surveys, pitch deck, demo, is it too early to reach out to VCs? Or for those of you listening, venture capitalist.

Nice, I like that extra context.

So yeah, I've learned so much. Again, Evan being— has been an angel investor and a former venture capitalist. I've learned so much from Evan about this. And so it sounds like he's done a lot. It doesn't sound like he's just kind of at the point where he's expecting someone to come in and save him. He feels like maybe this is— this is where he needs to get to the next level. And I know that as far as angel investors, from what I understand, Evan, the best way to really try to find an angel investor is through connectors. And by that I mean, you know, people locally that you can reach out to whether they be lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, real estate agents, right there in Poland where you are, and, you know, see if you can make a connection. Ask around, maybe ask friends, do you know, you know, anybody, and see if there might be someone that you can contact locally, because I know, you know, just reaching out through a cold angel list and, you know, direct mailing where people don't know you, there's no relationship. I definitely see how that could be harder. And I guess, is it too early to reach out to venture capitalists? I think the question is what exactly is the amount that you think you will need, because I know, Evan, you've talked about Angel investors usually are interested in being a part when it's going to be $25,000 to $250,000, I believe. And venture capitalists are— you're looking at $250,000 plus. So I don't know if there's— I'm sure you have plenty more to add to that, Evan, but that's— I'd just say in terms of contacting an angel, I would try to go more locally and find connectors locally.

Love it. Rishi adding some value there, talking about investing. Yeah, so a couple things. One, I feel you. I feel the suffering, the work, the anguish, the loneliness of doing it all on your own. The truth after listening to this is like you think you've done a lot, but you haven't done enough yet. Because all the stuff you've done is all pre-market, right? You've done surveys, you've done market research, you have a demo ready to go, all that stuff, but it's not enough. Like investors want to see that you have customers, that you have sales, that you have a path. Right? That's the hardest part. And so that's where you need to get to. If you can get— like, if you're talking to potential investors, if you can show me that you've sold one guy, then it's so much easier to make me believe that you can sell a lot of other people. I am not doing well so far in this game. So I get it, I get the frustration. Like, you may be thinking, well, compared to the last guy, I've done a lot more work and yeah, maybe you have, but it's still not enough. You need to get out, you need to get some market acceptance, you need to get some customers. And in terms of actually getting investors, Rishi is right in terms of angels, they invest locally. Like, you're not going to get an angel from the US investing into a company in Poland. So you have to find a local angel who wants to buy in. And yes, they do typically come through connectors. But again, I fear that you're not— you're gonna just waste your time. You're gonna waste your time trying to talk to angels. Is there a chance that it may work? Yeah, it's a pretty low chance though. You need to get really that right person who wants to invest in a pure startup company with no revenues. That's hard. There aren't that many people who would do that. And so my big concern is just for your time. That you don't waste it and you get frustrated and then you give up on this idea that may have a lot of promise. And so it's really just taking it a little bit farther. Whatever that is, get your, as they say in the industry, your minimum viable product, get that out there so that people can start using this thing and making money for you. Oh, I got a gank. Thank you, Vi. Thank you, Vi. Vi just came and kind of helped me out in my lane there. Much appreciated. Give me a breather. So yeah, I mean, that's it. One, and hopefully for the other people listening, kind of the same context, we're trying to raise money or trying to, you know, go out and get investors. You need to, you need to do more. I mean, and it sucks. It sucks to say But getting the product to the point where it's not just a demo and not just PowerPoint slides and not just market research but actual sales is important. That's what investors want to see. And then for angels again, yes, you can look at lists. Some investments happen via angel lists. Most don't though. Most still happen as Rishi said through your informal connections, through lawyers, through accountants, you know, the first angel I met was my dentist who invests in the companies, right? A lot of people who invest are those dentists, doctors, lawyers, and they know other people too who can help. So yeah, it's a grind. I would just try to figure out a faster way to get to market. Maybe it's not all the features you want built in, you know, maybe there's some functionality that's not quite ready, but you can post without it being ready, just get something out there that people will start to want to actually use.

It also shows me, Evan Carmichael, because, you know, the little that I shared with you, how quick and instinctive you are, and people like you are, about knowing when someone is ready or not ready, and how it just makes me think of the whole, like, Shark Tank experience. You only have a little chance to convince these people to give you what it is that you want, and they have instincts that you're ready or you're not ready. So you want to make sure that you're absolutely ready before you approach that person, because they're going to likely know very quickly if you actually are ready to— you know, if there's someone they're confident that they want to put their money into. So Very, very, you're very Shark-like, Evan.

Well, all right, good. I'll take that as a compliment. I think maybe just add one extra layer to it. It's not that it can't work. Like lots of people have gone and gotten funding where at the stage that he's at. It's just not the high percentage play. It's hard, and my concern is wasting— him wasting his time. So there might be somebody, there might be that lucky person he can find that doesn't just offer him money but gives him mentorship and, you know, lets him do the things that he wants to do and that perfect angel investor. But it's a low percentage play, and if that's If you're not building your business, if you stop working on your company because all you're doing now is saying, "I need an investor," then you stop building momentum and the chances of you getting that ideal thing happening is pretty low. And so, like, it doesn't hurt to keep an ear out and start getting involved in the community and start making some connections, but don't stop building your business. Don't let that be your only strategy. And— Mm-hmm. I want— the frustration comes from I want his business to succeed and I don't want him wasting his time.

Yeah.

I don't want him wasting his time.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Great question, Marius. Next question comes from Conrad, and Conrad says, first he just wants to encourage you, your videos have really helped him through some rough times. and his question is, do you have any local seminars or shows? So he seems like he's a Toronto guy, and he wants to know, do you have anything locally that he can attend?

Alright.

And I know that Evan, are you still doing the meetups in Toronto?

So I created a local meetup group for YouTube entrepreneurs who wanted to learn about YouTube and have success We're likely gonna do an event in September. It's still kind of a test thing for me. It's a pilot. I don't know how much I'm gonna do it or not, but we have the group that you can look it up. I think it's called YouTube Entrepreneurs or whatever. You can find it.

Okay.

In terms of other events, I don't do a lot of events. In the city. I do it when I get invited to go, like I was speaking with the mayor about mentorship and entrepreneurship and that was a fun thing. But as a general rule, I don't do a ton of stuff. It's funny, like I film out of Toronto Dance Salsa, which is my local, it's my dance studio that I own. And yesterday we got, we were doing our workout. We do 3 times a week workout. And 3 different people came by during the workout to say, "Oh, I love your channel. Thank you so much for the content." And my wife and the other people who are from kind of Toronto Dance also who were in the room were like, "What's going on?" There's not as much love and respect for what's going on from my crew there. They're like, "Yeah, it's just Evan." I'm not some massive celebrity or anything. So I don't know, I don't know. I may do more. Like, I have a lot of love for Toronto entrepreneurs. I love my city. I want them to do more in entrepreneurship. I wish we had— you know, it really bothers me when people want to leave Toronto to go to New York or LA or feel like they can't make it here in the city. So I don't know, I don't have anything planned. I want to do more. I don't know what the exact execution of it is. I don't want to be in the business of like— of selling workshops and tours and that. I get invited to speak at places. It's not as much usually in my city. I'm usually traveling somewhere else. But when I do have something, I send it out on my newsletter list. So that's probably the easiest way. If you're on my newsletter list, then you'll get notifications when I travel to your city. For those in Toronto, come by Toronto Dance Salsa on a Wednesday afternoon. Today's Wednesday. I'm filming. I'm filming. Come say hi. We'll have a good time. And it's fun.

Probably end up on a video.

Yeah, you might end up on a video. You can at least wave from the background and on a break I'll come out and and we could do a selfie together. Otherwise, I don't know. I'm open to ideas, as I said, but I don't have— I don't know what the execution is, the perfect execution is for me on it.

Cool. Well, see you, Conrad, at TDS.

Yeah, come to TDS.

Yeah. Next question comes from— how you doing on the game? Doing good?

Uh, the guy I'm fighting is really good. He's, he's, he's— let's see, how am I doing? Yeah, he's better than me. I haven't died though, so I'm good. I'm happy with that. My team is winning, so that's good too. Um, so, so far so good. I like the challenge.

All right, next one.

Usually, usually with Heimerdinger, I'm stomping my lane, and, uh, here is actually a good challenge, so It's good.

Great. All right. Next question comes from Madan, and Madan is in the textile business. He started his business 4 years ago and he says it was a failure. He has a goal that he wants to make higher quality material and make it, you know, more affordable for people. But for example, he, I think in a year, got less than 10 orders online. And he's just asking, what can I do to be a successful entrepreneur?

What did he say he was selling?

Clothing? Tex— he's in the textile business. Okay. So, yeah, and he said it's just been a failure. What should he do? First thing that came to my mind is Partnerships, and we talked a lot on these episodes about how partnerships are the fastest way to grow your business. And I, you know, if I was in your case, Madam, if you were looking for a partnership, I would be looking for, you know, maybe someone who has the strength where you're who kind of fills in the gaps for your weaknesses. You know, we've talked a lot about partnership is similar to a marriage, someone that has your similar value and then someone who can actually be a good match for you where the things that you're not so great at, they're really great at. So you guys can kind of just balance each other out. There. But another thing that came to mind was, you know, textile businesses, I'm sure, are just so many people doing that. And I'm wondering if he can think a little bit more about how he can differentiate himself. Maybe he can be the textile guy for artists or for theater people or for, you know, is there a specific target audience or, sorry, target customer that you feel you could differentiate yourself because I just think you'd have to stand out in the textile business. Those are my thoughts.

Yeah, so quickly, one, I would say, Maybe you just had the wrong product. You know, I don't know enough about the business to fully judge, but if you sold 10 units, that's, you know, unless you're selling some insanely expensive textile, that's not great. So did you, do you have the right execution? Like, is the product good and you just don't know how to market it? Or is the product like— it's easy to say, yeah, yeah, the product is amazing, but is it? Like, do people actually want what you're selling? Uh, and you may realize from doing these tests that people don't really want what you're selling. Um, so it's something to think about. Then is it on— if it's not the product, is it on the marketing side? You know, do you need somebody to help you come in and create the marketing for it? Do you need to partner up with somebody who has that expertise? Like, what are your skill sets? Do you want to be the guy who's out making partnerships and trying to land deals? Or do you want to be the operator and person just making sure that the shipping comes in? You know, like there's a lot that goes into running a textile company or any business really, and having the self-awareness to understand I'm gonna get a kill! Hahaha! I'm pretty excited about that. That was very exciting. This guy was beating up on me all game and I killed him first, so I'm pretty pumped.

Nice!

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty solid. Yeah, so like understand, there's a lot of different things that you can do. It's first, it's understanding what the problem is. What's the problem? Is the problem the product? Is the problem marketing? Is the problem you know, your skill sets is a problem, your beliefs. So having a better understanding of that will make it easier to solve that problem. But without knowing, I would say one, make sure that you are— like, make sure that you have the right product. And if you do, then it's probably a matter of having the right team. Partner up with somebody who can help you do the things that you are not good at.

Great.

That's it.

Very, very good. Number 5, Mr. Yusuf. Yep. Okay, Yusuf is our next question. Sorry. The question is, did you have any advice on how to get sponsors for your content? And I'm assuming, Yusuf, that when you mean content, you mean YouTube content. That's the assumption I'm going to make.

You know that Rishi loves her YouTube.

Oh yeah, I love my YouTube, absolutely. And I think for anyone out there who is a YouTuber, I mean, it's definitely a good question about sponsorship. A much-asked question, and I will just say that what I've learned specifically for getting sponsors is, you know, kind of number one, what is it that you're going to be— what value are you going to be able to provide for the potential sponsor or brand? And You know, from what I understand, brands really want to know that you actually care about their brand and that you're really familiar with like what their goals are. So there is, you know, I know Evan, you're not a huge, super huge fan of same, is it same bit? Yeah. Yeah, I think I personally don't work with FameBit, but I know a lot of YouTubers have used FameBit as a way to find sponsorships and brand deals. You do have to have 1,000 subscribers if you are going to be eligible for that. But I also know that Evan got like 100,000, made about 100,000. There is a great video that talks about how Evan made $100,000 when he was a smaller channel through brand deals, and he didn't use FameBit. He has a completely other way of finding sponsorship and brand deals. So maybe you want to talk a little bit about that, Evan.

The magic way. You know what, I think honestly it just comes down to what you're good at, where your strengths are. If you're asking this question, it probably means you're not great at finding sponsorships. And if that's the case, maybe you shouldn't be focusing on it. It's the case for me. I am not— I'm not the guy to go out and try to sell sponsorship deals. I don't, you know, look people up. And you can, like, these things work. They just don't work for me. You could go up and you can go on Twitter and find all the people who cover your space, who have a title marketing manager, you know, and, and go out and try to make a call, make an introduction, get an appointment with them to talk about how they might be able to sponsor you, right? And it's just, it's, it's sales 101, and you just build your list and you start reaching out, and, and it can work. It's not what I prefer because I'm not great at it. And, and what I usually do instead— oh, I'm under attack— is recognize that I'm great at making content, and there's people at these companies whose job it is to do influencer marketing, to pay attention to who are the influencers that are making an impact that we need to be in touch with, right? That's, that's their full-time job with these companies. And so what I want to do is make content that stands out and that gets on their radar. And the chances are you're probably not putting enough good content out there yet. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! Am I gonna die? I died. Yeah, this game is gonna be rough. I think we're gonna lose. This might be— we've got, we've got a good winning streak going on with with these series, but this one might be tough. We'll see what happens. So every time— and I get the frustration, like you're trying to make money, you want to make it work, you feel like you're putting effort in, and every time for me as a YouTuber, I feel like, man, my videos deserve more attention, you know, I need to get more brand deals. I feel like, I feel like I my channel is putting out some amazing content, how come it's not getting recognized? I should go out on Twitter and promote it more. I should be, you know, hitting people up when a video comes out and say, hey, look at this video. But really what it comes down to is the best strategy that I have to market myself, to get brands, to get sponsorship, is to create consistent awesome content. And I just need to do a better job of making better content. And, and that sucks. It sucks because it's hard work. Where, where I wish there was— I wish there was, uh, some, you know, button I could push that would help me get brand deals, and it would be amazing. Um, and so I think a lot of people don't really audit their content enough. Um, they think it's better than it is. Like, I think I have some of the best content on YouTube. I think it's one of the best channels for humanity. Not, not just my stuff, but like, love it. Yeah, but like, the famous— like, not being egotistical and saying like, my, my, my commentary, like this League of Legends video, should be watched by everybody in the world, but, but the advice from the famous entrepreneurs that we share I feel like people need to hear that stuff. But it's obviously not good enough yet. Like, I only have 400,000 subscribers. You know, there are channels with millions and they're getting way bigger brand deals. And so I need to do a better job with my content of standing out. And so there are the two paths to go and really depends on what your strengths are. You either go out into salesman mode and put on that sales hat and just start reaching out and going to conferences and making introductions and doing all that work. But if you're asking the question of how to get brand deals, that my guess is you are not that kind of person. And so the alternative is produce stuff that people care about, that people want to share, that they watch and they insta-share because it's so good. And if you do that, you'll get on people's radar and you'll you'll get the brand deals that you're looking for.

Love it. That's that instinct again.

The Insta-share.

No, the instinct. Your instinct to know— The instinct to know what people really need at the end of the day.

I hope. It's hard because it's just an email. I'm just guessing a lot based off a few words, right?

I think you're probably right though, because most people who come in with that question really, I mean, I find at least, you get a lot of questions, how do I make more money, how do I, and it really, I mean, at the end of the day, I think when you start, when that starts being what leads you, and there's nothing wrong with the question, I mean, I educate myself on how I can be better at anything, you know, whether it's making money or whatever, but I think a lot of the times, at least in the YouTube world, We can get caught up with putting the cart before the horse and not focusing on what actually is needing to be focused on, which is like, what is your message and how can you be as true to that message? You know, one word. How can you just give value that means the most, is most meaningful to you that you would give whether anybody ever gave you a dime? You know, when you stay in that area, it tends to be the more successful route. It may take longer, I think, sometimes, but the things that are most meaningful are the things that you're going to stick in there for the long haul anyway. So I don't know, I just appreciate the tough— not even tough love, I just appreciate the honest feedback, and I think that's what really will help Yusuf get to the next level.

Yeah, and I get the frustration because I'm there too, right? Like, I want more brand deals, and I want, you know, I want to be growing faster than I am. You may look at my channel like, oh my god, it's so much bigger, you know, but still, like, it's still frustrating for me. I want to have impact. Getting 400,000 subscribers is not impact enough for me. I want to have— I have a bigger vision. And I think as entrepreneurs, we do, right? We have a bigger vision for ourselves than what we're getting right now, and it's frustrating when we can't realize that. And I think maybe once a quarter, I go through that same exercise. Like, man, we got— how do I do more on the marketing side? What else do I need to do to market these things? And it's It's a day of just frustration of me just trying to figure stuff out and convince it's a marketing issue and just try to brainstorm and spitball ideas. And it still always comes down to, I just need to do better work. If I do better work, things will happen for me. And then that's a— it's a downer. It's like, ugh, you know, it's just— I just want it to be easier. Why can't it be easier? But then it's also relief in that, you know what, like I can control it, you know, I can put in the work, I can, you know, I don't need to wait for something else to happen. It's in my control. And that's also a sense of like, yes, it's hard work, but it's also a sense of like, I can do this. And so it's relief too.

Interesting. Yeah.

I gotta kill, I gotta kill, I gotta kill. We're in a big fight. Haha, okay, we're doing okay. Alright, thank you for that question. What's next? Did we lose Rishi? Did I lose Rishi? Uh-oh, I might have to call her back. I'm in the middle of some intense Let me drop a turret, drop another turret. Can I tab out? I will tab out quickly and call Rishi back. What happened, Rishi? There we go.

Are you there?

Yeah, hey, what's up?

That was weird. I was there, and you just— yeah, you just couldn't hear me anymore. Weird.

I could not hear you.

Sorry, did I make you lose your game?

No, but I did have to— it's called tabbing out when you hit Alt-Tab to switch the window. And so I said, oh man, I got to tab out. OK, hopefully nothing happens. But there we go. We're back.

Oh, good, good. Next question comes from Natalie.

Natalie.

And Natalie is a big fan, and she published a self-help young adult book. Shouldn't say exactly what it's about. It's a young— it's a self-help young adult book, and her next goal is she wants to develop curriculums for schools for distribution. Got it. And so she's never done this before. She's wondering what's the best way she can do this. Because it'll be her first education platform. So, oh, and she also includes that her one word— actually, it's more than one. She has love, authenticity, diligence, and smile. So it sounds like some good words there. Yeah, so you want to get your curriculum into the schools. I mean, obvious, I've never done that, but I know that, uh, it's a big difference between the public and the private, uh, sector of any educational institution. And also, like, what, um, state you're in. I would, I would first just start kind of looking into what specific— which school do you want to get into? And then find out What are the— what is the process for your state to do something like that? That would be a place I'd start. But I also— I'd also start making relationships with the school board, all, you know, obviously teachers, educators, administration at the schools that you would ideally want to be a part of. Because I know just with that, having a relationship, they're going to obviously be a little bit more trusting to be open to hear what you'd want to introduce to, to their schools. Yeah, I'd start there.

For me, it comes back to what your strengths are. Okay, so the two options that go in my head are: one, you go out, you build relationships, you get to know— like, you should be a known quantity in the school market, right? So are you speaking at different school events, you know, where there's the trade shows? Can you go and— oh, we're gonna attack the tower here. Can you go in and do lunch and learns at schools? Can you connect either— if it's not at the school level, can you connect at the school board level, work with superintendents? You know, just be a known quantity. How do you get on their radar and be involved on a regular basis in what they're doing? Can you create content? Can you make YouTube videos or white papers or a website that when people are searching educators are searching, you know, you're going to show up when people are looking for new curriculum.

Um, right.

Also making really good curriculum. Like, people, people use my videos on a regular basis in their schools, uh, to teach their kids. So yeah, that's awesome. Uh, so, you know, I— it was not my intent to get out, uh, and be in the educator market, but it's nice that that's happening as well. So that can work for you too by creating great content. So the first, the first model is to go out and spend the time and be the marketer, be the salesperson, you know, make the contacts, hang out at the industry events, do all that as much as possible. But that may not be within your skill set. Right? If the thought of that sounds terrifying, then you're not gonna have an easy time getting the goal that you want. Where a better bet is to— whoa, they're gonna take my tower! A better bet then is to partner up with somebody who does have that skill set, who does love all those things. Am I gonna die? I will not die. I got a kill though, that's pretty exciting. So yeah, between those two, one, do it yourself, get out, be the speaker, be the face, be a known quantity. People in the education circle should know you. Speak at all the events and you slowly build up. Like the first conferences you do might be smaller, you may need to film yourself, you know, you need to get some experience, you need to get better at doing it. Or if your strength is, I make great content, I make insane curriculum, that's what— that's my genius, then that's where you should spend your time and partner up with somebody who can make those introductions for you, either on a— either on like a business partnership level where, you know, they own a piece of your business, or just on a commission, like you have an agent who helps sell you in and they get a cut of everything that they bring in.

Yeah, great.

That's what I got.

I'd also just say, since it is a self-help, it looks like she's doing— I don't know if her curriculum is going to be based on the self-help book, but I would immediately, if it was me, I would just want to know who are the school counselors and the people who are kind of working on maybe life balance, emotional health. Those sorts of things, because there's a lot of common content and things that probably you're interested in that they are as well. Sorry if you're hearing noise on my end.

Yeah, it's like there's a war happening behind you there.

I know. It's a personal war where I am. All right, great.

One other quick thought is potentially involving students. Like, I remember being on the board of Junior Achievement educational group that sold into schools. And, you know, when they were like, we need to get on Facebook, it was because all the kids were saying you need to be on Facebook. And so that spurned a lot of, a lot of the Junior Achievement chapters to get on Facebook. And so, like, if you could put out content that's really resonating with the kids you can also ask them, hey, talk to your teacher about this, right? And they might be able to make introductions for you that can help get you— whoa, they're going deep here— help get you where you need to go.

Just a cool little thought. Yeah, that's really great.

All right.

Okay, next question comes from Jaylynn, and Jaylynn is Okay, this is the 5— let's— he's got 5 questions for you, Evan Carmichael.

5 questions. All right. Yeah, let's go fast.

Maybe we can do like a fire round or something. Um, okay, he's a young entrepreneur.

One at a time. You will— we'll do one at a time each, like quick. We'll go to each one quick.

Okay, okay. He's a young entrepreneur, so this is, this is Here we go. First question: Why do you do what you do? All right, well, I do what I do so on my channel I can bring education, entertainment, and inspiration to help people really kind of identify and connect with their truest expression of themselves. Go, Evan!

I do what I do because I love it.

Oh, that was such a better answer than mine.

No, it's not, it's not good or bad, it's just, that's it. We're going rapid fire. I love what I do. There's, I mean, it goes deeper than that, but I love what I do. That's it. You should do what you love.

That is absolutely so good. Number 2, who should I talk to? I say talk to someone that is already successful in what you want to do, and that also you feel you resonate with, has the same values And, you know, someone that you just really feel kind of shares your heart for whatever it is you want to do. Go.

Was there no context there? Who should I talk to? That's the question?

Yeah, no context. But I'm assuming, you know, within the— he's asking who should I talk to maybe for help with business. He's a young entrepreneur.

Yeah. Yeah. So I agree with what Rishi said. To add something different, I would also say then people who you've never met, you can still learn a lot from. Aspirational mentors. I mean, that's why I created this channel. A lot of the content, that's what I focus on. I've learned a lot from people who are dead who I'll never meet. So don't have to limit your mentorship pool to just being just people who are alive right now.

Okay, number 3, what's something about business that you wish someone told you when you were 18. Oh, we're good.

All right, well, we just got beasted. We're gonna lose. We lost.

We're gonna lose.

Are you serious? Yeah, we're gonna— likely gonna lose. We'll see. Anyway, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. Probably. Okay, what was it? Advice for when you're 18?

Yeah, you want to just go?

No, no, you go, you go.

Okay, uh, this is Well, you know, at 17 it was such a huge, like, developmental becoming stage. So I think the most important thing I would have wanted to know when I was 18 was, you know, how to really value myself, take care of myself, and identify really who I am, my strengths. Because I think if you can do that, whatever you're doing, whether it's entrepreneurship or whatever, you are going to be That's kind of, I feel, your strongest asset is knowing who you are, what you love, and what makes you come alive. Go.

I don't really have a lot of regrets, but I think if I was going back, I would just say I wish I would believe in myself more. I had— I mean, I was always doing my own thing and always being the kind of off-the-wall creative kid, I guess. But I wish I did it more, faster. So believe in myself more than— like, I want this level of belief in myself when I was 18. Yeah, that would be crazy. So believe in yourself and your crazy ideas.

Good. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, 4, what is your biggest piece of advice for me if I actually want to thrive in business? I'm going to just say don't chase the money, do what you love, because when you're doing what you love, thriving I think will be inevitable, whether it's financial or just within yourself when you love what you do.

I agree. That's it. I agree.

Okay, last one. How did you go about finding a mentor, a role model, someone who would share their knowledge with you? And I would just say serve, service. If there's someone you really aspire to be, you really want to be, you know, get received from them, I find the best way is to add value to their life. Bring some kind of service to them, and then when they give you what it is that you— you know, when they give you the advice, actually put it to action. If this is someone that you want to keep getting advice from, they want to see that you actually do what it is that they give you advice to do. So don't waste their time.

Yeah, we lost It's very sad.

How sad? Yeah, I know. This is our first loss.

I think it's our— I still feel like it's our second, but we don't lose very often here. Yeah, I don't know what to say. I did okay, but my team lost. The team's not doing so hot, so— Yeah, that's it.

You should have— Oh, very sad.

How do I go about finding mentors? I, at the start, I sucked. I went to my banker asking for a mentor. Again, I would go to, I would go to the aspirational side. Let me just say GG. Oh, I've been disconnected. All right. I would go to the aspirational side and not just limited to people who you've met in person. I mean, Rishi's advice is great for the in-person stuff. I would add to that, just look at people who, who you look up to, and you can learn a lot from their success. If you see behind me, pictures of people, you know, mm-hmm, two of them are dead. I've learned a lot from them. The other two I haven't met. And then in the middle is my parents and me when I was 6 or 7. So I've learned a lot from people I've never met, and I would look to people who who inspire you for whatever reason and see what you can learn from them to apply to your life, both in terms of business lessons, practical tips, but also just the motivation to keep going because they likely started out with nothing and they have a story to tell. I've learned a lot from both the motivational side and the practical side by Mom and Success. One more? Or is that it?

That was it.

That was it.

We did it.

All right, well, it's very sad that we have this loss here. I'm staring at my defeat screen, but I appreciate all the questions, and hopefully we gave some value to entrepreneurs, even if we did not give enough value to the league game.

I love it. Believe, believe.

Rishi, y'all. Just before we go, what's new and exciting that you're working on for your channel?

I am just really excited. I am bringing more fun to my channel, which is really fun. Rishi Cupp TV is a place where good music, good fun, and good talk intersect. So if you want to check me out, I'm on YouTube.

Love it. And we have the link in the description. Well, thank you, Rishi. For the time. Thank you guys for watching and answering or asking the questions. And we'll do this again, I think on Friday with J-Rise. J-Rise is going to be in the house. So we'll do it Friday morning again. Thank you guys. Have an amazing rest of the week. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.