How To Master LinkedIn Influence | Alex & Evan's Podcast Video

Alright everybody, welcome back to another YouTube Hangout. Super excited to be here again with you. My last one of the day. It's been a fun ride today. I have a special guest, a repeat guest. We've got Alex back on with me. We had a great session before. Alex was talking about influencer marketing and we had a fun session. And he runs his own podcast called The Influencer Podcast and he wanted to have me on as a guest on his show and I said, "I'd love to, Alex." let's do it. And I thought, hey, why don't we make it as a YouTube video again so you guys could benefit and learn a little bit more about Alex again? So it's going to be simulcast, it'll be live here, and he's going to pull it for his, uh, his channel too. So Alex, before you do your usual intro and all that, can you just quickly remind everybody again what you're all about? Tell us about the podcast, and then the show is yours, man.

Absolutely, great to be on the show and interviewing you at the same time. So Uh, I, I'm the founder of Linkfluencer, which is now the world's largest online training platform for LinkedIn, as recognized by Huffington Post. Uh, I started the company with a mission to change and transform how entrepreneurs market themselves. So, um, that's a little bit about our background. We started the Influencer Podcast because I've seen that the direct, um, power and, uh, I guess the the benefits of building influence. And I think it is not a should, it's an absolute must for all entrepreneurs to be able to learn and then build their influence within their industry in order to, one, stand out, but two, be able to dominate their particular, uh, industry. So we started it to interview the world's best to understand how they built their influence so others can learn from them and leverage their experience. So That's the Influencers Podcast, and obviously we reached out to you because we believe you built phenomenal influence within your industry. And from what I can see, you've built your influence a different way than a few others that we've interviewed. So definitely think we're going to get some great insight here.

Alright, let's do it, man. I'm ready.

Alright, beautiful. So this will be episode 7 of the Influencers Podcast and Today I'm joined by Evan Carmichael, a serial entrepreneur who by the age of 19 had achieved, uh, something that most 19-year-olds would not. And I, I dare say most 30, 40-year-olds probably still haven't achieved what he did. And he sold a software company. Then at the age of 22, he became a VC, helping raise between $500K to $15 million. So, you know, achieved quite a lot at a young age, uh, and now he's running evancarmichael.com, which is a very popular website for entrepreneurs looking to learn and grow, um, both within themselves but also, uh, for their company. So he's a man on a mission who lives and breathes, you know, entrepreneurship, and he is obsessed with his goal, which I find very, very ambitious and exciting. and that's to help 1 billion entrepreneurs, you know, grow and develop, uh, uh, as, uh, within themselves. So Evan, uh, welcome to the show.

It's great to be here, Alex. Thanks for having me. Uh, you know, growing up, 7 was one of my lucky numbers because it rhymes with Evan. So I, I'm honored to be on episode number 7 of your show here.

And that was not pre-scripted. We just, that wasn't, we literally found that out. So that's awesome. Um, yeah, like I said, like, I've been obsessed with, uh, influence and the topic of influence and what builds influence. And I think a lot of people out there in the market, especially whether you're startup, and you know, there's some people who are listening to this show who are in their 40s and 50s and they don't know what that means. So can you— let's just start off with, before we kind of go into your story a little bit more, and, uh uncover what built your influence. What does influence mean to you and what does it mean to have it?

I think influence is a really valuable thing and also a potentially scary thing. It makes you really powerful and you have to decide how you're going to use that power. Like, like Spider-Man says, with great power comes great responsibility. And influence, I believe, is great power And, and what I see it as is the ability to, to help somebody down a path, to guide them on a path, to have control over some of the decisions that they make, um, or maybe you're making for them. And so, you know, the more influence you have, hopefully, you know, you're making decisions that are in other people's best interests and guiding them along their path. If I listen to you, Alex, and you give me great advice on something and, you know, you have, you have a lot of credibility and you have a lot of expertise and you tell me I need to do this, I'm going to trust you because you have influence. And so that trust is sacred and I'm going to now take action based on what you told me to do. And, uh, to me that's what influence is all about.

Absolutely, I agree. And I think, like I keep saying to people, whether you have influence or not, whatever article you put out, whatever post you put out, whatever video you put out, if it's not of the best quality and if you know that you didn't do that with 100% heart or you didn't do it with 100% responsibility, that knowing someone's going to read that and based on, you know, whatever content you share, they're going to make a decision. Now, that decision could completely change their viewpoint about business or particular direction they're heading. And if you don't, if, if you're irresponsible with your content and your influence, then you're actually doing people a disservice. So, um, it's interesting you say that because, you know, we all have a responsibility to change people's lives, and I think that's the whole reason why we're in business. So, um, yeah, what, what was, um, I guess it leads me to the next question. What was the key strategy for you in building your influence? I know that you have a big following on YouTube and obviously your website, EvanCarmichael.com now. So what was it for you? Take us back to where it all started and then what led you to where you are now.

Where it all started. I think at the start of every story is a lot of heart. And you've mentioned that word already a couple of times. I had a business, as you said, when I was 19, and I did not have a lot of success with it at the start. And I wanted to quit, and it was among the worst days of my life. And, you know, I finally found a way and made it through. We can get into that if you want to, but the heart for me was I didn't want other people to have to struggle through the same struggles that I went through, through the crazy lows of, you know, crying my face off and just feeling totally worthless. I didn't want other people to have to feel that. And so I wanted to try to share some of what I had learned to help them get over those humps. Um, in the early days of what I was doing, there was no business model. It was just straight up helping. It was making YouTube videos, it was doing speaking engagements, free stuff, uh, taking meetings, just trying to help other entrepreneurs, uh, get better. You know, when I sold my company, I didn't even know what I wanted to do yet. It was a great high, like, yeah, I sold my company, it was awesome, and then also feel like your kid just went off to college or something. Like, I didn't— I had all this time now.

You lost your baby.

I lost my baby. I didn't know what to do. And it's a good problem to have. I'm not complaining. But this is how I started spending my time. It's like, okay, well, I want to help other people get through those humps with hopefully not as much on the downside, because I almost quit, and that would have been That would have been really bad for me if I quit. And so I know a lot of entrepreneurs who do quit, who do give up too soon, who don't have the belief in themselves. And so that's the heart. That's where it started for me. And just seeing people with potential who aren't living up to their potential really fires me up, really gets me upset. I'm allergic to it. And so I want to— I want to try to pull that out of people. And so I've executed it through entrepreneurship since that's kind of what I have some knowledge about.

Awesome. And I think there's moments in our career that put us on a map. And I don't— you know, sometimes it's one big moment that then leads to, you know, more greater moments. And then there's times where it's a series of moments that really put you on a map, like I'm a big follower and believe in what Gary Vaynerchuk preaches. And, you know, he said that there was one talk that he did that really put him on the map and got, got things going for him. What was it for you? Was there a specific moment? Was there a series of moments where you thought, one, I'm building influence and two, this is what I really want to do for the rest of my life?

Yeah, the moment— it was a series of moments, but it all centered around finding out what my one word is. It's something— it's the topic of my book sitting here. But I believe everybody has something that they stand for and you need to figure out what that is before you can start living a life and running a business that's on purpose. And so I was having success, but I couldn't really— it was hard to articulate what I did. It was hard for people to spread my message. It was hard to really get a handle on what I was all about for myself. And so, like, I can't even figure it out. How is anybody else going to share it for me? Right. You know, and you need word of mouth. You need people to spread your message as an entrepreneur. You're not— I'm not taking out Super Bowl commercials, right? So if you can't even explain it, then it's going to be hard for anybody else to spread it for you. And so I went through this process and came up with, you know what, what I'm at my core all about is belief. I believe in people. I believe in their potential. And I believe in entrepreneurs specifically because that's what I have a passion for. And so once I found that, I thought it was actually too big an idea. Like, oh, that's too— like, who am I to be the Believe guy? It's such a big word. So many people have used it already. Like, it's too bold. So I needed to make it more specific. And the more I kind of sat with it, the more I just— I didn't like anything else besides Believe. So I said, you know what, I'm going to try to do this crazy thing and not just brand my business around Believe, but change my life around Believe, and the execution would be through my company as well. The first thing I did was I made it my newsletter. I had a newsletter list, and my next newsletter was about Believe, and, uh, that got a lot more traction. My best newsletter that I've ever put out. And my sister was the first one to reply, and she said, I really like your newsletter, I actually read it now. So that, that's Thank you, Stephanie, for that.

Yeah, that's, that's the aha moment when your sister says that I finally read your newsletter.

Yeah, I actually like your stuff now. Great. Okay. But, you know, sometimes it's something only a sister can say to you too. And then the next thing I did was a video around believe. And I use the example in my book where the, the best video that I had up to that point had 100,000 views. It took me a year to get there and I was so proud of it. Like, 100,000 views is such a great video. A lot of work went into it and it took a year to get there. And then I made a video about Believe and that video hit 100,000 views in a month and now has over a million views and it's continued to do well. And it's just like, this is it, you know, this is what I'm— this is how I'm supposed to be sending my message out to the world. And I'm not the like go all in on something at the start. I like to test and tweak and try and see. So the newsletter was the first thing, and then the video became the second thing. They're like, you know, this is working. Now I'm going to do this crazy thing and brand my whole business around Believe. And that's when everything really started to take off. If you look at from an influencer point of view, that's when I started getting a lot more traction, more views, more comments, more requests to do interviews and media and partnerships and all that stuff started to take off. Because I had built an audience up and people really understood my message for the first time.

And what do you— so for those listening out there that may not have built influence or might not even know that they've already built influence, how does one know that they're building influence? Uh, like, what are, what are some of the key factors that, you know, hey, I'm actually building influence now? And then two, um, had— what would be your top 3 tips for someone looking to build influence based on your experience?

Yeah, I think the ability to influence somebody really comes down to, do you have expertise in something that I'm— that I need? And do I trust that you have that expertise? I think those, those 2 factors are really important at the start. So you might listen to me around confidence issues or around entrepreneurship or around, you know, a whole bunch of other things. If you want to learn how to fix your sink, I'm not the guy to go to. You know, I know zero. I'm the least handy person maybe in the world. I know zero. And so, you know, my opinion counts for negative. Whatever I tell you to do, it's like, do the opposite. Because I don't have a track record of success there, and you don't trust my message there. And so I think Breaking that down, it's exciting because now everybody has the ability to be an influencer in something. You're good at something, you have skills at something that most people don't have, whether it's fixing sinks or entrepreneurship or piano or speaking or writing books or whatever it is. You're really good at something. And an easy place to start is even thinking, what do people come and ask you for help on? You know, look at your, look at your email box or your phone and like, what are people asking you to come help them do? Fix their computer or make them a recipe or whatever, because you already have some influence. Now it's taking that and maybe you're now only influencing the 10 people in your circle. And how do you explode that out by being an even greater expert?

Thousands, right?

By knowing more, right? Like you may know more about computers than your mom. And so she's helping. She's asking for help on computers. You know, if your friends are asking for help too, great. Now, how do you take that and be one of the best in the world around computers? And just your ability to have the domain expertise and the trust and credibility. The more you have both of those, then the more people will want to follow you.

Absolutely. And I guess on a side note, you know, I see a lot of people, you know, who are just starting off call themselves so-called experts and, you know, after 6 months they think they've built influence. So my question to you is, like, we can— if I was to use someone for their particular service, we can weave the cowboys and the sharks out very, very quickly because we've built the sort of experience to be able to tell whether someone is an influential person or if someone has just gone out there. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs that You know, when you do the research, when you look deep down inside, they've built nothing. And all they're trying to sell is an online program with no heart and no mission behind it. And they want to make money online without working any hours or any minutes at all a week. And that's what they're preaching out in the market. So how do we— how does one— let's say if you are giving advice to someone who's looking to get an influencer for a particular area of their business or hire that person or engage in their service, how do you identify what is an influencer? What are the key factors?

What was the expression you used? Cowboys and sharks, is that what you said?

Cowboys and sharks.

That must be an Australian thing, I've never heard of that, I like that. Weed out the cowboys and sharks.

It's an Aussie thing for, you know, Cowboys are always, you know, disrupting, but in a bad way. Yeah. And, you know, no one wants to be involved with sharks. So very dangerous waters.

Yeah. Interesting. I like it. I like, I like it. So how— you're asking if I'm an entrepreneur, if I'm running a business or I'm trying to hire an influencer, how do I know if that's the right person to go with? What are the factors to consider?

Yeah. And it might not be the influencer themselves. It might be a service that they're providing, but they're leading out from the front saying, yeah, uh, like basically we're an influencer, this is— we're an expert in this field, etc.

Yeah, so, uh, I like to start consuming stuff on a small scale to see how I feel about it and then move on. So if I'm looking at a potential influencer and saying, hey, is this— does this person know what they're doing, know what they're talking about, do I want to give my trust to to that person? Are they worthy of my trust and me now potentially spending dollars and more time and like referring my mom to follow this person too? Like, do I want to make that decision or not? I start consuming them in doses. So if you have a YouTube channel, I'm going to start watching your videos and see, do I resonate with them? Do they make sense? Did you— you know, if I watch an interview with you, Alex, and you're giving some LinkedIn tips, okay, Here's this guy, I never heard of him, Alex. Okay, he's giving LinkedIn tips. Okay, let me try it out. Let me try one of his tips out. Oh, it worked. Oh, it worked. Okay, cool. Alex, this is interesting. Who's this Alex guy? I want to learn more about this guy. And then I start digesting more of your stuff, right? And now I'm following your podcast and following your channels and following what you tweet about. So I'm looking for something that I can pull out as a small test to see, does it work? Did it provide value to me? Did it resonate with me somehow? And if it doesn't, then, then I'm moving on. But if it does, then I'm going to want to go deeper with you. And I think that's where you get the ability to sell, right? Like too many people, I think, sell too early. You're selling your ebook or mastermind or whatever before you build a relationship. Where— if Alex is now dishing out all sorts of great value on his podcast and Twitter and LinkedIn and all this great stuff, sharing knowledge is impacting me. And I'm thinking, man, I love what Alex is giving away for free. And now he has this paid program that's going to give me access where I can ask questions to Alex one-on-one or in a group setting. You know what? Like, he's already helped me a lot. I'm going to— like, it's not even— it's a no-brainer, right? I'm just going to say yes. Right. Exactly.

And I think another big thing for me, you know, as you're mentioning that, is obviously building a very powerful online footprint. Like when I Google your name, you know, first 5 to 6 pages of Google is just articles, podcasts, you know, publications you've been featured in. And you know, on— in the online world, there's this thing we call the moment of truth. So TMOT, the moment of truth, where you research someone and you're not— it's the, the beauty of the online space now is that You're no longer what you say you are, it's what Google says you are. And so if I Google your name and then you're telling me that you're an expert in HR, but then I can see articles of you, you know, plumbing and running a plumbing business 6 months earlier, then I'm going to rethink about whether you've all of a sudden became an HR expert within 6 months. I always say Google people, go to 4 pages deep, don't just look on the first page because some of these people that I know that I won't bring up their names because they're just not the best operators but they basically SEO their name and so all their great links will come up first and then the second and third pages are all the bad links. So always do your research and ask yourself, like Evan said, does the content make sense? And if I implement the content and look for those small wins in order to then develop that trust. So what was it— let's move on now. So what was the biggest obstacle for you in building your influence as you were trying to get traction because a lot of people listening on this show are probably trying to build their influence. They're looking for ways to really build their thought leadership, and a lot of people think at an early stage that it's a lot of content. I don't think it's a lot of content. I think it's strategizing the right content and the right amount of content per month based on where you are in your business. Like, if you're a startup, writing 5 articles a month probably is not the right deal because you got to get in front of people and you got to share your message in front of them. Now, that's my belief. What's your belief around, you know, one, how much content to share, but two, what was the biggest obstacle in you building your influence?

The biggest obstacle for me in building my influence was me believing that I was worthy of it. Was worthy of it. Okay. Yep. Much more than like how many videos I made or specific, like, yes, you need the strategies and attacks and all that stuff. It's super important. And we can dive into the details on that too, of what I did specifically. But it wasn't until I actually believed I was worthy of like, who am I to speak to this person I've never met? And I heard I have one sentence of context and then give advice. And that absolutely held me back for a long time. And in my earlier— you could track my YouTube career, the videos are still up. You can go back to my first one, however many years ago, 6, 7 years ago. A lot of the message that I have hasn't changed. It's still— I still talk about the same things I was talking about back then. As I've grown, like, some things might be a little different, but the main principles are all the same. I'm much more confident now. I believe in myself more. Uh, there's a lot more conviction in the answers. And as I started to gain confidence and more self-belief, my influence started to grow.

Yeah.

Regardless of if I had 1 video or 5 videos, um, it was me. It was the product, uh, that made the single biggest difference. There was a whole bunch of tactics and things underneath there, but for people listening, if they're trying to be an influencer, and they may, like thinking like, I can influence one person, great. Like I can influence that customer who came in and he'll listen to my message 100%. Going from that to thinking I can influence 1,000 people or 10,000 people or a million people, like that you, your message is that worthy, that's a mind trick, man. That twist, figuring that out. Yeah, I remember like for me, Even that, even the goal of helping a billion entrepreneurs, like believing that I can actually do that, believing that I could have such a force on this market that I could have that bigger reach. At the start, that wasn't my goal because I would have never thought that I was capable of doing that. And that was my own limitation.

And what was, what were some of the things that helped you build your confidence? Like, were there certain things you did that helped you build your confidence? Was it someone close to you, maybe a family member, a friend, said to you that started this ripple effect? What were some of the things that built your confidence?

The first step that was really crucial for me was just understanding that it existed. These limiting beliefs that you have are usually so just— they're just trapped in your subconscious. You just do it every day naturally. You don't even think about it. It's just, it's who you are. And so unless somebody or you find a way to shine a light on it and say, wait, you know what, I think what I'm doing here is actually really holding me back, then you're never going to change. So for me, one of the things that really held me back in the earlier days of this part of my adventure was I really have a need to make people feel like I gave them value. I hate the idea of wasting somebody's time. Like coming on your show here, I respect the invitation. If you felt like I was not giving you value on this podcast, your listeners, I would like hate myself, right? And that's a good thing in that it encourages you to push forward and give a lot of value and overdeliver. And I'm always early for meetings and all of that stuff. But the negative side was that I wouldn't say yes to things because I was afraid that I couldn't deliver the value. Or I would say yes to something and secretly hope that they would cancel on me. Wow. The day before. So like something as big as I got invited to go speak in Brunei in front of the prince and all of their national TV cameras and 1,000 people. And I'm, you know, when it's like 3 months out, you're like, oh yeah, no problem. And then like a couple of days before you're about to fly out and panicking and kind of hoping that they cancel on me. So that may be understandable on like that kind of big scale, but down to a micro level of a startup entrepreneur who wants to meet over coffee to talk about her business, I would still secretly hope that she would cancel on me even though I know I can help her. Like, I've done this a million times. I'm way further along the path than she is. I'm going to be able to give her value, and I'm still secretly hoping that she's going to cancel. And then after the meeting, I'm always like, that was so great, right? Like, I helped another entrepreneur. I feel so good. The, like, purest joy that I felt in my life, I was almost not doing because I wish that they canceled on me. And I wouldn't go so far to cancel on somebody else, but I was hoping that they would cancel on me. And that was a big, like, I just had to— what happened for me was I noticed that I would notice it later on in the day. I think this is what you do. It's the Monday morning quarterback. I don't know if you have that expression. Is that— Yeah. Okay. Monday morning quarterback. You analyze back on what you did wrong the day before. I think that's what you have to do. Like, once you identify this limiting belief, you realize it later. Like, I should have said that. Why didn't I just say that instead of this? I was too scared or whatever. And You don't realize it in the moment, but you realize it the next day. And then the more you realize it the next day, you get it closer and closer and closer. So now you're realizing it that afternoon, and then you're realizing it like 10 minutes after the conversation, and then you get to the point where you realize it in the moment, like it's happening right now. Like, Alex, I'm about to mess this up right now. I realize I'm about to screw it up, right? And then having the courage to realize that it's happening right now and I'm going to make the switch. And once you do that, you get used to that, then you release the limiting belief. And that was one of the biggest ones for me. The thing that I love doing most of helping entrepreneurs, I was holding myself back subconsciously and releasing that really did a big deal for me and also in terms of building my influence. Right. Absolutely. Yeah.

And I think, you know, when I, I, I always say that if your why is big enough, you know, you'll conquer anything. You'll go through hell and back. And I wrote an article and I've created this process called the inclination point. So anytime you start a new business or you want to achieve a particular goal, you write the goal down and then you ask yourself the question, why is it an absolute must to achieve this goal? And then you've got to write 45 reasons why you want to achieve that goal. Now, if you can't write 45 reasons, I like that. You don't want it. You don't want it bad enough. Like, touch wood, if my mom was going to hospital and they said, Alex, the only way you could get to hospital and save her life is to write 45 reasons, I think we could all, you know, come up with 450 reasons and I could do it within 30 minutes. I'd have a sore hand, but I could do it. So I've developed this process and basically if you can't write 45 reasons then you shouldn't be doing it. Plus when you write the reasons you actually uncover the exact motives on why you want to achieve this mission. So when you're going through the hard times you actually look— like this is what I do, I've written 85 reasons why I want Linkfluencer to be the world's best company when it comes to LinkedIn training. When I have hard times because let's face it, I'm not a robot. We all have hard times. It's a roller coaster. I look back at those and it helps me move through. And then there are times where there's, you know, you might get a little bit arrogant because things are going so well and, you know, business is skyrocketing. That actually humbles you as well. So I'd highly recommend, you know, if you haven't read that article, it's called The Inclination Point. It's on my Huffington Post column. Definitely read it. Going back to what you said earlier as well, I think it's— I find it fascinating that you have the same belief around valuing people's time, and I think a lot of people just don't do that. I actually get up in my— the first thing I say whenever I present, I say, "This hour presentation will be the most impactful presentation this year within your business." If it's not, I want you to talk to me and tell me why. And then I start off with that. So we're obviously thinking on the same, same wavelength there. And so which kind of leads me to— so obviously having belief is important. You know, you've taken certain steps. Take, take me through some of those strategies that helped you build your influence. What were some of the key drivers?

Yeah, I got it. So I think it's super important for people who want to build influence to figure out what method is going to be best for them. 'Cause there's so many different ways you can do it now. There's so many different platforms that you can be on that if you try to do all of them, you're going to suck at all of them and not have success. Where I think it's— Absolutely. It's a stress for a lot of, especially entrepreneurs, they feel like you got to be on every social media site. You got to be creating content everywhere. Oh, and by the way, you got to run your business too. And it just becomes overwhelming and they don't do anything. And so—

or they hide behind content. That's true as well. Yeah.

Yeah. So I'll be looking at which, which platform best suits you, your style. My, my preference is video. I like video. I'd rather be on video than I would be writing something or taking pictures. And so that that obviously leads me down a YouTube path, right? But I could have— if I loved writing, I could have had the same success being a columnist, the same influence being a columnist. Or if I could do really short messages, I could have a great influence on Twitter and, and be out there. So I think it's first, uh, figuring out what you're really good at and where you want to get better at, where you want to really learn and develop and grow. Me being a visual learner was naturally go to, to videos, and then combine that with where your audience is. So you don't necessarily need to be a big name to carry a lot of influence, right? Like, you might only want to influence this small section of people, right? If you could influence all the people who are world leaders and be an executive coach for world leaders, you don't need to have a mass market influence. You don't necessarily need to have a YouTube show. You just need to figure out how do I gain influence of those 100 people in the world, right? And so for whatever market you're at, and that could be insanely powerful, important. So for me, I wanted to reach quantity. I wanted to have mass reach. But you don't— it's not the right thing to do. It's just the right thing for me. So don't freak out and feel like you have to have, you know, a massive YouTube show or a massive LinkedIn presence or whatever, right? You could crush it on just on LinkedIn and be part of one specific niche and just be the person to go to and make a crazy career and have a lot of influence and a big impact on the world just by being the best at that one thing. Um, absolutely.

So basically you're saying 3 things: figure out, uh, what you want to do, which platform best suits you, and then, uh, does that platform suit the target market?

100%.

Absolutely. Awesome. And what, what are the some small steps? Let's say someone's sitting, um, watching this video and hearing this podcast. What are— what would be 3 steps that you would take to right now, or today, or this week, um, that would help build influence?

So once you've decided the network that you want to be on, where you want to establish your influence, the next thing I would start looking at is, okay, how do I get started? Yep, it's great to plan But like, you got to do something. Do something. Like, get started, take an action, and expect it to suck. And this is where people fall down a lot because like, somebody listen to your show as an example, right? Okay, Alex is a great host and, you know, he asks great questions and he gets these great guests and I listen to it and I go home and I want to take, you know, immediate action on stuff. And people may— they know what a good podcast now sounds like. And then they go and they try to make their own and they're going to fail at it, right? Like, hi, you read it. Oh, you're like just making mistakes and stumbling and nervous and, you know, and it's not the gear and it's not the, you know, sound effects and all that. It's just like, you will suck at the start of anything. You know what is good. And then, you know, that you can't make that yet. And so that's where a lot of people quit. They see these great podcasts and then they say, well, I'm never going to be like Alex, or I'm never going to be like whoever. It's like, well, Alex has been doing this for a while. Yeah, you know, I've been making— I have 3,000+ videos. Don't expect to be at my level when you're first starting out. Your first video will suck. Fine, great. Absolutely. Do it again tomorrow, another day, right? The quantity leads to the quality. Absolutely.

And, and do you know what I always even say to go— like, let's say someone wants to crush it on YouTube. I would tell them, go and look at Evan Carmichael's first video. And then go and look at the quality of the videos he's got now and then understand that there is a path to success and that is continuous improvement like you were saying. The only time you see success before— sorry, the only time you see— what did I say? What's that saying? Geez, I forgot it now. We'll come back to it anyway. It doesn't matter.

Make it up and we'll call it an Australian saying. It's an Aussie thing. Sharks!

Yeah, yeah, um, sorry, so you were saying?

No, I mean, I did a video on this not so long ago on my channel, uh, it's one of my 7 ways videos, I think, 7 ways to have unshakable self-belief. And I started the video by then showing me 3 years ago, 2013, and then what people are used to now. And just in the span of 3 years, you see such a big difference in this guy who's on camera. And that's not that long a time in terms of time periods, but it's also thousands of videos. And so you put in the work and you'll see the difference. And if you use my story as an example, it's great. But you, like any, any YouTuber, you go back and look at their first videos and they're gonna suck. But by putting in the work and the hustle and the grind, slowly your tastes catch up So like, so your abilities catch up to your taste. Like, your, your ability to create something amazing will now match with what you think is amazing from other people, but it takes a while to get there.

Absolutely. And I think it's that— it's also the mindset of wanting to be the best. Like, I always say that the biggest competitor is yourself, and I, I want to actually be the best I can be as an entrepreneur, so I understand that even now I'm probably 5% of what I want to be. So it's always that gradual improvement and nothing is perfect overnight. You just got to keep working at it. What would be— so in terms of working at it, what are some of the biggest mistakes you've made? Let's say top 3 that you would— you know, what are those top 3 mistakes and what are the lessons learned within those mistakes that other people can learn from, so obviously they don't make it themselves.

Interesting. I don't know that I've been asked that. I don't know that I reflect much about mistakes, uh, just kind of like keep going forward on them. Um, I think so in terms of building in—

or why don't we, why don't we reframe it instead?

I like it, I like it. I want to— I want to— I like the challenge. I like this. And, and specifically about building like a community and building influence So if I'm looking at what I do, I think number one, just making excuses. You know, I can't be on YouTube because I don't have the gear, I don't have the right camera, I don't have, you know, I'm not an editor, I'm not, you know, whatever. I've got an accent. Sure, I've got an accent, you know, all of the excuses, and it's just fear. It's just fear. It's just another limiting belief, one that I didn't necessarily recognize early on, like, I can't do it myself, so I need somebody with me. I think fear holds people back, and the solution, I think, for that is just find a smaller way to do it and release the expectation of just like expect it to be crap. Great. Like, just keep going, do another one. I think lack of consistency in the early days was another problem that held me back. Um, you know, I might do a video a week and then, and then wait 3 weeks and then do, then do another video, and then back to video a week, and then wait 2 months. And then there might have been like a 10-month stretch of no videos, or, you know, I think that was my longest, something in there. Um, so I wasn't consistent, uh, you know, like you're not seeing the results fast enough and You know, that I think not being so attached to the— like enjoying the process more, not being so attached to the goal, being addicted to the views and subscribers and, you know, the, the numbers, but like enjoying the work. When I started enjoying the work more, I got more consistent. And by being more consistent, I also got better.

It's the person you become, not, not the— in the process, not the end outcome that's most important because someone who's, you know, failed 4 businesses and built that character is a lot more powerful than someone who has never started. So, you know, because then they've got the pedigree and they've got the character to be able to launch something new, even though they would have lost all their money. They've still got that character that they've built up. Would you agree?

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, you have to figure out your style. You're so nervous on the front. I remember in making some of my first videos, I used to— I used a DSLR camera that I had, and it wouldn't autofocus, so I had to have my sister or someone on my team come in and focus and then leave the room because I couldn't do a video with somebody there because I'd be afraid of them, like they're gonna judge me. I'm nervous. I'm already nervous enough looking at the camera. So then they'd have to leave the room, and then every time I did a video, I have to do that. Okay, I'm gonna stand on the spot, you come in. Okay, focus. Great. Okay, leave. Close the door. Okay. Hi guys, you know, and then start talking. Other crutches too, like I used to always have to go to the coffee shop and get a big coffee. I felt like I needed the external juice to get me fired up, right? To bring the energy, like I couldn't do it on my own. I need the caffeine or whatever, like that sugar helped me get excited. And looking back on those videos, I'm not actually that excited, but I felt at the time that I needed it, I guess. Yeah, but it's just part of the process. I think, I think just being consistent and not putting so much pressure on it being great. Nobody told me that it didn't have to be good, you know, and that it's just part of the learning process. Because I would look up to a Tony Robbins or a Les Brown, like, man, look at these guys, look at how great they are speaking, and look at, look at me, man, I'm sucking over here. And you start to feel depressed. But then, like, nobody told me that's okay.

And how did you— how did you become more consistent? What was some of the things you put in place? Was it a mind shift? Was it certain things you did that formed a habit?

It's a great question. I have to think back because we did— I did a whole bunch of videos and then I stopped for like a 10-month period. I did one. On Walt Disney, and that was my last video for a long time. And then why did I pick it back up? I don't know. You're going to— you're making me do— I'm going to dream on this now. Like, Alex is keeping me up at night with his questions. I try to figure out why I got stepped back, started. And I think— I think the start back in was just answering questions. I think it was just— I was getting questions from people on emails and I would write to everybody back on email, but it would take like, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes on an email that was in-depth. And when you get one a day, it's fine. But when you're getting, you know, tons a day, now it becomes like I can't get back to people. So I thought, you know what, I'll just turn these into videos and started doing video replies to people. And I think, I think it was just the release of the pressure. I think it was just, you know what, like this isn't designed to go out and reach a million people. I'm just answering the question for Jim, and Jim will see it, and maybe some other people will see it. And so I'm okay if it doesn't— if it's not amazing. And so absolutely kind of expecting to suck and releasing that pressure of like being— yes, wanting to be great, but also not putting so much pressure that it makes me quit.

Um, yeah, it's, it's one of those things like I always say, you know, do whatever it takes to achieve a goal, but be happy regardless of the outcome. So a lot of people go into a sales call and they go, they attach all these emotions to it if they get it and if they don't. So for instance, if the guy doesn't buy from me or if she doesn't enroll in our program, I'm going to be disappointed or they're going to be ecstatic. I just think, okay, So if that person signs up with you, then they're part of your mission. So if they don't, then they're not part of the mission. And therefore it's okay. Like, I'm still— I'm alive. I'm not dead. I can just— and I live by this motto: some will, some won't. So what? Someone's waiting. Someone is always waiting to hear your message. That person is not, you know, doesn't reflect or love what you have to say. Who cares? Move on. Someone's waiting. So anyway, that's a bit of a rant.

I like the Alex rant.

And when you think of the word— we're going to the quickfire round, this is the last question. When you think of the word influence, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

When I think of the word influence, what's the first thing that comes to mind? I just, I don't, for some reason I just think religion. For some reason, I don't know where that's coming from, but I guess it is like, you know, you go and you're preaching. Yeah, well, like you go and whatever religion you are, you go to, you go to your church or church equivalent and you're there to hear the gospel or the message that's supposed to influence you to go off and do something. So I guess we should all be creating our own religions of our values. So I don't know, that's random, but there you go.

There you go. A first here on the Influencers Podcast.

Religion. Religion. Episode 7. Yeah, that's where it's at.

Here we go. All right, so we're going to enter the quickfire round. Less than a minute to answer 5 questions. Are you ready? Do it. All right. What's the best book you've ever read?

Uh, Radicals and Visionaries.

Radicals and Visionaries. Who's that? Who's that, uh, by?

Thaddeus Wadrow. It's out of print. You can't—

all right, it's out of print. I'm sure you'll be able to find it.

4-Hour Workweek is my 1B.

Okay, done. What's, what's at the top of your bucket list?

What I'm doing right now.

All right, awesome. What's the best What's the best productivity app you have ever used and why?

I don't use productivity apps.

You're just productive.

I don't— yeah, I don't know. I could be more productive. I just don't use productivity apps.

All right. So who's your— who was your idol growing up and why?

Earliest growing up are my parents on the wall behind me. They taught me believe is them. My mom's last name is Castrilli, my dad's is Carmichael, and they taught me I'm a Castrilli Carmichael and I can do anything that I wanted.

Okay, nice. Uh, the one sentence, quote, or moment that's made the most impact in your life and why.

One sentence, quote, or moment.

Loving these questions.

Nothing comes to mind immediately, so I don't know if there's one sentence. I have a lot, but like one that comes immediately to mind, um, could it be the one word, believe? I think of Calvin Coolidge, like he's behind me on my desk. And he says, persistence alone is omnipotent. Where like, it doesn't matter how smart you are, how genius you are, how much talent you have. It's just about persistence. Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. So persistence alone is omnipotent is an old Polish way of saying something. But if you read the whole thing, it, uh, it's impactful.

There you go. Very, very profound. And what— there was one piece of advice you could give your younger self, what would that be?

You're Evan Carmichael, you can do anything you want.

Nice, nice. And I guess we're gonna, we're gonna end the show soon, but If there was, like I always say, don't— like, I would never ever go to a seminar. I would never ever go to a networking function, read an article, watch a video unless I'm going to do one. Like, it might even just be one small thing that I learned that I go and then implement. And I think a lot of people absorb content for the sake of feeling that they're growing, but really Content without action to me is worthless. I'd actually rather know less if I'm not going to act on it. So what's your one piece of advice that you would give to people around absorbing content?

Just try to take something that's been said and find the smallest way to do it today. I think it's easy to get lost and, you know, listen to Alex's show. I'm sure you have like all these big ideas, these big campaigns, and like, we're going to go on LinkedIn and have this amazing content strategy and build our influence. And you build this grand plan out and then like, okay, tomorrow I'm going to start on my plan. And then, and then you don't do anything. So it's like, never lose sight of, of a goal or the, the, the creation of a goal without taking some kind of action towards achieving that goal. So as soon as you set a goal, that's not enough. Some tiny small action towards achieving that goal. If it's an email, if it's a phone call, if it's setting a meeting, if it's setting up your LinkedIn account, like whatever it is, any time you set a goal in your life, do something, one small step immediately to get a little bit closer.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's momentum, right? It's what— like, I don't know what it is about momentum, but like strange things happen when you're, when you're in flow. And I wish you could, you know, there was a formula where you could go, okay, and there probably is, and that's execution, because execution to me builds flow. And there will be adversity within that execution period. But I just think, you know, if your why and mission is big enough like yours, like 1 billion people, that's a big, big mission. And that's exciting. Like, I'm not even, you know, my mission isn't 1 billion, but that excites me even listening to another entrepreneur or seeing another entrepreneur wanting to make that sort of impact in the world. And I think that's what excited me about having you on the show. Um, and I think that's what a lot of people are missing. I find a lot of people are in business just to sell and make money, and that's one of the reasons why a lot of entrepreneurs are now failing, because they have this expectation around generating revenue rather than saying, like you are, Evan How do I impact 1 billion people? And then obviously you're smart enough to know, okay, in return, you know, I'm going to monetize this certain ways to be able to build the life I want. And so what would be the advice you have for entrepreneurs before we conclude the podcast and the show here today?

Sure. Big decisions with the heart, small ones with the head. Any of the big decisions that you want to make in your life, the big decisions, what, you know, who you're going to marry, where you're going to live, what business you're going to start, your career path, anything that's really big, you make with your heart, where most people do the opposite and they make it with their head. And so the head only understands a world that currently exists because it's logical, right? That's what the head does. You look at what's around you, said, this is what's possible, where the heart can create something that has never been created before. And especially for the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are listening to this podcast. If you want to go out and do something big that's never been done before, the logical thing is that it's not possible because it's never been done. It's the whole point, right? And so all the people around you and the voice inside your head, the head is saying, don't do it. So big decisions with the heart and then use your head as the practical side to help you figure out the steps on how to go and do it.

That's probably the most impactful statement I've heard on our podcast. Say that again for us and please write it down. I don't know, get a tattoo, have it front and center. It might be a Post-it note, might be up on your wall. Give it to us again and please write this down and remember this always, every day.

Episode 7, guys. Big decisions. With the heart, small decisions with the head.

There you go. All right. So thanks for joining us on the show and obviously having me as part of your show at the same time. If you guys want to find out more about Evan, you can go to his website, which is evancarmichael.com. It will be in the show notes as well. The articles on there and the content on there is phenomenal. You know, This, this guy's dedicated his life to helping you become the best you can be. And I think any time you get the opportunity to engage with a person like that is, is a privilege and not a given right. So I'd definitely be going to the website, checking out the articles and getting involved in the mission, obviously connecting with him and watching some of these YouTube videos because they're phenomenal as well. So really appreciate your time. and it was great to have you on the podcast.

Thanks for the love, man. I appreciate it.

Anytime.

Cool, man. That was really good. And then, so, you know, for my audience here, what time is it for you? I keep forgetting, like, you're— it's like 5 in the morning or something for you there.

No, no, we started at 7.

Oh, is it 7? Okay, it's not that bad then. It's not that bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I thought it was like crazy early. Whole daylight saving everything. Good. I, I, man, I'm— that, that's— you did well, man. 7 in the morning, I, I would be, uh, that, that'd be a rough start for me. So you did well. Now for people watching, like, where, where are they, uh, like, when is this show coming out on your podcast? What, what's more details there?

Uh, I think we're banked up for November with the other two podcasts, so I think this one would be coming out in December and we'd probably put it like first or second week of December because then we head into like Christmas and no one is really— I think people are just starting to tune out. So this will probably be first or second week of December. We won't be tuning out, but people will.

All right, dude. Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm doing 5 to 9 videos a day all through December, bro. It's a full-on force, man. Yes. Okay. Influencer Podcast, where are they going? Is it to the Linkfluencer or they just going to the iTunes or what's the best way to find it?

Yeah, they're going to iTunes and then it will also— so basically how we'll promote this podcast is we'll send it to— we'll put it up on our blog, which is blog.linkfluencer.com. We'll then send an email to our subscriber list. We've got over 18,000. They'll go on hear it there. We'll also have it on iTunes. There'll be show notes and everything that we'll create, so we'll send you the link as well for you to be able to share it too. Cool.

Well, thank you, Alex, for the opportunity. Thank you guys so much for joining and watching. Hope you have an amazing close to the week. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.

Beautiful. See you guys.