How to Start a Business You Love | 60 Minutes of Practical Advice

Alright everybody, welcome to another League of Legends plus ask me anything business advice with my co-host Rishi Cupp TV. Welcome aboard, Rishi.

Thanks so much, Evan. Hi, Believe Nation. Hi, everyone.

We're on back-to-back days. This is serious.

I'm loving it. I hope you're loving it because I'm loving it.

It's getting serious. It's getting serious. Yesterday was all about raising capital. and turned up a little bit. Actually, I had to go nap after that session yesterday. Seriously, because I had a whole day of Hangouts and interviews and calls.

I know.

I need to break. I need a break after my 4-hour sleep. It was good. It was good. It was a fun day yesterday.

It was fun, and I caught some of those Hangouts. They were on fire.

Nice. All right, well, I'm making sure this is online. It says I'm streaming, but it's showing offline on Twitch. I'm gonna load up a game.

I do see you, so you are live on my end.

Nice. All right, let's load up a game, see if we can get our Teemo jungle on. And, uh, what's this one? Oh, oh, this is new. The queue is faster if you go support. Well, that's no surprise. All right, let's hit up our first question. What do we got?

Let's do it. Our first question comes from Victoria, and she is trying to break into the curve modeling industry, and she also would really like to start her own business, in particular her own lipstick line or her own lipstick range, and she was wondering if you have any advice or information how she could do this.

She wants to start up her own lipstick line?

Her own— yep, she wants to get into the curve modeling industry, and then from— she also wants to start her own lipstick.

What was the first one? What model industry?

Curve modeling.

Curve modeling, okay.

Yeah, so curve modeling, from what I understand, is— I mean, I don't know if they call it more plus-size models, but—

right, right, right. Okay, that's cool.

All right, so, uh, the first thing that came to mind for you, Victoria, is start a YouTube channel. Um, 'Cause it, it would just be so fun, especially since you're in the beginning of your journey, uh, and there's going to be so many people out there who probably have a similar desire and would be really inspired to see your journey and your process. So even from starting a video that says, hey, I don't know what I'm doing, but this is what my dream and my goals are. And, um, that obviously then is a great way to start, um, a brand. And even if you don't know that right off the bat, you're starting to get people from familiar with you and with modeling and with makeup. And one of my favorite makeup YouTubers, actually, uh, from just their own YouTube channel and working really hard and, and making amazing videos, you know, they started their own, uh, I think they have their own— he has his own line of brushes now, cosmetic brushes, and I don't know if he has lipstick, but, um I just think that's a great place to start. And then I'd also, in the meantime, I would look for someone to work with or mentor me in that. Maybe, you know, another person who's started their own brush or their own lipstick or their own eyeshadow. Get with someone who's done it before. What do you think, Evan Carmichael?

Um, I like it. I'm thinking, I'm wondering just how distracted it's going to be to try to create two products at the same time. Um, I gotta ban a champion. Who am I gonna ban? I'm gonna ban Yasuo.

Um, so you think between going, trying to break into the curving modeling industry and also starting our own lipstick range might be too much? At once.

My worry is that it's just gonna take up— yeah, it's gonna be, it's gonna be too much to do all at once and you'll just end up being mediocre at both instead of dominating one thing. I would try to figure out which one I'm most passionate about and go all in on that. Once you have a name, whether it's being a model, having a YouTube channel like Rishi suggested, it's way easier to create product around it. People will buy your lipstick because of who you are, because of the fan base that you've built up. And so from a, from a practical point of view, that one makes the most sense of starting with the modeling, the curve modeling, getting the channel up, getting your name out there, becoming a brand that people recognize, a name that when people see, they know who it is, having a fan base, and then creating product that you love. Around lipstick or whatever the next thing is. But, you know, the practical thing is not always the best thing to do. Like, if the lipstick is what you love and that's your biggest passion, then you could do that and you could be in the lipstick commercials and you can model for, you know, your lipstick ads. And if you're doing website, you know, your face is on there. But But I think for now I would pick one and have the other one take a back seat. It doesn't mean you're not thinking about it, you're not looking for opportunities, but take a back seat so you can focus on having the success that you're after. If you're going for the modeling, I agree, I think getting your name out there, having a YouTube channel, doing a bunch of free work, you know, like getting on Craigslist and seeing what people are needing. Models for, for videos, for photo shoots, student projects, just building up your portfolio. And one opportunity leads to another, leads to another. I mean, I found my video guy who comes in and shoots me every Wednesday for my channel on Craigslist. And now we've— oh wow, now we've worked, I don't know, for over a year together. I auditioned a couple people and he was the one I liked the best, and then we've been working together for a while. So you need to build up your portfolio. You need to be able to see the stuff that you've done and work on as many projects as possible and start meeting people in the industry. And so that's an easy way just to get started. And, you know, expect not to get paid at the start. Um, kind of the process just to build your name. If you're doing the lipstick launch, I'd be looking at like what's different about your lipstick. What's— is it the ingredients, is it the process, is it the branding, is it the messaging, right? If it's the ingredients, then you might have to create your own lipstick at home and figure it out and then go and get it manufactured. If it's just the messaging and the branding, you might be able to license or buy existing lipstick lines. And just package it and label it with your own messaging. So depending on what the intent of starting that lipstick line is, there's a couple different options to go with. Mm-hmm. But I would definitely try to think about what your message is if you're going with the lipstick line, how the marketing is gonna be different than the ones that are already out there, how you want women to feel when they're putting on your lipstick instead of other people's lipstick. 'Cause there's so many lipsticks out there that you need to be able to differentiate yourself.

Yeah, absolutely. A lipstick with a message. Alright, so next question comes from Ask, and I hope I'm saying that name right, Ask, I'm sorry if I'm not. So, ask— this is a little bit more of an in-depth question. Evan sent you a 14-page document called Epic Step-by-Step Guide to Lower Price by Lead. And so he basically is making a guide for his customers and wanted to get your feedback in regards to this document. And we've got some bullet points of questions. Do you want me to ask you those specific questions?

Sure, let's hear it.

Okay, the first question is, and pertains to making this better, does he add more data-driven arguments or reasoning? Does he— I know that for our listeners this is a little bit out of context, 'cause you guys can't see the document. But the next question is— I can't either. Well, this is probably a good time too to say that those of you guys who are asking, you know, questions to Evan, who is, I know, gosh, I mean, jam-packed all day, every day changing the world. If you want to get your questions answered and you know that someone has got a lot of things going on, maybe sending an email with a very large document to get feedback isn't the best approach.

How many questions were there?

Well, there were 5 questions.

Okay.

4 questions. And I guess since you don't have the document, I don't know if there— I guess you let me know how you would answer this question. And then the third question is he has an analogy in the document that he wanted feedback on. And then he had a question about the headline.

Okay. What do you think?

So I guess what I would just— my feedback probably for Ash is This is a great lesson, I think, for how to be— how to really leverage or get the most out of getting feedback from people who are— who are— who you're aspiring to, you know, be or get feedback from. And realizing that most of the time people may have literally only 10 seconds to glance at an email. And so the likelihood— actually, we were talking about this yesterday, or Tuesday, Evan, when one of the people, one of the questions was about trying to get Oprah's attention. And so realizing that people who are super, super, super world-changer busy people, if you send them something and you want feedback on it, the likelihood is that maybe you'll get a little bit of time for them to check out your email or your call. So I would just give feedback more specifically to ask about when you want feedback from someone who's super busy, super on purpose, try to figure out a way to make it really quick and easy for that person to give you the feedback that you need because I'm not speaking for you, Evan, but if I got a 14-page document and I was super, super busy, I don't know that I'd be able to even open it up. So that's my kind of tough love.

Rishi's dishing it out. Rishi's dishing it out today. So update on the game here. I'm playing Heimer Mid, so it's not my usual character, but we'll see how it goes.

And I just want to say too that I've done that before. Like, I've made the assumption that someone has all the time in the world to like hear my problems.

Right.

And the reality is everybody's trying to do stuff. So it's not that people don't care, but it's just we've got to realize that we have to be a little bit realistic, especially with people who are really super on purpose, like I know you are.

Yeah, and I agree, it's kind of some tough love. And I want to give you an example maybe in looking at when I was getting Gary Vaynerchuk to endorse my book and how that kind of came about. I first met Gary— this might be a bit of a long story, but hopefully it's helpful. I first met Gary when I was making a line of entrepreneur trading cards back in 2010, and I asked him to recommend who his favorite famous entrepreneur was so I could add that to his own card. And I didn't connect with him for another couple years. I was really at the time, I wasn't like a huge fan, just looking at, just looking at famous entrepreneurs and wanted to make this line of cards, and he was one of 30 people that were part of a the blog series. I wanted to then, as I learned more about him, like maybe 4 years later, get more involved, you know, help him out, ask him some questions, get on his show as that came about. And every time I emailed him, it never— it didn't lead anywhere. I didn't get a response. And the key thing there that really helped me was I did things differently. So the next thing I did with Gary was I made a thank you Gary video where I connected with 50 of his fans who made a video saying thank you for all the work that he had done. Now to get 50 people to make a video It means I had to contact hundreds of people, right? Like, 50 people actually responded with a video. So that's a lot of work, right? You know, it's a lot of back and forth. It was an insane amount of effort. But it got his attention. It got noticed. He cared, right? Because nobody else put in that kind of work to reach him.

Wow.

And then I wrote to him to say some questions for his show to try to get on, that kind of stuff. And I still didn't get a response on that, but he did email me a thank you for making the thank you video. So I had his email, so that was a good start. What happened next was I made the Top 10 Rules for Success. Of him. He was trying to promote his book at the time. It was good exposure for him, and that worked out really well. And again, he wrote back and said thank you, and it helped give him some exposure for the book. And then I wanted to have him on my show, and we did an interview. We ended up doing an interview a while ago, maybe a month ago. I wanted to have him on my channel to talk about what he was up to, promote the book. Do an interview. And he didn't respond. And then I saw an email, a video, one of his videos talking about how he likes super short emails and he likes doing business just in the subject line. So I wrote him an email just in the subject line saying, "Hey, love to have you on the show. Got 300,000 subs. Let's do it. Let's promote your book." And he wrote back and he said yes. And so think about the amount of work that went into that. It's like, if there's somebody who you want to get on their radar, they're not going to read a 14-page document and then answer 5 questions for you, right? Unless, unless you've done something insanely crazy to help them, unless they know you from somewhere, it's not something that most people are going to do. And Gary, you know, I gave a lot of love to Gary and it took a long time to get any kind of impact and reach there, but I also wasn't offended. I also didn't feel like, you know, this guy owes it to me, you know, I did this for him, he better respond, we better, you know, he better do this. I recognize that he's a busy guy, he's got a lot going on, and I just put it on me to— I need to stand out more, I need to do better. So one, if you are reaching out to people, you know, I make an effort, I think more than most, to try to respond to questions and be engaged. Most people don't respond to their comments, respond to questions at all. So you might have an easier time getting a hold of me, but still, I'm not going to read a 14-page document and then answer 5 questions, right? And hopefully that doesn't upset you, but it's important.

It is, yeah.

I'm in the middle of a fight. I gotta kill! And I died.

You actually look— oh wow, I was just about to say you look like you're doing exceptionally well today.

Yeah, I died. I died. It was okay. I was doing well and then I— anyway, I got one kill and I died too, so It's okay. So lessons learned from that story. One is—

That's a great story.

Add more value, right? If you want to get on somebody's radar, add more value, right? I should look at their email and say, oh, it's an email from this guy. I have to open it, right? Like if Rishi sent me an email asking me to look at a 14-page document, I would. 'Cause Rishi's added a lot of value, right? So if you're trying to reach out to somebody, add more value, make your name recognizable. If they see your name, it should be something that is— they know who you are, right? And maybe you feel like I should know who you are, I don't know, but I don't. So you got to add more value. Second, make sure that you are keeping your ask easy, right? Like, if you just asked me one question, I probably would have— I gotta kill. Nice. If you ask me one question, I probably would have just answered it, uh, without reading the 14-page document. I probably would have just answered it to try to help. But because you made it so hard to answer, you're asking for too much time, then I can't. So one, add more value. Two, keep your ask easy. And that'll improve the chances. Now let's try to help them out with one of the questions.

Yeah.

It's a 14-page document that is— what's the purpose of it?

So it's called The Epic Step-by-Step Guide to Lower Price by Lead. So, you know, with— I guess without having the document in front of you, are there some maybe essential elements that you feel are really important to include in a guide for your customers? I mean, we could kind of make it general for— because, you know, people are always wanting to improve their, their, their guides or whatever it is that they're Providing for their customers.

It's like a free bonus PDF download kind of thing for customers.

Yeah.

Got it. Okay, so whether you use it for like a newsletter list or you're just having it as something on your website, general things I would suggest. One, most importantly, make it something that you're proud of. Make it something that if you— uh-oh, I'm going to die. I died. Very sad. Make it something that you're proud of. Like, what are the things that, that are really important? Like, it's not just a sales document, but there's a lot of value in there. What are some of the common things that customers are asking you that you see as problems that is really different about your business? Don't just throw together a bunch of things that aren't really going to add a ton of value. Make it again something that you you are massively proud of. Like, this is gonna be— this is gonna help a lot of people. Then you may be wrong, like it may not help, it may not be super valuable, but at least you think it is. So that would be— of all the things, like whether you add more data, whether you add more, you know, testimonials or stories or facts and figures or whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. There's different kinds of styles that people like. Some people love the graphs in the stories, some people love the pictures. Honestly, your style, if you write and create in your style, you'll attract customers that appreciate that style and feel the same way. Just make sure that it's something that you love and you're proud of. Most important thing with the document that you're creating. Not just for marketing purposes, but there's a ton of value in it.

That's awesome. Yeah, definitely something that will really catch people's attention. I mean, there's so much, so much already out there that you really have to— I think, too, it comes back to a little bit of that one word and being able to put that in anything, right? Like having— because I see anything that you put out, Evan, it's always still got a focus of purpose in some way. Yeah. I don't know if that helps, but ask if you're at all familiar with the book that is in pre-launch right now, Evan's book, One Word, just talks about being really— well, I'm not going to say what it talks about because you should buy it. But I think the most important thing is just like really have a clear focus on what you feel is your purpose and vision in the midst of your business, because I think that You can infuse that into anything, whether it's a guide or a, you know, any freebie that you're offering your customers. It just kind of brings it all together and gives it a focus. So thanks for the question, Ask. Next question, are you ready for it?

Hit me up.

Next question, it comes from Damian, and Damian says, "As you know, Evan, I'm a big fan of your work. I was wondering if I could request some entrepreneurs for the top 10 rules for success." And, well, I think that's a pretty common question, and people are always making requests. So Evan, have you changed how people make requests, or people still just make requests in the comments of their videos?

Yeah, the best way is in the video. My team picks it up. So what happens with— you know, I want every comment that we put out— sorry, every comment that gets put up on the video to get a response. I feel people are spending their time leaving the comments. We owe it to them to give a response. And so I do a lot of them, but also I want, I want to, you know, make sure that the ones that I'm doing are of high value. And, you know, if I had to spend my time on some comments, that it's, it's basically paying off, right? So the request ones are not, you know, the most fantastic use of my time, but my team does pick it up. So the easiest way to get a request is just leave a comment on the video. My team picks it up, and we're trying to pick the ones that are more requested, that are more popular, that lots of people have asked for. We're trying to do a better job of that. Before, we would just go in order of the most— the oldest one, but people keep asking for the same ones over and over again, so we thought, okay, we owe it to them to give them— it's like 100 people are asking for the same one, we want to try to offer that for them. But yeah, easiest way is just leave a comment on the video, tell me what you want, my team will pick it up. The questions come to me, and, uh, that's it. That's how we pick.

And you might be surprised when you ask for a request and there's already a video made. So I've seen that happen where people ask for— or they request a person and the video has actually already been made.

Oh, tons. Tons. Like, it's also, it's a, it almost comes back to the last question about the 14-page document. Like, respecting the time, you know, we're making these videos, it's free for you. Just do a search to see if it's already there or not, right? Chances are we may have already made it. A lot of them, a lot of them we have already done, and it just boggles my mind that people aren't, uh searching first to see, like, one, for your own time. Like, you really want that, just type in that person's name. We're probably going to show up for top 10, right?

I know, pretty much. It was funny, my top 10 came up and I was excited. I was like, yeah, at the end he's gonna give me a shout out, and then it was someone else who had made the request before me.

So sadness. Sadness. Yeah, so people get so upset about that too. They're like, I requested this, how could you put someone else's name? Well, they requested it like 3 months before you did.

Yeah, I thought I was all unique, but I guess not. Okay, um, by the way, I don't know if you saw, J-Rise had, had, uh, earlier on tried to enter your game, but I don't know if you got that message.

Oh, no.

Okay.

Alright, good to know.

Um, I think he's started his own game at this point, so.

Okay, that's fine. He usually comes over on a Friday so we would do it together, but his parents are in town, so.

Ah, okay. So the next question comes from Tony, and Tony says, Evan, I need your input. On a product that I'm trying at this moment. It's called Forever Living. It's an organic— I think he wants to say aloe vera product. And I want to make it really different. And this thing actually has a real benefit. How can I try to broadcast to all about its benefits? He's tried through charity, health awareness, but it's still not really working. Do you have any advice?

Got it.

Okay. So we actually had spoken to, um, Tony, we had spoken to someone else who was doing something that was very natural, um, product that I had. I think it had a lot of like healing benefits and similar stories. She was kind of struggling to get traction for it. And so you may want to check out some of the earlier League of Legends videos. I think it might have been 1 or 2, episode 1 or 2. So the first question about how can you broadcast it, my question would be to you, have you started a YouTube channel? That's one way to absolutely start broadcasting right away to a global audience. About your product. And, you know, I think there's just— when I think about like healthy aloe products, I mean, I don't know. For me personally, I'm just gonna say that alone doesn't tell me enough to be really excited about it. So I think this also goes back to the previous question of— we were talking to the makeup— the girl who wanted to do the lipstick. It's like, how are you going to differentiate this organic product from every other one that's out there? Because there's tons. And I believe that it probably does have a real realistic benefit, but I— I would need more to be really excited about buying it. And I don't know if that starts through education as well. If you're broadcasting on YouTube, maybe you could offer some online classes about how to use the product and why it's super beneficial and get people— start getting people involved and educated about why it's a benefit. But Even beyond that, I still think you've got to differentiate it in a way that will really stand out to people.

So they didn't say what the product does, right? Just as an aloe vera product, it has a lot of benefits. That's it?

Exactly. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, agree. You know, I think there's a lot of people trying to sell stuff and, you know, you'll need to do a better job. Like even, even thinking about this, right? Like you have an opportunity here to ask a question, get some promotion, get people to know a little bit about what you're doing. And Rishi and I are both confused as to what you're actually selling, which, which isn't great, right? Like you want to add value and explain what it is that you're doing, uh, in every interaction. Like it should be clear. What your product is so that it's easy for us to talk about and share it. That being said, you know, the easiest way to grow a business and get more sales is through alliances. So who can you partner up with who already has your target market? I think you'll— I think there's an opportunity to create a YouTube channel like Rishi's idea. I think you'll get more short-term results by collaborating with people who already have a YouTube audience because it'll take you some time to build up your own channel. But if you collaborate with people who already have a channel, who already have an audience, whether there is an interest already, they're, they're talking about health-related stuff, then that's, that's a much faster way to be able to build up and sell. Where a longer-term play is to have your own channel because, you know, as Rishi knows too, creating your own YouTube channel takes time to build. Doesn't just happen overnight. Yeah, so I'd be thinking alliances. I'd be thinking influencers, people who are big on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., Snapchat, as well as other, other kinds of alliances like retail distribution. You know, you don't need to do— you don't need to only think online. You can go more traditional as well. Just think about who is already selling to your target audience and how can you make some kind of alliance with them so that they'll want to sell your product.

Yeah, awesome. Shout out to Zaino who just popped into the chat.

What up, Zaino? Welcome aboard, man. He was in for most of the Hangouts yesterday too. And then he was late to the third one and he was getting shoutouts. He was like, "Zayna, where are you?" People wanted to know where Zayna was. He's got that level of recognition already.

Yep. Hardcore Believe Nation. Hardcore.

Yep.

Alright, so the next question comes from Patricia.

Okay.

And Patricia, she wants to ask you as a master YouTuber, is what she calls you. Could you please answer one question? I made a— she made a trailer for, like, a video trailer for an author. And so this client of hers, she was really embarrassed because basically this trailer video that she made for this author client was removed, and she was freaking out. Embarrassed, and she says YouTube is not explaining why this video got removed. So she's wondering about, is it possible that because she linked to Amazon at the end of the video, you know, is this why she was infringing or somehow maybe, you know, not following the rules of YouTube. I don't know about an Amazon link. I don't think that should be a reason why your video would be removed. Um, there's tons of videos on YouTube about, uh, things that get you flagged, things that get you, you know, and it's all usually copyright infringement. So I, for me, I would ask about like music. Did you use music in the video that you didn't have the rights to use. But Amazon links— Evan, do you know anything about Amazon links?

So first off, YouTube always says why they remove a video. You always get a notification. So if it's not your account, if you're author's account, then just log into those— I wish I had it open now. Log into the channel and click on channel. Like if you go to my videos the backend, the author dashboard, and click on channel, it'll show you if you have any strikes. And if you look at the video itself on the video manager, it'll show you why it got blocked or removed. It won't be— like, YouTube won't delete a video. So if it's gone, then whoever owns the account deleted it. And maybe they're lying to you, to be honest. They won't delete a video. They'll never delete a video. Even if they block it, they'll block it. You might get striked, you might get muted, you might get taken down in certain countries, but the video will still be in your video manager. So the only way to actually take it out of video manager is to delete it yourself. So The author must have deleted it somehow.

Well, I think maybe it is in the video manager, but I'm wondering, did they just— I've seen muted videos, but I don't know. They take down videos as well, don't they? And then they put a big, this video was removed because of copyright infringement or whatever. You're right. They always tell you. So she should have known, right?

So it may be removed from public. Public view, but it's still in your back end. It's always in your back end. And so that holds a secret for you to figure out what the problem was. And they always say what the problem was. Like, I've had videos, uh, that were blocked because we used a song. I had a vacation video where I was singing Let It Go, and it got blocked because I was singing Let It Go. And, you know, Disney, I guess.

That song, they're not gonna let you get anything on that.

Nothing, man. Nothing. I mean, my version wasn't that great either, but anyway, that aside, like, Amazon links are fine. There's a certain number of trusted authority links that they allow you to link from and link to within a video. They do it now through their interactive cards, so there's a variety of those videos that you are allowed to link. Am I gonna die? Am I gonna die? Am I gonna die? No, I'm not gonna die. So, yes, so Amazon is one of the, one of the authority ones that, that's okay.

Yeah, Amazon should be fine.

There's a few other, like, there's some affiliate sites, there's some other ones that are, that are totally cool that they approve if you're putting stuff in the description. Then you're fine. You can put whatever you want in the description. There's nothing wrong with promotional videos. Like, YouTube won't take down the video because you're promoting a book. There's nothing wrong with it. So the secret lies really in your author backend— in your YouTube backend, sorry— to look at it and see why they're giving you a— why they took it down. That's it.

Okay, that's good. Good luck with that, Patricia. Yeah. All right, so next question is Carl. He said, I watched one of your YouTube videos, and what I was looking for is how do you sell only an idea? Okay, so he wants to— he wants to know how can you sell an idea? All right, so, um, interesting question. Um, that is— I feel like I would need more, more context, but, um, is this idea a product? Is this idea a service? Is this idea literally just, uh, something that you can't actually execute on and practically do in action. Evan, have you had this question before? What do you think about it?

Well, okay, so like you gotta understand that the idea is not enough most of the time. You know, when I was in the venture capital business, we never signed non-disclosure agreements, which basically says like, I won't talk about it. Um, because we got so many people pitching the same idea at the same time. Like, slightly different execution, but one person's business plan was not really that different than somebody else's. So it comes down to the team behind the idea. So the only real way to sell an idea is if you can get it patented. You get a patent, that's basically what it is. I have an idea for something and now I have this protection and I'm gonna sell it. It's really the only way because like say you have an idea for like a lot of people say, hey, I have an idea for Microsoft to be way better. Well, like so do I. I've got a million ideas for Microsoft to get better. Doesn't mean they're gonna pay me for it. The way to get paid for it is like if you go and talk to Microsoft and they actually like the idea, what do you think they're gonna do? They're just gonna take it, right? Why do they need you? You already gave them the idea.

Yeah.

So the only way to do it is if your idea is protected, right? Like, they have to pay you for it because if they do it on their own— oops, whoa, don't die, don't die. I'm fine. Okay, if they do it on their own and try, you can sue them. So the only real way to get an idea and just sell that alone without any kind of execution, without you doing any of the work, like if the value add is just in that initial idea and you add no more value on top of it afterwards, then you need to get the patent.

Okay, great. That was easy enough. Let's move on to the next question. Yeah, um, Lindsay, she says, how do— oh, How do you prepare for finding potential angel investors? So she is— this is a longer question as well, so we can get into more of the detail of it. But she's in the limousine industry. She wants to transition out of that industry to be a full-time webmaster.

Webmaster?

A webmaster.

Okay.

Of the dot, uh, says the dot—

I don't know what that means—

and limo directory, the dot and limo directory site. So I think she has multiple websites that are in the limousine industry. And anyway, she's been really struggling because basically Uber of Uber is leading to, I guess, the limousine industry demise.

Sure.

So she's looking for angel investor here in Melbourne, and, um, so she gave a list of requirements or basically things that she specifically needs from an angel investor and pretty much just wanted to know from you What do you— what do you think?

Do we know?

You want me to go through each question?

What's the money for?

Um, that's what she lists, the different things that she's going to need. So she's looking for about $35,000 to $40,000, and she needs a media campaign, TV and radio. She wants to create an app. She wants to hire 2 people for 2 months to help create approximately 1,200 listings. And so then she has 3 questions, follow-up questions from there. You want me to continue or you want to start there?

Or, uh, I, I mean, I have enough to go on. I don't know if you have an answer already.

Well, uh, it looks at least this is actually Maybe the first person that has asked for— looks like she has a very— a little bit more of a real clear plan as to how she wants to be prepared if she is going to go ask for an investor. And I guess I'm trying to look at her questions too, so I can respond a little bit according to I would want to ask her, is she super, super— before she does all of this, knowing what she does know about the industry changing, like, I really want to ask her, like, is this super what she's passionate about? Like, is this a good idea, or is this like your passion idea? Is this what you really feel is— I mean, because it does seem like it's going to be a little bit of an uphill battle. And so I would just want to make sure that she feels very much like this is absolutely where she wants to go all in. And you might know more right now about how this, how this industry is changing, Evan, but I just, I know that, I know that Uber in particular is like pretty much threatened a lot of the other companies. And then I guess I would ask, before going to, you know, before an investor, I wonder how much of a margin you would expect in this industry. I mean, is this kind of like the— remember we were talking about the grocery market industry and how like, would an angel investor want— is this what an angel investor would want to invest in? Those are just some questions. I know those aren't answers, but what do you think?

I think you're gonna have a really hard time getting an angel investor for this. I think the market is not where you want it to— where it— where, like, where people want to see it now. They— people don't want to invest in apps too, for like, like, you don't want to pay your R&D, right? Like, if you want to do an app, great, but they want to see that you've built it and you're growing and you need marketing dollars. Not that I want to build an app and I need the money to do it, especially if you're in an industry that's declining or that's suffering, that's struggling. Nobody wants to take that bet. It's just too risky a bet. Yeah, that's the challenge. I don't think people would bet on it. So the way to do it is you got to prove it, like start smaller, prove it, build up some momentum for it, show that it works, and then you can easily raise money to expand. I'm still not 100% what the idea is, but if it's a series of websites like just go out and do it.

Uh-oh, am I gonna die?

I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. I died. Very sad. Um, yeah, I'm doing okay, 9-4-12, but my team is, uh, the team is throwing a little bit here. We'll see. Um, yeah, do it. Like, nobody's gonna invest money in someone something that is— like, have you proven that before? Like, have you proven that you can get media exposure for something? You want to do a media campaign, you've had success with that before? Have you hired people for 2 months before and gotten results from it? Have you built an app before and gotten results from it, right? If you haven't, then you have to go out and prove it, because otherwise— like, imagine somebody came to you and wanted money and say, hey, give me— how much is it? $30,000?

Yeah, $30,000 to $40,000.

So give me $40,000. I want to do a bunch of stuff that I've never done before, and I'm pretty sure it's gonna work out. Like, there's no way you would— you wouldn't do it. You wouldn't give them the money. It's too risky. So you have to find the path of least resistance, find the easiest way to get started, and just start and prove some initial results. Like if you've done it before, if you've had success, then people will just give you money because they bet on you because you've done it before. Like if I wanted to go raise money for something, I could do it off an idea because I've done it before.

Right.

But if you haven't and it's a new field for you, it's for everybody, not just the question, but for everybody who's kind of thinking the same thing. Nobody's gonna pay you to learn. You have to be able to figure it out, and they'll pay you to expand, but they don't want you making mistakes on their dollar, right? My team is throwing hard. Yeah, it does.

All right.

But hopefully, like, it helps educate too and explains what needs to be done in order to get to where she wants to go.

Absolutely, absolutely. I think too, uh, I think it's always good, like, if you're gonna ask, if you are gonna jump into this, because you're, you know, make sure you really love it, you know, because it does sound like it's gonna When an industry is declining, you have to be doing it because it's just compelling you. You have to. You love it that much.

Yeah, and there is a way to win. And honestly, if you're still really thinking about it, I went on a long explanation yesterday in the video about how to raise capital with all the different options and what they look for and all that. So check that out. But honestly, just think thinking about this situation, I think you have to narrow it down to what you can be really successful at and go prove it before you try to raise capital against it.

Mm-hmm. Okay, great. Next question comes from Imoni, and Imoni says, she has this she's always had a dream of being an entrepreneur, owning a Danfo bus transportation business, so another transportation industry. And she basically— hold on one second, it's a little hard to understand this. Okay, so she's asking specifically about if she goes into this transportation business is it good to start with partnering with someone?

Got it. Okay.

And yeah, I mean, I don't know if in the, in the beginning, depending on how much background she has in this particular industry, I mean, I don't know if she could immediately start with partnerships. Hearing from your experience experience, Evan, your partnerships always were formed because you were adding a ton— I mean, it was mutually beneficial in terms of the value that was going to be added from the partnership. So if she is in the beginning stages of this industry, it might be important that she has a lot of value to bring to it. But I would definitely also start with getting to know someone in this industry, being really— getting really familiar with the industry and just doing it, you know, getting— maybe getting involved in another business that's doing exactly what she wants to do so she can really start to gain the knowledge of the business.

I feel like I might die. Yeah, uh, so for me, partnerships are interesting. I've had success with them, um, I've had some non-successes with them. You know, it's like getting married. That's what it is. People, people just jump into partnerships because it looks good on paper. Like, oh well, you're really good at operations and I'm really good at sales, that's a perfect partnership, why don't we connect? And then you get into business and it slowly starts to fall apart. Just like, just like in a relationship, you want to, you want to date before you're getting married. And it can be a really great way, like if If you know that you're lacking skills and you really want to do something and you want that accountability partner, you want to do something together with somebody, it can be fantastic, but it has to be the right person. Just like you wouldn't just look up a profile on a dating website and decide to marry that person, you'd want to learn about them first and date them and spend a little bit of time together. So in theory it can be fantastic, but what you need to do is set up some test projects first to do together. Something— start something on a trial, see how well you work together, see if it's something that really fits well together, you're really collaborating well together. And if you are, then you can structure something more, more solid and long-term. But to start, I would say make sure you're you're just really careful about how you're gonna be bringing on the person. I'm gonna die. Oh, I— oh, I died. I threw— I killed 3, but I died. I killed 3, but I died.

Dang it.

And it's the same too. It's okay, we're doing well. We're gonna— I think we're gonna You're gonna win. It's the same thing for bringing on employees, not to the same level because a partner, like if you have a crappy business partner, it sucks. It sucks to get out because they own a chunk of your business. Just like, you know, if you're in a relationship and you need to get divorced, it sucks, right? And hopefully you learn about yourself enough so that the next time you do it, you can avoid the traps that you fell into. But when you're bringing on people on your team as well, you want to make sure that they're people that don't just share the skills that you need, but share the same values. And coming back to the idea of the one word, what is it that you stand for? What's so important to you? And having somebody on your team and somebody who you're partnered with who loves that, who agrees with you, who's the exact same So yes, it makes sense as a strategy, it could be amazing for you, just make sure you're doing your research and don't get into bed with the wrong person.

Well, it sounds like she does have some experience too. It's a little hard for me to fully get this, how she's wording it, but Um, let's say she decides just to go for it on her own and she doesn't do the partnership route. Um, do you have any like quick guidelines or tips as to, um, you know, how she could just get started on her own? Because she sounds like she, she may not actually go the partner route if she feels like she could do it on her own in the beginning.

Right. So what, what is— what's the business?

It's a, it's a Danfo Bus Transportation, so looks like it's a bus company.

Right, okay, so I'd be looking at what does she feel is missing, like what are the skills that she doesn't have that, that she needs, and how else can she find those skills if it's not through a partnership. Right? So like, what's holding you back from getting started? Why can't you go out and do this tomorrow? Maybe partnership is still the right way to go. All I'm saying is fine, make sure you're doing it with the right person. But what are the skills? Like, what are you missing? What do you need to be able to get this thing off the ground? Hey, we won. Yes.

Yes. Congrats.

Yeah, so like what's holding her back from getting started? How can you start this in a small scale as possible? What's preventing you from taking that next step? Understanding that and then breaking that down into the simplest steps possible. Like maybe it's, well, I need a bus. Wait, how did we do here? I got S+. I had 17 kills, 5 deaths, and 16 assists. Pretty solid. Led the game in Oh, here's a thing that you said from J-Rise. Yeah, okay, I didn't see that. Yeah, like say, okay, my thing is holding me back is I need a bus, you know, I need it, I can't get a bus. Well, do you have to go out and buy a bus? You know, does it— can you lease a bus? Can you make a partnership with somebody who already has a bus that's not being used and give them a cut of the sales that you make? Like Be resourceful. It's not just about getting the money, it's about trying to find ways to stretch what you have. So if you can't afford to get a bus, then find someone who has a bus and try to make some kind of alliance. Like, hey, your bus is just sitting there not being used, or you don't want to get in the business anymore, how about I take it over and give you a cut of the profits that I make from it? You know, or if you need help on the marketing side, you know, can you go to your local university and say, hey, I'd love for you to help me with your students as their project for the semester, help me market my new bus transportation company. Like, you gotta start thinking outside the box, be resourceful, because there's gonna be a million of these things that will come up as an entrepreneur that you need to address. So the partnership route still may be the best one just for you, like, especially if you need that accountability. Like, I want to do this I want to do this with somebody. I don't want to do it alone. Just again, make sure that you're picking the right person.

Cool. Cool. How many more questions do you want me to ask so I know?

Well, I think that's it.

Over ask you. Oh yeah?

Yeah, the game, we won. That's it. I won. Game is over.

Okay.

Until next time.

Until next time, Evan. Thanks so much.

Cool. Rishi, what's the latest on your channel? What's happening? What are you doing now? What are you up to?

Ah, well, you know, I've been on a little bit of a— my schedule changed a little bit. I was at 5 days a week, and I've been doing 1 video a week for right now. I've been super missing it. Like, every day I'm like, I want to put a video out today and talk to my people. Um, Rishi Cupp TV is my channel. YouTube, uh, Rishi Cupp TV, where good music, good food, and good talk intersect. Although I'll just say this, the good food part is probably being transitioned out for something way, in my mind, way cooler. So I'm excited about some changes on the channel and Yeah, just hoping to make some really fun, good content for everybody.

I like it, and if you're missing it, it's a good sign.

I am, I really am. Yesterday I almost did a Google Live, Google Hangout, just to like chat with folks.

A lot of your answers were also like, "You should do a YouTube channel." So you can tell there's YouTube on the brain there.

I really do love YouTube. It's just super fun. So excited to get back to my 5-day-a-week schedule.

Very cool. All right, guys. Well, thank you for joining. Stay tuned for the next episode. Not sure when it's going to come out, but we'll let you know. Continue to believe or whatever your one word is, and we'll see you soon.

Believe, y'all. Bye.