How to START and GROW Your Business from SCRATCH - Start Making MONEY!

I would always try to start with a service instead of a product. Most people who start with a product end up getting screwed because the margins suck on most products unless you go scale. Meaning if you're going to sell t-shirts, selling 5 t-shirts, there's no margin in it, right? You can do print on demand, but there's no margin in it. So you get to scale, then you have to buy 10,000 t-shirts and people go and do this. They buy 1,000 t-shirts, 10,000 t-shirts, and then you sell 4 and the rest sit in your mom's garage. Self-love comes from doing difficult things. So the more that you say yes to the hard things, right? Like even in me inviting people up to join on stage, That's scary for some people. Every time you come across something scary and you don't do it, you remind yourself, you start to teach yourself that you do not do scary things. Would you go into business with someone who cheats in their relationship? No. Any explanation? Having a why is super critical. Like, the thing that gets me going every day is remembering why I do what I do. How to live in the moment? Oh, okay, that's a good question. Marianne, question, here we go.

How do you come up with a price for your first job?

So there are a couple of things involved. One is of course, let's go with that, focusing on what's the end result of that project. Like if it's, if you're a freelancer, obviously what are you going to do? Are you just going to redesign a photo versus redesigning the whole website? Right. So that's number one. Number two, looking, identifying a little bit the competition, what type of price points, because you have to be realistic, right? What type of price points, uh, competition is charging for that. And then us going back and reverse engineering that into how can we make the end result even more valuable for the person. So then it's a combination of those couple of things, right? Like first, if you look at the competition, of course you're trying to be somewhere in the middle, especially if you're coming up with a job, most likely you're gonna be a beginner. So if you're coming up with a job price point, you're at the beginning stage of your freelancing part, right? Or contacting, whatever it is. So if you look at the competition and then you look at what, what kind of value you can bring at the end of the project, figure out ways of how you can improve that, and then you come up with the price. It's a combination of those two things.

Assuming the same, uh, line of thinking with Mary in terms of, hey, you're a freelancer, you have a service— I would always try to start with the service instead of a product. Most people who start with a product end up getting screwed because the margins suck on most products unless you go scale. Meaning if you're going to sell t-shirts, selling 5 t-shirts, there's no margin in it, right? You can do print on demand, but there's no margin in it. So you get to scale, then you have to buy 10,000 t-shirts. And people go and do this, they buy 1,000 t-shirts, 10,000 t-shirts, and then you sell 4 and the rest sit in your mom's garage, right? And so it's almost never the best idea to start with a product. You start with a service. So you're trading your time for money at the beginning, ideally finding something that you can make a good margin off of your time, right? And what I like to do with the entrepreneurs that I invest in who started, and we've done this now 5 times, mid-six-figure businesses from scratch. And the starting point that I like to get in at is what can you sell for $2,000 a month? 2K a month is a starting point. The first project is usually free because it's a service, so you're not out of pocket any— it's time, but you're not out of pocket any hard cost expenses. So the first project should be free. Overdeliver. Go talk to 50 to 100 potential clients and overdeliver, right? And do the first thing for free. Doesn't mean you do everything for free.

But you do the first one for free to give them some—

something extraordinary. So whether you're doing copywriting or thumbnail design or Instagram Reels or ChatGPT prompts or whatever the thing is that you sell— coaching, consulting— the first one you do for free to build up your skill set, to build up the reputation, to overdeliver like crazy so that they want to continue to work with you. And then ongoing I'd be looking at how do you do at least a $2,000 a month package, right? You get 5 people at $2K a month, you're at $10K a month. That's a kick-ass business for a lot of people, right? So what can you sell for $2K a month? So let me break it down for how we've done it with, let's say Zach, right? Zach was on yesterday. He's the newest person I started helping. Was on track for 6 figures within 3 weeks of working together. So here's what he did. He made a list of all the people that he wanted to talk to, all the people who could be potential ideal fits, right? Don't target people who don't have money because they can't pay you. Ultimately, yes, ultimately your big mission, I want to serve everybody, I want to help the world, but you can't start with people who don't have money because otherwise you don't make any money, right? So in the service-based business, Zach made a list of all the people who could be potential ideal clients for him, okay, for YouTube consulting. Next, he reached out and gave them free advice. I got 3 ideas to help you really blow up your YouTube channel. Here's what I'd recommend that you do. He did email, he did LinkedIn messages, he did Loom videos to send people, he did Instagram DMs, he did whatever he could find on the, on the people, ideal clients, right? So how do you build a 6-figure business in 3 weeks? Okay, they find what he says interesting. Then they hop on a call, free, a free call. And the call would be half an hour to an hour free, giving them advice, guidance, counsel, answering their questions on how to do well on YouTube, which is the thing he's selling. But then after that, it's $2,000 a month, right?

Minimum.

So right now the packages would be between $2K and the high end would be $10K a month. I'm trying to think, is anybody over to the highest clients like $10K, $11K, $12K, something like that? But people start off at $2K a month, right? And so you go free, you give them insane value. You're not asking for permission, just send it to them. Here's free work. Not, hey, can I send you some free work? No, you just send it to them. Just send it to them for free. Hop on a call free. And then after that call, It's $2K a month. What could you offer that is $2K a month and get 5 clients at $2K a month? You have a $10K a month business. That happened in 3 weeks for Zach. Would you go into business with someone who cheats in their relationship? Wow, what a question.

Okay, no, that has to do with you as a person. So, uh, it depends on the principles, you know, it's, it's Very. It's a tough question, it is. But, um, oh man, I would say in my personal opinion, I wouldn't because it's not part of my principles. But, uh, hey, yeah, that's just my opinion.

Would you go in the business with someone who cheats in their relationship? No. That's it? Any, any explanation? Because they may cheat. 'Cause he may cheat on you too. Okay, so I would say probably not. It would be a strike. It would be a big strike against, but I also believe in redemption. You know, like, I think it'd be like a 90% no, but I believe in redemption. And so what I like to know the context, like what happened? What happened that led to them cheating? Are they sorry for it? Have they learned from their last— like, we've all screwed up and we've all made mistakes in the past, right? Uh, if you're interviewing for a job interview or your clients, or like, there's always something that we've done in the past that, um, that we're not proud of. But have you, have you grown from it? Have you learned from it? And maybe yes, they have. Uh, and maybe they haven't. You know, if they haven't, then it's an easy no. But, uh, I like to hold out the little percentage of redemption, just in case. So Reena, my answer would be 90% no, but 10% maybe. Maybe they learned from it. How to live in the moment? Ooh, OK, that's a good question.

Slow down, stop what you're doing, and take a deep breath in. Inhale and exhale slowly. We're here right now. This is us living in the moment, being present with Evan Carmichael. Like, how I'm so grateful that you hit me with a surprise. Like, do I go live with him? Like, yes, yes, I do.

Of course, of course. And, and you gave us, you gave us a live demo there. That was great. I was expecting just some kind of answer, but you're like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna demo this together. Let's go deep Breathe in. How to live in the moment. Think about why you're not being present. So you're either in the past. If you're not present here and now, you're in the past. And if you're living in the past, it's usually in a really negative way. You're thinking about the things that you should have done, you wish you'd done, actions that you should have taken, things you should have said to somebody. We live in these like, I should have, and we were constantly living in regret of the things that we did do or didn't do, right? That's living in the past. Or we're living in the future. And most of the time when we're living in the future, we're not happy and excited and positive and optimistic. We're stressed. We're stressed about the thing that's coming up. We're stressed about the call that we have to take. We're stressed about the thing that we want to sell and whether it will work out or not. We're stressed about the bills that are coming up and whether we can afford to pay them or not. We're just constantly stressed. So looking backwards is often regret. Looking forwards is often stress. And so the power of being in the moment, being in the present, is that a lot of that evaporates. And the easiest way to do it for me is I catch it and just come back to now and just find one thing to appreciate of what you got right now. Like, it's sunny, you know, where's the sun? Look at that. It's sunny here in Arizona. I get to walk with my wife. I get to talk with you guys. Just focus on what you've got right now. So anytime that you see yourself going backwards or going forwards into the future, just bring it back to present. Just find one little thing. I focus on my footsteps hitting the ground. I focus on my hand touching the phone. I focus on the drink touching my lips. And the more that you practice that, the more it'll start to become automatic and second nature. So you spend less time regretting the past and stressing about the future. So we have a question from my audience that you're going to be great to answer this. How can we change a people-pleasing attitude and love ourselves more?

In the first place, because we have difficulty with that sometimes when we have children, for example, uh, we say that children is the most important thing in the world for us. So I think you have to put yourself in the first place so that, uh, you You can love yourself and then be better for others, because you cannot be the best for others if you are not the best for yourself.

Self-love comes from doing difficult things. So the more that you say yes to the hard things, right? Like even in me inviting people up to join on stage, that's scary for some people.

Great.

Every time you come across something scary and you don't do it, You remind yourself, you start to teach yourself that you do not do scary things. And then what happens the next time something scary comes up, you're not going to do it again. And you're not going to do it again. And you're not going to do it again. And so the key is, if something is scary, difficult, hard, if you're not doing something because somebody else's opinion is keeping you from doing it, we have to break that pattern. Whether the thing you end up doing works out or not doesn't matter. It's that you were willing to try. And so when you don't have— these are really connected, right? The people-pleasing attitude and lack of self-love are really connected because if you don't love yourself, then you need other people's validation. You're doing things just to support other people's view of you instead of doing it for your own reasons. And so the more you build up your self-love by doing difficult things, the less you care what other people think about you. So anything that is scary, that's difficult, Hard.

You do it.

You try. You expect to fail at the beginning, just like you fail at everything at the beginning. But you start. And every time you do that, you build up a little more self-love. So here's the question, Angela. If you have the opportunity to interview your personal hero, who would that be and why?

Okay, I know I'm gonna get a little sappy. But it would be my mom. My mom—

Let's go.

Not this past November, but a year ago, November, she passed away. And so that same month that she passed away, she and I had scheduled— we scheduled a live together and it didn't happen. And so I regret that so much. And you don't sometimes realize even who your personal heroes are until it's too late. And so since she's been gone, I've learned a lot and I've That is who I wish I could. So, but today, who would it be?

Yeah, I did, I did.

Wow, we're going deep on the first question. Let's go, Angela. Okay, no, no, it's great. It's great, I love it. And what if you had to pick somebody alive? Who would you pick, Angela?

There's so many amazing superhumans that are out there. I mean, I'd probably, oh gosh, some of the big names, maybe Oprah would probably be. She's certainly a hero. Tony Robbins, all of the big names. I wouldn't want to miss that opportunity.

Oprah, if you're listening, connect with Angela. She's got some great questions to ask you. I like Angela's answer, but the parents— both my parents are still alive. They are my heroes, although I don't like— I guess at some point we'll probably make content there. They don't want to be public. So I don't know, maybe we film something and then it only goes up in 10 years or something. I don't know. But if we're going not my parents, if I'm going to go historical, I would go A.P. Giannini. He's my favorite entrepreneur of all time. If I go alive today, Angela took Oprah. So I'd love to have a conversation about entrepreneurship with Oprah, which also trying to make work, by the way. So send some positive Oprah vibes my way and Angela too. So the two people that I would have on my list were Oprah and Kanye. Okay. And let me explain both of them. So Oprah, mostly because I've never heard a great interview with Oprah talking about entrepreneurship. And she's— she hasn't done a lot of interviews lately at all. But all of her stuff has been around her causes or her life or her story, which is all fantastic. And they're always great. But there's never been one that I saw about entrepreneurship advice. And here's like the, the richest woman of all time, most successful woman of all time, and she's never talked about entrepreneurship. And if you guys have seen it, let me know because I want to see it. And then Kanye, honestly, the same question. I think Kanye might be a little too, too hot right now or might get a little bit too, too much negative comments for the wrong reasons. But same thing, like, people sleep on Kanye's, uh, entrepreneurship and skills, uh, and he's never done a really good interview. Most of the interviews that people do are like, they try to do the gotcha moments, right, with, with people like Kanye. It's like, oh, they're looking for the clips, looking for the gotcha moments, where for me it would just be trying to learn. So that's what I would pick.

The last couple months I've, um, I've really been off, like just, um, offline, so to speak. I've had a lot going on personally, you know, working on buying this new business and just a lot of stuff that's kept me away from doing this stuff. And you kind of feel like, um, and then this training with, you know, for this race and Angela and all that, but, um I, I don't know, it's all— I almost feel like I've been derailed and I'm trying to figure out the best way to get back on track. Because as I'm growing and developing, I'm also realizing how other things are shifting as well, you know what I mean? And not sure how to have that, um, like synergy between what I'm trying to do with the online and then the business. It almost seems like there's been a big divide, so I'm trying to figure out like how to put it back together.

Well, didn't, didn't you get this business opportunity by posting content?

I did, but I can't share how I got it.

Sure, that's fine. But you could, you can say that, hey, I posted content and I got this deal as a result of it, right?

Yeah, right.

So, okay, so I mean, you were, you were on a roll for a little bit, and I remember seeing the videos in the car and, and, you know, the pictures and everything. And, and then what You know, when you have a pause, it's a good time for reflection. What did you— not even thinking about like what— not, not worry about what worked and what didn't work, but what did you enjoy from what you were doing? What did you not enjoy?

You mean before the break?

Yeah.

Um, the interaction I was getting, I enjoyed the response I would get— it was getting from people, but it was more on the the private personal side dealing with, you know, the addiction, depression, anxiety, things like that. And people are just fragile in that state. So I really feel good about helping people because I remember what I felt like, but I wasn't at that point where I really wanted it out there publicly. I'm trying to figure out how to get to the people, and my heart bleeds for that. So that's always going to be something I do, is just my own personal mission to pay it forward. Um, and I, I don't have the time to spend a lot of one-on-one now. And I guess I was really getting hung up on, okay, how do I scale it? How do I take what I know? What's the kind of vehicle can I wrap in to put it online to start building? And then I ran into some technical stuff 'cause like I'm just not good at tech and then trying to find somebody. And I kind of got overwhelmed and I think I just kind of backed off. Maybe a little intimidated by A, not knowing what to do, and B, once I started thinking about what I wanted to do, not knowing how to do it.

So who in your circle can help you with the tech?

Yeah, that's, that's my small town. That's a loaded question.

But not even like, so what about online? What about people, moviemakers? What about people who are part of your community, even if it's not, you know, the biggest community yet?

Right. I'm not sure. I'm not sure who can do what. I'm not even sure what I need, to be honest with you.

Well, okay, so, you know, I just started a Discord server. Okay, so here's what happened, and I think this is relevant. Um, I was helping Tom, Bill Yu, launch his NFT over the weekend, and I bought his legendary key and, and was super involved in the Discord. I didn't know anything about anything, okay? His wife Lisa texted me on Friday, and I, I didn't even have enough ETH in my wallet to buy it, so I had to bum it off a friend. Because it takes like a week to get it into the— especially from Canada. So I put out— but this is like, I need to make this happen. I want to get this NFT to support Tom. I don't even know what I get with the NFT. I just want to support Tom because Lisa texted me, right? So I'm going to— I asked Drew first, he doesn't have it liquid. So I go to one of my communities and say, hey, who will lend me 3 ETH so I can buy this? And 3 ETH is like $10,000. Yeah. Ish, right? Um, so that's not something that most people, I guess, just have, hey, go for it. But anyway, somebody gave it to me, lent it to me. I still gotta pay her back. And then I started getting involved in a Discord. So Tom has Discord. I didn't know anything about Discord. So then we launched our own Discord, and it's a great way to connect. And I'm honestly thinking about moving a lot of my communities, even Movement Makers, at some point from Facebook to Discord. But here's what happened, like, when I got inside Discord, I was on Tom's just to give value, just give love, just to speak for Tom. Because sometimes when somebody else is saying the message, it, you know, it's more believable. Um, and then somebody said, hey, uh, I'd love if you joined Discord, I'd love to be part of it. So this one guy, Jonathan, we set it up together and I gave him full admin rights. It's like, well, let's do it together. He's like, I'll help. I was like, no, well, how about like, let's do it together. And it's like recruiting him to join because I don't know any— I'm asking all the newbie questions. I don't know anything about anything of Discord roles and the rules and the, and the badges and the up-ranking. It's like, it's all crazy confusing to me, but this guy knows it and, and he loves the mission of what we're doing. And so it's asking for help, right? Like, you love helping all these people who are coming to ask you for help. But now it's asking other people for help and recruiting them.

So it's not—

he's not showing me how to do it. This is where— this is the help you really need. He's not showing me how to do it so I can do it. He's doing it, right? Like, there's a bot to set up if somebody buys one of my NFTs that verifies them so they can get in the special club and they get a special color when they're in my Discord. I don't know how to do that. I don't want to know how to do that. He just set it up last night for me, right? So I think that's the difference. You can have— you can watch— like, you don't want to sit there and watch tutorials, and you don't want somebody to show you how to edit this video or how to do all the technical stuff. You just want somebody to actually take care of it for you. And there will be people who, who can do that, who you've helped and you've impacted. I, I know you poured so much into people, not just since starting posting Instagram content and YouTube content. But before that, there's so many people you've poured into that there has to be people locally and online who, if you just asked for help and said, hey, I really need— like, if that was your goal, knowing you, you know, if that was your goal for next month, it would happen. And then it unlocks a lot more fun and creativity and time for you, so it's not as overwhelming.

Yeah, and it was the process because I would think about all the steps needed done and I would start looking into one and I'm thinking, well, you got to do this first, but wait, you got to go here, and then you're like, you know, and, and it's— I kind of held back, like, well, actually, I'll get to this in a second. Like, I, I have an idea on how I want the content to go. I kind of have that flow. It was about figuring out the infrastructure, how to get it down through, because like I have no problem talking, posting, speaking. Like, I'm not worried about that. And, and I've done a lot of that. So now I'm like, all right, well, it's time to transition this to more of a professional appearance and process. And not knowing what to do over the last probably month, the one thing I did do was I flipped open— I have a laptop that I don't use for anything— I actually started writing because I'm like, you know I'm hearing things from all these different people. I'm like, oh, that's a good quote, or, oh, that's that, or stimulates thought. So, I actually, whether nobody does it but me, I've actually started to write it in a book form starting from just me. And you told me a while ago like, well, what were the different steps of like, well, how'd you deal with the health and how did you deal with the finances and how'd you deal with relationships? And I wasn't even sure if I would have enough to write. And what's funny is I probably have about 40 pages done and I haven't even gotten to those steps yet. Yeah, because— but it's not like about me, it's more about how it ties in that I think almost anybody can plug themselves in. And it doesn't even have to be from a dependency standpoint, it's from a life standpoint. And I'm thinking like, the more I write, I actually do feel that creativeness coming out, which is funny because I was never a creative person. I was always a numbers person, and I'm starting to see my own quotes develop. I'm like, well, maybe I just need to finish this and use this as my— okay, this is my hub, and now I can pull bits and pieces for different things. And that's kind of where my mind has been going. I don't know what your thoughts are on that.

Yeah, it definitely works. I think, um, writing is a great way to do it. I think you'll also get a lot of great moments just by talking to people or by what you're doing on DMs. You know, that you'll— what's great when there's interaction is it forces you to stretch because you say something, but then there's a bounce back, right? There's like, okay, yeah, Evan, but what about this? And then that allows you to come up with a new way of saying it because you're right, probably. But they didn't hear it properly. So you have to say it in a different way, which then leads to a different analogy or a different example or a different phrase. And when you're with somebody, you'll often come up with different stories and examples, and then that helps feed the curriculum as well, or the thesis, or the— it doesn't only have— writing is a great way to get it out, but your inspiration can come from anywhere.

I saw it starting as almost like a decluttering. You know, it's the whole ADHD thing bouncing around of like, you know what, just empty your head, get it out, and then do what you want with it. Because like I said, I'll go and I just, my mind just starts jumping and I do, I have a focus problem, but it, that's just what I've been doing in the time because I haven't been posting, but I haven't been totally wasting the time either because I'm like, well, in the end, where am I sending, where am I sending people to or what I'm, what's my ultimate goal? From a message standpoint? I've never been able to answer that question. And one day I'd feel it's this, the next day it's that. And not all valid, all part of a puzzle, but just not the pieces have not been lining up to where I feel I could do anything with it.

And all of your options of what you could send people are all legit and valid, and they've worked for other people. It's just none of them feel right yet. And, and that's fine. Like, you, you won't find out until you actually start doing it. Like, it could be push people to coaching, but then like, I don't want to do one-on-one coaching anymore. So it could be pushing people to group coaching, but maybe, maybe that's not the model you want to do either. So maybe it's pushing people to a program. Like, you figure they're all great models. The business model exists, otherwise you wouldn't entertain it. But which one's going to fit for you, you don't know till you do it.

Right. I know the one-on-one is never going to, especially not with my day-to-day life now, you know, my business, it's kind of blown up, which is good, but I have kids too. And yeah, I mean, I just, I don't have the time to be that dedicated to the one-on-one, at least not right now.

So you use it when it makes sense to create content, right? When, when, I mean, I get not most people won't want to come public and make a video, but some will, right? If 5% of them will, that's, that's content that then you're helping one person, but then other people get the benefit from it as well, right? But I think if you like, think about— so you bought my NFT. Have you bought an NFT before mine? No. Did you know anything about wallets and ETH and WETH and OpenSea?

Yeah, actually, um, OpenSea was new, but I've, I've been studying crypto for a few years now, playing around. So yeah, I understood all that.

Great. And so, you know, Angela at the beginning said, I'm so jealous of Evan because he's always the first one to do everything. But, you know, it could have been anybody else. Like, you got to be in a, you got to be in a position to pull the trigger. Well, and you gotta, you gotta decide. Like, you didn't have all of it figured out. You knew a little bit about crypto and you've been studying it, but you hadn't You hadn't bought anything yet and now this became— you decided, okay, I'm going to go off and do it. And ADHD is the entrepreneur's curse, but it also allows for when you're in something, you're in it. It's like when you decide I need to figure this out, boom, you go and you figure it out and nothing else matters. And so it's just putting that attention on the right thing. You found a way to go buy the NFT even though you've never bought an NFT before. You could have said, well, what do I normally do? I get overwhelmed and I don't understand the technical, and you know, that's what I always do, and just fall back to nothing. But you decided this time, you know what, you know, you know, you know, you know the difference.

Yeah, I, I, I enjoy that technical piece, which is weird because we, we get— we spend the time on what we enjoy. Like figuring that out. Like, I'm, I'm all in on, on the crypto world, still learning, but because I have an interest, I'm all in. Editing a video, I could care less. So then I'm like, uh, why bother, you know? So I, I understand what you're saying. Like, just—

well, and, and don't edit videos, right? I mean, you don't need to edit videos, just spit fire into the camera and post.

But I could also YouTube a video on, on transferring to, you know, all the different things too, and then just go do it. I don't have to go look for someone, ask the questions, do it, figure out, interview, trial and error. It's like I get the info and just do it myself. Yeah, but that stuff I have no desire, so I can't do it.

I hear you. And if you just put that attention on finding a person and then they take care of it, right? I mean, when you started off and saying, well, I want my videos to be more professional, you don't, you don't need to. You know, I'm gonna film a bunch of videos tomorrow from my car. I'm gonna take my phone and film.

What's actually funny, I'm sitting in my office at my employee home. I have a power outage in the neighborhood, which is why I'm in the dark. I have no internet, no lights. Like, I'm sitting by a window and, and that's it.

So, but you look great. You look great. You know, your hair looks great. I'm jealous. You know, you got the, you got the picture behind you. You know, like It's fine. There's so many high-produced videos that just totally bomb.

I actually thought about making a video on this picture, and this might resonate with somebody.

I don't know.

Can you see the head? No, I just see the tie. Like, it cuts off at the tie.

Oh, there you go.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I know that one. Have you ever Okay, and it's fun, you know, just the guy with the apple in front of his face. And I never could figure out like why it was so drawn to me. And I had this conversation with my therapist about a month ago and we were talking about it. And I said, I love it because it's just the dress, the suits, like that's just what I like. And I said, I always wanted to bring men's hats back. And she's like, well, what are your thoughts on the apple? I said, you know, I'm really not sure. She goes, did you ever think, meaning me with my issues, that the stuff that I've dealt with from a mental health standpoint, and you put your images to cover up your insecurities and addictions, all that. She goes, do you ever think that that painting represents putting forward a— as perfect of an image as you think you can, but you're not letting anybody see who you are on the inside?

There you go.

That like smacked me in the face. So that's why I have that hanging there. So anyways, I digress, but I, I share that with people whenever I can because I'm sure that will resonate with somebody.

That hears that story, and now it's living it, you know? Like, if you're not making videos because you're worried about editing and being professional, you're still the Apple guy.

Well, I, I guess it's about trying to figure out how to get the attention to get the views, you know what I mean? Posting to post and this and that, not, not really getting out there. And even from the YouTube standpoint, which it's been a couple months, it's like, okay, figure out basic thumbnails, no big deal, but the contents and stuff to actually make it engaging, to want people to come back. And I know a lot of that does have to do— I know that— I know you're going to say the content, the message is the most important thing, but, you know, I always tell people, they always say you only get one chance to make a first impression. I actually disagree, there's two, because it's what you look like and what you sound like. And if people don't like what they're seeing, they're not going to stick around long enough to hear what you have to say. Or you've got a great message, but have a horrible appearance and that could turn someone off too.

So I kind of felt like, well, you got to kind of have both a little bit, but not at the expense of not posting, you know, like the— yes, the message and the consistency, you know, you, you look great. There's no reason why, like, if you film from here just as you are right now versus having a professional guy come in and film you, it's like 5% better to have the pro come in and film you.

Okay.

It's not that— it's not as big as we make it. And you're probably going to be a little worse because you're going to be more intimidated by the camera and the lights and like somebody watching you. And that's a skill set that you work on. I mean, at least for me, it took me a while to get used to having somebody behind and feel like I got to deliver for them and I'm wasting the time.

And actually, that wouldn't bother me. Mine's more about the appearance when you're done, how to make it look good, how to have the transitions, how to have the edits and the intros and the outs and the—

Listen, Evan, like what you're so great at is sharing your vulnerability. This is your superpower. It's like when somebody— this is like, I think you actually create a disconnect for people is when they look at you, you look perfect. You look, you got it all figured out. You got this business you're buying, you got the hair, you got the shirt. It's like, it all looks perfect. Meanwhile, your whole message is, guys, I'm not perfect. I almost killed myself X years ago, right? Like I was ready to pull the trigger. I was there. And then that's when you start to be relatable to people. It doesn't mean now you show up like a bum to everything that you're doing, because this is who you, you know, it's who you are and what you wear. But going even fancier is like how many of the people that you deal with, ask the people who are DMing you, Hey, how much of you reaching out to me is because I look fancy? It's like zero, right? You're creating the block of the authenticity for you. Okay, well, the stuff in the car is my favorite.

Yeah, I get so much backlash on that from people too, like, stop driving and videoing.

Well, that's, that's, that's its own thing, but, but in terms of like just how you show up as the real Evan That's what makes you relatable to people. You're not trying to— I've never at least seen you try to show off and say, look at my thing, look at this. And that's what a lot of over-the-top production does, right? Like, you really have two models to go.

You've got—

you can do the Grant Cardone style where you show up in your, in your Rolls and you're burning money on the roof and like flinging things off and it's like crazy high production. Right? Or you just talk to the camera.

Right.

And depending on what you're trying to accomplish, if you're trying to create a deep meaningful connection with people and say, hey, I understand you, that's going to work a lot better. The high-end production creates the aspiration, like, oh, I want to be like this person someday, but they're unrelatable. We're just talking to the camera, knowing what you went through, is the thing that will suck people in, want to work with you, want to take whatever that next step is.

Okay.

It doesn't mean you disrespect editing and all that forever, but it's a 5% difference. Like, having that camera guy come in versus you is a 5% bump on your views.

Well, I wasn't so much concerned about that kind of professional, but more on the back end of it. That's all.

Same thing, like the fact that you have lower thirds coming up and some music playing behind you and your name shows up that you don't know how to do— you don't know how to put your name.

I don't know how to put my name on the bottom of the video. Like, that stuff doesn't matter.

Barely, right?

Barely.

It's like extra 5%, you know. If you're, if you're playing at the level where you're making daily content, you are consistent, you're making some money from it, you can afford to invest that back into the team, then yes, that makes a big difference. If you're talking about your business and what you do and you're trying to make a fancy promotional video or something that's gonna, you're gonna run it on local TV shows or something, then sure, maybe. Although I would still maybe fight against that. Like, I would love to see your video of you telling your story. I think that would get you a lot more business than trying to be fancy.

And I know, I know with your time, I have two quick questions though. One I tried to ask on Movement Makers. One is what I'm reading I think I actually got an email from Flick about number of hashtags, um, using, to use less because more is getting suppressed on Instagram. But number 2, over the last month, Instagram has really started to suppress content that has uses or, or, um, using, um, depression, anxiety, even a little bit of addiction because of some people are making the claim of what social media is doing to particularly young females. And that, you know, having the adverse effect of seeing other people and causing anxiety and depression. So I didn't know if you heard anything like that because that actually hurts what I'm trying to do.

I just—

I'm still trying to figure it out. I just didn't know what your thoughts were.

Yeah, the best Instagram strategy right now is community. So anybody who is following you, who gives a thumbs up, like what I, what I should do is look at everybody who's joined this live and then Save it and then DM them a video to say, hey, thank you, Ang and Thaddeus and Mimi, Mimi Lin. It's like, I really appreciate you. So it gives them a reason to come back and follow you. Instagram, the hashtags, I wouldn't worry so much about. Like, it's a tiny, tiny, tiny difference. Content suppression, yes, especially if you're talking about alcohol and, you know, guns and stuff, then that definitely will happen. But Instagram organic is down for everybody across the board. Um, not as many people are using Instagram. And, uh, should I go to TikTok? There's a lot more ads. Ah, I don't know. I started—

I started put— I, I've been putting some just, just to have some, but I haven't really done much with or gone in on it.

So I don't have a great spot to send people yet. You know, I have more TikTok followers than I do Instagram. It's easier to win on TikTok, at least in terms of getting followers, but the depth isn't there.

Okay.

You know, the DMing isn't there. Um, you're targeting a really younger audience still for now. So if you— that's— if that was who you're going after, then yes.

Okay.

But for most people in thought leadership, it's not a good solution.

Um, so you, you still think staying with YouTube and Instagram is my primary and keep it that way?

YouTube for sure, for sure, but it's a longer game for YouTube, right? Like, you, you need to stay on it, you need to stay consistent for sure. YouTube has only gone up. Instagram for now is where I would still be. Um, I'm getting, I'm getting deep into Discord, so I'm a big fan of that yet now. So we'll— that— but that's, that's more time, like, right? You gotta, you gotta invest the time. I have, I have more XP or more levels on Tom Bilyeu's Discord server than some of his moderators because I spent a bunch of time in there talking to people. So it's anti-leverage. Like, it doesn't— it disappears as soon as the conversation is over, right? Like, it's a chat stream that's flowing. For you, I would still do Instagram. Maybe TikTok becomes something that you could do, but there's no other— there's no other place. Like, Clubhouse could be good for audio only, but again, the content doesn't live super long. Um, yeah, it's, it's everybody's facing it. Every— it's why some people from Instagram are going to YouTube because—

well, I guess my, I guess my primary thing right now isn't— I would like it to become professional from a business standpoint, but I'm not worried about that. Like, I have a business. Like, my chase isn't money in this. So I would like to create something of value that if I got hit by a bus tomorrow Well, my stuff would still be out there and maybe help somebody 5 years from now. And then I figure if you do enough of that, well, the rest will take care of itself.

Well, then, then you need to listen to your own advice, you know? Like, if you're thinking about 5 years from now, then YouTube has to be the play, but you're not consistent on it because you didn't get enough results, like, on the last video or the last 5 videos. Like, if you actually— if you can actually remember, hey, I'm making this for where I'm going to be in 5 years, because the stuff you talk about is still going to be a problem in 5 years, unfortunately, right?

Like, well, I used to think I wanted this to replace what I'm currently doing. COVID made me get a new appreciation for my business because it's very residual, and then my content led me to a really big deal. So I've kind of refocused, like, all right, well, this is game changer, life change kind of thing. So now it's— I don't want to say it's a passion project, but I feel like, well, now I can do it right and I want to do it right in a non— not a non-frustrating kind of way, but it has shifted. Like, I've gone back and forth like 4 times. So where I'm at now, what I thought I wanted to do brought me the opportunity to make what I didn't think I wanted to do even bigger. So like, I can't ignore that. So it's kind of, you know, great.

So if, if you don't need it to pay off right away, right, then what you invest in is not the professionalism. You invest in whatever the thing is that makes it more convenient for you and more fun for you, right? Because if you're making daily content for the next 5 years, holy cow, with your heart and your message, you will, you will build something that could rival your current business. And then you have the luxury to pick which one you want to do. So what roadblocks are in the way of you having fun making content? It's not, it's not professionalism and lower thirds and editing. Like What do you need that, hey, you're jazzed to show up today? And I get you have a certain amount of time, you know, like I've got this amount of time every week to make content. And what do I need around me if I don't care about it paying off right away? What do I need around me so it's fun for me to show up and I'm proud of what we create? Right. Okay. If you did that every day for 5 years, you will have something that will rival your current business. Okay, and then you pick. I mean, you can have— you keep doing both, you can pick, you can hand one off to somebody else. I mean, it's—

we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna flip this one.

So there you go.

Yeah, now that, that's a game plan. So I'll— I guess I'll end with this, looking at the time. There's no way Angela or anybody else was going to get that NFT of yours for the simple fact that, one, it was on Depression, so I had to get it, but two, your thing with the closet, if you look at mine, it is color coordinated. And I actually, I use a little spacer, like I'm not kidding, I use a little spacer between all my— because I don't like my shirts to touch in a closet. Like, I'm real OCD about that. So it was like, that was the— doesn't matter, I'll never sell, never do anything with it. But it's like, that was like the perfect one because depression is my topic and the OCD in it is just like, you couldn't have had a better one. When I saw, I'm like, I have to get this.

I love it. We came and we took a picture of your closet and then we turned it into the NFT.

Yeah, that's about it.

I'm having a problem with execution.

Okay.

Um, I have a problem with trusting. There's so many people reaching out on internet with crypto and with this and with that, and I'm having issues. A lot of people are doing startups and, and have claims of leadership or claims of, you know, um, and sorry, that's my service dog, she's playing with batteries.

Nice.

I have a service dog. Uh, my question to you is like, when you have an idea, when you, when you're brewing something up and you've, you've, you've talked to a few people about it What's your first step into scouting out how you're going to execute?

I worry very little about how I'm going to execute. I just go do something. I think when you get an idea, sometimes telling your friends is the right move and sometimes it's not. You know, sometimes your friends just poke holes in it and tell you why it sucks. And that doesn't help because it's just an idea. Of course, there's tons of holes in it. You know, like, you don't know what you're doing at the start. And so people overthink the first step and overthink the how, where, where the how really is just you got to start doing something. What's something that you're struggling on how to get started?

Trust.

Trust with, trust with who?

Trust with my ideas.

Okay.

Like, I went to lock down the idea with some lawyers and stuff, and they were from the US, and things were a little bit different here. I don't want to— fear of having fear, I guess. You know, fear of putting myself out there. And it's a really great idea, and it would help a lot of people. I am built to serve, totally built to serve. I do not do anything if it's not— I ask myself, okay, if I'm going to do this action, who is it helping? Why am I doing it? Because or else the passion fizzles out, right? So it's got to be lined up. With my value system, with my family, with the life I want for myself. And, um, so yeah, built to serve, but I, I'm having trust issues with trusting people with my idea that would take advantage of it and only see the dollar signs and not the, and not the service of it to people who need it.

Yeah, so You're worried about sharing your idea with the wrong people?

Yes.

And then what, that they're going to run with your idea and leave you in the dust?

Maybe. I don't know, because I'm new at this, right? It's going to happen. Like, it's going to happen. I'm going to— I've been— I follow Bethany Frankel a lot. I love her a lot, and I love her, the work that she does, especially with the relief stuff. I follow people who give back. I'm not in it for the money. I'm in it to help.

Okay. But what's the worst case scenario for you? Like, you're going to tell somebody your idea and it's the wrong person who's not service-driven and just doing money signs. What's in your head? What's the worst case scenario for you? What are you so afraid of?

That they'd use it in a wrong way.

That they, that they use you in the wrong way?

No, that they would use the—

I don't know, and cut you out, or what? Like you're working with them and they screw you over, or they just cut you out and do it on their own, or what? What are you super concerned about?

I don't know, but I'd have no input in the end, in the long run, that they would take it and of course have more funds or something like that to solidify how they want to do it. My dog is eating clips right now. I gotta get up and get it.

It's the best.

I know. Xena, stop that.

Come on, Xena, the warrior princess.

I've had her for about 3 weeks. She's a rescue that was given to me by Wounded Warriors Canada and trained for my PTSD, and I guess she's feeling my nervousness, maybe.

That's great. Hey, she's a good service dog.

She is.

The idea is your idea, and it's birthed from your heart, and nobody will be able to run your idea the way that you can run the idea. So when people tell me— every, every day almost somebody is messaging me to say, hey Evan, this person is taking your idea, somebody else is doing a top 10 rules for success or whatever. Okay. I mean, I spend zero time thinking about that because if all you're doing is being an Evan Carmichael copycat, you're never going to ultimately win. Being an Elvis impersonator is a business model, but it's better for you to go and create your own art instead of just trying to be somebody else. Right? So Elvis isn't worried about Elvis. I mean, Elvis isn't alive. Sorry for all the conspiracy theorists, right?

He's not worried about the people in the race.

Yeah, it's like you don't worry about the people. So if your idea— people are so concerned about giving up their idea, it's like, but the idea without you isn't an idea. Like, the idea alone isn't enough. It's the heart behind it.

Yeah. And I realize it takes a lot of consistency and effort and structure. To run an idea to fruition, to actually implement it. And, you know, it's like a baby, right? It's the first 10 years or 5 years or whatever. And I'm a veteran that has PTSD and some other, you know, physical issues due to service. And I'm just— what if I can't— when— what if I can't— run? What if I fall? Because I have a tendency to invest and then I'm passionate about it and then I'm tired and I'm broken and the balance isn't quite there yet.

Well, you're going to fall.

Yeah.

It's like, how many times did you run a drill and fall? Yeah. And then what did you do?

I had to get back up.

Get back up and you keep running, right? The key is that the falls are just micro falls, not a macro fall, right? And that—

How do you get back up?

Yeah, well, you just— how do you get back up? You plant one foot in front of the other and you push yourself back up and you go finish the course.

Yeah.

Right?

Okay.

You finish the mission. You finish the— like, there's nothing that will be fatal as long as you still love the mission that you're on.

It's to help people, actually, you know, it's to have—

I feel it—

have, um, to be able to, uh, gauge themselves. Like, you know, people tend to over-push in, in workouts and not be aligned, and their hips are not aligned when they're doing certain positions and stuff. So, uh, it's to help people. Since, since COVID a lot of people are been— have been training at home And a lot of injuries can happen when you're training on your own.

So, and so that's the thing, it's like, okay, you might hurt yourself, and if you do, it doesn't mean never work out again. It means maybe one, one, we need to go slower, and two, we need to actually learn some technique so that we're not hurting ourselves. This happened to me. So like, I'm doing yoga 3 times a week, 3 to 4 times a week, like every 2 days. So some days it's 3, some weeks it's 3, some weeks it's 4. And I tried yoga like a decade ago, or maybe 8 years ago, from a YouTube video and just pulled every muscle in my body. Like, it just— the next day was— I— and if it wasn't yoga, it was me. I'm doing— I think I'm doing it right because I'm watching video, but obviously I did a whole bunch wrong because I was in pain. Then not the good pain, like a good workout pain, just like, oh my gosh, this is This is terrible pain. And I just wrote off yoga. And so that's a mistake. The problem isn't yoga. The problem is me. I didn't learn it properly. I need better instruction. I need guidance. So we hired a bunch of instructors who now teach us, my wife and I, every 2 days how to do yoga. And it's so much better. So the message is to keep going. I mean, it doesn't mean that working out isn't for you. Of course, if you want to live a long, healthy life, you have to learn to take care of your body and you have to work out. But it doesn't mean push yourself like a maniac and it doesn't mean hurt yourself. There's better ways to do it. So if you take that analogy for your business and your idea, it's the same thing. It's like you need to not stop yourself. You're throwing up all of these hurdles in front of your own business and your idea, which is me not doing yoga for 8 years. You can't wait 8 years for you to launch this thing because people need it. Yeah, right. And you will fall and you will make mistakes and it won't be perfect. And some, some people may not be the best for you. And you may talk to a potential business partner who doesn't have the right interest, right? I mean, you just have to trust that your heart will guide you to the right decisions. Like you decided to ask to come on live here, right? You know, that, that wasn't me like picking on you. You said Pick me, I want to come online. I was all set.

Oh my gosh, I was all set to ask stuff, and, and, um, there's so many times that I go on here and I was like, oh, I wish I could ask him some questions. Um, my other question about balance, about balance. You have a wife, you have a child, um, and you have a bunch of ideas. Like, I'm a really creative person. I was an F-18 technician for years, for 24 years I was fixing jets, so I had to sometimes do repairs that were unconventional and needed some imagination. Uh, what I'm finding is as I'm moving forward and opening up my creativity, I have a bunch of ideas. How do you select which one, or do you just push 3 at the same time or focus on the one, bring that one to fruition, and then move on to the next?

It's the same answer as the first question. You're asking how questions, right? It's like you do it. Okay, what's the smallest possible way to get started? And then you do it. And the key to figure out is what makes you come alive the most. Because in your 3 ideas, what you could do, you got 3 ideas for Vicki 2021. Perfect. You could research and plan and strategize and watch videos and read books and attend seminars for the rest of the year and still not have taken any action on it. And no matter how many conversations you have with me or friends or whoever, I can't tell you which idea you should do, right? Like, they could all be— I'm sure they're all great ideas. Trust that because it came to you, it's a good idea, period. Like, the fact that it came to you, as long as it has good intention, like, is my intention to serve? Is my intention to help? Is my intention to do good?

Yes?

Great. Then it's a good idea. Until you start actually doing it, you won't know if it feels right and something you want to commit the next 5 years of your life to doing. Right? So whatever the smallest possible thing that you could do on any of those ideas, that's how you should start.

Okay.

Like, what could you do today on that idea that feels insignificant and tiny and small in like not, not a big step at all. That's the step. So if somebody wanted to become— like if somebody wants to get into the Air Force and be a mechanic, that's a long process, right? That's not just something you just do tomorrow.

I do a lot of that for especially youth because they don't know what they're getting into or how to. Yeah, so there's I have experience.

But if that's like, if that's somebody's dream, right, potentially, then what's the best thing you can do today? Well, go try to visit an airbase.

Yeah.

And just, just be on the base. And how does it make you feel? Does it make you feel like, wow, this is, this is epic, like I want to be here? Or does it feel like, oh, this actually doesn't feel like what I thought it was going to feel like? Because no matter how much you read about it or watch videos about it or anything else, like, you just won't know until you start actually doing it. I use the example thinking through sushi, like how do you know if you like sushi? Well, you don't know until you put it in your mouth because it sounds gross. It's raw fish and seaweed and rice and hot mustard and soy sauce, and that's going to be good? It sounds nasty. But then you eat it, it's like, oh my God, this is amazing. Or some people might think it still is nasty, whatever. But you don't know until you actually just put it in your mouth and you see. If it tastes good.

Yeah.

And that's what you need to do with your ideas. You need to put it in your mouth and eat it and see if it tastes good.

Yeah.

And if it tastes good, you go back and you keep, you keep doing it and you'll get better at it and you develop the skill sets. You know, like if you can fix a jet plane, you could, you could fix anything.

Evan says so. He doesn't call anyone, he just relies on wifey.

So you can figure anything out, but you're just over-researching, overthinking, over-planning, over-asking instead of just tasting it. And don't worry if the first step sucks, it's going to suck, but you just try it and you see how does it make you feel.

The self-confidence thing and the perfectionism of my past trade, that's lingering. If you're not going to do it right the first time, don't do it at all, which was that. But I'm trying to move out of that mindset and say, try everything, fail at everything, but fail forward.

Sure. But it's like now speeding that up because your two questions about how do I do this, but it doesn't matter. You just got to do something. And I get, and I've helped a bunch of people through military to entrepreneurship transition and like highly, highly, highly structured. You're told exactly what to do all the time, like saps the creativity. And now you're like, oh my God, I'm on my own. What do I do? I don't have my friends anymore. There's no community anymore. I'm by myself. How do I come back to normal life? Especially if you've been in combat and just, Anyway, the thing to keep from it is it's not like throw the whole thing away. The thing to keep is the discipline and that something has to happen today. Yeah, right. The thing that you want to step into is the creativity and the love and the service. All that is great, but something has to happen today. And the discipline that I'm going to show up and the mental toughness to show up and do it, even when you don't know how. Like, if you were, if you were to tell your commanding officer, I don't know about that, I have imposter syndrome, I don't know if I can do this or not. What are you talking— Vicki, do it!

No, we don't.

We're like, yeah, so like, so we need a little bit of that, you know, back to show yourself to and remind yourself what a badass you are. And that you'll figure it out.

I am badass. Thank you.

Well, it's just remembering that because that's the only thing that's missing. It's not like how do I— it's just I'm a badass.

My heart is good.

This is for service. This is to help other people. And I want to start—

system.

Yeah, you cut out for a second. I didn't hear that part.

And it's in alignment with my value system and Yeah. Hmm. Thank you for that.

Today, are you in Toronto or are you Canadian?

I'm in Ottawa.

Okay, close enough. So listen, it's 2:30 almost. Take— today's goal is how do I take a micro action on all 3 of my ideas?

I already did.

On all 3?

Yes. I have.

I love it.

Uh, we were talking earlier on, you were mentioning, you know, how to train and, you know, you overstressed your body your first session of yoga. Well, I'm a little bit, you know, gray, like white or black, and I tend to overtrain as well. If I'm gonna go for a short run, I might end up for a 2-hour run, you know, depends on how I feel. So I have a kinesiologist. And so I did discuss my ideas with a kinesiologist, show her the project, and we're going to act on that. And then I need to call the chiropractor so she can put her little two cents on the project. So when I do go forward, then it's not— it's solidified by a kinesiologist and a chiropractor.

Yeah, I mean, having experts to help you, and, and if you know that you go crazy, having some people— sometimes you need somebody to put the brakes on a little bit. 2.

Well, that's something kinesiologist is there for. Uh, I have a kinesiologist twice a week, and she doesn't allow me to do push-ups or sit-ups or anything like that. She goes, no, your muscles, your, you know, your injuries, they're too— you need to build muscle before you go back to what you were doing before. So, and she sets the brakes on me. My husband does too. He says, okay, you've been doing enough, go sit down, or You know, I tend to go over and push myself past my physical limits and mental limits. And yeah, learning how to respect my body and my— and everything else in my family life is certainly a balancing act after serving for 24 years where you're either really on or really off, you know. So yeah. Well, thank you for that.

You got it.

Much appreciated.

Yeah, sending you lots of love. And when you feel doubt and you feel insecurity, the two things to think about are: one, that you are badass in what you've come through and what you've done. That this thing is the thing that's holding you back compared to what you've been through. Like, this little thing compared to what you've done? Really? Right? Like, just, that's what I tell myself too. It looks like I broke my neck in 2019 and kept going on my tour and like, making a video is the thing that's causing me what?

Right?

Just to remind yourself of how badass you are. And then to the service, it's like, hey, every day that you are in your head thinking about this idea instead of actually releasing it, I'm not sure you're not serving people and somebody's being hurt. Because they're not following a method that you can help them with. And for what? Because you're overthinking this thing. Now the people— now people aren't getting the help they need because you're up in your head, right? So that's, that's a little more like, oh my God, come on, Vicki, what are we doing here, right? Like, sometimes you need more of the, the push to be like, man, buck up and get this thing done because people need you. And sometimes you need more of the pat on the back. It's like, I've been through way worse than this, right? So like whatever you're feeling more, either the pat on the back or like the push to go forward are the easiest ways to get out of your head and into action mode.

Yeah. Okay, well, thank you. I'll leave. I don't want to cut off this thing, but I'm going to continue. I want to leave the space for others as well. Thank you so much for letting me join this live. And I love your content and you encourage me every day. Just want to—

Appreciate you, Vicki. And listen, thank you for putting up your hand because not everybody does. And I wasn't even going to bring somebody in, but I don't know, I saw your face and like, okay, you know what? Let's bring in Vicki.

All right, much love.

Thank you, Vicki.

Much love. Take care.

Okay.

To see me coaching another entrepreneur one-on-one, check the video right there next to me.

I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.

If you were starting today, right now, and you were to launch into the thought leadership business and your goal was to get to $20,000 a month in revenue, what you would do for yourself if you were getting back into it, uh, and you were willing— you're willing to take massive and extreme action