Innovation and Mastery: How to Excel in Anything You Do

Q&A entrepreneurship League of Legends answering questions day. It's Tuesday. We have Rishi Cup TV in the house. How you doing, Rishi?

Woo-hoo! I'm feeling good. Thanks for having me, Evan, and good morning, Believe Nation.

We got J-Rise on the game with me here today, so this should be some fun times.

Oh, Jay is back in the game.

Yeah, Jay is in the game. He set it up. He was having some tech issues, but we sorted that out, so we're good to go. My throat's a little sore from recording yesterday, so I got a cup of nettle tea with honey. What's in your cup, Rishi?

Alright, this morning I got a cup of coconut coffee.

What? What's coconut coffee?

It's actually really not that wonderful. It's just coconut-flavored coffee, Folgers style.

It sounds wonderful.

It tastes good, I'll have to say. Folgers does well with a few of their flavored coffees.

All right, I'm liking it. And yeah, a cup of, uh, what's the, uh, what's the value? What, how are you feeling?

Today I'm just feeling, I have to really feel this because you told us in our gratitude stream, like, you know, you've got to really feel your gratitude. So I'm going to play off of our gratitude stream. I am feeling a cup of gratitude for this amazing community support that I don't know that you will find anywhere else. In entrepreneurship.

I agree, man. I love, I love that. That's great. I love it. I'm just gonna close the blinds actually so I don't get some sun on me while I'm playing.

Sounds good.

All right, well, we're live on Twitch. I see Zaino in the house already. Time for another great live stream. And I thought I saw somewhere about predicting a win. Predicting a win. I actually looked at my stats last night and I have more losses on Teemo than wins overall. So this is some crazy record streak that we're on here that hopefully we can continue. And what a lot of the streamers do, or maybe not the streamers, but like when they upload to YouTube, because all these videos go to my YouTube channel, what a lot of them do is only post their big wins where they like whether they got lots of kills and they won. They never post their losses. So I want you guys to know that I lose a lot, just hasn't happened yet on the livestream. Alright, well, we're waiting for a game to start. Let's get into some questions. So what do we got?

Alright, first question comes from, uh, Sney.

Sneh?

I gotta tell you, Sneh, I gotta tell you, Evan, I've learned names on this stream that I've, you know, never seen anywhere else before. So shout out for all of you with the unique names.

I love it. You know what, I want to see more unique names. I want to see more. Yeah, or if you want Rishi to call you a name, as long as it's, you know, PG-friendly there. Uh, yeah, like Xeno Spider-Man or something, you know?

Oh, that would be very cool.

I'm sure, I'm sure he likes— he's got to like something. Come on, Xeno, what do you want us to call you? Something. Okay, I'm jungle and, uh, Jay is mid, so we gotta— that's our usual mix, that's our ideal mix. So it's starting off well. All right, first question.

Okay, so basically, uh, looks like she's, uh, in South Africa, 31 years old, and wants to start a cooking business. It's her passion. Um, one day she wants to own a restaurant, but, uh, part of her concern is that she's not getting any support from friends and family. She has an opportunity actually to be a part of a mentorship incubator program. And, you know, I think it'll— it's just going to provide her even more business skills and qualifications to pursue her goals. But she's just concerned she's taken the wrong path. So, yeah, that's— Pretty common question and dilemma for those of us who are trying to carve our own path. And, you know, I just kind of think, uh, sine, sorry if I'm saying that wrong, but I just kind of think that this is part of, this is the normal and natural part of the process. And, um, it's easier to do what everyone says is the more reasonable rational decision, and it's not because they don't love you. It's not because they don't care. Obviously, it's your family and friends, and sometimes people are just concerned, and there's nothing wrong with getting feedback that challenges you. But I think at the end of the day, your, your your path is going to be most meaningful when you listen to what it is that you want to do and, and you carve your own way. And it is harder and it may take longer and you will have doubters, but that is not abnormal to anyone who's had to do it. And so I think if you could just accept it as kind of the normal the normal terrain of an entrepreneur, what to expect on the journey. You will have people along the way who are going to tell you why it's not going to work, and that's normal, and that means you're on to something. So I'm going to just encourage you to keep going for it, and it sounds like this incubator program and mentorship is a great way to at least, at the very least, get more skills. To prepare you for your cooking passion?

So something about that question at the end seemed a little off to me. I got the start. So, you know, she wants to be a cook, wants to start a restaurant, there's an incubator program, her family doesn't support her. Um, got it. Well, how did she end it? What does she say at the end there?

She just said, but through all of it, it's been hard because my family and some of my friends think that I'm taking the wrong path.

Okay, it's because they think that she's taking the wrong path.

Right, I mean, that's the conflict.

Right.

She feels, is it gonna be the wrong path because she's getting that from her loved ones.

Sure, okay, got it. Yeah, I mean, I agree with a lot of what Rishi said. It is super common. Oops, let me download that. It is super common, and, you know, I was fortunate enough to have parents that supported me in whatever I wanted to do, but I had friends who didn't, who didn't believe in my, you know, my turning down $80,000 to $100,000 starting salary jobs, jobs that they wanted, and me turning them down. That was the smart thing to do, to go do my business where I'm making $300 a month. You know, one, understand that for the most part it's out of love, right? You know, your parents, they want to see you be successful. They want to see you, you know, have a happy life. They just see it through their eyes. They see the world through their eyes and their experiences, and they would never do anything so crazy. And so they're just trying to help you avoid pain. At some point though, you have to figure out again, whether it's your— like, are you living your life or your parents' version of your life? You know, and, and as you grow up, you know, you're living— you say yes to the parents and you follow their rules and you might have a little bit of rule breaking along the way, but at some point, you know, you're an adult, you got to start making decisions for yourself. And it may it may be worth having, like if you're sold on this, if this is what you want to do. And really for me it would be, we talked about this yesterday, regret. Like will you regret not taking this? Will you regret not going to this incubator program and taking a chance and betting on yourself? And for me, it's, I'm okay with the failure. What I'm not okay with is not knowing how it would work out. Like this live League of Legends stream or my gratitude stream that we just came from. I'm okay with it being a failure. I'm okay with nobody showing up. I'm okay with it not taking off. But I need to know that it's not gonna work. I need to try. Like that girl or guy that you really want to talk to, but you're afraid. It's okay to get rejected, but You have to at least try so that you know. And so that would be my fear for you, is that you take the safe path and you don't get confirmation. You don't experiment, you don't try it, and as a result, for the rest of your life, you're thinking, "Man, I really wish I did it." And then maybe you start to resent your parents or you resent your friends and you blame them for not believing in you more, where really it's on you.

Mm-hmm.

Right? Like this is your decision. They may not support you, but it's your decision whether to go forward or not. And I think if you've committed to doing it and you know you really want to do it and you don't want to live with regret for the rest of your life, then the key is to sit down with them and let— just let them know really how important it is to you. That you're okay with failure, that you're not going to try to take, you know, big risks. You know, you're gonna— you're not gonna invest your life savings into this. You're gonna step your way into it, but you need to know. You need to know, like, you cannot live without knowing if this will work or not, and that you really need their support too. Like, their support matters to you. You know, my friends, their support didn't matter to me. You know, my parents raised me that I'm like to make me believe that I could do anything I wanted. And so I just do, whether people like it or not. So I don't need approval of my friends or people around me to go and try something. I just go out and I do it. But telling your parents, telling your friends that their support really means something to you and that you really want to try this, it's then really hard. It's really hard for them not to be on board and not to want want to help you out. So that's my advice, and I feel for you, and I think it's something that a lot of entrepreneurs have to go through, as Rishi said. But if you really want to do it, you really want to take your shot, you got to know, then you have to go and do it. You got to try.

Absolutely, absolutely. And along the way you will find those people as, you know, if you go into the incubator program and get involved in community of food lovers, you will find the people who support you.

So yeah, and it's, it's, I think again, like what really helps, at least helps me, is, uh, you read the stories and, and you see people who it obviously works out well for And that can be a great story. I mean, wow, it worked out well for you. You said no to your parents and your friends and just went out and did it, and that's amazing and awesome, and you're all happy. But the key, at least for me, is also being— oh, we just got a— our team lost a life. We got— they got first blood. I'm not happy about this. Um, oh, the key for me is being, being okay with the failure too. If it doesn't work out, I'm going to be okay, and I'm okay because I got the certainty. I know. I know that it didn't work out. Because knowing that it didn't work out is better than not knowing at all. At least for me. And so that helps me get through a lot of the fear or anxiety in trying something new. The upside is great. The upside is you have a career and a life that you're happy with and you're having an impact and making money and all of these great wonderful things. But even if none of it works out, even if you're, you know, even if everything's a total failure, it's still a win because you know. And that certainty is great.

We got Damasta back in the house today.

Alright, welcome back. Damasta, I think it's Damasta, like they were talking about it, I saw in the chat before. The master, like, like the master. Not that his name is the master, but welcome back, dumb master. I think Zaino discovered that. I got you, dumb master.

Yeah, I thought it was some kind of like reggae flow.

Now, master, did you have anything, Rishi? Growing up or more recently where you really wanted to do something but people around you weren't as supportive as they could have been?

Oh gosh, I— where do I start? So recently I did have a conversation with a friend of mine, and so for those of you who actually don't follow my channel, it's about a year and a half old. And I shared yesterday that my commitment to the channel was really a commitment to myself, that I would— it would be a place where I would, you know, honor, acknowledge my— the whole me and who I am. Because in the past I've been certain jobs, like I was the dancer, I was the singer. But I was never like all of the things that I felt would make my career most meaningful. Anyway, I had a friend recently who, you know, expressed that— and I'm sorry, the only reason it's hard for me is because I'm hearing a big echo on our call.

Oh, okay, I'll turn you down on my end. That'll probably help.

Okay, so yeah, I just had this conversation with my friend about how she was— she was like, you've really changed, you know. Um, and it was a hard conversation to have because she was expressing that the person that she knew me to be was not who I was becoming. And it wasn't that really she wasn't in support of me, but I think it was like she's trying to understand Why am I changing? I guess, I guess whether it's an entrepreneurial thing or not, you know, when you're pursuing who you want to be and you really are trying to be true to the path that you're on, it may mean that who you were and how people know you is not who you are becoming. So the conversation ended well, and she isn't in the category of like a hater, but she was someone who was basically expressing that me changing was difficult for her to understand, and it did, it did make it hard on our relationship. Mm-hmm. But I guess I had to settle within myself that I am not bound to be who I, who I was. I, you know, not that who I was before was, was wrong. I mean, it was— I'm just, I'm willing to commit to becoming. I want to become the, the person that I'm I'm kind of purposed to be, and so that means that I might need to just be willing to grow in new ways and try new things, and that may mean people don't understand, and it just is kind of part of the process, and I've kind of settled that within myself. And yeah, so that's one of many situations I think where me kind of pursuing my heart, passion, meaningful work has created conflict in relationships and that sort of a thing.

Yeah, I think it's important that as people— you grow as a human being, you evolve. You know, the person you were growing up is not the same person you're gonna be now. And the good test of friendships is that as you both grow together, they're able to, uh, support and understand the decisions you're making. And same thing with you, like, nothing you're doing is trying to hurt that friend of yours, right? It's not, it's not, uh, saying, you know, you're wrong and I'm doing this out of malice and I wanna, I wanna hurt you, right? You're just doing what you feel is best for you. And sometimes people can appreciate that and sometimes they can't, but you don't want that to be the reason why you don't take action.

Mm-hmm. That—

because you won't, you won't forgive that person and you won't forgive yourself if you don't do something because your mom or your best friend or somebody in your life told you that. That's a stupid decision.

Yeah. How's the game going?

The game is not going well. We are, uh, I haven't done it, I haven't done much yet. I've tried to get in and do some stuff but it hasn't worked. And the team is, has, we're behind. We got 3 kills and 8 deaths, so But you know what, JRise and EC are in the game. There's always hope. So we'll see. We'll see. I like a challenge.

Great. All right. Next question comes from Subrato. That's great. That's a great name, Subrato. And Subrato is asking about— okay, so He is a— where does it say what he is? He's an instrumentation sales engineer in India. And he is having a problem because sometimes what happens is his clients start asking questions which are totally outside of their boundaries on the subject. And on commercial negotiation, negotiations. And he becomes irritable, and I guess when he kind of gets irritable and he starts losing business. What should I do in these conditions about what the clients don't even want to listen about the technicalities of the product? So, yeah, hopefully that— did I— did you get that question?

Um, I died. I was in the middle of a big fight while you were reading it and I died. And so I could use it again. So he's trying to sell his stuff to customers, but they're not getting it. They're becoming irritable. He doesn't know how to pitch himself. Is that it?

Yeah, it sounds like when they start asking questions which he considers are outside of bounds of what they, you know, him being the one who knows more about the engineering of the product and, and the costs of the product. When they start getting out of bounds in their questions, you know, he just gets really irritable and, but it, and then it, he loses the client.

Got it. That's, that's a, okay, I like it.

Yeah, so this is, I think, whether you're an engineer or You know, someone who has got a specialization in a certain area and you're dealing with customers that don't have that same expertise, I think you run into this conflict of how can I, you know, how can I do what I know I can do and also please my client? And I think it's some— it's a— you got to have a balance there of knowing how to be there for your client because at the end of the day, your client is your— it's going to keep you in business. And so, if you're getting irritable and you're losing your clients, that's a problem. I would just suggest, you know, maybe it's time to hire someone who is somewhat of a liaison between you and the client, you know, someone who can be a better people person person and help educate your clients in a way that they feel comfortable with the information, they understand, and, you know, it's also someone who enjoys communicating with the client. But if you don't have the ability to hire someone, then I would say you would have to learn how to deal with people in a way where they're not going to feel like, you know, you're not willing to serve their, their needs and their questions because, you know, it's at the end of the day, it really is about being there for them and making sure that they feel supported and, and valued.

So I like it. Um, our, uh, one of our players, uh, quit the game, so this will be, uh, interesting to see what happens. We are, uh, 6 kills and 12 deaths, so we're behind, and we're playing 4 against 5, so This would be a fun challenge. Um, I think you have two options, similar along the lines of what Rishi said. You either learn to get better, you either learn to value and appreciate the client and recognize that these guys are bringing you business and they are your livelihood, or you don't and you work with people who can appreciate what you bring. And the thing is, your stuff better be like— if you're a good people person, then you can appeal to a lot of, a lot of people, right? People like working with you. If you're not, you know, then the stuff that you have has to be so good that they'll deal with you being really crabby and upset and angry all the time. So You can go Rishi's route and hire somebody, or you can partner with somebody who has those people skills and who is the buffer and who can deal with you and your crabbiness. Or you could just work at finding clients who will listen to you and who can deal with you. You know, I look at myself as an example. I don't consider myself to be a crabby person. Hopefully that doesn't— that's not the aura I'm throwing off. But I will work with very few clients. I turn down more clients than I get, or than I say yes to. And it's usually because I don't— like, we're not aligned. Philosophically. And not that even they're bad people, or not that they're not willing to listen. They're just like, what they want to do does not match up with what I want to do. And so I don't want to work with them. And it doesn't have to be a mean thing, like, you know, I'm so much better than you and you guys suck, and, you know, however that manifests for you. But But at the same time though, I can be selective. You know, I have— what I provide is so valuable that most people can't do what I do. And so when it works out really well is when the clients recognize the value that I bring. They recognize that I'm one of the best in the world at what I do. They want to take my advice. They want to grow. And that's a beautiful relationship. And for people who don't value what I do, who, you know, might try to nickel and dime and say, hey, can it be, you know, can it be a lot cheaper, or can you do it this way, or changing up my process that I know kind of won't work, or that I feel are below my standards, and I don't work with them. So that may be kind of a third option between you getting better at talking to customers and you potentially hiring somebody or partnering with somebody, or just being really specific on the kinds of clients that you want to work with and then being able to provide insane value to those people, right? Like, if you're selling, if you're selling Mazda cars, you can't take that approach. But if you're selling, you Ferraris, you can. So what are you selling? If you're selling a mass market kind of stuff, if you're like, you know, I look at my Toronto Dance Salsa business, you know, Alex is fantastic in dealing with people. We need that. He's looking at me. He heard his name. He's looking over at me.

I heard fantastic too.

You heard the fantastic? Good. I said Alex Fantastic. Alex Fantastic might be your new nickname. Alex Fantastic. He's here working. That's the kind of business, you know, a class is just over $100. It's a mass business, right? That business makes money by reaching a lot of people. If we don't reach a lot of people, we're not— it's not a luxury kind of market. Where what I do, the consulting work that I may do, or the brands I work with, is much more luxury. It's less price sensitive. And so I don't need to be a super friendly person, although I feel like I am, but I don't need to be as— I don't need to be as— I can be more selective. So it depends on what this guy is trying to build and sell, depending on that market, depending on the company that he's in. It can alter his approach. Yeah, he does. Did I— am I gonna get a kill? No, or I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I died. Very sad. This is a rough game. This is gonna be— this is likely a loss here playing 4v5.

Yeah, I don't think you should speak that, Evan. You need to speak believe right now.

I believe in our loss. I believe in our loss. Well, when, when one player is out when you're playing 4 against 5, it's, uh, it's, it's super hard to win anyway, but the fact that we're already like way behind— we'll see. I'm still fighting it out. I'm still fighting it out. We'll see what happens. All right, what else? Oh, my team surrendered. My team surrendered. So that's it. Oh yeah, we lost. Oh, GG. GG is good game. GG is good team. That was fast. We may have time to do another one. I wonder how many questions we get to, like 2.

Yeah, we do have time if you want to try. Um, we've got plenty more. We've only done 3 today, so— okay, okay.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, uh, I'm going to—

I want to, I want to ask, uh, Alex what he put in that coffee because this is the first time I think that we Oh, you're putting the loss on Alex's coffee.

Wow, Alex, you gotta take your headphone off. This is the first time that I lost. I heard. This is the first time. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta come in here so people can see you. This is— there's Alex. This is the first time that I lost in like, I don't know how many, like 15 games or something. And Rishi, my co-host, is putting the blame on the coffee. It's like, what did Alex put in the coffee? I feel the love. Yeah, I put love into the coffee, and if that's why he lost, then you can blame that. I can't handle the love, that's what it is. You can't handle the love, you can't handle the bromance love. Give me more hate, give me hate, guys. Well, people in the chat say I still love you, Alex. Aww, thank you guys. That loss wasn't on you, so there you go.

Cup of love, Alex, it's all love.

Cup of love. Alright, okay, well, let's see what we got here. Okay, good. Question.

All right, next question comes from Henrik. Henrik is 26 years old from Sweden and starting a business. And so this is an interesting question because Henrik has come up with a method where basically this method helps you learn anything more efficiently and get better at at something quicker. He himself, for example, spent 2 years practicing piano and got accepted into one of the most coveted music universities in Scandinavia and was going up against guys who had had a lifetime of experience piano. So using this method, he was able to go extreme with his piano skills. He also ended up in the top 0.5%, 6 million people playing a competitive video game.

There you go. Okay.

So I guess this method is something that he wants to, you know, put into a form of a business, and he wanted to know from you, just, you know, is there a label for someone who is helping others make their time more efficient and getting better quicker? Yeah, he wants to become the best in the world at teaching people with this method. Okay. So, you know, I personally don't know that there's a label for something like this. Certainly you could spend time Googling and seeing what's out there for, you know, methods, educational methods. "Rise Online," says Polly Maxx in the chat. But I— what comes to mind actually immediately is like, you know, "Why don't you create a label?" Demasta said an acceleration coach. Yeah, I mean, great, great, definitely. I was thinking coach could be a label you could give yourself. But what came to mind is, is like, why don't you innovate and create a label and create this industry that you, you are tapping into? Because once you innovate and become the first to do it, you know, you end up inevitably dominating and leading. So I don't know, you know, Tony Robbins, he was the first person to create this coach, you know, model. And then I think Howard Schultz, Evan, on your wall, was the first to kind of tap into that Starbucks model here. So I say be the first and innovate. And, you know, I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it will make you be definitely the leader in that particular industry. Got a lot of other great suggestions in the chat, like, yeah, okay, no, there's just some— okay, good, good, good chat going on in the live comments. I think coach is just overplayed. I feel like everybody's a coach.

Oh, we got a game going. I'm glad. This question deeply upsets me, but I also have a lot of empathy. I also have a lot of empathy because who cares what your name is? Like, you're using this time to ask one question to help you grow your business, and the most important thing on your mind right now is what am I gonna call myself, it doesn't matter. Like, does it matter? Sure, but it's nowhere near close to the top of priorities. Whether you call yourself a performance coach or guru or you make something up, like, it doesn't matter. It's nowhere near the top of where you need to be focusing on. And the reason why I'm upset is because my goal with all of this stuff is to have an impact on the people asking the question and the audience, and I feel like I can't because I don't know the real problem that this guy is facing right now. And so we're addressing some surface-level issue that isn't super important. If you're really good at teaching, if you're really good at doing it yourself to start, you're really good at getting into piano and learning, or you're really good at figuring out a video game and being the best, then first, then you gotta figure out, can you teach it to others? Right? Just because you're really good— uh, let me ban a champion here— just because you're really good at doing something doesn't mean that you're gonna be a great teacher. You look at a lot of the hitting coaches in baseball, you look at Ted Williams, for those baseball fans, you know, one of the greatest hitters of all time, if not the greatest, depending on how you rank hitters, and then he became a hitting coach and he sucked. Like, he couldn't transfer his knowledge of how to do something over to somebody else. And so that's, that's the next skill that you need to learn. Since you're so good at picking up skills, you need to figure out how you can transfer that to other people. And so you start by testing, right? Like, how can you take— everybody has goals, everyone wants to get better at something, you know, maybe Rishi wants to be a better singer or a better YouTuber or a better cook or a better friend or a better, you know, whatever it is, fill in the blank. We all want to get better at something. Teach me how to be a better Timo. Teach me how to win that last game. Right? And then doing that for bigger name people, doing that on stage, doing that where there's an audience, right? Like if you came on and taught me how to be better at YouTube and it worked, you would get instant fans. You would get people who want to work with you. You want— you get people who want to buy your products, your ebook, your coaching program, whatever it is. But you have to show that it works. You may want to stick within a niche, like if you want to do gaming, great. There's tons of big gamers You know, we have this channel, but this isn't really a gaming channel. But if, you know, if you start with a smaller channel and help that guy climb and get better at the game and then keep working your way up, you'll get attention, you get awareness, you get people who want to work with you, and they won't care if you call yourself the Performance Coach or Billy Bob Man. You know, like it doesn't— it's nowhere near the most important thing you need to worry about. So I'm upset because I want to help this guy, and I feel like I did, but I wanted to help more. But I have empathy too. Like, people don't necessarily know what to ask or how to do it. But for those of you worrying about your name, yeah, the name can help, but I don't believe in calling yourself what you actually do.