In this short motivational "Shot of Espresso" episode, host Evan Carmichael greets his "Believe Nation" audience and introduces the theme “Outwork your opponent.” Guest Carli Lloyd shares her core advice: train, focus on self‑competition, and give 100 % daily, emphasizing that consistent practice—whether juggling or shooting—leads to greatness. Speaker B (the co‑host) reinforces the message with a personal story about learning salsa: after repeating beginner level twice, he practiced alone in a park after class, repeating basics until mastery, echoing the mantra “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Evan then reflects on his own YouTube journey, noting that producing over 3,000 videos transformed his delivery from nervous and boring to energetic, attributing the change to relentless repetition and genuine passion for the craft. He ties the anecdotes together, arguing that when you love what you do, the extra work feels natural, and challenges viewers to weigh talent versus hard work in the comments. The episode ends with a call‑to‑action for audience engagement and a reminder to start the day with espresso.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation!
Today's message is: Outwork your opponent. Oh, right, okay. Yeah, uh, how does it go? Uh, oh my God, it's again! Can we do it one more time? I can do it.
Good morning, Believe Nation!
Today's message is: Outwork your opponent. Over to you, Carlie Lloyd.
Best piece of advice I've ever gotten is probably to train and outwork your opponents. Focus on yourself, compete against yourself, and just give 100% every single day. You gotta practice on your own. You gotta spend ample amount of minutes, time, whether it's juggling, whether it's shooting, you've gotta just put in the extra work. And I think that if you do that in life and in anything that you aspire to be great at, You're on the right track.
So what do you think?
I'm a strong believer in that. So when I started salsa 6 and a half years ago, I was not a great dancer. I repeated level 1 twice. And I actually, at the end of the first time I did level 1, at the end of every class, I would go to the park where I lived and by myself practice over and over. And I remember I had a bunch of like old grandmothers who were, you know, babysitting their grandkids watching me, and they were, you know, talking and laughing or whatever, but I just kept practicing my basics. Over and over. This line rings in my mind: "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." Now, in salsa and many other things I did, I wasn't naturally talented. I had to work hard, and that's what I did. And I'm a strong believer that, you know, when your opponent's sleeping, you know, when your opponent's having a cup of coffee, when they're watching Netflix, you should be working if you want to succeed. So you should be outperforming them through hard work.
Where I excel is ridiculous. Sickening work ethic, you know. While the other guy's sleeping, I'm working. While the other guy's eating, I'm working. Yeah, I totally agree. I resonate with the message too. I think, um, when I look at my YouTube channel as an example, you guys can go back— a lot of you have started going back in my older videos and say what a big change has happened because the content was still good but the delivery sucked. I was nervous and I was boring and I didn't have any energy And it's a big difference compared to where I am now. And it just came from making— we have 3,000+ videos on the channel. Like, you hopefully will get better after doing something 3,000 times. And I think the key is finding something that you love so much that you don't mind putting in the work and the effort. Because you have to force yourself to do it. Like, when you wanted to do salsa, it wasn't like, "I'm forcing myself to get better at salsa." Like, you like to do it, it made you come alive. Same thing with me and the YouTube channel. And with me and salsa too. Like, I wanted to practice. I was sitting there in meetings for my business and sitting across from a guy and I'm just imagining turn patterns and I'm thinking, "If I took his hand and put it over my head and then took his shoulder and twisted him, what kind of combination—" and I've missed like 10 minutes of what we're actually talking about because I was daydreaming about salsa. Like, that's what you want to find, and when you find that thing that you love so much, it's easier to put in the work. If you have to force yourself, then it's harder to actually get it done. So the question of the day today is: What are your thoughts on talent and working hard? Talent versus working hard. Leave it in the comments below, we'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching, have an amazing day, continue to believe, and we'll see you again tomorrow morning for another Shot of Espresso.
