In this motivational YouTube talk for his Believe Nation audience, entrepreneur Evan Carmichael shares seven practical strategies that he and other successful people use to stay calm amid the pressures of running a business. He begins by urging viewers to comment with resonant ideas, then walks through each method: (1) maintaining a strict schedule that allocates specific days for recurring tasks (e.g., a dedicated YouTube day); (2) building a "no‑crisis" business by protecting time, limiting emergency calls, and being willing to turn away needy clients; (3) using simple breath work—closing the eyes and taking deep breaths—to instantly lower tension; (4) gaining perspective by stepping away for a few minutes when a situation spirals, illustrated with a Zumba‑class anecdote; (5) changing the physical environment, such as taking a short walk, to reset mental focus; (6) remembering the deeper purpose or "why" behind one’s work to keep minor setbacks in proportion; and (7) attempting meditation, acknowledging his own difficulty with it while encouraging viewers to share resources. He closes by inviting feedback on which tip resonated most and soliciting additional ideas, reinforcing his core belief that entrepreneurs can solve world problems when they stay calm and focused.
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Hello, Believe Nation. I'm Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs will solve all the major problems of the world. So to help you on your journey, I'm going to share today the 7 ways that smart people stay calm. And as always, guys, as you're listening, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired. And the more you write it down for yourself, the more likely it's going to stick in here as well. Enjoy. Way number 1 is have a schedule. One of the things that really helped me stay calm with all the things that were happening in my business was to have a schedule, and I know that there's a time for the thing that is causing an issue. And so, for example, Tuesday is my YouTube day. It's when I review all the videos from my team. It's when I answer any questions, when I do setups for collaborations, when I'm doing the research— anything basically YouTube related except for filming, I do on a Tuesday. And so whenever I get emails during the week, I get questions, I get proposals, I get ideas, I review a video that then spawns another creation— I have a place. I put it in my folder, and I know on Tuesday I'm going to have time to go out and do it. And I think oftentimes When we don't have time to figure it out, we try to rush to solve it. It creates chaos, it creates stress. But knowing that you have a place in your calendar to be able to do it, for me at least, creates a great sense of calm. Number 2 is create a no-crisis business. This is a huge thing I'm a fan of as an entrepreneur. I hate having to deal with crisis— crises— crises. I hate having to deal with crises in the moment. I hate having a crisis business. And so it's the reason why I don't use a phone. Because what happens when you have a phone? People call you. People call you with what they think is an emergency, but it's really their use for your time, right? It's their agenda for your time instead of you saying, I'm protecting my time and focusing on things that really matter to me. And so sometimes this means you have to fire clients. You know, if I look at my main business, most brands who approach me with a deal, I don't work with. Some of them just have the wrong intentions, but some of them are just too needy. If you need me to be on call 24/7 for your project to be a success, we're not going to work well together. That deal is not going to happen because I want to create a no-crisis business. And so sometimes that means you lose opportunities, right? Sometimes that means that I will miss media opportunities, as an example, because the reporter is on a tight deadline and needs an answer by 4 o'clock today, and I didn't even get the email until 2 o'clock the next day. Sometimes that happens, but you have to be willing to let go of the good to go for the great. I'm using that time with intention to focus on big, most important projects for my company, as opposed to only dealing with little fire after little fire after little fire. So as much as possible, create a no-crisis business. Number 3 is close your eyes and breathe. This sounds like a pretty basic one, but just, just reminding yourself that this is stressful. I'm gonna breathe. I'm going to close my eyes, I'm going to relax, and things start to get better. Why do people go outside for a smoke? Like, the nicotine helps, but it's also the breathing. And so if there's a reminder on your calendar or something on your desktop background, or whenever you feel that stress coming on board, just reminding yourself, I'm going to close my eyes, I'm going to take a couple of deep breaths. I instantly feel a little bit more calm.
So rule number 4 is to have perspective. I think a lot of the times we get really focused on the nitty-gritty of things, of like things that are happening. You have like emails coming through, you have telephone calls coming through, and we lose perspective in what's important. So just last night, I was ready to teach my Zumba class. You know, I had my laptop ready, everything was ready to go, I have my playlist, everything is going as planned. 10 minutes before my class starts, my laptop shuts down. It just shuts down completely. And I started to panic and I couldn't turn it back on. And immediately my thought was, oh my God, this happens to me all the time. Why does technology hate me so much? Like, this has happened before many times. And then I started replaying all these weird things happening. I'm like, what if the girls come in and I don't have the right playlist? And then what do I do? What if I forget everything? What if I have no music? Oh God, do I go on YouTube to download music? What is it? And I just started spiraling out of control. And I felt a physiological change in my body. I started turning really red. And I felt like a sickness come over my stomach. I'm like, oh gosh, this is anxiety. It's happening again. I'm getting anxious. And at that point, I took 5 minutes. It's like, okay, I'm gonna give myself 5 minutes. I'm gonna go in the back room and put things in perspective. It's a laptop. It's fine. It shut down. It's okay. I have another playlist. On my phone. Yes, it's an old playlist and I haven't done it since a year ago, but I still have a playlist. It's gonna be fine, you know. What's important is that I have a group of students coming in with giant smiles on their faces, wanting to do Zumba, want to get a nice workout, and want an environment that is supportive and encouraging. And I want them to feel like they could love all of themselves and me concerned about a laptop or how technology is always after me and nothing could ever get done because technology hates me is not going to help my situation. So that 5 minutes, I calmed down, I put things in perspective, and 5 minutes later, I found my old playlist, I played it. It wasn't ideal, but it was still an amazing class. Class, and everyone left really, really happy. So next time you feel like things are spiraling out of control and you can't keep focus and things are going wrong, just remember to put everything in perspective.
Number 5 is change your environment. So sometimes just getting up and going for a walk really helps. I would find myself sometimes getting stressed out at my old office, and especially on a nice day, I would spend 15 minutes and just go for a quick walk, clear my head. I really actually found that helpful between switching tasks. So if I had to go from writing something really intense that I had a 90-minute chunk to work on, and then I had to switch to some other task, I would use that 15 minutes to clear my head, to just change my environment, and to set myself up to have success for that next chunk of time. I find that sometimes it's the people right in front of you, or that environment that triggers you, and just going for a walk and changing it can help bring you a sense of calm. Number 6 is remember your why. Another thing I find really helpful is remembering what I'm doing. Why is it so important? Who am I trying to help? What's my mission? And so if you're dealing with some little stress that might be overwhelming in the moment, thinking about I'm doing this thing because I want to help entrepreneurs, because my work matters, because people leave comments on all these videos and say how important a lot of these videos are to them to stay motivated, to give them ideas to continue to build amazing things. And so the stress of one hater or a video not, you know, being ready on time or having to switch around the schedule, those kinds of things that can happen are small in comparison to the why of what I'm trying to accomplish. And keeping that focus, and whenever I'm kind of stressed out, remembering back to Why am I doing this? Why is this so important to me? Helps put those other things not seem so big. And number 7 is meditate. And I put this as number 7 because I don't really meditate. I've never found a way to really make it work for me, but it works for other people, so I had to include it on the list. For whatever reason, I've really wanted to learn to meditate. I've been on and off with meditation for, I don't know, at least a decade. I just don't feel the benefit of it. I really want to though. I remember we went to this Tony Robbins event a month or two ago in California, and they had this meditation guy come on, and we were supposed to meditate, and we were supposed to feel this ball of energy between us, and it's like, "How many of you can feel the ball?" And I'm like, "I don't feel the ball. I don't know. Where's the ball? Where's the ball? I can't feel the ball. I'm getting stressed out trying to feel the ball." And then the next exercise, you had to stand up and put your hand over somebody's head and feel feel the energy field over their head, and like, I can't feel the energy field. How many of you guys feel the energy field? Everybody shoots up their hand like, I can't feel the energy field. So, you know, I don't know why. I think it may be in general I'm just pretty calm. I don't get stressed out that easily. But I'm going to add it on the list, and hopefully maybe you guys will give me a resource that I can use that finally the resource that will click with me so that meditation can be an important part of my daily routine. Routine. So that's my take on the 7 ways that smart people stay calm. I'd love to know what did you guys think? Which way was most relevant, impactful, valuable to you? Leave it down in the comments below. Also, is there an 8, 9, 10 that I missed that you want to add to the list that really helped you? Please share it because I think it'll help a lot of entrepreneurs who are watching this video as well. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.
