Evan Carmichael responds to J.K. Rowling calling his tribute video about her "smug" and a "repackaged rulebook." He says his intent was to honor her work and inspire viewers, and asks fans to submit 30-second videos showing how the tribute helped them, which he'll compile and send to Rowling.
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J.K. Rowling hates my video and I could really use your help. So I recently got a tweet from J.K. Rowling who was mentioning she hates the top 10 rules video that I made on her. And I don't know that she actually watched the video or not, but she tweeted out and she said, God, I hate this stuff. I've winged it my whole life. I've messed up regularly. There are no rules. Do your thing. And then later on she goes on to write, "Thank you, XX. Very happy to be an inspiring screw-up. Just don't want to be repackaged as a smug rulebook." So I need to be honest, this hurt a little bit. I've never had anybody call my videos and use the words "hate" or "smug" related to them. A lot of people have seen the top 10 rules video that I made on them. 50 Cent watched it and shared it. Floyd Mayweather watched it and shared it. People been involved in their own version of the top 10, like Ryan Holiday and Chris Guillebeau. And so far all the feedback has been insanely positive. And again, I don't know if J.K. Rowling actually watched the video or just feels like I packaged it together and, and she's upset about that. It also doesn't help that the way she found the video was through some guy who was trying to promote credit card processing. So I don't know if she actually even saw the video or not, or just saw that it was related to some credit card processing website and got upset. I wanted to make clear that my intention behind the videos is always to honor the person that I'm showcasing, right? It's always a positive. It's never the top 10 worst moments of J.K. Rowling or the top 10 biggest screw-ups on camera of J.K. Rowling. I think there's enough of that online. There's enough of that putting people down and hating on people And that's— that was never the intention. I never want to create content that is— that is making people hate on each other, right? I think we have too much of that. And so the intention is always positive. The intention is always to show off their best work. The intention is always to be an inspiration to people who are trying to do more and are trying to get better. A lot of you probably know J.K. Rowling from her books, but you may never have been inspired by her. You may not have seen the speeches she's done, the interviews she's given, and the message that she has as an entrepreneur. And my intention isn't to say that these are the only 10 things you can learn from J.K. Rowling and follow this and you'll be successful like her. Hopefully that doesn't come across from you guys watching the videos. It's more I'm just trying to— I'm just trying to expose you guys to people who've done a lot more than us. I expose myself to it too, to be surrounded by these people who've done great things and try to absorb some wisdom from them and try to learn from them to be the best version of ourselves. Maybe you see something in J.K. Rowling's story that you can relate to, that you can say, "Man, I'm just like her, and, you know, if she can overcome those obstacles, then I can too." And it gives you a little bit of hope and inspiration to want to keep going. So I made this video, one, just to kind of clarify my position, but two, I'd like to ask for your help. What I'd like to do is make a video to send to J.K. Rowling, and I'd love to include 10 videos from you guys #BelieveNation, talking about how the video that we made moved you, talking about what you've learned from that video, how you've become a better person or an entrepreneur, what you've learned from it. And I want to include those 10 videos together along with a message from me, and we're going to put it up and send it to her. If you're going to do it though, please, I don't want any negativity, okay? I don't— I appreciate that a lot of you guys may want to defend me, but in doing so, don't put anybody else down. Don't tell her that her tweet was, you know, off-base or whatever language you want to use. I just really want to focus on the positive. I just really want to show that the video that we made about her and her rules moved you, helped you, changed you, motivated you, so that she can realize that it's having an impact and that it's not just trying to promote something. It's not just some kind of smug thing to to get some attention and awareness, but that it's having a real meaningful impact on people's lives. And if at the end of the day— she hasn't asked me to— but if at the end of the day she wants me to remove the video, I'll do it because again, it's supposed to be a tribute to her, and I don't like the idea that it's out there making her feel bad and that she hates it. But before doing that, I'd love for her to see the impact that it's having on people's lives. So I'd encourage you to watch the video if you haven't. I'll link it up in the description, and maybe we will I'll put an annotation right there for you guys to watch it. Watch the video. If you want to participate, make a, I'd say, up to 30-second video reply of what it meant to you and address it right to J.K. Rowling. And we're going to pick the top 10 of those and mix them together, send a video message to J.K. Rowling. I really appreciate your help. I really appreciate your support. Looking forward to what comes back. You can link up your video by leaving a comment down below on this video. Thank you guys again. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
