Strong Relationships For Entrepreneurs (The ONLY Networking Strategy You Need!)

What do you do when you launch something and it goes terribly?

One is worse than zero, right? It's better like if nobody shows up because then you don't have to do anything, right? Is there anybody who you're afraid of disappointing? And obviously we're afraid of disappointing the one person who paid for the thing because we need to give them value. Are we afraid that like Seneca is going to be upset that we didn't get more people? You make a list of anybody who you're afraid of, like the judgments, and then we attack the list. And people know your heart and your care and your intention behind this. They're pretty forgiving. Like if you make a mistake and you own up to it and you try to make it better, it often leads to just amazing relationships as well. It definitely can work for sure. Workshops work, advertising work, it works. You just didn't execute it great. Cool. Expect to suck and not execute great at the beginning. It's fine. If you're perfect at the beginning, then it's actually not inspiring to other people. And that's the story of almost every entrepreneur. It's like they struggled and they failed and they sucked at the beginning and they just kept going. I wish I was smart enough to think about that when I was first getting started.

What do you do when you launch something and it goes terribly?

What do you mean it goes terrible?

I normally do lives for my company and I have normally between like 30 and 50 people and we don't really do like, it's organic, just, you know, people that, and I've been doing this since once, like probably 2 or 3 months ago, once Sam suggested you should go live every week and I started doing it and it has been working well. More appointments, really nice. So I started thinking, okay, let's do something else, something different. So we should do a workshop, a paid workshop to have people who's only interested in actually, you know, doing the registration in the programs we have. And I said, well, we should do like a very low fee just to have the commitment and kind of like to test the market, which is something that we have all also talked in these meetings. Did that, and I was, you know, I had a conversation with one of the colleges here in Canada, with Seneca College, which is fairly big, and they even gave us some budget to do the, you know, the promotion and all. So we used the budget and everything. So we had people asking, we had people, you know, lots of likes, lots of hearts, and all that. But it's a little bit embarrassing, but just one actually payment came through. Just one.

Okay.

And it's today. Okay.

And it's coming up or it hasn't happened yet?

It's today. Yeah, today at 7 PM.

Oh, good. So, so listen, this is great. Like, one is worse than zero, right? It's better like if nobody shows up because then you don't have to do anything, right? But one person shows up and then it's like one person. You lean into it. Is there anybody who you're afraid of disappointing? Right. Obviously, we're afraid of disappointing the one person who paid for the thing because we need to give them value. Are we afraid that like Seneca is going to be upset that we didn't get more people? Or is there anybody— is there anybody besides the one person that you're afraid of disappointing?

Yeah, my— the rest of directors in the firm were not that happy in the sense that, you know, I kind of like promoted this instead of doing what we regularly do. And, you know, they were not that happy, but at the end, it's not the end of the world. The worst part would be those— the person who paid, but it's just one, so I don't have a problem. I'll have the consultation with him, you know, a free consultation, and that will pay whatever he paid because it was just $10. It was just very little fee. Just to get those who are really interested. I don't think it's going to be a good idea. Even if we have a couple more registrations, I don't think it's a good idea to do the workshop. Maybe, I don't know if it's better just to meet with them one-on-one, or maybe should I go and do the workshop and kind of like swallow the, the, the, the, the bad moments, like with 3 people there? And of course I had to explain, I have to explain Seneca College that this didn't work. The market I work with, it's very tough in that sense of paying. And this was a test.

Yeah, okay.

So it didn't work. So I'm kind of like, I mean, that moment that what should I do now?

You make a list of anybody who you're afraid of like the judgments and then we attack the list. So if it's your— if your directors at your firm are upset, You can, you can handle that. Like, you know how to talk to them. This is a test, guys. We need to test. We can't just keep doing the same thing. And instead of me spending my time doing personal stuff, I'm spending time on this. Like, this is, this is an attempt, right? So we can, we can handle them. Seneca, if you're worried that you spent their money and it didn't get a result, well, what else could we do to deliver value for them, build the relationship, right? It's just like, there's lots of things that you could do that either are outside of this one this one advertising mistake, air quotes, that you can just bring value to that relationship. If I went and I totally bombed on— Brendan wants me to speak at his event next month, right? If I go upstage and forget what I'm going to say and just totally bomb, cool. I can make it up to him. If something happened and I sucked on stage, I could make it up. I would find a way to make it up, to bring incredible value to him and his team So you can make it up to the people of Seneca. To the one person, you just go and crush and give them tons of value, right? I mean, you can even lean into it. It's like, hey, this was a test for us. You're the person who took action. I love you. Like, let's go. And you just, again, you focus on who you have instead of who you don't. If I look at this, like, you know, how many people do we have live here? Why, if it was one person, if it was you, me, and Zen, we would still do this and we'd have a good time helping. We've got, I don't know, 12 people. If it was 100 people, like, we'd still— it doesn't— like, you can make the decision whether you keep going or not, but you can, you can bring tons of value to that one person. So that helps alleviate everything because you can, you know, you can make it up to everybody. You know, you can bring value to everybody and nobody's going to be pissed at you after today, right? Cool. The next thing to pay attention to is, did you love the thing? Like, my first speaking gig in Toronto was at the YMCA for free and 3 people showed up after I promoted it and they promoted it for free. In a giant room, I show up with this giant auditorium and there's 3 people who are there. Like, oh my gosh, what is this? I feel like the biggest failure of all time. I decided, well, I already did my presentation. I already know, I already prepared so much. I was so nervous because it was one of my first presentations. I just went and did it and it was amazing. You know, it's like, I have to, I have to keep going. And logically it doesn't make any sense. Like if, if I promoted it and nobody showed up and the YMCA promoted it to their members and nobody, like nobody, 3 people showed up, how am I ever going to make this? This is not a business. This is stupid, but I loved it. And so I kept doing it and I found a way, right? So more important than did this work? Do workshops work? Absolutely. So something in the, in the, in the mechanics of it didn't work. Something in the marketing and promotion of it didn't work. Something in the copy didn't work. Something in the video didn't work, or the advertising was spent incorrectly. Like, there's many things that probably didn't work. That doesn't mean that the project is dead because workshops work. It's more you do it with this one person and you see, do— did I love this? And if you love helping them, then you have one now. And you try to fix the marketing for the next time. And then you have 3 or 5 or 7 or 10 or 20 or 100, like it just keeps building. But the test isn't, did it work or not? 'Cause nothing works the first time. Like the chances of something working the first time, I was talking to the president of Shopify, right? You guys know Shopify, like you build your website and sell. So he was saying that all of the, if you combine all the Shopify stores together, and it counted as one store, they'd be the second largest store in the world after Amazon. Crazy. Um, and what he said was almost everybody who's had success on Shopify, if you look at the people who like sold a million dollars plus through Shopify, it was like their third or fourth store on Shopify. Like they had tried Shopify before and it didn't work out, didn't work out, right? So like, but kept going, start another store. Where the biggest mistake is starting one store and It doesn't work. Oh, I guess it's not for me. And then you quit. And that's the story of almost every entrepreneur is like they struggled and they failed and they sucked at the beginning and they just kept going. So it definitely can work for sure. Workshops work, advertising work. It works. You just didn't execute it great. Cool. Expect to suck and not execute great at the beginning. It's fine. You go and deliver for this person. Did you love it? Was it fun? Could you imagine 5, 10, 100 people there and it being fun? Yes. Then you keep going. Um, no, then you stop, you know? So, but that's much more of a heart decision because your, your head can figure it out with enough repetition to help. I went a little, I went on a little speech there, but I got excited. It's so exciting. Cause like I can, I can now say, you know, I felt like the biggest loser of all time when I was at the YMCA doing that event. Like I, felt like I wanted to go and hide. Like, I can't believe I'm such a failure. This is ridiculous. Plus I pinned my whole career now. Like, this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. I'm so excited. Like, oh, I can't do this. Like, this is not going to work. So it was this giant failure moment. Um, but I'm so excited that that happened because now I can share that story, right? People will be inspired in, in 5 years, 10 years by your success. They can say, guys, when I started, I got one person. It was $10 and only one person showed up. Great. I felt like the biggest loser. And, but I kept going and here's what happened, right? Um, if you're perfect at the beginning, then it's actually not inspiring to other people. So just go and like, just give love to this person, go crush it for them and then see if you liked it. And if you loved it, then, then keep doing it. And if not, you move on to something else.

Yes, I'll have an inspiring speech after tonight.

There you go. I love it. And listen, whenever I'm afraid to do something, um, that'll be one of the things, because I'm afraid of disappointing people. So when I'm afraid of doing something, I will ask myself, like, can I make it up? If I screw this up, can I make it up to people? You know, and the answer is like, I can always find a way to make it up to people. So cool, let's do it. Like, when my tour got canceled My 2020 tour. When did I break my neck? 2020? 2019, I broke my neck. We did it. So 2020, I was doing another tour and we had sold tickets across America, like 22 cities. We were promoting, spending money, advertising, pitching, selling tickets to. And I'm about to go across the border and speak in wherever, like Buffalo or whatever, at my first speaking gig. And I get denied at the border and it shuts down the whole the whole trip. And so now we have to— it's like all these people who bought tickets to come see me and now I can't do any of them because I got stopped at the border. And so like panic mode right away, like, oh my gosh, this is the most terrible thing of all time. I feel bad for the two people who— my camera guy and my driver, who was Jeremy at the time, were coming along and they got stopped. They planned for this. Um, but like, okay, I can make it up to Jeremy. My first, like, I can make it up to Jeremy and Ray who are coming with me. I'm going to take him to the Keg, which is a kind of fancy steakhouse here in Canada, and just tell him, get whatever you want. Just, it's on me. Buy the fanciest steak, whatever you want. It's on me because I feel guilty for like, you committed 3 months of your life to come with me and now it's all over. And they were fine. And I told them I felt guilty. Like, no, no, this is great. No worries. And then it's all the people who bought tickets to my event. Like, I can make it up to them. Can I make it up to them? Yes. Like a personal message to everybody, obviously refund, but like a refund for me isn't enough. So it was a personal message to everybody. I think we even offered like a call, like a call with me if they had bought the ticket within a certain amount of time or something. So like, you can always make it up to people and people know your heart and your care and your, like the intention behind this. They're pretty, forgiven. Like if you make a mistake and you own up to it and you try to make it better, it often leads to just amazing relationships as well. Honestly, one of my biggest regrets in thinking about this, like get— save the name, email, phone number, contact information of this one person so that in 5 years or 10 years, we can like do an IG Live with them or something. It's like, you were the one person, only one. It's like, I don't know who the 3 people were. That would be the best thing of all time. Like, who are the 3 people? Who came to my first thing, being able to have them on now and say, you were there at the YMCA, right? I wish I had kind of kept in touch. So yeah, if you have their contact info, that could be a cool— now we're turning into something much bigger, but—

Yeah, I even have his credit card information.

Well, there you go.

He paid $10.

Build a relationship, honestly. Follow them on social if they have it, like build a relationship. If you love doing it and it becomes something, man, that first person to be able to say only one person showed up and we're still in touch and here's what they're doing and show the success that you're able to help them with. Yeah, I wish I was smart enough to think about that when I was first getting started with those three people. I want to know, I don't remember them. I was so nervous and so scared and so feeling like a loser. I can't even see their faces, the three people who showed up. So yeah, that'd be pretty cool.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I think what you helped me here is to process how I'm gonna deal with it and to find ways to bring value to each of the parts involved because I'm not afraid of, you know, falling down and hit the floor, right? You know, it had happened before and I know that I can, you know, stand up again. I know that. So yeah, it was kind of like very disappointing to listen that there was just one registration, but I can survive that. But yes, I was concerned about all the other parties that are involved in this. But I think that I can make up for them. And yeah, I'll definitely find a way to. And you gave me the process of thinking that. So thank you. Thank you so much.

There we go. Well, that's why community is so important.

I came back to the community after basically from COVID joining a firm. But kind of going through these iterations of doing everything that you inspired and advised me to do, but unfortunately the environment's a little super intense and very stressful and kind of toxic, but I keep putting my head down to pursue it at the goal of being a partner. So at the end of last year, because the projections didn't come true based on what I was brought under, compensation plan. Um, basically I was incentivized that there would be a partnership agreement this year. Um, and so Tuesday we went to lunch finally after monthly talks with the CEO from July to now, and, uh, did not come out what was I expecting and what I was enticed for this whole time. And so now I'm trying to keep my head down and stay focused and keep the positive north light but I feel very rocky in my career again versus having this goal of growing with people and having a bigger impact than doing everything on my own. And so the question is, um, how to figure that out. So I've had a couple talks with mentors around this, and I know talked with Zan and some of the others in the community, and it's about building brand, do your own thing. What I realized for myself is I'm a very extroverted person. I'm complemented better when I'm in a component of a team versus being a solopreneur. I'm good at strategy, good at impacting others or communicating, marketing, investments and wealth building. But now it's to figure out where do I go to have that larger impact and do what you said, which is have that North Star that continues to be that. And I think one of the challenges from COVID is I had ownership over my trajectory as part of a business where I was partners in businesses. Now I don't have ownership over my income and financial abundance and trajectory, and that's been constraining me because I'm not doing as well as I was prior to COVID.

Sure.

I mean, you just don't have ownership of your trajectory inside this company. But you still have ownership of your trajectory for where you could go.

Correct.

And that is an important mental distinction for you as well, that it's not over and you're not screwed for life and you're not permanently stuck. And it doesn't mean you have to go quit this job right now and go without a parachute, you know, into the brave new world. You know, you don't want to start a company, at least not yet. Awesome. And what's great is you know kind of what you want to do, like having that North Star. You don't need to be stuck on the how. You know you want to have a bigger impact. You know you want to have ownership. You know you want to serve more. You know you want to work with a team. You know you want to have a boss that supports you, mentors you, guides you, and values you. Great. How all that happens, you don't have to— you'll never figure out those steps from where you are right now. And that's okay.

Why is that? Because the way that my brain is wired is to think about the tactical. And I hear you say that all the time, but I don't understand it because I think about reverse engineering.

Yeah. And there's nothing wrong. And listen, I'm the same way, like goal-oriented. What's the plan? How, how, how, how, how?

Let's go.

I love that. That's the best. The problem is there's too many variables that you don't understand. So your plan right now is based off of what you currently know and you don't know enough. So your plan has a million holes in it. So it doesn't mean don't have a plan, but recognize that your plan is very basic compared to what you're going to make. And this is why there's a problem, or at least I have a problem, I think, with 5 or 10-year goals, because you just don't know, like go back to meet from 10 years ago. Whatever plan, like you're, you've been goal-oriented and plan-oriented, you know, most of your adult life probably. So if you go back, look at you from 5 years ago or 10 years ago, you know, Samit in 2015, making his plan for 2022, you're not here because 2015 Samit has just different information. He doesn't know what he knows now. And so there's an audacity to then think, well, I know where I'm going to be in the next 5 years or 7 years or what my plan's going to be. So you make your best guess at a plan. Don't let that be so overwhelming that you do nothing because that's the worst. Your plan is to start talking to a lot of people until you create an opportunity.

Do you think there's any necessary step? Because I think this was the— so I was in the Big Four accounting in New York City, And I've tried to stay within the umbrella of real estate, but I've realized I don't need to always stay to that. But do you think that there's unnecessary focus of staying in a, I don't know if it's a continuum of your skillset development so that you're not jumping from one thing for 2 to 3 years and then another thing for another 2 to 3 years. I think about it as momentum, but I think that's also what prevents me from going to other areas.

Yeah, similar to like the very first question, that's a heart question. You're trying to answer a heart question with your head. Yeah. The head would be, yeah, stay in the same thing, get more experience, go keep learning, get better, improve, build more contacts, stay in real estate. That's logically what you should do.

Yeah.

The problem is if your heart's not into it, you're not going to win. So if you're going to be going off and learning some new skill because that's what's in your heart to go off and do, It may feel like a step back, but it ends up creating 1,000 steps forward. Because if you just stay in real estate, what you're going to do, if it's not actually in your heart, you're going to learn to hate it more and more and more and more and more every day. And it's the right strategy headwise for who you are right now and what you know, but it's not what you actually want to become. Now, it doesn't mean you go off and dump it all and become a vegan chef. I don't know. Or maybe it is. That's your thing. But you'll have a It'll be a temporary setback as you go and learn that thing. And it doesn't sound like you're like an all-in kind of guy. You want to make your steps to make progress. So I would explore. I think the best thing you can do right now is you have your intention, which is awesome. Now you go explore, you go explore, you start talking to people, you start talking to mentors, you start asking questions, you do the outreach from people in your industry. And say, hey, I'm a young professional in this industry. I'd love to pick your brain for 20 minutes. I'm stuck in a kind of career choice right now. And whatever kind of personal connection you can make, whether it's at the company, maybe there's an alumni from the same university that you went to, maybe it's a friend of a friend of a friend, to line up as many sessions with potential mentors as possible, and something good will happen. Very helpful. I think that happened to me. So when I sold my business, I didn't know what I wanted to do. It was great. I had money, awesome, but I didn't know what I wanted to do next. And I said yes to a whole bunch of things. And one of them was a guy who was in venture capital, who was part of a firm. And I was curious about raising money. I didn't know how to do it because I never had to. And he brought me under his wing and I joined the venture capital firm for a year and a half. Learned about all sorts of different industries. And, and that wasn't my forever thing. That was my next thing that then led to this. And I've been doing this. I've been helping entrepreneurs for, wow, I don't know how many years. YouTube alone has just been 12 years. Um, but that being said, like, if YouTube— if I stopped liking videos, I would, I would just walk away from YouTube. Next. Because you'll never win doing work that you hate. I've done that. Like, my website was the thing that was making me a lot of money. My— I used to have a— I mean, my website was off my name. We had 100-something thousand pages of content making money every day from advertising and partnerships and brand deals and all that stuff. And it started to feel more like a job, and, um, I just didn't like it. And I was really enjoying video, making YouTube. So I overnight shut down my website, put up a picture to say, you know, working on it, coming soon. And now you can't find any of that old content on the site. And for me, it's a much more vibe thing. Like logically it doesn't make any sense, but it ended up, it works out because when you follow your heart, great things happen. Now I'm here. If I stuck doing the website, I would hate my life.

I appreciate that. I don't want to take up too much time. So, um, very helpful. I think I am much more logic-driven when I look at like evaluation. So trying— I have a lot of heart, but I tend to make these type of bigger decisions with logic. So trying to, even though you say follow your heart, it's a little bit challenging for me to make that switch.

It's the only thing that matters though for this. Like, this is the, this is the ultimate skill to learn for big decisions like this. It doesn't mean like the concern then becomes, well, I would get too emotional and then I just do whatever comes into my head. No, you're not. You're never going to be that guy. You're never going to be reckless. Yeah, but for big— it's— imagine if you're getting married, you better love her, as opposed to, well, logically, you know, like, it makes sense. I think it's probably both of those, right? But it better be a lot of expectations. It better be a lot more on the love than on the logic.

I'm good.

Yeah, like, you see a lot of the guys here have been married for a while, like, oh my gosh, I hope he gets this. Like, I'm not married yet, so that's one of the reasons. Like, this is, this isn't— this is a skill set to start to trust your heart, which you need. You need both. There are some people who only listen to the heart and are like doing all sorts of crazy things and never stay consistent on anything. And never listen to the head, never stay focused, never gets— that's not you. You're the opposite. So you need, you need to tap into heart more. And it'll make you a more successful business person, human. How?

I know you don't like to focus on that. How do you tap into the heart? Is like, I guess, the last question.

When you feel something come through you, when you get an idea, your next step is when you get an idea, Go do something on it. The 2% rule. Yeah. The 2% rule, 2% difference. Right. So when you get an idea, what you will do is automatically start to plan it and judge it and come up with— Evan's holding up the special Cleveland edition.

I got that copy as well.

2019 tour. Let's go. Yeah, that's it. Like when you get an idea, do something on it. And the good news is it's all low risk. Like what, what's your next, idea, but to, to train yourself that great ideas flow through you and to take some immediate action on it. This is what I did because I'm much more logical and strategic. I, I was like you, and I had to train myself to do more heart first. Big decisions with your heart. Because if you go into your next career or your next relationship just doing logic first, You're always going to be unhappy.

I appreciate that. Thank you, Evan. I'll, I'll report back on how that goes.

Cool, man. Keep us posted. Chris in the house, what do we got, man?

So I'm looking at like this whole, like, the Fast Five part, um, start reaching out to people, um, the amazing content 10-pack, everything else. I guess my question is, for the kind of search that I would be looking for, um, you know, I'm looking for the, uh, 40-plus male that is dealing with, um, the quote-unquote dad bod issue and stuff like that and wanting to get himself into better shape. Uh, and then I'm most probably going to look at Instagram because even, uh, even though us, um, people in our later 20s like myself still go to Facebook, uh, the— I think most of the people that are looking for fitness are on Instagram. Everyone bitches about politics on Facebook. I don't got time for that. So go to Instagram to do that, right? Uh, what I mean, what kind of search would I use? Because it's like, my fear would be I would cold message a guy and say, hey, look, you know, I was just like, I felt your pain, trust me. Uh, you know, I was 267, 270-some-odd pounds, 2 blood pressure pills, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was at, I was where you were at. Uh, these are the life changes I made. I'd love to help you. Almost feel like I might insult a guy going, wait, calling me fat or something like that. It's like, no, I'm calling— I'm not calling out any of this. I'm trying to help you overcome a challenge that you're facing.

Cool. Yeah. So great, great question. Um, the concept from Built to Serve is the fast pass to freedom where you're creating a little bit of content for your page and then it's mostly based on outreach, messaging people to offer to help. And it's the fastest way to be able to grow your business, but it's one that a lot of people don't like to use because it risks rejection and people ignoring you or, uh, not understanding you. And, you know, a lot of times people don't like doing kind of the outreach and the sales. Um, for you, I would actually look at two options. I would look at Instagram. I think it's smart. Um, yeah, I think Instagram is going to be your best bet.

Okay.

Um, maybe Discord. But I would just, yeah, I would start with Instagram for your demo. And I would look at two different sets of hashtags. Okay. The first would be something where they're like something like overweight, like where they're, where they're acknowledging. So you're not calling them fat, right? They're already self-acknowledging like overweight dad, especially if you're targeting parents, like overweight might be too big. You can see how much content's coming in, but overweight men, overweight dad, and see what they post. And, and you'll have some people who are posting because it's deeply personal to them because they're struggling. They're frustrated. And like, why am I so overweight? And, and I'm, I'm fell back off the train. And like, they're, they're sharing their life and they're pouring their heart and looking for some kind of support, right? That's somebody that you're very empathetic to. You're saying, hey, I went through this too. I'd love to hop on a call. I've got a couple strategies that I think might work, right? So the whole point of the outreach is to get them to then check your profile and you look legit with what you've done and hop on a call to talk to you about strategies that then could lead to coaching or whatever else you're trying to sell, right? Okay. So that's a much more empathetic approach because they're pouring their heart out and they're probably gonna get some comments and support from their friends, but nobody who can actually help them where you could actually help. Um, so yeah, you can definitely position it so that it's not making fun of them because that's not what's in your heart. You'll also have the people who are kind of making light of it. Okay. Right. So whether they're using hashtag overweight or overweight dads, or even that's where like dad bod would be one that you look at. Where they're not showing how they are struggling with it. They're kind of leaning into the humor of it and saying, look at me, haha, dad bod, you know, like, here was me at 20, now I'm— but laughing at it. And they're using comedy as, you know, they're struggling. Yeah. They're just using comedy, right?

Okay.

So for that person, when you're reaching out, You can say, hey, I saw your post on dad bod. Like, you lean in on the humor a little bit more when you say, but you know what, hey, if you ever need help and you want to lose a dad bod, I'd be happy to hop on a call and help you.

Okay.

Okay. Less like you're leaning into the humor of it and less of the empathy because that's the spirit of the post that they put up. Okay.

My second question, if I may, is, uh, I, I The guy that I work with as my coach after I got certified to become one, him and I have talked about, the conversation's been going on for a while, about becoming a coach under his umbrella. But I know he's really busy with everything he's got going on in his own stuff. So it might be a while before him and I get to that point. And I was talking with Zan last week, and it even mentions in your book too, kind of like do the both and, like, you know, you do you, and also partner up with other people. My concern is that if I start my own thing without even him putting me under him, it might ruin a friendship and a possible business relationship. Is there a way to just reach out to him and go, hey, I'm thinking of branching out, at least starting to build a clientele, which will give me the job experience, plus I can work alongside you But the things I've learned from him, I don't want to like sell off as my own because, well, even if there's not a copyright to it, it's just dishonest.

Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, honest conversation.

Yeah.

Okay, that's, that's, uh, is he in your city? Can you go see him face to face, or he's across the country somewhere else?

He lives in North Carolina and I'm in the sunny tropical paradise of Cleveland, Ohio.

Got it. Uh, Sami's happy with the Cleveland. Um, yeah, that, that's a Zoom call then, like video. That's not something you handle over email. Okay. And what he needs to see is that you're like, he needs to feel your heart. And so even if you kind of stumble on the words and what you're trying to say, okay, the fact that you care about him and what he has taught you and that you're not— your intention is not to just steal his stuff and go do your own thing.

Okay.

But you're also looking at like what kind of relationship— this is almost the same as like, you know, Samit, when we started this conversation off, he wants, he wants something more than what he's getting.

Okay.

At his, at his company. And so in Samit's case, it was a no. It was like, no, we can't do that. Okay. So ultimately Samit needs to leave and go find something else. You know, for him to be happy, like, if he's still in the same spot in 5 years, that's a problem. You know, 5 months, okay, you know, as long as we're making progress. But 5 years is a problem for you. Maybe there's something new that could be created. Like, maybe he sees a bigger spark in you that could lead to a unique kind of relationship, that you're not just fitting into his typical mold of what everybody else would be as a trainer, right? Maybe he wants you to go and help train his trainers or create some new division or like, you never know until you bring it up. Okay. So, and I think that has to be done ideally face-to-face, but again, you know, if you're not flying over there, but, but Zoom at least so he can see you and feel your heart. And even again, you stumble over the words, but he understands better than like just a well-crafted perfect email. That's a little Heartless.

That could be taken the wrong way because you inject your own tone sometimes in a text or an email that wasn't there from the author.

Yeah, I mean, if it's a big deal, it may even be worth flying over there, right? I mean, how much is a flight to wherever?

Like, it's only an 8-hour drive. I can drive out there.

But sure, like, it's, it's the, um, there's two things there. It's like the extra benefit of spending the time face to face with them, but also the amount of effort that you put in to make that happen also speaks to— I'm like, I really value this, that I would drive 8 hours to come and see you, right? Shows how much you actually care about this, and it's not just a throwaway conversation.

Gotcha, gotcha. You know, all right, sounds good.

Thank you.

Samar asked, uh, why mindset matters. And so just quick riff, I guess, on mindset. I think lack of belief is the world's biggest problem, right? Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right. And most people are just stuck. Most people feel trapped. Most people are around other negative people who also feel trapped. And so you might occasionally have this idea that great things are possible, but then you fall back to the negative mindset and everybody else around you and you stay stuck. I just came back from speaking at two events in Phoenix at Genius Network. And the first one, people pay $25,000 a year to be in. And the second one is you pay $100,000 to be in. And my last day, I had a morning coffee with a guy who had sold his business for over $200 million and now is helping other entrepreneurs be more efficient and productive in their businesses. And, you know, he picked me up from my hotel and we drove to his house, and then he eventually drove me to the airport. And his house is more like a compound. It's not just a house, it's like a house and then an entire house just for his recording studio for— he plays guitar— and another house just for his taekwondo studio for him to practice. And like 4 houses in one house. And more than any bit of advice that he gave me, and similar to just being in those groups, it's the, the mindset difference. It's like trying to do life at a bigger level, trying to have an impact at a bigger level. And for most of us, we are that source of positivity for other people. We are the ones believing in other people and pouring into other people and telling them that they can do it. And giving them love and encouragement and support, but who's telling us that we can do better and in a loving way, not like you should be doing this, this, this. We got lots of those people, but who's pushing you in a loving way forward? And for the most part, we don't have those people. So that's why I love a group like this. That's why I love groups like Movement Makers. Um, and just in general, trying to be around more optimistic, positive people, because sometimes it's hard for us to carry the whole burden a positivity and optimism for ourselves. And so if you are the most optimistic person you know that's in your immediate circle, that's a problem. You know, like it's great that you can— don't stop pouring into other people, but if you don't have anybody who's pouring into you, then that keeps us stuck and it keeps us small. And so the mindset shift to feel like, hey, I can do more, I can be more, I can serve more, I can have a bigger impact, I think becomes really important. So the whole idea of you are the 5 people you surround yourself with, really matters. And if you don't know anybody, then get in a group or come back to a group like this, or even just through content, right? I haven't met Elon Musk yet, but I get inspired by his videos and his content and his moves. Elon Musk is buying Twitter. What? Doesn't he already have 4 of the companies that he's running or something? It just makes me question what I'm doing, not in a negative way. I think comparison actually can be really beneficial. A lot of people say don't compare yourself to others, and I think people just compare themselves incorrectly. They look at somebody else and then they kick themselves down and say, I can't do it. Where I like it as a kick forward, say, wow, look what Elon Musk is doing. I can, I should be thinking bigger. And it's an inspiration to go off and do more. Otherwise we stay stuck and stay small. Um, so anyway, that's my little quick riff on why mindset matters. Thank you, Samar, for the topic. And, uh, let's Let's open it up. Tony's got his hand up. What do we got, Tony? I have a personal training and nutrition coaching business for 35 years now, and for 33 years I was doing everything in person until COVID hit, switched everything virtual and online. But for probably the past 8 years, since I was about 45-ish years of age, I've been posting nonstop Monday through Friday on Facebook. I've been emailing Monday through Friday to my emails. I started doing Instagram maybe a couple of years ago as well. I feel lost in that kind of virtual world. So we went through a great exercise this morning, Movement Makers, where I'm basically— I told them that my number 2 platform is now TikTok. We decided last week that YouTube is number 1 and it still is number 1 by far. But I've switched in the past week from Instagram to TikTok as number 2. And so part of it is being smart with where you're at, because you could, you could be producing the best content ever. But if you're on Facebook, like Facebook has been dead for a long time, right? There's no zero organic reach on Facebook. It's a fantastic ad platform, but it sucks for content. Um, Instagram is slowly not dying, but becoming less and less and less and less and less relevant. It's harder to rank. It's harder to win. Um, we covered a little bit today, but the Reels is still going to be your best bet now. Like no more pictures, it's Reels. So I need to see Reels. I need to see short-form video content. Um, and then TikTok is definitely picking up steam. Like we're over half a million followers on TikTok. And a quarter million on, on Instagram. And it's taken me like 6 years to do that on Instagram and a year and a half or whatever on TikTok. And we're barely taking TikTok seriously, right? Like, Instagram's been number one and we just kind of post whatever to TikTok and that thing is blowing up. Um, and it's becoming an education place as well for people. So it's not just somebody commented like 16-year-old teenagers dancing or whatever. There's still that and there's fun, but it's also becoming an education platform. And the, the easiest thing to do is go search for what you're doing, what you teach, and, and see what's on there. And you'll see that, hey, there's actually education content on there. So I love that you're making content. I love that you're an expert. You've been doing this for so long and you want to serve. Um, I would look at— if I was getting started now and I didn't have traction, I would do YouTube long form and TikTok short form. but then I bring to the other platforms. Um, I would probably completely abandon Facebook unless it was just easy to post or you had some kind of community there already. Um, and the long-form YouTube videos would be not hugely impactful in the short term, but you've been doing this for a while and you want to keep doing this. And so, um, getting whether they're actual workout videos that you're going to do, whether they're coaching sessions that you have with clients, Imagine someone's gonna see this in a year, in 2 years, in 3 years, and love what you're doing and sign up. YouTube is the— if you wanna get off the kind of rat race, the hamster wheel, whatever, YouTube is it. Because when you make content in a year, it's still relevant and valuable and can drive traffic. Every other platform is, it's instant, like Instagram, it's instant. It's only what's happening right, right, right, right, right now. It doesn't mean that it can't help or can't convert, But choice of platform and, and choice of content, like if you're doing pictures on Instagram, it's just gone off a cliff. So it's short-form video. Everybody wants short-form video now, plus long-form on YouTube. So I'd look at a— if you're not consistent on YouTube yet, I'd look at once a week making content, 10 minutes plus, no upper limit on how long you can go, and then a daily short-form for TikTok that then you take to the other platforms. Great.

Thank you.

Okay. Let's move on. Lady Lexi, what do we got?

Hi there, Evan. Um, today is the Dutch Liberation Day, 77 years ago. There are a number of festivals. There are still going—

You say Liberation Day?

Yeah.

Dutch Liberation Day. Oh, okay. Great. Well, happy, happy Liberation Day.

Yeah. So that's my fifth And with everything going on, I'm like, I need to go to Rotterdam, go to one of those festivals, make a recording. But I'm like, okay, what exactly am I going to talk about? I cannot just address all the people there because I don't have a press badge or anything. So how do I make that work? Because I feel like it's so important that we get to speak out. And so I can either go there or I can do it from here. What would you suggest?

Well, hold on, what are you speaking out against? So it's okay, Dutch Independence Day, cool. Today is 77th anniversary.

Oh, that we got liberated by the English and by the American, and there might even be some Canadian.

Okay, so the idea is, hey, you need to, like, you want to recognize them I don't know, was it a revolution or was it a, you know, like how, like they're speaking up for themselves?

Freedom is so important. And I mean, especially when with what's going on in Ukraine, it makes my heart cry. Since my motto is about speaking up and speaking out, this is about people back then were of course being delegated basically to the camps. And put work there and they were not recognized as people. So it's not necessary that I want to speak out for what happened there. I just want to, you know, say like, okay, let's celebrate freedom. Let's remember that it's important that we do speak up and speak out what we see and what we find should change. And also on a personal level, So I mean, that could be a great—

so if the message is speaking out for freedom, then that's something that people can connect with because we want to target ideally the world, not just Holland, right?

Yeah.

So most people wouldn't know that it's Dutch Independence Day or how many— however many years it's been, or how Holland even came out of, you know, like most people know the story and the story almost doesn't matter unless it really means something to you. But if you were going to go and make it not just what happened 77 years ago, but where do people need more freedom right now? It's a good trigger as a reminder. So I'm Canadian, but we have Canada Day, but it's not really that big a deal in Canada. But Americans take their Independence Day pretty seriously. And so on July 4th in America, if you were to go off and talk to people about freedom, but then make it reflective as to where do you not have enough freedom in your life right now? And not just from like the government imposing something on you, but your own situation. Like where are you stuck in a relationship? Are you stuck in a bad career? Are you stuck in bad habits? Are you stuck with an addiction? Like if you can tie the need for freedom something they're facing right now in their life, then it can lead to speaking up, like, for yourself. If you're in a bad relationship, hey, maybe you need to get out. If you're in a bad career, maybe now is the time. So you can use this event as a spark plug to create some change. So you could go if you want to go to the event. You don't need a— you don't need a press badge to talk to people. You just go on the street and you ask people about what freedom means to them But then make it relevant to today. Like, well, where do you not have enough freedom right now, do you think, in your life? And then guiding them to a path of speaking up.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's going to be a big step for me, you know, addressing people randomly at a festival.

But yeah, listen, lean in on that because this is now you speaking up.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, it's a good challenge. Absolutely.

This is— you've never done it before, and this is now you going after your freedom because you don't want to be— you don't want to have that blocking mindset anymore.

Yeah.

And you may have people who say, no, I don't want to talk to you, no, I hate you. I mean, whatever, you like, think of like worst case scenario. Um, but you'll have some people who will talk to you.

Yeah, yeah, that's nice. And then maybe I can do some shorts, some short lives. And then later on, make it into a big one and post it on YouTube.

Honestly, the biggest thing, the biggest win out of all of this isn't the content you're going to get from them. It's from you pushing yourself outside the comfort zone.

Okay, that makes sense.

The fact that like one person might say yes to you and you're so scared to ask people to come on, and then you get one person to do it, even if it's not the greatest conversation of all time, like that forward momentum and you breaking through, like, that should be a video. You should film yourself going and how scared you are and what— whatever thoughts are in your head. And you're basically speaking up to your own thoughts to say, you know what, no, I'm gonna— I'm gonna go do this. And even if I— if I embarrass myself, if nobody talks to me, I'm still gonna go off and do it. I saw a great clip yesterday on Instagram where, um, This guy was a stutterer. So he like, he gets nervous and then he can't talk. And his coach, I know you guys have seen this, his coach had him go out in a busy area and go up to people and ask them to like, hey, can you help me for a second? And all he then would ask them is, what time is it? But it took him forever to get it out because he was so nervous. And when he gets nervous, he starts to stutter. And so he's like, excuse me. It's like they're sitting there waiting for him to like, what's going on right now? And eventually he says, you know, what time is it? And he also just shared the story with them. Like, I must— I'm a stutterer and I'm trying to be less scared and stutter less. This is part of my, my homework. So even you sharing your story, like, that's like the biggest win of all is you sharing your story that where you're afraid and the mental block, um, so that you get your own freedom from those limiting thoughts too.

Yeah, that's a good one. So I can just take my phone. I don't need any microphones or anything, right?

Yeah. So if you're doing two people, cause if the microphone's just here, then it's harder to share and don't worry about the gear. Just go do it.

Okay. I'll do it.

I love it. Cool. Good luck. That's super exciting.

I have two questions. I'll put them together, but one of them about Instagram. Like, I've never used Instagram as a platform to grow on. I was never interested in growing on Instagram, but I use it as kind of like a resume so that when people say, oh, where can I find you? Like, where can I kind of like, you know, like, I'm like, oh, well, here's my Instagram. And they can kind of like see like, hey, I'm alive, I'm active. Space. So I was curious on your thoughts on that. And then the last thing that I really wanted to ask you is that, uh, I'm in the process of promoting a book that I, that I just, uh, co-wrote. I'm a collaborator, collaborating author, and some of the best videos that I found so far on YouTube on how to promote a book are from Evan Carmichael 6 and 7 years ago.

There we go.

Any, uh, thoughts that you had present day if you were putting out You know, I know you just put out this book 2 years ago, which is still bringing us tremendous value and community and so many things. But if you were putting out a book today or next month or next quarter, uh, what would be some of your— I mean, obviously you have a huge following, right? So let's say for someone like me that doesn't have that.

Well, so it's taking both your questions together. You're, you're trying to accomplish 2 different things. And so if you want to sell a book, then you need to grow your following. It can't just be a resume because you need to get people to— you want people to buy your book. There's nothing wrong with just having Instagram as a resume. Cool. That can, that can definitely work, but like, what are your goals for where we want it? So my goal is to sell the book.

Cool.

Now, well, we need to have an audience. So when you're thinking about something like a book or product or a course launch or, um, any of these things that we're trying to, we're trying to sell as, as experts, there's always your own audience and then there's other people's audiences. Your own audience is the best long-term, most sustainable thing that you can use and build. So, you know, hopefully there's not just one book inside José González, there's more books coming up. And so the more you have an audience, the more you can promote your book for future ones that come out. So now we need to start building an audience. And so what is your message? What is your content? Um, that's not going to happen like instantly right away, but we need to start gearing our minds towards sharing your message with people so that they love you and they end up wanting to support you and also support themselves by picking up your books, et cetera. Um, next, more short-term for your own following, you could DM everybody on Instagram with a video asking for support. So if I really, really, really, really, really, really needed to sell Built to Serve, like if that was my top priority, I would go through whoever followed me. Now we've got, you know, a quarter million people on Instagram, but if it was 2,000 or 100, I would video DM everybody to say, hey Faith, thank you so much for following me. I wanted to let you know I've got a new book. It's called Built to Serve. I'd love your support if I can send you a link to check it out. Hey Lady Lexi, thank you so much for following me. Like one by one, hand-to-hand combat, going off to tell people what you've got and asking for their support. And so the bigger audience you have, the easier that is to do. It's not, you know, there's only so many you can do in a day, right? So like, I couldn't do that for everybody who follows me, but if I, if I was getting started and I wanted to get my book out or I was launching my course or whatever, that's what I would do. That's why Instagram becomes important. Um, we were watching a video this morning from the CEO of Instagram talking about Instagram's growth is in direct messaging. And Reels. It's not about the pictures. It's about the— a lot of, a lot happens in the direct messaging and then in the Reels for content. So use— it's, it's my favorite platform for direct messaging. Every morning I'm walking outside and I'm sending videos to people, thanking them for different things. So that's what I would do as a starting point with your audience. And, but it changes the mindset. Now it's not just a resume. That whether it's Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, now you, you need to build an audience if you want to sell your books and anything else. Um, and then phase 2 would be also, who else can you— who has an audience that might be willing to put you on? So one of the biggest things authors always do when they come up with a new book is they go on other people's shows, whether it's an Instagram Live, whether it's YouTube, whether it's TikTok, like wherever they have their audience. You want to try to be a part of it, and hopefully you gain a little bit of following from them as well. So that's not as sustainable as building up your own following, but whenever you're in launch mode, that's always the two things. Like, what do I have for my own audience, and, and who's— who are the other people whose audience I can tap into to promote my book? Awesome. Thank you, man.

It's good to see you again.

Cool, man. I love it. We got Tanya in the house. What do we got, Tanya?

Yes, hi Evan. So my question is in regards of when you are using different platforms, like you have your followers all spread out, how— is there any way, is there any strategy, I don't know, to kind of like direct them to the one that you want to grow? Like when I have my personal account and I have my business account, so In business, we have Facebook, we have TikTok, we have Instagram. Yes, those, and we are creating YouTube. After I started Movement Makers, I realized that, you know, we were missing that one.

Let's go.

Yeah, that we should have had before, but yeah. So we are developing that one. So my idea is kind of like mirror what you are doing and make, give more importance to YouTube And then TikTok, which I think is great. It's a great platform. I haven't paid attention as much, but I like it, especially for my audience. And then Instagram, but I have, you know, I have audience like spread out. Is there any way together?

I would say it's not a great strategy to bring it all together. So you want to meet people where they're at. Some people love TikTok and they just want to stay on TikTok. So don't try to get them to Instagram. Like, Instagram, I don't want to use Instagram. Some people love YouTube, so meet them on YouTube. And if you want to have a big message, then like someone like for me, I want to solve the world's biggest problem. So I got to be, I got to be where the most people are. If you have a niche business and it only caters to certain people, then you want to be where those people are. Like, Tony, he was on Facebook, right? It's like to say, I need everybody to get over to Facebook, right? To do that is crazy because people are, they don't want to use Facebook anymore. So you meet people where they're at and help them with what they need help with. And so that might mean having, maybe you can't be on every platform yourself right now. That's okay. Like if you have to pick YouTube and one other, cool. But I wouldn't, the only thing I would try to do is capture their email address. So that you have a way to communicate with them, but I wouldn't try to consolidate them because a lot of my audience doesn't want to meet me on TikTok or Instagram. And so, and, and when you do, it doesn't convert very well. Like when people come from my TikTok, my Instagram to YouTube, they don't watch the videos for very long. So I actually want them to stay on Instagram or on TikTok or on YouTube, like stay on the platform unless it's converting to a sale. They're going to hire you for something, or convert into an email address where they're going to give you their email in exchange for some bonus that you're going to give them.

Okay, great, beautiful advice. Meet them where they are. Nice, thank you.

All right, we got, we got 2 minutes, Maria. What do we got? Let's do it.

I don't know, it might be too much, but we'll do what we can. So I, I have— I keep grappling with this for years. I have a niche problem where I have 2 separate websites and I get clients from both. And I, so I'm sort of, since I joined Movement Makers, I, I Body Confidence Solutions. And I know that the underlying reason that I help people have sustainable changes, I deal with trauma, I deal with stress, I deal with all this stuff that keeps them, you know, just recycling back into old behaviors. And so I have another website, Mind and Stress Solutions, which I still— like, I was just invited on Monday. So May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I was invited to do a presentation to 270 construction workers because it's the highest industry of suicide. It was so gratifying. But the point is that I love doing that kind of stuff around stress management, around So like people that look at Body Confidence Solutions, they think, well, she's a health coach. I, I might, I mean, I talk about transformation from the inside out and I go deeper in my videos about, yeah, living in your body and having a more better connection with your body. But that includes releasing stress, trauma. So it feels a lot to have two separate websites. I do two separate newsletters every week.

It's sort of crazy.

And I don't know if there's a way to— I mean, they, they are both connected. And, you know, my story is that I healed from multiple eating disorders, but the Stress Solutions is really the how, you know? So I don't know, I guess my question is, do I— like, I even notice when I do my lives on Instagram and people, there's some people that like, they really want to learn some of these techniques. Unique, even if they're not struggling with their weight. So do I, I mean, do I just keep my niche, like with, you know, health around weight, food, and, or broaden it? I mean, I get more gratification out of, well, I guess at all of, all of it, as long as I'm serving and helping people to uncover the stuff that's keeping them stuck. That's the piece for me, whether it's weight, addictive behavior, or you know, depression or any of that.

So I think, I think it's something a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, to the branding and how many brands do I have and how many websites and how many accounts. It, it, it is very taxing to have multiple accounts and multiple domain names and multiple emails and multiple Instagrams and multiple TikToks. It can be very, very demanding. It's usually not worth it. So you have a couple scenarios. One, you, you leave one that's just more on autopilot that's there that you're not actively— we're not taking it down, but we're not really doing much with it because if something comes in, cool, but it's not really where we're putting our focus. Or two, you combine them into one, and, and the one brand is not, not a brand name like Body Confidence Solutions. The combination is Maria Lipuma. And so everything that I do, I'm a different person to different people. For some people, I'm the believe guy. For some people, I'm the YouTube guy. For some people, I'm the, you know, the author. For some people, I'm the salsa dancer. You know, I'll go salsa dancing, you know, brought up my studio, but some people don't even know what my business is. I'm just the guy who owns a salsa studio. And so it leads to different conversations, but inside everything is still believe. For me, you're teaching believe through the books, through the content, through the YouTube channel, through salsa dancing, through everything is all— that's the common thread. So that for me is easier. And my, my brands have always been a reflection of me. When I first started my website, I did evancarmichael.com as a, as just as a landing spot, like no real thought behind it. And then as SEO became a thing, I wish I called it like, why didn't I call it small business solutions or something? Like, why didn't I put some keywords in there? And then I realized, no, it's actually better that I kept it off my name because my name could be whatever I want my name to be. And so you might find yourself in another field in a couple years that still relates to stress and anxiety and how to overcome those, but maybe it's something completely different that you realize it's still the same. Um, so I'm, I'm in general, it's easier to build it off of a personal brand as opposed to a company name that kind of locks you into a niche. So Those are your, your 3 options. Like one, you run all, you run both together and kind of will always feel stretched between the 2, maybe bring on team and help, but you probably won't do either of them really well. Option 2 is you take one and you really commit to it. And the other one, you just leave on autopilot. And when stuff happens, stuff happens.

Cool.

But like, this is what I'm going to be known for. Or option 3 is you just build your personal brand. And wherever Maria wants to go, that's what Maria ends up creating. And it gives you a lot more flexibility to do the next thing. So I thought it was the worst decision. Like, if you go back and ask me when I was 23 years old, I thought building it off of Evan Carmichael, first off, sounds super egotistical. And also, it's like, this is the stupidest thing I could have made because nobody knows who I am. But if I called it Small Business Solutions or something, it makes more sense. But that ended up being the most genius thing that I could have done. And people will connect with your brand, your personal face, and your message more than a company logo. If you want to get a copy of Built to Serve and join us live for our next training with me to ask your questions, you can go get the book right there next to me, right there. I'll see you there. I'll see you to get the book. It's a good one. Much love.