The Most Insane Business Q&A Ever Streamed!

All right, welcome everybody, another stream. It's been a while playing League and answering questions, and I'm with my co-host as usual, Rishi Cupp. Rishi, welcome aboard.

Thank you, Evan. Thanks for having me.

How long has this been?

Oh, too long. This was, I think, back in May, his last stream.

Wow, it took me a while to figure out how to get everything set up again, but We're here, I'm queuing up. Jungle first, mid second, and we're gonna answer questions. So Rishi, uh, before getting into it, you want to tell everybody a little bit about what you do in your channel for people who may not be familiar?

Absolutely. Uh, and while I'm doing that, I don't see you live, but, um, you said you're definitely live. Okay, it says I'm live. So Yeah, um, I'm gonna search you again. So I am Rishi from Rishi Cup TV, and those of you who are part of Believe Nation, shout out to Believe Nation, love you guys. Um, and yeah, so I, I have a channel where good music, good food, and good talk intersect, although I will be making an announcement soon with a little bit of some changes. It might not be good music Good Food Good Talk anymore, but I will let you guys know. And yeah, I'm just having a really good time making videos and trying to grow always with making great content for my audience.

Very cool.

And you've been very helpful, helpful to me, Evan, all through the process, so thank you so much.

I love it. I love it. Well, I just confirmed that we are live, so this is good. Just to make sure. I think you may just have to refresh the page.

Oh, maybe that's what it is.

It doesn't just tell you that it's live. Ah, cool! So what we're doing here, for those of you who are new, is we answer questions that people ask me via email and a couple other places, I guess, while I play League of Legends. And so I'm not that great a player, but learning to get better and multitask. So Rishi is going to be chewing up the questions, sharing her wisdom as well, and hopefully we help some entrepreneurs today. So let's kick it off. Rishi, what's the first question?

Okay, we've got a designer from India named Silu, and she says, Evan, I'm writing this to you because in spite of being talented and knowing the techniques of my business— again, this is fashion business— Um, for the last 15 years, I'm still struggling to make even. I'm forever stuck. For whatever reason, I just can't achieve my dream of becoming rich. My dream is to fly high in my business, be recognized globally. I know my profession well but have no entrepreneurial skills. So she needs your help. How can I take this to the next level so I don't have to struggle month a month with my staff salary. And she actually has a staff of 12 people. So she's got a, you know, she's doing something right. She's got a staff of 12 people, but she needs your help to get her to the next level.

And she's a fashion designer, is that what it was?

Yep, she's a fashion designer.

Okay, so what do you think?

So you want me to go first?

Yeah.

Well, you know, this is interesting because again, it sounds like she's doing a lot of things right. She's been in business for 15 years, has a staff of 12 people, but seems like she's stuck at this level and she can't break through. Um, two things come to mind. Um, I'm wondering what she would discover if she were to start thinking about some of her limiting beliefs, because I've heard you talk a lot about some of the biggest breakthroughs you've received in your business from getting from one level to the next was with discovering some of your, excuse me, limiting beliefs. But another thing that comes to mind as well is that, you know, I'd like to hear what you have to say maybe in a future video about how to— because it sounds like some of her issues are just finances and going from a place of check to check to a place of actually wealth and having more than enough. And I think a lot of us as entrepreneurs come into this with such different levels of money management background, and we come from different backgrounds, and we live in different countries, and have different families. So I wonder too if there might be some value in her examining, you know, how does she think about money, how is she spending money, how is she saving money, and like how can she get to a different Evan place where she's not just living check to check. That's my input.

Yeah, I would love to see her go after bigger clients and bigger deals. I think it's easy to, as you're starting up, to just put everything back into the business and just continue to struggle. But if you're— if you have 12 employees, then, you know, you're making some money. I don't know how much money she's making, she didn't share that, but she's making some money. And if you're investing it all back into the staff, like if you are not taking anything home and you're barely able to survive, then you're investing into your growth or your business model is broken, right? Then it's either like you're investing so much into your growth that you're consciously still bootstrapping it yourself because you want to be able to build something amazing, Or your business model sucks in that you're not making enough money. Like, if these people are just what you need to complete the projects, then you need to start getting paid more. It sounds like it's not invested back into the growth. It sounds like she wants to take some money off the table and be able to, you know, do a little bit more than survive. And so it feels like, oh, somebody just took my team out. Unbelievable. Ah, I'm so upset. I'm so upset. Now I'm gonna have to think. Okay, we're gonna go— we're gonna go Quinn.

Oh, you're gonna get your multi.

Of course, I'm like on my game here. I gotta— okay, anyway, um, that's frustrating. Um, yeah, so I just feel the business model needs to be improved where you need to start charging more Or go after bigger clients who can afford it. Like, you may be providing insane value, just the people who you're selling to right now don't appreciate that value. You know, they like your art but they don't love your art. You know, if I look at the deals that I made, brands that I've worked with, as I've gotten bigger and gotten more followers and gotten more attraction and proven to provide more value, some of the people that I work with I used to work with, you know, really loved everything I could give them but didn't fully appreciate the value, didn't have the budget to be able to work with me as I grew. And so you need to work with clients who appreciate your value and can afford your value, and then be able to factor into your business model that you're gonna take a little bit extra home and not just always invest it back into the staff.

Great.

I see that the Twitch chat— you're monitoring the Twitch chat there, Rishi, right?

Yes, I am. Shout out to Stefan and Zaino.

What's up, guys? This is gonna go on the YouTube channel after, but we do live on Twitch, slowly building up that audience too. Okay, we got a question in. I'm playing Quinn jungle, not super happy about it, but That's okay. Our first came back in. Let's do it.

All right. You ready?

Let's do it. What's our next question?

Okay. From Hiram Miranda. Now, Hiram has a car blog and a digital magazine. He's been doing this blog since 2012. He has a few fans and a few blog post views. He's also really passionate about men's style and motivation, and he wants to create a new blog where he can combine these two topics. His question is, would you recommend starting this project at the same time while he's still working on his car blog? He feels like he can't give too much value talking about cars, and he really wants to get out of his job, so this is something that he really wants to be successful and monetize. Okay, so that was his question from Hiram. Um, I absolutely think for sure he should start this, uh, this next blog while he's doing the car blog. Um, it's always a good thing to kind of test drive, right, and see if you can find the place where you're really providing value for people. And why not start them and do them both at the same time and see what kind of comes from that. And yeah, that's pretty straightforward. What do you think, Evan?

I would start with understanding motivation behind it. Is the drive to move into lifestyle and— what was the other one? Health? Lifestyle?

What was the other one?

Like cars?

Motivation.

Motivation.

Men's style.

Great. So men's style and motivation, like, is the interest there because you actually love it, or you just hate your job and you're trying to monetize somehow, right? Like, he's had a successful— or he's had a car blog that hasn't been massively successful, hasn't allowed him to quit his job. And so is it, I'm gonna get into this other thing because I'm trying to make money and I'm just trying to quit my job, or is it something that you're actually passionate about? Because if you're not, it was just like, you think it's easier to make money in there than it is in cars, and then it's not gonna work. It's just gonna be a big waste of time. On the other hand though, if he really loves it, like if he loves style, he loves motivation, and he loves cars, then I would try to combine them. I wouldn't continue with the car blog. I would try to mix them together for the kind of ultimate men's blog that I can go to for all of that stuff. Together. I think when you try to divert your attentions too much, it just becomes— I look at my channel. If I had to have a channel for every series that I have, it'd be insane to keep up with logging into each account, keeping track of the comments, and uploading the videos. And it's just— it's too, too complicated. Like, simple is better when you're getting started, but also It allows things to build where if you're— if you have a really successful car blog that's getting some traction and attention or a post that just takes off and does really well, then the next time you post something else, it automatically does better. Like if you post a blog about motivation, you're not starting from scratch each time with motivation.

Right.

So I always prefer what I call combining the genius at the end, bring things together. But I would still just be conscious of at the start making sure it's something that you deeply have a passion for and it's not just something you're trying to make money at because you hate your job. And maybe one little extra tangent on there, if you hate your job, I'd be looking for a job where you can learn to make this business better. If this is your end goal that you want this thing to take off and you want to be a full-time blogger, then go work at a digital company where you can learn some of the skills to be a great blogger.

There you go. That's great.

Like, don't stick with the job you hate. Go to a job where you actually learn something. Good answer. Did that guy just say good answer? There's a guy in the background, I swear he just said "Good answer." I know he's not talking to us, but I feel it. I'm feeling the love.

Evan, for those of us who don't play League of Legends every day, are you the guy in the purple shadow?

Purple shadow? I don't know. I'm the guy that you see walking around on screen.

Yeah, there's like a nice little purple hue around your—

Oh, that's because I killed one of the frog guys and I got poisoned. Oh, so it's poisoning.

Poison.

Okay, yeah, I'm the guy doing the poison. Uh, this is a bit of a trickier champ. I'm not used to him as much. Him? Her? No, Quinn is a woman. Um, so, you know, I started this series, one, to, you know, give me some time to get better, but also to purposely divert, like, to purposely practice being able to answer questions while I'm distracted.

Okay.

To see, just like to stretch my brain, like as an exercise. But it's harder when I'm not as familiar with the champion, so. But so far so good. I'm just walking around the jungle, not getting into any fights yet, and we'll see.

Cool. Okay.

Thank you for the car block question. What do we have next?

All right. We've got a question from Asigwe Damien.

All right.

And Asigwe, he says he starts his question saying, business capital problem, feel like a dead man.

Wow. Capital problems, is that what he said?

Yeah. Business capital.

Okay.

And he says he's in general electronics. He's a general electronics wholesaler. And he lost capital through his container last year. And he says he really needs help negotiating and he's looking for a sponsor. He wants to know, can you push his request to Oprah?

All right. Let me get on the phone with Oprah. She's playing the game with me right now. So what is he selling? Wholesale electronics?

Wholesale electronics.

Okay.

And he basically has a capital problem. There is no more detail than that. It's clear that he is like really needing— he's needing the capital quick. And so I guess my first tip to Osigwe, only because he didn't put much more information, is first of all, just sorry that you lost all this money in a container. Have you heard about these containers, Evan Carmichael? If I'm understanding correctly, those are like— I have a friend who is in Africa and like you get all your stuff in these big containers and sometimes in places there can be like a lot of robberies and people steal the stuff in your container.

Right.

Anywho, sorry that that happened. That's pretty devastating. I would just say that usually capital problems are— what I've learned from you, Evan, is that when you are talking about capital problems, you're talking about also a value. Like, if you need more capital, you have to start thinking about your value. What value are you providing? And so if you really can provide great value, you will start to see that change in capital. Um, and he talks about, you know, asking for help from Oprah or some kind of sponsorship. And another thing that I hear you talk a lot about is, is just in general, don't go into looking for investors right away. Like, you know, you got to bootstrap it in the beginning and really just— well, in this case, it looks like it's— I don't even know if it's his business or someone else's business, but he's in general electronics. So yeah, I, I don't think that would be the way to go, um, necessarily looking for some celebrity to give you the money to do what it is that you want to do. I would just say dig deeper into providing more value and differentiating your business from other general electronics in some way. And so sorry, I hope that you can get to the next level.

Yeah, definitely, you know, definitely sad. I would start with not having so much of your personal value tied up in your business. You know, like you feel like you're dead because your business— something negative happened in your business. Like there's a lot more to life than just the company you're doing. And I get that, you know, It's super important. Your life is super— you know, your business is super important. I would be sad if, you know, my YouTube channel disappeared or whatever I was working on, my book manuscript blew up or whatever, but not to the point where like I'm giving up on life. And it may just mean also kind of— this guy's stealing my red and my blue! Ah, unbelievable, that guy. It may be like trying to figure out what value you can add and being grateful for your life, like beyond just your business and not having everything so tied up in it. That being said, the most immediate thing I would look at is how can you get insurance for what you're doing? Like it sounds like a classic insurance case where something gets stolen, something gets lost, you know, to prevent this from happening again. Look at some insurance products. I don't know you know, there's got to be some that exist for what you're trying to do. That doesn't help with the immediate solution, but it helps with, you know, things in the future, prevent that from happening again. I, you know, nobody's coming to save you, right? This is tough love time. Nobody's coming to save you. Like, bad stuff happens and you got to figure it out, right? Like, Oprah is not gonna write you a check. To save your business. You have to save you. You have to take responsibility for where you're at right now. And yeah, bad stuff happens. Things burn down, stuff gets stolen. You get back up and you keep going. That's the life of an entrepreneur, unfortunately, right? It's not about your resources, it's your resourcefulness. And seeing Oprah do something amazing to help people out and think that that's my— like, If that's your plan to save your business, that Oprah has to come in and give you a check, you are going to be struggling for a long time.

Hmm, wow, it's real.

Yeah, it's real. But like, you know, Oprah doesn't care about your shipping business. Nobody's going to care about your shipping business as much as you do. So you have to go out and save your business yourself. And that's just in general. Like, I get a lot of people saying, hey, can you— like, I'm really struggling, can you give me $500 or $10,000 or $100,000 or whatever it is? Like, that's not how it's gonna work for anybody. And most people— like, you send something to Oprah, she's just gonna ignore you, right? I'm— this may be harsh, but at least it's the real talk.

I'd like to think that she wouldn't ignore me if I sent her a letter.

Yeah, but But she will, like, you know, look at how many people send Oprah stuff, right? It's just—

At least you don't ignore her.

She can't keep up, right? Like, a plan like that—

You're right, you're right.

It's just— so it's on you. And then back to your point, like, now, okay, tactical, how do you actually get out of this? It's to your point about adding more value. From before, right? What can you do to bring value so that you're not just another wholesaler of electronics equipment, but there's something special, unique, and different about you so that you can make more money? And you just got to get through this period. Like, I don't see an investor coming in and giving you money to save your business right now.

Yeah.

And that sucks. And that may mean bootstrapping, right? Like, if I lost all my money and I lost my YouTube channel and I lost everything that I was doing, you know, I would start up on YouTube again and I would do it all myself. And I go back to one video a week, and that would be a huge ego pill to swallow. And that's really the test of, like, do you love what you're doing? Now you're providing some real value, right? I would go back to doing one video a week, doing everything myself, and that's it. So you might have to— you might have to scale back a little bit. Oh, people are upset that they have no jungle. Yeah, sorry guys, I'm not really paying attention. I'm trying to answer questions. I'm being a bad— I'm being a bad teammate at the moment, but hopefully helping.

And then I don't I don't think you could ever go back to one video a week.

Well, I'm saying like if I lost everything, right? Like this guy had some really bad luck, right? Like something happened, he lost his container. Maybe he put his life savings into that container, right?

Yeah.

So the equivalent, like if I lost everything I had, I lost my channel and lost my team and couldn't afford to pay anybody or whatever, I would I would start up again, just smaller, and then build back up. So that's what he has to do. Just do it smarter. Like, don't count on somebody coming to save you. Take out insurance next time so that you're not screwed over if something does happen. And to make more money, provide more value in what you're selling to differentiate yourself so it's not just another guy selling the same stuff. That's it.

Great. You ready for the next one? Yeah, I'm ready.

Hopefully the next one— I mean, I feel like it's maybe a little bit tough love there, but it's true. So let's see. Let's see how it goes in the next one.

Let's turn it around. Okay. We got a question from Adam. And he says he had gotten below average SAT scores and rejected from every college he applied to.

Okay.

Then he started his first real semester at a community college. He was super driven and motivated in all his classes and then finally got accepted. So he did so well in the community college that he then got accepted and was able to transfer to the university of his dreams. And anyway, to his surprise, he got to the new university of his dreams, and now he doesn't feel driven, and he's not as excited about, you know, his classes like he was in the community college, and he feels really isolated. So he's starting to wonder why he's there at all, and he's asking just for general advice. So, um, I guess I would say, uh, first and foremost, what comes to mind is, you know, I always lose my motivation and my drive when I lose my, um, when I lose my why and when I lose my vision. And so we can all relate. I know we can all relate to times when, like, we are way more driven than others. And I don't necessarily think it means that the school that he's at now isn't the right place, because I think if you have a really good strong why and vision for what it is that you want to do, then you find the motivation kind of wherever you are. But it sounds obviously like his why is unclear. My question to you, Adam, would be, can you figure out what it was about the what was different in the community college, what was really clear to you about what you were doing there that gave you motivation and inspiration to be really driven? Because I think if he can figure that out, he can bring that to the new— to the new university. Yeah, that's all I got.

All right, I just got a kill, so super happy about that. Pretty exciting. Adam, right?

Yeah, Adam.

Adam, I think it's okay to realize that you change, and what you think you like, sometimes you don't like. You know, like you get into a relationship with a girl and you think it's gonna be great, and then once you start and you know, it's not great. You start a business and it's not working, or you start a business and you know, you realize you don't love this thing anymore. And what most people do is stick with it. What most people do is they stay in the same job because maybe they were good at it, or because their parents wanted them to do it, or whatever. And, and they just wake up and drive to a job that they hate every day. Where the best thing to do is explore until you find the thing that makes you come alive and do that until you don't— until it doesn't make you come alive anymore.

Okay.

Right? Like, you have genius-level talent at something and you have to find what that is. And that comes by exploring. And if you keep doing things— like, if you stay here doing something that you don't love, you're never gonna be the best version of you. So that may mean switching majors, like maybe, maybe you want to go try something else but staying within your university. That may mean, that may mean dropping out and going to do something else. You look at Steve Jobs as an example, and he dropped out of his school where everybody thought he was crazy to go back to school as a volunteer, like not get credit, and to learn about fonts and calligraphy, and that helped him create— and when the Mac came out, it had the best fonts. And that only happened because he went to— he dropped in on that class where it didn't make any sense at that time, likely even to him. Like, he didn't know why he was doing it, just something was interesting to him. And so you can be the best in the world at something, but it's only gonna come when you are enjoying what you're doing. Uh, doesn't mean every day you enjoy it, you know, everybody's gonna have down days, but on the whole you enjoy it. You know, I look at my YouTube channel, uh, I enjoy doing it, right? Some things, if I, if I don't enjoy it, I'll stop. Like if I'm— we're testing this series out, me playing League, playing games— if it's not enjoyable for me, I'm gonna stop. If I— if they keep banning my Teemo Holy cow! I'm gonna stop. You know, but all jokes aside, like, if I didn't like YouTube anymore, I wouldn't do it just because it's making me money. Like, that's not the reason to do it, because I'll never be a great YouTuber. The people who are at the top in any field actually love what they're doing, and it's not just something that they're trying to make a bunch of cash off of. So there's probably a lot of smart, safe, logical, practical reasons for you to stay there and keep on and do this career, but really I think you need to switch to do something else that makes you come alive.

Yeah, he didn't actually clarify what he's pursuing there. I would be curious to know what that was because you're right, maybe, maybe he's just in the wrong major. Maybe he hasn't declared a major yet, but maybe he's just in the wrong, you know, Yeah. Alright, um—

I got another kill there, so I'm pretty happy. Although they're calling me useless in my team chat. They're calling me useless.

Oh, that's—

I know, it's pretty harsh, right? It's true though, right? Like, this is a ranked game. I'm supposed to be paying attention. But— but I am 2-0. I am 2-0, so I got 2 kills and no deaths, so it's— Not that bad.

We got Jay saying you'll probably need ma and/or mer— mercurial or mercurial to stop alcohol. I don't know what that means, but there you go.

Thanks, Jay. Okay, keep going. All right, what do we got?

Next person, uh, I'm gonna call this person P. P. Um, P. Yep.

All right.

P is— that's like the worst. I'm saying that because his first name starts with P, but I just— I thought that— let's call him— let's call him John.

John.

John is 16 years old, and ever since, uh, let's see, since I've been 10 He wanted to be a successful entrepreneur, but he does not have great social skills and he lacks confidence when he tries to speak to strangers or girls. He may have some— it says the doctors say he has ADHD. Basically, he just struggles with that motivation— or sorry, he struggles with innovation. And he says, my lack of innovation kills me. I look up to these great entrepreneurs, but I simply cannot develop ideas in my mind for business. I literally feel like, uh, spiritual suicide when I wake up in the morning. Yeah, when I wake up in the morning with no business, no idea, nothing to work for and represent. I feel like if I had a business idea, this would motivate me and break this thing off of him that's the social intelligence hindrance. Wow. All right, all right, what you got, Rishi? Well, first of all, uh, John, you're— I know you mentioned your age, and I can just say that when I was 16— no, I think when I was 17, probably 16, 17, I went through some really just depression and feeling really like empty and just a lot of things happened around that age for me. And I think it's probably not uncommon for other teenagers, adolescent, at that age that you start really, you can, not everybody, but you can go through a lot of stuff stuff, and it's clear that you are feeling like this is kind of like a life or death situation. And I just want to say that, um, you are being way harder on yourself than you need to be. Um, and I appreciate the fact that you want to be an entrepreneur, but also again thinking about how much time you have to develop your idea and to, you know, I'm thinking even about your situation now with like some of the emotional stuff that you're going through. Then you said the intelligence, ADHD. I mean, these are all things that feel like they're like hindrances, but I can pretty much guarantee that if you hang in there and you let— try to grow as much as you can, all of these things that feel like they are liabilities, things that are hindering you, can actually be your greatest asset because you're going to be someone who probably really can be sensitive to other people who struggle. Anyway, so I just want to say to you, you are not hindered. You are actually uniquely, kind of like what Evan told Adam in the last question, you are, you have an intelligence. What did you say, Evan? A genius that no one else has?

Yeah.

I don't know how you said it, but it was like so good. Even with whatever hindrances you think you, even with whatever hindrances you think you have, there is something that you have that no one else has. That is a genius above every other person that will make your business that much more powerful. And I would just say, don't be so hard on yourself. Gratitude is another thing Evan talked about, learning to be grateful for where you are. And I know that's not easy, but I, I am pretty sure that you, you can get through this. And patience is going to be another huge thing in the midst of this. It's just, if the idea isn't there, you can't force an idea, you know. What do you think, Evan?

A couple things. One, again, tying so much value to the idea of having a business that if you don't have the business, then now you're you're depressed, right? Like, the business is not everything. The business doesn't— just because you don't have an entrepreneur, you don't have a company yet, that makes you an unsuccessful, unlovable human being is crazy, and it's not true. So just being conscious of that. Ha, I got another kill! Love it! But I'm gonna Die. Okay, good. Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. They're gonna chase me, I'm gonna die. Okay, good. Okay, next. Understand that you don't need to be a Type A personality, outgoing, to have a business. We see them. We like, you know, the people who are outgoing are the ones that we see on TV and the one, you know, getting all the media and the press. And that's great. It's— they get that because they're leveraging what they're good at, right? They're leveraging their skills as somebody who is really outgoing to win. But there's a lot of entrepreneurs who are not outgoing and still win. Even sometimes in public arenas. We just did a video on Ellen.

Oh yeah.

And she says she's not— she says she's not outgoing. And she had to struggle with that and deal with that. And here she is as someone who you think is like a super outgoing person and comedian in the public eye, but she's an introvert. And I would highly recommend checking off that video because it can help you. But there's no one path. Like, the most common things that entrepreneurs— that unites entrepreneurs is that they had a vision, you know, and they got started on something and they took action every day. The personality traits of, you know, being outgoing or not, or whatever else you think matters. Like, the money that you start with doesn't matter, the education doesn't matter, you know, where your parents come from doesn't matter, you know, your sex, your race, you know, doesn't matter. None of that matters. And people continue to hold themselves back because they tell themselves a story that they think it matters, but it doesn't. In terms of then coming up with an idea, the easiest way to start is to look at your own life and look at what you need, what you're frustrated by, what you would love some help with. Again, I share the story about the YouTube channel and the things that do best on my YouTube channel I created out of my own desire, my own necessity. The Top 10 Series is because I wanted that. I wanted to learn from these famous entrepreneurs and what they had done, and I needed a little more motivation in what I was doing. I needed people to push me to do something bigger and better. And everybody likes it, you know, for the most part. So I would be looking at my own life and seeing what do I need help with? What do I wish existed? What frustrations do I have in any area? You know, if in something— look at gaming, where people say, how can you make money playing gaming? How can you provide value playing gaming? There are people making insane money with gaming, but they're providing value either by teaching people how to do it or by being a professional gamer or by entertaining people with their commentary. There's a lot of different ways to be able to have success. So those 3 things, if I can remember, what did I say? 1, don't tie so much of your value as a human being, your worth, to having a business idea. 2, you don't need to be outgoing and extroverted to have success. And then 3, look at, look at areas in your life that you're unhappy with, that you're frustrated by, and go solve that. And And chances are there's a lot of people who also have the same problem and they benefit from learning from how you handle it and would be willing to pay you for it. Yeah, I remembered it all. All right, good.

Can I just add something to that though, Evan?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

You don't realize this maybe, but like just what you said there, you said, "I really wanted to be mentored and pushed by people that were, you know, doing these great things." So I just started the series, you know, that in and of itself is innovation because a lot of people would go, I want to be mentored, I'll never get to meet Oprah, I'll never get to meet Tony Robbins, I'll never get to meet whoever. So I guess it's just, I mean, just the way that you thought about that is innovative. And I mean, your channel is innovative. So is there any insights you can give how to tap into innovation? Is that the advice that you just gave, just in terms of like work out of a place of your own frustration or your own what you need? I mean, is that how innovations are born, is just by solving your own, you know, scratching your own itch? Because you seem to tap into innovation in a way that's very powerful. So what do you, I don't know, how do you even know how you do that?

Yeah, yeah, okay. And it may look like some like magic formula from the outside, but really it's just finding a small way to get started, right? Like, I want to learn from Elon Musk, if that— like as an example, right? I want to learn from Elon Musk. Uh, you know, what's the easiest way I can to get started on that? It's to watch his videos. Or read his books or whatever else you can come up with. It's not to try to call him up and have him invest in my business plan and hope that he says yes and, you know, how long does that take and if he doesn't say yes my life is over, right? It's like finding an easy way to get started and just trying to find solutions. That's what entrepreneurship is all about. When we were starting this series, right, when I wrote to you and said, said, hey, I want to start this series, do you want to join me on it? We had to figure out some, you know, technical issues, right? How are we gonna stream it? Are you gonna— where are you gonna be? How do we deal with phone, internet? Are you going to be watching the stream or not commenting? How do we get the question? Like all of these things, there's tons of problems that come up and it's just finding a solution. So whatever, whatever big thing that you want to do, or maybe this is the lesson, maybe this is the disconnect, you know, whatever the big thing is that you want to get done, just find a smaller way to start. Break it down and find the smallest possible step that you can start with and do it. Like, you need to take action. Like, just sitting there and thinking about it and wishing for it, it's not gonna happen. You gotta do something. Even if the something is a may not make sense, or doesn't work, you're doing something. Aw, come on, that guy totally stole my kill. Hahaha. Hi, Madinga. Why does my team wanna surrender? We're winning. Anyway, so yeah, and people may not be able to see it. I think people either don't see what a small step is, they either don't see it at all, or they think it's too small and won't work.

Yeah, yeah, I think it's, I think it's cool to hear you kind of just speak about it on a practical level because I think it's like a mystery for some people. And just to see that you had this idea, League of Legends, all right, let's just do it, let's just try it. And you know, if it doesn't work, like you said, go on to the next idea, try it again.

Yeah, I mean, look at my— look at this series right here. You know, I have a popular YouTube channel. I'm moving over to Twitch's livestream. We've got 10 followers. 10 followers. It's not a lot, right? I've got 10 people who are following my channel and subscribing. Thank you guys, love you guys, those 10 followers if you're watching live. And I could pour a ton of resources if I wanted to into I could promote it across my newsletter and I could pump it out on YouTube, say, "Follow me on Twitch live!" But it's a test. And people, if they don't get immediate success, they get upset. It's a Kali. Oh, I died! If they don't get immediate success, they get frustrated and they quit. Where it's in those small wins that you develop something amazing. I don't get immediately 1,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, so I'm a failure. So just find the smallest way to get started. Break it down, find the smallest way to get started, and then do another step, and do another step, and do another step.

That's awesome. Are you dead?

I'm here. No, yeah, I died. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I died.

I've had my first death. I have 4 kills, 6 assists, and 1 death, so it's not bad. Akali killed me. That's J-Rise's champ of choice usually.

Oh my gosh, is J playing right now?

Oh, I don't know. I don't think so. If he's watching the stream, you said you left.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, so if he's watching stream, he's not playing. He's not in this game with me, although we have done that. Boom! That guy's gone. Okay, next. What do we got? What do we got? Let's do it.

Let's do it. Good stuff. All right, next question comes from Corinne. She's a single mother, 5 kids, and she has no formal qualifications but a desire to be successful. She feels torn because when she's pursuing her goals, it's usually at the expense of her children. So she's currently scaled back her activities, uh, drastically since her dance studio was closed last year, and now she feels like a failure and her confidence is shattered once again. I'm desperately racking my brain to find a career that will allow me to be a good mom and spend the necessary time with my kids. So she wants to be, you know, she's an ambitious entrepreneur, but also a mother of 5 and wants to be able to be a good parent and an ambitious entrepreneur.

And the dance studio was her business or was just, we don't know.

Yeah, it looks like she was in the dance business. I'm not sure if she wants to continue continue in that, but she was in a— she was part of a dance studio that closed, so now she is— she says her confidence is shattered. So Corinne, I wish I knew more about what business she specifically wants to be in, and it says that she's racking her brain to find a career, so I I don't know if she wants to work— if she wants to start a business or she just wants to be able to work a job and be a mom. I'm not exactly sure. But on a very practical level, if she wants to do work as a parent and look for opportunities there, I would suggest checking out flexjobs.com, which is just a cool website for people who want to work, but it's also— I've heard it recommended for parents, you know, who want to be working parents. That's flexjobs.com. And, you know, it comes to mind too, I mean, I don't have 5 kids, so I can't speak to this. You're the parent in this one, Evan Carmichael. I don't want to give parent advice. But it's really cool when you can start a business that your kids can somehow be a part of. I mean, I have a friend who is in a very successful bakery, donut shop here in Nashville, Tennessee, and she has 5 daughters and all of the kids are involved in in the business at some level, like they help in some way. And so it helps with keeping the family together, quality time together, even when you're working. So I'm thinking maybe there's an opportunity for her to look for ways of doing business with— that can include time with your family. And you see YouTubers You know, you're one of them who can sometimes bring your kid on and do fun videos and things like that. So I don't know what she'd want to do, but there's maybe some cool entrepreneurial opportunities where she could maximize time with her kid instead of it feeling like it's taken away.

Is that what she said? She feels like it's taken away from her kids?

Well, that's what she's worried about, is she's really ambitious and career-driven, but she feels like it's always at the expense of her kids.

Got it.

She's looking for ways where she can be career-driven but a good mom.

Got it. But also the business failed and she doesn't know what she wants to do next. Is that right?

Yeah, yeah.

Got it. Okay, so for me it comes down to like having that vision for yourself. Like what do you want to go out and— is it the dance? Is it something else? Like what What is it that you want to do? Uh, and then making a plan towards it. Like, I would isolate the kids first from, uh, from your ambition in your career. Do you want to be in the dance business? Do you want to be in something else? Do you have the skills to do it? Like, if you started a dance studio and it didn't work, I mean, I own a dance studio. I know what that life is like. Uh, is that something that, like, that's where you want to be, or that was just a fun experiment? Or that was somebody else's business or whatever. Like, set an exciting plan for yourself of the skills that you want to learn and the business that you want to be in. And do you have— are you able to do it right now? Like, are you— can you provide enough value to be a success in that field? And if not, like, if your goal, your dream was to be a dance studio owner, can you— can you go work for one? Right, like again, to get a job, the reason to get a job is, is to learn, uh, and eventually, you know, if you're— if your goal is to go out and be your own boss, that can be great eventually, but for now you want to, you know, you don't have enough value, you can't provide— oh, I'm gonna die! The Flash! Did I make it out?

You made it!

I made it out! Yeah, I made it out. That was close, that was That was close. That was close. That was close. So yeah, it starts with that compelling future for yourself. What do you want to do? What do you want to be? What kind of business do you want to be in? Do you know? And if you don't know, it's fine, right? Like, explore, test stuff out. See again what makes you come alive. You know, kind of similar advice. For the kids part, I, you know, there's— okay, so a couple things. One, I would put kids' time in just as important as business time in, right? Like once you create that compelling career future for yourself, you also want to create a compelling life. And that obviously involves your kids and how much time do you want to spend with them. Some people need more than others and at different times in your life, your kids will need more than others, right? Obviously not understanding totally what your situation is about, but Schedule in your personal stuff, and this applies to everybody, if you have kids or not. You know, you want to spend time with your husband or wife or girlfriend or brother or whatever, schedule that in just as importantly as any other meeting. What tends to happen is we don't schedule in our personal lives and then the business just kind of bleeds into it. You know, we just keep, we keep scheduling stuff stuff on top of our business and that just keeps seeping into our personal lives and then you feel like you don't have a personal life. So blocking it off just like you would any other important meeting, block it off in your calendar. I do like to involve my family in the work that I'm doing to the extent that they want to be involved. I think it helps. One, like either just get them involved in the work so they understand hard work, so they understand. You could teach them life lessons while they're also adding value to what you're doing. I don't know how old your kids are, but still, you could— Hayden is 7. He's getting involved in the videos that I make. So you can do it. You can involve them. If not, even just explain what you're doing. So for me, telling Nina about my work and what's going on and any challenges I'm facing, that brings us closer together. Even if she can't offer advice, even if she doesn't know what to say, even if she can't give us wisdom, give me wisdom to help, just involving her brings us closer together and makes her feel more connected to what I'm doing and just makes her feel better. And so, can you involve the kids in that way too? Can you give them, uh, can you teach them life lessons through what's going on in your work? Um, and also, can you get them involved in the actual work somehow? I think, I think you don't always have to keep everything super separate, and you got to find that balance that works for you. But starts with having that compelling future for your career, and then tie that into a compelling future for your life of what you wanna do and how much time you wanna spend in various places, and then creating a schedule that supports it, that allows you to do the things that you wanna do.

Great.

It's getting—

You want another one?

I got it. It's getting testy here. We got There's a lot of fights happening because it's close to the end of the game here. So I'm just gonna do my best to balance. But yeah, yeah, we got— let's do it. Let's do one more.

All right. Next question comes from Kamar. I think I'm— sorry, Kamar, if I'm saying that wrong. He's saying, I'm doing a business school related to education. I want "From now to have many branches. How can I ask for my branches?" Unfortunately, I don't know. Maybe I need to move on to the next question because I don't know what he means by— He's in business school related to education. "I want now to have many branches." Maybe he wants to be— If he's in another country, I'm not sure, do they refer refer to schools as different, you know, having different branches in education? Does anybody know? I don't know if that's— should I move on to the next question? I don't know if that is enough information for you to answer.

So maybe how we approach this is— it's kind of— this may not be the problem, so, you know, when we write back to him and say, hey, here's our answer, you can give us a little more context. If that's— if we helped them A lot of people when they're doing education can feel boxed in, can feel like, you know, as you get higher up in education, you're being more and more specific and you get less and less freedom, and that can be frustrating. I think of my sister who went through that and actually quit her PhD program because it was just more and more specific and more and more frustrating for her. She wanted to do— wanted to explore more. So, so what would you say, like, let's assume that's the problem, what would you tell, what would you tell them as advice? Like, I'm going to school and I feel boxed in by the curriculum, I'm not doing what I want to do, I want to learn more. Don't box me in.

Right. Yeah, well, I wonder, I'm looking at the question again and saying business school related to education too. Yeah, I would just say that perhaps one of your advice to a previous question was just about being curious and looking into different interests that you have and Yeah, what, what really just gets you excited, what really gets you looking forward to being a part of the educational field. And if you're feeling boxed in any way, I think what's really cool about education is you can innovate even in the context of education. So I would think about what really gets you excited and what are some ways that maybe you can bring that excitement into that field.

I think it's easy to see restrictions. I think it's easy to, like, because my parents are this way or because my, you know, my school is set up like this or whatever, it's easy. I'm going to die. I'm gonna die. Oh, the flash save! That was insane. Okay, good, I'm alive. I think it's easy to just accept your circumstances. I think it's easy to say, hey, well, I'm at school and this is the limitation and and then just get frustrated, where again, like, this is on you. You need to create a better life for yourself. And if you want to stay within the program that you're at and you're frustrated that you're not learning more, then, then go out and find another way to learn more. Like, schooling is one option. There's a lot of ways that you can learn and get the skills that you need to. And whether that's going out and starting a business on the side, whether that's taking a part-time job to learn, whether that's taking a semester off to explore what you want to do more. There's a lot of different ways to do it. You just got to find— you got to find that for yourself and not just like— we're all— we are all bound by— we all often feel bound by our limitations of our environment. My parents didn't teach me this. You know, I'm from this country. Whatever it is that you feel is a limitation for you. Did I kill him? Did I kill him? Yeah, killed him. And it's just so, you know, whatever that— whatever the context is, in this case it's school, but in— for the other people watching, might be something else. You place these— place these limits. Where you got to unshackle that. And if you're feeling like you want to learn something else, again, it doesn't have to take a massive— oh, somebody quit the game. We're playing 4 against 5 now. It doesn't have to take a massive shift yet. Just start small. Like, what are you upset that you're not learning? Where do you want to learn more? What is it? Like, what skill do you— so you're learning business This is great. What do you want to learn that's different, that you're frustrated with, that you don't have enough knowledge in? What is that thing? Yeah, I got another kill. And then just go find a small way to get started and do it. Just find a small way and do it. It doesn't have to be a big quit, quit, quit everything, my life is terrible, everything sucks. Just find a small way to get started and go do it. And if that makes you come alive, like, you might discover, like, maybe you want to be an actor as well. I'm just throwing something out there. Okay. Instead of just thinking of being an actor, go out and try. Take a class, learn, try to get better. And you may go to acting classes and then realize, you know what, acting sucks, I don't want to be an actor.

Wow.

Oh, my guy just came back. Let's hope he joins the game. And you would have never known that unless you actually took some kind of action towards it. Where a lot of people have these dreams of something they want to do, like a previous caller— caller, I want to say caller— question. Previous caller.

It would be cool to have calls. Yeah.

Previous question. We won. Who started off in something and then wasn't happy, right? Like, this business isn't for me, or I forget what the exact context was, but like, you start on something that may not always work out. It may not be for you, and then the thing is to switch. So if you're unhappy with your current situation, find a small way to start switching. It doesn't have to be a drastic change. It doesn't have to be something huge and innovative and different. Just find a small way to get started and see if it makes you come alive. If I love this, if I like can't wait I can't wait to get up and play League of Legends and talk to Rishi, and that's— I'm gonna do— I'm gonna say kiki— if that's like all I can wait to do, then like if I get such a high from doing this, then I might kill my YouTube channel and just go all in on this, which may upset some people, but it's being true to me, right? So find a small way to get started. This is a small test for me, one of many small tests that I do constantly on my channel that maybe you guys see, maybe you don't. This is a more public one, and I look for something that, that makes me come alive. When I find that, then I invest more into it. So after all of my team complaining and everything, I ended up with 8 kills, 1 death, 8 assists.

Wow!

And I got the best score in the game, so they can't be that bad.

Oh my gosh!

Can't be that bad. That's a pretty solid start. That's a great game to be on first game of our stream back online. Cool. Well, thank you guys for the questions. Does this mean—

Yeah? Does this mean you're not going to do the same livestream with Pokémon GO?

I am not in the I'm not into Pokémon Go. Nina is though. You could join Nina for Pokémon Go livestreaming. I'm not into Pokémon Go. But cool, thank you guys for the questions. Hopefully it helped. Thank you guys for joining live. Thank you Rishi for joining in. We're gonna link up her channel in the description so you can go check out what she's up to on YouTube as well.

And everybody check out Evan's new book launch. Tell them really quickly before we leave. If they haven't heard already.

Yeah, you can go to— well, just check out the description of the video. Um, the book is about finding your one word. Actually, it would be super helpful for the people who are having a lot of issues. We should have maybe brought that up earlier on, but— uh, yeah, yeah, check it out. Um, really appreciate the support, and that's it. Have an amazing week. We will do this again And continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and we'll see you soon.

Bye guys!