Transform Relationships in 60 Minutes | Authentic Networking POWER!

The easiest way to move past is to start to get excited about the future. When you are excited about your future, you spend zero time thinking about all the things that you did wrong going backwards. You did the best you could with what you had. Forgive yourself. If you had to do it all over again, you would probably play a little bit different now because you're smarter, you're wiser, you have more experience, but you can't go back in time. And sitting wishing that you could and all the mistakes that you would have fixed doesn't serve you. So the key is to start getting excited about the future.

Don't overlook the process. It's small chunks day by day, the consistent Daily habits is what's going to get you there.

You can't avoid it. You got to go through it. You just have to do it.

The plan matters, but it does not matter nearly as much as showing up every single day.

If you're reaching out to someone, you need to be able to convey effectively, communicate that them spending time with you is valuable.

We're so worried about trying to be someone that we're not and who might judge us and who might comment on your video or whatever. It was something nasty, but focus on who you're serving. Who you are serving. Like, somebody needs your message today. What is your advice for success?

To show up and keep showing up and show up some more. Like, I think the one thing that I've learned from just interacting with you, being mentored by you, having you part of my business is the plan matters, but it does not matter nearly as much as showing up every single day, giving it your all, you know, executing something that's a 3 out of 10 consistently is way better than having a 10 out of 10 that you show up occasionally.

Like, it's—

you just got to keep, keep going and keep showing up. And even when you question it, even when you don't think it's going to get you there, the habit of consistency will keep doing the work.

I love it. So advice for success for me, just to carry on from what Zach said, uh, one is believe in the thing that you're doing. Believe that the work, you know, believe in, like, actually have passion for the work that you're doing. A lot of people, they just chase down things because they think they're going to make a lot of money doing it, but they don't actually love the thing. Like, the number one most common bit of success that's come from all the people that I've profiled and watched and studied is actually love the thing. You have to have passion for the thing that you're creating. How to be good with people?

True interactions, uh, vulnerability is always good, and don't peacock. Too many people try to pretend there's something else and they get into like a conversation or relationship with someone and it's nonsense. Just be who you truly are.

So Bo and I started the business to book people onto different shows, interview shows, podcasts, or if you have your own show or podcast and you want guests to come on, Bo helps find people for your show. So Beau has done a lot of the heavy lifting for bringing on some of the big names on my channel as well. So Beau, if you want to connect and be good with people who are at a higher level than you, who you might think are— first thing is, what's your advice?

Dissolve the illusion that you need that social metric or that vanity metric of 10,000 subs or whatever to connect with someone. So If you're reaching out to someone, you need to be able to convey effectively, communicate that them spending time with you is valuable. It's how you and I met 5 years, 6 years ago. You saw an opportunity to add value to what I was doing. You thought it would be good content for you, and that exploded our relationship. So it's about ensuring that you're not just doing it for the likes or the metrics. It's I can add value. It's a value transaction. We've managed to get like Tony Robbins, McConaughey, the biggest names in the world for other shows that aren't that big because they see it as a value proposition to probably express what they want to talk about where they won't get another platform for it. So that's a good way to do it.

How did we even meet? So this could be a good story because we went from, I think it was with your 2-minute interview, but maybe I'm wrong, to then go from like meeting somebody to then starting a business with each other and creating a mid-six-figure empire.

So I reached out to you for my Four Minute Masters. It was like a 4-minute interview show. And I thought it was easy to reach out to people and book people, but you were smart enough to realize that I had a certain skill. And we were back and forth over a few years. We're always just communicating cordially. It was great. And then I came and visited you in Toronto at one of your events. And then we just started chatting and I started booking people for your channel because you're like, hey, look, you can do this lifting for me. I love doing that. That like gets me off. That's what I find fun. And then you were walking your dogs one Saturday during COVID and I got a random message like, we need to talk. I know what— I know the next chapter for you. And I was like, all right. And we got on and like speed is the essence. So we, uh, we started this agency. I think you messaged me on a Saturday and by Monday we started. We got our first client, I think on Thursday. And from there we have just glued our foot to the metal and just kept growing. And when you do what you love so much, it's so much fun. But we met because I effectively outreached to you and, uh, I feel like your whole thing's belief. And believe, and you saw something in me that I didn't see in myself at the time. And then, as soon as I saw it, as soon as we joined forces, we've created a nice little empire.

So, you just randomly emailed me. That was it. I didn't know you.

There was no connection. You just gave me the pitch of the show and I emailed you. I thought booking guests was easy. So, my first 4 guests were you, Wim Hof, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Mel Robbins. Yeah, to me, it's like when you think something's easy, to you, it doesn't matter. And then other people started seeing that as a valued commodity. And relationships are such an undersold soft skill that it was my Michael Jordan. I found that. That was what I was good at. I wanted to be a musician or so many things in my life, but I found my lane. And the more I lean into it and double down through relationships, connecting, networking, whatever you want to call it, I just call it being human, It's really easy.

Okay, so being good with people has historically been a challenge for me, being shy, introverted. I find it hard to start off conversations, but the thing that actually helped the most was actually just be curious about people. Just find a way to be curious about somebody, because I think especially if you're an introvert, we don't like having very surface-level conversations. We don't like talking about the weather. We don't like talking about, "Hey, how about that sports team?" You know, it feels fake. And introverts don't like being fake. But we love, we actually love deep conversations. And so the way to do that is to start finding one thing that you can be really curious about the person. If you can genuinely be curious about them, then it's so much easier to have a conversation and you're asking questions about them and people love talking about themselves. So the way to be good with somebody is just ask some questions, but not that it's leading to a sales pitch or something, that you just genuinely care about the person and all of a sudden they're doing most of the talking and then at the end of it they're saying, wow, that person, you're such a great conversationalist, I really like talking with you. Really was them doing most of the talking and you asking the questions, but it's got to be questions that you genuinely are curious about and care about. I find that that really helps me. How to get over someone you love after a breakup when it still hurts?

Love yourself more. And if you went through the breakup, either you initiated or they did, you have to step back and say, was that really good for you to stay in it? Or is it a better opportunity for you that you're out of it to better be able to get in love with yourself again? Because I think a lot of times, for myself personally— I can only speak for myself personally— a lot of times we try so hard to hold on to someone else that we forget about ourselves, and we put someone else's happiness and making them feel good more so than realizing, you know what, I've forgotten about myself and what I really want. So that's, that's what I did for myself, is realize I have to love myself more. And sometimes that means I have to be at peace with the breakup and be at peace with being by myself for a while.

Thank you, Cyrus. So, okay, my answer, uh, how to get over someone that you love after breakup when it still hurts. So whether it's, um, a breakup in, uh, in a personal relationship, in a business relationship, you can always think about what you, what you would have done, what you should have done, what you could have done looking backwards, but it very rarely serves you. The easiest way to move past is to start to get excited about the future. When you are excited about your future, you spend zero time thinking about all the things that you did wrong going backwards, right? You did the best you could with what you had. Forgive yourself. If you had to do it all over again, you would probably play a little bit different now because you're smarter, you're wiser, you have more experience. But you can't go back in time. And, and sitting wishing that you could and all the mistakes that you would have fixed doesn't serve you. So the key is to start getting excited about the future. Get excited about the future. What are you building? What are you creating? What are you moving towards? Not where you have come from and where you struggled and sucked. So if it's a business opportunity, get excited about the new business you're going to make. If it's a relationship, get excited about the next relationship you're going to have, right? Get on the, get on the different dating apps and see who's out there. See who's on the market for you right now and get excited. Like, allow yourself to dream again and to wish again and to hope again. Because that thing that you came from was not the one for you anyway. If you're trying to move through some past mistakes, you give yourself credit for doing the best you could with what you had, and then we start getting excited about the future that is still ahead. Adam, we got a question. You ready for the question? Okay, I know you got an answer for this one. How—

wow, how to not procrastinate.

Where do we start, man?

I'll unpack it here in just a couple minutes. So how to not procrastinate? Really just start visualizing where you want to go, find your why you want to go there, and then begin to put in small chunks the process to get you there. And to keep the promises that you make to yourself is the most important thing. So what do you want to do? Oh my gosh, Evan, you've got me on this one. Thought to action, thought to action. Evan, I never forgot that. You actually told me that just right over there. You told me thought to action. That's when I went to your academy, uh, in Toronto. But so small chunks and never forget the why. Sometimes you need to write it down that you'll have it in your face. So write it down, get to the place a little bit at a time. It's the habitual things. Sometimes we get— you got to have that future, that bright future, the reason why you're doing something, and then it's going to start to move you forward. It'll start to move you, but you can't— don't overlook the process. It's small chunks day by day. The consistent daily habits is what's going to get you there. So don't lose focus on that. And if you need to look at Evan Carmichael, has thousands of videos that can keep you on point. So that's one thing, get around people that you kind of, you want a role model. You like, how does Evan do this all the time? How does he walk in 3 hours a day?

How?

He goes thought to action and keeps the promises that he makes to himself. And that's how you do something. That's how this whole thing was built. This is why you're impacting so many people, Evan. It's thought to action and keeping the promises that you make to yourself. That's the most important thing in getting around other people. If you're, you hang around 5 Stanford, Stanford University, 5 Stanford grads, you'll become the 6th. Be careful who you're around. Be careful what you're watching, what you're hearing, and always keep the promises that you make to yourself and you'll get it done.

Believe me.

My book is called Live Life on Purpose. From Running the Streets to Running a Beat. Get your copy now on Amazon. It's everywhere.

Gotta love Adam Duran. You never know who you're gonna meet when you join these lives, which is, which is great. I love it. Okay, let me answer this and then we'll move on to the next one. Uh, how to not procrastinate? Best way I found is you create a calendar. So you create a calendar and you put in your calendar the habits that will lead you towards success, right? So You have ideas for what you want to create. Amazing. None of that happens until you create into actions, right? It's the actions and the habits that you do every day that lead you towards your dreams. Otherwise, they just remain hopes and dreams. So this would not be happening if it was not in my calendar, right? I had to schedule this in. I want to walk outside for 3 hours a day. Great. Well, when is that going to start? If you don't— if I did not put it in my calendar, I would not be out here doing this. And so step 1 is you create a calendar that maps to your ambitions, that are the habits that if you follow those habits, you'll move closer to your goals, your business goals, your personal goals, your relationship goals, your finance goals. Are you doing the work? Is it in your calendar? Right? Step 1. And then step 2 is you teach yourself that you do what's in your calendar, that we're eliminating the thought process behind it because procrastination is your brain gets in the way. Right? Your brain is telling you, oh, I'll do it later, I can't do it now, I'm not smart enough, or I need to do some research first. Like, your brain gets in the way. So the way to shortcut the brain is you create the calendar and then you do what's in your calendar. So you create the calendar when you're feeling bold and courageous and, you know, you come with a new goal, it's like so exciting, great. Don't just sit in that excitement and then just go researching plop in your calendar how you're going to keep this consistently happening in your life so that you don't just get this momentarily burst of energy and then you fall back down, right? So you put it in your calendar how you're going to sustain this action. How I got this, I was at an event, uh, 2 weeks ago and I got this idea that I'm going to start walking outside. And it started off as 2 hours a day, then last week became 3 hours a day, this week continuing 3 hours a day. It's great to get an idea. How many times you got an idea at an event or watching a video? You get some great idea. Awesome. If you just do it once, it's not enough. How do you maintain the consistency? How do you turn into a habit? Don't wait for you to feel motivated. It has to go into your calendar. So I pop this into my calendar, and then when I wake up and I look at my calendar, I do what's in my calendar. So you eliminate the brain from the process and therefore eliminating the procrastination. So you create your calendar when you're feeling bold and courageous and on top of the world and unstoppable. Maybe like right now, you're getting some energy, go put something in your calendar. And then when you wake up, you do what's in your calendar. Do those two things. It'll change your life. How do you manage a slow staff in retail setting that requires speed to attend the customers?

Ooh.

What I've learned from you is to train the people. It's to find people who have the— if you're at the beginning and you're still trying to get the people in, then it's find the people who have the attitudes, the heart that you want, and then you train them to do the thing that you want them to do. If it's people that are already there, I think it comes back to what you do on Mondays, is mentoring. Like, what is it you want to see them do? How can you help them in order to be able to do that thing that you want them to be doing?

So Ida's going through a process now bringing new people on to her team and mentoring and training. How is that going and what lessons have you learned finding people to train people to do what you do?

That's the first thing I learned. Second thing is the skills are easy to teach, but it's, it's the harder part is getting people to want it not like wanted as much as you do, but kind of. So here's what I have. Here's the process that I took, and I learned it from you, right? I gave the people that I'm training, I give them a couple of books of reading material to say, okay, go through this thing, and in, in this amount of time, say 2 weeks, go through it. And when you're done in that time, then we're going to take it to the next level. And so it got to a point for me where it's like, do I just forget the fact that it didn't get to do the thing that I asked them to do and move on to the next level? Or should I stick to my guns and say, hey, we agreed you were going to do this thing, you haven't done it, so I'm holding you accountable because you have to finish your part in order to move to the next level. So I think it comes down to you as a leader. If you and the team have set up a rule to say, or set up a plan to say, this is what we're going to do, you have to stick to your foot and say, hey, we agreed to this thing. We need to see it through in order for us to go to the next level.

Okay. So when you're managing a team, there are two different things that you need to manage. First is values, and the second is skill set. Values are a lot, a lot, a lot harder to shift than skill set. So quite often with something like this, is it that they just don't value customer service? They don't, they don't value the customers coming in. They don't care about people. They're not, uh, friendly people. Or is that they don't know how to respond? So this is something I'm training Nina, my wife, on because she's now— we've got 50 people on the team and Nina is now responsible for hiring most of the new people on the team and managing most of the people on the team. And she's first time managing people. And obviously customer support is one of those things that is really important. And so as she's managing a team, when there's a problem, when they don't get something done, when, you know, they promise they would but they don't, before automatically judging and blaming them, it's asking, okay, is it a values thing or a skill thing? Did we do our part? Did we train them enough? Were we clear enough? Because we might say, well, if they don't understand, they should ask questions. But they don't always ask questions. A lot of people are afraid to ask questions, even especially at the beginning of a new job. They're afraid to ask questions. So is it that they didn't understand it? Is it that we weren't very clear? Is it that we didn't give them the tools to set them up for success? Is it a training issue? Is that on us to be better? Or is it just that they don't care about this? That's an intuitive thing that you have to figure out. Because if you just looked at the black and white and said, well, they didn't get it done, okay, but why didn't they get it done? And how much of that is on us? Now, people ultimately show you who they are. You know, if Ida's giving people a book to go and read and they promise they're going to read it and they don't in the first week, okay, could there be a reason? Could it be Could it have been Ida's fault? Was it clear that they had to read it in a week, right? Was it out of stock or out of print? Were there some issues in getting it? But if it's a continual thing, people will show you who they are, where they always have an excuse for everything. Then okay, at some point it's not your fault anymore, it's theirs. But the question becomes, how do you get there faster? How to decide that faster and genuinely wanting your team to win, you know, especially if it's a skills thing. And if it's a values thing, it's like they're just better off somewhere else. They're better off not being in a position— if they don't value helping people, then don't put them in a customer service role because training them to be better at the skill won't make any difference if they just don't love the thing. If it's not naturally in them, if you have to retrain their value system, it's just not worth the effort. They're better off somewhere else, and you're better off with someone else too. But just use that as your filter, because this is a big problem for entrepreneurs. We tend to think that we, we very clearly explain something because in our heads— this is a problem— in our head is very clear. In our head, here's what I want. But your team is not in your head. They often will need you to go deeper and explain more. And especially at the beginning of relationship, they may not ask the questions that they need to ask, or they may not even thought of the right question to ask until later. So, uh, I'll usually default to say, hey, did we do something wrong? Did we not explain it? But then, yeah, people will ultimately show you who they are. But just if you catch it faster, you can make progress faster too. How do you sell your product or promote yourself without sounding egotistical? That's a good one. So listen, we got a question here. I thought you could answer it. You're all about greatness, so helping people unlock their greatness. Yeah, how do you sell your product?

You know, you have to think about how are you serving the other person and ultimately set an objective about what, you know, what are you aiming for the other person to get from the transaction. So I think if you're always thinking about how do you add value, are you literally solving a problem and does your solution, you know, deliver on its promise? I think starting with those type of, you know, points will really set you in the right way. So yeah, just being of service, man, just like you promote that always, being authentic. And then also, like, you know, probably speaking to the prospect about what happens when they come on board as a customer because preempting objections about, you know, for example, if I deal with you, are you just going to leave me alone or do you give me customer support? So those type of things can really help to instill trust. Podcast is called Unleash Your Inner Greatness, and it'd be awesome if you can listen to Evan's segment with us because it was really powerful.

Yeah, Joseph, it was a fun episode and I thought you could bring some value to this question as well. So great to see you, man. The easiest way that I found to, to promote and not sound egotistical is to tell stories. So I struggle with this a lot, struggling to charge money for what I did, struggling to believe in the price tag that I was charging, struggling to increase the price. And I found out that I was like, I'm doing all this work for almost no money. And it just wasn't, it wasn't working out, right? So, okay, I need to find a way to be able to sell my products and services without it, you know, I need to make money, you know, and how do I do it without it being in a super slimy way? And so stories is one of the things that seemed to be the most, of course, serving, right? So it's a great message. I wrote the book Built to Serve. There's lots in there, and an easy way to do is through your stories. So whether it's your story or a customer story or someone that you've helped, right? If so, you know, case study. I don't know what you're selling, but if somebody comes in and says, hey, I'm struggling with— I'm starting with YouTube, right? I'm starting with YouTube. We don't have to go— don't know how to do my thumbnails. I don't know, we're not growing, we're not getting the results we want. How do I go on YouTube? Instead of just saying, well, I have this service and you can go hire Zach to help you on this and it's going to cost you blank, right? That feels super slimy, one, I get to know them better. It's like, well, tell me, tell me about what you're selling, what you're trying to create, what your goals are. And then I'll usually tell some kind of story. So a story about other people that we've helped or a story. I usually don't use exact names of people, but you could if you have their permission. And I'll tell a story of somebody like them and how they achieved results. And ultimately what ends up happening is they come back and say, wow, if that person can do it, Maybe I can too. How do I work with you? And so it's much more consultative where you're asking questions and really deeply. I think this is where you'll probably win. If you feel like sales is too slimy and it sounds too egotistical, awesome. Make it about them. Make it about your client. Deeply understand, you know, the people who are massively egotistical don't ask questions about the prospect. They don't ask questions about the client. They're just trying to sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Ask questions, get to know them, understand what they're actually going through and why they're talking to you in the first place. What are their problems? And then tell stories around how you can, how you have solved it for other people. And I found that just be an easy way to get people to take the right action. It's not always the best thing to work with you, but when it is, they want to sign on because they love the stories that you shared and that you took the time. To listen. How to avoid the imposter syndrome effect. Ooh, if you don't know Angela, she goes live a lot to asking people to tell their stories, reminding people that we're all just humans. And a lot of times in just having, uh, I mean, I bet people coming online, they're nervous to talk to you, they're scared, they're going live, who's going to see this? A bunch of people have imposter syndrome. Um, I know you struggled with that a little bit at the beginning and getting your show off the ground too. So to this question, to just one victory, what would your advice be to avoid imposter syndrome?

I think that's probably the best advice that Evan has ever shared with me and has helped me so much is that you can't avoid it. You got to go through it. I mean, you just have to do it and feel what it feels like to do it. And then you recognize what that feeling feels like. And then the next time you do it, you'll have a better understanding of what to do with it. And just be present. I think that's, for me, just, you know, it's not easy to show up, especially when you feel like you're in your head, when you're in your head. But if you get in your heart and you remember why you're doing it in the first place and stay in your heart, then that, let your heart guide you. And that's been the most helpful to me.

Okay, my answer for imposter syndrome. Honestly, there's two things that I'll do. One is remember who you're focused on serving, right? We're so worried about trying to be someone that we're not and who might judge us and who might comment on your video or whatever. It was something nasty. Uh, but focus on who you're serving, who you are serving. Like somebody needs your message today. You've got a message. You've been through something. You have advice to share. Somebody needs that. And focus on who that person is. And it may not be a million people. It may just be 8 people who watch your video, but for One person, that might be a life— like, your message might be the life-changing message that they need today. And so focus on that when you're out there creating. And two, the other thing I find helpful is imagine you're talking to younger you. So when we get stuck in imposter syndrome, we think of, oh, if you look at Angela, who's hosting her own show, like, well, but I'm not Larry King, or I'm not Oprah, or I'm not whoever. And we let that be the reason why we don't start. Whereas think about who you used to be. So for me, the most painful point in my life was 19 when I quit on my business partner. And so I go back to think, can I help 19-year-old Evan? If I was going to sit on a park bench and talk to 19-year-old Evan, would I have something that I could say? And yeah, of course. Of course I could help. I may not believe I can help a million people, but I believe I can help Younger me. And same thing for you. You may not feel like you can help tons of people. You have imposter syndrome about that. But if you think back to who you used to be, think about who you were 5 years ago. You from 5 years ago would listen to you today. And they may not listen to Evan Carmichael or Oprah or whoever, but they'll listen to you. And so if you can have a message for younger you, well, there's millions of people who currently are younger you. And they're struggling and they need you. And just, I don't know, just the way that that is framed for me gets me out of my way and forces me to get into action mode. They're both an angle of service, and I'm always going to lean on service. One is you're thinking about the people who you can help, and two is you think back to younger you and recognize that you could help younger you, and there are millions of people right now who are younger you. And they need your help. So it's time to go through.

If you were starting today, right now, and you were to launch into the thought leadership business and your goal was to get to $20,000 a month in revenue, what you would do for yourself if you were getting back into it, uh, and you were really— you're willing to take massive and extreme action.

I go a little crazy compared to most. So great. First thing, if you want to get the $20K a month, is understand what are we selling.

For people that are that have addiction issues that want to quit and don't know how.

So back out $20,000 a month for one-on-one coaching. What are we doing? Are we, are we having 20 people who are giving you $1,000 a month? Are we doing 40 at $500? Are we doing 10 at $4,000? Like, what do you, what do you want to be doing?

My target is to hire level entrepreneurs and CEO types. Like, that's who I want to work with. That's kind of people that I want to help. And so my price points, you know, closer to $5,000 a month.

You want to do $5,000 a month? That's what you're going to sell. So you need 4 people at a time, right? I mean, if you're, if you say that you're going to help them inside 3 months, then every 3 months we need to bring in 4 new people. The strategy changes depending on what we're selling, at what price point, who we're targeting, all of that stuff. If I was talking to an audience, it'd be a different message than if I'm talking to Jim who has a specific question, right? So we want to sell $5,000 coaching packages and we need 4 of them to get started to see your, your $20K a month benchmark. Great. The next question to ask is who are the people who can refer you to these $5,000 a month?

Great question. So there are other, other people that are in the industry. It's entrepreneurs, I guess. Like, that's why when I put together an interview list, it's entrepreneurs, right? Because people listen to other entrepreneurs that are in the position that need help from somebody like me.

So more specifically, like, if somebody is an addict, so entrepreneurs are your clients, which is great. Who are the referral partners to your clients? So clients will help refer other clients for sure. But that takes a while to build up for you to build your reputation, to get results, right? If somebody then ultimately in a service-based business like this, if you go in and you help somebody, they get clean, they're going to tell 10 of their friends and some of them are going to want to go sign up with you to, you know, solve their problems too. But that's not a— that kind of referral-based marketing is not to the spirit of your question of how do we get $20K a month as fast as possible, right? That's not as fast as possible because you got to go solve their problem. Before they're going to tell people about you. So instead of thinking about our customers, who are the people who can refer us to potential customers? So we're trying to target entrepreneurs, high-level entrepreneurs, executives, executives, you know, they don't want to get out of their day-to-day life.

They want to stay with what they're doing. They just want to quit their bad habit, restructure. Okay.

So where are they going? These high-level entrepreneurs, executives, who are struggling with addiction right now and the things that they're going to, like AA or whatever, just aren't working for them?

Who are they telling?

Where are they going?

A lot of these people don't tell anybody. They're hiding it because they're embarrassed, 'cause they're successful in their own right financially. They have businesses that do well and they don't know how to get out of this thing. And it's easy stuff for somebody looking down, but they just can't figure out how to get out of it. And so a lot of times they don't, That's the challenging part. And that's why I was thinking of going out just to entrepreneurs and interview, you know, interviewing them or getting interviewed by, you know, entrepreneurial podcasts to find people that are hiding. 'Cause that's the thing is that a lot of 'em are hiding.

And again, that's a great strategy for longer-term clients. So you make content, you talk about addiction, you talk about the impact on entrepreneurship, you make specific pieces of content to help executives and entrepreneurs overcome addiction and whatever methodology that, that you believe in, uh, that you find works. But that's not a, again, extreme $20,000 a month as soon as possible strategy. That's our build the brand, become the face for an addiction in America long-term play. So who are they going to— who, who is the first person that they do talk to? Who is it that notices? Is it their doctor? Yes. Who then they run some crazy blood tests and they find that something's way off?

Guy I reached out to for some, he's a marketing guy that I, from a past life, I reached out to him to help me find a guy, a copywriter who writes a sales page. And he ends up telling me a week after, which we're going back and forth, 'cause he put an ad on Facebook for me, that he needs to quit drinking and can I help him? And it was because he went to his doctor and his doctor said his liver was shot. So that actually is a great insight right there.

Okay, so it could be that the healthcare professionals Doctors in, in-home, uh, like anybody's doing in-home where they get that person to come visit them, uh, and they— the doctor would tell them what, you know, your, your liver is shot. So what's the next step? Take this medication.

Unbelievable. Because also, you know, a lot of guys I know have the IVs brought to their office. Like guys I know that have been, you know, that high-level guys that drink a lot, they're like, oh yeah, I got an IV. In me right now, just because it's all my vitamins. I know they've been drinking for freaking, you know, all weekend, and that's what it's actually giving them, the nutrients they need. So that in, in office, in home, that is something to target 100%. That is, uh, but it would also take their clients away, you know, think about it, potentially.

Um, well, possibly, but, um, if the client dies, then that takes the client away too.

The guy, this crazy guy I reached out to, said His doctor said he has to quit drinking or he's going to die quickly.

When people are coming in-house and doing IVs, the IV business doesn't go away if the person stops becoming an alcoholic. They still need IVs. It just changes up what they're going to get their IVs for because now they're getting different vitamins put in or they're doing NAD or they're doing oxygenation of their blood or whatever, right? So those are the people that you want to get to know. I mean, I just came— I had the Super Bowl. I mean, I'm in Arizona. Super Bowl's here. I got invited to this high-end Super Bowl party, uh, on the weekend, and it's all you can eat, all you can drink, and it's mostly drinks. Like, they ran out of food in the first hour, and it's just all tequila and margaritas and beers and just— and like barely any water and no food. So you can imagine in this— in the hot Arizona, you know, sun. Yeah, it's just And then they had a dozen IV stations that were being filled up for people who are getting, like, passing out. Uh, and so like, okay, let's hook them up and get some vitamins so they can go back and party. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy. Uh, anyway, that's not usually my scene, so I'm not used to that, but that's crazy. So those guys, especially the ones who go to visit, because the people who don't have a lot of money They'll go to the doctor's office and they'll stand in line and all of this stuff. The people who have money don't. They value their time. So it's the people that they'll come to them or private clinics. And, you know, I just went and got the MRT test. I don't even know what the MRT test is.

For what you're allergic to and all that stuff. Yeah.

Like what food causes inflammation in your body. So like later this week, like end of the week probably, or Monday next week. But basically like spinach might cause inflammation for you, but it's great for me, that kind of stuff. So you get to know what inflammation, what foods cause inflammation, right? So you look at the people who are—

It's very likely he will have the same problems that you have later in life. So make sure he's aware of whatever your test results are. Your son. That test is probably good for him, for sure.

Yeah, yeah, we can start cutting that stuff out right away. No, for sure. Um, but thank you, thank you for the thought. Appreciate it. Um, but those, those labs where you go and you, and you get that stuff done, that's not a cheap thing to do. Uh, we did the MRT, then we did the Zoomer test, and each one was like about $1,500.

You can get everything, something like that, usually.

But then all the individual Zoomers is a second test with all the Zoomers that test for like wheat allergy and, uh, all this other stuff that like each one that you want to test for. And we did 13. And the cost is going insane. But that's normal. People are trying to figure out how to hack their longevity. And so those are the people that you want to talk to. You don't want to talk to the average everyday general practitioner who's seen people coming in with an allergy or something, or they fell and they scratched their knee, or they have an ear infection. Like, not those people, because those people who are saying it, like, at the beginning of the business— ultimately, Jim, I know you want to help everybody. Like, addiction is not just a wealthy person problem. It's an everybody problem. But in order to get to the point where you can actually go and have the global impact, you have to be making money doing the thing that you're doing. And so you start— back to the spirit of your question— I need to make $20,000 as quickly as possible. Okay, so you want 4 people gonna pay you $5,000 a month. That's somebody who's got a lot of money. Like most people aren't just dropping $5K a month on coaching, right? So, but for some people, $5,000 a month, that's nothing if you can solve like, this is their biggest problem, right? So those are the people to target, right? Those are the people who need to know your name. And can you target anybody in America or you gotta go like go visit them and hang with them in person?

Yeah, one can, yeah, part of it is like the, The end of the program is $30,000 for 3 months, and I plan to be like, as soon as they sign up, I schedule to go see them in the first 7 days, like face to face. Let's get this thing done.

Okay, but you'll travel, like you can hit anybody in America, and that gets added to the price, by the way, too, like your flight.

That was included. I would, I would pay for all my own travel out of that.

Oh, I see. Okay, so you have the $5,000 extra to cover your, your— perfect. Great. So yeah, so it opens up your market. It opens up your market to all of America instead of having— like Chicago is a big city, lots of people who need help. And again, you only need 4 people. This is not like we're trying to get a million people into this program. There are 4 people in Chicago who you can do this for. But if somebody wants to sign up from New York or California or whatever, cool, you can go there too. So you look at all the people who are offering these crazy high-end tests. And all the people who are offering all the crazy high-end diagnostics. And then the people who are training and consulting on the solution. What's the diet that then after I do my MRT and get the results, what's my diet going to be for the next 3 weeks? Because those people don't deal with addiction. They can say, okay, Evan, MRT diet, no caffeine for the next 3 weeks. Maybe I'm like super addicted to caffeine. And if I don't have caffeine, then I'm gonna go smoke up or drink alcohol or whatever. Like you can have the plan, cool. But if they have an addiction problem, you just giving me a plan as a nutritionist is not gonna help me solve my problem.

We're all addicted to sugar.

It's the right plan.

It's not just alcohol. It's not just like opioids. I mean, there's sugar, caffeine, all that.

So the person can give me the advice, say, here's your plan, but I'm not gonna stick to it if I have an addiction problem. And that person doesn't know how to handle somebody with an addiction problem, that's where they say, well, let's call Jim.

Yeah.

Jim's a guy, you gotta come in and help.

Contacting these people has been, this is fantastic.

So your show then become now was like, how do we build a, I thought we were talking about social media content. Yeah, yeah. So that's your show. It's like you interview those people. You interview the people who can pass referrals to you. So all of the people doing all these high-end diagnostics and tests where it costs thousands of dollars just to do one test, those are the people who you need to know and they need to know you. And the great thing is nobody's asking them to do interviews.

That's what I was just thinking. It's fantastic.

So you don't need— you could be a brand new channel. Like, it doesn't matter. If you haven't posted any content yet, you're starting a new channel talking about peak performance and also addiction and how that plays a role. And by the way, a lot of the most, I mean, not that you obviously know this, but a lot of the highest level peak performers are also massive addicts. Oh yeah, no doubt.

Especially in sports, celebrity, I mean, there's people all over the place. I mean, my interview list, I have, you know, probably 100 people on it that I'm going to reach out to that are high-level people. I don't know if I'll get them or not, but I, I'm extremely aggressive when it comes to stuff like that. Just like when you were trying to get a hold of, um, uh, Howard, um, Starbucks.

Yeah, Schultz from Starbucks. Yeah, I will get a hold of those people.

I will, I will interview them. It might take me a year, but I will interview them.

So like agents? Yeah, yeah, sports agents. Like, think about sports. Like, again, like, who are we trying to target? And then who can take you to those people? So if you're going to be the guy for athletes— athletes, I mean, look, it's, it's in the sports agent's best interest that their athlete clients are not stuck in addiction mode because they need to go perform at the Super Bowl and they're out getting drunk at a party, right? How many athletes have careers have been destroyed by addiction?

It's like, it's unbelievable. It's unreal how many guys mess their stuff up from from drugs.

And there's, and there's a lot that just never, never hits public news too. Um, so those guys, right? So if you want to target athletes, we're talking to, uh, the agents. If you want to target the executives and the entrepreneurs, we're talking to the people who are doing the high-end diagnostic, MRT, genetic testing, etc. And you have them on your show, you talk about peak performance, and addiction. And ideally you go see them. Ideally you can do it in person. You could start in Chicago. It's already a big enough city, big enough market. But if some— it's some high-end specialist who's in Miami, maybe make a trip for the interview. Because the point of the interview isn't to get content. The point of the interview is to build the relationship.

Quick, quick about that, about not spending money.

So when you talk—

because I mean, like, yeah, I gotta bring a camera crew, I gotta, I gotta do something for that, right? Like, what do you recommend?

Sure.

If you're going to start again, like, um, how aggressive are we going to get on our $20,000 a month goal? If you don't want to spend anything, then you do it through Zoom. Everybody set up on Zoom and you spend an hour with them on a Zoom call, and you, you put up the video on your, you know, brand new YouTube channel talking about performance and addiction. As soon as you start getting one client, then the next one you go meet in person, or you pick people who are in Chicago who you can go meet in person.

What do you shoot the video? You shoot a video, right? Like, because I'm obviously shooting a video.

Yeah, you want to shoot a video. So if it's, if it's remote, you do it through Zoom. If it's in person, then you could, you could hire somebody to come and shoot with you. Or if you're going to be resourceful, you find somebody who's got a production company who has an addiction problem And you trade services.

That's genius. I don't know how I'm going to find that, but I will work on that.

Oh, but that's not hard too. You message, you look up Chicago videographers and you find, or you're, you have an assistant or you just hustle it out yourself. You find 200 people in the Chicago area who do video production services, right? There's a lot. And then you message them and say, hey, I'm Jim. I'm a leading expert on addiction and I'm starting this new show and I'm looking to trade services for I will help you stop your addiction to sugar, alcohol, drugs, or whatever it is. And I'm looking for somebody to come and help film me as I go interview some of the leading experts on high performance and addiction in the country. And you send that out 200 times, are you going to get somebody who says, help me?

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

If you want that crazy, like, that's, that's doable. You message 200 people, one of them is going to say, I mean, you probably get more than one, you get to pick. How many people who own their own video production companies also have some kind of addiction problem and would love to lose weight or fix their business or fix their relationship because of the addiction they have to whatever?

60% of the US, 60% of the US are overweight. Dude, of course. And 40%, 40% are obese. So it's not difficult.

The exchange is not even close. Like if you were to hire somebody to come in and film you for the day, if it's one person, that could be $300, $500. $800. Like, you're not spending $5,000 on one person to come and film you for an interview, and that could even be multiple camera setup, right? So for you to coach them, you're giving them monetarily a much bigger value than they're giving back, and you're changing their life. Um, so yeah, that's what I would do. That's, that's an easy hack. Invaluable.

Evan, thank you. This is fantastic. I, I had so many questions, but I didn't know how.

So that's how you get your crew.

This is just to stay on the one thing because you're a stud and it's awesome. So thank you so much, man.

You can rinse and repeat for anywhere, you know, like if you, again, you want to, if you want to bootstrap it, but then make as much money as possible quickly. If there's somebody who's in New York, who's, who you want to go meet, who's the expert on something or doing all the high-end diagnostics for the New York entrepreneurs, the CEOs, or big-time New York agents or whatever. Cool. You could drive to New York. And you could have your cameraman sit with you, you know, when you drive to New York and spend the night in a hotel and come back. Like, that's a couple hundred bucks, right? Plus gas and a little bit of food. So it doesn't have to cost a ton of money to make that thing happen. Or you just go and run the same model in New York. You find 200 New York video production companies and message them and say, I'm gonna interview this one person. 'Can you come and film this for me, and I'll help you with your addiction? And like, I'm giving you $5,000 of value.' And here are the types of people that I typically work with. And you'll get, you'll get people who will say yes. Most people just don't put in enough of the effort, right? They'll reach out to 3 people and never hear back. Yeah, so I guess it doesn't work.

I did an interview series like 10 years ago where I needed— I wanted 10 guys, so I reached out to 60, and I got 28. So it was better than I ever expected. So I get it, I fully get it. I'm not afraid to reach out. I'll reach out to 500, whatever it takes. But I think that with the addiction side, like the offering to help them with sugar or, you know, weight loss or alcohol. Because I mean, I can't tell you how many weddings— when I go to weddings, people, somebody's always come up to me from like high school or something with a drink in their hand like, how'd you quit drinking? What'd you do? Like, do you go to AA? No, I just quit. So can you. But if you want to go to AA, cool, whatever, whatever works, let's do it. But It's, they're everywhere is the point of the story. So that's how I got down this path anyway.

That's another great hack to find your videographer. Look at who is doing wedding videos, Chicago wedding videographers, New York wedding videographers, because people who do weddings hate weddings. Videographers hate doing weddings.

For a course I created in real estate, I hired a wedding videographer. I'm like, what is the cheapest day of the week for me to hire you? Because obviously you guys don't shoot every day. They were like, Tuesdays, we will give you $300 for— it was 4 hours, it was like 10 years ago, it was on Tuesdays. And I— so you're 100% correct, that is, it was easy to find.

Yeah, they hate their business. It pays them, but they hate dealing with the family who are crazy and want the world. And it's the same thing every day, every day, every day. You're actually giving them some, like, something interesting to film for their portfolio and just a creative challenge. And again, not everybody's going to say yes, but if you message 25 Chicago videographers who do wedding stuff, you'll get somebody who wants to do your thing for free or in exchange for some time with you. Yeah, you know, to help them with their addiction problems.

That's very, very solid advice, Evan. Thank you.

And now you're showing up to do your interview with a, with a pro crew. It'll look great.

It's just, it's just, yeah, I, uh, yeah, I've had so much.

So it's a pretty easy model, right? And like, we don't care how well the video does. It doesn't matter. Like, we don't want it to suck, but you're a brand new channel. It's not gonna, it's not gonna go get a million views, probably, right? You'll take whatever comes in, but the video doesn't have to perform for you to build a million-dollar business. The relationships they're what's going to actually help you build the business. So when you're interviewing high-end sports agent or high-end, uh, MRT or whatever, uh, diagnostic person, you're asking about them and how they got started. And getting access to them is pretty easy because nobody asks them for interviews. If you need to talk to the athletes, that's a problem. Like LeBron is not coming on your brand new show to talk about performance and addiction, but an agent will, because nobody cares about the agent. So getting access to them is not hard. So you have them come on, the basic questions, so like, how did they get started, and what do they see in athletes or CEOs or entrepreneurs, and what do they believe about peak performance? And then you halfway through transition it to you to say, so I deal with a lot of high performance and addiction in particular. So I have these programs where I coach people for $5,000 a month to get out of their addiction. What do you see in your world of performance and how connected addiction is to it? You need them to know that you are an expert in addiction. You're not just some Larry King coming in asking questions.

No doubt.

So inside the interview, we have to talk about addiction and frame it that you're an expert in addiction. Yeah. And then business takes care of itself. It's a fairly simple model to run. It requires a degree of hustle to make it happen. Compared to just you sit at home and you make thought leadership videos and post them. And in a couple of years you become known for something. Right. But again, back to the question, what's a better strategy?

Videos before I started contacting people, just so there was some up because the page is brand new. have it. Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Like, think about nobody's interviewing these guys. We did this in Movie Makers. Ida, I don't know if you've met Ida yet. I guess since you're new, maybe not. But she did it with one of the women who are on— what's the show? The Canadian version of Shark Tank, Dragons' Den.

I did see that.

And so brand new channel, zero videos, zero subscribers, reached out and said, I'm making a new channel talking about blank, which connected to her thing, right? And again, nobody reaches out to them.

I reached out to these people anyway. I don't care how big they are, how whatever, 'cause you never know if you catch somebody at the right moment, what they're willing to do. I've realized that. Just like that.

Oh, sure. The people you're reaching out to are not in demand from a media perspective. Everybody wants to do partnerships with them. Everybody's pitching them on their thing, of course, that they want to sell. Nobody's asking them for an interview. You're going to be the only guy. And then you're the default guy that the next time the sports agent has an athlete with an addiction problem, which is going to be like a huge chunk of the athletes who come through for sure, or the liver is out of control, like, you know what, you should talk to this guy, Jim. Like they may have somebody right now who they can pass on to you that they don't know how to deal with.

Like, like the people got the high level, the testing, the diagnostic. That's just, it's interesting you just went for that because that, that is a great, like people aren't asking them for interviews and that's, that's a perfect place to find my target.

You don't need content on the channel. You can, every little bit of momentum helps. It's maybe they go after like the biggest agent, you know, having more content and examples help, but the people you're talking to who you ideally want, like nobody's ever asked them for an interview ever. You want to hear my story? Okay. And it helps promote their business and they have content that they can use for their social channels too. Great. That's powerful.

That's good stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. Easy. There's your model.

Easy for you to say.

Yeah, but it is. Well, listen, I guess it's simple, but it's not easy. But if you want to make $20,000 as quickly as possible, that's the model. Because if, if you ran one show a week, those are 50 people who could refer ideal clients to you. Like if 50 people knew you who could refer ideal clients to you, your whole business is taken care of. You want to go more aggressive, do more than one a week, do 3 a week. Like just go— when I, when I normally tell people this idea, I pitch them the idea of a, of a weekly show. So once a week a new show is coming up of you interviewing somebody. It's a biz dev show. But if it were me, I'd want to do one a day. I do one a day because then you get your, you get your clients by the end of the next month.

That's where I'm at. Like, I'm just trying to figure out how to scale as quickly as possible, how to find a camera crew on it.

It takes you to a 7-figure business. It's harder to build an 8-figure business off of that strategy, but it takes you a 7-figure business. And then that gives you the funds to do all the other stuff, to start building the thought leadership content, to work on your courses, your book, all of that other stuff.

For sure.

That, uh, I'm not gonna have that rolled out by the end of the week, right? Hey man, it's only Monday, Jim. Let's start.

I'm setting some deadlines for myself right now. That's all I'm doing here. Uh, those people won't be very— I love it.

Yeah, that's the model. You got anything else quick in there?

Oh no.

Or does that make sense? Anything you wanna go through?

I mean, I have a question about, do you still use Evernote to keep your stuff in order? 'Cause I like, that's where I, I mean, I'm not an organized person. Like your video content for what you're going to do, do you use Evernote still? Is that something you do?

Oh, we still use Evernote. Everything we have, like for me, my team, we have 50 people now on the team. And Evernote is where we keep most of our notes and planning. There's other tools, cool. It's really like the tool that you use is the one that's gonna work.

I've never used it, but you know, as I'm putting, I have, you know, 100 videos or more that I would have content for a shoot that I have ideas to shoot. So the ideas are easy. I just wanna start to organize it 'cause it's getting out of control. Every time I go to write the book or something, I have a new idea, do something I wanna get out there. So I just wanna start organizing it before it gets further out of control.

Yeah, when I'm filming videos, for example, my team does most of the work. So like the research and the prep and the intros and anything I need to know. And every video is its own Evernote note. And then when I come to film, I just have to look at all those notes instead of me having to like jump between a bunch of emails or Slack or, Facebook messages or whatever, um, especially if it's just basic stuff. I'm sure if you were at a mega complex, uh, organization, you might need something more custom. But even for me with 50 people, I've noticed—

where's the most people? What, what department of your business do— is it larger concentration of people in editing?

Oh yeah, uh, like content. Whether it's editing, research, split testing, uh, thumbnails. Like, if you ask me, Jim, how many people on my team, I would say 15.

You know, like, I don't—

I can't— I can't imagine. It doesn't feel like we have 50 people. But then when we add it all up, like, oh right, yeah, oh, the Russian channel, right, right, right. Oh, the Spanish channel, Mara is doing that. Oh yeah, great. Yeah, that has a million subscribers, you know. Oh, all the people who are working on my software company. And then, and then all the split testing, because I don't deal with everybody on day to day. Nina, my wife, she— I say she runs the Navy and I run the Navy SEALs. So I go fast and hard on new projects, uh, and she manages the operations of the existing projects. So I'm really tight with my core team or whoever I'm subbing in for whatever project we're working on right now. And then maybe they go back to the Navy and work on like just the continuity of that program. So yeah, so it's mostly around content, but I'm personally just working on the new, the new ideas and the new projects and new things that I want to create. I'm looking forward to getting started on that stuff, but one thing at a time. Well, you're kind of doing it. Like, this is what, again, this is what I would do. I go in, I try to see if I can figure something out myself first and hack it. And then as soon as I figure it out, Either I don't figure it out and drop and go to something else, or I figure it out and then immediately delegate it out. Like, as soon as you start making— you get a single client in your $5,000 business, uh, per month, then you hire an assistant to do all the outreach for you because you, you figured out the wording and the language of how to get somebody to come on your show through the reps that you're putting in. And then you just train somebody like, here's, here's now write this script and copy and paste, and now we're reaching out to 2,000 people a month instead of 200. You just start to remove yourself from all the stuff that you don't like, but you also kind of figure out along the way to make it fun. To see me coaching another entrepreneur one-on-one, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. I would always try to start with the service instead of a product. Most people who start with a product end up getting screwed Because the margins suck on most products unless you go scale. Meaning if you're going to sell t-shirts, selling 5 t-shirts, there's no margin in it.