Trust your GUT - #EvansBook ep. 37

Trust your gut. There's going to be times in your life when you really want to do something, when you feel like, man, this is the right thing to do, you just have to go for it. Even when the data says something else or the people around you say something else, you just feel like it's the right thing to do. That's when you have to go and do it because Otherwise, one, you're gonna live in regret for the rest of your life. And two, there's a reason why this came to you. There's a reason why this idea came to you. It wasn't just coming out of thin air, right? It's out of frustration or pain or seeing somebody else go through a problem. There's a reason why this idea came, and you owe it to yourself to go and do it, even though it might be challenging. And so in relation to my book, when I started writing the book, I wanted to write a different kind of book. And I'm gonna share a little bit more about what I'm actually doing now. I wanted every page to be its own story. What I found, I what's super annoying with books is I'm flipping through the pages and I'm like looking at when is this chapter gonna end? When is this chapter gonna end? Right? Like, oh, I still have 8 more pages in this chapter. You know, I wanna go to bed or whatever it is. You ever had that experience? And so I wanted to have a book that you can pick up and put down whenever you wanted, that every page would be its own ending point. And so what I wrote was every page, there's a title at the top, there's a quote from somebody famous or a quote that inspired me, and then there's the content. And then the last sentence leads to the next page. And the next page has a title, right? Has an inspiring quote. And then more content. So wherever you are in the book, you can pick it up and put it down super easily. I also want it to be that if you went to a bookstore and picked it up and you flip through to the middle, there's something interesting there that you can relate to. So I showed the first draft way back, like one chapter, to my publisher, and the feedback was that they didn't like the structure. They weren't hating on it, but just this wasn't the way that books were written, and that they don't usually design things when it's at the writing stage, and that they didn't like the idea of having a quote on every single page. It's great to have it, you know, every now and then, but not every page. And I sat there and thought about it and said, "Hey, you know, these guys are the experts. They're the book guys." But then, you know, it just didn't feel right. Like, I want to write the book that I would want to read. This is the kind of format that I wish other people were writing in. So I stuck with it. And the way I did it, I just continued. I didn't show another draft to my publisher until it was basically the final draft. And maybe a little mean, but we're basically at the deadline where changing that structure is a major rewrite. And so it would be a huge pain and we would miss all of our deadlines. And so I kind of forced the issue. Where I believe in this so much that I'm going to make it happen. This has to be how we do it. I believe in it so strongly, it's going to work. We're doing it. And I think you just have to every now and then have the guts to stand up for what you believe in and pray that it's going to work out. I was talking this morning on my mastermind group about making slides for presentations, and often when you go to conferences, they make you use their templates for what a presentation looks like, what your slides have to have, this information on it. And I never use it. I never use their templates because most templates suck, and my slides don't suck, right? I want to have amazing slides. I want to be the best speaker, the best presentation there, and to do that, I need to have amazing slides. And so I tell them, I'm not using your slides, I'm using mine. And that often creates, you know, an issue, but I always end up getting it. Now the trick is you have to deliver on it, right? Like, those slides better be amazing. This book with the structure better work, or it's my ass. And the thing that's been great to see— I know last week you guys saw the video of Everybody getting their review copies, the number one piece of feedback that came back was they love the structure. They love how easy it is to read. They love the quotes. They love how it's laid out. And that makes me feel good. That's some validation that, you know, what I'm doing is working and it's great. So anyway, trust your gut. You get that feeling that you want to do something, even if the data doesn't make sense and people tell you you're stupid, you got to do it. You got to do it. Even if you fail, you got to do it just to know that you tried. And you don't live, you know, till 90 looking back and say, I wish I gave it my all. Now you have answers. Okay, so it's been a while since I answered your questions. I got I got the papers here, but before we get into the questions, I have 2 bits of news to share about the book that I'm really excited about that came from my publisher. The first one was I got an email from our contact at Penguin Random House Audio saying they've decided to bring out an audio edition of the book. Congrats! So this is important. I asked for this because I know a lot of you guys, you guys are asking, is there an audiobook? And I said, listen, I don't know, I don't know, I'm not focused on the marketing yet. But I asked my publisher and she made the contact, so congrats, we got it. This is a great way to reach more readers and also an honor since they're quite selective in what they publish. Hooray! So that makes me feel good. So for those of you who've been asking, yes, audio edition coming out. I'm going to insist on reading it. This is another trust your gut, you know. I've listened to tons of audiobooks. When it's not the author reading it, it's just so boring. It's insanely boring. I remember I loved Art of the Deal by Donald Trump and I picked up the audiobook and it's some guy who was extremely boring and I wanted to hear Donald Trump saying it. So we're doing an audio version. It's confirmed and I'm going to read it. I don't care what happens. I'm telling them I'm reading it. And, uh, I'm excited about it. Second bit of news was for the ebook, since I know you guys are asking. This is gonna come out on ebook as well. So she wrote, "Deluxe ebook edition. We'd also like to offer deluxe ebook. This would include exclusive video content from you. We can fit about 30 minutes of video into an enhanced ebook with the video broken up into smaller pieces throughout the text. Is this something you'd be willing to create?" Of course. "This too is a great way to reach more people. We'd need the content by November 1st." So I need to figure out what content I'm gonna put in the video ebook. I've never heard of a deluxe ebook with video, so 30 minutes of video, gonna have to figure that out. But excited. And so for those of you been asking about the ebook, that's coming out too. So big news week, I'm excited. Okay, to your questions. Abdallah: Hi Evan, what is the way to link the big picture with the small one? I mean between dream and reality. Thank you. So I think the big picture, you need both obviously. The big picture keeps you motivated, keeps you excited. I want to help a billion entrepreneurs, that's what wakes me up and I get excited about every day. The small one, the little picture, is kind of what you have to do every day. And I think the top toughest part for entrepreneurs is where there is that disconnect. When you wake up and you're doing work and you don't know how it ties to the big picture, that's when you start getting discouraged and not motivated. And so you want to make sure that the tasks you're doing— I try to check in on a regular basis. You can't do it every single day, at least for me, because the check-in process takes time. But, you know, I know that Tuesday is my book writing day. Today's Tuesday when we're recording this. I'm going down and I'm going to be writing my book. And today I'm actually editing the book. And I, I, I know what the bigger picture is. I know what we're trying to accomplish with it. You know, it helps with the goal of hitting a billion entrepreneurs. But I had my big planning session at the beginning. How do I wanna reach more entrepreneurs? First of all, like even having a book, why do I have a book? It's not cuz I need a book. It's cuz I wanna reach entrepreneurs. It's congruent with my goal to help a billion entrepreneurs. Then, okay, what's the book that I wanna write? What am I gonna talk about? Then once you determine the topic, then it's how the chapter's gonna be. And then when you get into the chapters, then you got, okay, what's each page gonna look like? The structure, the format that I talked about at the top. And then it's actually writing the content. So when I go and I write the content, I'm not thinking about everything else each time because I've already planned that down, but it's congruent with my goal to help a billion entrepreneurs. When you're an entrepreneur and you have that disconnect, then it's hard to stay motivated. And I think it's especially important too if you do have a team to help them see the bigger picture, to help them understand how the work that they're doing on a daily basis is having an impact, is meaningful. Because most people, the thing that motivates them isn't the money, it's doing meaningful work. And so you want to show them that the work they're doing is important. That programmer that you have sitting in the back groom pounding out code who never gets to talk to a customer, never gets to see the results. Bring them front and center. Let them see feedback from the customer. Not just the problems that need to be fixed, but the good news so that he can go back and say, man, what I'm doing is really helping people. That's what people want to feel. So for yourself and for your team, make sure you make that connection on a regular basis. Tamara Weeks writes in, what will you replace this episode with? It has to be something engaging like this where we hear from you and talk to you, please. So yeah, it's been 30-some weeks of writing book videos, and now the book is basically done, and I have to edit it and get the feedback back and send it in. We still have a year before the book comes out. We're looking at probably December or January, so almost a year. My plan is always to have it be a reflection of what I'm doing with the book. And so a lot of you guys have been asking about the marketing of it— ebooks and book tours and how I'm gonna promote it. And I think that's what I'm gonna transition this video series to be, is me sharing how I'm marketing the book and how I'm preparing for the launch. One, to help you with your product launches, and two, to kind of share behind the scenes of what it takes to write a book. I've never seen anybody go through this process I wish somebody else had made this video series too so I could get an education. And if you or anybody else watching wants to write a book, now you kind of know what's involved with working with a major publisher. So that's probably what it's going to evolve to. As always, I'm open to your feedback, suggestions. Let me know what you want to see. But I do like the engagement, the one-on-one, answering your questions. I like walking to Whole Foods with the camera, people watching on the street too. So I plan to keep it up. And thank you for that, Tamara. I'm feeling the love. Next question. Amr Vim writes in to say, when can I leave my flat I quit my full-time job as an accounting supervisor to go on my own. I'm not sure if what I'm doing is the right path. However, all the jobs performed will be revised before submittal. What are your thoughts? What would you recommend? Okay, so I've answered this a couple times on the channel. One, I'm not a big believer in burning your bridges and going all in and putting all your savings into your company. Too many entrepreneurs do that. You end up broke in 3 months and then begging for the old job that you have. So I wouldn't recommend going all in. What I do recommend is, number one, if you have a job, then make sure it's a job where you're learning something. You say you're an accounting supervisor, you know, I don't know what your business is going to be about, but if it's not related to accounting, then I'd go find a new job. Find a job where you're going to learn. The point of taking a job is to learn, to get experience, get as close to the entrepreneur founder as possible, learn from them. You know, no entrepreneur who hires you is going to say, "No, I don't want you to do so much work." Take on as much work as possible to learn about the industry that you want to get into. Try to find a company that has 10 employees or less where they are doing things that you respect, the company that you want to be like in 3, 5, 10 years, and go learn from them. So you're getting paid to make mistakes, you're getting a paycheck, you're obviously paying your bills, but more importantly, you're learning, you're making contacts, you're understanding how the industry works, and you see if this is for you. You might get into it and say, you know what, this is insane, I don't want to do this kind of work, and get out, right? So that's amazing context for you to learn. Second thing is I'd start doing my business on the side, part-time freelancing on the side, evenings, weekends, and start building up experience, building up clients, building up connections. And I would leave when I had enough money coming in from my business to support me. Not go out and, you know, buy expensive cars cars and new houses or anything. Just support me, pay the internet, pay the food, that kind of thing. If I can get my business on the side to that point, that's when I leave my full-time job to go out full-time on my own. Next question, So Gold's asking, hi Evan, I enjoy your gorgeous videos. Gorgeous videos, I love it, thank you So Gold. You inspire me in many cases. I want to request you to help me recognize what's the reason behind my belief system. How can I become a total believer every single moment? So first of all, you know, you don't become a believer every single moment. I think you're setting yourself up to failure if you think that. Everybody has moments of doubt. Everybody. I have moments of doubt. I don't believe in myself every single moment. I think the key is creating a routine that builds you up and supports you. I've talked about environment a lot on this channel. Chances are, one, you're not taking enough risk to build up your confidence. The first time you do something is scary. The first time I went dancing was scary. The first time I held this camera out in public and people are watching me was scary, right? I see somebody like, oh no, I'm gonna duck and go to the side. First, the more you do it, the less scared I get, and I'm ready for bigger challenges. So one, are you doing enough of the things that you're scared of to boost your confidence so that the next time you're less scared and your, your degree of comfort, your zone of comfort expands every time, right? A lot of people, as soon as they're afraid of something, they just, they cower down. The next time it comes up, they cower down. Next time they come— and so you never grow. So do the things that scare you, even if it's just a small thing, a small step, because the next step becomes easier and easier and easier next time around. The second part of that is having a environment and a routine that builds you up and supports you. One of the things that I found super often was I'd get energized from some random occurrence, right? I have a meeting. Here's an example. I just got off of a live Hangout with Tim Schmoyer. It's going up on his account every week on Tuesdays, and I'm jazzed, right? Like, I'm helping people out, there's a good vibe, I leave super excited. And I would find that I'd get those things happen in my life sporadically, like by chance. You know, maybe I sit down and watch a video, or I read a book, or listen to a song, and it gets me excited and amped up, and then I'm great for the next hour, for the rest of the day. But then And then the next day you start over, like for me, from scratch. Like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? Right? And getting— where's the motivation? Where's the excitement coming from? And so you need to create a routine that builds you up, that makes you the best version of yourself. And for me, it's one, looking at my YouTube comments, because you guys give me love. People saying I have gorgeous videos and praising and saying the videos are important to me makes me want to go and do more. Because for me, you know, I'm a guy walking on the street. Here I am walking on the street, and it's easy to feel like the stuff you're creating isn't important. So your comments keep me going, man. It's my fuel. It's my energy. I surround myself with the videos that I create. The Top 10, the Antspressos. When I created those, that helped my channel take off, and I created those for myself. I created those selfishly because I wanted to have constant motivation. I wanted to start my day with this and be surrounded by bigger ideas because I felt the people around me, I had done a lot more than them. And that's not, that's not trying to think that I'm some guru or god or genius or anything. Just I wasn't inspired by the work that was around me, and so I wanted to be around bigger thinkers, and I didn't have bigger thinkers in my network, so I sought them out. Aspirational mentors. And being around them— this is a, this is a great conversation. Here, I'm going to share something. This is great. I was driving with my dad in the car. He was going to go get a new car. He needed me to help drive there, and we were talking about the clips that I do with Stephen Kelly. Stephen is the CEO of Sage, and we do these monthly clips, and I'll send him emails on a regular basis giving him advice, telling him what they could do better, helping him build like the future of Sage. And a lot of the emails are harsh, you know. Not harsh to be offensive, but harsh saying, hey, the stuff you're doing sucks right now. You could be doing a lot better. And it's a message that his team, I feel, is too afraid to share with him in a lot of cases. And I guess I could say it because I'm outside, but regardless, I'll share my opinions. And my dad was talking about, well, how do you have— here's the CEO of Sage, 15,000 employees, runs this huge company. How do you have the courage courage to tell him what to do, that you're right and he's doing all these things that are wrong. And I think about it, I think for most people that would be intimidating. How do you stand up to somebody who's done maybe way more than you? For me, I compare it to the people that I hang around with. What I surround myself with are people who have accomplished way more than he has, right? Steve Jobs and Kanye West and Walt Disney and Martha Stewart and legendary entrepreneurs that I look at every single day. And so It makes me put myself in a situation where I'm always comfortable because I'm hanging around those guys. So talking to Stephen Kelly is not a thing. I'm not nervous doing it. And so your environment matters because I think if I wasn't doing that, if I wasn't surrounding myself with those kind of people and those kind of ideas, then I would be nervous. I'd be like, "Oh, I have to talk to Stephen Kelly. He's this huge CEO. What am I going to tell him?" And then I'd be safe. I'd be vanilla. I'd be boring. I'd be like a lot of the people on his team. And then I wouldn't get results. I would fade. I'd be wallpaper. And so your environment matters. Create an amazing environment, create an amazing routine, and that'll inspire you to do amazing things. You can't do great things unless you're surrounded by greatness. Mr. Farid writes, "Isn't it kind of fun not knowing how things will turn out but expecting the best and enjoying the process? Optimism wins." Yeah, I agree. You know, I love spontaneity. I love life. I love the randomness. I love not knowing how it's going to work out. I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like this. I think if you know exactly how it's going to happen, it's boring, right? You don't want to do it anymore. I think it's great to have the, the goal of where you want to go. Like, this is what I want to accomplish, here's how much revenue I want to make, or here's the impact I want to have. But it can't just be about the goal, right? I like the steps. I like the process. You have to enjoy the process. I want to help a billion entrepreneurs. Let's say we do that through YouTube. I like making YouTube videos. I'm not just making YouTube videos because I want to hit my goal. I like the process. I like sitting here with the camera recording this for you guys. I like being able to answer I like watching the videos and the research. I pour an insane amount of love and time into the channel and I like it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love it. You have to love the process. If you're just doing it as a means to an end and you're only caring about the goal, then find another goal because there are other goals that you can do where you enjoy the process too. Leading in business. Leading in business. Leading in business. Interesting. I like it. Congrats Evan, I wish you much success with your book. I appreciate that. I really do. All of you guys who are leaving me comments, thanking me for the book, giving me excitement. I think it's one important— it's an important lesson for me because it keeps me going. Like, this is 30-some-odd weeks. There's still not even a book release. We still have another year to go. And your comments fuel me to want to keep doing it, to make me feel like this is going to work, that it's an important process. I think also it's a lesson that if there's somebody in your life who is trying to do something bigger, trying to do something that may take a long time to happen, has a big dream, encourage them. Give them a high five. Just send them a quick email. Just let them know that you care about them and that what they're doing is important because they may be facing a moment of doubt. They may be facing a moment of crisis where they're not sure if they should continue or not. And your one simple email or phone call or high five can make them stay on path. Because you guys know how hard it is to run a business and to try to do something big. And so be that support person, right? It doesn't take a lot of time. It doesn't take take a lot of energy or effort. Just a little bit of caring and a quick reach out can really make a dramatic impact on somebody's life. Your comments have an impact on my life, and so I really thank you guys for that. Next up, Victor from Brazil: I hope your book goes viral and congrats for your 200,000 subscribers. Thank you, Victor. It's funny, it took me like, I forget, 6 years, 5 or 6 years to get to 100,000, and then we hit 100 in September and hit 200,000 in January. Added 35,000 or so subscribers in January, and it's great. I love it. I love the milestones. I think one of my weaknesses is that I don't celebrate enough. You know, 200,000 was great, but I'm like, a million, let's go! Like, this isn't, this isn't enough. I want to go. And I appreciate all the people who have been leaving celebratory comments, congratulatory comments. They really do mean a lot me, and maybe I should celebrate more. Maybe it's just I'm too ambitious. I see a bigger picture, and it just feels like a small step along the way, but I really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much. It means a lot to me. Next up, long-time loyal superfan Matthew from Catra writing in to say, super excited for you, Evan. Thank you, man. Really appreciate that. I love the transparency of the footage. It's great to see the human element that is the core part of your process. It creates a connection with us viewers as to the unique person we all have come to appreciate. Yeah, so this is an important thing for me. Everything Everything that I make is personal, like it's me, it's my thoughts. I love the book video as a chance to answer questions and get a little raw, right? I'm just holding the camera on the street, you know, I don't have a cameraman, there's no fancy editing. And I think it's a great way to involve your audience, your community, in the process of whatever you're creating. A lot of people think that before they put something out, it has to be polished, has to be finished, can't just be an idea, can't be the process. The process is value. I was having a conversation with somebody in my mastermind group and I was like, he was, you know, he's lost, he's trying to find his path, and I encouraged him As you go along your path, document it. Make videos, share blog posts, because that's value. You may not have the answers yet. You may not be able to tell somebody how to go on their path because you're still discovering it. I can't tell people how to write and market a book from experience yet. I can list case studies, I can look at other examples, I can hypothesize and say how I would do it, but I can't say from experience. I haven't done it yet. So I'm making this video as a process, letting you tag in along the ride And I think that could apply to a lot of your businesses. If you show people the behind the scenes, if you tell people what you're up to, why you're doing it, what the progress report is, and let people see the passion that you have for your business and what you're all about, I think that can lead to a lot of great results for you. I think compassion, understanding, authenticity is going to be the weapon. I think that's how you stand out as an entrepreneur. You're authentic. I think you can't go up against the big competition, the big players, and just compete on price or just compete on features. You compete on passion, you compete on heart, and that comes out when you are you. If I look at your website, I look at your social media, I look at the stuff you're posting, it's probably boring. It's not authentic. Like, make me feel the heart. Why did you start this thing? Why is it important to you? That's how you stand out. And so this might be how now all authors promote their books, is they do a process report update video. But I think what I'm doing here— I mean, I appreciate the love, I appreciate the feedback that you love it. It's nothing special. It's a guy with a camera walking on the street. You could do the same thing thing in your business and start building up an audience that people who care about you, want to see you succeed, give you motivation to keep going, and give you ideas to be successful too. Super helpful. Matthew goes on to write, have you thought about making it a trilogy? Segmenting the book into a trilogy like Star Wars? Stay true to you. Best of luck. We're all cheering for you. So I appreciate that love. It's interesting that we're talking about the next book in a trilogy before the first one's even finished and at least. One, I want to see how— I want to see how successful the book is in terms of having an impact. My big goal is impact, right? If I'm investing time in something, then I want it to have a big impact. That's always my goal going into something. If it's a minimal impact, then the time isn't worth it. The juice isn't worth the squeeze. In terms of a next book, I have two in mind. One is easy to do, one is not so easy to do. I'll leave it like that. I might share some ideas. I don't know, my cracked as I said that. I might share some ideas as I go. I want to see the value, honestly. Like, I'm taking it as it goes. I think the first book, I think it'll do well. Uh, it definitely has been a labor of love and a ton of heart and soul. And there are two other options I have in my head that I'm playing with, but let's get the first one out and market it and in people's hands and have it an impact, and then we'll worry about books 2 and 3. Thank you everybody, really appreciate all the feedback, love, and support. I know it's been a while since I answered questions, so these are great. If you have a question for me about my book, about your book, about the book writing process, if you want to talk about the topic at the top about trusting your gut and how to do that too, leave in the comments below and I will answer you in a future book video. Thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.