WATCH THIS if You Want to Become Successful in 2024 | Evan Carmichael

Introduction

Man, the opportunities for your parents when they were 19 are vastly different compared to what you have right now. They didn’t have the internet, they didn’t have social media. YouTube didn’t exist; it was not actually possible. And for you, it is.

So, I would say, whatever is in your mind of what you want to do, uh, lean in harder, man, you could change the world like it’s never been more possible. I lost a $40 million deal when I was 21, 22, um, because I was trying to make things perfect, and that was a really tough pill to swallow. And it wasn’t a guaranteed deal that I would have got the $40 million exit. But if I had just started sooner, I had a much higher chance of getting it, which would have completely changed. I mean, $40 million when you’re 22, it’s that’s some life-changing money. And successful people just do it and expect to suck at the beginning. And the people who aren’t as successful, they take a decade before they make the decision to do the first 10 hours.

Conversation with Evan Carmichael

I had the pleasure of having a 20-minute conversation with well-known YouTuber and entrepreneur Evan Carmichael. Young super successful entrepreneur Evan Carmichael really believes the world needs more Evan Carmichael.

Evan’s Journey

Evan, I’ve been using your content for years. You might recognize Evan from his videos where he features the success principles of the most famous celebrities, thought leaders, entrepreneurs. In this episode, we talk about how to believe in yourself when just absolutely nothing is going your way. And if there’s anyone to talk about this with, it is Evan because it took when he first started his YouTube channel, it took him around 5 years to hit 7,000 subscribers, and then another 5 years after that to hit a million subscribers. And now he’s at the point where he has around 4 million subscribers and brings in millions of views.

Characteristics of Successful People

We also talked about the most common characteristics of the most successful people that he’s featured on his channel and what they do to become successful.

So with that being said, I really hope you enjoyed this 20-minute conversation with Evan Carmichael. When people look at your…

Overcoming Negative Self-talk

YouTube channel now they see over 3 million subscribers; they see the millions of views. But what most people don’t know is that it took you 5 years to even hit 7,000 subscribers. So my first question for you is how do we believe in ourselves when just absolutely nothing is working, when we’re seeing no results for what we’re doing? How do we still believe in ourselves in those moments?

Wow, what a what an opening question. Um, first off, thanks for having me, Brian. Great to be here. Super excited to dive in. Um, I never saw it as getting no results. Uh, if 50 people watch the video, I’d be like, “50 people watched this video,” you know? I think we have, um, we might look to other people and say, “Well, look at what Joe Rogan is doing,” and then you feel like a total failure, you know, with your podcast ’cause Joe Rogan is off there crushing it. But if you flipped it and said, “Who am I serving? Who am I helping?” that’s just what I defaulted to. And if you think about it, you know, if you want to go give a speech at a library or an event or something, and there were 50 people in the room, you’d be excited. It’s like 50 people are here to hear me say something; this is pretty well. But if 50 people see your video, it’s like a total failure; you suck. I’m terrible at interviews or videos; I should quit. And so I always just focused on who I was serving instead of who I wasn’t because the “who I wasn’t serving” game is never-ending.

There’s always somebody better than you; there’s always somebody further ahead, and you can use that as aspirational. The fact that Joe Rogan exists and he can have a billion-dollar podcast, that’s great; like that can serve as inspiration. But you shouldn’t use it as a kickdown to say, “Well, I suck, and I’m never going to make it,” look at the people who I am serving.

So that’s what I always just, and even now still default to, is that whoever’s watching this, like this interview right here, I don’t know how many people are going to see it, but for somebody, I’m going in thinking that this interview for somebody is going to be a life-changing moment for them. That’s my intention, whether we create it or not, I don’t know, but that’s the intention going in, and if you showed up with that intention, you will start to have the impact that you’re looking for.

Yeah, what happens when most people only get those 50 views like they mentioned is that they have a lot of negative self-talk toward what they’re doing but themselves. They think that they’re the ones that suck when the reality is, like you just need some more reps, you need some more practice.

Negative Self-talk

Something I’ve heard you say is that when you first started your YouTube Journey, you had a lot of negative self-talk towards yourself. How did you overcome that negative self-talk?

The biggest thing that helped me, Brian, was honestly the videos that I was profiling people on my own channel. So I think your environment has been designed perfectly to keep you where you are, and if you’re not happy where you are, then you need to change something in your environment. And for me, it was what I was feeding into my head. Not that I was feeding tons of negativity into my head every day, but I wasn’t feeding the opposite; I wasn’t feeding belief, and…

Feeding Positivity and Hope

…and hope into my head every day. And so I wanted to do that. That’s still why I make my channel today. I’m trying to be a force for good for the world. And so the more that I had Steve Jobs in my ear and Musk in my ear and all these people in my ear, the more I wanted to do bigger things and believed in myself that it was possible.

So people listening to this, for example, how many episodes have you done of your show, Brian?

• Around 14, maybe more, I think around 18, actually.

It’s like if you love Brian, you’re listening to this, and you love Brian, and you love how he thinks, and you love his style, and you love the questions he asks, you love the guests that he brings on, and you leave an interview that Brian’s done feeling more hopeful, more positive, more ready to take on the world—awesome, subscribe to the channel and go watch the other 14 episodes that he’s done before this because every time that you’re around Brian, a little bit of that is going to rub off into you.

And so, you didn’t get to pick your parents; you didn’t get to pick your community; you didn’t get to pick a lot of the things that were kind of forced on you when you were younger. But now you have a choice, you have the Internet. You may never meet Brian ever, but he can still rub off on you. I may never meet you, viewer, I love you, I may never meet you, but my work can rub off on you. And so now you get to pick who you allow into your head on a regular basis. And so if you get to pick, well, who are you picking?

Are you picking news that makes you feel stressed out and worried and overwhelmed? Or are you picking people who can educate you and help you get out of the hole that you’re in? And so that’s why I love coming on shows like yours. It’s why I create content myself. It’s like I want to be a force for good. And maybe they learn through my story, maybe they learn through you, Brian, or some of the guests that you bring on. We now get to choose. And if you’re choosing belief, hope, positivity every single day through what you’re consuming, you will become a more hopeful, more optimistic, more self-belief kind of person.

Common Characteristics of Successful People

So you mentioned people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and you feature a lot of successful people on your channel, not only from the past but in the present as well. What are some of the most common characteristics that these people have that you think set them apart and make them successful? What are some common characteristics that most of these people have that we should incorporate into our lives?

Yeah, I mean, it’s a great question, Brian. The first one that I see is belief. Now, I’m biased because belief is what I always look for in things, but everybody has belief. They have self-belief; they believe in themselves and they believe in the thing that they’re trying to create. And so, somebody at the beginning of a podcast might say, “I don’t know if this is going to work,” but you don’t have any proof until you start doing it. So, you have to believe in yourself to be able to get this thing going and that you have a voice to contribute to the community. It’s easy to say, “Well, there’s a million podcasts out there, and I’m way behind, and I didn’t go to school for this,” and all of these things that hold us back, or you can say, “Yeah, but I’ve got a unique story, a unique voice, a unique way of asking questions, and I’m going to launch this thing.” So, the self-belief in getting the thing going.

Number two, I’d say is they start; like, they just start. People take a decade to start, and if you think about a lot of skills, a lot of skills you can pick up in 10 hours and 20 hours and 30 hours of just working. Like, you’re 14 episodes in on your podcast; you’re so much better…

The Power of Starting and Trusting Ideas

than you were in episode one, absolutely. I mean, I haven’t seen episode one, but like you’re so much better, I’m sure. Your questions are better, and your use of Riverside and the microphones and the gear and the lighting, like you’ve figured it all out, and you’re so much better than you were at the beginning. And you’ll be better at episode 100 than you are right now. This is what the growth curve looks like. And so just the willingness to start and put in the 10, 20, 30 hours. Successful people just do it and expect to suck at the beginning, and the people who aren’t as successful, they take a decade before they make the decision to do the first 10 hours, right?

The Power of Starting Early

Um, and if I had to pick a third, I’d say they just keep going. Like you just keep going. Like you make a mistake, cool, keep going. Your podcast sucked, keep going. You forgot to press record on an episode. That happened to me. Great, keep going. Go, go, go. It’s not… if we get so caught up about how we screwed up today or how we screwed up yesterday, then we never make another thing where the momentum will happen if you continue to create. So, self-belief, just got started, and just kept going.

The Regret of Not Starting

Yeah, when it comes to just getting started, I would love to hear your opinion on this. This is a mindset that I have every time I hesitate to start something. I think about how much farther I would be if I started this like one year ago, two years ago, right? So it’s like that’s a good way that I kind of frame that is like, where would I be right now if I started two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, and where am I going to be in four years from now if I start now? So what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, it’s a great frame. I’ve used two different things that kind of kick me into action. The first is similar to yours; that’s what I used for a good chunk of my life. I’d go further out; I’d go to like I’m 120 years old, and I’m sitting in an old-age home and in my rocking chair or whatever, and I’m looking back on my life, and then I regretted this moment. Like I regretted not saying yes to be on Brian’s show, and that was going to be the life-changing moment for me where everything changed, and I was too afraid. I found some excuse; I couldn’t do it. I’m busy, yada yada. But really, you’re just afraid. Right, Evan? So you have to go off and do it. I use that to kick me into gear a lot.

Trusting Ideas and Taking Action

Um, I’ve shortcutted it in the past 3 to 5 years where I just trust the ideas that come to me. I just believe great things come to me; great ideas flow through me. And the fact that I came up with it means I have to go off and do it. And what that does is just shortcut the brain because that’s still a mental exercise that I had to go through of “I’m 120 years old, and here you know…” Whereas, no, great ideas flow through me. I don’t even remember how we arranged this interview, whether you emailed me or Instagrammed me or whatever. There was something about you that I liked, and we didn’t go back and forth 20 times on what questions you’re going to ask and how long it’s going to be and like all of these things and prove yourself and how long you’ve been doing this. There was none of that going back and forth. There was something about your message that I liked. And so here we are. It’s like not overthinking it. And I’ve said no to other people who are further along and have bigger audiences. Why? I don’t know. I just like your vibe. So here we are. And so it’s just learning to trust.

So, you know, if you’re thinking about starting a podcast, you know what you should do? You should start a podcast and expect to suck at the beginning and make your first episode today. And if you don’t know what to do or what gear, you know, you pull out your phone and you just turn it this way or start pressing record and say, “I’m starting a podcast, and I have no idea.”

Importance of Money in Entrepreneurship

Yeah, related to that, I heard you once say that money should be in your top five priorities when it comes to the things that are most important in life, but it shouldn’t be number one. So two questions here: why should money be in your top five, and why is it not number one?

Yeah, so I don’t know if I would go that far in life, but as an entrepreneur, especially, yes. Because if you don’t know how to make money, you’ll never make money. And so if you want to build a business, then you have to know—you have to figure out, you may not know right now, but you have to figure out how to make money. Otherwise, you’re doing this thing on the evenings and weekends, and you have to have some job. Like, if you love podcasting but in the daytime, you’re an accountant and you hate your accounting job, but you never figure out how to make money with podcasting, well, then it’s always something that you have to do on lunch breaks and evenings and weekends.

Versus, if you can figure out how to make money—if your goal is impact—well, let’s figure out how to make money doing this so you can hire a team. Like me, I’ve got 42 people now in my team. I can do a lot more than if it was just solo. I mean, I wouldn’t be talking to you if I was doing everything myself because I’d be stressed out to the max trying to handle everything inside my business. But the fact that I have a team now allows me to have a much bigger reach and do more fun projects as well. Making money is critical if you’re an entrepreneur because otherwise, you do not have a business; you have a hobby.

I just don’t put it as number one because the most successful entrepreneurs that I’ve profiled and seen over and over again is they love the thing that they’re doing. Like, they would do it even if they weren’t making money, and they’ve figured out how to make money doing it because they love it. So it’s not that they hate the thing they’re doing, and they’re just in it for the money. It’s like, they love it, and they’re really good at it, and they make money doing it. So it’s just a slightly different perspective. It’s like, yes, it’s important, but if it’s number one, then you’ll make a lot of bad decisions because you’ll just go for the quick cash grab versus what’s the thing that you actually love doing, and how do you figure out how to make money doing that?

Balancing Passion and Profit

So it’s more about balancing passion and profit, right? Like, you need to be passionate about what you’re doing, and then figure out how to make money from that passion.

Exactly. It’s passion and expertise combined. So, if you’re just passionate about something but you’re not good at it, then you may not make any money because you’re just passionate but not great. And if you’re just really good at something but you don’t enjoy it at all, you’ll make some money, but you’ll be miserable. So it’s that sweet spot of passion and expertise combined, and that’s where you really excel. So, if you love it and you’re great at it, you’re unstoppable, right? That’s the sweet spot.

Learning from Successful People

Absolutely, that makes a lot of sense. And speaking of expertise and passion, you’ve had the pleasure of interviewing and featuring a lot of successful people on your channel. What are some key takeaways or lessons that you’ve learned from these individuals who have achieved remarkable success in their respective fields?

I’d say the biggest one is belief. It comes back to belief. Like, everybody that I profile, they believe in themselves, and they believe in their message or their mission. And so, it’s that self-belief that drives them to do the work, to put themselves out there, to keep going even when it’s tough.

Another key takeaway is the power of starting. A lot of these successful people just started. They didn’t wait for the perfect moment or all the answers. They started and figured things out as they went along.