56: The Principles and Power of One Word with Evan Carmichael

We have a little different episode for you this week with our Misfit Entrepreneur as it was recorded live on his Youtube channel. This week’s Misfit is a man that probably needs no introduction, Evan Carmichael. Evan is the author of runaway best-seller “Your One Word. The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life that Matter.” Before that, at 19, he built and sold a biotech software company. At 22, he was a VC helping raise $500k to $15 million.

What he is probably known best for is the work he does at Evan Carmichael.com and his wildly popular Youtube Channel with almost a million followers. He has been named Top 100 Leadership speakers by INC Magazine, top 40 Social Marketing Talents by Forbes, and has been featured just about everywhere.

Evan lives, breathes, and bleeds entrepreneurship and has a monster goal of helping 1 billion entrepreneurs.

www.EvanCarmichael.com

Evan believes in entrepreneurs. Evan has always had an entrepreneurial streak going all the way back to when he was 5 years old, but he did not have entrepreneurs in his family. He went to university thinking he was going to be a banker, but met a couple people there who had founded a company and decide to join as an owner in the business. As Evan says, it was the hardest decision he ever had made in his life – turning down “dream jobs” that he thought he wanted to work at a startup and make $300/month.

As he says, “we sucked at the start and failed so much giving me the lowest points of my life.” He was putting everything he had into it and it was not working. But he and his partners stuck with it, figured it out, and began to be successful. They were eventually acquired and Evan then went into the venture capital business raising $500,000 up to $15 mil for companies. But, he felt a calling to help entrepreneurs get through the struggles of the journey and started EvanCarmichael.com and his Youtube channel for that reason.

At the 7:30 mark, Evan talks about the struggle of entrepreneurship and when he almost quit everything. Evan was putting in a ton of work and not getting any results. As Evan says, he could only deal with that for so long that he felt worthless and in some ways ashamed. It all culminated in him telling his business partner that he was done one day. He quit.

That was the turning the point. He woke up the next day and had some realizations:

• First, he realized that others have been where he was before and figured their way out.
• Second, he was ok with failing if he had given it everything he had, but he was not ok with just quitting and walking away.
• Third, Bill Gates saved his business – Evan took some time to read how Bill Gates made his 1st million and decided that he was going to implement some of the things he learned.

He went back to his business partner, nothing was said, and they got to work and modeled Bill Gates strategies of selling through partnerships. Within a few weeks he closed his first deal and things went from there.

Two things Evan cites as helping him the most:

• Never live with regret
• Success leaves clues – model success and make it your own

At the 16 min mark, Evan talks about some of the key things he has learned that truly make a different in success.

• Yes, you have to do something you are extremely passionate about
• Money is important, but if that is the only reason you do something, it will not work. There has to be something above it.
• Just START! There is no perfect first step or perfect plan. Evan says waiting too long cost him over $40 MILLION…
• Persistence. If you study any successful person, they stick with it. You have to be consistent. All of the work is real and you have to take action daily, consistently. Entrepreneurs give up too soon.

At the 22 min mark, Evan talks about developing the mindset of the Entrepreneur including discussions on the reason you do what you do and the environment you put around yourself, your routines, etc.

At the 28 min Mark, Evan gives his best tips on how to start a content business online and create a following:

• Pick the platform that best suits your interest.
  • If you love being in front of the camera, then go to you Youtube. If it’s writing, then go to Medium or a blog, etc.
• Start with just one – get great at it, then grow from there
• Post content that you would like to see. Chances are if you are looking for it and can’t find it, others are too.
• Create content that you’d like your grandkids to consume
• In the beginning, don’t be afraid to copy those that have succeeded before you and then find your original voice from there and put it into effect. ​

At the 33 min mark, Evan explains his “One Word” philosophy and the principles of his book Your One Word.

• Start by all of the things that have made you happy and come alive. Why do they do this for you? What is the common thread?
• When you identify the common thread, you can then apply it to your business and life and build it around your one word.
• Choose wisely as this is a forever thing. It is your DNA, your make up – something you live.

Thoughts on failure?

• The successful see failure as feedback
• They see a failure as an event, not a finality
• The successful do not define themselves with failure

At the 51 min mark, Dave and Evan get into a great discussion on mindset, awareness, and how to grow yourself and up your game.

 

Best Quote:  “When you understand what you value most, then you can design a life and a business around it that helps to fulfill that value.”

 

Evan's Misfit 3:

1. Expect to “suck” at the start and be ok with it.
2. Then quantity leads to the quality. The more you do, the better you get.
3. Make it more important. Time is limited. Don’t put things off. Appreciate your time and use it be meaningful.