- 1,000,000 subscribers.
- Yeah right.
- [All] 1,000,000 subscribers.
- [All] 1,000,000 subscribers?
(static crackling)
(alarm clock ringing)
- When I uploaded my first video to YouTube
on March 2nd, 2006.
I don't even think there were 1,000,000 people
on the platform.
I just wanted a way of introducing
my girlfriend at the time to my family
back home across the country.
Then other people started watching,
which kind of creeped me out,
but today it's actually not uncommon for channels
to have millions of subscribers
and it's not longer creepy anymore either.
It's actually a sign of status and achievement.
- Getting to 1,000,000 subscribers,
- Is so much harder,
- Than I thought it would be.
- So much harder.
- It's been, extremely more difficult.
- I've kind of given up on that goal.
- But I'm close, I only need, hold on,
999,986 more subscribers.
- On the outside, some channels just make it look really
easy to grow your channel.
But what you don't see,
is everything happening behind the scenes of that channel,
that lead to that growth.
I'm in Toronto, Canada
to meet with Evan Carmichael to learn more
about what it really takes to get to 1,000,000 subscribers.
What goes on behind the scenes of big channels like Evan's,
that actually allows them to achieve that goal.
- Mr. Schmoyer,
Mr. Schmoyer in the house.
- Hey!
- What's up, man?
- Good to see you.
- This is it, you made it.
Toronto Dance Salsa.
- This is your studio, it's awesome, looks great.
Tell me the story behind this,
how'd you get started with salsa.
- So the place is called Toronto Dance Salsa.
It's the largest dance studio definitely in Toronto,
in Canada probably North America.
We'll teach about 5,000 people how to dance every year.
I started dancing because I really wanted to do it
with my first girlfriend, and she hated dancing,
so we didn't do it,
and after we broke up after five years together,
I felt a huge hole in my life and was lonely,
and so I thought, I'm going to come and try dancing,
because it was something that we couldn't do together.
So I came here, I met a whole bunch of friends,
ended up meeting my wife through the school.
I became an investor in the business,
and then the owner wanted to shut it down,
she wanted to move on and do other stuff,
and I thought, this business cannot die.
Even though it's not a typical, scalable,
huge business that I like to build,
I needed to stay in it because of the impact
it had on my life, and the impact that it had
on other people and at this school,
it's not just about learning dance moves,
it's about the human connection that we make to each other.
So, I think that you're purpose comes from your pain,
and my pain and suffering and being lonely
coming out of that relationship brought me here.
And now has allowed us to build this successful business.
- That's great.
- Evan's journey on YouTube,
started long before the dance studio.
Prior to success on YouTube,
you actually started a business that was a big deal for you.
Tell us about that story.
- Yeah, so I was 19.
I had to decide between taking the dream job that I wanted,
making six figures traveling the world,
and doing this startup or making 300 bucks a month.
And I didn't want to live with regret,
that's what kind of made me make that difficult decision.
And we sucked at the beginning, it was really tough.
I was making $300 a month,
I was too embarrassed and ashamed to tell my friends,
and when they wanted to go out for pizza and beer,
I had to pick one thing a month that I could do
because I didn't have enough money.
I was saying, I'm living the entrepreneur life,
you know, I'm busy, I can't come out.
I felt really ashamed of myself
that I couldn't afford to go out with them.
- [Host] You eventually grew that business, right?
From what I heard.
- Yeah, so I told my business partner that I quit.
That was the worst day of my life.
We're on the phone call and I just, I told him I quit.
And I just hung up the phone, I was at my mom's house,
I just started bawling.
I was crying my face off,
stuff coming out of my nose, my eyes.
My mom came up and put her hand on my shoulder
I didn't even know what she told me,
I just was lost.
I just woke up the next day
and said I can't quit on this, I can deal with it failing,
but I can't deal with not knowing,
I can't deal with the regret of not knowing.
And I just realized,
you know I'm not the first guy to try to build
a software company before.
Modeled success, modeled the masters, looked at Bill Gates,
who's the most successful software person I knew.
Saw how he built his business from the start,
from zero to one, and then applied that to my company.
Within a couple weeks I had my first deal of 13,500,
which for me was money, you know?
When you're making 300 bucks a month,
and you close a $13,500 deal,
that was huge.
And then kept doing that,
to the point where a couple years later,
we got acquired and sold my business,
it was a super quick turn-around, by model and success.
- What do you feel is like the main lesson
you learn through that journey?
- Yeah, I'm a big believer that your purposes
come from your pain,
and I just struggled so much,
that then I wanted to make the path
a little bit easier for other people.
I didn't want them to feel as alone,
like I felt starting my company.
And so I started actually being a speaker,
and helping other people and doing speeches,
and then my website, and then my YouTube channel.
I never had the intention of being YouTube famous,
it wasn't I want to have 1,000,000 subscribers
when I first started,
it was this is what I've struggled with,
and I wish that this was around for me
when I was in that painful period.
I think humans are good, I think we are built to be good.
And I think whenever you've struggled through something,
then you want to use that pain to then help other people
going through it right now.
- Yeah.
Evan strived to help other people
going through a painful period, just like he did,
Ultimately, is what lead him
to making his first YouTube videos.
Tell me a story of, what happened to that business
that brought you to wanting to start on YouTube now.
- So YouTube started for two reasons,
one, I was getting asked to help people
with their business problems and I thought,
instead of typing out a 30, 40 minute email,
I would just make a video.
I'm more visual and it would help that person,
and if anybody else saw it, great.
But it was more to help that one person.
Also, I learned by model and success.
Bill Gates saved my company even though I've never met him.
And so I wanted to share those stories
of other famous entrepreneurs and that was the genesis.
But it was never what the ambition to do something big.
As people started watching, and I started getting feedback,
is it hey can you answer this question?
Hey can you make this video?
We started growing, we started getting more attention,
I thought this is something that could actually
turn into a business.
Immediately, I said hey,
how do I turn this from a video a week that I was making,
to a video a day.
I need to get an editor, I need to build a team,
so now we've 8 got people who work on my YouTube channel.
And we're putting out two to three videos,
pretty much every single day.
- What was the point in your journey to 1,000,000
subscribers, you're like this is a big obstacle,
this is more difficult than I thought,
for you to keep going?
- One of the hardest things for me,
was just getting comfortable in front of the camera.
Even this, like we're filming outside,
there's people walking around, people might be watching us,
that was super nerveracking for me.
We were in my dance studio when I started filming there,
it's a mall, there's people walking behind,
when I first started I would have to,
I didn't have auto-focus on my camera.
someone on my team, or my sister,
would have to come in, auto-focus and then leave the room
because I wasn't comfortable with having somebody else there
So it took me 350 videos
before I wasn't totally embarrassed by my content.
- 350?
- Yeah, 350, I would look at it and just want to die.
I'd be so embarrassed by the content.
And 700 until I was inspired by myself.
So I was super camera shy, super introverted,
so that was a real big obstacle for me to overcome.
- What pushed you to keep going, like after 100 videos,
why didn't you just quit?
- It was just knowing that it was helping people.
Right? My purpose comes from my pain,
I want to help entrepreneurs.
Knowing that the videos
I was making was helping at least one person,
if I was answering one question for one person,
I knew that that person liked it,
and they emailed me back, and left comments.
And so knowing that the work that I did matters,
pushed me through to the discomfort
and the self-worth issues,
and all that stuff to keep going.
I think when you feel like the work that you're doing
is important, and it's touching lives,
it's what you do with your channel all the time,
then you're more willing to deal
with the pain and the suffering.
If you don't, if you're not on a mission,
if you don't like the work that you're doing,
you're unlikely to keep going.
(uplifting music)
- For other creators who have a goal of reaching
1,000,000 subscribers like you have, what do those creators
need to really consider along that journey?
- First, it's going to be a ton of work.
It's a lot of work to get good at whatever you want to do,
it's going to take a lot of work,
and so don't be too hard on yourself
if you're first versions of your product,
your videos are not that good.
And second, you have to be mission-driven,
and that comes from your pain.
You have to feel like the work you're doing matters,
that you would want to one day
show your grandkids this video.
It doesn't mean every video you make is going to be great,
and worthy of it, but if that's your intention every time
going in because you're mission driven,
you feel proud about the work that you're doing,
some of them will pop.
- Where do you feel like most creators go wrong
in that journey?
- I think first off, just patience, it'll take a long time,
and that's okay.
If you're loving the work and you're mission driven again,
then you will make it.
But just having the patience, don't expect your first video
to be amazing and pop right from the start.
And two, I think people a lot of times,
are just trying to hit the 1,000,000 subscribers,
and they're just chasing the goal,
where you have to enjoy the process, right?
You have to feel like the work,
if you felt like every video you made matters,
and then the subscriber goal, and the view goal,
is the secondary objective,
that's when you actually start to live.
- It seems to me like most people want to skip
the hard work, they want to skip the pain,
they want to skip the process
and just get straight to the goal.
1,000,000 subs, they want it to be easy.
It seems to me what you're saying though,
is you can't skip that process.
You need to go through the pain,
you need to do the hard work, and it's actually good for you
because that's what develops you into the character
that's actually worth being broadcasted to 1,000,000 people.
- Anything worth doing is not going to be easy.
Anything worth doing is on the other side
of a lot of difficulty and pain and hard work,
and that's the best.
I don't see it as a negative,
I see that as something amazing.
Any entrepreneur that you look up to and what they've done
came through a lot of pain and struggle and suffering
and then they made this beautiful gift for the world
and I think that's the opportunity
for every creator who's watching this video.
When you feel like you're mission driven
and the work you're doing is really important
and it's changing lives, actually changing lives,
that's how you get to 1,000,000 subscribers
and have a huge impact in the world and the end of the day
feel like the work you're doing really matters.
(soft music)
- It's natural to prefer something that's easy,
over something that's really hard.
We're all looking for shortcuts, for hacks,
for tips and tricks to bypass the pain,
but no matter where we look,
the principal for achieving success seems to be
that we need to have a higher mission
that actually compels us to embrace the pain.
In the same way that any good story needs conflict,
our story needs it too in order to develop our character
to become the hero that our story needs.
So on you're road to 1,000,000 subscribers,
embrace the conflict, and the difficultly
and the pain that no one sees because the transformation
it creates in you is where real success comes from.
I know all of this is much easier said than done,
so for those of you who are members of this channel,
you'll find the link in the description below
to an exclusive video where Evan and I sit down
and talk about how to find your mission,
and turn that into success.
You can also tap the video you see on your screen here
to go to the next episode of this creator's stories series.
And subscribe here,
and I'll see you guys over in the next video.