Howard: It is just a huge honour for me today to be podcast interviewing Evan Carmichael of evancarmichael.com. Evan believes in entrepreneurs, at nineteen he built and sold a biotech software company. At age twenty two, he was a venture capitalist helping, raising $500 000 to $15 million dollars. He now runs evancarmichael.com, a popular website for entrepreneurs, he breathes and bleeds entrepreneurship. He’s obsessed with aiming to help one billion entrepreneurs change the world. He has set two World Records and uses a stand-up desk, rides a Vespa, raises funds for Kiva, wears five toe shoes and created Entrepreneur Trading Cards. He speaks globally but Toronto is his home. He loves being married, his son, salsa dancing, League of Legends and the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s the author of ‘Your One Word: The Powerful Secret to Building a Life and Business that Matters.’ I can’t believe I got you to come on my show, buddy, you’re talking to dentist and dentists, physicians, lawyers, they go to school for eight, ten, twelve years and they just learned calculus and physics and geometry and biochemistry, they don’t learn one word from where you come from, how could dentists be better entrepreneurs?
Evan: That’s a great question, and thanks for having me on board. I think the first part is to see yourself as an entrepreneur. I think a lot of, not just dentists but a lot of professionals just see themselves as doing their craft but not actually seeing themselves as a business owner, and all the things that are involved in it, like you have to build a team. You got to be a leader, you got to be a manager, we have to worry about a customer service like, when you learn all this, you don’t learn that in dental school, you don’t learn how to be a leader in dental school and customer service and all those things. And so, I think going in with that approach and then understanding that, listen, this is what I’m going to learn in school, I’m going to learn some other great kind of tactical things of how to be in my profession, but I need to supplement my knowledge. I need to learn from great entrepreneurs if I want to build a great business myself.
Howard: So, is something about twenty percent or more of the people listening to the show email me always howard@dentaltown.com and tell me who you are, how old you are. But it seems like about twenty to twenty five percent are still in dental school, they’re D1, D2, D3, D4’s, what could these children in dental school do while they’re in dental school to supplement their education, so they come out, they’ll have more of the entrepreneurial business understanding instead of just knowing the difference in geometry and trig?
Evan: Yeah, I know, for sure. One I would look at who is doing a great job in my state in dentistry, like who is an entrepreneur ‘cause most dentists, they have their businesses but like, who is really doing well? Who's really done a good job of branding themselves and marketing themselves, providing great customer service? Who's the one's just really doing well in your area and go try to learn from them. It could be as, just as simple as asking to take them out to coffee, like listen, I love the operation you built, I’m a new dental student, I want to, I'd like, I just respect and admire so much of what you've done, I’d love to pick your brain over cup of coffee to get a chance. And people like to give back, like if somebody came to you and said, hey, I would love to pick your brain over a cup of coffee if you have twenty minutes, I really respect what you’re doing. You would give them that time, and then it may evolve into something else, like it may evolve into you interning there, doing some part time work there, or maybe even getting you a job there to start. On top of that I’d be looking at what entrepreneur do you look up to outside the dentistry world, like there’s nobody who’s the, that comes to mind at least for me who is “the dentist” of America. Like I don't think anybody has done just an insanely amazing job in that field, where you can learn from a lot of people who have had success outside, like what can you learn from Elon Musk if he’s your favourite entrepreneur? How can you learn from him and apply that to your business in dentistry, what can you learn from Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey or whoever it is you look up to in the world of entrepreneurship and apply that down to your business?
Howard: Hold up, your book, you wrote a book called ‘Your One Word’, what I mean, I, what was your journey, what were you thinking, what made you write a book? You say you have a son, I always thought writing a book is like having a child, I mean, it takes you nine months to write it. It is like it is a huge commitment, what was going on in your journey that made you want to have another child called your book, ‘Your One Word’ by Evan Carmichael?
Evan: The idea there is I, I was having success in my business, I just felt like I could be doing more. My life didn't suck, my business wasn't in the tubes. I just felt like I was nowhere close to my potential. I don’t know how often your listeners may be feeling that but it’s like, you know you are doing a good job but there is just so much more out there, you’re nowhere close to your ceiling and how do you go out and find it? And so for me, it sort of was for self-awareness, if you understand what it is that you stand for as a human being, if you understand what your one most important core value is, becomes your one word, then you can start to apply that into your business. And also into your life so that you are attracting customers that are more aligned with what you’re doing. You are running projects and campaigns that are exactly aligned with who you're supposed to be and you can bring that to your life as well. And so I did this all in kind of a small test through my own business, and then had massive success doing it and then interviewed entrepreneurs across North America to figure out I’m not the only one who's done this. They’ve built their businesses around their one word as well and interviewed them, anywhere from someone who builds a $50,000 full time income for themselves up to $150 000 000 revenue company. So, it's a really impactful way to be able to standout, separate yourself from the market, especially looking at someone like dentists, like how do I know, why should I pick you instead of somebody else? If I go to Google and I type in Phoenix dentists, how many people are going to show up, you got to give people a reason to pick you over your competition.
Howard: So, you’re supposed to answer five core questions with one word? Like what makes you happy, what connects your happiness, what trait do you hate, what’s your constant, is this really who you are, I mean?
Evan: You're supposed to figure out who you are in one word. What's the most important one-word core value to you? So, like who's Howard in one word? What do you stand for?
Howard: Father.
Evan: What’s that?
Howard: Father to my four sons.
Evan: Father, great! So, now being a father, how do you bring that to your business? Right? How do you bring being a father to your business? Because now you can apply that to being a father for all your clients. That notion of what fatherhood means, if maybe that’s, maybe that means being strong, maybe that means being a leader, maybe that means love and caring, like however that breaks down for you, when you understand what it is that you stand for, when you have a clear sense of identity then you can bring that to your business so that you stand out against all the competition.
Howard: So, what’s your one word?
Evan: Belief.
Howard: Belief. Talk about that?
Evan: So, belief to me means you have to believe in what you are doing, so you have to have the passion in the work that you're creating, it means that you have to have self-confidence, that’s what most people think about belief, it’s self confidence in the conviction to follow through. Like believe it's going to work out, and so all the projects that I touch are around belief, this interview is about believing in people, the content creator of my YouTube channel that maybe you've seen is around inspiring people to believe in themselves more. And everything that I touch around belief is, does better and it’s not just a marketing thing, it’s because it comes from who I am as an individual. So, for you, anything that you touch that was around father, like whatever fatherhood means to you, just get that sense of pride, if you could bring that to your business and everything you touch is going to do better.
Howard: Yours is believe. Believe in yourself, passions and self-confidence, I want to take the opposite of believe seems like a lot of dentists believe in a lot of self-limiting beliefs, I mean, a lot of dentists, I don't think can thrive ‘cause they believe in self-limiting thoughts. Like I remember when the Berlin wall fell, all the dentists in Poland and Russia were telling me, well, you don't understand, you’re an American, you don't get it. These communist people have had the government take care of them and their body, cradle to grave and they’ll never ever pay their own money to fix our tooth. And I call bullshit and they go, oh, you're just an American, you don't, you don't understand, you don't get it, and who, and now the Berlin fall on ‘89 and dentistry has blossomed in Russia and Poland because all these communist chicks didn’t want to walk around without their front tooth. And the same girl who bought an iPhone is going to pay to have her front tooth fixed and so that self-limiting belief that if the government didn't pay for it, they would never pay their own money for their health. What other self-limiting beliefs do you think dentists have and walk around with?
Evan: There’s tons and it’s not just dentists, it’s people, it’s humans, I think most people are not living up to their potential and have no idea even how to get close to it. I think one of the biggest limited beliefs that people walk around with is that they are not good enough, who am I to do this? Who am I to be the guy to go to Russia to start that business? Who am I to start a podcast for dentists, who am I to start a website to try to help my community. A lot of people have that mentality of, who am I to do this, I'm not good enough. I didn't go to school for this, I haven’t been trained for this so I'm not good enough to do it. So that's a huge one. Another one is people don't accept responsibility for their life. They blame the people around them for their lack of success, they’re not more successful because of whoever the president is. Or because of what their parental situation was growing up, or what school they did go to or didn't go to, or how much resources they had growing up. To some extent, yes, growing up, you are under the rule of love of your parents and you are influenced by them and told what to do, but at some point, you become an adult. It’s like, you can't keep blaming your parents when you’re forty five years old, like at some point you have to take responsibility for your life and say, I'm here because of me. It's not the president's fault, it's not the currencies fault, it's not my local economies fault, like it's my fault and I'm going to fix it. And as soon as you do that, that's when life starts to change, that's when your business starts to change.
Howard: Well, it’s funny you say that because I have two very close friends, and one of them never has had a drink in his life because his father he grew up with an abusive drunk father. The other one is an alcoholic who blames his alcoholism because he turned out just like his dad who was a drunk, so it’s like, okay, there you go. So, it’s a glass half full, half empty, so I got a friend that won’t drink because dad’s a drunk, and a friend that’s drunk because dad’s a drunk, which one is it, so which one is it? Do I learn from my dad or do I just be my dad, so humans can rationalize anything?
Evan: Hundred percent and a lot of people just live in that deferred blame environment because it’s so much easier. It sucks to take responsibility, it sucks to say, I’m here because of me, because I haven’t done the work, it’s nice to just be able to blame somebody else. And say, oh, well, it’s my dad’s fault, and when you’re eight years old, maybe it is your dad’s fault but when you’re twenty-eight years old, it’s not your dad’s fault anymore. Like you got to take responsibility for your life, and maybe you had an amazing father, or maybe you had a terrible one, it doesn’t matter now, it’s your life, like you got to start making decisions for yourself. And so, I would encourage people to take a hard look in the mirror and say, tell yourself the reason why I’m not more successful is? And then fill in that blank, like the reason I am not more successful is because? And whatever comes to mind, that’s going to be your limited excuse, you’re going to blame somebody, or you’re going to feel like you’re not good enough or you’re going to feel like you didn’t have the resources or whatever it is, that’s what you need to push through. And before any of the strategies and tactics that you’re going to learn from books or seminars or any of those things, before any of those can work, you got to fix your mindset, take responsibility, accountability for where you are right now and that you decided that you’re going to change it.
Howard: So, if my homies go to Amazon and buy your book ‘One Word’, how, which by the way is amazing, I mean you got eighty-seven five-star reviews, that’s just crazy. You must have a very big family with lots of cousins and aunts, and nephews and nieces all giving you all these five stars. How would they, if they bought this book ‘Your One Word, The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life That Matters’, how do you think they would apply this book to their life?
Evan: So, it starts up a plan into your life, it starts off figuring out what is that you stand for. And then once you understand what your one word is, then it forces you to reflect, like if your one word is father, then you got to start looking at, okay, am I doing my duty? Like am I a good enough father, am I waking up today and I’m doing what I need to do to, say to be who the person is that I say I want to be. It immediately starts causing some reflection onto the things that you’re doing in your life. Then you can bring it to your business, and it’s meant to be a book for people who want to build entrepreneurial companies, say, well, how do I bring this to my company? And it’s so important for dentists because typically dentists are just really terrible marketers, and you don’t learn this, you don’t learn this in dentistry school, you don’t learn how to market yourself properly. And so, understanding, I call this core selling, like people buy the why of what you’re doing more than the how, they care about why you’re doing what you’re doing. So, for example, if your one word was family, you could be the family dentist and that comes across in your marketing, your branding, how you treat people, like think about when I walk into your dentist’s office, what’s on the walls? How am I greeted, who are the hygienists that I hire, they better be family focused and family oriented. Now maybe you hate kids, like maybe family is not your thing, like don’t do it for marketing reasons, it’s got to be something that comes from the core of what’s inside you, right. Like if you just can’t stand three-year old’s screaming and running around your dental practice, don’t bill yourself as the family person because that’s not what you’re about. Maybe what you’re about is experience, like you are the best at what you do, and you really value experience. So, now when I walk into your dentist’s office, what’s on the walls now, it’s not family pictures of people having fun, it’s your degrees and you’re up on the latest news.
Howard: I want to change gears completely, because I know my homies, I know them so well. I’ve been dentist for thirty years, a lot of dentists, they’re doing a repetitive task, I mean, they’re doing fillings and crowns, and they’ve done ten thousand of each one and a lot of them start to get burned out. And I’ve noticed in the last two years America, they, I don’t like talking about religion, sex, politics, violence, but the politics has gotten really toxic and a lot of dentists, they’re burned out, they’re cranky. They don’t like what’s happening around them, and so you’re this positive optimistic guy, you’re one word, what would you say to dentists who’s listening to you, just kind of, he’s forty-fifty years old. He’s burned out, he’s cranky, and he’s living in toxic times, there’s a lot of division, how do you stay positive in a toxic world?
Evan: So, I think, especially as an entrepreneur, we have the good fortune to be able to create the environment around us, like you’re an entrepreneur, you get to choose who’s on your team, you get to choose who your customers are coming in. You could be, I see entrepreneurs as a force for good, I think all the world’s major problems will be solved by entrepreneurs. They’re not going to be solved by the government, it’s not going to be solved by big corporations, it’s going to be solved by people with ideas who want to make a positive impact. And you can make that positive impact even on the small scale in your community, think about how many people that you’re seeing on a regular week through your office, how many lives you have the possibility to be able to change. If your one word is father, and you want to be a mentor, you have an opportunity every day to be a mentor to the people in your community. If you took that role going in and saying, I’m going to be a father today, and yes, you have four wonderful boys that you’re a father to at home, but I’m going be a father in my dental practice. I’m going to be a father to my hygienist, I’m going to be a father to the people who are at my reception desk, I’m going to be a father to every person who walks through my doors. And now it’s not just about giving them a filling, it’s about leaving an impact, it’s about making a mark on their lives, it’s about being a father to them. And when you have that kind of deeper purpose in your practice, it doesn’t just do better, you feel way more fulfilled because you find meaning in the work that you’re doing as opposed to just filling a cavity.
Howard: Growing up Catholic, my favourite Catholic role model was always Mother Teresa and I love her quote, she says; “well, if you can’t feed all the poor, just feed one, if you can’t help all the poor, just help one” and if I was going to be an entrepreneur, I’m never going to be an Elon Musk or Jeff Pezzo but I can be a little miniature Elon Musk in my own little dental office. But you’re right, people like Elon Musk and, are going to change the world, not a politician.
Evan: Yeah, and thousands of dentists can change the world, right? Like if you go out and you are father to the people coming through your office, how many people are you touching every single day? And they go off, and that has a ripple effect around your community, I think you should go into your practice every day feeling like, I’m making my community better. My goal today is, I’m going to make my community, maybe I’m not making America better, maybe I’m not playing on that level. But my hometown, where I’m going to go work, that intersection and the five-block radius around where I am, it’s going to get better because I’m there.
Howard: Yeah, and that’s why I tell dentists, I mean, when I opened up in Phoenix I thought what I was doing was a waste of time, because I was drilling, filling, billing all these fillings when Phoenix didn’t even have the most basic prevention of water fluoridation. So, I blocked off Fridays and I was so dumb and young at twenty-four, I thought I could fluoridate Phoenix in like two or three weeks, ended up taking me every Friday for two years before me and my team fluoridated Phoenix. But I thought that was what really bonded my team back in ’87, ’88, ’89, that we had a big purpose here. We opened up a dental office, but our big goal was to reduce disease, missing and filled teeth, and we focus on fluoridating the water and going into all the elementary schools, teaching how to brush and floss, instead of just sitting there treating disease. I mean, you don’t want just a bunch of sick patients every day, you want to feel like that after you served an area for ten, twenty, thirty, forty years that their oral health was better after you left. Like mom always said, Boy Scouts always said, leave the playground better than you found it, I mean, when we were little, every time we left the park we had to carry out more trash than we carried in just try to make your own impact. But what about the bottom line though, the, you’re talking about purpose and meaning and fulfilment but can you make any more money with the book, ‘One Word’?
Evan: Yeah, that’s how, like if you focus on experience, like I said as an example, right? Like that’s what you, that’s your core value, that’s your one word, and so you think about how I’m going to brand myself. I’m going to brand myself as the experienced dentist, and you’re going to attract a different clientele, you’re going to attract clientele who will pay you more because they value experience. And you’re not just hiring any dental hygienist, you’re hiring the one who has the most experience, and so when I walk in, the whole vibe of your office is about experience. And some people, the people who value experience, who value what you value, will pay you more for it. Because right now, I can’t tell the difference between most dentists in most markets, right, you just go to Google and you’ll type in Phoenix dentist, and you’ll see some Google reviews that pop up. And whoever’s near the top, that’s who you’re just going to pick and show up and hope that it works out as a great experience, it’s not a great way to market yourself, right. Where if I clearly understand that you are the family dentist, or you are the experienced dentist, or you are whatever it is then some people won’t like that, that’s fine, let them self-eliminate. But the people who you want to have in, who value what you value, will want to come and they will want to pay you more for it.
Howard: Do you, I’m just curious, when I think of Canada and business people, a big popular show, a Shark Tank and Mr. Wonderful, isn’t he from Toronto where you’re at?
Evan: He’s from Canada, I don’t think he’s from Toronto, but he’s from, he’s Canadian for sure.
Howard: And is it true he’s running for the prime minister or that was a thought he had and he withdrew?
Evan: He was, but he withdrew because he couldn’t speak French properly.
Howard: Are you serious?
Evan: Yeah, Quebec is one of our provinces and it’s expected that you can do English and French and do all the debates and represent the people while there, and he was taking French lessons and trying to pick it up but we all learn it growing up, but we don’t use it on a day to day basis, my French is not fantastic and so yeah, so, he said he was running and then he pulled out and supported somebody else.
Howard: So, is he one of your, is he one of your role models, who are your business role models that like, is your book ‘One Word’, what role models, you mentioned Elon Musk. What role models have impacted you? And that, I mean, you’ve interviewed so many, I love your YouTube channel, but what role models do you think would be good for a dentist?
Evan: So, what’s good for me may not be what’s great for dentists, I think for me, my biggest role models are my parents, they taught me not much about business. But they taught me just how to be a human being, belief comes from them, how to treat people, how to work hard, all of that stuff came from them. Apart from that, from a business context I learned from everybody, I think you can learn from anybody who’s had success. And we profile a lot of entrepreneurs, but we’ve also profiled, we’ve had politicians on, we have had athletes, we have had spiritual leaders, we have had musicians, and actors. I think you can learn from anybody who’s had success, even if you disagree with them, and so the goal is not for me to be the next Elon Musk or for any of the dentists to be the next Elon Musk. It’s to pick and choose different things from different people to help you be the best version of yourself, and so, I learn something from everybody that we’ve done a video of, we do three videos a day, I review every video that goes up and I have learned something from that video.
Howard: You do three a day?
Evan: Three a day. We’ve done five thousand videos, three a day.
Howard: And how long is your average video?
Evan: Between ten and twenty minutes typically.
Howard: Ten and twenty minutes, three times a day, my gosh, how do you find all these guys?
Evan: A lot of it is based off of feedback, people write in and say, hey, can you do this person, can you do this person, it’s like people I’ve never heard of before.
Howard: Ryan, send him an email telling you should do Howard Farran, but don’t say Ryan Farran, just say Ryan F, just Ryan F, period, somewhere in Arizona. That is amazing, another thing I see dentists kind of take issue with, some dentists on Dentaltown and say, well, if you want to be successful, and a lot of people say the immediate first reactions will define success. How would you define success? Because it seems it, to push a raw button, because some people maybe insinuate that money success, other people might say, well, relationships are successful, or how can that, like a lot of people say Steve Jobs wasn’t successful because his personal life was kind of crazy. And then how can you say that Steve Jobs was successful? I don’t know if his own child would say he was successful, so how do you define success?
Evan: So, for me success is having an impact, I want to do things that are impactful. I think though when you’re, I don’t think people need to get so pissed off, like so Steve Jobs was a fantastic entrepreneur and a terrible father, and maybe a terrible human being, great, like pull, you don’t have to be Steve Jobs. Pull the things that you like from him and ditch the rest, like if I’m doing the top ten rules for success for somebody, not all ten have to be applicable to your life, find the one that makes sense and use that and run with it. That maybe the people had the best relationship ever were your neighbours and nobody’s ever heard of these people, but you just love how they treat each other, and how they treat their kids, and how their life motto. Great, like learn that from them, but maybe they were broke, so go learn about making money from somebody else, right. Like it’s not all of the expense, it’s not, you don’t have to be douche bag to make money, you could do it your way, right? And so that’s a constant struggle, it’s not about trying to be the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, it’s the constant evolution to be the best version of yourself and if you value different things from different people, that’s great, pull the best from them and discard the rest.
Howard: I think of you as a motivational speaker, and really an armchair psychologist, I’ve watched a lot of your videos, so I want you to put on your psychologist hat. A lot of dentists get in a bad attitude because they see people dropping $800 on an iPhone and flying to Disney World, and then they come in their office, half of Americans don’t have dental insurance and they’re like, well, I can’t do it because I don’t have any dental insurance. Last night we were talking to a lady on the phone, calling me, and I went to her Facebook page, she is about, every month she’s got a picture of her in the Southwest Airlines flying to here, to here, to here, to here, to here, and she’s calling me all confused because she broke her tooth but she doesn’t have dental insurance. And I said, well, for the price of one of those plane tickets as you are jet-setting around the United States, you could have fixed your filling, and a lot of dentists just get mad that you buy your own house, your car, your iPhone and then you’re paralyzed if someone else, your employer government isn’t paying to get your front tooth fixed. How do you get the dentist to be more positive and optimistic about understanding as fellow man who believes that that’s the patient self-limiting belief?
Evan: I think it starts with less judgement and more empathy, if you are walking in by starting and just judging your clients and all of their misdeeds and all of the mistakes. Like you’re not perfect, I could judge you, people can judge you for all the mistakes that you've made, and the vices that you have, and maybe the lack of education in some areas and so you've made the wrong decisions sometimes. It's easy to judge people for wanting to keep up with the Joneses, or to take that vacation, just a little more empathy, just try and understand your common man. Like maybe this person has a really stressful job, and getting away is just that's what they look forward to once a year because their life sucks.
Howard: For you to even say that to me, you sound like you’ve been talking to my ex-wife. Did she? I think because she’s reading from notes, Ryan, I think he’s, I think he talked to your mom, and then the other issue they have is that this kind of, this kind of a, is a really head game as a dentist, as a doctor of the oral cavity, you really want to do high quality work. But it’s kind of sometimes hard to do real high-quality work on a patient when you know they’re never going to brush, you’re never going to floss when they leave, they’re going to drink a sixty-four-ounce Mountain Dew. How do you care about a patient’s dentistry more than they care about it?
Evan: Well, of course you’re going to care about it more than they care, like this is your profession, you wanted, you wanted to see the work that you're doing is meaningful, any teacher who’s teaching about history wants to see the kids are learning it and try to understand the lessons of the history, not just memorizes some dates about some battle. It’s really trying to tie it in so that the message sinks into their life, so this is where being a father becomes important. Carrying through whatever your one-word core value is, bringing that into your practice, that’s where it becomes important. So, when I’m coming to you and sit in your chair and you’re filling my cavity and you're doing your best work, I'm also getting fatherly love and advice and wisdom and hopefully in a way that reaches me that, maybe in a way that my father never could reach me. A lot of people, they’re best fathers with their coaches at school or somebody that they ran into, or priest or somebody in their community that wasn't their actual father, and so that's where, if all you're doing is yelling at them and saying, listen, this is going to happen to you, when it's going to be really negative and you don't take the time to kind of understand them and put yourself in their shoes and understand why they're not doing the behaviours. Because the strategies will not help without the mindset. You can tell them all the strategies in the world, how to brush, how to floss, what tools to use, the exact regiment, until they’ve committed, until they have the right mindset, they’re never going to do it. The strategies will not help you until you’ve decided and you have the mindset, so that’s, your first job is to get in there.
Howard: So, what two world records did you set?
Evan: Oh! Both of those were around kind of entrepreneurship and mentorship, first was the world's largest mentorship event, and I was one of the mentors and we’re doing speed mentoring where a new entrepreneur would come in every three minutes, new entrepreneur, they’d pitch their idea, you’d give them feedback in three minutes and we’re raising money. And the second was, we built the world's largest QR code for a group in a really impoverished area in my city where they’re trying to build an entrepreneurship program, and so we built, as a fundraising initiative, the world's largest QR code.
Howard: And what is your definition of an entrepreneur?
Evan: I don't get too worked up about these things, like I don't know what an entrepreneur is, like somebody who has an idea that they're trying to do something with. I don't, I don't get too worked up by labels and stereotypes, if somebody has a goal and they want to achieve something, I want to help them.
Howard: So, there's a famous boxer in Phoenix named Carmichael, are you aware of that?
Evan: I am not but I'm a fan of the name.
Howard: Yeah, he's really cool, he's, are you Hispanic, he says he's a, yeah, he's a Hispanic boxer lightweight, very, very good, I've seen him, his mother, all that kind of stuff. And so, what’s your deal with the Vespa, why do you ride a Vespa, tell them what a Vespa is?
Evan: So, first of all, come, our goal is a Scottish name initially so we have a, we have our own tartan and everything, so way back it was a Carmichael clan. There's a castle in Scotland that's the origin, so somewhere I kind of get mixed in with some Latino blood for that title.
Howard: Well, Scottish is the most elemental part of America, it really is, I mean, America was built on Scottish, I mean, it’s to, it's kind of an eerie story, two thirty-two-year-old Scots published a book in 1776. One was Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, and one was Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration Independence and America was the Caliph, for the first time in history was the collision of free people Declaration Independence. Free markets, Adam Smith, and that collision a quarter of a millennium ago, caused the largest economic explosion ever seen on Earth and America would have been a very different country if it would have been set up by say, Catholics from France. Quebec or Spanish, and if the Spanish would have set up it been more like Mexico and most of South America. If the Portuguese had set it up, it would be more like Brazil, but America is truly Scottish, I mean, it was those two men, The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence. I mean, America, you could say is the result of two thirty-two-year-old Scots, I mean, it's a very amazing story that would have turned out very differently and probably wouldn't, it turned out at all. I mean, we'd be another Brazil if the Portuguese set us up, we'd be another Mexico if the Catholic Spaniards set us up, we're Scottish. And when we went to, we lectured in Glasgow last year, and we went, they have a big statue of Adam Smith and I actually thought it was a sacred place to see that man. I mean, that man changed the world him and Thomas Jefferson completely changed the entire world and I always thought, what if one of them didn't exist, like what have you had Thomas Jefferson, but you didn't have free markets? Would you have had like an Argentina feudal system, what if you had free markets, but you didn't have [unclear 34:23] like you can't have free markets and Communist China or the USSR, the Soviet Union. I mean, you needed both to take place and it's the only thing that explains why Americans are five percent of the world's population and twenty seven percent of the global GDP.
Evan: I like the way your mind thinks, man.
Howard: Yeah, I mean, it is an amazing story, but anyway, what were you going to say right before I interjected that?
Evan: You were just talking about other things, you talked about the Vespa, so you, here's the point of why I have it in my file.
Howard: You said Vespa is not just a scooter to wake up life, how is your Vespa a way of life?
Evan: I love my Vespa. I love the Vespa, it’s a way to get around, its freedom, its expression, especially here in Toronto, we’re allowed to park for free on the street, so in big cities it's easy to get around to find parking, I think.
Howard: Tell them what it is?
Evan: It's a light motorcycle, it's a motorcycle without having to manually shift gears.
Howard: So, it takes unleaded gas?
Evan: Yeah, takes unleaded gas.
Howard: How many miles you get to the gallon with it?
Evan: I don't know, I spend five bucks to fill up for the week, it's solid.
Howard: Nice.
Evan: But the point of that, like all of these little personal things in my bio, most people's bios are really boring. Most people did, I look at the dentist listening, look at your bio, it's going to be really boring, and so what's helpful is to pull out some things that are different or interesting, like, yes, tell me about what school you went to, and your credential is great. But tell me something personal, tell me, maybe you like doing angel investing in the companies, maybe you love traveling to Argentina every year. Like give me something a little more personal so that I can feel like I connect to you as a human being, and so I put stuff like that in my bio that I like DJing. That I've set two world records, that I ride a Vespa, other personal things as well because it creates some talking points. But also humanizes the person much more than just reading the bio on a piece of paper.
Howard: Yeah, it's true because one of the things I romantically felt, even liking you more was when I see your involvement with kiva.org. Dreams are universal, opportunity is not. I tell my boys all the time that every single person born in the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, they all come from the lucky sperm club. And you would not have had that luck if you'd have been born in many other countries, and so tell us about Kiva, why did you, why are you involved with Kiva?
Evan: So, Kiva is a group that helps fundraise for entrepreneurs around the world and a lot of these fundraising issues are not very big, it's, I need $100 to buy some chickens and a fence. And that’s enough to just support that family, and then eventually they can hire people and it's a great, and a little business for them, so we've raised over $100,000 for Kiva. And that just goes into countries, we picked Africa because somebody on my team is, it's kind of dedicated to Africa, and just goes to supporting different entrepreneurs in getting started their little micro loan programs. And so, it encourages them to pay the money back and then that goes, that money goes to another entrepreneur.
Howard: I just retweeted @kiva to my 21,000 dentist homies and their last tweet was just in, the Kiva community has surpassed funding $1 000 000 000 in loans, that is so damn cool. So, what do you call these micro loans, is that kind of the terminology? Micro loans?
Evan: Yeah, they’re micro loans, so it's not a gift, it's not a, hey, here's $1000, do whatever you want with it. It's okay, here's a $1000 and you're paying us back and there are reasonable interest rates until they pay back the loan, and then they use that money and it's like ninety plus percent repayment. So, they have a really good track record, and then what happens is the other people in the community know that if this one person pays their loan back, other people will get loans as well. And so, there's like community pressure built in that they all want to help this person become successful, because if that person pays back their loan then they have a chance of getting one as well to build their own little business. And so, it’s the idea, it's a little loan, you pay it back and then the money is used to go support another entrepreneur.
Howard: And also, everybody, most everyone listens to me eighty five percent are on an hour commute to work, rest are on a treadmill or whatever and they can't say no, so they go to me @howardfarran, and I retweet them so they can find my guest. I just retweeted you @evancarmichael, and I just retweeted you, I started a livestream on YouTube. So, I just retweeted, you're, my God, you had two hundred and thirty-three thousand followers, man, you are huge. What do you mean when you say you're from Toronto Parentheses pound sign ENT City, what's ENT City mean?
Evan: So, ENT City is part of a branding campaign that I've created here, just like we talked about before, you want to think about as a dentist when you show up to work, you're making your community better. I take that mentality everywhere I go, so I call Toronto my home, Toronto needs to get better because I am here. And that's not from an egotistical point of view that I am just an amazing God that will rain glory everywhere. I want to feel like wherever I go, like you said, you're leaving the world a little bit better than when you first came. And so, my passion is entrepreneurs, I believe entrepreneurs will change the world and so I want to help in my community, more entrepreneurs. I want to be an inspiration for the entrepreneurs that I see in a regular basis to do better, to reach further, to have a bigger impact, to take on more responsibility.
Howard: I love what you say on your Twitter account, it says @evancarmichael, I believe in people more than they believe in themselves, I hope that you see what I see in you so you can change the planet. And I have to say my boys are twenty two, twenty four, twenty six, twenty eight, and right now, I believe more in them than they believe in themselves, because they're just babies finding their way from the planet but I think that's so cool how you say that. You believe in people more than they believe in themselves, because one of the problems about getting older is when you get older and older and older you start to get more and more cynical, where you just start, I mean, old people, they're just more like, what are you going to do, people are crazy, people are batshit crazy. Seems like a lot of older people get kind of jaded, a lot of my patients that are, I know some of the most jaded patients I have are police officers and firemen. Because they've seen so much of the bad stuff for so long. Our soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, a lot of them are just, they're almost dead inside, they've seen so much of the bad stuff that they're, kind of a big part of them died, I mean, and you're still in this fresh area where you believe in people more they believe themselves. What would you say to kids who came back from their four tour in Afghanistan, Iraq, or the police officer who's just retired, he's, five times in the night he's knocking on somebody's door where some man's beating the crap out of his wife. I mean, they've seen it all. How do you stay optimistic in a jaded world?
Evan: So, first off, trauma is a real thing, and a medical condition and it could be worth getting checked out if that's you. Like it's hard to see your best friend's arm being blown off, or face being torn apart, and so I have a lot of empathy for the people who are coming home from having seen that. Both from fighting Overseas, but also first responders, ambulance, fire, so trauma is a real thing. I think though, for people who have seen a lot, it's just having a sense of importance, having a sense of omission, like you could build, some of the greatest movements have been started from the depths of the greatest pain, it's what you choose to do with that pain. Can you see a way through your example, love of, your two friends both had alcoholic fathers and one decided to make that a negative and one decided to make that a positive, the greatest movements have been born from the greatest pain. And so, do you see yourself as the person who can go and create that positive change? If you feel like you're doing something important that can help get you through, look at something like mothers against drunk driving, why was that started? It's trying to be a force for good out of a lot of pain and sorrow, instead of just living in that negative world to say we're going to do something good about it. For the people who you might just say are old and crusty who maybe haven't been through a lot of trauma, I think progress is happiness, and I think when you stop learning and growing as a human being, you stop becoming happy. When you just fall into a routine and you're doing the same thing day in, day out, over and over and over and over again and there's no growth for yourself somehow, I mean, you get this, you have this podcast. You have this show, you get to bring on your guests all the time, I learn from them and converse, and have discussions and dialogue. For people who stop doing that, who stop learning, who stop progressing and stop trying to get better and grow, that's when they stop becoming happy. And the longer that lasts, the crappier you're going to become.
Howard: I want to change gears slightly because a lot of the old and crusty burned out dentists also have a lot of physical pain because they sat there in a chair leaning over their head looking directly in the mouth or necks, all jacked up their lower back. I have so many sixty-year-old dentists had their upper cervix fused or lower spine fused, and you're at a stand-up desk wearing five toed shoes. And I really believe your physical condition is very related to your mental condition, and people that are dealing with pain and suffering, it's easy to get into depression and agitation. Why do you do a stand-up desk and what's the five toed shoes about, and what would you say to a young dentist, come out, dentist, go and say hey, look at your dad, he's a dentist and he's hobbling around, because he sat in a chair with his head bent over for thirty four years, look at your dad and don't end up like your dad?
Evan: Sure, so for me, I had a lot of back and knee issues in my twenties, I was going to go see a chiropractor every week, and I was being kind of electrocuted on the back and custom orthotics and insoles, and all of this stuff in my early twenties. And I'm like, this is ridiculous, I'm in my early twenties, like why am, this should not be happening. And so I, at the time then decided, okay, I'm going to research alternative methods, and look at other ways that I might be able to heal my body myself. And I came across a stand-up desk, now it's actually really popular, at the time nobody heard of it but it's, there's all sorts of articles about how sitting is the new smoking and all of this stuff, but I tried it and you just can't stand up all day, it takes, it takes practice to get into it. And I'm barefoot most of the time, right now talking to you, and five toe shoes are kind of the closest thing to being able to go barefoot when you walk outside, and that saved me. I'm thirty-seven years old now, my back and my knees are better than they were when I was in my early twenties, so I think there's a lot of options that you can look at beyond just the way most people do things. If I was giving advice to a dentist, I would say there was some realities of the job, you have to get in and look inside that person's mouth. That that's the reality of the job, you want to check to make sure that that your hygienist did a good job in cleaning, it's what are you doing on the off time. Like what's your posture like when you're back in your office, are you hunched over again at your desk and looking through notes and making phone calls? Like there's a lot of work that you're doing that's not peering into somebody's mouth, and what is your posture looking like in those times, I would guess that it's pretty terrible. And so, it's not just about the time you're spending working, it's all the other times around it.
Howard: So, why are you barefoot, right now?
Evan: The combination of not wearing shoes, like if you walk barefoot enough, it changes the way that you walk, so you don't, most people through heel, the heel strike so you like, hit the heel then the rest of your foot because we have these super cushiony shoes. If you can't do that when you go barefoot, you can't do that when you wear the five toe shoes, it just helps me. Like my knee pain, and my back pain are gone, when I use a stand-up desk and when I'm barefoot most of the time I don't have back or knee pain, so it's as simple as that for working for me.
Howard: When I turned fifty, I was so fat, out of shape, I decided I was going to go to an extreme level, I signed up, I did the Ironman three years in a row in Arizona. Where you got to swim to two point, I think it's two point one miles, bike one hundred and twelve then run a full marathon, and I noticed when you start running how all the elite athletes say that the only way you can ever learn proper running is to run barefoot. And when you, if you ran like you ran with Nikes on, you'd be busting up your feet, and just because you don't fill it with Nikes, you're still busting up your feet. When you run barefoot, you kind of, it's almost like you're sneaking up behind someone so they won't hear you. And when you run down the sidewalk or the street and you don't want barefoot, you have to run like you're kind of sneaking up behind someone, it's kind of a prancing type run and that's how you're supposed to run, and then you can add your Asics on your feet but you still need to run like that and it’s kind of, barefoot running is interesting, you ever gone barefoot running?
Evan: I haven’t and I'm not a runner, and people ask me all the time because I have, because the five toe shoes are running shoes, they're worn by a lot of runners. Basically, you're supposed to be running flat foot, and most people run heel then the rest of the heel then right and that can do a lot of destruction to your body. So, I am not a runner, I don't use them for running, but I just use them for when I'm outside and it helps. And I'm not prescribing this, like this is a solution for everybody, but by using a stand-up desk and by going barefoot most of the day and using those shoes, I got rid of my back and knee pain and I'm happy.
Howard: And I taught all my boys how to do that, because they're always running from the law and the police are always chasing them, so that helps them immensely. My gosh, I'm so, I can't believe you've been on here, this has been an amazing hour, again just put on your arm psychology hat, here's another big psychological issue. These kids come out of school, they go get a job as an associate, they need to practice doing their fillings or crowns or root canals. But some people after just a year or two jumps out and open their own practice, other people are scared and that takes them four or five years, some takes ten years and so many dentists that waited eight, ten, twelve years, they always say to me twenty years later, God, I wish I didn't wait ten years, and so they're afraid, what would you say? There's a twenty-five-year-old girl listening to you, she's commuting to work, she's an associate and she would, she hates all the rules, she doesn't agree with so much stuff that the older dentist does. She wants to have her own place but, gosh, she's got a secure job, she's making $150 000 dollars a year, and she just gets a pit in her stomach, like how do you want to walk away from $150 000 dollar a year, great job, my life's perfect. But I want to own my own place, that seems so scary and frightening. How do you, how do you get the guts to jump when you're making six figures a year in life, it’s good but you are seduced, I, wouldn't it be really cool to own my own damn dental office but I'm afraid, she's scared?
Evan: You make the fear for regret bigger, so you fast forward to life at seventy or eighty or ninety or how old we're going to live to be on two hundred and thirty, by the time we all get there and say, am I going to regret not doing this.
Howard: So, you say make the regret bigger than the fear?
Evan: Exactly.
Howard: Is that what you just said?
Evan: Yeah, what you should do is be comfortable with failing, but uncomfortable with not knowing, because that fear of regret will eat you up. So, that job is going to be there for you in a year, what if it doesn't work out, that job will be there, or if not with that person you can get a job somewhere else, the same job, you can go back and get a job like that. That kind of job is always going to be available to you if you're good at what you do. The business, how long do you want to wait and then you’re going to beat yourself up, like fast-forward ten years, see, like it's still been ten years, I haven't done this yet, how upset am I and then take action on it.
Howard: I tell him there's never a good time to have a kid or start your own business, so just do it. I mean, when I decided to have kids, we had four boys in sixty months, I graduated May 11th, had my office September 21st, yeah, those are crazy times. But you're going to have crazy times, I better just go dive in now and get it over with, I mean, you're not going to drown, dive in the pool, learn how to swim.
Evan: Yeah, but they may drown, too, like maybe it doesn't work out.
Howard: Well, in dentistry.
Evan: It's a pretty high rate.
Howard: The bank data only zero point four percent of new dental office loans default, so ninety nine point six percent don't define me. Dentists always, they all whine, there's so much competition but there's really not competition dentistry when you have a point four percent failure rate. What's the failure rate of a new restaurant in Toronto?
Evan: Oh, huge.
Howard: What do you think it might be?
Evan: Oh, the opposite ninety nine point six percent.
Howard: Yeah, so, and when you look at restaurants, I mean, restaurants, four out of five will go bankrupt in twenty four months in Phoenix, Arizona and dentists are zero point four percent, you know why dentists go bankrupt? It's always the same thing, they got their license taken away, why they get their license anyway? Drugs, alcohol, got arrested, something, insurance fraud, so basically if you're not a drunk, on drugs or doing fraud, you're not going to drown in dentistry. I mean, that's why you went to school for eight years, to have this protected moat around your business calling, anybody can open up a drycleaner, a mani/pedi or a Mexican restaurant but to open up a dental office, you need this little thing called a dental degree and for every gazillion people that apply to school, the school up the street only accepts sixty. So, it's massively limited competition, so you're not going bankrupt, so they're not going to go, they're not going to drown, so why does she sit there for five, six, seven, eight, nine years. When every time you see her, she keeps saying, I want to open up my own, and then I'm just like, well, then do it, just do it, quit talk and do it. How could you push her out of the door, how do you push that little birdie out of the nest and say, go fly and build your own nest?
Evan: This is a mindset issue that is much more important than just opening a dental practice, because you're right, the numbers are there, it makes sense, it's logical. But the same mindset should be applied even if the risk of failure were much higher. Even if the risk of failure was ninety percent to still do it, because the knowledge and certainty that it will not work is better than the fear of the unknown. It's like, you really want to ask that girl out to go for dinner, or you want to ask for her number, you want to make that up, it may not work, she may reject you. But the opposite case is you never ask, and you live the rest of your life and regret saying, what if I just asked? And so, it's much better to have certainty and to know than to not know and to take that approach into every major decision that you ever make in your life, it makes a lot of sense by the numbers and data in the dentistry world to just go out and do it. But you'll have more of these, like as the next case, well, maybe I should hire somebody, when do I hire my first hygienist, when do I hire a receptionist at the front? That percentage chance of working out may not be ninety nine point six percent, so how long do you wait? Anytime there is a fear of regret then you have to go out and take action immediately, make the fear, regret bigger than the fear of failure in the moment.
Howard: Okay, you've been so kind to come on, I mean, you're a big fish in the big ocean, I'm a big fish in a little fishbowl called dentistry, to come on my show, give me an hour of your precious time. But I got you for two more minutes, it's fifty-eight minutes, so final question. Here's another problem she has, she gets out of school, she's twenty five, she practices for two or three years, she buys her own practice, and she claims that since she's twenty eight years old, she bought the office, all those girls have been in the office twenty, thirty years, she's twenty eight and she's managing a bunch of fifty-eight-year-old women. And they say that they're not really respecting her as a leader. How does a twenty-eight-year-old girl manage and be a leader to a bunch of fifty-eight-year-old women when the women are saying, honey bunny, I've been doing this for thirty years, you just got out of dental kindergarten school, I could school you on insurance and business and marketing, so how do you be a leader when everybody around you has got thirty more years’ experience than you?
Evan: So, respect starts with self-respect. You have to respect yourself and know that what you're doing is right, you have to carry yourself a certain way, now there's domain expertise which doesn't really have a lot to do with leadership. So, maybe that person's been doing it for thirty years in insurance, like maybe she's right. Maybe she does know more than you about insurance, that's why you've hired her, right? Like you're hiring people who should be better at what you know in that field, that's the whole point of bringing on a team, is they're experts at what they do. But that has nothing, like domain expertise has nothing to do with leadership over respect, if you want to gain respect of people, you need to respect yourself first. You can be a leader and push them without having to know more than they do about insurance.
Howard: Oh man, I could listen to you for forty days and forty nights, I hope everybody goes and buys your book, ‘One Word’. You can find more about him Evan Carmichael, just like it’s spelt, C-A-R and Michael, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, Evan as E-V-A-N, evancarmichael.com. You're an amazing man, this show is so honoured to get a big whale like you to come on and talk to my homies a day. Thank you so much for spending an hour with a bunch of dentists, thank you so much.
Evan: I appreciate the love, Howard.
Howard: Alright, buddy, have a rockin’ hot day and enjoy those blue jays.
Evan: Oh, man, don't get me started.
Howard: I'll go watch the Ivan backs where you go watch the Blue Jays, it's got a funny, we have the same stadium for different reasons, we both have a covered stadium with retractable roof.
Evan: Yes.
Howard: Because it's one hundred and eighteen degrees outside and they got a bunch of air conditions on Toronto because it's cold and have a bunch of heaters on.
Evan: Yeah, it's true
Howard: Alright, have a great day, bye-bye.
Evan: Thanks, Howard, cheers!