High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 770: BONUS! Believe Bigger and Build Confidence Through Action with Evan Carmichael

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Today's episode is a special bonus from our recent Confidence Summit, where nine professional speakers, entrepreneurs, and world-class athletes came together to share their best strategies for building lasting confidence. In this episode, Dr. Cindra Kamphoff sits down with entrepreneur, author, and creator Evan Carmichael. Evan runs a YouTube channel for entrepreneurs with more than 3 million subscribers and 500 million views. He has written four books and speaks around the world about entrepreneurship, content, and building a meaningful brand. Confidence doesn't always arrive before you take the next step. Evan shares how, as an introvert, he struggled for years to feel comfortable creating videos, speaking publicly, and putting his ideas into the world. It took hundreds of videos before he could even watch himself without immediately focusing on everything he thought he was doing wrong. Instead of waiting until he felt confident, he kept taking action. Evan explains why one of the most powerful ways to move through fear is to shift your attention away from yourself and toward the person you can help. When fear of judgment, criticism, or failure starts holding you back, focusing on service gives you a reason to keep moving. Cindra and Evan also discuss fear of other people's opinions, the language we use when something feels difficult, asking for help, and why the areas where we lack confidence can often point toward our greatest opportunities for growth. The message is simple: someone needs what you have to share. You don't have to reach everyone. Start by helping one person. In this episode, you'll learn: Why confidence often disappears when we step into something new. How Evan kept creating despite years of self-doubt and discomfort on camera. Why focusing on service can help you move through fear. How fear of other people's opinions keeps us from taking opportunities. Why asking for help can accelerate confidence and growth. How the language you use around difficult situations influences your willingness to act. Why your next level often requires action before you feel completely ready. How helping one person can make a scary step feel worthwhile. This interview originally appeared as part of Cindra's Confidence Summit, featuring nine speakers, entrepreneurs, and world-class athletes. You can also get access to the complete 4.5-hour Confidence Summit as a bonus when you purchase Cindra's new book, The Confidence Habit.   Evan's Website: https://believe.evancarmichael.com/homepage Mentally Strong Institute: https://mentallystronginstitute.com/ Request a Free Mental Breakthrough Call: https://freementalbreakthroughcall.com/ Download the National Confidence Research Study: https://confidencestudy.com/ Pre-order The Confidence Habit: https://www.confidencetools.com/

Hi, it's Cinder here, and I have a special bonus episode for you today. We recently hosted a virtual confidence summit, which was incredible. It included nine professional speakers, entrepreneurs, and world-class athletes. One of our speakers was Evan Carmichael. Today, he runs a YouTube channel for entrepreneurs with over 3 million subscribers and 500 million views. He's written four books and speaks globally on building a brand through content. You'll love this interview with Evan Carmichael. as a bonus today. And the best part is that you can get the full four and a half hour confidence

summit for free as a bonus when you purchase my new book, The Confidence Habit. You can visit ConfidenceTools.com to learn more. That's ConfidenceTools.com to learn more. Enjoy my interview with Evan Carmichael. Guess what? We got Evan Carmichael in the house. So we're going to spot like Evan Carmichael. What's up, Evan? How are you doing today? great. How are you? It was exciting. Hey, everybody. Good morning. So exciting. I met Evan at Genius Network. And also we have, we know, you know, my agent, Nina. So thank you so much for just taking the time and being with us today. And I know this is going to be the best interview ever. Okay. I like that. I like that intention. And also, now I'm a little scared. So let's see if we can deliver here. Let's go. Well, I, I want to help me

just a little bit who you are. So you built and sold a biotech software company at 19. And by 22, you are a venture capitalist raising 150K, 500K to 15 million. You now run a YouTube channel. Everyone, Evans YouTube channel has over 3 million subscribers and 500 million views. Right? He's written four books. He speaks globally on building a brand through content. And Ford's named him as one of world's top 40 social media talents and marketing talents, Gary Vaynerchuk, describing as the DJ who inspires people, and Ed Milet called them the modern Neapolian Hill. So we are talking about believing today. So, Evan, I want to ask you, my first question for you is, tell us about your mission that you built around this world, believe. And you believe

really that, you know, this is the number one thing that holds people back. Like the world's biggest problem is that people don't believe in themselves enough. Where did this come from? And was there a time in your life when we really struggled to leave in yourself? Yeah. What a great start. And listen, believe in confidence are very, they're like sister words. Yeah. That's a very similar. Anybody here is struggling with confidence. Probably also struggles with self-belief. And honestly, I still do, right? I mean, it's like we we have confidence or belief. in what we have done, but it's what we haven't done yet that we still continue to struggle and have some confidence with. And so for me, I had, I had so many issues. I'm an introvert

as a starting point. And that seems weird, right? Like, how does an introvert get on camera and do all these videos and speaking gigs, et cetera? And I really struggled. Like, if you look at my YouTube channel, now we have, you know, however many million people. But when I started, like, the first year I had 25 subscribers, you know, then it was like 100 or, you know, it's like I posted my website the year-over-year growth and I'm five years in and have like 2,000 subscribers or something. And I really struggled because I looked online and I saw, you know, Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary and the people who are like in the news, in the media, they seem to be extrovert and loud mouths, not necessarily in a bad way, just like not me. And I thought,

okay, I can't do this. But then there was always this calling. Like I need. I need to be able to do more. And I think for any, I don't know how many introverts we have in the house, but for the introverts out there, we still want to serve. You know, like you still want to help. You still have a calling. You still feel like you want to wake up and have an impact on the world today. Oh, somebody, Kimberly's got believed tattooed on her wrist. That's pretty epic.

I love that. She just shared it in the chat. And so, I mean, I struggled for years with that. just I feel like I suck at this skill, but I want to have a bigger impact and I just didn't believe in myself enough to go off and do it. The only thing I had going for me was I just kept making content. So it was 350 videos, public videos, until like I could look back and not hate my own videos. Like, I couldn't watch my first videos back. I was too, like, you know how we're our own harshest critic? Like, I was so hard that I just, I couldn't watch it back at all because I'd

find the like million things that were wrong with it. And then 700 videos until I inspired myself with one. You know, I was like, hey, I think I'm starting to get this. 700 public videos, right? Like I'm not naturally talented or gifted at this. But the two things that helped was one, I started asking for help. So I wasn't doing it all by myself. Like you guys all here, I would, I would never have had the confidence to join something like this. Or if I did, I'd be like camera off, no participation, you know, just be too scared. Maybe my question was stupid or whatever. You know, just be too in my own head. So asking for help was one key part for me and then just continuing to go and focus on service. So if you want to boost your confidence or boost your belief,

focus on who you're helping, right? Like give a nugget, right? Because you'll do more to help others than just for yourself. Because, you know, you might not make a video or, you know, whatever next step is because you have a bad hair day or you're not feeling like it or you know you're having a no hair day or whatever like we have all these I don't know what camera to use and I don't know a microphone and I don't know how to blank and I don't like all of these things that we convince ourselves are real reasons why we can't take action but if you can default the service I just think somebody somebody needs you like somebody needs your message somebody needs your voice somebody needs your video somebody needs your book. I mean, we all have different goals and aspirations, but I think if you're,

if you're part of Cindros community, you're connected to service. I mean, she only collects good people, at least that I'm aware of, right? So, um, you won't do it for yourself enough, but if you can connect the service, like you're here to help somebody. I maybe it doesn't hit a million people. Like maybe that's not a believable thing. Like, you're going to make your first video or whatever the next step is and a million people will be served. That's, you know, maybe not believable. But like one person, can you believe that one person needs what you got right now? Like one person is struggling with the thing that you've struggled through and now have an answer to.

And like you might actually save their life from that piece of content that they're watching at like three in the morning because they have no other option and no other choice. And then you pop up and like you're not going to make that video because you have a pimple on your nose. Right. Like if you can put the service, then you're just more likely to have confidence. You're just borrowing confidence when you don't have it enough in yourself. And I'm speaking to myself as well. Like I tell myself that every week.

When I do events like this, I'm always nervous before going in. I always want to try to help and serve as much as I can. And I always like never want to do it up until I'm doing it. And then it's great. It's like, you know, I could just cancel on syndrome. It's not a big deal. She's got all these great speakers. fine, right? Anybody else feel that way sometimes? That's me like every time there's like some

commitment that I got to do to making videos or being on somebody's podcast or doing speaking gig. And I've spoken on some big stages with some, you know, really successful people, et cetera. But it's just that when you can think about the people who you're not serving yet and use that not as a push down, like you suck, but as a push forward to say, okay, like I know I've got something that can help somebody. at least for me, I find it gives me a little bit of borrowed confidence to then go do the thing. And then once you're in the thing, it's great, right? Like, it's actually, it's not that bad. You're not going to die.

It's not that scary. Like, you started doing the thing. It's just getting over that first step is really challenging. And so, I don't know, my life is a series of just convincing myself to have a little more confidence to the next step. Evan, thank you so much. Yeah, I give Evan some, like, love on that because I think it's so easy to, like, see what you built. And it's like, oh, wow, Evan must never struggle with confidence. And I love what you said about, you know, where we lack confidence is related to like where we want to go and what we haven't done yet.

And I think about myself, that's the same. That's the case. It's like I'm more confident in the things I've already done. But the goals, I lack more confidence, the bigger goals. You know, you asked me to ask you a question that I really wanted to answer. And when I think about like sometimes why I don't share my message as often as I can, is it's like FOPO. And I don't know if everyone knows with this,

it's a new term in psychology called fear of other people's opinions. And so, you know, I think FOPO holds people back where they don't raise their hand or, you know, don't apply for that job because they might not get the job. How have you dealt with the fear of other people's opinions? Yeah, so I have something I call the Big Wye Little Wye, and it's still connected to service. think at the end of the day, the answer is service. Like the people here, you're probably

wanting to serve others and build a killer business on top of it. Right? I mean, like, I like making money, but service is number one. So big Y, little Y is big why is the big mission. Yeah, I was like, what do you, what are you here to do? You're trying to change the world. Everybody here, I think, is trying to change the world in some positive way, hopefully. If you're trying to do something negative, we'll kick you up right now. But like we're trying to have a positive impact somehow, right? Like, Sinja's doing it through confidence, through the book, through this summit. You all have your own version of that, right, that we're working on. But we all want to have a positive impact and this big mission that we're trying to change the world. There's some days,

I don't know about you guys, but for me, there's some days I wake up and it's like so clear and I'm so excited and it's like, let's go do something big today, massive confidence. And so like the big why really carries it forward. Like lack of belief is the world's unborn problem. I want to help people believe themselves more. It's always the intention. that's the big why but some days the big why seems too big i don't know if you guys ever feel that but sometimes the big why it's like who am i to do that like i can't do that i'm not good enough whether it's foco i haven't heard that line before that's that's fun um or a million other reasons you know why we can't do something um i just then go to little why and the little why is i can help one person

you know like i can help one person like if i come here and if i completely suck you know maybe Scott Litterer gets changed by what I say today, right? Like, yes, let's go, Scott. Come on. He was raising his arms and like flexing there. Right? Maybe there's one person. There's one person that I can reach today.

So it becomes, so on the days that the thing feels too big, the little why is really helpful because you can go help one person. But in the days when you have a ton of confidence, it's a little why it just feels too small, right? It's like, I can do more than this. I don't want to just help one person. And so then that's when the big Y takes over. And so I'm constantly in the, you know, big, wide, little Y,

and it might depend on the day and it might depend on the hour. You know, sometimes you might make a video and you get all excited and you're so pumped or you're going to do your book or you're going to do whatever it is, the big swing you're going to take and you're feeling so excited. And then it, like, massively fails. It's easy to just turtle for the next three months. But instead, that's when Little Y takes over. Okay, but like I can help one person and that's cool, right?

It's not enough for what I want ultimately, but like it's still momentum and progress. And I think one of the biggest reasons why we never build great things, we just kill our own momentum. And so like one step every day makes a huge difference. So big, why little why both comes down the service as just the size of the service and the impact. And then when I think about just like, okay, one person who would appreciate this video, one person, how can I know a word person, it makes it less scary. I'm curious about you are... Can I stop for a second? I don't want to like so scary is a trigger word for me.

Okay. And I don't mean to interrupt you just I'm going to forget or like my OCD will take over. One of the things that have led to more belief and confidence is there's three trigger words, scary, difficult, or hard. I don't want to accept those words as reasons to stop or to not do something. like the fact that I said it the fact that you said it I had to stop because like my body starts shaking just because scary is scary is not a good enough reason and this is my own internal dialogue we all have our own words that like you convinced yourself for the past five years you can't do

something because of blank and for me what I would tell myself oh that's too scary that's too difficult or that's too hard and if you think about all the things that you want out of life out of business it's on the other side of these limiting beliefs right and so if you can identify what those words are that you tell yourself constantly of why you're not doing the more confident thing for you. And then whenever somebody says it, or you catch yourself writing it or thinking it or texting it or like whatever, that can't be the reason why you don't do the thing anymore. So anyway, you triggered me a little bit with that one. It was fine. Little explanation on it. And yeah, I don't remember what the rest of the question was, but let's,

yeah, happy to answer. Well, when I think about that, those are probably, my three trigger words too that I say to myself that holds going back. You know, like, this is too scary. This is too difficult. This is too hard. I don't know how to do it. You know, those are the things. So be you like, do you just not use those in your vocabulary? You know, give us like maybe how we could implement that in our own lives. Well, the problem is I use it all the time. Like that was the constant voice in my head. And still is to a certain extent, right? That's why I have to, that's why I called them, it's my trigger words, because I want to trigger myself out of that. I don't want to accept those as reasons why I'm not doing something.

So scary, difficult, hard are mine. Like there might be different ones for you. Everybody has their own thing, but it's the same ones. Like, why haven't you done this yet? If you just sit down, again, from a push but loving place forward, like if you spent some time today or over the weekend or whatever, like, Why have you not done the thing that you want to do? Like, we all have goals and ambitions and, like, I would love to do blank. Like, why have you not done it?

And just in on, not because you suck, right? Like, let's not pile on top of ourselves. Like, I'm a terrible person. Okay, great. Like, we don't need to go there. Like, why have you actually not done it? And then whatever, whatever the reasons are, those reasons are, are repeat patterns that continue to show up in your life for all the big things that you haven't done yet either.

And so when you can identify. identify them and label them as opposed to just being a feeling, but it's like the actual words that you're using for yourself, whether you want to journal it or write it out or like whatever way works best for you to identify what those triggers are for you. But then you can start to catch it in yourself and you're thinking when other people ask you questions. And so part of the habit is whenever somebody says to me in a question, scary, difficult, or hard, I have to interrupt and explain this thing. For me, as a reminder for myself, hopefully I'm not being rude to, you know, the person asks me the question. At least that's not the intention. But having it be a top of mind like

that, knowing this is why I hold myself back, having that in my consciousness as opposed to like the subconscious pattern behind running my life makes it easier for me to then live in accordance with like who I want to be. Right. So everybody might have their own version. The person that had to believe tattoo. I forget now the person's name, the chat scrolled by, but like a great part of putting it on the wrist is because other people will ask you about it. Yes. Right. And so that you can shouldn't have put it. And it's a reminder to yourself again each time, right? Because a tattoo for, give a tattoo is across your chest or whatever. It's hidden from everybody. It just blends in, right? Like how many times you look at yourself and then you don't even think about that tattoo anymore. But when

you're when when when it's public and visible like maybe don't get tattoo across your cheek that says believe i don't know maybe if you want to but like jameen's like i'm i'm down for that um but i'm like on their wrist um and the thing was scuder brawn who brought that up on a on a podcast i figured what his word was i think it was family but he put it across his wrist somewhere so that it's just above the cuff so that you know when he's doing interviews or whatever it stands out and people ask him about it's like it's a reminder back for yourself because every time you explain the story, you get a little bit stronger on that thing. So every time I explain scary, difficult, hard, it's like a reminder to myself today to do something a little

more scary, difficult at heart. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to bring Jermaine on in a second, but I have one question I want to ask you. So you believe that your mission is to solve the world's biggest problem, which is that people don't believe in themselves, which I think is the world's biggest problem, too. Why do you think that's the world's biggest problem? problem and what do you see um i think the world's biggest problem for each of us is a thing that we're struggling with and so dan sullivan has a great line that the the greatest gift you can give people is your standards and so if you think about what your most important core value is and if you want to pop if anybody wants to pop their their most important core value like what's your one word my first

book was called your one word with panga random house if you think about what's one word of your single most important core value. If anybody has like some examples to pop in the chat quickly, like whatever first comes to mind, don't worry about being specific or like perfect. But authenticity, joy, integrity, family, integrity, curiosity, integrity. Integrity is a big one in this. You have some fun people here, Cendra.

I could go people with integrity. So like for all the people with integrity, right? Jennifer and Ginny and Heather and a bunch of people said integrity in there. one, the greatest gift you can give the world is more integrity. And the greatest gift you can give your kids and the people around you is even more. And even the greatest gift for yourself is a new level of integrity. Like what does it mean to be even more, have even more integrity with yourself? And for them, the biggest problem in the world is lack of integrity.

And integrity is a problem for all. I mean, you know, people in this room, I'm sure integrity means something. to everybody here, right? You don't want to hang out with people who don't have integrity, but especially for, you know, Heather, Stacey, Jennifer, et cetera. Integrity matters a lot, right? Like, they will go to bat for you, but if they know that you're not living in integrity, it's going to destroy them, right? And so that's the greatest gift you can give to everybody, to your family, to your friends, to your community, to the world. And so for me, it's believe for, you know, syndrome, maybe it's confidence. It's always something positive. You know, I've done that exercise with,

I don't know, hundreds of thousands of people maybe. And it's never like death or hatred. Like it's always positive, right? And so like, I just believe people are good. And so why did good people do bad things? Well, you know, I'm sure everybody here was put all these amazing words. You haven't always been your best self if you were stressed out and had no money and had illness and things happening in your family, right? You didn't always show up. I haven't always been the most believe in everybody. And so just people are in a lot of pain. Hurt people, hurt people, right? So, like, if somebody's being mean or negative or down or somebody's going to comment on your video and say that you suck, that person, like, if the highlight of their day is coming to your video

and telling you that you suck, that person's in a ton of pain right now, right? It's still a good person, but they're in a ton of pain. So, like, how do I deal with haters? Sometimes people ask, well, it's just empathy. Like, that person's in a problem. really painful spot right now. And it doesn't mean that what the day was right. And it doesn't mean that I feel like I suck. But it also removes the sting because if that's the highlight of their day, then they must be in a really painful spot. So your next level of confidence for everybody who just posted a word there is on the other side of even more of that of curiosity of freedom, of perseverance, of belonging, authenticity, right? Like more of that, make that what you lean in on

with more confidence for the rest of the year, and great things will happen. Amazing. Everyone gives some love to Evan Card, Michael, in the chat. We will also take any questions you have. I'm going to put up Germain here. Germain. Woo!

I've been bringing me here today. What is your top takeaway, Germain? Well, first, before I share that, Evan, I want you to know your big Y and your little Y impacts me. I've been following you for years. Your top 10 rules. When I'm making my bed and when I go on my walks, you are a reputation. I never thought I would meet you.

I know it's virtual, but I got a chance to meet you. So now I'm a bigger fan now. Let's go, man. Thank you. Cool. Yes. So my big takeaways, what's the big why and the little why. That really gave me perspective.

And I invite everyone on this Zoom experience at this summit to really think, what's your big why and what's your little why? So thank you very much for providing that context. And one of the last things you said really stuck with me when you were talking about how do you deal with haters. And the fact that you said what they may do or what they may say may not be right, but you show empathy and compassion. And it just made me think about perspective. And it made me think about the quote,

when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. So thank you. So when you get those harsh feedback, sometimes you want to lessen that sting. So you gave me an aha moment. So my big why, my little why, and how to deal with potential haters. And thank you for the work that you do. Go, man. Thank you.

Yeah. So we can focus on your past values. to the person. Evan, that was amazing. Big Wile. My biggest takeaway was like someone needs your message right now. And if it's just one person, you're making the impact. So, uh, thank you, Emin. We so appreciate you being on here for giving us some love and help us, like, continue to believe in ourselves. So how can people follow along with you and Heidi's going to put some of those links in the chat? What's the best way, uh, that you'd like everyone to connect with you? Uh, I mean, videos on YouTube or fine. If you DM me on Instagram or share a screenshot of here or whatever, let me know.

I'm more curious, like you've got all these people here who bought the book and joined in the summit. What else can we do to help you as you're building out your book? Amazing. You can spread the word. You can buy a book and send it to somebody. You can post it on social media. Any way that you can help, that would just be incredible. Because we're going to change the world. And I know Evan, this book is going to change the world because it has this two kit that people need. And I also believe that the biggest issue in the world is people don't believe in themselves. And maybe I wrote the book for myself too.

But thanks for asking that. Thank you, Evan. All right. Awesome. Let's give Evan some love in the chat. We appreciate you. Thanks for coming on from Canada. and for joining us with your presence.

We'll follow Evan and purchase his book as well. So Evan, loving it. We'll see you soon. Thanks so much for being so awesome. Thanks, Andrea. Thank you, everybody. Good luck. Hi, friends.

Dr. Sindra here, and I'm so excited to announce that my new book, published by Simon & Schuster, is now available titled The Confidence Habit. Our national research study on confidence showed there is a confidence crisis in America today. One in two Gen Zers and young millennials, feel like they are not enough.

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