Kind: captions
Language: en
at the end of the day man you really
gotta want it
you gotta really want it and i think the
problem is is now with social media
before
when i was growing up i didn't see all
these examples of people having cool
cars or doing cool [ __ ] all the time
like right and now with social media i
don't care if you're in like you know
in the bum [ __ ] middle of nowhere you
can log on to instagram and see just
this whole world of experiences and
things the problem is it's like oh well
these people have it so i should be able
to have it and it's just like man you
don't see
the work that goes behind this man i
started my first marketing job at 14.
i'm 10 years into entrepreneurship it
wasn't until the past few years where i
started really getting recognition for
it right and so people don't see
all that it takes
to even get to that point and that's the
problem and so they think it's supposed
to be this this overnight thing goes oh
i started llc give me money
no that's not how it works
[Music]
hey everybody welcome to impact theory
today's guest went from homeless to
building four multi-million dollar
companies before the age of 30. he was
named by the root as one of the top 100
most influential african americans and
in 2018 alone he was named to forbes 30
under 30 list grew his company
millisense by 40 percent grew his other
company pop social by 600 percent landed
on the cover of cosign magazine launched
both artx and et enterprises was a key
partner in the launch of zoe saldana's
media company besse won the power of
influence award from bpr sla and was
recognized by the city of los angeles
for his achievements and influence on
african-american culture a truly
extraordinary string of accomplishments
for anyone but really inspiring coming
from someone who witnessed his first
murder at the age of seven was selling
drugs by the age of 12 and was homeless
by 17. his incredible rise out of
hardship has been profiled by
prestigious outlets like the bbc and
he's been called a marketing genius by
both forbes and fortune he's also a
national brand ambassador for nasa's
startup initiative and he's worked as a
digital influencer for some of the
biggest brands on the planet including
amazon google disney toyota american
express and many many more
so please help me in welcoming the
serial entrepreneur and philanthropist
who has proven it does not matter where
you start it only matters where you want
to go everett taylor
how you doing i'm good man thanks for
having me yeah thanks for being here
welcome welcome i like the fit well
thank you sir yeah thank you very much
man
so in watching your interviews there's
always high style going on so uh you
know you got to keep it crispy over here
oh yeah man i love it i love it so a
little birdie told me that relentless is
your word yeah i have it on my wrist
right here nice i actually have a retina
painting with uh relentless as well so
yes
it's like a mantra that's uh that's
amazing the painting's really cool by
the way thank you that word to me really
does seem to sum up what you've
accomplished it's pretty extraordinary
to go from homeless to where you've
gotten today how has being relentless
helped what does that mean to you
exactly
yeah so for me
um
i think life is just you know have you
seen the movie deadpool of course of
course so uh deadpool in that movie he
says something about how
you have like these brief moments of
kind of peace until like the next
accident happens right
and that's just life in general you know
it's never going to be complete smooth
sailing one of the things that i've
noticed about a lot of people is that
they let the hardships and the things
that happen in their life failure stop
them from like aliyah says you know dust
yourself off and try again right and for
me i've just never let
anything or anybody prevent me from
achieving what i want to achieve
so i've always had this relentless
mentality and if you say i can't do
something if i fail if i you know mess
up it just motivates me even more i just
become even more hungry and so i've
always just had this you know relentless
mentality i don't take you know no for
an answer i don't take failure or accept
failure at all and it's just always been
kind of in my heart to not give up i
love that there was a moment in your
story that you've referenced a few times
that really made me think of this i want
to know what you did specifically i want
you to take us back to that moment
you're living in your car yeah somebody
smashes your window and this is back in
virginia right back in richmond virginia
yeah as hell yeah smash your window take
all your stuff and now not only are you
minus your stuff but you have a hole in
your window in the winter right
how did you react that moment
well okay so
there's one thing being homeless
but there's another thing having
everything taken away from you right so
you know i worked throughout my teen
year so i had jordans i had like cool
clothes rockaway all this stuff that
kids aren't wearing anymore right and um
you know for me like i was literally
living out of my car and so even though
i was homeless i was still trying to
uphold the appearance of everything
being okay
when that moment happened it was like
whoa this is rock bottom because now
all my clothes are gone all the cool
shoes all the things that were material
um that you know i tried to fake it
until i figured things out were gone now
and not only that all the the the
elements so
now rain and snow and all these things
can get in the car so it was like
mildewy and smelly and so i smelled
right and so for me in that moment i
understood that wow this is i thought
things were bad but things are really
really bad at this point and now i can't
pretend anymore i just have to really
embrace this i think a lot of times when
we're going through things we kind of
try to figure out how we're going to
finesse our way into people not knowing
that things or things are wrong instead
of just saying this is my life this is
real now you know and so now i had to go
to school
smelly i couldn't front anymore you know
it wasn't just no shave november i
didn't have fresh clothes and fresh
kicks and so
i really just had to embrace it i think
for a while in the beginning i really
just tried to pretend for so long and
then at that moment it was like no this
is this is real
and so when you say embrace it what what
do you mean first of all and then second
how does embracing it help you is it
that you're no longer spending emotional
and intellectual cycles on something
pointless or what does that look like i
think embracing it meaning means like
okay i actually have to find a solution
to this problem right so i think a lot
of times in life
we try to kind of put band-aids on our
problems or issues and instead of for
instance the instagram era right instead
of
actually being successful or like moving
out of our mom's basement or whatever
we put so much energy and time into the
presentation of not looking like that's
the situation instead of putting the
energy and time into actually
finding a solution to that issue and so
at that point it was like okay i've been
putting a lot of time and effort trying
to pretend things are good instead of
actually trying to find solutions and
then that's when i started to
do everything i needed to do to try to
make money and just really when i say
embrace it's not necessarily like accept
it for what it is it's almost like okay
this is real i need to figure this out
yeah i think that's really powerful i
was just talking the other day about
something very similar about you have to
first accept your reality except the
truth of where you are right and once
you accept the truth of where you are
then you're not wasting the cycles on
that then you can switch over into a
solution-oriented mindset which sounds
like exactly what you were doing so how
did you begin to strategize your way out
of that you were i mean at that point
pretty young i don't think you'd ever
done anything truly entrepreneurial um
so without any role models to chase like
how did you begin to put those pieces
together honestly it was just learning
from people on the street
right so you kind of take in your
surroundings you take in the people
around you you see how they're making
money and i just didn't like begging
people for money and so i respected the
guys that were like figuring out hustles
right and so for instance there was a uh
amaco right down the street from me and
so i would go there and i would wash
windshields and make money just try to
save up enough money to just be in a
motel for the night and i mean like the
nastiest motel but for me it was just
taking in my environment seeing how
other people hustled how i can do it
better
someone taught me how to play drums on
buckets and things like that and so
you know i just tried to do any type of
hustle
that i could to to kind of make things
happen and you kind of learn like a
lifestyle it's like oh i'm going to
school dirty no go to the gas station go
use the bathroom use the soap in there
use the paper towels in there clean
yourself up you figured out ways to kind
of hustle like the way i discovered tech
was that i used to go into the look i
never went to the library and i'm like
whoa this place is open till eight and
it's warm and has computers and internet
what who never no one told me about this
and so i just started to learn how
others were moving and kind of adapted
throughout
it's really interesting and it's really
interesting to watch you in retrospect
begin to put the pieces together to be a
voracious learner
and one thing that you've talked about
learning from that is one of my favorite
subjects ever
is that and let's piss some people off
here really fast drug dealers are
extraordinary entrepreneurs right and so
my wife and i have a philosophy so
i talked about it in your intro it
doesn't matter where you
start from it just matters who you want
to become the price you're willing to
pay to get there and i find that most
people are not willing to pay the price
right really hustling really figuring
things out
but we put out on the street that we
would hire people even if they had a
criminal record and so we ended up
having a line around the building from
people who's trying to interview this
back at quest and it was crazy man some
of the most extraordinary people that i
met with criminal backgrounds ex-gang
members former drug dealers we had one
guy that just told me straight up like
oh i was trying to get this job as a
front for my drug money and i was like
that's actually really clever i was kind
of impressed
and so he and i ended up getting really
close and and he's gone on to do
extraordinary things um but when he was
breaking down for me what a drug dealer
has to do to pay attention to like to
know where the cameras in the
neighborhood point to know where the
blind spots are to know what undercover
um
cops are around based on the cars they
drive and everything i mean it's just
really extraordinary when he was talking
about how he didn't call them employees
but like how he dealt with his crew and
i was like dude i'm like you're a better
entrepreneur naturally than i am by far
right but i've
done more because i've taken an approach
that is far more scalable because
essentially what you're selling is risk
but talk to me about that because you
both learned from them but didn't
succumb you didn't go back to it right
so i want to understand like how you
begin to tease out knowledge from people
that are very unconventional right
without just going well it's what i see
so it's what i'm gonna do right so my
supplier
that was the first ceo that i ever met
like literally like being a drug dealer
is like being a chief operating officer
the things that
they have to be aware of the type of all
the types of people that they're dealing
with and things like that and you you
got to realize that you know it's almost
like a
two-sided you know marketplace in a
sense of what like dealing with you know
people who are supplying you with that
the person that's supplying you like
it's it's you know two different sides
to it and so it's really impressive and
at the time
i didn't
realize the things that i was kind of
taking in and and kind of learning um
you know
you have sales goals
you know you have to
learn people's skills you have to be
able to discern
you know different situations i talk
about my time being homeless in my time
selling drugs is like those are the
times where i really develop my
emotional intelligence
because you you get to meet people from
all different walks of life people think
the only people that were buying drugs
were from the hood like no like it was
like vcu students virginia commonwealth
university sorry vcu but like college
students like all different types of
people were coming around and you would
see like you know and you have to be
able to discern for that as like yo this
guy that looks like he's not shouldn't
be in our neighborhood
is this guy undercover cop is this guy
college student we had all different
like methods to you know trying to
figure those types of things out
but for me
it provided a source of inspiration
and a lot of people feel uncomfortable
with that but
i grew up not having anything you know
and so to see these guys with the nice
jewelry the nice cars the newest jordans
and things like that not saying that
they were spending their money on the
right things but it showed me that
my family and a lot of people around me
had just accepted a certain level of
mediocrity that was generational
and so for me i looked at them as wow if
you have
the motivation
to do something for yourself and make
something there's a lot of drug dealers
there's not a lot of drug dealers that
are making
real money right it takes a certain like
you know
genesecua like you know to to get to a
point where you become a boss right and
so for me it showed me how you can
separate yourself from the pack and and
really run things the way that it should
be yeah that sentence will go down in my
memory as one of the most fascinating je
ne sais quoi regarding uh drug dealers
and what
but the thing is it's really true and to
your point about people get
uncomfortable talking about it i've
never quite understood why so my thing
is learn from anyone that has something
to teach you and that was the thing that
so
it's hard to fear that which you love so
in
in having so many employees that really
were ride or die for um lisa and i when
we were building quest it was like you
just you really fall in love with who
they are as people and so and that's how
i got to know so much about their real
story not the sort of pr story but
really what what went down right and
in in
loving them as much as we did for who
they were then we could really open
ourselves to what that story is and to
some of the extraordinary beats and
moments and so that time coupled with um
some big brothering that i had done for
a kid in in south central los angeles
really is why we did impact theory for
the very reason that you said you know
there's a lot of people that are in this
but there's very few people that really
learn from what they're going through
and so i'm looking at these people and
it's their mindset that's holding them
back right and it wasn't that we weren't
encountering incredibly smart people we
were
but
the people that they had to model after
weren't the right people they weren't
making the right moves they weren't
investing their money in intelligent
fashion all of that but it was all that
they knew and so what i find really
interesting is the inner city and
poverty specifically break most of the
people that that it touches right but
every now and then you get an everett
taylor who it seems to propel them
forward it's like they're fighting so
hard against that thing that they
overshoot
which is really interesting so how do
you think of that beginning is it is it
something that you think has now really
worked for you or is it something that
no i'd be even farther ahead if i hadn't
had that it's the rules that grew from
concrete right it's like
no matter how
terrible a situation is no matter how
bad it is
there's still going to be a rose that
grows from that concrete and i feel like
i was that right no matter what my
situation was i was built for this
i was not going to let
myself fail
right and i have that mentality and i
understand that now that i grew from
that concrete i'm starting to plant my
seeds and there's more roses growing
right and so that's why it's so
important to be on a show like this is
important that you're doing what you're
doing with impact theory because
you know
we're planting seeds man we're planting
seeds in places that people like man
[ __ ] will never grow here right we're
like no it can't
you know because there's a lot of people
out there that have the heart that have
the talent that have the ability they
just have to see that someone else can
do it
and and that's you know that's important
yeah for sure i always said that
i think the next einstein is going to be
discovered somewhere in compton it's
where we were working at the time and i
was just like
the problem is they don't believe they
can do anything with their lives and so
our mission became those seeds right
like how do you plant those seeds what
is that what is that mindset that you
have that you can pass on so if you knew
i mean you do know so you've got this
potential generation they've got
extraordinary things to offer but most
of them never will because they're not
going to encounter the seed that you're
going to give them right what is in that
seed like if that kid is watching right
now he's in a library right now what do
you want that person to understand that
will allow them to build your mindset
right
i remember being in the library
and i discovered mark zuckerberg and
i've told this story
a hundred times the part i haven't
talked about often
um and i don't know why is that when i
discovered mark zuckerberg yes i was
inspired to be an entrepreneur and be in
tech but i said
i can't do that
i'm not some white kid from the
northeast with a harvard education i
can't do that
but you know who i discovered
q
rest in peace cue from world star
hip-hop now however you may feel about
world star right
q was a guy that looked like me from the
hood
no formal education no background in
tech or the digital space and he built
this super viral profitable website
and at that moment i said oh
can do it too you have to be able to
show people that there's other options
and that's
what spreading seeds is all about
showing people that they can actually do
something different
you know what do you think is your trait
that is the most useful thing in terms
of making you successful
the most useful thing
um
i think
emotional intelligence
i think
i have a god-given ability to understand
people
what makes them tick
what motivates them you know what they
desire how they feel about things and it
helps me build world-class products and
world-class services
and
it helps me understand what companies to
build
you know everyone asked me what is like
my secret sauce of marketing the whole
thing with marketing is like you can
teach anybody how to do seo or do like
an instagram ad or whatever what's that
special what's that special sauce right
what's that special thing and i think
it's my ability to truly understand
people right
at their core
that has helped me
really be successful
all right mr understand people at their
core since you just scared poor jimmy
back in you know hardship land
because you said that your talent is
god-given there's nothing you can do
about that he's convinced that he has no
god-given talent right that he is just
hopelessly average right what do you
think about skill acquisition are there
things that people can learn and if so
how do they go about it well actually i
think emotional intelligence is
something that you can work on okay
right so for me
it's
it's opening your mind and opening
yourself to people i think a lot of
people
they
are ignorant they are
like rejecting change
travel
get out of your comfort zone meet people
from all different types of backgrounds
if you want to build a product or
service or company that you want to
build at scale and your friends are only
the homies that you've been hanging out
with since you know middle school
probably should meet some more people
get to know them travel the world you
know and even if you don't have the
resources to travel the internet learn
about different cultures learn about
different people all right so he's there
in the library sitting in front of the
computer ready to type into the prompt
what website does he go to what does he
serve well it depends on what you're
what you're trying to work on i think
what's so special about the internet now
is
really anything you want to do you can
learn like if you want to learn how to
code if you want to be a developer you
want to build software you want to build
apps you can literally go on youtube and
learn
how to code and so what i would tell
that person is
what do you want to do
tell me anything what do you want to do
right
now there's resources and there's things
online that can help you build yourself
into whatever that is so i think that
that kid at the end of the day he has to
have that kind of just
i got to make this happen
right
here's the thing no one can teach you
that
no one can no one no one can i can you
know they say what you can bring a horse
of water but you can't make them drink
it or whatever i'm probably [ __ ] it
up that was perfect but um
but yeah you can't do that and that's
the one thing i've learned
through my time mentoring people through
giving people advice i feel like we all
have that friend that is always hitting
us up for advice and then never [ __ ]
takes our advice it's annoying right and
so at the end of the day
that person has to take that last leap
you're at that computer you tell me what
you want to do i tell you this is how
you search this is this is how you find
those resources
now you got to actually go and learn
yeah so one of the deepest um distresses
that i have in my life is that i can't
want it for people right um because
there are people that i love very much
that like you said they come seeking
advice you give them very clear
instruction do this you will get this
result do that you'll get that result
and you'll end up here and they never
take that first step right um either
because like you said they're resistant
to change or whatever but they they
never do right um
i heard an amazing phrase one time to
your point about you can lead a horse
water but you can't make them drink and
he said
don't worry about leading the horse to
water or making them drink just try to
make them thirsty
and i thought well
that is really powerful and so then the
question becomes how do you make someone
thirsty
and your life is a very intriguing
glimpse into i think what the answer is
here you said once that you used to
think what was driving you was a desire
to get out of poverty and to take care
of your family but you said i'm more
driven now than ever and i took care of
my family a long time ago right so what
drives you why are you so thirsty now
you know for me it's
it's interesting uh because that it
changes with time i
am inspired by helping people if i can
make money too
damn that's cool too right but the thing
that really gets me out of bed right now
is
my ability to help people i don't need
any more money i don't need
any more material things you know as
well as i know that [ __ ] gets old right
and um you know it feels good
temporarily but it doesn't really hold
any weight or substance and so the thing
that i feel like our legacy
is how do we affect as many people as
possible in the most genuine and
impactful way right and for me that is
what drives me today
define impact in that scenario like um
in what way do you want to touch people
well it depends you know everything is
everything is different the the biggest
thing that i want to do
is help people
get to their place of peace
okay
getting to their place of peace for a
lot of people
financial freedom is a big part of that
i tell people all the time money
doesn't make you happy but sure as hell
helps you
find peace because if you're in a space
where you're constantly worrying about
money
how are you going to focus on
what keeps you at peace right and so for
me it's really getting to that core of
what people are passionate about what
brings them peace and in financial
freedom
let's talk about passion for a second i
think that's really really an
interesting topic i think there's a lot
of misconceptions about what passions
are how they're created what do you say
to the kid that comes up to you and says
i don't know what i want to do with my
life you're lucky because you have a
passion but i don't have a passion and i
get this all the time and there's this
sense of desperation it's like talking
to somebody who's drowning right what do
you say to people in that position i
don't think you can just put so much
pressure on yourself
i think
like this is a marathon this is not a
sprint
right you never know when that moment is
going to happen
in your life where you find that passion
or you figure it out the fun part is
just trying a bunch of stuff like when
you get to a point where you can just
try a bunch of stuff it's like hey sit
down make a list
i'm interested in
all these different things right
okay i'm interested in these top five
things now
how can i do something that not only am
i passionate about with one of these top
five things
but also make at least enough money to
just get by now what i want to get into
is you seem extraordinarily good at
taking something that's sort of big and
amorphous
and putting some structure to it and
then going step by step to figure out
what you need i'm guessing the first
time you built tech was for that company
right so how do you approach learning
like so to just frame the question a
little bit for me i'm always trying to
learn the vocabulary of the industry i'm
going into right so that when i read
about it which ultimately is my goal to
go read and be well-versed and just
begin to sort of put shape to this thing
i just write down the words that i don't
know and i go look them up meticulously
i'm not trying to like finish an article
or anything i'm trying to learn the
vocabulary right do you have sort of an
entry-level step or a way that you think
about
you know really getting a foothold yeah
you know it's so interesting
i was recently thinking about
how every company of mine
has started and
pretty much they all start the same way
whether i consciously or subconsciously
subconsciously do this i immerse myself
within the target audience of that
product or service right i see a lot of
people that want to try to do something
and they don't talk to people they're
like oh i think this is cool and so they
just start working on it and the best
way to learn is from other people
especially the people that you're trying
to serve these products or these
services too right and so
for me like i said consciously or
subconsciously i've always emerged
myself
into that target audience that culture
those people
and learn from them have conversations
with them find out what they hate what
they love right and that was extremely
important and when you start to immerse
yourself within this right you're going
to want to do more research for like art
being a young black guy in an art space
[ __ ] doesn't happen right it's not it's
not a lot of us like the youngest art
collector
that i know outside of myself is jesse
williams on like grey's anatomy he's 37
right you know so he has like eight
eight years on me so it's not a lot of
people that i know and i'm like yo why
is that right and so then i start to do
my research and i start to learn why
things are the way they are so it's like
wow i put myself in this space
i'm starting to identify problems now i
want to research why these problems are
problems and then
figure out ways that i can tackle these
problems right and so it's just like the
step-by-step process and then when i
think i find a solution to those
problems i go back to that target
audience
and i started saying how do you guys
feel about this
or try this out what do you think about
this it's such a collaborative
experience it's not just about you
getting on the internet and just
researching things i think it's about
talking to people and really bringing
different you know minds into the mix at
the end of the day man you really gotta
want it you gotta really want it and i
think the problem is is now with social
media before
when i was growing up i didn't see all
these examples of people having cool
cars or doing cool [ __ ] all the time
like right and now with social media i
don't care if you're in like you know
in the bum [ __ ] middle of nowhere you
can log on to instagram and see just
this whole world of experiences and
things the problem is it's like oh well
these people have it so i should be able
to have it and it's just like man you
don't see
the work that goes behind us man i
started my first marketing job at 14.
i'm 10 years into entrepreneurship it
wasn't until the past few years where i
started really getting recognition for
it right and so people don't see all
that it takes to even get to that point
and that's the problem and so they think
it's supposed to be this this overnight
thing goes oh i started llc give me
money right no that's not how it works
we talk about something else so my thing
with that is
i actually love
the i don't know what i'm doing and i
have to figure this out like that actual
process right and because of that i'll
win over and over and over because i can
go into a new space and fall in love
like oh oh yeah like i guess now in this
weird world which i'm still not used to
people are paying attention to what i do
but
i just love the process of going in and
figuring something out right and if
that's your mentality if what you're
trying to do is acquire skills so that
you are capable of something like i
think people acquire skills to check a
box they're thinking like it was in high
school or college you're going to be
test and you either pass you fail
no this is like you can add value to
somebody's life and thusly build an app
and and make a lot of money right um or
you can't add value to people's lives
because you don't have a skill set
that's usable or desired right and
you're stuck but if you love the very
process not like the thought of oh this
is going to make a cool instagram post
but like if you love the the process
then then you've really got something so
i've recently gone into the comic book
market long story why but i find myself
in this place where historically i had a
passion but i didn't know anything about
the industry right and it's
there's half of it that plays to my
strengths and the other half that just
is a succubus on my weekend my
weaknesses and so it's like whoa i
really have to face every insecurity
that i have every lack of skill it's
like and i have to figure it out or i
have to outsource it to somebody or
whatever and going into this side
and being able to fall in love with that
and then
i'm in a position where i can monetize
my content but i forget to even record
the content because i'm so focused on
learning and if people could like i i do
feel a little bad because when you grow
up with something it it occupies a part
of your mind that says this is real
and because i grew up with i didn't get
social media until i was like in my late
30s right so it was like
i didn't really
it's not real to me it's a tool right
it's a marketing tool it's an ability to
touch somebody's life like all of that
[ __ ] is amazing
but i'm not thinking oh how's this going
to make a cool post
and i think that's a big shift that if
people could make that
then they would just go about learning
dude you got to love it you really got
to love it so
i got ahead of myself and i had this
idea for artx which was formerly called
art noir when i was gonna launch it and
uh last summer so almost getting to a
year year now i was like oh i'm
launching this in a couple weeks
it still hasn't like officially like we
have like a community right now and all
that but it hasn't officially launched
because you know what i said to myself i
was like dude i don't know as much as i
should
so i took a step back
and i said i
i'm so glad i did not launch that
company then
because you know you get excited and all
that and
i know so i took a year of learning
i just took a year
to learn just learn a space
get to know people figure things out
because even though i had been in this
space for a little while
i was more intentional about it before
it was okay i'm just here because i love
art and so i've been meeting these
people and learning about this and this
is what's needed but then i said
no
i want to be intentional
about doing this and so i shifted my
energy i shifted my time and i really
got into it and it's also something that
i love to do right and so yeah did i
miss out on revenue that i miss out on
you know making more money in 2018 and
all this other stuff yeah of course yeah
but at the end of the day
i'm going to launch a much more
successful business when i do launch it
and it's because i took the time to
learn
and i just think that people are in such
a rush
to have something especially money money
is like oh i gotta get more money but
it's like if you launch something that's
piss-poor or shitty even at a point
where i had accomplished so many things
i almost did it right we're not perfect
i'm not perfect you know i still [ __ ] up
all the time man [ __ ] up earlier today
like i was came here at the wrong time
right so we we mess up constantly but
it's it's identifying that and saying
wait let me take a step back and let me
do this the right way
you sent a tweet about that i think late
last year and you talked about
basically that whole notion of
you know hey if you don't know where
something is going to go
you might be leaving money on the table
but you're better off leaving the money
on the table and walking away knowing
that you're not misrepresenting yourself
i'm doing a bad job of quoting the tweet
but it was that idea and i thought
that's actually really powerful and
that's a really important message to get
out there like yes you could grab the
brass ring right now
but it's probably going to end up being
a lot
smaller than what you could have
accomplished if you've been willing to
take the step back focus on something
other than the money focus on value
focus on knowledge
and i thought that was a really really
important message
where can people find you online
just my name man everett
e-v-e-r-e-t-t-e
um it's that on twitter instagram
snapchat for you guys who still use it
and um yeah man uh my website's
evertaylor.com
um yeah man just reach out i'm pretty
like personable person so yeah
normally i end the interview by asking
what's the impact you want to have in
the world but i think you answered that
with the peace
answer so i'll see something a little
bit different what's one change that
people could make in their life that
would have the biggest impact on
improving their life
confronting mental health oh [ __ ]
like it's it's
it's honestly been something that has
absolutely changed my life
now you got to go into detail oh yeah
for sure um
taking a few years back
i was
vp of marketing of a company called
kuala rue um we had also
co-founded this company called growth
hackers and i was working on my
marketing firm so i'm juggling three
companies
i'm working
hours a day
something crazy i just wouldn't
enjoy life at all and i had gotten to
this crazy
deep depression like
i hated myself
i didn't like my life i got separated
from my family because i was so focused
it's just like you know and it got to a
point where i've never actually admitted
this on camera
um
you ever like missed that call from your
mom or you missed and then it turns into
a week and it turns into and then you
start to feel this like anxiety because
you know it's been so long since you
talked to that person and it literally
be like a month and i wouldn't have
talked to my mom you know and it's it's
because i [ __ ] i don't know what to say
like i've literally been so stressed out
and you just isolate yourself and i was
in such
an awful place and
it's juxtaposed by people singing your
praises
it is the weirdest phenomenon
in life when you're a public figure
to have people saying how great you are
and you [ __ ] feel awful
and
it got to a breaking point
where
my work started to suffer
you know my relationship started to to
break
and
i just said you know what
what is this what you know i gotta
figure this out
i grew up in a place where depression
was not i don't even know if i knew what
the word depression was like outside of
like the [ __ ] dmx album the great
depression like i don't know if i
ever really knew what depression was and
um
you know it was taking me taking that
initiative to like i need help this is
what i'm dealing with this is what i'm
feeling
and i need to figure this out and it
saved my life i don't know what would
have happened to me right the thoughts
that were crossing my mind the ways that
i was feeling and um i think
a lot of times the thing that's stopping
us from being the person that we truly
want to be is ourselves it's usually
ourselves and i think being able to
identify mental health depression
anxiety all these things that we're
dealing with
and say that we want to make a change
and we humble ourselves to want to make
that change is one of the biggest
barriers that one can break through
wow man that was really really powerful
thank you
so much for trying to be all somber at
the end oh yeah no that was so perfect
and you have no idea how much that
drives me
i think that that it's a real real issue
and when i say that i'm terrified by the
depression and anxiety and suicide that
i see
um it's it's really scary and i i always
thought that my role in the public
sphere was going to be the business guy
i always thought that i would help
people build their businesses
and what i have become is the mindset
guy which i was me mindset was a tool
for me to get good at business
and now i'll be you know at an event or
something and
i always use this example because it um
it was so striking
guys big yoked because of my background
in fitness i get a lot of
followers that are fitness so he's
probably six to 230 i mean just a big
dude
and walking down the hall grabs me pulls
me aside and he just bursts into tears
and he's like i want to kill myself like
first words
and i was just like [ __ ] like this is
not the guy anybody would ever imagine
is grappling with depression
and and he is and so you know having
things like that happen
over and over and over um
you really start to think about people
have to talk about it right you know
what i mean and so
i've certainly started being super open
about my anxiety which for a while was
crippling right um because you're right
like that's
that's the breakthrough being able to
talk about it being able to confront it
not let it get somewhere because you're
embarrassed right i mean it's crazy yeah
thank you for that thanks man this is
really really awesome yeah of course um
guys if you haven't already be sure to
subscribe and until next time my friends
be legendary take care
thank you that was amazing thank you man
i appreciate it as soon as i started
doing everything that i loved there was
a surge of power
a surge of confidence i wasn't insecure
anymore because the emotion that had the
most dominance in my thought process and
in my heart process
was actually being paid attention to