How do you encourage your team to grow? The reality is that we’re never stuck as long as we’re willing to shift our mindset. Learn the four critical steps for learning and growth, as well as how to achieve results through embracing the power of choice and transforming our perspective through mind shifts. On the Leadership Junkies Podcast, Darrell Evans discusses leadership, growth, and digital marketing.
Jeff Nischwitz:
We’re excited to be back here for another fantastic episode and conversation today. We have Darrell Evans with us. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor, co-founder of a company called Yokel Local Internet Marketing, and he and his team have helped entrepreneurs and companies generate over $300 million in revenue online since 2011.
Probably not a surprise for the serial entrepreneur, he has personally started or operated six businesses since he was 20. He's also the host of The MindShift Podcast, we love that MindShift, which launched in 2019. He's also the founder of the MindShift Business Academy. And Darrell’s passion is entrepreneurship. We're going to talk about that today. He loves sharing the lessons, mistakes, breakthroughs, frameworks that have helped him and hundreds of other businesses market profitably, grow sales predictably, and build superstar teams. And his goal is really simple. We love this one: Help you grab at least one mind shift today that could catapult you to your next level of success. So welcome, Darrell.
Darrell:
Jeff and Craig, I am excited to be here. I appreciate the work that you're doing in this world. I loved your story when I heard about it. And I think we're in for a great conversation. Hope your audience enjoys.
Craig Mathews:
Yeah, glad to have you here.
Jeff:
Awesome there. So Darrell, give everybody a little bit of the backstory for Darrell Evans.
Life Lessons Learned From an Entrepreneurial Past
Darrell:
I appreciate it. I hate — these intros are always interesting, but yeah, as you stated, you know, the short story is, yeah, I did get started entrepreneurship in my 20s. Yeah, it sounds interesting. When you say six companies, obviously three of those failed. We can unpack that a little bit.
"But inside of failure comes lessons, lessons that you catapult."
Darrell Evans
I spent a good chunk of my time though in the real estate and lending industry, real estate agent as well as a home mortgage company.
Two thousand and eight came along. Pivot. I looked at my life plan, I started working with a business coach, life coach in 2005, looked at my life plan in 2008-9. And what was interesting was I had a vision for something 25 years down the line. If you've ever done any work to plan 25 years, it's hard work, right? And so 2008-2009 happens in the real estate industry. And in some reflection time, I said, I don't know that I want to stay in this industry, even though I was at “the top of the game” and I decided to start in the world of digital marketing. What the basis of that really goes back in my early 20s and maybe we'll unpack that a little bit. And really, I started internet marketing for the mortgage company in 2003-4, and we launched an internet marketing division in 2005. So I just was an early adopter and so I was noticing changing consumer direction, consumer behavior, technology was evolving. And I said, you know, I think this is a field I could do for the rest of my life, because this is going to be an ever-evolving field.
I met my business partner in 2008. We started Yokel Local 2010. We opened in 2011.
"And as you mentioned, we've been helping companies grow now for the last 11 years with a framework that sits at the bottom of everything we do. Just like if you build a house, there's got to be a foundational framework. And then from there, you can make some magic happen."
Darrell Evans
So that's the short tour.
Revisiting The Life Plan
Craig:
That's pretty awesome. So when you're looking at 25 years out, things change around you. How often did you revisit that life plan?
Darrell:
I revisited about once a year, once, sometimes once every two years. And the interesting part about the planning work was — and my coach, I still thank to this day, I still talk to him to this day. We'll connect once or twice a year and we're not still in a coaching relationship, but we became friends. And the work that I reflect back on is the vision. It isn't as much the plan, because I wrote stuff in that document in 2005, that that plan is no longer the same, meaning the mechanism is not the same, but the vision, ironically, is the same.
And I talked a lot about you know, in the by the way this, this is something that, you know, in various ways, vision plays in everything that I do and that is being able to see something before it exists. Believe in something happening before the realization of it happening, which is really part of the essence of mind shift. But Jim Rohn says it this way that, you know: If you find yourself not where you want to be, don't change the plan. Sorry, don't change the goal, change the plan. And so, for me, that document served as the goal and the plan at that time was I'll be in the mortgage business. I'll be one of the best in the industry and best in the world. And well, I decided that that didn't suit my lifestyle and part of that plan started to say, hey, this might need to change. But I do revisit, I revisit that document in its original form from 2005, once a year, once every two years.
"Vision plays in everything that I do and that is being able to see something before it exists. Believe in something happening before the realization of it happening, which is really part of the essence of mind shift. But Jim Rohn says it this way: If you find yourself not where you want to be, don’t change the goal, change the plan."
Darrell Evans
Marketing Agency vs. Digital Marketing Agency
Jeff:
So Darrell, let's get one basic question answered. And because I hear this phrase all the time, I know Craig does. But I'm realizing other people don't. Some people don't really understand what a digital marketing agency [laughter] that’s the term now, right? It used to be you had marketing agency, you now have digital marketing agency, and a lot of people, even business owners, don't know what the hell that is. Give us the basics of what's ...
Darrell:
That’s a great question and a great distinction, right? The way you asked that question is a great baseline distinction.
Listen to the rest of the podcast to hear Darrell’s answer to Jeff’s question, plus tips to empower yourself and your team to achieve more, as well as effective strategies that will help you overcome life's obstacles.
