Evan Van Auken

Hi! my name is Evan and I'm super stoked you want to learn more about me.

I show people how to build their businesses. I learn a skill, test it with my own companies and share it.

I got my start by selling CDs at 13 years old. I’ve worked as a fry cook, I’ve mowed lawns, built go-peds, managed restaurants, sold mortgages, worked in Hollywood, and sat at a desk. I’ve cold-called, done graphic design, pounded pavement, traded crypto, and worked on an ambulance.

I finally settled down and devoted my life to becoming a firefighter in my early 20’s. It took me 5 years of training, fire academies, and paramedic school to finally land that job.

I spent 8 years of my life answering 911 calls. Now I get to pursue my real passion, which is building businesses and educating.

My first successful company is called Scorch Marker.

I was building a commemorative plaque for the fire department in my woodshop and desperately wanted to burn our motto “together in, together out” into the wood. So I pulled out my wood-burning tool, plugged it into the wall, and screwed the whole thing up.

But my wife and I had found another way. We created a chemical solution that reacts with heat. We were inspired by YouTube creators. You apply the liquid to wood, apply heat, and the wood burns only where you drew! Pretty cool right? We invented the world’s first wood-burning marker – Scorch Marker.

Little did we know that this was the beginning of something big. We agreed to spend $500 of our savings to see if we could turn the idea into a product. 2 years later and we got into retail, became a bestseller on Amazon, created jobs, and made a lot of mistakes.

It’s the mistakes that are important. Those are the valuable, teachable moments that doers get to enjoy and learn from. They make you stronger.

Building, maintaining, scaling, running, or managing a business is not easy. But it can be done.

That's why I'm here. To teach what I've learned so you don't have to make the same mistakes that I did.

Evan