Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Kail.
Hi Evan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started with failure. I majored in Japanese Studies at the University of Minnesota with the idea of turning it into a Hollywood Screenplay career. I grew up with a love of Japanese culture, particularly cartoons, and I wanted to be the guy they called when an anime needed an American live-action adaptation. After graduation, I threw myself headfirst into this ambition and spent time as a writer and producer working on short films, scripts, music videos, and commercials. It all fell flat. I then became a full-time Uber driver and wrote two books about it after driving full-time for 4 years around the Twin Cities. Despite local media buzz, that, too, fell flat. So, I worked in restaurants, still writing books in my own time when nobody was reading. Then, one day, my father came to visit me and said an older man who owned a gold shop was looking for a young person to take over. I went and met with the man and begged him for a job. His store was like being stuck back in time, and I offered to bring him into the 21st century with an internet presence, particularly utilizing social media. He hired me part-time and took me on full-time after a successful summer. This was the fall of 2019 trip to Las Vegas for my 30th birthday that summer. My perspective was massively changed when I visited the “PAWN STARS” store. I realized they needed to be running a business like the one I worked at. Their goldmine was information; they’d used a TV deal to gain immense success.
I needed to replicate that idea somehow. I’d tried and failed to gain traction on social media for years. The shop owner almost lost his business in the face of COVID-19, and I knew I had to do something drastic. So, I began making social media content about his business in secrecy. The shop owner had a girlfriend who did not like me and fought me for everything I did. I knew it was a good idea and felt it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Within 3 months, the social media page was so popular, I had to tell them. They were furious. I promised to translate the views into sales, and within another 2 months, the social media page generated more business than their entire brick-and-mortar store. They still wanted me to shut the whole thing down, so we parted ways, and I left to open my store, St. Louis Park Gold and Silver. This was April, 2021. Steadily, my following grew, but at the end of the summer of 2022, everything changed forever.
A video I made about a World War 2 massacre went viral globally and catapulted me to international fame overnight. I was subsequently honored by the Chinese government for educating the world about a terrible truth in their history and received a diplomatic gift, a porcelain tea jar. The last American to receive one was Richard Nixon. To this day, Chinese citizens stop by my store a few times per week like it’s a pilgrimage. These days, I spend all my time making content and running my business. It’s a busy back and forth. I work 90 hours a week, as this is still a small business despite international success. It’s been a wild journey, one that is just getting started.
Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it has been immensely challenging. I abruptly left the business I was working at. I was being mistreated there, and I had to pack everything up and open my store as soon as possible without a plan or enough money. I borrowed money from a few wealthy followers at high-interest, short-term loans, and it’s continued since I opened. This very tough business requires a lot of capital, and I’ve made some mistakes along the way. I need to gain a business education. I’ve just been figuring it out as I go. I do not make much money on social media, which consumes 30 to 40 hours of my workweek. It’s a boulder-up-a-mountain game, but I know it will soon be worth it. A million followers does not equal a million dollars!
Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your work.
I’m PAWN MAN. I’m becoming the young face of gold, silver, coins, currency, and collectibles, basically just like PAWN STARS, but we don’t do pawn loans. It’s a catchy name one of my followers came up with when I first started making content. I am also a 4-time author, having written two books about my travels around the Twin Cities as an Uber/Lyft driver (UBERED, UBERED 2) and two novels about Jewish-American Nazi hunters in the 1950s (Wolf in the Jungle, Wolf at the Gate) I draw, paint, and hold the rank of third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, and First degree in Kumdo, (Korean sword fighting). I am also a comedian with a dark humor page on Tiktok, @evankail. I’m a unique presence who grew up in Edina and graduated in 2007. I’ve had an exciting life. My parents were wealthy growing up. My mom was famous for Edina Makeup Queen Carroll Britton, a local personality known for her shop at 50th and France. My dad met her the day he got out of prison, and during my upbringing, he had a secret life laundering money for a Midwest cartel through rare coins. He left that behind when I was 10, but to say it was a colorful upbringing is an understatement. My family lost everything in the 2008 disaster, and we went from wealthy to piss poor broke without a pot to piss in. I struggled for many years, only finding success recently with this whole career I’ve created for myself as a PAWN MAN.
Please talk to us about happiness and what makes you happy.
Admittedly, material items like driving fast cars and fancy restaurants tickle me. It stems from a longing to return to my privileged upbringing. I’m not rich, but the fact I can afford to take my family out to an expensive dinner goes a long way in my mind, bringing me peace and joy. I like to educate people, and I get a lot of joy when people tell me they learned something or that my videos have helped them somehow. Recently, a local collectibles shop told me my videos about spotting a thief and saving them from a robbery, which felt good. The whole saga with my viral World War 2 tiktok has left an impression that will last a lifetime. I endured a lot of trauma and received a lot of scathing criticism, but in the end, my actions spoke louder than anything, and the diplomatic gift I was awarded was validation. I did a good thing. So are the letters and countless visitors stopping by my shop to tell me that. That makes me happy, knowing I have a place in history (I’m on Chinese Wikipedia; they seriously call me a hero. It’s the definition of Imposter Syndrome for me).
Contact Info:
- Website: pawnmanstore.com; slpgold.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/pawn.man/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/pawnmanSLP/
- Twitter: @evankail
- Youtube: @pawnman
- Other: whatnot @pawnman
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