113 – A Really Big Thinker: Tom interviews Yanik Silver

Episode 113 – Yanik Silver
[00:00:07] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:23] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 113 of Screw the Commute podcast. And I'm here with Yanik Silver and Wow, this guy is such a big thinker. It's gonna be not typical for our show. We're pretty low brow around here, but this guy is a big thinker. We go way back. We're almost neighbors. Back in Maryland, when I lived in Maryland, we had dinner together and stuff and we've spoken on stages together. And I spoke at his birthday bash and I got out of 15 years ago and my video guy just happened to find the tape of that in our archives recently. So I'm going to look at that. And I was going to say, Yanik looked really young in that tape but the damn guy Looks young all the time. It's not fair. So episode 112. Hope you didn't miss. That was one of my Monday trainings and I do an in-depth trainings every Monday and interview great entrepreneurs on Wednesdays and Fridays like Yanik this Monday. I talked about contests and how you can build massive lists and make lots of sales using contests. So don't forget to check that out. Our podcast app is in the iTunes store. You can check it out at screwthecommute.com/app. And we've got all kinds of training on how to use it. In case you're not familiar with using all the cool features that take us with you on the road. And our Roku TV channel is now live. We may have a couple channels live by the time you listen to this, but the public speaking channel is on Roku TV and you probably have one hundred thousand bucks worth of public speaking training there and professional speaking training. And if you don't know what Roku TV is, you might even have one and don't know it. A lot of them are enhanced for Roku, it's an on demand TV service and a lot of people are getting rid of cable because of that. And you could go buy a 40 dollar box and plug it into your smart TV and and have thousands of channels at your disposal and you can make your own channel nowadays. So that's what we did with the public speaking channel. And we've got the brutal self-defense coming and we have protection dogs elite coming and various Internet marketing stuff coming. So watch for that. Now our youth program is in full swing. We're highlighting a entrepreneurial youth. And when I say youth, it's up to about twenty two years old or early 20s. And we really want to get that generation going with entrepreneurism. So we want to highlight somebody. If you know anybody, have them contact me at orders@antion.com and I can show them how they can apply to maybe be featured on an episode of Screw the Commute. All right. Today's sponsor is the Distance Learning School, the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia. Don't even think about retraining yourself or sending your kids to college until you check out our webinar on higher education. I don't want you wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars and putting yourself and your kids under crushing debt. I mean, we'll have the webinar and the show notes at screwthecommute.com/webinars.

[00:03:28] All right. Let's get to the main event, Yanik Silver really redefines how business is played in the 21st century. He's at the intersection of more profits, more fun and more impact. He's the author of several best selling marketing books and tools, including Maverick Startup, Instant SALES Letters and think it's his latest. The book Evolved Enterprise Yanik's the founder of Maverick 1000, the global collective of top entrepreneurs and industry innovators who assemble for breakthrough retreats, rejuvenating experiences and giving forward opportunities. His lifetime goal is to connect visionary leaders and game changers to catalyze innovative business models and new ideas for solving 100 of the world's most impactful issues. By the year 2100, he's truly changing the way business is played. Yanik. Are you ready to screw. The commute. I gotta say commute because I don't want Missie. Come on here thinking I'm that kind of guy. Oh, man, it's great catching up with you.

[00:04:43] It's a long time. Yeah. Thanks for reaching out. And you know, I'm excited to hear what's new in your world and catch up with you.

[00:04:51] Yeah, I've been watching this. The Maverick stuff you've been doing and these these events you've been doing for a long time. And. And it's just it really is changing a lot the way people were thinking about business. So tell everybody about which which you've been doing lately and then we'll take you back to the beginning to see how you evolved into this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you evolved. That's right. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:05:13] So you know that the main thing that I've been working on lately is, is really this notion of how how business can make a difference in the world and create an impact. And what does that look like for. For business. So, you know, I'm not just out there saying let's you know, let's go out there and donate a bunch to charity. And it doesn't have any effect on what we're doing. I think it has to have this complete combination of being good for business, being good for the world, being good for wanting our customer. So you get them to buy more. Getting our team members aligned in a greater way. And it just brings you more joy and happiness. So that's what you mentioned. It's evolved enterprise, that whole thinking. And really it came about from this whole maverick 1000 group, which are all CEOs, founders, industry leaders, and about 91 different industries right now. And we get together a couple times a year and talk about how to grow your business. Evolve yourself. How do you make a difference in the world and have some fun in the process?

[00:06:05] Yeah, these people love you. I mean, the folks the first testimonial in his book is by the Virgin Guy, the guy's name, the Richard Branson. Richard Branson owns half the world and flies around it in a balloon.

[00:06:21] Richard is one of my biggest business heroes. And it's been amazing to to really build a relationship with him. And, you know, I've been fortunate enough to now even serve on one of the boards for his non-profit. So it's been it's been an incredible learning experience. And we have you know, we're actually coming up on our tenth anniversary of a trip that we did with him to this island.

[00:06:41] Yeah, it's that's really some kind of experience, that's for sure. Now, I was reading your book, Evolved Enterprise, and it mentioned something about soul in business. Could you expand on that a little bit?

[00:06:54] Yes. So, you know, this notion of soul, right? We we think of it as in very human terms that that we have a soul and that's our our spiritual foundation. Well, you know, in a legal sense, a business is its own entity as well. And I believe that a business actually even has its own soul. And and when you tap into the soul of what a business is meant to do. So, you know, I hear you mentioning about the young entrepreneurs that you're featuring and so forth. And, you know, obviously, I can see that and hear in your voice like that's something that's really, really means a lot to you. And so what I try and dig into is, OK, how to how do you, as the founder, connect to the soul of what the businesses is meant to be doing and what's the greatest impact that it could be having? And again, not from just a purely charitable point of view, but how does it how does it make everything be better? So. So even the young entrepreneur piece like that could actually be used to improve your profits and get your listeners and customers to be even more aligned with what your greater mission is.

[00:07:56] Yeah. The profits have to be there because I get so many people and I'm sure you have to over the years that want to do such great benevolent things. But they're always broke. Yeah, it has to be a balance here of profits and soul.

[00:08:11] It has to be all of it together. So like I talk about connecting your head, which is your business side along with your heart, which is what you would make an impact in the world and then your highest purpose. What were you designed to do here? And it has to be all those, because if you're missing one, then it's you. You're going to be broke, like you said, but have great intentions. Or if you're missing the other one, you're going to have lots of profits. But at the end of the day, you go and ask, well, what was. Well, that for what? What did I really do? What did I really contribute? And you don't have you know, I think it's this greatest. I don't know if it's a paradox or just a dichotomy where you really can have both of them and and you have to suspend disbelief for a little bit. But this is where there's tremendous like it's a seismic shift that's going on right now, Tom, where it's if you look at stats from the last couple of years and beyond. Customers want to buy from companies that have a greater purpose and a greater mission to what they're doing. And this is continually, steadily increasing. So it's like this is happening from the outside in, which is the customer dynamics where you get to vote with your wallet and then inside out, which is team members, especially millennials. They want to work for companies that have a greater purpose and a greater mission. So it's like, you know, this is truly this this incredible seismic shift that you can be a part of.

[00:09:30] That's something I was going to bring up because old farts like me or are having trouble and forcing myself to understand the millennial generation. And then Gen Z came along and we did the several interviews lately with Gen Z experts. And it's like, wow, boy, they're hit me in the head is like time doesn't matter to them, you know, and they're entrepreneurial and they want a purpose. And I think we need time. Does it matter? I mean, I put fine on my store. That is open. I don't know, maybe nine, maybe ten, you know. So it's hard for us old farts to do this, but it's it's mandatory. If you want to be successful, like what you say, if you want, not only would you not have customers, you won't have anybody to serve the customers if you don't come around and put this thing with your business.

[00:10:23] Yeah. But it's like, you know, at the deepest level as entrepreneurs, you know, we've been driven by freedom and we've been driven by we want to put our mark on the world. We want to create value. So, you know, one of the things that when when I start talking about this and about the enterprise concept, you know, people like, oh, it's just giving back. Well, you know, you and I both copywriters so words are really important. And when you talk about giving back, it means that it implies that we've taken something. And as entrepreneurs, I want to be really clear that all of us are value creators. We want to be in business if we weren't creating a value. So it's like, you know, we've already made, you know, created a value for others. But by by this notion of creating a greater impact or giving, it just extends that value and accelerates it. And that's how you connect to all these different generations, because they're just hardwired to want to have make a difference in the world, to have greater consciousness to what they do. And we start thinking about it that way. You know, all these companies, like there's some really big company, like they see the writing on the wall. I just saw an interesting article in Fast Company all about these companies coming together, especially about plastics. Right. Because the ocean has been one of my big efforts in the last year. We got really involved in ocean impact and conservation with maverick members and. And so plastic is is one of the key issues that that eight key issues facing the ocean right now in the ocean is actually responsible for one out of every two breaths of air that we have. So it's you know, it's it's a big deal, right? It's like try try holding your breath and only and only breathing every other time. It's, you know, kind of a big deal for us. And and so plastics, like all these companies have been looking at, how can we reduce our plastics, how can reduce our reliance on virgin plastic? How do we use plastics that would be put into the ocean in some way, like ocean plastic, recycle plastic that comes out the ocean and then turn it into something and all of a sudden like you get massive consumer appeal. So like Adidas came out recently with a pair of shoes and now they have a whole line of them called up parlays shoes because this this group is actually an ad agency. And this guy Sero, who I've met and collaborated with, which has been great. So he was all about, OK, how do we divert this ocean plastic? And Adidas was his former client. And he said, let's let's do this and let's use that as a thread for the shoes. And they created these new shoes where they've gotten. I don't know what the exact numbers are, but massive amounts of publicity from it and social media shares because of it. And it's resulted and I think about one hundred million dollars worth of shoes being sold because of this. So, you know, it's a real concept. And and of course, as all of us who are part of the screw the commute kind of movement, you know, it's really hard to think about a hundred million dollars in sales, but it starts with there's probably something that you really want to do in the world and want to have an impact in the world and then can start there. And then you combine it with a business model.

[00:13:23] Yeah. And I want to I want to talk about some of those more specifics that we can get started with. But it reminds me of the part about the plastic a few years back somebody built a boat out of water bottles. And it was based on a novel Kon Tiki, yeah, I think they called it Boat Tiki or something like that. Yeah, to bring knowledge to this needs more and more and more awareness of this issue and what Adidas did is great for that. But but speaking of shoes, you had a example in your book about I think it's Toms, which hey, you like that? Tell them how they evolved using that concept. It was one of, I think, 11 concepts that companies could use that you clearly outlined in the book.

[00:14:12] Exactly. Yeah. You know, I think people learn best by example. So I have 11 different business models because Toms is a pretty, pretty popular one now. They've grown and grown and grown and it's funny. So so Blake Mycoskie is the founder of Toms and he always gets called Tom because these are called Tom. They're actually the named for shoes for tomorrow or shoes of tomorrow or something like that. But so Tom's has been you know, if you asked Blake, like, he would tell you right away, like he never, ever expected it to be so big. But they really just hit on this whole idea of of impact. And their notion is, is buy one, give one. And it's such a great marketing concept where you buy a pair of shoes, they give a pair of shoes away to a kid in a in a developing country who needs it. And so consumers just latched onto this in a big way. And I think the number is even bigger. Last time I saw him, maybe two years ago, we were on a panel together and I was talking about his numbers. And there is something like 35 million pairs of shoes given away. That's you know, it's tremendous amount of impact that they've had. And what that's turned into and, you know, I call this this impact scoreboard, because now you can reverse engineer what your profit metrics are because he profitably, sells thirty five million pairs of shoes. To be able to give those away. And and there's a I think Bain Capital came in and they bought half of the company for like a 600 million dollar valuation from him. So what happens when you start adding these impact pieces in a real genuine way is you can you can dominate an industry so they have a 600 million dollar valuation, probably even more now. And they've evolved too, because there's some you know, there's some flack and some of that are very warranted about the fact that. And, you know, again, Blake never anticipated this starting. It was just like, I want to I want to do some good. And here's what we're going to do. And they were able to get stores like Nordstrom's to carry them early on because of the halo effect that they had. But, you know, there's been some flak about when you do this, buy one, get one model, you're taking away the the enterprise in that local marketplace. Right. Buy buy them, quote unquote, dumping all these shoes.

[00:16:23] Was that the enterprise in that marketplace where they do have shoes, maybe?

[00:16:28] Well, it depends. I mean, there's there's definitely, you know, there's shoemakers everywhere. But it's it's just you know, it's it's one of those criticisms that's thrown on this model. But, you know, overall, I think the impact is more than.

[00:16:40] Absolutely. How many how about shoemakers could make 30 shoemakers were to take the 35 million pairs of shoes. The kids will have blisters and frostbite by the time. Yes. I'm all for this one. So but this is a model that any company could use any body when one is the one person. So you could use this model.

[00:17:03] Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, when you went back to what you originally asked about the sold the company, I think that this buy one, get one model's a great model, but it's got to be done in the right way and it's got to be done in a way that really, really fits. Right. So there is a company that came out recently. I don't know if you've seen this. They're called Bombo Socks.

[00:17:21] I think I'm sure, you know, they're doing the advertising on radio.

[00:17:24] Yeah. They've really, really grown a lot. And and so they started off with the notion of that homeless shelters, the biggest need that these homeless shelters are socks. And it's, you know, sense that, you know, odd until you think about it, that, you know, these socks wear out a lot and that's when the biggest needs. So they thought, well, you know, we could donate bunch of socks or we could come up with a better sock. And so they have a dark colored sock, which has a anti microbe bacterial properties to it and really well design. And so they give away that sock now for every pair of socks that they sold and they've even got Daimon John is on their investors and gone out Shark Tank because he saw the power, what they're doing. And the two founders alike, I think one of them was like, I'm going to get a tattoo if we ever sell a million.

[00:18:12] Yeah, right. Something like in no time at all.

[00:18:15] He thought I'd be in 10 years and it was going to half years. And now I think the last like direct mail piece I got from them said something like they'd given away nine million pairs of socks. All right. So, you know, using that model, they've just exploded. And it takes a great so. You know, one thing I need to warn everyone listening to this is you can't just slap on this. Buy won't give one kind of. Any of the other models we'll talk about on something that's not a great product like it. There's got to be a real quality product to it. It's got to have all the right pieces to it. But when when you do add this element to this, these of all enterprise elements to it, then it really turbocharges what you're doing.

[00:18:52] Yeah. And it can be, you know, that you wouldn't the thought of socks. But I remember back when I had my entertainment company, I was doing Santa Claus and I donated my time to battered women's shelters. And I mean, I was crying underneath the beard and everything because I didn't have anything to give him other than what they had collected. And I gave a lady a lipstick. That's all she got for Christmas overall. And she's in tears. That's the only thing she got. So, you know, when we live our normal lives, we take a lot for granted. Some small thing like that on a massive scale could really do a lot of good for people and help them out.

[00:19:36] It has a tremendous impact. And then just imagine. Right. So all the stories that go with that, you know, so that Bombas, if we go back to them like the stories that they can share about about their deliveries to these homeless shelters, that's the stories that their team members can share. You know, their customers feel like they have a new identity, that they're that they are real givers. And that's part of this whole model, too, is that you're changing the identity. It's moving your company from a transactional company to a transformational company to even transcending what business can be.

[00:20:06] Yeah. And just to bring some nuts and bolts into it, though, some companies, I think United Way and things like that used user generated content based on stories that people they helped. And so their Web sites get bigger and bigger and bigger and people see more of that and want to donate more. So that's just the technique you can use to get user generated contact from the people you helped.

[00:20:29] I'll tell you one one good story about that. That user generated content and it really fits into this is one of the models we call empowered employment. And it's like bringing in people who are from underserved communities and and making it a what would be seen as a disadvantage into an advantage for your company. And one of the the companies I profiles, a they're called The Giving Keys and started by a singer. And she had like this key that she really liked from my old hotel room. And on there she had engraved. I forgot what the original work was. Maybe those like joy or happiness or love or something like that. And she ended up like she would she would kind of make these in very small quantities. They always sold out at our concerts. And then she ended up seeing this homeless couple on like the Sunset Strip and in L.A. and ended up kind of going over the top and taking them to dinner and learning about their story. She found that the guy's a jewelry maker or formerly a jewelry maker, and she's like, could you engrave this kind of key? And he's like, yeah, I would be really easy. And so she started creating them with him and they just, you know, just selling out and selling out. And the whole idea was it with these keys. There's a message on there. And you give it to a person that needs that message even more than you do. And that's the user generated content as they share stories on their blog and have people write in about these stories and what it meant. And what they do is they have people who are transitioning homelessness actually be the people who are engaging these these keys, win win, and they're able to get massive retail distribution, celebrity endorsements because of that impact. And so it creates all these amazing user generated stories.

[00:22:07] Really great. So let me take you back to your beginnings and how you've evolved to where you are now, because you're quite a different person now than when you first started. I mean, you're a marketer, but I don't remember you espousing these kind of things in the early days.

[00:22:23] No, definitely not. I think there are glimpses of it. I mean, you know, you mentioned the birthday bash, right?

[00:22:28] So, yeah, yeah, that was a charitable thing.

[00:22:30] Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, I look back and it's like every time you look back, you see clues and hints and things that were, you know, that that show up in bigger ways over and over again. And, you know, the birthday bash is actually the biggest. I think what we'll say it is, but I'm pretty sure it was like the biggest Internet marketing event at that moment, which was something like 500 some people. And I said, you know, don't pay for it. It's gonna be a fifty dollar donation to make a wish. And we ended up raising twenty five thousand dollars for Make a wish there. And we had some really incredible people like you and Marlon Sanders and Corey Rudl there. And remember who else was there actually Bill Glaser.

[00:23:10] I think his big thing looked like a Santa bag that someone gave that to me.

[00:23:17] So we also had a a a gag gift contest and that was one of the gifts. That was a really funny one.

[00:23:26] We're going to take that tape and digitize and I'll send you a copy of it.

[00:23:33] Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it is pretty funny. We had a guy with his dog singing Happy Birthday to a big singing. And it was really funny. And it's also really interesting. This is one of the first songs we included like an experience like so we had a little bit of a birthday cake. Everyone got a tiny, tiny sliver. It's 500 people.

[00:23:50] Oh, yeah. We're really evolved in that group because you were going on trips and doing all kinds of adventurous stuff, I think, for a while.

[00:23:58] Yeah, exactly. So we still do the, you know, unique adventures. And that's part of what we do. But it's that that has evolved. Yeah. So going back to my roots, I have to go back to my dad.

[00:24:10] Was that your first job was for your dad.

[00:24:13] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so growing up, we immigrated from Russia when I was three years old and my dad started a medical equipment sales and service company about eight months after he got here, something like that. And so growing up in a family business, you pretty much do anything and everything. And I was telemarketing when I was 14 years old for selling latex gloves. I was calling on my own leads and making sales commissions and then 16 year old to deal with my dad was I got a car if I went out and cold, called doctors. And when you're 16 years old talking to like a 50 year old doctor, it's. Yeah, it's intimidating. It's a little little out there. But it is amazing experience and work. And I also realized that I really hated cold calling.

[00:24:59] Yeah, yeah. You learned a lot if you do it.

[00:25:02] But I also learned like one of my doctor clients I sold this entire surgery center to. It's kind of neat. You know, he gave me a Jay Abraham tape and that really turn my lights on about about direct response, marketing and copywriting. And so I really took all of that to heart and started applying all that and helped grow my dad's business by, you know, from a small regional player to a national player because of the ads that we were writing. And, you know, he's looking at this and he's said that he thought this I my dad, Johs, we worked together. Like George, you know, let's let's try and see what happens. And we're getting like a thousand percent return on this. And it's just, you know, really, really powerful, like full page ads, all text with a little bit adjust and very Joe Sugarman style, very, you know. Dan Kennedy, Ted Nicholas, you know, these are some of my mentors there. And and so I took those skills. And there's a really hard decision to leave. You know, I think a lot of people who might be listening to this are having some of those thoughts about, you know, leaving, staying. Right. So I was working in a very, you know, relatively a great spot where I had a lot of freedom. I could I could work on the projects I really wanted to, which are marketing related projects for my dad. But at some point, I just you know, at first I thought I was going to take over his company, really grow it. And then at some point, I'm like, you know, there's there's something more. And I had to follow that. Right. You know, that just internal instinct of of I wanted to do something else. And I didn't know what it was exactly. But it also when the Internet first was starting to come on my radar so late, 99. And I think you were on there before.

[00:26:38] I had in 94 know, right. As soon as it came, I was there.

[00:26:43] You and like Corey Rudl.

[00:26:46] Well, I learned from you know, I didn't make anything for the first two years until I took training from Corey Rudl. Yeah, I remember I still quote Jonathan Meizel. Is that why for those who don't know, his famous thing that I love is you don't try to build traffic to your website. You go where the traffic is there in front of the front of it.

[00:27:09] Yes. You know, I was I was I thought I was late to the party. Right. This is like ninety nine. I don't have email address, but I'm like, okay, I understand direct response. I've been doing really well with it and. And I had also been working for some clients on the side. So that's. Their technique is a little bit of moonlighting because, you know, as a screw the commute person, you have you have a lot more time than you think. If you're not on Netflix all the time. If you're not on, I don't know, Instagram scrolling through, people's feed's like, you have a lot of time and and you it's all about where do you want to put your time? Even if you add an extra hour each day to something that's going to be proactively moving you towards your goal or this side project, that could turn into a full time project. So for meals on the side, working with that, because I had doctors of my clients already, I was working with them to help them grow their practice. And so they were like, wow, this is you know, you're really good at this. And I'm like, thanks. And so I was doing that. And then learning skills that would be applied to all these different industries, which was the medical field. And I take that back. So the Internet thing wasn't the first thing. It was a publishing company devoted to doctors to help them get cosmetic patients. And so, you know, I realized that I only had a certain amount of leverage by doing consulting one on one. But I could create a product that could be sold to all sorts of doctors that they could use. And I remember putting out an ad nineteen ninety eight in dermatological surgery or something like that, you know, coffee table reading required for you got it sitting there. And I got ten leads that we're interested in this this program. And I sent out the report, which was really a sales letter, but it had some good information in there. And literally on the deadline, the last you know, if I would have done what most people would have done, which would be send out one note and that's it. I sent out three of them to follow it up with the deadline. And literally on the last day of the deadline through the fax machines. I was using my dad's fax number as my order number and through the fax machine. You know, I use here. You remember that old sound. And everyone goes running to the fax machine and see what it was, because we used to get a lot of orders, be a fax for my dad's company. And. And so I'd always run up there and I'm like, you know, I'm checking it out. I'm like, oh, my God, it's my order form. I was like, so excited, like, literally, you know, jumping up and down. And and then I'm like, I've got to make this thing. So. So then I wrote a note to the doctor saying, you know, this is being republished. It's going to be available next 30 days. I didn't charge his card. And and so then I got to work. It gave me more incentive to go go create this thing. And every night I logout logout clock out at five o'clock and work until sometimes 2:00, 3:00 in the morning on this program, which is called like how to how to cash in on more cosmetic cases. And it was it was really you know, it worked really well. And that ended up being my very first solo product. And at some point, I think I was making like ten or fifteen thousand dollars a month it quickly and I'm like, OK.

[00:30:23] Was it a program was the software or was just a method that they should use.

[00:30:31] It was pretty, you know, pretty low, low tech. It was a three ring binder that had a bunch of marketing information, starting with reactivating their old patients and then moving on to how do you do lead gen for patients? And then but what really work that I learned about this was I gave them predone ads, letters, press releases or particular procedures, and then I'd sell those as separate things. But you know, one would be included and they got to pick one or they could. So that they wanted to start with dermatologists that they were doing a lot of two medicines, liposuction, which is a type of suction. And so they could pick that and or they could pick like the laser resurfacing tool kit or they could pick a bunch of them. I think I had like eight or nine of them at one point and and they were just pre done ads, letters to report like everything that they needed that they could easily fill in the blanks for. And it was really, really powerful. And so I learned about that like that. The easier You made it for people like I call this given them the fish. Right. Because most people, you know, they think that, you know, the old saying is if you hand them at a fish, you feed him for a day, teach man a fish, you feed him for life. That's true. But you know what? It's also true that people want the fish and I want it, but it's too late and they want gold and they don't want to go fishing. I mean, I remember I remember your when did you have, like, instant wedding toast or something like that in the eulogy wedding for wedding speeches. Right. I mean, that that's a perfect example of giving them the fish. It's like that's you know, people want that. And so that example really worked for me because then I created instant sales letters. Yeah, that was my very first product online where, you know, late ninety nine. I said no email address, but it's like this Internet thing is really interesting and. And I'm like, I feel like I can do something. And I hadn't, you know, by the way, you know, people will use all sorts of excuses. And my excuse could have been I have no tech experience. We might have to put something up there. And I just found the company that would do it for me. They probably you know, I had no idea how much I should be paying or not, but I ended up as something like eighteen hundred dollars or fifteen hundred dollars for me to get going and certainly out of a one bedroom apartment.

[00:32:52] Sounds like an infomercial. And I had no tech skills whatsoever. But put up the the Web page, the sales page really to go sell these things. And I remember the very first time seeing an order come through my email address. Let's you know it's one of those moments that is just so poignant. And it was it was so powerful. And I don't know what it was. Twenty nine, ninety five or something at the time. And it's like holy cow, that's what actually did this. And I didn't have my merchant account set ups. I couldn't even take their money. But it just was so powerful and I think we made like eighteen hundred dollars that month and then thirty four hundred dollars next month and it went up. I think I was engaged. Yes. So. So. Yeah. We live in one bedroom apartment and Missie was going to work. And so I was just trying to figure this thing out and she would come home and everyone once in a while find me out on our balcony, like drinking a beer and hanging out. And she's like, what do you do? And I'm like, I'm done. The Internet's working.

[00:34:01] So when did you start to evolve into this much higher? I mean, you to from standing back. I mean, it might have been a slow evolution from standing back to me. You took a big jump in your deep thinking of higher level looking at business.

[00:34:15] Yes. It was interesting because the instant sales letters really led me that people saying, hey, how did you do this? Can you help me? Which then led to a whole nother career teaching people how to take knowledge, expertise, selling online. And that was really impactful and really rewarding and financially rewarding as well as helping a lot of people. And about 10 eleven years ago now, it's closer to eleven years ago. I just ask myself a really simple question. And it was, you know, would I be happy doing what I'm doing now for another ten years. And if I was real honest, my answer was no, I wasn't I wasn't happy. And it seems kind of strange because looking from the outside in making a lot of money, helping a lot of people, great family, great reputation and digital marketing space, which is not that easy. And also, you know, driving the hot sportscar and so forth, like, you know, just everything that you would quote unquote think that you would want. But for me, there is like this nagging little voice saying, you know, I think there's something more you can do. And and I've just recently seen this quote from Oprah, which really resonates with me because I was somewhere else thinking which her she had a quote that said, my greatest fear is that I won't reach fulfill my ultimate potential. And I'm like, oh, that's a big deal. You know, like Oprah is saying, right. Right. You had a lot of success. And that was what I felt like. Like this whole notion. So, you know, am I happy when I be happy doing this 10 years from now? And I call this cosmic alarm clock in this cosmic alarm clock goes off. And like, you can either hit snooze and go back to bed and do the same thing that you've always done. Or you can you can follow your heart, which is really scary, frequently scary, but never wrong. And so my heart was saying, OK, I want to put out, you know, what would make me happy. I spent a lot time journaling. I love journaling as a process for entrepreneurs. I do it every day. And so in my journal, it's just thinking about, OK, what would be the ultimate sort of expression of what I want to do? It was hanging out with amazing entrepreneurs. It was taking cool trips. It was having business sessions in the middle of nowhere. And it's having a charity component. Right. So we created. So that was what Maverick became. And it was these three interconnected circles originally. A dollar sign. Happy face and a heart. And so that was the the essence of it.

[00:36:37] How'd you come up with Maverick?

[00:36:41] So, yeah, it's funny. Originally, I was playing around this idea of millionaire business adventures because I like the acronym of MBA and it's like, you know, millionaires just so. Overused and it just hasn't. Yeah, not a great connotation. I think he wants to be a millionaire business adventure. Sounds kinda ostentatious. And so then, like, you know, what's another good M name? And Maverick just came to me and I'm like, that's a good one because it really creates an identity. And that's that's what we've done for the maverick members. Like they truly have an identity and it's really powerful. And, you know, you mentioned Branson at the beginning. He's one of the best branders out there, I would say, with Virgin. And one of the best compliments from him once he's like, can you come up with that? I just came up with this is like it's a good brand. And you know, that that's that's a pretty good high five.

[00:37:33] Exactly. For sure. So tell me about how they can get the get the book.

[00:37:38] Yes. So the evolved enterprise book is out and this is I truly put my heart and soul into this book includes my own doodles as well. That's it. That's another piece that I'm involved in is is my artwork and kinda just expressing myself that way. So you get you get some of my doodles in there at Amazon or EvolvedEnterprise.com is we have a special edition that has a greater impact that we work with. I think Village Enterprise to help them create micro enterprises and train micro enterprises in East Africa. So that's a special edition that's on that Web site. Or you can just grab it on Amazon.

[00:38:14] All right. So great. So make sure you catch that in the show notes, folks, then get over and get that, because it really is an eye opening book of how you can look at your business. So we got to take a brief sponsor break. And when we come back, we're going to ask Yanik what's a typical day look like for him and how he stays motivated.

[00:38:32] Folks, you can check out my school, IMTCVA.org, and learn how you can have a lifestyle business in as little as six months. Let me ask you. Do you know what colleges and universities are doing? According to gradeinflation.com, they're raising grade point averages to make it look like they're doing a better job of teaching. When there's a mountain of evidence that they aren't I mean, they're making students feel smarter when they're actually dumber. You don't want that to happen. You don't want to mortgage your house to pay for that kind of stuff. So really watch the eye opening higher education webinar at screwthecommute.com/webinars to potentially save yourself and possibly your loved ones, friends and even neighbors, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt when they go for higher education. But be prepared to be mad because in my consumer advocate role, some of the things these colleges and universities are doing to me look downright fraudulent. And I don't want that to happen to you. So check it out at screwthecommute.com/webinars.

[00:39:37] All right. Let's get back to our main event. Yanik Silver's here, longtime friend of mine, so thrilled with his evolution into one of the top thought leaders in the in the world. I would say at this point. So what's a typical day look like for you? You still forcing Missie to go to work and you sit on the balcony or what.

[00:39:59] No, it's you know, typical day is is getting up. And that was some sort of small morning ritual usually starts with the drink and some some some water with lemon ideally and then and then meditating for 15, 20 minutes. And if I got enough time getting a small yoga session in as well, and then and then I'll get something depending on what's going on. Could be could be meetings. It could be me doing some writing or could be, you know, just some some calls. But there's no real typical day.

[00:40:35] Do you live in the same place. Yeah, cause there's no better place on earth to screw the commute than where you live.

[00:40:45] Yeah. D.C. has some of the worst traffic out there. Every once in a while when I venture out of the house to go to my meetings in D.C., I'm like, wow, this is I remember this. This is not you know, this is not ideal.

[00:40:58] Yeah, it's worse than ever. I mean, even when I was there, I mean, it's been I've been out of there sixteen years or so. I mean, we used to be like, OK, you could plan, OK, avoid the morning rush hour, avoid the lunch rush hour and avoid the evening rush now it's like rush hour 24/7.

[00:41:15] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's so it's pretty interesting. You know, if that doesn't encourage you to to do something else entrepreneurial, then I don't I don't know what.

[00:41:25] Well I tell people, I mean, you know, because my resume looks like BS and I say, look, I have never had a job. I've never been wasting my life commuting. You can almost live two or three lives if you're not sitting in traffic making somebody else rich.

[00:41:40] Yeah. And so what I do want to tell people and first of all, I want to congratulate them for listening to this, because that's taking one of the first steps backwards. So are changing your life. And I used to talk about and I learned this, I think, from either Jim Rohn or Earl NIGHTINGALE. I can't remember who, but they would call it or maybe Brian Tracy. They called it a university on wheels. And, you know, you talk about, you know, colleges and what's going on here. I believe that you can get. So I was in college. I graduate. I have a B.S. degree in marketing, which is kind of what it is. And but a top 25 business school. Right. And I didn't I didn't learn anything that I apply today necessarily from my marketing classes. But I learn everything that I needed from self directed learning. There's so much information out there, and I believe I've learned this from Earl NIGHTINGALE way back. And if anyone doesn't know who he is, you know, please listen to his staff because he was one of the greatest success philosophers of all time. As you know, might this might sound a little dated, but his material, the fundamentals are still the fundamentals for a reason. And one of the things he would talk about is that you can become an expert in any subject by learning or studying one hour a day for three years or a world class expert for one hour a day for five years. And when I was getting going, I thought, well, what would happen if I did this? You know, learn about direct response, marketing or copyrighting or psychology for two hours a day or three hours a day. What would that look like? And it just accelerated everything that was doing. So, you know, you got to put the time in. You're going to put the time in regardless and your time's going to pass. So why not do it towards something that you really want to you really want to do and then pay back to you?

[00:43:16] Yeah. Because people have so many mindless activities at their fingertips right this moment when I see somebody playing these crazy video games. Now, had they developed and made millions making the video game. Okay. I'm okay with that. But yeah, but somebody just mindlessly playing these games and sticking it in front of their kids, the mindlessly playing babysitters. It's just crazy to me when there's so many things that could could make you your life better and all these things you're doing for other people better. I mean, but the mindless options are just too many, right?

[00:43:53] There is too many and it's too easy to get wrapped up into that. You know, my kids, they're sick of me talking about it. But I talk about being a creator versus a consumer. And when you are a consumer and it's OK to be a consumer sometimes because you know all you have to be. I'll binge watch, you know, a show or something like that. But I know I want to do it with intention. Like the more you can bring intentionality, consciousness to what you're doing and that's for everything. You know, I really enjoy like experiments. And so because there's an end date. You can see what happens, especially even like health related ones or just, you know, let's say you want to add a mindfulness practice or anything else. Like, you know, I've also done 33 days of, let's say no drinking or no sugar or stuff like that. And in these little experiments have an end date, which is great. Or you could try it with journaling or anything that you want to add. And then you see like, is that something I want to keep doing and add to my life? It made a difference or not. And you can continue improving and evolving that way.

[00:44:52] Yeah. And I think the Japanese called Kaizen continuous improvement. Yeah. It's like, you know, that's a fancy way to say. I had an old coal miner guy who's in his 80s telling me, you know, Tom, the schoolhouse door is always open.

[00:45:11] That's exactly right.

[00:45:13] Right on. So great to catch up with you, man. I really appreciate you coming on, taking the time. Of course, you know, you're probably sitting on a balcony poor Missie slaving away somewhere. It's good catching up with you. Hope. Hope to see you when you get. Say you're coming down my area for some soccer stuff with your kids.

[00:45:33] Ice hockey. Yeah.

[00:45:35] Oh, ice hockey. I see. Okay. Now, they don't want me on the ice hockey rink. Crack the ice and get the Zamboni.

[00:45:43] It's a liability, so. Yeah.

[00:45:46] Thanks so much, man. And we'll have your book in the show notes and other big events coming up or any of big stuff coming.

[00:45:53] Yeah, we've got a really interesting one that we do. It's a mere five year anniversary of something we do called Camp Maverick and is available to. It's beyond maverick members themselves. We open it up a little bit to the public. It's a it's an application process, but it's about 120 amazing entrepreneurs. And we bring them to a campsite, basically like summer camp that you might experience as a kid. I didn't experience as a kid because I was an immigrant child, but my kids do. They go away for six weeks now and one of them for three weeks. So it's like they get to experience sleep away camp. So we created a camp for entrepreneurs that would had this sleep away camp experience, but also have amazing speakers presenters plus all the camp experiences, plus a lot of fun and activities. And it's always incredibly highly rated and people love it. It's an August. It's not in tents. We wouldn't go that far. It's air conditioned cabins.

[00:46:52] Where is it?

[00:46:53] It's in the Poconos.

[00:46:54] Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it'd be cooler up there in August in the mountains, right?

[00:46:59] Exactly. The mountains. You get the lake. It's it's beautiful. And it's the Web site is gocampmaverick.com.

[00:47:08] We'll have that in the show notes for everybody. What kind of speakers you have? What kind of how does it go? How does the event go?

[00:47:14] Usually there's a a business related or growth related speaker in the morning. And then we bring in some interesting presenters. It's kind of a choose your own adventure. So you have you get to pick whatever topics you're really interested in. And so you get unknown speakers and known speakers. So we've had Brian Smith, who founded Uggs there before Orrin Claf is an amazing sales presenter. Sally Hogshead This year we have Joe Desena who's the founder Spartan coming and also a woman, Marciel Wider, who she created a book called Dream and Create This Whole Dream University. She's been on Oprah several times. And I think this is her. She's basically semi retired. I've convinced her to come out of retirement in Italy to come come speak to us. So it's a lot of fun.

[00:48:04] Yeah. So here, here's the challenge for you. Make some kind of floating speech, not like a cruise ship, but some like big barge.

[00:48:14] Yeah, like well maybe if you come we'll we'll do that for you.

[00:48:17] No, no I don't go near water. You know I live right by the beach but I stay away from the beach because I can't stand that with those harpoon wounds when the whalers go by trying to get me.

[00:48:31] All right. That's so good catching up with you. And. And yeah, people are going to love this episode because it's quite a departure of or just nuts and bolts kind of stuff. This is a high level thought of where your business could be and where you could take it and how much good you could do in the world. Thanks for doing what you do, man.

[00:48:48] I appreciate it. Thanks for. Thanks for letting me share this with your audience.

[00:48:52] Yeah, my pleasure. So check everything out in the show notes folks, the camp and the book that that Yanik has. And don't forget to get the podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app. And we will catch you up on the next episode. See ya later.

Join my distance learning school: https://www.IMTCVA.org
OR
Join the mentor program PLUS get a FREE Scholarship to the School: https://www.GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com