Do You Want To Make A Profit...Or A Difference? with Yanik Silver

You have a business. What about making a bigger impact on the world at the same time? Ever wondered how to align a cause and a business together? Find out how to do that right here, right now on the Scale or Fail show. Jannek Silver is the founder of Maverick 1000, a private invitation only global network of top entrepreneurs and industry leaders. This group periodically assembles for breakthrough retreats, rejuvenating experiences and impact opportunities to date, raising over $3 million with participating icons. He redefines how businesses played in the 21st century at the intersection of more profits, more fun and more impact. He is also the author of several bestselling books including Evolved Enterprise and Maverick Startup. Jannik's lifetime goal is to connect visionary leaders and game changers to catalyze business models and new ideas for solving 100 of the world's most impactful issues by the year 2100. And we're going to talk about that today. So Yannick, thank you so much for being here today.

I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited too. I love talking about this.

Yeah. So you have been a business owner like from early on. We have that in common. Can you tell me in the audience of business owners here today a little bit about your journey up to where you are now?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's got to start with my dad and my parents who immigrated from Russia in 1976. And pretty quickly after coming here, my dad ended up starting his own company, a medical equipment sales and service company. Like almost any family business, you end up working for your family and there's no, you know, probably no child labor laws that were in effect there. But I was definitely working for him doing all sorts of things. But then at 14, I was telemarketing, calling on my own clients, selling latex gloves. At 16, the deal was I got a car if I would go out and cold call doctors. I mean, you know, 15 year old punk kid trying to look older with a shirt and tie and walking around trying to talk to 56 year old doctors. It's very interesting and I realized pretty quickly that cold calling really sucked. But one of my doctor clients who I sold him his entire surgery center, he and I became friends and he gave me a Jay Abraham tape and he's like, you know, you seem like you like this marketing stuff and it just like turned the lights on for me about direct response marketing and how to, how to get doctors to reply without me having to cold call on them. And that was the start of what has then turned into me going into the Internet marketing space a couple years later and then starting Maverick, you know, about maybe about 11 years ago now. So that's kind of the fast forward version of it.

Wow. You know, we definitely have some things in common. My family is from Russia too, so we'll have to talk about that. And grew up in an entrepreneurial family and we've been running our mastermind now 10 years, so we've been kind of along this path. Just recently met, so. Right, yeah.

So anyway, do you speak any Russian?

I really don't, so I'll have to teach all the words, some Yiddish, which got a little bit of that in there, but.

Right. So I'm a much better. My parents would talk to me in Russian, I'd answer in English.

Oh, really?

They're like, oh, he's kind of like the family dog. He understands but he can't speak back to us.

Yeah, yeah, I get that, I get that. So. Well, you're an expert in business, you're an expert in startups, but you've also taken businesses to the 7, 8, 9 figure, I mean some real enterprise businesses. And the topic I've been talking a lot about lately is scaling. It's my book, Scale or fail. You have to do things really differently when you start getting to that higher level. And I know these are the business owners that you work with and that you connect with along the way. What do you feel have been the biggest challenges in scaling?

Yeah, it's a great question. And so just for clarification, for transparency. So I've run multiple seven figure companies myself, but not eight or nine. But I work with a lot of our members are at that 8, 9 level. And so I help advise them. What I've seen is there's a couple stages of business. One is, I call it stage one is where you kind of jump out of the airplane and you're building the parachute on your way down you're like, oh, this is a great idea, I hope it works. Stage two is it does work. And all of a sudden you're on this trajectory like this, you're getting accolades, profits are coming in, might be getting press, all sorts of things are really working. And you're scaling up like this and then there's like this point where it kind of levels off and it levels off with either your own passion or the profits. Like just things aren't the same. Things that were working before aren't working anymore. And this is what I call stage three. And it's like it can either be like this golden handcuff moment where you continue doing the same things over and over again or you innovate and you have to cross this chasm and make this leap. And where I think the greater leap is, is where you connect your head, your heart and your higher purpose. And the head is the business smarts and the marketing side. And then the heart is what's the impact that you want to do in their higher purpose? Even, you know, you can talk about that, but what were you designed to do? And so I work a lot with entrepreneurs who have already experienced success and they're like, okay, now what? That's that great question of now what? And the same thing that got you to where you are. It's not going to be the same things that take you to that next spot.

Yeah. What got you here won't get you there. Right. That saying, I love that. And I do think that when you get to that stage three as you call it, and a lot of businesses die there because you, I think you do lose that heart.

Yeah.

You have to, if you can reroute and connect with that, that's really what's going to pull you through to that higher level.

For sure. Yeah. I call it like falling back in love with your business and, or you know, so sometimes it's reinventing what's going on in your business, sometimes it's selling it, sometimes it's taking a break and reevaluating where you are. I mean, for everyone. So I believe in like cycles and then cycles within cycles. And for me it's, it seems like it's about a 10 year cycle. Like then there's something that I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm kind of done with that chapter and what's the next thing and what does that look like? And a lot of entrepreneurs, they get stuck in doing the same thing every single day for, you know, they're like, oh, I have 30 years of experience. And do they really have 30 years of experience or they have, you know, one year of experience, 30 times that they're doing the same thing.

Yeah, that's a really good point because, you know, it's human nature. You get stuck in habit.

Yeah. I found a diagram. I realized I have it on my desk.

Oh, you do?

So I'm a doodler.

Oh, look at that.

This is the airplane as you're jumping out of the airplane.

I love it.

And then if you can see that.

All of the twirly lines here, that's like, yeah, exactly.

I mean, you know, it's never, it's never this straight arrow even you think it's going to be. And then. And then you make your way up here to stage two, and then over here is stage three. And it is like this chasm that you're leaping off into either this golden handcuffs or, you know, deciding to take that next evolutionary leap.

Yeah, that's wild. In my book, I have five phases, so it's interesting. We've been on this.

Oh, look at that. But do you have doodles?

Yeah. Phase three, I call it the ringleader. Because. Because it's a circle, you know, and that is something that you want to pass through. You don't want to live there. Yeah, but I love the illustration.

That's. Yeah, I've always been a doodler. If you see me looking down, it's usually because I'm like doodling something while playing around.

That's supposed to help with add. Did you know that?

Yeah, I've heard that. And I heard you can supposedly take in more and concentrate better. And so, you know, all those things I'm good with.

So giving back is a big part of your life. And so how did all of that start?

Yeah, well, so I'll challenge you on one thing, because I started as a copywriter. So to me, words are really important. Like, our words create our world. And a lot of entrepreneurs will use the words give back or giving back. And to me, that implies guilt. Like, it means that we've taken something as entrepreneurs. And I think as entrepreneurs and sustained business, the only way that happens is by being value providers. Right. So that you know that that's our give and what we do. So, you know, before anything ever happens, like, entrepreneurs are giving and making the world better from just what they do and being value providers.

Very true.

You know, like, the language that I like is either creating an impact or just giving. Because even just psychologically, subconsciously, it gets into this guilt driven, oh, I need to give back. But I do think there's this beautiful circular path that can happen from, like, this learning, doing, teaching. And teaching can also be part of the giving. And so that can be a beautiful cycle. But you asked about. How did I get started with that? I don't know.

What was the calling inside of you where you were like, okay, I need to make this a big part of.

Yeah, it just continued growing and growing when I saw the impact that it could have. Not just myself, like, personally, because it's kind of weird. As humans, we're wired to want to give. And it's like, if you start the most selfish thing that you can do is actually be selfless. And it's really weird and odd, and it's just like this beautiful biology that we're wired with. And when you stop and look at it, like, the times when you're happiest are usually when you're giving or making a difference or doing something, whether it's for one or a million people.

Yeah, I think you really touched on something that's so important, because I think people feel like, oh, I have to wait until I get to a certain level and I have this stash of cash and then I can give back. But if you wake up every day saying, what can I give today? How can I share? How can I make a difference and weave it into your every single day.

Exactly. And that's what I talked about in Evolved Enterprise in the book about. So there's these interesting dynamics that are happening. I call this major seismic shift going on. It's like, it's like, to me, business is never going to be the same again. And you can either embrace this change, which is embracing where your heart is anyway. Like, you know, we talked about connecting your head, your heart, your higher purpose, like, getting that in alignment. Like, it's almost like this juxtaposition. And people don't believe that you could actually have make your business better by creating an impact and giving and so forth. But it really does work because this is the way. So consumer buying behavior is changing. Consumers want to buy products from companies that have a greater mission, a greater purpose, and they're willing to either spend the same and change. The brand loyalty is dead. Fortune 500 companies, or, sorry, S&P 500 companies, are staying on the list even a shorter amount of time than ever. I think it's something like 14 years now, or might even be 11 years. I think it was 14 years. So it used to be about 40 some years they'd be on the list. And now it's dramatically shrinking. So brand loyalty is going away and consumers are voting with their wallets about what do they want to see in the world. And they're willing to, again, either pay the same or pay even bit more premium for companies that have a greater mission. And then, so that's the outside in, and then the inside out is your team members, especially Millennials, which is the largest group of team members that you would have. But everybody, everybody wants to be part of something bigger. And again, that's the way we're wired. But Millennials especially, and they're willing to even get paid less to work for a company. That again, has a greater purpose and a greater mission in what they do. So there's all these forces occurring that are truly this seismic shift going on in business. And Forbes quoted me in saying that you have about five to seven years that you need to have a core impact in your business or you're going to be at a competitive disadvantage. I truly think that's the case. There's this window.

Yeah. And I love that the millennials are wired that way. That gives me hope for our future. Right?

Yeah, totally. But we're all wired that way. Like when you get down to it and you kind of peel back some of the cynicism or whatever else it is, because everybody wants to know that they had meaning in their life purpose. And if you can connect it with business, like to me, entrepreneurship and business is that greatest lever of making a difference. Because we have five big ways of doing it. We have our supply chain. So all the things that we're buying through our companies existing right now. If you started taking a peek at it, you don't have to do it all at once, but you can start looking at, okay, where you know, again, we vote with our wallets. And as companies, we have some pretty big voting power as well. So it's like, okay, what, what, what values are represented from these vendors that we work with and could we maybe move some of that to another company that, that serves know that has a greater impact than what we do. So we used to put on a lot of events and seminars and we switched the people that would stuff our bags to a group called Opportunity Village in Vegas which work with special needs population and giving them employment opportunities. And you know, it's one little thing and just looking at what can we do. And we've done all sorts of things. We also continue putting on very high end events now and we look at, okay, how do we want to show up? Because the ocean became a really big impact piece for us as we've been starting to learn more and more about it with one of our key partners. And we're like, okay, look at all the single use plastic that we were just inadvertently doing it. So it's like creating intention around everything that you do. So it's like we'll bring our own paper straws to events. We'll show up with water bottles for attendees. We'll make sure that there's as little single use plastic as possible and just changing little things. And so that's supply chain, that's one of the things. The other is your team. So I call it empowered employment, like thinking about ways of bringing in maybe underserved populations that actually could become a competitive advantage like this. Allison. So there's a company called Sarah Oliver Handbags and there's a woman that just sort of started with creating these hand knit handbags and people really loved them and she started selling them and people like, wow, where can I get those? And stores started calling on her and they're like, well, you need to go manufacture those in China because that's where you're gonna get a better price or whatever. She's like, no, I want to do it here in the US and she like remembers these really fond times with her grandmother learning how to, how to knit. And so she went to a local community center and said, you know, are there anyone here that would want to, you know, knit these bags with me? And she got, I think something like 10 or nine. It was like eight women, one man to knit. And so now that's like part of the entire story and identity. So it's like, it's a great, again, marketing piece.

Giving these people a purpose.

Exactly.

Or an outlet.

Yeah. And it's not even a handout. Right. It's like of the story and core identity. And that's what I love about when you start exploring, you know, what I call an evolved, involved enterprise. It's moving from transactional to transformational company. We're changing the identity of everyone that's served by the company to a transcending company. We're even looking at how to change then completely the business model that empowered Employment is one of them. The talent on your team is another way that you can leverage the impact, the actual product or service itself. Obviously, if you can bake in the impact into the product or service. A lot of people are familiar with tomshoes or bombas now as that buy one, give one model. And that has sort of become the default for a social enterprise. But there's so many more. I talk about 11 different models in there. And then the other one, the fifth way is using our voice as entrepreneurs. So our database, the people that we serve, how do we create these ripples that continue flowing out from who we serve?

Yeah. Fantastic. Wow. It's just, I mean, you really can, the way that you're talking about it, you can weave it into every aspect of your business. So it's not just, hey, a percentage of how much we raise goes to X charity, which is great. But there are other ways of doing it too. And just creating a whole socially conscious company.

Yeah. And that's so that, you know, the percentage is a little bit more transactional, but you can move to all these other ways. And what's really exciting is, you know, play with it, like, experiment with it. Don't just trust me, because I'm on this amazing podcast with you. Like, you can play with it and see. Like, so if you're, you can add it as maybe you do one brand and you just pick a month and you say, okay, you know, even at that lowest level, percentage goes to this particular cause that we care about and just see, does that impact our sales or not? And then, you know, add in ways. So a lot of people always get sort of, I don't know, flustered about, okay, well, what is the cause and what do I. What do we care about and how do we make it? So it's gotta be authentic. It's gotta be a real tie in. Because in this age of transparency, you know, you're gonna get serious flack if it's sort of like a greenwashing or pink washing or anything like that.

Yeah. That needs to be something you truly care about.

Yeah, exactly. And that's where it becomes more exciting anyway. So it gets more exciting for you, your team, you know, everyone involved. So kind of like the way that I always suggest and advise companies is it's either going to come from the founder, is like something that they care about or something that, that affected them in a big way. So maybe it's a tremendous amount of pain that they went through in some way and they want to help other people and so that's how they want to show up and help. Or it's. It's like, what do my customers really, really care about? And then how do I, you know, connect there? And a lot of times it's going to be one of the same because as found, there's so many times we started something almost like to scratch our own nature, to create something that wasn't there for us.

Yeah, yeah. And that's where that mission driven comes. So, I mean, I could go on and on about that. There's just such a great topic. I mean, you've been at this business thing for a while. What do you now, knowing what you know from all the doodles that you've created.

That's right.

What's the number one piece of advice? I'm putting you on the spot here. You would give your younger self.

Just, just one thing. It's like, it's so funny. It's like when you're younger, you have this night Evitae about, you know, it's just like this unbridled optimism that you can figure it out. Like that parachute, like jumping out of the airplane and building the parachute on the way down. As you get older, it's like, oh, I see this model and I know this model. And it's like you start almost like thinking too many steps down the line about why this won't necessarily work. So it's almost like I want my younger self to come back and give my advice to my older self, which is just like, you know, walk I used to talk about, like, if you're in a really thick fog, just walk those couple steps that you can see, and then the next steps are going to open up and not having to be so wound up about how you're going to get from point A to Z, but go to point B and then see what opens up.

Yeah, I love that. You know, I had a mentor early on when I was in the homeopathic world for a long time who said, you know, you can get techniqued to death and lose that authenticity of a healer or in any, any level of business. Right. So, you know, sometimes you. You're trying so hard to make it fit into a certain model or have certain steps of this XYZ system.

Right.

And then you lose that natural inclination that just. That drives you and there are no lines. You know, I like that idea.

Yeah. I think it's not. And not being afraid to follow your own heart. Like, you know, it's. It's really. Your heart really knows. Like, it's. I think a lot about, like, using joy as, like this GPS that continues to propel us forward and attract us forward. And then pain are like the guardrails that joy is up here continuing to sort of pull us. Like what, you know, what gives us energy and excitement, enthusiasm and inspiration. And then pain is, you know, whether it's pain via sales not working or just something like the more in alignment you are, the easier that path is up and the more you're not, you're going to continue getting bonked on the head harder and harder by the universe, essentially.

I know it's that sledgehammer. You just keep getting hit by it till you finally wake up, Right?

Yeah, exactly.

So how do you get through. So those sledgehammer moments, what gets you through the rough patches and keeps you inspired? Because we all have those as a business owner.

Yeah. So there's a lot of, like, daily practice stuff. And then there's more things that are every cyclical, like once a quarter, once a year or something like that. So the more daily stuff. I'm a big journaler, so every single night I will journal. And it's usually about, okay, you know, what's. What's going on? It's not. It's not, oh, I ate an egg sandwich today, and, you know, I burned the egg. Oh, well. But it's, you know, it's trying to dig into the emotional stuff and digging into the real feelings behind things and then also capturing some of the magic of the day and capturing the momentum and capturing things that are going well. So I use my journal for all sorts of things. I also wanted to be a cartoonist as a kid. So in my journal, it's actually opened up my art practice again. And I found that creativity has shown up in all sorts of ways because I truly think entrepreneurs at our highest level were artists because model is artistry. The way we show up in the world, the way we serve our customers, like, all of that is artistry. And so the journal is a big part of it.

I love the journal because I used to journal and I haven't been. But now you're inspiring me because, you know, the days go by. Right. So quickly.

Yeah.

And to be able to take that moment and reconnect, like, what happened today and what did I feel about that and really reconnect. I'm sure that alone just brings, you know, infuses the joy back in.

It's super powerful. It's one of those practices that I've done for years and years now. And it's like every once in a while, if I fall out of it, I notice it. And it's just like. Because as entrepreneurs, we have so much stuff going on right here. Right. And so journaling has been scientifically proven to make us happier because it creates a beginning, middle, and an end on that page. And wherever you start is not always going to be where you end anyway. In your entry, you just need to start writing. And so many people have either, like, you, you know, Alison, like, you have started journaling and sort of not done it anymore, or they tried it and, like, that's not for me. Or they don't think that they really enjoy their practice. There's so many ways of using it. It's actually one of my favorite things to teach entrepreneurs and do. And so it's. It's like super easy. Like, literally, if you just set aside 10 minutes a day and. But you set it aside as I love experiments. Right. So all these things, like, you can just try them as an experiment and you Say, okay, I'm going to do it for whatever two weeks or three weeks or four weeks, whatever made sense for me. 33 days is sort of my magic number because it's more than a month and it's a very specific number. And then so I'll add different experiments to my life, like no sugar or no alcohol or different things and see how do I feel. So journaling is one of those practices you want to add to your life. You give it a certain block of time, like right before bed or right in the morning, first time. And then. And it's not that hard. I mean it's just like as long as you do it and then you get better at it and then you get. There's an excitement and interest and a lot of synchronicities that show up when you go back to those entries. Like, like you're talking about, like, oh, days go by so fast. You're like, oh, three years ago I was still, I was thinking about this. And this is the same theme that I've been continuing to screw around with. Like I need to either stop thinking about this and get rid of it or do something about it, get over it.

Right.

Yeah.

I had a situation where years ago when in one of my early businesses and I was having an issue with a partner and I kept dreaming about it and I was so angry something happened and I kept dreaming that I would confront her and just like yell it out. Right. And so I woke up one night at like 2 in the morning and I just allowed the pen to go and I just expressed what I was feeling and then that the dreams completely stopped.

Yeah.

So you know, there's, so there's something about the pen to the paper, not the, on the computer.

Yes, for sure. There's different neural pathways that are connected because of our, our hands and the pen and the paper. And then. So if you want to know another cool trick, this is taught to me by a friend of mine, guy named Bill Donious, who's an innovation expert in the Fortune 500 world. And he wrote a cool book called Thought Revolution. And so it's based on a technique actually from a child psychologist. And so I'm right handed. And so you would take your left hand, your non dominant hand and write. And it seems so weird, like the first time you try it, you're like kind of laughing, you're like, oh my God, I can't read this. But there's a playful nature to it. And then also it like opens up a deeper wisdom. So it opens up another Part of our brain. And so it's more of a whole brain practice. And so I'll write questions to myself in my journal. And, you know, I love questions because your questions dictate your answers. And the better the question, the better your answers. And so then I'll write the question. I'll write out some answers of my dominant hand, my right hand, and then I'll come back in with my non dominant hand, and I'll get different, more meaningful responses.

I'm gonna try that.

Try it. It's awesome.

I love that idea. And it kind of takes you back to your childhood when you were, like, trying to figure out how to write.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah, that sounds very cool.

And if you're journaling, you know, use some pens. I love the colored pens.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Totally inspiring me. I'm serious. I'm gonna send you. I'll take a snapshot of my. Of my little.

Okay. Yeah, for sure. Do it.

So now, how do you tell the difference? Because you've had different businesses and, you know, obviously different periods in your life. How can you tell when it's okay, this is a rough patch, or, you know, it's time to completely either drop it or reroute.

That's a great question. Yeah, that was, you know, that stage three aspect of, like, when things are sort of flatlining. It's like, okay, do I need to reconnect to my. Why. Why did. Why did I end up starting this thing anyway? And, like, to me, everything's about intention, the intentionality of what it is. And so if I'm still continuing to push at what the intention is and feel like I'm making a difference there, then I'm on that right track. And I'll keep looking for the new model and the different ways of doing things, but if I wake up more often than not feeling uninspired, and just, like, you know, use your body as a. As a mechanism for really figuring out where you are. Like, it's totally normal to have off days, but if it's. If they stretch into weeks and it stretches into, like, just, you know, avoidance of all these things that used to give you energy, then, you know, it's time to really look at what you want to do for real. And it's. You know, I have a saying which is it's. It's always scary to. It's typically. It's. It's frequently scary to follow your heart, but never wrong, you know, jumping off this cliff. And I have this. Have this thing, actually, that. Yes, Sophia, on My team that you met Sofia, she had created from this one trip that we did to Necker Island. And it was actually from my journals, like, the first time I ever read anything from my journal. And it was. It said, trust. Trust. The universe has even more in store for you than you can imagine. Trust the divine timing. Trust your crazy ideas. Trust your wings will grow when you leap. Trust your nature. Trust you've been encoded with a cosmic alarm clock. Trust the signs, symbols, and synchronicities sent to you. Trust the co conspirators catalyzing your conscious evolution. Trust the perfect unfolding of your understanding. And trust your divine connections. So every once in a while, I look at that.

I love that you got to send that to me, because I want to hear that. I just think that is so beautiful. I think that's so beautiful. You know, you can't. It's kind of like if you're in a relationship and the love's not there. I think Barbra Streisand and Neil diamond did a song on that. But it's like you can't make yourself feel that. And I know that feeling. And I knew coming to the end of certain businesses is like, there's just. It's just not there.

It's like a next chapter, right? Like, it's time to close that one chapter and rewrite a new one. And many times it's really painful because our identities are so wrapped, what that business is. And so I've gone through that and, you know, again, we talked about the. You called it sledgehammer, right? Like, it's the two by four or whatever it is. And it continues getting to me harder and harder. Like, for me, it was a $300,000 bonk in the head where it was like, okay, it's time to make a difference here, make a change. And it was like I had one company that I kind of fell out of love with, which is my publishing company in the digital space. And that was the one that I used to, like, love, but that was paying all the bills, and it was the cash cow. And then I had this other thing, which was Maverick, that I was just exploring. And I was paying from here to here and sponsorship deals and all these things and propping it up and. And it was like I had this sort of Open checkbook and $300,000 in my wife's like, so, what the hell are you doing? And I ended up selling my Aston Martin because I had a bunch of bills to pay out of that company. I'm like, I need to get some quick cash. And it's just like, how much does it take to really get your attention? A friend of mine, we had lunch maybe a year ago, and he's like, oh, yours is 300,000. Mine was 3 million.

Yeah, I was gonna say I've done more than that.

It doesn't have to be money either. Right? Like, so things continue to get your attention. It could be health, it could be relationship stuff. It's all these things that force you to look at, you know, okay, what. What are you doing? And then recalibrate and see and.

And then it's your egos kind of tied into that too. I know for me, when it's just been hard to let go because it's like, you know, it's your baby and this is, you know, your community or whatever it is, right. And walking away from that feels.

Yeah, yeah. And I think there's, you know, something to be said for even mourning, right. Like loss that can happen with that. And then that's how you have to create a new. You know, I've gotten better at this because I just went like everything for a certain amount of time, which is like, oh, easy. It turned and, you know, anything I touched sort of turned to goal. It was like super easy, simple. And then when I did something that I thought was that connection of head, heart, higher purpose, I'm like, okay, this is my. My real thing. And it was really difficult to do. Like, I was like, this is so strange. And I love. It actually forced me to turn back to, like, my more spiritual roots from way back. Because, like, that thing I read to you about trust, like, I would never have written or even considered something like that. It really forced me to open up in a whole different way of surrendering and also opening up to, you know, is there a greater story here? Like, I love the deity Ganesh, which is the elephant headed Hindu deity. And he's. He's known. Most people know him as the remover of obstacles, but he's also the placer of obstacles, which I love. So it's like the obstacles are there in your way to actually move you towards your true dharma or true purpose of what you're meant to do. And that's really exciting because I look at, okay, that $300,000 sort of detour in the sideways meandering really forced me to get clear on I didn't want to build an adventure travel company. That wasn't the ultimate intention, but it forced me to say, okay, the real mission here is to change the way business is Played and to work on creating an impact with these people that have the greatest leverage and reach and, and doing some really interesting thing in the world. And so what does that look like?

Well, let's talk about that. Maverick1000. Tell us about Maverick and what led you to create it. Is that that's what you're talking about now?

Yeah, exactly. So it started off as maverick business adventures, where it's just like, okay, I want to go off and do these great, amazing, wild adventures with my buddies and friends. And we, you know, the essence always remained the same, which is interesting, but the expression has changed. And the essence was like three interconnected circles, a dollar sign, a happy face and a heart. And so we would have business sessions in the middle of Baja, Mexico. We're riding dune buggies and doing all sorts of great stuff. And there'd be a charity element and maybe mentoring of young entrepreneurs. So it was like the pieces were always there, but the business model wasn't right or I couldn't figure it out from that standpoint. And then it really forced me to look at, okay, this is not an adventure travel company. I want to build. There's something more. And we changed the name actually using that left handed writing which I think the question was something like, what would your 111 year old self tell you? And so the answer that I got was light a thousand suns, who can each light another thousand suns? And it's a really beautiful image of. To me, a sun is a universe creator. It's someone that nourishes life everywhere. And then this idea of lighting another thousand suns is just so remarkable. And then later on, I didn't even know this, but I found that in the Bhagavad Gita was a quote about a thousand suns. If a thousand suns were to rise in the sky all at once, something like all darkness would be illuminated or cast away or something. It was really a beautiful sort of confirmation that I was on the right path. And so that is the real intention of what we're doing is how do you light a thousand suns? Who can light another thousand suns? And what does that look like? And we've changed it to from the dollar sign to a tree. And the tree represents growth. Like how do you grow yourself? And that's why we'll do all sorts, I think sort of business speakers and content for the most part are ubiquitous. Like you can, if you really want to find someone, you can get them on YouTube. Right. But it's the deep connection that happens. And so I really believe in Finding ways of creating deep connections and unusual situations for people where they might be dressed up in Alice in Wonderland magical garden clothing, or we surprise them and take them on a zombie crawl or something, or who knows what it is. Or we're out in the middle of the safari and we have something called tacky khaki day. And so you dress up in your tackiest khaki safari clothing. And so we love having a lot of fun with people and then put them in that situation where it's like it doesn't matter if you're owner of a $10 million company or $100 million company, or you're someone that has a big reach in the world or someone that's just starting to find that bigger voice, but you're inspired in a different way. And I think that happens from these deep connections, from putting them in situations like that. So that's what we've always really relied on. And then also the impact side. So we put 10% of member dues into an impact fund, which is that $3 million that you mentioned. But also we have unique experiences and trips where it's everything from like going to Haiti and helping build self sustaining villages to another kind of island, which is Necker island, would go with Richard Branson and brainstorming with his nonprofit on key global issues. So, you know, it's really runs the gamut.

I love it. I love it. Yeah, that sounds fantastic. It's kind of like summer camp in a sense for business owners. So they get into a place where they can play.

Yeah.

Play is such a great word, you know?

Yeah. Play is. Play is a really beautiful word. It's like, it's like when we were actually, I really think as entrepreneurs, like when we are playing, like we're at our highest vibrational level. Like we're doing the things that we're meant to be doing because it's just like fun. Like, like what you could. You know, work doesn't have to be work. It can be play. Because when you're putting out something that is your unique ability and what you love and gives you energy and. And you feel even more inspired at the end of the day because you know you're. You're on purpose and you're doing what you're meant to do, that's play.

It should be fun. Yeah. If you're not having fun, then like, it's time for. Time for.

Well, I was just gonna say one distinction because, you know, some people can correlate fun to like, happiness. And I talk about joy. So I think happiness, it's like, oh, well, I should be happy. There's times I don't know about you, and I'm gonna bet this might be the case for me. It is. Like, there's times when I'm not happy, but I'm joyful because I feel like I'm doing what I'm meant to do. Like, I'm like, the more I can be fully utilized, the more I can. I call it like, effortless effort, like putting my full self into something. But that doesn't mean that it's always like, happy, happy, happy. But it's joyful because, you know, you're. You're in the right trajectory.

You're on purpose.

Yeah, like. Like happy can be eating an ice cream cone, but that ice cream cone quickly melts or whatever. Like it doesn't, you know? Or if you eat too many ice cream cones, that's not happy anymore. But joyful is like doing what you're meant to do.

Yeah, exactly. Well, that's the thing. You. As long as you feel like what you're doing is making a difference and you feel aligned with it, but human emotion is not always going to stay on the. Bouncing on rainbows.

Yeah, exactly.

But the whole picture of it excites you. I totally get what you're talking about. Okay, so you cultivate these incredible business owners, big thinkers, innovators, even like Richard Branson. How do you. How have you personally been able to meet so many big players? And what is your advice for others that say, you know, I'd really like to level up the people that I'm meeting that I'm introduced to. How does that work in your world?

Well, I think that it comes from a couple places. So to me, I always think your life changes from the books you read or materials study, the people you meet and experiences that you have. So those are kind of my three things, and that's kind of about it. I think that there's so many mentors and opportunities available for people that have put their lifetime of work into a book. I know you have an incredible book out there. To me, books are sort of your best friend. And so, so many people are like, well, I can't meet so and so, but you can meet them. I used to meet them all the time on my. My drives where I'd listen to their programs and their podcast now and just all sorts of stuff. So you have that opportunity, but nothing beats in person for sure. And so it's putting you in a spot that you can show up in a way that you're there where those people are. And sometimes this might get maybe a little too metaphysical, but. But it depends also on how you show up, right? Like, if you show up as, like, you can be a fan and you can really appreciate what they do, but you need to show up as a human first and connect to them on a, on a human level. Because you just think about, you know, we were just talking about before the show started. You know, I have a mutual friend who's the former producer of Oprah Winfrey show, right? Shery Salata. And like, how many times, like, she used to be the gatekeeper, like, how many times people approach Oprah about, you know, this or that, and, like, if you show up in that same way, then you're just going to be kind of put in that same bucket. And so I always looked at, first of all, where is my genuine, authentic connection? Because not every business icon or celebrity I connect with on a deep resonance level about who they are and what they care about. Like, so Branson and I definitely do. We can talk about space. We can talk about how business makes a difference in the world, and we have a lot of fun together. Like, I dressed up as a, as a showgirl once and surprised him in front of, like, 3,000 people and, oh, my God, hilarious.

How's that humor, right?

So it's like, you know, how do you show up in a way that also is. And I've learned to step more and more into it because these my biggest business hero, right? Like, so it's hard to be like, oh, you know, and just keep it at that level. And you. But if you don't, then you're beholden to them or waiting for them to sort of acknowledge you in some way or whatever. Like, you need to show up as a whole person, like, be fully whole yourself. And then you don't. You're not waiting for someone else to bestow upon you, I don't know, whatever it is. So that's one way. I mean, in a more practical way, it's like you just show up where, where those people are. And, you know, I know you run an incredible mastermind group. It's like you want to show up with people that are thinking big, who have great vision, who are, who have great energy, who are, you know, positive, optimistic about the future. And, and that's where things happen. I mean, it really is like, I don't like the expression of who you know. It's not what you know, but who you know. But it comes down to that sometimes because you want. It's not just who you know on a transactional level too. It's more about who do you know on a. On a deeper level. Like who do you truly have a bond with that those are the people that are looking out for you and you're looking out for them.

Yeah, it is. And it does elevate you, you know, because you have to show up at a higher level, you have to work on yourself and you have to show up at a higher level. And it just energetically. And I am into the woo woo stuff, so you never feel like too much for me. I was a homeopath for 20 years, so.

Oh, that's right. Right. Yeah. Actually, I love homeopathy.

I already get. People think I'm weird, so. But that energetically you just surround yourself with. It's who you're plugging into something. Carolyn Mace, I don't know if you know she is, but she wrote about energy anatomy years ago on my favorite books. And whatever tribe you're plugging into and tribe is as a low resonance, it's gonna pull you down. It's a higher level energy, it's gonna pull you up.

It's exactly. And our bodies know it. Right. Like it's, it's like, you know, I'm trying to teach my, my daughter, who's 12, this lesson about her friends. I'm like, okay, well, how does this friend make you feel? How does this other friend make you feel? And it's getting her to stop for a moment. And we can all do that, right? Like, how does this job make you feel? How does this person, how does this partner, how does this joint venture partner make you feel? Like it's just about us quieting. Almost like that part of life that wants to explain away something or coming back into our intuition and gut. And you know, you had mentioned, like, how do you keep connecting to what's real, what's important? I think meditation or mindfulness practice is huge. Or, you know, it doesn't have to be meditation. That's become a bigger and bigger thing. But I found that to be a huge part of making sure that I'm on track and listening to that inner voice and getting deeper guidance.

Yeah. Wow. We could talk for hours and hours.

You know, that would be fun.

We will definitely need to do that. And I love all the things that you're. That you're up to. And you have some gifts for our either because this is also, you know, some people are watching, some people are listening, depending on what platform. And you're gonna give away some cool stuff. Do you remember what that was?

I don't remember what it was.

You have first two chapters of your evolved enterprise and 11 evolved.

Oh yeah. Oh actually. Oh yeah. That's actually a really cool one. Yeah. So we have the first couple chapters involved enterprise and then we have this really cool infographic that we created about the 11 different impact models for evolved enterprises. So it's a nice visual representation of all the different models and how you can apply them. Cool.

Well, we have a library and you can go to alisonmasland.com and you will get these two downloads plus all of the other downloads we've had for our shows. But if people want to reach out to you, Janik, or learn more about what you're doing, what is the best way for them to do that?

You can pick up the book Evolved Enterprise wherever books are sold. I blog occasionally on yannicksilver.com, y a n I K Silver and then if they're a high level entrepreneur, they should check out Maverick 1000.

Fantastic. Well, very cool. This has been so much fun and I really am excited about all the things you're doing and I'm gonna now you've inspired me. I'm gonna start journaling again.

Oh good.

I gotta get some different colored pens and stuff.

There you go.

A lot more fun.

Yeah, for sure. Text me a picture of a couple of them.

Okay, I will do that. And thank you all for watching or listening. I hope you've enjoyed this. I definitely have. It's been a blast. And Janik, thank you so much. Thanks Allison for being with us. So for those of you get out there and elevate yourself because you are worth it. And until next time on the Scalar Bell show, we will see you soon. Bye everybody.

People always talk about they want to be part of seven figure companies. I'm now part of seven, eight and nine figure companies. I've been introduced to some of the largest corporations, Fortune 500 companies and it's with Alison's help, she's kind of expanded my horizons and my capabilities and I think that's the most important thing. Where she expands, she makes, you know what you can do and be successful at that.

Being with Alison and being able to learn who to hire and why to hire and how to develop a passionate, creative, inspired team was really, really important for me because I needed to shift some energy in my business and I feel like with her help I've really done that.

Pinnacle helped me grow my company to where at this point a Year ago I made a million more than I did at this point last year. So I really wanted to break that ceiling. I've hit that ceiling for several years in a row and Pinnacle has helped me do that by implementing the thought. It's actually just a thought process and how you view your company and how you view what you're doing. I think a lot of us entrepreneurs are hard on ourselves and are hard on our companies when it's not that we shouldn't be that way. So I think it's just looking at things a little bit differently, putting into practice the systems that she teaches us. For example, if you want an example, putting people in place to where I want my business to be at in two, three years. So I've got people right now in place. And it's wild. It's just like it's all the work is coming in and we're in place and we're not stressed out and it's just amazing. It's just an amazing place to be.

What I love most about being in the Pinnacle is constant access to support. So whether it be my mastermind group or the recorded resources that Alison has produced for us, or the constantly cutting edge information that's coming to us on social media, Facebook ads, how to conduct webinars, you name it, we have a resource for it.

So since joining Pinnacle, we've added 12 new positions to the company. We've increased revenue about 43%. We've increased profit by 111% this year. More importantly, I've gotten out of some roles that I was in, like QA manager. And some of the marketing things that I was doing are now outsourced or not outsourced. Insourced to a team member. And I've really focused in on running the business instead of letting it run me.

Coaching opportunities out there and a lot of times I'm a little bit suspicious. It's a kind of a sales job, you know, are they, are they in it for themselves? Are they in it for me? And at no time have I ever felt with Pinnacle that my best interest was not number one priority. And it's truly an organization and not just Allison and the coaches, but everyone there. It's coming from a place of giving.

And.

Working for mutual benefit. A lot of sharing going on and that's a great team to work with.

Right off the bat. I laid a foundation for my coaching practice and I increased my prices and within one week I had signed two high paying clients that had basically paid for my coaching program with Alison. And since then, my income has doubled every single month.

It's been tremendous. But being a part of the community has been the greatest asset. I've been so fortunate and blessed to befriend so many other amazing entrepreneurs who I learn from on a regular basis who always have my back, like minded people that I surround myself with. And the environment is so positive. I just cannot speak highly enough of it. And I am always compelled to share it with everyone I know. I feel it is the biggest gift to introduce and share this opportunity to connect with this kind of community with everybody that I know.

Don't be the company like I was being in business for over 12 years, looking back and saying, what did I do in the last 10 years? Do it now. Now is all we have. We don't have the past and we don't have the future. All we have is now.

I've been in business for 21 years now, and I've worked with a number of business coaches. And I watched Alison for four years and the results that her clients had when they worked with her. And I finally decided this is the next coach that I'm gonna hire. Because she is the real deal. She is available to her people. She absolutely cares deeply about each and every individual and the success of their business. And you know what? We have to in business, take risks. And sometimes taking risk is hiring that new coach. This is a risk worth taking.

There is nothing like it. I can't even explain what the opportunity and the learning that comes with Pinnacle.

Don't even think about it.

Because if you think about it, that's the number one thing that will hold you back. Just do it.

You won't regret it.

You just need to do it. I mean, you have to stop being on the fence. You have to get off. The fence is boring. The fence is. Honestly, I was on the fence for. Oh, gosh, I was on the fence for maybe two years.

And it was a horrible fence to sit on.

I hated the fence because the fence kept me stuck. And it was when I finally jumped off the fence that my business skyrocketed.