Yanik Silver: How "Evolved Enterprises" Are Changing The World, Making Profits and Doing Good

Hey there. Welcome back to Bacon Wrap Business. This is Brad Costanzo and if this is your first time listening to the episode, I want to welcome you to the show. If you are listening on itunes or on the website, there should be an itunes button there. Go ahead and subscribe. I don't want you to miss a single episode. We've got a lot of great episodes in the backlog. You can go listen to them. I know that the past few weeks we've just been delivering a ton of awesome advice. And I say that because I've been getting a lot of feedback from a lot of listeners saying that it really resonates with them that they're learning more on some of these podcast episodes than they do on courses that they pay for. And that is very intentional. When I get guests on the show that have a lot of value to add, I'm asking them questions for myself. First and foremost, I'm asking actionable advice. Things that really make an impact in my business, that of my clients, my partners and my friends, and also ideally in yours. So if you haven't subscribed to the podcast on itunes, do so now and you can go over to baconwrappedbusiness.com click the button to subscribe to the newsletter where I share a lot of really cool things that you don't normally get on the podcast. For instance, one of the last episodes we did was all about how to kind of connect with people at a very high level and expand your social and business network. I'm going to be doing a free training for people only on my newsletter list to just going into that in a little bit more depth. It won't be on the podcast. You can only get that on the newsletter Once more@baconwrappedbusiness.com so speaking of connecting with people at a very high level, it actually was a happy coincidence that I happened to be interviewing today on the show Janik Silver. So Janik has been in the entrepreneurial game for what seems like forever. I've been doing this for about eight years in the kind of the digital marketing space where I first discovered Jannik and when I when I was drinking from the fire hose of knowledge everywhere. He has been around for long enough to where he's probably seen it all, done a little bit of it all, and connected with some of the most inspirational and high level entrepreneurs in the business. He is the author of Instant Sales Letters from Back in the Game. I remember getting that. And he's the host of the annual Underground online seminar and Maverick Business Adventures. If you're not familiar with Maverick Business Adventures, it's something that I've always had a, I've been watching closely, had a lot of friends involved with and it's a group that not only goes, you know, masterminds and talks business and builds relationships, but does some absolutely amazing retreats and creating experiences for entrepreneurs and business folks. He's connected with folks such as Richard Branson, Tony Hawk, Chris Blackwell, John Paul DeJoria, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Russell Simmons and Tim Ferriss. And now he's connected well with me and he is going to share some of the things he's working on today with, with you in the hopes that we can take your business to the next level and well watch it evolve. That being said, Yannick, welcome to the show.

Hey Brad, thanks for having me. Really excited.

No, me too. As I said, I followed a lot of your stuff over the years and I really admired the way you've approached business. You always seem to have done things at the next level and kind of stayed a couple steps ahead of the game. So I mean, I'll be honest, dude, I could think of a million questions to ask you, but I know that one of the things you're working on right now, it's probably near and dear to your heart, is this evolved enterprise. What can you tell me about what you're working on right now? I got a very personal reason for asking this, but I want to kind of jump right into the meat of this and talk about what an evolved enterprise is.

So let's do that. I think it's actually pretty good because it fits right in on the intro you gave me. So you talked about hosting the annual underground event and then Maverick Business Adventures. So we actually retired underground after 10 years. Might be at some point. And that actually all fits into this whole idea of evolved enterprise. And then Maverick Business Adventures was actually something I kind of looked at my life about eight years ago and I asked myself am I actually really happy doing what I'm doing? And the answer was when I got down to it, the answer was no. And you know, from the outside looking in, making a lot of money online, had a multiple seven figure business, had great reputation in the marketplace, which isn't always that easy. Had a lot of things, great family, all that stuff that you'd really want. But I wasn't totally happy and it kind of forced me to look at, okay, well what would make me happy in this.

Funny how that happens, right? A lot of us aspire to, there's that gap of here's where we are, and once we have this million dollar business, once we have this, this, this, it'll be amazing. And we get there, and it seems like it's always about something else that.

Yeah, I mean, you can keep, right? So, like, one of my mentors, this guy Dan Sullivan, talks about the gap. And the gap is like, you can think of it like the horizon. And our ideal is the horizon. We're like, okay, yeah, we're just gonna get over here. But then once you get there, it's the next thing. And so to really make sure that you truly are living a life that you feel content and satisfied, it's better to look back on where you've actually come. So looking back to point A instead of always looking at what the ideal is, because it's pretty hard to look at the ideal. But there's an even maybe a more advanced strategy around that that I figured out, too, that maybe we'll talk about in a second. But that time period when I was looking at it, I journaled. I thought a whole lot about, okay, what would really make me happy. And it was like hanging out with other cool entrepreneurs, doing really amazing stuff, and then making a difference in some way in the world. And that was what Maverick Business Adventures was born as. And the very first trip, it was a completely different business than the information, content, space. And I'm like, all right, well, we'll figure this out. And I'm a big believer in kind of setting up deadlines for yourself, right, that you have to hit. So this one was January 2008. We were going to go do a Baja racing trip. I have no idea how we're going to make it happen, but we're going to make it happen. And I don't know how we're going to get a celebrity there or what we're going to do, but whatever, I'll figure it out. And if anyone wants to come or not, we had like 26 people show up. It was pretty cool. We had Jesse James, the motorcycle guy come and speak. And then I kind of looked at our P and L from this, and it was like, we're down $40,000 on that one venture. So I'm like, all right, well, that's interesting. And so I'm like, okay, well, you need an investment, and that's fine. It's a whole different kind of business. And then fast forward a couple years into this thing. About $400,000 in and between hiring people that we didn't necessarily need at the point of where we were and all sorts of things. My wife's like, all right, well, what are you doing with this thing? I'm like, that's a good question. And sometimes you take that passion as a double edged sword. And I look at that, life kind of will keep hitting you and bonking you on the head until you get the message. And for me, it actually took selling my Aston Martin to get that message finally. And it was like, I remember waking up, I had like $70,000 that we were due for all sorts of vendors and payroll to make with the team. And I'm like, we had the publishing company that I wasn't really paying that much attention to because I wasn't passionate about it anymore. But I was really excited about Maverick, but it wasn't. Didn't have the right business model necessarily.

Yeah, the thing you were most excited about wasn't paying bills. The thing you were at least excited about was probably paying the bills.

It was. And it was a tough situation to be in. And it's like, I know there's something here, but I can't figure out what it is. And so I literally sold my Aston. Not like, oh, boo hoo, you know, poor Jan, I can't sell it. Aston Martin. It's not that big a deal. And to me, it's like, it's a car, it's a thing. But that was the big enough bonk that I'm like, all right, we gotta change what we're doing here or not do it. And then I really looked at, is my why big enough here? And the why wasn't big enough if I was building an adventure travel company that wasn't a big enough why. The big why was we really wanted to change the way business is played is what our mission is. So I went back and we renamed the group Maverick 1000. Now it's kind of a global collective of what I think 1000 entrepreneurs can actually change the world in some way. That was part of it. And then before we actually started interviewing, you and I were talking about the young entrepreneur group that we have, how there's that mixed mentorship relationship, and that's called Maverick Next for young entrepreneurs 25 and under. And then we have local chapters that we're starting. So there's like a bigger sort of thing that we're really working on, what I call this eco verse. And that was, to me, like, what I was willing to put my life towards and my life energy towards. And during that time period, I asked myself a really important question. And some people have Heard a version of this, but it's different. Some people have heard, you know, if you had six months to live, what would you do? Or you couldn't fail, what would you do? I don't think that's the right question. Or at least it wasn't for me. Out of this book, Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, she has a version of this question called what would you do even if you knew it would fail?

I like that. Two quick interjections here. So, yeah, I also don't really like that question of what would you do if you have seven days to live or even a month to live? Nobody knows. We would probably freak out half the time. I'd probably crawl up in a ball. So it's really hard to kind of put myself in that situation and then come out with an answer. I recently bought Brene Brown's book. That one I just have not. It's in my Kindle. I have not yet read it because I've got like eight other books that I'm trying to finish simultaneously. But I love what you just said there because one of the other questions that I was telling somebody at a conference this past week, I can't also wrap my head around an answer. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? Like, my brain won't go there. It just. Or what would you do if money was no object? I'll take, you know, for a while. I would probably have a hell of a lot of fun. And then after that, I decide. But I just. My brain doesn't go there. But I love what you just said, and I want to explore that. What would you do even if you knew you would fail?

Yeah. And so that puts it at a whole different level. It's like, okay, what would you do even if you weren't attached to the results? And so this gets into a bit of a spiritual concept of what I was kind of alluding to earlier. But this is pretty prominent in this book, the Bhagavad Gita, which is worth it. Have you read it? Great.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. So you know this already. So this is the idea of, you know, that we're only entitled to our work and putting our full heart and soul into it and not entitled to the fruit of our labor.

Yeah.

And so the concept behind that is really, really powerful for entrepreneurs to not be attached to outside things like sales or accolades or press or, you know, you name it. And that. That starts freaking you out a bit and really dealing with that. And I. That's. It's A really, it's a concept that I continue to work through. It's like if I put my full heart and soul into something like honestly, this, this book that I just finished, this evolved enterprise book, like, I do feel like I put my heart and soul into it. And I don't care if I sell one copy when it, when it comes.

Out, it becomes a legacy for who you are and how you really believe. And worst case scenario, if your closest friends and children, whatever read that, it's probably worth it, right?

Yeah, it is. And it's pretty powerful. I remember interviewing Mark Echo from Echo Unlimited, the clothing guy, and sold over a billion dollars of this lifestyle brand that he's created. And he had a book that he came out with and we were talking about this and he's like, I said something like, I won or I knew that I celebrated it the moment that the last word was written. And he's like. And that, you know, that to me is a perfect essence of this. And it was this idea of like not, not being attached to it. So this idea of, you know, what would you do even if you knew it would fail? Like, so that, that set up this whole notion of this ecosystem and that I knew would, would be worth it regardless. It's such a powerful question. And so during this period, like all these pieces of this framework of the evolved enterprise kind of started coming together. It also came from a lot of conversations from some really, really top level entrepreneurs and icons. I've been really fortunate to spend about eight weeks with Richard Branson, Tony Hsieh from Zappos, and a bunch of other really amazing people. And some people, some that many listeners may or may not know, like Ari Weinswig from Zingerman's and then Rich Tearling, who's the former CEO of Harley Davidson, like kind of getting inside their heads. But also this Maverick group that I built, like, you know, they have seven, eight, nine figure businesses, like to get inside. Like, what are they doing? It's never about only the tactical stuff. There's a whole other level of strategic ways that they think about their culture or the people, they think about their product or service and then they think about building communities. All these things have really started kind of gelling together over the last eight years where I use Maverick as a bit of my own sort of petri dish and to experiment on this evolved enterprise process.

So I want to go back to a couple things you just said that triggered a couple of these things and I'll kind of hit them one at a time. And then we'll kind of address them. So one of them is like back, even back in the day, but also with this is talking about changing the way business is played. Also when you talk about not being attached to the fruit of your labor, that we're not entitled to the fruit of our labor, we're entitled to the labor. So a lot of people, because I have given a lot of thought to this, I've read probably many of the same things you have and to a very large degree, I believe very similar. I think a lot of people would probably have a hard time getting around like maybe that doesn't really hit them where it needs to hit them because they might be thinking it's off the. I can think of a few friends with like, ah, no, that's hippie communist. Socialist communist. What do you mean? You know, not, you know, that's not, that's anti capitalist. We should make as much money as possible. But I think what you're saying is it's, it's that when you do the right work for the right reasons and you do it well, I mean those are the things that will really ignite most people and they'll bring their best to that because they're not focusing on the reward, they're focusing on doing it because it's either the right thing to do or they absolutely love doing it and that they would do it for free if they could, if they could survive. Right? That a lot of times, you know, that's where the monetary reward that just becomes the byproduct, the financial success. It's not the single driver, right. It's the, you can, you can be fabulously wealthy while doing amazing. Good.

Yeah, let's jump into that first. So there's got to be a sweet spot of like your personal passion and of course marketplace demand or validation and you know, some sort of business model or financial aspect to it that makes sense. And so if there's not, then you're simply, I don't know, like maybe lying around your hammock because you think that's your best work. But if you really get down to it, that you know, your, your, your actual heart knows that that's not your best work anyway. Your best work is pretty much always going to be something that, that serves the world in a, in a better way. And it's really, really interesting when you, when you get there. And it's, it's really, it's actually frequently kind of scary because a lot of times, and I have a lot of these conversations with, with Maverick members who are where I was about eight years ago, like they're thinking about, okay, how can I? Like there's this kind of nagging voice in their head about, you know, maybe there's something more that I can be doing. Or they know that there is, that they have more talent and more resources and kind of more wherewithal that they're going to put into something and. But it's scary because it's like there's a little bit of the golden handcuffs with what they're currently doing. They're known for this. They don't want to necessarily rock the boat, to really go out and go reinvent themselves or their business. But frequently that's when they get to the real juice of their true path and their destiny of greatness, as I call it. And that's a really exciting place.

It is. Do you feel. Because I could just see that some people, like, I'm always trying to put myself in the shoes of a, the various types of listeners I have and then friends and stuff. So this is something I could see a lot of people thinking, well, that sounds great. That's like a, that's an already successful person's problem, you know. Oh, kind of when you're pyramid, what is it? Maslow's hierarchy? Oh, now you're looking for this self actualization. But I'm trying to make money, I'm trying to get going. I'm just trying to put food on my family's table as well as I'm trying to make payroll. Like, hey, at the end of the day this whole sole enterprise sounds really good, but I need money. I can't spend that on the things I need. Do you find that people at the lower levels of business have a harder time connecting to the importance of this, of an evolved enterprise and starting from there versus saying, well, I'll be more evolved once I reach the pinnacle and the peak and I have the luxury of worrying about, you know, my soul.

Yeah, absolutely. So I think so. I love this because on the pragmatic level, an evolved enterprise actually makes you more money. And so, you know, that's where it gets really exciting. It's like, how do we not only align the soul of our business ourselves with creating more impact and meaning and maybe more happiness for yourself, but also how's it relate directly to making more profits? And that's where it gets really exciting to me because it's like maybe for the first sort of seven, eight years of my life or business life anyway, really deep into studying marketing, copywriting, persuasion, Direct response, marketing influence, whatever it is. And now it's like matching it up against. It's kind of like merging your head and your heart. That's where it gets really exciting. And there's real pragmatic data on this and it's happening from the inside out and the outside in as well. So there's a book that came out, I think about 10 years ago in that timeframe. It's called Firms of Endearment. And they looked at companies who had a really, really deep, rich culture, like Southwest Airlines and Starbucks and Container Store companies, Whole Foods. Not necessarily the level of a company that I run or that you might run, Brad, or maybe the listeners. But it was really interesting to look at that their, that these companies, their performance against S and P, which is, you know, sort of the marketplace index was 1400% better.

Oh, wow.

For a ten year period. So.

Well, you know, and it's one of those things that it is, it's kind of this intangible quality, but it probably permeates throughout the business and creates more productive employees. Probably a much longer stick rate, probably much more, you know, meaning loyal customers. Not just customers, but loyal employees and people who are willing to see the entire venture out through thick and thin because they believe in the underlying soul of the business. Right?

Yeah.

Permission, Right, exactly. So who are some of the. I mean, you've just named some big companies. I think there's a lot of big companies out there, like Whole Foods, appos, different companies who kind of lead in this way. What are some other companies that you really admire? They don't have to be, you know, Fortune 500, the household names, although you could name a couple if they're a perfect example of an evolved enterprise.

I like the smaller ones because that's kind of where I play more Cool.

So give a shout out to some of the companies or people or whatever that you think are a great exemplar of this.

So let me just define evolved enterprise real fast and then I'll give you perfect examples. And I have 11 different, what I call evolved enterprise impact models inside the book that I talk about these different ways that these companies are using these models really to grow right now. But it's essentially if you look at, think of like concentric circles, it starts from like, what's your deepest calling as a founder, as the person that started. It's like, what were you almost like designed to do? So it starts with you, it starts with evolving yourself. And then the next ring outside of it is the cause. It's the reason why you're doing what you're doing. And at that basic level, like you mentioned, hey, that, you know, the guy or gal who's saying, hey, you know, I need food for my table next week. So that's one motivator. But if you get deeper into why they started their business, there's always another reason. And when we start linking that up with what's the core impact of what they want to do with their company, there's something big that happens there. Right.

And, you know, going back real quick, going back to that other question, which is what, you know, what would you do if money was no object? I think a better way to phrase that, because that is such a big, big question. Like, okay, if Richard Branson's wealth was in your bank account, what would you do? Well, I'd party a lot. Right. No, but what would you. If that, you know, if you knew that your monthly budget was all taken care of, what would you do if you knew that you would never have to worry about getting repossessed or putting groceries on the table? It's kind of like that smaller step up. Like, hey, money's coming. You can take as many trips as you want, but not that unlimited amount of money is no object, because it's always an object. But I like what you just said there, and it kind of makes me think as well, yeah. If I don't have to worry, what am I going to do?

Well, it's also like, who did you start. Yeah. Who did you start the business for? I mean, you and I, I think, care tremendously about the same group of people, which are entrepreneurs.

Yeah.

And to me, entrepreneurs are the ones who are the massive value creators in this world and are the innovators and visionaries who can really change the game. And so for me, like, that, that's the best thing that I can possibly do. Because if I can be a catalyst or a spark for an entrepreneur, I know there are influences me far and wide between customers or their team. Yeah, exactly. And so that's why our mission is changing the way business is played. And so that becomes our why, our cause. But for other people, it's who do they want to be a hero for? And sometimes it's, oh, I saw this opportunity, and that's fine. But when you start examining where you really want your business to be, there's really going to be a marketplace or a group of people that you care significantly about that. That you want to help or you want to have a core impact in your. In your company or Even that you want to use your company almost as like a, as a model for other people. So I promised I was going to mention big companies, but I got to mention one more But Patagonia, yeah. $600 million company. So you know the guy who started Echinard, he just bought like this food company called Patagonia Provisions. And he just literally bought it essentially or started it so that he, you could show how to create sustainable food. And so like they'll do salmon jerky and different things like that. And so their whole reason is like showing sustainable business practices. And they've been a real leader in that, in the apparel business. So you know, you could use your business like that could be your reason why it's using your business as this model for other things. But then on the concentric circle out the evolved enterprise really it creates communities that just people that just love what you're doing so much that, that they are zealots and fans and want to buy more from you. And then your culture, which is that internal part is, and the culture can even be with the virtual company. It's that your team is aligned on a greater mission and they're willing to do things that they wouldn't if they're just showing up for a paycheck. And then the third little piece of that is the creation which is the product or service and having that impact all built into that. So going back to your question Brad, about some of the kind of smaller companies that are really doing some cool, innovative things, we had this guy named Dale Partridge come out and talk to the maverick group he started. He's one of the co founders of this company called sevenly.org and they started off where it was. $7 donation per t shirt sold and they'd have these unique designs. And it was also for one week. So seven main big causes that they supported. $7 and it's a one week kind of limited edition thing is how they started. And so he was showing us just some of the stats behind what they were doing. And they're not that old, they're maybe I think about three years old or so and they've already been able to donate about $4 million out of that seven dollar donation. And so that's pretty impressive. And so you can back that up into how many transactions they've had to have. And what was even more impressive for me was that he shared with us that 80% of their new customers come from social shares. So they can spend way, way, way less in advertising and acquisition for customers because Their customers believe it. Yeah. They have a strong identity now tied into this impact that they can wear a T shirt, spend a little bit of money, help make a difference. And then they also have. One of the things I talk about in the book is this impact scoreboard. So on the site they can talk about A, how much money they donate, but B, it correlates to directly how many people they've impacted. And so that gets exciting. That's another reason people want to want to share that. So that's one small company that is doing some pretty big things with this, with one of the evolved enterprise impact models.

Nice. So what's another company that is also, I want to kind of preface it with like, that is doing some amazing good. They are evolved, but they're also really profitable and got a great business model. It's kind of the best of the both worlds model. Because I don't want people to think like we've already kind of covered this, but I don't want people to think that this is. Oh, it's how to run a non profit has nothing to do with that. This is how to.

Definitely not. No. I'm a capitalist at heart, Right, Exactly. I'm an absolute capitalist. And I think that this is so much more of a model that works for everyone. Because business at its essence is a value exchange. Right. So the higher level of value that we provide for the customers, for our, our team, whoever it is that we're going to profit from that.

Exactly. One of the companies that I can think of that's doing this, he's one of my close friends. I actually helped him with his marketing and build his stuff back in the day. But are you familiar with Drew Canole from FitLife TV?

Yeah.

So Drew's a good friend of mine and he's a good example of. I mean, he's a guy who would probably do what he's doing even if he wasn't making money, because it's him. But he's got this cause and this commitment who absolutely loves him. And he's recently been launching some supplements and people are sharing it all over the place. Not just because, hey, it's a great product, but because they believe in the mission of helping people, et cetera. And it's interesting to watch his growth based upon the power of that message, that it's not about all the cash.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, other companies, like big companies, want to be associated with these evolved enterprises because they can have a great halo effect.

Yeah, that's absolutely true.

And partners want to be associated with. And then celebrities or influencers. It's like everyone wants to be associated with something that's making a difference in the world in some way. And it gets really exciting. I mean, probably the poster child for this is Tom Shoes.

Yeah, totally.

Yeah. Not many people know this, but they're a $300 million operation.

Wow.

Which kind of boggled my mind when I heard that. And I had the good fortune to interview Blake on stage last year, talking to him and also talk about is, you know, we've given away 35 million pairs of shoes.

Yeah. So. And if any of my listeners don't know the story of Toms Shoes, well, a, you should. But B, it's shoes. You can see them at Whole Foods in different places. But if you buy a pair of these shoes, they give a pair of shoes to either a child or a person in need. And what, like third world countries, etc. So there's a lot of companies out there who have kind of jumped out on that. That similar model in bandwagon in the past, But I think, yeah, Tom's Shoes was the first one to. I don't know if they. If they started that model, but, man, it's had an impact like crazy.

Really? Yeah, they really blazed that trail, and they probably got the most sort of, I don't know, bang for that. So it's like, there's so many other models out there too, so it's not like you have to go with that. Like, to me, I look at involved enterprises, like, how do you move from transactional to transformational to even transcending what business can be? And it's almost like we can be artists, right. Like, we can use our business as a canvas and we can pick and choose kind of this elegant business model and figure out where the impact is going to come from and how it serves multiple people and how it actually creates marketing hooks and unique angles and all sorts of stuff. So, like, there's an interesting company that really, to me, embodies this transcending model. They're called the Giving Keys. They're out of la. And the story is this gal, she was a rock star, and she had found an old hotel key. She spent the night in some hotel and kept the key, and she had something engraved on it, like hope or love or something like that. Started showing it to people, and they really loved it. She started making some kind of on the side and selling them at our concerts, and they're always being sold out. And then, like, one night she met this homeless couple on Sunset Strip, took them out to dinner. And then the guy's like, yeah, I'm actually an out of work jewelry maker. And she's like, oh, can you do something like this? And he's like, yeah, of course. They started making more of these around those messages. They'd have a message imprinted on these old keys. And so what they would do is they hire now people transitioning out of homelessness. And then they also like, the idea behind it is if you have a key, it might say faith or hope or love or, or whatever it is. And the idea is someone else who needs that message more than you, you give it to them.

Oh, that's cool. Oh, I just went to their website. That's really cool. Giving kids.com.

Yeah. And then it's shared on the, on the blog, so it becomes a story. So there's like so many kind of interesting pieces that start working there, right. That become better hooks. And, and so they're in big, big kind of high end boutiques like Fred Siebel and Beverly Hills.

So these are like keys. You buy them and it's made to kind of give them away when you feel.

Yeah, when you feel compelled to. And that becomes a story. And it's like, it's a pretty. It also becomes a talking piece, right? So like, when we talk about communities, one of the kind of what I call these little community decoder pieces is that you can actually, you can actually create these very tight, cohesive groups by breaking down some of the things that other groups have done. And one of them is creating artifacts. And so an artifact is typically a physical something like, you know, look back at the Lance Armstrong, the Livestrong, like those yellow bracelets, they were all over the place and you know, people would look at those. And it used to be a really cool sort of artifact to be part of that movement. And now, like, if you're wearing a key around your neck, most people will be like, what is that?

What is that? Exactly?

And it starts spreading the message and talking about that. There's a charity called Fallen Whistles that uses that same concept, but it's a whistle. Because there's kids in the Congo that they only go out with whistles in order to identify kind of enemy combatants out there. And so they've used that really, really well. So there's a lot of ways of creating that tribe also that community that continues to spread your message of what you're doing. And, and these are all just pieces. Like, you just keep adding these pieces up and it becomes all the parts become collectively way more than just the little pieces.

That is really cool. I love stories like this too, because they're also, at the end of the day, when things, you know, once you've started a business for entrepreneurs, the startup phase, although it's the most hectic, it's also, you know, for people like us, it's the most fun, admit it.

Sure.

But the things that most of us hate is once it gets into like a successful business and it just the daily operations, etc. And it's okay, it's churning out money and that's cool. But a lot of times we lose the interest and focus because, okay, we've done it. We crave more. We crave maybe more excitement or passion or, you know, just that startup phase. A lot of entrepreneurs are not good managers, but it seems like this is a way when you're able to start something that's bigger than just the business, that it's a way to kind of keep that momentum going and keep that passion for the business. Because, you know, hey, we may be making a lot of money, but we're also making a big difference.

Right. I mean, I talk about like falling back in love with your business.

Right.

And that's, that's what we really need as entrepreneurs. If we're, you know, going through what is bigger than a burnout, it's like kind of a crisis of meaning.

Yeah. Because even if you're making a lot of money and you're not passionate about the normal business anymore, you know that it's about something much bigger. So I want to use this to transition into something that I hope will be really informational and useful for my listeners, but I know will be very useful for me personally. So if you don't mind me being a little selfish, I mentioned offline before we got on the call that I'm officially working with a company now that's launching a consumer product. And I'm gonna keep this, on this episode, on the down low as far as exactly what it is and the brand, because it is still pre launch. But I was brought in to advise and then given a significant equity piece in the business. And I really believe in it. I think it's gonna be great. And what I will tell you, the listening audience, is that it is a consumer product for women with a very empowering message, but it is a consumable product and you already know what it is, Janik. But we are in the early phases of planning the rollout and planning this message and this message of it's not about the product. For us, it's about providing, creating a community who and you know, who really believes in this product and the brand and the lifestyle that will have a give back component and the messaging around it. So for women, I mean, this will be for women who are, who are, I'd like to say professional. The avatar is like professional women who are breaking the glass ceiling, who are independent and taking control of their own lives and want more out of their life and want to just suck the nectar out of life. Some of the things we are planning have to do with the messaging. So the messaging, whether it's blog articles and content, etc. Is not just about the product. It's really about the audience, the woman, etc. What are some things that. And if you were embarking on a venture like this that you might think about doing to a make a big splash in the community and to kind of get the attention of the avatar or the demographic, but then also to kind of be able to give back in a cool way. So, you know, one of the things we've thought about is the whole Tomshoes model is donating to, you know, donating, whether it's money or product or whatever, to people in need. What are some of the things based upon your research and based upon your experience and connections, etc. That you think might be a great thing to think about as we build this out?

Yeah, absolutely. So one thing that I want to just kind of point out because I think it's interesting and a lot of people do this exact same thing, they'll call it give back.

Hey guys, before I get to the second half of the interview with Jannik, the part where he gives me very specific advice about a very real company that I am very involved with launching and bringing to life, I wanted to let you know that I'm not posting this part on itunes. But don't worry, you can get the second half of this interview@baconratbusiness.com yannick the number two. Now the link for that will be in the show notes and when you go to that page, you'll notice that I'm going to ask you for your email address to download the rest of the audio. The reason I'm doing this is because the information he's about to share with me is very, very valuable and it's very personal to my business and I don't just want it floating around there, you know, for everybody on itunes. I am going to ask you to join my newsletter in order to get it, but I think you're going to love what's on going coming out of that. And it's simply a way for me to reward the people that I'm closest with and that follow me the most with a little bonus by subscribing. So just go over to baconratbusiness.com yannick and then the number two. Okay, so I am going to bring back in the end of the episode here with Jannik having edited this out, and we'll see who really has been listening and who wants to know even more. And if you do want to know even more, I'll reward you in a lot of other ways. But go over to baconratbusiness.com yannick2 and now let's pick up at the very end of the conversation where I left off with Yannick right now. That is really cool. Now, I'll tell you what, I have been really enjoying both aspects of this first half of the episode where we just kind of talked about the concept and what you're doing and what an evolved Enterprise is. And then obviously the second part where we've been kind of diving in and showing how this works in a real world. And this is for this venture that I'm involved with. This is in the startup phase. And we are planning it out to be an evolved enterprise from day one.

Yeah.

And that's why also Dimitri, who introduced us officially for this, who's an unbelievable web designer. If you guys are interested in that, contact me and I'll put you in contact with him. But he couldn't have made this at a better time because this information is actionable and I'm going to keep you up to date with what's going on with this because if you kind of want to follow along and see how I put some of your advice into practice.

Absolutely. Yeah.

So the book itself is called Evolved Enterprise, right?

It is called Evolved Enterprise. Yep.

Nice. So best place to grab that it comes at. So today is October 23rd. So what is the actual release date?

Yeah, 25th. So just a couple days.

And I have to get this thing out soon.

Soon, yeah, if possible. I mean, it's. Hopefully it'll be out for many years to come, but it's just off on our. On our website. We're not selling it anywhere else.

Nice.

And it's going to be. My goal is to get 10,000 copies of these out. And I look at them as seeds that can plant unique conversations like what we just had and kind of either reinventing what's going on in your business or totally from Scratch like thinking about these concepts. And so I'm going to get 10,000 copies out at my cost. So it's pretty transparent on the site, like what it costs us for shipping and postage and printing and so forth. And it's going to be really inexpensive. It's less than like what some people when they do the free plus just pay shipping.

Yeah, it's less than that.

Yeah. So it's a really great deal to get in right now, obviously, as we're giving away those 10,000 copies at our cost. And then of course we want to know what you're doing with them. And we started a small private Facebook community that's been growing and it's just really exciting to see people really resonate with this. And I'm getting a. We've gotten amazing sort of blurbs and testimonials from people at the highest levels like John Paul DeJoria, who co founded Patron Tequila and Chip Conley, CEO of Joao de Vivre Hotel, second largest boutique hotelier in the world, or former CEO. And so like, you know, those kind of people are in line with this and then real world entrepreneurs who are in the trenches every day, you know, like that to me is really even more exciting like how to use this and how do we, how do we make a difference and rewrite business?

Yeah, that's awesome. So people can get that@exolvedenterprise.org and.com is it?

Yeah. Yep. Evolved enterprise.com or.org and I see right.

Now you can download the first three chapters for free or go ahead and buy it. And you know, I recommend everybody obviously goes and gets the entire thing. Especially if any of this has resonated with you.

So before the best 7, 8. I don't know what it's going to end up being. It'll be the best seven bucks you can spend for sure.

Absolutely. So the, the way you're a smart guy, you're not just necessarily selling the book just to sell the book. Does this help feed into anything else bigger around this? Whether it's obviously you're building a community and you're putting much needed information in people's hands. Does this help you identify good members for Maverick? Is there something bigger that you want to talk about or we'll kind of keep that on the down low.

It definitely does. I haven't really put out anything new, information wise in many years. This has been almost like incubating and percolating and for a while I really didn't feel like I had anything new necessarily to put out. There I was just really busy with growing the maverick group and what we were doing there. And so yeah, this is kind of the first revamp of going back into the educational space all around the evolved Enterprise. And we're actually on the back of this is a. We don't know exactly what the name of it's going to be. It's either Evolved Enterprise, Catalyst Coalition or Global alliance. But it's essentially a co op. It's almost like an association on steroids for entrepreneurs that are building these evolved enterprises and that we can all benefit from it. And we'll be putting out ads in USA Today and other magazines and places and hiring PR teams and letting these, these companies really get, amplify their message of who they are, what they're doing and then bring them together with also accelerated and advanced information all around.

That's fantastic. So is there, are there any nuts out there you're trying to crack right now? Whether it's resources you're looking for, people, I mean publicity avenues for this? Is there anything that this is where either myself or any of my listeners could potentially help you out, whether it's helping promote this, et cetera?

Yeah, of course, I'd love any help. Getting the word out about the book is number one. Number two, we have probably about a half dozen ideas that have been sitting on the shelf that are evolved enterprises that we want to get out there, including one really special specific one that's in the book that helps Haitian orphans. So we go to Haiti once, once a year. I promised the person that runs this, this orphanage that I was going to create a self sustaining business for them. So the model is essentially in the book and what we need is a key driver for it. And we already have distribution and marketing kind of lined up. And I even wrote, I got so excited about it, I wrote about 80% of the copy already.

Oh, wow.

So we need to person to drive that and run it.

Do you know Vinnie Fisher by any chance?

I don't.

So Vinny, I actually just got. He's been a close friend of mine. I've met him. He's actually a member of my mastermind. And I met him at, I think I met him at War Room originally. And he is, he's the CEO of a company called Fully Accountable, which is amazing. He just had this big strategy and execution summit in Cleveland I got home from last night. That's just, you know, whatever. I do believe that Haiti is a very, very big thing on his radar. He organizes trips down there with other entrepreneurs, etcetera One of my business partners, Kent Clothier, went down there a couple years ago with him and changed his life. And I think he does this at least once a year where he brings other entrepreneurs down to help, whether it's volunteer or solve problems, albums, etc. And I'd be thrilled to introduce the two of you guys. He's amazing. Dude got a great company called Fully Accountable which is like outsourced CFO but plus like on steroids. But whether or not that's a direct resource that can help you out, I know that it'll be kind of like minds and if there's anything, you know, the connection will be amazing, period. But especially as it comes to Haiti.

Okay. Yeah, that'd be great. You know, we've been kind of playing around with this model of having a young entrepreneur drive it and run each one, but then figuring out what's the, you know, is there a buy in or what, what that looks like because we have, we have all the resources to jumpstart it. You know, one email will get the thing going with this idea is, but then it's running it in the key sort of day to day.

Nice. Yep, I'm going to make that, I just made a note to make that introduction there.

Awesome.

So I'm going to, I mean you've obviously got a lot of websites if you evolved enterprise.com or.org you can go to yannicksilver.com maverickbusinessadventures.com is there anywhere else you kind of want to direct people to?

Maverick MBA is a place that we'll be updating our blog there. And Yannick Silver is my personal blog that I update every so often and.

I'll put all those in the show notes and people can kind of check them out. Yannick, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time here and I'm going to be following up with some, you know, some introductions to you both with Vinny, some other, you know, really high end podcasts as well. If you're interested in sharing this message again and for my listeners, if there is anything out there that really resonated with you and really kind of made you think, I need more information on this. Go get Janek's book@evolvedenterprise.com grab it, read it, email him. Email me. If you have any questions about this topic specifically, you can always email me at askbradaconrappedbusiness.com and I read each and every one of them and I reply to all of them, especially if they're really, really good questions. If there's a way I can help you out, help your business, make an introduction, be a resource in any way, or even just kind of give you a second opinion on your strategy and your business. And if there's a way for us to work together, that's awesome. If not, I just appreciate you listening. I mentioned this in the beginning of the show that if you're not already a subscriber on itunes, go do that. We're also on Stitcher, and if you're on Android, etc. Itunes doesn't work for you. You can unsubscribe and get updated on every single episode that I do, as well as jump on the newsletter where I share some of the really juicy stuff that I just don't put out there in public on itunes for free. You can always get that over@baconrabusiness.com and a lot of other resources. Yannick, man, I really appreciate the time. This has been really cool to connect with you, and I look forward to staying in contact and seeing what else we can do in the future.

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Fred.

All right, brother. Appreciate you and appreciate all my listeners.

Take care.

Cool. That was great.

Yeah, thank you. That was wonderful. I got a 3:15.

Oh, crap.

You better roll.

All right, I'll ping you when this is ready and should be probably the next episode coming out, so.

Okay. All right. Yeah. Thank you for getting that out so quick. Yeah, I definitely would love to. Love to see you somewhere. You need to come out to some of the stuff that we're doing. Like we have this annual summer camp called Camp Maverick that I think you would really like.

Yeah, I've heard about that. Yeah. Ping me if you got some upcoming events. Just shoot me an email and let me know.

Okay.

Or anything else you're going to. I go to a decent amount of stuff as well.

All right, perfect.

All right, brother. Talk to you soon.

Talk to you soon.

Bye.