Natural Awakenings Long Island spoke with Yanik Silver, author of several best-selling marketing books and tools, including Maverick Startup, Instant Sales Letters, 34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs, and Evolved Enterprise. Silver was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s top 50 Favorite Online-Marketing Influencers. More profits, more fun and more impact are the founding principles of his own businesses; and he believes these are attainable for all entrepreneurs.
NA: Natural Awakenings Long Island serves many readers that own their own business or are 
planning on starting one; your book Evolved Enterprise is a MUST READ for them. One of the tips offered in your book is for businesses to “align with a cause.” How would (and when would) an entrepreneur go about doing this?
YS: The Sooner the better. The way I think about it is most businesses are an expression of their founder. So ask yourself, “Who do I serve and what do they want?” Figure out your margins and what you can afford to do, and a lot of times that will drive customers.
NA: What about the person that is five or 10 years in but is feeling stale—how would you advise him/her to begin re-engaging?
YS: Get back to the roots of why you started your business in the first place. Sometimes when you are that far out, it is hard to see past the day to day and remember what it was that inspired you. You need to look back at what you set out to do and what, perhaps by osmosis, you are now doing. Ultimately, you want to get back to your original founding story. Like, “Why did I do it?” And, surprisingly, a lot of times your first answer is not going to be your answer. A friend of mine, Joe McKlinsky, says to ask for 25 reasons, and I just love that. It is great because [when]you have a question, you don’t have just one answer. There are always many, and 25 answers just gets you deeper and deeper. When you do this, you may find what you were originally inspired by. Now, at some points, you might feel you outgrew what you were doing, and then it is time to make a transition. It happened to me once. I looked at my life and asked, “Am I really happy?” My answer was “No.” That forced me to explore what would really make me happy. Your heart’s desire is often scary but never wrong.
NA: Your heart’s desire is a sort of theme within Evolved Enterprise, where you discuss the importance of “following your bliss.” How would someone that is attracted to more than one thing—has more than one “bliss”—go about figuring out what it is he/she is supposed to follow?
YS: As a kid, I loved drawing cartoons and wanted to also be a hockey player. And I was a class clown and a goof and a ham, but they all coalesced into what I am doing now. I like to think of our businesses as an artistic canvas. We get to design that. We can incorporate many of our enjoyments onto that canvas. For me, my doodling and my drawing showed up in my book and my silliness shows up in my Maverick-themed events. You just incorporate more of what you do and who you are into your business because I definitely feel there are a lot of ways to blend it.
NA: How do you keep all the plates in the air, running multiple businesses and having a family?
YS: It helps a lot to have one common customer. If you are selling to eight different customer demographics, it’s really hard. For us, it’s just about entrepreneurs. We say, “We are changing the way business is played.” And for us that means working with impactful entrepreneurs—that is our customer—either at the startup phase or growth level or legacy level. They are all wired the same; they are all about growing themselves, growing their business, and making a difference in the world and having some fun in the process.
NA: Do you have one tip that every business owner should implement daily?
YS: A very specific thing is journaling. I am a huge fan of journaling. It’s a great way of processing and getting to a beginning, middle and end. It is a great way of processing things so they don’t keep rolling around in your head. All you need is maybe 10 to 15 minutes a day and a commitment to do it. I have a deeper process beyond 10 minutes, but that is often a good way to start. Something great is a gratitude journal and writing down the things you are grateful for. This is scientifically proven to make you happier. Something else I do [is]I will pose a question in my journal and will continue answering it and answering it. You get a deeper answer [this way]. Journaling is really part of a bigger picture of taking incredibly good care of yourself and having self-love. I have on my website what I call the nine M’s, which is a return path to joy, happiness and bliss. [These] nine M’s you can do daily. You don’t have to hit all nine, but if you do, you will have a great day. Meditation is one of them. [For all nine M’s, visit YanikSilver.com/returnpath.]
NA: Meditation and journaling are often like resolutions in that they are started and soon discarded. How can people create a greater commitment to these forms of self-love?
YS: I love these experiments: 33-day experiments. You do something for 33 days, whether it’s no sugar, no alcohol, journaling or meditating every day. [You commit] to doing these things for 33 days, and after 33 days … you begin to feel like, “Wow, I feel a lot different,” and then that energy all cascades down to our business. If our cup isn’t full as the leader, how can we impact anyone else? The framework is that it all starts with you and then moves outward.
Yanik Silver’s books are available at YanikSilver.com. For more information on running an “evolved enterprise,” visit EvolvedEnterprise.com.
