Nov
9
Why crappy things happening might be good news (and where to see Yanik this week)
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There’s an old story about a boy who wants a pony really badly for his birthday. When he wakes up to find a huge pile of crap at his house. He jumps around clapping and excited! Someone asks him, “Why are you so happy? You’ve got a mess of manure here?”
And to that the boy responds, “With that much shit – there’s got to be a pony in there somewhere!”
*
Well, that’s how I felt on Thursday with the supposed release of Maverick Business Insider.
It’s a *very* long story - but the short version is really buggy code to start with and one tech problem grew into another, etc. etc. Of course, after the initial frustration of the moment was gone – I took a step backwards and remained (mostly) calm. (Maybe surprisingly calm to a lot of people more directly involved.) I realized in the grand scheme of things a launch screwing up wasn’t that big a deal. I also used some of the principles my friend, John Harricharan, teaches in his PowerPause to create what I really wanted. (Plus at the same time feel grateful for what I already had in my life.)
Anyway - what I do want to point out is the good news. It’s an interesting notion that there’s good news somewhere in the pile of bad news. I’ve always believed things happen for a reason. And if the site wasn’t so screwed on Thursday I wouldn’t have shut it down and wouldn’t have searched for a new solution. I got a recommendation from Matt Bacak for an amazing guy named Mike Cline. If you ever need some serious tech work – not minor stuff – but serious stuff contact Mike. (Don’t even know if he’s taking new clients or wants more work since he doesn’t know I’m mentioning him here.)
Anyway in 24 hours we (he) rebuilt everything and we went live at 3pm yesterday. It’s hard to describe how impressive this is – I don’t know if I even grasp it. The bottom line is things are 5x better than what I originally intended and it’s a direct result of the first screw-up. If that didn’t happen we wouldn’t have used Mike or re-built the entire system.
Now there’s more good news (and it’s actually for you!)…
Because of the snafus and since we’re opening the doors on the weekend – I’ve decided to extend all the FAST-ACTION bonuses *way* beyond what we originally intended. (Fact is, they would have got snapped up in a few minutes during the intended Thursday release but now we’re going to open the doors wide to make sure you get it!)
You’re getting a special, $15k closed-door presentation entitled “Instant Leverage Points in Your Business That Bring You Surges of Cash”. It’s a presentation I did last January to 26 top-gun entrepreneurs and business leaders, who paid about $15k in membership fees and trip fees to come together in Baja, Mexico.
Plus, I’ve bundled up this DVD, the MindMap I handed out, my newest book called “34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs”, a 2 CD-Audio program and more – the only thing you pay for is s/h.
Truly a sweet deal for you to say “maybe” to trying the new ‘Maverick Business Insider’ newsletter. Get the whole scoop and find out about the special Fast-Mover Bonuses waiting for you.
* Come Say ‘Hi’ to me! *
As you know, I don’t speak that often so this is an unusual week. Monday, I’ll be at the ETR Bootcamp in Florida and then speaking on Thursday in Chevy Chase, MD at a local networking and business group for entrepreneurs called “The Entrepreneurs Group”.
* Forbes Adventurer Interview *
Also, something cool I didn’t post it up yet was an interview I did with Jim Clash from Forbes Adventurer. Jim talks to people who ‘push their lives to the limit’ so was excited to be interviewed. We talked about me being passenger #144 on Virgin Galactic.
Jim’s got a pretty interesting list of adventures to his own credit including driving an Indy car 200mph+ around the oval (it’s a lot harder than a straight line). He has a book called “To the Limits” on adventure and business that’s a little harder to find – but it still on Amazon.
Nov
7
Contest winners….and Maverick Business Insider “Take Two”
Filed Under Yanik Silver | Leave a Comment
Well today was *supposed* to be unvieling of the ‘Maverick Business Insider‘ newsletter and intro package. I guess someone forgot to clear it with the Internets. I’m not a techie but it had to do with our database and integration with fulfillment and operations. So instead of getting a whole bunch of annoyed customers in and not being able to fulfill in a timely manner – we pulled the site & put it on ‘hold’.
I figured we’d have it up earlier - but we made a decision to wait until tomorrow to open it back up.
I put up a video on the main site explaining it a bit more and giving some good news. Hopefully a silver lining in this for you. (Hint: It has to do with the ‘First-Mover’ Bonuses!)
* Contest Winners *
From our video comments contest - you guys made it really hard to pick the best ones. Some incredible, insightful comments. So I bumped it up to 8 winners instead of 5…
Drum roll…please….
Here’s who will be getting their own copy of the new Maverick Business Insider package with everyone else who grabs it (when we get the doors open). It looks like this -
Here are the lucky 8. Congratulations To:
· Bob Beckman:
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
· Suzanne:
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
· Jini Patel Thompson:
November 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
· Jeremy Reeves:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:19 am
· Matthew Detrick:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
· Rob:
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
· Robertas Says:
November 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
· Chris Brisson Says:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
We’ll have customer support contact you to get your address to send you the entire Maverick Business Insider package.
Nov
3
Maverick Manifesto video
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What started off as a quick 15-minute Saturday project turned into a 1 hr+ of new material on how to make more, have more fun and give more back! I asked you guys a few days ago for questions and some of the answers were quite eye-opening in each of the 3 areas.
With the elections going on in the U.S. tomorrow - the big idea behind the Maverick Manifesto is FREEDOM!
Freedom to write your own ticket regardless of what’s going on with the crazy economy, the next person in the White House or any external factor!
Here are a few things I covered:
- How to truly really create a Work/Life balance that actually works!
- Figuring out the right questions to ask so you get back the answers you need.
- What you really need to know in order to work once and get paid over and over and over again.
- Why you’ll never say “I can’t afford this” ever again…write your own rules for paying for what you want.
- How to make sure you turn up the ‘FUN quotient’ in your life and not get burnt out! (Plus: Exactly how to shatter the biggest excuse to waiting for more money to have fun!)
- Easy ways to bring fun into other people’s lives who you care about – and create real meaningful experiences.
- The painless rule to “automatically” giving back now instead of waiting & lots more!
Check it out and I would love to hear your comments.
* * Special Contest * *
And to help encourage discussion, I’ll be awarding 5 sets of the Maverick Business Insider package that’s being released Thur, Nov 6th to the best 5 posts. (You can see a full pic of the pkg on the video page.)
And “best” is purely subjective on my part - but obviously it wouldn’t be “wow - great video”. 
I’m looking for some thoughtful insights and you don’t even need to agree with me - but I’m interested in the conversation that arises here.
Nov
1
Halloween fun and need you help…
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Happy post Halloween…
Hope you enjoyed your little ghouls and goblins ransacking your house for sweets. We literally (no exaggeration) had probably 250 kids hit our house. I swear they bus them into our neighborhood. I was really worried we were going to run out of candy at some point and raided the panty for anything we could give out.
Zak had a great time with his first ‘real’ Halloween. He was Thomas the Tank Engine and loved it! Last year, he went to 3 houses and just walked right in. He didn’t get the concept. This year – he got it in a big way!
Hmmm…..knock on door, say a few words, people give me candy.
Rinse. Repeat.
Here are a couple quick pic of Zak at the neighbors place:
Poor Zoe, she was too pooped to even make it out. She stayed in her Giraffe costume for about 8 minutes before crawling up to bed.
Across the street from us, our neighbors are totally into Halloween with an entire graveyard scene, a big inflatable pumpkin coach, you name it. (Those are where I took Zak’s pics above.)
Now I love Halloween too and I had to get into the act. I bought this big archway with the words ‘Cemetery’ on top of it. It looked really cool online but when I put together – it took a slight breeze to knock it over. I secured it every which way from Sunday but it still wasn’t enough. Finally, the last time it fell over – I just left it there like an ancient ruin. Don’t know it seemed cool enough. Then I took the cemetery sign and stuck in my shrubs (you can just make it out to the left of the house).
The kids did go crazy for a fog machine I had on porch. (That’s right street cred with the 13-year olds!)
Next year we’ll have to have more fun with the kids and maybe get people in the yard scaring them. Who knows? Or my neighbor across the street, Deb, and I might form an alliance and build a huge archway spanning the street and have a makeshift haunted house in there. Something fun….
And that brings me to another point – where I need your help…
I just mentioned having fun…that’s definitely something I strive to do in a big way from jumping out of airplanes at cruising altitude to little silly ways like being “Count Yanik” for Halloween promos. (Yes, I know he didn’t make an appearance this year. I know you’ve been sobbing for hours about it.)
Having fun is one part of my Maverick philosophy for ‘Making more, having more fun and giving back more’.
Sounds good, right?
To me that’s the quintessentially ‘holy grail’. But not everyone thinks that’s possible - or maybe you’re struggling in one (or more of those areas). I want to help. I’m working on new content including videos and a free webinar for the release of the new Maverick Business Insider newsletter on Nov 6th. I got lots of stuff to share…but I need your help.
What’s your biggest questions or things holding you back in these 3 areas?
Give me your thoughtful answers and you’ll get a chance to win the ‘34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs’ book and 2 CD Audio Set.
Here’s the quick survey
It’ll only take a few minutes and it’ll help me make sure I’m covering what you want. Thanks!
Oct
15
The Non-stop 35th Birthday Party (and an important marketing lesson on ‘Conversation’)
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After the ‘King Krawl’ to celebrate my 35th the next big outing was the weekend of Sept 27 and 28 up in Chicago. Eben Pagan brought together 100 top marketers for a special closed-door networking event (and party). And at the same time WIRED Next Fest was going on in Chicago. Since WIRED is a media partner of Maverick Business Adventures®, our members had special access to a VIP opening party and a semi-private breakfast with their editor, Chris Anderson, as he introduced concepts from his newest upcoming book “FREE”.
I wanted to get up there for that but I had a family function I couldn’t miss. But I did manage to hop on the last flight on Saturday night at 10pm and got to the Hard Rock in Chicago near midnight.
I hit the tail-end of a party and then a big group of us went out to an after-hours club and kept the party going to 4 AM. Ryan Lee, Underground® II’s “Mr. X”, decided it was his job to keep feeding me ‘blueberry muffin’ shots.
Then on Sunday night, we had a small get together at the Hard Rock to celebrate my 35th birthday with 35 minutes of open bar. Dan Schorr, our head of partnerships from Maverick, thought we should start the celebration off with shots of “small White Russians”. I guess he and everybody else found it amusing.
Here I am with the menu:
You probably can’t make out what it says – so here’s part of what’s on there:
Short White Russian
‘Nuff Said
The “Original Maverick”
Johnny Walker Black, espresso and Amaretto
Black & Blue
Sambucca Black, Stoli Blueberry and a splash of red bull
*
As we wrapped up happy hour, one of the local guys, “Dr. Paul”, suggested a Karaoke place that has a live band backing you up. That sounded like a plan. We went out with 10 people and hit this hole-in-the-wall bar. Dr. Paul was a regular here and he got me on the list since it was my birthday. I wasn’t sure that was such a great idea because a) I wasn’t drunk and b) My wife, Missy, told me in no uncertain terms I should never, ever do Karaoke again. (It all stemmed from a night when she heard me doing ‘Coming to America’ by Neil Diamond. She was the only sober one at the table because she was pregnant. She was more vicious than Simon Cowell that night about my performance.)
I put those pesky memories in the back of mind and decided to go with the Violent Femmes “Blister in the Sun”. Not exactly sure how I did but I did go around shoving the mic into random bar patrons faces to get them to sing with me. I even got a few high-fives from those guys so I think it turned out okay.
Here’s video footage expertly taken by Mike Filsaime. I think the audio is kinda screwed up on here so now there’s no way to know if I really suck or it’s just poor audio.
Now the real crown jewel in the evening (and a very real marketing lesson) is a place called “The Wiener Circle” around Lincoln Park.
This is a hot dog stand that’s normal during the day but at night it becomes chaos. You have these gals behind the counter who are into harassing and cracking jokes at your expense. You can give it them and they’ll give it right back 5x as hard. I couldn’t stop laughing. You got to be ready for it or else you’ll be shocked at the anecdotes and 4-letter words there. (Look them up on Yelp.com or YouTube.com for the scoop here.)
Creating the Conversation…
The BIG marketing lesson is truly creating a unique experience. I heard from several people that we had to check out this place. There are hundreds of hot dog stands in Chicago (I believe the most in any city) but the reason we had to check it out is for the experience. Yes, the hot dogs were good – but they really weren’t that much better than others I’ve had. But the craziness – now that’s worth a trip.
So tied into all these shenanigans are a very real and important marketing lesson. It’s about creating the ‘conversation’. If you look at my previous blog post about the Modern restaurant – the conversation was created by an exceptional experience. Even better is something like Wiener Circle that has a compelling conversation as part of their day-to-day, regular activity.
What are you doing to try and create remarkable conversations that your customers HAVE to talk about you?
For Maverick Business Adventures® we work on this all the time and very consciously think about it. I believe a good deal of the conversation is dictated by extraordinary experience and surprise. Give it some thought.
Speaking of ongoing conversations…I can’t believe how a bunch of my friends and Missy’s friends cannot stop talking about my 80’s birthday party from the other weekend. This was the final celebration that Missy planned for me. We booked The Spazmatics band from New York City to come down and play our party. They are a totally cool 80’s cover band that dresses like ‘Revenge of the Nerds’.
Now the Spazmatics did something really smart. They realized they had a great hook and licensed their gig to others in different cities. Not sure how many of them there are – but I’ve now seen the Austin, NYC and LA ones.
The party was like a weird convergence of all worlds. We had my neighbors, some of my Internet buddies like Ryan Deiss and Jeff Johnson, some of my hockey buddies, some of my old college/high school friends and then a bunch of Missy’s friends. My 80’s character was taken from some characters we had at my High School. I had the full-on mullet, John Deere hat, cut-off jean jacket (complete with heavy metal band patches) and acid-washed jeans with holes in them (and SKOAL in the back pocket).
Here are a couple pics –
This is me and my cousin, Sophia.
I’m not really sure what I’m doing to Missy here but it’s enough to make her drop her jaw (and get a good peek at her gum)
Here’s Yanik up with the band performing “Mickey”(while clutching my jack & coke in my cut-off gloves)
Ryan Deiss and my neighbor, Stephen, both Univ of Texas alum doing the ‘hook ‘em horns’ sign. (Too bad you can’t see Ryan’s super colorful socks he borrowed from me.)
You can see more pics of me in my mullet and other really bad 80’s fashion sense on my Facebook profile.
