How to Profit Big and Give Back At Same Time with Yanik Silver

Explicit content warning

01/25/16 • 20 min

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Ep 144 Yanik Silver redefines how businesses is played in the 21st century as the intersection of more profits, more fun and more impact. Starting with his first million-dollar idea at 3 o’clock in the morning, he has bootstrapped 7 other products and services to the 7-figure mark from scratch without funding, taking on debt or even having a real business plan. Yanik’s story and businesses have been featured in WIRED, TIME.com, USA Today, SmartMoney.com, MSN Money, Entrepreneur, Fox Business News, WORTH.com and the Wall Street Journal among others.

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3 Key Points:

A business shouldn’t be just about earnings – it should have an aim that affects the world positively.
Self-publishing a book has some upsides like more flexibility and freedom.
Follow your heart when making a choice – it may not be an easy one, but you’ll likely make the right decision.

Episode Notes:

01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
01:33 – Yanik joins the show
02:18 – Frequently, customers want the fish handed to them, not to be taught how to fish.
03:04 – Yanik got a very early start in entrepreneurship, he was a cold-caller at 16.
03:47 – Printed Salesmanship by Robert Rucksten My first 65 years in advertising by
05:16 – Yanik respects the value of books especially since some authors put their expertise of about a decade in them.
06:42 – About 100K people have read Yanik’s books.
07:26 – Self-publishing gives the author more flexibility with timeline and control.
09:51 – Yanik sometimes disagrees with the use of the words “give back” because it implies guilt, that something should be returned.
10:34 – Yanik talks about Maverick 1000 and its impact fund.
11:23 – One of the topics the group talked about was the decline of bee populations and how entrepreneurship could positively impact the problem.
12:18 – The membership cost for Maverick 1000 is about 1,500$ a month and 10% of it goes into the impact fund, which goes into projects.
13:32 – Maverick 1000 is currently around 125 members – there’s another entrepreneurial group called Maverick Next which is all 25 years and under.
13:55 – The organization has used about 2 million to create some sort of impact on the world.
14:34 – Famous Five

Famous 5

Favorite Book?— The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
What CEO do you follow?— Sir Richard Branson
What is your favorite online tool?— Trello
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Continue following your heart. It might not make an easy decision but it’ll make the right one.

Resources Mentioned:

Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
Maverick1000.com – Yanik’s Entrepreneur group
Yaniksilver.com – Yanick’s website
@yaniksilver – Yanik’s Twitter
Facebook – Yanik’s Facebook
The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
Trello – Yanik’s favorite online tool
Want to learn how to go from $0-$10k/mo in revenue fast? Join Nathan live on the Starter Tribe Beta free workshop.

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTo...

Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: http://nathanlatka.com/startertribelive

3 Key Points:

A business shouldn’t be just about earnings – it should have an aim that affects the world positively.
Self-publishing a book has some upsides like more flexibility and freedom.
Follow your heart when making a choice – it may not be an easy one, but you’ll likely make the right decision.

Episode Notes:

01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
01:33 – Yanik joins the show
02:18 – Frequently, customers want the fish handed to them, not to be taught how to fish.
03:04 – Yanik got a very early start in entrepreneurship, he was a cold-caller at 16.
03:47 – Printed Salesmanship by Robert Rucksten My first 65 years in advertising by
05:16 – Yanik respects the value of books especially since some authors put their expertise of about a decade in them.
06:42 – About 100K people have read Yanik’s books.
07:26 – Self-publishing gives the author more flexibility with timeline and control.
09:51 – Yanik sometimes disagrees with the use of the words “give back” because it implies guilt, that something should be returned.
10:34 – Yanik talks about Maverick 1000 and its impact fund.
11:23 – One of the topics the group talked about was the decline of bee populations and how entrepreneurship could positively impact the problem.
12:18 – The membership cost for Maverick 1000 is about 1,500$ a month and 10% of it goes into the impact fund, which goes into projects.
13:32 – Maverick 1000 is currently around 125 members – there’s another entrepreneurial group called Maverick Next which is all 25 years and under.
13:55 – The organization has used about 2 million to create some sort of impact on the world.
14:34 – Famous Five

Famous 5

Favorite Book?— The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
What CEO do you follow?— Sir Richard Branson
What is your favorite online tool?— Trello
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Continue following your heart. It might not make an easy decision but it’ll make the right one.

Resources Mentioned:

Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
Maverick1000.com – Yanik’s Entrepreneur group
Yaniksilver.com – Yanick’s website
@yaniksilver – Yanik’s Twitter
Facebook – Yanik’s Facebook
The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope
Trello – Yanik’s favorite online tool
Want to learn how to go from $0-$10k/mo in revenue fast? Join Nathan live on the Starter Tribe Beta free workshop.

Previous Episode

How To Get 10,000 Customers for Your SaaS Business with Pam OHara of BatchBook

Ep 143 Pam OHara of BatchBook joins Nathan.

Pam O’Hara is the CEO of Batchbook social CRM, which she co-founded in 2006. She is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. As a businesswoman and mother, she is committed to running a company that can adapt to the unique needs of both its employees and its customers in order to foster better organization, increased productivity and more balanced lifestyles.

Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: http://nathanlatka.com/startertribelive

3 Key Points:

As a business grows, it gains more sophisticated channels for customer acquisition.
It’s important for small businesses to be able to easily add employees and partners to their online communication networks – and Batchbook does just that.
Learning is a lifelong process, fail hard and fail fast instead of concentrating on getting every little thing right.

Episode Notes:

01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
01:42 – Pam joins the show
02:31– Small businesses needed an online tool to keep up with their advertisers, customers, and speakers
03:20 – Pam met her lead developer for Batchbook on the playground where their children played
05:20 – Batchbook, an online service offers two pricings, 33$ or 46$ per month billed annually
05:30 – They are a 9-year-old company that is self-funded and has around 20 team members
05:50 – Batchbook is used by tens of thousands of clients – free and paid
06:36 – Batchbook was the first online organizational and sharing service to offer an unlimited user plan
08:19 – They charge by successful relationships that translate into contacts
09:36 – The average business using Batchbook pays 42$ a month
09:51 – Pam looked at things in terms of 10K increments while Batchbook grew
11:00 – For the first 10K in revenue, Pam’s priority was getting Batchbook’s name out through word of mouth and telephone (this was before Facebook was popular)
11:51 – As a business grows, it gains more sophisticated channels for customer acquisition
13:01 – Batchbook uses channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for customer acquisition -Targeting a very specific type of customer is usually more successful
13:31 – A big part of Batchbook is its integration with other software products
14:28 – Batchbook’s churn rate is private, but the majority of customer’s will stay into the second month (mostly because of the free 30 day trial)
15:45 – After the second month, Batchbook has over a 95% retention rate
16:13 – Currently Batchbook isn’t seeking outside funding
16:30 – Pam’s team is launching a new standalone product in the first quarter of next year
17:25 – Currently Batchbook is not at break-even due to marketing spend investments
20:07 – Famous Five

Famous 5:

Favorite Book?— The Upside of Down by Megan McArdle and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
What CEO do you follow?— Chris Schroeder
What is your favorite online tool?— Slack
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Pam gets 1 to 24 hours of sleep every night – highly dependent on her three kids.
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Continue to learn and make mistakes instead of concentrating on doing everything right.

Resources Mentioned:

Growth Geeks – The way Nathan hires growth hackers on a per project basis for things like info graphics, blog posts, and other growth projects
Batchbook – Pam’s business
The Upside of Down by Megan McArdle – A book Pam stands by
The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz – another book Pam stands by

Next Episode

Would You Sell Your Business to WP Engine for $1m With Troy Dean

Episode 147

The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop