A Personal Note From Orion

Welcome, listeners to another captivating Stellar Life podcast! In this episode, we dive deep into the extraordinary journey of Yanik Silver, a cosmic catalyst, visionary entrepreneur, and creator of the Cosmic Journal. 

Yanik is known for his innovative approach to blending business with meaningful impact. As the founder of Maverick1000, Yanik has brought together a global community of visionary entrepreneurs who are committed to making a significant difference in the world while embracing a playful and adventurous spirit.

In my conversation with Yanik, he shares his transformative experiences, from losing nearly half a million dollars to following his heart and aligning with his true purpose. Discover how he uses creativity, dreaming, and intentionality to inspire mavericks and visionaries to light up like the sun. 

Yanik recounts his soul-stirring trips to the Amazon, the importance of following your heart, experimenting with life, and the profound impact of creating a mythic story about destiny. Get ready to be inspired, uplifted, and empowered to live a stellar life. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the show!

In This Episode

• [05:05] – Orion welcomes Yanik Silver and invites him to share one of his favorite childhood memories.
• [13:36] – Yanik reflects on his experiences visiting tribes in the Amazon and the importance of dreaming a new dream.
• [19:00] – Orion recounts her encounters with dream circles and Jewish mysticism.
• [22:55] – Yanik explores strategies for building intentionality and rewiring the brain for creativity.
• [27:55] – Yanik introduces the concept of reframing discipline as an experiment and details his 108-day art challenge.
• [43:22] – Yanik reveals key moments from his past, including significant financial losses and feelings of unfulfillment in his previous career path.
• [44:50] – Yanik articulates his mission to help mavericks, visionaries, and entrepreneurs align their heads, hearts, and higher purpose.
• [46:38] – Yanik shares three tips for living a stellar life.

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hi, Yanik. Welcome to the Stellar Life podcast. Thank you so much for being here again. I am so blessed that you’re here.

I’m a two-time guest now. Thanks, Orion.

I love that you’re a fascinating human being. There’s so much to learn. Before we begin, can you share one of your favorite childhood memories with me? And where was it?

It’s become a family story that has become a favorite family story. And now, as an adult with kids, I have a new take on it. But as for us, we’re a Russian immigrant family. We came over when I was three years old and so my parents would leave for work. This was when I was about five or six. We lived in an apartment building, and I was supposed to wake myself, get dressed, and go down to the babysitter. Then, she would get me ready for school and send me on my way. 

Immigrants are a little different, so I was always into drawing, doodling, and art. I got some holiday money, but I didn’t have any markers. I thought I had enough time to get dressed, go down, and catch a bus to the local convenience store. Now, I walk in by myself. I got on the right bus, paid for my markers, and might have bought some paper, too, but I definitely got markers. Then I got out. I’m like, “Oh, I don’t know what bus to take to get home.” So I asked somebody. We lived on 16th Street, but it’s very long.

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Most of it’s in DC. And we were on a little bit of it on the Maryland side. So I asked someone, and they said, “Oh, here you go.” I got on the bus and literally came to the last bus stop. The bus driver’s like, “Alright, kid, last stop.” I’m like, “Ah, this is definitely not my home.” What I remember is looking outside and feeling really scared. Thankfully, I knew where my dad worked. The bus driver also thankfully got out and called the police, and the police got me and then called my dad at work, and they picked me up. 

It’s kind of a fun family story because I just go on my own way, want to follow my art, and am really determined to get whatever I want. Then, now, from a new lens, too, as an adult and parent, that was incredibly scary. Imagine you’re a five- or six-year-old just being missing and not knowing where they were. It’s so pretty wild.

That’s amazing. There is something about the way Russian or Russian descent people treat their kids. I think they turn out to be a little tougher, more independent, and less soft. I am overly soft with my kid. Sometimes I say, “Oh, gosh, we’re so attached.” Even this morning, I left him in summer camp, and it was like five times that we hugged, kissed, and said goodbye.

Sometimes, if you create too much struggle, then it creates resentment.

But it’s cute. We used to do family events, teaching kids about entrepreneurship through Maverick1000, and we did it for seven years because I wanted to create something just for my own kids because they wouldn’t just listen to me on my own, but they would if we created a fun event and experience. We actually had the kids going out and selling things and learning about business and all sorts of things. What was really interesting in conversations was that I’ve had a lot with parents and entrepreneurs, and the struggle helped make us who we are. 

Then, a lot of times, we also want to take away that struggle for our kids. There’s this balance. Sometimes, if you create too much struggle, then it creates resentment. If you don’t have enough struggle, then it just creates soft or entitled kids. There’s definitely this interesting balance that each parent or person has to really figure out on their own.

I found out that in my life, I really like people who are of Russian or Ukrainian descent because there’s something about the intensity and how straightforward they are that I really love. I had a lot of friendships that were really close with this type of energy. I really like it. Maybe it’s something that is in me that I acknowledge.

Our culture is definitely very direct, and it comes from the war, essentially World War II, where you had to be incredibly direct because there wasn’t time for anything else. Like my father, he’d walk into a store, like, “What do you have here? Nothing. Okay, bye.” I’m like, “You can’t do that.” He’s like, “Why? They don’t have what I want.”

Actually, it saves a lot of time. It’s so much more efficient.

It is. But it can also come across as rude. I think I’m kind of a bridge. I’m maybe more American than Russian.

My sister actually had training in her company that worked with Israel in the US, and they were trained to write emails for Americans. An Israeli will probably write a one-liner like, “Hey, did you do this job? Is it ready?” Then the American way is like, “Hey, Mister Jones, how are you doing? I hope your day is lovely and you ate a great breakfast. Thank you very much. See you later. I love you. Your wife is amazing. Love, John.” 

Somewhere in there is what they actually wanted, but they’re even hinting at it and not.

I had my own process of becoming a bridge for myself here. I used to live in New York, and my friend took me to an art gallery. I was like, “Oh my God, this art is horrible.” She’s like, “Listen to me. This is how you do it.” We walked around and really held my hand. She’s like, “You look at it, you nod, and you say, “Oh, interesting.’” And I’m like, “Okay, oh, interesting.”

I’d be interested from you and see what you thought about it. I think this is something I can continue working on because it’s fascinating that you bring it up, but I think it affects our body when we keep something in. It affects us somewhere because now we’re oppressing, we’re suppressing. It’s going to come out somewhere else.

When we keep something in, it affects us in our body because we’re suppressing it.

I had a problem with one assistant in my child’s classroom. I’m not going to get into details. I was holding off from talking to her for about three weeks. Then, eventually, I thought to myself, “Listen, you can be nice and proper, or you can stand up for your son and make sure that he’s okay and have the uncomfortable conversation.” So I actually listened to someone talking about communication skills, and they gave really good advice that when you’re coming and saying something difficult, you come and say, “Hey, I know this might sound a little awkward. I have no intention of hurting you. I hope you understand.” 

You kind of put it in a context that is more respectful for the person, so it lands softer rather than coming with it. Because I was charged, and from my life experience, I learned not to talk to people when I’m charged because I’m very straightforward and have a lot to say. So, for me, it was actually good to wait. There was also a break and a little vacation in between. It was good for me to take a deep breath and figure out exactly how I would do it. But next time, I’m not going to wait so, so long, and I’m just not going to have the conversation because I have to stand for what I believe in and be strong for myself and my son.

What you just said is really powerful. I talk a lot. I tried to talk this to my kids, but they don’t always hear it. But this idea of a gap between stimulus and response. It’s like the more we can create that gap in what happens, the more we don’t have to react right away. We can take it in and then decide how we want to actually react in a way that is our full way of being. I also find that the more I’m in my heart, the better this message is going to land.

I don’t really get angry or too worked up very often, but having difficult conversations, I will avoid sometimes. But if I do find that on my part, then it’s fine. It’s still going to be maybe a difficult conversation, but it’s a lot better than waiting weeks, years, whatever it’s going to be. And also, they’re worse in your mind than they are actually when you have them.

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Please share a bit about your last travel to the Amazons and what happened there.

It was really powerful. I’ve wanted to go into Amazon for ten years since I heard about it. We helped support a nonprofit called The Pachamama Alliance, and I really love the work that they do. It was co-founded by one of my friends, Lynne Twist. You have to look up her story. She’s amazing in how she even got involved with the Amazon. It was really incredible and definitely synchronistic, incredibly destiny-filled. But so what they’ve been doing is helping indigenous cultures and nations really gain more sovereignty over their land there.

They are protecting from sacred headwaters of the Amazon, oil companies, timber, and other threats to the land there. What’s fascinating is that the very first time she went there, she visited a group called The Achuar, and we visited them and the Sápara tribe. They’re both dreaming cultures, meaning they’ll wake up every morning and share their dreams with their family, even the community, or a bigger group of the community if it’s something really important. 

And Atro was having dreams of bulldozers and people, like threats coming in for their land, and they were only keeping to themselves. They were not connected to the outside world. They said, “Well, we have to dream a new dream, and we have to dream in allies, and we have to dream in the friends, and not only dreaming in for our protection, not even protection, because they’re warrior culture, dreaming for our survival but for the entire humanity.” Humanity’s survival is wrapped up with our survival and thriving, and the land is thriving.

Every time you’re deep into nature, it’s really a whole different kind of energy.

That’s how Lynne got the call to connect, along with her husband and John Perkins. It came like dream time as well as envisioning, and it was just really powerful. And so, I had heard about the idea of dreaming a new dream before, but it never really fully landed in this way. Spending time there and any time that you’re deep into nature is really a whole different kind of energy. We were very much off the grid—took little planes and canoes and another little plane to get deep into the Ecuadorian rainforest and to meet the Sápara and the Achuar tribe. 

We were told to pay attention to our dreams leading up to it and our dreams there. We had a dream ceremony with one of the shamans; everyone shared their dreams, and one woman there shared her dream. He’s like, “This is not a good dream. We need to change the dream.” We could just see right away what they did. It was like this whole little cleansing process and what was happening. But it really got me reconsidering even more. I did a darkness retreat for my 50th birthday, and one of the things that came up was, “What are you for?” Not against. 

Many people are fighting against something, which only creates more of that fight and that opposition. But, “What are you for?” That’s the same energy as dreaming a new dream. We all want to see a world that works for everyone, that everyone can thrive, that humanity can thrive, and that all the animals and all the plant life, like everything on earth, can really thrive. That’s dreaming a new dream. How do you truly lean into that? It’s not from fighting against the old system. It’s creating something you want to see that’s better for everyone or everything.

You dream a dream while you are asleep, but you can change it when you’re conscious and guide your astral body to be more empowered within a new dream.

They didn’t get into that. They do some work in dream time, but it’s really about the dream you hold in your heart during waking time, too. So it’s like, “What is that dream? How do we change that dream of maybe just consumerism and more and more and more to a dream that we have sufficiency and more than enough to give?” A dream for me, I call it the great re-remembering. It’s this idea of really remembering who we truly are and what our gifts are. Those gifts are part of this cosmic mosaic and this puzzle we all have a piece of for the world we all want to build and bring together. It’s also fascinating because spending time with those nations and how they look at nature are not separate. It’s not like us.

It’s all interconnected. It’s not humans or even higher than nature. That’s their relatives. It’s so fascinating. We went into the forest and saw a 50-year-old kapok tree. The kapok tree has these big, huge roots that spread much more horizontally than down deep vertically. It looks like the avatar tree, and they have all these vines. They’re like, “This is grandfather.” They thought of it as the grandfather of the forest and the shaman of the forest, bringing respect and reverence for the grandfather.

They had us do a tobacco ceremony there and then gave us also about 10-15 minutes to just sit and meditate. That connection was just so powerful. They’re so interconnected with nature. I asked if I could spend the night there, and one of my friends and I spent the night there, and they’re like, “Yeah, sure, it would be possible.” Two of the guys went with us, and they were so happy because they’d never spent the night there with the grandfather tree. I was getting eaten alive by these bugs. But it was worth it. It was incredible.

Where our consciousness goes is what is more created.

It sounds incredible. I actually attended a dream circle. It wasn’t anything that I didn’t know, but it was really nice to sit in a circle with other women and talk about it. In Jewish mysticism, they say that the dream that you dream will actually manifest through your interpretation of the dream. If there is a bad dream of death or something evil, you always interpret it really, really well. Like, if it’s a death, that means that you’re going to have a long life. If it’s a of money, it means you’re going to be extremely rich.

You always translated into very, very positive. I shared one of my dreams. I had a really vivid dream, the type of dream where you wake up, and you will, like, “It was scary.” I was chased. I was in Israel. It was me, my mom, and my sister; Arabic terrorists chased us. It was so scary. We were running, running, running, and I had them run in front of me, and I was behind them, and they were holding knives like they wanted to kill us.

I turned around all of a sudden, and I looked at them. I was radiating so much light and love, honestly—so much love. It’s almost like I expended, and they looked at this light and froze. I looked them in the eyes and said, “You don’t really want to do this.” Almost like the question, “Was your heart your Venus? You don’t really want to do this. You don’t really want to hurt.” There was so much love and more expansion and more light, and they just dropped their knives, and more expansion and more light. And I woke up. That was really powerful.

It’s very powerful. It is connected to what you are for and out against and that power of love and light and standing like that. You’ve probably seen the movie The Book of Life, based on the Mexican Day of the Dead. It’s a great movie, but in there, he’s battling. It’s in the astral world or the dream world or something, and he’s battling this gigantic bull that’s incredibly scary. He comes from a family of bullfighters, so they’re supposed to fight the bull, but he’s like, “No, I’m just gonna sing.” He has a guitar, and he’s singing and singing with love, and then the toro just kind of collapses.

Thank you. Sometimes, it’s really hard to find really good movies to watch. I’m very particular about my time and what type of movies I watch. A lot of the new ones are just not that great, not that interesting, and it’s either boring or scary or just extreme to trigger you.

Many of them are designed for that. I can barely watch certain movies anymore. I don’t want to be into that energy, and I don’t want to be my wife. She’s like, “Let’s watch this.” I’m like, “No, I don’t want to watch it.” And that’s the big thing. I don’t think we fully recognize this, but where our consciousness goes is what is more created, so whether it’s advertisers or it’s media like TikTok, what we put our consciousness to expands, and it’s incredibly powerful. When I’m not fully intentional, I could just scroll through Instagram, like, “Oh, my God. I just had an hour, and I did pretty much nothing.” But when you’re really intentional with your consciousness, then you pay more attention to what you want to have that focus on.

How do you build this intentionality? It is so easy to scroll, scroll. Dopamine. Dopamine. Junk food. How do you stop that? What do you do intentionally to rewire your brain so you can be in your creative zone? You are extremely creative. You’re one of the most creative people I know. How do you do that?

One of my favorite things to do is to just allow yourself to create for yourself.

Number one is I have these little things on my phone where I kind of trick myself. I forgot what it is. But you can set time limits for certain apps, and then it’ll tell you, “Okay, you hit that time limit. Do you want to continue or not?” At least you put a little bit of a barrier or a little bit of what’s going on. Sometimes, I will hide my apps so they’re not on the main screen. I like playing with “boredom.” It’s so many times we’re like the natural reaction is habitually just going to grab our phone if we’re standing in a line or doing something. I’ll be like, “Alright, well, let me just sit here and observe something or tune into something else.”

The more you can do that, the better. As far as creativity, that requires time away from digital devices unless your creativity is on a digital device. But then I’d even like not to have it connected to the Internet or do other things. Even simple things like I put on my do not disturb on my phone and just simple things like that. But you really do need time away, especially from devices. Again, unless your creativity is on your device in some way, that’s where it makes it really hard because it’s so interconnected. But it’s just taking time. Well, every morning and every evening, I’ll meditate and connect in that mindful way about just taking that moment to set or reset.

Sometimes, it’s longer times, like once or twice a year, or bigger moments, like the trip to the Amazon. Then, the year before, I went into the Costa Rican jungle and lived with the Bribri tribe, another amazing Indigenous tribe connected to cacao. And then, had the darkness retreat this year. If I can do at least one big reset every single year, that’s really powerful. Then, for the creativity part, one of my favorite things to do there is to allow yourself to create for yourself—whatever you want to create. I also like how one of my favorite creations was done, The Cosmic Journal. It came from 108 days of drawing and writing every single day.

I started it as if it were just an art project for myself. I had 108 little checkboxes. Every day, no matter what, I made that commitment that I was going to have a page, and I had no idea what it would turn into or what it would be. Actually, I didn’t even think I’d publish it, but it was just something so powerful just for yourself. I think that creativity really works for all parts of our lives if we can add a little bit of that creativity to what we’re doing.

I love what you said about playing with boredom, and I’m going to take it on because it’s amazing I noticed where there are moments of boredom. I was like, “Okay, what am I doing now?” Just take that moment, like, “Okay, I am playing with boredom.” I’m an Aries, so the wordplay is a great word for me. I like playing a lot. I do a lot of goofy stuff with my little one, and when I’m actually very open, I’m quite funny and do a lot of funny things. 

My husband is quite stoic. We’re very yin and yang, and I’ll do or say something really over the top and go crazy in the car, and he just looks at me and kind of smiles a little. It’s funny. So, yes, I love the idea of playing with boredom. As you were talking about, I’m taking time to meditate, and a lot of people say that, and I’m just like, no time in the morning.

The first thing I do in the morning is hang out with my little one. Then I said, “One second. Alright, stop with all these B excuses.” I actually came to the conclusion that even if I took 30 seconds to think about what my intention was for just this morning, “Oh, be calm with your son and send him a lot of love and be really nice to your husband this morning,” everything’s going to work out just that those 30 seconds of grounding of, “What do I want. How do I want to show up?” It can change the trajectory of the whole day for me. Sometimes, you don’t even need to sit in meditation and have a serious practice or do an hour-long of very intense breathwork to get to different dimensions just to be a good person throughout the day. 

Let me talk about that for a moment because I do think so many of us get into shame or just frustration or the comparison, and like, “Oh, well, I didn’t do 20 minutes, or I didn’t do it right,” or like you just said 30 seconds anytime. I think it’s way better to be consistent, even if it’s 30 seconds or a minute or five minutes every day, than it is to do 30 minutes of meditation once every week or two week or something like that. Find that consistency and then also not beat yourself up. Celebrate that you’re doing it, and it’s better to have a little bit of it than nothing.

When I was scrolling through social media, I saw Conan O’Brien on Hot Ones. Do you know the one where they’re eating really hot wings? Have you seen that? If you haven’t watched it, here is a spoiler alert. At the very last wing, Conan took the hot sauce and smeared it. It was like 700,000 Scorville, something insane like that, something that will literally kill you. He took it. He drank from the bottle and smeared it all over his face.

He rubbed his nipples with it. He was really over the top. Then I watched a little video of his podcast where they were talking about it, and he’s actually a really serious guy, and he’s serious about funny. The reason why he was able to do this is because he’s so hundred percent committed to being funny and getting the funny gig that he will hurt himself in the process and make a total fool out of himself just so he can get a laugh, just so he can finish the gig, make this really, really funny and great for the audience.

No, I didn’t see that. I knew the hot wings podcast, but I haven’t seen a lot of the episodes.

What I noticed with successful people like yourself is you commit 100% when you’re saying, I am going to do an art project for 108 days. You do an art project for 108 days. So maybe for somebody like me, who is sometimes not that disciplined, how can I get more discipline?

Find consistency, and don’t beat yourself up; celebrate what you’re doing. It’s better to have a little bit than nothing.

That’s a really interesting thing because I wouldn’t consider every day to be a completely disciplined day. It’s not like I have friends who are really on top of whatever they work out. They have this thing, and then they check their metrics on the Oura Ring of their sleep score, and then they do this, and they. I don’t consider myself that way, but I keep a promise to myself, and I think it’s something you can keep working on. You mentioned play. I like to play a lot. I like experiments a lot. I think of them as experiments that take a certain number of days because you’re also training yourself to trust yourself and be committed to yourself. For me, I would do these 33-day experiments because it’s kind of a magical number. It’s beyond the month. It’s very specific.

It was actually one of the first synchronicities that started showing up in my life maybe 15 years ago or so. All of a sudden, 33 just started showing up everywhere. But, there’s more to it. I think the number doesn’t matter. It could be 22 days. But it’s about that discipline. Even discipline feels heavy. That’s why it’s an experiment.

I love that reframe, especially for somebody who’s highly creative. I’m kind of good at painting, singing, dancing, and creating little things. I think I’m allergic to the word discipline. So, I like the reframing of the experiment. That’s why I stopped you, because I’m like, “Oh, wait. This is a really important point.” The way you reframe your life is what makes you successful because what you’re doing is reframing your life to work for you, and you don’t borrow other people’s reframing of what you need to be or how an entrepreneur should be. Yet, with your way of being you, you create extreme success in your life, which is magnificent.

Thank you. Our words are so important. Our words create the world you want to pay attention to. What are the words we’re telling ourselves? What are the words we’re using? You can learn so much about somebody when you’re just speaking to them because that’s how they view the world through the language that they use. 

Your words create the world. You want to pay attention to the words you’re telling yourself.

What you want to do is build up the trust that you have for yourself. My first ones were these 33-day experiments were like, no sugar or no alcohol or meditating or whatever it was. A lot of times, you take on too many things, but if you just do one thing and you’re like, “I’m just going to experiment with this one thing that I want to add.” So, let’s say it’s a creative aspect. It’s like, “I want to do art for 22 days.”

It’s kind of like the meditation for 30 seconds or whatever we can add every single day. If we can add it every day, it’s better to be prolific than it is to be perfect. A lot of times, as creatives, we wait until we have inspiration, which is fine and great because we want that energy of inspiration because we’re like a channel. However, I think you can get so much better. Well, that’s kind of a subjective word. You’ll feel the energy when you’re in motion, too, so you make that commitment. 

Like that, 108 days. It came from an art challenge that I saw, and it was like making 100 days of art every single day. I’m like, “Oh, that seems scary. That seems like a lot.” I travel around a lot. I’m like, “Do I want to commit to it?” I hadn’t really done much art since I was a kid. As a kid, I wanted to be a professional hockey player and a cartoonist. In the off-season, it was my dream. I actually got a little bit back into drawing through my journaling. That’s one of the practices I do every single day.

Then I’m like, “Alright, 100 days.” In my journal, I wrote about it. I’m like, “What would happen if I did it? What would happen if I didn’t do it?” And there’d be some byproduct that would be beneficial if I did it. “Let’s just see what happens.” Instead of 100, I did 108 because in many of the mystical traditions, 108 has more power in that way. 

I’m like, “Alright, I’m going to do 108.” Literally, I took a little Moleskin journal. I’ll show you the actual original one. So this was just for me. I had no intention of really publishing it. Every single day, no matter what, I would draw a page. So this is the very first page.

That’s beautiful. So, for the people who are listening, you can watch this on YouTube as well, using Orion’s Method, and you can find the episode. Yanik is showing a cute checklist of 108 days he created and some photos from his beautiful cosmic journal.

There was never an intention to do it fully. It was just for me. Before I finished it, it started like, you know, the first couple of ones were good, but then I’m like, “Oh, this is getting really, really good.” A lot of times, I wouldn’t have any idea what I would draw. I would just sit and meditate, and then whatever came through me would come through me. And then it started working like an oracle, and I’d be like, “All right, what message do I need?” We can actually play with the very original cosmic journal, flip it open, and let’s see what we get to. So this is the page.

It’s a long one. I won’t read all of it, but it’s actually inspired by this artist named Scott Froshauer, and he does these amazing, typical signs like you would see. It’s like a “Do not enter” sign. So it says, “Celebrate mistakes.” Sometimes, the hardest part for an artist is making that first mark or brushstroke. Staring at the blank page or blank canvas is sometimes terrifying because of the fear of making a mistake. We are all artists in our lives, so we need to remove that critic from our heads.

We are all artists of our lives, and we must remove the critic from our heads.

Looking over our shoulders, you’ve heard that little voice saying, “Is that going to work? What if we look stupid now? You screwed up. You should have used a pencil first. Did you spell check? What if someone has a better version? That doesn’t even look like whatever this is really good enough to get out there. Shouldn’t I wait until I think about this more? If you screw up this presentation, it’ll really cost you.” 

I turn off that part of my analytical mind whenever I’m writing, drawing, or creating in any way. I go back later and edit or think more through an idea, but you cannot create and critique at the same time. That’s a huge one. It’s almost like driving with your foot on the gas and the brakes. Drawing has given me a new lens through which to look at mistakes. I see them as gifts. 

“What else can I make them into? How else does it work better?” One quote was totally miswritten, and I turned it into a bigger implication than I could have if I planned it that way. Mistakes need another name. We get scared to act or do because we’re afraid of not succeeding or being perfect. “What if mistakes were feedback?” It’s more like guardrails, steering you towards your true path. That’s a little bit from that page. That seems pretty perfect. So celebrate mistakes.

We were just talking about it, and my mom sometimes has nuggets of wisdom that she shares with me in a very simple way, and she just says, “You know, even if it’s not perfect, it’s perfect.” And I love that.

We get scared to act or do because we’re afraid of not succeeding or being perfect.

That’s a good one. I like that. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s perfect. Again, is it a reframe or just a way of tuning into what we want. It’s like what you talked about with the dreams. How do you interpret the Israeli mysticism way of looking at dreams? Because there are facts, there are factual things that happened, and then there is the meaning you give to it. We are all meaning-making machines as humans. It’s like, “How do we make a better meaning that serves us better?” It’s like, “One of my friends talks a lot about, like, we’re all making up the story, so why not make up a better story, essentially?” Even me telling you that this is a story is making up a story or something like that.

I’m so good at telling stories that I won an award for being the best storyteller and also the best closer. I won two awards, so they only gave me one because they had to give the other one to another person. But I’m really good at telling stories. And you know how many stories I tell myself in my head? And I have to catch myself, like, “Can you stop?” I just like my life to be a little more exciting and dramatic. So I tell a lot of stories. 

This is a great point to remember because we are a meaning-making machine. If two people look at one thing from two different angles, they interpret their reality in different ways. If two people experience the same event, they will interpret it completely differently.

One would love it, and one would repeat it 1000%. I’m fascinated, let’s say, people that grow up in a very similar family, and let’s say their dad was an alcoholic and abusive or something like that. One of them is like, “Well, of course, I did this and became a big “success.”’ They got their life in order because they had their father as an example of what not to do. 

Then another brother is very similar, and he’s like, “Oh, of course, I grew up to be this because my father was this way.” We all get the choice. I even think you’re so good at stories. Why not allow ourselves to create a mythic story about our destiny in our lives? That’s what the cosmic journal really helps you do as well. The Cosmic Journey Oracle, it’s like, “How do we use the things that are happening as our own mythic story?”

I love that. I believe it’s true. According to quantum physics, you live in a world of infinite potential and infinite timelines. And when you elevate, you can just step into a different timeline and manifest completely different things. But that is a whole new conversation. And I want to talk about Maverick because we don’t have much time. Did you dream about Maverick1000? What is that?

I came from the digital marketing world way back in 2000. I have a lot of, a lot of friends that have had very similar stories where they were successful, and then they’re like, “Okay, whatever this was is not what I truly wanted fully.” It was about 16 or 17 years ago now, maybe longer, when I had this realization. I caught the cosmic alarm clock.

The column clock that I’m holding in my hand. My son loved this one so much. And he’s got this interesting idea. It’s on the shelf in the master bedroom. And then he always takes it from the shelf and puts it near my ear. And I woke up a few nights hearing things like “Tick, tick, tick.” I’m like, “What is this? Is there somebody in the room? Oh, it’s that clock again.” I don’t know, somehow he likes it when this clock is near me.

Has he ever made it actually go off and ring?

I actually wanted to do something really clever where it’s gonna ring in the middle of our interview. I’ll be like, “Oh, here’s the alarm clock.” But it didn’t ring. I don’t know why, but it’s great. I’m gonna put it right there. I went to two Maverick events. 

This was the Asheville one.

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I went to the horseshoe farm. And that was magical and beautiful, and thank you for that. It was amazing. It was exactly what I needed in my life at that moment. It was so much fun, and you guys are amazing. It was your birthday, and we had lunch with Russian food and a Russian theme, which was so fun, funny and phenomenal. We had a burning man party. Your events are amazing. And you have Sophia, she’s your cousin.

Yeah, our moms are identical twins, so we’re more like brother and sister.

You guys create phenomenal events. But I’m ahead of myself. Talk to me about Maverick.

But it’s all connected. So this cosmic alarm clock was a simple question, which was, “Am I happy? Would I be happy doing what I’m doing ten years from now?” On the outside, looking at it, everything was successful: making a lot of money and helping a lot of people. But I was like, “Yeah, I don’t feel like this is what it could be.” Then, in my journal, I’d be like, “What would make me happy?” It was like these three interconnected circles—a Venn diagram. Originally, it was a happy face, a heart, and a dollar sign. I’m like, “Okay, make more money, have more fun, and get more back.” That was the sort of theme or process for Maverick.

That dollar sign has since changed to a tree to represent growth. How do we grow ourselves, grow our business, make a difference in the world, impact, and have more fun together? So growth, impact, and fun. That’s really been the essence of Maverick for the last 16 years. Let’s take entrepreneurs and amazing founders and put them in unique environments where we can have growth, impact, and fun together. It’s been interesting. 

Following your heart is frequently scary but never wrong.

I know we don’t have that much time, but I’ll give you a quick version of it. I’m like, “Okay, this is it. I feel like this is the thing. This is the very first.”  On the first trip, we lost $40,000. I’m like, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s an investment because it’s a whole different thing.” And then after, about $400,000. My wife’s like, “What are you doing?” I’m like, “I don’t know.” I could have easily gone back to that digital Internet marketing world, but it was like my soul was dying a little bit every day if I wasn’t doing what I was truly meant to be doing. It was also like the old playbook wasn’t working. Like, “It wasn’t the same thing.” I’m like, “Okay, well, I’m just willing to jump and see what happens and follow my heart.”

Following your heart is frequently scary but never wrong. I had one of the journal entries. But you have to connect to your why. And the why wasn’t to build. Originally, it was all about adventure travel trips. But it wasn’t to build an adventure travel company for entrepreneurs. It was to change the way businesses played. We connected to that mission and purpose. Then, I also had to use my left hand a lot, so my non-dominant hand was used to write and get answers. 

I asked my 111-year-old self what I needed to know. My 111-year-old self answered, angel number. I like, you know, alliteration and fun. So that’s one of the cards in the oracle deck, is to connect with your 111-year-old self. And so I asked and wrote with my left hand, I wrote, light a thousand suns, who each have the potential to light another thousand suns. When I wrote that, I said, “Wow, there’s something really powerful and magical about that.”

Then we ended up changing what we’re doing to really this idea of, like, “How do we help these mavericks, these visionaries, these entrepreneurs become lit as a sun?” To me, that’s connecting your head, which is your business side, your heart, the impact you want to make in the world, and your higher purpose. All of that into alignment allows you to be lit as a sun, and then you could potentially light other suns, which will be different for each person. 

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For some of them, it’s going to be building a community of other leaders and visionaries. For some, it’s simply lighting other suns through their team members or those they serve, or there are many ways of doing it. But that whole, it’s almost like a metaphor. That thousand suns, that light another thousand suns. It’s like a metaphor for creating the world we all want. And that’s how I think we get there.

It’s beautiful. On your website, you have the Maverick DNA, an acronym for the word Maverick. “I am a multiplier. I have an abundance mindset. I’m a visionary. I’m extraordinary. I reimagine, reinvent, and recreate. I am impactful. I am a connector, catalyst, and co-creator. K is for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” which is my favorite. What does that mean?

Well, having some fun and being irreverent, we just talk about working on serious issues but do not take ourselves too seriously. We do that a lot.

Definitely. So much fun you have. The events are the most fun, and they’re beautiful. And the people that come to Maverick are awesome, successful, kind, loving, and fun. And it’s just a phenomenal group of people you co-created with your divine guidance. Before we say goodbye, for now, I want to thank you. You are phenomenal. What are your three top tips for living a stellar life, and where can people find you?

Let’s connect to what we talked about. Following your heart is frequently scary but never wrong. That would be one of the tips for sure. Following that energy, I realized more and more that whatever lights us up, and a lot of times, what lights us up is not going to make sense logically. It could be designed that way not to make sense logically, but the more you can follow that and then play with experiments, the more your stellar life is a work in progress. Don’t beat yourself up. Play with these experiments, whatever number of days you want to do with them, and especially add creativity to the experiments if you can, and see what happens from there.

Awesome. Where can people find you?

Cosmicjournal.com. They can check out the new Cosmic Journal and, of course, on Amazon. If you’re an entrepreneur, that’s a seven or eight-figure entrepreneur, Maverick1000 is that group. I used to blog a little bit more; maybe I’ll start again. It’s yaniksilver.com. But there are a lot of good old articles there.

Beautiful. Yanik, thank you so, so much. This was so much fun. Thank you.

Thanks, Orion. Yeah, it was definitely fun. 

Thank you, listeners. Remember to follow your heart. It is frequently scary but never wrong. Follow what lights you up, even when it’s not logical at all. Play with experiments, be kind and loving to yourself, and have a stellar life. This is Orion till next time.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓} Make decisions that resonate with your heart and your mission. When your work aligns with your true purpose, you’ll find both sustainability and fulfillment in what you do.

{✓} Treat every aspect of life and business as an opportunity for experimentation. This openness encourages innovation and helps you learn from both successes and failures.

{✓} Set aside time each day for creative pursuits like art, writing, or meditation. Engaging in creativity can spark new ideas and enrich both your personal and professional life.

{✓} Connect with your future self for wisdom and direction by writing with your non-dominant hand. This technique can reveal deeper insights and provide valuable guidance.

{✓} Allow yourself moments of silence and boredom away from digital devices. These quiet times can be fertile ground for new ideas and creative thinking.

{✓} Incorporate brief moments of mindfulness into your daily routine. Even short periods of intentionality can enhance focus and reduce stress, making you more effective in your tasks.

{✓} Reframe discipline as a fun and engaging experiment rather than a rigid schedule. This mindset makes it easier to maintain consistency without feeling overwhelmed.

{✓} Celebrate your small efforts and view mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures. Practicing self-compassion fosters sustained personal and professional growth.

{✓} Adopt a clear and respectful communication style to effectively resolve conflicts and build stronger relationships. Direct communication can improve understanding and collaboration.

{✓} Delve into Yanik Silver’s Cosmis Journal by visiting cosmicjournal.com and check out maverick1000.com to learn more about his visionary approach to business and creativity.

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About Yanik Silver

Yanik Silver redefines how business is played in the 21st century at the intersection of evolutionary growth, impact and fun. Yanik is the creator of the Cosmic Journal, author of Evolved Enterprise and the founder of Maverick1000, a global collective of visionary entrepreneurs making a serious difference in the world without taking themselves too seriously.

 

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