The Six Figure Mom

Smart Passive Income & the Power of Superfans with Pat Flynn

June 25, 2019 Erin E Hooley Season 1 Episode 13
The Six Figure Mom
Smart Passive Income & the Power of Superfans with Pat Flynn
Show Notes Transcript

Join host Erin E Hooley and special guest, Pat Flynn as we discuss the makings of "Smart Passive Income" and his newly launching book, "Superfans". 

If you've ever struggled with feelings of wanting to give up on your entrepreneurial journey, or making the most of your time and being present with those you love, if you hate the idea of trading time for money or wonder if quality truly is better than quantity in terms of your social media following, this episode is for you!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the conquering chaos podcast. I'm your host Aaron, equally president and founder of multimillion dollar ecommerce children's clothing line. Bailey's blossoms. So it turns out I'm pretty good at business, but what really lights my soul on fire? It's providing other entrepreneurs and mompreneurs with the tools they need to truly succeed. So if you have a business or have one on your heart, you're in good company. Pull up a chair or dropping some ear buds and let's conquer some chaos today.

Speaker 2:

Hey guys, have I got a treat in store for you today? I Have Pat Flynn here with me and we are talking about all of the things. If you have ever struggled with feelings of wanting to give up on this whole entrepreneurial thing or making the most of your time and being present with those you love a k a not listening when you're supposed to be listening. If you hate the idea of trading time for money or wonder if quality really is more important than quantity in terms of your social media following this episode is for you. Now, before we jump in, today's review comes from Bloom's and arrows. Who says, I love the support Aaron gives us. I leave wanting to work harder on my business and with the confidence that I can succeed. Thank you blooms and arrows is exactly what I love to hear. My goal here is to provide you with the tools that you need to take control of your life and your business. So if you've been enjoying the past episodes, I know you're going to love this one. Pat Is an incredibly successful entrepreneur and digital marketer. He is a professional blogger, keynote speaker, Wall Street Journal, bestselling author and host of the smart passive income and ask Pat podcast. Now when I started the conquering chaos podcast not three months ago, it was his advice and expertise that I turned to so I can personally vouch that he is a total rock star and on top of all that he's also an incredibly hands on and devoted father. So if you're not a fan of his yet, you are a bout to be pat, welcome to the show.

Speaker 3:

Aaron, thank you so much for that wonderful intro and I'm just very happy to be here.

Speaker 2:

It's great to have you here. You know, I'd love for you to take us back to the very beginning and tell us a little bit about how you got your start.

Speaker 3:

Sure. So, uh, I was born in 1982. I was 11 pounds 12 ounces. Yeah. Which is true. I was that big of a baby. I haven't grown much since then. But anyway, I'm going to fast forward to 2008 because 2008, when, when this all really started to happen, I had graduated from Berkeley with a degree in architecture. I had been in the architecture field for about four years and loving it, loving my job. And then mid 2008, uh, much like many other people at that time, I lost my job. I got laid off because of the recession and it was a big blow because my dream was to become a world famous architect and I loved it. And, uh, my immediate release reaction was to, uh, in addition to crying to a, calling every bird, everybody I knew in the architecture space to see if I could just beg and plead for a job in that space because that's all I knew. That's all, you know, I thought I was doing everything right. Right. Getting a four oh average going above and beyond and just making the secure for your future for myself. And I still got let go. And so when my dad told me, hey, you know, this might be a good time for you to go back to school, get a master's degree. I was like, you know what? I don't want to go the traditional route anymore because I just have already been let down by that. So I want to, I want to take control. I want to do something where if I fail, I want it to be my own fault, not something that, you know, I didn't have control over. So I was looking at entrepreneurship is sort of a route to go down. And around that time I discovered podcasts and there was one particular podcast where they interviewed other entrepreneurs and there was one episode where I heard a guy making six figures teaching people how to pass the PM exam, which which is the project management exam, and that was my big Aha moment because I had taken several exams, many very difficult in the architecture space, so I decided to put together this website and put all the information I knew about an exam called the lead exam. Led is what it's what the acronym is and that stands for leadership in energy and environmental design, super nerdy in the architecture space. Most people don't know what it's about, but after publishing a number of articles, they're like working on it 12 hours a day. Getting involved in forums and trying to be the expert in that. In that thing. I soon became seen as that expert and then a few months later I wrote a study guide where I packaged all my knowledge and to an ebook that was$19 and I sold it just, I had a BA basic paypal button on my website. That first month I launched it. I had made$7,908 and 55 cents and that was two and a half times more than I was making as an architect and so my immediate reaction was, holy crap, like the FBI's going to come and arrest me because this is just doesn't sound, yeah, exactly. I was like, this can't be real like this is, it feels like drug money or something and it just didn't feel right, but then of course in addition to the income continuing to grow, I started to notice that I started to get all these amazing letters, handwritten letters, letters via email from people just going, you've saved my career. Thank you so much. I passed the exam after sitting for a year and it was your guide that helped me and they were calling me by name. They're like, Pat, thank you. And that was the weirdest part because I had worked so hard in the architecture field and I have my fingerprint on a number of buildings in the United States, but nobody would ever know. And here I am helping people and like a little tiny world and I'm getting recognized for it. And it just taught me that, you know, business can be done in a way where you don't have to create a blockbuster hit. You just need to really help a certain group of people and become their go to resource and you can build an amazing life. Uh, from that and since then I built a new website called smart passive income, which is where most people know me from now, where I just literally just share anything and everything. I learned about this world of online business. And back then it was how I built that architecture website. And more recently, it's about how I've invented something, how I built an APP company, how I've built other websites, how I've been able to write bestselling books as a self published author, just anything I learn, I share it. And it's not always a win. It's not always a, uh, you know, a straight A to z rainbows and unicorns situation. I feel a lot and I share it because it's always a lesson. And now here I am coming out with another book and I'm just so thankful to connect with amazing people like yourself and others who want to support my mission and helping people realize they have the ability to create a life of their own with the skills and knowledge and experiences that they have. And uh, I just feel so blessed and it probably the best part about this is just I've been able to create a business in a way that helps me, it allows me to spend more time with my family. And I think that's, that's the most important thing to me. My wife and I, we walk our kids to school every day and we, we pick them up from school every day together and we're like, you know, we have teachers come up to us and go, what did you guys like? How are you able to do that? Did you win the lottery or something? And I'm like, no. Recent income, it's smart passive income, you know, and in the passive part is, is the last step. Uh, building a business is not easy and it's a lot of work and it's hard and requires failure, but it's probably the best, you know, I think back to my layoff and how terrible that felt. It was probably the best thing that could ever happen to me. And I'm just trying to pay it forward.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that. So let's actually dive into smart passive income for those who may be, are not familiar with the term. What is that?

Speaker 3:

So smart passive income. So if you look up the definition passive income, uh, on any websites, you're going gonna find a lot of different definitions and uh, anything from investments and, and, and, and real estate and those kinds of things. But I think passive income, uh, in a sense that I teach it is a little bit different and it requires, it's the idea of that, um, you know, you don't have to trade your time for money, right? You can create these things in, in, in for me in particular, I help you create online businesses that take advantage of, of automation tools, building teams that allow for transactions to happen, cash flow and growth to happen without requiring a real time presence, meaning you invest time up front to build something that can pay you back, uh, many times over later. And so with, with that architecture website, for example, I had built it in a way and I got inspired by Tim Ferriss and the four hour workweek, which came out right around the same time so that I could have an ebook and not a physical book because the physical book would require me to go to the post office and deal with returns. Know there's systems in place in ways that you can deliver value and serve people without having to do that. So a person can come to my website, download an Ebook, pay for it, and get it delivered to them automatically. I don't have to have any hand in that transaction. It's all, it's all done on in an automated fashion. And then I can literally wake up with more money in my account and it sounds sort of crazy, but it actually happened. Yeah. And, and so that, that's what passive income is and, and it doesn't take much beyond just finding a group of people who need help and creating a solution.

Speaker 2:

Right. And it's a far cry where you're at now from where you began, but what a, what a roadmap that you've created for so many people I know that are, that are trying to enter into this space and you're really just laying it out in a way that that's um, bite sized palatable doesn't scare everybody. And not to mention that you're doing it being a hands on dad at the same time. So you talked about that and just a little, and I want to touch on that as well,

Speaker 3:

but what is your typical day or week even look like? Yeah, I mean there isn't really a typical day in terms of, you know, I wake, uh, you know, like I go to work at nine and I come back at five. Although I will say there were some challenges when I started to be an entrepreneur because I was so used to that and when I had started entrepreneurship, it was just so crazy that just in my computer or on my phone I could always be doing business and it was like felt like this cool thing. I could always be growing. I could always think about that next product. I could always think about that next email. But unfortunately, and this is before I had kids, my wife and I, we, uh, like she caught me in the middle of a conversation, not fully present. Like she called me out and just kind of like[inaudible]. And what I was doing is I was like thinking about my business when I should've been having a conversation with my wife. She's so guilty about that, you know, when she called me out on it and I'm so glad she did because we've had two kids since then. I'm so thankful that she really grounded me and taught me to make sure I'm present when I'm with her in the family, but also be present in my business when I'm with my business. So it's, it's a little bit challenging, but so, so I still have time boundaries now. I still, especially now that the kids are older and they're in school, there's, there's moments when I know that I'm not going to have to worry about them. And, and moments when, you know, they come home and I want to be fully present with them and I try to structure my day around that. But you know, if, if, if I had two NFL was forced to, to determine sort of what, what is a typical day? You know, I do wake up pretty early, I practice the miracle morning things to Howe l rod and I wake up before anybody else in the house and that allows me to work on myself first. It's like putting the mask on yourself in the, uh, in the airplane before you put it on other people. If I'm not okay, if I'm not in my best mental and physical health, then I'm not able to best help others. So in the morning I work on meditation, I do some f affirmations, visualizations, visualizations, exercising, reading and some journaling as well, all packed into about a 45 minute to one hour sort of time slot. And that's literally from the miracle morning. And then from there, it usually the kids are up and we're, we're playing or reading and they, they do some journaling as well as like some of my practices with personal development have, have gone on to them, which is really cool. So I help them with their writing and then we cook breakfast and then we hang out. And usually my wife is up at that point and she sort of takes over. And then I kind of stepped into my office here at home or I more recently have now had an office at a local we work where I can go in and I have access to your level of equipment, podcasting equipment, those kinds of things for the work that I do in the content that I create. And usually I'm back home in the afternoon. Uh, but what's nice is it's flexible. So if one random Wednesday we were like, hey, you know, maybe we should head up to Disneyland because it's, you know, because you, we just feel like it. Okay, why not? And that's cool. And usually it's not as big as like, let's go to Disneyland. It's like, Hey, let's just go to the grocery store mid day when there's parking in not long lines just because we can, and that's, that's the beauty of it. It's, it's the flexibility. Um, so it's, it's still a constant battle of learning, okay, how do I, how do I balance entrepreneurship and in life? But for me, especially with the kids and, and at the age that they're at now, they're like little sponges, right? Like they absorb everything in. My goal is to just expose them to what their options can be because I didn't know I had this option of being an entrepreneur before I got laid off. And so my layoff was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, to be honest. But with the kids, I get them involved because for me, when, when my parents worked, like I remember coming home from school and nobody was home until 6:00 PM when, when both my parents came home and it was like, Hey, where are my parents said, Whoa, they're at work. Work takes my parents away from me. And for me, I want it to be the opposite work is actually what brings us together. Work is what gives us these opportunities. Work is something we can actually do together. So my son will often be in my office as I'm podcasting. Well, we even have a podcast together called all of your beeswax and we're reporting two right now and you know, they're in the, they're in the office of instead of just going like, don't touch that, it's incredibly expensive equipment. I'm like, Hey, look at this, touch this, play with it. What does this, what does this Knob do? What does this Knob do? Oh, this, this, uh, this one changes the base. Do you know what base means? No. That's like how deep of voice, like a, like a sound is here. Turn it up, see what you sound like now and just get them in getting them involved. Uh, it makes it so interesting and then, and then they begin to ask questions like, all kids do, right? Like, oh, like, well why don't you do that? And instead of just going, oh, I don't have time for that. I go, okay, well let me show you. I'm about to do this podcast interview and sit back and listen to kind of how I ask questions because I just want to be curious and have content that I can share with others. And then after the episode I go, okay, look what I'm doing here. I'm editing out this part where, where she sneezed in the middle and this is how you do that. And they just, you know, what I'm doing is I'm just exposing them to everything so that they go, Ooh, I like that. And then I go, okay, I read you here, let me give you more of that. Cause that seems to be where your interest is right now. And I could go on and on and on about parenting and

Speaker 2:

amazing, oh my goodness. So much value in there just alone. And honestly, it just gives me chills because I've got six children and that work life balance is so, so real. And I'm completely guilty of what you mentioned as far as having a conversation, not really being fully present. And while I'm aware and I'm starting and I'm calling myself out on those things more and more changing, it is a very, very difficult reality. So what are some tips that you have for those that may be struggle with that to kind of begin to ground themselves in a different and better way?

Speaker 3:

Well, this might sound, could have been interesting and I've had friends tell me to write a book about this, but it's, it's literally so simple. Um, when I was having problems with sort of just being present, whether it's with family or with work here, here's a strategy that has worked in and I no longer do this because I've sort of trained myself out of what the problem was. So here's what I do. And anybody can do this with a smart phone. You go on your smartphone, you go into the alarms, and then you literally create like 15 alarms, you know, throughout the day at random times. And you have them be little messages about, uh, are you present now or you who you're with or are you where you should be? Um, like great job if you are doing what you should be doing. And then what happens is these alarms for, of like interrupt you and a lot of people like what if you're in the flow and you're, you know, you're getting interrupted. Well, if you're in the flow and you get interrupted and it's basically confirmation that yeah, I'm at, I am actually what I'm doing, I'm doing what I'm doing, so great job. Let me keep going. But, but in the beginning, like these things would like catch me and it would, it would be, it would be sort of like, uh, you know, when you're just like staring off at nothing and somebody like snaps their fingers in front of your face like hello, hello are you were like Earth to pat. It's kind of like that and you can kind of come back to where you need to be. Because sometimes when we're working we just kind of are on automatic mode or when we're with our family, like our brain starts to think about one thing and it thinks about another thing and we're like way far off where we should be and these alarms go, hey, wait really quick, are you where you're supposed to be right now? Bring it back right at that. And then, and then over time you can reduce the alarms and then over time what actually happens is you can start to anticipate them and go, no, I'm going to make sure I'm where I'm supposed to be. And then now I know I no longer need them. And another thing is just, you know, uh, with my wife, like I'm so thankful she stepped up and was like, hey, you like stop. I'm like, I give her permission to do that. If she catches me and I give other people, my colleagues and even my kids, that's where it matters most from is from those people who actually care about. So when, when, like when I heard April catch me, it just, I felt so terrible about it. It was a big wake up call versus um, you know, just me wondering if I had actually done what I was supposed to do during the day, uh, and retro actively thinking about it. So those are a couple tips. So, so getting, getting a support system to like and giving them permission to call you out on it. And then also just sort of the self alarm, sort of a mechanism that I just taught. That's great. Thank you for those. Okay. So obviously entrepreneurship comes with its fair deal of challenges both personal and company wide. Right? So have you ever wanted to throw in the towel, give up? Oh Gosh, do we have like five hours to talk about every single time I want to do that? I mean on the macro level of just like literally wanting to start over and go back to architecture. Absolutely. But even on the micro level with projects that just aren't really going the way that they thought they were going. And then you know, the times are tough and it's either, hey, let's, let's dump this and start something new and then, or move forward and keep going and figure out how to solve this problem. Is this a squirrel issue? Like Oh, and there's a new shiny object or is this actually just a challenge that means there's something great on the other end. So there's so much involved in the mental related to entrepreneurship, but on the macro level like, Hey, I just want to quit altogether. My first real big moment was, um, a few months after I started my architecture related website to help people pass an exam. I got a letter from the United States Green Building Council. They are the people who put on the exam is actually an attorney that represented them. And I was like, Oh, what is this? And it likes class envelope or one day express. Exactly. I thought it was like a thank you letter for helping to support the company and actually help their members pass the exam. And it was from an attorney that represented them that said, hey, uh, you have to stop what you're doing in seven days or we're going to take further legal action. I was like, Whoa, my gosh, I'm way over my head. What am I doing? Let me go back to architecture. This is a sign that this is not where it's supposed to be doing. They quit. I'm done. And I called an attorney in ice. I faxed the letter to them. This was back when faxing was a thing and he was like, Hey, you know, this isn't that bad. He just, they don't want you to use the word lead and your domain name. That's all it is. And I didn't, I didn't see that cause I just got so phased by getting a letter from an attorney that I didn't, you know, I wasn't at calm enough to, to read actually what was going on. I just thought it was done. But I was using, yeah. Thankfully I was using their trademark in my domain name and uh, they were, they were kind of cracking down on that because there were a lot of sites that were pretending to be lead related that weren't, that were duping people in if they want to get rid of all of them, they need to get rid of all of them. Uh, and and mind included. And so, uh, there, my attorney talked to their attorney and they were like, okay, you have 14 days to change it but you don't have to get rid of it. And I was like, okay, thank God. So I did a 301 redirect, which is a fancy way of just saying like, making sure Google understands that I'm just changing the name of my website, not starting over so I could keep all the rankings that I had in Google and everything was fine.

Speaker 2:

That's so funny too because the first time that I ever felt the same, I had received the cease and desist. I had used a two word phrase that I didn't realize was um, protected and I got a cease and desist scare the tar out of me. I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going down, we're all going down. The world is ending, the entrepreneurship not for me. And it scared me. It scared me to death. But then they take a step back and you realize, okay, hold on a second, this is a learning opportunity and we're going to push on and press forward. Oh that's actually, that makes me smile.

Speaker 3:

Another moment was like the first time I had to pay taxes all my business because you know when you're working on a five, taxes get taken out with every paycheck. Yes. Versus when you're an entrepreneur you have to pay quarterly. And I hadn't done that initially so I had to pay sort of backtracking. Yeah. I wrote like a six figure check to the IRS and I was like, I was like, you cried. I literally cried cause it's just like, no, this is like I earned this money. But then you know, it's hard. It's, it's when, when they take it piece by piece, it's the same but it doesn't feel the same. And, and then I had to sort of reframe my mind that that's one thing that I've gotten really good at taking the negative and the thing that's making me feel bad and flipping it and just into a positive. In that case, it was just like with you and saying, hey, this is a learning experience. In this case it was, you know what? I get to pay this much money to the IRS, which means I have more money coming into my pocket and I'm able to support this lifestyle. And that's kind of how I love that trick myself. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

No, I love that. And I don't even see it as a trick. I see it as as clear directive and perspective, which a lot of people would benefit from to be able to focus and hone in on. There's so much in the entrepreneurial realm that can really overwhelm us and get us down and almost feel like it's us with weight. But as long as we can keep that perspective, man, the sky's the limit. And really those, those learning opportunities provide those value gems for then you to turn and create more passive income through trainings because there are other people that don't want to get a cease and desist letter and you can tell them and show them how not to

Speaker 3:

exactly. And, and, and may I speak about one more moment that was probably bigger than both of those. Uh, it was, so a couple of years later, smart passive income was taking off. I was getting a lot of, uh, great publicity from a lot of things I was doing on the website, like sharing everything, including how much money I was making. And I have these income reports on my website where I share how the businesses are doing and like how it's growing and all that stuff down to the penny, uh, income and expenses. And I received a probably 800 word comment from somebody who is just really, really getting into my, my character, my, my look. My, he was just probably, it was probably some of the most hurtful words I could have ever read. And it was about me and I was like, okay, this is, this guy's just a troll. I've seen these guys before. This is an extreme case. I'm just going to delete the comment with, you know, you don't feed the trolls, they say, and I just deleted it. But then they wake up the next morning and I noticed that I get like 30 40 emails from various friends of mine and they go, hey, that some dude left this like nasty comment about you on my website, on the article that you were featured on or on podcasts you were featured on. He had taken in copy and pasted that whole thing about me and put it everywhere else. I was on the Internet and I was just crushed. I was like, how could this person do this? I can't handle this. And I, I'm, I'm a people pleaser. Right. So I, I, I hate seeing that and I just was crying and I, I didn't work for nearly a month. I couldn't post anything new because I was so afraid of what other people would say and that, and starting to believe that we'll, maybe I am a fraud or you know, all the cylinder of like self doubts that come into play, which are not true, but it's emotions and, and uh, eventually found out that this person had targeted me because number one, um, they saw that I was a vulnerable target. That I was so sort of Nice that I was, I was, uh, are into everything. Right? And that, that, and, and the, the sad thing is I also found out that this person was doing it because they thought it would bring them more traffic to their website. And, uh, and, and what my, my, one of my friends, Derek told me, and this is what got me working again, he said, pat, every second you waste thinking about this one hater is a second that you're taking away from the thousands of people who need you right now. And that's not fair to them. Like you have to get back on your horse for them. Who cares about this person? It's one person. And then I, and then a, a good friend of mine, Shannon Urban, who is a neuropsychologist, see, said, um, hurt people, hurt people. Hmm. You know, and it changed my, changed the story. It was like, wow, this person is so hurt on the inside that they are willing to hurt others because of that. I hope this person's okay. Mentally I hope they're okay. I wish I could help them. Oh, that gives me chills, you know, and, and, and a, that played a role with my son because my son started a youtube channel recently and I, we weren't in my, my wife and I, we gave him some insight on the kind of people that are out there like that. And we told them these exact same things, hurt people, hurt people, people want attention and, and whatever. And my son comes home when a car comes downstairs one day when he's working on a video, he's at an linking goes, daddy, how do I delete a comment? And I go, well, why do you want to delete it? He's like, it's a bad comment and it doesn't belong on my channel. And I went up and I checked it in in the, the, the commenter on his video, my son's channels said, kill yourself. Oh goodness. And I go, oh my gosh. Like, who is this person? I'm gonna, I'm gonna whatever pops in. Right, right, exactly. But I went to my son, he looked fine and I said, what do you think? Like how does this comment make you feel? And he goes, I don't know what's happening in this person's life, but I hope he's okay. Wow. And I'm like, Oh man, we did it. Right. You know, what great perspective. And how old is he? He was eight at the time. He's nine now. I love that. Well done dad. Thank you. And Ma and mommy too. For sure. And so some, some adults, including my earlier self wouldn't have been able to handle that very well.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Oh goodness. I love that so much. Okay. So you are clearly a master as far as getting people not just to feel of their own potential, but then to go and embark on it. And I think that that plays really well into your new expedition. This book that you have that's going to Wayne to be released in August, correct?

Speaker 3:

Yes. August 13th called super fans. And uh, I'm, I'm really excited about this because I have been able to through the last decade of doing this work. Find out that, you know, my super fans are really the reason why I'm here. The reasons why new people come in the brand, they are my repeat customers. They are the people who support me. They are the people who defend me from trolls before that, before they, I even know they exist. And this is, this is so important because I think with where businesses are headed these days and the fact that it's, it's the human to human connections that are going to be the most important no matter what happens in technology, no matter what the algorithm, it's a you should do, it's a super fans who are always going to be there. And you actually don't need very many super fans to build an incredible business for you. And, and, and businesses are losing these opportunities because we have these opportunities to create super fans right now. And the truth is, you can't create a fan. The moment a person finds you, it's, it's, it's the moments you create for them over time. And unfortunately most businesses, uh, and, and people who are trying to build a following are so worried about let's get more people like Seo and let's get more traffic and let's pay for ads. Like let's get more people in. And in finding me, I mean that's, that's important. But what happens when people find you and you're not working on what happens when they're in your ecosystem, you're losing that opportunity. And I'd much rather have people focus on, well what happens within your brand versus how to get people from the outside in. Because those super fans are going to bring those people from the outside in for you and they're going to be better qualified with that trusted recommendation. So this whole book is a how to, of how to get people from the moment they find you to being curious about, to them being a raving fan and a super fan for life.

Speaker 2:

I love it. And I'm so excited to read that book too. And it's funny because I'm constantly talking to my audience about turning your customers into your fans where social media based company, and that's the only, there's so many times where we get copied or ripped off or all of these different things within, within one of our brands. And people say, well, aren't you afraid that you're going to go under? And for me I say, no, I'm really not. Because the way that we have structured a company worth, they're not customers. They're not people. They're not numbers. They are fans. And that makes all the difference was fans are loyal regardless of what happens on the sidelines.

Speaker 3:

Right. And a lot of people hear the word fan and you think of musicians that you might be a fan of. You think of sports teams or Harry Potter. For me it's back to the teacher movies you're a fan of. But going back to my architecture website, uh, when it was, I think it was march or April of 2009, it was taking off and I got this email from a woman, her name was Jackie, and she said, Pat, you've helped me so much. I pass the exam. Thank you. I was studying for over a year and your guide to help me within two weeks. I'm, I'm a huge fan and I was like are fan of me because I helped you pass an exam. I didn't understand but what ended up happening was she got a promotion because of the, because of that and she got a raise. She was able to take her family to Disneyland for the first time. She even invited me and my family to dinner and I was like, this is insane. But then two months go by and I checked my customer list and I see that there are like 35 other people from the same firm that she was at that had then become customers too and apparently she had just on her own because she was so thankful, convinced her boss to get everybody in the office to get their own version of my book. She could have just shared it to them for free, but she wanted to make sure I got paid back in return. And that just showed me the power of a single fan and what they can do. And imagine having like a hundred Jackies who you are serving in your business and what they can do to help grow your business and bring new Jackie's in too. So that's why in my business, my philosophy is served first and it's always about that experience a person has from that handshake all the way to the sort of hug and the repeat customer and the person who literally are w is going to freak out when they see you on the street. And if that's happening to me and, and it's crazy because I'm just a regular person, but anybody, we have the ability to create fans in this way. It always comes down to serving first and creating those experiences over time.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Okay, so as we wrap this up, I have two more questions for you. I got to number one. What's one lesson you've learned lately?

Speaker 3:

What's one lesson that I've learned lately? So with my son for example, uh, and going back to his youtube channel, you know, I, I used to edit all his videos and cause editing a video is not easy. There's a lot of steps involved and I just kind of was always the one editing his videos. But recently I just was like, you know what, like, even though I don't think he's old enough to do this, I think I should just let them struggle a little bit and find, figure it out on its own. So I was like, Hey, you know, watch me and at this video I'm gonna show you once and then you're going to edit the, the next video on your own. And he got really scared. He's like, I don't know if I could do it. I don't know if I should try. And I said, okay, we'll just pay attention and make sure you've, you, you get this. But it's, it's pretty simple once you do it. So I did it and I ended the video, we published it and I said, okay, the next videos yours. And he got it. And he was really scared. But I, but he was just in his room and he's in two hours later he comes down, he's like, I did it and he was so happy. And then I was like, how was it? He's like, it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But the funny thing is he's never needed to ask for help anymore. He's created so many more videos on his own. And I think that's just a major lesson in, uh, how we get good at things. You have to fail, you have to struggle and you have to try and you have to kind of take the crutches off some times to get that muscle built. And, and, and, and it was a good lesson for me to see that way in my son because I have been, and I always experiment with trying new things and it's always hard in the latest thing that I've been doing is this book launch, but also, uh, an invention. And I've never created a physical product before, but this invention, which is a physical product, it's a tripod called the switch pod. It recently launched on Kickstarter a, it raised over here about a half a million dollars. And you know, that was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. And it was just like Keoni my son learning new things as I was going in and somebody's teaching us along the way. And it's just a good lesson for everybody. It's just you gotta, you know, embrace the struggle is, is, is how I would frame it. Absolutely. And that kind of bleeds into my next question, which is, what advice would you give to yourself just starting out? Uh, so if I could take the Delorean back into time and, uh, especially back into high school, even before starting my entrepreneur, my entrepreneurial journey, um, you know, one of the, one of the major reasons why I'm here and why I'm doing what I'm doing is because of the relationships that I have. Uh, not just with my family and the support I have from them, but from the relationships that I have with my colleagues and my friends who are in the same space or who are also entrepreneurs. And it's incredible. I like, I can, I can pinpoint every major event that has happened in my business career to a single person who has had an effect on my life during that time. It related to that. And so if I could go back into time and talk to my younger self, I would tell myself that you never know. The next person you meet could be the one that changes everything and to, to, to, to, to not let the fear of meeting people or what that awkward conversation might be like, get in the way because you never know. And so, you know, the advice I would give would be, you know, because I'm somebody who loves very specific tactical advice, you know, like big mental shifts are hard for me. So I need little tactical things like 15 alarms in a day to help me understand something. Right? So for me, the tactical advice I would give myself is, hey, if you, if you are in a, in a place where there's somebody that you want to meet, don't give yourself more than three seconds to psych yourself out, follow the three second rule, go up to that person if they're not in the middle of a conversation already and just say hello and introduce yourself, you'll be able to pick it up from there. And so the three second rule is something that I always recommend for people who are in networking, who have a little bit of trouble doing that.

Speaker 2:

I love it that you are an absolute wonder. I love everything that you've been talking about. There's so much value in all of this. And again, I think you personally for helping me unknowingly through my journey of launching this podcast and all of the different things. And it's funny, I look back and I even listened back to the first couple episodes and they were terrible. Oh my gosh, there were so scripted there. So I was so unnatural. Oh my word. But the, but just like you said, you just do it. You just step into it, understanding that it's going to be done badly and in six months and in six years you're going to look back and you're going to laugh. But just starting because there will never be a perfect point to start where you know everything that you want to know and that you need to know. It's about that growth journey in that process and embracing that in all of its quirky, unnatural, flubs and failures along the way. Where can everybody find more of you? Because I know should they surely will want to and where can they also grab a copy of this book that's coming out?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And first of all, Aaron, thank you. You're an amazing interviewer and I appreciate you allowing me to come on and share some wisdom with your audience in order to talk about super fans a little bit. It's, it's, uh, it's my heart and soul right now and what I think is really important for all businesses and entrepreneurs and people who are trying to build a following to do so for super fans. Here's, here's the deal, if you happen to hear this before August 13th, if you'd like to preorder the book, you can preorder it at a, on Amazon or a Barnes and noble or even target. Uh, but if you submit your receipt@yoursuperfans.com, you'll get the audio book for free.

Speaker 2:

Love it. You're recording the audio book, aren't you?

Speaker 3:

It's already recorded. Yeah, it's so much fun. I often go off script too during the recordings, which I did, uh, this time around as well. And the audio books are usually actually more expensive than the, than the actual physical book. So a good opportunity to get it, get some good value there. So your super fans.com for your receipt and a, it will give it to you during launch week. And then finally, just, you know, at Patflynn on most social media platforms, I'm on Youtube at Pat Flynn, uh, Instagram, Twitter, and of course my main site, smart passive income.com.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Pat, thank you so much. It's been a true pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to connect with me here on the conquering chaos podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, will you please take a moment to leave a review? It's the fuel to my fire and lets me know that my efforts to enact change and broaden your perspective of what's possible matter. Thank you so much for your support. If you want more content like this, don't forget to subscribe and connect with me on social media at Aaron[inaudible] or@aaronequally.com. Have a fantastic day. Get out there and conquer some chaos.