#144 - Pat Flynn: From Smart Passive Income to Lean Learning and Deep Pocket Monster

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We all want to learn just in case.

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We are programmed to learn just in case, but we need to learn just in time.

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Trusting that when you need the next step in the information and the resources for that,
that it will be there.

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It's guaranteed that there's so much information.

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We know that information is there.

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So let's focus on the now and the next step until we need the next thing and then we can
go and find the resources there, trusting the process.

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Bye!

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Hey guys, welcome back to the necessary entrepreneur.

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Um, I'm pumped today.

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guest is Pat Flynn, uh entrepreneur, podcaster, author, and creator of the hip Pokemon
YouTube channel, deep pocket monster.

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But he's also the founder of smart passive income known as SPI for the acronym, the host
of a podcast with over 47 million downloads.

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You're to find out today.

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He's not just about the numbers, but their significance that comes with this and a true
master of community building.

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Pat, welcome to the necessary entrepreneur brother.

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Dude, I'm stoked for this conversation, man.

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We were talking a little bit before we hit record and I was like already getting into it.

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And I was like, well, we should probably record.

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this is, let's dive in, man.

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I'm here to follow your lead.

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Yeah, it's awesome.

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We were talking about the shirt since you're wearing it.

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I referenced a lot of these things and I said, man, what's impossible?

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You're like, no man, it's my buddy's brand where nothing's impossible.

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And when we talk about these types of things, I love touching on it because it means
something to you.

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so, so what about that?

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The shirt, your buddy, the idea of it.

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Yeah, I grew up with a lot of, well, be careful, this might not be safe.

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That's the kind of household I grew up in.

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And of course, I had protective parents, which was great, but it kind of conditioned me as
I got into adult life to kind of worry a lot and actually out think myself when it came to

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certain things I wanted to do.

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And it wasn't until I got laid off in 2008 that everything changed.

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And I realized that maybe I could carve my own path in life and start my own thing as
opposed to kind of just doing what everybody else said I should do.

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And I'm sure we'll get

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deeper into that story, but really understanding that and the way the reason I wore the
shirt today is just, you know, it's all a battle with yourself, right?

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You are your own worst enemy.

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You are the one who's going to get in the way of you getting to your goals more than
anybody else.

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And as long as you get yourself out of that mindset, then really nothing is impossible.

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And of course, this brand with the community behind it, uh nothing's impossible,
especially when you connect with other people and you collaborate and you, uh you know,

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get help and serve other people at the same time.

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I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the people I've surrounded myself with in my
mastermind groups, at events and all these kinds of things and the communities I'm a part

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of.

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ah I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the people I've surrounded myself with.

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And you probably heard, Mark, you are the average of the five people you spend most your
time with.

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I'm always trying to put myself in the room where I'm the dumbest person in the room so
that I can absorb and learn everything that I can.

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I don't mind getting into a room and teaching as much as I can as well, but if I find that
I'm just doing that, then I'm not able to grow and learn.

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Why do you think, who came up with the first one that's the five?

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Why do you think it's not the three or the two or the four?

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Yeah, I don't know.

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I think this is a Jim Rohn quote and he was just like, I don't know, five's a nice number.

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It's a number that like I remember in the blogging days, it was like, hey, if you're going
to do a listicle, do five because that's like, it's more clickable.

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I have no idea.

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But, um, you know, it's also not 50.

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It's not a hundred.

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So these are the close people in proximity to you that you absorb, uh, kind of their
characteristics and, and, and you all feed off of each other and you can put yourself in a

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group that can lift you up and you can put yourself in a group that's going to make it
very difficult to climb out of and into anything new.

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Yeah.

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So you referenced 2008.

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uh Everybody always wants to know the story because I think so often people that achieve
prominence in an area like you have, I'm sure you would check it and self-deprecate and

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you still have a lot more to do and accomplish.

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That's the entrepreneur's journey.

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However, when we see someone who's done big things in their area, it's important for us, I
think, to understand the story.

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So it's funny that so much success always comes out of however we want to note it.

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Failure, learning.

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But 2008, I'm sure that most people would say losing a job from a career that you had
worked hard to achieve is failure unless you want to reword that.

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Not necessarily your failure, but it definitely wasn't the path that you had chosen.

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No, it was, it was disappointment.

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was feeling like I was backstabbed by society because I had done everything that I was
supposed to do.

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got perfect grades all throughout high school.

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went to Berkeley and graduated Magnicum Life from the architecture space there.

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And I got my dream job right out of school.

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And I was working in the restaurant field in architects in the architecture firm I was in,
like building restaurants.

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It was so cool and so fun.

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And then 2008 happened and

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Even though it was stuff that I couldn't control, I felt like that I had done something
wrong.

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My first thought when I got laid off was what could I have done better?

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As if it was my fault.

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And I retreated, I went into a state of depression.

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I didn't know what to do.

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I got into some small kind of circles and communities of people making money that I was
just like, ick, this is gross.

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One of them was like,

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an amway thing that I got roped into and I was like, oh my gosh, I don't want to sell
lotions to my family.

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This is weird.

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uh Like this is like not what I want to do.

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So I kind of just was, was lost.

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And it wasn't until I, uh you know, first of all, I had a ton of support from my fiance at
the time, April, who's now my wife, who, was like, you know what, no matter what we're

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going to be together, we're going to be fine.

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We're going to be fine.

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We don't know what's coming, but we're going to do this together.

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Having that emotional support during that time was, was the most important thing.

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because eventually I got up and out of bed and started looking around for solutions.

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And I discovered a podcast in 2008, it was called Internet Business Mastery.

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And there were a lot of people teaching online business at the time, most of them snake
oil salesmen who were asking you to pay with a credit card before giving you information.

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But this group gave everything away for free.

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And Sterling and Jay the host, they had a guest on the show at one point.

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And this is why I love podcasting, podcasting changed my life.

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And so this is why I'm always on other podcasts, because I just love it I know the power
of it.

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There was an interview with a guy who was making six figures a year, again, in 2008.

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online helping people pass the PM exam or the project management exam.

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And it just blew my mind.

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I didn't understand how that was possible until I started trying it myself because I built
a website to help people pass an architectural exam called the LEAD exam, Leadership in

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Energy and Environmental Design.

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Sort of a niche in a niche in a niche.

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And lo and behold, after a few months, I started getting web traffic and I was like, oh my
gosh, there's people here.

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And then I put Google AdSense on that website.

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And what that does is it allows you to kind of display ads.

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And if you get anybody to click on those ads, you get some pennies here and there.

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And I remember I earned 18 cents in my first month and it was glorious, Mark.

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was life-changing.

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And even though it was change I could find in my car, it was the fact that I had like
created something and in a relatively short period of time, I saw some revenue come from

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it and that revenue continued to grow.

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But it wasn't until I actually got around and surrounded myself with other entrepreneurs
that I discovered that I could have, and I did publish a study guide.

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So I took that information.

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And I wrote a study guide, published it in October of 2008.

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And that first month I had made $7,908.55 from a $19.99 ebook.

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That's after PayPal fees.

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And I was just like, what is going on here?

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This is incredible.

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The 9K the next month, 12K the next month, all the way to May 2009, was earning 30 to
$35,000 a month from what later became a $29 ebook.

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And then the crazy thing happened was the United States Green Building Council.

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which is the company that writes the questions for the exam.

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They came out with their own guide and I thought I was done.

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Like there's no way a person would purchase from me because I barely passed the exam.

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I'm just the person posting this stuff online, but you can get help from the people who
write the questions.

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That was my most profitable month ever.

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And when I asked customers, like, why did you purchase from me?

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They said, because you were relatable, because I felt like you were me just a few steps
ahead.

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And that was a huge eyeopening moment for me.

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And it really taught me moving forward that when I became a creator later on smart passive
income to teach all this business stuff that I was doing with my architecture stuff as a

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case study.

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Then later with my books on stage, my Pokemon stuff now and invention that I have other
websites that were made and sold always just being me.

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And the more that I could be personable, the more human I could be, the more likely I was
to connect with people and then better serve them.

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And lo and behold, we live in an age now where being human is probably the most important
thing you can do when it comes to building anything because

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The robots are here, right?

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AI is here and everything's now commoditized in terms of information.

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It is how you wrap that information, the stories that you tell around it, how you connect,
how you're relatable that gets people to A, pay attention to you, but then B, take you up

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on your offers, take your recommendations, wanna work with you because you are a person
just like they once were.

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ah Or you were once them and now you are a few steps ahead.

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So anyway, I'll stop there, but I have a lot to say on.

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creating, on building, exploring, learning, all these things that have helped me get to
where I'm at today, now having earned over eight figures online since 2008, and way more,

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not just money, as a result of going down this path and getting laid off.

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Thankfully I was laid off, now I can say that.

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But more time.

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I have a lot more time and freedom to spend with my family.

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The kids are getting older now, but as they were growing up, my wife and I both taking the
kids to school every day, both.

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picking them up, other parents asking us, how are you doing this?

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Like, don't any of you work?

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Yeah, we work, but we build the business around the lifestyle we want and what's most
important to us, not the other way around.

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We don't just try to fit family in to the busy life we have.

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We cater our business around the family life we wish to have.

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So I'll stop there.

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I mean, I think that the only reason to stop is like to continue the conversation, right?

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And so I think, and they will build on it.

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So the smart passive income SPI, it was your program first.

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That's what makes these so relevant, right?

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You just didn't think of something and say, from a, from a professor's perspective, let me
teach this thing when I'm not doing, it was the things that you figured out, right?

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And so since it helped you as an entrepreneur, it's helped so many more sense.

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I mean, you don't make eight figures online without having systems.

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But you touched on, I don't know if you used the word, but you touched on passive income
now.

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That's what I'm, so, but I just want to have a real conversation on what you've learned
about it and what the marketplace misunderstands about passive income.

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Yes, passive income has over the years taken on a negative connotation.

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A lot of people have abused that word and has taken advantage of that word.

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And many people don't even believe it's possible right now.

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The reason why my website was titled Smart Passive Income was number one, it was a keyword
that many people were looking up and I was actually earning it because I would wake up the

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next morning and I saw that 30 people from around the world purchased my lead exam guide
and I had more money in my PayPal account than

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I did the day before and it was a result of first putting in a lot of work investing that
time and money up front to then continue to reap the benefits down the road after that

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thing was built.

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It wasn't just like I just pushed a button and everything happened.

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I hustled my way to get into something that could then continuously serve people.

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Passive income is not a hundred percent possible though.

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There's always upkeep required.

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There's always going to be some form of management required whether you have a

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real estate portfolio, stock portfolio, if you have a portfolio of businesses, you're
going to have to upkeep them.

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So nothing is a hundred percent hands off unless you're named Bobby Bonilla and you once
played for the Mets, right?

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That's the only dude.

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It's crazy.

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It's crazy.

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Um, but I will say that passive and residual income can happen when you remove yourself
from the process of serving people, but still are able to do so.

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Meaning it's going to take a lot of active work upfront.

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You're gonna have to build something that actually helps people.

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That's what a business does.

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And once you figure out how you do that, then you can figure out how to remove yourself
from that process, but still make that service happen.

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For me, it was writing a book and having people find my website on Google.

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I didn't have to work to do any of that, because that stuff just happened after I put all
those things in place.

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And then the flywheel happens.

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With my invention in 2019, my videographer and I, created a physical product called the
SwitchPod.

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It's a tripod that the legs fold in and you

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kind of hold your camera with a nice little handle.

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And that was launched on Kickstarter for $418,000 in 60 days we had made.

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And now that's just for sale on Amazon, right?

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It's not a hundred percent hands off.

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It's like at some point every couple of years, we'll have to replenish the stock at an
Amazon, but every day we get sales and we get a check coming in from Amazon every single

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month with not lifting a finger because we've lifted a ton of fingers upfront to do that.

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Right.

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So

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The truth about passive income is that it is actually possible.

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It's not a forever kind of thing, but you have to start by being active first.

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And that's where most people fail and where most people who are good talkers and
entrepreneurs who teach entrepreneurship, who just don't have any of their own case

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studies, they're basically an MLM program.

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uh That's where they get people.

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And that's why it's gotten a negative connotation because, you can make a lot of money.

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You just got to sell my program about making a lot of money.

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And then the pyramid sort of happens from there.

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having the architecture case study was huge, because a lot of people were talking about
entrepreneurship and that's what put me on the map.

204
00:13:40,278 --> 00:13:46,318
Oh, Pat's actually doing what he's saying and he's actually experimenting and he's trying
and sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not.

205
00:13:46,318 --> 00:13:51,858
But on Smart Passive Income, one thing I did early on that really took off was I shared my
income reports.

206
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So I literally shared how many customers I was getting every single month on my
architecture site.

207
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Once I started building new websites, for example, in 2010, I started a security guard
training website.

208
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I wasn't a security guard, but I just wanted to show people that part of showing up online
is being an expert curator.

209
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So I built a website to curate all the information about becoming a security guard, put it
on a website, and in 73 days it became number one in Google and started making about 200

210
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to $400 a day.

211
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And I just showed people how to do it.

212
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And I shared the screenshots.

213
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I was like, hey, I showed you how to do this for free.

214
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You can do it too.

215
00:14:25,182 --> 00:14:29,702
And many people did, but they also wanted to use the same tools that I used.

216
00:14:29,718 --> 00:14:31,309
So they said, Pat, how do I build the website?

217
00:14:31,309 --> 00:14:31,849
Well, click here.

218
00:14:31,849 --> 00:14:33,860
It's my affiliate link for this web hosting company.

219
00:14:33,860 --> 00:14:36,021
If you click on it and use it, I get a little payment.

220
00:14:36,021 --> 00:14:36,662
Great.

221
00:14:36,662 --> 00:14:37,402
Everybody's happy.

222
00:14:37,402 --> 00:14:38,203
Everybody can win.

223
00:14:38,203 --> 00:14:46,657
And my affiliate income, when that, when that case study, when that hit number one in
Google, that security guard training website, which I eventually sold in 2020, when that

224
00:14:46,657 --> 00:14:49,729
hit number one, everybody was like, yes, he's showing us how to do it.

225
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I want to do go through the same path.

226
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And I laid it all out.

227
00:14:52,951 --> 00:14:56,192
So of course, when people purchase those things from me, I got a check for it.

228
00:14:56,192 --> 00:14:59,808
My affiliate revenue came up and I got more money to invest in building new things.

229
00:14:59,808 --> 00:15:05,958
I built an iPhone app company that eventually sunset itself once many, many, many more
people got into that space.

230
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Um, it just wasn't a thing I was very passionate about.

231
00:15:08,665 --> 00:15:13,449
Um, and then I started writing books, started speaking on stage, definitely the least
passive things ever.

232
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Although books, yes, yes, you can generate revenue from books down the road, but again,
all of it takes time and effort upfront.

233
00:15:20,215 --> 00:15:25,499
So yes, it does exist, but it will not appear out of thin air.

234
00:15:25,499 --> 00:15:29,304
Most people will not get to the point where it becomes a passive, but

235
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Passive is the final step in the process where you remove yourself from the systems that
you've built, whether through tools or through hiring other people to do those things for

236
00:15:39,358 --> 00:15:39,998
you.

237
00:15:40,418 --> 00:15:42,983
How did you know the systems you were building were gonna work?

238
00:15:42,983 --> 00:15:45,256
Because it seems like they worked pretty quick.

239
00:15:49,014 --> 00:15:53,728
So there was a book that came out a year prior that really framed the choices that I made.

240
00:15:53,728 --> 00:15:57,380
And that book was the four hour work week by Tim Ferriss.

241
00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:00,182
It was this white book that kind of changed the world.

242
00:16:00,182 --> 00:16:02,524
Then it became an orange one in the second edition.

243
00:16:02,524 --> 00:16:09,670
in it, Tim talked about investing your time into tools and people to help remove yourself
from processes, right?

244
00:16:09,670 --> 00:16:15,884
So for example, when I was building the architecture website and I created this guide, I
knew that if I could get the guide done,

245
00:16:16,098 --> 00:16:23,600
that I can have it set up so that when people came to the website, they could click a
button, then it would email them the PDF file, and then I'd get money in my PayPal

246
00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:23,930
account.

247
00:16:23,930 --> 00:16:26,101
It was completely hands-off after that.

248
00:16:26,101 --> 00:16:31,102
And then I can just focus on making sure my website was at the top of search engines, and
that's it, right?

249
00:16:31,102 --> 00:16:41,145
So these systems were built, and it was more hypothetical, but I saw results, small
results, early, which gave me encouragement to then go bigger, lean into it, optimize it,

250
00:16:41,145 --> 00:16:42,705
all those sorts of things.

251
00:16:43,025 --> 00:16:45,326
The other part about this

252
00:16:45,420 --> 00:16:53,886
that is really important is just the idea of like not everything I've tried has worked,
but that's how you get to the things that will, right?

253
00:16:53,886 --> 00:16:56,768
A lot of people say, well, I don't want to make mistakes.

254
00:16:56,768 --> 00:16:59,159
You know, I don't want to fail, you know, mistakes.

255
00:16:59,279 --> 00:17:04,963
People think those things will derail you, but they actually create the guardrails that
you can now work in between.

256
00:17:05,063 --> 00:17:15,380
So for me, it was very difficult early on to uncondition for myself, uncondition myself
from what I had learned growing up, which was you had to be perfect.

257
00:17:15,854 --> 00:17:21,437
I remember coming home with a 95 % of my math test and my dad would just drill me on the
last 5%.

258
00:17:21,437 --> 00:17:25,459
I have PTSD with legal pads because of this actually.

259
00:17:28,031 --> 00:17:29,321
gosh, yes.

260
00:17:29,482 --> 00:17:37,926
I cried because the 5 % I got wrong turned into a two hour tutor session with my dad who
was like a math wizard.

261
00:17:37,926 --> 00:17:45,062
And so he kind of like wasn't the best teacher at a fourth grade level uh for a lot of the
stuff.

262
00:17:45,062 --> 00:17:47,383
especially when I got into calculus and stuff.

263
00:17:47,383 --> 00:17:54,387
uh yeah, I was like, I don't want this lecture anymore, so I have to be perfect.

264
00:17:54,488 --> 00:17:56,979
But when I became an entrepreneur, I wanted to be perfect.

265
00:17:56,979 --> 00:18:01,032
And I found that I wasn't getting anywhere by trying to be perfect.

266
00:18:01,032 --> 00:18:05,582
I only got somewhere when I got something that was out there that was good enough.

267
00:18:05,582 --> 00:18:06,726
How did you overcome that?

268
00:18:06,726 --> 00:18:08,820
How'd you overcome and circumvent that?

269
00:18:10,168 --> 00:18:11,458
had no choice.

270
00:18:11,619 --> 00:18:13,060
I moved back in with my parents.

271
00:18:13,060 --> 00:18:15,781
uh Legal pads everywhere again.

272
00:18:15,781 --> 00:18:21,385
uh Not really, but I was engaged and I moved back in with my parents.

273
00:18:21,385 --> 00:18:23,762
This was like not the direction in life I wanted to go.

274
00:18:23,762 --> 00:18:29,039
I was kind of like working backwards and I was driven to just see what would happen.

275
00:18:29,039 --> 00:18:30,560
And I said, okay, well what's worse?

276
00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:37,964
Me like trying to perfect this ebook and trying to publish this thing and kind of waiting
months and months and months until it's perfect.

277
00:18:38,284 --> 00:18:43,866
and months and months and months still being here in the house or trying it and failing
and then figuring it out from there.

278
00:18:43,866 --> 00:18:45,616
Well, the latter and I just kept going.

279
00:18:45,616 --> 00:18:52,909
And so eventually, you know, I started seeing what worked and I started to surround myself
with people who were much smarter than I was, as I was saying earlier in the world of

280
00:18:52,909 --> 00:18:53,506
entrepreneurship.

281
00:18:53,506 --> 00:19:01,701
And I was like, like I could start an email list so people can download a free practice
guide and then I can email them my program.

282
00:19:01,701 --> 00:19:03,182
Well, that sounds like it would make sense.

283
00:19:03,182 --> 00:19:04,382
Let's try it out.

284
00:19:04,718 --> 00:19:06,158
Three days later, boom, I get sales.

285
00:19:06,158 --> 00:19:08,618
Oh, I could have an audio version of my ebook.

286
00:19:08,618 --> 00:19:09,398
How do I do that?

287
00:19:09,398 --> 00:19:11,378
Oh, you just need the MP3 files.

288
00:19:11,378 --> 00:19:14,818
I recorded it myself because I had a Logitech gaming microphone.

289
00:19:14,818 --> 00:19:15,998
I was like, I got a microphone.

290
00:19:15,998 --> 00:19:17,198
It was crap.

291
00:19:17,198 --> 00:19:19,798
It was, I spent two weeks recording this thing, reading it.

292
00:19:19,798 --> 00:19:21,138
And I was like, it's my own book.

293
00:19:21,138 --> 00:19:23,898
And I was even doing a poor job of reading it.

294
00:19:23,898 --> 00:19:27,338
Um, and this mastermind group that it was in, they were like laughing at me.

295
00:19:27,338 --> 00:19:30,938
They're like, no dude, you have some money coming in from this book.

296
00:19:30,938 --> 00:19:33,742
Now pay a couple thousand dollars for somebody to read it for you.

297
00:19:33,742 --> 00:19:34,802
was like, those people exist?

298
00:19:34,802 --> 00:19:38,342
And they're like, yeah, go to what was it at the time?

299
00:19:38,482 --> 00:19:42,102
Elance.com, I think it was, or ODesk.com.

300
00:19:42,202 --> 00:19:43,262
Find a voiceover artist.

301
00:19:43,262 --> 00:19:45,542
I paid somebody 1400 bucks.

302
00:19:46,442 --> 00:19:47,482
Trish was her name.

303
00:19:47,482 --> 00:19:48,502
Voiceovers by Trish.

304
00:19:48,502 --> 00:19:54,702
I'll never forget because she brought me the highest quality audio files for this
architecture lead exam guide.

305
00:19:54,722 --> 00:19:55,782
And I sold it.

306
00:19:55,782 --> 00:19:58,362
And in two days I made up for the price of it.

307
00:19:58,362 --> 00:19:59,750
I was like, holy crap.

308
00:19:59,798 --> 00:20:04,107
other people can do things much faster and better than me and I can make more money if I
work with them.

309
00:20:04,188 --> 00:20:05,211
This sounds great.

310
00:20:05,211 --> 00:20:10,782
So again, all kind of learning as I went, uh kind of finding the right information.

311
00:20:10,860 --> 00:20:11,457
Yeah, keep going.

312
00:20:11,457 --> 00:20:12,718
Find your own information.

313
00:20:12,718 --> 00:20:18,038
finding the right information for the right people at the right time and then putting it
into action, right?

314
00:20:18,038 --> 00:20:21,218
Rather than what we usually do is we go, how do we do this thing?

315
00:20:21,218 --> 00:20:22,678
Let's read all the textbooks about it.

316
00:20:22,678 --> 00:20:27,790
Let's get all the books that Barnes and Noble about it, absorb everything and then maybe
take action on 1 % of it.

317
00:20:27,790 --> 00:20:28,995
If I just a look.

318
00:20:28,995 --> 00:20:30,420
Yeah, the book that she's written 24.

319
00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:34,634
Yeah, was that a accumulation of all your learning in this journey?

320
00:20:34,798 --> 00:20:35,158
Yes.

321
00:20:35,158 --> 00:20:36,298
Oh, a hundred percent.

322
00:20:36,298 --> 00:20:36,778
Yep.

323
00:20:36,778 --> 00:20:37,298
A hundred percent.

324
00:20:37,298 --> 00:20:38,558
how, it's how I've done.

325
00:20:38,978 --> 00:20:47,978
It's how in 400 days I've built a shorts, TikTok reels channel from scratch to the tune of
10 million views per day.

326
00:20:48,038 --> 00:20:50,658
wasn't by learning how to do all this and then taking action.

327
00:20:50,658 --> 00:20:51,758
It's learning as I go.

328
00:20:51,758 --> 00:21:02,958
And even that's a great case study because I, when I got into this sort of shorts game for
TikTok and reels and sort of the 60 second videos, I was like, I'm going to do it for 60

329
00:21:02,958 --> 00:21:03,838
days.

330
00:21:03,906 --> 00:21:05,397
And that's very important when it comes to learning things.

331
00:21:05,397 --> 00:21:11,889
You want to give yourself a timeframe to get to a point where then you can determine
whether or not it's worth continuing versus what we normally do is we dabble.

332
00:21:11,889 --> 00:21:12,560
We take action.

333
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:13,698
We're like, this isn't working.

334
00:21:13,698 --> 00:21:17,349
I'm going to try something else and just, try everything and see what sticks.

335
00:21:17,349 --> 00:21:20,824
And then you're not giving anything enough time and attention for it to actually succeed.

336
00:21:20,824 --> 00:21:24,906
So it's important that you have a frame of time and it can depend on what it is that
you're doing.

337
00:21:24,906 --> 00:21:29,138
I gave myself 60 days, 60 days video every day was the goal.

338
00:21:29,868 --> 00:21:35,050
Now, initially it took 45 minutes for me to create these videos and I was kind of fitting
it in, but I wanted to make sure I got in daily.

339
00:21:35,050 --> 00:21:40,342
And by day 30, my views on these videos were between 500 and a thousand per day.

340
00:21:40,402 --> 00:21:42,093
Not great at all in the grand scheme of things.

341
00:21:42,093 --> 00:21:44,584
And normally I would have given up, but that wasn't the goal.

342
00:21:44,584 --> 00:21:45,574
The goal was not views.

343
00:21:45,574 --> 00:21:46,685
I was not counting views.

344
00:21:46,685 --> 00:21:48,225
I was counting uploads.

345
00:21:48,726 --> 00:21:51,082
I was halfway there because I wanted to get to 60.

346
00:21:51,082 --> 00:21:53,658
However, some stuff did happen by day 30.

347
00:21:53,888 --> 00:21:57,569
I cut my editing time from 45 minutes to 12 minutes.

348
00:21:57,569 --> 00:21:59,390
I got three times faster.

349
00:21:59,630 --> 00:22:06,576
four times faster even, as a result of just continuing to do this every day, learning the
templates and getting the shortcuts on my editing program, all these things.

350
00:22:06,576 --> 00:22:11,170
And even if I were to fail on this experiment, I could take that new skill that I've
gained and put it somewhere else.

351
00:22:11,170 --> 00:22:12,761
So it's still not a failure.

352
00:22:13,262 --> 00:22:23,001
I got 30 pieces of data coming in from YouTube, 30 retention graphs showing me which parts
did work better than the others, which frameworks that I use in my videos did actually

353
00:22:23,001 --> 00:22:25,173
hold people's attention for longer or not.

354
00:22:25,173 --> 00:22:26,830
And on day 35,

355
00:22:26,830 --> 00:22:29,610
One of those videos hit 750,000 views.

356
00:22:29,610 --> 00:22:31,090
It just exploded.

357
00:22:31,290 --> 00:22:37,170
I don't know if I waited long enough or I finally hit the right formula, whatever it was,
I don't know, but I gave it enough time.

358
00:22:37,170 --> 00:22:38,830
It happened and I haven't looked back since.

359
00:22:38,830 --> 00:22:44,150
And now we're at 10 million views per day across TikTok reels on shorts.

360
00:22:44,310 --> 00:22:48,210
Also now experimenting with Facebook and Snapchat, literally the same video.

361
00:22:48,210 --> 00:22:56,802
And this has become its own mid five figure income source from something that I didn't
even know anything about or start.

362
00:22:56,802 --> 00:22:58,602
less, a little over a year ago.

363
00:22:58,602 --> 00:22:59,516
Yeah.

364
00:22:59,516 --> 00:23:00,566
uh

365
00:23:00,566 --> 00:23:02,615
Isn't doesn't that make it in this new world?

366
00:23:02,615 --> 00:23:06,699
It's tough to project likely goals and outcomes

367
00:23:09,474 --> 00:23:12,876
Focus on what you can control.

368
00:23:13,517 --> 00:23:16,760
I could control if I hit record and publish.

369
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:18,522
And that's why that became the goal.

370
00:23:18,522 --> 00:23:20,543
The goal is to do that for 60 days straight.

371
00:23:20,543 --> 00:23:24,707
Knowing that, hypothetically, not guaranteed, that some stuff will happen.

372
00:23:24,707 --> 00:23:29,691
That at least maybe the algorithm will pick it up, or at least I'll get better at certain
skills.

373
00:23:29,691 --> 00:23:33,134
I can control the uploads, that's my goal.

374
00:23:33,134 --> 00:23:36,557
I can't control the views, I can't control how people respond to it.

375
00:23:36,557 --> 00:23:38,678
That I want to be the byproduct.

376
00:23:38,742 --> 00:23:40,963
of the thing that I can control.

377
00:23:40,963 --> 00:23:46,345
So yes, you don't know exactly what the outcomes are going to be, but you know what you
have to do to get potentially an outcome.

378
00:23:46,485 --> 00:23:48,016
Make that the goal, right?

379
00:23:48,016 --> 00:23:51,147
Make the goal similar to James Clear and Atomic Habit, right?

380
00:23:51,147 --> 00:24:03,932
It's not, I'm going to, uh you know, run a 10 minute mile because I can't even like jog a
full mile or walk, you know, without huffing and puffing versus I'm just going to put on

381
00:24:03,932 --> 00:24:06,333
my shoes every morning at 6 a.m.

382
00:24:06,553 --> 00:24:06,953
That's it.

383
00:24:06,953 --> 00:24:08,814
I can control putting on my shoes.

384
00:24:08,834 --> 00:24:11,615
And now that I have my shoes on, I might as well go on this walk.

385
00:24:11,615 --> 00:24:14,896
And over time that walk becomes a jog becomes a run, right?

386
00:24:14,896 --> 00:24:17,806
I can control that first part, especially that first part of that, that habit.

387
00:24:17,806 --> 00:24:26,039
And for me, I had a calendar setting for me after the kids went to bed to then edit my
short that would then go out, you know, within an hour later.

388
00:24:26,039 --> 00:24:34,701
And because it was only a little bit of time I had, it also forced me to make clear
decisions on what was important, what was not.

389
00:24:34,701 --> 00:24:36,912
Sometimes when you have too much time, right?

390
00:24:36,912 --> 00:24:37,332
What is it?

391
00:24:37,332 --> 00:24:38,622
Parkinson's law.

392
00:24:38,646 --> 00:24:44,233
you will take the amount of time required or you'll do the amount of effort or it'll take
as much time as you give it.

393
00:24:44,233 --> 00:24:48,994
So if you give it three weeks to accomplish, you're going to take three weeks.

394
00:24:48,994 --> 00:24:54,964
You're going to be up at three weeks down to the wire, just the same way if you would have
given yourself maybe one day.

395
00:24:54,998 --> 00:24:55,840
A thousand percent.

396
00:24:55,840 --> 00:25:06,258
And I've, I've learned about that law and I've taken that to my advantage by almost having
a force function of having to get it out and not having the time to overthink.

397
00:25:06,258 --> 00:25:07,048
Right.

398
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:10,896
Who do you think Pat would have become if you didn't get laid off?

399
00:25:10,896 --> 00:25:15,942
Because this goes in line with the question of, we born or are we built?

400
00:25:17,005 --> 00:25:23,754
Do you think that Pat in the architectural space would have achieved high levels within
that career?

401
00:25:24,482 --> 00:25:26,905
Within that career, yes, that was my goal.

402
00:25:26,905 --> 00:25:28,636
I wanted my own architecture firm.

403
00:25:28,636 --> 00:25:33,992
I wanted to be the next Frank Lloyd Wright or Frank Gehry, if you know any famous
architect.

404
00:25:35,114 --> 00:25:35,814
Yeah.

405
00:25:35,814 --> 00:25:38,767
And so I was like, I'm working as hard as I could.

406
00:25:38,767 --> 00:25:39,528
was taking tests.

407
00:25:39,528 --> 00:25:41,331
I didn't need to, I didn't need to take the lead exam.

408
00:25:41,331 --> 00:25:43,382
And that's how I discovered it was so difficult.

409
00:25:43,483 --> 00:25:47,054
But I'm glad I did because when I got laid off, I figured out all those things out.

410
00:25:47,054 --> 00:25:49,615
uh I was staying extra hours.

411
00:25:49,615 --> 00:25:52,285
I was uh studying more than I needed to.

412
00:25:52,285 --> 00:25:55,819
I was doing roles and tasks that were beyond my job description.

413
00:25:55,819 --> 00:26:01,942
I became the youngest person to be uh made a job captain at this firm and I was set to do
big things.

414
00:26:01,942 --> 00:26:08,586
uh Looking back, if I hadn't gotten laid off, I guarantee that I wouldn't have been become
an entrepreneur.

415
00:26:08,586 --> 00:26:12,988
I needed to get kicked out and not let back in in order for it to happen.

416
00:26:12,988 --> 00:26:16,940
In fact, even after I started generating revenue on the business side of things,

417
00:26:16,940 --> 00:26:26,650
I still went in for interviews because I just couldn't imagine myself walking away from
what I've already sunk my time and effort and energy into.

418
00:26:26,650 --> 00:26:33,896
And this is that sunk cost fallacy that you may have heard of before where because I put
so much time into something, well, I should stay there, but that's not always the case.

419
00:26:33,896 --> 00:26:41,569
And I'm so grateful that I got laid off and I thankfully was able to react to it
eventually in a way that allowed for good things to happen.

420
00:26:41,569 --> 00:26:42,950
uh

421
00:26:43,094 --> 00:26:48,706
I was actually one thing that took my mind away of all the things that were happening
around the time was I watched a movie over and over again.

422
00:26:48,706 --> 00:26:52,202
So my all time favorite movie might even see like back there's a hoverboard.

423
00:26:52,202 --> 00:26:53,964
uh It's back to the future.

424
00:26:53,964 --> 00:26:57,806
I watched it over and over again, ah one hour and 57 minutes.

425
00:26:58,247 --> 00:27:02,331
And after that one hour, 57 minutes, I was back to reality.

426
00:27:02,331 --> 00:27:06,084
And the reason I love that movie so much is because it had a time machine in it, right?

427
00:27:06,084 --> 00:27:08,356
This idea of going back into time and changing things.

428
00:27:08,356 --> 00:27:10,828
I really just hope that one day

429
00:27:10,882 --> 00:27:19,588
There would be a time machine, a DeLorean I could fly into 88 miles per hour, go back and
change my career or maybe work harder or do something different that would lead me to not

430
00:27:19,588 --> 00:27:21,009
have lost my job.

431
00:27:21,009 --> 00:27:21,550
But I knew.

432
00:27:21,550 --> 00:27:22,002
uh

433
00:27:22,002 --> 00:27:31,080
you think differently now though, knowing that you're already the person that would want
to go back in time and change it, it make you intentionally try to make it more right in

434
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,010
the moment?

435
00:27:32,184 --> 00:27:33,094
Yeah, I mean, that's a good question.

436
00:27:33,094 --> 00:27:36,625
It's like, if you knew what you knew now, would you do things differently?

437
00:27:36,625 --> 00:27:41,007
It's like, well, if I knew things differently, I wouldn't be where I am today, right?

438
00:27:41,007 --> 00:27:43,397
You know, so it's, I don't regret anything.

439
00:27:43,397 --> 00:27:45,318
I'm grateful for the layoff.

440
00:27:45,618 --> 00:27:49,819
Back then I wanted a time machine, but then I eventually realized there was no such thing.

441
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:57,542
But part of that story, Marty McFly, you know, he goes into the past, changes a few
things, comes back and his family's all rich now and they got all this stuff.

442
00:27:57,542 --> 00:27:58,982
uh

443
00:27:59,724 --> 00:28:02,576
That's the story I'm writing now for my future.

444
00:28:02,576 --> 00:28:10,943
And I get to decide on the actions I take today, whether or not I want to go into this
spectrum of the timeline or this fork in the timeline.

445
00:28:10,943 --> 00:28:11,404
Right.

446
00:28:11,404 --> 00:28:12,034
So it's up to me.

447
00:28:12,034 --> 00:28:22,613
And I finally was like, wow, the actions I've been taking, which is like sitting in bed
all day and kind of like sulking is not going to end up in a good space when this story is

448
00:28:22,613 --> 00:28:23,133
over.

449
00:28:23,133 --> 00:28:25,555
So let me rewrite the story and take action now.

450
00:28:25,555 --> 00:28:29,598
It's the actions you take today that help you tell your story tomorrow.

451
00:28:29,877 --> 00:28:30,318
It's

452
00:28:30,318 --> 00:28:36,888
It's this idea about making sure you live a life now that your future self is going to be
proud of and happy about.

453
00:28:36,888 --> 00:28:37,529
For sure, for sure.

454
00:28:37,529 --> 00:28:40,752
And I've learned that you have to take risks in order for that to happen.

455
00:28:40,752 --> 00:28:47,627
I have a saying, it's, I'd rather much live a life full of wells than a life full of what
ifs.

456
00:28:48,369 --> 00:28:51,951
Cause at least if it's no well, I've given it a shot and I've tried it.

457
00:28:52,052 --> 00:28:53,854
The what ifs are gonna kill you.

458
00:28:53,854 --> 00:28:56,176
Those regrets, those things that you can never get back.

459
00:28:56,176 --> 00:28:59,699
uh So that's kind of how I live my life.

460
00:28:59,699 --> 00:29:03,262
And you know, at least if I tried something, I can learn from it.

461
00:29:03,278 --> 00:29:04,718
And if I failed, that's okay.

462
00:29:04,718 --> 00:29:11,138
Sometimes I've been very humbled by certain things that I've attempted and have failed,
like certain softwares and things like that, that I've spent money on.

463
00:29:11,138 --> 00:29:12,398
Big lessons learned there.

464
00:29:12,398 --> 00:29:17,238
Like if I'm doing something to primarily chase the money, it's likely going to fail.

465
00:29:17,438 --> 00:29:18,958
I've chased- do you think that is?

466
00:29:19,698 --> 00:29:22,854
We don't see it Yeah, I mean-

467
00:29:25,048 --> 00:29:34,413
choosing something just because of the revenue opportunity, you eventually in anything
that has the ability to challenge you, which is often the thing that has rewards on the

468
00:29:34,413 --> 00:29:42,007
other end, there will be moments where it's going to be your passion for that topic that
see you through those challenges.

469
00:29:42,208 --> 00:29:50,052
And in certain moments of time with, for example, software that I've tried to build that I
had no passion about, there were tough times where I just was like, why?

470
00:29:50,052 --> 00:29:53,836
Like this is like, I didn't have the energy to keep going with it.

471
00:29:53,836 --> 00:29:54,106
Right?

472
00:29:54,106 --> 00:29:59,230
To get through those tough parts over those humps to then hopefully find success on the
other end.

473
00:29:59,230 --> 00:30:04,514
was no energy there because it was all revenue based that I was hoping for success.

474
00:30:04,514 --> 00:30:09,957
And I found over time that your earnings become a byproduct of first how well you can
serve your audience.

475
00:30:09,957 --> 00:30:12,169
And that's always become the sort of initial driver.

476
00:30:12,169 --> 00:30:18,483
The money is the byproduct of what it is that you're doing, not what you should be doing
it for.

477
00:30:18,666 --> 00:30:21,896
And that's been a big lesson for sure, but...

478
00:30:22,092 --> 00:30:27,064
Yeah, the architecture stuff, I would probably still be an architect.

479
00:30:27,285 --> 00:30:28,665
Hopefully a good one.

480
00:30:28,826 --> 00:30:33,808
I would be working probably 80 hours a week because architects do that.

481
00:30:35,049 --> 00:30:40,072
Architects, at least many professionals who I know are not well paid.

482
00:30:40,072 --> 00:30:46,345
ah So I wouldn't be as I wouldn't have as much opportunity to travel.

483
00:30:46,345 --> 00:30:48,757
I know with my family's that that's huge.

484
00:30:48,757 --> 00:30:51,458
I probably wouldn't be able to see my kids as much.

485
00:30:51,803 --> 00:31:02,666
Um, and I'd probably still be quote unquote happy, but I wouldn't know to what extent, how
happy I could be if I had become an entrepreneur.

486
00:31:02,734 --> 00:31:04,174
Hey, thanks for tuning in.

487
00:31:04,235 --> 00:31:11,998
If you like these types of conversations, be sure to follow the necessary entrepreneur on
your favorite platform so you never miss out on future content.

488
00:31:11,998 --> 00:31:21,342
What lesson do you think we can take from this and those of us out here, friends and
family and, and, and followers that while they're still working the job, they have this

489
00:31:21,342 --> 00:31:31,806
pull in this draw to think they want to become an entrepreneur, but it's hard enough to do
when you lose your job and you feel like you have no other option.

490
00:31:32,142 --> 00:31:42,882
but it sure does probably feel hard for a lot of people to leave that $10,000 or $15,000 a
month or $6,000 or $7,000 a month, even if they have the ability and the capability within

491
00:31:42,882 --> 00:31:43,302
them.

492
00:31:43,302 --> 00:31:44,902
What do you tell those people?

493
00:31:45,644 --> 00:31:50,913
It is possible to do both, but you have to make some sacrifices.

494
00:31:52,654 --> 00:31:57,578
You'll have to say no to certain things that maybe you've always said yes to.

495
00:31:57,979 --> 00:31:58,899
Like.

496
00:32:00,281 --> 00:32:02,022
Watching too much Netflix.

497
00:32:02,263 --> 00:32:04,855
You know, you hear Gary Vee talk about this all the time.

498
00:32:04,855 --> 00:32:05,956
like, stop watching Netflix.

499
00:32:05,956 --> 00:32:09,159
Just like do the thing that you said you want to do this whole time.

500
00:32:09,159 --> 00:32:10,610
Like you can go back to Netflix later.

501
00:32:10,610 --> 00:32:12,872
Although I know they remove some things every once in a while.

502
00:32:12,872 --> 00:32:15,074
I think they just removed like happy Gilmore one actually.

503
00:32:15,074 --> 00:32:17,999
So, know, like her wife is really going to suffer because of one thing we missed, right?

504
00:32:17,999 --> 00:32:22,346
Now I know back to the future, if you couldn't watch that, that would have hurt you, but
everything else could go.

505
00:32:22,638 --> 00:32:23,658
Correct.

506
00:32:23,658 --> 00:32:24,198
Correct.

507
00:32:24,198 --> 00:32:31,458
That may be Star Wars, but there is a world in which you can dip your toes into this
water.

508
00:32:32,358 --> 00:32:35,038
And I think it doesn't start with, well, what do I create?

509
00:32:35,038 --> 00:32:38,838
What should I sell on my Shopify or any of this stuff in terms of like product?

510
00:32:38,938 --> 00:32:47,318
All it really comes down to is finding a group of people, a community, a market, a niche,
whatever you want to call it, and finding out what their biggest struggles are.

511
00:32:47,538 --> 00:32:48,978
What are their biggest pains?

512
00:32:49,518 --> 00:32:51,746
I have this thing called the one-one-one strategy.

513
00:32:51,746 --> 00:32:56,338
And this has worked really well for helping people, especially those who are still working
who don't have a ton of time.

514
00:32:56,338 --> 00:32:58,582
The one, one, one, fine.

515
00:32:58,845 --> 00:32:59,936
One person.

516
00:33:01,752 --> 00:33:06,906
who has one problem, they might have many, but pick one and get them one result.

517
00:33:07,687 --> 00:33:08,068
That's it.

518
00:33:08,068 --> 00:33:09,279
You don't need a website to do that.

519
00:33:09,279 --> 00:33:14,973
You just need to find the community, talk to people, understand what they're going
through, help them through that and help them get a result.

520
00:33:15,074 --> 00:33:17,125
And a few things happen through this exercise.

521
00:33:17,125 --> 00:33:19,937
Number one, number one, finding the people.

522
00:33:20,218 --> 00:33:24,362
That's an exercise that you're gonna need to do as a business and entrepreneur anyway,
business owner and entrepreneur.

523
00:33:24,362 --> 00:33:26,043
You're gonna need to know where these people exist.

524
00:33:26,043 --> 00:33:27,815
So you might as well go and find them now.

525
00:33:27,815 --> 00:33:29,494
And so you can find that one person.

526
00:33:29,494 --> 00:33:32,136
So you have now a little bit of market research happening.

527
00:33:32,136 --> 00:33:33,476
What Facebook groups are they a part of?

528
00:33:33,476 --> 00:33:38,401
LinkedIn groups, what communities online and offline, what websites are they going to,
what YouTube channels do they watch?

529
00:33:38,401 --> 00:33:43,224
Just getting into the psyche of this audience a little bit more so you can understand kind
of what they're going through.

530
00:33:43,385 --> 00:33:44,766
Then discovering what their problems are.

531
00:33:44,766 --> 00:33:50,470
This is a great exercise because you need to know how to talk to people and how to
converse, how to figure out what they need help with.

532
00:33:50,470 --> 00:33:56,254
Yes, you can do a lot of that research online and find Reddit forums and other things
where people are talking about what they need help with, but...

533
00:33:56,290 --> 00:34:00,954
Something happens when you find that one person and you ask them what they need help with
and they tell you their life story.

534
00:34:00,954 --> 00:34:05,157
And they tell you why the struggle is so hard and what they've been trying to do to get
out of that.

535
00:34:05,157 --> 00:34:06,739
You feel empathy for them.

536
00:34:06,739 --> 00:34:12,482
You start to realize and have the superpower over other businesses helping this audience
who are so disconnected with their audience.

537
00:34:12,482 --> 00:34:22,481
You have now a person, a real life person, not a made up avatar with 2.5 kids and a white
picket fence, but you have Janice who has been struggling with this and has been trying to

538
00:34:22,481 --> 00:34:24,413
get out of that, but needs some help.

539
00:34:24,413 --> 00:34:25,493
And guess what?

540
00:34:26,201 --> 00:34:28,124
You're speaking to curiosity though.

541
00:34:28,866 --> 00:34:29,706
Yes.

542
00:34:30,027 --> 00:34:31,187
Be curious.

543
00:34:31,488 --> 00:34:34,489
I mean, this is the best advice I could give you if you're a podcaster.

544
00:34:34,489 --> 00:34:38,211
This is the best advice I could give you for if you're an entrepreneur, get curious.

545
00:34:38,211 --> 00:34:44,075
And then finally, when you get that person, that result, number one, it forces you to
figure out how to get that person that result.

546
00:34:44,075 --> 00:34:46,806
It's not difficult in the technical sense.

547
00:34:46,806 --> 00:34:48,247
You don't need to build a website or do any of this.

548
00:34:48,247 --> 00:34:49,998
You just having conversations.

549
00:34:49,998 --> 00:34:53,920
Maybe you're meeting on zoom, you're meeting in person, whatever it might be, whatever it
takes, you figure it out.

550
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:57,852
And then you find the pathway from where they were to where they need to go and you get
them there.

551
00:34:57,868 --> 00:35:05,250
And not only do you yes now have a real life person who's gotten a result, which can then
turn itself into a testimonial that can end up on a sales page or a newsletter, whatever

552
00:35:05,250 --> 00:35:05,620
it might be.

553
00:35:05,620 --> 00:35:06,801
Yes, you have that now.

554
00:35:06,801 --> 00:35:14,323
But what then ends up happening and is more important is you now have confidence that what
you can do actually works.

555
00:35:14,463 --> 00:35:18,924
Because most people who are entrepreneurs who try something for the first time, they go, I
don't know if this is going to work.

556
00:35:19,005 --> 00:35:20,645
Then go figure it out if it's going to work.

557
00:35:20,645 --> 00:35:23,596
And I've just given you the easy formula to do that.

558
00:35:23,938 --> 00:35:25,208
And then that'll unlock in your brain.

559
00:35:25,208 --> 00:35:33,001
And when you think about it, as an entrepreneur, you have this metaphorical cure, whatever
it is you're building for this metaphorical disease that you're curing.

560
00:35:33,001 --> 00:35:42,583
If you had a cure for a disease, wouldn't you not now feel like it is your obligation to
go out there and find other people who have this disease metaphorically and cure that

561
00:35:42,583 --> 00:35:44,144
disease metaphorically?

562
00:35:44,144 --> 00:35:44,904
Absolutely.

563
00:35:44,904 --> 00:35:45,944
You get so driven.

564
00:35:45,944 --> 00:35:53,206
No longer are you worried that like, you're going to sound like a snake oil salesman
because you honestly know this helps and you're in it for the right reasons.

565
00:35:53,282 --> 00:36:02,186
And then again, as a by-product, you might make some money off of lessons that you offer
off of coaching that you do, accountability, offering products, whatever the case may be.

566
00:36:02,186 --> 00:36:06,528
And then you can scale up and start building all the things uh out of there.

567
00:36:06,528 --> 00:36:13,371
Or you might find that the target market you off you targeted and the one person you're
like, yeah, I actually don't enjoy this.

568
00:36:13,571 --> 00:36:15,262
Well, good thing you just did it with one person.

569
00:36:15,262 --> 00:36:17,333
You didn't build a whole business around it.

570
00:36:17,393 --> 00:36:17,763
Great.

571
00:36:17,763 --> 00:36:19,906
You can move forward now into the next group and

572
00:36:19,906 --> 00:36:22,468
continue to try to find yourself and others within that.

573
00:36:22,468 --> 00:36:24,558
So that's the one, one, one.

574
00:36:24,558 --> 00:36:27,558
and take the thing you learned along with yourself to the next adventure.

575
00:36:27,558 --> 00:36:28,478
Correct.

576
00:36:28,478 --> 00:36:29,498
So important.

577
00:36:29,498 --> 00:36:31,438
What's the best thing about making money?

578
00:36:31,438 --> 00:36:34,726
We touched on a little bit here and what's the best part of it?

579
00:36:40,814 --> 00:36:44,155
I'm going to be very general at first and then I'm going to be very specific.

580
00:36:45,415 --> 00:36:53,638
Generally speaking, to have the freedom to do what I want, when I want, and most
importantly, with who I want.

581
00:36:53,638 --> 00:36:59,560
uh That freedom is incredible and that's what everybody should shoot for.

582
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,901
know, nowhere in my answer is going to be the big house.

583
00:37:02,901 --> 00:37:03,781
We don't have a big house.

584
00:37:03,781 --> 00:37:04,871
Or the Lamborghini.

585
00:37:04,871 --> 00:37:06,022
We don't have a Lamborghini.

586
00:37:06,022 --> 00:37:07,892
Our Lamborghini is a Telluride.

587
00:37:07,938 --> 00:37:10,220
because that's where we bring our kids in and it's awesome.

588
00:37:10,220 --> 00:37:11,470
It does exactly what we need to do.

589
00:37:11,470 --> 00:37:12,601
It's perfect.

590
00:37:12,862 --> 00:37:20,167
But where the uh money really comes into play, you know, there's a creator out there, his
name is Ramit Sethi.

591
00:37:20,167 --> 00:37:21,277
He has a Netflix series.

592
00:37:21,277 --> 00:37:23,449
He has a book called, Will Teach You Be Rich.

593
00:37:23,489 --> 00:37:32,175
A lot of people have polarizing views about the way he teaches, but one thing that he does
teach is knowing what it means to you to live a rich life.

594
00:37:32,355 --> 00:37:36,808
Not rich in the sense of glamour and all this stuff, but rich in terms of like,

595
00:37:36,972 --> 00:37:38,602
What is important to you?

596
00:37:39,083 --> 00:37:43,782
Spend money on that and know what you're going to cut out and not spend money on.

597
00:37:43,782 --> 00:37:52,538
For example, his car is like a, I don't know, 2000 Honda Accord, but he's rich, but he
also spends lavishly on like these, this clothing that he wears and all this stuff.

598
00:37:52,538 --> 00:38:00,642
And for me, the rich life is allowing ourselves to order whatever we want from the menu at
a restaurant, right?

599
00:38:00,642 --> 00:38:04,743
Not having to blink an eye at the different prices of things.

600
00:38:04,743 --> 00:38:06,034
If that sounds good, get it.

601
00:38:06,034 --> 00:38:06,824
Great.

602
00:38:06,936 --> 00:38:17,907
That's a huge rich life thing for me that perhaps as a response to just as a kid wanting
certain things on menus or whatever and as kids do and then being told, we can't afford

603
00:38:17,907 --> 00:38:18,378
that.

604
00:38:18,378 --> 00:38:18,708
Right.

605
00:38:18,708 --> 00:38:23,523
So this is like now we're getting into psychology and child and deep, all this stuff.

606
00:38:23,523 --> 00:38:25,765
I'm sure psychologists would understand, but,

607
00:38:26,862 --> 00:38:28,857
They'd everything that you're doing now comes from that.

608
00:38:28,857 --> 00:38:29,968
That's what they would tell us.

609
00:38:29,968 --> 00:38:30,778
for sure, for sure.

610
00:38:30,778 --> 00:38:36,733
uh Getting valet at the airport, that's just like people like, wow, you spend all that
money valet.

611
00:38:36,733 --> 00:38:41,186
It's not that much more expensive than getting to the parking structure, at least here in
San Diego.

612
00:38:41,186 --> 00:38:46,710
And I can just text the people when I rock, when I land and there's my car.

613
00:38:46,710 --> 00:38:57,118
Like that is such a huge, like, my gosh, like having some additional revenue to just have
the convenience of this thing that I absolutely hate, which is parking at airports.

614
00:38:57,118 --> 00:38:57,928
Great.

615
00:38:58,126 --> 00:38:59,266
That's where I'm going to spend my money.

616
00:38:59,266 --> 00:39:04,126
And then of course on, on trips, because my family is about experiences over material
things.

617
00:39:04,266 --> 00:39:12,866
Um, and we have been going to Japan a lot and you know, to, to have the kids experience
new cultures, especially at this age and kind of understand what else out there is in the

618
00:39:12,866 --> 00:39:13,606
world.

619
00:39:13,606 --> 00:39:20,406
Um, it's, something we wanted to offer our kids and something that we didn't have a
chance, my wife and I to do, uh, when we were younger.

620
00:39:20,426 --> 00:39:23,182
So, um, yeah, that, that's

621
00:39:23,182 --> 00:39:27,467
convenience or we speaking convenience or experience or both?

622
00:39:27,916 --> 00:39:28,906
It's both.

623
00:39:29,128 --> 00:39:30,188
It's both.

624
00:39:30,629 --> 00:39:31,830
And they do overlap, right?

625
00:39:31,830 --> 00:39:35,434
Like, you could have a great trip somewhere, but they come back and then you can't find
your car.

626
00:39:35,434 --> 00:39:37,266
Well, okay, that kind of ruins the experience.

627
00:39:37,266 --> 00:39:38,418
So that's very specific.

628
00:39:38,418 --> 00:39:45,585
But yeah, it's experiences in terms of what we spend money on, but also convenience so
that we can get to those experiential moments even better or faster.

629
00:39:45,762 --> 00:39:46,668
Tell us about Japan.

630
00:39:46,668 --> 00:39:49,924
said you've spent, that's more than one trip to Japan.

631
00:39:50,510 --> 00:39:58,010
Yeah, so I was so with this Pokemon channel, I guess I have to preface this by saying I
have a Pokemon YouTube channel started in 2020 with my kids actually, and we started

632
00:39:58,010 --> 00:39:59,290
collecting together.

633
00:39:59,330 --> 00:40:02,050
They outgrew Pokemon as kids at this age do.

634
00:40:02,050 --> 00:40:03,690
They go to all kinds of different things.

635
00:40:03,690 --> 00:40:12,450
Uh, and I, didn't, I, I stuck around and I got to fall so in love with this community of
collectors and, and, nostalgia and all this kind of stuff that I started a YouTube channel

636
00:40:12,450 --> 00:40:17,770
in January of 2021 in November of the same year, got to a hundred thousand subscribers on
YouTube.

637
00:40:17,770 --> 00:40:19,214
And now we're sitting at one point.

638
00:40:19,214 --> 00:40:22,155
8 to 5 million subscribers on YouTube.

639
00:40:22,155 --> 00:40:24,666
This is the long form channel, not the short one that I talked about earlier.

640
00:40:24,666 --> 00:40:28,558
So this is separate and it has opened up so many doors.

641
00:40:28,558 --> 00:40:33,480
It has allowed me to connect with NFL teams, NBA teams, UFC fighters.

642
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:39,522
It's allowed me to connect with big brands who want to sponsor on our videos like eBay and
others.

643
00:40:39,522 --> 00:40:44,494
uh But it's also helped me develop a relationship with the Pokemon company, which is
incredible.

644
00:40:44,494 --> 00:40:46,085
They send me some stuff early.

645
00:40:46,085 --> 00:40:46,975
We've gotten to know each other.

646
00:40:46,975 --> 00:40:48,578
They've invited me out to different

647
00:40:48,578 --> 00:40:50,379
programs and events.

648
00:40:50,419 --> 00:40:52,341
And the first time they did that was 2023.

649
00:40:52,341 --> 00:40:57,775
They invited me to Yokohama in Japan for the 2023 Pokemon World Championships.

650
00:40:57,775 --> 00:41:06,271
And yes, there is a world championships where competitors in both the video games and the
card game come from all over the world to play for top prizes, money, cash, et cetera.

651
00:41:06,271 --> 00:41:08,492
And I was invited as sort of a featured creator to come in.

652
00:41:08,492 --> 00:41:11,905
And that's where I got to experience Japan for the first time.

653
00:41:11,905 --> 00:41:14,537
And it was amazing.

654
00:41:14,537 --> 00:41:17,078
So amazing that I had to bring the family back the next year.

655
00:41:17,484 --> 00:41:25,218
was so amazing for us again that we brought the family back again another year after that
during Christmas time and we're going back again this year although we're also hitting up

656
00:41:25,218 --> 00:41:29,921
Korea because my wife and daughter both have gotten now into K-pop quite a bit.

657
00:41:29,921 --> 00:41:36,125
If go into my daughter's room there are beautiful Korean men all over the place and now
I'm starting to like these groups as well.

658
00:41:36,125 --> 00:41:37,185
I have a bias, yes.

659
00:41:37,185 --> 00:41:45,422
uh Anyway, Japan, one of the safest places on earth, one of the cleanest places.

660
00:41:45,422 --> 00:41:51,142
Everything is on time transportation around on the trains or anything is just is just
incredible incredible and rich history.

661
00:41:51,722 --> 00:41:55,042
At least in this current moment in time super cheap.

662
00:41:55,742 --> 00:42:09,482
You can get a complete steak dinner for your family for example that you might pay $200
for a fancy restaurant here in the states for $30 US and it's primo oh my gosh the food is

663
00:42:09,482 --> 00:42:14,382
so good you can get a bowl of ramen with hand pulled noodles for like.

664
00:42:14,382 --> 00:42:18,094
$2 us it the the yen is struggling.

665
00:42:18,094 --> 00:42:27,409
Yes, but the dollar goes a very long way there So if you can get there great and it's just
it's just beautiful and of course That's the home of where Pokemon is from my kids and I

666
00:42:27,409 --> 00:42:37,975
are into anime as well So if you go to Akihabara, it's like it's like a giant arcade of a
city there's just so many fun things to experience there and Getting everybody in front of

667
00:42:37,975 --> 00:42:43,488
especially the kids in front of new cultures new language realizing that like there are
people who are different who have different

668
00:42:43,488 --> 00:42:46,990
ways of showing respect and different customs.

669
00:42:46,990 --> 00:42:54,733
It's just so important to have them experience that because they're going to be little
adults soon and everything they absorb now is going to be a part of who they are as

670
00:42:54,733 --> 00:42:57,744
people, as citizens, as human beings.

671
00:42:57,805 --> 00:43:04,338
And we want them to have and at least be as well equipped as possible with what's out
there and what their options are.

672
00:43:04,338 --> 00:43:07,489
A lot of people ask me, Pat, like, do you want your kids to be entrepreneurs?

673
00:43:07,549 --> 00:43:10,140
I mean, of course I do, but we're not forcing that.

674
00:43:10,338 --> 00:43:12,160
Whether they want to go to college or not, that's their choice.

675
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:14,171
Whether they want to become an entrepreneur or not, that's their choice.

676
00:43:14,171 --> 00:43:17,043
But they are learning entrepreneurial skills.

677
00:43:17,324 --> 00:43:27,152
For example, how to communicate and present, how to collaborate, how to solve problems on
their own, how to fail and learn.

678
00:43:27,252 --> 00:43:29,453
Very opposite of what I grew up with.

679
00:43:29,554 --> 00:43:32,937
And these things again, I had to learn at the age of 25 when I got laid off.

680
00:43:32,937 --> 00:43:39,462
And now at 42, I'm just very grateful for everything that's happened and everything that
my family and I have been blessed with.

681
00:43:39,522 --> 00:43:41,320
what I'm doing on my platforms to share all this stuff.

682
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:44,232
I'm trying to make sure other people have that same opportunity as well.

683
00:43:44,312 --> 00:43:48,004
When you said they don't have to become entrepreneurs, but sure I'd want them to.

684
00:43:48,004 --> 00:43:48,895
Why?

685
00:43:50,062 --> 00:44:00,895
Because I believe entrepreneurship is the greatest tool that one could offer that both
helps and serves other people, but also can help you build the life and design your life

686
00:44:00,895 --> 00:44:04,086
around that as best as possible, right?

687
00:44:04,086 --> 00:44:11,548
To be your own boss, to make your own decisions, to fail on your own terms, to win on your
own terms, I feel is such a wonderful thing.

688
00:44:11,548 --> 00:44:14,849
And I'm not saying I would be upset if they became employees.

689
00:44:14,849 --> 00:44:19,610
They'd be really good employees because of the things they're learning here, and they can
apply a lot of the same principles.

690
00:44:19,682 --> 00:44:24,397
However, feel like entrepreneurship would definitely give them and anybody, this is why I
teach entrepreneurship.

691
00:44:24,397 --> 00:44:30,794
would give anybody the opportunity to design their life in the best way possible for
themselves and who they are.

692
00:44:30,978 --> 00:44:33,289
What's the most basic principle since you teach it?

693
00:44:33,289 --> 00:44:43,025
What's the most basic, like fundamental start from scratch principle when you're talking
to somebody who's getting ready to become an entrepreneur or they're struggling?

694
00:44:43,025 --> 00:44:45,326
What's the foundation, the basics?

695
00:44:45,644 --> 00:44:51,528
It's a quote from Zig Ziglar that I swear to God, my son rolls his eyes every time he
hears me say it.

696
00:44:51,528 --> 00:44:55,520
It's like ingrained into him now, but he knows it, which is a good thing.

697
00:44:55,921 --> 00:45:00,304
And that quote is you can have anything in life you want so long as you help other people
get what they want.

698
00:45:00,764 --> 00:45:01,745
That's it.

699
00:45:01,925 --> 00:45:05,520
That's the underlying principle to me of what it means to become a successful
entrepreneur.

700
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:12,732
There are other entrepreneurs out there who will tell you otherwise in terms of money,
revenue, scaling, that works for them.

701
00:45:12,732 --> 00:45:15,564
But the business plus life.

702
00:45:15,778 --> 00:45:21,672
scenario and optimizing for both really comes down to how well can you step up and serve
others?

703
00:45:21,994 --> 00:45:25,672
And that's the way I teach it.

704
00:45:27,486 --> 00:45:31,238
In your book, um

705
00:45:32,972 --> 00:45:34,364
What do you think?

706
00:45:34,364 --> 00:45:35,906
It's less is more, right?

707
00:45:35,906 --> 00:45:38,749
So you're countering the idea in society.

708
00:45:38,749 --> 00:45:40,511
It's more, it's more, it's more.

709
00:45:40,511 --> 00:45:48,081
But I think your fundamental principle in that book is less is more and even how you
should learn and go about approaching learning and growth.

710
00:45:48,081 --> 00:45:49,672
Is that a correct statement?

711
00:45:49,836 --> 00:45:55,841
Yeah, look, back when you and I were kids, information was valuable, right?

712
00:45:55,841 --> 00:45:58,874
If you were the smartest kid in the class, you were going to be the most successful.

713
00:45:58,874 --> 00:45:59,694
you.

714
00:46:00,915 --> 00:46:01,706
Yeah.

715
00:46:01,706 --> 00:46:02,456
yeah.

716
00:46:02,537 --> 00:46:02,827
Right.

717
00:46:02,827 --> 00:46:04,158
Encyclopedia Britannica.

718
00:46:04,158 --> 00:46:04,718
Great.

719
00:46:04,718 --> 00:46:07,140
You're smart because you could afford information.

720
00:46:07,140 --> 00:46:13,215
You were higher class because you had like 26 books in your home because you could afford
it.

721
00:46:13,215 --> 00:46:13,786
Right.

722
00:46:13,786 --> 00:46:19,468
No longer is that the case because we all have access to literally the same information.

723
00:46:19,468 --> 00:46:21,999
And now we have AI helping us even more.

724
00:46:21,999 --> 00:46:26,610
However, our brains are still approaching information as if it's like a scarce food
source, right?

725
00:46:26,610 --> 00:46:32,562
If you were living in like caveman days and you saw like, I don't know, a carcass or fruit
bush or something like you would hoard it.

726
00:46:32,562 --> 00:46:35,852
Cause you might not come across another fruit bush or carcass later to eat.

727
00:46:35,852 --> 00:46:37,183
It's survival.

728
00:46:37,323 --> 00:46:45,745
But the problem is if we're treating information this way, number one, we're at this
buffet line now of info and we're literally gorging.

729
00:46:45,745 --> 00:46:48,534
We are obese with information.

730
00:46:48,534 --> 00:46:52,056
and slower and we're having a harder time digesting all of it.

731
00:46:52,056 --> 00:46:53,897
Like all the food analogies work here, right?

732
00:46:53,897 --> 00:46:57,139
We consume information just like we've consumed food.

733
00:46:57,139 --> 00:47:00,951
If you're consuming too much, you're gonna stuff yourself full.

734
00:47:00,951 --> 00:47:03,613
And what are we stuffing ourselves full with in terms of information?

735
00:47:03,613 --> 00:47:17,254
A lot of it is sort of sugary, just the endorphins that come in from these like really
quick uh TikToks and all these kinds of things, right?

736
00:47:17,254 --> 00:47:19,135
And not only that, we're getting force fed, right?

737
00:47:19,135 --> 00:47:23,597
If you search up anything on YouTube, you will then be fed more about that thing.

738
00:47:23,597 --> 00:47:31,880
And you will just go and listen to a rabbit hole until you're just kind of like, you're
needing like metaphorical bypass surgery for the information you're consuming.

739
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:32,180
Right.

740
00:47:32,180 --> 00:47:35,682
And think about it, even like when we're in the car, when you go in the car, what do we
do?

741
00:47:35,682 --> 00:47:38,223
We have to put a podcast on all the time.

742
00:47:38,223 --> 00:47:41,704
We have to put an ebook on or else we're wasting our time.

743
00:47:42,285 --> 00:47:46,206
We literally think it's a waste of time not to always be learning something.

744
00:47:46,424 --> 00:47:50,149
Today I had to break that cycle and I just put on some Ozzy Osbourne,

745
00:47:50,573 --> 00:47:53,176
yeah, Ozzy, ah

746
00:47:53,176 --> 00:47:56,066
coming home, just put it on rotate for two or three times.

747
00:47:56,066 --> 00:47:57,588
Yeah, and that's great.

748
00:47:57,588 --> 00:47:59,249
You know what I've been doing in the car?

749
00:47:59,691 --> 00:48:00,772
Raw dogging it.

750
00:48:00,772 --> 00:48:06,199
I am silence in the car, which I know sounds strange.

751
00:48:06,981 --> 00:48:09,384
But you've heard of shower thoughts, right?

752
00:48:09,384 --> 00:48:11,335
How some of our best ideas come up.

753
00:48:11,335 --> 00:48:11,616
hours.

754
00:48:11,616 --> 00:48:13,611
I don't know why they're my best.

755
00:48:13,686 --> 00:48:14,546
Right, same.

756
00:48:14,546 --> 00:48:19,751
Because we finally have time to sit and think about the things because there's literally
nothing else to do.

757
00:48:19,751 --> 00:48:23,614
We are literally naked in the shower and there's nothing else to do.

758
00:48:23,778 --> 00:48:30,046
Something about that water, I've gone here, something about that makes it feel like
there's nothing else beyond it.

759
00:48:30,282 --> 00:48:31,063
Mm.

760
00:48:32,209 --> 00:48:32,816
I like that.

761
00:48:32,816 --> 00:48:34,896
I don't even have to go into the mode.

762
00:48:34,896 --> 00:48:36,563
I'm in the mode.

763
00:48:36,652 --> 00:48:37,462
Right.

764
00:48:37,943 --> 00:48:42,177
So what we need is to drive in the car, but like have water being sprayed on us at the
same.

765
00:48:42,177 --> 00:48:43,468
That'd be like the optimal thing.

766
00:48:43,468 --> 00:48:48,347
But you know, even just the sounds of the car in silence, it's weird cause you hear sounds
of the car.

767
00:48:48,347 --> 00:48:50,333
You're like, wait, I haven't heard that sound in a long time.

768
00:48:50,333 --> 00:48:59,240
Cause usually you have something playing, but I get some of my best ideas on those drives
because I finally not filled in that extra time with more stuff.

769
00:48:59,401 --> 00:48:59,731
Right.

770
00:48:59,731 --> 00:49:06,114
I finally been able to not just absorb and digest, but actually like create from that and,
and, and grow from that.

771
00:49:06,114 --> 00:49:06,596
Right?

772
00:49:06,596 --> 00:49:08,585
Like protein can help you with.

773
00:49:08,728 --> 00:49:20,962
So Marketplace, what do you think Charles Darwin, if we could invoke our best Charles
Darwin, so the Pat Flynn, Charles Darwin 2025, do you think he still thinks survival of

774
00:49:20,962 --> 00:49:23,594
the fittest with all this information in front of us now?

775
00:49:25,398 --> 00:49:30,881
Yes, but what does it mean to be fit to be fit now does not mean you have access to more
information.

776
00:49:30,881 --> 00:49:37,725
It knows it's, are you able to use the right information at the right time from the right
resource?

777
00:49:38,526 --> 00:49:45,470
It's staying disciplined enough to pick one resource, find that resource and then take it
and put it into action.

778
00:49:45,710 --> 00:49:46,080
Right.

779
00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:50,033
It's, it's exactly how I wrote my ebook, my lead exam book, right?

780
00:49:50,033 --> 00:49:51,243
I didn't know how to write an ebook.

781
00:49:51,243 --> 00:49:52,258
I remember

782
00:49:52,258 --> 00:49:59,140
When I was told to go write an ebook, started reading, like my first inclination was like,
give me a school to teach me this.

783
00:49:59,260 --> 00:50:01,711
I need to know all the things before taking any action.

784
00:50:01,711 --> 00:50:03,362
But again, I didn't have the time.

785
00:50:03,362 --> 00:50:11,124
Um, and I knew that if I just at least wrote things down on Microsoft word first, that at
least I'd have like the base of it.

786
00:50:11,124 --> 00:50:11,715
So that's what I did.

787
00:50:11,715 --> 00:50:15,826
Like, like even though I had to eventually figure out how to format it, how to

788
00:50:15,854 --> 00:50:25,352
um turn it into a PDF file, how to design the cover, how to sell it on my website, how to
write sales pages, all that stuff overwhelmed the crap out of me, because I'd never done

789
00:50:25,352 --> 00:50:25,962
that before.

790
00:50:25,962 --> 00:50:32,638
But I knew if I could just focus for a period of time, which I did, on just writing the
manuscript for this thing, that part at least would get done.

791
00:50:32,638 --> 00:50:33,118
And I did it.

792
00:50:33,118 --> 00:50:34,909
I did it in about two and a half weeks.

793
00:50:34,990 --> 00:50:40,674
And lo and behold, I had this thing on my computer that was like, I have to take the next
step because I have it.

794
00:50:40,674 --> 00:50:43,376
Like it was just sitting here and I'm so close, I feel it.

795
00:50:43,397 --> 00:50:45,788
So then I went and I was like, okay, what's the next step?

796
00:50:46,350 --> 00:50:50,110
Well, I got to format this so it looks good and there's space for people to write in and
do exercises.

797
00:50:50,110 --> 00:50:51,670
And I don't know how to do that.

798
00:50:51,810 --> 00:50:53,590
Well, in two hours, I figured it out on YouTube.

799
00:50:53,590 --> 00:50:54,590
I just looked on YouTube.

800
00:50:54,590 --> 00:50:58,530
I found the right resource at the right time for the right person, implemented it.

801
00:50:58,530 --> 00:50:58,850
Boom.

802
00:50:58,850 --> 00:51:00,050
Now I have this thing.

803
00:51:00,050 --> 00:51:01,350
Same thing with the title and the cover.

804
00:51:01,350 --> 00:51:02,090
Great.

805
00:51:02,090 --> 00:51:04,010
Then I need to know how to sell it.

806
00:51:04,010 --> 00:51:06,510
Well, I know I'm not the first person to sell something online.

807
00:51:06,510 --> 00:51:07,990
So there's people who've done it before.

808
00:51:07,990 --> 00:51:14,570
Let me go find somebody who has and they're like, oh yeah, Pat, there's a tool called the
E-Junkie that you can use where you can upload your PDF file and get a button to put on

809
00:51:14,570 --> 00:51:16,290
your website and then you're good.

810
00:51:16,814 --> 00:51:18,354
20 minutes, I had it done.

811
00:51:18,354 --> 00:51:19,754
Oh my gosh, this is incredible.

812
00:51:19,754 --> 00:51:21,574
Now I need to write a sales page.

813
00:51:21,734 --> 00:51:23,734
First inclination, I need to go to copywriting school.

814
00:51:23,734 --> 00:51:27,314
I need to spend all this money and time to figure out how to be an expert copywriter.

815
00:51:27,614 --> 00:51:32,734
I went to a buddy and he was like, Pat, you should just check out Yannick Silver's book,
Moonlighting on the Internet.

816
00:51:32,734 --> 00:51:36,334
And I was like, Moonlighting on the This book's about like 50 different ways to make money
online.

817
00:51:36,334 --> 00:51:37,494
He's like, no, no, no.

818
00:51:37,494 --> 00:51:39,074
In the back of the book, there's an appendix.

819
00:51:39,074 --> 00:51:46,654
It's literally a sales page that you can just mad libs plug in your product and just make
sure you write your features and benefits in it and you're good to go.

820
00:51:47,214 --> 00:51:51,954
That was the actual sales page I used for my architecture guide that helped me make over
one and a half million dollars.

821
00:51:51,954 --> 00:51:58,214
Not because I learned all the things and became an expert at everything, but I found the
right resources at the right time for the right thing.

822
00:51:58,254 --> 00:52:00,974
And I guarantee you I had, when I needed it.

823
00:52:00,974 --> 00:52:03,893
You didn't get the advanced degree before you need to put it in place.

824
00:52:03,958 --> 00:52:08,180
Right, but we all want to learn just in case.

825
00:52:08,361 --> 00:52:13,204
We are programmed to learn just in case, but we need to learn just in time.

826
00:52:13,224 --> 00:52:18,688
Trusting that when you need the next step in the information and the resources for that,
that it will be there.

827
00:52:18,688 --> 00:52:20,623
It's guaranteed, there's so much information.

828
00:52:20,623 --> 00:52:22,210
We know that information is there.

829
00:52:22,210 --> 00:52:28,674
So let's focus on the now and the next step until we need the next thing and then we can
go and find the resources there, trusting the process.

830
00:52:29,036 --> 00:52:34,462
And that's essentially what lean learning is in and amongst several other strategies for
accelerating learning.

831
00:52:34,830 --> 00:52:45,554
How are you using AI now differently than this combination of things in the past, like a
either Google or Safari combined with YouTube?

832
00:52:45,554 --> 00:52:47,595
So that was our past learning.

833
00:52:48,155 --> 00:52:56,128
What are you doing with AI now that is different than utilizing those traditional sources
that pretty much we've had for the last decade?

834
00:52:57,186 --> 00:53:02,990
combining traditional sources, the right ones, with AI to help me come up with things
faster.

835
00:53:02,990 --> 00:53:08,113
For example, I wanted to learn how to uh script a video essay.

836
00:53:08,394 --> 00:53:09,114
Right?

837
00:53:09,114 --> 00:53:14,128
And I was like, okay, cool, I want to write a video essay for, I'm in the middle of
producing this actually, a video essay for my book, Lean Learning.

838
00:53:14,128 --> 00:53:17,470
A video essay is a very specific style of video that's published on YouTube.

839
00:53:17,470 --> 00:53:19,802
It's more documentary style, all these sorts of things.

840
00:53:19,802 --> 00:53:24,385
So I use a tool that allows me to connect my book, it's called Poppy AI.

841
00:53:24,385 --> 00:53:25,740
I can connect my book.

842
00:53:25,740 --> 00:53:32,092
I upload it, PDF file with three videos from YouTube that I've watched that I like that
have a structure that I want.

843
00:53:32,092 --> 00:53:33,962
And I plug that into the AI as well.

844
00:53:33,962 --> 00:53:43,815
And I'm like, okay, now combine these, write me a script for a video essay about my book,
Lean Learning, using the structures and frameworks that are taught in these videos by

845
00:53:43,815 --> 00:53:45,635
these video essay experts.

846
00:53:45,956 --> 00:53:47,536
Go, boom.

847
00:53:47,536 --> 00:53:48,816
I now have this thing in front of me.

848
00:53:48,816 --> 00:53:50,077
That's at least a first draft.

849
00:53:50,077 --> 00:53:55,436
I never just take from AI on the first pass and then publish, but it is a first draft and
I can refine from there.

850
00:53:55,436 --> 00:53:58,727
I also use AI as a creative partner and I role play with it.

851
00:53:58,767 --> 00:54:00,918
You are a beginner entrepreneur.

852
00:54:00,918 --> 00:54:02,548
This is a prompt that I might tell AI.

853
00:54:02,548 --> 00:54:07,850
You are a beginner entrepreneur trying to figure out how to build your first business.

854
00:54:07,850 --> 00:54:11,691
Here is a solution that I have for a course that I'm thinking about coming up with.

855
00:54:11,691 --> 00:54:17,533
What are the objections that you have in your head as a first time entrepreneur that would
stop you from even paying attention to this offer?

856
00:54:17,533 --> 00:54:18,393
Go.

857
00:54:18,854 --> 00:54:19,874
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

858
00:54:19,874 --> 00:54:20,846
I'm worried about.

859
00:54:20,846 --> 00:54:22,386
How do I know this is real?

860
00:54:22,386 --> 00:54:24,986
How do I know you're not a con man?

861
00:54:24,986 --> 00:54:27,826
Or what proof do you have that this thing has worked for others?

862
00:54:28,386 --> 00:54:35,466
All these questions that are probably questions that people coming across this future core
sales page would probably have.

863
00:54:35,586 --> 00:54:38,466
So this is how I use AI as a role-playing partner.

864
00:54:38,466 --> 00:54:42,226
This is an incredible time, but also scary.

865
00:54:42,226 --> 00:54:47,386
And where I use AI is for a tool to help me to get to the point of service faster.

866
00:54:47,386 --> 00:54:50,380
If I get a whole bunch of survey data, for example,

867
00:54:50,380 --> 00:54:56,473
Yes, I could go through all of that myself, but AI could show me some of the patterns that
maybe I wouldn't even be able to find myself.

868
00:54:56,473 --> 00:55:01,155
That speed runs me to be able to then take that information and use it, right?

869
00:55:01,155 --> 00:55:06,888
So I use AI to help accelerate so that I can get to the point of service to my audience
faster.

870
00:55:08,430 --> 00:55:12,843
So you've referenced snake oil salesman two or three times.

871
00:55:13,036 --> 00:55:15,136
Yeah, screw those guys.

872
00:55:15,136 --> 00:55:18,849
What about that is one of your pet peeves?

873
00:55:19,958 --> 00:55:22,420
I've been sold a lot of snake oil in the past.

874
00:55:23,141 --> 00:55:24,442
That's essentially it.

875
00:55:24,442 --> 00:55:27,384
And I have a disdain for people like that.

876
00:55:27,384 --> 00:55:33,599
em And it's funny because a lot of people, they'll immediately see the URL, smart passive
income, and they'll go, that guy's a snake oil salesman.

877
00:55:33,599 --> 00:55:35,131
I just know it from the domain name.

878
00:55:35,131 --> 00:55:38,183
So this is why passive income is sort of taking that negative connotation.

879
00:55:38,183 --> 00:55:44,528
But then they dive in, go, this guy's actually sharing the reality of it, that it's not an
overnight thing, that this is not going to be easy.

880
00:55:44,528 --> 00:55:45,159
Okay.

881
00:55:45,159 --> 00:55:49,176
And that's part of the reason also that I wanted to get in front of that keyword because a
lot of people

882
00:55:49,176 --> 00:55:53,463
we're taking advantage and selling a lot of not great stuff to people back in the day as
well.

883
00:55:53,463 --> 00:55:56,216
So I could get ahead of them and I have for many.

884
00:55:56,686 --> 00:55:58,326
How do you verify proof then?

885
00:55:58,326 --> 00:56:04,870
So if it's not safe, a lot of times we hear social proof and how do we have proof and see
the receipts that are on us now?

886
00:56:04,972 --> 00:56:13,529
Yeah, I mean, it all comes from things like testimonials, having connections, having
referrals, ah and just continuing to show up.

887
00:56:13,529 --> 00:56:15,130
I think that's the biggest thing.

888
00:56:15,130 --> 00:56:18,843
In the beginning, even when I got into the Pokemon space, people were like, who are you to
be in here?

889
00:56:18,843 --> 00:56:22,336
There's always going to be gatekeepers, especially uh in spaces like that.

890
00:56:22,336 --> 00:56:26,079
But you have to get through them by just continually showing up and providing service.

891
00:56:26,079 --> 00:56:29,202
And eventually over time, they were like, okay, you've proven yourself.

892
00:56:29,202 --> 00:56:29,742
Yeah, you're here.

893
00:56:29,742 --> 00:56:35,116
Like I changed my mind about you because you continue to show up in ways that nobody else
has.

894
00:56:35,134 --> 00:56:42,231
And that is a hard thing for people to come across those gatekeepers who you have to
empathize with them a little bit.

895
00:56:42,231 --> 00:56:43,822
They're protecting their community.

896
00:56:43,822 --> 00:56:47,796
And so all you can do is just show up and continue to serve and listen and learn.

897
00:56:47,796 --> 00:56:50,318
And maybe you did stuff that kind of came across the wrong way.

898
00:56:50,318 --> 00:56:51,009
Great.

899
00:56:51,009 --> 00:56:52,510
Pivot, react.

900
00:56:52,510 --> 00:56:55,092
Again, as long as you're coming from a place of service, great.

901
00:56:55,093 --> 00:57:01,418
But I have been served things in the past that were promised that were not promises kept.

902
00:57:01,428 --> 00:57:11,098
I have been sold by people who have really good copywriters on certain things and none of
those things actually fulfill their promises.

903
00:57:11,098 --> 00:57:16,853
So that is something that is important to me and I think is why I continue to reference
that.

904
00:57:18,296 --> 00:57:24,588
Through the conversation too, can tell that you have a really good handle and acceptance
of the idea of the marketplace.

905
00:57:26,230 --> 00:57:26,851
Right?

906
00:57:26,851 --> 00:57:32,618
That we're in a marketplace that you need to understand it, accept it, work within it.

907
00:57:32,618 --> 00:57:39,137
Because I've just heard accountability, authenticity, and taking responsibility for
actions, for outcomes, for intentionality.

908
00:57:39,137 --> 00:57:41,089
I've heard that come through here.

909
00:57:41,089 --> 00:57:45,204
And so what that means is you've overcome the bad parts of our ego.

910
00:57:47,640 --> 00:57:49,491
Yeah, you have to find your spot in it.

911
00:57:49,892 --> 00:57:59,879
You know, when I wrote my book, Will It Fly?, which was my first real business book, uh
one of the most popular chapters is the market research chapter where I teach a exercise

912
00:57:59,879 --> 00:58:01,340
called the three P's exercise.

913
00:58:01,340 --> 00:58:02,901
And it's when you build your market map.

914
00:58:02,901 --> 00:58:11,887
Cause if you're traveling into any spaces, you have to figure out the lay of the land
first and figure out where you should land and how you're not, you know, overstepping

915
00:58:11,887 --> 00:58:14,379
boundaries and where you can come in and surf.

916
00:58:14,379 --> 00:58:16,210
Again, it always comes down to that.

917
00:58:16,268 --> 00:58:19,669
So this market map exercise, you find your three Ps within a market that you're in.

918
00:58:19,669 --> 00:58:25,991
You find the places that those people congregate and exist, online, offline, communities,
niches, forums, wherever.

919
00:58:25,991 --> 00:58:35,113
Then you find the people who have already earned the trust with that audience, the
authorities, the leaders, the influencers, the owners, whatever.

920
00:58:35,113 --> 00:58:42,025
And then the third one is going to be the products, the products that are already serving
that audience in some way, or form.

921
00:58:42,025 --> 00:58:45,390
And just that exercise alone can give you a lay of the land on what's here.

922
00:58:45,390 --> 00:58:47,970
And what is being offered, also maybe what's missing.

923
00:58:47,970 --> 00:58:52,190
Maybe you have that special sauce or something that's a little bit different and you can
bring that into the space.

924
00:58:52,190 --> 00:59:00,090
That's what I did in the Pokemon space with more cinematic storytelling that nobody else
was doing because I had that experience on YouTube since 2009 and I brought it into

925
00:59:00,090 --> 00:59:02,770
Pokemon in 2021 and it took off.

926
00:59:02,770 --> 00:59:10,550
People really enjoyed it because I found that that's where I could provide value in a
space that hadn't been provided to before versus let me just open packs and talk about

927
00:59:10,550 --> 00:59:12,970
market fluctuations like everybody else.

928
00:59:13,090 --> 00:59:14,656
Um, so that

929
00:59:14,656 --> 00:59:18,517
Again, a little bit of work to quote unquote sharpen your axe first.

930
00:59:18,517 --> 00:59:22,125
It goes a very long way in how well you're going to cut through the noise.

931
00:59:23,692 --> 00:59:25,233
What are you solving for?

932
00:59:25,233 --> 00:59:29,828
You you touched on an early 13 year old child, 15 year old child.

933
00:59:29,828 --> 00:59:37,395
Um, you referenced the importance of your wife on how she really stuck with you back when
you were 25 years old and lost the job.

934
00:59:37,395 --> 00:59:41,858
Um, the eight revenue income that you've earned online.

935
00:59:43,060 --> 00:59:45,141
It's laid out as a pretty good life.

936
00:59:46,363 --> 00:59:48,664
What do you, what are you solving for?

937
00:59:49,306 --> 00:59:50,196
Still.

938
00:59:53,230 --> 00:59:54,650
I wouldn't lie to you.

939
00:59:54,650 --> 00:59:59,970
I would be lying if I didn't say that, you know, just continued security.

940
01:00:00,150 --> 01:00:09,130
Even though I am financially free, I'm always in the back of my head, like what if
something happens, something changes, market flood, you know, I always have that fear and

941
01:00:09,130 --> 01:00:12,130
I'd be lying to you if I said it, if I didn't say I had that.

942
01:00:12,670 --> 01:00:17,450
But I'm also here for legacy.

943
01:00:17,610 --> 01:00:21,958
And I know that's sort of a buzzword that gets thrown around quite often, but

944
01:00:22,198 --> 01:00:32,226
It's more legacy in terms of the example that I'm setting, not necessarily how much money
we have and how much of that goes into my estate planning papers and all that kind of

945
01:00:32,226 --> 01:00:33,887
stuff, although that's obviously some of it.

946
01:00:33,887 --> 01:00:43,435
uh It's more of a legacy on, can I help continue to provide experiences that are memorable
for not just my family, but for other families and other people too?

947
01:00:43,676 --> 01:00:52,102
There was a person who emailed me the other day, in fact, who had mentioned that they had
taken a course for me back in 2017 and their podcast just hit like, uh

948
01:00:52,142 --> 01:00:55,144
think was their podcast just hit a million downloads.

949
01:00:55,425 --> 01:01:03,752
And they were stoked because through that podcast, they were able to build a business out
of that, that allowed their family to have more time with the kids that they had growing

950
01:01:03,752 --> 01:01:03,947
up.

951
01:01:03,947 --> 01:01:04,983
now their kids are teenagers.

952
01:01:04,983 --> 01:01:06,314
It's just this full story.

953
01:01:06,314 --> 01:01:12,599
It's like, They'll, in the back of their minds, I mean, they're not like, Pat Flynn every
day.

954
01:01:12,599 --> 01:01:14,000
That's not what it's about.

955
01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:15,241
It's just like, wow.

956
01:01:15,241 --> 01:01:19,264
I was able to help this family stay better close together.

957
01:01:19,264 --> 01:01:21,766
And I had something to do with that.

958
01:01:21,790 --> 01:01:22,100
cool.

959
01:01:22,100 --> 01:01:26,892
Maybe I can help show that to my kids that they can be that for others too.

960
01:01:26,892 --> 01:01:27,942
And just be a part of it.

961
01:01:27,942 --> 01:01:35,235
You know, I'm one wave in a ripple that has happened a long time ago of people serving
others who served others who served others.

962
01:01:35,235 --> 01:01:39,056
And my job is just to kind of amplify that wave as much as I can and keep it going.

963
01:01:39,056 --> 01:01:43,418
ah You know, that ripple effect goes a very long way, the butterfly effect, if you will.

964
01:01:43,418 --> 01:01:44,678
ah

965
01:01:44,758 --> 01:01:52,022
And that'll kind of expand into my kids and their families and the people who they touch
in their lives and so on and so forth.

966
01:01:52,022 --> 01:01:54,383
it's just a cool, yes, it's a good life.

967
01:01:54,383 --> 01:01:59,717
uh I could quote unquote retire, but I enjoy serving people.

968
01:01:59,717 --> 01:02:09,852
I would never retire from serving people in some way, or form, whether it becomes in the
business world or becomes more entertainment or, you know, I have visions of writing

969
01:02:09,852 --> 01:02:13,354
fiction novels down the road and world building and all this stuff and

970
01:02:13,698 --> 01:02:16,100
Always just having fun along the way, that's the other thing.

971
01:02:16,100 --> 01:02:25,642
I feel like a lot of my success is as a result of finding the fun in things because I
found, especially as a creator, if I'm having fun doing it and capturing it, then people

972
01:02:25,642 --> 01:02:28,368
are gonna have fun watching it being a part of the story too.

973
01:02:28,408 --> 01:02:31,490
And I think a lot of people forget to have fun sometimes.

974
01:02:32,168 --> 01:02:35,603
I heard they're giving away free and very cheap houses in Japan.

975
01:02:36,888 --> 01:02:41,182
They are because they're in the culture of Japan.

976
01:02:41,182 --> 01:02:43,114
When you buy a house, you buy a new house.

977
01:02:43,114 --> 01:02:46,947
It's sort of a weird thing, but like if you are a Japanese citizen, you're buying a home.

978
01:02:46,947 --> 01:02:56,646
Apparently you want a new home, but that also makes sense because Japanese people are very
clean, very, very like things need to be neat and in order and all this stuff.

979
01:02:56,646 --> 01:02:59,618
So the older homes that people have moved out of are available.

980
01:02:59,939 --> 01:03:03,121
And I believe because of the

981
01:03:03,512 --> 01:03:05,833
population decline that's happening in those parts of the world.

982
01:03:05,833 --> 01:03:08,303
They are encouraging foreigners to come in and live.

983
01:03:08,303 --> 01:03:14,565
They want people live and work there, but also contribute to the population in some way,
or form.

984
01:03:14,625 --> 01:03:17,166
And some of these homes are just beautiful, right?

985
01:03:17,166 --> 01:03:20,317
But they're a little bit more separate from like the Tokyo districts.

986
01:03:20,317 --> 01:03:22,867
They're kind of more in the rural areas, but they're gorgeous.

987
01:03:22,867 --> 01:03:29,639
And I mean, what a fun way to force function yourself to learn Japanese and, and enjoy
some good food.

988
01:03:29,639 --> 01:03:31,150
Yeah.

989
01:03:33,368 --> 01:03:36,479
sounds like Pokemon 2.

990
01:03:36,479 --> 01:03:36,909
Yeah.

991
01:03:36,909 --> 01:03:37,920
For you and evolution.

992
01:03:37,920 --> 01:03:39,090
ah Right.

993
01:03:39,090 --> 01:03:43,682
So as we, as we wrap up here, the conversation has been great.

994
01:03:43,682 --> 01:03:51,265
When you come across, because you engage with so many people from your impact online and
so many people have questions and how to do it and what to do.

995
01:03:51,906 --> 01:03:53,806
I just know the entrepreneurial path.

996
01:03:53,806 --> 01:03:55,687
People respect the thing that you've achieved.

997
01:03:55,687 --> 01:03:57,568
So they want to know about it.

998
01:03:58,728 --> 01:04:02,050
I know there's a lot of questions that you always hear you like, man, those are the wrong
questions.

999
01:04:02,050 --> 01:04:03,250
Just get started.

1000
01:04:03,250 --> 01:04:06,792
That's probably a lot of the response that you want to give someone.

1001
01:04:07,272 --> 01:04:16,558
But what's a consistent theme that you look for that when you hear it and you look at that
individual, you're like, they're on the right path.

1002
01:04:16,558 --> 01:04:20,500
And a lot of times we'd say it, but is there a topic?

1003
01:04:20,500 --> 01:04:21,591
Is there even a word?

1004
01:04:21,591 --> 01:04:22,361
Is there a mindset?

1005
01:04:22,361 --> 01:04:29,725
Is there something that doesn't have to go real deep and be real, real complex that you're
like, they're going to make it?

1006
01:04:31,564 --> 01:04:34,976
Yeah, the one, if I could boil it down to one word, it's empathy.

1007
01:04:35,656 --> 01:04:42,040
Going back to the idea of serving an audience, the more that you can understand who they
are, what they're going through, why they're going through it, what they're trying to

1008
01:04:42,040 --> 01:04:46,402
achieve, the bet, like all the other answers fall into place after that.

1009
01:04:46,503 --> 01:04:50,525
Cause very commonly the first question I get is Pat, should I create an online course?

1010
01:04:50,525 --> 01:04:51,926
Should I start a community?

1011
01:04:51,926 --> 01:04:53,246
Should I write a book?

1012
01:04:53,287 --> 01:04:54,607
Should I build a software?

1013
01:04:54,607 --> 01:04:55,648
I don't know.

1014
01:04:55,648 --> 01:04:57,049
And you don't know either.

1015
01:04:57,049 --> 01:04:59,650
Have that be the clear answer.

1016
01:04:59,870 --> 01:05:02,774
after you dive into who it is that you're serving.

1017
01:05:02,855 --> 01:05:06,239
It'll become clear once you know who it is that you're serving.

1018
01:05:06,901 --> 01:05:07,542
That's it.

1019
01:05:07,542 --> 01:05:10,636
And when I see people diving into, like I remember

1020
01:05:13,294 --> 01:05:21,069
I had given somebody 500 bucks and I said, what would be the best use for you to help you
with your business if I gave you this 500 bucks?

1021
01:05:21,069 --> 01:05:22,419
And I was gonna give it to him.

1022
01:05:22,740 --> 01:05:25,761
And they said, well, I'm gonna take a course.

1023
01:05:26,362 --> 01:05:27,523
And I was like, a course about what?

1024
01:05:27,523 --> 01:05:29,043
And they're like, well, about online business.

1025
01:05:29,043 --> 01:05:30,184
Maybe I'll spend it on yours.

1026
01:05:30,184 --> 01:05:33,346
And I'm like, no, that's not the point of this.

1027
01:05:33,746 --> 01:05:36,468
What is the most important thing when it comes to starting a business?

1028
01:05:36,468 --> 01:05:39,099
And then he's of course like, okay, who is it you're targeting, right?

1029
01:05:39,099 --> 01:05:40,530
Because that's who you're serving.

1030
01:05:40,686 --> 01:05:45,046
How would you best spend this $500 to know more about your audience?

1031
01:05:45,526 --> 01:05:47,726
I could run market surveys and send emails out.

1032
01:05:47,726 --> 01:05:48,706
Maybe I can buy an email list.

1033
01:05:48,706 --> 01:05:49,746
No, no, no.

1034
01:05:49,786 --> 01:05:56,306
How would you, what, do you think you would have great insight in seeing market data?

1035
01:05:56,866 --> 01:06:02,766
What would be the best way to connect with, I'm, go to them.

1036
01:06:02,766 --> 01:06:03,966
Yes, exactly.

1037
01:06:12,910 --> 01:06:17,570
There are conventions on almost everything these days.

1038
01:06:17,570 --> 01:06:28,870
So if you are interested in stationary, go to Japan during the world's fair, which might
cost a little bit more than 500 if you're not local.

1039
01:06:28,870 --> 01:06:29,550
you know what I mean?

1040
01:06:29,550 --> 01:06:31,130
Like go to them.

1041
01:06:31,350 --> 01:06:32,510
Who's here?

1042
01:06:32,510 --> 01:06:33,430
Who are the players?

1043
01:06:33,430 --> 01:06:34,570
Get to meet them.

1044
01:06:34,570 --> 01:06:36,690
Go like have dinner with them.

1045
01:06:36,730 --> 01:06:39,150
Like just inject yourself.

1046
01:06:56,824 --> 01:06:58,737
Yeah.

1047
01:06:58,737 --> 01:07:06,987
A coach of mine a while back, James Schramko told me the secret to success is to stop
trying to be so interesting and start getting interested.

1048
01:07:07,254 --> 01:07:09,300
And that has always stuck with me.

1049
01:07:19,818 --> 01:07:20,549
I appreciate you, Mark.

1050
01:07:20,549 --> 01:07:22,040
This has been such a joy.

1051
01:07:22,040 --> 01:07:25,602
Lean Learning, available on Amazon or wherever books are sold, Barnes & Noble, et cetera.

1052
01:07:25,602 --> 01:07:27,734
That's probably the biggest message I'm trying to get out there right now.

1053
01:07:27,734 --> 01:07:32,457
Probably the most impactful message I could share, but there's other books and things as
well.

1054
01:07:32,457 --> 01:07:33,878
SmartPassiveIncome.com.

1055
01:07:33,878 --> 01:07:39,132
have all the entrepreneurial educational stuff too, for those of you who are looking for
uh things like that.

1056
01:07:39,132 --> 01:07:42,134
And at Pat Flynn on most social media platforms.

1057
01:08:01,230 --> 01:08:02,353
Thank you for this.

1058
01:08:02,377 --> 01:08:03,664
It's been an honor.

1059
01:08:03,664 --> 01:08:04,595
Thank you.