In this episode of Smart and Simple Matters, I talk with a guy who radiates inspiration and moves people to take action.
And it's none other than Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income fame.
Pat has directly helped tens of thousands of people (me included) with the principles of creating and maintaining passive income streams. Whether it's through your own products and services, affiliate marketing, apps, advertising, membership communities, eBooks, and more, Pat knows about it all.
And he's wildly successful in just about any way you can define it. I'm talking things like:
- The love his community expresses for him.
- The traditional “how much I make” kind of way (check out his income reports).
- His ability to empower other people's success.
- His influence via the 50,000+ subscribers to his website, over 1.5 million YouTube views, and other staggering numbers that keep going up.
- Creating some of the finest “how to” content about online and offline business anywhere on the web.
But it's striking how humble, genuine, and transparent Pat is about his personal and business life. As much as you'll benefit from hearing about Pat's success and the insightful actions he recommends in this episode, he's just as likely to be seen discussing how he's failed over the years.
My grandpa would call him a mensch. My aunt would call him a sweetheart. And I would call him one of the biggest influencers around in online business, ethics, and personal growth. Even if you don't have a business or care much about what's happening online, I'm confident you'll get a ton from this chat.
It was a thrill to speak with Pat and even more awesome to listen to his wisdom on a range of topics. And now you get to be thrilled and enlightened too!
What You'll Learn
We have a ton of valuable stuff to share with you so you'll want to listen to the whole show.
In this episode you'll learn about:
- Which passive income stream Pat would keep if he had to give up all the rest.
- How being laid off can be the greatest thing to happen to someone.
- How he launched his first product and made almost $8,000.00 the first month.
- The skinny behind “just in time” marketing and why you might need it.
- A powerful example why single tasking can be critical for success.
- Which one of us has stayed awake for 72 hours straight … and why.
Resources and Items Mentioned in This Episode Include:
- Websites: GreenAcamedyExam.com, BlueHost (Affiliate link)
- Resources: The Personal User Guide, LEED Study Guides, Evernote
- Books: The 4-Hour Workweek (Affiliate link), Getting Things Done
- Podcasts: Internet Business Mastery
- Challenges: The Continuous Creation Challenge
- Pat's Social Media Presence: Twitter, YouTube, and iTunes
Topics
- [04:48] Pat shares his background and the motivational origin story of his business
- [09:44] Exploring how to create eye popping income numbers in your first year as an entrepreneurship
- [13:49] Using Evernote and other tools to curate
- [19:13] Scenarios, boxes, and the value of single tasking
- [22:03] Which passive income stream Pat would keep if he had to give up all the rest
- [25:33] The personal challenges/experiments we've done and are doing
- [31:47] Why Pat's a family man before anything else
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Transcript
- Click here to download the transcript for podcast 004
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Great questions you asked, although did he really answer the question about which income stream he would keep if he had to get rid of all the rest?
Congrats on the successful podcast and I look forward to hearing more.
Hey Steve,
I prepped for my chat with Pat pretty heavily and really thought hard about some good questions to ask. I’m glad you liked them.
He did answer the question about which passive income stream he would keep if he had to get rid of all the rest. It was creating your own products and/or services. I’m glad you liked what you heard. There’s plenty more coming down the pipe soon.
Congratulations Joel on launching this podcast and your interview with Pat.
Pat is really one of the “best” IM experts out there.
He will try to reply in your tweets, shares, comments as much as he can. This makes him so much different.
Thank for sharing this article! More power!
Hi Ryan,
I’m on the Pat Flynn bandwagon too. For me, he goes well beyond the Internet Marketing scene and really has helped shape my business ethics and how I analyze life around me.
I’m not sure what you mean about “More power!” but I assume it’s a good thing or your way of saying “keep it up!” 🙂
yes Joel, it’s a good thing and is my own way of saying “Great work!” 🙂
Great stuff, Joel! I was really surprised that Pat didn’t list affiliate income as one of his top two. Good to know that having your own product is the way to go, though!
Wow Joel! This is amazing- I can’t wait to give it a full listen. Pat Flynn was one of the first people I found online who was very clearly financially successful, but doing it in a very not sleezy way. Thanks for bringing Pat to the SASM audience!
Now that I’ve listened: Joel, your interview technique has gotten so good! You really know how to move the conversation along without getting in the way of the guest. This was an amazing show!
Hey Ethan,
I’m glad my corporate years taught me some transferable skills. Like how to facilitate a conversation, even if it’s just a conversation between two people. Of course, I hope I picked up more from just living life and understanding how people appreciate being engaged than at my last full time gig.
I really enjoyed this interview, Joel & Pat! It is, somehow, the first interview I’ve heard with Pat, despite the fact that I’ve been familiar with his blog for a while now. It was great to hear some back story — and it’s always nice to hear about why someone does what s/he does straight from his/her own mouth. Pat sounds like a pretty great guy 🙂 I’m inspired, now, to explore Smart Passive Income’s archives!
Hey Erin,
I wasn’t joking about the Smart Passive Income archives being one of the most amazing places on the Internet. Out of all the websites I’ve been curating content on in the past 2+ years, guess which one has the most rows in my spreadsheet? 🙂
Pat is just as great of a guy as he sounds like. I’m glad you’re going to explore his stuff and thanks for your thoughts on my chat with him.
What a great interview. I read it twice and took notes; high praise from me ;).
I love how Pat just kind of woke up one day and realized what a treasure he had in Green Academy– and then he set about really making it work, which in my opinion is what separates the wheat from the chaff. And congrats on his new (or impending) arrival!
Regardless of how much pre-production and post-production work I did on this one, Pat did the heavy lifting. You know someone has great stuff to say when you’re recording a conversation with them (that you can listen to whenever you want) and you want to take notes while they’re talking.
Thanks Joel & Pat… great stuff in here, and it’s always so exciting to me to hear people who are in this stuff for the right reasons. 🙂
Sleeping through your graduation? That’s awesome!
A coup indeed Joel, I think this has been your best podcast yet 🙂
Great Interview! Glad I found this buried in the “ALIST” forum. =-) Do you have a part 2 scheduled with Pat? I would love to hear another session
Hey Coach (can I call you coach?) 🙂
I’d have Pat back on the show tomorrow if I could. However, considering his daughter is one week old and my father warned me not to go to the well too often, I better let him be for a bit. So if there is a part 2, it won’t be for a number of months.
Since Pat provided all the value in our chat, you should listen to his podcasts. I’ve literally listened to them all and I’d give up every other podcast before giving up his.
Awesome interview. I’m a fan of Pat and have followed a lot of his blog.
There’s a ton of Pat Flynn fans out there, and for good reason. Maybe some day I’ll get to the 800+ five-star iTunes that Pat has… and if you’d like to help me on that path after listening to this chat with Pat, that would be groovy, Stefan. There’s no expectation or obligation, of course. I hope you dig other episodes of SASM as well!
I just started on my savings for my retirement. I’ve been thinking to buy a rental property so that in the future, it would be my one source of passive income after retirement. Thanks!
Cool, Tarence. Who knows though: if your adventures in passive income work out well, your version of retirement is going to look a lot different than most people’s. In a good way, of course. 🙂