SPI 435: 7 Terrible Traps Entrepreneurs Fall Into (And How to Get Out of Them)

SPI 435 7 Terrible Traps Entrepreneurs Fall Into (And How to Get Out of Them)

Pat Flynn:
Did you know that being an entrepreneur is quite dangerous? In fact, there’s a lot of things health-related, and also relationship related, and happiness related, that can happen to you in a negative way should you not take care of yourself. And I’m not just talking about taking care of yourself in terms of eating well, and staying fit, staying healthy mentally and physically, that’s important, obviously. But there’s certain things, and certain situations that we could put ourselves in as entrepreneurs without us even knowing it that can be detrimental to our health and our happiness. And so, in this podcast episode, I want to share with you seven different traps or pitfalls that you may fall into or perhaps you might be in them right now. And I want to equip you with some strategies to get out of those pitfalls too.

Pat:
Now, what’s really interesting about this particular episode is, and just bear with me really quick before we get into the content here. This is actually going to come from another show that I have. And no, this is not coming from AskPat—if you know, I have a coaching call on another podcast called AskPat, but I wanted to point you toward another direction. Many of you might not know that I have a daily YouTube show; it’s called The Income Stream. I’ve actually never mentioned here on the show before because I’ve just been so … I don’t know, just deep in it for the YouTube viewers. And I just realized that I haven’t shared anything from that show with you yet. And what happens is, literally every single morning for … at the time of this recording, 116 days straight, including the weekends, I’ve been showing up for an hour every morning. One hour, every morning, to support the community, to be there for hundreds of people on YouTube.

Pat:
There’s people who have been in there all 116 days. And I just want to apologize for not letting you know about this sooner, but I didn’t know it was going to be a daily show that’s going to last this long. To be honest, I started it back in March to help people during the pandemic. When it first started, a lot of people were getting laid off. They were asking questions. I showed up live, It was so much fun. I decided to show up live the next day, and then the next day, and then the next week, and then the next whole month. And then we got to 100 days, and I’m like, “I’m not sure stopping anytime soon, especially because it seems like we’re going to be in this pandemic for a while. So let me continue to do this.” And I wanted to share this here because that’s something I’m going to continue to do, moving forward at least for the midterm.

Pat:
So, you are about to listen to a one-hour length audio clip from the show. Now it’s a video show. Now, this particular episode of The Income Stream was episode 116. And it’s about these pitfalls of entrepreneurship. And you will hear me address certain people live. You will hear me answering questions as they come up in the live stream. But, this particular episode is one that you can listen to despite not watching it live. Sometimes, we do demonstrations, and I do website reviews on the weekends and other things like that. And that’s something that wouldn’t make itself on the podcast because it just wouldn’t be full of value for you. But this episode indeed is. So, you’re about to hear this and there’s a totally different intro song, and it goes along with it. Again, that wasn’t done up-front that was done … I knew this was going to be a solid show that was going to be done for a while. Big shout out to Mike and Isabella from Music Radio Creative for the upcoming intro that you’re about to hear.

Pat:
And finally, if you want to subscribe to the YouTube channel and check out the show, you can actually go to patflynn.com/theincomestream. And that’ll actually take you to the very next stream that’s coming up. It’s, in fact, a waiting room likely at the time you’re listening to this for the next topic. And you’ll see that there, or it will be a replay of the previous one. And I hadn’t yet put up the wait list yet. But anyway, every morning, 8:00 AM Pacific 11:00 AM Eastern on my YouTube channel. You could either go to patflynn.com/theincomestream, or you can go to youtube.com/patflynn and subscribe there. Either way, I hope to see you there, and you can join us in the morning. It’s a very, very amazing family and community. That’s there. If you want to check it out, they call themselves the Quaranteam and it is definitely a team. It’s a family. And I hope to see you there too. So anyway, you’re about to listen to the intro, the hook, as well as The Income Stream song. And then, I’m going to get right into it for you. So I hope you enjoy this show and I hope to see you on the YouTube channel at some point in the future. Here we go.

Pat:
Good morning, #TeamFlynn, Pat here. Thank you so much for joining me today in day 116 of The Income Stream. This is a very important conversation we’re about to have, about the pitfalls or the traps of entrepreneurship. Whether you’re just getting started, or you’ve been doing this for a while, there’s some traps that you may fall into. And I want to equip you with the knowledge, and the stories, the consideration for those pitfalls and traps so that you can either get yourselves out of them if you happen to be in those situations right now, or be better prepared and equipped for when they come across your plate. So welcome, and thanks so much for joining me today and stick around because this is an important one. Thanks for being here.

The Income Stream Jingle:
[Music]

Pat:
Good morning y’all. Welcome and thank you so much. If you’re watching the replay, this is a live stream. In fact, I do this every single morning. I have been doing it for 116 days straight. I invite you to come in, live if you can, but if you can’t, if you’re just watching the replays, that’s cool too, I’m going to provide a lot of value to you either way. But really quick for those of you who are here live, just want to say hello and thank you. Carrie, what’s up? Thanks for being here. Chris says, “it’s a trap!” Good Star Wars reference right there. I love you, my friend. Bernard. Good morning Pat. What’s up? We got Wendy, Elton, Xenia in Florida. Shilpa, Rhino Dog. What’s up? Samson and Dr Juella, and Wendy, April, Bernard, Building the Soonest … Everybody here, you’re awesome.

Pat:
Thank you so much for joining me today, and I’m going to dive right in. And later, I’m actually going to be refilling this in a more tighter repackaged produced video for the YouTube channel because this is very, very important, but I’m going to talk about some of these things. I’m going to be interacting with those of you who are here live. And many of you who even may be watching the replay, are going to get some of the feedback. And also some of the questions that—you can see how we’re all in this together. And that’s the first thing to know when it comes to entrepreneurship. We’re not in this by ourselves although it very much might seem like that. Let me know in the chat if you’ve ever felt alone on your journey here. And again, this is why it’s so important to connect with other like-minded people. Whether it’s in communities like this or other Facebook groups that you might have access to. LinkedIn groups, in-person when that’s possible again, or online, it doesn’t really matter. Let’s connect, let’s stay together and let’s continue to grow as a community.

Pat:
So let’s start with number one. So, the first pitfall or trap that I want to discuss is the idea of expecting results too soon; expecting results too soon or giving up too soon as a result of not seeing results come in. And it’s very tough. And no matter what it is that you’re doing, whether it’s a podcast or a YouTube channel, or you’re a streamer, or you’re fishing with a widget, a physical product that you want to sell, a coaching program, or an online course that you’re creating, it’s very difficult to keep going. And it’s difficult because oftentimes, we have just this expectation that results are going to come in right away. And unfortunately, it usually doesn’t happen like that. Now, the media and other people out there, they might tell you otherwise. And in many edge cases, if we want to call them that, that does happen. There are people who have quote, unquote, “overnight success.”

Pat:
But truly for almost all overnight successes, when you really dig deep into their journey and exactly what they went through, and had to accomplish in order to get there, you find out that their “overnight” journey took years to accomplish. It just was a lot of grinding and hard work before something finally happened and clicked. And either audience started to finally come on board, or algorithms started to play favors, or certain influencers started to share that person’s information. And this is something that has to have time behind it in order for it to happen. Now, again, like I said, there’s people who seemingly come out of nowhere and it can be very difficult, especially we as entrepreneurs, seeing somebody else in our own space come in sooner, and seemingly perform much better than us, but there’s a lot of different variables involved. But the most important thing is that we just don’t give up.

Pat:
We don’t give up. Oftentimes, and I’ve heard Michael Hyatt say this, we give up a right before that inflection point, I don’t know if you’ve ever read this book by Seth Godin called The Dip. But sometimes when you’re in the beginning phases of your business, things may be going really well. And plus you’re in that honeymoon period at the beginning stages where things are still really exciting. And the what-ifs are, what if this works? What if this is the game-changer? What if this takes off? Those things eventually start to dip. And the hard work actually starts to go from fun to not so fun. And those what-ifs convert from what if this is awesome? And this is going to be the game-changer too. Well, what if this doesn’t work? What if I’m just wasting my time? What if this is a complete failure? What if this was something I was not meant to do? But all the times, right when that dip happens, if you grind through, if you persevere, you will come out of it even stronger on the other end. And I highly recommend that book by Seth Godin is called The Dip. Like all of Seth’s books, they are very short, quick, but very inspirational reads, or at least most of them, his books. So definitely check that out.

Pat:
Let’s go to number two here. We’re just going to plow through these. Number two, another pitfall or trap of entrepreneurship is, putting your own personal bias into the products or the solutions that you are creating. You as a human being have your own experiences, your own stories to share, and that’s totally fine. And you should absolutely share those things. However, oftentimes, we move forward into providing solutions, and that could be on the lower end by creating content that we think is helpful for people; or the higher end, spending loads of time and loads of money, actually creating products and creating things that we’re going to sell without actually validating those ideas. We assume that these are the things that people will want, and that assumption can trap you for sure. We need to validate our ideas. And as I always say, let’s remove the guesswork as much as possible. You might think that a solution is great and that’s great, that’s where you want to start, but you move forward into the process of validation.

Pat:
So how does validation work? Well, let me talk about this really quick because I’ve written about this. And many of you, this … I’ve written a book called Will it Fly? I also have a course called Smart from Scratch, which in fact you could find at https://smartpassiveincome.com/toolkit right now. We’ve given away tens of thousands of copies of this paid online course for free right now during the pandemic. Because I know many of you are actually using this opportunity to start a business right now, which is really great. I mean, I think this is a perfect opportunity for us to create, and for us to start things. But, like I said, putting your own personal bias into things, it’s going to be difficult. So how might you get out of that? Well, the number one thing you can do is to dive deep into discovering what the problems, and the pains, and the concerns are, of your target audience. And this means yes, doing some research up-front. But this is removing the guesswork, it’s sharpening your axe for hours so that when you cut down that tree, it’s going to be a lot easier.

Pat:
So let’s sharpen that axe by having conversations. That’s the number one way to actually validate your ideas upfront, is to have conversations with people so that you can see if, what it is that you’re thinking about creating is actually in line with what your target audience wants. Now, in addition to this, obviously, we have to pick a target market and we have to go and dive into that. And the more niche down you can get, the much easier it will be to a) not have as much competition, but b) stand out and become the go-to person for that particular industry. And then, you could expand out from there, but I’d highly recommend starting one inch wide and going one mile deep with them. And that includes conversations and digging and understanding the why behind their problem or what they were looking to solve.

Pat:
So, starting one inch wide, one mile deep, perhaps even then switching either as you progress forward to, one inch wide, two miles deep. Or, you might go two inches wide, start to expand out. You help a different industry that’s related, and then go one mile deep with them. As I often say, the riches are in the niches. Let me say that again. The riches are in the niches. I know it’s pronounced niches for many people, but I’m just going to say it the way it rhymes because it sounds better that way. Morning y’all, what’s up! “By the time the axe is sharp, that tree might’ve walked away?” Well, yes, but this is why just staying in research mode is not going to also favor you. You have to take action. And it’s a combination of ready, aim, fire, and also ready, fire, aim. I think that this is where getting into getting results for people quickly makes the most sense Bernard.

Pat:
“Not just sitting and waiting, then creating the perfect course, but moving forward. Despite not knowing everything, but actually knowing why you’re doing something and the sharpening of the axe.” Yes, it doesn’t have to be pinpoint sharp, but it has to be … if it’s dull, you’re going to lose a lot of time, energy, and effort. So let’s get to that point where we can understand that “Okay, this thing is going to cut down this tree now, and we can move forward.” And then over time, we can continue to sharpen that axe as we have customers come in, as we have conversations with people so that we can continue to refine and define what it is that we’re creating for people. But I love that you said that, thank you so much.

Pat:
Let’s keep going here. Number three: the number three pitfall or trap of entrepreneurship is this; doing things just for the money. Now, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you have to make money. I think a lot of people fall into the trap of just creating a business for passion only. And unfortunately, creating a business with just your passion and nothing else behind it is not going to be enough. Passion alone is not enough, but passion is a really important part of the process. Whether it’s passion for the thing that you’re actually talking about or the passion that you have to help those particular people about the thing that you’re talking about, or are creating a solution for. So, passion doesn’t need to exist, but you have to make money. How in the world are you going to survive and thrive if you weren’t making money? And not just for you, but for your future customers.

Pat:
I have a lot of podcasts or friends, for example, who say, “No, I don’t want to make money from my podcast. That’s selling out. And I’m like, “Okay, well, you’re not giving yourself the ability to help the most people if you can’t consider how even more money can help you produce more of your show.” So market it to more people and even reward yourself for the hard work that you’re putting into this. I think it’s really important to want to make money. However, if that becomes the center of everything, if that becomes the number one motive, you are going to lose. Let’s get into some storytime.

Pat:
So back in 2010, 2011, a couple of friends of mine created some software. In fact, they were WordPress plugins. WordPress is a blogging platform. A lot of people create these premium plugins code, essentially that can live on top of WordPress that can help people do things much faster and easier. Now, I saw my two friends do this. They have a smaller audience than I did. And they each earn over a hundred thousand dollars in their launches. Two separate people, two different industries, creating something similar and they weren’t competing against each other. But I just saw this, and what happened? I had dollar signs come out of my eyes. And as a result of that, I got motivated with the wrong reasons to create a WordPress plugin as well. So, I found a WordPress developer online. I rushed into it. I didn’t sharpen my axe. I had no conversations with people. I wanted to keep it a secret thing because I wanted to have this big reveal on that day.

Pat:
And unfortunately, what was supposed to take about $5,000 and five weeks to do, took $15,000 and five or six months to accomplish. And the saddest part about this is, when it was finally done, I reached out to my friends. I shared it with a couple of super fans of mine and they kind of all went, ” Eh.” Or “Hey, there’s this other company that does this better. And I don’t know really why I would want to buy this.” And it was a big blow, it was an absolute big blow. So I learned my lessons there. I learned my lesson, lesson number one, going back to the second point here, which was, “Okay, let’s have conversations about this idea, and who it is I’m serving first before I actually create the thing.” I was completely guessing and I was completely biased. And the biggest lesson was, I was completely motivated by money alone. And as a result of that, I didn’t actually consider what this thing was going to be. And this is why it took forever. There was a lot of misinformation back and forth between the developer and I, and it was just not a good situation. It was a $15,000 lesson. I’m happy to pass on to you.

Pat:
So let’s not be motivated primarily by the money. Let’s have money be the byproduct of how well we serve our audience. Let me say that one more time. Your earnings are a byproduct of how well you serve your audience. You may amen in the chat if you agree with that. Cool. Love the conversation happening in the live chat. I appreciate this. April says, “Money will never become the center of my entrepreneurial journey ever.” Good for you April. I appreciate you for that. I also know that there’s some stuff going on in your life right now, I want you to know that I’m here for you. If you need anything, please, April, let me know. That’s what we do here as a community. And I appreciate you. I love you. Let’s see. Best advice from Meeting with the Valpak Guy, not necessarily sure who that is: “There are tight deadlines and no deadlines. Reach a tree walking away. Thought meaning the opportunities will come in waves and come again. Let’s be ready.” Yeah. I think it was Richard Branson who said, “business opportunities are like buses. As soon as the one goes away, another one comes in its place.” Awesome. I raise you amen to a bruh. Bruh. Thank you. I like that. Thank you so much.

Pat:
Let’s move on to number four here. The number four pitfall or trap of being an entrepreneur … By the way, chat, let me know if this is helpful for you. Sometimes, we on The Income Stream, get into very specific strategies, and advice, and talk about tools and software, and that stuff’s important. But as you all know, if this stuff doesn’t work up here, none of that stuff matters. And in fact, I can just distract you and it can waste you money. So, we have to nail down the entrepreneurial mindset as we move forward. And that’s exactly why we are here today. By the way, happy Monday everybody. I appreciate you let’s have a great week.

Pat:
Let’s see. Number four pitfall losing focus because of the next new big thing. AKA the bright light syndrome, AKA squirrel syndrome. Squirrel. Little pattern interrupt for those of you who were sleeping. So, how often do we get distracted by fun, brand new, amazing things that are happening out there? Whether it’s a colleague of ours who shares with us in a mastermind group that, this is the next big thing. Or you hear it in a live stream that, this is the new thing that you need to go into, or you hear this news article, or you see it on the tweets, or on the Facebook pages that you’re in Facebook groups. Probably because pages aren’t really a thing anymore. So, you get distracted because somebody else has succeeded going down this route. You had this other stuff going on that you said yes to, but you’re like, “You know what? That’s really amazing opportunity. Maybe that’s what I need to do.” That’s going to get you in trouble.

Pat:
And unfortunately, when you become an entrepreneur, you start to open your eyes to more and more opportunities. You start to learn the language of what works, and what doesn’t. And you start to see more possibilities. And that’s actually a great thing. The ability for you as an entrepreneur to see new things in ways that you haven’t seen them before. If you are a new entrepreneur, and you’ve been doing this for a little bit, have you noticed that when people sell to you now, or you go to different websites, you actually take a different approach? Now, you’re not a consumer only anymore. You’re also an entrepreneur. And you’re thinking about how somebody else does something. It’s similar to when I went to college, I majored in architecture. And I remember my first art class, my first drawing class, which was to help us build the skills of an illustrator. And one of the first lessons we learned was about shadows, and how shadows really make things pop out. And that can mean the difference between things looking realistic and sort of flat.

Pat:
And so, we were tasked with drawing things and actually focusing on the shadows. And after that lesson, I cannot … Even 10, 12, 20 years later, I don’t even remember when I went to college anymore. I’m that old now. I can’t not see shadows. When I look at a building, I don’t just see the building anymore. I see the shadows that it casts on the ground. When I look at a flower, I don’t just see the flower, and the bright colors, and the bee pollinating it, I see the shadow, the long thin shadow leading into a much bigger cluster next to it. And it’s just like, I can’t not see that anymore. So, when you become an entrepreneur, you can’t not see these opportunities. And that becomes a big struggle. Because you’re like, “Hey, I see this now. And now, I want to go do that.” But it’s very different. And I love what Yoga Love here said, “totally the same environment, but different perspective.” It’s the same thing when I became a waiter, when I started waiting and then eventually bartending, and Macaroni Grilling. Yes, I was a bartender, cheers to you.

Pat:
I didn’t just pour coffee. Although, that’s what you might think at a chain store like that. It was more a … What’s an alcoholic coffee drink? Man, I totally missed that opportunity. White Russian. No. I can’t remember. Anyway, there was a lot of those. Anyway, when I became a waiter, then when I’ve gotten waited on, I see it differently. So, we see things differently. So as an entrepreneur, we have to battle against this enlightened view of what is happening out there, and the ability for us to go, “That’s a business opportunity, ooh this is a business opportunity, ooh that’s a business opportunity.” Because guess what? You’ve also said that before. You’ve said yes to things that you’re supposed to do. And now, we’re saying yes to new things. And if you keep stacking yeses on top of each other, nothing is going to happen. Yes, yes, yes, yes, means no, no, no, no. And that’s not going to work out.

Pat:
We have to remember what our priorities are, and that’s the big strategy to battle and combat this. What are the actual priorities that you have? What’s the next thing that’s on your list that you said yes to because; guess what? Everything you say yes to is another thing you’re going to say no to. When you say yes to something, you say no to something. And guess what? You’ve already said yes to something. So, we have to understand that we only have a limited capacity within us, especially when we’re starting out, and we’re just bootstrapping. We have to continue to move forward with the task that we committed to. Even if you think that there’s another new opportunity out there, we have to commit to a point where we can then understand if we were to pivot, that we’ve done all we can, or it is truly a wise move to move into this new direction, versus what is often the case, is just, “That’s cool.” Or, “Oh, that’s cool.”

Pat:
And a lot of times seeing something new and exciting is easy to go toward because it’s new and exciting. When you get into the grind, and you’re actually in the inner workings of this business that you once said yes to, well, that starts to become a drag. It starts to become not so fun. And guess what? It’s those moments that determine success or not. It’s very easy to get excited about a new product or a new idea. It’s not so easy to continue moving forward with something that you were once excited for, but aren’t excited for anymore. So there’s a balance there. There’s a balance there for sure. So how do we combat this? Well, you’ve heard me say this before if you’ve been on the show, if not, make sure you hit subscribe if you haven’t already. Again, hopefully this is helpful for you. Let me know in the chat if you’re team replay, #TeamReplay in the chat if you’re watching the replay.

Pat:
But the way to combat this is something called just-in-time learning. I did not create this myself. I don’t even know if this person who I learned it from created it, but I want to give credit to him. His name is Jeremy Frandsen from internetbusinessmastery.com. Completely changed everything for me back in ’08 when I got laid off. He and his partner Jason, over at Internet Business Mastery, they taught me the strategy, and it worked out for me so well. Because it helped me remain focused amongst all the distraction. And even now more than 2008. there’s even more distractions. There’s even more cool opportunities that are happening. So this is even more important. Just-in-time learning means allowing yourself to only learn about the things, and get excited about the things are related to the next thing that’s on your list. Just-in-time learning, only allowing yourself to learn and get excited about the things that are related to the next thing on your list.

Pat:
So, of course, prioritization is important. But there’s a second component to this. The idea … thank you for the Super Chat by the way. Hey Archer, I appreciate you, my friend, you’re amazing. A big bruh. You, my friend, you are a big bruh for me, and a good inspiration for me here on the stream too. Everybody check out Hey Archer and all the amazing things he’s doing on his channel too. I appreciate you. So, just-in-time learning, as I was saying, there are going to be feelings that you have by saying no to these other things. You’re going to feel like you’re missing out. FOMO is a real thing, right? F-O-M-O and it’s really important to combat that as well. So, as you continue to go, “No, I only want to learn about these things. I shouldn’t learn about that, but it’s so exciting. I want to learn about those things. So what do I do? How do I make sure that I’m not actually missing out on these things that may actually be helpful? Not now, but later down the road.”

Pat:
Save them somewhere, put them in a bookmark folder, or put them in the Evernote folder or save them onto your Google drive. However, you want to do it doesn’t really matter. But by going, “Okay, well this is something that’s for me, but not right now. I’m going to save it for later.” Does two things. Number one, it allows you to get comfortable with moving away from that and back into the thing that you were supposed to be doing. And number two, it allows you to go back to them later. But I promise you, in most cases, you’re not going to go back to them. By the time you’re ready to move on to something else; guess what? There’s even better and newer material that’s come out. You just simply use this strategy to joyfully opt-out of those things. You’re opting out, not the joy of missing out. I don’t believe in the joy of missing out. That’s what a lot of people say, Kombat’s FOMO, joy of missing out JOMO.

Pat:
No, I’m not going to go like, Hey yeah, my friends were having a party. I’m excited about that. That I’m not going. No, that’s like faking yourself. But the idea of J-O-O which is the joy of opting out makes more sense. I’m going to say no to that because I’m saying yes to this other thing, and I’m going to put my foot on the ground and say, “I got work to do.” It’s the difference between you staying up a little bit later and working on your thesis while your friends are in the dorms having college parties and playing beer pong. So this is you saying, “Okay, I’m okay with it. I’m focused. This is what I said yes to, let’s go.” Tim says, “I waste so much time learning stuff I don’t need right now.” Right? And it’s hard because we have these creators we love learning from, there’s so many amazing topics, they make it fun. Part of learning is entertaining, right? Infotainment is a big thing right now. And it’s something that, it’s addicting. It’s addicting to learn, but we also have to understand that it can be also just as addicting to see thank you letters and thank you notes come in from the service that you’re offering your audience. That’s where I would focus your addiction.

Pat:
All right. How you doing? We got a few more to go through, then I want to have a little bit of a discussion if there happens to be time. But let me know, chat if you’re enjoying this conversation today. And if this is hitting home for anybody, has any of the lessons that we shared so far been really big for you, or something that you know you need to combat as well. Chat. You’re amazing. Keep up the good work. Yes. J-O-O, the joy of opting out. It doesn’t quite have as good of a ring as FOMO or JOMO. I would have to say like joo and I don’t want to do that Superman. It’s just like, joo. Anyway, that’s not got to work as well. “I needed to hear this. Thank you,” says Billing. “That’s awesome.” Yes, says Shilpa. Thank you so much. Thumbs up from all my sweetness, or with all my sweetness. Appreciate that. Dole Whip. Dan, what’s up? Love that you’re here. You’re here very consistently. I love you for that. Thumbs up peeps. “Thank you so much, enjoying. Love!” Says, Zenya and Vlada. Great. Let’s keep going here.

Pat:
All right. The next pitfall y’all is trying to think that you need to do everything yourself and that you should do all those things yourself. The big pitfall is thinking that there’s a few things within this realm of wanting to hold on to everything. There’s this idea that, well, you think that you’re the only person in the world that can do these things in this way. And that’s the trap I fell into. As a result of that, it took six to seven years for me to get comfortable with even hiring somebody to do something like edit my podcast. Because my podcast, it was my baby. And I only knew how to do it my way. And nobody else could do it better and faster. But guess what? There are people who can do those things better and faster, and you can get some time back. And when I first started outsourcing my podcast, I started to gain three to five hours a week back. And what have I been able to do with that three to five hours a week? I was able to write more books. I was able to serve more people. I’m able to do things like this on The Income Stream now.

Pat:
So by handing things off, start small though, that’s the strategy. Start small with it. Just little tasks that take up a lot of time, but aren’t the things that fire you up or are the things that fire you up. But also, are the things that you probably shouldn’t do. Just noticed a couple of thumbs down in the stream today, and it’s okay. You’re helping with the algorithm. And most of all, I just want to make sure you’re good. And when you have a great day, sometimes just life is weird like that. And when you know you’re providing value, yet you’re still getting thumbs down like that. You know something’s happening on the other end. And for those of you who left thumbs down, if you want to reach out, you have something going on in your life. No worries. I’m here for you. Just reach out to me, Twitter, or Instagram, I’m there for you.

Pat:
Anyway, just want to keep going here, trying to do everything yourself. I remember when I first started, there was a moment when I wanted to move an image. This was like when I was trying to be all the hats. We have to be all the hats when we first start. But at the same time, you have to understand that your time is precious and that there’s likely other and more important things to do. I was actually distracting myself by trying to become a JavaScript CSS expert. I was so adamant about wanting to understand and do all the things all by myself that I was spending hours on YouTube trying to learn how to code WordPress websites, and to make them look custom, and all this stuff. But there was a point where I was trying to move an image from the left side of the page to the right side of the page. That’s all I was trying to do. And it was literally taking like eight hours.

Pat:
And I remember April, she was my fiance at the time. She saw me just struggling all day. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m not getting anything done. I’ve been trying to move this image to this side, to this side.” And she’s like, “Well, I don’t know how to help, but I have a friend. His name is Mel. And I think he might be able to help you.” And I was like, “Fine. I give up. I’m just—okay. Have him look at it.” And then he literally was able to solve that problem in three minutes because that’s his world. And when he was like, “Who coded your website? It’s terrible.” I was like, “Well, I coded it.” And he’s like, “Oh.” And I was like, “Oh.” And that was that.

Pat:
Anyway, I eventually learned that I can’t do everything myself. And I shouldn’t do everything myself. There are going to be things that you probably shouldn’t do yourself forever, but you’re going to have to do yourself up-front because you’re bootstrapping. For example, editing your podcast. Yes. There are agencies and other people who can do that for you. But it’s good to do those things yourself first. So you can develop your style, so you can appreciate the tasks, and you can appreciate the art of it. But then, you hand those things off so that other people can take care of them for you, so that you can actually market your podcast so that you can build relationships, and you can do all those things. So I think it’s important to understand.

Pat:
And here is the actual call to action here. Write out a list. If you are a business owner or you have just started your business, write down a list of all the things that you do. I would just take a day or two and legit bullet point whenever you’re doing a new task. Whether it’s answering emails or big tasks like creative thinking and content creation, write down all the things. And then, you’ll grow to see that there’s going to be this plethora of stuff that you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I cannot believe I do all of these things.” What of these things are most important? And what are some of these things that I can actually let go of? There might be an unlikely … in all likelihood, many of you, this may be the case. There are things that you are doing that you don’t even need to do, or even handoff. They’re just things that you can cross off your list and stop doing. Because you might find that you’re just doing them to stay distracted or feel busy when really it’s not even moving the needle at all.

Pat:
A lot of times, we don’t even know these things until we see them. These are reasons why programs like RescueTime are really great, because they actually bring to light where we’re actually focusing. RescueTime is an app I think for both Mac and PC. I’m not sure if it’s for PC or Windows too. But for Mac, at least you turn on rescue time and it shows you how much time you’re spending in each app. And then you look at the reports later, which are very scary because you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I realized that I’ve now spent three hours a day on YouTube and that hasn’t served me at all. Maybe I can reduce that to one or actually stop doing that and focus those hours onto something else.” So try it today.

Pat:
And I like Patrick, you’re saying, “I’ll do it today.” Write down all the things. So number one, you watch The Income Streamwith Pat Flynn at 8:00 a.m., Pacific 11:00 a.m. Eastern. And then go from here. All the things that you do, put on a list. Contempo Coding says, “I need to hand off all the housework to my boyfriend, LOL.” Well, if you are working with somebody close to you like that, we definitely need to ensure that there is an understanding on both sides of who’s doing what and why. The why behind that is really key. Let’s move on to number six. The sixth trap that we as entrepreneurs can fall into. And we’re about halfway through the stream here, which is great.

Pat:
I have two more things to share with you. And then we’re going to have a conversation about this. I’m going to answer questions for you. If you’re here live, this is one of the benefits of coming live. If you aren’t here live with me, or even if you are, make sure you hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. We just passed 255,000 subs here on YouTube. I’m so thankful for each and every one of you. However, the stats show me that in most of my videos, only about 20 percent of the viewers are from people who are subscribed, which means many of you keep coming back or watch and you don’t subscribe. So make sure you hit that fix, subscribe button if you haven’t already. Cool.

Pat:
So the next trap is comparing yourself to others. This is a huge trap because when you are in the middle of doing something like this and you get involved in these communities, which is what you should be doing, you cannot help but compare yourself to others. Let me know in the chat if you’ve ever compared yourself to another entrepreneur and you’ve ever felt bad about it. I can raise my hand on that too. I remember when I first started doing business, I was involved in this community called Internet Business Mastery. I signed up for this program. They were very, very instrumental in my success in the beginning. However, being a part of that forum where we were supposed to share wins, I didn’t have a lot of wins to share in the beginning. And every time I started seeing other people’s share, it was both motivating and de-motivating at the same time, because I would be like, “Wow, that’s really cool. You did this. That’s great. Maybe I can do this too.” But then, I would go, “Well, I haven’t done it yet, or that person started sooner than I did. As a step, that person started later than I did. And they’re getting better results than me.”

Pat:
And so it’s very, very simple to put yourself into that trap of me versus them. Comparing. This is a very dangerous game. Here is where we need to focus on comparing. This is what we need to compare instead, because our stories, our journey, our connections, our relationships, our time, it’s different than other people. Yet we’re comparing our selves to them when we’re two completely different people with two completely different … I mean, when you extrapolate all the variables of success for a person to person, it is huge—from the way we grew up with money. That was a big reason why I made certain business decisions. It was because of how my parents raised me, and how I felt about money. From our experiences in school and education, to whether or not we were bullied in school, all of these different components and variables matter when it comes to our own success. And comparing yourself to somebody else, you’re comparing apples to oranges, or even worse apples to, I don’t know baseboards. That doesn’t compare, that doesn’t compute.

Pat:
And when you compare yourself to somebody else that doesn’t … But it’s very easy to do that. Here’s where we need to play that comparison game. We need to be comparing ourselves to ourselves yesterday, to ourself last week, to ourself last month. How are you improving and getting better each day? That even just an incremental improvement, every single day goes a very long way. And this is something that’s discussed in my friend James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. If you haven’t read Atomic Habits, probably one of the best reads that I’ve had in the last couple of years, along with another favorite book of mine: The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier/. But anyway, The Atomic Habit book by James Clear, it’s been on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year I think.

Pat:
And it’s absolutely fantastic. And it really shares that, that 1 percent improvement, atomic level improvement can absolutely start to stack on each other. That 1 percent improvement every day, just that starts to exponentially grow. And that becomes a curve we don’t want to flatten. And that growth is really key. And that’s what happens when you compare yourself to your earlier self. I mean, even let’s think in micro senses like this, if you’ve ever heard of or been a part of Toastmasters … Toastmasters is an organization where you can sign up to one of the many chapters all around the world to become a better public speaker. And one thing that they do. So I’ve heard —because I was actually going to be getting involved in Toastmasters, but then I ended up hiring my own personal coach to help me speak, and this was back in 2012—anyway is, they have people there who help you get better at public speaking.

Pat:
And the way that they do that is, they compare how well you speak from the last time you spoke. They help you keep track of things like the ums, and the random pauses, and they give you that information. So that the next time you go, you can compare and get better. And it’s when you compare yourself to your earlier self, you can then understand if you’re making the right progress. So, that’s what I would do. One thing that I personally do is for example, with any tasks that I do, like here on The Income Stream, or when I speak live on stage. Or when I do anything, I consider how might I do something a little bit better than I did last time? So when I go on stage for example, I might just pick one little thing that I want to get better at.

Pat:
So for example, it might be like, well, what am I going to do with my hands in this talk? I’m going to learn anything and everything I can about, and do research, and watch TED Talks, and see what people are doing with their hands. So that I can see well, how might I want to develop my own style and get better than I was the last time with how I use my hands to support the information that I’m sharing on stage this time. One time I realized that when I spoke on stage, I would go back and forth in this five-foot radius. And it was because I was nervous and I just kept going back and forth. And my eyes were getting tired while watching myself on stage. And it was very distracting. And then I watched a lot of other TED Talks, I watched a lot of other speakers and realized that they use movement to support their stories, and stopped when certain points were being made. And I was like, “Okay, I’m going to adopt that in my next talk.”

Pat:
So in my next talk, I focused on my movement on stage, and using both sides of the stage. Not just a five-foot radius, and moving while telling a story, stopping when I hit home on the point, hopefully on center stage. And that’s something I learned. So these are the kinds of ways that I can improve. And these are the kinds of ways you can improve too, by comparing yourself in the work that you do to the work that you did earlier, not the work that somebody else did with a completely different set of scenarios and environments. Rex says, “we don’t watch TED talks, we watch Pat talks.” Pat talks, I don’t know, that sounds way weird. “So inspiring to hear the process.” Thank you, Francis. I appreciate you. Cool. Love you guys, for being here, love you guys in the chat, even for those of you who left thumbs down, still helps with the algorithm. And I hope you have a better day. Appreciate you.

Pat:
Let’s finish up. Then we’ll have some time to answer some questions by the way, in the future of the stream. If you happen to have a question, type in the word question in all caps, followed by the question. So give me a moment, I will finish this off. I’ll do a recap for those of you who came in late about the seven different pitfalls and traps of entrepreneurship that I wanted to point your direction. So that, you’ll know how to approach these things. And with each of them, I’ve offered some advice for how to combat these things as well.

Pat:
But this is the seventh one, and that is overclocking yourself. Overclocking yourself. Yes. In terms of the hours that you spend on something; because we as entrepreneurs, we do not have a time where we actually literally clock out. We are clocked in all the time, but that’s not okay. We have to create space for us to remove ourselves from the work that we do as entrepreneurs or else you’re going to burn out. You’re absolutely going to burnout, or other parts of your life are going to suffer as well. And that includes your own health. If you’re working and doing entrepreneurship stuff all the time, if you’re filming videos all day, if you are streaming all day, if you are creating content all day, but you’re not actually focusing on yourself too, the engine that actually creates these things, well, that engine is going to die out or get overused. And it’s going to need some time to recoup later.

Pat:
I have a lot of friends of mine who got so involved in entrepreneurship that they actually burn themselves out and ended up in the hospital because of it. Too stressed, overworked, lack of sleep, not eating well, not resting well, sleep is absolutely important. And they ended up in the hospital because of it. And we don’t want that to happen obviously. And there’s also the effect that it has on other relationships that you might have. And other people around you, especially loved ones, kids, your spouse, your partners, these people who live with you, who you also have to be, and should be focused on as well. And I try to as an entrepreneur, spend as much time thinking about my business as I spend on my family and vice versa, because they deserve that as well. And if you are always thinking about your business, you can’t also think deeply in 100 percent with those that are around you as well.

Pat:
A quick story that I want to tell you, I was just starting out as a business owner. This was 2009 and the business started to take off, in fact. This was early 2009 when I had built an architecture based website to help people pass an architectural exam. And I started making sales. In fact, I was at this time making 7 to $9,000 a month with a $19.99 PDF file to help people pass this exam. And I remember I got so excited. I started diving deeper into entrepreneurship. I started diving deeper into sales and marketing, and reading and following all these blogs, and consuming all this content, and taking action and thinking about the next campaigns that I actually started to only think about that. It took and consumed my entire brain, and that’s fun and exciting. It becomes like, “Well, what if this, let’s try that, let’s let’s do this.”

Pat:
But when you are only thinking about that, you’re not thinking about other things. And I was going to get married. I was going to get married to … and actually in fact, this was just after we got married. I got married in February of 2009. I remember this was around April or May. I remember sitting on the couch in our one-bedroom apartment and having a conversation with my wife. And this is, her mouth was moving, but I wasn’t registering what she was saying because I was thinking about that email I had to send, or the sales that were coming in that day, or the next campaign I was going to run, or that really exciting strategy, that was presented in a call earlier that day. I could not turn it off. I couldn’t. I remember one time I was having a conversation with April, but I wasn’t fully there. And she actually called me out on it.

Pat:
She goes, “Hold up.” Because I was just kind of nodding my head along, and going along with it. She goes, “You are not here with me right now.” I’m like, “What are you talking about? I’m right here.” She’s like, “No, you’re not here right now. You’re thinking about your business right now. Aren’t you?” And I was like, “No.” I ain’t trying to be that. Trying to man up. I was like, “No.” And she’s like, “Okay, well, what did I just say?” She was like, “What was the last thing I said?” So I was like, “Okay, think quickly. Think quickly.” I was like, “Well, what’s the last thing you said, you said, you’re thinking about your business. Aren’t you?” Didn’t go very well. That was the last thing she said technically, but I couldn’t recall what we were talking about because I was thinking about my business too much. So the couch was the scene for my sleep that night.

Pat:
But anyway, I’m very thankful that she called me out on that, because we have some very serious conversations about boundaries. And that’s how we combat this. We create boundaries, time boundaries, physical space boundaries. And even though I was in a one-bedroom apartment, I actually have a video when … one of my first videos where I put my face on camera, in 2009, you see this little nook and corner in the kitchen, in this one-bedroom apartment. And that’s where I got work done. And when I was sitting there, that was my checking into work. And when I got out of that chair, that was me checking out of work. I was not checking my work on my laptop, on the couch, or my phone. And that is something that takes discipline. That’s very difficult to do. Especially, because now even more so, we get notifications, we got all these things, Slack, et cetera. But it’s really important that we come at this, because those boundaries, that’s what creates the time where we can check out of something and check into something. And that’s really important, especially when you have kids.

Pat:
And I’m so glad that we had that conversation. She had this … I love her for that because we don’t see it. You can’t read the label when you’re inside the bottle. And sometimes it takes these really tough conversations from people who see what’s outside of the bottle for you to go, “Oh, okay.” And I’m so thankful because that taught us how to manage my time. When now we have kids and there’s other important things in our lives that we need to focus on. So, that’s the story. Anyway, actually, let me play that video for you. I think that’s going to be very inspiring because that’s something that was just at the start of my online business career. And while we’re watching that, I’m going to take a bio break. That’s what we’re going to do. But this is my strategy right now. So I’m going to pull this up on YouTube, and this is about a five-minute video, so we’ll finish off. And then we’ll finish up with questions for the last 10 minutes.

Pat:
But this video, as you’ll see here was 10 years ago, 20,000 years. Look at that, young Pat clean-shaven. This was our apartment. Also pay attention to just how timid I was. This was the first time I put my face on camera, and just the voice and how I lacked confidence. And it takes time. But I did it anyway. And you get better over time. So I’m going to play this for you. And I’m going to come back from my bio break and you’ll get an idea of what life was like for me back when I first started my business. This was late 2009. I had just started my business and I have a little bit of a clickbaity title here, but you’ll see:

Pat:
Hey, everybody. Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income Blog. Kind of just taking my dog out for a walk today. Gizmo, say hi. It’s about 11:30 a.m. on a beautiful Friday morning here in San Diego. And I kind of just want to invite you to my office to kind of show you where everything goes down. Kind of behind the scenes with the Smart Passive Income Blog, and all my other businesses and stuff. So, we’re going to head on over to my apartment and have a little look. And thanks for joining me today. Let’s go inside. Well, I’m going to take Gizmo’s leash off really quick. Gizmo wait. Good boy. All right, go.

Pat:
So this is my little one-bedroom apartment. And let me give you the quick tour. Gizmo on the couch. We love our dog Gizmo, and just a really, really small apartment. And there’s my office, everything that goes down with Smart Passive Income Blog and all my other businesses happens in this little niche here in the corner of the dining room. And I hope this just shows you that you don’t need a fancy office in order to do really, really cool things, and great things, and be successful online. This is all I have right here. This is the only space I have to work. It’s pretty cramped, but, you know—printer, podcasting mike, storage, books, and whatnot. Oskie from Cal, and yeah, that’s it.

Pat:
So if you want to start a business and work from home, don’t worry so much about what kind of furniture you have. Just worry about getting products out there, connecting with customers, readers, subscribers, whatever you want and start doing business online. Don’t worry too much about what kind of furniture, chair, you have and stuff like that. But there’s a couple-few things I want to point out about my particular office space. One thing I learned from the Smart Passive Income … sorry from The Internet Business Mastery, it’s called your definite major purposes. And I printed these out, and put them here for motivation every single day. I look at these, and it helps me to get to work and understand why I’m working online.

Pat:
So one, freedom from financial strain. Two, freedom to spend time how I want. And three, to be recognized as an expert. Those are three things that I look at every day and they motivate me to do great work online. So, another important part is … another form of motivation is this quote right here. And I live by this quote, and you may have heard me talk about this before. The harder you work, the luckier you become. Now, you always hear about other people’s success stories and stuff like that. And why do you think they’re successful? I mean, why do you think … and you always say like, “Oh man, that guy is so lucky.” Well, why do you think they are lucky? Because, they probably put in a lot of hard work. Unless they won the lottery or something, they probably did a lot of research, put in a lot of time and effort into becoming successful. And you could do the same thing. There’s nothing stopping you from doing that for yourself.

Pat:
Another form of motivation here, boom, Audi R8 Spyder. It’s kind of my dream car. And I don’t know if I’ll ever get it. I’m on track to … If things would go in the way they will. I can probably get that car in maybe ten years, maybe even sooner, but that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing to me is being able to work here from home, and be with family. And I’m having a baby boy soon, and once he starts to grow up and talk, I want to be there for all of his firsts—first words, the first steps, everything. So I’m hoping that I can continue on this journey working from home, and giving you some good information on the Smart Passive Income Blog, and staying here with my family.

Pat:
So I just want to thank you guys so much for joining me today. And again, it doesn’t take much to be successful online. Don’t worry about the business cards, worry about the business. So Gizmo, do you have any final words? All right, well, thanks again guys. Appreciate it. Have a good day, and don’t forget smartpassiveincome.com or you can connect with me at twitter.com/patflynn, P-A-T-F-L-Y-N-N. I also have a YouTube channel, which is maybe where you’re watching this now at youtube.com/smartpassiveincome, and also a Facebook fan page. You can subscribe to become my fan there at facebook.com/smartpassiveincome. So remember everybody, it’s about earning more and working less. Thanks guys. Take care, have a good one. Bye.

Pat:
So, yeah, that was over 10 years ago, and that was really fun to see. I hadn’t watched that all the way through, and I had to skip out for a quick pee break, but I came back and I just wanted to finish that off. But yeah, first of all, just like video quality, how slow I spoke, how confident I wasn’t, as you can see, it doesn’t matter. Just to put yourself out there and you’ll see that over time, you can get better. And even though it wasn’t the best and most polished video, as you can see, it’s still useful, and still, you can inspire people, and motivate people with whatever you’re going through right now.

Pat:
I did not buy the Audi R8 because in lieu of that, I actually ended up purchasing a Tesla Model X, which then I got rid of three years later. And then just a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t announce this, but I did pick up a new model Y so that’s my new Audi R8. My dream, dream car now is a DeLorean, which is definitely not an electric vehicle though. They do have electric versions of that, or they’re saying, they’re going to come out with them, but an old school one, just more of a classic to really tie into my fanboy hood of Back to the Future. Anyway, just wanted to share that with you because you can see that this is a journey and I’ve fallen into a lot of traps. I have had a lot of pitfalls. I’ve wasted a lot of money. I’ve wasted a lot of time. I’ve had massive amounts of failures, but you keep going.

Pat:
And now I’m very thankful that looking back at that video, I am able to spend more time with my family. I am able to make financial decisions without worry about every penny like I used to. And it took some time to get there. I have to earn it. That’s why it’s called earnings. And for those of us especially going back to pitfall number one, when we expect results too fast, a lot of times we don’t get to that point where we can start to see results because we’re expecting things to happen faster. That’s the tough thing about entrepreneurship. We don’t get paid for the hours we put in. We get paid for the investment of time and effort upfront, to help solve problems. That’s our role as entrepreneurs.

Pat:
And it’s hard because we are so conditioned to work for X hours. You get paid for X hours. Even as an entrepreneur, here’s what’s going to happen, you’re going to make your first dollars and go, “Wow, that’s awesome.” But then, that took me six months to get. My dollar per hour rate is $2, two pennies per hour. And how can I sustain this? Well, it’s not about the per hour. It’s about the time and investment upfront. So number two … So that was number one, expecting results too fast, giving up too soon. Number two, putting personal bias into solutions you’re creating. You’re not validating this. You’re not discussing these problems and pains and your potential solutions with people. You’re just assuming that this is what people want. Let’s take the guesswork out of that. Number three, doing things just for the money, forgetting your why.

Pat:
Number four, losing focus because of the next new thing. Squirrel syndrome, bright light syndrome. We’re losing focus because this new, fun, exciting thing came out. And as a result of saying yes to that, we’re saying no to this other thing too. Number five, trying to do everything yourself, not hiring, but also getting outside perspective and asking for help. Just trying to think that you can do this all on your own. You can, and it’s possible, but you’re going to speed up the process, you’re going to fast forward, if you get outside help, whether you hire outside help, or you have other people, other colleagues who are there to help support you and also provide feedback for you. All these things are really key. Number six, comparing yourself to others versus what you should be doing, which is comparing yourself to an earlier version of yourself. How are you personally improving? Because you are unique and you have your own special experiences, your own upbringing, your own stories to tell that are very different than somebody else’s. So comparing yourself to somebody else, going to be completely different. Compare yourself to your younger self.

Pat:
And number seven, overclocking. And because other parts of your business may suffer. If you just are all about the business and not thinking about what else is bringing you joy in your life and who else deserves your time too. Whew. All right. Y’all let me know if you have any questions, type in the word question, we have about six minutes remaining and I appreciate you, Chris. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Elton says, “I should be doing a video like this now Pat reminds me.” Yeah. I mean, I’m really glad I have that moment in time that I captured. And trust me, that was not the first take. I think I went outside and came inside with Gizmo like 10 or 20 times. And I just felt like I had to get it right. And even then, it was an example of me just trying to get it perfect. And eventually, I just said, “You know what? I just got to do it.”

Pat:
“Proud of you, Pat.” Thank you, Ern. I appreciate you, proud of you as well. Don’t despise small beginnings #Bruh for sure. When you’re just starting out, it’s actually an advantage. You have the ability to see an industry from the outside and insert yourself into it in a much better position. With a lot of that feedback that has been offered to existing people and companies in that space, you can implement those and put those things into your own stuff. And you have the ability to, if you start out small, actually make a direct connection with people more so than somebody who’s been in it for a while. You can actually develop your super fans sooner. If that makes sense. Fail faster, get your reps in, grind out one step at a time. And before you know it, you see this amazing view from the top.

Pat:
Wherever we are, is at the top. But it’s also at the bottom. Meaning, I think it’s also important to go, “Okay, well, where are we here now? And what’s up there from where we we’re at right now?” One thing that a mentor of mine taught me back in the day was, what got you here, won’t get you there. The same climb that have had to here is not going to be the same climb that I have for the next space. And so, although no matter where you’re at, you should also consider it the top of where you are right now. And it doesn’t matter how high it is. This is where you are today. We need to look up and see, well, what’s the next goal. And before we get there, what’s the first stop on that summit. How do we get there?

Pat:
April says, “Pat Flynn would you be able to do an upcoming stream showing us how to create a mind map??” Yeah. That would actually be really fun. In fact April, why don’t we do that tomorrow? That’s a very specific thing. Very good strategy to do when planning or creating anything. And we can do this together, and I can show you the process because the mind map and the way that I do it using Post-It notes … Although I’ll probably do it on the iPad, just be able to move things around and show you. That’ll be a really fun and neat way to show how to create anything from a book, to a course, to mind mapping a strategy. All these things come from this mind mapping idea, the ability for us to take all these things in our brain, put them out so where we can see them, and then map them out. That’s why it’s called a mind map. It’s a brain dump, but with order and hierarchy and some structure to them, if that makes sense. So yeah, I like that.

Pat:
“This has been really good. You’ve got a lot here, and you’ll be hard-pressed to improve in a more formal recording, but I’m eager to see it.” Thank you. Yes. And by formal recording, I mainly mean a way to digest this information. If one is watching later, because I will be re-shooting this video probably later today for Tim, my editor, to go and turn it into like a 10, 12-minute video for somebody to get even sooner. “Love the recap. Thank you, Pat. How do you delegate invoicing? That process can be too nuanced to just delegate.” It takes training. And I think that if you had an assistant, for example, you could have them look over your shoulder the first few times you do it.

Pat:
And then with the beauty of invoicing, is there’s a very specific thing that is an outcome of that. You can have them, as soon as they start doing it on their own, share it with you, and see how it is, and see if it’s actually done correctly. And then, it just going to take some time. Whenever you hire somebody, it’s not like you hire somebody and boom, everything’s done automatically. It’ll take some time in training, but that time and investment upfront does pay off for sure. LOL poor Gizmo going in and out. Or maybe Gizmo enjoyed it. “Question, can you tell us more about getting better at YouTube? Is it just practice?” Yes, it’s just practice. But it’s practicing the right things and getting better at the things that actually matter. I’ve had a lot of income streams here about YouTube. We do a lot of YouTube channel reviews over the weekend. I would highly recommend checking out a few channels that I want to recommend a big shout out to them. If you happen to come across, let them know I said hi. And we mentioned them here.

Pat:
Sean Cannell, rhymes with channel from Think Media and Video Influencers. He and his partner Benji over at Video Influencers have been absolutely fantastic in helping me and guiding me. They have a book called The YouTube Secrets as well, which is really great. I also recommend Roberto Blake, another fantastic creator here on YouTube. Who’s just done some amazing things to help me personally, on my YouTube channel. Very, very smart man, Derral Eves the founder of VidSummit, which happens in Los Angeles each year, except probably not this year for obvious reasons. Another fantastic mind he partners with people like Mr. Beast. So he knows a lot of his stuff. Sunny Lenarduzzi is great as well. She really is great with the business side of YouTube. So I definitely recommend checking her out as well.

Pat:
There’s a lot of great people here on YouTube. If you have anybody, if you’re in the chat, that you know has been helpful for you and your YouTube journey, before we finish up here, feel free to give them a shout out here in the chat. “I’m so glad I watched this visit. It was very motivating showing that there was a way to make it happen.” Thank you. “Has your why changed over time?” I’m assuming you’re not talking about my model Y, that’s dumb, sorry. But yes, my why has changed all the time. My why, the beginning was just, survive. And my why was because I was starting a family and I wanted to support my family, and I just wanted a place of my own because we moved back in with our parents. So that was my why. My why after that was, let’s see how I can thrive so that I can start investing and putting money into my retirement account so that we’ll be financially secure.

Pat:
And then my why after that became, well, now that we got our own selves taken care of, how can I take care of others? And my why has become, how might we be able to help other people on the other side of the world who might not even know me, and it doesn’t matter if they know me, but we can do some philanthropy and help other people. So this is why we’ve built schools in Ghana. And I highly recommend checking out Pencils of Promise, and there’s other organizations I definitely recommend checking out. Shannon Irvine who is here as well. Shannon Irvine, Dr Shannon Irvine, Epic Success Podcast and she has her own organization that helps with AIDS in Africa as well. And just, there’s so many other ways to help out. I highly recommend that.

Pat:
And the why now, is thinking about how we can bring more success to you really. And education has become an important thing in my why. Now that the kids are at school age, and there’s all this school-related stuff happening in the world right now, big decisions that people have to make. I’m really, really in tune with trying to become an agent of change in the world of entrepreneurship and education, bringing those two worlds together. All right, y’all, we are at the top of the hour now. I’m sorry. I can’t get to every single question here, but yeah. Nick and Dee Nimmin for sure, they’re great too. Love our community here. Tamara thank you so much. I 100 percent agree. Everybody here, you are amazing. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. I hope this video was helpful for you before you go. If you have a chance to leave a thumbs up on this video and make sure you come back tomorrow, 8:00 a.m. Pacific 11:00 a.m. Eastern, right here at patflynn.com/theincomestream. That’s where you can get more information and we’ll do a lot more great things tomorrow to help you further your business. Whether you’re just getting started, or you’ve been doing this for a while, this is really great.

Pat:
Appreciate you all today. I’m glad you were able to watch that video. I know many of you have not seen that video before, so I’m glad I got to share it with you today. And yeah, you’re amazing. Take care, everybody. I appreciate you. And now you’re equipped to move forward through these pitfalls. And now you can see and realize that if you are in these traps, there are ways to get out of them. So thank you so much. Appreciate you and as always #TeamFlynn for the win.

The Income Stream Jingle:
[Music]

Pat:
You all are amazing. Thank you so much for supporting me and the channel here. Even if you just show up, even if you never buy anything, I don’t care. I’m here to help you, here to provide value for you and keep up the great work. The best thing you can do for me is to take action and know what you’re doing. Let’s not waste that time. Cheers y’all, peace out. Bruh. See you tomorrow. All right.

Pat:
I hope you enjoyed that episode of The Income Stream here on the Smart Passive Income Podcast. If you want to check the show out, I would invite you to come to my YouTube channel. You can go to youtube.com/patflynn, or you can go to patflynn.com/theincomestream to see these shows specifically and get into the waiting room, and set yourself up with a notification, and reminder for tomorrow’s episode. And again, so long as we are in lockdown right now … And today, literally the day that I’m recording this California just re-shut down everything the next school year seemingly like people are going to be doing the distant learning thing again—it’s just insane. What an insane year?

Pat:
And I’m so grateful for all of your support and I’m doing what I can to show up in all different kinds of ways for you. And again, I would love to invite you to come to The Income Stream. Even just one morning—would love to see you in there and show you what, kind of community it is as well as the kinds of stuff we talk about every day of the week, 8:00 a.m. Pacific 11:00 a.m. Eastern. That’s totally free. We have these things called Super Chats, that however come in. And these are ways to on YouTube pay for to have your comment be highlighted. That’s something that’s totally not required, but we’ve had thousands of dollars donated. And all of those dollars from Super Chats on the YouTube channel go to different organizations, and charities who are in need of help right now.

Pat:
And this month of July, that is when I’m recording this episode. Right now, we are donating to yemenfoundation.org. There are a lot of things happening over on that side of the world that are just kind of flying under the radar. There are children there, they were already going through a crisis. Then they got hit with the pandemic and it’s just like a double whammy for them. And I wanted to bring attention to them, and help the children, and the education, and the hospitals over there too. We’ve donated to Black Lives Matter related organizations. Recently, we’ve donated to Project C.U.R.E. which helps people in the health field. We also donated over 6,000 meals to the San Diego Food Bank. And we’re just going to continue to donate all those Super Chats. So whether you choose to do that or not, it doesn’t matter.

Pat:
Come into The Income Stream, but would love to see you there. We’d love to say hello to you. And as you can see, it’s pretty fun. I have a little soundboard. We learn, we enjoy, I try to entertain you, and that’s what it’s all about. So thank you again for subscribing to this show here, Smart Passive Income. And I would love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel as well. youtube.com/patflynn. And I can’t wait to see you there. Cheers. Thanks so much. And as always, #TeamFlynn for the win, love you stay safe. I appreciate you. Peace.

Announcer:
Thanks for listening to The Smart Passive Income Podcast at www.smartpassiveincome.com.