In the previous episode, 581, I spoke with Dan, my friend and editor of Deep Pocket Monster, my Pokemon YouTube channel. Since recording that episode, we’re approaching 180,000 subscribers, our revenue is in the five-figure range at this point, and more opportunities are coming.
Speaking of opportunities, today I want to share what can happen when you combine your superpowers and implement them elsewhere.
You see, one of the things I’ve been doing in the online video space is building relationships. As a result, I’ve recently had the opportunity to become an advisor and investor in a brand new company.
I’m really excited about it—and really excited for you. Why? Because this is the sort of opportunity that might await you as you progress in your business journey. Even if you’re not there yet, this is the kind of thing that could be in the cards, if you’re willing to keep your eyes open to the possibilities that are out there.
SPI 582: Advisorship and Helping Other Companies Grow
Announcer: Welcome to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, where it’s all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, he’s on a life mission to help more and more people start their own podcast, Pat Flynn.
Pat Flynn: All right, I have something really cool to share with you that happened. And this actually relates to the previous episode that was published this week, 581. In that episode, I talk with the editor of Deep Pocket Monster, the producer, my friend, Dan. He and I worked together on Deep Pocket Monster. And since recording that episode, the recording of this episode right now is a month after that one, the channel’s just exploded even more. We’re approaching 180,000 subscribers. We’re about two or 300 away from that. Our revenue is in the five-figure range at this point, and more and more opportunities are coming. And remember, I didn’t know anything about Pokémon before starting this channel in early 2021. So a lot of cool things have been happening. But I wanted to share what happens when you combine your superpowers and implement them elsewhere.
Pat Flynn: So yes, I have had a YouTube channel since 2009, and a lot of the mistakes and failures I learned there do apply here. This is why when I tell people when they say, “Pat, you built this new channel, it was an overnight success.” I say, “No, this is year 11 of my YouTube journey. I just so happened to start a new channel in year 11 and it’s doing pretty well.” So no, it was definitely not an overnight success. And many people have grown YouTube channels much faster than I have, which again, it took many, many years to get to this point, which is why I share everything. Because I don’t want you to have to go through all that trouble and pain that I went through and a lot of the mistakes. But one thing that I’m doing in this space now is building relationships.
Pat Flynn: And many of you know that I’ve talked about this, this is how we got started, building relationships even before creating the YouTube channel, serving the creators in the Pokémon space as much as possible, offering to help with everything from packaging to podcasting, to you name it, I was there to show up and just become that person who was like, “Who’s this person coming out of nowhere to help out? They really see something here.” And then of course, when I launched my channel, I got a lot of support and still continue to. But even more so, there’s been an opportunity recently, and this will be the first time I think I announce this anywhere, is that I am now the advisor and an investor in a brand new company. And it’s interesting because this is the first time this has happened in the Pokémon space. It happens quite often in the entrepreneurial space.
Pat Flynn: I’m an advisor and an investor in several different companies, many that I’ve spoken about here on the show before, but this is the first time it’s happening in the Pokémon space. So how did it happen? Well, first I built a relationship and was a creator obviously and so I was able to join the space that a lot of other people were in. And there’s one creator in particular, his name is Leonhart, he’s been a YouTube creator for a very long time, has one of the biggest audiences in the Pokemon space. And I was able to connect with him. We connected initially through Twitter and then I ended up going to his event in Dallas and speaking on stage there, building a relationship with him there. Again, doing whatever I could to be as helpful as possible to help him with that event. And of course I’ve had event experience before so I wanted to offer my advice and again, we just built a relationship.
Pat Flynn: And I found out that he was creating a new company called Rare Candy. It is a company that is sort of an auction house type of company for cards and collectibles, but one that comes with a lot more trust and authenticity compared to places like eBay and others. And there’s a community element to it as well. And of course I have business experience. I have advised other companies before. I have created iPhone apps before and I’ve created community before. So in conversation, it just so happened that it made sense to offer him some help, and push come to shove, I don’t even know what that means really. Eventually we got to the point where it just made sense for him to ask me to come on as more of a partner or an advisor to the company.
Pat Flynn: And there was a little bit extra available on the cap table that I could take in as an investor as well. So I’m really excited about this opportunity. Actually today, later today I have a conversation with a new CMO, chief marketing officer and other people in the company to just literally, this is brand new, almost this past week and I just couldn’t help but want to share this because again, another opportunity that came about as a result of just showing up and being fully me and sharing what my superpowers were. I was not afraid to share that I have had this business experience just on the Pokemon channel or to others in this space because I knew it could potentially help and be of service. And in many ways it has helped. There’s been many YouTubers who have asked me for business advice now because they know that I can offer that.
Pat Flynn: But this is the biggest one. This is an opportunity to come on as an advisor. And I do want to talk about just what that means a little bit because it means different things to different companies. There are formal board of advisory type of roles and then there’s sort of the independent more advisor situation, which does come with not really fees, like I don’t charge a fee, that would be more of like a consultation type of thing. But this is where a company will offer even a part of the company, typically under a single percentage of a company in exchange for advice, in exchange for continual connections to other players in this space. That’s a very, very big value that you could offer. Even if you don’t have a large platform, you can offer the opportunity for companies to connect with the right people and that is of massive value too.
Pat Flynn: So if you happen to be a connector in the space that you’re in, that is something that you should add to the conversation when it comes to you potentially being an advisor to the company. If you are an affiliate for any companies, why don’t you reach out and see is there anything else you can do beyond that? Could you potentially come on as an advisor? And what happens is yes, I do sign a lot of paperwork for this and I am on their cap table. I do own shares of the company. But again, I don’t typically. Only one of the companies that I advise does pay a profit share because that’s what they choose to do with their extra funds. But in most cases it’s no payments, it is simply a share of the company, but with the idea that we can help altogether influence what this company becomes, how successful it becomes and hopefully have a big payoff one day. And already this has happened once with Teachable.
Pat Flynn: I was once an advisor for Teachable, as many of you know, and they got acquired for nine figures. And of course owning a percentage of that company, I see a piece of that, which was really, really amazing. So I’m very grateful for that opportunity. And I did see a rather large check come in one day as a result of the two to five years of work that we did together, actually it was more like five before that actually happened. And again, that included specific information that I had that would be of use to them, guidance, connections, support, those kinds of things. And again, those are things that we all could potentially provide to companies, which is really cool. And there’s a lot of companies that I advise that are growing like crazy and I’m excited for the future of those companies. Circle again, being another one of them, Circle.so.
Pat Flynn: I’m an affiliate and an advisor for that company. And that’s going to be a massive, huge opportunity because of just how quickly that space is growing and Circle becoming the number one recommended tool for that space, growing communities online outside of Facebook. Many people are flocking from Facebook. So again, it’s just such an absolutely awesome opportunity. And to now have this happen in the Pokemon space is really cool. I really look forward to working with Lee and Craig and Chris and the team over at rarecandy.com. If you want to go check it out, rarecandy.com. Rare Candy is a nod to a Pokemon thing. I’m not going to go into that right now, but it is a really cool name and I do have big hopes. I do know that I can help and I’m already starting to have conversations about that.
Pat Flynn: So again, just another way to utilize the superpowers that you’ve gained over time to help and serve another company who wants to fast forward their success and you can help fast forward their success too. We’ll see what comes out of this. There are two cases where I signed on as advisor to different companies that one of them literally went dark. I couldn’t contact the person anymore and apparently I just heard that the company just folded. I was like, “Okay, it would’ve been nice to let me know about that.” But that happens sometimes. It just wasn’t a good product to market fit. And then another time the company was just like, “You know what, we’re just going to be honest with you. We’re going to pivot and go in a different direction and do you want to advise us still or not?”
Pat Flynn: And I didn’t based on where they were going. So we just ended that relationship and that happens too. But this is a lot of the next level stuff that you could look forward to in your business career because when you again, have an audience and when you have that experience and when you have those superpowers, there’s a lot of people and companies out there that would benefit from that. And again, in a place where everybody can win. And I love that. I’m looking forward to working with the team at rarecandy.com and with Lee and the other teammates there. I’m looking forward to having an influence on what this product becomes and how it adds value to the Pokemon community. And again, that was really what drew me into it is they’re here to provide something that would bring authenticity, that would bring community into the Pokemon space which, if you are any familiar with the Pokemon space, there’s often a lot of negativity and a lot of pockets of people who just aren’t able to find each other.
Pat Flynn: I think this is going to be really special. So anyway, that’s I guess the formal announcement. So rarecandy.com, I’m now an advisor to the company, and I’m just really excited about that and really excited for you. I hope that you explore this option in your future. You might not be there yet, but it is something to look forward to in your future as far as where things can go and how far you could take it. So anyway, keep up the great work. Thank you so much for listening and I appreciate you. We’re back to the Friday follow-up episodes. We had an amazing run and we’re going to continue to have more SPI Pro members come in to support you with workshops and teachings here on Fridays every once in a while. I don’t want to hog the mic. I want to share it every once in a while.
Pat Flynn: And by the way, if you haven’t yet done so please, go check out SPI Pro. We have so many amazing things coming that you will not want to miss out. So go to SPIpro.com. You can check it out there. And a big shout out and thank you to all the workshop hosts from the previous Fridays. We’re going to have more coming up, but you’ll have me again following these episodes every Friday for a while now and then we’ll get back into it. And it’s just becoming an awesome rhythm. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Have an amazing day and listen to the next episode. Cheers, take care. And as always, team Flynn for the win.
Pat Flynn: Thanks for listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast at smartpassiveincome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess. Our series producer is David Grabowski and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media. We’ll catch you in the next session.
