SPI 351: The Ten Hardest-Hitting SPI Episodes of 2018

Pat Flynn: What’s up team Flynn. This is the final episode of 2018 for The Smart Passive Income Podcast, which is really exciting. We’ve had an amazing year and I’m going to do some highlights from different podcasts. You’re actually going to hear clips from some of my favorite episodes and some of the most useful episodes of this year. A great reminder for those of you who have listened to them and perhaps a teaser for those of you who want to go back and listen to the full length of these episodes that we’re about to talk about. This is also a really exciting time because this means well 2019 is just around the corner. Many of you know I have a lot of large, ambitious, big hairy audacious goals for next year including FlynnCon, a new course that’s coming out, a book that’s coming out, some travel that I’m really excited about and we’ll get to those a little bit later. For right now, let’s cue the music.

Pat Flynn: This is session 351 of the SPI Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. My Name is Pat Flynn, here to help you make more money, save more time, and help more people too. Like I said, today we’re going to be doing a recap and you’re actually going to hear clips from some of my favorite episodes of the year. I want to start right at the beginning in episode 300, which was the second episode of the year. We reached a milestone, a mark in the podcast, episode 300. To do something special, I brought on members of my mastermind group, which is called the Green Room Mastermind group. The green room in theater, in television is the room where you sit in before you go on camera, before you go live or on stage. We decided to call our mastermind group the green room because this is where we come together to prepare before we go out in the world and serve others. We have some amazing members in this group. We have Leslie, Samuel, Ray Edwards, Mark Mason, Michael Stelzner, and Cliff Ravenscraft. All great friends of mine. We’ve been friends for years and we hold each other accountable, we share goals, and we lean on each other, and we are brutally honest with each other as well.

Pat Flynn: Here’s a clip from Leslie Samuel. We started talking about blogging and if blogging was dead and with video and podcasting being or seemingly a lot popular now, should we continue working on our websites and blogs? His answer was yes. Absolutely. So I said, okay, well let’s say I start a blog today. What are two things that I can do to make sure that I have people coming to this blog that I have traffic and here’s that part of the conversation. Alright, so this is going to be from episode 300 around the 1156 mark when Leslie starts or where actually I set up then Leslie’s answer for the two tips there. All right, so again, I highly recommend you listen to episode 300 because there’s some amazing knowledge from amazing people who I’m just very thankful that I have a chance to chat with every single week. Now, next up we have episode 303 where I invited Mark and Roman. Mark was a loan signing agent who was just getting started in the online spaces. Roman was without even Mark’s knowledge, following my validation process. He had read my book and he had gone through all the steps.

Pat Flynn: It was a funny story in there about how Mark and I actually met because I actually brought Mark into my office to sign papers for a house that we purchased, my wife and I as an investment property. Mark saw some thank you notes on my wall and was like, “What do you do?” I started telling the story. He’s like, “Oh my gosh, my partner Roman follows your stuff,” and then we sat down for coffee. I learned about their story. I needed to invite them on the show because Mark took his knowledge about becoming a loan signing agent and he now teaches other people how to do that. In this clip that you’re about to hear, you’re going to hear Mark describe what it was like to host his first webinar. Roman set that up. Mark came on to teach and he was talking about how surprised he was to get just a little bit of registration and some dollars coming from a small webinar which then blew up and now they have just an incredible business. At the time of this recording, when it came out in episode 303, which was in January, they were making over $30,000 a month.

Pat Flynn: This really brings into perspective what those first steps are like and you’ll see that. Well, the dollar amount was very small, but it always starts with just that first success which can then blow up too much bigger success later. Here’s Mark talking about his first webinar. All right, and this will come from episode 303 around the 17:28 mark. It’ll go for maybe a minute and a half until I begin to start to ask Roman some questions about next steps. Man, I just love the energy that Mark always brings to the table and you know, I’ve been able to see him more often now. We live in San Diego together, but he’s also been attending the monthly San Diego entrepreneurs group meet up that a few entrepreneurs and I kind of set up here in San Diego. It happens on the first Wednesday of every month unless there’s like a holiday or something. That’s at the WeWork in Downtown and so it’s open to everybody. Mark comes in, he always has some amazing things to say. I haven’t seen Roman in a while. I know he’s doing well too, and obviously their business is crushing it right now. Well done guys.

Pat Flynn: If you want to continue listening to that episode, that’s episode 303. Now next up, I want to talk about episode 308. This was published in March right after I started getting really serious with YouTube. This guest who was in this particular episode was by far one of the most helpful guests that we’ve had in the area of YouTube. We’ve had many guests and they’re all fantastic but Sunny Lenarduzzi who has an amazing channel and who has been just so gracious to me in helping push my podcasting stuff out to her audience. I want to make sure that you check out her YouTube channel. In the clip that you’re about to hear in episode 308, she talks about some tips for those of you who are getting into YouTube. This was definitely an episode that I was using to help myself, but also help everybody listening too. She talks about some specific strategies that you can use to make sure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck because producing videos does take a lot of time. We want to make sure that we maximize our efforts there and optimize the strategies so that more people find our video. Here she is.

Pat Flynn: All right. This will be episode 308 with Sunny. That’s going to be probably around the 18 minute mark where she talks about people just not, you know, talking about the why but not giving the how. Then her hook, her hot H-O-T strategy. All the way up till 20:48. She talks also about like a spider web strategy and then that’s kind of where a nice stopping point is at the 20:48 minute mark. Now I know Sunny listens to the show. Sunny, you’re amazing. Thank you so much. I highly recommend you check out her channel on YouTube and we’ll have obviously all the links and resources mentioned in this particular episode, which there’s going to be a bunch because we’re going to link to all the previous episodes that we’ve recorded that we’re talking about and highlighting. Also, all the links that we mentioned and the people that we are featuring here. Speaking of amazing people, I want to talk about Whitney Johnson. She was somebody who I just met through a connection with Richie Norton, who’s a good friend of mine. Whitney is amazing.

Pat Flynn: She’s an author and she’s a leading thinker on corporate innovation. She talks about this thing called personal disruption and she came to the show to talk about how to disrupt yourself essentially. In this particular segment that you’re about to hear, we talk about the pattern that we often go through that I had gone through myself that maybe you’ve gone through, which is when you start something new, you get really excited about it, but then all of a sudden you just start to lose energy for it. Whether it be because you find something new that’s more exciting or you just get bored of it, or perhaps you tackle a thing that’s hard in that process and you just want to give up. We look for something new before we even give that thing a chance to succeed, to get a chance to a point where … To give it a chance to actually grow.

Pat Flynn: This is a very common thing in why a lot of entrepreneurs or would be entrepreneurs fail. Let’s listen to this clip with Whitney Johnson in episode 315. All right. This would be a clip that plays between 7:32 and 11:50 where I proposed this question that I just discussed. She provides an amazing answer. All right, Whitney Johnson, everybody. If you want to listen to that full episode, again, that was episode 315. One of my favorite things to do is get connected with new entrepreneurs and that’s something that’s going to happen a lot in 2019. I’ve a little bit been intimidated by many other entrepreneurs who I would love to have on the show, but I just, you know, I know it may sound weird because I have this successful podcast and a business that’s known for being innovative and growing and getting bigger and bigger every single year but I still get nervous. I still get scared and sometimes I still feel like, oh well like who am I to ask this person. Just to fill you in. For instance, the other day I finally had the guts to ask a YouTuber personality who I really admire to see if he would love to come on the show. He said yes.

Pat Flynn: Those things are going to happen more often because I just need to again step out of my comfort zone a little bit more. I know a lot of you need to do the same thing. I just want to lead by example and let you know that hey, I’m struggling through the same things, but I’m also getting through it as well. Hey, we’re on the same team. That’s why this is team Flynn. That’s why this is team Flynn. Hey team Flynn, if I could play this next episode for you in full here in this particular podcast episode, I would because the whole thing is that valuable. This goes back to my 2017 choice for book of the year, and that book was The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. I was so thankful that I had the opportunity to interview him on the show in episode 325. Literally, it’s probably one of the most useful episodes you will ever listen to because it’s just so actionable and so valuable. We always are coaching people. Our friends, our children, our parents sometimes, our colleagues. If you’re a manager, obviously you do that. If you’re the CEO or an entrepreneur, your team you’re coaching them too.

Pat Flynn: This episode is called how to be an amazing coach and it really, really, really is one that I highly recommend you listen to. Again, that’s episode 325. Now this clip I want to share with you goes into, well the setup is I was asking Michael like, okay, like you have these certain questions that you ask instead of just like spilling advice. You’re always asking the same question, but what if you actually do know how to solve something and do you just go right into that? How do you position yourself when you’re coaching somebody to still be useful but just not be in that rescuer mindset? Here’s a very valuable clip from this episode, episode 325 with the author of The Coaching Habit. All right, David. This will be episode 325 from 14:05 to 15:53. A fun fact about this particular episode is that it encouraged me to literally write down every single question in the coaching habit and have them on a note card. Right here, I don’t know if you can hear that paper, but that is the list of questions that I use when I’m coaching my accelerator students, when I’m on a phone call with somebody and I want to learn more and see what I can do to help.

Pat Flynn: It’s even something that I referenced in many mastermind calls are these questions from again, the 2017 business book of the year in my choice and that is The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. He and I have developed the relationship now and we are chatting on Twitter every once in a while. Just super cool and super helpful. I love the guy. Just again, check out the book, check out the episode, episode 325. Now, in addition to that coaching, a lot of times coaching is a mindset related thing. I wanted to highlight Dr. Shannon Irvine, who was featured in episode 331. She was a student of mine and she’s crushing it, but more than that, she’s helping so many entrepreneurs breakthrough into those next levels because as she says, next level, next devil. Every time you try to push yourself, you’re always going to come across these new challenges in your mind, the little devil on your shoulder telling you that you can’t do this or that you’re not good enough. The clip that I want to play for you is near the end of the episode where I literally go, “Hey Shannon, I want to do a thought experiment with you, a little challenge for you.” I make up this scenario about something that would affect my mind and I have her respond to that as if it were really happening. This is episode 331. The story you tell yourself and here is the setup for that mind thought experiment.

Pat Flynn: All right, this is episode 331 and just start playing it at the 34:53 mark. The 34:53 mark, that’s when I begin the scenario I believe or right around that mark and just go all the way until it makes sense to end that after her answer obviously. Dr. Shannon Irvine, or as she forces me to call her just Shannon. I love her and we get coffee together and we chat every other week on our accelerator mastermind call. Shannon, you’re amazing. Keep up the great work. Another thing I learned from Shannon this year, that phrase I shared earlier, different levels, different devils. She also shared another thing that I mentioned in a later YouTube video related to haters because a lot of times haters can get into our minds. We start telling ourselves stories based on what other people say of us. She told me, and this was at our accelerator retreat in San Diego and she was telling this to the rest of the group too. It was so powerful. She said, hurt people, hurt people. If you’ve got somebody hurting you like a troll or a hater, they’re probably doing that because they are hurt themselves. Hurt people, hurt people.

Pat Flynn: If you have haters in your life, first of all, we’ll link too and perhaps embed the video that I published about a troll that almost ended me and was like having me tell stories about myself that I almost believed and almost quit because. We’ll link to that and embed it in the show notes for this episode. Again, this is episode 351. One of the most popular videos that I’ve come out with recently. Anyway, hurt people, hurt people. Thank you for that Shannon, and everything else that you do. All right, next up we’re going to talk about episode 337. This was the most popular solo episode that I did during the year. This was one titled The Riches Are in the Niches. I’m sorry for those of you who are living across the pond who pronounce it niches, but that doesn’t rhyme as well. The riches are in the niches. The riches are the niches, the advantages of being small. Not only was this the most downloaded solo episode of the year, but this was one that had the most response. I actually asked many of you at the end of the show to hit me up on Twitter or Instagram to let me know that if it was helpful and if you were empowered by it.

Pat Flynn: Many of you, I still get messages about that. Again, this is episode 337. I wanted to play a clip, which was the second advantage that I share that you have if you are just starting out, if you are small in your space, because we have a ton of advantages being small. We’re quick, we’re nimble. Here’s strategy number two or advantage number two from that episode. All right, this will be starting at the 12:54 mark in episode 337, David. It goes over the example of what it was like when the United States Green Building Council, you know, I thought I was done when they came out with their own study guides to compete with mine but actually it helped me. All right, and again that was episode 337. If you want to listen to the rest of that. Again, the most popular solo episode of the year, which was published in September. Just a half hour show, but very powerful. Again, episode 337. All right, next up. I often invite a lot of authors on, you’ve already heard Michael Bungay Stanier. A lot of times I love to feature friends who have books coming out, not just because I’m going to do him a favor, but also because they have amazing knowledge to share.

Pat Flynn: I want to help them out and get that knowledge in front of more people. The specific episode I’m talking about is episode 340, which featured a good friend of mine, James Clear who interestingly enough, we’ve been working for years to try and find and coordinate the right time and right topic. It just so happen to work out that his book was coming out in October of this year and his book is called Atomic Habits. I wanted to help him out and support him. First of all, congratulations James on having that book becoming New York Times best seller. I’m super proud of you and I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to share this book with many others. It’s actually an episode that I’ve had a ton of people reply to and say thank you for having James on the show because now people are building their own habits to support their lifestyle, to support their goals, which is very, very important. The clip that you’re about to hear is really interesting. This is near the end of the episode. This is episode 340 with James Clear.

Pat Flynn: This is the part where we talk about, well, oftentimes when we form these habits, we get so derailed once we lose a day or once we miss a day on something. Whether it’s fitness related or we’re trying to write every day, we miss one day and all of a sudden things just spiral out of control and that’s when we lose things. How do we in our mind bounce back from that? James is here to talk about because nobody’s perfect. When you’re trying to build habits, we are trying to be perfect and build a routine, right? Nobody’s perfect. How do we make sure we stay on track when we get off track? Here he is. All right, David. This will be episode 340 at the 41:10 mark going through to the 42:42 mark. All right, once again, I recommend you check out the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. New York Times best selling author. Super proud of you James. Again, that’s episode 340, links in the show notes. Next we have episode 344. A lot of you know that my videographer, Caleb and I have been working on a physical product and to help us with the development and the process and just getting our heads wrapped around this entire thing, we invited Tom and Dan from Studio Neat on the podcast, episode 344.

Pat Flynn: In this clip it’s about the future of physical products and how they’ve kept their business pretty small and why and the scalability of that. We’re going to hear the clip from Tom and Dan right now. Here we go, episode 344. All right. David, this will be episode 344 starting at 51:29 going to 53:36. Again, I hope you enjoyed that quote from the guys over at Studio Neat. I highly recommend if you were thinking about creating a small physical product, you can do really well in a very niche space. They are the right guys to follow the example from, Studio Neat. Again, they invented the glyphs, which was the first product I ever bought on Kickstarter, I think. It was their product. This super neat story and again, Studio Neat episode 344. All right, next up and finally, I want to highlight episode 346, which featured Jordan Harbinger, a good friend of mine who was previously in the show a number of years back when he was the host of the Art of Charm, which if you don’t know the story, you’re going to have to listen to this episode. I’ll give you the jest.

Pat Flynn: His company essentially booted him out of his own business and they took over and they kind of kicked him out and he was kind of left not really knowing what to do and they still continue to use the name Art of Charm and it was just a disgusting situation that you’ve never want to catch yourself in. Jordan got the short end of the stick there. This clip I want to share with you is how he reacted to that and the things that he did. How he thought about the process so that he could actually come out better and on top, which he has. I’m very thankful that he had a lot of persistence through this because it was a time where I imagine that a lot of people would have given up or felt like, well, I guess this just means I’m not cut out for this. Especially when your own people kick you out, it’s bad but also big benefit of him having the Art of Charm initially and being the host of that show was that people followed the show for him who are now following him at the Jordan Harbinger show, which I recommend you subscribe to. I definitely recommend you listen to this episode.

Pat Flynn: It was a very open and honest and authentic and very scary episode to know that he gone through this process. Here’s Jordan from episode 346. Just a little snippet teaser for you. Here we go. All right, one more time. That was Jordan from episode 346 which just came out a couple of weeks ago. Man, what an amazing lineup we’ve had all year. I wish I could play clips from every episode because you know, all 51 episodes were fantastic. I want to thank you all for the support this year and I cannot wait because I am getting really excited right now. It’s just the beginning of December while I record this. I had to delay the recording of this a little bit because I was sick. Those of you who are following me on social media know that, and I thank you so much for all the kind words and the well wishes. I’m back and back to normal, which is why I’m recording this episode now, but I’m also getting really jazzed about what’s coming next year. I’ve invited some amazing players on board to come on the podcast and share a lot of various insights and stories and tips for you so that you can build a successful business of your own as well.

Pat Flynn: Big, big ups to everybody who has left a review on the show this year and everybody who’s listening as well to Ask Pat. I want to thank you so much for all the support with that. Literally, I’m so thankful for 2018 and I know that 2019 is going to be even more of a hit. Thanks to the encouragement and the inspiration from many of you. I want to encourage you to keep going and move into 2019 with full force, with full commitment to succeed and to level up and to do all the amazing things in. For those of you who are going to be coming to San Diego in July, July 26 to 28. I am looking forward to seeing you there. If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet, now would be the time. I don’t even know if it’s perhaps already sold out by the time you listen to this, but hey, flynncon1.com is exactly where you want to go, flynncon1.com. One more time, just thank you so much for all the support. Love you and we’ll see in 2019. Cheers.