Preston Pysh  6:38  

Dude. It was, it was literally a week later. I was on *inaudible* website one week after I listened to the first podcast. I literally bought every single thing that he recommended. Like, right then and there. I was like, this is what I’m going to do. Like, it was like all these alarm bells went off. Like this guy is showing you the path of what you need to do. And we just went out. And I mean, we went after, I mean, this meeting- the shareholders meeting was in May, and we bought all this stuff. And I sat, I saw your site. I probably didn’t do anything more for like another three months. And then I went back to it. And then I listened to the podcast. And then we’ve stood all this up within that short amount of time. So that shows you what this guy is putting out there. And you know how much we’ve paid Pat, for all this information and stuff that he’s given us? We paid him nothing. He has literally put all this out on the internet for free. 

Pat Flynn  7:32  

You guys are paying me back right now, though. With everything you’ve just said, this is a form of payment. And I’m half joking here. I mean, really. When you provide value, just like you guys are doing right now to all the listeners out there, if they can use that information, and it helps them, they’re going to try and find ways to pay you back too. 

I mean, that’s just the Law of Reciprocity. That is for real. And that’s kind of how I’ve been able to build my businesses over time-just by giving away as much free information as I can. It always comes back to me in one way, shape, or form, just like this.

Preston Pysh  7:59  

We’re live (*inaudible*), you know. And I think that your thought patterns are now wearing, you know. They’re coming into our stream and we’re experiencing the exact same thing. If there was a theme for like 2014 and the start of 15, it is reciprocity. That’s the thing that we’re learning more than anything else. So that was a long intro. I did not intend on that taking that long. Okay, I really didn’t. But I had to say that because you have no idea what you have done for our podcasts, for our websites, for everything. It’s just totally amazing. 

So with all that said, I’m going to fire away the first question. So Pat, you’re becoming a household name. I really want you to tell our audience your story, because they might not know it. Tell them your humble beginning-of getting laid-off as an architect. And then walking them through the general steps you took, to do what you love, to stay true to who you are, and eventually crush it by pulling in 116k in a single month back in 2013.

Pat Flynn  8:59  

Yeah. It all kind of started when I got pulled into my boss’s office at an architecture firm I was working at. And I was just climbing the corporate ladder. At that point, I was the youngest person just previously promoted to job captain, and was doing just everything I could to just improve and climb that ladder. 

I was doing a lot of things that weren’t asked of me in my job description, and everything was going great. I foresaw myself being in this industry for 40 years, having my own architecture firm down the road, being this world famous architect. And then all of a sudden, my boss calls me and he sits me down. He says, “Pat, you’re one of the youngest, brightest guys, we know. Unfortunately, we have to let you go.” 

And I was like, “What, like, how does that, how does that, what you’ve just said, connect with what you’ve just said there? And I was just for like, I, like, I don’t know if you’ve ever gotten the wind knocked out of you. But it was, it was like that, times 100. Because I had just done everything right up to that point. And it was just so frustrating. And I couldn’t even think at that point. I had just proposed to my girlfriend, and she said yes. So, I had that in my head too. 

And just, I thought I failed. I was like, “What did I do wrong? I must be a complete failure.” And obviously, it wasn’t me. It was the economy back in 2008. And I just got kicked. There’s this toilet drain, and I got pulled down under with it. 

And, my initial reaction was, “Okay, I’m going to call every architecture firm that I know, every contractor that I’ve ever worked with, and just beg and plead for a job because this is what I went to school for. This is what I’ve been doing for the last three years. I don’t have anything else right now.” And at the time, it wasn’t. I didn’t feel lucky. 

But now looking back, I’m like, luckily, there was nothing open. Everybody else was firing everybody else,or letting people go. And after a couple months of a buffer period-I had a buffer period, actually, because I was job captain. I was in charge of certain projects. They couldn’t just let me go that day. I had, you know, two or three months to kind of work with those clients that I had, and kind of have myself get away from those in a slower period of time than just that day. So, I had some time. 

But I had a termination date, about three months later after that, that business meeting. And every day I was taking the train because I moved back with my parents. My wife moved back with her parents too because we were saving money for the wedding. And on that train ride, I switched from listening to music, because I just got bored of my playlist, to this thing called podcast. I have never listened to a podcast before. 

Also, I discovered one called internet business mastery with these guys named Jason and Jeremy, and they were awesome. And on one of their shows, they featured a guy who was making six figures a year helping people pass an exam, which is called the project management exam and the pm exam. And that’s when a light bulb went off for me. Because I had taken an exam as an architect that was really hard. 

There wasn’t much information for it, and I had actually created a website to help myself pass that exam. Myself and a couple of my co-workers, never ever intended it on being something that anyone else in the world can find. I didn’t know how Google worked, or keywords, and all that. 

So, I didn’t know how that worked. I just built that site for me and a couple of co-workers. And then after I passed that exam, I just let it sit there. There’s no reason for me to go back until I heard this interview. And I went back to that site. I put an analytical tool on that site to keep track of traffic, because I wanted to build this into a business, just like that guy did. And the next day, one full day of traffic registered on that site, I saw that there were five or six thousand people already visiting my site every single day…

Preston Pysh  12:21  

Oh, my God. 

Pat Flynn  12:22  

And I was floored. And I, first, I had those reactions like, oh my gosh. I have to take down because it wasn’t like yes, business opportunity. It was more of the resistance and the fear that we always fear when we dive into something new, right? And it was like, “Oh, what if the information is wrong? What if I get in trouble for doing this?” [It’s] like I don’t even know what’s going on here. 

But then, I started to get involved with internet business a little bit more. I reached out to those guys in internet business mastery. I joined their program. I talked to a lot of people there and found out that I had a great opportunity on my hands. And I really had to begin to figure out how to potentially monetize this thing. 

And so to make your longer story short, I published a book, a study guide, in October of 2008. That took about two and a half months to launch. It mostly took that long because I was just afraid. I was just scared of what people would think of it. But I eventually launched it because I had nothing to lose, really. And in that first month, they made $7,908.55, selling us a $19.99 e-book. 

And the really interesting thing about that month especially was, I got a number of e-mails from people who had already passed the exam a long time ago, who purchased my book anyway. And they said, “Pat, finally you gave me a way to pay you back for all that free information you gave me when you helped me pass a few months ago.” And I was like…

Preston Pysh  13:41  

Wow.

Pat Flynn  13:43  

This is awesome. Because my whole perception of internet business before this was like scam, scam, red alert, red alert. You know, this whole you know, what I’m talking about-the internet scammers. Like, here I was in internet business, and doing it in such a way that I was providing value. I was getting paid for it and getting these incredible notes of thank you. 

And it kind of took off from there. The business kept growing. I started to add more products, like an audio guide and practice exams. And it just exploded. With that, I was able to make, within a year, over two $200,000 from that business. 

Now, I tell that story, and it sounds like it all happened overnight. But I just want to make sure everybody knows that that site was up for a year and a half. It had time for Google to find it. I had for a long time pump content into it every single day, again, like I said, for myself and for my audience or for my co-workers. So I just want to let everybody know that this, like any business, takes a long time. You hear these stories about overnight successes, and there are rare cases, they can happen. But what I teach on my site smartpassiveincome.com, which I created because people were like, “Oh my gosh, how are you doing this? You need to share this. It could actually be done in a legitimate way. That’s the kind of [the] business I teach. The better you serve your audience, the more rewards you’ll get back, just like I talked about. And so, on Smart Passive Income, now what I do is, like I said on the *inaudible* I mean, I build new businesses, and I just test out things and see what happens. 

And whether it goes well, which sometimes it does, and maybe sometimes it doesn’t actually. Most of the time, it doesn’t. It’s always a lesson for everybody watching so they can learn from my mistakes and my wins and my failures and successes. And that’s kind of what has launched me into this sort of leadership role in the area of online business and entrepreneurship. 

But also, and what I like better is, is the authenticity and the transparency behind it. And I see a lot of people sort of taken on that same strategy. Just, you know, don’t try to put up a front just be real. And we’re in an age now where people want to do business with other people. And the more you can be a human-being on the other end, on the other end of that website, the more chances you have to make a difference. 

And to actually make a real connection, a human-to-human connection over to computer screens in that way by just sharing everything. And that’s kind of the approach I take. And so, sorry, that was such a long story. I just get so pumped when I talk about this stuff because it just makes me relive this amazing journey I’ve had, and hopefully it inspires some listeners out there.

Preston Pysh  16:04  

Before Stig jumps on his question, I just want to highlight, I tell people this all the time. Some of my biggest setbacks are the things that when you’re in the moment and you’re experiencing it, like you said, it was just like gut wrenching…you just want to throw up when you’re going through that. You’re like, “Why me? Why is this happening to me? This is just so horrible. Why should anybody else experience this?”

But what’s amazing is when you fast forward in time, and you’re able to look back at that experience, I can honestly say every time I didn’t get what I wanted, and I had that major setback. It has truly been the biggest blessing and the biggest gift in hindsight, because it led me down the direction where I’m at right now. 

And I know you’d feel the exact same way. I mean, you just described that, Pat. And I see Hari you want to chime in. You obviously had the exact same stuff happened to you as well. It’s just when you experience that, and you have that horrible experience, you have to keep that in mind like, “Hey, this is happening for a reason. I’m experiencing this setback because there is something really big that’s about to come. And I just need to keep a positive attitude and continue to work hard and stay passionate and stay real like Pat said.”

Hari Ramachandra  17:17  

I just wanted to add that whenever I have met any friend who I know well, or who I wish well, I’ve always shared your website, even if they’re not in the online business or not interested in entrepreneurship. The reason is your inspiring story. 

What I have found is, for me, at least personally, when I read about your story, long time back, as I said, one thing that helped me was that it took the fear away after listening to your story, and it made me better at my work because now I was not working with a fear in my mind. But I was giving it my full, and I knew what could be the worst that can happen. You’ll get fired. And thank you for that. 

And the second thing that I want to add is, you call yourself a “crash test dummy.” I wouldn’t call you a dummy, though. I mean, you’re too modest for what you have accomplished. But the vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, famously has quoted or said that, “The best way to learn is from others’ mistakes.” And you are putting out yourself there day in and day out, and making those mistakes for us. And thank you for that. 

Pat Flynn  18:33  

And you’re welcome. And even when I go back to that initial site that I created for those people passing this architecture exam, though the exam is called the leed exam by the way, L-E-E-D, it’s interesting because I, on that site, shared myself, and the fact that I didn’t get 100% on the exam that I was teaching people how to pass. And a lot of people were like, Oh, you shouldn’t put, you shouldn’t put your score there because that’s, you know, you’re showing that you don’t know everything. Why are people going to buy stuff from you if you show that you make mistakes? 

But, fast forward a little bit after that conversation, the United States Green Building Council, who administers that exam, they came out with their own study guide to compete with mine. And I think it was a direct result of seeing how successful mine was. And I thought I was done. I thought, “Oh, why would people buy from Pat, who got $183 at a $200 [price point], when you could buy a set of study guide things from the actual company that puts on this exam, rates the questions?” My sales went up a lot when that happened. And it was because people connected with me. 

And the fact that I was a real person on the other end with a face, with a name-somebody who’s actually in the same seat as they are in now back in the day when I took the exam. And so, yeah. Just being real I mean, that’s, that’s really what it’s all about. And I love what you’re saying there precedent about the whole you know, it’s not it. Things happen for a reason, right? And that’s as cliche to say, we hear that all the time. But it’s true. But, it’s not just what happens to you, it’s how you react to what happens to you. 

Every time something happens to you, that’s the universe, or wherever you want to think of saying to yourself, okay, here’s your test. How are you going to take this next opportunity? I think it was Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus, who said I pulled up the quote here because I knew I was going to butcher it. 

He said, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it”. That matters. And it’s so true. And looking back at that layoff, maybe I didn’t react to it in the best way right away. But, I mean that, it’s okay to feel terrible about situations when those things happen. But then, you eventually have to just wipe-off that dust and move forward. And you can either move forward or move backwards. And hopefully, we’ll all move forward when these things happen in our lives. 

And I’ve always found that when, like you said, when I’ve talked to several other entrepreneurs, they have a similar story-something tragic happens or something where they have to make a huge decision. And then they find that success. I mean, I hear that over and over and over and over again. And that’s not to say if you have a job and you don’t like it, you should just quit tomorrow, and then something amazing will happen. 

But, I mean, there’s something to be said for that. I think I, because I got laid off and didn’t have a plan B, I made decisions that I wouldn’t have normally made, if I still had my secure job. I took risks that I wasn’t normally used to taking. But again, I was just like, you know what, I have to take this risk because I would much rather live a life full of oh, wells than a life full of what ifs?

Stig Brodersen  21:28  

Yeah. So Pat, you know, great points. My question is that there are many people out there that have ideas and would love to create their own assets. But I think that they’re scared and perhaps they don’t know how to start. Where do you think that people should start? Perhaps just general advice.

Pat Flynn  21:48  

I mean, the first thing I would do is just take everything in your brain that you’re thinking of about this particular idea and put it on paper. Like it starts to take, you know, because our brains are a mess, right? We go from one thing to another. The moment you start to organize it, put on paper, I would even put it on post-it notes. Just take this idea that you have, put it in the center of your table, and then start to make post notes right around it. Just a cloud. 

It doesn’t have to be organized or anything. And what’s really cool is no matter what that is, whether it’s a book, or a product, or a business idea, or a website, you can just start to see patterns and groupings. And those become chapters. Those become categories on your website. Those become different products for that business. It’s really cool. 

When you start to mind map that, that’s the sort of strategic term for what we’re talking about here. There’s even mind mapping software that will help you do this as well. One of my favorites is called “Mind Meister.” That’s one of my favorites because you can actually share that and collaborate with other people on your team, which is pretty cool. 

Or there’s another one called “Free Mind,” which is a free one that you can use to do that as well. But I just love using old-school pen and paper, notepads, and things like that. 

Another thing I would do when you have this idea is talk about it with people. Now this might sound counterintuitive, because you might think, “Oh well, this is my idea. I don’t want anybody to steal it, right?” And I get that, but nobody is going to be as driven as you about this idea. Nobody’s going to steal your idea. And if they do, you can do it better than them. You have to realize that whatever this idea might be. 

But the purpose of talking about it with other people is because you will begin to have a conversation about it. It flushes out these little hidden gaps in your idea. You might even find out through conversation that this is a terrible idea. And then, instead of working on it for two years, spending a lot of money, and putting it out there, and then having people tell you, “It’s terrible.” Why don’t you talk about it now, so people could tell you it’s terrible? Or they tell you, “It’s awesome.”

And that you have to do it. In which case, you would be even more motivated to do it. And what’s really cool is, if you can begin to talk about this, not just with your friends and family, but with people who are in that target market as well, they will, as your potential customer, help shape what that thing is. 

Again, we’re talking about something hypothetical-whether it’s a physical product and an informational product or service, whatever. But when you talk about it, with your target customer, with their pains, and their wants, and their needs in mind, really, you need to build a solution to a person’s pain.

And that that’s really what it comes down to. When you could do it with them, I mean, you just are creating the product that they need. And so you’re not guessing anymore. You’re going basically off of what they say. And that’s how you could validate it as well. You might also find that there are companies out there: websites; products similar to what you’re thinking about. Should that stop you? Absolutely not. 

That validates the fact that you are on the right track. And you might think, “Oh, well, I’m late to the game. I’m at a disadvantage.” No, you’re actually at an advantage because you’re coming in late in the game. Meaning, you can see it from a bird’s eye perspective, and see how that audience is being served and where they’re not being served. 

And you can come in as the better solution. And you don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. You don’t have to create like a…like try to reinvent walking like the segway tried to do. And what do segways do now? They just roll down the boardwalk with the little tour guides, right? Like you don’t have to reinvent something. 

You can just take something that’s there, an idea, and make it yours. Put your own voice behind it, and make it better. And serve that audience better than they are being served right now. So those are few tips for you in terms of validating your product. 

And then from there, it’s just a matter of finding the right platform. Have the right people to work with, to help you put that together and get it you know, at the same time. It’s really important. And I didn’t know if we were going to cover this later, but it’s also really important to connect with other entrepreneurs as well, if this is the path you want to go now. 

Whatever it is that you’re interested in, you should always connect with other people who are interested in the same thing as well. It’s human nature to be a part of a group. And I can’t tell you how important being a part of other entrepreneur groups has been for the success that I’ve had, because I’ve gotten so much great advice. 

I’ve been held accountable by those people. I am in three different, what they call, mastermind groups. Napoleon Hill talks about in his book, “Think and Grow Rich.” There’s the power of being in a little group. Maybe 5 to 6 people. 

Some are bigger, some are smaller, but you hold each other accountable. You talk about each other’s goals. You share the same values, and you work toward the same thing. You don’t want to be in the same niche or market. But as long as you’re all there and focused on helping each other, and it’s the power of at one. 

Basically the way these meetings, these mastermind meetings work, is one person is in the hot seat. That person shares something they need help with or a problem that they’re having. And everybody else collectively helps that person out and just has a discussion about it. Like, this is such powerful stuff. That has to be in there, as well. And I’d get involved with that sooner than later.

Preston Pysh  26:32  

Hari, you’re up.

Hari Ramachandra  26:33  

Okay. A lot of the things you just mentioned is on your website, and as well as your book, “Let Go”, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. However, my next question is about branding. Back in 2011, I listened to your talk at the Financial Bloggers Conference. I believe I might tell the name wrong, but I love the thought. 

One of the things that caught my attention was the concept of branding. At that time, I was working at LinkedIn, which is all about building brands and all about helping professionals build their own brands. And when I listened to your talk at that time, I was happily employed at LinkedIn. I had no issues. My job was safe. So I had no intentions of starting something over. 

I wanted to know how can I use this platform that you talk about, the websites, the podcast to build my brand as a professional or as a business owner, to help me in getting better job opportunities or better consulting positions, for example.

Pat Flynn  27:35  

Right. Well, I mean, the platform itself, the blog or the podcast, or the video channel, or whatever it might be, that becomes your platform, essentially. That becomes your area where you can share messages and help other people who discover it. Tell what you’re all about, and what you have to offer them and how you can help them. What’s really cool about the branding thing is a lot of people think about branding. And they’re like, “Okay, what’re the colors? What’s the logo? What’s it going to look like?” But I really want you to think even beyond that, or actually even before that. What makes you unique? Your company or you, if you’re branding yourself as a personal brand, or your company, or your product, like you have to understand what they call, “What is your unfair advantage?” That thing that you can bring that nobody else can bring in. 

Once you discover what that is, and you might not know what it is. At first, maybe it’s going to take some time to find out what it is, or some conversation between you and your target customer or your target market. But once you find out what that is, you’ve got to milk it because that’s what’s going to help you stand out. And that’s truly the big lesson there. 

That’s something I picked up because I remember in 2010, with Smart Passive Income, my website was doing okay. I just started my YouTube channel. And my, you know, I didn’t have nearly as many people visiting the site-I only had hundreds a day. Now I have, you know, 20, 40, 60 thousand people coming to the site a day. 

So I was in the very early days and I remember going to one of my mentors and I told him, dude like, I have all these business ideas I want to do now, can I pitched them to you, and just show you what I’m thinking of? And I showed him these five different business ideas, again, completely brand new. And he’s like, these are great, but they don’t have any of you in it. 

And I’m like, What do you mean, there’s no me? And he’s like, there’s no Pat Flynn people connect with you. That’s what makes you special. You just have this unique ability to make real connections with people in this digital world. Somehow you’re able to do that. And I never heard anyone tell me that before. But when he said that, that’s when Smart Passive Income became Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn. 

And that’s when Pat Flynn and personality started to get injected into everything because that’s what made me unique. And I knew I had the unique advantage of being able to really make a true connection with people. Although, we all have that advantage as well. Because nobody is like any of us. 

And it’s oh, it’s so funny because I think about back in high school, my friends and I, we made business cards. Like we didn’t have businesses, but I don’t know if you guys did this too, but we just thought it’d be cool to have business cards, and put our name and our phone number and our email on there, right (…)

Preston Pysh  30:07  

That you’re soon on.

Pat Flynn  30:08  

Yeah. But we try to make those business cards look so professional, right? With like three squares and little swoosh coming across like, like a corporation, right? But we’re going away from that time now where people want to know who that person is. And not just like, what their icon looks like, but what does that person look like? And that’s what makes those real connections. 

And that’s what’s going to help you stand out is you. So what’s unique about you? And people might be like, Oh, well, I’m not unique or anything. But yes, you are. You just have to figure out what it is that you do. And even if you do something that somebody else made, you already or people are going to connect with you, just because people are going to connect with you. I mean, that’s just the way it is. 

I remember it for those of you who have listened to my podcast, at the beginning of every episode, I put a fun little fact about me, which my voiceover guy reads and I remember pitching that idea to some podcasting experts. And they were like, Pat, this is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. Why would you waste your time and money having another guy talk about you? And these random fun fact, nobody cares about your facts. They just want to get into the business stuff. Well, I did it anyway. And my podcast has now 13 million plus downloads. 

And when I go to conferences, people always start with something that they connect with based off of those little fun facts. Like, people come up to me, and they’re like, “Dude, how’s your fantasy football team doing?” I’m like, “I don’t want to talk about it this year. It’s terrible.” Or like, “Dude, I played the trumpet too,” or “Pat, I’m half Filipino also” or “I was in the marching band.” Like, that’s what they say. 

And that’s how and why they always end up saying the same thing. When I meet them, they always say, “Pat, I feel like I know you.” Yeah, just such a cool thing. And then all the business and the money and the income. I mean, that’s just a byproduct of building real relationships, I feel.

Preston Pysh  31:54  

And it’s so true because I’ve been listening to your podcast for the last 6 or 7 months, and it feels like we’ve had these conversations for a while. Like, this is the first time I’ve ever talked to you in my entire life. So what he’s saying is 100% true because it’s just so natural to talk to you, because we’ve been listening to all those different things. And you do know those little annoying things that you’re talking about that are just like no one else would ever know.

Pat Flynn  32:18  

Do you know any? Do you remember any weird…?

Preston Pysh  32:20  

Well, of course, I played the trumpet in high school, and you played the trumpet in high school. So like, whenever I heard that, I would just kind of like laugh. And it was just like, you know, just like little things like that, you do relate to the other person because of things like that.

Pat Flynn  32:32  

Yeah, that’s, that’s what they call, or I’m calling the moment of activation. That’s the Yes. That’s how you’re going to remember that person. And then, I always come back to them. 

Preston Pysh  32:40  

The thing I want to say about brand, that a lot of people don’t get is, it’s all about trust. Whenever you’re building this trust, like brand, you can hear how we’re saying all this stuff to pack because we’ve been listening to his podcast. He has built an enormous amount of trust, not just between the three of us, but all these other people that are in his audience. And that’s a brand. 

And let me tell you, there’s extreme value in that-the trust. And that’s the thing you need to focus about. And that’s the thing that you need to really think about whenever you’re trying to build a brand is, how can I build trust with the people and my, you know, my customers or my audience or whatever it is for your product that you’re trying to create? So, let’s go to the next question. Unless, Pat, did you have any follow up that you want to say?

Pat Flynn  33:24  

No, I just wanted to tag on the end and what you just said there. I mean, that’s where really building these assets are coming from is first with building trust with people. 

Preston Pysh  33:32  

Yep. Yeah. Okay. So one of the things that I try to tell people is the rewards to creating an asset versus buying an asset or like being in two different universes. People often invest in the stock market thinking that they’ll become a millionaire in a few years, and if they only have a few good picks, and it just doesn’t work like that. If you’re doing 10% returns in the stock market, you’re doing a great job. But if you create an asset, you could literally have 1,000% return if you create value for your customer. Could you tell our audience how you’ve created a couple different assets with little or no startup capital, and the income that those assets have produced for you?

Pat Flynn  34:11  

Sure, absolutely. One of them was a case study, they’ve actually shared live on Smart Passive Income. I sort of built this site over time. And I wanted to just show people, you can build a website, and here’s how you do it. And it can even be in a niche where you don’t really know much about it. You just want to be there to serve that particular audience if nobody else is already doing that. 

So using this keyword research tool that Stig was talking about “Market Samurai,” I discovered that there was a term out there. Security Guard training was, is a term that was searched for quite heavily in Google, but very underserved in terms of what people find when they search that term. And there’s a lot of sort of numbers and things that go along with that. But I won’t get into that here. 

And so I decided, “Okay, I’m going to build a site that’s going to help people looking to figure out how to become a security guard.” I’m not a security guard. Funnily enough, my mom actually is, but that didn’t really have anything to do with this. And I just started to do the research, and that’s how it went down. 

I actually called using the phone. Remember what that is. I called actual security guard companies in different states, because every state in the US I found through my research had a different requirement. And I just called [saying], “Hey, I would love to know how to become a security guard in a state of blank.” 

And then, I just created the best website out there that shares that information. And that site, since I created it in September of 2010 has been at the top of Google, because it just provides that valuable information that people are looking for really easily. 

It’s been there for over 4 years, and every month it’s generating between $2000-3500 for about 30 minutes of work per month, in terms of just making sure it’s still running and still just checking stats and optimizing it. I mean, that’s a pretty darn good investment if you think about it. 

And in terms of what it cost to build that investment or assets, it probably cost, let’s see, the domain itself, maybe $6.95 per month, and an email list service provider. Maybe another 20 bucks per year on top of that, and, and time. That’s essentially it. So that might sound crazy, because that’s not even that much money. It’s just mostly time.

Preston Pysh  36:24  

So that was like either 1,000,000% return. 

Pat Flynn  36:27  

A 1,000,000% return and it’s still going. I mean, that’s my definition of passive income that used to be able to create these businesses that serve people. Also, it can be done in an automated or semi automated way, and then they can pay you back and return longer over time if you put in the work up front to do it. 

Another one that I’ve gotten into recently is around the software realm. I had my team build a custom WordPress plugin, which was a podcast player for my website for my new podcast. When it came out last year, called “Ask Pat,” which is a 5-day week podcast. 

I thought it’d be crazy if for those of you who don’t know how podcasting works, essentially, usually, what you do is every time you come out with a new blog post, there is an embedded audio file in there. And then the iTunes directories or whatever reads that there’s a new audio file in there. 

And so, essentially, you’d have to create a new blog post every time you want a new audio file to go in there. Well, as Pat was coming up five days a week, and I didn’t want to  just overflow my audience or overwhelm them with blog post after blog post after blog post. So I decided to just post those audio files on to another server and just have one player on one page, be able to continuously update what those episodes were. 

And so, I created this podcast player, and at first it was called the “Ask Pat Player,” because that’s all it was used for. And then people started asking me, where did you get that player? And then I thought I was cool, because initially my answer was up. It’s mine. Nobody can have it. It’s fine. I custom built it. 

Also, I don’t even know how to code myself. I hired somebody obviously to do this for me. And then, obviously, after maybe the fifth or sixth emails, [it] was like, “Ding! Business idea.” And so, my team and I got together to figure out, okay, how can we turn this into something that’s really easy for people to use? It’s already there. We just need to figure it out. 

Okay, how can we make it easy for people to use and put in their feeds, and put in their show titles, and things like that. And then that was launched mid last year in beta, meaning we only sold it to a limited amount of people in a closed group. With not all the bells and whistles in there. 

There’s a really cool book called the “Lean Startup,” which talks about this whole thing of a minimum viable product when you sell it. Meaning, you just want to build the solution. You don’t need to put all the bells and whistles in there. 

And if you do it in a closed beta group, you can work with those first initial customers, and have them tell you what else you can do beyond that, that they actually need instead of what you think they need. And so I’ve been working with those beta customers. There was about 400 or 500 of them, actually. 

So initially, already, I was making money between $50 and $80 per license that we’re selling, or 400 customers now, and then it was closed because we were working closely with them. We added new features, we tested. Software is a whole different beast. This is sort of my first *inaudible*. 

There were a lot of things that can break, especially because there’s a lot of versions of WordPress, and there’s a lot of themes, and a lot of themes on different versions. I mean, it’s just crazy. So it’s not as easy as I thought it was. But we still put in the time and effort. 

And we just launched last week, version 1.0, which means it’s open for good. And we’ve been making sales every single day and $97 for an annual license. And every customer they’re paying $97 a year. And we already have a couple hundred customers at this point, and that’s recurring income. 

And now all I have to do because that system is set-up, the purchasing process, and the delivery of that code is set-up, I just have to focus on marketing and making it better. And it’s going to. That itself is a business out of the very, the whole slate that I am. So there’s a couple examples for you.

That was phenomenal. That’s so that just shows you guys there’s enormous opportunity reward when you create your own asset versus buying somebody else’s asset that they created. And the big myth here is, it doesn’t take a lot of capital to start it up. Everyone thinks that they have to have $100,000 to create an asset that’s bringing in $3,000 a month. He did it with under $50.

I mean, the software did obviously cost a little bit more because I had a developer team and stuff. But I mean, really, I mean, in that case, maybe I invested 15k, to get all that set-up. And then we were in positive numbers halfway through the beta period. And now everybody who comes on and signs on is pure profit. Mine is like the recurring sort of $6 for the domain.

Preston Pysh  40:55  

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Hey, Stig go ahead. 

Stig Brodersen  40:56  

So Pat, I think that everybody who has been following you know that you have a lot of different projects going on. And I’m just thinking, where do you get the inspiration for which assets you create?

Pat Flynn  41:09  

I mean, a lot of the inspiration comes from my audience and what they need, just like that at that player that was talking about. I mean, that was a direct result of people asking, Hey, I need something like that. And when you build an audience, even if you don’t have a product, that you maybe have a message; or something that you’re good at; that you just are showing people how to do. If you just listen carefully, you’re going to hear your audience tell you what they need. And that’s where a lot of the inspiration should come from, your target audience. 

Now, it obviously comes from a lot of other places too. I mean, for the day in and day out, my number one inspiration is my two kids. I have a daughter who’s two years old, my son is five, and they, especially my son, I mean, he knows what I do now. And he watches me on the computer. Sometimes he listens to me in the office when I’m podcasting every once in a while and he asks all these questions. 

And I want to be there as an example for him, to show him that you could create whatever you want. You could do whatever You want. And I know again, that’s one of those cliche things, but I just want to, I want him to know that cool things happen when you put in the work, and you serve people. 

Earlier this year we did a campaign on SPI my blog to build a couple schools in Ghana, which was really cool. And I told everybody, “Hey, we can raise $25,000. I will match 100% of that $25,000, and we’ll build two schools, because it costs $25,000 per school through this program called Pencils of Promise at pencilsofpromise.org.”

I interviewed the founder of that company, and that is what inspired me last year to go and see what else I could do beyond myself, my family, [and] my community. I want to do something worldly here. And we were able to raise together over $54,000, and I’m actually headed to Ghana, due in June to visit the schools that are being built and meet the children there. I mean it’s so cool. 

My son, unfortunately won’t be able to go. But he’s going to see the pictures and he even knew what [it] was. He knew it was happening. Like, every day during that campaign, you’d be like, how much are we making today for the kids? How much are we making today for the kids? And I show him like, “Look, Becky donated $100.” 

And then he’d asked questions like, “Why are they donating money? Why? I pick up the poop in the backyard for $1…this is a lot of picking up.” And I said, “You know what people are willing to pay it forward, when they see that other people are in need? And they know it’s going to come back to them in one way shape or form down the road.” I’m trying to teach as much as I can to my kids, and that’s where I get most of my inspiration from this. 

Actually thinking about them when they’re 40 years old, having [a] conversation at a cafe, they’re married, and they have kids too, and just getting together one Thanksgiving be like, talking about Mom and Dad. What’s that conversation going to be like? I want it to be positive. I don’t want it to be like, “Man, they were so mean, or they never amounted to anything I wanted to be. We were lucky kids.” Yeah.

Preston Pysh  43:56  

Pat, I think the thing that a lot of people don’t think about as well, is you’re talking about how it’ll come back to you. But the thing that I think a lot of people don’t understand is the compounding impact that happens whenever your son interacts with another person, and he has a positive impact on them. And then that person then goes on, and has the, and it, it spreads, and it spreads like wildfire. And it’s compounding and it’s exponential. And that’s the thing that I just, that’s where I live. 

That’s where I get in my thoughts. It’s not like it’s just coming back to me. It is going to another person, another person, and then it’s just spreading. And it makes you just realize, I’m truly just creating this world around me all the time. And I’m thinking, if I keep doing that, and I keep acting in that manner for another 20 or 30 years, what’s the world going to look like, you know?

Pat Flynn  44:46  

I mean, it just blows my mind. It blows your mind when you think about it. And I’m not like the star of this. I mean, I am for people who I’m connecting with, but I’m doing it as a result of Jason and Jeremy, who did it as a result of somebody else who did it. It’s just like the way the world works. I mean, I just love all that positive energy. That’s why I always do every day. 

I try to do one, just a random act of kindness. This is something I try to teach my audience to do every once in a while. Just stupidly be randomly kind to someone today. Like, just the effects that that could have on a person’s life, which could have another effect on somebody else’s. 

For instance, one day I went to Starbucks, and I just do this every once in a while, I bought the person behind me a coffee. And he happened to be there with his son, they were having a terrible day. I found out because after I bought them that coffee. They wanted to just sit down and chat and ask like, “Why did you do this?” 

And I think he knew that this was awesome and wanting to be an example for a son. But I found out that the son had accidentally broken his mom’s iPad and the mom yelled at him. And they were just having a terrible day, and he felt terrible, and just felt the whole world just crushing on him. He’s only 8 years old. And then he was just so taken aback by strangers’ kindness. 

And I know that this is something that this kid, years down the road, I mean, he’s obviously not going to think about it every day, but maybe one day, he’ll think about it and do something for somebody else.

Hari Ramachandra  46:07  

Yep, definitely. So, but one of the courses in your book “Let Go” I really liked and try to kind of still make sense of it is by Tony Robbins. You say “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” And I know you exemplify that, and you have been doing it for years. 

However, when I started building my blogs, I have failed at many of them so far. And a lot of reasons are what you have already pointed out. Some of them were lack of interest. Some of them I just did it for kind of trying to figure out are looking cool. 

In the end, as you say that your success is a byproduct of how we are serving others, or how you’re helping others. However, my question is, how do you go about, or how do you advise somebody who is starting to build his own blog or website. I see that post where you have chronicle, the evolution of your blog or Smart Passive Income, the user interface. And I can see that it was pretty basic in 2008, but by 2009, it kind of got awkward, quite a bit. So what is it *inaudible*. 

Should somebody focus on the look and feel of the UI right from the get go or wait ’til the collect some good audience? And do you have any recommendation for any web designers or so, who are good at helping or beginners?

Pat Flynn  47:32  

Yeah, I mean, there’s a couple things there, you’re talking about massive action. And that’s important. You always want to take bold actions when with what you’re doing, or else, you know. Little actions, little results. Big actions, big results. But with that being said, I mean, notice its massive, take massive actions. It’s not take massive perfect action. And the whole idea behind it is you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to go. And you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to fail. 

Realize that that’s going to happen but use those things as learning experiences so you can keep moving forward. You can read all the books you want, you can listen to all the podcasts in the world and have all that information, but it you might as well not have ears or, or know how to read, if you don’t put those things into action, right? You’re just as good as somebody who doesn’t know how to read if you don’t put those things into action. I think was Mark Twain or somebody said something. 

Preston Pysh  48:17  

Einstein had a real similar quote to that, “Do as far as you’re saying”.

Pat Flynn  48:21  

It could’ve been Einstein, yeah. 

Preston Pysh  48:22  

You can’t just read all day long. You have to go out and you actually have to create, you have to apply what you’re learning and be creative, so. 

Pat Flynn  48:30  

Right. And the thing about that, that and the reason I bring this up first is it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just said, you just got to go. And as we all know, we learned by doing mostly, you just got it. And when we’re babies, right, when we learn how to walk. We get up, we stumble. We get up again, we keep trying do something different, so on and so forth. I mean, we lose a lot of our childhood tendencies in that way of discovery and curiosity and learning when we’re older. 

Just because we don’t want to fail, we don’t want to look bad, and it feels bad to fail, but no. Failing is good. As long as you use those things as learning experiences. And to your other question, or to your, to your question about the user interface with what the website looks like, it’s hard for me to look at those, the the archive of what my site used to look like, because those are terrible. But I hope that shows you I took action. And it wasn’t beautiful action. But I just had something up where I can begin serving my audience. I put myself in a position where I could finally start writing content. And even when I started the podcast, I remember I recorded episode number one, which came out in July and May. And I recorded that three different times because the first time wasn’t good enough. 

The second time, I actually had scripted the whole thing. So it was like 20 pages of what I was going to say, and it sounded too robotic. And the third time, I was trying to do some blend between the two and just didn’t sound right. And the fourth time I recorded finally, I was like, “You know what? Screw it. I’m just going to go. I’m not even going to edit this. Let’s just see what happens.” 

And then over time, you’ll notice if you’ve been a longtime listener, it improves over time, because I’m just doing it. And the same thing goes with your unit user interface. You want to put yourself out there, just get something that works, and focus on what’s actually going to help people. 

And then over time, you can make it perfect. You can change things, tweak things, and you’re going to discover that some things that you may have thought that you would have, would have wanted when you first started, maybe doesn’t even need to be there. So do yourself a favor, and don’t worry about it. I think a lot of people use design specifically in the way things look as an excuse to move forward and do those things that are actually scary. Yeah, blog; design. 

Yes, there might be a theme out there that’s perfect. There might be a way to just tweak a little bit of code so it looks better. But that’s just a hidden form of procrastination. I feel you got to just take action and actually get something out there that can actually help people.

Hari Ramachandra  48:33  

Perfect.

Preston Pysh  50:47  

All right, Pat. We’re getting close. And I don’t want to go over the hour because (…)

Pat Flynn  50:50  

I know I talk a lot. I’m sorry. 

Preston Pysh  50:52  

No, I don’t want to go over because I think you’re probably going to go to the beach after we’re done here. 

Pat Flynn  50:55  

No, no. 

Preston Pysh  50:58  

All right. So Pat, can you describe the importance of persistence and being passionate about what you do? I have no doubt that those two factors had led to your enormous success. But for a lot of people that are interested in creating their first asset, starting out with that foundational level, I think that those two things are extremely important. So I just was wondering if you felt that way? And if you do just kind of describe the importance.

Pat Flynn  51:23  

Yeah, I mean, persistence, for obvious reasons, like we’ve just covered, I mean, you gotta keep going. You’re going to fail, you’re going to make mistakes, you got to keep going. And I think what’s really important about that is, is understand why. Why should you keep going. And it’s really hard to forget why sometimes, and for me, I’m very lucky because my wife runs around all day, sometimes naked or in their underwear. But I’m talking about my kids, by the way, I’m not. 

But it’s like, I see them every day and I’m like, “Okay, I got to get, when I go into my office later today, or tonight or whatever, I’m going to be in work mode, because I want to be able to play with them tomorrow.” You know, that sort of thing. 

So I see my wife every day, and that’s why I am persistent because I want to be there like I said before also as an example for them when they’re older as well. And in terms of passion, yeah, I mean, that’s obviously there. I enjoy what I do. 

You might be thinking, “Oh, do you? Are you passionate about security guard training?” No, I’m not passionate about security guard training. But I am passionate about helping the people who are looking to become security guards. My ‘why’ is I just want to help people. And I know that’s very general. But then, you got to narrow it down. Okay, how are you going to help people? And in that case, it just so happens to be I’m helping a certain set of people, people looking to start a security guard career, and connect them to the information that they need to become a security guard. 

And to fulfill that role as the person providing that solution. So absolutely have a passion for serving more than anything, and have fun with the process, too. I mean, just a passion for I have a passion for figuring things out and just experimentation. That’s why I have fun with too. And you have to know what drives you and you just that to your advantage as well. So, so yeah.

Preston Pysh  53:04  

Fantastic.

Stig Brodersen  53:05  

Okay Pat, your time is extremely valuable. We know that. And we can probably not extract everything in a single interview. But if you had to pick the top three books, just three books you would like to recommend to our audience for creating their very first assets, what should they be?

Pat Flynn  53:24  

I mean, there’s a billion books that are great out there, obviously. But I’ll just name a few and I also have the book [and] book club on patflyyn.com, where I recommend a cool book-sometimes nonfiction or sometimes fiction, but mostly nonfiction, mostly business related but not always. 

But three books I would recommend the first one is one that I first picked up that was really inspirational that showed me sort of the idea of creating this asset that could potentially be walked away from for a little bit. I mean, with anything I’m talking about these websites and stuff, it’s not a set and forget it type of thing. I mean, it’s a set. And forget it for a little while, potentially, and take breaks from it every once in a while, and it’s a cool thing. 

Like your website’s up 24/7, 365, you can take breaks from it every once in a while, it’s flexible, that’s the cool part about it. But it’s not a once, it’s once you have it up there, it’s that way forever. I mean, just like with your portfolio, you have to check and make sure it’s up to date, and it has the shares that it needs to have at that moment in time. So, it does require upkeep. 

But so, the first one is the “4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss. That’s definitely super inspirational and tells you also a lot about automating and just mostly sort of the idea of that whole 80/20 effect. What 20% can you do to get 80% of results, and doing that in many different areas of your life too. So that’s the “4-hour workweek” by Tim Ferriss. 

There’s also one that I would recommend called “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And that’s really important because anybody who’s looking to start something new is likely wanting to start 100 new things at the same time. And when you work on 100 things at the same time, nothing gets done. And even within a particular project, maybe you pick one thing you want to do well within that one thing. There might be 100 things to do. 

And then you kind of just jump all over the place and you get nothing done. So this book really lays it on the line as far as what I mean, essentially, the consequences of losing your focus on that one thing. And so I have that book very close to me at my desk here, because often, I will get distracted by bright shiny objects, as we all do. 

And it brings me back to reality on what I need to do and what I need to focus on at this current moment in time. And then I would also recommend, I don’t, I don’t want to feel like this is a plug or anything. And if, seriously, if anybody out there listening wants to get this book for free from me, just let me know. It’s my book “Let Go,” which I already mentioned. 

It just talks about a lot of the psychological stuff that happens when you’re transitioning. And a lot of what I talked [about], or I get very personal with that book in terms of all the things I went through, and the other people that were involved as well, because this isn’t just you who’s going to go through this journey. It’s the people around you who are watching you go through this journey as well. And I talked a little bit about that in the book, too. 

Hopefully, it just gives you a dose of inspiration, before you sort of take that massive action. It’s a super short read. And so if you want that book for free, if you’re listening to this, just go to, just email me, or send me a note on Twitter @patflynn, or will put in the show notes? 

Stig Brodersen  53:30  

We’ll put it in the show notes. 

Pat Flynn  54:00  

Cool. Absolutely. That makes it easy for me. So yeah, I’d love to give that to your audience.

One thing that I would like to add about Pat Flynn’s “Let Go” is the coolest thing about that book, is it’s not just like any other book. It has multimedia along with it. It’s kind of a new type of book. Maybe Pat will be able to explain it better. I bought it on Kindle, unfortunately. And then I had to go to his website to get all the videos and stuff. But, Pat, you have a different format of the book, as well. Right?

Yeah, it’s, it’s really cool because I mean, I launched it on a platform called snippet app, which if you have an iOS device, like an iPad or an iPhone, you can, you can download the book off of the snippet app; which is a really cool multimedia experience reading platform, where you’re not just reading the text, but there’s very, very high quality images, there’s also video and then in the snippet app itself, it actually incorporates social media too. So you can see people having conversations about certain parts of the book as well, using hashtags, which is pretty cool. And you can just pick it up on Amazon though or go to the show notes on the site. 

And if you wanted to leave a review afterwards, that’s cool. You don’t need to buy on Amazon to leave a review, but that is always helpful. Yeah, it comes with a lot of cool videos, including interviews with, with me in specific locations. Like, I went and took my videographer with me at specific locations where certain decisions had to happen or things were made. And also, I got an interview with my wife in there. 

And also one with my dad, who initially when I got laid off was like you got to go back to school and get your master’s degree-which he’s always right too and he was right, I could have done that. And I could have gone out of that with more knowledge and maybe a better job after the job market came back. But I knew that because of the path I had taken, I had already done everything right up to that point and getting kicked out just was such a big blow to me. I needed to take control for myself. And so you’ll hear in that interview with my dad a little bit of interesting back and forth about that.

Hari Ramachandra  58:24  

And especially your interview with your wife got me in trouble because I showed it to my wife. And there, you’re appreciating your wife’s work like with your cares, how much you were saying. And my wife was like, “You never said this to me.”

Preston Pysh  58:40  

Pat, you’re getting us all in trouble, man.

Pat Flynn  58:42  

Yeah, that’s not what I mean to do. But [if] you want to make your wife really happy, really quickly just say, “I appreciate you.” I don’t know where. But I mean, she has the hardest job in the world. She takes care of the kids at home. [She’s] a mom, and she does that so I can do these things. And I love her for that. And so anyway, yeah, you’ll see all that in the book, and why it’s called “Let Go.” It’s not just because I got over my job, but there’s a lot of other things in there, too.

Preston Pysh  59:07  

If that doesn’t tell the audience what kind of person we’re dealing with here, I don’t know what else will because I totally agree with you, Pat, I look at what my wife does. We’ve got four kids, and it’s, it’s truly amazing. In order for me to be down here recording, my son was trying to just beat down the door and come in. And it’s like, yes. He wants to see dad. And it’s so true. She’s the one that’s there sacrificing her time and working so hard and fantastic point. It just shows you the class act that we’re dealing with. So, Pat, that wraps it up. 

We cannot thank you enough to come on our show. You have no idea. I mean, you can name any Hollywood celebrity, and I am much more starstruck by having Pat Flynn on my show than any one of those people. So thanks, man. I really, really appreciate it– the podcast, everything. It’s all because of your site and standing it up. 

So our audience can thank you if they’re enjoying our podcast as well. So thank you for taking time out of your day to come on our show.

Pat Flynn  1:00:06  

Thank you, guys, for having me. Thanks to all the listeners out there for hearing me out. And I hope I’ve been able to help in some way, shape or form. And also, if you want to just let me know that you like this, or maybe you didn’t like it, maybe you think it was terrible. Just let me know on twitter @pattflynn. I’d love to hear from you. I’m very responsive there.

Preston Pysh  1:00:21  

All right, Pat. So if you guys want to find more of Pat Flynn, you go to smartpassiveincome.com. It has the links to everything else, his podcast, [etc.]. The blog is endless with information, just tons of information to help you start to create an asset and start to have these gargantuan returns with small amounts of capital. So, Pat, fantastic. Thank you. 

Pat Flynn  1:00:44  

Cheers! Thank you. 

Preston Pysh  1:00:45  

All right. So it’s that time in the show where we play one of our questions from our audience and this question comes from Arren.

Arren  1:00:51  

Hi, Preston and Stig. This is Arren *inaudible* for Melbourne, Australia. First off, I just want to add that I’m a firm believer in the saying, “Content is king”. The information you guys deliver is second to none. And I’ve learned so much from Buffett books as well as listening to your podcast. So a big thank you from all of us here in Australia. 

The question is, what are your thoughts on investing in international markets versus local stocks? The reason I asked this is I’m very interested in US companies and the indexes. However, I do have to factor in the exchange rate when valuing US stocks. Are you able to shed some light on this topic? Thanks very much, guys! *inaudible*

Preston Pysh  1:01:32  

All right, Arren, fantastic question. And this is a question that we also get asked a lot because a lot of our audiences are international, so Stig, being in Denmark, I’m sure you have a good response for this one.

Stig Brodersen  1:01:44  

Thanks, Preston. Yes, I deal with this. And yes, I struggle with this. Quite a big deal actually, because, Arren, like you I like to invest in America. And just like you, I guess, that’s because there are so many great businesses over there. 

Now the *inaudible* to that clearly is that we also have the problem with exchange rates. Because we’re not just buying great businesses. We also buy in dollars. And if American dollars are not our own currency, then that will alter the price. Now, what I do is I…there are a ton of different stats you can look at, but I have one key stat that I look at. And that is the *inaudible* price level statistics. 

And what that is doing is, this is all due to a thing we call the bawl of one price. And what that is doing is saying if the price level is too high in a country, it might be because the exchange rate is overvalued. And the other way around, of course. Simply because you should think of exchange rates as the price of another currency. 

So just like you can have a good that is overvalued or undervalued. I mean, in other words, expensive or cheap is good. You can also have overvalued currency, which means, an expensive currency, or undervalued currency, which means it’s cheap currency. So it’s actually just the same thing. 

So just to actually sum this up, I mean, we know that in the long run the price is lower than the exchange rates because they’re measuring the same thing. They’re going hand in hand. So by looking at this very neat stat, you have a good indication of whether or not the currency is undervalued or overvalued. 

Preston Pysh  1:03:26  

So Stig, correct me if I’m wrong, because I don’t really deal with this problem a lot. So really, the first step would be, let’s look at the valuation of the currency and see if we can get past that gate like almost treated. It’s like the first check that you’ve got to get past. So if your currency is undervalued, that’s a good move for you to be able to step into a foreign market and then buy stock. 

If it’s overvalued, well, then you might kind of get a double hit as you go to the next step. Then as you go to the next step, then you have to do the valuation on the index or the market or the stock that you’re getting ready to enter into that foreign country, probably the United States. So that’s kind of like your two-step process as you’re going through this. 

So if you do, if you can’t get past that first gate, well then, that’s where you need to look domestically at stocks internally, and make that decision on what you can buy in your domestic country, because of the circumstances of maybe where the currency is at. So you don’t take on that risk of getting double hit. 

Hey, everyone, we’re so excited to have you with our podcast, please share it with your friends. The more people the better. We’re really trying to build a community here. And I don’t know if anyone’s ever checked out our forum. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about our forum. 

But if you go to warrenbuffettforum.com, that’s where Stig and I hang out. And that’s where we filled a lot of questions. Whenever people send us questions, we often refer them to different posts that we had in there that where we’ve already answered the question potentially. And there are some really smart people hanging out in our forums. So definitely check that out. 

If you have some questions, and if you want to send us a question and potentially have it played on the air, go to asktheinvestors.com and you can record it there and we’ll play it live. 

And if we play it live like we did for Arren will send you a free signed copy of our book, the Warren Buffett Accounting Book. So that’s all we got for today. I hope you guys enjoyed Pat Flynn. We were pretty excited. I don’t know if anyone noticed. But it was a great episode. 

Hari, thank you so much for coming on the show. You guys can check out Hari’s blog at bitsbusiness.com, and we’ll see you guys next week. So one of the things that Stig and I are very strict about is not endorsing any kind of service or product that we don’t personally use ourselves. 

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Outro  1:07:16  

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